But the dauphine seems to be the perfect race for brajkovic. Imagine how he would have performed in the giro with the strength he shows in france so far...
Thanks all!
@miggi: He would probably have performed better in the Giro if he didn't have to work for Klöden & Armstrong. But it's good to see him do well now, and bringing us a ProTour win. Haven't had many of them this year.
Wow, how you remembered something that happened like... a year ago (in the game)?
Great win by Brajk, lucky, yes, but he still was already performing really well by staying with Gesink!! He even jumps to 2nd on GC, now he must hold that!
Ps.: gotta tell that I actually read from the stage Gesink crashed to the end of the tour after clicking the link. I mean, you start reading this and... you simply don't wanna stop!!
Real masterpiece of a story what you have here Squire
Just catch up after half-year pause from your story and now it is even better
Bad luck for Kreuziger, hope he will be back in good shape at Tour,i wish him and your story only the best
The early break was caught... well, early. Nobody was out in front when Haimar Zubeldia started pushing the pace on the second-to-last mountain.
He wasn't able to shell out much pain though. A rather big peloton, containing around 75 riders, made it over the climb. We would have to wait for the Izoard.
In what was a bit of an anti-climax, nothing really happened on the Izoard. Brajkovic wasn't strong enough today to try anything. The main event was Evans (4th overall), Scarponi and Valverde going out the back door from the front group.
But not even that would mean much. By the time the leaders summited the Izoard, those three had gotten back on. 17 riders began the decent towards the finish in Briancon together.
Towards the final run-in, Valverde led the 17 man group. He was probably the strongest sprinter present, but on the front was not where he would want to be. Evans and Brajkovic followed just behind.
Valverde had to swing off, as Evans charged towards the line! Brajkovic was on his wheel, but the Slovenian is not a sprinter. Could he come around?
Nope. Brajkovic couldn't get two stage wins in a row, instead it was Cadel Evans taking his 3rd win of the race to go with the two TT wins from earlier this week. Another tough stage follows tomorrow, but Sanchez is defending his yellow jersey well.
Stage 8 [Last stage] Briançon - Villard de Lans: 216.5km
Tactics meeting
Another famous mountain pass is on the profile for the last stage, but the Col du Lautaret is the first climb of the day, and won't have any effect on the outcome. There's a lot of climbing in the last half of the stage, but Luis Leon Sanchez will be hard to get rid of. We will look for another stage win and make sure to keep Brajkovic's 2nd place.
On today's second-to-last categorized climb, Alejandro Valverde set a murderous pace. The Vuelta champion showed himself as a good domestique.
With 42 km and one KoM-classified climb remaining, the early break had been caught and the pack whittled down to about 50 riders. We were well represented with 5 men still left.
The peloton continued to decrease. 6km from the top of the last mountain, Brajkovic attacked out of the select group that was left! He's really been aggressive in this race. Vino followed in his slipstream.
Brajkovic didn't get away. He was soon rejoined by the main GC riders.
Gesink counter-attacked! Brajkovic tried to go with the Dutchman, but Gesink's turn of speed was impressive!
Across the top, Brajkovic was 2nd on the road, 15 seconds behind Gesink. The rest of the GC riders, including LL Sanchez, came chasing 30 seconds behind.
None of the aggressors could stay away though. Both Brajkovic and Gesink were caught before the uphill finish. Seven riders would fight for the stage victory.
Brajkovic was only able to follow towards the end. He had spent too much energy on his earlier move.
Gesink had something left even after his attack, and looked like the strongest rider!
Cadel Evans seems to be lacking a bit of climbing legs ahead of the Tour, but he won three stages here, so he should be pleased with the outcome. Gesink improves on a lacklustre Giro by also winning three stages, while Valverde has some work to do before the Tour starts.
Brajkovic was absolutely brilliant. It's his first successful stage race since he won the Tirreno-Adriatico last year. Jani got us a stage win and a 2nd place overall, and shows that I can rely on him in future one-week stage races. Speaking of one-week stage races, another one has just started across the Swiss border. Let's have a look at how our A-team tackles the Tour de Suisse. Stay tuned!
lluuiiggii wrote:
Wow, how you remembered something that happened like... a year ago (in the game)?
I have very good memory And it's a lot easier to remember things that happens when you're writing the story, compared to only reading it.
hellboy wrote:
Real masterpiece of a story what you have here Squire
Just catch up after half-year pause from your story and now it is even better
Bad luck for Kreuziger, hope he will be back in good shape at Tour,i wish him and your story only the best
Welcome back And thanks!
Kreuziger is not yet fit enough to ride the Tour de Suisse, but he should show up in France in July. Levi needs all the support he can get.
The Tour de Suisse has been the arena for unexpected performances over the last couple of years. This year, we aim to put an end to that. It's Lance Armstrong's last attempt at winning a major stage race.
The nine-stage event is bookended by two flat stages, but inbetween those are some serious difficulties. Stage 2 is a 42km flat time trial, preceeding a mountain top finish on stage 3. The 2436m Furka Pass looms on stage 5, while the following day is an absolute killer with several mountains, finishing on the Oberalppass. Stage 7 & 8 also contain a fair amount of climbing.
Our team is stacked with stage race talent. Lance Armstrong has riders like Leipheimer and Klöden at his disposal in his final bid to win a stage race. Armstrong's form is on the up after a solid Giro d'Italia, and he should be able to pull off the win here in Switzerland.
Discovery Channel Lance Armstrong Levi Leipheimer Andreas Klöden Sergio Paulinho George Hincapie Tomas Vaitkus Jurgen Van Goolen Egoi MartÃnez
Tactics meeting
The 2011 Tour de Suisse begins in France, with a flat stage into the Swiss city of Solothurn (Soleure). Several top sprinters are at the start, including Haussler, Boonen and Napolitano.
Tom Boonen won the first stage ahead of Swiss champion Martin Elmiger, who just missed out on a prestigous stage win on home ground. Boonen will not keep his leader's jersey for long: Tomorrow is the 42km time trial!
Tactics meeting
The time trial could put some climbers at a disadvantage before the mountains. Our climbers should do fine, although Armstrong might lose some time. World TT champion Cancellara is probably the favourite, but if on a good day, Levi could get us the stage win.
Marcel Wyss was obviously inspired by riding in front of his home crowd, and posted the best time so far when he crossed the line.
Here was a slight surprise for you. Germany's Markus Fothen showed a possible return to his 2008 form by knocking Wyss off the provisional 1st place.
Fothen was reduced to a snail by the next provisional leader though. Fabian Cancellara, in front of Swiss fans, did an amazing ride! He even caught triple World champion Michael Rogers. The time was 3'45 faster than Fothen! Could Levi even get close to Spartacus?
Armstrong was the first to try his luck against Cancellara. Lance obviously had an off day, clocking in no less than 4'23 behind the leader! Enormous time gaps.
Klöden was better, but the fact that he still was 2'57 behind Cancellara while clocking in to 2nd place, tells us that the Swiss monster had put in one of the greatest time trials in recent times.
Levi Leipheimer turned out to be best of the rest. He got 2nd on the stage, but was still almost two minutes down on Cancellara.
Overnight race leader Tom Boonen finished in 30th place, and is now more than five minutes away from the yellow jersey. Armstrong eventually finished 12th on the stage, but is well ahead of riders like S.Sanchez, A.Schleck and B.Feillu.
Tactics meeting
Today we encounter the Swiss Alps. It's a tough stage, and we're likely to see a big shake-up of the GC, which is dominated by time trialists after yesterday's ITT. Fabian Cancellara will have a hard time clinging on to his jersey. We have big ambitions today, and hope to move Armstrong well clear of many of his rivals.
It was to be expected, wasn't it? Defending champion and crazy breakaway rider Brice Feillu (Cofidis) attacked 80km from the finish. Arroyo and a few lesser riders went with him. Would he repeat his insane domination from last year?
Deja vu! Feillu dropped all his companions, and was alone out in front over the last mountain before the mountain top finish. His lead was 5'45! Not again...
During the first kilometers of the last climb, Andy Schleck also attacked! Feillu was now 6 minutes ahead, and heading for the stage win.
Andreas Klöden was put on the front of the Discovery train, in a bid to bring back Feillu and Schleck. 15km from the top, Feillu still had 6 minutes, while Baby Schleck was 1 minute ahead of the pack.
Feillu was pushing the pedals like a maniac, in what must be his favourite race. His lead didn't come down very much. With 11km remaining, he was still 5'30 ahead.
Andy Schleck was brought back under the 10km banner. Levi Leipheimer moved to the front to increase the tempo even more.
Levi completely blew the race apart! Pretty soon, he and Armstrong found themselves alone on the slopes of the Alps. Only Feillu was ahead, but he had a lead of 4'30 and would be difficult to bring back.
Andy Schleck had obviously killed himself with that attack. He was going through all sorts of pain, and was riding in the same group as Cancellara. They were losing big time to Levi & Lance.
5km from the top of the mountain, with Feillu still 4 minutes ahead, Levi had done his work, and it was now up to Armstrong to get up the mountain as fast as he could.
Nobody ever saw Feillu again after his attack 80km from the line, and he crossed it as a truly deserved stage winner! He has obviously eaten his yearly Tour de Suisse vitamin pills.
Armstrong crossed the line in 2nd place, 3'39 later, with Levi hanging on to his wheel. This superb Discovery performance puts Levi in yellow for tomorrow's flatter stage, as Cancellara came in with the big group at 6'05 (which also contained Klöden).
So awesome to see Leipheimer and especially Armstrong riding everyone of their wheel's
Feillu has some strange performances on this race. Maybe he's lunching too much with Contador? Oh, yeah, and where is him? Wanna see how will he do on the TdF
With Discovery looking like a win here in Suisse (first 3 in GC if you don't count Cancellara/Feillu), now all we need is to see a stage win, especially by Armstrong, to revive his old times
Tactics meeting
A flat stage to keep the sprinters happy. We will just save energy for when we go back to the mountains tomorrow.
The spritners found that they had to work for their chance. F.Willems (Liquigas) and M.Schär (Astana) were defiant today, and still had a lead of 1'30 going under the 10km banner.
The tight chase came to an end with 2.5km remaining. The escapees were finally brought back into the fold.
But more trouble was waiting! 1km out, Ricardo Van der Velde went for a flyer! The classics talent was very determined!
And he held on! The young Dutchman fooled the sprinters to take home his biggest win so far! All Discovery riders finished safely in the pack, and should be ready for some climbing tomorrow.
Brajko has a good chance to stay in the podium. 
And thanks!
Oh, yeah, and where is him? Wanna see how will he do on the TdF 
