Not a big fan of the Ranaweera and APP leadership, they're probably not up to the task in PCT. Add some ageing sprinters nobody ever heard of and a German lead cobbler and you have the recipe for relegation.
I also don't like this dubious Devo Team you set up, it just seems fishy!
The plan before the season was quite simple. Get a top sprinter and try to ride him for goals, then add an or goal with 2 different races just in case. We considered going for Groves or Halvorsen but ended up with (for our nationality) our first choice in Coquard. Can he win everything we want? Not likely, but hopefully we will be in contention.
Leaders calender
Planning your leaders is always hard and I never feel I get it perfect. When selecting HC and PTHC we didn't really plan for a climber or a cobble rider but rather focused on the flat races we wanted thus making it a bit awkward. Still in the end we are quite happy with how the calender works out. If I am right we will end up with 1 race where we have no chance to score.
Ranaweera gets one pure climbing classic, hopeing for some luck and then stage races where we try to fit in climbs and TTs. His planning is built around Tour of America and we really hope he will have a good one, we feel the race fits him and he can get a an early jersey and ride that to good points.
APP riders a combination of stage races that fits him and some hilly classics since it fits his race days and we didn't really have another hilly rider for them. I love him in races like TDU
Coquard is our main sprinter and will lead our team in every race he enters. It is a combination of some flat flassics and stage races. We really believe in a good season for him
Rutsch was a hard one, we didn't really plan for a cobble rider and it was more a "thats the way the chips fell". He will thus ride a combination of flat races, stage races and ofc pretty much every cobble race we could find for him. Hopefully next season we will be able to build a better program for him
Rick was pretty much a case of "find every flat race day we are not sending Coquard to" and then a little bit where we send them both. I decided early to send him to ToA to try and pick up stage wins
Oops, what went wrong with some of the flags?
Looks like Latvia actually annexed the U.S.
And not sure APP will race the Grand Prix Cycliste de Lima
Godoy vs. Ranaweera will be an interesting fight in ToA, and I could well imagine that the latter will be ahead for 13 days, and it could go either way on the final day... It will be 1'30"-2'00" for Godoy to make up for after the two TTs, so we'll see ^^
Facing APP in those hilly stage races was expected, but will be nasty (less so than facing Madouas I guess, which will be a pain for both of us). Rutsch definitely doesn't get an optimal schedule, I hope it's not the factor that would push you towards the bottom of the rankings...
As wj/jt mentioned in the podcast, I think sending Zabel to the classics might have made more sense given Coquard's awful stamina, but I guess you tested him and he must do OK. In stage races, both can definitely get their wins, and I don't like to see them all over the place
Good luck, and looking forward to racing against you for the first time since your comeback
Oops, what went wrong with some of the flags?
Looks like Latvia actually annexed the U.S.
And not sure APP will race the Grand Prix Cycliste de Lima
Godoy vs. Ranaweera will be an interesting fight in ToA, and I could well imagine that the latter will be ahead for 13 days, and it could go either way on the final day... It will be 1'30"-2'00" for Godoy to make up for after the two TTs, so we'll see ^^
Facing APP in those hilly stage races was expected, but will be nasty (less so than facing Madouas I guess, which will be a pain for both of us). Rutsch definitely doesn't get an optimal schedule, I hope it's not the factor that would push you towards the bottom of the rankings...
As wj/jt mentioned in the podcast, I think sending Zabel to the classics might have made more sense given Coquard's awful stamina, but I guess you tested him and he must do OK. In stage races, both can definitely get their wins, and I don't like to see them all over the place
Good luck, and looking forward to racing against you for the first time since your comeback
Haha, yeah I noticed the flags, but gave up Became even stranger when I tried to continue and couldn't bother to restart. America it had problems with because it went over several nations.
In general during my testing Coquard just did better than Zabel both on classics and stage races. So I planned him and then stuck Zabel whereever
I have worries both with Rutsch and Ranaweera. The first because of scheldue (I didn't realize how few cobble races I could go to before I sent in C1) and the latter as he has been very hit and go when I've ran races.
In general I should be safe from relegation but there is a world where everything fails... There is also a world where everything clicks and we promote, though it is a less likely world
