steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
I didn't want to post yet, because I don't want to jinx it, but at the same time I can't wait until the official results are confirmed, as that'll probably not come until tomorrow.
So whisper it quietly, but CCC might (MIGHT) have finished in the top half of their league...
We went into this final stage in 9th, knowing that place was safe (as long as we had four finishers), but also that we had an outside chance of coming 8th - we had to make up a three point deficit on the TFC Hulk team, but knowing they were a heavyweight team that typically crushed TTTs but struggled on hilly stages, gave us a glimmer of hope. That started to fade when we saw that they'd brought in two lighter riders for this stage (admittedly ones who had both done at least two stages for them in the past; not total ringers), but we certainly knew who it was we had to mark.
And everything seemed to go pretty much to plan. At each climb it seemed as though we had a CCC rider either just slightly ahead or behind a TFC rider, with @Whorty and @Aleman leading from the front, @Johnsop99 and @DCLane marshalling the midfield battle, and @JLaw and @LeetleGreyCells picking off riders and picking up places towards the rear of the field. Indeed it was at that point we noticed TFC had only started with 5 riders, giving us a big boost in the points race.
No-one went flying off too hard and fast - we knew that to chase Prime points was a fools errand with a number of 'almost B's' and other very light riders out there, and that proved the right decision as only two riders outside the top 7 ended up scoring any meaningful amount of bonus points. As we came to the final climb, Tony was able to pull clear and latch on to a group as he went over the top, then blasted past them on the descent, while John was flying through the field and in the end got pretty close to catching up with Carl which guaranteed that we'd get three riders in the top 20, while TFC only had one.
Final results:
@Aleman - 14th - 1:17:29
@Whorty - 18th - 1:18:53
@Johnsop99 - 19th - 1:19:08
@DCLane - 42nd - 1:25:31
@JLaw - 60th - 1:35:17
@LeetleGreyCells - 63rd - 1:37:03
We knew we had beaten TFC on points, but of course it depended upon how many other teams were in between us and them. Right now the provisional results suggest that there are two other teams - we've been given 6th, with TFC in 9th - which would put us level overall and we should also beat them in the tie-breaker. We've got a lot of crossed fingers and toes that this stays like that...
But those same results also say that the team who were two places above us, only had three finishers, which would mean they get zero points, potentially allowing us to overtake them as well, which could well place us in 7th overall out of 15!
Regardless of whether we do get that position or not, this was a fantastic performance from the team - not only this week (getting our best result this season), but also across the whole league. I feel this was a much tougher division than last year and despite the initial disappointment of losing El Capitan @Joffey from the team, we quickly found our feet and pulled some great results out of the bag. Well done all!
So whisper it quietly, but CCC might (MIGHT) have finished in the top half of their league...
We went into this final stage in 9th, knowing that place was safe (as long as we had four finishers), but also that we had an outside chance of coming 8th - we had to make up a three point deficit on the TFC Hulk team, but knowing they were a heavyweight team that typically crushed TTTs but struggled on hilly stages, gave us a glimmer of hope. That started to fade when we saw that they'd brought in two lighter riders for this stage (admittedly ones who had both done at least two stages for them in the past; not total ringers), but we certainly knew who it was we had to mark.
And everything seemed to go pretty much to plan. At each climb it seemed as though we had a CCC rider either just slightly ahead or behind a TFC rider, with @Whorty and @Aleman leading from the front, @Johnsop99 and @DCLane marshalling the midfield battle, and @JLaw and @LeetleGreyCells picking off riders and picking up places towards the rear of the field. Indeed it was at that point we noticed TFC had only started with 5 riders, giving us a big boost in the points race.
No-one went flying off too hard and fast - we knew that to chase Prime points was a fools errand with a number of 'almost B's' and other very light riders out there, and that proved the right decision as only two riders outside the top 7 ended up scoring any meaningful amount of bonus points. As we came to the final climb, Tony was able to pull clear and latch on to a group as he went over the top, then blasted past them on the descent, while John was flying through the field and in the end got pretty close to catching up with Carl which guaranteed that we'd get three riders in the top 20, while TFC only had one.
Final results:
@Aleman - 14th - 1:17:29
@Whorty - 18th - 1:18:53
@Johnsop99 - 19th - 1:19:08
@DCLane - 42nd - 1:25:31
@JLaw - 60th - 1:35:17
@LeetleGreyCells - 63rd - 1:37:03
We knew we had beaten TFC on points, but of course it depended upon how many other teams were in between us and them. Right now the provisional results suggest that there are two other teams - we've been given 6th, with TFC in 9th - which would put us level overall and we should also beat them in the tie-breaker. We've got a lot of crossed fingers and toes that this stays like that...
But those same results also say that the team who were two places above us, only had three finishers, which would mean they get zero points, potentially allowing us to overtake them as well, which could well place us in 7th overall out of 15!
Regardless of whether we do get that position or not, this was a fantastic performance from the team - not only this week (getting our best result this season), but also across the whole league. I feel this was a much tougher division than last year and despite the initial disappointment of losing El Capitan @Joffey from the team, we quickly found our feet and pulled some great results out of the bag. Well done all!
