Hi there and welcome! This is my very first shot at writing a story in this forum, so bear with me (for as long as you can).
I have played through one full season with Cervélo Test Team, and is currently one month into my second season. Let's take a quick look at my team's results in my debut season as manager in Pro Cycling Manager 09.
Somewhat surprisingly the sponsors expected me to win the Tour de France in my first season. My only rider capable of such a feat is of course Carlos Sastre. After having skipped the Giro wholely (I didn't consider my team strong enough to defend participation in the race), I was hoping for success in the Tour.
(The cobble classics didn't go well on my part, being almost completely dominated by Fabian Cancellara. Dwars door Vlaanderen and Scheldeprijs my only two victories, both going to Hushovd.)
Unfortunately, Carlos lost a lot of time in the TTs and never managed to gain the advantage on Alberto Contador in the Tour, finishing in 3rd. Somewhat surprisingly Cadel Evans snatched the overall victory in the closing stages, after an impressive time trial.
On the positive side leadout-man Heinrich Haussler won the green jersey after winning only one stage, while my sprinter no. 1 Thor Hushovd finished second on the rankings winning an impressive four stages. Mark Cavendish miscalculated his form completely and won just one stage.
Having more or less spent both Haussler and Hushovd in the classics and Tour, I had low ambitions in the Vuelta. I aimed at getting a decent result with Sastre, but unfortunately things were not going to go my way.
Rather early in the race, it might have been stage three or four, Sastre was caught napping in the peloton as all the favorites took off towards the end. Before he could react in time they had gained several minutes, enough to secure an insurmountable margin to my top rider.
On the plus side, Xavier Florencio, my only rider close to being defined as a sprinter, won stage five, giving my team (and Carlos) a breather.
Sastre, really in great shape after racing only Tour de Suisse (which he won) in the build up to the Tour, then started firing on all cylinders. As the terrain started getting more hilly with mountains approaching in the distance, Sastre, enjoying excellent legs several days in a row, raced to victory on a stunning five days in a row. Stages 10 to 14 were all won by the quiet Spaniard, but Contador, already leading by several minutes, followed with ease and never finished far behind.
In the end another time trial proved too tough for Sastre, finishing a decent 2nd behind Contador, who got his revenge after losing out to Evans in the Tour de France.
As the season came to an end Cervélo managed to clinch the first spot in the continental division earning us a promotion to the Pro Tour.
I tried to sign Fabian Cancellara as the season came to a close, but instead he chose Team HTC-Columbia. Another big signing for HTC was the reigning Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, who signed for a year.
Other major transfers:
Samuel Sanchez G. (Quick Step)
Levi Leipheimer (Team Katusha)
Cervélo - notable riders out:
Roger Hammond (Lambouwkredit)
Riders in:
Maxime Monfort (HTC)
Edvald Boasson Hagen (HTC)
Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas)
Yaroslav Popovych (Astana)
Jakob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank)
My second season has started quite calmy. The Australian championships ended with Simon Gerrans taking the 2nd place behind an invincible Cadel Evans. William Bonnet (Rabobank) won the following Tour Down Under, while Thomas Voeckler (Besson Chaussures) won Tour of Qatar, where Thor Hushovd was king of the sprinters in the absence of last year's participants Tyler Farrar and Mark Cavendish, earning him a fine start to the season with a whopping four victories.
To be continued soon...
Edited by apolloc on 10-07-2010 15:30
February kicks off with the Mallorca Challenge for Cervélo.
The following riders will take part:
Simon Gerrans - leader
Jeremy Hunt - sprinter
Yaroslav Popovych - free role
Gabriel Rasch
Philip Deignan
Joaquin Novoa Méndez
Oscar Pujol Muñoz
It will be a plain run-through for out-of-form Popovych and Deignan, while I'm hoping to get some results from Gerrans and Hunt.
The first stage is a flat 85 km stage in Palma
The relatively short stage meant the peloton would try to keep the breakaway contained.
Schreck (Milram) tried to go solo, followed by Gustav Larsson in no mans land just behind.
With 21 km to go the peloton caught Schreck. Liquigas and Katusha set a strong pace up front. Was this going te be a battle between Trussov and Bennati?
Hunt basically struggled to take anyone's wheel. This wasn't going to be Trussov's day either.
Instead Gerrans managed to stay in front by positioning himself well in the final 15k. But Fernandez and Bennati proved too strong in the final kilometre!
General standings after stage 1:
1
Koldo Fernandez
EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
1h51'08
2
Daniele Bennati
LIQUIGAS
+ 8
3
Simon Gerrans
CERVELO TEST TEAM
+ 12
4
Alexandre Usov
COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE
+ 20
5
Iñaki Isasi
EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
s.t.
6
Samuel Sánchez G.
QUICK STEP
s.t.
7
Aitor Pérez Arrieta
CONTENTPOLIS - AMPO
s.t.
8
Aitor Galdós Alonso
ADRIA MOBIL
s.t.
9
Mikael Chérel
FRANÇAISE DES JEUX
s.t.
10
Manuel Vázquez Hueso
CONTENTPOLIS - AMPO
s.t.
29
Jeremy Hunt
CERVELO TEST TEAM
s.t.
I'm going on a short vacation now, so expect next update on Friday or Saturday.
Edited by apolloc on 12-07-2010 16:23
