Season 9

[Sjiz]

Satisfied with a good 5th place of Tweed. Yet again a fine race, he likes San Sebastian.

Now Verbeek can go for a few stage wins in the Binckbank tour. I have high hopes because he is the favourite for tonight.

Nyland can ride for succes in the cobble hill stages.

[Sjiz]

A strange race. Peachy attacked in s2. Verbeek could easily follow and then used Meda as a domestique in the first 2 hill sections. Once he was tired he rode away, never to be seen again. A ncie start!

[Vos]

stage 1 BBT ;
26º Takács on 0:39" behind stage winner Verbeek ( TeamRHB ).
stage 2 BBT ;
20º Takács on 0:27" behind stage winner Stamer ( Zatarra ).

So far the GC ambition of Takács goes fine.
At the moment in a GC group of places 9 to 12 on 0:51" behind GC leader Pierre ( CobbleCrushers ).
Pierre his 2 rivals in the stage 2 break away group, Kahn ( °Peachy°Melocotons ) and Stamer ( Zatarra ), are on 0:00" in the GC as well.

[Vos]

stage 3 BBT ;
5º Takács on 0:17"
A very unexpected and magnificent result. 

The Peachy's made this race too hard for my team, so SPORTLIFE decided to ride their own pace the first 120km.
They started (too) slow in the 1st peleton on 0:34" behind the break away group of 24.

Helper Romney did a great job on the cobblestones and launched his teammate hard into the first real hills of this stage.
Teamcaptain Takács saved many energy for the hills.
And to my surprise he was in the chasing group of 12 in s4, just 0:17" behind the break away group of just 3 ( 2x Peachy and 1x Zatarra ).
A Vitimper cyclist was riding in between a "chasse patat" on 0:08"

He was caught back about 12 km before the finish, together with the Peachy helper.
Both could not follow the high pace of the chasing group and dropped out, including some others.
So in s5, on still 0:17" behind the sprint á deux of Kahn and Stamer (Kahn won), it was a sprint for 3rd place among just 7 cyclists.
Pierre and Gofman outsprinted Takács, who is happy with his 5th place.

In the GC a 7th place on 1:09" behind GC leader Kahn ( Peachy ), although 2nd GC Stamer ( Zatarra ) is on 0:00" also.

[Zatarra]

Nice analysis, Vos!

I anticipated on an attack of Kahn in s2, since he (and Stamer) need to get rid of Pierre of course, so I ordered my guys to attack in s2 as well. Peachy did however in s1 (bummer), to break from Pierre, which is risk taking, since that would mean spending EP with Kahn on the flat, I assume. My guys broke from Pierre in s2, so also mission accomplished.

Only minor mistake I made was with domestiques in s3. They brought Stamer back to de first group, indeed with Kahn+Galunov only, but forgot to ride themselves back as well. Too bad, cause other wise I think Stamer would have won (the better domestiques). I took the risk in s3 with Haringa (not very risky with Arvesen, but he couldn't follow either...).

In s5 it was not a sprint a deux, because Galunov was still there at the end of s4, so Stamer knew he was going to finish second. With 17 ahead of Pierre though, so that will give him some space for stage4, the hardest one.

I'm not really good at free rolling, because Jackson was left far behind this time... too bad, but it's okay. It's now trying to get Stamer to finish on the podium of this tour anyway. That's gonna be hard!

[Sjiz]

Good result for Verbeek. He finished in the lead group. I didnt have a domestique for him in this stage and it shows. So no real stage result.
He did move up to 17th in the GC. In front there are some bronze (cobble) hillers do there may be a chance to move to the top 10 even. At least he is the big favourite again. Thats always good to see. Winning will be difficult as Caracoles always perform well with Kluivert and Ambrosio who are also favourites.

[Vos]

stage 4 BBT ;
1º victory of Jannakopulosz ! 
47º Takács on 0:35"

A great race of my team, and an excellent job of Colaco who had problems in the hills despite he gave everything.
But he returned in s4, so he could be the important lead out for teamcaptain Jannakopulosz.

Also GC rider Takács did very good in a free role, and also he returned to the front in s4.
Unfortunately the pace was just a little bit too high in s5. He finished as 3rd of the second group and lost precious time.

He dropped two places in the GC and now a split 9th GC on 1:44" behind GC leader Kahn ( Peachy ).
On the bright side ; he will score GC points, and it even looks like he is competing for a top10 in the final GC.
Although that might be difficult, for example the nr11 is just 2 seconds behind.
But in the next race no free role like in this stage 4, he will finish the BBT as teamcaptain with good helpers for the final hills stage.

[Sjiz]

Just as i thought. Caracoles did a great race and got the win. Verbeek got a good second place in the stage and a 12th in the GC. Very nice but a little sour when its only 3 seconds slower than the number 9. Ah well. A nice tour.

[Vos]

stage 5 BBT ;
57º Takásc on 1:02"

This race was a real display of power by Caracoles, even the break away group in s3 consisted only 3 Caracoles cyclists, and no others.
Kluivert ( Caracoles ) won the final sprint of 2nd Verbeek ( TeamRHB ) and 3rd Wirth ( Thorboassonarvesen ).

SPORTLIFE had a good start ; leader and 2 helpers in the front big peleton of 96.

A little bit as expected, teamcaptain Takács could not follow the front group of 32 in s2.
Masterhelper Gregersen anticipated on that and stayed with Takács.
Apparently the other helper Romney tried a "forward pawn helpers tactic", he followed the front group in s2.

In s3 the tactics went horribly wrong ; unexpectedly Takács dropped to the 4th group on 0:46" and was isolated.

In s4 the same situation ; 2 helpers ahead and Takásc isolated. Really bad tactics.
Although Takásc was now in the 6th group on 0:39" and that is 7 seconds better than in s3.

In s5 "forward pawn helper" Romney finally decided to help Takásc in the last kilometers, but that was not good enough for a good result.

Despite this bad tactical final stage ; Takásc finished as 9th in the GC, that was won by Kahn ( Peachy ).
In hinside Takásc his free role in stage 4 costs him 2 places, but that was a good sacrifice because his teammate won stage 4.

Let's go to the Vuelta ! 

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

No GC ambition in this Vuelta. My team will go for stage results.

71 Basov (26), climb (+ climb TT)
72 Benett (27), climb TT
73 Faber (27), cobble
74 Takács (26), cobblehills
75 Crouzel (26), climb

Good luck everyone ! 

[Aurora Australis]

Looks like our cyclists will be spending some time riding together Vos.

Vuelta Season 9
291   Nail Tinaev   27 (cobbles)
292   Pavel Lezhnev   27 (cobbles)
293   Cato Kvam   26 (climb)
294   Fraser Morris   26 (climb)
295   Kirk Workman   21 (scenic tourist)

[Vos]

Could be, I hope it will be, with the exception of Kirk Workman of course, otherwise I do something really wrong.
Good luck in the Vuelta, AA !

[Vos]

Kirk Workman looks great with his 3 weather icons ;
Looking at that, he could be Dutch. But luckily he is Australian.

[Vos]

Hmmmm, Pelle ( Peachy ) is riding this Vuelta.
Maybe I should make a last-minute change and select Jannakopulosz to battle for the Hungarian jersey.
He still has 100 health now in case Pelle was selected at the last moment.

Thé main rival, golden tour rider Szekér, is not riding this Vuelta.
So it is between my sprinter and Pelle, the other Hungarians are too far behind.

Jannakopulosz has a lead of 114 points and there are just 2 stages where both can score points.
A disadvantage is of course that Pelle is the 1st favorite in stage 1.
But the most biggest disadvantage is that my sprinter raced many tours this season and his form is now just 94, what is too low.
Although I have a +5 form card, with that card my sprinter will do very well in stage 2.
But probably Pelle will do very well too in stage 2, also there he has a better GV than my sprinter, but fox tactics can compensate that.

Sometimes this game is difficult with such choices, what makes the game even more fun.
But everything considered ; I think Jannakopulosz will lose the battle despite his current lead of 114 points.
So he is not going to ride the Vuelta.
What is good news for Pelle, because now it is certain he will win the Hungarian jersey for the 4th time.

[Sjiz]

I had a similar problem. Verbeek has chances on the golden bike. Not very big chances, but with luck he may have a shot. Riis is not riding the Vuelta and can only score in Lombarda. Lorenzetto is riding the Vuelta and can do well. All can get some where around the 4000 points. So do i go all in and see if i can get the win, or do i follow my original plan and go for Luna in this race?

I chose Verbeek and got Woods as a domestique instead of another climber. The first stage went well. Verbeek got 10th and 85 valuable points. Tonight is another important one. We need to get a similar result but it will be more difficult.