Could not be more pleased. Eisel more than made up for his mental lapse at Dwars Door Vlanderen. I am also very pleased with the work and effort put into this race by our #2 cobbler Matti Breschel. That work helped Eisel have just enough to win.
Taillefour was a huge surprise, I saw him as an early pace maker in these cobbled races not a point earner. Great ride for him.
A podium would have been great and I was expecting a Bpost / HTC Niuewsblad shootout but for once we got it right.
Pretty nearly doubled our season points total with a race total of 185. Still so far off the leader board, but a tiny gap away from the jaws of relegation.
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Cobbler fans -- it will take me into next week to get the IWT Oetingen and E3 Prijs summaries written and all of the stats updated. Plus we have house guests this weekend and Paris-Roubaix is on tv Sunday, so any cycling time will be limited. Look to publish maybe a week from today - Thursday 11th (if I get up early and stay focused maybe Wednesday)
========================================= Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
Thanks for another great race report. All of the reporters arre doing a great job this year. The excellent cobble race reports really make it much easer for me to write the race summaries for the Cobbler.
========================================= Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
Argh so close. Still a great result for Albert means that I didn't lose too many points compared to a win result. Still, winning would have been nice. Congrats to Amex though, with all the work that Mhaley puts into the cobbled part of this game it feels right for him to win this.
I honestly would have been happy with a top5 and thrilled to get a podium spot.
During the transfer season when I had Eisel and Breschel as targets the vision I had was the E3 result. Matti Breschel doing the hard work to set up and deliver Eisel into the final kilometer with the leaders. Eisel then sets up 2nd or 3rd wheel and sprints to the win.
Too bad he is on his last legs. It would be fun so see that same replay run again and again over the next couple seasons.
I really love writing the Cobbler and just putting them together and having you guys enjoy them is more than repayment. The ManGame is a fun hobby especially when you live and die on your own decisions (and a few wierd AI choices by PCM).
In April you will see Eisel and Breschel switch gears and move into thier roles as sprinter domestiques. Hel van Het Mergelland will unveil thier dual purpose roles on this team. It will also be the debut of American Sprinter Tyler Farrar. I have many fears this strategy will fail because of the high rider averages but it just might work and if it does work our sprint squad will improve (right now we are at zero, so improving is relative).
Here is hoping that all of our cycling starved American mangers will get up early on Sunday to watch Paris-Roubaix on American TV and then we can log on to PCMDaily and read about the same race from our own Pro Tour.
========================================= Team Manager of AMEX - Navigon
Editor of the Cobbler
