All div: Grand Tours

[WinterIsComing]

Impressive performance Vos.  Guess we know the top favourite for the World Championship.

[Vos]

Thanks 
My climbers are for sure not the top favorites for the world championship.
For example, in stage 8 not any of my climbers was a favorite.
Miorlin and Crouzel could challenge only the 5th favorite, this means the other favorites have a much better GV.

More info ; stage 8 winner Miorlin never reached the 10 stars on pure climbing and he is the nr 157 in the golden climbers list.
Good tactics and that the 3 best climbers had an active weather bonus, was the key to victory.

In the upcoming stage 10 it looks much better compared to stage 8, although again my climbers are not among the favorites ;
Crouzel can challenge 3 favorites.
Dotto can challenge 2 favorites.
Miorlin can not challenge the favorites ( but again he has an active weather icon ).

Crouzel will be the teamcaptain in the world championship, for sure a good contender because he will have excellent helpers and also there he has an active weather bonus, but he will not be a favorite for the WC.
That does not mean he cannot win it, he for sure will try.

[Vos]

And good luck to your team in the final 4 races of this season, WiC !
Hopefully you (and Combuijs) can stay in 1A, it will not be easy because the competition is fierce.
The upcoming many Vuelta GC points are very welcome. Good luck with GC contender Bolshenkov in stage 10 !

[aurelio_uccheddu]

Second Vuelta for "il Lore"...great victory for Antonello!
Well done, now the more important race of the World, the Girod'Italia!

[WinterIsComing]

And good luck to your team in the final 4 races of this season, WiC !
Hopefully you (and Combuijs) can stay in 1A, it will not be easy because the competition is fierce.
The upcoming many Vuelta GC points are very welcome. Good luck with GC contender Bolshenkov in stage 10 !

Thanks Vos. General Classification in Vuelta gave me much needed 580 points, but relegation is still very well possible.

My team was not strong enough this season, and the calendar didn't really suit my team either. If I can stay in first division,  I think I will do better next season.

Oh, and I wasn't talking about the list of GV-favourites in WC. I think the past seasons showed you are favourite in any pure climb-stage. You've won more mountain stages than any other team, I think.

Congrats Aurelio, Lorenzetto was clearly the best this Vuelta. Well done.

[Vos]

Antonello Lorenzetto ( Marcatone_Due ) celebrates his 2nd Vuelta victory

The nr2 on 2:23", that is an impressive and superb GC victory. Very well done, Aurelio ! 

stage 10 Vuelta :
Solo victory in Andorra for Crouzel !
Adorján, Dotto (12th) and stage 8 winner Miorlin (7th) did great jobs as helpers.

A good rehearsal / practice for the upcoming mountain WC in Colombia. These Vuelta mountain stage results looks very promising.
However, the WC mountain race is 2½ times (!) as long as this stage 10 Vuelta, and that can make a difference.

The results of Miorlin in this exact same WC race = 2nd (s2) and 5th (s5).
Let's see how Miorlin will do as helper this time, because most likely Crouzel will be the teamcaptain. He likes the 38ºC in Colombia^^

Well done in the GC, WiC, 5th and 17th brings a good amount of points. And at the moment your team is out of the relegation zone.
And as you already said, it will be exciting and nothing is yet certain with the point rich last 3 races of this season.

Hopefully Combuijs can stay in 1A too, although that seems maybe too difficult a this moment with a 32nd place in 1A.
Maybe his TT specialist can surprise again, as he did in the TT stage of the Vuelta with an excellent 3rd place.
Then he has a chance to stay in 1A. Although, I expect the competition is much more fierce in the WC TT.

Good luck WiC and Combuijs in the exciting relegation battle !

[kirin]

Well the Vuelta hasn't gone really well for me with only 423 points, including a 3rd place in stage 7.

The team is right now in the first place among those who relegate, with 3898 points, and salvation seems difficult.
In case i get relegated, i will start a new generation of riders selling everything(maybe not Dukurs if hes not sold now).
For Il Lombardia, the team will rely on:
311      Alvaro Vaca
312      Luca Rochat
313      Kendall Whisman
314      Erki Aus
315      Mattias Nuzzolo

For the TT WW in Doha, only Richard Frances has any hopes of getting points.
For the WC in Duitama, Erki Aus and Mattias Nuzzolo will be the ones racing for the team salvation.

[Vos]

Also good luck in the exciting and fierce relegation battle, kirin.

[Combuijs]

I fail to see how we could stay on the World Tour, so I've put up 9 riders for sale, to start a new generation of 10 riders, preferable for the GC. I don't believe in miracles...

[kirin]

I feel like i'm already relegated after today's stage so i'm selling all my riders

[Aurora Australis]

Woeful failure in the Vuelta along with the Dauphiné & Suisse screwups have handed the Australian title to Vos yet again, who clearly deserves it.

[Vos]

Despite the WC roadrace did not go perfect, a very good podiumplace ( 3rd ) of not-favorite Crouzel. 
And a sponsordeal of 463.535,- is scored in this WC roadrace, that is nice too.
Helpers Miorlin ( 17th ) and Dotto ( 20th ) scored some points also.

To my big surprise this means SPORTLIFE finished as 4th in 1A ! 
By far the best result of my team (also in points) although the 1A ranking was not a season goal.

Also not a season goal was the Australian championship, and as I expected that title went to top-favorite Aurora Australis in this flat-TT-season.
But also as I predicted, this title was not a gift and AA had to battle for it.
"Good" to see the gap is too big towards the awesome TT-team of Aurora Australis, so I have no regrets that my main objectives were trying to win the 2 Vuelta mountain stages and the WC road race. With a back up helper in a free role my team would have scored more points, but not as many as 452 points extra.

And maybe a kind of miracle that my team could be a fierce rival for the Australian championship, ánd even more a kind of miracle that my team finished so high in 1A.
A good illustration ; AA had at least 4 times more favorites in races than my team had.
Besides the 4 mountain TT races, my team had only once a favorite (maybe twice) in the whole season.

Also my team has no good tour cyclists, only one with a silver tour icon and he scored just 101 points in the whole season.
Although I have to point out that my TT-flatclimbers were good tour cyclists (7th and 10th) in this TdF with many TT kilometers, just like the TdF of season 5 (4th and 10th).
But very surprising and remarkable that my team finished as 4th in 1A. (I expected just out of the top10 as always, I have not a topteam)
If I only knew this 4th place in advance, it for sure would have been a season goal to finish podium in 1A.

I think that AA did not expect also to finish so high this 1A season, and writing about that team :
+ NT world champion.
Congratulations Aurora Australis, for sure an amazing season 7 for you ! 

Too bad Combuijs, azerite and WiC could not stay in 1A.
But maybe for WiC a good opportunity/challenge to smash the record in points of a 2nd division champion next season.

A very nice season 7 for my team, despite just a few top 10 GC results in all tours, but in all previous seasons this was the same.
Happy with the 7 victories this season ( 5x with a not-favorite ) and the very unexpected 4th place in 1A. 

Up to next season !
Luckily that will not be a very remarkable TT season like this one, but for sure AA will be a fierce rival again for the Australian title because the many points he can score in the point rich WC TT race.
5 golden top teamcaptains without tactics that can go wrong or not perfect, and this season AA had even the 1st, 2nd and 4th favorite with his 5 top teamcaptains in one race. But maybe (most likely) AA has more good rivals next season, because in this clear flat TT season, every 2nd division team with top TT cyclists will promote.
And I don't have a TT specialist in my team (the sold silver Bogarde could score a few points, but just a few), what makes this 4th place in 1A even more remarkable. But I think I mentioned that in this long text already.   
Anyway, up to next season, hopefully again such a fun season as this one !^^

[Aurora Australis]

As a response to coronavirus, and to maintain proper social distance of cyclists to help limit the spread of the virus, I call on all NT & Grand Tour races to be a mixture of TT races.
This will help ensure the health of our cyclists & reduce the risks of races being cancelled.

[Vos]

  selection SPORTLIFE

It is almost a tradition that my Giro selection is not good.
Also this time. And with the exception of Crouzel, this selection most likely will be sold this season.
In previous season my team scored just 524 Giro-points. The objective this season 8 is to improve that. I estimate it will be close.
SPORTLIFE has no GC contender, so the points must be scored in the stages.

Marin needs revanche after a very bad hills-classics-campaign, but I expect that also in this Giro his competition will be fierce.
Probably only Crouzel has a chance to get a top stage result. In previous season he won a Vuelta stage and was 3rd in the WC climb race.
This season in Romandie ; a dissapointing 12th place in stage 1 as leader, but he made up for that with his 6th place in stage 3 as helper.

121 Crouzel ( climb ) --> stage 1.
122 Marin ( hills ) --> stages 4, 5 and 7.
123 Adorján ( climb ) --> stage 8.
124 Engelberts ( flatsprint ) --> stage 9.
125 Gregersen ( hills ) --> helper.

The nasty coronavirus did not mutate to a computer virus, so we can ride the CFF Giro. Good luck everyone. And of course also ;

All the best to everyone in this difficult pandemic period, and success in everyone's important personal struggle not to spread the virus.

[Sjiz]

As a response to coronavirus, and to maintain proper social distance of cyclists to help limit the spread of the virus, I call on all NT & Grand Tour races to be a mixture of TT races.
This will help ensure the health of our cyclists & reduce the risks of races being cancelled.

I am more in favour of cancelling all other races this season. The regular competition as well as the national calender. I want to emphasize that this has nothing to do with a personal agenda and is purely in the interest of the wellbeing of our cyclists.