All div: Grand Tours

[Vos]

stage 7 Giro :
Marin = 24th, so I can add 28 points to the total of Giro-points (see previous post / page). 
Fagan finished as 117th in a free role. He moved up several places in the GC but the difference to the nr20 is still 3 minutes.

[kirin]

Well today was a terrible day for azerite team, Mijo Bendix got only a 14th place for 65 pts, while defying Ansan Vyturin(2nd) due to helper was not with him at t2 and later. For todays stage, we will hope for a better result for Reinhardt Kahn

[Vos]

Well today was a terrible day for azerite team, Mijo Bendix got only a 14th place for 65 pts, while defying Ansan Vyturin(2nd) due to helper was not with him at t2 and later. For todays stage, we will hope for a better result for Reinhardt Kahn

Well done in stage 8, kirin !
Thanks to a good helpers tactic of Pierret, his teamcaptain Kahn did great and finished as 3rd behind stage winner VanDenBergh (Cabrasverdes).

[Vos]

Announcement ; the new calendar of next season is published.

[kirin]

Well done in stage 8, kirin !
Thanks to a good helpers tactic of Pierret, his teamcaptain Kahn did great and finished as 3rd behind stage winner VanDenBergh (Cabrasverdes).
[/quote]

Well today wasn't the hardest day on the tactics, but happy with the 3rd place, I'm in need of points.

Thoughts on new calendar?
New WC will be interesting

[Aurora Australis]

Season 8, TT death match.  It will be bloody, people will go down, but will any TT teams survive?

Look forward to TeaMetal joining Div1.

[Vos]

Thoughts on new calendar?
New WC will be interesting

Many thoughts. 
First of all ; I really like it that every season has different stages and a different WC.
So, that is always positive to me, even if there would be a calendar that is not so good for my team.
The WC is indeed interesting, although I have no suited cyclist for that race ( yet ).
Also remarkable for next season are the many hills races.

There are many things left to say about this new calendar. For example AA mentioned the low number of flat TT races.

To pick one thing concerning my team ; Fagan is happy that ( finally ) he can ride stage 8 Vuelta in 1A, = C(h)MDMC(h) 280km.
Fagan has the CFF record, but this race only occurred once before and that was in season 1 where everyone started in the 3rd division.
If he can win is doubtfull, because of his very low talent rating and the fact that he is not well trained in my team.
But he will try to go for victory and his TC period is already known.
Now let's look at all my other cyclists, to make a good seasonplanning for my team ( and who has to go ).
One thing is for sure ( and that is the same as in all previous 6½ seasons ) ; my team needs a top GC rider desperately. 

[michinoo]

Great performance for VanAmerongen last stages... He is currently 7th. We´ll see if he could to improve on his GC this afternoon... What's about Fagan and Evans?

[Vos]

Great performance for VanAmerongen last stages... He is currently 7th. We´ll see if he could to improve on his GC this afternoon... What's about Fagan and Evans?

The 5th cyclist, Fagan, has probably only a chance to score points in the GC, although in advance it is very doubtfull he will succeed in that.
He sucks in sprint and has a low flat, so with 2 sprint stages and a total of 20 flat sections in this Giro, it will be very difficult.
Because his manager has a low confidence in him, most likely he has to ride 3 stages in a free role.
Hopefully Fagan can surprise me and score a few points somewhere. Anyway, it is fun to select him, even if he fails.
Presumably it was more smart to select a semi-good hillsclimber, or even better, a good sprint- or hills-helper. But imo GC fun is smart too.

155 Fagan (25), cobblehillsclimber --> "GC" ?

Too bad my preview was correct and there is a good reason Fagan has a back number that ends on 5 instead of the 1 of VanAmerongen.
At the moment Fagan is 2:41" behind the nr20 GC, that seems to me too much, so no GC points are expected (and free role in stage 10).
But he has a new objective now ; trying to beat Evans in the GC.   ( although the chance is high Fagan will fail in that too, hahaha )

7    Bram VanAmerongen   25   Atlantico   5: 08"   
32    David Evans   25   azerite   8: 11"
36    Cliff Fagan   25   SPORTLIFE   9: 01"   

Well, despite the very low amount of total points in this Giro, I'm satisfied that SPORTLIFE wins 10% of all Giro stages.
Good luck with VanAmerongen in the final 2 stages, michinoo. I see that the battle for top10 GC is fierce with little time differences.

[michinoo]

But he has a new objective now ; trying to beat Evans in the GC.   ( although the chance is high Fagan will fail in that too, hahaha )

Jajaja It seems that Evan's performance is clearly worst than Fagan... I always support your aussei rider Go Fagan!!! Congratulations for your victory in Climb TT!

[Vos]

Thanks     ( and also Fagan says thanks, he really needs the support to achieve his new goal  )

[kirin]

Great performance for VanAmerongen last stages... He is currently 7th. We´ll see if he could to improve on his GC this afternoon... What's about Fagan and Evans?

The 5th cyclist, Fagan, has probably only a chance to score points in the GC, although in advance it is very doubtfull he will succeed in that.
He sucks in sprint and has a low flat, so with 2 sprint stages and a total of 20 flat sections in this Giro, it will be very difficult.
Because his manager has a low confidence in him, most likely he has to ride 3 stages in a free role.
Hopefully Fagan can surprise me and score a few points somewhere. Anyway, it is fun to select him, even if he fails.
Presumably it was more smart to select a semi-good hillsclimber, or even better, a good sprint- or hills-helper. But imo GC fun is smart too.

155 Fagan (25), cobblehillsclimber --> "GC" ?

But he has a new objective now ; trying to beat Evans in the GC.   ( although the chance is high Fagan will fail in that too, hahaha )

7    Bram VanAmerongen   25   Atlantico   5: 08"   
32    David Evans   25   azerite   8: 11"
36    Cliff Fagan   25   SPORTLIFE   9: 01"   

Well, despite the very low amount of total points in this Giro, I'm satisfied that SPORTLIFE wins 10% of all Giro stages.
Good luck with VanAmerongen in the final 2 stages, michinoo. I see that the battle for top10 GC is fierce with little time differences.

Evans perfomance has not been as good as i thought, so he's getting a helper role today, hoping Alvaro Vaca will get some points.
So it seems that Fagan will archieve his new objetive, since Evans is not the best of the hillers. Sadly, i had to decline the challenge from Bram VanAmerongen today.

[Vos]

hoping Alvaro Vaca will get some points.

He did and scored 45 points, well done !

Fagan surprised me by finishing as 28th, his first 18 points in this Giro.

edit ; And still 0:12" behind Evans in the GC. He can forget his new goal to beat Evans, because Fagan is too far behind the nr20 GC and he has to be a helper in the final stage, despite he has no hills icon and a too low flat.

[Vos]

stage 10 Giro :
No points for Marin. He had a bad start ; somehow he could not follow the big peleton of 105 cyclists in section 1. Remarkable, because he is a flat-hills-specialist with 84 flat. Also remarkable that he could not return in s3 despite his 4 EP in section 2. He even had a helper in s3, but with that extra bonus and again 4 EP in section 4 he was far behind in a group of place 67 to 90. The 52nd place on the finishline is a dissapointing result.

In this final stage Bendix (azerite) scored some maybe very needed points with a good 9th place.
VanAmerongen (Atlantico) finished as 9th GC, well done michinoo because the battle for top10 GC was fierce with little time differences.

The posted symbol above is also a good illustration of the total Giro points of my team ; just 524 points.
Way too low for a grand tour, although I expected approximately such a very low total points in this grand tour.
I assume that my team will score many more points in the Tour and the Vuelta.

But first the little tours Dauphiné and Suisse. In each little tour there are 3 climb stages, so my climbers must perform and score points.

[michinoo]

VanAmerongen (Atlantico) finished as 9th GC, well done michinoo because the battle for top10 GC was fierce with little time differences.

Thanks Vos, but my 2 last stages were a disaster... The 5-6th place it was on my hand... 

Total points for Atlantico: 710p
Expected points: >1050p
Potential points if the team doesn`t race for the GC: 750p

At least I get the sponsor's money