Season 27

[Vos]

Catalunya stage 1, hill-sprint ( 1x wind ) ;
67º  Milne ( helper )   0:32"
77º  Boyar ( teamcaptain )   0:55"

Very bad race due to wrong tactics and/ or that Boyar had a complete off-day.
Unexpectedly, he lost contact with his helper in hill-section 2.
And to my surprise the "back-up tactic" did not work also ; Boyar could not return to the big s3 peleton of 71.
The not in topform helper Milne stayed in the front, also in s4, and despite 0 EP in s5, he even finished one group ahead of Boyar.
That the SPORTLIFE teamcaptain finished in the 3rd group, that seems to me a certain unnecessary loss of 0:22"

Well, after such a bad stage, there is a sudden opportunity to go for a stage victory in the next stage,
because that was the plan when I bought Mattei ; at least one stage victory out of the 2 chances ( TIR stage 3 and CAT stage 2 ).

Catalunya stage 2, flat-climb ( storm !!! ) ;
2º  Mattei ( teamcaptain )  0:00"
9º  Boyar ( free role )  0:34"

2nd is not good enough for 2nd favorite Mattei, it is even a dissapointing result.
Caused by that Masschelein suddenly dropped in s3 despite I used a "no risk helpers tactic" by using all his 12 EP in the flat sections.
The victory of 3rd fav. Frol ( JGMTeam ) is fully deserved, because he had still an amazing helper in s4, the to me wellknown Stu Vaughn.
I could have used Boyar as helper, but according to my strategic choice, that was too much of a sacrifice.
He did pretty well in a free role, but lost time compared to the situation where he would have had Mattei as masterhelper.
Only a victory of Mattei was worth it to take another time loss with GC contender Boyar.
Well, no guts no glory, hopefully such a strategic choice will go better somewhere in the future.

Catalunya stage 3, climb-TT ;
2º  Lewis   0:11"
4º  Osland   0:13"
17º  Boyar   0:39"
22º  Milne   0:44"

Excellent results.
But a few hours after this stage 3, there was dissapointment ;
Lewis and Osland, they both had a positive covid test, and will get a DNS in stage 4.

GC after 3 stages ;
4º  Boyar   0:24"  --> with unnecessary time loss of at least 0:43", maybe more.
9º  Milne   1:38"  --> not in topform and in all helper roles, and in stage 2 even with a 0 EP mountainfinish.

Very remarkable how high ranked Boyar and Milne are at the moment.
But with an abandon percentage of 40% in my team + Boyar and Milne are very bad on the cobblestones =
not much hope on good final GC results.

[Vos]

Final GC ;
7º  Boyar   1:31"
9º  Milne   2:12" 
Nice GC results, and much better as I expected.

[Combuijs]

The proved we can compete in mountaineous tours as well. In the GC Noah Gesink finished just outside the podium on 1:27 from winner Tom Averkamp. Wieslaw Beckmann ends up on place 15 as a helper. The time trial was won by Gilles Nerval and Adam Hoogvliet wins the last stage.

In it became clear that Rein Verspuij is a good rider but not a specialist sprinter, he finished 9th.

Hernan Santander wins the . We had 5 riders in the top 16, we really dominate the cobble hill classics so far.

In the Wieslaw Beckmann managed to win the tour in last stage, beating Hero Cycling Gianni Mori with 47 seconds. He also was third in the 3rd stage to Lo Port. In the time trial on the Montjuich Mauro Alves became third. That final stage was also a great success because Rein Verspuij won his third victory this season.

Hernan Santander wins his 4th victory in . Not that difficult with 3 team mates in the first group of 12.

Pro Continental Tour standings:

1º      Combuijs   9138   9   2   2   
2º      Hero_cycling   7845   2   3   3   
3º      LOSRAYOSDELARRY   5372   4   2   4   
4º      AleAle   4672   1   1   2   
5º      Lugnanese   4654   0   4   2   
6º      SanJose   4410   0   1   0

It seems we are on our way to the World Tour. But first we will do the where our Claudio Passacantilli is favourite and then we will be up in the rain in the with:

1. Liam Fletcher (GC, 3rd and 5th stage)
2. Mauro Alves (general helper)
3. Gilles Nerval (4th stage)
4. Claudio Passacantilli (1st and 2nd stage, perhaps the GC)
5. Tigo Seedorf (helper for hills)

[Vos]

Gent Wevelgem ( 2x wind ) ;
22º  Kaarnamets   0:55"

Dwars door Vlaanderen ( 1x wind ) ;
7º  Kaarnamets   0:17"

Ronde van Vlaanderen ;
12º  Kaarnamets   0:24"

Excellent results considering that I failed to buy a helper, and Kaarnamets had to do it on his own.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Klaas Reigersman, born in Volendam, gets the backnumber 1 because he has 2 suited stages, although he has bad support.
The objective in this Itzulia is simpel ; stage points with 4 out of my 5 selected cyclists.

71 Reigersman ( 32 ), climbhills
72 Udod ( 31 ), hills
73 Kaarnamets ( 31 ), cobblehills
74 Herd ( 24 ), TT
75 Ekkelboom ( 25 ), hills

Itzulia stage 1, hills ;
3º  Udod   0:04"
Very nice for someone who had no s4 helper and could not challenge any favorites. He even finished 0:14" ahead of the nr 4.
But it seems that Udod likes this specific hills stage, because he won this exact same stage in previous season, to my big surprise.
The only victory and the only 3º podiumplace that Udod achieved in my team.
On his palmares is just one other podiumplace, also 3º, and achieved in Catalunya, back in season 21, riding for Plopsala.

[Vos]

Itzulia stage 2, cobblehills ;
9º  Kaarnamets   0:24"
Very good "solo" race.
Now it is up to my Volendammer in stage 3 who has no support either.
Hopefully he does not start to sing, because then I predict that he will be isolated from all cyclists of other teams as well. 

[Vos]

Itzulia stage 3, climbhills ;
9º  Reigersman   0:13"  --> with mechanical breakdown in the crucial final section 5.

Itzulia stage 4, flat-TT ;
11º  Herd   0:22"

[Vos]

Itzulia stage 5, climbhills ( 1x wind ) ;
18º  Reigersman   0:10" 
Itzulia, final GC ;
15º  Udod   2:43"  --> a few unexpected GC points.
21º  Reigersman   3:20"  --> almost surprising GC points, he came 0:09" short, in retrospective, due to 2 crucial mechanical breakdowns.

Paris Roubaix ( 2x wind ) ;
21º  Kaarnamets   0:45"
I did not expect that he was good enough to score points in a flat-cobble race, so, it is an excellent result and even without help.
Unfortunately his 5 EP in s4 was not good enough to follow due to his low race GV, but the tactics( based on the wind ) paid off.

[Vos]

Amstel Gold Race ( 1x wind ) ;
6º  Udod   0:04"
30º  Ekkelboom ( helper )   0:36"
Great result ! 
It might have even been more great, if Udod was not suddenly in the s4 breakaway group of just 3.
I rather had that he was in the s4 second group of 14 cyclists on just 0:04", because helper Ekkelboom was in that group.

Flèche Wallonne ;
17º  Udod   0:19"
Wrong tactical choices and a bad result.

Liège–Bastogne–Liège ;
14º  Udod   0:14"
Again Ekkelboom was not good enough to be the s4 helper, and Udod needed such a helper to finish top10.

For example just like in previous season, where to my surprise Ekkelboom did help in s4 and caused that Udod finished 6º in LBL.
But back then the other 2 classic hills races were not good.
So, this season is about the same = again 1x 6º ( now in AGR, instead of LBL in s26 ) and 2x outside the top 10.
My expectations were higher ; the goal was 3x top 10 with Udod ( despite he was far from the favorites as nr 69 in the CFF hills ranking ).


   selection SPORTLIFE

71 Masschelein ( 31 ), tour
72 Osland ( 26 ), climb-TT
73 Lewis ( 28 ), climb
74 Vasconcelos ( 30 ), climb-sprint
75 Boyar ( 32 ), tour

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

Romandie stage 1, climbsprint ( 1x wind ) ;
2º  Masschelein   0:00" 
5º  Vasconcelos ( masterhelper, 3rd favorite )   0:00"
14º  Boyar ( free role )   0:00"

Romandie stage 2, climb-TT ( 1x wind ) ;
1º  Osland   0:00"  --> victory !   
2º  Lewis   0:23"  -->  with mechanical breakdown in s3
26º  Masschelein   1:06"
48º  Boyar   1:18"  --> with mechanical breakdown in s2

[Vos]

Romandie stage 3, mountains ( 3x wind ) ;
4º  Lewis ( free role )   0:27"
22º  Masschelein   1:41" 
Not a good race, because helpers Boyar and Osland dropped in downhill s2, and Masschelein was isolated the rest of the race.

Romandie stage 4, heavy-hills-sprint ( 1x wind ) ;
33º  Masschelein   0:31"
Finishing in the second group is a great result ! Especially, because ( as expected ) Boyar could only help in s1 and s2.

Romandie stage 5, flat-sprint ;
95º  Masschelein   1:45"
The start was fierce with a s1 front peleton of just 45 cyclists.
And that is a too fast pace, so the combo Masschelein - Boyar started in the second peleton.
Boyar did better as expected and could help in s1, s2 ánd s3.
In s4 Masschelein was still in the second peleton and due to missing the important s4 helper, he finished in the 4th group.

Tour de Romandie, final GC =
4º  Masschelein   1:39" 
15º  Boyar   4:22"

Unexpected extra points of Boyar, who sacrificed his GC with 1x free role and 3x helper's roles, incl. 0 EP mountainfinish in stage 3.
Although he was not a very good helper in this little tour, and his teamcaptain ended up with a big time gap towards the nr 5 GC.
In retrospective, it would have been a better strategic choice if Boyar was riding all stages in free roles.
But this is easy to notice after a tour, before this tour it was obvious that the teamcaptain needed as much help as possible.

And with result, because this is by far the best GC result ever in the career of Masschelein. 
Who had nothing on his palmares when I bought him at the start of previous season 26.
And in my team he was just once a GC teamcaptain in that season ; 9º Vuelta.
This season the Giro is the main goal of Masschelein, a big tour that suits him less good as this Romandie.

[Combuijs]

Claudio Passacantilli won both and the and all our riders were in the top 15. We really dominated the cobble hill classics.

The was outstanding. Liam Fletcher finished 4th in the GC, with an honourable mention for helper Mauro Alves on place 15. There were however 3 stage wins: Claudio Passacantilli won the first two stages. He apparently does not mind wether the hills are cobbled or not. Gilles Nerval won the time trial.

gave us a 4th place for Albeiro Valdes which started a series of non-podium places.
In the hill classics we had Rein Verspuij on 4th place in the and Tigo Seedorf on 7th place in
In Rein Verspuij finished 4th.

In the our leader Wieslaw Beckmann was 6nd in the GC. Helpers Ernst van Koningsbrugge and Mauro Alves were 11th and 12th. Best stage results were 4th in the first stage by Wieslaw and 6th in the mountain time trial by Mauro.

Pro Continental Tour standings:

1º      Combuijs   15121   13   3   2   
2º      Hero_cycling   14470   3   4   5   
3º      LOSRAYOSDELARRY   11666   5   7   7   
4º      KunTeam   7867   7   4   0
5º      AleAle   7601   1   1   4   
6º      SanJose   7557   0   1   2

First place might be difficult with Hero Cycling closing up on us and probably getting closer in . We have set our mind on the with:

1. Noah Gesink (GC)
2. Liam Fletcher (general helper)
3. Ernest van Koningsbrugge (general helper)
4. Sándor Takács (8th and 9th stage)
5. Isaias Valderrama (hill helper)

[Vos]

Eschborn-Frankfurt ( 2x wind ) ;
8º  Masschelein ( teamcaptain )   0:21"
9º  Boyar ( free role )   0:21"
Hmmm, the total result is not bad at all. But it was not a good race,
probably because their manager seemed not in form, and also the team director with 1 on one-day races was not very helpfull.



   selection SPORTLIFE

Masschelein is the GC contender.
And just like in Romandie, he does not have good support, because Boyar is the main- and often only ( semi- )helper.
Hopefully Masschelein is still good enough to achieve the ½ million sponsordeal of top 10 GC.

I could have selected better helpers, but I estimate that Masschelein is not good enough to compete for the GC victory.
If I estimate this wrong, it is a huge mistake, because winning a big tour is thé main CFF goal of SPORTLIFE.
Now the strategy of this Giro selection is to try to get the most points out of this big tour,
this includes that Masschelein will be the teamcaptain in all stages, because of his expected GC points.

41 Masschelein ( 31 ), tour
42 Lewis ( 28 ), climb
43 Boyar ( 32 ), tour
44 Osland ( 26 ), climb-TT
45 Hunter ( 25 ), TT

Giro stage 1, FMDMH ;
20º  Masschelein   0:29"
21º  Boyar ( free role )   0:29"
A strategic mistake, because I thought that helper Lewis was good enough to return in dh s3 with using many EP's there,
so it would be a good opportunity for Boyar to score some extra points. What he did in a free role.
But my thought was wrong, Lewis could not return to his teamcaptain in dh s3,
with as consequence that Masschelein had probably 15 seconds unnecessary time loss compared to if Boyar was a helper too.

Giro stage 2, flat TT 29 km ;
11º  Hunter   0:24"
23º  Osland   1:38"
63º  Masschelein   2:33"
73º  Boyar   2:47"

[Combuijs]

The team director.

Interesting...

That reminds me I forgot something...

Thank you!

[Combuijs]

And apparently we were lacking a marketing manager as well, likely due to retirement. Having 19 stores that really did make a difference