Season 15

[Vos]

stage 10 Giro ;
1º  Macannazi  
A very surprising victory of my just 24yo Italian climber who was not a favorite and had no TC bonus in stage 10 anymore.

The first victory ever of Macannazi, with a big thanks to his teammate, the also Italian Tafi.
His helpers back up plan in s2 worked perfectly, because after a too slow start, Tafi brought Macannazi back into the s2 peleton of just 36.
I guess my Italian teamcaptain-helper combo had home advantage in this Giro stage.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

The main goal is a top GC result with Bekir Spies, who makes his debut in my team.
He had not a successful career with just 1 result on his palmares ; 9º GC Catalunya in season 11.
So, this golden tour cyclist is happy and motivated that he can ride for my team at an old age. He is determined to get his best result ever.

71 Spies ( 33 ), tour
72 Beck ( 28 ), allround
73 Kluivert ( 31 ), hills
74 Daniljev ( 32 ), hills
75 Tafi ( 33 ), allround

Good luck everyone ! 

[Sjiz]

Verbeek had a good start in the Dauphine. A nice win. Lets see if he can keep it up and play a role in the GC as well.

[Vos]

stage 1 Dauphiné ;
9º  Kluivert ( free role )
25º  Spies  on 0:41"
30º  Daniljev ( helper )

A good race of Spies, but not perfect because despite he had 3 helpers, he was already isolated in s2.
Also masterhelper Daniljev dropped in s2, was behind in s3 and s4, and finished in the same time as his teamcaptain.
This helpers mistake costed at least 7 seconds, but probably not more, I guess.
The upcoming time trial is most likely much more decisive for the GC, so let's hope Spies does well compared to his GC rivals.

[ophiuko]

I just realized I forgot to publish my list for the Giro. Here it goes along with Dauphine and Suisse.

Giro d'Italia: - top participating riders
1. Tjerk Tusveld (32) 76.53
2. August Thoelen (25) 76.42
3. Steven Pillig (29) 76.29
4. Yvo VanStraalen (23) 75.35
5. Jaime Roman (30) 75.00
6. Maurizio Lorenzetto (27) 74.84
7. Alexander Castilla (25) 74.41
8. Amadeu Salvado (26) 73.35
9. Kilian Pizzinat (29) 73.29
10. Sergey Rodionov (27) 73.22

Of course I'm missing some top riders whose skills are not published, like Oscar Marcos, Nathan Lust or Espen Valgren.

Top 1a riders who didn't participate:
1. Dario Fernandez (29) 76.39
2. Jorund Nordnes (31) 76.21
3. Alexey Ryazanov (26) 75.96
4. Aksel Blix (27) 75.90
5. Rafael Carlos Loinaz (32) 75.88
6. Lazare Pires (27) 75.40
7. Rene Vrijmoed (25) 74.83
8. Adam Zipp (26) 74.41

Dauphiné - top participating riders
1. Arno Verbeek (28) 81.22
2. Abilio Andujar (31) 80.85
3. Rauno Laine (30) 80.37
4. Noel Gatson (30) 79.04
5. Ramon Antonio Vigo (27) 78.97
6. Paul Põldoja (29) 78.53
7. Bekir Spies (32) 78.00
8. Alessandro Figueras (29) 78.00
9. Rene Vrijmoed (27) 77.99
10. Alexander Iliev (25) 77.53
11. Danilo Bernardino (29) 77.33
12. Samuele Conte (32) 77.19
13. Norberto Peixoto (29) 77.14
14. András Valter (24) 76.74
15. Stef Eden (32) 76.71

Tour de Suisse - top 1a riders
1. Ramon Antonio Vigo (27) 77.71
2. Yannick Pierre (29) 77.07
3. Abilio Andujar (31) 75.98
4. Arno Verbeek (28) 75.84
5. Leonards Bleidelis (29) 75.62
6. Rauno Laine (30) 75.52
7. Ned Williams (29) 75.44
8. Lauris Freivalds (31) 75.39
9. Oliver Stamer (27) 75.16
10. Norberto Peixoto (29) 74.97
11. Belarmino Seixas (27) 74.78
12. Rogelio Tortosa (24) 74.74
13. Noel Gatson (30) 74.56
14. Paul Waithe (28) 74.56
15. Kirk Trump (29) 74.36

[Vos]

Dauphiné - top participating riders
7. Bekir Spies (32) 78.00

Well, he is 33yo now and that has a big impact, but great to see that he is high ranked ! Thanks for publishing the lists, Ophiuko.

stage 2 Dauphiné ;
30º  Spies  on 1:16"

stage 3 Dauphiné ;
5º  Kluivert ( free role )
26º  Daniljev ( helper )
29º  Spies  on 0:42"

A perfect helpers job resulted in a very good stage of Spies. And in a free role, 5th favorite Kluivert did excellent too.
Spies is now 8º GC on 1:06"

[Sjiz]

Im not sure verbeek really is a favourite for the dauphine. The TT really hurts a lot for him. Buuuuut we are in it and will do the the best we can.

[Vos]

stage 4 Dauphiné ;
64º  Spies  on 0:58"

Hmmm, a good race, ánd a dissapointing, unlucky race.
First of all, despite enough energy in s1 of my team, the teamcaptain and his 4 helpers could not follow the s1 front peleton of 63.
A too slow start is always dissapointing and the damage is already done for the rest of the race,
and besides that, probably also a waste of energy, with less EP, most likely my team would have dropped too to the same 2nd group.

All other sections went well despite starting a half minute behind. Spies had help in all sections, including section 5 (his 2nd best helper).
Unfortunately Spies finished in the front of his group and not kept the wheel of his best (s4) helper who finished 4 places and 1 group better.
I guess he was unlucky, and the difference between these groups was a dissapointing 31 seconds ( extra loss ), that is a lot.
It is the difference with being now 12º GC on 2:05" instead of 7º GC and maybe podium within reach if some rivals cannot climb.

This stage 4 was the race that killed a top GC result.
Before this Dauphiné I expected that if it would go wrong, it would be one of the 2 pure hills stages. I guess I was wrong.
To compensate the unfortunate stage 4 of Spies ; hopefully all rivals have an unlucky stage 5. 

[Sjiz]

An 8th place for Verbeek in the GC. A nice result and some extra points.

[Vos]

stage 5 Dauphiné ;
8º  Spies  on 0:00"
11º  Beck ( free role )
26º  Tafi

I guess my high GC expectations before this Dauphiné were justified ;  Bekir Spies ended up as 2º GC. 
And just 0:20" behind Dauphiné winner Figueras. If Spies would have had a little more luck in stage 4, then........
But happy with this podiumplace and no shame in losing to the this season's winner of Paris Nice and Catalunya.

A great Dauphiné of my team, including many good free role stage results.
The upcoming Tour de Suisse is a very different story ; I had exactly zero cyclists for that little tour.
But yesterday and today I was active on the transfermarket, and I bought 4 old cyclists, so at least I have a TdS selection.
I expect not many points.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Four last minute buys will try to score a few points in Switzerland.
One place left, so the nr2 of the Dauphiné is also selected, although Spies is not suited for this TdS.
But he can help and maybe score a few points in stage 3, the hills time trial.
Two weeks ago Spies was bought for 905k, what is 5k less as the total amount of the other 4, bought yesterday and today.

Tommie van der Vaart returned to my team, he was thé helper of the amazing Dwars door Vlaanderen victory this season.
The backnumber that ends on 1 will go to Bekir Spies, as a reward to his excellent Dauphiné.
Low backnumbers, because to my surprise SPORTLIFE is high ranked in 1A at the moment. But I expect just a few points in this TdS.

41 Spies ( 33 ), helper + hills TT ?
42 VanDerVaart ( 33 ), cobblehills
43 Leeghwater ( 31 ), hill-sprint
44 Dockx ( 33 ), hill-sprint
45 Nyborg ( 33 ), cobblehills

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 TdS ;
17º  VanDerVaart
A good result thanks to an excellent helper's job of Nyborg.

stage 2 TdS ;
12º  Dockx ( free role )
14º  Leeghwater
The very risky tactical gamble did not pay off in this stormy hills-sprint stage ; in s3 Leeghwater could not return to the front group of 31.
Free role rider Dockx had a harder start and he stayed in the front in the first 3 sections, what caused a very good result.

The TdS selection is reduced to 60% because both cobblehills cyclists are abandon after stage 2.
It is up to the remaining 3 cyclists to score a few points more in stages 3 and 5.
But I'm already satisfied ; after 2 stages 126 points, that is better than I expected.

[Vos]

stage 3 TdS ;
20º  Spies
I had doubts if he was good enough to score points in this time trial, so this is a very nice result.

stage 4 TdS ;
14º  Spies
Excellent result and even surprising that he was good enough to score points. Probably thanks to perfect help of Leeghwater.

stage 5 TdS ;
13º  Dockx
Very good result thanks to a perfect helper's job of the much better sprinter Leeghwater, but he was out of form a lot, so no teamcaptain.

To my surprise Dockx and Spies finished as 20º and 21º GC.
Perhaps it was possible to get more points out of this TdS if one of them was teamcaptain one more time often.
Although that is doubtfull so low ranked in the GC, probably going for stage results was better for the score of total points.
And my (new bought) TdS selection did very well and much better as I expected ; the total in Switzerland = 251 points. 

All 3 TdS cyclists, who finished this little tour, will leave my team this evening ( 2 will be sold and 1 will be fired ).
The 2 other new bought TdS cyclists will stay in my team to ride the BinckBank Tour ; thé reason they were abandon after stage 2 TdS.

[ophiuko]

Let's go with the TdF (red=team not selected yet):

1. Lazare Pires (28) 79.21
2. Dario Fernandez (29) 78.74
3. Jorund Nordnes (31) 78.11
4. Aksel Blix (27) 77.84
5. Allan Palmer (32) 77.75
6. Rafael Carlos Loinaz (32) 77.72
7. Alexey Ryazanov (26) 77.61
8. Yvo VanStraalen (23) 77.61
9. Daniel Mulikov (29) 77.00
10. Alessandro Figueras (29) 76.98
11. Jaime Roman (30) 76.96
11. Romeu Rosario (32) 76.95
12. Aleksandr Menke (25) 76.85
13. Murat Aeschliman (27) 76.57
14. Adam Zipp (26) 76.26
15. Torbjorn Rosland (29) 75.99
16. Kevin Pizzinat (29) 75.89
17. Arjan Putman (27) 75.88
18. Leon Vonk (28) 75.72
19. Orlando Santander (29) 75.69
20. Harry Tjoens (28) 75.62


Tops in 1a not participating:
1. Rene Vrijmoed (25) 77.74
2. Steven Pillig (29) 77.65
3. August Thoelen (25) 77.56
4. Tim Fox (29) 76.91
5. Sven WinklerPrins (31) 76.36
6. Maurizio Lorenzetto (27) 76.29
7. Alexander Castilla (25) 76.05
8. Samuele DiLuca (31) 75.97
9. Amadeu Salvado (26) 75.63

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Also for the Tour de France my team was not prepared in this sort of "reorganistion" season.
Although this TdF is an improvement compared to the Tour de Suisse, where my team was full of recent buys.

Because one climber is fully prepared ; Russian champion Basov, who won 11 mountain stages in his career, including 4 TdF stages.
Despite he was never high ranked.
And right after his last victory ( TdF stage 4 of previous season ) he dropped to a 9-star climber.
Now at the age of 32, he is ranked as nr 305 in the golden climbers list. So, maybe I should have no high expectations.

Also because he has no great support, because the 2nd cyclist who was planned to ride the TdF, that is the 24yo Macannazi ( nr 154 ).
He had amazing stage results in the recent Giro ( 2º, 2º, 1º ), but he will be a helper without TC.
And the SPORTLFE climbers are used to have a helper with also TC in the Tour de France, so let's see how this goes with less good help.

With just 2 planned cyclists for this TdF, and both are climbers, it is clear what the TdF goal is ; good results in the mountain stages.

3 open spaces left.
A good opportunity to gain experience for Beck (this season 2º Frankfurt), Smith (this season 2 victories) and Tiblias (last minute buy).

Beck can be an extra helper in stage 8 and he can score points in stage 7.
Perhaps Smith can score a few points in the HFFMM time trial.
And last minute buy Tiblias (bought tonight)  can be an extra helper in the first sections of the mountain stages.

Tiblias is a doubtfull purchase of 7.1M
because Smith is the best climb TT specialist of the game with a good quality gap to the nr 2, and that is Tiblias.
And next season there are just 2 climb TT stages, including 1 with a flat section, what makes Smith less suited and Tiblias not suited.
But Tiblias proved to be the best climb TT specialist with a dh-section in  it, and he is 28yo, hopefully season 16 will be perfect for him.
And my hope is also on a suited NT race in next season 15, or season 16, for one of my 2 climb TT specialists.
It never happened ( in CFF3 ) that a SPORTLIFE cyclist won a NT race, so this is for sure a goal.
The future will tell if Tiblias is a good buy, for now it does not look like that. Besides that he is of little use as extra helper in this TdF.

At least I have a full TdF selection now , because there were no more options in who to select among my older cyclists.
Some are preparing for the Vuelta, and that will be a much better selection than this TdF selection with just the nr 305 climber as teamcaptain.

41 Basov ( 32 ), climb + climb TT
42 Macannazi ( 24 ), climb-helper
43 Beck ( 28 ), climb-sprint
44 Smith ( 28 ), climb TT
45 Tiblias ( 28 ), climb-helper

Good luck everyone !