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Post by stimpmeister on Sept 25, 2014 12:19:48 GMT 1
My first season in Div 3:1 was just good enough to stay in the division. This season I am hoping for a better place then 8th. As for now, it's looking good, with a lot of honorary places, but yet no win. If I can keep this up, I might finish in top 5....
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Post by evild on Sept 25, 2014 18:17:13 GMT 1
I hope to make a similar season as i did last year. Dont have the intention to promote, just gain some nice victories and clinch a few jerseys. As for the c'hip, i dont think there will be much to do against neo....
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Post by kurtinsc on Sept 25, 2014 23:03:22 GMT 1
I always hope to promote. My team just hasn't been good enough. It still probably isn't but I'll continue to fight for every point I can get. I got 3rd last season and 4th the one before that... maybe it's my turn this year.
Though being 265 points down on second already isn't exactly promising.
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Post by kurtinsc on Sept 26, 2014 12:21:57 GMT 1
Closing the gap to second to 34 points though... THAT'S promising.
I had thought this was a good one for Goorts and he came through. Pleasantly surprised by getting the mountain jersey as well.
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Post by newborn on Sept 30, 2014 9:20:39 GMT 1
After week 1 i thought it woukd be a walk in the park, but now i realise i'm going to have to perform every week again.
Not all my riders have the capabilities, but hopefully new riders will come and make my team strong enough for second division.
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Post by kurtinsc on Sept 30, 2014 22:53:29 GMT 1
After week 1 i thought it woukd be a walk in the park, but now i realise i'm going to have to perform every week again. Not all my riders have the capabilities, but hopefully new riders will come and make my team strong enough for second division. It's probably still a bit too early to make any conclusions about how the season will turn out. We've done mostly flat stages with just a couple more hill focused. We haven't really had what I consider a pure mountain stage yet either... we've had a flat stage ending in mountain but not a mountain stage with little flat. I believe Zapardiel in particular is a mountain guy (or at least he was way back when the last time I shared a division with him). Tomorrow's stage to me is the first primarily mountain stage we'll have had. Indurain is a mountain/hill mix with little flat that also may tell us something about those sort of stages. But the Giro and surrounding races could really favor the climbing types... and we don't really know who they are yet.
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Post by kurtinsc on Oct 1, 2014 22:03:50 GMT 1
Well, first real mountain stage and 4 of the top 6 places were riders from teams in the relegation section of the standings before the race (Zapardiel did move up to 8th). Overall I'm pretty happy from my standpoint. Lacroux is just 34 seconds down with 80% fitness with the two in front of him at 60% and 65%. I feel pretty good about his chances with the final stage being somewhat varied (though I wish it had 20km less flat and 20 km more hill). I feel pretty good about P-N too. Seabra is 9 seconds back with 99% fitness (compared to 90% for the leader). The ITT has a lot of hill in it so I'm not 100% sure how that will turn out... but I think the hill will help Seabra. The final stage is also odd... that's a lot of DH with two LARGE chunks of DH toward the end. I may not win it but I think I put myself in the best possible position I could have. Crossing my fingers for these... this is the first season where I've focused more on winning GC's rather than the individual stages. I had success for the first time in Grand Tours last season so I thought that maybe I hadn't been focusing on the right stuff for the smaller tours. So far: #1 in Langkawi #11 in Oman #2 in Etoile de Besseges Maybe I should have done this a while ago.
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Post by kurtinsc on Oct 3, 2014 12:14:30 GMT 1
And with Seabra crushing the last stage of PN, we're into the promotion spot.
Been a while since I was in place 2 at any point in a season.
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Post by newborn on Oct 3, 2014 12:18:56 GMT 1
And with Seabra crushing the last stage of PN, we're into the promotion spot. Been a while since I was in place 2 at any point in a season. Nice win!!!
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Post by kurtinsc on Oct 7, 2014 12:54:36 GMT 1
Well, this week begins the classics season (well... I guess it began with MSR but it gets more serious this week)... we start to get into a lot of 1-day races instead of just stage race battles. My team's done very well with managing fitness and placing strategic attacks to gain time but not necessarily win stages. The 1-day's are more about simply who is the best rider for the race (that was chosen to go 100% and attack).
It will be interesting to see how teams set up the next two weeks with the large number of 1-day races as well as two stage races.
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Post by kurtinsc on Oct 17, 2014 1:24:00 GMT 1
Well, we're approaching the beginning of the Giro a week from today. While normally this sort of thing gets posted on weekends, I'm going ahead and doing it today.
1. Neo 3 1 1 1 1299 2. Warner Bros Racing 4 3 1 1 1273 3. The Mothers of Invention 5 0 1 0 1130 4. Zapardiel 3 0 1 1 1000 5. WC VroOom 5 0 0 0 847 6. NUFAN ( No Use For A Name) 2 1 1 0 753 7. Snake Milano 2 0 1 0 725 8. Pegasus Cycling 1 0 0 0 678 9. Tokmok Racers 2 1 0 1 657 10. BJA Cycling Team 0 0 0 0 315 11. LeeuwenOpWielen 0 0 0 1 254 12. Nattramn 0 0 0 1 91
We might be seeing some separation. My team started slowly in this run of 5 1-days, but in the last two I had a couple of podiums to pull close to Neo.
Leading up to the Giro I have NO clue what to expect out of LFW. A hilly sprint race ending with a mountain section... I have no idea if I picked the right sort of riders. I do like Seabra's chances in LBL.
Trentino... I'm not sure how that TTT up front will impact things. My best TT riders are going to the Giro, so I don't know if I have enough in that race to keep close enough to factor in the final GC. Hopefully at the least I'll be competitive in the final two stages if the TTT is too selective.
Then the Giro. Barring injury, Lacroux will look to defend his title. I'm putting all my eggs in that basket though... my other selections are 100% there for support. If he goes down my race goes out the window.
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Post by newborn on Oct 17, 2014 14:59:05 GMT 1
I feel like my first place is slowly slipping away... Hopefully the Giro brings me great joy ? Normally Smiling ismy number one, but all my other ridershave possibilities My average for the Giro is (without decimals) Flat = 6,6 Hill = 6,6 Mountain = 8,6 Downhill = 3,6 Sprint = 4,8 TT = 8,0 Good luck you all!!!
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Post by champadero on Oct 17, 2014 15:32:29 GMT 1
Finally I am getting some decent results and climbing up in the standings, I think i was not totally understanding tactics in the past 2 seasons, anyways its not too late BTW Rund um Köln is the first stage with no mountain at all I get to win My average squad for Giro: Flat 6,4 Hill 5,2 Mountain 10,2 Downhill 5,2 Sprint 3,6 TT 7,4
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Post by evild on Oct 17, 2014 16:28:16 GMT 1
well, you also need some luck. I'm also chasing the first season jersey. It's just difficult to find the best tactic that suits your team, not forgetting the fatigue factor and being screwed the week after:-)
for the moment my giro stats are (still not decided 100%): Flat 7,4 Hill 4,4 Mountain 7,2 Downhill 2,2 Sprint 6,2 TT 7,0
when i take a close look at the stats, im not surprised why i'm not higher in the ranks. Hill stays my weak stat. And with zapardiel in our division, im pretty sure who will go for the mountain jersey:-)
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Post by kurtinsc on Oct 18, 2014 4:01:05 GMT 1
My Giro squad:
Flat - 5.2 Hill - 5.8 Mountain - 6.8 downhill - 3.2 sprint - 3.2 TT - 8.8
Perhaps a bit misleading as I'm bringing my GC guy, 3 TT specialists and a guy who could win a stage somewhere who's still solid at TT.
Originally the 5th was going to be Goorts... a kind of backup GC who's also very good in the TT and capable of winning hill/mountain mix stages. But he got hurt... so Lacroux is all I have.
I think last year though there weren't as many great mountain guys and lesser mountain riders could keep pace and make up ground elsewhere in the race. I wonder if the gap will be wider now and some of Neo/Zap's guys will open big gaps... particularly on stages 8 and 9.
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