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From zero to Giro - The CCC Polsat Polkowice story
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 30-04-2013 09:23
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Tour de France Champion
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An awesome win thanks to Boeckmans  |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 30-04-2013 12:44
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Tour de France Champion
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A Great victory for Valery, the first of many i hope  |
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| wroblitz |
Posted on 30-04-2013 17:53
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So, the most important day of Santos Tour Down Under is over.
As Monsalve was holding massive lead in KoM ranking I wasn't bother with the breakaways. Instead of that I concentraded on dictating peloton pace.
Coca-Cola in charge of the peloton.
Team leader - Pierre Rolland.
With 40 km to go 3 puncheurs attacked. I didn't want to commit mistake from day 2, so I counter attacked them with Josep Cardo. They managed to stay ahead of the peloton only for 15 km. After that it was only Romain Bardet in front, with nearly 1 min lead. He was chased down before the final climb, and then whole battle started. De Gendt first launched the attack. He was countered by Tosh Van der Sande and Pierre Roland. De Gendt was out of my reach, but I managed to pass Van der Sande, and get 22" to the peloton.
So with only one stage to go Rolland is 3rd in general, and it will probably stay that way.
Edited by wroblitz on 30-04-2013 17:55
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 30-04-2013 18:02
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
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Rolland with a great stage there. 3th would be a good start of the season  |
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| Roozeken |
Posted on 30-04-2013 22:07
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Under 23
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Do you play on hard or extreme by now??
Congrats for holding on with the story, one of my favorites to follow. |
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| wroblitz |
Posted on 01-05-2013 07:21
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Whole my career I play on hard Roozeken. In fact I never tried extreme as I heard it's super hard, and it leads to unreal results.
Last day in Australia.
Yet again didn't take part in breakaways, as my main goal was to end that stage with mass sprint, and hopefully win in with Burlakov (however 3rd place would guarantee him green jersey).
Breakaway was caught only 10 km before the finish line. I formed my train and then something strange happened. My train dropped down to like middle of peloton. I thought it's over, but then Rasmussen did great job and move it to the front, with just 5 km to go. Sprint started, and despite very good performance from the Aussies, it was Latvian Burlakov, who crossed the line. It has to be said that he was in great form for the final day in Adelaide (+5).
Here are the final rankings.
Santos Tour Down Under (WT)
Overall: 3rd Rolland
Points: 1st Burlakov, 2nd Monsalve
Mountain: 1st Monsalve
Young: 1st Cardo
Team: 6th
I would consider Tour Down Under very good tour if it wasn't on my sponsor's list. I failed to fulfil their goal as finished only 3rd in GC. Apart from - that great performance from the team, especially Jonathan Monsalve. First 3 jerseys for the team, and after first tour of the season Coca-Cola leads in World Tour ranking.
Edited by wroblitz on 01-05-2013 07:30
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 01-05-2013 08:14
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
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Well, Rolland did good, he'll have a blast season
Also the rest of the team performed well! |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 01-05-2013 10:28
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Tour de France Champion
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Rolland totally deserved his place on the podium
And nice to see the team grab three jerseys as well |
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| wroblitz |
Posted on 01-05-2013 19:27
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After Australia my team went back to Europe - France in particular Marseille for Grand Prix la Marseillaise (1.1).
With 55 km to go few puncheurs attacked. I joined them wit Cardo but they were caught shortly afterwards. 5 km later there was another try. This time I tried my luck with Monsalve. With 16 km to go they were just over 1 min ahead of the peloton. Another few riders launched the attack, and this time it was Pierre Rolland himself who decided to go after them. They caught up with breakaway. Having Monsalve in it I used him to protect Rolland, and as soon as he regenerated I used my gel and went for final attack. My best climber got some lead, and despite being chased by group of 5, he made it and got his first win of the season.
Monsalve was pretty tired after his breakaway and after protecting Rolland, and he was last in E2 (6th overall). Cardo, Burlakov and Barton managed to finishe top 30.
Edited by wroblitz on 01-05-2013 19:28
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| Selwink |
Posted on 01-05-2013 19:32
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Grand Tour Champion
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A good solo victory!
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| The Rider |
Posted on 01-05-2013 19:39
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wroblitz wrote:
Whole my career I play on hard Roozeken. In fact I never tried extreme as I heard it's super hard, and it leads to unreal results.
I'm on extreme with coca cola- 2016, I have had some great results like winning Tirreno overall with Farrar but overall I would say it is unrealistically difficult, mainly in climbing stages though in grand tours.
Example, on hard with T . Pinot, he was destroying the competition at the vuelta, the next year on extreme with much better stats/fitness he barely managed the top ten, quite 'unrealistic' that he was at the front of a group on a climb, then a bunch of 'lesser' climbers attacked from behind and he couldn't follow time after time!?/!?
I reckon, the most enjoyable/'realistic' difficulty lies somewhere between hard/extreme.
Anyway, back to this story, I really like the style of this Latvian sprinter, I reckon you should think about building the team around him . |
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| wroblitz |
Posted on 01-05-2013 21:52
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That's what I meant Rider. For me games makes sense if your climber who is MO 84, HIL 82 wins agains climber who's MO 80, HIL 79. As I said, I never played on extreme, so I might be wrong, but reading the forum I can imagine it's not happening very often on extereme. Most of the time when I win it's because my rider has the best stats. I think that's fair. If I was winning against better riders I would find it unreal and go for higher level, same if I was losing with worst ones. Hard suits me quite well actually. The only aspect I find it too easy is ITTs, but that depends really on a stage. I don't know how that works, but some of them are very easy to win, and you end up with 5 riders in top 20 (I guess AI riders are not programmed very well and they don't even consume all the energy). Anyway, back to the story.
It has become a tradition that my team takes part in Tour of Qatar (2.1).
Tour of Qatar
Last year it was even dominated by J.J. Nunez. This year Valery Burlakov got the chance to do it. My team was based on time trialists, as second day and TTT could be crucial for final ranking.
Coca-Cola
Maciej Bodnar 
Kris Boeckmans 
Valery Burlakov 
Jonathan Castroviejo 
Michal Kwiatkowski
Arkadiusz Olszewski
Alex Rasmussen 
Enrique Sanz
Windy as always tour started in Barzan Towers. It was a 4-man breakaway group, without any of my riders (as I'm not bothered about intermediate sprints really), for the whole race, and it has to be said they did really good snatching both intermediates, and being caught only 7 km before the finish line.
With Rasmussen, Sanz, Boeckmans and Burlakov, Coca-Cola had very strong train, that managed to leave the others behind.
Unfortunatelly Marcel Kittel - race leader and my only fear, was among the riders attached to it. Burlakov was leading on final meters, when he just flew by taking away win from him.
Burlakov came "only" 2nd. The good thing is that due to great train I ended up with 4 riders in top 15.
Anyway it looks like it's gonna be a great battle between Burlakov and Kittel for a yellow and white jersey.
Edited by wroblitz on 01-05-2013 21:58
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 02-05-2013 03:33
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Tour de France Champion
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The team certainly has form at the moment |
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 02-05-2013 08:52
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Good luck with beating Kittel! |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 02-05-2013 09:15
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
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Great of Rolland take win the French opening race! |
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| wroblitz |
Posted on 02-05-2013 16:08
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I guess betting on time trial was a good decision, as my team was a favourite for the team time trial on day two in Qatar. I mainly used Rasmussen and Castroviejo as Kwiatkowski and Bodnar weren't fit enough due to lack of racing.
Race leaders - Coca-Cola taking a corner in Qatar.
On first time check my team was 4th with 12" loss. They had pretty good second half, but it wasn't enough to beat great Teleitalia - D'Angelo & Antenucci... just 3 sec short. However 2nd place is still good results. Unfortunatelly there was only 1 sec difference between Burlakov and Kittel.
Edited by wroblitz on 02-05-2013 16:09
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| wroblitz |
Posted on 03-05-2013 07:56
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Posts: 289
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With 4 flat stages to go, the battle between Burlakov and Kittel started.
Breakaway was caught 6 km before the finish line. I formed my train, and for some reason Kittel stayed behind. He joined my train later on, but I guess it costed him some energy. Sprint started, and without Kittel it was easy won by the big man from Latvia (190 cm, 89 kg). Boeckmans also did very good, as he managed to finish 2nd.
Double coke - Burlakov and Boeckmans win stage 3.
Kittel came only 4th, and thanks to that Burlakov took the yellow jersey away from him. At the moment he holds a 13" lead.
Edited by wroblitz on 03-05-2013 07:57
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 03-05-2013 09:47
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
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Great stage win for Burlakov
And what an amazing result in the TTT |
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 03-05-2013 11:14
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Good 1! |
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| wroblitz |
Posted on 03-05-2013 17:17
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Neo-Pro
Posts: 289
Joined: 27-12-2009
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This time I decided to take part in breakaways, as I realized Arkadiusz Olszewski is 2nd in young rider classification, with only 3" loss, so I only needed 2nd place on one of the intermediates to move him into 1st. He joined a 7-man breakaway just ahead of the first one, so he was too tired to win there (he came last), but he got some energy before the second one, and he implement the plan quite easily, winning it.
Going for best youngster of the tour - Arkadiusz Olszewski.
He, and his breakaway fellows were absorbed by the peloton on 135 km (15 km before the finish line). Marcel Kittel made some mistakes again, as he stayed next to my (extended by Kwiatkowski and Bodnar - just to make it harder for German sprinter) train. This tactic paid off as my sprinters brought the team a double win again.
Dominating the tour - Boeckmans and Burlakov.
Rest of the team also did very well as Kwiatkowski came 6th, Bodnar 8th, and Sanz 14th.
So it looks like I'll be back from Qatar few shirts richer.
Edited by wroblitz on 03-05-2013 17:21
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