Australia : ABS season 37

[Vos]

STAGE 4 : Fête du Chrono

23ºC

Les Herbiers, France,
Tomorrow a time trial.
First of all I had to make a difficult decision ; John Hunter, 4 times winner of the NT time trial races and once TT world champion is not selected.
Previous season he was still good enough to score points ( 11th ) but now he is already 36yo and imo he cannot score points anymore.
To the many fans of John Hunter ; no worries, as a well deserved tribute to his achievements for Australia, he will be coming along to France as an assistent manager to motivate and give advice to the other Australian TT talents.

At the moment the best Australian time trialist is the 28yo Walter Hoffman.
I think he is still too young to score points, but this top TT talent will get close. In the future he will score many points for Australia in the TT for sure.
And the 4 other, younger Australian top TT talents were also selected without any doubt.
About the remaining spots left, later this evening or tomorrow morning they will be selected. Perhaps some other very good TT talents and/or xp cyclists will be selected, I m too tired to decide right now.
Anyway, the future of Australian TT cycling is looking very good, see the first five selected cyclists. 

Australia NT selection :

Walter Hoffman ( 28 ) Team_Boogie_Woogie  --> 3rd u21 NT TT and 2nd u23 NT TT
William Owen ( 25 ) Argonautjes --> 1st u21 NT TT and 3rd u23 NT TT
Oscar Hunter ( 24 ) FacHaBortoLo --> 2nd u21 NT TT and 1st u23 NT TT
David Edgar ( 21 ) Drollevangers --> 3rd u21 NT TT and 2nd u21 NT TT (prologue).
Martin Warrenburg ( 19 ) Argonautjes --> TT draft race winner
- - - - - - - - - -
Paul Licuria ( 25 ) Argonautjes  --> very good TT-specialist when the track is flat with one hill in it.
Benjamin Wade ( 26 ) Argonautjes  --> hills-TT-specialist, 6th u21 NT hills-TT ( stage 3 PN ).
Clive Lee ( 23 ) ChronoTony  --> 4th u21 NT TT, 9th u23 NT TT
- - - - - - - - - -
Steve Morton ( 30 ) Palmeiras_Marcos  --> xp-cyclist, next week most likely the team captain, 6th u21 NT cobblehills, 7th u23 NT cobblehills

Three big talents! I was very lucky with pulling and the draft 

William Owen ( 25 )
David Edgar ( 21 )
Martin Warrenburg (19)

👍

edit ; In consultation with assistent NT manager John Hunter, we decided to select more TT-specialists ( 8 out of 9 in this selection ). 

And because Telamon (Argonautjes) is for a very huge part responsible for ensuring the bright future of Australia in the NT time trial, 2 more TT-specialists of his team are selected as a reward to their manager. And besides that, both are promising, very good hills-TT-specialists and if there will be a NT hills-TT in the future, they will score points for Australia.

Just one real xp-cyclist in this selection ; the team captain of next week. Although it is not entirely sure if he will be the team captain because his Australian team mate is higher ranked in the Dream Team. Now one of them gets extra xp, and they can use it both.

Further more there is still a lot of choice in promising young Australian TT-talents for the last spot. 
We decided to give a 23yo that remaining spot.

Added selection :
- - - - - - - - - -
Paul Licuria ( 25 ) Argonautjes  --> very good TT-specialist when the track is flat with one hill in it.
Benjamin Wade ( 26 ) Argonautjes  --> hills-TT-specialist, 6th u21 NT hills-TT ( stage 3 PN ).
Clive Lee ( 23 ) ChronoTony  --> 4th u21 NT TT, 9th u23 NT TT
- - - - - - - - - -
Steve Morton ( 30 ) Palmeiras_Marcos  --> xp-cyclist, next week most likely the team captain, 6th u21 NT cobblehills, 7th u23 NT cobblehills

[Vos]

Again the time trial had many surprises in results.
Mutombo (ZWI) had a breakdown but won anyway
The better Higueras (SPA) just 5th, and many other remarkable results, as always in the TT.
Most remarkable was that Arguillet (FRA) was not riding the time trial, he won previous season and that was the 3rd time in a row that a TT-specialist of my team won the NT time trial. Now 4 times in a row with the victory of Mutombo. 
Of course, I rather would have that heavely weighing and decisive luck for my cyclists in the other CFF TT races, for example the world championship. Hopefully that will happen somewhere in the future after many seasons of (extreme) bad luck there.

About Australia ; as expected zero points.
And hopefully the 28yo Hofmann did not had many luck in this TT, because about 8 cyclists of his age were faster, what is surprising to me. I knew one was way better, his American team mate Brian Fevola (10th !), but not so many others.
Well, good to see how the young Australian TT talents did in this race, and for what it is worth because of the surprising results, good to compare them with the foreign TT talents.

Zero points, so Australia is down 1 place in the ranking by countries and now on the 8th place.
We stay in France, because next week there is a NT cobblehills race finishing in Toulon.

[Vos]

.......... BREAKING NEWS .......... BREAKING NEWS .......... BREAKING NEWS ..........
The just 34yo Australian cobblestone specialist FRASER FUREY retired.

In Australia we are not happy with this sudden and too early retirement, because he is the best flat cobblestones specialist and would have been the team captain in the flat cobblestone NT race 7, that starts in 2 weeks.
Also he would have scored a lot of points for Australia in that race, because one season ago he was 4th in a cobblestone NT race.

In this case his team manager, RealityCyclists, has probably a very good reason for this early retirement because his team is battling for the championship in 1A, and perhaps he needed space in his team fast or so.

Next time when there is such a too early retirement ; the Australian government and the Australian cycling federation have decided to banish the cyclists of the nation where that team manager is coming from.
We have a number of islands for such matters, for example like Nauru and Manus.    Be aware......^^

-------------------------------------
Ok, so far the breaking news.
Time for the preview and selection of NT race 5. The successor of the retired Fraser Furey, the just 27yo Ken Emerton, will get a semi-xp selection because he will be the team captain over 2 weeks.


STAGE 5 : FRENCH COBBLEHILLS


4ºC

Rognes, South of France,
Today a cold and windy cobblehills race from Rognes to the Côte d'Azur. Hopefully no crashes like in the picture.
Australia has two good cyclists for this race, I assume.
Both are just 30yo, both are high in the Dream Team and both are riding for Palmeiras_Marcos.

Australia NT selection :

Niles Judd (30) Palmeiras_Marcos
Steve Morton (30) Palmeiras_Marcos
Bob Winger (34) Vilanovateam
Bruce Hooper (28) Rekutxu
Eric Lungby (26) Kilometervreters
Norman Sampson (34) beerkes
Earl Woods (29) BignigProCycling
Ken Emerton (27) Bolaverde
Baron Morrison (25) TheHushovds2

[Vos]

A perfect job of main helper Niles Judd ;
In a very good race he launched his teammate/team captain Steve Morton towards a podiumplace ; 3rd   
This is the best performance of an Australian cyclist this season, and helper Niles Judd scored also points (12th).
Also 3rd in the day ranking (points per race by country), and Australia up one place in the ranking by countries and now again on the 7th place.

Next week a very difficult cobble-hills-sprint race, de Ronde van Haarlem.
One advantage, because the Aussies are used to it ; the weather forecast of next week in the Netherlands = 36ºC heat wave 

[Vos]

[Vos]

STAGE 6 : HANGOVER IN HAARLEM

36ºC

Haarlem, The Netherlands,
The Aussies don't like to miss a party, so they arrived in Holland early to experience Kings Day.
Also good for team building and Kings Day was on Friday, so 2 days before stage 6, de Ronde van Haarlem.


picture 1 : First we went to the north, there we met some Dutch fans of Australian cycling.
picture 2 : In the afternoon we hired a boat in the canals of Amsterdam.
In the evening a big party in Haarlem with a lot of beer and a lot of pretty Dutch women ( sorry, no pictures available  ).
And of course the day after........ hangover day^^

But that hangover was yesterday, and as always the Aussies are ready and motivated for the NT race of today.
A very difficult one, also windy (and very hot).
The Australian selection has different kind of riders, some more suited than others just in case I misjudged this NT race completely.
And some are selected because they could be good helpers in the first half of the race.
No prediction because I really don't know what to expect. It seems to me Australia has no top-cyclists for this race, hopefully I'm wrong.
Of course there are good arguments to select a few other, also good Australians for this race.
But as I said, this is a difficult race, that counts also for who to select. These nine will be racing this evening :

Australia NT selection : 

Dominic Norris (30) Montequinto
Franklin Gailes (30) RealityCyclists
Norman Sampson (34) beerkes
Christian Marbley (31) ThorBoassonArvesen
Duke Pinkney (29) ELPUNTALICO
Buck Fevola (33) Combuijs
Mark Nixon (30) extralight
Steve Morton (30) Palmeiras_Marcos
Duke Footman (27) arcadasteamone

[Vos]

Bad race, wrong team captain and /or tactics.
The 34yo Sampson (in a helpers role, also not good) saved the honour of Australia by scoring a few points with his 15th place.
In hinsight Australia had not many good cyclists for this race, but for sure this result could be better with other tactical choices.

But no worries, the Australian NT had a great Dutch Kings Day and they are still on the 7th place in the ranking by countries.
Next week a cobblestones NT race in Belgium.

[Vos]

Next week the normal lists. This week for a little change and because the team captain of the upcoming NT race is a 27yo :
AUSTRALIA u28 LISTS

[Vos]

STAGE 7 : GP CERAMI


37ºC

Saint-Ghislain, Belgium,
Tomorrow the well known GP Cerami and it will be extreme hot, perhaps with some wind.
A race for flat cobblestone specialists, but not entirely flat as you can see in the picture.
The Muur van Geraardsbergen is a mean little climb (1150m, average 7,5%) paved with cobblestones.

The best Australian for this race is a just 27yo. A very promising cyclist, but still too young I assume.
So there are no expectations in this race.
But to practise for future NT races like this one, I selected the best Australian helpers in order to get the best result possible.

Australia NT selection :

teamcaptain
Ken Emerton (27) Bolaverde

helpers
Neil Gailes (30) Argonautjes
Gerraint Footman (30) Fullgass
Vinnie Fagan (31) Zamaltej

semi-xp-helpers / promising young cobblestones-talents
Duke Goodman (22) Oldmen
Ethan Winger (26) Estoparia
Gus Williams (23) Rekutxu

xp-cyclists / top-TT-talent + teamcaptain of NT races 8 and 10
Oscar Hunter (24) FacHaBortoLo
Darvin Odom (31) CapitanSalami

[Vos]

Good race of the 27yo Emerton, he even scored points with his 17th place.
Less good is of course that Australia is now 2 places down in the ranking by countries ; at the moment 9th.
Next week a climbhills-race in Spain.

[Vos]

[Vos]

STAGE 8 : ANDALUCIA



Vélez-Málaga, Spain,
Hopefully there will be a good amount of points in this race.
Australia needs those points to achieve the season goal of top10.

Australia NT selection :

Darvin Odom ( 31 ) CapitanSalami
Grant Workman ( 31 ) gracciano
Angus Finn ( 29 ) escartines_neverdie
Paul Garza ( 29 ) Ubisoft
Eddie Norris ( 30 ) RealityCyclists
Mark Putnam ( 34 ) CandasuTeam
Charlie Mitchell ( 28 ) Agolpede
Stephen Emerton ( 30 ) CaptainOrange
Kendall Madsen ( 27 ) PipiolosTeam

[Vos]

Bad luck with consequences in descent-section 2 ; team captain Odom had a break down and because of that in the wrong group.
Also enough Australian helpers in this slower group, so he is not isolated. But this was not what I wanted to see, also because the tactics are not right after this incident.

In the end a 5th place for Odom, so that is probably good, but this could have been better in my opinion.
Up 2 places in the ranking by countries and now again on the 7th place.
Next week a prologue in Granada, Spain.

[Dirk]

Good result Vos!

[Vos]

thanks