Last year this race was won by Bobbie Traksel, so the whole team supported him today. But destiny says different things… Again it was LPR who had a better rider, it was the other Italian Bernucci who was just a bit stronger today. In the breakaway of six Traksel was able to win but just came a bit to fast in the wind during the sprint. With only a few centimeters it was Bernucci who passed him, damn, what was he disappointed. He really deserved I think, the rest of the team did a really good job do! I became 9th!
No that's my trainings mate! He has his own cycling store but it's in Dutch. www.tomacycles.nl, they are Specialized dealer. I'm 9 Tom Boveree Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team s.t.!
It was very cool to ride this race but I told my main riders to not ride as hell, this because next Wednesday we had Scheldeprijs Vlaanderen which was interesting for our sponsors. So Gusev wasn’t with the best 30 riders but we were very glad that someone showed some talent here, it was me! LOL, I became 15th just in front of some major expierenced riders like Hammond and Quinziato! Also Ben Hermans did very well with a 20th place, we expected more from Traksel but maybe he couldn’t handle the pressure today. It was Boonen who won! Again…
Another Belgium cobble classic, but this time there weren’t a lot of big names. It was probably Boonen who was going to win…
It were Nicolas Maes and Mitchell who were the breakoftheday! Lucky them…
With 60k to go they got reeled in again and with 25k to go it was Hoste who attacked. Here on the right side.
He was followed by Nuyens, Hincapie and Devolder. Big favorite Boonen was just keeping his hands up his steer and was looking around a bit. He could have followed easily I think…
It was Hoste who won, he was not the strongest sprinter but had the best condition probably! It was good for the Belgium specialist because he didn’t show anything jet this season… In second group De Jongh got away, but Boonen was sprinting so hard that he pasted him in the sprint. He did it with Traksel suffering in his wheel. Nice job Bobbie! I also did a nice job, I beated Weylandt in the sprint for 20th place. You can see my form is really good at the moment. (91)
I need your opinion on this one!
At the end of the year Bobbie Traksel and Vladimir Gusev are going to leave the team probably. So I need some new riders, they should fit the team and should be Italian, Dutch, Belgium, Slovenian, French, Uzbekistan (LOL), maybe German(I’m not a racist) or have a lot of fighting spirit! Those should have the same level as Traksel and Gusev…
I was thinking about;
Franzoi; with 75 cobbles he will be a good helper instead of Traksel, but Bobbie is also a sprinter with 75 and the Italian only 68 or so…
Breschel; not jet on the level of Gusev but can ride a nice TT but is a good cobble specialist and also has a nice sprint in his legs!
Asking some serious opinions so don’t come op with Boonen, Devolder or Cancellara!
What a boring race it was! Here you will see the report, it was Hoogerland who was the Leader today and Vandenbroeck who is gaining some conditions for the Giro d’Italia! This is the first race of the triple Amstel, Fleche and Liege…
It were Saxobank and Milram chasing the breakoftheday, of course for Schleck and Wegmann! But it was still 140k to go, why were they chasing with such a hard pace…
Probably because Andreas Klöden was in the break! Along with Santambrogio, Grabsch, Kadri, Le Mevel and Verdugo…
Aaah… The first Pro Tour race for the Rabobank CT team and with still 140k to go it is Dennis van Winden who already was left behind. Luckily he could just ask people the road to the Cauberg because the spectators spoke the same native…
Everything was back together and on the second last climb it was Kirchen who was the first on top!
Followed by Kroon…
Sanchez and Horner…
And Wegmann who was trying to close the gap to those two! Behind him it were, Cunego, Mazzant, Nocentini and Hoogerland from Vacansoleil. We were very happy to hear that on the radio!
But then, on the foot of the last climb the Cauberg, Johnny totally cracked. He was completely out of his rhythm and you see that Rodriguez, Schleck and even Vandenbroeck are passing him at all sides!
Already on the top it was Kirchen who was just able to beat Kroon is his (almost) home race!
As you can see in the results is that after the leaders got away, the didn’t ride anymore and a few guys were able to come back from behind. Like Haussler who became 14th just for Vandenbroeck, and I became 19th! Just after last years Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre, what an honor!
The second race hill-classic in this week, will Hoogerland finally be able to get a top 10 spot? His conditions are getting better so we will see!
Columbia-HTC was controlling the pack to bring Kirchen a second victory, but was Kim able to do that!?
Big breakoftheday! Kunitski, Stamsnijder, Di Gregorio, Labbe, Oroz, Vandborg, Gomez, Sapa, Schröder, Stubbe, Fernandez, Sutton and Lequattre. Accept from Di Gregoria, Stubbe and Fernandez they had no hill or climbing abilities at all! But on the second lap over monumental and fenomanal Mur de Huy, they had a gap of over 10’00. 70k to go…
And again it was Kirchen who won! He his defiantly in the right shape! This time it was Cunego who was the most close. Hoogerland was flying up the Mur de Huy in the final and was able to pass, Barredo, Garate, Brandt, Joly, Contador, Gilbert and Wegmann to be 10th and Vandenbroeck 11th…
Not an interesting race but Leukemans got invited by the organization! The second stage a small group got away with Leukemans, Me (Tom Boveree), Kreutzfeld, Iglinsky, Geschke, Morabito, Mancebo, Pavarin, Posthuma, Rubiera, Roels, Bisolti and Tankink. Dispite having three man in the breakaway Leukemans became 4th! The rest of the stage were for sprinters, with 2 podium spots for Bozic. Only the last stage Albasini and Tjallinggi got away!
General Classification
1 Michael Albasini Team Columbia - HTC 20h08'39
2 Maarten Tjallingii Rabobank + 4
3 Kenny Van Hummel Skil - Shimano + 9
4 Mark Cavendish Team Columbia - HTC + 15 5 Björn Leukemans Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 22
6 Marco Marcato Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team + 24
7 Maxim Iglinskiy Astana Cycling Team s.t.
8 Simon Geschke Skil - Shimano + 28
9 Steve Morabito Astana Cycling Team s.t.
10 Gerald Ciolek Team Milram + 39
11 Bernhard Eisel Team Columbia - HTC + 44
12 Francisco Mancebo Rock Racing Team + 49
13 Assan Bazayev Astana Cycling Team + 51
14 Marcello Pavarin CSF group - Navigarre s.t.
15 Christian Kux Team Milram s.t.
16 Mauro Finnetto CSF group - Navigarre s.t. 17 Tom Boveree Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team s.t.
18 Daniel Kreutzfeldt Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team s.t.
19 Chechu Rubiera Astana Cycling Team s.t.
20 Joost Posthuma Rabobank s.t.
Mountain Classification
1 Francisco Mancebo Rock Racing Team 8
2 Erik Mohs Team Nutrixxion Sparkasse 8
3 Sebastan May Thüringer Energie Team 8
4 Roman Kireyev Astana Cycling Team 3
5 Karsten Heß Thüringer Energie Team 3
6 Michael Schär Astana Cycling Team 2
7 Gerald Ciolek Team Milram 2 8 Borut Bozic Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team 1
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