baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Indeed, but our goal was Top 10 and not the win. I am more than happy with 3 guys in Top 10, so yup...
And horrible mistake, Shonak. Edited it, ofc.
And, the latest stage-race challenge before Giro d'Italia is in front of us - Tour de Romandie! It's the race in French-speaking part of Switzerland and it's one very old UWT race. 6 hard stages is exactly what the best guys need before long, tough 3 week challenge in May.
Tour de Romandie [UWT]
23rd April - 28th April, 2014
The race traditionally starts with a time trial prologue in Geneva and ends with another individual time-trial in the hilly terrains in Lausanne. The final time-trial traditionally starts in the stadium north of Lausanne, goes downhill southwards to Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), and makes its way back uphill to the stadium again. The terrain is, as you can see, very hilly with 2 mountainous stages. That should definitely show us who are the guys who'll be aiming for highest positions in Giro. But, this race isn't all about Giro, so winning here is huge achievement even for the worlds best. Froome won here last year and he also won Le Tour this year. Can he repeat it this time? We'll check out very soon.
Absolutely all the best climbers are here. Both ones that will take participation in upcoming first GT and the guys who'll skip it. It's just a matter of prestige. Therefore, we have guys such as Froome, Rodriguez, Nibali, Kittel, Cancellara, Martin, Betancur, Contador, Hesjedal and many other names from the top of cycling world. It's definitely going to be one epic fight over the Switzerland hills and mountains so prepare yourself for 6 days of excitement.
Kiserlovski and Arredondo, the guys who are going to lead team in this years Giro, are both here preparing themselves. We also do have great TTT squad with all Jungels, Cancellara, Vandewalle and Sergent here so we actually hope for a great result in first stage. Also, this is the last stage-race for Cancellara before huge rest. Swiss said he really wants to take a participation in his home-race and his target here is stage-win. Hopefully, we'll make it. All in all one great team with alot of domestiques who are definitely going to help Kiserlovski here.
Busche and Zoidl are also here and their main goal will be to help Julian and Robert in mountains with a possibility to get into one of the breakaways. With this squad, we have right to hope for a Top 10 here, which is in the same time (besides a Stage-Win) our Sponsor Goal here. With all of these names, it won't be easy at all, but I am sure the guys can do that for the team. And, by this sentence, we conclude this preview and our preparations for the first stage starts. See ya soon!
I am sure that you'll be happy with the results below, Sutty!
Stage 1 of Tour de Romandie was TTT one. As we have really strong TTT team our plan and target was Top 5. Everything above that, with this competition would be huge bonus for our climbers. Guys were feeling great this morning, so it was definitely a good sign!
Tour de Romandie [Stage 1]
23rd April - 28th April, 2014
Surprisingly, OPQS was one of the very first teams to start this TTT, even despite the fact they had Panzerwagen in their squad. They easily finished in front of Lampre, Europcar, Lotto and Bardiani, but their time wasn't good at all and it was visible from the moment they finished their ride.
AG2R was the next "big" team and contender here. With both Betancur and Peraud in their squad here, they definitely were the team to follow. On surprise of everyone, they managed to finish in front of OPQS with more than 20 seconds of difference. Something you don't see too often.
GreenMachine how is the nickname for Cannondale started next. Viviani, Moser, Mohoric and friends put up a great ride and they finished with the same time as AG2R. They were provisional leaders at that point.
Movistar team, who are led by Intxausti and Rojas here were next. They absolutely crushed opponents, as they set new provisional best time with more than half minute of advantage over others. Quite impressive for the squad they brought here.
The next group of teams, IAM, BMC, Belkin and Katusha all finished behind Movistar. BMC was closest, as they only had 4 seconds of gap at the end, while IAM failed hardly here and finished around a minute behind Movistar at that point.
We were getting closer to the finish of this and Team Sky's start, but few teams started before them This group of this consisted FDJ, Tinkoff, Garmin and Astana. Once again, not a single team from the group didn't beat the Movistar's provisional leading time. Astana was, however, the best team in that little "group" with only 10 seconds of gap on the finish line.
At that point, only Orica, Trek and Sky had to start. This order was chronological, so Orica was the first team to start. The good TTT was must from them and after exactly 18 minutes and 30 seconds, they managed to finally set a new provisional best team, beating Movistars time for 10 seconds. Good job for Yates, Weening, Matthews and friends.
Trek Factory Racing was the next team on ramp. It was moment of thruth. The best possible TT squad is here and it was the right time to show what he had. After absolutely amazing, stunning, epic ride, our guys managed to pull out 18 minutes and 22 seconds time at the end, beating Orica's one for 8 seconds and setting new provisional lead! How sweet, baby!
Sky team was the only left team at that point. No matter what they do, it was a great result. But even better for us, they managed to fail despite having Froome, Cataldo and few other good TTers and finish big 15 seconds behind Trek. Solid results for them.
Solid results for them, yeah... But what a win for us! Who could ever expect this? Great, great, great! As Kiserlovski passed the line as first, he's the new lace leader now. Such a great scenario here in Switzerland. Hope it continues!
Results not valid, I didn't actually SEE the riders cross the line
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Indeed a great performance from team, but it was expected from this squad, really. Now, we have to focus on defending yellow jersey, which is easier said than done, but we'll see.
Also, thanks Fernando! Nice to see you here (forum), once again!
The second stage and already a challenge for us. Definitely expected gaps at the end, with all of these steepy and short climbs. However, I believe that it's a safe-day for us, as Cancellara and especially Kiserlovski are most likely going to finish in leaders group.
Tour de Romandie [Stage 2]
23rd April - 28th April, 2014
5 riders group, with Fedrigo, Pagani, Elmiger, Armee and De Marchi in it, attacked and made a breakaway of the day group. Really strong climbing group there. Their stage-plans could be very interesting for peloton.
Peloton didn't want to let them gain huge advantage, as they were aware of the fact that some of these guys can put up a great solo and win the stage. As the biggest part of the race was just chasing, we'll skip to the last 20 kilometers. 2 groups are now merged and the action starts! Meersman, Dumoulin, Voeckler and Rogers are on top of the main group and they're trying to attack!
Of course, that wasn't really too easy as the peloton had very high pace. None of the favourites attacked, until Purito decided to do so. No one could stop him and he slightly started getting the advantage. Surprisingly enough, all the favourites behind decided to co-operate and chase him.
The final climb was finished and Joaquim still had some ~25 seconds gap. Good thing for him is that it's only downhill until the finish now. Bad thing is that Nibali is one of the chasers behind.
As the next few kilometers were descent, riders quickly arrived to 5km-to go banner. Purito still kept the lead, but 14 cyclists group behind, including Jungels, Kiserlovski and Cancellara from our team, were giving their all to catch him. They're now just 10 seconds away and everything looks like these 2 groups are going to merge.
Fabian upped the pace a bit in next 2 kilometers and they finally managed to catch Rodriguez. The sprint was about to start and we had to quickly choose between 3 options: Jungels (Basically dead from chasing), Cancellara (A bit tired, but clearly the best sprinter in group) and Kiserlovski (Probably the guy with most energy in the group but quite bad sprinter). Of course, we gone with Fabian, who was the first one to start the final sprint!
As clearly the best sprinter in that group, Spartacus gained some time pretty quickly. Betancur was the only one who was able to follow that fast finish. However, Fabian started his sprint from 2 kilometers point. Is that too far and will he keep the pace? Next few pictures will reveal.
One kilometer to go and it was getting more and more clear that Herr Fabian has this in bag. The small group behind is accelerating too and Kiserlovski is on very top. He looked as one of the guys with most energy left in tank at that moment. This was really, really, really great scenario for us!
Anyways, as it was expected, Fabian easily got the win here! 2/2 for us here and such a great way to finish this part of season for Cancellara. Thanks to bonus seconds, he gets the yellow jersey now. But is it important in this point? Woooooooooohoooooooooooooo!
Meanwhile behind, Kiserlovski and Contador had a great fight for 2nd place, where Croatian cyclist basically lost in final meter, as the "winner" of that battle was decided in photo-finish. Anyways, 1st and 3rd and secured yellow jersey is more than we could ever expect on this stage. Just great!
user12345 wrote:
You're getting this wins so easily and Cancellara survived that climb? That's too easy level of difficulty...
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Edited it, ofc.
, thanks to the whole team though.
Also, nice to see a 1-2 in the GC!
