Eden95 wrote:
I still think our best rider is Ji by a mile
That does not come as a surprise Shouldn't have let him go just to train Bobridge, who's not doing better with his new HL stat
Flat beasts are massively underrated in the MG for whatever reason. He's done an incredible job all season setting Goss & Moser (lol) up, usually for the rest of the lead out to crumble. My regretful sale was Kruopis, he would have been the perfect lead out. Thought bringing in Zaini for him was good, but noo
This was the last report post from your humble sports reporter this season, I’m going to Japan soon to taste some brew from my sponsor and therefor won’t be back until the season is almost over, or at least the races have been claimed by other reporters.
So thanks for watching and thanks for the nice remarks, cu next season
Will leave you with this fine sprint from Theo Reinhardt
Well a rare occasion that Van Heerden is the star of the race for Eritel, but that is the case here with another 2nd place. Good 4th for Debesay too, after surprisingly being my best riders on the hills - although his GC was too low after Stage 1. Poor show by my 77 hill riders throughout.
An interesting outing for WCC to the heady heights of HC banded stage racing. Was keen to test out how some of our CT level-leaders (Boily and Lay) would cope with higher level racing. On that front s1 was a disappointment with Boily being pretty far down, but honour was saved by Gio Visconti doing a brilliant ride in the BotD to claim a strong lead in the KoM jersey. This also created a wicked shorts/KoM jersey clash for Gio for the rest of the race which had his team-mates ripping the piss out of him mercilessly!
Boily redeemed himself with an excellent ride on perhaps the hardest stage to move well up GC to 10th, although slipped one place to finish 11th by the end of the race. Visconti did a great job of defending his jersey throughout to claim a deserving KoM jersey and perhaps his final appearance on a MG podium (?) as he seriously contemplates retirement at seasons end.
Lay showed face at sprint times, but his timing was not right on point, so no big result. His lack of support did mean he was surfing wheels on his own though.
The decision to leave the younger development riders on the bench for this race seemed to pay dividends with 'strong' riders like Visconti and Koshevoy getting opportunities in breaks. ppRD in terms of CT 'push-for-promotion' not really taking a dent from this higher level racing which is excellent to see. A well worthwhile trip!
Thanks to Tamijo for the reports both here and elsewhere throughout the season. Moshi Moshi! Enjoy your travels .