nils erik wrote:
The first one is ironic, Net-App was just a random team,could have write any team except for Vacansoleil there. As Vacansoleil already were the heading, I reckoned you all would still understand.
then don't put it in if people should already assume things
nice win from Boy, it looked like he had to come from far
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
A harder stage than yesterday, and we are going to protect Boy's jersey. Noone from our team will attack until Boy has officially lost it, but if so Sergey or Johnny can try their luck.
As yesterday, it took a long time before the break got away, and because the stage was short, they did not get much time. Jack Bobridge (Orica), Assan Bazayev(Astana), Julien Vermote (Omega Pharma), Vicente Reynes (Lotto), Juraj Sagan (Cannondale) and Laurent Mangel (FDJ) never reached more than about a minute. They were no danger, even not when Matti Breschel attacked and beame a part of it.
The group were reeled in only 8 kilometres before todays last climb, and a new and more dangerous group were established. Jose Ivan Gutierrez and Daniele Pietropolli attacked, and got a big gap. With these two a minute in front in the bottom of the climb, and multiple riders attacking, we understood that this could be hard for Boy.
Still he managed to keep himself in the peloton over the top with only a single rider in front, Francesco Gavazzi from Astana.
Despite a heroic work from Vacansoleil in the downhill noone could take the stage win from Gavazzi, and he also put himself in the lead with 4 stages to go. Boy is still 2nd, and have the lead in the youth competition.
1. Francesco Gavazzi
2. Samuel Dumoulin +16
3. Elia Favilli
4. Jan Bakelants
5. Giampaolo Caruso
6. Christophe Riblon
7. Romain Bardet
8. Geraint Thomas
9. Danilo Hondo
10. Manuele Mori
15. Boy Van Poppel
24. Johnny Hoogerland
25. Sergey Lagutin
39. Grega Bole
52. Lieuwe Westra
53. Pim Ligthart
58. Kris Boeckmans +2.22
One more hard stage will probably squeeze the sauce out of Boy, and we start to plan the future of the race without him close to the top of the GC. Still we will keep our boys quiet from the start, and Sergey will not attack until Boy is behind.
In the third day in a row, the pace was hard from the start, and it took 60 kilometres until the breakaway was free. Todays breakaway was only one man, Manuel Quinziato from BMC.
He got a gap of 4 minutes down, but was never much of a threat. Astana pushed hard in the peloton, and showed that Gavazzi wanted to stay in the orange leaders jersey.
The show started for real with 30 kilometres to the finishing line, when Karsten Kroon, Murilo Fischer, Jose Ivan Gutierrez, Thierry Hupond, Egoi Martinez and Tomas Vaitkus attacked, and came up to Quinziato.
Gutierrez, Hupond, Kroon and Vaitkus were the strongest of them and when a bigger group containing GC leader Gavazzi attacked and came up, there were a strong 11 rider-group in the front, and we were forced to take action. With 6 kilometres left, we managed to reach the front group. In the bottom of the last climb the peloton were packed. Then new riders attacked. Dennis, Moser, Thomas, Favilli, Kolobnev and Dumoulin got a gap, and we had to go up pulling one more time. Sergey tried to follow but did not have legs, and Boy were in trouble behind.
Favilli and Dennis were the two strongest riders in the group, and they managed to hold the peloton at a distance. Favilli ended up with the victory, and the two got a gap of 39 seconds down. Grega was our strongest in the uphill finish and got an ok result, and the other finished in the peloton.
1. Elia Favilli
2. Rohan Dennis
3. Jan Bakelants +29
4. Alexander Kolobnev
5. Michael Matthews
6. Geraint Thomas
7. Pablo Lastras
8. Giampaolo Caruso
9. Christophe Riblon
10. Moreno Moser
15. Grega Bole
29. Sergey Lagutin
38. Lieuwe Westra
42. Johnny Hoogerland
47. Pim Ligthart
52. Boy Van Poppel
73. Kris Boeckmans
GC:
1. Elia Favilli
2. Rohan Dennis +12
3. Francesco Gavazzi +21
4. Boy Van Poppel +37
5. Samuel Dumoulin +41
6. Jan Bakelants +43
7. Matti Breschel +45
8. Giampaolo Caruso +47
9. Danilo Hondo +47
10. Christophe Riblon +47
30. Sergey Lagutin +47
33. Johnny Hoogerland +47
36. Grega Bole +47
42. Lieuwe Westra +47
43. Pim Ligthart +47
53. Kris Boeckmans +2.53
Edited by nils erik on 18-08-2013 12:13
A new sprint stage is coming up. Boy has been using a lot of energy trying to keep on in the GC, but we still hope that he can make a good result in todays sprint. He lost the youth jersey on yesterdays stage, but still hang on in 4th in the GC.
It was the first stage this year when the breakaway went early. Will Clarke, Manuel Quinziato, Ruben Perez, Aliaksandr Kuschynski and Haydn Roulston were the five lucky (or unlucky) of today. Both Roulston and Kuschynski had finished in the peloton in the first 3 stages, but Lampre did not see them as a threat, and allowed them to get a gap of 6 minutes at max.
Under the 10 km banner Will Clarke attacked and got a gap down to the rest of the breakaway. Down to the peloton there were 1 minute and Vacansoleil decoded it was time to take front. The rest of the break were catched quickly but Clarke held a great pace at front, and looked as he would get a stage win from a solo break, just like last year.
Pim made an awesome job and when he was finished Clarke was caught. Unfortunately Boy did not have the legs from the first stage, and when Kris started the sprint, Boy did not manage to completely hang on his wheel.
Boy did finish well, but was not even close to Elia Favilli, who won the stage in the leaders jersey. Still a 7th is not bad for him.
1. Elia Favilli
2. Robert Hunter
3. Samuel Dumoulin
4. Roberto Ferrari
5. Steele Von Hoff
6. Tony Gallopin 7. Boy Van Poppel
8. Borut Bozic
9. Yauheni Hutarovich
10. Andre Schulze
16. Kris Boeckmans
29. Pim Ligthart
65. Sergey Lagutin
76. Grega Bole
81. Johnny Hoogerland
112. Lieuwe Westra
Edited by nils erik on 21-08-2013 17:37
The 5th was the queen stage of the race, with two times up the Willunga Hill. Sergey was our man, as Boy definitely would not keep his 4th in the overall.
We had plans of getting Grega or Pim in todays break, but when they got at the front, five riders were already away. Kohler, Van Winden, De Kort, Bennett and McCarthy were the riders who got away. The peloton went really slow, as Lampre did not do anything to protect the orange jersey of Favilli. The five in front quickly got a 6 minutes gap, Van Winden and Bennett were provisional leaders of the race.
Both Boy and Sergey had great legs today; for Boy it would prbably not mean much, but for Sergey it was important, and he decided to be offensive on the stage. Not attacking on the first time up Willunga, but in the start of the last time.
When we was approaching Willunga for the first time Garmin set the pace to the extreme for Rohan Dennis. We could see that Sergey was not the only climber with good legs.
We saw an opportunity and joined the relay up the Willunga. The peloton became smashed and on the top it contained 17 riders, with Sergey, Pim, Grega and Johnny from Vacansoleil. In the front were Koen de Kort from the original break riding solo, with Jose Ivan Gutierrez from Movistar a minute behind.
Grega and Pim were dropped in the bottom of the Willunga after pacing from the first time up the hill, and it was up to Sergey and Johnny. Geraint Thomas attacked as the first one, and Elia Favilli started to follow, together with the two Movistar riders Gutierrez and Lastras. Johnny and Sergey was then number 5 and 6, but it was still long to the top.
Thomas ended up with a solid victory, but a 4th and 5th to Sergey and Johnny showed that our guys had good shape, and the season are still young. We will get more opportunities
1. Geraint Thomas
2. Elia Favilli +30
3. Pabli Lastras +38 4. Sergey Lagutin +38
5. Johnny Hoogerland +53
6. Romain Bardet +1.02
7. Jose Ivan Gutierrez +1.02
8. Giampaolo Caruso +1.02
9. Alexandr Kolobnev +1.02
10. Murilo Fischer +1.02
The last stage was the short, flat ending in Adelaide. There were two intermediate sprints and possible to get 6 bonus seconds, and as Sergey were 4 seconds behind Lastras in the GC, we would try to take him onto the podium. Sergey, as an ok sprinter, did not have any problems with winning the first sprint, and now he was only 1 second behind.
(had to take the picture some time after the sprint, as i accidentally made Sergey celebrate)
After heavy attacking from all the teams in the peloton it was difficult for Sergey to reach up on the second, and a little disappointed, he ended up with the 4th place. No podium for him.
In the last laps the pace were high once more and Sergey had to suffer a bit to stay in the peloton after his attacks earlier. Heavy wind made many riders fell off the peloton, but we had still all of our riders in front. Koen de Kort was once again trying a solo break, but got caught 9 kilometres from the line, and Boy started to once more prepare for the mass sprint, taking the wheel of Murilo Fischer.
It was clear that Fischers wheel was the right to be on, but Boy did not hold on to the finish. Also Borut Bozic and Robbie Hunter went past, but throughout this race, Boy had done better in the sprints than we expected, and we should be very happy, also with the 4th place in Adelaide.
1. Borut Bozic
2. Murilo Fischer
3. Robbie Hunter 4. Boy Van Poppel
5. Elia Favilli
6. Rohan Dennis
7. Geraint Thomas
8. Samuel Dumoulin
9. Matthew Hayman
10. Matti Breschel
From now on I will have more stages in each part, because this was boring to read, and takes a long time to publish. I have about 50 parts ready on my computer, so will take longer parts from now on.
Also I will of course not make reports as long, about smaller races. But the length will be decided later.
Edited by nils erik on 28-08-2013 12:42
At the same time as some of our team was riding in Australia, 8 other riders were riding in southern France. They were:
Maurits Lammeritnk Björn Leukemans Bert-Jan Lindeman Tomasz Marczynski Wouter Mol Mirko Selvaggi Rafael Valls Willem Wauters
Originally Björn should have been our definite leader here, but sickness have pulled his shape down, so we will just start and see how it's going.
25 strong teams were on the startline, and some were of course more exciting then others. The bookmakers favourites were Jonathan Hivert from Sojasun, followed by Björn and Dries Devenyns of Omega Pharma. But with the presence of 12 WorldTour teams, many good riders were on the list.
None of the french teams were in todays break, which probably makes them disappointed. Instead Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural) and Ramon Sinkeldam (Argos) were the two to lead the riders into the mountains outside Marseille. A big amount of crashes characterized the first half of the race and favourite Hivert was one of the unlucky riders. Also Sinkeldam in front were on the ground in the poor weather, but luckily noone from Vacansoleil.
The two guys in front were never much of a threat, but in the biggest climbs of today, the first riders started to attack. Arnaud Gerard (Bretagne), Mads Christensen(Saxo-Tinkoff), Anthony Charteau (Euopcar) and Sergio Pardilla (MTN-Qhubeka) were the riders trying to break free, and the four were quickly closing the gap to Sinkeldam and Piedra.
The 6 riders kept the gap down to the peloton for some kilometres, but none of the groups fought very hard. This meant that the race probably would be decided in a mass sprint. This was a surprise for us, as we did not have any sprinters in the race, so in the last hill Tomasz tried his luck in an attack.
But he was quickly caught, as Astana set up the pace for the first time in the race. Straight after Marczynski got caught Christophe Le Mevel attacked, and got more of a gap than Tomasz. We saw quickly that this could be dangerous, so we set up the whole team in front trying to catch Le Mevel.
But he was too strong, and got the victory with just a few metres down to Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg. We had three riders in the end, but none of them managed a top sprint, and Maurits became our best in 7th.
1. Christophe Le Mevel
2. Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg
3. Jonathan Hivert
4. Andrea Palini
5. Cyril Lemoine
6. Paolo Tiralongo 7. Maurits Lammertink
8. Simon Geschke 9. Mirko Selvaggi
10. Blel Kadri
12. Björn Leukemans
40. Wouter Mol +14
43. Bert Jan Lindeman +14
46. Willem Wauters +14
49. Rafael Valls +14
59. Tomasz ;Marczynski +14
_____________________________
Thanks for posting, have to say I am really happy for the results Down Under, 3rd, 4th, stage win and 1st in team classification means a lot.
Lieuwe Westra Kris Boeckmans Bert Jan Lindeman Marco Marcato Wout Poels Mirko Selvaggi Rafael Valls Willem Wauters
A small race stacked with stars; Sky takes part with Rigoberto Uran and Edvald Boasson Hagen, and Enrico Gasparotto, Jean Christophe Peraud, Thibaut Pinot and Andrea Guardini is other superstars on the start. Lieuwe is our leader, and Kris will be preparing for the mass sprint stage.
Stage 1:
No breakaway at all. Rafael and Wouter has got sick and really suffered today. The stage ended with a mass sprint, where Kris had a poor position at the wheel of Boasson Hagen. A perfect lead-out by IAM means victory for Sebastien Hinault, with Matteo Pelucchi in third. Francisco Ventoso grabs 2nd, and Kris ended up as number 11.
Stage 2:
An individual time trial, with a steep climb in the end. Rafael was the first rider on the start but due to his illness, the result was mediocre. After 100 out of 196 riders Vladimir Karpets was the outstanding leader of the race, with Wouter tied with Danny Pate at 2nd, 34 seconds behind the russian. Karpets' lead lasted long, but Tiziano Dall'Antonia and Mathias Frank ended up beating Wouter with just a few seconds.
BJ (Bert-Jan, yes, I know) had a horrible day on the tt bike, and got overtaken 1 minute by Jean Christophe Peraud, who at that time was 4th, behind Karpets, Gustav Larsson and Tom Dumoulin.
Lieuwe didn't start really well in 18th, but got the speed up on the last kilometres, coming in at 3rd, now 28 seconds behind Marco Pinotti, and 5 behind Jerome Coppel. He ended up 6th, also beaten by Geraint Thomas, Peter Velits and Edvald Boasson Hagen. Wouter became 21st, 1.10 behind Pinotti.
Stage 3:
A hilly stage. Marco managed to slip into the breakaway, together with Thierry Hupond (Argos), Francesco Failli (Vini Fantini) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ). Davide Rebellin stayed the whole stage alone between the breakaway and the peloton hunting KOM points. With 40 kilometres left the break had started on the hilly finish on the stage. Rebellin managed to get up as Pinot crashed heavily on a descent, so the leader group were still on 4 riders.
With two hills left to go Rebellin went alone, and Rinaldo Nocentini and Moreno Moser came up to Marcos group. The rest of the peloton, a group of about 30 riders relayed behind, and Lieuwe and Wouter was sitting in that. Nocentini attacked from this, and rode with Rebellin for a while before the CCC rider cracked. A group of 7 riders with Lieuwe attacked from the peloton in the last climb, but they were pulled in on the finishing line. Lieuwe ended up as 5th, 1,52 behind Nocentini. He is now 7th in the GC.
Stage 4:
The queen stage to Mont Faron. A breakaway wore established, including Maxim Iglinskiy, Georg Preidler, Garikoitz Bravo, Brice Feillu, Clement Koretzky, Guillaume Levarlet and Anthony Charteau. In the bottom of Mont Faron Levarlet, Bravo, Iglinskiy and Preidler still managed to hang on, but a group of three including Moreno Moser, Peter Velits and Nocentini had attacked from the peloton and was not far away. Lieuwe and Wouter suffered in the back of the peloton about 1.30 behind. Nocentini, Velits and Moser layed the other in the break behind, and Nocentini could take his second win in a row. Lieuwe destroyed our GC hope by ending 22nd, 3 minutes behind.
Stage 5:
One more hilly stage will end the race. Nocentinis lead is safe on 1 minute down to Velits, but we are going to fight for the stage win. Christian Knees, Amael Moinard, Anthony Charteau and Anthony Geslin were todays break, and even though they got more than 8 minutes down, there never was any danger and the winner would sit in the peloton. Lieuwe had one more bad day, and ended up 36th losing 3 minutes to stage winner Rigoberto Uran. Wouter ended up 18th as our best. This was not the results we had hoped for, but luckily not the most important race.
Sergey Lagutin Grega Bole Bert Jan Lindeman Wout Poels Jose Rujano Rafael Valls Frederik Veuchelen Willem Wauters
Jose and Frederik will ride their first race for the season, Sergey will try to keep the shape from Down Under and Wouter will get a revenge after a mediocre Mediterraneen.
One more french race with a lot of good riders participating. 12 world tour teams here as well, and the pace will be high. Both Sergey and Wouter is in shape, though; so we could still hope for good results in the two days race.
Stage 1:
An early break with Maxim Belkov (Katusha) Kevin Lalouette (Roubaix) and Fabio Polazzi (Wallonnie Bruxelles) went early, and got a gap of 7 minutes down to the peloton, controlled by Sky, because Edvald Boasson Hagen was on the start list here as well.
Within the last laps in Croix Valmer south of Saint-Tropez, the peloton cracked completely, as expected. Sergey and Rafael was not in a great position when the attacks started, and ended up in a smaller group about 50 seconds behind the winner Tom Dumoulin. Sergey ended up 10th and Rafael 17th. Wouter lost 2 minutes. Number two was Simon Clarke of Orica, and Julien El Fares of Sojasun ended up 3rd.
Stage 2:
One more hilly stage, but not as hard as the first on the profile. Still a split early on the stage, made the rest of the race go in extreme speed. We got Wouter, Sergey and Willem in the front, but Willem were dropped in the first big climb. In the end Sergey was fighting for the victory in a group of 13. Dan Martin attacked in the last kilometres and won the stage, while Sergey became 2nd in the sprint for second place, only beaten by Edvald Boasson Hagen. Wouter became 16th, about 3 minutes behind.
GC:
1. Tom Dumoulin
2. Daniel Martin +19
3. Simon Clarke +24
4. Edvald Boasson Hagen +42
5. Vasil Kiryienka +54 6. Sergey Lagutin +58
7. Rui Costa +1.06
8. Enrico Gasparotto +1.06
9. Daniel Moreno +1.06
10. Jerome Coppel +1.06
21. Wout Poels +3.51
84. Rafael Valls +7.51
85. Jose Rujano +7.51
87. Bert Jan Lindeman +7.51
93. Grega Bole +11.14
105. Frederik Veuchelen +12.30
133. Willem Wauters +15.40
Sprint:
1. Tom Dumoulin 31
2. Edvald Boasson Hagen 30
3. Dan Martin 30
4. Vasil Kiryienka 28
5. Simon Clarke 27 6. Sergey Lagutin 22
KOM :
1. Fabio Polazzi 20
2. Maxim Belkov 18
3. Dan Martin 18
4. Francesco Failli 18
5. Kevin Lalouette 12
Youth:
1. Tom Dumuoulin
2. Armindo Fonseca +3.10
3. Alexey Lutsenko +3.45
4. Arthur Vichot +3.51
5. Angel Madrazo +3.53
At the same time of Haut Var the team was also riding Trofeo Laigueglia; the only italian race for Vacansoleil, outside the World Tour.
The team were: Johnny Hoogerland Romain Feillu Juan Antonio Flecha Maurits Lammertink Björn Leukemans Marco Marcato Wouter Mol Mirko Selvaggi
Sylvain Chavanel and Alessandro Ballan are the two other notable riders, but as both of these rides their first competition, Björn can be considered as a favourite in this hilly classic, as the peloton here is not far as good as in France.
Andrew Fenn (Omega Pharma), Adrian Kurek (CCC), Oleksandr Polivoda (Atlas Personal), Krisztian Lovassy (Utensilnord), Alessandro Camilli (Nippo) and Klemen Stimulak (Adria Mobil).
We wanted a hard pace up the hills to drop the sprinters participating, so Mirko, Wouter and Maurits started already from the first hill. After two of the four climbs Chris Sutton and Maxi Richeze were dropped, so the first part of the job was done.
Still Björn were having a good day, so we decided to keep the high speed for the rest of the race. A group of Salvatore Puccio, Yuriy Trofimov and Juan Manuel Garate attacked at the flat section in the middle of the race, but we did not see that as a real threat yet.
In the third hill Romain and JA joined the relay. None of them liked to have the helping role in the race, but they did not complain, as both knew they will get their chances later in the season. After the four big climbs in the race a group of 40 riders were in front and Marco were pulling the peloton together with Androni, who rode for Emanuele Sella. With 9 kilometres left Puccio, Trofimov and Garate were reeled in as the last, and Björn waited for an attack, but when Sylvain Chavanel and Tony Gallopin started, he was not able to follow, and the try made that he could not follow in the sprint. One more disappointing race as he ended up 12th.
Maurits Lammeritnk
Björn Leukemans
Tomasz Marczynski
Mirko Selvaggi
Rafael Valls
Sergey Lagutin
Grega Bole
Jose Rujano
Romain Feillu
