alexkr00 wrote:
@SotD, except for Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha, I doubt would be able to finish 7th or better in those races. I think he would even struggle for top 10s.
And yes, I prefer him winning a race than doing anonymous top 10s for pretty much the same amount of points.
I definately understand that. I also brought Simon Spilak to the Tour de France this season (and the season before that) even though he would normally score better elsewhere. Now he ended up getting a podium and a lucky TdF win instead, which is much better for me
It's difficult to say where he would end up, having not ridden in those races much, but these are the latest results I can find:
Liege-Bastogne-Liege: 5th
Giro di Lombardia: 6th
Fleche Wallone: 9th
That would have given 299 points + whatever he could have scored in Praha
Interesting though to see, how little you have actually used Gesink as a puncheur, considering that he have pretty great stats for that (especially before the acceleration stat became hugely important).
GC-wise this race did not live up to my expectations, wanted at least a top 30 out of this race but backup stats struck me in the face.
But three standout performances on three stages by three different riders made this race a success for me. Sarmiento's stage win and 4th place in the KoM, Barton's prologue and Haga's final time trial.
What a month it's been for us, from buried in the relegation zone to having a comfortable gap to those behind us.
Congrats Podium Ambition on the final stage win, and congrats eBuddy and Gesink!
Eh. Congrats Podium Ambition, but that's symbolic for our whole season: just not quite enough.
We leave with stage results of 1 2 2 3 4 5 5, which would be okay if we didn't (objectively) throw away three more stage wins.
We leave with 2 29 44 45 in the GC, which would be okay if that 29th wasn't our worst climber in the lineup and if we didn't have three of the 10 best climbers in this race, of which two crashed out of contention incredibly early. I think Nerz doesn't score a single point here.
We leave with a jersey and 2nd and 4th in another, which is okay.
So overall, we leave the most anticipated race of our season with a luckily only barely failed sponsor goal, but still really disappointed.
I guess we need to learn from this and plan differently next season. It was worth trying (we still covered all stage races with a good climber), but PCM can't handle it.
Thanks Abhishek for great reporting, congrats eBuddy for exploiting this race, wake me up when transfer season starts.
First off, thanks to AbhishekLFC for awesome reporting, and eBuddy for a great win by Gesink.
Well, by and large it was a pretty anonymous week for us, but we expected that. Bright spots were Mendes's stage win and Lundberg's 3rd in the KOM, among some breakaway chances for our guys, but there were no huge point hauls. Biggest disappointment was Bertilsson. Some of these stages were great for his style, like today, and he just didn't sprint. He had absolutely no interest. That's really bad looking ahead at Tour of America, where he has my lead sprint role. But we'll see.
RIP Exxon Duke, David Veilleux, Double Feature, and Monster Energy
Standard Yates race, overperforming and racking up points from stage results - slightly dreading renewals now
Shame he couldn't push on from a strong start and secure 3rd, but 4th is still a very good result, and Keinath is a better rider so finishing behind him shouldn't be surprising. Getting a stage win and some time in the lead compensates for that though, and not being far behind Gesink and Herklotz was an achievement in itself.
Great reporting as well Abhishek, really enjoyed reading the race
Thanks to everyone who've said nice things about the reports, I'm glad you liked them
I felt the race never really kicked off past stage 4, once Gesink re-took the lead. The GC contenders mostly finished the stages together. The result being a foregone conclusion was highlighted by Gesink actually catching Herklotz in the TT. Despite how close the race was till then, this was the moment which summed up the race for me actually! Just a couple of aggressive moments from Keinath and Beltran to put time into their rivals. Apparently PCM felt that the specialist punchers were not a threat at all and none of them came even close to competing for stage wins. Otherwise, we could've been in for a wilder ride.
@cio: Without re-checking the results, I think your riders finished in every top 10 position barring 7th in the stages
Disgraceful race. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. This was a race I was expecting to help up secure our position in the PT. It has become exactly the opposite.
In any case a beautifully planned race from ebudy. Congrats alex, great victory! And cheers to everyone else who got a nice result.
Disgraceful race. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. This was a race I was expecting to help up secure our position in the PT. It has become exactly the opposite.
In any case a beautifully planned race from ebudy. Congrats alex, great victory! And cheers to everyone else who got a nice result.
Stage 8 was a great outcome for Keinath. Bonus seconds help, but just the stage result of 3rd is already a good thing.
A real shame that Keinath was the last to act then on the mountain stage, left himself too much to do, and couldn't get back to Yates.
But that wasn't something to worry too much about, with the TT to come, and a great performance on Stage 10 to equal Kittel, and return to the podium. With Haga beating Kittel, I feared the climbs has taken their toll but actually, 3rd is a good TT result for Kittel - to make up for the prologue. Nice Top 10 for Jungels too.
3rd in GC, 3rd in the Points competiton. Great race for Keinath, to end a great Dauphine/Tour/Portugal run for him. Very happy with how his first season at Vesuvio has turned out.
Thanks for the reports Abhishek, and congrats to alex for Gesink's win.
