Season 13

[Sjiz]

VanderVaart did what he had to en finished a solid top 10. Now Logins can go again.

[Vos]

Ibarrola was not happy that I decided that the teamcaptain role went to Basov in hillscobble stage 2, because he had the yellow jersey.
2 helpers stayed with Basov the whole race, that was good, but his result shows he is not suited at all for this stage ; 144º on 3:56"

Probably the more smart choice would have been to make Ibarrola the teamcaptain, who lost precious time in a free role.
But Ibarrola has to ride (almost) all stages in a free role anyway, what makes scoring a few GC points very uncertain.
Maybe Ibarrola gets his only chance in hill-sprint stage 5, because Basov sucks in that stage even more as in this stage.

For now, Ibarrola and Basov are 11th and 12th in the GC, in exactly the same time, 1:26" behind new GC leader Nordnes ( Cabrasverdes ).
But I assume Basov is now more fit and more motivated for the next mountain stage 3, due to his teamcaptain role in stage 2.

Funny to mention about stage 2, that was won by Jackson ( Zatarra ) ; also here 5 out of the top 6 are Dutch-speaking managers.

[Zatarra]

Thanks to Jackson, indeed, Zatarra scored the first victory of the season. It's a tough season with several unlucky tactics/results in some races that would otherwise would be the scoring stages for Zatarra. The cobblehills classics were very unfortunate resulting in a tough relegation battle for the team.

It's the last full training season of our GC riders that currently are 23 years old. 5 of them have silver tour icons now. I expect three of them to reach gold before they turn 24. Kasper van der Goot is the most promising. He has no TT-skills whatsoever, so that he will reach gold is a sign to the GC riders that in non-TT tours a new competitor has risen. His 14th place in the Dauphiné on his 23rd already is a sign of that.

Hopefully Thale last 24 trainings (or so), he will improve just enough to reach gold (to increase value). And with a gold tour icon and just 17 on TT I let you all guess his other skills .

Now we just need to hope and pray that he can ride the TdF next season.

[Vos]

Good luck this season, Zatarra, I hope your team stays in 1A.
And indeed, an interesting TdF next season ; perhaps the first time the TdF has no time trial.
And 6 (!) mountain stages, even one more as this TdF. Talking about this TdF  ;

TdF stage 3 ;
1º  Basov   
19º  Ibarrola  on 0:58" ( free role )
20º  Miorlin  ( helper )
Nice to see how my team did in this mountain stage, especially in s3, and again an excellent victory of Basov.
Ibarrola dropped 2 places in the GC, now 13th.
Basov moved up in the GC, now 7th on 0:23" behind new GC leader Rosland ( WinterIsComing ),
who finished as 2º in this stage on 0:00" together with Basov and Vystavkin.
But Rosland and Vystavkin had to close the gap of 0:08" to Basov in the downhill, and that made them too tired to outsprint Basov.

[Vos]

TdF stage 4 ;
2º  Basov, solo on 0:11"
27º  Miorlin ( helper )
No victory this time, because CaptainOrange had a perfect tactic with a helper who was even good enough to be in the 5 man breakaway of s4.
Unfortunately main helper Miorlin was not good enough to do that. Well, he is the nr 333 and Basov the nr 205 in the golden climb ranking.
So, again an excellent result of not-favorite Basov, finishing solo as 2nd behind stage winner and new GC leader Palmer ( CaptainOrange ).

In the next hills-sprint stage Basov will lose much time, probably a few minutes.
After that ; 3 TT stages. I assume those will have a big impact on the GC.

[Vos]

TdF stage 5 ;
1º  Cruyff ( TilburgTerriërs )
- - - - - - - - - -
36º  Ibarrola  on 1:16" ( free role )
117º  Basov on 4:50" ( teamcaptain, with mechanical breakdown in s5 )

WOW, what a big time difference !
And I'm almost sure the mechanical breakdown did not even matter, because Basov was in the wheel of helper Miorlin in all 5 sections.
Well, I knew in advance that such a hills-sprint stage probably can cause an unrealistic big time difference,
and Basov dropped many places in the GC ; at the moment 12th on 4:39"
Ibarrola did remarkably well in this stage and he moved up some GC places, he is now 9th on 3:24"

TOP 20 GC Tour de France, after 5 stages ( funny remark ; all 5 stage winners have a Dutch-speaking manager ) ;
1  Allan Palmer   30   CaptainOrange   0: 00"   
2   Aleksandr Menke   26   FaltososDeChigre   0: 59"   
3   Jørund Nordnes   30   Cabrasverdes   1: 46"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Tom Cabanas   31   MortoviaCycling   2: 46"   
5    Torbjørn Rosland   31   WinterIsComing   2: 47"   
6    Murat Aeschliman   26   Aspigarri   2: 53"   
7    István Szekér   31   HorsCategorieProTeam   3: 08"   
8    Tjerk Tusveld   31   SentinelChickens   3: 19"
9    Marceliano Ibarrola   31   SPORTLIFE   3: 24"   
10    Aubin Vidament   30   Valderend   3: 38"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Marc Nolten   30   ProCyclingTeam10   4: 29"   
12    Daniel Basov   30   SPORTLIFE   4: 39"   
13    Bernhard Niklitschek   31   CaptainOrange   5: 08"   
14    Fraser Morris   30   Luka_Warriors   5: 27"   
15    Jaime Roman   29   QuintoYtapa   5: 50"   
16    Giorgio Coppi   31   Valderend   5: 56"   
17    Artus Vystavkin   27   IKIBASQUE   6: 36"   
18    Massimiliano Pandolfi   31   WinterIsComing   6: 44"   
19    Edward VanOranjeNassau   31   CaptainOrange   6: 56"   
20    Andis Logins   31   TeamRHB   7: 02"

[cabrasverdes]

Palmer has a good lead and there are still 2 mountain stages to go. Let's see how the classification looks after the 130 km of time trial to come. Then we will see what Nordnes can aspire to. So far he has done a decent Tour but there has been some mistakes.
Good luck to everyone

[Sjiz]

Logins did a good stage. He lost a little, 7 minutes, and we expect futher losses in the time trials. After that we will see how he will bounce back!

[Vos]

TdF stage 6 ;
1º  Levin ( Aurora_Australis )
4º  Kangert

TdF stage 7 ;
1º  Rosario ( KunTeam )
15º  Ibarrola
18º  Basov

TdF stage 8 ;
1º  Levin ( Aurora_Australis )
7º  Kangert --> with mechanical breakdown in s3


TOP 20 GC Tour de France, after 8 stages ;
1  Jørund Nordnes   30   Cabrasverdes      0: 00"
2   Allan Palmer   30   CaptainOrange      0: 00"   
3   Aleksandr Menke   26   FaltososDeChigre      0: 21"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Murat Aeschliman   26   Aspigarri   0: 49"   
5    Tjerk Tusveld   31   SentinelChickens   1: 21"   
6    Torbjørn Rosland   31   WinterIsComing   1: 32"   
7    István Szekér   31   HorsCategorieProTeam   1: 46"   
8    Tom Cabanas   31   MortoviaCycling   2: 20"   
9    Marceliano Ibarrola   31   SPORTLIFE   2: 21"   
10    Aubin Vidament   30   Valderend   2: 42"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Daniel Basov   30   SPORTLIFE   3: 57"   
12    Romeu Rosario   31   KunTeam   4: 59"   
13    Bernhard Niklitschek   31   CaptainOrange   5: 32"   
14    Massimiliano Pandolfi   31   WinterIsComing   5: 41"   
15    Jaime Roman   29   QuintoYtapa   6: 17"   
16    Marc Nolten   30   ProCyclingTeam10   6: 25"   
17    Oliver De Schrijver   31   MarvelProCycling    7: 07"   
18    Peeter Toode   31   Cabrasverdes   7: 21"   
19    Artus Vystavkin   27   IKIBASQUE   7: 22"   
20    Jacopo Palandrani   31   galegospolabici   7: 23"   

It will be two exciting last mountain stages. Good luck everyone !^^

[Vos]

TdF stage 9 ;
1º  Rosland ( WinterIsComing )  0:00"
2º  Stegmaier ( IKIBASQUE )  0:00"
3º  Basov  0:00"
4º  Logins ( TeamRHB )  0:11"
5º  Palmer ( CaptainOrange )  0:23"
- - - - -
14º   Nordnes ( Cabrasverdes )  1:10"
17º  Miorlin
25º  Menke ( FaltososDeChigre )  1:34"

Unfortunately and as expected ; the 24yo Nyheim and 9-star climber Miorlin were not good enough to help in s4.
Although Nyheim had a slightly better GV for this stage as his teamcaptain Basov, but Nyheim his very low xp is probably the negative factor,
and the reason Miorlin gets the hands icons in every mountain stage of this Tour de France.
Basov tried an (unplanned) solo attack in s4, but the 10 seconds ahead were not good enough to take the stage victory, although it was close.

Well, a 3rd place is also an excellent result for a not-favorite.
Also nice ; Basov secured a top10 final GC in this stage and there is a sponsordeal of 611k ( top10 GC ).
To me surprising ; Ibarrola could have finished final top10 easily when he would have been the teamcaptain instead of all stages in a free role.

It seems Rosland secured a final GC podiumplace with his stage victory.
Looking at these stage 9 results, he even moves up to 2nd GC in the final stage ; but it might be a fierce Norwegian battle between him and Nordnes.
As it looks now it seems certain that they both will finish on the final GC podium, and that Palmer is going to win the Tour de France.

Maybe I'm wrong in my predictions/statements, and the final mountain stage has surprising results.
We will know after the climb to the Pla-d'Adet in the Pyrenees. The finish is at 1.680 meters altitude.


TOP 20 GC Tour de France, after 9 stages ;
1  Allan Palmer   30   CaptainOrange   0: 00"   
2   Jørund Nordnes   30   Cabrasverdes   0: 46"   
3   Torbjørn Rosland   31   WinterIsComing   1: 09"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Aleksandr Menke   26   FaltososDeChigre   1: 31"   
5    Murat Aeschliman   26   Aspigarri   2: 00"   
6    Tjerk Tusveld   31   SentinelChickens   2: 55"   
7    István Szekér   31   HorsCategorieProTeam   2: 57"   
8    Aubin Vidament   30   Valderend   3: 28"   
9    Tom Cabanas   31   MortoviaCycling   3: 31"   
10    Daniel Basov   30   SPORTLIFE   3: 33"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Marceliano Ibarrola   31   SPORTLIFE   3: 55"   
12    Bernhard Niklitschek   31   CaptainOrange   6: 19"   
13    Romeu Rosario   31   KunTeam   6: 33"   
14    Massimiliano Pandolfi   31   WinterIsComing   7: 14"   
15    Marc Nolten   30   ProCyclingTeam10   7: 59"   
16    Peeter Toode   31   Cabrasverdes   8: 08"   
17    Artus Vystavkin   27   IKIBASQUE   8: 09"   
18    Jacopo Palandrani   31   galegospolabici   8: 33"   
19    Jaime Roman   29   QuintoYtapa   9: 24"
20    Julen Menendez   27   QuintoYtapa   9: 51"

Good luck in the final stage everyone ! 

[Vos]

TdF stage 10 ;
1º  Palachev ( KunTeam )  0:00"
2º  Basov  0:00"
3º  Rosland ( WinterIsComing )  0:00"
4º  Logins ( TeamRHB )  0:09"
5º  Palmer ( CaptainOrange )  0:09"
6º  Cubero ( FrançaiseDesJeux )  0:09"
- - - - -
10º  Nordnes ( Cabrasverdes )  0:38" --> with lightbulb
19º  Menke ( FaltososDeChigre )  0:48"
28º  Miorlin

I was hoping Miorlin was good enough to help in s4 due to his weather bonus.
In a 04350 he did a good job, but the full power in s4 was just not good enough.
Maybe it almost was, because he was in a chasing group of 4, just 0:16" behind the breakaway group of 6.
A 2nd place now for Basov, but he moved up 4 GC places thanks to this result.

KunTeam and CaptainOrange had still a helper in that s4 breakawaygroup,
and of course 1st favorite Niklitschek was helping his teammate Palmer to secure the Tour de France victory.

Congratulations Rico ! 
Palmer is now the most successful TdF cyclist, he won 3 times ( in 3 different teams ; HTCHungria, Codex and CaptainOrange ).
The most successful TdF team is now CaptainOrange, with 3 TdF victories ( 2x Hilton and 1x Palmer ).

Also congratulations to the podiumplaces of WinterIsComing and Cabrasverdes.
The top 3 of this Tour de France is also the current top 3 in division 1A, and they all had a 2nd cyclist in the top20 GC for some extra points.


TOP 20 FINAL GC Tour de France, season 13 ;
1  Allan Palmer   30   CaptainOrange   0: 00"   
2   Torbjørn Rosland   31   WinterIsComing   0: 59"   
3   Jørund Nordnes   30   Cabrasverdes   1: 16"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Aleksandr Menke   26   FaltososDeChigre   2: 10"   
5    Murat Aeschliman   26   Aspigarri   2: 58"   
6    Daniel Basov   30   SPORTLIFE   3: 24"   
7    István Szekér   31   HorsCategorieProTeam   3: 55"   
8    Aubin Vidament   30   Valderend   4: 07"   
9    Tjerk Tusveld   31   SentinelChickens   4: 12"   
10    Tom Cabanas   31   MortoviaCycling   4: 48"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Marceliano Ibarrola   31   SPORTLIFE   5: 13"   
12    Bernhard Niklitschek   31   CaptainOrange   6: 58"   
13    Artus Vystavkin   27   IKIBASQUE   8: 29"   
14    Romeu Rosario   31   KunTeam   8: 30"   
15    Peeter Toode   31   Cabrasverdes   8: 47"   
16    Marc Nolten   30   ProCyclingTeam10   8: 57"   
17    Massimiliano Pandolfi   31   WinterIsComing   9: 11"
18    Jacopo Palandrani   31   galegospolabici   9: 51"   
19    Julen Menendez   27   QuintoYtapa   10: 21"   
20    Cristian Speciale   31   Zatarra   10: 43"   

[Rico]

Thanks for the kind words and for keeping everyone up to date during this Tour de France, Vos!

Palmer had very good help from his teammates in all the non-TTs and especially Niklitschek did a really nice job in the 5 climbing stages. With this help Palmer managed to keep the time difference between him and Rosland limited in the mountains and was able to create a big enough gap in the two other stages. Now we will go for stages in the BBT and then Hilton will try to get some more grand tour success in the Vuelta.

[WinterIsComing]

Congrats Rico. Very good TdF with Palmer and your helpers. Like you said, I wasn't able to win back enough time in the mountains to compensate for the big loss in cobb-hill and hill-sprint. Fair enough, have to settle for 2nd place with Rosland in Big Tour once again, just like in Giro with WinklerPrins. I have no hope to really challenge Hilton in the Vuelta, but I will go out and fight for every point of course.

[Aurora Australis]

Haven't commented for some time, just have to say that I'm thankful for the Tour results, as it'll mean I'll be in 1st Division for my aging cyclists (& mine) final full season.

[Vos]

1º  Caan ( 25yo, Blackhole )
5º  VanDerVlies
21º  Samsonov

Excellent result of my Dutch hillsclimber who could not challenge any favorites and who finished on 0:00" in the front group of just 7 cyclists.
Maybe also remarkable that two 25yo's are on the podium in SanSebastian.
It will be an interesting next season with the decreasing skills of the enormous first generation, ánd the many upcoming young top cyclists.

SPORTLIFE has already a new record in season points after SSB. My team never scored so many points in one season.
And a 4th place at the moment, but I don't expect this record will be broken ( my team was twice before 4th in the final 1A ranking ).
The numbers 1 and 2 are way too far ahead, although the nr3 is "in sight", currently 997 points ahead.
But I estimate that my Vuelta selection is not good enough, and I have no hills specialist for the WC roadrace.
Dropping to place 5 is more a possibility and I even think that is presumable. Well, 4th or 5th does not matter, only the 3rd place is interesting.

Let's see how the BinckBank Tour goes. Unfortunately no GC contender in the BBT.
All hope is on good stage results of Jørgensen, although I'm not sure if he is really suited for stage 3 to Rotterdam.
And I expect enough extra points in the time trial.

  selection SPORTLIFE

31 Jørgensen ( 31 ), flat-cobble
32 Bradbury ( 29 ), TT
33 Kangert ( 29 ), TT
34 Redondo ( 31 ), hill-sprint
35 Yarkin ( 31 ), flat-cobble

Good luck everyone !