All div: Grand Tours

[Aurora Australis]

I may have only gotten 331 points in the Giro, but given I had no expectations besides taking whatever points I could, I'm happ enough with that.
Pavel Lezhnev   190 points
Daniel Cerdan   141 points

I've calculated my expectations for the TdF, and I'm wanting around 688 points from each TT stage, giving a total of 2000 points for the tour.

Gap from Sportlife to Aurora_Australis is 346 points.  I'm expecting that to close by 200 in the Dauphiné, and maintain or close by a few dozen points in the Suisse.

[kirin]

I got only 478 points on the Giro, while expecting around 700.

The best result was a 3rd place in the stage 8 by Reinhardt Kahn while he was not one of the favourites, happy with that one.
Overall, poor balance for azerite team, and the chances of not getting demoted were heavily damaged.

[Vos]

Gap from Sportlife to Aurora_Australis is 346 points.  I'm expecting that to close by 200 in the Dauphiné, and maintain or close by a few dozen points in the Suisse.

Wrong expectations.  

SPORTLIFE vs Aurora_Australis :

stage 1 Dauphiné (mountain) =  43 vs 10
stage 2 Dauphiné (time trial) =  0 vs 316
stage 3 Dauphiné (mountain) =  250 vs 12  ( and stage victory of Miorlin )
stage 4 Dauphiné (mountain) =  196 vs 43
stage 5 Dauphiné ( sprint ) =  43 vs 0
GC Dauphiné =  20 vs 0

Total points Dauphiné =  552 vs 381

And in the Tour de Suisse there is no time trial.
Both our teams did not score points in stage 1 ( hills ).
In stage 2 a great victory of Basov, and a 9th place for Miorlin (free role) =  227 versus 15

At the moment a gap of 729 points between our teams in 1A.
So SPORTLIFE will have a good lead before the Tour de France starts. 

And keep in mind I have a strong TdF team.
I would be very surprised and impressed if your team will be ranked higher in 1A right after the Tour de France, despite your many flat TT points.
Good luck in the Tour de France, AA ! So far it is a nice battle for the Australian championship. 

[Vos]

Tomorrow the Tour de France starts. Have fun and good luck everyone ! 

    selection SPORTLIFE

Climber Basov is doing great in the Tour de Suisse, therefore he deserves the number that ends with 1.
Maybe he will be the teamcaptain in mountain stage 4, but at the moment that is not sure yet.

Because the main goal of this grand tour is to score GC points.
Dékány and Nieuwendijk should be the best GC contenders of my team, but for now difficult to estimate who will be better.
The Tour de France starts with 3 time trials, so I can postpone the decision about the TdF-strategy.

Just one cyclist of this team is already sure of his role (= helper in stages 5 and 6 ), that is silver flat TT specialist Bogarde.
Hopefully he can score some points in the 3 flat TT stages, despite the expected very fierce TT competition.

141 Basov
142 Dékány
143 Nieuwendijk
144 Telkov
145 Bogarde

[michinoo]

Cholet | 13.03.2020
LE TOUR DE FRANCE



This afternoon begins in Cholet (France) the most prestigious tour of the season; the Tour presents full of time trials (one of them in climbing) and two stages of high mountain. The absence of hills and cobbs is a very good notice for some specific riders.


Tjerk Tusveld (Wizards), Siegmund Paulsen (Atlantico), Romeu Rosario (KunTeam), Eduard Zijlaard (BetisCFF)


Rafael Carlos Loinaz (Wizards), Mariano Caro (Wiggo_pupils), Elouan Simon (Cabrasverdes), Lucio Portela (Rekutxuteam), Dario Fernandez (Skunk), Allan Palmer (HTCHungria), Igor Paraje (Bloemenaandemitte),


Richard Rogers (Ciclokillers), Håkon Møller (Ciclokillers), Oliver King (Combuijs), Alan Brady (FaltososDeChigre), Casey Robertson(FaltososDeChigre), István Szekér (FlyEaglesFly), Valery Ziborov (LosRayosDeLarry), Dainis Vitols (Psychoedge), Sven WinklerPrins (WinterIsComing)

ATLANTICO
The Atlantico team travels to France with very high expectations about our performance on this GT. Like GIro, our sponsor considerer this stages a key for his bussines, so Mercadona has offered us an interesting amount of money ( >650k) if we achieve a top10 on the GC, and the directors wants to make them happy. So, the stages victories won't be important (really never was...). The orders are clear; help "Paulsen". He arrives in a very good form after his overall victory on Dauphine. He must ride so strong on the 1-3 stages to take advantage before 5-6 (sprint and cobbs). We'll see...

161 Paulsen (25, GC)
162 Victorov (25, Mountain-sprint)
163 Schilling (24, Cobbles-hills)
164 Kloosterman (25, Mountain)

PD: good luck to everyone! and sorry if I forget someone

[Aurora Australis]

Gap from Sportlife to Aurora_Australis is 346 points.  I'm expecting that to close by 200 in the Dauphiné, and maintain or close by a few dozen points in the Suisse.

Wrong expectations.  
SPORTLIFE vs Aurora_Australis :
stage 1 Dauphiné (mountain) =  43 vs 10
stage 2 Dauphiné (time trial) =  0 vs 316
stage 3 Dauphiné (mountain) =  250 vs 12  ( and stage victory of Miorlin )
stage 4 Dauphiné (mountain) =  196 vs 43
stage 5 Dauphiné ( sprint ) =  43 vs 0
GC Dauphiné =  20 vs 0
Total points Dauphiné =  552 vs 381

Well I screwed up on stage 1, I rested the wrong cyclist, and had the wrong cyclist as leader.  Then I didn't bother to rest the cyclist who should have been leader in stage 1 to be a good domestique for the rest of the races, so the leader was essentially without a domestique for both small tours.
And yes, I now expect you to still be top Australian team at the end of the TdF.

My selections
251 Richard Levin    25
252 Paul Clickett   24
253 Christian Pinkney   24
254 Neil Bell   24
255 George Bookout    25

Target 2000+ points

[bronx]

Cholet | 13.03.2020
LE TOUR DE FRANCE



This afternoon begins in Cholet (France) the most prestigious tour of the season; the Tour presents full of time trials (one of them in climbing) and two stages of high mountain. The absence of hills and cobbs is a very good notice for some specific riders.


4ºTjerk Tusveld (Wizards),3º Siegmund Paulsen (Atlantico), 2º Romeu Rosario (KunTeam),1º Allan Palmer (HTCHungria)


[

[kirin]

After a decent Tour de Suisse (371 points), with a 5th place overall for Erki Aus (probably could be better if manager wasn't so bad and set Aus on a wrong role on stage 1), we are ready for the Tour!
Here's my selection for it:
271: Alvaro Vaca   25   GC Leader
272: Erki Aus     25   Helper or free role for mountain stages
273: Luca Rochat    25   Helper for mountain stages
274: Richard Frances   25   Looking for some TT points to help the team
275: Rezsõ Somfalvi   25   Cobble-Hiller-Sprinter, most likely on a helper role

We have a top 5 sponsor for the GC that seems complicated, and the objective is getting a top10 on the Tour GC, along with some extra points on stages.
Target points: 700 points

[kirin]

Cholet | 13.03.2020
LE TOUR DE FRANCE



This afternoon begins in Cholet (France) the most prestigious tour of the season; the Tour presents full of time trials (one of them in climbing) and two stages of high mountain. The absence of hills and cobbs is a very good notice for some specific riders.


4ºTjerk Tusveld (Wizards),3º Siegmund Paulsen (Atlantico), 2º Romeu Rosario (KunTeam),1º Allan Palmer (HTCHungria)


[

Forget about Allan Palmer here, he's not a contender for the 1st place without TT

[Vos]

stage 1 Tour de France :
A very bad start of SPORTLIFE  :
GC rider Dékány had a flat tire, so too much time loss.
Although my GC riders are not mentioned in the top 20 of favorites, they are motivated to beat Paulsen ( Atlantico ) in the GC. 
Even with a flat tire Dékány was 0:26" faster as Paulsen. Hopefully no bad luck in stage 2, so he can win more time.
But maybe Nieuwendijk will be the teamcaptain for the GC.
Just 10 sconds between my 2 GC contenders, normally that gap should be much bigger in a flat time trial.
Also a flat tire for Bogarde, and that was the reason he did not score points and finished as 32nd, 2 seconds behind the points.
But maybe I should be happy that he is good enough without a flat tire to score TT points. In advance that was very uncertain.
Hopefully he can score a few points in the next TT stage.

[Vos]

stage 2 Tour de France :
This time trial was much better ; No mechanical breakdowns, no crashes and no flat tires for the SPORTLIFE cyclists. 
Bogarde scored the first points, he finished as 26th.

But these little points are nothing compared to the awesome results of Aurora Australis in this stage 2 ; 1st , 2nd, 3rd, 8th and 13th. 
Congrats, AA !
In stage 1 also many points for you ( 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th and 11th ), but of course not satisfactory to finish 2nd on 0:00"
It seems to me you scored even more points as you expected in these first 2 time trials.
And at the moment your team has a lead of 387 points in the battle for the Australian championship. I presume that is temporary.

[Aurora Australis]

No doubt you'll have more points by the end of the TdF.
Actually this is the number of points I was expecting.  Stage 1 was disappointing, but it's ok if Kun had put Pico into training camp before the race, which I suspect he did.
Stage 1 676
Stage 2 778
= 1454
I'm not going to get this many points in stage 8, and can only hope they don't lose too many positions.

Time for you to win stage 3 Vos.

[Vos]

Dékány is 3rd favorite, but he cannot challenge the 1st favorite Rosario, who is the CFF record holder of this stage.
And that means Rosario has a much better GV, and I assume he has also TC bonus.
In previous season this exact same stage was also in the Tour de France ; Rosario won and Dékány (with TC) 4th on 0:23"
Unfortunately that is a way too big time gap to expect a stage victory of Dékány.

[kirin]

Dékány is 3rd favorite, but he cannot challenge the 1st favorite Rosario, who is the CFF record holder of this stage.
And that means Rosario has a much better GV, and I assume he has also TC bonus.
In previous season this exact same stage was also in the Tour de France ; Rosario won and Dékány (with TC) 4th on 0:23"
Unfortunately that is a way too big time gap to expect a stage victory of Dékány.

Previous record holder of the stage, my rider Alvaro Vaca, can only challenge one favourite, Richard Rogers.
At least i expect some decent points from todays stage.

[Vos]

A nice total of 273 points for my team in stage 3.
Results ; 4th Dékány, 10th Nieuwendijk and 17th Telkov.