Before we can race I please need anybody to tell me where to change the number of teams you have to assign to a race in the DB please as I can't start the race with custom teams. It tells me there should be between 10 and 0. I just started it without a control rider to give you the startlist. I will add one in the race of course.
Ok guys, I really wanted to report the race now, but I can't as long as nobody tells me how to solve this. Sorry
I looked up STA_race_rules but the Dutch Food Valley classic isn't in that list of races. In STA_race I can't find anything that says something about the number of teams. I'm kinda lost here, guys.
The province of Burgos will host the next continental stage race. Over 5 stages the peloton will pass several of the interesting places of the region. Allthough the first four stages are classified as flat, pure sprinters aren't considered the top favourites. A rising finishing straight will favour the more punchier sprinters in the first three stages. Hills before the finish on stage 4 will be a obstacle for sprinters that are used to fight it out on rather flat stages. The final stage will be crucial for the general classification. A mountain stage with 7 classified mountains will decide the overall winner.
Several teams brought a squad focused on those four initial stages. Most prominently John Degenkolb from Argos-Shimano. But also the Europcar duo Bryan Coquard and Lue Kamse Khampan have chances. Other names are Spanish champion Juan José Lobato, Lotto's Gregory Henderson or double national champion Rajesh Kakhi. Even puncheurs like Valverde or Mollema can grab a podium and valuable bonus seconds in the first stages.
Also in the mountains we have a stand out favourite in Alejandro Valverde. Supported by his team mate Rui Costa he is aiming for the home win. Challenging him are Pierre Rolland of Europcar, Belkin's Bauke Mollema and Jurgen Van Den Broeck of Lotto. Outsider chances have Franco Pellizotti, Domenico Pozzovivo and Euskaltel's Samuel Sanchez who looks out to score valuable points for his team in the fight against relegation.
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Don't expect very detailed reports or a very fast pace from me, I don't have too much time at the moment.
I noticed that Albert Llanet, champion of Andorra, doesn't have his own NC, so I quickly made him this, maybe other reporters want to use it as well:
@Burgos: Go Ioannis, hopefully he can shine once again.
@Pologne: Quite a serious deadline for tomorrow, then college until 5PM, and home exhausted. Next report hopefully this thursday.
@Ollfardh/Atlantius: Could you include that NC in the next database just please?
@marcovdw: Thanks, but unfortunately didn't find it there.
@all: Sorry, I've been pretty dumb. I just added the control team in the startlist and not later by choosing custom teams. Please forgive me.. Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 30-09-2014 15:59
Sky was i think the most rejected team about a race. Three times in the case of Burgos. Seeing the startlist and the profile and the race days dilemma for our riders, good decision mad by Ollfardh. Thanks
A warm welcome to everybody joining me for the Dutch Food Valley Classic today. The race is one of the flattest classics in the race calendar, however, it will be packed with action hopefully. We head out onto 200km of racing with a bunch sprint being almost certain. But you should never say never, so maybe an attacker can score. On the other hand, with no mountains on the route and only some hills that should not even be called “Hellingen”, it will be hard to distance anybody. The riders are eagerly waiting for the start, so I would say: Bring it on!
In the exact moment, the race director starts the Dutch Food Valley Classic 2013, we have the first attacks. Honkisz (CCC) and Calabria (TNN) are looking for an exit visa (stupid PCM comments, nobody would ever say that for real ).
As Wallays (TSV) and Delfosse (CRE) try to join them, the pack is still relaxed not really fearing these guys.
That is a flurry of attacks now! Several riders are trying to join the party. How will the peloton react? Is anybody willing to chase after Day (UHC), Delaplace (SOJ), Ruijgh (VCD), Joeaar (COF), Zakarin (RVL) and Bideau (BSE)?
Yes indeed! The chase is on big-time. Leezer (BEL) leads the peoloton at a high pace and behind him, Greipel’s domestiques have lined up to chase the 10 men up front in Bellemakers, Bulgac and De Vries (stating the obvious, all LTB).
With 15km covered, it is two groups in front. The second one is trying hard to get on, but does not really get closer. However, the pack is not able to reduce the gap as it now is at 1:30 to the first group already.
Aaaand there is the junction. After a big effort by Ruijgh, he and his companions joined the first group. With an advantage of 2:00 already, this could be our break of today. A pretty big one, isn’t it?
Well, that is surely not to the liking of the break. As Cappelle (AJW) and Shaqif (MTN) also want to join the party, Leezer (BEL) shows that he is a sprinter himself and closes the gap to those two with a little sprint. The pack is lined out hard, but it is getting closer again.
Though Lotto, Belkin and Sky work together pretty well in the pack, they tend to have decided not going all-in too early. Thus the gap to the breakaway has been increasing and increasing. After 50km of racing now, it begins to stall at around 5 minutes. Is there enough power in the break to resist? With nobody really being an on-paper favourite among these guys, they should all work together nicely.
We are halfway the race and the peloton is accelerating. The gap to the morning breakaway starts to decrease slowly now. Still, if they continue this pace of time-gaining, the guys up front have no chance at all. Their lead is down to 4:20 by now. At the rear of the peloton we see two EPIC riders in Sinaga (SOJ) and Kennedy (MTN) rolling easily.
As the race is still pretty much boring, I am going to have some words on what to expect from a bunch sprint (if there will be one). By the way, it is 60km left and the gap has come down to exactly 3 minutes.
Assuming you read the Preview first, you should know the favourites. What you might not know is that Greipel (LTB) lacks a sprint-train with only his friend Sieberg as a lead-out-man. He will most probably try to grab a wheel. Maybe it will be the wheel of Brouwer (BEL) as he has Vanmarcke and Hofland as a strong train. Sky is lined up decently with Swift, Sutton and Rowe all being capable of leading out Boasson Hagon, who should be their captain. Terpstra (OPQ) has Trentin, Terpstra and Stybar to pull him to the front. MTN’s Stauff and Kennedy should also be able to bring Guido to the front. So basically all good sprinters have strong leadouts, except Greipel. We will see who manages the sprint best in about 90 minutes. Until then, we may enjoy the view of the peloton and the countryside.
And Delfosse beats Zakarin to the line! No, just kidding. We have just entered the finishing circuit with the breakaway passing the finish area for the first time. There are four passages still to come, so the riders should know the streets by then.
Attack from the bunch! Probably Belkin just do not want to chase for some time, so they send Wynants on the attack. He quickly establishes a 20 seconds gap. Interesting tactics by Belkin, but I fear they might overcook it as now only Lotto and Sky are chasing. On the other hand, with six domestiques and only one leadout on board, Lotto could really be capable of this.
Matteo Trentin (OPQ) goes! I would not have expected the race to be so filled with attacks, but it is certainly nice for us spectators. With 40km to go, the morning break only has 1:30 left. Under the pressure of the latest attacks now, that surely will not be enough to win today.
Now we have attacks from the break. Thrilling action, really! As the guys in the front will surely know they are heavily losing ground, Bideau, Delfosse, Delaplace and Joeaar decide to go for it. The break only has half a minute left onto Wynants. Weirdly enough, for now almost 10km, Trentin is just 10 seconds behind him, but he cannot close the gap. The pack, still led by Sky and Lotto, is 30 seconds behind him again.
Honkisz goes for it! 25km left and the former attackers could not get away from the rest of the group. Will he be more successive? Behind, Wynants and Trentin are still both on their own, surely wasting energy by doing so. The pack seems to be losing strength as their gap to the front is back to 1:30 now.
Both Wynants and Trentin had to understand that they are just wasting energy, so both finally sat up. Right now, Tjallingii (BEL) attacks. If that works out, Belkin’s DS is truly a master tactician. Because as we all know, counter attacks are usually the more successful ones in our sport. However, we should not forget about the 10-man breakaway that is altogether again, being 80 seconds up the road.
What an impressive race by the whole Lotto-Belisol team so far. They are still the ones chasing, now bringing back Tjallingi with 14 km to go. But the break is still 700m in front, will they be able to hang on? Did I judge this situation too early?
Passing under the 10km banner, we see a promising late attack. It was Omega Pharma and Belkin twice so far, now it is Omega Pharma again! From his sleeves, we can spot it is the former Dutch champion Terpstra giving it a go! Will Lotto finally get some more help than just from Sky? The break still has its chances with 50 seconds advantage now.
It won’t be a bunch sprint! No it won’t this time. Because the breakaway still has 45 seconds to the peloton, where just everybody has been relying on Lotto too hard. They cannot do all the chasing, and now all the sprinter teams have to pay the bill for that mistake. While Terpstra made it all the way to the break, Wallays attacks with less than 5km to go.
What are they doing?! Wallays made a big-time rivalry come up behind and now only Terpstra is chasing him. The pack is therefore closing in fast with the guys already in sight. The sprint is going to be very wild as Goos and Leezer (BEL) are leading the pack with 3km to go for them. Behind, Boasson Hagen, Greipel and Brouwer are already lined up. Stybar is also in the mix, but the MTN guy is Stauff who will fancy his own chances as Guido and Kennedy are at the rear on the peloton. Behind Stauff, Trentin is using his last energy to get Meersman on Stybar’s wheel. No sign of any other sprinters by now.
But it is all about Jelle Wallays. Going under the flamme rouge, he has his biggest win ever just in front of him. The peloton is not in the wheels of the break yet and Ruijgh digs deep now trying to launch an attack.
From the pack, Boasson Hagen went early trying to finally catch the break. Most probably that does just help the likes of Greipel, Brouwer and Meersman behind him. As the car and the motorcycle really should not be where they are now, you just have to believe me that it is just a matter of seconds until Boasson Hagen will reach the back of the breakaway group. In that group, now Joeaar is the first to launch the sprint as Ruijgh could not get away. But it is a very wild finish overall.
Our helicopter catches the whole situation with just 200m to go for Wallays. He is still in front, but heavily struggling to churn that gear over. Joeaar and Honkisz in his wheel are both coming fast from behind. Boasson Hagen is already fading and this could be Greipel’s big chance to make it all the way to the front if he could only hang on. Brouwer and Meersman will have problems leaving his slipstream for sure. Stauff, Lighthart, Vanmarcke and Stybar are fighting it out behind, but that should only be about place 15 or so.
And the winner is: Jelle Wallays! He achieves his biggest win so far by perfectly timing a stunning attack 5000m before the finish. His kind of odd celebration is truly a sign he does not win so often, but that one is well deserved. Behind, riders are all over the place and it is hard to pick out who is going to be next. But we can say that Greipel and Brouwer seem to be blocked by sprinting breakaway riders, so either Joeaar and Honkisz should get the last podium places or Meersman will be able to rush through.
The rest of the peloton is coming in, fighting for the minor places. Sorry that we missed the next guys on the line (stupid PCM not reacting fast enough ). Honkisz scores second coming out of Joeaars slipstream, who will be unsatisfied with his fourth place as Greipel somehow found a gap and powered his way through to third. What an incredible power this man has in his legs! Bideau from the break comes in fifth, with the Omega Pharma duo of Terpstra and Meersman being sixth and seventh. Surely, they could have done more helping Lotto in the chase. But that goes for everybody except the teams being part of the breakaway. Ruijgh scores an eigth place for Vacansoleil and Delfosse was the last one from the morning break holding on to a Top10. Boasson Hagen is rewarded with a tenth place, surely not what he hoped for, but without his effort, the Top10 would have been all for the breakaway. Brouwer will be disappointed with his 12th place, as should be every other team with a sprinter on board not being mentioned by now.
From my outside view, we have seen thrilling action. But of course not all (probably not even more than one) managers will be happy with the outcome. I am sorry for that guys, but this is how cycling works and, in the end, everybody not helping Lotto with the chase should really reconsider his tactics for the next race. More seriously, I am a bit sad that we had another breakaway win and especially that an unmanaged team grabbed the victory again. If my PCM14 works with all the EPIC stuff, I will use that now at least in classics as that damn PCM13 breakaway AI really bothers me.
In the end, I want to thank you for watching the race. I hope you liked it.
apperantly Pyroli Feunard isn't in Burgos. I'm gonna have fun checking every race raced so far to see if he's in a race, goodie . good thing I don't have a Grand Tour to race or something like that
well maybe I should have said that Krisa has quit
oh wait he didn't race and propably won't this season part. thank you forum-search <3
Edited by SSJ2Luigi on 30-09-2014 20:38
Need a Top 5 GC from Pellizotti in the Vuelta a Burgos. I should have a good chance because my strongest possible team will be there. A bit disappointed to see Valverde there though...
Andorra, doesn't have his own NC, so I quickly made him this, maybe other reporters want to use it as well:
28th Dutch Food Valley Classic
). Honkisz scores second coming out of Joeaars slipstream, who will be unsatisfied with his fourth place as Greipel somehow found a gap and powered his way through to third. What an incredible power this man has in his legs! Bideau from the break comes in fifth, with the Omega Pharma duo of Terpstra and Meersman being sixth and seventh. Surely, they could have done more helping Lotto in the chase. But that goes for everybody except the teams being part of the breakaway. Ruijgh scores an eigth place for Vacansoleil and Delfosse was the last one from the morning break holding on to a Top10. Boasson Hagen is rewarded with a tenth place, surely not what he hoped for, but without his effort, the Top10 would have been all for the breakaway. Brouwer will be disappointed with his 12th place, as should be every other team with a sprinter on board not being mentioned by now.
. good thing I don't have a Grand Tour to race or something like that 
