So it turns out i'm keeping Roche! My Game is somehow fucked up, it wont let my sign new riders because i don't have a Sponsor contract for the 2014 season, even though the contract Ends after the 2014 season. So Roche is staying in the End, because it's not possible to sign any other rider.
@Nielsboy I'm actually shocked Andy even bothered to ride the TT NC properly, doesn't seem like him at all.
I have just finished march, and the season goes well! I started again in Vuelta a Tachira. Boy van Poppel wins 2 stages and the point yersey, while Laurens Ten Dam wins 2 stages to and finished 3th in the GC. In Australia started the wordchampion Bauke Mollema his season. He is there to build up his form for the first important races. Our best result there was a 4th place in a sprint with Morkov. Kittel has won 4 stages, while Betancour won the hilly stage and Tom Dumoulin wun a stage from a breakaway. Betancur was the GC-winner to. Then we went to Colombia for the new race Columbian Ventaux. That is a WT-race in Colombia who ends at a high mountain. A year ago Chris Anker Sorensen was the first winner. This year was Vorganov the winner from a breakaway. Mollema was our best rider with a 11th place. He could race to the podium, but he felt and must come back to the peloton.
Then febuary start. Here was our fist sponser goal: podiumplace in the WT-Race Tour of Germany. This is the first goal of Bauke Mollema. A year ago Steven Kruijswijk get the win. We started great. Boy van Poppel takes the first stage, and Bauke Mollema wins the TTT and the Mountain Stage. We get in the GC a 1-2 with Bauke Mollema at 1 and Laurens Ten Dam at 2. Now we started with the Cobbles season. The first cobble race at the WT is Omloop het Nieuwsblad. Our teamleader is Sylvain Chavanel and Michael Morkov has a free role. Sylvain Chavanel is not the best cobble rider more. A year ago he was in 82 and the cobbles but now 78. Geraint Thomas won suprisely from a sprint with Cancellara. Chavanel finished 18th :/
Then we started with Parijs-Nice. A goal for our sponser. Mollema is the team leader. It goes well. Mollema has won 3 stages and the GC. In Tirreno-Adriantico was our goal to build up the form for the classics. Igor Anton was our team leader and finished in the GC at a 5th place and wins a mountain stage. Rodriguez taked the win before Intxausti and Slagter. Then Milano-San Remo. We had two plans. Plan A is Mollema atacks at the Poggio to win solo. Plan B is to survive the Poggio with Danny van Poppel and get a good result in the sprint. It went well. Mollema atacked at the poggio and Leukemans atackted to. In the downhill Mollema gets a gap and ride away from Leukemans. He wins solo Milano-San Remo before Leukemans. Castroviejo who was the domenestique managed to get the thirth place, and the winner of a year ago Boasson Hagen get 4th. Danny van Poppel finished 8th.
Than Catalunya! Sicard was our teamleader, and the goal of the sponser was a 5th place or better in the GC. We started great with winning the TTT. Then was the weird mountain stage. From 20 favourites for the GC-win, get 3 only in the first 20 riders. Sicard wins the stage. Wiggins is second at 40" and LL Sanches thith at 1'20". Then Intxausti at 4'00". Sicard survived the hilly stage, and in the last hilly-TT he lost only 20" at Wiggins. So he won the GC with 20" at Wiggins and 1'10" at LL Sanchez. In the meantime Chavanel wins Dwars door Vlaanderen and get a 11th and 7th place in E3 and Gent-Welvegem. Coming soon the classics and the giro.
So, Le Tour is just over, so i thought it's time for an update with the NCs aswell.
The NCs didn't really go great for us, in the TTs Taylor Phinney was the only one to grab a Jersey, ahead of his Teammate Andrew Talansky. The RRs were already a bit more succesfull, with two wins. Both wins came from a Breakaway, with J.D. Atapuma beating a small Breakaway Group including Janier Acevedo and Jarlinson Pantano to it. After that there was lots of nothing, the most notable being Taylor Phinney nearly achieving the double, but just before the sprint started he couldn't follow the wheel he had chosen and so ended third. Then, on the last race of the day, Bernhard Eisel managed to clinch the Austrian Title after a heroic solo breakaway, with Marko Haller, Thomas Krizek, Matthias Brändle and Thomas Rohregger completing the Top 5. All in all a very weak Performance, though Bob Jungels got the double on the simmed Luxembourgian NC, and Gustav Larsson as always won the also simmed Swedish TT Championships.
Then came the Tour, the GT i cared least about. I'm not going to go into full Detail, because i sent the weakest Squad off all GTs this year, meaning that it was a pretty anounymous Tour for us. Highlights were definately our two Stage wins, which were Jan Bakelants on Stage 2 (yes, turns out PCM is more realistic than we think) and Wout Poels magig win from a Breakaway on L'Alpe d'Huez, were he finished ahead of Kelderman. In the End Andrew Talansky managed to become sixth, narrowly missing our Sponsors Goal of a Top 5. Nevertheless a very good Performance by the Young american, reaching the Team-Intern goal of winning the White Jersey. Here are the Classifications:
GC:
1. Alberto Contador
2. Vincenzo Nibali
3. Chris Froome
4. Joaquim Rodriguez
5. Andy Schleck
6. Andrew Talansky
7. Alejandro Valverde
8. Thomas de Gendt
9. Jurgen Van den Broeck
10. Thibaut Pinot
Just finished the 2013 season.
So WC was won by Gillbert, WC ITT was won by... Geraint Thomas
World Tour rankings won by Sammy Sanchez, Pinot was 2nd.
I signed Andrew Talansky who is groowing fast (79 MO, 75 HIL, 76 TT and has some stars left in all). A.Demare from our team has signed for Sky(not sure if that is a smart move). Sponsor changes Blanco -> Petronas. (Thats about it for WT teams). Getting ready for another season of surviving.
I'm actually surprised that you guys play the NCs. I usually just sim to the 30th June and do something else in the meantime.
Meanwhile, we had a good Tour. Unfortunately Ulissi got injured during the Tour de Suisse (great 2nd place overall by Aru!), so I put Malori in it for the team time trial and the italian time trial specialist later abandonend to save energy for Vuelta and WC ITT.
The route was the one where the Mont Ventoux is featured already at the 3rd stage and the last day is a 20 km Time Trial to the Champs Elysses. I already played this route once in this current career and it's the one where the weird AI issue happened with Froome and Nibali. In the end, Contador won this Tour de France two-three seasons ago.
At least this time around nothing strange happened at the Mont Ventoux. My squad consisted of Anacona and Aru (both 80 MT) as team-captains, while riders like Bono, Palini, Stortoni, Boaro and the young italian Chessa were mainly supporters. I also brought Nizzolo along for the ride if I decided to ride for mass sprints, but I didn't.
Nibali was pretty weak at the Mont Ventoux and lost time (30 secs I believe from the top of my head) to Contador and Froome, who won the stage. Quintana was rather disappointing too. Aru and Anacona came in Top 10 that day.
We had a great first week. A hilly finish was won by Fabio Aru who broke away shortly before the finish. The 2nd mountain stage, which featured a descent, was won by Stortoni out of a breakaway. Lastly, the stage Ulissi won a couple of seasons prior, was also won by Andrea Chessa this season. So 3 stage wins for Lampre, plus best team and the U25 jersey (Chessa).
However GC-wise, over the course of the 50 km time trial, the MT time trial and several mountain stages in the 2nd week, we couldn't hold up always with our captains. Nibali showed great performances. Contador took over Froome's yellow jersey after the 2nd mountain stage (after the time trial), where Froome didn't follow Nibali and Contador over the summit and lost time in the descent. Contador, Nibali and Froome were very close sometimes, only a few seconds between them. However, Froome often didn't chase as his teammate Kreuziger was playing the Froome... rather bad support from Team Sky, who had also lots of sprinters in their squad (Demare, Greipel). Contador usually has a weak team with Katusha, at least this time around he had decent enough helpers. When Contador was in yellow Lampre paced the two big mountain stages a bit for him. We nearly shooked off Nibali and Froome one time, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Nibali eventually took the yellow jersey the day before the Mountain time trial when he came in several seconds before Contador. At the mountain time trial he annihilated everybody and was now leading with about 1 minute to Contador. The following mountain stage saw early attacks from Uran (4th place at the time) and Anacona (probably 8th). Uran took the stage win while Anacona couldn't keep up. Nibali and Contador increased their time on Froome. Third week was mainly for sprinters (Kittel won couple of stages but withdrew injured, so Sagan got the green jersey) and two hilly stages. Both Aru and Anacona lost time on the hilly stages, Contador about another 20 seconds to Nibali. In the final time trial, Froome overtook Uran and secured 3th place. Anacona managed to defend his 9th rank overall.
So it's good that Nibali (AST) has finally won the Tour after his 5 seconds defeat 2014, which was just bitter and awful. Contador looked very strong and has only 40 race days. I hope he will be featured in the Vuelta this season so he might finally win a Grand Tour again after the Tour 2015. Way too many 2nd places for a Champion like him in Tour and Vuelta. Froome wasn't so strong as in previous seasons and I hope that continues. Quintana had a rather disappointing Tour (he finished last time 2nd on this route), yet however he came from the Giro and this isn't really the best schedule, especially when all of the action happens in the 2nd week. Jürgen Van den Broeck with a strong 5th place. Also, a very attacking, strong Majka got 6th. That's sweet.
GC:
1. Nibali (AST)
2. Contador (KAT) about a minute
3. Froome (SKY) about 3-4 minutes
4. Uran (RTL) 4 minutes
5. Jürgen van den Broeck (LPM) over 10 minutes I believe
6. Majka (VCD)
7. Quintana (OPQ)
8. Kreuziger (SKY)
9. Anacona (LAM)
10. Bardet (VCD)
13. Aru (LAM)
KoM: Vimpere (BIG)
Sprint: Sagan (MOV)
U25: Chessa (LAM)
Team: Lampre
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
So, season is over. We had a wonderful 2nd half. Chessa went all insane on the italian classics and won Monvizo-Venezia, Lombardia by Bergamensca as well as some minor races. Unfortunately we got only 2nd places at WC (Stuttgart, Chessa beaten by Vanendert) and Il Lombardia (Caroli beaten by Dan Martin on the last centimeters ). This were kinda my two big goals for the late season, but anyway. Malori won the WC ITT in an impressive way. He burned the road.
Vuelta was highly successful. I didn't go with Caroli but instead chose Cattaneo, Verona, Piccolo and some other riders to go for stage wins. It turned out great. Malori won the opening time trial as well as the time trial stage #20. The one in between was a victory for Bartra.
Piccolo, a rider I scouted in Venezia together with Caroli (so let's just pretend they are best friends ), had a impressive run at breakaways, snatching two mountain finishes and winning the KoM jersey. He also got a good #12 rank overall.
In the GC we had two, nearly three big contenders with Cattaneo, Verona and Velits. Velits got a good #11 in the end, while Cattaneo even managed to get #2 and Verona got #7 and earned himself the U25 jersey. The Vuelta went to... behold... Valverde. Say, what? Yeah, the old man (already 37 in this season, Age of Decline once edited to 36 or so I think, Mountainstat e.g. 78) showed the youngsters (Kelderman, Betancur, Dombrowski, Cattaneo) quite a performance and won in a remarkable way. Movistar were obviously a great team too, but alas, this is his 2nd Grand Tour victory, probably about 10 years after his first one. Kinda nice. And at least, it's not really a Chris Horner he pulled here at this Vuelta. Cattaneo was pretty decent at the mountains and impressive at the Time Trials. Probably if I had rode a bit smarter, he could have ended even on top but I had no desire for that. He ended up with 3 minutes to Valverde, so that would have been some time anyway. Dombrowski got a sweet 3rd place for Garmin. Kelderman only 6th, although he was my favourite with MT and TT at 80, but I guess he had already too many race days in his legs. Dan Martin with some sweet stage wins took 4th, while Betancur finished 5th.
When I first looked at the list of contenders I actually thought this would be quite boring, but it turned out pretty enjoyable. Fun note: Lampre won team classification by a whole freaking hour.
Tour de France
1. Nibali (AST)
2. Contador (KAT)
3. Froome (SKY)
4. Urán (RTL)
5. Van den Broeck (LPM)
9. Anacona (LAM)
13. Aru (LAM)
3x stage wins (Aru, Stortoni, Chessa), U25 jersey Chessa
Giro
1. Caroli (LAM)
2. Mollema (RTL)
3. Majka (VCD)
6x stage wins (4x Caroli, Kwiatkowski, team time trial), All jerseys Caroli
MSR: Sagan (MOV)
RvV: Sean De Bie (LTB)
P-R: Vanmarcke (OPQ)
L-B-G: L.L. Sanchez (ALM)
Il Lombardia: D. Martin (EUS)
WC ITT: Malori (LAM)
WC: J. Vanendert (Caja Rural^^), 2nd Chessa (LAM)
Tour Down Under: Yannick Martinez (COF)
Paris-Nice: Cyril Lemoine (ALM)
Tirreno-Adriatico: Kreuziger (SKY)
Catalunya: Ulissi (LAM)
Pais Vasco: Henao (EUC/SFR)
Tour de Romandie: Kreuziger (SKY)
Crit-Dauph: Contador (KAT)
Tour de Suisse: Uran (RTL)
Tour de Pologne: Turco (AND)
Eneco Tour: Sagan (MOV)
Tour of Beijing: Veilleux (EUC)
IN:
Greg Van Avermaet, Omega Pharma - Captain for cobblestone, negotiated for about 2 months, greedy guy EDIT: Just saw he has 78 AVG so everything's cool with my "No hiring better rider than I have" policy.
Claudio Casteeli - free rider, talent, 22 years old. Already 74 at MT, should be a good domestique, maybe even a serious contender for big races
OUT:
Cimolai -> Catalunya
Graziato -> BMC
Nizzolo -> PKN Orlen
Scarponi -> retirement
Vigano -> Katusha
As you can see, I got rid off my flat sprinters. I still have some fast riders in my squad yet however there's now basically no chance at normal masssprints. I can live with that just fine to be honest. I also had to thin out my squad a bit since 30 riders is a bit too much, I prefer around 27.
Other notable transfers
Spoiler
Captains Rolland, Vacansoleil -> AG2R La Mondiale
Tangert, Astana -> Amore & Vitta Kreuziger, SKY -> Astana Ladagnous, Radioshack -> BMC (relegated) -> Garmin-Sharp Marczynski, Astana -> Bauknecht
Grmay, Astana -> Catalunya
G. Izagirre, Movistar -> Ceramica Flaminia Bouhanni, Omega Pharma -> Cofidis Landa, Euskaltel -> Coldeportes - Colombia Offredo, Cofidis -> Crelan-Euphony Bellemakers, Lotto Belisol -> Cyclingteam Jo Piels
Betancur, AG2R La Mondiale -> Euskaltel
Anton, Movistar -> Euskaltel
Breschel, Movistar -> Garmin-Sharp
Van Rensburg, Shimano -> Genesis Van Garderen, Orica GreenEdge -> Katusha J. Simon, AG2R -> La Pomme Marseille
Coppel, Omega Pharma -> Lotto Belisol Nibali, Astana -> Movistar
D. Martin, Euskaltel -> Movistar
Porte, Movistar -> Omega Pharma
Turgot, Movistar -> Radioshack
Gatto, BMC -> Roubaix
Zoidl, Astana -> Radio Popular
Edet, Cofidis -> SFR Super U Kittel, Orica GreenEdge -> SFR Super U Boom, Belkin -> Shimano
Gaudin, SKY -> Shimano Roelandts, Katusha -> SKY
Silin, Astana -> Saxo
Bakelants, Omega Pharma -> Trilux - Brandenburg
Stetina, Radioshack -> WIT
Demare, SKY -> AG2R
Sean De Bie, Lotto Belisol -> An Post O2
M. Frank, BMC -> Astana
Boonen, Omega Pharma -> BMC
C.A. Sörensen, Astana -> Euskaltel
Purito, Movistar -> Euskaltel
Bilbao, Euskaltel -> Movistar Henao, SFR Super U -> Movistar Meersman, Lotto -> Omega Pharma
Gesink, Belkin -> Radioshack
Geniez, FDJ -> SFR Super U
Kiserlovski, Radioshack -> SKY
Conti:
Van Den Broeck, La Pomme Marseille -> Andalucia
Kennaugh, Garmin-Sharp -> Bauknecht
Dombrowski, Garmin-Sharp -> Nespresso o_O
Vanendert, Andalucia -> Omega Pharma
Roche, La Pomme Marseille -> Orica GreenEdge
Machado, Saxo -> Radioshack
Poels, Bank BGZ -> Euskadi (might give him a WT team)
Trentin, De Koninck -> BMC
Obvioulsy Movistar look crazy good for next season. Nibali, Sagan, Dan Martin, Henao plus a good enough squad to support all of them. And a Valverde who did a surprise and won a GT when all hope was already lost. Astana have compensated fairly good. Keldermann had a decent season and should break through now after Nibali's departure. Kreuziger's move to Astana is reasonable. SKY still have Greipel but lose their sprint dominance. Didn't see decent helpers for Froome though. Katusha is, once again, a failure at transfers. Again, not one single decent helper for Contador. Euskaltel with some nice transfers too (might add Poels to them or Vacansoleil). I also edited Majka to VCD since he would have gone to a no-name conti team. Might give Roche some extra years to recompensate for his absence during his stay at La Pomme. Sad to see Sean De Bie at An Post now. His Ronde victory this season sure was kick-ass where he outsprinted Oss. Radioshack with Mollema, Uran and now Gesink look like a winning combo for 3 potential Grand Tour victories.
Meanwhile, Lampre have extended their contracts with their young guns (especially Caroli, Chessa, Aru, Cattaneo) and look forward to another hopefully successful seasons. Some bitter defeats (no Top 5 at TdF, 2nd at Lombardia and WC, 2nd at Ronde) will make my guys only stronger, like freaking Saiyajins. #1 at UCI Team Ranking is a great sign of our competitive squad. Each rider had their moments to shine, be it Ulissi (who got injured mid-season), Velits, especially Kwiat or the young italian riders. Above all hangs of course the sweet Giro victory. Hope to defend the title next season with Caroli but I'll have to see how the route is and then I may even go for the Giro-Vuelta Double with Caroli. Maybe this time around I make a lasting impression at the big classics. Cobblestone usually works quite good, but Ardennes are kinda a pain. Chessa and Ulissi might be a winning combo though. Since Aru has 81 MT by now I think I may even finally crack the TdF Top 5. Well, wait and see.
Edited by Shonak on 02-11-2013 01:20
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Yup, I really look forward to have him in the team. Should be a great addition and finally a serious contender for Paris-Roubaix. Plus, I have already a pretty good cbs-team so there was no need to hire domestiques just for him (although I would have really liked to sign Sean De Bie).
I also discovered two huuuge luxembourg talents but since I already have enough young guns in my team I decided against it. Hope they will be signed soon so that they will become good rivals soon. I just looked their potential up, after I decided against signing them, at the end of the season out of curiosity. One of them is a 8 (he also dominated U23 leaderboard so he should definitely get hired by another team next season), damn it.
by the way, I took a screenshot of my 2018 Lampre team, I thought it's about time. Took me quite a bit of MS Paint artistry to get it right. The guys with beautiful black dots next to the name are either U25 riders or generated riders. Edited by Shonak on 31-10-2013 01:58
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Soooooo, season's over!
After the Tour, our Sponsors wanted to see us win Eneco. I did it before at TST, with Morkov, so i thought with riders like Boom or Thomas it shouldn't be a problem. It went quite good untill the last stage, the TT kilometres obviously helped us, were we went completely berzerk and pretty much team-attacked. It worked, and in the end the GC was:
1. Boom
2. Gilbert
3. Thomas
4. Phinney
5. Bagdonas
6. Stannard
Yes, that's right. A 1-3-4-5-6. I'll attach a picture of our team attack too.
Next up was San Sebastian, which was ok, but nothing spectacular for us, i forget the exact result. Anyway, then came the Vuelta. As Quintana was injured up untill right before the race and had form (or fitness, i'm never sure which is which), of about 0, i made a real big call and decided to bring Dan Martin. That worked quite well at the start, he even had the red Jersey after stage 2. But, to my bg surprise, in the mountains he just couldn't keep up. But there was another surprise: Atapuma was doing really well! He was with the best nearly all the time, and he ended up 2nd in the GC! He would've finished third, if Gesink, whilst wearing the red jersey, hadn't crashed on the descent and if we and Katusha hadn't really upped the tempo, but so is cycling. In the end Dan Martin won a Stage from a Breakaway and took Polka Dots, so i suppose at least something. In the meantime, Poels won Vattenfall after a long range solo attack, and Plouay, Montreal and Quebec also saw top 3s, 5s and 10s.
Then it was worlds time, were it wasn't really that spectacular, Wiggins won the TT (for some reason there was a rather long climb in the middle) and Sagan won the RR. The highlights of the late season were Roche winning Il Lombardia in style, which brought him up to 3rd in the individual rankings, and Quintana returning to winning ways in Beijing.
STDU: Martin
P-N: Kern
T-A: Martin
Catalunya: Martin
Pais Vasco: Martin
Romandie: Froome
Dauphine: Contador
Suisse: Froome
Pologne: Jeannesson
Eneco: Boom
Beijing: Delage
And the new season has started for Guinness!
First up was the Aussie NC, which saw our young sprint hopefull Cody Thomson get a fourth place out of the breakaway. We stayed in Australia, for the Santos Tour Down Under, were Dan Martin, though not as extremely dominant as the year before, defended his title with a win on the queen stage into Houghton. Rather surprisingly there was an extreme amount of interest, with Goss and Cav battling it out in the sprints, and Gilbert and Purito there alongside Martin for the two hilly stages.
Then it was kind of quiet, with a few races i simmed, untill the classics season was opened with the belgian weekend of Omloop on the Saturday and then Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne on the Sunday. Omloop went rather unsurprisingly, a reduced bunch making it to the finish in Gent. Since some of our best cobblers can also sprint, we set up a nice sprint train for Bernhard Eisel, and rather surprisingly, he managed to win ahead of Van Avermaet and Steegmans, with other strong sprinters like Vanmarcke and Boonen only managing Top 10's. K-B-K went quite the same, except for a spectacular long range attack by our captain, Lars Boom. But as Tom Boonen joined him after about 20km, Lars decided not to work anymore, because most of our riders except for Taylor Phinney, who punctured, were in the front group. So we let Boonen power himself out, and the pack came back together for a sprint, were Gerraint Thomas and Gediminas Bagdonas put in a great leadout for Bernhard, which helped him secure the Omloop - K-B-K double, which surely is a good sign for the really big classiscs.
Congratulations to the Velo d'Or. With Gilbert winning the Ard. Triple I'd have imagined that journalists would have prefered him but this just goes to show that one fantastic week can't beat a successful season such as Martin's. Quite a season you had there. Is this still the first season of Guinness?
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Yes, it is. (Well, in to the second season now). It seems i didn't edit enough in the DB, so Nico Roche is at Saxo now. But with the Talent i have anyway, i thought i didn't really need to replace him. I hope this season a GT Win is possible, after two 2nd places in 2013. But all of the GT's have loads of TT Kilometres, the Tour ending with a 50km one and the Giro starting with a 42km one. How's the 2018 Season going for you?
Quite good so far. Lampre took 2 stage wins at Tour Down Under (Velits, Kwiat) and a 2nd place (Velits). I have made some new training schedules to get my riders faster into shape without relying on the pre-season training camp. We took some minor wins and at Tirreno-Adriatico had the first stage (TT) 4 riders in at top (Kwiat, Cattaneo, Velits, Malori). Toughest opponents were Betancur, Uran, Gallopin and Kreuziger, who won the race in the previous two years I think. Kwiat dominated though and we rode fairly dominating, so Kwiat took Tirr-Adr. which was really pleasing in front of Cattaneo (yay, double victory) and Gallopin (RTL). The next days we profited from the great shape at Tirr-Adr. and Kwiat took also MSR. With a comfortable lead at the UCI Team Ranking we snatched a 2nd place at E3 and 5th at Gent-Wevelgem with Van Avermaet. Quite a surpise at Gent: Ion Izagirre (Euskaltel) won the stage out of the break against Kristoff and Roelandts. He attacked with about 10 kms to go and wasn't to be caught. Kinda awesome. Boonen won for the 9th time E3. o_O Ronde was very disappointing though. Sagan, Kristoff, Thomas, Degenkolb went into the breakaway and managed to keep the lead. While Van Avermaet could keep up with Vanmarcke, Boonen and Gaudin, he only got the last place in this group and finished 8th. Top 5 was sponsor goal though, so that kinda sucks. Sagan won Ronde in the end and completing the Mini-Slam. Now only Paris-Roubaix is missing and I suppose it will be missing.
At least, at Paris-Roubaix we worked great and Van Avermaet was daring enough to attack. Many favourites in a big group, in the end Vanmarcke just was once more too strong and won the race (that makes 3 in a row for him now!). We got 2nd place though before Turgot and Roelandts.
I kinda worry about the sponsor goals at this point. Amstel Top 5 and Liege Top 10 should be do-able. However Suisse and Crit-Dauph are the two most important ones and require a Top 3 result. Plus, Vuelta and Tour want good results and are important, while the Giro has only one star and it's only a Top 10. Meh. Not really realistic after the previous season.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
2016 with Cannondale:
Decided to try the big 5 with Sagan (and get flanders 4(including P-R in this) + Ardennes triple in process). MSR, E3 and GW(close) done and Sagan gets injured in a smaller race (can't remember what, out until June).
Tring to be realistic about it and won't edit.
So, he will try to win San Sebastian, Vatenfall, dominate hills in Vuelta and win Lombardia.
Really bad luck but have to try again some other year.
Yeah, that's really annoying. With Guinness, i had Quintana to lead for tg
he Vuelta and the Worlds, but then he got injured in some completely unimportant race like Belgium Tour or something, and he only just came back in time, OFC with no form whatsoever.
Whoop, so the Ardennes classics were quite pleasant. Van Avermaet got 3rd at Amstel and 4th at Fleche. Kreuziger won both races for Astana. Liege - Bastogne - Liege saw some impressive, aggressive riding by Lampre and especially Ulissi but alas, Betancur won the stage and Ulissi came in only 7th.
Tour de Romandie was also won by Kreuziger in front of his teammate Kelderman. Quite a performance by Astana. Since the stages were mostly hilly and time trials, König and Velits showed good performance whilst my climber squad mostly stayed behind. Caroli showed his increasing form though at a mountain stage, so I had good feels for the Giro (he only races Giro del Trentino before).
So, the route for this season 2018 was the 2012 Giro. Since we all know how that ended for Purito back then, when he lost against Hesjedal in the final time trial, I wanted to make sure to have a big enough advantage in the mountains. Lampre pretty much came with their A-team in terms of climbing: Caroli as leader, Aru as a 2nd captain, Rosa and Anacona as domestiques, Marcato and Oss for the flat parts of any stage and Stortoni, Velits and König for good decent pacing.
Main contenders for Giro 2018 were obviously Caroli, Mollema (RTL) and Majka (VCD), who were by far the strongest riders last season. Craddock (Belkin), Fuglsang, Rolland (both ALM) and Aru surely had chances too though for the overall win since they have proven in previous editions that they can get their form right. Quintana (OPQ) and Urán (RTL) probably did the Giro as a preparation for the Tour, while I wasn't sure about Porte (OPQ).
Stage #1 was the Prologue in Herning, which was won by Craddock, zero seconds ahead of Velits. Caroli did a good Prologue, lost of course time to Mollema, which was expected. The two flat stages in Herning and Horsens saw mass sprints, won by Bouhanni (Cof) and Sondre Holst Enger (AST), an norwegian sprinter youngster, age 24, who has already 81 at sprint, so definitely one to look out for the future.
The team time trial was a huge victory for Lampre. The team certainly doesn't have the best TT'st in the peloton, but they have shown their great form. They took 16 seconds to Radioshack, their fiercest rivals, and even put a minute into Majka. But this wasn't by far Lampre's strongest team performance in the first week.
While the flat stage from Modena to Fano was won by Demare (FDJ) and saw no action from Lampre, except for some not-too-serious defending of the pink jersey, the next day turned into pure crazyness. Over the hilly stage 6 from Urbino to Porto Sant’Elpidio, Sky and Lampre quite put in a show. Lampre was firstly a bit baffled by Sky's interest but soon joined and rode a high pace up the Madonnella and the Passo della Cappella. In the ensuring hectic, Lampre and Sky had a couple of riders up front, and soon the peloton thinned out in the narrow roads. Mollema and Majka as well as Velits, wearing the pink jersey, were caught behind. However, Oss, Marcato and Stortoni paced without remorse. Several riders, who more or less were in Caroli's break by "accident", couldn't even hold up with a pace until the end. From time to time the group had around 2 minutes lead to Mollema and Majka, who didn't have too many helpers at their side. Prominent names in Caroli's group were Brambilla (SKY), Battaglin (VCD), Rodriguez and CA Sörensen (both EUS), Mombaerts (ALM) and so on. Only Brambilla and Battaglin could hold up though with Caroli and Aru in the end and the two Lampre riders let the two other riders battle out for the victory for their help. So Brambilla won the stage, and Caroli got another 39 seconds to Mollema and Majka. But more importantly, many potential rivals lost already lots of time, like Craddock and Rolland (2 minutes), Fuglsang (7 minutes), Uran, Porte and Quintana (8 minutes). So this left only Majka and Mollema already as only serious contenders, which would make controlling the peloton far more easy in the mountains. Anyway, a first step was set as Caroli was now in pink, with Brambilla in 2nd, thanks to his time bonus, and Aru being third. Mollema, Majka and others were lining up behind Anacona and Velits. So, yeah, quite many Lampre riders in Top 10 after the first week.
The 2nd started with a mountain finish: Up the Rocca di Cambio, Lampre concentrated on maintaing a steady pace. In the breakaway, Pagani (Ceramica Flaminia) took the win solo and also claimed the MT jersey for the time being. Mollema attacked with a few kilometers to go, however Aru and Caroli got him in the last kilometer sprinting. Majka lost about another 15 seconds, caming in with the peloton.
Stage 8 was another mountain finish, however it featured a 5 kms flat section after Colle Molella. It sounds similiar to Mollema hihi, so no wonder that Mollema attacked and got away. However Lampre paced high (Rosa, Anacona) and Caroli eventually came in 2nd after the dutchman. Although there were quite some meters between them, the time was taken for all the same, so Caroli kept his pink jersey, while Aru lost his 2nd place, which he gained yesterday. Quite tight up to this point. Also, Caroli crashed in a downhill section of a hill, when it started to rain (and Marcato did too while bringing back Caroli to the peloton and then... König fell too and even got serioulsy injured, dropped out of the race... man). So back there I hoped that not some minor injury happened, but alas things looked good at the next stages.
The following two stages were taken by frenchmen (Vichot, ALM), Antomarchi, FDJ) in breakaways, so traditional french wins I suppose. After the last Giro, I looked out for any chance to rest my squad a bit since they really were worn out at the last Giro in the last week. Another mass sprint was then claimed by Sky through Elia Viviani, who finally won his first Giro stage. Back when Nizzolo won 5 stages at the Giro, he often beat Viviani to the line, so it's good to see him taking the win that AI has been striving for.
On the road to Sestri Levant, I tried to breakaway with Caroli at the Villa Tassani but the peloton caught up to him and Meersman took the stage win while Fuglsang and Caroli claimed bonus seconds. Farrar took stage #13 for Belkin, the last stage before the decisive mountain stages come.
However, stage #14 wasn't the toughest to come. Over the Col du Joux and then up to Cervinia, the team paced and Caroli showed his growth as a smart rider. However, it might attacked a bit too soon since Mollema, Majka, Fuglsang and Quintana nearly catched up to him at the finish line. Still he got 9 seconds + bonus seconds and at this point it really seemed like he had to fight for any second he can get, up to the last stage, the time trial. Aru lost 48 seconds to Caroli and thus was now around 2 minutes behind Caroli, and right between Mollema (1 minute) and Majka (about 3 minutes).
One thing we learned by now about Caroli is that one stage win with him often doesn't come alone and the next day saw a win in similiar fashion as he was launched by Aru up the Lecco Pian. This time attacking only a few kilometers left to go, he snatched another 26 seconds to the peloton and his teammate Aru even got 2nd place before Majka.
After the rest day, De Marchi (Orica) was the strongest in the breakaway and won the sprint up the hill of Falzes.
Stage #17, from Falzes to Cortina, was one I looked really foward to. From the Passo Giau, there was a 17 kms descent and I had quite good experience with such stages with Caroli. Since there were several mountains featured before, Lampre took of course their responsibily to chase the break, although they did not quite motivated. Amongst other riders, Ian Boswell (WIT, former Cannondale) was in the break and claimed all mountain tops, thus giving him the mountain jersey from Caroli's virtual back. He also finished first in Cortina, while Caroli and Majka attacked near the end of the Passo Giau. It was a small group of riders (Rosa, Aru, Anacona, Craddock, Uran, Rolland, Porte), however Mollema still managed to get somehow caught their and couldn't follow the initial attack. He however nearly caught up, but Majka and Caroli wouldn't let him and so they both rode together the descent very fast, while Mollema chased alone after them. When it looked like the 3 top riders were out of reach, Lampre eventually set pace to further secure Aru's 4th place. Mollema lost only 13 seconds though to Majka (2nd) and Caroli, but however, Caroli managed to nearly better him at any mountain stage so far, so things were looking good. Still, with all these tiny bits of time gaps and the last time trial, no one at Lampre felt safe yet. Plus, the two toughest stages were still up. However, it was nearly two minutes by now, mostly thanks to additional bonus seconds picked up at each finish.
The weird #18 stage, the loooong descent from San Vito to Vedelago, was won by Manfredi (Androni) solo. Obviously a perfect stage to save energy. Energy that was truly needed for stage 19.
Over Fonzanso the breakaway got up to 25 minutes, but the following mountains (Passo Manghen, Reiterjoch, Passo Lavaze (2-Cat) and then Val di Fiemma, which means basically Reiterjoch again), saw an enormous pace by Lampre. Going into the Reiterjoch Stortoni and Velits thinned out the already small peloton at the time. The huge breakaway up front lost minute to minute, and nearly at the end of the Reiterjoch Anacona and Rosa took over. In a couple of meters, riders dropped and dropped and did nothing but dropping, until up to the Passo Lavaze, a rather small climb, following the Reiterjoch. But when the group of favourites reached its summit, the situation was just perfect for Lampre: 4 riders of Lampre (Aru protecing Caroli), while Majka, Mollema, Craddock and Rolland were all by themselves and just judging by any feeling, Caroli definitely looked a bit beast that day already (#5 daily form too that day, yay!). The group of riders therefore was already so small that the breakaway was called the peloton, quite funny. We didn't wait for anything at the bottom at Val di Fiemme. Aru launched Caroli after a couple of meters and no one even tried to follow. While Caroli was riding his pace, Aru protected him and soon was dropped by his captain, who went on to collect the breakaway one rider after another one. Caroli was riding like a berserk, collecting seconds and soon a minute to Mollema and Majka. In the snowy atmosphere of the Dolomites, there might have been sort of a deja-vu for Caroli, remembering how he climbed the snowy Vuelta stages two seasons prior, and one could only imagine that at this day just everything was perfect for him. He took his third stage win, gaining 2:45 to Mollema and 3:34 to Majka. Aru and Craddock finished 3rd and 4th, 3:20 minutes behind. By now, all these marginal time gains actually meant nothing. If not for a complete loss of performance on the Stelvio, the Giro would be for Caroli - again. He also took by the Mountain jersey and also gained the point jersey along the way. So, just another dominance?
Stage 20 saw two legendary mountains. Mortirolo and Stelvio, quite a reminder that nothing was decided yet. However with 5 minutes to Mollema and 6-7 to Majka, things looked pretty clear in the sky, even in case it would snow again - something that could surely happen at the Stelvio.
Lampre played it cool and paced slowly first, but obviously increased the pace at the Mortirolo, once more dropping many riders. The peloton was rather huge though, around 30-40 riders, when the team got into the Stelvio. The breakaway had a massive advantage but many riders in it looked already beaten. Without any energy left, Bart de Clerq took the stage win, while Rosa, Anacona and later Aru paced for Caroli and Mollema and Majka didn't even attack this time. In the end, it was just for the fun that they duelled one last time at this Giro, when Caroli attacked and Mollema and Majka followed him like it was expected of them. The three finished around a minute before the 3 other Lampre riders, who really dropped everybody else that day, including such GC contenders like Fuglsang, Porte or Craddock. Talk about a team of great climbers. Very surprisingly Rolland must have had the bad day of his career, he lost 16 minutes to Caroli and fell out of the Top 10, from a great 6th place overall.
The flat time trial of 30 km in Milano was won by Alex Downsett (MOV), and Mollema got some seconds back he lost in the mountain stages, but 1:40 just wasn't enough. Caroli's 2nd Giro victory is official and this time around, it was truly a showcase of pure class, while in the previous season he surely had a ton of luck and bravery. Lampre looked during the 3 weeks always in control of things and bringing the A-team of climbers surely paid off, however I might decrease some riders potential or maybe not prelong certain contracts.
The final GC:
1. Caroli (LAM)
2. Mollema (RTL) +3'29''
3. Majka (VCD) +6'18''
4. Aru (LAM) +8'42''
5. Craddock (BEL) +10'59''
6. Anacona (LAM) +15'23
7. Gianluca Brambilla (SKY) - yup, for real +21'36
8. Diego Rosa (LAM) +23'23''
9. Richie Porte (OPQ) +25'09''
10. Stefano Locatelli (Selle Italia) +25'12''
12. Rolland (ALM)
13. Fuglsang (ALM)
15. Quintana (OPQ)
19. Uran (OPQ)
22. Purito (EUS)
23. Stortoni (LAM)
26. Kiserlovski (SKY)
KoM: Caroli
Points: Caroli
U25: Mario Barbi (Androni)
So, what's left to say? Overall, the route this season wasn't as tough as the previous one. However, 40 riders dropped out of the race, and I think that value is higher than in the last season. Lampre did a good job at using and reserving the energy when it mattered. Clever team tactics gained a two minute lead to Mollema, while the other 1'30 minutes are probably up to Caroli's strength at Val di Fiemme and his weakness in time trials. The route certainly played to our team's strength though. Several stages with multiple mountains, a team time trial and only roughly 38 kms of single time trial, 30 of which were at the end. We had a lead and we defended it.
I noticed that Porte didn't do much in all these seasons so far, so I might up his mountain stats by one point. Also, Majka might get another increase, while Rosa have to suffer a decrease to 79. Craddock will also get an increase in potential, following his two superb Giro's. I will also take a look at Quintana's training schedule and change it slighty to bring him into better shape for the Giro next time around. It was actually too easy this time around, so any suggestions as to how make the competition tougher? Obviously I might not bring such a A-game of climbers next season, although it was pretty sweet riding with them. I imagine having them at the Tour, they might crack all these top riders (Froome, Contador, Nibali). I might also set the difficulty from Hard to Extreme for future seasons, however I'd like to have fewer stage races as sponsor goals for that to happen (just give me Cobbles and Grand Tours and maybe Tirr-Adr. and I am a happy manager).
What's next? Aru has shown great performance this season at the Giro (he disappointed a bit last season) and will be Lampre's leader at the Tour. I'm sure this time around I can crack the Top 5 finally, hopefully. Caroli will try to obtain the double of Giro-Vuelta now, with the help of Anacona, who in turn will look for a stage win (he's last one at the Tour dates back several seasons).
Currently, the UCI Top rider is Greg Van Avermaet and Lampre is leading the World Tour. So, everything shiny right now. Next sponsor goals of Lampre are Top 3 at Crit-Daup as well as Tour de Suisse. Well, maybe at the Crit-Dauph we will already see how Lampre's collective climbing power can match the individual skills of Contador, Nibali and Froome.
Oh yeah, the game started to crash a lot again lately. I'll have to see if I can minimize or it just will get to crash now and then, but right now, it's really a pain in the ass.
Edited by Shonak on 05-11-2013 02:42
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Wow really nice Giro win there! Caroli must be a joy to play with, especially at a team like Lampre with so good support in the mountains. Have you ever considered writing a story btw? I like they way you write your reports, it could work well in a story.
Didn't get to play PCM since winning the double with Eisel, NaNoWriMo is keeping me really busy. If i actually stick to it, i probably wont play at all this month. Maybe at the weekends if i write quick.
Yeah, I actually thought about it, but with my crappy Laptop this could turn into quite a nightmare, especially considering all the crashes I have. Maybe when I have some new hardware I'll give it a try, but right now, probably not. Also, writing a story is just way too time consuming I suppose, since I would want to write a lot of personal interview stuff and so too. Also, I have way too many typos in my english posts (Austrian), so I would need to refresh my english it a bit first. Thanks for the compliment though. For now, I'm happy with just giving some overview of what's going on.
And yes, I really like that pixel-dude. Maybe it's because he's a generated, homegrown rider but I like it the most when he wins. I suppose Aru could have won the Giro this season too (he even seemed at times stronger and honestly, he is still the better rider), but Caroli has still the highest potential to become one of the greatest of his generation, so when he rides, Lampre always will ride for him, no matter what.
NaNoWriMo, veeery nice. Good luck with that. I thought about applying many times but alas, something always keeps me from it. Maybe you will post the story on PCM after you finish it?
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Quintana had a rather disappointing Tour (he finished last time 2nd on this route), yet however he came from the Giro and this isn't really the best schedule, especially when all of the action happens in the 2nd week. Jürgen Van den Broeck with a strong 5th place. Also, a very attacking, strong Majka got 6th. That's sweet.
). This were kinda my two big goals for the late season, but anyway. Malori won the WC ITT in an impressive way. He burned the road. 
The guys with beautiful black dots next to the name are either U25 riders or generated riders. 
