Gustavovskiy - All 3 of our signings from Prio Porto have done great so far, maybe we got a heap of luck when we signed the guys.
Hernâni Broco flies the flag high in Portugal.
Hernâni Broco made himself known, for the first time as a Bonsucro rider, in his home country to round off the month of May. In our last c1 road race this season he put in a performance which was eerily similar to what Nicácio managed in Cartago - Irazu. The Portuguese made the break and survived for a good finish at the end of the stage, like Nicácio in Costa Rica, he finished in 17th and earned a few more points for the team.
It has been great racing these pro-conti road stages this season, as bigger races equals bigger renown. Spreading the good word, so to speak, of Bonsucro.
A great month with some unexpected results (Mas taking a win), expected results (consistent performances from Manarelli) and our comparatively well rounded squad eking out points at seemingly every race has seen our great position in the rankings get better.
Since the last update we have risen from 7th to 6th in the continental rankings but crucially we maintained our PPRD figure of 12 over one of the harder months of racing on our calendar.
We won't count our chickens before they hatch and say we are bound for the continental title, especially after seeing Venchi - Ferranti semi-capitulate of late, however .....
.... we reckon there is plenty of reason for optimism on the Bonsucro train. We top the projected rankings with around half the season gone, but the beauty of it is that we believe the easiest half of the season lies ahead of us.
The first half of our season calendar contained races where we had little chances of doing anything (cobbled races, some c1 classics, a few stage races), however we believe we can and will score good points in virtually every race remaining for us in the second half of the season.
We set ourselves a goal of finishing in the top 3 in the continental rankings before the season started, but having taken everything into account we are now going for the continental title!
Races for June:
Only four one-day races await us in June so if we hold our position in the rankings it will be mainly down to teams around us not scoring too many points.
Squad: Txurruka, Broco, Camargo, Losada, Melo, Rodrigues & Soto Pereira
A mountainous race with a long descent before the finish. Could this finally be the race where Txurruka lights up the road in Bonsucro colours?
Hopes - Top 5 min.
Squad: Aguilar, Borges, Broco, Gaspar, Losada, Mas & Soto Pereira.
We send arguably our weakest line-up in the second half of the season to this race. Aguilar will lead us if it comes to a bunch sprint with no Manarelli starting. However, there are some hills to be dealt with in Catalunya so our best chances for a good result lie with Borges and Losada.
We have a goal at this race, that goal is a top 5 finish. The race is pan flat and suits Manarelli down to the tee, after our star sprinter's fantastic month of May we believe he can win this C2HC race.
Guaranteed points await us at the Monterrey TTT! Rumour has it only 12 teams are taking part in the TTT, if that is true that means we are guaranteed at least 15 points from this race. We won't bring the strongest TTT team to the race, however, we will bring a squad more than capable of finishing in the top 10.
Hopes:Top 10
That rounds out our June preview. We will see you after the month has finished, hopefully with the news that Manarelli has completed our first ever goal as a team.
jt1109 - We knew there were guaranteed points, but we never could have guessed we would pick up so many!
Bonsucro controlling the peloton on the brutal climb.
Txurukka sprinting for fourth place.
Is Txurruka finally coming into form? Yes, would be the answer to that, based on this performance. After Bonsucro were controlling the peloton for longer than any other team, showcasing the strength in depth, Txurruka managed to follow most of the dangerous moves and ended up winning a select bunch sprint for 4th place. Only finishing behind two early attackers and, the ominous, Arroyo.
1
Peilun Wu
Siam Cement - Lenovo
4h06'48
2
Mauricio Ardila
Azteca - NBCSN
s.t.
3
David Arroyo
ONCE-Eroski Cycling Team
+ 25
4
Amets Txurruka
Bonsucro
s.t.
11
Alberto Losada
Bonsucro
s.t.
15
Rodrigo Melo
Bonsucro
s.t.
16
Jonathan Camargo
Bonsucro
s.t.
28
Jose Eriberto Rodrigues
Bonsucro
s.t.
48
Hernâni Broco
Bonsucro
+ 9'50
Nothing doing at Barcelona.
In a sprinters' race where hills were expected to play a pivotal role .... arguably the worst climber in Man Game history took the win from a mass sprint. Not choosing Manarelli and putting faith in Aguilar did not pay off as the Uruguayan was nowhere come the sprint. Nothing doing.
The race got off to a good start, with Mas making another break.
CAPITULATION.
Late attacker, Wurf, takes the win as another sprinters' classic fails to end in a bunch sprint. But that was not the problem for us. The problem for us was that Manarelli failed to sprint to a top 5, unbelievably he ended outside the top 10, meaning we failed to achieve our race goal. Manarelli was many people's choice for the win and rightfully so after his form of late, yet the sprinters who finished on the podium were some of the outsiders in this race. In Aguilar and Araujo, in theory, we possessed one of the strongest lead-outs. Where were they? No where.
Granted we have had some luck this season, but compared to the likes of ONCE our luck and good fortune is virtually non existent of late. Bad news as, with the unpredictability of many races, luck has never been so important.
Capitulation: have the wheels fallen off the Bonsucro train? Can we turn it around? We sure hope so.
How would the team fare in it's last race of the month and it's last c1 race of the season?
Bonsucro lead the TTT at the first checkpoint.
Man Game aficionados were stunned when the live coverage of the Monterrey TTT was up the other day. At the first checkpoint our very own Bonsucro lead against some of the most capable TTT teams ever seen in the pro-continental division ( Metinvest-Emirates & Oz Cycling Project).
The team out on course.
In the end, the likes of Oz Cycling Project rallied, and Bonsucro finished in 4th. A fantastic result, nevertheless, which we hardly thought possible before the race began. Many teams can boast about taking a great result in a race thanks mainly down to one rider, however, few teams can show the ability to compete in a higher division with a whole team of riders. This performance goes hand in hand with our ideology so we declare this our result of the season.
1
Oz Cycling Project
1h18'28
2
Kazzinc Procycling
+ 14
3
Metinvest-Emirates
+ 19
4
Bonsucro
+ 22
5
Swedbank - PEAB
+ 35
Spoiler
6
Karcher-Adira Racing
+ 58
7
RBC Pro Cycling
+ 1'03
8
Team Chiquita - Universal
+ 1'13
9
La Vie Claire
+ 1'14
10
AMEXpc
+ 1'20
11
Jaguar - Eritel
+ 2'05
12
Boeing-Bulgaria Bicycling
+ 2'17
Though we have had some harsh words for some of the riders, we are thrilled on the whole with everything at the moment. The team's ability to perform in multiple terrains really is proving to be a saving grace at the moment: having not performed in the two sprinter races in June our PPRD remained healthy thanks to our performances in the other two races.
Points for June: (Unofficial)
Transfagarasan GP
41
Barcelona Classic
1
Rutas de America
11
Monterey TTT
45
PPRD
12.25
That wraps up a quiet month for us, where we have mostly sat back and enjoyed the other racing on the calendar. July, on the other hand, is a busy month for our team and offers up plenty to write about here.
See you next time, when we will be discussing the first race of July as well as having a talk about the rankings update.
Guess this result in Monterrey should make up for the rather disappointing Rutas de America Congrats on this huge result! Really couldn't believe what I witnessed there on the first split and your team did extraordinary well to finish so close off the podium.
tsmoha - We REALLY needed that one! Is always great to see a team showing strength against the bigger teams.
End of June rankings:
POINTS
RACE DAYS
PPRD
1
Grupo Nutresa
1176
103
11.4
2
Team Vontobel
1126
108
10.4
3
ONCE-Eroski Cycling Team
1117
105
10.6
4
Risa - Ergon
1074
107
10.0
5
Azteca-NBCSN
988
107
9.3
-- -- ---
6
Bonsucro
984
81
12.1
7
Team TomTom
978
112
8.8
8
Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling
974
104
9.4
9
Evonik - Signal Iduna
936
100
9.4
10
Siam Cement - Lenovo
720
98
7.3
After a month of only 8 race days for us, somehow, we manage to stay in 6th place, one spot behind the automatic promotion places. In June we leapfrogged Team TomTom, who had more than 20 race days than us in June, and we fell behind Azteca - NBCSN, who have raced a good chunk more than us this season. The current top 9 ranked continental teams look like the ones who will contest promotion this season, with a big gap to 10th and below.
Though we are the best part of 200 points of the division lead, there is still a good chance that we could rocket up the rankings with plenty of race days in hand on the teams around us.
July Calender:
C2HC Europe:Tour de Pologne (Jul 2nd - 8th)
C2HC Africa: Tour d'Algerie (Jul 8th - 13th)
C2 Europe: Hill Classic (Jul 18th)
C2 Asia: Tour d'Indonesia (Jul 25th - 29th)
July is a big month for the team, we enter the two C2HC races with hopes of doing something in the overall classifications: with Godoy in Poland and Manarelli in Algeria. Will we be back in the automatic promotion places at the end of the month? ......
Tour de Pologne sneak peak
Spoiler
July gets off to a cracking start. After doing most of the chasing, Borges sprints to victory on stage 1 in Poland, provisionally putting us back into 5th. Find out what happens in the rest of the race in the next update. Over 20 points from the stage sees us moves past the 1000 points mark on the season. WOO!
This C2HC race got off to a terrific start for us. Bruno Borges continued his surreal season by sprinting to win the first stage from a depleted peloton. Surely one of the signings of the division.
Borges fighting in the yellow jersey on stage 4.
Borges was able to defend the race lead going into stage 4. Hard racing over the hills would split the race into pieces. Despite a gallant ride he could never bridge across to the lead group where he would concede the race lead to stage winner, Bole.
Borges sprinting to a podium finish on stage 5.
Losing the race lead didn't harness Borges' spirit. On stage 5, he surged late to finish 3rd behind two quality riders: Bole and Geschke.
Godoy distances Mendes on stage 6.
After such a stunning start to the race the final two stages left a bitter taste in the mouth. While Godoy and Borges did show flashes of brilliance they were overshadowed by the likes of, overall winner, Beltran and Feillu.
Final GC:
1
Eduard Alexander Beltran
Grupo Nutresa
33h17'15
2
Brice Feillu
Dell - 361° Racing
+ 1'25
3
Diego Rosa
Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo Cycling Team
+ 2'42
4
Nino Schurter
Sauber Petronas Racing
+ 3'04
5
Yasmani Martinez
Team Nordeus
+ 3'20
--
12
Bruno Borges
Bonsucro
+ 4'54
13
Sergio Godoy
Bonsucro
+ 4'58
31
Rodrigo Melo
Bonsucro
+ 5'22
37
Jose Eriberto Rodrigues
Bonsucro
+ 9'48
66
Willian Araujo
Bonsucro
+ 21'29
67
João Gaspar
Bonsucro
s.t.
All in all a decent race for the team, especially if you consider the only rivals for promotion which outscored us were Grupo Nutresa and Evonik - Signal Iduna. We were pleased for Evonik - Signal Iduna doing well here after a bit of a rut, we do like to see the more active teams doing well!
Final:
Stage
GC
MG Points
Stage 1(hilly)
B Borges (1)
B Borges (1)
30
Stage 2(flat)
B Borges (18)
B Borges (1)
7
Stage 3(flat)
B Borges (5)
B Borges (1)
9
Stage 4(hilly)
B Borges (12)
B Borges (7)
0
Stage 5(flat)
B Borges (3)
B Borges (7)
5
Stage 6(hilly)
S Godoy (6)
B Borges (11)
2
Stage 7(hilly)
S Godoy (21)
B Borges (12)
0
Final
35
88
Don't count on these figures to be too accurate, but we make that 12.5 PPRD in Poland.
Next up....
In another C2HC race can Manarelli sprint to stage wins and GC glory?
Nice write-up as always! As said, a quite solid overall performance. Borges doing pretty well and Godoy at least going for those minor seconds on the queen stage. Could have been worse, even though you missed out on the most crucial attacks eventually.
tsmoha - The big results weren't there, however, it is great to see we still score good points without over-performing.
EYEBROWS RAISED IN ALGERIA
After Manarelli finished 2nd in the Juarez sprinters' stage race, against a tougher field, we had great hopes that he could take multiple stage wins and perhaps the GC title in Algeria.
Well the race organisers had other plans. The breakaway were gifted the GC on stage 1, a stage where Guillen was the only rider to be allowed to contest the bunch sprint. Why? Who knows? Very fishy whatever the reason.
Manarelli finishing 3rd on stage 2.
Stage 2 saw an expected bunch sprint, where we formed our first ever sprint train. Lead-out man Aguilar finished 5th and Manarelli 3rd, after launching his sprint late.
Manarelli being led-out on stage 6.
The final stage saw Manarelli finish 3rd for a second time. He did well to finish strongly after other sprinters received a more effective lead-out.
Manarelli would have fancied himself the top sprinter here and to leave with only 2 podium places is a bit unfortunate. However, you can't win them all and to finish such a race as high as 7th is encouraging. These C2HC races, opposed to the C2 races, are proving to be a monkey on our backs of late, a shame they score higher than the C2 races!
Unlike Algeria, we didn't have victory aspirations at this C2 classic in Armenia, newly christened: ACA CycleVanadzor. However, we did sent a quality and varied trio of Borges, Godoy and Txurruka to the race.
Godoy rounds out the podium in Armenia.
Sergio Godoy showed great form in Armenia, being only of two late attackers to distance the favourites group. He would finish 3rd behind a dubious breakaway rider, who just happened to be Algerian!, and the ever impressive Wyss. A good omen ahead of Indonesia, two hilly stages there should really favour Godoy.
Txurruka would sprint to 7th in the blanket hilly finish and Borges continues a great season with a 14th place. Meaning that trio would all finish in the top 15, a great day out in Armenia.
Manarelli made the Tour d'Algerie a good race for you while the Hill classic was excellent with two guys in the top 10 and one of them on the podium.
All in all a decent race for the team, especially if you consider the only rivals for promotion which outscored us were Grupo Nutresa and Evonik - Signal Iduna. We were pleased for Evonik - Signal Iduna doing well here after a bit of a rut, we do like to see the more active teams doing well!
I could say the same about your team. It's nice to see you being successful eventhough it is not the best for my team's ranking situation.
knockout - To me it looks like Evonik are bound for promotion one season ahead of schedule.
STEADY SCORING IN SUMATRA
New to the calendar this 5 day, c2 ranked, race would see us give the Uruguayan TT champ, Soto Pereira, another chance at leading the team. How would we perform?
Soto Pereira is certainly starting to pay back the transfer fee we paid Karcher-Adira Racing. Above he is seen attacking on stage 2, a stage which also saw Paulinho and Godoy put in speculative moves.
Paulinho resplendent in our TT gear.
To say we over performed in this race, another continental stage race which went to an early break, would be just wrong. However, a consistent showing from a host of our riders makes the final points tally pretty impressive considering we didn't capitalise from passivity or gain places thanks to a break.
Soto Pereira, an outsider for the TT podium, finished the TT outside the top 10. However, due to the dynamics of the race he was able to rise to fourth in GC, showing the effort he made to make the front group when the peloton broke into pieces was worthwhile. A performance which we are, in hindsight, thrilled with.
The teams ability to make the right group at the right time, combined with some solid time trials, sees us average over 15 PPRD from this one. We hope for a similar points haul in our next race, the 5 stage, Vuelta a Burgos. A race where both Nicácio and Txurruka will be looking to do something.
We expected another decent points haul from this c2 race, maybe even a podium from Nicácio with the two crucial GC stages being a TT and a mountain top finish.
The team with multiple riders towards the front on stage 2.
The first three stages weren't massively suited to our team, with no Borges or Godoy in our team here. Losada did well to get in the mix and finish 8th on stage 2.
Nicácio puts in a decent time against the clock.
After the TT, where Nicácio finished 5th, we had our GC favourite on the podium. Could we hold this place on the final stage?
Txurruka put in multiple attacks.
Amid the frenzy on the final stage our team did, admittedly, lose its nerve a bit. Txurruka couldn't help himself and put in multiple attacks towards the finish, however, as our team orders were to protect Nicácio we had to sacrifice other riders to bring back Txurruka and the other escapees. True, as unbelievable as it sounds.
Nicácio holds on to the rear of a strong group.
Nicácio would finish the final stage in 8th and end up in 4th in the GC. Irritably he lost 5 seconds too much on the day, 5 seconds better off and he would have finished second in the GC. Another solid showing from the team, however, once again we didn't get the luck when it came to attacking at the right time.
That being said we leave with another solid points tally thanks to four riders in the top 20, including a resistant 8th place from Paulinho. We are confident of doing something special and taking out the TTT in our next race. See you there.
We haven't been performing massively in C2HC races of late, would it change in Azerbaijan?
The team riding to a TTT victory.
After our previous TTT, the now legendary Monterrey TTT, we knew we were good enough to take the opening stage here. And we did! Oyarzun would cross the line first, after a great team effort. The ideal way to start this five day stage race.
Paulinho sprinting for 3rd on stage 2.
We did lose the GC lead on stage 2, but nevertheless had 6 riders still in the top 10. Paulinho was really active late on and was justly rewarded with a podium finish.
Attacks from Bonsucro left, right and centre.
On stage 3 it was another Bonsucro rider, this time Losada, who was the most prominent. Losada would finish 3rd on stage 3 after an aggressive strong display, denied a stage win only by survivors of the early breakaway. Paulinho, Nicácio and Oyarzun rode diligently to maintain great placings in the GC.
Losada digging deep.
The crucial, mountainous, stage 4 turned out to be a stage to favour the puncheurs. Losada may have lost a place but finished the stage in the top 10 and was 5th in GC going into the last stage.
.... Which was the way it ended, although some hectic moments on stage 5 induced the nerves. The foundation of a solid team performance eventually enabled us to take a goliath haul of points from this pleasantly unpredictable race, with three of our riders finishing in the top 10.
That concludes our month of August, join us next time folks for an in-depth rankings update, sponsor update and some previews for our 'GT' this season the.....
TIMING IT RIGHT, at least that appears what Bonsucro are doing this season. With few race days remaining we find ourselves at our highest point, we have been all season, in the rankings. From here it looks like we are well on course for achieving our top 3 in the continental rankings goal.
America
1
Heineken-Cal Giant
PCT
887
2
Bonsucro
CT
516
3
Team CSC - Orbea
PCT
515
4
Kappa - ENI
PCT
470
5
Bacardi Limited
PCT
463
IT ALSO LOOKS GOOD concerning our top 10 in the America tour standings goal. We could scarcely believe we were second, still, with ample scoring opportunities left at the Tour of America and the Tour of Utah (two races where we expect hundreds of points to come our way). Good news considering we have missed out on two race goals this season.
The predictions look good for us, however, are they perhaps misleading as we are entering the ........
The fact that it is no small task in gaining a decent mass of points from a 21 day, c1, stage race means that many many teams were deterred from this race. Not to forget that many of the 12 teams that do show up come with lesser rosters than they could have brought. So what do we, Bonsucro, do? Well, we only go and enter this race with one of our strongest squads seen this season. Manarelli, Nicácio and Txurruka all make the startline for this mammoth race.
After pondering much reverse psychology we figured there wouldn't be too many teams entering this race, and that appears to be the case. As such we find ourselves entering a c1 race with one of the most complete squads at the race.
Manarelli will fancy himself as the fastest sprinter, Nicácio is certainly capable of, improving on last year's 7th place, finishing in the top 5 in addition to competing for the TT stages and Txurruka will be a force to be reckoned with in the mountains and the hilly stages.
TOA SQUAD:
- H Aquilar
- J Camargo
- C Manarelli
- P Nicácio
- P Oyakaua
- J Soto Pereira
- A Txurruka
-
We come into the race on a blistering hot streak, will the momentum see us through to four or more stage wins?
We leave with some sponsor news. The news being that, in all likelihood, Brazilian cycling manufacturer, Caloi will replace Giant as our bike supplier for the 2015 season, of which we look to be an integral part.
Caloi is not joining us purely for the sake of being another Brazilian entity on board. The fact is Caloi, who have provided bikes for some of the most noted South American teams, will be able to dedicate themselves much more to Bonsucro than our current suppliers, Giant, who have many obligations to other teams, currently do.
See you next time for an update one week into the TOA.
Looking really really good there on the rankings. Congrats with that
Definitely have some good chances in the ToA, considering the small startlist, which will bring chaos, and a good lineup.
As I already wrote in the game thread: I would love to see your team performing in America. Considering the start list this could be yet another race to shine for you!
Jesleyh - Yes. It WAS looking good! Who knows how the next two weeks will turn out?
knockout - Thanks for the support, shame it hasn't worked out so far. If Txurruka doesn't start attacking soon, with dem stats, I may as well eat my hat.
WEEK 1: Week of Hell
So we entered a c1 race with the most well rounded team, capable of doing something on all terrains, surely a bonanza of points and highlights was to be expected?
Manarelli sprinting to 3rd on stage 1.
The first two stages went pretty smoothly. Manarelli would finish 3rd twice, so-so considering we rated him as the top sprinter here.
Little could we have predicted what would happen next ....
Sadly our GC hope Pedro Nicácio would jump off the bike on stage 3, in one fell swoop our title aspirations take a severe, irresistible, knock as even with an average tour Pedro was expected to bring 80 points to us here, as it is one of the most all-rounded continental GC riders ends his season with 0 points in this race, without a stage win to his name and less than 200 points overall. What rotten luck.
To compound our misery, stage 4, the TTT, saw us finish rock bottom. We would lose 3'41, with Pedro Nicácio we might well have finished the stage 2 minutes better off and on the podium.
Come to think of it if there was one rider in one race we wouldn't want to abandon all season long ...... it would probably be Nicácio in the Tour of America ......
----------- ----------------
BUT ... we won't give this up, not without a fight. The very next stage, stage 5, saw the team set about there intentions, showing strength by setting pace on the peloton. Txurruka, our second plan, would finish 7th and begin the long journey to salvage a decent GC place.
Soto Pereira fights to a podium on stage 6.
Our Uruguayan all rounder would ride the day in the break, finish 3rd , and move to 24th in GC. Ahead of the mountains, stage 7 was a stage of sitting back for the team although, to get the blood pumping, we did help out in bringing back the break.
Week 1:
Position
GC:
Points
Stage 1 (Flat)
C Manarelli (3)
C Manarelli (3)
8
Stage 2 (Flat)
C Manarelli (3)
C Manarelli (3)
8
Stage 3 (Flat)
C Manarelli (7)
C Manarelli (3)
3
Stage 4 (TTT)
12
C Manarelli (50)
0
Stage 5 (Flat/hilly)
A Txurruka (7)
A Txurruka (48)
1
Stage 6 (hilly)
J Soto Pereira (3)
J Soto Pereira (27)
6
Stage 7 (Flat/hilly)
A Txurruka (17)
J Soto Pereira (24)
0
No point in dwelling on that injustice. There are still two weeks to go. Two weeks in which we will be scrapping for every point possible. We are not in a title battle because of huge luck or a small cluster of riders scoring points, we reckon we are there because of our versatility: the ability for many of our riders to score good points.
To salvage this race, we will need to count on our versatility. Like never before.
Our first entry into a 21 day stage race - well, let's be honest, it couldn't have gone much worse. We sent a team capable of winning stages on each of terrains, however, we weren't to leave with even one stage win. The team bus has since been examined and a Ouija board was been removed so we will start the final month in the hope no more bad luck will befall us.
We may have missed out on a 4th place in GC, perhaps the team classification and multiple stage wins due to Pedro Nicácio's abandonment but the team did rally, somewhat, to bring home some points from the race.
Highlights below:
Camargo was really aggressive in the final week.
Txurruka putting in an attack, no where near aggressive as expected but he did finish the GC in the top 10.
Rider of the race!
Jose Soto Pereira would finish the TT in 2nd place, combine this with his 3rd place from a break in week 1 and a top 30 in GC means he was our rider of the race. The only one to over-perform.
So yeah, the jersey was well on show throughout this race in which we all but secured our goal of a top 10 place in the Americas standings. The great support we received was a great testament to the team name and the good folks of the Man Game.
But after being the recipients of such rotten luck we are declaring, right now, that we won't be returning to this race next season. In it's place we are going all guns blazing for a GT wildcard!
Sergio Godoy with a result in Canada there, perhaps not what he was hoping for and after a long fruitful season Bruno Borges looks to be tiring, hopefully he can get some healthy good fruit juice into himself before our final race of the season in Switzerland.
1
Kirill Pozdnyakov
Team Ameriabank-Novatek
5h29'12
2
Jose Mendes
Bank of Ireland - Irish Cycling
+ 27
3
Marcel Wyss
Team Vontobel
9
Sergio Godoy
Bonsucro
26
Alberto Losada
Bonsucro
30
Rodrigo Melo
Bonsucro
63
Carlos Oyarzun
Bonsucro
73
Jose Eriberto Rodrigues
Bonsucro
76
Bruno Borges
Bonsucro
81
Hernâni Broco
Bonsucro
Predictions: Godoy started as 4th favourite.
Attack of the climber-puncheurs: Godoy attacks with Bugge: but would lose time to the break of the day in the final 10 kilometres. That makes sense. Perfect sense!
1
Haritz Orbe
Euskaltel-Bavaria Continental Team
4h46'16
2
Timothy Duggan
Team TomTom
s.t.
3
Saeid Safarzadeh
Wounded Warrior Racing
+ 20
20
Sergio Godoy
Bonsucro
+ 51
47
Bruno Borges
Bonsucro
+ 6'09
60
Rodrigo Melo
Bonsucro
+ 6'38
71
Jose Eriberto Rodrigues
Bonsucro
s.t.
74
Carlos Oyarzun
Bonsucro
s.t.
84
Jorge Adelbo Soto Pereira
Bonsucro
s.t.
87
Hernâni Broco
Bonsucro
s.t.
Well yeah, that month, .... that just happened!
End of September rankings:
Team Total
1 Bonsucro 1625
2 ONCE-Eroski Cycling Team 1590
3 Grupo Nutresa 1528
4 Team Vontobel 1439
5 Euskaltel - Bavaria 1423
With the season just one month to go till the finish we hit the top of the rankings for the first time! Superb! Thanks to all who have taken an interest in our humble team and to all of those who have helped along the way (comments, trades, etc.). We are just month until the climax of our first season, been some ups, been some downs, but we have really enjoyed it and are thrilled at the idea of another one.
But there is still one month to go, the Ouija board is out the window, how will we do in our still undecided season goals:
- Top 3 (Continental Rankings)
- Top 5 (Classico RCN)
- Top 10 (America Standings)
Sad to see an American based team already declaring it's step to keep it's fingers off the ToA next year But I see where you come from. Team still looking good overall. Always a good sign when a team can handle such bad luck, as it could easily destroy a less stronger team's season.
After this far from ideal month I wish you all the best for your 3 remaining goals. The top ten in the American Rankings should be easily secured while the top 3 continental ranking goal looks pretty good, too.
The RCN goal will be difficult though with Txurruka as leader against the whole CT climbing elite. Hoping the best for you though.
I agree with tsmoha. Sad to see you not returning there but i can understand you well. It will be very interesting though if you can perform well in a GT (should you get your wanted wildcard)...
Txurruka, 
Broco, 
Camargo, 
Melo, 
Soto Pereira
Oyarzun, 
Is always great to see a team showing strength against the bigger teams.
(Jul 2
(Jul 8
(Jul 18
J Camargo
Who knows how the next two weeks will turn out?
