Season 18

[Vos]

The season 19 calendar is published.

4 little tours without TT ; Tour de Suisse just 2 mountain sections ( s1 and s3 of stage 1 ) ; BinckBank just 1 hill section ( s3 of stage 5 )
Giro : no TT
Tour de France : 1x flat TT, 1x hillflatclimb TT, 1x climb TT, just 1x mountain stage, and a total of 19 hill sections.
Vuelta : 2x flat TT, 6x mountain finish
WC TT : Richmond, flat 53km, just 3km longer as this season.
WC road race :

[Aurora Australis]

That's not good for Richard Levin in his quest to score points next season, particularly with the first flat-TT race at stage 40 for the season.  Oh well, let's hope the duct tape & string keeps his legs in one piece until then.

[Vos]

Indeed, it will be a very difficult goal to the then 37yo( ! ) Levin.
He has to train against decay for a long period till race 40. On the bright sight ; probably almost no TC rivals in Romandie.
Still, even if everyone is riding without TC, it will be very difficult. But I really hope he can finish top 30, good luck !

[Vos]

stage 9 Giro ;
9º Baiao on 0:23"
17º  Macannazi ( helper )
Excellent stage and excellent result, thanks to his masterhelper ( and thanks to the tactics, and thanks to Baiao his active weather icon ).

Baiao is still 5º GC, but I expect he will drop after sprint stage 10.
It seems he will drop just 1, 2 or 3 places, what would mean at least top 8 final GC, and that would be a great result of the 32yo Baiao.

[Vos]

stage 10 Giro ;
102º  Baiao on 1:56"
This sprint result caused a drop of 2 GC places, but I'm happy with his very good final GC result.
I guess Ophiuko is happy too, and HTCHungria is less happy with missing out the Giro victory on 0:00"

FINAL TOP 20 GC =

1 Afonso Rio   29   OphiukoCT   0: 00"   
2    Pat Martin   27   HTCHungria   0: 00"   
3    Yvo VanStraalen   29   Combuijs   0: 53"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Henriks Valdmanis   28   KunTeam   1: 35"   
5    Adam Zipp   29   FaltososDeChigre   1: 39"   
6    Yvo VanPaassen   27   Agua_Verde   1: 45"   
7    Adao Baiao   32   SPORTLIFE   1: 50"   
8    Jarno Voisin   31   Wizards   2: 52"   
9    Reinis Melderis   31   Kelme4ever   2: 54"   
10    Raul Fuertes   31   TeamEuroscalt   3: 09"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Carles Verdugo   27   FlyEaglesFly   3: 11"   
12    Sebastiaan Groenendaal   25   Astanadena   3: 40"   
13    Alexander Castilla   29   Innioraths   4: 55"   
14    Espen Valgren   31   BlackHole   5: 01"   
15    Gustave Gloor   26   Turrones   5: 06"
16    Kevin Bush   33   CC_Porco_Jones   5: 12"   
17    Nestor Cabrera   30   galegospolabici   5: 21"   
18    Alexey Ryazanov   29   Spitz   5: 54"   
19    Lars Panizzolo   29   TeamSerfin   6: 23"   
20    Midas Klaassen   31   Luka_Warriors   6: 25"   

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

My Swiss store is not making a profit anymore, so I decided to ride the Dauphiné with a Swiss team.
Added with an Italian TT specialist and a young American climb talent.

81 Palley ( 32 ), tour
82 Stubbe ( 32 ), hillsclimb
83 Zutter ( 24 ), hillsclimb
84 Quinziatto ( 31 ), TT
85 Beckham ( 22 ), climb

stage 1 Dauphiné ;
11º  Quinziatto
30º  Palley  on 2:12"

[Aurora Australis]

Well done on your first GT general victory OphiukoCT (good thing HTCHungria has won a GT previously).

And how many stores do you have Vos?

[Vos]

Supporters can see how many stores a team has. The current situation =

1    FaltososDeChigre      19
2    BlackHole      19
3    Mlb      14
4    Kelme4ever      6
5    Quickstepbronx      5
6    Álvaro_Pino_Boys      5
7    Combuijs      4
8    Flyvende_hjul      4
9    SPORTLIFE      3  ( AUS+3486, GER+717, SUI-880 )
13 teams have 2 stores, and there are many teams with 1 store.

The best store of today is in Estonia ; ReyDormilon 19.289,-

And this is the season top 10 of "highest profit" on all stores :

1    Mlb   
2    BlackHole   
3    FaltososDeChigre   
4    Quickstepbronx   
5    ReyDormilon   
6    WinterIsComing   
7    Codex   
8    Bergersfeldt   
9    Frier_Accounting   
10    Álvaro_Pino_Boys
- - - - -
14    SPORTLIFE
Aurora_Australis is outside the top 50.
I'm almost 100% sure that only profits count in this ranking, and that when a store is not profitable, the negative number does not count.
So, it is just a distorted, not good ranking. The reality of real netto profits can be different.

[Vos]

stage 2 Dauphiné ;
81º  Palley  on 3:13"
stage 3 Dauphiné ;
11º  Palley  on 0:28"
22º  Beckham ( free role )
Nice to see that my 22yo American scored points. And a nice stage result of Palley thanks to good help of Stubbe.
At the moment Palley is just 15º GC on 2:00", what is a bit dissapointing for now.
Perhaps that going for stage results would have been a better option in this Dauphiné. And the Swiss shop is still not profitable ( - 880 ).

[Vos]

stage 4 Dauphiné ;
6º   Stubbe ( teamcaptain ) on 0:00"
14º   Palley ( free role ) on 0:14"
Stubbe was 3rd favorite, and maybe I should have used a +1 form card, because now he finished as last of the front group ( with 99 form ).
But it was a good race of my Swiss trio ; helper Zutter did great in s1, was too slow in s2 and s3, but returned to the front in s4.
To my surprise GC contender Palley could also return to the front in s4, what caused this excellent free role result.

Palley moved up just 1 place and now 14º GC, still on 2:00"
His hills-GV is not so good, so the top 10 GC seems far out of reach.
Well, I paid just 2 million for Palley ; probably my GC expectation was too high, also because he lost too much time in flatcobble stage 2.
In retrospective ; I should have made the 22yo Beckham the teamcaptain in stage 3, due to a little chance of winning the white jersey.

[Vos]

Now let's see if this 6º place in a little tour stage has impact on the Swiss SPORTLIFE store. I doubt it.

[Vos]

The Swiss store was profitable after stage 4 ( + 321,- ), but after stage 5 it is making a loss again ( - 860,- ).

stage 5 Dauphiné ;
11º  Stubbe ( teamcaptain )
- - - - -
35º  Palley ( free role ) on 1:10"
Excellent result of hillsclimber Stubbe. And for the GC of Palley it was not a good strategic decision to let him ride in a free role.
Palley ended up as 12º GC, and without his 2x free roles, he could have finished top 10 GC.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

4 tour cyclists are selected, and Valotti is the GC contender.
He was 79k more expensive than Palley, but maybe also now my expectation should be not high for a cheap cyclist of 2,1 M.

81 Valotti ( 31 ), tour
82 Palley ( 32 ), tour
83 Baiao ( 32 ), tour
84 Hacker ( 28 ), silver tour
85 Rubiera ( 26 ), hills

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 Suisse ;
5º Valotti  on 0:21"
12º  Palley ( free role ) on 0:30"
13º  Baiao ( free role ) on 0:34"
Magnificent results. 

[Vos]

stage 2 Suisse ;
My 3 tour cyclists finished outside the points in a big group on 1:02" Not bad and expected.

stage 3 Suisse, the time trial ;
22º  Valotti  on 1:15"
26º  Palley  on 1:17"
38º  Baiao  on 1:30"

stage 4 Suisse ;
33º  Valotti ( teamcaptain ) on 0:08"
116º  Palley ( free role ) on 1:01"
117º  Baiao ( free role ) on 1:01"
Ups, a tactical mistake with the free role tactics ; both dropped in s3 out of the front group what caused these bad results.
It also caused a very big drop in the GC ; Baiao was 15ºGC and now 27ºGC ; Palley was 11ºGC and now 21ºGC.
It seems they have no chance anymore to score a few extra GC points.

But Valotti did amazing thanks to masterhelper Rubiera who stayed with his teamcaptain the whole race, even in s5.
Valotti was 6ºGC and moved up to 4ºGC, still 0:28" behind the GC leader, that did not change.
The final mountain stage will be decisive, and my Italian teamcaptain is just a 7 star climber, so, hopefully not a too big drop in the GC.