After a chaotic opening 40 kilometres, it was not until after the 2nd KoM sprint that the break was formed, a break of 10 chased by a group of 4 - with no DFL represnetatives.

After winning all 3 intermediate sprints, Mikhal Ignatiev was stil the strongest and rode away from his fellow escapees.


He took the final KoM points of the day but was caught with 18km to the finish.


Gusev was right in the action in the sprint, and Pliuschin was up at the front too. Vanderaerden had a couple of red bars, which meant he had no chance.


Gusev could not hold off Freire or Steegmens though, as Freire won!


Nolf was part of a 41 man group which was dropped in the closing stages of the stage, fortunately ~ time gaps meant he lost no time.

1 Óscar Freire RABOBANK 4h42'39
2 Gert Steegmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
4 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
5 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
6 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
7 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
8 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
9 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
10 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
11 Frédéric Amorison LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
12 Nico Sijmens LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
13 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
14 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
16 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
17 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA s.t.
18 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
19 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
20 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
21 Marcel Sieberg TEAM MILRAM s.t.
22 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
23 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
24 Stefan Schreck T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
25 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
29 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
85 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
105 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 3'31
108 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'39
122 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'55
129 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 10'05

Rank Name Team Time
1 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL 9h10'29
2 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 8
3 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS + 10
4 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 14
5 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
6 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
9 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
10 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
11 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK s.t.
12 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'26
14 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
16 Óscar Freire RABOBANK + 1'52
17 Gert Steegmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'56
18 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA + 2'02
19 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
20 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
43 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

Stage 3 is much flatter so hopefully Vanderaerden can do something, watch out for Pliuschin too, he has a +5 form.


12 men go clear including Ignatiev, Thijs, KoM: Ongarato and Rhys Pollock.

Pollock is eager for a bit of money so he attacks with 3km to go to the next intermediate sprint, hoping to get a big enough gap to be able to win it. Ongarato was very quick though and looked to have grabbed it, but...

Pollock was given it

With 70km to go, Pollock was dropped. 27km later Ongarato takes the final intermediate sprint and it isnt long before Ignatiev rides away for a solo ride.


The 5 he rode away from are caught with 28km to go, while he is caught with 25km to go. Meaning we will have a sprint.

Quick Step are looking strong, but Vanderaerden has Steegmans' wheel with Pliuschin behind Gusev.


And Steegmens cruises to victory ahead of teammate De Jongh. Vanderaerden fades slightly at the finish allowing Gusev and Paolini to pass as he settles for 5th, with Pliuschin 9th.


1 Gert Steegmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 5h18'01
2 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
4 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
5 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
6 Óscar Freire RABOBANK s.t.
7 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
8 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA s.t.
9 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
10 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
11 Magnus Bäckstedt LIQUIGAS s.t.
12 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
13 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
14 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
15 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM s.t.
16 Frédéric Amorison LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
17 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
18 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
19 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
20 Marcel Sieberg TEAM MILRAM s.t.
21 Leon Van Bon RABOBANK s.t.
22 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
23 Stefan Schreck T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
24 Frederic Guesdon FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
25 Nico Sijmens LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
49 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
112 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'33
121 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
126 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
141 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 23'09

Rank Name Team Time
1 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL 14h28'26
2 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 12
3 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS + 14
4 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM + 18
5 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
6 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK s.t.
9 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
10 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
11 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
12 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS + 1'30
14 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
16 Gert Steegmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'50
17 Óscar Freire RABOBANK + 1'56
18 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'00
19 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA + 2'06
20 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
21 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
22 Magnus Bäckstedt LIQUIGAS s.t.
23 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
24 Marcel Sieberg TEAM MILRAM s.t.
25 Stefan Schreck T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
35 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

A 12km Time Trial!

Can Jamie Staff shine?


Of course he can! He takes the lead as he is an early starter but beat Vandborg by 7 seconds which is a good shine.

The most combative rider in De Panne: Mikhail Igatiev, came close to Staff: Just 2 seconds slower.


Quinziato took the lead from Staff though, going 10 seconds quicker. Teammate Backstedt soon went 2nd, 3 seconds down.


Alexandre Pliuschin hoped to maintain a position in the top 20 overall with a good performance and he went 9th at the finish.


The 3 GC contenders were Hoste, Hincapie and Gusev. Hoste laid down the gauntlet by going 2nd, 1 second slower than Quinziato.


Hincapie almost caught Paolini but was still off the pace today, and Gusev couldnt crack the top 10 either.


1 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS 13'25
2 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 2
3 Magnus Bäckstedt LIQUIGAS + 4
4 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 11
5 Mikhail Ignatiev TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 13
6 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK + 14
7 Brian Vandborg DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 18
8 Markus Eichler UNIBET.COM s.t.
9 Koen De Kort TEAM ASTANA s.t.
10 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 19
11 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 20
12 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 22
14 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS + 24
15 Raivis Belohvosciks SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 26
16 Ondrej Sosenka ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
17 Andy Cappelle LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
18 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 28
19 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
20 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
21 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 30
22 Marcel Sieberg TEAM MILRAM + 32
23 Enrico Franzoï LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 33
24 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS + 34
25 Andrei Kunitski ACQUA & SAPONE - CAFFÉ MOKAMBO s.t.
54 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
66 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'00
104 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'18
106 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'19
108 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'21


The overall win goes to ... Gusev! He beat Hoste by 0 seconds and won overall presumably by the fact that he won a stage.

1 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL 14h42'11
2 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
3 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 20
4 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 26
5 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 28
6 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK + 37
7 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 43
8 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM + 53
9 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'03
10 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'06
11 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'22
12 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS + 1'24
13 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'30
14 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS + 1'34
15 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS + 1'46
16 Magnus Bäckstedt LIQUIGAS + 1'50
17 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK + 2'00
18 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'05
19 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM + 2'14
20 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM + 2'16
21 Marcel Sieberg TEAM MILRAM + 2'18
22 Enrico Franzoï LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 2'19
23 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS + 2'20
24 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'22
25 Gert Steegmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'27
31 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'43
66 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 12'41
111 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 25'20
129 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 30'49
134 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 34'48
138 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 44'04

The 7th April brought 2 races. The AI picked my team for me in both cases but fortunately the leader I wanted for the Hel van Het Mergelland was picked for it, and the leader I wanted for the US Cycling Open was picked for it.


Dan Lloyd would be our leader.

Matti Helminen went with the break just incase, but CSC, and Colombia es Pasion were keen to chase it down. With 21km to go the lead riders of CSC, Colombia es Pasion, HealthNet, T-Mobile and Une Orbitel attacked, Dan Lloyd still had plenty of blue and counterattacked with them.

Unfortunately, Lloyd is trapped with Une Orbitel's Piamonte as Sorenson, Castro, O'Neill and Pinotti pull away.


Nicki Sorenson took victory:


Lloyd still had a little gap to the peleton in 4th position with 1km to go. Kolobnev passes him but he hangs on for 10th and some valuable ranking points.




Hel van Het Mergelland is a Belgian hilly race and led by Aleksandr Pliuchkin we had high hopes....

In the USA cycling Classic was there a cobbled section or was that left out of the database?

There was no cobbled section in the race, sadly

that is too bad. The Cobble section this year decided the winner

So our Moldovan talent Pliuschin will lead, while Evan Oliphant looked towards the breakaways. It took him two attempts before finding the successful break.


Their lead peaked at 6 minutes and they were away for 120km, before Predictor-Lotto and Rabobank caught them.

When the decisive attacks came, Pliuschin made sure that he was in the thick of it and counterattacked Ardila, Jufre, and Ljunqvist. I knew this grouping would make it as it involved a representative from the 2 break-chasing teams.

With 6km to go, Ardila tried to get away from his 3 companions, wary of the fact that Ljunqvist was the strongest sprinter in the group with 69 Sprint, Pliuschin had 66 sprint, while he and Jufre had 64 sprint.


Pliuschin is the rider who closes the gap, with Ljunqvist tucked in the Moldovan's wheel. Pliuschin got himself a little gap before the sprint.


But, Ljunqvist looked certain to go past as he edged closer and closer.


But Pliuschin somehow found a little bit extra and dug deep to WIN!!



11 Maarten Den Bakker SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
12 Fabio Sacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
13 Sergei Lagutin NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
14 Marc De Maar RABOBANK s.t.
15 Marc Lotz TEAM LÖWIK MEUBELEN s.t.
16 Alexander Gottfried TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
17 Koos Moerenhout RABOBANK s.t.
18 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
19 Grischa Niermann RABOBANK s.t.
20 Wim Van Huffel PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
21 Gerben Löwik RABOBANK s.t.
22 Christian Poos CONTINENTAL TEAM DIFFERDANGE s.t.
23 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
24 Johan Vansummeren PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
25 Paul Martens SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
46 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
50 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
58 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 3'00
59 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
71 Bjorn Cornelissen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
73 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
105 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'04

Congrats SN, very nice win

Thanks

Evening: 7 April DFL's manager (Me) and My assistant discuss plans for the next few days

So what race have we got tomorrow?
None
What?
We have no race tomorrow
Well we need to find one.
You cant just phone up the night before and ask to be included in the race - how will we get there?!

Ignoring my young assistant I got out my French quotebook and phoned up the organisers of GP de la Ville de Rennes and Voila a race for tomorrow!

Now, who to pick? Nico [Mattan] was unavailable having spent the day imn Belgium watching the Ronde van Vlaanderen. Ballan and there was great news as Cancellara crashed out (1 less man to beat in Gent-Wevelgem). There was also sad news as a dislocated elbow will force Michael Boogerd to miss the Ardennes classics in his retirement year.

I plumped by a team led by Vanderaerden and Manan.



Hamish Haynes was part of a fairly large breakaway group which was upfront for much of the stage, but there were no Cofidis or Ag2r riders in there and they were chased down with 14km to go.

Many more attacked came before the final sprint and with 2.3km to go, 3 riders are infront. Berges, Finot and Nolf. Sadly, Nolf is about to be passed by the sprinters, but at least Vanderaerden is well positioned.


800 metres to go now - Can Finot hold on?


He Can!! A great win for the 30 year old on the Roubaix Little Metropole team.


It is immensely tight in the battle for 2nd though between Farrar, Mondory, Grillo and Vanderaerden.


Vanderaerden will settle for 5th, ahead Feillu. Manan is still out of form and could only take 11th, being just edged out of the top 10. At least he gained some ranking points

1 Frédéric Finot ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE 3h00'19
2 Tyler Farrar COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
3 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
4 Paride Grillo CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
5 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
6 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
7 Mikhaylo Khalilov CERAMICA FLAMINIA s.t.
8 Antonio Bucciero CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
9 Emilien-Benoît Bergès AGRITUBEL s.t.
10 Geoffroy Lequatre COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
11 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
12 Andrus Aug CERAMICA FLAMINIA s.t.
13 Daniele Colli CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
14 Pierrick Fédrigo BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
15 Jean-Luc Delpech BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
16 Stéphane Bonsergent BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
17 Rubén Bongiorno CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
18 Jérôme Pineau BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
19 Błażej Janiaczyk ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
20 Tiziano Dall'Antonia CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
21 Serhiy Matveyev CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
22 Antonio D'Aniello CERAMICA FLAMINIA s.t.
23 Yauheni Hutarovich ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
24 Pavel Korzh MOSCOW STARS s.t.
25 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
53 Bjorn Cornelissen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
60 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
71 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
94 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'57
111 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

We now have 3 riders in the top 25 of the Continental rankings (Mattan 7th, Pliuchin 17th, Vanderaerden 24th) and are 4th in the team rankings, just 14 points behind 2nd placed Tinkoff.

Very nice win by Pliuschin

Looking forward to Gent-Wevelgem

Great win by Pliuschin

Our final race before our biggest race of the year: Gent - Wevelgem. Its a strong field but we have a strong team, with Pliuschin, Nolf, Mattan, Mouris, Fleeman, Pollock and Sulzberger.

Nolf is our escapee today, and is joined by Schafenmeier, Steels, Lund, Nolf, Roesems, Wolf, Westphal, and Ghyllebert.


The lead peaked at 7 minutes but the chase was led by Saunier Duval with some help from Rabobank and even Predictor - despite having 3 riders in the break.

The break was caught and Ljunqvist tried a solo counter which didnt work, as he was caught some of the favourites attacked.


Wesemann, Gesink, Visconti and Aerts attacked, as did Nicki Sorenson but Nicki wasnt as strong and couldnt quite follow the other 4. I decided to risk not attacking and wait for a Saunier rider to attack.

After 9km of waiting Cobo finally countered and of went Pliuschin.


Visconti would lead out the sprint, Pliuschin tooked himself behind Wesemann ~ the strongest sprinter of the group.

If you look closely in the background youll see two white riders attacking ~ thats Mattan and Nolf. They still had some blue bar so I made them attack - you never know, one of them might hang on and take 8th.

Wesemann charges round the final turn moving infront of Visconti.


And he is obviously the strongest, taking victory. Pliuschin settles for 3rd.


Soreson just about hangs on for 7th as my plan worked! Mattan got 8th.


1 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 5h06'26
2 Giovanni Visconti QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
4 Juanjo Cobo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
5 Mario Aerts PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
6 Robert Gesink RABOBANK s.t.
7 Nicki Sörensen TEAM CSC + 1'14
8 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
9 Björn Glasner TEAM REGIOSTROM - SENGES s.t.
10 Tom Stamsnijder GEROLSTEINER s.t.
11 Quique Gutiérrez TEAM LPR s.t.
12 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Marco Marcato TEAM LPR s.t.
14 Servais Knaven T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC s.t.
16 Fabio Sabatini TEAM MILRAM s.t.
17 Gerrit Glomser TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
18 Carlo Scognamiglio TEAM MILRAM s.t.
19 Martin Müller TEAM MILRAM s.t.
20 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
21 Daniel Musiol TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
22 Robert Retschke TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
23 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
24 Sven Krauss GEROLSTEINER s.t.
25 Sergei Lagutin NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
43 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
60 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
62 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
77 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
91 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'00
123 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'37

Unlucky - lets hope (a big, misguided hope) that you can do something similar in Gent-Wevelgem - good luck

Mattan had better have a +5 form

Our first ProTour event is a 3-star sponsor race for us and we have been set a goal of a Top 10.

The Team:


Nico Mattan - 92 Fitness Points ~ Leader
Already a winner of 1 cobbled race this year: Kuurne, Nico was out of form in E3 Prijs but looked strong in Koln.
Frederik Nolf - 91 Fitness Points ~ Main Helper
Has been aggressive in the hilly races and will again be a great assistant to Nico ~ his time will come next year.
Alexandre Pliuchkin - 91 Fitness Points ~ Main Helper
In superb form, Alexandre will just be a helper today.
Jens Mouris - 78 Fitness Points ~ Recently moved up to Level 3 experience anmd our next best cobbled rider.
Evan Oliphant - 62 Fitness Points ~ Here to gain experience points
Daniel Lloyd - 67 Fitness Points ~ Here to gain experience points
Gert Vanderaerden - 86 Fitness Points ~ Will provide support for as long as possible
Hamish Haynes - 76 Fitness Points ~ Will provide support for as long as possible

good luck

Can Nico Mattan deliver and get a top 10 finish? I hope so!!

The race was pretty dull for the first half and it was nightmare scenario for the organisers as 180 riders would be climbing the Kemmelberg at thye same time.

5 of Predictor's helpers simply rode away from the pack, and they didnt chase:


Zanini would only be caught at the top of the 3rd Kemmelberg ascent, with Gusev leading the pack.


And Gusev would slip away on the fourth and final cobbled climb/descent, he would be caught by Ballan and Hoste and would eventually be dropped by the other 2.


But how is Mattan getting on?

With 27km to go, before Gusev had been joined by Hoste and Ballan, Nico had some work to do.

A couple of kilometres later, it was looking slightly better and along with O'Grady and some Quick Step riders, he was closing in on the main chase group. (Boonen incidentally is much further behind).


Skippping another 7km and Mattan is still struggling to catch up in the strong headwind. O'Grady and 2 of the Quick Steps bridged across but at that time, Mattan was behind Steegmens who did not have the legs to bridge across.

But why is Nico drinking?


Heres why:


Having finally joined the group of 13 (Making it 14), we assessed the situation and realised that Ballan and Hoste would not be caught. So Nico preserved his energy as much as possible, with the target of a top 10 place well within his grasp now.

Ballan would lead out Hoste


While Liquigas and Quick Step looked good for the sprint for 3rd. Flecha had tried and failed to attack, as had Mattan but Nico changed plans and instead went to follow Pozzato.


Ballan wins!!!!


3rd for Pozzatto, but is that .... MATTAN IN 4TH!!!!!


Nico got very fortunate in following the right wheel, and 4th is fantastic!

Because of your story, I have started writing one.
Unfortunately it is in norwegian.
Wonderful work with writing, the right angles in the pictures and of course the playing.
Keep it going!

good 4th place Really good racing from you.
In this race I managed to finish 8th,9th and 10th with Maxbo Bianchi (8.Gabriel Rasch,9. Nordhaug, 10. Diego Ulissi)