Stage 4 Last chance for Visconti to get his victory in Portugal. He has been strong the last tree days, but hasn´t quite been able to get the victory we all hope for.
As he is not a good TT rider, he will give it all today to get some seconds on the rest of the favorites.
Many riders wanted to get in a breakaway this morning, the time differences are small, so a winning breakaway can get you in a great position before the finishing TT.
Marcato managed to get into the successful breakaway together with 8 other riders. In the main bunch Visconti was feeling good and saving energy for the finish.
It went very fast the last 30 k. Sanchez was pulling the pack for Anton and the breakaway was wheeled in, but in the short uphill finish, no one could keep up with Visconty! Job well done, after beeing close several times.
Before the 16 k TT, Visconti sits in 2nd, 57 seconds behind Martin, But there are about 20 riders less than 30 seconds behind, so the TT will decide. Hopefully Visconty will do a good TT and don´t loss to many places.
Stage 5 16 k long, with two hills, how well can Visconti ride?
Zabriskie rode amazing and caught Mori from Lampre with a minute and a half, who can beat him today?
Devolder had the best time at the first check-point, but in the end he finished 7 seconds behind. How can Visconti defend himself against these strong performances?
Well, in the endVisconti ended up 15th on the stage and lost 51 seconds. He lost his podium place, but after a respectable TT he ended up in a nice 4th in the GC, he gave it all today, but The TT specialist just went to fast.
But he scored a nice win in the Points classification, and were able to get some important podium time, which our sponsor really appreciated!
As we were to focused on Visconti and his win yesterday, we completely forgot to mention that Marcato came out on top of the Mountain classification, more podium time!
A very good week for us in Portugal, in competition with many Pro-Tour teams. Hopefully we showed that our team is worthy a wild card in March big event; Tirreno-Adriatico, but we are still waiting for an answer to our application.
Next up will be the Giro de Sardegna starting in a few days time.
(PS; Sorry for the incorrect names for some of the riders and teams, but I started my career with the Original DB, and don´t want to restart it now, so we will just have to accept it for now.)
This week our team is participating in the Giro de Sardegna on Sardinia. After a good performance last week in Portugal, its good to be back on home turf in Italy.
Hopefully we can continue our promising season so far with a victory or two on Sardinia.
Visconti will lead the team, and will be accompanied by most of the squad from Portugal. The young climber Maschiarelli will give his season debut in this race, but will only do the race as a workout to get into shape.
The stages on Sardinia is pretty flat, so we expect a few mass sprints.
Stage 1 Flat at the end of the race, looks like it will end up in a sprint finish. Petacchi and Napolitano are the ones we will keep an extra eye on.
Santaromita did a good job getting into today´s break, and our guys could take it easy in the main bunch.
The breakaway was caught 20 k before the finish. There was a strong wind from the side during the last part of the race, and a tough fight for the positions. In the end about 70 riders where fighting for the victory. With 4 k to go Visconti found himself at the very front of the group. He is wearing a white shirt for the day, as he is the best ranked rider on the Continental tour.
Visconti started the sprint from the front in the gentle uphill finish. Only Murn from Adria Mobil could get Visconti´s wheel, and the with 1 k to go they were side by side.
In the end Murn had the most speed, and took the win.
A bitter sweet feeling to loose the sprint in the last meters, but to beat sprinters like Petacchi and Napolitano in a finish like this gives a moral boost!
Top 5
1) Uros Murn – Adria Mobil
2) Giovanni Visconti – Saeco
3) Frederic Amorison - Landbouwcrediet
4) Alessandro Petacchi - Lampre
5) Enrico Rossi – Ceramica Flavinia
This morning we received the great news, we are invited to Tirreno-Adriatico. The race starts the 10th of March, in two weeks time, and will be our main target for March month. Visconti is proving great form on Sardinia these days, and is psyched to get the chance in a Protour event.
The toughest stage on Sardinia. Visconti is one of the favorites for the GC, and this will be the key stage.
A break got 7 minutes early in the stage, but together with Adria Mobil we were able to close in on them, and into the last hill we were only a minute behind, when Garzelli launched a surprise attack. He was followed by Karsten Kroon from BMC and Eros Capecchi from Footon-Cervetto-Fuji.
Visconti decided to stay in the pack, and get his team catch the escapees. On the top of the hill with about 40 k to go Kroon was alone in the front, while Visconti was trying to bridge the escapees and had launched an attack form the main group.
Visconti caught Garzelli and Capecchi, and was now chasing Kroon. He had to do much of work himself, and Kroon was gradually increasing his lead to almost 2 minutes, and the situation felt a little hopeless.
In the end the group worked better together and was able to keep Kroon´s advantage around two minutes. The peloton was even 2 minutes behind Visconti´s group.
Kroon took home the stage in the end, after a magnificent ride, which probably decided the GC.
Visconti took the sprint for 2nd, around 2 minutes behind Kroon.
The GC seems kind of settled now, after Kroon´s strong ride. Our team made the wrong call not following Kroon immediately, but he might have been to strong anyway.
Top 5 GC after stage 2
1) Karsten Kroon – BMC
2) Giovanni Visconti – Saeco +2.16
3) Eros Capecchi – Footon + 2.45
4) Stafano Garzelli + 2.53
5) Uros Murn – Adria Mobil + 4.31
Visconti took over the Green point jersey today, he also rode in it today, after his second place yesterday, because Murn wore the yellow jersey.
Flat stage, with a hill 10 k from the finish. Nice place for an attack, but it will be hard to get back time from Kroon.
A group of 12 riders got away and got a solid lead to the peloton. In the peloton BMC were keeping the pace, but since the best placed rider in the break was several minutes behind in the GC, they didn´t seem to interested in catching the group. We decided to take part in the chase, since the finish seemed like a good one for Visconti.
In the last hill Visconti attacked and got away from the peloton, but the group of 12 riders were ahead, so the chance for a stage victory was gone. We still figured that it was an opportunity to get some time back from Kroon.
Enrico Peruffo from the Carmiooro NGC team won the stage, Visconti finished 2.18 behind in 13th, but only got a few seconds to the peloton.
Visconti is still the leader in the point competition, and is now 1.51 behind Kroon in the GC
Top 5 GC after stage 3
1) Karsten Kroon – BMC
2) Giovanni Visconti – Saeco + 1.51
3) Eros Capecchi – Footon + 2.45
4) Stafano Garzelli - Acqua & Sapone + 2.53
Uros Murn – Adria Mobil + 4.31
Seems like the last chance to chance the GC, but the differences are quite big, so its seems difficult to improve Visconti`s 2nd position. Visconti definitly want to try to attack, and the last hill seems like the best chance for a succesfull attack.
Over the first hill with 60 k to go Machiarelli was leading the pack, 3 min behind a group of 5 riders.
Marcato sat the speed the first kilometers of the hill, Visconti took over, and over the top with 40 k to go he and Garzelli had opened up a gap to; Capecchi (15 sec) and Kroon in the peloton (45 sec) with remnants of the breakaway group in between.
In the downhill it all came together again, and Visconti decided to save energy for the sprint.
In the sprint Petacchi proved far to strong, but again Visconti got a nice second place.
Visconti is now 1.39 behind in the GC, and holds a lead by 16 points in the point classification were Petacchi is number two.
Top 5 GC
1) Karsten Kroon – BMC
2) Giovanni Visconti – Saeco + 1.39
3) Eros Capecchi – Footon + 2.45
4) Stafano Garzelli – Aqua & Sapone + 2.53
5) Uros Murn – Adria Mobil + 4.31
The final stage into Cagliari is a flat one. The goal will be to defend our second position in the overall, and the point jersey.
Masciarelli did not start the stage as he is traveling to Switzerland to lead our team in Lugano.
The two last riders from an early break got caught 17 k before the finish, will it be a mass sprint?
Mass sprint indeed, Visconti did a terrible sprint and ended up 21st and lost his lead in the point classification. Hopefully it was just a bad day, because we need him in shape for the upcoming events (sprint photo got lost, therefore only the top 10 ranking).
The GC; The Point classification;
A good week on Sardinia is over, we scored some valuable Continental Tour points, but with three second places on stages, and second in the GC, it feels like the victory was missing.
Next up for the team is the Trofeo di Lugano tomorrow.
Today Saeco took the trip to the south of Switzerland, just one hour north of Milan to participate in the GP di Lugano.
Francesco Masciarelli arrived from Sardinia 2 days ago, and will be our leader today.
The race takes plasce in the hilly countryside around Lugano.
With this strong opposition it will be difficult to make any good result in this race. Masciarelli started racing last week, so we dont know how well his fitness is, compared to the favorites.
With 80 k to go Masciarelli was feeling good in the front of the peloton, with Lampre setting the pace. A group with 12 rider containing a strong rider like Voigt were 4 min ahead. We were a little worried if we would ever catch the group. Since Masciarellis helpers couldn´t really contribute with the pace setting in the long hills around Lugano, we just had to wait, and hope that the strongest teams in the peloton would take the responsibility.
Karpets was in the early break, and was able get the Victory right in front of the sprinting group of favorites.
Masciarelli struggled on the last hill, and could`t follow Basso and the other favorites, he sprinted in to a 16th place.
Maschiarelli was satisfied with his effort today, he didn`t have the extra gear in the last hill, but his form is improving, and when we reach Tirreno-Adriatico he hopes to be in top shape.
Top 5
Vladimir Karpets - Catyoucha
Ivan Basso - Liquigas
Ruslan Pydgornyy – ISD Neri
David Arroyo – Caisse DÉpargne
Michael Albasini – HTC Columbia
February is gone, and we are entering March month. February was definitely a good month for us, we were able to score our first win this season. Visconti rode into lots of top 10 placings and was consistent throughout the first month of racing.
The individual and team continental tour ranking as of the first of March; Visconti is leading the Continental tour, good job! In the team ranking our team is currently number 4. It will be important to sustain our position among the leading teams on the Continental tour in order to receive invites to Pro Tour races, and especially the Giro de Italia which is our main goal this season.
A list over the most succesfull riders so far this season; This is the races planed for March month;
A couple of days ago we also came to agreement with both Pozzovio and Visconti to extend their contracts for another season, great news!
Because of our stable economical situation, we were also able to hire a legendary Swiss coach to take care of our young riders.
Next up will be Monte Paschi Eroica on the 6th of March. Edited by diasdagoberto on 05-03-2011 14:20
A pretty new race on the calendar, held in the heart of Tuscany, around the city of Siena. A hilly classic with more than 70 k on gravel road section, Thomas Lovkvist won the 2009 edition. Our lineup for this race will be the same as the one later this week in Tirreno-Adriatico.
Our team is based out of Tuscany, so it will be cool to do a race on the same roads where many of the riders do some of their training.
The last 70 k will be the decisive for the race, our team will keep any breakaway within reach. And hopefully our riders will be the strongest in the end.
Marcato and Masciarelli did a great job controlling the peloton on the narrow roads.
It ended up in a close sprint at the end between 20 rider, Visconti had a good position, but only got 4th , what a shame! after all the effort our team put down. (lost my sprint photo, sorry..)
Tirreno-Adriatico
This is the biggest race for our team so far this season, and one of our main goals this year.
Many of the best riders in the world are here, and this will be the first chance to show what our team is made of.
From a look at the 7 stages this year, all of them are in hilly terrain. There is no TT this year, and the hardest stage will be the 5th stage with a real mountain pass; Forca di Presta.
Visconti is our captain for this race and will receive strong support in the tough stages from Francesco Masciarelli.
Our target will be to bring home a stage victory. And to get Visconti on the podium in the GC. With the form Visconti is showing these days, both should be possible with some hard work and a little luck.
Stage 1 A hill a few k before the finish, a likable finish for Visconti.
Ready for the start on the first stage.
It went really fast the whole day, and it was not even worth trying to get away. Over the last hill Visconti was in front of the peloton with good legs, ready for the sprint.
Freire was really strong in the sprint, but Visconti managed a nice 4th in the strong competition.
Again it seems like a stage for Freire, I think he is the one to beat today. 12 Rider group leading by 4 minutes, but Rabobank seems to have good control on the break.
Erviti got caught in the closing kilometers, the last survivor fro the 12 man group.
Marcato brought Visconti in a fantastic position, can he do it today?
Today he had no chance, Cavendish flew by him, and took the stage! Visconti in 7th.
242 kilometers finishing in a short steep uphill, this will be the stage for the ones who want to take home the GC. Our team is still hunting a stage win.
I guess Rabobank got tired of controlling the race, so Nuyens attacked early in the stage, and built up a 9 minute lead. He later was joined by Armtrong, Arrieta and Goss. This group seemed dangerous, so our team started chasing in the peloton.
Vaugrenard(FDJ) tried to bridge the leading group, but now the peloton were only 4 min behind, with 55k left of the race. After a solid effort by Santaromita and Facci.
Frank Schleck attacked with 20 k to go, Basso and Cunego were chasing him, Visconti decided to stay calm.
Basso and Vinokourov got away on the penultimate climb, with the second group tailing 20 seconds behind, Visconti struggled on the last climb, but kept himself in the second group, and was trying to conserve energy for the final ascent.
In the end Visconti got 16th and lost 59 seconds, he is now 1.05 behind overall, disappointing and the podium seems impossible now.
