tsmoha wrote:
Congrats to 10k views! Well deserved imo
+1
i really like the story keep it as it is... and hopefully dominik will make it to the top ranks some day if you hopefully keep on writing for some timeEdited by johannes-w on 30-07-2011 23:04
The last flat stage until the pack hits the mountain again. After two breakaway wins, let's see what happens today.
Km 13: It took a while, but now the first attacks are being launched. Dominik Nerz is among the followers of BMC's Karsten Kroon.
Km 21: And they're successful! Six riders are in Nerz's group, while Serguei Ivanov is a little in front..
Km 24: Over the mountain, they maintain a gap of 3 minutes. Ivanov is with them.
Km 57: The advance is now at more than seven minutes.
Km 83: The pack is now down by 10 minutes.
Km 102: Signs are pointing to the third breakaway win in a row. 12 minutes of advance with 94 kilometers to go.
Km 116: You can bet on it now. 14 minutes with 80 kilometers to go. What a brilliant result for Dominik, no matter how this will end!
Km 125: These are the members of the group: Grega Bole and Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) are for sure the best sprinters. Serguei Ivanov and Karsten Kroon are good rouleurs, who might be successful with another attack. Nerz, Romain Zingle (Cofidis) and Francisco Perez (Movistar) are the outsiders in this battle.
Km 140: With 56 km to go, and the advance being at 16 minutes, Dominik is virtually in the Top 10 overall! Imagine that!
Km 173: The escapees are 23 kilometers from the finish. Their advance is at the incredible margin of 19 minutes. Dominik is virtually on place 2 now, and will nearly for sure be wearing the white jersey tomorrow. Maybe even yellow! What is going on here?!
Km 177: The fight for the stage win begins! Serguei Ivanov sets an attack! Perez follows.
Km 179: Maybe I was a bit hasty about white? The advance is decreasing quickly now, and Dominik need 15 minutes on Gesink.
Km 183: Ivanov and Perez are 45 seconds in front of the other escapees.
Km 192: Dominik does a lot of work now. He is obviously working for white instead of a good stage placement. Risky...
Km 194: Perez and Ivanov sprint for the stage win.
Km 196: Ivanov takes the win easily.
Km 196: After his efforts, Dominik loses the sprint of the other escapees. Nevertheless, a seventh is really great for him!
Km 196: 13 minutes after Ivanov, Tyler Farrar wins the sprint of the pack. Cavendish on 14 increases his chances on green. No white jersey for Dominik, unfortunately.
Hahaha! Gosh, I'm so happy! What a day! I maybe didn't get the best out of the situation, because I went for white instead of a good rank in this stage, but I really don't care! Seventh place in a Tour de France stage, what a brilliant success for me!
And look at the rankings: 24th overall! 3rd in the young riders classification! Now that looks just awesome. Of course I won't be able to keep that, but hey, who cares!
And in addition, in my current position, I'm probably not allowed to go into a break anymore. As I will lose time in the upcoming mountains, I will for sure try it again afterwards.
Finally you joined a succesful break! Too bad you had to do the work instead of sprinting for a Top-5, but I probably would have done the same Great results anyway and the 24th in GC looks nice after 14 stages! Well done!
Thanks I thought about it, but the most I maybe could have achieved was 5th, and wearing white one day would have been much nicer imo. So I went for it.
I'm off for a short vacation until tuesday now, so no reports until then.
Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Pyrenees! A tough stage over the Port de Pailheres with the summit finish at Ax 3 Domaines.
Km 1: Italian Champion Alessandro Ballan (BMC) is the first one to attack today.
Km 46: 5 riders around Ballan are 5 minutes in front. Three riders are a minute behind them.
Km 92: Seven riders lead with more than 10 minutes now. Only Matthew Lloyd (Omega) is still a minute behind them.
Km 102: Martens falls back from the group...
Km 145: The pack enters the climb to Port de Pailheres. The first group is five minutes in front.
Km 148: Christian Vande Velde and Yury Trofimov attack from the pack...
Km 149: … and soon create a gap of 1 minute.
Km 152: Only Alberto Losada (Katusha) and Arnold Jeanneson (FDJ) are left in front, but the pack, as well as Trofimov and Vande Velde are coming closer with every meter.
Km 154: The peloton becomes smaller and smaller. Dominik Nerz falls back.
Km 156: Cadel Evans attacks. With 11 minutes, he is already way back in the GC.
Km 157: He provokes chain reaction: Many favorites attack now! Basso and Contador are among them.
Km 160: On the beginning of the descent, Contador and Basso lead with a small advance to a rather large group of favorites.
Km 164: Samuel Sanchez brings them back, and 14 riders are in front now.
Km 172: From the Top 10, only Vinokourov, Anton and Casar are missing, they're all more than 2 minutes back. That's pretty good for Ivan Basso.
Km 179: The front group enters the climb. 8 hard kilometers left.
Km 181: Casar and Vinokourov attack and try to minimize the losses.
Km 183: Impressive: Yury Trofimov attacks from the first group!
Km 183,5: Now, the other attacks start as well. Gesink, Sanchez, Fränk Schleck...
Km 185: Basso doesn't look good. He can't keep up with the attacks of the others. Now he has to minimize the losses.
Km 186: Within the last kilometers, Gesink chases Alberto Contador. Behind the Dutch are Samuel Sanchez and Fränk Schleck, then come Ivan Basso and Andy Schleck.
Km 187: Alberto Contador is just unbeatable in the mountains.
Km 187: Basso comes in sixth, behind both Schlecks and Sanchez.
It's not likely that anybody can take this jersey away from him.
Well, a typical mountain stage. I lost contact on the first mountain, but in the end, a 61st place is quite ok.
For Basso, this stage was mediocre. He lost time on Sanchez and the Schlecks, but on the other hand gained a lot on Igor Anton. Considering that Christian Vande Velde is the next rider who is better than Ivan in time trialing, it looks quite good for the podium! And it's only one mountain top finish left.
See you,
Dominik
Edited by cunego59 on 02-08-2011 23:00
The Pyrenees continue, but this stage isn't as demanding as yesterday. Still, the final climb to Port de Balès is quite hard, but the descent might equalise some time gaps.
Km 2: Johan Van Summeren with a first attack. Francesco Belotti counters.
Km 34: After a long struggle, 10 riders lead with 1'30 to the pack. But it's not clear yet whether they can stay free.
Km 42: They can. The advance grew to 2'30. With Albasini, Van Summeren, Pauriol, Marzano and Belotti, there are a couple of good climbers in there.
Km 60: The escapees are already six minutes away now.
Km 98: P -> 10'00 -> E1
Km 107: Pauriol takes the first mountain points of this stage, while the advance is already decreasing.
Km 114: On the descent, Pauriol and Marzano hit the ground and fall back from the front group.
Km 160: Belotti slowly loses contact to his fellow escapees. Maybe the Giro is still in his legs.
Km 162: The first attacks start from the peloton. Yury Trofimov, Christian Vande Velde and Ezequiel Mosquera try it.
Km 163: Now, the first big guns go away! Samuel Sanchez (2nd), Michele Scarponi (5th) and Robert Gesink (6th) try to break away.
Km 165: With 6 km to the summit, Ivan Basso attacks as well. Contador is still in the pack.
Km 167: The favorites are reunited in a large group. 19 riders are in there.
Km 171: Contador sets an enormous pace, and leads a group of 10 riders over the top.
Km 173: Cadel „Mr. Misfortune“ Evans: He crashes on the descent.
Km 180: From the Top Ten, a couple of riders are missing: Fränk Schleck (4th) is 1'30 back in the third group together with Vinokourov and Leipheimer (9th and 10th), his brother Andy (7th) is even 3 minutes behind the leaders. Vande Velde (8th) chases the front group solo and is one minute behind.
Km 190: With 2 km to go, the first group prepares for the sprint!
Km 190:Ivan Basso starts the sprint very early and creates a small gap. 1,7km to go.
Km 191: Rogers is coming closer and closer, can Ivan Basso take the stage win?
Km 192: Oh yeah! Rogers comes in second in front of Michele Scarponi.
Km 192: Dominik Nerz loses a lot of time today. He looks completely dead as he finishes.
Oh god... What a horrible day for me. I felt just terrible. On a scale from -5 to +5, my feeling today would surely be a -5... I lost contact way to early and was just dead after passing the large mountain. But hey, that all doesn't matter at all, considering our team's result! Or, more precisely, Ivan's result! Our first stage win this Tour, how great! And he also did a big leap towards the podium, as some of his biggest rivals lost time today. Especially the Schleck brother are really disappointing.
Some other rankings are almost decided. No one will take the mountain jersey away from Alberto Contador, and Robert Gesink will surely win the youth ranking. In contrary to that, the team ranking is incredibly close.
Tomorrow will be hard again, four consecutive mountains await us...
Now the podium seems almost sure,great Tour by Basso.
Dominik had a bad day, that can happen even to a stars,so nevermind and try something with him in the next stagesEdited by Avin Wargunnson on 03-08-2011 10:15
Great for Basso, 2nd is possible now... too bad Dominik felt like - 5 today But 60th in GC looks still okay for your debut-TdF. Hope he will get some break-chance again.
Thanks for the bananas, guys Indeed, it was a great day for Ivan and a terrible one for Dominik. But that just happens, and now, he will for sure try to go into a break!
And @ tsmoha: I doubt that Ivan will be able to overtake Sanchez, because he rides very consistent and is a better time trialist than Basso. So it's more about saving third.
The third of four Pyrenees stages feature the four climbs to the Cols de Peyresourde, d'Aspin, du Tourmalet and de l'Aubisque. But every climb is followed by an equally long descent to recover again, so we don't know really whether it'll be a selective stage. It also might be one for a breakaway.
Km 1: Mario Aerts and Arnold Jeanesson open the stage.
Km 12: Ok, now we have an impression how selective this stage could be: Already on the first climb, many riders have problems to follow.
Km 30: The pack enters the second climb. No break went free yet.
Km 37: Maksym Iglinsky and Mario Aerts lead with a bit more than two minutes to the pack. Jeremy Roy follows close.
Km 48: Leonardo Pietropolli caught up with the leaders. Roy is still a bit behind.
Km 74: Over the Col de Tourmalet, the three escapees keep an advance of more than 9 minutes to the pack. But the finish is still a long way off.
Km 110:Iglinsky and his companions enter the climb up to the Aubisque. The advance is slowly decreasing.
Km 131: The advance of the leading trio decreased to 5'30. 11 km to the top for them.
Km 138: 3 kilometers to the summit, Ivan Basso, substitutionally wearing the mountain jersey, attacks! No one follows.
Km 142: The escapees pass the top. They're still more than 5 minutes away.
Km 143: The Pack is crosses the top as well, and Nerz is still in there.
Km 144: Basso is in the steep parts of the descent. He has a minute of advance, but isn't the best downhiller.
Km 150: Wow, Basso rides the descent of his life. His advance increased to 2 minutes. Can he keep that?
Km 163: Basso is on the flat part now. With 36 kilometers to go, he still has more than 2 minutes of advance.
Km 173: Basso catches up with Aerts & Co. Maybe together, they can stay free.
Km 181: The advance is decreasing quickly now. It's only a little more than 1'30 now, and still 18 km to go.
Km 184: Eventually, the stage wasn't selective at all. The pack is still rather big, only some riders who fell back early might have problems with period of restriction.
Km 191: 8 km to go, and still 1'25 for Basso! Doesn't look bad!
Km 196: 3 kilometers to go, and 40 seconds left. The pack is chasing hard.
Km 197: Meanwhile, in the pack, Boasson Hagen is in a good position, while neither Cavendish nor Boonen are there.
Km 198: The last kilometer! Basso is fighting for the stage win!
Km 199: And after nearly 200 hard kilometers today, only a couple of meters decide the race in favor of Liquigas' leader! Second stage win in a row! Boasson Hagen finishes tenth, Nerz is within the pack.
Km 199: After a hard stage, 25 riders had to abandon today. Among them are Oscar Freire, Juan Jose Haedo, and most importantly Matthew Goss and Tyler Farrar. Also, Liquigas' Daniel Oss.
He has a run: Second stage win in a row for Ivan Basso.
Result
1
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Cannondale
5h37'14
2
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank - Sungard
s.t.
3
Nicolas Roche
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
4
Michael Rogers
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
5
Yury Trofimov
Katusha Team
s.t.
6
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
7
Michele Scarponi
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
8
Yaroslav Popovych
Team RadioShack
s.t.
9
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
10
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
...
76
Dominik Nerz
Liquigas - Cannondale
s.t.
General Classification
1
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank - Sungard
75h42'19
2
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 2'50
3
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 3'14
4
Michele Scarponi
Lampre - ISD
+ 5'38
5
Robert Gesink
Rabobank
+ 5'47
6
Fränk Schleck
Leopard - Trek
+ 6'09
7
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 8'26
8
Michael Rogers
Sky ProCycling
+ 8'34
9
Christian Vande Velde
Team Garmin - Cervelo
+ 8'39
10
Andy Schleck
Leopard - Trek
+ 8'44
...
60
Dominik Nerz
Liquigas - Cannondale
+ 34'58
Points Classification
1
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
189
2
Tom Boonen
Quick·Step
167
3
Mark Cavendish
HTC - Highroad
164
4
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank - Sungard
155
5
Romain Feillu
Vacansoleil - DMC
148
Mountain Classification
1
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank - Sungard
137
2
Ivan Basso
Liquigas - Cannondale
86
3
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
86
4
Stijn Devolder
Vacansoleil - DMC
68
5
Andy Schleck
Leopard - Trek
66
Young Riders Classification
1
Robert Gesink
Rabobank
75h48'06
2
Roman Kreuziger
Astana
+ 8'50
3
Robert Kiserlovski
Astana
+ 12'45
4
Romain Sicard
Euskaltel – Euskadi
+ 16'55
5
Guillaume Bonnafond
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 19'38
...
11
Dominik Nerz
Liquigas – Cannondale
+ 29'11
Team Classification
1
Euskaltel - Eukadi
.
227h31'44
2
Leopard – Trek
.
+ 15
3
Team RadioShack
.
+ 11'03
Dominik's Comment:
Wow. Ivan is really on fire. With two stage wins, we're more than in debit. But he also lost some energy today, without gaining time. The good thing is that tomorrow is a rest day. So he hopefully can recover enough in front of the last mountain stage.
The sad part of today is that Daniel Oss had to abandon. But he did a good job so far.
The day after tomorrow is the last mountain stage, then we're through with that!
Basso on fire I hope he will prove you wrong about your 3rd-place-prediction But anyway: he had a great Tour, no matter if he finishes behind Sánchez in Paris or not!
Finally you joined a succesful break! Too bad you had to do the work instead of sprinting for a Top-5, but I probably would have done the same 
(In GC Results)
