@0buKKaKe: His form was 62 points when the race started, and 70 points when it ends now. After this he will lower his form again and get ready for either the classics, or Volta a Catalunya. Depending on how Rodriguez Oliver and Zaballa can do during March month.
@cmfos: I used 99% and relay, he was the only one working in the breakaway group, so I decided just sacrifice him to keep the gap for Valverde, was much easier then I thought it would be.
[size=24] Mallorca Challenge[/size]
Stage 4/5
The early break is quite big today, but mostly weak riders, so Caisse should be able to keep it within resonable distance
Only 35km later they are caught, Ciasse took some hard relays on the climb
Miholjevic is the next person trying to get away
but he fails.....after that it's Boogerd's turn, he manages to get a gap
Valverde drives the peleton really hards and attacks at the end of the climb to make sure Boogerd doesn't get a chance to gain time.
Valverde is on 2 time stage winner O'Grady's wheel
but he can't get past, O'Grady takes another stage, Valverde keeps the leader jersey
[size=9]
Rank Name Team Time
1 Stuart O'Grady Team CSC 4h22'24 2 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
3 Daniele Contrini Tinkoff Credit Systems s.t.
4 Francisco Mancebo Perez Relax - Gam s.t.
5 Mikhail Ignatiev Tinkoff Credit Systems s.t.
6 Theo Eltink Rabobank s.t.
7 Julián Sánchez Pimienta Relax - Gam s.t.
8 Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas s.t.
9 David Herrero Llorente Karpin Galicia s.t.
10 Paolo Bettini Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
11 Luis Perez Rodriguez Andalucia - Cajasur s.t.
12 David Bernabeu Garcia Fuerteventura - Canarias s.t.
13 Wladimir Miholjevic Liquigas s.t.
14 Jorge Ferrio Luque Andalucia - Cajasur s.t.
15 Gustavo Dominguez Lemos Karpin Galicia s.t.
16 Jesús Del Nero Saunier Duval - Prodir s.t.
17 Addy Engels Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
18 Johan Van Summeren Predictor-Lotto s.t.
19 Ramon Troncoso Sobrino Karpin Galicia s.t.
20 Dmytro Grabovskyy Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
21 Isidro Nozal Vega Karpin Galicia s.t. 22 Vladimir Efimkin Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
23 Serge Baguet Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
24 Jurgen Van den Broeck Predictor-Lotto s.t.
25 Oscar Sevilla Relax - Gam s.t.
26 Michael Boogerd Rabobank s.t.
27 Gerrit Glomser Team Volksbank s.t.
28 Cédric Vasseur Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
29 Daniel Moreno Fernandez Relax - Gam s.t.
30 Filippo Pozzato Liquigas s.t.
31 Ángel Vicioso Relax - Gam s.t.
32 Francisco José Lara Ruíz Andalucia - Cajasur s.t.
33 Carlos Castaño Panadero Karpin Galicia s.t.
34 Gustavo César Veloso Karpin Galicia s.t.
35 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez Karpin Galicia s.t.
36 Santiago Perez Fernandez Relax - Gam s.t.
37 Grischa Niermann Rabobank s.t.
38 José Luis Arrieta Ag2r Prévoyance s.t.
39 David Cañada Saunier Duval - Prodir s.t.
40 Carlos Sastre Team CSC s.t.
41 Robert Gesink Rabobank s.t.
42 Juan Antonio Flecha Rabobank s.t.
43 Alan Perez Lezaun Euskaltel - Euskadi s.t.
44 Koos Moerenhout Rabobank s.t.
45 Denis Menchov Rabobank s.t.
46 Rubén Lobato Elvira Saunier Duval - Prodir s.t.
47 Mauro Facci Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
48 Santos González Capilla Karpin Galicia + 1'20
49 Dmitry Kozontchuk Rabobank s.t.
50 David Zabriskie Team CSC s.t.
GC before last stage:
Rank Name Team Time 1 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte Caisse d'Epargne 14h23'03
2 Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas + 1'01
3 Oscar Sevilla Relax - Gam + 1'05
4 Stuart O'Grady Team CSC + 1'07
5 Michael Boogerd Rabobank + 2'07
6 Filippo Pozzato Liquigas + 2'14
7 Daniele Contrini Tinkoff Credit Systems + 2'18
8 Dmytro Grabovskyy Quick Step - Innergetic + 2'24
9 Paolo Bettini Quick Step - Innergetic + 2'26
10 David Herrero Llorente Karpin Galicia s.t.
[/size]
Edited by alex153 on 02-05-2007 19:13
than wow again, on hard with form 62-70 you got my respect mate
but its for sure that at start of the season other riders dont have peak althou, and during season wining will be much more difficult i think ... well see
anyway you inspired me to start new career also on hard, just to try, but i will take strong ASTANA and DB PackRasmu89 - 2007 v4.4 (if ULE would still ride i would take t-mobile for sure ) im gonna start it probably tonight
Hard is fun because it is quite challenging. Obviously, O'Grady is on good form! If I want to win early season races, I usually look for my strong riders who have the best starting form and go with those. (well, I also cheat with training camps )
So the only goal today is to defend the jersey for Valverde, will we succeed?
The break has 2.15 with 20km left, and they have a rider only 2 min behind in the GC!
No need to worry, gap down to 55sec after hard work by Efimkin ( the dude deserves a trophy for the help in this race ) and Valverde.
Nozal Vega takes a nice stage win
Valverde wins the bunch sprint and wins the GC as well --8)
[size=9]Rank Name Team Time
1 Isidro Nozal Vega Karpin Galicia 3h54'56
2 Geert Steurs Predictor-Lotto s.t.
3 José Luis Arrieta Ag2r Prévoyance s.t.
4 José Ruíz Sanchez Andalucia - Cajasur s.t.
5 Mauro Facci Quick Step - Innergetic s.t. 6 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte Caisse d'Epargne + 54
7 Paolo Bettini Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
8 Francisco Mancebo Perez Relax - Gam s.t.
9 David Bernabeu Garcia Fuerteventura - Canarias s.t.
10 Oscar Sevilla Relax - Gam s.t.
11 David Herrero Llorente Karpin Galicia s.t.
12 Serge Baguet Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
13 Jurgen Van den Broeck Predictor-Lotto s.t.
14 Denis Menchov Rabobank s.t.
15 Theo Eltink Rabobank s.t.
16 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez Karpin Galicia s.t.
17 Gerrit Glomser Team Volksbank s.t.
18 Luis Perez Rodriguez Andalucia - Cajasur s.t.
19 Stuart O'Grady Team CSC s.t.
20 Dmytro Grabovskyy Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
21 Ramon Troncoso Sobrino Karpin Galicia s.t.
22 Gustavo Dominguez Lemos Karpin Galicia s.t.
23 Johan Van Summeren Predictor-Lotto s.t.
24 Michael Boogerd Rabobank s.t.
25 Francisco José Lara Ruíz Andalucia - Cajasur s.t.
26 Jorge Ferrio Luque Andalucia - Cajasur s.t.
27 Daniele Contrini Tinkoff Credit Systems s.t.
28 Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas s.t.
29 Ángel Vicioso Relax - Gam s.t. 30 Vladimir Efimkin Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
31 Jesús Del Nero Saunier Duval - Prodir s.t.
32 Filippo Pozzato Liquigas s.t.
33 Koos Moerenhout Rabobank s.t.
34 Juan Antonio Flecha Rabobank s.t.
35 Santiago Perez Fernandez Relax - Gam s.t.
36 Carlos Castaño Panadero Karpin Galicia s.t.
37 Unai Etxebarria Euskaltel - Euskadi s.t.
38 Rubén Lobato Elvira Saunier Duval - Prodir s.t.
39 Addy Engels Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
40 Mikhail Ignatiev Tinkoff Credit Systems s.t.
41 Wladimir Miholjevic Liquigas s.t.
42 Cédric Vasseur Quick Step - Innergetic s.t.
43 Alan Perez Lezaun Euskaltel - Euskadi s.t.
44 Roberto Petito Liquigas + 1'35
45 David Cañada Saunier Duval - Prodir s.t.
46 Carlos Sastre Team CSC s.t.
47 Marcus Ljungqvist Team CSC + 1'53
48 Julián Sánchez Pimienta Relax - Gam s.t.
49 Daniel Lloyd DFL - Cyclingnews - Litespeed s.t.
50 Robert Gesink Rabobank s.t.
Rank Name Team Time 1 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte Caisse d'Epargne 18h18'53
2 Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas + 1'01
3 Oscar Sevilla Relax - Gam + 1'05
4 Stuart O'Grady Team CSC + 1'07
5 Isidro Nozal Vega Karpin Galicia + 1'12
6 Michael Boogerd Rabobank + 2'07
7 Filippo Pozzato Liquigas + 2'14
8 Daniele Contrini Tinkoff Credit Systems + 2'18
9 Dmytro Grabovskyy Quick Step - Innergetic + 2'24
10 Paolo Bettini Quick Step - Innergetic + 2'26
[/size]
Good win by Valverde, went easier then I expected, I guess the top riders doesn't have that much of form yet. Valverde tried to get in decet fitness for this race (65 points) so now he will go back a bit and get ready for the April/May month.
sorry about the delay, but had two national exams in english this week that took most of my time.
[size=24]Manager's view on Pro Tour - March[/size]
The real start of the season is here now. We already have two wins this season, but now it's time to show ourselves against the big teams. There are three pro tour races this month, Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico and Milano-Sanremo. Our sponsors demand a top 3 in Paris-Nice, but I doubt we will be able to manage that.
Paris-Nice: We are going to send a squad with Karpets and Zaballa as co-leaders. Karpets was planned to be the only leader, but lack of form from his side has changed that. There are many strong riders in the race, so we have to be realistic. My hopes are that one of them will take a top 10 GC place to get some pro tour points. A stage win would be nice as well.
Tirreno-Adriatico: Some very interesting profiles for this race here in 2007 makes it hard to chose a leader from our side. In the end we decided to use the same sulution as in P-N, Perez Sanchez and Gutierrez will be co-leaders. Here we have some higher hopes, maybe a top 5 GC place if we are lucky, but I'm satisfied with the same as in P-N. Pro tour points and maybe a stage win. We have a strong Gutierrez here, so a win in the TT should be possible.
Milano-Sanremo: Here I'm not really sure what to do. We have Reynes that's a good sprinter that should survive the climb, but he is still to slow against the best. We don't have any hilly riders that's in that good form, but maybe Zaballa or Rodriguez Oliver can do something. Here I don't have any goals what so ever.
MSR is tough because you need guys with big stamina, decent hills and top sprinting.
Alex, do you have difficulty controlling the breakaways on Hard level? I have a devil of a time catching breakaways, even when I have a squad of 70+ Flat riders relaying at 99% for the last 50 km. I can barely catch breakaways of weak riders on little T1 or C1 single day races. What's been your experience?
cmfos wrote:
MSR is tough because you need guys with big stamina, decent hills and top sprinting.
Alex, do you have difficulty controlling the breakaways on Hard level? I have a devil of a time catching breakaways, even when I have a squad of 70+ Flat riders relaying at 99% for the last 50 km. I can barely catch breakaways of weak riders on little T1 or C1 single day races. What's been your experience?
Looking forward to more of your season B)
Yeah, MSR will most likely go to hell, hehe.
Yeah, it's really hard, usually I just try and control the distance and hope that the other teams will help me. For some reason they seem much stronger. When the breakaway riders are really weak it works most of the time, but a rider like Piil or Voigt is almost impossible.
)
