Danilo Di Luca dominated this year’s Giro, taking a significant lead with stunning solo breakaway victories early on. For the Alpine stages and time trials he was able to ride defensively and protect his lead.
1 - Danilo Di Luca (GCE) - 85h28’46
2 - Ivan Basso (AST) - +2‘16 3 - Robert Gesink (THR) - +2’35
Francisco Pacheco (THR) (tied with Di Luca on 176 points, won on countback) managed to win the points competition, mainly due to some excellent placings in most of the flat stages (3 x wins, 1 x 2nd place, 2 x 3rd place, 3 x top 10 finishes).
Points jersey wearers
Stage 1-2 Jean-Patrick Nazon (AG2R) Stage 3-7 Francisco Pacheco (THR)
Stage 8 - Lars Boom (THR)
Stage 9-16 Francisco Pacheco (THR)
Stage 17-20 Danilo Di Luca Stage 21 - Francisco Pacheco (THR)
Mountain (Maglia Verde)
Thomas Voeckler (THR) dominated the competition, taking the jersey on the first day, and cementing his win with a couple of long breakaway days in the Alps.
Mountain Jersey wearers
Stage 1-4 Thomas Voeckler (THR)
Stage 5-6 Danilo Di Luca (GCE) Stage 7-13 Thomas Voeckler (THR)
Stage 14 - Danilo Di Luca (GCE) Stage 15-21 Thomas Voeckler (THR)
Youth (Maglia Bianca)
Robert Gesink (THR) dominated the Young rider's competition throughout. His main competition going into the Giro was from Gonzalez and Lund, but with both underperforming there really weren't any others capable of winning it!
Notable others
Underperformers
Tom Boonen – where was he? I can only remember him in a couple of sprints, and he only managed 15 points in the sprint classification. Rubbish!
Hector Gonzalez (7th place) – despite a win and 2nd place in the two time trials, Gonzalez did not do well in the mountains, losing several minutes early on in the Giro. I can only assume that his fitness wasn’t that great, and his main focus will be on the Tour de France.
Mikkel Lund (23rd place) – he was my outside pick for a top 10 spot in the overall GC, but never lived up to his pre-race billing.
Unluckiest riders
Dominique Rollin (Gerolsteiner) – 3 x 2nd place (Stage 1, 9, 12), a 3rd place (Stage 3) and 4th place (Stage 4) finishes, but no stage win! Rollin finished the Points competition in 6th place with 121 points, and was the 2nd ranked sprinter behind Pacheco!
1 Carlos Sastre Rabobank 26h59'26 2 John Devine Team Columbia + 51
3 Kevin Unsen Ceramica Flaminia + 1'41
4 Dimitri Champion Quick·Step + 3'28
5 Samuel Sánchez Astana Cycling Team + 3'59
6 Roman Kreuziger Liquigas + 5'24
7 Stefano Barberi Barloworld + 6'25
8 Laurent Lefèvre Bouygues Télécom + 6'55
9 Fränk Schleck Française des Jeux + 7'01
10 Sylvain Chavanel Acqua e Sapone + 7'21
John Devine took his Giro form and turned it into a 2nd place on the GC in the Dauphine. A stage win on the final stage made this a very good race for our young American rider.
Sastre, in his final season, takes the overall victory - is he trying to set his form for the Tour de France?
@ olabj - I'll sim some and ride others - I mainly take an interest in the ones I actually have achance of winning
@ Maggot - I don't recall seeing any dodgy doctors shoving EPO in through the USB ports of my laptop, but you never know
@ wacko - Nice! I hadn't spotted the similarity before you mentioned it, but now I'm going to use that celebration more often If I could only remember which button it was.........
olabj wrote:
But you still have to give us all the results though
Don't worry, I will
Well the Tour de Suisse is half completed, and Pardilla is currently in 3rd place behind Gonzalez and Comi. I'll post the results as soon as I have finished the race.
In the meantime though, I thought we should take a closer look at our Giro heroes!
Firstly, Robert Gesink
whose seaon has been excellent so far, with podiums in the Tour of Romandie and Giro d'Italia
next, his Lieutenant, John Devine, who rode to an excellent 5th place in the Giro
and also won a stage of the Giro, and earlier gained 3rd place in the Tour of Georgia
Third, we come on to our fantastic sprinter, Francisco Pacheco, who won the sprinter jersey in the Giro
Fourth, our mountaineer, Thomas Voeckler
who also won a stage and the mountain jersey in this year's Paris Nice!
and finally, our young puncheur, Lars Boom
whose season has seen him win a stage of the Giro and Tour of Romandie, and win the mountain and youth categories of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco!
The thing that strikes me most about those riders is the ages of them. Gesink, Boom and Devine are all either 25 or 26, with long careers ahead of them. Pacheco is only 29, and Voeckler, the oldest of the group is still only 31, and could easily ride for a few more seasons.
Pardilla led our team in this race, as defending champion from last year, although he is racing it more as a warm up for the Tour de France.
Here he is riding the time trial in his World Champion's jersey!
Later in the race, Michael Rogers showed that he is in good shape by taking the KOM jersey
and finally, Sergio 'Usain Bolt' Pardilla celebrates his stage win on stage 8 (its the 'B' key celebration! )
Although we could only get 3rd place with Pardilla, I'm still happy with the way the race went, as we managed to get 3 riders in the top 10 - our team climbing skills will hopefully keep us very competitive throughout the Tour de France. Hector Gonzalez is clearly in good form after an underwhelming Giro - he is looking good for the Tour as well! Meanwhile, Carlos Sastre won the Dauphine and looks like he will make a play for the TdF too!
General Classification
1 Héctor González - Saunier Duval - 38h40'00
2 Nino Comi - Serramenti - + 1'06 3 Sergio Pardilla - Team Columbia - + 2'02
4 Mikkel Lund - Quick·Step - + 3'14
5 David Ona - Gerolsteiner - + 5'53
6 Andreas Klöden - Agritubel - + 6'48 7 Robert Gesink - Team Columbia - + 7'54
8 Jai Crawford - Team Columbia - + 10'34
9 Vladimir Karpets - Caisse d'Epargne - + 11'04
10 Kasper Linde - Lampre - + 11'55
Next up.....the National ITT championships, and our plans for new signings for next season!
Edited by facmanpob on 17-02-2009 10:18
We have 3 riders definitely leaving us at the end of the season – Blanco, Southerland and Rabon. So what are our requirements for replacements? I have separated out next year’s squad members out into groups based on abilities, detailed below:
Primary Leaders (GTs and uber-important races)
Sergio Pardilla, Kim Kirchen, Linus Gerdemann, Robert Gesink
Gesink has proven, with his podium place in the Giro, that he can be a team leader in a Grand Tour, and Gerdemann and Pardilla are past winners of the Vuelta. Kirchen is our 1-day classics specialist, and won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege earlier this season. Clearly we are in good shape with our leaders for next season, and do not need to add any more!
Sprinters
Mark Cavendish, Kobe Vanoverschelde, Francisco Pacheco, Gerald Ciolek
4 of the fastest sprinters in the game, and they are all mine! The ‘slowest’ of these four has a sprint stat of 82! Again, we don’t need any more help here (nor could we afford any!)
Assistant Leaders (smaller race leaders and GT assistants)
John Devine, Yaroslav Popovych, Jai Crawford
3 excellent riders here, Devine’s 5th place finish in the Giro giving an example of how good he is! No help needed in this area!
Mountain Helpers
Michael Rogers, Thomas Lovkvist, Dave Zabriskie, Kanstantin Siutsou, Thomas Voeckler, Dani Moreno, Tiago Machado
Loaded with talent, no help needed!
Sprint Train
I like to make sprint trains with 3 riders: a 1st Lead out with very high Flat stat, a 2nd lead out with high sprint stat, and a final sprinter. Clearly I am blessed with excellent sprinters, but who do I have for the other 2 positions?
1st Lead out men: Alexandre Pliuschin, Sep Vanmarcke, Lars Boom, Gennesio Quennoz, Bradley Wiggins
Of these, Wiggins and Pliuschin are the best, with ‘Flat’ stats of 78 and 79 respectively, so if we could find another rider with a flat stat of 78 or higher he could be useful!
2nd Lead out men: Edvald Boasson Hagen…………and that’s it really
EBH has a sprint stat of 77, perfect for leading out a sprint, but my next highest rider is Lars Boom with 72 sprinting. Although I have been making do with him this season, I have suffered since the likes of Greipel and Eisel left the team. Here is an area I could certainly use some help in.
Cobbles
Ciolek, Pliuschin, Vanmarcke, Quennoz
Pliuschin is a very good rider, and Quennoz is still improving a lot, but if we ever want to win Paris-Roubaix then we need an uber rider! I’ll stay on the lookout!
Other riders
I haven’t mentioned the following:
Tony Martin, Joost Posthuma, Adam Hansen
All 3 are decent time trialists and are good all-round domestiques. In addition, the likes of Zabriskie and Wiggins are vital for Team Time Trials, so we are well equipped for the TT and domestique side of life.
Anticipated needs
To sum up then, we have identified that our primary need is for a couple of decent sprinters, with sprint stats of about 75-79, to ride as 2nd lead out men for our big 4 sprinters.
Secondary needs are for a cobble leader (should we decide to prioritise the 3 big cobble races) and another 1st Lead out man to supplement Pliuschin and Wiggins. Ideally, we could find one rider to do both jobs!
However, these plans never seem to go as anticipated, so we may end up sacking a couple of riders if someone amazing turns up on the radar! I'll keep you posted as to how signings go once we get into July B)
Edited by facmanpob on 17-02-2009 11:28
The Spanish TT course is a tough hilly 47km long route in the Alcobendas area north of Madrid.
The favourites have to be Gonzalez of SDV and our own Sergio Pardilla, both of whom are in form for the Tour de France.
Gonzalez goes off relatively early and sets the fastest time, a whopping 1’54” faster than Jose Ivan Guttierez of Astana!
Pardilla though is on top form today, sporting his World Champion’s jersey, and beats Gonzalez by a mere 4” to take the lead.
Nobody else can get close, and the only change to the podiums comes from Luis Leon Sanchez of Rabobank, who just gets in front of Gutierrez to take 3rd spot.
1 Sergio Pardilla Team Columbia 1h02'24
2 Héctor González Saunier Duval - Scott + 4
3 Luis León Sánchez Rabobank + 1'48
4 José Iván Gutiérrez Astana Cycling Team + 1'58
5 Iván Suárez Euskaltel - Euskadi + 2'15
6 Alberto Contador Astana Cycling Team + 2'35
7 Mikel Astarloza Astana Cycling Team + 2'38
8 Rubén Reig Contentpolis - Murcia + 2'46
9 Raúl Alarcón ELK Haus - Simplon + 2'50
10 Alejandro Valverde Caisse d'Epargne + 2'54
Italy
We don't have any Italian riders, so this was simmed automatically. Renzo Granzotto of Flaminia beat Comi and Leluso in a tight TT on a flat course
France
Our only French rider, Thomas Voeckler, is appaling at Time Trialing, so we simmed this.
Belgium
Although Sep Vanmarcke is a decent TT rider, his fitness is so low that he had no chance of a result here
The Dutch ITT championships is likely to be a battle between two Team Columbia riders, Lars Boom and Robert Gesink. Both are in good form after riding in the Giro and Dauphine/Tour de Suisse, and should do well
Remco Broers of Rabobank sets off first, and posts a very good time!
Boom is only 2 seconds faster at the first split!
Boom is fastest at the moment, and crosses the line 9" quicker than Broers
Gesink is one of the last riders to set off, and matches Boom's pace. Who will be fastest?
Gesink has the power to keep his speed for longer, and wins!
1 Robert Gesink Team Columbia 49'14
2 Lars Boom Team Columbia + 17
3 Remco Broers Rabobank + 26
4 Bjorn Hoeben Perutnina Ptuj + 52
5 Piet Rooijakkers Skil - Shimano + 54
6 Ben Van der Kooi Rabobank + 55
7 Albert Timmer Skil - Shimano + 1'04
8 Martijn Maaskant Liquigas + 1'08
9 Niki Terpstra Perutnina Ptuj + 1'09
10 Jos Van Emden Preti Mangimi - Prisma Stufe + 1'16
USA
We simmed this as since Levi's stats have declined with age, there really is no-one to challenge Dave Z! (To illustrate the point, Dave Z's fitness was at 55, whilst John Devines was at 90!!! )
1 David Zabriskie Team Columbia 45'19
2 John Devine Team Columbia + 13
3 Danny Pate PSK Whirlpool - Author + 40
4 Tom Zirbel Rock Racing + 1'06
5 Taylor Phinney Team CSC Saxo Bank + 1'20
6 Levi Leipheimer Team Garmin - Chipotle powered by H30 + 1'35
7 Christian Vandevelde Astana Cycling Team + 2'03
8 Jeff Louder BMC Racing Team + 2'11
9 Mark Sackville Quick·Step + 2'25
10 Jacob Rosenbarger Amore e Vita - McDonald's + 2'28
Germany
Again, we simmed this, as Linus Gerdemann's fitness is very low - he is planning his season around the Vuelta!
1 Andreas Klöden Agritubel 42'20
2 Stefan Schumacher Agritubel + 40
3 Thomas Wagner Toyota - United Pro Cycling Team s.t.
4 Artjom Grafenstein Team CSC Saxo Bank + 44
5 Markus Reich Team 3C Gruppe + 56 6 Linus Gerdemann Team Columbia + 1'00
7 Moritz Mainzer Team Kuota - Senges + 1'23 8 Tony Martin Team Columbia + 1'28
9 Marcel Kittel Thüringer Energie Team + 1'43
10 Yannick Maus Team Kuota - Senges + 1'53
Edited by facmanpob on 17-02-2009 15:37
Great story, and if you sign Blythe don't expect him too improve anymore, he stopped at 79 on my game.
Macquet wrote:
"We all know that wasn't the real footage of the Worlds anyway. That was just the staged footage to perpetuate the coverup that it was actually Vinokourov that won the race."
Pardilla will use the World Champion's jersey until October, and then the Spanish one after that (assuming he doesn't win at the worlds again!)
Good tip regarding Blythe. He wants to be a Protected rider on 40k a season! So I've offered him Luxury status on 20k a year - we'll see how much he laughs at my offer!
I've also offered Eisel a contract.
Edited by facmanpob on 18-02-2009 09:30
This was the championship we had the best hope for, with Pardilla and defending champion Blanco in good form. But it was not to be, as Samuel Sanchez blazed away with a lap to go to take the win.
Belgium
Our next best hope was with Kobe Vanoverschelde in the Belgian Championship. Unfortunately, Steve Schets took his 17th win of the season ahead of Vano and Tom Boonen to secure the victory in a sprint finish!
Netherlands
Robert Gesink and Lars Boom rode well for us in this race, but with only 3 riders we were unable to pull the break back in. Rabobank, with 8 riders, should have been doing the work, but didn't! Gesink's last gasp attack pulled back some of the defecit but not enough!
Germany
Linus Gerdemann has had good success in past year's, but with him focusing on the Vuelta his form wasn't good. Still, he managed a creditable 6th place.
Italy
No riders for us in this race!
Denmark
Again, no riders for us in this one either, won by Philip Nielsen in a sprint!
Russia
Again, Columbia had no interest here!
Colombia
Or here....
Czech Republic
Frantisek Rabon rode to 9th place in this race, in which the biggest surprise was that Kreuziger didn't win!
France
Defending champion Thomas Voeckler was obviously tired out by the Giro, and just missed out on a top 10 placing
Poland
no interest here for Columbia...
Portugal
60km/hr winds ripped this race apart by the seams, and Tiago Machado, riding without any support, was leading with 20km to ride. Unfortunately, he ran out of energy, and was passed by a lot of riders in the last 15km
Switzerland
Quennoz came home in a creditable 13th place, considering how bad he is at climbing! Surprisingly, Cancellara only managed 10th!
Ukraine
A breakaway rider took this championship, but we were disappointed that Popobvych, who won this last year, couldn't do better than 7th.
USA
After winning the US TT, we rested our main riders, as the sprint finish wouldn't be to their liking.
Considering that we had defending Champions in the French, Spanish, Ukrainian and German championships, to not get higher than 3rd place in any race was very disappointing......
Still, we did well in the Time Trials (and won the Aussie championships at the start of the year!)
Meanwhile, Carlos Sastre won the Dauphine and looks like he will make a play for the TdF too!
