Would be interesting to see how breakaways are played out on hard in 09 and a Cofidis story will inevitalby hold a number of breakaways. On 08, I find my riders being dropped by the other guys way too often (even by guys with lower stats) when playing on hard.
With 65km to go the first break of the day is being reeled back in. Once Euskaltel prove themselves very useful to us as they take control of the proceedings.
And the attacks keep on coming throughout the day. Luckliy the sprinterteams seem determined to control the events, and we focus on keep Duque out of harms way.
The pace is quite high at 30km out.
15km to the line. Quick Step are really hauling ass in front. We'll try and find a good wheel for Duque up here. If need be, Buffaz can lead him in and we'll move him into position too.
6,4 to go! Buffaz is the better option right now. He still has gas in the tank, and the other sprinters seem to haver slower leadouts. Buffaz puts his headd down and punches it!
El Fares is involved in a mass crash! We hope he's ok! There's nothing we can do for him here.
3200 to the Line, we're gonna open this up early! Buffaz is proving to be quite resilient, and he should be able to pull us up a few positions before he let's go!
2100m! Buffaz is almost out of Gas, Duque is about to go full! Baden Cooke of Vacansoleil is looking very strong and has Duque's wheel! He wants to win on his own turf!
1000m Duque leads Cooke by ½ a length, Boonen coming VERY strong on the right. This will be so close!
But Cooke was too fast, and in the Perfect spot - Boonen almost overtakes Duque in the final metres but we manage to hold on. Duque raises his arms despite coming in 2nd, he's won the TDU!
Our first win in a stagerace this season warrants a podiumshot! Here's Duque on the final podium of this years TDU. We hope to see more of this!
Final KOM
1 Mickael Buffaz COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 0 6
2 Nick Nuyens RABOBANK 0 2 3 Julien El Fares COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 0 2
4 Nicolas Roche AG2R LA MONDIALE 0 2
5 Dominique Rollin CERVELO TEST TEAM 0 2
6 Elia Rigotto SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI 0 1
7 Filippo Pozzato TEAM KATUSHA 0 1
8 Bert Grabsch TEAM COLUMBIA - HIGH ROAD 0 1
9 Anthony Charteau CAISSE D'EPARGNE 0 1
Reaction to the TDU:
We're thrilled about the race. Buffaz was excellent, Duque was dominant, and the team felt strong throughout. Not once did we feel like we were without options, and this was a nice way for me and the team to get to know eachother a little. We'll be looking to produce more of these results in the future. Allthough not the toughest race to win, it's a huge moraleboost for us!
Transfers:
Our first target for transfer went through no problem. Duarte has signed a deal as a luxury teammate on the team. He will be an interesting addition!
Sponsors:
We've signed with the last secondary sponsor of this season. We feel that the deals we've been offered are fair, with a good base income and good bonuses, in French races mind you. They may be tough to achieve, but it'll be worth it if we do!
If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell. -Lance Armstrong
National team:
I was approached by both the FFC and DCU. Both unions wanted me to coach their national teams. This was tough, but i chose to coach the french team. Why? Most of all because i'm managing a french team. French talent is not very abundant these days, this will give me a chance to get an in depth look into the nations talentpool.
Calender for February
We'll be focusing on the french competitions this february. We will also send riders to races outside France, but the goal of this will mainly be getting racedays under our belt. The "Tour Med" looks interesting this year. And with every single one of our sponsors French, this should make a big impact. Edited by Mads_0 on 23-06-2009 13:33
Last year, this was won by our very own Herve Duclos-Lassalle. We'll bring the following squad this year: Samuel Dumoulin
Remi Pauriol
Leonardo Duque
Nico Sijmens
Julien El Fares
Amael Moinard
Herve Duclos-Lassalle
Fabio Duarte
Our plan is to get a man in the breakaway, and take it easy with the remaining riders. Anyone with enough gas in the tank could be allowed to gun for it on the last hill - So far so good, 93km to go and Sijmens is in a 9-man breakaway. We've got roughly 4 minutes on the pack, and a 1 minute advantage to the pursuing group of 3 behind us. Most notable in the break would be Lowe(Garmin) and Cataldo(Quick Step)
50km to go. We've been joined by the group in between, and the peleton is pushing hard! We've started to up the effort a little to keep a gap up.
34km to go, and the gap seems to be sat at 2'40 now. We're working harder and harder, and Sijmens will have to work hard to keep up today!
20km to go, gap is still around 2 minutes! But the pace is absolute torture by now. Sijmens works like a beast just to stay in the group.
Better safe than sorry! We're not sure if the break will last, so we send Dumoulin from the peleton. He doesn't get a big gap though. It does however spark several attacks.
But with 10km to go it's quite clear that it will be settled amongst the escapees. Moreau somehow manages to fight his way to the group!
3,3 to go! Huguet of Agritubel is ahead, then Cataldo, then Sijmens! We've chosen Huguets wheel but we're blocked by Cataldo.
2km to go, Huguet burns out and starts to drop back, we switch to Cataldo's wheel!
1200 and we're past the both of them, Lowe is coming fast down the middle!
500m and it's clear, it was too early for Sijmens! Lowe and Cataldo pass him in the final stretch. Lowe looks strong
Lowe takes it! Cataldo 2nd, Moreau manages to sneak ahead of Sijmens for 3rd. Sijmens is gutted! He was definately the fastest! If he had just had patience.
This small french stagerace we'll be looking for more top spots. We've brought the following squad: Florent Brard
Herve Duclos-Lassalle
Julien El Fares
Alexandre Usov
Maryan Hary
Guillaume Blot
Sabastian Portal
Damien Monier
Flat, short and fast today. Duclos-Lassalle is in the breakaway. However the pack is not leaving us much room to play with here.
50km to go and the groups ahead have formed 1 big one. However the peleton is still not letting up. This will probably be settled in a sprint.
Down to a minutes advantage. Team Besson is putting in the last bit of effort to close the remainder of the gap.
Last ditch effort by the escapees, but there's nothing they can do.
10km to go. Usov has hooked himself onto Brard. There are a LOT of sprinters trying to get up there today. Will Brard have the power to position him?
5km. we're up there but it's very fast. Goss starts coming forward with Haedo on his wheel!
1km to go and the CSC boys have really powered ahead. Noone will catch Haedo! Usov is struggling caught behind a wall of sprinters.
Haedo in a dominant win! Jimmy Casper takes 2nd, Flahaut in 3rd. Usov ends up outside the top10. Not what we had hoped for!
Another flat stage with 2 small bumps today. We've been trying to break away but the peleton simply wont let anyone go! El Fares attempts to take the KOM sprint in one of these attempts but has to settle for 2nd. 75km to go.
2nd KOM sprint, only 23 to go, the peleton is still complete. This time El Fares manages to grab 1st, he'll have red dots tomorrow!
7,2km to go, Usov has opted for the wheel of Haedo. Bad choice! Haedo starts to drop of the wheel of Goss! He's spent
2500m, we put ourselves behind Goss instead of Haedo. Brard is there in case Goss cracked, but it wont do much good. We're not in a good position here.
Usov shows his speed! Despite a relatively poor position he does manage to gain a lot of places. Davis goes from the front and has power to spare!
But we wont can't the very front. Davis 1st, Hautarovich 2nd, Rodriguez 3rd. Usov grabs 8th spot. Allthough we would've like a better spot, Usov showed us he can really move.
Stage
1 Allan Davis QUICK STEP 2h28'40
2 Yauheni Hutarovich FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
3 Fred Rodriguez ROCK RACING s.t.
4 Jürgen Roelandts SILENCE-LOTTO s.t.
5 William Bonnet BBOX - BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
6 Assan Bazayev ASTANA s.t.
7 Martin Elmiger AG2R LA MONDIALE s.t. 8 Alexandre Usov COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE s.t.
9 Robert Wagner SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
10 Danilo Wyss BMC RACING TEAM s.t.
Prologue: Some hills on the menu today. I've had my eye on El Fares since the start of this race. He's best placed in the GC, he's good on the hills and he's in good shape. If the peleton arrives gathered at a KOM-sprint we'll try and get him up there. If not, we'll send guys out ahead to gobble up points.
At the first KOM El Fares is able to secure the points for himself.
At the 2nd KOM, 74,3km from the line Hary is sent to defend the Polkadots. Jalabert of Agritubel is not about to give them up without a fight though.
Hary secures the points. And manages a small gap from both the pack and Jalabert. We'll let him ride a little and see where it takes us.
Hary is caught soon after though. Charteau of Caisse and Augustyn of Barloworld charge up the hill and take the 3rd KOM. We would've liked to keep it within our own ranks but the boys are a little spent after a very fast stage so far.
14km to the line, the last small hill. El Fares will have to take matters into his own hands from here on in. He's still looking good.
3km to go, still a little gas in the tank. We need a decent gap and the peleton is only 20 seconds back. We need to start this early, the whole sprint is downhill from here!
With 500m to go it's clear, El Fares has a good gap! But will it be enough for the yellow Jersey?
There are definately gaps here. El Fares raises his arms as he crosses the line in the polkadot jersey. This was a good win for us.
Mountain 1 Julien El Fares COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 10 28
2 John-Lee Augustyn BARLOWORLD 12 20
3 Santo Anza AMICA CHIPS - KNAUF 18 18 4 Maryan Hary COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE 16 16
5 Anthony Charteau CAISSE D'EPARGNE 16 16
6 Geoffroy Lequatre AGRITUBEL 2 12
7 Markus Zberg BMC RACING TEAM 8 12
8 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL 12 12
9 Jonathan Hivert SKIL - SHIMANO 10 10
Reaction
We're really happy with this win. But it puts us in a difficult situation. We lead the GC by 10 seconds to Haedo, 12 to Davis. With the timebonus for the sprinters, this is going to be VERY hard to defend. Then we have the KOM. El Fares can no longer go on the attack to take these points, and we are in a position where we own everything, but could very well lose it all. It will be hard work for the guys the last 2 stages.
