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Dominik Nerz: Germany's stage racing hope (Ended, next season in PCM 2011)
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 10-08-2011 13:56
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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August 26, 2011
Transfer news!
Rider Out:
Now it's official: We weren't able to keep our best stage racer. Tour de France's third wanted a new environment and signed for Katusha. Still, he will be our captain at the upcoming Vuelta and promised to give all he has to make us one last gift. He really is a sportsman.
As we couldn't compensate Basso's loss with one rider, we signed two new stage racers. You already know the first one, Janez Brajkovic, the second one is...
Riders In:
… Roman Kreuziger! After one year at Astana, we were able to convince him to return. With only Nibali above him, he hopes to lead us in at least one Grand Tour. His major results in 2011 were a 16th at the Tour, a fourth in the Tour de Suisse and several young riders classification. We're confident that he can improve a bit more to compete for GT wins.
Also, we decided who the young rider will be that'll get his big chance at out team:
Carlo Favini is a specialist for hilly classics and was on place 7 of the U23 world ranking, as the second best Italian.
There is still one rider left, our major transfer. To increase the suspense, he will be announced not until the end of the Vuelta. But you might want to guess...
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 10-08-2011 14:15
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8075
Joined: 22-06-2009
PCM$: 650.00
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Some interesting transfers there. Basso out --> Kreuziger back in. Hopefully it will work out for you in the future. 
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 16-02-2025 15:14
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| tsmoha |
Posted on 10-08-2011 14:27
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Directeur Sportif
Posts: 11819
Joined: 19-07-2010
PCM$: 300.00
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Kreuziger is a decent replacement for Basso.
Your last transfer... I guess, it will be a sprinter?! I go for Guardini
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 11-08-2011 06:51
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World Champion
Posts: 14236
Joined: 20-06-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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Nice signing in Kreuziger, should be for the future.
And i think one good sprinter too- Modolo, or Bennati back
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 11-08-2011 08:50
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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August 27, 2011
 Vuelta a Espana - Preview
The race
This year's Vuelta starts with a team time trial in Sevilla, followed by three rather hilly stage through Andalucia. Stages 5, 6 and 7 should be in sprinter's hands.
After two demanding hilly stages, a flat one and the first rest day, the tough mountains finally begin on stage 11 with a mountain top finish in Andorra. Two flat stages follow, and then we have another, very small mountain finish in Pena Cabarga and a bit longer one up to Lagos de Covadonga.
One of the most demanding stages of this Vuelta follows the second rest day: Three mountains prepare the pack for the summit finish on the Cotobello. Then, 47 km of time trial in Penafiel will shape the GC even more.
Two flat stages are only the calm before the last storm: Stage 20 is the queen stage, leading the pack up to the Bola del Mundo. After that, the pack will roll out on the last stage, finishing most likely with a bunch sprint in Madrid.
The Contenders
General Classification
The Vuelta is staffed with top riders, e.g. the full podium of the Tour is present here. But as some riders have already lots of race days in their legs, it's hard to make a prediction. I'll try it here, nevertheless:
Ivan Basso (Liquigas)
It might be a risky guess to put Basso as top favorite, but the Italian has planned for the Vuelta and starts the race with 44 days in his legs. He proved what he can do in Grand Tours with his third place in the Tour.
Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank)
Usually being the top favorite in every stage race he participates in, Contador has the big handicap of having raced 63 days this year. We can't expect him to be in top shape here, yet he must be considered a main overall contender.
Igor Anton (Euskaltel)
The Basque showed in the Tour that he's one of the best climbers in the world. 43 race days will allow him to be in great shape, and if he manages to ride consistent, he can reach the top of the podium.
Denis Menchov (Geox)
Two times winner of the Vuelta, Denis Menchov clearly likes this race. Also, he seems to peak for the Vuelta and has only 40 race days so far. And he still is one of the best stage racers in the world.
Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel)
Tour de France's second has the same problem as Contador: 56 race days is close to the maximum that you can ride without harming your shape, so he might ride for Igor Anton this time.
Nicholas Roche (Ag2r)
The Irish surprised with a ninth overall in the Tour, and even improved since then. With 51 race days, he might be able to keep a good shape during the Vuelta.
Fränk Schleck (Leopard)
Michael Rogers (Sky)
Carlos Sastre (Geox)
Janez Brajkovic (RadioShack)
Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank)
Juan Jose Cobo (Geox)
Ezequiel Mosquera (Vacansoleil)
Jurgen Van den Broeck (Omega Pharma)
Damiano Cunego (Lampre)
Points Classification
Andre Greipel (Omega Pharma)
The German likes the Vuelta: Four stage wins and the points jersey 09 speak for themselves. Also, he has the least race days of the top sprinters and should be able to get a good shape.
Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar)
Rojas has few race days as well, but most important: He is a great hilly sprinter, which might be a big advance considering the profiles of some of the flat stages.
Mark Cavendish (HTC)
Not much to say: The world's best sprinter has to be considered in this ranking.
Tyler Farrar (Garmin)
Manuel Cardoso (RadioShack)
Thor Hushovd (Garmin)
Young Riders Classification
Robert Kiserlovski (Astana)
The third of the young riders classification of the Tour comes to Spain as Astana's captain. He is the top favorite.
Tiago Machado (RadioShack)
Machado will probably have to help his leaders Brajkovic and Armstrong, otherwise, he might have good chances for this ranking.
Stefan Denifl (Leopard)
The young Austrian made a big leap this season and has to be considered here.
Rafael Valls (Geox)
Francesco Masciarelli (Astana)
Romain Sicard (Euskaltel)
Team Liquigas
Just as for the Tour, everything is again concentrated on Ivan Basso. His mountain support consists of Eros Capecchi, Valerio Agnoli and Alessandro Vanotti. Francesco Sabatini and Tiziano Dall'Antonia are for the sprints, Cameron Wurf and Maciej Bodnar are mostly here for the Team Time Trial. Maurizio Da Dalto is just a fill-in.
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| dienblad |
Posted on 11-08-2011 12:43
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3772
Joined: 10-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Kreuziger is a great replacemnet for Basso. He is many years younger, and although he is a little beat weaker in the mountains, he is a better TT-er. So let's hope for some GT's next season with a lot of TT-kilometres in it!
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 11-08-2011 13:44
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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Thanks @ all. Glad that you like Kreuziger!
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 11-08-2011 13:47
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8075
Joined: 22-06-2009
PCM$: 650.00
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Great preview of the Vuelta, very well written
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| roturn |
Posted on 11-08-2011 13:49
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Team Manager
Posts: 22263
Joined: 24-11-2007
PCM$: 3900.00
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Good luck in the Vuelta. Seems like a tough challenge with Menchov and Anton still pretty fresh and also Contador. Also the sprints look interesting. |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 11-08-2011 13:52
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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August 30, 2011
2.PT: Vuelta a Espana – Stage 1-3
Stage 1
The Vuelta started with the team time trial, and Sky won it. Geox was surprisingly strong and underlined their ambitions. While Euskaltel surprised with a strong fourth place, Liquigas failed and lost more than a minute.
Result
| 1 |  Sky ProCycling | . | 21'18 | | 2 | Geox – TMC | . | s.t. | | 3 |  Team RadioShack | . | + 3 | | … | | 21 |  Liquigas - Cannondale | . | + 1'01 |
Stage 2
The second stage already provided the first difficulties. The first part was hilly, as well as the finish was. And the result showed that: Oscar Freire won in front of Karsten Kroon and Edvald Boasson Hagen, who takes the overall lead. Tiziano Dall'Antonia finished 19th.
A bit surprising, two riders already had to gave up: HTC's Alex Rasmussen and unfortunately also our Maciej Bodnar, who obviously didn't recover enough from his injury during the Eneco Tour.
Forgot to take a screen...
Result
| 1 | Oscar Freire | Rabobank | 4h27'47 | | 2 |  Karsten Kroon | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 3 |  Edvald Boasson Hagen | Sky ProCycling | s.t. |
Stage 3
The first „official“ mountain stage of this Vuelta came very early. Eros Capecchi went into the break and took the mountain jersey. Most favorites attacked on the last ascent, and six riders eventually finished in front of the pack: Contador, Luis Leon Sanchez, Damiano Cunego, Ezequiel Mosquera, Fränk Schleck and Ivan Basso. The latter set the decisive attack with 2 km to go and secured his first stage win. The bunch of 36 riders finished 51 seconds behind them.
The only GC contender losing more time today was Bradley Wiggins, who came in nearly 4 minutes behind.
Result
| 1 | Ivan Basso | Liquigas – Cannondale | 3h59'21 | | 2 | Alberto Contador | Saxo Bank – Sungard | s.t. | | 3 |  Fränk Schleck | Leopard – Trek | s.t. |
General Classification after Stage 3:
| 1 | Fränk Schleck | Leopard - Trek | 8h48'36 | | 2 | Alberto Contador | Saxo Bank - Sungard | + 7 | | 3 | Luis León Sánchez | Rabobank | + 15 | | 4 | Damiano Cunego | Lampre - ISD | + 18 | | 5 | Ezequiel Mosquera | Vacansoleil - DMC | + 28 | | 6 | Ivan Basso | Liquigas - Cannondale | + 32 | | 7 |  Michael Rogers | Sky ProCycling | + 41 | | 8 | David De la Fuente | Geox - TMC | + 42 | | 9 |  Denis Menchov | Geox - TMC | s.t. | | 10 | Juan José Cobo | Geox - TMC | s.t. |
Points Classification after Stage 3:
| 1 | Óscar Freire | Rabobank | 25 | | 2 | Ivan Basso | Liquigas - Cannondale | 25 | | 3 | Karsten Kroon | BMC Racing Team | 21 |
Mountain Classification after Stage 3:
| 1 | Eros Capecchi | Liquigas - Cannondale | 18 | | 2 | Igor Antón | Euskaltel - Euskadi | 16 | | 3 | Ivan Basso | Liquigas - Cannondale | 16 |
Young Riders Classification after Stage 3:
| 1 | Rafael Valls | Geox - TMC | 8h49'18 | | 2 | Arkaitz Duran | Geox – TMC | + 2 | | 3 |  Robert Kiserlovski | Astana | + 21 |
Team Classification after Stage 3:
| 1 | Geox – TMC | . | 25h45'16 | | 2 | Team RadioShack | . | + 3 | | 3 | Euskaltel – Euskadi | . | + 10 |
Edited by cunego59 on 11-08-2011 13:53
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| Avin Wargunnson |
Posted on 11-08-2011 14:10
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World Champion
Posts: 14236
Joined: 20-06-2011
PCM$: 300.00
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Great early win by Ivan
He must benefit from the lesser race days,watch out for Anton and Menchov...
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| johannes-w |
Posted on 11-08-2011 14:11
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Breakaway Specialist
Posts: 833
Joined: 24-04-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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wow looking like a great start into the vuelta with a stage victory and a jersey so basso could get some time back after the bad ttt i hope you can keep the mountain jersey for some days |
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| Mresuperstar |
Posted on 11-08-2011 14:18
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8075
Joined: 22-06-2009
PCM$: 650.00
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Would be great to see Basso win the Vuelta before he is shipped out to be replaced with Kreuziger. Great early win on stage 3.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 11-08-2011 14:22
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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Thanks guys The TTT was a massive disappointment, maybe with Bodnar in a better shape (without his injury), it could have been better. But now I have to cope with that. I'm already close to the end of the season (a bit after the WCs) and I can tell you that it was a bloody thrilling Vuelta. You can really look forward to that
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| FreitasPCM |
Posted on 11-08-2011 14:31
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8389
Joined: 08-09-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Good win with Basso! Gained some time to other GC contenders. |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 12-08-2011 09:05
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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@ FreitasPCM: Yep, Basso is in a good position now.
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 12-08-2011 09:07
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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August 30, 2011
NC - American Championships
During the first days of the Vuelta, the American Championships took place.
The time trial provided a small surprise. Levi Leipheimer obviously lost his good shape from the Tour, finishing second behind the new champion David Zabriskie. The Liquigas riders had no chance, as expected.
Result
| 1 | David Zabriskie | Team Garmin – Cervelo | 42'36 | | 2 | Levi Leipheimer | Team RadioShack | + 29 | | 3 | Tejay Van Garderen | HTC – Highroad | + 37 |
Sixth national time trialing title for David Zabriskie.
The road race was missing the top favorite: Tyler Farrar takes part in the Vuelta, so the continental teams provide the best sprinters. A break including Edward King dominated the day and got caught with only 4 km to go. The sprint was won by Iván Dominguez.
Result
| 1 | Iván Dominguez | Jamis – Sutter Home | 3h54'32 | | 2 | Charles Bradley Huff | Jelly Belly presented by Kenda | s.t. | | 3 | Jake Keogh | UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling | s.t. |
The biggest success in Ivan Dominguez' career.
Edited by cunego59 on 12-08-2011 13:46
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 12-08-2011 13:12
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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September 1, 2011
Monthly Summary: August
Business as usual: Here's the summary for august:
Tom Veelers (2) and Kenny Van Hummel with three more wins for Skil. But the most important race of this month hasn't finished yet.
Cunego overtakes Nibali in the individual ranking. The top 4 of the team ranking are still very close. At the bottom, Movistar increased their advance on the last two spots, but they aren't safe yet.
After a great month, Skil overtakes the lead in the team ranking, and Tom Veelers is now on two. Also, Farnese Vini had a good month and climbs on three.
Contador is now in front of Nibali in this ranking as well after winning the Vuelta a Burgos. Still, Liquigas leads the team ranking quite comfortably. A lot of movement happened in the fight for promotion: Cofidis and Landbouwkrediet lost their top places, now it would be FDJ and Skil who advanced into World Tour.
No big changes here. Nibali and Liquigas lead, although the others are coming a bit closer.
Tomas Vaitkus (Astana) won the most important race of the month (so far), the Eneco Tour. Chris Barton must have some kind of relation to the editors of the magazine, as he didn't do anything extraordinary this month...
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| kitface |
Posted on 12-08-2011 13:41
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Domestique
Posts: 408
Joined: 11-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Just something I noticed you might want to fix, You wrote Australian Championships instead of American Championships. But great writing as usual. By the way, what is Dominik's next race? |
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 12-08-2011 13:48
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Team Manager
Posts: 6551
Joined: 14-09-2008
PCM$: 1290.00
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Thanks for the hint, always nice to know that I have attentive readers I fixed it.
Dominik's next race isn't quite clear yet, as he won't race anymore this season. So his next race will be in 2012, and I'm not in the plannings for next season yet.
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