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Joel Wallin | Finished
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 03-03-2014 19:57
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While I was racing in Denmark some of the others were in Murcia to race. Brenes and Grijalba both did well to finish in the top 10 on stage 2 with Greg even taking the 2nd place.
I guess he’s actually finding some good form early on as he managed to finish 6th in the final TT giving the team another surprising GC win in a Spanish stage race.
Brenes wasn’t quite as impressive in the new German one-day race Rund um Sebnitz, where Grönlund ended up as the best Fiskars-rider in a sprint where places 2-10 where all within a wheel of each other. A 6th place for him at that occasion was pretty good.
At the end of the month they roder GP Miguel Indurain without making much show of themselves.
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| the_hoyle |
Posted on 03-03-2014 21:05
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Some nice stages for the team 
.: Manager of :.
.: My Awards :.
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 04-03-2014 14:54
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the_hoyle: They were though I was very surprised to see Brenes grab the GC in Murcia (simmed all but the stage where he finished 2nd).
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 04-03-2014 15:07
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Rider of the Month:  Roman Kreuziger, Cofidis .
Nordic Rider of the Month:  Troels Rønning Vinther, Astana.
Obviously the month started where February ended: With Langkawi and two top 10’s for Markarskard. Novo Nordisk – SAS continues to give chances to their youngsters as Magnus Cort won the young riders jersey.
With three Danish stage wins and all the secondary classifications going to Nordic riders Bornholm Rundt was a huge success for the locals. Too bad they couldn’t follow it up properly in GP Vejle where Grönlund was the best Nordic rider on 4th with Øllegard the only Dane in top 10.
Vuelta a la Region de Murcia was won by the Swedish Fiskars-team, but in spite of three Nordic team’s being in the race no Nordic riders showed themselves.
Paris – Nice started decent for the Danes with Bøchman taking 7th on the first hard stage and Steensen taking top 10’s on the two following stages. Unfortunately none of them had more than that and both Nordic riders and teams were completely absent in the final GC. Tosh Van der Sande took the overall win.
Tirreno – Adriattico was off to an even better start when Troels Vinther got a few days in the leader’s jersey after winning the opening TTT with Astana ahead of Novo Nordisk and following it up with top 10’s on stage 2, 4 and 6. Boasson Hagen got two top 10’s as did his fellow Norwegian Vegard Laengen, who even got a podium with Fuglsang on 6th one day. That effort resulted in a moderately surprising GC 6th for the Norwegian. Ulissi won.
This year’s Milano – Sanremo didn’t get quite as hard as previous years allowing Marcel Kittel to take the win with Boasson Hagen on 8th.
Vuelta Ciclista a Catalunya was a Kreuziger-show with the Czech rider winning three stages and wearing the leaders jersey for 6 days only to lose it to Rabottini by allowing the Italian to finish 5’30’’ ahead of the peloton on a flat stage. The best Nordic effort in the race was Bøchman’s 6th place on stage 6.
The reason as to why the Nordics didn’t show much in Spain is probably to be found in Belgium: The cobbled season had begun and that is a priority for both Novo Nordisk and Saxo.
In E3 that resulted in Gallopin taking the win for Saxo – Tinkoff beating Troels Vinther and Lars Boom in the sprint while McDermott finished 4th and Breschel 9th. It’s also worth noticing that Geraint Thomas finished 5th after spending the last two seasons as NSP – Ghost. A good decision to get him back on a top team it seems!
Gent – Wevelgem isn’t quite as cobbles heavy, which allowed Swift, Bouhanni and Devenyns to sprint for the win finishing in that order. McDermott and Breschel both finished inside the top 10 again.
| 1 |  Luca Ascani | Team Selle Italia | 678 | | 2 | Roman Kreuziger | Cofidis | 677 | | 3 |  Rigoberto Urán | Iberia | 611 | | 14 | Niki Østergaard | TDC – LRØ Rådgivning | 382 | | 33 | Chris Anker Sørensen | Novo Nordisk - SAS | 268 | | 62 |  Vegard Stake Laengen | Novo Nordisk - SAS | 201 | | 97 |  Gunnar Grönlund | Fiskars Cykling | 147 | | 363 | Sondre Sörtveit | Joker Merida | 29 | | 365 |  Elias Kinnunen | Fiskars Cykling | 29 | | - |  | - | - |
Rankings include the best ranked rides of each nationality from WT and CT-teams respectively.
| 1 | Team Selle Italia | 1864 | | 2 |  Asics | 1760 | | 3 |  Iberia | 1678 | | 10 | Novo Nordisk - SAS | 1105 | | 18 | Team Saxo - Tinkoff | 940 | | 20 | TDC – LRØ Rådgivning | 862 | | 31 | Joker Merida | 588 | | 33 | Fiskars Cykling | 563 | | 36 | Statoil – Stoerensoe | 454 | | 64 | Team Øster Hus | 124 | | 73 | Christina Watches Development Team | 80 | | 79 | Blue Water Cycling | 56 | | - | DONG Energy – Himmerland | 0 | | 90 | Jardar Sykling | 13 |
| Rider | Team | Points | | Alex Rasmussen | Novo Nordisk - SAS | 87,5 | | Gunnar Grönlund | Fiskars Cykling | 74 | | Thomas Nybo Riis | Novo Nordisk - SAS | 44,5 | | Niki Østergaard | TDC - LRØ Rådgiving | 42,5 | | Chris Anker Sørensen | Novo Nordisk - SAS | 40,3 |  | Gediminas Bagdonas | TDC - LRØ Rådgiving | 37,6 | | Lasse Bøchman | Novo Nordisk - SAS | 37,5 |  | Simon Clarke | Joker Merida | 30 | | Alexander Kamp | Christina Watches Development Squad | 30 |
Saur – Sojasun have announced that they want to sign  Tyler Farrar for the next season.
Even though  Bauke Mollema haven’t performed as well as he could have in the last few seasons he has been made the main transfer target for Team Santander.
Edited by Atlantius on 04-03-2014 15:08
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 04-03-2014 15:33
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Grönlund looking good in the Nordic Race Series  |
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 05-03-2014 08:54
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sutty: Thanks to soem good consistency - he is the only one to have scored points in all three Nordic races so far.
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 05-03-2014 08:58
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I alway forget how much racing happens in March. |
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 05-03-2014 14:40
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Ian: Me too. A noce reminder though with March just beginning IRL
Glad to have you back. Hope things sorted themselves out as good as possible for you!
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 05-03-2014 14:58
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With a route as flat as this one it has sprinters written all over it with the big favourite being Kasper Jebjerg and us being one of the sites not mentioned by anyone…
Realizing that only a very hard race could give us the chaos we would need to surprise in the end the entire team was devoted to attacking from the start.
Glenn was the first to get away, but a wide variety of teams were dedicated to chasing a bunch sprint.
In the end 14 riders including Brenes ended up forming the big break of the day. At one point with s gap as big as 6’30’’
All the time the boys did a great job to keep me near the front of the peloton where I could see Adria Mobil, BNP Paribas and REWE pulling the break back in.
When the main part of the break was caught I had some trouble keeping my spot in front of the peloton, but Steve did great to help me get back to it before I was to make my final effort.
Fortunately I got back up in time to avoid the huge crash tearing the peloton to pieces with 11,5 km to go.
Only just though as we were left than 40 remaining in the front group after the crash.
The 5 km gate was my mark to attack out of the now 22-rider group chasing Ghyselinck out in front.
I quickly got half a minutes gap, though the distance to the Belgian ahead stayed the same.
With 1 km to go I made my final kick for the podium knowing that the chasers would be coming fast by now.
I never really got close to challenging for the win.
I did manage to keep the others at bay just long enough for me to take 2nd place, whoch was a lot better than I had expected this morning.
It was nice to be able to do something to pay back the team for all their hard work.
Especially Ländin, who had been picking up bottles all day and then was pulled down in the crash. He seems to be ok, but he'll need a new set of clothes for the next race...
The next race for me is Himmerland Rundt, but first I'm gonna see if Grönlund will be able to defend his win in Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt.
As well as I can from home at least...
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 05-03-2014 16:24
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What a Brilliant ride from Joel today  , and that's what they get for not mentioning the team |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 05-03-2014 16:26
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Great stuff from Joel. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 15:54
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 05-03-2014 19:49
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sutty: Hehe, guess they'll mention usthe next time
Miguel98: Just too badGhyselinck was so far gone, but a very good result for Joel in deed!
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 07-03-2014 14:19
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 The German Mission
Last year Grönlund took a highly surprising GC win in Rheinland-Pfalz Rundfahrt. To prepare for his defence of that the team rode Rund um Köln, where they didn’t achieve much more than a lot of attacks and finishing in the front group while Novo Nordisk – SAS had everything under control all day setting up the win for Alex Rasmussen.
Same thing happened on stage 1 and 2 of Rheinland-Pfalz so on stage 3 we saw Novo Nordisk – SAS completely control things. Until Gunnar attacked 4 km from the finish line that is!
He didn’t gain any time, but got just enough of a gap to take the stage win with Guldhammer 2nd and my old team taking 3rd to 6th places.
Gunnar kept trying on the last two stages, but as so many before them the guys had to realize that it’s very hard to take a leader’s jersey away from Novo Nordisk – SAS and with two hills left of the final stage they really put on the pressure and completely cracked everyone but Tsatevich and Saxo – Tinkoff, who ended up taking the stage and the final GC ahead of Bøchman, Sørensen and Rasmussen.
In the end Grönlund finished 13th proving his critics right when they stated that his win last year was a lucky shot, while still making it clear that he has the class needed to take the occasional win.
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 07-03-2014 14:28
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Unlucky 13th for Grönlund  |
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 08-03-2014 18:15
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sutty: I think he should be failr happy wit a stage win in spite of his collapse on the final stage.
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 08-03-2014 21:33
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He still got a great win for the team!
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 10-03-2014 20:48
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Jakstar: He most certainly did and that should be counted as a big success regardless of the GC.
Himmerland Rundt
After having been home for a week I had now travelled to the far side of Denmark for the flat classic Himerland Rundt and a new stage race right after that.
The bookmakers still consider our great performance in Køge last week something of a fluke though, so they keep ignoring us when setting the odds.
I punctured already on the way to the start line so I ended up starting at the very back of the peloton making it impossible for me to get to the front in time to chase the break.
Good thing Linden was awake then!
The sprinters didn’t want to throw this one away as well, so they couldn’t seem to get that decisive gap.
But then all of a sudden the group in front cracks and only five riders (incl. Linden) continue and the gap grows to more than 6 minutes with 75 km to go.
I really had a hard time keeping up with the front when the chase really got serious inside the final 10 km.
My position when the sprint began. I assume I don’t have to say that I’m not entirely happy with my legs today?
On paper Stevenson was our best shot in a real sprint, so he got Brenes to do the leadout.
My radio went completely mad and after I crossed the line I knew why. An amazing leadout by Greg took the real sprinters by surprise and they reacted way too late!
A result like this really helps on a day when nothing worked as it should for me!
Now we'll got to Herning for the start of teh new race Giro di Midtjylland, which is raced on the same route as the Giro d'Italia start in 2012.
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 10-03-2014 20:50
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Another win! Go Chris and Greg!!!
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| Shonak |
Posted on 10-03-2014 21:35
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Some great racing as of late by the entire team and Joel. It's good to know that teammates are ready to pick up when Joel has a bad day.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 11-03-2014 01:41
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Yay, Great victory for Stevenson |
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Jan Ghyselinck
Ian Stannard
Valentin Iglinskiy
Aldo Ino Ilesic
Mickaël Delage
Laurent Beuret
Sam Bennett
Gregory Brenes
Timofey Kritskiy
