I started this career a few months ago, after a long period out of the game, many because I couldn't be bothered writing in depth reports. Then, having read Wiley's Peter Kennaugh story I decided to follow the same basic train of thought. I know that there has been plenty written about Sky on this forum, but I'm British, so I just had to document a Sky career.
I’ll be speaking to you through the mouth of David Brailsford, the team manager. I promise I’ll get farther than January this time!Edited by Neillster on 17-03-2012 11:13
So here we are now with the Team Presentation.
As we are now well into 2012, creating a team Sky 2011 story seems quite odd, however, I started this career a couple of months ago and have just finished Paris-Roubaix. This also means that any early critics won't be able to be implemented until later on in the season. But don't let this stop you, all critics welcome.
Back to the team, we have been set some ambitious Goals this season by our sponsor.
We will do our best to meet them, however, I won't be basing the season around them. Thankfully though, many of the aims I have for the team for this year is in step with the sponsor.
As for our Key Riders:
No inspection of the Sky team could start without naming Bradley Wiggins first. He will be focusing on the Tour for this season, hoping to better his success of 2009. He will also have a go for the Paris Nice and WC ITT championships.
Next on the list is Chris Froome. Whilst he won't be at the Tour this year, he has big plans for this year, aiming for both the Giro and Vuelta. Whilst the sponsors are after the points jersey at the Giro, Chris will be out there to have a go for the GC.
As for the cobbles races, Juan Antonio Flecha is our man. His big aim for the season will be the ever coveted Paris-Roubaix, but he will give his all in each of the cobbles classics, one day classics and possibly later on in the season have a go at the Tour.
As the best sprinter in our team, Edvald Boasson Hagen will be targeting the tour this year, however knowing just how good the Norwegian is at winning I wouldn't rule him out of contention for any race he is involved in.
As for the one day classics, Simon Gerrans should be our leader for those. Another man well used to winning, I hope he can deliver this year for the team.
Those are our leaders, but in a team with the depth of Sky, we have several elite helpers:
Our big young talent is Rigoberto Uran. Whilst he is labeled as a Puncheur and as such will be attending the one day classics, his climbing abilities are immense and he will hopefully be helping Wiggins at the Tour, possibly with one eye on the White Jersey.
Our best helper, is Michael Rogers, who will also be aiming to help Wiggins to the podium of the Tour. Yet, a rider with his quality can't be ruled out as of the favourites no matter where he is.
Juan main lieutenant this year is the ever impressive Geraint Thomas. Yet, given his sprinting skills, he may well be part of Edvald's lead out for the Tour, but we'll see.
Last, but most certainly not last is Ben Swift. While his sprinting isn't as good as Edvald's, this gives him the freedom to try his hand at both the Giro and the Vuelta. While certainly there will be plenty of pressure on his shoulders in the Giro, he will have plenty of help from our other experience sprinter.
Team Roster: Edited by Neillster on 20-03-2012 13:48
As always, the season starts for our boys with the national championships. As a team, we aren’t sure what to expect from this race. The guys aren’t in great form, just back from their holidays, but as a team with a large Australian contingent, we have to make an appearance. So all 4 aussies (Michael, Simon, Matthew and Chris) are going to be there.
A 2nd place! Not bad at all. O’Grady broke free with 40 to go and was able to hold the distance, as Simon fell 28 seconds short of catching him. The rest of the guys came in with the main bunch, about a minute later. Really pleased with that result.
Australian National Time Trial Championship
Having performed well in the road race, I’m hoping for more of the same here. And again I’m not disappointed. Another 2nd, this time for Michael. Came in 5 seconds behind Cameron Meyer. The other guys performed on a fairly average level, with Simon 25th, Matthew 31st and Chris joint 32nd.
Tour Down Under
There are some big names turning out for this first race of the season, with strong sprinters such as Cavendish, Farrar, Rojas, Haedo, Boonen and Greipel all signing up. This is going to make it difficult to meet our sponsors goal of a stage win, but we’ll see what we can do. The team:Rigo, Edvald, Kurt, Greg, Davide, Simon and Dario.
Stage 1
Inexplicably on this first stage of the year, the break built up an unassailable lead, with Guardini finishing 1st, followed by Hondo and Urtasun. The best we could do was 22nd for Edvald. Disappointing.
Stage 2
WooHoo! 1st place for Edvald Boasson-Hagen. Cioni went out as part of a 10 man break, but they were reeled in before the finish, leaving it down to a mass sprint where Edvald was lead out by an on form Greg Henderson to beat Farrar and Rojas to 2nd and 3rd. Good day.
Another win! This time it’s Rigo. On the only hilly stage of the tour, we were firm favourites with Rigo, Simon and Edvald. The team played it beautifully, with Simon2nd and Edvald4th. Sadly wasn’t quite enough to take the jersey, but there are only 20 seconds in it now. Anything can happen.
Stage 4
3 stages, three wins. This team is on fire! It’s another stage win for Edvald and now also the sprinter jersey. He was followed today by Davis and Greipel in 2nd and 3rd respectively. Rigo managed to take one of the intermediate sprints as well, so is now only 14” behind. Edvald looks good in green.
Stage 5
Rather disappointed with the performance today. This was the last chance we had to take control of the yellow jersey and we blew it! Rigo and Simon had a go at the base of the last climb, but it was too early. Rigo soon left Simon behind and set up a 1 minute lead with 10 km to go. Sadly he wasn’t able to hang onto it as Marcato took the win beating Nuyens and Cancellara to 2nd and 3rd. On a nice note however, Simon did manage to pick up the Mountain jersey.
Stage 6
The finish just showed how good the sky team was in this tour. Cavendish was finally able to make the htc-highroad juggernaut carry him over the finish line as Greipel and Edvald finished 2nd and 3rd. And, as on every Tour down Under that I’ve seen, there was a fall in the final 10km. None of our guys were involved, but 3 top 10 GC men were, so we were able to capitalise. Simon was also able to finish in Blue while Edvald shared his Green with Rigo who took another Intermediate sprint to bring him eventually to 11 seconds adrift. All an awesome tour, taking 3 stages and finishing with 3 in the top 10.
Eventual Standings
Spoiler
General Classification
GC 1. Guardini FAR 2. Hondo LAM 3. Urtasun EUS
4. Van Winden RAB
5. Galimzyanov KAT
6. Lequatre RSH
7. Uran SKY
8. Boasson Hagen SKY
9. Gerrans SKY
10. Nuyens SBS
11. Marcato VCD
12. Cancellara LEO
13. Gasparotto AST
14. Davis AST
15. Bazayev AST
16. Oss LIQ
17. Rojas MOV
18. Le Lay ALM
19. Sieberg OLO
20. Leezer RAB
Mountain 1.Gerrans SKY 2. Van Impe QST 3. Vaitkus AST
U25 1. Guardini FAR 2. Van Winden RAB 3. Galimzyanov KAT
Team
Sky Professional Cycling Team 2nd +30”
My thoughts: A really great way to start the season, 3 stage wins and 3 riders in the top 10. The Tour Down Under is always a tough race as you're never quite sure how fit your riders are, but the boys did us proud this week. I just hope this success continues.Edited by Neillster on 17-04-2012 20:36
i was wondering where cavendish was! can you put the full results for races? not just your rider.. as well as their full names as some people don't know the Sky team too well...
The line-up for this race isn’t as formidable, but Cavendish and Petacchi will be the main challengers, followed by Davis. We’ll be looking for our sprint train to work some magic and with that in mind, we’re sending Edvald Boasson Hagen, Greg Henderson, Ben Swift, Geraint Thomas, Davide Appollonio and Matt Hayman. Let’s see how it goes.
Stage 1
Boasson Hagen does it again! This time he’s showing his brilliant prologue skills to take the 2.5km stage by 2 seconds. Let’s hope this continues. Sorry, my camera was broke so I couldn’t take any pics.
Stage 2
Edvald is on the form of his life! This is 2 in 2 for the Norwegian. The team train lead him out brilliantly as he beat Petacchi to 2nd and Davis to 3rd. Cavendish finished a very disappointing 57th. Let’s keep this up!
Stage 3
Sadly we couldn’t make it 3 today, but we came so close. Cavendish got 3rd time lucky. Edvald came very close in 2nd, with Davis in 3rd. We’re still holding onto all the jerseys though, so it’s all good. I mean we can’t expect to win every race. We’ll try, but we won’t expect to.
Stage 4
Petacchi takes his first win of the season. After a break that got a 12 minute lead, the peleton had to go at a breakneck speed to catch up. Because of that we were unable to form an effective sprint train. Petacchi was able to get onto the wheel of Cavendish and then burnt past him. Cav came 2nd and Davis came 3rd.
Stage 5
Cavendish makes it 2 in 2 and looks well in control. Edvald did well with 3rd, just pepped at the post by Davis. After having to pull the pack for 3 days, Geraint, Davide and Matt are tired out and were unable to help with the sprint train. Cavendish has now taken the yellow jersey from Edvald by 9 seconds. The one upside from that is that our boys no longer have to do the main pulling in the peleton. The problem is that we have to win in order to take it back.
Stage 6
We couldn’t quite do it. It came down to a 3 way fight between Cav, Edvald and Petacchi. Cav made his hat-trick complete as Edvald could only come 3rd. Yet he was still able to take both the points jersey and the young rider jersey. Not bad for a 6 man team. By the way, this is the last time I send the minimum number of riders to a race.
Spoiler
My thoughts:
Edvald is doing brilliantly and I only hope he can keep this up. Hopefully if he has more support he can win it all. Edited by Neillster on 17-04-2012 21:19
Once again sending out our sprinters, as well as ensuring that most of our cobblers are there in order to have them in good fitness for the upcoming cobbles season. The full quota of 8 riders are going so as not to repeat the mistake at Qatar. These include: Edvald Boasson Hagen, Greg Henderson, Ben Swift, Juan Antonia Flecha, Geraint Thomas, Matthew Hayman, Jeremy Hunt and Lars Nordhaug
Stage 1
Edvald looking good once again as he takes yet another stage. With no real opposition other than Galimzyanov and he doesn’t have any other good sprinters to help form a train. In the end he doesn’t have the strength to hold Edvald’s wheel. The lead out also managed to get into the top 10, with Greg Henderson 5th and Ben Swift 10th. Great way to start. Keep this up.
Stage 2
Basically the same story as yesterday, with our boys doing a good job in reeling in the break, bringing down to a mass sprint where Edvald once again shone out to stamp his authority on the GC.
Stage 3
A late break by Ballan makes it right to the last km and our sprint train got caught behind some slow riders, but still Swift was able to burn up the field and take the win! First and the season and a good one at that.
Stage 4
This stage contains the only serious climb of the tour and is the reason why Basso, Menchov, Nibali, Sastre and others are here. Lars went with the break today so that we wouldn’t have to make chase. The break made it right to the last climb thanks to some brilliant work by Lars on the front before being eventually caught. The climbers generally disappointed as Nocentini takes the win and the jersey by 8 seconds. Don’t panic though, Edvald will definitely get it back.
Stage 5
This is a time trial with a serious climb in it and Edvald lived up to expectations finishing 3rd, 4 seconds off Sulzberger’s time. He did however, manage to regain his jersey from Nocentini. Geraint also did well, finishing 3 seconds better than Edvald launching himself into the top 5. Not a bad stage all told.
Stage 6
On this final stage the break make a build a gap of about 5 minutes and are extremely resistive to our attempts to reel them in. In the end Roy Curvers (from the break) makes it right the way to the finish with Edvald burning up into 2nd place. Had only the race been 5 metres longer and Edvald would have had him. We able to carry through 3 of the 4 Jerseys, all for Edvald with the General, Points and Young rider classifications. So we’re not complaining.
First off, I want to apologise. I haven't been posting recently for a couple of reasons:
1) Real life has once again clashed with PCM as I've had uni exams and had to work for them.
2) In game I've been playing the Giro d'Italia and I've been so engrossed that I haven't yet got around to posting up on the website. Anyway, here we go.
This time it’s 
