Wow, what a great Trentino, really exciting!
Good job from the team.

Also
FABIO for NEW STORY of the MONTH

Thanks

LISTEN TO HIM

Pretty decent end to the Trentino! Drama right to the line, chapeau Colombia.

Good ride from the team in Trentino, lets hope it continue this way

@TschoppChop and tpinot: Thanks! Everyone's really happy with the result, especially the sponsors!

Just finished racing the Tour of Turkey, I'm gonna go study a bit and then get started with the reports. Also, I'm thinking of implementing a monthly award/review system here. So pretty much, rider of the month and moment of the month awards. Tell me what you think, as well as give me ideas a to what to put in it, as there will be one after the ToT.

Ummm, guys... All of the screens I've done today have disappeared. So I've only got them up to Stage 4. Any help? Please!

Hmm, this problem has happnend in my story, a shame but I don't know of an obvious fix. I guess if you have notes you could just report using word of mouth.

That's what I plan on doing, might just hold up for a tiny bit and wait if someone else knows.

Tour of Turkey

DS Version:
Hope for a Top 10 in the GC with Fabio, maybe compete for the white jersey. Also, Leonardo [Duque] I want you to get at least one stage win.


My Version:
Try for a Top 5 GC placing. I'm really excited to be able to lead for the first time. As Mr. DS said, competing for the white jersey would be very nice, but with guys like Seb Reichenbach [Swiss rider from IAM] here, it could be tough to win it.

So, like my new preview style? I think I'll do it like this from now on, but the racing will most likely stay pretty much the same, with a few minor changes. The racing is coming up, but until then...
ADIOS

Good Luck in Turkey

@Sutty: Thanks! I need to study tonight so no report, but a couple tomorrow morning .

Looking forward to it

Many riders attempted to break away, but a group of 5 managed to survive at least until the intermediate sprint, won by Premont (CRE). That group was caught straight after, though, and after more than half the race, 71.7km to be exact, a break finally got away.



Three riders were allowed to get away.



Our train formed, with Valencia at its head, doing the pacemaking, Arango, who would sprint first, Avila, the lead-out man, and finally, of course our sprinter, Leonardo Duque.



We would start the sprint behind, as Valencia didn't give enough effort to bring us to the front.



Danilo Napolitano (AJW) was the strongest today, he beat Jasper Van Staeyen of Topsport-Vlaanderen.

Duque was 4th, while Avila also managed 8th.



I came in 37th, in the same time as the winners.









So, a decent day for the team. We probably could've won if there was more work from the train, but it's still an alright result. Hopefully we can do a bit better tomorrow, but until then...
ADIOS

Today we had a 3 man breakaway. Schmidt (SOJ) bridged the gap midway through the stage. Ilesie (UHC) won the intermediate sprint.


Our train was the same as on Stage 1, however we were blocked by Lasca (CJA) in the white jersey. This stuffed our race up completely.


The sprint was very close, but van Staeyen found the extra legs to go one-better than yesterday. Aussie Heinrich Haussler (IAM) took 2nd, just ahead of yesterday's winner Napolitano.

Tomorrow is the first GC stage, so I need to really give it my all and hope to fight it out with the big guns. You'll find out if I can soon, but until then...
ADIOS

A steady start from the team in Turkey

Thanks! However we would have prefered some better results. Stage 3 up in a bit!

Tour of Turkey

The first GC stage, I need to be at my best today, and try to look for a Top 5.

The Race

We went in the break for the first time. Of course it was the man with the specified role to to so - Juan Pablo Valencia. He was joined by Barbe (CRE) and Eichler (TNE).




Valencia was the only one interested in the mountain points. He won the first climb uncontested, as well as the 2nd by almost 2 minutes!


The climbers started making moves on the Cat. 1 climb. Marentes and Arango paced, as we didn't want to go just yet.

We didn't get lucky, so I got into Suarez' wheel and off we went.


Juan Pablo decided to use his brain and not attack for the Cat.1 points, but instead rolled over in 1st.


Suarez was dead early, but stayed in my wheel as I dragged him to the chase group of favourites. I had no intention of letting him hang on as such, but I was happy that he could hold on.

However, remember that there were still 40km left to ride, and we were caught almost instantly. A waste of energy. The break was managing to still hold on nicely, thanks to Valencia's hard pace. I can't remember, but I think that there was a chase group out there with a couple of climbers.




The break was caught by the 99 man peloton with 9km left to ride. Marentes was struggling to bring up water, so we were running on empty as it were. However, Marentes came up just as Suarez and I started to go again .


8 men lead the peloton by 46" with 4.6km to go. I tried to ride away because of my bad sprinting ability, but it didn't seem to be working.


I stopped pacing and started to hold my position... Or at least tried to. I was left back at the 3km mark.


Eichler (UHC) though he was Sagan and celebrated accordingly.


Arroyo (CJA) got 2nd and Lofkvist (IAM) 3rd.

The stand-in Green Jersey of Napolitano finished outside the time limit, a well as Matysiak (CCC).











Well then, a good day for me I guess. 1st in the young classification. However Seb Reichenbach is as predicted hot on my heels. In fact, standing on my heels, you would say, with the same time. Anyway, tomorrow could be a good day for Duque, with a hill right before the flat finish. It will probably be a reduced bunch sprint of us GC guys though. We'll soon find out, but until then...
ADIOS

Time to chase those bonus seconds

Sure is!

Who covered the landscape in volcanic sand, come on, own up!
Looking good for a strong finish.