The race in Portugal was mainly used as a warm up for me. The terrain did not suit me very well, as it contained a time trial and very few decisive stages for the GC. I was sent there as a helper, so I had no real hopes of doing anything on my own. My goal was to make sure the rest of the team performed well, and that Champion Systems walked away with a good result, even if it wasn't mine. Interestingly the race was restarted after a technical blunder from the race organisers meant some of the rankings were incorrect.
The first 2 stages were flat stages. This wasn't my terrain so there wasn't much that I could do. However, on the third stage things got much better. The stage was hilly, and I was there to help Kim Po-Ding. Despite working hard I did not get dropped all day and at the end of the stage I finished 8th, even managing to be two places higher than Kim. It was an incredible experience to get a top 10 in such a prestigious race.
Naturally, my time trial was not as good, I finished 48th, having lost several minutes. Po-Ding did much better, but being a perfectionist he was disappointed even with a podium. The final stage was flat, so I managed to preserve my decent result. I had managed to come 12th in the general classification. To be so close to the top ten was an incredible feeling. It was even better to see Po-Ding Kim on the podium. He managed 3rd place, which meant the team had done its job.
Overall, I came away from the Algarve delighted. Not only had I helped a team mate achieve a sponsor goal, but I had also put in one of the best performances of my career. My GC performance might have only been decided over two stages, but that did not lessen the joy of it. I felt as though I had vindicated Champion Systems' decision to sign me.
Your races for part 2:
Primavera
Brabantse
AGR
Koln
Trentino
Fleche
LBL
Turkey
Finanzplatz
Dunkerque
California
Norway
Bayern
Belgie
Philly
Luxembourg
Dauphiné
Kanton
Easy: Tour of California - Top 10 GC
Medium: GP Aargau - Top 5 (if it should be forbidden to set this as a goal, please take Klasika Primavera - Top 10 instead)
Hard: Bayern Rundfahrt - Top 3 GC
Easy: Tour of California - Top 10 GC
Medium: GP Aargau - Top 5 (if it should be forbidden to set this as a goal, please take Klasika Primavera - Top 10 instead)
Hard: Bayern Rundfahrt - Top 3 GC
Countered goals:
Easy goal: Top 10 AGR
Medium goal: Stage win Norway
Hard goal: Podium GC Trentino
I won Aufrasian Road Race for 2nd time in a row, I hope this makes you proud. However, I think for stage racing I need better acceleration as well. I think we should use all the price money I won for training for make better accelerration for Po-ding. Communism good, Kimmunism better!
Hello everybody, just a quick update from the Champion System super-secret inner circle.
As our PR guys are all away, (Probably you won't see these guys again, because of... reasons. We're eagerly trying to find new ones, but people seem to fear working for us in that position... We still have to figure out why that is.) the press work is not really godd at the moment, but that is a well-known problem of Communist work.
However, we had great results in the Continental Championships:
Lars Grawunder came 2nd in the European ITT and was best custom rider as well. Sadly, the Capitalist regime denies us to upgrade his official rating though.
Po-ding Kim won the Aufrasian ITT as we expected. That was a strong performance, but we were absolutely sure he would do this. Still, we suppose that UCI officials make a change to his rating: - ACC +1
Rajesh Kakhi finished a strong 6th in the Aufrasian Road Race, which is foreshadowing for more top results in international racing perhaps.
I won Aufrasian Road Race for 2nd time in a row, I hope this makes you proud. However, I think for stage racing I need better acceleration as well. I think we should use all the price money I won for training for make better accelerration for Po-ding. Communism good, Kimmunism better!
~ Po-ding
Haha no
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
Here I am again for the Giro del Trentino, my first race this season part. After that, I go to Bayern and California. It's my first time in Trentino, but I heard this race is hard. Team mate Lars did good in European Championships, I hope he can help me well here with Team Time Trial on day one. After that, we go climbing. It will be good to see what I can do against the best. I need to do something after not so good race in Algarvia.
A sad day for our glorious nation, as Champion Kim Po-ding got ill in the Giro del Trentino. What is believed to be an assassination attempt by American or South-Korean agents, led to a disease that brought down our great leader. In stage 1, he lost some time after pulling the team for most of the race. Things got worse in stages 2 and 3, and it ended in drama on stage 4, where he completely collapsed. He held on to give his team the team classification, but now he needs much rest. His personal assistant, Dr. Fu, thinks he will be racing again in a month, as Kim's body is strong enough to fight off the poison. Our Great and Noble Leader already wished the young cyclist all the best and launched some missiles in support.
This stage race was one of the reason I signed with Champion System, races like this often have a much weaker start list than other races. I could show myself much more in the sprints against riders more of my level. However Pyroli was also at the start and while I was doing my warm-up he came to me with the purpose of annoying me that he was in the top 10 of a GC once, he somehow managed to avoid mentioning his KOM jersey. Probably hoping someone would bring it up.
The premise of hearing this talk for 3 hours made me rethink my racing plan, I asked if it was okay if I were to spend my day in the breakaway instead of helping Naveed in the sprint train. The team must have overheard the conversation and gave me the green light. Although Naveed wasn’t super enthusiastic but I promised to make it up to him.
So I’m in the breakaway now
We didn’t make it until the end of the stage however but I avoided Pyroli banter for a day so it’s all good. I also took some bonification seconds so I was 7th in the overall classification. That should shut Pyroli up for a while
In the 2nd stage we made a mistake in the train for Naveed so he was alone in the finale kilometers but still got 5th. The 3rd stage was a though one but somehow I was able to hang on to the peloton although 3 minutes down on the stage winner. I didn’t gain a place on the GC though so I was still 7th. 4th stage was flat again and we changed tactics, instead of making a train we’ll deliver Naveed to a different team train. Naveed got 5th again so we’re not sure if that’s the way to go. I went up to 6th in the overall so that was cool.
Stage 5 was the end of my “GC run” the end climb was too much and I lost 12 minutes. I’m not here for the GC anyway but it’s always fun to see my name on the leaderboards. Stage 6 Friedemann got in the breakaway and they lasted until the end with Friedemann ending up winning the stage. I did my best for Naveed but he wasn’t able to finish in the top 10
Stage 7 was pretty uneventfull for me and Stage 8 was not good to because I got caught behind a split meaning I couldn’t participate in the sprint for Naveed. Stage 9 was similar to 7. Not much going on, the breakaway won the stage, nobdy from our team was in it. The final stage was a real mass sprint and I did my best for Naveed to get him in a good train but he just wasn’t feeling it today. He only finished 10th.
That pretty much sums up my race. Very disappointed that I couldn’t help Naveed for stage wins at all. Not much to be said about this race.
Feunard Games
At lot of Feunard Games racing has happing since my last update. After my class with Aquali (FDJ) at Tour of Qatar, he met Pyroli (CCC) at the Tour of Oman which was barely won by Aquali: 4-3. Then in Langkawi I met Pyroli which kinda makes it full circle and he was chanceless. I won 8-3! Not enough to put me in the lead yet but its close Pyroli has 12 points, Aquali has 11 and I have 10.
Results
Spoiler
Race
Best of Three
First
Last
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 1
Voltali
74th
Pyroli
94th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 2
Pyroli
65th
Voltali
80th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 3
Pyroli
37th
Voltali
63th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 4
Voltali
71th
Pyroli
126th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 5
Pyroli
41th
Voltali
55th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 6
Voltali
79th
Pyroli
108th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 7
Voltali
94th
Pyroli
114th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 8
Voltali
63th
Pyroli
98th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 9
Voltali
89th
Pyroli
104th
Tour of Langkawi - Stage 10
Voltali
88th
Pyroli
108th
Tour of Langkawi - GC
Voltali
50th
Pyroli
67th
Standings
Spoiler
Career
Best of Three
First
Last
Points
Voltali (Champion System)
0
23
18
23
Aquali (FDJ)
0
20
24
20
Pyroli (CCC-Polsat)
1
13
14
16
2014 season
Best of Three
First
Last
Points
Pyroli (CCC-Polsat)
0
12
14
12
Aquali (FDJ)
0
11
11
11
Voltali (Champion System)
0
10
8
10
next report should be on Criterium International, another clash again Pyroli. hopefully with better race results and the same FG
