@Alakagom: Nobody can beat Andy! I think his (+5) daily form and Cancellara's (-5) played a big role in this TT. Also, the TT is classified as hilly, which favoured Andy too. But it was no doubt a great performance from him.
@tsmoha: Yes, indeed a perfect preparation.
@valverde: Everybody loves Mario! It might be hard for Cancellara to survive the hard mountain stage, but Andy looks good for an overall win.
The first road stage in this race. It is classified as flat, but halfway in the stage the riders will have to climb the 1st category Simplonpass. That might crack some of the weaker sprinters, in favour for the hilly sprinters. However, the second half of the stage is completely flat, except for a small hill 15 kilometres from the line. The hill isn't very hard, though, so it shouldn't be enough to prevent a mass sprint.
Brice Feillu and Anders Lund set a quite high pace on Simplonpass, so the absolute top sprinters; Cavendish, Petacchi, Goss, Hushovd and Bos, lost contact, along with many other riders. All our riders were able to stay in the pack, though.
With three kilometres left Max Monfort did his best to put Cancellara and Pedersen in a good position for the sprint, while Katusha were leading out Luca Paolini on the other side of the road.
Max did a good job, Cancellara started the sprint from the front of the pack with Pedersen in his slipstream.
Paolini (Katusha), Lorenzetto (Astana) and Appollonio (Sky) quickly moved from the Katusha train to follow Pedersen instead.
Pedersen flew past Cancellara with a kilometer to go, but Paolini and Lorenzetto easily moved out of Pedersen's slipstream and was going faster than our fast Dane.
One rider was going faster than everybody else, though. Young Italian Davide Appollonio blasted past Pedersen, Paolini and Lorenzetto. Pedersen had nothing to answer with, as his form is still not great.
Appollonio took the stage win after a magnificent sprint. Lorenzetto grabbed the second place just ahead of a fast finishing Francisco Ventoso (Movistar), Paolini and Pedersen.
Wow, you have so many flags. I like to have flags in my results too, but it takes forever just to put in 10. How long does it take you to do this many?
valverde321 wrote:
Wow, you have so many flags. I like to have flags in my results too, but it takes forever just to put in 10. How long does it take you to do this many?
I think it looks much better, so I can live with that it takes some time. I'm not sure how long time it takes, but it certainly takes a while.
The hardest stage so far in this race. First we will be taking on the first category Col des Mosses. After that we will be climbing up to Schwarzenburg twice, with the second time being the finish.
We set a high pace on the 1st category Col des Mosses, which once again resulted in that many riders dropped off. However, with 1.5km to the top of the climb I realised that one rider who shouldn't have problems to follow this pace was dropping off the back of the peloton. Overall race favourite Ivan Basso!
Many other riders also dropped off, including Basso, who lost contact over the top. The Italian was currently struggling 1'30 behind the pack. He surely won't win this race if he struggles like this.
Two riders broke away on the flat after the descent: Russian champion Alexander Kolobnev (Katusha) and Luca Solari (Androni Giocattoli). This was quite surprising, as Kolobnev has shown signs of good form.
Fifty kilometres from the finish the two leaders had an advantage of 2'30. That worried Lampre and Rabobank, who put some riders on the front to decrease the gap to the leaders.
Kolobnev was clearly the strongest of the two in the brekaway, as he dropped Solari already on the penultimate climb. He was now three minutes ahead of the pack, although even more teams were relaying in the pack.
With twenty kilometres left Kolobnev was still three minutes ahead. We decided to send up Fuglsang to help the other teams.
Fuglsang did a great job, as Kolobnev started the final "climb" with only two minutes advantage. Our Danish super domestique was stronger than all the riders that the other teams had sent up.
Gilbert was obviously feeling good, as he placed a powerful attack immediately as the pack started the final "climb". Andy didn't counter, but he did move to the front with the dot to try to bridge the small gap Gilbert got.
However, nobody could take the win from Kolobnev today. This was an impressive ride by the Russian after 60 kilometres in breakaway. He will also take over the overall lead from Andy.
Andy caught and sprinted by Gilbert in the last kilometer to take second, while Cancellara held on for 4th ahead of Hesjedal. Schleck and Gilbert is now second and third overall respectively, thanks to that they created a gap to the rest.
Good stage for you.
Probably not on purpose that the 6th picture appears twice?
Probably because it`s a nice screenshot.
Edited by roturn on 24-04-2011 20:19
Alakagom wrote:
+1. Great review of the Dauphine, that had to take some time to do, looks fantastic.
Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it. Like you said, it took almost two hours to do that review, but it was worth it since I am really happy about how it looks.
Stage 4: Schwarzenburg - Wettingen: 192.0km
After the hard stage yesterday, the riders will get a bit of a relax day, as this stage is a lot easier than the last one. However, the riders will have to climb the 3rd category Regensberg twice in the last in the second half of the stage. The climb isn't a long one, but it's very steep instead. That, or a breakaway, is the only thing that can prevent this stage from ending in a mass sprint.
Five riders broke away immediately after the start to form todays breakaway. One of them was a Leopard rider: Brice Feillu. The other four were: Jonathan Castroviejo (Euskaltel), Carlo Scognamiglio (Farnese Neri), Chris Barton (BMC) and Manuel Cardoso (Radioshack). However, they never had any chance to survive and were caught with over thirty kilometres left.
New race leader Alexander Kolobnev enjoyed his ride today. The Russian were protected by Italian team mate Filippo Pozzato all the day.
Once again, Cancellara was Pedersen's leadout man in the sprint. As always, the Swiss did a great job, hitting the front with 2.5km left. Unfortunately, Pedersen was quite tired, as the pace had been really high on the last climb.
Bresche (Rabobank)l, who had been sitting on Pedersen's wheel accelerated past with just under a kilometer to go. Pedersen was too tired to respond, he had to dig deep just to pass Cancellara. Mirco Lorenzetto (Astana) and the winner from stage 2, Davide Appollonio (Sky) were sprinting towards the line at a very high speed.
Lorenzetto were the strongest and the Italian gets a nice victory here after his second place on stage 2.
Breschel easily held the second place, while Pedersen had enough power to take the last podium spot. Cancellara finished fourth and Schleck 7th. Race leader Kolobnev continues to show good form by finishing in the top 10.
Stage 5: Wettingen - Frutigen: 160.9km
Todays stage is quite similar to yesterday's. Mostly flat, but with the difficulties (KoM sprints) coming close to the end. Today we have the 3rd category Aeschi climb topping with just ten kilometres left. That will probably crack most of the sprinters, in favour for the GC riders.
The Aeschi climb was harder than I expected, as many riders struggled. One guy who shouldn't have problems to follow almost lost contact on the climb; Katusha's leader JoaquÃm RodrÃguez. This was really surprising, as he usually loves this kind of stages. I thought he was aiming for the Tour, but I might have been wrong.
Pedersen was too tired to sprint for the win today, so he set up Cancellara and Andy in a good position instead. Fuglsang had a great day (+5), so he decided to follow Andy's wheel.
When Pedersen's work was done, Cancellara took by. He lead out Andy and Jakob in a great position. Yesterday's winner Mirco Lorenzetto (Astana) had already started his sprint, while Davide Appollonio (Sky) was following him.
Andy passed Cancellara in the last kilometer. Fuglsang was still following him, while Lorenzetto was starting to slow down. His long sprint was obviously too long for him.
Fuglsang used his last powers to pass Andy in the last 200 meters and the Dane gets a very nice stage win here. Andy was also surprisingly strong in sprint and finished second, while Lorenzetto still managed to get third. Purito can thank PCM's brilliant gap system today, as all riders got the same time.
I just got a new computer, which has a much better graphic card than my MacBook, so the new one runs PCM like 100 times smoother with much better graphics. Because of that, I have totally lost motivation to play it on my MacBook. Unfortunately, that means the end of this story.
However, I promise to be back with a new story here soon. This time, I will choose a smaller team, to prevent too much winning.
I just got a new computer, which has a much better graphic card than my MacBook, so the new one runs PCM like 100 times smoother with much better graphics. Because of that, I have totally lost motivation to play it on my MacBook. Unfortunately, that means the end of this story.
However, I promise to be back with a new story here soon. This time, I will choose a smaller team, to prevent too much winning.
I hope you forgive me.
Why dont you transfer the story to your new Computer?
I understand as I done the same when I got my new laptop, ended my mini Giro story for FDJ, but it has been a very good story and I have enjoyed reading it. Can't wait for your new one
@roturn / Miggi: Unfortunately not, as I used a custom DB in the story. To make that work I would have to copy everything. Also, the new computer is able to run the 2011 Daily DB, which my MacBook couldn't. I'm going to use that instead.
@Freitas: I'm glad you liked it. I will surely start another story shortly. I just have to decide a team, which isn't that easy. It could actually be Skil-Shimano. I like the team.
@Ste117: It's great to hear that many people liked the story. It motivates me to start a new one asap.
Second point is indeed a good reason to start over
Good luck with the new story as this one was good to read. A smaller team would be indeed more interesting.
I think his (+5) daily form and Cancellara's (-5) played a big role in this TT. Also, the TT is classified as hilly, which favoured Andy too. But it was no doubt a great performance from him.
