After a nice long break, its exam time, so instead of revising, i decided to do a few days of this
02.03.2007
3 Jours du Vaucluse
The team is coming here for the sponsors goal of a stage win, no easy feat! and a personal goal of winning another mountains jersey. The team will be happy with either, and over the moon with both, thats for sure.
The riders selected for the aim of winning a stage are:
Stage one
A series of attacks started from km 3, with a large group of 12 making a gap of a minute quickly on the bunch.
It was not to be however, as the few teams who didnt have anyone represented refused to let such a large number of riders go.
Brouzes quickly attacked again, and managed to take max points at the first intermediate sprint, and a few extra euros in the bank!
Just as the main climb of the day started, Belkov responding to a few attacks, and the way his legs were obviously feeling, he flew off the front and past the riders in front of him to start the main break of the day.
Belkovs fierce attack caused 2 groups to come away from the bunch behind him as he took the 16 points on offer for the first climb.
By the second climb of the day, all the groups had formed together, and again Belkov attacked to extend his lead in the mountains.
With the fast pace being set on the front of the peloton, riders were finding it hard to stick with the lumby course, and the gap quickly came down.
On the last rise of the day, Levarlet responded to the winning attack, quickly finding the back wheel of the attacker Gonzalo.
Unfortunately it was not to be, as his legs gave way leading upto the finish, and he lost the back wheel, almost as quickly as he gained it.
With 2km to go, it was clear Gonzalo was going to win, Levarlet was rapidly fading away, and tried to latch onto the wheels of those who came past him.
He hung on to claim 5th, while Gonzalo won, losing out to Boasson Hagen in the last metre for forth.
Belkov easily pulled on the mountains jersey with a clear lead.
Stage Rankings
Rank Name Team Time
1 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL 3h32'16
2 Maarten Tjallingii SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
3 Arnaud Lesvenan ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
4 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI s.t. 5 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 s.t.
6 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL s.t.
7 Michael Reihs TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
8 Lars Wackernagel TEAM SPARKASSE s.t.
9 Tomasz Kiendys CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE s.t.
10 Tomasz Lisowicz CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE s.t. 22 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
45 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
46 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 s.t.
63 Yannick Martinez AUBER 93 + 2'12
91 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 + 7'48
Overall
Rank Name Team Time
1 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL 3h31'56
2 Maarten Tjallingii SKIL - SHIMANO + 8
3 Arnaud Lesvenan ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE + 12 4 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 + 14
5 Lucas Schädlich THÜRINGER ENERGIE TEAM + 18
6 Edvald Boasson Hagen TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI + 20 7 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 s.t.
8 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL s.t.
9 Michael Reihs TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
10 Lars Wackernagel TEAM SPARKASSE s.t. 23 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
46 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
63 Yannick Martinez AUBER 93 + 2'32
91 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 + 8'08
Mountains
Rank Name Team Mountain 1 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 22
2 Sebastian Frey TEAM SPARKASSE 12
3 Gabriel Rasch TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI 10
4 Yuri Trofimov MOSCOW STARS 10
5 Piotr Zielinski BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX 8
So far the team is happy with the results, with the attack Levarlet put in, we all thought he would solo to victory, but the legs just weren't there. Hes showing good form though, and we are sure he will achieve good results over the next 2 days.
With the second stage of the Tour du Vaucluse looming, the squad were feeling better about today, and far more settled.
Within 1km of the start, Belkov flew into the attack for the 2nd stage in a row, even though the mountains were later on in the stage.
A group of 7 formed after half way, with the maximum gap being around 7 minutes with 80km to go, and both main climbs.
Belkov attacked from within the group with 4km to the top of the first climb with the thought of taking maximum points from the stage.
He manages to take 1st place at the first climb, and another 16 points, but only manages 2nd place for the minor climb, and so another 4 points.
As Belkovs break got caught, Brouzes under orders to be aggressive, attacked in an attempt to get away for the stage win.
As he got to the bottom of the final hill, it was clear he wasn't going to hold out, and got swallowed back up by the bunch.
Morizot was next to attack with 10km to go to the finish, unfortunately his chain slipped just as he formed a little break with Popov and Kiendys, so back to the bunch he went!
When Levarlet saw what was happening, he quickly jumped on the pedals himself.
But it was too little, too late, as Kiendys strolled across the line in 1st place.
Levarlet managed 3rd today, so with the way he's improving each stage, tomorrow he should win one!
He also managed to make such a gap that he was bumped upto 3rd place overall, with Brouzes still holding onto 7th place due to the time bonus he picked up on stage one. Drujon managed to sprint upto a top 20 finish, which is pretty good for his second day of racing this season.
Rank Name Team Time
1 Tomasz Kiendys CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE 3h57'00
2 Evgeni Popov RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t. 3 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 + 33
4 Maarten Den Bakker SKIL - SHIMANO + 46
5 Noan Lelarge BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
6 Andrei Klyuev MOSCOW STARS s.t.
7 Anthony Colin ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t.
8 Kazuya Okazaki NIPPO - MEITAN HONPO - ASADA s.t.
9 Javier AramendÃa ORBEA - OREKA S.D.A. s.t.
10 David Derepas ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE s.t. 17 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
28 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
32 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 s.t.
68 Yannick Martinez AUBER 93 + 2'13
77 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 + 4'34
Mountains Jersey
Rank Name Team Mountain General 1 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 14 36
2 Gabriel Rasch TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI 14 24
3 Sebastian Frey TEAM SPARKASSE 4 16
4 Benjamin Baumgartner ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI 6 10
5 Yuri Trofimov MOSCOW STARS 0 10
Sprinters Jersey
Rank Name Team Points General
1 Tomasz Kiendys CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE 25 32 2 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 16 28
3 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL 3 28
4 Maarten Tjallingii SKIL - SHIMANO 0 20
5 Evgeni Popov RABOBANK CONTINENTAL 20 20
One stage to go, and still need the stage win!
Edited by rjc_43 on 24-01-2008 16:55
Can the team possibly get a win? The sponsors goal is very much needed for an increased budget for the following years, so to please them is extremely important.
With the amount of Mountain points up for grabs, only those who have any points can overtake Belkov in the classification, but if he even so much as scores 2 points, he has come first.
Saying that, as the race rolled out, Feillu attacked. With his 2 points previously got, he could quite easily take the jersey away, and with the nice hill stats he has, he was a definate danger. So with the common sense of one way above his years, Belkov took off after him.
At the first climb of the day, Feillu took the main points, and Belkov rolled over in 3rd place to confirm his lead, and win!
A string of 3rds, and 2nd places over the remaining climbs gave Belkov a massive lead in the mountains jersey. He clearly felt the need to stamp his authority on the race!
On the final dig of the day, Brouzes who told us earlier in the race he was feeling amazing, shot off the front. There was 18km left to go, and he felt good enough to try to time trial his way to victory. Amazingly, we thought he was going clear, as he rapidly built up a lead of 50+ seconds on the descent.
However, with only 6km left to roll, his legs gave way, and the lead just disappeared!
There goes our chance of winning
Levarlet, a pipped favourite for the day, however, had a different plan. As soon as he saw Brouzes dying out in front, he moved up on the outside, and sprung a fast one on the sprinters!
With 2km to go, he had a small gap, and with every pedal stroke it was increasing!
Amazingly, with 1km to go as he started to sprint he had a 15second lead. Could he hold it we wondered?!
I think the picture tells the story pretty well
With the win, and a 13 second gap, we wondered whether he had closed down on second place at all, but not quite enough. But we were definately happy, and so were the sponsors! But as a consolation prize, Levarlet did take home the sprinters jersey. (The first one i've ever won in any game!!!!!!)
With two top 10 finishes, we came 2nd best team, to the Rabo Cont team. Also Levarlet was 2nd in the young riders classification overall. Not too shabby a ride at all!
Sprinters Jersey
Rank Name Team Points General 1 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 25 53
2 Eduardo Gonzalo AGRITUBEL 20 48
3 Tomasz Kiendys CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE 0 32
4 Michael Reihs TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN 14 23
5 Evgeni Popov RABOBANK CONTINENTAL 2 22
6 Maarten Tjallingii SKIL - SHIMANO 0 20
7 Yuri Trofimov MOSCOW STARS 16 18
8 Tom Leezer RABOBANK CONTINENTAL 12 16
9 Arnaud Lesvenan ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE 0 16
10 Maarten Den Bakker SKIL - SHIMANO 0 14
Mountains Jersey
Rank Name Team Mountain General 1 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 26 62
2 Romain Feillu AGRITUBEL 28 30
3 Iván Melero ORBEA - OREKA S.D.A. 24 28
4 Gabriel Rasch TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI 0 24
5 Michael Tronborg TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN 18 18
6 Sebastian Frey TEAM SPARKASSE 0 16
7 Benjamin Baumgartner ATLAS - ROMER'S HAUSBÄCKEREI 0 10
8 Yuri Trofimov MOSCOW STARS 0 10
9 Piotr Zielinski BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX 0 8
10 Paul Martens SKIL - SHIMANO 0 8
To be honest, i was kinda wetting myself on that race cos i really wanted to win one. Its a strange stage race because lead out can only start from 3km out, and sprint from 1km out, and so its often whoever gets to 1km first wins, so i had that in mind as i entered the last 20km. I got lucky thank goodness! Expect to see more from Levarlet, thats for sure!
After the stress of achieving the sponsors goal, and with another one just a couple of weeks away, the 3 days of racing at Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen would be essential for keeping Levarlet in top form, and to stretch the legs of our sprinters, especially youngster Jollet.
The team list for this would be:
Drujon will be the lead sprinter as he is in form at the moment. The rest of the team will be practicing their leading out skills as well as honing fitness.
From the start of the stage 2 riders went out for a long one, with the daunting 220+kms to go for this stage no one else quite felt like following. This of course meant that there would be a bunch sprint for every sprint point or climb.
With this in mind, 5km out to the first sprint point, Gaudin led out Drujon who managed to spring a bonus point out on the other sprinters.
With 100km left to go in the stage, the gap was rapidly coming down thanks to the work of the Predictor-Lotto squad and Chocolade Jacques. With Drujon feeling this good, we sent up Chainel to help bring in the break as well.
With 70km left, the 2 breakaway companions surrendered to the bunch, and we started thinking we would have to help maintain the pace to prevent others from attempting to escape, but just as the words were uttered to move to the front, Jalabert took a flyer causing a response from a few riders.
Unfortunately, even with Brouzes and Morizot helping him, Jollet couldnt keep up over the tiny 1km long climb that rose upto 7% near the top.
So with 35km to go, he was spat out the back. All the teams effort would now be focused on Drujon, and seeing if he could put his good form to use.
The second break of the day was caught with 15km left to go, and soon after the lead out trains started up. Again Gaudin tried to lead out Drujon and was slowly creaping up the outside of the 3 other sprint trains, however, once the sprint started, Drujon would have to find another wheel to follow.
However, it was not to be, as Drujon just couldn't get close enough to the front, and so Pollack took the honours for the day.
Stage Rankings
Rank Name Team Time
1 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 5h30'43
2 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
4 Tom Veelers RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
5 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
6 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t.
7 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
8 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM s.t.
9 Tom Leezer RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t. 10 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
16 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 s.t.
21 Damien Gaudin AUBER 93 s.t.
61 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
72 Yannick Martinez AUBER 93 s.t.
85 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 s.t.
131 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 + 5'27
140 Thierry Jollet AUBER 93 + 12'14
Overall Rankings
Rank Name Team Time
1 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 5h30'33
2 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 4
3 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 6
4 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL + 7
5 Jarno Van Mingeroet JARTAZI PROMO FASHION + 8 6 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 + 9
7 Stefan Schreck T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
8 Tom Veelers RABOBANK CONTINENTAL + 10
9 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
10 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION s.t. 19 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 s.t.
24 Damien Gaudin AUBER 93 s.t.
64 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
75 Yannick Martinez AUBER 93 s.t.
86 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 s.t.
131 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 + 5'37
140 Thierry Jollet AUBER 93 + 12'24
Points Jersey
Rank Name Team Points
1 Olaf Pollack TEAM WIESENHOF FELT 15
2 Wouter Weylandt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 12
3 Nico Eeckhout CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 10
4 Tom Veelers RABOBANK CONTINENTAL 7
5 Gert Vanderaerden DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 6
6 Janek Tombak JARTAZI PROMO FASHION 5
7 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL 4
8 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL 3
9 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM 3
10 Jarno Van Mingeroet JARTAZI PROMO FASHION 2 11 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 2
Would the flatter course enable Jollet to actually finish in the bunch? Again Drujon would be looking for a podium place to confirm his form.
With a few climbs on the route, we decided to send Brouzes in the break to try and stay away, and to gain a few mountain points here and there.
He waited for the right moment to go and managed to get away in a group of 8.
He collected a few sprint bonuses for 2nd and 3rd places, as well as a first at one of the climbs and a 3rd at another, moving him into second place for the mountains jersey.
Of course the stage would come down to a sprint with too many teams not in the break. Again, Jollet couldn't hack the pace and just got dropped with his two helpers with 30km still to go.
With 5km to go, Drujon had managed to get right on the wheel of the previous stages winner, Pollack. He was hoping to wheel suck his way to the line.
But with 2km left, he couldn't change wheels over to the leader, and so had to remain stuck behind the worse rider. He eventually started to move, but it was too late to get a top 5 finish.
The stage would go to Andre Korff from T-Mobile, with Pollack taking another podium place with 2nd.
but you bet if i win a race with Auber i shall be over the moon!
