Season 25

[Kekipi]

Stage 2 Tirreno MMMMM

19º Perry  (helper) 0:44"
61º Campos  (captain) 1:40"
88º Ektov  (free) 2:36"

In this mountainous stage, Perry was able to help in S1 and S2 but rode too fast the rest of the way to help Campos, who might have finished 56 seconds faster @  0:44" if the tactics had gone right.  On the GC front, Campos is in a tie for 12th with five others @  1:18".    Leading the charge for the GC is defending Tirreno champion Sten Longva (OphiukoCT), who is tied for the lead with Nazar Usakov (Elgrand).   

[Vos]

Tirreno stage 1, hills-sprint ( 2x wind ) ;
44º  Milne ( teamcaptain )  0:59"
62º   Ocaña ( helper )  0:59"
83º   Conti ( free role )  2:01"
87º   Arnau ( free role )  2:01"

Unlucky and bad result of Milne who should have finished one group sooner ( = 20sec. sooner ).
Very remarkable that even his less good helper finished with 0 EP in the same time as Milne who of course had energy left for s5.
Conti and Arnau also underperformed and got bad results due to missing a cut in s3.
Conti has an excuse, he is not in topform yet. But Arnau has no excuse, and dissapointed.

Tirreno stage 2, mountains ;
14º   Ocaña ( free role )  0:44"
17º   Conti ( free role )  0:44"
47º  Arnau ( free role )  1:29"
53º  Milne ( teamcaptain )  1:40"

Very good results of Ocaña and Conti, and very bad results of Arnau ( the only one in topform ) and Milne ( even a teamcaptain role ).

So far the Tirreno is a rollercoaster and it goes very differently as I expected, estimated, ánd planned.
Maybe I should change of teamcaptain when I look at the current GC ;
6º   Ocaña ( 1x helper, 1x free role )  0:22"
12º  Milne ( teamcaptain )  1:18"
18º  Conti ( free role )  1:24"
23º  Arnau ( free role )  2:09"

But I have still no clue who can ride the best GC ; everyone has negative and positive aspects in the upcoming 3 stages.
On top of this, I expect that also stage 3 ( flat-climb with 1x wind ) will be a hard to predict rollercoaster race for my 4 tour cyclists.

[Vos]

Tirreno stage 3, flat-climb ( 1x wind ) ;
21º   Ocaña ( free role )  0:57"
23º   Milne ( teamcaptain )  0:57"
26º   Conti ( free role )  0:57"
30º   Arnau ( free role )  1:08"

The race went like this ; 102 - 91 - 83 - 23 - 1.
My team could follow in s1+s2+s3, but not the brutal pace in s4. Maybe Ocaña could, but he had a mechanical breakdown in s4.
Well, not a perfect race but I'm satisfied about the results and about helper Osland who stayed with his teamcaptain in all 4 sections.
Although it seems that Arnau had an unlucky finish, his 11 sec. loss compared to his teammates is a bit of a mystery to me.

Well, it is up to Arnau to get "revanche" in the upcoming climb-TT stage because his first 3 stages were bad.
And he is the best in climb-TT of my 4 selected tour cyclists.
He is not the only one anymore who is in topform, because also Milne and climb-TT specialist Osland are in topform in stage 4.

Osland is the 1st favorite, but very doubtfull if he can beat his former teammate Daniel Finn, due to the extreme low xp (=2) of Osland.
And he is riding without TC bonus, so there could be more cyclists who are better in stage 4.
I assume that Osland is good enough to score a very little sponsordeal of top 9 stage result.

Also a sponsordeal of top 9 GC is at stake. Hopefully one of my tour cyclists can achieve this goal.
GC after 3 stages ;
6º   Ocaña ( 1x helper, 2x free roles )  0:56" --> not in topform and not good in climb-TT.
15º  Milne ( teamcaptain )  1:52"  --> the best sprinter = thé reason he is teamcaptain ; needs a GC jump in sprint stage 5.
16º  Conti ( free role )  1:59" --> not in topform, but hopefully a surprising good stage 4 because of his active weather icon.
23º  Arnau ( free role )  2:55" --> too far behind and is riding a bad/unlucky Tirreno, not good in sprint, but he likes the climb-TT.

[Kekipi]

Stage 3 Tirreno FFFhFM

14º Campos  (captain) 0:45"
73º Ektov  (free) 1:59"
74º Perry  (helper) 1:59"

This same stage was contested (also with 1x wind) in S24, where an attack in S1 by Ophiuko was successful in causing "a break away group of just 16."

In this go-around, as noted by Vos, the S1 group numbered 102, which probably meant that more conservative tactics were employed by teams or that any attacks proved fruitless.

In S3, I did something I had never done before which was to use "a 'safe-switch' in S3" (as done by Flyvende_hjul last season) with the hoped-for result being "either attack or return depending on being in front or behind." 

Well, the S3 attack/safe-switch did not bear any fruit but it did keep Campos and helper Perry in the lead group.  In S4, Campos was able to stay in the small front group of 23, which might have been a result of a residual effect of the attack in S3.
Stage 4 Tirreno MMMMM TT

46º Ektov  1:02"
69º Perry  1:16"
80º Campos 1:21"

The good thing about these MT TTs is that the time gaps aren't massive.  For example, the current GC leader, Usakov, finished 21st in this TT @ 0:39" which is "just" 42 seconds faster than my guy Campos, in 80th. 

Going into the final sprint stage, Campos is 16th GC @ 2:22.   He'll ride in a free role, and our hope is that he can at least hold on to this spot, or, better yet, move up a couple slots.

[Vos]

Tirreno stage 4, climb TT ;
3º  Osland   0:03"   
14º   Arnau   0:34"
28º   Conti   0:48"
51º   Milne   1:05"
65º   Ocaña   1:10"

Osland finished in the same time as his former teammate Daniel Finn ( 2º ) and just 0:03" behind winner Davide Serra.
A promising result for future climb TT races, and also nice, he scored a sponsordeal of 140k.

Tirreno stage 5, sprint ( 1x wind ) ;
60º   Ocaña ( free role )  1:17"
67º   Conti ( free role )  1:17"
68º   Arnau ( free role )  1:17"
71º   Milne ( teamcaptain )  1:57" 

WOW ! Extreme bad result of Milne.
He has a much better sprint-GV ánd in topform ánd active weather icon ánd teamcaptain-bonus.
So, he should have started much better with 1 EP less than the not in topform free roles Ocaña and Conti.
But to my big surprise Milne could not follow the s1 front peleton of 51, and all 3 other free role tour cyclists could follow, even Arnau.
Very remarkable. And also to my big surprise, no where in the race Milne gained up on them, and he even finished 1 group behind.
I guess there are mysterious forces in cycling sometimes.

My tactical ánd strategic choices in this Tirreno were far from perfect, and also a bit of a mystery to me.
But also funny, because the final GC results are exactly the opposite of what I expected in who could ride the best GC.
What is shown by their backnumbers.
"My nr91" teamcaptain Milne finished as "last", and "my nr94" Ocaña finished as "best" despite even a helper's role in stage 1.
In retrospective ; much more was possible with better tactical- ánd with better strategic choices.
But I did not expect these final GC results at all, and it is very surprising to me.

Tirreno, final GC ;
6º  Ocaña   1:27"
10º  Conti   2:08"
14º  Arnau   2:49"
15º  Milne   2:58"

Well, at least the top9ºGC sponsordeal is achieved, and all 4 in the final top 15 GC, what is a good amount of total points in this Tirreno.

[Vos]

s1 =
Matas ( Villavante ) attacked with a high pace, what caused some victims ; the front peleton was downsized to 78 cyclists.
And almost all were shooting to Matas :"do you know that this classic race is 294km and do you know it is bloody hot with 32ºC !"
Including my 2 bronze hills-sprinters and 1 silver flathills specialist, who could follow the front peleton.
My 2 climbers, Beckham and Szõnyi, decided to take it easy and for them MSR is just to enjoy the scenery ( see picture ).

s2 =
Saenz ( JGMTeam ) had probably some kind of heat stroke, because also he tried to break the peleton into pieces.
With not much success, just 5 less in the front peleton, and luckily the 3 SPORTLIFE cyclists could follow.

s3 =
Delhaye ( LottoGranadier ) made an impressive attack attempt, what caused a high pace on this hill in s3.
Now just 55 cyclists in the front peleton, incl. my 2 unprepared bronze hills-sprinters ;
Granberg and helper Boyar in his first race of the season, therefore not in topform. He is a tour cyclist with bronze hill-sprint icon.

s4 =
Just a few cyclists returned and now a front peleton of 59.
To my surprise helper Boyar was still in the front, completely exhausted and no energy left after helping Granberg on the s3 hill.

s5 =
The always exciting final section in MSR !
Granberg and Boyar miraculously survived the extreme brutal pace on the Cipressa,
but a logic drop on the Poggio, and both ended up in the second group.
The front group of 29 sprinted for victory and podiumplaces, but this was of course just a side-show.
For the statistics ; Sysmans ( Rekutxuteam ) won, just before nr2 Beart ( LottoStelvio ) and nr3 Fetisov ( JGMTeam ).

But the main event of MSR occured 0:32" later = the epic and glorious battle for the last remaining place that gave points. 
40 contenders sprinted for that last spot, and it looked like that Pensec ( LanihuliCycling ) would win the sprint,
but he was too tired due to his helper's job by launching his teamcaptain into the s5 front group.
Granberg ( SPORTLIFE ) profited of that, and won the glorious sprint for the 30º place ! 

A very surprising and excellent result of an unprepared and just 6-star bronze hills-sprinter who was not sold for 1,- two days ago.
I even almost fired him, so he would get a place in my hall of fame as only BBT winner ever of my team.
But at the last moment I decided not to fire him, because he is the only helper ( in 1, 2 or 3 sections ) for Taglioni in E3Harelbeke.
And I had no cyclists for MSR, so he could race that as well, although I did not expect at all that he could score points.
A nice farewell of this successful and very cheap ( 321k ) allround cyclist,
because besides his BBT victory in s23, he was 2nd in the BBT of s22, and 2nd in the Dauphiné of previous s24.
Hopefully Granberg can help a few sections in his very last race of his career ; the upcoming E3Harelbeke.

[Vos]

E3 Harelbeke ;
17º   Taglioni
He was missing the important s4 helper to get a top result,
but Granberg ( 6-star bronze cobblehills ) did an excellent job in the first 3 sections of his very last race in his career.


   selection SPORTLIFE

In the Tirreno 4 tour cyclists were selected, and fun to try Catalunya even with a full selection of 5 tour cyclists. 

41 Conti ( 31 ), tour
42 Ocaña ( 33 ), tour
43 Boyar ( 30 ), tour
44 Milne ( 29 ), tour
45 Arnau ( 32 ), tour

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

Catalunya stage 1, HFFFH ( storm !!! ) ;
23º  Conti ( teamcaptain )   0:31"
59º   Boyar ( free role )   0:48"
68º   Milne ( free role )   0:53" --> with mechanical breakdown in the crucial s5
71º  Ocaña ( free role )   0:56"
82º   Arnau ( helper )   0:56"

Catalunya stage 2, sprint ;
All my tour cyclists finished on 1:00" in the 3rd group. Not good, but probably not bad also.
With the exception of Arnau due to his helpers role ( and he helped just 3 sections ), he finished on 1:41" in the 4th group.

Catalunya stage 3, FFFFM ( 1x wind ) ;
9º  Conti ( teamcaptain )   0:41"
11º  Ocaña ( free role )   0:47"
26º  Boyar ( free role )   0:59"
47º   Arnau ( helper )   1:34"
57º   Milne ( free role )   1:56"

Somehow Milne had a sudden, unexpected drop in s3, what costed him a lot of time ( almost one minute ).
But the rest of my team could follow the front peleton in all flat sections, what caused very good results of Conti and Ocaña.

Catalunya stage 4, TT ( 1x wind ) ;
35º   Arnau   1:51"
68º   Milne   2:37"
72º  Conti   2:39" --> with mechanical breakdown in s3
82º  Boyar   2:49" --> with mechanical breakdown in s5
102º  Ocaña   3:06"

GC Catalunya, after 4 stages =

7º  Conti   1:07"
12º  Boyar   1:52"
15º  Ocaña   2:06"
17º  Arnau   2:19"
- - - - -
22º  Milne   2:43"

[Vos]

Catalunya stage 5, FMFMM ( 1x wind ) ;
11º  Ocaña ( free role )   0:41"
14º  Conti ( teamcaptain )   0:57"
27º  Boyar ( free role )   1:38"
39º   Milne ( free role )   1:38"
47º   Arnau ( helper )   3:02"

Bad race of Conti, as only one he got a sleeping icon in s3.
He should have finished at least in the same time as Ocaña, but fortunately this bad race did not matter for the GC of Conti.
Ocaña did excellent and moved up 5 places. This was certainly not a good tour of my team, although they scored enough total points.

Catalunya, final GC =

6º Conti   0:59"
10º Ocaña   1:42"
14º  Boyar   2:25"
19º  Milne   3:16"
- - - - -
22º  Arnau ( helper in all stages )   4:16"

[Vos]

Taglioni is the only cobblehills specialist in my team.
So, he had to do it on his own without help and also without TC bonus and with a bad team director.
He is not suited for Gent Wevelgem ( 49º ), but scored some points in the two other cobblehills races :
Dwars door Vlaanderen ;
23º   Taglioni
Ronde van Vlaanderen ;
21º   Taglioni


   selection SPORTLIFE

Boyar should be the one who can ride the best GC of this selection, but very doubtfull if he can achieve a good GC result.
Probably I will go for stage results with Milne ( stage 1 ), Reigersman ( stages 2 + 3 ) and Taglioni ( stage 5 ).
Milne gets the backnumber that ends on 1, to motivate him after his dissapointing Tirreno ánd dissapointing Catalunya.
He needs that extra motivation, because as not-favorite he is going to try to score a little 180k sponsordeal in stage 1.

71 Milne ( 29 ), tour
72 Boyar ( 30 ), tour
73 Reigersman ( 30 ), climbhills
74 Taglioni ( 31 ), cobblehills
75 Conti ( 31 ), tour

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

Itzulia stage 1, hillsclimb-sprint ( 1x wind ) ;
7º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   0:00"
21º  Boyar ( free role )   0:00"
27º  Conti ( helper )   0:00"
This was good enough to score a little sponsordeal, thanks to an excellent helper's job of Conti who returned in s4.

Itzulia stage 2, climbhills ( 1x wind ) ;
6º  Boyar ( teamcaptain )   0:11"
21º  Reigersman ( helper )   0:35"
30º  Conti ( helper )   0:47"
A last minute change because Boyar did not lose time in stage 1, and now gets the opportunity to go for a GC result.
He started with a sleeping icon, but his main helpers still with him and all had a lot of energy left for the remaining 4 sections.
Reigersman did a perfect helper's job, what caused an excellent result of Boyar.

[Vos]

Itzulia stage 3, MMFFH ( 1x wind ) ;
17º  Boyar ( teamcaptain )   0:10"
36º  Milne ( free role )   0:32"
Milne had a very unlucky finish, with a mechanical breakdown he finished as 1st of a very big group.
Helpers Reigersman ( 37º ) and Conti ( 46º ) finished in that same group, and both did an excellent job to keep Boyar in the front till s4.

Itzulia stage 4, flat-TT ( 2x wind ) ;
47º  Milne   2:16"
58º  Boyar   2:24"

Itzulia stage 5, cobblehills ;
75º  Boyar ( teamcaptain )   2:42"
79º  Milne ( free role )   3:05"
Taglioni dissapointed by finishing just outside the points ( 34º ), his free role tactic should have been better, or he was just unlucky.
About my GC contenders, I have no clue if they did well in this race or not.
 
Itzulia, final GC =

7º  Boyar   1:03"
13º  Milne   2:33"

[Kekipi]

   selection Lanihuli Cycling

Our hope is that Ektov can land in the top 10 for the GC, but that may be a stretch.  We'll try though.  At this point in the season, I believe we are doing better than we did in S24. We are currently 17th in the team standings (with 4491 pts) and we seemed poised to finish higher than 24th (with 5444 pts), which is where we finished in S24.     

161 Espinar ( 26 ), hills/sprint
162 Lyka ( 31 ), climb/hills
163 Perry ( 32 ), climb
164 Ektov ( 32), tour
165 Neeskens ( 33 ), TT

As Vos has always said, Good luck everyone!

[Kekipi]

TDF stage 1, flat-TT ( 1x wind; rain ) ;
17º  Neeskens   0:31"
51º  Ektov   2:26"

[Kekipi]

TDF stage 2, FHFFhF ( 1x wind; sun ) ;
36º  Espinar   0:53" (helper)
49º  Ektov   1:33" (captain)

An additional EP in S1 might have meant making the lead group of 36.  The hoped-for comeback in S3 and/or S4 never happened, so Ektov lost a minute to some of the other GC guys.   

TDF stage 3, FFFFF ( sun ) ;
24º  Espinar   0:23" (helper)
85º  Ektov   1:59" (captain)

Ektov is just a 3-star sprinter, so his result here isn't overly disappointing.   We will see how he does in tomorrow's HFFMM TT to determine if we will continue to support him as captain or go for stage results in the four upcoming mountain races.