Northeast India 15h

[gaurain rx]

Gaurain rx ready to start 2016 in India... Looks like a good preparation for our Sprintsquad.

Lineup hard to decide yet... 6 riders are quite fix in my mind yet (sprinters + flatties), rest depend if yes or not we also go for the mountain stages.

So well, here is my previsionnal lineup :

1. Jonas Bauerhofer : Only 23 but already leader. He'll have 4 stages to show his sprint abilities;
2. Klaus Dorfmeister : 24 yo also but already ready to ride hard on every flat stage and also takes every escape he can... He's been our red jersey hunter lately so he might go for it;
3. Gaston Letrouffion : 26 yo. Quite atypic rider only seeking for one win this year --> MSR. So he won't have any problem to help Jonas scoring during sprints;
4. Aimé Piloner : 26 yo.One of our flat captain. He'll be there to keep everybody together in the pack and maybe also lead the sprints;
5. Kosma Pol : 33 yo. We'll need somebody really experienced with all this young blood. His flat power won't have to be neglected;
6. JeanPierre Quiroule : 25 yo. The flat leader of the new generation. He'll get prepared for the PavéTour here;

After these 6 ones, I'm quite Clueless. All other riders almost have their chance to join the team but it might depend of how the group seems to look like. Anglade, Hagi, Lantin if I need a whole team to get sprints (and that there are no sprint stars (but doubt of it)) + going into escapes, Scheers, Aldrian/Robert if some mountain stage are possible for him, The old Schenck and Renner if I'm in a strong group and that I want to stay cheap, Katzenschläger, our new TT star (not really but still), if we want to be a bit competitive in the TTT and the TT! All in all, it's quite open... But I fear that I'll bring a minimum 450k team.

So update... Last 3 are :

7. Jules Scheers : Gc leader, will seek the podium and some stages but he's also there focussing on San Luis;
8. Robert Anglade : Strong guy for flat and mid mountain stage. Hope he'll be usefull but I actually don't know why yet;
9. Christoph Aldrian : A classic, quite logic to help the gc leader.

[Liquigas-CND]

I think I will ride this tour but i need to see the final profile

Here it seems stag 6 and 8 were doubled... viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4684&p=87176&hilit ... dia#p87176

[gaurain rx]

Roby told he cuts stage 5-6-8 and rest day... So the first stage 5/6/8 are not the good one, the seconds ones are the one (as he renumbered the stages by now)!

[Liquigas-CND]

Too many stages for sprinters...

[Liquigas-CND]

I will probably join NorthEast India 15 H with my stars.

The following 6 riders are quite fix for this tour :

1. Massimo Croce - 33 YO - Good enough to help "Paq Man" or who knows for what else he may be good.
2. Paquito "Paq man" Ortiz - 24 YO - ready to fight for Young riders Classification.
3. Darko Tomic - 34 YO-"serbian killer" - still a nice classic.
4. Predrag Zivkovic - 24 YO - " new serbian star"
5. Milan Kovacevic - 31 YO- good for flat roads but lack of downhill
6. Vito Calabrese - 23 YO - our sprinter.
.......................................................
=6 riders and salary is already higher than 380 K now so probably in January will be at least 400 K. for those 6 riders.

Probably 7th will be Krasimir Tonev due to financial constraints.

For 8th and 9th places in my team are fighting 7 riders.

Carlos Murillo and/or Andres Velasquez - probably one of them will start the tour because we need downhill.
Matias Delgado and/or Walter Dries ---both good riders but the salary will explode with Matias.
Dejan Markovic and/or Alessandro Demarco ---probably few chances to start with one of them.
Dario Malacarne - let's see who starts the tour then we shall decide

Damn the salary will explode to abt 510 K for this shitty tour.
P.S. We know we have no chance for a place on GC podium so we will ride just for fun...cause it's just a game after all !

Join Liquigas-CND - For more fun!

[Robyklebt]

"Join Liquigas- for 10 days of talk instead of riding" is more like it. Wish I could see a race with you, OL Allagen, Herrenreiter, Poke.... WC of lack of class in the chat?

Donkey will be there, not really looking forward to it, but hell, why not.

Wassberg, leader
Peixe, leader or helper
Ganguly, Indian
Gaouaoui, chasing 300 races
Gfeller, flat
Vargas, classic

Are sure to start.
Cayetano+Squarcialupi likely, classicreg+TTreg basically.

Last place between Matuska (pure loader), Grabkowsky (more than a loader), Umesao (flat) and Topal (sprint)

[VeloClubDouchy]

Surely here too !

[NoMoreIdols]

I'm there

Team:
11: Tibault Vlietinck
12: Mats Vandeputte
13: Lucas Devos
14: Brent Luyckx
15: Senne Daems
16: Jens Teuckens
17: Nathan Gressens
18: Arne Viaene
19: Gilles Sweeck

Goal is to go for stages with Tibault and annoy other climbers with the presence of Lucas.

[Liquigas-CND]

Final Lineup:
1. Massimo Croce - 33 YO - Good enough to help "Paq Man" or who knows for what else he may be good.
2. Paquito "Paq man" Ortiz - 24 YO - ready to fight for Young riders Classification.
3. Darko Tomic - 34 YO-"serbian killer" - still a nice classic.
4. Predrag Zivkovic - 24 YO - " new serbian star"
5. Milan Kovacevic - 31 YO- good for flat roads but lack of downhill
6. Vito Calabrese - 23 YO - our sprinter.
7. Andres Velasques
8. Walter Dries
9. Krasimir Tonev

As I've previously stated we are trying to win the Young Riders Classification even if it seems to be difficult ...

[Liquigas-CND]

I hope yesterday was a decisive day for Young Riders Classification :
Paquito Ortiz is leading
Matts Vandeputte 2:38
Alex Visconte 4:39

Good to see that all sprinters are in the race! This will make the next stages more interesting!

Looking to the GC , there is a very interesting fight between Petri Riihivuori (Mercatone) and Ingemar Vassberg (Donkey).
On the other side Massimo Croce, Jules Scheers and Joao Peixe are most probably out of this fight for podium.
On 4th and 5th position are NMI riders with chances for podium IMO.

[Robyklebt]

Halftime, Donkey with 2 wins, 2 more than hoped for so far. First the TTT, not sure, but think the Donkey is unbeaten in TTTs (during stage races) for almost a year now? Tirreno-Giro-Tour-Mexico-Northeast India. Zibi and Squarcialupi, real stars! Ok, not sure if any of the other tours had a TTT. This TTT win wasn't expected, short 2 km thing, my team probably better for longer stuff, but then weak participation, Squarcialupi second strongest TT guy, No More Idols with Mats, but he had to wait, so Donks wins! Cool.
Yellow lost immediately in the first sprint.
Second stage, another sprint, horrible non-cooperation between the sprinters though. NMI had to do almost all by himself, Yellow Liberty with his 90 very little, Nash too, PG who won the first stage as well, Gaurain the same, only at the end a bit. And of course NMI didn't win, 94 sprint, has to rely on other trains, but after having NMI ride alone for ages (ok, he did start too early I think) why not fuck him in the sprint by doing a trick sprint. Pointless one, didn't benefit PG himself either, just seemed to be a instinctive "I WON'T LET THE 94 WIN FROM MY WHEEL" thing. Donkey happy he's out of this sprinter business. Our sprint sytem just way too negative.
TT: Mats wins, Cesare tries, then cries. Could have told him he only had a chance if NMI stays off
4 stage: Argh. Now Gaurain and NMI seem to have decided to try to eliminate the other sprinters. Not really my favorite tactic. Why can't sprinters just work together anymore? Ah, the "new" (it's old by now) sprint system.. Can understand NMI being pissed of at the others, letting him do most of the work, but it's not like Gaurain did a lot on the second stage either. Get cooperation on the sprint stages... now will be difficult, as PG, Liberty and Nash I woudn't work anymore most likely. After the action on stage 4. Ok, Nash's sprinter pissed of Gaurain by killing himself in the TT it seems.. Ok. And actually Nash probably didn't work at all for him yet, but with 86 isolated vs 2 trains with 89, 2 single 90+94 he really doesn't have all that big chances, he took his when he got it, in his place I'd probably done some make up work in the next stages for it, some. But ok tomorrow it looks like a restricted sprint now, Nashs sprinter should be tired for sure, some of the others maybe too? Gaurain most likely fit, NMI for sure. The others... depends on the helpers really. After the attempt (was a failure soon, but got the dropped sprinters to lose energy) not much happened anymore, waiting for the last climb, somewhat clear that would happen. There Croce tempo, blue, then red, Wassberg attacks, gets 3", increases it to 6 in the flat/light down before the last km, saves 1" and wins. Didn't really expect that. At all. But nice.
5 stage, Donkey action, lots for not for much was clear, but at least I had fun. In the end 10".. .Donkey a bit unhappy because it really should have been 20" the way it played out. Or more. Vargas with followers 29" or so seconds ahead before the last 6, Wassberg goes, nobody follows, that was clear. Ortiz doesn't block, very strange. A dreamer if he thinks he can follow Wassberg... But Vargas who had "wait for leader" ignored the order... followed it the next km, not sure if I had something wrong? Put in wait for leader early in the km... took out following. After the km the following was still in, wait for leader there, helping Wassberg too, not sure what went wrong... Anyway, had to wait lost time. Then the front waited, came back, in the back Liberty and Nash riding for the isolated Ortiz... just attack him immediately... then Tomic most likely waits, but together with the weird non-waiting IMO that's at least 20". But ok, even with 20" gained I'm still 1'39" back, now 1'49". Today then first win by BMX, he did all perfectly today, waiting, doing nothing. Finally, often he did too much, tempo when not needed etc. Donkey still happy with the stage, he tried. Cayetanos action too late probably, maybe should have tried to have him join the Wassberg group before the final, not go over it (which was the plan, but not sure why anymore) But anyway, today wasn't going to be a big time gain anyway.

So far:
Donkey 2 stages
PG 1
Nash 1 plus green
NMI 1
BMX 1
Liquigas yellow and white
Mercatone red
Liberty one day yellow
Gaurain one day yellow

Gaurain and Liberty probably not satisfied yet, surely not, but for the rest we're splitting up stuff nicely so far.
Yellow fight Ortiz clear favorite, Wassberg will challenge.
White: Ortiz scared of Mats!
Red: So far only Mercatone and Liberty fighting for it. Wassberg possibly with chances, but at this point he's certainly not targetting it.
Green: Most interesting maybe. Nash will lose it and be out of it tomorrow I think. The other sprinters in it. If the sprinters teams war continues and no sprints.. .then Mats could have a chance there
Team Donkey vs Liquigas:, the rest 26' back Mmh, Ok, maybe I'll want to win that one, or not let it to Liquigas with an escape at least. Losing it while trying an attack for GC ok, losing it in normal fight ok, by escape... no. Ok, maybe yes, not going to chase escapes for that either I think.

So far ok tour.... today had fun, before that wasn't all that great really.. those sprinters... and the first mountain stage not really designed didn't help.

[Liquigas-CND]

Finally this tour is over! the very long stages made me wait impatiently the end of the tour.

In India Massimo Croce had the opportunity to win probably his last race.

The fight for GC was exactly as I expected, GC and Young riders classification for Paquito Ortiz, our new leader.
Afterall it is a nice career start for Paq Man. His goal is a good result in Giro ... you'll probably see Paq riding again only in March in Tirreno.

Thx all for riding this tour! Nice try Donkey....but maybe next time!

[Robyklebt]

I actually enjoyed the long stages best.... only negative was that they ended late, really happy I'll be able to go to bed around 12 tonight. Might even go crazy and go to sleep before midnight! Otherwise... stage 5, 6 and 7 were most fun. I thought.
6 a sprint, No More Idols goes it alone. But good fight by the others in the back
7 A sprint was possible.. didn't think it was, but NMI and Gaurain showed me that I was wrong. In the end though a group won, they started chasing too late. And small groups went late too, helping Wassberg winning another few seconds since he had gone in the last climb with Vargas. Would have been interesting to see if they could have gotten the escape if they had continued 100 percent. But afraid of helping Liqui in the GC (for no reason, most likely the few seconds I could possibly win were irrelevant, secondly why should they care, a stage is a stage and secondly the 2 sprinters there were 10 sprint points apart)
8 Another sprint, but the escape won by 1". Really an easy sprint, but the cooperation between the sprinter teams not really good in the second half as well. This time it was Gaurain who did basically eveything... not enough, Squarcialupi too strong, except in the sprint..
9 Decisive mountain stage, Devos wins, basically a repeat of the first mountain stage, not much happening until the final climb, a bit more though. At one point a chance for the Donkey, Peixe siebs Ortiz, fighting off most likely, Vargas in front of the 2 Liquigas classics, he attacks over Ortiz. But the Donkey had taken Peixe out in front... idiot. There a win of 30" or more (according to the Donkey) or less (according to Liquigas) would have been posssible, but missed it. Ok, wouldn't have been enough anyway. So same scenario at the last climb as on stage 4. Wassberg goes early, but this time the climbers that attack get him, Devos and Scheers, Devos the stage.
10 Not really hard enough to make big differences. Gradual climbs, few steeper parts. Donkey tried a bit, but really more for the stage with Peixe than GC attack. Probably should have gone all out and attacking with Vargas-Wassberg shortly after Peixe-Cayetano went. But didn't see that as having any chances of being successful really, then it's just Vargas-Peixe, some Cayetano going all out before the last climb, while in the back it's Croce-Tomic and his other classic. Minimal advantage before the last climb, stage chances not so big either, either this time others hang on Wassberg from the start, so are there too, or they can come back pretty fast in the last climb. So thought I try with Peixe, keep Wassberg in reserve and hope he can do it. Couldn't, didn't sprint either.

Finally clear Liquigas win, Wassberg tried though. Shouldn't be a problem to win the Giro really. So easy I might even skip it:)