Km 103: The pack chased fast and Flecha and the others are caught again. Meanwhile, Lanterne Rouge Timothy Duggan underlines his position and falls back.
Km 114: With 11 km to go, a massive crash happens in the peloton and affects more than 35 riders. Overall leader Alberto Contador hits the ground! Also, Levi Leipheimer fell and is in danger of losing his seventh place. Except for Romain Feillu, every top sprinter is still on his bike.
Km 119: The sprint preparations begin, and one main train is being built. Haussler and Hushovd are followed by Cavendish, Boonen, Rojas and Boasson Hagen. Also, Duque leads out Samuel Dumoulin.
Km 121: The pack passes the tunnel for the last time, then they're on the finishing straight.
Km 123: Haussler is rather slow, and Duque brings Dumoulin in a great position. Alessandro Petacchi is behind him as well as Gert Steegmans.
Km 124: 1 km to go: Dumoulin is in front, but Steegmans and Petacchi are coming closer.
Km 125: And the surprising winner is Gert Steegmans!
Km 125:Cavendish on 8 and Boonen on 9 are not good enough to prevent Boasson Hagen's green jersey win.
Km 125: A great moment for Dominik. He finishes his first Tour de France!
Km 125: Contador and Leipheimer finish more than three minutes behind the pack. While Contador couldn't care less, Leipheimer loses his Top 10 position.
Also, we're glad that Ivan managed to get the third spot. That was the maximum possible. And we achieved another „win“: Timothy Duggan won the Lanterne Rouge with a comfortable margin of almost half an hour to Allan Davis.
My season has come to an end now. I will give you a detailed review of the Tour in a second, and probably tomorrow, a review of my season.
The young Norvegian had an awesome Tour and was the biggest surprise. No one named him as even an outsider on the green jersey, but he made perfect use of the inconsistency of the bigger names, took two stage wins and eventually won the green jersey well deserved.
Robert Gesink – Fourth in the GC and dominant winner of the white jersey
Yury Trofimov – Stage winner and provisional leader of the mountain ranking
Tom Boonen – Two stage wins
Fabian Cancellara – Won both time trials
-
The Schleck Brothers
They are the biggest disappointment of this Tour! Aiming for the overall win and maybe even another podium spot, they ended up 9th (Andy) and 17th (Fränk). The only good moment was Andy's stage win on the first mountain stage.
Igor Anton
He started very well, but then rode too inconstantly and lost lots of evitable time. Otherwise, a Top 10 or a Top 5 would easily have been possible. Eventually, he leaves France with three second places and an 11th overall.
The established sprinters
Boasson Hagen winning the green jersey is a first hint that the usual top sprinters weren't at their best. Sure, Mark Cavendish won two stages, but otherwise couldn't live up with the expectations. Tyler Farrar was a massive disappointment, couldn't achieve a single Top 3 and had to abandon during the Pyrenees. The same applies for Andre Greipel, Daniele Benatti, Robbie McEwen and Juan Jose Haedo. And the likes of Alessandro Petacchi and Oscar Freire even went into breaks instead of competing in the bunch sprints.
Other negative appearances
The French – Sandy Casar on 19 as the best rider in the GC and the only French rider with a stage win.
Tony Martin – No threat for Cancellara in the time trials, and 75th in the GC as HTC's overall leader.
Cadel Evans – Though harmed by two crashes, a bit more than the 20th overall would have been nice.
Sylvester Szmyd – Was of nearly no use in the higher mountain and often even finished behind his young team mate Dominik Nerz.
The Tour for Liquigas
All in all, the Tour de France was quite successful for Liquigas. Basso achieved the team's goal by finishing on the podium, and he even grabbed two stage wins.
Young Dominik Nerz went through his baptism of fire very well and convinced with a seventh spot after a successful breakaway.
Also, Timothy Duggan fought his way through the Tour and reached Paris a little unexpected, besides winning the prestigious Lanterne Rouge.
Edited by cunego59 on 05-08-2011 12:05
for great Tour-reports and some nice racing by Dominik! Liquigas did well to nominate this promising German and who knows: maybe Basso wouldn't have achieved that nice 3rd if Nerz wasn't here
Thanks for the Banana Yep, I'm very pleased as well with this Tour, and afterwards, I can say that Nerz's debut didn't came too early at all. And nice to hear that you liked the reports.
as promised, I will give now give a review of my first season for Liquigas. I will use a Top 5 charts of my favorite moments for that. Here they are:
Rank 5: Tour de Slovenie
The Tour de Slovenie was the first race in which I really could compete for a good overall ranking. After four hard stages, a dominant Ivan Basso won the Tour, and I got 8th overall and won the young riders jersey.
Rank 4: Clasica de Almeria
My first good appearance of this season. I went into the morning break and we got a lot of advance. Within the last 7 km, I still led together with Rafael Valls, and the pack was a minute behind. But we eventually got swept up by the pack within the last kilometer. Of course it was frustrating, but it was also great to know that I was so close to a victory.
Rank 3: Tour de France – Stage 14
On this stage, I firstly got into the break of the day during the Tour de France. And we succeeded. Within the last 20 km, we were more than 15 minutes in front, and I was in the virtual white jersey. My fault was to go for that, because I put a lot of effort in the relay to keep the advance, and thus couldn't fight for a good stage ranking. So after all, I didn't get the white jersey, but my seventh place was a great result anyway.
Rank 1: Volta Ciclista a Catalunya – Winning the Mountain Jersey
My favorite moment of this year! I could wear the mountain jersey for several stages, and each time that I stood on the podium afterwards was a massive rush of adrenaline. All the people cheering to me... That was simply fantastic! I hope, that I can repeat that feeling sometimes next season!
You can view my complete results in the Palmares section on page 1.
Well, so that's it for racing for me. I will have a long phase of recovery now, and then let the year easily draw to an end.
Nevertheless, I will of course keep you up to date on this page. Coming up next are the latest transfer new, as some major riders will change their team for the next season. Also, I will report you which riders will leave our team and which riders will come to inforce us.
In addition, with the Vuelta, the last Grand Tour is still to be held as well as the World Championships, and a team aroung Peter Sagan will ride several one day classics, with the Giro di Lombardia being the hightlight.
So I hope you stay tuned!
Yours,
Dominik
Edited by cunego59 on 05-08-2011 14:24
here are the major confirmed transfers so far, in which our team isn't involved.
Alejandro Valverde to RadioShack
The Spanish planned to join Movistar after his ban, but as Movistar is in danger of being relegated, he didn't take the risk and signed a contract with RadioShack.
Leonardo Bertagnolli to Katusha Team
Bertagnolli developed into a great puncheur during this season (HIL: 79) and joines Katusha's strong classics squad.
John Gadret to Saur - Sojasun
France's best climber decides to go into Continental division and joins Saur.
Also, a couple of top riders are still without a contract for next season. Most important are:
Heinrich Haussler (Garmin)
Igor Anton (Euskaltel)
Sylvain Chavanel (Quick·Step)
Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha)
Meanwhile, Leif Hoste (Katusha) has announced to end his cycling career after this season.
Edited by cunego59 on 24-08-2011 16:45
Time for the first Liquigas transfer announcements:
We are glad to tell you that our team plannings for 2012 are almost done. We'll have a total amount of six riders leaving our team, which leaves room for seven new signings. Here are the first two changes.
Riders Out:
Although Mauro Da Dalto still has a contract until 2013, the DS decided to rather pay the compensation. He didn't do anything special this year and we don't see any potential for further development, so he has to make room for new riders. As a good bye race, he'll be riding the Vuelta a Espana.
Edward King's contract ends at the end of the season and we didn't see any reason to extend it. We don't think that he will be able to improve his sprinting skills, and he just hasn't the level we want to have in our team. King will continue his career at Trek – Livestrong next season, after having participated in several one day classics for us.
Riders In:
Our American sponsor Cannondale wanted us to increase the amount of American riders in our team, and as King is leaving, we decided to sign two new US boys. Here they are:
With his 26 years, we hope that Matthew Busche still has room for improvement. His best result for RadioShack was a sixth place overall at the Tour de Beauce, and we are confident that he'll serve well as a domestique.
The same applies for Thomas Peterson. The Garmin riders is even two years younger than Busche and a promising climber. We hope that he can ameliorate his skills, for he might be able to compete with the best once.
That's it for the moment, I hope you like the new signings so far. The next transfers will be announced soon.
After the Tour de France, this classic is the next important race. With Philippe Gilbert, Fränk Schleck, Joaquim Rodriguez, Damiano Cunego and many others, the race is highly frequented with top puncheurs.
For Liquigas, this race has a certain importance, as one of our secondary sponsors targets it and demands a Top 10. The team enters the race with a double leadership of Belotti and Szmyd. They both have a decent form from the Tour, but usually aren't able to compete with the riders mentioned above.
After no break succeeded, Francesco Belotti attacked with about 130 km to go and later was joined by Sylvain Chavanel and Michel Albasini. But not surprising, they had no chance.
On the penultimate, large hill, many riders attacked, among them Klöden, Gesink and Szmyd. But they weren't able to succeed either. On the ultimate hill, a group of eight riders got loose from the pack by one minute. Among others, both Schleck brothers and Alberto Contador were present there.
Eventually, it came down to a sprint between Andy and Tour winner Alberto Contador. Contador obviously preserved a good shape and outsprints the Luxembourgian. Sylvester Szmyd is the best-placed Liquigas rider on 22 and predictably misses the sponsor goal.
Thanks, glad you like them. With Duggan's extended contract, we have now 3 Americans, which is fine for our sponsor. I think I don't tell you too much, when I say that we won't sign any more US guys
So, here's the summary for July, the month of the Tour:
The only rider winning more than one race was Alberto Contador. Those races were also the most important ones this month.
After winning the Tour and the Clasica San Sebastian, Alberto Contador takes the lead comfortably from Vincenzo Nibali. Leopard advanced on place two in the team ranking.
From this point on, I'll also take a look at the bottom of this ranking, as the two last teams will be relegated to the Continental Tour. While Ag2r is almost certain to be relegated, Movistar and Vacansoleil fight to avoid the 17th spot. BMC is already rather safe.
While the individual rankings are unchanged, Skil and Landbouwkrediet extend their lead in the team classification. Caja Rural firstly appears in the Top 5.
Alberto Contador joins Nibali on top of the ranking. No one comes close to them. Liquigas is still on top of the team classification, Garmin climbs up to second.
Further behind, four continental teams fight for the promotion to the new World Tour. Cofidis has a small advance in front of Landbouwkrediet and FDJ, who are incredibly close. Skil is already a bit behind.
Nibali still leads, but his season is finished. The other Top 5 added one or two win, respectively, to their palmares. In the team classification, HTC – Highroad did an enormous leap.
No surprise here: Three stage wins and the overall of the Tour de France plus the Clasica San Sebastian give Contador a deserved award. Atapuma is honoured for his second place at stage 5 of the Tour of Quinghai Lake and his seventh overall.
Although being only 26 years old, we don't think that Christiano will be able to improve. He couldn't convince us this season and we won't extend his contract. At the moment, he hasn't got a contract at another team yet.
The reasons for us not to extend Kristjan's contract are similar. He's just not good enough at the moment and we don't see much space for improvement. Just as Salerno, he has no contract for 2012 yet.
Riders In:
Marco Marcato joins us from Vacansoleil and secures his existence in the World Tour. He will be a good addition for all kinds of classics, mostly the hilly ones, and he's also a perfect rider for breakaways.
We're also planning on signing one young rider, and we have a couple of good ones in our mind, but we haven't decided yet.
Avin Wargunnson wrote:
Just catch up with the end of Tour and first transfers.
For the start,here is what Dominik deserves for his great first participation in Tour
+1
i wasnt home for the last few days so i couldnt write something. congrats to the first tour finish in my opinion it was quite a good tour for dominik all in all.
i really like the reviews the one about the tour as well as the one about dominiks season and i agree on the top 5 moments the mountains jersey was the highlight
i hope you keep the story up - I WANT TO SEE DOMINIK WIN A GRAND TOUR hopefully he can evolve considerably in his long race-free time now
and nice transfers so far
@Avin: Glad that you like Marcato. I hope he'll be good.
@ johannes-w: I agree, and the mountain jersey was not only Dominik's highlight, I was very excited as well. And believe me, I would love to see Dominik at a top level, too Therefore, I'll transfer the story to PCM 2011. But it'll take at least one or two more seasons until he's good enough, if he continues to progress so fast, that is.
for great Tour-reports and some nice racing by Dominik! Liquigas did well to nominate this promising German and who knows: maybe Basso wouldn't have achieved that nice 3rd if Nerz wasn't here 
Yep, I'm very pleased as well with this Tour, and afterwards, I can say that Nerz's debut didn't came too early at all. And nice to hear that you liked the reports.
