Breakaways, Breakaways and a few more Breakaways, Strade, Marseille and Kuurne
GP La Marseille
Our season began in France, with the GP la Marseille, our goal for the race was a top 10:
Our main event of the day was when Hoogerland and Schleck joined this group.
Position | Name | Team | Time | 1 | Juan Manuel Gárate | Movistar | 3h 32 29 | 15 | Johnny Hoogerland | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 1'45 | 21 | Benoît Vaugrenard | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 4'40 | 27 | Björn Leukemans | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 4'40 | 31 | Fränk Schleck | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 4'40 | 49 | Pim Ligthart | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 4'40 | 81 | Nicky Van Drenthe | Vacansoleil - DCM | +4'40 | 84 | Bobbie Traksel | Vacansoleil - DCM | +4'40 |
Our race wasn't all that bad, with Johnny finishing 15th, although we had hoped for more with this race, we were just unlucky with a breakaway.
Kuurne - Brussels - Kuurne
Bobby Traksel joined the first move of the day, but couldn't stay away.
Our main move of the day, Luca Paolini went off the front. Unfortunately the peloton didn't let him get far.
Overall we made some good attacks, but the peloton held us back. Stijn Vandenbregh managed a 19th for our efforts.
Position | Name | Team | Time | 1 | Zdenek Stybar | Garmin - Sharp | 4h30'56 | 19 | Stijn Vandenbergh | Vacansoleil - DCM | s.t. | 27 | Björn Leukemans | Vacansoleil - DCM | +44 | 29 | Nicky Van Drenthe | Vacansoleil - DCM | +44 | 33 | Luca Paolini | Vacansoleil | +44 | 35 | Lars Ytting Bak | Vacansoleil - DCM | +44 | 49 | Bobbie Traksel | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 4'22 | 58 | Pieter De Vries | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 5'49 | 62 | Mirko Selvaggi | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 7'56 |
Strade - Bianchi
Unfortunately for everybody involved, a mistake in contact terms led our sponsor to believe that we intended to win Strade - Bianche, so we relied on the one thing we could trust to work, breakaways and we came so close...
Bobbie Traksel actually gets into the break this time.
The final hill and 1km to go, with Bobbie in third wheel, we had a serious chance.
Traksel was still in third, but beginning to fade, unfortunately he never came back and finished fourth.
We definitely didn't have the best day, aside from Bobbie's remarkable performance our best work was 51st for Giovanni and we didn't take our goal, but then again, we were lucky to get close.
Position | Name | Team | Time | 1 | Mathias Von Triesenberg | Team NetApp - Endura | 4h31'55 | 4 | Bobbie Traksel | Vacansoleil - DCM | +17 | 51 | Giovanni Visconti | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 10'44 | 63 | Björn Leukemans | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 11'43 | 68 | Luca Paolini | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 11'43 | 69 | Domenico Pozzovivo | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 11'43 | 82 | Johnny Hoogerland | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 12'16 | 96 | Lars Ytting Bak | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 13'01 | 103 | Tomasz Marczynski | Vacansoleil - DCM | + 13'14 |
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