@Tamijo Tour of Japan is sort of a home race for both our teams and would be a nice way to recover some ground to other teams, although i don't have too much confidence on Cunego doing well there, despite being the reigning champion of the race
@Abhishek Those two races are the only ones left in Valls' calendar. I aim for around 100 points from Valls between both races, with at least a podium in Colombia and top8-10 in GC in East Java. Probably not enough to promote even if he can win in Colombia and get a big result in East Java. We would also need a lucky race like Bayern to be in the real fight
@Vien Promotion was not in my plans for the first season, otherwise i would have gone for a more rounded team. My plan was always to establish in the mid-table of CT, while achieving our 5 goals so i would already have a top CT leader and a lot of budget for improve my squad next season and go for a title bid.
So if anyone had told me that at this point of the season, i would have secure all my goals and would be 7th in the standings, i wouldn't have really believe it
Sure you'll promote, I'm rooting for you (I should be less friendly with rival managers, because I'll be sad no matter who misses out ) Think next year's CT should be rooting for you to go to PCT too Can never count you guys out in any race, impressive for a "one-man team" Still an exciting part of the promotion race and a likely candidate, shame Gilbert didn't get the Benelux he wanted or you'd be even better positioned.
A big result for Valls in Java and Colombia as well is just a plain scary prospect when thinking of promotion, and also Roux's underdog quest for the individual crown
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
I thought you wanted me to stay on CT one more season for the reason next year's CT should want me to promote already
And for promoting i'm sure it will be needed more than 1250 points, something that despite being lower than my current projected points, i can't see anyway of my team getting almost 350 points in what i have left of season. It would need a Kneisky in form in both Paris-Tours and HST, and Gilbert having a big Britain, and still i would be short. I agree that what Valls do in ColVent and East Java is going to be key for both my promotion run and the Individual Crown
Historic day for the Repsol - Honda team, as we can anounce today that the team has reached an agreement with the giant American entertainment company Netflix to be our new title sponsor for the 2018 season.
This doesn't mean that neither Repsol or Honda will drop their sponsorship for the coming season, as Repsol will continue to be the main sponsor of the team, which would re-named to Repsol - Netflix for 2018. Honda will continue only as a minor sponsor, but still with presence in the team's jersey.
Reed Hastings, Netflix CEO: We, as a company, had been looking to invest in cycling for some time, and today we finally were able to achieve that goal. We have been in conversations with Aquarius for a few months, as Repsol - Honda had most of the things we wanted for the cycling team that we wanted to sponsor. Our deal is for 2 years, but it can obviously be extended if we feel that the team is going in the direction we want. We would like to help the team to his rise through the divisions building on home-grown talents, in the same way we focus on our own productions in Netflix
Aquarius, Repsol - Honda Team Manager: As the Team Manager i can only say that this was an incredible opportunity that we could let go. To have such a big company joining us is amazing and guarantees us a monetary stability for the coming years. I myself have been an user of Netflix for several years already, so it's amazing i could get them in my team. This also means that we might switch our current secondary focus to America. But it's not something to talk about right now
@Vien My main focus will continue to be Spain, but USA might become (not decided yet) a minor focus. In any case, this is not a move to become a USA team
@Tamijo Thanks!
@knockout In some way yes, but that might be for the medium/long term. In my plan for a second CT season, i could promote with a mostly-Spanish core, but having in mind that for the time i'll be PCT (or in long-term PT) there won't be any Spanish big sprinter or puncheur, basically only top climbers, i will need to look in other countries to sign leaders
Interesting sponsor changes happening throughout the CT division, Netflix being added to your team is no difference. Will be interested to see how this affects recruitment going forward, but like you mention, it will largely depend on how this season shakes out. Best of luck going forward!
@Booker Thanks! Very different plans for the off-season depending on which division i'll be in 2018
Morgan Kneisky wins Paris - Tours
Up until the first day of September, we have had 10 wins during the season, 3 of them being GC wins in stage races and the rest of them single stages, but we hadn't win yet a one-day race. And that was what the local rider Morgan Kneisky did in this race. A well-time attack to surprise the sprinter teams and arrive alone in the finish line in Tours.
The race started really well, as Valverde joined the breakaway and was able to stay in the front until the last 15 kms of the race, the moment where Kneisky was lauching his initial attack, after following a move made by Smukulis.
The duo opened a big gap to the rest of the group, and with 6 kms to go, the Frenchman made his move for the win, dropping the Latvian rider, showing why he's the best rouleur in the division.
1
Morgan Kneisky
Repsol - Honda
4h56'25
2
Yoeri Havik
Kulczyk - DMTEX
+ 56
3
Simon Clarke
Xero Racing p/b Octagon
s.t.
4
Marco Brus
Proximus Continental Team
s.t.
5
Mohamed Harrif Salleh
Sauber Petronas Racing
s.t.
70
Alejandro Valverde
Repsol - Honda
+ 56
93
Riccardo Stacchiotti
Repsol - Honda
+ 4'42
118
Xabier San Sebastian
Repsol - Honda
+ 4'42
120
Nidush Nirantha Fernando
Repsol - Honda
+ 10'43
136
Stefano Agostini
Repsol - Honda
+ 14'36
163
Jaime Roson
Repsol - Honda
+ 14'36
175
Alvaro Cuadros
Repsol - Honda
+ 18'14
This result helps us massively in our fight for promotion, as those are 72 unexpected points, which has made us rise to 6th place in rankings again, although Tour of Britain will see us fall to 7th again. When September ends we'll do an analysis on our options for promotions.
Everyone who has followed our season will know that we have no options in sprints with our squad, this being the weakest sprinting squad in the whole MG. So it's quite funny that in the three flat classics that are in the CT calendar, we are the second highest scoring team, only behind Proximus
We came to Great Britain without a lot of hopes after our horrific performance in the previous 8-day hilly stage race in San Luis. Our team was again led by both Philippe Gilbert and Damiano Cunego
The race started great, with Gilbert finishing in the podium of the opening stage, in what was his best result of the season, while Cunego was already disappointing us.
Gilbert did a very decent TT to stay within 30 seconds of the lead before 4 consecutive hilly stages
But the big day came in the fourth place, where Gilbert proved to be the strongest of the favourites, and only a breakaway stopped him from getting his first win of the season! Had he won the stage, he would have jumped into the race lead thanks to the bonus seconds, so damn breakaway!
Things were going too good to be real, and Gilbert returned to human levels from S5, where he cracked and lost several places in GC. That day we had the pleasant surprise of Rodriguez in the breakaway and later on helping Gilbert to minimize his losses.
The rest of the race would go very anonymously for us, with Gilbert and Cunego securing some decent points through their 9th and 13th places in GC
1
Robin van der Hugenhaben
In-n-Out p/b Carrefour
30h06'55
2
Johan Esteban Chaves
Azteca-NBCSN
+ 2'36
3
Maxime Monfort
Team Reddit
+ 3'01
4
Anthony Roux
Xero Racing p/b Octagon
+ 3'11
5
Marcel Wyss
Philips - Continental
+ 4'00
9
Philippe Gilbert
Repsol - Honda
+ 5'28
13
Damiano Cunego
Repsol - Honda
+ 7'09
31
Marco Marcato
Repsol - Honda
+ 12'14
95
Aidan Van Niekerk
Repsol - Honda
+ 28'03
100
Ignacio Jesus Prado
Repsol - Honda
+ 29'24
123
Cristian RodrÃguez
Repsol - Honda
+ 35'27
144
Robert Power
Repsol - Honda
+ 47'50
177
Maximilian Beyer
Repsol - Honda
+ 1h21'44
GP Yekaterinburg
A hilly classic in Russia where Philippe Gilbert would lead us again, aiming for a low-Top10 finish. With Cunego riding in Japan, he would only be supported by Stefano Agostini, who with the few depth of the field, could try to get a Top15 finish.
The race for us was good, as Gilbert was able to follow the favourites' move in the second-to-last climb, and sprinted to 6th, ahead of top favourite Van der Hugenhaben. Agostini couldn't perform at the level we would have liked, as he only finished 22nd. The less good things was that Azteca took the win with Chaves, increasing their lead over us in the CT Rankings.
1
Johan Esteban Chaves
Azteca-NBCSN
5h01'44
2
David Boily
World Cycling Centre
s.t.
3
Anthony Roux
Xero Racing p/b Octagon
s.t.
4
Simon Pellaud
Goldcorp - Nordstrom Rack
s.t.
5
Marcel Wyss
Philips - Continental
s.t.
6
Philippe Gilbert
Repsol - Honda
s.t.
22
Stefano Agostini
Repsol - Honda
+ 1'01
26
Nidush Nirantha Fernando
Repsol - Honda
s.t.
61
Aidan Van Niekerk
Repsol - Honda
+ 3'45
73
Cristian RodrÃguez
Repsol - Honda
+ 6'54
91
Xabier San Sebastian
Repsol - Honda
+ 12'41
92
Alvaro Cuadros
Repsol - Honda
+ 14'18
94
Maximilian Beyer
Repsol - Honda
+ 20'52
Tour of Japan
A wild Stacchiotti making an appearence in the final stage sprint
There's very little we can say about the race, where we haven't scored any point, we haven't been in any breakaway, and i'm almost certain that no one has seen Repsol jersey during the race coverage. Just a terrible which just make us to have a little set-back in our fight against Azteca and Reddit for the 6th place in the rankings
From Repsol - Honda HQ, we are really happy to anounce that after Tour of East Java result, Rafael Valls is mathematically the 2017 CT Individual Ranking winner.
Rafael adds his name to an actually short list of riders who previously won this ranking, with Daniel Moreno in 2013, Vitor Rodrigues in 2014, Anthony Lavoine in 2015 and Serghei Tvetcov in 2016. His 753 points is the second highest score ever in a CT season, with only Rodrigues having more points in 2014, 886, though in that season, the CT teams had 140 total RD's, instead of 120 like we had this year.
Analizing Valls' season, we can see that has taken part in 6 stage races and 2 one-day races. He won 3 stage races (Tachira, Langkawi and Andorra), was second in two (Bulgaria and East Java) and his worst result in a stage race came in Trentino, when he finished third. So that's 6 podium out 6 stage races this season. His only not so great results came in the two one-day races he took part, as he couldn't finish in the podium in any of them, being 4th in Colombian Venteaux and 8th in Costa Rica.
It has been a close fight with Anthony Roux all season for the title, but with the Frenchman not being as dominant as Valls in the hills, the 2nd place in Tour of East Java was enough to secure the title, even if Roux wins in Zuri - Metzgete (Valls actually only needed an 8th place in East Java to secure the title)
There's some speculation about the future of Valls, with the team still in the promotion battle and maybe not knowing in which division will race in 2018 until very shortly before the 2018 season starts, but it's obvious that given his quality, he's a very nice rider to build around a team that aims for the CT title in 2018, or building a team for PCT already having a Top10 climber in PCT.
Couldn't have dream of a better season of it when i signed him. I expected around 500 points from him, but also after the season i think he could have passed 800 points if i had planned him different. I didn't consider HC wildcards this season, if so, I could have fully used both my team RD's (i use 119, not 120) and Valls' RD (38 instead of 39), as instead of going to Costa Rican Classic, i would have send him to Corsica, where he could have easily do a Top5 seeing the field and the results.
And if i didn't have Tachira as my win goal, those 10RD where he scored 102 points could have been used between Colombia, and both HC mountain classic, and i think he could have scored more than what he scored in Tachira. But that's part of being a rookie, that you miss some things that more experienced managers don't miss
Chapeau to Valls! Great ride in Java, and an all-around stunning season! One of only a few Repsol riders I have any respect for.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Congratulations on the Individual Title for Valls! You had confidence in that possibility from the start of the season and it has paid off Impressive way to secure it in East Java, against better opposition, despite some crashes.
Chapeau Valls! He had an amazing season and no matter whether you promote this season or not, the transfer was absolutely worth it for you. Alone the achieved goals make him super valuable for you
@jandal Thanks! And we had already talked about the latter part of your message
@Abhishek My entire season was based on what Valls could do, so i had to have confidence on him performing as the best climber in CT, which wasn't that easy on paper, with Eastman and Suaza being around, but Eastman underperforing all season, and Suaza's, let's say unorthodox planning, helped to it
@knockout Yeah, i used every cent of my non-wage budget to sign Valls, though i still think i got him cheap (550k of transfer fee). It's amazing that Valls by himself has accomplished all my goals this season, as considering only his points, he would be in 15th place in the CT rankings
Also, am i hearing Rider of the Year for him?
It's been a long season for us, fighting unexpectedly for promotion until the very last month of the season, and despite not finishing inside the promotion spots, and "only" in 8th place in the CT Rankings, after the latest announcements of some teams that won't continue in the 2018 season, Repsol - Netflix will be a PCT team next season!
Zuri-Metzgete Review
In the final race of season, Zuri - Metzgete, we got our best result of the season in a hilly race, as Philippe Gilbert finished in the podium, and it that wasn't enough, Stefano Agostini won the sprint of the group to take a fantastic 8th place.
Unfortunately those points weren't enough to overtake Azteca for the 7th place in the CT rankings, as Chaves ended one place behind Gilbert. We had been adviced of the madness that this race has brought in past years to the CT Ranking in the final day of the season, and while we were close to climb a spot in the final ranking, at least we avoided the disaster that would have been losing a place to Yorkshire.
Also worthy to mention that in the final race of his career, Alejandro Valverde was really close to get in the breakaway. Hasta siempre Alejandro!
) 
Think next year's CT should be rooting for you to go to PCT too 
Can never count you guys out in any race, impressive for a "one-man team" 
Still an exciting part of the promotion race and a likely candidate, shame Gilbert didn't get the Benelux he wanted or you'd be even better positioned. 
