Season 20

[ophiuko]

Hahaha actually there were several enthusiastic managers excited about next season, but probably we spent all our enthusiasm on the discord chat. One of the hot topics yesterday was guessing the favourites for the TdF. You should join sometime 

[Aurora Australis]

I haven't paid much attention to next season yet, I'm more interested in the Australian team for the NT race tonight, and astonished that Nobby Licuria won the Stage 3 Dauphiné race by 8 seconds with 92 health, 98 form, or that ChronoTony's Bud Mount got second, of course I have no idea what health/form others were racing with (plus this was my week of working in my casual job).

[Vos]

I haven't paid much attention to next season yet, I'm more interested in the Australian team for the NT race tonight, and astonished that Nobby Licuria won the Stage 3 Dauphiné race by 8 seconds with 92 health, 98 form, or that ChronoTony's Bud Mount got second, of course I have no idea what health/form others were racing with (plus this was my week of working in my casual job).

Makarov was riding with 100/100 and finished as 7º on 0:15"
I suspect he was the 4th favorite, and I vaguely remember he could challenge your Nobby Licuria who was a higher favorite.
Makarov has excellent race conditions, but no TC bonus and no weather icon ( 3x weather was active, also Nobby has no weather icon ).
However, I did not change my team director, and the current big tour team director has just 8 on little tours.
Probably this caused the not good result of Makarov, on top of the unknown luck factor.

Good luck with Australia in the NT race E3-Harelbeke !
As always, your are doing a great NT job, AA,  and again this NT season looks very promising to Australia. 

[Vos]

stage 4 Dauphiné ;
4º  Gritsal
Final GC Dauphiné =
17º  Gritsal


   selection SPORTLIFE

In previous season my team was riding a bad Tour du Suisse, but on the bright side ; 3x SPORTLIFE cyclists in the final top 9 GC.

That will not happen in this edition, because my TdS selection has just one tour cyclist ; Christensen.
It is doubtfull if he can ride a top 10 GC,
because I expect that the 2 stages with cobbles are decisive for the GC, and I cannot estimate if his cobbleskill is good enough.
And he has no good support in stages 1 and 4, plus his team director with just 8 on little tours is not much helpfull too.
Also the only one time that Christensen was teamcaptain, he dissapointed by finishing 16º GC in Itzulia.
Hopefully he does better now.

Hummelsby gets a free role in flatcobble stage 3 to score some points. And he can use the extra xp.
Also Szõnyi and Real ride mainly for xp, besides that Real will be the stage 3 masterhelper and Szõnyi tries to help a bit in stage 2.
Baia is a cheap buy of 3 days ago, to fill up this poor TdS selection and to be the main helper in stage 2.

111 Christensen ( 28 ), tour
112 Hummelsby ( 29 ), cobble
113 Szõnyi ( 24 ), climb
114 Baia ( 32 ), climb
115 Real ( 30 ), cobble

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

stage 1, windy FFM^HH ;
14º  Christensen  on 0:34"
To my surprise both flatcobble-helpers were good enough to help in flat sections 1 + 2. Excellent race of Christensen.

stage 2, stormy flatmountain ;
14º  Christensen  on 0:42"
This stage was a battlefield, and one of the victims was helper Baia who dropped in s3.
Christensen managed to stay in the front, and a good result despite he was missing the important extra bonus in s5.
But many teamcaptains were without a helper in s4.
Funny how this stormy stage went / front group size per section =  75 - 4 ( = all OphiukoCT ! second group = 70 ) - 29 - 21 - 1.

stage 3, stormy flatcobble ;
9º  Hummelsby ( free role )
25º  Real ("helper")
91º  Christensen  on 2:26"
Masterhelper Real could help in s1 with - 2 EP compared to his teamcaptain.
But in s2, also with - 2, Real suddenly accelerated and left Christensen behind.
So, it became a solo struggle for my GC contender in this to him not good stage.

stage 4, cobblehills ;
54º  Christensen  on 1:28"
Not a good race, and again he had to do it solo,
because his both flatcobble helpers started too slow and they should have been good enough to help in flatcobble sections 1 + 2.

stage 5, windy climb TT ;
6º  Szõnyi
9º  Baia
Unexpected good results with a very bad teamdirector, and Szõnyi has just a TT-skill of 47, and Baia does not even have TC bonus.
37º  Christensen  on 0:54"

Final GC ;
6º  Christensen on 2:01"
A very good GC result despite he had not much help in this Tour de Suisse.
Finishing 0:01" behind VanStraalen ( Combuijs ) is of course less funny. 

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

121 Christensen ( 28 ), tour
122 Szõnyi ( 24 ), climb
123 Laansalu ( 32 ), cobblehills
124 Gritsal ( 33 ), climbsprint
125 Beckham ( 24 ), climb

Good luck everyone !

[Aurora Australis]

Tour squad

291   Nobby Licuria   27
292   Kirk Clinton   27
293   Alex Trautemberg   22
294   Kirk Workman   32
295   Eddy Hines   22

I'll be attempting to secure several TT wins, and hope to secure the u23 jersey as well.

[Combuijs]

Finishing 0:01" behind VanStraalen ( Combuijs ) is of course less funny. 

Always good to know somebody knows his place in the world... 

[Vos]

 
Well, I guess you are right, because I would be happy if Christensen also can finish 0:01" behind VanStraalen in this Tour de France.
But maybe this is wishfull thinking of me ;
VanStraalen was 0:19" better in TT stage 2 and very doubtfull if Christensen is better in another stage to make up for this TT time loss.

Remarkable ; Christensen is now 0:20" behind VanStraalen, I guess your teamcaptain was given that extra 0:01" jury-bonus already.
Stop bribing the jury with your crates of honey-ale-beer, Combuijs !   

And good luck in this Tour de France with many fierce GC rivals, hopefully VanStraalen can win the Tour de France again, like he did in s16.
Back then VanStraalen was the only Dutchman who won a big tour.
By now he has company of van der Goor ( s19 Giro, Zatarra ) and Vrijmoed ( s19 Tour + s20 Giro, Blackhole ).

[Vos]

stage 4 TdF ;
3º  Laansalu ( free role )
Excellent result of my 1,1M buy of 2 weeks ago, who had nothing on his palmares despite he was sold for 38M and 25M one year ago.
I suppose that Laansalu is very happy that he is riding for SPORTLIFE and finally (at 32yo) has a nice podiumplace on his palmares.

But this result had a sacrifise, because now teamcaptain Christensen had nobody to help him.
So, now his tactical back up plan was ; follow the wheel of VanStraalen and defeat him in a sprint-a-deux on the finishline.

41º   René Aebersold   26   Caracoles   1: 26"   
42º   Birk Christensen   28   SPORTLIFE   1: 34"
43º   Yvo VanStraalen   31   Combuijs           1: 34"   
44º   David Manuel Piñeiro   31   azerite   1: 38"

Christensen is now 7º GC, and because VanStraalen lost the sprint, the jury deleted that unjustified 1 bonus second in previous stage,
and now the difference with VanStraalen ( 5º GC ) is again 0:19"
But probably my main target should be the nr 6º GC, Afonso Rio ( OphiukoCT ), to make the Australian team battle interesting.

There are now 3 Dutchmen in the top 5 GC. I guess my previous forum text motivated the Dutch GC contenders.

To me it seems that in this TdF, the best Dutchman will be Tristan Min because his team ( Flyvende_hjul ) is doing amazing this season.
Perhaps he can even win it, at the moment just 0:08" behind GC leader Ryazanov ( RealMurciaCycling ).
But the nrs 3º and 4º ( Hansen and Vrijmoed ) are also very close on 0:16"

[Atalm93]

Great result Vos!
Hopefully Min can do a good last part of the TDF as well, I think it will be a close race between Min, Ryazanov and Hansen!

[Vos]

Thanks. 
Good luck with Tristan Min !

[ophiuko]

I wouldn't discard Vrijmoed for the win. Without TC he has proved to be at the same level than the others, and he is very powerful for the hills stage.

[Atalm93]

I think my statement holds ground 

[Vos]

Christensen lost time in the TT stages compared to his GC rivals.

Flatcobble-sprint stage 6 did not went well,
but finishing in the 3rd group was not bad and doubtfull if perfect tactics would have caused a finish in the 2nd group.

Hills stage 8 went perfect thanks to a great helper's job of Laansalu who finished as 5º.
Christensen finished as 14º with a lightbulb, and despite just 4 stars on hills, he won time on some GC rivals.

Sprint stage 9 was the most feared, because Christensen has just 2 stars on hill-sprint, so it was damage control in this flat sprint race.
Helper Gritsal did a good job and stayed with his teamcaptain the whole race, and both finished in the 4th group on 1:15"
What was a good result. But most GC rivals were better. For example finishing in the 3rd group is gaining a ½ minute, what is a lot.

In stage 9 GC leader Ryazanov did amazing by finishing in the front group of just 6 on 0:00"
Probably a decisive blow to his 2 GC rivals ; Hansen ( 3rd group on 0:45" ) and Min ( 4th group on 1:15" ).

But these top 3 GC contenders were no direct GC rivals to Christensen, his rivals are the top10 GC contenders.
And so far the SPORTLIFE teamcaptain is doing pretty good.
I estimate that the final climb stage will be decisive if he can move up one place ór drop one or two places.

TOP 20 GC after 9 stages :

1 Alexey Ryazanov   31   RealMurciaCycling   0: 00"   
2    Ken Hansen   28   Astanadena   1: 16"   
3    Tristan Min   28   Flyvende_hjul   1: 40"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Yvo VanStraalen   31   Combuijs   2: 16"   
5    Rene Vrijmoed   32   BlackHole   2: 31"   
6    Birk Christensen   28   SPORTLIFE   2: 43"   
7    Afonso Rio   31   OphiukoCT   2: 47"   
8    Juan Carlos Palencia   32   Fiestina   3: 00"   
9    Henriks Valdmanis   30   KunTeam   3: 23"   
10    Maurizio Lorenzetto   32   FaltososDeChigre   3: 44"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Pat Martin   29   Flyvende_hjul   4: 36"   
12    Atila Bekker   28   Caracoles   4: 50"   
13    Gustave Gloor   28   Turrones   5: 09"   
14    Amadeu Salvado   32   Fiestina   5: 22"   
15    David Manuel Piñeiro   31   azerite   6: 19"   
16    Francesco Carancini   31   Sonfuga   6: 22"   
17    Lino Otero   31   Fiestina   6: 41"   
18    Bud Dixon   26   Codex   6: 45"   
19    Manuele Miorlin   26   Shiro_Lions   6: 52"   
20    Isaias Arriola   30   SenzaSellino   7: 30"