Season 17

[Vos]

stage 4 Dauphiné ;
4º  Bleidelis ( free role )

stage 5 Dauphiné ;
22º  Werge ( free role )

Final GC Dauphiné ;
7º  Roman   on 1:07" behind Dauphiné winner Valgren ( SentinelChickens ).

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

The strategy in this little tour is still unknown ; maybe climber Kummer gets a chance to go for two good stage results.
But this will go at the expense of Valotti his GC ambition, although I cannot estimate how well he can perform in the GC.

It seems to me Valotti is not a top GC contender, but he should be better than his teammate Beck, who does not like the time trial.
And normally Baiao should be the most suited of my team, but he is the only one of my TdS-selection who has 99 form ánd no climb-TC.
Most likely this makes him the worst of my 3 selected tour cyclists, because climb-TC is essential in this Tour de Suisse.

101 Valotti ( 30 ), tour
102 Kummer ( 26 ), climb
103 Beck ( 30 ), silver tour
104 Baiao ( 31 ), tour
105 Macannazi ( 26 ), climb

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 TdS ;
8º  Kummer
This well-known stage has no tactical secrets to me,
but I did not expect that helper Macannazi had a complete off-day in all first 4 sections with what should be a save/conservative helpers tactic.
Anyway ; it caused that Kummer was isolated from the start, in a mountain race where having a helper is essential for a good result.
This 8º place was of course not a good enough stage result to demand the teamcaptain role at the expense of a GC contender.
And also not good enough because Kummer could challenge 2 or 3 favorites.

The other 3 selected cyclists all got free roles.
Despite good tactics, I'm not really satisfied about their races too, for example due to unexpectedly dropping behind in downhill sections.
What caused not very promising results ; 55º Beck on 2:19", 73º Valotti on 2:28" and 92º Baiao on 2:37"

stage 2 TdS, the climb time trial ;
Also not a lucky race.
Well, at least one of my 3 tour cyclist could stay on his bicycle, but unfortunately he finished 0:01" behind the points.
33º Valotti on 0:52" = 58º GC on 3:13"
63º Baiao on 1:10" ( with fall in s2 ) = 73º GC on 3:40"
103º Beck on 1:39" ( with fall in the crucial s5 ) = 81º GC on 3:51"

Not a good start of this Tour de Suisse. Hopefully it is still possible to ride a good GC with at least one of my tour cyclists.
The next 2 stages will tell. And if they dissapoint, then the combo Kummer-Macanazzi get their chance of revanche in stage 5.

[Vos]

stage 3 TdS ;
23º  Beck ( teamcaptain ) on 0:33"
Some unexpected points in this heavy hills sprint race. Also Baiao did great in a free role, and finished in the same 2nd group on 0:33"
Even Valotti was riding in a free role, because I could not decide who to sacrifise as helper, so I gave the helpers role to an useless climber.
But Valotti was less suited for this stage and he lost a lot of time by finishing on 1:38"

All 3 tour cyclists still outside the top20 GC :
21º  Baiao  on 2:38"
25º  Beck  on 2:49"
30º  Valotti  on 3:16"

In stage 4 the same strategic concept ; Beck as teamcaptain, and the other 2 in free roles.
Probably not a smart thing to do, but fun to see what is possible after stage 4.
And I estimate that a top GC result will not happen, so this Tour de Suisse is a great opportunity to experiment like this.

It might even give valuable information for the upcoming Tour de France, because Valotti and Beck will ride that too.
As it seems now due to this TdS ; silver tour rider Beck will be the teamcaptain instead of golden tour rider Valotti, who dissapoints here.

[Vos]

stage 4 TdS ;
8º  Beck ( teamcaptain ) on 0:05" =   16º GC on 2:49"
26º  Baiao ( free role ) on 0:33" =  21º GC on 3:06"
32º  Valotti ( free role ) on 0:33" =  26º GC on 3:44"

Excellent stage result of Beck and he has a good chance to score some GC points.
Also nice although not real season goals ;
my team is for the first time this season the nr1 of Australia, ranked as nr12 of 1A and just 128 points behind the top10.

Other good news of today is that my recent bought 23yo training project Jelle Meijer gets his golden hills icon. 8x 23yo rivals are better.
My other 23yo Luca Zutter ( a longer training project of 3 months for just 252k ) got his golden climbhills icon already a while ago,
back then 15x climbhills rivals of 23yo got it sooner.

And also today ; my 21yo Barna Szõnyi got his silver pure climb icon.
What is reasonable good when I look at the Training records topic ( created by Ophiuko ),
because it is 23 trainings more than record holder Arnfinn Mikalsen.

Although it is uncertain if Mikalsen is really the record holder, because I assume Ophiuko does not have all data.
Besides this, I expect many better 21yo climbers than my Szõnyi anyway, just in the team he was bought from there should be many better,
and it is almost sure they have better talent ratings too. ( my climber has talent rating 3 )
But I'm very happy with the superfluous cyclist of that amazing youth climbers team ( and I assume there are more of such teams )
because Szõnyi will get the highest climb GV that a SPORTLIFE-climber ever had.

[Vos]

stage 5 TdS ;
2º  Kummer
Stenseth ( TeamEuroscalt ) and Kummer attacked on the s4 mountain and both were still ahead in s5 downhill.
Unfortunately Kummer lost the sprint-á-deux. Despite this, still a great result, in fact, his best result ever.
And he was not even a favorite, although he could challenge them. As bonus Kummer won a sponsordeal of 273k.

The GC was not a succes ; only Beck scored a few points with 18º GC on 3:29" behind TdS winner Valdmanis ( KunTeam ).
Baiao finished as 22º and 12 seconds behind the top 20 GC, but he had no TC bonus and was riding with 99 form in free roles.
The dissapointing Valotti ( 27º ) finished 50 seconds behind the points.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Beck gets the number that ends on 1, because he will be the teamcaptain in most stages.
But the expectations are low for this silver tour cyclist.
That he is bad in TT does not have to be a big problem in this TdF, but in stage 3 he will lose much time due to his cobbleskill of 9.
And he does not have a good helper for the 3 sprint stages + most likely in at least 2 stages he has to ride in free roles.
Despite these circumstances, his goal is to ride top20 GC.
And he should be able to ride a good stage 1, and maybe a few points in stage 10.

Stubbe his main goal is to compete for victory in the Mont Ventoux stage 9. In the other stages he will be a helper.

Most likely Kummer or Macanazzi get a chance in queens stage 7 with finish on the Pla-d'Adet.
At the moment it is not certain who will be the teamcaptain. And if Beck surprises me a lot, maybe he will get the leader role in stage 7.

I estimate that Valotti is not so suited for this TdF, despite his golden tour icon.
Also he is not suited to score stage points somewhere, with maybe time trial stage 4 as exception. So, he will be used as helper.

101 Beck ( 30 ), silver tour
102 Stubbe ( 31 ), climbhills
103 Kummer ( 26 ), climb
104 Macannazi ( 26 ), climb
105 Valotti ( 30 ), golden tour

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 TdF ;
7º  Beck

stage 4 TdF ;
10º  Valotti

stage 7 TdF ;
1º  Kummer --> victory ! 
11º  Macannazi
Magnificient first victory ever of not-favorite Kummer thanks to a superb helpersjob of Macannazi.
Very unexpected, because it is superhard and almost impossible to beat TeamEuroscalt that is superiour in the mountains of this season.

The first victory of my team this season, and it prevents this would have been my first 1A season ever without a victory.
I thought I had just one chance this season to prevent this ( TdF stage 9 ), and very nice to have that victory already. 

GC contender Beck is at the moment 20º GC on 5:51"
so he really has to battle for his top20 goal in the final 3 stages, and most likely 1 or 2 of those 3 final stages in a free role.

[Vos]

stage 8 TdF ;
8º Stubbe
Excellent result of my hillsclimber who got the teamcaptain role instead of the too low ranked "GC contender" Beck.
Silver tour rider Beck dissapointed in a free role and dropped one place to 21º GC.

stage 9 TdF ;
4º Stubbe a mechanical breakdown in s2 caused that he lost contact with his helper, so no bonus for the crucial s3.
21º  Beck ( free role ) also a mechanical breakdown in a crucial section ; s3 Mont Ventoux.

Very dissapointing results in this stormy race where 1st favorite Stubbe had an active weather icon, but he lost the race due to an unlucky s2.

Beck is 21º GC and it seems he can move up just one place if he rides a very good stage 10.

Another not satisfactory result is the lost semi final CFF Cup to JGMTeam.
I see that the final is a short pure mountain race, where my team would have had a chance to win.
Congratulations to JGMTeam and Rekutxuteam, and I wish both teams good luck in the CFF Cup final.

[Vos]

stage 10 TdF ;
11º  Beck --> with this good stage result he moved up 2 places and finished 19º final GC.
20º  Macannazi ( free role )

Clasica San Sebastian ;
5º  Stubbe
27º  Baiao ( free role )
Very good results and unexpected extra points for my Portuguese tour cyclist Baiao.

Unfortunately two rival-contenders for the Portuguese championship jersey did great in San Sebastian ; 1º and 3º.
Baiao is still first in that ranking, but now I estimate that he has not really a chance to win that jersey.
Too bad, it was the only nation jersey that seemed within reach this season.

[Franky]

Updates for achieving my goals:

Avoid the relegation to 2nd Division: ONGOING. We are not 26th, 700 points over the position 31st. Our riders are competing a lot, and form is starting to decrease in some of them, but we can still fight good enough. Basically only Jasper Blair and Martin Hunter are the ones achieving points for us. 2 sprints in La Vuelta and Lombardia are our key races now, plus some other small chances in other races like time trials for Odom and hills races also for Hunter.

Australian Jersey: Again Jasper and Martin. They are the favorites, one of them will win the jersey, so I can say that GOAL 99% ACHIEVED

Winning in a stage in a Grand Tour: A 2nd and a 3rd in LeTour. Will be very hard to win in LaVuelta, so I can say the the goal is ALMOST FAILED.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Not much to battle for in this remaining season. Almost no goals left and the season highlights are passed.
This poor quality BBT selection has as goal to score points with the Danish-Dynamite-Duo, who both make their debut for my team.

Hopefully also some points of Stubbe in stage 1. He surprised me by a great 8º place in the hills stage of the Tour de France.
But this stormy BBT hills stage has one more flat section, that is not in favor of Stubbe. His helper Dagorret is also a debutant.

Recent TdF stage victor Kummer is already preparing for the world championship race of next season, by riding this BBT for extra xp.

101 Gyring-Nielsen ( 31 ), flatcobble with sprint / stages 2 + 5
102 Skurk ( 35 ), flatcobble helper
103 Stubbe ( 31 ), climbhills / stage 1
104 Dagorret ( 31 ), helper stage 1
105 Kummer ( 26 ), climb / experience

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 BBT ;
16º  Stubbe
Very good result of my hillsclimber.

stage 2 BBT ;
21º  Gyring-Nielsen
26º  Skurk ("helper")
Ups, the big gamble with 1 EP in s1 was a failure. Gyring-Nielsen was behind ánd isolated from the start, and he never returned.
Normally this was a good opportunity to gamble ( no guts, no glory ), and I don't mind if it goes wrong sometimes.
But this time it was not smart to gamble with a not-favorite in a stormy race, who has a very bad director. I should have known better.

Despite this tactical failure race, there were happy faces in the SPORTLIFE-teambus.
35yo "helper" Skurk was still in the s4 front group, and he would have done a perfect helper's job if his teamcaptain had a good start.
But despite the helpers role, he scored some points, and this means that he won something  ;
Jens Voigt's trophy ( points with a 35yo ) --> just 6 managers have this achievement.

[Aurora Australis]

At almost 900 points behind 30th, my Binck-Bank TTers need to start clawing back some points.

341 Markus Benett   24
342 Christian Pocock   24
343 Tod Henderson   24
344 Kirk Workman   29
345 Richard Levin   35

There's expected to be one change for Espana, with Dean Shields coming in for Tod Henderson.

[Vos]

stage 5 BBT ;
8º  Gyring-Nielsen
A good result in this stormy race that went different than the race-picture shows.