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Dominik Nerz: Germany's stage racing hope (Ended, next season in PCM 2011)
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 07-08-2011 17:40
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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August 8, 2011
 2.PT – Tour de Pologne
The Tour de Pologne is a seven days stage race through Poland. It contains only flat and hilly stages, and the field isn't too strong. Favorites are the likes of Kevin Seeldraeyers, Juan Jose Cobo or Luis Leon Sanchez. Liquigas aims for some success in the sprint decisions with Simone Ponzi as their leader. But he isn't in a good shape yet.
Obviously the shape was too bad, and Ponzi had no chance on stage one. Rabobank's Michael Matthews took the win in front of Yauheni Hutarovic (FDJ). Stage two had the exact same result.
On the third stage, the Poles got their first good result. Bank BGZ's Tomasz Lizowicz and Krzysztof Jezowski achieve the second and third places, behind Yauheni Hutarovich. The Belarussian was the best sprinter on stage four as well, but Martin Kohler saved a couple of seconds and won from a breakaway.
Two hilly stages should bring the decision in the general classification. But on the first one, the pack stayed complete. Simone Ponzi on four achieved the first notable result for Liquigas in this tour, Frederik Kessiakoff won the stage.
Stage 6 then brought some small time gaps. David Blanco won 14 seconds in front of a group led Jakob Fuglsang and Luis Leon Sanchez, but Elia Favilli (Farnese Vini) on 7 overtook the lead in the GC in front of Russel Downing. Simone Ponzi on 18 managed to lose so little time that he stayed overall fifth.
On the final seventh stage, Ruben Perez (Euskaltel) won from a breakaway. No changes in the GC.
Elia Favilli scores the biggest win for his team so far this season.
| General Classification | 1  Elia Favilli | Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli | 29h02'29 | 2  Russel Downing | Sky ProCycling | + 5 | | 3 Giovanni Visconti | Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli | + 9 | | … | | 5 Simone Ponzi | Liquigas – Cannondale | + 19 | | . | | Mountain Classification | 1  Mikael Chérel | Ag2r La Mondiale | 112 | | . | | Points Classification | 1  Yauheni Hutarovich | FDJ | 81 | | . | | Young Riders Classification | | 1 Elia Favilli | Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli | 29h02'29 | | . | | Team Classification | 1  Quick·Step | . | 87h00'43 |
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 08-08-2011 07:36
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World Champion
Posts: 14236
Joined: 20-06-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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Nice fifth from Ponzi, that is very good result for him in WT race
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 08-08-2011 09:19
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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August 15, 2011
 1.PT – Vattenfall Cyclassics
In the times of Jan Ulrich, Germany was a nation full of enthusiasm for cycling. As a remnant of those days, the Vattenfall Cyclassics in Hamburg are the only German World Tour event. It's usually a sprinters race, as the Waseberg, which is passed 8 times, is fairly steep but also very short.
The race is highly frequented with top sprinters. Mark Cavendish is here with Mark Renshaw, Tyler Farrar is accompanied by Thor Hushovd. Allan Davis and Joaquin Rojas will try to compete with them as well as Alessandro Petacchi or green jersey winner Boasson Hagen.
For Liquigas, Ivan Basso starts his Vuelta preparations here, and Fabio Sabatini as well as Simone Ponzi will try to get a good result in the expected mass sprint.
Tiziano Dall'Antonia represented Liquigas' colours in the large break, which got caught with about 20 km to go.
Within the last 15 km, lots of riders, mostly classic specialists like Flecha and Ballan, try to attack, but only those two really succeed. With 5 km to go, they still lead with 30 seconds.
And the Italian Champion managed to keep some small meters of advance! He wins in front of Boasson Hagen and Manuel Cardoso (RadioShack). After a bad positioning, Ponzi has a good speed and comes in ninth.
Result
| 1 | Alessandro Ballan | BMC Racing Team | 4h59'33 | | 2 |  Edvald Boasson Hagen | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 3 |  Manuel Cardoso | Team RadioShack | s.t. | | 4 | Gert Steegmans | Quick·Step | s.t. | | 5 |  José Joaquin Rojas | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 6 | Alessandro Petacchi | Lampre – ISD | s.t. | | 7 | Juan Antonio Flecha | Sky ProCycling | s.t. | | 8 | Thor Hushovd | Team Garmin – Cervelo | s.t. | | 9 | Simone Ponzi | Liquigas – Cannondale | s.t. | | 10 | Mark Cavendish | HTC – Highroad | s.t. |
Ballan played a trick on the sprinters.
Edited by cunego59 on 08-08-2011 12:17
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 02:13
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| kitface |
Posted on 08-08-2011 09:27
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Domestique
Posts: 408
Joined: 11-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Can't wait to see Dominik's advances in stats over the next off season. He will hopefully be able to compete in some more races! |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 08-08-2011 12:14
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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Thanks for the comment, kitface. I think he'll continue to progress and in the next year, he might even be the leader in a couple of races. But I'm not in planning of the next season, so I can't tell yet 
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 08-08-2011 12:16
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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August 17, 2011
1.1: Tre Valli Varesine
While one squad rides the Eneco Tour and the Vuelta, another couple of guys around Peter Sagan take part in 19 (!) one day classics with the Giro di Lombardia as the highlight. They started today in Italy with the Tre Valli Varesine.
The field was rather weak with Liquigas being the only ProTour team. Peter Sagan is by far the best puncheur, but he's not in shape yet. A break around Juraj Sagan dominated the day, but was caught with 15 km to go.
So the pack was still 100 riders large as the riders enter the final small ascent. As soon as they reached the climb, with 3 km to go, Peter Sagan attacked. Jure Kocjan (Team Type 1) and Tomasz Szmolen (CCC) countered, but only Kocjan could keep up. Those two sprinted for the win, and it's the Slovenian who takes it. With Simone Ponzi on 6, it's a good start into the autumn classic season for Liquigas.
| Result | 1  Jure Kocjan | Team Type 1 | 4h55'56 | 2  Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | s.t. | | 3 Luca Mazzanti | Farnese Vini – Neri Sottoli | s.t. |
A strong appearance from Jure Kocjan.
Edited by cunego59 on 08-08-2011 12:16
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| roturn |
Posted on 08-08-2011 12:25
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Team Manager
Posts: 22246
Joined: 24-11-2007
PCM$: 3900.00
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Although a bit late. It was a great Tour for you. Great reports. 3rd with Basso was superb.
Also Nerz did the best he could do.
Actually it sounds very realistic. Tony Martin fails as HTC overall leader. |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 08-08-2011 18:38
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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Thanks roturn. I always appreciate your comments! I was very pleased with the Tour as well. In contrary to HTC 
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 08-08-2011 18:41
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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August 20, 2011
Here's a bit more about transfers for you:
Igor Anton to Leopard – Trek
Leopard signes Anton to compensate Fränk Schleck.
Sylvain Chavanel to Leopard – Trek
To improve their classics squad, Leopard headhunts Chavanel from Quick·Step.
Daniele Benatti to Lampre – ISD
Chavanel and Anton in, Benatti out: Leopard loses their top sprinter to Lampre.
 Heinrich Haussler to Sky ProCycling
Haussler developed into one of the best cobblestone riders and joins Sky and Juan Antonio Flecha.
Roger Hammond to Quick·Step
Hammond joins Tom Boonen to help him in the cobbled classics and to compensate Chavanel.
Manuel Cardoso to BMC Racing Team
Cardoso had an incredible development this year, so BMC gets one of the best sprinters in the world.
Graeme Brown to Garmin – Cervelo
Another sprinter changing the team Graeme Brown.
Christophe Le Mével to Europcar
The French decided to go back to his home country and signes for Europcar.
Ezequiel Mosquera to Movistar
The Spanish joins Movistar, hoping that they'll be able to stay in the World Tour.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 09-08-2011 07:25
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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August 22, 2011
1.PT – GP Ouest France – Plouay
With the criterium in Plouay, the last ProTour event of the year in France took place today.
Peter Sagan is among the favorites together with Sylvain Chavanel and Luis Leon Sanchez.
The first part of the race was not surprisingly dominated by a breakaway, which was caught with about 25 km to go. Afterwards, a large group of favorites was built, and with 12 km to go, Robert Kiserlovski (Astana) and Carlos Sastre (Geox) attacked. Peter Sagan followed and had the right instinct: They still had a lead of more than a minute with 5 km to go.
Those three riders battled for the win in a short sprint. Peter Sagan showed that he's still a bit away from his top shape, as he came in third although he was the best sprinter on the paper. Carlos Sastre had the most energy left and got another major win on his old days.
Result
| 1 | Carlos Sastre | Geox – TMC | 5h59'15 | | 2 |  Roman Kiserlovski | Astana | s.t. | | 3 | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | s.t. | | 4 | Christophe Le Mével | Team Garmin – Cervélo | + 59 | | 5 | Luis Leon Sanchez | Rabobank | s.t. | | 6 | Kevin Seeldraeyers | Quick·Step | s.t. | | 7 | Daniel Moreno | Katusha Team | s.t. | | 8 | Tiago Machado | Team RadioShack | s.t. | | 9 |  Jakob Fuglsang | Leopard - Trek | s.t. | | 10 | Sandy Casar | FDJ | s.t. |
Sastre looks strong for the upcoming Vuelta. Maybe he can surprise there.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 09-08-2011 11:14
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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August 23, 2011
We're proud to announce the next transfer, and the names are getting bigger...
Rider Out:
Francesco Belotti started the season as our second best mountain domestique, but disappointed in both the Giro and the Tour, where he constantly fell back quite early. Thus, we're not too sad that he didn't want to extend his contract. He'll join De Rosa next season.
Rider In:
The second rider we signed from RadioShack is the first biggie: Janez Brajkovic! The Slovenian is already a great stage racer and we hope that he can even improve more. He finished the Tour 23rd riding as a domestique, and might get to ride one of the Grand Tours next year as a leader. But that's not sure yet.
We'll have one more rider leaving and two new riders (plus the young one) to announce. Stay tuned!
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 09-08-2011 11:16
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Nice signing for Liquigas! Brajkovic will definitely strengthen your team. Well done.
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| FreitasPCM |
Posted on 09-08-2011 11:18
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8389
Joined: 08-09-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Brajko, good signing. Maybe not as good as Basso, but he could give a shot at top 10 in a GT. |
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 09-08-2011 11:49
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World Champion
Posts: 14236
Joined: 20-06-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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tsmoha wrote:
Nice signing for Liquigas! Brajkovic will definitely strengthen your team. Well done.
+1 very nice signing, now you have a very good rider for one-week stage races
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| dienblad |
Posted on 09-08-2011 14:58
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3772
Joined: 10-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Great signing! A great rider for races like Paris-Nice, or the Dauphiné!
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| johannes-w |
Posted on 09-08-2011 15:34
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 833
Joined: 24-04-2009
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it s a very good investment for the future of liquigas as brajko could become one of the best in the gt's - and also an important new leader to be supported by dominik |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 09-08-2011 21:21
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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Thank you all! I'm glad you like the signing, I'm very pleased with it as well, and hope that he can do well and improve. Two more signings to come...
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 09-08-2011 21:24
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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August 24, 2011
 2.PT – Eneco Tour
The Eneco Tour could be a good Vuelta preparation race, but this year, Ivan Basso and maybe Ryder Hesjedal are the only good stage racers present.
The Tour itself is a mixture of a prologue, a time trial and six flat stages. The top favorites are Fabian Cancellara, Tom Boonen and Thor Hushovd.
The prologue was won by Vladimir Karpets in front of Niki Terpstra (Quick·Step). Cameron Wurf on 6 and Ivan Basso on 9 with respectable results for Liquigas, while overall top favorite Fabian Cancellara disappointed. The second stage was characterized by strong winds, and some of the strong sprinters were caught further behind. Allan Davis won in front of Manuel Cardoso and Alessandro Petacchi.
Gorik Gardeyn (Vacansoleil), Danilo Hondo (Lampre) and Assan Bazayev (Astana) were the men of stage three. During the sprint preparations, they got lose from the peloton and got themselves a gap of 45 seconds to the peloton. Hondo won the stage while Gardeyn took the overall lead.
The big sprint favorite Mark Cavendish firstly stroke on stage four, winning in front of Manuel Cardoso, who developed into one of the best sprinters during this season.
Stage 5 brought the spectators a breakaway win. Frederic Guesdon won in front of Björn Leukemans. They saved 20 seconds in front of the pack, which again was led by Cavendish and Cardoso. The two remained the best sprinters, but on stage 6 a breakaway succeeded again. Tomas Vaitkus (Astana) won in front of Mikael Cherel (Ag2r) and Rick Flens (Rabobank) and overtook the overall lead.
Some bad news came in for Liquigas: Maciej Bodnar was injured slightly and had to give up. He will be back for the Vuelta, but won't be in the shape that he planned to be, and thus won't be as helpful as expected in the TTT.
After Mark Cavendish's win on stage 7, the situation before the concluding time trial was as follows: Tomas Vaitkus (Astana) led with at least 50 seconds to the other riders, who are all very close. Top contender Fabian Cancellara was only 1'23 behind, which looked doable.
But eventually, the course showed up to be too short: Tomas Vaitkus lost only 52 seconds to stage winner Cancellara, and remained leader by 6 seconds to Vladimir Karpets (Katusha), who came in second on the stage.
Ivan Basso showed himself with an eighth place on the time trial, but all in all, Liquigas showed a disappointing performance here.
A note on the fight agains relegation to Continental Tour: Vasil Kyrienka on sixth overall brought Movistar important points against Vacansoleil.
A big win for the former U-23 time trialing world champion Tomas Vaitkus.
| General Classification | 1  Tomas Vaitkus | Astana | 25h10'43 | 2  Vladimir Karpets | Katusha Team | + 6 | | 3 Niki Terpstra | Quick·Step | + 26 | | . | | Points Classification | | 1 Mark Cavendish | HTC – Highroad | 115 | | . | | Young Riders Classification | | 1 Rui Costa | Movistar Team | 25h12'08 | | . | | Team Classification | 1  Leopard - Trek | . | 75h34'02 |
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 10-08-2011 06:56
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World Champion
Posts: 14236
Joined: 20-06-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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Biggest moment of his career for Vaitkus, Liquigas will be surely better at La Vuelta, good luck for that.
And i almost forget to praise you for getting nice results with my favourite rider-great poidium by Sagan
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 10-08-2011 08:38
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Team Manager
Posts: 6508
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1090.00
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August 25, 2011
Hey folks, how do you do?
I write you from Sevilla, where I am to support our Vuelta-Team. They will start with a team time trial in three days and are very motivated. I'm already writing a preview for you, which will come in the next days.
Driving around with the guys a bit, I realised how good I felt. Not good in terms of shape, as I didn't train too much since the Tour, but in terms of general skills. It just feels easier...
That's it from me for the moment, stay tuned for the Vuelta reports!
Yours,
Dominik
Edited by cunego59 on 10-08-2011 13:56
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