And another difficult hilly stage! The 183 kilometers between Calpe and Alcoy feature 6 categorized hills (the last summit 26km before the finish) and also a short hill only a few kilometres before the finish. GC-contenders, watch out!
67km to go
12 riders from the BOTD, including Zahner, Ciolek, Haddou, Lowe, Vachon, Horrach, Nepomnyachshiy, Clement, Goss, Pérez Arrieta, Delage and Jacques Maynes. These 12 create a margin of a few minutes, when Saxo's Bruno Pires decides to bridge the gap between the peloton and the 12 leaders. He succesfully does it, and at the 4th climb of the day, the Alto de Tudons, he drops them all.
Pires reaches the summit solo, with the peloto0n 7'37 behind, and taking it easy. Nadir Haddou collects that many KOTM-points, that he'll become the new KOTM-leader!
26km to go
A peloton of 53 riders crests the summit of the Puerto de Benifrallim, the last categorized climb of the day, 10 minutes behind Pires. The peloton has decreased it's pace a bit, as GC-leader Andy Schleck suffered a punture and is making his way back to the first places of this peloton.
Finish
Although suffering from dead empty legs, Bruno Pires can cruise to the stage win. A great day for him and the Saxo-team!
7km to go
Remember the tiny hill a few km before the finish I told you about in the stage preview? Well, Vincenzo Nibali is using it to attack. Foreseeing this, Andy Schleck immediately counters. A little later, also Antón and Fränk Schleck do so.
Finish
The puncture costed Andy too much energy to sprint for the 2nd place, and the bonus seconds. Luckily for him, Giovanni Visconti grabs the 12 bonus seconds awarded for the 2nd place away from Igor Antón, who takes the 3rd place, and 8 seconds. Andy finishes in 9th.
16 riders finish outside the time limit, among them Kevin Seeldraeyers (who got injured in an earlier crash), Taylor Phinney, Rasmus Quaade, JJ Haedo ad Kristo Goddaert.
Results
1
Bruno Pires
Saxo Bank SunGard
5h20'48
2
Giovanni Visconti
BMC Racing Team
+ 5'54
3
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
4
Fränk Schleck
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
s.t.
5
Vincenzo Nibali
Radio Shack - Nissan
s.t.
6
Carlos Barredo
Movistar Team
s.t.
7
Ezequiel Mosquera
Caja Rural
s.t.
8
Thomas Voeckler
Team Europcar
s.t.
9
Andy Schleck
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
10
Dario Cataldo
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
s.t.
GC
No GC-changes.
1
Andy Schleck
Monster Energy - Subway
36h18'01
2
Vincenzo Nibali
Radio Shack - Nissan
+ 9
3
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 18
4
Fränk Schleck
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
+ 1'52
5
Giovanni Visconti
BMC Racing Team
+ 2'02
6
Carlos Barredo
Movistar Team
+ 2'07
7
Samuel Sánchez
Lampre - Generali
s.t.
8
Daniel Moreno
Katusha Team
+ 2'21
9
José Herrada
Caja Rural
+ 2'22
10
Jelle Vanendert
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 2'46
Points
1
Andy Schleck
Monster Energy - Subway
103
2
Mark Cavendish
Sky ProCycling
87
3
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Lotto - Belisol
70
4
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
66
5
Vincenzo Nibali
Radio Shack - Nissan
63
KOTM
1
Nadir Haddou
FDJ
41
2
Paolo Tiralongo
Pro Team Astana
38
3
Andy Schleck
Monster Energy - Subway
31
4
Antonio Santoro
Androni Giocattoli
30
5
Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy
Pro Team Astana
30
Today's winner
Word from the DS
What a though stage, again. We are happy that we can continue with 8 riders. One more stage before the first rest day, hopefully Andy can refind his good legs again.
169 kilometres from Tarragona in Catalunya and Villanova i la Geltrú, with 1 difficult obstacle in it: the Alto del Rat Penat, 4.4km at 10.3% with a max gradient of 18%. The summit lies 31km before the finish.
35km to go
9 riders start the Alto del Rat Penat with a margin of about 4 minutes. Horrach, Lowe, Houanard, Klemme, Gaudin, Meyer, Vandewalle, Boom and Chiarini know that they can't make it untill the finish solo, so no attacks.
32km to go
And to prevent attacks to occur in the peloton by GC-contenders, we set a high pace in the ascend. And we succeed, no attacks!
Finish
The 9 are sprinting for the stage win, and AG2R's Steve Houanard does the same thing as last year: winning a stage in the Vuelta! Kristof Vandewalle and Lars Boom finish in 2nd and 3rd, feeling that they missed a great opportunity to win a stage!
The peloton finishes at '52, with Edvald Boasson Hagen winning the sprint. No time gaps among the GC-contenders.
Results
1
Steve Houanard
AG2R La Mondiale
4h16'28
2
Kristof Vandewalle
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
s.t.
3
Lars Boom
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
4
Damien Gaudin
Team Europcar
s.t.
5
Cameron Meyer
Qantas Airways
s.t.
6
Trent Lowe
Sony Ericsson
s.t.
7
Dominic Klemme
Red Bull - Cervélo
s.t.
8
Riccardo Chiarini
Androni Giocattoli
s.t.
9
Joan Horrach
Katusha Team
s.t.
10
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Lotto - Belisol
+ 52
...
17
Peter Sagan
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
Rankings
No changes.
Today's winner
Word from the DS
Another stage goes by without problems. Tomorrow is the well deserved rest day, the next day we enter the Pyrénées.
Edited by dienblad on 13-09-2012 22:24
While in Spain the Vuelta is taking place, the eyes of the cycling fans are also fixed on France, to be more precise Bretagne. There, the 77th edition of the GP Ouest France Plouay is being raced. Strangely, no one has been able to won the race 3 times in history! Last year, FDJ dominated the race, with Anthony Geslin as the winner.
The favourites *** Damiano Cunego (Radio Shack), Simon Gerrans (Qantas), Roman Kreuziger (Astana). ** Grega Bole (Lampre), Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank), Daniel Martin (Garmin). * Tom Boonen (Sony Ericsson), Mikel Nieve (Astana), Martijn Maaskant.
Our goal
Last year, we finished outside the top 25. This year we will be very happy with a top 10.
The race
30km to go
Already in the penultimate lap and we see 2 of the pre-race favourites in the lead. Grega Bole and Alberto Contador went in the counterattack with about 80km to go, closing the gap to the BOTD, and easily dropping them. With 30km to go, they have a margin of 2'46 to a 46-rider big peloton, with Radio Shack and Qantas setting the pace.
10km to go
The 2 leaders get caught in the last lap, and on the penultimate hill of the day, Damiano Cunego attacks out of the leading group of 20 riders. AMong these 20, are Pim Ligthart and Martijn Maaskant, both having a superb day (daily form +5!).
Finish
Astana, with 4 riders in the leading group, being helped by Simon Gerrans and Tom Boonen, set the pace and catch Cunego after 3km. Then Tom Boonen attacks, but he gets caught at the foot of the last hill.
Damiano Cunego attacks again, about 2km before the finish. Maaskant is leading out Ligthart and tries to reel Cunego in. But he feels so great, he not only overtakes Cunego, but also drops Ligthart, and takes the win! Unbelievable, Martijn Maaskant (although being in a great shape) wins the GP Plouay!! Cunego finishes in 2nd and Ligthart completes the succes of the team, by taking the 3rd spot!
Results
1
Martijn Maaskant
Monster Energy - Subway
6h29'32
2
Damiano Cunego
Radio Shack - Nissan
s.t.
3
Pim Ligthart
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
4
Simon Gerrans
Qantas Airways
s.t.
5
Mikel Nieve
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
6
Tom Boonen
Sony Ericsson
+ 32
7
Paul Martens
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
8
Enrico Gasparotto
Lampre - Generali
s.t.
9
Roman Kreuziger
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
10
Alexandre Vinokourov
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
The winner
Word from the DS
Yes, we win a lot of races, and many of them are expected. But some are totally unexpected. WHo would have thought that Martijn Maaskant was able to beat hilly riders as Cunego and Gerrans at a hilly course..... Unbelievable!
Edited by dienblad on 14-09-2012 22:13
The 11th stage takes the riders for the first time into the high mountains. However, the stage isnt that difficult. Starting near the Mediterranean sea, the road keeps on ascending slightly, and the last 12km ascend with an average gradient of 5% to Vallnord / Sector Pal in Andorra.
60km to go
11 riders can be lucky today, as the peloton has aboslutely not 1 intention to chase them. So Morabito, Keinath, Nuyens, Schär, Vachon, Haussler, Löfkvist, Chiarini, Vandewalle, Rabon and Pichot have a margin of twenty (20!) minutes with 60km to go. This is the time, we decide to send 2 domestiques to the front of the peloton to chase them down a little bit.
Finish
The 11 leaders keep together untill the climb to Vallnord / Sector Pal begins. Then the weaker climbers get dropped and in the end, 2 riders remain up front: German Nico Keinath (Sony Ericsson) and Swiss Steve Morabito (BMC). The latter one has the most energy left and takes the win in Andorra, his first of the season!
2km to go
As Andy Schleck is again suffering a bad day (daily form -3), we decide to prevent attacks by setting a high pace. This works untill 2km before the finish. Then Samuel Sánchez is the first to launch an attack, followed by our 3 main rivals Fränk Schleck, Vincenzo Nibali and Igor Antón. Andy also counters, but it costs him a ot of energy.
Finish
9'40 behind Morabito, Antón takes the 12th place, with Fränk and Nibles in the same time. Andy couldn't hang on in the last 500 metres and looses 15 seconds, thus the red jersey to Nibali.
Results
Forgot to export, so only 2 screens:
GC
Today's winner
Word from the DS
The way this Vuelta is developing, Andy will have a lot of problems in winning the GC. He feels pretty tired, after a long season with winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège in April and Le Tour in July.
Note: used the editor to see the fitness levels, Andy is on 87, Antón on 85, Nibali and Fränk on 91.
banyai2000 wrote:
I do not know this but you are free to read my story?
I've read it, but usually only post replies when it lasts a few weeks in the game, as there are so many 12-stories right now, and a lot of them stop pretty soon after they started....
But good luck with it, looks nice!
Giovanni Visconti
Igor Antón
Fränk Schleck
Thomas Voeckler
Mark Cavendish
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy
Lars Boom
Cameron Meyer
Dominic Klemme
Roman Kreuziger
