The transfer season is now over and the hype of the new season has pushed itself in. Which means the experts out to predicted the outcome of the long year ahead. This week two men took up the challenge, Heine and Roturn. Here's what they had to say about our Team CSC-Orbea.
Star Riders:
*** Igor Anton (Climber/Stage Racer)
** Roman Maksimov (Sprinter)
* Rui Costa (Puncheur/Timetrialist)
Great talents
Andrew Talansky (Loan), Juan Gelabert
CSC got a pretty interesting squad, with 2 stars and a great depth. Their first, and biggest star, is Igor Anton. A great climber who will get CSC some good results in their first season back in proffesional racing. He's not the best in the division, but we believe that he will stay with the best and be atleast top 5 in most races he enter.
Roman Maksimov is a strong sprinter with a fantastic acceleration. I got a feeling that he will be one of the best performing sprinters this year and score alot of points for CSC.
Their last big leader is Rui Costa. He lacks the strenght in Timetrialing that Ignatiev/Koren/Reus/Boom got, but he makes up for it by being a better puncheur than Koren and Reus. This is a rider that can suprise many, mark my words.
Other than their leaders they got a lot of interesting climbers, and if Anton underperforms they are ready to take over. They also got some okay sprinters/leadoutmen. And last but not least the got Kovalev, who together with already mentioned Costa will make a good Duo Normand team.
CSC is another team that can get anywhere from 10th to really low. And for me they are a really hard team to place, I will however say that they probobly will be somewhere around top 20, but can do both better and worse.
Projected Ranking
17th Overall in CT, 3rd Best of New Teams
Leaders: Igor Anton, Rui Costa
Sprinter: Bruno Lima, Eloy Teruel, Roman Maksimov
CSC is back in cycling. And they even signed the former stars Sastre and Basso, but both of them aren`t their stars any longer.
The new CSC star might be Igor Anton. The Spaniard will be the arrow of one of the best climber teams next to Aker Solutions.
He is able to get lots of good results in the mountains and stage races in general. He has a nice support in Soler, Colorado, Duenas, Parra Bustamante, Rodas and Perez Cuapio. All of them will also be able to ride for own results.
With Rui Costa they have a good rider for short stage races including hard hills and a time trial. He won`t be able to beat the best in the league but still getting good results for his team.
Second time trialist is Ivan Kovalev, but he won`t be their man for most races due to his weak climbing skills.
While Lima and Teruel should get some top 10 results, although they can`t compete with the best sprinters, Roman Maksimov is the big question mark. He is on of the fastest sprinters in the world, but also one of the worst climbers in the history of cycling. So let`s see how he will perform during the season.
With this mountain squad plus Rui Costa as loyal points collector they could be one of the strongest CT teams this season.
If Maksimov finds his rhythm in the sprints, then they could even become the best but his is quite unlikely in my opinion.
Projected Ranking
3rd Best of New Teams
Team CSC-Orbea would like to thank these guys again for taking time out of their day to review our team with such precision. And all of the riders here love to see their name mentioned, except for Roman Maksimov who had this to say, "I'm going to show Roturn I'm one of the best sprinters and bring home many stages for this team," once we got it translated into English.
Edited by Mresuperstar on 10-07-2011 21:33
Hello, it's me again Brad. Today I would like to post my racing schedule for the upcoming 2012 season. So, after spending a few hours talking on the phone with the team director we have come to an agreement with the following schedule. The 57 race days can be broken down below:
It is only fitting that I should also make public my personal goals for the season. After sitting down and looking over the schedule I thought it would be fitting to write down 1 goal for each race, and then sum everything up with three season long goals. So here we go:
Personal Goals:
Season Goals
(1)
Win 1 Stage
(2)
Help Leader To A GC Win
(3)
Top 175 CT Individual Point Standings
Race Goals
(4)
Tour de San Luis
Top 50 GC
(5)
Tour of Boland
Help Leader Achieve Top 10 GC
(6)
Corsica International
Top 30 Stage 1
(7)
Profronde van Drenthe
Don't Crash
(8)
Transfagarasan GP
Help Leader Achieve Top 5
(9)
Tour de Beauce
Top 20 Stage 3
(10)
GP of Wales
Help Leader Achieve Top 10
(11)
Tour of Colorado
Top 5 Any Stage
(12)
Tour of America
Finish All 21 Stages
(13)
Milano - Torino
Help Leader Achieve Top 10
If I can achieve at least 8 of these 13 goals I would call this season a success, and hopefully the manager will see it the same way. Can't wait for the start of the season, until then I'll be training.
Julian Rodas came to Venezuela to help Francisco Colorado to a top 5, but by the end of the 12 stages he leaves his mark on the cycling world as the Colombian who gave Jose Alarcon a run for his money. Here's how it happened ...
Even tough the Orbea time trial bikes failed to arrive in time, the team was able to come out 5 out of 12 teams.
Stages 2, 3, and 5 all ended in bunch sprints, but Andrew Talansky and Craig Lewis are still able to showoff the CSC logo.
Jose Alarcon shows he is the favourite after ripping up the mountain in stage 4. But Rodas isn't far behind finishing 7th a 1'01'' back. But in doing so leaves team leader Colorado behind.
Stage 6 is the first great break through for CSC-Orbea. Edwin Parra Bustamante gets the first win ever, after riding in the breakaway all day.
But its stage 7 that got the cycling world going crazy when Julian Rodas has one of the best breakaway rides CSC has ever seen. Not only does he get back to back breakaway wins for the team, but also takes 1st overall away from heavy favourite Jose Alarcon of Aker Solutions. But it wasn't all good news, Colorado hit the pavement and lost a ton of time. Which lead to Rodas getting the leader role.
Rodas keeps the jersey through the stage 8 mountain time trial.
Alarcon gains no time on a mountain stage 9, even after a late attack. The team is really working hard to keep Rodas lead.
Rodas even attacks Alarcon on a uphill sprint finish, but the sprinters pick him up with no problems. So stage 10 goes down as a draw.
It takes Alarcon until stage 11 to show his climbing power. He takes the stage, but falls 7 second short of take yellow back from our man Rodas. Only 1 hilly stage left to go.
After 5 days in yellow, Rodas just couldn't keep up with Alarcon. Alarcon takes his home tour back on the last stage in front of his family.
We thank Rodas for his great effort, and hope he can continue like this in the near future at the Tour de San Luis. Where he will team up with Colorado once again.
Thank you. And yes, a very great start and your Wikipedia riders were right in the heart of it. For their next schedule races you will be able to see Talansky at Tour of Wellington, and Kovalev at the Tour de San Luis.
It's been awhile since my last blog, so I had a few minutes in my hotel room to piece another one together. I guess the best place to start is my arrival here in Argentina. The flight took 10 hours to fly out from Dallas, Texas to San Luis, Argentina. But it seemed so much longer with that annoying little kid kicking the back of my sit every 5 seconds. Next time the team better get me first class, or at least a better airline. Enough with the horrible transportation, and onto the sight seeing in Argentina. If only I could show you pictures, (Rodas if you are reading this I want my camera back!). Since I'm the first rider to arrive here I've had plenty of time to check out the route and take a few rides up the climbs. And I must say the roads are excellent. And the weather was been great. So I will continue to enjoy my time here, and wait for the others to arrive. They include, Francisco Colorado, Moises Dueñas, Julián Rodas (Who better have my camera!), Edwin Parra Bustamante, Julio Alberto Perez Cuapio, Juan Gelabert, and Ivan Kovalev. I great group of climbers ready to take San Luis by storm. It's still uncertain who the team leader is, whether it is Colorado or the man who borrowed my camera and has yet to return it. Either way I feel we have a great shot at best team, and possibly a top 5 in GC. And as mentioned before my goal is to finish in the top 50 to get ranking points for the team.
My first race is over, and man I'm I exhausted. Seven stages to began the year is a killer. Even though I failed my personal goal for this race of finishing in the top 50. I did show myself to the cycling world my getting into the breakaways in my first stage, and then later on in stage 3. Neither breakaways made it to the end, but it did show me how much work is need to make a successful breakaway. So overall, San Luis wasn't a total failure, but I also didn't receive any ranking points for the team.
My next race won't be until March 8 when I take to the hills of South Africa, in the Tour of Boland. In the meantime, I'm going to fly back to my hometown in Texas. There I will spend a week with my family, before I head back out to Spain for some training camps with the team until the time comes for me to fly out to South Africa. Also on the flight will be teammates Basso, J.A. Perez, and Carlos Verona. While Blanco, Zaballa, and Rui Costa will be flying out Italy after riding in the Strade Bianche on March 5.
Can't Wait To See My Family - - Brad Armstrong
Edited by Mresuperstar on 18-08-2011 01:17
When things are going right everything seems to work out. The 26 year old Rui Costa from Portugal continued Team CSC-Orbea's great luck over the first few months of the season with a breakaway win in Italy a few days ago.
Rui Costa Wins Strade Bianche For CSC-Orbea's Third Win of the Year.
After the fireworks on stage 1, stage 2 was set to be an easy stage for the sprinters, with an easy ITT to finish the tour on stage 3. What was supposed to be a transition stage turned into an aweful day for CSC. As Igor Anton was in the wrong position at the wrong time. He hits the pavement and loses all hopes of his chance at a top 10 in GC, and some well needed ranking points in a heavily contested HC race.
Anton gets his first taste of dissapointment and pain in just his 2nd day racing.
We are now closing in on 4 months of cycling in 2012. What does this mean? Well, by now everyone knows who the best teams are (Jayco - Red Bull and Rapha Condor - Qhubeka) riders you don't want to face (Jonathan Bellis, Jose Alarcon, Valverde, and now a red hot Froome). They are races you want to forget (Corsica International) and races you will remember forever (Vuelta al Tachira and Strade Bianche). So as we get ready to head into a month the kicks off the Vuelta a Espana and Giro d'Italia you should as a manager noticed things about your team. And here I'm as manager of CSC-Orbea ready to give my 1st Annual,
"This is How It Is, Press Conference."
Let's begin:
Best Rider: Rui Costa Worst Rider: Juan Gelabert and Abilphez Ajewole Best Teammate: Carlos Sastre Worst Teammate: Abilphez Ajewole Best Performance: Julián Rodas Worst Performance: Igor Antón Yet To Perform: Igor Antón Yet To "Try to" Perform: Roman Maksimov Never Quits: Constantino Zaballa Always Quits: Julián Rodas Best Water Man: Brad Armstrong Worst Water Man: Bruno Lima Best With the Media: Ivan Basso Worst With the Media: Roman Maksimov
As a manager I've the responsibility to be honest with my team. As should other managers. With 6 months to go, new contracts are now on the line and hopefully they start riding like it. Or else they are going to have to find themselves I new team for next year.
The goal was to win, our man for the job was Roman Maksimov, AKA "Russian Rocket". One of the fastest sprinters in the world, but with one catch. He can't climb. After average performances at Mallorca, Wellington, and Japan. We were hoping for better in our home region of Spain. The fans came out to support the team, however couldn't push Maksimov over the hills to get to the finish.
The "Rocket" never made it to the final countdown, he failed during the inspection. Finishing 41st in a race we needed to win. A huge let down for the team and our supporters. We have now failed both of our goals this season and can only hope for a great turn of events to have any chance to make the top 10 in the CT standings. Luckily for us our potential big points month is yet to come in September. Hopefully we have everything sorted out by then.
It's been a while since I last put out something here in the HQ, 10 races in fact. In part because I have been busy with other projects, but mostly because the results lately haven't really been worth of reporting. So I figured now would be a good time to reflect on our results from the past 2 months.
Stage 2 featured Moises Dueñas in a successful breakaway putting him 6th overall at the time, however it doesn't last long as he couldn't keep up with the favourites on the hills on stage 3 and 4. Kovalev also puts up a stage top 10 on the opening hilly ITT.
13 Igor Antón
16 Andrew Talansky
21 Julián Rodas
[BOTD - Andrew Talansky]
Igor Anton gets caught out of position, in this target race, which costs him to compete with the top CT climbers in this crazy stage race. American prospect Andrew Talansky shows off the team colors in the breakaway and even hangs on to finish 16th.
22 Roman Maksimov
44 Mauricio Soler
55 Bruno Lima
[BOTD - Abilphez Ajewole]
Maksimov doesn't show up in the rain while the punchuers spoil this flat stage. Abilphez Ajewole gets great TV time and even a few words from the reporter. "This time it is Patrick Bercz who goes with the impossible to spell Abilphez Ajewole. Both men are promising youngsters who could potentially have a future as puncheurs, so this is a chance for them to prove something," CountArach.
Stage 1: 5 Andrew Talansky [BOTD - A. Talansky] (GC - 5 A. Talansky) Stage 2: 30 Constantino Zaballa Stage 3: 15 Rui Costa [BOTD - Abilphez Ajewole] Stage 4: 12 Rui Costa Stage 5: 9 Julián Rodas Stage 6: 12 Carlos Verona [BOTD - Carlos Verona]
Talansky grabs a top 5 on another successful breakaway. Rui Costa then tried his best to keep up with the better punchuers over the next 3 stages grabbing average results. And at the end of the day Costa leaves Africa with a modest 13th place overall.
Stage 1: 18 Ivan Kovalev [BOTD - Carlos Verona] Stage 2: 18 Brad Armstrong [BOTD - Brad Armstrong] Stage 3: 8 Francisco Colorado Stage 4: 5 Ivan Kovalev Stage 5: 19 Francisco Colorado [BOTD - Andrew Talansky] Stage 6: 38 Francisco Colorado [BOTD - Juan Gelabert]
Canada brings 2 top 10s for the team with Kovalev again performing strong in the ITT, and Colorado leading the team through the mountains beating all the other favourites but couldn't catch the breakaway.
Stage 1: 18 Roman Maksimov [BOTD - Andrew Talansky] Stage 2: 14 Craig Lewis (GC - 8 Craig Lewis) Stage 3: 8 Francisco Colorado (GC - 6 Francisco Colorado) [BOTD - A. Talansky] Stage 4: 5 Roman Maksimov (GC - 6 Francisco Colorado)
Starting with the neagative, Maksimov underperforms once again but does manage a 5th for his efforts on stage 4. On the possitive side Colorado again puts in a great climb among some of the best climbers in the CT to not only for 8th place on stage 3, but finishes 6th overall.
8 Rui Costa
17 Constantino Zaballa
[BOTD - Perez Cuapio]
In this tough hilly one day race Rui Costa fights back from being dropped early to finish in the top 10. The only other CSC-Orbea rider to finish the race is Zaballa while 5 of your guys don't make the time limit, showing just how hard this race was.
Stage 1: 17 Eloy Teruel Stage 2: 12 Edwin Parra Bustamante [BOTD - E. Parra Bustamante] Stage 3: 41 Edwin Parra Bustamante Stage 4: 17 Francisco Colorado Stage 5: 53 Francisco Colorado Stage 6: 20 Eloy Teruel Stage 7: 21 Moises Dueñas Stage 8: 2 Eloy Teruel [BOTD - E. Parra Bustamante]
It took all the way to last stage for CSC to finally realize that we were in Austria. Eloy Teruel caps this rather aweful tour with a 2nd place in the bunch sprint, justing getting beat out by Saab - Scania Francesco Chicchi.
The Portuguess man strikes again, as Costa surprises many by getting on the podium in another hilly one day race. But what is even more impressive is the teamwork put in by the helpers to chase the breakaway for the majority of the day.
Stage 1: 6 Team CSC-Orbea Stage 2: 6 Igor Anton [BOTD-Bruno Lima] (GC - 6 Igor Anton) Stage 3: 4 Roman Maksimov (GC - 6 Igor Anton) Stage 4: 8 Igor Anton [BOTD - Ivan Kovalev] (GC - 5 Igor Anton) Stage 5: 6 Roman Maksimov (GC - 5 Igor Anton)
And most recently our superstar spanish climber Igor Anton manages a top 5 with a stacked startlist in Brixia. And Maksimov gets his best finish of the year so far finishing 4th, not what we wanted but he is showing improvement.
CSC-Orbea has finally snapped the win less drought of 6 months as Rui Costa wins the opening prologue to his own tour, Volta a Portugal. And what a surprise it was as Costa beat some better time trial on his way to his second victory this season. I can't give his win enough justice so I will just link you up with a replay of stage 1. ->Click Here<-
The team is happy to announce the renewal of all our sponsors for next season. Although, to say the least, this was a disappointing year finishing near the bottom of the CT standings, CSC-Orbea will take another chance on the team. As manager I admit there is a bit of a learning curve that happens during the first season, and now that I have gotten over that point I feel I'm ready to fight for promotion next season. With a new attitude comes a new jersey.
Many Thanks to our jersey maker for the second straight year, ANFreeman.
The theme for next year being back with a vengeance.
We move away from the conventional white jersey to going mostly all black.
Sure the riders will stay warm, but the jersey looks amazing!
