its been a while, started playing again to see if we got the Giro Wildcard,
Guess who get it...Barloworld and Ceramica Panaria (they arent even in the top 20...)
Tinkoff lead by a big margin and we were 9th and the 2nd best team with an Italian background, however, the Irish license and our slim lead over the real Italian teams probably cost us our Giro wildcard 'but isnt Barloworld British'? 'Yes my son, but thats cyalogic'
Dwight K. Schrute: 'I'm not a hero. Im just a mere defender of the office. You know who is a hero? Hiro from Heroes. That's a hero. And Bono'.
While plakker is working his magic on my Sparta Praha save we go on with our Italian friends from Tenax, however our squad wasnt so happy with the rain in Belgium today
Well we probably shouldnt be here but nevertheless we were invited by the Belgian organizers, our leader here is Murro together with Golcer, however after 10 kms Jure comes to me saying that he is still having problems with his right knee which he had hurt during Milano Torino...he thought that he was fit enough to start but didnt say anything because he thought I would leave him out of the starting lineup Jure apologizes but to teach him a lesson I tell him that he has to finish the race even though he;s hurt, he would end 174th leaving only CLancy and Wamsley behind him,but atleast he wont keep his injuries a secret again and neither will his teammates. The race then, Adriano Malori the young Italian who has been doing great lately was in a break of 21 riders today!
A big break but with 21 mediocre riders you wont beat the strong pack
The fact that Malori was one of the strongest in the break said enough about the strenght of the break, they were caught with 60 kms to go and then the game begins! Lots of attacks follow but since Murro is already having difficulties with hanging on he didnt play a role today. A break of 7 got away but in the end the final hill decided the final outcome and an Italian in a rainbow jersey easily beats the rest, however I dont really recognize the jersey...
mmm, he does look familiar...will have to look him up on google
Result:
01. Paolo Bettini QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC 4h50'17
02. Ruggero Marzoli TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 1'26
03. Leonardo Bertagnolli LIQUIGAS s.t.
04. Johan Vansummeren PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
05. Dominique Cornu PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 2'14
06. Jelle Vanendert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
07. Andrea Tonti QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
08. Michail Ignatiev TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
09. Koos Moerenhout RABOBANK s.t.
10. Maxime Monfort COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
11 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC s.t.
12 Alessandro Vanotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
13 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER s.t.
14 Sergei Kolesnikov UNIBET.COM s.t.
15 Dmitri Grabovski QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
16 Christian Knees TEAM MILRAM s.t.
17 Paolo Tiralongo LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
18 Gianpaolo Caruso LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
19 Theo Eltink RABOBANK s.t.
20 Matej Mugerli LIQUIGAS s.t.
21 Dario Cataldo LIQUIGAS s.t.
22 Tadej Valjavec LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
23 Addy Engels QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
24 Michael Albasini LIQUIGAS s.t.
25 Pieter Mertens PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
26 Dmitri Fofonov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
27 Roman Kreuziger LIQUIGAS s.t. 28 Christian Murro TENAX s.t.
29 Wim Van Huffel PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
30 Evgeni Petrov TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
31 Tom Criel UNIBET.COM s.t.
32 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS + 4'03
33 Mickaël Delage FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 4'38
34 Bram de Groot RABOBANK s.t.
35 Salvatore Commesso TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
36 Elio Aggiano TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
37 Ricardo Serrano TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
38 Marc de Maar RABOBANK s.t.
39 Markus Eichler UNIBET.COM s.t.
40 Thierry Marichal FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
41 Gerben Löwik RABOBANK s.t.
42 Giuseppe Guerini T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
43 Vasili Kiryenka TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
44 Kevin Hulsmans QUICK STEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
45 Matthew Lloyd PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
46 Geert Steurs PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
47 Tom Stubbe CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 5'34 48 Diego Ulissi TENAX s.t.
49 Serge Pauwels CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 6'14
50 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 7'50
Dwight K. Schrute: 'I'm not a hero. Im just a mere defender of the office. You know who is a hero? Hiro from Heroes. That's a hero. And Bono'.
pity the field was so strong, but i suppose it gives you an idea of how much you need to improve the hilly-riding aspect of your team for when you get promoted
(yes i do realise your 9th, but only 200 points from the lead)
Edited by Addy291 on 02-12-2007 16:32
well Murro is a good rider but ofcourse in these types of races he is nothing but a top 20 rider, our biggest need however is still a sprinter because for the mass sprints we have absolutely no one...
Dwight K. Schrute: 'I'm not a hero. Im just a mere defender of the office. You know who is a hero? Hiro from Heroes. That's a hero. And Bono'.
