With no Cancellara, the race is really up for grabs, other notable absences include Roelands and Greipel.
For Augantis, the best hope is Crestskens, Ivanov is very capable but his form is questionable.
The Race
Right from the start the pace was very fast. Numerous breakaway attempts kept on being shut down by a peloton being driven on by BMC and Sky (mainly Boassen Hagen, who did an excellent team job.) A lot of riders were really feeling the hurt even before reaching the first set of cobbles. Riders who tried to get away included: Wagner; Kiserlovski;Stortoni;Degand and from Augantis Goesinnen and Dzervus. Gilbert(race outsider) punctured early on, and lost 3:50 but managed to work his way back into the peloton. A 14 man break managed to get a 1 minute gap but that was quickly reeled back in. 100km into the race, no riders were out in front and the pace was high ( riders would surely pay for this later in the day.) Then shortly before the Nokereberg Ivanov (Augantis) attacked over the cobbles, and gained a gap of around 1 minute before being joined by Nicki Terpstra.
The two riders were not allowed to get a gap of more than 2:20. Meanwhile, back in the peloton, the hard racing in the peloton meant the peloton was fractued all over the place. The leading group split into a group of around 45 riders, with no Augantis riders. Cretskens had to work his one way back into the peloton. Before....
Cretskens fell. He did manage to get back into the peloton, but at what cost? At this point Augantis's race was capitulating! Ivanov looked like he was being dropped by Terpstra on a climb, he got back on the wheel before being dropped for good.
With about 100km to go three riders: Maaskantaolini and Devolder attack. They pass Ivanov with 86km to go and remain 1 minute behind Terpstra for a long time. With 60 km to go Terpstra has about 5:40 over the big favourites group. At this point the race was splitting up. The favourites group split into 2 groups of 16 and 26 riders, Cretskens was in the second group along with Cavendish. Amazingly Boassen Hagen and Gilbert were still in the first group despite there exertions. The group was being largely driven along by Haymen (sky), bmc and briefly omega-pharma.
With 53 km to go,on the rolling hills the race split into a very select group.
The nine riders were: Offredo, Guesdon, Nuyens, Hushovd, Ballan, Burghart, Thomas, Flecha and Hayman. With 40km to go this group was down to 6, and had a 1:40 advantage over an 11 man group with Boonen in it, however trailed the three breakaway riders by 3:50 and Terpstra by 4:20.
Meanwhile up front, former winner Devolder was being dropped by Paolini and Maaskant.
With 20km to go the break looked good. Paolini (at last) caught up to the wheel of Terpstra and attacked him, did this year's tour of flanders belong to the italian. The 6 man group were gaining ever closer on the break out front. At this point the race leaders were lapping the backmarkers, which became really hectic. The 6 riders did have an advantage over other favourites by about 2:30, but from 30km onwards the likes of: Vansummeren, Leukemans and Boonen started to attack.
No one can stay with Boonen here, but did he leave it to late?
With 10km to go Flecha, Hushovd, Nuyens, Paolini, Ballan had a 1 minute gap over Boonen. They started playing cat and mouse with eachother and the pace dropped right down, Boonen caught up to them inside 7.5 km to go.
With 4km to go Flecha attacks, he is brought slowly back under the flamme rouge.
Into the sprint, Flecha is giving is all, does anyone have anything left? Ballan sets up the sprint for Hushovd, with Boonen on the perfect wheel. Hushovd goes for it and.... Boonen can't react, a great win for Hushovd. From there on in riders come through with absolutely nothing left and a whole host of riders abandon.
For Augantis, Cretskens was the best finisher in 48th. Although he is a great cobbles rider, today proved if you can't handle the pace and the hills a top finish is out of the question. Full Results:
Here Augantis sent the same team which was at flanders. With Belohvosciks and Buividas coming in for Dzervus and Lasis. The project team have Degenkolb(1) and Kittel(3), who are at the top in the continental rankings.
Stage 1:
A nine man break got away, including Cretskens (Augantis) and Sijmens and were allowed 5 mins. Type 1, Project 1t4i and FDJ closed it down, a mass sprint was won by Hutarovich, Tombak (Augantis) was the best finisher in 16th.
Spoiler
1
Yauheni Hutarovich
FDJ - BigMat
3h36'53
2
Marcel Kittel
Project 1t4i
s.t.
3
Jimmy Casper
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
4
Greg Henderson
Lotto Belisol Team
s.t.
5
Samuel Dumoulin
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
s.t.
6
Juan José Haedo
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
7
Sébastien Turgot
Team Europcar
s.t.
8
Denis Flahaut
Roubaix Lille Métropole
s.t.
9
Kristof Goddaert
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
10
Steven Caethoven
Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda's
s.t.
Stage 2:
Today, saw a short 6km TT accompanied by heavy rain.
Ist Engoulvent
2nd Stamsnijder
3rd De Kort
Beyer (30th at '22) was the best placed for Augantis.
Stage 3:
1st Dumoulin
2nd Henderson
3rd Traksel
Augantis best finisher Tombak 13th @ 0 seconds.
Stage 4:
1st Kittel
2nd Henderson
3rd Hutarovich
Augantis Tomback 16th @ 0 seconds was the best finisher. In this race Augantis didn't really show, however, it was good preparation for some riders with a busy calender coming up.
Overall results:
Spoiler
1
Marcel Kittel
Project 1t4i
12h01'59
2
Greg Henderson
Lotto Belisol Team
+ 5
3
Yauheni Hutarovich
FDJ - BigMat
+ 10
4
Jimmy Engoulvent
Saur - Sojasun
+ 21
5
Tom Stamsnijder
Project 1t4i
+ 22
6
Bobbie Traksel
Landbouwkrediet - Euphony
+ 27
7
Jimmy Casper
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 28
8
John Degenkolb
Project 1t4i
+ 29
9
Laszló Bodrogi
Team Type 1 - Sanofi
s.t.
10
Koen De Kort
Project 1t4i
s.t.
Augantis's Beyer 32nd @ 43 was the teams best finisher.
In other news:
Augantis seems to be nearing a sponsorship deal with CSC, having seemingly stopped negotiations with American Express, a deal with CSC would see large American interest.
David Rebellin is in discussion with Augantis over a possible one year extension to his contract.
GP de Primavera
A group of 14 finished together, Callegarin showed well being one of the pre race favourites. Paris Camembert
With a fast start to the race, a 12 man break was eventually allowed to get away. Including Pauriol, Nys, Kluge and Goesinnen (Augantis). The break gained a max gap of around 8 mins, from about 90km to AG2R and COFIDIS started to work. The gap was coming down steadily, when Bodrogi and Stef Clement attacked out of the peloton, this just made cofidis and AG2R ride hard along the hills from about 30km to go onwards. With 30km to go the break was at 2:20, seemingly under control but with 20km to go it was still at 2:00, perhaps because team leaders (mainly sprinters) were struggling in the peloton and perhaps because the domestiques (mainly cofidis riders) were tiring after a hard days work. With 11km to go, Goesinnen (in good form) was driving along the break before attacking at the steepest part of the hill, Pauriol lately reacts but can't reach Goesinnen, the peloton gives up the chase and the time gap for Goesinnen grows as the rest of the break are caught up.
An easy last 7km sees Floris Goesinnen claim his first victory for Augantis in style, pauriol comes in 2nd and to round off the podium Janek Tombak (Augantis) wins a mass sprint. A great day for Augantis.
Team:
Biondo
Rebellin
Finetto
Anza
Lhotellerie
Kvasina
B Jacques-Maynes
Gruzdev
Stage 1
Favourites:
Arashiro
Modolo
Biondo
A five man group got away on the first stage of the castilla y leon, later growing to 7 riders as two riders joined on the first categorised climb. For much of the day Gruzdev, Anza and Jacques-Maynes could be seen working on the front of the peloton.
Despite the break's best efforts the gap between the break and the peloton was always coming down from 60km onwards. On to the last climb and all but Vanthourenhout (Lambouwkrediet) had been caught. In the rain he held an advantage of around 45 seconds, as Augantis were left to do all the work. Into the sprint, Biondo being led out looks out of position behind a lot of riders in a hectic sprint, Modolo sprints out from behind ten or so riders and catches the breakaway sole survivor in the last twohunderd metres.
Finetto and Kvasina didn't finish with the peloton, not feeling brilliant.
Denain - Denain
Augantis: best finisher 48th. (Tombak @49)
On a wet day of racing, the race was decided when 3 riders attacked in the last 12km and joined up with Juodvalkis, helped by a big crash in the peloton started by Biel Kadri.
Castilla y leon: Stage 2
Today an 11man break got away gaining a max time gap of 8mins, the break included Kvasina (Augantis), Delio Fernandez (Onda), Rob Goris and Jay Thomson.
Through the sprint points, Kvasina was showing well gaining a 2nd, 1st and 2nd place respectively.
With 50km to go the break was at 5mins but with 40km to go the break was at 4:20, giving some hope to the break. The peloton was mainly being driven on by Colnago, Type 1, Europcar and Movistar. With 15km to go the break started to split up. Kvasina went with the attacks and on a down hill finish with Delio Fernandez(an excellant descender) he was in good company. With 5km to go the break had about a 50 seconds advantage, Kvasina was on the front but didn't want to do all the work and the break slowed right down. Then 11 riders shot off the front of the peloton.
The break realised this and started their sprints, but they were caught a few hunderd metres from the line, Arashiro taking the victory today. If Rob Goris didn't slow down in his final sprint there would have been a decent time gap back to the peloton.
In other news:
Team Augantis have started negotiations with 'Wikipedia' about a possible sponsorship deal that reportedly will be worth more than 4 million to Augantis per year.
Stage 3
A five man group managed to get away, they were never given more than 5 minutes. Coming onto the first categorised climb, the break had around 3:30 of a gap before it fractued all over the place, When the peloton came onto the climb, Doi and Arroyo attacked. Colnago working for race leader Modolo or perhaps Batagin couldn't keep pace and a number of sole riders took to the front. Batagin took up the pace and managed to bring back Doi but in doing so blew his own chances. Cabreiro (portguese champion) from the break was joined by arroyo at the top of the mountain and had a gap of around 2 minutes over a 12 man group of favourites who came over next. Eight more riders joined on the decent. Augantis had Lhotellerie and Rebellin in the group. With 15km to go Efimkin and Igor Anton attacked. Anton sustained his attacked and joined up with the leading twosome, when the mountain started with about 12km to go Cabreiro was immediately dropped. As the leaders worked up the mountain, the group behind couldn't reduce the gap which was growing out from a minute and ten seconds. With 5km to go attacks came from the group by Duarte, Kern and Lastras. With 4km to go Anton dropped Arroyo and goes on to win, looking in good form.
Route de Finistere
Serguei Ivanov claimed his first victory after a select group of about twenty riders came home together. In the last ten km attack after attack was shut down by Floris Goesinnen who set a relentless pace on the front, in a group with no real sprinter Ivanov came out from Goesinnen's wheel just at the right time on a fast downhill finish.
Castilla y leon stage 4
Castilla y leon stage 5
The final stage wraps up with a sprint:
1st Modolo
2nd Arashiro
3rd Colli
5th Biondo
Overall
1st Anton
2nd Kern
3rd Arroyo
10th Rebellin
Trophee Bro-Leon
1st Goddaert
2nd Saramotins
3rd Demare
15th Tombak
Edited by The Rider on 03-04-2012 16:12
In the previous weak Augantis sent a lot of there riders to San Sebastien to train on the hills, looking to reap rewards in the long term and in the short term at (Gp de Liodio) and (Vuelta Asturias).
Squad:
D Rebellin
S Ivanov
B Jacques-Maynes
M Finetto
C Lhotellerie
S Anza
R Pidgornyy
M Biondo
For this race Augantis had two out of the three favouroites in Ivanov and Rebellin, Costa (Movistar) making up the trio.
Early on plenty of attacks tried to get away from the peloton, but due to a lack of conviction and Colnago and Augantis no substantial breaks were successful upto 100km to go.
A picture of a break early on, speeding downhill.
With 90km to go the day's real break formed. It grew over the next 25km to include 11 riders and gain a maximum gap of around 3:20 over the peloton. It included local rider Zuazubiskar, who was getting a lot of roadside support.
With about 60km to go the peloton passed over the short but steep Alto de Garate, this fractured the peloton into two groups of 74 riders. Augantis had seven out of eight riders in the front group. In the second group big riders included outsiders such as : Lastras, Finetto (Augantis) who yet again wasn't feeling great, Augustyn and the winner of the tour of Langkawi.
This was an incentive for Augantis to close down the break and push on. Jacques-Maynes and Pidgornyy began to close down the break, both were doing brilliant domestique work for the first three quarters of the race. With 30km to go Anza and Biondo had also contributed to bring back the break along with Colnago and Movistar. The front group now contained about 28 riders, Ivanov (Augantis) pushed on. With about 18km to go Battaglin attacked Lhotellerie (So Augantis didn't have to ride) and Van Groen countered.
This attack was quickly brought back thanks to attacks from Costa and Delafuente. But this attack left Rebellin without any protection and he was blocked by Herrada (Movistar) and lost 1 minute over the leading group. With 7km to go, the final climb was reached, Rebellin amazingly made up the minute gap with an awe-inspiring attack. Into the sprint, Rebellin tried to recover as Ivanov would be the lead out man for him.
But Rebellin left too much on the road and couldn't even come past his lead out man, taking nothing away from Delafuente. Augantis finish with a 3rd,5th and 6th. Recent high results have moved Augantis into 2nd on the continental rankings.
GP Herning
Here Augantis sent a team of 'fringe' or out of form riders, as Augantis prioritises the tour of turkey and vuelta asturias.
1st Kittel
2nd Morkov
3rd Curvers
29th Cretskens
In a field of the smallest budget teams, baring a few exceptions, a 12 man break was caught. Morkov looked like he wrapped up the sprint but Kittel came from nowhere to deny a popular home victory in one of the closest finishes imaginable.
Edited by The Rider on 06-04-2012 19:09
In this Danish semi classic a suprise group of riders came to finish, after the a big crash in the last few kilometres saw all the favourites crash out, Barta takes it in the sprint around the city circuit.
GP a la Rioja
1st Ivanov
2nd Rebellin
3rd Duarte
This race saw Augantis's quality puncheurs really come to form. A group of nine riders made it together in the last 10km. With 3km to go Augantis, sent Ivanov down the road the bunch failed to catch him, Rebellin was the quickest in the sprint to claim 2nd with the same time. A brilliant 1-2 for Augantis.
Ruund um Koln
Here Augantis sent the same team which was at the races in Denmark.
An attack by Kroon a good number of kilmeters was not closed down and takes a good strong victory for Saxo Bank.
In other news:
Augantis have secured sponsorship for next season. The sole sponsor will be Wikipedia and 4,000,000 approx will be available per year for 2 years.
Edited by The Rider on 08-04-2012 21:05
Team:
Tombak
Buividas
Lasis
A Jacques-Maynes
Sokolov
Kvasina
Gruzdev
Joearr Stage 1:
Kittel takes the win and the yellow
Stage 2:
Kittel makes to 2 in a row.
Stage 3:
Kittel not up for it today, yet still wears the jersey.
Stage 4:
A 3 man break including Kaseshkin got away and were eventually joined by more riders including Ben Day. The group gained a max advantage of around 13 minutes before Kittel's team started to shut down the gap. Then with 110km to go, the gap at 11:00, Tombak came to the front to test Kittel, no one could follow. Tombak set off by himself catching and passing riders from the break with ease. He reduced the gap to 1:20 in the end but couldn't bridge to the break. He finished with teammate Buividas at the back of a group including Kittel, the race leader. Ben Day was simply to strong in the closingkilometeres and takes the win.
Stage 5:
A break was again successful, Augantis had Joearr in the break and he managed a podium. Balloni rode away from everyone with 12km to go. Ian Bibby (12 mins down) was in the break, which gained a max gap of 15 mins. Tombak tested Kittel again in the closing kilometeres at times dropping him, but Tombak and Kittel finished in the main group together.
Stage 6:
Florencio pips Tombak in a bunch sprint.
Stage 7:
A break was successful again today, Kittel was dropped but once again managed to finish in the main group.
Stage 8:
This final stage Kittel started it in yellow and the project team would again continue to ride on the front on the early parts of the race. On to the last really steep climb and Augantis with Buividas started a really fierce pace. At the top a group of around 18 riders came over the top, race leader Kittel was not one of them. Gustavo Cesar attacked on the decent, no one was able to close him down he takes the win and the overall victory.
Overall:
1st Gustavo Cesar
2nd Florencio
3rd Tombak
..15th Buividas
Points: Florencio
Mountain: Balloni
Edited by The Rider on 18-04-2012 19:31
Stage 1:
Finetto wins for Augantis.
After showing no form so far in the season, Mauro Finetto provided a great sprint in a select group to narrowly beat Nicki Sorenson.
Stage 2:
Vandevelde wins the TT but Finetto holds on to the jersey.
Stage 3:
Vandevelde takes over leaders jersey.
Stage 4:
Duarte wins stage and takes the leaders jersey.
Stage 5:
Rebelin wins the stage after a great set up by Ivanov. Rebellin is the best finisher for Augantis (2nd) overall 14 seconds behind Duarte. Vandevelde crashed early on in the stage.
Overall
1
Fabio Duarte
Colombia - Coldeportes
19h59'09
2
Davide Rebellin
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
+ 14
3
David Blanco
Carmim - Prio
+ 1'02
4
Mikel Astarloza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'22
5
Mikel Nieve
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'28
6
David De la Fuente
Caja Rural
+ 1'32
7
Jurgen Van Goolen
Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda's
+ 1'36
8
Nicki Sørensen
Team Saxo Bank
+ 2'11
9
João Cabreira
Onda
+ 2'26
10
Enrique Salgueiro
LA - Antarte
+ 3'26
Points:
1
Fabio Duarte
Colombia - Coldeportes
12
60
2
Christian Vande Velde
Garmin - Barracuda
0
60
3
David Blanco
Carmim - Prio
16
59
4
Davide Rebellin
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
25
59
5
Enrique Salgueiro
LA - Antarte
0
50
Mountain:
1
Juan José Oroz
Euskaltel - Euskadi
0
38
2
Dimitry Kozontchuk
RusVelo
38
38
3
Fabio Duarte
Colombia - Coldeportes
6
31
4
Reto Hollenstein
Team NetApp
0
30
5
Sérgio Sousa
Efapel - Glassdrive
26
26
Young Rider:
Gorka Izagirre wins 14 minutes over nearest rider Sobota.
Team: Euskaltel-Euskadi win 8:12 over Caja Rural
Other News:
Hel van het Mergelland - Kittel wins
Pais Vasco- Tony Martin
Scheldeprijs- Cavendish
Grand Prix Cerami- Veelers
Appennino- Pavel Brutt
Paris Roubaix- Hushovd
Brabantse Prijs- Gilbert 1st- Gallopin 2nd
Van Drenthe- Hoste
Amstel Gold- Hoogerland 1st- Millar- 2nd
Trentino- Bosisio
Flehce Wallone- Cunego
Liege Bastogne Liege- Gilbert
Romandie- Chris Anke Sorensen
GP Industrio- Pozzovivo
Edited by The Rider on 18-04-2012 19:53
Lasis (Augantis) timed his sprint to perfection and defeated everyone in the peloton and was sure he was about to claim the victory. Untill: it was revealed Benoit Jarrier (Vernada) had crossed the line 39 seconds earlier, this was really confusing as Jarrier wasn't in the break and no camera spotted the attack.
Stage 2:
A nine man break, in the closing kilometers becoming 13, stayed away from the peloton.
Stage 3:
Ivanov wins a sprint with the bigger names coming towards the front in a difficult finale, Ivanov looked in top form. That said, only Finetto and Lhotellerie did not finish in the peloton.
Stage 4:
This stage broke the race into a number of groups. With 50km to go a group of about 9 riders, half Augantis riders and half Lotto riders were protecting Ivanov and Dennis Vanendert respectfully. This was untill 30km to go when the four Augantis riders rode off, with 20km to go Ivanov attack his teammates and went on to win with a huge margin. It appeared that the racing had stopped behind, although Nico Roach came from nowhere to claim second.
Stage 5:
Kocjan wins the sprint whilst Ivanov kept himself out of trouble.
Overall
1
Sergueï Ivanov
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
21h51'47
2
Nicolas Roche
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 2'43
3
Dennis Vanendert
Lotto Belisol Team
+ 2'48
4
Janek Tombak
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
+ 3'16
5
Anthony Geslin
FDJ - BigMat
+ 4'20
Points: Ivanov 60 Kocjan 60
Mountain:Santos (LA- Antarte)
Team: Augantis
Young Riders: Dennis Vanendert
Edited by The Rider on 18-04-2012 20:19
Augantis managed to get Vasilev in a break which was barely caught in the closing kilometers. Vasilev (3rd) finished highest out of the break the next best escapee was Broge in (5th).
Tour of Norway
Stage 1: A win for Kritsoff, Lasis (Augantis) made the podium.
Stage 2: A sprint win for Bazayev.
Stage 3: Another sprint win for Kritsoff.
Stage 4: Konig wins from a select group. The finished looked to suit Rebellin, however he didn't seem overally comitted.Gatto takes over leadership.
Stage 5: Poos takes the final stage, the break merges with the peloton, Finetto is the fastest out of the main bunch finishing 3rd.
Overall results:
1
Oscar Gatto
Farnese Vini - Selle Italia
21h35'36
2
Assan Bazayev
Astana Pro Team
+ 16
3
Leopold König
Team NetApp
s.t.
4
Rory Sutherland
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
+ 24
5
Mauro Finetto
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
+ 28
6
Pavel Brutt
Katusha Team
s.t.
7
Evgeni Petrov
Astana Pro Team
+ 34
8
Hugo Sabido
LA - Antarte
+ 36
9
Reto Hollenstein
Team NetApp
s.t.
10
Gustavo César Veloso
Andalucía
s.t.
Points: Gatto
Mountain: Frusto
Team: Astana
Young Rider: Konig
Tartu Grand Prix
In this race in Latvia, Augantis's Lasis was one of the home favourites. Augantis and Team Type 1 had controlled the break, however, as the break was only caught by Belohvosciks in the last few kilometers the sprint was very messy. Lasis was out of position, Belohvosciks launched his sprint despite working since 10km to go. But young german 'Arndt' came out from the peloton the quickest narrowly beating favourite 'Callegarin.'
Other races:
Finanzplatz - Troels Vinther
Picardie - L.A.Mate
California- Astarloza
Lorraine- Geslin
Berlin Prorace- Radochla
Bayern-Rundfahrt- Mads Christensen
Ronde van Belge- V Kaupas
Plumelec- Roche
Chateulin- Roche
Edited by The Rider on 21-04-2012 19:36
Story post #16
Although not the team was not in the Giro, the race still goes on and this is what happened.
Stage 1: Roseller won the TT
Stage 2: Farrar wins, Pettachi 2nd Goss 3rd
Stage 3:Farrar wins again, Huturovih 2nd, Goss 3rd
Stage 4:Movistar win the TTT, 2 seonds over Rabobank, Bruseghin 1st over line.
Stage 5:Farrar wins again, looking in great form.
Stage 6:Wegmann wins, L.L.Sanchez 2nd and takes over the lead. Groups were all over the road, the two riders had a 16 second gap over a group of 4 riders including Niemiec and Goss, 54 seconds down were Nibali and Anton.
Stage 7: Niemiec wins the mountain stage, but L.L. Sanchez stays in pink..
Stage 8-13: Farrar continues to dominate sprints.
Stage 14: Gorka Verdugo wins the stage, LL Sanchez still has the pink jerse, but has a slender 23 second advantage over Anton.
Stage 15: Verdugo takes the stage win again, 6'48 back to 2nd place Rujano, Anton takes over the lead finishing over 1 minute over Sanchez.
Stage 16: Sanzhez fights back to win the stage, 23 seconds down on Anton.
Stage 17: Anton wins the stage and finishes 16 seconds over Pinotti, Sanchez finisher 45 seconds down in a select group with David Lopez and Gorka Izagirre.
Stage 18: Its a Garmin 1-2. Wegmann takes a solo victory, Farrar finishes second.
Stage 19: A break succedd. Machado wins ahead of Henao, Wegmann and Verdugo. Anton increases his lead over Sanchez to over two minutes.
Stage 20: Masciarelli wins the stage from a break. But Anton gains over 1:20 on Sanchez.
Stage 21: Sanchez wins the stage, he started 3:51 down on Anton and managed to claw back............3:00, finishing less than 1 minute down.
Overall:
1st Anton
2nd Sanchez
3rd Rujano
4th Nibali
5th Pinotti
6th Mollema
7th Niemiec
8th Garzelli
9th Masciarelli
10th Izagerri
Points: Farrar
Mountain: Verdugo
Edited by The Rider on 21-04-2012 19:58
Story post #17
June results:
No races for team Augantis. Probably not the wisest of decisions as this has seen Augantis's lead in second place over Team Type 1 decrease from over 300 points to less than 100.
Other results:
Tour of Luxembourg: Barredo
Dauphine: Kloden
Rijke: Lighart
d'Argovie: D Moreno
Zeeland: Flecha
Tour de Suisse: Evans
ZLM Tour: Cancellara
du Sud: Bodrogi
Slovenie: Devenyns
Ingoogiem: Kittel
National road race:
USA: Andy Jacques-Maynes:
Augantis's Andy Jacques-Maynes won the USA road race after beating his breakaway companions in the final (Caleb Fairly and C Jones, after Reijanen was dropped on the final climb.
Estonia: Joearr
England: Cavendish
Italy: Bondiera
Belgium: Boonen
Netherlands: Van Dijk
Ukraine: Gustov won by over 11 minutes.
France: Voeckler
Spain: Astaloza
Germany: Kloden
Looking ahead hopefully to a year on the pro circuit of top teams Augantis have gone looking for top notch transfers. Augantis hoped to sign some Lithuanians and Americans to appease sponsors.
Transfers which didn't work:
V Kaupas: the lithianian chose to stay at Differdange despite showing good results capable of top tour riders.
Riders being renewed:
Ben Jacques-Maynes
Ruslan Pidgornyy
David Rebellin
Riders signed so far for 2013:
Levi Leipheimer
A Kroupis
I Konovalovas
T Valjavec
Y Popovych
Riders leaving at end of season:
Bernatonis
Dzervus
Sokolov
Joearr
Buividas
Gruzdev
Kondrotas
Vasilyev
2-3 more riders will come in, hopefully 2 young riders under 25 will come in to the squad, (either through scouting or through an end of contract.)
Edited by The Rider on 25-04-2012 18:54
@Sutty. Thanks he will probs be our leader for the TDF, next season, if we get promoted that is. We need someon of his calibre as next season will be 'hard'er if you catch my drift.
@Absint. I agree with that, changes will be made! In the season its going really weird, its the start of July and no one has announced retirement in the game!
@Baia- Yep. Well in may we had a handful of races and in June, we weren't invited anywhere, so rather than trying to get into a bunch of races that time was filled with training camps etc. Calender gets busy from July untill end of season though.
Augantis brought a team here after a month without a race, and it showed! Santo Anza (20th) was the only man who finished in the lead group.
GP de Stresa:
Spoiler
On this flattish stage, a biggish group of around 10 riders got away including Kondrotas, Betancourt and Pavel Brutt.
It all came back together and the strongest sprinter was Bole, Colli takes an impressive 2nd moving TT1 closer to Augantis in the race for promotion.
Tour of Qinghai Lake
Stage 1:
A five man break got away on the opening day, Dzervus riding potentially for a new contract was in the break. The riders looked like they were going to be caught with 20km to go as the gap was under 2 mins. Then with 18km to go five riders attacked they were, Augustyn, Vila, Herrada and Quintana and Bernatonis (who never managed to fully bridge the gap). Then the sprint trains gave up, as it was just too difficult on the terrain to warrant a chase, the gap then grew right out. Augustyn was quickest in the sprint, Dzervus might have been the fastest on paper but he was not the freshest.
Stage 2:
Jan Barta leading the break up the rolling climb.
The sprint trains of Accent Jobs and Colnago managed to reel in the break, but Vicioso was victorious on a slight uphill finish.
In the GC, Dzervus and Patxi Vila finished 1:30 behind the main bunch getting caught out in the quick finale.
Edited by The Rider on 25-04-2012 19:32
Story post #20
Qinghai Lake Stage 3:
On this shortish flat stage a break was always controlled by the peloton. Whether it be Utensilnord protecing the leader Augustyn or the sprint trains of Accent and Colnago.
Vicioso would have fancied his chances in the sprint but was caught off guard when Dutch champ Van Dijk flew past him in a longish sprint. Van Dijk and Vicioso certaintly looked the fastest in this race in rural China.
Stage 4:
The same sprint trains again shut down the break and with 5km to go the pace slackened. Augantis didn't want to wait for a conventional flat sprint so Bernatonis pinged off the peloton with Tombak in his wheel.
This was an attack which may have worked if Accent job's sprint train weren't so capable and if the attack was launched 200 metres down the line.
As it was Tombak got a respectable podium place whilst Van Dijk and Vicioso again proved there dominance.
Stage 5:
Stage 5 saw the riders battling all sorts of conditions including snow.
On to the race, a ten man break got away and it was allowed to stick. Augantis had 2011 runner up Gruzdev in the break. Not fancying his chances he attacked under the 5km to go banner.
It looked a good strong attack, but Venter (Differdange) seemingly sacrificed his own chances to reel Gruzdev in.
Into the sprint and Fognini, who was in great position and looked the fastest anyway takes the win for WIT, who are building a decent squad for next season. He even poses at the finish, what a guy!
Stage 6:
A short day with a fast city circuit course. The break was wound up comfortably. While the peloton were going hell for leather 'Sinkledam' somehow managed to attack in the closing kilometers, an attack which was never going to succedd.
Into the sprint it was the same two riders again showing they were the fastest. Vicioso getting the jump on Van Dijk (Green) this time to take the win.
On this stage a crash and riders sitting up meant some riders in the top 10 lost some time.
Stage 7:
A big break managed to get away as custom in this tour of the lake.
But given the terrain and the willpower the sprinters teams were always going to bring it back together. One would have seen Endura on the front, they had 3-4 decent shouts in the sprints, unfortunately no rider for them managed a big result.
The only rider to fall on the day, happened in the closing kilometers and it was a big name.
The rider in question was Stefan Van Dijk. The whole team of Accent Jobs came to him but they were never going to bring him back to the peloton.
This granted Vicioso(Green) a big opportunity for another stage win.....
and he didn't disapoint.
Stage 8:
The longest stage of this year's Tour of Qinghai lake saw a stage which would favour the sprinters.
The breakaway gave it a good effort, the last man, Spilak, who attacked in the cloisng kiometres was caught with about 2km to go.
Into the sprint, Tombak (Augantis) used all of his experience to get on a great wheel, that of Van Dijk. But with about 700m to go the Colnago train came flying past surely Tomak's chance was over.
As Van Dijk was caught out this meant he had to launch his sprint from over 340 metres. Rather than slide back through the peloton Tombak sticked to his guns and stayed on the wheel. After Van Dijk made a huge effort and came to the front of the race with 150 meters to go, Tombak launched his sprint.
Tombak manages to get past the big guns of this tour, Van Dijk looks as though he is coming back but......
Tombak hangs on for a great win!
Stage 9:
The final stage of the Tour of Qinghai lake. Another sprint was on the cards and Augustyn was all but the confirmed winner, in a race which certainly needs some climbs towards the end of the stages.
Team Differdange had the main train going into the final few hundred meters, Ljungblad looked in a great position to win but coming out from the wheel was Van Dijk, who takes the last laugh.
Tombak didn't really contest the sprint content with his victory on stage 8, aswell as probably leaving too much on the road.
Verdict for Augantis:
Although not the best race for suspence, in hindsight the race was pretty entertaining. Augantis have to be pleased with three men (all of which are out of contract) getting into the top 15. The highlight of the tour was a great tactical win all down to Tombak.
Overall:
1
John-Lee Augustyn
Utensilnord Named
30h22'22
2
Juan Tamayo
Team WIT
+ 8
3
José Herrada
Movistar Team
+ 20
4
Nairo Quintana
Movistar Team
s.t.
5
Marius Bernatonis
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
+ 1'17
6
Darijus Dzervus
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
+ 1'50
7
Patxi Vila
Utensilnord Named
s.t.
8
Gang Xu
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
+ 2'52
9
Sergey Valynin
RusVelo
+ 3'00
10
Sergey Chernetskiy
Itera - Katusha
s.t.
11
Fausto Fognini
Team WIT
+ 3'33
12
Henry Frusto
Team Nippo
+ 3'45
13
Jonathan Breyne
Landbouwkrediet - Euphony
+ 3'51
14
Dmitriy Gruzdev
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
s.t.
15
Jacobus Venter
Team Differdange - Magic-Sportfood.de
+ 3'57
Points:
1
Ángel Vicioso
Katusha Team
149
2
Stefan Van Dijk
Accent Jobs - Willems Veranda's
137
3
Jérôme Baugnies
Team NetApp
89
4
Jonas Ljungblad
Team Differdange - Magic-Sportfood.de
87
5
Sacha Modolo
Colnago - CSF Inox
73
6
Janek Tombak
TEAM AUGANTIS VISAS PELSNAS
68
Mountain:
1
Henry Frusto
Team Nippo
39
2
Eloy Ruiz
Andalucía
26
3
Bartosz Huzarski
Team NetApp
25
4
Jay Thomson
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
24
5
Ian Bibby
Endura Racing
18
Young Riders:Tamayo
Team: Augantis 1:30 over Movistar.
Edited by The Rider on 28-04-2012 19:52
This was a hot day of racing which came down to the last 10km. Topsport Vlanderen were driving the peloton and the bridge was made to the breakaway. Joao Cabreira, a previous transfer target for Augantis, attacked out of the break just as the groups came together. Topsort Vlanderen then just stopped riding, Goesinnen (Augantis) attacked in the closing kilometres but was never going to catch the former portuguese champion.
Results:
Augantis were also racing in:
GP Poly Normandie: Which was won by Delfosse (Lambouwkrediet) who just rode away from the peloton in the last 60 km showing great strength:
Trofeo Matteoti: Which was won a smallish bunch sprint by Pietropolli (Lampre) Biondo was the teams best finisher in 11th.
Other results from races in which Augantis weren;t involoved: Tour de france:
1st Cadel Evans
2nd Andy Shleck
3rd Ivan Basso
Points Jersey: Cavendish +4 wins
Mountains Jersey: Coppel
Also stages for: Farrar, Kloden, Chavanel and Devolder won on the champs elyesses with his breakaway companion with a gap of over 14 minutes.
GP de Kranj: A Efimkin
Tour of Austria: M Fothen
Brescia Tour: Dario Cataldo
Tour of Wallonie: M Ladagnous
San Sebastien: P Gilbert
Coppa Placci: Trentin
Sparkassen Giro: R Obst
At this point in the season Augantis are battling out for second in the league with Team Type 1, Lambouwkrediet and Accent Jobs. As signings are continuing to be made.
Edited by The Rider on 22-06-2012 19:13
Looks interesting! I,ll definitly follow 
