Tirreno-Adriatico 16h

[Bear]

I will start in Italy at 16h. The team will be no danger for any team... Still think about a "sprinter", but my team is too weak and just for one stage... I am really looking forward to this tour. The profiles are very good for a one week tour, highlight is stage 4. Who else will start here?

[bergwerk cycling]

Normaly i start here too.

First day i am still in holiday for skiing ... but hope, zickl will start for me!

Eddys last chance to win something i think.

[Robyklebt]

Ape will be there. Giro test, so not a cheap team to make money, or a team that wants to win, but a Giro test team. The Giro?

Mattarozzi and Ramirez the 2 climbers
Alighieri and Todea the 2 classics
Gong and Olteanu the 2 60-80.
Yrjönpoika the sprinter
2 left, Yamada, Wei, Fahrny all with chances. New guy too, whoever that may be.

So, for Tirreno:

1 O. Fahrny Leader
2 D. Mattarozzi Leader, 2 because of the alphabet
3 L. Alighieri will be there in the Giro, so here too. Even makes sense for sprints etc.
4 B. Gong: There to help, prepare for the Giro
5 P. Haryono: There to help, won't ride the Giro
6 M. Leibundgut/F. Montandon, there to help, won't ride the Giro
7 T. Olteanu There to help, will ride the Giro too
8 C. Todea: TTT, will be there for the Giro
9 D. Wei: TT not sure to be in for the Giro

So, only 5 sure Giro guys, but finally a similar make up of the team. MOre 60-80, since there is no reason to bring Markku, one stage, pff. The goal of course is to win, somehow, but more important is to make a good TTT, to make Todea, Alighieri, Olteanu, Gong get used to work for 2 climbers. These 4 will be the most important support riders for Yesid "aeroplano" Ramirez and Dante Mattarozzi in the Giro, so here they have to get used to each other, know who does what, know when which one is needed etc. The veteran support star Haryono will give them good tips, while Leibundgut is mostly there to prepare Paris Roubaix, get some km in his legs. Unless we bring Fredi, who seems to be in great form already, he might go for the GC too if he can keep his stellar form of the last week.

[superemre]

I probably will be there

[flockmastoR]

Another Eddy vs. Fahrny tour!

And EM also here maybe, 16h seems good, 11 just sucks, and evening is bad. TT test is what i am going for too. Lets see how good Heaviside can pull my weak team. Line up will look like that:

#01 Romano Avogadro
#02 Carl Gauß
#03 Wolfgang Gröbner
#04 Oliver Heaviside
#05 Josef Loschmidt
#06 Szolem Mandelbrojt
#07 Henry Scheffé
#08 Piama Tananahaakna
#09 Willy Zischer

So one pure climber + Gauß + 2 classics + 1tt guy + my really weak helping team. Aim? Dont know, maybe the White with Gauß, depends on the field an other young guys and the TTT

[Bear]

Would be a great group so far. i don't really know Bike Austis, but i have some good results at Ruta del sol in my mind, right?. The ape's Girotest will be funny... two climbers perfect for this tour, for my taste. I still think that stage 4 will be one of 2012's best stages. Hopefully the afternoon group is going to make some nice action on this day.

[gaurain rx]

Well, Gaurain will try to be here too... Try cause it is a bit hot for me to be on time on Friday and Monday!

Lineup should be alike... Stage of Chieti, surely a big goal for the team! gk, no real interest... So almost come here for stages... 2 would be a good result!

1. Jeroen Sjoemelen : Young pupils, he will be the "sieber" of the team
2. Franco Del Ponte : He is Italian, so he wants to start here
3. Tom Legende :60 quasi 80 with downhill, cool (and cheap) teammate
4. Lionel Maréchal : Part of the magical trio with Sjoemelen and Spiroux.
5. Charles Spiroux : Should win one stage... At least... Hope the Chieti one!

Rest, I highly dunno... I hope a 450k team!

[Bear]

My lineup:

Massimo Mangini (34) - 85 Mountain, leader
Morris Claiborne (24) - 61-82-79, like him
Elvis Dumervil (22) - 50-77-79, young flat guy
Georges Jobe (34) - 83 Flat, lazy in practice
Ray Lewis (31) - 68 Mountain, Soft-Classic
Tyrann Mathieu (22) - 61-75-77, the "honey badger" - he takes what he wants...
Willis McGahee (33) - 75 Flat, waterboy
Darren Sproles (21) - 66 Sprint, likes money
Lawrence Taylor (21) - 73 Flat, young flat rider

374.8XX Salary

[Robyklebt]

374'8xx salary?

Mine is 563'xxx...
Kind of should rethink my test maybe... forgot how expensive my team can be...

[flockmastoR]

374'8xx salary?

Mine is 563'xxx...
Kind of should rethink my test maybe... forgot how expensive my team can be...

374j is for Höseler, but my team is around 490k

+ I dont have big chances either

[Bear]

It's difficult for me to get more expensive.

And Roby, it's the perfect tour to be expensive!!! If you come with just one of your 3 climbers, I stop riding immediately!!!

[Robyklebt]

Ok, good deal, we get rid of Bear and I'm cheap!!

Mmh, does it count too if I come with 0 of my climbers? Like Fahrny and Mattarozzi out, Yrjönpoika and Yamada in?

[Bear]

No.

[Bear]

I'm a bit scared that I end up in group 2...

[Robyklebt]

Don't think you risk anything...

[superemre]

this will be the last race for Gadret... he is too old and he no chance to win GC
but he will be ready to participate in the final battle againts you

• this is my STARTING LIST:
  JEAN PAUL GADRET
  CRISTHIAN GASSMAN -----------------------CHANGE LAST MINUTE : RENATO DE PEDIS
  STANISLAV KASHANOV
  PIERRICK DE SCHOEF
  GEROLAMO FRONGIA
  PETER ERIKSSON
  GIAMPIERO PISANO
  TOMMASO SCROCCHIAZEPPI
  XISCO FUENTES

ROBY will be happy not to see RENATO DE PEDIS

[Robyklebt]

Nice to see you here, but I'm a bit shocked.
Never realized how old Gadret and De Pedis already were
Anyway, hope you are bad in TTT... same counts for BW and Mathe and anybody else who might want to gain a big advantage over the apes already tomorrow.

[flockmastoR]

I will promise to be bad tomorrow

[superemre]

oh yeah...i'm very bad in TTT
argggg, tomorrow will be a bad day for me

[Robyklebt]

I already like both of you!

[Bear]

I'm bad in ttt too. But Wookie will be my sitter for tomorrow. I have to go to a birthday-party. See you on giovedi...

[superemre]

FIRST STAGE: TTT

• 1 RED WINE
  2 EQUIPE KAS - 13SEC
  3 TEAM SANSOUCCI - 28SEC

Top 10 best climbers

• 1- Eddy Eickendreyer (Bergwerk) 88
  2- Omar Farhny (Petit Singe) 87
  3- Stefan Frinder (Ornyorny) 87
  4- Dante Matarozzi (Petit Singe) 86
  5- Kili Leonard (Club Lavella) 86
  6- Torstein Gulbrandsen (Tooreto) 85
  7- Szolem Mandelbrojt (Equipe Matematique) 85
  8- Jean Paul Gadret (Bike Austis) 85
  9- Checco Grassi (Dedos Partidos) 85
  10- Massimo Mangini ( Team Bearclaw) 85

GOOD LUCK ALL

[Robyklebt]

No no no, not all! Just me please.

15" to Bergwerk, so second best team with climber, satisfied with that. Still analyzing everything though..
Let's hope for a tour with lots of online teams anyway.
And it's Dante Mattarozzi, Dante, not Davide, grrr

[superemre]

And it's Dante Mattarozzi, Dante, not Davide, grrr

OPS I'm sorry ! change it immediately

[Robyklebt]

Ok ok, analyzed everything.

Again? Eddy vs Fahrny?? Not a new fight I think...can't remember exactly, but think they met before.... ah yes!

Catalunya 11

02. 00:00:14 Eddy Eickendreyer (Wizards Cycling)
10. 00:00:24 Omar Fahrny (Petit Singe)

Giro 11

05. 00:03:13 Omar Fahrny (Petit Singe)
12. 00:10:45 Eddy Eickendreyer (Wizards Cycling)

Tour de Suisse 11

02. 00:00:28 Eddy Eickendreyer (Wizards Cycling)
03. 00:00:28 Omar Fahrny (Petit Singe)

Andes 11:

01. 00:00:00 Omar Fahrny (Petit Singe)
03. 00:00:29 Eddy Eickendreyer (bergwerk)

Yemen 11

01. 00:00:00 Eddy Eickendreyer (bergwerk)
02. 00:00:00 Omar Fahrny (Petit Singe)

Grrr... always this damn Eddy there. Hate him. Think will ride for Mattarozzi and Todea just not to have to fight against Eddy with Fahrny again..

So, my brilliant apealysis says. Eddy vs Omar. Who cares about the rest, that's the classic fight of the last months, doesn't matter if it's for place nr 1 or nr 18, the ape has a complex now, beat Eddy. Argh.

Eddy certainly here has his chances again though. 15" to the next climber already, and he is nominally the strongest climber too. The team is... not that strong, especially one surprising weakness, Alberti missing, he could have been important here. Probably Eddy didn't gain as much as hoped in the TTT, now he'll have to defend himself against the other climbers.
The Fahrny boys 15" back, 87+86, 54 TT for Omar, which means all is open as usual. The ape has the better team, 87+86+74, some seconds in hand with Fahrny from the final TT, but still needs to gain time on Eddy to beat him. 2 climbers, will have to try to profit from that.

Then... Gaurain. GC he's a huge outsider. 3 classics plus Sjoemelen, it's unlikely that BW, Ape and the other classic contenders will let them get far enough to win it, Chieti and Prati di Tivo are too pro climbers for that. But, he has the strongest team for many stages of the tour... yes, he is always almost-over concerned in not influencing the GC, but whatever he does, with this team he will. And that's good that way, that's cycling. Chieti, Offida the stages he is certainly going to play a big role, today actually as well. Let's see who can profit profit from him, who will be suffering more.
Mathe: Mandelbrojt 85, 19" behind Eddy, outsider at this point, but he as well has the team. 80-67 and 74 classic. Same as Gaurain, he will play a huge role with these 3 riders, same stages.

Those 4 teams will influence the race most I think, will be shaping the GC fight the most. But not necessarily win Tirreno.

Finder: Ornyorny. 87 mountain 58 TT. Team is very weak. well, 64-84, a 94 sprinter and nothing. But that doesn't change anything, the thing that is clearly most bothersome is the manager. Nobody knows if he's actually good or not, he's never online. Or just every 30' to check what's going on. Let's hope he shows up a bit more. Will have to ride passively of course, only reacting, hope to stay where he is until the TT and win there. Let's see if he manages. It's certainly possible. 16" behind Eddy right now, with equal form he would gain more than that in the TT.

Toreeto: The team, interesting with 2 climbers, Gulbrandsen, 85 with 60 TT and Sukua Osukki, doubtful Japanese with 83. The third team with 2 riders over 80, will he be able to use it? Right now Gulbrandsen is 35" behind Eddy, too much, but not much needed to come in front of him, yep, only 85 mountain, but... 2, who knows.

Gadret deserves a mention too, unlikely he wins, first already 41" behind Eddy. Probably lost more than was necessary, a bit more risk and could have lost less, but... 89 Eriksson and can't drop the 36 year old Gadret wiht 45... not easy, I probably would have ended up there as well. And this 45 TT is Gadret second problem, he'll lose another big bunch of seconds in San Benedetto del Tronto. Otherwise he is still very complete 86-60-76, not afraid to try to profit from other teams looking at each other. He will certainly come up in the GC and fight for stages, despite having 'only' 86 mountain.

Ok, lots written, nothing said...
IMO it's very open, between a fairly big number of riders. Not only Eddy and Fahrny, but Mattarozzi, Finder, Mandelbrojt and most other 85+ as well. The risk of it ending up as a kind of blocked race is there. Everybody will be looking at Petit Singe with Fahrny and Mattarozzi to open it up towards Chieti and Prati di Tivo, everybody will look at Gaurain what he does with Gaiolle, Maréchal and Spiroux, everybody will look at what Mathe does with Mandelbrojt, Gauss and Gröbner. Gröbner with Todea the only other 74 mountain classic in the race. Again, the 3 same teams. Who will not always have the same interests. We'll see how it develops.