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r QUICK attending. First profi-appearance from our youngleader Emmanuel AlooEfoulou. Other unsure till now. But probably a quite expensive Team.

Team Alkworld will also be there with most of the team fixed except the position of the GC captain
1) ?
2) Pedro Almodovar
3) Carlos Cespedes
4) Luis Costales
5) Antonio Narino
6) Bernardo OHiggins
7) Jaime Roldos
8) Oscar Romero
9) Francisco Santander

Number 1 might be either Pablo Picasso, the winner of the Vuelta España and the Giro dell'Emilia, or Don Quijote, who recently lost against a lot of training windmills. Theoretically also both together would be possible (Carlos Cespedes would be kicked out then).

Edit: Alkworld's manager also assumes that Mr. Quick's team will take part in the 10am edition of this race.

9h? It starts 10h, or?

Here i am in the tour:


Lineup:

Gerald Fournier
Kyle Brathwaite
Thomas Brathwaite
Obadele Brathwaite
Ayrton SennaDaSilva
Abel Muzorewa
Mark Huges
Aaron Brathwaite
John Brathwaite



Targets? top 3 in GC

1) Emmanuel AlooEfoulou
2) Jan Dekkers
3) Roberto diMatteo
4) Tom Ghyselinck
5) Sylvain Henriet
6) Dragos Litu
7) Titi Wansi
8) Wym Wymeersch
9) Mati Kali

Salary 495k
Goals: 2 Stages+ Top 5 GC

Nice but little group. My big favo for yellow is the Motorizatti-man. Followed by Illie. Small chances for Alk/Brathwaite because of the missing TT/TTT.

Motorizatti

This team isn't in race

At least motorizzati.

I know that i need to work more than Ille and motorizzati, but i hope i will be better than Alk

After a quite boring first stage it's time for a brief favorite check. It looks like this might get quite interesting, as none of the favorites has a clear advantage.

General classement:
***** Gerard Fournier (Brath Rhum Factory), Malik Meoki (Ille Racing)
**** Monte Christo (Motorizzati)
*** Pablo Picasso (Alkworld)
**
* Dragos Litu / Emmanuel AlooEfoulou (r QUICK), Jeroen Sjoemelen (Gaurain Rx), Alexander Sushemoin (Bengals Udine)

Very hard to say who's the big favorite here, but the three first mentioned riders should be able win here, although Alkworld and Quick are always candidates for some surprises.
Some details of the strongest riders:
Gerard Fournier: Strongest climbing /flat skill, good helpers, bad downhill, weak TTT, highest regeneration
Malik Meoki: Strong climbing /flat skill, good helpers, pretty bad downhill, strong TTT, high regeneration
Monte Christo: Average climbing /flat skill, average helpers, good downhill, strongest TTT
Pablo Picasso: Strong climbing /average flat skill, average helpers, good downhill, average TTT, low regeneration, manager always lucky

Points classement:
*** Pedro Almodovar (Alkworld), Mati Kali (r QUICK)
**
* Ghislain Lambert (Gaurain Rx), Obadele Brathwaite (Brath Rhum Factory)

Lots of sprint stages with clear favorites. One more favorite, if Gaurain will attend the races.

Mountain classement:
*** the one who wants it
** another rider
* a surprise rider

Youth classement:
*** Emmanuel AlooEfoulou (r QUICK)
** Steve McQueen (Ille Racing)
* Kyle Brathwaite (Brath Rhum Factory)

Should be an easy one for Quick, especially if Ille and Brath concentrate on the yellow jersey and stage wins for their captains.

Oooooooooh, LITUUUUUUUUUUU! Didn't see that one coming.

Alma really starts to annoy me. Seems he can't do anything without announcing it before in the chat.

OK, i will not chat if i read you online... Simply

Simplier: Don't tell us what you want to do before you have done it.

Quick wrote:Simplier: Don't tell us what you want to do before you have done it.

Another option is doing the opposite of what you are announcing

Anyway, tomorrow should most likely be the first day without a Quick or Alkworld win and we'll see who really is a candidate for winning this tour or if anybody wasted too much energy today. Oscar Romero will happily pass on his yellow jersey to the next owner.

After the first "verdict", IMO

General classement:
*****Malik Meoki (Ille Racing)
**** Monte Christo (Motorizzati)
***
** Gerard Fournier (Brath Rhum Factory), Pablo Picasso (Alkworld)
* Dragos Litu / Emmanuel AlooEfoulou (r QUICK), Alexander Sushemoin (Bengals Udine)

Youth classement:
*** Emmanuel AlooEfoulou (r QUICK)
** Steve McQueen (Ille Racing)
*

What a strong guy this Monte Christo !

Situation now is all clear:

Meoki VS Monte for P1 & p2 (second one a bit less favo)

Picasso, Fournier, Susheimon, AlooEfolou for podium (4th one a bit favo due to Mountain TT, but still good Fournier and Picasso)

AlooEfolou has still a strong position for white

Straaaaaaaaaaange tactic yesterday Alma! Not sure it was worth buying Fournier for that
2 helpers instead of just one? The first helper is much more important than the second one, I don't know the exact numbers, but helper nr 1 is more effective than helper nr 2, nr 2 doesn't double the effect. So waiting and losing time with Fournier for a bit more energy... not a good tactic! If it's helpers in the back, 0 in front, and you have the team to actually come back or be very very very close... ok, then try, but like yesterday? Too much risk!

Brath Rhum Factory: hi r QUICK... about your "fairplay vote" yesterday. I just hope that having 2 helpers was better than having one, but i don't consider the real energy of Ayrton... it costs on me more than 1'. But, at the end, i recover 15'' on ille. Simply not risky approach, but it doesn't pay, as i noticed

But yeah, you realize that too now, so ok. BUT... the way I saw it actually you didn't win time on Meoki in the last climb. You started 50" behind him and finished 48" back. OK, gained 2", but that's mostly because Ille made the mistake of attacking instead of just riding. Ah yes, let's criticize Ille too:
First he dropped back his guy in front, and rode in the back. BIG mistake. With that one in front it was Moto that had to ride... Ille had a "relais station" there. He could use him for an attack like Alk did his, or he could use him defensively, if an attack came like it did, ride the second last hill with his 80 helper and then down with the guy from the front. First mistake. Second mistake, after the attack, he didn't react strongly enough first... the first km of the hill were kind of slow, not even Creko in tempo I think. Then he increased the speed, good. Thrid mistake, the attack at the last climb, which cost him another 10-15" I think. Just ride! He only had Gaurain and Quick with 85+83 with him, maybe Bengals too, don't remember. 85... just ride, big chance they will be dropped from fighting anyway, and if not, what does he care? They are out of the GC, the important thing was to gain time back on the 2 in front! But ok, experience, not everybody has 2000 races (why not... that's the question, how did those people survive without RSF that long?)
Anyway, need to get in the mood for this race, will have to sit Alk tomorrow... brr... hope that works. I plan on asking Buhmann to put in Ramirez for Picasso, then the win is assured, but sometimes Buhmann doesn't react fast... so might have to try with this useless Picasso.

Thanks Roby

I noticed it now... And i noticed another thing: NEVER forget to hang on an alk rider.... NEVER (this is the 2nd time i lost some time in GC because i forgot it)

The first helper is much more important than the second one, I don't know the exact numbers, but helper nr 1 is more effective than helper nr 2,

i do the mistake because i don't know this.

you didn't win time on Meoki in the last climb. You started 50" behind him and finished 48" back.

after first km (was a 5% --->Meoki works for ille and Kyle for me) i remember i was at 1'05''. Was it wrong or simply confused on calculation?

Anyway, need to get in the mood for this race, will have to sit Alk tomorrow... brr... hope that works. I plan on asking Buhmann to put in Ramirez for Picasso, then the win is assured, but sometimes Buhmann doesn't react fast... so might have to try with this useless Picasso.

Funny... you've an helper outside your team. I want the stage. And i'm completely fit. With 6 out of 8 members of my team.


Just a question: i'm near 700k under in money. Is there a limit for bankrupt/Not participating in races?

No. It used to be that if you were -100k or more, you couldn't inscribe for the next race, now a nice bug allows you to ride even with -50 millions.

The time: I might have been wrong, I thought it was 40" actually 50" maybe... bah... don't know... but then went up to 1' remember that too, but thought at the bottom it was 40" (or 50", could have been 50") But as I said, might have been wrong. Not that important anyway.

I noticed it now... And i noticed another thing: NEVER forget to hang on an alk rider.... NEVER (this is the 2nd time i lost some time in GC because i forgot it)

Next mistake.
ONLY hang on Alk riders if he's in the same race! If you hang on him when he's not in the race, that's wrong too! Ha!

OK, so tomorrow i hang on ramirez;)