Season 23

[Vos]

Peace & good luck to everyone in season 23 !




Overview of previous season 22 =

  Flyvende_hjul
  FaltososDeChigre
  LottoStelvio
  Dionisio Junior ( Matterhorn )
  Mazim Kartashov ( LottoStelvio )
  Tristan Min ( Flyvende_hjul )
  CobbleCrushers
  TeamSerfin
  Atilano Castro ( Agua_Verde )
  Christian Pocock ( Aurora_Australis )
  Tor Steine ( ValeronIdolo )
  Dionisio Junior ( Matterhorn )
  Xavér Kövér ( HTCHungria )
  No points were scored by u23 cyclists. The white jersey was claimed by the last 19yo who came into CFF, of course he is fired now. ( BorinotTeam ) 
  Marco Chicchi ( Caracoles )

= NT WORLD CHAMPION ( SPORTLIFE )

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Davidovich is Russian, but out of protest to the war, he decided to ride under the Ukrainian flag.
He was bought 2 weeks ago for just 5k to be a helper in the BinckBank Tour of previous season.
Maybe he can score a few GC points, although that would be very surprising to me. The same to Granberg.

Therefore both even get free roles, because Rubiera will be the teamcaptain in the 2 hills stages.
But my whole team is not in topform yet, so the expectations are very low.
Also to Vilks ( bought for just 10k in previous season ), who might be the teamcaptain in the 3 sprint stages.

31 Rubiera ( 31 ), hills
32 Vilks ( 29 ), silver hill-sprint
33 Davidovich ( 30 ), semi-hills & semi-sprint
34 Granberg ( 30 ), semi-hills & semi-sprint
35 Meijer ( 29 ), hills

TDU stage 1 ;
15º  Rubiera
Not a good race, due to a too early drop in s2 of my whole team.
But Meijer helped his teamcaptain good, also in s4, therefore a good final s5 jump of Rubiera, so he still could score some points.
Free roles Davidovich and Granberg finished on 1:02" and 1:06", I assume now that a few surprising GC points will not happen.

[Vos]

TDU stage 3 ;
8º  Rubiera --> a bad race, but a good result.
30º  Davidovich ( free role )
TDU stage 5 ;
22º  Vilks ( free role )
TDU, final GC ;
20º  Davidovich  2:39" --> despite some bad tactics, not in topform, and 3x free roles.

As expected, the SPORTLIFE performance was not impressive in this TDU, with a low total amount of points.
The expectations for the upcoming 2 classic races are also low.
And again a teamcaptain who was bought cheap ( 35k ) recently :
231 Sandall ( 33 ), cobblehills
Not in topform, and not suited for the Omloop with just 4 stars on hills, but hopefully he can score points in the Strade Bianche.

[Vos]

Omloop het Nieuwsblad ;
27º  Sandal
As expected due to no good helpers, already isolated in s2. But to my surprise, 40 extra points, maybe thanks to his active cold icon.
Strade Bianche ;
13º  Sandal 
The helper dropped already in s3, unnecessary, and probably because of that, the isolated Sandal dropped in s4.
So, not a good race, and a better result was possible. But before this Strade Bianche, I would have been satisfied with a 13º place.


   selection SPORTLIFE

Good old Rønneberg is the undisputed GC teamcaptain, and he should do well, despite he is not in topform.
Sole is the new 4,1M buy of this season, and he is the helper in stage 2.
Vilks is the helper in sprint stages 3 and 4.
Beckham and Kummer are the masterhelpers in mountain stage 5. But probably one will get a free role to score some extra points.

221 Rønneberg ( 33 ), tour
222 Sole ( 31 ), tour
223 Beckham ( 27 ), climb
224 Kummer ( 32 ), climb
225 Vilks ( 29 ), silver hill-sprint

Good luck everyone !

[Aurora Australis]

Yet again I've been too busy on other stuff to pay attention to when races are so my TTers are racing with 87 health

[Vos]

PN stage 1, flat-TT ;
60º  Rønneberg  2:12" --> with a mechanical breakdown in the crucial s5.

PN stage 2, climbsprint ( 1x wind ) ;
2º  Rønneberg  0:00"
28º  Sole ( helper )  0:00"
Again a mechanical breakdown of Rønneberg.
This time in s1 and luckily without consequenses, because he could follow the big s1 peleton of 156.
Sole dropped in s3 but returned in s4, so he could do the important lead out, what almost resulted in a victory of not-favorite Rønneberg.

Rønneberg is now 15º GC on 0:46", hopefully he can move up despite his form issue.

[Vos]

PN stage 3, hill-sprint ;
25º   Vilks ( helper )  0:00"
29º  Rønneberg  0:00" 
A risky but magnificient race with a superb result thanks to-/depending on Vilks, who is in topform because he rode the TDU.

Rønneberg moved up to 2º GC, and now just 0:02" behind GC leader Xavér Kövér ( 32, HTCHungria ).

[Vos]

PN stage 4, flat-sprint ;
55º  Rønneberg  0:32"
Again an excellent helper's job of Vilks.
Only in s5 Rønneberg could not follow his helper, but finishing in the 2nd group is a very good result.

Also GC leader Kövér finished in the 2nd group of just 14, so the GC difference remains 0:02" and Rønneberg is still 2º GC.
To my surprise ; Sole is 9º GC, despite he finished in the 3rd group now, and was used as helper in two stages.

[Vos]

PN stage 5, mountains ;
10º  Kummer ( helper )
14º  Rønneberg  1:41"
15º  Beckham ( free role )
41º  Sole ( free role )  2:38"
A more than excellent race of Rønneberg !
Thanks to Kummer, who did a perfect helper's job in s2, s3 ánd s4.
Beckham could have done better in a free role. Also Sole got a free role due to his surprising high GC ranking, he even moved up 2 places.

Paris Nice final TOP 10 GC ;
1 Xavér Kövér   32   HTCHungria   0: 00"   
2    Lasse Rønneberg   33   SPORTLIFE   0: 24"   
3    Pat Martin   32   Flyvende_hjul   1: 50"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Aad De Jong   28   Bikeos   2: 03"   
5    Dada Azarov   27   CaptainOrange   2: 11"   
6    Manuele Miorlin   29   Shiro_Lions   2: 26"   
7    Arsenio Sole   31   SPORTLIFE   2: 35"   
8    Nauris Melderis   32   FaltososDeChigre   2: 46"   
9    Thies Neuhaus   27   QuintoYtapa   2: 55"   
10    Paul Schoonderwoerd   30   HTCHungria   3: 06"   

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Only one mutation compared to the PN selection ; sprinter Vilks is replaced by flat-cobble specialist Hummelsby.

But this Tirreno has more differences ;
Rønneberg and Sole are not really suited for the GC due the flat-cobble stage.
What gives a stage 1 opportunity to my climbers combo, to try to compete with the 5 amazing climbers of TeamEuroscalt.

So, Rønneberg will have to ride mountain stage 1 in a free role, but he will get the teamcaptain role in the other 4 stages.
He is finally in topform, so he should/might be good enough to compete for some GC points,
despite he will lose a lot of time in the flat-cobble stage, and of course, also time-loss due to his free role in stage 1.

My cyclists get low backnumbers in this Tirreno, because after a successful Paris Nice, my team moved up 20 places in the 1A ranking.

21 Rønneberg ( 33 ), tour
22 Kummer ( 32 ), climb
23 Hummelsby ( 32 ), flat-cobble
24 Beckham ( 27 ), climb
25 Sole ( 31 ), allround helper

Tirreno stage 1, mountains ;
s1 = Fierce attack of TeamEuroscalt !
They forced a break away group of just 16 cyclists ; 5x TeamEuroscalt, ánd,
3x MarquinaTeam, 3x SPORTLIFE, 2x Flyvende_hjul, 1x CC_Porco_Jones, 2x too fast helpers of other teams.

s2 = As expected, another fierce attack of TeamEuroscalt !
Now the front group has just 6 cyclists ; 5x TeamEuroscalt, ánd Kummer, the SPORTLIFE teamcaptain, who got the fresh-symbol.
Unfortunately, main helper Beckham and back-up helper Sole could not follow the brutal pace of TeamEuroscalt in s2.

s3 = The front group narrowed down to just 3 cyclists ; 2x TeamEuroscalt and 1x SPORTLIFE.
Beckham ( helper, SPORTLIFE ) and Den Besten ( CC_Porco_Jones ) made an impressive jump to the 2nd group of 5 on 0:08"
Of course, the others are the 3x TeamEuroscalt who dropped out of the s2 front group, incl. Mikalsen, thé TeamEuroscalt teamcaptain.
The 3rd group of also 5, is already far behind on 0:35"

s4 = Beckham and Mikalsen made the jump to the front group of now 5 = 3x TeamEuroscalt and 2x SPORTLIFE.
On 0:20" Den Besten ( CC_Porco_Jones ), who had not much energy left for the upcoming final s5 climb, he finished as 11º
On 0:30" a group of 3 = Lepin ( Fiestina ), 1x TeamEuroscalt, and 1x a too fast helper of another team.
On 0:50" a group of 3 = Norris ( Elgrand ), 1x TeamEuroscalt, and the unlucky Reus ( MarquinaTeam ) with a flat tire in this crucial s4.
On 1:00" again a group of 3.

s5 = SHOWDOWN !
Between the teamcaptains of TeamEuroscalt and SPORTLIFE, who both attacked several times on the brutal final climb.
It came down to a sprint-a-deux, and Arnfinn Mikalsen ( 33, TeamEuroscalt ) was the victor after the jury had to look at the photo-finish.
The 38th( ! ) 1A victory of thé CFF climb legend Mikalsen who has 25( ! ) CFF-records, and who also won 4 NT races in his career.
Well, I guess it is no shame to Kummer of losing this stage with just 1 centimeter.

Tirreno stage 1, mountains ;
1º  Arnfinn Mikalsen ( 33, TeamEuroscalt )  0:00"
2º  Kummer ( 32, SPORTLIFE )  0:00"
3º  Eduard Lepin ( 32, Fiestina )  0:57"
4º  Kevin Norris ( 25, Elgrand )  1: 09"   
5º  Volkhard Reus ( 25, MarquinaTeam )  1: 09"   
6º  Gøran Haukås ( 33, TeamEuroscalt )  1: 09"   
7º  Petros Seeler ( 32, TeamEuroscalt )  1: 09"   
8º  Beckham ( 27, SPORTLIFE, helper )  1:09"
9º to 15º = a group of 7 on 1:32"
- - - - -
27º  Rønneberg ( 33, SPORTLIFE, free role )  2:18"

[Vos]

Tirreno stage 2, flat sprint, 2x wind ;
23º  Rønneberg  0:39"
A good result despite that his helper dropped already in s3, what was 2 sections sooner as I expected.
But an isolated Rønneberg did very well by staying in the relative small front groups of s3 and s4. In s5 he dropped to the 3rd group.
Very remarkable and surprising ; 
Rønneberg takes the GC lead, with a big gap of 0:57" towards the nr 2 GC, and even a bigger gap of 1:32" towards the nr 3 GC.

Tirreno stage 3, CCFFC ;
6º  Hummelsby ( free role )
107º  Rønneberg  3:14"

Rønneberg dropped to 4º GC on 1:14", what is much better than I expected before the Tirreno started.
But too soon to tell if he can ride an excellent GC, for example the nr 12 GC is within one minute behind, and there are 2 more stages to go.

[Aurora Australis]

My two silver level climbers have done a great job to get 77 points in the Tirreno that my team wouldn't have otherwise gotten.  They're now for sale for $1.

[Vos]

Tirreno stage 4, FFFHM ;
2º  Rønneberg  0:00"
Excellent result !
Of course, it would have been even nicer if he won the sprint-a-deux versus Tristan Min.

Still 4º GC, now on 1:02", but it seemed to me this stage 4 made almost no changes in the GC, due to the small time differences.

[Vos]

Tirreno stage 5, hills, 1x wind ;
43º  Rønneberg  0:55"
His teammates were simply not good enough to help, so he had to do it on his own.
With as result that he moved up one place and made it to the final GC podium, ánd now wears the 1A leader jersey.
Tirreno Adriatico final GC ;
3º GC  Rønneberg  1:02"

[Vos]

Milano-Sanremo ;
21º Granberg  0:00"
Very surprising result ! I did not expect at all that my BBT-specialist could score points in MSR.
Most likely he has silver on flathills and bronze on hill-sprint, and he had a bad team director, and he was already isolated in s3.
I guess that he was very lucky that he could follow in s5 on the Cipressa and the Poggio.

E3 Harelbeke ;
12º Sandal
A pretty good result, especially because his teammates could not even help one section.


   selection SPORTLIFE

Rønneberg surprised me a lot with his 3º GC podiumplace in the Tirreno,
because there was a cobble-stage in it ( he finished as 107º on 3:14" ), and therefore he even got a free role in mountain stage 1.
And again a cobble stage in this Catalunya, so, normally he is not so suited.
But this cobble stage ends in a flat sprint section, what is beneficial to Rønneberg with probably less time loss than in Tirreno stage 3.
Unfortunately there is also a time trial in this little tour, where he will lose some time compared to many GC rivals.
Despite this, and looking at his GC podiumplaces in Paris-Nice and the Tirreno, again he might do very well in the GC.

My other tour cyclists, Christensen and Arnau, are normally much better suited for this Catalunya than Rønneberg.
But they are not in topform yet.
And besides this, Rønneberg is the stage 2 teamcaptain anyway, there he should be a favorite or close to the favorites.

31 Rønneberg ( 33 ), tour
32 Christensen ( 31 ), tour
33 Arnau ( 30 ), tour
34 Kummer ( 32 ), climb
35 Caneschi ( 25 ), climb

Good luck everyone !