Well, I'm sad to report it didn't happen. This is quite a disappointment, to be honest. Jorgensen seemed in the best possible shape so late in the race, high fitness and full freshness, and he's the better climber. But despite all that, and despite an inch perfect energy management, Kulpaka finished ahead of Jorgensen on stage 18.
Astana had set a high pace on the stage and all bar one escapees were caught. Jorgensen was as aggressive as he could possibly be but he was simply unable to shake off Kulpaka on the final climb and was beaten by him in the final sprint. So Kulpaka was 2nd on the day, Jorgensen 3rd, the gap's increased to 41 seconds and we only have the short-ish MTT left.
Arriving 1'13'' ahead of the duo and winning the stage was left to Ruben Fernandez, that at least brings some joy. It is his 4th and final season with Aviva, he was a founding member of the team and was instrumental in our promotion from CT to WT. After two seasons with Belkin and two with Wanty he returned to Aviva for two more seasons. Last year, he was the King of the Mountains in the Giro, this year he won a stage at the Tour and now another at the Vuelta and he was a dependable domestique otherwise. Thank you, Ruben!
To add insult to injury, Kulpaka also won the MTT on the final day, 8'' ahead of Jorgensen. Frech was 11th, it was enough to stay 5th in the final GC. I talked about it before, it might have been possible to finish with two riders on the podium, Jorgensen was far enough ahead that he could have protected Frech in the last week without risking his position. But the chance to win a Grand Tour was just too tempting, who knows if we ever get another one.
1
Jur Kulpaka
Astana Pro Team
2
Finn E. Jørgensen
Aviva Cycling
+00:49
3
Matej Mohoric
Tinkoff - Saxo
+06:13
4
Ian Boswell
Cannondale
+07:06
5
Volker Frech
Aviva Cycling
+08:09
6
Mikel Landa
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
+08:44
7
Rivelino Laurie
IAM Cycling
+09:03
8
Wilco Kelderman
Orica - GreenEDGE
+09:09
9
Ion Izagirre
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
+12:14
10
Eduardo Sepulveda
Orica - GreenEDGE
+12:35
That disappointment aside, it was a fantastic Vuelta. There was no real fight to become KIng of the Mountains, two breakaways were enough. McLean won with 64 points collected on stages 11 and 17 ahead of his team mates Blaesi (56) and Jorgensen (44). Only 7 riders qualified for the U25 competition, Frech beat Marrou by 8 minutes. Plus we set a new record for stage wins, 8 in total! Two for Blaesi and McLean, plus one each for Bilbao, Jorgensen, Dracke and Ruben Fernandez. Which means that every time the breakaway survived, except for simulated flat stages, an Aviva rider won. Goes to show just how good the team has become.
Stage by stage:
Spoiler
Stage
GC
Points
KOM
U25
1
Jur Kulpaka
Jur Kulpaka
Jur Kulpaka
Jur Kulpaka
Volker Frech
2
Vuk Jovanovic
Vuk Jovanovic
Vuk Jovanovic
Vuk Jovanovic
Hoang Doc Blaesi
3
Nacer Bouhanni
Vuk Jovanovic
Vuk Jovanovic
Matteo Trentin
Hoang Doc Blaesi
4
Vuk Jovanovic
Vuk Jovanovic
Vuk Jovanovic
Matteo Trentin
Hoang Doc Blaesi
5
Ian Boswell
Jur Kulpaka
Vuk Jovanovic
Eduardo Sepulveda
Volker Frech
6
Sam Bennett
Jur Kulpaka
Vuk Jovanovic
Eduardo Sepulveda
Volker Frech
7
Pello Bilbao
Jur Kulpaka
Vuk Jovanovic
Eduardo Sepulveda
Volker Frech
8
Cisco Lozano
Jur Kulpaka
Vuk Jovanovic
Eduardo Sepulveda
Volker Frech
9
Finn E. Jørgensen
Finn E. Jørgensen
Vuk Jovanovic
Finn E. Jørgensen
Volker Frech
10
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Finn E. Jørgensen
Vuk Jovanovic
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Volker Frech
11
Jason McLean
Finn E. Jørgensen
Vuk Jovanovic
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Volker Frech
12
Edgar Augusto RiofrÃo
Finn E. Jørgensen
Vuk Jovanovic
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Volker Frech
13
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Finn E. Jørgensen
Vuk Jovanovic
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Volker Frech
14
Matteo Trentin
Finn E. Jørgensen
Vuk Jovanovic
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Volker Frech
15
Damien Howson
Jur Kulpaka
Vuk Jovanovic
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Volker Frech
16
Rotson Dracke
Jur Kulpaka
Vuk Jovanovic
Hoang Doc Blaesi
Volker Frech
17
Jason McLean
Jur Kulpaka
Finn E. Jørgensen
Jason McLean
Volker Frech
18
Ruben Fernandez
Jur Kulpaka
Finn E. Jørgensen
Jason McLean
Volker Frech
19
Ted Thiarra
Jur Kulpaka
Vuk Jovanovic
Jason McLean
Volker Frech
20
Mario Cecchinato
Jur Kulpaka
Vuk Jovanovic
Jason McLean
Volker Frech
21
Jur Kulpaka
Jur Kulpaka
Jur Kulpaka
Jason McLean
Volker Frech
WT rankings after the Vuelta
Jorgensen was 2nd overall, Frech was 5th, did that close the gap despite Kulpaka's victory? Sadly, no. Slagter may have scored only a single WT point in this race, but Jovanovic added 53 points while Kulpaka nearly doubled his total from 252 to 485 points. Altogether the trio collected 287 points in the Vuelta.
Our two men did very well, but not as well as Astana. Jorgensen went from 234 to 417 WT points, Frech from 153 to 237. So they collected 267 points, 20 less than our rivals. Fantastic individual performances, but we now need a small miracle to beat Astana with only two WT races to go.
I'm controlling Britain again after the disappointment with Canada last season.
Individual Time Trial: Exactly 37 km long, officially flat, but containing a few small hills. In the British team superstar Alex Dowsett and Oliver Reynolds (both TTR 80) had picked the WC ITT as a goal race and were on form, but they only finished in the lower half of the top 10. The title goes to Luke Durbridge, finally, he'd say. He was on the podium several times, in the top 5 every time since 2015, but this is his first title. He beat last year's winner Howson, Dumoulin was 3rd. Aviva's best riders were McLean and Frech, a second apart as 27th and 28th. Our only other rider was Masakadza, representing South Africa, but he was only 60th among 66 riders.
1
Luke Durbridge
Movistar Team
2
Damien Howson
Movistar Team
+00:41
3
Tom Dumoulin
Astana Pro Team
+00:44
4
Ennex Arnold
Trek Factory Racing
+00:56
5
Taylor Phinney
Astana Pro Team
+01:12
6
Rohan Dennis
Team Sky
+01:23
7
Oliver Reynolds
Orica - GreenEDGE
+01:34
8
Jonathan Castroviejo
Team Sky
+01:36
9
Fernand Stamper
Topsport Vlaanderen
+01:43
10
Alex Dowsett
Team Katusha
+02:01
Road Race: 275 km up and down all day, climbing the Monte Igueldo (3.6km @5.7%) 16 times, always followed by a smaller bump, but a flat finish.
The breakaway was caught with 50 km to go and Ulissi picked that point for his attack. He was soon joined by Piton, Mohoric, Van Baarle, Singh and Sagan. Missing was the top favourite for this hilly course, Toralf Mendez. Germany set a high speed, then Mendez attacked and bridged the gap 30 km out. So only Britain seemed to be missing and I selfishly protected our new signing Jo Oakes (HIL 80) with Adam Yates. The duo split from the remains of the peloton but the only rider they could catch was Sagan.
Mendez is the new world champion, he proved to be the strongest in a kanckering race. Ulissi won silver, Mohoric collected bronze. Veiby was Aviva's best rider as 13th. Myles was 17th, Denis 22nd, Kipp 26th, Sequeiros 29th, Sergienko 30th, Koloda 39th, Lammertink 54th, Pozin 57th, Blaesi 62nd, Pedrocca 79th and Masakadza 161st.
I was eventually glad Jorgensen didn't win, to keep me motivated and playing on. Plus it was an extremely successful Vuelta anyway. And it looks like Ruben will continue his Aviva career after all, over in the ICL!
We only have a tiny chance left to win the crown, Tewelde at the very least has to cross the line ahead of Slagter.
All our men were still in the top group as we headed towards the final obstacle. So even Veiby had made it across the big climbs and he attacked on this last flat section, 25 km out. However, there were too many chasers, his gap never grew beyond 20 seconds and he had to relent.
But his attack made sure that the pace remained high, with our other men tucked in nicely, not losing too much energy. As we closed in on the Villa Vergano all our men moved towards the front. Of all people it was Slagter who launched the first attack, a dozen riders set off in pursuit, our men waited a little longer to catch the tail end of the move.
Nonetheless, only Tewelde made it into the top group which formed and picked the rear wheel of his main rival. After the descent, with 5 km to go, Van Baarle attacked just as the rest of our riders, in a large group of 20 or so, made contact again with the front group. Mendez, showing off his rainbow jersey, was the next rider to attack. Slagter followed and Tewelde kept to his order and shadowed the Astana man. With 2 km to got, the quartett was together, slightly ahead of the next group. Our captain was set to finish in the top 4, our best finish ever in this race, but could he beat Slagter?
Nobody was able to keep up with Toralf Mendez. He left the others behind and won the race by 26 seconds. The trio that followed had run out of energy reserves before the flamme rouge. It crossed the line in the same order it had entered the last kilometre. Which meant Van Baarle was 2nd, Slagter 3rd and Tewelde 4th. The larger group nearly caught them on the line, none of our men featured in the sprint, Kipp was 15th, Lammertink 19th, Denis 20th, the rest ended in the higher 20s, so no additional points either.
4th is our best finish ever in Il Lombardia, our previous record was 7th from Singh two years ago. A fantastic performance by Tewelde, but sadly, not better than Slagter. The final nail in the coffin. We can close in on Astana with a great Tour of Beijing, but we cannot overtake them anymore.
Top 10: Mendez, Van Baarle, Slagter, Tewelde, Moser, Ulissi, Singh, Piton, Machaca, Bardet
We may have already lost the title race, but that only made us more aggressive in China. We picked the best possible team for a route which includes a long TTT and a tough mountain stage.
I decided against playing the opening flat stage. Biello was 3rd, behind Lacruz and Matthews. Jon Angeru Lacruz is a new star in the sprinting scene, he's reached SPR 85 at the end of his third professional season, and this is his first WT victory.
Aviva then won the team time trial in convincing fashion, 40 seconds ahead of Movistar, 1'34'' faster than Astana's B team.
Stage 3 to Weicicun featured tough climbs towards the end. Our team had to work hard to keep some check on the breakaway. We had taken it too easy in the first half of the race, the gap had grown to 15 minutes. Though of course we'd also sent a man into the breakaway, Jason McLean.
We were pushing so hard on the slightly uphill run-in towards the cat. 1 that 12 riders left the peloton behind, our seven men, three from Movistar and a couple more. Biello was sacrificing himself at the front, but soon everybody including the Movistar men chipped in and the gap to the peloton grew.
Though as we entered the cat. 1 the front of the breakaway was still ahead by 12 minutes. Kudus had attacked immediately, McLean missed the move and had to play catch. On the peak he was still a minute behind Kudus, but our ex-captain was starting to lose steam. McLean caught him and then left him standing on the nasty short ramp to the finish line and won the stage by 46 seconds. He was well on his way to record his biggest career success, winning a WT stage race.
The rest of the breakaway couldn't climb that well and eventually most escapees were caught by our best climbers. First by Jorgensen, who finished 3rd on the day, 4'01'' behind McLean. Blaesi was 4th, Frech 5th. Next were three riders from the early breakaway, one by one, Trofimov, Marreros and Zilioli. Tacconelli was 9th, 7'10'' behind McLean, Wesley de Saeger 10th, Arnau Zamora and Dracke 11th and 12th. Best among the riders who missed the split was Giro winner Mohoric, 14'19'' behind McLean, over four minutes behind Dracke. So there's a good chance that seven of our riders will finish in the top 10. Nothing I haven't seen before, but not what I had intended for this career.
The next stage was hilly and we knew we couldn't give the breakaway too much room, otherwise we might lose some of out GC positions. Rybakov and Cameron Meyer were cheeky enough to join the breakaway, two of the riders who were on the right side of the split the day before and were trailing Dracke by less than 3 minutes. So we put all our riders bar the yellow jersey to work, not giving the 6 escapees more than 4 minutes.
In the finale the top puncheurs - world champion Mendez as well as Slagter, Ulissi and Mohoric - attacked from the peloton, but they didn't worry us. They nearly caught the breakaway, but not quite, Gallopin won ahead of Berisha and Boswell, our men arrived 1'48'' behind. Kudus couldn't keep up after his effort on the previous day, lost a lot of time and dropped off the podium.
Tosh van der Sande won the final mass sprint of the WT season ahead of the Movistar duo Lacruz and Matthews, Biello was 4th. The final GC is completely dominated by Aviva. McLean celebrates his biggest career result, Kudus wins the climbers classification, Lacruz gets the points jersey.
I hope I had you fooled a little with this season's title and all the fuss I made about the team rankings, that you believed Aviva would beat Astana, while I knew right from the start that we wouldn't. It was meant as a distraction from the fact that it was another record season: 60 victories (42), 1936 WT points (1594), 10742 CQ points (8926). What I'd really like to see is a downturn, we were never meant to be this successful, the wage restriction was supposed to hurt. Maybe next season? We are losing Jorgensen and Veiby, our top riders, who scored over 500 points each, shattering our previous records. We'll know more when we introduce the 2022 squad. But first, a look back at the 2021 season.
It's the first time we're represented six times in the PCMCE season overview. Unlike last season, we hardly won any KOM jerseys, only five altogether, but all of the big three. And while we've yet to win a monument – and probably never will – we made it onto three podiums and only just missed one more, Tewelde was 4th in Il Lombardia.
It was a more spirited relegation fight this year, every team scored over 100 points. Belkin and Netapp find themselved in the PCT next year. It's hardly unexpected that Lotto is back in the top flight, thanks to Kwiatkowski and a fleet of good sprinter. Caja Rural is also back, as I already revealed at the start of the season Pedersen won the CT rankings ahead of his team mate Tobias Ludvigsson. In the CQ rankings they reversed places, Landa, Ion Izagirre and Marrou also added plenty of points.
In the individual rankings only Quintana (666) beat Veiby (545) and Jorgensen (501). We have 4 more riders in the top 20, Tewelde (13th), Frech (14th), Koloda (16th) and Biello (18th). Veiby snatched the CQ rankings title ahead of Astana's Kulpaka and Quintana, Biello was 4th. Just, wow.
Veiby just had a phenomenal season, winner of Amstel Gold, the Cyclassics and the Eneco Tour and he was on the podium in all the cobbled WT classics. He added more (simulated) victories in smaller races, the Three Days of De Panne, including two stages, Dwaars door Vlaanderen, De Brabantjse Pijl, Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, Nokere Koerse and just a few days ago the Giro della Romagna. He hasn't reached the reputation superstar yet, but that will change, winning the cobbled monuments can't be far off. We wish him good luck with IAM.
We're also sad to see Jorgensen leave, for Team Sky. Twice 5th in the Tour, twice on the podium in the Vuelta and winner of his first ever WT race, the Tour de Suisse. By far the best stage racer (ok, climber) we ever had.
It's a crying shame nobody picked up Biello for next season after an outstanding year. 15 victories, 4th in the CQ rankings, 268 WT points. His (simulated) victories include the GP Tartu, overall victory in Mayenne, the GP di Prato, the 1.HC Tour de Vendee and Binche-Chimay-Binche. Probably the most successful sprinter I ever had, though that's not saying much, sicne I tend to ignore sprinters. He's still only 24 years old, he surely has many more good years ahead. On the other hand, I do believe that Myles will become the better sprinter with more SPR and ACC as well as HIL. We'll see how he fares with his new team Orica.
Igor Sergienko will drop down to the CT, he joins Sparebanken, 49th in the CQ team rankings. McLean joins Veiby at IAM, Hontecillas moves to Caja Rural, Lammertink to Qhubeka. Kipp will ride for FDJ, Tacconelli for Quickstep, Fernandez for Katusha, Wikkelso for Vini Fantini, Bilbao for Movistar, 35-year old Hermans for OFM, Pedrocca for Cannondale and Montes Torrecilla for Verandas Willems.
1
Astana Pro Team
1985
2
Aviva Cycling
1936
3
Trek Factory Racing
1292
4
QuickStep Team
1182
5
Team Sky
1063
6
Orica - GreenEDGE
696
7
Tinkoff - Saxo
631
8
Cannondale
576
9
Lotto - Belisol
558
10
Team Katusha
454
11
IAM Cycling
376
12
Team Giant - Shimano
306
13
Movistar Team
236
14
SkyDive Dubai
234
15
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
209
16
BMC Racing Team
172
17
FDJ.fr
163
18
Ag2r La Mondiale
144
19
MTN - Qhubeka
127
20
Topsport Vlaanderen
121
21
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
114
22
Team NetApp - Endura
105
23
UnitedHealthcare
42
24
Team Europcar
10
25
Androni Giocattoli
6
26
Garmin - Sharp
2
Find your favourite team in the team rankings. BMC has really gone downhill, winning the CQ rankings in 2018, three years later they were fighting against relegation. Tinkoff had a good year, only 15th by wage budget but 7th in the WT rankings. You may have noticed SkyDive Dubai doing well, I will present their full 2022 squad at the start of the new season because I find it quite remarkable.
A bit more summary coming up. Let's add the notable results 2021, as regularly updated in the second post:
3rd overall Tour Down Under (Koloda)
Stage 7 Paris-Nice (Denis) *** goal
4th overall Tirreno-Adriatico (Hontecillas) ***
3rd Milan-Sanremo (Myles) ****
Stage 3 Volta a Cataluyna (A. Zamora) 1st overall Volta a Catalunya (A. Zamora)
2nd E3 Harelbeke (Veiby)
2nd Gent-Wevelgem (Veiby)
3rd Ronde van Vlaanderen (Veiby) ****
Stage 1 Pais Vasco (Kipp) *
2nd Paris-Roubaix (Veiby) ***** 1st Amstel Gold Race (Veiby) **
7th La Fleche Wallone (Tewelde) *
6th Liege-Bastogne-Liege (Tewelde) ****
Stage 6 Giro d'Italia (Myles)
Stage 10 Giro d'Italia (Sequeiros)
Stage 12 Giro d'Italia (A. Zamora)
Stage 17 Giro d'Italia (Pozin)
Stage 21 Giro d'Italia (Kipp)
9th overall Giro d'Italia (Hontecillas)
Stage 4 Dauphine (A. Zamora) **
Stage 7 Dauphine (Hontecillas)
3rd overall Dauphine (Jorgensen)
Stages 2&4 Tour de Suisse (Biello) **
3rd overall Tour de Suisse (Frech)
Stages 9&11 Tour de France (Jorgensen) *****
Stage 15 Tour de France (Blaesi)
Stage 17 Tour de France (Fernandez)
Stage 19 Tour de France (Biello)
5th overall Tour de France (Jorgensen)
7th overall Tour de France (Frech)
2nd San Sebastian (Denis) * Stages 1, 2, 4, 7 Tour de Pologne (Biello)
Stage 5 Tour de Pologne (Koloda)
Stage 3 Eneco Tour (Biello) 1st overall Eneco Tour (Veiby) 1st Vattenfall Cyclassics (Veiby) 1st GP Quebec (Tewelde) 1st GP Montreal (Denis)
Stage 7 La Vuelta (Bilbao) ***
Stage 9 La Vuelta (Jorgensen)
Stages 10 and 13 La Vuelta (Blaesi)
Stages 11 and 17 La Vuelta (McLean)
Stage 16 La Vuelta (Dracke)
Stage 18 La Vuelta (Fernandez) 2nd overall La Vuelta (Jorgensen)
5th overall La Vuelta (Frech)
4th Il Lombardia (Tewelde)
Stage 3 Tour of Beijing (McLean) 1st overall Tour of Beijing (McLean)
KOM: Pais Vasco (Kipp), Giro d'Italia (A. Zamora) *****, Tour de Suisse (Dracke), Tour de France (Dracke), La Vuelta (McLean)
NC RR: Germany (Frech), Spain (Bilbao)
I tightened the criteria this season, no more simulated non-WT results. There were a number of victories, I mentioned a few from Veiby and Biello above, and plenty more podiums, too. It's not just my 3D mode magic, the team has gotten pretty damn good.
Goals 2021
Stage win(s) Paris - Nice
***
E.Denis
Stage win(s)
Top 10 Tirreno - Adriatico
***
X.Hontecillas
Top 5
Top 10 Milano - Sanremo
****
D.Myles
Top 3
Top 5 Ronde van Vlaanderen
****
M.Veiby
Top 3
Stage win(s) Vuelta al Pais Vasco
*
V.Kipp
Stage win(s)
Top 5 Paris - Roubaix
*****
M.Veiby
Top 3
Top 10 Amstel Gold Race
**
M.Veiby
1st
Top 10 La Fleche Wallonne
*
J.Tewelde
Top 10
Top 10 Liege - Bastogne - Liege
****
J.Tewelde
Top 10
1st in climber standings Giro d'Italia
*****
A.Zamora
1st in climber standings
Stage win(s) Criterium du Dauphine
**
A.Zamora
Stage win(s)
Stage win(s) Tour de Suisse
**
T.Biello
Stage win(s)
Stage win(s) Tour de France
*****
F.Jorgensen
Stage win(s)
Top 10 Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian
*
E.Denis
Top 3
Stage win(s) Vuelta a Espana
***
P.Bilbao
Stage win(s)
Here's the summary in black on white, all goals achieved. I negiotiated top 3 results in the cobbled monuments down to top 5s, even that turned out to be unnecessary. The first of the goals was probably the toughest, Denis won the P-N stage with only seconds to spare. Making the top 10 in Milan-Sanremo also wasn't exactly a certainty, but Myles had an excellent day.
Hall of Fame
2021
yrs
total
1
Veiby
545
3
909
2
Jorgensen
501
2
846
3
Tewelde
299
4
696
4
Lammertink
99
4
603
5
Denis
176
3
566
6
Singh
2
564
7
Sergienko
155
3
479
8
Marrou
2
457
9
De Vreese
2
456
10
Koloda
292
4
454
(Name: Contract for 2022)
We have a new top 10 of our all-time scorers. Veiby surged to the top, Jorgensen isn't far behind and he needed just two seasons to score 846 points, extremely impressive. Three more riders have overtaken Singh: Tewelde, Lammertink and Denis. Tewelde and Denis are staying on for another year, Tewelde might just make it to the top next year. Koloda is continuing for two more years, but the internal competition will become much harder. Our heroes from the first two WT seasons, Hoem and Rafael Silva, have finally dropped out of the top 10.
Another record breaking season and hopefully the top spot in both the individual and the team standings will be reached soon, maybe as soon as next season.
Thank you, Abhishek! I'll unveil the 2022 team on Monday, that'll give you a clue about how successful the season will be. I'll be busy with rewriting my notes to keep up the pace, I have only just read through them, I can already promise a pretty exciting Giro and a crazy Tour de France.
A first look at the new squad and the training potentials of the new riders is always like opening up Christmas presents. And I hate to say it, but it's looking like another bumper crop (mixing my metaphors a little). The average AVG has risen yet again, the smallest rise so far, but that alone promises another very successful season. And to make matters even worse, the new riders have oodles of potential. Of the 16 newcomers no less than six have potential 7. Our rider salaries have risen from 151,700 per month to 155,500. The sponsor is paying 523,840 per month.
(Name: New signing Wage: Renewal)
(Chg: Year-on-year change in AVG, Chg: For new riders since August 1st)
Every season I've unconsciously been edging closer to my personal (and boring) optimum: 17 stage racers divided clearly into two teams, 8 punchers and 5 cobblestone specialists. Since Myles and Biello were fun I decided to at least add one sprinter again and I also discovered so many interesting punchers that I ended up with 9 instead of 8 (or possibly I just miscounted). Which means we only have three specialists for the cobblestone races.
Altogether it's definitely the best team Aviva's ever put together. Sure, it was tough to let go of Veiby and Jorgensen, but Blaesi and Masakadza have certainly stepped up and improved nicely since last year. With Jo Oakes we finally have another puncher with more than HIL 78 and others are set to join him, we're looking forward to the hilly classics.
And man, the stage racing is looking very good, too. Let's start with the team that'll tackle Tour and Vuelta. Blaesi is a real stage racer, MON 78 is only the core, he adds stats like TTR 74, DHI 75, REC 80, FLA 71, even SPR 73. Come summer he should be even better. He'll be joined by Gazzola with his MON 79, also with room to grow. Add Dracke, last year's winner of the polkadots as well as Thierry and Bejdiev, all three could easily be favourites in a mountain breakaway. And it still leaves solid support from Gerardo Zamora, Berhane, Brackstone and Pozin, altogether a decent TTT squad, too.
Frech has basically finished his development, he'll be the captain in the first half of the season with his MON 78, HIL 73 and TTR 75. Matthew Kolk can match his MON 78, the rest isn't quite as good, ACC 59 downright terrible. Returning champion Grande, Arnau Zamora, Mendez Nunez and Gallardo are all just about equally happy on hills and mountains and good against the clock to boot. So we're spoiled for choice for breakaways and well set for TTTs.
With Masakadza we certainly aren't as good on cobblestones as we were last season, when the South African never finished higher than 15th. But he's worked hard on himself, he's improved his core stat nicely, FLA 76 and STA 77 will serve him well in Paris-Roubaix, but his HIL is rather weak, his TTR even worse, more RES would be nice... I'd rate him 7th in the world on cobblestones, behind Veiby, Heubach, Vanmarcke and Spijkers (all COB 83 and better overall) as well as De Buyst (COB 81 SPR 82) and old Boom (AVG 79).
We only have one sprinter, Jonas Rauls. He'll complete the Giro squad and otherwise jump in whereever suitable. Don't expect much from him, he'll have a couple of good results this year, but otherwise you won't hear much about him.
Stage Racing Spring: Frech, Kolk, A. Zamora, Mendez Nunez, Juhl, Grande, Gallardo, Sequeiros
Stage Racing Summer: Blaesi, Gazzola, Thierry, Dracke, Brackstone, Bejdiev, G. Zamora, Berhane, Pozin
Hills: Oakes, Tewelde, Koloda, Denis, Krasnopjorov, Moya, Van de Kamp, Dallamano, Gasparetti
Cobbles: Masakadza, Boicenco, J. Sergienko
Sprinter: Rauls
Goals 2022
Top 5 Santos Tour Down Under
21/01 - 26/01
*
1st in climber standings Paris - Nice
09/03 - 16/03
***
Top 5 Tirreno - Adriatico
12/03 - 18/03
****
Top 10 Milano - Sanremo
23/03
***
Top 5 – Ronde van Vlaanderen
06/04
****
Stage win(s) Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco
07/04 - 12/04
*
Top 5 Paris - Roubaix
13/04
***
Top 5 Amstel Gold Race
20/04
*
Top 5 La Fleche Wallonne
23/04
**
Top 5 Liege - Bastogne - Liege
27/04
*****
Top 5 Giro d'Italia
09/05 - 01/06
*****
Stage win(s) Critdrium du Dauphine
08/06 - 15/06
**
Stage win(s) Tour de Suisse
14/06 - 22/06
**
Top 5 Tour de France
05/07 - 27/07
*****
Top 5 Vuelta a Espana
23/08 - 14/09
****
Here are the new goals our sponsor has set. Lots of top 5 results demanded this year, I feel confident about a lot of them. But having already completed them all last season there's no pressure. The sponsor loves the team anyway and we are already rolling in cash, over 12 million Euros in the bank with nothing to spend it on.
Edited by Ripley on 20-04-2020 07:44
Matthews (AVG 82) is now the best rider by AVG (HIL 79 SPR 83 STA 82). The four riders with AVG 81 are either TT specialists (Dumoulin, Durbridge) or sprinters (Demare, Bennett). 14 riders have AVG 80, Pinot (though he only offers MON 80 TTR 69), the punchers Mendez and Piton, the TT specialists Howson, Dennis and Phinney, the sprinters RJVR, Jovanovic, de Buyst, Groenewegen and Nizzolo as well as the cobblestone specialists Veiby and Heubach, plus the baroudeur GVK (FLA 84).
Climbing has really gone downhill, haha. At the start of the season only one rider has MON 82, Sky's 25-year old Egon Braglia. Six have MON 81, only two of them are also good against the clock. Tejay Van Garderen is now the best stage racer with MON 81 TTR 80, his compatriot Stanley Hayen has MON 81 TTR 75. The other four are Jorgensen, Majka, Barguil and Medardo Arguedas. Though some of the younger riders are still improving, Braglia will make it to MON 83 this season, Hayden and Jorgensen to MON 82.
Favourites for the Ardennes classics are World Champion Toralf Mendez and Van Baarle (both HIL 84). Michel Koch and Hoem have HIL 82 but clearly less STA, so the game rates them below the riders with HIL 81, Piton, Slagter and Mohoric.
I already mentioned most of the TT specialists (Howson 85, Dumoulin 84, Phinney 83, Durbridge 83, Ennex Arnold 83, Castroviejo 82, Clint Fowler 82). As always, plenty of great sprinters, three with SPR 85 (Jovanovic, Bennett and Jon Angeru Lacruz), two with SPR 84 (RJVR and Groenewegen), nine with SPR 83 (including Biello) and ten with SPR 82 (including Myles).
And as promised, here's the PCT team SkyDive Dubai. 16th by total wage budget with just 13 riders! Which ranks them 7th overall by average wage. Can you achieve promotion to the WT with just 13 riders? Or is it hard not to considering just how good these riders are? They will be fighting against Belkin, Netapp and Garmin.
Age
Wage
AVG
Dylan Van Baarle
29
37,000
79
Michael Ø. Linnet
25
8,000
78
John Degenkolb
32
77,000
78
Fabio Aru
31
30,500
77
Juul Lopes
26
24,000
77
Matthew Goss
35
23,500
76
Carlos Parreño
27
20,500
76
Piet Maek
27
17,500
76
Patricio González Albiol
27
15,000
76
Jan Gresslien
27
9,500
74
Giacomo Bucaro
29
10,000
74
Lubomir Basko
24
3,500
74
Rafaël Lemesle
29
3,000
73
Without further ado, let's get the season started.
Tejay Van Garderen is now the best stage racer with MON 81 TTR 80
This is the most fantasy thing about this whole career
Loving the diversity in the main squad. It seems like the team can't loose from breakaways and it looks like an Italo-ICL squad. i think you'll do wonders with the team!
In all fairness, it is a 2014 DB and a young TVG had finished 5th in the Tour in 2012 (and again in 2014). He's now 33 and he and Talansky are last of the old guard who can both climb and time trial. It's also temporary, by the end of the season he'll be down to MON 79 TTR 77. So 2021 will remain his best season, winning the Romandie and finishing on the Tour podium.
Race squad: Berhane, Alexander Boicenco, Frech, Matthew Kolk, Pozin, Jaffar Sergienko, Alban Thierry
I don't believe I've seen this variant (asodb8) of the Tour Down Under before. No Willunga Hill, no hilly stages, instead we started with a 20 km ITT which was followed by four completely flat stages and one big mountaintop finish on Mount Baw Baw. So we left our puncheurs at home and instead brought our two Giro captains Frech and Kolk as well as climber Thierry from the summer team. The cobblestone riders usually get the fewest RDs, so Boicenco and Sergienko make up the numbers together with Berhane and Pozin.
Frech was 12th, Kolk 16th in the opening time trial won by Phinney ahead of Talansky. Thierry (TTR 61) was 123rd out of 133 riders, we want him in the breakaway on the queen stage. Plenty of excellent sprinters fought in the four mass sprints, Kittel won stage 2, Nizzolo stage 3 and Zabel stages 4 and 6.
Alban Thierry became part of the breakaway on stage 5, but Talansky's IAM made sure the gap for the 8 riders was never comfortable and the escape group was caught nearly 50 km out, Thierry was able to recuperate most of his energy. Further attacks came from the best punchers, including Hoem and the rainbow jersey of Mendez, but those were obviously in vain with the steep final climb ahead.
We had a stiff headwind on the climb. With the help of Pozin and Berhane our three climbers quickly separated from the peloton, but Talansky easily made it into the group and even old Rui Costa (now MON 76) caught up. Mohoric was also in the mix, he was the only rider to try an attack into the headwind which went nowhere fast.
Eventually Kolk was pulling the group and we feared Talansky would profit, but everybody was suffering now. Without anybody able to sprint Kolk won the queen stage of his home race, wearing the NC jersey he'd claimed just a few days ago. Talansky was right behind him, Frech and the rest lost 12 seconds.
Kolk with the win, Frech 3rd, Thierry also celebrates in the background
1
Andrew Talansky
IAM Cycling
2
Matthew Kolk
Aviva Cycling
+00:17
3
Volker Frech
Aviva Cycling
+00:31
4
Rui Costa
Orica - GreenEDGE
+00:39
5
Benedikt Berisha
Trek Factory Racing
+01:05
6
Cetin Polat
Tinkoff - Saxo
+01:44
7
Moreno Moser
MTN - Qhubeka
+03:07
8
Matej Mohoric
Team Katusha
+03:10
9
Alban Thierry
Aviva Cycling
+03:33
10
Tom Dumoulin
Astana Pro Team
+04:47
Two riders on the podium while Thierry also made the top 10 despite losing over 3 minutes in the time trial. A great start to the season, it's become tradition to score big in Australia. Kolk also won the polkadot jersey, the U25 competition was so weak that Pozin won ahead of Boicenco (MON 65).
This year's Paris-Nice started with a prologue followed by four flat and three hilly stages. The last two looked a bit mountainous to me, but we took our better climbers to Italy instead. Tewelde was the nominal captain, but we let five of our men ride for the GC, since we weren't sure how big a role climbing would play.
Durbridge won the prologue, Grande was our best performer and finished 10th. Demare won stage 2, Nizzolo stages 3 and 4, the last flat stage went to the breakaway. Grande was our choice to complete the goal, stage 4 may have been flat but offered a decent amount of KOM points, Grande collected 22 of them.
We didn't have anybody in the breakaway on the first of the hilly stages, as expected, the peloton caught the escapees easily. Three riders attacked on the short penultimate climb, Bardet, Adam Yates and Laurie. Bardet's Astana had been working at the front of the peloton, so we decided to join this attack with our five men. It gave us a nice lead of 50'' on the summit, while the peloton was rearranging itself.
But then the other three attacked again on the short descent and we let them go to make sure we still had the energy for the short but steep final ramp. Bardet won the stage ahead of Laurie and Yates, while Koloda, Tewelde and Denis finished with Sergio Henao, Jungels and Kwiatkowski 57'' behind, our Spaniards Nunez and Moya lost another 20 seconds. So we've placed three riders in the lower top 10 and two just outside.
On stage 7 Grande joined his second breakaway to secure our objective. He was part of a group of a dozen riders and some decided to fight for the points, but Grande usually came out top. 34 points on the day, 56 in total... that should be enough, though the final stage offers 60 more points.
The breakaway was strong enough to fight for the stage. One rider clearly came out top, Daan Olivier, he won by 49''. Our ex-rider Köszegi decided to just follow Grande and outsprinted him for 2nd place. Further back, after the penultimate summit, on a small plateau, we decided to attack briefly with our 5 GC riders, Jungels and Kwiatkowski joined and quickly overtook our men and they fell back behind race leader Laurie and let him work to defend his jersey.
Kwiatkowski and Jungels arrived 20 seconds ahead of what, after a long descent and a tame final hill, was a large group of 62 riders, in part thanks to generous time keepers. Laurie still leads Bardet by 7'', but Kwiatkowski and Jungels are now also within 15'' of the leader, which promised excitement for the final day.
But the last stage was a bit of an anticlimax, on paper it looked the toughest, and yet 84 riders arrived together. Gallardo joined the early breakaway, which included old Froome, though the biggest GC threat was Pantano, virtually he was leading by up to 3 minutes. However, the peloton had reduced the gap to under a minute on the final peak. The stage would still go to the breakaway, Pantano won ahead of McLean and Froome, Gallardo was only 6th. Maybe he should have attacked harder on the last hill...
So the GC remained unchanged. At the age of 29, Rivelino Laurie celebrated his biggest victory yet, though he was already 4th in the Giro last year. He won just ahead of Bardet and Jungels. Our trio finished 7th, 8th and 9th, while Moya and Nunez missed the top 10 by a few seconds. Grande completed our second objective by winning the climber rankings.
Race squad: Pierre Dallamano, Frech, Fetis Juhl, Kolk, Krasnopjorov, Jonas Rauls, Marthijn van de Kamp, Arnau Zamora
The first three stages were all won by Bennett, our ex-rider Myles was on the podium twice, Rauls finished well outside the top 30. The next two stages were hilly, but not very selective except for the final ramp on stage 4, finishing in Ortezzano. Ulissi won 14'' ahead of Barguil. Boswell and Polanc followed, 30'' behind, Frech and Kolk were in a group of 9 riders, just 7 more seconds back. But importantly for the GC, Mohoric lost an additional minute, while the best climbers, including Braglia, Hayden and TVG, finished 2'28'' behind Ulissi. A day later Barguil won ahead of Pinot and Bardet, without any time gaps between 151 riders.
Stage 6 to Torricella was the queen stage, though the two big mountains came in the first half of the stage, leaving only a smaller climb which had to be tackled four times. We sent Arnau Zamora into the breakaway, only one rider was a better climber, Rohan Dennis. Maybe Zamora could have fought for the stage, but we decided we needed him to protect Frech in the finale, after Juhl was done. Dennis won the stage, just a bike length ahead of Barguil. Villella followed 19'' behind, Frech was a good 4th, leading Seliga, Boswell and Pinot across the line. Kolk was 8th, only 20'' behind and still a minute ahead of Jorgensen.
Going into the final ITT Frech was 6th, equal on time with Seliga, while Boswell and Pinot were only a few seconds ahead, but none them have Frech's TT skill. And though the stage was only 9.4 km short, Frech was able to overtake the trio and finish 3rd overall. Kolk added a fine 7th overall. No KOM jersey this time, but Aviva won the team rankings by over 5 minutes ahead of Tinkoff.
1
Warren Barguil
Astana Pro Team
2
Davide Villella
Lampre - Merida
+01:03
3
Volker Frech
Aviva Cycling
+01:13
4
Ian Boswell
Trek Factory Racing
+01:19
5
Thibaut Pinot
QuickStep Team
+01:24
6
Roni Seliga
Tinkoff - Saxo
+01:29
7
Matthew Kolk
Aviva Cycling
+01:44
8
Finn E. Jørgensen
Team Sky
+02:52
9
Cetin Polat
Tinkoff - Saxo
+04:44
10
Jan Polanc
MTN - Qhubeka
+04:53
Goal fulfilled. This was our first podium in Tirreno-Adriatico, a year after Hontecillas finished 4th. It's also the first time we had two riders in the top 10.
Race squad: Denis, Adalberto Gasparetti, Koloda, Krasnopjorov, Francisco Moya, Jo Oakes, Tewelde, Marthijn van de Kamp
Our sprinter Rauls just doesn't have the HIL (yet) to compete in La Primavera, so we leave it in the hands of our punchers. Late attacks by single riders didn't seem too promising, especially with a medium headwind. Nonetheless, we told Koloda to attack on the Cipressa. He is now one of our weakest riders by AVG and the peloton seemed to ignore his attack.
He overtook the last escapee and got pretty excited when his gap grew to 90 seconds. But by the time the peloton reached the Poggio, his advantage was down to a few seconds. Pretty much at random we selected Francisco Moya for Plan B. He attacked near the peak and into the descent. Maybe unsurprisingly, Veiby had a similar idea and attacked a few seconds later. I was torn between allowing a rider to follow him and the chance that such a move would only help the sprinters and decided against it.
Veiby overtook Moya under the flamme rouge and the top sprinters were closing in fast, too. Would Veiby make it? No, even he was swallowed by the sprinters. Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg wins Milano-Sanremo ahead of Sam Bennett and Prparin Fernandes. Veiby was 5th, Moya 8th. Koloda, despite his attack, was best of the rest as 17th. We are happy to have achieved our top 10 goal, it was by no means certain.
Top 10: RJVR, Bennett, Fernandes, Veiby, Lozano, Naldi, De Buyst, Francisco Moya, Debusschere, Desclee
