Let's start at the beginning - the season opener. The Tour of Qatar may be flat, but you need a powerful team to survive the cross winds here. Even better if you have the sprinters to finish it off - sounds like a very suitable race for Pokerstars.com, which is lucky for them, as their application has been accepted.
We stay in the middle east for Round 2, the Tour of Oman, and it is Focused Cycling who will represent the Continental tour in the first Man-Game edition of this race.
Not long after Oman ends comes a trio of coinciding stage races. Volta Ciclista a Catalunya was the most popular, and winning the battle are Saab-Scania with Thomas Lovkvist as leader. Volkswagen-Siemens will be taking part in Paris-Nice offering an opportunity for the likes of Kai Reus and Aleksandar Flugel. Finally, Tirreno-Adriatico. The race had no initial applicants, so Rapha Condor - Qhubeka are more than happy to step up and participate here, look out for the British hill climbing duo of Jonny Bellis and Chris Froome.
Closing out this announcement are two Spanish stage races: the Vuelta a la Region de Murcia in April, and before that, the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in March. Both races get the same Wildcard, as the Luis Leon Sanchez led Portugese Cerne team will be riding.
rjc_43 wrote:
I didn't get in Paris-Nice? There's no point in existing.
Thats the risk you took by applying to 15 races. If you desperately want it, Focused are welcome to take Wiggle's place there, but thats your only option.
You also dont have to take up the Tour of Oman wildcard offer, if you dont want it. But you did say it was your 3rd choice
Edited by SportingNonsense on 17-07-2011 18:35
SportingNonsense wrote:Finally, Tirreno-Adriatico. The race had no initial applicants, so Rapha Condor - Qhubeka are more than happy to step up and participate here, look out for the British hill climbing duo of Jonny Bellis and Chris Froome.
I have just checked my Wild Card application and realize that I have someone managed to delete the app for T-A from near the top of my list.
rjc_43 wrote:
I didn't get in Paris-Nice? There's no point in existing.
Thats the risk you took by applying to 15 races. If you desperately want it, Focused are welcome to take Wiggle's place there, but thats your only option.
You also dont have to take up the Tour of Oman wildcard offer, if you dont want it. But you did say it was your 3rd choice
And I did say Paris-Nice was my first. And I actually applied to ALL wildcard races available to enter. I didn't want to have to fill in the same squad for over 30 races though. So you can't say some races didn't have applicants.
Rjc:
Everyone has a first choice. Did everyone get their first choice? Of course not - but at the very least, I believe everyone got at least 1 of their Top 5 choices, and anyway, if you applied for 15 races and only got your 15th choice, you should be happy with being in this race - or else you should not have applied for it.
Only 1 person got exactly what they wanted (i.e. all they applied for), Ferrari, because they only applied for 1 thing, and I always try to make sure every team gets at least 1 race. (Of course, it helped Ferrari that beyond them putting Liechtenstein 1st, one other team had it 7th, and 4 more had it 10th, so theyd likely have got in there anyway even if they had made additional race applications - had Liechtenstein been a more popular race, Ferrari may not have been so lucky)
Theres a reason why the file has only 15 spaces, 15 is the maximum races you can apply for. For many continental teams, it can be a good idea to apply for that amount - the exception here would be Focused, Vespa and Rapha, because we already have an interest in all PT races, and so naturally I feel other continental teams should have greater priority. With Rapha, I waited to see interest levels and like last year, took a race nobody else wanted. Vespa and Focused were both allocated a stage race and a classic, the only reason Vespa got in the Giro was because he was willing to sacrifice Cafe de Colombia's place there.
Fenian:
I did wonder why you applied for Catalunya and not Tirreno!
Vespa in our third year now - one of the nice things about the game (for me anyway) is that the wildcards do mean quite a lot to me. Getting to ride these races is quite a big deal.
Totally opposite to Cafe de Colombia - where I just think - what! I've got to ride P-N, T-A and Catalunya all at the same time? Bah!
Perfect for getting some experience to Flügel!
