Giro 2015 23h

[Bear]

Yesterday ONCE had a bit of luck. While being off, others took care about the attacks. It's very strange to me that there was (almost) no team really having a plan. Siebing, attacking, riding - but not 100% for the leader.

The escapees got through. Rachid M from AS St. Etienne won. I was sure that I cant win with Pela Renet against two riders which will save their energy for the final kilometers. So I gave the chance to Etienne. If I would be stronger than Rachid, I get him back and just sprint against one fitter rider. I wasn't, so it was Rachid winning, which was ok for me since he was the guy with a brave attack.

[Pokemon Club]

Incredible. Unbelievable. Unimaginable.
Stage 19, 00h16, km 153, foot of Saint-Barthelemy climb Christopher Horner (ONCE-team) make the biggest mistake of his career : don't follow anyone when Miguel Hill and Peter Gabriel (r Sukuran Pokemon) moved. All climbers followed : Dick Henneck and Pen Palacio (Allstars United), Harri Leesi (Falkenbier), Einar Hansson (Flinky) and Ilias Tepe (Flinky), David Hilbert and Maks Pol (guciuzuza), Raphael Bernard and Maximilian Herklotz (Mapei), Josep Gomes and Nadia Sousa (superdragoes), and Frederic Bungo (Trachenberge). Allstars, Mapei and Pokemon decided to collaborate till the end so.
83 km later, for this moment of inattention, Horner lose nearly 5 min, and more important lose Maglia Rosa.
For the stage, Harri Leesi profit of the GK battle to win it (and wear blue jersey too), in front of Hansson and Herklotz.
They are now 4 for the GK win in less than 30 sec before the last mountain stage :

01. Miguel Hill (r Sukuran Pokemon)
02. Pen Palacio (Allstars United) +0:17
03. Maximilian Herklotz (Mapei) +0:20
04. Christopher Horner (ONCE-Team) +0:29
05. Harri Leesi (Falkenbier) +2:32

[Bear]

You did not mention that ONCE was off while you attack and he came on again when the gap was already over 4min.

I know you like me pointing out that detail

[Falkenbier]

You did not mention that ONCE was off while you attack and he came on again when the gap was already over 4min.

But this is really not his fault. ONCE did the tempo in peloton the whole stage (don't as me why, but he did it ), so he could at least hang Horner on an other climber. Bad luck that he fell asleep of course, but it was clear that the attack of Hill/Gabriel will come.
So I don't see why to check if the competitor is online or not before the attack...

Anyway, was good for Leesi all that action

[Bear]

Like yesterday: I did not say it was his fault.

And yes, the attack would be done anyway. But with an immediate reaction he could easily stay in pink. I just rode blue with a half dead classic with no form.

[Pokemon Club]

Like yesterday: I did not say it was his fault.

And yes, the attack would be done anyway. But with an immediate reaction he could easily stay in pink. I just rode blue with a half dead classic with no form.

And I/we rode green during that time ^^

[Bear]

Like yesterday: I did not say it was his fault.

And yes, the attack would be done anyway. But with an immediate reaction he could easily stay in pink. I just rode blue with a half dead classic with no form.

And I/we rode green during that time ^^

we never know what once could have done. but with red you would have lost way more energy.

anyway. at the end of this sleepy weekend, it is your maglia rosa. Congrats.

[Bear]

Although there is still one stage to go, I start something new here to get in front of this auto-riding 15h group. These are my Giro 23h Team Grades:

AS St Etienne: No climber, so always on the escape. For my taste the way of riding with the pullers in escape groups is not the best. Two stage wins, one from an early group and one late attack on a flat stage, is good for this team. I think there was more on the table because some stages would be hard to controll if the pullers just kept going. B

Allstars United: Won the opening TTT and will end up third in GC. No form settings it seems. So it's a good result in general. But it doesnt look like he 100% rode for GC, hard with having Horner in the group, but possible. B-

Dirtshark: I dont like to rank myself, but I try. 3 stage wins and maglia rossa. First week was very good. But later there were a lot of mistakes. Some sprints were not perfect, it was enough for the points ranking but could be one or two more stages. Stage 4 was a good one. Because of the mistakes... B-

Falkenbier: 5 stages so far. Mountains jersey and 5th overall. Good attacks, good followings. If Leesi wasn't a 86-6X climber, i would give him a A+. Like this, A

Flinky: Nothing won although with two good climbers at the start. Lost the youth classement in week 3, got 2nd. Not very active. He could have tried some attacks or siebing. The typical c4f-team which just want to react instead of start something own. C-

Mapei: TT won and the MdiC stage. Plus late charge to 2nd in GC. The first two weeks I didn't realize Mapei was in this race. Week 3 was better, but with Herklotz and Bernard it had to be his GC after ONCE sleeping. At least Herklotz siebed one time, but there was no 100% push for GC. B-

ONCE-Team: ONCE was on the way to A or A+. But than he fell asleep and lost the GC. Horner got one stage and will be 4th overall. The MdiC stage was very good. It should have been an easy GC win. Because it was decisive, the one really big mistake leads to a C-

Oxfam International: 5 stages so far. No climber, so week 3 was hard to overcome. Was in the maglia rossa fight for a long time. Lost one stage because of late attack. Maybe the points classement would have been possible with Aripov, but than Senghor would have won less. With the disadvantage of less reg: A

Trachenberge: Strong classics and Bungo a strong climber with a little TT. But no stage win and just 10th in GC. Obviously it was because of form settings and being off at important stages. Had to be more often in escapes with Bungos early form and strong climbers in the group. C-

guciuzuza: Never getting the right moment to ride with his riders. Although guci has 3 climbers in his lineup, noone really had success. Should have been in groups every day to learn the game more from day to day. D

r Sukuran Pokemon: Will be the winner of Giro 2015 and won the 8th stage with a tricky out-of-tempo attack before the final climb. Most active team because of the attacks which were set almost every stage. Was a bit lucky to win the GC, but that's the game, he earned the success during all the attacks. The GC/stage attacks were set pretty good. I would have liked more variety in those attacks, it was the same every time. So it's just an A

superdragoes: Title holder in using the F word. I thought Gomes would be at least 2nd here. But some strang attacks and not 100% riding for him killed this chance. Instead he changed to go with Sousa for the youth classement. That was a good idea and it worked out. I think he didn't use the entire strength of the team and had some downs during the stages. C


Marvel Squad: off and out

[Falkenbier]

Oh, well done Bear.

... If Leesi wasn't a 86-6X climber, i would give him a A+ ...

He was a 85-60 the first half of Giro

Cool Giro. Looked decided very soon. Nobody would have a chance against Horner. He showed us his strength. He was able to control the mountain stages without having a second climber at his side. But then the manager of ONCE-Team was sleeping at stage 19. Horner missed the attack at the foot of Saint-Barthelemy, where nearly all the other climbers followed the future Giro winner Miguel Hill. Crazy, crazy... he lost all his advance (which was 4.30 min...? Don't remember exactly)
Then stage 20, nothing happened at Colle delle Finestre and Hill saved his maglia rosa. 6 seconds at the end, very close.

Red jersey for Antoine Meo, 79 points in front of Aripov. A deserved one as the team worked a lot for this.

Mountain jersey for Leesi. Good for the team, bad for Gordienko who wore it so, so long.

Youth classement for Nadia Sousa. Her 87 mountain with 24 years are impressive!

Team classement for Mapei. Clear. But I think Herklotz could have won the general classement.


I really liked these 3 weeks. Balanced group. Good escapes and also good controlling in peloton for stages or general classement (mostly ).

Highlights for Falkenbier: Winning the Mortirolo stage 16 with Harri Leesi against a very strong Miguel Hill. I really thought I'd lose this. And of course the victory the day after in Lugano was special for the team. As a Swiss team it was a pleasure to win it in the home country.

So congrats again to Pokemon for the win!

[Allstars United]

So let´s talk about that Giro one more time

Allstars United: Won the opening TTT and will end up third in GC. No form settings it seems. So it's a good result in general. But it doesnt look like he 100% rode for GC, hard with having Horner in the group, but possible. B-

Well as I sayed in this Giro before, my last races before the Giro were in Dec 2013. I never had mountain riders or good classic riders before, couldn´t set form as i decided to ride 2 days before the giro and had to buy a complete new team and buy racing points (didn´t even had a license, which was pretty annoying because you could only refresh every 10th second).
So coming in third loosing by 21 seconds makes me feel great, would have loved to be more competitive but without Form Pen couldn´t follow too many times, plus I made some little mistakes that eventually turned out to be big. Like I didn´t recognize Hill would take some shots in week 3 early enough.
I was surprised winning the first stage, what made the Giro a success already. Would have loved to win another but just didn´t have the team, only chance was in escapes, but escapes in the flat were always chased strong and had no classics to send in escapes in hilly stages. Only chance was yesterday, but I am really unexperienced with this sprint which made me quit playing in the first place, because when installed neither hilly nor flat stages were real fun to me.

In the end I didn´t pay more than I earned in that Giro and get one TTT stage and a podium. Pretty nice to me. I will take a look on how exactly I will continue playing. Maybe I just farm some more money to give another comeback to the Tour and/or Vuelta, maybe I will ride some races in between. Don´t quite know yet.

[Pokemon Club]

Yeah it was an unexpect win. No GK ambition first, I would just move and move again with climbers and take some stage win with Momoka and Konno. Unfortunally Meo had the same early form than Konno and Aripov/Senghor block Konno so it was hard. But I was lucky, Hill one stage, follow Meo's downhill attack 2 times two times, Verbiana attack with Hill and Kurisu...but never thought I could beat Horner, Gomes, Palacio, Herklotz...crazy.