Over the last two years we won two stages and performed well here. The race has promoted with us, so can we do the same again?
Profile:
Four hilly stages and three flat stages, no time trials, no cobbles, no mountains.
Team:
Ahmed Albourdainy Edwin Avila Carlos Betancourt Nick Kinney Jay Major Carlos Alexandre Manarelli Diego Milan Bjorn Selander
The hilly squad is led by Betancourt with full support from Selander, Kinney and Milan. Manarelli won a stage here last year and is looking to do the same, with Avila and Major to support him. Albourdainy is projected to carry water bottles.
Betancourt's victory ambitions where quickly crushed when he lost a minute on the first stage, and another minute on stage three. At this point he was 17th in the GC. This slowely improved to 13th after stage five and 10th after stage six, only six seconds away from seventh. (Un)fortunately no one crashed or had a mechanical on the final stage, meaning he remained tenth in a rather anonymous race for him.
Manarelli came with high hopes but he couldn't perform as well as he had hoped. On stage two he could not sprint, on stage three he crashed.
Avila got his chance on stage four with his leader injured, even though he was involved in the same crash. He finished in a respectable seventh place
Milan in his national jersey was also down in said crash, but got his chance to shine in the break on the final stage. The break was only caught in the final few hundred meters. He came home in ninth, just outside points scoring positions.
A hilly race in the former capital of the Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The only race where Borat mankini's are appropriate.
Profile:
It's hilly, can't say much more than that.
Team:
Ahmed Albourdainy Carlos Betancourt Nick Kinney Jay Major Diego Milan Salah Eddine Mraouni Oliver Naesen Bjorn Selander
His season hasn't been great so far, but we put our trust in Betancourt, accompanied by Kinney, Milan and Selander as support. Major and Mraouni need the racedays, and Albourdainy and Naesen are being paid to race for us so we might as well select them.
For a moment it seemed like Betancourt was in the right group but for reasons unknown to us he was back in the peloton while the rest carried on to battle for victory. Selander was our best rider in 27th, just outside the points.
Classification:
Pos.
Rider
Team
Time
1
Tejay Van Garderen
Newton Foundation
4h23'48
2
Andrea Palini
Ferrero - Samruk
s.t.
3
Mikhail Ignatiev
Ferrero - Samruk
s.t.
4
Matteo Rabottini
Netia - Vónin
s.t.
5
Michal Kwiatkowski
Netia - Vónin
s.t.
27
Bjorn Selander
Minions
s.t.
37
Oliver Naesen
Minions
s.t.
48
Carlos Betancourt
Minions
s.t.
50
Nick Kinney
Minions
s.t.
61
Jay Major
Minions
s.t.
131
Salah Eddine Mraouni
Minions
s.t.
148
Ahmed Albourdainy
Minions
+ 3'16
166
Diego Milan
Minions
+ 7'19
Rider rankings:
Pos.
Rider
Points
1
Carlos Betancourt
50
2
Rigoberto Úran
49
3
Yasmani Martinez
20
4
Nick Kinney
15
5
Damion Drapac
12
6
Bjorn Selander
11
7
Chad Haga
5
7
Jarlinson Pantano Gómez
5
9
Edwin Avila
3
9
Diego Milan
3
11
Goodnews Clifford
2
12
Niels Albert
1
12
Kenny De Haes
1
Rating:
(1/5)
I'm starting to consider the possibility we might relegate
A month that should give a good indication of what to expect for the rest of the year. Two races with few RDs for Uran that offer the chance to score big. And also the first cobbled race that should be suited to Albert
knockout wrote:
A month that should give a good indication of what to expect for the rest of the year. Two races with few RDs for Uran that offer the chance to score big. And also the first cobbled race that should be suited to Albert
In hindsight I should've taken Úran to Romandie instead of Eritrea, but it's always easy to say these things afterwards. I'm especially looking forward to Corsica we he's the defending winner.
I think Eritrea was a "low floor, high ceiling" selection while Romandie would be "high floor, low ceiling". I doubt you would have podiumed in Romandie with a TTT and the hilly stage before the mountain stage while there was a good chance that you finish Eritrea at least on the podium if you win stage 3 which Uran was the favourite for. In the end, its probably a matter of taste /risk aversity which one is better for you. Hindsight is everything but at the start of the race, I liked the selection.
Known as one of the hardest races on the calendar, the question is not how far down you'll finish, but whether you'll finish at all
Profile:
188 kilometers through Danish hell.
Team:
Niels Albert Ahmed Albourdainy Kenny De Haes Tareq Esmaeli Fabrice Jeandesbosz Leandro Marcos Diego Milan Oliver Naesen
The familiar cobblestone squad is present, with the goal for all five to finish. Albert is a former winner but unlikely to repeat that feat, but we're counting on a good result. De Haes, Jeandesbosz, Marcos and Naesen will provide support. Albourdainy, Esmaeli and Milan drew the wrong straw and will spend a day on the bike they will feel in their legs for a long time.
If the chances of survival are next to nothing, why not spend the day in the break and increase them? That's what Esmaeli was thinking early in the morning, and it worked. He finished 39th, well inside the time limit.
Midway through the race we got the news Marcos was involved in a crash including favourite Bush. He got up and finished the race despite his injuries, which deserves a round of applause.
After many selections there were only 13 riders at the front, including Albert. Unfortunately he didn't have the legs to counter the attacks from the others in the group and dropped a bit to finish 20th. Six points after a day of hard labour. We wanted more, we expected more, but it's better than nothing.
Classification:
Pos.
Rider
Team
Time
1
Geraint Thomas
Podium Ambition
4h35'20
2
Maxime Daniel
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
s.t.
3
Lukasz Wisniowski
Grieg - Eftel
s.t.
4
Robert Bush
World Cycling Centre
s.t.
5
Marcos Altur
Newton Foundation
s.t.
20
Niels Albert
Minions
+ 1'17
37
Kenny De Haes
Minions
+ 3'55
39
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
+ 5'34
48
Fabrice Jeandesbosz
Minions
+ 6'09
52
Oliver Naesen
Minions
+ 7'20
53
Leandro Marcos
Minions
s.t.
DNF
Ahmed Albourdainy
Minions
DNF
DNF
Diego Milan
Minions
DNF
Rider rankings:
Pos.
Rider
Points
1
Carlos Betancourt
50
2
Rigoberto Úran
49
3
Yasmani Martinez
20
4
Nick Kinney
15
5
Damion Drapac
12
6
Bjorn Selander
11
7
Niels Albert
7
8
Chad Haga
5
8
Jarlinson Pantano Gómez
5
10
Edwin Avila
3
10
Diego Milan
3
12
Goodnews Clifford
2
13
Kenny De Haes
1
Rating:
(2/5)
Are we back to the days where we despised cobblestones?
Okay, a little panic. This is definitely not a place where we want to be. Betancourt and Albert haven't brought what we hoped and Úran only has six racedays to his name and they weren't very successful. Let's hope the coming months bring us up the standings.
From the title it sounds like a class to learn playing the bongos, but it's actually a six day race in Gabon.
Profile:
Six flat rated stages though some stages are more flat than others.
Team:
Edwin Avila Goodnews Clifford Damion Drapac Jay Major Carlos Alexandre Manarelli Salah Eddine Mraouni Shaquille Sinclair Ethan Weiss
This is the ultra super duper best sprinter squad we can produce. Drapac, Manarelli and Avila are three riders who could all end up sprinting. Clifford and Mraouni ride close to home. Major and Sinclair will be the young leadouts. Weiss can go into the breakaway.
Everyone realised Drapac was our best sprinter in the race. On the first stage, despite some minor hills, he was in the mix and finished eighth. He improved to his best result on stage four, fifth place.
On stages two, three and five, the hills where too heavy for him. Only Weiss and Clifford could remain in the peloton and finished in the top thirty for points. The former in 21st, the latter in 29th.
Sinclair went into the break on stage three, but couldn't get anything notable out of it. It was Major's turn on stage five and he took some mountain points. He went into the break again on the final stage, climbing to third in the mountain classification. It was also a successfull breakaway attempt, where he finished third out of the eight. A great race by our youngster!
The Sheikh build us a mountain and paid a lot of money to organise a race here. Our goal is to win, and return investment.
Profile:
The mountain has two routes, a pass and a summit. The pass will be climbed ninth time before we climb to the gravel summit at great altitude. The peak can be seen from all over Qatar.
Team:
Ahmed Albourdainy Chris Barton Tareq Esmaeli Chad Haga Yasmani Martinez Jarlinson Pantano Gómez Cayetano Sarmiento Rigoberto Úran
The first two riders we put on our squad list are Albourdainy and Esmaeli who will ride a home race here and the local support will give them wings. Then we selected our six best climbers: Úran, Pantano Gómez, Martinez, Sarmiento, Haga and Barton. The first on that list is also one of the main favourites.
Being favourites we decided to put some riders at the front of the peloton and make a hard race from the set go. A break was allowed, with none of us in it, but we did manage to drop some favourites from time to time. Unfortunately this effort also meant our domestiques were dropped by the end and no one but Úran finished in points scoring positions.
Úran was clearly one of the strongest in the race and never got dropped where his nearest rivals where struggling a lot. The leading pack of favourites was constantly called "Group Úran" and the local television cameras gave him a lot of screen time.
In the end Barguil was stronger, and in the final few kilometers he managed to drop Úran. Intxausti was on par with him but he got outsprinted easily.... for fourth place. Yes, ahead of Barguil there were still two riders from the morning breakaway. Dayer Quintana, younger brother of Nairo, won from Antunes. Barguil third, Úran fourth.
Romandie is in Switzerland, the country of cheese, chocolate and cows, yet the team with the cow fetish didn't participate here.
Profile:
An individual and team time trial on the menu, together with some tough hilly stages.
Team:
Chris Barton Damion Drapac Chad Haga Nick Kinney Yasmani Martinez Salah Eddine Mraouni Jarlinson Pantano Gómez Bjorn Selander
Pantano Gómez will be de facto leader in absence of his true leader, but we're aiming for a top thirty. Haga and Martinez have a free role, and might even do better given their superior time trial skills. Barton and Mraouni are here to limit the loss in the TT. Kinney and Selander will have to join a breakaway on the hilly terrain. Finally Drapac, because there technically are two flat stages, but he won't like them.
Our team time trial wasn't too bad actually, we finished ninth less than a minute down on the winners. However, the bad part was that Pantano Gómez couldn't follow the pace and we decided to throw him overboard. This meant our GC hopes were now in the hands of Haga and Martinez.
Despite our plea to go into the breakaway, only Selander made an attempt on stage two and didn't even get in. Unsurprisingly, Drapac couldn't remain in touch with the peloton on both "sprinter" stages and did not even finish the race. He did get TV time when he was dropped, so at least he was visible.
Ahead of the final time trial, Martinez and Haga were 19th and 20th respectivaly, with Pantano Gómez just outside the top 30. The Cuban managed to consolidate his place, but Haga rode a great time trial to improve to 17th. He did so well that his time was enough for third place of the day! Unfortunately we can't provide a picture of his race because the organisers were short on motorbikes.
Three stages over two days on the French island of Corisca. International refers to the field of international riders.
Profile:
A short flat stage followed by a short time trial on day one. Day two is all about the climb op the Col d'Ospidale.
Team:
Chris Barton Chad Haga Fabrice Jeandesbosz Jay Major Carlos Alexandre Manarelli Yasmani Martinez Jarlinson Pantano Gómez Rigoberto Úran
Since we're reasonable people we allow Jeandesbosz to ride in his home country even though he has no real business here. For stage one we bring Manarelli and Major, for stage two we bring Barton and Haga. But our leader for the race is Úran, with support from Pantano Gómez and Martinez.
Stage one was influenced by a crash involving Martinez, losing three minutes and the hope for a minor GC placing. Manarelli was nowhere in the sprint, the opposition was too tough on him.
Our best placed rider in the time trial, surprisingly, was Martinez. Úran won some time on his rivals but he was expected to win more. Maybe the weather circumstances played a part.
And then the decisive stage three. Úran was looking good but not great. The break took the stage win but the GC battle was close. The Colombian finished ninth place, losing 21 seconds to a group of Duarte, Henao and Denifl. This would be the final podium, with Úran in fourth. Had he finished in the same time he would've finished in second. So close.
Classification:
Pos.
Rider
Team
Time
1
Fabio Duarte
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
6h26'00
2
Sergio Luis Henao Montoya
Ferrero - Samruk
+ 18
3
Stefan Denifl
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
+ 23
4
Rigoberto Úran
Minions
+ 26
5
Romain Sicard
Orange Pro Cycling
+ 44
15
Jarlinson Pantano Gómez
Minions
+ 2'49
51
Yasmani Martinez
Minions
+ 8'27
54
Chad Haga
Minions
+ 8'46
85
Chris Barton
Minions
+ 14'22
104
Fabrice Jeandesbosz
Minions
+ 16'29
124
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Minions
+ 22'19
156
Jay Major
Minions
+ 31'11
Rider rankings:
Pos.
Rider
Points
1
Rigoberto Úran
214
2
Carlos Betancourt
50
3
Jarlinson Pantano Gómez
33
4
Yasmani Martinez
28
5
Chad Haga
21
6
Damion Drapac
16
7
Nick Kinney
15
8
Jay Major
12
9
Bjorn Selander
11
10
Niels Albert
7
11
Ethan Weiss
5
12
Goodnews Clifford
3
12
Diego Milan
3
12
Edwin Avila
3
15
Chris Barton
2
16
Kenny De Haes
1
Rating:
(3/5)
Could've been better, should've been better, but it's better than the previous races
Meeting in plenty of races the next month. Not in Vancouver though, a race that looks like a key race for Uran. Did relatively well in Corsica, will be interesting to see if he can get on the podium in Vancouver
tastasol wrote:
Meeting in plenty of races the next month. Not in Vancouver though, a race that looks like a key race for Uran. Did relatively well in Corsica, will be interesting to see if he can get on the podium in Vancouver
Podium is a must, else I think my fate is sealed and we'll be back in CT next season. But we have a decent TTT squad to help him, so I'm counting on a very good result.
We moved up two places but we're still in the relegation zone. And what this table doesn't show is the amount of racedays used up already, in which we're leading over our direct rivals. So it's looking better but it's by far not enough to not worry about relegation.
Nakon Ratsa... Narton Rakkahama... Nahakon Ratatatata... Trophy. We'll just call it that race in Thailand.
Profile:
Totally flat, that small bubble on the profile is caused by a local speedbump.
Team:
Niels Albert Ahmed Albourdainy Edwin Avila Damion Drapac Tareq Esmaeli Fabrice Jeandesbosz Salah Eddine Mraouni Shaquille Sinclair
Flat and short, which means Drapac might actually do well here. His guidance in the final stages will be handles by Avila and Sinclair. Completing the team are Albert, Albourdainy, Esmaeli, Jeandesbosz and Mraouni
Early on in the race Drapac knew he had amazing legs today and he might get a decent result. With none of us in the break because it would be a waste of time, we decided to help out at the front of the peloton.
The wind played a major part in the race, with many riders dropped due to echelons. Luckily we have an expert for such races with loads of experience in racing against the wind: Albert. With his help Drapac and Avila could stay in the front group when favourite after favourite was dropped. The race went down to a reduced bunch sprint with around thirty riders.
Drapac chose the wheel of Van Asbroeck. Other sprinters like Kennaugh and Guerao went from far out but got in the wind too early and faded back, whereas Drapac could benefit from the slipstream. With 500 meters to go he got out of his wheel and started his final push towards the line.
It would be a three-way battle between him, his countryman Goss and Itami, with Van Asbroeck just too late to react.
An Damion Drapac put his wheel across the line to win the Rakon Nastasica Trophy, or whatever! Our first win of the season and some desperately needed points! Reports say a party at our HQ went deep into the night and that a lot of alcohol has been consumed in celebration of this incredible achievement.
Classification:
Pos.
Rider
Team
Time
1
Damion Drapac
Minions
3h55'26
2
Matthew Goss
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
s.t.
3
Kenji Itami
Meiji - JR East
s.t.
4
Tom Van Asbroeck
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
s.t.
5
Dan Holloway
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
12
Edwin Avila
Minions
s.t.
29
Niels Albert
Minions
s.t.
45
Shaquille Sinclair
Minions
+ 1'29
56
Tareq Esmaeli
Minions
s.t.
75
Fabrice Jeandesbosz
Minions
s.t.
96
Salah Eddine Mraouni
Minions
s.t.
105
Ahmed Albourdainy
Minions
s.t.
Rider rankings:
Pos.
Rider
Points
1
Rigoberto Úran
214
2
Damion Drapac
96
3
Carlos Betancourt
50
4
Jarlinson Pantano Gómez
33
5
Yasmani Martinez
28
6
Chad Haga
21
7
Nick Kinney
15
8
Edwin Avila
14
9
Jay Major
12
10
Bjorn Selander
11
11
Niels Albert
7
12
Ethan Weiss
5
13
Goodnews Clifford
3
13
Diego Milan
3
15
Chris Barton
2
16
Kenny De Haes
1
Rating:
(5/5)
Nope, we're not playing April Fools' on you, we actually won a flat classic in PCT!
A mountain prologue, three flat stages, two mountain arrivals and a concluding team time trial.
Team:
Chris Barton Chad Haga Jay Major Carlos Alexandre Manarelli Yasmani Martinez Jarlinson Pantano Gómez Cayetano Sarmiento Rigoberto Úran
Mister Úran is back and looking for a great result. Joining him are Pantano Gómez, Sarmiento, Martinez, Haga and Barton, the latter three will have to be our engine in the TTT. Manarelli sprints and Major leads him out/gathers experience.
The first mountain prologue was a good indicator of the strengths of the riders. Úran was the second-a-last to start his ride and beat the then best time by Intxausti by one second. After him, Amador crushed that time by twelve seconds. It was clear he was too strong and the race win would go to him in a dominant fashion. We were aiming for second place, with the official goal of a top ten easily achievable.
In the following flat stages Manarelli scored his first points of the season, with a seventh and sixth place on stage three and five respectively. The latter could've been fourth place but the break took away the first two positions.
On the first proper mountain arrival, Úran finished fourth, but was overtaken by Nazaret in the GC. On stage six, his legs were not the bad but he managed to limit his losses, dropping to fifth in the GC but not out of podium contention. Martinez was in fifteenth place after stage six, having been of great help to his leader.
And then the team time trial. To put it bluntly, we failed. We hoped one of the four less capables could be carried by the four capables but this wasn't the case. The only way we could've improved our setup is if we brought loanee Mraouni, but he's riding in Belgium at the moment. We finished last of all teams and Úran dropped to seventh. In minor classifications, he finished joint fourth in the points and solo fourth in the mountains. And we finished fourth in the teams classification.
The reporter's first successful bike ride without training wheels was when he was on holiday at Plopsaland De Panne. Now he's reporting on people riding their bike because he wasn't good enough himself.
Profile:
Cobblestones and a time trial, meh. Flat stage, yay!
Team:
Niels Albert Goodnews Clifford Kenny De Haes Damion Drapac Fabrice Jeandesbosz Leandro Marcos Salah Eddine Mraouni Oliver Naesen
Albert, De Haes and Naesen ride in their home country, and would've been selected because of their cobbles ability regardless. The other riders are Clifford, Drapac, Jeandesbosz, Marcos and Mraouni.
Stage one and two were cobbled, and we thought we were decent on them but apparently we're not. The first stage was won by a breakaway attempt which immediately decided the GC. Our best finisher was Marcos at 15 (!) minutes. We knew we wouldn't get many points out of this race, but now zero was looking like a realistic number.
However, we saw chances at stage three. Drapac had won on his previous race and was one of the favourites for the stage, but the stage went to a breakaway again. He finished ninth, just outside the points, but luckily for us that breakaway contained our man De Haes.
He tried to drop his two compagnions but failed to so, leading to a sprint-a-trois with Benoot and Kulppi. Only the latter was able to challenge him but in the end he was no match. De Haes wins the third stage and brings us 20 points!
As an added bonus, he was joint second in the points classification, which he remained after the time trial. This brought us an extra nine points! Our GC positions were not enough for points, and everyone but De Haes majorly disappointed. Also a mention for our former rider Matthews, who we sold for 125k this transfer season. He finished fifth in the GC for his new team Podium Ambition.
Happy to see that the average bananas awarded per race has gone up for the past half a dozen races or so. Hopefully the onset of the mountains will bring even better results
Ahmed Albourdainy
Edwin Avila
Nick Kinney
Jay Major
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Diego Milan
Yasmani Martinez
Damion Drapac
Goodnews Clifford
Niels Albert
Salah Eddine Mraouni
Gabon
Shaquille Sinclair
Denmark
Fabrice Jeandesbosz
Switzerland
Thailand
Canada
Hungary
Netherlands
