WCS 2023

[Vos]

 
A thrilling peleton sprint in stage 6, where, due to the boni-seconds, also the GC victory was at stake for Aular, Kristoff and Hayter.
GC leader Aular was in 2nd position with just 200 meters to go, but he crashed hard as only one of the peleton.
Hayter was not good enough / positioned too far behind, but Kristoff sprinted for stage victory ánd GC victory.
But Kristoff finished as 2nd because Stewart was much faster and celebrated his very first pro-victory.
The unfortunate and injured Aular walked to the finishline, but he won the GC, his biggest victory of his career.
Final GC = 1st Aular 0:00", 2nd Kristoff 0:03", 3rd Hayter 0:07"

CFF League stage 6 winner = Vos 

GC winner = Mitte 
Vos wins the sprint jersey.
Animatoca wins the mountain jersey.
Mitte wins also the youth jersey.

Oh nooo !  Despite winning the final stage, I lost the GC lead, and Mitte won ( due to more GC points ) with just 2 points. 
This could be decisive in the Divine Champions Trophy ;
ophiuko has the same total of tour victories, but he is leading because he won as last ( Langkawi ).
Hopefully the tours in Türkiye and/or Guangxi will be opened to join, then I have still chance to win the most prestigious season trophy.

[Vos]

SEASON TR0PHIES 2023
( the only rule= when there is an equal amount of victories, the person who won last will be ranked higher )

TOP 12 Divine Champions Trophy

1 ophiuko   15
2 Vos   15
3Mitte   7
4 Patrick Kok   7
5 Kalarratas   5
6 Animatoca   3
7 Vlominck   2
8Aurora Australis   1
9 PieterJanVB   1
10Averatalm   1
11 MarnixStar   1
12 HtcHun   1

TOP 8 Chief of Classics Trophy

1 Vos   22
2 ophiuko   19
3 Kalarratas   7
4Mitte   5
5 Vlominck   4
6 Patrick Kok   3
7 WinterIsComing   3
8 pizzaboys   1

TOP 26 Emperor of Stage Wins Trophy 
( including prologue )

1 Vos   78
2 ophiuko   62
3 Patrick Kok   45
4 Kalarratas   39
5Mitte   33
6 Vlominck   32
7 Animatoca   24
8 PieterJanVB   10
9 Combuijs   8
10 pizzaboys   8
11Aurora Australis   7
12 GaoYao   6
13 HtcHun   6
14 MarnixStar   4
15 ZG   4
16 WinterIsComing   4
17Averatalm   3
18 AJFactoryCycling   3
19 5o&Tapa   3
20 ValeronIdolo   3
21 Foeke   2
22 B.E-L   2
23 BrotasTeam   2
24 edu5   1
25 Sjiz   1
26 Teacher   1

TOP 12 Royal Sprint Trophy

1 Vos   16
2 ophiuko   14
3 Patrick Kok   12
4Mitte   4
5 Kalarratas   4
6 Animatoca   3
7 HtcHun   2
8 pizzaboys   1
9 PieterJanVB   1
10 MarnixStar   1
11 GaoYao   1
12 Vlominck   1

TOP 14 King of the Mountains Trophy

1 Kalarratas   9 
2 Vos   8
3 ophiuko   8
4 Vlominck   6
5 Animatoca   5
6Mitte   4
7 Patrick Kok   4
8 PieterJanVB   3
9Aurora Australis   1
10 Sjiz   1
11 MarnixStar   1
12 pizzaboys   1
13 Combuijs   1
14 GaoYao   1

TOP 11 Prince of Youth Trophy

1 ophiuko   22 
2 Vos   10
3 Vlominck   8
4 Animatoca   7
5Mitte   6
6 Patrick Kok   6
7 Kalarratas   4
8Aurora Australis   1
9 PieterJanVB   1
10 ValeronIdolo   1
11 WinterIsComing   1

[Vos]

CFF-League : ALL TIME RANKING CYCLING MONUMENTS
( as always, when there is an equal amount of victories, the one who won last will be ranked higher )

1    Vos   9x  ( LBL 23, PR 23, LOM 22, PR 22, MSR 22, MSR 20, LOM 19, MSR 19, MSR 17 )
2    Kalarratas   5x  ( RVV 22, LOM 21, MSR 21, LBL 18, PR 18 )  --> = the winner of all 5 different monuments ! 
3    Animatoca   2x  ( LBL 22, PR 21 )
4    Cosminelul   2x  ( RVV 21, LOM 20 ) 
5    pizzaboys   2x  ( PR 19, RVV 17 )
6    Averatalm   2x  ( LOM 18, MSR 18 )
7    Patrick Kok   1x  ( RVV 23 )
8    Vlominck   1x  ( MSR 23 )
9    ophiuko   1x  ( LBL 21 )
10 Sjiz   1x  ( RVV 20 )
11 Xavier Giné   1x  ( LBL 20 )
12 WinterIsComing   1x  ( LBL 19 )
13 AJFactoryCycling   1x  ( RVV 19 )
14 Ciscoboss96   1x ( RVV 18 )
15 oldmen   1x  ( LOM 17 )
16 MarnixStar   1x  ( LBL 17 )
17 cavetroid   1x  ( PR 17 )

  23 hours and 45 minutes left to join this MONUMENT.
previous winners ; Vos ( 22 + 19 ), Kalarratas ( 21 ), Cosminelul ( 20 ), Averatalm ( 18 ), oldmen ( 17 ).
  2 days left to join.
previous winners ; Vos ( 22 ), Cosminelul ( 21 ), Patrick Kok ( 19 ), Averatalm ( 18 ), oldmen ( 17 ).
  2 days left to join.
previous winners ; Vos ( 22 + 20 + 19 + 18 ), Kalarratas ( 21 ).

[Vos]

Pogačar put on a descending demonstration to win the final Monument of the season,
completing a hat-trick of victories at Il Lombardia
with a downhill attack and solo move 31km from the finish in Bergamo on the descent of the Passo di Ganda.
Bagioli finished as 2nd by winning the sprint of the chasing group, just before Roglič who completed the podium.

CFF League winner = Kalarratas 


next = the final race and tours of this season ;
  8½ hours left to join.
previous winners ; Vos ( 22 ), Cosminelul ( 21 ), Patrick Kok ( 19 ), Averatalm ( 18 ), oldmen ( 17 ).
  9½ hours left to join.
previous winners ; Vos ( 22 + 20 + 19 + 18 ), Kalarratas ( 21 ).
  not yet open to join, but I guess it will be, it starts in 4 days. = deleted from WCS calendar
previous winners ; Patrick Kok ( 19 ), Kalarratas ( 18 ), Vos ( 17 ).

[Vos]

  Philipsen wins stage 1.

CFF League stage 1 winner = Mitte 


In the final, surprisingly a 5-man breakaway stayed ahead, and Sheehan won, since 1 Aug. a stagiaire of Israel - Premier Tech.
2nd Askey ( who had a very long solo attack in this dusty race ) and 3rd T.Johannessen.

CFF League winner = Mitte 

[Vos]

  Philipsen wins also stage 2.

CFF League stage 2 winner = Vos 
Vos is the new GC leader.

[Vos]

  Lutsenko climbs into GC lead with stage 3 mountaintop solo victory.

Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan) took a stunning solo win on stage 3 of the Tour of Turkey finishing alone on the brutally-difficult summit finish at Babadag, ahead of German Ben Zwiehoff (Bora-Hansgrohe).

The Kazakh National Champion and former Tour de France stage winner dropped Zwiehoff near to the finish of the mammoth 18-kilometre ascent to seize both the day’s honours and the overall lead.

Zwiehoff came home around 20 seconds back while Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) finished third on the eight-day race's toughest single climb, which took around an hour to tackle.

Astana and Bora shredded the remnants of the peloton by half way up the Babadag, with Lutsenko biding his time for one major, stage-winning acceleration less than one kilometre from the line.

“That last climb was incredible, the longest I’ve done in my career and very hard, but I’m happy with my result,” Lutsenko, the winner of the Summer Asian Games time trial in Hangzhou, China less than a week before the start of Turkey, said afterwards.

“It was hard for me on stage 1 and stage 2 because I was still recovering from travelling here from China, but today went well.”

Asked if he could now keep the lead all the way to the finish next Sunday, Lutsenko - second overall and a stage winner in Turkey back in 2018 -  pointed out that “today is just stage 3, tomorrow is hard. I’m very happy I won here, but I’ll give it everything to take it overall as well."

With sprinters like former race leader Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) way out of the picture for the daunting final ascent of Babadag, Astana Qazaqstan, and then Bora-Hansgrohe, led a peloton of 30 riders to the foot of the ascent.  Despite a very early move by Alexis Guerin (Bingoal-WB), given the sheer length of the climb, Bora put down a steady rather than searing pace to ensure the French all-rounder was kept under control.

Riding through intense, late afternoon heat, UAE Team Emirates added their support on the relentlessly demanding slopes thanks to Domen Novak, while Guerin, impressively, continued to forge on as sole leader. The tougher middle segment then squeezed the main group down to just nine, and there was a surprise when one top favourite Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) abruptly disappeared from the running, forcing Novak to drop back to lend support.

UAE’s virtual self-destruction all but coincided with Guerin being caught by a four-man group containing Florian Lipowitz, Zwiehoff (both Bora-hansgrohe), Lutsenko and Tejada (both Astana Qazaqstan). Guerin stubbornly swung on and off the back of the group but it was abundantly clear these four riders, all tied on GC at 24 seconds before the stage, were the main candidates for the win.

The final attacks began in the last 8km when the riders hit a lengthy cobbled section, as Zwiehoff made a sustained charge that caused his teammate Lipowitz to struggle. Tejada responded in kind, and a much briefer acceleration followed by Lutsenko on the rougher, twisting, surfaces near the summit. However, even with the ramps rearing up to 18% in places, initially neither of the Astana riders seemed able to keep Lipowitz completely at bay.

When Tejada definitively settled into a team worker’s role, it proved something of a game changer, the Astana duo finally seeing off Lipowitz. Zwiehoff accelerated away 2km from the summit, but his eagerness proved a two-edged weapon as Tejada fell behind but Lutsenko refused to be shaken off.

The Kazakh’s canny racing and ability to calculate his strength ultimately proved too much for Lipowitz to handle as Lutsenko then slowly hauled himself away from the German in the last 800 metres, conquering one of road cycling's toughest ascents as he did so.

CFF League stage 3 winner = ophiuko 
Vos is still the GC leader.

[Vos]

  Philipsen wins stage 4, his 3rd stage victory in this tour.

CFF League stage 4 winner = Vos 
Vos is still the GC leader halfway this Tour of Turkey.

[Vos]

The Tour of Guangxi that starts today, is deleted from the WCS calendar.
Remarkable, because it has the highest WT ranking for a little tour, equal to for example Paris-Nice and the Dauphiné.

Well, I assume the Tour of Turkey ( with a lower WT ranking ) is the very final race of this season 2023.

And despite it is just halfway and there are 4 more stages to go,
it seems to me bad news to ophiuko, because I estimate that I have a better chance to win the Tour of Turkey.
But you never know what will happen in the remaining stages.
And I really have to win this last tour, if not and someone else wins, ophiuko wins the Divine Champions Trophy.

The good news to ophiuko is that he is the mountain classification leader in  Turkey ;
Kalarratas is leading in the King of the Mountains Trophy, but ophiuko and me are just one MC-jersey-win behind,
so it will be decided in this Tour of Turkey who will be the 2023 King of the Mountains.

Current MC classification Tour of Turkey between the 3 contenders who still can be the 2023 King of the Mountains =
1. ophiuko       69
2. Vos              61
4. Kalarratas   10

[Vos]

  the surprising victor of sprint stage 5 is Denz, who was even riding in a lead-out role.

CFF League stage 5 winner = Vos 
Vos is still the GC leader with 3 more stages to go.
And ophiuko has a very big lead in the MC now, because Vine scored mountains points in a long-distance-2-men-break-away.

[Vos]

  Langelotti wins mountain stage 6. In his wheel as 2nd, GC leader Lutsenko, who will win this tour.

CFF League stage 6 winner = ophiuko 
Vos is still the GC leader with a huge gap towards ophiuko, who moved up to 2nd GC with this stage victory.
2 more stages to go, and a very good chance that I will win this tour, what causes winning the Divine Champions Trophy. 
It seems certain that ophiuko will win the MC classification in this tour, what causes winning the King of the Mountains Trophy. 

[Vos]

 
Vine attacked with 25km to go, takes the mountain jersey with 20km to,
and after a 9km descent and 11km flat, he won this stage with 0:07" ahead of the sprinting peleton.

CFF League stage 7 winner = Vos 
Vos is still the GC leader with 1 more stage to go.

[Vos]

In stage 8, Philipsen sprinted to his 4th victory of this tour.
In the picture the final GC =  2nd Zwiehoff 0:26",  1st Lutsenko 0:00",  3rd Tejada 0:57"

CFF League stage 8 winner = Vos 

GC winner = Vos 
Vos wins also the sprint- and youth jerseys.
ophiuko wins the mountain jersey.

[Vos]

FINAL RESULTS SEASON TR0PHIES 2023
( the only rule= when there is an equal amount of victories, the person who won last will be ranked higher )

TOP 12 Divine Champions Trophy

1 Vos   16
2 ophiuko   15
3Mitte   7
4 Patrick Kok   7
5 Kalarratas   5
6 Animatoca   3
7 Vlominck   2
8Aurora Australis   1
9 PieterJanVB   1
10Averatalm   1
11 MarnixStar   1
12 HtcHun   1

TOP 8 Chief of Classics Trophy

1 Vos   22
2 ophiuko   19
3 Kalarratas   8
4Mitte   6
5 Vlominck   4
6 Patrick Kok   3
7 WinterIsComing   3
8 pizzaboys   1

TOP 26 Emperor of Stage Wins Trophy 
( including prologue )

1 Vos   83
2 ophiuko   64
3 Patrick Kok   45
4 Kalarratas   39
5Mitte   34
6 Vlominck   32
7 Animatoca   24
8 PieterJanVB   10
9 Combuijs   8
10 pizzaboys   8
11Aurora Australis   7
12 GaoYao   6
13 HtcHun   6
14 MarnixStar   4
15 ZG   4
16 WinterIsComing   4
17Averatalm   3
18 AJFactoryCycling   3
19 5o&Tapa   3
20 ValeronIdolo   3
21 Foeke   2
22 B.E-L   2
23 BrotasTeam   2
24 edu5   1
25 Sjiz   1
26 Teacher   1

TOP 12 Royal Sprint Trophy

1 Vos   17
2 ophiuko   14
3 Patrick Kok   12
4Mitte   4
5 Kalarratas   4
6 Animatoca   3
7 HtcHun   2
8 pizzaboys   1
9 PieterJanVB   1
10 MarnixStar   1
11 GaoYao   1
12 Vlominck   1

TOP 14 King of the Mountains Trophy

1 ophiuko   9 
2 Kalarratas   9
3 Vos   8
4 Vlominck   6
5 Animatoca   5
6Mitte   4
7 Patrick Kok   4
8 PieterJanVB   3
9Aurora Australis   1
10 Sjiz   1
11 MarnixStar   1
12 pizzaboys   1
13 Combuijs   1
14 GaoYao   1

TOP 11 Prince of Youth Trophy

1 ophiuko   22 
2 Vos   11
3 Vlominck   8
4 Animatoca   7
5Mitte   6
6 Patrick Kok   6
7 Kalarratas   4
8Aurora Australis   1
9 PieterJanVB   1
10 ValeronIdolo   1
11 WinterIsComing   1

[ophiuko]

Many thanks Vos for making this game more interesting with your posts, and congratulations for your 4 trophies!