Season 19

[Zatarra]

I had the same weird feeling about the sprint race. Insane. KvdG ruined his time advantage he had over his competitors. Now very curious about the upcoming two stages. Hopefully not too much loss in the mountain stage and hopefully some good gains in the flatcobble one. Then it's up to the best Hiller of the top GC contenders to decided the winner. All is on a handkerchief at the moment, haha!

[Aurora Australis]

At least one of the teams attempted to break everybody with the wrong cyclist as helper, but didn't have the pressure after the first two sections so a few cyclists leaped into the first group (including my silver sprinter).  Other than that it looked pretty normal to me.

Btw: I appear to be having a good Giro with my addon slaves.

[ophiuko]

About the sprint stage: my fault! 

I didn't know Antonino Andre was going to cause such huge damage as a helper, even leaving my leader Teofilo Dias behind. My intention was to make the race quick and impossible to follow for all the GC leaders, so that the sprinters could reunite on the first group on S3, but not the GC leaders. Unfortunately, his effort was so great that he left behind everyone, including my own leader which has gold sprint icon. Anyways, it wasn't too bad as Dias jumped from the 27º position to the 8º on the GC. It could have been 25 seconds better, though.

Here is Andre, he was using TC bonus too 

Antonino Andre   Edad : 24   Sueldo : 1398
Resistencia : 78   Sprint : 99   Montaña : 9
LLano : 99   Pavés : 39   Tecnica : 90
Descenso : 25   Colinas : 32   Agresividad : 82
Crono : 28   TraEqui : 83   Experiencia : 42

[Vos]

Giro stage 6 FMDMM ;
6º  Klaassen  on 0:35"
A perfect race, thanks to helper Gritsal.

Giro stage 7 CCCFC ;
74º  Klaassen  on 2:55"
Not a good race, but even in a good race I expected a big time loss.

After stage 6, Klaassen moved up 3 GC places, and he dropped 2 GC places after stage 7.
I still have a top 6 GC sponsordeal of previous season ( Baiao was 7º GC ). As it seems now, also Klaassen cannot score this sponsordeal.
Maybe top 6 GC might be still possible, if some GC rivals fail in the final 3 stages, and if Klaassen rides 3 excellent stages.
He does not give up ! 

But he can forget about being the best Dutchman in this Giro. At the moment there are even 3 better Dutch GC contenders.
Among them not the Dutch GC leader of 2 stages ago, vanZandbeek, because he dropped to 35º GC on 9:09"
The best Dutchman will be the current GC leader van der Goor, who is in a fierce battle for final victory with the Italian Lorenzetto.
Good luck Zatarra ! 

TOP 20 GC after 7 stages :
1Kasper van der Goor   29   Zatarra   0: 00"   
2    Maurizio Lorenzetto   31   FaltososDeChigre   0: 13"   
3    Sven Lauk   27   Turrones   1: 22"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Bendegúz Csécs   30   RealMurciaCycling   1: 41"   
5    Espen Valgren   32   BlackHole   1: 47"   
6    Tristan Min   27   Flyvende_hjul   1: 52"   
7    Sebastiaan Groenendaal   26   Astanadena   2: 34"   
8    Midas Klaassen   32   SPORTLIFE   3: 11"   
9    August Thoelen   31   KunTeam   3: 24"   
10    Gary Fredickson   30   Combuijs   4: 08"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Karl Emil K.Poulsen   31   Mlb   4: 33"   
12    Daniel Ruup   29   Zatarra   4: 49"   
13    Reinis Melderis   32   Kelme4ever   4: 55"   
14    Rune Roels   28   MarvelProCycling    5: 03"   
15    Carmine Garzelli   25   Shiro_Lions   5: 21"   
16    Chris Rassier   30   Caracoles   5: 47"   
17    Serafim Gois   29   Flyvende_hjul   6: 00"   
18    Jarno Voisin   32   Wizards   6: 10"   
19    Callum Dardar   31   Wizards   6: 21"   
20    Lucio Queiros   28   FaltososDeChigre   6: 26"

[Zatarra]

Thanks Vos! KvdG does like the hills, so if you ask me, this should be doable. But let's not make mistakes.

[Vos]

Today the season 20 calendar is published. 

For the first time ever a flatcobble specialist will be the world champion.
There are more remarkable things to mention about this new calendar,
but my "contribution" was already Richmond WC, so, up to others to mention other things.
I expect that Aurora Australis will mention the Vuelta.

[Aurora Australis]

Sure, I'm going to mention the Vuelta, and that Dean Shields gets to stay in the team for another season with this calendar (I had intended to sell him at this season's end). but first I'll also mention that my climber has just won stage 6 of the Giro, making this a better than expected tour (I'd been thinking that any points were bonus points).

Three Vuelta flat TT stages plus a TT WC, it's going to be a strong end of season, particularly if I don't keep missing the correct times to start the training camps.

[Vos]

flathills stage 8 ;
21º  Klaassen  on 0:21"
My whole team wasted way too much energy at the start, because the s1 peleton was very big with 167 cyclists.
Despite this big tactical mistake, still a decent result of Klaassen, with big thanks to masterhelper Rubiera who did a very good job.

hills stage 9 ;
57º  Klaassen  on 1:04"
My Dutch GC contender could not follow the pace of masterhelper Rubiera in s4,
but 2nd helper Serrano came to the resque in s4, so that Klaassen got the important extra bonus in s5 as well.

Klaassen is now 7º GC, and the numbers 5º ánd 8º seem too far ahead ánd too far behind.
So, the number 6º, Tristan Min ( Flyvende_hjul ) seems the only GC rival left, and there is a sponsordeal of top 6 at stake.
It might be (too ?) difficult to win from Min ánd gain 22 seconds. But maybe possible, the 1x wind can make stage 10 unpredictable.
Hopefully an exciting "6ºplace-battle" between these 2 Dutch GC contenders, in a Giro that most likely will be won by another Dutchman.

[Zatarra]

Yes. One stage to go with a gap of over a minute. This should be doable. But what you say; the wind will make it unpredictable. There are opportunities to break the peloton earlier than in s5 and then a minute or - in your case - 22 seconds is nothing.

Good luck in your battle for 6th.

[Vos]

Thanks, you too good luck with GC leader KvdG ! 

[Vos]

hills-sprint stage 10 ;
37º  Klaassen  on 0:37
Ups , gambled and lost. Too many trees at the side of the road, that blocked the wind.
My tactics were based on a gamble with a very hard start, but with a s1 peleton of 131, that was clearly a waste of at least 1 EP.
Almost sure it caused that Klaassen could not finish one group before rival Min, because Klaassen finished as 6th of the very big 2nd group.

Well, 6º or 7º in the final GC does not matter much, the only thing that is a bit of a pitty ; again the top 6 Giro sponsordeal is not achieved.
It was just 461k, what was low anyway for a top 6 big tour sponsordeal, and that sponsordeal is now deleted, what costs prestige.
Instead, I accepted yesterday a sponsordeal of top 5 Dauphiné of just 201k.
Also tricky to achieve that, hopefully the tactics will go better than in this not so good Giro.

Congratulations to Zatarra ! 
 
Kasper van de Goor ( Zatarra ) ; Giro winner season 19. 

FINAL TOP 20 GC :
1Kasper van der Goor   29   Zatarra   0: 00"   
2    Bendegúz Csécs   30   RealMurciaCycling   1: 28"   
3    Maurizio Lorenzetto   31   FaltososDeChigre   1: 45"   
- - - - - - - - - -
4    Sven Lauk   27   Turrones   1: 53"   
5    Espen Valgren   32   BlackHole   3: 10"   
6    Tristan Min   27   Flyvende_hjul   3: 49"   
7    Midas Klaassen   32   SPORTLIFE   4: 11"   
8    August Thoelen   31   KunTeam   6: 10"   
9    Sebastiaan Groenendaal   26   Astanadena   6: 20"   
10    Karl Emil K.Poulsen   31   Mlb   6: 58"   
- - - - - - - - - -
11    Reinis Melderis   32   Kelme4ever   6: 58"   
12    Daniel Ruup   29   Zatarra   7: 10"   
13    Jarno Voisin   32   Wizards   7: 22"   
14    Gary Fredickson   30   Combuijs   7: 25"   
15    Teofilo Dias   29   OphiukoCT   8: 03"   
16    Serafim Gois   29   Flyvende_hjul   8: 07"   
17    Chris Rassier   30   Caracoles   8: 12"   
18    Cristian Kristiansen   27   AmericanChow   8: 28"   
19    Rune Roels   28   MarvelProCycling    8: 45"   
20    Lucio Queiros   28   FaltososDeChigre   9: 10"   

[Zatarra]

I'm very happy with this win (and 12th place for Ruup). I thought I made a mistake training my GC riders without TT, expecting a bit more grand tours without a flat TT. Luckily now on his 29th KvdG was able to compete in one that hadn't a TT at all, showing that he is the best one. Of course, also the lack of a few tough mountain races contributed, but it doesn't ruin the feeling of satisfaction. Mission accomplished. Time to build an other type of GC rider to hopefully be able to win the other Grand Tours as well.

Thanks Vos!

[Aurora Australis]

Great job on your first GT overall victory Zatarra.

My non-TTer Giro points
Renato Nicolai      341 (silver spriter)
Laurentino Maciel   250 (climber - 1 stage win)
Allan Tuum   95 (climber)

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

Blix makes his debut for my team, and he is the GC contender. He should have good support.
Including the cobble stage where Makarov can be a masterhelper. His main job, because he is not suited for the hills TT stage.

81 Blix ( 32 ), tour
82 Klaassen ( 32 ), tour
83 Gritsal ( 32 ), silver tour
84 Den Bakker ( 30 ), hillsclimb
85 Makarov ( 30 ), flat TT

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

stage 1 Dauphiné ;
1º  Gritsal  --> victory ! 
10º  Blix ( free role ) on 0:00"
31º  Klaassen ( helper ) on 0:39" with a mechanical breakdown in s5.

Bad luck of Klaassen, he had energy left in s5 to finish on 0:00" too.
Besides this stage 1, he is not really needed as helper and the plan was to give free roles to the nr 7 of the Giro.
But due to the bad luck in s5 now 0:39" behind ; his ambition of scoring a few extra GC points might be already over.
Perhaps he will be an extra helper from now on.

I estimated that GC contender Blix could easily finish on 0:00" in a free role. And a relief that I was right.

So, a great opportunity for Gritsal ( 2nd favorite without TC bonus ) to try to go for the victory, and he succeeded.
His 2nd stage victory this season, what is also the total stage/race victories this season of my team.
But the total stage/race 1A victories of SPORTLIFE is "a little bit" higher = 80