With 9 stages completed, Jaime Suaza currently lies in 4th overall at the Vuelta a Colombia and is on the cusp in one of the most remarkable results in ManGame history. From 2008 to 2012 he rode in the ProTour under the various incarnations of the Bouygues Telcom team, from Cycling 24-Honda to Nintendo Honda to Carmeuse Cyclisme, and never seriously threatened a finish in the Top 10 of a GC.
He picked up 3 victories along the way, including 2 in Grand Tours. Stage 8 of the 2008 Giro d'Italia and Stage 5 of the 2009 Vuelta a Espana were won thanks to being in the day long breakaway - despite them being on his disliked hill terrain. His victory on Stage 3 of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya did come in a Mountain stage though, after a mid-stage attack, he eventually outsprinted Peter Panayotov and Paolo Scarponi for the win.
General Classification wise 18th in the 2008 Tour de Suisse was the best in his first four seasons before 2012, the year of his Catalunya stage win, where he secured 4 Top 20 finishes. The best was at home in Vuelta a Colombia with 15th, as well as the same position at the Tour of Oman. He finished 19th in both Catalunya and the Tour de Suisse. His best ever Grand Tour finish was 31st at the 2008 Giro.
2013 saw a change of scenery as Bouygues Telecom has been relegated to the PCT division. Suaza did his bit to help the team return to the top flight with an aggressive performance at the Vuelta a Tachira, and a 4th place finish there. Later in the season he finished 10th at the Kenya Mountain Classic, and 13th in Votla a Portugal.
His resurgence in form has continued this season. He climbed with the best on Stage 5 of the Tour of Romandie but couldnt cling on to a Top 10 place, eventually finishing 16th. He became a vital supporting part of Andy Schleck's Tour de Suisse and Tour de France winning team, including equalling his best GT finish of 31st at the Tour. And now just 1 flat stage, 1 mountain stage and 1 time trial separate him from a career defining result.
Always loving these history pieces. Short, but interesting read. Also it's a nice little story underway there for Suaza. Wouldn't be a lucky breakaway result, so definitely impressive
Definitely, great recap. I'm also a fan of these, and especially I think these raise the value of the whole MG a lot. It becomes more than just a game when it has its own history.
Andy Schleck's selection as 18th rider in Category 1 of the Management Game draft dashed the hopes of Saunier Duval to unite the Schleck brothers. While Frank went to Spain, Andy went to Liquigas as their 2nd choice rider. And an Italian team meant an inevitable focus on the Giro.
While Italians Cunego, Di Luca, Simoni and Piepoli went toe to toe throughout an exciting race, Andy was unable to seriously threaten. He couldn't match the Italians and eventually finished 5th overall.
The uniform turned to zebra stripes into 2008 as Domina Vacanze replaced Liquigas as team sponsor. Back to the Giro it was, and the key stage for Andy was Stage 15. Entering it he was 8th overall and already 6 minutes down on Cunego. He switched focus to King of the Mountains point and went on a long mid-stage move with Telefonica's Franco Pellizotti and Ferrari's Perez Cuapio. 171 points were collected to leap to a huge lead in that competition, so now the focus could turn to the stage as Schleck and Pellizotti held on to their lead over the long downhill/flat prior to the final small climb.
It was one climb too far, Andy cracked and struggled in to 8th place, losing nearly 2 minutes on Pellizotti over that final kilometre. But still the stage saw time benefits, moving him up to 5th overall. Now it was about GC and on Stage 17 he moved up to 3rd overall, ahead of Piepoli and Garzelli.
Stage 19 secured the podium as he got away with Cunego at the end of the stage. Of course he was not able to outsprint the Little Prince but 2nd on the stage was still good. 3rd overall in the end for Andy, still a huge 11'23 off Cunego, with Ricco a couple of minute infront of Andy in 2nd. Best of all, the King of the Mountains jersey was his with a huge 311 points. Cunego in 2nd, only had 203.
Outside of the Giro, it was the Giro warm up race the Tour of Romandie which offered the best GC results over the first two seasons with 3rd overall in 2007 and 4th overall in 2008. His first victory in the ManGame came at the 2007 Tour de Suisse, the start of a long interest in the race, when he won the summit finish on Stage 7. It was only to be 8th overall though.
His one win of 2008 came at the Deutschland Tour. He improved on 20th in GC in 2007 to finish 5th this year, which included a triumph on Stage 7. Neck a neck with Andreas Kloden, race leader Markus Fothen, Cadel Evans and Thomas Dekker going into the final kilometre, it was the Luxembourger who had the strongest kick.
Great histories. Somehow had missed the Suaza story until today, nice to see that he maintained such a strong showing over the last 3 days to make a significant addition to his palmares. Would be nice if he had the opportunity to spend a couple of seasons with a home-based Colombian outfit and compete for top results more regularly .
With the 2014 season drawing to a close, and Vesuvio-Accumalux right in the battle for the division title (season reviews to come post-season), questions are being raised about the status of Toms Skujins within the team.
Hills superstar and former Latvian champion, the team's plan for 2015 was always to have a threatening 3-pronged attack of Gastauer, Skujins and Frank Schleck. To make up for the decline of the MG legend Schleck, and the team no longer having the best puncheur around, by having 3 very strong threats.
But eyebrows were raised when the team allowed Skujins to spend the year in the PCT division with Swedbank-PEAB. Was it simply a chance to gain experience of battling for victories as claimed, or a hint that the team just doesn't know what to do with him? He has only spent 1 season riding in Vesuvio colours to date, having been initially loaned to Focused Cycling to aide his early development.
Certainly Skujins has done well this year. Currently just outside the Top 30 in the PCT standings, with the highlight being 2nd overall at the Tour of South Africa - which included a stage win.
But team accountants are not looking forward to the upcoming transfer renewals at all, with Andy Schleck expected to demand an unprecented amount of money after a dominant year, and the expected decrease for his brother potentially being counteracted by a fantastic age-defying season. With the team's obvious Luxembourg roots - if there is only one space for Gastauer and Skujins then Gastauer may take precedence, particularly as any transfer fee for the Latvian could be expected to aide Gastauer's off-season training regime.
Many teams are said to already be interested in Skujins, so could this be one of many interesting aspects of this year's transfer season? Will Vesuvio really be willing to sell such a strong rider to a direct rival? Will they have any choice in the matter?
Edited by SportingNonsense on 22-02-2015 22:59
Skujins possibly available? I've heard of a (hopefully) future PCT team that has just signed contracts with a Latvian sponsor. I'll certainly be interested.
Interesting development for sure! As one of the most hilly focused teams in the game, Skujins would be a great match for Gazelle. Just like last year, he'll be high on our shortlist.
Frank Schleck, Badaling International
Ben Swift, Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, Stage 2
Marcel Kittel, Tour of Qatar, Stage 6
Maciej Paterski, Giro d'Italia, Stage 11
Chen Shikai, Tour de France, Stage 14
Moreno Hofland, Vuelta al Pais Vasco, Stage 4
Jaime Suaza, Tour of Romandie, Stage 5
Pedro Merino Criado, Criterium du Dauphine Libere, Stage 5
Romain Feillu, Vuelta a Espana, Stage 1
Dmitri Medvedev, Tour de France, KoM
