Season 26

[Vos]

The s26 world championship road race is in Doha ( Qatar ) and perfect for sprinters.

Previous winners Doha Road WC :
season 16 = Bud Power ( BlackHole )
season 12 = Christian Bordeneuve ( Thorboassonarvesen )
season   3 = Seb Walkins ( SaulSalinasTeam )

Have fun & good luck everyone in season 26 ! 

[Vos]

Overview of previous season 25 =

  OphiukoCT
  LottoStelvio
  Rekutxuteam
  Dada Azarov ( CaptainOrange )
  Aad de Jong ( Bikeos )
  Daumants Simsons ( OphiukoCT )
  MortoviaCycling
  Thorboassonarvesen
  Aziz Kavalerov ( °Peachy°Melocotons )
  Gregor Arzdorf ( Rekutxuteam )
  Martine Perec ( OphiukoCT )
  Dada Azarov ( CaptainOrange )
  Elton Fevola ( Bikeos )
  Sammy Alfier ( Aurora_Australis )
  Gregor Arzdorf ( Rekutxuteam & NT manager Statoil )

= NT WORLD CHAMPION ( OphiukoCT & all managers with Australian top cyclists )

[Vos]

NT race 2

1º  Ryan Beckham ( SPORTLIFE ) 

For the first time ever that a SPORTLIFE cyclist wins a NT race ! 
With a very big THANKS to the American NT manager JGMTeam ! 

[Combuijs]

That's a nice milestone to have!

[JGonmar6]

NT race 2

1º  Ryan Beckham ( SPORTLIFE ) 

For the first time ever that a SPORTLIFE cyclist wins a NT race ! 
With a very big THANKS to the American NT manager JGMTeam ! 

You are welcome!!
Congratulations!!!

[Vos]

Thanks ! 

[Vos]

My season goal of getting 3 victories is already achieved : 


1º Osland ( 25, SPORTLIFE ) 
2º Daniel Finn ( 29, Rekutxuteam ) on 0:00"
A very close battle of Osland versus his former teammate Finn, who was in my team very shortly.

And a big shame that Daniel Finn is fired some days later.
And yes, according to me it has to be mentioned when Australian top cyclists are fired.
The 29yo( ! ) Finn could have been easily sold with a low asking price.
But his manager put him on the TL too expensive, and I guess he needed space in his team desperately.
Although I'm not entirely certain of this, maybe also an option is that he was sold and the new buyer fired him.
Well, if there are no NT climb time trials in the next 3 NT seasons, it is not a big loss to Australia.
So far in all 25 NT seasons there was just one NT climb time trial, so, probably it does not matter that Daniel Finn is fired.

Anyway, back to the glorious (and maybe lucky) victory of Osland ;
he even achieved a CFF record in this climb TT stage despite he is/was very unexperienced with just 10xp.
Osland was a 2½M trainingsproject, and due to having always amazing racing staff in my team, my trainingprojects cannot gain xp.


stage 5 Itzulia ;
1º Udod ( 30, SPORTLIFE ) 
A very unexpected victory of my new buy ( 4 M ) of this season,
because he could by far not challenge any favorites and I assume there were many rivals with TC bonus too.
Thanks to a superb helper's job of Meijer, because only my team had n s4 a captain-helper combo in the first chasing group of 5 cyclists.
I must say, my team was lucky that in s4 the Astanadena teamcaptain suddenly solo attacked with a gap of just 4 seconds,
otherwise Astanadena would have had a captain-helper combo in s4 too.
Now that team did not, and was missing the very important extra bonus.
In contrast to Udod, who certainly won thanks to Meijer / great tactics.


stage 1 Romandie ;
1º Lewis ( 27, SPORTLIFE ) 
Solo victory with 0:20" ahead of just one chaser.
With thanks to a magnificient helper's job of Beckham, because the s4 front group of 5 had just one teamcaptain-helper combo.
The 2nd victory of my former 2,6 M trainingsproject, because in previous season Lewis won the climb TT stage in the Tour de Suisse.
I guess he likes Switzerland a lot, by winning now a pure mountain stage in Romandie.


Why a season goal of getting 3 victories somewhere ?
Because despite I very often have the GC as goal, I was close to this prestigious milestone / achievement, what is now realized !  

= 100 victories ( one day races and stages ) in division 1A.
Only 3 managers have this achievement :

Yvo_Meppelink_ProCycling   11/02/2022
Thorboassonarvesen   23/05/2022
SPORTLIFE      19/08/2022

edit ; also Caracoles ( 113 victories ) had this achievement, but that team does not excist anymore.

[Vos]

The Tour de Suisse and the Tour de France are my main GC goals this season, so it is time to make a forum post again.


   selection SPORTLIFE

The undisputed teamcaptain is Milne, who already had good GC results this season ; 5º Paris-Nice and 5º Catalunya.
In previous season he was 10º Tour de Suisse and 7º Tour de France.

111 Milne ( 30 ), tour
113 Masschelein ( 30 ), tour
112 Szõnyi ( 30 ), climb
114 Vasconceles ( 29 ), silver climb & bronze sprint
115 Caneschi ( 28 ), climb

TdS, stage 1, mountains ;
7º  Szõnyi ( free role )   0:43"
17º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   1:09"
18º  Caneschi ( masterhelper )   1:09"
More than excellent result, thanks to a magnificient job of Caneschi.

TdS, stage 2, heavy-hills-sprint ;
27º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   0:46"
Bad luck, because Milne finished as 1st of a very big third group ( nrs 27 to 59 ), what is never good to a GC contender.

Even his exhausted helper Masschelein finished in that same group, what is another sign that Milne had bad luck.
And this unlucky "loss" of 21 seconds was even a missed opportunity to get the GC lead,
because now Milne is 4º GC on 0:00" ( the top 6 GC is on 0:00" ).

Perhaps I should be satisfied about this stage 2, because the helper did a great job,
and before the race I would be happy with a 3rd group finish of Milne, because he has just 4 stars on hills and a bronze sprint icon.

And for a good GC result the upcoming stages are most likely more important ;
a windy, tricky flat-climb stage  &  a sprint stage with storm(!)  &  a time trial.

So, maybe these 21 seconds "extra loss" in stage 2 do not matter in the end.
And besides this, Milne certainly overperformed / won unexpected extra time in stage 1, thanks to his climb helper Caneschi.
What is excellent support, and therefore fun to mention this too ; 

Dauphiné, stage 4, mountains ;
1º  Caneschi ( teamcaptain ) --> the 4th victory of SPORTLIFE this season. 
It was the very first victory of Caneschi in his career.
Thanks to an amazing helper's job of NT race 1 winner Beckham,
because in s4 a breakaway group of just 4, where only my team had a captain-helper combo.

By the way, Beckham was planned to ride this Tour de Suisse as well,
but on second-thought I decided not to select him because now he is in full training mode for the important NT race next Sunday.
And to TdS teamcaptain Milne it does not matter, because he "has" excellent helpers already.
Or better said, "should have", because the helpers have to prove themselves too in the upcoming stages, but so far they did excellent.
Let's hope the helpers perform in the next tricky stage too, so Milne can get a good result on the Tiefenbachferner-climb in Austria.

[Vos]

TdS, stage 3, flat-climb ( 2x wind ) ;
9º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   0:26"
Great result ! 
Thanks to excellent tactics that were based on an expected battlefield in the windy flat sections.

And my expection came true and paid off.
because in particular OphiukoCT made this stage brutal by a very fast pace in the flat sections =  34 - 30 - 30 - 28 - 3.
Milne had 4 helpers, and only Vasconceles was good enough to be the very important helper in the relative small s4 front group.

Currently Milne is 0:05" behind GC leader Acosta ( Elgrand ),
together with Steine ( ValeronIdolo ) and Perec ( OphiukoCT ), both are also on 0:05" and Robinson ( ICSluj ) on just 0:15"
But I guess that all the GC contenders have fear for the storm in the upcoming flat sprint stage, what can cause big time differences.

[Vos]

TdS, stage 4, sprint ( storm ! ) ;
54º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   1:15"
Finishing in the 4th group is a very good result, possible thanks to great help of Vasconceles, who was with Milne in all sections.

Out of the GC rivals, only Steine finished in the 4th group too, and barely, because he finished as 66º and second-last of the group.
Robinson finished just 4 places behind Steine, but in the 5th group on 1:42"
The other 2 GC rivals Perec and Acosta do not have a sprint icon, and lost more time by finishing in the 6th group on 2:03"
Former GC leader Acosta was most likely unlucky by finishing as 1st of that group and just missing the cut.

Milne is now on 0:00" in the GC, together with new GC leader Steine ( ValeronIdolo ).
Unfortunately Milne has no chance to win this Tour de Suisse,
because Steine has a silver TT icon and much better in flat TT than Milne,
for example, Steine finished as 27º on 1:44" in the 36km flat TT stage 5 of Romandie.
Milne did not ride Romandie, but if he would have, Milne for sure finished many seconds behind Steine in that time trial.

Too bad, because the Tour de Suisse and the Tour Down Under are the only 2 little tours that my team never won.
I guess Milne has to battle for a second place now,
what looks achievable if I assume that the current gap with Perec is big enough :

TdS GC after 4 stages =
1    Tor Steine   29   ValeronIdolo   0: 00" --> I assume he wins this TdS because 27º on 1:44" in TT stage 5 Romandie 36km.
2    Mike Milne   30   SPORTLIFE   0: 00" --> 45º on 2:02" in TT stage 1 Tirreno 22km.
3    Phil Robinson   29   ICSluj   0: 37" --> no TT results of this season known, but just like Milne, he has a bronze TT icon.
4    William Acosta   31   Elgrand   0: 42" --> 38º on 1:51" in TT stage 1 Tirreno 22km.
5    Martine Perec   31   OphiukoCT   0: 47" --> 24º on 1:41" in TT stage 5 Romandie 36km.
6    Koen VanAmerongen   30   CaptainOrange   2: 10" --> too far behind.

Good luck everyone !   
( except for Steine, no problem to me if he has a mechanical breakdown in every section )

[Vos]

TdS, stage 5, flat TT 34km ;
35º  Milne   2:32" --> with mechanical breakdown in s5
This result was good enough to stay 4 seconds ahead of Perec ( OphiukoCT ) in the GC.

Final GC podium Tour de Suisse =
1    Tor Steine   29   ValeronIdolo   0: 00"   
2    Mike Milne   30   SPORTLIFE   0: 37"   
3    Martine Perec   31   OphiukoCT   0: 41"

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Milne did very well in the Tour de Suisse, but I expect that this Tour de France suits him less compared to the many GC rivals.
Battling for a podiumplace seems to me far out of reach, but I hope and assume that he is good enough to ride top 10 GC.
In contrast to Suisse, he does not have a sprint helper because I failed to buy such a helper. Instead, he has an extra climb helper.

The main helper of Milne should be Boyar ( in 5 out of the 10 stages ).
Although I have a doubt who is better suited for this TdF, because Boyar is much better in the hills ánd in the mountains.
For now, I gamble on Milne, because he has a better sprint and a better time trial.
Maybe the wrong gamble, and the problem is that Boyar has to be the helper in stages 1 and 2,
so a late switch of GC teamcaptain might not be a real option due to the expected time loss of Boyar in a helper's role.

In the 3 stages with a mountain finish, Milne should have excellent support of the climbers.
But it is also an option to try to go for victory in pure mountain stage 4, and then Milne gets a free role.

101 Milne ( 30 ), tour
102 Boyar ( 31 ), tour
103 Szõnyi ( 30 ), climb
104 Caneschi ( 27 ), climb
105 Lewis ( 26 ), climb

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

TdF stage 1, sprint ( 1x wind ) ;
47º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   1:01" 
As 2nd of a very big 3rd group.
Probably an unlucky finish, on top of that Milne was isolated almost the whole race, because Boyar was just good enough to help in s1.
In hinside the helper's role of Boyar was a bit of a waste, and he finished in the 5th group on 2:02"

TdF stage 2 MMMHF ;
5º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   0:00"
6º  Boyar ( free role )   0:00"
Excellent results !
Although my 3 climb helpers were less good as I expected, and could only help in s1.
But before the race I estimated that Milne could finish on 0:00" without help, so, a good opportunity for Boyar to ride in a free role.

After 2 stages, there are 15 cyclists on 0:00 in the GC, and guess who of those 15 gets the yellow jersey ? : 
Mike Milne ( SPORTLIFE )

[Vos]

TdF stage 3, flat TT ( 1x wind ) ;
36º  Milne   2:31" 
46º  Boyar   2:47" 
Milne lost the yellow jersey and dropped to 9ºGC on 0:52"

[Vos]

TdF stage 4, mountains ( 1x wind ) ;
9º  Szõnyi ( teamcaptain )   0:52" 
16º   Caneschi ( "helper" who did not help )   1:14"
40º  Milne ( free role )   2:31" 
47º  Boyar ( free role )   2:49"  --> with mechanical breakdown 
50º  Lewis ( helper who did not help )   2:49"

Big fiasco ! ! !
I could not resist the temptation to try to go for stage victory.
But already in s1 it went wrong, because unexpectedly Szõnyi could not follow his "helpers". In fact, in all sections Szõnyi had no help.
In retrospective ; even if the race tactics went perfectly, there was not a chance to win this mountain stage.
Because the fully prepared helper Caneschi did great and had even 2 active weather icons,
and teamcaptain Szõnyi should have been in his wheel the whole race, including s4.
But in s4 Caneschi was riding in the 3rd group of nrs 5 to 8, on already 0:28" behind the escaped LottoGranadier combo.

Also very doubtfull if the free role tactics were good of Milne and Boyar.
Boyar has a much better climb GV than Milne, and both were riding in the same tactics,
and the results show the big negative impact that the mechanical breakdown of Boyar had, he even finished 18 sec. behind Milne.

From now on all focus will be on the GC. After 4 stages this is their GC ranking :
11º   Milne   2:11"
16º   Boyar   3:38"