Ill bring it back at some point, I havent played PCM07 in ages, I dont even have it installed (Ive got the save game stil lthough)

too buissy with the management game I guess

Its a pain in the ass switching disks all the time

Without a doubt, the 2 biggest riders in the race are CSC's Voigt and O'Grady, both ranked in the top 25 of the ProTour standings. But they are CSC's only riders in the race, so T-Mobile or Unibet start as favourites. DFL brings Manan and we hope to grab as many CT points as possible, with no overall aspirations.

Andre Greipel took Stage 1 with Manan 6th, Greipel won Stage 2 aswell. Manan was on his way to 7th before crashing at the last corner.


High winds swept through Stage 3 threatening to tear the race apart. In theend it did just that as Greipel and Hagen put some teammates up front at a fast pace with around 20km to go and soon rode away, with their teammates dropping back. Manan has been paying attention but couldnt quite latch onto them. GLS's Morkov joined him in a chase - although it was more of a trying to gain time on peleton battle as Greipel and Hagen were long gone.
Greipel easily took his 3rd stage in a row.


Morkov had began to pull away from Manan and the malaysian couldnt pull him back completely in the sprint, but 4th is still a good result.

1 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM 4h57'48
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI s.t.
3 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS + 2'54
4 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
5 Nikola Aistrup TEAM GLS + 3'48
6 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM s.t.
7 Michael Reihs TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
8 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
9 Jaroslaw Zarębski ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
10 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS s.t.

Stage 4 was a flat 84km course and Manan was finally well positioned in the sprint, behind Hagen and Cooke but infront of Greipel. Cooke and Greipel were too strong but Manan looked to be taking 3rd until he faded in the last few metres. Greipel won... again.


1 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM 1h51'23
2 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM s.t.
3 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI s.t.
4 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
5 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

Stage 5 was the 11km time trial. Pinotti just edged out Voigt for victory, while 8th for Hagen could only peg back half of the time he needed on Greipel. Our Finnish TT Champ Matti Helminen produced a stunning time to finish 7th.

1 Marco Pinotti T-MOBILE TEAM 12'23
2 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
3 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM + 5
4 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 8
5 Martin Mortensen TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN + 9
6 Frantisek Rabon T-MOBILE TEAM + 17
7 Matti Helminen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
8 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI + 20

GC with the final hilly stage to come:
1 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM 15h55'58
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI + 33
3 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM + 3'50
4 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS + 4'03
5 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'19
6 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 4'21
7 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 4'29
8 Błażej Janiaczyk ACTION - UNIQA + 4'43
9 Marc De Maar RABOBANK + 4'44
10 Daniel Foder TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN + 4'45

Dan Lloyd attacked on the final hill and rode the descent as fast as possible. He still had a gap with 3km to go but would ultimately finish 13th. A 3rd and a 4th for Wiesenhof sees the German team take the lead in the Continental standings, moving ahead of DFL.


1 Carlo Scognamiglio TEAM MILRAM 5h14'26
2 René Weissinger TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
3 Robert Wagner TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
4 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
5 Sven Teutenberg TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
6 René Obst TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
7 Greg Henderson T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 André Schulze TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
9 Nico Graf THÃœRINGER ENERGIE TEAM s.t.
10 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC s.t.
11 Daniel Musiol TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
12 Sebastian Schwager TEAM MILRAM s.t.
13 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
14 Robert McLachlan DRAPAC PORSCHE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM s.t.
15 Martin Müller TEAM MILRAM s.t.

nice to see it back

How far away is the 3rd placed team in the cont rankings?

Barloworld are roughly 200-300 points back.

Edit: Its actually 410 points after the race in the next post

La Poly Normande

Evan Oliphant went with the break of 5, which would eventually become 13.


Only Bouygues committed to the chase and the gap was still at 3 minutes with 20km to go. Fedrigo and Di Gregorio attacked strongly from the peleton, with other attackers - including Dan Lloyd, unable to follow. With 10km to go, the break still looked good but noone particularly wanted to work - Oliphant certainly wasnt going to waste too much energy and risk his red bar rising too early, as the Brit holds one of the worst sprint stats in the group, now down to 7.
The slow pace allowed Duclos Lasselle to rejoin the group having been dropped, but then he crashed anyway. The pace did pick up a bit and came close to splitting the group, with Oliphant amongst the strongest 4, but the other 3 hung on and with 4km to go, Fedrigo and Di Gregorio arrived at the back of the group.


Forced to lead out, Oliphant held off for as long as possible before FDJ's Auger lost patientce and finally made a move. Fedrigo came charging up the left though and into the lead, while Oliphant battled to stay in the top 5. 3rd even seemed in reach but he couldnt find his way past Nevens, but managed to hold off Di Gregorio for a brilliant 4th place. Fedrigo won.


1 Pierrick Fédrigo BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM 4h37'01
2 Ludovic Auger FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
3 Sven Nevens JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
4 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
5 Rémy Di Gregorio FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
6 Jonathan Hivert CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
7 Laurent Mars STOREZ LEDECQ MATERIAUX s.t.
8 Julien Loubet AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
9 Kevin Neirynck LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
10 David Lelay BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
11 Jérôme Pineau BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
12 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
13 Tyler Farrar COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
14 Francesco Bellotti CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
15 Nico Sijmens LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
16 Frederic Gabriel LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
17 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 s.t.
18 Christophe Le Mével CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
19 Jan Kuyckx LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
20 Maxime Monfort COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
21 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
22 Ian McLeod FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
23 Yannick Talabardon CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
24 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
25 Francis Mourey FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.

The 24 points picked up for 4th are Oliphant's first of the season and bring us past the 1900 point mark to 1921, 410 points ahead of 3rd place Barloworld. 2nd is our only goal now, as Wiesenhof are just too strong, even without the injured Wesemann.

The final stage is hilly, and surely Manan has no chance with his 54 hill stat of keeping in the top 10 overall, where he currently lies 5th.

Having made it through most of the stage, the final, toughest hill of the day remains.


Attacks went off and a lead group of 4 formed, Cooke, Rohregger, Hagen and Greipel. Morkov and Langeveld also got away.


Manan managed to keep in the peleton so a top 10 overall looks more than likely now. Greipel has already secured his race win, but can he take his 4th stage? He led out and his sprint started slowly and Hagen came alongside him but the norwegian faded and Greipel easily took yet another stage.


1 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM 4h36'27
2 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM s.t.
3 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI s.t.
4 Thomas Rohregger ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
5 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS + 47
6 Sebastian Langeveld RABOBANK + 1'10
7 Martin Mortensen TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
8 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
9 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS s.t.
10 Michael Reihs TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
36 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

Rank Name Team Time
1 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM 20h32'05
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI + 45
3 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM + 3'58
4 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS + 5'10
5 Thomas Rohregger ELK HAUS - SIMPLON + 5'28
6 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'49
7 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 5'51
8 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 5'59
9 Błażej Janiaczyk ACTION - UNIQA + 6'13
10 Marc De Maar RABOBANK + 6'14
11 Sebastian Langeveld RABOBANK + 6'15
12 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS s.t.
13 Daniel Foder TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
14 Thomas Oredsson TEAM GLS + 6'17
15 Charles Wegelius LIQUIGAS + 6'19

Nice stuff with Manan

Nice Any plans forming for riders next year? Cummings? Millar? Wiggins?

Millar is definately a target, Wiggins too

nice effort to keep him in the top ten

Coolies look forward to the rest of the season and the transfers

Deutschland Tour
Well I got a wildcard here because I thought I would use it for Pliuschin to get back into form ahead of the Tour of Ireland. Instead, Pliuschin will be elsewhere so Im using it purely for experience points. Its a top quality field with the 2 grand tour winners, Valverde + Di Luca, plus F. Schleck, Contador, Cancellara, Freire, Petacchi, Boogerd, Sanchez, Kloden and Dekker all riding, amongst others.
Only Nolf and Meul made it in the peleton on Stage 1. Freire won, while Nolf took 31st. Stage 2 was a TTT and with our best TTers being Oliphant (64) and Nolf (65 - not in form), it would be fun yet almost certainly last. This looked the case after the first 2 checks but somehow..we didnt come last - beating Ag2r and Credit Agricole, while nearly beating Euskaltel and Lampre.
Stage 3 was simmed cause I couldnt be bothered playing a hilly stage with a poor lineup. Frantisek Rabon won, Nolf was 43rd while Contador crashed out with a broken hand.


Aleksandr Pliuschin finally gets his first taste of the mountains this season as he looks to regain his form ahead of the Tour of Ireland, a sponsor target. He and Dan Lloyd spearhead the 6-man team as they take on 2 hilly stages and then 2 mountain stages.

The route for stage 1 was mostly flat although theres a tough finish to the stage. A lot of attacks came towards the top of the climb but only Gadret got away. Well, Scholz did too but had a minimal gap. Gadret gained a minute and maintained that to the line to win.


Behind him, Lloyd had drunk his last bottle with 4km to go just before the slight upward section to the line in order to give himself some blue bar and attacked with 3.5km to go. He didnt get away as such but with 1km to go as the sprint began, he was right at the front of the peleton. He came past Scholz in the sprint and took an unexpected 2nd place.


1 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 3h45'12
2 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 55
3 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER s.t.
4 Giovanni Visconti QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
5 Christophe Kern CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
6 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
7 Yannick Talabardon CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
8 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
9 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
10 Jurgen Van Goolen DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
11 David Lelay BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
12 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Marcel Strauss GEROLSTEINER s.t.
14 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
15 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
16 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
17 Steven Cummings DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
18 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER s.t.
19 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
20 Christophe Riblon AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.

Deutschland Tour - Linus Gerdemann takes Breakthrough Victory


Starting where we left off, Stage 4 saw Bjorn Schroder take a massive solo victory of over 9 minutes. Gerdemann hinted at his form with 2nd as Boogerd took over the leaders jersey.
Coming into the queen stage we have Boogerd in the race lead, Kloden and Valverde are the favourites though as the likes of Di Luca and Leipheimer are out of form but when the steep Rettenbachferner came it was Linus Gerdemann who outshone everyone. His attack was stronger than the rest and emnded up with a minutes gap over Kloden and Valverde - a gap which grew to 2 minutes by the end of the stage.

Stage:
1 Linus Gerdemann T-MOBILE TEAM 4h26'26
2 Andreas Klöden TEAM ASTANA + 2'12
3 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
4 Samuel Sánchez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 4'18
5 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK s.t.
6 Rémy Di Gregorio FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 6'41
7 Haimar Zubeldia EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 7'04
8 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK s.t.
9 Levi Leipheimer DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
10 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.

GC:
1 Linus Gerdemann T-MOBILE TEAM 19h03'17
2 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'07
3 Andreas Klöden TEAM ASTANA + 2'08
4 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK + 3'33
5 Samuel Sánchez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 6'33
6 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 7'55
7 Óscar Pereiro CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 8'18
8 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 8'20
9 Levi Leipheimer DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 8'53
10 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 9'26

Gerdemann's race lead lasted all of 1 day though. An 8 man breakaway beat the peleton by nearly 4 minutes - and it included Michael Boogerd who steals the race lead by 14 seconds.

1 Anthony Geslin BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM 3h56'53
2 Cyril Dessel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
3 Sebastian Lang GEROLSTEINER s.t.
4 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
5 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK s.t.
6 Rik Verbrugghe COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
7 Torsten Schmidt TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
8 Nicolas Roche CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
9 Óscar Freire RABOBANK + 3'47
10 Fran Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.

After a sprint stage came the TT. Dekker beat Gerdemann by less than a second, with Kloden 1 second back in 3rd. Boogerd lost over 2 minutes so Gerdemann retook the race lead which he would keep on the final sprint stage.
After a slow start to the season, Gerdemann began to hit form in July with 3rd in the German championships. 10th Overall in the Tour de France despite only 1 top 10 stage finish brought him to the Deutschland Tour where he surprised everyone by taking a victory in such a high quality field.

Final GC:
1 Linus Gerdemann T-MOBILE TEAM 31h27'35
2 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK + 2'07
3 Andreas Klöden TEAM ASTANA + 2'09
4 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 3'20
5 Fränk Schleck TEAM CSC + 5'57
6 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 8'28
7 Samuel Sánchez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 8'31
8 Levi Leipheimer DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 9'05
9 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 9'26
10 Óscar Pereiro CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
11 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS + 11'03
12 Haimar Zubeldia EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 11'48
13 Cyril Dessel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 11'56
14 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER + 14'17
15 Rémy Di Gregorio FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 14'29
45 Danilo Di Luca LIQUIGAS + 25'29
69 Damiano Cunego LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 34'12
76 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 36'02
98 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 42'54
152 Cameron Jennings DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1h04'14
159 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1h09'04
160 Sven De Weerdt DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1h09'32
161 Robby Meul DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1h10'52
172 Mads Kaggestad CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1h37'14
173 Iban Iriondo EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 1h39'58

Belgian + Dutch TT Championships

With 5 of my 6 Belgians racing in the Deutschland Tour, only Nico Mattan would represent us in the Belgian Championships. Mattan is out of form having focused entirely on the spring cobbled season and finished 36th out of 99.

1 Stijn Devolder DISCOVERY CHANNEL 50'36
2 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 3
3 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 12
4 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 48
5 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 51
6 Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 52
7 Olivier Kaisen PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'07
8 Jurgen Van den Broeck PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'15
9 Tom Stubbe CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 1'18
10 Francis De Greef DAVITAMON - WIN FOR LIFE - JONG VLAANDEREN + 1'23
36 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

Jens Mouris and Bjorn Cornellisen entered the Dutch champs. Stef Clement took full advantage of Dekker's absence and took victory.

Stage 2
Stage 2 is the 2nd hilly stage and only Dan Lloyd would make it to the finish in the peleton, everyone else - including Pliuschin - would lose time.


Gadret got a little gap on the final hill and it was enough for him to not worry about a sprint finish. He took victory while in a tight battle behind him, Lloyd had to settle for 9th.


1 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 3h43'28
2 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
4 Lars Boom RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
5 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
6 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
7 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
8 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
9 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
10 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
60 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'38


Stage 3

Stage 3 is the queen stage of the tour with the long, steep Le Grand Colombier climb. Neither Lloyd nor Pliuschin were able to keep up with the favourites' attacks so the dya was all about damage limitation, and Pliuschin did his best to limit the gaps by leading the peleton at 99% for as long as possible. Halgand outsprinted Gadret for the stage.


1 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 3h45'30
2 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
3 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'22
4 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 2'05
5 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
6 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL s.t.
7 Jurgen Van Goolen DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
8 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 2'44
9 Chechu Rubiera DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'04
10 Marco Pinotti T-MOBILE TEAM + 3'13
11 Bauke Mollema RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
12 Oliver Zaugg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
13 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 4'25
14 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
15 Maxime Monfort COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
16 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
17 Christophe Riblon AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
18 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
19 Ian McLeod FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
20 Christophe Le Mével CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
21 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

GC:
1 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 11h13'18
2 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1'27
3 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'49
4 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 3'52
5 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
6 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL s.t.
7 Jurgen Van Goolen DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
8 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 4'23
9 Chechu Rubiera DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 4'51
10 Marco Pinotti T-MOBILE TEAM + 5'00
11 Bauke Mollema RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
12 Oliver Zaugg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
13 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'00
14 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 6'12
15 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
42 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'50


Stage 4
Classified as a mountain stage but today is shorter in distance and the climbs are shorter and not as steep which suited Dan Lloyd much better and sure enough, after the final classified climb of the day, Lloyd was in the lead group of the favourites, closing in on the breakaway. With him are Halgand, Barredo, Gadret and Van Goolen.


They caught the rest of the early break, which had included Aleksandr Pliuschin - who had ran out of energy due to the effort put in. Infact, the only breakaway rider not to run out of energy and therefore able to hang on to the lead group was Lars Boom.

Lloyd had good cooperation with Barredo in trying to increase the gap, while Gadret and Halgand werent quite as helpful. Van Goolen was just trying to hang on, as was Boom.


It remained a group of 6 for the sprint to the line, and Barredo took victory ahead of Van Goolen, with Lloyd in 3rd.


Despite being out of energy for the last 15km, Pliuschin still finished 29th, ahead of the likes of Bettini and Rebellin.

1 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 3h21'50
2 Jurgen Van Goolen DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
3 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
4 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
5 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
6 Lars Boom RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
7 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL + 55
8 Oliver Zaugg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
9 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 1'32
10 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
11 Bauke Mollema RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
12 Christophe Riblon AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 2'12
13 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
14 Marco Pinotti T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 s.t.
16 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 3'26
17 David Lelay BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
18 Yannick Talabardon CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
19 Benoît Vaugrenard FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
20 Christophe Kern CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
21 Ian McLeod FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
22 John Devine DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'53
23 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
24 Chechu Rubiera DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
25 Laurent Lefèvre BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
26 Christophe Le Mével CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
27 Arnaud Labbe BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 4'33
28 Michael Barry T-MOBILE TEAM + 5'01
29 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
30 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 s.t.
31 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
32 Stéphane Augé COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
33 Sylvain Calzati AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
34 Vincent Jérôme BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
35 José Luis Arrieta AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
36 Alexandre Pichot BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
37 Jan Soetens JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
38 Giovanni Visconti QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 7'27
39 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
40 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
41 Alessandro Proni QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
42 Ivan Santaromita QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
43 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER s.t.
44 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER s.t.
45 Maxime Monfort COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
46 Amaël Moinard COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
47 Giovanni Bernaudeau BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
48 Giuseppe Guerini T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
49 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
50 Pierre Rolland CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.

Lloyd managed to climb 6 places in the final GC, up to 7th.

Rank Name Team Time
1 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 14h35'08
2 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1'27
3 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 2'29
4 Jurgen Van Goolen DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 3'40
5 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL + 4'47
6 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 5'24
7 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'52
8 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 5'55
9 Oliver Zaugg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
10 Lars Boom RABOBANK CONTINENTAL + 6'08
11 Bauke Mollema RABOBANK CONTINENTAL + 6'32
12 Marco Pinotti T-MOBILE TEAM + 7'12
13 David Moncoutié COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 7'18
14 Christophe Riblon AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 8'24
15 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
31 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 12'51
34 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 13'39
39 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER + 14'31

Pliuschin countered an attack with around 75km to go and they had caught the early break within 10km.


Pozzato, Nocentini, Celestino, Del Nero, Leukemans and Burghardt are with Pliuschin and they soon drop the early breakaway and look to create and sustain a gap over the peleton. With 45km to go, and the gap at 2 minutes, Pliuschin almost loses contact but he digs deep and stays in the group almost all the way - its not until the top of the final climb of the Waseberg with 15km to go that he does gets gapped, with nearly 3 red bars.


As he falls back to the peleton, he is passed by the dangerous Quick Step trio of Bettini, Boonen and De Jongh who are closing in on the lead group. The trio splits but manage to catch the front group anyway, Bettini catches them with 5km to go, Boonen with 3.5km to go and De Jongh with 2.5km to go.


De Jongh doesnt sprint but Bettini and Boonen do and they take a Quick Step 1-2.


If only Pliuschin had been in better form, a top 10 finish would have been within his reach.

1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 6h01'18
2 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Jesús Del Nero SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
4 Mirko Celestino TEAM MILRAM s.t.
5 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
6 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
8 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
9 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
10 André Greipel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
11 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
12 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Óscar Freire RABOBANK s.t.
14 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 Allan Davis DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
16 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
17 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
18 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t.
19 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC s.t.
20 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
70 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
78 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
95 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
98 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
119 Robby Meul DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
130 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
135 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'28
140 Samuel Sánchez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 5'32
156 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 11'08
176 Joseba Zubeldia EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 22'20