Season 14

[Combuijs]

Well done with Ibarrola, Vos, congratulations. Happy with the podiumplace for van Straalen!

[Vos]

Thanks Combuijs.
Well done to you too because there were many podium contenders, and the just 25yo VanStraalen must have had a very good final stage.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

After a great Paris Nice, I make it even more complicated with one more GC contender and that is Samsonov.
He should be my best GC contender for this Tirreno, but he is not in topform yet.
PN victor Ibarrola is less suited for this Tirreno, but he will be the teamcaptain in the mountains because he can score the most points there.
Perhaps Tusveld could ride a slightly better GC than Ibarrola, but I will never know now because Tusveld is riding in a free role.
What is already a better situation for him as in PN, where he had helpers roles in the 2 mountain stages.
Despite this, he finished 7th GC in PN. But also for him, I don't expect he will finish so high again.
Probably also because most GC rivals are in topform now, it could be that Tusveld and Ibarrola profited of that in the mountain stages of PN.

To avoid this time that one of the GC contenders has to ride in a helpers role again, silver tour rider Beck is selected as helper.
A last minute change instead of TT specialist Kangert, who had an active weather icon for this Tirreno ( and the upcoming Catalunya ).
He will be sold because my team is full. Now it is up to my other TT specialist to score some extra points in the TT stage.

011 Ibarrola ( 32 ), tour
012 Tusveld ( 32 ), tour
013 Samsonov ( 32 ), tour
014 Beck ( 27 ), tour ( helper )
015 Bradbury ( 30 ), TT

stage 1 Tirreno ;
11º  Ibarrola  on 0:15"
30º Tusveld ( free role ) on 0:31"
35º  Samsonov ( free role ) on 0:39"

Beck did an excellent job as helper despite he is not in topform in this Tirreno.
And a good stage result of Ibarrola. Also his GC teammates did well and were in the big s4 front peleton of 77 cyclists.
However, it seems to me this stage 1 has just relative little time differences, what is not favorable for the final GC of Ibarrola.
We will see what happens, good luck everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

After finishing 5th Ablett can continue in Italy. Last season he was 9th but i believe this parcours suits him better. He will be acompanied by Cabanas. The new addition to the squad. Also joining him are Poldoja, Verbeek and Nilsson. Lets see where we can go.

[Vos]

stage 2 Tirreno ;
17º Ibarrola  on 0:44"
66º  Tusveld ( free role )  on 2:02"
69º   Samsonov ( free role )  on 2:02"

Very bad race, and that had everything to do with an incomprehensible section 1 of Ibarrola.
He is much better in this stage than his free role mates, and even with the teamcaptain bonus and the same amount of EP,
Ibarrola was very unexpected in the same 2nd group as Tusveld and Samsonov in s1.
Of course helper Beck did not expect such a surprising slow start of his teamcaptain, what caused a tactical failure.
Beck was one group ahead in s1, s2, s3, and one group behind in s4. So he never helped.
To make this bad race of my team complete ; Tusveld had a mechanical breakdown in s5, what costs him 0:33" extra loss.

The GC does not look good ; Ibarrola had to make the difference in the mountain stages, and he did not.
Free roles Tusveld and Samsonov are already way too far behind.
But it is cycling, sometimes anything can happen as this stage shows with how Ibarrola did.
So, hopefully positive surprising results in the next stages. And I estimate such lucky stages are necessary to still ride a decent GC.

[Sjiz]

Decent performance from Ablett. Tomorrow i hope to gain time for a change. The hills and sprint should suit him.

[Sjiz]

I had hoped for more with Ablett. Unfortunately his domestique was too quick and was only there for one section. Too little for a good result.
I cant be unhappy with the sideshow: a domestique on 9 and a win with a free role :p

[Vos]

stage 3 Tirreno ;
87º  Samsonov  on 1:33" ( free role )
88º  Beck  on 1:33" ( helper with 5x hand symbols )
91º  Ibarrola  on 1:33" ( teamcaptain )
120º  Tusveld  on 2:07" ( free role )

Tusveld did a little less good as expected, and Samsonov could do better in a hills stage when he is in topform, but he is not.
And a more than excellent race and result of Ibarrola, all thanks to Beck who did a splendid helper's job.
Very unexpectedly Ibarrola is even 2º GC at the moment.
But the Tirreno will be dicided in the final 2 stages in Toscany. The upcoming hills-sprint stage is feared by Ibarrola ( who has a good TT ).
At the moment Samsonov is 20º GC and Tusveld 26º GC. Hopefully one of them (or both) can score a few GC points extra in a free role.

[Sjiz]

An impressive stage of Pires who most likely wins this Tirreno. For Ablett it will be a battle for 3rd to 5th. Ibarolla will probably gain some time on him but i dont think it will be enough to overtake him, Winklerprins could overtake him and on the other hand maybe Palmer loses too much. We will see tomorrow.

[Vos]

stage 4 Tirreno ;
My 3 GC contenders + 1 helper finished all on 1:23"
Samsonov should have done better in a free role, a tactical mistake of 25 seconds. Tusveld did well in a free role.
Also teamcaptain Ibarrola did will thanks to helper Beck.
Although Ibarrola had a mechanical breakdown in s5, but this had no consequences, without it, most likely he finished in the same group.

Ibarrola dropped from 2ºGC to 6ºGC. And my free role tour cyclists ; Samsonov 15ºGC and Tusveld 19ºGC.
Top 6 GC seems secured for Ibarrola, and the podium seems out of reach. Hopefully he can move up one place after the time trial.
And it seems Tusveld and Samsonov will score a few extra GC points.
Bradburry will score more points in the time trial. So, probably it was not such a success to select 3 GC contenders in the Tirreno.
But it was fun, and Samsonov used this little tour to get in topform.

[Vos]

stage 5 Tirreno ;
7º  Bradbury

final GC Tirreno ;
5º  Ibarrola
14º  Tusveld
18º  Samsonov
= Marceliano Ibarrola ( 32, ESP ), for the first time ever that a SPORTLIFE cyclist wears the 1A leader jersey 

[Sjiz]

Ablett finished a good 4th. A decent Tirreno with a stage victory and 4th in the GC.

We moved up to 4th in the standings. After tonight and tomorrow morning we hope to have close the gap to the podium and maybe to Vos.

[Vos]

Zero points for SPORTLIFE in the upcoming classic races MSR and E3H.
And most likely also zero points in the other cobblehills classic races GW, DDV and RVV.

[Sjiz]

Verbeek was a little dissapointing with an 11th place in MSR. Still, a decent result when you consider a peloton on 80 riders in s4.

This morning Vandervaart did well to secure a 4th place. That allowed us to take the place of Vos as second in the standings.

Tonight Loinaz can show why he is still a great tour rider. He will be our leader.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Difficult choices in who to select. Again I decided not to select a climber, despite Miorlin has 2 weather icons in mountain stage 4.
But he needs a helper to perform. Instead I selected another TT specialist, and tour rider Tusveld.
Selecting a climber as helper for Tusveld was also a possibillity, but he will ride stage 1 in a free role and he has no support in the hills.
So, his chance of riding a good GC was not high anyway, and to make it complete ; now he has also no support in the mountains.
And there is even a big chance he will ride stage 5 in a free role as well.

For now this is the selection, and there might be a last minute change.
Because it is fun to compete in the GC, but maybe not a smart choice to select a GC contender who finishes outside the top 10 final GC.

021 Tusveld ( 32 ), "tour"
022 Jørgensen ( 32 ), cobble
023 Bradbury ( 30 ), TT
024 Lebrun ( 27 ), sprint
025 Kangert ( 30 ), TT

Good luck everyone !