Season 14

[Sjiz]

I thought you wanted to go for the Dutch jersey with Tusveld? Then he needs to be leader.

[Vos]

I thought you wanted to go for the Dutch jersey with Tusveld? Then he needs to be leader.

It was just an option I considered, and I had to make that decision back then ( now is already too late ).
But it takes too much sacrifice of his teammates and of my season schedule, what should have been adapted bigtime.
Even if that would have been a season goal where I was fully committed to ; it would be very difficult ( or too difficult ) to defeat Verbeek.

So far Tusveld made clear he has no individual ranking ambition ; PN ( 50% free role, 50% helper ) and TIR ( 100% free role ).
In stage 3 Catalunya he will be the teamcaptain for the very first time, but he has no support.
By the way, I wanted to undo his selection and instead ; try out my 24yo climber in this little tour, but I was too late online.

I estimate that Tusveld is no rival at all for the individual Dutch championship.
Probably Verbeek will score twice as much points compared to what Tusveld will score with his season schedule.
Maybe VanStraalen can compete with Verbeek, if VanStraalen has a season schedule that is adjusted to him as teamcaptain in all races.
But even if that would be a battle ; to me the top favorite will be Verbeek. But who knows, maybe VanStraalen ( Combuijs ) can surprise.

[Vos]

stage 1 CAT ;
1º   Jørgensen  --> first victory this season of my team. 
21º  Lebrun ( helper )
51º  Tusveld ( free role ) on 1:34"

And again 2º in division 1A, 90 points ahead of TeamRHB.
If my team will be the "main rival" of current 1A champion CaptainOrange, he will get an easy season.
Also I considered to really try to battle for the 1A ranking by selling some (future) cyclists, including my 2 training projects.
But even when I would have done that, a big change CaptainOrange is still too good.
Making a lot of sacrifices and finishing 2nd, versus, without the sacrifices my team maybe can finish podium too.

[Vos]

stage 2 CAT ;
6º  Bradbury
10º  Kangert
26º  Tusveld  on 1:41"

A very good time trial of my team in this stage that was dominated by Aurora Australis ( 1º, 3º, 4º, 5º, 12º ).
Tusveld even scored a few points, and in the GC he is at the moment 0:07" ahead of (top favorite?) Hilton and 0:53" ahead of Loinaz.
Just to mention 2 cyclists, of course there are many other good GC contenders who even might be better than these 2, I have no idea.

Hopefully Tusveld will do much better in hills stage 3 Catalunya, then his 120º place on 2:07" in the also pure hills stage 3 Tirreno.
Most likely I have to wait after mountain stage 4, before it is clear if Tusveld can ride a decent GC.
In the also pure mountain stage 2 Tirreno he finished as 66º on 2:02", also not very promising.
But in all Tirreno stages he had a free role, and now he will get a teamcaptain role ( unfortunately 2 times without support ).
And if his GC is relatively good after stage 4, he will get a teamcaptain role in sprint stage 5 as well ( with very good support ).

[Sjiz]

Loinaz went too fast for Logins but the result was pretty ok. We are now 5th and 10th in the GC. I am hoping to move up a little with Loinaz and if Ablett keeps his place it would be a good tour.

Ps: Happy new year everyone!

[Davilo07]

Hi everybody, in the attachments you can find a doc with the talent of most of the 19 yo tourmen sold this season. It's a doc that has been shared. Hope you find it interesting too.

[Rico]

Congrats with another nice victory, Vos, getting a bit tired of making stupid mistakes in last stages. This way I will not be able to challenge you for the title...   

[ophiuko]

Congrats Vos! Amazing start of the season with 2 tours.

Australian teams are at full power: 3 tours out of 4 (Sportlifex2, OphiukoCT), and 2 classics out of 4 (Zatarrax2). 9 stage victories (4x$Tourmalet, 2xZatarra, 2xAurora Australis, 1xSportlife) 

[Vos]

First of all ; happy new year ! 

Thanks Rico and Ophiuko. An unexpected GC victory of Tusveld.

After 2 good damage control tactics in the hills- and mountain stages where Tusveld had no support, he was 4th GC on 0:38"
Surprising good ranked before stage 5 Catalunya, also because he had a free role in  stage 1.
 
So, an opportunity to battle for a podiumplace, because Tusveld could challenge GC leader Hilton, then normally 0:38" is a too big gap.
Especially versus topmanager CaptainOrange, it is rare that he makes tactical mistakes, but this time he did.
Tusveld did amazing in stage 5 thanks to the cobblesprinter(and stage 1 winner) ánd thanks to flatsprinter Lebrun ( 9º as helper ).
Finishing in the 2nd group was good enough to overtake the top 3 GC and win Catalunya.
The first time Tusveld was teamcaptain ( in 3 out of 4 stages ) for SPORTLIFE, what resulted in his very first GC victory of his career. 

Unfortunately I have no cobblehills cyclists, so it is up to Zatarra again to show Australian supremecy in 1A. 
Great classic victories in SB and E3H, Zatarra, well done !

[Zatarra]

Thanks. Unfortunately Jackson and Haringa focused on OHN, SB and E3 this season, so I don't expect their results in G-W, DdV and RVV to be outstanding. Stamer unexpectedly finished fourth in G-W. Apparently he is a lot better in that classic than I thought.

Let's gather some more points in Flanders now. Two top10s would be nice.

[WinterIsComing]

Hi everybody, in the attachments you can find a doc with the talent of most of the 19 yo tourmen sold this season. It's a doc that has been shared. Hope you find it interesting too.

Happy new year to everyone!

So basically, now people who didn't have access to all data because they were not supporter, and may have bought a cyclist with low talent, are screwed twice now. Since you reveal "supposed to be hidden" talents of cyclists, it might be even harder to sell them in the future. I don't think this was your purpose, and you may not have realised this side effect.

It has been brought up many times before in suggestions thread, on discord and perhaps on several other boards as well, but these spiderwebs are really hurting the culture of the game, in my humble opinion. If they stay in the game, it would be better if they could be visible only to the manager who owns the cyclist, and not to others.

[Davilo07]

Hi wic! I don't wanna repeat myself what weve already talked in discord. So in a nutshell, as this information was already available to a few, supporters and not supporters, I reckon it was only fair making it available for anybody who was interested on.

[Sjiz]

I think its more the principe of having the radar avail able. To me it takes some of the mystery out of the game. In one or two training you can now know exactly the talent of a rider. Thats a shame for me. So for me i would agree: hide the radar for all but the owner of the rider.

[Aurora Australis]

Hi everybody, in the attachments you can find a doc with the talent of most of the 19 yo tourmen sold this season. It's a doc that has been shared. Hope you find it interesting too.

Question, do you know whether they recognise the difference between a 100% trained cyclist, and a 70% one?  This would potentially screw their "cheat" up, because for instance I'm training flat, and my promotions to sells aren't going to remain on flat for three days, particularly if their flat skill is like 18 or something.

[Sjiz]

Hi everybody, in the attachments you can find a doc with the talent of most of the 19 yo tourmen sold this season. It's a doc that has been shared. Hope you find it interesting too.

Question, do you know whether they recognise the difference between a 100% trained cyclist, and a 70% one?  This would potentially screw their "cheat" up, because for instance I'm training flat, and my promotions to sells aren't going to remain on flat for three days, particularly if their flat skill is like 18 or something.

The difference is enough to be noticeable.

Anyway: Happy with Galunov. He did what he had to and finished in the top 10. 10th.