Nah, Ive got the KoM in the Tour of Britain so its all ok

Stage 6

Irish champ Ciaran Power spent much of the day on a solo breakaway, sadly, it would not work.


It came down to a sprint and for the 3rd time this tour, Romain Feillu took the win. Hamish Haynes excelled in the art of following, as despite having just 64 sprint - he took a brilliant 7th.


1 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 3h16'21
2 Robert Hunter BARLOWORLD s.t.
3 Zak Dempster SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS s.t.
4 Martín Garrido DUJA - TAVIRA s.t.
5 Boy Van Poppel RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
6 Hans Dekkers AGRITUBEL s.t.
7 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
8 Anthony Ravard AGRITUBEL s.t.
9 Wesley Van der Linden CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
10 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
11 Kenny Van Hummel SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
12 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC s.t.
13 Nico Sijmens LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
14 Giosuè Bonomi BARLOWORLD s.t.
15 Stephen Wooldridge SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS s.t.

Ah good old Haynes, another one of the guys ive trained with before in my short years riding!

Stage 4 - Lebanon to Columbia

Ruben Lobato enbarked on a logn solo before being caught by 6 others: Erker, Moninger, Duggan, Capacho, Frey and Lopez.


They were a real pain as they worked well together and built up a lead of 13 minutes before we and Une Orbitel started the chase. The only 3 DFL riders not to chase were those in the Top 10 GC: Pliuschin, Mouris and Helminen.

Sven de Weerdt made some strong inroads into the breaks lead when he joined the chase:


With 6km to go, the break was down to 1 - Une Orbitel's Lopez, he hadnt been helping the break and was fresher when he put in an attack. The rest are falling back to the peleton, if they havent been caught already. Lopez is no threat on the GC, but wary of the small 14 second advantage he has over Botero, Pliuschin attacks!


It catches Botero by surprise and he is slow to react.


Lopez isnt going to be caught and the Colombian from the Colombian team takes victory in the town of Columbia.


Pliuschin extends his race lead as he powers over the line for 2nd.


1 Juan Carlos López UNE - ORBITEL 5h00'57
2 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 13
3 Santiago Botero UNE - ORBITEL + 32
4 Darren Lill NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 1'02
5 Ivan Stevic TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT s.t.
6 Taylor Tolleson TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
7 Nathan O'Neill HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS s.t.
8 Julián Rodas UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
9 Guido Trentin SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
10 Caleb Manion TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT s.t.
11 Edwin Orozco UNE - ORBITEL s.t.
12 John Devine DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
13 Alberto Benítez SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
14 Dirk Müller TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
15 Jacob Rosenbarger BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
16 Javier Mejías SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
17 Scott Nydam BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
18 Sergei Lagutin NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
19 Óscar Sánchez COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
20 Chad Hartley BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
21 Steven Cummings DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.

GC
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 13h44'24
2 Santiago Botero UNE - ORBITEL + 37
3 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'49
4 Julián Rodas UNE - ORBITEL + 2'15
5 John Devine DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'25
6 Matti Helminen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'28
7 Bernard Van Ulden NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'33
8 Phil Zajicek NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'36
9 Chad Hartley BMC CYCLING TEAM + 2'42
10 Michael Friedman TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.

good ride from Piluschin

Stage 7

Its the final stage, and Stannard goes with the break to absolutely secure his jersey.
https://www.tourof...r_logo.gif

But with 9km to go - the break still has 50 seconds!


Stannard drops Van der Linden and Chuzhda and still has a gap with 2km to go.


Sadly, the dream ends with 0.8km to go as Cancellara, Hunter, Van Hummel and Haynes (!) come though.


Hamish is again demonstrating his awesome skill in following riders but he will have to settle for 4th as Cancellara takes the stage


The game crashed so I couldnt export the results.

Stage:


GC:


KoM:

Stage 5

Vennell went with the break in a vague hope of getting the KoM jersey, but it wasnt to be, and he would eventually only just make it to the finish inside the time limit.

In the final sprint, Pliuschin has been unable to get in the Slipstream led train so decided to repeat his successful Stage 1 tactic of sprinting flat out.


It looks good, but Uros Murn is copying Pliuschin


Inside the final kilometer, it is Murn v Pliuschin


Ultimately, theres only going to be one winner as Murn wins the stage.


1 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL 5h41'59
2 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
3 Alexander Gottfried TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
4 Andrés Miguel Díaz COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
5 Iván Domínguez TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT s.t.
6 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
7 Brad Huff TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
8 Jarlinson Pantano COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
9 Ivan Stevic TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT s.t.
10 Taylor Tolleson TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
11 Michael Friedman TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
12 Heath Blackgrove TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT s.t.
13 Kyle Gritters HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS s.t.
14 Steven Cozza TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
15 Sebastian Frey TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
16 Jackson Stewart BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
17 Jacob Rosenbarger BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
18 Chad Hartley BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
19 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
20 Bernard Van Ulden NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.

GC
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 19h26'11
2 Santiago Botero UNE - ORBITEL + 49
3 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'01
4 Julián Rodas UNE - ORBITEL + 2'27
5 John Devine DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'37
6 Matti Helminen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'40
7 Bernard Van Ulden NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'45
8 Phil Zajicek NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'48
9 Michael Friedman TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 2'54
10 Chad Hartley BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.

Points
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 97
2 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL 66
3 Juan Carlos López UNE - ORBITEL 48
4 Santiago Botero UNE - ORBITEL 41
5 Alexander Gottfried TEAM SPARKASSE 38
6 Andrés Miguel Díaz COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES 32
7 Brad Huff TEAM SLIPSTREAM 31
8 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 30
9 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE 28
10 Taylor Tolleson TEAM SLIPSTREAM 23

Very nice by Pluchkin

So close twice

Thanks for the comments



Its the final stage, and the Americans are still winless. Devine is 5th overall and National Champion Van Ulden is in 7th, in what has been a disappointing tour for the home riders. Can the final stage change that? Its short and completely flat.

We decide to try something innovative and have Pliuschin lead out Vanderaerden, after all Pliuschin has been such a surprisingly strong sprinter so far this tour.


But it doesnt work and Vanderaerden soon comes past to fight for someone elses wheel, as BMC unleash Jackson Stewart.


Stewart powers towards the line, as Gritters and Huff close in.


Its definately going to be an American win, and the honours do go to Stewart!


1 Jackson Stewart BMC CYCLING TEAM 2h11'08
2 Kyle Gritters HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS s.t.
3 Brad Huff TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
4 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
5 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
6 Ivan Stevic TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT s.t.
7 Chad Hartley BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
8 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
9 Iván Domínguez TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT s.t.
10 Heath Blackgrove TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT s.t.
11 Alexander Gottfried TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
12 Andrew Pinfold SYMMETRICS CYCLING TEAM s.t.
13 Jarlinson Pantano COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
14 Michael Friedman TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
15 Stefan Löffler TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
16 Taylor Tolleson TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
17 Sebastian Frey TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
18 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
19 David Vitoria BMC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
20 John Murphy HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS s.t.

Thus ends our most succesful stage race of the season. Pliuschin took 1 stage, with 3 2nd places and 3 seperate jerseys - GC, Points and Young Rider. Vanderaerden took 2nd in a stage, while Mouris was 3rd in a stage and 3rd overall - aswell as Helminen 6th overall. Everyone else played their role too, with important domestique roles that helped secure the win.


1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 21h37'19
2 Santiago Botero UNE - ORBITEL + 49
3 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'01
4 Julián Rodas UNE - ORBITEL + 2'27
5 John Devine DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'37
6 Matti Helminen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'40
7 Bernard Van Ulden NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'45
8 Phil Zajicek NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'48
9 Chad Hartley BMC CYCLING TEAM + 2'54
10 Michael Friedman TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
11 Óscar Sánchez COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES + 2'57
12 Ryder Hesjedal HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS + 2'58
13 Heath Blackgrove TOYOTA - UNITED PRO CT + 3'02
14 Alexis Castro COLOMBIA ES PASIÓN - COLDEPORTES s.t.
15 Arkaitz Durán SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 3'03
16 Eric Wohlberg SYMMETRICS CYCLING TEAM + 3'07
17 Dirk Müller TEAM SPARKASSE + 3'09
18 Taylor Tolleson TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 3'10
19 Steven Cummings DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
20 Steven Cozza TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 3'14
35 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 3'57
45 Sven De Weerdt DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'40
57 Bjorn Cornelissen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 10'07
81 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 33'13
82 Kane Oakley DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 34'25

Points
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 97
2 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL 80
3 Juan Carlos López UNE - ORBITEL 48
4 Brad Huff TEAM SLIPSTREAM 47
5 Alexander Gottfried TEAM SPARKASSE 43
6 Jackson Stewart BMC CYCLING TEAM 43
7 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 42
8 Kyle Gritters HEALTH NET PRESENTED BY MAXXIS 41
9 Santiago Botero UNE - ORBITEL 41
10 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE 36

USA top 3

great race from Piluschin

Mattan went with a breakaway of 6 including 2 LPR riders - neither of whom did any work (Lazy bastards), so its no surprise that when most of the break is caught, one LPR rider remains: Walter Proch.

A group of riders attacks with 11km to go, Dan Lloyd goes with them.


But in the descent, Pronk hits the deck, right in front of the peleton.


Chaos ensues as many riders go down, including Mattan.


Amid the chaos, Proch still managed to keep his gap, but it was closing.


Rhys Pollock was in action for us behind the Wiesenhof train


LPR's Marzoli proved to be the rider to beat though so Pollock switched to follow him instead and with 500m to go, Marzoli ended his teammate's dream


But the Italian kept going and powered up the hill to victory. De Wilde edged out Pollock for 2nd on the line, but the Aussie was still ecstatic with 3rd.


1 Samuele Marzoli TEAM LPR 4h06'19
2 Sjef De Wilde LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
3 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
4 René Obst TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
5 René Weissinger TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
6 Artur Gajek TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
7 Walter Proch TEAM LPR s.t.
8 Hannes Blank CONTINENTAL TEAM DIFFERDANGE s.t.
9 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
10 Markus Zberg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
11 Daniel Musiol TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
12 Roger Beuchat TEAM LPR s.t.
13 Paolo Bailetti TEAM LPR s.t.
14 Alessio Signego OTC DOORS - LAURETANA s.t.
15 Konstantin Schubert TEAM REGIOSTROM - SENGES s.t.
16 Robert Retschke TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
17 Sven Teutenberg TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
18 Marco Velo TEAM MILRAM s.t.
19 Fabio Sabatini TEAM MILRAM s.t.
20 Uwe Hardter ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI s.t.
21 Kenny Van Braeckel JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
22 Crescenzo D'Amore OTC DOORS - LAURETANA s.t.
23 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
24 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER s.t.
25 Stefan Parinussa TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
60 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
70 Robby Meul DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
76 Cameron Jennings DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'16
99 David Harrigan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
117 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 3'35
125 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'14


Nico suffered in the crash and could be injured. Hopefully he will not miss the chance to ride the Autumn cobbled races for one last time.

Coming Up: 4 one day races - 2 are cobbled, and then its the Worlds!

Meanwhile, disaster strikes at the Vuelta. After 2 stage wins, Francisco Perez is heading for a top 5 place overall, before breaking his neck in Stage 19. No worries though, its not serious - he will be back in action in a couple of weeks. Saunier Duval are dominating the race, Gomez Marchante is set to seal the overall, while Ricco is ranked 2nd and Simoni in 5th. Menchov is currently 3rd, with Nibali 4th while both Wegelius and Voigt are in the top 10!!!

On course for promotion?

Easily

Sentjens made the decisive attack and Nolf followed


But somehow didnt make it into the front group.


No amount of effort could be done to catch the group, so Nolf resigned himself to 6th as Sentjens won.


1 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO 5h20'09
2 Nikolas Maes CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
3 Arnaud Coyot UNIBET.COM s.t.
4 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
5 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 40
6 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
7 Kenny De Ketele CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 1'30
8 Dimitri De Fauw CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
9 Steven Caethoven CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
10 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.



The Tour de Rijke is completely flat


1 Wim Stroetinga UBBINK - SYNTEC CYCLING TEAM 4h48'06
2 Samuele Marzoli TEAM LPR s.t.
3 Kenny De Ketele CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
4 Kenny Van Hummel SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
5 Davide Viganò QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
6 Marco Marcato TEAM LPR s.t.
7 Borut Bozic TEAM LPR s.t.
8 Juha-Matti Alaluusua TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
9 Marvin Van der Pluijm UBBINK - SYNTEC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
10 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
11 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
12 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
13 Dimitri De Fauw CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
14 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
15 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.



Just the one huge sprint train in this french race prevented any DFL hopefuls from finding a decent wheel.


Cofidis dominate as Farrar takes 3rd having led out Sutton to victory.


1 Christopher Sutton COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE 5h04'55
2 Kenny De Ketele CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
3 Tyler Farrar COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
4 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
5 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
6 Anthony Ravard AGRITUBEL s.t.
7 Denis Flahaut JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
8 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
9 Martijn Maaskant RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
10 Rony Martias BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
11 Boy Van Poppel RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
12 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
13 Eric Baumann T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
14 Dimitri De Fauw CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
15 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS s.t.
16 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
17 Yauheni Hutarovich ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
18 Andy Flickinger BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
19 Mark Renshaw CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
20 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
26 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.



Van Hummel is marked by Nolf and De Haes as the crucial attack comes


De Haes is clearly in awesome form and is too good for Nolf despite a weaker cobbled stat.


And De Haes wins, while Nolf equals a season best 2nd.


1 Kenny De Haes CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 5h45'02
2 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'02
3 Maarten Den Bakker SKIL - SHIMANO + 1'23
4 Nikolas Maes CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 2'45
5 Tom Veelers RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
6 Steven Kruijswijk RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
7 Koen Barbé CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
8 Nico Sijmens LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
9 Andy Cappelle LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
10 Bastiaan Giling TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
11 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
12 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
14 Sven Nys RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
15 Wim De Vocht PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.

Very annoyingly, Cya-logic didnt let me ride the race at all. I was hopinh to guide an inform Wiggins to victory - but Bradley didnt even ride!!!

A stupid cya-logic winner in Botero while Hoy takes a shock 3rd.

Thats crap how can Botero Be WC!!

Oh good... I thought it was just my version of the game that was screwed up...

I wasnt able to do the RR either :x

Boogerd wins, meaning the jersey wont be around next season ~ Boogerd is retiring

I wonder what riders youll be bringing in to the team for the PT