Season 26

[Vos]

TdF stage 5, flat TT ( 2x wind ) ;
36º  Milne   2:46" 
48º  Boyar   3:05" 

TdF stage 6, flat-climb ;
36º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   1:29" 
47º  Boyar ( free role )   1:50" 
This race did not go the way I hoped.
The s1 start was excellent, but suddenly in s2 ; free role Boyar and the helpers of Milne dropped all out of the s2 front peleton of 58.
Because Milne was isolated in s2, he could not keep up with the fierce pace in s3, and dropped to the 2nd group.
He did no see teammates there, because they all dropped in s3 even further behind to the 3rd group.
In s4 the isolated Milne could stay in the 2nd group, but of course bad that he starts the final climb 37sec later ánd without extra bonus.
Free role Boyar even started the final climb out of the 3rd group in s4, what was already 63sec. behind in s4.

Certainly unnecessary time-loss of my 2 tour cyclists due to wrong tactical gambles in stage 6.
GC after 6 stages =
11º   Milne ( 3x teamcaptain, 1x free role )   4:04"
18º   Boyar ( 3x free role, 1x helper )   6:11"

[Vos]

TdF stage 7, hills ( storm ) ;
33º  Boyar ( helper )   0:53" 
37º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   0:53" 
Perfect helper's job of Boyar.

TdF stage 8, hill-sprint ( storm ) ;
42º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   1:01" 
65º  Boyar ( helper )   1:44" 
I estimated that Boyar was not good enough to be a s4 helper, so, he was used as a 3 sections helper, what he did very well.
From s3 on, Milne had to do it on his own and due to the storm ánd due to not much energy left, he was struggling ;
Milne dropped in s4 from 2nd to 3rd group, and dropped in s5 to the 4h group.

TdF stage 9, FFMDM ( 1x wind ) ;
8º  Szõnyi ( free role )   0:28"
17º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   0:36" 
26º  Boyar ( free role )   0:57" 
Excellent race of free role Szõnyi( with just 41 flat ) and teamcaptain Milne, both were in the s4 front group of 22 climbers.
As expected, free role Boyar could not return in s4.
Helper Lewis was less good as expected ; just helped in the flat sections and far behind in s4 despite he used all his energy.

GC after 9 stages =
7º   Milne ( 6x teamcaptain, 1x free role )   4:00"
13º   Boyar ( 4x free role, 3x helper )   7:12"

[Vos]

TdF stage 10, hills-sprint FFHHF ;
39º  Milne ( teamcaptain )   0:28" 
81º  Boyar ( helper )   1:06" 

Tour de France, final GC =
6º   Milne   3:23"
13º   Boyar   7:12"
Nice results ! 


San Sebastian ;
12º  Boyar ( teamcaptain )   1:03"
Bad race and bad result.
The tactical gamble was to save energy early in the race and then return in flat s3.
But this did not happen ; in s2 too far behind and the s3 front "peleton" was this time much smaller ( 35 cyclists ) as expected.
The helpers did well ; 2 were riding in a so called "forward pawn tactic" but Boyar did not join them in the s3 front peleton.
Despite helper Milne stayed with Boyar in s1 and s2 ( and also in the 2nd group of s3 ).

[Vos]

A poor selection in the BinckBank Tour ;
2 hills specialists ; Udod and Ekkelboom. A few points in stages 2 and 3 should be possible.
3 xp cyclists ; Osland ( climb-TT ), Caneschi ( climb ) and  Szõnyi ( climb ).

My Vuelta selection should be much more promising :

   selection SPORTLIFE

101 Masschelein ( 30 ), tour
102 Beckham ( 30 ), climb
103 Reigersman ( 31 ), hillsclimb
104 Hunter ( 24 ), TT
105 Vasconcelos ( 29 ), silver-climb & bronze-sprint

Unfortunately my Belgian GC contender is not of the same quality as Remco Evenepoel, but a top10 GC should be possible.

Beckham is the better CFF version of Sepp Kuss, and also a difference is that Beckham will finish the Vuelta.

Thymen Arensman is doing great in the real Vuelta, hopefully my Reigersman is inspired by him.

Somewhere in the future, the young Hunter hopes that he will be just as good as Rohan Dennis, who rides the real Vuelta too.

And to finish this text, let's compare Vasconceles with João Almeida for no reason at all, besides that he is also Portuguese.

Good luck everyone ! 

[Aurora Australis]

With health at just 93, the aging Tod Henderson gave a middle finger salute as he crossed the line with the fastest time at Stage 1 of the BinckBank Tour.  In what's expected to be close to his final race before retirement in a team that's already in semi-retirement having completely missed many races, Tod thanked his manager for a great career, expressed his joy at winning one more time for his manager, before his finger was raised again at certain sections of the crowd.

[Vos]

Vuelta GC after 3 stages ;
  1     Maurice Hunter   24    SPORTLIFE   0: 00"   
He finished as 8º and 6º in the two TT stages, and as 77º on 2:36" as helper in hill-sprint stage 2.

With special thanks to thé best ever TT manager of CFF = Aurora Australis,
who trained Hunter for 4½ seasons before I bought him in previous season.

[ophiuko]

With the end of La Vuelta, my 13-season journey to get the best GC team ever in CFF (fully trained in the team) concludes today. During this time I have trained 2 different generations. The first one were standard mountain GC riders, and the second was a double generation of sprint-hill-cobblers and sprint-hillers, potentially to cover TDU and BBT. After 11 seasons of training, last two seasons I competed full force. My objective was to get a podium place in all tours. Although I did not achieve this in only 1 season, it turns out I did during the last three seasons. 1st place in 9 tours, and just podium place in the remaining 3 (2º Vuelta España, 2º Tour Romandie, 3º Tour Suisse)



This season was quite good too. 6 victories, 3 top3, 1 top5, 2 top10. I think it's the record with most tours won, beating the 5 tours won by Cykings on season 2.

7 different winners, all trained in OphiukoCT: Tigo Grein, Sten Longva, Daumants Simsons, Silver Maasikmets, Martine Perec, Pedro Angel Casado and Joop Veneberg

Now my first generation of GC riders are for sale, except Daumants Simsons who will retire in our team. They are still 31yo, so next season they will be still quite competitive.

I will start a new generation of hillers next season and will slowly make the transition towards stage wins. Although I see it difficult to abandon completely the GCs.

[Vos]

Very, very, very impressive, Ophiuko ! 

Now some levels lower in quality, and yes, that is the notorious team of SPORTLIFE 
Vuelta final GC ;
9º  Masschelein   3:02"
Mission completed.
The best stage result of my Belgian teamcaptain was 3º in stage 8 MDFMF,
right behind his teammate Vasconcelos who finished as 2º in a free role ( who was bought this season for just 123k ).
Also Beckham did great in free roles ; 2º in stage 4 MMMMM and 3º in stage 10 FFFFM.

[Combuijs]

Very nice stats Ophiuko! And still something to improve, in winning all tours in three seasons. Nevertheless, very impressive!

[Vos]

Giro di Lombardia ;
10º  Reigersman
Nice result and he is for sale for just 1 M.
He has just one problem ; he thinks he can sing, but just like every person in his village, he cannot. If you buy him, buy ear plugs too.
https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/vision.php?ciclistaid=120821

Richmond TT WC ;
5º  Hunter ( 24yo )   0:24"
As expected, far behind in time on the top 3, but the result is excellent of my superprepared young Aussie.

[Vos]

Doha WC, sprint ( a strange 1ºC in Qatar, and with storm ! ) ;
13º  Pahapill   0:00"
Magnificient result of my just silver sprinter, who finished in the front group of just 15 cyclists.

And even without help in the final 3 sections,
because his 2 helpers had both just a bronze flat-sprint icon and could only help in s1 + s2, a bit as expected.
But it might be that their help early in this stormy race was crucial for Pahapill to stay in the front.

A good decision to rest my 29yo climbsprinter to help a bit, ánd to give sprint-TC-bonus to my 21yo sprint-talent who had just 56 health.
The best decision was to buy 29yo silver sprinter Pahapill 13 days ago for 718k, especially for this WC ( good stamina and wind icon ).

Although it did not matter much in hinside, without these WC sprint points my team would have been one place lower in the 1A ranking.
Final 1A ranking, season 26 =
8º      SPORTLIFE   9977   =4   =3   =3
best little tour GC result =  2º Tour de Suisse
best big tour GC result =  6º Tour de France

Both GC results were achieved by ;
Mike Milne ( 30yo tour cyclist )   1.982 points
By far the best GB cyclist this season, because the nr 2 has just 724 points.
And happy with this GB jesey because it was never won before.

At 1 am today there was an opportunity to buy the American jersey. Because the nr 1 in that ranking was for sale for 3 M.
Luckily someone else made a 3 M bid earlier as I did, so I did not had to spend money on this almost 33yo American,
to achieve my goal of getting the American jersey because the nr 2 was my Beckham with about 200 points less.
And no rivals below him, and also no rivals in the WC sprint, because there is just 1 USA golden sprinter and he is in the 2nd division.
Ryan Beckham ( 30yo climber )   641 points
For the 2nd time in a row Beckham wins this jersey, and this season many points less as in previous season, because ;
he wins this American jersey without being a teamcaptain somewhere in a race, all points are scored in helper- and free roles.