What to do..what to do..in this type of race? Well, Reda should try and go with any late attacks, if that is even possible for him, while Beuret will be saved for the sprint, if there is any.
Nosotti seems to have a nose for early breakaways, since he is in it again!
The peloton doesn't worry about this group and let's them have a 10.50 minute bonus. Finally though, they start working. With they, I mean Columbia, Rabobank and Quick Step. With 100km to go the gap is already down to 4'20. It seems we are heading for a regroupment before the final climbs.
The Capo Cerva is reached with 55km to go, here, attacks start in the breakaway group. Nosotti reacts well to them, but just after the Capo Berta, everyone is caught by the peloton. It seems CSF has some kind of plan, as they are leading the pack with a hard pace.
We reach the Cipressa and suddenly Liquigas takes over. And not with a sucky helper, but with Bertagnolli. His pace causes massive cramps among the NGC riders. Only Beuret and Reda still have some energy to spare at the top of the Cipressa. There, Ballan attacks. Reda doesn't have the energy to react and Beuret is still waiting for a possible sprint...
So, Ballan in the lead, and quickly gaining time too! At the foot of the Poggio, the gap is already two minutes. But there, the peloton ups the pace again, but this time, Beuret and Reda manage to survive well again. Still no attacks here. In the downhill, Beuret briefly tries to breakaway, but decides to stop again when hhe sees Boonen is on his wheel. A small group of sprinters and classic specialists is leading the peloton, 1 minute behind Ballan, with 3km to go. It seems Ballan will win, on the picture below, he is already out of sight.
And yes, Ballan holds his ground and wins Milano San Remo. In the background, Boonen and Bennati sprint for the podium places, while Beuret manages to hold on and finish 10th. That is really the maximum we could do in this race. I'm proud of these guys. Apart from two, Nosotti (in the breakaway) and Corsini (bad hilly rider) everyone finished in the peloton!
Results
After Milano San Remo, the riders have a week rest. Then a very busy period awaits with the Settimana Ciclista Internazionale, the Settimana a Lombarda and the Driedaagse van de Panne!
The first stage is not exactly an easy one, so getting a stagewin here will be very hard, if not impossible. A break of five forms early, and another counter-attack with five forms minutes later. NGC have nobody in either of these breaks, so Camussa must attack to get there. As a result of this, a rather large break of fourteen riders forms.
This group is too large for it's own good..or is it? Almost every team has a rider in the break, it seems only Rabobank and Lampre are willing to chase the break down. On the final climb, Gesink and Nibali attack, as well as Cioni, Bruseghin, and many others. But they never reach the break of the day remains, where D'Aniello and M.Zberg proved to be the strongest on the climb
In the climb, a group of ten pursuers forms with some of the attackers in the peloton, and some breakaway left-overs. However, Rabobank is chasing again and brings it all together, except for these two:
Zberg and D'Aniello manage to stay in front of the peloton and they sprint it out for victory. D'Aniello proves he was by far the fastest and wins the stage + the leaders jersey. Maisto sprinted to a nice 7th place.
Today we missed the break of the day again. It's not that we didn't try though, but we just missed the right one. Oh well, though luck.
CSF Navigare was obviously planning something as they were working in the peloton all day. In the end, I decided to put some NGC man up front to, so Beuret might go for the stagewin, or maybe even Rossi!
When the lead group was almost caught by the peloton, Cummings launched a desperate move to stay in front of the pack. Two of his fellow breakaway companions decided to follow him in this last attempt at winning todays stage.
With fourteen kilometers to go however, the pack was completely together again. There was still a little climb to overcome, where nothing happened, and a downhill. This downhill proved to be hard, because the high speeds made it difficult to chose position for the sprint. Commesso was leading out the peloton under the 1km flag.
Beuret had the wheel of Bossoni of Lampre, which proved to be the right choice. At fifty meters before the finish line, Beuret tried to pass Bossoni, but it was clear he didn't have the speed for it. We had to be happy with 2nd place.
[b]Results
Settimana Coppa e Bartali - Etappe 4
Today a really hard mountain stage, we don't expect to win here, although Maisto will try to follow the best. But since the best in this race appear to be Nibali, Gesink, Soler and others, this will be very hard.
We tried to be in the early break again today, but on the first climb, Rossi couldn't follow when the likes of Spilak and de la Fuente went on the attack.
Next, nearly everyone of NGC except Rizza and Maisto tried to be in the break of the day. All of them were either caught again, or never made it into the break. Finally though, Beuret managed to get into a chasing group after a crazy downhill on his part.
He never quite made it to the first group though, were riders as Spilak and Bertolini were the engine of the break. The lead was steady. Even before the second last climb, at 18km of the finish, it was still over 3 minutes. Meanwhile, a counterattack with Mazzanti had formed, and his teammate Petrov was now joining them, close behind the group with Beuret.
With 9km to go, Spilak had gone solo and dropped all of his companians. His lead was already 1 minute, and almost 3'30 on the peloton. It will be very hard to catch the Slovenian rider now.
At 9km to go, Petrov is almost caught by the peloton again, but he attacks just at that very moment. D'Aniello, the leader in this race, tries to react. While Rizza of NGC leads the peloton at a very decent pace. Rizza keeps Petrov and D'Aniello in sight with a good pace, until Soler and Gesink attack with 6km to go. Within moments, they are only 1 corner behind Petrov and D'Aniello
With three kilometer to go, Spilak still has a two minute lead on the favourites. Gesink and Soler dropped Petrov and D'Aniello, they both fell back to the small peloton behind, were Rizza is incredibly still leading the group in front of Maisto. Meanwhile, Ghisalberti made the jump to Gesink and Soler as well.
Rizza is tired when the pack reached the 3km to go point also, and thus, Maisto attacks! D'Aniello tries to follow, but has problems doing so.
Maisto joins Gesink, Soler and Ghisalberti in the chasing group behind Spilak. D'Aniello didn't make it.
However, Maisto won't win this stage. Spilak is already too far in front and wins todays stage.
Maisto finished in the group of favourites, at 5th place. He did his best but again we could not win the stage. We only have one chance left now in the final stage.
D'Aniello kept his leaders jersey by about 40 seconds and thus he will probably win this stage race.
Results
Wildcard Giro!
We obtained a wild card to the Giro d'Italia, a fantastic new for us.
This time we absolutely didn't want to miss the break of the day, since they proved to be quite succesfull in this race. Cannone was the man who made it into a 12-man break. Maybe we would finally get our stage win here?
The maximum lead was ten minutes, but then the peloton started accelerating. Today, it would be a sprinters day, that was clear very fast. Too bad for us, we were in a wrong break once again. Cannone tried to up the pace, which was too much for Proni, he had to let go of the front group.
With 20km to go, the attacks started in the breakaway group. Cannone also proved to be the strongest of these riders. But with 3km to go, the peloton also caught him.
In the mass sprint Beuret was in the wheel of the wrong guy, some Preti Mangimi guy. The right train was the one with Cooke and D'Aniello. D'Aniello quickly took over, but his teammate Biondo also came close. Ceramica Flaminia finished this race with a 1-2. D'Aniello wins in front of Biondo. Cooke finished 3rd, Beuret did his best with a 5th place.
A 30km TTT to start with. Simmed, as I suck in these. NGC finished 4th to me biggest suprise!
Driedaagse van de Panne - Stage 1
Selection:
Francesco Reda was part of the early break of the day, which is good for us. Beuret is the leader for the GC and possible stagewins.
At the first cobblestroke of the day, De Waele rode away with Gil Suray. Reda could only watch...
After the first lap the lead of De Waele/Suray was already 10 minutes over the peloton. The peloton rode a very slow pace all race long, they didn't seem interested in fighting for the GC today.
In the second lap, we even saw a Credit Agricole rider stretching his back and talking with Boonen. Beuret already knew he lost the race by sitting here.
In the end, De Waele rode away solo. He dropped Suray and would finally win with almost 4 minutes advantage! Madness.
Meanwhile, parts of the early break died, like Francesco Reda, and didn't stay in front of the peloton. But five of them did.
The favorites finally attacked with 8km to go. Cancellara and Ballan managed to stay in front of the pack. Beuret just managed to hang on with Devolder behind them. Horrillo closed the gap in the sprint of the pack though. As Cancellara won the sprint for 6th place against Ballan.
Signego was part of the break of the day in this relatively boring stage. The three you see in the photo here are the initiators of the break, they were joined by 3 others later,
The peloton kept control of this stage, although there was a bit of panic when Knees attacked from the peloton and went over the early breakaway group with some 20km to go.
However, Knees never made a big enough gap to be considered a threat. The sprint teams prepared the sprint, and Rossi picked the wheel of a Selle Italia rider.
That rider proved to be the strongest and won. Rossi kept up with him in his wheel and finished 3rd!
Results
Driedaagse van de Panne - Stage 2
This stage race was already decided by the weird long attack from stage 1, where Bert de Waele took the lead. So today, everybody at 8 or 13 minutes of the leader, could attack freely. From our team Schubert was in the break of the day.
A funny thing occured when Roberto Ferrari went into the counter attack when the lead group already had four minutes. Ferrari did an old fashioned 'chasse patat' or useless attack...
The peloton meanwhile suddenly broke into pieces due to harsch winds. Beuret was in the first part!
The race kinda exploded after that. Thanks to the wind echelons were constantly formed. The wind wasn't hard enough to break the pack definately, but it did cause quite a bit of concern among the riders. When Vansummeren went into the attack with 70km to go, nobody worried yet. But with 40km to go, suddenly Cancellara, Boonen and Devolder went into the counter attack.
Cancellara and Boonen are looking to eachother too much, so Devolder decides to go on his own. He and Vansummeren team up and pass the early break, but with 15km to go, the pack is back together.
In the preparation of the sprint, the peloton breaks again thanks to a fall, including race leader Bert de Waele. Beuret choses the wheel of the Quick Step duo of De Jongh and Boonen, with Freire in Boonen's wheel, and Beuret in the next. However, three other riders including Janek Tombak, ride away.
Beuret gambles and decides to keep sitting in Freire's wheel, counting on the Quick Step duo to close the gap.
That was a stupid mistake, as the three obviously stayed in front and Tombak, not much better than Beuret normally, won the stage. A missed chance for Beuret!
Lookie, a boring flat stage! We sent Zaragodny into the usual early break and sat back and relaxed. These three went into an adventure...
The three briefly became four, before Corti had to let go at an intermediate sprint, so the break became three again. All the peloton had to do was ride a steady pace and wait till the three became waisted, which eventually happened.
In the end Rossi was placed badly in the sprint, and he saw from far behind that Pietropolli dominated this sprint.
Results
Rossi finished 15th.
Driedaagse van de Panne - Koksijde - Stage 3
An early breakaway with two, chased by another two, finalle became the break of the day with four riders, at 158km to go. The break already had an eight minutes lead by then, but the Landbouwkrediet people kept the pace decent in het pack.
So also here, we would get a mass sprint finish. The break was caught with 20km to go, and quickly after that, the sprint trains were formed. Beuret was in the Silence Lotto train, which also featured Boonen and Freire. On the right, the Credit Agricole train, which featured the great..uhh..nevermind.
Tom Boonen and Freire quickly duelled for the win. Petacchi had to come from too far, and Roelandts was stuck in between. Beuret followed in the wheels and finished 5th, Boonen won the stage.
This is a hilly stage we are not afraid for. First of all, it's not that hard, but most importantly second of all, our best four hilly riders are in great shape.
Camussa is sent into the break of the day to control things for our leaders.
At the second, long climb of the day, Camussa manages to get first at the top. Because of this, he will wear the KOM jersey tomorrow. With 80km to go, a counter attack forms of four riders, Ochoa is the big motor of this little group.
However, Team LPR gets nervous because of this attack, and rides hard to avoid them getting far. As a result of this behaviour, the lead of the breakaway declines fast. Camussa, who still had loads of energy, decides to attack, and gets two of his fellow escapees as company.
At the final climb of the day it's Pfannberger who sets up the fireworks. He is far behind in the GC, so nobody really worries, until Di Luca counter attacks and brings along Garzelli, Pietropolli and some ten others. NGC has missed this break completely, and now only have Camussa in front, he somehow survived the attacks.
However in the descent Tizza, Rizzi, Maisto and Zaragodny ride away from the peloton and look to close the gap to the leaders fast. Zaragodny closes the last gap for our leaders, but then disaster strikes. Maisto falls just when he was about to join the leaders. Just our luck.
Rizzi was held up by the fall, but manages to hang on. His chances for the sprint are gone though. Tizza and Zaragodny worked hard to bring Rizzi and Maisto back and are nearly dead, yet, they have to go for the stage win. Camussa is also still there, but ofcourse even more dead. In the end, Di Luca wins against Garzelli in a thight sprint finish. Tizza managed to finish 5th, which was really the absolute maximum considered how waisted he was.
Results
Maisto lost 1m21 today, it's sad but shit happens. He will have to work for Rizzi now.
Driedaagse van de Panne - Etappe 4 (tijdrit)
In this little time trial we had nothing to do. Beuret could never keep his top 15 GC position against so many specialists. When he came in, he finished at 57 seconds of Devolder, the current leader in the TT. Beuret did the best TT of all NGC riders, which says enough about this stage.
World ITT champion Cancellara dominated though, he was 11 seconds faster than Devolder and took the stage win. He could not pass Suray and de Waele in the GC though. As a result, the freak breakaway of stage 1 decided this years Driedaagse van de Panne. What a bummer.
I'll try to keep it up.
and good job finishing Beuret in same time with Stijn Devolder
