Season 14

[Sjiz]

A good race considering the heavy winds. Loinaz and Nilsson finished together 13th and 14th. Very happy with that result. Now to keep this position in the GC :p

[Vos]

stage 2 Romandie ;
1º  Miorlin ; great solo victory ! 

[Sjiz]

Congrats Vos.

Stage 3 was a good one for my team. Loinaz was in the front group for 4 sections with domestique Luchtenveld. He finished in group 3. Maybe i could have saved some energy and finished in group 2 but this is ok.

[Vos]

Thanks Sjiz, and good luck with Loinaz in the GC !
It looks like it will be a fierce and exciting GC battle in the mountains, because the many top GC contenders are very close at the moment.

Unfortunately, after this sprint stage it seems that Miorlin will not be one of them. He has to score points in the final 2 mountain stages.
And I expect he will score some GC points as well, but a top GC result seems not achievable anymore. Hopefully I'm wrong. 

stage 3 Romandie ;
10º  Lebrun ( free role )
142º  Miorlin  on 2:53"

A good result of my sprinter, but an unlucky bad race for Miorlin who lost way too much time.
Despite an active weather icon and a full power start, Miorlin could not follow the very big peleton of 111 in section 1.
The fact that he started in the same group as back up helper Basov, shows also that he had an unlucky start.
Because Basov has about 12 sprint GV points less as his teamcaptain.
Very unexpectedly he even could help in 3 sections, what was the only little positive thing for Miorlin in this stage.
But his "riding behind the facts" race is never good for damage control, and being isolated in the final 2 sections is not good either.

At the moment Miorlin is 24º GC on already 3:14" behind new GC leader Roethlisberger ( Valderend ).
And for example already on 2:05" behind the top 12 GC. That does not look good.
Hopefully he will do amazing in the final 2 stages, those points are also welcome because the gap in 1A with TeamRHB is just 66 points.
Most likely that tiny little gap between our teams will remain after this Romandie if Loinaz ( now 2ºGC ) can achieve a final top GC result.

[Vos]

stage 4 Romandie ;
1º Miorlin   
Again a stage victory !

Although it came not easy. My whole team was in s1 surprised by the strong wind and the attack of CaptainOrange.
In mountain s2 Miorlin was suddenly isolated, what was also not good.
Luckily helper Basov came to the resque in s3, although  they were both not in the front, but far behind in the 3rd group on 0:24"
Basov did a good job in s4 by launching his teamcaptain very hard,
what resulted that in s4 Miorlin was in the chasing group of 5 on 0:07" behind the 2 escaped climbers and 1 was a too fast helper.
The 2nd chasing group was already on 0:21", so the 6 teamcaptains (all without helper) in the front of the race would compete for victory.
Miorlin attacked solo in s5 to catch the in s4 escaped favorite Miro, and he did, and Miorlin won even the sprint-a-deux on the finishline.

Miorlin moved up to 15º GC on 1:59"
It seems to me my teamcaptain could profit of that the strong wind ánd the competitors made a real battlefield out of this mountain stage,
and some (or even many) of the GC contenders had difficulties in this stage.
Aftert this great stage victory, I estimate Miorlin has a good chance to finish final top10 GC. Although, again he cannot challenge favorites.

[Sjiz]

IT will be a tight battle for the GC tomorrow. Lets see if Loinaz can take 11 seconds on Roethlisberger and keep Hilton and Pineira behind him.

[kirin]

Really good result for Piñeiro today after the major loss of time at the sprint. Let's hope he can do a miracle today and recover the time lost on it with Adam(quite probable) and with Loinaz(less likely) with the help of the climbing specialist, Nieto.
After that, the Eschborn-Frankfurt classic, in where i also expect a good result, either from WrinklePrins, Endrodi, or Obert

[Sjiz]

An unfortunate ending for Loinaz. Roethlisberger rode the race of his life, congrats Valderend!, and took time on the Spaniard. A little mishap in S4 cost time for me and Pineiro got some time back on Loinaz. They ended up in the same time on the GC but the judges decided to give the third place to Loinaz. Luck wasnt on my side today. Still a good tour, but as always, not winning when thats the goal after a few stges is tough

[Vos]

stage 5 Romandie ;
5º  Miorlin  on 0:18"

After 2 stage victories, no victory this time.
But still an excellent result that he finished in the 2nd group of 3 behind the break away group of also 3.
And I guess that Miorlin was less motivated now, because at 1am just before the final stage 5 this happened :
Miorlin dropped to silver.
What makes his 2 victories in Romandie extra special.  
Also his 10º place on 1:50" in the final GC is good, what is just 1 second better than the nr 11. 

It is an end of an era, and Miorlin is/was my most successful cyclist ever, with in 1A ; 24 stage victories and even 1 GC victory.
Funny to mention ; never in his career he reached the 10 stars on climbing.

This Romandie was his last performance as teamcaptain, and he did great and ended his career in style.
Probably Miorlin will be my first cyclist that I will add in my empty hall of fame.
But he will not yet retire, because his farewell races are in his home country, as masterhelper in the mountains of the upcoming Giro.

Hmmm, Miorlin just said to me that he is not happy that I posted the for him embarrissing silver climb icon, and if I could fix that.
Alright, my Sardinian friend, maybe this will cheer you up  ;
Miorlin is still the only CFF climber who achieved this milestone.

[Sjiz]

I have been doubting about the tactics for Eschborn for quite some time. Unsure what to do, in the end i think i am quite happy with what i decided to do. Unfortunately Cook missed out on the win, but silver is very nice. 3rd favourite and free role Skogstad finished 13th and domestique Cabanas also took some points. All in all a nice 565 points and very welcome with Vos and Valderend on my tail.

[kirin]

Great result for Piñeiro with the 2nd place in Romandie general. My prediction wasn't accurate, as Adam did a great race, surprisingly finishing in the top 10 at the last stage, while Piñeiro only managed to get a 17th place on it. Still, he got time on Loinaz, and got the 2nd place over him with the same time due to the best stage result archived in the tour, 8th vs 14th (i think).

For Eschborn classic a 6th place with a tactic that didn't really worked, as the team tried to attack unsuccesfully on the first sections, spending some extra resources that were missed at the end, such as the help of WrinklerPrins, that would have been really valuable to Endrodi. Given the xp difference, can't really say it was a terrible result, but expected a bit better.

Now, for Giro, our objective is to win it with Sven WrinklerPrins. For doing so, he will have a team made for him, including Zsombor Endrodi, flipping the roles from Eschborn classic.
Our team:
261: Sven WrinklerPrins     31     Leader
262: Zsombor Endrõdi     25     Climbs helper
263: Martim Xavier     31     Hills helper   (debuting with the team)
264: Adam Zipp     25     Climbs helper
265: Rene Kaspers     26     Sprints helper

[Sjiz]

Good luck Pirin!

My line up will consist af Giro regulars Arno Verbeek and Paul Poldoja. They will be joined by climbers Sonny Nilsson, Bart Ablett and Tom Cabanas. Cabanas will be the leader but we are unsure how well he will perform. We think he should be able to ride for a top5/top3 but it will be his first race as leader for the team.

[Sjiz]

Unfortunately Ablett couldnt follow Cabanas in s4. Still not much happened. Not many time differences. On to the next!

[Vos]

Eschborn-Frankfurt ;
10º  Beck
Samsonov could not challenge any favorites, but his unexperienced young teammate could challenge the 5th favorite,
so now the roles in reverse of previous season ; Beck gets as helper the EF winner of previous season.
But the tactics of helper Samsonov went horribly wrong at the start and he was not able to come back.
Beck had to do it on his own the whole race, and without a helper in the crucial s4, he could not get a top result.

TeamRHB scored many points in Frankfurt what caused a much bigger gap between our teams in 1A.
And Valderend comes much closer in 1A after the Romandie victory of Roethlisberger.
It will be an exciting Giro battle with also an 1A podium place at stake. 


   selection SPORTLIFE

The undisputed teamcaptain is Samsonov, and the Giro goal is a GC podium place.

Hopefully he can battle for GC victory as well. But I estimate that there are many good ( and a few better ) GC rivals,
ánd I estimate that this Giro is more difficult to Samsonov than the Giro of previous season.
Back then he did great what resulted in the first big tour GC podiumplace ever of my team.
However, he did not came close to GC victory ; Samsonov finished on 1:34" behind Pires and on 1:05" behind WinklerPrins.
It was a Giro battle for a podiumplace, and he barely won that battle with a difference of just 0:20".

021 Samsonov ( 32 ), tour
022 Beck ( 27 ), allround
023 Miorlin ( 32 ), climb
024 Daniljev ( 31 ), hills
025 Bell ( 31 ), TT

stage 1 Giro ;
11º  Samsonov  on 0:12"
Not a really bad race, but it should have been better. Too carefull tactics, including that Beck could have helped in s4.
But he did not, because his manager estimated he would go too fast there. Clearly wrong, because now Beck dropped already in s4.

Well, no damage done for the GC in this stage, unless these 0:06" unnecessary time loss will cost a place in the final GC.
Maybe it was even a 0:12" loss, although just a little chance that would have happened if Samsonov had the extra helpers bonus in s5.

Positive about this stage ; 20 points more than Valderend, and 30 points more than TeamRHB.

[Sjiz]

A good start with a good second stage. Nilsson stayed with Cabanas and they finished 8th and 10th. Very nice. Unfortunately big competitor Vos did it better with the win and 7th. Still, i am happy with this result. Now a TT. Not much you can do about that.