The Four day Tour de L'Ain runs at the same time as the EDP in Portugal, and the team were willing to show their prowess on home soil for once. With many big names here, such as Bettini, the team had a point to prove.
A three pronged attack would come from Auber 93 with Levarlet spearing up the middle for overall victory and Malacarne and Gaudin doing the long breakaways.
Stage One:
As if by stupidity, Malacarne attacked just 1km from the start, and quickly got away with a strong group.
With everyone working, the gap quickly grew. With a suitable distance to go to the finish, the pack, led mainly by Quickstep and Credit Agricole started to whittle down the lead. Malacarne by this point had sussed out that he was the strongest in the break, and decided to go it alone. He wouldn't get far however before the intermediate sprint saw the other riders haul him back in.
He was pretty tired after this attempt, but hung on in there and somehow the riders let him take first over the mountain pass.
The peloton was breathing down their necks at this point, and with the stage coming down to a 1km sprint, Levarlet decided to take his chance and put in a last gasp attack.
Confusion ensued as riders didn;t know who was going, and who was coming, but Lars Boom knew, and as the sprint started he quickly closed the gap down and shoved his bike in front of Levarlets, just pipping him for the win.
We were happy to show off the team, and have Levarlet in a good position, as well as having the mountains jersey in our possession.
We decided to approach todays stage differently. Having sat in all previous days as attacks went away, we decided to show these portugese posers what racing a bike actually is all about.
Morizot was our designated man, and he went solo nearly straight away. Quickly building a gap of 2 minutes before a reaction from the peloton saw 8 other riders coming across.
He won both the climbs to move upto second in that classification.
And the group kept plodding on, until we realised they werent going to be brought back.
The group kept its pace the same, but you could tell some of the riders were starting to put the pressure on, and before long the group was getting stretched, and 3 riders moved clear of 4, including Morizot, and the remainders were dropped.
The pack by now had woken up a bit, and the pace went up, but not that much.
As the three front riders fought out for the win, Morizot had bonked, but so had his companions.
The win would go to some strange-named fellow.
Five minutes later, and 2 minutes after Morizot, the pack, led by Barbosa, came in.
SportingNonsense wrote:
Looking good for Belkov in Portugal and a good start in France. Youre still capable of getting promotion, just keep getting all these good results.
Im still just 200 points behind where i want to be, im not losing ground on the 2nd/3rd placed teams, just not gaining much either. I could really do with a top 3 in Portugal and a win or two in some classics/single dayers. But i have the advantage of a completely packed 2 months of racing still. Plus not wasting time on UCI events.
Levarlet was looking in a good position at the start of the stage, would he be able to keep up the good results? The final hilly stage today before we hit the mountain climbs for the last two days, so potentially the last day for World Champion Bettini to show his colours.
First off we sent Malacarne to go for it again, but he wasn't allowed due to his good GC position. So off went second choice Gaudin.
With only 30km left again, a Quickstep rider who'd been sat on all day attacked.
It was not to be as Levarlet attacked and went past him.
Would he hold out in the last 3km?
Unfortunately not, but another 2nd place gives him the lead.
Classed as the final flat stage of the tour, today is the last day for Drujon to show it was worthwhile bringing him here. He has enough support, with half the team tending to his every need, yet so far has failed to get a result when needed. The hilly end to todays stage will favour the mountain sprinters more, but hopefully they will be badly placed when it comes down to the line.
Chainel was our free man today, and he went off solo for a while before being joined by 2 others pre-intermediate sprint.
Eventually the other 3 riders caught up and before long all were making a right go at staying away today.
It looked at one point with 80km left to go, and a nine minute lead that another break would succeed. But soon enough the pack woke up, and the gap just plummeted.
Chainel was allowed to take the 2nd sprint without any competition and kept our bank balance up with a couple of extra euros.
But soon enough, even after the breaks high pace, the pack was breathing down their necks, and they gave up with 20km to go.
Drujon found himself on the last climb of the day without any support as the last help, Tronet dropped off the pace right at the bottom of the climb. But with plenty of energy saved from the whole race, he found himself close enough to the front to find Priamo's wheel.
As Barbosa opened up the sprint at 2km to go, Drujon jumped around a bit, and went to follow the sprint of the strong climber.
He couldn't get right up on terms with him, but over the finish line they go and Drujon claims 4th place, behind a rampant Barbosa.
Results:
1 Cândido Barbosa LIBERTY SEGUROS 3h47'20
2 David Herrero KARPIN GALICIA s.t.
3 Alexis Rodríguez FERCASE - ROTA DOS MÓVEIS s.t. 4 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
5 Francisco Pacheco BARBOT - HALCÓN s.t.
6 Pedro Costa VITÓRIA - ASC s.t.
7 André Cardoso FERCASE - ROTA DOS MÓVEIS s.t.
8 Ángel Edo VITÓRIA - ASC s.t.
9 Mikhaylo Khalilov CERAMICA FLAMINIA s.t.
10 Antonio D'Aniello CERAMICA FLAMINIA s.t. 53 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 s.t.
82 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
90 Maxime Méderel AUBER 93 s.t.
104 Steven Tronet AUBER 93 + 2'29
125 Yannick Martinez AUBER 93 s.t.
135 Renaud Pioline AUBER 93 s.t.
143 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 + 5'04
155 Thierry Jollet AUBER 93 + 7'06 157 Paulo Barroso VITÓRIA - ASC + 12'18
GC:
1 Cândido Barbosa LIBERTY SEGUROS 36h28'41
2 José Azevedo SPORT LISBOA E BENFICA + 1'52
3 Julio Alberto Pérez Cuapio CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 1'57
4 Juanjo Cobo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 1'59
5 David Bernabéu FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM + 2'08 6 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 + 2'45
7 Gustavo César Veloso KARPIN GALICIA + 3'15
8 Ricardo Mestre DUJA - TAVIRA + 3'53
9 Hugo Sabido BARLOWORLD + 3'56
10 Xavi Tondo LA - MSS - MILANEZA + 4'03 61 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 + 12'12
79 Maxime Méderel AUBER 93 + 19'22
90 Yannick Martinez AUBER 93 + 23'44
103 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 + 28'12
104 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 + 28'40
127 Steven Tronet AUBER 93 + 45'41
150 Renaud Pioline AUBER 93 + 1h19'27
156 Thierry Jollet AUBER 93 + 1h34'14 157 Virgílio Neves FERCASE - ROTA DOS MÓVEIS + 1h49'51
Points:
1 Cândido Barbosa LIBERTY SEGUROS 156
2 David Herrero KARPIN GALICIA 57
3 Hugo Sabido BARLOWORLD 57 18 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 29
27 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 23
40 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 16
45 Steven Tronet AUBER 93 13
48 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 12
63 Renaud Pioline AUBER 93 4
Mountains:
1 Cândido Barbosa LIBERTY SEGUROS 30
2 David Bernabéu FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM 26 3 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 24
The first of two mountain stages, would Levarlet be able to keep a top 5 placing with such big names as Joly, Moreau and Rubiera here?
A breakaway went with some big stars in it straight away, but was chased down before this one got away for good.
It would stay away right up until 10km to go, where, right at the bottom of the climb, Moreau launched an attack. He went straight past the remnants of the previous break, and started to solo away from the group formed behind.
Levarlet managed to sneak into this group, with previous stage winners Boom and Rubeira, as well as the majority of the favourites for the stage.
The group could do nothing to the lead Moreau was pulling out however, and he soloed to a great French victory by over 2 and a half minutes.
Levarlet managed to hold onto 2nd place overall by taking 3rd on the stage, and the few bonus seconds on offer.
The penultimate stage, and a stage which Belkov has to do well on if he wants to get a top 3 overall position. With only one bottle per rider, before the 160 km are over, every single rider will have blown.
Drujon went away early to take an intermediate sprint, but was soon dropped by the rest of the breakaway.
But soon enough, the break just started to fall apart, with the last riders blowing on the first major climb.
As Saunier Duval set the pace, and caught many of the break, riders started to drop off the back. Drujon, from his previous attack, dropped.
Belkov meanwhile had the whole team sat around him protecting him from crashes, and trying to help him conserve energy. But with no other great climber, they would all drop away far too soon for our liking.
And sure enough, as the pack hit the climb, riders started dropping left, right, and centre.
The first main contender to go was Barloworlds Sabido, in 9th place.
Not long after, Azevedo crashed! His 2nd place would be no more.
Other top 15 riders soon started to lose the front, with Herrero, 12th, going here.
By the time the riders had reached a small plateau in the climb, it was obvious that Barbosa, once again, would solo to another victory.
Belkov came in just ahead of a few good quality riders, and so he maintains his positive position in the GC overall. With a long TT tomorrow, we hope he is feeling great enough to get a top 10 finish, and a top 3 overall.
Results:
1 Cândido Barbosa LIBERTY SEGUROS 4h49'53
2 David Bernabéu FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM + 3'16
3 Julio Alberto Pérez Cuapio CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 3'38
4 Ricardo Mestre DUJA - TAVIRA + 3'54
5 Juanjo Cobo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
6 Xavi Tondo LA - MSS - MILANEZA + 4'09
7 André Vital MADEINOX - BRIC - LOULÉ + 4'55
8 Nuno Ribeiro LIBERTY SEGUROS s.t. 9 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 s.t.
10 Gustavo César Veloso KARPIN GALICIA + 5'15
11 Vitor Rodrigues LIBERTY SEGUROS s.t.
12 Fortunato Baliani CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
13 David Herrero KARPIN GALICIA + 5'35
14 Julián Sánchez Pimienta RELAX - GAM s.t.
15 Hugo Vítor RIBERALVES - BOAVISTA s.t. 27 José Azevedo SPORT LISBOA E BENFICA + 7'56
39 Hugo Sabido BARLOWORLD + 9'41 64 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 + 13'27
65 Yannick Martinez AUBER 93 s.t.
84 Maxime Méderel AUBER 93 + 17'15
112 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 + 22'41
139 Steven Tronet AUBER 93 + 26'17
151 Renaud Pioline AUBER 93 + 29'45
152 Thierry Jollet AUBER 93 + 30'09
154 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 + 30'17 157 Jorge Alberto Ferraz BARBOT - HALCÓN + 31'21
The final stage doesn't seem that mountainous, but looks can be decieving. Especially when Moreau is about, and looks to be on form.
Gaudin went with the break today, and all others protected our 2nd placed Levarlet.
The break, as Gaudin was being dropped, seemed to have enough time to go for the win, but in such a stage as today, would the break be able to keep a pace going.
As Gaudin was getting close to being caught, Moreau and others attacked, so Levarlet tried to go with them, but again, ended up about 10ms short, which grew, and grew. So the Group of 4 up ahead would take the top 4 GC places, and Levarlet would probably have to settle for 5th.
Garate caught up with Levarlet, and the two of them fought out for 5th place on the stage.
Moreau won the stage again.
Results:
1 Christophe Moreau AG2R PRÉVOYANCE 3h27'57
2 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
3 Steve Zampieri COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
4 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
5 Juanma Gárate QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'08 6 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER 93 s.t.
7 Geert Verheyen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'36
8 Laurent Brochard BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
9 Lars Boom RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
10 Cyril Gautier BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
11 Charles Guilbert BRETAGNE - ARMOR LUX s.t.
12 Nicolas Vogondy AGRITUBEL s.t.
13 Hubert Dupont AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 2'24
14 Frantisek Rabon T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t. 20 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 s.t.
60 Davide Malacarne AUBER 93 + 3'11
61 Jean Mespoulède AUBER 93 s.t.
75 Jérémie Galland AUBER 93 + 5'46
88 Damien Gaudin AUBER 93 + 7'59 89 Anthony Colin ROUBAIX LILLE MÉTROPOLE + 11'11
Barbosa had ripped this tour apart, from sprint wins to mountains wins, could he claim a time trial win as well? Will Belkov be able to gain back enough time to get a top 3 spot? Or would the team have to settle for a top 10?
Either way, Claudio Coroni of Lampre didn't enjoy the time trial, and he would finish way down in 150th place..
As Belkov started, he had his serious face on, and he'd need it it he was to stay away from Cobo, starting just behind him.
Pioline went up a level as well:
[IMG-l]https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d87/Cleavers/PiolineLevel2PortTour.png[/IMG-l][IMG-r]https://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d87/Cleavers/PiolineLevel3PortTour.png[/IMG-r]
A pretty flat stage race, but with enough lumps in it to secure Drujon the race over Tronet, who we feel will fair better over in Ireland.
Team: Levarlet, Gaudin, Brouzes, Drujon, Chainel, Diguet, Mespoulede and Pioline.
I originally decided that i wouldn't post the results up for this tour, but i will do the stage overview and finish.
Brouzes went in the break and took a lot of the climbs to take the jersey at the end of the day.
Drujon had a + 5 form for the day, so Levarlet's plans to attack on the final climb and try to go for the win went out the window as he was drafted into protecting Drujon and making sure he was at the front over the top.
With no lead outs, Drujon had to settle for going alone at 1.5km to go. Only Lequatre could go around him.
The one day classic that is Italy's Tre Valli Varesine
With a finish that hits a wall of 10% at times, the race favours either the stupid breakaways, or awesume hilly riders. Which pretty much puts our chances down to the first option.
So of course the talented rider that is Morizot, took off shortly after the 3km mark, and held a lead of over 150km, which at one point, was upto 9 minutes.
Morizot just wasnt strong enough to keep going solo though, and the pack was starting to up the pace.
With a few attacks going on the final climb, Morizot was caught.
Only Mazzanti and an LPR rider managed to get clear though. They would later be joined by 2 more from the bunch to make a strong lead group of 4.
Belkov decided that the bunch just wasn't doing a good job, so went just before the climb, so as he hit the climb he was going just so much faster than the rest of the riders.
However, as the sprint began at 1km to go, a Liquigas rider was quickly closing the gap, but he just wasn't as strong as Belkov, who managed to take 5th on the day.
A brilliant result for a rider who isn't as strong on the hills as over many days.
Results:
1 Leonardo Bertagnolli LIQUIGAS 5h11'47
2 Luca Mazzanti CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 18
3 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
4 Rafaele Ferrara TEAM LPR s.t. 5 Maxim Belkov AUBER 93 + 1'33
6 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
7 Santo Anzà SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 2'01
8 Markus Eibegger ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
9 Andrea Masciarelli ACQUA & SAPONE - CAFFÉ MOKAMBO s.t.
10 Gabriele Bosisio TEAM TENAX - MENIKINI s.t.
Hi rjc_43.... I don't think you know that i've red(is it the correct form of read??) this story from start to end.... It's my favorite storyB) This is a very nice story and get updatet all the time.... The thing that appeals to me is that there is just a little text and the rest is shown by screenshots... And it's fast to read! That's why i nearly don't read stories..... I read stories when i got a little time and then is you story ideal! The stories at PCMGeeks(danish site) got a lot of text and is to long for my taste... And takes long time to read...
Romme1 wrote:
Hi rjc_43.... I don't think you know that i've red(is it the correct form of read??) this story from start to end.... It's my favorite storyB) This is a very nice story and get updatet all the time.... The thing that appeals to me is that there is just a little text and the rest is shown by screenshots... And it's fast to read! That's why i nearly don't read stories..... I read stories when i got a little time and then is you story ideal! The stories at PCMGeeks(danish site) got a lot of text and is to long for my taste... And takes long time to read...
Thank you for showing your appriciation. Im glad you enjoy my short reporting style, as many other readers prefer the longer reports. I must say my enthusiasm for the game comes from managing young riders, developing talent, and signing new riders. So expect more of a in-depth report on the transfer season when it comes around, but i like to keep the race reports short otherwise i get bored! B)
