Stage 8



Evans just has to not lose a minute to Frank Schleck (Easy!) while Hagen and Pliuschin are targeting a Top 10 spot. Rovira should drop down, but theres also the likes of LL Sanchez, Nibali and Gusev who are not far behind the DFL pair.

Theres a lot of big time trialists out early. Lang, Voigt, German TT Champ Fiedler, Coppel. But they are all beaten by two Wiesenhof riders! Peter Velits and then Markus Reich, the 23 year old former German TT Champ (albeit winning in 2008 with a weakened field).


Ignatiev is on a super day, trailing 4 seconds at the first check to Reich, at 11km


Its down to 28 seconds by the second split, but theres still 25km to go and Ignatiev starts putting the hammer down and building in speed. Charging towards the finish, he is no longer 28 seconds down - but over a minute ahead!!


Thomas Dekker is out on couse though, 44 seconds up on Ignatiev at the 2nd check


But Ignatiev's super finish is showing, Dekker's lead shrinks and shrinks. With the clock ticking as he enteres the finishing straight, its going to be very very close and damn .... Dekker hung on by 1 second. 1 second!!!


So after an anonymous tour so far, Dekker will come away with a stage win, Ignatiev must settle for 2nd - 27 people went faster than him at the 2nd check, but only Dekker could cling on to that lead.

Pliuschin is clearly better than Hagen today, but LL Sanchez is also better than Pliuschin. Faster than Rovira as expected, will he have to settle for 11th? No his ride is 20 seconds faster than van den Broeck, he only needed 11 - and thats 10th overall! He is very pleased to grab a Top 10 while still just building up form, in the race which is still his biggest Stage race victory of his career (although hopefully not once September is over)


Evans' only worry is Frank Schleck, but the puncheur is on a great ride


But Evans does enough, and his barren spell in terms of PT Stage race victories has come to an end. 3rd in the Dauphine and the Tour in 2007 will no longer be his best finish in a ProTour race.


1 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 1h02'12
2 Mikhail Ignatiev DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1
3 Stijn Devolder EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 16
4 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 24
5 José Iván Gutiérrez SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 37
6 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 39
7 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 49
8 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA + 1'02
9 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1'05
10 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 1'07
11 Markus Reich TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 1'09
12 Rubén Plaza SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 1'12
13 Peter Velits TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 1'16
14 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'18
15 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'31
16 Jakob Fiedler T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'32
17 Shaun Higgerson FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'34
18 Vincenzo Nibali T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
19 Vladimir Gusev QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'37
20 Tiago Machado CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'38
21 Sebastian Lang GEROLSTEINER + 1'39
22 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 1'44
23 Jurgen Van den Broeck PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'51
24 Michiel Elijzen COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 1'52
25 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 1'53
26 Juanjo Cobo CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
27 Jérôme Coppel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 1'55
28 Thomas Ziegler T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'56
29 Andriy Grivko FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 2'01
30 Alan Suchoparek DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'04
31 Grischa Niermann PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
32 Juan Pablo Forero PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
33 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 2'06
34 Bobby Julich QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'12
35 Christian Müller UNIBET.COM s.t.
36 Tim Gudsell FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 2'14
37 Julián Rodas TEAM ASTANA + 2'17
38 Yuri Trofimov COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 2'18
39 Tom Danielson DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'24
40 David Blanco CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'27
41 Marcel Sieberg PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 2'32
42 Edvald Boasson Hagen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
43 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 2'33
44 Manuel Quinziato QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'36
45 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 2'39
46 Stefano Barberi QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'41
47 Libardo Niño PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 2'42
48 Torsten Hiekmann GEROLSTEINER + 2'47
49 Alejandro Ramírez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'48
50 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'51

GC
1 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 29h25'23
2 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 53
3 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 1'36
4 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 2'44
5 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA + 2'45
6 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 3'17
7 Stijn Devolder EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 3'24
8 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 5'22
9 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 5'45
10 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'57
11 Jurgen Van den Broeck PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 6'06
12 Vincenzo Nibali T-MOBILE TEAM + 6'23
13 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 6'26
14 José Iván Gutiérrez SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
15 Vladimir Gusev QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 6'34
16 Edvald Boasson Hagen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'49
17 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 7'36
18 Stefano Barberi QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 7'38
19 Tiago Machado CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 7'57
20 Jaume Rovira AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 8'19
21 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 8'21
22 Maxime Monfort COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 8'33
23 Rubén Plaza SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 8'39
24 Mikel Astarloza QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 8'57
25 Mikhail Ignatiev DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'00

what has happened to manan?

i cant remember him ever winning

Only 4 race days until Deutschland Tour, he is now starting to build up form for the Vuelta, his main target

what are his stats like?

71 Flat, 80 Sprint, 77 Acceleration, 72 Stamina, 74 Resistance, 70 Recovery. XP is Level 4, and roughly 10xp - so another stats boost still to come.

and his hill stat?
btw very nice Deutschland Tour

Only 61

if you train him as a climber...

anyway you have a very useful sprint team

well that's his problem...just as cav...and wacko: puncheur is better^^

Looking forward to the Vuelta

yeah probably

and looking forward to vuelta too - often the best GT in PCM

It should be interesting - it starts straight off with 3 mountain stages! DFL favourite Aleksandr Pliuschin will be there - after 5th in the 2008 Giro, he wont settle for anything less than a podium here, before gearing up to ride his first Tour in 2010.

Stage 9

The final stage of the race


Its a circuit race, its chucking it down with rain. Crashes can be predicted right from the start and that is what we get. Throughout the whole stage at least 60 riders were to crash. Two of them were from DFL: Manan and Lloyd. Both picked up red crosses, neither bothered to finish the stage.


The biggest name to hit the deck was 7th overall Stijn Devolder


Accompanied by a larger group, he put up a spirited chase, but he would not catch up and another crash late on compounded his woes. Its bad news for Euskaltel who badly need ProTour points, currently being ranked 20th out of 20.


A reason why crash victims and other riders were unable to catch up was that the peleton were chasing down 3 strong survivors of the days break - JJ Cobo, Sylvain Chavanel and Dirk Muller


Cobo went solo with 26km to go, still holding a 3 minutes group. Chavanel and Muller are caught with 11km to go, and he is caught with 5km to go


It will come down to a sprint - an uphill sprint, and Hagen sneaks into the Lampre train, pushing ahead of Bennati


He moves into the lead as the road steepens


Bennati and Vanendert (Wiesenhof) are his closest challengers


And Bennati is putting up a big fight to get on terms with Hagen


Its neck-a-neck!


But its given to Bennati, so close for Hagen!


Minor consolation is that 2nd place gives Hagen the points he needed to take the points classification from Forero, who he had previously trailed by just 1 point.

1 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL 3h56'38
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
3 Jelle Vanendert TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
4 Gerald Ciolek T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
5 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
6 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM s.t.
7 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
8 Vladimir Gusev QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
9 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
10 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
11 Juan Pablo Forero PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
12 Jaume Rovira AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
13 Yuri Trofimov COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
14 Robert Hunter GEROLSTEINER s.t.
15 Matej Mugerli TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
16 Michael Albasini LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
17 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA s.t.
18 Koldo Fernández de Larrea EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
19 Cândido Barbosa EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
20 Giuseppe Palumbo UNIBET.COM s.t.
21 Alexis Rodríguez TEAM CSC s.t.
22 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
23 Paul Martens AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
24 Guillaume Levarlet AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
25 Nicki Sörensen TEAM CSC s.t.
26 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
27 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC s.t.
28 Pierrick Fédrigo CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
29 Peter Velits TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
30 Daniel Foder QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
31 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
32 Mikhail Ignatiev DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
33 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
34 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
35 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.

GC

Cadel Evans has won the Deutschland Tour! Devolder's crash means Pliuschin is up to 9th.

1 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 33h22'01
2 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 53
3 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM + 2'44
4 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA + 2'45
5 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 3'17
6 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK + 4'32
7 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 5'22
8 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 5'45
9 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'57
10 José Iván Gutiérrez SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'26
11 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK s.t.
12 Vladimir Gusev QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 6'34
13 Edvald Boasson Hagen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'43
14 Stijn Devolder EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 7'33
15 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 7'36
16 Stefano Barberi QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 7'38
17 Tiago Machado CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 7'57
18 Jaume Rovira AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 8'19
19 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 8'21
20 Maxime Monfort COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 8'33
21 Mikel Astarloza QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 8'57
22 Mikhail Ignatiev DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'00
23 Jurgen Van den Broeck PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 9'02
24 Bobby Julich QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 9'04
25 Yuri Trofimov COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 9'56
26 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS + 10'24
27 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 10'29
28 Vincenzo Nibali T-MOBILE TEAM + 10'32
29 Juanjo Cobo CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 10'49
30 Guillaume Levarlet AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 11'25
31 Rubén Plaza SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 11'35
32 Cândido Barbosa EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 11'43
33 Leonardo Piepoli SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 11'49
34 David Blanco CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 12'03
35 Luis Orán Castañeda LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 12'05
36 Alexis Castro DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 12'12
37 Andriy Grivko FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 12'20
38 Andrei Sartasov BARLOWORLD + 12'43
39 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK + 13'03
40 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 13'13
41 Tom Danielson DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 13'53
42 Óscar Sánchez BARLOWORLD + 14'21
43 Juan Pablo Forero PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 14'25
44 Michael Albasini LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 15'50
45 Charles Wegelius RABOBANK + 16'14
46 Óscar García-Casarrubios COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 16'27
47 Amets Txurruka EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 16'33
48 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 16'47
49 Libardo Niño PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 16'57
50 Julián Rodas TEAM ASTANA + 17'14

Points
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 106
2 Juan Pablo Forero PREDICTOR - LOTTO 92
3 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL 84
4 Gerald Ciolek T-MOBILE TEAM 64
5 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC 61
6 Yaroslav Popovych TEAM ASTANA 47
7 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 47
8 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM 40
9 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 38
10 Vladimir Karpets RABOBANK 36

KoM
1 Cadel Evans DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 28
2 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC 26
3 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC 22
4 Denis Menchov LAMPRE - FONDITAL 20
5 Paul Martens AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 18

yeah. GREAT results

Nice results in Germany!

Edvald Boasson Hagen is gunning for victory here after 2nd last year behind Pliuschin. Ben Swift also rides, with the rest of the squad being made up of Vuelta hopefuls: Anton, Sulzberger, Chtioui, Stevic, Raisin and De la Fuente


Napolitano, Phinney, Radochla, Barry, Eichler and Kuyckx are the break


They are of course caught, and all eyes turned to the two ascents of the steep Waseberg. On the first of the 2 climbs, 8 men rode away:

Leukemans, Breschel, Steurs, Van Avermaet, Van Katwijk, Sprick, Hoste and Stamsnijder

They were caught again on the 2nd climb of Waseberg as Hagen this time made sure he was right at the front, not wanting to miss any move


It would come to a sprint, and Hagen began following Eisel and Greipel until the Gerolsteiner pair of Kopp and Hunter began pulling away - he quickly made to catch up with them


Kopp leads the sprint - strong position now for Hagen


Into the final kilometre, he makes his move past Hunter


He is giving it all, but Greipel is going quick


Its gonna be another close one!


So close to the line now...


But Greipel sneaks ahead at the last possible moment ... Damn


1 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM 5h51'03
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
3 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
4 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER s.t.
5 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
6 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
7 David Kopp GEROLSTEINER s.t.
8 Juan Pablo Forero PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
9 Mark Cavendish T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
10 Robert Hunter GEROLSTEINER s.t.
11 Robert Förster PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
12 Lloyd Mondory AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
13 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
14 Gerald Ciolek T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Leonardo Duque CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
16 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
17 Martin Mortensen TEAM CSC s.t.
18 Yuri Trofimov COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
19 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
20 Geert Steurs PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
21 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
22 Ivan Rovny LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
23 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
24 Kim Kirchen LIQUIGAS s.t.
25 Nick Nuyens TEAM CSC s.t.
26 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
27 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
28 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
29 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
30 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
31 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD s.t.
32 Stuart O'Grady DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
33 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
34 Giovanni Visconti TEAM ASTANA s.t.
35 Matti Breschel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
36 Eros Capecchi LIQUIGAS s.t.
37 Joaquim Rodríguez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
38 Constantino Zaballa CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
39 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS s.t.
40 Marcus Burghardt FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
41 Gianni Meersman DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
42 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
43 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER s.t.
44 Jérôme Pineau EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
45 Kevin Van Impe RABOBANK s.t.
46 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
47 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
48 Mathieu Sprick T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
49 Jean-Marc Bideau TEAM MILRAM s.t.
50 Stijn Devolder EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.

Unlucky with Hagen but still a nice 2nd !

nice results.

it looks bad for Hunter if he got lead out by Kopp and still got beaten by his teammate Wegmann!!!

2 close 2nds - what are dan lloyds stats and experience levels now?

Unfortuneately I've been sick these last couple of days down here, but that has enabled to enjoy the return of this epic story.

Brilliant work as always SN, loving every bit of it.