Another mountainous stage, and another blunder by Cyanide logic to give the riders only 1 bottle. Well, the amusement that will ensue as all my riders bonk and Hushovd beats Martinez up the climb again will be classic i'm sure...
Only two riders went away for the long break, maybe everyone else knew it was just pointless.
But on the descent as the gap grew to 4 minutes lead, Jollet, eager for more points over Hushovd, went away.
The gay looker-on enjoyed Jollet's finely tuned muscular body as he rode past alone.
Jollet took 3rd place at the first sprint, and overtook the blown rider Ng, to take 2nd at the next.
By the final sprint, all but the one solo rider were caught, and Hushovd clawed back some points by taking 2nd in that sprint.
As the top of the penultimate climb was hit, Francaise de Jeux were leading over the top, stringing out all riders.
And the elastic eventually snapped, with Martinez managing to get into the 2nd group on the road.
Martinez is further back down the road, in the small group of 5 riders.
We were wondering when he'd break, but instead of doing turns, he kept skipping them! Obviously he was learning, and was letting the other riders do his dirty work for him. As they approached the final km, Joly had already won, over 2nd placed rider in the GC.
Martinez kept his cool, and his group caught a few stragglers from the first group on the road, as he took a solid performance ahead of other season goals.
Results:
1 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 4h11'35
2 Pietro Caucchioli CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 27
3 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'23
4 Pavel Brutt TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 1'35
5 Ezequiel Mosquera FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
6 Thomas Rabou SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA s.t.
7 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
8 Robert Kiserlovski NIPPO - MEITAN HONPO - ASADA s.t.
9 Mathieu Sprick FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'51
10 Alexandre Botcharov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
11 Johann Tschopp BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 2'09
12 Santo Anzà SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 2'50 13 Yannick Martinez AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
14 Cyril Dessel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
15 Yukihiro Doi SKIL - SHIMANO + 3'11
16 Miguel Ángel Rubiano CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 3'23
17 Dimitri Fofonov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
18 Edgardo Simón SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA s.t.
19 Evgeni Petrov TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
20 Christophe Kern CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
21 José Carlos Rodrigues VITÓRIA - ASC s.t.
22 Andrea Pagoto CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 3'50
23 Paolo Longo Borghini NIPPO - MEITAN HONPO - ASADA + 4'06
24 Thomas Peterson TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
25 Fran Pérez SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS + 4'22 48 Yauhen Sobal AUBER - BELTELECOM + 8'59
50 Sébastien Minard AUBER - BELTELECOM + 9'32
65 Tristan Valentin AUBER - BELTELECOM + 13'33
75 Jérémie Galland AUBER - BELTELECOM + 15'25
86 Thierry Jollet AUBER - BELTELECOM + 26'45
GC:
1 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 16h59'17
2 Pietro Caucchioli CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1'13
3 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 2'37
4 Robert Kiserlovski NIPPO - MEITAN HONPO - ASADA + 3'56
5 Thomas Rabou SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 4'28
6 Mathieu Sprick FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 5'28
7 Pavel Brutt TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 5'34
8 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 6'06
9 Johann Tschopp BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 6'07
10 Edgardo Simón SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 6'24 18 Yannick Martinez AUBER - BELTELECOM + 10'51
32 Yauhen Sobal AUBER - BELTELECOM + 17'26
47 Sébastien Minard AUBER - BELTELECOM + 22'37
66 Tristan Valentin AUBER - BELTELECOM + 31'21
75 Jérémie Galland AUBER - BELTELECOM + 37'03
83 Thierry Jollet AUBER - BELTELECOM + 51'13 86 Allan Augustyn TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 1h18'06
Another day for the lighter riders, with some serious hills in the course which will split the field up a little. Especially as the peloton has gained extra strength over the past few race days.
Hopefully either Jollet can stick with the bunch over the final climb, or a break will go that will take the majority of the points on offer.
After the dropping of the flag, attacks went from the gun for the first climb of the day.
Sobal saw his opportunity and took off right after with 2 other riders. Obviously the race isn't one for breakaway riders.
By the top of the major climb of the day, the break had a healthy 7 minute lead, and 100km to cover.
By the end of the descent, and towards the points sprint, Sobal told his breakaway companions not to bother sprinting, because he would beat them anyway. That he duly did, and rolled across to take some more points.
The gap had fallen to 5 minutes 50 at this point, and the break knew they'd be caught. Sobal had plans of staying away for as long as possible however, and by the final climb, only he and one other rider remained, and they were caught over the top by an attacking peloton.
The two riders would stay out for a further 8 km before actually being taken in, but the main action was going on behind. As the riders attacked for KoM points, the pace went skyward in the peloton. This caused a split to occur, with many favourites going off the front.
They would take back Sobal's break, and end up fighting out the win themselves. Cauchiolli taking the honours.
The final points sprint was taken from that large group, and Pavel Brutt took the extra euros.
Martinez managed to stick in the bunch, and so did Sobal who dropped back through the breakaway group.
Jollet was dropped on the final climb, along with helper Galland.
Results:
1 Pietro Caucchioli CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 3h58'44
2 Fran Pérez SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS s.t.
3 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
4 Alexandre Botcharov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
5 Robert Kiserlovski NIPPO - MEITAN HONPO - ASADA s.t.
6 Mathieu Sprick FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
7 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
8 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
9 Ezequiel Mosquera FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
10 Andrea Pagoto CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
11 Christophe Kern CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
12 Pavel Brutt TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t.
13 Dimitri Fofonov CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 43
14 Paolo Longo Borghini NIPPO - MEITAN HONPO - ASADA s.t.
15 Alessandro Bertolini SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 1'19 38 Yannick Martinez AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
58 Yauhen Sobal AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
65 Sébastien Minard AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
72 Tristan Valentin AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
81 Jérémie Galland AUBER - BELTELECOM + 7'23
85 Thierry Jollet AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t. 86 Allan Augustyn TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 8'25
GC:
1 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 20h57'57
2 Pietro Caucchioli CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1'07
3 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 2'40
4 Robert Kiserlovski NIPPO - MEITAN HONPO - ASADA + 4'00
5 Mathieu Sprick FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 5'32
6 Pavel Brutt TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 5'35
7 Thomas Rabou SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 5'51
8 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 6'08
9 Andrea Pagoto CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 6'55
10 Johann Tschopp BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 7'30
11 Edgardo Simón SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 7'47
12 Yukihiro Doi SKIL - SHIMANO + 8'50
13 Alexander Khatuntsev UNIBET.COM + 9'45
14 José Carlos Rodrigues VITÓRIA - ASC + 9'50
15 Cyril Dessel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 10'59
16 Alessandro Bertolini SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 11'37
17 Iván Velasco UNIBET.COM s.t. 18 Yannick Martinez AUBER - BELTELECOM + 12'14
19 Fran Pérez SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS + 12'39
20 Miguel Ángel Rubiano CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 13'33 32 Yauhen Sobal AUBER - BELTELECOM + 18'46
47 Sébastien Minard AUBER - BELTELECOM + 24'00
65 Tristan Valentin AUBER - BELTELECOM + 32'44
76 Jérémie Galland AUBER - BELTELECOM + 44'30
84 Thierry Jollet AUBER - BELTELECOM + 58'40 86 Allan Augustyn TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 1h26'35
A sprinters stage, but with the added difficulty of not actually being good on the flat, can Jollet hold onto his jersey? Against a so far rampant Hushovd, i think today is his last day wearing it.
A break went of some un-threatening riders, and it was decided to keep our riders out for today.
As the chase kicked off, Francaise de Jeux used every one of their men available, resulting in Sprick (5th overall) and Casar (3rd) being dropped.
I was hoping they would lose a lot of time.
As we ran into the final 10km, Jollet ran out of energy, and just went backwards. Martinez was also the same. Sobal was the only rider with any blue bar left, but he wasn't going to manage to play with the big boys. And so it was Hushovd that led under the 1km to go banner.
Bauge managed to actually move up a bit, but couldn't effect the outcome of another Thor win.
Another pan flat day will result in a final hectic 3km dash to the line up a 5% gradient. It should sort out the hill riders from the pure sprinters, and as such, Jollet will stink at it. That's if he can even get to the line with the bunch. As such, Jollet will target the break in an attempt to get some more points, and Sobal will provide a back up option if Jollet's break fails.
No sooner planned than failed, Jollet is brought back in within seconds of his attack, and so Sobal counters and gets away.
Statistically being the strongest, Sobal could actually win everything up for grabs today, and he starts with the points to add to his breakaway tally.
And as they go over the only classified climb of the day, it's clear that Sobal is in with a fighting chance of a win today. The bunch is just sat taking it easy, and with 65 km to go, they have a lead of over 14 minutes.
Some of the breakaway riders want some mountain points.
And soon enough, the final 25km approach, and the gap is massive still. The break will succeed. But the riders start looking at each other to do the work, and Sobal will be damned if he's going to do it all. As they reach the final points sprint, Sobal takes it again, and with only 9km remaining plans how he's going to play this.
The decision is to attack right at the bottom of the slope, and hope, by the time the others react he's got a good enough speed and gap to keep going.
As Sobal goes, he catches them napping, and quickly gains enough of a lead to get a 10 second gap. But as the sprint is opened up, eventual 2nd placed rider Savini starts to really pile on the pressure. As Sobal goes under the 1km banner, the gap is still falling, but suddenly, Savini stops sprinting. He too has enough of a gap on the other riders to not have to.
Sobal takes the first victory for Auber - Beltelecom of the 2008 season, and what a victory it is! (Extreme mode? What's extreme!)
Sobal was clearly over the moon about it:
Results: 1 Yauhen Sobal AUBER - BELTELECOM 4h20'41
2 Filippo Savini CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE s.t.
3 Hjalte Bo Haysen SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
4 José Manuel Sousa VITÓRIA - ASC s.t.
5 Erki Pütsep BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
6 Thomas Peterson TEAM SLIPSTREAM s.t.
7 Travis Allen TEAM KONICA MINOLTA s.t.
8 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 8'30
9 Santo Anzà SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA s.t.
10 Pavel Brutt TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS s.t. 29 Yannick Martinez AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
65 Sébastien Minard AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
66 Tristan Valentin AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
83 Jérémie Galland AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
84 Thierry Jollet AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t. 86 Peter Dawson SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS s.t.
GC:
1 Sébastien Joly FRANÇAISE DES JEUX 29h06'25
2 Pietro Caucchioli CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 1'07
3 Robert Kiserlovski NIPPO - MEITAN HONPO - ASADA + 4'00
4 Sandy Casar FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 4'51
5 Pavel Brutt TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 5'35
6 Thomas Rabou SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 5'51
7 John Gadret AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 6'08
8 Andrea Pagoto CERAMICA PANARIA - NAVIGARE + 6'55
9 Johann Tschopp BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM + 7'30
10 Edgardo Simón SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 7'47
11 Yukihiro Doi SKIL - SHIMANO + 8'50
12 Alexander Khatuntsev UNIBET.COM + 9'45
13 José Carlos Rodrigues VITÓRIA - ASC + 9'50 14 Yauhen Sobal AUBER - BELTELECOM + 9'57
15 Cyril Dessel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 10'59
16 Mathieu Sprick FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 11'25
17 Alessandro Bertolini SERRAMENTI PVC DIQUIGIOVANNI - SELLE ITALIA + 11'37
18 Iván Velasco UNIBET.COM s.t. 19 Yannick Martinez AUBER - BELTELECOM + 12'14
20 Fran Pérez SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS + 12'39 51 Sébastien Minard AUBER - BELTELECOM + 26'11
70 Tristan Valentin AUBER - BELTELECOM + 34'55
78 Jérémie Galland AUBER - BELTELECOM + 49'01
84 Thierry Jollet AUBER - BELTELECOM + 58'40 86 Allan Augustyn TEAM KONICA MINOLTA + 1h28'46
The final stage of the tour is a simple fast blast around a crit, where many of the riders started racing back when they were juniors.
A break of 7 riders went away early on, but would be caught in plenty of time.
Hushovd decided to go for the long one today, as after just 500m of lead out, he went for it.
Even though coming upto the last corner he was no longer in the lead, the better technique of the shorter line through the corner gifted Thor yet another win. Sobal managed to do the age old trick of following wheels to get up there.
Jonas Decouttere went up a level which could prove vital for any success in the cobbles season quickly approaching. He will be good support for Gaudin now.
A rather wet Paris Nice 08 starts with a short 6km blast.
Names such as Cancellara, Millar, Contador, Wegmann, Heras are all present in this rather hilly and mountainous race. If the team gets anything other than experience out of this race, it will be a miracle!
Levarlet will be heading up the race with Martinez, depending on who shows more grit and stamina during the climbing.
Cancellara is still dominant in his World Champ kit.
And Millar is still stuck at Saunier Duval.
Tronet has a rather wet, and bad, first day of racing for 2008
Results:
1 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC 7'40
2 David Millar SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 11
3 Rubén Plaza QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 12
4 Thomas Ziegler T-MOBILE TEAM + 17
5 Manuel Lloret TEAM CSC s.t.
6 Pedro Nicacio LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 18
7 Jimmy Engoulvent CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
8 Koen De Kort TEAM ASTANA + 20
9 Matías Médici DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
10 Jérôme Coppel BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t. 32 Florian Morizot AUBER - BELTELECOM + 33
97 Guillaume Levarlet AUBER - BELTELECOM + 53
104 Steven Tronet AUBER - BELTELECOM + 58
109 Davide Malacarne AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
117 Yannick Martinez AUBER - BELTELECOM s.t.
129 Renaud Pioline AUBER - BELTELECOM + 1'02
174 Maxime Méderel AUBER - BELTELECOM + 1'24
176 Jean Mespoulède AUBER - BELTELECOM + 1'32
/176
ember wrote:
I love this story, it is so realistic
Thats the aim! Bit infuriating when i don't win much, but still good fun occasionally. Playing on harder settings means you have to play realistically otherwise you just blow your riders up for nothing.
Of course it is. I'd just buy a pro tour license... or maybe not seeing as teams don't need it to race the big races. I'm only in the pro tour to race all the big races and to be able to sign good riders.
A flat day to start off affairs, which will help Levarlet find his racing legs certainly. As the rest of the tour is all hilly or mountainous, today will be a day for the sprinters certainly. That doesn't mean however, that we won't be off in the break. In fact the aim of the tour is to wear a jersey at least for a day, and as always the first road stage is easist to get a jersey then the rest of the time.
So, after all of 3km, Malacarne goes with the break, and just about gets into it.
They stay away just over the final climb of the day, which Malacarne couldn't win, or even score on as he'd nearly blown, even with + 5 daily form.
He's the first to have to let go, and doesn't last long in the bunch either.
Coming into the final 12km, the lead out trains start forming, and only Levarlet and Tronet are left in the bunch for Auber. Tronet is struggling, as is Levarlet.
The most prominant lead out train is led by Boasson Hagen, who has Steegmans and Boonen in his wheel.
Tronet is on the far side, trying to get a wheel to stick on.
Ultimately, even riders like Valverde manage to sprint past Tronet, as his lack of racing shows through. Boonen takes his first win of the season, and with it 3 Pro tour points.
Stage 3 of Paris Nice sees us hit some major climbs for the first time. Levarlet will be seriously tested right now, as with only a fitness of 64 or so, just sticking with domestiques could be hard for him.
Of course, with being newly promoted, it's always a bit of a shock to the system racing with the big boys, but Martinez was determined to prove we were here to stay. So off he goes solo due to a descent, to pick up as many KoM points as possible.
He starts by countering some other attackers, past the support for Tac Tac, whoever he is...
By the top of the second climb, he's soloed away and is 2 minutes up.
Rolland and Crosbie, two more frenchmen, come across after the biggest climb of the day, and the three of them forge a solid lead.
That is, until they hit the next big climb. A 12km climb that Martinez should be leading up. But a combination of not being at 100 fitness, and a silly extreme mode setting means instead of leading, he's dropped...
He still takes 3rd over the top, and ends up securing at least one day in the mountains jersey!
As Rolland and Crosbie continue on, the chase heats up, and over the same climb, Levarlet is just left with the one helper, Morizot.
And before long, we start to see cracks in other team's leaders too. Contador and Levi both trail off the back of the peloton along with Levarlet as Morizot had been dropped.
As we hit the final climb of the day, the attacks start flying in, with Valverde, Di Luca and Devolder leading them. But not before Gadret flys past.
Over the top, Gadret has a 30 second lead, and it keeps growing.
Meanwhile, whilst Levarlet is struggling to keep up on the flat, the remaining riders who escaped the bunch continue to pull away.
Noone is going to catch the french man though, and he takes the win, and the lead as Cancellara had crashed out (Broken rib - out till April!)
