Season 24

[Vos]

For this race, I used the **** provided pre-race to calculate the possible GV and came up with these #s:

ST 14  Sp 21  CL 25  FL 14  TQ 7  DH 4  HL 7  AG 4  TW 4 

I'd be interested in opinions from others re: the above #s.  For instance, now in retrospect, I think the value for hills should be lower, probably 5.

I do not know what the race GV should be, my estimation is a gamble.
But if this was a NT race
( the only time I botter to figure out a race GV, because in normal CFF races, knowing approx. the GV is already enough to race tactical perfectly. )
I estimate it is something like this, and of course, I could be very wrong with my estimation.
In fact, if you ask me 5 days in a row to estimate this race GV, I would have 5 times/ every day a (slightly) different estimation.
But fun to speculate and estimate, so here is my attempt to figure out this race GV, for what it is worth :

ST 12  Sp 23  CL 24  FL 14  TQ 7  DH 3  HL 6  AG 6  TW 5  = 100%

[Kekipi]

Itzulia, stage 3, HHHHH ; (

15º  Semon 0:24"  (free)
105º  Tajan 1:22"  (helper)
113º  Ektov 1:30" (captain)

The result for Ektov was the best we could concoct, given that he is just a 4-star hiller.   Our young cobbles-hills rider Tajan did a nice job of providing help in every section to limit the time-loss damage. 

Ektov dropped two places for the GC, and is now in 3rd @:45.  Ahead of him are two formidable riders in Litenko (°Peachy°Melocotons) and  Kristiansen (MarquinaTeam).  And behind him are seventeen others within a minute of his time.

The next two races HMMHH and CHx5 should provide some fireworks for the GC

[Kekipi]

Itzulia, stage 4, HMMHH ; ( )

21º  Ektov 0:33"  (free)
27º  Lyka 0:33"  (helper)

Lyka did a great of job of helping Ektov in every section, and the latter's final result would have been better if he rode the race with full form. 

Ektov dropped three places for the GC, and is now in 6th @:51. 

For this race: 

In the top 10 GC, riders with and/or icons to watch out for are Simsons ( 3rd @ :33 ), Regan-Murphy ( 5th @ :40 ), Klatt ( 7th @ :57 ), Bidonov ( 9th @ 1:14 ) and Streller ( 10th @ 1:14).

It will be a challenge for Ektov to stay in the top 10, but we will try our best.

[Vos]

Itzulia, stage 4 climbhills ;
14º  Yakovlev   0:20"
In TT stage 1 he finished as 179º, and to my surprise he is now 13ºGC on 1:48" ( incl. 1x free role ).

Maybe a few unexpected GC points are possible despite his very low cobble skill ánd if he is the teamcaptain in stage 5.
Probably not, and Taglioni will be the leader in stage 5, as planned.

[Vos]

Itzulia stage 5 cobblehills ;
13º  Taglioni
As expected, he had to do it entirely on his own and got a decent result.
In a free role, Yakovlev finished as 133º on 3:45" and ended up as 22ºGC, what is 25 seconds behind the nr 20ºGC.

[Kekipi]

Itzulia, stage 5, ChChChChCh ; ( )

53º  Tajan 1:04"  (helper)
103º  Ektov 3:00"  (captain)

I had to decide whether to sacrifice Tajan () to help Ektov or to let him ride free and possibly score some points.  After weighing out the potential point gains and losses, I decided to sacrifice him.  He didn't grumble about my decision, and I'm thankful for that.

In this cobbles/hills race, I knew that Ektov, even riding full gas, was not strong enough to make the lead group in S1, but I was encouraged that he made the 2nd group @ 0:29, with the help of Tajan, of course.   I made an incorrect EP choice for Tajan in S2, with the result being that he left Ektov behind.        Ektov then rode the rest of the way without help.   I did find it interesting and informative that as a helper, Tajan lost just 19 seconds after riding S3 and S4 with 0 EPs.

To determine how well (or poorly) Ektov (3:00) did, I checked the stage results for the top 5 guys in the GC (Bidonov (1:24), Min (1:04), Simsons (2:22), Kristiansen (2:55), and Regan-Murphy (2:22).   Their finish times for the stage are in parentheses.

In the end, Ektov dropped 4 places in the GC to finish 10th @ 1:13.  Though he (and I) could have done better, I'm  with result.

Next up are four classics: PR, AGR, FW, and LBL.  In S16, my team's first and last foray into Div 1, we scored in two of the four.  In S24, we are hoping for the same if not better results.   

[Kekipi]

Paris Roubaix FCFCC ; ( )

15º  Hummelsby :26"  (captain)

Not wanting to get shut out, I first went with ride-em-hard tactics but then thought better of that approach and went with more standard tactics, which worked and gave Hummelsby help thru S4.  The only thing I might have done is take the risk on one less EP in S1 for everyone, but that was a risk I was unwilling to take. However, noting the size of the lead group (96) in S1, I think we might have still made it with one less EP for all.

It's now on to the hills classics, where we will see how my captain will fare. 

[Vos]

Paris Roubaix ( 1x wind ) ;
Unfortunately no SPORTLIFE contenders for this prestigious monumental classic race.
Taglioni ( most likely just bronze on flat-cobble ) saved the honor of my team by finishing as 44º.

Amstel Gold Race ;
Due to a lack of support in s4, teamcaptain Lamas ( silver 9-stars flat-hills ) was not good enough to score points and finished as 36º.

Flèche Wallonne ( 1x wind ) ;
11º  Meijer
Best helper Lamas had a complete offday, so it was up to back up helper Taglioni to help in s1 + s2, and Meijer already isolated in s3.
The SPORTLIFE teamcaptain could follow the s4 front group of 22, but without help, he could not follow in s5 and finished on 0:13"

Liège–Bastogne–Liège ( 1x wind ) ;
15º  Meijer
My wole team was surprised by the sudden attack in flat s2 of CobbleCrushers, what narrowed the front peleton down from 103 to 54.
Far behind, Lamas did an excellent helper's job, incl. in the important s4, and therefore not a very bad result of Meijer.
But certainly not a good result due to the surprising flat s2.

And not a good hills campaign of SPORTLIFE, I expected more points.

[Kekipi]

Amstel Gold Race FhFHHH ;

22º  Semon :23"

Flèche Wallonne FHHHH ; 

63º  Semon :52" 

Liège–Bastogne–Liège  HFHHH; 

52º  Semon :54" 

Our star hills rider Semon put in a request to be put on the market because his talent is being wasted by an inept manager (yes, me).  We are currently pondering that request.  Said inept manager (yes, me) promised to analyze the results of all three races to determine what went wrong tactically for the team and what right for other teams, and then use that knowledge to make better choices in the future.   

[Kekipi]

   selection Lanihuli Cycling

181 Haan ( 31 ), tour
182 Ektov ( 31 ), tour
183 Goedkoop ( 28 ), tour
184 Perry ( 31 ), climb
185 Espinar ( 25 ), hill/sprint

This is the first tour of the season where all riders entered for our team are 100/100 HF.   What that means is that there will be no resorting to "he would have done better if he were in top form" excuses.   In any case, Haan will be our captain, and we have hopes he will do well.

_{**Thank you, Vos, for the post template.} 

[Vos]

   selection SPORTLIFE

An unprepared B-selection in this little tour, due to my mega-mistake what caused missing out many points and good results.

161 Beckham ( 28 ), climb
162 Muntendam ( 32 ), hills-sprint
163 Yakovlev ( 32 ), silver"tour"with TT= 6
164 Szõnyi ( 28 ), climb
165 Caneschi ( 26 ), climb

Good luck everyone !

[Kekipi]

Romandie, stage 1, FFFFF ;

53º  Espinar 0:20"  (helper)
103º  Haan 1:25"  (captain)

Of the GC guys, Lonfat and Kover fared the best, finishing @ 0:20".  A dozen came in @ 0:57" and bunch more, including Haan, finished @ 1:25". 
Romandie, stage 2, MFMMD ;

42º  Haan 1:04"  (captain)

As usual, the tactics were not optimal but were good enough to not lose massive time for Haan.  Of the GC guys, Kover (HTCHungria) finished 5th @ 0:00",  Robinson (CSluj) 10th @ 0:15". Simsons (OphiukoCT), Lonfat (Elgrand) and Azarov (CaptainOrange) also finished @ 0:15".   Finishing @ 0:33" were  Miorlin (Shiro_Lions) and Salcedo (Flyvende_hjul).

For the GC, the top 3 are Kover, Lonfat (@ 0:15") and Azarov (@ 0:52").   Haan is 13th GC @ 2:09".

Next up is a frigid hills-sprint race (HHHFF) where we hope to gain some ground in the GC.

[Vos]

ROM stage 2, MFMMD ;
8º  Beckham
27º  Yakovlev ( free role )

Thanks to helper Muntendam, Yakovlev finished in the 3rd group in sprint stage 1,
and after this free role stage 2 result, he is ranked as 9ºGC on 1:41"

Although he is good in the next HHHFF stage 3, my decision is that Yakovlev sacrifices his "possible" GC,
and that he even will be the helper of Muntendam in stage 3.

I gave Yakovlev the instructions to take it easy in stage 4 ( with his TT-skill= 6 ) ánd in stage 5 ( again a free role, or even as extra helper ),
because he has to save energy for Frankfurt, his main goal.

[Vos]

ROM stage 3, HHHFF ;
11º  Muntendam
Very good result of my TC-less silver hills-sprinter in an 11 EP tactic(to compensate his bad sprint skill), thanks to a perfect helper's job of Yakovlev.
Yakovlev finished in the 2nd group, and still a high GC ranking, despite 1x free role & 1x helper role, at the moment 8ºGC on 2:16"

[Kekipi]

ROM stage 3, HHHFF ;
69º  Espinar (helper)  0: 35"
72º  Haan (captain)  0: 35"

This was an okay result though we were hoping for a 0:00" finish for both with Espinar finishing in the top 30. 

For the GC, Haan moved up a spot and now sits in 12th @ 2:45.

He's pretty decent against the clock, so he should move up some more after tomorrow's/today's TT race.