//Bearclaw Cycling// Eat Pasta - Ride Fasta

[Bear]

April 2023

Stats
Div 1
Pos 17
Pts ??? missed to check yesterday (last months I put in the wrong stats, so what
Rcs 20
Win 2 (1x Stage, 1x Mtn Jersey)

Highlights
Ronde Van Vlaanderen - Mikael 5th - Maybe the best I could do with just looking on the result. In the race there was more possible but with some managing mistakes 5th was it.
Scheldeprijs - Kalle 2nd
Paris - Roubaix - Mads 2nd - most important race of the season. But not the result I was going for.
De Brabantse Pijl - Lukas 3rd
La Flèche Wallonne - Linus 10th - without a climber it feeled like a day off
Liège - Bastogne - Liège - Hermanni 6th and Roni 9th - dont remember how I could do that
Tour de Romandie - Mikael with stage win on last day. Maybe one of the best stage wins in the teams history. About 50km solo, almost all in red, last km started with 4 energy on -1. Green tempo was worth 4 energy on 0%. Last 4km were blue-blue-green-green just to keep the fire on. Mikael ended up winning with a one second gap.
Tour de Romandie - Linus winning Mtn Jersey. GC was not possible to earn anything. So I went for the easy one.

In general it was a bad month actually. Not much winning and some dissapointments at the monuments. At least the month ended with a very nice win.

Finances
+ 1,705,343 - in 20 races it's very good again.

Training
Roni can be highlighted again, although mtn was just 100%. But he earned another flat training. With 66-83 he starts his fourth season. Forthermore, Oskar with 4 times double on flat/sprint. Besides that, almost just old guys downtraining...

Transfers
Oldies leave the team. Cas Valk (flat rider), Edward Muggridge (cheap helper) and Kay deWolf (Pavé helper) left the team. New in the team:
Heikki Mikkola from Finland - Pavé leader: 74flat and 76,4pavé.
Jimmy Wicksell from Sweden - hill-pavé-leader: 53-69 with 71,7pavé
Vesa Ylinen from Finland - flat rider: 49-72-79-48-49-66,9-41

Prices were ok and I am happy with my first leaders for 2024 and one very good support rider.

Goals for May 2023
Eschborn - Frankfurt (worked out)
No real other goals as I will be on holidays for some time. No Giro... so nothing really important. Maybe some category 2 races.

[Bear]

May 2023

Stats
Div 1
Pos 27
Pts ??? not much
Rcs 5
Win 3 (3x Stage)

Highlights
Kalle Rovanperä winning Eschborn-Frankfurt - good decision to ride for a sprint
Jesper Börjesson - Tro-Bro Léon - I always like this race. So very nice that Jesper got the win. Too bad it was a small group.
Mikael Persson - Belgian Waffle Ride Vancouver. Cat 1 - normally not worth it to mention. But race was really cool and so was Mikaels attack because it was downhill. Crashing the afternoon also was a pint full of fun.

Finances
+ 519,168 - not bad in 5 races

Training
21/22 year old did well. Heikki Mikkola 4/4 for mtn/flat - 53-78 with 79,2pavé starting into second season. Roni kind of stopped training after starting so well. But 68-83 is still very good for my taste.

Transfers
Oldies leave the team. Cas Valk (flat rider), Pyry Juupalouma + Mads Korneliussen.
Pyry was always a cheap and strong flat rider. I liked him a lot. 200 races he did and 86flat was the best he had.
Mads was the pavé leader for a long time. 83,6 he had in his prime. Highlight in his career was winning Omloop although it was just a small group. AT PR and Harelbeke he only got second. So he was not the winning rider we hoped for. 3,392 points in 73 races is not too bad though.

New in the team:
Oliver Zwar from Sweden. Sprinter. 50-56-77-46-75-53,9-44. Goal is to reach about 85 sprint.

Goals for June 2023
Just riding a little bit again because of private plans. Winning here and there a one day race would be nice. Stage races are very unlikely to happen this month.

[Bear]

June 2023

Stats
Div 2
Pos 24
Pts ???
Rcs 7
Win 1 (Giro dell Appennino)

Highlights
-

Finances
+ 430,982

Training
ok

Transfers
2023-06-28 Sale Mikael Persson $756,080 (2,986 points in 104 races - most important win: Omloop)
2023-06-28 Sale Jesper Börjesson $614,414 (1,248 points in 66 races - he won at least Tro-Bro Léon)
Old Pavé riders are gone.

New in the team:
Ukko Laaksonen - 49-66-77-47-43 49reg. Cheap helper/flat rider. 50-80-77 and I am fine.

Goals for July 2023
no

[Bear]

@Taka: I got a new one!! I even sold a rider with under 34 years for it. Fair enough, Hermanni wasnt used much as he is not useful for most of the one-day-races. Would be nice if Talon get's close to Tyler in terms of training.

As summer is busy because of real life, not much happening here in this thread. Probably more again in winter time.

[Bear]

Very quite here. Always too tired to write any stats or transfers. Buying a climber again is at least worth a post. Took me long to buy one again. Just too bad it crashes the average skills.

[cataracs]

I missed the September's mention lol, but Tom looks a lot more important!
I'm buying my leader this month too. Still waiting for 67mo 72tt on the market, but might get a climber instead if one with my perfect stats shows up, then hopefully we can switch the pavés battles to mountain as well ;P

[Bear]

Probably mountain terrain will be only a hobby. When Roni retires there is not much to show in my team. Or maybe I can afford one or two classics soon.

[Bear]

New rider

Jackson Goldstone: young classic talent from BC, 55-73-77-51-51

With some good training my team could become stronger in hilly terrain again.

[Bear]

New rider

Too late for first training. But good enough to become a cheap flat rider. I was in need to have a new cheap rider in the lineup.

Matthew Beer from Canada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcAyucfZ8Fw

[Bear]

Paris - Nice This was maybe the biggest stage race win for Team Bearclaw. Not difficult because there are not many wins. But this was truly a nice one. Compared to other teams the lineup was really bad. 84 climber, one strong classic, one young classic/64-80. All other riders below 50 mountain. Stage one already a big success with Roni's victory. Late attack with noone following. Stage two just defending yellow. Stage three, the TTT, was an easy cruise. All riders at 1000 for stage four and the time loss not too bad. Stage four I sent two riders in the group. Group was not really chased and I could keep Ukko kind of fit all the way. With 39km to go, double attack Tom and Roni. No climber followed. Roni did a very strong job and Ukko got over the second last climb. Ukko, who lost a lot of energy by that effort, still managed to keep a decent gap during the downhill. The 3min gap came down to about one minute. Last climb was for Tom and he managed to win the stage and did not lose a lot time at last climb. Next stages looked dangerous. The fairly flat stages were easy to control and also the last two stages were not too bad. All other teams looked tired or with different goals. Yellow was never really attacked by classics. So it was possible to remain on the top step of the podium even though the team was very weak. Form settings were on point. Now Tom asks if the team can start at the Giro this year...

[Bear]

Talon wins the Ronde after a massive effort by Heikki. What a race. Thanks to all the fans. Nice to read this after the race:

Tukhtahuaev(00:40): Not sure if that Viro attack actually made the difference
Gipfelstuermer(00:39): So deserved for Bearclaw Cycling
Gipfelstuermer(00:37): Looking good if he does not puncture
Elaska(00:35): Thanks to Ricardo and Sam slowing down hihi
Elaska(00:35): 1s very good
r QUICK(00:35): Go talon
Gipfelstuermer(00:34): Allez Allez Bear
Tukhtahuaev(00:33): No time lost here, looking good
Elaska(00:32): Mair is dangerous for the chase now
Tukhtahuaev(00:28): Definitely the most fun edition this year
Elaska(00:24): Vamos Talon
Tukhtahuaev(00:22): Every spectator supports him
Elaska(00:13): I guess Noone needs his services actually
r QUICK(00:11): Medical just watching
r QUICK(00:11): And here nobody really working now against him
r QUICK(00:10): Yup
Elaska(00:09): Would be a deserved win for him after all the races were he was riding alone and beaten by other teams in the final
Elaska(00:09): Hope he gonna make it
r QUICK(00:06): Perfectly executed
Elaska(00:05): Strong Baer here

[Elaska]

Massive effort by Talon too!!!!

You got the most deserved win at this Ronde.

Congratulations, and best wishes for l'enfer du nord

[Bear]

New rider

Forrest Riesco from Canada (DH MTB rider in real life) - 56-72-78-47-46, 50reg, 74,7pavé

Finn Iles, Tyler Medaglia, Heikki Mikkola, ... pavé riders with more or less 55-85 skills and not a good sprint skill. These riders are part of Team Bearclaw history. So Forrest is the new rider for May 2024 who should become the next rider in this line. Goals are in spring 25, so lots of time to train and to build a team for him. Everything better than 60-85 is nice to have. But dreaming of 60-88 with 85,9pavé.