Season 10

[Vos]

stage 4 Giro ;
46º  Løvdal on 1:16"
Already in s2 he was isolated, but despite this, maybe a good result in this stormy stage. Now 9th GC on 1:24"

stage 5 Giro ;
3º  Tafi ( free role )
17º  Løvdal on 0:00"
Miorlin should have done a much better helper's job, because he helped the teamcaptain only in s1.
But in the end it did not matter ; on his own Løvdal could easily finish in the front peleton of 42. And nothing changed for him in the GC.

In the next mountain stage 6 it is a difficult decision who will be the teamcaptain.
To give Løvdal a real chance for a good GC, he should be the leader. Also because he will lose much time in TT stage 8.
But my climbers can compete for stage victory, although they are not favorites and only Miorlin can challenge just the 5th favorite.

[Sjiz]

Well done Vos.

For me a nice 4th place. Unfortunately lost the sprint for 3rd. But still satisfied. Tomorrow Jimenez can go for the podium.

[Vos]

Thanks , you also well done with the 4th place. And good luck with not-favorite Jimenez in stage 7, who likes a rainy race.

stage 6 Giro ;
1º solo victory Miorlin 
17º Crouzel
( 31º Løvdal on 1:38" )

Great race of my team and a great victory.
Already the 20th victory of Miorlin, and his 10th victory in a big tour. Only Travin (12) and Bentinck (11) have more 1A big tour victories.
But they have 10 stars, and Miorlin still never reached that, so he must be the most successful 9-star rider of CFF.

Of course, the tactical choice of Løvdal in a free role, especially in such a mountain stage, is not good at all for his GC.
At the moment he is 8th GC on 2:05" behind the pink jersey of Hilton.

[Vos]

The calendar of next season is published.
My climbers are a bit dissapointed ; for example just one pure climb stage (in the Giro) in all 3 big tours.
And again a WC hills race.
The Tour de France has 3 (not flat) time trials, and maybe the most remarkable is the total of 11 cobblestone sections in this TdF.
It seems not a good calendar for my team, but many time left to buy more suited cyclists for next season.

[Combuijs]

Lots of time trials! Aurora Australis for champion?

[Aurora Australis]

Lots of time trials! Aurora Australis for champion?

Not a chance.  Too scattered, too many of them hill-climbs, and not a group of them in a single grand tour.  I might have a chance at the top Aussie team title (although I was going to try for some 19 year olds, so maybe 60/40).

[Vos]

stage 7 Giro ;
45º  Løvdal on 0:47"
He had a great start, but a mechanical breakdown in s2 and dropped to the 2nd group. But maybe he would have dropped in s2 anyway.
About the rest of this stage, I cannot estimate if he did good or bad, maybe it was something in between.
He moved up one place in the GC ; 7th on 2:26"

stage 8 Giro, the time trial ;
134º  Løvdal on 2:39"
As expected he lost much time, and now again 8th GC on 3:41"

[Vos]

stage 9 Giro ;
18º  Løvdal on 0:20"
The helper's tactics should have been better, especially masterhelper Tafi was too slow.
Only Miorlin helped in s1, after that Løvdal was isolated and with his stats he really needed a helper in s4 to finish in the front group of 15.
But he did great and was in the front all the time till s5, there he dropped to the 2nd group. Maybe an unnecessary loss of 20 seconds.
And every second is needed in the battle for top10 GC. Also the battle for the pink jersey is close.

Top 20 GC Giro, after 9 stages :
1Anthony Hilton   28   CaptainOrange   0: 00"   
2    Rafael Carlos Loinaz   28   °Peachy°Melocotons   0: 20"   
3    Antonello Lorenzetto   28   Marcatone_Due   0: 40"   
4    Ivan Semon   28   MortoviaCycling   1: 30"   
5    Adam Roethlisberger   28   Atlantico   1: 32"   
6    Gabin Bouguen   25   Flandria   3: 10"   
7    Steven Pillig   28   Turrones   3: 19"   
8    Mannie Collins   27   Cabrasverdes   3: 54"   
9    Nicolay Løvdal   28   SPORTLIFE   4: 01"   
10    Leon Vonk   27   Astanadena   4: 21"   
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
11    Ryan Leipheimer   28   Wiggo_pupils   4: 28"   
12    Hugo Skogstad   28   Flyvende_hjul   5: 29"   
13    Jaime Roman   26   QuintoYtapa   5: 46"   
14    Nathan Lust   24   FaltososDeChigre   6: 28"   
15    Karl Dahlen   28   SentinelChickens   6: 36"   
16    Javier Marin   28   ProdopingPong   6: 39"   
17    Sven WinklerPrins   27   WinterIsComing   6: 40"   
18    Leonid Foros   28   CC_Porco_Jones   6: 41"   
19    Kieran Williams   28   OphiukoCT   6: 44"   
20    Ahti Ratas   28   ZBT   7: 04"   

[Vos]

Fun-info =
Almost the whole current top 20 GC has a golden tour icon. There are just 2 exceptions :
Number 9 Nicolay Løvdal and number 20 Ahti Ratas.

[Vos]

stage 10 Giro ;
Congratulations Epogluck, with stage 10 winner and overall GC victor Rafael Carlos Loinaz ( °Peachy°Melocotons ) 

Løvdal secured his 9th place in the GC by an excellent podium place in the final stage : 
3º  Løvdal on 0:16"

A very successful Giro with 2 stage victories and 2 podiumplaces.
And just one time before a SPORTLIFE cyclist finished in the top 10 GC of the Giro d'Italia, that was back in season 4 and also a 9th place.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Not an impressive selection and there is no GC ambition. The goal is to score some points in stages 1, 3 and 5.

111 Kangert ( 26 ), TT
112 VanDerKroon ( 28 ), hillsclimb
113 Faber ( 28 ), cobble
114 Witsche ( 21 ), hills
115 Milinte ( 28 ), cobblehills-sprint

Good luck everyone ! 

[Aurora Australis]

Missed out on lots of points forgetting about putting cyclists on breaks & also bad tactics.  Hopefully it won't bite.

[EpoGlucK]

stage 10 Giro ;
Congratulations Epogluck, with stage 10 winner and overall GC victor Rafael Carlos Loinaz ( °Peachy°Melocotons ) 

Løvdal secured his 9th place in the GC by an excellent podium place in the final stage : 
3º  Løvdal on 0:16"

A very successful Giro with 2 stage victories and 2 podiumplaces.
And just one time before a SPORTLIFE cyclist finished in the top 10 GC of the Giro d'Italia, that was back in season 4 and also a 9th place.

Thx vos, it has been a funny-happy tour for me. I Had a bad tactic in 1 st sprint and then a Good ones in mountain (where I use to fail).

G Luck everyone!

[Sjiz]

A little boring season as expected. Stage 2 didnt go well for Verbeek with a 5th place but the 4th stage went better and he was able to celebrate a victory. Tomorrow Bertrand can go for a good result.

[Vos]

Congratulations with the "exciting" victory, Sjiz ! 

I did not mention my secret goal in this Dauphiné ;
My just 21yo Dutch talent Witsche tried to score the season white jersey, because so far this season no u23 cyclist scored points.

The first hills stage went very well till section 4, but he lost too many time in section 5 and finished far outside the points :
stage 2 Dauphiné ;
45º Witsche on 0:14" from places 25 to 30.

In the second hills stage he came very close to take the lead in the white jersey ranking.
stage 4 Dauphiné ;
32º  Witsche on 0:00" from places 27 to 30.

In both stages his fellow country man VanDerKroon did a terrible job as best "masterhelper", both times a too slow start.
What caused in stage 2 that Witsche was isolated from the start.
In stage 4 second helper Milinte was good enough to be with Witsche in s1 and s2.
A missed opportunity, with a good helpers tactic of VanDerKroon it was possible that Witsche scored a few points.

Well, VanDerKroon can make up for his helpers role failure by scoring some points in the final stage.
And it was not all dissapointing what my Dutch cyclists did so far in this Dauphiné,
because Faber, also Dutch, did great on the cobblestones and to my surprise he finished on the podium for the just 3rd time in his career.
To make it complete, also the good result of my Estonian TT specialist in stage 1, finally top10 after a few 11th places this season.

stage 1 Dauphiné ;
10º  Kangert
stage 3 Dauphiné ;
3º Faber