tastasol wrote:
Must say, I really like these updates. Keep it up!
A mixed season for Isostar so far. A couple of very good races from Kump and Brajkovic, while I feel that Polanc have underperformed a bit so far.
thank you very much tastasol, it is always a pleasure to receive some recognition for the effort I put into this HQ
To the season: Kump had his ups and downs, strangely enough he shined in stage races and failed in classics - sad that he only has one stage race left then. Polanc should step up his game soon, at least that is what I hope for. The latest in Kigali I expect a Top result of him. Brajkovic so far has had a couple of bad races to start, but then did very well in both Romandie and Crit International which is nice.
After Vlaanderen we hoped for more activity from our team. While the team suffered from crashes, also Polanc had to come back early after some issues, spending too much energy.
He lateron lacked this power in the long chase together with Nikolas Maes, to take back a group of 10. A nice effort off camera, but they didn't succeed. Instead, other riders coming from the wheels and overtaking the couple in the final kilometers. At the end we are left with a disappointing 17th place, where so much more was possible with some better racing luck.
1
Sam Bewley
Moser - Sygic
4h45'11
2
Greg Van Avermaet
Evonik - ELKO
s.t.
3
Danny Summerhill
RBC Pro Cycling
s.t.
4
Kenneth Vanbilsen
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
+ 23
5
Marcus Burghardt
Podium Ambition
+ 36
6
Lukasz Wisniowski
Grieg - Eftel
s.t.
7
Matteo Trentin
Aker - MOT
s.t.
8
Roger Kluge
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
+ 2'06
9
Alexander Kristoff
Aker - MOT
+ 2'27
10
Sebastian Langeveld
Strava
s.t.
17
Jan Polanc
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
Goal: Top 20, Top 50 --> failed
Points scored: 15 (Polanc 15)
Manager's satisfaction rate: 4/10
Positive Surprise:Jan Polanc on the attack - At least our Slovenian captain tried everything, though his ride with Maes sucked off a lot of power
Negative Surprise:Support - We need to find the vital minor points in the PTHC races. One of our minor support riders crashed, that doesn't explain only 1 rider in the Top50 though.
Again Brajkovic is our leader, with plenty of more scoring potential in the short but sharp Mountain/TT Tour on Corsica.
Stage 1: On the opening short flat stage we were part of the big breakaway, as Bazhkou joined it. He was with the strongest, being part of the last 4 of them on the road out of the initial 13 men group
They got caught with 12 km to go however, so it went into a mass sprint where we without a sprinter instead laid our emphasis on keeping our GC riders save. Which worked halfway well, as Potocki crashed and lost all white jersey ambitions.
1
Óscar Guerao
SPAR - Shimano - SCG
1h27'38
2
Grzegorz Stepniak
Fablok - Bank BGZ
s.t.
3
Roman Maksimov
Newton Foundation
s.t.
15
Matthias Brändle
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
Stage 2: Our ambitions for the short ITT where much higher: Brändle wanted to go for the win, and Brajkovic to have the best time of the GC contenders, to have an advantage for the mountains. It turned out to be different.
Brajkovic lost 23 seconds, being behind some contenders he should normally beat.
Brändle also was 11 slower seconds than Steensen, who won the day. A big bummer for our Austrian TT captain. Off cameras Bazhkou couldn't save the day, finishing 13th.
Stage 3: While the breakaway group was fighting for the win, in the back the race blew up. Brändle wasn't up to the challenge, but Brajkovic stayed well in the game when attacks started. He couldn't really keep up with the best, but stayed safe in the first group of GC candidates, coming in as 9th of the GC contenders.
1
Idan Shapira
Fablok - Bank BGZ
4h46'26
2
Gennadiy Tatarinov
Kraftwerk Man Machine
s.t.
3
Davide Malacarne
Generali - EDF
+ 44
13
Janez Brajkovic
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 2'53
With that result he could jump onto 8th overall, finishing inside the GC ambitions. Brändle kept up with the second big GC group, at least managing to score some minor points. Tadej Logar saved us some minor points on a great day, while with Bazhkou another guy crashed out.
Final GC:
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
6
Benat Intxausti
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 50
7
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Euskaltel
+ 1'31
8
Janez Brajkovic
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 1'56
9
Gregory Brenes
Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ
+ 2'17
10
Sergei Kolesnikov
Ferrero - Samruk
+ 2'18
16
Matthias Brändle
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 3'25
42
Tadej Logar
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 6'28
Thus he also scored us some minor points in the youth classification we missed with Potockis injuries. Also Laas and Svab notable there.
Youth Classification:
1
George Alexandru Stancu
MOL-OMV Petrom
6h30'29 (1)
2
Tadej Logar
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 1'59 (2)
3
Louis Vervaeke
Haute Route - Mavic
+ 2'04 (3)
7
Martin Laas
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 5'13 (7)
8
Jernej Svab
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 5'24 (8)
Goal: Top 10, Top 20, Stage Top 5, Youth Classification Top 3 --> achieved
Positive Surprise:Tadej Logar - What an awesome ride on stage 3 by the youngster, alone making up for Potockis issues. First prove of what he may be capable of for us in the future.
Negative Surprise:ITT - We are underperforming this year in TTs, but this was enormous. Neither was Brajkovic up to his GC plans, nor could Brändle sustain the high hopes. Bazhkou also not in the shape to achieve a surprise result. We didn't loose the race there, but we failed once more to score important points in the TT.
Edited by Croatia14 on 08-12-2017 09:42
Corsica wasn't too bad actually. Shame about Potocki's misfortunes, else you would've scored even higher. E3 marred by a fall as well. But Polanc making the top 20 prediction despite that is a good sign.
@Aquarius: you're on a good way it seems , trend is going in the right direction
@Abhishek: No, it wasn't too bad - hence the over 5 grade Polanc and Quevedo our most unlucky riders this season, hopefully they can turn the falling issues around at some point...
March was a good month for us, making us climb the rankings. We scored linear to our expectations, with a highlight in the first GC win of the team in Gabon however. Thus we find us in a high position in the overall ranking, where we definitely need to be to avoid deep relegation struggle lateron. With the shared most used race days the table don't look that amazing cleaned up and with the expected trouble in the further calendar in mind. Still it seems as if we are on the right track right now.
April will be a month where several teams have the opportunity to bounce back on us. For Isostar it could become more difficult, as we don't have a great chance until Philly at the end of April. There we find our first goal race, where Kump needs to deliver big time.
KBC De Panne Tour
4.-7.4.
C1
flat/cobbles/ITT
Polanc
Top 5
Jan Polanc
Leader
Martin Laas
Domestique
Roy Jans
Free Role
Tadej Logar
Domestique
Ramunas Navardauskas
Domestique
Jernej Svab
Domestique
Ahmed Belgasem
Domestique
Daniel Jaramillo
Domestique
We're all out for Jan Polanc on the 4 days in De Panne. He'll try to hand on on the steep cobbled ascents to at the end use his strength in short time trials to ensure a nice GC result.
Goal: Top 5, Top 30, Youth Classification
Tour of South Africa
15.-20.4.
C1
hilly/TTT
Mohoric/Quevedo
Top 10
Matej Mohoric
Leader
Luis Mansila
Sprinter
Xavier Quevedo
Leader
Matej Mugerli
Domestique
Ramunas Navardauskas
Free Rider
Tadej Logar
Domestique
Roy Jans
Free Rider
Stanislau Bazhkou
Domestique
This is one of the most wide open races for us, similarly one of our most interesting line-ups all season. Everything could happen, as we have 2 sub-top leaders. Mohoric will be the man for the white jersey again, while Quevedo has the freedom to go for both GC and stages. With Jans and Navardauskas two awesome hilly sprinting stage hunters spice up the team, in one of the rare occasions where Kump is not with the team on that terrain. Also Mansilla will get his chance on the flat stage, and even Mugerli and Bazhkou could achieve some sort of result here.
Goal: Top 10, Top 15, 2* Top 30, Stage Win, Youth Classification
GP Liechtenstein
24.4.
PTC
mountain
Brajkovic
Top 25
Janez Brajkovic
Leader
Ahmed Belgasem
Domestique
Pavel Potocki
Free Role
Jaka Bostner
Domestique
Jan Polanc
Free Role
Jernej Svab
Domestique
Matthias Brändle
Free Role
Daniel Jaramillo
Domestique
Janez Brajkovic will lead a PT Classic, maybe for the last time in his career. He is our clear leader, being supported by our best climbing line-up. With Polanc, Brändle & Potocki we have 3 riders made for the morning break.
Goal: Top 25, Top 50, 2*Top 100, breakaway appearance
Philadelphia International Classic
30.4.
HC
hilly sprint
Kump
Top 5
Marko Kump
Leader
Martin Laas
Domestique
Luis Mansila
Leadout
Matej Mugerli
Domestique
Ramunas Navardauskas
Leadout
Jernej Svab
Domestique
Roy Jans
Leadout
Ahmed Belgasem
Domestique
In the first goal race of the season we have our big captain set up on his only April race: Marko Kump. We set him a great squad aside to control the race and prepare him for the final sprint. Road Captain Mugerli will organize the chase, while Jans and Navardauskas should prepare the final sprint set up. From there it will be Mansilla to lead out the fastes uphill sprinter of the division, hopefully to winning glory in our target race in a revenge for his cruel miss last year.
Yeah, here I was hoping Kump wouldn't show up in Philly. This race is made for Van Asbroeck, but even more so for Kump. Then again, Van Asbroeck beat him on the queen stage in Gabon earlier, so it's not impossible.
Ollfardh wrote:
Yeah, here I was hoping Kump wouldn't show up in Philly. This race is made for Van Asbroeck, but even more so for Kump. Then again, Van Asbroeck beat him on the queen stage in Gabon earlier, so it's not impossible.
Well I have this race as a goal race, it would've been plain stupid to not send my captain there (hello Tour of Slovenia...) - I indeed fear van Asbroeck on this race, but if we get our leadout right this should be a very good chance to score big for us.
Stage 1: On the main stage, a cobbled one that had quite some hills on the way, things went extraordinarily weird. It should have been a big time stage for our leader Polanc, instead he got caught up in a split he shouldn't miss, and lost 2 minutes on the best, and 4 on the winning breakaway.
Especially when teammate Giaux managed to keep up for a nice position in 9th.
Stage 2: The minor cobbled stage, and the turnaround of stage 1. Jans managed to go into the break of 4.
He held on for quite some time, but at the end of the day he got dropped and taken in by the pack.
Even worse, his former breakaway companions went on for securing the victory. Even worse, Polanc did nothing to gain some time back. Even worse, Giaux got dropped from the group, throwing away what looked to be a Top 5 for no reason at all.
Stage 3: A flat stage, hence nothing for us. We could neither join the (again) winning break, nor do anything else that made sense, finishing anonymously.
Stage 4: The final epilogue. We celebrate Martin Laas for setting the first notable time.
We congratulate Polanc for another awful stage, finishing way down while he should have had a shot on the Top 10.
0 stage points, a thrown away GC Top 5 and not even the youth jersey. Normally we could hardly imagine a worse stage plan.
At least we got the double lanterne rouge with Jaramillo and Laas.
Goal: Top 5, Top 30, Youth Classification --> failed
Points scored: 32 (Polanc 24, Giaux 6, Jans 2)
Manager's satisfaction rate: 1.5/10
Positive Surprise:Jerome Giaux - Still here for stage 1. Great ride there, a shame that he couldn't hold on.
Negative Surprise:Roy Jans - Some decent effort. But you have to be able to contend with riders like Domene and Lebris if you get the chance of winning a stage from the breakaway.
Stage 1: We start the race as usual: Quevedo crashing out.
But not only him, also our other 2 captains in Mohoric and Mansilla down.
1
Tejay Van Garderen
Newton Foundation
3h52'48
2
Diego Ulissi
Generali - EDF
s.t.
3
Sebastien Reichenbach
Team UBS
s.t.
20
Matej Mohoric
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
Stage 2: Another hilly race. another rather easy stage. We somehow managed to loose contact anyhow, to find ourself in the chase.
Of course we could not make it back, instead finish with 5 riders in a small group 1'30 behind the winner. Brilliant.
1
Damiano Caruso
Euskaltel
4h24'00
2
Cesare Di Maggio
MOL-OMV Petrom
+ 29
3
Wesley Kreder
Kraftwerk Man Machine
s.t.
19
Roy Jans
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 1'21
Stage 3: The only flat stage of the race. Of course the only one where we'd join the break, with many hungry teams in behind and no KOM points on offer. Appreciating Logar's effort however.
Jans brought Mansilla up to the front when they were caught.
Our chilenian sprinter took the wheel of Compal, only to then loose it for now visable reason. Starting his sprint far too late he could only come 4th, while the rider whose wheel he had won the race for Compal, Scully.
1
Tom Scully
Compal-Merida
4h44'50
2
Michael Matthews
Compal-Merida
s.t.
3
Wesley Kreder
Kraftwerk Man Machine
s.t.
4
Luis Miguel Mansilla
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
Stage 4: On the TTT we had a decent showing, baring in mind that we were down to 7 already. We finished a solid 6th, going back into the Top15 GC. At least we had the sexiest shirts.
1
Generali - EDF
46'29
2
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 49
3
Team UBS
+ 1'07
6
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 1'26
Stage 5: An agressive hilly stage. With the time lost in the GC you'd think some limes would try to attack. But no, we waited in the pack until we got dropped one by one, watching the break to win the stage.
Mohoric this time at least followed the moves to finish together with Reichenbach and Palini.
Others of our team continue to dominate the races for minor positions far out of points reach.
1
Jaco Venter
Eritel - Sonatrach
5h58'38
2
Tejay Van Garderen
Newton Foundation
+ 22
3
Diego Ulissi
Generali - EDF
s.t.
9
Matej Mohoric
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 2'00
Stage 6: Mohoric, now finally in white, starting a little overenthusiastic and involving himself into a crashfest to close out his tour. Instead of a top 10 and white he, as well as Navardauskas, Jans and Mugerli, crashed on the stage, desperately trying to make contact.
He failed, to loose both jersey and Top 10. Also several minor positions lost due to the mass of Isostars on the deck at the South Africa farewell party.
1
Tejay Van Garderen
Newton Foundation
3h55'06
2
Diego Ulissi
Generali - EDF
s.t.
3
Jack Bauer
Berg Cycles
s.t.
24
Matej Mohoric
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 1'19
Still the depth result was rather decent from the team. Navardauskas and Jans lost almost 10 places in crashes. And think of what would've been possible without Mohoric (2 minutes) and Mugerli (1 minute) crashing. Exactly.
General Classification:
1
Tejay Van Garderen
Newton Foundation
23h42'59
2
Chris Froome
Fablok - Bank BGZ
+ 32
3
Cesare Di Maggio
MOL-OMV Petrom
+ 1'07
4
Diego Ulissi
Generali - EDF
+ 1'32
5
Sebastien Reichenbach
Team UBS
+ 2'20
6
Jaco Venter
Eritel - Sonatrach
+ 2'33
7
Andrea Palini
Ferrero - Samruk
+ 3'31
8
Pedro Miguel Paulinho
Berg Cycles
+ 3'54
9
Olivier Le Gac
Euskaltel
+ 4'27
10
Tesfar Teklit
Eritel - Sonatrach
+ 4'50
11
Matej Mohoric
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 4'58
12
Matej Mugerli
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 6'01
29
Roy Jans
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 11'54
30
Ramunas Navardauskas
Isostar - Adriatic
s.t.
Youth classification:
1
Olivier Le Gac
Euskaltel
23h47'26 (1)
2
Matej Mohoric
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 31 (2)
3
Mikel Iturria
MOL-OMV Petrom
+ 9'51 (3)
Goal: Top 10, Top 15, 2* Top 30, Stage Win, Youth Classification --> failed
Positive Surprise:Tadej Logar - The only Isostar to not crash on camera.
Negative Surprise:Balance - No explanation needed. Whether it's bikehandling skills, positioning or mental awareness. We need to work on all of that offseason to avoid these heartbreaking crashes in the future.
The last shot on leadership for Brajkovic in a PT race? We'll see. It started awful for us, as Polanc was forced to abandon due to yet another crash. With him went our plan for the breakaway of the day.
The team however tried to keep Brajkovic fit, and managed to do it well when the action started to happen. At the front Taaramae took a surprisingly dominant win, beating Schleck (and Dombrowski). In behind Brajkovic took a decent ride, finsihing inside the Top20. The big story were Belgasem and Bostner, who both rode an awesome race to finish 22nd and 35th.
1
Rein Taaramäe
Wiesenhof-Andritz
8h17'15
2
Joseph Dombrowski
Pendleton's
+ 1'13
3
Andy Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
4
Robert Gesink
eBuddy
+ 1'30
5
Simon Spilak
Festina - Dexia
+ 3'02
6
Tiago Machado
Porto - Prio
s.t.
7
Justo Tenorio
Iberia - Team Degenkolb
s.t.
8
Silvio Herklotz
Team Puma - SAP
+ 3'55
9
Adam Yates
Ayubowan!
+ 5'21
10
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy
Nemiroff - ABBYY
+ 6'08
19
Janez Brajkovic
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 11'17
22
Ahmed Youssef Belgasem
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 12'23
35
Jaka Bostner
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 17'03
51
Matthias Brändle
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 22'46
68
Daniel Alexander Jaramillo
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 28'57
74
Pavel Potocki
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 30'31
115
Jernej Svab
Isostar - Adriatic
+ 54'08
Goal: Top 25, Top 50, 2*Top 100, breakaway appearance --> achieved
Positive Surprise:Ahmed Belgasem - What an awesome race for our African import. Very well deserved placement, almost as good as Brajkovic.
Negative Surprise:Matthias Brändle - Once again our Austrian couldn't get it to go on the climb. He needs to step up his game in the second half of the season.
Our first goal race of the season, and all eyes on Marko Kump. The full squad was here in his support. And as they race begun and the break was set we fully controlled the race.
As the break got realed in however, we didn't use our frightening leadout set-up. Instead, our support dropped back. But Kumpi took the right wheel on the Podium train, docking on Ewan.
When the road rose Kump streamed out of the shadow in the prime position for the gradient.
And what a show Kump put on on the sprint. In dominant fashion he bet van Asbroeck to the line, who could celebrate the big victory for Isostar in the first goal race.
1
Marko Kump
Isostar - Adriatic
3h48'06
2
Tom Van Asbroeck
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam
s.t.
3
Sascha Modolo
Ferrero - Samruk
s.t.
4
Marcel Aregger
Team UBS
s.t.
5
Juan Van Heerden
Eritel - Sonatrach
s.t.
6
Dan Holloway
Novatek-Panarmenian.net
s.t.
7
Caleb Ewan
Podium Ambition
s.t.
8
Ivano Lo Cicero
Valio - DeLaval
s.t.
9
Maurice Schreurs
Orange Pro Cycling
s.t.
10
Kazushige Kuboki
Meiji - JR East
s.t.
Season Goal: Top 5 --> achieved
Goal: Win, Top 25, 2* Top 50 --> achieved
Points scored: 140 (Kump 140)
Manager's satisfaction rate: 8.5/10
Positive Surprise:Marko Kump - He was the favourite. His team worked for him. He executed brilliantly. Dominant sprint by our star.
Negative Surprise:Leadout - Missing. Once again, eventhough being the clear favourite and having the best roleurs. Why?
E3 Prijs 
Corsica International 
I guess you'll want me to stay away from PCT races 
Tour of South Africa 
GP Liechtenstein 
Philadelphia International Classic 
Tour of South Africa 
