Tactics meeting
The last stage of Paris - Nice begins in Nice and makes the riders race in two loops around the city. First a long one, then a short trip up to the Col d'Eze before they head down towards Nice agian. It's a relatively hard stage, and the rider who's first over Col d'Eze has almost certainly won the stage. Talking of stage wins, that's our goal today. We will try putting a man in the breakaway, and if the breakaway doesn't win, we can always pass the responsibility on to Popovych and Armstrong. Popovych has a chance to climb onto the podium overall if he can get rid of Cancellara or Wiggins.
Floyd Landis was our representative in the breakaway, who was still in front the first time the stage went back to Nice. The other escapees were also strong riders. Horrach, Txurruka, Gerdemann and Kadri could all lend a helping hand.
Caisse d'Epargne was not interested in any breakaway win though, and they set a fast pace in the peloton.
At the bottom of the Col d'Eze climb, Landis&co were caught.
The catch resulted in a series of attacks. One rider attacking was Valverde, who seems to be in killer shape at the moment.
The Spaniard wearing the yellow jersey was first over the top, and had a lead of 42 seconds back to the closest group of riders.
Which consisted of Cunego, Cancellara, Popovych and Armstrong.
One rider who really missed the boat today, was Bradley Wiggins. The third placed rider in the GC was still in the peloton.
Four riders are better than one, and Popovych's group had caught Valverde when they were heading for the finish in Nice.
We were the only team with two riders in the final breakaway, something we tried to exploit. Armstrong acted as Popovych's lead-out man, but the other three were right on the Ukrainian's back wheel.
Cancellara got himself level with Popovych. This was going to be close!
With very few meters left, Cancellara was in front. Could Popovych pass him?
Apparently not, and during the last meters he was also beaten by Cunego. Third place for Popovych today, but Wiggins was stuck in the peloton, which meant third place overall as well for Popovych!
Points ranking
1 Fabian Cancellara Team Saxo Bank 105
KoM ranking
1 Ricardo Serrano Fuji - Servetto 31
We have to be very pleased with this year's Paris - Nice. Our goal of taking the overall win was not reached, but nobody could do anything about Valverde in his current form. The podium and a stage win for Popovych and two men among the top five is more than good enough. Popovych and Armstrong can now be relieved from their captain duties until the preparations for the Tour de France begins.
During the next two months, the responsibility are passed on to other riders, who will defend our colours in the next big stage races, Tour de Romandie and Giro d'Italia. Young Slovenian Janez Brajkovic will be our leader for both races, and it will be interesting to see what he can achieve. Stay tuned!
Our leader in Tour de Romandie will be Janez Brajkovic and our goal is the overall win. That's something which shouldn't be to hard, considering the weak start list. Among the few other potensial winners, we find Barredo, Monfort, Fothen, Soler, Moncoutie and Fuglsang. Tour de Romandie consists of five stages in addition to the prologue. One of the stages is a 15km team time trial, and only one stage is cathegorized as a mountain stage.
Discovery Channel Janez Brajkovic Vladimir Gusev Ivan Rovny Chris Horner Steven Cummings Brian Vandborg Jurgen Van Goolen Jason McCartney
Tactics meeting
We bring several strong time trialists to the race, and the best on paper is maybe Vladimir Gusev. Janez Brajkovic will use the prologue to get in a good position before the fight for the overall win really begins.
Marco Pinotti was showing off his Italian champion jersey, but didn't do better than 10th place.
The usually strong Ignatiev didn't have the legs either, and finished just in front of Pinotti.
One rider who really had the legs today, was Gusev. The Discovery rider took a convincing stage win, ten seconds ahead of his teammate Steven Cummings who ended as number two.
Tactics meeting
The first proper stage of Tour de Romandie is completely flat, except Col du Jaun, which is a very steep climb with a percentage of 8.4 over the nine kilometers. But if anybody are dropped on the climb, they have plenty of kilometers they can use to catch up, so we will probably see a mass sprint. The only thing our Discovery lads are going to do today, is make sure Gusev rides in yellow tomorrow as well.
Dimitriev and Duyn was in a break most of the day, but were caught with 10km left.
The peloton held a very fast pace during the last kilometers.
That's when accidents can happen. Four kilometers from the finish line, Janez Brajkovic hit the ground following a mass crash.
Luckily he didn't seem to be hurt.
While all the drama was happening, Caisse d'Epargne's Arnold Jeanneson took the stage win.
Brajkovic got up on his bike again, but our captain rolled over the line two and a half minute behind the rest of the peloton. Not good for our hopes of overall victory.
Stage 3 La Chaux-de-Fonds - La Chaux-de-Fonds: 162.4km
Tactics meeting
After the very inconvenient crash yesterday, Brajkovic is probably out of the running for the GC. But Gusev still rides in yellow, and we aim at keeping it that way also after today's somewhat undulating stage.
When the peloton caught them during the penultimate climb, Fran Perez saw a possibility for an attack.
Perez was joined by Monfort, Nicki Sørensen and Hesjedal. Behind them, Brajkovic was pacing the peloton up the hill.
Sørensen had to give in, and soon the leading group contained Hesjedal, Perez and Mori. The latter joined them after a powerful accelration just before the top of the climb.
Things were happening all the time today. Moncoutie and Rolland were among those who attacked on the last climb, when the pack was closing in on the escapees.
Moncoutie quickly got a gap back to Rolland, who himself had a gap back to the Perez group.
Gusev in yellow and Soler bridged the gap up to the Perez group, who had passed Rolland. They started the hunt for Moncoutie.
But the peloton was just behind.
Not far from the finish, Monfort jumped out of the pack like a rocket.
The Belgian passed everybody, including Moncoutie who had almost been caught by Gusev&co.
Monfort won a great victory, with Mori a few meters behind and Kessiakoff in third place.
Tactics meeting
Today's programme says team time trial, a dicipline we should do well in considering all our strong time trialists. Our aim is to keep Vladimir Gusev in yellow.
Our performance was an enormous let-down. We had no rythm, and already before our riders crossed the line, I realised that Gusev had lost his yellow jersey. We ended up 12th, which is totally unacceptable with our current lineup.
Another strong team on paper who disappointed was Saxobank. The Danes were 14th.
The big favourites Rabobank didn't deliver either. The orange guys finished 6th, eleven seconds behinds winners Cofidis.
Tactics meeting
Today is Janez Brajkovic day. We're embarking on a mountain stage, and we have decided to try and get Brajkovic back in contention for the overall win. We're planning for the slovenian to try a hazardous solo-attack and see what happens. We have nothing to lose. Maybe he has called teammate Floyd Landis for some advice on long solo-attacks. In that case, I guess he was told to avoid the doping test afterwards...
In the beautiful Swiss landscape, Brajkovic joined the early attackers.
He gave it full throttle from the first kilometer, and heading up the first mountain, only Volodymir Gustov could match Brajkovic's insane pace.
Barloworld's Augustyn caught up with the two during the descent, and the three-man group had a lead of eight minutes over the peloton halfway through the stage.
Back in the peloton, Cofidis started getting nervous. In the GC, Brajkovic was two and a half minute behind leader Taaramäe before today's stage.
When Brajkovic reached the top of the penultimate mountain, Augustyn was dropped and Gustov looked very tired. The deficit back to the peloton had shrinked down to six minutes. There were 50km to go.
Most riders placed high in the GC didn't have time to ride with the peloton, and formed their own chase group just before they were heading into the last climb. Here was Taaramäe in his yellow jersey amongst others. The gap forward to Brajkovic was now just two minutes.
Brajkovic was also first over the last mountain top, but the favourites, with Hesjedal in the front, were now just behind. Gustov had been dropped by Brajkovic a long time ago, and he also slipped through the chase group.
Shortly afterwards, with 5km to go, Hesjedal passed our captain. The other favourites were closing in.
Ryder Hesjedal won the stage for Garmin, but Brajkovic&co came in just behind him.
Taaramäe's group caught up with the four riders in front of them, and 13 men finished the stage in the first group. After today's solo trip, Brajkovic could at least put the KoM jersey on. In the GC, he was still two and a half minutes behind Taaramäe, so we have to say the solo attack failed. But it was a nice try. Gusev finished in the peloton, one and a half minute behind the stage winner.
Tactics meeting
Last stage of Tour de Romandie is going to be hectic. It's quite flat, but every team or rider who feel they can win the stage or advance in the GC will be hyperactive today. We're one of them, and aim for the stage win. How that is going to happen is unclear, but we will be aware of any possibility that may present itself.
Brajkovic, inspired by yesterday's great performance, tried to join the early attackers today as well.
Cofidis had no plans to let him go, though. The Slovenian had to give up after a few unsuccessfull breakaway attempts.
Through the entire second half of the stage, everything was one big chaos, with attacks all over the place.
Eventually, a leading group with a two minute lead established. Gusev was present together with the second placed rider in the GC, Fran Perez (Caisse d'Epargne).
Rein Taaramäe was really struggling, and couldn't get up to the leaders even though he tried several times. Brajkovic was also still in the peloton. He was obviously tired after yesterday's big effort.
Gusev's breakaway held it's lead all the way to the finish, and just before the line, Kessiakoff had got himself in the lead.
Gusev really picked up the pace towards the end after having used Markus Fothen's back wheel as a launch pad, but unfortunately Kessiakoff was just a little too far ahead. The Swede won the stage.
Today's big loser was Rein Taaramäe. The Estonian lost Tour de Romandie right at the end, and he's probably not a very pleased man right now. Fran Perez is the one who can put on the biggest smile today, as he is this year's winner of Tour de Romandie!
Points ranking
1 Fredrik Kessiakoff Fuji - Servetto 50
KoM ranking 1 Janez Brajkovic Discovery Channel 38
We are obviously disappointed with the results from Tour de Romandie, but when you're unlucky, you're unlucky. I'm convinced that Brajkovic would have won the race if he hadn't crashed, if the form shown on the mountain stage is something to go by. His leutenant Vladimir Gusev did a decent job as stand-in captain by coming 8th in the GC, but a stage win and a KoM jersey is a poor return from a stage race where we had big ambitions. The success in Amgen Tour of California should have taught me the value of having two riders capable of winning, but seeing as the squad for the Giro has been selected already, the lesson learned in Tour de Romandie will not have any effect yet.
We'll try to shake off the disappointment from Switzerland when we go south to Italy soon. Janez Brajkovic starts all over again, and the Giro d'Italia is going to be exciting! Stay tuned!
Edited by Squire on 12-12-2009 20:40
This year is the 100th anniversary for the first Giro d'Italia, and it will be celebrated by a course that visits most of the cities who hosted the first edition. The race is very demanding, with six hard mountain stages. Three time trials are also included. The first stage is a short team time trial, while the 12th is an insane 64km individual time trial with two steep climbs. The Giro is rounded off by 20 time trial kilometers in Rome.
The field in this year's Giro is remarkably weak. The rider standing out as the big favourite is Liquigas' Ivan Basso. The Italian is viewed as the strongest time trialist among the GC riders and is one of the best climbers as well. Basso will be challenged by guys like Mauricio Soler, Domenico Pozzovivo, Michele Scarponi, Igor Anton, Luis Leon Sanchez and Tadej Valjavec. Our own Janez Brajkovic will also have to be reckoned with.
There are few flat stages in this year's edition, and there aren't many sprint specialists either. The assumed best ones should be the home favourites Paolini and Loddo, as well as Matthew Goss, Mark Renshaw and Martin Elmiger. Our team is completely bereft of sprinters.
Discovery Channel doesn't prioritize the Giro, and the team we're sending is quite weak. Out leader, Janez Brajkovic, will probably not get much help in the mountains. Anyway, I believe ha can do well on his own, and we hope for a podium finish. Another goal of ours is the long time trial midway through the Giro. There, Vladimir Gusev is probably our best hope.
