For a moment I missed Docker in Final GC, as he's not "in bold" Nice race for Skil, even if didn't achieve a stage-podium, but it was the right decision to go for Docker instead of Kittel in last stage, even though Kittel might have had better chances for podium in that stage.. and it seems like the Albert Achterhes Profronde-route became quite popular, so that every race tries to copy it
tsmoha wrote:
For a moment I missed Docker in Final GC, as he's not "in bold" Nice race for Skil, even if didn't achieve a stage-podium, but it was the right decision to go for Docker instead of Kittel in last stage, even though Kittel might have had better chances for podium in that stage.. and it seems like the Albert Achterhes Profronde-route became quite popular, so that every race tries to copy it
Thanks. Fixed now.
And yeah, I've heard rumours that they are gonna be present in the Tour as well.
Damiano Cunego has repeated the thing he did back in 2004, winning his home Grand Tour, the Giro d'Italia. A real relief for the little Prince, who hasn't been able to come back to his old form since his surprising win seven years ago. He's now 29 years old and a very established name in the world of top cycling.
The key to Cunego's victory was solid performances in the mountains and on the harder hilly stages. The Italian picked up no less than five stage wins and three podium places en route to the overall victory. He pulled on La Maglia Rosa after a a stunning climb up to Grossglockner on stage thirteen and kept it from there all the way to Milano.
Nobody could stop Cunego this year.
During the first week of the race it looked like the overall battle would stand between Liquigas team mates Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso. Double Giro champion Basso seized control over the Maglia Rosa already on stage five, and then fortified his lead with a victory on top of the mighty Etna volcano on stage nine. At that point everyone were expecting a crushing third Giro victory for the Italian, but a complete collapse on stage eleven saw him losing over five minutes on his rivals and the pink jersey to team mate and fellow Italian Nibali.
He wasn't able to hold back Cunego either though, and a bad day on stage thirteen lost him the jersey to a flying Piccolo Principe. Nibali then fought on to take back the jersey from Cunego, but the Sicilian kept losing time on every single mountain top finish. He eventually conceded his loss to Cunego after failing to take back enough time in the final time trial.
Nibali fought well, but never came really close to Cunego. He was the most consistent rival, but it was still not enough. The young Italian eventually finished as runner-up, with a final deficit of 1'23 to his compatriot Cunego. The last podium spot was taken by Basso, after an excellent recovery from his total breakdown earlier in the race. The former winner was one of the strongest in the third week and finished the race as clear third, almost six minutes behind Cunego.
Nibali and Basso completed the podium.
The rest of the Top 10 showed the weakness of the startlist in this Giro. Marco Pinotti climbed consistently through the whole Giro and moved up to a remarkable fourth place in the last time trial. His 9th place last year was notable itself, but this performance was on a level we've not seen him before. Well, well, age doesn't have to matter after all. Ask Chris Horner.
Last Top 5 spot was taken by Soler. The King of the Mountains winner in the 2007 Tour de France hasn't been able to perform like that again to now. One big reason for that is the many horrible crashes he has suffered throughout his career. This year however, he's managed to stay on his bike for most of the season and it has already payed off. He also adds a prestigious stage win on stage twenty, conquering the slopes of Colle delle Finestre and Sestriere.
The rest of the Top 5, Marco Pinotti and Juan Mauricio Soler.
I also want to mention some of the incredible performances that lead to a Top 10 overall result. Most notable of all was BMC's Johann Tschopp. Consistent climbing through the whole Giro almost saw him finishing 4th overall, but a huge time loss in the final time trial lost him two places. Still by far the biggest surprise in this race.
Behind Tschopp we had another surprise, Paolo Tiralongo. He headed here with the ambitions of assisting team leader Fredrik Kessiakoff, but big time losses from Keke's side promoted Tiralongo to leader role. He did it much better than expected and ended up with an excellent 7th place in the General Classification.
Dan Martin finally got his Grand Tour breakthrough here in this Giro. For a long time he was challenging for the podium, but a slight falter in the brutal third week pushed him down to 8th. If he improves his recovery a bit and works with his aerodynamic in the timetrials, he'll be a man for the overall victory in the future.
This Giro also saw the breakthrough of another Swiss youngster. Mathias Frank rode two brilliant first weeks of this race and barely lost any time at all to the other favourites, even in the hardest mountain stages. However, just like Dan Martin he fell back in that monster final week. He'll be back, be sure of that.
Just like with Cunego and Soler, we also got to experience the rebirth of another plucky climber who has been nowhere to be seen in the last years. José Rujano took everyone by surprise when he almost won the 2005 Giro with an amazing stage to Sestriere. After that he became a noone and didn't produce any results at all. He's now back, and only a disastrous first week could stop him from challenging Cunego for the top spot of the podium.
The race also had some huge disappointments. Above all was Michele Scarponi, who said that he was here for the overall win. He proved to be completely out of shape and ended up in 19th place, 27 minutes behind Cunego. Another pre-race favourite who will leave here empty-handed is Geox's Denis Menchov. Just like Scarponi, he seemed uninterested and never came really close in the overall. 29th place for him in the end, conceding 43 minute to the little prince.
Scarponi and Menchov were both out of shape.
Cunego's dominance also secured him the points jersey. His five stage wins and three podiums plus other great results on many stages was enough for him to win also this classification dominantly. His 194 points saw him beating closest rival Mark Renshaw by a massive 60 points. The hardness of this Giro got visible when looking at the rest of the standings. Second best actual sprinter was Tyler Farrar, 7th.
Cunego also came out on top of the points classification.
The King of the Mountains jersey was during the first two weeks of the race placed on the shoulders of it's winner three years ago, Emanuele Sella. However he, just like many others, faltered in the third week, eventually losing out on the jersey to team leader José Rujano. Podium places on Grossglockner, Gardeccia, Nevegal, Sestriere and in San Pellegrino Terme were the keys to his victory.
Rujano won the King of the Mountains classification.
Dan Martin seized control over the white jersey for best young rider early in the race and managed to fend off the attacks coming from biggest rival Mathias Frank in the final week. None of the other youngsters came close to those two, even though the Colombians were very strong in the last mountain stages.
Dan Martin was best young rider in this Giro.
The last award, the team classification was won in a superior way by home team Androni Giocattoli. While Rujano were fighting for stage wins and a nice overall result, his team mates Sella and Serpa also rode solidly through the race, ending 25th and 27th overall respectively. That gave them a big winning margin to second and third best teams, who were both over twenty minutes behind Androni.
Androni Giocattoli showed that they were the best team in this Giro.
Thx. Very glad to hear that you liked the Giro presentation, as it took a massive time to write.
The Tour de Rijke is a small Dutch one-day race held annually in June every year. It's a low status race, which often causes the startlists to get a bit weak. Good news for us, since our sponsors are expecting a win here.
Skil squad:
With a decently fit Kittel we have a pretty good chance to succeed our hard goal. Especially considering we'll be able to set up a quite strong sprint train for him with Curvers and Kluge.
05.06.2011: Tour de Rijke
The race is held on a very easy course, starting and finishing in the city of Spijkenisse, just south of Rotterdam. Not much chance for anyone but a sprinter to win this race. The question is just who of them.
Bad luck for us today. Kittel had a bad daily form and couldn't take it in the mass sprint. A big surprise was that Sky's non-sprinter Ian Stannard's surge on the far right saw him beating the sprinters. Geslin second and a disappointed Kittel in third. Goal failed, but the sponsors we're still satisfied with our result.
Nice Giro report, with some surprising results. And again, Kittel seems to have bad luck with his daily form... but 3rd is pretty nice, so maybe, a win can be possible very soon.
As a last tester for the Tour favourites we've got the Dauphiné. Throughout the history it has played a key role in the Tour preparations for many riders. Famous winners of the race includes Luis Ocaña, Bernard Hinault, Miguel Indurain and Lance Armstrong.
Real life result:
1
Bradley Wiggins
Sky ProCycling
26h40'51
2
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
+ 1'26
3
Alexandre Vinokourov
Pro Team Astana
+ 1'49
4
Jurgen Van den Broeck
OmegaPharma - Lotto
+ 2'10
5
Joaquim Rodriguez
Katusha Team
+ 2'51
6
Christophe Kern
Saxo Bank SunGard
+ 3'05
7
Jean-Christophe Péraud
AG2R - La Mondiale
+ 3'30
8
Kanstantsin Sivtsov
HTC - Highroad
+ 4'14
9
Janez Brajkovic
Team Radioshack
+ 4'22
10
Thomas Voeckler
Team Europcar
+ 4'31
The long timetrial in Grenoble decided the final outcome. Bradley Wiggins rode brilliantly and gained enough advantage to the other favourites to hold on for the overall victory. Evans and Vinokourov also profited from their good timetrialling to secure the other podium spots, while the strongest one in the mountains, Joaquim Rodriguez finished 5th because of a huge time loss in the TT.
Skil squad:
Normally Geniez would be our leader in the GC, but his aim is at the KoM jersey, so it will be Geschke who'll be going for a good GC placement. Docker, Reimer and mainly Van Hummel will be trying to do something in the sprints, while Doi, Damuseau and Bonnin will be mountain domestiques.
Alberto Contador showed signs of decent form in Romandie and should be able to shake off all rivals on the mountain stages here. That, plus a good timetrial will be enough for him.
05.06.2011 - 12.06.2011: Critérium du Dauphiné
Stage 1
Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne (ITT)
The race begins with a short prologue to make sure that there will be some gaps between the riders. Contador for yellow immediately like irl?
Dave Zabriskie showed that he'd managed save some of his form from the Giro, where he won the final timetrial in Milano. In the end he beats nearest challenger Gustav Larsson (Saxobank) by three seconds, a quite dominant win on just five kilometres. Docker best of our riders in 28th place, 14s slower than American champ Zabriskie.
Result:
1
David Zabriskie
Team Garmin - Cervélo
7'13
2
Gustav Larsson
Saxo Bank SunGard
+ 3
3
Jonathan Castroviejo
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 4
4
Frantisek Rabon
HTC - Highroad
+ 5
5
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank SunGard
+ 6
6
Markel Irizar
Team RadioShack
+ 7
7
Alex Rasmussen
HTC - Highroad
s.t.
8
Ramunas Navardauskas
Team Garmin - Cervélo
s.t.
9
Chris Froome
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
10
Brett Lancaster
Team Garmin - Cervélo
+ 8
...
28
Mitchell Docker
Skil - Shimano
+ 14
Stage 2
Albertville - Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse
Stage two provided if not a mountain stage, then close to it. The finish line is in the small town of Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse, on top of a ten kilometer climb. It's not a hard climb, but it's enough to create some selection between the pre-race favourites.
A few teams saw Geniez as too dangerous to be allowed to let go into a breakaway, so we had to pull another tactic. We pushed the pace at the front of the field to prevent any other breakaway to escape and then sent Geniez on the attack up the categorized climbs. It worked and he collected all three middle-stage KoM's.
Up the final climb it was Sammy Sanchez who cracked everyone with a very strong attack, winning by twenty seconds to Arnold Jeanneson (FDJ) and 42s to Urán (Sky) and a good looking Contador.
Geschke did pretty well on the final climb and finished alongside many of the favourites. 12th place on the stage for him, and a deficit of 1'37 to Sanchez. Geniez took it easy on the final climb and finished a long way back, exactly as we wanted him to do. Now he'll be allowed to break on the other stages.
Result:
1
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
3h21'27
2
Arnold Jeanneson
FDJ
+ 20
3
Rigoberto Urán
Sky ProCycling
+ 42
4
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank SunGard
s.t.
5
Jelle Vanendert
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 1'00
6
David López
Movistar Team
s.t.
7
Daniele Pietropolli
Lampre - ISD
+ 1'19
8
Chris Froome
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
9
Gustav Larsson
Saxo Bank SunGard
s.t.
10
Samuel Dumoulin
Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
s.t.
...
12
Simon Geschke
Skil - Shimano
+ 1'37
Stage 3
Voiron - Lyon
Fairly easy compared to the previous one, but still far from a pan flat stage. Or to be honest - most of the stage is, it's just one of the 177 kilometres that's hard. And that's the last one. Steep uphill sprint.
The final sprint ended up being really messy and many of the sprinters got blocked behind the breakaway that got caught under the Flamme Rouge. Aussie champion Michael Matthews made his way through the chaos and won the stage ahead of Borut Bozic and Denis Galimzyanov. Yuki Doi placed best of our riders after being in the breakaway.
Result:
1
Michael Matthews
Rabobank Cycling Team
3h59'14
2
Borut Božic
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
3
Denis Galimzyanov
Katusha Team
s.t.
4
Tiziano Dall'Antonia
Liquigas - Cannondale
s.t.
5
Coen Vermeltfoort
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
6
Adriano Malori
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
7
Alex Rasmussen
HTC - Highroad
s.t.
8
Joaquim Rodriguez
Katusha Team
s.t.
9
Yukihiro Doi
Skil - Shimano
s.t.
10
Koldo Fernández
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
Stage 4
Grenoble (ITT)
The fourth stage was the one that decided this race irl. 40 kilometres of time trial around Grenoble with a few climbs on the route. The same time trial will also be used on the penultimate day in the Tour. Maybe it will be as decisive here as in rl?
It's being said that wearing the yellow jersey gives you wings. Samuel Sanchez certainly had some today. He flew around the course and put a massive time into most of his rivals. Geniez best Skil rider in an excellent 10th place, while our GC hope Geschke also did pretty well, 30th.
Result:
1
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
1h00'38
2
Gustav Larsson
Saxo Bank SunGard
+ 17
3
David Zabriskie
Team Garmin - Cervélo
+ 50
4
Chris Froome
Sky ProCycling
+ 51
5
Jonathan Castroviejo
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 54
6
Cameron Meyer
Team Garmin - Cervélo
+ 1'00
7
Michael Rogers
Sky ProCycling
+ 1'03
8
Jean-Christophe Peraud
AG2R La Mondiale
+ 1'05
9
Frantisek Rabon
HTC - Highroad
+ 1'10
10
Alexandre Geniez
Skil - Shimano
s.t.
...
30
Simon Geschke
Skil - Shimano
+ 2'14
Stage 5
Mass. Sprint. Today.
Actually not. A breakaway containing Geniez built up a huge advantage and began the final sprint well clear of the peloton. Movistar's Gutierrez found himself in the worst possible position while Geniez got the opposite. Second wheel with under three k's to go.
But no chance for him in the end, as Irish champion Matt Brammeier stormed past him to take his biggest win so far in his career. Geniez still did incredibly well, finishing second and beating a few decent sprinters using his sprint stat of 65.
Result:
1
Matthew Brammeier
HTC - Highroad
3h58'10
2
Alexandre Geniez
Skil - Shimano
s.t.
3
Coen Vermeltfoort
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
4
Alexandre Pichot
Team Europcar
s.t.
5
Vitali Kondrut
Lampre - ISD
s.t.
6
Cameron Meyer
Team Garmin - Cervélo
s.t.
7
Marco Bandiera
Quick·Step Cycling Team
s.t.
8
Frédéric Guesdon
FDJ
s.t.
9
Kurt-Asle Arvesen
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
10
Fumiyuki Beppu
Team RadioShack
s.t.
...
14
Francisco Ventoso
Movistar Team
+ 5'38
Stage 6
Villars-les-Dombes - Les Gets
Stage six moves us into the decisive phase in this Dauphiné. Three straight mountain top finishes, with this one being the easiest. We'll be trying to place Geniez in the break again to increase already quite large KoM lead.
Our plan worked perfectly and Geniez collected both early KoM's. He actually looked like he might hold on for the stage win at the foot of the final climb, but with less than five km's to go he got caught and dropped by the Spanish duo Contador and Rodriguez.
El Pistolero continued his assault up the final part of the climb and also got rid of his compatriot Rodriguez in the final kilometer. He went on to win the stage without even doing his famous gun, trying to gain back as much time as possible. Rodriguez recovered pretty well after being dropped by Contador and crossed the line just a few seconds behind.
Geschke had a great day (+5) and proved his strength by beating the rest of the favourites in the sprint for third. He even gapped them slightly in the final, adding a few more seconds to his time gain.
Result:
1
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank SunGard
5h13'11
2
Joaquim Rodriguez
Katusha Team
+ 15
3
Simon Geschke
Skil - Shimano
+ 52
4
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'00
5
Arnold Jeanneson
FDJ
s.t.
6
Gustav Larsson
Saxo Bank SunGard
s.t.
7
Rigoberto Urán
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
8
Chris Froome
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
9
Jean-Christophe Peraud
AG2R La Mondiale
s.t.
10
David López
Movistar Team
s.t.
Stage 7
Les Gets - Le Collet d'Allevard
The queen stage of this race, taking on no less than seven categorized climbs on the day. The last of them takes the riders up to the finish line on Le Collet d'Allevard, a HC climb.
Geniez was again in the breakaway, managing to pass the six first climbs on the day first. On the final climb he was the only one who could follow a ferocious pace set by another strong climber in the break, Moinard (BMC). They started the final climb with a six minute advantage, sure that they would battle it out for the stage win, but...
An early attack from Contador followed by a completely insane climb saw him catching and dropping the two in the final kilometer. What a disappointment!
Conta then crossed the line first, this time with a celebration. Behind him Geniez beated Moinard in the sprint for second place, while race leader Sanchez finished 4th after riding at his own pace rather than following Contador's attack. It turned out to be a good decision by Sanchez, as he managed to stay in front of Contador in the GC by just 9 seconds.
Result:
1
Alberto Contador
Saxo Bank SunGard
5h06'02
2
Alexandre Geniez
Skil - Shimano
+ 27
3
Amaël Moinard
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
4
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 48
5
Rigoberto Urán
Sky ProCycling
+ 1'24
6
Arnold Jeanneson
FDJ
+ 2'22
7
Chris Froome
Sky ProCycling
+ 2'42
8
Bauke Mollema
Rabobank Cycling Team
+ 2'56
9
Gustav Larsson
Saxo Bank SunGard
s.t.
10
Thomas Voeckler
Team Europcar
+ 3'09
...
19
Simon Geschke
Skil - Shimano
+ 3'53
Stage 8
Pontcharra - La Toussuire
The last stage of the race and the third straight hard moutain stage. The battle for the overall win will be decided. Sanchez has held the lead since stage two, but Contador is now less than 10s behind. Action is guaranteed.
We sent three riders into the early breakaway, Docker, Damuseau and Geniez. The first two did their job by setting a hard pace up the Croix de Fer and at the foot of La Toussuire Geniez took over himself. He was soon up front alone, with a pretty good buffer over the peloton.
He pushed on by himself all the way up the final climb and managed to stay clear of the favourites. Finally our winless streak is broken! He also wrapped up a dominant KoM classification victory here. Contador did another assault climb and finished less than a minute behind Geniez, overtaking Sanchez in the GC.
Geschke once again finished in a bigger group containing most favourites. After climbing well and timetrialling decently he managed to jump up to 10th overall! What a great race for us, with a stage win, KoM jersey and overall Top 10.
Great racing by Geniez! Attavking no less than 5 days ( 4 days in a row) aand taking the stage win on the last day. Great racing! Also good to see Gescke in the top 10
Thanks for the comments and the bananas! One of our best races so far imo.
The Dutch race with a Kiwi sounding name is a small stage race held on the southest peninsula in the Netherlands. The terrain there is about as flat as it gets, which means that the race is one for the sprinters. Historical winners of this race are a.o. Jan Raas, Robbie McEwen and Tyler Farrar.
Skil squad:
Our sponsors are expecting us to repeat what Kittel did irl, claiming the overall victory. Kluge, Curvers and Van Zandbeek will do everything they can to give their fast team a chance to do so by setting up a strong train for him.
An Post
191. M.Debusschere
192. S.Bennett
193. B.Brems
194. K.Claeys
195. D.Dzervus
196. N.Eeckhout
197. A.Fenn
198. D.Hollanders
Favourites:
*** Marcel Kittel
** Jos Van Emden, Joost Posthuma
* Sebastien Rosseler, Taylor Phinney, Ian Stannard
10.06.2011 - 12.06.2011: Delta Tour Zeeland
Stage 1
Vlissingen (ITT)
A short prologue to get things rolling here. Kittel will be trying to use his decent prologue stat to give him a good position for the next two stages.
A great day for Rabobank, as they managed to take a one-two through Van Emden and Flens. Home soil boost a factor here I think. Kittel disappointed a lot and could only manage a 27th place, losing 16 seconds to Van Emden. Not the start we hoped for.
Result:
1
Jos Van Emden
Rabobank Cycling Team
6'52
2
Rick Flens
Rabobank Cycling Team
+ 2
3
Joost Posthuma
Leopard Trek
+ 3
4
Manuel Quinziato
BMC Racing Team
+ 5
5
Tom Danielson
Team Garmin - Cervélo
s.t.
6
Michał Kwiatkowski
Team RadioShack
s.t.
7
Taylor Phinney
BMC Racing Team
+ 6
8
Stef Clement
Rabobank Cycling Team
+ 8
9
Jesse Sergent
Team RadioShack
+ 9
10
Sérgio Paulinho
Team RadioShack
s.t.
...
27
Marcel Kittel
Skil - Shimano
s.t.
Stage 2
Middelburg - Goes
I said in the preview that this part of Holland is flat. Here you see why I said so. Pan flat stage = mass sprint.
We managed to set up a decent sprint train for Kittel, but FDJ's dito was a bit stronger than ours and their sprinter Hutarovich got the best leadout. He didn't disappoint his team mates and claimed the stage win for his French squad. Kittel couldn't really match the Belarussian's speed but finished second and moved up the standings.
Result:
1
Yauheni Hutarovich
FDJ
4h28'06
2
Marcel Kittel
Skil - Shimano
s.t.
3
Tom Leezer
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
4
Taylor Phinney
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
5
Roger Kluge
Skil - Shimano
s.t.
6
Anthony Geslin
FDJ
s.t.
7
Andrew Fenn
An Post - Sean Kelly
s.t.
8
Pim Ligthart
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
9
Hans Dekkers
Landbouwkrediet
s.t.
10
Jonas Vangenechten
Wallonie Bruxelles - Crédit Agricole
s.t.
Stage 3
Terneuzen - Terneuzen
The final stage of this three-day event takes us off the Zeeland peninsula and onto the most southern part of Holland. We're still in the Zeeland province though, and just an underwater tunnel away from the peninsula. The stage itself is again very flat, but has a steep uphill near the finish.
The stage turned out to be a dèjá-vu of the day before, as it was once again FDJ's Hutarovich who took it from the mass sprint, this time wearing the yellow jersey he retained at the end of the day. Kittel did everything he could, but just couldn't match Hutarovich after tiring out a bit in the uphill. He ended up in second place overall, which gives us another non-completed but accepted sponsor goal.
Nice race for Skil, even if didn't achieve a stage-podium, but it was the right decision to go for Docker instead of Kittel in last stage, even though Kittel might have had better chances for podium in that stage.. and it seems like the Albert Achterhes Profronde-route became quite popular, so that every race tries to copy it 
And again, Kittel seems to have bad luck with his daily form... but 3rd is pretty nice, so maybe, a win can be possible very soon. 
