Race squad: Aregger, Bettencourt, Tim de Jong, Fiedler, Meinert, Thys, Waeytens, Wojtasik
The few mass sprints I attempted in 3D mode with my SPR 77 sprinters Aregger and Meinert went horribly, I generally lack a bit of experience when it comes to mass sprints. So I decided to simulate the race. Meinert was 14th, Aregger 60th... that sounds about right. I don't think I would have done better in 3D mode. That's another failed goal.
I forgot to report on a goal race in August, just one star for a stage win in the Tour of Denmark. We focused on the WT and only brought a B team. Surprisingly, we got tantalisingly close to fulfilling the goal in the the time trial, of all stages. Lasse Hansen (TTR 72) was only 2 seconds slower than stage winner Vandewalle (76) and he beat Quaade (78).
Top 5 Volta ao Algarve
*
R.Lemesle
Top 25
Top 10 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
***
M.Valgren
Top 25
Top 5 Roma Maxima
**
R.Silva
Top 10
Stage win(s) Paris Nice
***
B.Hoem
Stage win
Stage win(s) Tirreno
****
R.Silva
Stage, Top 3
Stage win(s) Critérium International
**
L. Hansen
Stage, Top 5
Top 10 Ronde van Vlaanderen
*****
M.Valgren
Top 25
Top 10 Paris Roubaix
*****
P.Thys
Top 25
Top 10 Amstel Gold Race
*****
M.Lammertink
Top 10
Stage win(s) Giro del Trentino
*
I.Bolivar
Stage win
Top 10 La Flèche Wallonne
***
B.Hoem
Top 10
Stage win(s) Critérium du Dauphiné
****
I.Bolivar
Stage win
Stage win(s) Tour de Suisse
****
R.Silva
Stage win
Stage win(s) Post Danmark Rundt
*
L. Hansen
Stage, Top 3
Top 10 Paris Tours Elite
**
J.Meinert
Top 25
Just 6 of 15 goals completed, that was not was I was aiming for, a kachi-koshi is the absolute minimum I expect of my team.
Spoiler
The term kachi-koshi probably needs an explanation: Sumo tournaments happen to have 15 fights for each wrestler and winning more than losing is called a kachi-koshi, losing more than winning a make-kochi. Too much Eurosport.
The mountainous variant of the Beijing Tour was the chance to achieve another excellent result, as if we needed it. We brought all our mountain goats bar Bolivar, because his TT skill is the worst of the lot. Kirchmair has reached MON 78 just before starting his last race for our team, he is joined by Golem (77), Figares (75), Foetz (75), Köszegi (74), Manaia (73) and Vilela (73).
Magnus Cort Nielsen surprised the sprinters and won the opening stage. Katusha then won the team time trial convincingly, but Aviva was 2nd, 37 seconds behind, just ahead of Orica-Greenedge and Quickstep.
We know the tough mountain stage well, if we don't control the breakaway it's likely nobody will. So instead of our usual tactic of getting a man into the breakaway, we let our whole team relay at a medium pace to keep the escapees within striking distance. When we hit the mountainous finale each man had to ride for himself.
Golem was stronger than Kirchmair, he was the only rider who could keep up with Sergio Henao as we swallowed the breakaway. Kirchmair was struggling to hold onto Rui Costa. Jelle Vanendert followed, having dropped Foetz and Köszegi. Manaia and Vilela found themselves in a larger group of 15 riders.
The best seven riders all arrived individually. Henao proved too strong for Golem and won the stage by 28 seconds. Rui Costa was 3rd, next were Kirchmair, Vanendert, Foetz and Köszegi. Vilela was 12th, in a group of 4 riders, Figares and Manaia lost another 30 seconds.
We had brought Valgren for the hilly 4th stage, but he started at the very back of the peloton. So instead Angel Figares became part of a breakaway of five riders. Incredibly, he won the stage. None of the breakaway riders could sprint, either, so Figares (SPR 59) beat Gastauer (57). However, third on the day was Rui Costa, he launched a late attack nobody could follow, but the finish line came a little too soon for him to win the stage.
Sergio Henao, Jelle Vanendert and Bob Jungels also distanced the rest of the peloton, arriving 44'' behind and nearly a minute ahead of our other riders, who were struggling on the hilly terrain. That cost Aviva the win. Thanks to the TTT Golem had been in the lead after the mountain stage by just 5 seconds ahead of Henao, but he dropped to 2nd overall. Rui Costa moved up to 3rd, Vanendert to 4th.
The final WT stage of the season was decided in a mass sprint, Matthews beat Kittel. For Aviva, it was another incredible team result. While our riders lost time on the hilly stage, the TTT had given them a bit of room and most managed to finish in the top 10. It may be another unrealistically good result, but it wasn't outlandish to beat riders like Dumoulin (MON 72), Jungels (74), Trofimov (74) and Bakelandts (74).
The top 10: Sergio Henao, Golem, Rui Costa, Jelle Vanendert, Kirchmair, Foetz, Figares, Köszegi, Dumoulin, Vilela.
@Tamijo: But a good season overall for Valgren, either in the top 10 or just outside. Sadly, FLA 74 HIL 72 is all he's got in him, only his secondary stats can still improve a little.
Season summary 2017
Well, my wage restriction has already proven itself to be inadequate. We've seen this clear pattern emerge, racing is as tough as it should be... until it isn't. And there's so little “work” involved in getting those hugely unrealistic results, I could do it blind folded. Like... Valgren in Montreal, on the tougher variant with steeper hills. It just doesn't seem to matter he has only HIL 72, he doesn't perform worse than our better punchers and finished 3rd, beating most of his team mates, let alone far superior riders.
Note, though, that this becomes more obvious and frustrating now that I'm publishing this story. Playing a whole PCM season takes a lot of time, but playing the Cyclassics, GP Quest, Quebec and Montreal takes just a few minutes each, since these races are so simple I can use 8x speed. Just get them over with and move on. It wouldn't bother me if these races didn't give away so many WT points, which is how I like to measure my success. Only just now I'm thinking, maybe in a future career I'll just throw these races out of the WT... now there's an idea.
I myself was frustrated enough that I stopped the career at this point and bought PCM 17 and had some fun with pro cyclist careers. But over a year later I decided to give it another shot. Chances are that this isn't end the of the road, that if I find the right riders the team could become competitive throughout the season and those annoying races wouldn't matter so much anymore. And I'm ambitious, well, not in real life, but in video games. There's still a lot I haven't won so far and who knows what's possible despite the wage restrictions. If I can't be the underdog, maybe I can still become an alpha dog.
AVG
WT Pts
CQ Pts
Victories
2014
69.37
2172 (23.)
26 (11.)
2015
69.71
3929 (15.)
35 (3.)
2016
70.22
668 (11.)
4694 (13.)
22 (12.)
2017
71.16
887 (9.)
5591 (10.)
28 (8.)
Noteworthy results 2017
Spoiler
8th overall Tour Down Under (Vilela)
Stage 7 Paris-Nice (Hoem)
8th Milano-Sanremo (Hoem)
Stage 4 Catalunya (Lemesle)
Stage 7 Catalunya (Brown)
Stage 2 Pais Vasco (Waeytens)
10th Amstel Gold Race (M. Lammertink)
8th Fleche Wallone (Hoem)
7th Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Hoem)
Stage 2 Trentino (Bolivar)
Stage 5 Trentino (N. Brown)
Stage 4 Giro d'Italia (Puccio)
Stage 5 Dauphine (Bolivar)
Stage 4 Suisse (R. Silva)
Stage 9 Suisse (Golem)
Stage 17 Tour de France (Golem)
8th San Sebastian (Hoem)
Stage 5 Poland (Wojtasik)
4th overall Poland (Wojtasik)
Stage 5 Eneco Tour (Valgren)
2nd Cyclassics (Wojtasik)
1st GP Quest (De Vreese)
8th overall Vuelta (Golem)
Stage 8 Vuelta (Puccio)
Stage 12 Vuelta (Golem)
Stages 13, 18, 19 Vuelta (Kirchmair)
1st GP Quebec (De Vreese)
2nd GP Montreal (M. Lammertink)
2nd Tour of Beijing (Golem)
KOM: Pais Vasco (Manaia), Dauphine (Foetz), Suisse (Golem), Tour de France (Golem), Vuelta a Espana (Kirchmair)
NC RR: Australia (Tim de Jong), Switzerland (Golem), Russia (Pomoshnikov), Poland (Wojtasik), Netherlands (Goos), Denmark (Valgren), Portugal (Bruno Silva)
Aviva finishes the 2017 season 9th in the WT and 10th in the CQ team rankings. Laurens De Vreese (232 WT points) was our best scorer, followed by Golem (182), Wojtasik (167), Hoem (166), Rafael Silva (140), Valgren (140), Maurits Lammertink (112) and Kirchmair (109). Half of these riders are leaving our team: Golem moves to BMC, Hoem to OFM, Silva to Christina Watches and Kirchmair to Movistar. By AVG I should also mention Jan Bo Meinert, who signed with Tinkoff-Saxo. But he's a SPR 77 sprinter who cannot improve further and achieved next to no results, certainly no win, so we are happy letting him go.
Kwiatkowski clearly won the individual WT rankings with 931 points, followed by Rui Costa (717), Daniel Martin (665), Nairo Quintana (664), Cancellara (526), Gilbert (492), Betancur (478), Peter Sagan (458), Degenkolb (453) and Porte (430). De Vreese (232) was 18th.
Katusha (1416) tops the team rankings ahead of Quickstep (1331), BMC (1288), Sky (1240), Ag2r (1141), Trek (1064), Movistar (1003), Lotto-Belisol (959), Aviva (887) and Cannondale (867). IAM (240) was 16th, but never in real danger of relegation, FDJ (71) and Lampre (53) were simply too weak. They will be replaced by Garmin-Sharp and Caja Rural. Just missing out is Bretagne-Seche Environnement with their two sprinters Viviani and Coquard. But Viviani will return to the WT, riding for IAM.
Let's unveil the Aviva Cyling team for 2018.
(name: new signing, wage: renewal)
(Chg: year-on-year change in AVG, Chg: for new signings since 1st of August)
Name
Age
Wage
Cont
Top Stat
AVG
Chg
Pot
Merhawi Kudus
23
4500
2020
MON 75
73.9
0.0
5
Angel Figares
22
4000
2018
MON 75
73.2
1.3
5
Maurits Lammertink
27
3500
2018
HIL 78
73.1
1.5
5
Sebastián Henao
24
4500
2019
HIL 77
72.8
0.0
4
Thomas Damuseau
28
4500
2018
MON 75
73.0
0.2
3
Tim de Jong
25
3500
2018
HIL 75
72.6
1.3
4
Pier Thys
25
3500
2018
COB 79
72.5
2.8
5
Laurens De Vreese
29
3500
2018
HIL 77
72.5
1.4
5
Tsgabu Grmay
26
4500
2019
MON 76
72.5
0.7
5
Michael Valgren
25
4000
2018
FLA 74
72.3
0.2
5
Gianfranco Zilioli
27
4500
2020
HIL 75
72.0
0.0
4
Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
28
4500
2019
HIL 74
72.0
0.0
3
Toms Skujins
26
4000
2018
HIL 75
72.0
0.9
6
Isaurindo Manaia
25
4500
2019
MON 73
71.9
0.8
5
Roland Foetz
24
3000
2019
MON 75
71.9
1.7
4
Ivan Singh
23
4500
2019
HIL 76
71.9
0.5
7
Noah Davis
24
3000
2019
MON 74
71.7
0.9
7
Gertjan De Vos
26
4500
2018
MON 73
71.7
0.0
4
Delfí Grande
23
4500
2019
HIL 73
71.5
0.0
4
Jani Tewelde
27
4500
2019
HIL 75
71.5
0.0
6
Zdzislaw Wojtasik
25
4500
2019
HIL 76
71.3
0.0
4
Rouven Schössler
23
4000
2019
HIL 72
71.3
0.3
4
Jason McLean
23
3500
2019
TTR 73
71.3
0.0
4
Vladimir Koloda
24
3000
2020
HIL 75
71.1
0.2
5
Davide Formolo
25
3500
2019
MON 74
71.1
0.2
4
Roland Fiedler
24
3000
2018
HIL 75
70.9
1.2
4
Hannes Köszegi
23
3500
2018
MON 74
70.9
0.5
5
Zico Waeytens
26
3500
2018
HIL 74
70.6
0.0
4
Olegário Inácio
23
3000
2018
HIL 74
70.2
0.1
5
Vegard Robinson Bugge
28
3500
2018
HIL 72
70.1
0.0
4
Our new leader is Merhawi Kudus, the man who wanted 12.5k but settled for 4.5k. But at the age of 23 he's already reached his limit in most stats. He will lead our stage racing team in the first half of the season. Since I enjoy dropping hints I'll tell you that Kudus will disappoint and score a grand total of 4 WT points this season. We also brought in the younger Henao, though he too cannot improve further, neither can Damuseau. Grmay is now our best climber and will ride Tour and Vuelta.
We are excited about or new riders with potentials 6 and 7. Sadly, Skujins only signed a one-year contract, but Singh, Davis and Tewelde will stay for two years. They should be much stronger next year, though they won't all develop as well as we'd hoped.
Maurits Lammertink has reached HIL 78, his maximum, Laurens De Vreese will join him at that level during the season. The two riders could be twins, they have nearly identical stats, soon both will have HIL 78, FLA 70, COB 65/64, SPR 65, ACC 67/68, DHI 66/67, STA 75/73 and RES 69/70. That's the best we have for hilly races. Singh looks exciting with his pot 7, he will certainly get further than HIL 78, though probably not this season. Sebastian Henao maxed out at HIL 77, but he adds MON 73 and his REC 68 isn't terrible, so he'll ride the Giro.
The best climber is Grmay and he will reach MON 77. A real replacement for Golem, what a relief. Noah Davis is the man to watch in the future, he should turn into a solid stage racer. Not more than that, though, his potential is misleading, he can't reach MON 80 nor TTR 75. Of course, for us he'd be amazing at that level, but how good will he get in the two years he's here, that's the big question? He's got a long way to go. Why not another spoiler? Davis will be one of four Aviva riders who doesn't score a single WT point this season. And I am partially to blame for that.
All in all, we've improved the depth of the squad. An average AVG of 71.84 compared to 71.14 last year, plus riders with higher potential. Will it lead to even better results?
The 2018 WT team overview:
Team
WT
CQ
Budget
Chg
Top Earners
QuickStep
2
4
1120500
-55k
Quintana, Demare, Nizzolo
BMC Racing
3
3
1063500
+50k
Gilbert, Nibali, Sagan
Katusha
1
2
936500
+8k
Dan Martin, Kristoff, Kittel
Team Sky
4
1
822500
-30k
Porte, Van Garderen, Barguil
Astana
15
12
736500
+221k
Froome, Dumoulin, Bardet
Trek
6
8
735000
+114k
Cancellara, Betancur, Stybar
Movistar
7
6
635500
-36k
Degenkolb, Pinot, Dennis
Lotto-Belisol
8
11
592000
-36k
Rui Costa, Velits, Meersman
Orica
12
13
581500
+10k
Kreuziger, Ulissi, Matthews
Giant-Shimano
11
9
567500
+9k
Kwiatkowski, Bouhanni, Boom
Cannondale
10
5
463500
-56k
Bakelandts, Oss, Kangert
Ag2r
5
7
428000
-59k
Rolland, Navardauskas, Bouet
Belkin
13
14
416500
-16k
Uran, Ewan, Haas
IAM Cycling
16
15
347500
+21k
Viviani, Morkov, Edgar Riofrio
Tinkoff-Saxo
14
16
295500
-90k
Slagter, Vandenbergh, Taaramae
Garmin-Sharp
21
17
221000
-15k
Vuillermoz, Vangenechten, Hermans
Caja Rural
19
18
218000
+76k
Tony Martin, Landa, Sinkeldam
Aviva Cycling
9
10
116500
+17k
Kudus, Grmay, Damuseau
Astana got a huge budget boost despite a very disappointing season. I'm sure Tamijo is happy they used a large chunk of the money to sign everybody's darling, Chris Froome. Garmin has to do with less despite the promotion. Rui Costa and Velits are the only two non-Belgians in the Lotto squad, no other teams come close to such "monoculture".
And finally, here are this year's sponsor goals:
Top 5 Tour Haut Var-matin
*
Stage win(s) Paris Nice
*****
Stage win(s) Tirreno Adriatico
****
Top 10 Ronde van Vlaanderen
*****
Stage win(s) Pais Vasco
***
Top 10 Paris Roubaix
*****
Top 10 De Brabantse Pijl
*
Top 10 Amstel Gold Race
****
Stage win(s) Giro del Trentino
**
Stage win(s) Tour of California
***
Stage win(s) Critérium du Dauphiné
***
Stage win(s) Tour de Suisse
****
Stage win(s) Tour of Austria
**
Top 10 GP de Fourmies
*
Stage win(s) Tour of Britain
**
Our sponsor does't like us, once more top 10 results in the Ronde and Paris-Roubaix are 5-star goals, despite us not focussing on cobblestones. At least the small goals look easy enough to achieve.
@Tamijo: Yeah, the team has really improved over the last year. But will it lead to better results in the "real" races? The 2018 season will start on Monday.
Race squad: Tim de Jong, Delfi Grande, Vladimir Koloda, Kuznetsov, Manaia, Ivan Singh, Valgren
For the third year in a row the Tour Down Under includes an ITT. We already raced this course in 2016, two ascents of Willunga Hill against the clock and then a queen stage taking us up the classic climb six times. We selected six riders who are both decent uphill and against the clock, though none exceed TTR 70. Only Tim de Jong doesn't like time trials, so he was our option for breakaways.
The first WT stage of the new season finished in a mass sprint, Bouhanni beat Matthews and Nizzolo. There was an outside chance of winning from the breakaway on stage 2, Tim de Jong made the group, he was the last rider the peloton caught and he dropped through the peloton to have another chance on stage 5.
Our six GC riders, all with TTR at or slightly below 70, all had pretty good time trials. Ivan Singh nearly earned a first WT point for us, he was 6th. Kwiatek won the ITT and took the race lead. de Jong, who was already wearing the KoM jersey and would hold onto it until the end of the race, attacked immediately as stage 5 started. He was later joined by Jeremy Roy and the duo carved out a lead of over 6 minutes. Roy couldn't keep up on the penulitmate climb up Willunga Hill and was swallowed by the peloton, but Tim de Jong held off the pack and won the stage by exactly a minute. A great result for the former Australian national champion.
The rest of the team went to the front of the peloton as the final climb started, Kwiatek and Porte rushed past them, our six riders were all awarded the time of the next group of 13 riders and ended 4th to 9th in the GC, beaten only by Kwiatek, Porte and Damien Howson. de Jong wins the KoM jersey, Singh the U25 jersey and Aviva wins the team rankings! Michael Matthews takes the points jersey even though he didn't win a stage, Nizzolo and Bouhanni shared the spoils in the four mass sprints.
Top 10: Kwiatkowski, Porte, Howson, Ivan Singh, Manaia, Vladimir Koloda, Valgren, Kuznetsov, Delfi Grande, Matthews
Last season Vilela was 8th in the GC, this year we have 6 riders in the top 10. What a result, and we didn't even bring our three best puncheurs, Lammertink, De Vreese and Sebastian Henao. 201 WT points from this one race alone, nearly a quarter of last season's total already, all relegation worries already behind us! Will this be a breakthrough season?
@Abhishek: Afraid not, he's Australian. I mean, it's a country of immigrants, I'm sure he has Indian roots.
February 2018: Tour du Haut Var-matin
* goal: Top 5
Race squad: De Vreese, Fiedler, Figares, Sebastian Henao, Lammertink, Skujins, Tewelde, Wojtasik
It only got better in the first goal race. We brought most of our puncheurs and made the race very hard in the hilly finale of stage 1. The peloton was stretched thinner and thinner and then four of our riders attacked, Wojtasik, Tewelde, De Vreese and Lammertink. Only young Emile Denis was able to keep up (we'd end up signing him for next season). Wojtasik won the stage ahead of Denis and the quintett gained 25 seconds on the rest.
Stage 2 featured a classified climb not far from the finish line. A group of 27 riders left the rest behind, all our riders made the top group. Pichon won ahead of Skujins and Sebastian Henao. Which left a very impressive looking GC: Wojtasik, Denis, Tewelde, Lammertink, De Vreese, Pichon, Skujins, Sebastian Henao, Jeannesson and Valls. Goal comfortably fulfilled.
We're cruising from great result to great result. But if you thought it'd go on like this, my misdirection worked. I didn't know it at the time, of course, but it would all come crashing down very soon.
@croatia: To be fair, it's only the PCM14 AI. Also, you might want to reconsider after the next few races.
March 2018: Paris-Nice
***** goal: Stage Win
Race squad: Race squad: de Jong, De Vreese, Sebastian Henao, Vladimir Koloda, M. Lammertink, Ivan Singh, Tewelde, Wojtasik
We felt in pretty good shape before P-N and T-A, but those races were a rude awakening. Paris-Nice offered four flat and four hilly stages. Nizzolo won the first two stages, El Fares the third with a (simulated) late attack. Maurits Lammertink was our first escapee, on stage 4. He let Prades take the mountain points, concentrating solely on the stage. But while he dropped his companions, it wasn't quite enough, he finished 6th behind Rui Costa, Slagter, Spilak, Ciolek and Bouet.
After Alaphilippe won the last of the flat stages, de Jong joined the breakaway on day 6. He won the queen stage in Australia, but he didn't even get close this time, finishing 20th. On stage 7 the breakaway survived and it included Tewelde. But the competition was too tough and the finale flat, Tewelde was only 6th out of 12 riders.
The last chance was another hilly stage, this time Sebastian Henao made the breakaway of 8 riders. The breakaway survived again, and Henao was... 8th out of 8. That just about sums it up. No stage win, not even a top 5 finish. This course was just too easy. Proof is that we have a surprise winner: Julien El Fares. In the simulated stage 3 he won by 1'17'' with a late attack (why am I even complaining about the Cyclassics?) and since the gaps were never large on the four hilly stages, he won the race by a single second ahead of Bardet. 7 of our riders made the top 20, but none made the top 10, though half were equal on time with 8th placed Kulpaka.
Top 10: El Fares, Bardet, Rui Costa, Jungels, Bouet, Rolland, Ciolek, Kulpaka, Dan Martin, Jelle Vanendert
Could we do even worse in Tirreno-Adriatico? Sure we can, we did not manage a single top 10 result on any stage. The first time in a long time that there's a blank on the sponsor goal screen, and it won't be the only time that happens this season.
The race started with a TTT won by BMC, Aviva was 7th, 27 seconds behind. Demare beat Bouhanni on the next two stages. Stage 4 was hilly and Delfi Grande made the breakaway, but was caught early. Next was the only mountainous stage finishing up in Prati di Tivo. This was the chance for Kudus, but the breakaway was never given more than a 4-minute advantage and Kudus was caught early into the final climb. Valgren had a go on stage 6, a hilly circuit around Offida, but once again the breakaway didn't stand a chance. Howson won the short ITT on the last stage.
Top 10: Betancur, Porte, Froome, Gilbert, Barguil, Kwiatkowski, Mollema, Uran, Van Garderen, Quintana
Well, that was a wash. Not a single breakaway survived. Our best rider was Noah Davis as 25th overall, which at least was a win in the U25 classification. The sponsor was very unhappy after the duo of races, failing those important objectives and without any riders of high reputation ("the most popular rider, De Vreese, is far from having the required standard to be able to represent the team" ) the confidence bar was deep in the red.
Race squad: de Jong, De Vreese, Fiedler, Inacio, Lammertink, Singh, Thys, Valgren
Not the hilly variant from last year which allowed Hoem to make the top 10. Valgren would now be our best bet. De Vreese tried an attack on the Poggio, but it didn't go very far, he was caught even before the Cipressa. So it was up to Valgren, he attacked at the top and got a small gap but was eventually swamped by the sprinters. He finished 15th, ahead of great riders like Kwiatek, Gilbert, GVA, GVK, Nizzolo, Stybar, Ulissi and many more. A good result, and even a noteworthy result for the sponsor, so we're pretty happy. Sagan added another monument to his palmares.
The TTT was a good start for Aviva, 2nd only behind Astana. We failed to make the breakaway on stage 2, but the last 30 km were flat and Ciolek won the sprint. Stage 3 was flat, but the two small climbs in the middle of the stage were classified as HC, oddly enough, so Formolo was in the breakaway fighting for the KOM jersey. However, Chris Anker Sorensen and Rubiano were able to beat him on both climbs, Matthews took the stage.
Stage 4 to Pal-Arinsal was the chance for Kudus, the only mountain stage except for the MTT a day later. Well, the good news is, he was the best perfomer of the breakaway riders, the bad news is, he was caught a long way out. It was a long stage and flat most of the way, so it wasn't surprising. Quintana won the stage 90 seconds ahead of Froome. Quintana also beat Froome in the MTT a day later. Which left only two flat stages, desperate for a result I played them both, first sending Grande, then Kudus into the breakaways, but no luck. So another race without any result to speak of, except for the TTT, I guess.
Top 10: Quintana, Froome, Kreuziger, Olivier, Uran, Duarte, Acevedo, Rolland, Van Garderen, Kangert
Race squad: Bugge, de Jong, De Vreese, Kuznetsov, Thys, Valgren, Waeytens, Wojtasik
We were caught by surprise when the peloton picked up speed with 80 km to go and our men found themselves in the third group with 40+ riders already ahead. They accelerated and worked together to catch and overtake the second group and to catch up to the top group just as the favourites attacked.
Eight riders were now ahead and fighting for victory and as per usual the speed in the chasing group dropped dramatically. We had the perfect guy for the situation, Vegard Robinson Bugge, AVG 70, too weak to be taken seriously. He was allowed to attack with no reaction from the other riders. He managed to catch up with Kristoff and Stybar, the rest were already far ahead. Sagan won, of course, a minute ahead of Degenkolb and 2'27'' ahead of Cancellara. Bugge worked up the courage for a late attack, surprising the others. Stybar powered his way back and took 7th, but Bugge finished ahead of Kristoff, an excellent 8th. Though all three were 9'48'' behind Sagan, different worlds.
Race squad: Bugge, de Jong, De Vreese, Kuznetsov, Lammertink, Thys, Valgren, Wojtasik
Gent-Wevelgem was a positive surprise, Aviva showed some real team strength. We made sure we were at the front of the pack both times we hit the Kemmelberg, with all 8 riders having high energy reserves for the finale, though we were still in a group of about 60 riders.
This time seven favourites attacked and while we had no hope in catching any of them, we decided to attack and pursue with the whole team. Relaying at high speed only two riders dropped away, Thys and Bugge, but the other six took 8th through to 13th. 7'39'' behind the winner, but two and a half minutes ahead of the large group. This time Sagan was unable to shake off Degenkolb, but he won once again nonetheless, beating the German in a 2-up sprint. These last two races improved the mood in the team, but we have three very tough goal races ahead.
Top 10: Sagan, Degenkolb, Stybar, Boom, Offredo, Goss, Terpstra, Valgren, de Jong, Wojtasik
April 2018: Ronde van Vlaanderen
***** goal: Top 10
Race squad: Bugge, de Jong, De Vreese, Kuznetsov, Lammertink, Thys, Valgren, Wojtasik
The only hope we had to complete the important goal was a repeat of Harelbeke. But the attacks by the top riders came early in Flanders and suddenly exactly 10 riders were ahead. Our only real cobblestone specialist, Thys, tried to set off after them but Boasson Hagen, Phinney and Cancellara wouldn't let him go even though their captains were already ahead and would take the three podium spots.
So once more it was up to Bugge, he was our only other rider in the group, the rest including Valgren were already 3 or more minutes behind. Thankfully, Bugge was allowed to get away and he was able to overtake two riders who had pretty much stopped racing, Egoitz Garcia and Matti Breschel. They had done their work for Degenkolb and Sagan. Bugge was set to finish 9th. When he was over two minutes ahead of the next group, Thys tried another attack or three but he was still marked by the others, who would handily beat him in the sprint, Thys ended 13th. But Bugge held on and finished in the top 10, achieving the lofty goal. Two great top 10 results for the weakest rider in our team. The winner was Peter Sagan, that was his 14th victory of the season. His run would finally end with Paris-Roubaix next week.
Top 10: Sagan, Stybar, Van Avermaet, Kristoff, Degenkolb, Roelandts, Terpstra, Boom, Bugge, Boasson Hagen
result from the team, only Valgren sadly not doing great 
Lovely new riders to get
