Just a few weeks ago, it had seemed that Mwangi Samwel's place in Vesuvio was fixed, as a vital part of the team's support unit for the Schleck brothers.
And then, things changed, due to the addition of two new signings.
Jaime Suaza
The strong Mountains domestique is not much good outside of the mountains, so will be great friends with Medvedev for sure! He has been at Bouygues Telecom for 7 seasons, and now joins us for a fresh challenge. Where there are mountains to race, he will ride.
Fredrik Strand Galta
Top Norwegian talent has a promising future ahead of him, and looks set to excel in Mountains after a few seasons of development. He joins us in a direct swap between Samwel with the Kenya Airways team. Last year he finished 11th at the Tour of Utah and took his first professional win in a stage of the Tour of America. This year, he will make his 'real' Grand Tour debut at the Giro d'Italia.
I came up with an interesting way of tracking the team's best riders over the season. From left to right are the top ranked riders from each year. Frank Schleck was ranked in the ProTour Top 10 for 6 consecutive seasons, but last season we had no rider in the Top 10 at all.
It seems that the team has been out riding, testing out their new gear. There are a number of stage races this season which features TTTs, but it remains to be seen if we will be targeting those races. If so, the extra training now could make all the difference!
Equipment and jersey will really stand out, looks cool.
(You may want to have a word with the lead rider on the TTT train there though, not a good idea getting out of the saddle at the front of the line when riding that tightly! He'll have the whole lot on the deck if not careful ).
Yep, Oleg has certainly done some great work with the kit. It will be interesting to see how much it does stand out when included in the full ManGame peloton, not just on its own!
The make up of Vesuvio-Accumalux for 2014 has been confirmed, with 22 riders plus two stagiares. 13 nations are represented, with 10 riders from our home nation of Luxembourg.
Well, what a start to the season that was! Expectations were low that Frank Schleck could continue winning at the top level, he isn't as good as he used to be, and the competition is tougher than it has ever been, but it seems you just can't stop him!
He has repeated his 2012 performance with a victory in the season opener at Badaling International, this time with a solo triumph. It his 18th ProTour race victory in the history of the ManGame, of which 12 have been one day classics.
Ben Gastauer also picked up some helpful ranking points, although his 24th place is a little bit below personal expectations. Once again though, we take the lead in the Team Standings. We hope to stay top for the rest of the month too, with a sponsor goal race the Tour of Qatar coming next on the schedule.
Kudos! Frank Schleck in my opinion has one of the most impressive palmares in ManGame history. He's a classics rider but has also won the Tour de France. That's pretty incredible!
@cio Well coverage is a bit unclear, but seems like Demare just got lucky that the lazy peloton didn't quite catch the break before the finish! Besides, Gastauer was simply distracted by the sign above the finish saying who had won!
SportingNonsense wrote:
@cio Well coverage is a bit unclear, but seems like Demare just got lucky that the lazy peloton didn't quite catch the break before the finish!
It was a good start for the team when Cancellara won the prologue to become the first race leader. 4 riders in the Top 15 of the prologue is worth noting for what was to come. A couple of sprint stages followed, with Theo Bos taking a momentous 3rd place on Stage 1! Already the pyrenees arrived in Stage 3, with a multiple climb stage that ended by going up the Tourmalet and back down again. Schleck made the selection with Valverde and Di Luca, who had earlier crashed, and won the stage in a sprint!
Schleck then took Yellow after a surprising stage win on a stage with a slight uphill finish in Plumelec, beating Sastre and Kirchen on the line. Earlier in the stage Millar had been involved in the breakaway - alongside Green Jersey Tom Boonen!
More flat stages followed, until the return of mountains on Stage 10 and 11. Kirchen and Gadret took victories, with no real gaps forming amongst the favourites. Gaps were a plenty on Stage 13 - a team time trial.
Accumalux, powered by Cancellara and Millar, simply destroyed the field. We put nearly 4 minutes on the team of our main rival Di Luca, La Gazzetta dello Sport, and now the closest contenders to Schleck were Valverde at 1'53 down, Rasmussen at 3'11 and then Di Luca, Evans and Gadret around the 3'50 mark. The gains continued on Stage 14. Schleck may only have been 2nd to Di Luca, but Spanish champion Valverde lost time, as did Rasmussen and Gadret. Rasmussen responded by taking a long range attack on the next mountains stage, but it backfired for him, while Schleck safely finished 8th behind a victorious Dessel.
Just 4 stages left, and now it was time for Alpe d'Huez. Again Rasmussen went long range, while Schleck was pressed into action when reacting to Di Luca on the Galibier.
Rasmussen led by 7 minutes at the foot of Alpe d'Huez, with Valverde giving chase. But it was French power which followed, as Dessel stormed the climb to win the stage - catching the Dane with 1km to go.
4th on the stage for Schleck, all but securing overall victory - now with a 4 minute GC lead over 2nd placed Dessel. It did not even matter that Schleck could only finish 11th on the following Mountain time trial stage. There was still time for Dessel to lose his podium place though, as Schleck played a key part in shaking things up on the hard penultimate stage that was mysteriously rated as flat.
And that was that. Alessandro Petacchi won the Champs Elysses, but Frank Schleck had won the Tour.
What happened next?
Frank Schleck did return in 2009 to defend his title, and three stages wins in the first half of the race, plus the crash of race leader Thomas Dekker, put him in a strong position to win a 2nd Tour. But it wasn't to be, as Stijn Devolder proved too strong, and defeated Schleck by 2 minutes.
Swift
A Schleck
Intxausti
Úran
Iglinski
Pellizotti
Cancellara
Samwel
Kittel
Caethoven
Medvedev
Paterski
Hoogerland
Kvasina
Ford
Hunter
Sosenka
Medina
).
Dessel, 
Rasmussen, 
Popovych, 
Leipheimer, 
