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Omega Pharma - Quick-Step 2014
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| Adamb |
Posted on 22-02-2014 11:25
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Domestique
Posts: 642
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Good luck in San Luis |
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 22-02-2014 11:49
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Small Tour Specialist
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Adamb - Thanks a lot!
Faillu & VoetsT - Let´s see what they can do  Thanks for the support!
The first stage will be posted in some minutes |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-12-2024 06:48
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 22-02-2014 12:32
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Tour de France Champion
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Renshaw will be disappointed with his results in Australia but its still early season
And Good Luck in Argentina, hopefully Cavendish will grab a couple of stage wins  |
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 22-02-2014 12:52
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Small Tour Specialist
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 Tour de San Luis Stage 1
Welcome to the first stage in San Luis. As the terrain is pretty flat today, we are expecting a nice chance for Mark Cavendish to bring the first stage win. Let´s see if Ventoso or Eisel will be able to endanger Mark.
Just a small group left the pack today. Jarrier (Bretagne - Séché Environnement) and De Vreese (Wanty - Groupe Gobert) got a nice gap while the pack was quite slow for some kilometres.
Just 5 kilometres to go and the pack caught Jarrier. De Gendt and Vermote made the pace, when Mark Cavendish took the wheel of Ventoso. De Vreese was still in the lead by 30 seconds! Was the pack too careless?
Mark left Ventoso´s slipstream really early. This was the last chance to pass De Vreese who slowed down on the final metres.
It´s getting closer for De Vreese as Mark comes with an incredible acceleration. With only 800 metres left the race gets dramatic.
Incredible finish by Mark Cavendish but he wasn´t fast enough in the end. A well deserved solo win for De Vreese. Cav on a good second position and both got a nice time gap of 20 seconds to Wilco Kelderman, who finished third.
Stage results
1  Laurens De Vreese | Wanty - Groupe Gobert | 3h51'26 | 2  Mark Cavendish | Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team | s.t. | 3  Wilco Kelderman | Belkin Pro Cycling Team | + 20 | 4  Rick Zabel | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | 5  Marco Bandiera | Androni Giocattoli | s.t. | 6  Kanstantsin Siutsou | Team Sky | s.t. | | 7 Dominik Nerz | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 8 Giovanni Visconti | Movistar Team | s.t. | 9  Francisco Ventoso | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 10 Eduardo Sepulveda | Bretagne - Séché Environnement | s.t. |
Overall
| 1 | Laurens De Vreese | Wanty - Groupe Gobert | 3h50'54 | | 2 | Mark Cavendish | Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team | + 20 | | 3 | Wilco Kelderman | Belkin Pro Cycling Team | + 44 | 4  | Benoit Jarrier | Bretagne - Séché Environnement | s.t. | | 5 | Davide Cimolai | Lampre - Merida | + 48 | | 6 | Rick Zabel | BMC Racing Team | + 52 | | 7 | Marco Bandiera | Androni Giocattoli | s.t. | | 8 | Kanstantsin Siutsou | Team Sky | s.t. | | 9 | Dominik Nerz | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 10 | Giovanni Visconti | Movistar Team | s.t. |
Points
| 1 | Laurens De Vreese | Wanty - Groupe Gobert | 37 | | 2 | Mark Cavendish | Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team | 20 | | 3 | Wilco Kelderman | Belkin Pro Cycling Team | 16 |
Edited by Batista15 on 23-02-2014 09:49
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 22-02-2014 12:55
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
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So close for Cavendish |
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| VoetsT |
Posted on 22-02-2014 13:01
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Damn, so close 
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| baia |
Posted on 22-02-2014 13:28
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Well, it´s a great start.. we already can see that Cavendish isn´t here just for a walk..
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 22-02-2014 14:40
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Small Tour Specialist
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sutty68 & VoetsT - Indeed, very close one!
baia - It is a good start and you can be sure Cav is hungry |
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| admirschleck |
Posted on 22-02-2014 16:59
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Really nice report, and shame that Cav couldn't get it, he was just too close. But, you know, it's Cav, he'll get at least 15 wins this season, so it's not that bad.
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 22-02-2014 19:59
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Small Tour Specialist
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admirschleck - First of all thank you and I hope you will be right with your prediction
Tour de San Luis Stage 2
Another flat stage before we are going to meet some more hills tomorrow. Anyway the stage finish is a little uphill section but not that steep, so there should be a mass sprint for sure.
Another day, another chance for some riders to try their luck in a breakaway. With Bernaudeau (Europcar), Isaychev (Katusha) and Selvaggi (Wanty - Groupe Gobert) only three guys got away in the morning. The French man took the KoM jersey on the only mountain sprint.
It was another strange stage with only two or three teams really closing the gap. With only 8 kilometres to go, the Katusha rider Isaychev was still in front by 40 seconds. Vermote, Verona and Vakoc did everything to close the gap, but Isaychev was so quick.
Anyway Thomas De Gendt started to build our sprint train with Andrew Fenn and Cav on his wheel. Our position was great, but still 30 seconds to Isaychev!
Look at that! Isaychev is down on the ground, crashing in one of the last corners. Our sprint train took the lead, while Cofidis lost our slipstream. Only Jonathan Hivert (Belkin) was able to take Cavendish´s wheel.
That was looking pretty good for us now with De Gendt in the lead, pushing very hard. But Cofidis fought back and it looked like they could come back to us with only 4 kilometres left.
Finally Thomas De Gendt was exhausted and so it was up to Andrew Fenn, leading out his sprint captain Cavendish. Hivert was still in a good position though.
With 2000 metres to go, Cavendish made his final move. Incredible acceleration as always. Bernie Eisel came pretty fast from behind but Hivert had no chance to follow Cav.
Finally it is Cavendish, winning the second stage in Argentina. He brought us the first win in 2014. Haller and Eisel completed the podium. Once again a crazy stage final with a lucky end for us. Isaychev finished 2 minutes behind Cavendish, we really hope he is ok!
Stage results
| 1 | Mark Cavendish | Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team | 4h05'18 | | 2 |  Marco Haller | Team Katusha | s.t. | | 3 | Bernhard Eisel | Team Sky | s.t. | | 4 | Jonathan Hivert | Belkin Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 5 | Roger Kluge | IAM Cycling | s.t. | | 6 | Raymond Kreder | Garmin Sharp | s.t. | | 7 | Manuel Belletti | Androni Giocattoli | s.t. | | 8 | Daniel Oss | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 9 | Andrew Fenn | Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team | s.t. | | 10 | Julien Simon | Cofidis, Solutions Crédits | s.t. |
Overall
| 1 | Mark Cavendish | Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team | 7h56'12 | | 2 | Laurens De Vreese | Wanty - Groupe Gobert | s.t. | | 3 | Bernhard Eisel | Team Sky | + 44 | | 4 | Wilco Kelderman | Belkin Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 5 | Benoit Jarrier | Bretagne - Séché Environnement | s.t. | | 6 | Davide Cimolai | Lampre - Merida | + 48 | | 7 | Jonathan Hivert | Belkin Pro Cycling Team | + 52 | | 8 | Francisco Ventoso | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 9 |  Leonardo Duque | Colombia | s.t. | | 10 | Manuel Belletti | Androni Giocattoli | s.t. |
Points
| 1 | Mark Cavendish | Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team | 45 | | 2 | Laurens De Vreese | Wanty - Groupe Gobert | 37 | | 3 | Marco Haller | Team Katusha | 20 |
Mountain
| 1 | Giovanni Bernaudeau | Team Europcar | 6 | | 2 |  Vladimir Isaychev | Team Katusha | 4 | | 3 | Mirko Selvaggi | Wanty - Groupe Gobert | 2 |
Edited by Batista15 on 23-02-2014 09:47
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 22-02-2014 20:05
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Nice start in San Luis. Two great sprints from Cav, was unlucky not to win on stage one. It's Ok though now, as he's in the leaders jersey |
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| VoetsT |
Posted on 22-02-2014 21:19
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Great win for Cav, the first of many more 
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 23-02-2014 01:59
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Nice win for the ManxMissile
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| baia |
Posted on 23-02-2014 11:15
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Somehow an easy win, looking to the distance Haller has.. but it´s a good win with a great sprint finish from Cav.. Isaychev pushed too much, pitty he crashed..
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| FonsDeSpons |
Posted on 23-02-2014 12:44
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Stagiare
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nice win by cav, i really like the story so far and your screenshots are awesome! |
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| TheManxMissile |
Posted on 23-02-2014 12:52
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Tour de France Champion
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Jakstar22 wrote:
Nice win for the ManxMissile
Did i? At least put a space in there to avoid confusion 
No surprises in the wins considering the startlist, but you still had to be there to get them. It's a good start and raises expectations
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 23-02-2014 13:59
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Tour de France Champion
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Cavendish showing us what he does Best |
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 23-02-2014 19:02
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2704
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FroomeDog99 - Thanks, indeed a great start for us!
VoetsT - Hopefully you are right with that
Jakstar22 - Thank you very much!
baia - It was an easy win in the end due to this crash.
FonsDeSpons - Thanks a lot man, very nice to hear that
TheManxMissile - Rising expectations? Oh man, I can feel the pressure right now  Thanks though!
sutty68 - Yeah, he actually does. Great acceleration so far!
Thanks a lot for your support so far, really appreciate that! |
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 23-02-2014 21:34
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2704
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 Santos Tour Down Under
A second squad of our team will start the season in wonderful Australia. We got six tricky stages in Down Under, some for the sprinters, some for the puncheurs. As there is only one Australian guy in our team, we have decided to send him to his home race. I am talking about Mark Renshaw who is our sprinter for the following days.
Team Omega Pharma - Quick-Step
Mark Renshaw
Gianni Meersman
Guillaume Van Keirsbulck
 Martin Velits
Stijn Vandenbergh
Julian Alaphilippe
Nikolas Maes
As you can see, there are some Belgian guys. One of them is Gianni Meersman who is leading the squad. He got some nice skills on short hills, so we are expecting a nice GC result by him. He will try to lead out Mark Renshaw in some flat sprints, too. Stijn Vandenberg another Belgian just participates to improve his shape a bit. Van Keirsbulck, Velits and Alaphilippe, our sprint talent, should be a good support.
I was pretty surprised when I took a look at the whole startlist. The competition is not the best for a Pro Tour Race. Coquard, Hushovd, Swift, Rojas and Hofland represent the biggest danger for Renshaw in the sprint stages. Quite hard to name some GC contenders as there are some good puncheurs such as Phinney, Ulissi, Kiryienka, Westra, Breschel, Nocentini or Frank. We got some big hope in Gianni Meersman, he should be able to get at least a GC Top 5. Furthermore we are expecting at least one stage win in Australia. |
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| VoetsT |
Posted on 23-02-2014 21:39
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Breakaway Specialist
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OPQS can surprise here down under
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![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
