Mainly flat, but with two KOM contests, an early attack was imperative, as I try to take a second jersey.
Here is a nice SS of the loading screen, for those who aren't familiar with it:
Paumier attacked at the gun for Mr. Bookmaker:
He would carry the attack long enough to take the first KOM sprint.
Meanwhile, back in the pack, Stefan Van Dijk was enjoying the day in his new, Blue'er jersey:
After a while, a group of eight riders would get away, in my favorite 05 glitch. After Paumier took #1 in the intermidate sprint, a number of the sprinters fought for second. Like in 2007, they got a small gap. Except they were not brought back in, and soon caught and passed Paumier. So the break was composed of a number of the best sprinters in the race (not Brown, Van Dijk, or Hunt though). They spent the whole day away, but because they were not a break, they did not relay, and just sat in that position for the entire time:
In the second KOM sprint, Paumier, who had allowed them to pass, took fourth, which gave him 1 point, combined with the 5 from earlier, he gained the KOM jersey.
Still, with the end approaching, the pack began to chase the accidental breakaway:
Some of the sprinters in the breakaway were able to stay in the Hunt (worst pun of all time) but the sprint was going to be decided by those who hadn't gotten away. Discovery set-up a strong train for Mikhaliov, but he had been one of the men in the breakaway, and was too tired to manage anything. With 1.2 km to go, Van Dijk moved around the outside, and despite a strong showing by some of the other sprinters would not be brought in, winning by a nice length for a mass sprint. Also, Brown was nowhere in sight (he would come in placed in the twenties).
With 1 km to go:
And at the line:
So victory #1 for Mr. Bookmaker, as Van Dijk took the Yellow Jersey thanks to time bonuses, expanded his lead to 11 in the Sprint Category, Paumier took the KOM jersey, and the team is ranked first overall in the team standings.
Edited by Deadpool on 16-04-2008 14:23
Wait till you see Lance, he is so ridiculous, he doesn't lose, AT ALL. In my old career in this game that ran for 5 years, Lance won the tour in all 5, including a ten-minute victory over second place, held by my rider Cadel Evans
Le Tour de Langwaki Stage 3: Mainly flat, but with a single KOM and two hills in the run up to the finish.
The day begins with Van Dijk chilling in his new yellow jersey:
However, Paumier would lead an attack early, so that he could protect his KOM lead:
He would get a good break, and would eventually form up to create a 5-man break:
When the time came for the KOM sprint, he was the first over the top. Making his total 12 points, and giving him a solid 7 point lead:
I wasn't paying attention, and when the pace ramped-up Paumier lost contact with the leaders, over the last hill, Illiano of Columbia-Sella Italia attacked, and got away (sorry, no pic). The rest of the leaders, who Paumier had managed to get back to, were picked up with around 5 km to go.
With 1 Km to go, the sprint was really fast, but Illiano was too far ahead and would not be caught.
Pack with 1 km to go:
Illiano winning:
In the end, Van Dijk could not bring back Siedler of Wisenhof, and would finish third:
With Illiano's 27-second victory, he moved 1 second ahead of Van Dijk, who is in second, for yellow:
Van Dijk did however, make his sprinter's jersey lead much larger (67-43), and has three podium's in three stages, not bad. Also, Ben Day, with his 76 TT, will be a favorite heading into tommorow's dead-flat, 20 km TT.
A 20 km ITT, Ben Day is a 3 star favorite. I must note that I used to dominate ITT's in this game, but the system is strange and I haven't done it in a while.
Early in the day, another 3-star favorite, Sosenka of Acqua e Sapone, was flying, and passed Paumier in his KOM jersey:
When Van Dijk went, his low TT really hurt him, and he wa looking very bad:
Not long after, Liberty Seguros's Jan Hruska, the other three star favorite, went off, and was looking great:
By the time Ben Day went off, Sosenka had set a blistering pace. but suprisingly, Koen de Kort of Liberty Seguros had beaten his teammate Hruska, with those two taking 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Day went off of the block, looking for a good ride:
With around 2 km left, he jacked up his pace:
But he was only in seventh after crossing the line:
Sosenka would win and take the Yellow Jersey, while Koen de Kort would take second, and Hruska would fall to 4th. Tough luck for Day, hopefully he will ride better in the future.
-Right click on the image and click on edit (this will open up microsoft paint... a crappy image editor but it will do the job).
-Change to the selection box and move it around the portion you want to keep.
-Hit ctrl-X to cut the section out.
-Hit ctrl-V to paste it back in (it will put in in the upper rigth hand corner on top of what was left.
-on the outside box that controls the image size, go to the box in the bottom right hand corner and drag it so that it's the same size as the part you cut/pasted.
- save
Other image editors work much better (I suggest paint.net... a free open source replacement for ms paint that works VERY well). Those often have a "crop to selection" option that does the above with one click.
An almost pancake flat stage, with two intermidate sprints.
At the opening of the stage I sent a large portion of my team to the front to control the action, as I was not willing to allow another break to survive, but with no KOM sprints Paumier would be sitting in the pack
Here is Mr. Bookmaker on front:
No one went until after the first sprint, when three riders broke away, these were the lead two:
They were brought back in. I set-up a strong train with Traksel (75 SP), Hunt (76), Van Dijk (78), Traksel started the sprint with around 2.3 km to go, and after he faded, Hunt passed him, but Hunt wasn't strong enough, and so Van Dijk had to make too early a move, at around 1.5 km. He was going strong, but was edged at the line by Sidler of Wisenhof, and a rider from the Tachira squad (the two of them are morphed together in the picture).
Here was the finish:
But still, I have 4 podium's in 4 RR days with Van Dijk, and one of those was a victory. Also, he has a 23 point lead in the sprint competition, so it appears I will finish with at least one, hopefully two (Sprint and KOM) jerseys.
Edited by Deadpool on 16-04-2008 23:03
Sorry, no SS, I accidentally deleted the pics. A 145 km almost flat stage, with three intermediate sprints. A group got away, but I helped bring it back almost immediately. Van Dijk won two intermidate sprints, and took 3rd in another. For the sprint, I set up Van Dijk following Traksel, following a Landboukredit train, Traksel moved around with 1 to go, and then Van Dijk launched with 0.5 km to go, and won easily, with Siedler second, and Graeme Brown 3rd. Van Dijk now has a 45 point lead in the sprint competition.
