Season 24

[Kekipi]

Awaiting posts by Vos et al.

I will post periodically, as well, to document my Div 1 journey. 

[Vos]

A new season has started ! 

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

The today bought Muntendam ( 1½ M ) gets the backnumber that ends on 1.
He is a silver "heavy"hills-sprinter ( silver 9 stars hill-sprint + silver 9 stars flat-hills ) and maybe he can surprise in this little tour.
despite no top form and a health issue in all 5 stages.

But the main goal of my whole team in the Tour Down Under = to get in top form.
Although I expect that Meijer scores stage points. He should be confident after his recent 6º place in the World Championship race.
60% of this TDU selection is Dutch, and just like Muntendam, also Hartlooper makes his debut for my team, who was bought 6 days ago.

11 Muntendam ( 32 ), silver "heavy"hills-sprinter
12 Meijer ( 30 ), hills
13 Granberg ( 31 ), BinckBankTour winner of previous season 23
14 Taglioni ( 30 ), cobblehills
15 Hartlooper ( 31 ), cobblehills

TDU stage 1 ;
29º  Muntendam
The first points of this season.

[Kekipi]

   selection Lanihuli Cycling

Vien ( 25 ), silver hills-sprinter
Lyka ( 30 ), hills-climber
Pensec ( 30 ), hills-sprinter
Haan ( 31 ), Tour rider
Semon ( 32 ), hills

TDU stage 1 ;  FFFFhF
13º  Pensec
Was relieved to earn points in the first race of the season, and we hope we will earn enough by the end of S24 to be in the top 30 of Div 1.   

TDU stage 2 ;  MHHHH
24º  Lyka
30º Haan

Lyka rode as a helper but was too fast for captain Haan, who, thankfully, was able to get some help from hills rider Semon in S2, S3, and S4.   It remains to be seen if Haan, a tour rider, can limit his time losses in the two coming hills races, and if he cannot hang on in the FFFFH race  then we will commit to our Hills rider in the HHHHH stage and let Haan ride free.   

(Thanks, Vos, for the post template) 

[Vos]

yw / mp 

TDU stage 2, MHHHH ( 2x wind ) ;
93º  Muntendam  1:48"
Clearly a tactical failure, because teamcaptain Muntendam was isolated the whole race.
I hoped and expected he would have had help in a few sections, but his teammates were simply not good enough.
With one exception, and that is Meijer who tried to score points in a free role.
He came close, but failed too ; 34º in the same time as the nr 30º. In retrospective ; Meijer should have been the helper.

TDU stage 3, FFFFH ;
8º  Muntendam  0:08"
Excellent result, despite a form problem and a health issue. And thanks to Hartlooper who did a great helper's job.

GC after 3 stages = 3º  Muntendam  0:39" --> very unexpected, but the final TT stage will be decisive, so I assume he drops.

[Kekipi]

TDU stage 3, FFFFH ;
61º  Pensec  0:21"
117º  Haan  0:43"
Disappointing result for captain Haan, who needed another EP in S1 to make it into 148-rider lead group.   The better strategy would have been to have Haan ride free and put the team behind Semon, a strong hills-with-flat guy.

TDU stage 4, HHHHH ;
23º  Semon  0:20"
108º  Haan  1:02"
Semon, our best hills rider, was designated as captain for this race.  I hoped he'd do better, and with top form he might have.  In any case, we'll take the points.   Meanwhile, Haan, our best GC hope, rode free and likely would have shaved 17 secs if I had made him captain. 

GC after 4 stages = 25º  Haan  2:22" --> as mentioned by Vos, the final TT stage will be decisive, so I hope Haan, who has tour rider TT skills, will move up to earn some GC points, because half of the current top 20 in GC are TT-deprived.  I look forward to seeing the shake-down.

[Vos]

TDU stage 4, hills ;
27º  Muntendam   0:20"
Still 3ºGC, and "just" 88 km time trial left in this TDU.

[Kekipi]

TDU stage 5, Flat TT (88 km) *** stamina!;
36º  Haan   2:36"

Haan's TT effort got him a boost of 16 positions, so he ended up 9th GC @ 2:25   

The podium was composed of three hills-sprinters (who also can TT)

1. Paul Simon, Elgrand
2. Rafael Angel Muñoz, FaltososDeChigre  @ :55
3. Jimmy Blankenstein, Mlb, @ 1:08

[Vos]

TDU stage 5, TT ;
71º  Muntendam   3:51"

Tour Down Under, final GC ;
6º  Muntendam   1:54" 
Much and much better than I expected before this TDU.
Great to see that my new buy of this season does so very well. Even despite no topform, a health issue, and no perfect tactics.

[Kekipi]

TDU stage 5, TT ;
71º  Muntendam   3:51"

Tour Down Under, final GC ;
6º  Muntendam   1:54" 
Much and much better than I expected before this TDU.
Great to see that my new buy of this season does so very well. Even despite no topform, a health issue, and no perfect tactics.

He was a good buy for 1.505m.   As I recall, seeing his potential for the TDU, I put in a bid of 1.5m but you obviously beat me to him.   Good job and congrats on the GC result with Muntendam.

[Kekipi]

I will admit that the alarm bells went off when the team was dropped in S1, especially when I noted three of the race favorites (Spang, Ceuppens, and super domestique Einpalu) were in the lead group of 21.   That lead group proved to be decisive, with 15 of the 21 ending up in the point-scoring top 30. Ultimately, only two riders among the dropped masses were able to battle their way into the top 10, Simon Aasheim (FaltososDeChigre) in 6th and my OG Luke Rose in 9th.

Congrats to the podium winners, who were

Phillip Spang, 31, (Codex)
Pedro Francisco Malagon, 24, (Quickstepbronx)
Charlie Ceuppens, 32, (MarquinaTeam)

[Vos]

He was a good buy for 1.505m.   As I recall, seeing his potential for the TDU, I put in a bid of 1.5m but you obviously beat me to him.   Good job and congrats on the GC result with Muntendam.

Thanks.
And fun to read that my extra 5k was of big value in the bidding war. 

You too congratulations with your good start in 1A, for example 9º TDU and 9º OHN.
If you keep it up like this, no worries at all that your season goal will be achieved.

[Kekipi]

No alarm bells in this sun-soaked rendering of Strade Bianche. OG Luke Rose, who is blessed with the icon, also had all the help he needed from three good domestiques, but just missed out on the podium, finishing 4th @ :09.
Congrats to the podium winners, who were

Carlos Javier Viña, 30, (Mlb), who won this race for the third time in a row, and for the fifth time in his career.   Awesome.
Simon Aasheim, 31, (FaltososDeChigre), who earned his first podium and has finished in the top ten of this race for the 4th straight year.
Zoltan Forrer, 24, (MarquinaTeam), the young gun, who made his first of what likely will be other podium finishes.
We now move on to Paris Nice, where I have entered another OG, Yvo VanPaassen, 33, to see if he still has the legs to do anything on the GC.  He has yet to reach top form, so the results might be substandard.

[Kekipi]

   selection Lanihuli Cycling

VanPaassen is our is GC hope, and I am anxious to see how he will do and how I will do, tactics-wise.
Campos, a tour rider from Colombia, will provide help in all stages.
Pensec will be the helper in sprint stages 1 and 3.
Green will help in stages 1, 2, & 3.
Perry will be the climbs-helper in mountain stages 4 & 5.

191 VanPaassen ( 33 ), tour
192 Campos ( 31 ), tour
193 Perry ( 31 ), climb
194 Green ( 34 ), cobbles/sprint help
195 Pensec ( 30 ), hill-sprint

(Merci beaucoup to Vos for the post template).   

[Vos]

Omloop het Nieuwsblad ;
27º  Taglioni
Despite good help in the first 3 sections, not a good result. I thought that Taglioni would do much better.
He did not even got a dissapointment icon in s5, so he was probably not so good as I expected.

Strade Bianche ;
17º  Hartlooper 
Unfortunately Taglioni was not good enough to help in s4, but still a good result of the teamcaptain.


   selection SPORTLIFE

Two Russians in this selection, who could not ride under the Russian flag.
Big thanks to the cycling federations of Uganda and Algeria, who gave both the license to ride for my team in Paris Nice.

New buy Yakovlev has as goal to ride in form, and he will be used as helper.
Babich was bought 2 weeks ago for 123k, and perhaps I even overpaid for him. Despite this, he might be the big surprise in this little tour.
But maybe I estimate this wrong because probably it never happened before that a cheap bronze tour cyclist scored GC points in PN.
In fact, he has not even a bronze sprint icon, and there are 2 sprint stages.
And he has just a bronze cobble icon and a silver climb icon. And the first 3 stages not in topform.

In case the "Babich experiment" fails, there is an excellent back-up plan to go for Beckham as teamcaptain in the 2 mountain stages.

As last one Granberg is selected, to give the doubtfull experiment a better chance of success.

181 Beckham ( 28 ), climb
182 Babich ( 27 ), bronze tour
183 Szõnyi ( 28 ), climb
184 Yakovlev ( 32 ), silver tour
185 Granberg ( 31 ), helper ( bronze flat-sprint & bronze flat-cobble )

Good luck everyone !