The Rider: At the moment not. We hope to improve that in the future. Yeah, probably a bit too much. And there are still some more races coming this season. But we'll see how things will happen.
sutty68: He's doing very well indeed. But we hope to get something more, because our strongest squad is here.
Today we had a chance to win the mountain jersey, and why not? We gave it a try and attacked with Watson. He was at de 42nd position our lowest rider in the classification.
And it started good for us. We got a breakaway with eight riders. Our biggest concurrent for the mountain jersey was Amador. Tomorrow there aren’t any mountain sprints, so it had to happen today.
But first the intermediate sprints. Watson was very good today and he won that sprint.
And he also won the second intermediate sprint. Nice job! The lead was around eight minutes for the breakaway. But then, the first mountain sprint. As expected, Amador won that sprint. Watson was second.
The second mountain sprint was kinda weird. Watson won, but Amador didn’t even tried to get any points. Why? It was strange. But Watson had now eight points, and Amador five. But then, there were several attacks from inside the peloton. There were also attacks in the breakaway. When Amador attacked, we had to attack too, so we did. The last mountain sprint was almost there. Watson was in third position, Amador in fourth. But with a great sprint, Amador managed to win the sprint! NOOOOOO! Watson finished fourth, and he didn’t take any mountain points. He lost the jersey by two points. Too bad for us. But the bad luck wasn’t over. In the last ten kilometres, there were many falls in the peloton. Almost all of our riders fell. Also Burton, who was at the 13th position in the classification. Luckily for us Watson didn’t fell and was our only rider who didn’t lost any time.
Felline won by a really small margin the sprint against Downing. Watson is now sixteenth in the classification. A stage with double feelings for us. We were good in the breakaway, but lost the mountain jersey by two points and seven of our eight riders lost time. Tomorrow is the final stage. We hope to be there too.
sutty68: I hope so. This was a really bad luck day for us.
Totally forgot to update the results. From now one, I didn't forgot to export the results (well, most of the time) so they will be part of the reports from now on.
The last stage of the Circuit Sarthe. We had luck today; Watson started at the front of the peloton. Why was that luckily for us? Because there was an intermediate sprint after seven kilometres. And there are bonification seconds to win.
So Watson attacked, took those seconds, and got back into the peloton. And there were many attacks. Also a few of our riders tried it. There was a breakaway with seven or eight riders, but the gap to the peloton was only one minute, so a lot of riders saw their chance to get in the breakaway too. And because of that, the breakaway got bigger to seventeen riders, and the peloton caught them. It’s all about timing! The third intermediate sprint was coming up. Oh, yes, Hill won the second intermediate sprint. But with the third sprint in sight, Watson attacked and got those seconds, and let him fall back into the peloton. Easy!
After that, a serious breakaway was coming up, with Freire. They got 5 minutes, but the peloton wanted them back, so they started chasing them. And of course, they were chanceless.
And again, as if we hadn’t have enough of them, a crash appeared. Happily none of our riders was involved at that crash. With five kilometres to go, the peloton was completely chaos. Rogers saw his chance and attacked! Will he stay against the peloton?
No, he didn’t. With 1500 meters to go, the peloton passed him in the sprint. Traksel thought that he won, but it was Ciolek who got his first win of the season here! Too bad for Ciolek, but he finished second in the general classification, at “0 seconds behind winner Vicioso. Watson raised from 16 to 12 in the general classification, which is absolutely not bad for us. We saw some chances in this race. We lost some of them, but we also took a few. And we’re happy about that.
Sorry guys, there's another break coming up as I'm on holiday this week. I'm back at friday so probably then will be a new report, at least there will be one next weekend.
Okay guys, time for some good news. I'll get a new computer with a much better graphic card (at least, I hope it's much better ) so from now on I can play PCM on high graphics. The screenshots will be better as well. The next report will be posted tonight or tomorrow and I can say that it's not a race report. So stay tuned.
Today is my first conversation with our sponsors about our results. It looks like they’re a bit disappointed, especially Hot-Wheels. I don’t know the reason why they wanted to talk to me, so I’m a bit nervous.
Hot-Wheels: MrUfo87, nice to meet you again. Me: Just as me. Why do you want to talk to me? Hot-Wheels: Well, I don’t know if you already know it, but we’re a bit disappointed with the season so far. Me: Why? We’re just doing great. Especially with the riders we’ve got. Hot-Wheels: That could be, but we’re not happy with our results as a sponsor. The sponsorship doesn’t give our much profit. And the budget for your team isn’t that low. Me: True, but I already said about the budget that it won’t be low, especially because you wanted expensive trainers. That’s why we also had to look for a secondary sponsor. Hot-Wheels: Yes, we knew about the costs. But the profit of our company isn’t what we expected after we started this team. The riders aren’t popular enough and the results they ride aren’t in knowledge races. Me: Yes, but what do you expect? These riders are all in their first year as a pro. Don’t expect the greatest results of them this year. Maybe it cost a lot of money now to train them, but we’ll have the results in a few years. And that’s also what I told you before you started the sponsorship. Hot-Wheels: Of course. But you said that we could have some objectives during the season, and we could decide these objectives. So we did. But you’re completely ignoring them! You only started in two of these races so far and you didn’t even reached the objective! As you understand, we’re not happy with that. Me: I can see that you’re new in the world of cycling, but let me explain. You chose your objectives, but when I see those races are too ‘big’ for our team, I won’t start there. Why? Because we can’t achieve the objective. I prefer starting in races where we can get results, not races where the sponsors want us to start. The Ronde van Drenthe wasn’t a goal, but I decided to start there and see, two victories. So I know you’re a bit bothered because I’m ignoring your objectives, but I choose the best for our team. Especially this year, because the cyclists aren’t that good. Next year it’ll be easier to get these results, and then we’ll start at much more races which are sponsor goals. Hot-Wheels: Okay, that’s a good explanation. But still, we expect some more results. Me: Please, give me some time. When you started the sponsorship you only wanted young talents. And it’s difficult to perform with a team like this. But of course we will start in the races in the United States, which are very important to your company. Hot-Wheels: Okay, that’s our first point we wanted to talk about. We also have another subject we wanted to talk about...
Okay, the first point they wanted to talk to me wasn’t that positive. They were looking kinda angry, especially the person from Hot-Wheels. So now I’m curious to the other point they wanted to talk to me.
Hot-Wheels: Okay, let’s talk about the future of the team.
After he said this, I really got scared. Did they want to end the contract?
Hot-Wheels: We’re already thinking about next season. You said that we may decide what riders we want in the team next season. Me: Yes, that’s right. We have two options. The first one is that we’ll sign some riders who have a lot of experience and want to help our young talents. That will give the young riders, and I think our results as well, a boost. We’ll improve faster. The second option is that we’ll only sign young riders for next season. It’ll be more difficult to improve the team and the cyclists, but of course it’s a challenge. Porsche: Well, I want to talk here as well so now I’ll say something. We’ve talked with each other and we really only want to have young riders in our team next season. The main reason for this is that we really want a clean sport, and when we sign older riders there’s a chance that they’ve used doping, and we don’t want that in our team. So we really want you to sign riders who are currently riding U-23 races. Me: Well, I understand your opinion and actually I’m happy you’ve chosen that. For me, it gives more effort when I see cyclists whom I’m leading perform. And it also gives me a boost to make them even more better. Porsche: Well, then I think we’ve made the right decision. Of course we have some queries for those riders whom you’ll sign. As a German sponsor we prefer to have some German riders in the team next season. For us it’s really important to have them and hopefully they’ll grow into great riders. Hot-Wheels: And we have also some queries. We want that most of the riders of the team are American. But for us it’s also important to have a rider of another English-speaking country, for example a rider of Canada, Ireland or Australia. We already have a rider of Great-Britain so we don’t really need another one of that country. Also we prefer, as it’s a goal of our team, to have some riders of non-cycling countries. Me: That will be difficult. I have to pick riders of the U-23 races and not all the countries are starting there. And we don’t have enough money for a scout, and I can’t go looking there myself, so it’ll be difficult. But of course there are some riders of countries as South-Africa, Slovakia, Sweden and Ireland which are not the best cycling countries. Hot-Wheels: These countries are okay for now, but in the future we really want other countries in our team. Maybe we consider to raise the amount of the sponsorship to hire a scout, but we’ll see. Me: That’s nice to hear. I’ll do my best to find great riders for next season. Porsche: Another question. There are six riders of our team without a contract for next season. Will you offer them a new contract? Me: I will give a new one to some of them, but not to all of them. Porsche: Why not? Me: Well, I see that some riders really have the potential to become great riders, but I also see some riders without that potential. And of course we want good riders, so I won’t offer a contract to a rider about who I’m thinking that he has no potential. Hot-Wheels: Okay, thanks for this conversation and good luck! Me: Okay, bye.
Well, that turned out better than I expected. But I prefer a bit more freedom for myself. Now it’s looking like they don’t trust me as a manager...
I was at home, thinking about the conversation with our sponsors a short time ago. We may only contract young cyclists for next year. Difficult, but it’ll be a challenge. I already followed all the U-23 races so far. Because I already knew we have to contract some young talents. It’s difficult to follow them and leading your own team at the same time. But, why not organising our own race for young talents? Then we can observe them very well. So why not? And maybe even a better idea, the winner becomes a contract offer for our cycling team! Great idea! I have to call our sponsors to tell it to them, and ask their opinion about it.
Edited by MrUfo87 on 12-08-2013 22:45
Just read the whole 'interview's with sponsors' and it was a great read.
I was really enjoying where the conversation was going.... until Porsche butted in! I would love to see the team sign some older veterans, maybe even with a NC, but no Porsche just want young riders, which is fine but a whole squad of young riders, we need some experience, Porsche.. Maybe ditch Porsche as a sponsor!
By the way that zailaboke person who commented before was a spambot, I think!
From now one, I didn't forgot to export the results (well, most of the time) so they will be part of the reports from now on.
The screenshots will be better as well. The next report will be posted tonight or tomorrow and I can say that it's not a race report. So stay tuned. 
