There's no rest for the wicked, and those youngsters who don't enjoy the cobbles will be hoping for happier days later in the season. Event 2 is the youth version of the prestigious british race, the Lincoln GP, centered around the famous cobbled climb of the Michaelgate. This wicked hill averages 7.7% with the central cobbled section peaking at 14.45! Once beyond the climb there is no rest around the windy top section of the course, bring the riders back once more into Lincoln centre for 12 laps in total!
The Riders
We've got 84 riders here today for the Lincoln JGP, and once again, our scout will give you a quick rundown of who he believes are going to contest the top5 spots when we reach the final lap through Lincoln in 102 miles time.
2.5km: Scotland are clearly hoping for further breakaway success after Maldon, Trotter wastes no time in making an early attack.
12km: As they begin the first climb of the Michaelgate, we have a group of 8 1'18 in front. Trotter lead the move, and with him are; Clarke(IRE), Evans(LON), Garcia(NWA), Juvarei(BIR), Hughes(PLY), Jones(CMB) and Quilter(LEI)
14km: Birmingham and Bristol force a fast pace up the climb, and rip a group of 22 off the front of the pack, However very few favourites are included, it seems they just overcalculated the pace on the climb
20km: The race is in disarray, G1 is the break, G2 is a 17man group including Birmingham favourite Butler, G3 is a 23 man group 54" further back, including most favourites, and G4 is a second favourites group being desperately paced by Leeds who've really missed the boat here
25km: G2 and G3 coalesce as they hit the Michaelgate once more, it's not looking good for Leeds' group, also containing Miller of Birmingham, and MD tour winner Jason Daniels.
35km: Manchester keep the pace high and pull another 22man group away from the pack. very similar makeup, but Leicesters Grizliacki is the biggest man caught off guard by the early pressure
40km: The break is caught and it seems to be all coming back together after a manic start, the question remains though, how many legs will be feeling that ferocious start?
57km: Trotter is lone out front as we complete the first third, behind the peloton is fairly close together, though the steep thin Michaelgate is splitting riders up every lap. Scotland are 105km away from a solo victory.
70km: Leicester come to the front and begin setting a higher tempo for leader Grizliacki. He's been out of place today a few times, so perhaps a way of holding station?
80km: With half the race complete we see a move from a trio of favourites. London District's Rogers instigates the move, followed by Carl Griffin of Plymouth and Tersno of Bristol.
95km: This group swells to 5 men with the addition of Sanchez of North Wales and Thomas of Cumbria. They sit 31" behind leader Trotter, and 1'49 ahead of the 30man group with all favourites except Butler of Birmingham.
105km: A trio of riders from Leicester manage to pull clear over the Michaelgate with 57km remaining. They take with them Paszek and Reynolds from Manchester, and Davies of Cardiff, leaving Horler of Leeds setting the pace in the chase group trying to shut them down.
50km remaining: The chase group have caught the 6 man breakaway. G2 follows at 1'21. containing the favourites not in G1
40km: 9 men from G2 make the passage across to the front group, the remainder follow at 54" with Leeds again the big losers, with none of their 3 riders making the split.
36km: The 24man front group becomes a 17man front group thanks to the work of Leicester. They have 5 men present here, and are making full use of that fact to pack on the pain.
25km: Leicester keep piling on the hurt as we climb yet again, incredibly impressive work from Leicester boys: Hope, Poulson, Matzik and Grizliacki!
20km: Rogers(LON) becomes the latest casualty as they further reduce the group to just 15men. Bristol seem to have had a change of leader, with Tersno now fetching bottles for Hassan Wandro!
15km: Griffin of Plymouth decides he can't just sit around waiting for the Leicester and Cumbria trains to pull it home, he goes on the offencive. As the last man from his team, it's all or nothing from Plymouth!
10km: The attack peeters out to nothing, but as we make the penultimate climb the pain is obvious for some; The bristol duo, Miller(BIR), Andrews(CMB and Davies(CAR) all have to fight just to hang on, unless it's a bluff they look to be fighting for minor positions now...
6km: In an incredible display, Leicester still have 4 at the front controlling the pace, perhaps they targeted this race, they certainly seem to have the team together perfectly so far!
2.8km it's a melee out in front with everyone fighting to be first man onto the climb...
1600m... The scene is as above, Leicester have 1 and 2, but launched very early, will they be cooked on the Michaelgates savage gradients?
300m... Impossible to tell the minor placings, but Grizliacki looks set to open his account for the year in a Leicester 1-2!
It's a Leicester 1-2, with Jason Daniels continuing his fine form to grab the final podium place.
Below I've outlined the race scoring system for both points and money, I'm aware it's not perfect, particularly for individual stages within a race, but this is only a first season and I can iron out the creases that are going to appear, as we go along. Firstly, points and funding for classics:
Classics Scoring System
Scoring System
Points
Fund
1st
45
£2,250
2nd
35
£1,750
3rd
30
£1,500
4th
26
£1,300
5th
22
£1,100
6th
20
£1,000
7th
18
£900
8th
16
£800
9th
14
£700
10th
12
£600
11th
10
£500
12th
8
£400
13th
6
£300
14th
4
£200
15th
2
£100
It's a scale which makes you aim high, with a graduated scale making the higher places considerably more valuable than those lower down, better to send one leader and aim top 5, than put in a couple and hope for 2 in the top15.
Stage Race Scoring System
Stage
Fund
GC
Fund
Points/KotM
Fund
15
£1,125.00
135
£4,725.00
95
£3,200.00
12
£875.00
105
£3,675.00
75
£2,600.00
10
£750.00
90
£3,150.00
65
£2,200.00
9
£650.00
78
£2,730.00
55
£1,900.00
7
£550.00
66
£2,310.00
45
£1,600.00
7
£500.00
60
£2,100.00
40
£1,400.00
6
£450.00
54
£1,890.00
35
£1,200.00
5
£400.00
48
£1,680.00
30
£1,000.00
5
£350.00
42
£1,470.00
25
£850.00
4
£300.00
36
£1,260.00
20
£700.00
3
£250.00
30
£1,050.00
16
£550.00
3
£200.00
24
£840.00
12
£450.00
2
£150.00
18
£630.00
8
£350.00
1
£100.00
12
£420.00
5
£300.00
1
£50.00
6
£210.00
2
£250.00
In the multi day events, there is money to be had across the board, whilst points scoring on individual days may seem limited, there's profit in it for the teams who are sprint orientated, 2 wins and a points jersey is actually more profitable than just winning the GC!
With a bit of luck this will make every day worth fighting for, and give us the spectacle we hope for here in the Youth Cycling League!
Training
Just a small update to the training details we already have, now that I can give you the monetary and energy costs of arranging a camp. Booking will cost you £2000, per rider, per day. This coupled with a cost of 1 race day per day away might make training seem unattractive, but remember 4 days away could give your rider a permanant boost of up to +4 temporary stat points in key stats and a permanant +2! Potentially the edge over your rivals and enough to grab a big win when the team needs it most!
After 2 cobbled events to open up the calendar on home soil, the SCL takes its' first trip to foreign shores for the first stage race on this years calendar; Il Giro Del Trentino. The race is only 4 days in length, but that will be the last thing on the mind of anyone who doesn't love to climb.
The Queen stage on day 3 finishes up the much feared Punta Veleno, whose unrelenting 12.5% gradients persist for almost 8 kilometers! If that wasn't enough, throw in a TTT and 2 more days in the mountains, and you've got a very different event to the first 2 days on the calendar.
The Riders
80 riders have made the trip to Italy for what ought to be an outstanding few days, and as ever ladies and gentleman, our scout is on hand to give you the run down on who's hot, and later on, who's not!
Favourites
Rider
Team
Strength
Weakness
L.Williams
London
All Round Star
Small Team
I.Anderson
Ireland
Climbs forever
DH's like a helium balloon
J.Taylor
Cumbria
Explosive
Will suffer in TT's
J.Davies
Leeds
Can be cracked
Great support cast
B.Padlo
Manchester
No Support
Loves attacking
So there you have it, a recipe, a stage, check back soon to see it unfurl!
