Will my plan work? I hope so

Vennel, Wilches, Sulzberger and Oliphant set a high tempo at the front of the peleton, with the intention of preventing any breakaways for as long as possible. With 16km to go to the intermediate sprint, an attack comes and Vanderaerden and Lloyd make their way up the road.

Vanderaerden cruised to the intermediate sprint! And was soon back in the peleton - feeling very happy with himself.


Dan Lloyd took 3rd in the next intermediate sprint, some 60kilometres later and we decided to take a risk. Dropping Lloyd back to the pack in the knowledge that - should he survive until the finish, he would get a top 10 GC place.


Lloyd could only hang on for 23kilometres as he was dropped with 38km to go. The risk didnt work, but it was worth a try. The break were caught aftert the first KoM sprint, and that meant the 2nd was open to the peleton. Fleeman lacked the strength to attack and watched on as Pinotti took 2nd to secure his KoM jersey.

With 2.3km to the finish and the sprint beginning, Vanderaerden was in about the 13th wheel. He has 2 red bars though so will not feature.

Weylandt wins the stage and the GC! Vanderaerden's bonus sprint seconds gives him 8th!!


1 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 4h33'44
2 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
3 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
4 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL s.t.
5 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
6 Steven Caethoven CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
7 Martijn Maaskant RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
8 Frédéric Amorison LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
9 Matteo Carrara UNIBET.COM s.t.
10 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
11 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
12 Jonas Ljungblad UNIBET.COM s.t.
13 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
14 Juha-Matti Alaluusua TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
15 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
16 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL s.t.
17 Hilton Clarke NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
18 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
19 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
20 Dimitri De Fauw CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
21 James Vanlandschoot LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
22 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
23 Stefan Radochla TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
24 Jans Koerts TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
25 Gianni Meersman DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
26 Sven Nys RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
27 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
28 Geert Steurs PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
29 Matthé Pronk UNIBET.COM s.t.
30 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
31 Matthew White DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
32 Glenn D'Hollander CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
33 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
34 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
35 Andy Cappelle LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
36 Kurt Hovelynck CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
37 Markus Eichler UNIBET.COM s.t.
38 Sven Renders CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
39 Jakob Piil T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
40 Ricardo Van der Velde RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
41 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
42 Wilfried Cretskens QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
43 Preben Van Hecke PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
44 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
45 Bastiaan Giling TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
46 Daan Rijntjes TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
47 Gil Suray UNIBET.COM s.t.
48 Huub Duyn TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
49 Yvo Kusters TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
50 Bernard Van Ulden NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
92 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
115 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'40
117 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'44
123 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'56
126 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'00
132 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 17'00


11 Steven Caethoven CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
12 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
13 Juha-Matti Alaluusua TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
14 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
15 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
16 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
17 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
18 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
19 Linas Balciunas AGRITUBEL s.t.
20 Sven Nys RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
21 Hilton Clarke NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
22 Frédéric Amorison LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
23 James Vanlandschoot LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
24 Jakob Piil T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
25 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
34 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
110 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 10'09
117 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 13'57
119 Jeremy Venell DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 15'09
121 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 16'13
123 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 17'15
128 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 19'08

Rank Name Team Points General
1 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 15 32
2 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 7 29
3 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 6 28
4 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO 10 22
5 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 1 19
6 Uros Murn DISCOVERY CHANNEL 12 15
7 Jonas Ljungblad UNIBET.COM 0 10
8 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 3 9
9 Matteo Carrara UNIBET.COM 2 9
10 Huub Duyn TEAM SLIPSTREAM 0 6

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

Realism!

Hehe lol!

Nice bit of riding there, great story. Keep it up!

Thanks, Ive got Nokere Koerse coming up.

185km of mostly flat, its a 4 lap circuit that concludes with a tough cobbled hill. Im hoping Mattan or Pliuschkin can deliver

Hamish Haynes tried to get in the first break, but that failed, so Jens Mouris went instead and got in the right one!

The break worked well together, but were dramatically caught on the penultimate lap. Wiesenhof and Landbouwkredit set a fierce pace into the headwind and a group of 15 got away and joined the 12 escapees.


Mattan, Nolf and Pliuchin were all there but Unibet and Predictor were not and chased from the pack. The gap maintained at a minute and the lead group looked set to fight oit out for the win. By this time, they were down to 14. Mouris had been dropped but my 3 leaders were still there.


Hulsmans started the sprint with Mattan in seconds. Stefan Wesemann whisked past Mattan though and closed in on Hulsmans. In a very very tight finish Wesemann grabbed the win, but only just!


Mattan held off Sijmens for 3rd, while in a very tight 4-way battle for 5th, Pluchkin came off worse - in 8th. Nolf did well too taking 11th, it could have been a top 10 if he hadnt of taken a drink in the last kilometre (Oops).



I forgot to export, but:

nice podium, unlucky not to get higher

Almost completely flat, but over 200kms. This race is the season debut of Anuar Manan, but Gert Vanderaerden will be the leader.


Cornelissen went in the break that got 10 minutes, but sadly it was chased down. Stannard joiuned the break with an attack but the peleton were all together with 26km to go.

Some counter attacks appear, and not taking them very seriously, I only make Harrigan attack. In hindsight, I should have attacked with Haynes as they quickly got a gap (Without Harrigan). Haynes eventually attacked but it was no use.

Up front, Bart Roesems was soloing, but Nico Eeckhout was not far behind. De Waele and Tjalingii are also ahead of the pack.

Roesems wins! Eeckhout 2nd.


De Waele and Tjalingii just about hold off the pack which is lef by Jan Boven. Gert Vanderaerdan is right behind Boven and takes 6th, with an out of form Manan in 16th. Gert was very pleased with his performance considering his -3 daily form.


1 Bert Roesems PREDICTOR - LOTTO 4h47'24
2 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
3 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER + 48
4 Maarten Tjallingii SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
5 Jan Boven RABOBANK s.t.
6 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
7 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
8 Hilton Clarke NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
9 Kenny Van Hummel SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
10 Ciaran Power NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
11 Gorik Gardeyn UNIBET.COM s.t.
12 Stefan Van Dijk TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
13 Matthew Hayman RABOBANK s.t.
14 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
15 Wim Stroetinga UBBINK - SYNTEC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
16 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
17 Oleg Grishkine NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
18 Marvin Van der Pluijm UBBINK - SYNTEC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
19 Matteo Tosatto QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
20 René Weissinger TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
21 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
22 James Vanlandschoot LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
23 Werner Riebenbauer TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
24 Iljo Keisse CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
25 Peter Van Agtmaal FONDAS P3TRANSFER TEAM s.t.
26 Peter Schep UBBINK - SYNTEC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
27 Piet Rooijakkers SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
28 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
29 Robert Radosz ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
30 Bram De Groot RABOBANK s.t.
31 Wilfried Cretskens QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
32 Matthé Pronk UNIBET.COM s.t.
33 Wim Van Huffel PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
34 Gerrit Glomser TEAM VORARLBERG - VOLKSBANK s.t.
35 Bastiaan Giling TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
36 Sjef De Wilde LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
37 Niels Pieters TEAM LÖWIK MEUBELEN s.t.
38 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
39 Timothy Vangheel FONDAS P3TRANSFER TEAM s.t.
40 Theo Eltink RABOBANK s.t.
41 Tom Steels PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
42 Arne Hassink UBBINK - SYNTEC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
43 Marcin Osiński ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
44 Jans Koerts TIME - VAN HEMERT s.t.
45 Reinier Honig FONDAS P3TRANSFER TEAM s.t.
46 Folkert De Haan UBBINK - SYNTEC CYCLING TEAM s.t.
47 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
48 Davide Viganò QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
49 Sergei Lagutin NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
50 Jürgen Van De Walle QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.

When Vanderaerden took 6th in Holland, another team were taking on a much hillier course in France, led by Aleksandr Pliuschin. Nico Mattan will also ride, to maximise his form for the next cobbled races.


Dan Lloyd made his way into the break, that peaked at about 9 and a half minutes before the chase began.

The 2 tough climbs come at around 40km to go and by 18km to go, the break has been surpassed.


Matteo Carrarra is solo while he is chased by 5 others, Lloyd, a Credit Agricole and a Landbouwkredit rider are now slipping back from the break.

Pliuschin chose not to attack with the favourites ~ in the vain hope that they would be caught, but did attack with 11km to go when it was clear that they would make it.




He couldnt quite bridge it across, as E2 decided to attack when he got near. Carrarra would take a superb solo win, with Feillu 2nd.


Pliuschin had created a large enough gap on the pack to take an easy 7th, despite suffering in the last km. Mattan finished in the bunch, having had a -5 Day. Hopefully he'll have a much better day in the next race, Dwars door Vlaanderen.


11 Tom Criel UNIBET.COM s.t.
12 Renaud Dion AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
13 Benoit Sinner AGRITUBEL s.t.
14 Tristan Valentin COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
15 Ricardo Van der Velde RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
16 Alexandre Pichot BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
17 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC s.t.
18 Stéphane Pétilleau BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
19 Staf Scheirlinckx COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
20 Emilien-Benoît Bergès AGRITUBEL s.t.
21 Maryan Hary COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
22 Kurt Hovelynck CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
23 Danny Pate TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
24 Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
25 Lars Boom RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
26 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL s.t.
27 Frederic Gabriel LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
28 Laurent Lefèvre BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
29 Yann Huguet COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
30 Volodymyr Gustov TEAM CSC s.t.
31 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
32 Martijn Keizer RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
33 Dimitri Champion BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
34 Alexander Khatuntsev UNIBET.COM s.t.
35 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL s.t.
36 Yoann Le Boulanger BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
37 Gustav Larsson UNIBET.COM s.t.
38 Nicolas Crosbie BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
39 Sergei Kolesnikov UNIBET.COM s.t.
40 Evert Verbist CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
41 Manuel Calvente AGRITUBEL s.t.
42 Tom Stubbe CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
43 Evan Oliphant DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 3'48
44 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
45 Angelo Furlan CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 5'30
46 Wesley Van der Linden CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
47 Daniel Lloyd DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'28
48 Stéphane Bonsergent BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX + 7'23
49 Jean-Patrick Nazon AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
50 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
70 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
124 Juan Pablo Wilches DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 10'09
138 Adam Blyth DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 12'27

Looks like things are shaping up for you, but good luck with Gent-Wevelgem, you'll have to make sure Mattan is at 89 fitness for that race, otherwise he'll have a hard time keeping up with all the big boys on the cobbles. Best of luck with it tho.

Thanks, I still dont know If ive been accepted yet, but I should soon. Ronde van Vlaanderen (Which I didnt apply for) received Agritubel and Wiesenhof.

Mattan is currently on around 81 fitness

Nico Mattan
Frederik Nolf
Aleksandr Pliuschin
Jens Mouris
Robby Meul
Sven De Weerdt
Bjorn Cornelissen
Ian Stannard

A much tougher field now, with CSC, Discovery Channel and Predictor Lotto looking strong.

I made Stannard attack to show off our new kit (Made by Roadie), and 3 men got away: Steels, Rousseau and Gabrovsky.

With 115km to go, Vandborg crashed, with our DFL riders managing to avoid him, then with 100km to go Predictor's number 2 Bjorn Leukemens crashed.

90km to the finish was very bad for Johan Coenen of Chocolaude Jacques. He crashed and then once he got going again ... he punctured.

Bjorn Cornelissen was the next to puncture.

Cancellara and Wesemann broke away over the top of a cobbled hill, but Cancellara soon dropped Wesemann.


Cancellara's lead over the next group was never more than a minute but he still looked strong. Nolf could no longer follow the pace of the chase group with 25km to go.


Our hopes lay with Mattan then, who fortunately was having a brilliant day on +5. Sadly though, he isnt as good as he used to be and was dropped with 15km to go, along with 5 others. This left a group of 10 (ProTour) riders chasing Cancellara. Mattan was in E3 with Van Bon, Wesemann, Leukemens, Quinziato and Petito.

Only Mattan and Wesemann would work as the rest had teammates in E2.

Can Cancellara hang on? Will Mattan's group manage to catch E2 or have to fight for 12th, and if so can Nico take 12th? Well to find out, youll have to watch a video:



So its a CSC 1-2. O'Grady passed Cancellara in the final sprint to win, while Cancellara hung on for 2nd. Nico took a strong 12th, and finished as the best continental rider.

1 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC 5h36'43
2 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
3 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
4 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
5 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
6 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
7 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
8 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
9 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
10 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK s.t.
11 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
12 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'19
13 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS s.t.
14 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
15 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
16 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS + 2'33
17 Leon Van Bon RABOBANK + 3'55
18 Matthew Hayman RABOBANK + 6'12
19 Arnaud Coyot UNIBET.COM s.t.
20 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
21 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
22 Stefan Schreck T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
23 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
24 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
25 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
26 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK s.t.
27 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC + 9'01
28 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
29 Gorik Gardeyn UNIBET.COM s.t.
30 Markus Zberg GEROLSTEINER s.t.
31 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
32 Staf Scheirlinckx COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
33 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
34 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
35 Matthew White DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
36 Geert Steurs PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
37 Frederik Veuchelen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
38 Frank Høj COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
39 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
40 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
41 Ludovic Auger FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
42 Renaud Dion AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
43 Pieter Jacobs UNIBET.COM s.t.
44 Christophe Mengin FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
45 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
46 Jan Boven RABOBANK s.t.
47 Laszló Bodrogi CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
48 Antonio Cruz DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
49 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 11'14
50 Tristan Valentin COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 12'14
51 Tom Criel UNIBET.COM s.t.
52 Fumiyuki Beppu DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
53 Hervé Duclos-Lassalle COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
54 Gil Suray UNIBET.COM s.t.
55 Sébastien Minard COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
56 Brian Vandborg DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
57 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 14'02
63 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 15'30
69 Robby Meul DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 20'33
79 Sven De Weerdt DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
114 Bjorn Cornelissen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
116 Ian Stannard DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.


Stannard was the last of the 116 finishers, as the rest were outside the time limit and all withdrew - 117th placed Cummings was just a few metres behind Stannard, but couldnt cross the line before the games 'Withdraw-slow-riders Device' kicked in.

Nice with the video

Always was going to be tough in that sort of a field

March Report

Races


Ind. Ranking


Team Ranking


Cyanide's Rider of the Month:
Robbie McEwen

The ProTour leader! He won all 3 sprinters stages in Paris-Nice and followed that up with victory in Milan - San Remo.

Notable mention to Paolo Bettini who won stages 1,2 and 3 in Tirreno-Adriatico, eventually finishing 3rd overall at the end of the race.

DFL Rider of the Month:
Nico Mattan

Who else?? Victories in Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, and Le Samyn, plus 3rd in Nokere Koerse guided the Belgian to 6th in the Continental rankings.

Brit of the Month:
Mark Cavendish

Took 3rd in a stage of Paris-Nice and 4th in another to hand Britain their first ProTour points of the season.

Injuries:
Fractures mean that Andre Korff and Paolo Tiralongo are out to Mid-April. A broken shinbone will force Andrij Grivko to miss the month, while a broken collarbone sees Tadej Valjavecd out of action until early may. Pietr Chmielewski of Action-Uniqa has Mononucleosis and wont be seen until the end of June!

Look Ahead:
Gent Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix are the highlights of the DFL month with 15 'race days' pencilled in, not including the Columbian National Championships where Wilches will be looking for the breakaways.

Rebellin

Nico Mattan
Frederik Nolf
Alexandre Pliuschin
Hamish Haynes
Adam Blyth
Jens Mouris
Gert Vanderaerden
Bjorn Cornelissen

It was obviously not going to be our race today as Nolf had -5 form and Mattan had -4, meaning Pliuschkin would be our leader with a form of the day of 0.

Todays race favourites are Hoste, Pozzato, Hincapie, Van Impe and Flecha. Cancellara, Ballan and O'Grady are riding but CSC, Lampre and Gerolsteiner have only brought 3 riders to the race.

Navarro and Champion broke away but would always be caught with cobbles stats in the low 50s.


With 18km to go the lead group was down to 29, with only Pliuschin from DFL. Flecha attacked but Kevin van Impe counterattacked him and was far stronger.


Van Impe was looking good while with 7km to go, Pliuschin had to let go of the lead group, along with Backstedt.


Van Impe would win ahead of Flecha and Gusev. 26th for Pliuschin.


1 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 5h37'45
2 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK + 1'18
3 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
4 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
5 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
6 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
7 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
8 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
9 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
10 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
11 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
12 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
13 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
14 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
15 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC s.t.
16 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
17 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
18 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
19 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS s.t.
20 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
21 Fabio Baldato LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
22 Enrico Franzoï LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
23 Leon Van Bon RABOBANK s.t.
24 Magnus Bäckstedt LIQUIGAS s.t.
25 Tom Steels PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
26 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
27 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
28 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
29 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
30 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA + 5'26
31 David Kopp GEROLSTEINER s.t.
32 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
33 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'05
34 Frederic Guesdon FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
35 Matthew Hayman RABOBANK s.t.
36 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
37 Giovanni Visconti QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
38 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK s.t.
39 Carlos Barredo QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
40 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM + 6'59
89 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 14'41
110 Hamish Haynes DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 16'09
114 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
128 Bjorn Cornelissen DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 18'09
Adam Blyth - Abandoned - Too Slow

Not too shabby for Pliuschin. I take it he is still only 71 in COB right? Then its hard to keep up with the PT riders.

If Nolf and Mattan had a form of the day of 0, i bet it would be different

Not your day at all - better luck for the next race

Alexandre Pliuschin
Frederik Nolf
Gert Vanderaerden
Daniel Lloyd
Dan Fleeman
Rhys Pollock
Jens Mouris
Jamie Staff

Dan Lloyd went with the breakaway.


Withhim were Ongarato, Amorison and D'Hollander. Many others followed but would not catch up, including Jartazi's Flahaut who was dropped by the group on the first KoM climb.

By the time the riders reached the climb for the 2nd time, Lloyd had 3 and a half red bars He took 3rd at the top though, meaning He, Ongarato and Amorison were all equal on 6 KoM points.


The 3rd time they reached the climb, Ongarato took 5 and held 1'39 on Guesdon who took 2nd having attacked from the pack. Ongarato would soon blow up though and Guesdon caught and passed him. Chasing Guesdon were Van Petegem and Franzoi.


Guesdon would be caught with 14km to go at the foot of the 4th and final scent of the KoM hill. Teammate Phillipe Gilbert took the points, with Pliuschin and Nolf hanging on in the 20 man lead group - they had been dropped once already though but worked their way back.

But they would not hang on as the work of Hoste and a couple others narrowed the group down to 12.


Discovery Channel dominated the sprint though and took a great 1-2.


Pliuschkin and Nolf crossed the line 23rd and 24th, but were fortunate with time gaps and are level on time with 16th placed Quinziato.

1 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL 4h28'04
2 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
3 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
4 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
5 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK s.t.
6 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
7 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
9 Kevin Van Impe QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
10 Roger Hammond T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
11 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
12 Björn Leukemans PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Bernhard Eisel T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'12
14 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
15 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
16 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS + 1'48
17 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA s.t.
18 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
19 Óscar Freire RABOBANK s.t.
20 Gert Steegmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
21 Leon Van Bon RABOBANK s.t.
22 Magnus Bäckstedt LIQUIGAS s.t.
23 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
24 Frederik Nolf DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
25 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS s.t.
26 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
27 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
28 Roy Sentjens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
29 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
30 Kevin Hulsmans QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
31 Arnaud Coyot UNIBET.COM s.t.
32 Frederik Veuchelen CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
33 Matthew White DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
34 Jan Boven RABOBANK s.t.
35 Geert Omloop JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
36 Stefan Schreck T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
37 Erwin Thijs UNIBET.COM s.t.
38 Gil Suray UNIBET.COM s.t.
39 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK s.t.
40 Pieter Jacobs UNIBET.COM s.t.
41 Frederic Guesdon FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
42 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
43 Enrico Franzoï LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
44 Marcel Sieberg TEAM MILRAM s.t.
45 Ralf Grabsch TEAM MILRAM s.t.
46 Dimitri Muravyev TEAM ASTANA + 4'46
47 Jörg Ludewig TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
48 Andy Cappelle LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
49 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
50 Wim Vansevenant PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
78 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 11'24
102 Rhys Pollock DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 15'00
138 Jens Mouris DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
141 Jamie Staff DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 18'12
144 Daniel Fleeman DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

Fleeman was the last finisher as the Belgian organisers decided after everyone had finished to withdraw 24 riders, including Dan Lloyd :x:x

I really like this story as it's a great team choice and very nice video in DWF, very innovative feature