Bochman has had a nice steady start to the Giro, lets hope that he can keep getting some nice finishes

Jesleyh: Well the easiest time to get the Mountain jersey is on stage 1, so the riders have made sure to be very fit for the start. The first week will probably be our best.

Ian: Thanks. There is a lot of strong riders in deed, but with the form Nibali (and Evans) is showing I don't think there will be much doubt about who wins...

sutty: He is in great form right now and will chase what ever opportunities may arise later on in the race

Great performance with KoM in Romandie, and wow Hushovd and the Team are doing great in the Rankings

Best of luck in the Giro

Stage 4
A few small hills on the way, but the sprinters will have circled this stage, so a break only has a small chance of success.
12 riders manage to slip into the break. Falcon – STARK is represented by the Swedish champion Christofer Stevenson. The best rider in the GC is Sergey Ivanov at 88th so Liquigas let the break get a good gap.
With 75 km to go the break has a gap of just over 6 minutes losing time fast.

50 km to go and a gap of 4’40’’. In this very km it is a battle between Swedes. Stevenson leading the break hoping to make it last and Löfkvist leading the peloton to get a sprint for Appolonio.
10 km to go and the break is done
With 5 km to go Bak tries to get away, but Lampre has him under control. As soon as Lars is caught, Bøchman counterattacks with Bäckstedt in his wheel. The two get a small gap along with Sandy Casar, but the sprinters are coming fast from behind on the last km.

Farrar is by far the strongest today, but the hectic final also resulted in a huge crash leaving 75 riders behind losing time. None of the GC-contenders was affected, but Sicard lost three minutes in the young riders battle.

Results:
1. Tyler Farrar, Garmin - Sharp
2. Allan Davis, Orica - Greenedge
3. Danilo Napolitano, Lampre - ISD
5. Magnus Bäckstedt, Falcon – STARK



Stage 5 – TTT
Falcon – STARK have brought a team with a lot of good TT’ers, so a decent result should be possible if everything goes well today. The bookmakers have Movistar as the big favourite, but Falcon – STARK is mentioned among the outsiders.
As Falcon – STARK is off Rabobank and Omega Pharma – Quickstep have set the times to beat. The Nordic team doesn’t show much on the intermediate times, where Danish team Saxo – Tinkoff have placed in top 5. But TT’s are not decided on intermediate times and the Falcons keep a consistently high tempo throughout the stage getting best provisional time four seconds ahead of Lotto Belisol and Garmin – Sharp.
Movistar live up to their favourite-status beating Falcon – STARK by three seconds.
Liquigas – Cannondale rode a terrible TTT handing over Maglia Rosa to Damiano Cunego.

Results:
1. Movistar Team
2. Falcon - STARK
3. Garmin – Sharp



Stage 6
A few small hills in the middle part of the stage, but in the end this should amount to another bunch sprint.
Once gain Lars Bak shows his talent for hitting the right break. 11 riders in total with Freire, Eisel and Bak being the biggest names in the group.
Realizing that he can win back the mountain jersey by winning all five small climbs today Bak leaves nothing to chance in the sprints, though Fabio Felline tries his best to ruin the master plan.

With 50 km to go the break has a gap of just under 5 minutes and Bak has executed his plan winning all five KOM sprints and taking back the mountain jersey from Wegmann.
With 30 km to go the 10 riders in front maintain a lead of 4’30 to the peloton. Looks like they might make it, but with 10 km to go the lead is down to half a minute, and with 5 km to go Lars Bak gives it one last go.

He gets a good gap, but is caught by the rest of the breakers on the last kilometer and by the peloton right on the line.

Results:
1. Coen Vermeltfoort, Rabobank
2. Óscar Freire, Katusha
3. Fabio Felline, Androni Giacattoli - Venezuela
14. Lars Ytting Bak, Falcon – STARK





Provisional Standings:

1	Damiano Cunego	Lampre - ISD	20h33'50
2	Vincenzo Nibali	Liquigas - Cannondale	+ 8
3	Michele Scarponi	Lampre - ISD	+ 1'17
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 1'44
5	Igor Antón	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'08
6	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'17
7	Marzio Bruseghin	Movistar Team	+ 2'37
8	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol Team	+ 2'55
9	Jan Bakelants	RadioShack - Nissan	+ 3'00
10	Ryder Hesjedal	RadioShack - Nissan	+ 3'03
22	Jesper Hansen	Falcon - STARK	+ 4'21

Mountains: Lars Ytting Bak, Falcon - STARK


Points: Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale


Young rider: Nairo Quintana, Movistar Team

Team: Lampre - ISD

After stage six Falcon – STARK announced that both Magnus Bäckstedt and Morten Kruse Brink won’t be starting any more stages in this Giro.

What a cracking Team Time Trial on stage five

What a TTT
Still holding KoM jersey, which is nice

Sad to see two riders abandon

Great Giro so far. 2 5th places for Bochman, The mountain jersey with back and a 2nd place in the TTT. If this continues you will definitely get that stage win.

sutty: Thanks

Ian: Wasn't too happy to have them abandon myself, but we're heading into the mountains and they literally can't climb (55 and 57 MO), so they wouldn't stand a chance of finishing the race anyway. But they would be of good use in the Swedish and Norwegian races that are coming up.

Jakstar: Thanks for the confidence. The stage win will be hard to get as we're moving in to the terrain where the big boys want to play

What a great TTT! Great achievement beating Garmin!

Best of luck for the rest

As the only Swedish race of the season this is naturally a race we want to win…
Rasmus Sterebo get in the break along with Samoilau (Østerhus), Thömel (NSP) and five weaker riders, but the break never manage to get a decisive lead. When everything is brought back together Falcon – STARK decide to change strategy and keep up the speed in the peloton hoping it will break on the small hills and narrow roads. There is 1.5 km from the front to the rear of the peloton…

With a 100 km to go groups start breaking off the rear and with 15 km to go 64 riders are left and Falcon – STARK is still leading the peloton. Time to cash in on the work. Sterebo attack once again and quickly gains a good lead as the other teams have trouble organizing the chase on the narrow roads.
As Sterebo’s lead gets over two minutes Grönlund attacks to show himself in his home country.

Rasmus win comfortably and Grönlund gets second as Saxo-Tinkoff and CWO fight for the right to lead the peloton making it impossible to organize the chase properly.

Result:

the_hoyle: Thanks! The team had for a large part been selected with the TTT in mind, so I'm very happy it went so well

A Great 1-2 by the team in Uppsala

An excellent win in Sweden

Nice win in the Scandinavian race.

Thanks for the support everyone. It really paid out knowing the roads from last years race.

Stage 7

A good few hills on this stage should make it an interesting stage with possibilites for the break as well as the favourites.
Bak jumps in the early break and lead it over the first KOM-sprint of the day. Lampre – ISD is setting a fats pace in the peloton so the break can’t build up much of a lead, but still enough for Bak to pick up another five points for the jersey.

When the peloton crosses the second small hill of the day only 41 riders are left in the main group! Both Hansen, Nielsen and Bøchman have kept their places right behind the Lampre train, but obviously this is too far out to start splitting the peloton like that so Lampre let the others come back up giving the break a little air again.
The break is caught but Bak makes a new one along with Nicki Sørensen and Belletti. Another 3 pts for the jersey as the trio build their gap to 3 minutes.

60 km to go, just over 6 minutes to the peloton and another 5 pts goes in to the KOM-account. In the peloton Euskaltel – Euskadi have started helping Lampre in front. Hansen, Bøchman and Nielsen are still looking good near the front.

Up the big climb of the day Bak has trouble hanging on to Sørensen, but just manage to keep the peloton behind winning another 6 pts.
15 km left and the final climb is about to start. 26 riders in the front group. Among them all the favourites, Bak and Hansen. 24 riders left for the final downhill sprint. Evans opens early and Hansen finds his wheel, but Hansen is too tired to put in a decent sprint and Evans started too far out.

Results:
1. Rigoberto Urán, Sky
2. Michael Rogers, Orica GreenEdge
3. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale
21. Jesper Hansen, Falcon – STARK
Mountains: Lars Ytting Bak



Stage 8
The first real test for the climbers.
No break manage to get away, but that allows Bak to pick up the first KOM-sprint as the peloton passes.
In the end a break establish with Jeppe Lykke Hartvig Nielsen. With 85 km to go the ascent of Monte Amiata has begun. The front group has 8’30’’ to the peloton. On the top Nielsen pick up his third KOM sprint of the day without being challenged.

With 40 km to go Hartvig Nielsen lose contact with Stetina and Locatelli in front. The front due has just over four minutes to the peloton.
5 km to go and the favourites have caught the rest of the break. Hesjedal is the first of the favourites to make a move, but he is being watched closely by the others and with 1.5 km to go Antón and Nibali form a duo with a small gap to the other favourites.

The break last and Antón deny Nibali his third stage win.

Results:
1. Igor Antón, Euskaltel - Euskadi
2. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale
3. Damiano Cunego, Lampre - ISD
29. Jesper Hansen, Falcon – STARK



Provisional Standings:


Mountains: Lars Ytting Bak, Falcon – STARK
Points: Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas – Cannondale
Young rider: Nairo Quintana, Movistar
Team: Sky Procycling

Nice to see Bak still wearing the Mountains jersey

And Good Luck in the Rogaland GP

Another Nordic race and as such another race we want to win.
Magnus Cort get in the early break along with seven other mediocre riders. When best the break had a lead of 8 minutes, but a lot of teams were interested in pulling them back in so with 30 km to go they’re down to 2’40’’.

When hitting the final circuit Christina Watches – Onfone start pulling the peloton apart on the small cobbly hill. With 14 km to go Cort and Stier is alone on front with a gap of 1’40’’.

10 km to go and just over a minute as Saxo-Tinkoff is leading the chase behind.
Stier opens the sprint and Cort follows him until the last km, when he goes past the German to grab the win. In the chaser group Bäckstedt prove the fastest.



Results:

1	Magnus Cort	Falcon - STARK	5h00'20
2	Maximilian Stier	LKT Team Brandenburg	+ 11
3	Magnus Bäckstedt	Falcon - STARK	s.t.
4	Michael Reihs	Christina Watches - Onfone	s.t.
5	Karsten Kroon	Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank	s.t.
6	Troels Ronning Vinther	Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank	s.t.
7	Morten Kruse Brink	Falcon - STARK	s.t.
8	Guillaume Boivin	Team Øster Hus - Ridley	s.t.
9	Michaël Baer	Atlas Personal - Jakroo	s.t.
10	Dominic Klemme	Team Eddy Merckx - Indeland	s.t.

Another great win for the team, and Magnus does well in finishnig 3th!
Hope to see an exciting continuing (further?) Giro

Another great win in the smaller races. Can't wait for the next Giro stage