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La Pomme Marseille
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 24-10-2013 21:53
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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It is with great pleasure that I today announce La Pomme Marseille's comeback to PCM.daily. After four months of absence, I'm really excited to get back into story writing again, and also to see how the team will do in the Worldtour.
As you can see above, a better than ever Michal Kwiatkowski is currently intensifying his preparations down in the hills around Marseille, to make sure that the form will be at the absolute peak for the Tour de France later this year. Are you ready for the most fun season so far?
Bring on the 2014 season!
Spoiler The database I'll be using is based on the PCM.daily Expansion Pack, but with 2014 squads and quite a few stats updated for many riders.
As for difficulty, I'm starting off with hard (I really haven't played PCM13 that much due to exams). If it gets too easy, I'll put it up on extreme.
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Team presentation:
Last year's squad of 14 has been extended to 27. Aside from Pierre-Luc Perichon (Bretagne-Schuller) and Christophe Laporte (Cofidis), every one of the previous 14 are still with us. The additions of Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Jonathan Thiré (Auber) were confirmed already before the end of last season, but let's have a look at the good ol' boys before moving on to the previously unknown new names.
 Mathieu Delaroziere |  Andzs Flaksis | Benjamin Giraud | | Clément Koretzky |  Michal Kwiatkowski | Yannick Martinez | | Jean-Lou Paiani | Yoann Paillot |  Evaldas Siskevicius | | Toms Skujins | Gatis Smukulis | Thomas Vaubourzeix |
Along with cult figure Siskevicius and worlds TT bronze medallist Paillot, the obvious standout name is Kwiatkowski, who has been rebuilding from a classics specialist to a stage racer since the end of last season.
This year, he will tackle the Tour in a captain's role, joined by Martinez for the sprints. Siskevicius opted to go for the Giro instead, where his relatively strong climbing should come in handy on the hillier stages. Then there's also a bunch of loyal helpers, as well as northern classics leader Paiani, who has his eye on Paris-Roubaix above all.
Onto the new recruits:
| Julien Antomarchi |  Jorge Azanza | Pierre Cazaux | | Clément Chevrier |  Campbell Flakemore | Egoitz GarcÃa |  Gert Joeaar | Justin Jules | Tanel Kangert | | Antoine Lavieu | Guillaume Levarlet | Stéphane Rossetto | | Thomas Rostollan | Rein Taaramae | Jonathan Thiré |
Quite a few familiar faces (or names, really) here as well. Antomarchi, Jules, Lavieu and Rostollan all have relations to the team, while you (as mentioned earlier) already knew about Thiré and Kangert.
The latter of those should be one of the most interesting riders to follow this season. After a breakthrough season that included helping Vincenzo Nibali to victory at the Giro, the Estonian is very eager to test himself against the big guns. He will have all the freedom he wants at both the Giro and the Vuelta.
Other interesting (and surprising, at first glance) new names include the Spanish duo Azanza/GarcÃa and massive Australian talent Flakemore. Though they might deviate from our core nationalities a bit, we want to show that we're always open to good deals. Also, it's quite hard to find enough good riders to fill a WT squad in just a couple of countries.
Lastly, there's also another bright talent in Chevrier, a whole group of climbing domestiques - of which Taaramae is surely the most well-known. We hope that by taking the pressure of being a captain off his shoulders, he can regain strength and return to his old level in a year or two.
Oh, and the stats:
Edited by Pellizotti2 on 15-11-2013 23:14
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 24-10-2013 21:53
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Calendar:
| 22/01 - 27/01 | Santos Tour Down Under | | 27/01 | Grand Prix la Marseillaise | | 11/02 - 16/02 | Tour of Oman | | 17/02 - 20/02 | Vuelta a AndalucÃa | | 23/02 | Omloop Het Nieuwsblad | | 23/02 | Vuelta a la Región de Murcia | | 24/02 | GP di Lugano | | 27/02 | Le Samyn | | 28/02 | G.P. Camaiore | | 02/03 | Strade Bianche | | 03/03 - 10/03 | Paris - Nice | | 03/03 | Roma Maxima | | 06/03 - 12/03 | Tirreno - Adriatico | | 14/03 | Coppa Citta di Stresa | | 17/03 | Milano - Sanremo | | 18/03 - 24/03 | Volta Ciclista a Catalunya | | 22/03 | E3 Prijs Vlaanderen | | 22/03 - 24/03 | Critérium International | | 24/03 | Gent - Wevelgem | | 25/03 - 28/03 | Driedaagse van De Panne | | 31/03 | Ronde van Vlaanderen | | 01/04 - 06/04 | Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco | | 04/04 | Grand Prix Pino Cerami | | 07/04 | Paris - Roubaix | | 10/04 | De Brabantse Pijl | | 14/04 | Amstel Gold Race | | 14/04 | Tro-Bro León | | 17/04 | La Flèche Wallonne | | 21/04 | Liège - Bastogne - Liège | | 23/04 - 28/04 | Tour de Romandie | | 04/05 - 26/05 | Giro d'Italia | | 26/05 | GP de Plumelec-Morbihan | | 27/05 | Boucles de l'Aulne | | 31/05 | SEB Tartu Grand Prix | | 02/06 - 09/06 | Critérium du Dauphiné | | 08/06 - 16/06 | Tour de Suisse | | 13/06 - 16/06 | Route du Sud | | 30/06 - 22/07 | Tour de France | | 01/07 - 08/07 | Int. Österreich Rundfahrt | | 11/07 - 15/07 | Sibiu Cycling Tour | | 27/07 | Clásica San Sebastián | | 27/07 - 02/08 | Tour de Pologne | | 31/07 | Circuito de Getxo | | 09/08 - 13/08 | Tour de l'Ain | | 12/08 - 18/08 | Eneco Tour | | 20/08 - 23/08 | Tour du Limousin | | 23/08 | Tre Valli Varesine | | 24/08 - 15/09 | Vuelta a España | | 25/08 | Vattenfall Cyclassics | | 01/09 | GP Ouest France | | 08/09 | GP de Fourmies | | 13/09 | GP de Québec | | 15/09 | GP de Montréal | | 18/09 | Grand Prix de Wallonie | | 21/09 | Memorial Marco Pantani | | 22/09 | GP d'Isbergues | | 02/10 | Milano - Torino | | 04/10 | Giro del Piemonte | | 06/10 | Il Lombardia | | 10/10 | Paris - Bourges | | 11/10 - 15/10 | Tour of Beijing | | 12/10 | Giro dell'Emilia | | 13/10 | Paris - Tours | | 20/10 | Chrono des Nations |
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That should be all for now. Feel free to go ahead and post!
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| admirschleck |
Posted on 24-10-2013 21:54
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Team Leader
Posts: 6690
Joined: 11-10-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Good luck with continuing this. Your reports were always great , so my expectations are on high level. 
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| Jesleyh |
Posted on 24-10-2013 21:57
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 15274
Joined: 21-07-2012
PCM$: 200.00
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Great to see this back
Feyenoord(football) and Kelderman fanboy
PCMdaily Awards: 12x nomination, 9x runner-up, 0x win.
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| cio93 |
Posted on 24-10-2013 21:59
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World Champion
Posts: 10845
Joined: 29-10-2007
PCM$: 500.00
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My favourite PCM12 story is back!
But seriously Pelli, on hard? 
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 01:52
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Bot Agent
Posts: Countless
Joined: 23.11.09
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| baia |
Posted on 24-10-2013 22:01
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5398
Joined: 04-10-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Great to have you back Pelli..
Knowing your pcm skills, i suggest you should start on extreme right away... 
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 24-10-2013 22:03
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4573
Joined: 07-10-2012
PCM$: 200.00
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Great to see this back Pelli! Hopefully the team can have great first year in the WorldTour. After recently re-reading the past two seasons, I'll be following all the way |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 24-10-2013 23:14
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Great to see this story back |
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| welker3257 |
Posted on 24-10-2013 23:29
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2336
Joined: 29-05-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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Great to see this coming back
Gig 'em Aggies
Fast N' Loud Cycling Project - ICL
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 25-10-2013 18:51
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Thanks for the kind words, everyone! I understand that hard might seem like a too easy choice, but I want to see how it goes before possibly moving to extreme
I also just realised that I forgot to post this:
As you can probably figure out yourself, it's the new jersey! aidanvn13 has done a really awesome job, I think. Somewhat of a combination between Katusha's old jersey and Lotto-Belisol's 2012 version.
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Sky's secret exposed: Froome, Wiggins return positives
January 7th, 2014
Over the last two years, the British Sky team has taken cycling with storm - winning more or less any race they've desired. This has led to a number of questionmarks being raised regarding Sky's so called "marginal gains". The sceptics have today been proven right, as double Tour de France-champion Chris Froome and the 2012's Tour 3rd Bradley Wiggins have both returned positive samples from the 2013 edition of the Tour.
The samples were originally declared negative by former UCI president Pat McQuaid, but a re-test ordered by McQuaid's newly appointed successor Brian Cookson has revealed the actual truth. It was Cookson himself who made discovery public while speaking in front of an audience near the UCI's headquarters in Aigle, Suisse earlier today.
Cookson refused to discuss the matter at length for the time being, but stated that he was "shocked" by his compatriots' deeds, and also distanced himself from controversial predecessor McQuaid.
Neither of the two athletes, nor any member of the Sky team has so far been reached for a comment, but according to Cookson, there is no doubt as to the next step in the case's process: a full stripping of results for both riders as well as lengthy suspensions.
More on the story as it unfolds.
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 25-10-2013 18:56
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World Champion
Posts: 10497
Joined: 23-06-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Great to see this back Pelli.  
Kwiatkowski, is a best , only.  |
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 25-10-2013 21:51
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Thanks, Miguel. I'm glad to hear
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Australian National Championships
January 11th-13th, 2014
One of the new experiences this season will be the much more varied racing areas. Rather than the old way of building the calendar around the French races, we're focusing on the most important races. Oh, and these Australian championships, too!
First race with the big guns for neo-pro Flakemore. Obviously a big day for an inexperienced rider like him, but despite the nervousness - he did a very good job out on the course and even managed to make the top 10!
In the meantime, Rohan Dennis and Richie Porte fought out a real nailbiter for the victory - miles ahead of everyone else. The feat was particularly impressive from the latter, given the news he learned about his two team mates Froome and Wiggins earlier this week.
Perhaps driven by eagerness to show that he's capable of carrying the mantle of responsibility at Sky instead this year, it was Porte who eventually came out on top of the two. Only 3 seconds separated him from Dennis at the finish.
| 1 | Richie Porte | Sky Procycling | 50'46 | | 2 | Rohan Dennis | Garmin - Sharp | + 3 | | 3 | Cameron Meyer | Orica - GreenEdge | + 41 | | 4 | Damien Howson | Orica - GreenEdge | + 58 | | 5 | Luke Durbridge | Orica - GreenEdge | + 1'00 | | ... | | 10 | Campbell Flakemore | La Pomme Marseille | + 1'39 |
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Looking for revenge after failing to claim the TT-crown, Orica-GreenEDGE spent the entire road race at the front of the peloton to set up the finish for the two Simons: Gerrans and Clarke
They could, however, not prevent a breakaway from establishing altogether - and an increasingly confident Flakemore worked hard early on to become part of it, along with the likes of Chris Sutton, Will Clarke and a number of others.
The group was, in fact, given quite a bit of room and still held around 1'30 in advantage over the second-to-last climb on the route. Inevitably, this led to some looking around in the group - which set off a probing attack from Flakemore inside the final 20 km
The move was pulled back by Zak Dempster up the final climb, but the attack did at least result in an acceleration that bounced the gap back to the peloton up to just over two minutes - more than enough to secure the victory in between the riders in the leading group!
This realisation did cause a temporary, but sharp slowdown that almost allowed a chasing Cadel Evans to make contact again, but a new attack from a panicking Jordan Kerby caused yet another acceleration that took the leaders into the final 3 km with a solid buffer over all pursuers.
Probably with the intention of catching the others off guard, it was Tommy Nankervis who made the first jump in the sprint around 3 km from the finish. Most eyes turned to the quickest man in the group; Sutton, who finally felt forced to do something when Nankervis started leaping clear.
Through the turn on to the home straight, Sutton managed to make contact with Nankervis again after a big effort that left the rest of the riders several bike lengths behind.
However, Sutton's effort was somewhat premature - leaving him with no legs to respond with when Dempster fought his way back and past on the slight incline up to the finish line! Will Clarke almost made the pass too, but had to settle for 4th place behind the two early jumpers.
Flakemore's effort from earlier stroke back at him towards the end, but he did work his way up from the back of the group to finish just shy of a top 5!
| 1 | Zakkari Dempster | Team NetApp - Endura | 3h59'20 | | 2 | Christopher Sutton | Sky Procycling | s.t. | | 3 | Tommy Nankervis | Bissell Cycling | s.t. | | 4 | William Clarke | Team Argos - Shimano | s.t. | | 5 | Samuel Spokes | Etixx - iHNed | s.t. | | 6 | Campbell Flakemore | La Pomme Marseille | s.t. |
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I definitely consider these championships a success. Flakemore already shows his quality with two strong results. Orica-GreenEDGE are probably not too happy with the results, on the other hand!
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| FreitasPCM |
Posted on 25-10-2013 21:56
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8389
Joined: 08-09-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Hello, what is this...? |
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| welker3257 |
Posted on 25-10-2013 22:02
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2336
Joined: 29-05-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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Solid ride from the youngster
Gig 'em Aggies
Fast N' Loud Cycling Project - ICL
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 25-10-2013 22:22
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 18187
Joined: 12-05-2012
PCM$: 0.00
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Ah, La Pomme Marseille... Il s'agit véritablement un retour bienvenu à la section d'récit, et j'espère que cela peut continuer pour au moins un autre couple de saisons!
Je me demande pendant combien de temps je vais poster des commentaires en français
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 26-10-2013 00:02
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Campbell did well in the road race
And really liking the new jersey |
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| rogvi97 |
Posted on 26-10-2013 00:14
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 933
Joined: 10-07-2012
PCM$: 200.00
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This seems very interesting! I will definetly follow this story! And great results at Australian NC!
No signature available
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| the_hoyle |
Posted on 26-10-2013 01:14
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7651
Joined: 28-05-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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It's back!! Bonne chance mon môme!!
.: Manager of :.
.: My Awards :.
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| 547984 |
Posted on 26-10-2013 02:01
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5008
Joined: 29-01-2013
PCM$: 200.00
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Yay! Good luck! With Froome and wiggo out, time for super-Kwiatkowski!!!
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar! |
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 26-10-2013 11:37
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Merci, mes amis!
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Santos Tour Down Under
January 22nd-27th, 2014
For once, the parcours includes some new places instead of the same usual towns every year. New places like the Mengler's Hill climb near the end of the opening stage makes this edition quite challenging - with several opportunities for punchy sprinters (read: Siskevicius) to prevail.
The overall will likely be decided on Willunga Hill as usual, though. Nevertheless, I reckon some sprinters stand a chance of holding on if the puncheurs all wait for the 2nd ascent of the climb. Should be a fun race!
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Interestingly, the startlist is arguably quite a bit weaker than in previous years. It's truly excellent news for us, since it means that we may well be competitive both for the overall (Koretzky/Skujins) and the sprints (Siskevicius).
The man to beat is likely to be Simon Spilak, who's basically the only top tier rider present for the race. Other potential victory candidates include Visconti, Nocentini, Bardet and Bakelants - just to name a few.
Surprisingly, the sprint field has even less notable names. Siskevicius is in fact one of the absolute top favourites, along with the likes of Guardini, Veelers and Oss. A stage win may actually be within reach for us!
Let the racing begin!
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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)
