Here's Paris – Nice 's third stage. A little climb towards the end makes it hard for pure sprinters.
Km 3: The first attacks are launched.
Km 17:Giampaolo Cheula (Geox) wins the first mountain sprint today.
Km 37: A group of 9 is in the lead now.
Km 71: Their advance is now at about 5'30.
Km 142: With 60km to go, the advance is decreasing. The pack is now down by 3'50.
Km 190: Towards the last climb, Simone Ponzi tries an attack.
Km 192:Dominik Nerz has problems to keep up, after he did a lot of work to protect Tiziano Dall'Antonia. He falls back into a rather large grupetto.
Km 197:Ponzi's attack didn't succeed and it comes down to a mass sprint. Dall'Antonia has a bit of energy left and follows Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil).
Km 202:Robbie McEwen wins the stage easily in front of Alessandro Petacchi. Tiziano Dall'Antonia with a fantastic third place!
The old Australian shows that he's still good for top results.
Result
1 Robbie McEwen
Team RadioShack
4h45'39
2 Alessandro Petacchi
Lampre – ISD
s.t.
3 Tiziano Dall'Antonia
Liquigas – Cannondale
s.t.
4 Filippo Pozzato
Katusha Team
s.t.
5 Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
…
149 Dominik Nerz
Liquigas – Cannondale
+ 4'38
Dominik's comment
Pretty hard day. I lost time again, but not as much as yesterday. I worked a lot and protected Tiziano, and obviously I did a good job. He had enough energy left to get a great result in the final sprint.
With this third place, Paris – Nice will be a success in any case. This spot on the podium is more than we could expect.
@ lluuiiggii & tsmoha: Thank you both. But I doubt that I can repeat or even improve the results in the upcoming stages, therefore I'm really happy with that podium.
Today's stage is the hardest, until now. It will most probably bring first overall changes.
Km 5: Lars Boom with a first attack. He's followed by a couple of guys around Fabian Wegmann and Berhard Eisel.
Km 10:Leif Hoste attacks. Simone Ponzi tries to follow.
Km 32: After the first mountain sprint, Ponzi finds himself in the leading group. The pack is down by 2 minutes.
Km 52:Simone Ponzi comes in first in the mountain sprint and takes the provisional lead in the KoM-ranking.
Km 57: The former break is caught again.
Km 94: At the moment, mountain jersey wearer Luca Solari soloes in front with an advance of about 2 minutes.
Km 149: At the third to last mountain sprint, Ryder Hesjedal, Martin Elmiger (Ag2r) and Alexandr Kolobnev came free from the peloton. They have an advance of 1'40, while Solari is another 2 minutes further.
Km 167: The pack comes relatively complete over the biggest climb of today. But right after the top, a couple of riders like Pippo Pozzato and Alexandre Vinokourov attack.
Km 172:Tiziano Dall'Antonia was obviously among the attackers as well. He takes part in a 10 men break.
Km 177: The peloton didn't let them go, the escapees are caught again.
Km 178:Dominik Nerz has problems to keep up with the peloton.
Km 179:Christophe Le Mevel and Alexandre Vinokourov attack.
Km 188: They are back in the pack again, instead Brice Feillu (Leopard) and Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel).
I know that I repeat myself, but this Paris – Nice is really harder than I thought. As soon as the pack enters difficult terrain, I have problems to keep up. Sure, I have to spend a lot of energy to help our leaders, but nevertheless I hoped for a little bit more...
Maybe I do better tomorrow.
So far from a disappointed
Dominik
Edited by cunego59 on 08-06-2011 19:33
Today's stage features the only real mountain top finish of this year's Paris – Nice. Although it's rather short, the combination of the two steep climbs at the end is pretty hard. Again, Liquigas won't play any major role today.
Km 2: The first riders attack. Among them the Italians Angel Vicioso and Tiziano Dall'Antonia.
Km 10: Doesn't look good for them. The pack is coming closer.
Km 11: Another couple of riders overtake the initial group. Tiziano Dall'Antonia is trying to follow.
Km 23: The second group is caught, too.
Km 40: At the moment, Jackson Rodriguez (Androni) leads in front of an 11 men group. The peloton is down by 2 minutes.
Km 63: The advance grew to 5 minutes. Rodriguez is within the top group now.
Km 87: On the climb at about half of the stage, Europcar's Pierre Roland attacks and soon creates a gap. 14 riders are now in front of the peloton, split into four groups.
Km 127: With 50km to go, the advance of the first escapees has now decreased to 3'30. Only three Liquigas riders are still in the pack: Christiano Salerno, Tiziano Dall'Antonia and a fresh looking Dominik Nerz.
Km 138: The first interesting rideres attack now: Thomas Voeckler, Brice Feillu and Christophe Le Mevel.
Km 155: A little intermediate state: Dan Martin (Garmin) and Remi di Gregorio (Astana) are the last remaining escapees and lead with about a minute. In between them and the peloton are still Voeckler, Lars Boom and Matthew Lloyd (Omega).
Km 166: 11 km to go. The pack has caught every escapees and currently climbs up the penultimate mountain. Dominik Nerz still looks rather good. It seems like he's the captain today, as Christiano Salerno protects him.
Km 169: Russian champion Alexandr Kolobnev attacks on top of the mountain. Tiago Machado and Ryder Hesjedal follow.
Km 174: … and overtake him. They enter the last climb with about 20 seconds of advance,
Km 176: They are caught again soon, and close to the flamme rouge, Christophe Riblon (Ag2r) tries a late attack.
Km 177:Dominik did really well today and was able to finish within the pack. Unfortunately, he was in the back part of the pack, and every small gap created a time gap, thus he eventually lost some time, but as he hasn't any ambitions at all, that's doesn't matter.
The old Frenchman proved to have a lot of zappiness left and wins this stage.
French domination continues here. The first nine riders in this stage were all French. Pretty amazing performance by them.
Maybe not amazing, but still very good, was my performance today. I benefited from the DS' decision who made me the leader for today. I'm really greatful for that, they said it was a recompense for all the work I did in the past days. Thus, Christiano and Tiziano had to work for me. And look what I can do then! I'm really pleased with that.
After I lost so much time on stage 2, I continually got better and I think I can be very pleased with the result today. As a marginal note, I climbed 16 positions in the GC. Not that it matters, though, but it's nice for me to see, anyway.
I hope that I can continue like that.
See you,
Domink
Thank you all for the comments, I really appreciate them!
@ roturn & Pellizotti2: Thank you. He is the second best climber in this team, and it was kind of a recompense for the work he did earlier. Plus, I figuered that this is a Domink Nerz story, so he of course is in the centre of attention, and I of course consider that
@ wackojackohighcliffe: Thanks a lot! Great you like it and going to follow it. And I'm glad that you like the realistic results, I hoped that the "mediocre" rankings that Dominik achieves don't displease you readers. But as you said, they're realistic. And I'm sure better results will come.
@ PCMFreitas: It's a little weird: French riders always dominate P-N in my careers. Don't know why, but I guess your eyes will have to cope with that flag a little longer
@ montolivo & lluuiiggii: Thank you! Yes, Dominik performed really well, maybe the DS will give him a major role in future stages? We'll see...
I'll probably be able to give you another report tomorrow.
Welcome to stage 6 of Paris – Nice! It's hilly with four classified mountains, but not too long.
Km 2: A first try to form a break. Some prominent riders are there: Mark Cavendish, Fabian Wegmann and Liquigas' Christiano Salerno.
Km 15: The pack isn't willing to let them go, so Christiano Salerno gives it another try.
Km 20: He wasn't successful.
Km 33: Still no clear break, still many tries...
Km 38: On the first classified climb, a twelve men group establishes a 2 minutes lead. Interesting riders like Dan Martin (Garmin) or Chris Anker Sörensen (Saxo Bank) are among them.
Km 43: The Dane takes the first mountain sprint and thus the provisional lead in the KoM ranking.
Km 67: The peloton is now down by 6 minutes.
Km 86: The pack gave them a maximum advance of 8 minutes but seems to increase the pace now.
Km 129: The pack is pacing with an incredible speed now, many riders have problems to follow. The escapees are still about 5 minutes in front.
Km 136:Pozzato, Cunego, Voeckler and Txurruka broke free now.
Km 143: They are caught again, but Voeckler and Cunego immediatly try it again. Tiziano Dall'Antonia tries to follow!
Km 145:Dan Martin (Garmin) and BMC's Mauro Quinziato attack from the front group, who will surely supply today's winner, as the pack is still down by 5 minutes.
Km 151: The other attacks were half-hearted and so Tiziano Dall'Antonia now soloes with about 40 seconds in front of the peloton. Doesn't look good for him.
Km 157:Martin and Quinziato are caught again. The best sprinters in the group are Bernhardt Eisel (HTC), Borut Bozic (Vacansoleil) and Angel Vicioso (Androni).
Km 163: They succeed! Kjell Carlström wins the stage ahead of the Irish!
Km 163: Four minutes behind them, a group among the leader Sandy Casar, who increases his overall lead, finishes some seconds in front of the peloton, including Dominik Nerz.
After 2008, the former Finish champion achieves his second Paris – Nice stage win.
Exams are over now (yes, yes, yes! good bye, school!) so I might have more time to do the reports.
I've got a question for you: As you see, Dominik doesn't do bad, but he hasn't really got any chances for a good result. If you see his schedule (page 1), I don't think that will change a lot. What came to my mind is that you, as readers, might not find that too interesting. If that is the case, I would probably change his schedule so that he would get more chances in minor races.
What do you think?
And, also, Carlström's flag is a bit mixed up. 
