Season 18

[Vos]

stage 5 Suisse ;
25º  Valotti  on 1:08"
30º  Palley ( free role ) on 1:22"
A good stage, and even better ;
Valotti could hold on to his 4º GC place, what is an excellent final result and much better than I expected.
Still, on just 0:04" of the final GC podium is a bit of a pitty.
To my surprise free role rider Palley moved up 6 places and finished as 15º GC. Nice extra points.

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Not a strong selection, but maybe Valotti surpises again like he did in the Tour de Suisse ( 4º ).
Although I expect that top 10 GC is already a difficult goal to achieve.

Palley is the main helper, but the 2nd half TdF will be hard for him due to that his TC bonus ends, ánd due to a drop to 94 form.
The remaining 3 places in this TdF selection are last-minute-selections of young cyclists who can use the experience desperately :

Zutter can be a good extra helper in many stages.
Beckham can be a masterhelper in the mountains, but maybe he gets a free role.
Meijer is almost of no use as helper, he is lucky there were open spots in this TdF.
My Vuelta selection is already full and will be much stronger. But first ; let's see how Valotti does in the GC of this Tour de France.

71 Valotti ( 31 ), tour
72 Palley ( 32 ), tour
73 Zutter ( 24 ), climbhills
74 Beckham ( 22 ), climb
75 Meijer ( 24 ), hills

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

stage 1 TdF ;
12º  Valotti  on 0:36"
28º  Zutter ( helper )
30º  Palley ( helper )
Valotti had still help on the Mont Ventoux, but was isolated in s4 and s5. Despite this, a very good result.

stage 2 TdF ;
19º  Beckham ( free role )
- - - - -
45º  Valotti  on 2:44"
Bad helper tactics ; almost the whole race Valotti was isolated. Probably this caused an unnecessary loss of 0:26" or even 0:54"

At the moment Valotti is 15ºGC on 2:32" ( the nr 19ºGC is also on 2:32" ).

[Vos]

stage 3 TdF ;
10º  Beckham ( 22yo teamcaptain ) 
A change of strategy because my young American did great in mountain stage 2 to Loudenvielle, where GC teamcaptain Valotti dissapointed.
So, in this mountain stage 3 to Pla-d'Adet Beckham got his chance in a leader role :

s1 = excellent job of my 2 Swiss helpers ; they kept Beckham in the front group of just 31.

s2 = helper Palley did great with Beckham in his wheel ; both in the chasing group of just 7, 0:11" behind the 4x Euroscalt breakaway.

s3 = unfortunately Palley dropped out of the chasing group ; unnecessary, because he could have gone faster.
Although, I did not expect Beckham would be this good in s3, where he was still in the reduced chasing group on 0:15"
Situation s3 --> 2x Euroscalt 0:00" --> 1x Euroscalt(helper) 0:07" --> chasing group of just 5, incl. 1x Euroscalt and 2x too fast helpers.

s4 = Beckham is a bit too young to keep up with the fierce high pace so far, what costed him much energy ; he dropped behind.
Situation s4 --> 4x 0:00" --> 1x --> 4x --> 4x --> 9x on 0:57" incl. Beckham.

s5, Pla-d'Adet = a great final climb ! Beckham ( 10º ) won even the up-mountain-sprint of his little group of 4 on 1:40"
Solo victory of Lebraud ( TeamEuroscalt = again superb climb domination ) ; also solo nr2 did great, Alexander ( ChampsElysees ).

GC contender Valotti had a very bad free role race ; 53º on 3:24" ( finished together with Palley, what also shows this result is very bad ).
Caused by that his 1 EP start was not good enough, ánd his mechanical breakdown in s3.
Well, he is just a 7-star climber, so I knew this Tour de France would be difficult to him, and this very bad free role race does not help.
Valotti dropped 13 places and now 28ºGC on 4:49", hopefully he returns in the GC battle after a good time trial in Luxembourg this evening.

[Vos]

stage 4 TdF, time trial FFC^HF 65km,
25º  Valotti  on 1:33"
26º  Palley
Valotti moved up to 14ºGC on 4:10"
but with 29 sprint skill and 4 out of the remaining 6 stages with a sprint finish ; it will be a hard TdF to my Sardinian teamcaptain.

[Vos]

stage 5 TdF, hills-sprint ;
53º  Valotti  on 1:48"
He finished in the 3rd group, and ( maybe ) with perfect tactics it was possible to finish in the 2nd group on 0:51", a big time difference.
Valotti dropped to 16ºGC on 5:58"

[Vos]

stage 6 TdF, FMMFF, 2x wind ;
34º  Valotti  on 1:07"
Bad stage.
The risky 1 EP start was not good enough, and he was already isolated in s2.
Main "helper" Palley started good, what appeared to be too fast for his teamcaptain. Palley was also ahead in s2 and behind in s3 + s4.
To my surprise Palley ( without TC, just 94 form, behind in s3, behind in s4 with 0 EP ) returned with 0 EP in s5 to the group of Valotti.
What maybe shows that Valotti could finish one group sooner if his race was tactical much better = a big difference of 31seconds.

stage 7 TdF, FFFFM, 1x wind ;
17º  Valotti  on 0:35"
Very good race + result, thanks to an excellent helpers job of Palley.

Valotti is now 16ºGC on 7:35"
For a GC contender he is good at stage 9, the time trial. But not good in stage 10, the flat-cobble-sprint stage.
I estimate he will end up on about the GC position he has now.
Hopefully he can score some points in stage 8 too, what makes his not so good Tour de France a bit more bearable.

[Vos]

stage 8 TdF, MMMHF 2x wind ;
26º  Valotti  on 0:42"
A good race ; a few points, he finished in the big 2nd group ( nrs 12 to 45 ), and still 16ºGC.

[Aurora Australis]

The old guy still has some legs.

Stage 4: 12th       Richard Levin      36   Aurora_Australis   0: 49"   75 points

Stage 9:  10º   Richard Levin   36   Aurora_Australis   0: 28"   85 points   

[Vos]

stage 9 TdF, flat TT ;
29º  Valotti  on 1:59"

stage 10 TdF, FCCCF ;
49º  Valotti  on 2:36"

Valotti moved up to 12ºGC after the time trial, and to my surprise he did not drop after stage 10.

[Vos]

Clásica San Sebastián ;
9º  Stubbe
19º  Vorre ( helper )
Nice extra points to the current leader of the individual Swiss ranking.


   selection SPORTLIFE

Very low expectations, due to a director with 7 on little tours, and a teamcaptain ( Armstrong ) that was bought for 1.400,- this season.
Extreme low numbers. Even the semi-helper ( Stabulnieks, bronze climbhills-sprinter ) I bought today was more expensive with 3.010,-
Mainly bought to fill up this selection because there were open spaces.
The same for Valotti, who was not sold today, he rides this BBT too in an attempt to be a semi-helper, although his main goal is to gain xp.

Perhaps the most chance to score a few points comes from my both hills specialists in stage 5.
But it is uncertain yet if one or both will ride that race in good health. Probably not, because also their main goal is to gain xp.
And it seems that missing out a few stage 5 points has no impact on this season whatsoever.

Also a chance that silver cobblehills cyclist Armstrong is good enough to score a few points in stages 1 and 2.
And maybe he surprises me by finishing top 20 GC, despite he has just 2 stars on sprint and a TT skill of 46.
But of course, there is also a possibility that Armstrong will be disqualified / suspended for doping use.

71 Armstrong ( 33 )
72 Rubiera ( 26 )
73 Meijer ( 24 )
74 Stabulnieks ( 33 )
75 Valotti ( 31 )

Good luck everyone ! 

[Vos]

Before the nice points in SanSebastian, my team had even a better highlight at 1 am ;
Barna Szõnyi ( 22 ) got his golden icon on pure climb. 
He is the current nr 3 in the u23 DT and since I bought him almost 4 months ago, he determines the training schedule of my team.

[ophiuko]

Vos, icons are only updated once a day, at 7am.

[Vos]

Ok, I did not know that. Thanks for the information.
I noticed it at 1 am but a good chance I missed looking at it earlier, and he had his golden icon already yesterday, at 7 am after race 71.
By far not the record, as I can see in the topic you created :

Climbing:
- Arnfinn Mikalsen (22 yo, stage 42)

[Vos]

stage 1 BBT ;
24º   Armstrong
stage 2 BBT ;
13º   Armstrong
A very good stage 1, and stage 2 was excellent due to profiting of the wind ; Armstrong and 3 helpers were in the s1 breakaway of just 36.

But sprint stage 3 was tactical bad, because of a too early drop in s2. Armstrong finished as 83º on 1:41" and dropped to 18ºGC.
His result in the time trial, 34º on 2:34", caused a to me surprising jump of 8 places, and Armstrong is now 10ºGC.
I decided that training was more important to my 2 hills specialists, so a good opportunity for them to be unhealthy helpers to Armstrong.
A gap of 1:18" to the nr20 GC, so, it should be (easily) duable for Armstrong to score GC points after stage 5, despite his not good hills GV.