Stage 5 is the Queen's stage of TDU. It ends on Willunga Hill, always a nice test how the best punchers of the world are doing. We didn't have that high hopes, since Voeckler disappointed on stage 2.
We had our hopes on him again though, since he's clearly not lacking form. He took 7th at flat Stage 4.
Voeckler attacked a few km's before the finish, as planned. Nobody seemed to be able to hold on to him. This was the result:
That's right. Voeckler got our first stage-win of the year! Isn't that fantastic? He's still 41th on the GC though, by the lack of proper gaps... No problem, he did great!
Stage 6
The last stage is pancake-flat. It's a criterium through Adelaide. Veenhof will be looking to take a win, but it won't be easy with Greipel and Goss still in a good form. I don't expect changes in the GC. Maybe Voeckler attacks? I don't know. Expectation: Top 3
Hello, here we are again with a new ING magazine. It’s a bit shorter, and as you noticed, on Friday today. The reason is that the main writer is well, not here, starting tomorrow.
As usual, we have some latest news, a weekly review, weekly awards and an interview. We’ve also got something new. It’s called Team of the Week.
Part 1: Latest news
Part 2: Weekly review
Part 3: Weekly awards
Part 4: Team of the Week
Part 5: Interview with..
Latest News
What happens in Portugal?
Some strange results happened in Portugal. We told you in a small news bulletin that the break in stage 1 made it to the finish. Well, stage 2 was exactly like that. What’s happening? Has match-fixing also got to cycling?(so race-fixing?). Well, no. At least we hope not. On the other hand, we’re not complaining. We’re ranked quite high on the GC.
Absence
A short note about our absence.
We can’t comment on anything from this evening to next week’s Sunday. Please don’t spam us, although a nice comment is appreciated. Don’t expect any comment of us, since we’re not there. We hope the team does a nice job in the upcoming races(Algarve, Langkawi, Omloop, Paris – Nice). We’re probably back with a new magazine before Paris - Nice though.
Weekly Review
Santos Tour Down Under Stage 4:
An impressive win for Rojas. Veenhof could hold on to a podium spot, he got third. Voeckler proves that he’s in-form with a 7th place. Stage 5:
The hilliest stage. Voeckler attacks close to the end, and nobody is able to get close. Voeckler wins, but unfortunately, no big gaps. Stage 6
A criterium. Greipel was unstoppable, but Veenhof takes a second place. GC:
1. Gilbert
2. Evans
3. Gerrans
41. Voeckler
Points: Greipel KoM: Van Kiersbulck Team: Lierse Youth: Verboven
Volta ao Algarve Stage 1:
A break, including Lindeman & De Kort win. They both Top 10. Lindeman takes 3rd. Stage 2:
Break stays away. AGAIN. Wynants managed to win some time, but didn’t finish in the front group. Lindeman still 3rd in GC. We’re still leading the team classification, but lost the KoM.
Ratings
Stage ranking rating: 9/10 You might have noticed that the flat race rating is replaced by the stage ranking rating, that seemed more fair. We had a great week, stage ranking wise. Veenhof and Lindeman both grabbed Top 3(Veenhof even twice), while Voeckler won the TDU’s Queen’s stage. Fantastic week.
GC ranking rating: 6,5/10 Decent. We didn't get a good GC position at TDU, which would have granted a lot of points. We surprised at Algarve though. 3rd and 8th on the GC in Algarve currently isn’t bad. We wonder what will happen in the next stages.
Overall rating: 8/10 We had a very good week. The GC at TDU is bad, but the other things went perfectly. Who could have known that we would be far ahead at the team classification in Algarve? I didn’t. The stage win for Voeckler was perfect too.
Weekly Awards
Of course, we’ve got some awards for you. The rider of the week, disappointment of the week and surprise of the week. Of course, we’ve updated the rankings again.
Rider of the Week
Nominees were Johan Veenhof, Thomas Voeckler and Bert-Jan Lindeman.
Bert-Jan was great at Algarve, with a nice 3rd place, but it was clear that only 2 guys could win this. Johan Veenhof again did good at the sprint, getting third at stage 4 of the TDU, and second in stage 6. Voeckler, who disappointed earlier, got a win at the Queen’s stage of the TDU.
The winner is….
Spoiler
Thomas Voeckler!!
He deserved it. He didn’t do great last week, but was amazing at Willunga Hill. Nobody could keep up with him.
Surprise of the week
Actually, this one is pretty easy. This guy just surprised us in a race where we didn’t had any expectations. We gave him a free role, and he ‘pays us back’ with a great result.
The winner is…
Spoiler
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Clearly. He’s currently third in the GC, and can do something on the next hilly stage. His TT isn’t that good though, so he has to win time on the hills. We didn’t had any expectations in Algarve, so this is really surprising.
Disappointment of the week
Actually, no disappointments this week. Everyone did good. And still giving the reward to someone who doesn’t really deserve it won’t be fair. No ‘award’ this time.
Current ranking
Rider
Nationality
Points this week/total points
Johan Veenhof
0/2
Koen de Kort
0/1
Thomas Voeckler
2/1
Bert-Jan Lindeman
1/1
25 riders
/
0/0
As you can see, our top-sprinter Johan Veenhof is still leading, having 2 points. Voeckler got out of the ‘minus’ by winning the rider of the week award. Koen de Kort & Lindeman also got 1 point.
Team of the Week
A new part of the magazine. It’s not a long part, but it’s nice to win it, that’s sure.
We won’t give this award to ourselves, it’s an award for the other teams.
The winner gets three points, while the runner-up got one. If the CT is ‘overachieving’, they will just win the three points. We aren’t just looking to the WT results, don’t worry.
Top teams this week Nintendo Cycling Winning TDU stage 4 with Rojas, and being runner-up in stage 2 of Volta ao Algarve is great. They are also leading the youth classification with Verboven. Not to mention that they’re a CT team! SGL-Magix Greipel is a beast. He didn’t win stage 4, but got second. He did win Stage 6, and the points jersey though. Also, at Algarve, Ulriksson finishes in front of the peloton each time. There’s just a break ahead in both stages… Pervyj They are doing impressive at Algarve. They won stage 1, and are leading the GC with Bagdonas. They aren’t the strongest team in Portugal, but did a great job!
The winner is…
Spoiler
Nintendo Cycling!!
The runner-up is…
Spoiler
Pervyj!!
Team
Last week
This week
Nintendo
0
3
Pervyj
0
1
Others
0
0
Interview with Bert-Jan Lindeman
Today, we have an interview with Bert-Jan Lindeman. He’s doing a great job in Algarve, and also won the ‘surprise of the week’ award, earlier in the magazine.
Thijs Zonneveld: Hi Bert Jan. How are you?
Bert-Jan Lindeman: Great. I’m currently 3th in the GC, and my legs are great. TZ: Your sprint was impressive. I didn’t know that you could sprint that well…
BJL: Thanks! Yeah, I trained a lot on that. But getting third was a bit of a surprise. TZ: Do you think you can win the GC?
BJL: Well. It will be hard. I think I’m better on the hills than Bagdonas and Bardet are. Bagdonas can win some time at the TT though. There might be a tiny possibility though. TZ: Have you heard? You won the ING surprise of the week award!
BJL: Yeah, I read it. It’s great, although of course there weren’t too much races this week. TZ: Nope. But you raced them all until now!
BJL: That’s right. I’m feeling pretty well though. TZ: Ok. What’s your next race? Is it soon?
BJL: Yes, it’s actually the next upcoming race for us, Tour de Langkawi. Never been in Malaysia, I’m very curious. TZ: Wow, you’re racing a lot in the first months of the season! No break?
BJL: Yes, of course a break. There will be a lot of months where I won’t be racing. TZ: Okay. Thanks for answering the questions. Good luck at the Algarve GC!
Next up in ING Cycling Magazine
- Latest news
- Weekly review
- Weekly awards
- Team of the Week
- An interview
- And more!
Edited by Jesleyh on 15-02-2013 18:16
Here we are again with a new edition. Of course with all the ‘traditional’ elements. For us, not a lot did happen, although Qatar, the most exciting race of the year, is running right now. We can happily say that the main writer of the magazine, who was gone for the week, had a great time. We’ve also got another interview of course.
Part 1: Latest news
Part 2: Weekly review
Part 3: Weekly awards
Part 4: Team of the Week
Part 5: Interview with…
Middle-East racing
When we speak, there are races happening in both Qatar and Oman. We don’t participate, and there is no decision made in the GC yet. SGL seems dominating.
Weekly Review
A quiet week for us. Only some Volta ao Algarve stages. Man, that race turned out to be strange!
Volta ao Algarve Stage 3
Guess? Another breakaway stays away. Wtf? This time, Ted Mosby takes the win! Bellemakers gets the 8th position, Ted takes over the GC lead. Stage 4
Pineau takes the win. In a breakaway. No ING guys were in the break, so no Top 10’s… Stage 5
Finally, no breakaway takes the win. It’s a TT. Where we hoped for a win, Alex Rasmussen got 4th. Winner was Kessiakoff.
GC
1. Mosby
2. Sabido
3. Bagdonas
6. Lindeman
7. De Kort
Stage ranking rating: 6/10 No great results in stage 3 and 4. Stage 3 gave us a top 10, and stage 5 gave us a nice 4th place, but that is way less than we hoped, since we were hoping for a win. 4th gives the same ranking points as 10th, so it turned out pretty bad.
GC rating: 8/10 Both De Kort & Lindeman delivered, and got us Top 10 positions in the Algarve GC. We didn’t hope for anything in Portugal, so this was a nice surprise for us. Yay.
Overall rating: 7,5/10: De Kort & Lindeman granted us serious points. We were slightly disappointed by the stage rankings, especially in the last stage.
Weekly Awards
Not a lot of races for us, but still, here are the weekly awards.
Rider of the Week
Just two nominees. Koen de Kort and Bert-Jan Lindeman
Nobody really did a great job, they did just surprise. We decided that the winner of this week is…
Spoiler
Bert-Jan Lindeman
He was surprise rider of the week last week, but did a great job, especially considering his age. Also, he was the one finishing the highest in the GC, higher than Koen.
Surprise of the week
Bert-Jan and Koen really both deserve to be surprise rider of the week. They surprised us with their GC positions. Another surprise was the 8th position of Dirk Bellemakers.
The winner is…
Spoiler
Koen de Kort
We couldn’t give Bert-Jan both of the awards, since that wouldn’t be fair for Koen. Koen did a good job, and deserves the points
Disappointment of the week
This one was a bit obvious. He should have been way better in the TT, he was one of the two main favourites. His GC finish(close to last) wasn’t that promising too, but he wasn’t there for the GC. He didn’t do anything in the sprint either, but that’s because of the breakaway winning each race.
The ‘winner’ is…
Spoiler
Alex Rasmussen
Current ranking
This kind of completely changes the current ranking.
Rider
Nationality
Points this week/total points
Bert-Jan Lindeman
2/3
Johan Veenhof
0/2
Koen de Kort
1/2
Thomas Voeckler
2/1
24 riders
/
0/0
Alex Rasmussen
-1/-1
We feel sorry for Alex, but he should really have got a Top 3 in the TT. Maybe he isn’t as good as a TTist as we were hoping. Or he just had a bad day. Anyway, Bert-Jan Lindeman takes over the lead in the ranking. He has raced a lot already though, so enough of opportunities left for the others to overtake him and gain the lead.
Team of the Week
Of course, we’re not the only team out there. We will award the ‘Team of the Week’ and the team who just missed out of that, some points for the ranking again this week.
Top teams this week SGL – Magix The sprinting team got loads of wins in the Middle-East, with Kittel & Greipel both in one of the races. Only one sprint is lost until now, and that was because of the fact that it was steep uphill.
Team CSC Taking the team classification in Algarve, and also doing nice things in the Middle-East, with some Top 10’s and a Top 3 in Oman.
Deciding a winner was kind of hard.
The winner is…
Spoiler
Team CYMRU Wales!
The runner-up is…
Spoiler
Team SGL – Magix
That gives us the following ranking:
Team
Last week
This week
Team CYMRU Wales
0
3
Nintendo
3
3
SGL – Magix
1
1
Pervyj
1
1
Others
0
0
The ranking does still look a bit dull, with just 4 teams, but this will change of course.
Interview with Alex Rasmussen
He was the disappointment of the week, but was okay with doing an interview. He will also explain what went wrong in the TT. Also, he talks about the Dutch language and his other plans...
the most important dutch word to know, also WHY ARE YOU IGNORING OMAN!
Oman = Middle East
Edit: And I don't race in both Qatar and Oman, so I'm not reviewing them
but how can you say that SGL is dominating the Middle East including Oman. that's far from true
edit: and how can you not see that stage 4 is flat.
Wait, now you're confusing me. What do you mean stage 4 is flat? And I mean SGL seems dominating most of the sprints if you look at Qatar + Oman...
And what's the problem? That I didn't mention Sanchez?
SSJ2Luigi wrote:
alright but SGL is domenating the sprints in everyrace they enter
and how is this not flat
if I look at Oman now it's SGL 2 - TCS 2 with GC lead
Spoiler
it's really about Sánchez though
I didn't say every race they enter, and didn't say that they are leading the GC
And the stage is slightly uphill, while Kittel & Greipel aren't uphill sprinters. + Sanchez didn't win the stage in a mass sprint
He's still 41th on the GC though, by the lack of proper gaps... No problem, he did great!
, Thomas Voeckler
and Bert-Jan Lindeman
I agree with the others - the magazine is great to read 
No ING guys were in the break, so no Top 10’s…
