F1 Rejects Cycling Challenge: Tour de France underway!

Post by **Londoner** » 18 Jun 2013, 21:15

Good work by Wilson and Ricardo so far.

How are the rest of PCR getting on?

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 19 Jun 2013, 09:25

How are my merry men doing Shadaza?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 19 Jun 2013, 16:45

Rafael Verwest has taken a superb stage victory for Fosters, taking previous breakaway champion Nicolas Pedersen with him, Lansvale are very much on fire. Oscar Vance gets a 3rd place to add to his previous stage victory and Mabbazana once again smash their best result record with a 4th for Mechavic and 6th for Marquez. Davidson scores a 5th place in what has been a quiet tour for UBC. Breakaways seem to be the way to go today as the two climbs were very, difficult.

The standings have been rumbled quite a lot. Nokaro actually extends his lead as Hitachi shepherded him to the line, Dong Yan did fairly well and is up to 2nd, Sandberg stays consistent and is in 3rd. Centrone and Fahrrad both dropped a significant amount of time and just hang on to the top 5 placings. Carl Kerr for Twinings was one of the major climbers (no pun intended) today raising to 6th.

Daniel Sims long held mountain jersey is finally gone, Nicolas Pedersen of Lansvale takes it courtesy of his frequent breakaway adventures. Verwest jumps to joint 2nd on todays stage alone. Vance sits a surprising 4th.

A bit of a heartbreaking day for the NSA team, only Volkov really set a good time today and they only finished the stage 11th after a Lansvale, Mabbazana 1-2 (No often that happens!) Hitachi set a very impressive time and jump to the top overall as NSA slip to 2nd. Minardi are likley to be scratching their heads, on paper this is the ideal stage for them but they ended up dropping a lot of time, they still hold on to 3rd. Fosters jump back ahead of Twinings thanks to the efforts of Verwest. Lansvales complete domination of the last few stages has seen them rise to 9th overall!

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 19 Jun 2013, 17:14

East Londoner wrote:Good work by Wilson and Ricardo so far.

How are the rest of PCR getting on?

7.Ricardo Lupo +16'06
22.Brandon Plant +36'07
58.Bernard Jones +1h13'02
74.Jamie Carling +1h33'55
77.Daniel Martins +1h36'41
80.Kenta Nakimaka +1h48'49
107.John Jaywick +2h28'00
115.Wilson Ricky +2h37'12
DNF. Stefan Lomasson.

Ricardo Lupo is having a great run, in general he has been steady but on some stages he has looked spectacular. Brandon Plant started the tour very slowly and initially looked someone barely in the top 50, but since then he has got his head down and at this rate will climb into the top 20 with little problem. Bernard Jones looks like your average mountain hero, he has done little to stand out good or bad. Jamie Carling is far off the pace he showed at the Tour de France last season, back then he was challenging for the young rider of the year award and is nowhere near that this season.

Daniel Martins is meant to be a team leader but has done little to show it, however the rider is famous for leaving things late, he may get some decent stage results yet but GC is a long way out of reach. Kenta Nakimaka is not one of the teams front runners, instead he has been acting as support for the others and has been OK if not brilliant.
John Jaywick has been involved in multiple breaks, all of them failures! He has a chance of doing well on a stage if no one else bothers to chase him but other than that he has been a bit of a waste.

It is such a shame Stefan Lomasson had to withdraw on only the 2nd stage, he would have been a big help to Ricky and the pair would have had a good chance at the points jersey. As it is Wilson Ricky has done a very good job on his own, picking up a collection of top 5 stage results and taking the inflated amount of points with him too.

takagi_for_the_win wrote:How are my merry men doing Shadaza?

10.Sergei Baloshnikov +21'54
14.Jakub Radizki +26'15
84.Dinyar Akinfeev +1h54'07
88.Jose Aramento Garcia +1h57'17
110.Claus Jensen +2h35'53
112.David Odonkor +2h36'36
117.Hans Drecker +2'h38'07
119.Andrei Dzagoev +2h38'36
128.Torsten Fritz +2h43'54

Baloshnikov and Radizki have proven themselves to be hardened riders by consistently pounding good if not spectacular results on pretty much every stage they enter. In the long term this is good as both men have been bit by bit making their way up the leaderboard, with Balashnikov seemingly marginally the better rider, but not by much.

Akinfeev's highlight was the first week, he was lightning quick on the prologue and decent on the flats, after that things have got tough, but he is hanging on helping the team best he can. Garcia is one of the hardest working riders on the tour, consistently seen at the front of the pack pulling the peloton along to catch breaks. Claus Jensen is probably the teams waterboy, I say probably because I have not seen much of him, I apologise I can't say more!

David Odonkor has been phenomenal all tour, firmly stamping his authority as the teams lead sprinter and the points jersey holder. Not bad considering the lack of experience Restov have. Andrei Dzagoev has looked a little shell shocked on recent sprint stages, he started out ahead of Odonkor but the German has pounded him down to a support roll. Dzagoev is monster talented though and would be lead sprinter in most teams. As for Torsten Fritz and Hans Drecker, both of them are seen leading the field at times but neither of them are much of a match for Garcia, they are very average.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 20 Jun 2013, 16:49

Alex Harris wins another stage, Tadi Nokaro extends his lead.

Once again early breakaway riders dominate the stage as Alex Harris breaks forward along with Jean Velo and Jason Edison. Harris used his climbing skill to leave the other 2 behind to take a near 10 minute victory. Quinzo Quintana leads a group of mountain specialists for the Minardi team to take 4th ahead of Lansvales Kang Xian Bin. The next two riders behind them are the most important in this case and spell bad news for the rest of the field, Bonotellio and Nokaro of the Hitachi team as will be seen in the general classification...

Nokaro now has a near 13 minute gap on his nearest challenger and with only 6 stages left will be very hard to beat, he owes a lot of the success to team mate Claudio Bonotellio, the Italian has dragged Nokaro up the mountains as well as himself, Bonotellio is now up to 13th overall after climbing from well outside the top 30 before the last run of mountain stages. Another rider to watch is Stefan Popiel of Cycling Circus, he has done well in the mountains too and has risen to 18th.

Dong Yan in 2nd has been a constant threat near the front even if he hasn't scored any top 5's at all this tour, whilst the NSA riders of Sandberg and Volkov have been on excellent form in 3rd and 5th. Centrone in 4th has been hanging on for dear life!

This very difficult stage offered many points for the front runners and Harris took pretty much all of it that was available and takes the lead, he won the jersey at the Tour de France and he looks like he is going to win it here too!

Hitachi are dominating the teams standings along with the general classification, 3rd on the stage with the NSA team losing ground yet again. Twinings take stage victory and with it move up to 3rd. Lansvale are continuing to shock everybody and are now in 7th place overall, ahead of Alitalia!

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 20 Jun 2013, 17:33

I think its apparent I need more domestiques...

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 20 Jun 2013, 17:57

Goddamn.

I think it's safe to say Alex Harris is the best mountain rider there is...

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 20 Jun 2013, 18:11

What the hell happened to FGCR?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 21 Jun 2013, 15:11

The whole field was stunned today as the unthinkable happened, Mabbazana have won a stage! Mechavic (MAZ) Claus Jensen (GRR) and Van de Graaf (UBC) have all had very quiet tours, holding out for this stage to break forward. Slobodan Tomic and Jerry Fletcher later gave chase but left their run too late, despite massacring the gap the climb ended 100 metres too early and they just about managed to end in the same time bracket, a little more and it would have been victory!

This stage came as a relief to many hill climbers as it wasn't anywhere near as intense as some of the earlier mountain stages, indeed there were no mountain points on offer at all this stage.

Yet again Nokaro extends his lead over Yan a little, but most of the front runners set similar times, with Bonotellio (HIT) and Popiel (Cycling Circus) the only top 20 riders to really drop all that much time.

The bigger news is this stage marked the end of the tour for Artem Kraviz (Lansvale) and Brandon Plant (PCR). It is a bigger blow for PCR as Plant had only just worked his way into the top 20 on the previous stage.

Hitachi are really looking unstoppable at the moment as they yet again extend their lead, it has been an amazing tour for them. Minardi have edged back into 3rd, as Twinings, normally strong on this kind of stage, underperformed. Lansvale have been brought back to the Earth with a bump, losing a rider and finishing the stage 16th of 16.
Alitalia and Fosters are also likely to be asking questions as none of their main riders can be found at the sharp end on this stage!

andrew · Post by **andrew** » 21 Jun 2013, 16:12

YES!! Where did my other riders come? How far off from 2nd last are we in the teams?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 21 Jun 2013, 22:42

Bicicleta wins, Nokaro has as a monster lead!

Lansvale's Giovanni Bicicletta has taken a deserved victory on a super difficult stage 17 of the tour, for the first time in awhile this stage was won on outright pace rather than tactical breakaways. Leon Zlobin takes Cycling Circuses best stage result of the tour, the Serbian rider has been overshadowed by teammate Popiel for most of the running but managed to get in a good blow here. Monteverdi brings a result for Alitalia, the Italian team has had a rough ride through the middle of the tour, but it is good to see Monteverdi has recovered to full fitness. Pedro Sousa has got one up on older brother Fernando and perhaps the form man in the latest stages, Bonotellio, takes 5th.

Tadi Nokaro now leads by over 20 minutes and will be very hard to catch in the remaining stages, Dong Yan is hanging on to 2nd place whilst Sandberg and Volkov continue to impress for NSA in 3rd and 4th place. Carl Kerr has been very quiet this tour, rarely seen anywhere near the front yet through sheer consistency finds himself 5th overall.
Ricchi and Lupo for Minardi and PCR are fighting for the best placed Italian rider, though Bonotellio is climbing like a steam train just behind them. Centrone and Fahrrad are rapidly falling down the order!

Of course there were many attempted breakaways this stage. Harris, Pedersen and Verwest all attempted to rush forward but neither of them managed a great result, though the points did help Harris keep his lead in the mountain classification (and push him to 4th in the points classification!)

Hitachi have now stretched the lead in the teams contest to over an hour! NSA and Minardi are holding on to 2nd and 3rd place but it was an awful stage for Fosters and Twinings teams as they both drop out the top 5. Battery Energy and Alitalia take the positions as they finished the stage 3rd and 4th respectively

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 22 Jun 2013, 00:51

Alessando Linari wrote:WHY IS NO-ONE SUPPORTING FIRENZE??????

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 22 Jun 2013, 10:56

andrew wrote:YES!! Where did my other riders come? How far off from 2nd last are we in the teams?

46 Fernando Vettel + 1h33'38
74 Joel Janz Marquez + 2h49'13
80 John Firclont + 2h58'58
82 Sebastian Alonso + 3h01'55
91 Vladamir Mechavic + 3h19'38
102 Jimmy Kay + 3h54'59
119 Claudi Gusto + 4h27'59

Fernando Vettel is working his way up slowly and may make top 40 overall, he won't go much further than that.
Marquez has had many adventures, as Mabbazana are so far behind in the teams standings everyone is pretty much a free element in the team. Firclont and Alonso have not had all that much to shout about, pretty disappointing really. Mechavic is having the best run in Mabbazana, obviously with his stage win and a 4th place he seems quite decent as a breakaway rider. Jimmy Kay and Claudi Gusto are the sprinters with Kay backing Gusto. They have been average, not a match for the top sprinters but on their day can pick up top 5's.

Mabbazana are (as you can see from the latest team standings post) 2 hours and 10 minutes behind 15th place, Restov Racing. Mabbazana are some way behind and your best bet is individual stage successes.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 23 Jun 2013, 13:52

Alex Harris takes a surprise 3rd victory of the tour by launching yet another break and leaving all but a crafty Joel Janz Marquez behind, a good points run for Mabbazana.
The sprinters behind were left to fight amongst themselves as David Odonker yet again beat them home. Wilson Ricky was 4th and Michael Chow get another top 5 for Lansvale.

James Davies in 6th has had his joint best result, if not for the breakaways he would have been in the top 5!

Amazingly Alex Harris has risen up to 2nd in the points standings, the mountain jersey holder and multiple stage winner is having an awesome 2nd half to the race, the self proclaimed "best mountain rider" is really coming alive. Perez has slipped down to 4th after a poor second half of the tour.

pasta_maldonado · Post by **pasta_maldonado** » 23 Jun 2013, 13:54

And for a moment a few stages ago, I actually thought Fosters were competitive...

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 23 Jun 2013, 21:33

Leandro Davidson gave something for UBC to smile about winning stage 19 of the tour, the Filipino rider came out top of a 5 rider duel for victory. The riders knew they were capable on the stage and rushed forward early on, Davidson had the pace on the line to beat star rider Alex Harris of Twinings, who may be on the verge of something special as you will see in a moment. Rafael Verwest has finished 3rd, the best result for a shell shocked looking Fosters team for many stages now. Xian Bin has put the humiliation of ending the first 3 Danish stages of the tour in last place by finishing a strong 4th, he still has a top 20 chance for Lansvale! Jason Edison has had a mostly anonymous tour for CCI, but is nice to see him manage a top 5 for a team that has threatened much this tour, but ultimately achieved little.

Argentinians Marquez and Perez rushed forward as soon as the stage begun, with no flat stages left Perez decided to try his hand as a breakaway rider. They managed a decent result but were powerless to stop the mountain aces from passing them.

The Cycling Circus duo led a strong field of climbers home just 4 minutes behind.

We still have 2 stages to go, but yet again Nokaro stretches the lead. Now at over half an hour he surely won't be caught. The real battle is for 2nd overall, the NSA duo of Volkov and Sandberg have both gone by Don Yan as Bonotellio has stormed all the way up to 5th place overall. Carl Kerr lost 10 minutes to the Italian and as a result has dropped to 6th. Many riders struggled on this difficult stage!

Alex Harris now has joint lead with David Odonker in the points standings, Harris has had a mega 2nd half of the tour and with a mountain stage and a time trial stage left there is little more opportunity to score points. Odonker will be looking to the midway sprint point whilst Harris will be looking to break away. Neither look likly to bring home points in the time trial either so it could be all down to that next stage! Meanwhile Perez jumps back up to 3rd.

Hitachi have just blown everyone away in both the GC and the teams standings, once again they win the stage and have a huge lead of over a hour and a half.
Behind them it is battle stations for P2, Battery Energy have snuck in to 2nd overall from seemingly nowhere but only 15 minutes separates Battery, NSA, Minardi, Alitalia and Twinings. A good run on the next 2 stages could see any one of those teams take it.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 23 Jun 2013, 21:56

That is absolutely amazing. I think I'm going to want to hang on to Harris for a very long time...

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 23 Jun 2013, 23:40

BlindCaveSalamander wrote::shock: That is absolutely amazing. I think I'm going to want to hang on to Harris for a very long time...

Was he a Tiger/Bancarotto pickup?

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 24 Jun 2013, 13:09

JeremyMcClean wrote:
BlindCaveSalamander wrote::shock: That is absolutely amazing. I think I'm going to want to hang on to Harris for a very long time...

Was he a Tiger/Bancarotto pickup?

... no, he was one of my original riders.

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 24 Jun 2013, 14:21

How our team did in the last few rounds?

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 24 Jun 2013, 15:23

Stage 20
Stefan Popiel takes a well deserved stage victory after threatening to do so for many stages now, the Circus rider seems to have unending stamina. Bonotellio and Bicicleta have also been consistently good and complete a strong top 3. Team CIPS Aizkibel is at the front for what seems like the first tiime ever, the Spanish rider leaving it late, he beat home Hitachi's Fuentes, another strong rider from the Japanese team's empire. The stage final climb was not for the faint hearted and only the strongest have prevailed.

There are many shake ups to the top 20 on the final mountain stage of the tour. Despite Volkov's best efforts, Bonotellio has risen all the way to 2nd place creating a Hitachi 1-2. Stefan Popiel moves up to 4th spliting the NSA riders as Sandberg goes to 5th.

Last time we saw the points standings, Odonker and Harris were tied on 132 points. Harris attempted to break once again but Restov racing would not let him get away. Odonker's only chance of points was the midrace sprint point and:

He managed to grab 3 points, Alex Harris was spent from two consecutive top 2 finishes the previous stage and scored 0 points. With only the time trial to go it looks like Odonker has done enough, that is unless Harris has an insane time trial.

FMecha wrote:How our team did in the last few rounds?

I will run the time trial tonight and reveal the final results, please be patient

.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 24 Jun 2013, 20:28

TOUR COMPLETE

The SuperGiro D'italia has finished with another Hitachi victory to complete an amazing tour for the Japanese team. Franceso Rossi saving his energy for last to beat UBC's Karl van Graaf. Jizidni Kolo and Tamak Bisiklet finish off what has been a rather good run for the Lansvale team whilst Vergamat comes home in 5th for Fantomette. Other than van Graaf this is the first we have really seen of any of these riders since the team time trial all the way back in Verona!

Though "only" 30km the time difference between riders was quite large, with nearly 8 minutes down to last place, as the tiredness of the tour become apparent, it is over now lads!

Everyone completed the stage safely so we have 129 finishers of the tour.
Tadi Nokaro takes a glorious victory for Hitachi, he took the lead on stage 7 and was never headed. He owes much of his success to the likes of Claudio Bonotellio and Esteban Fuentes, the pair helping Nokaro on the tricky Mountain slopes and also entering the top 10 themselves, 2nd and 8th. Alexey Volkov's best individual stage result was a solitary 5th place, but the Russian youngster was consistent all the way through and manages 3rd place overall for NSA, he has a lot of talent and a bright future.
Stefan Popiel had arguably the strongest second half of the tour to fly all the way up to 4th place for Cycling Circus as Dong Yan was a constant top 5 feature almost from the off, though he had to leap ahead of Sandberg on the final day! Uno Sandberg looked good for 2nd place overall at one stage, but the last few stages were not too kind to the Swede who never the less finishes a strong 6th for NSA. Carl Kerr tried his best to throw away his 7th place after an awful time trial, it seems to be a weakness of his as it also let him down in the Tour of Romandie! Still, Kerr's consistency paid off better than teammate Johanssons wild form, the Swede was 16th after bouncing from every place between 5th and 20th almost!

Gianluigi Ricchi ended up the best Minardi man in 9th after some good stages, Leon Zlobin is Stefan Popiels Cycling Circus running mate, he isn't quite up to Popiels standard (who is!?) but nevertheless rounds up the top 10.
The biggest faller in the top 20 was Ricardo Lupo, the time trial was not kind to him and he fell from 10th place to 13th! He was still comftably the best PCR man after Brandon Plant DNF the tour, he was beaten by Centrone and de Vries of Fanttomete and Battery, their respective best riders.
Klaus Fahrrad was the best Fosters rider as expected, but he won't be happy with only 14th overall!
Kang Xian Bin was the unlucky man to miss the top 20, just being outdone by Pedro Sousa at the last. Still not all bad for Lansvale, Bicicleta made the top 20 for them and nobody would have thought that after the opening week of action.

Despite Harris's best efforts he only finished the time trial in 100th place, giving the points victory to David Odonkor of Restov Racing. Harris can be happy with the mountain jersey though, in 2 Grand Tours he has emerged the mountain victor in both, thanks to his unbreakable spirit. Restov should be thrilled with the points victory, and NSA, Lansvale and Mabbazana should also celebrate the completion of their first grand tours, they all had their days of glory on this tour.

Volkov - Popiel - Yan - Fahrrad - Tenpenny.
Remember these names as they may well be up there for some time, these 5 have regularly impressed across not just this tour but every event they enter.
Some other big youths to think of are Daniel Sims (Stage 6 winner by landslide) and Lorenzo Romano (Alitalia) the sprinter had just won a stage and looked to start being a real points threat before his retirement. Some other riders in the youth table also have a lot of potential and could rise in the coming years, an interesting blend of ages across the tour.

Hitachi were very much in a class of 1 this tour, they didn't have a sprinter to challenge the points jersey or a man crazy enough to challenge Harris, but everything else they did was flawless, it is down to the other teams to try and beat them in the Tour de France! Battery Energy seem to have had a fairly anonymous run and didn't really have any riders near the top of the general standings, but they work well as a team and fought hard to take 2nd place ahead of consistent top 3 team Minardi and a NSA team that briefly led the standings before imploding on itself. Alitalia had a tour to forget and at one stage were as low as 8th overall, they managed to pull back up to 5th but this wasn't the home tour they wanted. The British squads of Twinings and Fosters fortunes plummeted as the tour went on after such a promising start from both, the squads do have the riders to challenge they just need to get it all together. Lansvale spent a large portion of the tour in last place, but during the middle portion of the tour they were by far the best team out there even having the pace to blast by Hitachi! The harder the stage, the better they got! Fantomette and PCR in 9th and 10th place were very anonymous this tour, they had the odd moment to celebrate but otherwise seemed torn between all the competitions available and in the end didn't master any of them.

Team CIP started the tour with intent becoming the early leaders after a speedy Prologue. However team unity is something that needs to be worked on as they were strong in each individual area (Perez sprinter, Yan General classification, time trialists!) but find themselves outside the top 10 overall.
CCI should have done better than 12th, the victory on today's time trial shows the riders still have pace to spare, still team owner Oscar Vance clearly had a good time!
Cycling Circus is a team of just 6 riders, for them to not be in last place is an achievement in itself, Popiel and Zlobin are superstars.
Boxtell experimented with Vos being the lead sprinter and boy did that fail, sadly Jackson Bannister had a horrible fall on stage 2 so there was no backup plan, the good news is it looks like the American will make a full recovery. Restov Racing had a great tour, don't let the 15th place fool you, they won the points jersey with Odonkor and Dzagoev also looks very strong, they also got two riders in the top 20 (just about!) and everyone there clearly works very hard.
Then there is Mabbazana, the team is very young with probably the lowest average age squad and they don't have all that much depth, That being said they gave it their best and scored multiple top 5 results including a popular stage victory!

(Coming soon, the full results download, the updated points standings, details for the "double" next event.)

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 24 Jun 2013, 21:53

"Imploding" with a rider 3rd and 5th overall and the 3rd place guy top in the Young Riders? We have talent, we just need to harness this more.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 24 Jun 2013, 22:00

JeremyMcClean wrote:"Imploding" with a rider 3rd and 5th overall and the 3rd place guy top in the Young Riders? We have talent, we just need to harness this more.

True, I meant relatively, compared to the top riders from Battery and Minardi NSA should have placed 2nd. Though, rightly so with that success ,I wouldn't care one jot about the team standings! The team is going from strength to strength, the team that was rank outsider on it's debut is going to be one of the favourites for the Tour de France.

Though I think we all know the team to beat now!

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 24 Jun 2013, 22:08

Our mountain form has been incredible on the Giro. Looks like we'll be in with a good shot of the mountain jersey come the Tour de France

QuickYoda41 · Post by **QuickYoda41** » 24 Jun 2013, 23:12

The Minardi team was pretty strong, altough we didn't really have a shot at any of the jerseys.

News from the team: Danilo Ceccon was released after his very disappointing performance. The team leaders weren't satisfied with him all season but this Giro showed a new depth. We wish him luck at any team he will join in the future.

Shadaza · Post by **Shadaza** » 02 Jul 2013, 12:38

Klaus Fahrrad actually extends his lead in the standings thanks to his stage victory and low end top 20 finish. Firenze scored 0 points the entire tour, but still holds 2nd as Alexey Volkov and Tadi Nokaro climb up into the top 5, just ahead of an on form Centrone.

With their domination of the Giro, Hitachi retake the lead of the teams championship, and by a big margin! NSA had an almost dream tour and climb up to 4th, as Alitalia had a horrible time and slip to 6th. Twinings are a team very much on the rise in p7 and at the back Restov racing and Mabbazana get some points on the board.

The next 2 events are the Criterium du Dauphine (France) and the Tour de Suisse (Switzerland)
The important thing to note is Both events run simultaneously.
So you will be able to enter 8 riders in to both events as normal, but no rider may do both events.

The Dauphine is an 8 stage event with:
1 Prologue
2 Flat stages
2 Hill Stages
2 Mountain stages
1 Time Trial (on flat)

With all stages at less than 185km

The Tour de Suisse features:
1 Hilly Prologue
3 Flat Stages
1 Hill Stage
3 Mountain Stages
1 Time Trial (On a small hill)

With some stages at over 200km!

The Tour de Suisse is the slightly more difficult tour with some steeper inclines, whilst the Dauphine is more akin to the opening week or so of the Tour de France. Both offer the same amount of points, so try and figure out how best to split your squad. If you don't have enough riders to enter 8 in to both events, well there are plenty of free agents available.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 02 Jul 2013, 12:54

Lansvale need one more free agent to compete in both events. Any hill specialists available? If not, we'll just take the best of what's available.

QuickYoda41 · Post by **QuickYoda41** » 02 Jul 2013, 20:54

This sounds exciting.

Minardi's squads

Criterium
William Goodspeed
Paolo Lesallo
Gert van Lijwouk
Daniele Rampazza
Gianluigi Ricchi
Artem Tereshin
Thor Tromsen
Philipe Viruolien

Tour de Suisse
Arnets Barriotxega
Róbert Cziczkás
Martin Jaeger
Raul Julandro Jimenez
Quizo Quintana
Shane Reid
Vincenzo Tolano
Takuma Yumoto

FantometteBR · Post by **FantometteBR** » 02 Jul 2013, 22:07

We might need a few free agents. Can I still add drivers to the roster?

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 03 Jul 2013, 14:36

Um, will Bannister be healthy for the next simultaneous race? I still may need to hire some new riders anyway.

Salamander · Post by **Salamander** » 03 Jul 2013, 18:13

Twinings' team for the Criterium de Dauphine:
Craig West
Storm Danielsen
James Davies
Shinji Miyamoto
Jose Vasquez
Freddie Donnelly
Janne Nordman
Jacob Denver

Twinings' team for the Tour de Suisse
Sven Johansson
Carl Kerr
Alex Harris
Ivan Shermetev
Louis Gallard
Jean Gauthier
Nikolay Borsukov
Marco Venerdi

FMecha · Post by **FMecha** » 03 Jul 2013, 19:27

Looks like CCI cannot "deploy" their five-plus-one original squadron at the same time for both tours, so:

For Criterium de Dauphine:
Singh
Sucahyo
Roberts
Iketani
Sassetti
da Silva
Jung-Un
Yazaki

For Tour de Suisse:
Edison
Roberts
Sassetti
Vance
Andrews
Kumar
Inam
Tenpenny

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 03 Jul 2013, 19:36

Alitalia squads for...

Criterium du Dauphine
Stefano Firenze
Claudio Castiglione
Vincenzo Jacomuzzi
Przemyslaw Kolodziejczak
Raphael Le Clercq
Maarten Hooiveld
Emanuele Montella
Artan Karimi

Tour de Suisse
Lorenzo Romano
Stef Flugshreiber
Vincenzo Mazzola
Heidar Helguson
Mika Pyora
Gianni Marzano
Alessio Monteverdi
Fermintxo Intxausti

takagi_for_the_win · Post by **takagi_for_the_win** » 04 Jul 2013, 11:49

Restov won't take part in either, due to their evil paymaster being away for a couple of weeks on holiday

Aerospeed · Post by **Aerospeed** » 04 Jul 2013, 12:19

Hmm, choosing the lineups was very easy as I used up all but one of my current roster! Had to go through a few pickups
Rafal Piotrowski
Moorighan Whitcombe
Carey Brice

For the Dauphine:
Uno Sandberg
Jason Melbourne
John Vonn
Jase van der Boom
Pavel Gafurov
Alexandre Vache
Randall Clarks
Kevin Frederickson

For the Tour de Suisse
Alexey Volkov
Maxim Drozdov
Janice Edwards
Wesley Duncan
Laurens Buivart
James Collins
Colin Thompson
Rafal Piotrowski ****

**** Subject to approval of hiring

tristan1117 · Post by **tristan1117** » 04 Jul 2013, 14:39

I am assuming that Bannister is unavailable for the next event.

Criterium du Dauphine
Quinton Voss
Aronld Abil
Chilserx Dawson
Preston Senerson
Karl van de Graaf
Istvan Feher
Frank Mortarhouse
Leandro Carabon

Tour de Suisse
Leandro Davidson
Brock Carson
Leonel Canfora
Roger Alfonse
David Lee
Vinny de Moor
Salimgirey Rasulov
Siergiej Grishin

Post by **DemocalypseNow** » 04 Jul 2013, 15:45

tristan1117 wrote:I am assuming that Bannister is unavailable for the next event.

No offence, but I really hope so! He's the only sprinter that's better than Romano in the ProTour.

FantometteBR · Post by **FantometteBR** » 04 Jul 2013, 16:41

Fantomette picks its 16, with some names pending, of course...

Criterium du Dauphine
Piercarlo Balder
Siggi Judsen
Rui Miranda
Arthur Vergamet
Hiroshi Kekami
Ingo Voeller
Moorighan Whitcombe (pending)
Yevegni Dus (pending)

Tour de Suisse
Alexandre Cadinho
François Ndiekele
Demétrio Molina
Alexandre Charpantier
Nobert Centrone
Jonson Edderly
Fabiano Accelerara (pending)
Pablo Gargano (pending)

Post by **Londoner** » 04 Jul 2013, 16:52

I take it that Lomassonn is still injured?

PCR's teams.

Criterium du Dauphine
Tomas Wojtyra
Jaime Carling
Kenta Nakimaka
Daniel Martins
Brandon Plant
Nelson Burbridge
Dougal Dalkeith
Darren Matthews

Tour de Suisse
Bernard Jones
John Jaywick
Wilson Ricky
Hugh Englemann
Ricardo Lupo
Len Kozlovsky
Norman Sumner
Sid Hatayuki