[CT '22] Le Creuset | sponsor goals & talents
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 31-08-2022 10:40
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Welcome at Le Creuset, Mr. Jonathan McEvoy!
With our first pick in the CT draft we chose veteran puncheur Jonathan McEvoy who perfectly fits our scheme of stage hunters, plus he can work as a lead-out too.
Spoiler | Jonathan McEvoy | 69 | 63 | 75 | 64 | 74 | 69 | 69 | 64 | 74 | 78 | 78 | 65 | 64 | 33 |
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 31-08-2022 10:41
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Bienvenue à Le Creuset, M. Geremie Nzeke!
With our second draft pick we chose our only African rider: Geremie Nzeke from Cameroon. His profile should be no surprise to anyone anymore, but it also keeps our pre-draft recap still accurate
Spoiler | Geremie Nzeke | 67 | 72 | 76 | 61 | 72 | 67 | 67 | 63 | 66 | 68 | 75 | 74 | 63 | 32 |
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jandal7 |
Posted on 31-08-2022 12:37
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World Champion
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Maybe the best draft duo, McEvoy should have been picked up long ago and Nzeke is a foundational member of Xero and part of some great memories for us in our early years
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
5x x5
2x x2
2x x2
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 12-09-2022 15:19
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Season goals for the team
As a new team we chose the most conservative goal for the CT rankings: finishing in the top 10. This should be a realistic goal too. Furthermore we hope for our first victories and – more generally – some good results. As there are many rivaling teams with a similar or even better quality in their squad (especially captain-wise), we don’t really expect to compete for promotion and wouldn’t mind to stay another year in the CT – developing our young riders being another big goal for the team (and a core aspect of race planning).
Here's the detailed race calender and goals:
Season goals for our captains
Here we have to distinguish our sprinters and mountains / hills captains.
From our sprinters Boivin and Alaphilippe we expect competing for podiums and wins, with Boivin aiming at bunch sprints in the flat races whilst Alaphilippe will target the more hilly races, where he can play out his strengths in smaller groups or even from breakaways.
Henao will be our primary rider for the GC in most stage races, and while we don’t really expect him to be a contender for victory in most of the races – regarding the mountain and TT strength of the GC captains of some of the other teams and the lack of TT quality in our team – we surely hope for some decent GC results from him.
Teuns will also compete as a GC contender in some races, but mostly he’s our captain in one-day-races and hunting for stage wins from the favorites group in hilly finishes.
Season goals for our free riders
As we have quite a bunch of riders with similar qualities which designate them for stage hunting, it won’t be a surprise we hope for some results and even wins from the likes of Gogl, Hamilton, McEvoy, Thiery, Nzeke or Chevrier – although it’s clearly pretty hard to predict who will use his chances and where it would be.
The mentioned riders will also have to work for their captains when not in the break themselves, with McEvoy and Thiery also planned for as leadouts for our sprinters.
Season goals for our domestiques
When talking of the season goals for Berlin, Bidard, La Lavandier and Piccoli (as well as our young riders looked at more precisely below), they’re just being there for the captains whilst needed – though of course we wouldn’t prevent them from getting results on their own if it’s to happen.
Season goals for our young guns
Our talents Balmer, Boileau, Delbove, Garibian and Louvel (as well as loaned in Kmieliauskas) are mainly riding to get enough XP to reach lvl. 3 at the end of this season. We don’t expect much of them results-wise, though Kmieliauskas and Louvel are technically our leaders for TTs and cobbles – only showing the lack of riders with those qualities in the squad. As there’s quite a lack of young-but-not-still-rookies and middle-aged riders in the squad, we’ll need to develop our own future leaders – and still U25-eligible riders for the coming season(s), should we aspire promotion in the future.
And to give you a hint how we’re planning to develop our talents, here are some ideas of what we have in mind (though we gratefully hope for your opinions and / or tips):
Spoiler
We plan to develop Balmer into a stage racer, considering him to become quite a good one with the right training.
Name | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Lvl | Alexandre Balmer | 67 | 69 | 68 | 67 | 69 | 70 | 63 | 63 | 61 | 68 | 71 | 75 | 62 | 1.0 | SR-SR-SR-SR | 68 | 76 | 73 | 74 | 74 | 75 | 70 | 63 | 61 | 69 | 72 | 75 | 69 | 4.max |
Boileau could be developed into a stage hunter for hills and mountains, leaning either more to the mountains (which seems more tempting at the moment) or the hills.
Name | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Lvl | Alan Boileau | 66 | 69 | 70 | 61 | 64 | 67 | 68 | 62 | 66 | 72 | 64 | 66 | 60 | 1.20 | Cl2-Cl1-Cl1-Cl1 | 67 | 77 | 76 | 61 | 65 | 71 | 73 | 62 | 66 | 79 | 71 | 68 | 60 | 4.max | Cl1-Hi-Hi-Hi | 69 | 73 | 78 | 62 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 62 | 67 | 77 | 69 | 67 | 61 | 4.max |
Delbove will most likely develop into a weaker version of the mountains version of Boileua, making him a useful domestique.
Name | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Lvl | Joris Delbove | 64 | 68 | 68 | 58 | 66 | 69 | 70 | 62 | 60 | 64 | 66 | 70 | 58 | 1.0 | Cl2-Cl1-Cl1-Cl1 | 65 | 76 | 74 | 58 | 67 | 73 | 75 | 62 | 60 | 71 | 73 | 72 | 58 | 4.max |
Garibian has the potential for a good stage racer, becoming a valuable domestique or even a future leader, considering some later training.
Name | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Lvl | Arman Garibian | 67 | 67 | 66 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 55 | 60 | 68 | 65 | 69 | 66 | 1.0 | SR-SR-Cl1-SR | 70 | 76 | 72 | 72 | 73 | 75 | 77 | 55 | 60 | 72 | 68 | 70 | 72 | 4.max |
Finally we take a look at our presumably most interesting young rider. Louvel could be turned into quite anything in the classics / flat / sprint department. We have done some variations and are not sure yet what he’ll become one day – but leaning towards a flat / cobbles rider with some abilities in the hills and sprints.
Name | FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | Lvl | Matis Louvel | 71 | 64 | 69 | 67 | 68 | 72 | 67 | 69 | 67 | 66 | 66 | 65 | 67 | 2.0 | Cla-Cla-Cla | 77 | 64 | 73 | 67 | 74 | 76 | 70 | 76 | 67 | 67 | 73 | 68 | 67 | 4.max | Co-Co-Co | 77 | 64 | 72 | 67 | 75 | 78 | 70 | 76 | 73 | 66 | 66 | 65 | 67 | 4.max | Hi-Hi-Hi | 74 | 67 | 76 | 68 | 75 | 75 | 70 | 69 | 70 | 73 | 72 | 68 | 68 | 4.max | Sp-Sp-Sp | 77 | 65 | 72 | 67 | 74 | 75 | 74 | 73 | 74 | 72 | 66 | 65 | 67 | 4.max | Fi-Fi-Fi | 78 | 67 | 72 | 70 | 74 | 76 | 71 | 72 | 70 | 72 | 73 | 68 | 70 | 4.max |
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Imladrik |
Posted on 12-09-2022 21:26
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Breakaway Specialist
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Nice programm, we have a nice number of races in common, it'll be interesting.
Though you_better managed your goals than me, I guess I fucked something with the numbers.
See you soon on the road! |
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liefwarrior |
Posted on 13-09-2022 02:48
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Dylan Teuns is a great leader to have signed for your first season! Unfortunately he won't score as big as one might hope with Ian Boswell and Joshua Edmondson being joined by the likes of Gianni Moscon and EBH this season... and outside Teuns I don't think anyone will ever be solid favourites, although that isn't to say that they can't consistently manage good scoring positions combined with a win here or there.
I'd probably go with [Cl1-Cl1-Hl-CL1] for Alan Boileau, sacrificing some flat and stamina for mountain & acceleration to produce something very similar to Teuns:
FL | MO | HI | TT | ST | RS | RC | CB | SP | AC | FG | DH | PR | 67 | 75 | 78 | 62 | 66 | 71 | 72 | 62 | 67 | 79 | 71 | 67 | 61 |
You might consider making Arman Garibian a stronger TTT piece rather than a mountain domestique via [TT-SR-TT-SR], but that'll come down to personal preference regarding what role you want him to play. Matis Louvel is definitely the most interesting development piece though. If you wanted him as a future cobbles domestique I would chose the Fabian route [FB-FB-FB] so you could also utilise him as a TTT-piece in a pinch. If you wanted to make him a leader I'd go the cobbled route, but you'd have to invest in some cobbles training on top of that...
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Posted on 22-11-2024 08:50
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 31-10-2022 08:58
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date | | race | | team goal | results | | 21-01 to 30-01 | | Vuelta al Tachira | C2 | - | stage Top 3 | 06-02 | | Gent-Wevelgem | C2 | - | everyone got back to the team bus before it departed (though it was fairly close) | | 15-02 to 20-02 | | Volta a Catalunya | C2 | - | stage Top 5 |
Our only race in January was Vuelta al Tachira where Julian Alaphilippe got a couple of Top 10 results, including a second place in the 5th stage, thus nearly missing the teams first ever win. Apart from that, Henao got a 24th place in GC, not really impressing much. At least he got in the break one day (as well as Delbove on another stage), which was more than we got in February.
Gent-Wevelgem was quite the disaster we expected, at least Alaphilippe tried it in the break of the day without much success. On the other end of the results we got 4 out of the 6 last places
Volta a Catalunya was our other race in February with a 4th place of Alaphilippe in stage 1 the only result worth mentioning. From then on it only got worse. No rider made it into any breakaway though there were some quite big groups. We had hoped from more especially from Gogl or Hamilton. At least we got a really nice shot from the TTT (thanks to nemolito), that we will soon use to embellish our team bus:
In total we got 15 points in January and an impressive 2 points from February (estimated), thus making us most likely last in the CT rankings. With regards to the limited racedays of our only constant scorer Alaphilippe our other riders will have to step up to give us a chance to not end dead last in the CT rankings. But in March we will compete in some race we should be better suited to succeed in. Fingers crossed …
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Imladrik |
Posted on 31-10-2022 10:00
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Gent-Wevelgem was really not nice with you. Maybe February will be enough of a slap for your riders (and for mine) to do better next months.
Very nice shot tough, indeed. |
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MacC |
Posted on 31-10-2022 20:35
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Sprinter
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Tough start but as you say you will have stronger races in the next couple of months. If you are last it won't be for long
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 03-12-2022 18:47
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date | | race | | team goal | results | | 01-03 | | Geraardsbergen-Bosberg | C2 | - | Top 25 | | | 01-03 to 04-03 | | Tour of Guadeloupe | C1 | - | GC Top 25 | 02-03 to 05-03 | | Jelajah SKL | C2 | - | stage win | 06-03 to 11-03 | | Vuelta al Pais Vasco | C1 | - | another nice team photo | 21-03 | | Coppa Placci | C2 | - | none | 30-03 | | GP Izola | C2 | - | Top 3 |
In the preview ivan asked what we’re doing at this race, not wrongly regarding our non-existent cobbles squad. Our cobbles ‘captain’ Louvel made it to the break, and though he got lost in the race report after only being mentioned as part of the break once, he managed to finished 20th and showed why we signed him as probably a key part of our future classics squad.
Starting simultaneously with Geraardsbergen-Bosberg this was one of only two French races in the entire season (although TMM might contest this claim), so we sent our best sprinter Boivin to this all-flat race to contest the assembled elite of PCT and CT sprinters. He performed discreetly with 3 stage results within the top 20, resulting in a 20th place in the GC and some points for the team.
We sent Alaphilippe here to try his luck on the hilly stages 2 and 3, not aspiring much in the two short TTs with regards to our non-existent TT squad. Nonetheless young Lithuanian loanee Kmieliauskas managed a 15th place in the first stage, resulting in him leading the young riders classification for one day and thus getting our first leader jersey ever.
Stage 2 was a big disappointment as the entire squad missed the first group in a split of the peloton, thus wasting Alaphilippes chances in this stage and any possible hopes in the GC. This race seemed to be a continuation of a season which consisted mainly of learning from mistakes until then.
But after stage 3 the depressing mood in the team changed rapidly as Alaphilippe took the first win in the teams history in a reduced bunch sprint.
In the last short TT stage there didn’t happen much for us. In the end Alaphilippe got 24th in GC but missed the chance to get a Top 10 result in the second stage.
In this C1 race we didn’t impress very much. We sent some of our puncheurs to get into the breaks and get some results from there. Berlin, Gogl and Hamilton made it into the break in some stages, but mainly got dropped at the first obstacles of the respective stages. At least Gogl won an intermediate sprint …
Our highlight of the race had nothing to do with results: the TTT presented us with another great shot of the team in front of a field of sunflowers. We begin to see a there …
Delbove got into the break and got dropped pretty soon. Nothing more to report here, unfortunately.
The last race of the month saw another highlight of season so far: Alaphilippe finished second to fellow French team Bonduelle-Eestis Russo in a close finish after taking the initiative in the races final kilometers, thus making the stages final much more exciting for the teams principal than in most races this season.
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Fabianski |
Posted on 03-12-2022 21:49
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Congrats on your first win! Alaphilippe is definitely a very cool rider to have at CT level - I'd have gone for him as well if not for the influx of new French teams
While the first three months haven't been great for your team in general, Izola and Jelajah could mark some kind of turnaround, why not? If Ala keeps up his great form and gets some support from other riders as well, you could definitely climb up the rankings
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TheManxMissile |
Posted on 03-12-2022 22:59
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Tour de France Champion
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Why! Why! Why did i release Alaphilippe and not sell him for $1million in transfers!
Well, for exactly this reason really. It's very fun to watch him leading a French team to some good results. And why i'm excited to get my own homegrown Caribean versions back next year.
Teams been a little under-par so far, but the right signs are in place and results are starting to come in.
And i don't contest Guadeloupe is French, that's kind of my whole issue
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MacC |
Posted on 04-12-2022 12:57
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Sprinter
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Congrats on the first win, and a French rider @
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redordead |
Posted on 05-12-2022 08:39
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Congrats on two great sprint results
"I am a cyclist, I may not be the best, but that is what I strive to be. I may never get there, but I will never quit trying." - Tadej Pogačar
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 21-01-2023 16:18
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date | | race | | team goal | results | | 01-04 to 07-04 | | Tour of California | C2 | - | KoM; stage Top 3s; GC Top 25 | 25-04 | | Lincoln GP | C2 | - | none | 27-04 to 30-04 | | USA Pro Cycling Challenge | C2 | - | stage Top 10s |
The first race of the month was the highlight as well. The TT on day 1 was unspectacular, as well as Alaphilippes 9th place in stage 2. Stage 3 was ideal for Teuns, who only lost to Air New Zealands Fabbro by a tires width. Stage 4 was a bit of a disappointment as Teuns lost 7 minutes on a stage which should have fitted him well. Stage 5 saw Alaphilippe with another mediocre sprint result as 11th. But in stage 6 Teuns took advantage of the freedoms he acquired in stage 4, going into the break, fighting for the KoM points and survive to finish 2nd in the stage and snatching the KoM jersey from Carlsbergs Olesen by a single point, thus making him our first jersey winner. Apart from those eyecatching results, Henao managed to stay in the GC fight until then, just missing the Top 10 by 1 second after the final TT and finishing 11th overall.
The race was not a great success, but that’s not a great surprise regarding our low quality in cobbled races. At least Gogl got in the break and was mentioned two times.
USA Pro Cycling Challenge
Another race without big results. Boivin finishing 10th and 8th in the first two stages is decent, but not much more.
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Fabianski |
Posted on 21-01-2023 22:54
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Congrats on your first jersey, always great to tick off those "firsts" Henao's 11th place in California is a good result as well I'd say, given that he doesn't really like TTs. Missing out by a mere second sucks, though - better luck next time
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 31-03-2023 21:38
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date | | race | | team goal | results | | 03-05 to 08-05 | | Tour de Romandie | C1 | Top 5 | stage Top 3s | 13-05 to 15-05 | | Tour du Faso | C2 | - | stage Top 10 | 17-05 to 23-05 | | Int. Osterreich Rundfahrt | HC | - | stage Top 10s; 2nd in KOM | 18-05 | | 1 Jour de Dunkerque | C1 | - | none | 23-05 to 28-05 | | Olympia’s Tour | C2 | - | stage Top 3 |
Visiting the French-speaking part of Switzerland we tackled our first goal of the season, aiming for a GC Top 5. The race started with a TTT, where we lost almost a minute – not really a surprise regarding the lack of TT skill in the team. Regarding the GC the following stages only got worse, finally resulting in a 63rd place from Antoine Berlin. Apart from missing our original race goal by miles we missed a stage win by a small margin (or two small margins…), with our drafted veteran Jonathan McEvoy surprising everyone (not the least us) by finishing 2nd in the sprints of stages 2 and 6. Apart from that this race was just a big disappointment. Even our riders in the breaks just vanished at the first real obstacles of the stages.
The Tour du Faso didn’t went well either. Apart from a fruitless day in the break in stage 1 and a desperate attack from Louvel in the cobblish hell of stage 3 (fruitless as well) our loanee Rokas Kmieliauskas managed to be part of a break that actually fought for the stage win in stage 2. But according to his TT skill set he finished last in the sprint of the group (and 6th in the stage).
Int. Österreich Rundfahrt
This was the first (and only) HC race of our season, leaving us with the duty of every small team in bigger races: animate the race and get into the breaks. That went well on the first four stages, as half of the squad got into the break one day or the other, resulting in two 8th places by Cyrile Thiery and a 2nd place in the KOM by him after stage 4. But then he (and everyone else) missed the stage winning breaks in the following two stages, which would have suited him even better than the earlier stages and thus also missing the KOM jersey. Regarding our TT skills, we lower the cloak of silence over the final stage.
Though we don’t have riders that really fit this race, we felt obliged to register for the second (and last) French race in the whole HC / C1 / C2 calender. At least we did our best as our only chances for a decent result (kind of) Alaphilippe and Louvel went into the break in the hope to somehow survive until the end, resulting in a 27th place by our sprinter.
In the Netherlands we started in another race that didn’t really suited our squad, with just three TTs (including a TTT) in six stages. In the three stages in which we had a chance, Garibian and again Kmieliauskas showed our colours in the breaks, resulting in a 5th place from the young Lithuainian in stage 5. Apart from that, our veteran sprinter Guillaume Boivin finished 3rd and 8th in the sprints in stage 2 and 3.
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 31-03-2023 21:39
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date | | race | | team goal | results | | 01-06 to 03-06 | | Ras Tailteann | C2 | - | stage Top 5; GC Top 10 | 09-06 to 13-06 | | La Tropicale Amissa Bongo | C1 | - | stage Top 3 | 16-06 to 22-06 | | Tour of Vancouver | C2 | Win | stage Top 3; GC Top 25 |
As it’s a sprinters race and we arrived with Boivin here, everything was planned around him. He delivered with three stage Tops 10s (5th, 8th and 10th) and a 9th place in the GC.
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo
Another sprinters race, this time for Alaphilippe. Two TT stages to ignore, leaving three stages for him to shine. After two mediocre 14th and 11th place he finally got a 3rd place in stage 4, not to bad for him in a C1 race.
The last race of the month led us to Western Canada for our second goal race of the season (and our win goal as well). We arrived with Henao for the GC and Boivin to do Boivin things (i.e. getting lots of solid Top 10 results) in his home country. Boivin did as expected with a 2nd, a 4th and a 10th place in the sprint stages. Henao did as well with solid results in the mountain stages (including an 7th place in stage 4), while losing important time in the TT and TTT which framed the race, resulting in a solid but slightly disappointing 11th place in the final GC, missing the Top 10 by just some seconds - not for the first time this season
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kandesbunzler26 |
Posted on 27-04-2023 21:29
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date | | race | | team goal | results | | 01-07 | | Uppsala Classic | C2 | - | Top 25s | 10-07 to 14-07 | | Tour de Vineyards | C1 | - | stage Top 3 | 23-07 | | Betonexpressz GP | C2 | - | none | 25-07 to 29-07 | | Tour d’Andorra | C1 | Top 5 | stage win | 11-08 to 13-08 | | Giro del Trentino | C2 | - | GC Top 25 | 23-08 to 31-08 | | Tour de l’Avenir | U23 | - | GC Top 5; stage win; points clas.; 3 stage Top 3s |
We arrived at this sprinters race without any real sprinter, so our expectations were low. But we managed to get La Lavandier into the break and to score some unexpected points by Bidard, McEvoy and La Lavandier finishing 16th, 18th and 19th respectively.
We brought home two nice results from the trip to New Zealand: a 2nd place from Boivin in stage 2 and a 4th place from young Lithuanian Kmieliauskas from the break in stage 4. The latter has somehow become our breakaway expert as he has the ability to be in the breaks that come through, though he’s lacking the sprint ability to get the big results out of it.
Another sprinters race and we arrived without any sprinter again. So Nzeke and La Lavandier being part of the break was as much of a success as we could expect.
The C1 race in Andorra was a season goal (GC Top 5) and it indeed included one of the highlights of our inaugural season, but it started with a disappointing stage 1 where the whole team just disappeared, losing 9+ minutes each, and thus making our goal obsolete after the first day. The next day showed that this was indeed a good thing as no less than 6 of our riders made it into the break and beyond that were so strong that they reduced the group without losing their teammates. The result at that point was one of our favourite pictures of the season:
As the result of this teamwork Henao accomplished our second win of the season in a sprint against fellow French team Bordeaux’ Rochas, leading to another of our favourite pictures:
Stage 3 saw Henao in the break again, this time to take over the KoM jersey by adding to his points from the stage before. The following MTT was to be neglected, so our hopes (and fears) were to defend the polka dots in the last stage. Our fears were indeed justified, as the pattern of earlier races this season was confirmed and none of our riders (especially not Henao) went into the break, thus giving the KoM jersey away without a fight. So the race ended the same way it started: massively disappointing.
The TTT in Italy wasn’t good (as always), stage 2 wasn’t good, but in stage 3 Chevrier made it into the break and sneaked to a 20th place in GC. Not much more to tell about this race.
The last race of this period was just a plain joy to follow for us: the Tour de l’Avenir. Joining our own youngsters (minus Kmieliauskas who rode for his original team Red Bull Zalgiris) were guest riders Andrea Bagioli (from Team UBS / Voygin - Bird), Javier Romo (from cycle Yorkshire) and Miori Kawasaki (again from Voygin - Bird). While the latter didn’t stand out, the other two were indeed great improvements. Especially Bagioli showed why he’s considered a future star: 5th in the prologue stage 1, 2nd in stage 2, 6th in stage 4, 4th in stage 7 (all in sprints). Stage 5 was his own show, as he won the stage after multiple attacks and led all classifications as a result:
And though he lost more than 4 minutes in the ITT, he was still in the competition for a GC podium. He backed up this ambitions with a 3rd place in the penultimate mountain stage, followed by a 7th place in the final stage. And though he missed the podium by 6 seconds, his great and consistent results made him win the points classification. In the final stage Romo made his impression as well, finishing 3rd from the break.
All in all this race showed our team (and especially our youngsters) for the first time what it is like to fight for the win on every terrain and in every classification - and it indeed felt great. But there are two flies in the ointment nonetheless: firstly there were no points awarded in this race, and secondly the riders that stood out aren’t part of our own team.
But we are optimistic that we can shine here next year with our own riders (and maybe someday in other races too), as Boileau, Garibian, Balmer and Delbove are still level 1 riders and will come back stronger and - given the strength of the favourites this year - very competitive.
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Nemolito |
Posted on 04-05-2023 15:03
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Not going for the KoM-jersey on the final stage sucks, but it was still great to see Henao get you a great C1 stage win! Congratulations on that, and looking forward to meeting you in C1 soon
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