baseballlover312 wrote:
I can confirm that my full mountain squad will be there, but will some hills early on I'm definitely not sure he will be in the best position. Definitely some great battles ahead for the CT GT.

Robbie du Plessis, DS: "A bit under the standards we set for ourselves but some nice surprises such as Jam's good performances and especially Tom's GC spot and eventually leader role. Disappointed but not disheartened, the big worry was lack of attacking at any time, not what we wanted, not a single break
Tom Davison, 10th: "Yeah obviously I'd rather we could have delivered Tommy or Gez to a better result but I'm over the moon personally, this is one of my best ever pro results and it's quite special."
Jamalidin Novardianto, Debutant: "Not what we wanted overall but it was such an amazing feel to be racing at this level and to really turn pro. I did well overall but most of all I know I did the best I could for the leaders in every stage. Got my first crash too, I'm really a pro now! [laughs]"

(A little too) full review here

Still who cares?

Our home race and nobody does anything. Absymal

I thought we were going here, then I didn't when I watched it, but the results say Diggle came 12th so we definitely were. Hmm.

Unfortunately not too much choice in a frustratingly quiet month, so it's gotta be the best one from Salinas' consolation win and our team's first ever victory.

It's been a terrible month but one guy overachieved:

Don't be like the lads this month and bury your head in the sand - or indeed like this ostrich, courtesy of Sydeny-based magician Jackson Aces. And maybe get some new accounting software for your business.

I'd love to pretend this didn't happen - it signalled the downfall of our season and was just generally bad. But it did.

Davison riding to the stage podium - Stage 1

So, here we saw the lads decide Tom Scully isn't a sprinter, so we now pay an average prologue rider and leadout 210k and our season's hopes rest on him. Lovely

Having caused a bit of a ruckus Salinas retires to the front favorite's group.

Duelling with Anton for bonus seconds and bragging rights - Stage 3

Xero beats Isostar - first of many - Stage 3

Don't die wondering - caught by the GC leader but 2nd on GC - Stage 5

Stage 5 was epic but a little too far for Salinas... and a lot too far for Anton. Enough boasting, 2nd on GC in a C2HC event is great progress for our diminutive Venezuelan. Our best race yet?

Scully still isn't a sprinter. At least Clarkey has some kind of magnetic attraction to the bottom step of the podium.

We're spoilt for choice as you can see here, these aren't all of them! Less RDs but much more action for the lads. Just beating out Salinas and Anton's side-by-side sprint is:

It's I'd give it to Clarke but no dice (and bitter undertones of what might have been, I'd give it to Salinas but he mutilated our goal in Southland so it's gotta be

'We will stay in the African and Oceanian markets, as Octagon are pleased to announce they will be staying on in a major or title sponsor role.' - Wynton Burns, General Manager

'We already know with not many teams predicted to disband that to abide by our Xero vision of aggressive racing meeting results, and to promote by the end of 2017 with a good base for survival in 2018, we need to re-think, re-focus and re-plan our structure.' - Jackson Huges, Sporting Manager

Xero Racing are unhappy with the lack of young talent.

Cycling NZ are wishing to help develop cycling in the Pacific Islands and Xero is to be their vehicle for doing so.

Xero will be the only Kiwi CT team next year.

Pretty terrible race for us.

I thought we were going here, then I didn't when I watched it, but the results say Nzeke came 12th so we definitely were. Hmm. Yes, exact same as San Marino but different rider :P

Eventful to say the least... photo overload incoming, luckily Selwink uses .jpgs...


Decent race for us, not so pleased with points but very pleased with the manner in which they were earned - 47 points from attacking riding (others were Scully sprinting or TTing) the most of which coming from Hirschlein, a man who's publicly admitted he's fighting for his contract, and Jams, who is my favourite guy in the world right now, despite his lack of a win. Pleased with performance but results must improve, leading us into...

Went into the race wanting a GC podium (above many expectations) and a stage win (with our hilly strength very much expected).


What a terrible terrible race. Salinas just generally not on the right level, Diggle having the racing IQ of someone who's played PCM once and never watched cycling. Our first KoM win is to be celebrated but not so much with how bad this was for us.

Only guy who did much other than Hirschlein but this was for more than one stage despite less points so...

Goal accomplished and Kraftwerk taking it out with an OP leadout but Clarkee best of the rest makes it a very good race for us. 10m more and it would've been second but Clark3 finding the podium yet again is just what the doctor ordered.

It feels like a cheat with but one race but it was a good enough performance to merit the awarding of RotM so it's obviously

Back into it after a May with only one race, June brings us 13 racing days spread across four races and one home and goal race in the form of the Giro del Capo.

Band reasons put us here and yes, the manager is a bit brain-damaged. The young riders will pick up some experience at a higher level over very tough cobbles and one of them will even get to lead.

Startlist

	Name	Role
	Jamalidin Novardianto	Leader/Free Role
	Aleksandr Efimkin	Domestique
	Tom Davison	Domestique
	Timothy Gudsell	Domestique
	Jordan Schleck	Domestique
	Jean Helwani	Domestique

The second chance this season to see Scully sprint must go better than Langkawi - a team 100% for him lacks a leadout man so he'll be on the back of trains on all 5 days. Lofty ambitions here but we really need it.

Startlist

	Name	Role
	Tom Scully	Leader
	Aleksandr Efimkin	Domestique
	Matthew Lloyd	Domestique
	Jordan Schleck	Domestique
	Jean Helwani	Domestique
	Jamalidin Novardianto	Free Role

So we forgot about the MTT when scheduling - we have a good team for the hilly stages in a home race and a goal race for us, Diggle, Lloydy and Nzeke will be mixing it up on the hilly days for stage honours (so long as we don't go in the early break Tom) and also trying to give us another goal achieved in a top 10 overall. No sprinters here with a clashing classic so we'll be trying to stay safe for the first two stages.

Startlist

	Name	Role
	Geremie Nzeke	Leader
	Tom Diggle	Co-Leader
	Aleksandr Efimkin	Domestique
	Tom Davison	Domestique
	Matthew Lloyd	Domestique
	Jordan Schleck	Domestique
	Jean Helwani	Domestique
	Jamalidin Novardianto	Free Role

We've had the third rankings update and though we're not smart enough to go into some of the detail some of our fantastic counterparts do, here's a mildly depressing overview of where we're at.

1		Kraftwerk Man Machine	391
2		Ferrero - Samruk	261
3		La Poste - Mavic	248
4		Isostar - Adriatic	215
5		Carlsberg - Danske Bank	212
8		Xero Racing p/b Octagon	163

As you can see here it wasn't a terrible month but a lot of races is the main reason we're a solid 8th here. This is basically the minimum for a regular month with the poor start if we want to have a real shot at our top 10 goal.

May

1		MOL - OMV Petrom	239
2		Kraftwerk Man Machine	227
3		Sauber Petronas Racing	204
4		cycleYorkshire s/b ASDA-Savers	163
5		Schuh powered by Wiggle	152
20		Xero Racing p/b Octagon	42

Only one race and it went rather spiffingly. Not bad at all really but obviously 42 is a bit terrible any other month except January.

1	1		Kraftwerk Man Machine	1115
2	2		Ferrero - Samruk	857
3	3		Podium Ambition	812
4	4		Isostar - Adriatic	693
5	5		Carlsberg - Danske Bank	674
12	13		Xero Racing p/b Octagon	522

A slight upwards tragectory needs to continue but it doesn't look so with Salinas running out of days - 12th is not good enough at this stage of the season and we really hope this training camp over May will take effect fast and hard.

				Total	Rd	PpRD	Proj
1	1		Kraftwerk Man Machine	1115	62	17,98	2158
2	2		Ferrero - Samruk	857	56	15,3	1836
3	3		Podium Ambition	812	54	15,04	1805
4	4		Isostar - Adriatic	693	60	11,55	1386
5	8		Chiquita - Universal	591	52	11,37	1364
15	13		Xero Racing p/b Octagon	522	61	8,56	1027

The last and most important ranking is also, typically, the most horrifying. It's looking pretty morbid down in a predicted fifteenth - and judgin by Jonny's race days it may be being generous.

Croatia14 wrote:
there is still a place to go towards promotion for you, man it's 170 points between #4 and #12 - and even more look at the projected rankings! 300 points can be found so easily with 2 good races...

Completely terrible race for us. But, what were we expecting?

I tried to write a full rant on this but my wounds are too raw, but not bleeding, if you get my crappy analogy. Safe to say, Scully better figure out how one does tactics, because "you're leader" in a flat race does not mean "come 12th please Tom". At least we won the KoM, so here's a nice picture of that:

We wanted Nzeke to lead but Diggle stepped up to the plate with a pretty good job - even if we all had a very nice dream that Diggle ended up a lot higher after the last stage than he did we're happy to secure another goal with a respectable 7th place finish - much better than we thought we'd do.

So I was so sure we weren't here it wasn't in the preview, then through the race I was sure we weren't, then I turned to Clarkey and said "Clarrkeey ya rippa how tha bloody hell do yoo think yoo cood do hiyah mayte?" and he wasn't there and I turned back to the TV and he was coming 8th!

Only guy who did much apart from Gudsell but nobody in that Juarez team deserves any award this month (and this was better) so...

TheManxMissile wrote:
Great image of Simon Yates there, was he your rider of the month? Thanks <3