the_hoyle: No win in the last two GC races for him, but, still, great points scored: see below!
(Above) Due to the amazing season from our Spanish Champ, in addition to the main Bonsucro shirt, modelled by Jacinta (see post #1), a tank top of the Bonsucro Spanish NC has been released, modelled by a Lynx, in respect of the milestone of 1000 points being reached!
With a stage win and a second place in Austria, Contador's season has come to an end. One of the most talked about transfers, last period, we can say the deal with Aker - MOT has reaped rewards for us. As of this post, Contador is the only PCT rider to have reached the total of 1000 points this season.
Race:
Final Position:
Points (Circa):
Vuelta a Catalunya
1st
133
Kenya Mountain Classic
1st
140
Corsica International
3rd
112
Tour of Vancouver
1st
235
Volcan de Agua Classic
8th
43
Tour d'Andorra
4th
120
Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt
2nd
234
1017
WT Races:
Vuelta a España
17th
N/A
Vuelta al Pais Vasco
47th
N/A
Contador, for the most part, sure did deliver when it mattered. Sure their were bad moments: notably puncturing to cost us our win goal in Guatemala and nothing doing in the WT races, but what a season!
The Spanish Champ's consistency has been a godsend for us as, notwithstanding Castaneda, Iglinskiy and Mansilla, our team really has struggled since promotion.
There really are so many highlights, but one stands out above the rest: going into the last stage in Vancouver the GC was still to be decided, thanks to a great TTT by the team Contador was able to leave with the GC win in Canada.
Definetely an awesome season by Conta in terms of points and results!
Very similar to Brajko aswell, those few races Conta lost, Brajko won and opposite
Shame about the Vuelta though, he could easily have gotten a great result there considering how well Abal were doing etc.
d4e: It can't be said enough, yet! What a season for them both. I don't think the other challengers can topple the Spanish champ from his perch, so there is that for us!
The Vuelta was a strange one. Must be to do with some voodoo!
WARNING:The following ain't too pretty!
The first of two races to round out the month, here we had hopes that Iglinskiy could finish well in the top 15 in the GC and, after two sprint wins this season, we fancied Mansilla would contest the lumpy sprint stages.
(Prologue) Loanee Tzortzakis provides the cameras a rare shot of Bonsucro in this race.
(Stage 7) Egidio makes our only break of the race.
In fine, this race was a real black spot for us. Roy scores no points, what else. Considering Iglinskiy didn't have the legs for a decent GC challenge, to see us only appear in one break was dire. Especially in a race where breaks so often succeeded. Mansilla gains one point for a decent sprint on stage 6.
Stage
GC
Points
Stage 1
L M Mansilla (18)
L M Mansilla (18)
Stage 2
M Iglinskiy (12)
M Iglinskiy (10)
Stage 3
L M Mansilla (34)
M Iglinskiy (11)
Stage 4
M Iglinskiy (18)
M Iglinskiy (14)
Stage 5
M Iglinskiy (20)
M Iglinskiy (16)
Stage 6
L M Mansilla (8)
M Iglinskiy (16)
1
Stage 7
M Iglinskiy (30)
M Iglinskiy (17)
Stage 8
M Iglinskiy (37)
M Iglinskiy (18)
Stage 9
M Iglinskiy (21)
M Iglinskiy (21)
Stage 10
J Roy (23)
M Iglinskiy (24)
Stage 11
M Iglinskiy (53)
M Iglinskiy (23)
Final
13
14
Could it go any worse than in Portugal?
No images of Bonsucro here. No breakaways. No sprints. Castañeda is on worrying form, he should have at least peppered the top 10 once here, ahead of the ToA where we expect him to challenge for stage wins as he did when this season was still young. Ballan is one of only several Bonsucro riders to have now passed the 10 points mark this season.
The Contador-honeymoon period is well and truly over. With Roy leading us in 13 stages still to come, with no more races for the Spanish champ, the rest of the season doesn't look too bright from here.
Stage
GC
Points
Stage 1
A Ballan (22)
A Ballan (22)
Stage 2
C A Manarelli (15)
A Ballan (25)
Stage 3
J A Castañeda (12)
A Ballan (31)
Stage 4
J A Castañeda (45)
A Ballan (34)
Stage 5
J A Castañeda (26)
A Ballan (28)
Final
15
15
--
Our nemesis race of last season, The Tour of America, is next up for the team. We realize our top 5 goal there is likely out of the window already, however, we will look to cast asunder memories of this race which cost us the title with the following goals:
tsmoha - I think you were on to something there, as Roy does liven up for the ToB! I am spoiling this now, because if I just review the ToB showing Roy in the points I am afraid the shock would be too much for some people!
dun dun dun .....
Here it is, one season on from the race which cost us the title. Nicácio would be back, but didn't look likely to contest for anything here. Castañeda would be our rider for the sprints, we half expected stage wins from him and Iglinskiy would be our GC hope. We had a goal of a top 5 for this race, we expected the Kazakh to finish at least in the top 15 as some consolation. Also to this race we brought the multiple stage winner this season, Mansilla. Could it go better than last season?
Week 1:
Castañeda missing the win by the narrowest of margins on stage 2.
After the prologue it was a sprint-fest in America. Surprising, to us, we didn't set up a train all week, however, Castañeda would still contest the sprints well.
2nd again, in the points jersey, on stage 4.
2nd, 5th and 2nd again from the early sprint stages. Good, but somewhat disappointing, as no one would have liked these panflat stages more than Castañeda. Reijnen and Mansilla not providing a train was bewildering. Even more bewildering was the fact that Mansilla would attack, mid-way, on stage 5, the only time he would be visible in the whole tour, a real bad tour for him.
Could we win the TTT?
No. 3rd place in the TTT. We rated our train as on of the best here, 3rd was acceptable but with fatigue starting to kick in, which could prevent any chance of a win from Castañeda, it now looked unlikely that we would pick up a stage win. However, Ramos Ticona, made the break on stage 7, our first of the tour, and there was hope.
Stage
GC
Points
Stage
GC
Points
Stage 1
P Nicácio (26)
P Nicácio (26)
-
Stage 2
J A Castañeda (2)
J A Castañeda (21)
12
Stage 3
J A Castañeda (5)
J A Castañeda (6)
4
Stage 4
J A Castañeda (2)
J A Castañeda (2)
15
Stage 5
M Iglinskiy (36)
M Iglinskiy (28)
-
Stage 6
Bonsucro (3)
M Iglinskiy (23)
5
Stage 7
M Iglinskiy (22)
M Iglinskiy (22)
-
Week 2:
Soto Pereira in the break on stage 9.
We would be a regular in the breaks from here on in, much to our relief. Ramos Ticona and Soto Pereira would be amongst the most aggressive of those in the early stages of each stage. However, after a dispirited stage 10, where Iglinskiy continued to falter and a no-show from Bonsucro hopes were dashed when it dawned upon us that we had gone 51 GT stages without a stage win.
Reijnen 3rd on stage 11.
Reijnen's third place, just passed by the fastest sprinters in the finale, was then our best finish from a break all season long. So close. Yet so far. Granjel Cabrera continuing his domineering streak was hard to see with our sprinter now struggling. On to the mountain time trial.
Nicácio sets a solid time.
For the first time in the tour, Pedro Nicácio, poor wrench of a year ago reared his head. A defiant head! He would set a blistering time up Beartooth Pass, a formidable time. However, the riders at the top of the GC, still to finish, were expected to take this one.
Pedro Nicácio does it!
The GC riders couldn't halt a phenomenal Nicácio, who would go on to win by '26 seconds. No-one saw this coming. Given the history that Pedro has in this race, this win was all the more sweeter. It took 54 stages but we have won a GT stage!
Lacklustre sprints by Castañeda, to round out the week, couldn't dampen our spritis after that phenomenal stage winning ride.
Stage
GC
Points
Stage 8
J A Castañeda (7)
M Iglinskiy (22)
1
Stage 9
P Nicácio (20)
M Iglinskiy (21)
-
Stage 10
M Iglinskiy (23)
M Iglinskiy (21)
-
Stage 11
K Reijnen (3)
M Iglinskiy (21)
6
Stage 12
P Nicácio (1)
P Nicácio (21)
20
Stage 13
J A Castañeda (13)
P Nicácio (21)
Stage 14
J A Castañeda (6)
P Nicácio (21)
2
Week 3:
Nicácio in the break: not contesting the sprints on stage 17.
After some quiet stages for us, Pedro would make the break on stage 17. A break which would sneak away to the finish!
Unbelievable: Nicácio doubles up!
True veteran, a wise man, is Pedro Nicácio. Whilst the others in the break were expending energy for the KOM points, he just kept a steady rhythm. He would attack with 4 KM to go and that was all she wrote. Another stage win, mascot Jacinta was doing summersaults all over the jungle, at this feat. A result which would lift him up in to the top 15 in GC.
Diniz, made the break, on stage 18 which was another successful one. No win this time but a solid 4th place on the dawn of the final time trial. After winning the mountain time trial we had sneaky hopes that Nicácio could pick up a third win, but this was very unlikely given the flat, then, hilly nature of the course.
Ramos Ticona on his way to a real victory out of the blue!
Cloud 9 was our new abode after tasting victory for the third time on stage 19, through the unlikely form of Ramos Ticona. Unexpected, an understatement. Our second ITT win, this time thanks to our Bolivian. A big thanks can't be forgotten to our dazzling TT apparatus creator, Mr X!
What a tour!
On the remaining two stages Nicácio would overwhelm us again and secure a top 13th place in the GC, with Castañeda, at least making the top 10 on the final stage.
We leave with three stage wins, and apprehensions about relegation well behind us. What a race. What a Tour of America!
Our tour in Britain can be summarised by two of our riders. 1: Christian Egidio. Our Brazilian did exactly what we expected of him when we signed him - got into breaks! In breaks on stages 4 and 6, he would eek out one good stage finish and a 3rd place in the KOM standings: a shame he hasn't done this more often really.
2: Roy.. While he wasn't dreadful, as he has been for his past 30+ race days, he certainly didn't set the world on fire. However, despite being as conspicuous as a shadow in the darkness, he did manage a 15th place GC finish, which nets him 26 points: his first points since the first race of his season. His 9th place finish on stage 7, his best yet!
Stage
GC
Points
Stage 1
J Roy (31)
J Roy (31)
Stage 2
J Roy (42)
J Roy (20)
Stage 3
J Roy (16)
J Roy (13)
Stage 4
J Roy (15)
J Roy (10)
Stage 5
J Roy (26)
J Roy (17)
Stage 6
C Egidio (4)
J Roy (17)
5
Stage 7
J Roy (9)
J Roy (15)
Stage 8
C Manarelli (13)
J Roy (15)
Final
41
Total
46
Nothing much to say about this race. We did take part and Diniz, 25th, enabled us to leave with one point.
--
Bye Bye.
We will take this time to say, with a heavy heart!, that Bonsucro will be stepping down as the main sponsor of the team for next season. Though it hasn't been declared publicly until now, people in the know shouldn't be surprised by this.
This announcement follows months of uncertainty for the team. The terms disbandment, merger with Grupo Nutresa, a Chilean license and a Bolivian license were all thrown around: all mere speculation. Well now it appears that a Brazilian license will be retained for next season after some good talks, however, expect new sponsors here with most of our existing Brazilian sponsors pulling out over the 'Nazaret incident', which was no fault of ours. Though Bonsucro are stepping down, they will still be on board in the guise of a minor sponsor.
Our best finisher, stagiare, Geovanne Andriatto. So for the second season running a stagiare is our highest finisher in one of the last races of the season. 85th place ain't nothing to brag about though. Castañeda dropped in his final race of the season, dropped in the winds again, a race he could have made the podium on a great day ... Know what I mean when I say we expect a big drop there if we keep him for next season.
Ballan sprinting for a place on stage 1.
Our only c2 race of the season. Given we thought Ballan should challenge for a top 10 in GC and Aguilar should have challenged more so in the sprint stage, Bulgarelli in 26th as our best finisher, this was yet another nothing, monotonous, race for the team with no points here. However, visible on all three stages, we can't be too unhappy.
With that, finally, there is only one more race review post to go: how will we go in Asia?
Atlantius & Bjartne - Glad you liked it! But don't despair, if anything the team iconography will be much more colourful next season and with good reason. Yes siree bob, it is coming up rosy ''hint hint''!
Now for the final two races of the season!
A last hurrah for Manarelli in our colours?
In his second top 10 of the season, our most consistent rider from last season, Manarelli, showed really well on stage 2. Just lacking the resistance to hold off, but a valiant fourth place in the sprint.
After stage 1 went to the early break, Roy, deep into his 44 race days, entered the stage 4 queen stage in the top 20. Any thing else of note?
Roy ... finally turns up!
It took him till his 41st race day of his 44, but the Frenchman finally showed why we put such confidence in him before the season started. Above he is seen attacking with division great, Montfort. A truly great ride which he can be pleased with. But why did he leave it till now? That is the question!
Jeremy Roy, 8th overall, would pick up more than 50% of his total season points at this race. What an enigma!
Stage
GC
Points
Stage 1
J Roy (47)
J Roy (47)
Stage 2
C A Manarelli (4)
J Roy (34)
5
Stage 3
J Roy (13)
J Roy (16)
Stage 4
J Roy (6)
J Roy (8)
3
Stage 5
L M Mansilla (9)
J Roy (8)
Final
61
69
Roy attacking with Betancourt, Di Maggio, Dowsett and Zingle!
After Beijing, in the final race of the season, Roy was back to his good ol' self! He was seen attacking with four race favourites in the final stages of the race. Now whilst the other four would finish in the two lead groups, Roy would somehow finish over 4'00 down!
19th place = 7points.
It really couldn't have ended any other way, could it?!
Welcome to the season review for Bonsucro, let's try and make it snappy!
19
Bonsucro
1727
Victories:
-- GC: Vuelta a Catalunya (Alberto Contador)
-- GC: Tour of Vancouver (Alberto Contador)
-- Kenya Mountain Classic (Alberto Contador)
-- Stage 1 Tour of Eritrea (Jaime Alberto Castaneda)
-- Stage 3 Tour of South Africa (Luis Miguel Mansilla)
-- Stage 6 Tour of Japan (Luis Miguel Mansilla)
-- Stage 1 Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt (Alberto Contador)
-- Stage 12 Tour of America (Pedro Nicácio)
-- Stage 17 Tour of America (Pedro Nicácio)
-- Stage 19 Tour of America (Basilio Ramos Ticona)
Season Goals: 1/5
#1: PCT Team Standings - Top 10 - 19th
#2: Tour of America -Top 5Nicácio - 13th
#3: Volcan de Agua Classic - Win Contador - 8th *
#4: Interlagos GP -Top 5 Manarelli - 9th
#5: Tour d'Andorra Top 5Contador - 4th
If we were to hold a Bonsucro rider of the season contest, well, there wouldn't really be a contest. Alberto Contador, Spanish champ, would surely win hands down. Head and shoulders, el pistolero, really did carry the team for much of this season. 2nd in the PCT rankings and the top climber in the rankings, brilliant. Next season, all things being well, he will again to be to the fore, however, hopefully not with such an indispensable status as he has had this season.
Jaime Alberto Castaneda, despite not having an amazing season, is second in our rankings: unlike last season the depth was not there at all this season. Maxim Iglinski is in third, though a good 75% of his points came from the first race of his season, Tour of Eritrea: and disappointed thereafter for the rest of the season.
Luis Miguel Mansilla: a bit of an enigma. He won two bunch sprints out of the peloton, in the hilly terrain, but brings home less than 70 points! If we can get him for a good price, we are sure he could be a great asset for a top sprinter if we sign one: however, no lead-outs at the Tour of America indicates otherwise.
5th in our rankings: Pedro Nicácio's beautiful retribution at the Tour of America, where he picked up two stage wins, was one of the top highlights of our season. Right up there with Contador's victories in Vancouver and Kenya. Nicácio will end his chapter with us after that, but what an ending!
Elsewhere - well, there are a lot of red thumbs. Theories that Ballan would be a decent rider for cobbles were, ultimately, unfounded and a lack of breakaway points really is evident. Manarelli, despite arguably the top Brazilian rider around, has shown with just two top 10s this season that he is not up to PCT standard. We will keep him with an eye to selling him to a CT team, of which we expect good interest. That should tell you that there is a real gap for quality Brazilians at the moment, after we have encouraged Brazilian cycling for the past two seasons surely we should expect a better standard than when there wasn't any interest in Brazil whatsoever.
We will finish this season wiser and looking to come back stronger than ever: not forgetting to introduce our two main sponsors for next season:
Vuelta a Catalunya
Kenya Mountain Classic
Corsica International
Tour of Vancouver
Volcan de Agua Classic
Tour d'Andorra
Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt
Tour of America -
Interlagos GP -
