Well, today's stage is classified as hilly, because of the long climb at the middle of the stage, but the stage is very short, so I think the sprinters will come through the climb in the peloton. If I'd have to bet, I'd probably go with Saur's Julien Simon, or Pietropolli.
The pace was really high at the start of the stage, and Katusha was keeping things together. However, on the 2nd cat. hill, a really strong break got away including bigger names like, Vandenbroeck, Voigt or Poels. This strong break didn't get a big lead, as Katusha and SpiderTech controlled the pace in the peloton.
As the pace was stepped up, the break got reeled in on the long descend, right before the intermediate sprint. After the hard chase, the peloton calmed down, and on the 3rd category climb, Gömböcz decided to shake up things a bit, as he attacked out of the peloton and created a 20s gap. He was feeling really good, (+2) and kept the gap, despite the fast peloton paced by Katusha (who else )
As we reached "sprint time", Gömböcz still had his gap, but the peloton was closing in quickly, so the hungarian stepped up the pace. In the back Euskaltel was leading out Anton, and Moreno was also there in great position.
At the 3km mark, the peloton got closer to Gömböcz, who decided to go even a bit harder. Can he? While the téte de la course was struggling, Marcato and Simon got into a very good position, and sat really comfortable on the leaders's wheel, with Clemson following them closely.
With 1km to go, it was still between Gömböcz and the rest, but the hungarian started to fade as he sprinted from far out! Can he get the stage win, or someone coming from behind will take it? What an amazing battle!
No, Gömböcz can't hold on but wait, there's a SpiderTech riders crossing the line first! It's the American youngster John Clemson taking it, before Lastras and Gallopin, after a wonderful acceleration coming from behind! What a great finish by him, it was one to remember, that's for sure.
Results
1 John ClemsonSpiderTech - Cervélo 3h25'41
2 Pablo Lastras Movistar Team s.t.
3 Tony Gallopin RadioShack - Nissan s.t.
4 Luis León Sánchez Rabobank Cycling Team s.t.
5 Máté GömböczSpiderTech - Cervélo s.t.
6 Daniel Moreno Katusha Team s.t.
7 Ion Izagirre Euskaltel - Euskadi s.t.
8 Daniele Pietropolli Lampre - ISD s.t.
9 Yury Trofimov Katusha Team s.t.
10 Vitaliy SolodovnikovSpiderTech - Cervélo s.t.
General Classification
Clemson takes over the GC lead on the bonus seconds, and will try to hold it till the end.
1 John ClemsonSpiderTech - Cervélo 3h25'41
2 Pablo Lastras Movistar Team s.t.
3 Tony Gallopin RadioShack - Nissan s.t.
4 Luis León Sánchez Rabobank Cycling Team s.t.
5 Máté GömböczSpiderTech - Cervélo s.t.
6 Daniel Moreno Katusha Team s.t.
7 Ion Izagirre Euskaltel - Euskadi s.t.
8 Daniele Pietropolli Lampre - ISD s.t.
9 Yury Trofimov Katusha Team s.t.
10 Vitaliy SolodovnikovSpiderTech - Cervélo s.t.
Spiders of the day
Clemson - 2 What a win by John!
Gömböcz - 1 for his almost successful long attack
Thanks guys your comments are really, really appreciated. I'll try to play stage 2 today, but I don't know if I'll have time for it. I'm really curious to see what will happen!
The profile of stage 2 is quite hilly, and a bit flat. Despite the long flat parts the last two climbs might shake up the GC. Clemson is in the GC lead, so our team have to work for him.
Today's BotD was a quite big one containing 9 riders, with Zubeldia and Martens being the biggest names. They quickly built a 2-3min lead, and kept this gap during the stage.
In the peloton, SpiderTech was working hard, and kept the gap the break close. After a while, at 40kms, Lampre took over the pacemaking and quickly chased down the break. Only one rider was still in front of the pack, Saxo's Vinther.
At the 5km mark, Vinther still had a 20sec gap, however the pack closed in quickly. Before the sprint started, the spainish Lastras attacked and got a quite decent gap.
Before the 1km mark, he was still infront, but Pietropolli and Moreno came fast and were closing the gap. Lastras was fading, and some other riders in the pack launched from the leaders wheel. Who will be the fastest?
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And the Liquigas rider, Daniel Oss takes it! What an impressive sprint performance by the italian! Feillu takes the 2nd, before of Gallopin and the best Spider is Clemson, coming at 6th.
Results
1
Daniel Oss
Liquigas - Cannondale
3h47'13
2
Romain Feillu
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
3
Tony Gallopin
RadioShack - Nissan
s.t.
4
Pablo Lastras
Movistar Team
s.t.
5
Daniele Pietropolli
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
6
John Clemson
SpiderTech - Cervélo
s.t.
7
Daniel Moreno
Katusha Team
s.t.
8
Máté Gömböcz
SpiderTech - Cervélo
s.t.
9
Luis León Sánchez
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Marco Marcato
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
General Classification
1
John Clemson
SpiderTech - Cervélo
7h12'44
2
Tony Gallopin
RadioShack - Nissan
+ 2
3
Pablo Lastras
Movistar Team
+ 4
4
Bruno Pires
Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank
+ 7
5
Haimar Zubeldia
RadioShack - Nissan
s.t.
6
Jérémie Galland
Saur - Sojasun
s.t.
7
Ángel Vicioso
Katusha Team
+ 8
8
Martin Kohler
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
9
Michael Mørkøv
Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank
s.t.
10
Daisuke Yoshinabe
SpiderTech - Cervélo
+ 9
Spiders of the day
No exceptionally good performances. Edited by fernando97 on 30-09-2012 12:26
Sorry guys, for the lack of updates recently, I didn't have time as I had to learn a lot. In the coming days, I'll try to play some stages, so report(s) will hopefully come in the next days!
NOTE: Somehow I deleted all the screenshts... Never happened before, sorry. I don't know what happened. Here is a write-up of what happened, and ofc the results. Sorry again.
This is surely the hardest one. 1 1st cat. climb and two HC climbs on 210kms with a summit finish on the Port-Ainé. What a beasty stage! Let's see how Clemson will handle the climbs.
The day started off pretty slowly, and a 9-man break formed, with the biggest name being Sky's Colombian, Sergio Henao. They quickly built up a 6min gap. In the pack SpiderTech and Katusha shared the pacemaking role, but diddn't chase hard, just kept the gap.
As we started the 1st HC climb of the day, the Port del Canto, the breaks lead got down to 3mins, and the Katusha really stepped up the chase. At around the half of the climb, the break got caught, and Katusha continued the hard pacing.
No further attacks came on the Canto, and Katusha and Movistar paced the first half of the Port Ainé causing a big selection. Clemson wasn't feeling good throughout the day, and got dropped. In the leading 8 people remained. Pablo Lastras decided to attack, and dropped the others, and created an amazingly good gap!
After his brave attack Lastras was uncatchable, and wins the stage! Moreno gets 2nd, and Gadret gets 3rd. They both finished ca. 1min down on Lastras. Clemson came in at 2'04.
)
Never happened before, sorry. I don't know what happened. 
