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Matthias Fischer | Sleeping
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 29-12-2012 16:15
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Wow, Cavendish winning a Mountains jersey  |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 29-12-2012 18:12
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@ste: thanks 
@sutty and juszta: I'm sure he's just building up form for his most important objective of the season, the TdF KoM 
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| Ad Bot |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 29-12-2012 18:32
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PARIS - NICE STAGE 1
DAMPIERRE EN YVELINES - SAINT REMY LES CHAVREUSE
So today would be my first day in a World Tour race - a prologue in the French countryside just to the south-west of France. We haven't had the best of starts to the season, apart from San Luis; so we wanted to get the World Tour campaign going with a good result here.
And I was away - the second last of our team to go and I was feeling very nervous. The other riders in the team hadn’t done very well (understatement of the week btw) in their runs and the team were looking to me and Roman Kreuziger to get a good result in.
I passed the intermediate checkpoint in 39th position - it wasn’t great and would have to work really hard in the second half to keep that provisional place
I started to realise that I had pushed too hard too early up the hill in the first part of the course and I had drained my energy levels.
And I crossed the line, wearily, knowing that it wasn’t a very good prologue; and wondering how on earth that bush had managed to grow through the advertising boards...
Luckily Kreuziger rescued an otherwise shocking prologue for Saxo Bank with a solid 14th place finish. The win went to the Frenchman Chavanel, in a spectacular late dash for the line. And the less said about my dismal 94th place finish the better.
| 1 |  | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | 12'57'' | | 2 |  | Geraint Thomas | Sky Pro Cycling | +13'' | | 3 | | Jimmy Engoulvent | Saur-Sojasun | +17'' | | 4 |  | Lieuwe Westra | Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | +19'' | | 5 |  | Jose Ivan Gutierrez | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 6 |  | Mikhail Ignatiev | Katusha Team | +21'' | | 7 |  | Richie Porte | Sky Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 8 |  | Tony Martin | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | +22'' | | 9 |  | Maxime Monfort | Radioshack-Nissan | +23'' | | 10 | | Philippe Gilbert | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | ... | | 94 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | +51'' |
The next stage looks tailor-made for JJ Haedo and I hope that I can do a bit better in the Stage 8 MTT later on; so it may not be all doom and gloom
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 29-12-2012 19:07
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At least you didn't finish last, yeey |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 29-12-2012 22:11
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Ian Butler wrote:
At least you didn't finish last, yeey
I suppose thats some consolation
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 29-12-2012 22:27
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PARIS - NICE
STAGE 2 MANTES LA JOLIE - ORLEANS
A rather boring stage today for me, but it looks a good profile for JJ Haedo, one of the least goat-like people I know.
After yesterday's debacle I tried to talk to Chavanel, the winner of the prologue and holder of the yellow jersey, to see if he could give me any tips on improving my time-trialling.
Today was a very gentle introduction to World Tour road racing, the parcours being as flat as our morale; and I was disappointed at the lack of chateau's along the route (this one in the background on the right is the only one I spotted all day)
But when it came to the crunch time of the sprint, there was complete chaos as JJ amongst several others missed the formation of the trains due to a sudden acceleration of the peloton to catch the breakaway. Luckily secondary sprinter Jonas Aaen Jorgensen managed to latch on to the BMC train behind Hushovd and you can see the three main trains beginning to break ([L-R] FDJ, BMC, Garmin) here
And today's winner was Hushovd, who proved the perfect leadout for Jorgensen who managed an excellent, surprising 4th place finish, earning us our first World Tour point of the season!
So a pretty good result for us, claiming a point at last and getting our season running, even though it wasn't quite who we expected.
| 1 |  | Thor Hushovd | BMC Racing Team | 4h21'25'' | | 2 | | William Bonnet | FDJ-BigMat | s.t. | | 3 |  | Robert Hunter | Garmin-Barracuda | s.t. | | 4 |  | Jonas Aaen Jorgensen | Team Saxo Bank | s.t. | | 5 | | Jimmy Casper | Ag2r La Mondiale | s.t. | | 6 |  | Daniel Oss | Liquigas-Cannondale | s.t. | | 7 | | Romain Feillu | Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 8 | | Heinrich Haussler | Garmin-Barracuda | s.t. | | 9 | | Luca Paolini | Katusha Team | s.t. | | 10 | | Francesco Chicchi | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | s.t. | | ... | | 51 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | s.t. |
See you tomorrow for a flat race with an uphill finish. Should be exciting
Edited by Stromeon on 29-12-2012 23:03
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 29-12-2012 22:47
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First World Tour point, that calls for a celebration!
I hope Chavanel was able to give Matthias some hints |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 29-12-2012 23:03
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@Ian: Yes it does - Bjarne Riis's champagne collection seems to have mysteriously disappeared overnight...
Hopefully Matthias will have taken in some valuable advice so he can do well on the last stage MTT
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 29-12-2012 23:06
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Cjarne Riis' "champagne" and Chavanel's advice? He'll win the final MTT without a doubt  |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 29-12-2012 23:33
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Nice sprint from Jorgensen, so unlucky not to get a win |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 30-12-2012 11:14
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@Ian: yep... Nibali and Evans and co will have no chance
@sutty: it was a shame he couldn't win but its a very good result for him considering he's only 73SP and 74ACC i think
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| the_hoyle |
Posted on 30-12-2012 11:26
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Only just come across the story, and it's a nice read. Good work so far
.: Manager of :.
.: My Awards :.
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 30-12-2012 11:38
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PARIS - NICE
STAGE 3 VIERZON - LE LAC DE VASSIVIERE
A flat stage today with an uphill finish which could create an interesting finish.
And so we were off into the French countryside again. (I’m near the foreground between the BMC rider and the Bretagne rider) There were a number of interesting attacks early on and the peloton very nearly let Voeckler and Nibali into the BotD!
The peloton cuts through the beautiful rolling landscape
We're past the intermediate sprint and ready to get going up the last hill. We wanted to get Roman into a position where he could attack up the hill and maybe surprise the rest of the pack
Unfortunately the acceleration came to early and Hushovd (in the green jersey), maybe not fancying his chances in an uphill sprint; attacked with the help of team-mate Moinard
And he managed to hold off the rest of the peloton to claim a magnificent win
Spoiler Apologies for the green circle, I've only just noticed it while I was uploading it, I hope it's not too much of an eyesore 
I crossed the line having just avoided a split in the pack. That last hill was really tough - my first uphill sprint finish.
Avoiding that split was the most important thing that happened to me all day as it lifted me up to a more respectable 50th in the GC and set back serious contenders for the yellow jersey like Evans, Andy Schleck, and Nibali by almost a minute and a half.
Jonas Aaen Jorgensen proved yesterday was no fluke by again finding himself in the right place at the right time to sprint home to a 7th place finish, well done him
| 1 | | Thor Hushovd | BMC Racing Team | 4h39'48'' | | 2 | | Amael Moinard | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 3 | | Luca Paolini | Katusha Team | s.t. | | 4 | | William Bonnet | FDJ-BigMat | s.t. | | 5 | | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | s.t. | | 6 | | Tony Gallopin | Radioshack-Nissan | s.t. | | 7 | | Jonas Aaen Jorgensen | Team Saxo Bank | s.t. | | 8 | | Christophe Le Mevel | Garmin-Barracuda | s.t. | | 9 | | Robert Hunter | Garmin-Barracuda | s.t. | | 10 | | Fabian Wegmann | Garmin-Barracuda | s.t. | | ... | | 62 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | s.t. |
Tomorrow's stage is a bit more of the same... see you there
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| Daggen |
Posted on 30-12-2012 11:42
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Man those screenshots are beautiful. Keep it up |
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 30-12-2012 11:44
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Nice riding by Jorgensen, and I like how this story doesn't have instant success by Matthias, he is just a domestique |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 30-12-2012 12:06
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Very nice by Matthias |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 30-12-2012 17:56
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@the hoyle and @daggen: Thanks
@FroomeDog: Thank you - he should be able to win some stages next year and I'm looking towards him possibly leading a GT in 2015 if i get that far (or maybe even in 2014, we'll have to see what his stats are like)
@Ian: so far, yes, but the later stages might be a bit challenging and I'm rather worried that he might lose some time there 
before inevitable victory in stage 8...
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 30-12-2012 18:16
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Looks like Jorgensen is coming in to some good form |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 30-12-2012 18:21
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PARIS - NICE
STAGE 4 BRIVE LA GAILLARDE - RODEZ
Quite a similar day to yesterday, but let's hope we can improve a bit on the results side!
Today was another opportunity to get Roman to attack near the end in the hope that he might gain some time in a daring late attack, so we moved to push up the pace a bit about halfway through the race; not least because the rest of the peloton had let Nibali get into the break!
This surprise attack from Albasini, one of the favourites for this stage, caught the peloton unawares and it took quite a bit of fast-paced catching up to reel him back in.
Thankfully it didn't look like Nibali put all his efforts towards the break today and so here you can see the peloton closing in
And so it was time to put the plan into action. I would attack with Kreuziger following behind and then he would dash out from behind my wheel up the hill and sprint to victory; a bit like what BMC did with Hushovd yesterday. Well, that was the plan; but the pace was too high for us to get clear of the peloton, even at 90% effort!
The victory went to Matti Breschel (unfortunately the picture seems to have been lost) and I crossed the line just after Roman inside the peloton, knowing that although the plan didn't come off, I tried my best.
| 1 | | Matti Breschel | Rabobank Cycling Team | 4h29'06'' | | 2 | | Luca Paolini | Katusha Team | s.t. | | 3 | | Tony Gallopin | Radioshack-Nissan | s.t. | | 4 | | Thor Hushovd | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 5 | | Fabian Wegmann | Garmin-Barracuda | s.t. | | 6 | | Julien Simon | Saur-Sojasun | s.t. | | 7 | | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | s.t. | | 8 | | Xavier Florencio | Katusha Team | s.t. | | 9 | | Steve Chainel | FDJ-BigMat | s.t. | | 10 | | Mikhail Ignatiev | Katusha Team | s.t. | | ... | | 33 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | s.t. |
Now that we're halfway through the race, it's a good time to look at how the GC is stacking up
General Classification
| 1 | | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | 13h43'16'' | | 2 | | Geraint Thomas | Sky Pro Cycling | +13'' | | 3 | | Matti Breschel | Rabobank Cycling Team | +14'' | | 4 | | Thor Hushovd | BMC Racing Team | +17'' | | 5 | | Jimmy Engoulvent | Saur-Sojasun | s.t. | | 6 | | Tony Gallopin | Radioshack-Nissan | +19'' | | 7 | | Jose Ivan Gutierrez | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 8 | | Lieuwe Westra | Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 9 | | Mikhail Ignatiev | Katusha Team | +21'' | | 10 | | Tony Martin | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | +22'' | | ... | | 51 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | +51'' |
Chavanel and Thomas holding on to their first and second places they gained from the prologue and Breschel's surprise sprint win has elevated him to third, overtaking Hushovd. Kreuziger is well-placed in 13th position, and with a tough uphill finish tomorrow, he will surely climb above the less goat-like people ahead of him.
I am looking towards tomorrow with an equal sense of excitement and trepidation. It will probably be the toughest stage yet; but it's the sort of stage I believe I might be able to do well in, or at least help Roman do well in. See you there
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 30-12-2012 18:31
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Nice improvement from Matthias |
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