LOL take that for your large appearance fee!

How dangerous is it? It's not that bad surely?

EDIT: Clearly it was, the race was shortened!

classic lance..he always does that.that is enough pr for this race..I go home to talk with Radioshack..
bicycle race is dangerous sport..you know

reports say a large amount of riders just gave up in the stage.

Well done by Nordhaug, taking a surprising, but really nice win

And it is also great that Downing took the overall

Lars Bak won todays stage in the Eneco Tour, he was in a break with most of the favorites except Wiggins, Boonen and Farrar. Bak attacked with 5k to go, he was joined by Nibali, but he crashed in the downhill and lost time, Hagen was second 2 sec behind Bak.

Todays Abandoners

Did Not Finish:

2-Cavendish.M,

3-Eisel.B,

6-Reynes Mimo.V,

7-Possoni.M,

11-Armstrong.L,

12-Brajkovic.J,

14-Hernández.J,

16-Popovych.Y,

18-Zubeldia.H,

35-Hunt.J,

36-Lloyd.D,

37-Reimer.M,

41-McCann.D,

44-Lavery.P,

47-Irvine.M,

52-Abakoumov.I,

56-Huzarsky.B,

62-Lisabeth.K,

63-Cassidy.M,

64-Mc Laughlin.R,

65-Peeters.J,

67-De Schrooder.B,

73-Lapthorne.D,

74-Southam.T,

75-Richardson.S,

76-Craven.D,

77-Downing.D,

81-Creed.M,

83-Milne.S,

84-Kobzarenko.V,

85-Ilesic

Aldo.I,

87-Calabria.F,

93-Briggs.G,

94-Sampson.J,

97-Roche.A,

102-Frei.T,

103-Stewart.J,

105-Kohler.M,

111-Bobridge.J,

112-Howard.L,

113-Meyer.T,

114-Matthews.M,

116-Walker.N,

122-Wilman.F,

124-Vold.S,

127-Laengen.S,

131-Bol.J,

132-Keizer.M,

135-Van Staeyen.M,

136-Van Winden.D,

137-Vrijmoed.M,

142-Thomson.J,

145-Potgieter.B,

146-Niyonshuti.A,

151-Hayles.R,

155-Tennant.A

Did Not Start: 82-Hanson.K

It's too bad the finish wasn't in Valkenburg instead of Sittard-Geleen.
Hagen dropped on the Doodeman (dead mans climb is the literal translation). And dropped again on the next climb.
He even dropped on the flat at 40km to go. But he had Rogers and Monfort with him and the luck that the last 30km were easy.
I'm a bit gutted. He should have been dropped definately. He isn't the strongest rider this ENECO Tour, that was clear today, but he will most probably win thanks to the soft finales.

Allow me to express a level of surprise and congratulations to Lars Bak.

I dont understand how mainly Rabobank, and Columbia as well let themselves be suprized by Bak's attack... Rabo shouldve send someone with him, and Columbia shouldve helped van den broeck to chase...

There is only 1 hope now. That Chavanel or Posthuma will crush Hagen in the TT (not gonna happen)

1: Lars Bak
2: Hagen

nuff said lol

Nice he got a win here

Bak was the smartest, he only rode in the wheels and attacked for the first time very close to the finish. Just when Columbia, Silence and Rabobank (all with 3 in the lead group) had spent all their powers battling eachother

Big win for Bak. Very well-deserved aswell.

Alex Howes wins the queen stage of Tour of Utah. Showing that maybe he can get a U23 World Championship to go along with the U23 RR and Crit in USA.

Incredible performance by Russ Downing to take the Tour of Ireland, outriding and out climbing a lot of good riders. Very impressive. They still did 2 laps on the tough finishing circuit (At the end of an already testing stage), despite the heavy rain

Riding the world champs and getting a spot on Team Sky are the least he deserves.

Final GC:

1	Russell Downing (GBr) Candi TV - Marshalls Pasta	14:18:03
2	Lars Nordhaug (Nor) TMB Joker Bianchi	0:00:23
3	Matti Breschel (Den) Team Saxo Bank	0:00:43
4	Alexander Kolobnev (Rus) Team Saxo Bank	0:00:45
5	Marco Pinotti (Ita) Team Columbia - HTC	0:00:49
6	Mathias Frank (Swi) BMC Racing Team	0:01:03
7	Craig Lewis (USA) Team Columbia - HTC	0:01:05
8	Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Rabobank Continental	0:01:06
9	Denys Kostyuk (Ukr) ISD - Neri
10	Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Team Saxo Bank
11	Karsten Kroon (Ned) Team Saxo Bank
12	Philip Deignan (Irl) Cervélo Test Team	0:01:08
13	Andrey Grivko (Ukr) ISD - Neri	0:01:21
14	Florian Stalder (Swi) BMC Racing Team	0:01:24
15	Kristian House (GBr) Rapha Condor Cycling Team	0:03:17
16	Gabriel Rasch (Nor) Cervélo Test Team	0:03:19
17	Jason McCartney (USA) Team Saxo Bank	0:03:20
18	Jose Luis Rubiera (Spa) Astana
19	Michael Schar (Swi) Astana	0:03:31
20	Christoff Van Heerden (RSA) MTN Cycling	0:03:36

Btw, pathetic of Armstrong to give up without trying the finishing circuits

Hmm, when I see the riders in the 2nd groups. Steven Kruijswijk from Rabo CT for instance..

Don't overdo it

It's a good performance, but a lot of strong riders were at Limousin/Plouay or Eneco this week

Ah yes but unlike you (I assume), ive seen the race Dont try to rubbish his performance

Its not overdoing it at all to say he is deserving of one of the 9 spots on the British team, or that he should be in Sky.
Kolobnev, Kroon, Breschel and Pinotti are all good riders. (Never mind the Astana riders left behind)

They tried to attack him but couldnt respond when he went. Kruijswijk only made it to that 2nd group at the end.

Lets not forget when over half the bunch saw St. Patricks hill and abandoned.


I think it's a good achievement as with SN.

Ah, but we have the Doodeman climb

*waits for a french guy to chime in "Yeah, but we got the alps"*