A single day classic in Italy, should provide many teams a second chance at taking us off the spot for promotion before some better suited days come Auber 93's way.
With the hills near the end of the route, if the race hasn't been sorted out by then, it will soon after!
The race is an ideal race to get Morizot and Chainel up to level 3 experience before we rock onto some harder races next year.
Also we've decided to bring Drujon along so that should no break get away, or only a small one, we've got a rider capable of doing us well in the sprint.
As the race started on a downhill, Morizot went off, and got in a large break after some fighting from the peloton.
These 14 riders would end up fighting for a good result as the race behind them kept attacking, chasing, sitting up and so on.
On the final climb of the day, the break was still away, with some worse hilly riders having been dropped. Garzelli attacked out the bunch, and so Levarlet countered with what energy he had left. He managed to get a gap, but not get to Garzelli.
This Garzelli group would catch up with the lead, which still had our Morizot sat in saving energy. Levarlet was then joined by one other rider who helped him stay clear of the bunch for the remaining 10 kilometres before that rider blew and went back.
Bertolini, one of the attackers on the climb, attacked once more and got clear to solo to a great victory.
Morizot, still sat in, managed to follow some wheels to claim the 11th place, and get a few points.
Levarlet got caught right on the line, with Drujon breathing down his neck.
I lied previously when i said there were no more stage races. I forgot the most important one of all - the Tour of Britain!
This years tour starts with a 7km prologue around London, before heading out upto Scotland, coming back down the country through the midlands and down even as far as Taunton, just near this managers home
With Morizot having just found his racing feet at last, he'll be the man to head this up as the race is largely flat in comparison to races found in main land Europe. Of course Drujon will be here for the sprints, and we hope he can limit his losses in the prologue so that he can gain enough sprint bonus seconds to move upto a great overall position.
Stage one looks like this:
Pan flat, and with a slight breeze to ruffle the hair, or tree leaves. Maybe even enough to blow the occasional one down from the trees as they brown slightly in the Autumn air.
Our team isn't the strongest we've ever fielded, but with a couple of single day cobble races and sprinters classics again over running with the tour, we have to send our strong flat riders elsewhere.
The first rider off for us today would be the one hope for overall glory today, Morizot. And he set the best time by 36 seconds over the previous 6 riders!
A lovely place to ride, with the backdrop of Londons architecture, and for once, traffic free.
Brit Geraint Thomas (Barloworld), having not ridden the Tour de France, was raring to go in his home tour, and quickly narrowed that lead down to just 16 seconds, showing that the Brits are not to be messed with.
Unluckily for our second rider off, Chainel, he had to follow Mikhael Ignatiev, a up and coming star, both on the track and on the road. With his beautiful riding style he powered his way to a perfect lead.
Chainel tries to psyche himself up following Ignatiev's powerful start.
But for Ignatiev, it just wasn't enough, as recently crowned American time trial champion Dave Zabriskie stole the lead from him by a whopping 7 seconds. Obviously he has kept his form in the few days from the USA Championship races.
Zabriskie will be wearing the leaders jersey tomorrow as he completed the stage in a time of 10'20.
Results: 1 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC 10'20
2 Mikhail Ignatiev TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 7
3 Manuel Lloret FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM + 10
4 MartÃn Garrido DUJA - TAVIRA + 13 5 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 + 17
6 Nikolai Trussov TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 18
7 Martijn Keizer RABOBANK CONTINENTAL + 19
8 Jos Van Emden RABOBANK CONTINENTAL s.t.
9 Christian Müller SKIL - SHIMANO + 21
10 Nico Mattan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
11 Michael Blaudzun TEAM CSC s.t.
12 Pavel Brutt TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 22
13 Nicolas Vogondy AGRITUBEL s.t.
14 Tom Veelers RABOBANK CONTINENTAL + 24
15 Oleg Chuzhda FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM + 25 47 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 + 42
75 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 + 52
80 Christophe Diguet AUBER 93 + 54
82 Jean Mespoulède AUBER 93 s.t.
85 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 + 56 94 Anthony Ravard AGRITUBEL + 1'07
Even though the stage is classed as a hilly one, the end would come down to a mass sprint finish unless a break gets away. However, with CSC in charge, that is unlikely.
A big break did get away for the day, containing both Brouzes and Haedo (CSC) who sat on the back and did nothing. Brouzes took both climbs, and so the jersey, and Haedo attacked later on, and would still be in the lead with 20 seconds coming into the final 3 km.
Drujon had got onto Eisel's train, and so was looking good.
Haedo held out for a solo win, but not a big enough gap for seconds, and Drujon came through to take a solid 3rd place.
Another pan flat day should see no worries for the sprinters, but with points on offer for the climbs, Auber 93 would be active in the break once more.
As to that, Brouzes was looking good in his nice jersey and gobbled up both climbs from the break of 4.
Coming into the final 8km, amazingly, without me noticing, Haedo BROKE away from the pack just by soloing off, he took one other with him, and they lead by 45 seconds into the final 3km.
Obviously Haedo is in the form of his life, having led for 8km alone, he out sprinted his follower for his 2nd win in as many days.
Haedo is on something for sure. I think he's popping peppermint polos...
Stage Four
ANOTHER sprinters stage, but with a 60kmph wind, this will shatter the field throughout the day.
Chainel went with the break today, as with no mountain points of offer, Brouzes took a rest!
The strong side wind split the field halfway though the chase, and many of the top 10 riders were caught behind, and had to chase hard to get back on. They would lack that extra kick for the finale.
Coming into the finish, for once Haedo hadn't got away, and Morizot had led Drujon to the front.
But with no sprint to talk of, Drujon then had to switch to find a wheel. He took on Hunters wheel, before he started to fade, and switched to track down Eisel. A 3rd place was his reward as CSC, and especially Haedo took another win for their bag. Maybe tomorrow a stage will be won by a different team?
A nice cobble race, with sharp climbs in, will sort out the boys and men from Damien Gaudin's prowess.
The squad is of course the usual suspects. Malacarne will be vice captain, and if Tronet has a good day, he can produce a very fast finish to astonish a few tagger-ons.
The course looks like:
Over the very steep climb in the middle, the longest one, only one rider is away, and Auber 93 are all placed nicely at the head of the field.
The pack remains together, slowly wittling down until a field of 50 remains. A few riders attack on the penultimate section of cobbles, and Gaudin goes with them.
A group of 4 forms which will contest the win.
The tosser that is the Quickstep rider doesnt do a single turn of the pedals to help, and he quickly goes for it with 3km to go. Gaudin not being fooled this time, gets on his wheel, and follows him all the way to the line for a 2nd place.
A very solid result that takes us 130 points clear into promotion zone. (i do expect a shrine built for me, who ever promised a while back...)
A flat stage with a very hilly final 2km will probably stop many of the sprinters trying today, but Drujon has a fairly good hilly rating anyway, so he'll be up there once more trying his luck.
An early breakaway of De Fauw went, and then Brouzes countered Guidi and one other. They caught De Fauw just over the top of the only climb of the day, and so Brouzes extends his lead even more in that competition.
The break swelled upto 7 riders strong, with Brouzes taking a 2nd and a 1st at the sprints for a bit of cash.
It was caught however with 25km to go, and so it would come down to a bunch finish.
Drujon moved up right to the front before finding Vogondys wheel to follow.
With just 1km left, Vogondy led out, with Drujon taking Morizot with him. Ignatiev came storming up the side however to claim the win. Drujon taking another 3rd place.
Results:
1 Mikhail Ignatiev TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS 4h13'02
2 Nicolas Vogondy AGRITUBEL s.t. 3 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 s.t.
4 Manuel Lloret FUERTEVENTURA - CANARIAS TEAM s.t. 5 Florian Morizot AUBER 93 s.t.
6 Axel Merckx T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
7 Samuel Plouhinec AGRITUBEL s.t.
8 Paul Martens SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
9 Bert De Waele LANDBOUWKREDIET - TÖNISSTEINER s.t.
10 Kenny De Ketele CHOCOLADE JACQUES - TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN s.t. 26 Steve Chainel AUBER 93 s.t.
67 Christophe Diguet AUBER 93 s.t.
70 Jean Mespoulède AUBER 93 s.t.
83 Niels Brouzes AUBER 93 + 3'26 93 Robby Meul DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 12'19
Another sprinters stage, and even though a breakaway got away, it was brought back with 15km to go.
Hammond led out Eisel, Haedo and Drujon very powerfully, causing a split, which then disappeared again, but would have made Drujon move up a LOT of places.
Eisel held off Haedo's charge for the line to claim a win, and the seconds required to move up the GC.
ops: 
