My leader for the Mountains is a 20yr old who has 68MO, 67HIL, 68DH, 63TT, 67STA, 66RES, 68REC and 63ACC.
My leaders for the flat stages are D'Amore, who has 76SPR and 74ACC, and Casper who has 76SPR and a disappointing ACC of 68.
For the cobble race/s I have De Winde who has 72COB, 66SPR and 65ACC and Barbe who has 70COB, 71SPR and 67ACC.
All round I have an alright time, aiming for good placings in the cobble and flat races and stage wins and a possible good spot in the GC for my leader.
Team Dexia is shaped as a sprinters team with decent sprinters such as Vanthourenhout, De Ketele and young Stenuit (borrowed from Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi) as the fastest guys on the line.
At the same time De Ketele is our strongest hilly rider making him a good bet for some good results in the many more or less hilly races expected to end in a sprint from a reduced group.
At first the team didn't have any climbers at all and since the mountains are scarce in Belgium we had to look outside the borders for someone to compete in races such as Andorra and Andalucia. We ended up with a Brazilian rider, Rodrigues, who will lead the team every time there is a mountain on the route.
We also felt we could do with a strong TT-rider, with special thought to Bayern Rundfahrt, where the TT is usually crucial for the GC. For that we went just over the border and signed Dutchman Berden de Vries.
There will be good support on the flat stages from the five strong Belgians Crombez, Dockx, Renders, Hovelynck and Mertens.
Today, new team LKT will be unveiled as a new team in the world of cycling, they feature mainly German riders, mostly to please their German sponsors.
They are:
Spoiler
Last name
First name
Flat
Mountain
Hill
TT
Stamina
Resistance
Recovery
Cobbles
Sprint
Acceleration
Fighter
Downhill
Prologue
Bissinger
Florian
71
60
71
70
70
66
69
64
67
73
76
68
70
Krauss
Sven
72
63
67
69
73
64
69
71
64
62
63
61
69
Schafer
Stefan
68
68
73
71
70
67
65
54
62
68
57
56
71
Schillenger
Andreas
71
64
70
62
71
65
70
53
53
68
69
63
62
Meschenmoser
Christian
69
51
60
69
70
63
67
64
65
74
61
66
69
Berger
Heinrich
67
72
69
60
68
70
67
64
57
65
70
73
60
Belka
Mathias
64
67
72
62
70
70
66
53
60
66
71
64
61
Egger
Mike Aaron
65
68
67
54
67
72
65
59
64
68
66
62
54
Svab
Gasper
66
72
71
64
70
69
66
54
58
67
64
70
64
Möhlmann
Peter
70
54
56
64
71
64
67
64
74
77
77
61
64
The team gives an opportunity of leadership to many riders, and the team looks at giving itself a good showing during the series of cycling races.
Leaders:
Stefan Schafer: A rider with good ability to get over the hills and the ability to time trial pretty well gives Schafer the ability to captain the team in races like the Tour du Haut Var, Vuelta a Andalucia and Trofeo Matteotti. Other than that, he can be relied upon as a top domestique.
Peter Möhlmann: He is the teams only sprinter, he will have to rely on other sprint trains to get to the line, with the team not expecting much from him so top 9's will be great for the team.
Gasper Svab: The teams best climber, although he lacks time trial ability, the team can hope for him to do pretty well in tough mountainous stages and can be an outsider for an overall victory. Svab can also ride for himself or for the benefit of the team in races like Vuelta a Andalucia because of his decent hill abilities.
Sven Krauss: He is the leader for the Tour of Rutland. Other than that, he will be a good team mate other the flats and can possibly be given the chance to break-away.
John St Ledger in Team Bunzl-Centrica and Team U25
Peter Hawkins is undoubtedly our best sprinter and he will lead us on all flat stages. He can also climb some hills so unless the stage is too steep he will be able to contend for the win.
Radomir Simunek is our best classics specialist, and he will no doubt lead us at the Tour of Rutland. We are also looking forward to his downhilling ability in some of the other races, as he could easily be one of the best descenders, given he places an attack.
Tomasz Nose is our climber/GC guy. We will be going for him on every mountain stage. He has shown that his ability to recover is exceptional and no doubt he will be our man when it comes to mountainous stage races.
Team Goals
Let's be blunt: Node4 is a pure sprinting team, with only a couple of climbers and one cobbler. That means we will focus on getting stage wins in stage races; our main focus of the season is obviously to achieve good results in the flat classics.
Top 20 Tour of Rutland - 25th - Simunek Top 3 on Stage Tour du Haut Var - Stage 1 - Cassidy (4th) Finish Tour of Andorra - 31-01-14, BONUS: Nose - Stage Podium Stage win(s) Giro di Pandania - Stage 3 - Hawkins Stage win(s) Vuelta a Andalucia Points Jersey Bayern Rundfahrt - 6th - Hawkins Top 15 Trofeo Matteotti Top 5 Launceston to New Norfolk Classic Podium Copa America de Ciclismo - 9th - Hawkins Win Hiroshima Circuit - 10th - Hawkins
An interview with the DS
What was the logic behind the free agent signings?
Ideally we always want to sign riders that are important to the sponsor's region but we realised that Mountains and Cobbles were too much of a weakness to ignore.
Who may be your biggest rival?
Definitely Miche. Their DS by the name of B. Lover and I are always at it in the sprint stages. We will admit that they are better but that doesn't mean we can't beat them!
What happened when the Tour of Andorra route was revealed?
I found myself in the emergency room, they told me I suffered from a heart attack.
Edited by 547984 on 15-02-2014 21:28
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
In an unusual press conference earlier today Ulrich Ulriksen manager of iBanesto.com, the Madrid-based cycling team, admitted to being "clueless".
He went on to say "that he had no idea why a Spanish team with a Spanish-speaking roster would hire him as general manager" but that he would "give it a go" and that "while most of his experience is in the small appliance industry he had watched the Tour De France a few times".
He also commented that he was "glad to have the young Austrian Postlberger on the team because that made two of them who didn't understand anything going on in team meetings."
As far as the season ahead he said that "as a team of Spanish climbers we will obviously target Andorra, Andalusia and Padania with our best riders" and "try to persuade the rest of the boys to show up at the remaining races". He finished his comments on the season plan saying that his "biggest hope was that one of the team would actually finish the Tour of Rutland inside the time limit"
He concluded the press conference cheerfully, noting that "if we don't win anything at least I have already got a good recipe for fried plantains from Pedro [Sibila Romero, one of two Cuban riders on the team]"
Thanks sutty, it's the first time I've been doing anything serious on the site in the past week.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Fan Hsin Chu:
Specialisation: Climber
Important Stats: MOU:73, HILL: 72, RES:70, ACC:72
Fan Hsin Chu will be our main leader in the mountains, we think that with both his mountain and hill abilities combined, he's the best climber in the division. Needless to say he will lead us in the mountains.
Dario Diaz:
Specialisation: Sprinter
Important Stats: FL:70, MOU:65, HILL:64, TT:72, STA:70, SP:75, ACC:74, PRL:74
Dario is a real gem that we picked up from free agency, with great sprinting ability, and enough climbing skill to shake off other sprinters uphill, Dario is a huge contender for all sprint finishes wether in the peloton or a reduced bunch. Diaz is also a good time-trialist, and make look for some good results riding alone, too.
Parno Parno:
Specialisation: Climber
Important Stats: MOU:70, HILL:72, STA:71, FIGHT:73
Adam Pierzga:
Important Stats: SP:75, ACC:77
Chin Lung Huang:
Shengjun Wu
Shinagawa Masahiro
Badr Mohamed Banihammad
Rudolf Zhilenko
Objectives
TOP 35-TOUR OF RUTLAND
Fuji are definitely an all-rounded team, but what we don't have is a cobblestone rider.
STAGE WIN(S)-TOUR DU HAUT VAR
WIN-TOUR OF ANDORRA
The biggest race of the season, it should be tough, but I believe in the team.
TOP 3-GIRO DI PADANIA
STAGE WIN(S) AND TOP 3-VUELTA A ANDALUCIA
STAGE WIN(S) AND KOM JERSEY-BAYERN RUNDFAHRT
TOP 5-TROFEO MATTEOTI
TOP 12-LAUNCESTON TO NEW NORFOLK CLASSIC
TOP 3-COPA AMERICA DE CICLISMO
WIN-HIROSHIMA CIRCUIT
Press conference with the manager coming soon.Edited by Cycleman123 on 31-08-2013 04:58
Tour of Rutland
Sven Vanthourenhout
Tour du Haut Var
Jose Eriberto Rodrigues
Tour d'Andorra
Giro di Padania
Vuelta a Andalucia
Bayern Rundfahrt
Berden De Vries
Launceston to New Norfolk
Hiroshima Curcuit
Gasper Svab: The teams best climber, although he lacks time trial ability, the team can hope for him to do pretty well in tough mountainous stages and can be an outsider for an overall victory. Svab can also ride for himself or for the benefit of the team in races like Vuelta a Andalucia because of his decent hill abilities.
