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Team Sky, Done Right: Paris-Nice
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 26-02-2018 14:43
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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@Sutty - Knew it wouldn't be too long before you dropped by 
Quick 1 2 Punch Down Under
20th January 2010
Greg Henderson begins the season with a double victory at the Santos Tour Down Under! The all-new Team Sky nailed the opening exchanges in Australia, delivering successes at the first time of asking.
The New Zealander pipped Daniele Bennati on the line in Tanunda, after the Italian almost derailed the Sky leadout with an early jump. Allan Davis was third.
Stage 2 to Hahndorf had a nasty bump just 5km out, and it was Sky who took advantage. Kurt Asle-Arvesen dragged Sky clear out front, but Astana came back strong into the finish straight. But no-one can match Henderson who claimed victory, leaving everyone standing in his wake. Davis moved up to second, with Bennati 3rd making a re-shuffle on the podium.
Team Sky must be very happy with their opening days racing. Two victories in two attempts, and Greg Henderson is seemingly on another level so far. Pre-race favorites Mark Cavendish and Alessandro Petacchi have been no-where, clearly lacking fitness after the winter.
Can Team Sky continue the streak on a rolling day to Stirling?
Edited by TheManxMissile on 26-02-2018 20:42
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 26-02-2018 16:29
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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TheManxMissile said : - @Sutty - Knew it wouldn't be too long before you dropped by
You can always rely on me  |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 26-02-2018 19:46
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Crikey! What A Start!
25th January 2010
Well Team Sky's dominance faded on the road to Stirling. Aitor Galdos claimed victory over Gerdemann and Gesink from a group sprint, with Simon Gerrans in the following pack 10th and 22" behind. This put Gerrans into 7th on the GC, and by far the best Aussie overall.
HTC found their form on Stage 4, delivering the classic Cavendish-Rensahaw 1-2 that was reminicent of the Champs Elysees. Sky looked strong but where swamped, only helping Greg Henderson to 7th.
The race shattered on Willunga Hill. Andriy Grivko stole a breakaway victory, almost three minutes ahead of the Gerdemann containing pack, with 7 of 15 breakaway hopefulls in the Top10 on the stage. Simon Gerrans attacked on the second pass of the climb, but there was too much distance to the line to make an impact. He stays 7th.
Adelaide hosted the final Stage 6 Criterium, and Team Sky took no prisoners. A dominant leadout controled the road and gave Greg Henderson victory by a mile! A good day for the Brits as Cavendish claimed second.
Gerdemann hold onto the GC victory. Simon Gerrans was best of Team Sky, and the locals, in 7th. Sky can also be proud of Kurt Asle-Arvesen who was 14th GC. Greg Henderson unsurprisingly took hom the Points Competion, fullfilling his teams Sponsor Goal.
Edited by TheManxMissile on 26-02-2018 20:41
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 26-02-2018 20:25
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4191
Joined: 13-09-2015
PCM$: 300.00
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Really great start for the team in Australia. Two stages wins in a row at the start is amazing, achieving the first sponsor goal of the season 
Are you really using photobucket? 
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 26-02-2018 23:41
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Great stage win for Henderson |
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| Raziz |
Posted on 27-02-2018 06:31
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Domestique
Posts: 552
Joined: 22-12-2016
PCM$: 200.00
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"Crikey"  |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 27-02-2018 18:57
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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@Aquarius - We got off to a flyer, luckily Greg had put in the off-season work to start in good form! and no 
@Sutty - Say that twice more, but yes he was on fire.
@Raziz - Prepare for many many more bad stereotypes and puns!
Victory Drought?
26th February 2010
Coming out of Australia with 3 stage wins it seems expectations have been set high for Team Sky. No wins in Qatar seems to have sent a few ripples through the press ahead of Opening Weekend.
Not to say Qatar was bad. Greg Henderson was twice in the Top5, twice in the Top10 and Sky were 2nd in the opening TTT. Decent results, but not on the same level as the TDU. Have Sky burnt brightly but shortly? The new boys have some work to do and points to prove as the season truly gets underway.
Flecha will be leading the way for Sky and is one of the contenders for the Omloop Het Niewsblad. EBH can be considered a challenger for Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Sky will also be at the GP Lugano. Things step up a level and Aleksander Hammarling has to get his men ready to face some tough questions out on the road.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 04-12-2024 18:58
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Bot Agent
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| jandal7 |
Posted on 27-02-2018 19:02
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World Champion
Posts: 11398
Joined: 17-12-2014
PCM$: 1120.00
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Double victory in the cards for opening weekend
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant."
[ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT]  Xero Racing
5x  x5
2x  x2
2x  x2 |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 27-02-2018 21:18
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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@ALL - Don't panic about me winning every race. I've bumped up the difficulty after KBK, although it's more bad AI making sprinting faaaar too easy. Will also alter my play style to combat that. And i'm nowhere near as good on hills, mountains or proper cobbles
And you'll start to see a few of the non-racing storylines appearing soon.
Ramping Up
1st March 2010
Team Sky navigated Opening Weekend in a calm and confident manor. No more are there questions about the seriousness of the team, the peloton is well aware they mean real business.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad didn't initially signal such a result. A smart and driven breakaway upset all the odds, and all the local fans, by stealing the classic. Seven men set sail mid-race and held enough strength to defy the bigger teams. Quick-Step and Saxo Bank, homes of Boonen and Cancellara, being the most dissapointed teams. Quinziato claimed possibly his biggest win as a result of gamery behind.
Tom Boonen was best of the rest, as he outsprinted Juan Antonio Flecha following the duo's late race attempt to bridge the gap. So Sky still claimed 8th place, it was 2nd of the real contenders!
Confidence flowing into Kurne-Brussels-Kurne. No risks from the big teams. Quick-Step, Saxo Bank, Omega Pharma-Lotto and Sky all aiding the chase to pull the break back with 50km to race. They didn't let up, shredding the field down to just 50 hard men with 20km to race. It was Spartacus who kicked off the attacking, and the great man held solo until just 5km to go!
The pace stayed high into the final sprint, and EBH launched a long one. It was a jump that caught others napping, leaving the Norwegian to bask in his victory! Boonen was a comfortable 2nd with Leif Hoste 3rd.
Lugano wasn't as spectacular, the touch climbing route slowly whittling down the race until just J.J. Cobo remained out front. Team Sky where again in the Top10, with Swede Thomas Lofkvist beginning his season with an 8th place finish. Staking his right to challenge Wiggins for Paris-Nice leadership?
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 28-02-2018 09:29
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Eddy Bos showing that he means business |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 01-03-2018 14:48
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Momentum
9th March 2010
Team Sky's early season form carried straight on from Opening Weekend. The Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen isn't the biggest race but it's still a tough and hard raced affair. But no-one could match Juan Antonio Flecha on Stage 1, the Spaniard riding clear on the final berg to win by 34"!
Sky defended the jersey well from there, with Davide Vigano bagging himself a Top5 and Top10 stage finish. Flecha holding onto the 1st place by 22" over Frederic Amorison and Davy Commeyne, the Landbouwkrediet duo filling the podium. Victory tastes sweet, but a sour note as Matthew Hayman crashed out and with a broken hand will miss the rest of the classics period.
On to Paris-Nice! The first big Stage Race of the year for the ProTour.
Team Sky signaled clear intentions with their squad selection: Wiggins, Boasson-Hagen, Lofkvist, Thomas, Cummings, Swift, Froome, Downing. Clear sights on the GC but a few stage options as well. Could Thomas Lofkvist match Wiggins and stake his claim as a real GC leader for the team?
The opening prologue went a long way to answering that question. Yaroslav Popovych was victorious, but Wiggins was 2nd just one second behind. David Millar continued the British theme in 3rd place ahead of Lance Armstrong and Edvald Boasson-Hagen. Geraint Thomas also got himself into 10th. Team Sky rapidly becoming a real cycling force! Although Lofkvist gave up over 20", way down the order.
Stage 2 saw the French strike back with Pierrick Fedrigo solo-ing to glory and into the yellow jersey. Boasson-Hagan was in the Top10 in the sprint, but his eyes are probably more on the stages to Aurillac, Tourettes-sur-Loup and Nice.
Stage 3 gave us a proper sprint, as Mark Renshaw shone for victory, and again Boasson-Hagen in the lower Top10.
Team Sky are flying high right now. Victories and strong performances all over the place, carrying huge momentum as the real stages begin in Paris-Nice. Wiggins is well placed, but does he have the strength to hold on without another time-trial to utilise? And can Sky multi-task with Tirreno-Adriatico about to begin? A big 8 days to prove they really are top level contenders!
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 01-03-2018 20:29
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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@All - So i'm not sure if this just a bad race or that PCM10 AI is far worse than i remember... anyway Paris-Nice has been...er.... unique... Fighting through some dodgy AI work to get to Stage 7. 3/4 of the way through another interesting stage which would actually un-do a lot of that previous AI work and the game crashes....
So anymore Paris-Nice might well be delayed until the weekend, because i'm not fighting this bad AI or game again today for sure.... 
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| Aquarius97 |
Posted on 01-03-2018 22:42
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4191
Joined: 13-09-2015
PCM$: 300.00
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IA failures and game crashing, who would have guess that with PCM? Hopefully things like this won't stop the rise of Team Sky
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
