Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 12-04-2007 00:06
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Ive come back to PPDB to have a more enjoyable career, I added Toyota United in place of Furteventeuras or whatever they were called. Im racing the team as its official squad is and no big signings, although I have brought in 2 riders. Please post comments this time as its no fun making topics like this when noone replies *cough* redbull *cough*.
Welcome to the first monthly edition of Toyota-United news, where I, the Directeur Sportfif, round up all thats happened for this fabulous team.
As we are nearing the new year I thought it best to briefly describe our main aims for this year and run through our riders, all of whom are the hottest talents a team manager could ever hope for!
Despite being an American team, only 6 of our 16 riders are american and we hope to gain some good results over in Europe, particularly in Serbia and Ireland (You'll find out why shortly). Were not going to go in for a victory every race and we are certainly not aiming for the ProTour or even any ProTour races.
Now, onto the team!
Ill go from left to right, top row first.
Chris Baldwin (USA): One of our strongest riders, a strong all round rider who is a very talented time trialist - having competed at the World TT Championships last year.
Stefano Barberi (BRA): A young, talented brazilian, one for the future.
Heath Blackgrove (NZL): He prefers hills, time trials and hilly time trials.
Ivan Dominguez (CUBA): Following the departure of Haedo to CSC, Dominguez has stepped up to become our main sprinter.
Justin England (USA): Our strongest climber, at 28 he may not develop into a Grand Tour winner but he will challenge for victory in the Tour of Georgia.
Jose Manuel Garcia (MEX): Two times mexican champion and one of our more experienced riders.
Bobby Lea (USA): Young american domestique.
David McCann (IRE): David left the Giant Asia racing team to join Colavita for this season but Colavita had to pull out of cycling and we happily 'grabbed' him to be one of our leaders. He is the Irish national champion.
(Bottom Row):Celeb Manion (AUS): A 25 year old who in a few years time could become a strong sprinter. Joined from our rivals Jelly Belly Cycling Team.
Mark Scanlon (IRE): Another experienced Irishman, who is more focused on Sprints than McCann.
Ivan Stevic (SCG): The Serbian national champion is still relatively young and hopes to develop into one of our team leaders.
Sean Sullivan (AUS): Domestique, who like McCann, has experience in Asia.
Burke Swindlehurst (USA): Domestique.
Henk Vogels (AUS): Im sure youll recognise the experienced australian Henk Vogels! He brings lots of talent and experience from the ProTour side Davitaimon-Lotto (Now Predictor).
Chris Wherry (USA): A real fighter, will look to get in many breakaways.
Dean Downing (GBR): We leapt at the chance tos sign Dean when we learnt DFL would not re-sign him, we also tried to get brother Russell who evaded us to American rivals HealthNet.
Now, all thats left is to start racing!
Edited by SportingNonsense on 12-04-2007 00:44
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Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 14:32
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jjza |
Posted on 12-04-2007 02:10
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Amateur
Posts: 16
Joined: 03-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Looking forward to reading about an American squad! Good work so far! |
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Addy291 |
Posted on 12-04-2007 14:05
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Grand Tour Champion
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i'm sure Downing will win every race he enters by at least 5mins
(obviously has nothing to do with the fact he is British)
he has been awesome this year irl though, he is leading the premier calendar!!!
Edited by Addy291 on 12-04-2007 14:05
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 12-04-2007 14:40
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Its the end of January already (Doesnt time fly!) and theres not much to write about, the riders are just preparing to fly to France for our training camp.
Sullivan, Vogels and Manion where over in Asutralia, they rode a few criteriums for local teams before donning the Toyota United colours for the Australian championships. The time trial was up first and Sean Sullivan was our best hope.
Sean was up first for our team and set a strong pace taking 2nd at the first split and 1st at the second, unfortunately he misjudged the finish and came in what was then 3rd, he would eventually slip down but still achieved a top 10 finish. Caleb Manion had the mptovation when he went round, knowing that Sullivan was just a few metres behind him (Albeit on a 2nd lap), maybe this made him waste valuablke energy, but he still did a brilliant performance to enter the top 10 (Eventually finishing just outside it). The last man to start would be Henk Vogels, and Henk had learnt from other rides to take it steady at the start so thats what he did. 26th at the first split, 4 at the second and then 3rd at the finish!
In the road race Vogels and Manion tried to breakaway but were chased down . A Marco Polo rider started a gap and was not chased so Sulivan and a SOuth Australia.com rider went to bridge the gap. The gap kept growing until disaster! Sullivan got a cruel puncture, the other 2 did not wait and Sullivan had to go it alone. In the deciding sprint J. Clarke (SouthAus) took a big lead but Taberlay (MarcoPolo) clawed him back to win. Sullivan still came in 3rd and Manion took 9th due to a strong sprint.
The rest of our riders were left sidelined after the idiotic race directors in Gabon and Thailand refused to let us enter their races. Next month we have the Tour of California to look forward to. |
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Addy291 |
Posted on 12-04-2007 14:53
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8915
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 200.00
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very good work with Vogels in the TT
very unlucky with Sullivan in the road race, if he hadn't got that puncture he would've been in with a shout for victory |
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 12-04-2007 17:11
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
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(Im gonna start again in January for a technical reason - hopefully ill do better in the Aussie champs this time)
Edited by SportingNonsense on 12-04-2007 17:12
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mlminard |
Posted on 12-04-2007 22:41
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Amateur
Posts: 20
Joined: 25-02-2007
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I'm a good friend with one of the riders on team as I used to race with him..was curious to see what the team riders stats are now. Can you post them for us? Thanks |
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 12-04-2007 23:21
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Sure, which rider is it that you are friends with?
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mlminard |
Posted on 13-04-2007 00:05
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Amateur
Posts: 20
Joined: 25-02-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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chris baldwin |
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 13-04-2007 00:39
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Awesome, do you think his stats are realistic? |
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mlminard |
Posted on 13-04-2007 04:01
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Amateur
Posts: 20
Joined: 25-02-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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for the most part..i'd say his stamina and recovery are probably a bit better. i haven't seen his fighter stats...which he is good at. anyways it's been a good 6 years since i've raced though so it would be hard to judge now. just funny to see people you know in a game! |
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Levi4life |
Posted on 14-04-2007 04:21
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4882
Joined: 16-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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On the topic of pros we know: Levi Leipheimer and Freddy Rodriguez are strong supporters of the development team I ride for. Sometimes we see them at team meetings. |
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 14-04-2007 19:29
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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This month was contained our first proper races and we attended 4, the Ruta del Sol, the Vuelta a la Communitat Valenciana, Classic Almeria and of course, The tour of California.
Ruta Del Sol
Before the race Stefano Barberi announced in our teem meeting that he would like permission to aim for the mountains jersey. For this reason, he atatcked in Stage 1 with 6 others and confortably took 24 points to take the jersey, coming into the finish and the gorup still had a small gap. Barberi gave it everything but gladly settled for third. Nicolas Jalaberty took the win and the yellow jersey.
The next day Heath Blackgrove felt srong and he was joined by a few others including De Jongh, Devolder and Zabel. Towards the end though Blackgrove went on alone and hung on to take our first win of the season and a 2'41 lead over Jalabert overall. The last 3 stages were a little dull and heres the overall top 15. (Barberi won the mountains classification).
1 Heath Blackgrove TOYOTA - UNITED 20h53'06
2 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM + 2'28
3 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL + 2'41
4 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM + 3'13
5 Juan-Antonio Flecha RABOBANK + 3'17
6 Serge Baguet QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
7 David McCann TOYOTA - UNITED + 3'21
8 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK + 3'25
9 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM s.t.
10 Michael Rasmussen RABOBANK s.t.
11 Koos Moerenhout RABOBANK s.t.
12 Manuel Ortega ANDALUCIA - CAJASUR s.t.
13 Justin England TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
14 Ruben Elvira Lobato SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
15 Stijn Devolder DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM s.t.
Tour of California
Healthnet's O'Neill won the Prologoue, Mccann took 3rd, Baldwin 4th and Chris Wherry rode an awesome ride for 8th. Stage 2 a sprint, Downing took 9th. In stage 3, Burke Swindlehurst went in the escape with Ricardo Ricco and a stubborn Trent Lowe (Teammate Bileka took yellow after stage 2). There were others but they fell away. After the main climb Ricco and Swindlehurst worked hard to maintain the gap, Lowe didnt. They survived and Ricco beat Swindlehurst into second, a minute later and the next group came in led by Frank Schleck. We had Dave McCann and Chris Baldwin there.
Stage 4 would be crucial, could Baldwin gain 68 seconds on Ricco to take the jersey? He promised to give it everything. (Baldwin 77 TT Ricco 73). First of course Baldwin had to win and that he did, Meersman of discovery was 2nd +19 and McCann took 3rd +26. Swindlehurst rode out of his skin to take 24th 1'30 down and only Ricco was left to come in. 74 seconds down!
4th for Dominguez in Stage 5 and in Stage 6 Jakob Piil took a fabulous 3 minute solo win to grab the Jersey. I was disgusted with how no other team helped the chase, at least not until it was too late. Dominguez was 4th again the next day and was 2nd on the final stage. Tantilisingly close to a win but still a good result.
1 Jakob Piil T-MOBILE TEAM 22h51'43
2 Christopher Baldwin TOYOTA - UNITED + 1'07
3 Riccardo Riccò SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 1'13
4 David McCann TOYOTA - UNITED + 1'32
5 Burke Swindlehurst TOYOTA - UNITED + 1'33
6 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 1'44
7 Vladimir Bileka DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM + 2'10
8 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 2'14
9 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC + 2'24
10 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC + 2'28
Vuelta a la Communidad Valenciana
Pure domination bar 1 factor, overall victory.
Stage 1: Blackgrove went into a break, won the sprint.
Stage 2: England attacked with 10km to go, hung on to win.
Stage 3: We didnt win!
Stage 4: England and Rasmussen attacked on the uphill section, England won.
Stage 5: Manion took an easy sprint from a breakaway
So why didnt we win? and no it wasn Stage 3.
Basically, the highest placed rider in the stage 5 break was Mandri 2'30 back, I realised too late that noone was chasing hard enough and any 'help' from other teams slowed down the chase. Manion tried his best to lsow the break down but it just wasnt quite enough.
1 René Mandri AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 19h28'45
2 Justin England TOYOTA - UNITED + 36
3 Michael Rasmussen RABOBANK + 1'36
4 Francisco José Terciado RELAX - GAM + 1'46
5 Gustavo Veloso KARPIN GALICIA + 2'01
6 Igor Antón EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 2'02
7 Sergio Dominguez Rodriguez 3 MOLINOS RESORT + 2'03
8 Francisco Mancebo RELAX - GAM s.t.
9 Koos Moerenhout RABOBANK + 2'06
10 Paolo Tiralongo LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 2'08
Classic de Almeria
Barberi went on the attack with someone who refused to work, he finally got rid of the idiot with 10km to but was caught by 4 chasers woth 2km left. Hu hung on to take 3rd while Stevic led the pack home.
1 Manuel Ortega ANDALUCIA - CAJASUR 4h21'39
2 Fernando Torres EXTREMADURA - SPIUK s.t.
3 Stefano Barberi TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
4 Michael Rasmussen RABOBANK s.t.
5 Patxi Vila LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
6 Ivan Stevic TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
7 Aitor Perez Arrieta CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
8 Markus Eichler UNIBET.COM s.t.
9 Sérgio Ribeiro BENFICA s.t.
10 Michal Golas UNIBET.COM s.t.
11 Marco Fertonani CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
12 Mark Scanlon TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
Edited by SportingNonsense on 14-04-2007 22:52
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 14-04-2007 23:01
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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As you can see the ranking situation is quite amazing, but we are mindful of the fact that we will not be ready to become a ProTour team in 2007, so we will not be cramming our schedule in order to win.
Next month our schedule sees us kick off in Spain, before travelling to South Africa, Serbia and France.
We are also in talks for a well known american to join our team, he hasnt rode for a few months and has lost some of his skill but would make a great addition to our team. More will be revealed - unless you can guess who it is!
Edited by SportingNonsense on 14-04-2007 23:03
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wildcat000 |
Posted on 15-04-2007 00:10
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Neo-Pro
Posts: 341
Joined: 01-12-2006
PCM$: 200.00
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Not ridden in a few months, older, hmm... Is it Armstrong? |
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CrueTrue |
Posted on 15-04-2007 00:35
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 29989
Joined: 20-10-2006
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Nah, it's Landis, I think |
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wildcat000 |
Posted on 15-04-2007 04:09
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Neo-Pro
Posts: 341
Joined: 01-12-2006
PCM$: 200.00
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Ah, true. I forgot they included him in the database. |
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rneice |
Posted on 15-04-2007 04:32
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Amateur
Posts: 4
Joined: 17-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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May have missed it, what difficulty are you playing? |
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 15-04-2007 11:34
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Normal. |
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SportingNonsense |
Posted on 15-04-2007 23:58
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Team Manager
Posts: 33046
Joined: 08-03-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Here at Toyota-United we are pleased to announce the signing of none other than Floyd Landis. Justin England's crash in Almeria, which while not serious - forced him to miss Vuelta a Murcia, showed us that we ideally need a couple of strong climbers and although Floyd could never win a tour again (77 MO) he will be a strong asset and maybe even the team leader.
Now, onto Murcia!
Stage 1 saw Dominguez' only real chance to figure in the sprint as he took 3rd, Dean Downing folloed Dominguez well to take 5th while Scanlon chose the wrong train completely, but salvaged 10th.
Following yesterdays top sprint, Deano went in the breakaway today. It was a hilly stage with the crucial climb peaking 15km from the finish. As the climb began it was clear the break would stay away but Andrea Moletta spoiled Deanos victory hopes by attacking near the top of the climb, noone could respond and he went to win. Deano won the sprint for 2nd.
Overall Standings after stage 2:
Rank Name Team Time
1 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER 7h58'39
2 Dean Downing TOYOTA - UNITED + 42
3 Sergei Kolesnikov UNIBET.COM + 50
4 Daniele Rìghi LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 1'00
5 Pavel Padrnos DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM + 1'02
6 Lander Aperribay EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
7 David López Garcia CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
8 Renato Silva BENFICA s.t.
9 David Garcia Dapena KARPIN GALICIA + 2'02
10 Thorwald Veneberg RABOBANK + 2'36
11 Denis Kudashev RELAX - GAM + 3'26
12 Aitor Perez Arrieta CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 3'54
13 Robert Förster GEROLSTEINER + 4'04
14 Unai Etxebarría EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 4'10
15 Jose Manuel Garcia TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
16 Bram De Groot RABOBANK + 4'16
18 Mark Scanlon TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
24 David McCann TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
26 Heath Blackgrove TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
29 Christopher Baldwin TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
74 Ivan Dominguez TOYOTA - UNITED + 5'52
On stage 3 I was woken early by Chris Baldwin who wanted a last run through the course, I reluctantly accepted and drove him round.
A few hours later and I was glad to haven been given the early morning wake-up call as Chris stormed to victory.
Towards the end, the race for Yellow got interesting as Moletta is not a strong TTer, Deano rode as hard as possible to come in 48th. As it would turn out that was easily enough to beat Moletta but Kolesnikov of Unibet was quick enough to deny a day in yellow for Dean.
Overall:
1 Sergei Kolesnikov UNIBET.COM 8h25'24
2 Pavel Padrnos DISCOVERY CHANNEL PRO CYCLING TEAM + 2
3 Dean Downing TOYOTA - UNITED + 4
4 Lander Aperribay EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 14
5 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER + 20
6 Daniele Rìghi LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 24
7 Renato Silva BENFICA + 56
8 David López Garcia CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'18
9 Christopher Baldwin TOYOTA - UNITED + 1'48
10 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK + 2'01
11 David McCann TOYOTA - UNITED + 2'03
Stage 4 would begin with a climb, followed by 100km of roughly downhill roads before a tough finale in Collada Bermejo, in the first mountain stage of the season - our aim today was to salvage a top 10 placing with McCann - our strongest MO @ 70.
This is a picture from the first climb with Scanlon and Dominguez having already been dropped, they caught up again in the long descent though.
After the first climb at the end McCann and Baldwin for at the front of the peleton with a few riders away, as the last climb began McCann timed his attack too early and hit red before the end, Baldwin was stronger and came ahead of McCann and with the yellow Jersey (All same time with each other).
Stage:
1 Mikel Astarloza EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 3h54'10
2 Eddy Mazzoleni ASTANÁ s.t.
3 Marco Fertonani CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 19
4 Luis Felipe Laverde Jimenez CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 27
5 Juan Olmo Menacho ANDALUCIA - CAJASUR + 56
16 Christopher Baldwin TOYOTA - UNITED + 2'33
18 Sergei Kolesnikov UNIBET.COM s.t.
20 David McCann TOYOTA - UNITED s.t.
Crucially Baldwin managed to only drop 1 place to 10th overall, McCann droppin 2 to 13th.
Stage 5 was another chance for Deano as he broke away again. Although a hilly stage the hills were not too bad, but with 40km left Deano and 5 others had a gap of just 2 minutes over the peleton. 30km later and the gap was still 2 minutes although Dean had just 2 companions left. At 8km Walker (Rab) attacked, Downing took a drink and countered to join Walker in time for the sprint.
He took the win to secure the points jersey.
Overall:
1 Sergei Kolesnikov UNIBET.COM 12h22'07
2 Mikel Astarloza EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 12
3 Eddy Mazzoleni ASTANÁ + 49
4 Joost Posthuma RABOBANK + 1'06
5 David López Garcia CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'18
6 Haimar Zubeldia EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 1'20
7 Paolo Savoldelli ASTANÁ + 1'24
8 Victor Hugo Peña UNIBET.COM + 1'30
9 Marco Fertonani CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'41
10 Christopher Baldwin TOYOTA - UNITED + 1'48
11 Lander Aperribay EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 1'58
12 Ruben Plaza CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
13 David McCann TOYOTA - UNITED + 2'03
Some of our riders have now flown off to South Africa to prepare for the Giro del Capo, I fly over tomorrow with a trainee photographer who has agreed to take a few pictures for each stage of the race. The rest of the squad meanwhile have a week to relax before myself and the South African team return to italy for a gruelling 5 day training camp. |
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