Season 20

[Aurora Australis]

No season 20 thread, so there is now.

Anyway, Kirk Clinton has snagged his first victory in Stage 1 Catalunya, also claiming the race record off CFF's best ever TTer Richard Levin (and without a weather bonus - Levin had been 33 years when he set that record).


1st   Kirk Clinton   27   Aurora_Australis   a 0 minutos 0sg   167 points

[Vos]

SPORTLIFE has a bit of "sabbatical season" with almost no season goals.

The main focus in the first half of the season was/is on continuously recruiting and scouting, and so far I achieved in doing that.
However, just as in most other seasons, again bad luck.
Just 2x 19yo's were good enough to be sold ; for 42k and for 1,-
It is still possible to pull a top talent in the next few days, so maybe my "luck" will change.

The season started with a bad draw in the 1st round of the CFF Cup ; no chance at all versus Flyvende_hjul in a hill-sprint-race.
So, it was exit SPORTLIFE, the CFF Cup winner of previous season.

In so far all classic races my team was not competing. But there were a few "highlights" in some little tours :

Paris Nice
GC = 6º Klaassen, including an excellent 2º place in stage 4, his first race in topform.

Tirreno Adriatico
GC = 10º Klaassen, one of my worst tactical little tours.
But the failing of Klaassen had as advantage that my 24yo climber got the teamcaptain role in stage 5 :
2º Beckham, he lost the sprint-a-deux against climb legend Mikalsen ( TeamEuroscalt ) who most times wins solo.

Catalunya
Due to his excellent result in previous climb race, again a teamcaptain role for Beckham in stage 2 :
2º Beckham, now 0:08" behind Mikalsen, who even finished with a mechanical breakdown.
So, very clear that this Euroscalt topclimber was the best, but promising to Beckham that the nr 3 finished solo on 0:52", a big time gap.
GC = 12º Klaassen, not such a good little tour, but not so very bad as in the Tirreno.

   selection SPORTLIFE

No complete selection, therefore both my 24yo climbers ride just for xp.
Christensen will be the teamcaptain for the first time, he was bought 11 days ago for 3,2 M.
He is not a top tour cyclist and not fully prepared, but hopefully he can battle for top 10 GC.
Two old 33yo cyclists complete this very poor Itzulia selection ; Klaassen and a 7 star silver hillsclimber.

201 Christensen ( 28 ), tour
202 Klaassen ( 33 ), tour
203 Oezcakmak ( 33 ), hillsclimb
204 Szõnyi ( 24 ), xp
205 Beckham ( 24 ), xp

Good luck everyone !

[Vos]

A very bad Itzulia, where my team scored an embarrassing total of just 88 points.

In Paris-Roubaix the risky all-or-nothing-tactic gave as result : nothing.
My teamcaptain started too slow, and he was one of the cyclists who finished outside the points with a dissapointment icon.
His "helper" who started good and never helped, scored 50 points.

Now it is up to Rubiera in the 3 hills classic races to try to "save" the so far worst season ever.
Hopefully he can finish top10 somewhere, although he did that just once in his career.
His "palmares" as SPORTLIFE teamcaptain in the hills classics :
season 17 ( without TC bonus ) = 17º AGR, 19º FW, 49º LBL
season 18 = 36º AGR, 18º FW, 8º LBL
season 19 = 12º AGR, 12º FW, 19º LBL

[Vos]

Good results in the classic hills races.

Amstel Gold Race ;
8º  Rubiera

Flèche Wallonne ;
5º Rubiera
26º  Meijer ( helper )
   
Liège–Bastogne–Liège ;
16º  Rubiera

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

I assume that Klaassen cannot ride top10 GC, and maybe even top20 GC will be hard to achieve.
What is the reason that Hummelsby gets the teamcaptain role in stage 5.

181 Hummelsby ( 29 ), cobble
182 Makarov ( 31 ), TT
183 Klaassen ( 33 ), tour
184 Beckham ( 24 ), climb
185 Real ( 30 ), cobble

Good luck everyone !

[Aurora Australis]

Romandie
351 Billy Janson   22
352 Markus Benett   27
353 Christian Pocock   27
354 Tod Henderson   27
355 Kirk Workman   32

It's their first races of the season (except Janson who's raced 7 stages so far), so they're out of shape & aren't going to feature.  My Giro team is already decided, so depending on health the three who are repeating may do better.

Giro
Christian Pocock   27
Tod Henderson   27
Billy Janson   22
Alex Trautemberg   22
Jonny Alfier   23

[Aurora Australis]

3rd   Tod Henderson   a 0 minutos 6sg   108 points
That's a really good result for someone on 94 health / 95 form against opponents on 100h/100f.

[Vos]

Indeed, an excellent result of Tod Henderson.

7º Makarov ( 5th favorite, with 100/100 ) on 0:16" = a big time gap of 10 and 9 seconds behind the nrs 3, 4 and 5.
99º Klaassen ("possible top20 GC contender") on 3:16" --> with mechanical breakdown in the crucial s5.
An unlucky start of this little tour.

[Vos]

Tour du Romandie ;
Klaassen scored points in stages 2 and 3. But no extra GC points due to bad luck, not a perfect tour, ánd his stage 5 free role.
In the final stage the teamcaptain role was for Hummelsby, who finished as 6º on the cobblestones.

Eschborn-Frankfurt ;
11º  Gritsal ( teamcaptain )
16º  Cascos ( free role )


   selection SPORTLIFE

It seems to me that Cascos is not a top GC contender in this Giro, and not good enough to finish top10 GC.
Therefore it could be that Rubiera will be the teamcaptain in both hills stages, and Gritsal will be the teamcaptain in the final stage.
For sure this is not a great Giro selection, what is typical for this "in-between/reorganisation/sabbatical" season 20.

151 Cascos ( 28 ), tour
152 Rubiera ( 28 ), hills
153 Gritsal ( 33 ), climbsprint
154 Macannazi ( 29 ), climb
155 Meijer ( 26 ), hills

Giro stage 1 ;
4º  Macannazi ( free role )
24º  Cascos  on 1:04"
A very good result of my Italian climber, but not a good race of my Spanish GC contender because he started too slow.
Lucky for Cascos, also his helper Gritsal started too slow, and he did an amazing "damage control" helper's tactic in all sections.
But of course, the damage was already done in s1, where the 1 EP start of Cascos was not good enough.

[Vos]

Cascos is 17º GC halfway the Giro. Too much time loss in both TT stages ( as expected ).

[Aurora Australis]

With precious little competition, Tod Henderson dominated the stage 2 TT, and even finished 3rd in the stage 5 TT with hill (he's slower than a recumbent up a hill).
Just as interestingly, Alex Trautemberg is now the leading u23 points scorer this season, and has another TT coming up to score more points; note he isn't actually the TTer that's seeking the u23 jersey, but it's good to have someone up there with my team's history on that jersey.

The other TTer results don't matter,

[Aurora Australis]

My flat TTer, Christian Pocock, who's more than 3 AV lower than a 22-year-old Aussie climb-TTer, is somehow ranked 4th in a Div 1 climb-TT race.  Bring on the TT WC.

[Vos]

Rubiera finished as 5º in hills stage 6.
"GC contender" Cascos had to race in a free role, and after mountain TT stage 7 he even dropped to 20º GC on 5:47"
What is not good enough, so, again he gets a free role in the upcoming hills stage 8.
Stage 9 will probably be decisive for Cascos if he can score a few GC points, or not, what is for sure a possibillity due to the current GC.

[Vos]

Today the next season 21 schedule is published.

The same cobble WC roadrace as this season 20
Also the WC time trial is in Richmond ( USA ). It is the same flat time trial as in season 19.

The Giro and the Vuelta seem versatile, although both big tours have just 6 mountain sections each.

Also the Tour de France has just 6 mountain sections ( incl. 5x in pure mountain stage 8 ).
Remarkable that this TdF has no TT, and 6x a sprint finish.

Not a good season 21 schedule for my climbers,
although it is a bit of an improvement compared to this season 20 with almost no mountain stages.

The type of cyclists that probably will complain the most, are the cobblehills specialists.
Besides the traditional cobblehills classic races, there are just 3 cobblehills stages in next season 21 ( 1x Giro, 1x BBT, 1x Vuelta ).

[Vos]

After many forumposts of enthusiastic CFF managers who are excited about the next season 21 schedule,
now a post about the Giro of this season ;

In hills stage 8 Meijer did a perfect helper's job, what resulted in an excellent 3º place of Rubiera.
In the final GC ; Cascos finished as 16º on 7:11" behind Giro winner Vrijmoed ( BlackHole ).