F1 Rejects Cycling Challenge: Tour de France underway!

QuickYoda41 · Post by **QuickYoda41** » 04 Sep 2012, 14:33

That number shows where he finished the stage. Although I agree, that's a little bit confusing, we should contact the game designer. :lol:

shinji · Post by **shinji** » 04 Sep 2012, 14:44

I for one am rather glad to be into mountain stages.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Sep 2012, 14:58

pasta_maldonado wrote:If Fahrrad leads the tour, why does he have a number 18 to the left of his name??

The number 18 represents where Fahrrad came on that particular stage, the important number is the column on the right, the general classification (all stage times added together) Many riders do not care where they finish as long as they do not lose any time compared to the leaders, as long as a rider finishes in the same group as the leaders they get the same score. In reality Sprint stages like stage 5 and 6 are more an opportunity for the sprinters such as Bannister and Romano rather then Fahrrad who is going for overall victory.

Stage 6 was bad for Rampazza and Carling because they did not finish with the front pack, but good for Fahrrad because he did. +0 is what the top riders want.

Benetton · Post by **Benetton** » 04 Sep 2012, 15:32

How is the situation at Credit Bancarotta, Italy's most secure bank.

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 04 Sep 2012, 18:52

How is Boxtel doing? Everyone has been helping Bannister for the entire race so far so I'm not expecting much.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Sep 2012, 19:28

Stage 8

So on we go to the first mountain stage of the tour, as introductions go it is fairly gentle as the first half of the stage is fairly flat though the final climb looks set to be very difficult indeed. There is the potential that the whole leader board will be turned back to front today.

Fantomette's Balder won the intermediate sprint, he seems to have developed a knack for it! This is about as good as it will get for sprinters today!

A break of 6 riders launched an attack, this usually would raise too many eyebrows but a quick look through the names and it is clear that it is serious, all 6 of the riders are in the top 30 overall! Including former youth jersey rider Edd Carling, former leader Jan Ahlberg and mountain jersey Janne Nordman!

The Break and the chasers worked hard, especially the Foster's, Fantomette and Minardi teams in catching the break. Whilst the 6 riders themselves also seperated with Carling taking the lead. Whilst at the peleton none other then the leader himself Klaus Fahrrad himself who seemed to take pride in picking off the escaped 6 one rider at a time. It was going to be a straight fight between Fahrred and Carling and less then 2KM to go, the Foster's rider took a lead he would not lose!

The only other rider in sight is the defeated Jaime Carling, who as a result of his break jumps up to second place overall and will wear his familiar youth jersey once again.

Here are the top 16 of the stage, the peleton seriously broke in to many escape groups towards the end of the race where riders would cross the line in groups no bigger then 4 or 5 riders.

The cream of the crop rose in this race as the only rider in the top 16 of the race not in the top 20 in the overall standings is Minardi rider Thor Tromsen who is 44th overall, but here is the top 16 overall:

There are now only 4 riders within 5 minutes of Fahrrad!

Such a spread field coupled with the first real mountain stage shook the order of both championships up:

Klaus Fahrrad now leads 3 leaderboards, Overall, young rider and mountain! So Caring and Nordman will wear the respective jerseys there.
Whilst AlItalia "win" the stage by 6 seconds from Battery, Twinings had a fairly poor session.

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 04 Sep 2012, 19:35

Klaus Fahrrad is immensely talented. Also, how far away are the rest of the Foster's riders from the top 16? Are there any upcoming stages that other team members should excel at?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Sep 2012, 19:56

Benetton wrote:How is the situation at Credit Bancarotta, Italy's most secure bank.

31.Rafael Verwest +11.26
47.Piero Riccione +13.32
64.Alexandre Vache 19.32
65.Carey Brice +19.39
75.Ragnar Solmundsson +23.45
93.Antonio Arena +31.51
116.John Vonn +44.48
118.Nicola Casella +46.03
119.Fabiano Accelerara +46.14

To have none of your riders within 10 minutes of the leader is rather disappointing, Riccione was doing well but his attempt at breaking last stage ended badly for him and tumbled him down the order. Other then that I have barely seen your team anywhere, though after that fall on stage 2, the riders that slowed have at least been creeping up the leaderboard.

tristan1117 wrote:How is Boxtel doing? Everyone has been helping Bannister for the entire race so far so I'm not expecting much.

28.Arnold Abil +11.03
32.Preston Senerson +11.30
46.Karl van de Graaf +13.23
69.Quinton Voss +21.07
73.Roger Alfonse +22.54
76.Istvan Feher +24.16
84.David Lee +28.24
90.Jackson Bannister +29.42
100.Leonel Canfora +32.24

UBC do not have a rider within 10 minutes of the front either, though it is clear they are mainly working on turning Bannister in to a points scoring machine. Watch out for UBC on the time trials too.

Fosters Riders:
1.Klaus Fahrrad +0
48.Ed Kevin +14.11
81.Jean-Marie Van Fiets +26.17
99.Jean Velo +32.16
101.Tamak Bisiklet
103.Jizdni Kolo +34.06
107.Craig Beic +38.26
115.Mika Pyora +44.13

In terms of other stages your team excels at, that is rather irrelevant as from Van Fiets down they all sacrifice their own performance to help Fahrrad, whilst Ed Kevin specialises on mountain stages and isn't all that different in specialty then Fahrrad. I think Fosters are playing to get Fahrrad to win with Kevin the back up should something happen to the German.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 04 Sep 2012, 20:48

How's everyone's favourite (or least favourite) Welshman been getting on? And the rest of the Twinings team, for that matter?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Sep 2012, 21:08

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:How's everyone's favourite (or least favourite) Welshman been getting on? And the rest of the Twinings team, for that matter?

4.Sven Johansson +4.27
6.Craig West +5.15
49.Ivan Shermetev +14.38
57.Jean Gauthier +17.38
68.Alex Harris +20.53
86.Martin Jaeger +28.54
106.Kevin Frederickson +36.17
121.Wesley Duncan +52.13
122.James Davies +1h00.53

Twinings had a mixed last stage, whilst Johansson and West did well they don't have a crucial 3rd rider for a teams championship push they seem to be aiming for. Twinings are doing well in every area but not leading in anything, it will be interesting to see where the team goes as the stages get tricky.

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 04 Sep 2012, 21:34

Where are all the Battery riders.

FantometteBR · Post by **FantometteBR** » 04 Sep 2012, 22:01

How Equipe Fantomette is working at the field?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Sep 2012, 22:29

eurobrun wrote:Where are all the Battery riders.

9.Phillipe Viruolien +6.51
10.Jan Ahlberg +7.43
36.Jari-Matti Valanthi +11.59
50.Stefan Muller +15.08
54.Olivier Ricard +16.36
62.Ryan Nelson +19.12
80.Peiter Briggs +26.16
87.Barry Firestone +29.01

Battery seem to be a very solid team, they don't have a clear team leader like other teams. Viruolien and Ahlberg seem to be competing with each other rather then working together, the same is true with sprinters Nelson and Firestone. The reason Briggs is so low down is because he is the teams water carrier, he sacrifices himself to help the other riders. I think the mountain stages will favor Battery who are long overdue a stage win.

FantometteBR wrote:How Equipe Fantomette is working at the field?

13.Alexandre Charpantier +8.36
15.Francois Ndiekele +8.55
17.Bernard Roullaint +9.14
18.Hiroshi Kekami +9.17
41.Demetrio Molina +12.52
61.Ingo Voeller +18.17
98.Arthur Vergamet +32.13
109.Piercarlo Balder +39.30

Fantomette are doing a good job all things considered, to have 4 riders bunched so closely at the front shows they work well as a unit. Molina, Voeller and Vergamet are often seen leading the field as the work horses of the team whilst Balder is mostly working on his own for sprint points (and suffers at stage end as a result of no help). The team spends more time chasing breakaways then attempting them, this may haunt them in the mountains.

QuickYoda41 · Post by **QuickYoda41** » 04 Sep 2012, 22:34

Minardi CT is quite disappointed that their riders usually great at mountain stages were nowhere to be seen. Tromsen and Rampazza's reasonable performance is some consolation, though.

Where are actually the others standing overall?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 04 Sep 2012, 22:55

QuickYoda41 wrote:Minardi CT is quite disappointed that their riders usually great at mountain stages were nowhere to be seen. Tromsen and Rampazza's reasonable performance is some consolation, though.

Where are actually the others standing overall?

8.Daniele Rampazza +6.36
21.Laurens Buivart +9.37
22.Alex Awang +9.40
27.Vincenzo Tolano +11.00
34.Raul Julandro Jimenez +11.32
42.Thor Tromsen +12.52
53.Nicolas Pedersen +15.43
112.Walt Beerrider +40.11
125.Robert Cziczkas +1h06.08

I don't actually know all that much about Minardi, they seem to sit near the back for most of the stages before speeding up and all crossing the line together as a black blur. The obvious exception is Daniele Rampazza, who's strategy of "Cling on to Fahrrad" has not worked as well as it could have, though he is still in the top 10. Walt Beerrider seems all out at sea, whilst Cziczkas is currently in last place of all the riders and has not been in a position to score many points, the team simply do not help him. Minus the last 2 riders, whatever Minardi are doing seems to be working quite well and with Rampazza leading I think they can be a real threat.

QuickYoda41 · Post by **QuickYoda41** » 05 Sep 2012, 07:39

That's actually not that bad. I hope we'll win at least a stage later.

Bleu · Post by **Bleu** » 05 Sep 2012, 09:30

How is my team now. Wasn't too interested on positions before the first mountain stage.

Yurkov 6th but how are the others?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Sep 2012, 14:02

Stage 9

Stage 9 is actually the shortest stage run so far (apart from the Prologue) though this will be of little comfort as there is a tightly packed number of mountain peaks. Unlike the last stage, the finish is on a slight decent rather then a climb, so riders that have cleared the final climb near the front know they are in for a good result some 20km from the end.

There are more mountain points available here then all the previous stages put together, so an early break must be attractive for some.

UBC's Van de Graaf, Circus rider Knutsen, Credit Banco's Verwest and independent rider Aqeem were the 4 riders that would launch an early break today.

Despite Verwest's mountain experience he was challenged all the way by Aqeem, which the exception of the first sprint won by Van de Graaaf, the pair would win all the sprints. Despite the fact that only Verwest has an ok (top 30) general classification ranking the breakaway did a good job, pulling up to an 8:30 lead. Though had one of the leaders been in there the peleton probably would have worked harder to catch them. The lack of Mountain or Hills experience did catch up with the riders though as by the final 40-30km the big guys started to make big breaks and had far more energy then the original break away pack.

A number of riders made breaks on the last climb and as they dipped in to the final 20km it was clear the battle would be between 5 riders...

and what a final 5! Leader Fahrrad, former young jersey Yurkov, the top Twinings pair of Johansson and West and Gafurov, the leader of the Tiger team. But who would be the winner?

The winner was Yevegni Yurkov of Team CIP! Who was deemed far enough ahead of Fahrrad for the Belarussian Youth to take 23 seconds out of Fahrrad's overall lead, a small amount but this is the first time anyone has done so since the German took overall lead!

This is how the top 16 finished, Viruolien miss timed his break and left it too late, he would have been on pace of the leaders. Amazingly UBC managed to get Bannister to finish 7th! he is a sprinter! Whilst the 4 break away riders managed to finish in good posistions, with Knutsen finishing also with the group in 17th.
Carling and Firenze manage ok results, but with the exception of Bannister, would not have liked to have seen the riders that finished ahead of them.

Overall Fahrrad's lead was only dented a little. Yurkov is 2nd overall and also 2nd in the young rider class and takes the White jersey back from Carling. Fantomette once again were the wrong side of a break as now just under 15 minutes separate the top 16.

Aqeem and Verwest reaped the mountain points in this stage each scoring 17 points, with the Pakistani rider taking the jersey because of his previous 2 mountain points, this is the 2nd time Aqeem has taken the mountain jersey. Though with much harder mountain stages to come it will be a challenge to keep hold of it.

As for the teams championship, Alitalia had a shocker and see their lead of the teams championship cut right down. Whilst Team CIP catapult themselves towards the front as the 6 man outfight incredibly win the stage.

Already after 9 stages you can see many teams controlling their focus on different championships. Foster's for example are focused 100% on Fahrrad and the GC and UBC should be renamed team Bannister. Though other teams seem to be trying to keep an open mind.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Sep 2012, 14:09

Bleu wrote:How is my team now. Wasn't too interested on positions before the first mountain stage.

Yurkov 6th but how are the others?

2.Yevgeni Yurkov +4.05
37.Quizo Quintana +19.31
57.Giovanni Abruzzo +28.16
69.Jesper Sand +34.07
94.Olivier Corday +44.29
123.Gaitjil Goolagong +1h21.27

Team CIP were obviously devastated early on, but the pace of Yurkov seems to have lifted the team, Quintana and Abruzzo have been gradually climbing the rankings whilst Jesper Sand will have his chance at the next stage, a Time Trial.
The actual team leader at the moment is Quintana, I am sure when the mountains get really extreme you will see him launch up the leaderboard.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 05 Sep 2012, 14:52

Holy shite, that was an awesome stage for us! Johansson and West in the top 4, and we pretty much annihilated Alitalia's lead in the team's championship! Is there anyone else who might make a push and solidify our bid there? Also, is James Davies pretty much resigned to being useless for the whole tour?

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Sep 2012, 14:57

Where the hell are all my guys in GC?! I built this team to win yellow and polka dot and we're nowhere in either! And why isn't Firenze tracking his rivals?!

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Sep 2012, 16:29

Stage 10-Time Trial.
This update will be short as there is not much that can be said about 1 rider at a time against the clock.

The runners start 1 at a time starting with the rider in last place right down to the overall leader. The gap between each rider is one and a half minutes, though many will be caught and overtaken.
This course gives an opportunity for the time trial riders to make up some ground as not many of them are all that close to the overall leaders.

The stage was won by Performance rider Kenta Nakimaka, who defeated Tamak Bisiklet and Walt Beerrider. The latter 2 were outside the top 100 at the start of the stage! Unfortunately it does not look the majority of riders that did well today will have too much of an effect on the overall standings, the stage is simply too short to make much inroads on the leaders.

Over at the general rankings, the majority of the riders here managed to finish with in 40 seconds of each other. Fahrrad had his lead cut by a measly 2 seconds
(For all the sophistication in this game the TimeTrial/Prologue model is rather poor in terms of variation)
Preston Senerson and Timothee Voeckler do creep on to the first page of the standings (the top 16) and both of them also specialise in mountain courses. Considering most of the next stages take place in the alps this must be encouraging for them!

Time trial based United Boxtel won the stage (The team didn't have to carry Bannister either this time!) Whilst a 3rd place (aided by Nakimaka's stage win) has brought Performance and Cocktails back in to the teams game. Even though Alitalia did not do very well, they did extend their lead as Twinings did even worse!

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Sep 2012, 16:52

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Holy shite, that was an awesome stage for us! Johansson and West in the top 4, and we pretty much annihilated Alitalia's lead in the team's championship! Is there anyone else who might make a push and solidify our bid there? Also, is James Davies pretty much resigned to being useless for the whole tour?

Johansson and West are really the only Twinings riders anywhere near the front, the others lose so much time helping the pair (or just plain sucking)
Jean Gauthier is your timetrialist and is doing an reasonable job so far (56th) whilst Alex Harris is good in the mountains so he will probably become your 3rd rider in the next few stages. Other then that the other riders are of little help in the standings.
James Davies is actually your leading points scorer in 12th overall, really the poor ones are Kevin Frederickson (113th) and Martin Jaeger (93rd). They are both sprint riders that should be helping Davies much more then they are, Frederickson does not even have any points and he is meant to be a sprinter!
Ivan Shermetev is the teams mule, he really has been the man that has done the most to propel the team forward. Your other rider is Wesley Duncan and frankly I don't have a clue what he is doing, he is meant to specialise in time trial but he was only 32nd that stage! (121st overall)

So in short you team has a 2 star riders (West and Johansson) 4 good riders/team mates (Gauthier, Shermetev, Harris and Davies) and the other 3 are frankly rubbish.

kostas22 wrote:Where the hell are all my guys in GC?! I built this team to win yellow and polka dot and we're nowhere in either! And why isn't Firenze tracking his rivals?!

Well currently this is how your riders are doings:
6.Stefano Firenze +7.51
16.Timothee Voeckler +14.56
41.Emanuele Montella +20.14
43.Claudio Castiglione +21.02
48.Artan Karimi +22.03
104.Piemario Saltalamacchia +52.43
111.Lorenzo Romano +55.19

Your riders are not actually doing bad at all. Castiglione and Saltamacchia are often involved in breaks that sadly do not work, this is why they are not so high up. Firenze should be tracking his rivals better, but the first 10 stages are a bit chaotic as everyone is bunched up, that and other riders have tried to stay on Fahrrad (The leader) and fallen down the rankings as a result.
During the heavy alps stages the top 20 riders keep a better eye on each other to the extent that they don't even bother trying to catch break aways with low ranking riders in them. Karimi deserves a medal for all the hard work he does leading the team on stages, Romano does very well unsupported on sprints whilst Voeckler, I hardly see him at all, he seems to be bidding his time for the mountains.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Sep 2012, 17:54

Will there be a 2013 edition with some of the same riders? If so I think I'll try to build a team more around Romanò next time, young lad with bags of potential it seems.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Sep 2012, 18:52

kostas22 wrote:Will there be a 2013 edition with some of the same riders? If so I think I'll try to build a team more around Romanò next time, young lad with bags of potential it seems.

I'm not quite sure where to go once the season ends. Either continue with a 2013 edition. Do an entire season including other races such as the Giro and the Vulta (Though not in the stage by stage process I am doing now) or to keep this as a one off.

It will all depend on interest, I would rather wait for this race to finish first though.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Sep 2012, 19:28

Shadaza wrote:
kostas22 wrote:Will there be a 2013 edition with some of the same riders? If so I think I'll try to build a team more around Romanò next time, young lad with bags of potential it seems.

I'm not quite sure where to go once the season ends. Either continue with a 2013 edition. Do an entire season including other races such as the Giro and the Vulta (Though not in the stage by stage process I am doing now) or to keep this as a one off.

It will all depend on interest, I would rather wait for this race to finish first though.

Giro! Giro! Giro!

Bleu · Post by **Bleu** » 05 Sep 2012, 20:45

I would think actually think something like:

- 20 riders per team
- Reduced WT calendar (3 GTs, 5 monuments and some short stageraces)

So basically calendar is Paris-Nice or T-A, M-SR, Ronde, Paris-Roubaix, L-B-L, Giro, Dauphine or Tour de Suisse, Tour, Vuelta, Lombardia. Maybe add one week-long stagerace (calendar-wise probably Eneco)

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Sep 2012, 21:17

Welcome to the first "real" mountain run of the Tour. There is one HUGE climb that will separate the hill climbers from the mountain boys.
but before the climbs there is of course the intermediate sprint. This gives sprinters something to do before they inevitably fall away (unless Bannister can perform miracles again)

The UBC man wins yet another sprint and continues to dominate the points. Midrace sprint specialist Piercarlo Balder is 2nd. The Fantomette rider has had some lucky sprints during this tour, but I am afraid the Fantomette's riders luck ends this stage. Shortly after coming 2nd in the sprint he has a fall, and unfortunately he is unfit to continue, the first retirement since the stage 2 disaster.

Towards the end of the first climb 5 riders broke forward: Boo Radley-Biggins (Freaky Styley(where have you guys been all tour?)), Stefan Popiel (Circus), Anand Singh (Samsung-Skoda) Jari-Matti Valanthi (Battery) and Andrei Gerasimchuk (Tiger). The 5 of them built a huge lead heading to the largest climb on the tour so far,

With the peloton at the base of the mountain you can clearly see it being lead by the Fosters team!

The 5 breakaway riders are all mountain experts and none of them are in the top 25 riders. It would take a serious effort for the peleton to catch them and frankly the riders that could catch them were busy hugging Fahrrad instead. This left the break away to have a 10 minute lead with just 20km to go, all of it downhill!
Despite the odd half hearted attack, the break away managed to hold (mostly) together indeed the end result was a photo finish!

The stage victory was given to Stefan Popiel of the Circus team, their first win of the tour, denying Skoda and FSR, neither of whom have secured a win yet either.
Valanthi was 4th and Gerasimchuk lost 20 seconds on the pack but care little with a strong 5th place!

Towards the end of the mountain climb, the riders surrounding Fahrrad and the German himself all increased their pace and left the peleton, especially the exhausted Foster riders, behind. This caught out many hill specialists such as West, Carling, Ndiekele, Ahlberg and Rampazza all of whom were left behind.
This break pack of some 20 odd riders was won by Timothee Voeckler though they finished nearly 9 minutes behind the front 5.

The 5 riders from the break catapulted themselves up the rankings, there is no way they will be allowed to do that again by the peleton, though more teams then Fosters will have to lead the peleton too!

With this just the first alps stage, expect another few radical shake ups to come!
Bannister scored the most points this round, it will take something special to beat him now and we are only just half way through the tour!
As for the mountain points. This stage offered way more then any other so far, with the 2nd climb offering 25 points to the winner. Even though Singh was just beaten to the stage win, he does take the mountain jersey after scoring 31 points too Radely-biggins's 30.

Whilst the teams championship was blown apart this round, Alitalia lost the lead of the teams for the first time since they took the lead on stage 2, the team that takes the lead is the Tiger cycling team, though the actual winners of this stage were Battery, who themselves go up to 2nd.

Alitalia drop from leading to being 15 minutes behind. Such is the impact of the mountain stages. Twinings did not exactly have a good time either!

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 05 Sep 2012, 21:25

Foster's arecmore one-man than Manchester United!! It'll be nice to see the other riders crack the top 16 as a reward for their hard work so far

RonDenisDeletraz · Post by **RonDenisDeletraz** » 05 Sep 2012, 21:42

Battery are actually quite good. Where are all their other riders?

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 05 Sep 2012, 22:28

Similar to Kostas' concerns, where the hell are all the Hitachi riders? I see a couple made an appearance in the previous stage, and Fletcher has hung about a bit like a bad smell, but they must be somewhere as we're maintaining some good form in the teams' classification!

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Sep 2012, 22:47

AndreaModa wrote:Similar to Kostas' concerns, where the hell are all the Hitachi riders? I see a couple made an appearance in the previous stage, and Fletcher has hung about a bit like a bad smell, but they must be somewhere as we're maintaining some good form in the teams' classification!

Time to rename your team to Shitachi!

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 05 Sep 2012, 23:02

kostas22 wrote:
AndreaModa wrote:Similar to Kostas' concerns, where the hell are all the Hitachi riders? I see a couple made an appearance in the previous stage, and Fletcher has hung about a bit like a bad smell, but they must be somewhere as we're maintaining some good form in the teams' classification!

Time to rename your team to Shitachi!

Hahaha tell me about it! :lol:

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 05 Sep 2012, 23:04

eurobrun wrote:Battery are actually quite good. Where are all their other riders?

Battery Energy Drink:

6.Jari-Matti Valanthi +9.52
7.Phillipe Viruolien +10.28
24.Stefan Muller +19.14
31.Olivier Ricard +22.57
32.Jan Ahlberg +23.13
73.Ryan Nelson +47.49
87.Peiter Briggs +54.51
89.Barry Firestone +55.52

Battery are doing really well, they have 5 riders that are all in a strong position. Other then Peiter Briggs who is most definitely a support rider, the other 7 all seem to be fighting. Whether it be for overall like Valanthi through to Ahlberg, or for the lead sprinter (Nelson has 2 2nd places and Firestone a stage win and a 3rd!). The inter team competition seems to drive them all forward and most of them as most of them are endurance based riders they seem to get away with it. Though the lack of team unity ironically puts them in a good chance of winning the team contest, they might suffer in the General Classification.

AndreaModa wrote:Similar to Kostas' concerns, where the hell are all the Hitachi riders? I see a couple made an appearance in the previous stage, and Fletcher has hung about a bit like a bad smell, but they must be somewhere as we're maintaining some good form in the teams' classification!

Hitachi ProTour Cycling

20.Kozuke Okada +17.34
27.Hirohito Kamazaki +20.18
28.Jerry Fletcher +21.07
29.Claudio Bonotellio +22.29
37.Yuki Shizuno +25.07
67.Jorge Luis Hernandez +44.51
77.Franceso Rossi +50.20
79.Taki Takashita +50.32
83.Katsuko Hondo +53.42

Hitachi really are the mystery team of the tour. They never seem to be anywhere, their best rider in the points is 29th (Fletcher) and their best in the mountains is 14th (also Fletcher). Jerry Fletcher is obviously the man tasked with taking part in break aways and otherwise doing what he wants but the rest of the team just seem to sit slap bang in the middle, let other teams do all the hard work and settle for solid times on every stage. Part of the reason is that their team leader is Hernandez and he fell off his bike on one of the early stages and has been carry a slight injury since though seems to have recovered some form on the last stage, the team has been largely protecting him.

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 05 Sep 2012, 23:10

Shadaza wrote:Shitachi really are the mystery team of the tour. They never seem to be anywhere, their best rider in the points is 29th (Fletcher) and their best in the mountains is 14th (also Fletcher). Jerry Fletcher is obviously the man tasked with taking part in break aways and otherwise doing what he wants but the rest of the team just seem to sit slap bang in the middle, let other teams do all the hard work and settle for solid times on every stage. Part of the reason is that their team leader is Hernandez and he fell off his bike on one of the early stages and has been carry a slight injury since though seems to have recovered some form on the last stage, the team has been largely protecting him.

So they're basically AG2R La Mondiale, then.

Pointrox · Post by **Pointrox** » 06 Sep 2012, 12:44

Everything went better than expected :twisted:

Klon · Post by **Klon** » 06 Sep 2012, 13:33

If you have the time, you could give me an update on my rider ( Matsohiro Mizuhara ) and whether he does anything of importance.

The Lukas · Post by **The Lukas** » 06 Sep 2012, 13:34

Tiger Cycling Team PR wrote:We can say that we are proud of the guys, and the whole staff team, we hope that we will maintain first place in the team standings to finish the race and maybe we will fight for more. This next mountain stages in which our guys are good, so we're hopeful.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 06 Sep 2012, 14:24

Klon wrote:If you have the time, you could give me an update on my rider ( Matsohiro Mizuhara ) and whether he does anything of importance.

Sure, Mizuhara is mostly used as support for the Freaky Styley team so don't really expect him to be winning stages. He did take part in a break in one of the very early stages (stage 2 or 3). He often is near the front of the Freaky Styley team but the distinctive red jerseys the team wear are rarely seen at the front!
I will be sure to keep an extra eye out for him.

AndreaModa · Post by **AndreaModa** » 06 Sep 2012, 15:16

kostas22 wrote:
Shadaza wrote:Shitachi really are the mystery team of the tour. They never seem to be anywhere, their best rider in the points is 29th (Fletcher) and their best in the mountains is 14th (also Fletcher). Jerry Fletcher is obviously the man tasked with taking part in break aways and otherwise doing what he wants but the rest of the team just seem to sit slap bang in the middle, let other teams do all the hard work and settle for solid times on every stage. Part of the reason is that their team leader is Hernandez and he fell off his bike on one of the early stages and has been carry a slight injury since though seems to have recovered some form on the last stage, the team has been largely protecting him.

So they're basically AG2R La Mondiale, then.

Only with a far better taste in jersey colours