Season 14

[Vos]

stage 4 BBT ;
10º  Majoros ( free role )
14º  Lebrun ( free role )
- - - - -
49º  Szarvas  on 0:27"

In retrospective, looking at how this race went ; too safe tactics / probably all my cyclists used a bit too many energy in the first 4 sections.
Perhaps it was even possible to ride in a risky tactic in order to get teamcaptain Szarvas finishing in the first group.
Or perhaps that was too risky. Now I will never know with my tactical choice based on that he would finish in the 2nd group for sure.
This stage 4 most likely could have been better, although not a bad race ;
the free roles scored enough points, and also as planned, helper VanGroningen was the whole race together with teamcaptain Szarvas.

Szarvas moved up 2 places and now 16ºGC on 1:48"
Hopefully the final cobble stage goes very well and he can move up a few places.
Every point is needed to get the expected division 1A gap behind TeamRHB as small as possible after this BBT.
As it looks now, it will be a very small gap.
Both teams in a fierce silver 1A cup battle, narrowed the gap towards CaptainOrange. Although the 1A leader has still a way too big gap.

[Vos]

Hmmm, just noticed this ;
Leó Szarvas ( 32 ) dropped to silver this morning.
His Vuelta selection was already doubtfull, maybe this means he will not ride that big tour despite every point is needed.
Instead of Szarvas, perhaps an extra helper for Vuelta teamcaptain Tusveld will be selected.
Stage 5 BBT might be the last race of Szarvas in my team, who was bought halfway this season and a good investment of just 162k.

[Vos]

Magnificent final GC victory of Anders Jørgensen in the BinckBank Tour, Sjiz ! Congratulations with this very impressive result ! 

[Sjiz]

Magnificent final GC victory of Anders Jørgensen in the BinckBank Tour, Sjiz ! Congratulations with this very impressive result ! 

Thanks, he had good morale after finishing second in Roubaix

It was a very close race and i enjoyed being the hunter for once. I didnt really expect the win anymore, not after the close second stage. But luckily this one was tougher. In the end Jorgenson had to give the stage to Friend. He couldnt win the sprint after pulling so hard and long on the front. Still a very good result and only my second ever GC win.

All in all this was a very good BBT. I hoped for 3 stage wins and the GC. But 1st, 2nd and 3rd and the GC is something i am happy with The gap to Captain is now 700 points, which isnt much but at the same time it is . Vos is close behind still but it seems the top 3 is set, maybe not the order. Although i expect Captain to pull away after the Vuelta I will try my best. Loinaz will have to prove his worth.

[Vos]

stage 5 BBT ;
9º  Szarvas  on 0:23"
An excellent stage what caused moving up several places and Szarvas ended up as 10ºGC. Better as expected.

Also TeamRHB did better as expected, Jørgensen  even won the BBT !
So, due to this GC victory the gap towards TeamRHB is much bigger as expected, but now 195 points behind, that is still a little gap.
Next "battle ground" =  Vuelta a España !

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Tusveld has GC ambition and he will be the teamcaptain in all stages.
Possibly that Simon gets a free role in stage 10 to score extra points. And Bell should score extra points in TT stages 2 and 3.
So it mainly depends on how well Tusveld will do, in order to keep on battling for the 2nd place in division 1A.

021 Tusveld ( 32 ), tour / teamcaptain
022 Bell ( 31 ), TT / helper
023 Beck ( 27 ), tour / helper
024 Simon ( 31 ), hills / helper
025 Basov ( 31 ), climb / helper

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

Climb legend Nicolai Miorlin returned to SPORTLIFE. 
He was just 8 days out of my team to ride the Tour de France in the 2nd division.
Miorlin will retire now and he gets the job as assistent manager. He will be the first cyclist in my hall of fame.

[Sjiz]

A decent start, not unhappy with 16th for Loinaz. The only problem is that he already lost time on some competitors.

[Vos]

stage 1 Vuelta ;
8º  Basov
13º  Tusveld  on 1:02"

The gap with TeamRHB decreased, and CaptainOrange increased the gap.
A few GC rivals won too much time in this stage ;
Miro, Hilton and Walker finished on 0:20", although maybe Miro and Walker are not real GC rivals ; 6º and 8º in the Tour de France.
Pires finished on 0:31" and  Blix finished on 0:41"
Del Piero and VanStraalen finished in the same time as Tusveld, who won 10 seconds on Loinaz of rival TeamRHB.

Tusveld has to make the difference in the upcoming 2 time trials ( I suspect TT is his strenght compared to many GC rivals ),
to compensate the expected time loss in other stages ( I suspect cobbles and hills are the weakness of Tusveld ).

[Vos]

stage 2 Vuelta ;
6º  Bell
21º Tusveld

stage 3 Vuelta ;
8º  Bell
23º  Tusveld

No incidents in both time trials, that is good.
As expected, Tusveld is now high ranked in the GC. Although I was hoping that he could win more time in both TT stages.

With mountain stage 1 in mind ( GC leader Blix was 0:21" faster, Pires was 0:31" faster and Hilton was 0:42" faster ),
the current GC has too small time differences.
And Tusveld has many more fierce rivals who are already now too close in the GC.
Perhaps it is more clear to me what Tusveld his GC chances are after stage 7.

But because the current GC looks great for Tusveld, let's post it already : 

  GC after 3 stages :
1 Aksel Blix   27   Aspigarri   0: 00"   
2     Dario Fernandez   32   Luka_Warriors   0: 01"   
3     Tjerk Tusveld   32   SPORTLIFE   0: 09"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4     Lazare Pires   27   FrançaiseDesJeux   0: 18"   
5     Yvo VanStraalen   25   Combuijs   0: 44"   
6     Anthony Hilton   32   CaptainOrange   0: 48"   
7     Allan Frøyland   31   Periquitos   1: 00"   
8     Rafael Carlos Loinaz   32   TeamRHB   1: 08"   
9     Richard Rogers   31   Facha_Bartolo   1: 09"   
10     Daniel Basov   31   SPORTLIFE   1: 37"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Edward VanPutten   31   SentinelChickens   1: 41"   
12    Pedro Kranz   32   Oloteam   1: 45"   
13    Aleksandr Menke   27   FaltososDeChigre   2: 04"   
14    Nestor Cabrera   26   galegospolabici   2: 06"   
15    Adam Zipp   25   azerite   2: 11"
16    Jaime Roman   30   QuintoYtapa   2: 16"   
17    Leandro Povoa   27   Moderdonia   2: 24"   
18    Alvaro Vaca   32   Kelme4ever   2: 31"   
19    Pietro Ferrara   32   Sonfuga   2: 34"   
20    Terry Montgomery   26   IntellinetCyclingFF   2: 47"

[Vos]

stage 4 Vuelta ;
12º Tusveld on 1:04"
26º Basov

Very bad race !
Tusveld was suddenly and unexpectedly isolated in s2 already, and because of that he made a big drop in s3.
Somehow helper Beck and even masterhelper Basov could not return to their teamcaptain, also not in s4.
And not just a very bad race, but also an unlucky race because Tusveld finished as first of a big group.
Just one place behind Loinaz who finished 0:21" faster.
And Tusveld should have been good enough to finish together with VanStraalen and Hilton, who both were 0:54"( ! ) faster.
Almost one minute unnecessary time loss is not good at all.

Tusveld dropped to 5ºGC on 0:41" behind GC leader Blix.
Let's hope all other Vuelta stages go much better, and let's hope this bad stage has no big consequences in the GC ánd the 1A ranking.

[Vos]

stage 5 Vuelta ;
7º  Tusveld  on 0:21"

This sounds familiar ; again section 2 did not go well, all 4 helpers dropped. I guess I'm making bad tactical choices in this Vuelta.
And perhaps also strategic bad choices, because Basov could have scored points in a free role, instead of dropping in s2 as helper.

Despite Tusveld had to do it on his own, he finished very good.
In the same group as Loinaz and Pires, but of course not good that Loinaz finished 2 places better, that is 25 points difference.
6 seconds were won on Blix and VanStraalen, and 16 seconds on Hilton and Fernandez.
Again a missed opportunity of Tusveld to win more time, although in this stage just a few seconds, the previous stage was much worse.

Tusveld moved up to 3ºGC, and if he would have had a better manager, he would have been the GC leader.
Let's see what the very different 2nd half of this Vuelta brings.
The top 8 is still close together, and maybe even more GC rivals will join the battle, or maybe they are already too far behind the top 8.

[Vos]

  GC after 5 stages :
1 Aksel Blix   27   Aspigarri   0: 00"   
2     Yvo VanStraalen    25   Combuijs    0: 23"   
3     Tjerk Tusveld   32   SPORTLIFE   0: 36"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4     Anthony Hilton   32   CaptainOrange   0: 38"   
5     Dario Fernandez   32   Luka_Warriors   0: 44"   
6     Lazare Pires   27   FrançaiseDesJeux   0: 45"
7     Rafael Carlos Loinaz   32   TeamRHB   1: 13"   
8     Allan Frøyland   31   Periquitos   1: 48"   
9     Boris Walker   24   Moderdonia   2: 50"   
10     Edward VanPutten   31   SentinelChickens   2: 51"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Daniel Basov   31   SPORTLIFE   2: 58"   
12    Adam Zipp   25   azerite   3: 00"   
13    Richard Rogers   31   Facha_Bartolo   3: 03"   
14    Pietro Ferrara   32   Sonfuga   3: 23"   
15    Elia Del Piero   32   Sonfuga   3: 24"   
16    John Footman   30   CC_Porco_Jones   3: 32"
17    Pedro Kranz   32   Oloteam   3: 38"   
18    Andy Pezet   27   Aspigarri   4: 00"   
19    Oliver Bru   32   BorinotTeam   4: 06"   
20    Herbie Steele   32   CaptainOrange   4: 12"   

[Sjiz]

A nice result voor Loinaz, not the strongeat climb er. But his domestiques rode full out in s1 and 2. Reading the Story from vos and looking at Palmer it may have had succes. I am satisfied. As we call it in Dutch: een speldenprik.

[kirin]

And there it is, my first non TT win on 1st div!!!
Zipp also managed to do decent on a free role, breaking the peloton on s2.

For the upcoming stages, we will try to win stage 8 and get the not on best shape Zipp into top10 of La Vuelta.
I don't think we need points on Worlds or Lombardia, so we will just chill and ride for experience.

Good luck to the ones that are fighting for winning 1st div or not demote!!