Overall we have to be happy with 2nd. We only went in expecting a top 10, and maybe a stage win so from that perspective in was superb. But of course, coming so close is annoying.
Pinots will be doing the Vuelta, can he go one better. Pinot also stated, he will absolutely be doing the Tour de France next year. He now feels that despite his young age that he can cope with the pressure of the French race.
01/06/14 – Andy Tennent declines offer of a contract saying he wants to weigh up his options
01/06/14 – Simon Yates and Phillip Graves are signed from the Development squad. British Airways will attempt to sign Josh Edmundson, if not we will need to leave a blank space as we will not have the Yorkshire contingent. Yates replaces Murray on the Cobblestone team, Phillip Graves replaces Peter Williams.
01/06/14 – British Airways 5th on UCI worldtour rankings with 626 points. The Sprint team have 110+61+4= 175 pts. Cobblestone team have 76+20+10= 106 pts. Grand tour team have 341+38+10=389 pts. Thibaut Pinot top rider with 341 pts in 3rd place.
02/06/14 – Gallopin recovers from injury.
16/06/14 – Russell Downing crashes in the lead out at the Tour of Luxembourg. He has broken his rib, meaning for the 2nd Grand tour, British Airways are without their team captain..
17/06/14 – Thibaut Pinot wins the Tour de Suisse.
29/06/14 – Bob Jungels won the Luxembourg National Championships.
Firstly this is a randomly generated tour so not the real route. I've decided the Yorkshire stages are the first three. 1xPrologue, and 2x Hilly stages.
Arriving at this race was the reason the team was setup and we are looking to win a stage in the first three stages.
I've come with a Sprint team to this race, Ben Swift will be our leader. He is not a good enough sprinter to beat Mark Cavendish, Marcel Kittel and Andre Griepel on the absolute flat stages, but he can climb, meaning he needs to go for the harder "Flat" stages. Jonathan Tiernan-Lovke is also riding and may give us another option on the harder hilly stages,
Please note I do not have a GC rider here so there are a number of stages where I have no interest (i.e. Mountains and Time Trials) so I will automate these stages. Also I don't care about the top 10, my interest is in stage wins.
Target: Stage win (in Yorkshire).
Squad:
Nicholas Boyle
Ed Clancy
Paul Jones
James Sampson
Alexander Simpson
Ben Swift
Andrew Tennant
Scott Thwaites
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
BA interest: Going for stage win. Hilly course with a flat finish. Tactics to drop the big sprinters (Cavendish, Kittel and Griepel), Sagan and Degenkolb are not here so if we can drop those three we have a good chance of taking the stage.
49km wind, so possible chances of splits too.
Breakaway: J Roy(FDJ) and P Weening (OGE)
Omega Pharma Quickstep doing the work at the front. With 2 hills to go, breakneck descent from Ben Swift to catch up with the leading group. The good news is the sprinters have been dropped. The bad news, so have most of our support riders. Only 4 Yorkshire riders (Thwaites, Tiernan-Locke, Simpson and Swift) left in the peleton. Luckily Movistar are driving the pace, Presumably for Rojas and Valverde.
On the final hills a breakaway group goes with the classics riders and some GC riders: Van Avermat, Rodriquez, Contador, Hejesdal, Quintana, Kwiakowski, Cancellara and Voeckler. Tiernan-Locke goes with the group and just sits at the back watching them all attack. Ben Swift stays in the group behind.
So we're in a good position. Tiernan-Locke can sit in the breakaway without working, and if teams bring the breakaway back, we have Swift ready, with Thwaites to lead him out.
Tiernan-locke attacks with 3km to go. And takes the stage.
Cancellara moves into Yellow.
"I got the reccy wrong, it was really not a sprinters stage." As the Team Manager Gaffeff put it “This was our goal when we setup the team, and we’ve achieved it”.
Stage: Jonathan Tiernan-Locke (BAY)
Yellow: Fabian Cancellara (TFR)
BA interest: Going for stage win. Hilly stage, harder than 2. More likely to be Tiernan-Locke. Also most of the team is shattered after yesterdays very hard ride.
Tiernan-Locke possible for the stage. Swift and others going to recover. Simpson will be cover rider for Tiernan-Locke.
All together until the final 30km. J Roy(FDJ) and E Gasparotto (AST) breakaway is caught. Hesjedal attacks splitting the pack. Tiernan-Locke sitting with the Froome group chasing back. 1 hill to go.
Follow Costa on his attack after 13k, Death defying descending by Tiernan-Locke but the distance to the Hesjedal group is too big.
Hesjedal takes the stage, Kwiatowski is the runner up with Nairo Quintania in third. Tiernan-Locke finishes 4th.
BA interest: With Cobbles, unlikely to be able to impact here.
Status: Tiernan-Locke: Excellent.
Swift: Very Good
Clacy: Average.
Rest: Good.
Quiet stage until S Vanmarke (BEL), Y Gene (EUR) breakaway.
Stays quiet until the cobbles with 25km to go. British Airways resting before tomorrows team time trial. With 20km to go, breakaway of L Boom (BEL), F Cancellara (TFR), T Boonen )OPQ), Z Stybar (OPQ).
None can match them, with Boonen and Cancellera laying down the pace. Then with 10km to go, Stybar attacks. Boonen just watches the others. They cannot organise a decent chase and Stybar takes the stage.
Stage: Zdenek Stybar (OPQ)
Yellow: Fabian Cancellara (TFR)
Edited by Gaffeff on 06-06-2014 18:17
BA interest: With Cobbles, unlikely to be able to impact here.
Tiernan-Locke: Excellent.
Swift & Simpson: Very Good
Clancy: Average.
Rest: Good.
Sky thumps the TTT taking 40 seconds out of 2nd placed Omega Pharma. British Airways finish in 10th place losing 1 minute 30 seconds. Happy with Mid table mediocrity.
Stage: Sky
Yellow: Tom Boonen (OPQ)
Edited by Gaffeff on 06-06-2014 18:49
BA interest: Possible sprint stage, but won't be hard enough to lose the big boy sprinters.
Excellent: Tiernan-Locke, Swift, Simpson, Boyle and Jones.
Very Good: Thwaites, Sampson.
Good: Tennant, Clancy.
46 kph Wind. At 60 km, goes upto 70kph.
Sprint finish, Mark Cavendish takes the stage. Fast Finish, Swift tries to stay behind Boonen (Cavs lead out) but can’t.
Stage: Mark Cavendish (OPQ)
Yellow: Tom Boonen (OPQ)
BA interest: Possible sprint stage, but won't be hard enough to lose the big boy sprinters.
Swift: Excellent
Tiernan-Locke, Simpson: Very Good
Thwaites, Sampson, Boyle, Jones, Tennant: Good.
Clancy: Average.
Sprint stage. Don’t have the strong team today to lead him out today, will have to rely on Swifts ability.
Breakaway: J Simon (COF), S Puccio (SKY), M Iglinsky (AST), J Roy (FDJ)
35k Argos Shimano trying to split the Peleton.
11k Argos successfully split the peleton.
Ben Swift talking to Froome “Didn’t think this would be the queen stage”.
J Simon takes the stage hanging on to finish just ahead of the sprint of A Greipel.
The Lead group takes 9:24 from the peleton!!!!!. What a stage, just a flat stage. Has this decided the Tour. Sky massively out of it now. Contador, Roche, Quintana and Hesjedal made the group.
Stage: Julien Simon (COF)
Yellow: Michał Kwiatkowski (OPQ)
BA interest: Possible sprint stage, but won't be hard enough to lose the big boy sprinters.
Swift: Excellent
Tiernan-Locke, Thwaites, Simpson, Sampson: Good.
Boyle, Jones, Tennant, Clancy: Average.
Need to bolster the recovery skills for this team, not strong enough.
Breakaway: M Hayman (OGE), S Chainel (ALM), J Roy (FDJ), J Coppel (COF)
35k Argos, Lotto Belisol and Omega Pharma Quickstep thundering out the pace.
15 km good leadout organised. Swift blocked out by Roelands on the run in though.
Swift takes 6th, Griepel takes the stage. Kwiatofski keeps the yellow going into the rest day.
Stage: Andre Griepel (LTB)
Yellow: Michał Kwiatkowski (OPQ)
TDF: Happy with stage win. But it proving to be the case that Ben Swift can't beat the big three sprinters if they are still there in the run in. Not sure where we'll be able to win any more stages. Maybe time to get in some breakaways.
01/07/14 – British Airways 3rd on UCI worldtour rankings with 760 points. The Sprint team have 122+61+4= 187 pts. Cobblestone team have 76+20+10= 106 pts. Grand tour team have 463+38+10=511 pts. Thibaut Pinot top rider with 463 pts in 2nd place.
01/07/14 – Offered contract to Josh Edmondson.
04/07/14 – Edmundson signed for next year. Fleeman recovered.
08/07/14 - Offer made for Jonathan Dibben, if Succesful Daniel Lloyd will be asked to move on. Langeveld will be next years classics team captain.
No one helps British Airways chase back the breakaway, in hindsight we should have got a rider in there ourselves. However as no one helps the breakaway stays away.
Breakaway: 8 riders: A Malori (MOV), J Roy (FDJ), A Saramotins (IAM), M Iglinsky (AST), S Tuft (OGE), C Sarmiento (CAN), G Van Avermat (BMC), S Puccio (SKY)
M Iglinsky holds one for a breakaway win.
Stage: M Iglinsky (AST)
Yellow: Michał Kwiatkowski (OPQ)
