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It's Giro time soon and one race thread has already been opened. So, I guess it also needs the race thread for the only real Giro edition: the Afternoon. Apparently, it seems like Team FL is joining it too, although that might cause some serious sitter action. But hey, it's the Giro and the golden 50% self-riding quota should be manageable this year too. Now you ask yourself which glorious Team FL rider will be in the line-up. And I answer, for some I can tell you for sure, for others it will be more difficult. Anyway, here are the possible candidates:

x1 Carlos Lampe: The team's mountain goat and GC-captain. May he shine bright.
x2 Breyten "BreyBrey" Breytenbach: LBL winner and thus Team FL hero already.
x3 Hassan Dif: the angry support for hilly and mountainous stages
x4 Anselmo Grau: Well, life is not only black and white...
x5 Perry Henzell: He almost won MSR, so back to Italy for stage wins this time
x6 Ignatz Lichtenstein: a Kisler (!) in his heart ('though not on paper...) who tries to win his first race at the Giro
x7 Bambang Megaranto: Not much to say about Bambang. He does what he does.
x8 Otto Ospelt: the token Liechtenstinian.
x9 Elwyn Oxley: The Barbadian Ox. Cultic. Best friends with BreyBrey recently. Leader for the hilly stages.

Possible substitutes:

- Harrison Tasher for Grau as flat support for Henzell, Lichtenstein and in some cases Oxley
- Iwan Franko as sprinter for more hilly sprint stages instead of Lichtenstein

Goals: Everything, as usual. Main goal of course is the GC, then stage wins, then rossa either for Henzell or Oxley (maybe Lichtenstein?), verde (accidentally) as well as nera and bianca for Grau (pun alert!)

Big Donkey here too:

His superb team:

Ingemar Wassberg: Leader
Joao Peixe: No 2
Zygmunt Grabkowski: Classic leader, classic helper
Selwyn Cayetano: 60-80, or 65-78 now, reg
Luis Recordon: Star sprinter
Cesare Squarcialupi: Italian, flat helper
Modesto Quiroga: From the series: We don't really have anything else....
Indrek Rääts: See above

The 9th rider isn't sure yet, but most likely Gfeller. Superstar Sprinter Ganguly is too weak in the mountains, Faye worse than Gfeller in everything except downhill, Garita lacks reg. The guy with the best chances to beat Gfeller for the last place is Farkas, a future 60-80 but actual 50-almost 70....

Luques maybe playing, maybe not (something like 70-30).
Main goal is be present at every stage. The team hopes to eat well in all Italy.

Pokemon maybe the afternoon too, if the only real Giro is here

The manager of The Greatest Team Liquigas-CND took a PRELIMINARY terrible decision today after winning too easy Romandie because of Ortiz also known as "the beast".

Ortiz will stay home and not ride Giro because he is simply to good for Giro and the team manager would like to avoid killing the competition.
Anyway many teams wont ride Giro or others left their usual afternoon/morning fields to ride Giro in the evening being so scared of Paq Paq Man.

So see below our lineup with Malacarne leader and Paquito out. This way Donkey may have chances even if few...

Anyway, Final decision on 5th May PM/6th May AM...

So far we have the following teams who either announced to ride in the afternoon or who are already signed up (for the Moment, in alphabetical order):

- Big Donkey with Wassberg and Peixe (both climbers)
- Liquigas-CND with Malacarne and maybe Ortiz (both climbers)
- Luques with Murzin (sprinter) and lots of young riders.
- MG Technogym with Belli (climber)
- Novo Banco - PT with Staridas (climber with 77 mountain)
- Portugal Ride with Ghazal (Classic) and Coelho (TT)
- r Sukuran Pokemon with Contreras (Sprinter) and Soma (Classic with 71 sprint)
- Team FL with Lampe (Climber) and Henzell (Sprinter)
- UllesTribute with Santos (Sprinter)

After checking when I'll be on or off, I just realize that there is too much stage where I have an interest that I'll miss the afternoon, and as I don't like much to ask for a sitter, I have no choice to ride a fake Giro =(

Final decision is taken, Paquito is in, trying to win this if possible.

Hoping no bugs during Giro!

Uff, good.... saw that threat not to bring him before I went on a short holiday (or maybe by app during), and seemed a very stupid idea!
1) What do you have him for then?
2) Yes, he is very strong and very likely to win the Giro, but if you buy such a rider what do you expect? Don't buy him if you don't want such a rider...
3) You don't know when you'll have the next climber who trains as sensationally as Ortiz. Could be that your next climber stops at 84, or 85 or 86 (which is still good with TT, but just ok without it)... and in 5 years you think, damn, should have ridden with Ortiz when I had him!
4) Beating Ortiz will be so much more fun than beating Malacarne!

Good you got your sanity back and bring him.

team fl wrote:So far we have the following teams who either announced to ride in the afternoon or who are already signed up (for the Moment, in alphabetical order):

- Big Donkey with Wassberg and Peixe (both climbers) - Confirmed
- Liquigas-CND with Malacarne and maybe Ortiz (both climbers) - Confirmed
- Luques with Murzin (sprinter) and lots of young riders.
- MG Technogym with Belli (climber)
- Novo Banco - PT with Staridas (climber with 77 mountain)
- Portugal Ride with Ghazal (Classic) and Coelho (TT)
- r Sukuran Pokemon with Contreras (Sprinter) and Soma (Classic with 71 sprint)
- Team FL with Lampe (Climber) and Henzell (Sprinter) - Confirmed
- UllesTribute with Santos (Sprinter)

-
Ulles Riding Dunqerque so cannot ride Giro.


Ok, so 3 teams already confirmed to ride the only real Giro: Donkey, FL and Liquigas
It seems Poke will not ride "the only real Giro" but Gaurain rx will do as well as Mercatone, Taka.
If Luques, MG, Novo, Portugal will ride we may have a nice field of 10-12 Teams.

Anyway I really hope to have 1t least 15 teams in the only real Giro!

@ Donkey :
1. I bought Paquito to win tours --> he already won the GC in Tirreno (+1 stage); Romadie (+3 stages) and also Ruta del Sol and North East India (last 2 are not so important but still)
2.Riding about 6 tours for him I understood how boring is to ride for a TT guy but anyway i think he deserves to ride at least 1 GT, that s why he is here.
3. I had only 4 climbers bought when they were 20YO - Don Massimo Croce and Sir Ulises Veracruz both reached 87 mountain.
Paquito already 88 mountain and Dario 86 mountain but he is only covering mountain now
...............................
Concluding for Team Liquigas is not difficult to have at least 87 climbers cause we have the know-how and the necessary means to reach a high level! (I would not say that about your nice team!)
A good manager does not have regrets! Anyway i am planning not to buy climbers with more than 55-56 TT in the future.

4.Maybe a FL rider, Gaurain rider or a rider from another team can beat Liquigas-CND leader but never a Donkey!

4) Beating Ortiz will be so much more fun than beating Malacarne!

---> the 1st part of your 4th point is a bit insane , dont you think?

As I said, it isn't Paquito who is boring, it is how you ride for him

Maybe my way of riding with Paquito is boring!
This is the reason why guys like Aquito or classics with good TT skills could not beat him in Tirreno and Romandie!

About your 2) If you had ridden for Veracruz you might have made that discovery a year ago

Liquigas-CND wrote:Maybe my way of riding with Paquito is boring!
This is the reason why guys like Aquito or classics with good TT skills could not beat him in Tirreno and Romandie!

Aquito ? Don't know that rider. ANyway don't know you talk about Romandie Tirreno or classics when we talk about Giro

I wonder how many teams with sprinters will be there. Anyway it will be an interesting situation, esp. with Taka and his two flat riders with 89 and 92 (!) flat but without sprinter... That could make flat stages very unpredictable.

I think I should bring Calabrese....

And I should leave Henzell at home... Bah, can't decide. With the current teams it makes almost no sense to bring him. Taka will be anti-sprint, two or three teams with riders with good sprint and mountain incl. Gaurain with perhaps good mountain proof flat riders. Allagen is also almost everytime anti-sprint... But on the other hand... why look at the other teams. Difficult decision. Might be Lichtenstein instead.

And this it will be. Will be off the first two flat stages anyway. So Team FL without Henzell and focusing on hilly and mountainous stages.

Favourite check:

General classement:

***** Paquito Ortiz (Liquigas-CND)
**** Jules Scheers (Gaurain Rx), Wladimir Belli (MG Technogym)
*** Ingemar Wassberg (Big Donkey), Kjell Leonard (Liberty Sarténe)
** Carlos Lampe (Team FL), Dario Malacarne (Liquigas-CND)
* Joao Peixe (Big Donkey), Douglas Maicon (Mercatone-uno)

Points classement:

*** Gaston Letrouffion (Gaurain Rx), Eduard Iordanescu (Mercatone-uno)
** Ali Ghazal (Portugal Ride), Elwyn Oxley (Team FL)
* Kimi Salonen (Liberty Sarténe)

Mountain classement:

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

Youth classement:

*** Douglas Maicon (Mercatone-uno)
** Michele Scarponi (Mercatone-uno)
* Miguell David (Novo Banco - PT)

Team classement:

*** Liquigas-CND
** Big Donkey
* Liberty Sarténe

Sorry for this afternoon, I was actually on the bike... Thought I could stop and put settings but yeah, as I sad app is reluctant against it

Well, Surprised we don't have real sprinters... Actually, if I didn't have a climber, I would have taken bot sprinters.

Not pretty sure I will be so active, maybe I'll muss some stages but I will do my best to be there at least with the app' and to bring animation in the field

Hmm... haven't been riding myself at stage 2 and 3, so this is merely a a review of the days in the Netherlands and a preview for the first week in Italy:

Stage 1, the best time trialist won, Theodor Jetson. He's still wearing the Maglia Rosa (that looks surprisingly yellow...) in front of Coelho and Squarcialupi. That's the top3 GC until tomorrow.

Stage 2, was controversial as I read. There was a decimated bunch sprint in the end with Elwyn Oxley as the winner and thus still wearing green (Maglia rossa!!!) as leader in the points classement. So, everybody thought there would also be a bunch sprint in stage 3, but this time it was a group of escapers that outsmarted the peloton with the sprinters. Anyway, Giosuè Bonomi won the last stage in the Netherlands and now everybody is enjoing the rest day.

Classement of the GC favourites looks like this after the first three stages:

01:08 Paquito Ortiz (Liquigas-CND)
01:15 Wladimir Belli (MG Technogym)
01:23 Carlos Lampe (Team FL)
01:35 Douglas Maicon (Mercatone-uno)
01:36 Dario Malacarne (Liquigas-CND)
01:38 Marius Lacatus (Liberty Sarténe)
01:39 Kiell Leonard (Liberty Sarténe)
01:45 Jules Scheers (Gaurain Rx)
01:46 Joao Peixe (Big Donkey)
01:52 Ingemar Wassberg (Big Donkey)

Points classement top 3:

1. 64 Elwyn Oxley (Team FL)
2. 53 Giosuè Bonomi (MG Technogym
3. 52 Gaston Letrouffion (Gaurain Rx)

Mountain classement top 3:

1. 3 Cesare Squarcialupi (Big Donkey)
2. 3 Miguel Tavares (Portugal Ride)
3. 2 Andre Bessa (Portugal Ride)


So far, all of the GC riders are in close range divided not even by one minute. This might change during the first week in Italy, as there will be 6 stages until the second rest day, including three middle mountain stage, one mountain stage and as grande finale the 40 km long time trial. Stage 8 will be interesting to due to it's strade bianche part uphill the Alpe di Poti before finishing the stage in Arezzo.

very interested GC!

But the Mountains Comes next week!

GC hasn't started yet really. Not more to say than before the start. Favorite is Liquigas, first with Ortiz, then with Malacarne. Ortiz would be the much better helper than Malacarne is, so if he were to decide to go for Malacarne he'd have his chances to win there too. But would be a big risk obviously, one I probably wouldn't take. More adrenaline than the expected safe Ortiz win, but the win chances would go down a lot too. He'll probably go with Ortiz....

Red, expected it not to be for the sprinters, and it looks I'm right. Although not for the reasons I thought. Thought that there wouldn't be that many sprints, Mercatone never struck me as the first one to ride, he'll ride when others do, but start, or early.... haven't seen that that far. Not a complete refusal to work from him usually, but certainly not a manager that is eager to work for his chances too much. So not such a surprise he went in the escape in the first stage, I thought grouo goes through, like I expected before the stage. FL then rode, that was a surprise too, a notorious non rider when he has the train but not the best sprinter.... he used to escape when he had a 90 with train vs 92 or so without... so here he worked, surprising. Yes, yes, sitter, but he most likely had orders etc. 79 with train vs 85+88 both without train. Fascinating.
So got the sprint, then the by now usual trick sprint, win for Oxley, who with that basically has the red already for sure. He'll be there in middle mountain stages, will score points in sprints too, but no need to actually get an MS, a few guys ahead like yesterday don't hurt at all. Although don't think that's even necessary, he'll get points and points on much more stages than the sprinters. And won't lose that many in the sprints. Guess we'll get sprints, Gaurain riding, FL helping, Mercatone not, now he claims that he won't ride after the trick sprint by FL on stage 2. Of course a position I fully support, just that somehow I doubt he would have ridden much without the trick sprint either... Anyway, Donkey is really happy he isn't in the sprint business anymore.

Today should be the first classic sprint. Unless a group goes through, but doesn't look like it too much right now, after all the race already started. But then possibly FL will be left on his own on days like this. Portugal with chances, but off, Liberty today probably not strong enough in the mountains, but off. So at least for today looks possible that FL has to do it on his own. But.. he doesn't necessarily need the win either, place 3 or 4, 5 etc still good for red, so 2 man group that goes to the end seems possible too.

Finally a long post from Roby, nice

But back to the facts: Yesterday, stage 4 took place and it was full of action. As predicted by RKL, Team FL had to work alone for a long time before LIquigas-CND decided to help too. Although the escape Group(s) were not a big danger, Gaurain took the chance and launched an attack around 40 km before the finish line. Like this, he had puller for Scheers in front after the last climb and could finish one sec in front of the main group, and win the stage with Scheers, incl. bonus seconds. So Scheers gained 11 secs on Ortiz and all other GC riders. All the classements changed a bit besides the points classement. So Miguel Perez is the new leader in the GC while finishing second for the stage. Fabio Roscoli took over the Maglia Verde from Scuarcialupi and Miguell David has been wearing white since yesterday. Some Donkey news too, he's now leading the team classement.

Horrible stage yesterday... after the brilliant attack with Cesare and Selwyn Zygumnt was left without helper. Sieb since there was nothing else to do with the ultra short leash I had, Zygmunt behind everybody... oh??? Ahhhhhhhh..... stopped the sieb thing and started loading Zygmunt, but too late. Missed the Gaurainattack then too... blah.
Lesson of the day. Recheck the helper setting regularly.