Season 13

[Sjiz]

Verbeek is performing steady in MSR. Another 5th place.

[Vos]

Tirreno Adriatico ;
Samsonov scored a few points in stages 1 and 3, and in the final GC he finished 20º on 2:21"
But my most succesfull cyclist was the new bought 28yo sprinter Sam Lebrun ; 2º stage 4 and victory in stage 5.


Volta a Catalunya ;
Fraser Morris was the succesfull teamcaptain in this little tour. His stage results ; 121º, 1º solo victory , 8º, 19º and 9º.
In the GC he ended up at the 7º place on 1:45" behind Catalunya winner Gerhart Wächter ( galegospolabici ).
The other SPORTLIFE cyclists scored points too in this little tour, for example free role sprinter Lebrun finished as 9º in stage 1.
Morris is sold after this tour.
Also Jannakopulosz ( 23º and 11º as helper in TIR stages + 26º MSR ) and Lodolini ( 21º E3H + 21º DDV + 18º stage 3 ITZ ) are sold.


Itzulia Basque Country ;
Nicolay Løvdal did great in this little tour : 
excellent 4º stage 1, surprising 2º stage 2, 79º stage 3 with help in all sections, 9º stage 4, and a very unexpected solo victory in stage 5.
Thanks to this great stage 5 victory,  Løvdal moved up many places in the GC and he even almost won Itzulia !
Itzulia top 10 GC =
1    Oscar Marcos   27   IKIBASQUE   0: 00"   
2    Nicolay Løvdal   31   SPORTLIFE   0: 05"   
3    Kevin Bush   28   CC_Porco_Jones   0: 09"   
4    Anthony Hilton   31   CaptainOrange   0: 19"   
5    Steinar Jonsson   31   Ciclastur   0: 30"   
6    Leon Vonk   30   SentinelChickens   0: 36"   
7    Sergey Rodionov   26   FrançaiseDesJeux   1: 01"   
8    Angus Coleman   29   FaltososDeChigre   1: 06"   
9    Kahraman Schwallie   31   MortoviaCycling   1: 06"   
10    Herbert Verburg   31   KunTeam   1: 09"   

[Vos]

Now the focus is on the point rich classic races. Again SPORTLIFE has no real contenders, just like in the previous classic races of this season.
Although the sold Lodolini scored (without TC bonus) a few points in E3H (21º) and DDV (21º).
The also sold Jannakopulosz scored a few points in MSR (26º), the first time he managed to score points in that not for him suited race.

Unfortunately no contenders at all for Paris Roubaix, and for the upcoming 3 hills classic races a cheap silver hills specialist is bought.
Hopefully he can score a few points. Today I invested also 80k in a silver helper to make the chance of finishing top30 a little bit bigger.
But that will be very difficult. The hills classic selection of SPORTLIFE =
31 Heilmanis ( teamcaptain )
32 Ojake ( helper )
The new bought hillsclimber VanDerVlies and the new bought 21yo training project Rubiera will be helpers too (if they can help, probably not).
Very low start numbers because my team is to my big surprise 4th in 1A at the moment.
But my team will drop many places after the upcoming 4 classic races.

[Sjiz]

You are doing great so far Vos!

TeamRHB had some dissapointing races. We lost hope of finishing top 3 this season and that hurt. Now we are trying to scratch back and get into a positive flow again. Itzulia went OK and we were able to get some points there. Luckily Verbeek is still riding for our team and he finally got his second Amstel win and his 7th classic in total. Very happy with that.

He is now record holder for most wins in all Ardennes classics. Together with his world championship makes him te best hiller in the history of CFF3. The AGR victory was also his 25th on the highest level. He is now 4th behind the terrific Bentinck (51 wins), Travin (44 wins) and Pierre (36 wins). All 4 incredible riders. But please dont tell him this, he needs to rider Flecha and Lieja still.

[Vos]

Thanks Sjiz 
You are doing great too, especially with Verbeek ; after his excellent AGR victory, even an amazing solo victory in Flèche Wallonie !   
Good luck in La Doyenne, maybe he can win that too (and again). That would look awesome on his already very impressive palmares.

Amstel Gold Race ;
1º  Verbeek ( TeamRHB )
20º     Helmains
Flèche Wallone ;
1º  Verbeek ( TeamRHB )
21º     Helmains
Excellent results of this silver SPORTLIFE hills specialist.

In AGR he even had help of 3 teammates in the first hills section (s3), but in FW he had to do it on his own after help in flat section 1.
Of course, after AGR selling his 2nd best helper Anthonisen ánd even firing his best helper Ojake, that did not help Helmains in FW.
Most likely that did not matter in the result. The bad director with 12 on one-day-races has probably a more negative influence.
LBL will be more difficult to score points due to the low stamina of Helmains.
Hopefully hillsclimber VanDerVlies ( and maybe the 21yo Rubiera ) is good enough to return / help in s2, then Helmains has a chance.

[Sjiz]

Lets see if he can complete the triple. That would be nice.

[Vos]

It happend just once before that a cyclist won all 3 classic hills races in one season ;
Gascogne Carrere ( Flyvende_hjul ) did that in season 6.
Doing the same in season 13 is more impressive due to much more competition now.

[Sjiz]

Thanks for looking it up, i was about to do it myself

Flecha was a strange race though. Many favourites lost contact and the top 10 was filled with surprises. Makes me extra happy that Verbeek did do what i expected of him.

[Sjiz]

No triple for Verbeek. A great race by Bronx who made a great attack and took the win. Still a good campaign for Verbeek. Again 2 wins and a 2nd place. Now Loinaz can start his season.

[Vos]

Liège–Bastogne–Liège ;
12º  Helmains
In a bit of odd tactic a more than excellent result, also thanks to hillsclimber VanDerVlies who did a surprising great job in the first 3 sections.
Helmains proved to be a good last-minute buy (of 612k) for these hills classic races. He scored a total of 295 points, way more than I expected.

And it is possible that he will ride the Giro too as helper for GC contender Samsonov, who is not riding Romandie.
Unfortunately Romandie is not a suited tour for the nr2 GC Itzulia, silver tour rider Nicolay Løvdal. He goes for a good stage 2 result.
I have a strange Romandie selection, because none of my climbers is selected for stage 4.
Well, so far the little tours in this season are going very well for my team, hopefully in Romandie also a few good results and enough points.

[Vos]

Unfortunately Romandie is not a suited tour for the nr2 GC Itzulia, silver tour rider Nicolay Løvdal.

Tour de Romandie
stage 1 ; 108º Løvdal on 2:23" ( ! ) --> with a mechanical breakdown in the crucial section 5.
stage 2 ; 27º Løvdal on 0:59" --> bad race, gambled and lost because he started too slow.
stage 3 ; 74º Løvdal on 3:07" --> again not a good tactical race because he was already isolated in section 3.

So far a very bad tour of Løvdal / or better said ; of his manager.
Løvdal has to ride a very good stage 4 to maybe squeeze a few GC points out of this Romandie. At the moment he is 25º GC on 2:38"
His (free role) team mate Ibarrola is even better ranked ; 21º GC on 2:16" what is 8 seconds behind the number 20.
Hopefully Løvdal and/or Ibarrola can score a few GC points in Romandie, despite a free role in stage 5.

Because that final stage is for my sprinters, to try to defend the honor of my team in this so far not succesfull little tour.
Although there was a good result of my Australian flat TT-specialist,
who showed here that he should have no problems with the 2 little hills in the WC time trial in Lisbon at the end of this season.
stage 1 ; 6º Bell
Of course, so far just one top10 stage result in a little tour, that is not SPORTLIFE-worthy. All pressure on the sprinters now.

[Vos]

Tour de Romandie ( part 2 )
stage 4 ;
6º  Løvdal
16º  Ibarrola ( free role )
stage 5 ;
3º Lebrun
17º  Perea ( helper )

Excellent results in the final 2 stages.
Løvdal ( 14º GC ) and Ibarrola ( 18º GC ) scored even some GC points. After all, a good little tour of my team.

[Vos]

1º Samsonov 
25º  Beck ( helper )
28º  Løvdal ( helper )

Great victory ! Because Samsonov could not challenge any favorites.
But he proved in previous season (2º) already that he likes to race in Frankfurt.
This is the very first classic race victory ever of SPORTLIFE ! 

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

After winning Eschborn-Frankfurt the expectation for the Giro is sky-high ; GC podium. Hopefully it is a realistic goal.
This is the team that will try to make that possible :

41 Samsonov ( 31 ), GC contender
42 Beck ( 26 ), allround
43 Lebrun ( 28 ), sprint
44 Washington ( 31 ), climb
45 Helmains ( 31 ), hills

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

Halfway the Giro my team did not score many points ;
in stage 2 an excellent 3º place of Samsonov, and in stage 4 the climb TT a 22º place of Washington.
But the goal is the GC, and it looks like a very fierce GC battle at the moment ; the top 15 GC within one minute !   


stage winners ;
Stage 1 = Ismel Kaloev  ( Luka_Warriors )
Stage 2 = Mazim Pugovkin  ( IKIBASQUE )
Stage 3 = Miksa Pelle  ( IntellinetCyclingFF )
Stage 4 = Mauricio Parra  ( CC_Porco_Jones )
Stage 5 = Holger Wirth  ( Thorboassonarvesen )

TOP 20 GC after 5 stages ;
1 Sven WinklerPrins   30   WinterIsComing   0: 00"   
2 Rafael Carlos Loinaz   31   TeamRHB   0: 02"   
3 Oliver Bru   31   BorinotTeam   0: 06"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Sandis Stabulnieks   28   FaltososDeChigre   0: 10"
5    Adao Baiao   27   ProCyclingTeam10   0: 30"   
6    Mannie Collins   30   Cabrasverdes   0: 30"   
7    Espen Valgren   26   SentinelChickens   0: 31"   
8    Lazare Pires   26   FrançaiseDesJeux   0: 35"   
9    Marzio Pantani   31   Wiggo_pupils   0: 39"   
10    Dinar Samsonov   31   SPORTLIFE   0: 41"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Adam Roethlisberger   31   Valderend   0: 49"   
12    Leonid Foros   31   CC_Porco_Jones   0: 50"   
13    Gordon Jackson   29   MarvelProCycling    0: 50"   
14    Denis Usov   31   HorsCategorieProTeam   0: 52"   
15    Afonso Rio   24   OphiukoCT   0: 59"   
16    Diego Macia   31   ProdopingPong   1: 23"   
17    Norbert Buijs   25   BLOEMENAANDEMITTE   1: 35"   
18    Steven Pillig   31   KunTeam   1: 37"   
19    Nicolas Gaspoz   31   MortoviaCycling   1: 39"   
20    Chester Myers   31   Cremy   1: 46"