Written by Canadian Nippon at 14:00 4/12-2022
It has been two seasons since Irving Watts won the sprinters classification during the 36th running of the Norway Tour. This time is a bit different for the team since it hasn`t targeted the event like two seasons ago. The team was expecting to stay around division one or the upper part of division two for most part of the season but a very lackluster effort has led to the team falling to division three and having the chance to take part in the tour once again.
“We have raced a lot this season and expected to have a bit more luck than we have had so far during the course of the season.” Stated the team manager when asked about the season so far and the team falling back down to division three. “We are most likely racing a bit too much and this has cost us results, points and cash that could have really helped the team. But at the moment we haven`t actually changed our approach but that should change in a week or two as we now plan to run two tours in Norway Tour and Cymru Taith.” Continued the manager. “Afterwards depending on what happens in the next week, we are likely to rest the riders a bit more and maybe even looks at refreshing top form for some of the riders. It not something that we do usually but I think it might be time to simple become more selective throughout the season.” He continued after we thought he was done.
Norway Tour Prologue:
Went pretty much as expected since Conan Guillot came into the event not in the best of shape having taken part in two Time trial events in the past three days. Placing a distant 25th was probably the best the team could have asked for. Tomorrow the sprint team lead by Irving Watts will take the lead as he chases his second jersey but may not be as dominate as he was a few seasons ago as he will also be taking part in Al Kwahr - Al Kwahr; which he should be able to place well. And he will also take place in the division two classic Mito – Tokyo before arriving at the start of Stage two sprints tomorrow in Norway. This means not a lot is expected from Irving Watts in the tour other than a hopeful placement and maybe a few stage results. The SC Jersey should be out of reach this time around.
It should be interesting to see how the sprint team handles the twenty-four hours with four races so closely packed together. Will they land a result in any of these events or will they simply find it too much in a short period of time?
Time Trials team:
After the last result in Coustouges ITT with Roland Kilgore placing third and not able to repeat win from a few seasons ago; the team now looks to recharge a bit as the sprint team will take the focus with two tours in the next week but are expected to be back in action likely in the Holyhead TT but haven`t officially signed up for the event as of this date due to injury to Jacky Berton with a return expected in a few more days. This should mean the team is fully rested and ready to take on the event with Roland Kilgore expected to lead the way again for the team during this race.
Cobble team:
Not expected to race as of yet as a full team isn`t actually ready to be deployed by Canadian Nippon meaning the Cobble team is also made up of some of the sprinting team riders and since they are currently busy running two tours; it means it is unlikely that the CB team will actually race in the next week unless more riders are added to the mix; unlikely!!
U23 Team:
This team took huge hit with the last round of release from the team as the U23 team is now only currently three members deep with Caldwell Hemby, Eli Dauphin and newly signed Edan Bassil the only members. They are all currently future sprint team members with Dauphin likely to lead the way as fully trained rider but this also means the team has a certain strength to sprinting as Hemby is training as LO#2 with high TQ and Bassil with luck should be a very good sprint captain. The team is still currently look at future talent but isn`t immediately looking to add to the prospects but rather start completing some of the training that is well under way.
Prospective talents:
Caldwell Hemby has sadly maxed early in TQ at 80; this means a huge blow to the potential to be a super strong lead-out in the similar path of Ensio Jarvinen but hopefully can continue to train his sprinting and flat ability to give a solid 200+ sprinting ability. If he maxes lower than expected a decision sooner than later will need to be made on the young Canadian rider but most likely won`t happen until after he ages out of the U23 team.
Edan Bassil is a rider that I hate to write about since I don`t want to jinx the rider training but so far so good as he actually maxed higher than I expected in sprint at 78 of the possible 79. This means with extra training points for racing, he should be able to gain a few points more in Sprinting bring it into the low 80`s. Now we need the same luck in flat and technique to keep him well over the 220+ max potential. Actually, still a 236 max potential rider. We are also hopeful that we can add some hill to his training and then finish off with TT as he could become a very useful tour sprinter with a ton of luck. As of right now he has a hidden 206 HL SP and a possible sneak 220 TT; giving this rider a nice triple threat of sprinting, hill sprinting and prologue/TT specialist. Still a long way to go with his training and we will need a ton of luck if he trains in such a fashion.
Eldwin Lafleur is another star potential TT rider that should join the six-man rotation of the TT team sooner than later due to the fact that team is going to have to really focus in the riders training due to age. He is already 23yrs old but with incredible TT ability mixed with good flat ability in the same mold as Abel Frint but lacking technique but still has a 237 TT max potential. Again a lot of training is left and it will take a bunch of luck for this rider to max close to his overall max potential but if he does Canadian Nippon will have another strong TT rider added to the six man rotation allowing to rest a rider from time to time or be more selective in the riders taking part in the events.
Paraskevas Abadiotakis is the last rider that the team is currently training and has been with the team the longest and sadly maxed his CB at 82 of the possible 89. This means he has downgraded from a max 217 CB rider to a max 210 rider. Also, the low CB means he won`t be as effective as expected as pave pacer as was expected of him in the future. He will still be trained towards this role as the team doesn`t have any pave pacers but will be replaced most likely in the future as the team finds better overall pave pacers to aid Errol Mansell or give up on the whole CB team aspect all together.
Christian Kozojed is another rider in the team talent feature in which the future is still undetermined since he is a very risky rider to train but since he does have 212 max potentials as TT rider and 291 prologue means the team hasn`t actually decided if they should pass in the talented rider. He would be the eight-rider added to the TT team if he was signed and trained but would also be the worse rider that the team would have at 212 max as the next closest rider is Jacky Berton at 214 but still not TT centered or Eelco Wel at 215 and again still not TT centered. Age of the TT team is playing a factor as Kozojed is very young at 20 yrs old and Conan Guillot is already 32 yrs old so Canadian Nippon has to start looking for replacements of the TT riders soon or later. The question is this rider actually good enough?
Other thoughts:
Overall, It has been disappoint step towards the CB team as we know we have a very good rider in Errol Mansell as the captain of the CB team but simple have not been able to find him any riders to become his pave pacers. This gave thought to hiring the cast-off CB riders off the hirelist since it means we can have a weak CB team rather than doubling down our sprint team costing the team as whole. Mix in some of the youth sprinters and I think we might actually have three separate teams sooner then later but is this a smart why of building a team? Pause for second then realize that I actually did this exact thing with my current sprint team; which is how I ended up with Conan Guillot & Ensio Jarvinen before adding Trever Reis, Morris Tomasin as straight LOSP. We had at least another half dozen riders that were signed and replaced as we became stronger. So why can`t we do the same for the CB team? Well, watch for some very weak CB riders to be possible signed to the roster in the next few weeks or months but it will take time as I would like to finish training at least three of the four current riders we have in training before I look to add another CB rider to the roster as TM. This doesn`t mean we won`t be scouting for future Canadian stars but it does mean we won`t hire failed talent right away.
Al Kwahr - Al Kwahr result
Al Kwahr - Al Kwahr was raced as I wrote this massive press release and also distracted by the Giro de Italia which had the seventh stage being broadcasted here in Japan for some reason so I was surprised to be able to watch the last thirty minutes of stage seven; but either way we were right and Irving Watts was able to grab a result from the race with a well placed third. A much-needed result and much need bit of cash to continue training the potential riders. Unlikely I am still wrting this when the Mito-Tokyo results drop but who knows.
More Thoughts:
It has been difficult getting the CB team running as mentioned above and this might lead to actually giving up on trying to continue down this path meaning we might look to sell Errol Mansell as a 23yr old maxed 231 CB or 276 CB rider means he could fetch a ton of cash in a transfer as his current RV has him valued at 250K; so assuming a bit of a battle happens for the rider we could be looking at 500K for him. In the end I would rather continue to try to build around him but how many season can we go continuing to waste his talent simply due to the fact that we can`t find or afford the talent to aid him. So, at the moment is a matter of when do we give up on such a talented rider versus trying to find aid for this talented rider?
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Comments
Thanks Don!!
Just decided it wasn`t worth hiding most of this inform this time around as it all seems to change quickly!! Sometimes these presser really write themselves!!
You should write for front page with these writing skills! Nice to get such an in-depth view of team proceedings.
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