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Since I'm not riding the Andes, a competition I might have a chance to win!
Afternoon off season classic.

The rules: Winner gets category*2. Second place gets 1 point. Too much work if we include more, it's about winning after all.

The standings after the first 2 races:

1 Alexei Tsoi (bergwerk) 6
2 Nael Astarloa (stevens) 4
3 Roland Kießkutscher (Kreatief)1
Lyubomir Karachorov (Atletico Lula) 1

Team classification.. everybody should be able to figure that out.

Lanzarote, the Donkey stupidly missed that, he didn't know there was an afternoon competition, went to the morning to teach those morning people a lesson (not about winning, some other lesson I guess) so Stevens won in the afternoon it seems. Winning the sprint of a 4 man group, a second group with 3 riders at 16" a third group at 58", Peloton 1'16".

GP Brescia, the greatest of all offseason classics, once again an interesting race, BW and Tsoi push the front group with 2 classics and the climbers to the finish, Tsoi attacking is strongest, the other hero of the day, Nael Astarloa only 4th 2" back. At 3" the first chasers, Sope of top favorite free, who once again couldn't hide his tactical weaknesses and spent too much energy too early. Just having the best riders isn't always enough!

Today the next battle, GP Coimbra, the last one in Europe, cat. 2, so Tsoi's leadership position can only be threatened by Astarloa. Right now BW and Stevens are inscribed, the 2 big teams of the afternoon. The afternoon senators, Big-D. T-Mob and Ali-A are there too, Kreatief and Lula though missing for the moment.

Hm, somehow don't think I'll win this competition anymore already now....

Good we have a thread, already missed the TdP thread. My goal is to win San Francisco Classic. That's all, is it ridden? is it parallel to the Andes? Will I ride Andes? Don't know

Sainsbury-Astarloa-Kepplinger today, 6" gained in the last hill, kept it in the downhill, lost 4" in the last km, but that was enough to stay ahead. In the sprint then no problem for Sainsbury to show that he is the man in form right now.
First missed chance for the sprinters, the classics dominate the classics. Now a break, then on the 14th San Francisco classic, cat 3. Really break too long, but with Speedy Gonzalez there makes no sense to have a classic with 3 teams parallel.

1 Alexei Tsoi (bergwerk) 6
2 Nael Astarloa (stevens) 5
3 Ryan Sainsbury (All-star)4
4 Roland Kießkutscher (Kreatief)1
Lyubomir Karachorov (Atletico Lula) 1

San Francisco classic, without All-star and Stevens, but with Bergwerk.
Not much happening except some siebs and riding early, then a late triple attack, Rossi-Bieri-Pommeroy, looked to be through, an ill adviced second attack attempt by Rossi made sure that we weren't through. Bergwerk instead of riding for Pommeroy then waited for Bieri who couldn't follow, he hadn't realized it wasn't a sieb but an attack...If Pommeroy then rides, maybe just enough for him to win it, maybe not. If Rossi doesn't attack but just rides the hill yes alone... feeling says we go through, but could be wrong, would have been close. INstead of 3" (or 4") on top of the hill we would have had around 10?
Who knows, anyway, AAD for Heuser with Volta helping caught us then, Heuser won the sprint but Pommeroy actually was faster in the sprint, mysteries of c4f, no idea how that's possible, Heuser despite riding a fair bit must have had 200 more energy, minimum. 7 less sprint, yes, but... Doesn't matter, he won, so the new standing is:

1 Alexei Tsoi (bergwerk) 6
Helmut Heuser (Alive and Dead) 6
2 Nael Astarloa (stevens) 4
3 Roland Kießkutscher (Kreatief)1
Lyubomir Karachorov (Atletico Lula) 1
Peter Pommeroy (Bergwerk) 1

Next stop already Wednesday, another cat 3, Chelly! Second chance for the sprinters, although with a sieb 20 km from the end and a +2 finish.

Very nice, McCulloch 2020, Heuser 2022, the 2021 classic generation sucked. I mean, what did this Detreköi win? Loser

Ical-Ganna in the GP Canyon de Chelly, which is almost my favorite offseason classic. Maybe because I never won it until last year (ok, was off in the Andes often in my defence)

Ganna with his super team, Ical with his, against a bunch of flat sprinters, none of them top actually, max 88 Ganna and Rrurrambu.

First sieb at km 126, then not ideal reaction in the back. Carrera off, he had 3 guys in the last group, and that was the group to ride IMO, at first at least. Then Liberty in the second group, decided to join with my 2 guys that weren't planned for later, but Liberty then in with all basically, incl. 88. Too much, IMO just 2-3 guys in, we still catch them. They weren't going to use much there, like us ideally just the guys that had been helping. So Liberty's 88 in there, Carrera 3 guys further back but not on to ride from there... not good. Again, ideally we ride with the last group, second group waits, then go with used mass and IMO still catch them

After the 6 at 152, one km later we actually were pretty close, 8" only. Wonder how far behind Ganna Rrurrambu was then, didn't check, thought have to wait for the back and the others, even if I had the guys I wanted with Rrurrambu. Maybe full power there to get back immediately better? Carpinteiro was strong, max mountain for Kwick there Savinci with 62-86, so minimally better than Carpinteiro on paper, if the difference was 2-3" Carpinteiro, then Bradman, depending on form that could be enough. But didn't think that far, didn't check, so 7" back then, up to 11", down to 6", up to 8" again in the end. But the front still had reserves. I think I had a pretty good team there for Rrurrambu, Carpinteiro-Bradman with some help from other teams would have gotten back many other teams, but Kwick... 90-86-86, add to that the Circles, 86-84-82... we never had a chance, hm, really wonder how it was after the 6 exactly, the Ganna-Rrurrambu I mean. And who was with Ganna.

Anyway, sprint, Ganna on the CC train, logic, was pretty likely that one would be stronger, probably Frei not 100% fit either, suspect he had to share a helper, if he even got one at all. Then over to Frei, but didn't get the wheel, behind the wheel-blocker, back to the left to Ical again once Puma went, then 150 sprint, up to Puma there, but Ical got that back pretty easily on the 2% finish. Gamboa happily in Ganna's wheel (happy because he got to be leader after all) an unexciting third.

So the standings are:

1 Alexei Tsoi (bergwerk) 6
Helmut Heuser (Alive and Dead) 6
Cadmael Ical (CircleCycle)6
2 Nael Astarloa (stevens) 4
3 Roland Kießkutscher (Kreatief)1
Lyubomir Karachorov (Atletico Lula) 1
Peter Pommeroy (Bergwerk) 1
Alfredo Ganna (r QUICK) 1

Bergwerk still ahead in the team classification, 7 points. All the other teams only 1 guy in the standings.

So all still very open, only Astarloa got points twice so far. Next meeting Friday, the climbers will try to score for once. And then from next week on the great Andes riders will rejoin the competition too.

Need to update before today's race.

Villalba, not an exciting race, in the end easy win for Payot. Even a double win for the Donkey, since Asier despite not being helped for long periods of time, thanks to his 100 form managed to keep up with Payot until the last climb, while the other climbers were dropped earlier. Clear favorite Donkey, brought it home without difficulty, wasn't challenged fortunately.

1 Alexei Tsoi (bergwerk) 6
Helmut Heuser (Alive and Dead) 6
Cadmael Ical (CircleCycle)6
2 Nael Astarloa (stevens) 4
Guillaume Payot (Big Donkey)4
3 Roland Kießkutscher (Kreatief)1
Lyubomir Karachorov (Atletico Lula) 1
Peter Pommeroy (Bergwerk) 1
Alfredo Ganna (r QUICK) 1
Asier Basterretxea (Big Donkey)1

Teams still Bergwerk, 7 points, AAD 6, Donkey now 5

Quick strikes, quite big group for our standards lately, liked it, Quick controlled well, in tempo when nobody else wanted, let us minor contenders play a bit when we thought we should do something. I had mass, without the outstanding leader, messed up my double attack a bit, a bit in the sense that it became a single attack... But even if double, probably followers, then depending on who we might not get far at all. In the end closer than I thought would be for the climbers, Blind caught only in the last km, ok, that seemed possible, but he still had 5", thought would be less by then. Hm, climbers might be an option here.... but don't think so really.
Easy sprint win for Camoranesi finally. Heuser getting second takes over the GC!

1Cesare Camoranesi (r QUICK)
2Helmut Heuser (Alive And Dead)


So

1 Helmut Heuser (Alive and Dead) 7
2Alexei Tsoi (bergwerk) 6
Cadmael Ical (CircleCycle)6
2 Nael Astarloa (stevens) 4
Guillaume Payot (Big Donkey)4
Cesare Camoranesi (r QUICK)
3 Roland Kießkutscher (Kreatief)1
Lyubomir Karachorov (Atletico Lula) 1
Peter Pommeroy (Bergwerk) 1
Alfredo Ganna (r QUICK) 1
Asier Basterretxea (Big Donkey)1

Teams:
AAD+BW 7
CC 6
Quick+Donk 5
Stevens 4
Kreatief-Lula 1
T-Mobile-A 0

Tesla win, beats Ganna in the sprint. Early escape, Donks tries a sieb and provoke the stronger hill sprinters to ride, Rossi could have done some parts of the mountain too, but nobody was interested, so just get the group and hang... Goes, not dangerous, possible other attacks more dangerous, but none happened. Sprint, nobody strong on Tesla, he wins, barely, 10 meters mroe and Ganna goes past.

No changes in rider GC, Heuser still in front.

1 Helmut Heuser (Alive and Dead) 7
Alexei Tsoi (bergwerk) 6
Cadmael Ical (CircleCycle)6
Nael Astarloa (stevens) 4
Guillaume Payot (Big Donkey)4
Cesare Camoranesi (r QUICK)4
Nikola Tesla (Alive And Dead)4
Alfredo Ganna (r QUICK) 2
Roland Kießkutscher (Kreatief)1
Lyubomir Karachorov (Atletico Lula) 1
Peter Pommeroy (Bergwerk) 1
Asier Basterretxea (Big Donkey)1

Team:
AAD with a big jump, from 7 to 11 points, now 4 points clear of BW. Donkey should have done this last year, might have won it, not like this year.. grr

AAD 11
BW 7
CC Quick 6
Donk 5
Stevens 4
Kreatief-Lula 1
T-Mobile-A 0

Nice and I wasn't aware we are riding a offseason classic today. Me in a meeting today, so do some fast helper settings and hope to be on early enough not to get dropped. Think I was just in time, as Kreatief dropped out of the race just some minutes later. Anyways, was not planned to do anything different when beeing on. Keeping all 3 70 sprinters fit and try a 2 men train this time with Faye -> Tesla. I have heard some signs, that this Ganna will be in Hintons wheel, and then not even a top 3 place likely. So I was hoping nobody is on Tesla, and even managed to bring Celsius (helper for 40km) in between Tesla and Zuzek. Celsius not able to follow Faye's sprint at 450m and with that noone in Tesla's wheel. Went from 300 and was pretty sure that will be enough after I saw the first 50m sprint of Ganna. But this Ganna didn't give up and in the end is was closer as expected.

2 races, Donkey twice pointless third. Good "winning" attack with Rossi& Basterretxea on Saturday, just that the half offline 2 man escape survived by 2". Gipfel riding alone, Liberty on siebing on 6, waiting and then getting second. Donks should have ridden more with AAD in the chase after all ..

Sunday for Bieri, worked well, sprinters, 2 good teams kept away together with Stevens. Sprint...fucked by tricksprint. Bieri looked good for third even without it, maybe second.. but with the tricksprint it's just annoying. Too bad my anti tricksprint measure wasn't effective. Oh well, I know I'll take 5th place over cooperation next time around.

Heuser still in front.

1 Helmut Heuser (Alive and Dead) 7
Alexei Tsoi (bergwerk) 6
Cadmael Ical (CircleCycle)6
Cesare Camoranesi (r QUICK)5
Nael Astarloa (stevens) 4
Guillaume Payot (Big Donkey)4
Nikola Tesla (Alive And Dead)4
Oleksandr Outschakov (Gipfelstuermer) 4
Jolyne Cujoh (stevens) 4
Alfredo Ganna (r QUICK) 2
Andres Alsina (Liberty Sarténe) 1
Roland Kießkutscher (Kreatief)1
Lyubomir Karachorov (Atletico Lula) 1
Peter Pommeroy (Bergwerk) 1
Asier Basterretxea (Big Donkey)1

Team: Stevens second now, Kwick keeps scoring with second places. 3 now unless I made a mistake somewhere, which is very possible.


AAD 11
Stevens 8
BW - Quick 7
CC 6
Donk 5
Gipfel 4
Kreatief-Lula-Liberty 1

Donks now probably will miss most races for a month. Going to some cold third world country, Switzerland it's called I think, not even sure they have internet there! And if they have it's probably only in the evening.

Anyway, somebody else will have to update here until I'm back in civilization!

Really enjoyed the Saturday classic. Good group, even with RFM. Tesla still favorite. Only Volta could get rid of him, which he unexpectedly did. But if not...Celsius fit for too long, than after a potential attack, weakened classics against Volta at a 5-6 combo? Don't see it.

Helped too much for that but Gael-Cesare strong, so I'llhelp anyway... at least stopped right in time twice. In the end even Duarte dominating Cesare in sprint like not often seen before.

Happy for Outschakov, beast of rider.

Yesterday... meh. Thought Frei together with CC is stronger. Then got outsprinted im front by Stevens. Didn't take Bieris wheel when he presented it to me. Stupid. Thought I stay on Akanji and launch for Bieri later... But Bieri obviously sprinted earlier.Cesare not attentive enough.

Quick wrote: ↑

Mon Dec 05, 2022 9:36 am

Happy for Outschakov, beast of rider.

Just realized that it was race win #300 for the team. In an off-season classic! nice!