Hollister signalled their intentions when they set one of their goals to win the American Tour. They certainly delivered - winning Battenkill, Guatemala and the 21 stage Tour of America along the way to comfortably take the title and achieve their goal. Their two stage race victories both came from Robert Kiserlovski, who deservedly takes the Individual Standings.
Emu Export and California Giant also achieved their goals - Top 5 - taking 2nd and 4th respectively. The Californians almost missed their goal due to their Tour of America absence - while Puma never even gave themselves a chance of achieving their Top 5 goal due to not riding in that race, amongst others. They ended 11th.
America was where WWE performed the strongest, and they are 3rd in the team standings. They are one of just 3 teams to have failed to win a race overall all season, so perhaps this could be consolation.
Team CSC-Orbea take 6th ahead of Volkswagen, with Proximus, Bianchi and Pirelli also in the Top 10.
Behind Kiserlovski in the Individual standings is Alejandro Valverde. Mismanaged by Proximus, he at least started the season well - winning the Tour de San Luis. Four Top 10 GC finishes puts Dani Navarro in 3rd - ahead of teammate Saul Raisin in 5th who went all the way in winning Colorado.
Overall individual champion Jose Alarcon is 4th thanks to his home victory in Tachira while Kessiakoff, Nazaret and Ratiy are other climbers in the Top 10. But we also have some sprinters there! Greipel and Serebriakov.
SportingNonsense wrote:
The Californians almost missed their goal due to their Tour of America absence - while Puma never even gave themselves a chance of achieving their Top 5 goal due to not riding in that race, amongst others. They ended 11th.
Well, the downside of being a new team is you have no idea how your team looks like when deciding goals.
I was hoping for one out of Sinkewitz/Kessler/Wegmann, which would have made things here a lot easier.
But with my final roster, I wouldn't have stood a chance of achieving that goal even when participating in ToA.
So wasting at least 21 race days for an outsider chance of making another goal (which was without planning in the surprising Beauce triumph) would have been a bad decision imo.
SportingNonsense wrote:
The Californians almost missed their goal due to their Tour of America absence - while Puma never even gave themselves a chance of achieving their Top 5 goal due to not riding in that race, amongst others. They ended 11th.
Well, the downside of being a new team is you have no idea how your team looks like when deciding goals.
The point is that picking the goals gives a focus for how to build the team. I guess the problem you had is that you picked goals requiring a puncheur (Quebec, Battenkill) a sprinter (Berlin) and a climber (America Tour) so something always had to give.
SportingNonsense wrote:
The Californians almost missed their goal due to their Tour of America absence - while Puma never even gave themselves a chance of achieving their Top 5 goal due to not riding in that race, amongst others. They ended 11th.
Well, the downside of being a new team is you have no idea how your team looks like when deciding goals.
The point is that picking the goals gives a focus for how to build the team. I guess the problem you had is that you picked goals requiring a puncheur (Quebec, Battenkill) a sprinter (Berlin) and a climber (America Tour) so something always had to give.
Some things are always less planned through than they should be, at least in the first season
Although I was pretty sure a quality puncheur would have given us enough points to be in the mix in America Tour.
I never said new teams were expected to all have 5 well thought out goals. Doesnt mean I cant still comment on it as something interesting to say, since most goals are still at least attempted America Tour is probably the tour where a puncheur is least useful
SportingNonsense wrote:
I never said new teams were expected to all have 5 well thought out goals. Doesnt mean I cant still comment on it as something interesting to say, since most goals are still at least attempted America Tour is probably the tour where a puncheur is least useful
You're free to comment in any possible way, and I'm glad every time someone spends some time on my team
I don't try to defend myself, but maybe writing down my explanations helps me to understand the whole process better and improves my season planning next time.
I guess I didn't arrange all continental tours to check which rider type fits best to win them, and I thought if I want to win Quebec and be good in Battenkill, it's just a small step to be competitive in the overall
Carrara really dissapointed me in the US races he was in. With his sprint stat, thought he'd have been able to take more stage wins throughout the season. Guatamela especially I was gutted about.
