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Team CSC | Le Tour de France
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-09-2007 13:50
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Grand Tour Specialist
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April 25:  La Fléche Wallone
Race Profile
Team: Fränk Schleck, Karsten Kroon, Andy Schleck, Nicki Sørensen, Kurt-Asle Arvesen, David Zabriskie, Lars Bak and Marcus Ljungqvist.
Like in the midweek between Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, there’s also a 200 km classic in the Ardennes pinned in between Amstel Gold Race and Liége-Bastogne-Liége. After the dissapointment in Amstel we travelled back to Belgium hoping for a much better result here.
It was us that started things, as Nicki went away and created the early breakaway after 30 km, where all previous attempts had been nullified by Gerolsteiner, who were looking for a double today.
Nicki was the first rider to succesfully break away from the pack and he was followed by another seven riders.
The 7 other were: Andreas Klöden, Rigoberto Uran, Joan Horrach, David Loosli, Sebastian Lang, Dimitri Fofonov and Haimar Zubeldia. So it was some pretty strong guys. After 60 km the gap to the pack was 5’00” and as they climbed the Muur for the first time and dropped Lang, they had 7’30” on the pack with 125 km to go.
The Muur wouldn’t only mark the race as the finish, as the riders had to ride it a total of three times. Lang was dropped on the first.
With 105 to go, they hit the Muur again with about 10 minutes on the pack. No one was dropped, but as the pack hit it and increased its pace a lot of riders couldn’t keep up with Gerolsteiner setting the high pace.
After climbing the Muur for the second time, the pack was down to just 79 riders as Gerolsteiner wanted to tear things apart.
Stefan Schumacher, Andrey Kashechkin and Samuel Sanchez were all stranded in the part of the pack that broke off on the Muur, so their race were more or less over at this point. As a result of the increased pace, the gap to the breakaway came down very fast and with 80 km to go it was cut to only 6 minutes. With 50 km to go it was down to just 3’33” and the pack was cut to just 40 riders, where we only had Fränk and Karsten among them.
With 45 to go the first favourites attacked and it was Michael Boogerd, who started things by attacking and encouraged his fellow favourites to follow him. So a group of favourites quickly formed as just about every teams got their captain to the leading group. With 34 to go on the Côte de Bohissau, Nicki’s group lead Matthias Kessler, who had attacked by 1’25” and the german was followed by Boogerd, Rebellin and Loosli who were 19” down the road, while the rest of the favourites, Fränk Schleck, Bettini, Gilbert, Kim Kirchen, Nocentini and Bertagnolli, were another 36” behind.
Nicki was the strongest in the breakaway so he decided to take off on Côte de Bohissau, but as the favourites opened up behind him he was quickly caught.
25 km from the finish Nicki was reeled in by the favourites so that the group contained 24 riders, in which we only had Nicki and Fränk. After the last but final climb, the favourite group was down to just 14 riders as Fränk had held a very high pace up the Côte de Ben-Ahin. He also dropped Nicki, meaning he was our only chance for a top ten spot. But he was getting very worn down because of the high pace that had influenced this finale so far.
Fränk Schleck wasn’t at his best today eventhough he managed to drop a lot of big riders ahead of today’s finale.
The 14-man group was still intact with 12 km to go, as the riders approached the crucial final climb to Huy. Besides Schleck, it contained Nocentini, Bettini, Gilbert, Dekker, Kessler, Menchov, Kirchen, Rebellin, Florencio, Pellizotti, Riccó, Bertagnolli and Boogerd. I drove in the support car right behind the leading group and I was the one who was communicating with Fränk in the finale. As he’d told that he was very tired after the last climb, I told him to just stick to the front of the group without relaying and then see if he could counter any potential attacks. But he said that he didn’t feel he could do it.
With less than 5 km to go, Leonardo Bertagnolli attacked on the final flat part of the race and got a small gap on the leading group. Fränk was getting very tired and he dropped to the back of the group as he was getting very exhausted and he honestly didn’t look like a guy who could make it over the Mur du Huy. Rebellin and Bettini also tried to get away and as the leaders hit the Mur du Huy, these two riders had a very small advantage over the remaining 12.
Rebellin and Bettini looked the strongest while Fränk was having an off-day in the back of the group.
Kirchen suddenly came out of nowhere with Ricardo Riccó on his wheel and the luxembourgian looked incredibly strong.
But Kirchen faded a bit on the final part and Davide Rebellin suddenly found himself having a slender lead as the climg begang flatting out on the last 100 metres or so. Fränk was down in the back still and he didn’t look like he could manage a top ten spot today.
Rebellin was the strongest again today as he rejected Kirchen’s challenge and had a bit more punch than Bettini in the end.
So Rebellin did the double and he still has the chance of doing the treple for the second time in his career which would be a crazy achievement, considering he’s the only rider ever to the treple one time. If Amstel was dissapointing for us, this was worse. Maybe Fränk’s great form in Paris-Nice and Basque Tour was beginning to cost him now, but we still hoped that he could revenge this disspoiting result in Liége-Bastogne-Liége on Sunday. Nicki did quite well actually as he managed 20th place.
 71st Fléche Wallone | Result
1  Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER 5h26'30
2 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
3 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
4 Riccardo Riccò SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
5 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
6 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK s.t.
7 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK s.t.
8 Denis Menchov RABOBANK s.t.
9 Xavier Florencio BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
10 Philippe Gilbert FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
11 Matthias Kessler ASTANA s.t.
12 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
13 Leonardo Bertagnolli LIQUIGAS s.t.
14 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
15 Cédric Vasseur QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 3'02
16 Axel Merckx T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
17 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 3'21
18 Mario Aerts PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
19 Mirko Celestino TEAM MILRAM s.t.
20 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC + 4'01
34 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC + 6'35
39 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
41 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC s.t.
44 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC s.t.
52 Karsten Kroon TEAM CSC + 7'50
124 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 17'03
Rebellin claimed the double after an outstanding burst to the finish line at Mur du Huy. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 22-11-2024 14:51
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| mrlol |
Posted on 19-09-2007 13:53
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5005
Joined: 24-06-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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I got the feeling I've seen that photo of rebellin before....  |
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-09-2007 13:56
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
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As it fitted better for this update I changed the one on the Amstel-Update |
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| mrlol |
Posted on 19-09-2007 14:23
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5005
Joined: 24-06-2007
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yea, I saw that |
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| Karl_rab |
Posted on 19-09-2007 20:32
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Sprinter
Posts: 1888
Joined: 09-06-2007
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I really like this story, if only it included a few latvians ..............
I dont like to boast, but our story has got double the pages and we havnt even started yet, maybe you should take my tip
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| Smoothie |
Posted on 19-09-2007 21:42
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Team Leader
Posts: 6622
Joined: 04-02-2007
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Bit of bad luck there  Keep you chin up and get stuck in  Keep up the good story telling |
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:02
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
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Karl_rab wrote:
I really like this story, if only it included a few latvians ..............
I dont like to boast, but our story has got double the pages and we havnt even started yet, maybe you should take my tip
Yeah but you're two guys doing one story, soeh
What was you tip again? |
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| Karl_rab |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:05
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Sprinter
Posts: 1888
Joined: 09-06-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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more latvians, 1 or 2, would liven the races up a bit B)
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:08
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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I don't think Latvians are Ardennes material |
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| Karl_rab |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:10
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Sprinter
Posts: 1888
Joined: 09-06-2007
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not for ardennes
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:15
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
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I don't know any latvian riders, who is their best riders? |
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| Karl_rab |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:17
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Sprinter
Posts: 1888
Joined: 09-06-2007
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i dont know, scout some, dumbo
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:18
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
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You sounded so passionate, so I guessed you had some knowledge about them latvians |
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| Karl_rab |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:20
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Sprinter
Posts: 1888
Joined: 09-06-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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im a third latvian, a third austrian and a thired jersey so i should know a few, i think there is one on the free riders pool
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:23
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
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I might check him out, then he could ride Tour of Luxembourg or sumthin like that as stagiare  |
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:24
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
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Tell you what. If you get the entire LBL Top 3 right, I'll sign the guy no matter how rubbish he is |
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| Karl_rab |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:30
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Sprinter
Posts: 1888
Joined: 09-06-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Liege baston liege? who is riding it? it is very stacked against me, as you could change the outcome
ill have a go though.
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| Karl_rab |
Posted on 19-09-2007 22:42
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Sprinter
Posts: 1888
Joined: 09-06-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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im early thoughts are hoste if he is going? rebellin and im stick on the last one pellizotti? i dont know which order either
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| niconico |
Posted on 20-09-2007 13:52
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
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I raced it before I gave you the challenge so I couldn't change the result and nor would I consider doin' it as it would be rather lame.
But c'mon, Hoste can't do a top 3 in LBL Valverde is only new rider who raced it. |
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| Setzel |
Posted on 20-09-2007 14:14
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3692
Joined: 16-04-2007
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Damn i like this story 
Eating my daily Breakfast at 9 pm
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