Thank you both. And roturn, I often hear from adults how great school was. I'm not sure if that's not just nostalgia At the moment, I rather feel like
To give you a little more: Small changes aren't really possible, the choice would be between The Tour and the hilly classics in August, Septembre and Octobre, where he would of course get more chances. But on the other hand, riding the tour would be quite nice, too. And he would miss (or at least not be in shape for) the national championsship. So I tend to stick with the schedule, but a some more opinions would be great.
Today can well be called the queen stage. 223 hard kilometres over 8 classified mountains with a nice little hill to top it all. Dominik Nerz will most likely suffer a lot, as the whole Liquigas team probably will.
Km 1: Not surprisingly, some riders try their luck from kilometre one. Christiano Salerno is among them as well as Alessandro Petacchi.
Km 7: As if the profile wouldn't be enough, the riders have to cope with strong winds today.
Km 20:Christiano Salerno is back in the pack, but eight men are in the lead now.
Km 34:Giampaolo Cheula (Geox) wins the first mountain sprint.
Km 40: Still, some riders try to break free from the pack as the break isn't far away. Among them is ProTour-leader Mark Cavendish.
Km 56: A 10-men group leads with one minute to three chasers and another three minutes to the pack.
Km 74: Those two groups are together now and lead by 5 mintues.
Km 91: Remi Di Gregorio (Astana) and Cheula seem to be the only ones who care about mountain points. It also becomes clear that the mountain skills in this group are very unequal.
Km 115:Thomas Voeckler (Europcar, GC's 14th) attacked and leads with a minute to the pack. The escapees are only 5 minutes further.
Km 130: The first riders have to pay tribute to the hard profile. An about 30-rider strong grupetto is formed. In the meantime, the pack came closer and is only down by 3 minutes.
Km 161: Giampaolo Cheula (Geox) comes in second on the penultimate mountain and overtakes the lead in the KoM-ranking.
Km 174: By the way: Dominik Nerz seems to be Liquigas' captain again. We can see Christiano Salerno bringing water bottles.
Km 181: The pack enters the longest and steepest climb of today. The last escapees are 1'47 in front.
Km 184:Brice Feillu (Leopard) ist the first rider to attack, 6,7 km to the top.
Km 187: While Feillu overtook the escapees and leads, Sandy Casar attacks. A lot of riders follow.
Km 189:Feillu leads over the top of the mountain. Christophe Kern and Casar follow him.
Km 189:Dominik Nerz suffers his way over the mountain at the end of the peloton. Hopefully, he can recover a little on the descent.
Km 196: One minute behind the three leaders is a chasing group around Sebastien Joly (Saur) and Alexandre Vinokourov. The large chasing group (23 riders) follows another minute behind.
Km 217:Feillu and Casar got rid of Kern and increased their lead to the chasers. As they enter the last climb, it seems like they will fight for today's win.
Km 218:David Moncoutie and Damiano Cunego attack and overtake Kern. Will they reach the leading duo?
Km 223: No! Sandy Casar (FDJ) underlines his dominance with a stage win. Cunego comes in third, 33 seconds behind.
Sandy Casar is the man of this year's Paris – Nice. With this stage win, his overall win is nearly safe.
A really tough stage. Not only for me. This morning, we decided to look who's better legs, me or Cristiano. Thankfully, I felt quite ok, while Cristiano told me that he felt terrible. He thus worked for me.
Although I lost quite a bit of time, I'm not unhappy with my performance. Plus, the really tough stages are over now.
See you,
Dominik
Edited by cunego59 on 17-06-2011 10:09
The first big stage race of the year ends today. The overall winner seems to be clear, but especially the Top 5 are very close and might experience some changes today, although the stage isn't too hard, and very short, too.
Km 0: Joan Horrach (Katusha) and Jelle Vanendert (Omega) are the first riders to attack.
Km 5: While the first two established a one minute lead, the next riders attack. Among them is Dominik Nerz!
Km 11: Sadly, he didn't succeed.
Km 12: Again, a lot of riders attack. This time, it's Tiziano Dall'Antonia who tries it for Liquigas.
Km 22: 16 men were too many, the pack caught them.
Km 33: The next try...
Km 45: Eventually, the peloton let 9 riders go. Among them are Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky) and BMC's Marcus Burghardt.
Km 62: Luca Solari (Androni) tries to regain his lead in the mountain ranking. With the 10 points from the first mountain, he comes really close to Giampaolo Cheula (Geox).
Km 87: With 36 km and two mountains to go, the escapees are about 2 minutes in front.
Km 92: That is surprising: Early on the climb, Sandy Casar attacks. He must feel incredibly strong. Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel, 6th) counters.
Km 95: They both overtook the escapees, and towards the top, Casar leads with 20 seconds. Shortly behind them, Christophe Kern, Christophe Riblon and Brice Feillu (7th, 5th, 2nd) try to bridge the gap.
Km 97: Dominik Nerz pays the price for his early attack. He has to fight hard not to lose contact.
But on the other hand, I think I also performed really well on some stages. And for the team, Tiziano Dall'Antonia's podium on stage 3 was a massive success.
For now, I'm really glad that I'm in my hotel room and there is no race tomorrow. Because after all, ProTour is extremely exhausting.
My next race will be the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. Stay tuned,
Dominik
Edited by cunego59 on 17-06-2011 10:32
Bad luck with Dominik's breakaway-tries, but for your first ProTour-race, you did well imo And of course you could learn something! Nice to see three French guys on the podium ahead of Cunego!
Omloop van het Waasland is one of those completely flat, Belgian cobbled classics. As it's a 1.2 race, the concurrence isn't too high. Nevertheless, there are a couple of good classic riders, for example the likes of Bobbie Traksel (Landbouwkredit), Grega Bole (Lampre) or Sebastian Rosseler (RadioShack).
Liquigas comes there with their usual cobbled team.
The race was extraordinarily boring. The pack stayed calm for 150 km, until Cofidis' Nico Sijmens set the first attack. But the decisive attack was made with about 15 km to go. Most of the favorites, including Sebastian Rosseler and Bobbie Traksel broke free. Paolo Longo Borghini tried to counter and found himself a couple of seconds behind the leading four riders.
I'd like to use my regeneration time (before we start again to prepare for Catalunya) to inform you about some contract negotiations in our team:
After Ivan Basso, Francesco Belotti is the next rider who rejected a contract offer. He is a good climber and puncheur, so it would be a pity to lose him.
On the other hand, Davide Cimolai and Elia Viviani signed new contracts. That is absolutely great, as they are both young and still have great potential. Same applies for the Pole Maciej Paterski, although he is on a lower level than the Italians.
Still in negotiations shall, according to rumours, be Timothy Duggan. First, I was a little surprised, because he's really not that good. Plus, with 28, his potential is limited. But then I realized that his advance is that he's American. Obviously, Cannondale influences the DS in this case.
Apart from our team, the transfer gossip factory is starting to work overtime. Some really good and important riders are affected. Danilo Di Luca for example is linked to the Basque Euskaltel team. And Sky seems to be interested in signing Heinrich Haussler.
But the most amazing rumour I heard was that BMC wants to offer Alberto Contador a contract! The best stage racer in the world hasn't signed a new contract for next season yet.
It will be interesting to see how all that will work out.
Guys,
I just watched the last stage of Tirreno – Adriatico, and my general impression of this race is that it maybe was too easy for our team there...
Vincenzo Nibali was our leader. Our sponsors wanted the overall win, and with strong guys like Alberto Contador or Andy Schleck in the peloton, Nibali decided to be very aggressive. On the first stage, he tried his luck on the last hill, and thanks to his great descending skills, he gained nearly a minute on the pack. What a start!
The second stage was won by Joaquim Rojas in front of Tom Boonen. The latter wraped up the third stage, Oscar Freire came in second.
The fourth stage was ought to bring time gaps, and again Vincenzo Nibali proved to be the strongest. He relegated the Spaniards Joaquim Rodriguez and Oscar Freire with about a minute, and had a comforting advance of about two minutes in front of the time trial.
The result of the time trial was almost ridiculous. Alberto Contador was the big favorite, but he lost the massive amount of 1'32 to our Italian leader. With an advance of more than three and a halt minutes, his overall victory was pretty much decided now. *
And he didn't stop. On stage six, he got loose of the peloton on the long descent, overtook all remaining escapees and finished with about a minute of advance to Heinrich Haussler, who did surprisingly well and was rewarded with the second spot in the overall.
Nibali celebrates his win on stage 6.
The last stage was an easy one for Thor Hushovd, who celebrated his first win in his World Champion jersey.
However you asked if this story was boring but it's NOT! This story is uniqe. The live-ticker, the "bad" results, PCM 09 and many other things makes it uniqe and special to read.
It will also be exciting to see how Dominik developes and in a few years he will may be good enough to win the tour. If he does, it will be nice to look back on the first pages when finished around 100th and was far, far away from a GC-Contender.
@ roturn & FreitasPCM: Indeed quite strange results. Haussler and Boonen finished fifth and sixth in the TT, and Haussler was second on stage 6, where he made up a minute to Contador, who obvously wasn't in his best shape.
@ laidbackmarc: Thanks a lot. It's really great to hear that you like the story that much
After the rather disappointing Omloop Van Het Waasland, the team around Paolo Longo Borghini has another chance at a criterium. This time, a hill makes it a little harder for the riders, but it should suit our Italian.
Big favorite today was Sylvain Chavanel, who already won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne – Bruxelles – Kuurne this year. Staf Scheirlickx might be the only one who could challenge him.
Kristjan Koren showed the team colors when he attacked soon after the first cobbled passage. No one accompanied him, and so he went solo for a long time. He got a maximum advance of about six and a half minutes and got caught with about 35 km to go.
And the second to last cobblestone passage, the worst case scenario happened for Chavanel. After a puncture, he found himself at the back of the peloton, probably without any chances for a top position.
Longo Borghini obviously overestimated himself and was overtaken by a couple of other riders. Six men started the final sprint together: Staf Scheirlickx accelerated first and was in the wind. Too early, and Amorison could overtake him. In the end, Staf Scheirlickx only finished fourth, after the Landbouwkredit trio!
as you probably know, the first so-called monument takes place in Italy: Milano – San Remo!
Considering the importance of that race, I have decided to break the routine and set up a news ticker for this race, too, although I don't participate in it. In preparation for that, I'd like to give you little preview:
The Race
The longest classic in professional cycling was firstly held in 1907. Eddy Meckx is the record winner, he took the incredible amount of seven victories in San Remo!
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, but the small but tough hills shortly before the finish, the Cipressa and the Poggio, are an opportunity for good rouleurs to break away and spoil the sprinter's show.
The Favorites
The world's elite of sprinting will be present in Italy. The probably strongest team will be Garmin – Cervelo. With Heinrich Haussler, Tyler Farrar and Thor Hushovd, they have three possible winners in their lines. Especially the Australian champion and the World champion have good chances, and have proved good shape during Tirreno – Adriatico.
The best sprinter in the world, Manx Missile Mark Cavendish is of course there, too. If it comes down to a mass sprint, and if he survives the Poggio well, then he is the top favorite.
Strong sprinters who shouldn't have too much problems with the hills are the likes of Tom Boonen, Oscar Freire and Alessandro Petacchi. They will step into the first row if Cav struggles on the hills.
At Milano – San Remo, you never know whether it comes down to a mass sprint or not. Riders who could win this race out of a breakaway are sufficiently present. Fillipo Pozzato is such a guy, and also Spartacus, Fabian Cancellara or Alessandro Ballan.
But eventually, it might turn out to be a complete surprise for everyone. You never know.
Team Liquigas
Our DS will send our best-qualified rider for this terrain, Mauro Finetto. He's not the best sprinter, but he already got some decent results in Australia and Malaysia. His big advance is his really good ability to get over hills. If it comes down to a mass sprint, he should have some power left. Nevertheless, the top favorites are other riders.
Also, our team is very limited, so we won't be able to chase possible dangerous escapees. All that makes the result pretty much a surprise bag.
Edited by cunego59 on 20-06-2011 00:02
But maybe it would be fun to see Dominik in a minor race, where he could go for GC, yes.
And of course you could learn something! Nice to see three French guys on the podium ahead of Cunego!
