valverde321 wrote:
You wont beat my record. I won all 6 stages on Hard.
Spoiler
You can tie it though.
Ya, unfortunately it's pretty easy to win them all. Wonder why.. The AI teams does have the same fitness as your team right? Hmm. It must be the Cya-Logic
I just played TDU on extreme, just to try it, and it still was way to easy. I was Sky.
I won GC with Carlström after an amazing effort by him in the break, where he also won the stage. I won 2 sprints with Hagen, and got a 2nd too. Arvesen also got a 2nd place. Calrström won KoM and Hagen won points.
- A bit strange, that the AI does'nt win more than that. Maybe the player-controlled team just got better form.
Stage 3 of the Santos Tour Down Under has the riders cycling from Unley to Stirling. A stage for someone who favours the hills, our job will be too not let anyone away, and keep high pace at last 10km so the stage ends in mass sprint. This stage is perfect for Hagen, ending in uphill sprint, so we expect another win. Today we will see is there any other rider that can challenge Hagen for the Ozzie title.
Team objectives :
- Control the peloton
- Keep the King of the Mountain jersey
- Another victory with Hagen
Favourites: Frank Schleck, Robert Gesink, Roman Kreuziger, Oscar Freire My secret tip: Hmm, this is a hard one to, but I guess Boasson Hagen
Sunny but not very hot weather makes for perfect cycling race. We are about to start the stage 3 of Tour down Under.
As usual many attackers, and a big breakaway establishes, no big names but if they work together, they stand a chance.
As this stage is perfect for a breakaway, we work hard to bring the group back, we do not want to catch them before the intermediate sprint, as we do not want Hagen to sprint and preserve energy, if we time it right we should catch them just after the sprint.
Danilo Hondo (Lampre) wins the intermediate sprint.
2nd Andreas Klier (Garmin).
3rd Gorik Gardeyn (Vacansoleil).
Our timing was perfect and we catch the break shortly afterwards, some desperate attackers went to break, but Sky is controlling the peloton and let’s nobody get away.
At the Wickhams Hill Road, Sky controls the peloton and nobody gets away. Shortly later Gerrans increased his tempo on the last 1km and takes the full 16 points, almost sure of securing his jersey now, Emanuele Sella comes second, and Hagen comes third.
Surprisingly Gerrans and Sella get away from the peloton, not even trying, their gap is about 1 minute, Sky decides not to tire Gerrans and he shortly falls back to peloton once again.
As we now that at the end of this tour, bonus seconds will count, we attack with Nordhaug at the 56km mark, Maarten Neyens follows.
And the attack proves to be the right call, and Nordhaug takes full points and more importantly bonus seconds, Neyens comes second, and Alan Davis wins the fight for third from the peloton
There are back to peloton, shortly and again our team sets a low pace for the whole race, once again our four helpers has done a great job.
5km to go, and we are in quite a good position at the front, biggest challenge should come from Luca Paolini who is directly behind Hagen.
And once again, top notch job by Downing brining Hagen for the pole position, to take next stage win, Luca Paolini still on Hagen’s wheel and Roman Kreuziger behind him.
500 metres to go and surprise, surprise, Boasson Hagen does it again, Frank Schleck with strong acceleration fights for the podium against Romam.
The young Norwegian Viking does it again, now three times in a row, can anybody challenge him? Luca Paolini showed good sprinting skills and may be challenge against Hagen at stage 5, Roman Kreuziger completes the podium. We are also very happy with Gerrans 7th and downing 9th.
Results
1
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
3h48'29
2
Luca Paolini
Katusha Team
s.t.
3
Roman Kreuziger
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
4
Fränk Schleck
Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project
s.t.
5
Richie Porte
Saxo Bank SunGard
s.t.
6
Simon Clarke
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
7
Simon Gerrans
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
8
Maxim Iglinskiy
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
9
Russell Downing
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
10
Thor Hushovd
Team Garmin - Cervélo
s.t.
Overall
1
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
10h20'51
2
Gert Steegmans
Quick·Step Cycling Team
+ 19
3
Allan Davis
Pro Team Astana
+ 24
4
Luca Paolini
Katusha Team
+ 27
5
Lars Petter Nordhaug
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
6
Roman Kreuziger
Pro Team Astana
+ 29
7
Robert Hunter
Team RadioShack
s.t.
8
Danilo Hondo
Lampre - ISD
+ 30
9
Sébastien Rosseler
Team RadioShack
s.t.
10
Sébastien Minard
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t
Points
1
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sky ProCycling
30
2
Gert Steegmans
Quick·Step Cycling Team
18
3
Allan Davis
Pro Team Astana
12
4
Lars Petter Nordhaug
Sky ProCycling
12
5
Sébastien Rosseler
Team RadioShack
6
Mountain: Gerrans U25: Edvald Boasson Hagen Team: BMC
Edited by Alakagom on 30-01-2011 15:29
Glad you are enjoying the graphics, TdU has preety boring landscpaes, hopefully screns will be even better in the mmountains
@Roturn
He sure is so far
@baia
Hope so too, but Hagen form is becoming better now, with 72p already.
Little announcement, I have changed the level to extreme just for the remaining three stages, hopefully it will make it more intresting for you, and me, and will stop Hagen winning everything. After TdU I will change it to back to hard.
A day for the sprinters as the Santos Tour Down under goes from Norwood to Goolwa for stage 4. The stage begins with gradually increasing climbing, but after the 26km Mountain Classification, the course heads back downwards before going completely flat for the second half of the stage. Boasson Hagen should be the favourite, but Alan Davis and Gert Steegmans should now be in better shape than at the start. We will hold the peloton together as usual, with low pace, letting the escapees take the intermediate sprint points, and catch them at the last 20km.
Team objectives :
- Control the peloton
- Another victory with Hagen
- Downing Top 10
Favourites: Boasson Hagen, Alan Davis, Gert Steegmans, Luca Paolini. My secret tip: Alan Davis with two 2nd positions finishes in the sprints, he might have the best form out of all sprinters and will definitely be major threat today.
Hilly start in Norwood. We begin the longest stage in this year’s Tour Down Under.
There were many attacks, and small group establishes before the mountain classification.
Before the Mountain Classification, the breakaway establishes with 4 riders. Their chances of survival against power of Sky are slim, but they want to try.
The Mountain sprint is won by Valentin Iglinskiy, Gorik Gardeyn comes second, Marco Corti completes the ‘podium’ with the third place.
The break establishes, with 14 riders, and now rides against peleton, the break contains Iglinskiy, Gardeyn, Corti, Selander, Monier, Oroz, Minard, Kryvtsov, Vandenbergh, Miyazawa, Oss, Loddo, Garcia Acosta.
The break closing to the first intermediate sprint, the maximum gap they have created was 4’45” minutes, then we started to decrease the advantage with medium pace.
First sprint point is won without even sprinting or trying, Minard takes full points, Monier comes second, and Vandenbergh takes the third.
Sky controlling the peloton with high pace now, other riders relax in the sunny sunlight, while we try to catch the break, the gap now is 1’12” so the timing is again perfect and the break should be caught shortly after the second sprint point.
Second intermediate point is like the first one, no fighting and sprinting, hopefully the spectators won’t be disappointed from the finish, as so far they didn’t see any interesting cycling.
The break was caught shorlty after the sprint point, 4km to the finish, Boasson Hagen is well positioned, directly behind him is Alan Davis who could be a threat today. Katusha working today really hard for Paolini. We don’t worry about him in this stage, but he can proof major challenger to Hagen on tomorrow stage.
And the sprint begins, for at least some of riders, Alan Davis is first big name to start sprinting, has he gone too early in the wind ? Downing and Hagen are not even sprinting, waiting for the right moment, to begin.
That moment began at 2km mark, and now three riders in contention for the win, surprisingly we can see Wouter Weylandt sprint for the first the first time in this tour, he is doing quite well so far.
But no surprise at the end and Boasson Hagen takes the fourth victory, out of possible four so far. Is anybody able to stop him? Alan Davis takes third, and hunter beats tired Weylandt for the podium. As a remark this is the first time in the whole Tour that Boasson Hagen couldn’t celebrate before the finishing line, so the competition is definitely improving. Downing on 9th gets another good result.
And another victory, must be boring for you now, but at last tomorrow we ARE going to see some action on Willunga Edited by Alakagom on 31-01-2011 19:05
Alakagon wrote:
Alan Davis with two 2nd positions finishes in the sprints, he might have the best form out of all sprinters and will definitely be major threat today.
Seriously...? Another nice victory! And tomorrows stage is not that hard, Boasson Hagen has a chance to come over the climbs and to win again
Question to the readers, do you prefer screens with the riders bars, daily form showed, or the pictures without anything on them ? And which one would you prefer ?
Alakagon wrote:
Question to the readers, do you prefer screens with the riders bars, daily form showed, or the pictures without anything on them ? And which one would you prefer ?
I always like to look at the bars, time gaps etc. to have an own look on that (thats why I do not remove them in my story, too). But it is your decision (BTW, have I ever mentioned that the screenshots are looking awesome?)
