Atlas Tour 23h

[scorpsche]

TeamSWE line up for the home tour in Algeria:

• Lucian Filip (Leader, complaining about last stage itt)

• Mohamed Bouzidi (Co-Leader, Algerian champion and complaining about mountains but happy to ride in his home country)

• Jan Schweiger (Mountain "Edelhelfer" and leader for white, does not complain at all)

• Miguel Almiron (Spanish flat beast, likes the high temperatures in December)

• Mohamad Alloula (Helper for hilly terrain, proud to ride in front of all Algerian fans)

• Ayoub Karrar (Helper for hilly terrain, is happy his mother brings him food every evening)

• Hamza Mansouri (Flat+TTT helper, will give everything for his leaders)

• Wout Thys (Flat+TTT helper, miss his brother Philippe but glad to be in partially French speaking country)

[scorpsche]

Just boring people 23h...no presenting his team or writing nice analysis like Gipfel for Andes

[Pokemon Club]

Just tired to do that

[scorpsche]

Here we have an interview with local hero Mohamed Bouzidi.
The Algerian champion won the last stage - a time trial over 20km with 1:35min to the 2nd rider and finished 3rd overall.

Q: "Mohamed, how are you? It must be great to win here in your home country."
A: "Thanks, it is overwhelming. As some might know Béjaïa is even very close to my home town. A big part of my family was here and it felt like a million Algerians around the track."

Q: "You finished 3rd overall and won this stage with a big distance to other riders. However there were not only fans but also experts who said you must have won this tour. In addition it seems your team seemed to give you the captains role quite early - maybe too early? What do you have to say?"
A: "Today I'm very tired after this long and difficult tour and also very happy about what the team and me have reached. It is my first year where I'm not counting as youth rider anymore - I still have to learn and improve myself. This counts for the team as well. We are quite new and reached already a lot. But we can do better. And I want to say clearly that I'm happy to be in the team and I got this opportunity to be the captain in this tour. All my team mates tried their best to support me. Lucian and Jan both put back their own ambitions without complaining which I don't take for granted."

Q: "Ok, no discussion this is a good result. But let's get more specific: there were 3 stages where you lost time to Yui Yuigahama. Experts say you should have been on one level with her. What are your thoughts about it? Can you give some insights?"
A: "First of all, Yui is really a great champion. Maybe not at the level she was at her peak but still very strong. Also with the experience of Yui and the whole Pokemonogatari she deserved to be 2nd in the tour.
Stage 3 our strategy was that I follow her - however I got stucked in peloton shortly before she attacked. The last 2 stages before the time trial were very hard.
Stage 11 we missed 1 or 2 classic riders to be honest and the whole team was focused on RC Cost. Which wasn't bad but we should have paid more attention on Yui. I'm not sure if it would have been a good idea to follow Yui...
Stage 12 we were going for the stage only and my priority was to be fit for the time trial. We hoped that Team Alonso Cycle would have done a better job controlling the peloton at the mountain as we were with 2 riders in front group. Probably I should have followed Yui but we didn't expect it. Again: she is a great rider and showed her class once more that day."

Q: "Thank you for these insights and this interview. All the best for your future races!"
A: "Thank you for having me and the wishes. I'll be back!"

[Mangahn]

Congratulation Alonso!

Your first Tour - Win. Its not a small one.

You deserved the win because of the best mix.
A strong Captain with Axel Steinbach 86-61-79-60 with 50 reg was a good basis for the win. Clay was the importand helper with 71-78-77.

Not much visible faults made as manager at the tour. Not to passiv. Although not to activ, too.

There was luck for you, too. Cost without inspiration gets his day-wins. SWE to imbalanced.

Scheiss auf Englisch, meinen Glückwunsch, alter!

Poke auf Platz 2 ist bedenklich für die Leistung aller anderen. Dennoch: den gebotenen Raum hast Du gut genutzt. Klasse!

SWE, die Tür zum Gesamtsieg war offen. Aber niemand macht alles richtig. Von daher passt es schon. Ein klassiker mehr und bei einer Tour wie dieser wird es viel leichter.

Es war spannend euch zuzusehen. Danke.