Season 27

[Vos]

Giro stage 3, sprint ;
48º  Masschelein   0:52"
55º  Boyar ( free role )   0:52"
A doubtfull strategic choice before this stage, to give Boyar a free role.
What automatically had as consequence that teamcaptain Masschelein was isolated the whole race.
But the chance was big that Boyar could not follow in s1 as helper despite using 5 EP,
and even if he could, he would for sure not be good enough to be the s4 helper.

Boyar surprised in a free role, somehow he could follow the front peleton till s4, and he even finished in the same group as Masschelein.
What is very, very remarkable due to the minus 1 EP difference in s5, ánd the very big sprint GV difference.
I guess Boyar was very lucky, and Masschelein was unlucky to finish as 2nd of a group, one group sooner was 28 seconds faster.
If Masschelein would have had a good sprint helper, he would have finished easily in that much faster second group on 0:24"

Giro stage 4, TT- FFHFF 41,5 km ;
13º  Hunter   0:40"
44º  Masschelein   1:31"
59º  Boyar   1:45"
Nice in this TT = top 3 entirely Australian, and 5 Australians in the top 6, and Hunter was just the 7th Australian with his 13º place.

Giro stage 5, mountains ;
3º  Lewis ( free role )   0:00"
26º  Masschelein   1:03"
45º  Boyar ( free role )   1:55"
Almost a stage victory with a not-favorite in a free role, but of course an excellent result to finish in the front group of just 4 cyclists.
It was up to Osland to be the important only helper, but he failed already in s2,
and despite a better climb GV as his teamcaptain, he never returned, and I expected that he would be a s4 helper.
The result of teamcaptain Masschelein is not bad, but with better help he would have finished at least 0:11" sooner, and maybe more.
Boyar dissapointed in a free role and a bit unlucky to finish as 2nd of a group ; one group sooner is already a difference of 0:31"

So far I did not sacrifice Boyar yet, but in the second half of the Giro he will be the helper of Masschelein.
And the only helper, because the others are not good enough to help, not even in one section of the remaining stages.
Halfway the Giro it is clear that Masschelein had no chance at all to win this Giro, what I estimated and expected.
And it seems he really has to battle to achieve his top 10 GC goal, with as bonus a sponsordeal of a ½ million.

GC after 5 stages ;
9º  Masschelein   3:11"
15º  Boyar   4:30"
Certainly it adds up in the "unnecessary" time loss because of my strategic choice that Masschelein has no good support ;
15 + 28 + 11 = at least a total of minus 0:54" and then Masschelein would have been 8º on 2:17"
That is just one place higher at the moment, but maybe this almost minute loss has bigger consequences in the final GC.
I expect that Boyar drops out of the final top 20 GC due to his upcoming 4x helper roles, what should keep Masschelein in the top 10.

[Vos]

Giro stage 6, FHFHM ( 1x wind ) ;
10º  Masschelein   0:28"
Not a good result and at least 11 seconds time loss due to not having a helper in s3 ( ánd in s4, his helper should be good enough ).
Because very unexpectedly, helper Boyar dropped suddenly in flat s3 despite using EP ánd an active weather icon ánd a very good race GV ;
in fact, Boyar had even the CFF record in this Giro stage, what is broken today by stage winner Gofman ( Innioraths ).

In his speciality, Boyar dropped 6 places in the GC and already now outside the top 20 GC.
He is riding a very weird Giro, from supergood races ( stages 1 + 3 ) to superbad races ( stages 5 + 6 ), and all in topform.
Now Masschelein scored less stage points as expected, but he moved up one place and is now 8º GC on 3:22"
The ½ million sponsordeal (= top 10 GC ) seems still within reach, despite fear for stage 8 because Masschelein has a very low cobbleskill.

[Vos]

Giro stage 7, hills sprint ;
21º Masschelein   0:22"
Finishing in the 2nd group is an excellent result, and he even scored a few unexpected stage points.
Boyar was used as a "2-sections-helper" in a 55200, because he is not good enough to help in s3 as well.
He did a good job, what probably was very needed because the s3 front group had just 27 cyclists, incl. the isolated Masschelein.

Masschelein is still 8º GC, but now on 2:51"
so, he won time compared to some other GC contenders, including the nr 11º who is now far behind on more than 2 minutes.

[Vos]

The new season 28 calendar is published today.

[ophiuko]

Interesting Tour de France. A GT rider with no hills could easily win it.

[Vos]

Giro stage 8, FF^C^C^C^ 202 km ;
88º   Masschelein   2:01"
A great start, the SPORTLIFE teamcaptain could follow the big breakaway group of just 33 cyclists in s1.
But despite his active weather icon and despite his teamcaptain bonus,
Masschelein was one of the few, or maybe even the only one, who dropped out of that front group, that had still 33 cyclists in s2.
And it was a very big drop in time from s1 to s2, because the peleton was already 0:42" behind in s2.
Well, at least he met in s2 his helper Boyar, who started too slow.
Boyar did a great job in s3, but unfortunately he was just 0:04" behind Masschelein in s4, who now did not get the important bonus in s5.

Giro stage 9, hills ( 1x wind ) ;
22º   Masschelein   0:39"
A very good race and an excellent result. Thanks to helper Boyar who did a great job in the first 3 sections.

Masschelein is still 8º GC, and now on 2:19"
Far behind the top 6 GC, who are all within one minute of GC leader Azarov ( CaptainOrange ).
But the nr 11º GC is on 4:18", what is 2 minutes behind Masschelein, so, the top 10 GC goal / sponsordeal is already secured.

[Vos]

Giro stage 10, climb-TT = FMMMM 12 km ;
3º  Osland   0:06"  --> with mechanical breakdown in s2
10º  Lewis   0:26"
44º  Masschelein   1:04"
48º  Boyar   1:08"

Giro d'Italia, final GC ;
9º  Masschelein   3:20"
19º  Boyar   7:24"

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

51 Milne ( 31 ), tour
52 Beckham ( 31 ), climb
53 Vasconcelos ( 30 ), silver climb & bronze sprint
54 Masschelein ( 31 ), tour
55 Morel ( 22 ), silver sprint

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

Dauphiné, stage 1, time trial 35 km ;
45º  Milne   2:23"
62º  Masschelein   2:50"  --> with mechanical breakdown in the important s5.

Dauphiné, stage 2, sprint ;
19º  Morel   0:00"
39º  Milne ( free role )   1:12"
It is doubtfull if my strategic decision to go for Morel as teamcaptain, is the right choice, the future will tell.
But great to see that he finished in the points with 99/100 and a sprint skill of just 83, that still has to be trained a lot.
However, almost 2 months ago I bought him with an extreme low sprint skill and at least he is getting the right training in my team.

To GC contender Milne my strategic decision could be a loss of 36 seconds,
because as teamcaptain in very good tactics, and maybe with a little bit of luck, he should have been able to finish in the 2nd group.

Dauphiné, stage 3, hills ;
71º  Milne   1:30"
Not a good tactical race, because already in s3 helper Masschelein dropped from his teamcaptain, what was two sections too soon.
I estimate that Milne could have done 21 seconds better if he had a s4 helper.

Dauphiné, stage 4, MFFMF ( 3x wind !!! ) ;
1º  Vasconcelos   0:00"  -->  victory ! 
7º  Milne ( free role )   0:00"
15º  Beckham ( helper )   0:48"
Buying Vasconcelos in previous season for just 123k, was an excellent investment.

Dauphiné, stage 5, mountains ( 1x wind ) ;
2º  Beckham ( free role )   0:00"
14º  Milne   0:59"
Again an amazing race ! !
A top result in a free role of Beckham, who was not even a favorite.
And Milne did great, thanks to a superb helper's role of Vasconcelos who had EP left to launch his teamcaptain hard into brutal climb s5.

Dauphiné, final GC ;
6º  Milne   1:37"
17º  Masschelein   5:10"

Unexpected GC points of Masschelein, who was not riding a lucky tour in free roles, and even once used as helper.

Milne could have finished on the podium as 3º if I add up his "unnecessary" time losses in stages 2 + 3.
But maybe unfair to look at it in this way, because it can happen that stage 3 went not very well,
and besides this, stage 5 went amazing and there he did much better as expected.
So, probably I should only look at his 36 seconds "loss" in stage 2, what is not even a certain "loss" if he was the teamcaptain there,
but let's assume he did, 36 seconds better in the GC would have been 4º.
At least it is good to know that Milne could not win this Dauphiné if he was the teamcaptain in all stages.
Otherwise my "stage 2 experiment" would have been a too big sacrifice.

Nice to see that my team moved up to 3º in division 1A. 
But the nrs 2 to 6 are extreme close in points ( far behind 1A leader JGMTeam ),
and even the nrs 7 and 8 are not far away from the current nr 2.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

21 Milne ( 31 ), tour
22 Vasconcelos ( 30 ), silver climb & bronze sprint
23 Kaarnamets ( 31 ), cobblehills
24 Boyar ( 32 ), tour
25 Beckham ( 31 ), climb

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

Suisse, stage 1, MDMDF ;
1º  Vasconcelos   0:00" --> victory !  --> and he even finished with a mechanical breakdown.
6º  Milne ( free role )   0:00"
12º  Boyar ( free role )   0:00"
15º  Beckham ( helper )   0:00"

A superb helper's job of the American champion, what caused that 3rd favorite Vasconcelos could save a lot of energy for the final s5.
What in hinside was needed, due to the mechanical breakdown in s5.
This picture as a tribute to his splendid victory :

Maria Vasconcelos ; born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

[Vos]

Suisse, stage 2, heavy-hills-sprint ( 1x wind ) ;
24º  Milne   0:22"
Despite suddenly already isolated in flat s3, finishing in the 2nd group is a very good result.
Suisse, stage 3, time trial ( 1x wind ) ;
30º  Milne   2:13"
Suisse, stage 4, hills ( 1x wind ) ;
80º  Milne   1:29"
Not a good result because his masterhelper Kaarnamets lost contact with his teamcaptain in s2, and returned too late in s5.

At the moment Milne is 5º GC on 0:46", but he is bad in the final stage. Hopefully not a too big drop in the GC.

[Vos]

Suisse, stage 5, CCHHC^ ;
5º  Kaarnamets ( free role )   0:15"
68º  Milne   2:05"
Excellent result of my Estonian cobblehills specialist.
And my GC teamcaptain lost less time as expected and dropped just one GC place.

Tour de Suisse, final GC ;
6º  Milne   0:56"
20º  Boyar   2:54"
I did not expect that Boyar could score GC points. He was selected as extra back up for Milne, ánd for extra free role points in stage 1.
But nice that he scored 10 extra GC points, despite finishing as 100º on 2:45" in stage 5, what was most likely his last race for my team.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

The TdF goal is a top 6 GC sponsordeal of a dazzling 1.246.696,- and hopefully Milne is good enough to achieve this.
His recent GC results are promising ; 6º Dauphiné and 6º Suisse. And in the Tour de France of previous season also a 6º place.
I guess it will be close, and he really has to battle for it. But it seems that he likes to finish as 6º GC and hopefully he does that again.

11 Milne ( 31 ), tour
12 Beckham ( 31 ), climb
13 Hunter ( 25 ), time trial
14 Vasconcelos ( 30 ), silver climb & bronze sprint
15 Masschelein ( 31 ), tour

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

top 10 results in stages ;
Beckham ( climb ) = 2º stage 1 and 3º queen's stage 4, both results as not-favorite in free roles.   
Hunter ( time trial ) = 2º stage 3 ( TT-FFC^HF 65km ), 7º stage 7 and 8º stage 10.

Tour de France final GC ;
5º  Milne   3:20"
19º  Masschelein   9:50"
Goal achieved, a top 6 GC sponsordeal of 1,3 million !

And also nice, SPORTLIFE still 2º in division 1A.
With an enormous too big gap towards nr 1º JGMTeam, and with i.m.o. too many teams who are very close to the 2º place.
It might be an interesting and fierce battle for a podiumplace this season.

Also less good things during the Tour de France ;
# Morel ( 22 ) lost the white jersey lead to Lepasalu ( 21, northwest ) who finished twice as 25º in the normal flat TT stages.
# My team lost the semi final in the CFF Cup to Villavante. What I expected, because it was a battle between 5 Australian TT specialists.