@lluuiiggii: I'm really thinking about it. If I continue like that, then I will change the difficulty.
And Petacchi is in a really good shape, indeed, but over the mountain, the pack was incredibly slow and others like Pozzato or Hushovd had the power to attack as well, so that wasn't too extraordinary ;-)
-------------------
Milano – San Remo
The race
The first momument of cycling this year marks the first real highlight in the calendar. The longest classic in professional cycling was firstly held in 1907, with Eddy Meckx being the record winner.
The highest point of the course is passed about halfway through the race: The Passo del Turchino is the first small challenge.
The course is mostly flat and often ends up in a bunch sprint. But the small but tough hills shortly before the finish, the Cipressa and the Poggio, are both an opportunity for good rouleurs to break away and an obstacle for sprinters who aren't that good puncheurs.
The favorites
As the race mostly ends in mass sprints, the strong sprinters are the favorites here. Consequently, the elite of sprinting is present.
In top-form, Mark Cavendish is the fastest man in the peloton. But he hasn't had that many race days and his results in Tirreno-Adriatico were only mediocre. Plus, among the top sprinters, he's one of the weakest puncheurs.
Getting older but remaining fast is three times winner Oscar Freire. The Spaniard is a good hilly rider, and with Matti Breschel he has a nice lead our, but his form doesn't seem to be that good.
In contrary to that, Allan Davis is coming to Italy with the references of two stage wins in Paris – Nice. As he's also a good puncheur, in my opinion he's one of the top-favorites.
The best team, at least on the paper, is Garmin. With Heinrich Haussler, Thor Hushovd and Tyler Farrar, they bring three top class sprinters to Milan. The latter is the fastest and showed his form with a stage win in Paris – Nice, but he's lacking of climbing abillities, so probably Thor Hushovd will be their captain. Three podium positions during Tirreno-Adriatico speak for him.
The best local rider should be Alessandro Petacchi. He showed enormous strength during Tirreno-Adriatico, where he sprinted in another league to five stage wins. He's a decent climber and one of the top-favorites, too.
In addition to these riders, there are a couple of minor favorites, who either aren't the best sprinters or weak on the hills. Examples are André Greipel, Gert Steegmans, Robbie McEwen, Daniele Bennati, Joaquin Rojas, or Juan José Haedo.
As I mentioned earlier, the hills towards the end offer the opportunity for the non-sprinters to attack. Therefore, the top classic riders are present, too: Fabian Cancellara, Philippe Gilbert, Juan Antonio Flecha, Alessandro Ballan, just to name a few.
Our team
This is the only race Damiano Cunego is participating in where he isn't the leader. This role is reserved for Alessandro Petacchi, our main sprinter. He's at his first season peak and in a really good shape, as he proved during Tirreno – Adriatico.
His usual lead out train is there to support him. Pietropolli shouldn't have problems on the hills. But Hondo isn't that strong there so maybe Cunego will take part in the train instead. Depending on his daily form, Cunego would also be our man to counter possible attacks on the last hills.
Alessandro Petacchi
Damiano Cunego
Danilo Hondo
Daniele Pietropolli
Francesco Gavazzi
David Loosli
Alessandro Spezialetti
Daniele Righi
Edited by cunego59 on 05-05-2011 18:23
La classicissima. One of the most prestigous races at all. The one who'll win here will write his name into the books of history.
The game crashed often during the race so I had to minimize my graphics.
The peloton starts in Milano, on the Piazza Castello.
Lots of riders attacked from km 1 on, but at first, none of them came free due to the efforts of Rabobank and HTC.
Eventually, a large group of 12 riders managed the jump away from the pack. Most notably are: Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel), Jean-Christophe Peraud (AG2R), Angel Vicioso (Androni) and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin).
When Nieve came first over the Passo del Turchino, their advance was about three minutes, and the pack didn't seem willing to let the advance grow. Especially HTC and Rabobank are making the pace.
The first interesting riders to attack were Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Mauro Quinziato (BMC) and Filippo Pozzato (Katusha). Especially the latter was considered to be one of the favorites for today, so this attack with more than 80 km to go is kind of surprising.
Together with Hesjedal, Quinziato and Pozzato form the new top-group, while Boasson Hagen and the first escapees were caught.
Entering the Cipressa, Hesjedal got caught, too, but Pozzato was soloing in front and had 3 minutes of advance. Could this insane solo attack succeed?
Pozzato's advance was growing over four minutes, he really seemed to be able to do it. We sent Gavazzi and Pietropolli in front in a last try to pull him back. Quinziato was still between the pack and Pozzato, but only 1'20 in front of the peloton.
On the Poggio, Cunego attacked, followed by Ballan. They could build up a solid lead to the pack, while in front, Pozzato seemed to fade! On the bottom of the Poggio, he still had 4 mintues advance, but now, on the descent with 10 km to go, Ballan and Cunego were only 1'20 behind!
But with 5km left, the advance didn't fell more. Pozzato really seems to win La Primavera. Ballan and Cunego will finish in front of the pack as well.
Indeed, Pozzato puts everything he has into this ride and holds a couple of seconds of advance. An incredible win after 80km, most of them solo, in front! He even is too tired to celebrate the biggest win in his career.
Behind him, Cunego lost the sprint for the second rank to Ballan, who wheelsucked for the last 7km and thus had more power left.
Petacchi had a lot of power left as well and won the sprint of the peloton in a dominant way in front of Cancellara, Farrar and Cavendish. Quinziato was caught within the last kilometres, his huge effort was not crowned with success.
Result
1
Fillipo Pozzato
Katusha Team
7h07'43
2
Alessandro Ballan
BMC Racing Team
+ 54
3
Damiano Cunego
Lampre – ISD
s.t.
4
Alessandro Petacchi
Lampre – ISD
+ 1'31
5
Fabian Cancellara
Leopard – Trek
s.t.
6
Tyler Farrar
Team Garmin – Cervelo
s.t.
7
Mark Cavendish
HTC – Highroad
s.t.
8
Luca Paolini
Katusha Team
s.t.
9
Heinrich Haussler
Team Garmin – Cervelo
s.t.
10
Marcus Burghardt
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
11
Matti Breschel
Rabobank
s.t.
12
Leif Hoste
Katusha Team
s.t.
13
Allan Davis
Astana
s.t.
14
Baden Cooke
Saxo Bank – Sungard
s.t.
15
Phillipe Gilbert
Omega Pharma – Lotto
s.t.
16
José Joaquin Rojas
Movistar Team
s.t.
17
Juan Antonio Flecha
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
18
Danilo Napolitano
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
19
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
20
Koldo Fernandez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
Tops and Flops
Not surprisingly, the top of the tops is obviously Filippo Pozzato. No one would have thought that his attack with 80km to go would have the slightest chance. But he did it.
The whole Katusha Team can be named as one of the positive surprises of today. With Paolini, they have another man in the top-10, Leif Hoste finished 12th. BMC performed better than expected, too. Ballan proved that he's still able to bring great achievements, Marcus Burghardt within the top-10 completes a nice result for the team.
Two other teams have two riders in the top-10: Lampre and Garmin. For both, this race was quite ok. In general, the local fans will be quite pleased with their compatriot riders as they occupy the first four places.
The big disappointment of today is, in my opinion, HTC. They controlled the race most of the time, but in the decisive moment, they weren't attentive and reacted to late. A seventh is certainly not what they wanted.
This applies to Astana and Allan Davis also. After his performances during Paris – Nice, his 13th is a little disappointing. Even more disappointing was Oscar Freire: Named as one of the top-favorites this morning, he finished down on place 23.
The race for Lampre
My view on our results here is kind of ambivalent. Our sponsor goal was to win this race, what we didn't. And if I hadn't launched the attack with Cunego, Petacchi would have won the sprint for second, not for fourth. In addition, my fault was to rely on the other teams to pull back Pozzato, my reaction with Pietropolli and Gavazzi came too late.
But after all, a third and a fourth isn't bad at all. Petacchi again showed that he's the best sprinter in the field (at the moment), and Cunego did well keeping himself and Ballan in front of the peloton. So I'm not disappointed and look at the future optimistically.
And in addition, it would be quite boring if I won everything, wouldn't it? This way, I remain having some goals that I haven't achieved yet.
-------------
This was the largest single report I did so far, but I think it was adequat regarding the importance of the race. Any comments, not only on this, maybe also in general? Or is everything fine?
Thanks, hellboy. I was very surprised, too, but I like these unexpected things. Even if they might not be realistic, they make the game more vivid.
------------------
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
The race
This year, the race through the region of Catalunya celebrates its 100th anniversary. The race starts with a short prologue in the holiday city of Lloret de Mar. It's followed by a more or less flat stage which could well end up in a mass sprint. Stage three is the first important stage, with two demanding climbs close to the finish.
The queen stage is stage four, including the only mountain top finish of this tour on the Coll de la Botella. The GC will be fixed by then, because the three last stages are pretty flat.
The favorites
It's a good field that enters the competition in Catalunya. On the paper, the Australian Cadel Evans is one of the top-favorites. But he was it in Tirreno-Adriatico, too, and he disappointed.
The other big favorites are Denis Menchov, Samuel Sanchez and Ivan Basso. The latter did a mediocre 11th in T-A and sure will try to do better here.
Then, there are, as usually, a couple of higher mid-classe riders challenging the top-favorites: Christian Vande Velde (Garmin) is one of them, but he hasn't shown much this year. The same counts for Andreas Klöden (RadioShack), F. Schleck (Leopard) and Roman Kreuziger (Astana), while Damiano Cunego has shown more than enough to name him as one of the favorites.
Minor canditates are the likes of Richie Porte, Luis Leon Sanchez, Tony Martin, Danilo Di Luca and Jürgen Van den Broeck, just to name a few. The field is apparently quite strong.
Regarding the sprinters, there is a small, but elitist circle of riders. In fact, only three of them are worth being counted as real favorites: Mark Cavendish, Oscar Freire and the Germans André Greipel.
His fellow compatriot Gerald Ciolek, might be one to challenge these top sprinters, of whom the British is the only one who has a season win so far.
Our team
Damiano Cunego showed his good shape in Tirreno-Adriatico and MSR, so he'll be our captain here as well. His best support will be Daniele Pietropolli, who is also our sprinter for the four flat stages.
Gavazzi and Loosli will be useful helpers as well and might get a chance in a breakaway, while the other four riders are domestiques.
Damiano Cunego
Daniele Pietropolli
Francesco Gavazzi
David Loosli
Alessandro Spezialetti
Daniele Righi
Diego Ulissi
Adriano Malori
A short, 5km long, prologue with a small hill towards the finish. The favorites can show how good their form is.
An early best time is set by Australian champion Richie Porte lowers.
A little surprising, Sky's captain Löfkvist was able to overtake Porte by three seconds.
In contrary to that, it's not at all surprising that Fabian Cancellara crushed all other times. The Swiss takes the lead with 12 seconds in advance.
Overall contender Sammy Sanchez with a good ride today. He'll eventually end up 8th.
Damiano Cunego does good, allthough he can't repeat his result from the Tirreno time trial. Not surprising, as this one's not that hilly at all. He finishes 19 seconds behind.
Denis Menchov strengthens his ambitions with a nice ride, ending up provisional fourth, 14' behind Cancellara.
Cadel Evans with a mediocre result today. He need 20 seconds more to ride through the course, eventually giving him the 11th spot.
German champion Tony Martin is the second best time trialist in the world and the only one considered to be capable to beat Spartacus. But he isn't today. A disappointing 17th rank is the result.
Catching up a little bit. No problems with quite 'high' number of screens in MSR, after all its just 13 (still not way to much screens). Those attacks on the race with less than 100km to go by good puncheurs should really be answered right at the moment, they prove to be very dangerous in this race. Still a great race for Lampre with a podium and the 4th. Petacchi again proves how strong he is atm.
Good luck for Catalunya, Cancellara really nailed the prologue (13s in 5km )
@Mresuperstar: Yeah, funny to ride against your riders ;-) Lets say if they don't end up in front of Cunego, they may do as well as they want to
@lluuiiggii: It's the first time this happened to me in MSR. Next time, I will be more cautious. And Cancellara is a TT-Moster!
-----------------
23.03.2011
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya: Stage 2
The first road stage of this tour includes three minor climbs which shouldn't harm the sprinters too much. Nevertheless, some escapees will for sure try their luck.
In the end, five dominated the stage. Among them Saxo Bank's Nick Nuyens and our Francesco Gavazzi. The latter came in first over the first two mountains and will wear the KoM-jersey tomorrow. The group got caught on the descend.
On the last climb, Damiano Cunego set a high pace on the front of the pack. I figured that the only chance to get a good stage result was to use Pietropolli's good climbing qualities. The result was satisfying: Only 84 riders came over the mountain together, Cavendish, Greipel, Freire and Ciolek fell back.
The whole starategy seemed to work out well, but then I failed in the sprint lead out. Cunego in fact did a good job but he was empty when the sprint started, which meant that Pietropolli had to overtake him soon and sprint 2,5km with his nose right in the wind.
Regarding that, his fourth place is quite good, but after all, it wasn't the optimal result. RadioShack's Manuel Cardoso wins the stage in front of Philippe Gilbert and Fabian Cancellara.
Stage result
1
Manuel Cardoso
Team RadioShack
3h58'24
2
Philippe Gilbert
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
3
Fabian Cancellara
Team Leopard
s.t.
4
Daniele Pietropolli
Lampre – ISD
s.t.
5
Samuel Dumoulin
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
s.t.
6
Enrico Gasparotto
Astana
s.t.
7
David Millar
Team Garmin – Cervelo
s.t.
8
Maxim Iglinsky
Astana
s.t.
9
Aitor Galdos
Caja Rural
s.t.
10
Daniel Moreno
Katusha Team
s.t.
General classification
1
Fabian Cancellara
Leopard - Trek
4h04'24
2
Thomas Löfkvist
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 17
3
Rubén Plaza
Movistar Team
+ 18
4
Denis Menchov
Geox - TMC
+ 19
5
Richie Porte
Saxo Bank - Sungard
+ 20
6
David Millar
Team Garmin - Cervelo
+ 21
7
Vladimir Karpets
Katusha Team
s.t.
8
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
9
Luis León Sánchez
Rabobank
s.t.
10
Jean-Christophe Peraud
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 22
A medium stage for us today. Our tactics worked out good until the sprinting lead out. But a fourth is a good result nevertheless.
Edited by cunego59 on 08-05-2011 13:10
Good tactics, but as said, the sprint wasn`t as good as expected, especially when Gilbert and Cancellara stay in front of you =P
Still, 4th is a nice result.
Well, they didn't really stay in front. Cunego launched the sprint in front and I hoped that he could sprint until ~1,5km. But he was really empty and slow so Pietropolli had to overtake him sooner than I thought and declined a lot in the last meters.
--------------
24.03.2011
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya: Stage 3
A tougher stage is on today. The two last hills are fairly steep and the finish is a little uphill, too. Cunego is going to try something today as he's not one of the best climbers and will probably lose some time in the mountains tomorrow.
Game crashed and I didn't take pictures during the stage, I'm sorry.
Francesco Gavazzi attacked to defend his KoM-jersey. He reached a 7-men group including his yesterday companion Nick Nuyens, Danny Pate (HTC), Xavier Florencio (Geox) and others.
Allthough he had some problems during the first hill, Gavazzi managed to get first over the top, thus extending his lead in the ranking.
On the hill between the first mountain and the second intermediate sprint, the leading group splittered and Gavazzi wasn't able to hold on anymore. With now about 70km to go, the first group was leading with 4 minutes, but the lead was allready declining.
44 riders entered the last climb together. Cunego was allready alone in the group, as Pietropolli had a horrible day. Euskaltel made the pace, as they did all day (thus catching the escapees). Sanchez seems to have great legs.
And indeed, Samuel Sanchez launched the first favorite's attack. He was countered by Damiano Cunego, Cadel Evans and Fränk Schleck. BMC and Leopard showed themselves in front often during the race, obviously not without a reason.
But the four weren't able to create a significant gap, and on the descent, a thirteen-men group was pacing towards the finish. Most of the favorites were there, but e.g. Denis Menchov or Andreas Klöden missed to jump in there.
Cunego is one of the best sprinters in the group so he decided not to attack. He had a good position behind Evans and Sanchez, but he wasn't able to overtake them, and finished third
Sanchez and Evans must now be considered as the top-favorites for tomorrow and the overall.
Stage result
1
Samuel Sanchez
Euskaltel – Euskadi
4h52'18
2
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
3
Damiano Cunego
Lampre – ISD
s.t.
4
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Omega Pharma – Lotto
s.t.
5
Luis Leon Sanchez
Rabobank
s.t.
6
Ivan Basso
Liquigas
s.t.
7
Fränk Schleck
Leopard Trek
s.t.
8
Vladimir Karpets
Katusha Team
s.t.
9
Thomas Löfkvist
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Haimar Zubeldia
Team RadioShack
s.t.
General classification
1
Samuel Sanchez
Euskaltel – Euskadi
8h56'39
2
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
+ 11
3
Damiano Cunego
Lampre – ISD
+ 15
4
Thomas Löfkvist
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 16
5
Luis Leon Sanchez
Rabobank
+ 20
6
Vladimir Karpets
Katusha Team
s.t.
7
Carlos Sastre
Geox – TMC
+ 29
8
Haimar Zubeldia
Team RadioShack
+ 31
9
Christian Vande Velde
Team Garmin – Cervelo
+ 32
10
Fränk Schleck
Leopard Trek
+ 39
A satisfying result today. Cunego is still in great shape, but I don't think that he'll be able to compete with Sanchez and Evans tomorrow. But he surprised me a lot this season, so we'll see.
Edited by cunego59 on 08-05-2011 17:28
The queen stage. The GC will be fixed today. Sanchez and Evans are the favorites for today along with Fränk Schleck and Ivan Basso, allthough the latter is allready a little behind in the GC. For Cunego, an overall podium would be great!
Francesco Gavazzi was in the BOTD, trying to defend his KoM-jersey. But again, he had problems on the climbs, thus lingering on the back of of the group, which consisted of riders like Jan Bakelandts (Omega) or Arkaitz Duran (Geox). He wasn't able to collect points on the first mountain sprint.
BMC and Euskaltel were doing the work in the pack, which strengthens the estimation of Sanchez and Evans being the top-favorites. Entering the second-to-last climb, the escapees were four minutes in front.
The first interesting riders attacked on the bottom of the last climb. Luis Leon Sanchez is followed by Vladimir Karpets, Denis Menchov and Jurgen Van den Broeck. Some others counter.
Cunego attacked on one of the more flat parts of the climbs, 8,5km to go. Sanchez and Evans still kept calm...
….while Ruben Plaza was soloing 50 seconds in front of the pack.
With 5 km to go, Basso, Menchov and Cunego chased Plaza, who was still in lead. Cunego is allready fading a little, did he attacked too early?
A little later, Samuel Sanchez attacked and flew past the group of Cunego. Cadel Evans is there now, too.
Ruben Plaza is still in front, he's doing really good. Cunego leads the chasing group, in front of him are Fränk Schleck and Sammy Sanchez.
The Spaniard can't hold on long enough: Fränk Schleck catches up to him an takes the stage victory by a couple of centimetres!
Cunego recovered and created a little gap to the chasing group. He finished fourth, only six seconds behind Sanchez.
Cadel Evans disappointed today and finished only 8th, 1'15 behind.
Stage result
1
Fränk Schleck
Leopard - Trek
5h01'38
2
Rubén Plaza
Movistar Team
s.t.
3
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 26
4
Damiano Cunego
Lampre - ISD
+ 32
5
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 45
6
Denis Menchov
Geox - TMC
s.t.
7
Christian Vande Velde
Team Garmin - Cervelo
+ 59
8
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
+ 1'15
9
Danilo Di Luca
Katusha Team
+ 1'44
10
Carlos Sastre
Geox - TMC
+ 1'51
General classification
1
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
13h58'39
2
Fränk Schleck
Leopard - Trek
+ 7
3
Damiano Cunego
Lampre - ISD
+ 25
4
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
+ 1'04
5
Rubén Plaza
Movistar Team
+ 1'05
6
Christian Vande Velde
Team Garmin - Cervelo
+ 1'09
7
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 1'38
8
Thomas Löfkvist
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 1'45
9
Luis León Sánchez
Rabobank
+ 1'49
10
Vladimir Karpets
Katusha Team
s.t.
A great day for us. Cunego with a strong performance, and he fulfilled our goal with his 3rd overall. Along the way, he also took the lead in the mountain ranking. Ruben Plaza will be very sad about his time loss yesterday, but he continues a strong season after his 9th in Paris – Nice.
@ lluuiiggii: Not only that. Plaza would lead the race now if he hadn't lost 1'16 on the easier third stage. And yeah, Cunego is really great at the moment.
@ zambeaux: Thank you
----------------
26.03.2011
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya: Stage 5
The first of three rather flat stages. The sprinters get their chances now.
The BotD consisted of strong riders like Roman Kreuziger (Astana) or the Frenchmen Remi Pauriol (FDJ) and Cedric Pineau (Quick·Step). We're present there with David Loosli. Their maximum lead was about 6 minutes, but HTC and BMC did the pace and they were caught early enough.
With 60km to go, Leif Hoste attacked out of the pack. It didn't seem very promising, but you never know... He was accompanied later by Karsten Kroon (BMC) and Martin Elmiger (Ag2r).
It nevertheless came down to a mass sprint. On a beautiful alley, Pietropolli got the wheel of Cofidis' Samuel Dumoulin, followed by Mark Cavendish and Andre Greipel.
Within the last kilometre, Dumoulin was in lead, but Pietropolli and Cavendish were closing up fast.
And Cavendish had no problems to win the stage. Dumoulin keeps the second place, while Pietropolli reaches a great podium spot.
Stage result
1
Mark Cavendish
HTC - Highroad
4h33'49
2
Samuel Dumoulin
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
s.t.
3
Daniele Pietropolli
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
4
Óscar Freire
Rabobank
s.t.
5
André Greipel
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
6
Manuel Cardoso
Team RadioShack
s.t.
7
Gerald Ciolek
Quick·Step
s.t.
8
Aitor Galdos
Caja Rural
s.t.
9
Jeremy Hunt
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Rubén Pérez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
General classification
1
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
18h32'28
2
Fränk Schleck
Leopard - Trek
+ 7
3
Damiano Cunego
Lampre - ISD
+ 25
4
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
+ 1'04
5
Rubén Plaza
Movistar Team
+ 1'05
6
Christian Vande Velde
Team Garmin - Cervelo
+ 1'09
7
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 1'38
8
Thomas Löfkvist
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 1'45
9
Vladimir Karpets
Katusha Team
+ 1'49
10
Luis León Sánchez
Rabobank
s.t.
A really nice stage for us. Pietropolli was able to stay in front of Oscar Freire and Andre Greipel. A great podium for him.
@lluuiiggii: Yes, Cavendish is undoubtably the fastest man in this peloton. If he is a a good position, he's unstopable.
--------------------
27.03.2011
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya: Stage 6
The next flat stage. Another mass sprint finish is expected.
Gavazzi leads a 12-men group over the second mountain. He takes the points on the second mountain as well and overtakes the mountain jersey from his teammate Cunego.
But the pack was attentive and the sprint preperations began. Pietropolli caught the wheel of Fabian Wegmann. Greipel was to his right, the HTC-rider is Danny Pate.
Cavendish was relatively far behind, but he overtook everyone with an amazing speed. Freire and Hunt were following him, while Pietropolli tried to overtake Greipel.
Cavendish's effort was too high. He faded in the last meters. Oscar Freire takes the win, Pietropolli with another nice fourth, right behind Andre Greipel.
Stage result
1
Óscar Freire
Rabobank
3h34'20
2
Mark Cavendish
HTC - Highroad
s.t.
3
André Greipel
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
4
Daniele Pietropolli
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
5
Manuel Cardoso
Team RadioShack
s.t.
6
Samuel Dumoulin
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
s.t.
7
Jeremy Hunt
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
8
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
9
Assan Bazayev
Astana
s.t.
10
Ángel Vicioso
Androni Giocattoli
s.t.
General classification
1
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
22h06'48
2
Fränk Schleck
Leopard - Trek
+ 7
3
Damiano Cunego
Lampre - ISD
+ 25
4
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
+ 1'04
5
Rubén Plaza
Movistar Team
+ 1'05
6
Christian Vande Velde
Team Garmin - Cervelo
+ 1'09
7
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 1'38
8
Thomas Löfkvist
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 1'45
9
Vladimir Karpets
Katusha Team
+ 1'49
10
Luis León Sánchez
Rabobank
s.t.
Pietropolli continues his row of nice results. Cavendish was the fastest man, but he was too far behind at first, so he had to use too much energy to hold on against Freire. Remarkable is Sammy Sanchez on 8.
Pietropolli is doing great! Let's hope tomorrow Cav and Freire are either bad positioned or have a bad day and, with some luck, Pietropolli can grab the win? Hope so
Guys, I have to announce the (early, earlier than I expected and hoped) end of this story. It's simply too much work to do for the little time I have at the moment, and I'm not able to put as much effort in it as a good story deserves it.
Furthermore, my motivation to play with Lampre went down, partly because it went too easy (I know, I could have switched to extreme).
Nevertheless, I really liked reporting for you so far, therefore I'm thinking about starting another, different story: Inspired mostly by valverde321's one about David Veilleux, I could imagine really well writing a one-person story. Then, I wouldn't have to report every race the team's participating in, and maybe I could handle that better. I have allready a couple of thoughts in my mind, but I'm not completely sure yet.
Finally, I want to thank all those of you who commented my story, and of course those who "just" read it. I hope you stay tuned if I start a new one.