Season 15

[Sjiz]

He will finish the season, still much to win but wont race next season.

[Vos]

Amstel Gold Race ;
11º  Daniljev
29º  Kluivert ( free role )

After the disaster of AGR in previous season, where Daniljev could not follow the s1 peleton of 107 and fnished as 61º on 1:00",
I decided to start with a risk free s1 start.
Despite he is fully prepared, has an active weather icon, and has good helpers ; exactly the same circumstances as in previous season.
This time the s1 peleton was even much bigger with 146, so it is very doubtfull if my tactical choice was a good one.
But most likely it did not matter because helpers Simon and Portugal kept him in the front (also in s4) and both had EP left to lauch Daniljev.
Maybe the real tactical mistakes were that I could have experimented with free role Kluivert in a normal risky start,
and that Portugal should have had a free role too for some extra points because 2 helpers in s4 was 1 too many.
Anyway, this season not an AGR failure, and this result is not bad.

Flèche Wallonne ;
12º  Daniljev

This is the most suited race and therefore full risk (despite the wind) with help of all 4 other hills specialists, to try to get a top result.
Unfortunately the start was too risky and my team could not follow the s1 front peleton of 52. Well, no guts no glory, it was a big gamble.
s2 showed that my team was not that good, they ended up in the 3rd group and Daniljev did not even get the dissapointment icon.
s3 went also wrong, because the 2 main helpers dropped, and their tactics were based on being with Daniljev in s4.
Luckily back up helper Portugal kept his teamcaptain in still the 3rd group of s3.
But the bad s3 of Kluivert and Simon caused that Daniljev was isolated in s4, what is never good.
In the end the result is pretty good for a tactical failure race, but of course a missed opportunity to finish at least top 10.

Hopefully LBL will be a good race with a better result.
But even with a perfect race, I expect not a top result due to the fierce competition this season.

[ophiuko]

Tour de Romandie (excel):

1. Lazare Pires (27) 79.72
2. Allan Palmer (32) 79.34
3. Alessandro Figueras (29) 78.70
4. Tjerk Tusveld (32) 78.69
5. Dario Fernandez (29) 78.66
6. Rene Vrijmoed (25) 78.59
7. Daniel Mulikov (29) 77.92
8. Arjan Putman (27) 77.78
9. Murat Aeschliman (27) 77.64
10. Romeu Rosario (32) 77.56
11. Aleksandr Menke (25) 77.33
12. Jorund Nordnes (31) 77.31
13. Aksel Blix (27) 77.15
14. Sven WinklerPrins (31) 77.13
15. Rafael Carlos Loinaz (32) 76.77
16. Tim Fox (29) 76.76
17. Bekir Spies (32) 76.65
18. Yvo VanStraalen (23) 76.60
19. Jaime Roman (30) 76.41
20. Alexey Ryazanov (26) 76.23
21. Samuele DiLuca (30) 76.05

[Sjiz]

Very unlucky race for Verbeek. His domestiques lost contact soon, he got a mechanical in s3 and Valter had a high luck bonus in s5. Very dissapointed, this feels like i lost it due to bad luck on multiple levels.

Still very well done to Valter! Incredible results.

[Vos]

Indeed, Valter did amazing with 3 victories in a row. 

My team did the opposite of amazing, and my conclusion is ; a bad hills campaign of SPORTLIFE. 

Liège–Bastogne–Liège ;
17º  Simon ( free role )
30º  Daniljev 

Free role Simon and helpers Portugal and Rubiera started good in s1 and even were all 3 in the s3 front peleton of 65.
But teamcaptain Daniljev and best helper Kluivert started in s1 in the 2nd group on 0:20" behind the front peleton of 83.
Not such a problem, I thougt, Kluivert will bring back his teamcaptain in flat s2.
Both have a good flat skill, but they could not come back to the front group of 82 in s2.
Kluivert tried to repair the damage and helped very good in s3 and s4, but also in these high pace sections they could not come back.

In fact, LBL was over by not returning in s2, and they were riding a lost race.
If Daniljev could return in s2 ( what I expected ), he could have finished top10, probably even top7 or better.
Simon showed with his free role that a good start is essential, because Daniljev with help in all sections even finished 14 seconds later.

Luckily there is always a next race, because the best for me is to forget these bad hills classic races as quick as possible.
Let's go to the Tour de Romandie ! Hopefully the mountain tactics go better.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Unfortunately there is a time trial in this little tour, and that kills the GC chances of Beck.
Therefore a climber will be the teamcaptain in both mountain stages ; the just 24yo Macannazi who makes his debut in this role.

71 Macannazi ( 24 ), climb
72 Beck ( 28 ), tour
73 Lebrun ( 30 ), sprint
74 Basov ( 32 ), climb
75 Nyheim ( 26 ), climb

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 Romandie ;
5º  Macannazi
An excellent result, despite he was islolated in s4 and not good enough to follow the s4 break away group of 4.
Only stage winner Huard ( 26, RemcoEvenpoelckx ) could make the jump to the front in s5, thanks to help in s4 of his teammate Cabrita.
One climber dropped out of the front group, so it was up to Macannazi to sprint for the 5º place in the chasing group of also 4 (on 0:18").
A very promising result of my just 24yo climber who could not challenge any favorites. But he was not even the best 24yo in this stage, that was Seeler ( 24, ValeronIdolo ) who impressed by finishing 2º and outsprinted the 2 climbers (Miro and Menendez) of his early breakaway group.

[Vos]

stage 2 Romandie ;
14º Lebrun

[Aurora Australis]

It's Richard Levin's turn to defy his advancing years to blitz the TTers at Romandie with a new race record.


Richard Levin   33   Aurora_Australis   a 0 minutos 0sg   167 points   
2nd   Sandro Adamo   31   ProCyclingTeam10   a 0 minutos 11sg

[Vos]

The motivation and self-confidence of Levin must be great after this stage victory. Let's hope this causes a good NT race this evening. 

[Vos]

stage 5 Romandie ;
2º  Macannazi
Excellent result ! 

Beck surprised me by scoring GC points ( 17º GC on 3:59" ) despite his free roles and his expected bad time trial ( 173º on 3:34" ).

[Vos]

Eschborn-Frankfurt
2º Beck
Excellent result of this German not-favorite, although, being so close to a classic victory is not entirely satisfactory.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Perhaps this is my least impressive Giro selection ever, and it was a bit of puzzling at the last moment.
For example a last minute selection of allrounder Vorre instead of climb-helper Nyheim who had a bad helpers tactic in Romandie.
Vorre won Itzulia, but he is not suited for this Giro and most likely he cannot score points somewhere. Perhaps he will be a helper.

The goal of my team is to score points in 6 stages, and just 2 out of the 5 are fully prepared for this Giro.
Normally in my team ; all 5 or at least 4 are fully prepared for a big tour.
But this season is different, and as it seems now, also in the other 2 big tours this same sad, not optimal prepared situation.
Hopefully I can buy a few cyclists, so my TdF- and Vuelta selections will be much stronger as now in the Giro.

51 Macannazi ( 24 ), climb
52 Daniljev ( 32 ), hills
53 Millan ( 31 ), TT
54 Tafi ( 33 ), climbsprint
55 Vorre ( 28 ), climbhills

stage 1 Giro ;
9º  Tafi

A good result of this Italian who I bought for 8k one week ago. And now he scored 45k price money + 27k points money.
But I have to say he was just bought as back up plan in case I could not buy enough good Giro cyclists, what indeed happened.
And Tafi even could have finished much better if he had help, because he had to do it on his own the whole race.
Macannazi had a bad helpers tactic, and Vorre was with Tafi in the first four sections but I forgot to make Vorre a helper.

[Vos]

stage 2 Giro ;
7º Daniljev
Very good result.
Too bad he did not show such a good result in the more important hills classic races where he finished outside the top 10 ( 11º, 12º, 30º ).

[Sjiz]

Verbeeks 30th win in 1a. Excellent result!