John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Once again perhaps biting off more than I can chew, will be taking advantage of the new cyclist set just posted by Luke and organizing a season replay. This year’s replay will consist of the full 2011 Pro Tour season using 10 teams, with each team being represented by a six-man squad in all races. To achieve this objective, there will be a couple of modifications to the game and also some differences from last year's replay. First, each team will consist of a total of 16 cyclists, starting with the 10 from last year’s set, drafting additional cyclists in reverse order of team finish – based on UCI points earned in the 2010 replay -- in the prior year. Cyclists not in the first 10 who rode with one of the selected 10 teams will also be available to that team ONLY in lieu of a draft choice; the draft picks will be “free agents” – cyclists from other teams who raced in 2011 who have been carded for the game. As the season moves along, I anticipate using the more recent 2012 card set for all cyclists (recently posted here on BGG by Luke) but for now the set from 2011 will be the one used, although guys not rated in that set who are carded for the 2012 set will also be eligible. Guys who retired last season and are no longer active in 2012 (example: Ivanov of Katusha) will not be part of this replay. Guys under drug investigations and suspensions who did participate (examples: Contador and Kolobnev) will be included.
The schedule of races (which is posted below) includes some overlapping events – in such cases, the teams must send a different squad of six. To maintain a bit more control of the amount of race time per rider, each cyclist will be limited to 20 race days according to the following schedule: 5 days per Grand Tour, 2 per lesser Tour, 1 per one-day classic, including the World Championships. This was actually a very good suggestion from Luke when contemplating something similar for 2011, making it alot simpler than calculating actual days raced. Thus, a rider who is tapped for all three Grand Tours would only be able to race in a handful of other events (two lesser tours and a one-day race, or up to five one-day races). Since the total number of race-days in the full season is 50, that means most riders will be active for around 15-20 race days total.
For races to be run concurrently (for example, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico), one of them will be run with the “quick play” option (described in the Benelux Tour from last year’s replay). I plan to use the quick-play option as needed and run 12-section stages for all full-play stage races to hopefully keep things moving. Also, to speed the record-keeping to a minimum, for this replay I will only track UCI points, not money, nor KOM and points jerseys for the lesser tours to be run under the quick-play option. One-day classic races will continue to be a bit longer, usually 15 or 16 sections. I also hope to test out the new Time Trial procedure suggested by Luke in a recent post.
Another variant I plan to include is the idea of “peak” conditioning, which represents special attention given to particular races where certain cyclists are planning to do well. For this purpose, each team will be allocated three “+2” and five “+1” tokens that will then be assigned to a designated cyclist for that cyclist’s form roll for a particular big race (either a Grand Tour, one of the five one-day “Monument” classic races, or the World Championship). No one cyclist can receive more than one “+2” marker or more than two “+1” markers. A cyclist with two markers must use them within two weeks of one another or at least two months apart (recognizing the extended effect of peak conditioning which wears off for a period of time). These represent modifiers to form die rolls. For one-day classics, it’s relatively straightforward: a + modifier to the die roll for the start of the race. For Grand Tours, the modifier will be apply at the first stage, and at any two subsequent stages. The maximum allowable modifier on any stage will be limited to +2, so I would expect that the +2 markers might be reserved for one-day classic guys.
Anyway, to start off with, here’s the proposed schedule of events (a bit more ambitious than last year’s). Second post will deal with the teams and riders, once that selection is in.
Schedule of Events (* - asterisk indicates a candidate for the Quick Play option)
Jan. 19 – 24 Tour Down Under (6 stages)
Mar. 6 – 13 Paris-Nice (8 stages)
Mar. 9 – 15 Tirreno-Adriatico (7 stages)*
Mar. 19 Milan-San Remo
Mar. 21-27 Catalonia Tour (7 stages)*
Mar. 27 Gent-Wevelgem
Apr. 3 Tour of Flanders
Apr. 4 – 9 Tour of Basque Country (6 stages)*
Apr. 10 Paris-Roubaix
Apr. 17 Amstel Gold Race
Apr. 20 Fleche Wallonne
Apr. 24 Liege-Bastogne-Liege
Apr. 26 – May 1 Tour of Romadie (6 stages)*
May 7 – 29 Giro d’Italia (21 stages)
Jun. 5 – 12 Dauphine Libere (8 stages)*
Jun. 11 – 19 Tour of Switzerland (9 stages)
July 2 – 24 Tour de France (21 stages)
July 30 San Sebastian
Aug. 1 – 7 Tour of Poland (7 stages)*
Aug. 8 – 15 Benelux Tour (8 stages)*
Aug. 20 - Sep. 11 Vuelta d’Espana (21 stages)
Aug. 21 Hamburg
Aug. 28 Plouay
Sep. 9 Quebec
Sep. 11 Montreal
Sep. 21 World Championship (TT)
Sep. 25 World Championship (Road)
Oct. 15 Giro di Lombardia
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Team Selection
PRE-DRAFT
Order of selection will be HTC, RAB, SAX, LIQ, RSH, BMC, KAT, LEO, GRM, SKY.
Starting point will be the 10 "carded" riders for these teams from the 2011 rider set, direct link here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/63557/cards-for-2011-rider...
(Note that Contador was included in an earlier draft and replaced with Nicki Sorensen. For this replay, both riders will be available to the SaxoBank squad.)
These 10 teams start with the 10 cyclists with these exceptions:
Katusha’s Ivanov retired – replaced by Galimzyanov
Liquigas drops Bellotti – replaced by Viviani
SaxoBank (with both Contador and Nicki Sorensen) has extra man – drops Hernandez
Eligible draft choices will be anyone who rode for a team other than these 10 in the 2011 season. Order of selection is based on reverse order of aggregate points scored by the 10 guys carded for 2011 in the 2010 replay.
DRAFT
Order of Selection
HTC-High Road: First pick – Gilbert Second pick – Van Den Broeck 3rd – Davis 4th- Cobo 5th – Elmiger (forfeit last pick to keep Van Garderen)
Rabobank: First pick – Chavanel Second pick – Valverde (forfeit last four picks to keep Langeveld, Tjallingli, Kruijswijk and Bos)
SaxoBank: First pick – Boonen Second pick – Scarponi 3rd –Taaramae 4th – Rolland 5th – Rollin (forfeit last pick to keep Larsson)
Liquigas: First pick – Cunego Second pick – Petacchi 3rd – Leukemans 4th – Garzelli 5th - Visconti 6th - Kittel
Radio Shack: First pick – S. Sanchez Second pick – Greipel 3rd – Hoogerland 4th – Arroyo 5th – Carrara (forfeit last pick to keep Rast)
BMC: First pick – Kreuziger Second pick – Ciolek 3rd – Moncoutie 4th – Peraud 5th – Grivko (forfeit last pick to keep Van Avermaet)
Katusha: First pick – Menchov Second pick – Hutarovich 3rd – Bole 4th – Spilak (forfeit last two picks to keep Paolini and Brutt)
Leopard-Trek: First pick – Voeckler Second pick – Rojas 3rd – R. Feillu 4th – Vanendert 5th -- Roelandts 6th - Fedrigo
Garmin: First pick – Vinokourov Second pick –Roche 3rd – Hondo (forfeit last three picks to keep Danielsson, Fischer and Dean)
Sky: First pick – Anton Second pick – Gadret 3rd – Terpstra (forfeit last three picks to keep Cummings, Froome and Uran)
NOTE: In later rounds, teams had the option of going with a rider from their 2011 roster (usually someone carded in the 2012 set but not in 2011) in lieu of making a selection from the free agent pool.
LINEUPS
(including "peak" form bonuses for certain races)
HTC: Cavendish, T. Martin, Pinotti, Renshaw, Roulston, Albasini, Eisel, Grabsch, Goss, Sivtsov, Gilbert, Van Den Broeck, Davis, Cobo, Elmiger, Van Garderen
Cavendish is undisputed team leader, and the addition of Gilbert provides a strong classic rider who can also contend for stage wins in Grand Tours. With the departure of Mik Rogers to Team Sky, the team lacks a huge overall GC threat for the Grand Tours, although Van Den Broeck and Cobo could help fulfill that role.
+2s: Cavendish (Tour de France); Goss (Milan-San Remo); Cobo (Vuelta d’Espana)
+1s: Gilbert (Tour of Flanders, Giro di Lombardia); T. Martin (Giro d’Italia); Van den Broeck (Liege-Bastogne-Liege); Eisel (Paris-Roubaix)
RAB: Gesink, Breschel, Boom, Brown, Flens, Freire, Nierman, L. Sanchez, Martens, Barredo, Chavanel, Valverde, Langeveld, Tjallingli, Kruisjwijk, Bos
Lack of confidence in Gesink as their key GC man caused the team to seek alternatives such as Chavanel and Valverde in the first two rounds of the draft. With Breschel signed to join Freire and Brown, the priority appears to be placed on more climbers and one-day classic specialists rather than additional sprint help. However, with the addition of Chavanel and Langeveld to Breschel and Boom, this appears to be the team to beat in the cobbled classics.
+2s: Gesink (Tour de France); Valverde (Vuelta d’Espana); Breschel (Tour of Flanders)
+1s: Chavanel (Paris-Roubaix, Giro di Lombardia); Freire (Milan-San Remo, San Sebastian); Boom (Amstel Gold)
SAX: Contador, Navarro, C. Sorensen, N. Sorensen, Porte, J. Haedo, Noval, Tossatto, Cooke, Nuyens, Boonen, Scarponi, Taaramae, Rolland, Rollin, Larsson
Added Boonen for the sprints, Scarponi for the Giro and hilly classics, plus some additional climbing support. Will rely on Boonen and Nuyens for the northern classics, but the team will be focused mainly on Contador and Grand Tours.
+2s: Boonen (Paris-Roubaix); Nuyens (Tour of Flanders); Scarponi (Giro di Lombardia)
+1s: Contador (Tour de France, Giro d’Italia); Tosatto (Milan-San Remo); Navarro (Vuelta d’Espana); J. Haedo (San Sebastian)
LIQ: Basso, Oss, Dall’Antonia, Sagan, Nibali, Agnoli, Szmyd, Koren, Guarnieri, Viviani, Cunego, Petacchi, Leukemans, Garzelli, Visconti, Kittel
Went for Italians in the first three rounds, and it will be interesting to see how Nibali and Cunego split up the team leadership along with Sagan, who is a potential new star. Petacchi, Visconti and Kittel were added as the team was rather weak in the sprints, but it’s tough to see much hope for them in most of the one-day classics, although Leukemans will help some in cobbled races.
+2s: Petacchi (Milan-San Remo); Garzelli (Giro di Lombardia); Sagan (Paris-Roubaix)
+1s: Nibali (Giro d’Italia; Vuelta d’Espana); Cunego (Tour de France, Liege-Bastogne-Liege); Leukemans (Tour of Flanders)
RSH: Kloden, McEwen, Leipheimer, Horner, Beppu, Brajkovic, Popovych, Deignan, Zubeldia, Hunter, S. Sanchez, Greipel, Hoogerland, Arroyo, Carrara, Rast
Surprising to see Sanchez last until the fifth overall pick. He becomes the team leader for the Grand Tours, with Greipel adding support in the sprints. However, the team waited a bit too long on Leukemans, and therefore lack a strong cobbled classic specialist.
+2s: Kloden (Liege-Bastogne-Liege); Horner (Giro di Lombardia); Popovych (Milan-San Remo)
+1s: S. Sanchez (Giro d’Italia, Tour de France); Leipheimer (Vuelta d’Espana); Greipel (Hamburg); Rast (Paris-Roubaix)
BMC: Evans, Hincapie, Ballan, Phinney, Burghardt, Kroon, Morabito, Tschopp, Frank, Santambrogio, Kreuziger, Ciolek, Moncoutie, Peraud, Grivko, VanAvermaet
Kreuziger adds a second GC threat in addition to Evans, plus the team is now set with some strong one-day classics guys (Hincapie, Ballan, Burghardt, Kroon) plus Ciolek and Van Avermaet add an additional sprinting capability, so this team was probably strengthened as much as any in the draft.
+2s: Ballan (Milan-San Remo); Hincapie (Paris-Roubaix); Burghardt (Gent-Wevelgem)
+1s: Evans (Tour de France, World Championships); VanAvermaet (Tour of Flanders); Kreuziger (Giro d’Italia, Vuelta d’Espana)
KAT: Kolobnev, DiLuca, Pozzato, Moreno, Hoste, Karpets, Rodriguez, Ignatyev, Gusev, Galimzyanov, Menchov, Hutarovich, Bole, Spilak, Paolini, Brutt
Katusha takes a bit hit with the retirement of Ivanov. Menchov and the young sprinter Galimzyanov will help to fill the void, but all those UCI points from last season are going to be tough to replace. Menchov in the Tour, Rodriguez in the Vuelta and finally DiLuca in the Giro will share the key GC responsibilities while filling in at lesser tours and one-day classics. Pozzato and Hoste are the chief one-day classic riders, while sprinters like Galimzyanov and Hutarovich will be chasing stage wins.
+2s: Menchov (Tour de France); Pozzato (Tour of Flanders); Hoste (Paris-Roubaix)
+1s: Kolobnev (Milan-San Remo, Liege-Bastogne-Liege); DiLuca (Giro d’Italia, Giro di Lombardia); Rodriguez (Vuelta d’Espana)
LEO: A. Schleck, F. Schleck, Cancellara, Fuglsang, Gerdemann, Monfort, O’Grady, Posthuma, Voigt, Bennati, Voeckler, Rojas, R. Feillu, Vanendert, Roelandts, Fedrigo
On paper, a very strong team with the Schleck brothers as twin GC threats strengthened with breakaway specialist Voeckler, plus some strong sprinters to add depth in that department. Vanendert provides some additional support in the mountains, and Roelandts provides additional help in the cobbled classics.
+2s: A. Schleck (Tour de France); Cancellara (Paris-Roubaix); Voeckler (Liege-Bastogne-Liege)
+1: Bennati (Milan-San Remo, Giro d’Italia); F. Schleck (Vuelta d’Espana, Giro di Lombardia); Roelandts (Tour of Flanders)
GRM: Vandevelde, Farrar, Millar, D. Martin, Haussler, Zabriskie, Hesjedal, Hushovd, LeMevel, VanSummeren, Vinokourov, Roche, Hondo, Danielsson, Fischer, Dean
The merger of Garmin and Cervelo instantly created a power team, and the draft adds talent and experience with Vino (unretiring in real life after his 2011 Tour exit), Roche and Hondo joining an already strong squad. Haussler and Hushovd can double as strong classics riders while also chasing stage wins in the major tours.
+2: Farrar (Milan-San Remo); Vandevelde (Tour de France); Van Summeren (Tour of Flanders)
+1: Millar (Giro d’Italia); Haussler (Paris-Roubaix, Hamburg); Hushovd (Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Giro di Lombardia)
SKY: Rogers, Wiggins, Boasson-Hagen, Lovqvist, Thomas, Flecha, Barry, Henderson, Gerrans, Hayman, Anton, Gadret, Terpstra, Cummings, Froome, Uran
Sky, already a strong team, adds Mik Rogers as all an all-rounder plus the Basque climbing expert, Igor Anton. Terpstra adds some support to Flecha in the spring classics. Boasson-Hagen and Henderson are the two key sprinters. The team will still be built around supporting Wiggins in the Tour.
+2: Wiggins (Tour de France); Flecha (Paris-Roubaix); Gerrans (Giro di Lombardia)
+1: Rogers (Giro d’Italia); Boasson-Hagen (Milan-San Remo); Lovqvist (Liege-Bastogne-Liege); Thomas (Tour of Flanders); Anton (Vuelta d’Espana)
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Luke Morris
Japan
Nagoya
Aichi
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Roche and Hondo to Garmin? You lovely man.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Tour Down Under (Part 1)
Time for the season opener, the Tour Down Under in Australia. Here are the lineups:
BMC Evans, Kroon, Ciolek, Tschopp, Morabito, Phinney
GRM Haussler, Hesjedal, Hondo, Roche, LeMevel, Dean
HTC Goss, Pinotti, Davis, Roulston, Renshaw, Sivtsov
KAT Kolobnev, Karpets, Hutarovich, Moreno, Ignatyev, Brutt
LEO Cancellara, Fuglsang, O’Grady, Gerdemann, Posthuma, R. Feillu
LIQ Basso, Sagan, Kittel, Agnoli, Guarnieri, Viviani
RAB Valverde, Barredo, Brown, Niermann, Martens, Boom
RSH Brajkovic, Horner, Greipel, McEwen, Deignan, Beppu
SAX Cooke, Porte, Haedo, Rollin, N. Sorensen, Tosatto
SKY Rogers, Gerrans, Boasson-Hagen, Henderson, Barry, Hayman
Details: 6 stages, see stage profiles at http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/62610/tour-down-under-2011
UCI Points: 6-4-2-1-1 to the top five in each stage; 100-80-70-60-50-40-30-20-10-4 for top 10 on overall GC.
Intermediate Sprints: Top three earn 6-4-2 points and time bonuses of 3 sec., 2 sec., 1 sec.
Finishing Sprints: Top three earn points of 8-6-4 and time bonuses of 10 sec., 6 sec., 4 sec.
KOM Points: 16-12-8-6-4 to top five on each climb
Stage 1 - Early break includes Sagan (LIQ), Barredo (RAB), Tosatto (SAX), Hayman (SKY) and LeMevel (GRM). The early KOM points go to Tosatto, who pulled ahead of the group, followed by Barredo, who spends a form point while the others follow in line, with Hayman bringing up the rear. A third of the way through the stage, Roulston (HTC) and Posthuma (LEO) slip off the front and start chasing after the leaders. The five leaders are bunched together through the first sprint, which is won by Hayman, followed by Sagan and Tosatto while Barredo and LeMevel decline to sprint. Rabobank’s Boom and BMC’s Kroon also launch moves off the front. By the second sprint, the Roulston-Posthuma duo, along with Boom, has caught up with the five leaders. The sprint goes to Roulston, ahead of Hayman with Sagan taking third. The lead group of seven (with Kroon stuggling to catch up) has a four-minute gap before the Peleton starts chasing in earnest. There’s a crash in the middle of the Peleton and four riders lose time, notably Robbie McEwen (elbow) and Michael Barry (wrist). Hayman (SKY) drops off the back of the lead group on the first hill near the finish. Katusha and Sky begin working together at the front, while Cancellara and Evans join forces to escape off the front on the downhill. On the tricky descent, young Taylor Phinney has a hard crash, and a broken collarbone makes him the first casualty of the Tour; separate accidents result in sprained wrists and lost time for Baden Cooke and Greg Henderson. Cancellara and Evans catch the leading group, but Kolobnev (KAT) and Haussler (GRM) combine forces at the front of the Peleton to narrow the gap to just a minute. Boom lines up behind his teammate, Barredo, but both of them lack the energy to compete in the final drive to the line, and it’s Fabian Cancellara who breaks away to take the stage win, while everyone else is tossed back to the cars by the Peleton’s sudden acceleration that limits overall time loss to a minute. Andre Greipel takes the bunch sprint for second, followed by Kittel, Haussler (still with some form points left while pushing at the front) with Romain Feillu rounding out the top five. More bad news for the BMC team, however, as they lost a second squad member as sprinter Gerald Ciolek crashed near the finish line, suffering a fractured collarbone that forces his withdrawal from the six-race series; that, plus Evans’ unsuccessful breakaway attempt, definitely damped the mood in the BMC team trailer after the race.
Stage 2 - Cancellara begins the stage as the overall GC leader; Hayman holds the point jersey; Tosatto the KOM leader’s jersey. Guarnieri, Ignatyev and Rollin go out on the early break, but Cancellara’s Leopard Trek team puts two men at the front to ramp up the pace at the outset. When the road turns uphill, Guarnieri struggles and drops off the pace, but the lead duo is joined by Rabobank’s Martens, who executes a “power move” off the front. Guarnieri is able to close down the gap to the leaders in time for the first sprint, which he takes just ahead of Rollin, with Martens in third. After this, Guarnieri slowly drifts back to the Peleton, and Martens drops back to allow his teammate, Barredo, claim enough KOM points on the climb (which actually takes place on a flat section) to seize the KOM points lead; top points go to Ignatyev with Rollin in second. The gap to this lead duo shrinks from three minutes down to one as Cancellara’s Leopard Trek teammates push hard on the downhill sections of the course. There’s the inevitable crash on the second downhill section – those most affected are Saxo’s Haedo (elbow) and Garmin’s Dean (wrist); meanwhile, Sky’s Boasson-Hagen is slowed by a puncture. The two leaders give up and, in the confusion, Robbie McEwen launches a “power move” off the front, quickly gaining a two-minute advantage. Cooke (SAX) and Haussler (GRM) make normal attacks and close the distance to McEwen just before the finish. The Peleton, however, cannot gain ground, and these three battle it out for the stage win, with McEwen – who was dead last in Stage 1 – taking the top honors with Haussler second, followed by Cooke. Two minutes later, the Peleton crosses the line, with Boasson-Hagen outsprinting Kittel to take fourth. Haussler takes the lead on overall GC, 56 seconds ahead of Cancellara.
Stage 3 – Heading into this stage, Haussler is in the overall leader’s jersey, Rollin takes over the points jersey, while Barredo has the KOM jersey. Today it’s a group of four out on the early break, including Barredo (looking to protect his KOM points lead), joined by Rollin (SAX) – looking to add to his lead in the points competition -- plus Brutt (KAT) and Sivtsov (HTC). Garmin puts two men at the front but does not seem interested in upping the pace in the first part of the stage. Rollin takes the first sprint, with Brutt in second and Sivtsov in third. Shortly after this, SaxoBank’s Tosatto slips and falls, suffering a delibitating collarbone injury that makes him the third retirement from the race. Midway through the stage, the gap to the four leaders is hovering around five to six minutes. HTC’s Marco Pinotti decides to stretch his legs a bit, but he can only manage to gain about a minute’s time on the Peleton and remains dangling there in no-man’s land – not a good position. When lining up for the second sprint, Sivtsov and Rollin touch wheels, and both go down, Sivtsov losing a minute but Rollin – bothered by a bruised hip – loses even more time. Thus, the sprint points go to Brutt, ahead of Barredo, with Sivtsov a distant third. Back in the pack, Kolobnev goes off course and suffers a badly bruised elbow, losing substantial time. RadioShack’s Jani Brajkovic gets aggressive, moving to the attack zone. The KOM points on the climb are uncontested and go, in order, to Barredo (who pads his lead), Brutt, Sivtsov, Rollin and Pinotti, who now has Brajkovic on his wheel. At this point, the battle for the stage win heats up. Cancellara and Evans, both of whom prefer the hilly finish, move to the attack, along with Lars Boom. Hesjedal and LeMevel, at the front for Garmin, are alert and react quickly, reeling the duo in. The four leaders still have two minutes in hand, but by this time the Peleton is moving at a high pace, and all but Brutt and Barredo are swept up in the final kilometers. These two manage to hang on, but then a couple of “power moves” off the front by Cancellara and Valverde catch everyone else off guard. (Evans, who is struggling to find his form in the early season, was out of form points and unable to follow this move.) Cancellara goes on to take stage win, with Barredo in second. Out of form points, Brutt and Valverde finish third and fourth, respectively. A minute later, the Peleton flashes by and the bunch sprint for fifth goes to Sky’s Simon Gerrans.
At the halfway point, two stage wins puts Cancellara back in the lead in overall GC. The top 10:
1. Cancellara (LEO)
2. Haussler (GRM) at 0:14
3. Brutt (KAT) at 1:41
4. Valverde (RAB) at 1:50
5. Barredo (RAB) at 2:12
6. Greipel (RSH) at 2:14
7. Kittel (LIQ) at 2:16
8. Viviani (LIQ) at 2:19
9. Boasson-Hagen (SKY) at 2:20
10. Goss (HTC) at 2:20
Cancellara holds the points lead, tied with Rollin (SAX) with 16 points. Rollin will wear the points leader’s jersey in the upcoming Stage 4. Brutt is third on points with 14.
Carlos Barredo (RAB) has a solid lead in the KOM points competition, with 34. Rollin (SAX) on 18 points is a distant second, followed by Ignatyev (KAT) at 16.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Tour Down Under (Part 2)
Stages 4 - 6
Stage 4 -- SaxoBank’s Nicki Sorensen takes off on a solo break, spending a form point for the “power move off the front.” Normal attacks are undertaken by Martens (RAB), LeMevel (GRM), Ignatyev (KAT) and Pinotti (HTC). Cancellara’s Leopard Trek team puts two men at the front, preparing to rotate them out and then lift the pace as needed. The five leaders form one group just before the first climb, where the top KOM points go to Ignatyev, with Martens (working for his teammate, Barredo, who holds the KOM points lead) second. The first sprint follows, and the sprint bonuses go, in order, to Martens, LeMevel and Sorensen. At this point the five leaders are maintaining a six-minute gap to the Peleton, which is rolling along at a moderate speed. Heading into the second sprint, Pinotti and LeMevel drop off the back, and the points go to Ignatyev, ahead of Sorensen with Martens (who held onto his last form point and did not sprint) taking third. The Peleton has gradually increased the pace, yet Kolobnev and Boom take advantage of the downhill run into the finish to break away. The remnants of the break are quickly gobbled up, as Liquigas puts two men at the front to ramp up the pace at a level that makes even the Leopard Trek men uncomfortable. A belated attack from McEwen and Cooke is quickly reeled in, but then Evans and Hondo launch an attack. At this point the lead duo of Boom and Kolobnev have a minute, headed into the final two sections. None other than the GC leader, Cancellara, pops up at the front, pushing even harder, with the assistance of Sky’s Henderson, who is looking for a stage win today. Evans and Hondo are reeled in, and Kolobnev is dropped by Boom, who continues attacking into the final flat run in to the finish. Cancellara is willing to push the pace even further, but finds no one to help, so Boom goes on to take a well-deserved solo stage win. In the bunch sprint for second, there’s a collision and a massive pile-up that claims Sky’s Boasson-Hagen, who is out of the race (collarbone), while others – Hesjedal (elbow); Hutarovich (wrist); Rabobank’s Brown and Liquigas’ Viviani (hip) are out of today’s action but able to continue. Haussler takes the sprint for second, with help from his Garmin teammate, Hondo. The rest of the top five are Greipel, Henderson and Goss. Cancellara keeps the overall GC lead but Haussler’s bonus time from the sprint has reduced the gap to just eight seconds. The stage win pulls Boom up to third in the overall, 1:40 behind Cancellara. No changes to the points and KOM leaders, although Ignatyev pulled to within two (32 to 34) of Barredo in the KOM points competition.
Stage 5 – Today’s stage could be crucial for both the overall GC and the KOM points competition. It features the only two “real” climbs of the Tour and, since the two top guys on the GC list (Cancellara and Haussler) are weak in the mountains, it could prove an opportunity for a climber to steal not just a stage win but also the overall GC. Also, the KOM competition will be decided today as there are no climbs at all on stage 6. The tactics selected by the teams are interesting: Leopard Trek puts two men at the front, Rabobank puts Barredo (in the KOM leader’s jersey) at the front, Katusha sends both Karpets and Ignatyev out on the break, while Kittel (LIQ) and Rollin (SAX) go out on the break in search of sprint time and point bonuses. Rabobank sends Martens on the break as well, in an effort to neutralize the Katusha duo who obviously are trying to set up Ignatyev to overtake Barredo in the KOM points classification. Barredo, worried about the Katusha duo up the road, takes off on a “power move” and joins forces with his teammate, Martens. HTC’s Sivtsov launches an attack to join these two. Meanwhile, the riders in the lead group line up for the first sprint, which goes to Rollin, just ahead of Kittel; Karpets holds third as both the Katusha men are saving themselves for the upcoming climbs. The gap to the leaders grows to around six minutes before the Peleton, with Garmin sharing the pacesetting duties with Leopard, starts chasing. The three chasers catch the leaders at the second sprint, and the points and bonuses go, in order, to Martens, Kittel and Rollin – and, at this point, Rollin has done enough to move into the points lead (with 24 points to Cancellara’s 16). On the approach to the first climb, the two sprinters (Kittel and Rollin) peel off the back while Karpets and Martens hang on to pace their teammates on the upcoming climb. Meanwhile, back in the pack, Leopard’s Posthuma collides with RadioShack’s Horner; both lose three minutes’ time while Posthuma suffers a bruised hip as well. The five leaders are paced by Sivtsov on the climb, but the KOM sprint is won by Ignatyev, just ahead of his teammate Karpets, who drops Barredo down to third; these tactics by the Russian duo puts Ignatyev ahead of Barredo, 48-42, in the battle for the KOM points jersey. Meanwhile, a group of four (Hesjedal, Basso, Gerrans and Evans) uses their superior climbing ability to attack out of the Peleton. Hesjedal and Evans continue attacking on the downhill after the climb, with Evans shooting ahead. At this point, Cancellara’s teammate, Fuglsang, is signaling a desire to push the pace, but no one else at the front pulls with him, so a gap is established. The five leaders continue to plug away into the final climb. On the ascent, Fuglsang is joined by Gerdemann to lift the pace on behalf of the leader’s team. Evans catches up to the five leaders, two minutes ahead of the Peleton. Hesjedal is a minute down, but he’s joined by Roche, Rogers and Valverde, all of whom went into the red zone, spending double form points to launch “power moves” off the front. The KOM points on the climb go to Ignatyev, just ahead of Barredo, enabling the Russian – with a huge assist from his teammate, Karpets, for pacing him up the last two climbs – to claim the KOM points jersey. Now, with two sections left – a downhill and a flat finish – the stage for the GC battle is set. Evans, over three minutes down on overall GC, moves off the front, nursing a two-minute advantage into the final kilometers. Hesjedel paces his teammate, Roche, along with Rogers and Valverde, on the descent – these four are a minute behind Evans. Evans, however, is out of energy and form points and he, along with the four chasers, is swept up by the Peleton with Fuglsang doing yeoman’s work at the front to pull them back. Thus, it’s another bunch sprint finish, and HTC’s Matt Goss gets to the front, holding off Robbie McEwen (RSH) and Greg Henderson (SKY) for the stage win. Haedo (SAX) takes fourth. Haussler (GRM) rounds out the top five, after an unsuccessful bid to gain some precious bonus seconds to close the ground to Cancellara in the overall GC battle.
Stage 6 – Final stage of this Tour is a short, flat circuit race with no KOM or intermediate sprints on the agenda. In game terms, the starting energy for this nine-section course will be 45, with the numbers on all water bottles reduced by one as well as the length of time before expiry being reduced (i.e., a 4-8 becomes a 3-6, 5-9 becomes 4-7, 6-10 becomes 5-8). Ironically, the top two GC teams have competing objectives: Leopard Trek is content to allow a break to succeed, as long as Cancellara finishes with Haussler, while Haussler’s team wants to keep the breaks under control, hoping that their man can come through with a time bonus for the stage win to take the overall GC. At the outset, Boom and Sorensen (who are both on excellent form today) launch “power moves” off the front, while Goss, Greipel and Henderson make normal attacks. Garmin rotates four men on and off the front (Hesjedal, Hondo, LeMevel and Roche, leaving Dean to take care of the water bottles while team leader Haussler saves energy lurking near the back), and this keeps the pace high to limit the gap to no more than three to four minutes. Midway through the stage, Kolobnev breaks away off the front, but the steady pace set by Garmin has brought the gap to the four leaders down to two minutes, with Kolobnev at one minute stuck in between the two. Then, two-thirds of the way into the race, there’s a tangle of riders hitting the ground. Two (HTC’s Renshaw and Rabobank’s Brown) are forced to retire with collarbone injuries; Hutarovich (wrist) and Feillu (hip) lose major time. However, significantly for the GC situation, Garmin’s Haussler suffers a puncture and drops a minute off the pace. With two sections left in the day’s racing, the gap is reduced to a minute, and Kolobnev has joined the lead group. SaxoBank’s Cooke and HTC’s Davis launch moves off the front. The lead group splinters and is caught and, while Cooke breaks off the attack, Davis – who has plenty of energy remaining – presses forward. This causes Garmin to push the pace even higher, with Dean joining Hesjedal at the front while Haussler begins working his way back, having closed the gap with the help of another teammate, Roche. Thus, the Peleton is compact and hurtling to another bunch sprint finish. Two Aussies battle for the stage win, as Davis comes through on the inside, only to be pipped by Robbie McEwen (who had teammate support from Brajkovic). Cooke, with support from teammate and fellow Aussie Richie Porte, takes third to make it an all-Australian podium. Haussler recovered to take fourth, just missing a time bonus, while Peter Sagan (who has had a disappointing season opener) nips Rabobank’s Paul Martens for fifth.
Final Results, Tour Down Under
Overall GC
1. Cancellara (LEO)
2. Haussler (GRM) 0:08
3. Boom (RAB) 1:40
4. Valverde (RAB) 1:50
5. Goss (HTC) 2:10
6. Brutt (KAT) 2:11
7. Davis (HTC) 2:14
8. Viviani (LIQ) 2:19
9. Hutarovich (KAT) 2:20
10. Rogers (HTC) 2:20
Points Competition
1. Rollin (SAX) 24
2. McEwen (RSH) 22
3. Cancellara (LEO) 16
KOM Points
1. Ignatyev (KAT) 64
2. Barredo (RAB) 54
3. Karpets (KAT) 20
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 1, Recap and Standings
UCI PRO TOUR STANDINGS AFTER ONE EVENT
INDIVIDUAL (wins in parens)
1. Cancellara (LEO) 112 (3)
2. Haussler (GRM) 91
3. Boom (RAB) 76 (1)
4. Valverde (RAB) 61
5. Goss (HTC) 57 (1)
6. Brutt (KAT) 42
7. Davis (HTC) 34
8. Viviani (LIQ) 20
9. McEwen (RSH) 16 (2)
10. Hutarovich (KAT) 10
TEAMS (wins in parens)
1. Rabobank 141 (1)
2. Leopard Trek 113 (3)
3. HTC 91 (1)
4. Garmin 91
5. Katusha 52
6. Liquigas 24
7. Radio Shack 22 (2)
8. Sky 9
9. SaxoBank 5
10. BMC 0
Tour Down Under Recap and Commentary:
Strong performance by Cancellara and the new Leopard Trek team to take the overall GC and two stage wins. The flat nature of the course, with a few hills and downhills but not many steep climbs, played into the team’s strengths. Rabobank did quite well, placing two men in the top four, plus a well-deserved stage win for Lars Boom. Valverde was uncomfortable in the flat stretches but did get in one break which contributed to his high overall GC placing. Carlos Barredo contended for the overall KOM points lead, and the team result was enough to take the early lead in the points standings. Garmin was well led by Heinrich Haussler who took second overall but the team did not take any stage wins. The support cast was a bit disappointing; Hondo failed to figure in any sprints, and Roche could have done better had there been more climbs. Good teamwork, though, in support of Haussler on the final day although the effort came up a bit short. HTC took one stage win with Goss and narrowly missed a second on the final day when Davis’ attack was reeled in, and he fell a bit short in the sprint. Katusha was active in many of the breaks, and Ignatyev carted off the KOM points jersey; Brutt finished a surprising 6th in the overall after getting in one of the successful breaks, and Hutarovich barely made the top 10 after coming close to earning points in a couple of bunch sprint finishes. Liquigas came with a strong group of sprinters, but left a bit disappointing without any stage wins although Kittel took a third, but Sagan was either in poor form or the victim of bad luck for most of the stages. Ivan Basso, the nominal team leader, seemed to be going through the motions and was not a factor most of the time. RadioShack had a few good moments, mainly when veteran Aussie Robbie McEwen took two stage wins plus a second, while the team’s lead sprinter, Andre Greipel, faltered and lost his position in overall GC by getting in an unsuccessful break and getting dropped off the back in the final kilometers of Stage 6. Ironically, McEwen, who finished at 12:54 off the pace on overall GC, was in last place until moving up a few spots on the final day. SaxoBank had Rollin taking the points win by virtue of his performance in intermediate sprints but, other than a couple of third places by Baden Cooke, overall the team did not impress. Richie Porte never threated in either the KOM or overall GC, and Matteo Tosatto dropped out at a time when he was in the top 10. Team Sky had a very disappointing series of results. Top sprinter Boasson-Hagen, whose style seemed suited to a possible stage win, had just one top five placing before crashing out; only Henderson managed a podium on any stage, and Mik Rogers had a rather pedestrian Tour that barely netted him a top 10 on GC. Finally, the biggest disappointment was the Cadel Evans-led BMC contingent. Losing sprinters Ciolek and Phinney early was disasterous, and then Evans quite unsuccessfully tried to shoulder the burden himself, going out on a couple of poorly-timed breaks that wound up hurting his position on the overall GC, and in general the depleted squad suffered from a lack of flat speed that prevented any meaningful results; thus a big zero in UCI points at this stage.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Paris-Nice (Part 1)
On to the start of the European season, with "the Race to the Sun" -- Paris-Nice (8 stages).
EVENT 2 – PARIS-NICE
LINEUPS
BMC: Kreuziger, Moncoutie, Ciolek, Hincapie, Peraud, Frank
Garmin: Vandevelde, Danielsson, Roche, Millar, Hesjedal, LeMevel
HTC: T. Martin, Albasini, Eisel, Grabsch, Roulston, Van Garderen
Katusha: Rodriguez, Spilak, Hutarovich, Kolobnev, Hoste, Gusev
Leopard: Voeckler, F. Schleck, R. Feillu, Fedrigo, Monfort, Voigt
Liquigas: Sagan, Szmyd, Visconti, Oss, Leukemans, Koren
Rabobank: Chavanel, Kruijswijk, Sanchez, Barredo, Flens, Tjallingli
Radio Shack: Leipheimer, Kloden, Greipel, Brajkovic, Arroyo, Rast
SaxoBank: Contador, Rolland, Rollin, Nuyens, Larsson, C. Sorensen
Sky: Wiggins, Gadret, Henderson, Gerrans, Hayman, Thomas
For stage profiles, see http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/64761/paris-nice-2011
UCI Points to top ten in overall GC (100-80-70-60-50-40-30-20-10-4) and top five (6-4-2-1-1) on each stage. KOM and sprint points are as indicated in the BGG file. Time bonuses of 3, 2 and 1 seconds each intermediate sprint, and 6, 4 and 2 seconds at the finish line of each road stage.
Stage 1: BMC’s Peraud launches in a solo move off the front and holds the lead to take the top KOM points on the only climb of the day. HTC’s Albasini follows, a minute later, with a group of three (Barredo, Monfort and Spilak) contesting the final point; Barredo outsprints the other two to take the point. After seeing the gap grow quickly to almost five minutes, Garmin and Sky combine forces to ramp up the pace at the front of the Peleton. However, the pace is not quick enough to prevent additional breaks off the front, with Kolobnev, Gerrans, Hesjedal and Szmyd taking advantage of this opportunity. All teams but Radio Shack and SaxoBank have someone in the break, so getting agreement on pushing the pace is difficult. Kolobnev and Gerrans catch the five leaders at the midway point, heading into the first sprint, with Hesjedal and Szmyd a minute behind. The now seven-man strong lead group reaches the first sprint point with four minutes in hand. Albasini leads out the sprint, and the points go to Peraud, followed by Spilak (with help from his Katusha teammate, Kolobnev) and Barredo, all of whom beat the HTC rider to the line. The Peleton ramps up the pace to cut the gap to three minutes, with Roche (assisted by his teammate, Hesjedal) catching the lead group. Hincapie and Millar launch counter-attacks off the front. The second sprint sees a reversal of the earlier result, with the points going (in order) to Barredo, Spilak and Peraud. Grabsch and Hoste launch counter-attacks. The rest of the stage continues incident-free, with Millar, Hincapie, Grabsch and Hoste clinging to a two-minute advantage, while Roche drops off the pace, with Barredo and Peraud (two of the original escapees) hanging on to finish a minute in front of the Peleton. Garmin’s Millar, who has plenty of energy left, takes the stage win with Hoste second and Grabsch third. Peraud leads the three stragglers across to take fifth on the stage. The bunch sprint for eighth position goes to Sky’s Henderson.
Stage 2: Another flat stage with no climbs before the serious climbing gets going in Stages 3 – 5. Sky’s Hayman uses a form point to launch a power move off the front, while two others (Katusha’s Kolobnev and Leopard’s Voeckler) make normal attacks. A touching of wheels in the middle of the Peleton, and George Hincapie (BMC) goes down, along with Rabobank’s Barredo. Hincapie has the worst of it – he’s out with a broken collarbone, while Barredo has a badly bruised elbow and is able to continue after some medical treatment. Meanwhile, the Peleton’s chase – with Garmin and BMC at the fore – is not particularly vigorous, and the trio joins up just before the first sprint point with a healthy six-minute gap on the field. Hayman is the only one of three who makes an effort, and he takes the sprint, with Voeckler in second ahead of Kolobnev. The gap shrinks to around four minutes heading into the second sprint, but then another incident causes chaos in the middle of the Peleton, with Sky’s Henderson becoming the second casualty, suffering a broken collarbone to force his retirement. Sagan and LeMevel suffer bruised wrists, but are able to continue. Caught up in the melee is the race leader, David Millar, who loses some time but quickly rejoins as there is still a good 40 Km left in the stage. Results of the second sprint are the same as the first, with Hayman besting Voeckler while Kolobnev brings up the rear. Luis Leon Sanchez and Roche break away and, joined by Gusev and Voigt, form a four-man chase group. The Peleton’s chase seems a bit disorganized as many teams are saving energy for the upcoming stages. Leon Sanchez powers the way for the chasing group to close ground on the one downhill section, but Gusev is dropped off the back. The chase group (now consisting of Voigt and Roche, along with Sanchez) catches up to the lead trio, and these six are joined by Chavanel and Greipel, both of whom go into the red zone to gain two minutes on the Peleton. Chavanel continues pushing, dropping the original escapees but having Greipel, Voigt, Leon Sanchez and Roche follow his pace to contest the stage win. Saxo puts two men at the front to limit the time loss to two minutes, with the original escapees being caught just before the finish line. Leon Sanchez, with help from Chavanel, outsprints a tired Greipel for the stage win. Roche takes third on the stage and moves to the lead in the overall GC. HTC’s Eisel takes the bunch sprint for fifth as Voigt and Chavanel fill the remaining top five positions.
Stage 3 – Roche has the GC leader’s yellow jersey; Greipel wears the green points jersey although he is second to Roche on points; BMC’s Peraud still holds the KOM jersey. Arroyo, Van Garderen and Leukemans each spend a form point to make an early break from the pack; Kruiswijk, Gusev and Monfort follow a couple of minutes later. The latter two work their way to join with the leaders, while Kruiswijk drops back. Liquigas’ Szymd takes a tumble and comes away with a badly bruised hip. Four of the leaders contest the first sprint, which goes to Van Garderen, ahead of Spilak, Monfort and Leukemans. At this point the road turns uphill and Rabobank’s climbing specialist, Kruijswijk, catches up to the lead group. Sorensen (Saxo) and Hesjedal (Garmin) cooperate to lift the pace, reducing the gap to the leaders to three minutes. The hilly nature of the course allows for more breakaway attempts, as Kolobnev is Katusha’s second man, while Rabobank sends Barredo and Leon Sanchez forward. Heading up the last of the three hills, Peraud and Kolobnev catch up to the six leaders, while Barredo breaks off the attack, leaving Leon Sanchez on his own. Leon Sanchez takes advantage of a long downhill section to slip past the leaders, who are running low on energy; Leopard’s Voeckler attacks off the front to join the lead group, one minute behind Leon Sanchez and only one minute ahead of the SaxoBank-led Peleton. Rabobank, however, continues attacking, with Tjallingli spending two form points to join Leon Sanchez while team leader Chavanel moves to the attack card, putting pressure on all the other teams. On the flat section headed into the climb, the Rabobank duo sticks together while Chavanel catches the remnants of the lead group, consisting of Vockler and his Leopard teammate (Monfort), along with Peraud and Spilak, who are hanging on for the KOM points. The seven leaders re-combine on the climb, and Contador gets no help from Wiggins in pushing the pace, so the KOM points go to Peraud, Monfort and Spilak, with the Rabobank duo of Tjallingli and Leon Sanchez following in order. All fall back except for Chavanel and Voeckler, who maintain a one-minute gap on the downhill run into the finish. Neither opts to risk a sprint, so Chavanel takes the stage win, with Voeckler second. A minute later the Peleton arrives, paced by Contador, who drops back as the sprinters take over. Third goes to Hutarovich, with Ciolek nosing out Romain Feillu for fourth. Roche fails to keep the leader’s jersey, and the overall GC sees Chavanel moving to first spot by a narrow margin:
Overall GC after 3 Stages
1. Chavanel (RAB)
2. Roche (GRM) 0:04
3. Millar (GRM) 1:00
4. Leon Sanchez (RAB) 1:00
5. Greipel (RSH) 1:02
6. Grabsch (HTC) 1:04
7. Voeckler (LEO) 1:58
8. Peraud (BMC) 2:32
9. Hutarovich (KAT) 3:04
10. Voigt (LEO) 3:06
Green Jersey Points leaders: Chavanel (52), Roche (49), Eisel (41)
KOM Points leaders: Peraud (11), Monfort (5), Spilak (3)
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Luke Morris
Japan
Nagoya
Aichi
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An early season stage win for Millar, a day in the leader's jersey for Roche and those two in 2nd and 3rd after the stages makes me a happy bunny.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Paris-Nice (Part 2)
Luke, you might enjoy the results for some of the next stages as well.
Stage 4: With some early KOM points on offer, several riders go for the early break, as LeMevel, Arroyo, Van Garderen and Spilak have form points to burn in chasing the points. Peraud and Monfort move to the attack card. The points on the first Cat. 2 climb go, in order, to VanGarderen, Arroyo, LeMevel, Spilak and Peraud. On the downhill, all three riders stuck in the middle of the Peleton suffer punctures, which means the first Peleton split of the season – chaos reigns until Contador’s SaxoBank team places two at the front to increase the pace, while others (notably Katusha’s Kolobnev and Rabobank’s Barredo) take advantage of the opportunity to launch counter-attacks. The four leaders work together, maintaining the gap to KOM leader Peraud to the top of the climb. This time, Arroyo comes off the back to take the KOM points, ahead of Van Garderen and Spilak. A minute later, Monfort leads Peraud in a group that includes Kolobnev who has pushed hard to catch up. Others (Barredo and Kruiswijk of Rabobank, Liquigas’ Szmyd and Sky’s Simon Gerrans) are strung out over the six minute span between the chase group and the head of the SaxoBank-led Peleton. The two lead groups join together for the third Cat. 2 climb, which sees LeMevel taking the top points just ahead of Peraud, followed by Spilak, VanGarderen and Arroyo. Two-thirds of the way throught the stage, the gap to the Peleton stands at six minutes, but Radio Shack has joined Saxo to share the pace-setting duties. Arroyo, Kolobnev, Monfort and Kruiswijk drop off the pace for the final climb (a Cat. 3), and the KOM points go to Barredo, ahead of Gerrans and LeMevel as others have used all their form points. Kreuziger, Leon Sanchez and Contador attack, while the Peleton still faces a four-minute deficit. The high pace on the final downhill section leads to some racing in tight quarters, with Rollin (elbow), Eisel (elbow) and Voigt (wrist) coming out on the worst end of the spill. Van Garderen has moved to the front of the remnants of the lead group, heading into the one sprint. Leon Sanchez and Kreuziger follow, a minute down, out of form points. Contador has broken away and is going into the “red zone,” catching the two chasers. Chavanel breaks off the front and joins him. Barredo takes the final sprint (ahead of VanGarderen and LeMevel) then, exhausted, he drops back to the Peleton. Chavanel and the other chasers (Leon Sanchez, Contador and Kreuziger) chase down the remnants of the lead group with about two kilometers to go, but a late surge from the Peleton – with Garmin’s David Millar and RadioShack’s Andre Greipel combining forces at the front – tracks down all the breaks, and it’s a bunch sprint finish. Greipel, the only true sprinter left at the front, easily outsprints everyone else for the stage win, with HTC’s Tony Martin making a late surge to edge Millar for second. Leopard’s Feillu comes in fourth – continuing a good run of results – while Katusha’s Hutarovich fills out the top five.
Stage 5: A big day of climbing faces the riders, and it will be interesting to see which of the GC contenders has fresh legs to take advantage of the situation. Clinging to a narrow four-second advantage over Garmin’s Millar is overall GC and points leader Chavanel. Greipel, second on points, wears the green points jersey while Peraud retains the KOM jersey. With some early KOM points on offer, it’s no surprise to see Peraud (along with Spilak, Leukemans and Albasini) go out on the early break, but on the first (Cat. 3) climb they are upstaged by the duo of Barredo and LeMevel, each of whom burns a form point for a power escape off the front. Thus, the first KOM points of the day go, in order, to Barredo, LeMevel and Leukemans, who spends a form point and outsprints Peraud for third place points. LeMevel moves to the front just before the first sprint, but lets Barredo slip by to take the flat sprint while Leukemans takes an uncontested third place over Peraud. Right after the sprint comes the first of two Cat. 1 climbs (the Col de la Croix de Chaubouret), and Barredo and LeMevel continue to cooperate, going 1-2 while the all-out sprint for third goes to Peraud, just ahead of Spilak and Albasini. Leukemans elects not to sprint and is placed sixth (good for 2 KOM points) while the single point for seventh goes to Garmin’s Danielsson, who blasts off from the front of the pack. Over the climb, the gap to the leaders has stabilized at around 7-8 minutes. With the top GC teams (Rabobank and Garmin) with men in the break, the pace-setting duties fall to SaxoBank. Voeckler and Kolobnev shoot off the front in another break, but events soon take over as there is another Peleton split as both cyclists stuck in the middle on a treacherous downhill collide and lose time; Simon Gerrans’ bruised wrist will likely slow him for the rest of the tour. A fall to HTC’s Roulston (who suffers a bruised elbow) just before a feed zone creates a logistical challenge for the team. Saxo gets some help from Garmin, who – despite having a man in the break – put Millar at the front to cut down the gap to just three minutes heading into the second sprint. The time and point bonuses on offer go to Leukemans, ahead of Barredo with Albasini third. The six leaders remain intact for the ensuing Cat. 2 climb, with Peraud defending his leader jersey well, taking the top KOM points, ahead of Leukemans, Barredo, LeMevel and Spilak. Voeckler and Kolobnev follow, a minute down, with the Peleton – now paced by Garmin’s Vandevelde – maintaining a high pace to slice the margin to just two minutes. On the descent heading into the final climb, Spilak and Albasini fall away but the Voeckler-Kolobnev duo catches up to the remnants of the lead group; Chavanel is joined by Leon Sanchez, and both of them work to keep the pace high, thus eliminating any threats to Chavanel’s overall GC position. However, once again, there is trouble in the middle of the Peleton on the descent, as Katusha’s Rodriguez punctures, triggering a multi-bike incident. Caught up are some prominent names, such as Contador (SAX) and Wiggins (SKY); Leipheimer and Vandevelde narrowly escape disaster. Left behind is Leopard’s Fedrigo, who becomes the third retirement, victim of another collarbone injury. Thus, the pack has thinned out for the second and final Cat. 1 climb of the day, the Col de la Mure. Chavanel and his Rabobank teammates lift the pace a bit, enabling Rodriguez and Contador to race their way back to the rear of the pack. It also allows a final battle for KOM points among the six remaining riders in the lead group, and this time Voeckler, still full of fight, edges Kolobnev for the points as Leukemans takes third. Then, an exhausted trio of LeMevel, Peraud and Barredo follows in order and, a minute later, Rabobank’s Kruijswijk powers his way to the final point for seventh place on the climb. Peraud and Leukemans drop back quickly on the final uphill run to the finish, but the game Tommy Voeckler and the remnants of the lead group hang on until just before the final kilometer, when the Peleton finally reels them in. It’s an uphill finish, and Garmin’s Roche comes to the fore to take the stage win, holding off a surprisingly strong Daniel Oss (LIQ) who comes from the middle of the pack to make it a close finish. Oss’ teammate, Peter Sagan, rounds out the top three with Romain Feillu (LEO) and Bert Grabsch (HTC) picking up the UCI points for fourth and fifth, respectively. The six second time bonus for the stage win is just enough to move Roche into the overall GC lead, by just two seconds over Chavanel. Contador and Rodriguez manage to get back into the Peleton to avoid time loss, but Wiggins drops a minute as he is unable to make it all of the way back to the pack.
Stage 6: This is an individual time trial, 27.2 Km in length, but I am afraid after running the stage on PCM 2011 I will have to revise the profile from Luke’s replay materials, turning it from a purely flat stage into a bit more of a hilly one (I saw gradients of 7-8% on PCM). In game terms, it’s an eight-section course, profile is D – F – F – F – H – H – D – F, so 50% flat, 25% hills, 25% downhill. Looking at the time variances, each point of difference shall represent 20 seconds’ time, each unused form point is 5 seconds, remaining energy is converted to time on a 1 for 2 basis (up to 10 energy) then on a 1-for-1 basis for any remaining energy over 10. Then, incorporating Luke’s +1 and –1 ratings, I decided to opt for a die roll (as an additional form die roll, as normal) and add or subtract the difference, with each point being worth 10 seconds’ time. The riders take off in reverse order of GC standing, with Hayden Roulston (in 57th) going first, with Roche (in the leader’s jersey) off last. There are some strong efforts early in the stage, as Katusha’s Leif Hoste sets fast time, but then Rabobank’s Tjallingli beats it, in a time that is equally by the young American, HTC’s Tejay Van Garderen. Both Tjallingli and Van Garderen will see their times hold up for a top 10 placing. Then mighty Jens Voigt, who is on a good day, beats the top time by almost a minute. His countryman, Kloden, comes close but falls a bit short. Leipheimer, who does not find the course to his liking, still puts up a time that is third best but drops down the list as the top guys take off. Contador, who’s having a rough go of it thus far, falls far short, almost a minute and a half off the time set by Voigt; he ends up 15th on the stage, but had hoped far a much better result. Then, Tony Martin – who won the stage in real-life – puts in a time that comes close, but is still two seconds slower than Voigt. Bert Grabsch and Leon Sanchez also put in strong efforts that will also hold up for top 10 performances. Then, the Scot David Millar rockets around the course, besting Voigt’s time by 42 seconds. Second from the end is Sylvain Chavanel, looking to regain the overall GC lead. He finds the course to his liking, and – aided by a good form roll – proves he doesn’t need the benefit of the extra die roll (from the +1 rating) to move into the lead, 10 seconds faster than Millar. Nicolas Roche, who is not much of a time trialist, finishes far back which allows Chavanel to move into first overall, with Millar now in second. The top five on the stage are, in order: Chavanel, Millar, Voigt, Martin and Kloden. With two stages remaining, there’s been a huge shake-up in the overall GC which now looks like this:
1. Chavanel (RAB)
2. Millar (GRM) 1:08
3. Leon Sanchez (RAB) 2:26
4. Grabsch (HTC) 2:51
5. Roche (GRM) 3:42
6. Greipel (RSH) 4:04
7. T. Martin (HTC) 4:09
8. Voeckler (LEO) 4:28
9. Kloden (RSH) 4:46
10. Leipheimer (RSH) 4:51
Among those pre-race favorites on the outside looking in at this point: Contador (5:25), Vandevelde (5:29), F. Schleck (6:00), Kreuziger (6:06), Sagan (6:12), Wiggins (6:44), Rodriguez (7:10).
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Luke Morris
Japan
Nagoya
Aichi
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Chavanel and Millar! It's like, which race from your previous season - Vuelta or Giro, I can't remember.
From reading Roche's autobiography it seems like he lives his life pretty much constantly frustrated by how he can't TT better.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Luke, your memory of last year's replay was accurate. The Chavanel - Millar situation mirrors what happened at the Vuelta replay from last year:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/694217/2010-vuelta-despana-r...
The time gap at the end was just 40 seconds, right now it's right around a minute. So far, eerily similar ...
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Luke Morris
Japan
Nagoya
Aichi
-
I think they're both well set up for rolling stages and can cling on to a group unless a mountain is too long or the attacks start.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Paris-Nice (Part 3)
Stage 7: Two stages left, both of which involve quite a bit of climbing. Today’s stage features two Cat. 1 climbs and two Cat. 2 climbs and what makes it interesting is the fact that some of the riders may be tired from their exertions on the prior day’s time trial stage. Chavanel is in yellow, Peraud is in the KOM leader’s jersey, while Millar (second in both points and GC to Chavanel) wears the points leader’s jersey. Five go out in the early break: LeMevel (GRM), Rast (RSH), Monfort (LEO), Spilak (KAT), and Gadret (SKY). Taking no chances, Rabobank puts two men at the front and starts pushing the pace from the outset. Barredo launches off the front, and BMC’s Peraud (accompanied by HTC’s Albasini) launches a normal attack to put himself in position to defend his KOM points lead. The four leaders roll through the first sprint, which (uncontested) goes to Rast, followed by Barredo and Monfort. Barredo leads the group up the first Cat. 2 climb, taking the points ahead of Monfort, Spilak and Rast; a minute later, LeMevel crosses ahead of Gadret to take the final point for fifth. On the descent, the two lead groups combine while Peraud catches Albasini to form a two-man chase group. The two lead groups are, respectively, five and three minutes ahead of the SaxoBank-paced Peleton. Katusha’s Kolobnev takes advantage of the opportunity to escape off the front and, as the tough climbing part of the stage looms ahead, RadioShack’s Rast gradually drops back, first to the chase group, then to the Peleton. With the KOM jersey on the line, the action among the climbers heats up on the Cat. 1 climb of the Cote de Cabris, which is followed immediately by the Col du Ferrier. The first group, paced by Barredo, contests the top five places, and this time Gadret (Sky) is first across the line, followed by LeMevel, Spilak and Monfort with Barredo, who elected not to sprint, dropping behind the other four. Peraud, battling to defend his KOM points lead, is sixth, crossing a minute later just before Albasini, who takes the last point for seventh. At this point, LeMevel has moved past Peraud (37 points to 35), with Barredo a close third at 34. Meanwhile, several GC contenders and other top climbers have formed a group, pulling ahead of the pack; this group includes two BMC riders (Kreuziger and Moncoutie), as well as Leipheimer, Rodriguez, Danielsson and Kruijswijk – the latter two may be in the move as “spoilers” for their respective team leaders who are currently the top GC men. As the field slogs up the Ferrier, Peraud spends a form point to close the gap to the lead group, and the bold move pays off as he also manages to come off the back to take the top KOM points. Gadret takes second, followed by Barredo, LeMevel then Albasini as neither Spilak nor Monfort wishes to use a final form point to sprint. This puts Peraud back in the KOM points lead; he has 45, compared to 42 for LeMevel and 40 for Barredo. It’s two minutes to the group of Rodriguez, Leipheimer, and the two BMC guys, three minutes to the Peleton which sees Contador joining his SaxoBank teammates at the front as the pressure is now really on. On the downhill, there’s overcrowding in the middle, and three go down, including VanGarderen, who loses four minutes but suffers no lasting injuries. Voeckler and Leon Sanchez move to the attack zone, with Leon Sanchez perhaps playing the role of the “rabbit” to entice Garmin to join Saxo in pushing the pace. Saxo has its own plans, however, as Contador shoots off the front in a “power move” to join Voeckler. These two bridge the gap to the three-man chase group (Kreuziger, Leipheimer and Rodriguez, with Moncoutie having fallen back) and the five catch the five leaders who are in the battle for the final KOM points of the day. Peraud is able to increase his lead, placing second on the Cat. 2 climb to Gadret, while LeMevel is third, Barredo fourth ahead of Spilak. Points are now: Peraud 50, LeMevel 45, Barredo 42. All five of these fall by the wayside, and Leon Sanchez joins the others to form a seven-man lead group (paced by Voeckler) with two minutes in hand with two sections to go. There’s an intermediate sprint left, and – after Kreuziger, Leipheimer and Rodriguez have dropped off the back – Leon Sanchez pulls in front of the others, but Tommy Voeckler slips off his bike, suffering a wrist sprain and dropping a minute in back of the Peleton. Contador and Leukemans, both of whom do not sprint, avoid colliding with Voeckler to earn the remaining time bonuses. Bert Grabsch, who has bided his time at the rear, now blasts to the front and is full of energy approaching the final kilometers. The three leaders, joined by a determined Grabsch, manage to hold onto a minute of their advantage as noone at the front of a ragged looking Peleton is able to lift the pace. The HTC rider easily outsprints the other three for the stage win, with Leukemans taking second ahead of Contador and a haggard-looking Leon Sanchez. Romain Feillu takes a spirited bunch sprint for fifth and a UCI point. Voeckler (loses two minutes) and Greipel (four minutes back) drop out of the top 10 on overall GC, while Leon Sanchez and Grabsch claw to within two minutes of the two leaders. Contador gains time to move into the top 10 but is still 4:21 off the pace.
Stage 8: The final stage, and it doesn’t get any easier with two punishing Cat. 1 climbs (La Turbie, followed by the Col d’Eze) with a downward run into the finish in Nice. Thus, the overall GC as well as the KOM and points competition are still up for grabs. Kolobnev leads the group out, making an early solo break to snatch the sprint points, with a group of Tjallingli, VanGarderen and Monfort following. Tjallingli and VanGarderen fill the second and third spots on both the sprint and the ensuing Cat. 3 climb, where the catch up to the Russian. LeMevel also goes on the attack, and soon he is joined by the other protagonists in the KOM points battle (Barredo and Peraud). In an interesting move, Garmin sends Roche forward, hoping to put the Rabobank team under pressure. Meanwhile, as the pack winds around the first downhill section, Liquigas’ Koren misses a gear-shift and winds up in the ditch with a broken collarbone – another retirement. Then it’s time for another climb, this time a Cat. 2, and the points go to Van Garderen, who comes off the back to outsprint Kolobnev, while Monfort and Tjallingli (electing to hang on to their form points for now) are third and fourth, with LeMevel following a minute later to take the final point for fifth. LeMevel catches up to the four leaders on the downhill, put KOM contenders Peraud and Barredo are still a minute back. Roche is part of a six-man chase group that is now two minutes in front of the Peleton as the GC battle heats up. Garmin suffers a blow when Hesjedal crashes, losing valuable time as the final three climbs are on the horizon. The order at the top of the climb is Peraud, Barredo, LeMevel, Kolobnev and Monfort, with Tjallingli and VanGarderen declining to sprint for points. Five minutes pass by before a six-man chase group, including Roche, appears. Another minute, and four riders who have broken from the Peleton – Voeckler and his teammate, Frank Schleck, along with Kreuziger and Rodriguez – appear. The Peleton, now seven minutes in arrears, is under the control of Contador’s SaxoBank teammates. On the descent heading into the Cat. 1 Turbie, Voeckler catches the Roche group, dragging Rodriguez and Kreuziger with him along with his Leopard teammate, Frank Schleck. Then, David Millar makes his move – he goes on the attack along with Chavanel’s teammate, Leon Sanchez. Thus, the GC battle is joined. On the climb up LaTurbie, the GC group (including Roche, Voeckler, et al), paced by BMC’s Moncoutie, catches up to the seven in the KOM contenders’ group, with only Katusha’s Spilak dropping back to the Peleton. Thus, it’s a compact group of 16, with Peraud once again digging hard to take the top KOM points, followed by LeMevel, Barredo, VanGarderen, Monfort, Kolobnev and Tjallingli. With the KOM points competition clinched, Peraud drops back and lets the GC guys take charge. At the head of the Peleton, there’s some jostling and Saxo’s Contador finds an ally in RadioShack’s Leipheimer, and both of these execute a power move off the front, quickly opening a two-minute gap, putting them one minute behind the lead group. Millar and Leon Sanchez break off their attacks, while Vandevelde, Wiggins and Kloden move to the attack card as the last stage in the “Race to the Sun” comes down to a literal free-for-all. Voeckler paces an 11-man group on the descent headed into the final climb, the Col d’Eze. Contador, with Leipheimer in tow, is a minute down, with the Peleton another two minutes back. Ciolek and Kloden suffer punctures. On the final climb up the Col d’Eze, Arroyo and VanGarderen are dropped off the back, but Leipheimer, along with Contador, catch to the rear of the lead group. Frank Schleck leads the 11-man strong group to the summit, with Albansini outsprinting Moncoutie for the top KOM points while the rest is content to follow in order. Vandevelde makes a belated attack that seems doomed, as the Peleton, with Chavanel, Leon Sanchez and Wiggins all pushing hard at the front, is striving to slice the three minute gap to the lead group. Albasini, Moncoutie, Schleck and Barredo are done, out of energy, and they drift back to the Peleton where they are quickly dropped to the cars. Contador moves to the front on the descent, dropping Kreuziger and Roche off the back; these two eventually finish a minute back. Hanging on to the end to compete with Contador for the stage win are Rodriguez, Gadret, Voeckler and Leipheimer. Gadret (the only one with a remaining form point) pulls out for the sprint, but then suffers a puncture and drops a minute behind, winding up seventh on the stage. Thus, it’s Alberto Contador taking the stage win, followed by Rodriguez, Voeckler, Leipheimer, with Roche finishing fifth but dropping a minute back. Chavanel and Leon Sanchez pace the Peleton across the line, two minutes behind Contador but within the range to guarantee the overall GC win for Chavanel, plus a podium finish for Leon Sanchez. Contador moves to fifth overall, while Leipheimer and Voeckler cinch a top 10 finish in the overall GC. Rodriguez, who finishes at 5:04, just misses out on a top 10 spot.
Final Overall GC:
1. Chavanel (RAB)
2. Millar (GRM) 1:08
3. Leon Sanchez (RAB) 1:12
4. Grabsch (HTC) 1:45
5. Contador (SAX) 2:11
6. Roche (GRM) 2:42
7. Leipheimer (RSH) 2:51
8. T. Martin (HTC) 4:09
9. Voeckler (LEO) 4:24
10. Kloden (RSH) 4:46
Points:
1. R. Feillu (LEO) 99
2. Chavanel (RAB) 95
3. Roche (GRM) 90
4. Leon Sanchez (RAB) 88
5. Millar (GRM) 79
KOM Points:
1. Peraud (BMC) 67
2. LeMevel (GRM) 57
3. Barredo (RAB) 56
4. Spilak (KAT) 28
5. Gadret (SKY) 27
Recap report to follow.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 2 (Paris-Nice) Recap Report
Here’s the stats rundown for Event 2, Paris-Nice.
Individual, UCI Points (Wins in Parens):
1. Chavanel (RAB) 113 (3)
2. Millar (GRM) 92 (1)
3. Leon Sanchez (RAB) 77 (1)
4. Grabsch (HTC) 69 (1)
5. Contador (SAX) 58 (1)
6. Roche (GRM) 49 (1)
7. Leipheimer (RSH) 31
8. T. Martin (HTC) 25
9. Voeckler (LEO) 16
10. Greipel (RSH) 10 (1)
Teams, UCI Points (Wins in Parens):
1. RAB 190 (4)
2. GRM 141 (2)
3. HTC 94 (1)
4. SAX 58 (1)
5. RSH 45 (1)
6. LEO 23
7. KAT 11
8. LIQ 10
9. BMC 3
10. SKY 0
Commentary: Rabobank, the leader in the team standings after the first event, continued with a strong one-two punch in the form of Chavanel and Luis Leon Sanchez in Paris-Nice. Chavanel took two stage wins and the overall, despite having a lower mountain climbing ability that many of the other overall GC favorites. Leon Sanchez proved to be a good complement and addition to the team, taking one stage and finishing third overall. Garmin had a very strong Paris-Nice, placing both Millar and Roche in the top six overall, with Roche missing out on perhaps an even better showing due to his lack of time trial prowess. Garmin were the only team other than Rabobank to post multiple stage wins. HTC also placed two men in the top 10, with Grabsch holding on to 4th overall despite being less of a climber than just about all the other top GC guys. Tony Martin was a bit of a disappointment, doing well in the TTs but not really producing when the pressure was on. Radio Shack had both Leipheimer and Kloden in the top 10, but it was Greipel who took a stage win and a second before fading from the GC ranks once the steep climbs started. The SaxoBank squad was built around Contador, who was held up due to an unfortunate incident but really impressed on the last two days to climb to 5th overall with a stage win and a third. Leopard Trek had Feillu figuring in the sprints almost every stage and eventually this paid off as he took home the points jersey; erstwhile team leader Voeckler lost time on one key stage but made a strong finish to regain a top 10 GC position; no stage wins, but a second and a third gave his French supporters something to cheer about. Katusha was in a lot of the action but came away with little to show for it; Rodriguez was hurt by his lack of TT and downhill ability, but he finished strongly with a second on the final stage; Leif Hoste posted a second place stage finish as well. Liquigas had two second place finishes with Oss and Leukemans, but team leader Sagan failed to impress as he continued his string of poor form that began in Australia. BMC won the KOM jersey with Peraud, but the rest of the team was a disappointment as Kreuziger, their GC man, and Ciolek, their sprinter, failed to fire, plus the team was hurt by the loss of Hincapie early on. Finally, a big goose-egg for Sky as Wiggins proved to be a huge disappointment, and the loss of Henderson meant no one to figure in the sprints. Gadret did OK in the climbs, but he wasn’t around for the finish – blowing a top five result in the final stage when puncturing on the final descent.
From here, the season moves to Italy and the Tirreno-Adriatico, which was run concurrently with most of Paris-Nice, and using a special Quick Play variant.
Overall season standings will be updated after the results of Tirreno-Adriatico are in.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Tirreno-Adriatico (Part 1)
This is the first short stage race that will use the Quick Play variant, see general rules posted here:
http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/779364/quick-play-variant-fo...
Tirreno-Adriatico is a seven-stage race which overlaps with the Paris-Nice, so all the lineups include six different squad members. The lineup (asterisks indicate the selected GC men):
BMC: Evans,* Ballan, VanAvermaet, Burghardt,* Santambrogio, Phinney
Garmin: Zabriskie,* D. Martin, Farrar, Fischer, Hondo, VanSummeren*
HTC: Cavendish,* Pinotti,* Goss, Elmiger, Renshaw, Sivtsov
Katusha: DiLuca,* Paolini, Pozzato, Bole,* Galimzyanov, Ignatyev
Leopard: A. Schleck,* Vanendert, Bennati, Cancellara, Gerdemann,* Roelandts
Liquigas: Cunego,* Nibali,* Petacchi, Basso, Garzelli, Guarnieri
Rabobank: Gesink,* Boom,* Freire, Langeveld, Martens, Bos
Radio Shack: Popovych,* Carrara,* McEwen, Hunter, Deignan, Beppu
SaxoBank: Scarponi,* N. Sorensen,* Boonen, Cooke, Haedo, Tosatto
Sky: Lovqvist,* Froome, Boasson-Hagen,* Cummings, Flecha, Terpstra
The fate of the Garmin squad will be directed by none other than the game designer, Luke Morris. Starting with Stage 2, I will attempt to make appropriate moves for the remaining teams before peeking at what Luke has done.
This stage race offers a good test of the Quick Play rules, as there is both a TTT and individual TT plus varying road stages of different terrain types. First up is a TTT.
Stage 1: BMC decimates the field with a strong performance, following up on a great form roll and, with two +1 TT guys (Evans and Phinney), they get six extra die. Liquigas does well to place second, and it's a virtual dead heat for third between Garmin and HTC (with the extra UCI point for third going to Garmin based on higher base rating of their four top guys (two GC guys plus two selected riders). The final point for fifth goes to RadioShack, with SaxoBank and Katusha bringing up the rear.
Stage 2: First road stage, and most of the teams take a cautious approach, anticipating a bunch sprint finish. Relevant terrain for this stage is Hill + Flat with a Flat finish that should appeal to the sprinters. BMC whiffs on its form die roll and, perhaps worn out by their exertions on the TTT, are unable to control a two-man break which is able to stay away. Paolini (KAT) outsprints Flecha (SKY) for the stage win. Two minutes later, Freire (RAB) wins the bunch sprint for third and the final bonus seconds (10, 6 and 4 seconds bonus to the top three) while Cavendish (HTC) and Farrar (GRM) fill the top five. Since neither of the guys in the break were designated as GC guys, BMC's Cadel Evans keeps the leader's jersey for another day.
Stage 3: Another Hill + Flat course, with a Flat finish. With most of the teams anticipating a sprint finish or perhaps looking ahead to the next stage which has some hillier terrain, Garmin takes advantage and sends Johan VanSummeren out on a solo break. The move turns out to be a stage and GC winning one, as BMC's effort to chase him down falls short and the Belgian takes the stage win by a minute. That, plus a 10 second time bonus, puts the Garmin rider in the GC lead by 15 seconds over Evans. Cavendish wins the bunch sprint for second and a six-second time bonus. Boonen is third, with Boasson-Hagen and Bennati filling the top five spots.
Stage 4: Stage profile is Downhill + Hill, and a Hilly finish. A five-man break develops, with BMC, Garmin and Leopard Trek's Fabian Cancellara opposing the break. The break succeeds, but the time loss is limited to three minutes. Bole is dropped near the end, finishing a minute back in fifth while the other four match wits on the uphill sprint for the stage win. Saxo's Tom Boonen takes the win, followed by Cunego, Boom and Popovych. To the cheers of the Italian tifosi, Cunego moves to first place in the overall GC.
Midway through the Tour, the overall GC looks like this:
GC after Stage 4
1. Cunego (LIQ)
2. Popovych (RSH) 0:16
3. Boom (RAB) 0:27
4. Van Summeren (GRM) 2:01
5. Bole (KAT) 2:11
6. Evans (BMC) 2:16
7. Burghardt (BMC) 2:16
8. Cavendish (HTC) 3:05
9. Nibali (LIQ) 3:06
10. Zabriskie (GRM) 3:11
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
-
Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 3, Tirreno-Adriatico (Part 2)
On to the second half of the Tour. I did neglect to mention that, in Stage 3, an adverse incident claimed RadioShack's Carrera, and, in Stage 4, Liquigas' Ivan Basso was also allowed to retire (with Liquigas choosing to save its reserved form point for Cunego and Nibali).
Stage 5: Stage profile of Hill + Mountain, with a Flat finishing section. Everyone opted to attack. Nine of the 10 teams sent one of their designated GC riders, only RadioShack (which had lost Carrera in an earlier stage) had to send Deignan, as the remaining GC guy (Popovych) was ineligible, as were Cunego, Boom, Boonen and Bole - the guys who were part of the successful break on the prior day. Result was an unchallenged 8-minute time gap, and the lead group of 10 fought it out with a small bunch sprint for the stage win. To the surprise of many, Andy Schleck came out on top, with VanSummeren second and DiLuca third. Scarponi and Evans rounded out the top five. VanSummeren moved back atop the GC, with Evans second (at 21 seconds) and Nibali third. The top nine spots on GC were filled by riders in the winning break, with Cunego (the prior GC leader) in 10th at 6:05.
Stage 6: Stage profile of Hill + Hill, Hilly Finish. Liquigas was back with its 1-2 punch, with Cunego now launching an attack. Boom, Popovych, Gerdemann, Boasson-Hagen, Elmiger and Bole joined him. Luke's Garmin squad did all they could to help VanSummeren by putting three men in opposition, but BMC (who had a poor form die roll) only had one rider. The break gained six minutes (four because of the maximum time gain based on form point allocations, but then another two because of the stage profile which favored guys like Cunego and Elmiger with the higher "Hill" ratings). Once again, the break splintered on the hilly run into the finish, with Cunego going on alone to take a solo victory. He gained all the time lost plus five seconds to move to the overall GC lead. In the sprint for second, a minute back, it was Boasson-Hagen second, ahead of Gerdemann, with Boom and Elmiger rounding out the top five.
Stage 7: Final time trial is a short one, and the teams can each designate an additional rider who will be competing for a spot in the top five but not for time in the overall GC. Of course, Leopard designated Fabian Cancellara who blistered the course. Each point of difference was worth three seconds, and Cancellara's adjusted score of 95 was challenged only by Sky's Boasson-Hagen, who was out of it as far as the GC was concerned, but able to claim a second straight second place. Boom wound up third, Zabriskie fourth. But the real battle was for the overall GC. Cadel Evans, 26 seconds back of Cunego and still 21 back of VanSummeren, looked like a sure thing but his unmodified total of 75 was increased by only 11 with four die, whereas VanSummeren rolled 13 with three die, after starting with an unmodified score of 66. The next result was a difference of 7, which equated to a tie, as Evans made up the 21 seconds but no more. Cunego, going off last as the prior day's leader, was nowhere close and slipped to third in the overall GC. Lacking a clear guide, I decided to roll a die for both Evans and VanSummeren that would represent the difference in tenths of seconds, high roller winning. By the skin of his teeth, Cadel Evans emerged as the overall winnner although VanSummeren would have to be considered a moral victor. Interestingly, Evans won the 2011 Tirreno-Adriatico in real life (he also took fifth overall on the stage)
The final overall GC looked like this:
Overall GC, Final
1. Evans (BMC)
2. VanSummeren (GRM) 0:00
3. Cunego (LIQ) 0:22
4. Nibali (LIQ) 0:56
5. Pinotti (HTC) 0:58
6. Boom (RAB) 1:05
7. A. Schleck (LEO) 1:15
8. Lovqvist (SKY) 1:35
9. Gesink (RAB) 1:45
10. Popovych (RSH) 2:03
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
-
Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 3, Tirreno-Adriatico Recap and Season Standings
Here's the wrap-up report and overall standings update.
UCI Points, Individual (wins in parens):
1. Evans (BMC) 102 (1)
2. VanSummeren (GRM) 90 (1)
3. Cunego (LIQ) 80 (1)
4. Nibali (LIQ) 60
5. Pinotti (HTC) 50
6. Boom (RAB) 45
7. A. Schleck (LEO) 36 (1)
8. Lovqvist (SKY) 20
9. Gesink (RAB) 10
10. Boasson-Hagen (SKY) 9
UCI Points, Teams (wins in parens):
1. LIQ 144 (1)
2. BMC 108 (2)
3. GRM 94 (1)
4. HTC 57
RAB 57
6. LEO 45 (2)
7. SKY 33
8. KAT 9 (1)
SAX 9 (1)
10. RSH 6
Commentary:
Liquigas had a strong 1-2 punch with Cunego and Nibali and wound up with the most overall points plus one stage win. Cunego, however, needed more of a cushion heading into the final time trial after twice moving to the front in the overall GC race. Cadel Evans and BMC had a strong result, dominating from the outset in the team time trial and finishing it off with a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the final TT, making up a large time deficit. Garmin also impressed, with VanSummeren taking a stage win with a well-earned solo breakaway, holding the leader’s jersey twice and practically ending up in a dead heat with Evans after the final TT stage. Farrar and Zabriskie added a few more points to cap a series of good results (including Paris-Nice). HTC expected more from Cavendish, but as all the road stages were decided by breakaways, his superior sprinting ability equated to a few UCI points but no stage wins. Pinotti surprised many, taking a top five on GC to score the bulk of the team’s points. Rabobank had a decent outing, placing Boom and Gerink in the top 10 but the team failed to register a stage win after having done so in the first two Tours of the season. Leopard Trek had two stage wins and a top 10 overall for Schleck, but didn’t impress in the TTT which hampered their ability to finish even higher. Sky had Boasson-Hagen, Lovqvist and Flecha all scoring points, but once again, stage wins eluded the British team. Katusha had little to cheer about, with Paolini taking a stage win but no one placing in the top 10 as DiLuca and Bole got in breaks but couldn’t overcome the handicap of a last-place finish in the opening TTT stage. SaxoBank just missed a top 10 on GC with Scarponi, and most of the team’s success was due to Boonen’s ability to get in a break, which he did in stage 4, outsprinting the GC contenders to take a stage win. Finally, RadioShack was a big disappointment, losing Carrera early on, with team leader Popovych scoring a handful of points for one top 5 and 10th on overall.
OVERALL UCI POINT STANDINGS AFTER 3 EVENTS
Individual (wins in parens)
1. Boom (RAB) 121 (1)
2. Cancellara (LEO) 118 (4)
3. Chavanel (RAB) 113 (3)
4. Evans (BMC) 102 (1)
5. Millar (GRM) 92 (1)
6. Haussler (GRM) 91
7. VanSummeren (GRM) 90 (1)
8. Cunego (LIQ) 80 (1)
9. Leon Sanchez (RAB) 77 (1)
10. Grabsch (HTC) 69 (1)
11. Valverde (RAB) 61
12. Nibali (LIQ) 60
13. Contador (SAX) 58 (1)
14. Goss (HTC) 57 (1)
15. Pinotti (HTC) 50
Teams (wins in parens)
1. RAB 388 (5)
2. GRM 326 (3)
3. HTC 242 (2)
4. LEO 181 (5)
5. LIQ 178 (1)
6. BMC 111 (2)
7. RSH 73 (3)
8. SAX 72 (2)
9. KAT 72 (1)
10. SKY 42
Next up, Milan-San Remo, "La Primavera," the first really big race of the season.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
-
Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 4 (Milan-San Remo)
MILAN-SAN REMO
“La Primavera” is the first of the five “Monuments” of the season, and the first of the Spring Classics. Each team has one squad member pointing toward this race, and the form die rolls indicate that this should be a very exciting contest.
Course will be the same as in last year’s replay, 16 sections: F – F – F – H – H (Turchino Pass) – D – D – F – M (LaManie) – D – F – H (Cipressa) – D – H (Poggio) – D – F/S
Good mixture of terrain that holds out the opportunity for a break to succeed but also for a bunch sprint. The star-studded lineups and form die rolls were as follows:
BMC: Ballan (+2, 5), Evans (4), VanAvermaet (2), Burghardt (3), Santambrogio (4), Phinney (5)
GRM: Hushovd (5), Vinokourov (3), Farrar (+2, 5), Haussler (3), VanSummeren (4), Dean (3)
HTC: Goss (+2, 4), Pinotti (1), Cavendish (5), Elmiger (3), Renshaw (4), VanGarderen (1)
KAT: Kolobnev (+1, 5), DiLuca (3), Pozzato (3), Bole (4), Hutarovich (5), Paolini (4)
LEO: A. Schleck (1), F. Schleck (2), Bennati (+1, 3), Cancellara (4), O’Grady (3), Roelandts (4)
LIQ: Nibali (3), Visconti (2), Petacchi (+2, 5), Oss (1), Agnoli (5), Viviani (3)
RAB: Freire (+1, 3), Breschel (3), Brown (1), Martens (3), Tjallingli (1), Bos (3)
RSH: Popovych (+2, 5), S. Sanchez (3), McEwen (3), Carrera (4), Hunter (4), Rast (2)
SAX: Tosatto (+1, 5), Scarponi (3), Boonen (5), Nuyens (3), Rollin (2), N. Sorensen (5)
SKY: Boasson-Hagen (+1, 2), Cummings (5), Thomas (5), Henderson (2), Flecha (2), Terpstra (2)
The Peleton rolls out and a breakaway group of seven is formed: VanSummeren, Elmiger, Burghardt, Rast, Nicki Sorensen, Paolini and Terpstra, and these settle into a steady pace headed into the Turchino Pass, and the Peleton is content to let them go. The gap is around six minutes approaching the hills of the Turchino Pass. Flecha, Santambrogio, Bole and Oss form a chase group and move off the front heading into the first uphill section. Rabobank is rotating three men into and out of the front section, with Martens and Tjallingli gradually upping the pace along with Roelandts and O’Grady for Leopard. Others at the front are Steve Cummings (SKY), Pinotti (ITA), Carrera (RSH) and Agnoli (LIQ). Tjallingli and O’Grady cooperate to ramp up the pace on the descent of the Turchino, and as a result Oss, who labored a bit heading uphill, is reeled in. The gap shrinks to around three to four minutes to the 10 riders out in front, while Flecha and Bole leading the chasers up to the initial lead group. Graeme Brown (RAB) punctures on the descent, but otherwise there are no major incidents although Brown is doomed not to rejoin the Peleton today with the big climb of the day, Le Manie, coming up.
The pace moderates as water bottles are being handed out, and the steep ascent of Le Manie causes the lead group to split, with the two Sky guys (Terpstra and Flecha) falling back along with Saxo’s Sorensen. The remaining seven in the lead group, paced by Katusha’s Paolini, drops the pace and sees the gap shrink to two minutes, with Sky’s Cummings keeping the pace high at the front as non-climbers like McEwen and Renshaw quickly drop to the rear. Frank Schleck moves forward to help Cummings set the pace, but then both are surprised when Michele Scarponi launches an attack near the summit of the climb. Scarponi quickly closes down the gap to the rapidly fading lead group, while Frank’s brother Andy takes a flyer at the front. Seeing many teams taking a breather, Katusha’s Kolobnev surges forward and joins the younger Schleck in taking the offensive. Nibali and Sammy Sanchez each take a peek, as if contemplating a move, but then drop back to wait for a more opportune moment later in the race.
In the flat section winding down the coast toward the finishing climbs of the Cipressa and the Poggio, Geraint Thomas moves to the front for Sky, replacing a tired Cummings, his work done for today. Kolobnev bridges the gap to the lead group, meaning three of the nine are Katusha riders (with two from BMC and one each for RadioShack, Garmin, Saxo and HTC). These nine are now just a minute ahead of the on-rushing Peleton, which now sees both Schleck brothers at the front, working for Cancellara and Bennati. There’s not enough room for Garmin to place a man at the front, so Haussler goes off the front. Still, with the key climbs coming up, most of the favorites are holding back at this point.
The Schleck brothers decide to ramp up the pace a notch on the Cipressa, reeling in both Haussler, Scarponi, Kolobnev and the remnants of the break. Nuyens, Thomas, Martens and Visconti (the last three spending a form point) join the Leopard Trek duo at the front in order to stake out positions for their respective team leaders. Garmin’s Vinokourov launches off the front, but his attack is short-lived and doomed to failure. Nibali, Popo, and Sammy Sanchez – strong descenders all – are lurking in the middle as the pack crests the climb.
Vinokourov drops back to the front, where Garmin, SaxoBank and Sky have two men each at the front, which is getting crowded. Cancellara and Popovych take advantage and exhibit their superior descending skills to launch attacks on the winding descent of the Cipressa. Nibali decides to join them, and the battle is joined as the Poggio looms ahead.
The lead trio, after testing the riders, drops back on the ascent of the Poggio as Andy Schleck and Vinokourov forge an alliance to push the pace, trying to set up a favorable situation to control any breaks to set it up for their respective sprinters (Bennati for Leopard and Farrar for Garmin). There’s another reshuffling at the front of the pack, and as the field winds its way up the Poggio, the following riders emerge at the front, working for their respective team leaders and contenders: Thomas (SKY), working for Boasson-Hagen; Scarponi (SAX), working for Tosatto and Boonen; Tjallingli (RAB), working for Freire and Breschel; Carrera (RSH), working for Popovych and Sammy Sanchez; Bole (KAT), working for Kolobnev and Hutarovich; Visconti (LIQ), working for Nibali and Petacchi; and Van Garderen (HTC), working for Goss and Cavendish.
Scarponi moves to the front for Saxo on the descent, pushing hard and enabling Tom Boonen to leapfrog into an attacking position. Garmin’s Dean replaces Vinokourov, who launches Hushovd, and the Norwegian quickly gains Boonen’s wheel. The RadioShack duo of Popovych and Sanchez elbows their way to the fore, with Popo hanging back while Sanchez chases after the two leaders. Goss, Nibali and Freire get to the front, hoping to reel in the break and set up a bunch sprint finish for their respective sprinters.
Once the road flattens out for the final finishing section, Sanchez drops back into the clutches of the rapidly accelerating Peleton. Boonen and Hushovd are able to stay away until the final 500 meters as the jockeying for the final sprint begins. Both have enough left to launch a credible sprint for the win, but Farrar emerges near the front for Garmin, with both he and Hushovd launching independently of each other. Freire is there for Rabobank, with help from Breschel. Nibali digs deep to help out Petacchi, who is on his best form with a well-timed break for the line. But dominating them all is the excellent lead-out by Matt Goss for Cavendish. The Brit goes on to take the sprint, with Petacchi finishing second just ahead of Farrar. Hushovd beats out Boonen for fourth.
The results:
1. Cavendish (HTC)
2. Petacchi (LIQ)
3. Farrar (GRM)
4. Hushovd (GRM)
5. Boonen (SAX)
6. Freire (RAB)
7. Ballan (BMC)
8. Bennati (LEO)
9. Haussler (GRM)
10. Hutarovich (KAT)
UCI Points by Team:
1. GRM 140
2. HTC 100
3. LIQ 80
4. SAX 50
5. RAB 40
6. BMC 30
7. LEO 20
8. KAT 4
9. RSH 0
10. SKY 0
Commentary:
HTC had Goss targeted for this event (and he was the 2011 Milan-San Remo winner in real-life) but, as the race developed, Cavendish had a great form roll and bided his time at the back, surviving the climbs, and – once both Cav and Goss got to the front at the end – the logical move was for Goss to sacrifice his chances and lead out the sprint for Cav. (Had he not done so, Liquigas’ Petacchi would have taken the victory). Garmin did extremely well to place three men in the top nine and, given that Petacchi was coming off the outside of Farrar, even an additional point for sprint help would not have altered the overall results. VanSummeren was used up in the early break, Vinokourov in a foiled attack, and overall the team tactics worked well. Liquigas had Nibali in the thick of it on the descent of the Poggio, but the frenetic pace earlier in the stage meant he lacked the energy and form points to complete the move. Thus, he dropped back and assisted an in-form Petacchi to a well-deserved second place. SaxoBank had an in-form Boonen battling with Hushovd but, once having made the move on the descent of the Poggio, neither had enough left to press home the attack and stay away. Rabobank had a good 1-2 punch with Freire and Breschel and, with both men at the front near the end, the correct call was for Breschel to sacrifice his chances to lead out in favor of Freire, who had the superior sprint form this day. BMC had Ballan, VanAvermaet and Evans, but none could get to the front in time to figure in a top five finish. Leopard Trek had the Schleck brothers working hard at the front, but Cancellara failed to engineer a successful break plus Bennati (who finished seventh) was not well-positioned to contend for top honors. Katusha used up much of their team in unsuccessful early breaks, and they were lucky to have both Kolobnev and Hutarovich in position to sprint for a top 10 spot at the end. This brings us to Radio Shack and Sky, the two teams that did not score in this event. Popovych and Sanchez had shortcomings (Popovych in the climbing and Sanchez in the flat sections) that prevented each from making a better showing, while Sky’s Boasson-Hagen whiffed on his form roll, and the team lacked a credible back-up plan although Cummings and Thomas performed well in supporting roles.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
-
Re: 2011 Season Replay - Standings after 4 Events
UCI POINT STANDINGS AFTER 4 EVENTS
Lars Boom remains atop the overall standings. Cav moves up to fourth.
Individual (wins in parens)
1. Boom (RAB) 121 (1)
2. Cancellara (LEO) 118 (4)
3. Chavanel (RAB) 113 (3)
4. Cavendish (HTC) 105 (1)
5. Evans (BMC) 102 (1)
6. Haussler (GRM) 101
7. Millar (GRM) 92 (1)
8. VanSummeren (GRM) 90 (1)
9. Cunego (LIQ) 80 (1)
10. Petacchi (LIQ) 80
11. Leon Sanchez (RAB) 77 (1)
12. Farrar (GRM) 71
13. Grabsch (HTC) 69 (1)
14. Valverde (RAB) 61
15. Nibali (LIQ) 60
Hushovd (GRM) 60
Garmin's recent surge has moved it past Rabobank, into first place.
Teams (wins in parens)
1. Garmin 466 (3)
2. Rabobank 428 (5)
3. HTC 342 (3)
4. Liquigas 258 (1)
5. Leopard 201 (5)
6. BMC 141 (2)
7. SaxoBank 122 (2)
8. Katusha 76 (1)
9. RadioShack 73 (3)
10. Sky 42
Since the UCI website also has a points breakdown by nations, I have done the same, taking the liberty of combining the Scandinavian nations together and doing the same for the former Soviet republics.
Nations (wins in parens)
1. Italy 354 (2)
2. Australia 319 (4)
3. Spain 250 (2)
4. UK 197 (2)
5. Belgium 156 (2)
6. France 135 (3)
7. Holland 131 (1)
8. Germany 124 (2)
9. Switzerland 119 (4)
10. USA 104
11. Scandinavia 90
12. Soviet 64
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
-
Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 5, Catalunya Tour (Part 1)
The season continues with another experiment in the Quick Play rules for the Volta a Catalunya (in the Catalonia region of Spain, near Barcelona). The teams and lineups for this seven-stage race are as follows:
BMC: Kreuziger*, Tschopp, Peraud*, Grivko, Morabito, Frank
GRM: Vandevelde*, Danielsson, Roche*, Zabriskie, D. Martin, Fischer
HTC: Cobo*, Sivstov, Davis, Elmiger, Grabsch, VanGarderen*
KAT: Rodriguez*, Menchov, Moreno*, Karpets, Gusev, Brutt
LEO: Fuglsang*, A. Schleck*, Rojas, Fedrigo, Gerdemann, Posthuma
LIQ: Basso*, Visconti*, Petacchi, Dall'Antonia, Guarnieri, Kittel
RAB: Valverde*, Chavanel*, Leon Sanchez, Barredo, Kruiswijk, Bos
RSH: Leipheimer*, Zubeldia*, Popovych, Brajkovic, Arroyo, Horner
SAX: Contador*, Scarponi*, Haedo, Porte, Noval, Navarro
SKY: Anton*, Uran*, Henderson, Lovqvist, Gerrans, Barry
NOTE: The asterisks designate each team's respective GC contenders. Details on the variant being used are posted here: http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/779364/quick-play-variant-fo...
The action is spiced up by the addition of more "human" participants, to the point that the field of team managers now spans four different countries in three continents. In addition to game designer Luke Morris (located in Japan) who once again is in charge of the American-based Garmin squad, we have Keiron (in the UK) who is happy to take charge of the SaxoBank squad with Alberto Contador making his season debut (real-life bans be damned) and Rainer (in Germany) taking control of what looks to be a formidable Dutch-based Rabobank squad. For myself, being here in the USA of course it's an easy choice to run the Russian-based Katusha team for this race. The other six teams are being run by a solitaire system which I hope to post sometime on the "Quick Play Variant" thread once all the kinks are worked out.
Anyway, as this Tour has no time trials, the GC contenders will be looking to get into some breaks and perhaps earn some time bonuses (10, 6 and 4 seconds for the top three finishers each stage). Stage 1 features some mountainous and hilly terrain with a downhill run into the finish and, as expected, there was a break that managed to stay away. Contador is in the break, along with Kreuziger (BMC), Nicolas Roche (GRM) and another Spanish favorite, Igor Anton (riding for SKY in this replay). These four manage to gain three minutes, despite a vigorous chase by five different teams that, in the end, proves ineffective. Roche takes the stage win with Kreuziger second and Contador third, while Liquigas' Alessandro Petacchi takes a bunch sprint for fifth. Ironically, Luke's Garmin team decides to leave nominal team leader, Christian Vandevelde, behind when the American suffers a puncture, which means, at the end of the day, Garmin is both first and last (20th in this case) on GC.
Stage 2 is a Flat and Hilly course, with a Flat run into the finish, one that looks like it should shape up a good stage for the sprinters, particularly given that the next day (Stage 3) features the one mountaintop finish of this tour. However, another four-man break featuring four GC contenders (Basso, Leipheimer, Chavanel and Scarponi) almost manages to stay away but, but -- with BMC, Garmin and Sky pushing hard -- the break is neutralized and (hooray) we have the first bunch sprint finish for a stage win since going to the new Quick Play option. Petacchi is there to scoop up the stage win, leaving the others in the dust. Second is Davis (HTC), followed by Moreno (KAT), Peraud (BMC) and Popovych (RSH). The small time bonus places Moreno fifth overall, but otherwise the GC is largely unaffected by the results of this stage.
All the big guns are out for Stage 3, which could prove decisive in the overall given there's a mountaintop finish, the only one in the 7 stages of this Tour. The six-man break consists of all top climbers and selected GC riders. It all comes down to who has the best form as the group splinters in two on the final climb. Roche, in the leader's jersey, is among the first three finishers, behind Andy Schleck (who takes the stage win) with Valverde second. Alberto Contador, who is still searching for his best form, was in the chase group, eventually winding up fifth, two minutes back, behind Katusha's Rodriguez but ahead of Cobo who was in the break for HTC. Roche solidifies his position on overall GC but Contador, now 2:10 behind, moves into second.
The fourth stage has some hilly and flat terrain and a flat run into the finish, one that should nominally favor a bunch sprint. But, several teams are looking to improve their overall GC situation and, despite the best efforts of Roche's Garmin teammates, the break manages to succeed, gaining six minutes. This time it's a five-man group finishing together, with American Teejay VanGarderen taking the stage win (a first in his Tour Cycle Free career, to my knowledge) in a close sprint, just ahead of Basso (second) and Karpets (third). Anton (SKY) and Chavanel (RAB) filled out the top five and each earned a UCI point for their efforts.
Thus, with three stages left, Roche clings to a narrow lead. The top 10 on GC after 4 stages looks like this:
1. Roche (GRM)
2. Anton (SKY) 1:14
3. Contador (SAX) 2:10
4. A. Schleck (LEO) 3:04
5. Valverde (RAB) 3:08
6. VanGarderen (HTC) 4:04
7. Basso (LIQ) 4:08
8. Chavanel (RAB) 4:14
9. Rodriguez (KAT) 5:14
10. Cobo (HTC) 5:14
While waiting for the Catalunya Tour to wrap up, we now turn our attention to Northern Europe and the first of three cobbled classics, Ghent-Wevelgem.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
-
Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 6, Ghent-Wevelgem
Cobblestones!
We head North for the first of the cobbled classics, Ghent-Wevelgem. Once again, 15 sections, one slight change from last year to move the first section of cobbles a bit close to the start. Here's the profile:
F – F – C – F – F – H – F – C/H – C/D – H – D – C/H (Kemmelberg) – D – F – F/S/F
On cobbled uphill and downhill sections, the applicable rating will be the lower of the cobbled or respective uphill/downhill ratings. The top 10 finishers are eligible for UCI points on a 80-60-50-40-30-22-14-10-6-2 basis. Here are the lineups for the first of three cobbled classics:
BMC: Burghardt, Hincapie, VanAvermaet, Ballan, Ciolek, Kroon
GRM: Hushovd, Haussler, Farrar, Hondo, Hesjedal, VanSummeren
HTC: Gilbert, VanDenBroeck, Eisel, Goss, Albasini, Roulston
KAT: Hoste, Bole, Pozzato, Hutarovich, Ignatyev, Paolini
LEO: Cancellara, Vanendert, Bennati, O’Grady, Roelandt, Voigt
LIQ: Sagan, Leukemans, Viviani, Agnoli, Oss, Koren
RAB: Breschel, Boom, Freire, Langeveld, Tjallingli, Flens
RSH: Greipel, Carrera, McEwen, Hunter, Beppu, Rast
SAX: Boonen, Nuyens, Cooke, Larsson, Rollin, Tosatto
SKY: Flecha, Rogers, Hayman, Cummings, Thomas, Terpstra
Pre-race: Due to pre-season allocations, Burghardt is +2 to form die roll while everyone else is even-up. Great form rolls for Liquigas (4 5s, including for team leader Sagan and sprinter Viviani), other top contenders rolling well included Nuyens, Boonen, Gilbert, Hoste, Eisel and VanSummeren, indicating that a tremendous race should be in store. With 75 starting energy (adding 5 for the water bottle), expect to see more all-out cycling than in the longer Milan-San Remo classic.
Three head out on the early break, as Langeveld (RAB), Vanendert (LEO) and Ignatyev (KAT) make the bold initial moves. The trio takes a three-minute advantage into the first section of cobbles, where Langeveld pulls away from the others. No falls or incidents, and the Peleton remains intact through the first cobbled section. Rogers, joined by HTC’s Albasini (the latter launching a power move off the front), starts chasing while Radio Shack puts two men at the front to start pushing the pace. Langeveld drops off the pace, while Albasini and Rogers catch up so it’s now a five-man lead group with a four-minute gap heading into the first climb. At this point, most of the teams are in the middle of the feed zone, so water bottles are being handed out and there is no serious chasing by the Peleton yet – and, consequently, BMC’s Alessandro Ballan takes advantage of the opportunity to slip away from the Peleton, quickly gaining a one-minute advantage.
The five leaders ease up the pace, thereby allowing Ballan to catch them. Roelandts makes a probing attack for Leopard Trek while the field winds its way toward the first cobbled climb. As the leaders tackle the climb, it’s Langeveld leading the way. Vanendert and Ignatyev are dropped, showing their distaste for the cobbled climb. Punctures slow several riders on the uphill, and Rabobank’s Rick Flens falls and suffers a sprained wrist. Prominent at the front now is Saxo’s Boonen, who has joined teammate Baden Cooke to make sure the pace is an honest one. On the cobbled descent, the gap to the four leaders is down to two minutes, while Rabobank suffers a setback when Lars Boom suffers a flat. Vanendert and Ignatyev are caught by the Peleton, and both are soon dropped to the rear. Radio Shack’s Beppu is essentially done for the day when he falls and suffers a badly bruised wrist.
On the next climb, the leading contenders gather at the middle as the race enters its final stages. The gap to the four leaders, with Ballan setting the pace, is just a minute with five strong riders – Hushovd, Gilbert, Hincapie, Cancellara and Flecha – launching off the front on the descent. Then, the action heats up on the cobbled climb of the Kemmelberg. The lead group quickly disintegrates, with Ballan gamely battling to hang on until being swept away. Hushovd, Gilbert and Cancellara pull out a minute to lead the way over the summit, but Hincapie and Flecha drop back in an effort to control the situation at the front of the Peleton, where things are getting crowded. Bad luck for Liquigas as Leukemans punctures, then Sagan bumps into him; both lose time at a key moment and are – with such a short distance remaining -- effectively out of contention. Eisel (HTC) and Hunter (RSH) also have difficulty and drop out of contention.
Hushovd takes the lead on the descent of the Kemmelberg, while BMC’s Hincapie and SaxoBank’s Boonen combine forces to step up the pace, reeling in Nuyens and Terpstra, whose efforts to launch a counterattack come to naught. However, headed into the final two flat sections, the formidable trio of Hushovd, Cancellara and Gilbert are in a strong position, a full minute ahead of the on-rushing Peleton with two of the best flat terrain guys in the Swiss “Spartacus” and the Norwegian “God of Thunder.” Cancellara takes the lead, with Hushovd following while Gilbert struggles a bit to hold the Norwegian’s wheel. Back at the front of the Peleton, a weary George Hincapie looks for allies to push the pace, and he finds one in Katusha’s Filippo Pozzato. This causes some consternation as a number of riders are forced to drop back to conserve energy and form points, all to the benefit of the breakaway. “Spartacus” keeps the hammer down in the final flat section, guaranteeing success as the Peleton was in full flight but unable to close the deficit. Gilbert, however, drops off the back, unable to hold the pace, drifting back into the clutches of the Peleton, which eases up a bit in the final kilometers.
Hushovd comes off the wheel of Cancellara to take a well-deserved win. Cancellara finishes second. Two minutes later, the bunch sprint for third sees Garmin’s Tyler Farrar reign supreme, edging out Greipel with Greipel’s teammate, Gregory Rast, a surprising fifth. Three Katusha riders manage to occupy a majority of the second five spots, while Viviani salvages 10th spot for Liquigas after a rough day, edging an off-form Tom Boonen in the process.
Final result:
1. Hushovd (GRM)
2. Cancellara (LEO)
3. Farrar (GRM) at 2:00
4. Greipel (RSH) at 2:00
5. Rast (RSH) at 2:00
6. Hoste (KAT) at 2:00
7. Pozzato (KAT) at 2:00
8. Freire (RAB) at 2:00
9. Hutarovich (KAT) at 2:00
10. Viviani (LIQ) at 2:00
Comments: Another strong effort from the Garmin team, finishing 1 – 3 to pad their lead in the overall season UCI points race. Cancellara, as in real-life often, was the moral victor, driving the break to success only to be pipped at the wire. HTC’s Gilbert was on good form today, but the flat nature of the run-in to the finish was not to his liking; perhaps he will do better with the next Belgian classic, the Tour of Flanders. RadioShack and Katusha did surprisingly well, placing multiple riders in the top 10. Rabobank’s Freire made the best of a bad situation after team leader Breschel was shut out of a spot at the front in the crucial run in to the finish; some sub-standard form rolls did not help. Liquigas had great form rolls but lousy luck as two of its key guys, Sagan and Leukemans, got knocked out of contention due to an adverse incident on the Kemmelberg; Viviani managed to salvage a few points with his top 10 finish in the final sprint. SaxoBank was saddled with a poor form roll for Boonen and, as with Gilbert, the course did not suit his riding style. BMC and Sky were non-factors for most of the race.
Will return to rest of the action at the Catalunya Tour (being run simultaneously) before posting updated standings.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 5, Catalunya Tour (Part 2)
Back to sunny Spain to wrap up the Catalunya Tour ...
Stage 5, another hilly stage and a six-man break succeeds, gaining five minutes on GC despite a concerted effort by Luke's Garmin team to chase. (The unrealistic result of this stage and others may cause some changes in the Quick Play rules regarding the calculation of time gaps as well as evaluating the success of breakaways). The stage win went to BMC's Kreuziger, and Andy Schleck (second on the stage) moved to the overall lead, 10 seconds ahead of Valverde who was third on the day.
Stage 6, and Garmin's Roche attacks, looking to regain the time lost to Schleck and Valverde on the prior day's stage. This time it's a close call, as Leopard Trek had three men opposing the break, but the three-man attack group (consisting of Roche, Contador and HTC's Teejay VanGarderen) succeeds. Roche wins his second stage and regains the lead in the overall, by just eight seconds over Andy Schleck and 18 over Valverde. Contador moves up to fourth overall, at 2:16.
The final stage, Stage 7, is a bit anticlimatic. RadioShack's Levi Leipheimer ventures out on a solo attack, but Garmin -- assisted by five other teams -- reels him in and the unlucky Leipheimer winds up losing two minutes on the day. The bunch sprint goes to Kiwi Greg Henderson, for Sky's first win of the season. Katusha's Moreno is second, ahead of HTC's Davis. No significant changes to the overall GC, which ends up like this:
1. Roche (GRM)
2. A. Schleck (LEO) at :08
3. Valverde (RAB) at :18
4. Contador (SAX) at 2:16
5. Cobo (HTC) at 2:24
6. Anton (SKY) at 3:24
7. Kreuziger (BMC) at 4:08
8. VanGarderen (HTC) at 4:10
9. Basso (LIQ) at 6:18
10. Chavanel (RAB) at 6:24
Recap report forthcoming.
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Catalunya Tour Recap and Standings after 6 Events
UCI Points from the Catalunya Tour, broken down by team:
BMC 41 (Kreuziger 40, Peraud 1)
GRM 114 (Roche 114)
HTC 87 (Cobo 51 VanGarderen 30 Davis 6)
KAT 9 (Moreno 6 Karpets 2 Rodriguez 1)
LEO 90 (A. Schleck 90)
LIQ 22 (Basso 14 Petacchi 8)
RAB 82 (Valverde 76 Chavanel 5 Bos 1)
RSH 1 (Popovych 1)
SAX 67 (Contador 65 Haedo 1 Scarponi 1)
SKY 49 (Anton 42 Henderson 7)
Comments:
The Garmin team, with game designer Luke Morris at the helm, had another successful outing as their single-minded focus on getting Nicolas Roche in the leader’s jersey proved successful; two stage wins padded their lead in the overall season standings in both UCI points and wins. Leopard Trek also had a successful single-minded focus, getting Andy Schleck off to a good start with a solid second place, including a stage win and a second. Rabobank, under a new director sportif, had a decent outing, no stage wins but they placed two men in the top 10 on GC, with Alejandro Valverde ending on the podium, third overall. SaxoBank, also under new management, had Alberto Contador but the Spanish ace was not on his best form, but he still managed to finish fourth overall, with Haedo and Scarponi picking up points as well. HTC placed two men in the top five, and the impressive young American Teejay VanGarderen showed signs of future process with a surprise stage win in Stage 4, followed up by a second place on Stage 6. Sky placed Igor Anton in the top 10 and achieved their first stage win of the year, with Greg Henderson. BMC did not have Cadel Evans but still managed a stage win and a top 10 overall with Roman Kreuziger, but they lacked a strong presence in the sprints. Liquigas’ Basso did not figure in much of the action and was fortunate to claim a top 10 overall; their top sprinter Petacchi was on good form, taking a stage win and claiming a couple of top five finishes, often sprinting for the remaining places after a successful break. Katusha and RadioShack had disappointing results, as their respective team leaders (Rodriguez and Leipheimer) missed most of the key moves and exhibited subpar form at this early stage of the season.
As far as the Quick Play option was concerned, the variant rules accomplished their objective of generating results that were reasonably realistic. However, the time gaps and the large number of successful attacks seemed a bit excessive. Look for some revised rules for the next Quick Play tour, which will be the Basque Tour coming soon (event 8 on the schedule).
Cancellara, due to his strong performance at Ghent-Wevelgem, now leads the season standings with Roche moving to second. Garmin now has a solid lead in the team race, and the Spanish riders have the lead in the nations list.
Standings after 6 Events:
UCI Points, Individual (wins in Parens):
1. Cancellara (LEO) 178 (4)
2. Roche (GRM) 163 (4)
3. Hushovd (GRM) 140 (1)
4. Valverde (RAB) 137
5. A. Schleck (LEO) 126 (2)
6. Contador (SAX) 123 (1)
7. Boom (RAB) 121 (1)
8. Farrar (GRM) 121
9. Chavanel (RAB) 118 (3)
10. Evans (BMC) 102 (1)
11. Haussler (GRM) 101
12. Millar (GRM) 92 (1)
13. VanSummeren (GRM) 90
14. Petacchi (LIQ) 88 (1)
15. Cunego (LIQ) 80 (1)
16. Leon Sanchez (RAB) 77 (1)
17. Nibali (LIQ) 60
18. Boonen (SAX) 58 (1)
19. Greipel (RSH) 56 (1)
20. Freire (RAB) 52
UCI Points, Teams (wins in Parens):
1. Garmin 710 (8)
2. Rabobank 520 (5)
3. HTC 429 (4)
4. Leopard 351 (6)
5. Liquigas 280 (2)
6. SaxoBank 189 (2)
7. BMC 182 (3)
8. RadioShack 144 (3)
9. Katusha 127 (1)
10. Sky 91 (1)
Nationalities (wins in Parens):
1. Spain 501 (2)
2. Italy 393 (3)
3. Australia 329 (4)
4. Switzerland 209 (4)
5. UK 197 (2)
6. USA 184 (1)
7. Belgium 178 (2)
8. Scandia 170 (1)
9. Germany 164 (2)
10. France 141 (3)
11. Holland 132 (1)
12. Soviet 73
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John Weber
United States
Laurel
Maryland
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Re: 2011 Season Replay - Event 7, the Tour of Flanders
More results coming in, this one from the north of Belgium ...
Tour of Flanders - “The Ronde”
Second of the five “Monuments” and the second of the cobbled spring classics. The course is similar to last year’s, consisting of 16 sections:
H – F – F – H – F – D – H – D – C/H (Oude Kwaremont) – D – C/H (Kappenberg) – D – C – C/H (Muur) – D – F/S/F
All the teams except for Radio Shack have one particular rider designated for a favorable form roll modifier. Here are the lineups and form rolls for this stage:
BMC: VanAvermaet (+1, 2), Kroon (1), Burghardt (2), Ballan (3), Hincapie (5), Grivko (1)
GRM: VanSummeren (+2, 5), Hushovd (1), Farrar (3), Millar (1), Haussler (4), Hondo (3)
HTC: Gilbert (+1, 2), Elmiger (5), Eisel (1), Goss (2), VanDen Broeck (2), Roulston (2)
KAT: Pozzato (+2, 5), Hoste (3), Bole (4), Spilak (4), Paolini (5), Gusev (5)
LEO: Cancellara (3), Bennati (5), Roelandts (+1, 5), Rojas (5), O’Grady (4), Posthuma (1)
LIQ: Leukemans (+1, 5), Sagan (4), Petacchi (4), Oss (5), Dall’Antonia (1), Visconti (3)
RAB: Chavanel (2), Boom (5), Breschel (+2, 5), Langeveld (3), Tjallingli (2), Flens (4)
RSH: Popovych (1), Hoogerland (3), Greipel (2), McEwen (5), Beppu (2), Rast (1)
SAX: Nuyens (+2, 5), Boonen (4), Cooke (3), Larsson (3), Rollin (3), Tosatto (2)
SKY: Thomas (+1, 2), Terpstra (4), Boasson-Hagen (5), Flecha (3), Hayman (4), Barry (3)
The first part of the race is flat, and six – Tjallingli (RAB), Posthuma (LEO), Rast (RSH), Grivko (BMC), Tosatto (SAX) and Gusev (KAT) – head out on an early break. No major incidents, although Sky’s Hayman crashes but resumes after losing some time. The leading group settles into a comfortable pace and gradually builds a five-minute advantage no one in the Peleton is pushing for a vigorous chase. Then, on the flat section heading into the first stretch of cobbles, Rabobank’s Langeveld flats and – seeking to avoid him – Sky’s Michael Barry crashes, going to ground with a collarbone fracture that ends his race.
Garmin’s Millar and Liquigas’ Daniel Oss combine to ramp up the pace over the first cobbled section, reducing the gap to the six leaders to four minutes. Then, on the cobbles, Garmin’s Danilo Hondo takes a tumble and suffers a sprained wrist, effectively eliminating him from contention in today’s race. Meanwhile, not much change in the overall situation as the gap hovers at around four minutes when the cyclists behind to tackle the first cobbled climb up the Oude Kwaremont just past the halfway point.
The lead group remains intact on the climb, while Millar drops back with a flat. Haussler and Cooke continue pressing the pace at the front, now joined by Sagan and Goss. The gap gradually shrinks to a manageable margin, to a point where it is clear that the break will be caught. Several of the main contenders begin moving forward to the middle and front of the Peleton on the approach to the Kappenberg.
The lead group splinters on the Kappenberg, with Gusev, Tjallingli and Posthuma soldiering on while the others drop back. Philippe Gilbert surges forward in a probing move, the first by any of the major contenders today. VanSummeren, Cancellara, Flecha and Hincapie are among the notable cobbled specialists who move forward to share the pace-setting duties. Katusha’s Luca Paoloni crashes, taking out his teammate, Bole, who suffers a bad wrist sprain; both lose time are effectively removed from contention. The leading trio continues to set the pace on the descent of the climb, while Gilbert has dropped back to the middle of the middle of the Peleton, where he is joined by most of the top contenders. Then, an accident causes several key riders to hit the deck, notably Liquigas’ Petacchi (bruised elbow), Boasson-Hagen (sprained wrist), and a trio of Rabobank guys (with Chavanel, Boom and Breschel all losing significant time here).
The two-minute gap disappears on the cobbled section heading to the final climb of the Muur, with the remnants of the original break finally swept away. At the same time, Cancellara and Hincapie use their superior abilities to launch power moves off the front, quickly gaining that same amount of time over the other riders at the front, some of whom are gritting their teeth to hang on now. The pack at the front is tightly packed, with Leukemans, Boonen, Gilbert, Terpstra and Hoste flying past them by launching normal attacks. Meanwhile, the ranks thin out in the middle as Burghardt crashes and Nuyens punctures.
The climb up the Muur is the final challenge facing the riders today. Cancellara sets the pace, but it’s a cautious one as both he and Hincapie are already running low on energy. Leukemans, Boonen, Gilbert and Terpstra press forward, cutting the gap to the lead duo to a minute, but Hoste drops back to the middle and falls victim to a crash, which also claims Rollin (wrist), HTC’s Goss and Sky’s nominal team leader, Geraint Thomas. On the descent of the Muur, Hincapie takes the lead but it’s clear that both he and Cancellara are fading fast from their exertions. The four chasers reel them in, but then Bennati, VanAvermaet and Pozzato surge forward by launching power moves off the front that could turn out to be the winning break. These three gain two minutes immediately, sweeping past the now six-man strong lead group. Garmin’s Farrar comes from the middle to launch a normal attack as the pack heads into the final finishing stretch. Meanwhile, the ranks in the middle of the Peleton thin out even more as another incident occurs on the descent of the Muur; among those taken out is Andre Greipel (RSH).
One more act in the drama is to be played out on the final run into the finish. Pozzato uses his remaining form points to get the jump on a surprised Bennati and VanAvermaet, leaving the two behind when they had both been counting on a tow to the finish line. Pozzato goes on to a well-earned win, while there’s a group of eight finishing two minutes behind: Bennati and VanAvermaet, being caught by a five-man chase group, driven by Saxo’s Tom Boonen, joined by a hard-charging Tyler Farrar who continues attacking. These eight battle it out in a sprint for second, with an exhausted Cancellara tailing off near the end after Sky’s Niki Terpstra was dropped off the back. Bennati has enough left in reserve to take the sprint, with Leukemans coming off Boonen’s wheel to nip Boonen for third, with Farrar coming off the rear to take fifth. A minute later, a depleted Peleton crosses the line, with Robbie McEwen surviving a bunch sprint to take the 10th and final points position.
Results:
1. Pozzato (KAT)
2. Bennati (LEO) at 2:00
3. Leukemans (LIQ) at 2:00
4. Boonen (SAX) at 2:00
5. Farrar (GRM) at 2:00
6. Hincapie (BMC) at 2:00
7. Gilbert (HTC) at 2:00
8. VanAvermaet (BMC) at 2:00
9. Cancellara (LEO) at 2:00
10. McEwen (RSH) at 3:00
Comments:
A very exciting race, with a dramatic finish as the Cancellara-Hincapie move did not stand up, and guys like VanAvermaet and Bennati misjudged the situation allowing Pozzato to take a well-deserved solo win in the final section. Katusha had some great form rolls, but some bad luck prevented their other pre-race favorite (Hoste) from being in the mix at the end. Team tactics played a part as well, as Gusev did yeoman’s work in the early break, forcing the Peleton to start chasing early which was to the team’s advantage in the end. Leopard Trek had both Bennati and Cancellara in the mix, but it wasn’t Fabian’s day but he made the most of it, hanging on to the break for a top 10 finish. Roelandts, who was pointing toward this race, failed to impress despite a good pre-race form roll. Liguigas used up Sagan early, then Petacchi fell, so they were left with Leukemans who impressed with a late surge, outsprinting Boonen for third. SaxoBank had Nuyens set up for the win, but again some bad luck kept him out of contention, and Boonen made the best of it despite being down to his last form point for the final sprint for second. Garmin’s VanSummeren was never in the right position, but Tyler Farrar came through with some dramatic late-race heroics to claim a top five spot. Haussler and Millar were done in early, while Hushovd was saddled with a poor form roll but he did his best to help out his teammates nonetheless. BMC had VanAvermaet in good position, despite just two form points, but could not deliver the goods after the Italian duo of Pozzato and Bennati decided not to offer him a slipstream opportunity for a possible podium spot on the final turn. Hincapie was able to pick up the pieces, so the squad became one of two (Leopard being the other) to place two men in the top 10. HTC’s Gilbert was a pre-race favorite, but a poor form roll meant he wasn’t in position to contend for the win, so 7th overall was probably as good as could be expected under the circumstances. RadioShack was not really expecting much from this race, so getting a top 10 for McEwen on a course not to his liking was a bonus. Rabobank had horrible luck, with all three of their top guys – Chavanel, Boom and Breschel – being taken out of the running by incidente. It was an equally bad day for Sky, whose top guy – Terpstra – couldn’t hold the pace, and bad luck prevented Thomas and Boasson-Hagen from doing more, and it just wasn’t Flecha’s day.
Just checked the results from the 2010 replay to confirm: there Hushovd won the Tour of Flanders, while Pozzato took Ghent-Wevelgem. This year, the situation was reversed, with Hushovd taking Ghent-Wevelgem while Pozzato triumphs at the Tour of Flanders.
Next up: The Tour of the Basque Country in Spain, while the cobblestone classics wrap up with Paris-Roubaix, aka “the Hell of the North.”
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Luke Morris
Japan
Nagoya
Aichi
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The way Flanders played out for you makes me excited for Paris-Roubaix. I love how the cobbled climbs in this game really thin the field out with the tough men coming to the fore as crashes abound all over the place.
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Posted Sat Feb 4, 2012 4:12 pm
