The Tour de France has finished......the sponsors wanted me to win it.
I sent Pardilla as my leader, with Devine, Crawford, Siutsou and Blanco riding in support. Cavendish, EBH, Wiggins and Tony Martin were my sprint stage team! Pardilla won the opening ITT, ahead of Wiggo, and Columbia decimated the opposition in the TTT on Stage 4. Pardilla, in fact, kept the Yellow jersey for the first 13 stages of the race! Then came the mountains, and Alberto Contador. At the start of stage 14, Contador was in 4th place, 2 minutes down on Pardilla. By the end of the stage, he was 3 minutes ahead on the road, and 1 minute ahead on the GC
Contador then managed to win Stages 15 and 16 AND 17, to take him 2 mins ahead of Pardilla on GC. Pardilla caught up some time on stage 18, clawing back 24" on Contador, leading us to....
Stage 20, and a 47 km ITT. Pardilla, with a TT stat of 82 vs Contador's TT stat of 77. Could he beat Contador by 1'36"?
Nooooooo, Pardilla comes 2nd, 1'19" ahead of Contador, who wins the Tour de France by 17". That's Contador's 2nd TdF win in a row, and 3rd time overall! Although we failed to achieve our goal, the sponsors were still very happy, as Pardilla finished 2nd, Cavendish won 3 stages and Siutsou took the KOM jersey.
In other news, we are definitely letting Ricco go at the end of the season, and have signed Gesink as his replacement. We've also signed Alexandr Pliuschin to ride the cobbles for us, and will be letting Possoni go at the end of the year also.
A good end of season saw Linus Gerdemann take the overall win in the Vuelta, by 17" (oddly enough the same amount of time that Pardilla lost the TdF by!), although as with last year, the field was pretty weak, with only Hector Gonzalez (82 mtn, 81 TT) able to challenge (he had already raced 55 days prior to the Vuelta though, so by the end his fitness was down to about 80, whereas Linus had only raced 35 before starting the Vuelta, and his fitness was 95+ for the whole 3 weeks). Moreno won the KOM jersey.
Kirchen produced some excellent end of season results, winning the Tour of Germany, the Vattenfall cyclassics and the Zuri-Metzgete, although he fell short of the sponsor goal of a Top 3 in the Giro de Lombardia, coming in 6th. Overall though, this was enough (combined with his spring results) to give Kirchen the overall win in the Pro Tour, something I hadn't achieved before.
Season 4 planning
Looking ahead, the Tour de France still eludes me, so I will be pushing for that in the coming season, and having renewed my cobble racing team I will be looking to get some good results there. The attached pic shows the squad makeup..........2 people out (Ricco and Possoni) and 2 in (Gesink and Pliuschin).
GT Leaders for next season:
TdF - Pardilla
Giro - Devine
Vuelta - Gerdemann (to try for 2 in a row)
Sprint Train
Sprinters - Vanoverschelde, Cavendish, Ciolek, Pacheco
Lead out - Boom, EBH, Southerland, Wiggins, Vanmarcke
Notable others - Gesink and Crawford haven't got the TT skills to challenge for a GT I don't think (and Gesink's Recovery stat isn't high enough either), but they will be invaluable in helping the Leader - I'm planning for Crawford, Rogers and Popovych to ride the Tour and Gesink and Devine the Vuelta; Siutsou will help Devine in the Giro.
My TdF squad is pretty strong, in both Mountain and TT categories, so we should have a good chance with the overall and KOM jerseys, and with Cavendish, EBH and Wiggins as the sprint train we should win stages as well.
The Vuelta team is also strong, as I want Gerdemann to win the overall, but one of the sponsor goals is to finish as leading sprinter. In the last few seasons of this career its been a Puncheur who has won the Vuelta sprint jersey, so Kirchen will be going for that instead of riding in the Tour of Germany.
The Giro team is the weakest, although Devine shuold get a top 5 and we have the ability to win stages and the KOM jersey.
I'll be starting the new season in Australia in the next few days.....wish me luck!
I'm so happy that have found this site!!! Soon i will tell smth about my career, where is the time to begin the 7th season for CSC Saxo Bank with just Cancellara, Steensen and Breschel to compare the team with real one =))
silent killer wrote:
I'm so happy that have found this site!!! Soon i will tell smth about my career,
can't wait
Contador has the highest Mountain stat in my game as well, with 83, with Pardilla and Gonzalez on 82 in joint second. They were the top 3 in last season's Tour de France, and I would expect the same again this season tbh, although hopefully Pardilla will win it this time! B)
My TdF squad is pretty strong, in both Mountain and TT categories, so we should have a good chance with the overall and KOM jerseys, and with Cavendish, EBH and Wiggins as the sprint train we should win stages as well.
The Vuelta team is also strong, as I want Gerdemann to win the overall, but one of the sponsor goals is to finish as leading sprinter. In the last few seasons of this career its been a Puncheur who has won the Vuelta sprint jersey, so Kirchen will be going for that instead of riding in the Tour of Germany.
The Giro team is the weakest, although Devine shuold get a top 5 and we have the ability to win stages and the KOM jersey.
I'll be starting the new season in Australia in the next few days.....wish me luck!
you have Vanoverschelde, an 85 sprinter with 78 resistance, yet he isn't a sprinter in any of your grand tours. why?
wackojackohighcliffe wrote:
you have Vanoverschelde, an 85 sprinter with 78 resistance, yet he isn't a sprinter in any of your grand tours. why?
Good question, well asked!
I like to give Pacheco a run out in 2 GTs as he has mountain and hill stats of 70 and 73 respectively, and can win stages where other sprinters have been dropped or are tired from small climbs. But looking at Vanoverschelde, the reason I haven't given him a go in the big tours is twofold:
Firstly, he is only about 23, and until he has fully developed I don't like to give youngsters more than 40 days of racing. A GT takes out 21 of those days, plus about 10 to get fit so I feel like I can get a better return with the youngsters from putting them in shorter races.
Secondly, Vano's recovery stat is only 66, which means that by halfway through a GT he will be absolutely knackered, and will probably end up being dropped horribly on a mountain stage and wind up outside the time limit. My other 3 big sprinters on the other hand have recovery stats in the 70s, and so are better suited to the longer races.
Gustavovskiy wrote:
Well you've got a great career going on there!
Have you considered makins a story of it?
I think it could be a very good one
Thanks very much. I did think about making it a story, but there is already a very good Columbia story going on, and I'm not sure I have the time (or maybe the patience ) to write up all the stages.......I suppose I could start one from the beginning of season 4 - I'll have to think about it
Edited by facmanpob on 08-01-2009 11:37
It's a boring Giro, though 
That's Contador's 2nd TdF win in a row, and 3rd time overall! Although we failed to achieve our goal, the sponsors were still very happy, as Pardilla finished 2nd, Cavendish won 3 stages and Siutsou took the KOM jersey. 
