I would definitely tend to agree with those comments here in regards to how the AI plays out.
The cobbled stage ended up having no influence other than to drop a bunch of riders who should never be dropped because of their position in the GC after the TTT. As a result, the small front group on that stage was made up of the teams that did well on Stage 1.
I 'm in agreement that cobbled stages do not race well when in a race with non-cobbled stages and, even then, compared to the quite amazing AI in one day classics, it's bitterly disappointing.
Definitely something we'll need to test and have a look at for next season
Still emotionally recovering from that ridiculous Zabel taking away probably our last shot at another PT win. Frustrating how the breakaways kept taking away further opportunities, but happy enough with 11th, 19th, 20th and 22nd on GC from our guys even if I'd have hoped for one in the top 10 or some more highlights from breakaway attempts which we didn't try for at all. Thanks for the reports LLS!
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
Obviously had much higher goals than 24th in the GC with De Bie and Van Hooydonck but apparently a combo with cobblers won`t work very well as seen twice this season for my team.
Stage win from De Bie though was great and 2nd on the other stage was pretty solid as well. Not the points needed though, in especially as direct rivals in the relegation area are scoring big.
Probably can start to plan for the PCT then by now.
We didn't exactly play a big part in how this race evolved. Koretzky got a bit of points, but nothing major, and the others just took it easy at the back all race long.
Just catching up after the first couple of stages. First of thanks to LLS for the reports and congrats to the 3 teams that dominated the top 10 on GC on achieving a very high ppRD from this outing.
For ISA - Hexacta this went about as well as I hoped for given that we have no real specialist for this race, but guys who normally are domestiques get their chance here to demonstrate their versatility. Great to get a couple of podiums from (i) Harrison on the cobbled 'sprint' stage (as it turned out to be) and (ii) unsung hero Ahmad Arrisol from the final stage breakaway.
Overall, steady performances in each of the different disiciplines tested delivered 15th and 16th in GC for us with 3 more in the tail end of the top 50. Not a brilliant points haul, but keeps things ticking over.
Spoiler
[As an aside, am I remembering correctly that the cobbles on stage 4 were all set to difficulty rating '3' a couple of seasons back, or is this out of date? Agree with some of the other comments that is unfortunate the cobbled potential 'queen' stage didn't reward the best cobble-stat riders at least to some extent, in fact it hindered their chances in a good number of cases inexplicably (given how many suited riders impacted rather than just 1 or 2 with bad daily form from scanning through the results). The stage should never be intended to cause Flanders/Roubaix style time gaps as would surely cause unbalanced carnage to the rest of the stage race. Nonetheless if there is opportunity to improve the potential for a more dynamic race overall by tweaking the cobbled stage (and potentially the position of the TTT in the stage order), ToNE can again lay claim to status as one of the most exciting and uncertain races of the season. Of course acknowledge achieving this balance without tipping too far towards the cobbled specialists won't be a simple task for the admin team, so understand if we go again with the existing format next season - still a fun/different race type.]
