Season 15

[kirin]

Zipp managed to finish 6th on Le Tour, considering the not so good results at the first cobble stage where i might or might not forgotten to rest someone in the team, not a bad position.
He probably could have done better. Now it's all up to Piñeiro in La Vuelta, where a good result from him can save the team from descending and possibly selling almost all riders.
For the Klasika, we are not really expecting anything, but the lineup will be around the recently signed Bekir Spies.
There's probably a bigger chance at BBT, where Mazzarelli or Winter can get some nice points on the GC.

[ophiuko]

Let's go with BBT (I haven't looked at the startlists, just the ones who are in 1a):

1. Yannick Pierre (29) 84.33
2. Kirk Trump (29) 81.86
3. Ned Williams (29) 81.56
4. Biel Jaen (24) 81.17
5. Norberto Peixoto (29) 80.82
6. Belarmino Seixas (27) 80.55
7. Oliver Stamer (27) 80.47
8. Arno Verbeek (28) 80.23
9. Leonards Bleidelis (29) 80.11
10. Leonid Leonov (32) 80.02
11. Spodris Martisons (24) 79.72
12. Paul Waithe (28) 79.71
13. Vince Palmer (28) 79.56
14. Ketil Fossum (29) 79.31
15. Lenny Seaman (29) 79.26
16. Abilio Andujar (31) 79.06
17. Rogelio Tortosa (24) 78.95
18. Lauris Freivalds (31) 78.93
19. Stan Winnen (27) 78.93
20. Bruno Mazzarelli (25) 78.86

[Vos]

Unfortunately no points of Ricky Vorre in SanSebastian, he came close and finished as 34º
But he is not really suited for this classic race. His total of 6 EP in s1 and s2 was not good enough to be in the s3 front group of 21.
So it is up to the BBT selection to score some points.
And Ricky Vorre is selected too (mainly for experience), because there was one place free after selling hills specialist Daniljev today.

   selection SPORTLIFE

In 4 stages I expect points.
The expectations in both cobblehills stages are not high with VanDerVaart as teamcaptain.
But sprinter Lebrun should be able to get top results, or at least top 10 results. I tried to buy a good sprint helper, but I did not succeed.
So, climb sprinter Tafi is selected despite his low sprint GV. Hopefully he can do a good lead out job in s4 of both sprint stages.

81 Lebrun ( 30 ), sprint
82 VanDerVaart ( 33 ), cobblehills
83 Nyborg ( 33 ), cobblehills
84 Tafi ( 33 ), semi-sprint helper
85 Vorre ( 27 ), semi-helper / experience

Good luck everyone ! 

[wacco]

BBT is also starting in div 3. The goal? Victory with Norbert vaesen. For every stage he has a nice helper, I doubt about the two cobble hill stages but he should be strong enough to do it on his own.

[Vos]

stage 1 BBT ;
4º  Lebrun

JGMTeam forced a s1 break away group of just 25 in this sprint race in Friesland. Lebrun and Tafi could follow.
In s2 that same team kept the pace high or maybe even higher, the front group narrowed down to just 11. Lebrun and Tafi dropped.
But Lebrun and Tafi could return in s3, together with 26 other cyclists. Now the s3 front group has 39 cyclists.
In s4 Bolsward is already in sight, because this part of Friesland is really flat. Just 2 tired cyclists dropped and now a s4 group of 37.

The final sprint !
5 sprinters crossed the finishline at the same moment ( and the other 19 sprinters right behind them ), so a photo finish was needed.
Blair ( AUS ) was declared as stage winner. Also nr2 Segura ( COL ) was of an Australian team.
And nr 4 Lebrun ( BEL ) finished between two Dutchmen, nr 3 Biesheuvel and nr 5 VanHeeswijk, maybe both were born in Friesland,
what might be the reason they were extra motivated to win. But they finished one bullet lenght behind the winner.

[wacco]

With 1m20 time loss in stage 1 for Vaessen and twice around 20 seconds in the other two stages the victory will be difficult. His current spot is 6th with almost 2 minutes behind. But just two other riders ahead of him should be able to stay close in the coming two stages. With the first rider there is just 1 minute difference so who knows.

The bbt on its own is already very successful. Stage victory in stage 1 and 3. The best rider for victory in stage 2 needed to help and he did awesome. I just made a mistake in the first stage with the tactics I think.

[Vos]

stage 2 BBT ;
31º  VanDerVaart  --> in the same time as point-scoring cyclists.
Almost unexpected extra points, to my surprise it would have possible to score points, if he was riding with better tactics ( he didn't ).

stage 3 BBT ;
29º  Tafi ( helper, who finished with a mechanical breakdown ).
A "tactical failure" with teamcaptain Lebrun ( 38º ) because he started too slow.

Although that was an intentional tactical choice, because Lebrun was not very suited for this stage due to s3 with 2 hills in it.
But with a very risky tactic he might get a top result. I had to try / gamble on his active weather icon, TC bonus and good helper.
Tafi did great and kept pace with the front group, too bad Lebrun was not in his wheel from the start.
That Lebrun was not really suited, was shown by the fact that he never got the dissapointment icon while he was behind the whole race.
Despite this ; I think this was a missed opportunity to score a good stage result of at least top10.
But in my tactics he was going for a top5, no guts no glory. 

[Vos]

stage 4 BBT ;
15º  VanDerVaart

[wacco]

The victory in bbt will not be possible for me.

Vaessen ended second on 3 seconds from the current leader in the GC. Who is 1minute ahead.

Number two in the GC is only 10 seconds ahead that should be possible.

[ophiuko]

And my last list of the season, La Vuelta:

1. Lazare Pires (28) 78.67
2. August Thoelen (25) 77.64
3. Aksel Blix (27) 77.08
4. Rafael Carlos Loinaz (32) 76.91
5. Dario Fernandez (29) 76.79
6. Steven Pillig (29) 76.75
7. Allan Palmer (32) 76.58
8. Jaime Roman (30) 76.53
9. Maurizio Lorenzetto (27) 76.53
10. Yvo VanStraalen (23) 76.50
11. Alexey Ryazanov (26) 76.31
12. Rene Vrijmoed (25) 76.14
13. Brooklyn Marbley (30) 76.14
14. Sergey Rodionov (27) 76.12
15. Samuele DiLuca (31) 76.08
16. Leon Vonk (28) 76.08
17. Sven WinklerPrins (31) 76.02
18. Daniel Mulikov (29) 76.02
19. Aleksandr Menke (25) 75.85
20. David Manuel Piñeiro (24) 75.84

[Vos]

stage 5 BBT ;
20º  VanDerVaart
My Vuelta selection should be better than this BBT selection, so, enough written about this BBT and let's go to the Vuelta.


   selection SPORTLIFE

4 different types of specialists are selected, so the goal is to score stage points.
I could have selected 5 different types, because all my 33yo's have also TC for this Vuelta.
But I decided not to select one of them, and all 3 are for sale.
Instead climber Macannazi (without TC) is selected as helper of Nyheim, who will be the only specialist with a helper.
Sprinter Lebrun and world champion Kluivert have to do it without support, so my expectations of them should not be high.

With 3 mountain stages and a climb helper, it is obvious that Nyheim gets the lowest backnumber.
I see he has very fierce (and better) rivals, so it will be a hard battle in the Spanish mountains.
Mountain stage 7 to Bola del Mundo will be the most important because there is a sponsor deal at stake.
Unfortunately helper Macannazi will drop halfway this Vuelta to a very low form, so maybe Nyheim will plan an early solo attack in stage 7.

81 Nyheim ( 26 ), climb
82 Lebrun ( 30 ), sprint
83 Kluivert ( 31 ), hills
84 Millan ( 31 ), TT
85 Macannazi ( 24 ), climb

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 Vuelta ;
9º  Lebrun
a decent good result without help in the final 3 sections, what was expected.

stage 2 Vuelta ;
5º  Nyheim
it went wrong in section 3, where Nyheim intentionally dropped to save energy for the final climb,
but to my surprise helper Macannazi decided to stay in the s3 front group of just 7.
Despite this, still a very good result of Nyheim to finish as last of the first chasing group of 3, behind Stegmaier and stage winner Miro.

Just like in this stage 2, also in the upcoming mountain stage 3 Nyheim cannot challenge favorites. Hopefully he will do very well again.

[wacco]

Stage 1 one a little disappointing with losing time with Karl. Stage two a nice 3th spot with Karl. Which gives him the second in the GC.

Stage 4,5 and 8 should be the important stages where he can take a lite of time and a stage victory (stage 5, where we also got a nice sponsor deal offer.

The vuelta is not Karl his favorite grand tour but he has the motivation and teamspirit of our teammanager to win his third grand tour of the season.

After the vuelta he will leave on a training camp for his last points for my team in the beginning of next season before he will be looking for another team (or maybe just to stop cycling)

[wacco]

Karl has taken the red jersey, 5 seconds in front of a better climber but just 1 big mountain stage left. So he will not be the problem.

Number three at 16 seconds worries me more. But if we look to the previous grand tours. Karl took minutes in the cobbled stages. And Karl is a bad TT rider but the other one is worse. So a third Grand Tour victory in the same season starts to be very possible because the number four is already 2 minutes behind the top three.

Next stage our sprinter may be the helper. Vaessen is the top favorite and is allowed to take a stage victory

[Vos]

stage 3 Vuelta ;
2º  Nyheim   
Excellent result !
Nyheim attacked on the final climb, leaving the chasing group of 5 top climbers behind, and finished solo, 0:17" behind favorite Miro.


Nyheim was born near Trollstigen (see picture), his many training kilometers on this Norwegian climb were the basis of this excellent result.