What a great season! 6th in the team rankings with 1135 points, not that far behind the podium. 28 victories, and certainly not just small stuff. A shame Smetannikov is leaving us, he was 10th in the individual rankings, winning in Hamburg, Quebec and San Remo, a monument of cycling. He was in the top 10 in 10 WT races. But we are confident that Romeu will fill his shoes, he was already 19th this season (265 points) and is still improving.
Carter collected 172 points (27th), sadly, he is leaving us for FDJ. Thanks to his performance in the Tour of Beijing, Birtz ends with 144 points (30th). Olivier is the final rider to add to our team rankings with 91 points (42nd), thanks to the two Giro stages he won. 27 of our 30 riders scored WT points, only Beltran, Puccio and Wheeler lacked luck and skill.
The following list shows by how much the AVG rating of the riders improved between 1st of January and 24th of October.
It's also time to say So long, and thanks for all the fish to our sponsor, Amore & Vita. They quadrupled their initial budget over the years but we dare say, the return has been phenomenal for them. But we are now looking to become one of the major forces in professional cycling and 8 Up has the deep pockets we need, provided we produce the results they are hoping for. And we certainly love our new jersey.
Some thoughts from a gamer's perspective: The hard difficulty level sadly did nothing to slow down the quick rise through the ranks I've seen in previous careers. Normal might have brought a few more stage wins against opponents of equal skill level, but hard just doesn't help with the obvious big AI weaknesses. Even Extreme probably wouldn't help.
Though I dare say, some of these good results are hard work. Lots of micro-management and some calculated risks. But mostly, it's the AI. For example, when I sent Birtz into the breakaway in China I toyed with the idea he might win the stage and the race, but really, I was protecting Olesen and hoping he could hold on in the tough finale and claim a single top 10 result for us. I certainly didn't expect it would end like that.
New name: Team 8 Up
Sponsor budget: 306k/month
squad size: 30
AVG rating: 74.20
AVG salary: 9.1k
Last year's top earners were Romeu and Olivier with 16.5k each, this season we've been able to add 4 riders earning more than those two, up to 25k for Reichenbach. But our new captain no. 1, who will lead the team in the TdF and Vuelta, is 24 year old Bernar.
He is our best climber, followed by Elissonde (MON 80), Reichenbach (80), Olesen (80) and Jesper Hansen (79). None of them have his TT skills (56-61), though. All of them might be able to ride for a GC classification, depending on the ratio of mountains to TT kms in stage races. Reichenbach and Elissonde willl lead the team in the first half of the season. Birtz also deserves a mention, after three years he's improved to MON 77, TTR 78 and has become our best rider against the clock.
Generally, there is not much unused potential left in the newcomers. Only Hansen can still improve his climbing a little, the new punchers have all maxed out their key stat, including 23 year old Paramos (HIL 77). Northern classics specialist Chene can still improve COB 80 a little, but he's just about maxed out his other stats, too, at best he can reach FLA 71 STA 72 HIL 66. Not terribly promising.
Nonetheless, the team is improved all around. Romeu is the best rider in our team (AVG 77) and the clear leader for the one-day races. Gross (HIL 79) and Mayordomo (78) have also matured and all three haven't reached their limit yet. We now have 4 riders for the cobblestones, but with AVG 71 to 73, they are the weakest part of the squad. Our weaker climbers will be needed for protection duties, but they will still get their chances in breakaways, too.
The Australian NC was first race in the new jersey and the first win for Team 8 Up, thanks to Jonathan Bunce. He's a great rider to place in a breakaway with HIL 74 and SPR 78. The escape group contained 10 riders, including a man each from Orica and Drapac, leaving teams with 4 riders or less to organise a chase and it never came. Bunce didn't need to rely on his sprint, the others had HIL 70 at best and he rode away 25 km from the finish line, winning by 2:33.
The Tour Down Under was a rather simple affair, with just the one hilly stage up Willunga Hill. Romeu was 8th on day and ended 9th in the GC, with 10 other riders from 8th to 17th equal on time with him. Winner of stage 5 and the race was Bardet, only seconds ahead of two riders who had each won a stage from a breakaway, Lutsenko and Garcia. Bardet also became the King of the Mountains, Sagan takes the points jersey. Our Mayordomo was the best U25 rider.
This year's Paris - Nice featured no mountains so we sent our best punchers to France. Demare was on form and won the mass sprints on stages 2, 4, and 6, he would have also taken stage 3 had not Bakelandts launched a successful late attack, the 1:12 advantage over of the peloton was enough to secure him overall victory, because the following three hilly stages weren't particularly difficult.
Stage 5 ended with a short uphill finish in Mende and was won by Spilak ahead of Froome and Boswell, Bakelandts was 6th, losing 23 seconds, just ahead of an 8 Up trio of Sepulveda, Romeu and Gross. The escape group on stage 7 included Mayordomo, but only 36 year old Pozzovivo survived to win the stage by 28 seconds ahead of a peloton of 71 riders.
The final stage was just 128 km long and took us across three hills. De Vos was part of the breakaway, none of the 4 riders were far back in the GC, but managed to keep the peloton at bay. Degand won the stage and was rewarded with 4th overall, Pozzovivo was right behind and secured the mountain jersey, De Vos was 3rd, 45 seconds faster than the peloton, but not quite enough to break into the top 10.
However, Romeu and Sepulveda finished 9th and 10th overall thanks to their performance on stage 5. Mayordomo was once more the best young rider, Demare the best sprinter.
df_Trek wrote:
What about Team's objectives? Are they ambitious?
I'd say what you expect, not overly ambitious, we don't have to win anything yet, but judge for yourself.
We failed the first objective which was in early February, our season planning is wrong for such an early race. And we just failed the second objective as well, see next post.
Tirreno - Adriatico offered two mountain stages, the first real test for our new climbers Reichenbach and Elissonde. The sponsor was hoping for a top 5 finish, which proved impossible considering the strong competition. The first mountains came on stage 4 to Cittareale, Mollema won, Elissonde was 48 seconds behind, but that was only good enough for an 18th place, Reichenbach was 25th, 1:41 down.
A day later our two captains were 11th and 13th, though 2:09 behind Kwiatek and Betancur. The short ITT on the last day didn't help, either, they lost 2:22 and 2:30 in just 10.2 km. Elissonde ends 19th, 6:13 behind winner Kwiatkowski, who is also the King of the Mountains. Sagan won two stages and takes home the points jersey, Herklotz is the best young rider.
While that result was slightly disappointing, we know from experience that it gets easier the longer the season lasts.
It was up to our Chilean star Romeu to really put the new team on the map by winning Milano - Sanremo, just like Smetannikov did last year.
The idea was that his team mates would follow his attack over the Cipressa and sacrifice themselves for him in the final short flat section to the Poggio. However, that didn't work out, Romeu is the best descender among our punchers and distanced the others, who dropped back into the chasing peloton. Thankfully, Romeu was strong enough to make it on his own, winning by 36 seconds ahead of Degenkolb and Sagan. Our best sprinter Hita was our second best rider as 11th.
(Pink gloves/sleeves clash with the lovely green jersey, I'll have to change that in the editor.)
The WT cobblestones season starts with the E3 Harelbeke. As mentioned last season, there are few specialists left in the game, just four riders stand out: Vanmarcke (COB 84), Stybar (82), Senechal (82) and Sagan (81), but until we race Paris - Roubaix a few more riders deserve a mention, like Boom, Van Avermaet and the up-and-coming young Fleming Sustronck. Our specialists De Troch, Juul-Jensen, Wheeler and Chene are hoping to break into the lower end of the top 10.
On the final hills the remains of the peloton split apart into smaller groups with 19 riders still contending for victory. Our men were unable to follow the decisive attacks, in the end Peter Sagan came out top, beating Vanmarcke by 36 seconds, Boom was third. All 8 Up riders finished in the top 21, with De Troch and Juul-Jensen placing 8th and 9th.
Gent - Wevelgem was even more successful for Team 8 Up. Once we had passed the hills the peloton was down to 37 men. We could not follow the best riders in the finale, they formed a group of 5 riders who'd battle for the win in a sprint. Degenkolb beat Demare, Vanmarcke, Sagan and Sustronck. Stybar had missed the move and ended 6th, 3:20 behind the top 5.
Like last year's San Sebastian everybody else just about gave up after the top group formed. In this race it was more understandable, the best remaining riders were team mates of those already up front. We took advantage of the situation nonetheless and attacked with our whole team and finished 7th through to 14th, 4:10 behind, with Hita and Mayordomo beating our specialists.
Thanks, pal. It'll probably be a few more years before we are able to win any of the other monuments, but with a little luck and a good rider like Romeu Sanremo is winnable.
We missed the 5-star objective of reaching a top 5 finish in the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and yet it was still a very successful race for Team 8 Up. Eduardo Sepulveda celebrated his first World Tour victory by winning stage 5. He left his 7 breakaway companions behind in the finale of the short and hilly stage, winning by 1:24 ahead of Ciavatta and Taborre.
A day earlier we faced the only mountain stage of the race, flat except for the final climb up to Vallnord in Andorra. Our fortune was that only 5 top climbers were participating, three of them Astana riders. Aru won the stage ahead of young Herklotz, Rolland was third. But Elissonde, Reichenbach and Nerz were 6th, 7th and 8th, Olivier was a little further back as 12th, but thanks to a decent TTT on the opening day (Team 8 Up was 4th) he was 9th in the GC. The remaining stages made no further changes to the overall standings.
Trek's Gougeard was King of the Mountains, Sky's Colbrelli takes the white jersey, by one point ahead of his team mate Ewan. Herklotz is the best young rider - and 8 Up wins the teams classification, 2:40 ahead of Astana.
Four riders in the top 10, our best stage race yet except for the weird but wildly successful Tour of Beijing last year.
Yeah, the sponsor is very happy with us, winning in Sanremo was a +++ notable result and it turned Romeu into a star, so 8 Up is very happy that we have such a renowned rider.
Our new sponsor was asking for top 5 results in the two cobblestone monuments, it was just about certain we couldn't fulfil these goals, but we did want to finish in the top 10.
In this edition of the Ronde van Vlaanderen there were fairly few hellingen (hills), but nearly all of them were cobbled. Our specialists held on as long as they could, but then Chene and Wheeler had to give up their hopes of a top 10 finish, they fell back into the slower second group of 12 riders and finished 21st and 22nd.
De Troch and Juul-Jensen were also unable to keep up with the best, which was no surprise. The race ended with a two-men sprint, Degenkolb was able to beat Sagan, Stybar takes 3rd. De Troch and Juul-Jensen finished together with Van Keirsbulck, a whole 10:56 behind Degenkolb, but in the top 10.
With 40 km to go there was still the chance of a top 5 finish in Paris - Roubaix, we had made the race hard and our specialists had created a group of 11 riders, only Wheeler didn't make the cut.
But a few attacks later the other 8 riders had dropped us. Then Vanmarcke, Boom and Stybar attacked, and with our three riders still relaying well we had some hope of catching the others and competing for 4th place, but never got closer than 60 seconds. Vanmarcke beat last year's winner Stybar in the sprint, Boom was 3rd, our three riders finished 9th, 10th and 11th.
So we “half-fulfilled” the sponsor objectives, not top 5, but at least top 10 finishes in these big monuments. We are very happy with these results, couldn't have done any better. A shame, though, that Chene will never be able to challenge for a podium finish. His COB is excellent at 81, but STA, FLA and HIL are and will remain too low to compete in any of the Northern Classics.
We have already portrayed Santiago Yupanqui, who has now reached AVG 80 at the age of 25, he is shaping up to be the new Degenkolb (not quite a Sagan since he can't climb mountains), an excellent sprinter who is also good uphill and on cobblestones. This time we look at the Fleming Massimo Sustronck who might dominate the cobblestone races in the near future. He has nothing to fear from Chene, though Florian Senechal is also progressing well and the two could become rivals.
Sustronck is now in his third professional season. As a northern classics specialist in a time when there are few of them around he already finished 32rd in the World Tour Rankings last year thanks to a 2nd place in the Eneco Tour, 9th in both the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix and 5th in the E3 Harelbeke. This year he is topping those results with a 4th place in the E3 and 5th places in Gent-Wevelgem, in De Ronde and in Paris-Roubaix.
df_Trek wrote:
let's hope he has still some potential to show
Or maybe not, he's too expensive for our team and already too good to beat.
The Basque Tour was another 5-star objective, the sponsor asked for a top 3 result and this time we missed it by a mile. Five hilly stages and a hilly ITT, with Sepulveda (HIL 79 TTR 71) and Nerz (HIL 77 TTR 71) we thought we had two riders who could finish in the top 10 at least, but the competition was simply too strong.
On stage 1 Betancur broke away and won the stage by 54 seconds ahead of 37 riders, including all of ours. Stage 2 was rather simple, Ulissi won the stage, our man Foure was 3rd, no time gaps among 84 riders.
Ulissi won again a day later, all our men lost 19 seconds. And 8 Up's chances decreased further the longer the race went on: Our riders all lost 58 seconds on stage 4 and Sepulveda faltered a day later, losing over 4 minutes. Nerz did better, losing just 50 seconds.
The final ITT in Eibar was classified as hilly but in fact it was nearly flat and the micromanagement in 3D mode didn't help at all, Sepulveda was our fastest rider, 33rd, 85 seconds behind winner Rohan Dennis, with Nerz a further 7 seconds back.
Instead of the top 10, let alone the top 3, our best rider was Dominik Nerz as 17th, 2:43 behind Mollema, 1:54 behind the podium, 40 seconds behind 10th placed Ulissi. Poels wins the mountain jersey, Kwiatek tops the points classification. Team 8 Up brought something back from the Basque Country, Gael Foure won the U25 competition by 2 seconds ahead of Mohoric.
