Season 9

[Vos]

Stage 4 Catalunya ;
The start was very calm of the SPORTLIFE teamcaptain, but his teammates did a good job and in s3 they brough him back into the peleton.
With the advantage of a now very strong sprint ( and a teammate in s4 ) he finished on the best position of his career.
2º Jannakopulosz

He never won in his past teams, and just once he was 2nd before ; a stage in the TDU of previous season 8, riding for CobbleCrushers.
And in season 6 ( IntellinetCyclingFF, and a teammate won ) and in season 7 ( CobbleCrushers ) ; both seasons once a 3rd place.
So he feels quite good in my team, because since I bought him this season 9 ; 1x 2nd and 3x 3rd.
Hopefully he can win once for the very first time, because 3 SPORTLIFE cyclists finished as 2nd this season and still no victory for my team.

Of course, congratulations to stage 4 winner Pelle, and his manager of °Peachy°Melocotons. 

[EpoGlucK]

Stage 4 Catalunya ;
The start was very calm of the SPORTLIFE teamcaptain, but his teammates did a good job and in s3 they brough him back into the peleton.
With the advantage of a now very strong sprint ( and a teammate in s4 ) he finished on the best position of his career.
2º Jannakopulosz

He never won in his past teams, and just once he was 2nd before ; a stage in the TDU of previous season 8, riding for CobbleCrushers.
And in season 6 ( IntellinetCyclingFF, and a teammate won ) and in season 7 ( CobbleCrushers ) ; both seasons once a 3rd place.
So he feels quite good in my team, because since I bought him this season 9 ; 1x 2nd and 3x 3rd.
Hopefully he can win once for the very first time, because 3 SPORTLIFE cyclists finished as 2nd this season and still no victory for my team.

Of course, congratulations to stage 4 winner Pelle, and his manager of °Peachy°Melocotons. 

Thx Vos!! After the 5 minute loss in the flat stage with Laksa, today Pelle was leader 

[Zatarra]

Isupov lost contact with the pack in s2 of the last stage, as a consequence of Peachy's tactics (well done!). It not only resulted in a disappointing result for the stage (domestique Slippens scored a few points), but probably also prevented Isupov to reach the top10 in the GC: he finished at 1'00 and finishing in the same time as Slippens would already have granted him a top10.

I'm crying now, Peachy! If I come these 150 short for not relegating at the end of the season I will come back to you about this .

[Vos]

stage 5 Catalunya ;
Excellent result of the silver SPORTLIFE teamcaptain. He finished in the leading group of just 5 cyclists.
4º Marin

The total points of my team in this little tour = 551 points

[Vos]

Jackson ( Zatarra ) wins Dwars door Vlaanderen !

Congratulations Zatarra, great victory ! 

[Zatarra]

Jackson ( Zatarra ) wins Dwars door Vlaanderen !

Congratulations Zatarra, great victory ! 

Thanks, Vos! I'm very happy with the win!

[Vos]

A total of just 30 points in the 3 cobble hills classics, so it is time to score some more points in Basque Country.

   selection SPORTLIFE

For the first time this season my team has a GC rider in a tour. But I have no idea if Fagan is good enough to ride a good GC.
To give him a fighting chance in the GC, he gets the teamcaptain role in hills stage 1.
His teammate Marin is not happy with that, because he had great stage results (4º and 8º) in Catalunya, despite just a silver hills icon.
It is uncertain if Fagan gets the teamcaptain role too in the final 3 stages, he has just a bronze tour icon. so maybe he is not good enough.

171 Fagan (27), allround --> GC ?
172 Dékány (27), flatclimbTT --> stage 2
173 Marin (27), hills --> stage 1 ( free role )
174 VanDerKroon (27), hillsclimb --> stages 4 and 5 ( roles unknown )
175 Takács (26), cobblehills --> stage 3 ( role unknown ), and in stage 1 the masterhelper of Fagan

Good luck everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

Burton is performing well as leader while Verbeek is gone. A nice 5th place in the opening stage. Now Moresi can show his TT skills and move up in the GC.

[Vos]

stage 1 Itzulia ;
28º Marin = a dissapointing result because in hinside his free role tactic was not good. Well, at least a few points.
96º Fagan = his masterhelper started too slow and it took a while before he returned in s5 where he probably could help.
Despite no good helper, Fagan did well, and finishing on 1:13" is not bad.

stage 2 Itzulia ;
8º Dékány = very bad result of the 3rd favorite who clearly not had his day, ánd he had a mechanical breakdown.
37º Fagan = again he did well, no bad luck for him, and finishing on 1:12" is good.
Fagan is now 19th GC on 1:11"
That is good enough to be the teamcaptain again in stage 3, because I hope he will win some time in the mountains of the final 2 stages.
But I have no idea if my hope is realistic, so I will see what happens. It is fun to ride for the GC anyway.

[Sjiz]

Good start for my team. Burton 5th in the opening race and Moresi surprises with silver in the time Trial. Now 6th in the GC. Tweed is also still in contention and now 8th in the GC. Tonight Nyland can try and get a podium and Moresi and Tweed should limit the time losses.

[Zatarra]

Romera finishes 4th in Itzulia's opening stage. Quite surprising as he wasn't even able to challenge a favourite. Apparently the tactics were fine and Borras helped perfectly. Also, of course he has made his main goal of the races in Itzulia and the upcoming hill classics, so he was well prepared.

Being well prepared was not really the case for Speciale in stage 2. Of course he likes the MDFFF time trial and hopes it to be part of the WC in the upcoming season, but he has not yet attended a training camp and will do that later in the season. However, as the #2 favourite he apparently had his day (unlike the Hungarian SPORTFILE rider) and he made Goulash of the competition! A second victory for Zatarra and a lot of races to get the third-in-a-season for the first time in history. Starting tonight, where Jackson and Haringa will try to defeat Leonov once again (after DdV) and take revenge for the RvV-defeat. They are completely fine with Nyland finishing third to satisfy his manager.

[Sjiz]

Thanks! And good luck! It is very interesting to see what a third cobble team brings to the race dynamics. A lot more competition.

[Vos]

However, as the #2 favourite he apparently had his day (unlike the Hungarian SPORTFILE rider) and he made Goulash of the competition!

Hahaha, next time it will be speciale di carne macinata.
Already the second time Speciale won a challenge of Dékány, do not make a habit out of this, Zatarre !^^

You are doing great this season ; so far 2 victories and at the moment 5th in 1A.
Also important ; you will not be bothered by the relegation ghost despite a ½ youth team of 19yo's, that is also impressive.

Good luck in stage 3 ! An interesting battle between your team (3rd and 4th fav.) and CobbleCrushers (1st and 5th fav.).
But who knows, maybe the 2nd favorite wins when 2 top dog teams fight for victory. 

[Zatarra]

And the next victory for Zatarra can be noted! The third in the last 5 stages (other stages resulted in a 2nd place and a 4th)!

Apparently CobbleCrushers decided to make Pierre the leader. Maybe because he wanted to surprise the Jackson+Haringa duo? Maybe because Leonov got cold feet because of the fresh cobblehill competition of this season?

Anyway, never ever Zatarra managed to win three times in the same season, so the season already is a succes. Next three races we don't expect very good results. Maybe a few points in Roubaix, but we don't have a specialist for that. However, in the hill classics we will be back trying to compete for some top10 results. Will be hard, though, the competition will be strong!

Good luck, Vos, in maintaining the #1 position in the GC for Fagan. If he needs some help from my guys, just let me know, the might be of use in ... during the first sect... eehm... kilometers! 

[WinterIsComing]

Momentum is yours, Zatarra! Well done racing the cobbles out of the Flemmish and Basque streets.

I think vanKerckhove will be the man to beat for Fagan in the GC. My cyclist Hvid will be fighting for a good position, although cyclists like Pantani and Moresi are (most likely too) close. Will Voegeli be able to keep up the pace in the mountains of Itzulia? We'll see tonight.