Big Donkey

[Hansa]

Newcomer or Comeback of the year
Hansa: Very active, very good. Active for the game, in the forum, that's what the game needs.
We want more comebacks!

Thanks for mentioning me im happy to be here

[el Galactico]

I always enjoy your team reports. Keep it going

[Laurens88]

I enjoy reading them too, glad to see I am not the only one who dislikes Duncan. But don't worry, I will probably sell him soon.

And thanks for bringing up Fourmies again: my most memorable loss of the year... But you earned it, your endless attacking was the winning strategy. It's always cool if tactical moves are decisive rather than rider skills.

[team fl]

14 years...damn we're really freaks. Anyway, why am I not mentioned as worthy opponent?!!! (please don't answer if I could not like the answer. But which would then show.... grmpf.)

[Robyklebt]

February

Not much going on in February. Larios for Valencia and Antinori for Oman. Wiedmer, Armas and others for Het Nieuwsblad. Larios in Valencia got 2nd, in a tiny field. Main reason to start was to avoid the bad times for me and expected low participation for the one day races, didn't really turn out well. Oman then looked like a 3 team race, so Antinori didn't go there, not another mini-group.
Main goal of the season obviously Het Nieuwsblad, planned leader Wiedmer, who didn't ride much else... Armas 100 form too, more sprint, we changed to him during the race, he got 2nd in a snoozefest. 3 wins + 2 NCs, which don't really count. Bogarin-Belhassen-Armas in fantasy races. Most points for Armas in February, followed by Larios and Bogarin. In the end Bogarin got the rider of the season award though. He won his national championship by being online. (Seems they count a bit after all), and second twice he had to be part of the train for Matsukaze, despite having better form or better chances (they had really similar form which wasn't planned like that I thought, but obviously was, otherwise would have been different...). So Ticio gets his first big award, rider of the season!

Short interview:

-Ticio, rider of the season in February, congratulations
-Thanks, a bit surprising, expected to win in March, not February already.
-Good, we want to talk about March mostly anyway! Milano Sanremo your goal, correct.
-Correct. I'll be the sole leader. On paper at least, the Donkey is still old style, he writes down stuff on paper. Let's hope he manages to transfer it to the internet.
- So your season is centered around MSR, what will you ride in preparation?
- Nothing special, a few 1 day races, then the team will go to Paris-Nice without me. We would have actually preferred Tirreno, but the starting times don't fit, so Paris-Nice it is. I'll do an altitude camp during that time, then come back down. Handzame and then MSR.
- Do you know who'll be supporting you at MRS?
- Mostly the team should be clear. Wiedmer, Nägele, Krankl for after the Cipressa. Armas the same, but blocking in Poggio. Then not sure. There's some talk of bringing Matsukaze, but the idea seems to be to have him there as a helper. We'll see.
- Ok, short question about February. 2 wins, the national championship! How important is that?
- Not that important really. I would have preferred to win the one day race in Paraguay, Asuncion-General Oviedo, but wasn't my best day.
- But being by far the most popular cyclist in Paraguay, the title counts something no?
- Well, fortunately it has all calmed down a bit. When I passed pro we used to have people from Paraguay waiting on the street in front of the headquarters, especially after announcing the training results... But ok, winning at home was nice, but not really worth much.
- Anyway, good luck for MSR!

February, place 11 in D1 with 5900 points.

Training: Good, Larios, Belhassen, Quttiboyev and HIkmet, very nice. With Lafargue coming up especially the pavé all of the sudden looks much better, with the 2 older guys restarting to training.

Retirement: Son YoungGwon. 01.08.2018-28.02.2020 56-70-77-65-59 with 40 reg. Best skills: 75-76-78-66-60 (thought 61, but seems 60). Allround classic, mountain-TT-sprint there. 8381 points in 246 races, 6 wins, Laigueglia 2019 the most important. 3rd place Amstel. With his 75-76 and the sprint he was always a good option, but never managed to get big wins. Too many similar guys with more sprints around, so he was more a placement rider. And riding here, of course his primary job really was helping in GTs, all else is bonus. Biggest regret of his career though in not winning Guadeloupe, he didn't get to ride many tours for himself, even there he wasn't planned as leader, got yellow, but lost it on the last day. He know works for an advertisment company in Seoul.

No new riders, too many riders in the team, we bought 2 riders twice in the last year, Larios+Hikmet 27, Krankl Brotcorne 25 now. And since Snorri Kolbeinsson wants to ride till early April at the very least.. We could have gotten a youth rider for March, retire Snorri early April and buy one immediately, but would still have the problem later. Easier to just skip March, we didn't know what to buy anyway.

Program and goal: PN, MSR, then no Catalunya but classics. Gent, E3. So that's the races we want to win, MSR, PN, then GW+Gent. But we'll take others too

[Robyklebt]

April

Bogarin wins Milano-Sanremo. That's the most important news, which makes March a great season, and already makes the whole year a success. The main goal of the season, with not only Bogarin at 100 form, but also Armas, Belhassen, Nägele and Krankl. MSR won, I'll gladly be cannon fodder for the rest of the year. Ok, maybe not, we had enough cannon fodder performances after MSR already. But even if we don't win anything else over category 4 anymore in 2020, doesn't matter, we have one monument, and the one I like most at c4f.

But let's look at the whole season.
Place 14 in D1 with 7535 points, 4892 of these in March, which gives us place 15 at the start of the season.
4 wins. Bogarin at MSR, Antinori a Paris Nice stage, Hikmet Loire Atlantique and Brotcorne Rhodes. Good enough for me.

The big races:
Strade Bianche: 12th place for Armas, Wiedmer was planned as leader, but changed to Armas pretty fast if we remember correctly. With his low form no surprise he couldn't follow in the last km, but the escape, that the Donkey missed, respectively dumbly anticipated in a gambling move came through.
Paris Nice: Antinori 4th in GC 2'03" behind the winner, Aeschbacher by Hansa, thanks to an escape. 44" behind Arvidsson, Lennao, the best of the rest, the strongest of the favorites. Antinori was always an outsider, TT and only one mountain arrival this year, the last stage sort of changed to compared to other years. In the end Antinori won his stage easily, while in GC he tried a bit here and there, but never had a chance. The great Donkey sprint train neither, despite working for it, otherwise the constantly whining and winning RfM wouldn't have gotten a single sprint... Lots of offlining with few teams, so not a great tour really.
MSR: Bogarin! Not the expected race, our star turned out to be the most at risk of the hill sprinters, lowest mountain skill.. But no serious sieb at the Cipressa, so the big chase to come back didn't happen. Riding fully for the sprint after that, ensuring the sprint with CC and Gipfel. Without CC and my help in the Poggio there wouldn't have been a sprint, Gipfel's flat was necessary too. Sprint then, Bogarin went where he had to. 2 of the co-favorites, Hediger and Casademont completely missed their sprint, bad positioning, Pokemon not completely surprising tried a sprint for Pincemail, so it was mostly 3 guys left in the race for the win. Jefferson, some Liquigas guy and Bogarin. Sprint mistake first by Jefferson, not taking the Liquigas wheel, then Liquigas, not going with his sprinter early enough so in the end Bogarin, who took the risk of going at 100, to let Jefferson a chance. So if you want he did a mistake too, but his class paid off, he won. Only regret is the split field, would really have liked to have a unified big group. Including Aix, Falkenbier, Tukh, Feiting.
Harelbeke: Belhassen 16. Armas and Wiedmer in the first peloton too. An activist siebing and attacking Donkey, that completely disappears when it counts. Make the race hard, hope to be in the right escape, didn't work, race was hard, Donkey missed the escape. Or started half of it, but dropped later, and missing the second half of it. INteresting race, the Donkey just was outclassed, no big regrets really.
Gent-Wevelgem: 35. Brotcorne. Decided to go for Bogarin with Brotcorne at 100 form as free rider. As feared Bogarin turned out to be too weak to follow on the decisive Kemmelberg. And Brotcorne proved to be strong enough to bring home a decent result, just that his manager was clearly out of his league once again. Missed the obvious attack, decided not to follow the obvious attacker a few km before. And then didn't even tell Armand to sprint. Big group in front wins, despite the sprinters not doing much wrong really. Interesting race after the second Kemmelberg, no Donkeys to be seen on TV though. No regrets here too, went for Bogarin, he was my best chance for a win, everybody else really lacks the sprint, only other half way realistic chance was Belhassen with 57, but then it's the follow gamble again, and the manager proved at Harelbeke how bad he is at that. And here with Brotcorne again.

So everything really was a failure, except the race that counts most. Milano-Sanremo.
Rider of the season
Clearly Ticio Bogarin, 1 win, Milano-Sanremo, 1495 points in March.

Interview with Ticio:

- Ticio, as announced, as hoped, you won Milano-Sanremo! Congratulations.
- Thank you.
- Let's recap your career a bit. You joined Big Donkey in early August 19 with 51-68-73-51-61. But Big Donkey at first wanted to train you as a classic, correct?
- Yes. When I joined the team, which was a big honor for me to be honest, first Paraguayan to join this legendary team, Big Donkey told me to train my flat and mountain skill mostly. You could see he wasn't really too excited about me joining the team, he had hoped to hire a climber. Couldn't find one that wanted to join, so I was hired in early August. So even if I was just a stop gap really, I was very grateful to get that chance, was already afraid of not getting any pro contract, when Big Donkey asked me to sign with him.
- But why not train your sprint?
- I'm not sure, can't read minds. But I had to train sprint, but just one unit per session. Mostly flat and mountain. My guess is that Big Donkey didn't really think too much about it. Plus he had 2 sprinters already, well 3 if we include Sofiga, who was riding his last season then. But with Matsukaze and Kunonga there were already 2 very good sprinters, a third one didn't seem necessary.
- And then?
- My bad training saved me. As instructed, I trained mountain and flat, and a little bit sprint. But when we did the tests roughtly a week later the result was. I got better in mountain and sprint, but not flat, even if according to the training plan, which I followed exactly, there was an excellent chance that my flat ability would improve with that training. So when Big Donkey did the review with me he noticed that. And then got excited, I was afraid he would get angry, and told me to focus mostly on mountain and sprint. That after all he wanted me to become a sprinter, Matsukaze and Kunonga in one as he put it, mountain and flat in addition to the sprint. That's what makes Big Donkey such a great team, that's the difference to other teams. Big Donkey himself reviews the training and orders changes. The rest is history. I trained as instructed and won MSR.
- Well, in other teams they might have realized your potential before the fist training and given you the right training regimen from the start....
- It's hot in August, Big Donkey says it's even too hot to masturbate, so I don't think anybody else would have done better with me.
- Okay, so tell us about Milano Sanremo then.
- There's not really much to tell. We all saw it. The team was there for me 100%, Big Donkey's race plan was spot-on. My teammates knew what to do to deliver me to the sprint, I knew what to do in the sprint. The question was if we would manage to do our jobs, transfer the plan from paper to the road, I think we can say that we did.
- So what now? After winning the race that defined your career from the moment you changed your training, what else is there?
- Lots, first of all Gent-Wevelgem, but as we saw I didn't have the legs anymore there. I couldn't follow on the Kemmelberg, my teammates couldn't bring me back. We had put everything on Milano-Sanremo, we weren't in the same shape physically for Gent anymore. And mentally neither, after the big win we certainly did have a fall in tension. At least I did, I know that shouldn't happen, but it did. I think I'm getting back though, I'll try to deliver again in April.
- Yes, but what are your goals?
- April... we'll see. I gues I'll be at the start in Schelde, Brabant, Amstel, Fleche and Liege. Fleche and Liège clearly as a helper, we'll see if I can do something in the other 3 races. But April isn't really a big month for me, my next big goal is the Giro. Win a Giro stage is my next big goal.
- And after that the Tour I suppose?
- Correct, Giro-Tour the big goals. In between TdS or Dauphiné with a stage if possible. But a Giro or a Tour stage would be worth much more logically.
- How do you see the team for April and the Giro?
- For April good, we have a strong team both for Roubaix and the Ardennes.
- But in March we saw glaring weaknesses in the team, if it wasn't for your win in Sanremo this would have been a catastrophic season!
- Again, as I said, the agonistic tension was gone after MSR, so we shouldn't judge our team by the performance in Belgium at the end of March. We've reloaded now, I'm sure you'll see a much stronger team already today. But of course the hilly cobblestone races aren't our biggest strength, while I think we can fight for the win there too, our chances are clearly better in the Ardennes and in Roubaix.
- Ok, times up I'm told. Thank you for the interview, congratulations for the win in Sanremo and of course for your second rider of the season award.
- Thank you

Training:
Good, Lafargue up, now a real chance for Roubaix. Belhassen, Brotcorne, Larios, even Bogarin with one sprint up good too. Kolbeinsson with not enough downtraining though, no chance for the cheapest sale record for him.

Finance: +1'633'822. Similar to the last months, so good enough. Hopefully with the Coronavirus-induced higher numbers it will go down a bit next month.

After no new rider in March, possibly for the first time since summer/autumn 2015 that we didn't buy a new rider (riders bought after the month change somehow don't show up in the statistic) we are back to our usual rhythm in April.

- Samuel Lanz. From Köniz, even if we were misinformed at first, we thought he was from Bümpliz. 50-68-56-49-48, 35 reg. With 79 hidden pavé, so 71,3 now. His goal clearly is Paris-Roubaix 21, train flat and pavé as high as possible until then. We hope to get him to 81,1 pavé, 82 flat at least. Probably more of a helper than a leader. Starting at 50 in the first month he'll have to improve his mountain a bit, up to 54.... and later we'll see if we want to try to go a bit higher, to give him better chances in RVV. But first he simply has to train pavé. No results of any kind required till July. From then on we hope he can show something in the cobblestone races.

Goals for April. Pretty clear, the classics. The one we want to win most is the Flèche, the one that we care about least is as every year Amstel.

Giro outlook

Antinori-Larios: climbers
Armas-Belhassen: classics
Nägele-Krankl: 60-80
Bogarin sprinter
Brotcorne: Flat star
Swift: Reg guy

Right now that's how the team looks. A bit weak on reg really, 51 Krankl, 50 Swift 45 Nägele. Yes, Armas 50, but that's not where reg counts, we want it in flat riders or 60-80s usually.
But most likely this will be the team.
Lafargue in for his sprint-flat combination, possible. Hikmet for flat unlikely. Totakhyl as another classic rather pointless, so basically no chance. So this will be the team, 90%.

TdF outlook
The same but no Armas for sure. Lafargue seems the most likely guy to step up, Totakhyl next.
Possibly no Larios too, in then Totakhyl/Lafargue or a young rider.

[Robyklebt]

April

A good month, excellent! 7th in D1 with 11'664 points (a year ago 22 points more) 3 wins. GP Indurain, Paris-Roubaix and Flèche Wallonne.

The results in the big races:

DDV: 2. H. Belhassen.
RVV: 7. H. Belhassen.
Schelde: 5. T. Bogarin 8. H. Kunonga
PR; 1. G. Lafargue 8. O. Hikmet
Brabant: 4. T. Bogarin
AGR: 6. T. Bogarin
FW; 1. F. Antinori 2 J. Larios
LBL: 3. T. Armas 9. F. Antinori

2 wins, obviously more than happy with that. Both for Paris-Roubaix and the Flèche it was the 5th win, which is of course nice too. Worst result 7th, RVV, can be happy with that too, basically was somehow present in all classics in April.
Not really much to say about the races anymore, but since when does the Donkey shut up if there's nothing to say?
DDV don't remember anything really, RVV tried an attack with Armas-Belhassen
Schelde just the usual sprint.
PR: Riding for Lafargue, right and very lucky following after the last pavé.
Brabant, here the biggest regret maybe, Bogarin 4th, wins the sprint behind. Armas couldn't block the end, but if he follows the attack...maybe just one more guy could have blocked it?
AGR: Was actually somehow fun this year.. at the end, need to be more motivated for stuff like this. Next year.
FW: Seeing the group the win was likely, double win unnecessary, what counts is the win.
LBL: As lucky as the following was at PR, the non-following here was as stupid. But win one, don't win the other, ok for me, better than not winning either, which is more likely anyway.

Very nice as well that we had big groups for most races, 10-17, compared to 7-10 a year ago. (
The other win was Armas at GP Indurain, small group there for once, 6 teams. Double win there too, single enough, but if double is what we get, ok ok.

Rider of the month

Gérard Lafargue

He joined the team in december, as third card for Paris-Roubaix, since both Quttiboyev and Hikmet weren't fully convincing. So go for the guy with sprint. Doubtful he'll be ready for PR we thought, 1 month too early most likely, but he trained well. From 49-73 with 65 sprint to 49-87 with 69. And 81,3 pavé. Which made him a real option here, and he delivered.

Interview:
-Gérard, your first win, Paris-Roubaix, the race you joined the team to win. And rider of the month. Congratulations
-Thank you. It was always my dream to ride and win Paris-Roubaix. So of course I'm happy, I could retire already now.
-I hope you won't! There's still many races to win for you.
-Don't worry, I won't retire. c4f doesn't allow retirements before 34 anyway, I'm 26 now. But, I might change teams. Big Donkey has been wondering if he should let me go. Do something for the market, and since I have done everything I wanted for the team... but probably he won't do it.
-So what are your goals for the future. After PR everything must seem unimportant, no?
-A bit yes. I hope to ride the Tour, either for Big Donkey or another team, look if I can get a stage there. Otherwise just the monthly flat pavé races, maybe the pavé tour in October November, but yeah... nothing too exciting.
-Will you ride the Giro?
-No, no, no chance. The Giro is all for Antinori. While we need a flat rider there, Armand being better in the mountains will go there. I prefer the Tour anyway, I'm French and of course at the Tour we'll have more freedom. Even if Antinori starts, the team will not be all for him, Bogarin, Belhassen, and hopefully me, we all should get our chances. At the Giro not.
-At Roubaix, when did you know you'd won?
-When we entered the Velodrome, I knew none of the others would beat me in a sprint there.
-How was the race for you?
-Less stressful than I thought it would be, I expected to be more nervous, but once we were on the road, I was relaxed. And we didn't have any problems within the team during the race, something that wasn't assured before the start. All 3 of us wanted to be leader, all 3 of us thought we could fight for the win. Once it was clear I was going to be the leader Quttiboyev first, Hikmet later worked very well for me. Without them, could never have done it.
-Was there a moment when you were worried?
-You're always worried. Crashes, flat tire. Ok, when Eggenberger was in front with Arvidsson, at first that was critical, but we didn't panic, and Tukhtahuaev immediately joined us behind, they didn't want to leave Eggenberger alone at that point. But before they were in, of course we were worried. If they decide to take the chance in front, would have been very very hard to come back. But worked well. Quttiboyev then Hikmet did an outstanding job.
-Then getting rid of Eggenberger, well done!
- Well, that happened more by chance than by design, they went, I wanted to follow Eggenberger but somehow ended up in their backwheel, so just stayed there, and when I checked Eggenberger was gone. So gave everything, and it worked.
-Thank you for this interview Gérard, and maybe you can win Paris-Roubaix next year again?
-I'll be 37... I doubt I'll still be active, but if I am, I'll at least try to be in the race. Winning again is unlikely.

Finances
+1'644'631. Third month in a row we're at +1,6 millions, excellent, 14'000 more than in March, 1306 less than in February.

Training:
Antinori 88, Totakhyl +4 mountain, now at 70, so all good.

Retirement
Snorri Kolbeinsson retired on April first. He joined the team on 01.10.18. 48-72-70-46-44 with 37 reg starting skills. Best skills 50-91-75-46-44. First Donkey rider with 91 flat. Even if that was very short lived. He won 4 races too, the most important the London Surrey classic. Rode 263 races, got 1544 points. Now he works on an Icelandic whaling ship.

New rider
Baaba Faye from Senegal, nephew of Cheik Faye. But more talented for sure. Starting skills 54-74-75-66-47 with 40 reg. We got him for 1'844'481. Classic for the Giro 2021, good flat and downhill, too much time trial for our taste, but maybe will be useful in small hilly tours some day. For the moment he is supposed to train mostly. As usual, 70+ mountain the goal, 80+ flat the second one. He will give his debut on the 2nd in Iran. And is a possible TdF starter too.

Giro preview isn't necessary anymore, all clear since last month basically. The goals for May are of course clear anyway...

Other news:
The Donkey finally managed to finish his winning, points and riding stats.
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6960#p102266
Wins, depressing, only 7 riders with 10 wins or more.
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=6960#p102273
Points, much better, 50 retired riders that have 5000 points or more!
And the following post ridden races, all riders with 300 or more. 2 joining that club soon. Matsukaze even quite high.

[Robyklebt]

Finally May... Big Donkey was unhappy about not getting a youth rider, so boycotted his own press center. That will teach me not to get a youth rider! Finally got one now for July, carrots and sticks, so now we update.

May all about the Giro of course. 4 stages, team classification, 2nd in GC.
Main goal was GC failed, but generally it went well. Just couldn't crack Neumann. Biggest problem of course that Neumann has 90 mountain and 58TT. Second problem that he had a strong team behind that. Third problem that I was the only challenger really. Considering that, it actually went pretty well. Strategy first was to wait for the last week, there really was no other option anyway. And support Pokemon with Pincemail to challenge Neumann, to make it a 2 front war for Moja. Still one front for me, let Moja deal with Poke, I concentrate on Neumann. Pincemail did indeed get into the game, not that I did much for it, was more talk than action, but well, Belhassen helped for a few seconds. Second day for Pincemail I concentrated on Bogarin, so that made success there highly unlikely for Pincemail, so he didn't try. Third one Pincemail didn't try either, Jefferson in front sort of made a coalition likely in the back, so not trying ok. (But don't know if he actually thought that far)
So, thanks to the Pincemail threat, that was under control, but still there I managed to lose less time than I thought I would to Neumann, but well, that's not enough to beat him. In the end came down to a big attack on the way to Sestriere, early attack by Antinori Larios, but that could only work if Neumann made mistakes, ride with his 87 helper, Heuer, too early. Or too late. Or ride with Neumann too early, thus ending up way under reg. Didn't happen, in the end the expected 2nd place. Still, good thing Moja was there, without him I'm convinced I would have won a boring edition, rather second in a still not overly exciting fight, but at least some thinking involved.
So no GC win, final result:

01. 00:00:00 Lutz Neumann (Team-Mojabahs)
02. 00:02:15 Fabio Antinori (Big Donkey)
03. 00:02:30 Nairo Bernal (Sport)
04. 00:03:47 Muchel Kafando (Sangiu ProTeam)
05. 00:04:31 Mathieu Pincemail (Pokemonogatari)
06. 00:04:32 Sasha Agarok (Luques)
07. 00:10:21 Javier Larios (Big Donkey)
08. 00:11:02 Pascal Heuer (Team-Mojabahs)
09. 00:12:03 Marco Fumari (Sangiu ProTeam)
10. 00:12:14 Dmitry Volodko (Falkenbier)

Instead I won 4 stages, which was nice too. At one point was worried about not winning a single one... Tried for Armas, failed etc. Then while riding for Bogarin, and failing, Armas won stage 12. Thanks to Neumann riding against Pincemail, Antinori won stage 15 to Piancavallo. Next Armas again, with 100 form won stage 16, 2 days later Antinori thanks to Neumann sprinting too early, at the last GPM stage 18. So all ok there, usually I'm happy even with just one stage, this time 4, all good.

Before the Giro Izatullah Totakhyl won a fantasy race.

So third in D1 with 13'590 points, 5 wins.

Rider of the month:

Tulio Armas
Antinori got 2 stages too, second in GC, but he was expected to be up there. Not to win 2 stages against Neumann, sure, but he was the leader with all the support. Armas with his 76-80 of course the strongest classic, so in a way his wins less surprising, but, he didn't start as leader, even on the day of his second win, 100 form, it wasn't decided to ride for him until past half of the stage. That's why he got the nod over Fabio.

Short interview:
-Tulio, rider of the month, congrats!
-I don't have much time, the TdS stage starts soon.
-33 years old, first time rider of the month. Are you happy?
-Of course, for me it was a good Giro. Unfortunately we didn't manage to topple Neumann, but on a personal level I'm very satisfied. I won 2 stages, did my job on the other ones. Only regret is being beaten in the GC by Volodko. Good rider, bad human being, as PG said in during the race. Or was it somebody else?
-6 career wins now. The ones in the Giro clearly the most important ones.
-Yes, obviously. Before that I hadn't won anything really important, GP Indurain of course is something, but nothing compared to a classic or a GT stage. Or even a PN/TA or so stage.
-Do yo
-Hurry up, time running out
-Ok, ok, do you have any regrets, not winning a classic?
-Of course, winning LBL was my goal, failed, but that's the way it goes. Ok, one more question.
-Next goal, Tour?
-Tour de Suisse, yes. Tour de France, no, won't start there. Belhassen and maybe Totakhyl will have to do the job there, I'm staying home, preparing San Sebastian. OK, gotta go!
-Thanks, good luck today and in San Sebastian!

Finances:
+675'069. So good month again.

Training:

Good I think, twice Belhassen? Good man.

Retirements:

Hiroya Matsuzaka: Joined the team 01.11.2018 for 1'564'651. Starting skills: 52-73-77-47-50, 47 reg. Best skills: 64-83-77-47-50. Rode 310 races, so enters the Hall of fame for riders with over 300 races. 2126 eternal points. Glorious winner of 1 race, our only 1 team race so far. Telling that he managed to beat the strong opposition to win. His role was obviously that of a helper, 60-80. Don't remember much, so he most likely was a standard, but somehow anonymous 60-80, did his job, nothing more. Most annoying feature was that he looked like and had a similar name to Hiroyasu Matsukaze, so often mistook those 2... Hiroya now lives in Koganei city, Tokyo, where he works in a tennis club. Not that he's any good, but seems for beginners his skills are good enough.

New riders: 0!

[Robyklebt]

June:

Place 4 in D1, 11'337 points.
4 wins 2 TdS stages, Larios and Antinori, a fantasy pavé race with Lafargue and a TdF stage with Bogarin. So good news, our classic heroes Bogarin and Lafargue finally start winning again.
We won the TdS GC with Antinori, who got the points and mountain jersey too, team classification and third place in GC for Larios too.
So a good month, even if of course the main goal, TdS wasn't a big group, and Rudy Schwyzer seemed more intent on attacking than on actually winning the TdS, so it somehow easy to win in the end, which didn't make it all that interesting, but well, in a few days we'll have forgotten that and just remember that we won! Yeah!

Rider of the month:

Fabio Antinori. Since he's in France riding the Tour, he is not available for an interview. But clear win for him this month. GC TdS, his second stage race, his first GPM jersey, the first of the year for the team too, his first points jersey, again the first of the year as well, first one since Zafzaf at Tirreno 2018 in fact. His goals for July are obviously the TdF. Where he was planned as the sole leader, now has to share the position with Bogarin though. Sole leader, he was happy with that, you'd expect him to be upset that Larios isn't there, but he said that's ok, then at least I'm sure to be leader.

Finances: +1'862'114

Training: Belhassen 74! Bogarin 77. So good I guess.

Retirements:
Hiroyasu Matsukaze: 01.12.2018-11.06.2020. Starting skills 49-56-63-50-64 with 36 reg. Bought for 1'246'421. Top skills: 63-59-5x-50-75. He rode 360 races, which places him in 6th place of races in the team. Won 8, got 7121 eternal points. A real star for the team, the last of the "Matsus", turned out to be a really good rider. 8 wins, including a Catalunya stage, a TdS stage, Hamburg and Agostoni. Agostoni, finally our first winner in that great race. His only failure was Milano Sanremo, where the team decided against riding for him before the Cipressa. The lack of cooperation by Liquigas mostly but also Gipfelstuermer, 2 teams that would have had chances if we went without the stronger sprinters, led to the maybe mistaken decision not to wait for Matsubara, 89 flat or maybe 88 at the time, and simply let all the sprinters back. That might have been Matsuzake's day, but management failed him. Attempts to make up for that early this year possibly cost Bogarin some wins, we insisted on riding for Matsukaze a few times, but he deserved it, even if he never managed to get win no 9+10. Still, 8 wins, 4 of them important ones is an outstanding career. 7121 eternal points puts him in 4th place of the sprinters, behind Fabulous Conti, Michael Creek and Gao Daoquan (we didn't remember our doctor (or former, have to check) was that good, but well, he made 36 more points than Matsukaze finally.) Great rider, great career! Thank you Matsukaze! He now has joined the team as sprint coach, replacing Luis Recordon who has decided to retire and go back to Chile for his retirement.
In other team-management news, Lakhdar Gaouaoui has become the new assistant general manager. Attila Farkas replaces him as Directeur sportif, while Matsubara-Tukhtasinov stay on as assistant DS.

New riders:
Fabian Messerli: 49-58-70-55-77 with 35 reg. A sprinter from Basel, with an untypical name... And a change in the team philosophy, the team has lifted its moratorium on sprinters with more than 80 sprint, Fabian Messerli will train sprint mostly at first. We hope he reaches something like 54-60-70-5x-89. His goal? Let's look at his name again. MeSseRli. Yes, Fabian MSR. The only reason to lift the moratorium is that it has become too boring with riders like Matsukaze or Bogarin to ride MSR, people copy our great team and now it's full of these guys. So let's try something else, the slightly weakish top sprinter with some mountain. Of course as a top sprinter, he claims the "slightly weakish" part is a lie, he will want more than just MSR. Possibly Vuelta stages, then something here and there until MSR, after that Giro and Tour. With again, other stuff welcome in between. His debut will most likely be shortly after the TdF, he can expect to be leader immediately in certain races. But of course more than wins now, we want him to train, up to 50-60-81 in July, then as much as his percentages allow in sprint in the following month, August, unless Luques decided otherwise.

Tim Eiffel: 70-56-79-60-56 with 45 reg. The Donkey has gone crazy? If Fabian MSR is a change, this is a fucking bloody revolution. 60 TT? Big Donkey? YES! We want to win everything now. Or we got frustrated with a) few good climbers on the market, virtually none in May, a few more in June, but going away like Matsukaze autograph cards, even offering 105% didn't get us one. So... fuck it, instead of settling for a 73-5x-7x with under 40 reg, or another non-flat one, or one without downhill, let's get Tim Eiffel. Ok, a TdF fanatic probably, but now, he clearly told us that he wants to win the Vuelta (Javier Larios hasn't been told), then the Andes, Dectour, January tour, TA or PN, Catalunya, PV, Romandie, the Giro, Dauphine or TdS and then the Tour. The full program. So ok, he convinced us, we sign him. Despite Bearclaw offering him a contract too, 483 credits less though, he signed with us. Our plan? Train him. And yes, we will cover the TT this time. First though mountain-flat. His debut? Unsure, he wants the Vuelta, but well, we're not sure about that, we'll see. Definitely the Andes, but by then he should have ridden a few races here and there. Possibly as early as San Sebastian, as a battery for the leaders.


Goals for July:
TdF, GC, grinamino. Or another stage win first somehow, big goals later, we'll see. Then San Sebastian.

[Bear]

Nice transfers. I would have bought one of those climbers with tt if I had the money. It will be intersting to see how a climber like this performs in a team like yours. I once had Jeffrey Herlings with 84-61-79-60-50, 55 but he just did 8 starts ( at least he won TdS).
Also a nice leader for MSR - hopefully they will train well.

[flockmastoR]

Pf the donkey with an Andes captain, right moment for my comeback. Anyway thanks to the little sprint coaching the other day. Worked out better today.

[Robyklebt]

I always have an Andes captain... And by now I'm Andes record winner too. Some time after Schlömilch I started winning....


I don't remember any sprint coaching though....

[Robyklebt]

July

3rd in D1 with 11'501 points. 5 wins, 4 of them TdF stages. 3 times Antinori and once Lafargue. And our new sprinter then won his first race already, a fantasy race at the end of the month. Most important race of the month obviously the Tour, we got second place in a rather weird GC fight finally. 7" behind the winner Barrientos. Weird because both Antinori and Barrientos at times seemed intent of losing, not winning. But had to do with the fact that both had to ride without top support, not with the support they usually have, so in the end it became a seconds game due to both making mistakes here and there. But with the 5 stage wins of course still a very good Tour for the team.
San Sebastian the second big target of the month, Armas in topform, was first over the last hill, together with Larios, but as could be expected due to his downhill weakness was caught soon. Followed Volodko who attacked out of the small group, finshed second.

The rider of the month is: FABIO ANTINORI
3 stages, even if missing the GC win is enough for the fourth title for Fabio.

- Fabio, rider of the season for the fourth time, congratulations!
- Thank you
- Are you satisfied with your Tour?
- Missing 7" in the end.. .of course not completely, no, so close to the win, but still only second. But in general I'm ok with it, I gave what I had, wasn't enough.
- What was the decisive moment of the Tour?
- Don't think there really was a decisive moment. It started with the 2 bad stages in early June, I was recovering from a cold and not at my best. Without that my chances certainly would have been better. At the same time the race would have developed completely differently, so... don't think we can say there was one decisive moment or mistake, just the sum of many stages.
-At 35 years, what goals do you have left? Will you retire soon?
- I plan to keep riding this month, I will try to earn myself a place in the Vuelta. I know it will be difficult, but I'll try. I still feel comparatively fine. So if I get a chance to ride, I'll show the Big Donkey that bringing me to Spain is the right decision.
- Any thought about Lombardia?
- Well, that's far away, I will be 37 by then, I can't plan that far. I know I feel fine now, can't predict how it will be in a year. Even less in 2.
- So August first. Getxo I guess?
- Yes, Getxo the first goal.
-Ok then, we wish you success!
- Thanks.

Finances:
+2'564'835
Getting richer and richer without wanting too...Cheaper TdF team was not to save money, just to have a weaker team as usual in the TdF.

Training:
Excellent training by the 2 young stars, Messerli and Eiffel, with 4 doubles each. Good for the rest too, Lanz, Krankl Baaba.

Retirement
Stephan Wiedmer (Sui) 01.01.2019-08.07.2020 Starting skills: 46-73-78-51-49 with 62 reg. Highest skills: 65-82-79-50-49, 76,6 pavé. So a guy who really knew how to train, +19 mountain, plus 9 flat. With his reg an expensive, but useful helper. And with his pavé always a potential leader for the hilly pavé races, but never managed to get a really good result. but well, in 2019 he was too young, in 2020 too old. So while at times we sort of attempted to ride for him, in the end it was others that had to bring the results. Well, placement in those races really. He won 2 races in his career, swiss champion in October 19, and a Down Under stage in 2020 the more important one in 264 races, 3550 points. He now works in a patisserie in Burgdorf, owned by his relatives.

New rider

Endeavour Trewlove from Oxford, England. His dream is and was to be a police officer, but his talent at cycling is just to great to waste it as a pig. So finally we managed to convince him to sign with us. After a thorough investigation of our medical department Endeavour came to the conclusion that we don't have a doping progam, so he had no ethical objections to sign anymore. His skills are 52-73-66-53-45 with 37 reg. His role should be a flat rider with some mountain, basically the guy who pilots Messerli from the Cipressa to Sanremo, hit the front in the flat, hang on on the Poggio. So his main training will be flat, where he'll hopefully reach 87 or more. Hill, 55 or so should be enough. With his reg he's probably not the ideal man for stage races, but if the training goes well he should start there as part of Messerli's team too. He probably won't have many chances to ride for himself, with 66,1 pavé right now, so 50 internal he won't ever amount to much there either.
For the first few months of course we expect him mostly to train and bring bottles to the sprinters, from October on maybe some tempo etc. can be expected more often.

[Robyklebt]

Breaking news

After the team manager forgot to inscribe Gérard Lafargue to Slag om Norg today, a race that Lafargue would have won quite handily, after all he had 100 form too, Monsieur Lafargue has demanded that his contract be dissolved with immediate effect. After prolonged and heated negotiations, the team has convinced Gérard to agree to a compromise. Instead of dissolving the contract, the team has agreed to sell him immediately.

Gérard Lafargue joined the team 01.12.2019, with the following starting skills: 49-73-52-52-65 with 71,5 pavé. His skills now are 49-88-50-51-70. He won 3 races in his 8 seasons with the team: Paris-Roubaix, a fantasy race in June and then the 19th stage of the Tour de France, Bourg-en-Bresse - Champagnole. 2634 eternal points in 92 races, 512 current points.

At 29 years, he still has 4 seasons before he will start downtraining, and he hopes to stay competitive until the age of 37, that's when he would like to win his second Paris-Roubaix. The team management had it's doubts about that plan, but thought that he would be a win candidate in pavé races for another 6 seasons for sure, then start suffering when the real season restarts. Of course he can be used as an early man in a sprint train too.

Despite the not exactly harmonic exchanges we've had with Gérard Lafargue over the past few hours, we hope he will find a new team soon, where he can continue his career with success.

A short statement by Gérard Lafargue:

Absolutely scandalous. After the Tour I was informed that I wouldn't ride the Vuelta, after winning a stage at the Tour no Vuelta. Ok, je m'en fous de la Vuelta. Paris-Tour mon prochain grand objective

-English please!

Vas te faire foutre, âne de merde!

Will cut that right, press slave?
- Yes of course Mr Donkey!

So ok, English, no Vuelta, no problem, in August I'll concentrate on Bruxelles, Plouay. No said the management, we want to win a race early, Slag om Norg, we're doing the Vuelta, so can't ride Plouay and Bruxelles anyway. Ok then, I trained hard for today. I had an excellent team around me. And then when I wanted to sign in, I realized I wasn't inscribed for the race. Such lack of professionalism is unacceptable. And Mr. Donkey had the gall, to accuse me of not wanting to ride when I wasn't allowed to start. He had forgotten to inscribe me and accuses me? Over and done, I leave this team, I refuse to stay here even one day longer. They forget to inscribe me for a race? A race that everybody knows I would have won easily? While my teammates Hikmet, Brotcorne and Quttiboyev, managed to lose a four man sprint vs a guy from another team. Well, they can't sprint, they are good riders, have my full respect, but sorry, they sprint as well as Happyton climbs. I enjoyed riding with those 3, was looking forward to mentoring Lanz, but after today I can't stay here. And recommend to the others, at least Lanz, he's young, to leave as soon as possible too. I hope I find another team soon, a team with a team manager that manages to inscribe me to the races I'm ordered to train for. Ideally of course a team that won't do the Vuelta, I think I can do well in Plouay. And Bruxelles, ok, seems it will be quite hilly this year, not ideal, but anyway, finally everything is better than here after today. Fuck you Donkey

[Robyklebt]

August

4th place in D1, 10'794 points.

8 wins, way more than I'm used to. 6 of them in the first 10 days of August. Twice Armas, Getxo and Gran Trittico Lombardo, Totakhyl, Messerli and Belhassen in fantasy races, then Antinori in another fantasy race, but the Flèche Wallonne, so an important one.
Then the Vuelta, 2 wins there too, Messerli and Larios.
Vuelta, the first 2 weeks, Larios managed to end August in red, the leadership jersey. After an almost 2 weeks long fight against an early escape, he managed to finally get it on the last racing day in August, 1'03" advantage. An advantage that he'll most likely lose in September (spoiler, he did), but he still has a chance to win the GC of course, he should be 8" back after the TT (spoiler alert, it's 7")
The rest of the team of course suffered from this fight vs the escape, so couldn't chase more stages, stages that a fit Bogarin might have had a chance to fight for, or Belhassen with a later escape. But 2 stage wins are ok too, and fully in the GC fight.

So a very good month.
Rider of the season: A hard fight between Armas, who won his main goal for the month, and added Getxo as a bonus and Larios, only 1 stage, but red at the end of August. In the end it's JAVIER LARIOS

After the disappointment of not being nominated for the Tour, Larios here finally was allowed to ride for himself. After losing 24' like all the other climbers to Bachchan on stage 4, he reacted well on stage 5, winning 1'09" and 2'24" to his 2 biggest rivals amongst the climbers. The project "catch the Indian" then started seriously the next day, stage 6, a stage Larios won, despite starting quite a bit under reg, but probably his direct opponent did too. . Only his second stage win, the first one was in the Tour de Suisse. Finally on the 30st of August he then got the leader's jersey.

Since Larios is still busy at the Vuelta he couldn't give us an interview.

Finances

+843'333. Lower than the last months, but still good considering we're in the middle of a GT.

Training

Due to the risky training plan by the Donkey, Messerli missed on training, not good. Disappointment of the month though is Lanz, who didn't train a single time at 25. Very good training until then, from 68 to 83, only missed one training up to 24, now 0... Let's hope he recovers. Faye 2 mountain, which is ok, the goal for him is to reach 70 at some point, now 68, so all ok. And because of his TT he had lower % than the usual classic.

Retirements

Mohammed Haqqi (Egy) 01.02.2019-07.08.2020. 248 races, exactly 1000 points, it was a hard fight to get him these points at the end, with 56/55 sprint for much of his career it should have been easier really. Starting skills: 48-74-63-55-56 with 35 reg, a classic flat rider, not much pavé (or very little actually, 46 internal it seems) so a pure flat rider, who was there to help the different sprinters, from Sofiga to Messerli. His top skills: 50-88 downhill and TT going down, sprint 55. His only placement that is somehow noteworthy was a 5th place in the GP de Fourmies. Despite his lack of personal success, he took over the role that Matsubara and Kolbeinsson had before him, as the top and very strong main flat rider. And in the end he managed his 1000 points, after some races that the Donkeys rode for him. He know works as a security guard in Cairo.

Technically in September, but well, August and September are next to each other, so is ok:
Fabio Antinori (Ita) 01.06.2019-03.09.2020. 11'525 eternal points in 98 races 13 wins, 2 stage races. Starting skills: 73-55-79-49-46 with 54 reg. Top skils: 88-56-79-49-46. He's only the 9th Big Donkey rider to reach 10 wins. His biggest successes are the Flèche Wallonne, 2 Giro stage wins and 3 TdF stage wins. His 2 stage races wins, 4 ciudades de Colombia and Tour de Suisse. His career was hampered a bit by the team not riding the Andes in 2019, that's usually fertile grounds for young climbers in the team to start launching their GC career. In his 2 main goals for stage races he finally finished second. In the Giro vs Neumann, a very strong climber with TT, 90+58, but he gave him a good fight we felt, tried with an attack from far on the last mountain stage, but Neumann didn't make any mistakes in the back. The Tour was very different, coming for the TdS Antinori didn't feel really fit at the start, lost some unnecessary time. In July started gaining time back. While Neumann in the Giro rode clinically and without mistake, Antinori's opponent at the Tour seemed to have a double competition with Antinori: 1) Who wins the Tour 2) Who makes more mistakes. In the end Barrientos won the Tour, while the second competition probably ended in a draw... 7" back, while it was 2'15" at the Giro. Despite his 2 GT second places in the end we are satisfied with his career. 13 wins, 5 GT stages, the Flèche Wallonne, and generally he was an offensive rider. Antinori now is back in Firenze, he's a youtuber now, with a for the moment highly unpopular channel. We wish him all the best in his new career of course.

New riders

-Vasco Teixeira from Porto. 51-70-76-47-49 with 52 reg. Future 60-80, part of the Giro team 21. He'll obviously train mountain and flat at first, depending on how it goes we might concentrate of lat later, better to have a 60-82 than a 65-78.
-Michele Apicella from Rome, 73-53-72-51-48, 46 reg. The second climber for 2021. Most likely will be the helper for Eiffel. His flat, downhill and reg are not fully convincing, especially flat we would have liked someone with more than 75, but it is what it is. He will train classically, mountain first, second and third, flat at 21, later cover downhill. He normally should give his debut later this month in Canada, Montréal, then his first goal, in the sense of being useful will be the Andes.

[Robyklebt]

September

Not a brilliant month. At all. Started the month in red, winning the Vuelta, finished it in second place. 1 race win, another won for a team-member, Tim Eiffel at the U23 WC, but with a different manager. So, Lanz, Lichtervelde the highlight of the month. 4th place in D1 with 10'957 points. Which sounds good, but the month really wasn't good. The lack of success is kind of ok, we've had even worse months, it's the way it went as well. Symptiomatic the last mountain stage of the Vuelta, after trying to drop Neumann with Larios, didn't suceed, ok, stage win maybe at least... but forgot to sprint. The classics or important races later in September were similar. Quebec not really in the race, but ok, that's in the nature of that race somehow. Montréal the result is ok, 4th, but the way wasn't convincing. Fourmies.. don't remember, Sabatini was without any ideas, and Agostoni, after finally winning it last year wasn't any good either. So not only not winning, but also being clueless of somehow besides the race often. And that doesn't happen that often, or with such regularity.

Anyway, rider of the season:
Tim Eiffel, winner of the U24 WC, different manager, a clueless guy, so if Tim manages to win that guy, imagine his talent! No interview since Eiffel is riding right now. Hopefully he'll win this award again in the future, then he can give an interview.

Finances
+2'955'057. Good, with the end of the Vuelta in it was clear was going to be good. Could probably have earned more after that, but money wise I'm ok anyway.

Training
Unhappy with Bogarin, down to 72 sprint already. Eiffel +2, hoped for +3, Messerli on the other hand +3, if I remember correctly. Baaba +1, so movement, even if I hoped to be at 70 by this time. But still generally ok, only thing that really was bad was Bogarin's downtraining spree.

Retirements
Antinori was already mentioned last month, so only:
-Happyton Kunonga (Zim) 01.03.2019-15.09.2020 Starting skills: 46-70-77-49-60 with 41 reg, The goal was to get a sprinter with a good flat value, and Happyton trained well. 46-77-77-49-74 his top skills. He won 3 races, the most important one clearly the GP Fourmies, first rider of the team to win that, was one of the missing races. August and September 19 was the highlight of his career, first Veenendaal, Fourmies, 3 days later a fantasy race... but that was it. Just when it seem his career was taking off, he stopped delivering. Soon the emergence of Bogarin put him permanently in second position in the sprint hierarchy, With Matsukaze before he had been the leader for completely flat races at times, but with Bogarin's flat he wasn't really inferior there. And Kunonga simply stopped delivering results after September. So the rest of his career, 2/3 of it, really was a disappointment. Still, thanks to the Fourmies-win the career as a whole is a success, but you have to wonder if he couldn't have had a better career. In 216 races 2952 points, and as mentioned 3 wins. Happyton now works as a rider agent in London, he represents mosly African riders and lobbies c4f to finally stop their racist practice of banning riders from Eritrea but also Ethiopia from competing. We lose all the talent to the UCI!

New riders

- Joan Coderch from Barcelona, 56-71-79-48-46 with 50 reg for 2'001'002. First riders in many many years bought for over 95%! 107% to be exact. Should be the second classic for the Giro, for this price of course we hope for good training. 72+ mountain minimum, flat 78 would be nice, but risks ending lower. For the first few season no results expected, later not necessarily either, his main job will be that of a helper, as usual with our classics. Ok, a win here or there is expected too, but helping his leaders Eiffel/Apicella will be his main job.
- Mikhail Stakhanov from Lugovaya, near Livny, Oryol Oblast, Russia obviously. Starting skills: 49-72-71-50-55 with 63 reg. So a pure flat worker, that can work downhill too... probably if the start is downhill. If Eiffel develops well we'll need a rider like him, so better buy him early we thought. And since Stakhanov was available, we immediately signed him, even if we could have waited a month or 2 with this type of rider. 55 sprint, with that right now he's one of the better sprinters in our team, so if Eiffel doesn't develop, he'll be a good escaper. Or a good helper for Messerli, depending on how he develops. Anyway, for the moment his job is to train, flat. Mountain +1 ok, not more, just flat is enough.


With that our Giro 21 team is almost complete
Eiffel+Apicella the climbers
Faye+Coderch classics
Teixeira 60-80
Trewlove+Stakhanov flat
2 free spots, 1 should be another 60-80, the other open, depending on the parcours of course, but Milano-Sanremo winner Messerli looks like a likely candidate.

Goals for October:
Classics...

[Robyklebt]

October

6th place in D1 wiht 10'509 points in 30 races. 5 wins, but 3 of them in NCs, hardly count, but well, makes it 5, so we count. The 2 others Faye the Japan Cup and Lanz the last stage of the Pavé Tour. The important races, the classics, no wins. The main goals, Lombardia, Tours, Emilia.
-Lombardia went much better than expected, we weren't all that confident actually. The usual, or not very innovative, because we've done the same before (or similar) attack after the Muro di Sormano, Totakhyl-Belhassen, with a passenger from Alkworld. Worked very well, thanks to free/Dickson. Dickson had controlled everything until then, free unsurprisingly was happy not to do anything, even if it wouldn't have hurt him in any way. Siebs, attacks Sormano, Dickson then is pissed of and refuses to wait for the free workers, that probably at that point would have worked, result, Totakhyl-Belhassen get more time than they should. Civiglio, Belhassen and the Alk go, in the back Semper attacks on the last km of the climb, Nguygen from free, Eiffel and Pellisier follow. Everybody else at this point is out of the race. What to do? Undecided Donkey thinking and thinking, finally decided to drop Belhassen from the front and ride for Eiffel. In retrospect pretty sure it was the right decision. The fresh classics in the back, Eiffel the only climber, would have a) dropped Eiffel before San Fermo and b) caught Belhassen and the Alk. Close, but most likely they would have. And Pellissier with his sprint in the back would have forced Belhassen to ride alone anyway, the attack before the San Fermo was coming for sure in the back. So drop back Belhassen, ride the flat, sieb San Fermo, all dropped except Nguygen, we go to the end together, Eiffel downhill fast, Nguygen the flat, 7" ahead of Pellissier and the other Alk, sprint, Eiffel stronger, but Nguygen wins. Thanks to the flat starts in front, sprint both at 100, Eiffel being stronger comes out of the slipstream but can't overtake Nguygen. Would have been nice to win, but ok, since the expectations weren't that high, finally satisfied.
-Paris-Tours: Actually we were looking forward more to this one this year. Thought we have a good chance. First shock: Damn, look at the fucking route before setting form. Somehow we thought there were siebable hills, 6%, but well, should have checked, it was 5% max. Idiot. So the form was off, we had thought to go for Brotcorne, survive pavé, come back after the hills as one of the best flat riders there, then attack or follow the right wheel. Lanz&Hikmet, pavétour. Bah. Hilly pavétour anyway, didn't check that properly either. Brotcorne as leader of course was ok, but really should have put Hikmet on topform there too. LIke this... didn't look completely hopeless., looking at the opponents. The plan was: Sieb with Hikmet/Lanz at the pavé. Drop DeRoy, get others to help keep him away, respectively have others do that, with no sprint, happy Donkey just looking. Then attack, either before or after Feiting Siebing is back. The plan still seems sensible, just that it didn't work at all. Group went, Feiting and Donkey chased. Letting FEiting alone seemed contra-productive, he wasn't sure to win with DeRoy after all. Better help than let the group through. Then early sieb to let DeRoy fight mostly, he didn't and was dropped. Nobody rode, no problem there. Last *** sieb... .Lanz, but with his form... DeRoy stayed. 86? 87? 85? Something like that for Lanz... With 100 form for him or Hikmet I think it should work, but like this didn't. And nobody else tried there. Some FEiting Helpers dropped, but came back fast. And then for reasons that are mysterious others started riding in the peloton too. Now with DeRoy poised to win? Weird. Not that it changed anything I think, maybe Brotcorne would have managed to get away, and be caught the next km or something like that, but Feiting at this point seemed to have it under control alone too, but with others riding with very limited chances for the win... seemed strange. But ok, Donkey helped the whole first part of the race, so.... (but there DeRoy's chances weren't 95%+ yet) Anyway Brotcorne didn't even get away when he attacked, he tried anyway. So big failure but well, actually still think it made sense. Maybe ride early when DeRoy was dropped once Feiting later said, ok, better than how it turned out for sure. But that was km 161, so over 50 from the goal. Ok, ride, see if others help. Finally a disappointing 17th place for Brotcorne. Stakhanov last, 125th, that's nice too. 14 teams, so not a mini group race.
-Emilia: Can't remember anything, ah, now a bit looking at the result. Tried an early attack, didn't work at all, A Goetten that didn't want to collaborate following, more mountain, less downhill, tried to get rid of him there... and when he didn't work just did serial attacks. But the attack wouldn't have worked with cooperation either I think. Finally 6-7-8 with my 3 climbers, in a small group not impressive at all. 5 teams...

So no win in the classics, only good result really Lombardia, 3 Valli, Milano-Torino, Piemonte nothing either Top 10 or in the first group. Nothing special to report.

So the rider of the month is: Samuel Lanz. After missing out narrowly in September his win in October was enough. Japan Cup a real race, nice attack at 28 km from the end that just managed to stay ahead, 1", Faye getting the win from Totakhyl, but only 5 teams again. So Lanz with his win in the last stage of the pavé tour gets it, not winning the most sought after title of c4f the previous month helped too.

Short interview with Samuel Lanz:

-Samuel, congrats for the first rider of the month award!
-Thanks!
-Was it hard missing out on it in September?
-A bit, my first win, the only highlight really of the month for the team, Eiffel won the U23 WC, but that was for his country, not the team, so it's actually unclear if that should even count. The Donkey said yes, ok... His win of course is more important than mine, Lichtervelde, nobody cares. But my win was for the team. His not.
-But nothing went wrong in October.
-Yes. A win at the pavé tour is always a big success.
-Can you tell us how the race went?
-Tukh rode hoping to get time in GC, I profited. Possibly we siebed a bit here and there, we like doing that, but that day probably we just profited.
-So, rider of the month in October... I guess next time we'll see you will be in May, for the April awards ceremony?
-Well, hopefully not, FEbruary with Het Nieuwsblad, if it is indeed in February this year is a goal too. But at the latest for May, yes, of course. Paris-Roubaix is my clear career goal. I feel I can bring the cobblestone back to Köniz. For a swiss rider in this team, the team that produced Anton Hasler, winning Paris Roubaix would be huge.
-Ronde Van Vlaanderen?
-Second priority only. And I fear it is a bit too hilly for me. And I'm not that good in sprints, the chances to arrive solo in Roubaix IMO are bigger than in Oudenaarde. But of course, if I see a chance to win there, I'll take it, that's clear. But I'll tailor my season around Paris-Roubaix, that's what I want to win. And what the Donkey wants me to win too.
- What are your goals until then?
-As I said, Het Nieuwsblad, but also Harelbeke, DDV, Denain.. but all in spring, until then basically it's be there when asked, and show the world who the best active cobbles rider is. This means delivering results in the flat pavé races each month. If the team works well for me, I can do that. Especially now that we don't have Lafargue anymore, with him I would have had to work for him at times. Not anymore. I'm the leader now. The team is a bit on the weak side, especially with Hikmet getting older, but I expect the Donkey to provide me with adequate support until spring. And if not... let's not forget that in the end it's the leader that wins. Best team doesn't help if you don't have the legs. I have the legs.
-Ok, thank you Samuel for these comments. Good luck in November and further on!
-Thanks.

Training:
Mostly forgot, but think Eiffel was good. +3 mountain I think. Good? Excellent!

Finances
+1'404'792
Good enough, even if I somehow got used to winning 1,6 million a month this year, 200'000 less is still ok.

Retirement

Shavkat Quttiboyev (Usb): 1011 points in 156 races, his last 2 or even 3 seasons were mostly spent trying to get him to 1000 points. It worked, thanks to his compatriot Eldor Shomurodov too. Big thanks for Shavkat again! 0 wins in his career, but at least 1000 points. He joined the team 01.04.2019, starting skills: 47-71-49-55-49, 73,1 pavé, 36 reg. Goal was clear, pavé rider. Top skills: 48-85-50-50-50, pavé 82,9. He never managed to win a race finally, for pavé in the end we bought first Hikmet, with a higher internal pavé value, 79 vs 78, and more success (pavé tour stage in 2019) and finally Lafargue too, so Shavkat wasn't leader as he had hoped in the end. 5th pavé tour 19 and 5. Het Nieuwsblad the only top 10 in races that count finally. 17th at PR as no 3 in the team. So finally a helper, and didn't ride that many races, only 156. Even for a pure pavé specialist that's not much in our team. Of course his weaknesses, basically everything except flat and pavé didn't help him much in that regard. Anyway, Shavkat retired after the pavé tour, works as a government employee in Tashkent now, but really hopes to open a cycling academy. But here too he'll need the help of Eldor Shomurodov, for funding first, Eldor's popularity much exceeds that of Shavkat, and then to attract young cyclist, for the same reason.

New rider

Johann Löffel,from Basel, Switzerland. Starting skills 50-69-57-51-66, 35 reg. A sprinter. Long term his goal is to become a 65-70 with 75 sprint, or something approaching that. Then he will mostly have to help Messerli in sprints, but should get his own chances in hillier races. Johnny himself (he likes to be called Johnny, not Johann) wants to win Milano-Sanremo, so that's a problem because we have Fabian Messerli who will win that... maybe Johnny will be sold in February? Or not allowed to start to avoid an internal fight? Or both start and get the double? We'll see. For the moment Johnny is supposed to train and help Messerli and Bogarin. Nothing more.

Goals for November
After a one year break we're back in the Andes, ready to dominate. Or not, the team is untypically weak. Not the helpers, strong and dominating as usual, perfect Andes team, it's the leaders this time. Eiffel with his annoying TT isn't up to the usual level of Donkey-climbers yet... so we'll see how this works. No other real goals, ok, Brescia, Coimbra would be nice to win, but Andes more important. But, attention, spoiler alert! At least for those for whom the Big Donkey press center is their main source of information for the game (the majority of players I think, where else to get your informations in such a timely manner and friendly way?) The 14h Andes edition was cancelled, so the season isn't working out as planned! Covid19 struck! Feiting Siebing the virtual manager was infected, which made all other managers panic and refuse to start, only the Donkeys, brave and fearless as ever showed up next to those Feitings, but in the end the race was cancelled anyway.


October, so the real season is over.
Short recap:

Grand Tours:
Giro: 2. F. Antinori, 7. J. Larios. 4 stages, 2x T. Armas+2x F. Antinori. Team classification.
Tour: 2. F. Antinori 14. H. Belhassen, 18. I. Totakhyl. 5 stages, 3x F. Antinori, 1x T. Bogarin, G. Lafargue
Vuelta: 2. J. Larios 9. T. Eiffel 14. H. Belhassen, 2 stages, F. Messerli, J. Larios

3x second, 11 stages, so that's ok. 3 different tours, but had one thing in common. Lack of GC contenders.
Big group at the Giro, but really weak climbers group for the size of the peloton. Neumann winning seemed clear, Antinori the only real threat. We tried plan C, excellent plan, let somebody else in the fight, but we didn't actually do anything for it finally, happened automatically, the attack by Pokemon came not on the day we expected, so couldn't help much. Antinori still profited from that situation, Neumann was more concentrating on gaining time to the Poke than distancing Antinori, so we got at least one stage thanks to that or even 2? And didn't lose time to Neumann. Big attack last mountain stage, did everything right, the attack was dangerous. Not if answered properly, which Moja did, rode it well, but because attacks like this hope to induce mistakes by the chaser. Didn't work, still a good try, gained time finally, but nowhere near enough for the win. Result as expected, Neumann wins, Antinori second. 2'15" back, don't know how to get closer really, with less mountain and TT.
Tour was more open, 2 favorites instead of one clear one. Barrientos and Antinori. Riding was different, while at the Giro I think I rode well, did what I had to do, here it became a contest not to win, but to lose... at least it felt like that at times. Donkey and Liquigas topping each other with weird mistakes and bad riding, in the end 7" for Barrientos, was fun, both LiqLiq and DonkDonk clearly not used to ride with only 1 climber, so that's where the mistakes and weird decisions came from, at least in part. Other factor was my form, bad in June, so lost time there, lots. TdS... .but with form there, less time loss to Barrientos the whole Tour would have changed, can't say if a win then would have been more likely or not.
Vuelta: Again, only 3 guys in the race for the win. Some celteam climber, Neumann again, without the second climber now, and Larios. I rode clearly the best of all 3, sorry boys, even if I tried I couldn't ride as badly as celteam. And considering his mountain and TT advantage Neumann was a disappointement too. Chasing Bachchan, mostly done by the Donkey, getting time on the 2 jokers early, then lost it in the end. A bit frustrating to lose it after being virtual yellow behind Bachchan for much of the race, but well, with his skills Larios shouldn't have been that close anyway. 13" in the end.

So GTs ok, a win would have been nice.. but on the other hand I won more stages than I usually do, so all is ok

Classics:
MSR: 1. T. Bogarin 6. H. Belhassen
RVV: 7. H. Belhassen
PR: 1. G. Lafargue 8. O. Hikmet, 17. S. Quttiboyev
LBL: 3. T. Armas 9. F. Antinori 17. H. Belhassen 23. J. Larios
Lombardia: 2. T. Eiffel 5. H. Belhassen 11. J. Larios

2 wins, so of course that makes the whole season already a success. Bogarin MSR, as announced, Lafargue PR. Perfect. No chance in RVV as usual, LBL close, wrong following when the decisive attack when, on the right wheel there that can be the win, but didn't think far enough. Lombardia see above.

Small Tours:
Paris-Nice: 4. F. Antinori, 8. T. Armas, 1 stage, T. Armas
Tour de Suisse: 1. F. Antinori 3 J. Larios, 2 stages, J. Larios, F. Antinori, mountain jersey+points jersey, F. Antinori, team classification

Only 2 ridden, taking a break from Catalunya. 1 win, not too impressive, Schwyzer and Gsiberger, the natural favorite in the same team rode like they where challengers, instead of favorites. Attacking, weakening themselves, so in the end was easy for Antinori to win it. PN tried but never really had a chance, in the end an escaper won anyway...

Other classics: Won't post all of them, but winning La Flèche Wallonne is always nice. Antinori for the 5th win of the team. Too easy this year though.
Rest, second place in Het Nieuwsblad, DDV, San Sebastian, races that in general I don't do too well, never won Het Nieuwsblad, DDV won once years ago before it was cat 4, often not riding it due to Catalunya as well. San Sebastian finally won in 2019, only third time on the podium there, so in general somehow don't deliver there. Didn't this year either, but closer than usual it seems.

So the Donkey is fully satisfied with his season. 2 monuments, TdS, Flèche won. The GTs always a threat, even if none was won in the end. Every season like that would be no problem, where do I sign?

[Robyklebt]

November

The big goal, the Andes was cancelled, only 2 teams there, Feiting vs Big Donkey, not that much sense, so after 6 stages the whole event was cancelled. Forgettable experience, bah, hopefully next year we get together a decent group again.
So, place 17 in D1, 5349 points.

So.... the parallel program, one day races, form for the Andes guys was good, for the others not obviously, success in those 1 day races 0.
Overall 8 wins in the month. But well, 3 of them in the 2 team Andes, one on a day we both stayed offline and Vasco Teixeira won a convincing random win. Great star! The TTT was won, nice, one stage for Larios, in GC we would have been beaten soundly by Feiting. But all doesn't matter anyway. The other 5 wins, 3 by Messerli, 1 by Lanz, 1 by Totakhyl. So 5 wins before and after the Andes, still a good month for us from that point of view. And Messerli won a cat 2 race, Ganiari-Kalachuli Temples.

Rider of the season, thanks to his win at the Cat 2 c4f classic, Fabian Messerli. And again Lanz loses out narrowly, he could have won his third rider of the month in a row, but lost out by a little bit to others in September and November. 3 wins for Messerli, but 3 teams on the first one, 4 in the second one. Hardly counts, compared to the 15 (at least that's what it says) there for Lanz's win. But 9 teams category 2 finally gave the win to Messerli.

Since today is a rest day in Hawaii, Fabian found the time to give us an interview, we really told him he should train, although we love interviewing riders, and him even more, we would understand if he didn't have the time and spend our time on the beach, but he insisted, so we were happy to meet him.

-Fabian, rider of the month in November. Congratulations
-Thanks
-6 wins in 6 seasons now, not a bad pace
-Yes, I'm rather happy overall with my results so far.
-Ok, thanks, good luck!
-Wait, isn't this a bit short?
-No, standard length for interviews really. The Donkey said less is more. Not only with wins, also with interviews
-Well, but I have lots of time, can't we extend it a bit?
-Ok, what do you have to say?
-Well.... don't you usually ask the question and I answer?
-Usually there's another guy here actually, not you, but yes, that's how a standard interview goes, but since we are already exceeding the standard lenght, I though we could do a generally non-standard interview.
-I prefer the usual question answer format to be honest.
-OK, how's your form?
-Good.
-Thanks, good luck!
-No!
-What, dammit?
-My goals for December are the December Tour! And Makety Kylea!
-INteresting, see the water there?
-Yes.
-It's called the Ocean. The pacific ocean. We don't have that in Japan.
-Of course you do! I know my geography!
-Right. Ok, 3 more questions, ok? Then I go!
-Ok.
-As a sprinter from Basel, you must have a lot of pressure, to equal the results your predecessors had, corrrect?
-Yes, but so far I'm doing well I think.
-Milano Sanremo, who will be leader, you or Löffel?
-Johnny is young, he's developping well, but I'll be leader, sure.
-What other goals besides Milano Sanremo do you have?
-Stages in the GTs of course. I already have a Vuelta win, a Giro and a Tour stage would be nice.
-Ok, thanks, bye!
-Bye, wow, already gone, BYE


Finances: +1'239'258 On the low side compared to other months lately, but good enough

Training: Good, Apicella, 84 mountain at 23. Highlight of the month and makes it an excellent month too. No matter what the rest was, good, since we would have to check.

Retirements:

Tulio Armas: 01.05.2019-06.11.2020 Classic. Starting skills 56-73-62-49-54, with 50 reg. Top skills: 76-80-62-49-54. So outstanding training. As a classic he was mostly a helper, despite his rather good sprint skill (for a Donkey) and a bit too much reg. In 232 races he got 8238 points and 9 wins. The most important ones 2 stages at the Giro. He never managed to deliver in the classics finally, but came close. 2nd in Het Blad, 3. in LBL (more would have been possible) 2. in San Sebastian. Most important one day race win finally the Gran Trittico Lombardo, a race that still gives nightmares to Dickson! But his win in the GP Indurain was quite nice too if we remember correctly. A successful career finally, with 9 wins he came close to being the 11th rider in the team to get 10 wins, with 8238 points he enters the hall of fame of riders with over 5000 points in the 20st position, and 5th best classic behind Tasman, Alighieri, Tobar and Son. Tulio now comments d4f races for the Venezuelan TV.

Javier Larios: 01.09.2019-30.11.2020 Starting skills: 73-48-78-51-48 with 41 reg. Top skills: 87-53-78-50-48. Due to his weakness in the flat and lack of regeneration, it was clear from the start that he was going to be a helper in most races, that Antinori was going to be the leader generally. But that was ok with Javier, he was hired mostly for one thing. The Big Donkey comeback at the Vuelta, after a 10 year boycott. That's what his career was about mostly, that and helping Antinori. He was of course a bit disappointed that he wasn't selected for the Tour. At the Vuelta then he finally managed second place, which in the end was a good result. After leading the GC contenders and being in virtual red for much of the race, arriving 2nd at 13" only of course was a bit of a disappointment, but all in all he did a good race. In 105 races he finally got 7648 points and 3 wins. A TdS stage, a Vuelta stage and an Andes stage, that doesn't really count, but well... it's there. In stage races he got 3rd in the Dec tour 19 and the TdS as a helper, second in Valencia and the Vuelta as leader. A second place behind Antinori at the Fleche Wallonne the only one day result of note. Javier who retired at only 35 years of age, felt he still has something to give and is racing MTB now. After a few seasons he plans to finish his university studies and then work as a mathematics teacher.

New rider:
Gorgonio Moretti from Rome, recommended by Michele Apicella. Usually we try to stick with Tuscan riders, but those 2 Romans were just too good. Starting skills: 52-72-71-52-48, 72,3 pavé, so 73 internal pavé and 50 reg. His goal is to become a combination rider, a 60-80, classic Donkey guy with around 50 reg and downhill (he has less than the typical one) but also a guy for the cobblestones. So the focus will be on flat until March or so? Might start the Giro with a lower mountain skill than we usually like due to that. But if he trains 11 flat he'll have 80 pavé, 58-83 with 80 pavé is a decent helper to Lanz there, the team so far was a bit weak. As usual in the first months we expect training, training, training, hopefully to something like 58-83 by the end of March. Results aren't really expected now, or ever even, he's a helper. 1000 eternal points the only individual goal he has, but every rider has that goal. Or they can't become a Donkey.


December preview:
December tour the big goal of course. All the rest secondary.

Giro outlook:

The team now basically stands:
Eiffel+Apicella climbers
Faye-Coderch classics
Teixeira-Moretti 60-80
Trewlove flat rider
Stakhanov flat rider with reg
Messerli or Löffel sprinter

With 7 of the 9 spots basically confirmed, only ones at risk are the sprinter and Trewlove, which might be taken over by riders that aren't in the team yet.

[Robyklebt]

December

2nd and 3rd in the biggest race of the month, the December tour. 2 stage wins. Totakhyl then won Kisoro Kabale, so 3 wins overall. White jersey and team classification won in Humuhumunukunukuapuaa too.
After starting the month deep in relegation territory finally we managed to climb up to place 10 with 6208 points, 30 races.
So an ok month, but certainly not great. Too much focus on an off form Messerli towards the end of the month, but most importantly big mistake in the December Tour. Eiffel leader, not Apicella. As Dickson told us early, and everybody knew as well, Apicella clearly should have been our number 1 there. Much better chances for the win then.

Rider of the month:
Izatullah Totakhyl, for his Kisoro-Kabale win. Messerli and Coderch with a Dec-Tour stage nice too, but finally worth less. Not that I remember how the win came to be.

Interview with Izatullah:

-Izatullah, rider of the month, congrats
-Finally! I wasn't very happy not to ride the December Tour really, but instead I got to be leader at a c4f classic, won it, so certainly very happy now.
-You are an unorthodox rider for Big Donkey, he never seemed to know exactly what to do with you.
-Yes, I'm not very good in the flat, but quite good on cobbles, in addition I started my career in January as the third classic, usually there's 2 in the team. So that's seems to have been a bit too much for the Donkey to digest. He's not very mentally flexible as we all know, we saw that in Hawaii too. Eiffel leader, brr. This time Eiffel got to be leader, but since he's an unorthodox Donkey rider too I fear he won't have much success here. He probably should try to transfer to a better team as soon as possible.
-4 wins now for you, satisfied?
-4 wins isn't bad, of course would have hoped to win more important races. Except Kisoro-Kabale all category 1. But with my skills and role in the team finally I think 4 wins at this stage of my career is ok.
-You're 33 now, what can we still expect from you?
-I hope to do well in Het Volk and Strade Bianche mostly for the moment. And any other race that might fit my skills in between.
-But you're 33, getting older and presumably weaker. And you never really delivered in pavé or dirt road races.
-True, but why not now. I still feel good, don't think I will get weaker in the coming 2 months, I'm optimistic.
-What about your racing program?
-Don't really know, as it looks we won't be riding MIT, not enough for Messerli, this Donkey seems obsessed with that guy.
-Anyway, good luck for January and the following months too. Hope we see you here again!
-Thanks.

Finances: +1'514'111, so fully satisfied

Training: As usual forgot most, Apicella +1 good enough, now average training at 24 but since it was the first training that brought him there hoped for more. Eiffel +1 mountain +2? flat, so ok too. Lanz +1 flat very nice too. Rest good I think, forgot...

New rider: Francis Quaghebeur from Tournai, a suburb of the Belgian metropolis Gaurain Ramecroix. Like his idol Armand Brotcorne a flat rider, 49-73-68-52-58 with 35 reg his starting skills. Unlike Brotcorne though he doesn't plan to go over 50 mountain. Will try to get some downhill and keep the sprint instead. His job at first of course is training, training, training, at some point will hopefully become a top flat rider.

[Robyklebt]

27.01.2006

Robyklebt in Shanghai inscribes in a new game. First race, he loved it. Decided to stay for a while.

So January and 15 years review:

2020: Yes, yes, technically we should count form 27.01.20-26.01.21, but that's too annoying for most things..

Rider of the season:

01: F. Antinori
02: T. Bogarin
03: T. Bogarin
04: G. Lafargue
05: T. Armas
06 F. Antinori
07: F. Antinori
08: J. Larios
09: T. Eiffel
10: S. Lanz
11: F. Messerli
12: I. Totakhyl



2 monuments, nice but we talk about that in October, at least if we don't forget it. So more numbers
55 stages, second best result in our career, 2018 it was 57. Plus 1 TTT, since they are counted separately...
2 stage races, Antinori
1 points and 1 mountain jersey, Antinori,
1 youth rider jersey, Apicella

Best riderRider of the year Fabio Antinori: Only second at the Giro and the Tour, ridiculous riding at the Tour should really disqualify him from the competition. But on the other hand he still won the Fleche Wallonne. That counts. A lot. Not ever rider can do that. Especially not in our team.... 10 wins in 2020, Fleche Wallone and Fleche Jurassienne, we like that. 2 Giro stages, 3 Tour stages, 1 TdS stage, 1 PN stage and 1 4 ciudades de Colombia stage. He won 2 stage races as well, 4 ciudades de Colombia and the TdS. Points and mountain jersey there too, TdS. That's enough to be rider of the year.

Favorite riders: As usual up to 3

-Oisin Swift: 50-86 with 50 reg now. Riding a lot, already has 245 races, will presumably ride another 7 seasons, almost sure to enter the 300+ races club. Very useful rider, has reg, can use him almost every day for whatever I need. Rode both the Giro and the Tour obviously. Even when unfit, no worries, he'll be back up soon. Cleary my favorite in 2020
-Armand Brotcorne: Trained well, 55-87 at his best, no reg, had some TT we didn't care much about. Nothing great, maybe we only like him because he too rode a lot, 290 races now, and others seemed to dislike him, claiming we were not using him well, which might very well be. Nice in combination with Swift, one with reg, one better in flat and no reg.
-Ticio Bogarin: So no 60-80 this year, Nägele+Krankl somehow never managed to conquer my heart. Bogarin did, ok, with his compulsive downtraining once he reached the age he pissed me off, but until then, nice friendly guy that delivered exactly in the race he was supposed to. Milano-Sanremo.

Most useful rider

Swift again.

Best buy:
Tom Espariat? Joined the team today, so after the 27th, but was bought before... difficult, but if he qualifies it's him, for sure. 56-74-74, for under 100%... (but not my usual 95%). But ok, if he doesn't qualify... Gorgonio Moretti 52-72-71, 50 reg, 72,3 pavé at the time. So a potential double use guy, 60-80 and pavé. Will see how his training develops.

Nicest win:

Who know, too many, as I complained already last year, if I win more than 30 or so, it's too many, don't remember anything. Plus let's be honest, there's probably around 5 nice wins per year nowadays. No, not for me, for the whole of c4f.. unlikely that I get one of those... Hm.. ok, maybe: Tulio Armas: Gran Trittico Lombardo. Wanted that, got that, second attack, still as strong as some mysterious Dickson. 100 form and yes, weird weird c4f sometimes, how can he still be at the same level with one attack more? Still, liked that win. GP Indurain by Armas too, not bad, Ibarra-Otavalo-Ibarra=Lanz, not bad either, but Gran Trittico Lombardo was still my favorite. Biggish group too.

Most important win

Who knows, nothing that was really missing won this year, so... Fleche Wallonne, now record winner there. Or PR, record winner there too. Let's say Fleche Wallonne.


Next, the minor awards, some for non-Donkeys:

Chaser of the year

Ranbir Tamhane! Inexhaustible rider, he never got tired of chasing down random Donkeys. Ok, he never chased them down, but put his partners in crime in a position to finish the job. Just kept them within view. Riding and riding. A real pain in the ass.

Favorite opponents

-Tukh once again, not the first time he gets this award. Yes, he's annoying with his endless chasing of Donkeys... but he rides for his chances. He's not whiny bitch, like unfortunately around 75% here are. Tukh rides for his chances without whining complaining when he thinks he has, sometimes (too often) wins, sometimes not. Good manager, nice to ride against him.
-Leinad: He helped Quttiboyev get 1000 points! What a hero.
-Team Seven Down: Nice guy, relaxed to ride with. Plus fight Walker-Messerli ongoing.
-Luques, easy to beat. And needs praise so that he rides more probably!

Top newcomer or comeback

- Dickson. Taka is back and somehow he's nicer than ever before. Not that he wasn't nice and fun before, but somehow more this time. Seems to be taking a break already again, but
- NoPikouze: He's back, again. Only 1 race against him, but well, nothing special. He's back, but only half. A big part of NoPik's value was his participation in the forum, always funny (sometimes?), a clear plus for the forum. And the game. Now much less, but another guy how does more than just tell the world how great he is would be welcome. Even if that has taken a turn for the good lately,
- T-Mobile-A: A suprise here, in the early days he was more an annoying little twit than anything else. He comes back, and he's actually nice, actually fun to ride with, what happened? Very weird stuff, very weird.

Aix? Pff, he didn't praise my riders enough

745'287 eternal points at the end of January.

January:

6 wins, mostly in small groups... so nothing impressive really. Messerli twice, once with only Big Donkeys at the start. Swift was supposed to win, but Lanz blocked him, Messerli won. so Lanz disqualified from the competition, even if his win was quite nice. First win of the season and of his career was Löffel, and finally twice Baaba Faye. All category 1.

Place 8 in D1 with 6399 points

Training: Lanz!!¨Excellent. Rest probably was good too, but forgot.

Finances: +1'794'522, happy with that too.

Retirements: Andreas Nägele, a longer text will follow at a later date.

New rider:
Tom Espariat from Aix en Provence. 56-74-74-63-45 with 41 reg. 68 pavé, not that we care in his case. 1'926'291. Market value 1967'821, so we payed under 100%, but over 95%, forgot how much. Future classic obviously. He is expected to train, train train for the first 3 months, a Giro start is highly unlikely, but then for the Tour.. .why not. So until May he will be an understudy with few chances to ride for himself, but from June on, it's Cordech/Espariat all the way. Goal obviously a) as much as possible in the mountain. b) as much as possible flat. Ideally he becomes a 80-80, but well, we'd be happy with 72-82? 72-80. 74-80! 74-78... whatever. 72 for a guy starting with 56 is really the minimum we like, but well, if he stops at 70 we'll deal with it, no problem.

Outlook for February:

Fighting for a place in D1, once again. 4 stage races offered, we really don't especially like any of them. But for the points might have to start Provence or Haut Var, we'll see. Main and only goal for the season in Het Nieuwsblad, but we're pretty confident we won't win it. Gorgonio, our first rider that could fit the profile quite well is still too young, Lanz is fantastic but Muur and Bosberg... too much, and then winning a sprint most likely.. ah well, we'll try.

[Robyklebt]

February

16th place in D1 with 4615 points. 5 wins. Which is little considering how small the groups were at times. But ok, small groups doesn't automatically mean the opponents are weak, so still ok. As long as I win 1 race per month I'm kind of satisfied anyway.
Big goal of the month: 2: 1 Het Nieuwsblad. 2 Stay in D1. Second goal reached. But had to ride 2 tours that weren't planned, didn't plan to ride any tour really, since I prefer 1 day races most of the time. But well, since there was nowhere else to put form for my climbers they had good form for these tours. But couldn't deliver. Apicella seemed the easiest GC win in ages, his manager managed to fuck it up, not sticking with the original plan, which was ride, make DeWit fight, then attack late and win. Early attack due to some deep thoughts that turned out to be worthless.
Eiffel did better in Haut Var, second finally. Vs 2 very strong teams, that blocked themselves a bit of course, but not enough for Eiffel to be able to profit and win the Tour. His unplanned flat training is proving to be quite useful.
Wins: 2 wins each for Löffel and Messerli. Löffel in 2 team races, he seems to like that, Messerli in slightly bigger ones, including the last stage of Provence, thus saving the tour. But well, originally we came for Messerli, Apicella just there for a GC classement, didn't think he would be the favorite...
Eiffel then won the Boucles du Sud Ardeche, most important win of the month and his first career win. Again the 2 big teams fighting, with Eiffel somehow managing to profit this time around.

Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne: Lots of riders in form for that, but especially for Het Nieuwsblad we weren't very confident. The course just didn't fit Lanz much. So anticipate the plan, tried, thanks to good hanging by Gipfelstuermer worked quite well, then dropping T-Mobile turned out to be the wrong decision, Lanz-Brandt caught. But well, with the Ockers difficult to go through too, need a big energy advantage after all. Finally 4th place from Totakhyl, 12th Lanz.

Rider of the month: Tim Eiffel for his win in the Boucles du Sud Ardeche. But he refuses to do an interview.

Training Lanz 88! Löffel very strong training too, forgot the rest.

Finances 1'272'000. Hm, usually slightly higher, but had an expensive team a few times, so ok.

Retirement:

Ticio Bogarin! 0?.08.19-05.02.21. 347 races, 6 wins, 8050 eternal points. No 22 in eternal points in the team, third among sprinters, and no. in races raced. Bought with starting skills of 51-68-73-51-61 with 39 reg we didn't really realize we had a sprinter on our hands. We thought to develop him into some sort of weak semi-classic, some 66-75 with some sprint, whatever. But Bogarin soon showed that his real talent was the sprint. So that's what he trained, reaching top skills of 61-73-75-50-77. His biggest success of course Milano-Sanremo, as he had announced early in his career. Later he managed to win a TdF stage too, his 4 other victories are really not worth much, fantasy races. In his last months of course Bogarin had less and less chances to ride for himself, one reason his own fast downtraining, the other the emergence of Messerli as a credible threat on hillier courses. But that was ok, Bogarin with his 2 important wins had done what he had to do, everything else was just optional bonus. He had his heart set on retirement for a while already, but we insisted he stay with the team for the duration of his contract, only agreed to an early release in his last season, so he left the team on 05.02. Ticio now is back in Paraguay, working as a football commentator for the Paraguayan TV. Turns out his real passion was football, he just wasn't that good at it. .

New rider:
Moritz Gabel from Basel 50-54-71-51-79, 41 reg. But the other important skill is 62,1 pavé, that means 81 intern pavé skill. So his main focus in training will be on flat. Just needs 27 trainings to be a 81 pavé star. Ok ok, a more realistic goal between 70 and 75 flat. Really the original plan was to get a guy who could get 78 or so flat, be sure to follow most attacks in the flat, with low 70 that's not guaranteed at all. In the first months Gabel shouldn't get many chances to ride for himself. Part of the train for Messerli, and training training training. His goals then are Paris-Tours in October and then in a year Milano Sanremo. Neither the Giro nor the Tour seem likely for him at this point if he wants wins he'll have to get them in fantasy races I fear.

Goals for March:

Unnecessary topic, it's clear anyway:
Tirreno: Since that's what's offered in the afternoon. Eiffel for the win!
Milano-Sanremo: All for Messerli
Then ok, gives some meaning to this section, Catalunya was planned, try to win that with Eiffel. But with the times offered, no way we ride it, so we'll spend the end of the month getting humiliated in Belgium. Harelbeke, Gent Wevelgem.

[Robyklebt]

March

6th place in D1 with 8235 points, 30 races. Missed one, grrr. Grr. Think that for a while I won't be involved in the fight against relegation, but rather place in the top 10 for a few month.
3 wins, 1 stage race. But missed the main goal of the season, Milano-Sanremo.
But let's go chronologically:

Strade Bianche: 1. T. Eiffel 18. B. Faye 19. I. Totakhyl. Excellent, with that my minimum 1 day races goal for the year is reached, win at least one classic or semi-classic, cat 4+. Eiffel winning, good cooperation with CC, riding for Sindarov, who seems to always get second place when Eiffel wins. T-Mobile riding too at some point, for Kohl, to me seemed unlikely to win in a straight up finish in the last km, but since he rode with such conviction towards the end I actually started doubting a bit. In the end Eiffel and Sindarov ahead together, Souissi and Schwerdtner 1" back, Kohl further back at 3". Eiffel wins the sprint. 11 teams, so a good group.

Tirreno-Adriatico: Eaaaaasy boring win for Eiffel. 8 teams, no climbers except Sindarov again really. Who got second in GC (on points vs Apicella) and on the stage to Prati di Tivio. Behind Eiffel. No other climber, the Donkey with a strong overprized team, the win was never in doubt as long as I pay attention. Incredibly boring really, but finally a win is a win. Hope we get more climbers for future stage races in the afternoon really. Eiffel likes winning, hasn't won enough yet, but some sort of a challenge would be nice too. Apicella lost second place in the final TT in the final km, tricked by CC, thought I needed risk to keep second place, put it in, but was actually pretty safely ahead before the last km... 4"? Or 3"? 2"? Don't remember, but thanks to high risk lost it all... Oh well, doesn't matter, Apicella would rather win something sooner or later. But with this the second goal of the year reached, win a stage race. A classic, a stage race, then the year isn't a failure. 1. T. Eiffel, 3. Apicella, 7. B. Faye 15. J. Coderch, team classification, that shows how superior my team was, bring opponents!

Milano-Sanremo: 7. F. Messerli, 18. J. Löffel. Didn't work, neither the action nor the result is what I hoped for. But well, don't have any regrets either really. That was the way this edition looked likely to work in from early on in the race. Messerli not too far from 3rd or 4th, all very close, but 7th, last of his group. Ok too. The team... not what I hoped for: Messerli perfect, even a bit better than I had hoped for. But then: Classic, Coderch, 72-77, hoped for 74 or so. But stayed at 72, which basically is ok, not complaining having a 72 classic, but for MSR more would be better. To keep the complete flat sprinters away at the +5 of the Cipressa. 60-80... not as good as they need to be. 60-81 for Teixeira, or maybe still 59, but that's not really enough. And Moretti going for pavé right now only at 56, not even in the team. Trewlove? 57-85, not enough flat for my taste. Lanz 56-88 of course much better than expected, he became what Trewlove was supposed to be, or even better.
So the original plan: Ride with the classic, keep the flat guys away, stay close to the hill sprinters, ride with a 60+-80+-70+, add the strong flat guy, get the group, block the Poggio with the classic again, sprint with Löffel-Messerli and win... even in a weaker group looked rather unlikely. In this one, 18 teams impossible unless they make big mistakes behind. Changing the tactic to Löffel, try to keep other riders fit to ride with Celestino probably a better option, but can't change my leader just like that, not flexible enough. So in the end caught on the 5 by Cubas or Draupnisson, as expected, then cooperated there if I remember correctly, at least a bit? Sprint, on the Mosca guy, 7th. No real regrets as I said, a much better edition than the last few ones I thought, more of the fight between groups, even if here it was really a foregone conclusion which group would win. The sprint then open, Walker with no scruples on Lim, the most likely train, clear win.

De Panne: 9. F Messerli, 14. J. Löffel 20. M. Gabel. With Phoenix, RfM, free showing up to profit from the class of the afternoon to get their sprint in the end all the afternoon heroes were outclassed. Own train the wrong decision here, but letting RfM be the only train and do his usual slow 4 man train with tricksprint (in my definition, taking out the first guy...) because he's the only train seemed a worse option. no chance either way.

Harelbeke: Here the shitty races started. Shitty because I had no chance whatsoever an because the groups were small. 5 teams here, 11. I. Totakhyl 14. M. Stakhanov 16. G. Moretti, 17. S. Lanz. Not top 10 in a 5 team race is difficult.. but ok, tried to anticipate, staying put probably Stakhanov manages to sprint into the top 10... .but doesn't matter. Due to very tight control by T-Mobile, who wouldn't let my stars get any decent time kept attacking, Moretti and Stakhanov, 2 of my leaders at 80+ km from the end, weren't let go anywhere at all, even with the help of Swift-Brotcorne who went earlier (and didn't get time either)... no chance, so Lanz after sieb, with Wolfowitz ahead? But no chance.

Gent-Wevelgem: Changed to the morning, afternoon seemed empty, turned out 5 teams in the morning, 7 afternoon. Argh. Here at least Löffel with chances, 3rd in the end, behind Schnell and WürtzSchmid. 10. T. Espariat 11. G. Moretti 12. S. Lanz 13. I. Totakhyl. More interesting than Harelbeke only because I had more chances really.

Dwars door Vlaanderen: 5 teams, 1 that attacks and goes through, despite being offline for a rather long time twice. Nobody in the back interested in riding, in the end 1'35" saved for Hirschmoser. 4. J. Löffel, 15. E. Trewlove, Löffel third in the sprint of the peloton.

So good first half of the month, not very successful after, but the flemish stuff really wasn't for our team either.

Rider of the month: Tim Eiffel
Strade Biance, Tirreno GC with a stage win, enough to clearly win the vote this month. The only other victory was by Mikhail Stakhanov, Le Samyn,

Short interview:

-Tim, rider of the season again, third time, but the first time you give us an interview! Congratulations and thank you for this honor
-I would have liked to give an interview in September, but Big Donkey forbid it, since he wasn't the manager for my U23 world title... as for February, while I won something, just wasn't important enough, didn't feel I should give an interview after that.
-Strade Bianche and Tirreno, satisfied?
-Not completely, I really dreamed of equalling and bettering Zafzaf's palmares. Win all cat 4 races possible and the Giro, then the Tour. But by missing Catalunya that has become impossible. Scheduling conflicts the Donkey said, I believe he was just scared of the morning people. We could have managed it, to start Catalunya in the morning. But ok, winning Strade Bianche makes up for a lot.
-You've become not only the stage racer that everybody expected, but also a danger in one day races now.
-Yes, the Donkey never thought much of my flat training, but now that he sees the result he is very happy it seems. I always knew I could be more than just a GT rider, I'm pretty good in sprint and I can follow some attacks in the flat too. I showed that in the U23 WC, since February finally the Donkey has learned how to use me too.
-Tirreno, not to be impolite, but it didn't seem a very difficult win...
-INdeed it wasn't. But that's not my fault. My condition was good, I thought I could win with stronger opposition too. Nobody else showed up, I have no problem with that. Don't feel it cheapens my win in any way. Others thought they had no chance anyway and stayed away, if anythings it makes my win more valuable.
-But also more boring for people watching...
-Well, possibly, but that can't be my concern. I'm here to win as much as I can, if 10 million people die from boredom, not my problem. Unless the Donkey is among them, then I would be without guidance, but him being a Donkey of doubtful human status he's unlikely to die of boredem. So why should I care? I would beat Covid19 too if 10 millions died. My job is to ride and win, not to entertain.
-Ok, clear words. Goals for April?
-Pais Vasco, Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Tour de Romandie
-Amstel???
-Well, not really, but the Donkey told us all to include it in our goals when asked, he claims we all have topform there too, he thinks he might be able to fool some of the dumber managers, thinking we have form there, when we don't.
-Isn't you unveiling his brilliant plan here a bit counterproductive?
-Nobody reads this shit anyway....
-Hey, my interviews are highly popular, I won the "best interviews in the Big Donkey thread" for more time than I can count!
-Yeah, sure.
-Anyway, good luck, and maybe we'll see you here again in a month.

Finances
+1'376'429, good enough. Had better months, worst March since 2015 it seems, but still good enough.

Training
+ Gabel, 4 doubles
- Espariat, risk, 3 mountains only, 1 flat
- Quaghebeur only 1 flat at 23 not good either.
+Eiffel 1 TT
+ Moretti 2 flat at 24

Retirements
Orhan Hikmet, 01.09.2019-06.03.2021 Starting skills 48-73-52-48-44 with 74,8 pavé, 79 internal skill, 42 reg. Top skills 50-85-50-48-45, 83,3 pavé. Pavé rider Planned as leader since Quttiboyev didn't completely satisfy the team, but after Gérard Lafargue joined the team he became his best helper. Helping him win Paris-Roubaix 20. Hikmet himself finished 8th finally. He got 2 wins in his career, a stage in the pavé tour and Loire Atlantique. 1221 eternal points in 174 races. He's now back in Turkey, owning a surfing school on the black sea coast.

New riders

Daan Baas from Rotterdam, 49-69-62-46-49, 72 pavé, so 79 internal pavé value. 39 reg. 1'323'231. Very similar starting skills to Lanz, but 100'000 more expensive, so we hope he'll be better too. Or ok, probably not. But he is supposed to be Lanz's successor. Train at first, be ready to play a role at PR 22. Unlike Lanz he won't go over 50 flat, he'll rather try to get better in sprint. 52 or 55 max. But for the moment of course he's just a helper.

Goals for April: Amstel of course. All riders have topform there, so ignore me everywhere else! Ok, some other races might be in our list too....

[Robyklebt]

April

Place 5 in D1, 12'682 points

First the important races:
Ronde van Vlaanderen: 15. S. Lanz 23. I. Totakhyl 25. E. Trewlove
Pais Vasco: 1. B. Faye 4. T. Eiffel 13. M. Apicella, points jersey for Eiffel
Paris-Roubaix: 2. S. Lanz 20. G. Moretti
Brabantse Pijl: 2. E. Trewlove 24. S. Lanz
Amstel Gold Race: 22. J. Coderch 28. J. Löffel
Flèche Wallonne: 1. M. Apicella 4. T. Eiffel 8. J. Coderch 20. I. Totakhyl
Liège-Bastogne-Liège: 4. J. Coderch 11. T. Eiffel 18. M. Apicella

So satisfactory results of course. With the exception of the Flèche Wallonne all groups of a decent size too.

More details:
RVV I still don't have the team, tried an early attack, didn't work, wasn't that bad, with my team and its sprint skills waiting made no sense. The remaining leader Lanz then after following an attack weakened and dropped before the Oude Kwaremont. Chased somehow was let back into the main group towards the end, where of course in the sprint he got one of the last places.

Pais Vasco then, stage race win no 2 for Eiffel was the plan. But with fantasticos there and way too close to Eiffel after the TT it seemed clear he would end up second, a few seconds behind fantasticos. On stage 4 fantasticos seemed highly unmotivated, not chasing, anything, so 80 km before the end Faye attack, with Draupnisson, fantasticos first not seeing it, then not really caring, in the end 7' for the 2. Which then made for a very interesting last day, 2 way fight Draupnisson vs Baaba first, then later fortunately fantasticos joined, do 3 way fight. Baaba saved 28" to Draupnisson 31" to Skeljvik and 35" to Eiffel. Cool tour thansk to fantasticos letting all be for one day... A bit annoying to win like that but at least the last day was great racing thanks to it. And a Big Donkey success, always welcome.

PR then: Second... which here was important, most important second place ever. Because here 3rd or 4th or 9th would have pissed me off. Lanz leader, Tyler Medaglia joining the race changed all, from best pavé rider who has to do it alone and thus is in the sandwich between the sprinters by Mosca-CC and the "lesser" pavé guys from other teams, he became one of the topfavorites with Medaglia. And the others, Gipfel, Liqui, Freudenfeuer and the rest the ones in the sandwich. Think I did a good race, did what I had to do, siebing, some mistakes with killing a rider through fighting, but having 2 teams we held it well, no dangerous attacks either anyway. Final, Carrefour Lanz can't get rid of all, so let them ride first, they don't, all together again. Last *** attack? Follow? Attack, and 1" behind. So Medaglia then won, with a depressingly big advantage at the end. 8". The group won by Wurtz 11" back. At least saved 2nd place and here after this race that was important. Last in that group too depressing, after one mistake... not following but attacking myself. But well, since I had "made" the race mostly that far, the siebs, wasn't completely sure if Medaglia goes himself, or if he relies on Lanz again. So went and lost. Anyway, was nice to have a pavé monster again, has been a while, Tabakov most likely. Lanz better though, more Hasler without sprint. Just wasn't enough. Team not as good as I had hoped either, but in the end didn't matter much. Even if I would have like to make the race harder. But ok. winning it would have been brilliant, second is still ok.

Brabant: Great attack by Falkenbier at something over 50 km from the end. Trewlove there. Good cooperation, then out, Shkurin seemed to strong at +4. Last lap, Trewlove attacks, all except Shkurin follow, last km Murray goes, only Trewlove on his wheel. So second, the sprint, but also the mountain here. Not much more I could have done in this situation, so ok.

Amstel: Löffel with topform! So he was leader, held on well long enough, but this was just a bit too difficult for him in the end. Not much missing, 9", place 28, beaten by Karatzoglou. But who else to ride for here, Coderch who was allowed to stay in front ended up 22nd, Baaba, who maybe could be there too, maybe even Espariat wouldn't do better either. Löffel stayed long, maybe put in fighting later? But really forgot the details already, it's only Amstel after all.

Fleche: Small group, Apicella clear favorite. Still an interesting race, at km 159, Mur de Huy, Cubas attacks, Eiffel who wasn't fit follows, Sindarov on him. Big own goal. so have to chase, but... doesn't look that good. Fortunately Harris who was on Sindarov and Eiffel intimidated CC a bit, so he didn't go full power on the hills. If he does more difficult, like this Coderch in the end caught the group 2 km before the end? 3? And despite Apicella riding a bit, idiotically helping Coderch too, he still won easily, 7". Was worried he had used too much. But ok, that's the typical favorites worry in retrospect. So 4th Flèche in row.

Liège: The second regret of the season after PR, and here the mistake was bigger. Was clear I had to ride an offensive race. Eiffel is there, yes, but with quite a few similar riders, both sprint and mountain, flat better. And form for Pais Vasco, so it was 90 here (Early PV to have decent form again here)... seems a bit of a lottery to rely on the sprint. So offensive. Early group, not let away, send 2 more, don't like the guys in the group, too strong, send Coderch immediately after. Then ride. Coderch with Puchouski leaders in front after the Donkey mass attack. Which I don't even like to do that much, much prefer a 2 man attack, or 4 in this case ok, since the first 2 weren't let go and one was deadish. But 5, of which 4 are fittish.. bah. We came far, but in the back leso controlled well. Then the big Donkey mistake, Eiffel follows Ondoa, a 84 by lessosies. Instead of Craig, the 75 classic. And Eiffel can't follow. Should have used my brain and follow Craig, like the other 80-70 and similar did. Then Eiffel is there and fights for the win. The sprint against the other 80 guys with 5x sprint I wanted to avoid, but well, the chance was there, I avoided it too well. Stupid. Coderch in front fought to arrive second, don't think he ever had a chance to beat Puchouski in the sprint, but was a case of invested much, so let's try and hope for a miracle. In the end the Schastin, Freudenfeuer won it, perfect race by him, right wheels, Puchouski on me, Schastin on Craig. And with Puchouski winning in front he could afford not to ride in the back with Schastin for quite a while. Coderch 4th, which is ok. Loser of the day though Eiffel, his manager just not clever enough. He absolutely needed to be there in the end. Not managing not to follow every guy he tried too. Still reasonably satisfied, tried with Coderch, didn't work.

2 one day races won, one stage race. Apicella+Faye mentioned above, Löffel won one of his typical low participation races... Still a good month, winning Pais Vasco important. No monument, but can't expect to win one every spring, had 2 last year, so back to 0 is ok too. 4 would be better, but well, that's what the next year is for (every year)

Rider of the month:
Baaba Faye. Winning Pais Vasco, where he had topform too, was important for a rather unsucessful classic like him. He won rider of the year already in January, but that was for winning 2 fantasy races nobody cares about. Here it counted, with that he had a good career and after Abel Tasman, Urs Tobler and Roger Kehrli becomes the 4th classic to win a stage race. Those three got cat 3 ones, Down Under, Dubai, Binckbank, so with Pais Vasco he's the ultimate classic stage race star in the history of the team now.

-Baaba, second time rider of the season. Congratulations!
-Thank you!
-This time it really counts, after all in January you hadn't really impressed, were just not as weak as the rest of the team. But this time you won it in April, one of the major months of the calendar! Your first real success!
-I disagree! Winning the Japan Cup in October already was a huge win for me. Beating cousin Babacar! He was like a big brother I could look up to to me. Outside of races he gave me good advice, so keeping him away together with Izatullah after attacking 28 km from the end. Beating cousin Babacar! That was something. And the 2 wins you disparage so much in January? Vina del Mar was a great race, and again, attacking at 35 km from the end with Coderch this time. That showed me that even without the extra motivation to beat cousin Babacar I could do it, I had the stamina to go through with long range attacks.
- But wait, once you arrived with Totakhyl and were given the win, once with Coderch, and were given the win. That's a good team effort, but doesn't really speak for your individual strenght.
-Well, I was there both times, so it still shows that I have it in me. Of course Totakhyl and Coderch would have deserved those wins as much as me, but I've helped others a lot too, these times it was simply my turn. But let me finish please Sir!
-Okay, please go on.
-Popaya-Santa Rosa, we attacked 90 km from the end, Coderch and me. Yes, it was a 3 team race, but still, again, the long range attack. So while admittedly those 2 January races weren't races with lots of prestige the way we won, I won, showed me that I can do the long range attack. Showed me that I can have the stamina to see those kind of attacks through. So during Pais Vasco we did the same, we went, and I managed to see it through. Without those 3 previous wins, I don't think I would have had the experience to see something like that through. It was the experience and the certainty that I wouldn't crack during the stage that made that attempt successful.
-But again not alone in that last win...
-Yes, but again I was part of it. Like in Pais Vasco too
-But..
-Wait, I know what you're going to say, lucky that Draupnisson didn't attack me towards the end, yes of course, you need luck. I had the whole team riding for me on the last stage. Right, I never claimed to be a great rider, to be as good as cousin Babacar, I will always need the support of the team for my wins. Just as I think I play a part in the wins of my teammates too.
-That wasn't what I was going to say, but ok, let's move on. Were you then disappointed that at LBL in the long range attack there you were only number 3?
-No, I didn't feel that well, it was clear that both Espariat and Coderch were feeling better. That's exactly what I meant, sometimes I profit from their help, sometimes I give them my help.
-But with your track record of bringing those attacks to a successful end, wasn't it another mistake by the Big Donkey not to let Espariat and Coderch ride for you?
-No, as I said, my legs weren't there. Again, experience, maybe without the experience of my 4 successes I would have thought that I have it, that I could see it through, and asked Tukhtasinov, he called the shots that day, to let me ride for myself. But I felt that my legs that day weren't up for another almost 80 km. You learn that once you've done it, you know how your legs have to feel. They weren't there that day.
-But again, without team help you seem lost. See Montréal, a 80+ km attack initiated by Phoenix, goes through, you end up 4th of 4.
-Well, I'm not all that good in sprints... But there I was without help, I rode with the 3 others alone, after some help by Bachchan for Phoenix and I think krankl from the early escape was a bit helpful too at first. Just couldn't win it in the end. That's experience too, and lack of confidence. It was really after the Japan Cup that my confidence went up. Beating cousin Babacar! That boosts you.
-Ok, to the future. With the win at Pais Vasco you made it clear that you would ride the Giro. Relieved?
-Yes, a bit. With Tom coming up, he is very strong too, it wasn't clear I would be chosen over him. But I will repay the Donkey's confidence in me during the Giro.
-So if there's a long range attack, you're ready.
-Of course! And I don't even need to win the stage, I'm happy to ride for somebody else too.
-What do you expect from the Giro?
-We'll ride for Eiffel, clearly. Apicella another option, he could become one, but at the start it's all for Eiffel. We hope to win a stage at some point too of course, but the main goal is the maglia rosa with Eiffel.
-Okay, maybe see you again in a month?
-I hope not, that would mean Eiffel doesn't win the Giro. But he will!
-Ok thanks, and good luck for the Giro!
-Wait, I really want to thank Uncle Cheik and cousin Babacar again. Without uncle Cheik I wouldn't have gotten a contract here, in this great team. It was his contacts that made the difference. And it was uncle Cheik too who told me early, that to be successful I need to train mountain, not just flat like he did. That I needed to be better in mountain than he was. So I trained hills and hills. And the cousin Babacar! What an inspiration, what a gentleman. We didn't talk much while he was at his former team, but once he moved to Seven Down he took me under his wings, shared his view of races with me, gave me hints, supported me, not in the race, he rode for another team, Big Donkey thought he could bribe him, just because we're from Senegal doesn't mean we have no honor, cousin Babacar then really was offended, but when I assured him it wasn't my idea and I didn't even know that the Donkey had tried that, he believed me
-Stop stop, it wasn't the Donkey. That was Gaouaoui, our general manager, the Donkey just called me, he said he has too much integrity to try such things, it was Lakhdar!
-Oh, ok. Anyway, without uncle Cheik and cousin Babacar, who is my agent now and personal trainer now, I never would have had the strenght, both physical and mental to win Pais Vasco! They are my heroes! Thank you!
- Ok, on this note let's finish this interview, before you start talking about your whole tribe.
-Yes, cousin Demba and Jambaar are pro too now. All thanks to uncle Cheik and cousin Babacar!
-Ok, thanks!

Training:
Gabel outstanding, 85 sprint now, +6 in 2 month, didn't expect that much. Coderch stuck at 72 mountain, not too happy, but it's been years that we've been incredibly lucky with classics, so we have to accept a generation without a 74. Pus 72 isn't a failure either. Forgot the rest...

Finances:
+1'027'022. Lower than usual, due to the fact we were riding Romandie when the month ended too., Higher without that, but the Romandie money that came in in May will more than make up for it.

Retirement:
Habib Belhassen, Tunisia: 01.10.19-07.04.21 255 races, 4 wins 6865 eternal points. No big wins unfortunately for him. Starting skills: 54-72-73-48-57. Best skills 74-80-73-48-57 (downtraining to 56-55). Excellent training, but having Armas ahead of him for much of his career limited his chances, even though he had the clearly better sprint skill. 7th RVV 20, 5th Lombardia 20 after being called back to help Eiffel his best classic results. Second in Dwars door Vlaanderen a podium, but a lesser race. Finally a good but not outstanding career. Good helper for Antinori and Larios of course. Due to Covid 19 Habib hasn't found a new job yet, he wanted to work in Tunis in a trading company of his friend, but they went bankrupt. So now he's looking at other options. Once tourism starts up again a sports company for tourists, scuba diving and cycling his newest idea. Inspired by Hikmet's surfing school in Turkey it seems.

New rider:
Oscar Lambert from Verviers. After Philippe Gilbert, here's Oscar Lambert! Bought for 1'908'091, 95%. 55-72-72-46-45, 73,5 pavé, so 77 internal skill and 47 reg his starting skills. Classic with pavé, at this point we're not sure how much we're going to push pavé. But most likely we will take risks and rather have him at 68 mountain but 80 flat. than 70 mountain and 78 flat. Of course the more the better in every skill. Leader for RVV 22 then, but with the lack of sprint, once again probably... well, just classic classic maybe better? The usual spring classic who will be 33 for the Giro a year later. He will mostly train in May of course now, most likely no Tour de France either, will start racing more regularly from August on. Until then we leave him mostly in the hands of our capable trainers, Matsubara for pavé, Cheik Faye for flat and Zafzaf for mountain.

May preview:
GIRO!
Team:
1 T. Eiffel
2 M. Apicella
3 J. Coderch
4. B. Faye
5 F. Messerli
6 G. Moretti
7 M. Stakhanov
8 V. Teixeira
9 E. Trewlove

The goal the GC, and 1 stage. We'll see if we reach those goals, or at least one. Hoping for a 10+ group again, not that confident.

Other goal the end of Romandie, ended already, but you'll have to wait till the end of Romandie to know the result.

Retraction and apology A while back, a long one actually, before the Donkey entered his "Matsu" phase, he bragged that he had been the second manager to have had riders from all c4f nations. Turns out he never had a vietnamese... Somehow struck me the other day. Damn. And I realized it now, now that I'm in the middle of my "no exotic riders" project, only riders from actual cycling nations. Last exotic survivor is Baaba Faye 33, so he will stay till November. And then at least a full year without those weaklings from non-cycling nations. Argh. Let's hope it was the only oversight...

[Robyklebt]

May

Giro won! Place 1 in D1 with exactly 16'000 points. 2 one day races won, the GC and the team classification of the Giro. So a good month, but well, somehow not good as well. Giro win.... by now I forgot the detail so I'm happy to have won it, right after the race was rather pissed off at winning, I still don't really know what fantasticos did not to win actually... he should simply just have won that. 7" for Eiffel in the end, but Skeljvik really had numerous chances to get these 7 seconds, easily. But ok..., then Tim Eiffel wins it, ok for me too. NO stage win was a bit frustrating, but that wasn't completely unexpected. We always had lots of riders with low sprint, but somehow this generation is extreme. 3 sprinters with 80+ now, followed by Quaghebeur 58, Eiffel and STakhanov 55, then nobody. Eiffel the only guy with regular chances to hunt for stages, but in sprints often there will be more than 55 around of course.
The 2 one day races won by Löffel, the day before and after the Giro. He wants to ride the Tour. But we're unlikely to bring him, happy if he wins the race before and after again

Rider of the month: Eiffel. Since he's already in Frauenfeld, eating apples and preparing for the prologue of the TdS, he can't give an interview.

Training: Hm, forgot, was somewhat average I guess. Ah, Gabel excellent. but might have been 100%. Espariat 2 of 4 which is still ok. But training this month will be much more important, Lambert, Baas, Gabel and also Espariat, crucial month for all fo them.

Finances: + 1'701'975. So good, more than the preceding months.


Retirements:
Felix Krankl: 01.11.2019-10.05.2021. 250 races, 1628 eternal points. Despite somehow being better (but with basically identical skills, but got them earlier maybe) than Nagel, Krankl never managed to win a race. But he was always an outstanding helper, instrumental in almost having Larios winning the Vuelta. Almost. But no fault of Krankl. His starting skills: 48-72-76-49-51 with 51 reg. Best skills: 63-83-77-49-51. Felix now works in a wellness center, as a receptionist.

Armand Brotcorne: 01.11.2019-10.05.2021: 331 races, 1253 eternal points, 1 race win, the Rhodes Grand Prix in 2020. The popular but often criticized Belgian star like Krankl was an excellent helper, but in different terrain. His speciality was the flat. Starting skills 50-74-67-61-47 with 37reg. Top skills 55-87-67-61-47. With 331 races ridden he's the rider with the 14th most races ridden for the team, same number as Macchiavelli. Often criticized for missing the moment for his attacks, he missed taking the lead in the cheapest sale of the year by 2000 credits too. Still a star. Armand now works as a road repair man, his biggest goal is repairing the bad road on the Oude Kwaremont. Asphalt he says, that's the thing, not those cobblestones.

New rider:
Ivan "el guapo" Ardila from Medellin. Got famous in Colombia as a teenage model, instagram star, who took up cycling as a challenge. He showed an aptitude from the first little excursion and decided to give it a try only a bit over a year ago. And dominated the U23 scene in Colombia in that year, well the few races that could be ridden due to Covid-19. With his starting skills of 73-51-77-51-48 and 49 reg he's obviously a very talented climber. 2'798'972 is what we paid for him. His weakness for the moment seems to be the flat, we hope he can work on that a bit, but not neglect his strength, the mountain. With an internal pavé skill of 61 he should do ok on possible gravel or pavé sections in the GTs next year too, IF he improves his flat. He's unlikely to debut in June, most likely his first race will be San Sebastian after the TdF. Or maybe even later. We will expect first results after the Vuelta, which he could possibly ride in support of Eiffel, but we're not even sure to participate at all yet. For the Campeonato de los Andes he should be ready to take over as leader from Eiffel and Apicella. But for the moment we are happy to let him train with Zafzaf.

Goals for June;

Tour de Suisse, then Tour de France, the first 5 stages. For both the GC will be the first goal, with maybe managing to win a stage another goal of course. Would be nice to have a rider pass the line first in an important race... Team for the TdF is still open, there's a chance we'll bring 2 sprinters, idiotic from a GC point of view, but maybe that increases or stage win chances... we'll see.

[Robyklebt]

June

Place 1 in D1 with 13'871 points. 6 wins, 2 TdF stages with Apicella, 2 TdS stages with Eiffel, plus fantasy races with Löffel and Messerli. GC Tour de Suisse for Eiffel, points jersey as well and the team classification.
The TdS was the main goal for the month, form for Eiffel there, on the first TT to still have decent form when the TdF starts. And Apicella as Eiffel protector topform for the TdF. Worked well, due to the non-existing opposition at the TdF Apicella then even could win the TdF opening stages, unexepectedly beating Eiffel in a sprint even. So good month, boring month as well, low participation in the TdS.

Rider of the month: In a surprise vote the team chose Michele Apicella! Not Tim Eiffel. Reasoning seems to be that winning the TdS against only 3 other teams, just wasn't as impressive as winning the 2 opening stages of the TdF. And beating Eiffel in a contested sprint there makes the opposition stronger too. So surpisingly Apicella wins it. He seems to specialize in cat 5 wins, Fleche Wallonne, 2 Tour stages his palmares, No cat 4 shit like Eiffel has, even categorie 3! Ha. Unfortunately Michele isn't available for an interview, yesterday he would have been, rest day, today not. So no interview again.

Training:
Gabel with training problems, stuck at 67 flat now, hoped to be at 69 at this point. Lambert somehow did ok, +3+2. Quaghebeur +2 excellent, now 86 and a good rider. Rest, forgot.

Finances:
+1'532'134
Good, considering it includes 5 days of the TdF. Less good if we consider that we actually gaines 120k or so in those 5 days. But still good enough. We still have almost 3 millions in the bank after all.

Retirement:
Nobody retired, we're a young team.

New rider:

Tran Duc Thiep. Not sure about the correct order, I personally haven't talked with him yet, couldn't ask. The Big Donkey neither of course, he's with the team in France, Tran Duc Thiep isn't. Anyway, Tran is the family name. He's from Dong Ha, central Vietnam. A flat rider, starting skills 46-72-53-49-54 with 71,1 pavé, so 68 internal pavé skill and 47 reg. His goal is to become a pure flat rider, so 49 or 50 mountain, as much flat as possible, and 55 sprint, which should help him score points here and there. He has some pavé skills, so hopefully he can be a good helper to the leader (Baas? Gabel?) in pavé races. But for that of course he needs as much flat as possible. 85+ is expected, even starting at 72, he won't have to cover anything else.

Goals for July:
Win the TdF with Eiffel, which doesn't seem an unreachable goal... Win a stage with Eiffel (already done). Then San Sebastian?