Written by Team Oasis at 15:20 14/2-2020
Last season was a peculiar season. There was no real focus at the start and things got rearranged a few times. Yet eventually we made the most out of the opportunity to race again in GT. With the win there and several other results it was one of our most succesful seasons.
Cup Fuckup
Yes you read that right. A literal bump in the road and we signed up our watercarrier as captain for the Drozd Cup. Probably the silliest mistake i made in my OCM-carreer. Okay, i have to admit we weren't planning on shining again like we did last season. Yet it's nice to be around as defending champion.
So why start the review with this major fuckup. Quite simple, it led to recharging Rashad for GT. Tht turned out rather alright if i must say. So from bad things good things can happen. This fuckup marked my season in a positive way.
Do i really understand DH?
Another positive thing from the previous mentioned Drozd Cup was that the drop in points would make it possible to aim for Valparaiso. Every other season we seem to go there to see if we can do some damage. It's almost like a tradition.
This time i had two options and couldn't make up my mind. Eventually choose for Valenzuela instead of Mikhaylov as the DH-stage had high winds and Valenzuela could make enough difference to battle for the win in the final stage.
For some, yet unexplainable reason, with normal legs Humberto finished only 6th in the DH-stage. The stage suited him the most from all contendors, it had high winds which should favor him and applied my usual DH-tactics. Got beaten by a bunch of untalented dh'ers in the end. I then recalled that also Seyhan had some issues here in TF to score. Also it's quite remarkable that Kravchenko did so bad here for the second time.
It makes me wonder. Do the DH OG's really know what they are doing? Or is this stage fucked up somehow?
I should, as the DH-spark is back
The team managed to win 5 downhill races this last season and by doing so we are back were we once used to be, at the top of or our game. Humberto Valenzuela also scored our 50th win which is an important milestone. Most surprised and happy we were with winning Eissh for the 2nd time in our team history.
Was it all glitter and glamour? Nope, we had to skip 2 or 3 races due to our points diet and in 2 other races there were offdays/mech issues that gave us not even cash. The latter is worrysome as offdays usually still brought us in the top 9. Not this season though. It's a sign competition is increasing.
Grand Tour Slam
The highlight of the season was winning Germany Tour. Beforehand i was certain podium was within reach. The field didn't look stronger than last edition, which gave us a 3rd place. However i didn't imagine to actually win it with the second real attempt by Rashad. Most shockingly was that all of the stages were also a big succes even giving us a 3rd in the SC.
Funny enough it was no walk in the park. Due to an offday in the TT i was set back somewhere like 15-25 seconds. Managed to grab the lead by a handful of seconds after the HL-stages and first CL-stage. Lost the lead obviously in the TT with being 13 secs behind Duncan Cutress. Then topped him and took the lead by a mere second after the King Stage to extend it further to a whopping 7 seconds in the last hilly sprint stage.
I can only be gratefull that the coin flipped to our side almost all stages and the TT gave us no headache.
5.0 Generation
Alot above here was about racing. The main focus was actually our extensive training programm. Oasis 4.0 is currently aging fast and only Humberto, Rashad and Zakhar remain to be good for a couple more seasons. So it's time to invest in Oasis 5.0, the first setup where nationality truly matters.
It costed a heavy sum but the first three good results are there. Ruslan Prikhodko is a perfect climbing captain, the best we ever trained. Yasar Na'il is a multi-purpose rider that could be of great use on various occassions. Viktor Adaksin looks somewhat mediocre, but is an improvement to our DH-squad as it had no sprinter. Also Sergie Tereshchenko is on it way to become a very capable tour rider. This bunch is no supersquad for reaching a high rank in OCM but it's a base and we will look for new talent in the feature to fully have our 5.0 ready by the time they hit 25-26.
Main targets
Germany Tour won by Rashad Abdul-Karim
Vuelta a Valparaìso 5th in GC, failure as podium and WC were the goal
Side targets
Patryk Drozdowski Trophy Cup not raced actively due to signup failure
Win a new race: Two stages in GT added and Kasseler Hügel
Unexpected nor planned targets
World Championship Ready for top 5, but go stuck with an offday
Bytom - Katowice 3rd win there accomplished by Humberto Valenzuela
Receiving "The Triple" achievement for winning GT, Volta and Norway. First manager in OCM the reach that.
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Comments
No you only won the GT :) That "only" is quite remarkable.
Wow you won the GT and World Ch.
well the wind clearly was not the issue, i had a windbreaker with 80 fr, besides Humberto being of similar strenght on that stat.
I would expect in that stage you would always be able to score top 9, even without tf and not the best support. With good support and normal legs he should always be top5 material.
I blame the wind in Casablanca - Tiltil. I'm a bot, for not sending Soares there in support! :p
thanks :D
even a spelling mistake in your Cup Fuckup paragraph to make it even worse :D
Congrats on the Triple and GT!
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