Squad: Casper, Lequatre, Gaztanaga, Vogondy, Rinero, Berges, Ista and Bichot
With Gaztanage, Lequatre and Casper we bring a big arsenal of sprinters to the Tour de Med. and with Vogondy we have someone who could put up a nice result in the stage to Mont Faron. In this first stage we have an early breakaway with Berges in it for Agritubel
Berges and Horrach leading the early breakaway
Eventually they are caught with 8 kms to go and then we get ready for the sprint, Casper and his buddy Lequatre loose contact with the top train and are never seen back up front again and so the Spaniard Mikel Gaztanage has to get it done. But all he can do is end 8th since he was too tired too keep up with the big guys, and the biggest of all big guys takes the win here.
A very weird stage, no attackers whatsoever but then just before the sprint begins there is a masscrash, lots of sprinters go down while others fall to the back. And so yesterday we saw guys like Hushovd, Duque and Usov battling it out for the win, but not today. Today we are a witness of one of Levi4Life's many fantasies, as of all people, 2 mediocre Slipstream riders called Christophe Laurent and Will Frischkorn, who have probably never won a masssprint before are head to head in a battle for the win. But there comes Aurelien Clerc to ruin the party, or will the slipstream riders live happily ever after?
Who wins?
The french judges take a look at it and have no doubt about it that Christophe Laurent won with atleast 2 bikelenghts in front of Frischkorn and Clerc. Vice la France!
"We all know that wasn't the real footage of the Worlds anyway. That was just the staged footage to perpetuate the coverup that it was actually Vinokourov that won the race."
The queen stage of this French tour, since all of the early attackers didnt succeed in getting away it takes about 50 kms when a break finally gets away
Coppel, Hartmann and Savini up front
But just before we hit Le Mont Faron they are caught, and then it's there, the mountain that will probably decide the outcome of the tour and the crowd goes wild as national hero Sylvain Chavanel attacks immediatly!
The pack hits Le Mont Faron and Chavanel immediately attacks!
Chavanel is still up front but then the pack becomes smaller and smaller and smaller and they eventually reach Chavanel but then it's time for the final km and the battle for the win is on!
Lastras takes the lead but Gadret reacts, in the back Vogondy is struggling!
Lastras has a powerful attack but eventually he doesnt have the breath to hold on till the finish and Gadret takes over the lead, but also he seems to be in trouble and now Sylvain Chavanel seems to have risen from the grave as he storms up to the finish at high speed!
After the stage to Mont Faron the pack takes it easy, no riders even try to break away at first. And so Vogondy takes off as he tries to get some boni seconds which could move him into 4th place (he is 11th atm)
And he does so, ending 2nd behind Offredo and gaining 4 seconds!
AFter this a few riders stayed up front, Bichot was one of 5 riders to get away but with 14 kms their attempt seems to fail
With 15 kms to go the pack can smell the break
And so they are caught, the sprint is a weird one because of the strong wind but luckily for Agritubel all of our sprinters are in the 2 trains that eventually manage to stay up front. And then it's time for Casper to try and finish it off but he isnt the only good sprinter up there!
Jimmy Casper and Koldo Fernandez, who will win?
Koldo Fernandez has the longer breath and beats Casper
The final stage and even though we didnt suceed in winning this tour we are still satisifed with Vogondy's 4th place..but it seems that he may rise a spot!
The leader, Gadret, punctures and has to be brought back!
And ofcourse we would make this stage a living hell for mr. Gadret
The Agritubel troops start working because they need to catch the break *cough*
Poor Gadret is never seen back near the pack and so Vogondy will end 3rd! Up front there was still a sprint but most of our sprinters were badly positioned and so they didnt compete for the win. The win goes to CSF's Mauro Richeze
Today our leaders are Jalabert, Lequatre and Ista. First we send Berges and Jalabert into the break but this big group is caught...and so we send Ista and this time the pack doesnt bother chasing anymore and so a nice group is formed.
Rovny from Tinkoff leads the break over the biggest climb of the day
In the back it's Remy Di Gregorio who also joins the break but then, when they still hold a lead of 1'30 the favourites respond and almost all of them manage to join the early breakaway and so now we have a group of about 25 riders with Ista being the only Agritubel rider in it
The group of 25, Ista is on his own sitting in the back of the group
In the early break Ista was one of the strongest riders and ofcourse the fact that the favourites joined the group didnt cost Ista any energy whatsoever altough he is ofcourse starting to wear down because of this high pace. And so with 3 kms to go, when the pace goes down Ista takes off!
Ista attacks but it seems likely that others will react!
Eventually it's the LPR team that responds, Danilo Di Luca goes after Ista with Il Falco (Savoldelli) in his wheel and so once Di Luca catches the Belgian rider Savoldelli sprints out of his wheel...
And it's the Falcon who takes the win while Ista does a great job ending 4th!
Off to Belgium, where we participate in a race which really isnt suited for our riders but atleast our riders get in shape by participating
Squad: Rinero, Vogondy, Casper, Sinner, Jalabert and Ista
There´s rain, and lot´s of it, after the first series of cobbles lots of flat tires and crashes are responsible for the pack thinning out rapidly
After the first 2 kms of cobbles this is whats left
Then with 80 kms to go an interesting group is formed
Burghardt leads the group, behind him are Coenen, Baldato, Gaudin, Franzoï and Scheirlinckx
After a while the pack starts to chase, meanwhile more and more riders puncture and crash and eventually a big name goes down
Alessandro Ballan crashes just when the pack is speeding it up!
With 10 kms to go the group still holds a small lead over a group of chasers, these chasers are Boonen, Hoste, Gilbert, Hincapie and Cancellara. Gaudin punctures and so with 7 km to go we have a group of 9. However Coenen and Baldato can't keep up and so its down to 7
Burghardt ups the pace for Hincapie, Franzoï and Scheirlinckx have to let go
However it seems that this was the wrong thing to do, cause Hincapie isnt as good as his teammate Burghardt thought he was and they both have to let go. And so its down to 4 and one of them is going to be the winner here today
Boonen leads out in front of Hoste, Cancellara and Gilbert
Normally Boonen should win right? Well he obviously overestimated himself as even Hoste can keep up with him, and in last positon its Gilbert who comes out of Hoste's wheel and speeds up...
And there goes Gilbert! What an acceleration!
Would Gilbert hold on?
Ofcourse he would, KBK goes to Phillipe Gilbert!
Oh ye, Agritubel also participated, Nicolas Jalabert was our best rider, he ended 36th at 8'41. Rinero and Vogondy didnt finish the race.
Squad: Rinero, Ista, Casper, Ravard, Jalabert, Sinner and Berges
Another crappy Belgian race in which we participate to get some of our guys ready for Paris Nice since we got a wildcard to the French Pro Tour event. This race starts off with a break riding in crappy weather
The break of the day
To make this race even more crappier, they are caught and a chaotic sprint is about to get underway in which Agritubel is up front, could Casper finally pull it off? No ofcourse not since it's a crappy race altogether, he ends 4th. Todays winner is
David Kopp beats his teammate Rudaskov and wins!
So 't really was a crappy day, highlight of the day was Tyler Hamilton and his bike being hit by a motorcycle, his bike was shred into pieces while Tyler hopefully has learned now that the gods of cycling do not approve of dope use
The cycling gods in the form of a motorbike punish the blasphemer Tyler Hamilton, he tries to get away but fails...
Hip Hip Hurray! 1-0 for the anti doping police!
Result:
01. David Kopp Cycle Collstrop 3h21'40
02. Sergei Rudaskov Cycle Collstrop s.t.
03. Johan Coenen Topsport Vlaanderen s.t. 04. Jimmy Casper Agritubel s.t.
05. Igor Abakoumov Mitsubishi - Jartazi - Protech s.t.
06. Stefan Van Dijk Mitsubishi - Jartazi - Protech s.t. 07. Anthony Ravard Agritubel s.t.
08. Robert Wagner Skil - Shimano s.t.
09. Kenny Van Hummel Skil - Shimano s.t.
10. John Degenkolb Thüringer Energie Team s.t.
don't care about the pictures but what great writing! justin you've done it again. just please keep this up and it'll be a thing of ledgend like your nippo story
Well ye I set up a train of 4 guys and since it was a sprint on a road that wasn´t so wide most of them managed to stay up front in the sprint
Off to the Pro Tour where we will compete with the big guys, my personal goal is to get the KOM jersey and perhaps a top 3 placement or better with Casper in a sprint. The KOM jersey will have to be won by Rinero or Vogondy.
Stage 1/8:
Squad: Casper, Vogondy, Lequatre, Sinner, Rinero, Berges, Ista and Jalabert
The prologue, our best rider was Nicolas Vogondy who ended 20th. The party today is at the Gerolsteiner bus as Lang ends 2nd while his teammate Schumacher takes the win (Yes he is still in didn't bother to restart and start without him, Kohl and Sella)
Our goal is to get the KOM jersey but it would be foolish to already send out Rinero or Vogondy during this stage, and so we send Sinner who will try to hold onto the jersey until the mountain stages are there.
And that brings us to the break lead by Monier with Sinner in it for Agritubel
And well in order to get the jersey Sinner has to be the first at the one and only KOM point today, and so he has to beat the German champion Wegmann. We all know that Germans are tricky and love to cheat but nevertheless Sinner gave it a shot
Wegmann fails. Vive la France! Sinner is the first wearer of the KOM jersey!
The break never really gets a nice advantage over the pack but with 20 kms to go the boys are seperated from the men and not really surprisingly our boy Benoit is one of the men
The group is down to 5 with Sinner and Wegmann up front
Then Wegmann, who is obviously still frustrated that Sinner outsmarted him at the KOM checkpoint now wants to prove himself...well good luck with that Fabian
In a desperate attempt to gain glory Wegmann goes solo with 15 kms to go
And well Wegmann obviusly fails, however that doesn't mean that there wont be a German party tonight, in the sprint Zabel and Greipel take an early lead
Zabel up front with Greipel behind him, but Casper and Lequatre are right behind them!
Would Zabel pull it off? He would probably end 2nd right?
No he doesnt! Another German succes as Zabel wins the stage in front of Greipel
Meanwhile Agritubel shows that they can keep up with the big boys, as Casper ends 3th and his assistant sprinter Lequatre 4th!
