Season 10

[Vos]

Milano Sanremo ;
21º  Jannakopulosz
Despite he is a hills-sprinter, he is not very suited for this first monument classic race of the season.
For example in previous season he could not score points in MSR.
But this season an excellent race ; Colaco helped him very good in s1 and s2 and he launched his teamcaptain with full power into s3.
Also Jannakopulosz was riding full energy in hill s3, but that was not enough to follow the break away group of 16.
He made a good tactical choice to use some energy in the windy s4 to close the gap, and he returned in the front group of now 37.
However, this windy MSR costs him many energy before the final section.
And in s5 already that was visible on the Cipressa, Jannakopulosz barely could follow, but he did.
The many attacks on the Poggio caused a too high pace and he dropped out of the front group.
So he had to sprint for the 18th place in the second group of 14 cyclists.
Not much energy left, but enough to finish as 4th of that group, what means a 21º place in MSR, what is an excellent result.

E3 Harelbeke ;
20º  Takács
Also this SPORTLIFE cyclist did excellent, and also he had just the expected help in the first 2 sections and had do it on his own.


   selection SPORTLIFE

A little tour for hillsclimbers. But I estimate that the flat time trial will kill the GC ambitions of my two selected hillsclimbers.
Therefore my team will go for stage results in the Volta a Catalunya.

161 Basov ( 27 ), climb
162 VanDerKroon ( 28 ), hillsclimb
163 Heger ( 27 ), hillsclimb
164 Kangert ( 26 ), TT
165 Haro ( 28 ), flatclimb

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 Catalunya ;
11º  Kangert
stage 2 Catalunya ;
14º  Basov

Hopefully my hillsclimber can get also such a result in the next stage with start and finish in a cold Barcelona.
Although, a few places better would be more nice to fill up the palmares.

[Vos]

Two very good results of my Dutch hillsclimber, thanks to his teammate Heger who did an excellent job as helper in both stages.
stage 3 Catalunya ;
7º  VanDerKroon
stage 4 Catalunya ;
11º  VanDerKroon

[WinterIsComing]

The Time Trial killed my ambitions in GC for WinklerPrins in Catalonya as well, but every stage he gained some time and positions. He won't compete for podium, but in the last stage, maybe he can climb 1 or 2 spots again. He's currently on 10th position. Best race for my team was the MMFHH, where Mr. Cyclipedia was able to finish 3rd.

[WinterIsComing]

Guess I was wrong, WinklerPrins was able to fight for the podium in the last stage after all, incredible and unexpected jump from #10 to #3.

Congrats to Flandria winning Catalonya with Reinertsen.

[Vos]

Guess I was wrong, WinklerPrins was able to fight for the podium in the last stage after all, incredible and unexpected jump from #10 to #3.

Congrats to Flandria winning Catalonya with Reinertsen.

Very good final stage, WiC, ( finishing in the wheel of Basov is impressive ), what causes an excellent GC podium place for your WinklerPrins. 
These points are very benificial in the battle for.......... ( ok, I will not mention it      ).

- - - - - - - - - -

Congratulations with your very first 1A victory, Flandria !
Great performance of GC winner Reinertsen, well done !

- - - - - - - - - -

stage 5 Catalunya ;
4º  Basov
Not-favorite Basov had unexpected help in s3 of Heger, what probably made this best stage result of Catalunya possible.

[Vos]

After scoring exactly zero points in the 3 cobblehills classic races, it is time to score some points in the next little tour.

   selection SPORTLIFE

Unfortunately no cyclists with GC ambition, but I hope and expect that Tafi will do very well in both climb sprint stages.
He won once in his career ; a Romandie stage in season 7. In Itzulia he has 3 podium places in stages on his palmares.

Also points are expected in stage 1 ( VanDerKroon ) and stage 4 ( Kangert ).
Kangert finished 3 times outside the top10 this season ( 13º, 11º, 11º ). To motivate him, I accepted a sponsordeal of top10 in stage 4.
In stage 5 there is a little sponsordeal of top 10 as well, and that should be no problem to achieve for Tafi.

181 Tafi ( 28 ), climb-sprint
182 VanDerKroon ( 28 ), climb-hills
183 Kangert ( 26 ), TT
184 Heger ( 27 ), helper
185 Dékány ( 28 ), helper

Good luck everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

Slight mistake for Nyland and Sansonetti. They came back a day too late from their TC. Corona does make travel difficult i guess.
But once they got back, with a day extra rest, they did well. An 8th and 10th place in the classics were good. Happy with it.

[Vos]

stage 1 Itzulia ;
23º VanDerKroon
Not a good start of this little tour, and my team had no suited cyclists for stage 2.
In contrast to stage 3 ; Tafi is the 3rd favorite, that looks very promising.

[Vos]

stage 3 Itzulia ;
Because Tafi is bad in the hills, I decided to use a tactic with taking deliberately some sleeping icons to save energy.
He was surrounded in s2 by all his 4 helping teammates on 0:31", just 6 seconds worse than in s1, so far so good.

Already in climb s3 Tafi made the jump to the front group of 23.

But the tactics went wrong in s4,
despite the fact that the best helpers Heger and Dékány went full power in s3, just 1 group behind, and saved 4 EP and 3 EP for s4.
Unfortunately that was not good enough for both helpers to return in the front group of 32 in s4.

So Tafi had to sprint without the very important lead out. And about 8 rivals did had a lead out in this stage.
Too bad the helpers were not good enough to return in s4, their tactics could not be more risky.
Despite this ; Tafi almost won as 3rd favorite thanks to his very strong finish.
Although he is not happy, the dissapointment of missing out a victory dominates,
also because the 1st favorite had an off-day and did not even finish in the front group of 15.
2º  Tafi 

In stage 5 Tafi can try again and probably that stage is even more suited for him.
But also there it is questionable if a helper is good enough in s4, and that is needed for a victory.

[Vos]

stage 4 Itzulia ;
14º  Kangert
Not good enough ; 5 or 6 seconds too slow to score the sponsordeal of top10.

In stage 5 Tafi can try again and probably that stage is even more suited for him.
But also there it is questionable if a helper is good enough in s4, and that is needed for a victory.

I guess I was wrong ; Tafi is not even a favorite in stage 5. And his best helper is sold today.

[Vos]

stage 5 Itzulia ;
6º  Tafi

His only "good" helper tried a desperate and very risky tactic to try to be there in s4.
But he was simply not good enough, in s4 he was even in the 3rd group and almost 1½ minute behind.
So, again Tafi had to do it on his own versus many rivals who did had a helper in s4. Sprinting for victory was not an option in this situation.
Well, at least he scored a little sponsordeal in this final stage of Itzulia, what maybe (and unfortunately) is thé highlight in this little tour.

Hopefully it goes better in the next races.
Although the expectations for PR and the 3 hills classics are low, it is even questionable if points will be scored.
But after these 4 races, there is the Tour de Romandie, and there I estimate my team will really compete.

[Sjiz]

This most fun races are here again Time for Verbeek to score some points.

[Sjiz]

We started with a 5th, at least its better than last season. Still not what we are hoping on.

[WinterIsComing]

Timmermanis 8th in AGR, and a very good 3rd place in Flèche Wallonne. Not a single team was able to keep a domestique with his leader in the 4th section of Flèche Wallonne. Competition is fierce as ever in the hills.

Congrats to Wirth (thorboassonarvesen) and Poldoja (Atlantico) winning the Hill Classics so far. Tonight Liege-Bastogne-Liege, where the fight for wins and points continues.