Good racing keep up the good work

Keep going on hard SN - you know I'll always read, I just don't always comment - I'll try to from now on

Same team as Omloop, we will protect Nico Mattan all day long today, instead of having a split leadership like yeseterday where half the team supported Nolf.

A break of 11 goes clear, but we dont care about them much.

Hoste must feel good today as Predictor regularly split the bunch on the cobbles. Hamish Haynes is more than happy to help out once the cobbles are over.



The splits were always ruled out before appearing again, and here is the situatuion with 27 flat, non-cobbled kilometres to go.



Mattan kept near the front of the group, never actually relaying, and just holding a position 2-4 riders back. Pliuschkin and Nolf inparticular did a great job at protection, keeping Nico's blue bar up.

With 10km to go, Nico took a drink which filled his Green and Blue bars up, with 5km to go he decided to try something new: Attacking!


He gets a gap and Hammond does not make any inroads while leading the bunch. Mattan can keep attacking until 2km to go, when he starts to sprint.

He still has a massive gap with 1km to go, CMON NICO! Surely he cant do it? Can he?


HE WINS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!


11 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
12 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
13 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
14 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
16 Dimitri Muravyev TEAM ASTANA s.t.
17 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA s.t.
18 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
19 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
20 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
21 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
22 Leon Van Bon RABOBANK s.t.
23 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
24 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
25 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
26 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
27 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC s.t.
28 Staf Scheirlinckx COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
29 Preben Van Hecke PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 2'11
30 Wim Van Huffel PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
31 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
32 Gorik Gardeyn UNIBET.COM s.t.
33 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
34 Bastiaan Giling TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 3'39
35 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 4'48
36 Jörg Ludewig TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
37 Frederic Guesdon FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
38 Frank Høj COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
39 Gil Suray UNIBET.COM + 7'15
40 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC s.t.
41 Bart Dockx PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 8'45
42 Daniel Musiol TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
43 Wilfried Cretskens QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
44 Gianni Meersman DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 9'44
45 Kevin De Weert COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 10'54
46 Kenny De Ketele CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
47 Matthew Hayman RABOBANK s.t.
48 Nikolas Maes CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 11'23
49 Christophe Mengin FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
50 Guennadi Mikhailov TEAM ASTANA s.t.
64 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
70 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
53 riders withdrew, mainly due to the time limit but also due to the many many crashes in the closing stages for the crappy riders.

Great win

A victory? Surely my eyes must trick me.

Congartulations, that's a great race to win, especially with someone like Hoste in there.

Thanks Ive just applied for a wildcard for Gent - Wevelgem. I have a sponsor goal of Top 10 there so I really need to be accepted.

I hope Mattan's recent win plus the fact that he won GFent Wevelgem a couple of years ago will help my cause.

Le Samyn is not an important race for us.

Nico Mattan and Hamish Haynes will ride to make good use of their strong fitness levels. Aleksandr Pliuchin is our best Hill guy and his fitness is starting to look good.
We are also giving season debuts for Daniel Lloyd, Ian Stannard, Adam Blyth, Juan Pablo Wilches and Jeremy Vennell.

Dan Lloyd launched the breakaway and we all hoped it would work. Sadly, they were caught with 11km to go. So Aleksandr Pliuchin tried an attack.


His legs werent too good at this stage of the race so he passed on the attack baton to a man who is in very good form.


Nico Mattan casually takes a drink, he can afford to as yet again the pack let him go. But Im certainly not complaining!



Well done too to Hamish Haynes, who worked his socks off today keeping Mattan and Pluchkin safe during the race, and still managing to finish in the peleton. Im hoping I can get a win with Hamish sometime this year.


11 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
12 Kevin De Weert COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
13 Eric Baumann T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
14 Hervé Duclos-Lassalle COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
15 Nico Sijmens LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
16 Pieter Ghyllebert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
17 Andy Cappelle LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
18 Stefan Schreck T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
19 Maxime Monfort COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
20 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
21 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
22 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
23 Staf Scheirlinckx COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
24 Kevin Seeldraeyers QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
25 Servais Knaven T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
26 Wim Van Huffel PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
27 Steve Zampieri COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
28 Markus Eichler UNIBET.COM s.t.
29 Bert Grabsch T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
30 Jürgen Van De Walle QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
31 Frederik Veuchelen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
32 Jakob Piil T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
33 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
34 Mauro Facci QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
35 Thierry Marichal FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
36 Frederic Gabriel LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
37 Christophe Detilloux FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
38 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
39 Jochen Summer ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
40 Johan Vansummeren PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
41 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
42 Gil Suray UNIBET.COM s.t.
43 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
44 Anthony Colin ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
45 Adam Hansen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
46 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
47 Jan Kuyckx LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
48 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
49 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
50 Maryan Hary COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
51 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
149 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'06
155 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'58
156 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
162 Adam Blyth DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 10'30

The Record-Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen is next up for DFL and will be our first race of the season which does not involve team leader Nico Mattan, who is currently ranked 3rd in the Continental Standings.

Gert Vanderaerden will instead lead the team over the three flat stages, looking for some top 10 finishes in the sprint. Daniel Lloyd will also ride, on the back of a strong showing in Le Samyn, he could also be joined by fellow brits Hamish Haynes and Evan Oliphant.

Anuar Manan is now our only rider who is yet to have raced, but will not make his debut until later this month.

great win! its sweeter when you have waited for it

Superb win again

2 wins in a row

great wins

Thanks! The Record-Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen will come soonish.

Vanderaerden
Haynes
Fleeman
Lloyd
Oliphant
Wilches
Sulzberger
Vennell

Dan Fleeman went in the break and took the first KoM points.


He hoped to take the 2nd too, but an intermediate sprint beforehand dented his chances. He then struggled on the climb, and could not score - hopefully hes done enough for the jersey anyway.


That sharp hill took us by surprise and it weakened Vanderaerden who was already having a not-so-good -2 day. He originally went behind Caethoven, but struggled to keep up so switched to Weylandt instead. The sprint was disappointing as he could not find the legs that he had had previously this season.


So Pollack won, and Fleeman takes the KoM jersey!

1 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 5h20'40
2 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
4 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
5 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
6 Jakob Piil T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Matteo Carrara UNIBET.COM s.t.
8 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
9 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
10 Martijn Maaskant RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
11 Steven Caethoven CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
12 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL s.t.
13 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
14 Sven Nys RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
15 Jonas Ljungblad UNIBET.COM s.t.
16 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
17 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
18 Andy Cappelle LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
19 Juha-Matti Alaluusua TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
20 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
21 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
22 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL s.t.
23 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
24 Hilton Clarke NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
25 James Vanlandschoot LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
26 Frédéric Amorison LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
27 Wilfried Cretskens QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
28 Bastiaan Giling TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
29 Kurt Hovelynck CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
30 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
31 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
32 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
33 Preben Van Hecke PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
34 Addy Engels QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
35 Jeroen Boelen TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
36 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
37 Markus Eichler UNIBET.COM s.t.
38 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
39 Jurgen Van Goolen DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
40 Glenn D'Hollander CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
41 Bert Grabsch T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
42 Jürgen Van De Walle QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
43 Roy Curvers TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
44 Johan Coenen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
45 Jan Kuyckx LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
46 Bert Scheirlinckx LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
47 Gil Suray UNIBET.COM s.t.
48 Lars Boom RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
49 Thomas Ziegler T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
50 Daan Rijntjes TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
59 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
71 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
110 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'13
111 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'57
112 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
115 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
133 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 10'25

Rank Name Team Mountain General
1 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 3 3
2 Michael Blanchy BABES ONLY - VILLAPARK LINGEMEER - FLANDERS 3 3
3 Bernard Van Ulden NAVIGATORS INSURANCE 2 2
4 Mindaugas Striska JARTAZI PROMO FASHION 2 2
5 William Frischkorn TEAM SLIPSTREAM 1 1
6 Wolfgang Murer ELK HAUS - SIMPLON 1 1

Always nice to be wearing a jersey

Yeh, and nicer if I can keep it.

Stage 2

Fleeman will look to keep his lead, while Vanderaerden will expect a better sprint. Fleeman starts well by getting in the break.

Fleeman takes 3rd in the first KoM points. Pinotti attacked from the break group for 1st and Ickx barged into 2nd at the top. For the 2nd points, Pinotti attacks again, but this time he starts too far back and Fleeman edges it!


Fleeman can do nothing in the 3rd KoM though and watches in despair as Pinotti takes the 3 points, and with it, the jersey. The break are caught with 28km to the finish.

Vanderaerden isnt greatly positoned but improves his proceedings with a late switch to the Maillot Jaune Pollack, having been behind Murn.


Pollack's teammate Van Dijk looked the strongest though, but was denied victory as Feillu edged past at the finish. Vanderaerden takes 5th, but with better positioning a podium could have been on as 3rd place Ljungblad has the same Sprint stat as Vanderaerden: 72.


1 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 3h47'53
2 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
3 Jonas Ljungblad UNIBET.COM s.t.
4 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
5 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
6 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
7 Eric Baumann T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Matteo Carrara UNIBET.COM s.t.
9 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
10 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
11 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
12 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
13 Martijn Maaskant RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
14 Jakob Piil T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
16 Juha-Matti Alaluusua TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
17 Sven Nys RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
18 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
19 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL s.t.
20 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
21 Steven Caethoven CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
22 Stefan Radochla TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
23 Matthé Pronk UNIBET.COM s.t.
24 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
25 James Vanlandschoot LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
26 Dimitri De Fauw CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
27 Hilton Clarke NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
28 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
29 Jans Koerts TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
30 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
31 Wilfried Cretskens QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
32 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
33 Johan Coenen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
34 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
35 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
36 Ricardo Van der Velde RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
37 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL s.t.
38 Daan Rijntjes TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
39 Kurt Hovelynck CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
40 Dries Devenyns PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
41 Jeroen Boelen TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
42 Gianni Meersman DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
43 Evert Verbist CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
44 Peter Pichler ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
45 Jürgen Van De Walle QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
46 Markus Eichler UNIBET.COM s.t.
47 Stijn Vandenbergh UNIBET.COM s.t.
48 Martijn Keizer RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
49 Aivaras Baranauskas AGRITUBEL s.t.
50 Jurgen Van Goolen DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
52 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
59 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
74 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
86 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
101 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
135 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 8'31

Rank Name Team Time
1 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 9h08'23
2 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
3 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT + 4
4 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
5 Jonas Ljungblad UNIBET.COM + 6
6 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
7 Matteo Carrara UNIBET.COM + 10
8 Jakob Piil T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
9 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
10 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
11 Martijn Maaskant RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
12 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
13 Sven Nys RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
14 Steven Caethoven CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
15 Juha-Matti Alaluusua TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.

Rank Name Team Points General
1 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 15 22
2 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 7 22
3 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 12 18
4 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 5 17
5 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO 2 12
6 Jonas Ljungblad UNIBET.COM 10 10
7 Matteo Carrara UNIBET.COM 3 7
8 Huub Duyn TEAM SLIPSTREAM 6 6
9 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 6 6
10 Michael Blanchy BABES ONLY - VILLAPARK LINGEMEER - FLANDERS 0 5
12 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 2 4

Rank Name Team Mountain General
1 Marco Pinotti T-MOBILE TEAM 8 8
2 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 4 7
3 Michael Blanchy BABES ONLY - VILLAPARK LINGEMEER - FLANDERS 0 3
4 Bernard Van Ulden NAVIGATORS INSURANCE 0 2
5 Mario Ickx JARTAZI PROMO FASHION 2 2
6 Huub Duyn TEAM SLIPSTREAM 2 2
7 Mindaugas Striska JARTAZI PROMO FASHION 0 2
8 Thomas Rabou RABOBANK CONTINENTAL 2 2
9 William Frischkorn TEAM SLIPSTREAM 0 1
10 Wolfgang Murer ELK HAUS - SIMPLON 0 1

a great story, on medium or hard, im readin either way

Great race. Nice story SN. Managed to catch up only now. What race is up next?

Stage 3 of the Record-Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen, then I think its Nokere - Koerse

We called a team meeting to discuss our plan for Stage 3.

Gert Vanderaerden - Our sprinter yet again, but will also try to get in the breakaway and contest an intermediate sprint, before dropping back - this will hopefully consolidate a top 10 GC place.
Dan Fleeman - The KoM points come too late in the stage, so Dan won't be going with the breakaway and admits that the KoM jersey will end up going to Pinotti,
Daniel Lloyd - Will be given the chance of getting in the break today.
Everyone else - Protect Vanderaerden when he comes back to the pack, so that he is still strong at the finish.

Thats the plan, but will it work?