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The Danish Puncheur
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| t-baum |
Posted on 07-09-2008 18:11
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Small Tour Specialist
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I heard his DS is an idiot!
haha jk, great story, i've always enjoyed it.
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| niconico |
Posted on 07-09-2008 18:39
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Grand Tour Specialist
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GP de Denain
The final rehearsal for the Ardennes is here in France. The race is nothing like those in the Ardennes, so quite frankly I’m not sure why we’re racing exactly this race. Maybe because it’s so close to Amstel. It’s more or less flat and will most likely come down to a sprint. With my form being quite good right now I should have a good chance in a sprint like this, so I was told to give it a go. Also riding here for us are Andreas Klier and Lars Bak, who shockingly finished 1st and 3rd respectively in this year’s Paris-Roubaix. Both of them tried to join the early break but they weren’t allowed to do so, so we had no-one in the break today.
It didn’t matter a whole lot as they were reeled in with 5 kilometres left to race and so we would have a mass sprint. I tried to position myself but I couldn’t really get into a good position. So I just rode to the front and started the sprint. Sjef de Wilde came flying past me quickly so I tried to get into his slipstream. But on other side, Christoffer Sutton came flying past everyone with Feillu and Renshaw in his wheel. I tried to go with Sutton, but ultimatively I only managed 5th place. I’m content though and I think I’ll have a good ride in the Ardennes.
1 Christopher Sutton Team Milram 4h34'49
2 Sjef De Wilde Bretagne - Armor Lux s.t.
3 Romain Feillu Agritubel s.t.
4 Mark Renshaw Slipstream - Chipotle powered by H3O s.t.
5 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
6 Lucas Haedo Team Milram s.t.
7 Jimmy Casper Agritubel s.t.
8 Pierrick Fédrigo Crédit Agricole s.t.
9 Javier Benítez Team Milram s.t.
10 Florian Vachon Roubaix Lille Métropole s.t.
11 Sébastien Chavanel Française des Jeux s.t.
12 Jean-Luc Delpech Bretagne - Armor Lux s.t.
13 Kevyn Ista Slipstream - Chipotle powered by H3O s.t.
14 Eloy Teruel Mitsubishi - Jartazi - Protech s.t.
15 Martijn Maaskant Slipstream - Chipotle powered by H3O s.t.
16 Sebastian Schwager Team Milram s.t.
17 Alex Rasmussen Topsport Vlaanderen s.t.
18 Thomas Voeckler Bouygues Télécom s.t.
19 Mickaël Larpe Skil - Shimano s.t.
20 Taylor Tolleson Bouygues Télécom s.t.
I'm ready for Ardennes stronger than ever.
Edited by niconico on 07-09-2008 18:55
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| schleck93 |
Posted on 07-09-2008 18:51
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Classics Specialist
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Great racing in Netherlands, but how come Klier and Bak 1st and 3rd in P-R?
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 28-11-2024 19:38
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| niconico |
Posted on 07-09-2008 18:56
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Grand Tour Specialist
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I'm not sure how either. I simmed it, so I think Cya-logic is the answer. In this particular case I don't really mind though.
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| schleck93 |
Posted on 07-09-2008 19:06
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3715
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Nice stats, he'll be great when he gets he's boost
BenBarnes wrote:
Thor wears a live rattlesnake as a condom.
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| niconico |
Posted on 07-09-2008 19:30
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Amstel Gold Race
I had a nice ride here last season where I finished 10th to take my first ever ProTour point. I’m not in as good form this season, but I’ve grown significantly stronger, so I hope I can fight for another top ten spot. After Kirchen’s great run-of-form in last year’s Ardennes Week he has been named captain and I have been assigned to sit and protect him in the pack, which doesn’t exactly favour my own chances a whole lot.
It was a tough race today with rain all day. I don’t really mind the rain as much as some of the other riders do, I actually think I have some kind of advantage in the rain. Anyway the attacks from the favourites came with just over 40 kilometres to the line, when Sammy Sanchez took off in a solo attempt. He got a gap of about a minute, but it came down again, with Saunier Duval and Team CSC pulling the pack. With 35 kilometres to go it was all over when Cunego and Vanendert attacked right past him. All the other favourites followed with Frank Schleck taking a solo lead over a group containing Di Luca, Sammy Sanchez, Vanendert, Cunego, Valverde and Kirchen. At this point I was pretty tired and I didn’t have anything left to put in an attack with.
Me trying to limit the loss in Amstel Gold Race – Top 10 is a long way off.
With 20 kilometres to go Schleck was reeled in as Kirchen had been dropped by the group of favourites. Things couldn’t go much worse for us. I had end up in a group with Pozzato, Mori, Capecchi and Kolobnev trying to salvage a top 20 spot with seemed doable.
The front riders climbing Eyserbosweg - you can just see me a bit down the road.
With just over 10 kilometres to go on the Keutenberg, Ricco, who had bridged up with the favourites group and Cunego attacked and got a gap.
Ricco was incredibly strong and he would soon drop Cunego and enter Cauberg on his own. A bit behind Kirchen was dropping through the groups and soon he was just up the road ahead of my group where I was doing the majority of the work. No-one could do anything about Ricco, who won Amstel Gold Race.
Cunego finished 2nd just holding off Valverde. My group caught Kirchen on Cauberg, but having used a lot of energy relaying I was dropped on the Cauberg climb and lost a few seconds on my companions as I would ultimately finish 21st. Kirchen was 17th. A very dissapointing day for us, but me and Kirchen will be in better shape for the next two Ardennes races.
1 Riccardo Riccò Saunier Duval - Scott 6h53'32
2 Damiano Cunego Lampre + 1'00
3 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott + 1'07
4 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom + 1'21
5 Jelle Vanendert Française des Jeux s.t.
6 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes s.t.
7 Ivan Rovny Tinkoff Credit Systems + 2'20
8 Juanjo Cobo Team Astana s.t.
9 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld + 2'31
10 Luca Pierfelici Quick•Step s.t.
11 Giairo Ermeti Silence - Lotto s.t.
12 Leonardo Bertagnolli Quick•Step s.t.
13 Fränk Schleck Team CSC + 3'15
14 Matej Mugerli Liquigas + 3'26
15 Rinaldo Nocentini Team CSC + 3'58
16 Eros Capecchi Saunier Duval - Scott + 4'15
17 Kim Kirchen Team High Road s.t.
18 Alexandr Kolobnev Team CSC s.t.
19 Manuele Mori Saunier Duval - Scott s.t.
20 Filippo Pozzato Liquigas s.t.
21 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 4'31
Edited by niconico on 07-09-2008 19:31
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| ember |
Posted on 07-09-2008 20:08
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I think you will do great in Fleche Wallonie! |
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| G_Larsson |
Posted on 07-09-2008 20:15
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Sprinter
Posts: 1779
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Klier and Bak 1-3 in PR? What?!
Good luck in your next classics, I think you can do great in LBL and Fleche Wallonie!
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| Ak4 |
Posted on 07-09-2008 20:19
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Stagiare
Posts: 226
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Amstel is always an hard one.. Better races will come 
[url=www.Dark-Alchemy.com]  [/url]
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| niconico |
Posted on 07-09-2008 20:32
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Posts: 4102
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La Fleche Wallone
Let me boil this race down to two words: Not Good. I have been so confident about the Ardennes, especially after my win in Giro di Lombardia, but it hasn’t gone exactly as I wanted it to. Apparently you don’t just step into the Ardennes and gain big results right away. My form is good, but apparently I lack some strenght compared to Valverde and the others.
We won this race last year with Bettini and Kirchen taking a 1-2 on Le Muur du Huy and we’d hoped to at least win it again this year with Kirchen, whom I had to sit and protect through the race again. The race turned out to be quite hectic and plain crazy. The pace throughout the race was to high, that Kirchen didn’t have any energy to attack in the final. Me neither. A group with the usual suspects got away in the finale though, without Kirchen who chose to just set a high pace to try and gain on the leaders, as they apparently were pretty tired aswell.
But he couldn’t catch up as Valverde and Cunego ended up fighting it out on Le Muur. It came down to a sprint in the end. Valverde lead coming into the last couple of hundred metres, but he faded completely litterarily a few metres before the line as Cunego could just throw his bike over the as the winner. Kirchen finished 7th, while I went four better than in Amstel to take 17th.
Cunego finally beats Valverde after losing out on two occasions in the Basque Tour.
Just about every rider ran out of steam including me, but I managed to get in the top 20.
Now Liege-Bastogne-Liege is my final hope to do something in the Ardennes. I’m feeling a bit down, so I hope I can get some consolation in the final spring classic this season.
1 Damiano Cunego Lampre 5h22'52
2 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott + 1
3 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom + 1'46
4 Eros Capecchi Saunier Duval - Scott + 2'10
5 Jelle Vanendert Française des Jeux + 2'12
6 Joaquim Rodríguez Caisse d'Epargne + 3'32
7 Kim Kirchen Team High Road + 4'23
8 Alexandr Kolobnev Team CSC + 4'30
9 Filippo Pozzato Liquigas s.t.
10 Fränk Schleck Team CSC + 4'48
11 Riccardo Riccò Saunier Duval - Scott + 5'13
12 Rinaldo Nocentini Team CSC + 5'25
13 Davide Rebellin AG2R - La Mondiale + 6'13
14 Matej Mugerli Liquigas + 7'32
15 Mathieu Sprick Bouygues Télécom + 7'43
16 Leonardo Bertagnolli Quick•Step + 7'53
17 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 8'20
18 Andrea Moletta Euskaltel - Euskadi + 8'30
19 Giairo Ermeti Silence - Lotto + 8'37
20 Matteo Carrara Quick•Step + 10'01
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| Smoothie |
Posted on 07-09-2008 21:16
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 Unfortunate results so far. Keep at it JAJ, im sure your skill will peek next year. |
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| niconico |
Posted on 07-09-2008 21:43
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Smoothie wrote:
Unfortunate results so far. Keep at it JAJ, im sure your skill will peek next year.
I don't think it will peak, but it will be higher 
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| mb2612 |
Posted on 07-09-2008 21:49
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nice story, keep up the good work
 [url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182] Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
Please assume I am joking unless otherwise stated |
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| niconico |
Posted on 07-09-2008 22:10
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Liege-Bastogne-Liege
This is only my second time racing “La Doyenne”, but already I feel I’m part of the gang of riders who has this kind of race as their specialty. After my win in Lombardy I have gained so much respect from my opponents and all through this Ardennes Week, riders like Schleck, Valverde and Cunego turn to me when discussing how to race the finales. There’s actually a lof of communication going on between the teams in these races, but at the end of the day it’s every man for himself. Unfortuneately for me our man is Kirchen and I have realized that I will have to wait at least another year to get on the podium in one of the Ardennes Classics. It’s just to hard to sit in the wind for Kirchen all day and then think about riding a good finale afterwards. But I’m really getting hungry for a win, as I have none so far this season.
After leading out Kirchen so he was in a great position on Le Redoute, I tried to stay near the front of the pack to at least try and grab a top ten. Things sparked up the Redoute when Valverde started the attacks. At the top it was Valverde, Schleck, Sammy Sanchez and Kirchen leading. A group of three containing Di Luca, Ricco and Visconti trailed the four leaders, while I sticked close to the front in the pack.
Four riders including Kirchen got a gap on the Redoute climb.
Trying to salvage a decent result – but low on energy.
The four leaders kept their gap steady to trio behind them, where Ricco refused to work with Valverde up the road. Surprisingly Cunego wasn’t up for it today, as me and him where trying to stay at the front of the pack.
Our Directeur Sportifs for the race kept us updated on Kirchen througout the finale and it was looking good. His group was definitely going to make it and we had some positive feedback from Kirchen who were looking to defend his Liege-Bastogne-Liege crown here. With 3 kilometres left just before the final hill up to Ans, Valverde put in an attack and no-one could respond. He kept going and he wasn’t going to be caught it seemed.
Kirchen stayed with Schleck and Sanchez no able to go with Valverde, and he had to lead out on the home stretch, where they could see Valverde winning up the road. Kirchen was somehow passed in the sprint by Schleck, but he hold onto 3rd, which is a good result for us after a miserable week.
The pack was blown up into pieces but I had made one of the front groups, with a good chance of a top 10 if I could pull something off in the sprint. But in the end I could only manage 15th. It’s not a bad result though, and for some reason I’m actually quite pleased with that.
That’s it for Ardennes this year – 15th in La Doyenne was my biggest result.
I’m somewhat dissapointed but I will be back next year definitely fighting for podiums and maybe even a win. I over-rated myself going into these three races and it cost me in the end. I’m not going to make the same mistake next year. Now the big question is: Will I ride the Giro d’Italia or will be take a break and race the Vuelta? I’m waiting for a phone call to find out.
1 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott 7h12'23
2 Fränk Schleck Team CSC + 19
3 Kim Kirchen Team High Road s.t.
4 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom s.t.
5 Riccardo Riccò Saunier Duval - Scott + 1'48
6 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes + 2'40
7 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld + 3'08
8 Filippo Pozzato Liquigas + 3'15
9 Jelle Vanendert Française des Jeux s.t.
10 Maxime Monfort Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone s.t.
11 Matej Mugerli Liquigas s.t.
12 Leonardo Bertagnolli Quick•Step s.t.
13 Juanjo Cobo Team Astana s.t.
14 Alexandr Kolobnev Team CSC s.t.
15 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
16 Mathieu Sprick Bouygues Télécom s.t.
17 Sylvain Chavanel Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone s.t.
18 Daniele Pietropolli LPR Brakes s.t.
19 Rinaldo Nocentini Team CSC s.t.
20 Luca Pierfelici Quick•Step s.t.
Edited by niconico on 07-09-2008 22:11
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| Smoothie |
Posted on 07-09-2008 23:04
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Well done, i think that the Ardennes could have been worse. You are pretty consistant and next year should be yours  |
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| schleck93 |
Posted on 08-09-2008 14:46
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Classics Specialist
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Great 3rd for Kirchen, hopefully you will do better next year
BenBarnes wrote:
Thor wears a live rattlesnake as a condom.
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| niconico |
Posted on 08-09-2008 15:45
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
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Jonas’ Corner
The spring season is over and I have to evaluate a bit on my performance. My big goal, the Ardennes Week, failed more or less, I had a nice 15th in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, but after my big results last season I was hoping I could be in the podium fight, but that’s not how it would work out. Mainly because I had work a whole lot for Kirchen, which I’m not happy with and if I can’t get a guaranteed leader role next season, I might think about looking at other offers. I had offers from Rabobank, Caisse d’Epargne and Team CSC in the off-season, so I think I can find another team if I want to. But I don’t want to think about that now. Other than the Ardennes, I had some nice results this spring. 10th overall in Volta ao Algarve, 7th in Criterium International, 6th in Milano-Sanremo and some nice stage results in Paris-Nice. So despite of failing in the Ardennes, I’m content. I want to win soon though.
About the whole Grand Tour thing, my programme is now ready. I recieved a call from Brian the day after Liege-Bastogne-Liege, just after arriving in Italy, where I currently live. So which Grand Tour am I riding? It’s not the Tour de France, but I didn’t expect that either. I have checked out the profile and there’s a 60-kilometres team time trial, where I would be dropped dramatically and Kirchen needs some good time trialists around him to get him in a good position for the GC. The race I’m racing is Giro d’Italia. My first ever Grand Tour will be the Giro! It was going to start just over a week later, so I had to give up on riding Rund Um Den Henninger Turm to defend my win there. Above all I needed to relax before starting my first Grand Tour. No matter what I know it’s going to take a big effort just to pull through, but I’m really looking forward and the first week is perfect for me routewise, so everything goes well I might try and go after the la maglia rosa. That would be quite awesome.
Our captain for the race is Kanstantin Siutsou, and to back him up are me, Craig Lewis, Dainius Kairelis, Bert Grabsch, Marco Pinotti, André Greipel, Marcus Burghardt and Christian Knees. We should be able to provide great support, but Siutsou needs to come through with the riders he is facing for the overall. He is facing the likes of, Janez Brajkovic, Ivan Basso, Damiano Cunego, Danilo Di Luca, Linus Gerdemann and Vincenzo Nibali.
I have recieved a free role though which I will exploit to hunt stage wins. The first week I will stay in the peloton though and try to do something on the hilly stages here. Stage 2 provides a perfect opportunity for me with a 1-kilometres climb to the finish. That’s more or less made for me. I will have to limit my time loss in prologue, but it’s only 6 kilometres, so I think I can do that.
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| schleck93 |
Posted on 08-09-2008 15:49
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3715
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GReat to hear him riding the Giro, if you are lucky you will get a stage win
BenBarnes wrote:
Thor wears a live rattlesnake as a condom.
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| G_Larsson |
Posted on 08-09-2008 16:21
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Sprinter
Posts: 1779
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Awesome that you are going to ride the Giro !
JAJ for la maglia rosa !!
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| niconico |
Posted on 08-09-2008 16:45
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4102
Joined: 09-07-2007
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Giro d’Italia – Prologue
Three weeks of hard work and pain awaits me and the other 190 riders here in Cagliari for the prologue of this year’s Giro d’Italia. I’m so happy to be here as I think this has been a perfect choice from Brian to let me race my first Grand Tour here. As I have mentioned earlier I love racing in Italy and I spend a lot of training hours here, so it kind of feels like it’s on home turf for me. I’m still in great form having taken some time to relax after Liege-Bastogne-Liege, and I will be aiming to do something for myself this first week. We have brought Greipel here as our sprinter, but it will most likely be me who is to participate in the mass sprints, because Greipel’s form isn’t very good and won’t be throughout the first week. This race will be interesting because of so many things. Siutsou is one of those reasons. He has come here in great form and I’m really looking forward to working for him in the mountains. There’s just something special about grinding yourself over the big mountain for one of your team-mates, which I did back in March in Paris-Nice for Thomas Løvkvist and if we have the same kind of succes here, then it’s going to be a great race. My goal for myself is clear though: I want a to win a stage.
It’s not going to be today though as I, expectedly would finish way down. Bert Grabsch turned in a big performance though as he took the lead after crossing the line. He held on for a long time, until Brajkovic beat him by 1 second. Vincenzo Nibali went close aswell, leading at the intermediate time check. But he ended 3rd, a fraction of a second slower than Grabsch. Siutsou did well to only lose 18 seconds. So a good start for us.
Siutsou had a good start to his Giro.
Nibali came close but had to settle for 3rd at the end.
Tomorrow is my first ever Grand Tour stage, it’s a flat stage and it will most likely come down to sprint, where I will try to be up there with the big boys.
The first maglia rosa in this year’s Giro goes to Brajkovic.
1 Janez Brajkovic Team Astana 7'30
2 Bert Grabsch Team High Road + 1
3 Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas s.t.
4 Linus Gerdemann Rabobank + 2
5 Gustav Larsson Saunier Duval - Scott + 3
6 Joost Posthuma Rabobank s.t.
7 Ivan Basso Team CSC + 4
8 Kristof Vandewalle Team CSC + 5
9 Christian Müller Silence - Lotto s.t.
10 Filippo Pozzato Liquigas + 6
11 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes + 7
12 Markus Reich Quick•Step + 8
13 Tony Martin Team Astana s.t.
14 Matteo Montaguti LPR Brakes + 9
15 Laurens Ten Dam Gerolsteiner s.t.
16 Niki Terpstra Gerolsteiner + 10
17 Bauke Mollema Rabobank s.t.
18 Nick Nuyens Team CSC s.t.
19 Manuel Medina Team Astana + 11
20 Ricardo Mestre Rabobank s.t.
140 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 32
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