Good, another race underway, nice report

Oman was a bit odd to say the least. Saxo makes their goal in an unbelievable way, but yeah, good job for them. AG2R is really going good as well, they won't even notice the punishments anymore.

Incredible final Oman stage! Never seen PCM AI do that, only human players *cough*clearlycheating*cough*

Roy defended his Top10 to secure our Goal even after Elissonde crashed out early on. With Kenny perhaps we could have challenged the podium, but Top10 is Top10 and is points!

Demare sprinting well again, the desert races were very kind to him. Plenty of good signs and good points. Hopefully he can keep that up across the season, because then we will be well on our way back to the top tier.

Hanzen also with a good race. A stage win, spot on along with some good performances. BMC lead-out train working very well at times so no complaints there. Building nicely from TDU to Oman and onwards towards MSR.
Nice to see teammate Owniak doing well alongside. The team really handled the split duties well in this race. Bodes well

So, is there any extra reporter available? I could really use someone for Tirreno-Adriatico..

Like last year I can trust my climbers to sprint into the top ten o staged like this. Nice to see Costa following this rule!

I'll do it.

Way to go Anders Myrvold in his first ever race, fantastic effort in Portugal

Stage 2 has a challenge, but it's too far away from the finish to affect any GC-men. Could mess up the pelotons chase if some of the big sprinters fall behind though…



Like yesterday a bunch of teams want to keep the pace too high for breaks at first.

Miles (CCC) takes the first intermediate ahead of Stash (AST) and Clancy (TNN).
With a gap of less than half a minute we'll wait a bit before calling them a break…

Potgieter (MTN) tried expanding the gap on several occasions without any luck. In spite of being out there more than 30 km the group never got a gap of more than 40 seconds.

AG2R and Colombia keeps the peloton calm on the climb, but 1 km from the top we have a new attempt to get away from Engoulvent (SOJ) and Malacarne (BSE)
Malacarne is first over the summit ahead of Engoulvent, but that is pretty much all they got from it.

The big teams are in for a long days work as Sarmiento (CJR) calls for a new wave of attacks on the descent. Soon after he is joined by team mate Zandio

Also Puccio (CCC) and Schielinckx (WGG) join up and tries to ditch the Caja Rural duo when the gap goes over 1'30.

The 4 are quickly reunited but the gap never expands and with 20 km to the line the peloton is back together,

Søren Berg leads the peloton into the final 7 km.

And we have trains!

At 2 km to go it looks good for Brookes as Ruffoni is pulling of a good leadout while Dowsett accidentally blocked Guido after leaving the front. Guess Colombia still has a bit to learn when it comes to sprinting…
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Markus also in a good position behind Hutarovich closely watched by Arndt and Howard.

Hutarovich with a beastly leadout going into the final km.
The situation at this point is:

Hutarovich	Ruffoni
Markus	Brookes
	Howard
	Guido
R.Janse Van Rensburg		Arndt
�vila	Drucker

500 m and it's time for the captains to come out in the wind.

Perfect sprint from Markus and AG2R, while Brookes and Bardiani can only blame themselves for messing this up.

Also a very strong comeback by Guido after having been pushed out of contention by his teammate earlier as well as Alinejad, who finished 5th after never having been anywhere near the front and not getting any help from his team either.

1	Barry Markus	AG2R La Mondiale	2h29'41
2	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
3	Fabian Brookes	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
4	Mario Guido	Colombia	s.t.
5	Naveed Alinejad	Champion System Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Yauheni Hutarovich	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
7	Nicola Ruffoni	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
8	Nikias Arndt	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
9	Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
10	Blaz Jarc	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.

1	Barry Markus	AG2R La Mondiale	6h16'38
2	Fabian Brookes	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	+ 20
3	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 28
4	Artur Ershov	RusVelo	s.t.
5	Rick Zabel	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 30
6	Mario Guido	Colombia	+ 32
7	Jimmy Engoulvent	Sojasun	s.t.
8	Voltali Feunard	Champion System Pro Cycling Team	+ 34
9	Salvatore Puccio	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
10	Staf Scheirlinckx	Wanty-Groupe Goubert	+ 36

1	Barry Markus	AG2R La Mondiale	25	50
2	Fabian Brookes	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	16	36
3	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEdge	20	34
4	Mario Guido	Colombia	14	30
5	Naveed Alinejad	Champion System Pro Cycling Team	12	20

1	Gaël Malacarne	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	16	16
2	Jimmy Engoulvent	Sojasun	12	14
3	Jan Kaas	AG2R La Mondiale	10	10
4	Anthony Ravard	AG2R La Mondiale	8	8
5	Artur Ershov	RusVelo	0	6

1	Barry Markus	AG2R La Mondiale	6h16'38 (1)
2	Fabian Brookes	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	+ 20 (2)
3	Leigh Howard	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 28 (3)
4	Artur Ershov	RusVelo	+ 28 (4)
5	Rick Zabel	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 30 (5)

1	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	18h51'54 (1)
2	Drapac Cycling	+ 0 (2)
3	Wanty-Groupe Goubert	+ 0 (3)
4	UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team	+ 0 (4)
5	Crelan - Euphony	+ 0 (5)

Darn you Dowsett! What is he doing at Colombia anyway?

We brought him in to help Mario but he needs to learn first

Just wondering how come Dowsett isn't in British National Champs Jersey?

Good to see Berg in action and disappointed to see 11th from Sinkeldam :/

It's a shame Miles couldn't quite get a break going but at least he took some points...

well I volenteerd a month ago but whatever

Yeah, but wouldn't two stage races be too much?

Think we need someone to take over Algarve and San Luis first.

Last season San Luis was one of the last races to finish, so he still has some time.

A better result this time. A top-10 for JvR and top-5 for Naveed is nice.

Naveed disappointed a little in Algarve though

we got an algarve today though.


better than classics, don't like racing them. reporting them even worse.

Yeah not sure if you noticed but Algarve has started and will move at a good pace from now on.

Two out of two for Markus, he is really delivering so far