Stage 5 is a mountain stage, and Roche and Rujano are again amongst the favourites to prevail today.
The fans have obviously taken Nic Roche to their hearts (either that or a sizeable Irish contingent is on holiday here!). We don’t put anyone in the BOTD, and are content to reel it in with about 25km to ride
16km to ride, and Barbosa attacks out of the peloton at the base of the final hill.
Our team goes full gas to reel him in, and in the last couple of km, when it becomes clear that we won’t pull him back, Roche and Rujano attack to catch him. But Barbosa hangs on for the stage win – that’s Roche and Rujano behind sprinting to catch up!
Barbosa regains half a minute on our two leaders, and jumps past Roche in the GC
The top 5 looks like this with only 2 flat stages to ride, but with time bonuses available its still anyone’s race - especially as Barbosa won the first stage in a bunch sprint!!!!
Although its classified as a flat stage, you can see that the profile looks a bit hilly, so although that will suit our riders it will also suit Barbosa!
A small group goes away, and Chadwick is the highest placed rider at 10 minutes back – no threat to the GC. There are also no mountain sprints today so Rujano doesn’t have to worry about defending his lead in the competition.
With the break several minutes clear, we take the time to get some nice helicopter shots of the circuit.
Barbosa is looking strong today, and as we get to the final few km Roche attacks to defend Rujano’s jersey. Barbosa’s team come to the front to take up the chase, but Roche blasts past the remnants of the break with a commanding lead!
And he holds on to take the win, his second of the race! More importantly, he gains 20” on the pack. With a 10” time bonus this puts him into the overall lead for the GC!
Stage
1 Nicolas Roche Credit Agricole 2h37'15
2 Grega Bole Adria Mobil + 20
3 Danilo Hondo PSK Whirlpool - Author s.t.
4 Cândido Barbosa Palmeiras Resort / Prio s.t.
5 Olivier Pardini Verandas Willems s.t.
6 Igor Abakoumov ISD - Neri s.t.
7 Robert Radosz DHL - Author s.t.
8 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team Capinordic s.t.
9 Oleg Chuzhda Contentpolis - Ampo s.t.
10 Glen Alan Chadwick Rock Racing s.t.
GC
1 Nicolas Roche Credit Agricole 20h10'44
2 José Rujano Credit Agricole + 1
3 Cândido Barbosa Palmeiras Resort / Prio + 18
4 David Cañada Fuji - Servetto + 2'37
5 Óscar Sevilla Rock Racing + 4'37
Points
1 Cândido Barbosa Palmeiras Resort / Prio 14 116
2 Nicolas Roche Credit Agricole 25 110
3 José Rujano Credit Agricole 0 69
4 David Cañada Fuji - Servetto 0 52
5 Grega Bole Adria Mobil 20 40
Stage 7, the final day of the race, and we have some jerseys to defend! Rujano holds the mountain classification, but needs a few more points to make himself secure, as there are a lot of points on offer today. Roche holds the overall and Young Rider’s jerseys after a magnificent solo effort yesterday.
We control the bunch until the first climb, and Rujano attacks out to take the KOM sprint. He’s now unassailable in the Mountain jersey!
A 9-man break gets away after the sprint, and we let them go, With 30km to ride, it becomes clear that although the peloton is bringing them back in, one of the breakaway riders will get the stage win. This is great for us, as it means that even if Barbosa wins the bunch sprint (which is likely) he won't get any time bonuses. All we have to do is stop him breaking away
And on the line its Oleg Chuzhda of Contentpolis-Ampo who takes the win. All we need to do is shadow Barbosa!
And we do! Barbosa wins the bunch sprint, with Roche on his wheel! Good job we let the breakaway take the stage win!
And Credit Agricole takes the Race win!
Roche takes the biggest win of his career, and puts to rest the bogey of 'not quite winning' which has dogged his career so far. Not only that, but he’ll wear the Continental Tour points leader jersey in his next race!
A wonderful return to racing for Credit Agricole, even if it was only the Tour de San Luis!
Stage
1 Oleg Chuzhda Contentpolis - Ampo 4h01'16
2 Beñat Intxausti Fuji - Servetto s.t.
3 Rasmus Guldhammer Team Capinordic s.t.
4 Bastiaan Giling Team Designa Køkken s.t.
5 Robert Lea OUCH presented by Maxxis s.t.
6 Stefan Parinussa Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse s.t.
7 Bartosz Huzarski ISD - Neri s.t.
8 Pirmin Lang Atlas - Romer's Hausbäckerei s.t.
9 Glen Alan Chadwick Rock Racing s.t.
10 Cândido Barbosa Palmeiras Resort / Prio + 32 11 Nicolas Roche Credit Agricole s.t.
12 Grega Bole Adria Mobil s.t.
GC
1 Nicolas Roche Credit Agricole 24h12'32
2 José Rujano Credit Agricole + 1
3 Cândido Barbosa Palmeiras Resort / Prio + 18
4 David Cañada Fuji - Servetto + 2'37
5 Óscar Sevilla Rock Racing + 4'37
6 Oliver Zaugg Liquigas s.t.
7 Ruslan Pidgornyy ISD - Neri + 4'43
8 Miguel Rubiano Centri della Calzatura + 5'14
9 Vladimir Miholjevic Liquigas + 5'44
10 José Herrada Contentpolis - Ampo + 6'08
Points
1 Cândido Barbosa Palmeiras Resort / Prio 6 122 2 Nicolas Roche Credit Agricole 5 115
3 José Rujano Credit Agricole 0 69
4 David Cañada Fuji - Servetto 0 52
5 Grega Bole Adria Mobil 4 44
Mountain
1 José Rujano Credit Agricole 5 37
2 Nicolas Roche Credit Agricole 0 24
3 Cândido Barbosa Palmeiras Resort / Prio 0 23
4 Glen Alan Chadwick Rock Racing 18 23 5 Travis Meyer Credit Agricole 0 22
Overall, we can be very proud of our achievements so far. OK, so the Tour de San Luis is hardly the biggest race in the world, it clashes with a Pro-Tour race, and is right at the beginning of the season when half the pro riders won’t begin competing for 2 more months! Nevertheless, we sent a strong and motivated team, and it has paid off – 4 stage wins for 3 different riders, and 3 individual competitions won as well as the Team competition!
In other news, Allan Davis won 4 stages of his home race, the Tour Down Under, but it was Rabon of Columbia, by winning the Willunga Hill stage, who takes the overall.
That’s the last racing for January, and we can begin to look forward to next month.
Allan Davis of Quickstep wins the Rider of the Month competition, with our own Travis Meyer named as best young rider
February will be busy for us, as we will be competing in the Tour of Qatar, GP Cycliste La Marseillaise, Etoile de Besseges and the Tour Mediterranean to name but a few.
We will get to see most of our 20-man squad riding, including all of our top TTers as they try to win the TTT in the Tour of Qatar and Tour Mediterranean. Nic Roche will be going for La Marseillaise amongst other things.
First though, in what will be a regular slot, we will spend a little time talking about our squad.......
The Leaders
Nicolas Roche
Nicolas Roche, born in 1984, is an Irish Pro-rider who is developing into a good all-round stage racer. His 13th place in the 2008 Vuelta represented a personal high for him last year, and he cemented that GC place with 3 top-10 and 10 top-20 stage finishes in the race. He takes that excellent result forward into his 3rd season with Credit Agricole, but now he is the undisputed Team Leader in the classics and shorter stage races. With more training under the tutelage of Roger Legeay, he has the ability to progress into a top-rate hilly classics rider, and a decent tour racer.
(In real life, following on from his 13th spot in the 2008 Vuelta, he achieved 23rd place in this year’s Tour de France, including 5 top-10 stage finishes – 3 in the last week – I think demonstrating that he could, if given the opportunity, develop into a top-10 Grand Tour rider)
Christophe Le Mevel
Christophe, born in 1980, is our Team Leader for major stage races. He has won a stage in a Grand Tour (Stage 16 of the 2005 Giro), and finished 26th in the GC for the Giro in that year, and 40th place in the 2008 Tour. He has shown a steady improvement in his climbing ability over the last year or so, and if that improves he could do well this year. If he wants to compete at the highest level, however, he must improve his TT ability.
(In real life – 10th place in this year’s Tour de France, including finishing less than 2 minutes behind Contador and Schleck on the Ventoux represents a great achievement for Le Mevel!)
Jose Rujano
Jose Rujano, born in 1982, is a Venezuelan climber who has had a fairly up-and-down career! 3rd place in the 2005 Giro, including winning the Mountain competition, was followed by a lack of motivation and a bout of mononucleosis. We are hoping that a renewed passion for the sport will encourage him to regain his climbing form , and allow him to succeed in the high mountains later in the season.
(In real life, 2009 was a good year for Rujano, winning the Vuelta a Colombia and the Vuelta a Venezuela, and ISD are hoping he will do well in the 2010 Giro)
That concludes the presentation of our Leaders. Next up, February's racing begins.......
As you can see, this route will suit my riders perfectly – hilly, but not too steep, with a sharp uphill sprint at the finish…..anyone say Nicolas Roche for the win?
Unfortunately, we proved today that our team is still finding its feet! A massive break formed, and despite the best efforts of the team we just couldn’t bring it back. Roche and Rujano attacked out of the pack to try to catch them up in the last 10km, but ran out of road and could only finish a very disappointing 23rd and 24th.
Hmmmmm, who was our DS in that race? I think we might have to sack him!
PS I did play this in 3D, it was just so depressing a result that I couldn't being myself to post any of the screenshots!
And we move onto the Tour of Qatar. Is there any more pointless race in the calendar? Lots of sand, lots of wind, and lots of riders cursing their team management!
However, it is very good training for racing in northern Europe, and dealing with crosswinds, and it does have a Team Time Trial…..aha! We could win this race! If we win the TTT, and stay up in all of the breaks, we have a shot of hanging on to the leaders jersey!
Clearly then, we will be sending our best time trialists……
There is no clear leader in our team, although Bodrogi could do well in the GC. Alternatively, Bobridge and Meyer have good fitness at the moment and also have a chance.
Stage 1 12km TTT
Here we go! Its flat, flat, flat!
ISD are the first team off, and set a very fast time, which not even Garmin or Astana can beat
Only Rabobank can beat them, and as we near the end its down to Topsport Vlaanderen to take the lead in a great time of 15’ 14”.
One of the Skil-Shimano riders is shown here, for no other reason than I think that this is the most beautifully made TT bike in the db!
And finally we are off, and Bodrogi leads the team out at full gas!
A lovely shot from the team car with Gusev on the back of the train in his National Champions jersey!
We show off our jerseys for the sponsors early on in the race – a bit of publicity at the front of the peloton never hurt anyone!
The break goes away, and we put a rider in it – this time it’s David McCann
Strong riding by the peloton closes down the break with 20km to ride
As the sprint begins Jack Bobridge is being led out by Peraud and Malori, as he had the best daily form. He gets onto Vitaly Buts’s wheel, and things are looking good!
Buts of Lampre has the lead, but Del Nero and Leezer are closing down on either side of him
He passes Buts, but the other riders are stronger in the sprint – Del Nero takes the win from Leezer of Rabobank
Meyer still leads the race, and we are in a very strong position in the GC, but Leezer and Del Nero have moved close on the leaderboard.
This is a pretty straightforward French stage race, with mostly flat stages and one hilly stage. We’re sending a strong squad to support Nic Roche, who, fresh from his win in Argentina, will look to get some good stage finishes, and possibly win the hilly stage. Some of our younger riders will have their first outings as professionals, and will want to gain some experience in pro ranks before they attempt anything dramatic!
Stage 1
Stage 1 is totally flat, with no intermediate sprints, and I’m guessing that it will end with a bunch sprint!
And they’re off. Nic Roche shows off his Continental Tour leader’s jersey!
A break of 16 is allowed a couple of minutes advantage in the strong winds
Quickstep pull them back in, as they’ve brought Tommeke and Allan Davis, fresh from his 4 stage wins in the TdU
As the sprint starts, however, its all Skil-Shimano, as Van Hummel gets a good lead-out. Roche tags nicely on to his wheel. Where are Quickstep?
Round the final turn and its all over the place! Roche is in the mix with Van Hummel, Mondory of AG2R is coming round the outside, and the Quickstep boys are closing in!
It’s the closing few metres, and Mondory has the edge over Roche. Tom Boonen has blasted through the middle and is being hotly pursued by his teammates De Jongh and Davis!
Soooooo close on the line! But Mondory holds on for AG2R, Boonen takes 2nd, with Roche scraping a 3rd place ahead of De Jongh.
Great sprint! But if Quickstep had been closer at the start of the sprint there’s no doubt that they could have taken a 1-2-3!
beagle wrote:
it would be fine to post GC from Qatar too
Your wish is my command
Tour of Qatar Stage 4
Oh my God, the most boring stage ever in the history of the world ever! Proof, if proof be need be, that the Tour of Qatar is rubbish…..although I shouldn’t complain too much, after all, we are leading the race!
No wind, flat stage, breakaway, gets caught sprint finish! Rossi of Ceramica wins the stage – well done!
No change on the leaderboard
Tom Leezer is a worry for me, as he is a far better sprinter than any of my team, and a couple of podiums or a stage victory would give him the lead in the GC!
Next up, I'll finish off the Tour of Qatar reporting, and see some more exciting racing at the Etoile de Besseges! Edited by facmanpob on 04-11-2009 15:53
I made a custom team, and then changed all of the jerseys by copying them over from my old PCM08 folder. The other way of doing it would be to edit the database prior to starting a career, and the team would appear in the main career team choice page.
with this squad you are doing better than old Credit Agricole 
– that’s Roche and Rujano behind sprinting to catch up!
