1. Vanspreybrouk takes the cobbled triple crown
KBK, NK and the E3 titles fell one after the other, often the bridesmaid in previous years the IKEA man seems to have got things dead right this year. At KBK, Pieter saved his strength for a well timed sprint at the end, mistakes from Steegmanns and Blythe (who led out) gave the Belgian what appeared perhaps a slightly surprising win. At NK slightly different tactics were required as Vanspreybrouk powered away on the penultimate climb and left the others to mark each other out from a chase. This move showed confidence and an excellent piece of judgement. With the confidence behind him the Belgian then would once again give a cobbles masterclass powering away on the last cobbled section after 100% Me had reduced the challengers to the bare bones. This Belgian is really the atypical cobbled man, great on flat, good enough uphills, bags of stamina and technical ability. Going to take a great performance to beat this clever rider.
2. Kohl sprints past Alarcon on Genting Highlands
You could feel the tension rise in the peleton at the Tour of Langkawi as each of the first four flat stages passed with no decisive moves going away. As the fifth stage approached the final Genting showdown, the major players moved to the front. Pirelli's Jose Serpa had been in great form in San Luis and Ikea's Jose Alarcon had utterly dominated the climbs on Mt Hood. These two were the big favourites and when they went after the early flurry of attacks you thought it was between those two. UBS had their climbing domestiques keep control whilst their Austrian man looked to wait till he was comfortable. Reeled in on flatter sections the pair of South Americans would continue to attack when the gradient went up. These two plus Kohl seemed stronger, but it was only in the last km when Alarcon would go again. But he went too soon and Kohl hit the front with barely 25 metres of road left and won the stage and race overall!
3) Bochmann stuns them in South Africa
The Cape Argus Cycle Tour was one of those little one day races that looked sure to end in a big sprint. Lego(Ciolek), Milka (Forera), Petronas (Crocket) and 100 % Me(Kennaugh) in particular all had big sprinter names here and there didn't seem like many roulers with enough to stop this in a relatively small field. The situation mid stage looked fairly routine, the break consisted of Galdos (Santander), Bochman (Telenor) and Drivi (El-Al). Galdos clearly didn't fancy the sprint and neither did Telenors Tomas Vaitkus as his teammate was there. Meanwhile El-Al had virtually promised a rider in the break so it was no surprise to see them there. The tactics of Petronas broke the chase up a bit, 100% Me and LEGO were leading it but first Scholz and then later Abarkoumov tried to bridge to the 3 leaders. The subsequent accelerations and decelerations in the peleton left an awkward gap with 10km to go as Bochmann who had not been working in the break burst clear. Coming into the last 10km he had 97 seconds and whilst that did evapourate at a rate of 10 seconds per km he held on for a rare breakaway victory at Cape Argus.
4) Kirchen utterly dominates the field at Castille y Leon
The Continental Tour had numerous small stage races in March, the Vuelta Castille y Leon looked like one for the real stage racers with a lengthy TT, a medium hill top finish and a mountain top finish involved. The field though light on numbers was packed at the top end with some strong stage racers. The pick seemed to be Ikea's Larsson, Santanders Abal and Bacardi's Kirchen with a number of other threats like Youtubes Niemec, Unicredits Ortega, Red Bull's Siutsou and the Sport Lisboa climbers. Sensationally Larsson lost a heap of time on the flat opening stage which gave him an early start in stage 2's TT. He set a storming time and it didn't take a rocket scientist to realise if a rider beat this time he would win the stage and be the new overall leader. Kirchen managed this, but Abal could not and thus set the scene for the rest of the race. The Luxembourger looked like the boss on the hill - top stage and timed his move well on the mountain top stage to win both stages and take the overall win. A stunned Abal in his home terrain took another high finish, but this was the one he really wanted.
5) The Cobra bites Serpa at Trentino
Pirelli and Bacardi have begun to strike quite a rivalry, two of the more impressive new teams both had made signings that were looking to make an impact. In the Blue and Black corner we had to superb columbian climber Jose Serpa, already podiuming in San Luis and Langkawi this was a big season target, the Giro del Trentino. In the red and black corner we had the controversial Ricardo Ricco, who was taking in a couple of small home tours to begin what was hoped to be a highly successful season. The first clash of the Titans at Corsica had been slightly disappointing as the riders marked each other out on the mountain stage. At Trentino it appeared as if the better TTing Columbian had stolen a march on the Italian leading by 55 seconds going into the last mountain stage. Ricco knowing that he had to go all out, proved to be his advantage as he went as soon as the last ascent began. Serpa's Italian team had been leading all day and despite help from Ikea the gap to Ricco grew and grew. By the finish Ricardo Ricco had stormed to finish alone over two minutes ahead of the next finisher a knackered Jose Serpa!
March was a very busy month in the Continental tour with the picture of who's in contention for the team standings become clearer as the month progressed. It's still perhaps a bit murky as some teams have used over 50 of their race days already. Some teams have also used a lot of their star names race days and will struggle to replicate the success in all their races. So who will be challenging for the 4 promotion spots?
Without knowing exactly the current situation on points I am positive that Ikea-Bianchi are top of the charts. They will have built quite a lead and have such a strong all round team, it is difficult to imagine that they are not going to be in the top three positions at the end of the season. Another team to impress have been Wiggle, who also have the type of squad that looks sure to bring a good supply of points in every race they have. Both squads, have superstars in Ignatiev and Vanspreybrouk who look set to possibly win every single TT/cobblestone race they enter. Ponzi and Taaramae are probably two of the best in their type of terrian and each team have numerous other reliable charactors.
Behind them it's going to be more competative, currently Pendletons, Mercedes, Petronas and UBS are looking likely to challenge. Petronas have surprised me as they did last season with clever consistency, this will have been boosted by a surprise win in the Corsica International. I still suspect they need more of those type of results if they are going to make a promotion spot however. Pendletons, Mercedes and UBS do have their biggest stars waiting in the wings so to speak. Gilbert and Pozzato will be expected to do far better than they showed in the Belgian classic and where will Schumacher look to make his contribution for UBS?
100% Me, who will not promote, as ever are moving through the gears, their sprinters have been disappointing in the main. You could be harsh and say the same about Adam Blythe, even so they are picking up points regularly enough. I refuse to count my own team Red Bull as any sort of promotion challengers either, I have picked out some good races for my riders and they have performed really well in the main this gives me outside hopes of a top 10. Sport Lisboa Benfica are a strange team with some sensational climbers, but seem to enter some strange races where they score little or nothing. Still they have had some great results and will continue to be up there in mountain stages.
Other outside promotion contenders will include Santander who seem to be under a dark cloud at the moment with the team boss complaining of underachievement. They have been moving up but at a slower pace then expected. Cillit Bang and Lego come under that category too, Lego you feel have better races to come and Cillit Bang well are Cillit Bang. Both teams have picked some weak teams for races wasting their race days. Pirelli and Bacardi are worth mentioning, though surely have spent too much money on their big stars who are undoubtably delivering but where does that leave the rest of their team? Meanwhile Bimbo Nutella, Milka, Tinkoff and Pokerstars are also outside top 10 contenders at the moment and will shine in some races suited to their specialities.
Behind this you have a number of teams who to be brutelly honest are having disappointing seasons. Vespa - Caffreys are waiting for Ginanni and Steegmanns to pick things up and have been lightly raced the season could turn for them. Whereas Quiksilver, Bbox and Youtube have too often had anonymous low scoring races and thus are having really poor seasons. El Al whilst not a new team must be counted as such with such a jump into the unknown so many untried Israeli youngsters will still be a bit disappointed so far. Intesa, Yamaha, Telenor and Unicredit I am confident will learn and improve next year as I will with Red Bull. Finally we have Highroad and Falcon whose squads look very thread bare compared to others and are way off the pace.
Wiggle
Points: about 1200
Race days: 36
Points per race day: 33.64
Star Man: Damiano Caruso, breakaway stage victory on a rare mountains outing for Wiggle.
March was a quiet month for the team with by far the best points per race ratio. Simone Ponzi, who has been excellent in the early season returned to action with a an excellent second place in the fairly strong field at Profende de Drenthe. Continued performances like this in the hilly classics, should maintain this teams excellent season so far. The Giro del Trentino was a risk, but came out of it in an even better position. Strong promotion candidates, April is a much busier month.
Pendletons
Points: about 930
Race days: 30
Points per race day: 31.20
Star Man: Amail Moinard, unspectacular top ten in Giro del Capo, but results like this from a rider like this maintain momentum
A quiet month from the British team, with just a couple of races. Van Heerden seemed to be on track for a podium at the Clasica Almeria but was swamped at the end. Gilbert’s debut at Profende de Drenthe was a huge blow-out, whilst Time Trialling duo Wiggins and Millar couldn’t take the Giro del capo TT and that race will also be seen as below par. Pendletons star is on the wane, will be looking to Van heerden and Gilbert to pick up the slack in the next month.
Ikea
Points: about 1700
Race days: 58
Points per race day: 29.26
Star Man: Pieter Vanspreybrouk, can he continue the unbeaten cobbled streak throughout April?
Ikea let it all hang out and stormed up to the top of the rankings and away as they racked up the race days. The cobbles saw Belgian Pieter Vanspreybrouk completely on top of his game with well timed attacks getting away from sprinting opposition time and again. Neils Albert brought in as chief lieutenant has sacrificed himself, but Ikea will be well satisfied there. For Taaramae, Larsson and Alarcon it wasn’t quiet as successful. Alarcon suffered horrible luck at Langkawi and used as luxury domestique in Italy managing a good individual position in Trentino. Taaramae could only podium in the short stage races in Italy, but still gave Ikea a good points yield. Larsson suffered in the wind in the 5 stage Castille y Leon and had to battle hard for just a top 10 place. To cap the month of Hilly specialist Alex Flugal managed a useful 3rd place at the Profende de drenthe classic. Results in these hilly classics will be the jewel in the crown for this super strong promotion favourite team.
Mercedes
Points: about 1240
Race days: 46
Points per race day: 26.91
Star Man: JJ Haedo, opening stage win and holding leaders jersey for some time at langkawi.
The Mercedes engine keeps purring well throughout the month of March, snagging stage wins and good overall positions in Capo and Langkawi. The Stetina and Peterson double act also carried on with great GC positions at the Corsica International, whilst the useful doubling up continues as the hilly classics duo of Pasamontes and Pozzato got their names in the top 10 at a hilly classic in Belgiam. More will be expected of Pozzato as the season continues as Mercedes had one of their few failures at the Giro del Trentino where for one the Stetina/Peterson double act missed out.
100% Me
Points: about 1100
Race days: 41
Points per race day: 26.85
Star Man: Adam Blythe, cannot quite live with Pieter Vanspreybrouk but is definitely now one of the world’s top cobblers. He won the tough opening stage as De Panne does that count as the classic?
March was really where 100% Me season begun with the 3 cobbled classics (Blythe finished 3rd in each) and De Panne Tour. Britons Blythe and Thomas were looking to be the force but not quite able to find away of breaking down the Ikea Belgian machine. Thomas finished some way down at KBK but has been finishing higher as the season has continued. Elsewhere, favourites Swift and Kennaugh failed to land podiums in their sprinters classics and following his Wellington TT win Stannard couldn’t win at De Panne short TT test. Still March was a good month, though the cobbled season doesn’t last much longer!
Red Bull:
Points: about 1300
Race days: 51
Points per race day: 25.59
Star Man: John Lee Augustyn, been consolidating Red Bull’s early season surge with solid results, picking up a stage win and the points jersey in his home tour, Giro del Capo
Red Bull seem to finding their niche in picking out weak fields and picking up good placings in those. Stage racers Augustyn and Siutsou picked up good positions in Giro del Capo and the Vuelta Castille y Leon, whilst Tour down under winner Arashiro did his good positioning trick to take 2nd at the Cape Argus Cycle Tour. When the class of the field goes up though, this team will struggle to make an impact. The Tour of Langkawi was a weak one, with Siutsou and Malaysian sprinter Haider unable to make an impact.
Petronas
Points: about 1360
Race days: 54
Points per race day: 25.26
Star man: Mauricio Ortega, won the queen stage of the Corsica International from a breakaway and consequently won the overall defending his lead in the TT. Brilliant performance.
Petronas have been bubbling away behind the scenes quietly gaining solid results in their usual early season push. A well planned timetable, but with no stand out performances were leaving them just outside the promotion contenders Ortega changed that with as he made a good break on the opening stage at Corsica International to land a big win for the team. The month had kicked off with a pretty secure performance in the loaded Langkawi field – Matteo Carrara the pick of the riders there. Meanwhlle the sprint squad with Crocket and Feillu delivered high placings but without glory at Almeria but were below par at Cape Argus.
UBS
Points: about 1320
Race days: 53
Points per race day: 24.87
Star man: Bernard Kohl, forget the nothing performance at Trentino – Langkawi was an excellent win.
Been a busy month for a team well known for its liking of stage races. Little seen of superstar Stefen Schumacher, but million dollar man Perez Sanchez was in action lots. Perez Sanchez has been all around in small stage races, making mixed impact always around the top 10 but not making the podium which may have been the expectation. In fact seems to be happy enough to finish 5th everywhere. Consistent enough everywhere and picking up wins periodically which really count, Anthony Roux superbly winning the hilly one day race Profende de Drenthe. Hunting promotion for sure.
Pirelli
Points: about 830
Race days: 34
Points per race day: 24.50
Star Man: Jose Serpa, superstar climber been up there everywhere. Only an inspired Ricco could knock him at Trentino. Must surely win at least one climbers race soon.
Loddo and Serpa maintained excellent starts to the season in a first class Langkawi field. Serpa was there with the best on Genting finishing 2nd overall, but Loddo was always around at the sprints. Superb Langkawi.Serpa then could only finish 4th at Corsica which was slightly disappointing for the Italian team. Looked set for a GC win, but denied by Ricco's brilliance on the final day of the Giro del Trentino. Still more excellence from Serpa in another classy field. Pirelli continue to move up whilst their star is racing, it will be interesting to see what they can do when the Columbian climber is not present.
Sport Lisboa
Points: about 1360
Race days: 59
Points per race day: 23.00
Star Man: Rui Costa, won the opening stage at Vuelta Castille y Leon surprising better known sprinters.
Much like their favoured terrain its up and down all the way in terms of points scoring for the veteran Portuguese team. Nazeret, Van Den Brouck and company were always going to enjoy the Genting Highlands climb. Rui Costa so pumped after winning the opening stage declared himself team leader and got better climbers to work for him at Vuelta Castille y Leon somewhat holding the team back. Of course there was also some completely anonymous races for the mountains obsessed outfit. There is a nice looking big climb at the Clasica Almeria but it is a sprinters race, blindsiding weakfish stage race sprinters is one thing doing this to some of the best is another. Sport Lisboa sent for them a fairly ordinary (for them) climbing squad and didn’t really perform at Trentino.
Bacardi Colt
Points: about 1050
Race days: 47
Points per race day: 22.40
Star Man: Kim Kirchen, Trifecta of stage wins in the selective stages at Vuelta Castille y Leon
Excellent month for Bacardi, which saw the debut of star man Ricco at the Corsica International. Took the superstar climber a little while to find top gear, only managing 5th there but went on the rampage on the final stage of Giro del Trentino walloping Jose Serpa, Jose Alarcon and Rein Taaramae on the way to overall victory. But Ricco winning was expected, victories for Goss at Clasica del Almeria and Kim Kirchen at Vuelta Castille y Leon really gave Bacardi the feel of a team well and truly on the up. The rest of the squad as expected have been rather less impressive, Kroupis battled hard at De Panne to nab a reasonable place but Nokere Koerse was a making up the numbers race, but the hilly Profende de Drenthe was rather more useful. Will be starting to enjoy themselves now stars are out to shine.
Bimbo Nutella
Points: about 630
Race days: 29
Points per race day: 21.69
Star Man: Bernard Eisel, a very good second at the E3 Prijs cobbled Classic.
A very good month for the chocolate spread team, opened up with a good performance in the Kuurne Bruxelles Kuuren classic and Eisel and Vangenechten improved on their performances in the High Category E3 Prijs race. Missed the Nokere Koerse race which may have been a good earner for the team! Greg Van Avermart was one of the most consistent sprinters at Langkawi and snagged a stage victory there.
Santander
Points: about 1020
Race days: 47
Points per race day: 21.66
Star Man: Oscar Guereo, two stage wins at Langkawi in good sprinting company.
Busy month for Santander especially for star stage racer David Abal who was unlucky to finish second at the Giro del Capo. Was favourite at win at the Vuelta Castille y Leon but could not overcome the dominant Kim Kirchen to the disappoint of the team boss who must have been furious with Abal way off the pace at Trentino. Still has been a steady stream of points from Abal and top 10’s from stage races involving Cobo and Lopez Garcia have kept things bubbling. Guereo won a couple of stages in Malaysia, but Ventuso failed utterly again at the Almeria sprinters classic. Spanish squad seem to be desperately trying to find an extra gear to move up toward top 5 territory.
Cillit Bang
Points: about 780
Race days: 36
Points per race day: 21.61
Star Man: Hassan Ben Nasser, the strong hill climber was much happier in team leader role to surprise the stage racers at the Giro del Capo race with the overall win.
Not many races for the quirky team, though a slightly surprising win for Ben Nasser at the Giro del Capo was welcome even if the team there did not support their leader particularly well. Being isolated probably hasn’t helped Vladamir Gusev who has not been able to podium in any of the three cobbled classics he has ridden. With Bellis and Ben Nasser registering victories the pressure is on for Cillit Bang’s star man to deliver.
Pokerstars
Points: about 890
Race days: 43
Points per race day: 20.74
Star Man: Roger Kluge, the improving German cobbler could be a real force on this terrain in the future, confirmed sprint quality too win the non cobbled stage 3 at the De Panne Tour.
Pokerstars would have been very excited to begin the cobbled season and whilst their riders are not quite good enough to win them they do have a heavy presence in the minor placings. Did brilliantly to land the two non cobbled flat road stages at De Panne – could have done much better there. Eric Mohs was a disappointment at the Tour de Langkawi as a determined Pokerstars continually tried to set a sprint up for him. One podium from six sprints was a poor return for the hard work in chasing down breaks that the team in green had been doing since race start. You get the impression that this team are learning a lot as the season progresses and will look to kick on year on year.
Tinkoff:
Points: about 680
Race days: 33
Points per race day: 20.70
Star Man: Evgeni Petrov, quiet top 10’s in high quality climbing fields at langkawi and Trentino.
A slow month for this lightly raced Russian squad, arguably their best stage race Evgeni Petrov did as expected in Malaysia and Italy. A fairly weak squad was sent to the hilly classic Profende de Drenthe and they got nothing from it. April looks like it will revolve around the hilly Tour of Turkey will be interesting to see the type of squad will be invading from Russia!
Milka
Points: about 580
Race days: 29
Points per race day: 20.07
Star Man: Thor Hushovd, not able to make headway in the one dayers, but worked hard for the GC win at the perfect for him De Panne Tour.
Will be slightly disappointed with their cobbled race haul with Hushovd, Casper and company not able to get themselves in the big moves. Had a better time at the De Panne Tour, were Hushovd was able to overhaul super cobbler Adam Blythe on the final days TT. Also nabbed a stage win there, a later podium for Forera at Cape Argus and a top 5 for Efimkin at Profende de Drenthe has seen Milka on the rise.
Lego
Points: about 780
Race days: 36
Points per race day: 19.64
Star man: Koldo Gil, you may not have seen him but nestled himself in a top 5 GC position following the right wheels to the top of the climb.
A fairly unspectacular month of picking up useful minor placings, without making Monfort like breakthroughs. Speaking on Monfort, considering his earlier parcours the Profende Van Drenthe hilly classic would have been a huge disappointment were he could only manage 9th. Outside of this did okay inFairly low key but were high enough were it mattered in the Genting Highlands. Koldo Gil followed the right wheels on his way to 4th there. Jiri Hochmann gave them presence at sprints. Ciolek nabs a 3rd place at Almeria, an okay result. Also a nice result at Cape Argus with numerous rider is the lower placings. Profende De Drenthe will have disappointing, Lego’s supposed strength should come in races like these and in form Monfort’s 9th place will seem like slim pickings. Trentino didn’t work out either as Schwab led the climbing squad but just was outclassed by a very strong field. Team LEGO will look forward to more hilly terrain which they need to do better if they are going to challenge.
Vespa
Points: about 440
Race days: 28
Points per race day: 15.57
Star Man: Gert Steegmans, this quality cobbler comes at a price so a couple of second places are not well celebrated still great results surely a win will come.
The cobbled season couldn’t come sooner as Vespa have struggled to make an impact as yet this season. No one has been able to break the utter dominance of Vanspreybrouk – Steegmans usually the best sprinter of the cobbler hard men is seemingly marked out of it for the wins. Very little to cheer outside of the one day cobbled classics. Proni unable to get anywhere near the front at Provende de Drenthe, and Gatto’s solitary podium (+ and ill timed puncture for Bosisio) was nowhere near enough at Langkawi. The season is beginning to pass Vespa by!
Intesa
Points: about 590
Race days: 41
Points per race day: 14.44
Star man: Roy Sentjens, the cobbled rider most likely to get a decent result, has been okay so far with some top 10’s.
Similar to Pokerstars in that they have several good but not great men for the cobblestones. This means that at the real business end Intesa cannot seem to get anyone in the big major move and are often left leading the chasing group. Sentjens, Kozenchuk and Vansummeran are great domestiques but cannot break top 5’s. Had a pretty good time at the De Panne Tour as you might expect with an surprise 2nd place one of the stages for youngster Monterastelli. Will hope for a little more in the remaining cobbled races and will come back to these next year as major players.
Quiksilver:
Points: about 560
Race days: 41
Points per race day: 13.54
Star Man: Allan Davis, would have wanted more from the Langkawi sprints and the Clasica Almeria. Still a second place on stage 2 in Malaysia was the best Quiksilver had to show.
Been a quiet month for quicksilver, who sent a sprint based squad to the Tour of Langkawi but failed to deliver the hoped for stage win success. Would have expected better than 10th at the Clasica Almeria sprinters classic for Davis, who since storming to win the Down Under Classic in January has done little. March was not a particularly active month for this midtable team.
El Al
Points: about 680
Race days: 54
Points per race day: 12.56
Star Man: Ignas Konovalinous, TT win on the short last stage of the Giro del Capo.
Were disappointed at the Giro del Capo as a strong squad was sent in support of Chavenel only for a crash to destroy GC ambitions. Raisen struggled again against quality competition at the Tour of Langkawi battling up the Genting Highlands climb for a top 20. Lack of sprinters there and at the Cape Argus classic meant they were praying for a breakaway success. Nearly happened for them In South Africa but Dor Drivi was unable to hang on the race winners wheel. It's difficult for this Israeli based team in a developmental year.
Yamaha:
Points: about 630
Race days: 52
Points per race day: 12.08
Star Man: Cadel Evans, excellent season debut with 2nd on GC at Corsica.
Some good stage race results on stages and on GC made this a steady month for the men sponsored by greenpeace. However the limited squad struggled to send competitive squads to some races and often they have ended up pointless from these. Kevin Seeldreyers probably will not be up there too often this season, so a second place on stage 2 at Giro del Capo and 3rd Overall was welcome. Evans made a good move at Corsica, but looked like his better days were behind him at Trentino. Searching for greater consistency.
Telenor
Points: about 570
Race days: 48
Points per race day: 11.90
Star Man: Lasse Bochmann, showed everyone that breakaways can win in so called sprinters classics.
Quiet month for Scandenavian team, which began with a fairly good GC position for poster boy Fredrik Kessiekoff at Langkawi. Team manager profressed frustration with Australian sprinter Greame Brown and his lack of climbing ability has seen him tailed off before any end race action. Rohregger couldn’t do much at Corsica either as Telenor had to settle for a lean March.
BBox
Points: about 500
Race days: 43
Points per race day: 11.53
Star Man: Leif Hoste, painfully lacking in support on cobblestones and beginning to fade. But still good results.
Asterloza and Paulinho were not really good enough to make a big impact in their stage races entered, all too often they are finding themselves in a loaded field. Leif Hoste is probably still good enough to nick a win on cobblestones somewhere and seemed on his way at the De Panne Tour when he clinged on to Adam Blythe’s wheel on the cobbled opening stage. However his team could not support Hoste when he struggled through the windy flat stages in the run up to the TT which he would surely have sealed the GC win. Bbox will be hoping that Hoste can net at least a podium from coming cobbled stages and perhaps some weaker fields at the Tour of Turkey and Jelejah Malaysia.
Unicredit
Points: about 335
Race days: 31
Points per race day: 10.77
Star Man: Danilo Napiliatino, The Italian's combination of speed and flat power is meaning a high degree of sprint consistency. Two stage wins at Langkawi made up for lack of climbing resources.
Things are beginning to improve for this squad hampered by transfer irregularities. Had a fairly quiet month, but scored well at Langkawi with Napilatano highly placed on all the flat stages. Then their climbers had a good race at the small field in the Vuelta Castille y Leon. The only disappointment was misjudging the difficulty of the Belgian one dayer way Gasperotto found things a bit too hilly for his liking.
Youtube:
Points: about 590
Race days: 55
Points per race day: 10.65
Star Man: James McCallum, didn’t think he would be good enough to win a sprint. I was wrong as the brit snatched the flat stage at Corsica.
Stage race specialists were fairly busy with their climbers filling minor places at Langkawi, Corsica and Castille y Leon. None of the stage boys really managed to land a meaningful result, Niemec being nudged out of the podium in Spain perhaps particularly galling. So it was too some cheer that Youtube grabbed a sprint stage win at Corsica, a timely reminder that it pays to put a sprinter in a stage racing squad every now and again. Team sent to Trentino are perhaps contenders for the weakest team of a season. Disappointing to see Pellizotti so lightly raced, Youtube could do with his star quality.
Highroad
Points: about 270
Race days: 47
Points per race day: 5.81
Star Man: Micheal Vantomme, needed to play it smarter on stage 2 of the de Panne Tour, but managed a 5th place overall.
Belgiam team still waiting for season defining moment, though Vantomme seems most likely. He does have a real turn of speed but needs to learn to wait for the right moment. Up and down squads sent to the cobbled races, no real success though a spinkling of top 10s at the cobbled Nokere Koerse with Meersman and Ruijgh at Profende de Drethe keep the team interested. Will be looking for youngsters to develop in seasons to come.
Falcon
Points: about 200
Race days: 35
Points per race day: 5.63
Star Man: Francisco Chicchi, 2nd place in a one dayer gave Falcon some hope for their sprint based squad.
This Scandinavian team are really struggling to get much from their races, seem to have picked a variety of races for their squad and hoping to learn how to involve themselves as the season progresses and into next year. Italian sprinter Chicchi followed Matt Goss to a welcome runner up spot in Almeria a result matched by Wyss on a stage in Trentino. High GC in stage races looks unlikely, as does anything over cobbles. Meaning the sprinters will look for something from flatter classics, Almeria bodes well in this regard.
Edited by Smowz on 28-08-2010 12:27
Cobbled Classics and Rund Um Koln
Three cobbled classics in March, these were all in preparation for the Ronde/Roubaix double header at the beginning of April. At the opening Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and the Gent-Wevelgem the continental tour was represented by the weak Falcon-Husquera team. Lead by the experienced Magnas Backstedt, hopes of one last glory day on cobbles did not materialise as Falcon found it impossible to make any sort of impact. These races were more about giving the young Belgians Jonas Decouttere and Timothy Vangheel some experience, though it is difficult to these two amounting to much in the pro ranks in all honesty.
Vespa Caffreys certainly offer a greater chance of success over cobbles with the likes of Steegmanns, Quinzato and Verbist in their ranks. The team seemed twitchy in the Stade Bianchi race with an early move from the Italian Manual Quinzato over with 100km to go. Whilst his move would catch and pass the early breakaway, it was quickly nullified when the main riders flexed their muscles. Gert Steegmanns went with this and looked set for a decent finish, however he faded on the hilly parcours and could only finish 14th. Quinzato held on in the main group to finish 22nd with teammate Verbist 25th.
Thorn of the Protour teams Wiggle San Pelegrano had what must be described as one of their few disappointments of the season, failing to make much of an impact on the German hilly classic the Rund Um Koln. The ingredients were there with Ponzi and Ignatiev just to name a couple of a team that us been super consistent all year. Tactically the race didn't really play out for their men as a break dominated proceedings, Pavarin was sent to bridge but didn't have the power. The rest of the riders waited for the catch that never came and the team would end up uncharacteristically rolling in towards the middle and the back of the pack.
Crit International
The returned and reformed Tinkoff have been able to push their team to the front of a number of races in the Continental Tour notably in the Tour of the Mediterranean. The shorter stage race the Criterium International would see how much of an impact they could make on the Protour stage. The answer was not really, Markov was well up there in the sprint but with Bennatti on top form the Russian fast man faded to 8th on the flat opening stage. In the hilly stage Kunshin made the large BOTD but this was nullified by the keen peleton. Tinkoff managed to keep 5 of their squad in the main group as the contenders attacked away which meant a number of their riders would finish in the top 50 overall. Timothey Kritsky just about the pick finishing in the top 25 on the last day TT and 23rd overall.
Vuelta a Pais Vasco
Similar to Vespa, Santander have made a slow start to the continental tour. So the Basque tour would be a big day out for them to show they belonged in the Protour ranks. Interestingly one of their most promising riders on loan this season to Lafarge Justo Tenerio was here too.
It was Tenario who looked every bit like the star Santander were hoping him to be as he and Trofimov almost closed down the rampaging Rodriguez on the opening hilly stage. He was one of just 5 riders clear of a 68 man peleton in which Santander had five men making the initial grade. But with Tenerio in the young riders jersey Santander would be fairly happy with the opener.
Stage two with most expecting a sprint following a fairly hilly day, one might have hoped for Ventuso to make it up toward the sprint. However the fast man has endured a bad season so far and today was no different as the peleton struggled to catch an earlier breakaway he could only finish 17th.
Stage three was the big queen stage and Santander's leader Cobo made a statement finishing 2nd only narrowly failing to reel in Frank Schleck at the finish. This moved Covbo up to 5th overall, no doubt helped as youngster Tenerio managed to have a nasty crash when the action was happening. This dropped the loan star right out of the reckoning, a huge blow to his temporary team Lafarge who are having a horrible season so far.
Stage four saw no decent stage positions, but Cobo would move up to 4th overall with the demise of Valverde on a crash marred day in the Basque country. Several contenders went down, so to finish with most of their men in the lead group was good enough for the Spanish team. However on the hillier fifth stage, JJ Cobo was unable to make the expected impact as he and his teammates finished in the main pack way behind where all the action was happening. This dropped Cobo down to 9th before the final days TT.
Cobo a reasonably good TTer espicially over hilly parcours, managed to grab back a place on GC on the final day and so finished 8th. But he could have done better if he had been able to follow the moves on the previous day. The tour of the Basque country had as so often been the case for Santander - what might have been!
The season is indeed passing Vespa by - the hilly stage at Langkawi that was not a hilly stage really dissapointed me. Having said that, the team is two for two in goals so far - so, I'm not writing the season off just yet.
From 22 to 9th in the Team rankings is very good. Indeed an awesome month for us with Kirchen and Goss surprising.
But yea, i've spend to much on Ricco. He's worth it, and should be able to keep me around 10th place with support of Kirchen and Goss. But with the way the transfers went it looked best to me to get him for 200k more than another rider who might give less guarantees.
But scoring some points here and there with my lesser riders isn't bad. (Kruopis in KBC, Sokolov in Drente, Bagdonas at the start of the season, Nazon in Algarve). All bits help . Buy yea, i won't win a team classification unless Ricco puts the rest on 10 minutes .
The paragraph you wrote about my squad summed up my feelings about this season better than anything I could come up with, it is a development year, but it has still been disappointing.
Great review, i agree about my team. We aren't going to win anything but we are learning what works and what doesn't for next season. Evans is a super hot favorite for every race though
Keep it coming Smowz, those reviews gives another dimension to the game!
Yeah I agree that the team will have a harder time scoring points without King Serpa, but then again no one expected Loddo to take two victories in Sardegna - perhaps can Hesjedal or someone else surprise in another race?
The season isn't bad so far, but I am more confident about next races in month of April, where I want some more wins - for example in Euskal Bizikleta. The great discovery for me is that I don't raced too much in comparision with other teams.
Thanks for all the feedback on this, I kinda build it up every now and again when I catch up with the races.
fenian, actually raises the point on goals, though in a lot of cases it is unclear what goals teams have. I can understand tactically that it would be unwise to reveal goals, though it would be nice to know now that the season is underway.
Goals are interesting though considering the current price of training are not necessarily the b-all and end all. Of course if you can tease a superb transfer (I might have mentioned the Goss/Kirchen 350,000 one before! I think possibly Ignatiev for a cool 1,000,000 was probably worth the investment also)
For the record Red Bull's actual goals are now:
Win the Tour of Langkawi [changed it after being told the 15 stage wins was not going to count as a win goal!]: I knew I wasn't going to get this but there is no race that in the HC category that I felt I had a chance of winning.
Top 5 in the World's View: Very very low chance of that, perhaps if I luck out again (like Arashiro in Down Under).
Top 10 at Volta a Portugal: Siutsou probably has perhaps a 50% of getting this.
15 stage wins in year: Hoping my choice of weak races later on Tour of America, Vuelta Chihuahua for example will be the ideal oppurtunity for this.
top 10, team standings: Should go okay in that regard.
Viking: I have similar problems to you, my sprinters (Sutton, Haider, Manarelli) have low prospects due to no real ability to climb. Actually sprinters really are proving a very low yeild investment at the moment, there is just too many about for my liking. Conversely though top quality TTers, Cobblers and stage racers are very hard to get hold of without completely busting the budget. I managed to pull off a few good moves though, Augustyn and Arashiro are proving very useful signings indeed!
The Ignatiev transfer was rather good, yes! We arranged it on day 1 of the transfers and waited a looong time (for my benefit) so that his price wouldn't rise. I spent the entire transfer season before doing that trade with a spare million sat about waiting to be used (and the 600k+ wage cap spare). But hey, if those risks to keep those bits free mean I get promoted then I'm a happy chappy.
wow, people think i'm gonna promote. very good review, you obviously put a lot of effort into that. this month has been quiet in terms of both racing and results. I musn't grumble after such a good start but I'm hoping that Gilbert will perform next time out (I can't say which race that is because my computer with the files on is destroyed).
My goals aren't very likely ones, but we had to choose some... I have top 10 team standings (not going to happen), top 10 Vuelta a Burgos, top 5 tour of slovene, top 5 Euskal Bizikleta, win ringirke (not going to happen).
I really picked these aimlessly in hindsight, but its all experience...
. Buy yea, i won't win a team classification unless Ricco puts the rest on 10 minutes 
.
