Yes, not sure how the graphics went so grey, but in ~12 updates time they are magically fixed (when switching from races played in 2011, to races played in 2014)
Criterium du Dauphine-Libere, 2010 Stage 7: St Jean de Maurienne - Charmant Som
Evans, Tenorio, Ignatiev, Kittel, Froome, Sabatini, Efimkin, Martin
Epic stage approaches.
And to make it harder: the DFL pace setting. Once the first climb ends, Ignatiev and Kittel push it on the descent, all the way to the next climb.
Then it is Dan Martin's turn, reducing the peloton from 149 to 45. Here he is dropping an injured Kreuziger.
No need for us to do pacing on the 3rd climb. 5th overall Pereiro and the always dangerous Dekker decided to launch attacks early, and Barloworld decided they would do all the work to chase it down.
Approaching the top of this 3rd climb, everybody is struggling. The lead group is down to 15, but that is as far as Tenorio goes today, he cracks.
Over the top, with 20km and the final climb still to come, just 7 remain.
44 seconds to gain on Mollema, 10km to go do it with. Belkov attacks first. A possible danger being only 40 seconds behind Evans on GC, but it is okay, because teammate Anton chases him down.
Now Evans makes his move!
Anton, Mollema and Belkov all working to catch him
Final kilometre nears, gap is just 26 second - that is not enough!
And trouble! Evans cracks with 400 metres to go.
Anton catches Evans
But now Anton gets dropped again!
And now he is coming back...
But Evans holds on to win!!
A tortuous final kilometre, but Mollema found it worse. He finishes 58 seconds down, so Evans takes the race lead!
He peaked for the Giro, couldn't have been in any better form there, yet was blown away and only finished 9th. He has largely held on to his peak here, and now leads the race, but then he is done.
Pliuschin is our TdF leader, having won the Vuelta last season. Tenorio is the potential co-leader. Both their peaks are set for the Tour so while Tenorio is here gaining form, Pliuschin will be at the Tour de Suisse doing the same.
I would say I should dust off the PCM07, but as part of my self-prescribed therapy, I've already done that a couple of weeks ago. I should probably load up the Auber game though...
The Tour de Suisse is now about to get underway. Michael Rogers has made this his peak for the season, let's see if the fact that most others will be aiming more for the Tour can play in our advantage?
He'll have to do it the hard way, the field is strong. Schleck, Augustyn, Gesink, Menchov and Valverde are all better than Rogers on paper.
Pliuschin and Deignan lead the support team. Pliuschin, the Vuelta champion, starting his build up for the Tour. (The fitness levels shown on the screenshot are from around National Championship time and don't reflect the fitness as of the Tour de Suisse!)
Our top sprinting duo are here too. Cavendish starting his season, Boasson Hagen continuing his. Neither are in great form right now though.
Boasson Hagen will lead out Cavendish. Looking good at 2km to go...
Getting a bit swamped at 1km to go...
And yep, they don't have the speed at the moment. Allan Davis wins.
Andy Schleck attacks right at the foot of it, this can't bode well.
Rogers is feeling good...
And he climbs up to Schleck!
Five chasers, including race leader Lloret, follow
Cheeky little attack now to get a small gap on him
And wow, he just rides away. How is this possible? Up to a minutes lead with 3km to go.
Rogers rides on to win the stage
And the gaps behind are extraordinary. In such a short space of time, Schleck self-destructed. It is actually Lloret who comes through for 2nd, 3 whole minutes after Rogers
1
Michael Rogers
DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED
4h28'32
2
Manuel Lloret
DISCOVERY CHANNEL
+ 3'17
3
Andy Schleck
TEAM CSC
+ 4'08
4
Linus Gerdemann
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
+ 4'20
5
Saul Raisin
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
s.t.
6
Rubén Plaza
SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR
+ 4'38
7
David De la Fuente
UNIBET.COM
s.t.
8
Oliver Zaugg
GEROLSTEINER
+ 5'00
9
Robert Gesink
RABOBANK
+ 5'46
10
Hector Orlando Mesa
TEAM ASTANA
+ 6'58
11
Aleksandr Pliuschin
DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED
+ 7'48
12
Alexander Khatuntsev
BARLOWORLD
s.t.
13
Branislav Samoilau
PREDICTOR - LOTTO
+ 8'04
14
Luis Orán Castañeda
PREDICTOR - LOTTO
s.t.
15
Antonio García González
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
+ 8'19
16
Moisés Dueñas
TEAM WIESENHOF FELT
+ 9'09
17
Eladio Jiménez
CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE
+ 9'19
18
Denis Menchov
QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC
+ 9'32
19
Alexis Castro
TEAM WIESENHOF FELT
s.t.
20
Pedro Nicacio
UNIBET.COM
+ 9'48
The only downside to this incredible stage is that Cavendish finished outside the time limit. Not good, as he really needs to build race day fitness ahead of the Tour.
A sprinter's stage next, and while most teams would suffer at having lost such a key sprinter in Cavendish, we have the very able Boasson Hagen as backup.
But after riding to 12th overall yesterday, our Tour de France leader Pliuschin had a very bad day today. Not even able to keep with the peloton at the end, he lost 3 minutes.
What can Boasson Hagen do at the finish?
He is trying to chase down Ceramia Panaria's Retschke
As brilliant as Rogers' win was on Stage 3, it does make the rest of the race a little boring. The gap was so great, that the battle for 1st is as good as over. Good for DFL, bad for excitement.
Zaugg bagged a home win on the next big stage, Rogers safely in the chase group with Schleck, Gesink and Lloret
Criterium du Dauphine-Libere, 2010 Stage 6: La Clusaz - St Jean de Maurienne
This is old memories of my first PCM experiences ever. Was 3-4 editions earlier though.
(when switching from races played in 2011, to races played in 2014)
Tour de Suisse, 2010 Stage 1: Strasbourg - Soleure
