Absolutely fantastic read mate using your tactics i managed to win the tour of Australia with Stuey O'Grady winning 4/6 stages.
Cant wait for the next installement Edited by glendalf on 18-07-2007 23:52
Today the tour will be lost or won for Nicki. It’s make or break here in Solvang, California, where the riders will take off on a 24,8 km route that sends the riders through the sorrounding countryside to end up once again in Solvang. We knew Nicki wouldn’t be anyway near the win today, but all he had to worry about was keeping Allesandro Proni off his back, as all of the other favourites including Voigt was just too far behind. Voigt is in really good form right now, as he is preparing for Paris-Nice, so he’ll be our no. 1 contender for the stage win today, but also Julich and Zabriski will be Top ten material. The three other big favourites are prologue winner and german sensation Stefan Schumacher, young talented russian Vladimir Gusev and last years no. 4 in the World TT Championships Brian Vandborg.
Vandborg was the first of the favourites to take off, and he really made a statement by clocking best time ahead of T-Mobile’s Ziegler. Also german talent Linus Gerdemann was looking strong as he managed to creep in just behind teammate Ziegler to claim a provisional 3rd best time.
Danish TT specialist Brian Vandborg was the man to beat today, while Gerdemann showed his potential early on
Then three of our home favourites and american aces took of in quick succesion. Vandevelde, Zabriskie and Julich, was all very determined to make a great result on home turf. Vandevelde didn’t really have the power on the day however and he only managed to finish as the 27th best rider on the day. Julich and Dave was a different story however. Julich was the first past the intermediate time and he wasted Vandborg’s time. But only a few minutes later, Zabriskie rode under the Eurosport banner to take best provisional time and retain the CSC lead. Zabriskie held his pace and him and Julich made it a CSC double when they crossed the finish line in Solvang with 11 seconds separating them.
Julich and Dave was definitely looking to restore their confidence after the miserable prologue
Then the attention turned to maybe the two strongest riders in the race, Jens Voigt and his countryman Stefan Schumacher. These two were no doubt my favourites for today, and none of them was going to let me down. Schumacher started off fast by setting a new best proviosional time by beating Dave with 10 seconds, but only a few minutes later Voigt blasted through the intermediate time area to snatch a whopping 36 seconds lead over Schumacher. The young german couldn’t keep his pace up and he only managed second best time, with Dave still leading. But only for a short time as Voigt beat the crap out the entire peloton today to finish 37 seconds faster than Zabriskie.
The veteran was toying with the youngster today as Voigt showed no mercy to his countryman Stefan Schumacher
But the fight for the stage victory became less interesting when Allesandro Proni and Nicki took. We were pretty sure that these was going to fight it out for the yellow jersey today. 3rd in the GC, Volodymir Bileka is a decent time trialist but we assumed that the 2 minutes that he was off Proni and Nicki would prove too much for him to catch up. And it was was. So the showdown for the yellow jersey was between Nicki and Proni. Nicki only had 2 seconds on Proni in the GC, so if he had a bad day then it could be all over, as 2 seconds will dissapear very fast in a time trial if you have a bad day. But in fact Nicki had an absolute amazing day and we could calculate how much time he gained on Proni on the course as he was starting 2 minutes before Nicki. And the results were great, he kept on gaining time on Proni all the way to the intermediate mark. At this point he had won about 30 seconds on the young italian. But then he lost some ground, about 15 seconds, which meant that he at that point had an overall provional lead of 17 seconds. But Proni never got closer to Nicki, as he started losing time again, and Nicki ended the day having gained 19 seconds on Proni, to retain his overall lead and to look really strong ahead of the last two stages, where tomorrow’s is the only one that could cause a few changes in the GC. So stage victory and another yellow jersey for us. Pretty good day.
Nicki held off the comeback off Proni, to be one stage away from winning the Tour of California
Stage 5 Result: 1 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC 33'58
2 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC + 37
3 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER + 47 4 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC + 48
5 Brian Vandborg DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 51
6 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 55
7 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 57
8 Magnus Backstedt LIQUIGAS + 1'01
9 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1'08
10 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS + 1'15 27 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC + 1'42
38 Iñigo Cuesta TEAM CSC + 1'53
50 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC + 2'04
111 Kasper Klostergaard TEAM CSC + 3'01
131 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 3'23
GC: 1 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC 18h15'27
2 Alessandro Proni QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 21
3 Volodimyr Bileka DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1'43
4 Ciaran Power NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'09
5 Jonathan Garcia BMC Racing Team + 2'20
6 Mateusz Mroz CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE + 2'46
7 Thorwald Veneberg RABOBANK + 3'05
8 Pierre Rolland CREDIT AGRICOLE + 3'10
9 Alex Howes TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 6'04
10 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 6'34 12 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 7'26
23 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC + 10'42
31 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC + 11'44
35 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC + 11'58
57 Iñigo Cuesta TEAM CSC + 14'27
79 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 16'01
121 Kasper Klostergaard TEAM CSC + 27'57
The day before Long Beach. A quite hilly stage today, where we will focus on defending our overall leader. There were tons of attacks right from outset from Santa Barbara. At the beginning we just tried controlling things, but we quickly realised that we had to get someone in the attacks, if we were not to be left behind to do all the work in the pack. So we sent off Dave and he and 10 other riders quickly found themselves in a pretty good position.
Eventhough Zabriskie was in the break, we had to work in the peloton to control the opportunists
It was a quite ironic situation this. Dave was the best placed rider in the GC in breakaway, so we could actually just stop working and let the break ride home with a big gap, because then Dave would take over the yellow jersey. But of course there were no reason to do this. Nicki was so close to win the race and it would be stupid not to work for him. Dave didn’t didn’t do any relays in the break, as we had the yellow jersey. With 100 km to go the group, consisting of Dave, Frischkorn (SLP), Kozontchouk (RAB), Roche (C.A), Wolf (NIC), Hach (ERG), Burghardt (TMO), Gasparotto (LIQ), Nydam (BMC), Kump (ADM) and Shaw (DRP), had a 4’00” lead over the pack. At this point we were relieved by Predictor-Lotto who apparently wanted to some work.
With 70 km to go, Wegmann (GST) and Johnson (Hearth), grew tired of the monotenous pace in the peloton and decided to attack together in hope of joining up with the 11 riders ahead. With 60 km to go it was almost status quo for the 11-man breakaway as there lead was now 4’10” over the Predictor-Lotto controlled peloton.
Wegmann and Johnson goes on the attack to join up with leading group. A bit optimistic perhaps
The deficits didn’t change much and with 40 to go the leading group were back to a 4-minute lead over the pack, with Wegmann and Johnson still 1’35” behind. With 30 km to go, the front group split up and Dave was almost caught napping as he had to do a lot of work to get himself positioned with the 6 remaining riders. (Burghardt, Roche, Nydam, Hach, Gasparotto, Kozontchouk). It was looking as they were gonna make it, with 20 km to go they lead with 2’45” and eventhough that deficit came down to 2’00” with 10 km to go, we were sure that they would make it to the finish. But it was close though.
The group became even smaller on the last kilometres as a result of the pace Dave was setting, and on the home stretch he would fight it out with Gasparotto, Burghardt and Nydam. Dave wasn’t in a good position as he was in first position, but considering the fact that he had done very little work compared to the other three he was pretty confident he would have the power to hold them off in the sprint eventhough Gasparotto is a very strong finisher. And it looked as though he would do it, Gasparotto looked to be in trouble when Dave accelerated and Gasparotto seemed lost for a moment, but on the last metres he just managed to take advantage of the slipstream to fight his was past Dave to claim the stage victory. So second succesive 2nd place for Dave, a bit of a shame and he also looked quite dissapointed when I talked to him afterwards, but he really met his match in the sprint and there was really nothing else he could’ve done. The pack came very fast on the last kilometres and they managed to get in in the same time as breakaway riders. Nicki again got home safely so tomorrow it’s time to cruise in Long Beach as winners of the Tour of California.
Dave tried his best against Gasparotto, but he couldn’t just hold off the comeback of the fast italian who claimed Liquigas’ second stage victory of the Tour
Stage 6 Result:
1 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS 4h12'33 2 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC s.t.
3 Scott Nydam BMC Racing Team s.t.
4 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
5 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS s.t.
6 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
7 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER s.t.
8 Kirk O'Bee HEALTH NET - MAXXIS s.t.
9 Serge Baguet QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
10 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t. 18 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
19 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC s.t.
40 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
75 Iñigo Cuesta TEAM CSC s.t.
78 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
91 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC s.t.
122 Kasper Klostergaard TEAM CSC + 4'18
GC: 1 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC 22h28'00
2 Alessandro Proni QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 21
3 Volodimyr Bileka DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1'43
4 Ciaran Power NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'09
5 Jonathan Garcia BMC Racing Team + 2'20
6 Mateusz Mroz CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE + 2'46
7 Thorwald Veneberg RABOBANK + 3'05
8 Pierre Rolland CREDIT AGRICOLE + 3'10
9 Alex Howes TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 6'04
10 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 6'34 12 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 7'26
23 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC + 10'30
32 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC + 11'44
35 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC + 11'58
56 Iñigo Cuesta TEAM CSC + 14'27
76 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 16'01
119 Kasper Klostergaard TEAM CSC + 32'15
Time for celebratin’. If everything goes the way it should then we will have Nicki on the podium in Long Beach to recieve the final yellow jersey of the 2007 Tour of California. It has been a strange race. None of the favourites are even in the top 10. It was a thirteen-man breakaway on the toughest stage of the tour that decided who the final contenders for the overall win should be. Nicki grabbed the chance and did the ground work for his overall victory as he won the fatal mountain stage to San José. Apart from Nicki’s stage win in the 2005 Vuelta a España, this must be Nicki’s biggest win of his career. But of course he has to get through the day first.
CSC controlling the streets of Long Beach as Nicki Sørensen are just moments away from one the biggest wins of his career.
So a completely flat street circuit in Long Beach, Los Angeles was on the menu today. Our plan was to control any opportunists that might try their luck and the to position Haedo in order to try and win the stage in a mass sprint. But there were 11 riders in the peloton who wanted something else. After 20 km of street crusing the deciding break of the stage took off. It contained, Johnson (SLP), Pauriol (C.A), Hansen (GLS), Moninger (BMC), Ziegler (TMO), Hauser (ERG), Zagar (ADM), Day (NIC), Lapthorne (DRP), Rebiewsky (POL) and Flens (RAB). So a tactical blow for us as we didn’t manage to get anyone in the breakaway.
Unfortuneately we didn’t get a man in the breakaway group that was going to fight it out for the stage win today
The best in the GC from the break was frenchman Pauriol who was 11’53” of the Nicki. So as we couldn’t get any guys in the break and as we had been working very hard in the last week, we just set a controlling pace in the pack so that Pauriol wouldn’t endanger Nicki’s jersey. The front group worked great together and with 20 km to go they had an acceptable 2’10” lead over the pack. With 15 km to go the dane Hansen (GLS) was dropped from the group as a result of the high pace. Then 5 km after, Ziegler and Flens attacked and they opened up a big gap immediately, it was going to be between those two. Flens was strongest however and with 5 km to go he rode away from Ziegler and he never looked back, meanwhile the peloton was also riding hard, and eventough they couldn’t catch Flens they still managed to close the pack giving them the same time as the dutch stage winner. Haedo was unfortuneately implicated in a crash and he lost some time, but that doesn’t really matter. The important things is that he’s fit.
Flens was the strongest in the leading group and that gave him a well-deserved victory on the last stage of the Tour of California
Nicki raised his hands in triumph as he rolled over the finishing. Nicki had the chance to say a few words after he when he was celebrated on the podium. This is a guy who inspite of his big class doesn’t win very much, but in spite of that he didn’t hesitate to thank everybody around the team but himself, eventhough he was really strong himself. But that’s how this team works. We set team values higher than the individual values and I think that philosophy has got us where we are today. We had some time to celebrate the victory on our hotel, but the following day we were heading home for Europe once again, for the next races.
Stage 7 Result:
1 Rick Flens RABOBANK 3h05'53
2 Jan Svorada ERGOMO s.t.
3 Sebastien Hinault CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
4 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t.
5 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
6 Kirk O'Bee HEALTH NET - MAXXIS s.t.
7 Alessandro Proni QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
8 Gregory Henderson T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
9 Jörg Hubner ERGOMO s.t.
10 Thomas Ziegler T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 53 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC s.t.
70 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
84 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC s.t.
85 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC s.t.
87 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
89 Iñigo Cuesta TEAM CSC s.t.
92 Kasper Klostergaard TEAM CSC s.t.
127 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 3'59
Final GC: 1 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC 25h33'53
2 Alessandro Proni QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 21
3 Volodimyr Bileka DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1'43
4 Ciaran Power NAVIGATORS INSURANCE + 2'09
5 Jonathan Garcia BMC Racing Team + 2'20
6 Mateusz Mroz CCC POLSAT POLKOWICE + 2'46
7 Thorwald Veneberg RABOBANK + 3'05
8 Pierre Rolland CREDIT AGRICOLE + 3'10
9 Alex Howes TEAM SLIPSTREAM + 6'04
10 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 6'34 12 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 7'26
23 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC + 10'30
31 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC + 11'44
34 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC + 11'58
52 Iñigo Cuesta TEAM CSC + 14'27
89 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 20'00
119 Kasper Klostergaard TEAM CSC + 32'15
Points Competition: 1 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC 82
2 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 70
3 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER 61
4 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER 60
5 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS 55
6 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS 47
7 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL 43 8 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC 42
9 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS 41
10 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC 40
King of the Mountains:
1 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM 86 2 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC 50
3 Dimitry Kozontchuck RABOBANK 44
4 Scott Moninger BMC Racing Team 30
5 Michael Wolf NAVIGATORS INSURANCE 30
6 Michael Boogerd RABOBANK 20
7 Enrico Gasparotto LIQUIGAS 20
8 Nicolas Roche CREDIT AGRICOLE 20
9 Nick Ingels PREDICTOR - LOTTO 18
10 Robert Mclachlan DRAPAC PORSCHE 18
So Marcus Burghardt gets something out of his numerous breakaways throughout the race
Allesandro Proni won the U/25 Classement and we won the Team's competition.Edited by niconico on 31-07-2007 22:43
During the final stage of the Tour of California, we had another team racing a one-day race in France, the Tour du Haut Var. Here Fränk Schleck would race for the first time of the season, but without any hopes of doing something big. As I was in California at that time, I can’t really tell much from the race, but here’s the result of this hilly one-day race.
Tour du Haut Var:
1 Christophe Laurent CREDIT AGRICOLE 4h21'44
2 Sébastien Duret BRETAGNE ARMOR LUX s.t.
3 Jérome Pineau BOUYGUES TELECOM + 48
4 Anthony Charteau CREDIT AGRICOLE + 1'27
5 Danilo Di Luca LIQUIGAS + 2'17
6 Franco Pellizotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
7 Dimitri Fofonov CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
8 Philippe Gilbert FRANCAISE DES JEUX + 2'43
9 Alexandre Botcharov CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
10 Maxime Monfort COFIDIS s.t. 18 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 3'07
38 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 5'40
53 Chris Anker Sørensen TEAM CSC + 11'28
73 Volodimir Gustov TEAM CSC + 12'30
78 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC + 12'54
100 Karsten Kroon TEAM CSC + 14'01
110 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC + 14'21
146 Matthew Goss TEAM CSC + 26'53
So not exactly an inspiring display from us, and especially not by Kroon, who has a lot of work to do before the Tour of Flanders and the Ardennes Classics. Schleck is looking decent ahead of the Ardennes however and we’re confident that he will be having a great April.
Fränk Schleck put up a decent performance in his first race of the season
So March is on and that means, preparing for the big classics in April. But also we hope to be up there with the best when Paris-Nice begins about one week after this race in Valencia. I didn’t go with the team here as I’ve recieved the privilege of leading the team alongside Kim Andersen and Jørgen V. Pedersen, in the first cobble races of the season. Vuelta Valenciana is a hilly stage race which takes place from March 1st to March 5th. We brought three very strong guys in Jens Voigt, who was aiming to hone his form even further ahead of Paris-Nice, Fränk Schleck and also his brother Andy Schleck who would ride his first race of the season, building up his form ahead of Giro d’Italia. On March 3rd we were going to race in the first cobble race of the season, the Omloop Het Volk in Belgium, so here’s the result of the first two stages of the Vuelta Valenciana.
Stage 1:
1 Marcos Serrano KARPIN - GALICIA 3h40'56
2 David Bernabeu FUERTEVENTURA-CANARIAS s.t.
3 Angel Vázquez Iglesias LA MSS s.t.
4 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 20
5 Oscar Freire RABOBANK + 43
6 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
7 Matthias Kessler ASTANA s.t.
8 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK s.t.
9 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
10 Jéróme Pineau BOUYGUES TELECOM + 1'08 31 Volodimir Gustov TEAM CSC + 1'44
45 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 2'16
51 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
81 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 3'08
109 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC + 3'40
110 Anders Lund TEAM CSC s.t.
Stage 2:
1 Samuel Sanchez EUSKALTEL 3h41’51
2 Ángel Vicioso RELAX-GAM s.t.
3 Jéróme Pineau BOUYGUES-TELECOM s.t.
4 Rubén Plaza CAISSE D’EPARGNE s.t.
5 Nacor Burgos RELAX-GAM s.t.
6 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL-PRODIR s.t.
7 Luis Perez Rodriguez ANDALUCIA s.t.
8 Luis Leon Sanchez CAISSE D’EPARGNE s.t.
9 Laurent Brochard BOUYGUES-TELECOM + 24
10 Matthias Kessler T-MOBILE + 24 27 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
40 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 52
89 Volodimir Gustov TEAM CSC + 1'12
126 Anders Lund TEAM CSC 2'19
127 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
128 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC s.t.
Marcos Serrano of the Karpin-Galicia team is still leading the race overallEdited by niconico on 02-08-2007 00:05
The first cobbled race of the season. This is where our april ambitions has its foundation. In races like this, the Omloop Het Volk. There is something special about the cobble race season. First of all it’s very short, just over a month, so there’s no time to go down injured in the these “prelude races”. But also because it’s a completely different type of rider that outclasses his opponents here. This is where the big boys, the grupetto boys, finally can inflict som pain on those not capable of riding on cobbles, like the climbers do when they’re in their element. It’s time for the Omloop Het Volk.
So eventhough this race is nothing compared to our big objectives, Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix, it’s still a very important part of the riders’ preparation for those two races. And eventhough they risk going down injured in these races, they have to do it. So for this race and also tomorrow’s Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne, we’ve brought all of our best cobble riders and leading that team is of course, Fábian Cancellara, alongside his teammates, Stuart O’Grady, Lars Michaelsen, Matti Breschel, Karsten Kroon, Marcus Ljungqvist, Michael Blaudzun and Allan Johansen. None of our guys where in best of shape, eventhough Fábian told me he was feeling pretty good today, considering he’d only been racing in the Etoile de Bességes so far this season.
The race started of quite calmly and took some time before a group of riders decided to have a crack from long range. None of them were dangerous in any way so the pack let them go. The 4-man group consisted of: Niermann (RAB), Long (SKS), Musiol (WIE) and Baumann (TMO).
While a small group of riders tried their luck on the cobbles, we concentrated on keeping Fábian protected throughout the first part of the race
Because of the front group’s inabilities on cobbles, they had their rythm broken everytime the hit a cobble section and therefor they never got more than 3’30” over the pack, with Predictor-Lotto controlling the pace. With 100 km to go, we upped the pace in the pack by letting the whole take relays except from Fábian and Stuey and only 10 km later, the group was reeled in. We kept on setting a high pace for the next 40 km but then Predictor-Lotto, Liquigas and Rabobank decided to up the pace even further. Now the race was really on as the pack got more and more stroung out everytime we hit a cobble section and as we hit the penultimate 8 cobble sections, just 20 km from Lokeren, the peloton broke up. In the front group we were still represented with Fábian, Stuey, Lars and Kroon. Lars and Kroon were quickly dropped however and at this point there were only about 20 riders left with 30 km to go. With 25 km to go, 5 riders attacked, it was Gusev (DSC), Nuyens (COF), Wesemann (WIE), Hoste (PRL) and Pozzato (LIQ). Fábian wasn’t able to go after so he just stayed in the group, where also Tom Boonen were left.
There wasn’t much helt to get from the Liquigas-riders, as they had Fillipo Pozzato in the leading group
It turned out that this would be the deciding attack. With just 15 km to go, the Hoste-group had 1’30” back to the peloton and that gap kept increasing. Gusev couldn’t keep the pace of the group however and with 10 km to go he hit the wall and was dropped by his companions.
It was going to be between Hoste, Pozzato, Wesemann and Nuyens. Hoste took the lead as the four leaders hit the home stretch and he started to sprint home from a long. For a moment it seemed as though he was gonna make it as Pozzato got caught in a bad position. But unfortuneately for the Hoste he died out on the last metres to see him being beaten again in a sprint finish. This time it wasn’t Boonen, but the italian Fillipo Pozzato. In the chasing group Fábian tried to get in the top 10 and dig outsprinting Tom Boonen, finishing in 7th place, which we’re really pleased with. Tomorrow we will try not to exhaust our teammates as much as we did today, because I feel that Stuey and Lars could’ve done a lot better if they didn’t work as much as they did. These races are just preludes for the big classics in april and there’s really no point in working so hard for Fábian is he’s not able to win anyway.
Pozzato was the strongest today and he’s looking good already a month before the Tour of Flanders
60th Omloop Het Volk result:
1 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS 5h38'25
2 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
3 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
4 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS s.t.
5 Vladimir Gusev DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'03
6 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t. 7 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
8 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
9 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK s.t.
10 Peter Van Petegem QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t. 25 Lars Michaelsen TEAM CSC + 4'50
28 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC + 7'33
37 Karsten Kroon TEAM CSC + 8'17
62 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC + 10'03
71 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC + 14'10
72 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC s.t.
Michael Blaudzun forfeited the race
Vuelta Valenciana
Stage 3 result:
1 Nacor Burgos RELAX - GAM 3h55'05
2 Tomasz Nose ADRIA MOBIL s.t.
3 Igor Anton H. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
4 Matthew White DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
5 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 38 6 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
7 Luis Le0n Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
8 Iban Mayo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
9 Oscar Freire RABOBANK + 1'01
10 Samuel Sánchez G. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t. 26 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 1'43
67 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC + 4'00
82 Volodimir Gustov TEAM CSC + 7'42
92 Anders Lund TEAM CSC + 8'25
116 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 10'43
GC:
1 Nacor Burgos RELAX - GAM 11h18'30
2 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 43
3 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'07
4 Luis Perez Rodriguez ANDALUCIA - CAJASUR + 1'31
5 Iban Mayo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 2'08
6 Oscar Freire RABOBANK + 2'12
7 Rubén Plaza CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'13
8 Igor Anton H. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 2'14
9 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'16
10 Samuel Sánchez G. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 2'19 24 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 3'08
31 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 3'45
68 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC + 9'21
72 Volodimir Gustov TEAM CSC + 10'00
99 Anders Lund TEAM CSC + 13'46
117 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 15'56Edited by niconico on 02-08-2007 15:42
Right after finishing Het Volk yesterday we left Lokeren, mounted our Cervelo bikes and travelled tomorrow depature city Kuurne. We were quite pleased with yesterday’s result as Fábian showed that he’s where he needs to be fitness-wise, by finishing 7th in the prestigous Het Volk. As always the Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne (KBK) take place the day after Het Volk, as this year was no different. This race is too a very important part of our preparations for the april classics, just as Vuelta Valenciana is important for preparing for Paris-Nice, Milan-San Remo, but also the Ardennes Classics.
So same team as yesterday took off in Kuurne and headed out on the 193 km route that would take the riders to Brussels and then back to Kuurne to finish the race where it started. A bit like Liege – Bastogne – Liege, just a bit easier. The riders seemed quite exhasted from yesterday’s race and they started off very slowly and there were actually not any opportunists who wanted to try something today. There had to go 100 km before Quickstep and Predictor-Lotto upped the pace to get the race going. And it worked, because after climbing a couple of the páved climbs the peloton broke up creating a 30-man big front group, leaving big shot favourites like George Hincapie, Vladimir Gusev, Leon van Bon, Marcus Burghardt and Juan Antonio Flecha stranded behind.
With 70 km to go, Wesemann suddenly found himself leading the race having opened a gap to the pack over one of the páved climbs and the swiss rider took his chance and gave it his all.
Steffen Wesemann tried to attack from way out, while a group of favourites formed behind, in which we only had Cancellara
50 km from the finishing line, Wesemann had built up a decent lead, with 1’10” to the group with Fábian, Boonen, Hoste and Nuyens. 2 minutes after this group all of the stranden favourites were sitting. Meanwhile the pace in the chasing group was very high and on the last páved climb of the day the group split up with Nuyens (COF), Boonen (QSI), Hoste (PRL) and Bäckstedt (LIQ) forming a group that would chase down Wesemann. Cancellara was left stranded behind but shortly hereafter he went solo to try and catch up with the leaders.
The Boonen-group catches Wesemann while Cancellara digs deep to try and catch up with the guys up the road
With 20 km to go it was all over for Wesemann as he was caught by the Boonen-group forming a leading quintet. The 5 riders cooperated well and with 10 km to go they had a lead of 1’50” to the chasing Fábian Cancellara, who had to settle for a new top ten finish. 5 km from the finishing line Hoste attacked, in a 2006 Tour of Flanders dejavú as Boonen was hot on his wheel. It’s going to be between these two. I wonder who’d win. Well I’ve already said, no surprises here, Boonen was just to good in the sprint for poor Hoste who again had to settle for second, you gotta feel a bit sorry for the guy. Fábian improved a bit today finishing 6th and he’s still looking strong ahead of his big objectives in april.
Hoste claims the..........another second place behind rival and home favourite Tom Boonen
That’s all for the cobble races for now, the next race I will participate in will be Paris-Nice and I’m really looking forward. Jens Voigt’s fitness is really coming along and he’ll be very sharp when that race will be underway in one eight days. When Vuelta Valenciana is over, we will also race in the Vuelta a Murcia, where Carlos Sastre is expected to have his first race of the season. Matti crashed and had to forfeit today I just hope there’s nothing serious wrong with him as he would then miss out on the april classics again.
60th Kuurne – Brussels – Kuurne result:
1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 5h03'45
2 Leif Hoste PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
3 Magnus Backstedt LIQUIGAS + 47
4 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS s.t.
5 Steffen Wesemann TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t. 6 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC + 3'15
7 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS + 4'02
8 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
9 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS s.t.
10 Andreas Klier T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 42 Lars Michaelsen TEAM CSC + 11'24
47 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC + 15'00
52 Karsten Kroon TEAM CSC + 15'32
63 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC + 17'40
Matti Breschel and Michael Blaudzun forfeited the race
Vuelta Valenciana
During the KBK the 4th stage of the Vuelta Valenciana was raced. Here are the results from the last two stages.
Stage 4 result:
1 Didac Ortega BENFICA 3h57'31
2 Matteo Bono LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
3 Samuel Sánchez G. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 4'51
4 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 5'06
5 Ãngel Vicioso RELAX - GAM s.t.
6 Luis Perez Rodriguez ANDALUCIA - CAJASUR s.t.
7 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 5'31
8 Jorge Ferrio Luque ANDALUCIA - CAJASUR s.t.
9 Andrey Kashechkin ASTANA s.t.
10 Robert Gesink RABOBANK s.t. 37 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 6'02
43 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
58 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC + 6'44
65 Volodimir Gustov TEAM CSC + 11'24
112 Anders Lund TEAM CSC 12'36
128 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 13'43
Stage 5 result:
1 Oscar Freire RABOBANK 3h31'32
2 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t.
3 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
4 Graeme Brown RABOBANK s.t.
5 Fabio Sacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
6 Alberto Ongarato TEAM MILRAM s.t.
7 Iñaki Isasi EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
8 Pedro Horrillo RABOBANK s.t.
9 Andy Flickinger BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
10 David Herrero Llorente KARPIN - GALICIA s.t. 39 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC s.t.
77 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
89 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
116 Volodimir Gustov TEAM CSC s.t.
119 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
130 Anders Lund TEAM CSC + 35
65th Vuelta Valenciana Final GC
1 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver CAISSE D'EPARGNE 18h53'46
2 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 1
3 Nacor Burgos RELAX - GAM + 6
4 Luis Perez Rodriguez ANDALUCIA - CAJASUR + 24
5 Samuel Sánchez G. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 49
6 Oscar Freire RABOBANK + 1'22
7 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'42
8 Rubén Plaza CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'47
9 Igor Anton H. EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 1'48
10 Matthias Kessler ASTANA + 1'58 21 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 2'57
26 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC + 3'34
61 Andy Schleck TEAM CSC + 9'52
78 Volodimir Gustov TEAM CSC + 15'11
107 Anders Lund TEAM CSC + 20'44
121 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 23'26
So again not a very good result, but Jens still has a week to do his final preparations for Paris-Nice, so I'm sure he will bring his A game there. As for Fränk Schleck, then he's really coming along nicely he rode one super stage in this race and finished a decent 21st in his second race of the season so he's looking good already with more than a month of preparation for the Ardennes Classics. Andy isn't anyway near his top form yet but there's still more than two months to the Giro, so I have no worries there.
Next Up.....
Vuelta Ciclista a MurciaEdited by niconico on 02-08-2007 17:55
Another small spanish stage race in the Murcia Region. I didn’t participate here either as I was preparing for the Paris-Nice with the team elsewhere. The most interesting here is the fact that this race will be Sastre’s first of the season and it’s here he will start working towards the Tour de France. To back him up we have: Julich, Vandevelde, Arvesen, Bak, Kolobnev, Roberts and Haedo. With the particpation of Haedo we will hope to do well in the mass sprints that are bound to happen.
Stage 1: San Pedro – Los Torres de Cotillas (Flat):
1 Gabriele Balducci ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO 3h51'20 2 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
3 José Rojas Gil CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
4 Stefano Garzelli ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO s.t.
5 Assan Bazayev ASTANA s.t.
6 Luciano Pagliarini SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
7 Matthew Hayman RABOBANK s.t.
8 Krzysztof Szczawinski MICHE s.t.
9 Bram De Groot RABOBANK s.t.
10 Aaron Kemps ASTANA s.t. 30 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC s.t.
65 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC s.t.
94 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC s.t.
114 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC s.t.
127 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC s.t.
128 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
130 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
Stage 2: Totana – Fortuna (Flat):
1 Markel Irizar Aramburu EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 3h26'45
2 Guido Trentin SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
3 Eladio Jiménez KARPIN - GALICIA s.t.
4 Koen De Kort ASTANA s.t.
5 Gabriele Balducci ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO + 28
6 José Rojas Gil CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t. 7 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
8 Krzysztof Szczawinski MICHE s.t.
9 Assan Bazayev ASTANA s.t.
10 Aaron Kemps ASTANA s.t. 52 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC s.t.
53 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC s.t.
93 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC s.t.
105 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC s.t.
126 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC s.t.
127 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
130 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
Stage 3: Alhama de Murcia – Aledo (Mountain TT):
1 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE 43'33
2 Michele Scarponi ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO + 6
3 Alexandre Moos BMC Racing Team + 16
4 Francisco Mancebo RELAX - GAM + 26
5 Stefano Garzelli ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO + 30
6 Massimo Giunti MICHE + 34
7 Przemyslaw Niemiec MICHE + 42
8 Manuele Mori SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 45
9 Paolo Savoldelli ASTANA + 48
10 Joan Horrach CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 49 11 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC + 54
28 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC + 1'49
31 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC + 2'02
41 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC + 2'42
45 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC + 2'54
103 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC + 6'36
104 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 6'37
131 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 8'11
Stage 4: Puerto Lambreras – San Pedro (Mountain):
1 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D’EPARGNE 4h21’14
2 Francisco Mancebo RELAX-GAM s.t.
3 Stefano Garzelli ACQUA SAPONE + 21
4 Alexandre Moos BMC TEAM s.t.
5 Marco Fertonani CAISSE D’EPARGNE s.t.
6 Xabier Zandio CAISSE D’EPARGNE s.t.
7 Eladio Jiménez KARPIN – GALICIA s.t.
8 Branislau Samoilau ACQUA SAPONE s.t.
9 Gerben Löwik RABOBANK + 1’02
10 Francisco J. Lara Ruiz ANDALUCIA s.t. 16 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
17 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
28 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC + 1’19
31 Kurst-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC + 1’27
45 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC + 1’50
66 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC + 9’30
93 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC + 10’45
100 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 19’13
The 4th stage took place March 10th, the day before the Paris-Nice prologue, so I can’t tell you about stage 5 until the Paris-Nice is underway.
Alejandro Valverde lead the Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia before the last stage, having won 2 succesive stages. 2nd is Francisco Mancebo while 3rd is Alexandre Moos
Welcome to the 64th edition of the Race to the Sun. Paris-Nice is the first ProTour Race of the season and a lot of riders with ProTour ambitions has to establish their credentials early on in this race. As always the race is well-represented by some of the biggest stars in professional cycling. In this presentation we'll go through this year's route and the favourites for the GC.
The Route
This year the tour will take the riders from the small town of Issy-Les-Moulineaux to the capital of the french riviera, Nice. The race starts off with a short prologue in Issy-Les-Moulineaux. Stage 1 and 2 will be for the sprinters, as the profiles for these stages invites for a mass sprint finishes. The last 5 stages a very hilly and especially stage 4 to Mende that has it finish line at the top of the savage climb Montée Laurent Jalabert, which has an average slope of 10,1% over 3,1 km. When crossing the finishing line in Nice, the riders have raced exactly 1260,2 km over these 7 stages and 1 prologue.
Prologue | Issy-Les-Moulineaux > Issy-Les-Moulineaux - 4,7 km
Those riders hoping to be up there in the GC when they hit Nice will need to establish their credentials already on this prologue. It won't decide much, but if a GC favourite gets his fingers on the yellow jersey already, he will be very confident later on.
Favourites: Michael Rogers, Stefan Schumacher and David Zabriskie
Stage 1 | Cloyes-sur-le-Loir > Buzancais - 186 km
The sprinter teams will have their work cut out today. The profile fits the sprinter, so they will have to count on their teams to reel in any threats for the stage victory today, if their sprinter are to bring home a win.
Favourites: Tom Boonen, Thor Hushovd and Oscar Freire
Stage 2 | Vatan > Limoges - 177 km
A bit hilly near the finishing line in Limoges, but that shouldn't prevent the sprinters from having another showdown and as this might be the sprinters' last chance to win a stage we might see a very fierce sprint on this stage.
Favourites: Ventoso, Wrölich and Nazon
Stage 3 | Limoges > Maurs la Jolie - 215,5 km
Very hille at the end and that fact should prevent this stage from being decided in a mass sprint, eventhough a guy like Oscar Freire should be very capable of staying with the peloton and then finishing things in the sprint in a group of maybe 50-60 riders.
Favourites: Oscar Freire, Davide Rebellin and Stuart O'Grady
Stage 4 | Maurs la Jolie > Mende - 169,5 km
A very important stage from the GC. It's very likely that the winner today will take over the leader's jersey if he doesn't have it already. It's a short punchy climb that decides this stage and guys like Kashechkin, Schleck and Rebellin are good bids here.
Favourites: Fränk Schleck, Andrey Kashechkin and Kim Kirchen
Stage 5 | Sorques > Manosque - 178 km
As the GC could be more or less set by now, this could be the day that a succesful breakaway makes it all the way to the finish. But on the other hand there are bound to be a few favourites that didn't get what they wanted out of yesterday and they will be likely to go at it here.
Favourites: Juan José Cobo, Sergio Paulinho and Thomas Dekker
Stage 6 | Brignoles > Cannes - 200 km
The classic Cannes stage. Some very great cycling could go down in this famous city. It will be tough to do a solo win as the 2nd category climb tops with 20 km to go, and therefor the favourites are most likely to keep together and try and win the stage in the sprint in Cannes. The group deciding this stage will most likely be a group of 5-10 riders.
Favourites: Jens Voigt, Lúis Léon Sánchez and Jéróme Pineau
Stage 7 | Nice > Nice - 129,5 km
The final stage takes off and ends in Nice. This is last chance for the GC riders to affect their placings, and if the gaps are very smalle between the Top Ten riders we could witness a fantastic race this day.
Favourites: Andrey Kashechkin, Stefan Schumacher and Fränk Schleck
The Favourites
Stefan Schumacher (***): This young german has already proven himself as one of the biggest talents in cycling. Last year he wore the maglia rosa in the Giro, in which he won two stages. He also the ENECO Tour and Tour of Poland. This year he wants something bigger and the Paris-Nice fits him perfectly. He's a great time-trialist and he could win the yellow jersey already on the prologue. Besides that he's a very strong and punchy rider on shorter climbs and as there are no real mountain in this Paris-Nice, he's certainly one of the top favourites.
Fränk Schleck (***): Luckily for Schleck there's only one short time trial. More than 20 km of time trial would have killed his GC chances as he just can't put together a decent time trial. That's something he needs to learn if he is to complete his goal of finishing on the podium in the Tour de France but in this year's Paris-Nice, he's looking great as it is. He should be able to put some pressure on his opponents on the climbs throughout this race.
Cadel Evans (***): Evans is a bit unsure for this race. It's not his primary goal of the season, so he might not be in the form he needs to be to win this race, but if he's there fitness-wise, then he certainly has all the qualities needed of him to take himself at least to the final podium in Nice.
Thomas Dekker (***): Maybe the biggest dutch talent ever. Already last year he won the italian answer to this race, Tirreno-Adriatico. This year he's focusing on the Paris-Nice, and he's the type of guy who could win the yellow jersey already in Issy-Les-Moulineaux and keep it the rest of the tour. You could fear that he would have a bad day in the hilly terrain, but still he's a very capable of riding with the best wherever it should be.
Andrey Kashechkin (***): Great time-trialist, fantastic punch on very steep climbs. This guy has what it takes, no doubt about it. He's great endurance and he can attack on the steepest climbs over and over again. He's the type who's gonna wear you down.
Luis Leon Sánchez (**), Kim Kirchen (**), Christophe Moreau (**), Davide Rebellin (**), Jens Voigt (*), Laurent Lefevre (*), Michael Rogers (*), Sylvain Chavanel (*), Bradley McGee (*) and Juan José Cobo (*)
using your tactics i managed to win the tour of Australia with Stuey O'Grady winning 4/6 stages.
