Grand Prix Rejects

JeremyMcClean wrote:

Shadaza wrote:Not to cast a downer on what has been a good start to the tour for you but I forgot to mention that Jason Hamilton had to pull out of the last stage with a fractured wrist. He is still classed as race fit so should be able to do the next tour, the Adriatico if you so wish. He is the only race retirement so far.

Thought his name was Jason Melbourne?

Still, Could be worse.

A freudian slip, Jason Melbourne retired.

Wow, I had absolutely no idea that I had a second career as a cyclist

Nice to see my guys doing great where they were expected.

Shadaza wrote:

Wizzie wrote:Why are my guys so incapable of stringing more than one stage together?

The trouble with your team is that none of your riders are skilled with hills, which is problematic when trying to win a stage with a 10km hill climb at the end.

That's because I have nobody on my team that has hills as a specialty. Which reminds me, is there anyone on the unattached riders list now?

Wizzie wrote:

Shadaza wrote:

Wizzie wrote:Why are my guys so incapable of stringing more than one stage together?

The trouble with your team is that none of your riders are skilled with hills, which is problematic when trying to win a stage with a 10km hill climb at the end.

That's because I have nobody on my team that has hills as a specialty. Which reminds me, is there anyone on the unattached riders list now?

Sorry there are no unsigned. Which I know is frustrating for you as you are the only team with the intent of recruiting other peoples riders rather than creating any of your own.

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On to stage 4. Brive la Gaillarde - Rodez



Stage 4 is another stage classed as flat but in reality features some wicked hills.

Remarkably for the most part the field stayed together for practically all of the distance. There were exceptions, Siergiej Grishin broke away from the pack as soon as the stage began and superbly was first across every single mid race checkpoint.

It was not until the final climb that things really heated up. Arnold Abil charged forward in a move that took everyone by surprise as he sprinted for the line with nearly 10km to go. This lead to a large level of confusion because by this stage of the race most teams had retreated their climbers and instead got their sprinters ready for a mass sprint finish. Stage leader Hatayuki, Thomas Tenpenny and Craig West were fortunately in a position to launch their own attack and managed to cleave into Abil's lead, but it was not enough as the UBC rider finished over half a minute ahead.

You have to hand it to some of the sprinters who managed to get a good result here in this field of climbers, Hondo, di Magenta and Firestone managed to break in to the top 10 on sure will power alone as they are not what you would classify as climbers at all!

You would be forgiven for thinking the rest of the field filled in behind the sprinters but infact in the confusion the Peloton ripped in two and there was over a minutes gap after the first 68 riders crossed the line.
As for the wooden spoon, Boo Radley-Biggins is no longer in last place as two other riders tried and failed at breaking today. Thomas Knutsen lost nearly 5 minutes on the leaders but worst of all, Credit Bancarotto's Vinny de Moore came home 6:30 minutes behind.


Sid Hatayuki maintains the lead as Arnold Abil is now promoted to 2nd place. Tenpenny and West benefit greatly by marking Hatayuki as they jump up to 3rd and 4th. Stage 5 is very much considered a hill stage and a violent one at that, so expect the board to change drastically.


With a 1st and 2nd place on the bounce Hatayuki has moved to the top of the points standings, though the ever consistent Tenpenny will wear the points jersey as Hatayuki will wear the GC. Grishin will wear the mountain jersey (unpictured) as his solo effort has earnt him a sizable lead. One rider that may wish to challenge is Foster's Daniel Sims who on the last stage was the only rider in the peloton that seemed interested in scoring mountain points.


Team Firehawk still lead the teams, courtesy of having 4 riders in the top 16. Twinings have climbed up the board fairly handsomely whilst on other end of the scale Lansvale have fallen to the bottom of the pack.

Okay, why is West my lead sprinter? He's not even supposed to be doing that! Or is it just a side-effect of marking Hatayuki? And how the hell did James Davies not score anything?

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Okay, why is West my lead sprinter? He's not even supposed to be doing that! Or is it just a side-effect of marking Hatayuki? And how the hell did James Davies not score anything?

It is more West was marking Hatayuki, he really followed him rather than attempting a sprint. The top 4 were a result of a super late breakaway rather than a sprint finish.

James Davies ended up in the wrong half of the field, only a few sprinters managed to hold on to the front.

Stefano Firenze came out on top of a thrilling battle on this difficult stage, some of the climbs got so intense that they were practically mountains!
Gradually the field kept thinning out until all that was left were the elite hill and mountain climbers and Lansvale's Jean Velo, the only non climber that made it.
Fosters Daniel Sims made a break halfway through the stage and looked at one stage as if he would made it, but he was caught by race end. NSA's Alexey consistently tried to break forward near the peak of every climb but failed to ever get far ahead, to get a 6th place finish was a credible finish.



Thomas Tenpenny takes the lead down to consistent good performances whilst Viruolien and Firenze decided now was the time to strike after largely staying in the backround over the first few stages. Previous leader Sid Hatayuki had a relatively bad run and has fallen to the fringe of the top 10.



Thomas Tenpenny also inherits the lead of the points standings, this competition could go almost go to anybody!



The teams standings are really heating up, Firehawk continue to lead but Alitalia and Tiger cycling are starting to close in. Realistically any of the top 9 teams could still go on to win this. Fosters had a horrible stage losing nearly an hour!

It's very good to own a team that seems that rejectful...

THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN'BOUT. FORZA FIRENZE. TIME TO WIN THIS THING!!

Suze la Rousse - Sisteron


Stage 6 features a number of nasty climbs, fortunately for the sprinters these occurred early in the stage and for only the 2nd time on this tour we ended up with a mass sprint finish...sort of.

Towards the end of the stage our first pile up of the season occurred and 12 riders went down. Sadly for Foster's Nicola Casella it was for good, a fractured wrist will put him out of the next three events. Included in the pile up were a few front runners, including UBC's Arnold Abil and Fantomette's Francois Ndiekele. This also caused a large amount of disruption, coupled with the fact that the seven Firehawk riders that did not fall then formed a seven wide wall at the front of the field that barely any cyclists could fit through meaning that in to the final KM the only riders contesting the sprint were the two PCR sprinters, Lomasson and Ricky, Thaksim Metharom and oddly his support of Abdulrashid. Robert Czickas and Mitchell Webb managed to bridge the gap enough to stop the front four getting a time advantage but it was overall a weird finish.

The confusion around the fallers led to a few more front runners losing just over a minute of time, including previous top 16 runners Le Clerq and Vasquez de Silva.
The fallers all lost two minutes.

This stage came as a complete gift to PCR who take their second sprint 1-2 of the season. It seems they have become a very competent sprint team indeed.

*edit* Points and Teams standings from stage five added to previous post.

Battery seem to have gotten worse. Where are they all.

Finally a decent stage by Credit Bancarotto on this tour, where we have been very rejectful!

Sisteron-Nice

Bet you all forgot about this guy:



Jerry Fletcher simply dominated stage 7, breaking at the half way stage, the Hitachi rider defeated the combined might of all the climbers on the tour to claim a dominant victory, how dominant?



Seven minutes of dominance. What followed that was a rare mass sprint finish of climbers, which Minardi rider Daniele Rampazza came out triumphant ahead of Vasquez de Silva and Jackson Bannister. 5th place went to ever consistent youth Alexey Volkov who takes Russia's first top 5 finish of the year.


Jerry Fletcher catapults himself to the top of the leader board with a three minute lead over Tenpenny. The race for the lead is far from over as the final stage is a mountain climb time trial, neither of which are Jerry Fletcher's specialty, can he cling on for the final 10km of the tour?


Fletcher's run has also launched Hitachi up the leaderboard all the way up to first place! With the final climb to go any of the top 9 teams could still come through to win this battle.

eurobrun wrote:Battery seem to have gotten worse. Where are they all.

I wouldn't say Battery are doing badly, they seem to have not taken very many risks this tour preferring to tough it out in the pack.

12.Anthony De Vries +5:09
22.Roberto Vasquez de Silva +7:07
24.Johan Kelstrom +7:30
45.Pedro Sousa +18:10
55.Olivier Ricard +24:55
58.Barry Firestone +25:37
66.Ryan Nelson 26:47
73.Fernando Sousa +29:03

De Vries looks in great shape considering he likes mountains and time trials.
Vasquez de Silva has scored plenty of points in his adventures.
The sprinters have underperformed whilst F.Sousa is so far behind because one stage he lost contact with the group and has been the water carrier ever since.

Dear god, that Fletcher is an absolute demon!

Good to see West and Johansson hanging on to the top 10, would either have a chance at moving forward?

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Dear god, that Fletcher is an absolute demon!

Good to see West and Johansson hanging on to the top 10, would either have a chance at moving forward?

The next stage looks better for Johansson then it does West, that is for certain. The mountain should prove better grounds for the Swede. It is possible they may both stay in the top 10, but it looks as if it is going to be very close.

Your next rider after that is Jacob Denver, he is 10 minutes behind Fletcher,so even though he is a time trialist it looks unlikely he will break the top 10, the stage is too short and too steep.

Dear God we are so shite *insert facepalm emoticon*. And there was me thinking I'd picked the best riders for the event. How far back are our riders?

pasta_maldonado wrote:Dear God we are so shite *insert facepalm emoticon*. And there was me thinking I'd picked the best riders for the event. How far back are our riders?

44 Daniel Sims + 17'22
100 Mitchell Webb + 36'21
103 Dave Hedgehog + 36'30
108 Thomas Yorke + 36'59
110 Boo Radley-Biggins+ 38'16
114 Antonio Arena s.t.
115 Matsohiro Mizuhara + 38'40
DNF Nicola Casella (Fractured Wrist)

In short a terrible tour for Fosters. The team has tried to focus a lot of it's efforts in break aways that have failed, the other riders put faith in the breakaways and hang at the back of the field trying to slow the pace down, it then turns out when the pace gets too fast for the peloton they end up losing out.

The best riders, at least in general classification, for this tour are all climbers. Climbers have hills and mountains as their specialty, without them it is impossible to keep up on the steep surfaces.

Can I get an update for Alitalia? Voeckler has done too mcuh sitting back and not enough attacking it seems? He was supposed to win this bloody thing not be a support rider. At this rate I will have to make Firenze my team leader for the Grand Tours...

kostas22 wrote:Can I get an update for Alitalia? Voeckler has done too mcuh sitting back and not enough attacking it seems? He was supposed to win this bloody thing not be a support rider. At this rate I will have to make Firenze my team leader for the Grand Tours...

4 Stefano Firenze + 4'10
17 Raphael Le Clerq + 6'40
23 Claudio Castiglione + 7'08
28 Przemyslaw Kolodziejczak + 7'48
29 Maarten Hooiveld + 7'55
39 Fermintxo Intxausti + 16'19
54 Artan Karimi + 24'47
56 Timothee Voeckler + 25'00

Of all your riders, Voeckler is the last classified, but that is mainly because he has not been given team leader status.
Really the only rider that has a shot at a top 10 finish here is Firenze. But overall it has been a strong run for Alitalia.
Voeckler should be one of the favourites for the final stage if this is any solace.


V

Why doesn't he have team leader status?! I picked him for this event to BE the team leader!!!! Firenze and Castiglione were supposed to be the super-domestiques in charge of making sure Voeckler was set up to win the event. But that all goes to hell if the game decides to make Firenze the captain instead...

Hahaha Hitachi do bugger all for the whole race and then Fletcher pulls that performance out! I severely under-estimated the number of big hills this race would have, so its nice to see some of the riders have some success! Come on boys!

What's the classification for Bancarotto and their tour?

Nice-Col d'Eze
Daniel Martins wins the stage, Jerry Fletcher wins the tour!


Daniel Martins added a 3rd stage win for PCR this tour with a superb pressure free climb. Under considerably more pressure, Alexey Volkov pulled out an excellent 2nd to launch himself up the leaderborad. Fernando Sousa managed to overshadow his brother Pedro with 3rd place ahead of
Foster's Boo Radley-Biggins. Timothee Voeckler secured 5th by virtue of having set his time first.


Jerry Fletcher only needed to set a mediocre time to secure victory, a lowly 77th place is what he got. This was more a victory tour than a final stage for the Hitachi rider as he still had a two and a half minute lead. What is more surprising is the pace of Thomas Tenpenny, you would think this was a stage made for him, but clearly tiredness has taken his toll and what looked to be a certain 2nd place has slipped away at the death instead it went to Alexey Volkov who launched himself from 5th to 2nd on the final day! Viruolien and Firenze did not fare badly and besides losing Volkov maintained position.
On a tour with many PCR stage victories, it is Brandon Plant who is the highest placed despite rarely featuring at the front at all, he comes ahead of Gutierrez and Johansson who both improved as the tour went on. De Vries and Senerson complete the top 10 as their respective marquees best performer, perhaps a poor return as both teams performed fairly well. No team had 2 riders in the top 10 in the end, proving it is a competitive field. Craig West narrowly misses out being the only rider to finish in the top 10 in both tours, with 11th.


Thomas Tenpenny tops the points board, deservedly so following a near perfect campaign. Alexey Volkov completes a strong solo performance with 2nd place. Sid Hatayuki is in 3rd place, the Japanese rider seemingly vanished over the second half of the tour. Vasquez de Silva and Arnold Abil also vanished in the 2nd half whilst Gutierrez was the opposite. Stefan Lomassonn was the best placed sprinter this time.


The Mountain (breakaway cup!) was won by Vinny de Moor, ahead of Daniel Sims and Jean Velo. None of those three could turn any break aways in to much success, whilst Jerry Fletcher only broke forward once and to great effect.


Hitachi had the teams race sewn up, all they had to do was cross the t's and win. Then on the final stage they came 16th and last and it was Alitalia who scrapped the win from Battery, with Hitachi slipping to 3rd. 20 seconds between them after a combined time of over 91 hours. Insane. Hitachi, Samsung and Tiger who had all been so strong slipping down and filling the bottom 3 places on the time trial!


The full results are here:
http://www.2shared.com/document/XBhRdkuG/Paris_-_Nice_Nice_-_Col_dEze.html

Paris-Nice

Stage 1: Wesley Duncan
Stage 2: Katsuko Hondo
Stage 3: Sid Hatayuki
Stage 4: Arnold Abil
Stage 5: Stefano Firenze
Stage 6: Stefan Lomassonn
Stage 7: Jerry Fletcher
Stage 8: Daniel Martins

Standings after 2 events:



Whilst the team standings (where the top 5 riders of a team's points are added together)

1.Alitalia Parmalat Bianchi 151
2.Hitachi Pro Tour 112
3.Cycling Circus 109
4.Samsung-Skoda Firehawk 108
5.Team CIP 96
6.Minardi 93
7.National Steroid Association Team 91
8.Perfomance and Cocktail Racing 87
9.United Boxtel Cycling team 85
10.Twinings Earl Grey Cycling Team 83
11.Fosters Good Cycle 49
12.Battery Energy Drink 39
13.Credit Bancarotto 7
14.Lansvale Smash Repairs 6
15.Tiger Cycling Team 1
16.Equippe Fantomette 0

Well, a few mixed emotions after that, happy for old Jerry to win, he's clearly Hitachi's main man, but considering we could have had the team victory too, slipping to third in the end is a big disappointment. Still, second in the overall standings isn't too bad at all!

What's the next race Shadaza?

AndreaModa wrote:Well, a few mixed emotions after that, happy for old Jerry to win, he's clearly Hitachi's main man, but considering we could have had the team victory too, slipping to third in the end is a big disappointment. Still, second in the overall standings isn't too bad at all!

What's the next race Shadaza?

The next round is the single stage Milan-San Remo


The distance is huge at 293 KM and for the most part is flat, though there are a few tricky climbs. (For reference the longest stage faced so far was 220km)
Teams may enter 8 riders for this event.

Okay! Hitachi's 8 riders will be:

Jerry Fletcher
Yuki Shizzuno
Francois Le Bleu
Sochiro Hamasaki
Oleg Brutschev
Paddy Quinn
Katsuko Hondo
Taki Takashita

I won a stage!!! Hooray! Although one definitely suited to my skills.

Fsoter's will add two new riders to our line up:

Name: Andy Badger
Birthdate (or just age):22
Nationality: British
Skills: Hills, Flat, Mountain

Name: Jermaine d'Alberto
Birthdate (or just age):28
Nationality: Belgian
Skills: Sprint, Hills, Acceleration

Foster's will field a hopefully stronger line up this time, including the series debut of Klaus Fahrrad...

1. Klaus Fahrrad
2. Jaap van Riebek
3. Daniel Sims
4. Thomas Yorke
5. Mitchell Webb
6. Andy Badger
7. Jermaine d'Alberto
8. Matsohiro Mizuhara

Equipe Fantomette will add other rider to the team

Norbert Centrone (FRA)
Age: 22
Skills: Hills, Mountain, Endurance

So, the top 8 make like that

1-Jonson Edderly
2-Alexandre Charpantier
3-Norbert Centrone
4-Rui Miranda
5-Alexandre Cadinho
6-Ingo Voeller
7-Bernard Roullaint
8-Siggi Judsen

Wow! I am definitely keeping Volkov after that!

And my 8 will be:
Alexey Volkov
Wesley Duncan
Jason Melbourne
Janice Edwards
Laurens Buivart
Kevin Frederickson

Also add these riders and put them on the team for this tour:

Name: David Clarkson
Age: 30
Nationality: British
Primary Skills: Fighting Spirit, Flat, Hills

Name: James Collins
Age: 31
Nationality: American
Primary Skills: Endurance, Resistance, Recovery

Also add this guy to the main roster but do NOT put him in the Milano-San Remo Tour

Name: Juan Pablo Martinez
Age: 22
Nationality: Spanish
Primary Skills: Time Trial, Flat, Endurance

First of all, where did our guys finish in the Paris-Nice?

Secondly, Lansvale will announce their lineup for the next race later today

Wizzie wrote:First of all, where did our guys finish in the Paris-Nice?

Secondly, Lansvale will announce their lineup for the next race later today

46 Jean Velo + 19'01
48 Kang Xian Bin + 19'55
51 Michael Chow + 23'39
52 Tamak Bisiklet + 24'19
79 Roberto Di Magenta + 31'35
109 David Lee + 38'11
123 Jizdni Kolo + 46'09
124 Naseef Aqeem + 46'15

Aqeem and Kolo were the last 2 classified finishers. Jean Velo for what it's worth did awesome and it is a shame he rolled that kind of form on a stage really not all that suited to him. Other than that, there is not all that more that can be said. The next event should suit your team better.

Twinings will send the following riders to the Milano-San Remo:

Sven Johansson
Alex Harris
Ivan Shermetev
Shinji Miyamoto
Jacob Denver
Louis Gaillard
Jose Vasquez
Freddie Donnelly

The Performance and Cocktails team for the Milano run

Stefan Lomassonn
Wilson Ricky
Brandon Plant
Nelson Burbridge
Len Kozlovsky
Dougal Dalkeith
Carlo Adjej
Norman Sumner

Lansvale will run the following riders for the Milano event:

Jizdni Kolo
Jean-Marie van Fiets
Jean Velo
David Lee
Naseef Aqeen
Giovani Bicicletta
Kang Xian Bin
Peiter Briggs

Wizzie wrote:Lansvale will run the following drivers for the Milano event:

Jizdni Kolo
Jean-Marie van Fiets
Jean Velo
David Lee
Naseef Aqeen
Giovani Bicicletta
Kang Xian Bin
Peiter Briggs

It's not V8 Supercars mate.

East Londoner wrote:

Wizzie wrote:Lansvale will run the following drivers for the Milano event:

Jizdni Kolo
Jean-Marie van Fiets
Jean Velo
David Lee
Naseef Aqeen
Giovani Bicicletta
Kang Xian Bin
Peiter Briggs

It's not V8 Supercars mate.

Move along now, there's nothing to see here