Its been a while, I definately want to continue, but since it;s been such a long time ago since I did those last 2 stages I won;t report them. I also believe I didn't really grab any points there anyhow so I will continue the reporting with the GP de Marseille.
Dwight K. Schrute: 'I'm not a hero. Im just a mere defender of the office. You know who is a hero? Hiro from Heroes. That's a hero. And Bono'.
Squad: Cherel, Di Gregorio, Ladagnous, Le Mevel, Meersman, Roy, Vaugrenard
It's the start of the cycling season in France. And so we brought some of our best riders in order to achieve a good result here in Marseille. Mickael Cherel is supposed to go along in the breakaway, and even though the break is caught several times he still manages to be in the right one eventually.
Cherel present in a break of 7
They have a nice lead but on the last climb all the favourites attack, up front it's down Michael Cherel, Evgeni Gerganov, Wouter Poels and Gil Suray but some of the favs manage to join them and so when we go down towards the finishline we have a group of 13 with Cherel and Vaugrenard. However Vaugrenard just barely made it and has difficulties getting to the front in the downhill section.
Group for 13 with De Waele and Feillu up front heading for the finish
Meanwhile Cherel is up front and when they go up for the final metres he decides to lead out but shortly afterwards De Waele, Posthuma and Dessel get past him while Vaugrenard tries to climb his way to the front.
There go De Waele and Posthuma with Dessel behind them in the middle!
In the end it's a really close call because with a last second jump Dessel manages to reach Posthuma and De Waele...
And Cyril Dessel grabs the win in Aubagne! Cherel ends 4th and Vaugrenard 6th.
Squad: Hutarovich, Sulzberger, Roy, Le Mevel, Ladagnous and Di Gregorio
The first stage is pancake flat and lots of guys try to get away here, but no one manages to and so we get a mass sprint. But then we get some crashes and the only one that is forced to give up is...
Our very own Belarussian sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich who breaks his hand...
Meanwhile we have a few more crashes and so we get a weird sprint and an unexpected winner.
Magnus Backstedt wins the first stage and takes the lead!
With Hutarovich out till April we are forced to continue the race with 5 riders. Early on Brice Feillu and Pedro Horrilo break away on this tricky 2nd stage.
Horrillo and Brice Feillu up front
But their attempt goes nowhere and so we get a sprint yet again, this time it's Sutton who is looking good in the sprint
Sutton up front but Tombak, Sulzberger and Bacquet are closing in!
Our very own Australian champ Wes Sulzberger gets close to victory but just misses out!
Because it's Janek Tombak who takes the win in front of Wes!
Squad: Sulzberger, Roy, Le Mevel, Ladagnous and Di Gregorio
The 3rd stage is the toughest stage in this years Etoile de Besseges, however both Ladagnous and Roy dont manage to get away. Our hopes are then focusses on Le Mevel and Di Gregorio. Meanwhile up front we have 2 leaders, Arrieta who has been up front all day and Albasini joins him with 25 kilometres to go.
Arrieta and Albasini up front!
But then all the favorites attack, Le Mevel also attacks but he doesnt get away from the pack. However De Waele, Fedrigo, Dessel, Garate and Carrara do manage to break away. They then join Albasini who has left the early escapee Arrieta behind on the final climb. But in the back Di Gregorio places a late attack just before the downhill section in order to join the front group
De Waele in the front group with Di Gregorio somewhere in the back
Di Gregorio eventually manages to bridge the gap but is too far at the back to compete for the win. The sprint is easily won by Pierrick Fedrigo who also takes over the lead from Tombak. Di Gregorio is now 4th in the GC.
Squad: Sulzberger, Roy, Le Mevel, Ladagnous and Di Gregorio
Another stage, and so new chances for those who cannot sprint.
Brice Feillu, Kai Reus and Steve Houanard up front!
However the break goes nowhere. In the sprint Wesley Sulzberger seems to be positioned perfectly right behind Sutton, but in the end he seemed to be a bit too much up front as he just ends 2nd behind none other than
Vicente Reynes, who wins the stage. Fedrigo stays in the lead!
This final stage of the Etoile de Besseges is a short one in which Fedrigo's lead wouldn't be threathened. And so we end the stage with yet another massprint, the 4th and after seeing Backstedt, Tomback and Reynes win, why couldn't Sulzberger win today or some other rather unknown sprinter?
Sulzberger seems to be too far at the back while Bacquet leads and Bonsergent and Fedrigo are on the other side
For a moment it seems Fabien Bacquet will take a shocking win but then Fedrigo and Bonsergent come to the front, which of these Frenchmen will win today?
Bonsergent just edges out race lead Fedrigo for the win!
Squad: Sulzberger, Le Mevel, Cherel, Di Gregorio, Guesdon, Roy and Coppel
Right after the Etoile de Besseges it's time for the Tour de Mediteraneen in which Sulzberger is our man for the sprints yet again and Di Gregorio our leader who we will count on for the stage to Mont Faron. Early on a break of 7 gets away, and with only 5 kms to go they are still up front. With only 2 kilometres however the final one is caught...
Travis Meyer is about to be caught with the 1 km banner in his sight!
During the sprint all eyes are set on Mark Cavendish who is the only big rider present and also the competition isn't that good with Romain Feillu, Gerald Ciolek being the only other good sprinters and after that there are some guys like Sulzberger and Elmiger.
Ciolek and Feillu up front but Cavendish is set to jump out of the German's wheel!
And Mark Cavendish takes the win! Ciolek ends 2nd and Sulzberger 3rd!
We decide to send someone in the breakaway, early on there are already some KOM points to be won and it's Mickael Cherel who takes the points there.
Mickael Cherel takes the KOM points and would grab a few more!
In the end Cherel grabbed enough points to grab the mountain jersey, however he didn't make it to the finish with his breakaway companion and so we get another sprint with likely the same faces as yesterday, cause as I said there are only 4/5 real sprinters present here.
We see several trains, Feillu on the left and Sulzberger in the middle being led out by Coppel!
We get an interesting in which Cavendish has trouble getting to the front, meanwhile both Feillu and Sulzberger get up front too early and the same goes for Elmiger, the guy who takes advantage of this and comes up front at the right time is Gerald Ciolek!
Gerald Ciolek takes the 2nd stage! Sulzberger takes a nice 3rd spot yet again!
Squad: Di Gregorio, Le Mevel, Coppel, Roy, Cherel, Guesdon and Sulzberger
The decisive stage to Mont Faron, Di Gregorio is our leader but the real favourites today are David Moncoutie, Joaquim Rodriguez and Christophe Moreau. Early on its our very own Christophe Le Mevel who breaks away as he tries to defend the KOM jersey which Mickael Cherel has. He would be caught after the first climb but on the 2nd climb he tries it yet again.
Christophe Le Mevel attacks yet again!
He grabs the points, but is then caught. However 2 others do get the 'ok' from the pack.
Ricardo van der Velde and Julien Loubet up front
They manage to stay up front for quite a while, with 10 kilometres to go Loubet has to let go and when we reach the beginning of the Mont Faron, Van Der Velde still holds a small lead!
Van der Velde up front as the pack hits Mont Faron
But Van der Velde is caught quickly, but another Slipstream rider takes off!
Trent Lowe says hi to Van der Velde and attacks!
Lowe's attack is succesfull at first as he has about 30 seconds on the 2 guys behind him, David Moncoutie and Joaquim Rodriguez. 20 seconds behind them are Moreau and Di Gregorio and the South African Darren Lill is just in between these two groups.
Moncoutie and Rodriguez are after Trent Lowe!
But they don't get him back, Rodriguez places a strong sprint to end 2nd in front of Moncoutie. Lill is the surprising 4th while Moreau ends 5th and Di Gregorio 6th who was the last rider to finish in front of the pack.
Squad: Di Gregorio, Le Mevel, Coppel, Roy, Cherel, Guesdon and Sulzberger
After yesterday's stage to Mont Faron which was won by Trent Lowe we go back to the flat stages and back to the sprinting. Early on Rabo CT rider Ockeloen breaks away who happens to have 30 KOM points, and so since Cherel lacks the power we send Le Mevel after him to make sure the mountain jersey stays within our team.
Le Mevel going for the mountain jersey!
In the end he is the first to reach the top, and Ockeloen is even caught by the pack. However they don't continue to chase and so Le Mevel would be up front on his own for quite a while. But with 20 kms to go he is caught and we get ready for a sprint.
The sprint is on and Mark Cavendish takes an early lead as we pass a gas station!
Wesley Sulzberger goes after the Brit, but lacks the power to get past him.
Cavendish takes his 2nd stage win here as Sulzberger takes 2nd!
The final stage, apart from the fact that one Perrig Quemeneur would go solo for a long time there was only 1 thing that made today's final sprint exciting
Cavendish gets back on his bike after he has apparently crashed!
And that leaves the final sprint wide open, who takes advantage of the situation? Not Wesley Sulzberger, our Australian champion would end 6th.
Gerald Ciolek also takes his 2nd stage win, GC remains unchanged and so Lowe wins the tour!
gotta love photbucket, but I aint gonna change all the codes for the flags thats way tooooo time consuming. Even though tinypic looks crap when the images are cropped like they are here but they don;t have a limit.
Stage 1/8:
Squad: Le Mevel, Roy, Guesdon, Di Gregorio, Sulzberger, Veikkanen, Offredo, Ladagnous
It was only 7 kilometres this opening time trial, but still Cancellara managed to finish 21 seconds ahead of the number 2 Popovych. We were nowhere near the top, our best rider was Ladagnous who was 41 seconds slower than Cancellara and ended 38th.
Result:
01. Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank 6'38
02. Yaroslav Popovych Astana Cycling Team + 21
03. Marzio Bruseghin Lampre - N.G.C + 22
04. George Hincapie Team Columbia - High Road + 25
05. David Millar Garmin - Slipstream + 26
06. Bert Grabsch Team Columbia - High Road s.t.
07. Svein Tuft Garmin - Slipstream s.t.
08. Thomas Lövkvist Team Columbia - High Road + 28
09. Marco Pinotti Team Columbia - High Road + 29
10. Manuel Quinziato Liquigas s.t.
And then it's time for the first real stage, we brought the Australian champion Wesley Sulzberger but he will have to deal with some real serious competition here. Cavendish, Boonen, McEwen, Freire, Ciolek, Vaitkus, Napolitano, Steegmans and O'Grady seem to be the sprinters who will battle it out for the stage wins in these flat stages and Sulzberger will just have to try to get himself into the top 10. Early on it's Laurent Mangel who takes off on his own.
Laurent Mangel up front.
But he doesn't make it and we get a sprint
Cancellara started up front but there comes Ciolek with Steegmans behind him!
Ciolek seems to take it...
But no it's Cavendish who pops up and takes it!
Sulzberger comes up short but does a good job ending 8th, the competition is simply too much here to really go for a podium spot.
Result:
01. Mark Cavendish Team Columbia - High Road 4h18'36
02. Gerald Ciolek Team Milram s.t.
03. Óscar Freire Rabobank s.t.
04. Gert Steegmans Team Katusha s.t.
05. Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank s.t.
06. Stuart O'Grady Team Saxo Bank s.t.
07. Tom Boonen Quick·Step s.t. 08. Wesley Sulzberger Française des Jeux s.t.
09. Filippo Pozzato Team Katusha s.t.
10. Tomas Vaitkus Astana Cycling Team s.t.
