Australia s18

[Vos]

6º  Brooklyn Abolins ( teamcaptain )
9º  Sam Rooney  ( free role )
14º   Marc Huling  ( free role )
= 370 points ! 
Australia is even the nation with the most race points, and that in a cobblehills race, incredible !
Also very positive ; main rival Great Britain scored zero points.
Now the season ranking looks amazing with 2 more NT races to go ( cobblehills and flatcobble ) :

1º     2015 
2º     1340
3º     1150
4º       740
5º       700

Great results Vos! Championship is almost secured. The season is going perfect to be honest.

Thanks Ophiuko, I guess the Australians are extra motivated this season because of the new masseuse ( see picture ). 

[Aurora Australis]

That's a great result, and more so as the main threat in race 7 isn't in contention for the title.

[Vos]

RACE 6 :  Le Puy-en-Velay


40ºC

Issoire, central France,
Again a cobblehills race in France, and again it is extreme hot.
Although this is a very different kind of cobblehills race, ánd now there is a hard wind what makes this race much more difficult.
I do not expect amazing results like in flat-cobblehills race 5.
But Australia has a good lead in the season ranking, so, every scored point in this race 6 brings us closer to the possible world championship title.

Australia NT selection :

Marc Huling ( 25 ) Turrones
Brooklyn Abolins ( 24 ) OphiukoCT
Nick Thompson ( 24 ) TeaMetal
Dylan Lucas ( 23 ) Zatarra
Bob Janson ( 24 ) Agua_Verde
Sam Rooney* ( 28 ) Agua_Verde
Marc Ashley ( 25 ) TeaMetal
Oliver Odom ( 24 ) Frier_Accounting
Ali Haber* ( 23 ) Zatarra    ( debut )

[Vos]

7º  Sam Rooney ( free role )
11º  Marc Huling ( teamcaptain )
= 260 points 
A to me very surprising free role result of Rooney. Apparently he likes to ride in 40ºC.
And a decent good result of Huling, although I expect of him to finish top 10 the next time.

Australia was split 3rd in the ranking of most points in this race, together with Spain.
Great Britain scored 40 more points due to the race victory of Luke Rose ( who finished as 134º last week ).
Norway scored 10 more points, mainly due to John Aakre ; 2nd now, 1st last week, and the undisputed leader of the individual ranking.
This daily race top 4 was also the top 4 in the season ranking before race 6, so, of course they are also the top 4 after this race 6.

Next week a long-distance cobble race in Richmond, Virginia ( USA ).

[Vos]

RACE 7 :  Richmond


29ºC

Richmond, Virginia, USA,
Australia is going full power to defend the enormous gap of 635 points towards Great Britain.
Therefore all 6 golden flatcobble specialists are selected, added with 2 silver cyclists ; a 24yo debutant, ánd good old Angus Friend.
The selection of this former individual world champion and 5x NT race winner, causes that the other Aussies are extra motivated.

Rival Great Britain should do very good and I expect that they will get the 2nd most points in this race, behind the Netherlands.
There are some other countries, for example Italy and Denmark, that probably score enough points too.
What is good, because we do not want a Great Britain that dominates this race with many cyclists in the points ( they did in the past ).
But I expect that Keith Hunter should do well and scores more than enough points to secure the world championship,
even if Great Britain achieves a surprising, insane big amount of points.

Australia NT selection :

Keith Hunter ( 28 ) Agua_Verde
Peter Boit ( 28 ) Combuijs
Vince Whisman ( 27 ) Luka_Warriors
Dave Taylor ( 24 ) Bikeos
Donald Odom ( 24 ) CajaRuralZamora
Sean Jameson ( 28 ) Ciclastur
Clyde Mayne ( 24 ) Galletto    ( debut )
Angus Friend ( 35 ) Mlb
Walter Muller ( 22 ) Villavante    ( debut )

[Vos]

The final cyclist is selected, and as announced, he is an experience cyclist.
Many amazing and/or promising Australians to chose from for this last place, where my condition was to give someone his debut.

I decided to select the nr 4 of the u23 DT ( and nr 1 as hillsclimber, because nrs 1 + 2 are flatclimbers and nr 3 is a pure climber ).
Of course, a hillsclimber is not very usefull to the NT of Australia, because there was just one hillsclimb NT race in all 17 NT seasons.
But I looked at all Australians who deserves a debut i.m.o., even including tour cyclists.
And for example the 23yo flatclimber Ali Steele was very close to be selected, despite there was never a NT flatclimb race in the past.
Decisive for me to select the 22yo Walter Muller instead of many others = a reward that Muller is picked as free cyclist.

Something else ;
There are still no candidates for next NT season.
Perhaps good to point out that also next season Australia will be amazing in almost every season calendar.
It's fun to ride with the best Australians ánd to compete in the top of the NT season ranking.
It seems to me next season is a great opportunity to be the Australian NT manager, including for someone who never did this fun job.
And keep in mind ; I can assist with feedback, if that is wanted, to make the job more easy than it already is.

[Vos]

AUSTRALIA  =  WORLD CHAMPION  ! ! !

Richmond flatcobble race =
A direct confrontation with rival GB :
Hunter ( AUS ) won the sprint a deux for the 2nd place of Brady ( GB ). Hummelsby ( DEN ) won solo.
An excellent race result of Hunter, with big thanks to helper Boit who launched him into s5.
We did not even need these 250 points of the final NT race, because Australia is world champion with a gigantic gap :

Final NT ranking top 5, season 18 =
1    2.525   
2     1.975
3     1.660
4     1.300
5     1.220

[Aurora Australis]

Great result.  Whoever was called the Master Technician has lost his title.

[lunatiko]

congrats guys! Specially Vos on the tremendous tactical lessons he delivered race by race.

Happy to see the contribution of my aussie riders to the achievement

Best of the luck for the future

[Vos]

Thanks, lunatiko and AA. 

This Australian worldchampionship is of course thanks to all CFF managers with Australian top cyclists ! 

[Vos]

Also successful this season ; 
Excellent recruiting / scouting in a few specialties of 19yo's.  Thanks to those managers too, and good luck with training the young Aussies.

Hopefully also in season 19 there will be a new wave of promising 19yo's Australians. And I know someone who is not expecting that :
 

[ophiuko]

Great season Vos! Difficult to beat.

For all the aussie managers, I'll be buying cobblers this season. Potentially to train cobble-hillers with sprint, so it would be nice if they have a bit of everything.

[Zatarra]

Great season Vos! Difficult to beat.

For all the aussie managers, I'll be buying cobblers this season. Potentially to train cobble-hillers with sprint, so it would be nice if they have a bit of everything.

Good to hear! Just like my 23-yo Armstrong, but he is lacking a bit of explo...

Anyway, I'll be training 19yo climbers next season. Hope to make a few good tour riders or pure climbers if my selection shows that's the better option.

[Vos]

Thanks ophiuko. 
My 2 climb training projects need 1 more season of training, so most likely I'm not setting up a mini-youth team aside.
Unless I recruit/scout a potential top tour talent, that would be a game changer to me.
But I tried that the past 18 seasons without success, so my expectations are extreme low that this will happen next season.
Anyway, my recruiting/scouting will be mainly on climbing, with the purpose to sell if he is good enough and not a top tour talent.

I wish good luck and much fun to my successor Aurora Australis, who will be the NT manager of season 19.
Don't forget to vote everyone ; it might be a brutal, harsh, fierce election battle. 

[Franky]

WOW nice end of the season, another championship of us!! hehe

I'm on vacations and I couldnt follow what was happening here...incredible season VOS