Season 14

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

I should have been more active on the transfermarket, because I had some open spaces in this Itzulia selection.
Just VanDerVlies and Bell were scheduled to ride this little tour. So, I have to be creative now.

And I decided that recent Catalunya winner Tusveld will ride Itzulia too.
This has consequenses for him ; by selecting him now, he will ride almost all Vuelta stages with -1 form.
It is still uncertain who will be the teamcaptain in Basque Country ;
probably Tusveld can ride a good GC, but VanDerVlies is much better in stages 1 and 2.

Happily that I could buy a helper today, so that my Dutch Duo do not have to help each other and one can ride in free role.
That helper is a just 7 stars hillsclimber, bought for 62k, what could be 10 times more than he is "worth".
But to me this desperate last-minute-buy is worth it.
It is doubtful if he can help a few sections somewhere in this little tour, hopefully he is good enough to do that.
Still one open space in this Itzulia selection, and that is for climb TT specialist Smith, only to gain experience.

After not competing in the 3 classic cobblehills races, my team dropped to the 4th place in 1A.
Blackhole (ESP) is the new number 2, and looking at his amazing team, it seems to me a fierce contender for an 1A podiumplace.

031 VanDerVlies ( 31 ), hillsclimb
032 Tusveld ( 32 ), tour
033 Bell ( 31 ), TT
034 Kastrup ( 31 ), helper
035 Smith ( 27 ), experience

Good luck everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

It seems i have a similar problem as you Vos. I only had 3 riders for Itzulia (although i had no space in my team) and am not sure who to make leader or to go for stages or the GV. Anyways: Ablett, Loinaz, Skogstad, Cook and Galunov will ride the race.

[Sjiz]

A very windy Itzulia. Skogstad finished 10th in his first ever race for my team. A good debut.

[Sjiz]

The second stage also went well for Skogstad with a fine 6th place. Now Cook can show how well he can sprint after an tough stage.

[Vos]

stage 1 Itzulia ;
3º  VanDerVlies, who finished on 0:00" in the front group of 9.
stage 2 Itzulia ;
1º  VanDerVlies, great solo victory ! 
VanderVlies is the new GC leader, despite he could not challenge favorites in both stages.
The last-minute Danish buy of 62k, Kastrup, did an excellent job as helper ; 4 sections in stage 1 and 3 sections in stage 2.

Tusveld was riding in a free role, and he lost too much time ; 48º on 0:28" in stage 1, and 68º on 1:57" in stage 2.
He is now 58º GC on 2:25"
Already 1:24" behind the top20 and 1:40" behind the top10, besides the fact that he has to overtake many better ranked rivals.
As teamcaptain he can finish on 0:00" in stages 3 and 4. And he can win time in the final TT stage, but not enough to finish top10 GC.

Also an option is to go for VanDerVlies as GC contender, despite he has a too low flat and he cannot sprint.
He will lose time in stage 3 and 4, but he has a lead now and he likes the hills in the time trial. Although ; final top10 GC would surprise me.
A difficult teamcaptain choice. Also because Tusveld probably can score stage points, and VanDerVlies cannot in the remaining stages.
But for now ; party in the SPORTLIFE bus after this great stage victory ! 

[Sjiz]

Another good stage. Cook got a podium and the rest finished in the front group.

[Vos]

stage 3 Itzulia ;
19º  Tusveld  on 0:00"
71º  VanDerVlies ( free role )  on 0:30"
hmmmm, VanDerVlies still the GC leader.
I estimate he would have finished also in the 2nd group if he was the teamcaptain.
Tusveld scored just 27 points, less than expected. So again a change of strategy ; VanDerVlies will be the teamcaptain in stage 4.
If VanDerVlies can limit the time loss again and rides a better time trial than most rivals, he might surprise with a final top10 GC.
Tusveld moved up to 32º GC on 1:55", that is 0:47" behind the top20 and still a too big gap of 1:29" towards the top10.
If there a big time differences in the time trial, Tusveld might surprise too ( if he can finish with a free role on 0:00" in stage 4 ).
The so far just 27 points that Tusveld scored in this little tour is for sure not enough, and a waste of 5 races in his too full season schedule.

[Vos]

stage 4 Itzulia ;
32º  Tusveld ( free role )  on 0:28" --> just outside the points, and for sure he was not good enough to finish in the front group of just 14.
64º  VanDerVlies  on 1:01" --> ai, too bad he dropped in s5 to the 3rd group.
Remarkable this drop, because he finished harder than in stage 3 where he could follow from s4 to s5 in a free role, now he was even teamcaptain.
Well, I guess he was lucky in stage 3 or unlucky in this stage 4 or both.

This drop costed VanDerVlies a precious 0:33" extra time loss, without this, he would be 7ºGC.
Now he dropped from 1ºGC to 12ºGC.
Tusveld just gained 3 places in the GC and at the moment 29ºGC with a big gap of 0:41" towards the top20.

Other bad news    : today a Russian team passed SPORTLIFE in division 1A.
Not good, because now 4º, and it seems to me that rival team will score more GC points in Itzulia, ánd it has Verbeek for the hills classics.
My team will drop even further in 1A after stage 5 Itzulia. Valderend is close and has a GC contender who is now 2ºGC on 0:08"
 
Maybe too soon to look at the 1A ranking already. By far the most points are still in the game and there might be more rival teams for a podiumplace.
And as we say in cycling :"Lisbon is still far away".^^

[Sjiz]

Здравствуйте Vos!
Our glorious leader is very happy with the current seasons prospects and results.
However, i dont expect much points in the GV tonigh. VanderVlies will overtake Skogstad easily and the others will not finish high up in the GV if they can get points at all. You are correct with Verbeek being part of our team, but the hill scene has increased in competition a lot. I do not expect Verbeek to do it as well as last season to be honest. I am happy with how the season and Itzulia are going. My main goal is to finish top 3 this year, but this will not be easy.

It is nice to see that Dutch managers are performing very well again. 4 Dutchies in the top 5, even though some pretend to be of a different nationality:P

[Sjiz]

We finished Itzulia with a 12th and 14th place in the GC and 4 top 10 placings. Much better than last year. I am satisfied. Now the most important races for my team have come. We have many points to defend with Verbeek. It will be very difficult to replicate past seasons success with the gigantic competition on hills these days. But we will try, we have to

[Vos]

Well, it is clear  that I misjudged the situation.
This time trial shook things up, and differently as I expected/estimated.
stage 5 Itzulia ;
12º  Bell
29º  Tusveld

VanDerVlies did great in this time trial, he even finished 6º finalGC. And Tusveld 16º finalGC.
And to my surprise my team is now 2º in division 1A, instead of the expected drop to place 5º.
The current nrs 3º, 4º, 5º are really close ; 5 points behind, 125 points behind, and 304 points behind.

[Sjiz]

Another good result in Roubaix. Our first ever in CFF3. I am now preparing myself for dissapointment.

[Vos]

It looked good with 1km to go ; Pandolfi ( ZG ) and Jørgensen still had a little gap after their attack in section 4.

Unfortunately the 5 strongest of the chasing group joined them with just 500m to go, so it was going to be a sprint with 7 cyclists.
First favorite Travin ( Thorboassonarvesen ) won, and a 2º place of not-favorite Jørgensen. 
An excellent result, but so close to victory of a monumental classic race is always a bit of a dissapointment. 

Anyway, my team never really competed in this classic race, and now for the first time a Paris Roubaix result on the SPORTLIFE palmares.

[Sjiz]

What a race. Incredible ride from Quinto and a very deserved victory for him. I am satisfied with second for Verbeek. You always want to win but first or second is important for me, otherwise i lose too many points.

[Vos]

Amstel Gold Race ;
61º  Daniljev  on 1:00" 
Pffff, what a failure !
Daniljev was prepared perfectly, and with an active weather icon and a flatskill of 76, he should have no problem to ride an amazing AGR.
However, he could not follow the mega-giant-big-extreme-huge peleton of 107 cyclists in s1.   

His teammate Xavier had no problems in this race with his 1 EP start and 0 EP in s2,
and he would have done an amazing helper's job if that s1 was not such a big failure for his teamcaptain.
Because Xavier was still in the front group of just 8 in section 4.
If s1 went right for Daniljev, he could have followed Xavier his wheel in s4 very easily, no doubts.
And that would mean a top5 result for sure, and most likely this costed even a podiumplace in AGR.

Xavier saved the day a little bit by finishing very good in a helper's role, and despite he was very low on energy in s5.
This helper's result shows also the great potential teamcaptain Daniljev had in this AGR. I dislike section 1 a lot.
12º  Xavier ( in a helper's role )

Two more opportunities, but this AGR was the best and only chance to go for a podiumplace or even victory.
The only race where my teamcaptain has an active weather icon, and both my hills specialists have a very good flat skill.
Also the 254km should be no problem with 94 stamina.
Pfffff, even my flat-TT-specialist with very low health could follow the mega peleton in s1, and even in a helper's role.
From now on section 1 in AGR has a new name ; sucksion 1. Because s1 really sucks ! 

Of course, I can get a comment again* that I should have taken no "risk" in s1
but the rivals take also "risk" in s1 and with less energy for the hills sections, I can forget a top result anyway. No guts, no glory.
*= This happened once before in s1 of AGR without wind, with a less suited hills specialist as Daniljev, and the Dutch comment was that my tactic in s1 was bad.
But that "bad" tactic works with much less good teamcaptains in all other seasons when there was also no wind in AGR.
So, please no comment like this again, everyone plays this game differently, I like to go for top results, what is often the better strategy.Unfortunately this time it was not.