Nah, I wont stop complaining. Whatever points Vysna lost here (13th is still 10 spots too high), Kulhavy just makes up by taking 3rd, 3rdKOM and jumping 10 or so spots... and Novak still underperforming (he should be atleast similar to those)...
I gotta admit that the second half of the race wasn't really that enjoyable for us, but of course that only was because Herklotz occupied a GC position far above his current climbing ability.
7th is way higher than I would've expected before the race, and the same final result as in his first stage race Tirreno-Adriatico with the added bonus of the white jersey here.
In a season full of underperformances or odd AI for us, Herklotz certainly is the silver lining and I hope he can continue this level of performance in his remaining races. May this triple header be what re-ignites our spirits.
Bongiorno slightly recovered for a Top 20 as well, and Dunne showed good fighting spirit to put himself into some breaks. Together with Bevin, he therefore breaks into the Top 50 for extra points.
In terms of the overall, congrats Wiesenhof, I certainly start to fear you in the rankings now. We got mostly lucky though with direct opposition being victims of a lot of crashes. Commiserations to the ones suffering here.
All in all, a very enjoyable race thanks in great part to great reports. Thanks jandal!
I know bananas are mostly reserved for victories but this feels sweeter than some of my previous victories.
10th GC, KoM jersey, 2nd on the stage: This would feel like a victory in any startlist with the climbing core that i have but its even more special in a start list like this with Madrazo and Alarcon close behind him.
Congrats to Heine as well. Taaramae is a beast! Great to see him proving it again
It's Evonik everywhere! Congratulations on an amazing race, knockout! And also congratulations to SN on Reguigui's wildcard win. Eventhough Schleck failed to test Taaramäe, surely a stage win is a nice way to end the race, even when it's for the other team
Taaramäe making his intentions clear for the Tour, no doubts he's the big favourite going into it. Congrats, Heine! Though, Spilak wasn't here, and the Tour really should be between them. And with all the hills there, combined with Spilak's great abilities on that terrain, that could easily be another story.
Looking at my own team, this ended like a race to forget after Beltran abandoned. Though, what he showed before abandoning was encouraging, as there is a Volta a Portugal looming, where he hopefully can make use of his abilities on the hills, and take advantage of them compared to other GC riders.
And thank you for the great and consistent reporting, jandal7!
Great race for us. This could well have costed us a bucketload of points had Machado not performed so well against such opposition. I imagine that bringing so-called "Mr Party pooper" was a big factor in helping him achieve that.
Thanks for all the entertaining reports jandal. Congrats Heine and everyone else!
Don`t get why Keizer sucks that much so often. It`s not only the hill stages he lacks strength. He is also really hard to predict as he has far too many bad days and his TT advantage too often does not work neither.
Hence for him a disappointing result.
Good that his "helper" Olivier did better and deliver the top10. This way at least point wise about what I expected. Just in different order.
No real leader, no trouble. Vysna clearly on some crazy stuff, 13th place in this competition is an incredible result. In addition Kulhavy doing exactly what I paid him for: going for breakaways and KOMs. What a nice race in his comeback season in my team. What a race for Moser boys.
Incredible startlist: Taaramae winning as expected. But wow, would expect Schleck or Dombrowski doing better here. Madrazo somehow traditionally underperforming a lot, sadly. Also too bad to see Alarcon to fail here, as well as Keizer.
Sadly my attempt to send Vakoc here for that HIL stage failed a lot. But on the other way: Vesely! Fantastic to see him winning in PT stages. Looks like his training paid off here.
But once again, what a race from Vysna. Incredible, I don't understand how, but amazing.
Yates was due a bad race at some point, and with this startlist I can't be too disappointed with 16th - realistically he should have finished ahead of a few riders who beat him, but likewise riders like Keizer should have beaten him.
Did enjoy the dominance of Taaramae as well. Had him rated as the best stage racer bar Spilak prior to training - so not too shocked that he's turned into this machine. Great reports jandal!
