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Team Festina - Corona
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| SotD |
Posted on 25-07-2010 14:58
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World Champion
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The poor start continues
Having brought 3 strong teams to the Tirreno, Paris-Nice and Catalunya we cannot be anything but extremely dissapointed.
Yet again we deliverede a horrible overall result, as Carlos Castaño only managed to hitch into 11th place overall.
One positive thing to take from the race, however, was a stagewin from the young sprinter Sam Bewley.
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| SotD |
Posted on 25-07-2010 15:01
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
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Great Milano - San Remo
Our young sprinter Sam Bewley was given the lead role for todays race, the Italian classic Milano - San Remo. It was our first goal of the season, but a win seemed without range.
In the end we came very close, getting 2nd from Bewley, but also Diego Ulissi managed to do extremely well getting 11th. The first race which we are proud to speak of.
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| SotD |
Posted on 25-07-2010 15:04
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World Champion
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Cobbled classics not as good as expected
We've had two cobbled races so far this season, but our best result was 9th from Sam Bewley in the Het Volk race. That is not good enough, and we clearly try to improve that, but it will be difficult, as the captaincy role isn't looking dead obvious.
We are hoping for the team to start getting some nice results soon.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 21:44
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| SotD |
Posted on 07-08-2010 17:48
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
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Wonderful Criterium
The first races of the season has proven to be difficult for us, but after the Milano - San Remo everything has turned out a little bit lighter for us.
Especially the performance in Criterium International gave us a new piece of hopes for the remaining season. In the first stage Sam Bewley jumped into 3rd on the final sprint, while Samuel Sánchez surprised everyone on the 2nd stage by winning in solo style.
In the final 10km TT, the real horror was turned on, but in the end to our advantage. While Bakelants in 2nd lost 7 spots in the final TT, Samuel did just enough to secure the overall win, which gives us the points needed, from the poor start. We still need to recover from being surprisingly bad in the Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico and Catalunya, but we are slowly making up ground.
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 17:37
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
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Köln a dissaster-ride:
We didn't have any huge expectations in particular for this german race. We did have both Samuel Sanchez and Sam Bewley here though, so we had a hope that something interesting would happen, but needless to say it didnt!
The winner of the race was surprisingly Leonardo Duque, and that could indicate that Sam would be in the top 10, but nothing close. 29th from the sprinter, also making our best result. Horrible nothing less. Hopefully the coming races is much much better.
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 17:40
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World Champion
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Welcome to Belgium:
Finally the cobbled season has arrived. We have been looking forward to this. Last year Thor Hushovd had some decent results here, combined with young Frederik Nolf. This year Thor have been exchanged for the slightly stronger overaller Sam Bewley.
Sam didn't have the best of days, but Nolf seemed to be doing well enough for quite some time. In the end the belgian talent ran out of breath though, only making a dissapointing 12th place. We hope that this can improve in the tougher races, though it will be hard fought. Perhaps Nolf is in for some training next season...
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 17:44
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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Welcome to the basque country Sammy:
This is a classic for our team. Samuel Sanchez is each year eager to return to the home base, and this year with a strong compatriot, Diego Ulissi.
Diego isn't homebased in Basque, nor even Spain, but he seems to add up very nicely with Sammy, so hopefully this is something spectacular.
In the end Samuel Sanchez was helped to 3rd overall, which we are very pleased with. Diego unfortunately had a bad day, making him go well outside the top positions, but it was exciting to watch young Tim Dees whom actually fought his way into a very succesful 23rd.
Next up is back to the cobbles.
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 17:57
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World Champion
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Ronde van Vlaanderen:
This is probably the biggest race of the season for Frederik Nolf. So the big question is whether he can cope with the pressure or not.
The question was answered fairly quickly. He couldn't! A horrible 25th makes me wonder if he will ever be the cobbler I had dreamed about. I really though he was ready for top 10 in these races. I wonder if training will do it, of if we will have to look elsewhere for next season. Paris-Roubaix will seal his faith.
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 18:01
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
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Test of a life-time, Frederik:
I told Frederik Nolf this morning, that this was it. He would have to perform today in order to have a future with us. We know that he have been a rider that plenty of teams wanted, but he surely have been dissapointing our team this season. He will be a perfect helper, but is too expensive for my team as helper.
Everything seemed better today. Both Nolf and Sam managed to hang in there going into the final section of the race. Boonen, Burghardt and Cancellara is in a world of their own, but today Nolf showed his true colors. 9th in a Paris-Roubaix is exactly what I want from him, and this again makes my mind twirl. Is he good enough? Has he been unlucky? Should I train him or sell him?
Sam Bewley made a good 13th also.
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 18:05
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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Amstel Gold Race:
Previous seasons this race have been very mixed. Samuel Sánchez have been doing well looking at the overall, and Diego Ulissi is also set up for a decent result hopefully.
Boasson Hagen finally realised his huge potential winning the race, but it was Festina who took the headlines by 3rd for Samuel Sanchez but also 6th from Diego Ulissi. This seems like a very very good combination for the races to come!
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 18:07
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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Must have been overcooked?
La Fleche Wallonne have been a good race for Samuel Sanchez earlier, but today he was overcooked, or so it seemed. Diego put in a huge piece of work for his captain, but for no evident reason.
14th for Samuel Sánchez is no way near good enough, as we should get top 10 in each hilly race, perhaps even 5 in most... Diego got 18th, but that is more than OK seeing his performance for Sammy.
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 18:13
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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A happy manager...
... but it isn't me. It is Sporting Nonsense. Finally, he probably thinks, as Fränk Schleck raises his arms in triumph. What a performance! Winning the Liege-Bastogne-Liege is something that every rider can only dream about. One of them was Samuel Sánchez.
Yet again he had to settle for a dissapointingly poor 14th overall. Diego Ulissi upped his level slightly to 16th. Seems like a throne is about to change. Will be a big internal discussion for the manager after the season. Samuel Sánchez have been doing very nicely, but is also on a heavy paycheck!
Congratz to SN, whom finally got what could be expected from his leader.
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 18:18
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
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Romandie wasn't the warm up Castaño had hoped for:
The Giro is just around the corner, and for that Carlos Castaño is warming up in the Romandie-race. It was Sam Bewley who was first to show the teams colors by getting 2nd in stage 2.
On the 3rd stage Castaño did what he was supposed to, as he followed a 11 man big group to the finish line, also making his way into the top 10. Seeing riders such as Matej Mugerli, Patrick Sinkewitz, Fabian Cancellara, Danny Summerhill and Vladimir Efimkin in the group we had our hopes up for a 6th overall for Carlos.
A poor TTT wasn't in the cards before the race, but 11th wasn't good at all, costing 16 valuable seconds for Carlos, but it was in stage 5 he lost contact himself, letting riders such as Sinkewitz take time on him.
8th was the final GC position, and the minute lost on stage 5 was exactly the gap that he should've held for 6th overall. Seems the Giro will be too tough.
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 21-11-2010 18:19
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Team Manager
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Probably more relieved when Schlecky did the LBL Double, than happy 
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 18:27
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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Giro d'Italia, the second goal of the season:
The team is a mixture of everything. Two strong GC riders, 4 strong sprinters, a hilly superpower and some overall helpers. That was the lineup for this great race. The season goal was top 10, but it seemed difficult with the competition available, but it shouldn't take much crashes or unluck for it to be realistic.
Carlos Castaño was my main guess for a captain, but would Mauricio Ardila accept this? It was a headache that I had had for quite some weeks now. It shouldn't take long, though for me to realise, that Mauricio did exactly what I told him to. I was thrilled with that!
The great sprinting train I had sent here was all over the place though, as Anthony Lavoine proved that he wasn't strong enough to be led out, like Bewley normally was. But instead Diego Ulissi took matters into his own hands securing nothing less than two stagewins! What a performance, which seals his faith into the next seasons Giro!
Also Castaño went from super strong to fairly strong and back again. He never had a day like one could fear, that costed GC positions. He went from 2nd GC and slowly down to 6th, only to recover to 4th in the final mountainstage. He did, however lose one place on the final TT on stage 21, as Domenico Pozzovivo made the TT of his very life!
5th for Carlos Castaño was a breathtaking performance, as he also claimed the mountains jersey for a couple of stages during the process. Mauricio Ardila did whatever he could to make the pace right for his collegue, and for that he should get all the possible honor! Also getting 13th himself and reclaiming the result of last year. This one might be in for a captaincy role here next year!
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| SotD |
Posted on 21-11-2010 18:31
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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SportingNonsense wrote:
Probably more relieved when Schlecky did the LBL Double, than happy
Hehe I know, but the other sounded better 
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| SotD |
Posted on 04-12-2010 15:30
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Living the American Dream?
The Tour of California wasn't top priority, yet we had some quality riders in the race, such as Sam Bewley and Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez. We had hopes that Sam could pose a serious threat on the flat stages, but he never really proved his strenght. In the overall Sammy did what we expected of him, getting a foot inside the top 10. 8th in GC ahead of riders such as David Zabriskie, Andrei Kashechkin and Jerome Coppel is a very nice result.
The home favorites from Wikipedia showed no merci until the final stage clearing the pack from threats. Zabriskie didn't manage to hang on in the final stage though getting the team from a solid 1-2 in the GC to 1-10.
The next race is the Vuelta a España. The biggest race in our calender. It will be very interesting!
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-01-2011 18:05
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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No "American Dream" in Spain
Dreams, hopes and beliefs were high prior to the most deficit race of the season for our team, La Vuelta a España. With Alberto Contador in the team we couldn't see past a real GC contention. Nevertheless the race started of badly by Andy Schleck and Alberto looking to tightly at one-another losing 1 minute on the important competition.
Alberto never managed to redeem himself, as the following stages caused him to crash and burn. A huge time loss was affected, and even with a strong Angel Madrazo, Contador never managed to get back in shape. In the stages we were nowhere to be seen, and the GC was the same story all over again.
The dream started so wonderful, but ended so fast, and so horrible. We are just waiting to get away from here.
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-01-2011 18:08
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Decent Irish race ended with dissapointment
We didn't have the biggest ambitions for this race, nontheless did we have some. Diego Ulissi and Sam Bewley were both at the race, and seemed in good shape being just around top 10 throughout the race.
In the end both Ulissi and Bewley managed to fall asleep which made a low-end 15th GC our best result. Some decent stageresult made up for most of the loss though, but we need every single point we can get now. Domina, Lipton, Pearl and even Wikipedia are seriously gettng close.
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-01-2011 18:11
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Time for redemption:
Alberto Contador was finally back on his bike, and this time to prepare himself for the Tour de France, in the Dauphiné Libere. The peloton was of high quality, as the Tour will be, and as such we can't be unhappy with a 5th GC. Yet again we managed to hide out from the stageresult which is a huge dissapointment, but in all the bad we can finally see an end to the bads from this race. Contador is improving his form, and we now hope for him to be ready at the Tour de France's week 2.
Even with the decent result we still managed to lose out badly on the competition, Domina, Lipton and Pearl. It's going to be extremely close heading into France again.
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