A pity that Dyball couldn't pull his attacks to the line, a second stage win would have been good here. At least he tried, yet missing the stage podium won't give us too much points nonetheless. But I guess we were close at least, that's what he needed to do after yesterday's bummer by Haig (who's KoM points simply proves, that he wasn't a factor in the mountains here).
The fact that aidanvn13 (who I also spotted being online just a moments ago) takes the final stage makes it somehow better though
Thanks for your efforts through your health issues, Tamijo. I just can repeat myself by wishing you a full recovery asap and congrats to all, who did well here.
Missed the break, but all in all a race we have to be happy with. Congrats to aidan on the win! Enjoyed having you/him as a loanee last year and he looks to be developing great.
Also big congrats to ember. Taaramae a very well deserved winner in this race.
Annoying break win on the final day unfortunately. Really not a sprinter race this one...
As written on the previous stage, almost perfect race with top10 GC and two more in the next couple spots.
Olivier and Keinath really performed here with Velits being a bit weaker obviously but as 3rd rider, I don`t mind at all.
Missing the stage win unfortunately and none of them really went for the KoM unfortunately.
Gazelle with the huge breakaway luck, both stage win wise as also team ranking wise, a bit annoying to be fair, but their team was made for those moves, so fair enough.
Vesuvio with the next GT KoM win. Not too bad for them neither.
Congrats ember, for this great win against some decent opposition, where Kritskiy proved to be the best, surprisingly also beating Pluchkin.
Thanks for all the steady and great reports, Tamijo.
Aidan van Niekerk and Charalampas Kastrantas (mortal enemies, right Aidan? ) both get's a stagewin and another stagepodium (Kastrantas both 2nd and 3rd) - bot get's to wear the KOM jersey for a couple of stages too. Great race from them!
Bongiorno attacking on a couple of stages also to claim a couple of decent stage results (albeit not quite good enough looking at his competitors) - yet he also get's to wear the KOM jersey and ending up in split 2nd - too bad really he doesn't get one point more to get the KOM for himself.
Another small bonus is that Vuillermoz managed to climb from 110th to 100th in the last mountainstage to actually get os some more points...
Looking at what we brought here it has been an immense succes. 14th in the GC could have been slightly better looking at the race in progress, but it definately isn't bad either.
Big shoutout for the great and consistent reporting, and a big congrats on the GT win ember! An even bigger congrats to OlegTinkov and alexkr00 for some surprisingly strong GC results! Also to Dubbeldekker for numerous great results on stages and the Team GC.
Thank you for the work you've put in to report this Vuelta, Tamijo. I've obviously enjoyed them for several reasons, one of them being the quality they've had.
Great to see nothing weird happen regarding the GC on the final day, making our first ever GT win a reality. Thank you for the congratulations.
All in all, seeing how the race went in general, we can only be happy. Five stage wins, holding the red jersey for most of the race and winning the points classification makes it a huge race for Taaramae and the team. Taaramae did what we both hoped for and expected. Obviously I'll always want more when we bring what is the best GC rider in the field looking at the startlist pre-race. Though, seeing how the race unfolded with only six of the stages (not including the TTs) ending in a sprint or a battle between the stage favourites, his stage results are also good.
The team also must have done a good job working for Taaramae seeing the Estonian ended up with the overall win. Though, must admit I expected more "assist" points from Galta in this race thinking of his GC placing and points scored, but that's me doing the typical "much wants more" thinking.
Otherwise a very good team performance, which is seen in the team classification where we end 3rd with no breakaway participation. That was the way it should be seeing how PCM works and us having Taaramae. Seeing our lineups for the remaining races, I hope this is the final mountain stage race where we're not seen in any breakaway
Thanks for all the kind words regarding the reports, as many of you know I love to report and I am glad if you like it, also given the fact that not everyone get's the results they wan't, but logically that is beoynd the responsibility of the reporter.
Congrats to those who got more than expected and better luck in the Tour and elsewhere to those not so lucky in Spain.
Thanks for the great reports Tamijo. Of course the last stage went to the break as well. In total I can be content with this race with Denifl in 5th and a stage win by Guerao. So my minimum goals are met. But I feel, the stage performance could've been a little bit better in general.
Very entertaining Vuelta. Aidan winning the final stage is the icing on the cake.
Big thanks to Tamijo for the top notch reporting.
ember: congratulations on the GT win! Big result.
Delighted with the way our squad approached this Vuelta. Everyone except water carrier Powless had a free role and just wouldn't stop attacking. Then we turned that numbers advantage into stage results and swarmed the GC with 5 riders in top 35.
SotD wrote:
Not ideal. Preidler not working well was a surprise, but Godoy absolutely battering it, while Bongiorno "unfortunately" doesn't lose time.
9th in the GC won't happen anyway, so I would much rather see him drop to 13-15th and then go on the attack on stage 20...
Oh well. Maybe the long ITT can see him drop out of the top 10 to have an actual shot of moving into the break - I doubt it though.
Brambilla and Quintana though! Crue can't argue Quintana is crap if he actually manages a Vuelta top 10! What a performance
It was quite unbelieveable to see Quintana steal a spot n the top-10. However, the final results definitely ended up proving just how useless he is. Lazy Colombian, about to get fired soon.
It's been a while since I had free headspace for the ManGame amidst everything going on lately and currently, so I have some catching up to do!
We went into this Vuelta without serious expectations, having Vasyliv lead a mostly young and experience-hungry squad that should've been keen on breakaways and TV time wherever possible.
And we were straight from the start! I loved the spirit of our late Greek addition Spanopoulos on stage 2, clearly not a sprinter but sticking with the lead group to gain great points for second in GC.
Weinstein continued the efforts the day after with a good breakaway performance as well, even finishing 13th on the day.
Our most promising youngster Madouas had his day on stage 4, with good late attack too to show his potential.
The three days for Spanopoulos in the points paying positions ended on stage 5, where we sadly focused on Vasyliv instead of the break, who disappointed a few minutes down on where we would've liked him to be.
More breakaways the day after, with Declerq and Spanopoulos representing us and just missing out on contesting the win. Vasyliv slightly better there.
And much better on stage 7, finishing 12th!
Stage 8 was the day for Madouas again, and this time he made it stick!!
Sadly he wasn't able to fight for the victory, but who can expect that from a neo-pro lvl2 rider.
5th is an amazing result and 10 points we couldn't have asked for from our great Frenchman.
He's been an absolute joy to watch this season and motivates everyone in the team to keep working on the future.
Bevin in the break for Puma on stage 9, reuniting with Vasyliv on the line for a decent day overall.
Declerq flying our flag high on stage 11 after the uneventful TT, another successful break we were a part of and another 5th place to our name! 10 more points.
Sadly the bunch wanted to contest stage 12, three riders in the break could've made for a great result but at least Madouas showed his talent once again.
Stage 13 was the perfect opportunity for the weaker team leaders to try something, and I'm glad Vasyliv was there with them. Sucks that he couldn't add a third Top 5 finish which on a good day could've easily been within reach, but it made for a nice GC gain nevertheless.
The day after was symbolized by three Puma riders fruitlessly chasing the winning break, unexplicably we didn't feel like trying right away when it mattered. A missed chance.
That miss didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but Vasyliv being unable to hang to similarly strong riders on stage 15 WAS! Dunno what happened there, that EIGHT minute loss on the breakaway costs us a massive amount of points at the end of the race and really threatens the overall successful perception of this GT. 21st instead of ~13th the end result of that after this stage.
Another mountain stage, another breakaway win, another Vasyliv breakaway appearance that didn't quite work out in the end.
This time at least, he gains time on the favorites, but yet again he just misses a MO point or two to go for a Top 3 on the stage.
Two Puma riders in the break on stage 17, great to see the recovery going well enough. It wasn't meant to be, but we kept trying.
And AGAIN Vasyliv knows which break to join but can't overperform to stay with it all the way to the end! Stage 18 another stage with a time gain for us, but still with a disappointing side to it.
What all these adventures were good for in the end though was the KoM situation after the last mountain stage where Vasyliv really made an impressive ride to stick with the lead until the favorites battled it out, 6th there in the end for 7 points is a good result.
And on the FINAL STAGE WE GET THE STAGE PODIUM! Tim Declerq, our machine, with the last hurrah for Team Puma - SAP after missing out on only a couple of breaks throughout the entire Vuelta, taking a great second place in the sprint to cap off a GT that gave us more points than we expected considering the lineup.
Vasyliv in 19th overall, surely a decent result but we can't forget those 8 minutes lost on stage 15. Obviously it would've been harder to get into breaks if he had been closer to the lead, so we can't just subtract these from his final time, but even just 4 minutes less would've put him in the 12th-14th range.
Our youngsters did the best they could, with Spanopoulos and Madouas taking ranking points from their first GT, and Sagiv and Weinstein also joining a few breaks. Stüssi and Bevin did decently to support Vasyliv, both had a bit more in them if they had risked it on the breakaway stages.
But all in all, that's just minor issues considering the big stage we raced on and the opposition we faced.
Overall, congrats of course go to Aker who deservedly dominated the race with Taaramäe, although the gaps were quite small all the way to the end. I hope some more managers left this race satisfied beyond ember of course.
And thank you to Tamijo for an impeccably reported Grand Tour!
Last but not least, we even managed to summon Aidan after his maiden victory!
Fantastic home GT for the team. A couple of stage wins in breaks, Kudus taking U25 + 7th in GC, though it sucks having been beaten by Brambilla's breakaway efforts.
Overall presence in the race with breakaways was perfect, Mosca and Barbero with a stage each, and some more stage results for both, makes up for the absolutely lack of results from Nizzolo.
Races like this one are the way to avoid relegation. Congrats to Heine for the GC win and thanks a lot to Tamijo for the great reports
Dunno what happened there, that EIGHT minute loss on the breakaway costs us a massive amount of points at the end of the race and really threatens the overall successful perception of this GT. 21st instead of ~13th the end result of that after this stage.
