Paris-Nice 14h

[Robyklebt]

Paris Nice or Tirreno, Tirreno or Paris Nice? Ok, Paris Nice it is now. Who wants to ride another TTT... plus it's the same course as last year basically, something new, why not, both PN and Tirreno are just preparation for MSR after all. Since my stars don't need to practice the long distances, let's go to France.

The team:

Conti for the first 2 stages, get a sprint, try to get a win. That of course means, Mori, Haryono and Bakthyiar will be there too
Urganov for the GC win. He doesn't necessarily need helpers, he's good on his own too.

That's 5... the 4 others

Berlogea-Qian-Uzielli. Most likely 1 of the 3, maybe maybe 2.
Feng-Montandon-Leibundgut-Olimpiu-Fouché-Iordan. 3 of the 6. Feng for the first 2 days? Iordan if Uzielli doesn't come? Olimpiu for some reg? Fouché for a sprint in the top 30 in France? Fredi and Kusi to get used to working for Fabulous? We'll see.

[Kajutschka]

Sollte das alte Design da noch erreichbar sein bin ich evtl. auch am Start...

[team fl]

Very probable, Team FL will also participate at Paris-Nice at 14h. Team, well, Team will look something like this:

x1 Luigi Mastrangelo
x2 Ronny Beck
x3 Daniel Clavadetscher
x4 Fred Colon
x5 Lorenz Dürr
x6 Pedro Garrido
x7 Frantz Granvorka
x8 Wesley Lichtenkiesel
x9 Tony Longo

Back ups:
- Haruki Murakami
- Tim Hamberger
- Chuck Bass


Don't know yet how expensive the team will be. Pershaps Team FL will be just a parasite...

[bergwerk cycling]

i want do start here as well,

but my main problem is that i dont know, if i have time all days (sat+sun could be very difficult for me) ... but i will see

If i start i will have a look at the hillstages and a possible line-up looks:

Watson, Magallon, Björnby ... with 5-6 helpers on her side
Young for the sprint ...hmmm, no chance and too expensive i think, so a sprint light version with Winehouse looks better i think.

[Robyklebt]

Ok.... Monte Paschi Eroica the team looks like I was afraid it would look... A deep thinking ape now has 23 hours, a bit less already time to figure out a sensible line up.

6 places fix

Urganov
Conti
Leibundgut
Montandon
Mori
Sagyrbayuly

Last 3 places... Berlogea-Olimpiu-Feng-Fouché-Qian-Uzielli. Uzielli Qian and Berlo fit, could be useful tomorrow... unlike Haryono who won't ride for sure. Mmh, 43 reg though... Feng nice and fit, he's fix too now that I think about it. Basically the question is, 2 or one expensive ones.. Fuck it, Uzielli Qian I think, need power tomorrow, unfit Olimpius and sprinting Théophiles aren't any help at all.... who cares about money anyway.... 460k, mmh, thought more, no problem, now I have to think if I take Berlo too if it's that cheap.. .470 and no Uzielli but Berlo? Mmh..

Ok ok,

Looks like

1 Urganov: Leader, nr 1, no doubt the man to beat especially with Qian at his side. He's only afraid of the Bearclaws.
2 Conti: Fabulous wants to prepare MSR fabulously. 3 sprint wins, nr 1 and 2 and no clue where he saw the third chance. I don't see any.
3 Feng: 60-80, the heart and lung of every decent team. Ok, he's 50-70 now, but with a 60-80 mind.
4 Leibundgut: We tricked him, no important races in the first season? And he believed it? Dumbass. Fighting agains the time limit, good training for the Giro!
5 Montandon: He can ride the downhill in the fight against the time limit. After all like dumb Kusi he'll be likely half dead after stage 1+2
6 Mori: Ready do join the 2, some experience is needed. He'll already be starting half dead, good thinking Saburo.
7 Qian: Help Urganov get the GC win, too easy, will target 2-3 stages too I decided, will see which ones later. The ones Conti doesn't want probably.
8 Sagyrbayuly. 89 flat for 20 km riding! Well, maybe more since there's not much else it seems. Not much else?
9 Uzielli: Muchelse: 82 and Reg! Until Mori gets better, if he ever does the new Mori, well the old one since he's been Mori longer than Mori has been, and even though now Qian is there, he'll keep his role as top support rider for the GC favorite Urganov. Heart and lung!

In case I change my mind:

R1 Berlogea: To let something to the others, 6 stages and GC too much, Septimiu only wants 1 stage. So would be 4. Or 7 if I keep Qian too.
R2 Fouché, France, visit one of his idols, Aixteam, he really wants to be there. Maybe he'll manage to convince me somehow? Finally introduce me to his mother?

[Kajutschka]

hihi, Fokke nicht dabei, hab zwar wieder 100 mal kontrolliert und da war er sicher als 9ter aufgestellt, aber wollte wohl nicht

[Robyklebt]

Probably the race is over?

Dürr? We see nothing. Managed to log in, no interview so I think not Conti... now loading the news...

[Robyklebt]

Ok, wasn't over yet, 3 Km from the end we got something again..

Dürr, didn't know on which weaker wheel to speculate, took the wrong one, at 100 a safety. Knew I couldn't win from there, but save a top 3 spot and give Dürr his deserved win over Portugal. Of course helping for the sprint was correct on Dürrs part, but he worked so much, the same as me, so put in that safety, if he had started after I killed Feng, what I actually expected, no safety, Lopes wins thanks to my wrong speculation. Tomorrow Mori fit too... and if nobody really tries like today, we'll get the sprint tomorrow too. Hopefully with a better result for Conti.

[Zentaron]

Ok, wasn't over yet, 3 Km from the end we got something again..

Dürr, didn't know on which weaker wheel to speculate, took the wrong one, at 100 a safety. Knew I couldn't win from there, but save a top 3 spot and give Dürr his deserved win over Portugal. Of course helping for the sprint was correct on Dürrs part, but he worked so much, the same as me, so put in that safety, if he had started after I killed Feng, what I actually expected, no safety, Lopes wins thanks to my wrong speculation. Tomorrow Mori fit too... and if nobody really tries like today, we'll get the sprint tomorrow too. Hopefully with a better result for Conti.

Three? I saw the last one, and that wasn't enough to change the settings for the old man's riders. -.-

[Robyklebt]

Following Qian with 2 riders, hihi.. he'll not get far like that..

[team fl]

Dürr!!!

He did it. Out of nowhere - as we could not see anything for a long time at the end of the stage - Dürr did it. Dürr really thought Conti would be a nice Backwheel and Dürr was right. Great race, cool.

Tomorrow Dürr tries do defend yellow of course. How? Don't know yet. But after the work with Roby worked so well today, I guess I will ride tomorrow for a MS too, to give Conti another - hopeless - Chance against the Master of Not-loading races.

Anyway, who is GK Favourite? Kokorin looks good. But the TT is quit hilly, so perhaps a Climber with a good TT Skill? Well, there is none.. And the team factor also indicates for a Kokorin win. Nevertheless I bet on Urganov!

[ariostea]

Dürr - out of nowhere... right! cool race - couldn´t see it but probably cool race...

the Tour looks quite perfect for Kokorin i would say - 76 mountain will probably see him in front of Cutunio on every hill - so the Aris might do the work for him on the hilly stages - and the sprinter´s team on the flat stages. looks like a perfect position for the Gk...

[team fl]

Today another great cooperation among the sprinter teams.

Yes, roby might be right, perhaps Dürr should have stayed on Conti's backwheel. But then again, Lopes was the most dangerous rider for the leader's jersey. And thus I am not sad that Lorenz is only second. As I wrote, nice splitting of the two first stages among Singe and me.

From tomorrow on, Dürr will be only helper and the tour opens its stages for the classic riders, escpecially for Ariostea. And yes, Kaju will benefit from it. But we will see what happens next. Anyway, tomorrow Wizard will be Team FL's sitter. Have fun, but let him win

[Robyklebt]

I'm happy with the way it worked...
Good cooperation, actually it wasn't much fun, way too easy, I probably almost would have enjoyed it more chasing hard alone and missing 2 sprints... that was always fun, but not complaining, a win after all is much better. Even if our opponents had as much guts as a bag of potatoes.

Should have stayed on my wheel? Ok, I should start doing the sprint calculations BEFORE the sprint now. Second day in a row I was wrong. Yesterday was an Swoopes, thought ah well, should be enough. Calculated after and of course don't think would have been. Almost 2 points missing... Today at first I thought: If he's on the same as I am, doesn't get it, he risks ending up third of fourth... wrong as well, even if I follow Lopes, and get the wheel (normally should 1-1 still stronger) you still end up being 5 points stronger than Lopes-Carvallo... so forget it, was the safe thing to do for keeping the jerseys... after all maybe I have another brainfart today and follow you? On my wheel you still have a chance to win it, I'm stronger I think, but less than a point...

Anyway, not complaining at all, won a stage, good, happy, was worth it starting here already. A PN stage win for Conti, good.

GC now, of course FL made the easy prediction, Urganov, everybody knows that he's almost unbeatable. For the rest, don't really know. Kaju of course has Roller for Kokorin. Will that be enough? With Ari there that can fight for stages almost everyday, it could be. And with Bergwerk there that too often rather doesn't risk than risk a little bit... yep. Kokorin looks good. Let's hope Photo comes on, he, like BW would have the team to try to crack Kokorin, With Ari there, mmh, more difficult for sure. Anyway, Urganov will not give up yet, he knows that wearing the nr 1 at Petit Singe is an honour (or luck if you have a last name that starts with an early letter in the alphabet), he doesn't want to disappoint the big boss.

Tomorrow a tragic stage. Lots of 3-4-5, then 6+7 at the end of the last hill... sucks... just a 6 and Uzielli-Bakhtiyar with maybe Qian would actually try to bring back Conti. Like that... well, 6+7, no way.. unless maybe Ari goes off.. mmh, even then, just too many guys who have no interest whatsoever in letting Fabulous come back. Ah well... that's life. Feng will get an easy day for once.

[ariostea]

3 stages done. what did we get so far?

1. no groups going. 1st stage and today the group worked well, but only 2 riders on both stages in the attack...no chance. 2nd stage: more riders but the teamwork was finished after the first sprint. that´s why easy wins for the favorite teams so far. the smaller teams saving a lot energy so far- we will see what for.

2. Kaju working for the Tour win - and it is looking good for Kokorin. Bär from dynamo elbe already lost some time today, Padellec still there but photosynthese never(?) seen online so far too. just looks good. riders like Kromer, Björnby and Swoopes could make it to the podium. depending on the way the mountain stage will be ridden.

3. Mastrangelo losing 5 minutes on the first hill, saying good bye for the overall ranking.

4. Conti fighting for green. that´s good - but Gino probably will take it in the end. only 3 points at the moment and a lot of hills to come Conti won´t like.

5. a lot of passive racing...see point 1.

[Robyklebt]

Mmh, slightly disappointing participation in the race....

Came on 7 Km too late, depressed because I missed the start and my great Mori attack.. still everybody there.. ooookay.
Mori with Flauche who came 2 km later, good try, but surprisingly we were caught... just after the second intermediate, so the clever ape ordered an angry Saburo to give up, betray his proud Samurai heritage and give up like any stupid farmer in a Kurosawa movie. Well, he refused to beat up Enrico Plaza in the gruppetto tomorrow before, he said it was a fair fight man vs man (he even refuses to call Enrico a chicken) no reason to get physical. So of course he has to fall back, of course he has to wait for Conti, so that Conti can get 4 points at the sprint, and get the points jersey for one day. Yes, even though we promised Saburo that he would be free to ride for himself today, things change, I'm the boss, he has to do what I tell him. And he did, good, he'll get his Miso soup today. After he apologizes to the ape for his swearing when I ordered him to go back.

Anyway, only 2 in front, too easy for Ari with the help of Kaju (normal, he wants a nice controlled race) to control. Of course even a 5 man escape wouldn't really have been a huge danger, still...

Last hill, wanted to attack with Urganov and Qian at the first 5, just to see. Getting through, no real chance of course, but hope dies last... missed the first km, attack later ok, Björnbi there, but Ari got as like 5 km before I thought he would...Aldo way way to strong. Nothing happening there, so...sprint, great, 7+8, yihaa, ok, nobody there still, if we continue like that on day 5 5 or so teams will be kicked...

Nothing happening? Well, Luigi out.... not FLs day. First I profited from his absence to get 6 points and get green for a day, wasn't really planned, even though I saw the possibilty to get some points... but attacked, first sprint nobody tried anything, wanted to block the last km and sprint, forgot the block, sprint, got the 2 points... then Glamour for some reason started chasing us hard.. .something like we would be taken back 2-3 km after the sprint anyway.. fuck it then, let Jennay alone in front, let Mori wait, block with Bakhtiyar, sprint with Conti, get 4 points and green. But got worse for poor FL. His sitter not here, and he obviously hadn't changed his helps... Luigi in the back, lost 5' today. Hard but then at FL obviously first you must go through the gutter before you get succesful, see Lorenzo.... months and months of defeats before he started winning regularly.

[Lizard]

Bah, not cool... Was there, but the password wasn't correct, couldn't log in. I'm sorry!

[team fl]

Was my mistake, i changed the PW but didn't check afterwards. So I guess that I forgot to put in the old PW when I changed, so the old stayed. And as far as I was away for the whole day I could not react on Lizardo's Message (very thoughtful, thanks). Even more annoying: I had the helper settings from the stage before, so Luigi and Tony were helping! Wähhhhh!

I guess that means that there is nothing to gain anymore in the GC or any other classement for me.

[Robyklebt]

Yesterday a typical Ari-day... dominating win. He's depressing sometimes. Nothing to do really for the rest, 3 at least tried an attack. Jennay (that generally rides good, almost too good for a new manager maybe..mmhh) CPION and Portugal, at least Ari had to work a bit early. But 0 problems. Kaju helping again, rightly again. Urganov in the meantime gets points and money a bit everywhere, mountain and sprints, good, 6" on Kokorin, that's the way it should be.

Today the first GC day! The problem a bit. OSC with 2 climbers. 0? seconds on so far. Might get kicked. He could have attacked Kokorin today. Photosyntese: 1 climber, one kind of climber. The same, always off.

Climbers:
Mastrangelo 87, Watson 86, Poshay 85. Collaboration difficult for these three maybe, Mastrangelo only interested in the stage now, Watson has Magallon in the back, will see who is the leader for today. Poshay might want to defend his red somehow mostly. Still possible those 3 try to get away on their own, and collaborate. Watson to get time on Kokorin, Mastrangelo with his sprint for the stage? We'll see.

80-82 climbers. Nanni, Magallon as 80-70, Zyoung as kind of 80-70, Urganov as well... 82-56. Chase group, for me though the climbers are the real favorites today. Even though BW keeps talking about Nanni in the racechat... yeah, chances are there, but the Col de la Mure is long enough to get an advantage. Unfortunately for me, would love to stay in front with Shamshi... but anyway, the most important today is to gain some time on Kokorin for the moment. Yep, I know that he'll win around 4' in the TT. So what, still 3 stages to get some time, and this time Kokorins team isn't overly strong. Roller-Kokorin basically. With Ari riding for Cutunio it's strong, but who says Ari will always ride for Gino? If he does, no problem, he'll win the stage, grr, if he doesn't Kokorin-Roller will have to see a bit. Still clear favorites, but Qian-Urganov or Watson-Magallon-Björnby have the possibilites for some attacks. But for me anyway today goal nr 1 is: Gain time on Kokorin. As much as possible. Without losing too much on Watson-Poshay of course...

[Quick]

Hui, Qian unbeatable today. I saw the first race in the morning, typical 77-82 profile. Mountain riders are chanceless for sure and i don't think that an 81-75 or 82-70 can follow qian. Qian - unstoppable today. And tomorrow!

[ariostea]

pff... Aldelio (who doesn´t like Chinese anyway) had a look at Qian yesterday - he did not look good at all. Nanni looked much stronger - spaghetti eater...(forget about rice...). at 2, 3 or 4% - Qian would have to fight to follow a Nanni-attack probably. but anyway - no matter what they did in the morning - this should be a mountain rider´s race if they speed it up. ok - depending on what is Bwergwerk doing, because so many mountain riders aren´t left in our peloton.

[Robyklebt]

He's just provoking me because Bergwerk managed to get me angry first thing in the RSF day by claiming Qian had better chances than Urganov, and because I almost had a heartattack seeing the 9h race. Pff.

[bergwerk cycling]

in a few hours we are "cleverer" ^^ .-)

[Robyklebt]

Seriously doubt it. We'll know the result, that's all. Nothing to do with your or our cleverness.

[bergwerk cycling]

Das lustigste am Rennen ist das Interview von Ari:

Interview mit dem Teamchef von Ariostea (16:05 Uhr):
Sieg und Niederlage sind oft nur Millimeter auseinander, war es heute auch so?
ja, mit Sicherheit. Nanni hat endlich mal Siegeswillen gezeigt und sich lange an Mastrangelo festgebissen.
Haben Sie den Sieg fair errungen? .
nein, wir haben das Team Bergwerk arbeiten lassen und am Schluss abgezogen. ganz wie es unsere Art ist.
Sicher? Ganz sicher? Sie sind ja eigentlich als einer der unfairsten Manager überhaupt bekannt.
eben.