Its November 2008, and the cycling road season is complete. Allesandro Ballan is World Champion, and Carlos Sastre has won the Tour, whilst Alberto Contador has won both the Giro and the Vuelta. More importantly though, Roger Legeay is bored. Bored because, for the first time since 1986 he isn’t managing a cycling team. The reason is simple. Credit Agricole, the largest retail banking group in France, and the 8th largest in the world, has pulled out of cycling.
This is a disaster for French cycling. The Credit Agricole cycling team, in existence from 1998, was the follow-on team from GAN, which followed on from Z, which followed on from Z-Peugeot, which followed on from the legendary Peugeot team! Past riders include Greg Lemond, Chris Boardman, Robert Millar, Bernard Thevenet and the great Eddy Merckx. In more recent times, Thor Hushovd won the Tour’s Green jersey for the team in 2005, and the Vuelta points classification in 2006.
As the month draws to a close, Roger’s telephone rings. It is Rene Carron, Chairman of the CA Board of Directors. “Roger”, he says, “the banking crisis has intensified, but we are doing better than expected. Third Quarter net income is actually up from last year. We are continuing with our sponsorship of the Dauphine and the shareholders have agreed that we can fund a team for next year, although at a much reduced level of investment. We’d like you to manage the team……”.
That’s it, we’re back!
Far too late to get a Pro-Tour place, and with almost all of the team’s old riders entered into new contracts for the 2009 season, the battle is on to scrape together a team for the Pro-Continental Tour.
After some frantic phone calls to former riders, most of which ended with bad news, progress has been made. 4 former riders are available to renew their old contracts
Nicolas Roche
Christophe Le Mevel
Pierre Rolland
Laszlo Bodrogi
Its not much, but it’s a start!
Next.....Who else can Roger the Dodger get to fill the ranks? And what bikes will they ride?
With a core group of riders in place, Roger can now approach young U23 riders who shone at the Worlds, or out of contract and out of favour riders, and try to secure some good names for the team.
Wheeling and dealing like the old pro that he is, Roger cons....errr....persuades Jack Bobridge, Adriano Malori and Romain Sicard to join the team as future stars in the making, and Jose Rujano and Vladimir Gusev bring much needed experience to the team.
As January approaches, the 20-man squad is finalised
The main riders are obviously Roche, Le Mevel and Rujano, as all three can climb, and Roche has a decent sprint on him. Bodrogi, Peraud and McCann can’t be discounted for possible Time Trial stage victories either. In fact, we could probably field a very good Team Time Trial!
With a squad in place, secondary sponsors are approached, and after some negotiation, the following deals are reached
The team now has the following race objectives for the season
Everyone in the team is happy that the goals are not too outrageous, although top 10 placings in the GP de Plouay and Criterium International will require a little luck as well as good form, and winning the 4 Jours de Dunkerque will be a tall order!
Long term the objective is clearly to return to the Pro-Tour, but with the financial climate probably limiting our main sponsor’s ability to pay in the next year or two, we need to focus on getting some good results and developing the young talent on the team.
Equipment is a difficulty, and Legeay is forced to dig out, dust off and remove the sweat and B.O. from the old 2008 jerseys! The bikes, however, are nowhere to be found, and new off-the-shelf equipment is bartered for!
First up, our two Australians compete in the National Championships....
Jack Bobridge, one of our emerging stars, models the new TT bikes with Zipp wheels
and they obviously suit him as he scores a wonderful 2nd behind Cadel Evans. Travis Meyer, our other young Australian, finishes in an excellent 8th place
A couple of days later, both return for the Road Race. Travis Meyer, here, looks great on our Cervelo S3 bikes.
Thor Hushovd, bless him, managed to sweet talk the Cervelo management to cut us a deal on a bunch of bikes, and we modify them with a bit of green tape to match them to our jerseys! If we like them, we'll keep them for the season, but if we can find a bike sponsor then we'll switch mid-season.
Jack Bobridge, was again active in the race, and ended up in the final break of the day, with Evans and O'Grady
before running out of steam at the end and coming home in a superb 5th place. Travis Meyer again overachieves, and comes out of the pack on the second to last lap to finish in 6th.
Overall, a great start to the season. Next up, We've been tango'd....its the Tour de San Luis......
We decide to go for an early start to the season, to try to build some confidence whilst a lot of riders are still in preseason training, so enter the Tour de San Luis in Argentina. This race clashes with the Tour Down Under, so we shouldn't see any really great riders here, giving us a chance to get some good results under our belts.
Tour de San Luis
This is an interesting week-long stage race, with a 20km TT, hilly stage and 2 mountain stages determining the GC, and some flat stages for the sprinters.
We're sending a strong squad, containing the in-form Meyer and Bobridge, Peraud and Bodrogi for the TT, and Rujano and Roche for the GC. Nic Roche has great pedigree, but has never been allowed the opportunity to really shine in any of the races he’s competed. New he is our Team Leader, and we let him know that we expect this faith to be repaid! Credit Agricole wants to send a message with this race....WE ARE BACK!
Stage 1
Stage 1 is one for the sprinters, but with a KOM sprint after only 12km, a quick attack from Rujano or Roche could put our man in the climber's jersey!
Sure enough, Rujano attacks, and quickly gets himself the victory in the KOM sprint. He'll be in the climber's jersey tomorrow - the sponsors should be happy with the exposure, even if it is in Argentina!
The rest of the stage goes as you would expect, with the BOTD being brought back in to the peloton with about 10km to ride, and a scrappy sprint begins with Nic Roche near the front
But he can't quite make it past the line first, and has to settle for 2nd behind Barbosa of Palmeiras
A good start, although Travis Meyer finished behind the pack after a fall. No damage done though! Worryingly, however, Barbosa is not only the best sprinter in the field, but also the best climber – if he wins In the mountains he could be unbeatable on the GC.
Halvor wrote:
This is awesome! But why don't ride on Cervelo TT bikes?
Great start!
Good question. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to secure a big sponsor agreement with a manufacturer, so are having to beg steal and borrow our equipment. Thor managed to get us some Cervelo road bikes as a thank you for his time with Credit Agricole in the past, but no TT bikes.....so we make do!
(actually, it just gives me an excuse to change which bikes I use in-game from time to time, to make use of the fantastic range of new frames in the db )
Rujano attacks up the first climb, and takes the KOM sprint, to extend his lead in the competition.
the rest of the stage is fairly dull, and the peloton returns together for the final 12km climb. Roche and Rujano (Roche wearing the points jersey) lead the pack up the climb as both are feeling good today, and manage to attack away in the final 2km to win the stage (I thought I'd taken a screenshot over the line, but clearly hadn't!)
Rujano takes the lead in the GC and extends his dominance over the KOM competition. Our first race back from the brink and we are in Yellow!
Stage 3
Day 3, and a 19km pan-flat Time Trial, gives our other riders a day to shine. Tom Zirbel will be the main competition to Perraud and Bodrogi today.
Zirbel and Peraud match each other neck and neck early on in the stage, with Zirbel setting the early pace, but neither are on particularly good form today, as Bodrogi catches his 2-minute man to beat Zirbel's time by over 30 seconds!
Bobridge rides in next, and has a stormer of a day, coming in only 20 seconds behind Bodrogi
This early in the season, daily form and general fitness can play a massive part in results, and Barbosa and Rujano are clearly in great shape, as they finish 3rd and 5th respectively on the day.
Rujano and Roche remain in 1st and 2nd place overall, but Barbosa pulls back time on both of them.
Next, a hilly stage and Mountain stage! Will the GC be decided tomorrow or the day after?
Stage 4 is a hilly one, bordering on mountainous, and with some long old drags up this one will suit all of the GC favourites
A very large break of over 20 riders forms before the first climb, and our man Travis Meyer is in there to defend the Mountain jersey being held by race leader Jose Rujano.
The story of the next few climbs is our man Meyer out-sprinting Muller of Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse, who clearly wants the jersey!
The pack brings the break back on the final climb, and with 20 km to race Roche and Rujano attack, and Barbosa follows
The favourites ride the final descent together, and only the time bonus on the line will separate them today!
On the line its close, but Roche gets the stage win, with Barbosa in 2nd, and Rujano getting 3rd
It’s a 3 horse race for the GC at the moment, and we are in a very strong position
with this squad you are doing better than old Credit Agricole 
