Mresuperstar wrote:
Yeah, great ride by David to get in the breakaway and take the KoM back and still be the best young rider!
Thank you, I was surprised when Efimkin attacked Veilleux but in the end its worked out nicely, and of course on the climb I was just praying Bonnafond wasn't too far ahead of David (the stage was really choppy, so I didn't want to scroll up to the next group more than I had to)
@tsmoha-Thanks for the suggestion of Utah, it worked out nicely.
And just an update I've currently got a lot of time to play today, so you should see the last ToC stage later tonight.
David's Plan:
Well, its been a really fun race, but its about to come to an end. Hopefully the team can pull out a win with Eddy, but for me, I can probably just relax until the final 10km. The stage should end in a mass sprint, but there also expected are cross-winds which could change the race a lot.
A break of 11 makes it clear and stay out front all day. When its clear they will stay away, Niki Terpstra puts out a surprising attack, which catches everyone off guard. Will they work together to catch him or will Terpstra ride away for the victory?
Turns out they decided to work together on catching him, but it still wasn't enough, Terpstra wins ahead of Iglinskiy, although just barely.
And Boasson Hagen wins the sprint against the top sprinters, as he brings home the peloton, I'm safely inside of it, and so it is officially over now.
With the excitement of week 1 over, its time to review what happened this week, and most importantly review how well the Sky riders are doing.
Analysis: So with the first week over, and all the first week crashes out of the way its time to talk about the real happenings of each stage.
Stage 8 was a mountainous stage, which concluded with a descent. The clear cut favourite had to be Contador seeing as it was a mountain stage but Michele Scarponi showed he is the rider to beat, and extended his overall lead. Thomas Lovkvist has really under-performed so far, and we hope he will turn it around, because anything less than a Top 10 would not be good enough for him.
Stage 9was a TT, and again Contador was probably the favourite of the GC contenders, but Bradley Wiggins, Katusha's new weapon for the Giro won the stage. Thomas Lofkvist did very well, but Ignatas Konovalovas finished just 2 seconds behind Lofkvist.
Stage 10Another flat stage, where the breakaway was allowed to stay away. The 3 of the 4 wildcard teams were in the break, but the American wildcards UnitedHealthcare weren't so obviously they missed out.
Stage 11saw another breakaway stay clear, this time it was climbers who had gotten away as Frapporti and Gomez Marchante both finished together 1-2. Lofkvist finished in a big group containing most of the favourites, like Gesink and Monfort.
Stage 12and another flat stage (finally) for Swift to show what he's made of. Obviously we dont think he will win too much here, but we were hoping for more than a 16th place. Still he is early in his development, and we could see him win a lot more in years to come.
Stage 13a mountain stage again, and again its a break staying away. Leopard wanted to have a strong climber in the break so that he could drop back if their leader was in trouble, but that never happened and he just destrooyed his companions on the climb. Lofkvist finished over 6 minutes down, but stays inside the Top 15, which is looking like a better goal for him at this point.
Stage 14What a way to finish the week for Scarponi. Wins first and last stage of the week with Pink trhe whole time. Basso and Van Garderen took 2nd and 3rd, and are looking more and more like they will take the final two steps on the podium, a surprise for many fans of Van Garderen. Lofkvist a "mere" 3 minutes lost today.
Sky Review: To be perfectly honest these results aren't that flattering of the team we brought. I thought it would have been possible for a Top 10 and a stage win but so far that hasn't happened. Were looking forward to the 3rd week where hopefully Lofkvist can gain back more time, and Swift can grab a stage win. We definitely havn't been in the break enough, Barry should be in there every other day, but if he can't keep get results, he may not be riding for us for next season, as there are plenty of young riders eagerly awaiting to fill his spot on the roster. Edited by valverde321 on 01-08-2011 19:18
So now with the Giro concluding its time to review week 3, and the entire Giro.
Analysis:
Stage 15saw the breakaway specialist of the Giro win again for the 2nd time already. Colnago havn't had much success so far, but his wins, have without a doubt fueled the team, to work harder for their leaders. Meanwhile for Sky it wasn't that terrible of a day, and Possoni, attacked late in the stage, and managed to gain a few minutes on the peloton.
Stage 16was a flat stage, but again no one wanted to chase the break down, so guess who, Marco Frapporti won the stage again, this being his 3rd already, and just in the breakaways. At this point Colnago have to be having a dream Giro with 3 stage wins. Not so much for Sky though as its another 16th place for Swift, who seems to like the number 16.
Stage 17had a Spanish rider win, Jose Angel Gomez Marchante, who just dominated his breakaway partners on the final climb grabbing 5 minutes on them. Lofkvist again has an off day, but holds onto 12th.
Stage 18had Lampre let one of their free riders go, just some former winner or something, Damiano Cunego, and he sure made the Lampre bus happy. What a Giro they've been having with Scarponi finishing right behind.
Stage 19was a ITT, and the ITT master Bradley Wiggins came here for a reason, to win TT's and he won again, Konovalovas finished one place ahead of Lofkvist, and both finished inside the Top 20, so a decent stage for Sky, of course if we still had Wiggins.....
Stage 20Juan Mauricio Soler grabbed the stage, just ahead of the GC fav's. Lofkvist loses 3 minutes though, but he still holds on to 12th, so lucky for him his Top 15 looks possible now.
Stage 21and still no stage win for Sky, could this be the day? No Wiggo stole the show! He caps of a truely amazing Giro winning every single TT in the race, an amazing accomplishment. Lofkvist does well 15th for him.
Giro Review: Well going into the Giro we wanted good results. After the 1st week it was apparent that our goals were too high, and Ben Swift really disappointed. Being the hilly sprinter that he is, we thought he would be perfect for the Giro, but with no stage finish higher than 16th, it was obvious he was out of shape, or just wasn't good enough. Lofkvist although he didn't do that great in the GC he did still manage a Top 15, so he has shown he can do alright. Barry, and Konovalovas were supposed to be our designated Breakaway riders, but neither ever went into a break, and if it weren't for Konovalovas' TT skills he might be on his way out, like it appears Barry will be. If I had to give a grade to the Giro performance by Sky it would be a B-. We never really showed up, but on paper the results dont look that terrible. Atleast we did better than UnitedHealthcare, who I'm sure will never get a Giro wildcard again.
Thanks for reading the Sky Sports Webiste with our Special Sky ProCycling feature.
Mresuperstar wrote:
Very nice Giro updates. Too bad you didn't get the best results. But as you said that also don't look that bad on paper.
Thanks, I got the inspiration from you actually (well also tsmoha), because I think you did something like this for the Tour de France. Too bad I couldn't see them, as it would have helped, and that Photobucket decided to be stupid for you.
Yeah, my TDF Updates took forever because I did every stage. For the Vuelta I did the week reports. Great addition by adding a few sentences for each stage at the end.
Sidenote: I don't know how I used up that much bandwidth when I was on vacation for half of that time. I think Photobucket is out to get me .
It's been a while since you last heard from me. Thats because I've been at home in Canada, visiting family, and doing lots of local rides. Plus thanks to my great ride at the Tour of California there's been a lot of extra attention lately. I had an interview with Canadian Cycling Magazine who even called me the next best rider to Hesjedal, currently a great honour, seeing as he's pretty much the best Canadian cyclist of all time. Looking back at my ride in California, I cant quite believe it went as well as it did, but I'm very happy the team worked for me, to help win the KoM, which means a great deal to me. Whats even better is some cycling fans in Canada approached me and told me they were big fans. They also said they thought I would become a really good rider one day, and win lots of races, so its really humbling to hear that.
Also in other news Steve Bauer, has said that I'm on the preliminary list for both the World Championship RR and TT, and that I might even be leader at the RR, since Hesjedal apparentlt declined the offer saying "its time for someone new to breakthrough".
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Team Sky News
National Champions Unveiled
Road: Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic) Marc de Maar (Netherlands Antilles) Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) Thomas Lofkvist (Sweden)
TT: Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic) Marc de Maar (Netherlands Antilles Mick Rogers (Australia) Ignatas Konovalovas (Lithuania)
Hello, this season we have 6 riders leaving and so we have 6 riders joining. We have our first 3, who we believe will be important for our development group.
The first rider is Ross Creber:
He is a good all-round biker, but he is best at climbing. He wont become a start climber or anything, but we think he will be s very valuable helper in a few years time.
The next signing is a young talent who was racing in the U23 division this year for the GBR National Team.
Robert Stafford has shown he could become the next Mark Cavendish, and he was glad to even get money. He told us he would ride the season for free (too bad he didn't tell us this before we offered him a contract )
His best results will for sure come in the sprints, but for the upcoming season he will mostly be used as a lead-out man I presume.
And our last signing for now is a very exciting one.
Teklehaimanot is probably the best rider to come from Eritrea, and he can even become a really good stage racer in a few years. He should be a very useful rider and of course he will also be a fan favourite, so all in all a good signing.
Edited by valverde321 on 02-08-2011 18:06
David's Plan:
Well, Sky have brough a strong team here. Depending on how the race runs, the leader of the race could be either, Kennaugh, Downing, Cumming, or myself. Personally I think it will be Cummings because he is in great form, and can sprint and ride hills fairly well.
The day began with a group of 5 which eventually turned into 11. Beppu was there for Sky, and the group gained lots of time, but inside the final 10kms it looked all over, when Verdugo, and Craig Lewis attacked. This was the moment for Beppu and he followed.
In the peloton, we started a sprint train for Downing, as we had the best shot at a win, with one, as Beppu was now just ahead of our train. I sat on the front, while Arvesen and Downing were behind me.
Verdugo just holding on inside the final km, but Downing and Kocjan are coming quickly.
But Verdugo, checks one more time to see the gap and he knows he's won know. Great win by him, while the rest of my team are scattered inside the Top 10, I finished 9th.
Hello all, its time for me to announce my schedule for the remainder of the season, which hopefully suit my skills better than the first half. I know you Canadians will be happy with my choices, or atleast two choices
This also means I've been chosen to ride the World Championships, my first time ever as a pro!
@DJP-Since I didn't see your post as I was writing the schedule down, no its not quite that good of news, but it is interesting I'd say.
@cunego59- Thanks! I'm hoping for a win from him, which may be possible in one of those smaller Italian Classics, or even through a breakaway, so there are definitely options. It should also be exciting, to race in the World Championships this year.
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