I must admit, that when you said all the riders were going to have the same stats, i thought the game would be a bit boring, but i have to admit that all the results are very interesting
Its nice to see that time trials are not ruled by Tony Martin or Fabian Cancellara.
I am now very interested in this story.
Well Done
sutty68 wrote:
I must admit, that when you said all the riders were going to have the same stats, i thought the game would be a bit boring, but i have to admit that all the results are very interesting
Its nice to see that time trials are not ruled by Tony Martin or Fabian Cancellara.
I am now very interested in this story.
Well Done
When the season ends the riders will gain or lose points depending on how they did. The time trials won't be dominated by Martin (or maybe yes) but at least I will be able to talk about favorites before a race. I kinda miss that part of the reporting.
Today, there is an easy stage to recover from the efforts of the team time trial. The only risk is, again, the wind. The last 70 kilometres run beside the Mediterranean Sea and could be ground for a bit of battle.
The members of the break spent half the stage following each other in smaller groups, therefore wasting much of their energies instead of trying to get to the finish. When they finally joined, there were only 100 kilometres to the finish and the pack was already chasing. The breakaway included: Gesink (Omega), Horner (Radioshack), Meyer (Garmin), Gadret (Sky), Bak (HTC) and Matthews (BMC).
The peloton had an easy day reeling back in the break. With 25 km to go, everything looked set for a mass sprint, as Liquigas, Saxo Bank and Leopard controlled the rhythm. The wind was nowhere to be seen, as only a light breeze was blowing.
As the pack approached the last kilometres, two trains were set up. On the left, Lampre’s Sylvain Chavanel was leading Grega Bole and on the right, Roman Kreuziger was towing Lloyd Mondory.
Grega Bola wins in Perpignan! The Slovenian made good his team mate’s work and won by a good margin on Xavi Tondo. Lampre is in need of this kind of results, as they currently stand laston the World Tour rankings.
It was an easy day for the GC riders, although Franck Schleck wanted some action and joined the final sprint. The green jersey changed hands and it’s Xavi Tondo who will wear it tomorrow on our way to Barcelona.
The sixth stage of the Tour de France takes us to Spain, with a very flat stage. In real life, the terrain was much more difficult. The only difficulty of the stage is the climb to Montjuich, where the stage finishes.
Today, the unofficial rest day of the first week took place. No rider tried an attack and only Roman Kreuziger jumped at the intermediate sprints to collect the points. He obviously bagged the 18 points available. The riders had an easy pace for the whole sprint bar the last 20 kilometres.
Saxo Bank, Leopard and LÃquigas set a good rhythm on the last few kilometres before the ascent to Montjuich. A big sprint was expected at the top nevertheless, as the riders spent few energies in the stage.
Jean-Christophe Peraud wins in Barcelona! The French was fastest in the uphill sprint in the hill of Montjuich. The French was slightly faster than the leader of the World Tour, Lloyd Mondory and the Swiss Gregory Rast. A group of riders lost contact with the front group and ended losing 45 seconds at the finish, among those were Wout Poels and Alexandre Vinokourov.
The riders didn't lose much energies today, ahead of the first mountain top finish of the Tour de France. The stage has several climbs, not only the last one towards Arcalis, so it should be interesting to watch.
First mountain stage of the Tour and first mountain top finish at Arcalis. The middle section of this very long stage is very interesting, with climbs to Solsona, Serra Seca and Comte. Gaps will most probably start opening in this stage. This is the second stage finish at Andorra this year, after Thor Hushovd win at Vallnord on the Volta.
The first riders jumped from the pack before the first climb. They were Peter Kennaugh (Sky), George Hincapie (BMC) and Fabian Cancellara (Leopard). They were almost 8 minutes ahead at the first intermediate sprint. Mikel Nieve had jumped from the pack and was trying to bridge the gap.
On the approach to the third climb of the day, Jean-Christophe Peraud fell. He is second on the overall standings, so Benatti slowed down to help him get back to the peloton.
While climbing the Port de Solsona three riders jumped from the peloton: Barredo, Eisel and Leipheimer. On the top, the trio in front had 1' 55'' on Mikel Nieve, 8' 45'' on these three and 9' 25'' on the pack. Peraud hadn't got back to the pack and was suffering to keep the distance.
On the next climb, Serra Seca, things stayed more or less the same. Nieve was now 1' 05'' behind. Leipheimer couldn't keep up with Barredo and Eisel and was caught by the peloton. The difference between the front and the pack was down to 7' 40''. Meanwhile, Peraud and Benatti were falling more and more behind. The French was saying goodbye to his second overall.
At the second sprint of the day, George Hincapie had to give up. He couldn't follow Kennaugh and Cancellara. The stage was very long and hard for this kind of riders, as there were 40 kilometres to the finish. The peloton was doing a good job and brought back Eisel and Barredo.
The break came to an end in the first slopes of Arcalis. Peter Kennaugh had run out of fuel while Liquigas and Saxo Bank led the main group.
Samuel Sanchez was doing a great ascent. He was setting such a high pace that even without attacking he seemed able to pull away. The peloton was losing lots of members on the back, and was down to less than 70 riders with 5 km to the finish.
Sanchez didn't attack until the last kilometre, when only Andrew Greipel seemed to follow. Sanchez was 5th overall, so he had a good chance of claiming the yellow jersey if he opened a small gap.
Samuel Sanchez wins at Arcalis! There was no time differences among the first group, but that was only 23 riders at the end. Franck Schleck couldn't make the last kilometre push and ended 40 seconds behind, enough to gift the yellow to Sanchez.
The length of this stage made several riders arrive exhausted to the finish. It's only the 7th stage and we are already seen severe signs of fatigue in a lot of riders. Fortunately for the riders, the following two stages in the Pyrenees are not that long and the climbs are far from the finish.
The second stage in the Pyrenees is not as tough as yesterday’s arrival at Arcalis. It has three hard climbs: Envalira, Port and Agnes, but the last climb is 43 kilometres to the finish. It looks like a day for a break of riders that have lost time in the general classification.
Saxo Bank only started chasing when the peloton started climbing the Col de Port. When they made it to the top, the break still had a gap of 5’ 45’’.
The guys in front learned how to suffer while climbing Agnes, and did great. They were gaining time on the peloton during the last part of the climb and made it to the top with 5 minutes. With that kind of gap, they are almost sure to fight for the stage win.
On the last kilometre of Agnes a small group of 7 riders attacked, including Rigoberto Uran, Filippo Pozzato and Gregory Rast; the three of them were within 10 seconds of Sanchez in the GC. At the end of the descent, they had 1 minute on the pack.
15 km to the finish line and Ponzi tries to attack. However, he is not successful and the group stays together. They are 3’ 20’’ ahead of the chasing group and 4’ 20’’ ahead of the peloton.
With 2 kilometres to go, Rojas and Gadret have built a small gap to Kloden and Ponzi. It’s going to be one of them who snatches the victory at Saint Girons.
John Gadret! The French is faster than the Leopard rider in the sprint and wins the second stage in the Pyrenees. By the time they make it to the finish, Rojas knows that he is the new leader of the Tour de France.
Rigoberto Uran led the chasing group, as they made it to the finish with 2’ 34’’ lost on Gadret. The 7 riders group had grown to 16, as several other riders jumped on the last kilometres and bridged the gap. The peloton, with Samuel Sanchez, arrived 1 minute later.
The first decent gaps are starting to open in the general classification, as the fatigue starts to weigh on the riders. Tomorrow’s stage is very similar to this one, but with harder climbs in the middle of the stage. If a similar result follows, we could see big gaps open.
Today's and yesterday's stages look very similar. They have big climbs, especially today, but very far from the finish. It could be a good day for a break of riders that have lost time in the first week, but two colossus will be on their way: Aspin and Tourmalet.
The three riders in front reached the Aspin very quickly. They were George Hincapie (BMC), Mark Cavendish (HTC) and Borut Bozic (Sky). The Slovenian was the best in the general results, but almost 10 minutes behind Rojas. The pack was taking his time today, as the gap at the top of the Aspin was 7' 50''.
Saxo Bank started the battle climbing the Tourmalet, and many riders started suffering at the back of the peloton. However, it looks like these high mountains are not the best terrain to split the peloton with this kind of riders, as only a handful of them were left behind. The break had a hard time climbing the Tourmalet and their advantage had reduced to 4' 40'' .
An attack by Dries Devenyns made other riders follow. By the time the break reached the second sprint in Lourdes, they had 1'12'' on Marco Pinotti. The Italian jumped behind Devenyns but followed strongly. A small group of 8 riders including Rigoberto Uran, Alexandre Vinokourov and Filippo Pozzato was 1' 44'' behind the leaders and the peloton was 2'21'' behind. Saxo Bank had seemed to lose their strength but even though they tried to chase. More surprising is the fact that Leopard didn't even seemed to care. Strange considering Uran was fourth.
With 2 kilometres to go, the three men in the break were set to fight for the stage win. Behind them, the small group had caught Pinotti and were around 1 minute behind. The peloton kept losing ground to the break and it was almost 2 minutes behind the leaders.
Cavendish! The British took Hincapie's wheel and went past in the last meters of the sprint. This is the second stage win for the HTC rider, after the one he got at the Volta a Catalunya.
Dries Devenyns led the group, only losing 41 seconds at the finish line. Meanwhile, the peloton arrived with 1' 24'' lost. This means Uran, Pozzato and Weening close on Rojas lead. The three of them are now between 40 and 50 seconds behind the Spaniard in the GC.
The Tour leaves the Pyrenees with mixed feelings. On the very long first stage the riders were too tired to break the peloton and the other two stages had the climbs too far from the finish. Even though, the gaps have started opening in the GC and, more importantly, the riders have accumulated a big amount of fatigue. We will travel uncharted waters from now on, as I haven't gone through stage races longer than 9 stages in this story. Let's see how the riders respond.
First rest day of the Tour de France and what better day to announce the calendar of the 2010 season. The number of racing days has been increased to 60 and the calendar has been completely revamped to allow the riders to try their handon different roads.
2010 Calendar
Santos Tour Down Under
19/01/2010 - 24/01/2010
Tirreno-Adriatico
10/03/2010 - 16/03/2010
Milano-Sanremo
20/03/2010
Liege-Bastogne-Liege
25/04/2010
Tour de Romandie
27/04/2010 - 02/05/2010
Tour de Pologne
01/08/2010 - 07/08/2010
Eneco Tour
09/08/2010 - 15/08/2010
Vattenfall Cyclassics
21/08/2010
Gp Ouest France - Plouay
24/08/2010
Vuelta a España
28/08/2010 - 19/09/2010
Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal
22/09/2010
Road World Championship
26/09/2009
The Road World Championships will be raced in Melbourne. The organisers have taken some criticism by the fact that the calendar is too crowded in the months of August and September, meaning that most riders will target the late season races as their targets for the year.
PS: I have done the stages for the Tour Down Under (2012 profiles), Eneco Tour (2011), Vuelta a España (2011) and Road World Champ (2010). I will be uploading them to the Stages forum. I could use some help with the Eneco Tour cobbled sections, as I don't really know where they are. If you are reading this and know, please let me know.
The results still are like they should be a little, I hope I will seen soon that someone unexpected wins the TDF anyway the results are still interesting! keep it up
The riders face a rather flat stage after the rest day and the transfer from Tarbes to Limoges. There are only three small climbs at the beginning of the stage, but nothing that can break the peloton. The most probable outcome is a mass sprint at the finish of Issoudun.
It was going to be difficult for a break to succeed, but five riders tried it nevertheless: Kanstansin Sivtsov (HTC), Cameron Meyer (Garmin), Mikel Nieve (Omega), Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Chris Horner (Radiosahck). By the time they reached the first sprint they already has a gap of 6’ 30’’ on the pack.
Nothing special happened during most of the stage and, as expected, the peloton was about to catch the break with 20 kilometres to go. Although you see Lampre in front in the picture, most of the work was done by Leopard, Liquigas and Saxo Bank.
With 5 kilometres to go, Lampre and Saxo Bank were in control of the pack. Samuel Sanchez showed himself in the front trying to defend his green jersey. Rojas was also seen in the first places, trying to avoid a fall.
Francisco Ventoso wins in Issoudun! The Spaniard did just enough to hold Rigoberto Uran and Samuel Sanchez, who came progressing from behind. It is the second straight win for HTC, after Mark Cavendish victory yesterday.
The bad news on this rather uneventful stage was the abandon of Michele Scarponi. The Italian suffered a fracture after a fall in the last kilometres. This leaves Lampre in a difficult position with only 7 riders in the race.
If I had to bet on someone, I would say Uran will win the Tour. I haven't raced any stage ahead of this, so my guess can be as good as anyone's. Anyway, Rojas got the leader's jersey after a break when he was down in the GC. I expect him to lose it somewhere in the Alps.
Another flat and long stage through central France continues taking us east closer to the Alps. The finish straight is slightly uphill, but it is still sprinters ground.
Four riders were on the break of the day: Andreas Kloden (Radioshack), Thor Hushovd (Garmin), George Hincapie (BMC) and Lar Ytting Bak (HTC). When they got to the second intermediate sprint, the gap had grown to 7’ 25’’.
The wind was blowing very hard from the start and with 80 kilometres to go Saxo Bank decided that they wanted to increase the pace. It took a while, but eventually started to pay off. The peloton started to break up with 65 kilometres remaining. It was going to be a tough day for many riders.
The peloton eventually rejoined and broke again, but now most of the favourites were in the front group. The wind was easing and that helped the chasers. In the last kilometres Pozzato tried an attack but it was unsuccessful. We were set for a small group sprint.
Lloyd Mondory wins in Saint Fargeau! Vincenzo Nibali dragged the French out of the group and he only had to make an easy sprint in the last kilometre. Nibali was so strong that he could hold for second ahead of Peraud.
In the end there were no time differences awarded, even though it seemed that there would be at a first sight (see the picture). More than that, the peloton arrived with all the riders in the same time after a good effort from the chasing group.
Although the stage didn’t look promising, it was very fun to see once the peloton started to break up. However, a lot of energy was used by many riders today. Many could regret no saving some energy for the decisive stages in the last week.
Another easy one before the stage in the Vosges of tomorrow. The profile of this stage has three gentle climbs that will make no harm to the peloton, so it should be another mass sprint today. If the wind doesn’t blow hard, it will be a recovery stage for many riders.
Today’s break was really strange. Mikel Nieve attacked after the first intermediate sprint and Daniele Bennati jumped behind. However, the Leopard rider wouldn’t give a single relay to the Spaniard. If breaks have usually a hard time making it to the finish, this solo effort was doomed from the start. The pack didn’t even have to do a big effort to bring the break back with 40 kilometres to go.
Liquigas, Lampre and Saxo Bank were leading the group into the sprint, with the main contenders in the GC very well placed to avoid trouble in the last kilometres.
Ventoso wins in Vittel! Roman Kreuziger seemed to have the advantage but he seemed to run out of gas. Ventoso took advantage of this to overtake him and Tjallingii. Pozzato was on the wheel of the Spaniard and took advantage as he finished second.
This was a rest day for many riders in the peloton. It will be different tomorrow, as it won’t be a high mountain stage but has enough climbs to break the pack. The green jersey competition has heated up in these stages, as a good amount of riders are fighting for points. Samuel Sánchez still holds it, but he could lose it any day.
The first mountainous terrain of the second week finally arrives, with a hilly stage through the Vosges. The riders will face three climbs, being the Platserwasel the hardest of them 60 kilometres to the finish line. We could see some movements today, especially in the last of the climbs.
Samuel Sánchez tried a solo attack after passing the first intermediate sprint, as nobody jumped on his wheel. He was setting a good rhythm and when he got to the foot of the first climb he was already 5 minutes ahead of the pack.
At the top of the Platserwasel the pack had reduced the advantage to only 2 minutes. Sanchez didn't want to lose all his energy in a solo attack and had lifted the foot in the short flat between the two first climbs. Adding to that, the peloton did a very fast second climb leaving some riders behind. The favourites were holding on well to the pace set by Peter Sagan.
Sanchez was caught in the first slopes of the last climb of the day. Liquigas was doing a good job again in leading the peloton, but there were still almost 80 riders in the pack.
Marco Pinotti attacked during the last meters of the climb and started the descent on his own. The Italian is 11th in the GC, 1' 34'' behind Rojas, so it's a dangerous attack for the favourites.
After a quick descent the HTC rider has 25 seconds on the pack with only 5 kilometres to go. It could well be the first victory of the year.
A final push by the peloton before the sprint left the Italian so close he was caught with less than 1 km to go. Pieter Weening and Xavi Tondo were the duo that was fighting for the victory once they were past Pinotti, with Vinokourov following close.
Weening wins in Colmar! The Dutch made good the work of his teammates during the last part of the stage and bagged another victory for Liquigas. He edged Tondo for the victory and the montain jersey leader Alexandre Vinokourov.
A quiet day again for the GC contenders, except for Pinotti's attack. The Italian could well have reduced his loss on the GC, but the pack was well controlled by Liquigas on the descent. On the green jersey fight, Grega Bole is the new leader after finishing 5th on today's stage.
