Well, I've kept you waiting long enough, my new team is the absolutely awful PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED.
They are a very small Danish team, currently only with 8 riders (although I intend to change that), and we'll be looking to slowly develop as we've got a very young team, but with some great potential.
Here are the riders:
Niels Hoe-Svendsen (33, Danish) - Our oldest rider and our shining ezample for the riders Daniel Byder (26, Danish) - Our other "old" rider, he'll be our lead out man for the year Christian Juul Andreasen (20, Danish) - Seems to be a pretty useless rider at the moment - he'll have to work hard to get a contract extension Daniel Stenkjær (20, Danish) - Could develop into a climber or a cobble man, we'll see how it goes this season Morten Øllegaard (18, Danish) - Has a good base on which to build his career Rasmus Trøjberg (18, Danish) - Nothing to say. Seriously, a candidate for worst rider in the game. I'm not joking. I hate to not add a positive, so I'll say he's not the worst descender in the team Christian Ranneries (18, Danish - I almost had a heart attack when I found it his sprinting skill - we actually have a decent rider!!!
The board of directors (well director actually) seems genuinely like a nice bloke, and almost fell over when I announced I was willing to work for pittance - it's not the money anymore, it's all about the team.
Bad news already though - the director wanted us to race the Tour of Siam, but we got refused
More bad news - the director has set a squad cap of 12 this season, as well as a limit of 2 non-Scandinavian riders. Bugger
Even more bad news - I've just realised just how far this team has to go, the only decent rider is Ranneries, and he's only a half decent sprinter. Oh well, looks like top 20s and top 10s are our aims for the season
OK, I finally managed to make my 4 signings to bring this team to a reasonable albeit financially precarious level.
Firstly, a couple of contacts I have kept in Scandinavia pointed my out to 2 young talents who could suit this kind of development squad:
Firstly there is Jonas Holmkvist, a 24 year old Swede who is a promising sprinter and a great support for our young gun Christian
Secondly, a great find for our team is Pekka Jääskeläinen. 2 years younger than Jonas, he could be quite a strong sprinter if he develops right. And that will take some careful sculpting from me.
Then, we have our two oversea guys. They'll be presented shortly
OK, our first overseas rider is Michael Vingerling, a 16 (that's right, 16!) year old Dutch sprinter who will be a future great. We'll develop him as best we can here
And finally, completing our 12 man squad is...Harry Wilson!
This 19 year old Englishman is a fitness fanatic and a promising climber. He'll lead our team in the mountain races we ride in this season (yes, that's how awful the rest of the team is), although we aren't hoping for great things from him for a long time
Now, we dive straight into our first race, one of 3 races for this month as our sponsor confidence is already sliding downhill
GP Costa degli Etruschi
A nice easy start for our out of form and out of practice team - let's see how they hold up - although guys like Robbie McEwen mean we'll struggle for a top 20 spot
Team Leader: Christian Ranneries
After numerous attempts at trying to slip our guys in a breakaway, 12 riders will make it to the finish - without a single Python in sight
Andreas Dietziker gives LPR a win, whilst (inset), we fulfill our role as the Lanterne Rouge
1 Andreas Dietziker TEAM LPR 4h43'28
2 Francesco Failli LIQUIGAS s.t.
3 Ivan Santaromita QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
4 Christopher Stevenson AMORE & VITA - MCDONALD'S s.t.
5 Sergei Matvejev CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
13 Sebastian Siedler TEAM MILRAM + 2'37 27 Christian Ranneries PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED s.t.
29 Jonas Holmkvist PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED s.t.
88 Morten Øllegaard PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED s.t.
134 Casper Marcussen PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED s.t.
169 Daniel Byder PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED + 6'29
170 Niels Hoe-Svendsen PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED + 7'17
172 Christian Juul Andreasen PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED + 12'32
173 Rasmus Trøjberg PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED s.t.
So, a top 30 result was good, which would have been a top 20 without a successful breakaway. Oh well, 3 more throws of the dice this month
Designated a flat race, but our sprinters will struggle to get over them hills, so we'll try to sneak someone into a break
Team Leader: Jonas Holmkvist
Harry Wilson sets off all alone, and would be out front for almost two thirds of the race - but another escapee would then overtake him
That escapee was Zargari of the Azad's, but he blew up in the lead with just 800m left!!!
Romain Vanderbiest won. And where were we? Well, not in the pack, but at least Harry Wilson managed to duck out of being the Lanterne Rouge
1 Romain Vanderbiest AG2R CHAMBÉRY CYCLISME FORMATION 4h41'24
2 Martin Prázdnovský TEAM SPAREBANKEN VEST s.t.
3 Cyril David AG2R CHAMBÉRY CYCLISME FORMATION s.t.
4 Ivan Seledkov MOSCOW STARS s.t.
5 Herman Fouche TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t. 34 Pekka Jääskeläinen PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED + 4'29
39 Casper Marcussen PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED + 6'41
41 Jonas Holmkvist PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED s.t.
43 Niels Hoe-Svendsen PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED s.t.
73 Morten Øllegaard PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED + 7'29
90 Harry Wilson PYTHON PRO NÆSTVED + 8'21
Not a great race for us at all, the pack really kept Harry in check, his lead never went above a few minutes, and Zargari's attack couldn't have been worse - we just couldn't keep up
Edited by Crommy on 17-08-2007 09:47
