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Team Rothaus - Aegon | 2012
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Posted on 22-11-2024 19:36
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| CountArach |
Posted on 11-07-2011 00:19
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It looks like we will be crossing swords almost constantly!
Nice rider blog.
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| roturn |
Posted on 17-07-2011 18:43
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With the Classique du Grand-Duché the biggest cycling event in Luxembourg will take place also in 2012. The terrain is pretty similar to the Ardennes classics. Maybe the most similarity with the Fleche Wallone. Long and steep hills will be a big problem for the favourites.
Very exclusive news announced that all PT Teams will participate this year. The Wild Card goes to the new and pretty unknown German Team Rothaus - Aegon. The new founded team has some strong riders with the Dutch Lars Boom and the Belgium Ben Hermans. Both were promised to be at the start line. Probably one reason, to give the Wild Card to this very ambitious team from our neighbour country.
Just found this article in the Luxembourgian newspaper. Our team was totally stoked, when we got this information. We were just sitting all together on the breakfast table, waiting for the start to another training ride, when one of our mechanic, who is actually from Luxembourg, have seen this article in his local newspaper.
Of course Boom and Hermans were very happy, when I told them, that they will be our leaders. Both of them are willing to challenge the big teams.
That`s definitely a great start so far in the first ever season.
And now it`s time to start the ride. The others are already waiting for me, but I just had to post this before.  |
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| roturn |
Posted on 17-07-2011 19:13
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Vattenfall Cyclassics Teams announced
Today the organisers of the German Pro Tour sprinter classic in Hamburg, the Vattenfall Cyclassics, announced the starting teams in 2012. With 4 German Continental teams, 3 of them totally newly founded it must have been a tough decision for them.
In the end Team Rothaus - Aegon receives the only wild card. Another big thing for the new team after the earlier announced wild card for the Classique du Grand-Duché in Luxembourg. Probably Vantomme was the key to get this wild card. He is a former podium rider in Hamburg and maybe starting for a German team will motivate him more for the big coup.
No question there are lots of great sprinters out there, but not all of them can participate in Hamburg. So Vantomme will definitely be a top 10 favourite.
A first announcement with the team manager Roturn showed how happy they are at the moment. Two wild cards in their first season were pretty much unexpected, but this shows that the team is on the right way for big things in future. It`s also an important sign for the leaders and young talents that this team gets accepted in the world of cycling and it was a good decision to sign here as something big just has started. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 17-07-2011 19:42
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Nice to see Rothaus in Hamburg  Congrats!
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| CountArach |
Posted on 18-07-2011 10:13
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You stand a really strong chance at Vattenfall, anything less than a Top 5 would be disappointing from Vantomme.
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| roturn |
Posted on 26-07-2011 11:25
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Team Manager
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A bit late, but I agree with you. Vantomme should do very well there hopefully. At least he will have one of the best possible teams there to support him.
New bikes and equipment seen in the Rothaus training camp.
 
More information on the first page.
They are not looking as good as the PCM10 stuff of course. Way more simple, but I wanted to keep the Stevens Bikes, so I made the sponsors and some colours on my own in my first ever try. |
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| roturn |
Posted on 28-07-2011 11:51
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Team Manager
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Rothaus Blog - Carlo Westphal about the season start.
Things starting to roll. First race of the season, the MTN Cycling Classic is starting soon. I really can`t wait for this season.
After 2 weeks of being together as team in the German Schwarzwald area, the group splitted. Some riders keep in Germany, some will heading South toward the Mediterraneen See in the next days to prepare for the European races, while 7 riders are going on a exotic journey.
We are at the moment in Wellington in the Cambridge Hotel. It`s a really nice place to stay and was a great tip by our team manager Roturn, who lived there for some time. Here we prepare for the Rothaus opener Tour of Wellington, so we are perfectly placed for the next time. Last "training camp" for us in this area before the race starts.
Ah, totally forgot. The 7 riders here are our race leader Ben Hermans, sprinter Claudio Cucinotta, luxury team mate Valentin Iglinski, our big sprinter talent Alexander Krieger, our two young Czech talents Jakub Novak and Daniel Vesely, who are on loan by Milka Vittel and me of course.
Plus our team manager Roturn, who will join us next week after staying in Germany at the moment due to organization issues. But then he will show us the area around Upper Hood and Masterton, where the race will take part.
This is a good mix of overall ambitions with Ben and sprint ambitions with Claudio. While we others will have to work for this goals, we are also free to go into breaks.
I would really like to start right now but before I must lose at least 2 more kilos like the rest of us.
P.S. I really hope Alexander Flügel can take the win in Africa as he is a good friend of mine. We will definitely follow this race.
Claudio of course says Ginanni will win, while Ben is betting high on Monfort. It`s not easy to find the top favourite.
See you soon
Carlo
Edited by roturn on 28-07-2011 12:01
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| roturn |
Posted on 28-07-2011 16:40
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Team Manager
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Rothaus - Aegon is now on Twitter after seeing some advantages with it. Unfortunately we had to train our manager from the very beginning similar to Rolf Aldag actually.
Follow us here!
Edited by roturn on 28-07-2011 16:41
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| roturn |
Posted on 05-08-2011 10:32
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Team Manager
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Rothaus blog - Ben Hermans from Wellington
Hi,
It`s me, Ben Hermans, leading our Rothaus squad in Wellington. For a bit more than a week now we seven have been in the wonderful New Zealand for our 2nd training camp. Now with just 1 more week to the first season race we are especially preparing on this Tour.
Our team was quite mixed here with 2 Germans, 2 Czech, 1 Belgium, 1 Italian and 1 from Kazhakstan. But as we got to know each other earlier in Germany it was no problem. All of us are speaking English, altough Claudio tends to fall into Italian with one of the Suisse mechanics.
It was a nice time here so far, great weather as the Kiwis have their summer time at the moment, hope the snow isn`t too bad in Europe for the rest of the team.
Also the people around are really helpful and interested in our work. It`s always nice to havea small talk at the breakfast with tourists from all over the world.
2 days ago our team manager Roturn also arrived in Wellington, so we had our first ride with him yesterday. It was especially interesting for me as we climbed the hill of stage 2, the Admiral Hill, which is one of my targets here. I hope we will also do the course of stage 4, which is the 2nd selective stage here. The other stages will be for Claudio I think. Hopefully I can start the season with big success. Not sure about the start list yet, but I definitely aim a top10 here, although a top5 would be great. If realistic we might see when the start list is announced.
So in hope for another nice week before and then 5 days during the Tour of Wellington and of course successful days for us I finish this blog for today. Next news from us during the Tour I guess.
Ciao
Ben
Edited by roturn on 05-08-2011 10:33
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 05-08-2011 14:32
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See you there! Good luck for your team's season-debut!
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| roturn |
Posted on 07-08-2011 12:10
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Team Manager
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Tour of Wellington - Goals announced
In our debut race we will see how our riders can perform against other teams. The startlist was expected to be stronger but still there are some big stars here. But with our riders we are sure to play a good role here.
Leader
 Ben Hermans |
Sprinter
 Claudio Cucinotta |
Luxury team mates
 Valentin Iglinski |  Carlo Westphal |
Talents
| Alexander Krieger |  Daniel Vesely | | Jakub Novak |
Ben Hermans, our great loanie from Wiggle is one of the race favourites. It`s hard to compete agains Wegmann, Froome, Kirchen or Flügel but he is aiming for a top5 here.
Same counts for Cucinotta. He is able to get 3 top10 results in the sprint and this would already make us pretty happy, but he wants to get at least one top5. Big favourite for the sprints of course Rapha`s Kennaugh. Beating him would be a superb success.
Iglinski and Westphal are mainly here to support the leaders, but both of them are free to go into a break if their leaders don`t necessarily need them. Iglinski will also try to stay with the favourites on the hard 4th stage to go for his own chance.
Krieger and the two Milka loanies Novak and Vesely will try to learn from the more experienced riders. But especially Novak is already a decent helper here and the other two will mainly help to bring Cucinotta into a good position.
Goals
| Top 5 GC | | 3x top10 sprints (1x top5) |
Dreams
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| roturn |
Posted on 07-08-2011 20:03
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Season start - Tour of Wellington Stage 1
Was about time for us to start the season. First stage in Wellington had some climbs but in general it was pretty flat and a sprint finish was expected. With Cucinotta we had a good bet on the aimed top 10 and shouldn`t be disappointed. He wasn`t able to challenge the best as Kennaugh of Rapha Condor took the win ahead of Feillu and Wegmann, who already collected important bonus seconds. But Claudio is pretty happy about his 8th place in todays result.
Also our captain Hermans on a strong 10th convinced today.
But it wasn`t that well for the whole stage.
Jakub Novak wins the first KoM sprint and wears the jersey tomorrow
With a nice attack our Milka loanie Novak outsprinted Jungels for the first 10 points and leads the ranking together with Puma`s Le Gac, but is listed first.
Then the news that there was a split in the peloton and Hermans was in the 2nd group. "I had some problems with my head set and wanted to go back to get a new one, there it happened.", Hermans said after the stage.
Thanks to Puma and Oz the group around other big names came back and just Le Gac and Gate were building the group of the day, before the finish was opened by Bpost with Cucinotta having a good wheel. But in the end the 8th was the maximum today. Two more stages for the Italian, who accomplished the first of his 3 personal goals today.
Tomorrow it`s the queen`s stage and Hermans hopefully can stay with the best for his personal goal here.
And as we heard later, we also lead in the team ranking due to Krieger`s 18th today. Great team effort. Enough from this stage, tomorrow hopefully one of our riders in the break to support Hermans in the end. |
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| roturn |
Posted on 08-08-2011 19:39
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Tour of Wellington - Climbing Admiral Hill
With lot of respect we started the day this morning. Ben Hermans surely our leader wsa supposed to be concentrated over the whole stage. Especially the final climb was dangerous as the roads are pretty narrow and losing time would have been very easy here.
It all started pretty well for us. As mentioned yesterday we tried to get a rider into the break. Again Jabuk Novak showed his good form and attacked together with 8 other riders and formed the group of the day. Unfortunately he wasn`t able to get the KoM points during the stage and so he lost the jersey in the end of the day again. Unfortunately it was the last chance today to change the KoM ranking. Novak will finishes together with Le Gac and Barta as 3rd with Flügel winning the shirt. This would have been a great chance for the young Czech. But at least he collect pretty unexpected points for our team.
Jakub Novak showing the KoM jersey in the break
After the group was back in the peloton and the climb starting Iglinski proved to be the strongest helper for Hermans, who rode a concentrated race today.
Nearly on top of the hard part of the climb Volkswagen`s Flügel attacked and just Rapha`s Froome, team member of the overall leader Kennaugh, was following him. The Jayco trio stayed in the peloton as also Wegmann and Hermans.
But the Trilux/Jayco riders weren`t strong enough to bring the two leaders back and so the winner and new overall leader is Flügel ahead of Froome.
With 45s back Kirchen, Wegmann and Mori finished and unfortunately opened a 10s gap to the next group, where Hermans finished on a good 7th today. He jumps on the 6th overall and his just 10s behind his personal top5 goal.
Also Iglinski showed a good performance today and finished as 22nd together with Criel just behind the Hermans group. He is now 21st in the overall and also on a good way to collect a few points.
Tomorrow will be another chance for Cucinotta on the longest stage. Without any difficulty there it might be a duel between the two fastest in Kennaugh and Maksimov, but also another chance for the top5.
But nevertheless we should try to be in the breakaway. You`ll never know. I think Carlo Westphal should try it tomorrow. |
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| roturn |
Posted on 09-08-2011 10:37
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Team Manager
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Disappointing day in Wellington`s stage 3
Today we had 3 goals. Being in the break of the day, getting a top10 or even top5 with Cucinotta in the sprint and avoid time loses with Hermans and also Iglinski, who had the chance to collect points for the top30 overall.
In the end the break formed and no Rothaus rider in there. Not the best way to start a stage. Later on the stage it came to a crash of several riders. Unfortunately Iglinski was one of them and also Westphal seems to be involved there.
Iglinski crashes and losing time on stage 3
Both lost over 5min in the end and so the 21st from Iglinski moved into a much worse position. Now we have to hope that Iglinski isn`t injured as he is the most important helper for Hermans tomorrow.
In the sprint a Rothaus rider was seen at the end of the sprint train and we hoped for a good sprint result by Cucinotta, but in the end we haven`t found him in the top30. It was Ben Hermans with another strong performance sprinting into the top10 like on day 1. So he at least brought us the 3rd top10 in the 3rd stagel, but Cucinotta didn`t even sprinted today.
And even worse. In a very weird sprint, which was won by Wegmann, Rui Costa, a known puncheur outsprinted the sprinters and became 3rd today. With the bonus seconds he overtook Hermans in the overall and makes it even harder to reach the top5 in the end.
Tomorrow we`ll see the 2nd hard stage here. Again we hope to be in the break of the day. Also we hope, that Hermans will have good legs and proves his good form so far. Then the chance for a top5 or even a stage win is there tomorrow. |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 09-08-2011 11:09
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Definitely not the best day for Rothaus and I feel sorry for Iglinsky's bad luck with the crash (our most promising "sprinter" Gough was involved, too).. Stage 4 will be a good chance for Hermans, but I don't expect any gaps between the Top-30-riders though. If Wegmann continues his sprint-streak, he may do well there, too. But anyway: good luck for you
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| roturn |
Posted on 09-08-2011 11:16
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Thanks tsmoha and get your first win in Qatar.
I actually think that there will be some small gaps for the first 5 rider, then a bigger group.
I haven`t played the hilly stage there, but it looks pretty hard.
Any narrow roads I must tell my riders? |
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 09-08-2011 11:24
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I'm not sure anymore about the narrow roads I think, the first climb in this circuit features narrow roads. Looking forward to this stage. Will be interesting to see wether you're right about the gaps or me
I already told Cooke to get a better position in final Qatar-stage
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| roturn |
Posted on 10-08-2011 09:20
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Tour of Wellington - Westphal with the first Rothaus win
The Tour of Wellington just ended. We had great and less great stages.
Stage 4 was again a bit disappointing as we weren`t able to get into the break. Obviously our riders just like breaks if there are bonus sprints on the route. Then it was expected to see an agressive Ben Hermans, who already proved to have good legs but he wasn`t seen in the attacks and also in the final sprint he was not visible. So he again lost one place to Meiji`s Jack Bauer. Good for us that Iglinski and Novak were able to ride with the best to take care for a good team ranking.
On the final short 5th stage, a flat stage for the sprinters with some hills on the circuit we expected again Cucinotta and Hermans to do well in the sprints like on stage 1 and 3. Again it started not very well. The breakaway had no Rothaus rider and this after the breakaway success yesterday. But as long as they save energy for the sprint preperations.
Then the unexpected attack on the final 13km by Carlo Westphal and Focus` Travis Meyer, when Puma already made a fast pace.
Westphal surprising the sprinter teams with a late attack
Both were doing a good job gaining lots of time. Volkswagen, team of the overall leader Flügel, was probably laughing about the situation, when no sprinter team wanted to do the chasing alone and so the 7s advance were more secured. Also Oz`s Bennett`s attack later wasn`t answered and so all bonus seconds were already given.
Westphal holding a gap to Meyer on the last kilometers
So Westphal and Meyer would decide the stage win today and good for us Meyer wasn`t able to answer on Carlo`s acceleration.
Westphal can`t believe his first ever professional win
What a coup. Carlo really wins the final stage and brings Rothaus the first ever win. What a start into the season. Who would have expected that he would take the first win for us.
No changes in the overall. Congrats to Volkswagen and Flügel, they really deserve this win. But also to Froome and Wegmann, who complete the podium. Hermans finished as 8th was a bit less than aimed for, but in such a close race we must be happy with this result.
And always nice to see the German cycling on a good way. With Flügel, Wegmann and Westphal this race was very sucessful as also Pokerstars` Mohs in the PT race Tour of Qatar at the moment.
Result
Spoiler | 1 | Aleksandar Flügel | VolksWagen - Siemens | 14h55'03 | | 2 | Chris Froome | Rapha Condor - Qhubeka | + 7 | | 3 | Fabian Wegmann | Team Trilux - Falke | + 24 | | 4 | Kim Kirchen | Jayco - Red Bull | + 57 | | 5 | Manuele Mori | Jayco - Red Bull | + 1'05 | | 6 | Rui Costa | Team CSC-Orbea | + 1'07 | | 7 | Jack Bauer | Meiji - Fuji | + 1'15 | | 8 | Ben Hermans | Team Rothaus - Aegon | s.t. | | 9 | René Mandri | Cyclevox | s.t. | | 10 | Junpei Murakami | Meiji - Fuji | s.t. | | 40 | Jakub Novak | Team Rothaus - Aegon | + 4'20 | | 61 | Valentin Iglinski | Team Rothaus - Aegon | + 7'40 | | 65 | Daniel Vesely | Team Rothaus - Aegon | + 8'50 | | 74 | Carlo Westphal | Team Rothaus - Aegon | + 12'37 | | 86 | Alexander Krieger | Team Rothaus - Aegon | + 18'52 | | 93 | Claudio Cucinotta | Team Rothaus - Aegon | + 21'15 |
Goals
| Top 5 GC (8th, still happy about it) | | 3x top10 sprints (1x top5) (Not with Cucinotta, but acchieved in an unexpected way) |
Dreams
| Winning a stage (done, I really should post this dream everytime) |
Next race will be the Tour de Mediterraneen. Race preview and after race interviews are expected later.
Edited by roturn on 10-08-2011 21:48
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| roturn |
Posted on 10-08-2011 10:14
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Team Manager
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After race interviews - Tour of Wellington
Claudio Cucinotta:
"[...] It started pretty well for me with a 8th on the first day. Until then I had still good legs but for some reason I wasn`t able to repeat this. The next two flat stages were a bit weird and puncheurs were favoured a bit, but this is no excuse. We checked this routes before and normally I should have been able to compete on all of these stages. I mustn`t think about this race too long and have too look forward for the next races. [...] I am still flying to Europe with our team manager Roturn and the two young Czechs tonight, where we participate in France in the Tour de Mediterraneen together. There I have another two chances to prove my qualities before having a longer racebreak. [...]"
Carlo Westphal:
"[...] This was just amazing. I was in a great position as my former plan was to prepare the sprint for Cucinotta. But when I have seen Travis Meyer attacking and I got the "go" from the team car I followed him. Claudio was too far behind and so I couldn`t help him here. I didn`t expect to be successful as the pace was pretty fast, but we two just rode and rode and then the table from the motobike showed more than 40s so close to the finish. This gave me extra motivation and I just accelerated without looking behind, where I expected Travis Meyer. In the end the gap to him was bigger than I thought. The feeling was absolutely brilliant as it took me a long time until I got my first win. This will give me a boost for the season, although my schedule isn`t that filled yet, but with the Vattenfall Cyclassics there is still a highlight for me this year and todays win will definitely be a good point for a new contract. [...]"
Ben Hermans:
"[...] Being 8th in this field isn`t too bad. But I missed my own ambitions to be honest. I expected me to be stronger, but I never was able to follow the attacks. On Admiral hill I wanted to wait for Wegmann`s attack, but it never came and then my legs weren`t that great so that a deciding 10s gap ahead of me was opened. And on stage 4 I wasn`t able to do anything. I had bad legs all over the day and couldn`t even think about following Wegmann and Froome, when they attacked. So I must be happy with the 8th and 3 top10 stage results.
It was a hard winter but I feel very well prepared for a long season and this was already a decent start. And I will have lots of races in the next 2 months starting on Mallorca, so having a good form is important at the moment.
[...]" |
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| roturn |
Posted on 10-08-2011 11:59
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Team Manager
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Tour de Mediterraneen - Line-Up and goals announced
After a nice first impression of our team, we will start the European Tour in France. With Cucinotta, Novak and Vesely we even have 3 riders joining the Mediterraneen squad directly from New Zealand.
Leader
 Ryder Hesjedal |
Sprinter
| Claudio Cucinotta |
Luxury Teammate
 Rob Ruijgh |
Talents
| Thomas Koep |  Mikel Landa | | Daniel Vesely | | Jakub Novak |
Much harder to predict the chances of Hesjedal in this race. Race favourites are for sure Ginanni, Roy, Di Maggio or also Bellis, Vanendert, Kolobnev and Kessler. All of them are stronger than the Canadian on the paper. So a top 10 is the maximum goal we can give to Hesjedal, who might do well on the final hardest stage, but therefore will struggle with strong attacks on the other hilly stages. He will get superb support by Ruijgh, who can also go for his own chance.
In the sprints it looks a bit better than in Wellington. Corioni for sure the big favourite on the two sprint stages, but behind him with Hushovd, Trussov, Cucinotta, Poulhies, Biondi and Gavazzi there are many sprinters that might challenge him more than he expects. So Cucinotta will have two good chances here and he wants to use both of them, although he won`t have much support.
While Vesely is helping Cucinotta as good as possible our other 3 talents are for the harder stages. Landa is a good support in the hills, but also capable to go into breakaways. Novak proved a good form in Wellington with the 40th in the overall and having the KoM jersey for one day. So we hope for another good ride. Koep is our biggest future talent and is supposed to learn from Hesjedal.
Goals
Dreams
| Winning a stage (Why not trying again?) |
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