STAGE 4 (4 August)
Todays stage is only 84km long and again flat, so with a strong Rabobank team defending Steegmans (RAB) yellow jersey didn't stand a chance.
So here we are again, 3,5 km to go and it's the Chocolade Jacques tandem again with De Haes pulling Ghyllebert into the lead. Ghyllebert is followed by Pollack (UNI) and Juan.
1,5 km to go and Pollack has taken the lead and he is going fast, Juan can hardly follow him. Steegmans (RAB) started the sprint from to far back, but is now in 3rd position. Can juan hold off Steegmans or even pass Pollack?
Juan finally beats Steegmans, it's too bad he isn't the only one and Pollack takes away the stage win.
Steegmans keeps the overall lead and thanks to his 2nd place Juan has now moved up to 2nd place overall.
STAGE 4
1 Olaf Pollack UNIBET.COM 1h51'03 2 Juan Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
3 Gert Steegmans RABOBANK s.t.
4 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
5 Nick Ingels PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
6 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS s.t.
7 Pieter Ghyllebert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
8 Jochen Summer ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
9 Jaroslaw Zarebski ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
10 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS s.t.
61 Christoff Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
63 Travis Allen TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
66 Abdelbasset Hannachi TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
67 Jay Thompson TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
68 David George TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
69 Dennis Van Niekerk TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
93 Dion Botha TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 3'14
GC
1 Gert Steegmans RABOBANK 15h23'33 2 Juan Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 30
3 Olaf Pollack UNIBET.COM + 34
4 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS s.t.
5 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC + 42
6 Pieter Ghyllebert CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN + 1'00
7 Jochen Summer ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
8 Jonas Ljungblad ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
9 Kasper Jebjerg TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
10 Nick Ingels PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'02
11 Alexander Kristoff TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI s.t.
12 Jaroslaw Zarebski ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
13 Blazej Janiaczyk ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
14 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS s.t.
15 Aleksejs Saramotins DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
16 Daniel Foder TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN s.t.
17 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
18 Clemens Frankhauser ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
19 Michael Barry T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'38
20 Kenny De Haes CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t.
48 Abdelbasset Hannachi TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
50 David George TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
81 Travis Allen TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 13'37
85 Dennis Van Niekerk TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 15'52
87 Christoff Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 19'14
94 Dion Botha TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 29'20
95 Jay Thompson TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 29'53
Conclusion
We're more then satisfied with Juan's performance this week, but it's always disappointing to finish 2nd.
However it's not over jet, because thanks to the bonus second Juan is now 2nd overall and has a gap of 30 seconds with place 6. Tomorrows ITT is only 11 km long, so Juan podium place finishes have given him a chance on a good GC result.
STAGE 5 (5 August)
The 5th day in Denmark and today there is an 11km long ITT on the program.
We were curious to see how Hanna and especially David would do. They are our two best TTers here and both are still in reach of the top 20 overall.
Our main focus today is on Juan, who will try and minimize the damage to keep his top 5 spot in the GC.
Left: Dutch ITT champion Marc de Maar (RAB), placed 68th overall, beat the best time of his fellow countryman and teammate Rick Flens (RAB) with 16 seconds.
Middle: Olivier Kaisen (PRL), 59th overall, also beat Flens, but stayed 13 seconds clear of de Maar's time.
Right: Then it was time for Hanna and Geoge. Hanna would end up 13th today and George was the fastest of our team and road the 6th time which would move him up to place 15 overall.
When it was time for the top 3 of the GC, De Maar still had the best time in front of Kaisen and Flens.
Left: Pollack (UNI) however was motivated after yesterdays win and gave it everything he got. It was close but Pollack managed to beat de Maar's time with 1 second. With only Juan and Steegmans left this surely would be enough for his 2nd stage win in 2 days. Would it also be enough to take the overall lead?
Middle: Time for Juan. He road the 42th time and lost 48 second on Pollack. A decent performance for Juan and he only lost to spots in the GC and was now 4th overall.
Right: Only 1 question left; could Steegmans (RAB) hold off Pollack and stay in the yellow jersey? He had an advantage of 34 seconds on Pollack. Steegmans road the 19th time and lost ....... 35 seconds to Pollack.
STAGE 5
1 Olaf Pollack UNIBET.COM 11'53
2 Marc De Maar RABOBANK + 1
3 Olivier Kaisen PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 14
4 Rick Flens RABOBANK + 17
5 Vincenzo Nibali LIQUIGAS + 19 6 David George TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 23
7 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS + 24
8 Nico Keinath DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 26
9 Daniel Foder TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN + 27
10 Dario Cioni PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 29
13 Abdelbasset Hannachi TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 30
26 Dennis Van Niekerk TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 42
34 Dion Botha TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 47
36 Jay Thompson TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 48
39 Christoff Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 51
42 Juan Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 52
53 Travis Allen TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 58
GC
1 Olaf Pollack UNIBET.COM 15h36'00
2 Gert Steegmans RABOBANK + 1
3 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS + 43 4 Juan Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 48
5 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS + 52
6 Daniel Foder TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN + 55
7 Aleksejs Saramotins DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'01
8 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
9 Blazej Janiaczyk ACTION - UNIQA + 1'06
10 Alexander Kristoff TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI + 1'12
15 David George TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 1'27
22 Abdelbasset Hannachi TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 1'34
81 Travis Allen TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 14'01
85 Dennis Van Niekerk TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 16'00
87 Christoff Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 19'31
94 Dion Botha TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 29'33
95 Jay Thompson TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 30'07
Conclusion
We're happy with the outcome of todays ITT. Juan is now 4th overall and we're confident that Juan can survive tomorrows hilly stage.
If the stage turns out tougher then we think we still have David who might with a good result be able to move into the top 10.
STAGE 6 (6 August)
The last stage here in Denmark is 185km long and classified as hilly. It might be tough, but we're going to try and defend Juan's 4th place.
It's only the second time this race that one of our riders makes it into the break of the day, sadly it's again only a break of two. That means little chance of success. It's Christoff, who together with Bram Deprez (PRL), builds up a lead of over 10 minutes on the peleton.
Christoff picks up full points on the 2 KOM-sprints halfway the stage. Because there have hardly been any hills in the other stage, these points are enough for Christoff to take home the KOM-jersey. A nice reward for a whole day in the lead.
When the peleton starts chasing they need less then 70 km to close down the gap. Christoff and Deprez get caught 13 m before the finish just before the last KOM-sprint of the day.
A few riders try to jump away, but non succeed
Rabobank is clearly believes in Steegmans (RAB) chances to take back that 1 second on Pollack, because this far they have managed to neutralize every attack.
Just over 6 km to go and David is feeling good. He decides to give it a go on and attacks the peleton on a small uphill section. It's O'Grady (CSC) who immediately jumps into his wheel. Together the build up a small gap with the peleton.
1,5 km to go and David and O'Grady still have a small gap.
Juan is still sitting in the peleton. He didn't have a good day and didn't have enough energy left to take part in the sprint. Pollack (UNI), in the yellow jersey, was having the same problem and had to hope Steegmans wouldn't pick up any bonus seconds.
Steegmans on the other hand did not only smell the overall victory, but also the stage win. With only 500 meters to go he had already blasted past David and was also closing in fast on O'Grady.
It's close, but Steegmans comes too late and O'Grady takes his 2nd stage win here in Denmark. Steegmans' 2nd place however is enough for him to win the race.
David has helped O'Grady to the win, but it only gets him 6th place today and he stays 15th overall.
Juan finishes as 19th and only sees O'Grady slip past him in the GC, so Juan picks up a nice 5th overall spot in this HC-race.
STAGE 6
1 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC 4h44'15
2 Gert Steegmans RABOBANK s.t.
3 Jonas Ljungblad ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
4 Blazej Janiaczyk ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
5 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS s.t. 6 David George TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
7 Aart Vierhouten SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
8 Clemens Frankhauser ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
9 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS s.t.
10 Olaf Pollack UNIBET.COM s.t.
19 Juan Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
37 Abdelbasset Hannachi TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
48 Jay Thompson TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
78 Travis Allen TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 4'25
90 Dennis Van Niekerk TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 6'17
91 Dion Botha TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 6'57
97 Christoff Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 15'05
GC
1 Gert Steegmans RABOBANK 20h20'04
2 Olaf Pollack UNIBET.COM + 11
3 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC + 52
4 Michael Morkov TEAM GLS + 54 5 Juan Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 59
6 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS + 1'03
7 Daniel Foder TEAM DESIGNA KOKKEN + 1'06
8 Aleksejs Saramotins DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'12
9 Blazej Janiaczyk ACTION - UNIQA + 1'17
10 Jonas Ljungblad ELK HAUS - SIMPLON + 1'20
11 Alexander Kristoff TEAM MAXBO BIANCHI + 1'23
12 Jochen Summer ELK HAUS - SIMPLON + 1'28
13 Vincenzo Nibali LIQUIGAS + 1'34
14 Nick Ingels PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'37 15 David George TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 1'38
16 Clemens Frankhauser ELK HAUS - SIMPLON + 1'40
17 Dario Cioni PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 1'44
18 Baoqing Song TEAM GLS s.t. 19 Abdelbasset Hannachi TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 1'45
20 Pieter Weening RABOBANK + 1'47
81 Travis Allen TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 18'37
85 Dennis Van Niekerk TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 22'28
91 Jay Thompson TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 30'18
94 Christoff Van Heerden TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 34'41
97 Dion Botha TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 36'41
Conclusion
We're very happy about the good results we've had here, because this race was mostly meant as a preparation for the rest of the month.
We have 3 riders in the top 20 and 1 in the the top 5. We won the KOM-jersey and had a rider in the top 10 in every stage. The only disappointment is not winning a stage and that's only because Juan came so close a couple of times. We can't blame Juan, because he already did do better then expected. We're excited to see how he will perform in Germany in a few days.
Edited by snoep_de_hond on 22-06-2009 17:13
While Juan and few others went to Denmark to prepare for the Deutschland-Tour PT.1 (10-18 August), we took Hassen, Dan and Erik together with a couple of our youngster to Germany to ride two German one day races as preparation:
- Rund um die Hainleite 1.1 (4 August)
- Sparkassen Giro Bochum 1.1 (5 August)
First up was:
Rund um die Hainleite 1.1 (4 August)
Profile
This one day race consist out of 3 laps on a 65,5km long course. The course contains two tough climbs, however from the top of the last climb it is still 23,5 km to the finish.
Team Hassen Ben Nasser
Dan Craven
Erik Hoffmann
Ahmed Bara
Taufik Ben Ali
Abderraman Nurani
Jean Robben
Goals
Hassen, Dan and Erik are here to prepare for the Deutschland-Tour PT.1 (10-18 August). However the field here doesn't seem that strong and our guys are fit, in shape and motivate to start racing again, so they're going to test themselves and give it all they got and then will see how far that .
Tactics
Of course Hassen is our leader here. He is our best puncheur and he also is the fastest sprinter. Dan and Erik have a free role, the rest of the team will support them.
Race
Abderraman Nurani said his legs were felling good today. He showed he wasn't lying and managed to get into the break.
They got 6 minutes from the peleton, but never seemed like having any chance of staying in front. At the foot of the last climb they were caught and everything was back together again.
When near the top Bradley McGee (PER) attacked, Dan and Erik reacted in an attempt to keep everything together and give Hassen a chance in the sprint.
However when they came over the top there were only 5 riders left in the pursuit on McGee. Only Elias Schmäh (SKS), Imanol Erviti (CSC) and Hassen had been able to follow Dan and Erik their acceleration.
On the top the gap with McGee wasn't that big, but McGee took maximum risks in the descent and with only 10km left he had build up a gap of more then half a minute with the chase group were Dan and Erik did most of the work.
The peleton was led by T-Mobile and Unibet, but they weren't making up much ground.
2,5 km to go and McGee was still out of reach. Erik was leading out Hassen in the sprint for second place.
A strong performance from McGee,his descent skills won him the race today.
Hassen had no problems winning the sprint for 2nd place, Erik even came in 3rd and Dan crossed the finish in 6th place, just in front of the peleton that closed the gap with the chase group on the finish line.
139 Ahmed Bara TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 6'48
140 Abderraman Nurani TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
142 Taufik Ben Ali TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
143 Jean Robben TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
Conclusion
Well, it looks like our riders haven't been laying around on the beach too much during their summer vacation, but instead trained their asses off. This was a great performance from the team.
Nonetheless it's again disappointing that our team doesn't get rewarded with a victory, but McGee was to good today. We can't let that bother us to much. After this performance I'm convinced we'll see a couple of 1st place finishes from our riders in these last 3 months of this season.
Profile
This one day race consist out of 5 laps on a 36km long course. Their are no real climbs on the course, but the terrain is a bit bumpy.
Team Hassen Ben Nasser
Dan Craven
Erik Hoffmann
Ahmed Bara
Taufik Ben Ali
Abderraman Nurani
Jean Robben
Goals
Although yesterday was an impressive performance were not going to aim to high. A top 10 spot would be nice, but if it comes down to a mass sprint that might be hard to achieve. Hassen is fast, we don't have a real sprinter here.
We'll just have to see how the race unfolds.
Tactics
Same as yesterday. Hassen is our leader, Erik and Dan have a free role and the rest of the team will protect them.
Race
We hoped we could again get one of our riders in the break to take the pressure away from our team.
When the peleton allowed a break of 6 riders to get away and build up a lead of 7 minutes, we were happy to see that Ahmad was 1 of the 6.
Sadly with more then 20 km to go Ahmed had to let the his breakaway companions go.
With 15 to go the 5 in the lead had 1 minute left, when Nicki Sörensen (CSC) attacked. 3 riders countered; Yauhen Sobal (TPH), Johan Coenen (JAC) and Erik.
The 4 soon caught up with the break. When with 10 km to go Sobal attacked only Sörensen and Coenen could follow, leaving the original break and Erik behind.
While Erik was caught again, the leading trio hold off the bunch and it was Sobal who was the fastest in the sprint and won the race.
Hassen starts the sprint from too far back and doesn't get further then place 23th.
59 Erik Hoffmann TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
62 Dan Craven TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
102 Abderraman Nurani TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
118 Taufik Ben Ali TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 3'34
135 Ahmed Bara TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 8'28
136 Jean Robben TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
Conclusion
Our riders were clearly feeling their legs after yesterdays effort. Nothing to worry about, we picked up some important race fitness for the Deutschland-Tour PT.1 (10-18 August).
After our second race in Germany we got the email we were hoping for and secretly counting on after we received the wild card for the Deutschland-Tour PT.1 (10-18 August).
This is now our program for the upcoming two weeks:
- GP Citta di Camaiore 1.1 (9 August)
- Deutschland-Tour PT.1 (10-18 August)
- Giro del Lazio 1.HC (11 August)
- Vuelta a Burgos 2.HC (14-18 August)
- Vattenfall Cyclassics PT.2 (19 August)
Other good news, because of our good results in Denmark and Germany, we're already leading the continental rankings again. Hopefully we can keep this up.
Continental rankings (8 August)
1 TEAM KONICA MINOLTA 1822
2 BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM 1769
3 COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE 1693
4 BARLOWORLD 1648
5 KARPIN GALICIA 959
6 AGRITUBEL 851
7 CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN 831
8 RABOBANK CONTINENTAL 716
9 RELAX - GAM 711
10 TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS 677
Profile
This Italian one day race consist out of 8 laps on a 24,5km long course, which makes a total length of 196km. There is 1 hill on the course that therefore has to be climbed 8 times. The finish line lays at the end of the descent.
Goals
This is one of two Italian race that David and a few other are riding as preparation for the Vuelta a Burgos 2.HC (14-18 August).
David didn't do too bad in Denmark and Ab(delkader) showed his potential in this kind of races in the first half of the season. However we don't have any strong finishers here, so a top 10 spot is what we're aiming for.
Tactics
David is our leader, Ab and Tiaan have a free role the rest will work for the team.
Race
There was a 1 man break today. Ben Gastauer (VBG) was the brave rider who led the race for more then 140km. His maximum advantage was 8 minutes.
With Gastauer caught and still 40km left a few riders attacked and Tiaan was alert enough to counter.
Strongest and most dangerous rider in the break was Ricardo Serrano (TCS). The peleton gave them never more then a minute and when we started the last lap the break was almost reeled in by the pack.
With 20 km to go and not far from the foot of the last climb it was Sergio Paulinho (LIQ), who attacked. Dainius Kairelis (QST) countered with David and Ab in his wheel.
Kairelis, David and Ab couldn't catch Paulinho right away. So it was with only 7km to go, after David and Ab did most of the dirty work, the 3 finally caught up with Paulinho.
It looked like these 4 would battle it out for the win as they had a lead of 1 minute with the peleton.
1 km to go and Ab is in the lead. Can he hold off Kairelis?
No, he is to fast. Sadly we have to settle for 2nd and 3th again.
Results
1 Dainius Kairelis QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 5h17'12 2 Abdelkader Belmokhtar TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
3 David George TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
4 Sergio Paulinho LIQUIGAS s.t.
5 Marco Marcato TEAM LPR + 53
6 Ricardo Serrano TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
7 Christian Murro AMORE E VITA - MCDONALD'S s.t.
8 Hugo Sabido CINELLI - ENDEKA - OPD s.t.
9 Andrea Tonti QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
10 Simon Gerrans KIO-ENE - TONAZZO - DMT s.t.
11 David Loosli LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
12 Patxi Vila LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
13 Mikhaylo Khalilov CERAMICA FLAMINIA s.t.
14 Mauro Facci QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
15 Cristian Gasperoni CERAMICA FLAMINIA s.t.
16 Simone Ponzi ACQUA & SAPONE - CAFFÉ MOKAMBO s.t.
17 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
18 Danny Pate CINELLI - ENDEKA - OPD s.t.
19 Gorazd Stangelj LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
20 Francesco Gavazzi LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
21 Paolo Bossoni LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
22 Francesco Failli LIQUIGAS s.t.
23 Pasquale Muto AMORE E VITA - MCDONALD'S s.t.
24 Volodymyr Zagorodny KIO-ENE - TONAZZO - DMT s.t.
25 Paolo Longo Borghini KIO-ENE - TONAZZO - DMT s.t.
Conclusion
With 2 riders in a break of 4 this was perhaps our best chance this month to win a race. However Kairelis played it smart, letting Ab and George do most of the work in the chase on Paulinho. We knew Kairelis was fast, but we had no choice. Otherwise we wouldn't have caught up with Paulinho and we definitely hadn't won the race.
At least we earned some valuable ranking points and David is showing good form for next weeks Vuelta a Burgos 2.HC (14-18 August).
It's now up to Germany again to see how Juan and co will do in the Deutschland-Tour PT.1 (10-18 August).
Edited by snoep_de_hond on 21-06-2009 06:45
I'll have to disappoint you, Froome will be top fit in September. Hopefully we'll get a a wild card for the Tour de Pologne, then he'll get a chance to lead there.
Juan van Heerden will be our leader in Germany, but I'll tell more about that tomorrow when I'll continue with the story.
Edited by snoep_de_hond on 24-06-2009 05:03
Before the start of the Deutschland-Tour PT.1 (10-18 August) we got another exciting e-mail:
The Belgian and Dutch organization of the Eneco Tour PT.1 (22-29 August) luckily remembers the teams performances in the Amstel Gold Race PT.2 (22 April) and the Tour de Belgique 2.1 (30 May-3 June).
Profile
This years Deutschland-Tour consists out of 4 flat stages, 2 hilly, 1 mountain, 1 ITT and 1 TTT.
The most important stages for the GC will be stage 2 (TTT), stage 5 (Mountain stage) and stage 8 (ITT).
Stage 1: Saarbrücken - Saarbrücken (200km)
Stage 1 is an immediate chance for the sprinters. With not only the stage win but also with the leaders jersey as a reward for the first one over the line, a mass sprint looks inevitable. Even more because the sprinter will have to wait until stage 6 for a next opportunity.
Stage 2: Bretten TTT (42km)
Stage 2 is a 42km long time trail. The question will be which team will be able to bring their leader in pole position for the upcoming difficult stages.
Stage 3: Pforzheim - Offenburg (182km)
Stage 3 doesn't look selective enough to get a battle between the race favorites, but is more then likely to selective to get a mass sprint.
Stage 4: Singen - Sonthofen (186km)
Stage 4 is relatively flat apart from 1 tough climb which has its top 15 km before the finish. With only a fast descent left after the climb the favorites might be tempted to test each other out.
Stage 5: Sonthofen - Sölden (Rettenbachferner) (160km)
Stage 5 is in import stage for the GC, because of the mountain top finish. The 13km long climb up the Rettenbachferner will surely shake up the overall rankings.
Stage 6: Längenfeld - Kufstein (187km)
Stage 6 is only the 2nd chance for the sprinters, so it has mass sprint written all over it.
Stage 7: Kufstein - Regensburg (190km)
Stage 7 is the most straight forward stage of the race, so it looks like another mass sprint.
Stage 8: Fürth ITT (45km)
Stage 8 is a 45 km long ITT. This is the last stage that can really chance the overall rankings. The good TTers will try to make up some time and improve their GC, will the others will have to try and minimize the damage.
Stage 9: Einbeck - Hannover (160km)
Stage 9 is a bumpy ride. It looks like an ideal chance for a successful breakaway or will we see an uphill mass sprint?
Startlist
GC favorites
***** Andy Schleck (CSC)
Andy finished 2nd in last months Tour de France and with help from Cancellara and Voigt in the TTT and Sastre in the mountains he is one of the top favorites. Thomas Dekker (RAB)
Dekker finished 4th in the Tour and his also a strong squad behind him with Gesink and Menchov.
**** Janez Brajkovic (DSC)
Brajkovic, 9th in the tour, has with Devolder, Vanborg and Gusev a very strong team to help in the TTT. Levi Leipheimer (GCE)
Leipheimer was 6th in the Tour, but his problem might be that his Caisse d'Epargne team doesn't look too strong for the TTT. Juanjo Cobo (SDV)
Cobo didn't ride the Tour, but has a strong squad around him with Gómez Marchante, Gil and Savoldelli.
*** Samuel Sánchez (C.A)
Sánchez didn't ride the Tour. He doesn't have a strong team around him, but with some strong finishes he might pick up some bonus seconds to make up the time lost in the TTT. Michael Rogers (TMO)
Rogers, 11th in the tour, is the leader of the T-Mobile squad, which looks to be more build around Cavendish than around Rogers. Roman Kreuziger (LIQ)
Kreuziger, 13th in the Tour, also hasn't a very strong team around him. Vladimir Efimkin (QSI)
Efimkin was 19th in the Tour and has a decent team with Rosseler and Grabovskyy for the TT and Gárate for the mountains.
* C. Horner (PRL), C. Barredo (GER), M. Monfort (AST), J. Gadret (AGR) and T. Valjavec (LAM)
These rider are all team leader for this race, but they must rise above themselves if they want to win this race.
Sprinters
***** G. Ciolek (MRM), A. Petacchi (MRM), M. Cavendish (TMO) **** E. Boasson Hagen (PRL). F. Ventoso (SDV), A. Bazayev (AST) *** D. Napolitano (LAM), E. Zabel (TMO), Se. Chavanel (FDJ) **J. Van Heerden (KON), T. Vaitkus (DCS)L. Mondory (GER) * A. Rasmussen (UNI), K. Fernández de Larrea (EUS), J. Ljunblad (ELK)
Edited by snoep_de_hond on 22-06-2009 22:08
Team leader / Sprinter Juan Van Heerden
Juan is in top shape. It might be difficult to beat riders like Petacchi and Cavendish, but nonetheless Juan is our best hope for a top 3 finish.
Team leader / GC Jay Thompson
Our riders still have to learn a lot, so top 10 overall surely will be out of reach. However Jay is just as Juan in top shape and we're giving him the opportunity to see how far he can get.
We don't really know what will be possible and we don't want to put too much pressure on Jay. However in Paris - Nice PT.1 (11-18 March) none of our finished in side the top 50 of the GC, that can surely be improved.
Free role Erik Hoffmann
Hassen Ben Nasser
Abdelbasset Hannachi
Dan Craven
The role of these four riders is to ride an attacking race. We want to see riders from our team in the breakaway. Wining the KOM jersey, like Erik did during Paris - Nice PT.1 (11-18 March), would be a nice bonus.
Teammates Christoff Van Heerden
Dennis Van Niekerk
Christoff and Dennis will protect Juan in the flat stages and Jay in the hilly and mountain stages. Both are also decent TTers, so they're getting an important role during the TTT.
Goals
Our main goal of this race is to pick up experience, besides that we're hoping to:
- Finish top 3 in at least 1 stage.
- Have at least one rider in the top 50 of the GC
- Have a rider of our team present in every breakaway
Profile
Stage 1 is 180km long and consist out of 3 laps around a 66,5 km long course. The stage is mostly flat, has 3 intermediate sprints and 3 short climbs where points can be earned for the KOM jersey.
Although the peleton never allows them more then 5 minutes and reals in the break with more then 30 km to go, it gives Hassen just enough time to pick up the most KOM-points.
On the last climb he can just hold off Gesink (RAB) and the rest of the bunch to pick up maximum points and secure himself of at least 2 days in the KOM jersey (Tomorrow is the TTT).
3km to go and the peleton has prepared itself for a mass sprint. Juan is well positioned. He has baldly pushed Mark Cavendish (TMO) out of Lloyd Mondory's (GER) wheel and is now placed in between them.
Only 700m until the line and Bazayev (AST) is in the lead with Mondory in 2nd place, but Cavendish is coming up fast from behind. He has almost passed Juan, who is also closing in on Mondory.
Cavendish develops a lot of speed in the last 500m. He closes in fast on Bazayev and they cross the line at togheter. Who has won this?
Juan is battling with Mondory. He finishes 3rd and shoulder to shoulder with the Frenchman, who immediately is complaining. Although we're in our opinion it is Mondory who started leaning in to Juan, he might get disqualified.
The jury has a busy afternoon. After studying the finish photo and looking at the replays of the sprint, their final verdict is: Cavendish is the winner and ....
Juan stays 3rd!
In the final kilometers their has been a crash somewhere halfway the pack (Their is no footage of the incident). The result has been a break in the pack and 50 riders losing just over 2 minutes. Two of the main casualties are Brajkovic (DSC) and Leipheimer (GCE).
KOM 1 Hassen Ben Nasser TEAM KONICA MINOLTA 8
2 Thomas Frei TEAM ASTANA 3
3 Michiel Van Aelbroeck UNIBET.COM 2
Conclusion
A very good begin from the team. Hassen seemed the strongest rider in the break and gets rewarded with the KOM jersey.
Juan showed he isn't afraid of the big names and almost literary fought himself to 3rd place. Luckily he didn't get a DQ, so we now already have the 3rd place finish we were aiming for.
This is a boost for the team spirit. I'm counting on seeing a motivated team during tomorrows TTT.
With AG2R and Credit Agricole not coming close to Caisse d'Espargne's time it was Rabobank its turn. The combined strenght of Dekker, Menchov, Gesink and Posthuma was just enough to beat Caisse d'Espargne.
Rabobank: 5th + 55
Surprisingly Rabobank's best time was immediately beaten by Quickstep with 1 second. Rosseler and Grabovskyy played a big role in keeping their leader Efimkin in the top of the GC.
Quickstep Innergetic: 4th + 54
After Elk Haus and Liquigas (Kreuziger's team loses almost a minute to Quickstep's time) it was time for one of the favourites: CSC. They set the best time, but only beating Quickstep with 3 seconds. You expect more from a team with Voigt, Andy Schleck, Christian Vandevelde and most importantly Fabian Cancellara, .
Team CSC: 3th + 51
CSC was immediately followed by Discovery Channel, the other top favorite. Brajkovic, Danish TT champion Brain Vandborg, world TT champion Stijn Devolder, Gusev, Vaitkus, Rujano, Ortega and Medina together shattered CSC's time. Of course their time turned out to be more then enough for the stage win and Maurico Ortega is the new overall leader. This also a little boost for Brajkovic's GC chances after yesterdays unlucky 2 minutes time loss.
Discovery Channel: 1th 55'59
After Wiesenhof, Milram and Saunier Duval (A 10th place was a little disappointed for Cobo's team) it was finally time for our team. It was nice to see two of our guys in leaders jerseys: Hassen in the KOM jersey and Juan in the U25 jersey (because Cavendish was wearing yellow today).
A few days before this race we had practiced this discipline, because we want to make a good impression during this race. The practice payed off the team road a very good TTT finishing in 7th place.
Team Konica Minolta: 7th + 1'04
After Panaria came the surprise of the day: Predictor - Lotto. With as best TTers Jurgen van den Broeck and Leif Hoste they somehow managed to only lose 46 second to Discovery Channel and finish 2nd today. Let's see if their team leader Chris Horner, can also surprise evebody in the upcoming difficult stage.
Predictor - Lotto: 2th + 46
Unibet, Euskaltel, Lampre, Gerolteiner and Francaise des Jeux all didn't make into the top 10. After these teams their were only 2 left and first up was Astana. With not many TT specialist 9th place seems like a good result for them.
Team Astana: 9th + 1'26
Last team to start was T-Mobile. TT-specialists Ziegler and Rogers couldn't keep Cavendish in the yellow jersey and they finished in 8th place, 1 second in front of Astana .
Conclusion
It was a delight to see our team riding in formation and we're more then pleased with the result. Our practice really payed off as we only lost 13 seconds to CSC in 3th place.
The team showed good form today, so we're anxious to see how the team will perform in the upcoming hilly stages. Edited by snoep_de_hond on 24-06-2009 17:14
Before continuing with the Deutschland-Tour, first an update from Italy where David and a few others are preparing for the Vuelta a Burgos 2.HC (14-18 August).
Giro del Lazio 1.HC (11 August)
Profile
This Italian classic is a very hilly 200km long race. After a hilly start it stays more or less flat for a while until the final when the riders have to climb the Rocca di Papa, the Campi di Annibale and the last climb to the finish, the Rocca Priora.
Team David George
Abdelkader Belmokhtar
Tiaan Kannemeyer
Travis Allen
Taufik Ben Ali
Antar Buadis
Abderraman Nurani
Jean Robben
Benhadj Zahouania
Goals
This is the second of two Italian race that David and co are riding as preparation for the Vuelta a Burgos 2.HC (14-18 August).
Ab(delkader) and David finished 2nd and 3th in the first one, however this race has much stronger riders at the start like Pellizotti (LIQ), Di Luca(LIQ), Garzelli (ASA), Soler (BAR), Sella (PAN), Pozzovivo (PAN) and Cunego (LAM).
This is David's final test before he has to shine in Spain, we know he is in good form and maybe top 10 is possible for him today.
Tactics
David is our leader, Ab and Tiaan have a free role the rest will work for the team.
Race
Ab didn't want to wait until the final and was alert when a 10 men breakaway was formed. The break got more then 6 minutes, but without any riders from Lampre and Acqua & Sapone it never looked like the break had a real chance of success.
Halfway the penultimate climb, the Campi di Annibale, the peleton caught up with the break.
Near the top two riders attacked, Pozzovivo and Stefano Garzelli. They had a small gap with the bunch when they started the descent.
The bunch consisted out of 38 riders at this point and we only had David and Ab left. The gap to the two in front slowly grew, because the bunch hesitated. So with 24 km to go it was first Daniele Pietropolli (TEN) and later with 16 km to go it was Pellizotti who attacked the bunch and with a solo effort both managed to reach the front group.
Halfway the Rocca Priora, the climb to the finish, the lead of the quartet had grown to 1 minute. It was only 6,5 km to the finish line, so David put in a final effort to see how far he could get.
1 km to go and it was Garzelli who started the sprint. David was 1 minute behind them and had a small gap to the bunch.
Pellizotti managed to pass Garzelli in the uphill sprint and won the race in front of Garzelli and Pietropolli.
Thanks to the small lead David had build up, he was able to hold off Di Luca and finish 5th.
34 Abdelkader Belmokhtar TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
41 Tiaan Kannemeyer TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 4'55
83 Travis Allen TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 6'31
88 Taufik Ben Ali TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
94 Abderraman Nurani TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
114 Jean Robben TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 12'55
115 Benhadj Zahouania TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 13'51
116 Antar Buadis TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 15'23
Conclusion
A very good result from David. This underlines the top shape he is in at the moment. He and his teammates here are now going to Spain to the Vuelta a Burgos 2.HC (14-18 August) where we expect David can compete for the overall victory.
