For the teams, we have La Gazetta dello Sport vs Wikipedia for 1st; Festina vs Domina Vacanze for 3rd; Lipton vs Philips vs Accumalux vs Rabobank vs Sic Radical for 5th; Virgin vs Credit Lyonnais for 10th; White Bear vs Warner Brothers vs Unicef vs B&O for 12th; and American Suzuki vs Eurosport vs British Airways for that elusive 16th - to avoid relegation.
Giro dell'Emelia
Giro di Lombardia
Chrono des Herbiers
Japan Cup
The Teams
Accumalux - Frank Schleck will ride all 3 Hilly races, and will play an important role - while departing World Champion Franco Pellizotti will also feature in the Italian races
American Suzuki - No standout rider in any of the remaining races, unlikely to score more than the minimum
British Airways - Millar or Devolder may get something from Herbiers, but Bellis is as yet unproven in the hilly classics
Credit Lyonnais - Pozzato will race Japan, but the team is unlikely to do much
Domina Vacanze - Andy Schleck rides Lombardia and Japan, but may not do much, while Claeys is an outside bet of a Top 10, perhaps. They wont be racing Herbiers
Eurosport - Will call on their climbers to produce a special result in the hills, they face an uphill battle, despite American Suzuki's weakness
Festina - Samuel Sanchez in the hilly races should be enough to seal 3rd place for the Swiss Watches team
La Gazetta dello Sport - The Cunego and Di Luca duo will take on the hills, with Rogers, Ford and Posthuma in the TT - they remain favourites for the ProTour title
Lipton - Surprisingly, their Emilia and Lombardia team bare only 1 similarity, despite both being similar enough Italian hilly races. They are unlikely to feature in the victory battles in these last races.
Philips-Hummel - Will optimistically call on Ulissi in the hills, perhaps Pozzovivvo could do something in Lombardia, while Gusev heads to Herbiers, having shown good form late on this season
Rabobank - Luis Leon Sanchez leads for Emilia and Japan, while becoming a deputy for Gesink in Lombardia - they could be on for a solid finish - but will it be the team's last ever races?
Sic Radical - Sinkewitz will ride the two Italian races, targeting the Top 10 in both.
B&O - Boasson Hagen will be targeting a victory in one of the hilly races, while Pluchkin will ride Herbiers
Unicef - Cancellara will ride Herbiers, looking to break up the Wikipedia-La Gazetta battle expected there.
Virgin - Rodriguez Oliver will ride the hills - with an outside bet at the Top 10 in Herbiers from one of Kovalev, Phinney and Stannard, depending on the competition
Warner Bros - The season is effectively over now for Team Boonen, just making up numbers at the final races
White Bear - Ricco surprisingly will only ride Lombardia, leaving only Monfort to lead at the other Italian race, Emilia, and seemingly no hilly leader in Japan
Wikipedia - Zabriskie should win Herbiers - while Coppel will target a podium aswell - but the hills could seriously hurt their title aspirations
I am surprised i have come this close, and just securing second is a tremendous accomplishment, but credit to an amazing season from Gazzetta, they look deserved champions. A win to round out the season would be nice though.
I'm glad that these late-season results have made my team rise in the rankings, making it less miserably. It will be very, very difficult to keep the 6th place, though. Perhaps 7th.
dave92 wrote:
I am surprised i have come this close, and just securing second is a tremendous accomplishment, but credit to an amazing season from Gazzetta, they look deserved champions. A win to round out the season would be nice though.
Yeah, we had a nice battle, but since I expect/want a podium in each of the 4 remaining races, I should be good now.
Rogers will probably be second in the TT, while I hope for Cunego o win one of the others. Probably Lombardia is his best shot, looking at the mou/hill rating. Plus it would be a nice bonus to take the individual rankings, but thats probably asking too much. I already got more then I expected this season
Looking forward to the last races. Hopefully Samuel Sánchez can get us safely in 3rd, and if we can end the season in a gap of about 500-600pts away from Wikipedia it would be very nice.
dave92 wrote:
I am surprised i have come this close, and just securing second is a tremendous accomplishment, but credit to an amazing season from Gazzetta, they look deserved champions. A win to round out the season would be nice though.
Yeah, we had a nice battle, but since I expect/want a podium in each of the 4 remaining races, I should be good now.
Rogers will probably be second in the TT, while I hope for Cunego o win one of the others. Probably Lombardia is his best shot, looking at the mou/hill rating. Plus it would be a nice bonus to take the individual rankings, but thats probably asking too much. I already got more then I expected this season
Dont be so sure on Rogers 2nd in Herbiers - Cancellara may do something, while Coppel gets a national boost
I can do it. I can beat American Suzuki and Eurosport. Devolder and Millar will both do a top 10 in Herbiers, Bellis will pull a miracle in dell'Emelia and Lombardia. Its possible. It just is.
