A break of 19 went clear but that didnt concern us as once again we would wait for the faourites to attack, I decided to watch Mazzanti since Panaria had done much of the chasing.

The attacks game and Pliuschin countered. LPR's Ferrara was the best attacker and had a gap over Mazzanti who had a gap over a group of 12 including the likes of Moletta, Mercyx, Kroon, Lagutin, Pate, Weening, Moerenhout, Tjalingii and Pliuschin.


Tjalingii then punctured, to the annoyance of Skil-Shimano as Mazzanti and Ferrara were caught by the group. Back in the peleton, Liquigas had completely missed the move but instead of chasing they just made Beltran attack, but he was caught so he attacked again and got caught, etc etc.

With 10km to go, the grou pof 13 were still altogether and I was hoping that it would come to a sprint, but sadly on the final hill the 4 big riders attacked.


Moletta, Kroon, Merckyx and Mazzanti got away and would not be caught.

In a tight sprint for victory, Mazzanti won!


Pliuschin was not the strongest sprinter in the chasing group and just decided to go for it once the group started sprinting, he immediately got a gap and would not be caught, meaning he salvaged a 5th place from the race.


1 Luca Mazzanti CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE 5h04'49
2 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER s.t.
3 Axel Merckx T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
4 Karsten Kroon TEAM CSC s.t.
5 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 59
6 Sergei Lagutin NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
7 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER s.t.
8 Danny Pate TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
9 Harald Starzengruber ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
10 Daniele Nardello TEAM LPR s.t.
11 Koos Moerenhout RABOBANK s.t.
12 Rafaele Ferrara TEAM LPR s.t.
13 Pieter Weening RABOBANK s.t.
14 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER + 3'06
15 Gerrit Glomser TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
16 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC s.t.
17 Igor Astarloa TEAM MILRAM s.t.
18 Mirko Lorenzetto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
19 Manuel Beltrán LIQUIGAS s.t.
20 Marco Marcato TEAM LPR s.t.
21 Jörg Ludewig TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
22 René Weissinger TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
23 Paolo Bailetti TEAM LPR s.t.
24 Nico Sijmens LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
25 Maarten Den Bakker SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
78 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
104 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'24
116 Cameron Jennings DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'33
129 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 8'37
138 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 12'29
141 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
145 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 13'41

I did not originally plan to race the Kryterium Legnica but when I saw the route was just 48km of flat, I couldnt resist.

The race was a mess with attacks constantly and very little organisation. With 3km to go, all but 1 of the break had been caught and I had decided to set up my own sprint train.


Mattan > Vanderaerden > Manan

It seems that the 1 breakaway survivor holds too much of a gap though.


And sadly the escapee holds on, with Manan 2nd and Vanderaerden 3rd :x


1 Błażej Janiaczyk ACTION - UNIQA 1h04'37
2 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
3 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
4 Krzysztof Szczawinski MICHE s.t.
5 Michael Reihs TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
6 René Weissinger TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
7 Peter Möhlmann TEAM REGIOSTROM - SENGES s.t.
8 Tomasz Kiendys CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE s.t.
9 Piotr Barczyk DYNATEK s.t.
10 Graziano Gasparre AMORE E VITA - MCDONALD'S s.t.
11 Marcin Gebka DYNATEK s.t.
12 Robert Radosz ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
13 Gerrit Glomser TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
14 Andrei Klyuev MOSCOW STARS s.t.
15 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
16 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS s.t.
17 Jens Erik Madsen TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
18 Tomasz Lisowicz CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE s.t.
19 Fredrik Johansson TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
20 Dainius Kairelis AMORE E VITA - MCDONALD'S s.t.
21 Petr Bencik PSK WHIRLPOOL HRADEC KR�LOVÉ s.t.
22 Ivan Seledkov MOSCOW STARS s.t.
23 Martin Mortensen TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
24 Marek Wesoly CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE s.t.
25 Eddy Serri MICHE s.t.
83 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED
84 Adam Blyth DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED
85 Kane Oakley DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED
93 Robby Meul DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED
96 Cameron Jennings DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED

Unlucky

48 km yo allways need to chase the complete race... in the beginnen at low % but... you should easily have won this....

You can only learn from bad tactics Besides, I dont really care if I fail to win some polish race, there was no prize money

i just hope Mazzanti can replicate that win in the management game

Once I found out that the route for this Danish race is EXACTLY the same as the route for Tro-Bro Leon, I lost interest.

Nevertheless, a good result would be nice and this time Nolf would be our leader and we would let Unibet do all the work.

With 67km to go, Nolf punctured :x He got back to the front soon enough but lost half his green bar, all of his previously full blue bar (despite not attacking) and almost gained a red bar.

Unibet nicely managed to weaken up the field and with 17km to go, a group of 6 were on the last cobbled section. Suray and Gardeyn (Unibet), Wyss (Atlas) and my 3 cobbled guys. Pliuschin was then handed the gift of a puncture.

A quick tempo from Mattan got rid of 1 sprint threat in Wyss but Gardeyn would not go away, and being a much better sprinter I was up against it, and unlike reallife, I couldnt use team tactics effectively.

I made Nolf drink his last drink to give some blue bar in an effort to get away but even though he got a slight gap, he couldnt pull away far enough so it was effectively Game Over as there was no chance of beating Gardeyn in a sprint - particularly when Nolf is a bad sprinter and Mattan had 2 and a half red bars.



1 Gorik Gardeyn UNIBET.COM 5h48'13
2 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
3 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
4 Gil Suray UNIBET.COM + 1'03
5 Danilo Wyss ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI s.t.
6 Pieter Jacobs UNIBET.COM + 4'17
7 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
8 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM + 5'45
9 Matthé Pronk UNIBET.COM s.t.
10 Tom Criel UNIBET.COM + 6'12
11 Jimmy Casper UNIBET.COM s.t.
12 Michael Blaudzun TEAM CSC s.t.
13 Florian Vogel ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI + 10'10
14 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 11'24
15 Jan Almblad TEAM GLS + 11'56
16 Kasper Jebjerg TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
17 Stefan Löffler TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
18 Nicki Sörensen TEAM CSC s.t.
19 Robert Radosz ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
20 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC s.t.
21 Thomas Kristiansen TEAM GLS s.t.
22 Ronny Poelvoorde BABES ONLY - VILLAPARK LINGEMEER - FLANDERS s.t.
23 Matt Wilson UNIBET.COM + 13'44
24 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 14'19
25 Matthias Friedemann TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
26 Lars Wackernagel TEAM SPARKASSE + 15'22
27 Paul Voss TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA + 15'44
28 Anders Lund TEAM CSC s.t.
29 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
30 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
31 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC s.t.
32 Matthew Goss TEAM CSC s.t.
33 Michael Blanchy BABES ONLY - VILLAPARK LINGEMEER - FLANDERS s.t.
34 Kasper Klostergaard TEAM CSC + 17'32
35 Mads Christensen TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
36 Peter Andres ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI s.t.
37 Marcel Wyss ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI + 18'14
38 Stefan Rucker ELK HAUS - SIMPLON + 18'46

At least we won the teams classification

We have a much changed team for the 2nd Danish classic, the Colliers Classic. Stannard, Blyth, Hoy, Staff, Vanderaerden and Manan will rider in preperation for Dunkirk in which many of these riders will ride in.

With a fighter skill of 78, Stannard is the only logical choice to go with the breakaway.


The lead is up to 7'35 with 92km to go and the chase starts there. The gap is soon down to 2'20 with 50km still to race and the chase stops, the pack doesnt want to catch the break too early.

Amazingly the break never gets going again as with 11km to go, the lead had gone up to 2'44. Its just aswell that the break looks set to breaks it as a crash brings down both my sprinters. Vanderaerden is forced to abandon and it later turns out that the crash gave him high hematocrit values - which is one funny example of how 'doping' injuries in-game just doesnt work. His 'suspension' will be around a week.


Stannard will lead out the sprint, surprisingly 63 sprint means he is the tied 2nd best sprinter in the group. GLS's Jorgenson is the best by far but badly positioned while the other 63 sprinter is right behind Stannard, Differdange's Knørr. Blaudzun is closing quickly following an attack but is still 40 seconds behind.


The sprint is launched!


Knørr starts to move alongside with Stannard.


But amazingly, Knørr's progress ends there and he stays the same distance away from Stannard for the next kilometre, before Stannard begins edging away again to WIN!


Wow! Awesome victory for the young Brit.

1 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 4h19'46
2 Christian Knørr CONTINENTAL TEAM DIFFERDANGE s.t.
3 Stefan Denifl ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
4 Andreas Henig ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI s.t.
5 Michael Blaudzun TEAM CSC s.t.
6 Peter Ronsse BABES ONLY - VILLAPARK LINGEMEER - FLANDERS s.t.
7 Ondrej Sosenka ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
8 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen TEAM GLS s.t.
9 Lars Wackernagel TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
10 Domenik Klemme TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
11 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM s.t.
12 Gorik Gardeyn UNIBET.COM s.t.
13 Matthew Goss TEAM CSC s.t.
14 Jimmy Casper UNIBET.COM s.t.
15 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC s.t.
16 Robert Radosz ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
17 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC s.t.
18 Jan Almblad TEAM GLS s.t.
19 Harald Starzengruber ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
20 Marcel Wyss ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI s.t.
21 Jesper Odgaard Nielsen TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
22 Stefan Heiny CONTINENTAL TEAM DIFFERDANGE s.t.
23 Nicki Sörensen TEAM CSC s.t.
24 Wolfgang Murer ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
25 Felix Schäfermeier TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
26 Stefan Rucker ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
27 Alexander Gut ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI s.t.
28 Sergej Fuchs TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
29 Tobias Erler TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
30 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS s.t.
37 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
43 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
45 Adam Blyth DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
61 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'36

Stannard has now moved up to experience level 2 but I do not notice any stat increases.

Thanks to Stannard's victory, we head to Dunkirk ranked number 1 in the Continental tour. And our team for this Hors category race is:
Ian Stannard - Man of the moment, Breakaway guy
Chris Hoy - For the Prologue - Looking to build up form for the Tour of Belgium
Jamie Staff - For the Prologue
Anuar Manan - For the Sprints
Dan Fleeman - Teammate
Bernard Sulzberger - Teammate
Rhys Pollock - Teammate
Aleksandr Pliuschin - Leader ~ Aleksandr will look to improve to experience level 3 in this race and the route suits him with a TT and a hilly stage as the decisive factors - the hilly stage even features some cobbles. This is probably his last race before a well deserved break.

Prologue
Our best hope of a stage win in this tour?

Jamie Staff set a benchmark of 12'24, but FDJ's Vaugrenard went 3 seconds quicker. After a slow opening part of the race, Chris Hoy raced to take 2nd away from Staff, going just 1 second slower than Vaugrenard.

Pliuschin was feeling very good today with a +5 form. He was the fastest of the DFL riders at the first check, 6 seconds down but I knew Id be much quicker in the second half and Pliuschin took the lead!


Most of the other big names went by slower, leaving just Dominique Cornu, whos TT stat of 74 is better than Pliuschins of 72, but how will Cornu's daily form be? The belgian is quick early on, going faster by 4 seconds than Pliuschin at the first checkpoint but Pliuschin finished strongly and Cornu would need to do so also, which sadly he did.


1 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO 12'15
2 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1
3 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 6
4 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7
5 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9
6 Bert Grabsch T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Danny Pate TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 13
8 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC + 15
9 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL s.t.
10 Sébastien Minard COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 18
11 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
12 Marco Velo TEAM MILRAM s.t.
13 Mathieu Ladagnous FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 19
14 Jörg Ludewig TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 20
15 Michael Blaudzun TEAM CSC s.t.
16 Adam Hansen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
17 Mathieu Heijboer COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 21
18 Tom Criel UNIBET.COM + 22
19 Ben Day NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 23
20 Niki Terpstra TEAM MILRAM s.t.
21 Michiel Elijzen COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
22 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 + 24
23 Brett Lancaster TEAM MILRAM + 25
24 Michael Friedman TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 26
25 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
81 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 47
98 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 50
110 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 52
113 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
136 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 56

Pliuschin will wear the points jersey tomorrow due to being 2nd inthe classification and we will make sure 3 riders at least finish in the peleton to maintain our impressive 41 second lead in the teams classification.

Fantastic win in Denmark

Ian Stannard was sent into the breakaway for Stage 2 of Dunkirk, with the aim of taking the KoM jersey. There were 3 KoM hills on the course but only 1 gave points. Stannard was first and 2nd in the 2 non-counting ones (Without the need to attack) and was relaying at the right time for the decisive one, although he was ready to attack if necessary, meaning that Stannard takes the KoM jersey to wear (and defend) tomorrow.


The break would be caught though and 3 trains formed in the sprint, Manan toed and froed between them and looked to settle behind Zanotti before switching to the CSC train on the right. It was a very good choice as Credit Agricole's Hinault crashed at the front of the central train, taking out all the sprinters behind him.


Manan' took the wheel of Goss and was well positioned with 1km to go.


He left Goss' wheel and originally looked good but then faded horrifically, only managing to sneak a 10th as Radochla won.

Pliuschin took 16th despite not trying particularly hard.

1 Stefan Radochla TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 4h24'11
2 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
3 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
4 Kenny Van Hummel SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
5 Matthew Goss TEAM CSC s.t.
6 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
7 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
8 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
9 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC s.t.
10 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
11 Yauheni Hutarovich ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
12 Hans Dekkers AGRITUBEL s.t.
13 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
14 Robert Retschke TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
15 Bastiaan Giling TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
16 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
17 Ludovic Turpin AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
18 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
19 Mathieu Ladagnous FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
20 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
21 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL s.t.
22 Renaud Dion AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
23 Freddy Bichot AGRITUBEL s.t.
24 Christopher Sutton COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
25 Matthé Pronk UNIBET.COM s.t.
36 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
61 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
76 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
99 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
143 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'31
160 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 12'46


Rank Name Team Time
1 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO 4h36'26
2 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1
3 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 6
4 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7
5 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9
6 Bert Grabsch T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Danny Pate TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 13
8 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL + 15
9 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC s.t.
10 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 18

Rank Name Team Points General
1 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO 0 20
2 Stefan Radochla TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 20 20
3 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 17 17
4 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 0 17
5 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 0 15
6 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 15 15
7 Kenny Van Hummel SKIL - SHIMANO 13 13
8 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 0 13
9 Matthew Goss TEAM CSC 11 11
10 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 0 11

Rank Name Team Mountain General
1 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 3 3
2 Pieter Jacobs UNIBET.COM 2 2
3 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 1 1

Great progress for DFL

2 more sprint stages and Stannard was in the breakaway for both picking up maximum king of the mountain points, both stages would come down to a sprint though.


Stage 3
A mass sprint near the finish took down many high placed riders, including race leader Cornu. It looked like DFL would be 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the GC after the stage but all hopes were ended when Ryan Day went frustrating slow at the finish. He was about 15 seconds slower than the man infront and 18 seconds ahead of the lead rider in the 'crashgroup'.
The sprint was too easy for Lloyd Mondory, Manan struggled to 11th.


Stage 4
No crashes today and on a +5 form, Manan could do well. Following Feillu he is 6th in line in the one and only sprint train. 6th is too far back and he had to settle for 5th at the finish, behind 4 riders who were infront of him in the train. Haddou wins for Bouygues - believe it or not, they are the team with the most victories so far this year (17), 1 ahead of Rabobank Continental.


GC going into the decisive hilled stage:
1 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO 13h48'59
2 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1
3 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 6
4 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7
5 Bert Grabsch T-MOBILE TEAM + 9
6 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
7 Danny Pate TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 13
8 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL + 15
9 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC s.t.
10 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 18
11 Marco Velo TEAM MILRAM s.t.
12 Sébastien Minard COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
13 Mathieu Ladagnous FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 19
14 Jörg Ludewig TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 20
15 Michael Blaudzun TEAM CSC s.t.
16 Adam Hansen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
17 Tom Criel UNIBET.COM + 22
18 Ben Day NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 23
19 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 + 24
20 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 26
64 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 47
77 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 52
79 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
134 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'50
161 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 28'13

Rank Name Team Points General
1 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 47
2 Stefan Radochla TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 45
3 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 41
4 Kenny Van Hummel SKIL - SHIMANO 32
5 Saïd Haddou BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM 29
6 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO 28
7 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE 27
8 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 24
9 Matthew Goss TEAM CSC 23
10 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 22
12 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 17
16 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 13
17 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 11
44 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 2


Rank Name Team Mountain General
1 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 9 18
2 Benjamin Brooks NAVIGATORS INSURANCE 4 4
3 Johan Coenen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 4 4
4 Pieter Jacobs UNIBET.COM 0 2
5 Ben Johnson TEAM SLIPSTREAM 0 2
6 Frédéric Amorison LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER 0 2
7 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 0 1
8 Fabien Bacquet SKIL - SHIMANO 0 1
9 Kenny De Haes CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 0 1
10 Michael Friedman TEAM SLIPSTREAM 1 1

There are 33 points available in Stage 5 and 0 in Stage 6. Stannard should really have enough but will probably attack early on to make sure.

some great results recently, keep it up

Yup, and it can only get better.


Stage 5

This will be decisive in 2 ways: 1. Overall Jersey; 2. KoM Jersey
1. With a flat stage to end the tour, I expect there to be attacks late on as the weaker timetrialers look to get the stage win and the tour win. This is a job for Pliuschin.
2. Stannard has 18 points, with a maximum of 30 available - albeit with the last 3 coming 1km from the finish. Stannard is on breakaway duty again!


Stannard got in a 4 man break but hewas badly positoned and the attack didnt work great so he took 2nd behind Landbouwkredit's Kuyckx. On the next lap Rooijakers (Skil) punctured and then Kuyckx attacked. Drujon was being a french bastard and wouldnt relay with Stannard so the Belgian got away. Another 2nd for Stannard behind Kuyckx.

2nd again in Lap 3 and in the 4th lap I stopped relaying, and funnily enough Drujon worked then and dropped Stannard, with Ian unable to get back. Stannard took 3rd in that lap and then in the 5th before being caught by the next group of 7. As things stood Kuyckx had 15 KoM points and having earnt 8 today, Stannard is on 28.

Earlier on the 5th lap, Predictor-Lotto had simply rode away from the peleton:


They caught the 2nd group which at one point held Stannard, before Stannard got dropped and at one stage they had over 2 minutes on the peleton. Amazingly though, they slowed and 40km after they went away, they got caught.

Kuyckx lead after the 8th lap and is now just 2 KoM points behind Stannard. Thankfully, the peleton were in sight and Kuyckx was caught before the next chance to take points: Jersey for Stannard!


The next time they hit the climb to Cassel there is 17km and attacks come. KoM Hunters or GC Chasers? Pliuschin did not attack and was right not to as they were just idiotic KoM hunters with no chance of the jersey

Onto the final lap now with 15km to go Pliuschin still has a very healthy blue bar, but every other DFL rider has ran out of energy. (Pliuschin still had 1 bottle and an almost full green bar).

I wait and wait for the favourites to attack but nothing happens, so with 6km to go, Pliuschin attacks!


There is no response and he quickly has a 45 second gap!


He takes the King of the Mountain points, and starts to sprint (The sprint sign only appeared then, as did the follow sign). And WINS!


1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 4h45'39
2 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'01
3 Maarten Den Bakker SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
4 Yannick Talabardon CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
5 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC s.t.
6 Clément L'Hottelerie SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
7 Wim De Vocht PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
8 Danny Pate TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
9 Mathieu Ladagnous FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
10 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
11 Stéphane Pétilleau BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
12 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Johan Coenen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
14 Frédéric Finot ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
15 Frédéric Amorison LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
16 Franck Rénier BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
17 Christian Knees TEAM MILRAM s.t.
18 Renaud Dion AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
19 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
20 Matthé Pronk UNIBET.COM s.t.
21 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
22 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
23 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
24 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
25 Bastiaan Giling TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
117 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'49
118 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
121 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
137 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'17
144 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 8'53
148 Chris Hoy DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'40
159 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 12'04


Rank Name Team Time
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 18h34'39
2 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'00
3 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'06
4 Bert Grabsch T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'09
5 Danny Pate TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 1'13
6 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC + 1'15
7 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL s.t.
8 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'18
9 Sébastien Minard COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
10 Marco Velo TEAM MILRAM s.t.

Rank Name Team Points General
1 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 0 47
2 Stefan Radochla TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 0 45
3 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 0 41
4 Kenny Van Hummel SKIL - SHIMANO 0 32
5 Saïd Haddou BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM 0 29
6 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO 0 28
7 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE 0 27
8 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 0 24
9 Matthew Goss TEAM CSC 0 23
10 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 0 22

Rank Name Team Mountain General
1 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 8 26
2 Jan Kuyckx LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER 24 24
3 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 12 12
4 Benjamin Brooks NAVIGATORS INSURANCE 0 4
5 Johan Coenen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 0 4
6 Christian Knees TEAM MILRAM 3 3
7 Stéphane Pétilleau BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX 3 3
8 Yannick Talabardon CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 3 3
9 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 3 3
10 Pieter Jacobs UNIBET.COM 0 2

great win

Domination - almost as good as Guido with those results

And Guido has a much better team

Its not quite domination though as I slipped from 1st to joint last in the teams classification

The victory helped Pliuschin to increase to Experience level 3!

His Mountain skill has gone from 71 to 73.
His TT skill has gone from 72 to 73.
His Hill skill has gone from 69 to 70.
His Recovery skill has gone from 71 to 72.

congratulations man. Even being mentioned in the mix for promotion in year 1 with DFL is great. Pliuschin is a pretty good rider, especially once he hits that full lvl 4, you think you can keep him at that point?

Regardless, keep it up!