Stage 21
The final 181 km is flat as a pancake. Both Farrar and Petacchi have survived the mountains and will be highly motivated to make this a sprint.

As predicted the sprinters team put the pressure on to make sure no break will succeed, but somehow with 12 km to go it seems like Machado, Vaugrenard and Nicki Sørensen might have a chance of beating the sprinters.

5 km to go and the trio in front have a 50 seconds lead. Vaugrenard opens the sprint with Sørensen in his wheel, but the sprinters are approaching fast behind and in the end it is the expected sprint finish.

Results:
1. Simon Ponzi, Astana
2. Elia Favilli, Fanese Vini – Selle Italia
3. Damiano Cunego, Lampre - ISD
39. Lasse Bøchman, Falcon – STARK



With 3 hilly stages and 9 mountain stages with 6 mountain top finishes the Giro organizers had prepared a very hard race.
This resulted in only 104 riders finishing the race and three teams finishing with only two riders left. There was never really any doubt who was the strongest in the mountains and with only 58 km of individual TT'ing Antón was not going to let the win slip away this year.

Final Standing:
1. Igor Antón, Euskaltel - Euskadi
2. Michele Scarponi, Lampre - ISD
3. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale
4. Rigoberto Urán, Sky Procycling
5. Nairo Quintana, Movistar Team
23. Jesper Hansen, Falcon - STARK


Mountain Jersey: Jesús Hernández, Team Saxo - Tinkoff


Points Jersey: Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale


Young rider: Nairo Quintana, Movistar Team


Team: Lampre - ISD

Jesper did a great job all around!

For Jesper to finish 23rd in his first GT is nothing short of amazing

Jesper, I dare say your name is on the lips of a lot of cycling fans out there right now. You have just completed your first GT at the age of 22 and even riding so well that you were given the status of captain. How does that feel?


Okay, I guess I’ll have to try that some time…
But how did you find the resources for being so consistent staying inside the top-20 for almost the entire race?


Usually we see young riders such as yourself making some bold, some would say stupid, moves to see how far the legs could carry them – and then collapse completely for a stage or two. You didn’t. How did you manage to keep your head so calm?




Rider of the month: Igor Antón. With 5 stages and GC win in Giro d’Italia he really didn’t have much competition...
Nordic rider of the month: Michal Reihs, Christina Watches – Onfone. May had a lot of good results by Nordic riders, but Reihs’ consistent riding resulting in the overall win and the points jersey in Glava Tour of Norway as well as good placings in both Rogaland and Uppsala secured him this title.

World tour ranking:
1. Thor Hushovd, Falcon - STARK
2. Jelle Vanendert, Lotto Belisol
3. Igor Antón, Euskaltel - Euskadi

1. Falcon - STARK
2. Rabobank
3. Movistar
13. Saxo - Tinkoff

CQ-ranking:
1. Vincenzo Nibaili, Liquigas - Cannondale
2. Thor Hushovd, Falcon - STARK
3. Igor Antón, Euskaltel - Euskadi
26. Lars Ytting Bak, Falcon - STARK
105. Gustav Erik Larsson, Vacansoleil - DCM
146. Kjell Carlström, Falcon - STARK

1. Falcon - STARK (WT)
2. Euskaltel - Euskadi (WT)
3. Lampre - ISD (WT)
10. Cofidis, le credit en ligne (CNT)
13. Vacnasoleil - DCM (CNT)
15. Saxo - Tinkoff
27. Christina Watches - Onfone
57. Glud & Marstrand
68. Blue Water
62. Joker Merida
66. Øster Hus
73. Concordia Forsikring
NA. Svenska Cyklister


- ISD is replacing Lampre as main sponsor. A secondary sponsor will be announced at a later time.
- Sky will end their sponsorship. Vodafone will take over as title sponsor.


Quite a lot of Nordic riders are currently without a contract for the next season. We should expect both Saxo-Tinkoff, Falcon – STARK and Christina Watxhes – Onfone to make a bid for several of the most prominent names:

		Current Team		Age
	Chris Anker Sørensen	Saxo-Tinkoff	28
	Jakob Fuglsang	RadioShack – Nissan	28
	Nicki Sørensen	Saxo-Tinkoff	38
	Thomas Löfkvist	Sky Procycling	29
	Troels Rønning Vinther	Saxo-Tinkoff	26
	Jussi Veikkanen	FDJ – BigMat	32
	Rasmus Guldhammer	Christina Watches – Onfone	24
	Gustav Larsson	Vacansoleil – DCM	32
	Jonas Ljungblad	Differdange – Magic-Sportfood.de	34
	Patrick Clausen	Glud & Marstrand – LRØ	22
	Sebastian Lander	Glud & Marstrand – LRØ	22
	Stian Remme	Joker Merida	30
	Frederik Wilmann	Christina Watches – Onfone	27
	Vegard Bugge	Joker Merida	23
	Lasse Norman Hansen	Blue Water	21

We have had a chat with Bjarne Riis his thoughts concerning the transfer season:
It looks like your team might lose three of it’s biggest Danish profiles. How will you compensate for that?


But what if you can’t get the riders to sign a new contract?

well done on the giro result! great result in the gt.

Some nice riders are free at the end of the season. I would go for fulgslang, the sorensens and guldhammer

Nice interview
Hushovd still on top, that's publicity you couldn't buy!

The team going very well

the_hoyle: Thanks. There are some great riders without contract in deed. I think Nicki Sørensen is probably starting to get a bit old (38 years), at the same time Larsson and Löfkvist would be important for the Swedish part of the team. The same could be said about Veikkannen being the perhaps best Finnish rider. We'll see what happens. Some of them might extend their contracts and some of them might sign with other teams...

Ian: Thanks I did not expect Hushovd to keep us up there so far in to the season, but hopefully it will help us attract the best riders in the transfer window.

Jakstar: That we are

We have absolutely no goals for this race except to get some riders in shape for the NC’s. The race collides with Tour de Suisse where our sponsors want us to win a stage so this race is for secondary riders and rider out of shape.

Stage 1 – TT
We’ll start with a 6.4 km prologue.
Nissen is probably Falcon – STARK’s strongest TT-rider today. He starts as second Falcon but disappointingly only get provisional 11th 24’’ behind Riblon.

When Jens Erik Madsen is off both Nicki Sørensen (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Martin Mortensen (Vacansoleil) is in top 5.
Riblon have really put in a good time as not even Tony Martin is able to beat him!

Swedish TT-champion Gustav Larsson gets provisional 4th 7 seconds slower than Riblon.
Brink sets the by far best time by any Falcon with only Hushovd to go. Brink is 15 seconds slower than Riblon who maintains his lead. That is good enough for provisional 15th.

Time for the captains to enter the course. Among those Hushovd, but we shouldn’t expect much of him today since this is his first race day since Amstel and as expected he is provisional 74th 25 seconds behind.

Danish TT-champion Jakob Fuglsang have been given the chance to captain Romandie, but finishing 29th today won’t help him rise in the RadioShack hierarchy. While Fuglsang was out on the course Sicard surprisingly got provisional best.
Evans is obviously highly motivated to redeem himself after a very disappointing Giro and fight his way to a winning time.

Results:
1. Cadel Evans, BMC
2. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale
3. Jean-Christophe Peraud, AG2R La Mondiale
29. Morten Kruse Brink, Falcon – STARK



Stage 2
A day with lots of small hills. Could be a good day for a break unless the favourites want to start the GC battle early.
A lot of riders work hard to get in the break. Among the most active Tom Boonen. The final successful break counts 13 riders including Boonen, Brink, L.S. Haedo and Pineau.

With 80 km to go the break has 7’20’’ to the peloton where Liquigas, BMC and Garmin have taken the lead.
25 km and 2’30’’

Brink is starting to wonder what to do. He can’t match Boonen and Haedo in the sprint or Pineau, Boonen or Klimov on the final hills. With 20 km to go the break hit the first of two hills in the finish. Brink is keeping his calm at the back getting a few bottles.

15 km to go with 1’30’’ to the peloton. Brink is using the small descent to pick up speed and attacks on the flat. He gets a small gap but is caught at the intermediate sprint, but his attack pushed up the speed in the peloton and with 8 km to go it is almost up to two minutes.

Boonen set the pace on the final hill as Evans attack from the peloton and joins the breakway right at the top of the hill.
The Belgian have used a lot of energy keeping the break alive and can’t produce his wellknown sprint at the finish while Evans makes it two out of two.

Results:
1. Cadel Evans, BMC
2. Joost Van Leijen, Lotto Belisol
3. Laurent Pichon, Saur - Sojasun
10. Morten Kruse Brink, Falcon – STARK



Provisional standing:
1. Cadel Evans, BMC
2. Christophe Le Mével, Garmin - Sharp
3. Tom Boonen, Rabobank
4. Morten Kruse Brink, Falcon – STARK

Mountains: Tom Boonen, Rabobank
Points: Cadel Evans, BMC
Young Rider: Morten Kruse Brink, Falcon - STARK
Team: AG2R La Mondiale

nice 4th place on stage!

going back to the free riders... age isnt everything. just look at voigt! experience is something you cant buy

Young Rider jersey is always nice to wear, let's hope he enjoys it and maybe he can keep it?!

Already a top 5. Great job

Morten looking Good in fourth place

the_hoyle: True, age is not everything. Nicki is certainly on my shortlist, but my first priority is riders with a bit more future. With anything but Cya-logic he will surely extend with Saxo-Tinkoff, but who knows

Ian: It is certainly very nice for both him and the team to hold the jersey in a big race like this, but there is no chance what so ever that he will be able to hang on to it. He really isn't a very good climber (to say it mildly) and we have a lot of uphill sections to go - including a finish on Alpe d'Huez...

Jakstar: Thanks. The team have already exceeded our expectations

sutty: He is. A very solid performance by the young Dane. Lets hope it will inspire some of the others.

Can't wait for the next stages here ;-)

Stage 3
Another hilly day where Falcon will chase the break and see what happens.
The break is not easily allowed to get away, but then Nibali crash once again. A solo-accident like the one that ruined his Giro.

Nibali is quickly helped back, but it seems the peloton have lost a bit of speed and they loosen their grab on the break. Jebjerg get away with 13 riders, among those Petacchi, Larsson, Weening and Appollonio.

With 78 km to go the break has reached the two main climbs of the day and the break has 7 minutes to the peloton. This can still go either way.
As expected Jebjerg is suffering on the climbs but if he can keep within reach there is plenty of time to recover after the climbs. At the summit the front group has two minutes to Jebjerg/Appollonio and a further 4 minutes to the peloton. 48 km left to ride.

The duo in between is not able to gain any time on the 12 riders in front, who on the other side is keeping their distance to the peloton, which have been broken into pieces leaving a main group of 59 riders.
Since all riders in the break are older than 25 Brinks youth jersey is not threatened right now and Falcon is just taking it easy.
BMC is leading for Evans in the yellow jersey but with 20 km to go the break still has more than four minutes.

Going in to the sprint Gène has taken the lead, but Petacchi is the big favourite. 1.5 to go and of goes the fireworks. Petacchi still in 9th position, but you only have to be in front when you hit the line…
Haavardsholm win the peloton’s sprint, but Tosh van Der Sande had attacked early and managed to steal the white jersey.

Results:
1. Alessandro Petacchi, Lampre - ISD
2. Juan José Oroz, Euskaltel - Euskadi
3. Cyril Lemoine, Saur - Sojasun
16. Ole Haavardsholm, Falcon – STARK



Stage 4 – TT
49 km against the clock. The route has a small hill in the beginning, but nothing too bad. This could be the Hattrick for Evans if he has a day like on the prologue.
Madsen is out as the first Falcon. At this time Malori is in the lead 1’12’’ in front of Sergent on the 2nd place and more than four minutes in front of number three.
Madsen is pulling of an amazing TT getting best provisional time at the first intermediate and 3rd at the second. He can’t quite keep it up though and gets a provisional 10th in goal.

Martin Mortensen (Vacansoleil) on the other hand keep the Danish flag high getting a second place.
While Jebjerg, Nissen, Nybö and Cort are all out on the route the real specialists starts stealing the spotlight as first Castroviejo and soon after Tony Martin sets new intermediate bests. Nissen gets provisional 6th but will surely soon be beaten.

No one threatens Martin, but Larsson gets provisional third. That should help him find a contract for next season.
Final Falcon to go is Brink, who will fight to win the seven seconds that will put him back in white. Should be possible as he is a better TT’er on paper than Tosh van der Sande. It looks good when Brink passes Pichon with 2 km to go, but it is only a disappointing 22nd at the finish.

Gène tries his best to defend the jersey, but was definitely not born to ride alone…

Results:
1. Tony Martin – OmegaPharma - QuickStep
2. Jean-Christophe Peraud, AG2R La Mondiale
3. Jonathan Castroviejo, Movistar
23. Morten Kruse Brink, Falcon – STARK

Provisional standing:

11.

Morten Kruse Brink

Falcon - STARK

+ 3'02

Mountain: Yohann Gène, Team Europcar
Points: Cadel Evans, BMC Racing Team
Young rider: Romain Sicard, Euskaltel - Euskadi
Team: AG2R La Mondiale

Morten slipping a little but he still riding a nice race

Still, the team's showing its colors

Team still going well

sutty: And he will slip even more considering the terrain to come...

Ian and Jakstar: Thanks