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Team Statkraft - Bianchi: The new anglo-scandinacion Pro-cont. team
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 07:45
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Joined: 29-03-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Key races & goals
When creating the team I felt it was natural to pick the native races of the team's core area as key races, even if they are low-ranked races for the most part. With only Post Danmark Rundt reaching .hc status, it might be a strange thing. Will the game produce new key races and targets next season?
Much depends on which teams are participating in the events. In my other game Ringerike GP was won by Giovanni Visconti - so that can be more challenging than one would expect, for example.
The prime time for my team will be August/September, so we'll need to plan for that. In addition I want to get going with some good results early on - so I'll try to get my best riders in best possible shape early on to pick up points. I will prefer racing in northern-europe, with Benelux, Germany and French races being realistically where Joker-Bianchi should be racing on the continent. The start of the season will be mor excotic, though.
I have a tentative season plan - but much will depend on which races I am accepted in to.
Game information
DB: PCM Daily v2 (only difference is this team, but the riders stats is not touched)
Difficulty: Normal
My experience: Not much. Played nearly one season in PCM08 before this – with much better team!
No training camps |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-12-2024 21:38
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| olabj |
Posted on 15-05-2009 08:57
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Gonchar wrote:
Will the game produce new key races and targets next season?
Yes it will. The goals and key races depends on how good you do it in the season before, and I think that the riders you buy have a little impact on the goals |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 09:33
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Good. A very minimum to be achieved is of course to establish ourselves as the 2nd best team to come out of Scandinavia. We should also try to keep ahead of the dominantely british teams. |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 10:23
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PCM$: 200.00
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Mid-January update
Some bad news. We have not been able to attract secondary sponsors with budgets that makes a difference. Norwegian chocolate manufacturer Freie and clothing company Helly Hansen HH is on board with smaller amounts however. These two are only covereing a part of the cost of my new trainer!
We have also been in contact with race organizer. We can confirm that we will take part in Tour de Langkawi in February. More troubling is the news that we have been turned down in most of the Belgium cobblestone races, despite having riders like Arvesen, Kopp and Backstedt on our roster,. That is depressing news, so we’ll have to rebuild or plans for march and april. We will however do our outmost to prove them wrong in Dwars door Vlaandaren and Driedaagse de Panne-Koksijde. We are also on to racing Eroica.
Oh, and we have an injury on youngster Rasmus Guldhammar, who suffers from a bruised hand.
Our racing program for January and February looks like this
19.1 – 24.1 Tour de San Luis (Argentina) T.1
9.2 – 15.2 Le Tour de Langkawi (Malaysia) T.HC
21.2 Tour du Haut Var C.1
25.2 – 1.3 MTN Giro del Capo T.1
Who has been winning?
David Blanco won Vuelta at Tachira by a decent margin. The Palmeiras Resort / Tavira-rider won several stages, and took time from his opponents in both hilly stages, mountain finishes and the time trial.
Australia has arranged their national championship. Cadel Evans took both. Winning by 33 seconds over Michael Rogers in the time trial, and coming home alone in the road race. Rory Sutherland and Michael Rogers took the next two places.
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo is another exotic race one can choose to start the season. In a slightly surprising twist, the victory went to Jarlinson Pantano from Colombua es Pasion Coldeportes. His winning move came in the second stage where he and fellow escapee Matt Cronshow (Rapha Condor) finished 42 seconds in front of the bunch. Pantano took the win, and the bonus seconds secured him the victory. The other stage wins went to Robert Hayles (Team Halfords) and Yauheni Hutarovich (Francaise des Jeux) who split the other stages between them.
The Cancer Council Classic in Adeldaide attracted lots of strong riders. Team Columbia – High Road was a cut above the rest, taking the double with Mark Renshaw and Greg Henderson. Hilton Clarke joined in on the podium. |
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| beagle |
Posted on 15-05-2009 10:28
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4200
Joined: 06-10-2007
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looking great, good luck!
do you think about switching of difficulty on hard level? normal level is too easy, I think it wouldn´t be fun for you to win almost every race you will join (although your lower experiences with game) |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 10:44
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Posts: 141
Joined: 29-03-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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beagle wrote:
looking great, good luck!
do you think about switching of difficulty on hard level? normal level is too easy, I think it wouldn´t be fun for you to win almost every race you will join (although your lower experiences with game)
I will raise the difficulty if the results in spring season is "too good". So we'll see. Some of my riders have a training plan that secures a maximum possible form in the early races in jan/fev, so I think I will have an advantage there early on (no training camps though) as I guess few will try to peak that early. So I think I'll first see some answers to the difficult level when I reach may. |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 16:36
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Tour de San Luis: Preview
Statkraft-Bianchi have gone far away to start the season this year, starting with Tour de San Luis in Argentina. The six day race starts with a short prologue. The decisive stages will be the 20 km long time trial and a real mountain stage to Mirador el Potrero.
All our best men will be on start. Deignan will try to get a decent result in the mountain stage. David Kopp will contest the sprints, while Backstedt might be up to something useful in the time trials. These fellows should be very fit for the race. Arvesen does not have the same fitness, and will play second fiddle this time, or so we assume. The team is completed with:
David MCann
Jacob Moe Rasmussen
Håvard Nybø
Stian Remme
There are plenty of strong riders on the start list, so this will be no vacation. “- We’re not really sure about where we stand at the moment, so we will just have to see how it goes”, DS Odin van Ginohove says to feltet.dk. “ Riders like Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne), Haimar Zubeldia (Astana) and Marco Pinotti (Columbia) will be among the favourites for the overall. Bradley Wiggins and David Millar looks dangerous for the time trial. |
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| beagle |
Posted on 15-05-2009 16:38
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4200
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Good luck in Argentina! |
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| ursul |
Posted on 15-05-2009 17:06
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good luck |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 17:06
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The Time Trial – Time to get started
It is Stian Remme who will be the first to set of in Statkraft-Bianchis glorious colours.
No big ambition there, but it shall be interesting to see what Håvard Nybø will do, as he is a decent time trialist: Nybø is among the best so far!
Not a spectators sport in Argentina, it seems  Meanwhile David McCann finishes on the same time as Håvard Nybø.
Luis Leon Sanchez will be a man to watch out for! He finishes 4th today - only 4 seconds back of the winner!
Kurt Asle Arvesen on the run - how will our Norwegian star go?
He finishes 8 seconds behind LL Sanchez. The winner though is...
Bradley Wiggins!
Magnus "BigSwede" Backstedt powers on to 5th - my best of the day!
Garmin-Slipstream dominates...
1 Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream 7'06
2 David Millar Garmin - Slipstream + 5
3 Svein Tuft Garmin - Slipstream + 6
4 Luis León Sánchez Caisse d'Epargne + 7
5 Magnus Bäckstedt Team Statkraft Bianchi + 9
6 Jimmy Engoulvent Besson Chaussures - Sojasun s.t.
7 Evgeni Petrov Team Katusha + 10
8 Marco Pinotti Team Columbia - High Road s.t.
9 Martín Garrido Palmeiras Resort / Tavira s.t.
10 Steve Morabito Astana Cycling Team + 11
11 Kurt-Asle Arvesen Team Statkraft Bianchi + 12
20 Havard Nybö Team Statkraft Bianchi + 17
21 David McCann Team Statkraft Bianchi + 17
22 David Kopp Team Statkraft Bianchi + 18
35 Jacob Moe Rasmussen Team Statkraft Bianchi + 22
66 Stian Remme Team Statkraft Bianchi + 29
77 Philip Deignan Team Statkraft Bianchi + 32
RESULTS:
The favourites took it. Wiggins ahead of Millar and Svein Tuft. A Garmin Slipstream triple! Luis Leon Sanchez took the young rider’s jersey by finishing fourth. Big Magnus finished 5th, which we are happy about in this company. Arvesen finished just outside top 10.
“- A good result for us”, says Odin van Ginohove to syklingensverden.com.
PRESS RELEASE:
Statkraft-Bianchi opened the season in good fashion today. In the strong Argentinean race Tour de San Luis, Magnus Backstedt finished a strong 5th. The stage was won by world class-specialist Bradley Wiggins. Statkraft – Bianchi came second in the team ranking, having Kurt Asle Arvesen on 11th, and Håvard Nybø and Kevin McCann on 20th. “- That shows how good we rode today”, team manager Odin van Ginohove says. Now we’ll try to pull off some good results in the remaining stages.”- We are a minor team and will have no pressure in the race, so we are free to try our stuff”, he continues”
edit: coloured text
Edited by Gonchar on 15-05-2009 18:08
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| ursul |
Posted on 15-05-2009 17:16
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Can you write the name of your racer in another color to see it fastly?
Also good result |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 18:10
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Posts: 141
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Stage two is coming up. There was a really big crash on that stage.
On my computer, that is. I need to go very low on graphics unfortunately, until I can get myself a new computer. |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 18:30
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Posts: 141
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Stage two
*** Kopp, Casper, Henderson
** Arvesen,
Blue sky and 36’ Celsius is far from what we are used to at this time of year back home in Norway. Today’s race is flat, and should by all means end up in a mass sprint finish. We should have a good chance to get away with a result, having Kopp in alright condition. We are trying to get in good shape early, so that we can pick up some points and hopefully get invited to some interesting races later on.
David Kopp has been named one of the hot favourites today, which means we might have to do some work. We’re gonna try setting someone up for a breakaway to take pressure off. Garmin will be needing to protect their lead.
How the stage evolved!
David McCann ready to roll!
Things starter earlier on with an attack already after 6km. We were sleeping, so Håvard Nybø attacked with Remme on his wheel to try to bridge over to the five up front. We bridged up, but Remme used very much energy to make it to the front to claim the mountain jersey.
Way too many riders were on the move, so the peleton was reeling in breakaway riders already. The first breakaway group now consist of (Oliveira, Tchanliev and Remme). They soon got joined by Docxk (Colubmbia), King (Livestrong), Klostergaard (Saxo Bank), Candil (Rota dos Moveis), Livramento (Palmeiras Resor) and Lafuente (Euskaltel). Missing riders from Garmin, Astana and Caisse d’Epargne – the peleton will not want the breakaway to succeed. A Garmin rider used 20 km to bridge over, mostly wheelsucking a Colombian rider (who only nearly made it to the breakaway, but faded just late enough so the Garmin rider could do the rest...). Back in the peleton, Astana and Bissel were in front. The lead grew to about 7 minutes with 100 KM to go.
Crash in the peloton!
Garmin was now in the back of the breakaway and in front of the peloton. Caisse d’Epargne (riding for Sanchez) did also much work. There is some excitement, as the breakaway has 2:27 with 30 KM to go. But surely, they can’t hold out. With 23KM to go, Remme follows an attack by Livramento and Klostergaard. But in the end there is established a group with Remme, Tchanliev and Meier. They have 1:21 with 14 km to go. Back in the pack, we again try to organize a train. Backstedt, Rasmussen, Arvesen og Kopp will be our line of attack.
With 5 KM to go Remme attack Meier, while Tchanliev has given up earlier.
With 4 KM to go, our train is perfectly positioned in the bunch, but have we helped reeling in Remme?
Remme wins in front of Meier.
They just held off. Rasmussen (!) wins the sprint, in front of Arvesen, Kopp and Backstedt (!). It seems obvious that my opponents have not tried to get as fit as possible for this race! I didn't even get such results with allmye best sprinters playing Columbia on easy...
A surprising win by Remme. It even game me a couple of plus’es with the sponsor!
The bad news is that Deignan managed to end up losing time (together with Nybø and McCann). On the other side, he wouldn’t be able to hold on to a good overall position anyway. After all he lost more than 40 seconds on the short prologue! It seems other good people also wre caught up in a split.
IN THE MEDIA!
“- An unbelievable demonstration of power”, says team manager Odin van Ginohove to Cyclingnews.com.
RESULTS STAGE:
1 Stian Remme Team Statkraft Bianchi 3h56'22
2 Christian Meier Garmin - Slipstream s.t.
3 Jacob Moe Rasmussen Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
4 Kurt-Asle Arvesen Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
5 David Kopp Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
6 Magnus Bäckstedt Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
7 Jimmy Casper Besson Chaussures - Sojasun s.t.
8 Greg Henderson Team Columbia - High Road s.t.
9 Guennadi Mikhailov Team Katusha s.t.
10 Mathieu Drujon Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
81 David De la Fuente Fuji - Servetto s.t.
82 Ryohei Komori Trek Livestrong s.t.
83 Jason McCartney Team Saxo Bank + 2'20
84 Egoi Martínez Euskaltel - Euskadi + 2'20
86 Havard Nybö Team Statkraft Bianchi + 2'20
87 Luis León Sánchez Caisse d'Epargne + 2'20
93 Marco Pinotti Team Columbia - High Road + 2'20
100 David McCann Team Statkraft Bianchi + 2'20
103 Nicki Sörensen Team Saxo Bank + 2'20
104 Darwin Pantoja Colombia es Pasion Coldeportes + 2'20
107 Philip Deignan Team Statkraft Bianchi + 2'20
Remme holds both the points and mountain jerseys.
RESULTS OVERALL
1 Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream 4h03'28
2 Stian Remme Team Statkraft Bianchi + 5
3 David Millar Garmin - Slipstream s.t.
4 Svein Tuft Garmin - Slipstream + 6
5 Christian Meier Garmin - Slipstream + 8
6 Magnus Bäckstedt Team Statkraft Bianchi + 9
7 Jimmy Engoulvent Besson Chaussures - Sojasun s.t.
8 Martín Garrido Palmeiras Resort / Tavira + 10
9 Evgeni Petrov Team Katusha s.t.
10 Steve Morabito Astana Cycling Team + 11
11 Kurt-Asle Arvesen Team Statkraft Bianchi + 12 |
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| ursul |
Posted on 15-05-2009 19:14
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Wow! Domination! No opposition to your team. It look like an formality. |
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| United Forever |
Posted on 15-05-2009 20:24
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Domestique
Posts: 494
Joined: 27-04-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Great story so far, but please consider putting up the difficulity sooner because if you get more of these dominations it gets boring for you 
Anyway great result  |
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| Goldberger |
Posted on 15-05-2009 20:39
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Domestique
Posts: 504
Joined: 14-02-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Stian Remme Great start. |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 21:25
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United Forever wrote:
Great story so far, but please consider putting up the difficulity sooner because if you get more of these dominations it gets boring for you
Yeah, I know. But I'll wait until the prime spring season to see what we get. I really should get good result now, as I have maximized fitness levels for the first races. So if I get too unrealistic results when we are in march - I will change.
But this stage was extrodinary.
More on Stian Remme
Stian Remme came to the team after spending the last years at Sparebanken Vest. The 26-year-old impressed in the national championship last year, where he were the only one remotely close to being able to follow Kurt Asle Arvesen's attacks. Remme has brought home one victory, which came last year in Tour des Pyrenees' queen stage, a race in which he also finished 3rd overall after losing time on the first stage. Remme is a competent allrounder.
Edited by Gonchar on 15-05-2009 21:27
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| United Forever |
Posted on 15-05-2009 21:42
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Domestique
Posts: 494
Joined: 27-04-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Okay good to hear so far great story |
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| Gonchar |
Posted on 15-05-2009 21:43
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Free Agent
Posts: 141
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PCM$: 200.00
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STAGE THREE – Time to Climb.
Well well, after winning from a breakaway, and adding a surrealistic sprint finish yesterday - today will be a more challenging day as there is an uphill finish. Looks more like a challenging sprint, that anything that should create time gaps of significance. The rest of the stage is quite flat however. The biggest difficulty of the day would be the real strong winds.
Jufre, Sanchez and Botcharov is the favourites of the day. Arvesen will be my chance, and he is mentioned as a one star favourite. We should try to protect our climber’s jersey. We’ll try to put Remme in a breakaway again, but he might be considered a threat since he now is 2nd overall. In that case, we’ll try to get someone else in the breakaway to claim the points. Obviously that strategy doesn’t really make sense, as there is also points to be given at the finish – and Remme will probably not be able to hang on...
Attacking starts at 6KM. We’ll follow with Remme to test the peloton. McCann is near the front to follow the next move, if Remme et al is brought back. Astana put 6 men to pull it back, so no chance!
The high tempo has already split the peloton in the strong winds. After the peloton caught is breath, the next move came with 86 KM to go. McCann is our go-man. It really is a strong move, with riders like N Sörensen (Saxo Bank), E Martinez (Euskaltel), Botcharov (Katusha), Camano (Fuji)m Kiryienka (Caisse d’Epargne) and Pinotti (Columbia). A bit early for such a group of favourites, I would have assumed.
Unfortunately McCann could only get second on the climb, so Pinotti and Remme will have equally with points after today. Back, Astana is pulling again – and there is a split with 26 riders soon gaining 53 seconds while I had my mind set on the mountain finish.
Got to hang on!
I have Backstedt, Remme and Rasmussen in the front group. I really have problem supplying my riders, as everyone who goes back of the front group to get water missed the echelons and is off the back… Things are messy, but it seems like the peloton will stay broken. Arvesen tried to bridge across. He succeced in that, but spent a lot of energy. Others also came. We enters the last 20 KM will lots of holes in our water supply. That will be a lesson learned, hopefully.
McCann and the group of strongman is 37 second in front of the peloton with 14 KM to go. McCann stops working, as he will never be able to beat those guys in an uphill finish. They were caught. With 5 KM to go, we have Arvesen in a good position behind the Astana-train.
We will also try to finish decently with Rasmussen, as Arvesen is low on energy. Backstedt pulls hard in the low slopes of the climb. Rasmussen and Arvesen got 5th and 6th respectively. We are satisfied with that. It was more of a sprint, than a climb really. Jufre took the sprint. A lot of riders came in with the same time, but the interesting part is to see who were missing in the first part of the splitted peloton...
Wiggins came in with the front part of the peloton and still leads in front of Paulinho and Jufre. Remme is 4th, Backstedt 6th and Arvesen 9th. But there is a mountain stage and a time trial looming.
IN THE MEDIA:
In a comment to Norwegian cycling magazine Syklingensverden.com, team manager Odin van Ginohove explained that it was an ubelievable tough race. “-The strong winds made sure we had to work the whole stage to be positioned well. We missed one split in the peloton with Arvesen having to use lots of energy to bridge back up. Two riders in top 10 is a very strong result. We prove we are going very well here!"
1 Josep Jufré Fuji - Servetto 3h49'01
2 Sérgio Paulinho Astana Cycling Team s.t.
3 Alejandro Marque Palmeiras Resort / Tavira s.t.
4 Xabier Zandio Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
5 Jacob Moe Rasmussen Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
6 Kurt-Asle Arvesen Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
7 Amets Txurruka Euskaltel - Euskadi s.t.
8 Ryder Hesjedal Garmin - Slipstream s.t.
9 Nelson Vitorino Palmeiras Resort / Tavira s.t.
10 Kanstantsin Siutsou Team Columbia - High Road s.t.
20 Magnus Bäckstedt Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
28 Stian Remme Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
33 David McCann Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
46 Evgeni Petrov Team Katusha + 2'46
52 Luis León Sánchez Caisse d'Epargne + 2'46
55 David Millar Garmin - Slipstream + 2'46
72 Philip Deignan Team Statkraft Bianchi + 2'46
78 David Kopp Team Statkraft Bianchi + 2'46
92 Havard Nybö Team Statkraft Bianchi + 2'46
Overall:
1 Bradley Wiggins Garmin - Slipstream 7h52'23
2 Sérgio Paulinho Astana Cycling Team + 7
3 Josep Jufré Fuji - Servetto + 11
4 Stian Remme Team Statkraft Bianchi s.t.
5 Jimmy Engoulvent Besson Chaussures - Sojasun + 13 |
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| United Forever |
Posted on 15-05-2009 21:50
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Domestique
Posts: 494
Joined: 27-04-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Good results to bad Arvesen didn't have the power |
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