Season 15

[Franky]

What makes this game difficult also = I almost never scout and  recruit a 19yo who is good or even a little good.
My bizarre, extreme bad luck continues also in this season 15. So far ; not even a 19yo who was good enough to be sold for 1,-
Maybe complaining a bit in this topic helps, and today a miracle happens that I scout/recruit a good 19yo.

My statement is even : most CFF managers scout/recruit much more good 19yo's in one season than I do in all 15 seasons combined.
Maybe I should mention my extreme bad luck in the bug topic,
because I can think of just one explanation ; there must be something wrong with the CFF software.

I have to say that my luck with 19yo in this CFF is extremely GOOD hahaha

Bob Janson   11 654 345   Agua_Verde                  
Colin Cann   6 123 456   Combuijs      
Christian Pocock   5 113 113   Aurora_Australis                  
Zack Walkins   5 000 000   Quickstepbronx      
Kirk Clinton   4 513 113   Aurora_Australis      
Sam Wilson   4 500 113   Aurora_Australis      
Richard Blair   4 113 113   Aurora_Australis      
Terry Norris   3 113 113   Aurora_Australis      
Gerard Shields   3 000 000   Quickstepbronx      
Christian Alpin   3 000 000   Blanes      
Steve White   2 600 000   Villavante                              
Nate Farrell   1 650 001   Moderdonia      
Liam Segond   1 500 055   Borjiest      
Dominic Chapman   1 300 113   Aurora_Australis      
Virgil Gatson   1 247 755   Matterhorn      
Ian Mitchell   1 234 567   Lemarche      
Oliver Odom   1 212 321   Agua_Verde


+ the ones that I didn't sell and are part of my team: Jasper, Fraser Slipper, Joe Ryan all of them 10* in any moment

p.s: because of this luck I can compite in 1st division, because having only aussies...

[Aurora Australis]

Maybe you need more Aussies in your team Vos, then the talent will come your way.

[Vos]

Funny to see the feature "your ex-cyclists" on everyone's teampage.
Only max. five 19yo's of all 15 seasons made it to a golden icon, and doubtfull if any of those 5 is a real top cyclist.
I looked at those pages a lot in all 15 seasons, to see if I'm not imagining my extreme bad luck.
And yes, already in season 1 of CFF3 I kept track of this, because I had this extreme bad luck also in CFF2.
There I had some amazing 19yo's, but they all were draft cyclists or they were bought.

I have to say that my luck with 19yo in this CFF is extremely GOOD hahaha

Compared to me, yes, you are extreme lucky.
Compared to almost everyone else ; maybe your luck is normal.
I think that some managers have even much more luck, and remarkable that they have that luck every season.

Funny to read a text on the forum where they are complaining about bad luck.
" this season just 5 or 6 good 19yo's, that really sucks, hopefully next season not so much bad luck".
Well, their "bad luck" in one season is already much better than what I pull in all 15 seasons combined.
To them that extreme luck every season, is so normal, that they even complain about 5 or 6 per season.
Indeed 5 or 6 would be abnormal for me too, but in the opposite ; extreme lucky to me and never happened in all 40 CFF seasons.
Well, enough about this, otherwise I'm getting depressed.   And I still believe in miracles, so maybe this evening the first 19yo of the season.

[ophiuko]

Funny to see the feature "your ex-cyclists" on everyone's teampage.
Only max. five 19yo's of all 15 seasons made it to a golden icon, and doubtfull if any of those 5 is a real top cyclist.

Only 3 golden icons from my team, none of them even close to be top

[Vos]

Yes, I knew this. Sometimes I go to your ex-cyclists team page because "shared pain is half pain".
I bet you cannot find many more teams like ours.
Although, maybe this season for the first time possible because of retired cyclists.
There a few teampages more with just a few golden cyclists, but they keep the best golden cyclists themselves and forget to look at them too.

Well, enough about this, not a happy subject. Just one more thing ; 
I comfort + fool myself that the CFF software has this included ; the more smart the manager, the less luck in scouting/recruiting.
So, the software must see us as geniuses, ophiuko ! Well, if that is the case, at least something is right about the software, hahaha.

[ophiuko]

Good theory, I like it 

[Vos]

stage 3 Catalunya ;
17º  Lebrun ( free role )
106º  Martinez  on 1:48"

Bad tactics of Martinez and his "helpers", only in s1 Martinez had help due to his too slow start.
Vorre was with Martinez the whole race, but I forgot to make Vorre a helper.
Almost sure this tactical failure costed 31 seconds, and Martinez dropped to 16º GC.

stage 4 Catalunya ;
25º  Martinez  on 0:00"

This time I did not make a mistake with Vorre, who did an excellent helpers job in s1, s2, s3, and launched his teamcaptain hard into s4.
Thanks to this good help, Martinez lost no time in this stage.
At the moment he is 15º GC on 2:17"
What is very bad, because with a tactical better manager he could have been 2º GC on 0:53"
Now he has to ride an excellent final stage to try to finish top20 GC.
And maybe even in a free role, although I expected that Portugal could challenge favorites in stage 5, but to my surprise he cannot.
So it is still uncertain who gets the teamcaptain role in this flathills stage.

The good news of today is that I finally recruited my first 19yo this season who might be good enough to be sold.
Also Martinez is for sale, and also for 1,- He has many bids and will be sold today.

[Vos]

stage 5 Catalunya ;
3º  Portugal
32º  Martinez  on 0:17" ( free role )

Very good stage result of Portugal, thanks to an excellent helpers job of Vorre.
Martinez moved up six places and ended up as 9º GC. But for sure a missed opportunity to finish on the GC podium.

Now let's see what my two oldest cyclists can do in Belgium. Both are not in top form, so every scored point might be a cheerfull moment.

[Vos]

Gent Wevelgem ;
35º  Stevens
After a too slow start of Stevens & VanDerVaart, their race was already over because they could not follow the big s1 peleton of 93.
Both are not in topform, maybe that caused the too slow start.
Teamcaptain Stevens finished with a dissapointment icon and even 0:37" behind the points-scoring places.

Dwars door Vlaanderen ;
1º  Stevens  --> amazing victory ! 
27º  VanDerVaart ( helper )

WOW !!! Very surprising victory of the nr 151 in the golden cobble ranking ! Stevens has just 9 stars on cobblehills (since a few days).
With a big thanks to the nr 121 in that ranking,
because VanDerVaart did a perfect helpers job and both were as only duo in the s4 breakaway group of just 8 cyclists.
Also thanks to a WC card so they both could race this DDV in topform and not drop already in s1 out of the big peleton.

The very first victory of SPORTLIFE in a cobblehills classic race ! 
And besides two times a 4º place in Strade Bianche, my team even never achieved a top 10 result in a cobblehills classic race.
In most seasons my team was not even competing in these type of races.

For 32 times USA international Stevens this is a great way to ( almost ) finish his career.
Because this is just his 3rd victory ever, and his first victory in a cobblehills classic race.
Back in season 3 he won a BBT stage and in season 8 he won a Giro stage.
Both victories achieved by SentinelChickens, who sold Stevens 7 months ago.
I bought him this season for 879k ( I bought also this season VanDerVaart for 227k ), what appears to be a great investment.

[Vos]

Ronde van Vlaanderen ;
7º  Stevens
30º  VanDerVaart

Again an excellent result, despite I had no WC card, so this time both were not in topform.
And in s1 it looked like this was going to be a dissapointing RVV, because both could not follow the front peleton of just 42 cyclists.
Normally the s1 peleton is at least twice as big in a windless RVV.

But thanks to a superb helpers job of VanDerVaart in a high pace, both came closer ;  s1= 0:29", s2= 0:25", s3= 0:13" and s4= 0:14".
Stevens even finished on 0:14" in the first chasing group and RVV is not really his speciality, he likes a final cobblehills section 5 more.
This 7º place is Stevens his best RVV result ever, and he was not even in topform.


   selection SPORTLIFE

Vorre is the undisputed teamcaptain in Basque Country, he should be very suited for this little tour, even with just a silver tour icon.
But it is unknown to me how good his GC rivals are, so I have no idea what his GC ambition should be.

Also selected are Stevens and VanDerVaart, despite they will be sold after stage 1, what is their first race in topform without a WC card.
I assume Stevens can score points in a free role, and hopefully VanDerVaart can be the masterhelper of teamcaptain Vorre.

In the remaining 4 stages my team has just 3 cyclists, but Beck should be a very good helper and in stage 4 even a masterhelper.
Also in stage 5 there could be a masterhelper, hills specialist Simon. Maybe he gets a free role, that depends on Vorre his GC ranking.

71 Vorre ( 27 ), silver tour
72 Beck ( 28 ), silver tour
73 Simon ( 32 ), hills
74 Stevens ( 33 ), cobblehills
75 VanDerVaart ( 33 ), cobblehills

Good luck everyone ! 

[ophiuko]

Itzulia (excel):

1. Dimi VanKerckhove (28) 80.71
2. Maurizio Lorenzetto (27) 79.52
3. August Thoelen (25) 79.48
4. Filipe Graca (26) 79.06
5. Bendegúz Csecs (25) 79.02
6. Samuele DiLuca (30) 78.95
7. Telmo Avila (32) 78.89
8. Neeme Põder (29) 78.86
9. Ivan Chiapucci (29) 78.78
10. Stijn Dijksma (30) 78.50
11. Leonid Foros (29) 78.47
12. Valentin Trezeguet (29) 78.28
13. Daniel Mulikov (29) 78.27
14. Guilherme Fonseca (29) 78.21
15. Serafim Gois (24) 78.03
16. Roberto Moro (32) 77.73
17. Sven WinklerPrins (31) 77.62
18. Lazare Pires (27) 77.58
19. Tim Bell (29) 77.57
20. Sam Lee (29) 77.54

[Vos]

stage 1 Itzulia ;
11º  VanDerVaart ( helper )
23º  Stevens ( free role )
46º  Vorre  on 1:04"

VanDerVaart did a great helpers job in the first 3 sections by keeping Vorre in the front.
Unfortunately Vorre could not keep his wheel in s4, but it was a good race and a good result of my GC teamcaptain.
Free role Stevens his result was a little bit dissapointing, but helper VanDerVaart compensated that by finishing unexpectedly good.
Both cobblehills riders are sold today ; Stevens for 556k to a 2nd div.team, and VanDerVaart for just 1½k to a 3rd div.team.

stage 2 Itzulia ;
6º  Vorre  on 0:00" 
17º  Beck ( helper )

An excellent helpers job of Beck in the first 3 sections.
In s2 both were in the break away group of just 5 cyclists ; together with the fresh JGMTeam captain and the $Tourmalet duo.
In s3 my team had even the only duo in the front group of now 9, because 5 different teamcaptains could return (and 1 helper dropped).
In s4 Vorre was isolated, but in the front together with 3 other isolated teamcaptains, 0:12" ahead of the chasing group of 12.
In s5 three cyclists could return, including stage winner Demoulin ( Quickstepbronx ),
but I'm happy that GC contender Vorre finished on 0:00", especially because he could not challenge any favorites.

And I'm even more happy that Vorre is now the new GC leader ! 
TOP 10 GC Itzulia after 2 stages :
1 Ricky Vorre   27   SPORTLIFE   0: 00"   
2    Kasper van der Goor   25   Zatarra   0: 23"
3    Rob Williams   27   Inglourious_Bastards   0: 54"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Sergey Rodionov   28   FrançaiseDesJeux   0: 59"
5    Ivan Chiapucci   33   $Tourmalet   1: 07"   
6    Semion Filatkin   26   LOSRAYOSDELARRY   1: 31"   
7    Craig Lincoln   31   ProCyclingTeam10   1: 34"   
8    Kevin Bush   30   CC_Porco_Jones   1: 37"   
9    Melchior Plessers   26   RemcoEvenpoelckx   1: 39"   
10    Hidde Daelman   26   Combuijs   1: 43"   

[Zatarra]

Being able to see Vorre's stats, I'm a bit disappointed that VdG did not win some seconds in the first stage. The helper's role of Jackson and Haringa was difficult and far from perfect. I think VdG could have won at least 20 seconds there.

Anyway, losing 23 seconds in stage 2 is acceptable for a 8* climb hiller. In stage 3 VdG will try to keep up with Vorre and if Vorre's manager makes a mistake in the climb sprint stage and VdG's manager does not, then that would be a stage to win back some time. VdG is the better sprinter of the two. And also the better hiller for stage 5, so I see possibilities here...

[Vos]

The manager of Vorre selected an excellent helper for stage 4 ; Beck might be a favorite or close to the favorites.
It is up to Beck to try that his teamcaptain will also finish on 0:00" in stage 4, maybe difficult but it might be possible.
Before this Itzulia ; according to me stages 1 and 5 were the most concerning where Vorre could lose (too much) time.
It appears that stage 1 went very well (with a masterhelper) because Vorre is now the GC leader.
Also in stage 5 Vorre (with hills-TC-bonus) can have a masterhelper. If that will be enough for my silver tour cyclist, we will see.

As it looks now it will be a fun GC battle, and the just 25yo van der Goor is maybe the most fierce rival. Good luck Zatarra ! 

[Zatarra]

Thanks! Good luck to you as well, of course. I have no experience in riding tours at all. So far VdG's results (last season TdF for example) have been very disappointing. Hopefully he can be the Itzulia king .