Season 14

[Vos]

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!!

Congratulations, Kirin, great victory of your 25yo Sergey Babak ! 

[Sjiz]

A good day for my team. This morning Loinaz took 5th and a little time, this evening poldoja took 9th and Loinaz a little time on a few competitors (except that annoying Palmer) and just now Verbeek won the final in the cup and with that he secure the first prize of the season. I was the big favourite but still had to do it. Mlb did a great cup but was onfortunate with the draw. Still well done!

[Vos]

Great price ! Congratulations and very well done Sjiz ! 

Also well done to Mlb and congratulations with the silver CFF Cup ! 

Although Mlb lost the CFF Cup final, one hour earlier he won a great price :
Angus Friend ( Mlb ) = individual NT world champion ! 

[Mlb]

Thanks Sjiz and Vos! 

And congrats also to both of you.
Sjiz congrats with the cup victory, i tried my best but Berry is no competition for the great Verbeek.
And Vos congrats with your 2° place with Australia in the NT championship, and many thanks, because Angus won the individual NT jersey thanks to your great tactics.
   

[Sjiz]

Thanks guys!

Another good stage. No time loss on Hilton in a cobble race is good. In fact, no time loss on any GC guy and almost a minute gained on Pires. Thats good news and we went up one place in the GC and are now 5th.

[Vos]

Thanks Mlb 

stage 6 Vuelta ;
33º  Tusveld  on 0:47"
The tactics of best helper Beck were too risky, he started too slow, and never saw his teamcaptain in this race.
Also hills specialist Simon could not help despite a 4 EP start. Tusveld had only help in s1 of flat TT specialist Bell.

So, Tusveld had to do it on his own again almost the whole race.
He proved in hill s4 he is not very suited for this stage, because despite full power he dropped from the front peleton into the 2nd chasing peleton on 0:23" and without sprint icon and due to not much energy left, he lost more time in s5.
He dropped one place and now 4ºGC.

stage 7 Vuelta ;
36º  Tusveld  on 1:25"
Before this race it was clear it was all about damage control ; no sprint icon, no cobble icon, and no helpers.
Tusveld surprised me by doing pretty well, and he even moved up one place and now again 3ºGC.

Let's hope that Tusveld has some good help in the next stage 8, because so far this Vuelta the helpers are performing very badly.
What has a big impact on the GC ranking of Tusveld.

Another ranking is also interesting ; in 1A TeamRHB is just 91 (!) points behind ( and CaptainOrange has a big lead of 946 points ).
A very close and a very exciting silver 1A cup battle. What makes the (also close) GC battle between Loinaz and Tusveld even more fun.

[Vos]

  GC after 7 stages :
1 Aksel Blix   27   Aspigarri   0: 00"   
2     Anthony Hilton   32   CaptainOrange   0: 18"
3     Tjerk Tusveld   32   SPORTLIFE   0: 36"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4     Yvo VanStraalen    25   Combuijs    0: 50"   
5     Rafael Carlos Loinaz   32   TeamRHB   1: 13"
6     Lazare Pires   27   FrançaiseDesJeux   1: 17"
7     Dario Fernandez   32   Luka_Warriors   2: 37"   
8     Allan Frøyland   31   Periquitos   2: 39"   
9     Edward VanPutten   31   SentinelChickens   3: 18"   
10     Richard Rogers   31   Facha_Bartolo   3: 30"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Nathan Lust   28   FaltososDeChigre   3: 47"   
12    Adam Zipp   25   azerite   3: 52"   
13    John Footman   30   CC_Porco_Jones   3: 57"   
14    Aleksandr Menke   27   FaltososDeChigre   4: 50"   
15    Jaime Roman   30   QuintoYtapa   4: 51"   
16    Oliver Bru   32   BorinotTeam   4: 57"   
17    Elia Del Piero   32   Sonfuga   6: 33"   
18    Norbert Buijs   26   BLOEMENAANDEMITTE   7: 05"   
19    Nestor Cabrera   26   galegospolabici   7: 06"   
20    Pedro Kranz   32   Oloteam   7: 22"   

[Sjiz]

A surprise result for Loinaz, a great podium. It is a shame that now i finally understand how to race with him, he is old and in his last season at my team. So far i dont think i made a mistake this Vuelta and in Suisse it was the same.
For the GC this stage did nothing and for the podium battle of 1a it also didnt do a lot as Vos, me and Ricardo finished 2,3 and 4. Still a good stage, better then expected.

[Vos]

stage 8 Vuelta ;
2º  Tusveld  -->  his best race result ever ! 
16º  Beck

Tusveld is for sale :
https://www.cyclingforfun.org/cff/vision.php?ciclistaid=8990

[Vos]

stage 9 Vuelta ;
42º  Tusveld  on 1:10"
He had good help in the first 3 sections, probably the reason he had a good race.
Although he lost 5sec. to Loinaz, 14sec. to VanStraalen, 19sec. to Blix and 28sec. to Hilton.

At the moment Tusveld is still 3ºGC, now on 0:55" behind GC leader Blix.
But I guess that VanStraalen and Loinaz will overtake Tusveld in the final stage, so I expect a dissapointing drop of 2 places.

The real damage of this tactical bad Vuelta was already done in earlier stages,
in my opinion Tusveld could have been the GC leader now, with at least more than 1 minute ahead of Blix and Hilton.
Perhaps the managers of Aspigarri and CaptainOrange made many mistakes too, if not, Tusveld could/should have been the Vuelta winner.

Maybe this bad Vuelta has big consequences in the final 1A ranking.
Of course, looking at the whole season, more things that can cost a place in the final 1A ranking, for example not having a cobblehills cyclist.
Anyway, I'm ready for a big dissapointment, but it was (and is) fun to compete high in the GC of the Vuelta.

[Sjiz]

A little dissapointing result. The domestiques did a fine job but the result was not what i hoped. I guess that Loinaz just wasnt better. Not enough time gained and i even lost some on other. We did gain some time on Pires which is good news. With only one stage remaining it appears that the gap behind Loinaz is sufficient and we can look forward and hope to gain some places. That would have to be at the cost of two Dutchies, Tusveld and Van Straalen. I am not so sure that Loinaz will be able to pass them at all, 30 seconds is a lot. For now i expect to remain 5th.

[Vos]

Well, Tusveld and Loinaz are for sale, so you can compare their hills GV.
Loinaz should be much better, but maybe it is not entirely sure yet if he can win 0:32" compared to Tusveld in stage 10.
Although my "worries" are huge. All hope is on VanStraalen now, that he stays ahead of Loinaz. I guess I have to buy some Combuijs beer.

Because Loinaz 4ºGC and Tusveld 5ºGC = 50 points difference.
And Loinaz 3ºGC and Tusveld 5ºGC = 150 points difference, what is way too much.

Especially because now I see on the TL how good your cyclists are, except for your 2 hills specialists, but they are notorious to me anyway.
Also I knew already that you have a pretty good Lombardia selection, but a little surprising to me is to see your TT specialist Spiker.
He should be good enough to score a good amount of points, ánd he has an active weather icon ( luckily just 1 is active, he has 3 ! ).
Still it is a very exciting silver 1A cup battle, and after seeing your cyclists, I'm counting even more on many points in the WC TT.
I estimate those TT points are very needed, because I fear your hills specialists the most.

But first step 1 in the battle ; VanStraalen ( Combuijs ) has to prevent that Loinaz scores 100 points extra in the GC.
And funny+exciting that the difference between our teams is very little at this moment, just 105 points. 
Whatever happens, we already can assume we achieved our season goals of an 1A podiumplace. The nr4 is far behind. 

[Vos]

stage 10 Vuelta ;
11º  Simon
48º  Tusveld  on 1:00"

A much better outcome as expected after stage 9 ; Tusveld finishes on the final GC podium as 3º.
Despite this good result, it was not a good Vuelta because the mistakes were much bigger than the time of 1:32" behind Vuelta winner Blix.

And perhaps a chance on the 1A championship was possible if Tusveld would have won. ( 500 points difference compared to now )
Now 954 points behind 1A leader CaptainOrange, instead of 454 points behind if Tusveld had a good Vuelta.
Luckily there is still something to battle for, the silver 1A cup.
At the moment 184 points ahead on TeamRHB. Next battle ground = Lombardia.

[Sjiz]

A very good race of Loinaz. Unfortunately Tusveld and Van Straalen had a too large lead and Loinaz stayed 5th as i thought (but not hoped ). Poldoja did a good race and was with Loinaz for the first 3 sections as expected and finished 4th as domestique. He is ready for Lisboa.

The way it looks is that it will be close but i think i'll end up 3rd this season. But we still have 3 races to go, 3 races with a lot of points on the line.

[Aurora Australis]

The way it looks is that it will be close but i think i'll end up 3rd this season. But we still have 3 races to go, 3 races with a lot of points on the line.

I'm sure you'll keep 3rd, Valderend doesn't have a suitable TTer.
I'd suggest that Vos could be a slight favourite at this point in time.