Funny Facts:
- GP Moscow has been in the Pro Tour for 3 seasons, and is setting up for it’s 4th start. Festina has never excelled in the race, while a not fully developed Georgos Tzortzakis did get 7th here last season.
- Considering the amount of top sprinters available in the top of the game, the race haven’t really been a top target for those in the three seasons. Of the very top sprinters only Daniele Bennati has ever managed to get inside the top 10 of this race. Will this season be any different?
Startlist:
161. Bryan Coquard
162. Mathieu Bernaudeau
163. Jerome Coppel
164. Tom David
165. Tsgabu Grmay
166. Martin Hacecký
167. Laurent Pichon
168. Yuriy Vasyliv
We made a clear mistake in letting Tzortzakis go the Germany, and leaving Coquard here, but we had a small hope that most top sprinters would go here, and that it would leave Tzortzakis with some chances of stagewins in the other race. The mistake was purely manager-related and we have to accept that the riders did what they could here.
Bryan Coquard was/is not ready for these sort of races, so we had to cross fingers that Jerome Coppel would be able to do something. He did attack towards the end, and managed a respectable 15th overall, but we can not really be happy with the total outcome of Deutschland Tour and GP Moscow. There could have easily been ~100 points more to gain to do things "the right way". And we hope to learn from that.
Results:
1
Sam Bewley
Becherovka - Petrof
4h31'16
2
Peter Kennaugh
Orange - KLM Cycling
s.t.
3
Alexander Kristoff
Aker - MOT
s.t.
4
Erik Mohs
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
5
Roman Maksimov
Movistar - US Postal
s.t.
6
Dylan Groenewegen
Aegon - Lavazza
s.t.
7
Mikhail Ignatiev
Metinvest-Dacia
s.t.
8
Ben Swift
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
9
Luke Rowe
Good Energy
s.t.
10
Fabian Cancellara
Red Bull - Huawei
s.t.
15
Jerome Coppel
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
37
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
71
Martin Hacecký
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
72
Tsgabu Grmay
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
87
Tom David
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
100
Mathieu Bernaudeau
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
150
Yuriy Vasyliv
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
152
Bryan Coquard
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
Points:
We had an ambition of making somewhere around 100 points with this setup, but because Coquard was dropped that was not possible.
Funny Facts:
- A Festina rider have never won a stage in the Tour de l'Avenir, although we have come close on several occassions.
- Last season Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier came close to winning the race overall, but managed to mess up the last stage, to come 2nd. We hope things will change this year, where Lecuisinier is back for more, and further developped.
This season we had an amazing lineup for the race. Not only was Lecuisinier one of the two top favorites for the overall win, both Vasyliv and loaned-in Herklotz was also prospects for a GC around 5-10th. Loaned-in Sütterlin was one of the strongest TT'ers, and Gougeard and Le Gac amongst the very best hilly riders. Only stagiare rider Jiang had limited effect on the stage results, but yet a decent support rider.
With these figures in mind we came with a high expectation. And we weren't dissapointed - In terms of enternainment. Alexis Gougeard immidiately broke lose and took the KOM jersey for a while, while Sütterlin did a respectable prologue before that. Olivier Le Gac tried on several occassions to win a stage, and twice picked the right moments, but lacked the strength. Instead it was Yuriy Vasyliv (Our leader for the race next year), that managed to pick the first ever l'Avenir win for a Festina rider. While Lecuisinier struggled to keep up in the mountains he fired a strong TT to get within 18 seconds to Morton on the final stage, where he again was left behind, unfortunately. Loaned-in Silvio Herklotz (one of the overall favorites for next year) took 2nd on the final stage.
Overall it was a very interesting race to follow for us, and albeit losing the GC by a mere 30 seconds we were well entertained, and the future looks bright indeed!
Funny Facts:
- For seasons the Vuelta a Colombia has been a long stagerace consisting of 12 to 14 stages. This is the first time ever the race is so short (6 stages).
- The race has been constantly up and downgraded for the past 7 seasons. 4 seasons in the PT and 3 in the CT.
- Festina has never been doing especially well in the race, with Markus Fothen in 8th GC in 2013 standing out as the best result.
- Except for Jose Serpas win in 2009 the race has been won by major stars the last three seasons. Jose Alarcon in 2014, Andrey Amador in 2013 and Damiano Cunego in 2012.
- Festina has never won a stage in the Vuelta a Colombia, something the manager is aiming to change for the 2015 season hence having not only Spilak in the race, but also Bryan Coquard for the sprints.
Startlist:
1. Simon Spilak
2. Piter Campero
3. Bryan Coquard
4. Tom David
5. Tsgabu Grmay
6. Martin Hacecký
7. Charalampas Kastrantas
8. Yuriy Vasyliv
The race exploded as soon as the mountains hit, but before that we saw our talented sprinter, Bryan Coquard performing well by getting 7th in the first stage. From then on, we went from succes to succes with two running stagewins from Simon Spilak.
In the end things got close, as Spilak had overvalued his own strength in the final stage attacking from too far out, which meant that Angel Madrazo and Rein Taaramae came dangerously close. We came away with the win, and a points jersey - added to the two stagewins, making this a very strong race for us.
Results:
1
Simon Spilak
Festina-Canal+
25h33'27
2
Angel Madrazo
Quickstep
+46
3
Rein Taaramäe
Bouygues Telecom
+1'05
4
Jose Alarcon
Red Bull - Huawei
+5'53
5
Daniel Martin
Aker - MOT
+7'38
6
Thomas Dekker
Orange - KLM
+8'30
7
Peter Velits
Becherovka - Petrof
+8'30
8
Stefan Denifl
VolksWagen - Andritz
+10'03
9
Justo Tenorio
Bacardi Limited
+12'07
10
Florentino Marquez
Bank of Ireland
+13'13
31
Martin Hacecký
Festina-Canal+
+56'54
39
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
+1h07'31
69
Yuriy Vasyliv
Festina-Canal+
+1h28'04
82
Tsgabu Grmay
Festina-Canal+
+1h36'00
114
Charalampas Kastrantas
Festina-Canal+
+1h55'41
Points:
We knew our team was strong, and was aiming for both stagewin(s) and the overall win. The estimate score was somewhere in the region of 450-500 points, but we managed to exceed that.
The final step towards the destination is happening this season - And in the break towards the 2016 season. A very large intake of talents are coming to a exclosure, and we are very excited to see - And to show - What our talents will become from the beginning of the next season. We start out by having a look at our domestique riders, who have all been brought up through the rankings of France and Greece:
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
70
79
73
75
76
78
77
65
67
73
64
70
75
71
81
75
77
78
80
79
65
67
74
65
70
77
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier was our main target some seasons back, because we knew that there was always going to be a very limited amount of french stage race winning potential riders. Lecuisinier is one of those few. But despite him being just 23 years old and already a top 15 rider in the Tour de France and Vuelta a España, we still need to further train him in the future. We expect him to be a GT top 10 rider next season, however.
Bryan Coquard
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
71
58
64
65
70
72
83
56
79
81
60
65
77
73
58
64
65
71
74
84
56
81
83
60
65
79
Bryan Coquard is unquestionably the biggest sprinter-talent in France at the moment. He is among the fastest, and adding to that he has a superb recovery from hard races/stages. He is able to withhold his top speed for a very long time, and is one of the most talented prologue specialists in the world. We don't expect Coquard to win the biggest races, but we do expect him to start getting stage podiums, and possibly also strong GC results in flat races with a prologue.
Clement Koretzky
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
72
70
77
61
75
69
70
63
70
77
72
70
61
73
71
79
61
77
70
71
63
71
79
73
70
61
Koretzky has been one of the teams most prominent talents for the past two seasons. The 2014 gave him no less than two professionel WT stage wins, while he managed to get a top 10 in a WT one-day race in 2015. When fully developped, we expect that Clement Koretzky can battle for several top 10s throughout the season of 2016.
Laurent Pichon
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
71
69
77
64
73
75
71
60
63
75
82
71
64
71
70
79
64
74
76
72
60
63
76
83
71
64
Laurent Pichon is the oldest of our developping riders, but he is still a part of the very important, and talented french brigade. Ever so often have we seen Pichon try, but fail in the attacks this season - and the past. But getting fully developped we can easily see him achieve great results, while also being a top domestique rider in the division.
Yoann Paillot
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
69
68
70
78
73
72
66
56
63
63
56
71
78
70
70
71
80
75
74
68
56
63
64
56
71
80
Paillot is the most talented french timetriallist at the moment, and having Jerome Coppel as his mentor, we expect him to achieve great things in the future. He should be able to fight for grabs in timetrials, and is a respectable asset for our team time trial setup. Also his decent climbing abilities, make him a valuable Grand Tour domestique.
Olivier Le Gac
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
70
67
75
60
72
73
69
52
64
67
72
72
60
71
68
77
60
74
74
70
52
65
69
74
73
60
Olivier is another talented puncheur of the french school. He have been very visable in the lower rankings this season, aswell as the Tour de l'Avenir. He has showed that he lacked a bit of firepower to get the big results, however - But we do think he is the perfect attacker for next season. Also a very prominent domestique for his older, and more talented team mates.
Panagiotis Vlatos
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
70
52
64
79
71
69
65
68
66
65
68
52
79
72
52
65
81
73
71
67
68
66
65
69
52
81
Vlatos is the best ever greek timetriallist, and next year he will be even more dominant. He is joining the world elite, when it comes to flat, no-nonsense timetrials, and we really look forward to see what he can achieve on the highest level. Just like Paillot he will be an invaluable asset in the TTT's.
Charalampas Kastrantas
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
73
71
73
62
70
70
64
64
62
71
73
78
62
73
73
75
62
70
71
65
64
62
73
75
78
62
Charalampas Kastrantas is one of the most talented greek overall riders, and we have already seen him on various attacks. Next season he will be a part of a very strong hilly setup, and also be given a lot of leeway to attack. We expect to see him on hard and semihard terrain throughout the season.
We don't nuture the french and the greek market of talents, however, and a small - But talented - group of individuals have made it through the tough scouting network of the team. Let's have a look:
Yuriy Vasyliv
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
70
75
73
70
76
70
73
56
62
66
64
71
70
71
77
74
72
78
72
75
56
62
67
64
71
72
Yuriy is among the new intake of german GC riders. While others might be slightly stronger, Yuriy is still very young, and will be the teams Tour de l'Avenir captain next season. He made it safely inside the top 10 this season as a helper, and we expect him to fight for a top 5 next season.
Piter Campero
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
65
76
69
67
74
69
70
55
56
71
69
74
67
65
78
70
69
75
70
72
55
56
71
69
74
69
Bolivias hope for the future is progressing slowly but steadily, and next season we should be able to see him battle for KOM jerseys and stagewins. He is also a very important part of the mountain setup that should help Spilak and Lecuisinier achieve nice things.
Tom David
4 -> 4.100
Festina-Canal+
Fl
Mo
Hi
TT
St
Rs
Rc
Co
Sp
Ac
Fi
DH
Pr
72
62
74
65
74
72
69
76
68
73
68
70
65
74
62
75
65
76
74
70
78
70
73
68
70
65
Last, but not least, our very talented New Zealand rider - Tom David - seems to have finally established himself as a Pro Rider in the World Tour segment. Next season he will join a large pool of riders capable of doing top 10s in the hardest terrain of all - Cobbles. We expect him to be our leader in the race TONE aswell.
This concludes the presentation of the 2015 to 2016 development of our riders. We are very interested in hearing your oppinions and comments on the aspects, so feel free to comment. Thanks for reading.
cio93 wrote:
The only team that never fails to make me feel bad about my talents year after year...
Hehe. You have the biggest talent of the two of us, though.
I do feel pretty good about having managed to make a team from scratch, that can do well on all terrains. I need another cobbler, but other than that, these are the talents that have come through our ranks, and could be in lineups next season:
Funny Facts:
- The TONE was won by Festina back in 2012, where Filippo Pozzato was best of all. Festina has never before, nor after, been inside the overall top 10.
- Current rider Jerome Coppel won the race in 2013 and are looking to repeat that feat in the 2015 season.
- Fabian Cancellara has won the race twice, and is also a massive favorite for the 2015 version.
- The race has never before had a Team Time Trial, but this season the first stage is looking set for the best TTT team. Pundits are having Oz Cycling Project as a massive favorite, but Festina should not be ruled out entirely.
- Samuel Sanchez and Filippo Pozzato are the only riders to have won a stage in this race for Festina. Pozzato took the pointsjersey and a stagewin alongside his overall win in 2012.
Startlist:
61. Jerome Coppel
62. Mathieu Bernaudeau
63. Piter Campero
64. Tom David
65. Markus Eibegger
66. Yoann Paillot
67. Yuriy Vasyliv
68. Panagiotis Vlatos
The Tour of Northern Europe has always been the epicenter of chaos, and unpredictability. This season was no different, hence us being in a tall order to pick the starting lineup. In the end the choice was to leave 2 of our 3 best cobblers home: Guillaume van Keirsbulck and Robert Bush. The decision was made because we felt, that they could not push hard enough on the starting Team Time Trial. so instead we picked riders such as Markus Eibegger and Piter Campero, who were slightly better TT'ers.
That gamble paid off right from the beginning, as we won the TTT, and thus putting a fair few riders inside the top 10, and also claiming the Youth Jersey. Once the cobbles arrived, Tom David was attentive, and stayed fairly close to the front - Even getting as high as 4th in the GC after the first hill stage. The individual timetrial saw David fall to 10th in the GC, but Jerome Coppel strived forward to go into the top 30 before the final hilly stage, where both Jerome Coppel and Tom David managed to jump well into contention. Tom David managed to get 7th in the GC, while Jerome Coppel was 15th. We are very happy with that outcome, as also Tom David won the U25 ranking.
Results:
1
Fabian Cancellara
Red Bull - Huawei
25h40'33
2
Philippe Gilbert
Pendleton's
+ 2'02
3
Giovanni Visconti
Oz Cycling Project
+ 2'10
4
Pieter Vanspeybrouck
Team BPost
+ 2'28
5
Stefan Schumacher
Swisscom - UBS
+ 2'45
6
Roger Kluge
Pokerstars.com
+ 2'54
7
Tom David
Festina-Canal+
+ 3'26
8
Vladimir Gusev
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
+ 4'11
9
Adam Blythe
Good Energy
+ 4'18
10
Ramon Sinkeldam
Project 1t4i
+ 5'34
15
Jerome Coppel
Festina-Canal+
+ 8'10
36
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
+ 13'21
41
Yuriy Vasyliv
Festina-Canal+
+ 13'51
78
Yoann Paillot
Festina-Canal+
+ 19'25
113
Markus Eibegger
Festina-Canal+
+ 24'55
144
Mathieu Bernaudeau
Festina-Canal+
+ 34'58
176
Panagiotis Vlatos
Festina-Canal+
+ 47'01
Points:
The ambition was clear. We wanted to stay as close to Vesuvio and Becherovka as possible, and score somewhere close to 150 points. In the end we outdid ourselves by quite a margin!
Funny Facts:
- Last season, Festina ignored GP Liechtenstein entirely, but in both 2013 and 2012 the team managed to get inside the top 5 of this race. Both times with Alberto Contador.
- Despite that Simon Spilak has never ridden this race, many believe he should be the number one favorite next to Andy Schleck in a race like this.
- Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier will be here to aid Simon Spilak for the win. Lecuisinier is aiming for a top 20 of his own.
Startlist:
1. Simon Spilak
2. Piter Campero
3. Markus Eibegger
4. Tsgabu Grmay
5. Martin Hacecký
6. Charalampas Kastrantas
7. Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
8. Yuriy Vasyliv
The battle for the PT crown is center of attention at this point with three teams seperated by just 237 points. That is historically close for the Pro Tour.
The GP Liechtenstein should favour Festina or Vesuvio the most, while Becherovka with Velits and a few attacking style riders like Vysna, König and Kratochvila shouldn't be scratched from the list either.
What happened:
The situation seemed under control for majority of the race, but the efforts was pointless. Andy Schleck was simply superior and won the race in style, while Simon Spilak had his worst day of the season, since the first race in Badaling. Spilak showed that 9 races might be too much for him, so we will be looking into how we can exploit his talents best possible next season.
Results:
1
Andy Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
8h16'40
2
Romain Sicard
Orange - KLM Cycling
+ 2'52
3
Joseph Dombrowski
Pendleton's
+ 3'12
4
Damiano Cunego
Meiji - JR East
+ 3'22
5
Angel Madrazo
Quickstep
+ 4'03
6
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Project 1t4i
s.t.
7
Jose Alarcon
Red Bull - Huawei
s.t.
8
Vincenzo Nibali
Swisscom - UBS
+ 4'28
9
Simon Spilak
Festina-Canal+
+ 4'55
10
Fabio Duarte
Venchi
+ 5'05
22
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
Festina-Canal+
+ 13'13
33
Martin Hacecký
Festina-Canal+
+ 18'35
39
Markus Eibegger
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
43
Yuriy Vasyliv
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
85
Tsgabu Grmay
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
86
Piter Campero
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
135
Charalampas Kastrantas
Festina-Canal+
+ 44'52
Points:
Ambitions are high, and given that we highly expect to win this race the aim is to reach 250 points or more. However, we can accept 200 points if, and only if, Vesuvio reach less.
What happened:
Clearly we didn't achieve the goal, and while we missed our goal, Vesuvio took what we would have liked to achieve, distancing us comfortably.
Funny Facts:
- The TTT spectacle has been around for ages, and this season is no different.
- Oz Cycling Project won the race last year as a wildcard. This season they are here as a PT team. Can they repeat the win? There is yet again a couple of very strong wildcards.
- Festina has a proud tradition of doing well in the race. Last season was one to forget though, as the team came in 11th.
- In 2013, 2012 and 2011 Festina came 3rd, while they were 4th in 2010. It is doubtful that they can achieve anything similar this season, although the top timetriallists in the team have never been stronger.
In the past we have performed well in the TTT spectacle, but this season our ambitions was slightly lowered. We expected to get safely within the top 10, but as close to the top 5 as possible. We managed the first, but failed the latter as we ended up 9th. Unluckily for us, yet again behind Vesuvio.
We did, however manage to fight well for our 2nd place, keeping Becherovka behind us before the impending Praha-Karlovy Vary-Praha race, where Bewley is the main favorite.
Results:
1
Oz Cycling Project
1h19'23
2
Project 1t4i
+ 5
3
Movistar - US Postal
+ 14
4
Aegon - Lavazza
+ 19
5
Swisscom - UBS
+ 35
6
Metinvest-Dacia
+ 37
7
Bacardi Limited
s.t.
8
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 45
9
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
10
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
+ 56
Points:
We expected as close to 100 points as possible, with 50 being the low-end we could accept. We got 55 in the end.
Funny Facts:
- In terms of races, this one is new. This season is the 3rd time ever the peloton will come across. Tom Boonen won the race in 2013 while Jacobo Guarnieri won in 2014.
- Normally one would say that this is one for the sprinters only, but Tejay van Garderen, Morgan Kneisky, Ronan van Zandbeek and Danny Summerhill begs to differ, as they are all honorable mentions inside the top 10 in the past two seasons.
- Festina has never done well in the race. Óscar Gueraos 11th place in 2013 is the best result.
The extremely tough and bumpy terrain would normally not favour Tzortzakis, so we decided to bring Coppel and Pichon aswell, for a possible breakaway towards the end, if Tzortzakis should struggle.
Things turned out well, though, as Tzortzakis showed his strength by finishing the race in 5th, behind Sam Bewley, who took yet another big win. The biggest dissapointment at this race was Ben Swift, who let down his team in the fight for the overall PT glory, much like Simon Spilak did for us in Liechtenstein.
Points:
Expectations prior to this race wasn't great. The ambition was to reach somewhere in the region of 100 points, but hopefully over. We exceeded that by some margin.
Funny Facts:
- Back for the third time running is the Tasmania race, which traditionally serves one flat, one hilly and one timetrial.
- Best in the history of the race is Tejay van Garderen who won the first edition back in 2013, and followed up by doing a nice 3rd last season, when Trofimov won.
- Tim Dees has the best ever result here by getting 29th last year. Jerome Coppel has been 7th and 12th respectively though, and he is back to battle for more.
Startlist:
61. Jerome Coppel
62. Robert Bush
63. Bryan Coquard
64. Tom David
65. Enrico Gasparotto
66. Laurent Pichon
67. Georgos Tzortzakis
68. Guillaume van Keirsbulck
Having a potential stagewinner for stage 1 and 3, we came to the race with our heads held high. We had recently limited the pointdifference to Vesuvio to very little, so we thought this could be our moment. Georgos Tzortzakis didn't do too much on stage 1, getting 10 and with Coppel being well down on stage 2 it was all about that final stagewin for the french.
But yeah... That didn't happen. Not by a long shot. And a horrible race for us.
Results:
1
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
8h57'46
2
Yuri Trofimov
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
+ 12
3
Jack Bobridge
Oz Cycling Project
+ 44
4
Ben Gastauer
Vesuvio - Accumalux
+ 52
5
Stefan Schumacher
Swisscom - UBS
+ 57
6
Nicolas Roche
Pokerstars.com
+ 1'04
7
Tejay Van Garderen
Movistar - US Postal
+ 1'18
8
Mikhail Ignatiev
Metinvest-Dacia
+ 1'28
9
Simone Ponzi
Good Energy
+ 1'39
10
Ion Izagirre
Pokerstars.com
+ 1'53
18
Jerome Coppel
Festina-Canal+
+ 2'49
58
Tom David
Festina-Canal+
+ 3'37
68
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
+ 3'46
124
Enrico Gasparotto
Festina-Canal+
+ 8'03
132
Robert Bush
Festina-Canal+
+ 8'48
143
Bryan Coquard
Festina-Canal+
+ 10'37
160
Georgos Tzortzakis
Festina-Canal+
+ 11'58
Points:
We really thought we could be in line for a stagewin and a top 10, hence getting 150-200 points. Oh how wrong we were.
Funny Facts:
- Festina won the race back in 2010 when Samuel Sanchez crossed the line in celebration. Ever since then Festina hasn’t had a good result at all. Riccardo Ricco was looking good last season, but ended his horror season by crashing once again.
- 15th from Diego Ulissi is the best result in the past three seasons.
- Damiano Cunego really loves this race, having won it no less than three times. Frank Schleck has the most podiums, though. Having won the race twice, getting 2nd in 2007 and getting 3rd in 2010 and 2012 is highly impressive. Will he have what it takes to get one last kick in?
Startlist:
51. Riccardo Ricco
52. Robert Bush
53. Jerome Coppel
54. Markus Eibegger
55. Martin Hacecký
56. Clement Koretzky
57. Laurent Pichon
58. Yuriy Vasyliv
Last season, Ricco crashed out of the race in what turned out to be a dreadful season. This season this race was all about securing 2nd in the PT for us. Vesuvio was away, and Becherovka could - With some luck - overtake us in the PT rankings.
What should have been a relatively poor race for us with Ricco in 10th turned out absolutely brilliant. Clement Koretzky took 4th while Laurent Pichon got 7th thus proving that they are ready to take the throne next season, where Ricco is likely to leave the team.
A bit of a downside to the race was that Vesuvio wasn't able to fight back due to bad luck and nothing else. A bad crash took out their main man, and when Andy Schleck was also caught behind everything was put on Frank Schleck who didn't have the best of days.
A great race for us, a poor one for Vesuvio means... Yeah, let's wait for the confirmation.
Results:
1
Simone Ponzi
Good Energy
6h31'45
2
Jan Bakelants
Bouygues Telecom
s.t.
3
Yuri Trofimov
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
s.t.
4
Clement Koretzky
Festina-Canal+
+ 1'28
5
Peter Sagan
Becherovka - Petrof
s.t.
6
Tejay Van Garderen
Movistar - US Postal
s.t.
7
Laurent Pichon
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
8
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
s.t.
9
Francesco Ginanni
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
10
Riccardo Ricco
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
43
Martin Hacecký
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
62
Yuriy Vasyliv
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
80
Jerome Coppel
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
114
Markus Eibegger
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
116
Robert Bush
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
Points:
What did we expect? We had a pretty good team here, but not Spilak. 150-200 points? We got quite a bit more!
Funny Facts:
- Festina has never before won the PT Rankings.
- Only once have Festina ever been outside the top 10. That was in 2013. The season where the team bought Lecuisinier, Koretzky, Pichon, Coquard, Vlatos and many more.
- Last season the team managed to stay just inside the top 10, by a margin of less than 10 points. Only 3 up to 9th, though.
- Despite having tried to win for years, the best ever position in the PT was 3rd, back in 2010.
- The team was in top 5 from 2010 to 2012, getting 3rd, 4th and 5th in the process.
- This season Festina has the most unmaxed riders of any team in the PT, yet only have a total of 21 + 1 stagiare. Who knows. Maybe they have the most unmaxed riders of any team in the game?
- The highest amount of goals ever achieved by Festina is 3. Ever so often have the "Win Goal" been a big hit and miss.
Individual Rankings list:
3
Simon Spilak
SLO
Festina-Canal+
2144
16
Riccardo Ricco
ITA
Festina-Canal+
1192
41
Jerome Coppel
FRA
Festina-Canal+
656
46
Georgos Tzortzakis
GRE
Festina-Canal+
634
54
Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier
FRA
Festina-Canal+
561
81
Clement Koretzky
FRA
Festina-Canal+
389
110
Tom David
NZL
Festina-Canal+
278
114
Laurent Pichon
FRA
Festina-Canal+
271
119
Martin Hacecký
CZE
Festina-Canal+
263
178
Yuriy Vasyliv
GER
Festina-Canal+
161
207
Charalampas Kastrantas
GRE
Festina-Canal+
142
219
Markus Eibegger
AUT
Festina-Canal+
133
*229
Robert Bush
USA
Festina-Canal+
126
*232
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
BEL
Festina-Canal+
123
258
Yoann Paillot
FRA
Festina-Canal+
113
261
Panagiotis Vlatos
GRE
Festina-Canal+
112
269
Piter Campero
BOL
Festina-Canal+
107
289
Mathieu Bernaudeau
FRA
Festina-Canal+
95
394
Bryan Coquard
FRA
Festina-Canal+
62
*429
Tsgabu Gebremaryam Grmay
ETH
Festina-Canal+
55
430
Enrico Gasparotto
ITA
Festina-Canal+
54
518
Zhihui Jiang
CHN
Festina-Canal+
1
*Loaned in riders
Having an absolutely amazing season from several riders, while only a few delivered slightly below expectations. It seemed that Tom David would be of little use to the team, this season, for a very long time, but then he fired a top 10GC result at TONE. Similarly Laurent Pichon seemed to be doing a little bit less than we had hoped for, but then he shined in Lombardia.
The biggest surprise for us this season was Martin Hacecký. He was bought to get a few top 25s while helping the best he could, yet he managed to climb to 119th in the individual rankings, only barely getting beating by riders with a lot of freedom, such as Tom David and Laurent Pichon. Also our greek sprinter Georgos Tzortzakis had a very nice season. Most of the time he scored bits here and there, but on occassions he really delivered, like in the Giro d'Italia where he won 2 stages, and furthermore got another couple of second places. While we talk about the wins, lets have a look at the stages we won this season:
Georgos Tzortzakis - Giro d'Italia, Stage 3 Georgos Tzortzakis - Giro d'Italia, Stage 6 Simon Spilak - Tour de Suisse, Stage 5 Simon Spilak - Tour de Suisse, Stage 9 Simon Spilak - Tour of California, Stage 6 Simon Spilak - Vuelta a Colombia, Stage 2 Simon Spilak - Vuelta a Colombia, Stage 3 Jerome Coppel - Paris-Nice, Stage 1 Jerome Coppel - Tour de Suisse, Stage 1 Jerome Coppel - Tour of Qatar, Stage 6 Team Festina-Canal+ - Tour of Northern Europe, Stage 1 (TTT) Yuriy Vasyliv - Tour de l'Avenir, Stage 8 (U23)
It is rather obvious that the wins are split between three riders. Simon Spilak winning no less than 5 stages along the way, while Coppel managed 3 and beforementioned Tzortzakis got two. Adding to that we got a nice team-effort win, when we won the Tour of Northern Europe team time trial, and also on the U23 scene we made our presence noticed when Vasyliv won a stage of the Tour de l'Avenir.
A race in which we managed to get 2nd from Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier. Speaking of which, let's have a look at the overall podiums we have got this season:
1. Simon Spilak - Tour de Suisse
1. Simon Spilak - Vuelta a Colombia
2. Simon Spilak - Amstel Gold Race
2. Simon Spilak - Fleche Wallonne
2. Simon Spilak - Tirreno-Adriatico
2. Simon Spilak - Tour of California
2. Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier - Tour de l'Avenir (U23)
3. Riccardo Ricco - Deutschland Tour
Yet again one name stands out. Simon Spilak. He failed miserably in the first race of the season: Badaling International (where the team stepped up), and he failed in Liechtenstein by getting only 9th. But every other race he has ridden this season is in the list above. First or second everywhere is a key in achieving this seasons goals.
..::Sponsor Goals::..
..::Win Tour of Switzerland::.. - ACHIEVED! Simon Spilak 1st GC. ..::Top 3 Tirreno-Adriatico::.. - ACHIEVED! Simon Spilak 2nd GC. ..::Top 3 Vuelta a Colombia::.. - ACHIEVED! Simon Spilak 1st GC. ..::Top 10 Giro d'Italia::.. - ACHIEVED! Riccardo Ricco 4th GC. ..::Top 10 Team Standings::.. - ACHIEVED! Festina-Canal+ 1st PT.
Getting a total 5 out of 5 goals in the bag is a first for Festina. The goals where all achievable, but there had to be no fails in order to get them, as most of them were in GC races. The only one that wasn't was the PT rankings. And coming from the worst two seasons in the history of the team (12th and 10th) we found that asking for more would be unrealistic. Internally we aimed for top 5, but we got a bit more than that. Let's have a look!
Results:
1
Festina-Canal+
7672
2
Vesuvio - Accumalux
7575
3
Becherovka - Petrof
7323
4
Aker - MOT
6674
5
Good Energy
6507
6
Metinvest-Dacia
6455
7
Tinkoff Bank - Tinkoff Insurance
6292
8
Pokerstars.com
5914
9
Bouygues Telecom
5597
10
Red Bull - Huawei
5403
11
Oz Cycling Project
5320
12
Project 1t4i
5262
13
Pendleton's
5227
14
Quickstep
5070
15
Orange - KLM
4929
16
Venchi
4808
17
Movistar - US Postal
4523
18
VolksWagen - Andritz
4387
19
Bacardi Limited
4294
20
Swisscom - UBS
4176
21
Meiji - JR East
3586
22
Ayubowan!
3577
What can be left to say? We won! We fucking did it!
Thanks to those managers who were so kind to trade, sell, buy and loan (in/out) riders with me during the off season. It has been a real pleasure - And I look forward to seeing you all out there again soon
SotD wrote:
Thanks to those managers who were so kind to trade, sell, buy and loan (in/out) riders with me during the off season. It has been a real pleasure - And I look forward to seeing you all out there again soon
Thank you, I hope you enjoyed the 200k for a rider who scored 53 points
Nah seriously, congratulations on the PT Crown, deserved victory for a strong team!
SotD wrote:
Thanks to those managers who were so kind to trade, sell, buy and loan (in/out) riders with me during the off season. It has been a real pleasure - And I look forward to seeing you all out there again soon
Thank you, I hope you enjoyed the 200k for a rider who scored 53 points
Nah seriously, congratulations on the PT Crown, deserved victory for a strong team!
Hehe sure. Those were the difference between Spilak getting 81 or 82 in HI, so it might well have meant the win
- Mine are just done developping now. So I need to find some new talents I guess 
Simon Spilak - Tour de Suisse, Stage 5
Riccardo Ricco - Deutschland Tour
