Worst GT race of the history of our team probably, i feel ashamed as the manager and have to say that it is about time to disband the team really, after this performance we should have not been invited to next races in PT, we dont deserve it.
Just few top10s from Guardini, who was only bright moment of our Tour. Before he DNFed
Zmorka horrible, 6th in prologue and early DNF is underperformance and our TTT with him, Ignatiev, Hepburn and others was almost last, that is terrible, huge shocker from one of the best TTT oriented teams of recent cycling seasons, which Metinvest is.
Karnulin was great...and then he crashed, fucking up everything, finishing like 75th overall, thus loanee Squire is best Metinvest finisher somewhere around 65th place?
Ignatiev....was he really in the race? I saw him doing great top 10 in Paris, then in one attack early in the race and that is all, really enough for rider with one of best AVGs in database, with 85 fighter stat? nope
Pffff, i am glad that this race is over, only good thing were fast and great reports from roturn, thanks mate. And congrats to all happy teams.
Guardini did great. Much better than anticipated for sure.
Well Zmorka didn't really work out great and your TTT really got fucked over, and the peloton was too difficult for Ignatiev, but you showed your team well and had Karnulin not been injured throughout the race you would have gotten a decent race. Your first week scored you the 6th highest amount of points. Second week you were 15th and third week you were 17th, so definately not that horrible. You outscored Evonik, Aker and almost scored the same as eBuddy - So definately not a horrible race in terms of staying in the top. You lost a lot on a few teams, but only 2-300 points on most teams. Scoring 239 points was better than 5 others and similar to another 3 teams.
But yeah, could have gone much much better. But definately not an embarrassing performance after having won the Giro and gotten 2nd in the Vuelta.
All in all we haven't been very visible or successful, but that was to be expected. So I'm happy we got a stage win in our first Tour and I look forward to returning with a stronger team next year.
Congrats to all the big scorers and to winner Vesuvio!
For our part I had hoped for more breaks but will take it as a learning experience and hope that Anacona will be inspired by his 25th place in the GC and that CAS will take up attacking in PCT races as well.
Congrats to all those who are happy!
Edit: Would have been kind of Spilak though to allow Vastaranta that final top 10
Thank you for a very well reported race, roturn! A true joy to follow.
Big congratulations to SN! Somehow it feels like Schleck has broken the MG, what an amazing rider he is, who just keeps on deliver, again and again and again.
Also congratulations to all those that take something memorable away from this race. I-Gen Festina, Aegon, Becherovka, Bouyges and Puma-SAP immediately comes to mind, for various reasons.
Must admit that it result wise was a disappointing Tour for my team. It was a gamble to bring Kristoff and build the team around a train for him. When the train was nowhere to be seen, it was always going to be a failure. But missing out on the time limit and not able to sprint in Paris, was even worse than I had imagined. Kind of frustrating to see us completely lack interest in the morning breakaways, as they were the reason I brought Nesset and Hoem here. Though, they came to life in the third week, trying a couple of mid-stage attacks. That was nice to see, eventhough it was difficult for them, as they would always face stronger riders in those moves.
All in all, a very nice race to follow, eventhough we didn't get anything from it.
Thank you very much for some amazing reports and a great tour Roturn!
Congrats on Schleck taking a deserved win SN, also to the other podium members and teams who had a great race.
For a wildcard team I'm extremely happy with how went, no stage win or KOM, but a stint i the KOM Jersey for Bernas, 20th for LLS, stage podiums for Stachowiak and Vantomme, many breaks for Panayotov and our greatest result, the Lanteren Rouge for Sobota!
It's just really cool that our team can achieve that in the biggest race, so really really pleased. Thank you very much Roturn!
Happy with that. A successful Tour with 2 stage wins and a top 20 from Ponzi. Adding to that Grmay having a shot at the KoM and Ponzi almost winning on the Champs-Elysee it was a memorable race for us.
Thanks roturn for amazing reporting, take that very successful Tour as your well deserved reward Also congrats to all happy managers.
What to say about my team? Indeed, Faiers finishing on respectable 15th place must be considered as a good result. Mohs took the stage, good. Degenkolb extremely underperformed. Relegation is getting closer again.
New year, new university nuisances... finally done with that stuff for a long while now though. Luckily just as the RL season picks up speed!
It already had been apparent that Arndt was the better climber for us this time, especially after stage 11 with a great ride there and stage 13 which kept him in the Top 10. Too bad that the TT was gonna rob him of all GC chances...
In the sprints, Ciolek continued his podium hunt; sometimes successful sometimes less so, depending on which train he chose. Surely the one time we went 4th and 6th in a sprint was when the breakaway was gifted the stage...
Too bad that Demare couldn't join the winning move on stage 15, that was a prime opportunity. I'm pretty sure he'll develop enough in the future to be able to keep up then.
The Ventoux stage was brilliant, congrats to BPost on that uber prestigious win there. Arndt doing great there too as well as on the crazy stage 18, and suddenly there wasn't that much to lose in the TT?!
Well, it was still 3 positions in the end, but since Arndt wasn't even the 13th best climber here, much less the 13th best GC rider, who am I to complain? 1'40 off the Top 10 in his first serious attempt at a GT is awesome.
Nerz in 16th adds a couple nice points, although he was too invisible and constantly a bit too weak for my liking.
Well, only the Champs left then, without Ciolek but with a less tired Demare instead?
AND INDEED he nearly did it right in his first attempt!! What a show of force, challenging Bewley of all riders right until the line.
I think it's safe to say that it will be his turn one day.
To summarize, our second TdF went rather well overall. Some impressive sprints by Ciolek, some impressive mountain rides by Arndt, and a promising sign by Demare at the end.
We lacked the breakaway presence and therefore a surprising stage result or two as well as representation in the KoM or points classifications, but what else is new?
Congratulations to SN on a deserved victory (although it got closer than expected in the end) as well as to Crommy and SotD for their podium spots. Slight commiserations to Pendleton's who got a diamond in the making though in Dombo, sooner or later it'll happen.
And finally a huge thank you to roturn who delivered flawless and quick as always in a fashion that only very few reporters can.
@SotD, in case you ever read this, I'm aware that the pprd for Demare here aren't really worth it and might never be, but I don't think I'll ever not send Demare to the TdF.
I feel like he just belongs here and considering we're not fighting relegation, I rate the realism aspect and the potential fame aspect higher than pprd.
Edited by cio93 on 02-02-2017 13:00
