Season 11

[Vos]

stage 4 TdF ; mountain TT on the Alpe d'Huez

   selection SPORTLIFE

This season I bought the very unexperienced Smith. He gets the startnumber that ends on 1, because he tries to win on the Alpe d'Huez.
Perea and Faber will be each other helper in their stages, not a perfect combo, but it should provide many points.
Dékány will do well in both his suited time trials, and he has a top20 GC ambition, but I don't think he is good enough for this TdF.
Basov did amazing in the Tour de Suisse, but in this big tour he can score just some points in stage 4, and maybe a few points in stage 3.

51 Smith ( 24 ), climb TT --> stage 4
52 Perea ( 29 ), sprint --> stages 5 + 8
53 Faber ( 29 ), flatcobble --> stages 6 + 9
54 Dékány ( 29 ), climb TT --> stages 3 + 4
55 Basov ( 28 ), climb TT --> stage 4

Good luck everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

The Tour the Suisse went well. A minor mistake, setting your leader as domestique, cost 2 places in the GC. Still, the 6th place for Ablett was a good one. For the Tour we take the following 5 riders with us:

TeamRHB Tour de France selection.

Bart Ablett
:
The American will target the podium. More realistically will be the top 5. Still. He is our main guy and everyone will ride in support.

Dino Moresi
:
The experienced GC guy. He knows what its like to finish on the podium of a grand tour and has a personal best of 4th in the Tour. He will ride his nice time trials and in some cases will get a free role. His main objective is to help Ablett though.

Arve Nyland
:
After his good cobble campaign he will support Ablett and see if he can finish at a nice result after doing his duties.

Jan Luchtenveld
:
The sprinter has proved he can work well with Ablett and will be a crucial pawn in the sprint stages. In the last 200m he can ride for his own palmares.

Leon Bertrand
:
What is a Tour selection without a French rider? So we took alon Leon. His main goal is to assist when we go past the Mont Ventoux and to sign many autographs.

[Sjiz]

Also: the first stage went well. 6th for Moresi and 16th for Ablett. A nice start.

[Vos]

Also a good start of the Tour de France due to a few extra points in stage 1 ;
26º  Dékány

[Sjiz]

Nyland did what he had to and stayed with Ablett for 3 sections. Happy with the result. Tomorrow Moresi can go for a medal.

[Vos]

stage 3 TdF ;
2º  Dékány
13º  Smith
23º  Basov
Very nice results on the Col de l'Iseran. Unexpectedly Dékány was the 2nd favorite and it was close to the nr3 , just 0:01"
And no surprise Rosario won with a huge gap of 0:17" because 2nd favorite Dékány could not even challenge him.
This evening I expect even better results on L'Alpe d'Huez.

[Sjiz]

Moresi was a little dissapointing, especially after his start. But 6th is still good. Ablett also did well with a 14th place. Tonight i think it will be more of the same.

[Vos]

stage 4 TdF ; mountain TT on the Alpe d'Huez

1º  Speciale ( Zatarra ) --> Congratulations ! Unexpected victory of a not-favorite. 
2º  Smith  0:01"
3º  Rosland ( Peachy )  0:02"
4º  Basov  0:12"
7º  Dékány  0:14"

My team was perfectly prepared for this climb TT, and unfortunately 1st favorite Smith could not win.
A lot can be said about this time trial, it even looks if the wind icon was active instead of the sun icon.
Because the numbers 1 and 3 have a wind icon, and Rosland is for sale, he is by far not so good as the SPORTLIFE cyclists.
I guess the luck factor and experience counted a lot in this stage.
Also remarkable that not-favorite Basov won from 4th favorite Dékány, it shows luck is a factor, they had the same perfect race conditions.
Although they both could challenge exactly the same 3 cyclists with not-favorite and stage winner Speciale in the middle of the 3.
12 and 14 seconds behind Speciale is an extreme big gap considering my team was perfect prepared.
Well, many points in this stage 4, that is excellent,
and Smith is just 24yo, so hopefully he can win in the future with his 99+1 stamina, 98+2 climb and 99 TT.

[Ciscoboss96]

...let me be proud, in this race all the podium was grown in Innioraths. Smith will be by far the best in this kind of races with adequate experience

[Vos]

Oscar Smith really wants to dedicate his very first victory to Ciscoboss as soon as possible. 
Most likely he will ride the Vuelta too, maybe he is more lucky on the notorious Alto de l'Angliru,
although I estimate that will be (too?) difficult without TC bonus.
But next season again these 2 climb TT stages, and there is also the Col d'Eze climb TT in Paris-Nice,
so he has enough chances next season to beat the then oldest generation of 30yo's, what probably is their last top season.

[Vos]

stage 5 TdF ;
3º  Perea
Excellent podiumplace of the 23 times Colombian international Perea, who could not challenge any favorites. But he is very experienced. 

[Vos]

stage 6 TdF ;
6º  Faber

After Mont Ventoux stage 7 it is clear Dékány cannot score GC points.
At the moment he is 25th GC, 1 minute behind the top 20 GC.
With again free roles in sprint stage 8 and flatcobble stage 9, and the fact he is very bad in the final 2 stages, he has no GC ambition anymore.

[Sjiz]

A nice stage, Ablett and Bertrand stayed together the entire time leasing to a 7th and 12th place. Ablett is now 8th in the GC but its still close to the top 5.

[Vos]

stage 8 TdF ;
1º  Perea 
A very unexpected first victory in his career.

[shalgo]

TDF GC Top 10 after stage 8:

1   Anthony Hilton   29   CaptainOrange   0: 00"
2   Rafael Carlos Loinaz   29   °Peachy°Melocotons   0: 11"
3   Tjerk Tusveld   29   SentinelChickens   0: 46"
4   Tom Cabanas   29   MortoviaCycling   1: 32"
5   Bart Ablett   29   TeamRHB   1: 36"
6   Richard Rogers   28   ProdopingPong   1: 47"
7   Wendell Green   29   Marcatone_Due   2: 17"
8   Nathan Lust   25   FaltososDeChigre   2: 34"
9   Jaime Roman   27   QuintoYtapa   2: 49"
10   Steven Pillig   29   KunTeam   3: 28"

I have somehow avoided any major tactical errors in the first eight stages, although Tusveld dropping his helpers in section 1 of stage 8 wasn't great.  (The three time trials obviously helped with the lack of tactical screw-ups.)

Looking ahead to the final two stages, it will be hard for Tusveld to maintain his podium position--the majority of the other riders in the top ten have cobbles icons.