Tour Down Under 15h

[team fl]

Team FL changes to the afternoon for the Tour Down Under! Yay! Line-up for this:

x1 Stéphane Antiga
x2 Stefano Benni
x3 Henri Bienvenu
x4 Benni Büchel
x5 Victor Fargas
x6 Roy Lichtenstein
x7 Jean Ollé Ollé
x8 Xaver Unsinn
x9 Walter Walch

Order is in pure alphabetical order. Not that Antiga could not be our GC-leader, but as much as he is, it is also every other rider in the team. Ok, Büchel might be a bit too young yet, but the rest... For that, the salary is also way too much, but if we want to win everything as usual, it has to be like that.

[Robyklebt]

The ape will join too

1 M. Trapani
2 D. Gao
3 B. Gong
4 N. De Pellevoisin
5 Y. Ramirez
6 P. Scodreanu
7 D. Sekiguchi
8 Z. Yamada
9 M. Yrjönpoika

At least that's what my piece of paper says, although it's not really complete. Some doubts about Markku and Ramirez, for sprints Markku isn't a big help really, one less guy that can ride. And Yesid although he is the dominator of December, not sure if he really makes sense here. Anyway, the whole team is going to Adelaide, 9 guys will ride, 10 will train, last minute changes still possible. Some more guys for sprint work somehow would make sense.... after all it could very well be that OlléOllé and Gao end up being top sprinters here.... all those hills! Chickensprinters might, as usual, be afraid and rather complain instead of just starting.

[team fl]

Aiaiai, weekly schedule has just changed. Could be that I ride in the morning again... But let's see what else happens today...

[Robyklebt]

Scared of my team it seems.

[team fl]

Scared of you, not of your team. But scared of Alkworld too, or this Password guy. And Alma/Brath is weird! Perhaps I should start here anyway... grmpf.

[Robyklebt]

Yes, what makes me strong is not the riders, but my tactical brilliance. So scared of me.

[team fl]

Decision is made, it's gonna be 15h. Meeting this afternoon is cancelled. For everything else it would not matter anyway.

[team fl]

Uh, nice group, although only 10 teams:

- Petit Singe fighting for the GC with Trapani AND Ramirez but lots of work for Sekiguchi
- Bunny Funny has arrived in the sprinting business?
- Deuseburger with Bergh perhaps a menace for Trapani
- Team FL fighting for white against Allrad with Bennsinn power
- vagaderi seems to try an early attack every day
- RC Cost might join vagaderi...
- Allrad fighting for white against Team FL and for sprints
- De la Galactico has the only real 80-70 and nothing much besides that
- darlow is basically the only threat for Singe's GC ambitions with Ivanov and the experience of 9 races.
- Nunziata Racing adds 14 races to the group and mainly a 92 sprinter.

So, the favorite check:

General classement:

***** Michele Trapani (Petit Singe)
****
***Sergi Ivanov (darlow), Yesid Ramirez (Petit Singe)
** Carlos Jaramago, Eckhard Bergh (both Deuseburger)
* A surprise rider

Points classement

*** Patrick Lindner (Allrad)
** Iannis Kapralos (Bunny Funny)
* another rider

Mountain classement

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

Youth classement

*** Roy Lichtenstein (Team FL), Charles Oakley (Allrad)
** Jim Sonegzo (Deuseburger)
* Ola Mattson (RC Cost)

Team classement
*** Petit Singe
** Deuseburger
* Team FL

[Robyklebt]

Deuse makes the whole thing very interesting IMO. Mostly green and yellow. Agree that I'm the nr 1 favorite, but IMO Bergh has bigger chances than Ramirez.
Red IMO will be Vagaderi. Green wide open, the most unpredictable right now.

[team fl]

The expected winner for stage 1: Lindner from Allrad, who takes over yellow and green. Vodkarum, although might be an alcoholic, is in white. The main action for Team FL of course was the attack with Bennsinn and winning three consecutive intermediary sprints with Benni. Let's see what we can do with that advantage. I think it's not enough either for green nor for yellow.

[Robyklebt]

18" for Benni. Wasn't worried about that too much during the race, if I was IMO could have gotten him back pretty fast... now after the race I'm more worried. Benni carried up by Roy might be too strong for Trapani? Grrr. Other problem is that tomorrow Benni might gain more bonus seconds at the arrival, mmh, don't like that at all. But we'll see if I was a complete idiot today by not really reacting, just making sure he couldn't really ride for the stage or if it was still ok. Anyway, now Benni is clearly the Aromat in the soup, since Bergh is already the salt.

The rest, not much happening, fight for red first, Vagaderi with the ponts. Then... Beneke in red at an early 5, nobody dropped, he probably wasn't fit. Then very happy Bergh didn't show up for the next 5, because twice Bergh IMO kills my 2 sprinters. He didn't even try in the last 5, and there Markku, who brilliantly was without helper after the previous 5 would have been dropped pretty sure. Ok, didn't matter, since both my star sprinters then sucked. But so finally it was a surprisingly easy sprint.

But the action of the day clearly 18" for Benni. Still not sure what to think, as I said during the race maybe wasn't concerned enough about 18"?`Thought, will get it back and he's still blocked by Bergh... pretty sure he's ahead of Bergh now.. but Trapani? 4 km Willunga... mmh.. ok, hope no bonifications for that bad boy tomorrow first, Benni being the bad boy.

[Robyklebt]

0" for Benni, I like that. FL and Deuse didn't want to ride for their stage chances, which IMO were much much much bigger than those of Trapani. Ok, in retrospect it was really clearer for Benni over Bergh than I thought, thought Deuse might stay away from Benni much longer, if not til the end. But ok, not letting Jaramago help Bergh on the 6 cost some seconds, but probably not enough. So Deuse had foresight it seems in not riding. Anyway, neither FL nor Deuse wanted to ride for their stage, which was more than ok for me. GC then... we were all close to losing it, in the end I went smoking just in time, and there decided, ok, I'll join FL who is riding green with a dead guy to keep the GC alive for us.... come back, FL out too, almost 9', first thought, ok no tempo then, then ok, let's see if he rejoins.. he did, all went pretty perfectly for us from that moment on. Ahead they lost time by gettng rid of DelaGalactico, so lost only 1'47". Which isn't automatic in getting it back, but can be worth a try. Getting more complicated here anyway.
But finally pretty satisfied with today. Really thought I'd lose at least bonifications today, when Benni caught me before the -2 was afraid of losing even more, but no attack.

[team fl]

I just should have wasted Walch and Büchel for the chance for the stage win... But I really thought the climbers would be stronger in the downhill and was a bit afraid of Bergh... underestimated Benni. Won't do it again. Anyway, as you said, the GC is still open although it is also more complicated after the two in the front group gained 1'50''... We will see. It's not a catastrophy but also not really making me happy.

[Robyklebt]

catastrophe! Nothing to do with any trophy!3

"Our" chance for the 2' (for you less, yes yes) is actually the double Willunga. But first I have to survive the next 2 days without further time loss.... 3-3 finish, dammit, looks dangerous somehow... I might be for a group again tomorrow. 20" bonifications would simply kill me. Or a desperate blocking attempt at the end.

[team fl]

What I messed up yesterday worked today: Getting the stage win! Now more than half a minute ahead of the climbers looks veeeeery good. Still there are the two escapees from yesterday more than a minute in front of Benni, but hopefully they won't get fit until Saturday, both having a very low Reg skill with 37 and 35. Perhaps there will be even a chance tomorrow? We will see. After yesterday, green will be reserved for Lindner form Allrad most probably. White is still open too, although Eriksson with an advantage of 2'05'' could do it. Vagaderi staying the top favorite for red.

[Robyklebt]

Ok, now yellow seems clear, although Vagaderi and Cost aren't completely out of it yet. Trapani and Bergh on the other hand. Pretty much out, would need some big mistakes by FL for them to win it now.
Actually ok, so in the end the mistakes in the first stage doesn't matter too much. Today of course a mistake too, but at least I kind of knew what I was doing. Which wasn't the case on tuesday Saw the danger, just did the wrong thing, much better than not understanding anything like last time. Of course should have blocked the second 4 with Daiken. Benni still gets away, but not that far. Then not follow with Daiken but use him in the last 3km again, and .... maybe enough to catch Benni? Or maybe not, he was very strong. Daiken my fittest rider at around 960 I think when Benni went, Benni very likely had 1000, so, ok. Off course putting Daiken on Benni was stupid in the first place, my great plan was to hope with x riders on Benni he then would be blocked, didn't see that there simple weren't that many riders around who could follow. Then next of course should have put Ramirez on him too, like the original plan was, Trapani at this point was hopeless, helping the whole day basically, so pretty dead.

Still, good attack, stage and now IMO he has it in his hands to win the GC too. 18" was critical to get back 38" if he makes Benni help Walch maybe.... good idea! But ok, now the main goal is the stage on saturday with Trapani.

On a bigger scale, what do we learn from Down Under?
1. Never encourage FL to ride in the afternoon.
2. Know your ennemy. That means read Stefano Benni's book to understand how his mind works!
3. That Hugo Marxer is just too good.

[Ronson]

Go Benni Go!

[Robyklebt]

Go away Benni, go away!

Fixed it for you.

[Ronson]

Go away Benni, go away!

Fixed it for you.

[team fl]

Another 10 seconds for Benni, great. And thanks to that also still in the green jersey, although he will lose it to Lindner on Sunday most likely. Besides that, not much happened today. vagaderi went for points for red, Nunziata following him. In the end, Petit Singe tried everything but either could not attack successully or gave up shortly after the attack because the pelOton(hihi) was too close. Anyway, in the end Lindner won from the predictable Nunziata sprinting train. Tomorrow might be the day of the climbers, finally. And hopefully the day Benni gets his yellow leader jersey. SK Blu-Bardhe will try for Team FL to achieve that goal. So be nice to him, or not (but then in a creative way please).

[Ronson]

SK Blu-Bardhe will try for Team FL to achieve that goal.

Looks good. We just have to align at the way the stage should be ridden

[Robyklebt]

Trapani wins and nobody writes? Grr
Trapani without attack or sprint, only Yesid could follow, fighting.... but Trapani got the win. In retrospect maybe should have given it to Yesid, after all Yesid in Allez Cola in December let Trapani a stage win, since Trapani was still at 0, so would have been a good payback. But ok, Trapani got it.

GC... tried some FL weakening attacks which didn't work since he was just laughing at my attacks basically. Only guy weakened was Narcisse. So gave up that try after a while... First Willunga the surprise, at 6 sieb by Unsinn, who then disappeared. Where is he? Scrolling, scrolling... oh, he's with OlléOllé. Deuseburger then took over and siebed Benni and co away. Flat... Bergh rides, not really sure how much sense it made, the whole thing could work, but was very unlikely. The Bergh/Ramirez group, 16" back the Benni group with Beneke/Sekiguchi, but without Unsinn. My guess is that the Deuseplan was to attack with Bergh somewhere in the flat, and go get the stage... but...FL had to continue riding, he simply didn't care about the front I guess, it's the back that was interesting, where the Cost/Vagaderigroup was slowly coming back. So... even if Bergh goes and wins those 16".. Trapani in the back still has some chances to come back with Sekiguchi then in tempo. Plus of course the more Bergh rode, the bigger the chances for Yesid to follow. Group behind came closer, Sekiguchi attacks, goes to the front, waits a km for Beneke, could help Trapani there, but what for... by then the stage was basically won. Trapani 87, Ramirez 84, Jaramago 83 but already used energy. Then the attack from Bergh, Ramirez still following, attack was senseless there by then, with Seki in the same group. Then just a nice siebing climb by Trapani, everybody else dropped, Ramirez just manages to stay. Double win. In the back Benni still got 4th, good result, but of course he's 10" off yellow. Hard... without Marxer telling Unsinn to wait for OlléOllé it would have been enough. But, let's not forget today when in march OlléOllé will win MSR. And have to say Vagaderi+Cost defended better than I had thought they could. And in the end it's stage 2 that cost Benni the win still. As excellent as he was on stage 1,3,4 and 5 actually too, Benni did will, on stage 2 he was too scared. Ah, Benni finally lost 24" to Trapani today, but would have been more if Trapani attacked in the last km. But on the other hand would have been less if Benni at the bottom had been in the same group, he was 1" back, and fresh, he rode 2-3 km, he had too, I might even have put him in a bit earlier. So even the 18" from day one might have been too much for Trapani, with an attack at the 6 overall I would have been slower. Ha, in the end it's day 1 that costs Benni the win! 18", so Ape the next day isn't riding, at 0" he would have, yep, Benni might get some bonis, but no problem, lalala.

Favorites now:
Yellow: Del Rio-Benni and Erikson in intermediate reach, but not easy.
Green: Lindner, Benni might still mount a challenge, 8 points ahead and yellow attack would mean green attack too of course.
Red: Trapani? I didn't even want it this time.... he just got it kind of automatically? But ok, maybe Vagaderi wants that too and attacks?
White: Erikson
Team: Ape! Ape! Ape!

For me... forget Markku, bring Buttu, forget Ramirez, bring Legrand as would have been logic, ok, then cut Scodreanu and bring Fariborz or so, might have given me a better chance like that only had 5 guys with some flat... stage 3 Legrand would have been worth a lot, something over 20" for Trapani. But ok, would have needed to block then of course.. But ok, Ramirez last race very very very likely, last stage race for Markku too, they had to ride one more, so no problem, they had to come. And got the stage win, even if at the start I saw myself as GC favorite, bah, Benni for most of the time was just stronger. So not too many regrets.

[team fl]

First, GW to the Singe for the double victory.

The rest is also said quickly: Yes, it was stage 2 that decided the tour and that was clearly my mistake, thus no harm to SK Blu-Bardhe. This can happen. And as I've already written with him, he is most unhappy with himself. Of course bad for Benni, but if Ollé Ollé really wins MSR, SK Blu-Bardhe and the Hugo Marxer-tactic will be mentioned together forever at Team FL .

[Robyklebt]

Grr, my fantastic plan with Sekiguchi didn't work... was actually kind of a plan... since everybody would be following Benni most likely, do that too, then see if it can go further.. bah.

But what counts is the team classification, Won by apes. Sprinter highly unsuccessful, so we don't like sprint anymore.
Interesting 6 days, ok, one day was one of the most boring RSF days ever, 2 days ago? But otherwise cool tour.

[team fl]

Don't think I have been relieved like this after a stage race. Benni wins green! Would have never thought this could be possible. In the end it was Nunziata who decided to give up his sprint train and thus letting Lindner and the rest of the green candidates sprint from 50m. Gridlestone from Deuseburger won the stage, vagaderi defended white in a very sovereign way (neutralizing Benni's attempt with the glimpse of an eye), the Singe saved red for Trapani and the team classification and finally Cost could take home the white jersey of the best rider in the youth classement. All happy? Think Allrad is not. But I also think he has to hang on Benni in this situation, although most probably not knowing about Nunziata's and vagaderi's discussion about sprint. Anyway, for Team FL it was a good end of the Tour Down Under 2013. Second points classement in January for Benni and again lots of money.