Thank you Count for an awesome race through and through! Stage win for Albasini and 2nd Overall is an amazing result for us and I couldn't be happier. Getting tired of Richeze though, I may cut him or sell him after this year.
The Contador/Nibali result is pretty wild with the tie!
Thanks for the great reporting indeed Count, you're the man for the GTs, it seems
In the overall, 24th and 30th is what was to be expected.
Tied 5th in the KoM from Kelderman is great, along with his countless breakaway appearances resulting in some nice stage results, he was definitely our best rider here.
Great to see we finished our second GT with all 9 riders, and 5 in the Top 100 is quite good, too.
The inofficial goal of stage wins in all GTs is missed, but that required lots of luck with our squad. At least they tried hard.
Overall, it seems like we didn't concede big points to our fellow relegation avoiders despite having a significantly weaker team than many.
Thus, the look at the updated rankings will be very interesting.
It was a dissapointing race for Festina. The strongest possible setup for a race, and then blah!
I can't be all too unhappy with 3rd GC from Contador, although I'm dissapointed that he couldn't beat Nibali. 3rd in GC means that the first and only goal of the season is achieved.
My domestiques wasn't good, and none of them ever tried anything, while Contador obviously was satisfied by fighting for secondary positions, as he didn't seem interested in attacking - Nor following important attacks.
The AI decided that every decisive stage but two should be given away to breakaways meaning that Contador scored absolutely bullshit in the stages while we were certain that he would have scored ATLEAST 100 points from those on normal conditions.
Óscar Guerao didn't win any stages, and besides a 2nd place on one stage he did horrible, despite him winning 2 stages last year. With the leadouttrain he did nothing, without it he did nothing either.
We scored significantly less points than anticipated from this race, which is very dissapointing. I suspect we will score slightly better than at the Giro, but not by much - And we ought to have scored atleast the double.
We are bringing absolutely nothing important to the Tour de France, so we need both the Dauphine and Switzerland races to be far above par - Which I have a hard time believing...
Our goal of being PT top 5 is gone by now, so instead of wasting your time with me nagging I will now try to shut the fuck up, and just read the stages for what they are and enjoying other teams succes.
11th overall for Rujano is disappointing. But 3 stage wins and sharing of point jersey is huge success. Thanks again for reporting and congrats to Santander.
Thanks for the congrats, and the amazing reports Count. I never really thought Tenorio would ever win a GT, so this is awesome. Hopefully I get out of the relegation zone now, and then a good tour can keep me up.
And if you thought my domestiques were strong here...
[url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182]Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
Amazingly weird this is.. How in the hell can Uran lost more time on hilly/flat stages than Henao lost in Giro.... 7th place is a really big disappointment for me.. Podium could be reachable. At least that two wins will give me quite solid points from this race, after all..
Congrats to mb, Tenoria maybe will take Santander out of the drop zone, I can't wait for rankings. And once again big thanks to Count, great reports indeed.
Amazing reports, CountArach! You've done a really great job especially with the time - trials. Usually, it's quite hard to make those interesting, but you wrote some brilliant reports for them.
Amazing reports CountArach, you really made this an exciting Vuelta to follow.
Nibali really rode well here and I have to say I expected more of Machado.
For Wikipedia, I am very pleased with Denifl, though it is rough on Milka that Uran lost the 6th place he earned in the TT. Goss was inconsistent but it was to be expected without a real leadout train and 2 stage wins has to considered a success.
Yeah the quality of the reports was very good, and I believe a big chunk of the fun of this Vuelta has to be deposited on your account, so thanks Count
On our end it came down to a very enjoyable ride from Plaza. He held that top15 placing we had set for him right from the beginning, and never really looked like he was about to lose it. Also holding the KoM jersey by a week or so was rather pleasant.
Congratulations mb. Step aside everyone, Santander is coming up the ranks.
A day off work finally allowed me to catch up with the rest of the Vuelta.
Too bad nobody managed to create any gaps in the mountains, but I guess that was to be expected with PCM12's gameplay. Tenorio absolutely a deserving winner, even though he seemed to be under pressure on stage 19.
Nibali is a bit surprising for me in 2nd place. Thought he'd be able to do a top 5, but not more than that. Expected both Contador and Machado to top him in the overall.
Lastly, terrific work with the reports. I know it's already been said by many others, but you deserve all the praise, Count.
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
214
Santander's home race delivered for them once again, and Tenorio ensures that they are clearly the top scorers.
Behind them, Koenigsegg and Pearl Adidas shone - despite neither's team leader matching expectations. The likes of Van der Hugenhaben, Oste-Mcdonald and Maillet really mastered the art of the breakaway in this break-friendly race, and Koenigsegg especially seemed to be the biggest gainer from this unexpected points source.
And Koenigsegg have done enough to reclaim the top spot, just about managing to overhaul Wikipedia. Milka lead the rest, some 500 points back, with Pearl Adidas climbing to 4th and Pokerstars.com also gaining 2.
Nibali leads UBS-BMC into the Top 10, just ahead of Festina. Not far behind now are Santander, who have leaped up 6 spots to 14th - finally exiting the relegation zone.
Pendleton's have also escaped the bottom 4, just about, while Team B&O remain just above the bubble. Heineken and Lotto drop into the bottom four, while Bacardi are struggling to stay in touch, and Venchi look somewhat doomed.
1
2
Koenigsegg
5494
2
1
Wikipedia
5466
3
3
Milka - AVG
4954
4
7
Pearl Adidas
4725
5
4
Simply Red Bull
4661
6
8
Pokerstars.com
4659
7
6
Vesuvio-Accumalux
4280
8
5
Aker - MOT
4101
9
9
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
3952
10
13
UBS - BMC
3857
11
12
Festina - Canal+
3797
12
10
Project 1t4i
3779
13
11
Team Puma - SAP
3616
14
20
Santander
3577
15
17
Pendleton's
3240
16
16
Team B&O
3239
17
14
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
Two GTs down, and still Sam Bewley leads the standings - he was able to use Strada Appia Antica to extend his lead on Tom Boonen.
Tenorio's victory places him in 6th and he is the only Vuelta rider in the Top 10 - although Nibali is just 5 points away. Machado and Contador are in the Top 15, but would have hoped for more.
1
Bewley
Sam
Milka - AVG
NZL
2025
2
Boonen
Tom
Pokerstars.com
BEL
1958
3
Phinney
Taylor
Wikipedia
USA
1768
4
Trofimov
Yuri
Koenigsegg
RUS
1747
5
Cancellara
Fabian
Simply Red Bull
SWI
1562
6
Tenorio
Justo
Santander
ESP
1390
7
Hagen
Edvald Boasson
Aker - MOT
NOR
1286
8
Spilak
Simon
Aker - MOT
SLO
1132
9
Bennati
Daniele
Team Puma - SAP
ITA
1125
10
Swift
Ben
Vesuvio-Accumalux
GBR
1078
11
Nibali
Vincenzo
UBS - BMC
ITA
1073
12
Machado
Tiago
Pearl Adidas
POR
1054
13
Pozzato
Filippo
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
Really not what i expected at the start of the season. What has really hurt me the most was my decision to go without a sprinter and focus on GC races. Looking at PCM '11, that would have been a solid choice, especially considering the quality of Intxausti and Ricco.
In PCM '12 however, they lack 2 important things. Intxausti has his low hill stat, which seems to affect him at every speedbump (especially in comparison to last year). Ricco has his low time-trial. He could make up for this in the mountains, but in this edition you'll have to be happy with about 30 sec gaps, while time-trials open up 2-4min gaps.
And i don't think i even want to get started about Burghardt , who just under performs.
Looking at it now, i would have definitely filled out my race planner differently, and probably let Ricco ride smaller stage races and hilly classics (Ã la Gesink). That together with just underperforming at times, puts me 19th i guess.
Now that we see the big picture with the ranking points we can see the issue with endless breakaways bobbling up te points.
Tenorio and Santander are fine as race winners and long time jersey leaders combined with TT points have a massive haul. Whereas some other teams with decent GC guys like Vesuvio and most alarming of all Bacardi sit with relatively mediocre points.
Slightly disappointed In SRB's points, we sat back a bit too much in the race, missing the breaks often and failing to really contribute often to chases in flat stages. Hoping to survive in the top ten after the tour.
Speaking of the tour some teams need really big races there. Lotto and b and o for example. If Pluchkin does like Festina there they could be in trouble.
That was pretty much as expected for us thinking of points
It's a pleasant surprise to still sit 8th overall, especially seeing we still got teams like UBS-BMC, Festina and Project behind us. I do believe we're about safe from relegation now, considering this was our weakest GT line up and still being about 1000 points clear of the relegation zone. It puts Heineken down where I must admit I expected them much earlier, but seeing they've got Brajkovic left for most races, they still have a nice chance climbing away from that 17th place, which puts pressure on teams like Pendleton's and Team B&O.
Speaking of which, that's just huge from Santander! It was still somewhat expected, and Tenorio kind of makes up for the lack of big points from Madrazo in the Giro.
For the crown, I'm quite happy to have put Wikipedia in second place before the season
Though, Koenigsegg looks like they really want that top spot, and together with the American team they've built a nice buffer before the points from Dauphine/Suisse and especially le Tour show. That could come handy, as especially Pearl Adidas must look to get things going for real soon
And thanks for the update, SN! Rankings and points are always nice to watch.
Great to see guys like Kelderman or Nerz taking more points than Duarte and Eastman.
So I guess I really have to take the possibility of avoiding relegation on board, huh?
A small breakdown:
Venchi are doomed as expected.
Bacardi need a performing Intxausti and probably the ToNE win, both rather unlikely with this AI.
Lotto heavily rely on Cunego's Tour, but there's huge opposition, and on their dribs and drabs from sub-top riders.
Heineken believe in Brajkovic, who already partly proves he's worth that, and Pozzato to score nicely in the remaining classics.
B&O have Pluchkin, but even he isn't guaranteed to get lots of points in the Tour. TdS will see them rise, all other stage races rather fall though, not to speak of the classics.
Pendleton's need Gilbert to score now, and a bit more than only decent results by their stage racers.
I expect Santander to be safe with a good TdF, but some bad luck could turn them into a PCT team next season as well.
And finally Puma.
VDB continues to be worth an incredible lot, and he'll still race basically any week-long race left. Bennati's Tour won't be as good as his Giro, but there are definitely some points up for grabs there. The flat classics might be the decider of the season for us, with consistent podiums there...
And finally Nuyens, but I don't expect him to take a lot from ToNE the way he raced so far.
It'll be tight, guys!
Edited by cio93 on 22-06-2013 12:31
Eventually we had to reach the bottom position. I'm a bit surprised it took so long for us to end there, actually. Anyway, as said, we are doomed. Seems like there are no way we can stay out of last place and relegation.
, who just under performs.
