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Although Team FL will have hardly opportunities to pay attention, 'tis the time of the year again: Pavé time! Time for the Tour des Pavés, the start of the offseason.

Riders to suffer for Team FL:

x1 Karl Knöppel
x2 Lautaro Lucifero
x3 Manfred Matt
x4 Rik Ribbens
x5 Ricardo Rocha
x6 Santiago Souberbielle
x7 Urs Unternährer
x8 Yossi Youshimatz
x9 Zenobio Zalazar

It's a bit early for Team FL's new pavé talent Wim Wijkstra to participate. But we will lead him carefully to his role in the spring classics campaign in 2026. Until then, Ricardo may fight for a nice GC spot and maybe the youth classement, although the competitions looks tough.

Favourite check.

General classement

***** Lukas Winzenried (Big Donkey), Theun Waardenburg (CreditPommes)
**** Ricardo Rocha (Team FL), Andrea Buccarini (Gipfelstuermer), Gyeong An (Wiener Zentralfriedhof RV)
*** Bernard Pijanovic (Gipfelstuermer), Ivan Ingelman (Ansach)
** Rik Ribbens (Team FL), Marco Hesseling (Gipfelstuermer)
* Symen Aanen (CreditPommes), Thibault Kerken (Falcor), Aliaksei Svirydau (SouthWest Packers), Lars Andersson (Wolfpack Cycling Team)

Points classement

*** no idea, maybe Winzenried?
** still not, another rider... Andrea Buccarini?
* a surprise rider

Mountain classement

*** The one who wants it
** another rider
* a surprise rider

Youth classement

*** Ricardo Rocha (Team FL), Andrea Buccarini (Gipfelstuermer)
** Bernard Pijanovic (Gipfelstuermer), Ivan Igelman (Ansach)
* a surprise rider

Team classement.

*** Gipfelstuermer
** Big Donkey
* Wiener Zentralfriedhof RV

Winzenried looks like the favorite here.
TT helps him a lot, then great pavé skills, only Waardenburg is close. But same shitty reg, so probably hard for Waardenburg to beat Winzenried in GC. +4 mountain might help, but still looks hard.
Others, more mountain, more reg, can be chances, even if not helped by the overly long TT, that really installs Winzenried as the favorite.

Donkey team not brilliant, leader reg not brilliant, but while I originally planned to go just for stages, not enough reg for GC, with this course I haave to try the GC.

Already all changed.

Donks lets the group way too far away, 20', came back to 15', then when they went in in front obviously stalled, in the end down to around 12'... Winzenried dropped by the other GC guys too. Over 12' to catch back to Gallyamov, looks almost impossible. He also has a very good team for him, 88+86 with +/-78 pavé. He will normally lose time in the finish, but what, 1'? Not really more. Long range siebs hard, my team can't do that really, behind the star helpers he's as good or even better than me. I can't really go 50 km with Lanfredini/Ganambarr/Winzenried.

IMO now Gallyamov the clear favorite. Cox can somehow hope to challenge, but will probably lose more time in both stages tomorrow, but then being closer, with 79 pavé can hope to hang on...

Don't really see how the peloton, Winzenried, Rocha etc can hope to gain that time back. Stupid Donkey, despite the 28" loss to the others today I still like my chances to beat everybody else from the peloton in GC. Just that that now looks good only for third in GC... we'll see, will have to change focus on stages I guess.

Hm, although looking at the values again, Rocha might actually be slightly ahead of Winzenried at this point including tomorrow. Should lose 40-45" in a flat TT, same intensity. More mountain more downhill, so probably less on same intensity anyway, pavé not overly heavy, so not sure how much the 4 points there will play into it. More reg, 10 more means slightly more energy, 20, for the second stage, so getting back time there seems entirely possible. Or he goes a bit faster and loses less but advantage on the Upside stage is still his. For me Rocha ends tomorrow ahead of Winzenried in GC.

Then 2 stages that are more favorable to Winzenried, 1 again more Rocha. Hm... maybe I'm not the only one who fucked up. Still mostly me, nobody expected Winzenried to drop on 5*, certainly not me, I thought today favorites in mostly together, maybe somebody gets away on the pavé at the end and gains some seconds, 5" max, nothing big. And without these 28" lost today I'd be still more comfortably ahead of Rocha and also Igelman. But even the Winzenried stages can dangerous vs Rocha of course, his no. 2+3 are stronger than mine, especially annoying the flat skill. Ok, losing time there difficult for Winzenried, but if the team is cooked, can happen. So even if the peloton would still be fighting for the GC, which at this point I don't think it is, would still be pretty tight between Rocha and Winzenried after these 28" today. Grr, should have trained mountain!

Still, the blame for losing it on day 1 mine. Waited too long to ride, that simple, didn't check the reg much of those ahead... and then won less than I hoped, basically 8' back from when I went into tempo, thought 15' was possible (although that was when the advantage was 15', so a few km more to ride, then it would have been possible to gain more time back of course, still not 15', but then wasn't my goal to get the group anyway.. But should have stuck to that original plan, sieb at the *** in the first sector, let those behind fight a bit to come back, then slowly ride... missed the ***, escape didn't seem that dangerous, downhill, thought I wait until after, then until the pavé. Clearly my mistake. Have to go in earlier. After that though probably FL and Ansach at some point should have joined, especially FL, since Ansach much less, if at all, seems hard to beat Rocha. More mountain but less pavé and less team. More reg, but has to gain on Rocha tomorrow, otherwise... But ok, if he helps too much my team stays fit, harder to gain time ,but once I was throwing it away in my stupidity probably FL should have gone in too. Not when he went, that was too late, since from the 5* I planned to go with Lanfredini (and the rest then went without Winzenried )

All around a catastrophe by the Donkey, almost hope I'm beaten by Rocha now, but only almost. Still better third than 4th or 5th. At least team is quite fit, 3 under reg, Roy, Taiaroa and just found out Ousland too, thought he was in, but not. Nothing major, all around 900 which is quite fine for the TT. Go in earlier and probably Roy and Taiaroa end up unfitter, out for the whole Tour like this usable. We'll figure out for what exactly tomorrow!

Ah, Cruz and Bianchi...for them more difficult. Less reg, will lose more tomorrow, less pavé, worse teams, I think those 2 can be caught by the peloton still, depending a bit on how it's ridden exactly too of course.

Ah, Cruz and Bianchi...for them more difficult. Less reg, will lose more tomorrow, less pavé, worse teams, I think those 2 can be caught by the peloton still

Domingo is ready for the challenge and feels disrespected by the Donkey now. He has more reg than Cox, so at least 1 argument doesn't apply! He is also only a little scared for today!

Cox, marinated, ready to be grilled I'd say.

Good day for Winzenried overall. Strong Rocha in TT, went a bit faster than I did, energy stuff, a km at 85% still gave me 15" gain overall then. Lost 3" +4" bonification in the second stage... overall 8" won, which is quite ok. Without the time loss yesterday (and without the GC being for Gallyamov) would have been very hard, if not impossible to stay with Rocha today. Not much downhill for the Donkey after all. Would have been chasing from km 9 or 19 probably then... Like this, easy 8" win day, of course more would be better, but hard vs Rocha, who has the much superior team for a stage like today. Just superior for the rest, MUCH for today.

Gallyamov, he lost quite a bit today, 7'34" ahead of Rocha, 7'55" vs Winzenried, 8'15" Igelman. 44" lost in the second half stage, but with his energy advantage this was an relatively easy stage for him I guess. Tomorrow he'll probably lose more, but with 2'30" he can afford to lose per stage vs Rocha. Looks hard. Would need some sort of coalition FL, Donkey, Ansach and Gipfel for Cox, but Cox at over 4', even with his superior pavé... looks hard. Plus unlikely coalition is likely to fall apart on that 8% km tomorrow already, wouldn't be surprised if Gipfel and Donkey end up having to chase for Winzenried and Cox there...

We'll see how it goes anyway, my team surprisingly fit, well, that's the one advantage of the fuck up yesterday. Ok, Kotibaruly rode a bit, fought too long, also in the back, so he's useless again tomorrow, rest seems ok. Probably could have won the stage today, follow the attack on the last pavé, problem is that then I'm under reg, 100 or even more, which then means I can't do anything at all tomorrow... and risk ending up under reg again even when doing nothing. Ok, not that much pavé, that probably should be ok, maybe should have tried the stage here and then at least got something out of it and can relax. But rather have more options (and maybe still no win) for the following days.

I will boycott the race thread until FL corrects my team name in the favourites check

flockmastoR wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 21, 2025 7:27 pm

I will boycott the race thread until FL corrects my team name in the favourites check

You've just posted here . Anyway, correcte YOUR name

team fl wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 22, 2025 10:08 am

flockmastoR wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 21, 2025 7:27 pm

I will boycott the race thread until FL corrects my team name in the favourites check

You've just posted here . Anyway, correcte YOUR name

Ok, now I need another excuse on why I am too lazy to contribute here

3 stages down, 2 more to come. And everything looks like Alan Gallyamov (SouthWestPackers) will win it. Although his advantage after stage 1 has almost been cut in half, he's still confortably sitting around 4 minutes in front of Lorenzo Bianchi (Wolfpack Cycling) and 4:30 in front of Jon Cox (Gipfelstuermer). The rest is 6 or more minutes behind, led by Richardo Rocha, Lukas Winzenried and Ivan Igelman.

While these three still try to gain time for the GC (or at least have tried), the rest is waiting for their stage chances. Yesterday, it was Theun Waardenburg's turn from CreditPommes. And while GC fight seems over, the other classements look a bit more interesting, at least some. Ivan Igelman (Ansach) is leading in green with 52 points, but only 3 resp. 4 points ahead of Rocha and Waardenburg, with Winzenried sitting on 43 points. Although Hagen Haderer (Ansach) looks like the mountain classement winner, there are still two GPMs during the last stage, so who knows. For white, it's a battle between Rocha and Igelman and the team classement belongs to Gipfelstuermer most likely.

Today the Schiffbauer stage. Again not much time to gain on Alan for his opponents, so I guess it's only for a possible stage win. Team FL will decide on the fly if it's worth doing something or just sitting comfortably in white, watching and waiting.

Stage 1 in the past as FL insists, but so are stages 2-5 So yeah, stage 1 was it. Donkey with Paris-Tours form, not only Winzenried, also Ganambarr, rest worse, except Taiaroa whose goal was the pavé-Tour, fucked it up. Not because of the form, seeing the field and also the route more in detail, yeah, with that TT I'm still the favorite. Not much of a team, not much form, Rocha seemed more likely to have form than others, being young, little flat, no sprint, Paris-Tours didn't seem sensible. Logical form man there, Quincy (who didn't have form though) has better helpers. Igelman the same, with the hills they are dangerous. Stage 1 just wanted to wait one pavé section too much to start, stupid. 15' ok, which it was, if I start when it's 15'. And I'm not necessarily too eager to get the stage either actually.
Then of course the 5* that cost me time vs Rocha and Igelman too, brr, stage 1 was really bad. 5* ok, didn't see that coming at all, fighting was in, energy wasted a bit before, preventive defensive sieb before a steep km I think? Anyway the GC was over after stage 1, not only for Winzenried, but for the others in the peloton too.
What FL and Big Donkey did after was a bit of cosplay, let's ride GC, in FL's case at least it was for white, in mine not for much. 2 days ago defensive Donkey destroyed a chance to get rid of helpers,... ok, hadn't thought that far. But somehow doesn't change much. Yesterday FL tried a bit, but not enough help. Donkey isolated. Pommes helped. The frequently off Gipfel didn't help, which actually was ok, with today's stage Cox was never going to win this anymore, too far back. No answer of course just confirms the toxicity of the manager, but anyway, FL and Pommes (what for anyway?) then stopped the attempt. But there really was nothing to do anymore, Donkey fucked it up on stage 1 (90% his fault, but 10% go to FL and Ansach, once the Donks finally rode, they should have joined, or joined earlier than FL did in the end)

So good win by SWP, finished stage 1 fit, defended well, was never in trouble, never had to ride early, since there was never the slightest GC problem in escapes, unsurprisingly, only leaders were still withing 15' or so Bianchi second, did well, got yellow after the TT, we all thought (or I thought and assume the rest thought the same, which might not be the case) that with that energy problem then he would be out of the GC fast. Wrong, he hold on for second. Lost a lot on the second half stage, after that... excellent. Different tactic better? Probably not, doesn't have the team to finish in front of SWP long term I guess, so did it perfectly. Cox collapsed today, not completely surprising, with a defensive tactic probably can do better, but well, if FL/Tukh wants second, can make life hard for him (and Winzenried) on the climbs today, having not much of a flat team... Cox the fourth man of the stage 1 escape won the stage, then disappeared completely at the end, after fighting on a bit early. Still a success for Falcor.

Stages: My best chance probably in the end really was stage 2, just attack, take the win, be under reg, 100... but then nothing at all to do for at least 1 stage, so thought I save that energy. Theun Waardenburg no form, 90.6, explains the weakness of his sieb yesterday, but he got 2 wins out of it, could have been 3 if he hadn't listen to my advice, superb plan yesterday. Actually on stage 4 I had no plan at all, that was just pushing buttons and see what happens... Other day for stage chance today, don't attack, hang on Waardenburg (but I was on Rocha) and hope to go through. Wasted a little bit of energy with siebs again, but it costs so little and potentially has others fight.. always worth it, just have to hang right then, ok, 2", so maybe can't follow, but expected I could somehow, *** only (But then there the flat might be more important already again?) Anyway, was on Rocha, maybe that was good, no attack, wait for him to go, right with him after Waardenburg goes and hope to catch him and win. Thought I attack instead, probably Waardenburg on me,... he wasn't, he went the same km, blah.

Not a really great Tour for the Donkey, stage 1 was too bad. After that actually was ok, Rocha and Igelman IMO with form. I might even have done better out of GC than if we were in, race would have been completely different they would have taken advantage of Winzenried's aversion to climbs, like this not really. Collected placements, which is ok finally, except stage 1 I did kind of ok I think. No stage win, but well, at least I was there.

The final results:

General classement:

01. 00:00:00 Alan Gallyamov (SouthWest Packers)
02. 00:04:30 Lorenzo Bianchi (Wolfpack Cycling Team)
03. 00:04:42 Ricardo Rocha (Team FL)
04. 00:04:53 Lukas Winzenried (Big Donkey)
05. 00:05:43 Ivan Igelman (Ansach)

Team classement: Gipfelstuermer

Youth jersey: Ricardo Rocha (Team FL)

Sprint jersey: Ivan Igelman (Ansach)

Mountain Jersey: Hagen Haderer (Ansach)

In the end, it was stage 1 that decided the GC. And the calm but vigilant defense by SWP. Wasn't there at the last stage (thanks to Tukhtahuaev again for sitting), so can't tell much about that. In the end, white for Rocha is nice, but it could have been the GC as well. Stage wins looked not realistic though from the beginning. But it was fun, so goal achieved.