Written by Canadian Nippon at 10:12 2/7-2022
After the success of the Tour of Norway forced the Canadian Nippon team to climb unexpectedly into the second division meant that the team needed to re-focus on different accomplishments for the rest of the season.
First being the fact that that they needed to recover from the hard final stages of the Tour of Norway as three of the riders claimed injuries meaning they would be out of action for at least two weeks recovering plus still require race break to start to regain form. This meant that the team could then focus on individual race results with different riders, training before seeing all the riders back in action with an off chance target of another tour: Vuelta a Valparaìso
While looking at the teams result one might assume that the team really had no luck or really didn`t claim any results in the period leading up until the tour but that would be only looking at the surface of the teams results. While the team was skunked in Nidelva Intervallstart as the full TT team wasn`t available but really it was more of a case of missed chance as Roland Kilgore would place the dreaded eleventh at the end of Hill based ITT. Not the worse result but didn`t claim the team and points or cash.
The team would then send young sprinter Eli Dauphin to the lead at the Hel – Gdansk and once again the team would see Dauphin place in the dreaded eleventh place. This had many questionings why the young rider was choice to lead over much more experienced Ensio Jarvinen and the simple answer was the fact that Dauphin; who the team thought wasn`t top form ready all of a sudden triggered top form over-night forcing the team to either waste the top form or make the switch. In the end it simple wasn`t enough.
Eli Dauphin would make up for the missed opportunity in the teams` first points and unofficial result in the Cottbus Classic (U23) where he would place a respectable fifth considering the team would only send three of the four U23 riders on the team to the race due to other events around the HQ.
With all the riders coming back off injury the team would continue to focus on single day races while now looking ahead to the Tour of Vuelta a Valparaìso. This would see Conan Guillot back in action for the first time since his crash on the final stage of the Norway tour in Westerstede Zeitfahren alongside the rest of the TT team. Guillot would finish well down the order as expected in forty-ninth while Abel Frint and Eelco Wel would score much needed cash and points for the team by placing fifth and eighth in the ITT.
Irving Watts back from injury also meant an off-chance target of a classic with team taking part in Lappi Sea GP and Grasse – Toulon both being hill sprint classic meant it was always going to be a long shot for Watts to place in the top ten but he pulled above his weight once again and finished respectable eighteenth in both Classic races.
Malbork TT (U23) was on the cards for the U23 team with nothing really expected since Canadian Nippon doesn`t have a TT rider in the mix at the U23 level but Dauphin would place a very respectable tenth on the day with all four riders placing in the top twenty.
This bring us to the start of Vuelta a Valparaìso; where once again the plan was for Irving Watts to pull off the unthinkable and place in the Sprinter Classification with the main target being the first two stages of the tour. As always, the team brought their best two TT riders to tackle the prologue and hopefully put pressure on the other teams early in the race.
Valparaìso - Valparaìso (ITT) would pretty much go as expected if not better then expected with the Canadian Nippon team pulled the Black General Classification jersey over the head of the now rested Conan Guillot as he would win the stage with Abel Frint finishing nicely in second place on the stage meaning the team would wear two of the three jersey heading into the second stage of the tour; which was shaping up to be an Irving Watts special. But something seemed off when Ensio Jarvinen placed as the third best rider in the ITT in a respectable seventh teen. While Watts was well off the pace down in seventy-second and was a bit of a concern.
These concerns would be validated in the second stage Valparaìso - El Quisco when Irving Watts would crash and not finish the stage while the team was complete in disarray with Ensio Jarvinen once again being the best placed rider in twenty-ninth. Any dreams of Watts finish anywhere in the top ten of the Sprint Classification are completely gone with all the stages remaining having an hill aspect in which he was always going to struggle. Now the team will switch focus to trying to claim any individual result possible with Jarvinen being given the lead for stage three on an off chance of a result before resting the team for most likely the remained of the tour. Maybe giving Watts another chance in the final stage but nothing is expected at this point.
This means with the tour all but done for the team already after day one and two stages; this means the team will most likely switch focus to the end of the season World ITT as most of the riders will have a chance to ride in top form if the manager can find the right combination of rest and races to make sure that they are ready with Conan Guillot and Abel Frint more then expected to place in the top ten if not hopefully having one of the pulling the jersey over their heads. But that is the plan now for the TT team heading towards the end of the season.
As for the Sprint team? Well, Maybe a run at the sprint heavy Nederlandse Tour that take place later in the season. Really the team should send a top form Conan Guillot to the lead during the tour but this would take away his chances at the ITT World Championship a few weeks later. So, this is a question of where the team should place their focus. Not to mention they are currently just able to sign up for this tour so will they still be able to race in the Nederlandse Tour when the sign up become available eleven days from now? The team isn`t expected to lose any points between now and they but score a few more points will secure them an opportunity to take part meaning the individual races from the end of the Vuelta a Valparaìso will determine the teams ability to race another tour this season.
Training and hopefully not jinx again has been going slower than expected with the core of the team being injuried and having to relay on the rest of the team to bring in cash to continue the development. This has seen Errol Mansell train steadily into a very good pave pacer with his CB still unmaxed but the team decided to focus on the two important stats in the way of TQ & FR; which have been trained balanced up until this point trying to reduce the cost and the risk of an early max rider not being good enough to be used as an CB pacer at least. The team is still very hopeful with his high starting values that he will max high and become the team’s first CB Captain; somewhere around the 200-237 range.
Either way it will be interesting to follow the continued progress of the Canadian Nippon team to see if they are able to sign-up for the Nederlandse Tour and how they manage the ITT World Championship later in the year. Can they add another Captain to the list of the riders in Mansell?
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