Day 3 down under. The team are very confident after the first 2 day. And what a great start we have had, with 2 stage wins for Cooke, and a solid lead on the KoM jersey for Tosatto.
Not suprising a breakaway got away, and since Tosatto had such great legs also today, hi decided to join. After 20km the group stabilized at a 2"30 lead down to the peleton.
As nobody in the breakaway was interested in getting KoM points or sprint points, Tosatto took 1. inn all 3, giving him 16 new mountain points and 12 sprint points.
As yesterdays stage, the breakaway wasn't caught before 8km to go. Cervelo was setting the pace, suprisingly neither Hushovd, McEwen, Boonen, Bennati or any of the other big sprinters had been even close to a victory on the 2 first stages, maby this would be the day?
With 2km to go Boonen and Hushovd where in 2. and 4. position. Cooke wasn't long behinde in a 5. position.
As it turns out Cooke didn't have as good legs today as the last couple of days and he didn't have a chance on a stage win. It was up to Hushovd and Boonen. The world champion was a bit faster then Boonen and took his first victory of the season.
A quiet day down under. No breakaway got away before the KoM, so Tosatto could easely take a new 16p. But with 60km to go, a breakaway did get away. Colli (Geox) and Boom (Rabobank) had at most 2"27 down to the peleton. With 10km to go they had only 20" down to the peleton, so again the stage was going to end in a mass sprint. Mørkøv was leading the Saxo train, with Jørgensen and Cook right behind.
When the sprint started, we wheren't even close to a top 5. But Jørgensen did a great job, so when Cooke went from his wheel he was in a 4. place. Greipel was leading with 750m left, but Cooke where starting to build up som good speed.
And there it was, Cooke beats Greipel for his 3 stage victory, with McEwen taking the 2. with the length of a thumb down to Greipel.
This means that Cooke stil keeps his overall lead, and Tosatto is on good way to win the KoM jersey.
Two day left down under. Today most important, because of the two hills at the end, there might be som attacks on the leader jersey. Me and Bjarne had a meeting at the breakfast table, to create a strategy to retain the leader jersey. We decided to be a bit defensive and keep us in peace to any possible attack.
There was a lot of attacking at the start, but after a 10km of attacking without meaning, it formed a breakaway. Tanner (SaxoBank), Downing (Sky), Borghini (Liquigas),
Lemoine (Sauer-Sojasun), Houanard (AG2R), Izagirre (Euskatel), Leezer (Rabobank), Oyarzun (Moviestar) and Van Leijen (Vacansoleil) got at most 2"12 down to the peleton. And they where caught allready 87km before the finish line.
Walker (Geox) tryed to breakaway 77km to go, but never got more then "32 and was reeled inn with 71k to go.
Our team was setting the pace into the first hill.
Half way up the hill Robert Gesink (Rabobank) attacked. Tosatto followed him to make sure he didn't get to much distance back to Cooke. But the peleton caught Gesink and Tosatto just a few km from the top.
Into the next hill the peleton was still intact. Once again Gesink attacked, and this time Cooke followed him. But also this time the peloton caught up with Gesink and Cooke shortly after the top.
The peloton had high speed with 7km to go. And the teams struggled to set up a good train for their sprinters.
And with 1km to go the sprint was off. Ciolek was in 1. position, but McEwen, Hushovd, Bennati, Boonen and Galimzyanov where all in good position for a stage win, unfortunet, Cooke was a bit behinde.
With 500m to go Hushovd was in the lead, while Ciolek was starting to loose speed. Could anyone beat my compatriot?
No, nobody had a chance against Hushovd, while Boonen took the 2. and Cooke, who came out of nowhere, managed to take the 3.
Cooke secured in all probability the overall victory. And Tosatto have secured the KoM jersey.
Stage result:
1
Thor Hushovd
Team Garmin - Cervélo
3h19'57
2
Tom Boonen
Quick·Step Cycling Team
s.t.
3
Baden Cooke
Saxo Bank SunGard
s.t.
4
Stephen Cummings
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
5
Matthew Goss
HTC - Highroad
s.t.
Overall;
1
Baden Cooke
Saxo Bank SunGard
16h12'09
2
Thor Hushovd
Team Garmin - Cervélo
+ 14
3
Denis Galimzyanov
Katusha Team
+ 22
4
Tom Boonen
Quick·Step Cycling Team
s.t.
5
Francisco José Ventoso
Movistar Team
+ 26
6
Robbie McEwen
Team RadioShack
+ 28
7
Maxim Iglinskiy
Pro Team Astana
+ 30
8
André Greipel
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
9
Kenny De Haes
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 31
10
Matthew Hayman
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
Points:
1
Baden Cooke
Saxo Bank SunGard
28
2
Matteo Tosatto
Saxo Bank SunGard
28
3
Thor Hushovd
Team Garmin - Cervélo
16
4
Ian Stannard
Sky ProCycling
14
5
Denis Galimzyanov
Katusha Team
12
Kom:
1
Matteo Tosatto
Saxo Bank SunGard
72
2
Robert Gesink
Rabobank Cycling Team
32
3
Michael Albasini
HTC - Highroad
18
4
Jonas Aaen Jørgensen
Saxo Bank SunGard
12
5
Linus Gerdemann
Leopard Trek
12
Young:
1 Matthew Goss HTC - Highroad 3h19'57 + 12 (3)
2 Denis Galimzyanov Katusha Team s.t. 16h12'31 (1)
3 Gerald Ciolek Quick·Step Cycling Team s.t. + 2'34 (17) 4Jonas Aaen JørgensenSaxo Bank SunGards.t. + 12 (2)
5 John Degenkolb HTC - Highroad s.t. + 12 (9)
Last day down under. Tosatto sicured the Kom jersey yesterday and Cooke was almost certain to take the overall. But to make sure nothing dramatic happend, we satt Jørgensen, Marycz, Mørkøv, Roberts, Tanner and Tosatto in front of the peloton to have full control.
Except some failed attempts to make a breakaway, nothing really happend on today stage. With 1km to go the sprinters where fighting for the stage victory. Ciolek was as several times before during STDU in the lead. But as always he started the sprint to early and had no shance on a victory.
It was up to Goss (HTC), Matthews (Rabobank), Downing (Sky) and our own Baden Cooke. Downing was in the lead with 500m to go, but Cooke was fast, but was i fast enough?
No, Downing takes the victory a hair lengt infront of Cooke.
Santos Tour Down Under is over for this year. It has been a lot of fun, especially with 3 stage wins, the overall and the sprint jersey for Cooke and the KoM jersey with Tosatto. In other words, a great start of the season.
Was reading the newspaper this morning, and came over an artikkel with the rider of the month.
Not suprised to see Baden win it, after he's great tour down under.
Here is also a little summary of the januar races:
As you can see team sky's Rigoberto Uran won the Tour de San Luis.
The team is happy after a perfect start of the season. But now we are looking forward to the next races, starting with Etoile de Besseges, and a few days later i'm going to the spanish island Mallorca for Vuelta a Mallorca.
Vuelta a Mallorca or Mallorca Challenge, is a collection of five UCI race in the district of Mallorca which takes place in February. The races are Trofeo Palma de Mallorca, Trofeo Cala Millor, Trofeo Inca, Trophee Deià, Trofeo Magaluf. The collection of races has been going on since 1992. Each year it won an overall winner of the five-day races. Every year there is named an overall winner of the five races.
Past winners:
1992 Javier Murguialday
1993 Laurent Jalabert
1994 David García
1995 Alex Zülle
1996 Francisco Cabello
1997 Laurent Jalabert
1998 Léon van Bon
1999 José Luis Rebollo
2000 Francisco Cabello
2001 Mathew Hayman
2002 Francisco Cabello
2003 Alejandro Valverde
2004 Antonio Colom
2005 Alejandro Valverde
2006 David Bernabeu
2007 Luis León Sánchez
2008 Philippe Gilbert
2009 Antonio Colom
2010 Rui Costa
New race for the team. Vuelta a Mallorca is next, and again we go inn to the race with high hopes. We go mainly for stage wins, but if the Porte is able to challenge the other GC favorits, we will also run for an overall victory.
This is our team: 51. R.Porte
52. J.Bellis
53. M.Boaro
54. B.Cooke
55. J.Hernández
56. D.Navarro
57. B.Noval
58. N.Sørensen
Here is also a little update from france (Etoile de Besseges):
Unfortunately, the team hasn't managed to get the top results we where hoping for, with LS Haedo's 14. place as best stage result, with 1 stage left to go.
Edited by 10theri on 12-06-2011 22:16
The first of five stage's on Mallorca. We had a team meeting in the bus on our way to the start where we decided to take full control over the race from the first km, and keep any breakaway on a controled distance.
And when the first attack came, it was Matè from Cofidis and Van Voren from Topsport. With them they got Kroon (BMC), Peña (Colombia), Roldán (Andalucia) and Grau (Burgos).
They buildt up a lead on 1"40 (at most 1"56). But as expected, HTC, SKY and Rabobank increased the pace, to catch the breakaway.
With 1/2 round left the breakaway was caught, the sprinters maneuvered inn to the best possible position.
With 3km left Bellis had Cooke on his wheel, but they were trapped by Rabobank in the fifth last turn.
But good riding by Bellis carried Cook to the best position with 2,5km left.
Cooke went from Bellis wheel with 1,7km left to the finish line. This gave him a good lead inn the last 1km, but the early sprint start made his legs tired and Goss (HTC) overtok him with 600m left.
Goss kept his speed and took the stage win, infront of Ventoso (Movistar) and Baden.
VladuuTs: yeah, but we didn't get much competition from the other teams.
BikeRoel: I am experiencing the same thing in all my careers. Goss wins most of the sprints until the big sprinters (Cavendish, Farrar, Hushovd, Boonen etc.) gets into shape.
2. stage of Vuelta a Mallorca. We managed to take a good 3. place yesterday, and hoped to managed an even better result today.
The breakaway of the day conteined 11 riders, Martinez (Caja Rural), Cusin (Cofidis), Casmirio (Tavira), Fonte (Barbot), Gallego (Burgos), Steurs (Topsport), Blazquez (Orbea), Sancho (LA -Antarte) Pardo (Onda), Palomares (Andalucia) Forero (Colombia).
They got a 6"35 lead down to the peloton. Who was lead by BMC, HTC and Moviestar.
The peloton used long time to catch the breakaway, but with 5km left to go, the breakaway wad caught.
The sprinters where at the front, ready to sprint for the victory. Cooke and Bellis was trapped binde Euskatel and Rabobank, and Cooke needed a great sprint to stande a canche on the stage win.
Goss (HTC) started the sprint early, which meant he got tired long before the finish, this made it easy for Moviestart and Ventoso.
Moviestart took the dobbel, with Ventoso and Rojas. Barbosa (Tavira - Prio) took the 3. place infront of Goss. Cooke came in as number 10.
10. was not the result we were hoping for, but when we didn't manage to get a better position into the last 3km it was almost impossible to get the win.
First mountain stage in Spain. A huge breakaway got away with Grau (Burgos), Chuzhda (Caja Rural), Sancho (Antarte), Cusin (Cofidis), Alarcon (Barbot), Sicard (Euskatel), Roldan (Andalucia), Serr (Topsport), Mestre (Tavira), Marque (Onda), Larralde (Orbea), Laverde (Colombia), Saez de Arregi (Orbea) and surprisingly Cadel Evans, BMC's captain. ,
The group got at max 5"07 down to the eploton. Where Moviestar where controling the pace.
We gathered the team in front of the peloton before the first climb of the day, up Coll de Soller. MovieStar had a steady pace and on the top they had torn the peloton in two halves. With all SaxoBank riders in the first half.
On the way up Coll de PuigMajor the peloton catched the breakaway and when they reached the top, only 19 riders where left in the peloton, including Porte and Navarro.
Velits (HTC) and Barredo (Rabobank) attacked on the top of the mountain. But they never got away from the rest of the group, altough Barredo tried several times.
With 3km to go Porte was in the lead, going for the stage. Tih Vinokourov, Kløden and Løfkvist not far behind.
With 1km to go Porte had to give over the lead to Sanchez, Porte was out of power, and had more than enough holding Barredo behinde him.
But he didn't stande a chance, while Sanchez took the victory Barredo made a great finished and snapped the 2nd place infront of Løfkvist, while Porte took the 4th place.
Bjarne were pleased to see Porte follow so easily up the mountains and we both were sad to see he didn't get the stage win, but 4th is still a good result.
also a good start in Mallorca 
