yes I am but it´s enough. He should let us win something too

Boa sorte amigo! Good luck!
O Rui owna isso tudo! xD

Hi it´s after 5th stage the first hilly stage of Paris-Nice.
Here is profile:



From start the 7 strong riders created BOTD
Those 7 were Baredo, Taaramäe, Meyer, Oroz Ugalde, Kadri, Moinard and Stybar


Liquigas was in charge first 70 kms.



With 68 kms left the BOTD had still 6:45 seconds to the pack.
When the first big climb appears we started to do the pace.



After the climb pack was reduced to 72 riders.
Then we let Liquigas do the work for Sagan.
On the next climb we again did the pace.



In peloton were only 50 riders now but what´s more Sagan had only Szmyd left.
After the climb we maintain in front and kept the high pace.
With 15 kms left break still had more than 3 minute lead.
Right at the foot of the final climb Lövkvist attacked and was followed by Sagan and Erik Larsson. I stood in the pack.



After 1km they were back in the pack. BOD was nearly caught.



After another 2km it was all in one piece.
With 1km left I choosed the wheel of Sylvian Chavanel.

Lövkvist was leading the pack but Sagan was right behind him.



Can Sagan make it now a 4th win in a row?



No he can´t!



I ended decently on 9th position so my first top 10 of the season.
But what´s more I´m now 18th on GC and thus the leader for our team.


Stage:

1	Karl Thomas Henry Lövkvist	Sky ProCycling	4h38'45
2	Peter Sagan	Liquigas-Cannondale	s.t.
3	Andreas Klöden	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 20
4	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	s.t.
5	Richard Porte	Sky ProCycling	s.t.
6	Christopher Horner	RadioShack-Nissan	s.t.
7	Blel Kadri	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
8	Amaël Moinard	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
9	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	s.t.
10	Yury Viktorovich Trofimov	Katusha Team	s.t.

GC:

1	Peter Sagan	Liquigas-Cannondale	18h10'48
2	Karl Thomas Henry Lövkvist	Sky ProCycling	+ 40
3	Sylvain Chavanel	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 46
4	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 54
5	Jens Voigt	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 59
6	Gustav Erik Larsson	Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
7	Andreas Klöden	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 1'03
8	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'07
9	Richard Porte	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'08
10	Peter Velits	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 1'10

Tommorow it´s another flat stage so probably another Sagan victory.

Rui.

That's a good result for Rui Costa. Now he needs to attack!

He posted on his facebook page today that he is going to Tour of Beijing, last race of the year!

Good luck for both virtual and real Rui

thanks. he will probably try something on stage7

Nice ride from Costa today

Sagan is a beast here
Time for Costa to tame him

Hi guys.
It´s after 6th stage and I have to say that this was great stage for our team.
Here is profile:



Today was raining all day long so only five riders were brave or foolish enough to go to front of pack.
They soon created a margin of 7minutes but that was enough for Liquigas to set hard pace.
With 13km to go at the top of the small climb they were all caught.
Visconti tried to place José behind wheel of Sagan but also Cavendish Farrar and Boonen wanted the same thing.
So with 4km to go Visconti gave everything and placed José in front of the pack. Meanwhile Liquigas blowed the leadout and chance to win a stage was minnimal.



He led the pack another 2kms but then he was empty so José had to start a 1.3 kms long sprint.



Freire was coming fast but he wasn´t strong enough to keep it up.
Cavendish made a great lead out for Boonen but nobody could catch up to José.



José finnaly won stage this year.



After race when while we was celebrating our 3rd win of the season, suddenly one of organizers came to our GM and said to him that the sprint was so fast that gaps appeard and some favorites were caught behind.
We all went check GC and this is what we saw:

GC:

1	Peter Sagan	Liquigas-Cannondale	22h49'51
2	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 54
3	Andreas Klöden	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 1'03
4	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'07
5	Richard Porte	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'08
6	David Le Lay	Saur - Sojasun	+ 1'13
7	Cameron Meyer	Orica GreenEDGE	+ 1'19
8	Jonathan Hivert	Saur - Sojasun	+ 1'21
9	Yury Viktorovich Trofimov	Katusha Team	+ 1'22
10	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	+ 1'23

YES!! I´m in top 10 and I´m sure that I can pass few guys on the final Mountain time-trial.

Stage:

1	José Joaquín Rojas Gil	Movistar Team	4h39'03
2	Tom Boonen	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	s.t.
3	Sébastien Hinault	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
4	Tyler Farrar	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
5	Daniele Bennati	RadioShack-Nissan	s.t.
6	Óscar Freire Gómez	Katusha Team	s.t.
7	Tiziano Dall'Antonia	Liquigas-Cannondale	s.t.
8	Mark Cavendish	Sky ProCycling	s.t.
9	Juan José Oroz Ugalde	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
10	Cameron Meyer	Orica GreenEDGE	s.t.

Tommorow we will try to shake even more riders from top 10.
See you tommorow.

Rui

Good luck tomorrow. A nice victory for the team

Thanks for all your comments.

Hi here is today´s profile



It´s not hardest stage but it can be enough to loose som time.
From the start it took really long to create a breakaway of the day.
It took 70 km. 13 riders formed BOTD.



Liquigas was in charge of the pack till the only mountain of the day.



Than we started a high pace and only Szmyd left for Peter.
With 30 km to go Breakaway still had more than 4:00 minute lead to pack so it looked certain that they will fight it out for victory.
With 5 km to go I said to Kiryienka that now is the time.



He gave everything he had and we created the margin of 30 seconds.
With 2.5 km I had to start a long sprint but the pack was nearing.
Meanwhile that Vaitkus won sprint from the breakaway.



I was coming fast but Sagan was faster by 5 kms I was giving my all it was just not ment to be and the pack caught me, Sagan even passed me.




Stage:

1	Tomas Vaitkus	Orica GreenEDGE	5h21'38
2	Mathieu Ladagnous	FDJ-Big Mat	s.t.
3	Marco Marcato	Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Marcus Burghardt	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Cyril Gautier	Team Europcar	s.t.
6	Yannick Talabardon	Saur - Sojasun	s.t.
7	Rigoberto Urán Urán	Sky ProCycling	s.t.
8	Maxime Bouet	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
9	Tanel Kangert	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
10	Carlos Barredo Llamazales	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.

GC:

1	Peter Sagan	Liquigas-Cannondale	28h14'40
2	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 54
3	Andreas Klöden	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 1'03
4	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'07
5	Richard Porte	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'08
6	David Le Lay	Saur - Sojasun	+ 1'13
7	Cameron Meyer	Orica GreenEDGE	+ 1'19
8	Jonathan Hivert	Saur - Sojasun	+ 1'21
9	Yury Viktorovich Trofimov	Katusha Team	+ 1'22
10	Rui Alberto Faria Costa Movistar Team	+ 1'23

I´m looking forward to last mountain time-trial.
see ya

Rui.

Nice to see Costa in the top ten, lets hope he can improve on that in the time trial

Nice try anyway,let's move up some places in the TT

Rui can jump some places, I hope.

Hi it´s after the final Time-trial.
Just when I was about to go to starting box my freind that was with me this race came to me and showed me your coments in this blog. It gave me extra motivation and I can only thank to you all.
But now let´s check what happened.
This Is the profile of mountain.



Real stage favourites came late because they all been GC guys.
First to set time to beat was Peter Velits. He climbed Col d´Eze in 19.36.
Than it was up to me.



I started strong I wanted to jump atleast 2 places.
Trainer said to me that I´m going too fast that i need to slow a little bit.
I set nice time on first checkpoint. Only 24 seconds behind Velits I was 17th.
Rider started 2 mins before me was only few meters in front of me.




Than I started to go even faster and ended provisonaly 9th.



One thing left to do for me and that was waiting.
Yes! Trofimov came 10 seconds behind me. And that means I am provisionaly 9th.
Hivert was 1 second faster so I´m still 9th...
This really wasn´t Meyers day he came more than 30 seconds later.
Same story with Le Lay.
I ended on a great 7th place.
Who won?
Andreas Kloden crushed his opponents and won by 16 seconds in front of Velits and Porte.





Stage:

1	Andreas Klöden	RadioShack-Nissan	19'20
2	Peter Velits	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 16
3	Richard Porte	Sky ProCycling	s.t.
4	Wout Poels	Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team	+ 18
5	Bradley Wiggins	Sky ProCycling	+ 22
6	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	+ 23
7	Tejay Van Garderen	BMC Racing Team	+ 33
8	Mathias Frank	BMC Racing Team	+ 36
9	Jens Voigt	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 37
10	Peter Sagan	Liquigas-Cannondale	s.t.

GC:

1	Peter Sagan	Liquigas-Cannondale	28h34'37
2	Andreas Klöden	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 26
3	Richard Porte	Sky ProCycling	+ 47
4	Michael Rogers	Sky ProCycling	+ 53
5	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 56
6	Jonathan Hivert	Saur - Sojasun	+ 1'25
7	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	+ 1'28
8	Yury Viktorovich Trofimov	Katusha Team	+ 1'40
9	Bradley Wiggins	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'48
10	Cameron Meyer	Orica GreenEDGE	+ 1'58

Points:

1	Peter Sagan	Liquigas-Cannondale	11	141
2	Tom Boonen	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	0	75
3	Daniele Bennati	RadioShack-Nissan	0	70

Mountain:

1	Juan José Oroz Ugalde	Euskaltel - Euskadi	0	40
2	Carlos Barredo Llamazales	Rabobank Cycling Team	0	33
3	Damien Monier	Cofidis, le Crédit en Ligne	0	29

Team:

1	Sky ProCycling	59'01	85h42'51 (1)
2	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 20	+ 3'43 (2)
3	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 1'06	+ 3'56 (3)

All in all I´m really happy with my results and José won Stage which was sponsor goal.

My next race is Milan san Remo but before that I´m going to sleep.
I´m really tired.

Rui