@all: Thanks for the comments. About the smaller races, I think I'll just try some different ways and see what suits me best. It'll probably also depend on the attractiveness of the race.
But first of all, here's the last stage:
-------------------
24.01.2011
Tour Down Under: Stage 6
The Adelaide City Council Circuit will bring the decision who will win the first important race of the year. Petacchi is in a good shape and his initial position could hardly be better. Let's bring it home!
The short stage (90km) appealed to lots of riders who tried to break away, the first kilometres were really chaotic. Eventually, 19 men came clear. The best one in the GC was Rabobank's Tom Leezer, 3'05'' back. A breakaway win with lesser advance would be perfect for us, as no other sprinter could take bonus seconds, so we didn't do anything in the pack.
But many teams seemed to be interested in a mass sprint and held the pace high. When the preperations began, the escapees were almost caught. Thus, every stage will be finished in a mass sprint.
The sprint began, and Cofidis' Leonardo Duque led his captain Samuel Dumoulin in front. Hondo didn't do the best job and placed Petacchi a couple of meters behind (on the right). Matt Goss was on his wheel while Boonen followed Heinrich Haussler on the other side of the road.
Soon, Petacchi, wearing his golden leader's jersey, changed the side and was now behind Finetto (LIQ) and the leading Dumoulin. Goss was still behind him, Boonen was blocked a little behind the two Garmin riders.
Petacchi was faster than Finetto and tried to overtake him. One row further behind, Goss, Haussler, Joaquim Rojas (MOV) and Matti Breschel (RAB) (left to right) were chasing the leaders nearly equally fast. Dumoulin seemed to be the certain winner as his advance was allready pretty high.
He could celebrate the first victory of a continental team during this Tour Down Under! But far more important: Petacchi took his fourth podium and thus secured his overall win! Behind him, Finetto did surprisingly good and scored the best result for Liquigas in this race. In a photo finish, Haussler was ranked 5th behind Matthew Goss and in front of Joaquim Rojas.
In my opinion, two riders can be singled out of the peloton: First, of course, the overall winner, Alessandro Petacchi! No other rider was so constantly sucessful. A stage win, three further podium postions and two fifth places: The overall victory is more than deserved.
The second rider that surprised me positively was Cofidis' Samuel Dumoulin. A stage win and a third place were kind of unexpected, bringing the conti team a great third overall.
Furthermore, Sky did very well. Two riders in the Top 10 and the 1-2 victory on the fifth stage are top results.
For Lampre, Danilo Hondo is worth a remark. He mostly did a nice job leading out Alessandro and contributed fundamentally to our tour's highlight, the double victory on stage four. His Top 10 ranking is the dot on the i on our performance in Australia.
As it is still very early in the season, it's hard to tell who's a real disappointment, as the shape can differ a lot. One that I've nevertheless expected more of is Tom Boonen. With his win in stage 1, he proved to be in decent shape, but then he was never on the podium again. A 5th place isn't that bad though.
Again, for Lampre there is one to mention, too: Our planned lead-lead-out, Leonardo Bertagnolli was in a pretty bad early shape and was practically never of any use in a sprint train.
The tour for Lampre-ISD
Well, what can I say? It couldn't have been much better. Petacchi stood his ground against some of the top sprinters and took our first big victory in the season's first bigger race. As I mentioned earlier, Hondo completed a great team performance.
I'm looking forward to the season very optimistically.
Edited by cunego59 on 15-04-2011 18:00
@lluuiiggii: Thanks. Glad you like it.
@nielsinho: Let's hope so^^ here it is:
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Giro della Calabria
The race
The Giro della Calabria is the first Italian stage race this year. It's four stages contain two flat ones, a hilly one, and a mountain stage, interestingly it's the first one. Although it's not a mountain finish – a long descent leads towards the finish – the overall contenders will be defined on this stage.
The favorites
One of the top Grand-Tour riders starts his season today: Geox' Denis Menchov. On the paper, he's the one big favorite. Even with him in an average shape, none of the other riders could be able to hold a candle to him in the mountains. But again, it's still early in the season and we know exactly nothing about his shape.
Our own Simon Spilak is one of the secondary favorites. Having raced a couple of stages, he's allready in a decent form. Other good riders in the pack are Paolo Tiralongo (AST), Carlos Barredo (RAB), Sylvester Szmyd (LIQ), David Lopez (MOV) and Menchov's teammate David Blanco, among others. In general, there is a wide range of better average climbers, so it's hard to pick two or three favorites.
Our team
Our formation slightly differs from the one in Australia: Tour Down Under-Champion Alessandro Petacchi won't start here, therefore the Italians Manuele Mori and Marco Marzano – who sadly aren't in a good shape yet - will try to support our captain, Simon Spilak, who should be able to compete for the overall victory.
After being a nice lead-out in Australia, Danilo Hondo has now his chances to sprint for himself.
Simon Spilak Danilo Hondo Leonardo Bertagnolli Marco Marzano Manuele Mori Vitaliy Buts Vitali Kondrut
. . Balint Szeghalmi
30.01.2011
Giro della Calabria: Stage 1
The first stage is likely to be the decisive one. The favorites will have to show how strong they are that early. We're hoping for a good day for Simon Spilak as we aim for the overall victory.
The breakaway didn't succeed, and so we step right into action. Four of the favorites pass the mountain top together: Simon Spilak, Carlos Barredo (RAB), Yury Trofimov (KAT) and Denis Menchov (GEO).
A couple of seconds behind, Leonardo Bertagnolli managed to get into the second group of escapees. He's accompanied by Paolo Tiralongo (AST), Sylwester Szmyd (LIQ) and Brice Feillu (LEO).
On the decent, the groups joined each other and held an advance of circa 1:30 mins.
Three kilometres in front of the finish, Bertagnolli and Spilak attacked. Trofimov followed them, but seemed allready a little too far behind. What a fantastic start this could be...
… but obviously, I underestimated Trofimov. With an incredible speed, he rushed past Spilak. The photo finish had to decide...
… and unfortunatly, it was Trofimov!
Stage results
1
Yury Trofimov
Katusha Team
4h42'26
2
Leonardo Bertagnolli
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
3
Simon Spilak
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
4
Carlos Barredo
Rabobank
s.t.
5
Denis Menchov
Geox - TMC
s.t.
6
Brice Feillu
Leopard - Trek
s.t.
7
Paolo Tiralongo
Astana
s.t.
8
Sylwester Szmyd
Liquigas - Cannondale
s.t.
9
Mario Aerts
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 1'59
10
Andriy Grivko
Astana
s.t.
General results
1
Yury Trofimov
Katusha Team
4h42'16
2
Leonardo Bertagnolli
Lampre - ISD
+ 4
3
Simon Spilak
Lampre - ISD
+ 6
4
Carlos Barredo
Rabobank
+ 10
5
Denis Menchov
Geox - TMC
s.t.
6
Brice Feillu
Leopard - Trek
s.t.
7
Paolo Tiralongo
Astana
s.t.
8
Sylwester Szmyd
Liquigas - Cannondale
s.t.
9
Santo Anza
Vacansoleil - DMC
+ 2'07
10
Johan Coenen
Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
+ 2'08
It was a pitty that the final attack didn't succeed, nevertheless two places on the podium are pretty good. It seems that Trofimov will be our main rival, as none of the others countered our attack.
Edited by cunego59 on 16-04-2011 13:06
31.01.2011
Giro della Callabria: Stage 2
Today we're trying to get a victory with Danilo Hondo. This stage is very likely to end in a mass sprint and the concurrence isn't too big.
There were several groups of escapees splitted in front of the peloton, but they weren't successful so we skip directly to the sprint finish. Spilak and Bertagnolli led Hondo out.
Approaching the finish line, Hondo was fighting for the victory with two other sprinters: Assan Bazayev (Astana) and Farnese Vini's Oscar Gatto.
Hondo was in the wind a little too early, so Bazayev takes the win. But Hondo brought as another podium, and Bertagnolli finishes in the Top 10, which is a good result, too.
Stage result
1
Assan Bazayev
Astana
4h08'38
2
Oscar Gatto
Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli
s.t.
3
Danilo Hondo
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
4
Matteo Pelucchi
Geox - TMC
s.t.
5
John Degenkolb
HTC - Highroad
s.t.
6
Matteo Tosatto
Saxo Bank - Sungard
s.t.
7
Yury Trofimov
Katusha Team
s.t.
8
Igor Abakoumov
ISD Lampre - Continental
s.t.
9
Leonardo Bertagnolli
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
10
Carlos Barredo
Rabobank
s.t.
General classification
1
Yury Trofimov
Katusha Team
8h50'54
2
Leonardo Bertagnolli
Lampre - ISD
+ 3
3
Simon Spilak
Lampre - ISD
+ 6
4
Carlos Barredo
Rabobank
+ 10
5
Brice Feillu
Leopard - Trek
s.t.
6
Sylwester Szmyd
Liquigas - Cannondale
s.t.
7
Paolo Tiralongo
Astana
s.t.
8
Denis Menchov
Geox - TMC
s.t.
9
Santo Anza
Vacansoleil - DMC
+ 2'07
10
Johan Coenen
Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
+ 2'08
Bertagnolli got bonus second on the first intermediate sprint, thus coming closer to Trofimov in the GC. In addition to Hondo's third place, that makes it successful stage for us.
Edited by cunego59 on 16-04-2011 09:44
01.02.2011
Giro della Calabria: Stage 3
Today is the last chance for changes is the GC as tomorrow's stage is completely flat. With our riders on the places 2 and 3, we have a great initial position.
Four men form the break of the day: Endura's Wilkinson, the Italians Fumagelli (Miche) and Mirenda (Farnese Vini) and Belohvosciks, riding for the Austrian Vorarlberg team. They established a lead of 10 minutes with 100km to go, but they were caught during the hills at the end of the stage.
The first favorite to attack was Sylwester Szmyd (LIQ) at the bottom of the last climb, 8km to go. We sent Simon Spilak with him, Topsport Vlaanderen's Pieter Jacobs surprisingly countered as well.
Their lead was about half a minute when Katusha's leader Yury Trofimov decided to go after them. Most of the other favorites in the pack followed him, among them Leonardo Bertagnolli.
Spilak got rid of Jacobs and Szmyd and only two of the followers were able to catch up to him: Bertagnolli and Carlos Barredo. Rabobank has set the pace for nearly the entire stage, obviously not without a reason.
Barredo flew away and under the red kite, he had a solid advance over the two Lampre riders.
But they both recoverd a little, and with an enormous effort, they closed the gap. Barredo takes the stage win, but it's the one little bonus second from yesterday that brings us the overall lead!
I was too excited to see whether or not Barredo could establish a time gap, so I forgot to take a photo of the celebrating winner.
Stage result
1
Carlos Barredo
Rabobank
4h39'31
2
Simon Spilak
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
3
Leonardo Bertagnolli
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
4
Denis Menchov
Geox - TMC
+ 24
5
Emanuele Vona
Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli
s.t.
6
Brice Feillu
Leopard - Trek
s.t.
7
Eduard Vorganov
Katusha Team
s.t.
8
Matteo Carrara
Vacansoleil - DMC
s.t.
9
Yury Trofimov
Katusha Team
s.t.
10
Paolo Tiralongo
Astana
s.t.
General classification
1
Leonardo Bertagnolli
Lampre - ISD
13h30'24
2
Carlos Barredo
Rabobank
+ 1
3
Simon Spilak
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
4
Yury Trofimov
Katusha Team
+ 25
5
Brice Feillu
Leopard - Trek
+ 35
6
Denis Menchov
Geox - TMC
s.t.
7
Sylwester Szmyd
Liquigas - Cannondale
s.t.
8
Paolo Tiralongo
Astana
s.t.
9
Matteo Carrara
Vacansoleil - DMC
+ 2'34
10
Emanuele Vona
Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli
s.t.
Phew. That was a close thing. At first, I thought Barredo could hold his gap. And I don't know who would lead if Bertagnolli wouldn't have taken the bonus second on the last stage. As I don't expect Barredo to take any bonus seconds in tomorrow's flat stage, this should be our second stage race win this year!
02.02.2011
Giro della Calabria: Stage 4
Our goal today is a good sprint result with Danilo Hondo. Furthermore, we try to place Simon Spilak as good as possible in the final sprint, as I hope that a good place could let him overtake Carlos Barredo, who is at the same time.
Thanks to the effort of several teams, including our own, the escapees were caught early. The sprint preperations didn't work perfect for us, Spilak – in white, with Hondo on his wheel – was a little too far behind.
Soon, Hondo overtook his lead-out and was following stage-two-winner Bazayev (AST). Leopard's Davide Vigano was first with 1km to go.
Vigano makes it. Hondo with another good Podium and Spilak with an amazing 4th place. But Barredo oviously had similar plans like we did, which means that he finished 10th, thus keeping his second overall.
I was away from my laptop for a couple of minutes during the highlights. Then, the laptop shut down because of an update... So again, no photo of the victory, and more annoying, no photo of Bertagnolli's overall lead
Tops and flops
Once again, hard to decide. The four stage winners are certain to be content with their performances. Especially Trofimov's and Barredo's wins were brilliant.
As a team, Lampre was extraordinary.
On the negative side, Menchov was expected to bring in a little bit more than just a sixth place. Also, Movistar came to Calabria with a relatively strong squad, but they didn't do anything remarkable.
The tour for Lampre – ISD
Second stage race, second win. This is the great summary of our season start. In Italy, our performance was kind of weird. We were by far the most present team, we scored six podium places, but not a single stage victory. Nevertheless, Bertagnolli's overall win and Spilak's third make the Giro della Calabria a big succes for us.
----------------------
That has been a ful stage race report today. Was that too much (I'm refering to lluuiiggii's remark on page 1)? Because meanwhile, I'm a couple of posts ahead. Probably, during the week, it'll be fewer posts anyway. What do you think?
Great race for Lampre! Although there weren't stages wins, Lampre was indeed the most present team, and 6 podiums =O Not to mention 1st and 3rd in GC and the teams classement, awesome start to the season!
I thought this was very nice to read, even being a fast full race report, because all reports were short: 5 and 6 SSs for the mountain stages, 3 for both flat ones. Even with few screens, you told what happened greatly, at least imo =)
This story has barely reached the second page and is already between my favorites. Keep it up
@lluuiiggii: Still glad you like it I appreciate your comments.
About the length of the reports: The coverage will depend on the importance of the race. Minor conti races will be covered with much fewer photos and text than the Giro or the Tour, of course.
Monthly summary and probably the next stages are coming up tomorrow.
After the victory in Australia, Petacchi leads the Pro-Tour ranking. Hondo's Top-Ten place contributes to our lead in the team ranking.
Continental Tour Individual
1.
Cândido Barbosa
Tavira – Prio
176
2.
Bert De Waele
Landbouwkredit
80
3.
Bernardo Colex
Amore & Vita
67
After his overall and three stage wins in the Tour de San Luis, Portuguese Candido Barbosa leads the conti ranking. Bert De Waele won the Grand Prix de la Marseillaise, Bernardo Colex came in second in Argentina.
Usually, the winner of the Tour Down Under gets this award. This year as well. Timothy Roe is honoured for his 10th rank in the Australian championships. Don't ask me why this is more remarkable than e.g. Boasson Hagen's stage win in Australia, but the jury of this award often makes pretty strange decisions...
The month for Lampre – ISD
We really had a perfect kick-off for this season. Two overall wins, the individual and team lead in both ProTour- and CQ-Ranking.
Lampre-Rider of the month
Alessandro Petacchi Who else?
Disappointment of the month
none Yes. Indeed. Not a single rider really disappointed me in the first two races. After the Tour Down Under, Bertagnolli was a canditate for this „award“, but you can hardly be a disappointment when you win a stage race, which was exactly what he did in the Giro della Calabria.
Preview: February
Our February will be pretty boring. Here's a list of the races we'll participate in:
Hmm? You don't see any races? Oh, right. That's probably because we won't ride any in the next month. Next one will be Tour de Langkawi, which is our preperation start for the first big races in March and April.
@lluuiiggii: Barbosa won both mountain-top finishes (MO: 73) and the timetrial (TT: 72). Few starters had better attributes, so yes, a week startlist. Among the top 10 were the likes of Michael Rasmussen and Caja Rural's Javier Moreno (both 74 MO), but they're both weak time trialists. Plus, Barbosa seems to be in great shape in the early season, as you will see in the...:
-------------------
Monthly summary: February
Notable race results
Candido Barbosa is the first rider with more than one overall win so far. The first important cobbled race, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, is won by Sylvain Chavanel. Alexandre Vinokourov sets a first mark winning the GP di Lugano in front of Hesjedal and Voigt.
Barbosa really deserves this award. Gael Malacarne won the mountain jersey in the Etoile de Bessèges.
The month for Lampre – ISD
Well. I seem to be a prophet. Our february was indeed very boring.
Transfer rumours
It's only been February, still the rumour mill is buzzing allready. One could hear through the grapevine that two big names, whose contracts expire at the end of the season, are wooed by other teams. First of them being Pippo Pozzato, who has sparked the interest of Quick·Step. We weren't glad hearing that as we're also interested in him.
But far more interesting: Bjarne Riis seems to be working on a Saxo Bank-Comeback of Andy Schleck! Would his Leopard adventure be finished after one year? And is he really leaving his brother, Fränk?
We're looking forward to the things to come very curious.
Preview: March
In march, the season starts to get serious. Five ProTour-races take place in this month. For us, Michele Scarponi will start his season with the race to the sun, Paris – Nice. After a week of preperation in Malaysia, Cunego will be our captain for Tirreno-Adriatico as well as in Catalunya later on.
Between these two races, we'll have to challenge our first big goal of this season: Milan-San Remo. Petacchi proved to be able to triumph in Australia, we hope he'll continue like that.
Gent – Welvegem will be the kick-off for the serious cobble classics about a week after Milan – San Remo.
@lluuiiggii: I didn't make his stats
@mresuperstar: Thanks a lot.
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The race
This one-week stage race is located on the left of the two Malaysian islands, finishing with a criterium in the capital Kuala Lumpur. Six of the seven stages are nearly completely flat, only the 96km-long fifth stage has a mountain-top finish on the Genting Highlands. The winner of this stage is most likely to be the overall winner, if he doesn't lose time on the flat stages.
The favorites
The favorites are Italian. More precisely, they are Lampre riders. On the flat stages, Alessandro Petacchi is predicted to be superior. The second best sprinter is his lead-out, Danilo Hondo. So maybe, we'll be able to repeat the 1-2 from Tour Down Under stage four?
The range of good climbers is only slighly wider. The favorite is again a Lampre rider, Damiano Cunego. He's challenged by Radioshack's Tiago Machado and Yury Trofimov (Katusha), stage winner of the Giro della Calabria. In contrary to Cunego, the latter has allready proved a nice early shape, so probably he's the main man to look on.
Our team
We're here with a really strong squad, especially considering the relatively weak field. It is nearly the same as it will be in Tirreno-Adriatico a couple of days later. Our overall captain will be Damiano Cunego, supported by the likes of Daniele Pietropolli, Francesco Gavazzi and David Loosli, all of them have their season start in Asia.
Lots of victories in the flat stages should be doable, as our Down Under-sprint train is rolling again: Danilo Hondo will lead out Alessandro Petacchi.
Damiano Cunego Alessandro Petacchi Danilo Hondo Daniele Pietropolli Francesco Gavazzi David Loosli
01.03.2011
Tour de Langkawi: Stage 1
With the first of six flat stages, the only Malaysian race in the calendar starts today in Putrajaya. Petacchi is aiming for his third season victory. He's the big favorite.
We expected everybody to work against Petacchi today, so it was important for us to bring a rider into the break. Gavazzi made it together with Farnese Vini's Roberto De Patre and Stanislav Kozúbek from PSK Whirlpool. They shared the bonus seconds of the first two intermediate sprints equally, eventually bringing all of them a Top 10 rank in the GC. But in general, the group didn't work together very well and got caught with still 70km to go.
On the mountain sprint, Cunego tried his legs, but he attacked a little to late and came in second behind Auber's Mombaerts, who will wear the jersey tomorrow.
Nothing happened thereafter, and the sprint began. Pietropolli and Hondo did their job perfectly, the door stood wide open for Petacchi's victory...
… and our main sprinter had no problems finishing the job. Hondo stood his ground against Tomasz Smolen and makes it a great 1-2 for us.
I appreciate your comments. 
), gonna be interesting with so many PT races, good luck 
