Season 23

[Vos]

Catalunya, mountain stage 1 ( 3x wind ) ;
4º  Kummer ( free role )  0:07"
11º  Rønneberg  0:59"
14º  Caneschi ( masterhelper )  0:59"
Magnificient result thanks to a perfect helper's job of Caneschi.
My other tour cyclists, 63º Arnau and 67º Christensen, finished ( in free roles ) on 2:46"

[Vos]

Catalunya, stage 2, MMFMF ( 2x wind ) ;
1º  Rønneberg  --> the first SPORTLIFE-victory this season. 
34º  Arnau ( free role )  0:59" --> he just missed the cut, and now finished 29sec. later as 1st of a group of 21.
40º  Christensen ( free role )  0:59"

[Vos]

Catalunya stage 3, flat TT ( 1x wind ) ;
42º  Arnau  1:55"
69º   Christensen  2:21"  --> with mechanical breakdown
75º   Rønneberg  2:26"  --> with mechanical breakdown

Before this stage, Rønneberg was on 0:00" in the GC together with someone else, who got the leader jersey.
After this stage, again 2 cyclists on 0:00" in the GC, Rønneberg and new on 0:00" is Tor Steine, but now Rønneberg gets the leader jersey.

[Vos]

Catalunya stage 4, flathills ( 1x wind ) ;
12º  Rønneberg  0:15"
35º   Christensen ( helper )  0:45"
65º   Arnau ( free role )  0:56"
A good result of the now solo GC leader Rønneberg.
Thanks to Christensen, who sacrificed his possible GC result with a conservative helpers tactic.
And the very bad result of Arnau is explained by a crucial mechanical breakdown in s1, what caused he was not in the front of s1 ánd s2.

Rønneberg does not like the final cobble stage at all, so, hopefully he does not drop too many GC places.

[Vos]

Catalunya stage 5, FCCCF ;
50º   Arnau ( helper )  2: 06"
51º   Rønneberg ( teamcaptain ) 2: 06"
52º   Birk Christensen ( free role )  2:06"
A much and much better race as I expected, thanks to a perfect helper's job of Arnau.
 
The final GC is good and a bit bad at the same time, because 3º GC is more than excellent,
but a tiny bitter aftertaste is on 0:04" of the Catalunya victory and in the same time as the nr 2º GC.

Final TOP 10 GC Catalunya ;
1    Elton Fevola   28   Bikeos   0: 00"   
2    Daumants Simsons   28   OphiukoCT   0: 04"   
3    Lasse Rønneberg   33   SPORTLIFE   0: 04"   
- - - - - - - - -
4    Lucien Faivre   26   Elgrand   0: 25"   
5    Ken Hansen   31   Codex   0: 27"   
6    Dionisio Junior   29   Matterhorn   0: 46"   
7    Gianni Mori   28   LaSerenissima   0: 57"   
8    Tristan Min   31   Flyvende_hjul   0: 57"   
9    Giovanni Benito   27   CaptainOrange   1: 10"   
10    Nauris Melderis   32   FaltososDeChigre   1: 11"   
- - - - - - - - - -
17    Faustino Arnau   30   SPORTLIFE   3: 01"
- - - - - - - - - -
22    Birk Christensen   31   SPORTLIFE   3: 15" --> 1 second short of GC points.

[Vos]

With very good tactics,
it should have been possible to finish top30 with Granberg in GW and top30 with Sandal in DDV.
But the SPORTLIFE-manager made bad tactical choices.
Only in RVV the tactics were good, but as expected, Granberg and Sandal were not suited for this monumental classic race.
Zero points in these 3 races, what causes a drop from 2nd to 6th in division 1A.

   selection SPORTLIFE

Difficult to estimate who can ride a better GC ; Arnau or Christensen.
I gamble on Arnau, who finished as 9º GC in previous season.
Also in this edition he is suited, but not a top contender, so, again he is going to try to ride a top10 GC.

There was one open place in this selection, what is filled up with a cheap 15k last-minute buy ; a silver hillsclimb helper.

51 Arnau ( 30 ), tour
52 Christensen ( 31 ), tour
53 Meijer ( 29 ), hills
54 Granberg ( 30 ), cobblehills
55 Overall ( 34 ), hillsclimb

[Vos]

Itzulia stage 1, climbhills ( storm ) ;
19º  Arnau  0:30"
The helpers tactics were not good, Arnau was already isolated in the mountains. Despite this, a good result.

Itzulia stage 2, hillsclimb ( 2x wind ) ;
34º  Arnau  1:18"
A bad tactical race and a dissapointing result.
Somehow Arnau started too slow, and in s1 his 2 best helpers were ahead and even stayed ahead till s4, so, both were useless.
Luckily Arnau had support of his 2 back-up helpers in hills sections 1 + 2, but they cannot climb, Arnau was isolated in s3 and far behind.
An unnecessary time loss of most likely 0:36" in this stage, that is a lot. And also a missed opportunity to score points.

Itzulia stage 3, hills-TT ;
15º  Arnau  0:57"
25º  Granberg
For the first time this season, no mechanical breakdown for a SPORTLIFE teamcaptain in a TT stage. ( Rønneberg had it in PN and CAT )

Itzulia stage 4, cobblehills ( storm ) ;
66º  Arnau  2:35"
Finally a good tactical race, because one of the helpers ( = Christensen ) stayed with Arnau the whole race.

Arnau is now 11º GC on 1:26", what is 1 second behind his Itzulia goal of top 10 GC.
I have no clue if he is good enough in the final hills stage 5 to move up one place, but he will try.

[Vos]

stage 5 Itzulia, hills ;
10º  Meijer ( free role )
107º  Arnau  1:17"
Excellent support in the whole race, Arnau had even two s4-helpers.

Itzulia, final GC ;
10º  Arnau  2:07"
In the same time as the nr 9ºGC, what is an unfortunate difference of 25 points.
But his Itzulia goal is achieved, and barely, because the nrs 11º and 12º are just 0:05" behind.

[Vos]

Paris Roubaix ( 1x wind ) ;
18º  Hummelsby  0:35"
in the first four sections -->
The 1 EP start was not good enough to follow the s1 breakaway group of 45. Already 0:31" behind.
As expected the helper dropped in s2, so Hummelsby was isolated on 0:39" 
And despite 4 EP, the helper did not return to his teamcaptain in s3, where Hummelsby was still 0:32" behind the front group of just 42.
In s4 just 3 seconds closer to the front group of now 12. But being in a s4 group of places 24 to 34, is very bad.
The damage was already done with the too slow start, and not returning in s3 made a good result impossible.
Well, at least Hummelsby avoided to get a dissapointment symbol due to his strong finish.

This race was not a nice farewell present of Hummelsby, who is for sale for just 1,- and has enough bids.
In the two previous seasons he finished as 2º and 5º in Paris Roubaix.
He won a Vuelta stage, and finished in the season 21-worldchampionship as 3º on 0:00"
But his greatest achievement is not on his palmares. It was even the reason I bought him and that he is my by far most expensive buy :
Hummelsby won the CFF Cup final for my team.

edit ; On his palmares is also a NT race victory in season 18, but that was before I bought him in season 19.

[Vos]

Amstel Gold Race ;
21º  Rubiera
Flèche Wallonne ;
8º  Rubiera
Liège–Bastogne–Liège ;
18º  Rubiera

the hills campaign of Rubiera can be summed up in two words = not impressive.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

51 Sole ( 31 ), tour
52 Rønneberg ( 33 ), tour
53 Beckham ( 27 ), climb
54 Christensen ( 31 ), tour
55 Lewis ( 24 ), climb

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

I estimated that Sole could ride a good GC, but that he is not good enough to win this Tour de Romandie.
Because of this, the strategic choice was to go for a stage 1 victory with 2nd favorite Beckham.

stage 1 Romandie MFMMD ;
3º  Beckham ( teamcaptain )  0:00"
9º  Sole ( free role )  0:33"
The race went well and Lewis did a good helper's job, but dissapointing that Beckham was outsprinted by Gilliam(1st fav) and Lebraud.

A podiumplace was not worth it to sacrifice a bit the GC of Sole, who had an extra time loss of 0:18" due to his free role.
Hopefully these 18 seconds will not be of major influence in the final GC.

Good, old Rønneberg ( this season 2ºPN & 3ºTIR & 3ºCAT ) also got a free role, and he finished as 48º on 1:19"
He likes this little tour too, but he has no TC bonus and already too much time loss in stage 1. Probably he will be a helper from now on.

[Aurora Australis]

Currently 40th position & 690 points into the red zone, I need to start making up some serious points in Stage 2 of Tour Romandie.  Kirk Clinton is my primary hope despite only being 4th favourite.  My former cyclist Richard Levin has the race record in his last ever race victory, so maybe the race will be kind to us again.  The others are hoping for 5th to 10th.

391 Billy Janson   25
392 Eric Armstrong   26
393 Jonny Alfier   26
394 Kirk Clinton   30
395 Tod Henderson   30   

Edit: Well a surprise win for Jonny Alfier, who was on 93 health & 98 form at the time (Kirk Clinton 2nd).

[Vos]

stage 2 Romandie, flat-TT ( 2x wind ) ;
67º  Sole  2:10"
76º  Rønneberg  2:19" --> with mechanical breakdown.
In every TT stage of every tour this season, Rønneberg has a mechanical breakdown. But this time it will not cost the final GC victory.

stage 3 Romandie FMMDF ( 1x wind ) ;
12º  Sole ( teamcaptain )  0:00"
18º  Rønneberg ( free role )  0:00"
This race went very badly, but at least no time loss.

Sole moved up to 7º GC on 0:55", and Rønneberg is 10 seconds away from the top 20 GC.

[Vos]

stage 4 Romandie FFMMH ;
2º  Sole ( teamcaptain )  0:00"
38º  Rønneberg ( free role )  0:44"
An excellent result, because Sole could not challenge any favorites.

stage 5 Romandie flat-sprint ( 1x wind ) ;
36º  Sole ( teamcaptain )  0:45"
41º   Rønneberg ( helper )  1:17"
Magnificient result !
And lucky, because Sole finished as last of a big group. But also thanks to Rønneberg, who did a perfect helper's job.

Tour de Romandie, final GC ;
2º  Sole  0:02" --> his free role in stage 1 was a major mistake, what costed Sole the Romandie victory. 
18º  Rønneberg  2:14"
Extra note of Sole himself ; "the SPORTLIFE manager sucks !"