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Sky - Professional Cycling Team
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 29-01-2010 19:30
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The last stage in Down Under is definitely made for sprinters. The only interesting fight should be for the stage win as Freire has a nice lead in the overall and the points rankings, Buffaz secured yesterday the King of the Mountains jersey, while no one seems able to challenge Sulzberger in the U25 rankings
No one was able to beat the pack today so with 7 kilometers left from the race Columbia and Liquigas are leading the pack to a mass sprint, where we should see again a fight between Farrar and Freire
The disaster strikes for Team Sky with just 5 kilometers left as our first rider in the sprint train and 10th in the overall rankings, Kurt Asle Arvesen, went down. The good news, if there is one, is that he both Sutton and Henderson managed to avoid him. Still some Arvesen involved some other riders in the crash such as Luis Leon Sanchez or Moos.
Suddenly Henderson and Sutton find themselves alone in front, being now forced to follow other sprint trains in order to get a good position in the sprint
O'Grady lead the sprint for an while, but the Francaise des Jeux, Sky, Liquigas and Garmin trains were right behind
As the race reached its final kilometer, O'Grady lost the lead to Tyler Farrar, while our main sprinter, Chris Sutton, is trying to follow the American's wheel
Freire came really fast in the last meters but this time it was too late and Farrar got his second stage win, while Freire got the overall and the points rankings. This stage ended a very good Tour Down Under for sky with an overall podium and a stage win for Gerrans, while both Sutton and Henderson finished in the firsts 10 riders in today's mass sprint. Still Arvesen wasn't able to came back in the pack after his crash and that costs us a top 10 place
Stage
| 1. | Tyler Farrar | Garmin - Transitions | 2h01'47 | | 2. | Óscar Freire | Rabobank | s.t. | | 3. | Stuart O'Grady | Team Saxo Bank | s.t. | | 4. | Francesco Chicchi | Liquigas - Doimo | s.t. | | 5. | Christopher Sutton | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 6. | Mirco Lorenzetto | Lampre - Farnese Vini | s.t. | | 7. | Anthony Geslin | Française des Jeux | s.t. | | 8. | Theo Bos | Cervélo Test Team | s.t. | | 9. | Wouter Weylandt | Quick·Step | s.t. | | 10. | Greg Henderson | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 11. | Leonardo Duque | Cofidis, le crédit en ligne | s.t. | | 12. | William Bonnet | Bbox Bouygues Télécom | s.t. | | 13. | Samuel Dumoulin | Cofidis, le crédit en ligne | s.t. | | 14. | Matthew Goss | Team HTC - Columbia | s.t. | | 15. | Tomas Vaitkus | Team RadioShack | s.t. |
Overall
| 1. | Óscar Freire | Rabobank | 18h56'51 | | 2. | Tyler Farrar | Garmin - Transitions | + 8 | | 3. | Simon Gerrans | Sky Professional Cycling Team | + 28 | | 4. | David Le Lay | AG2R La Mondiale | + 32 | | 5. | Anthony Geslin | Française des Jeux | + 34 | | 6. | Wesley Sulzberger | Française des Jeux | + 35 | | 7. | Mirco Lorenzetto | Lampre - Farnese Vini | + 38 | | 8. | Mikhail Ignatiev | Team Katusha | s.t. | | 9. | Daniele Pietropolli | Lampre - Farnese Vini | s.t. | | 10. | Lars Boom | Rabobank | s.t. | | 11. | Simon Spilak | Lampre - Farnese Vini | s.t. | | 12. | Lloyd Mondory | AG2R La Mondiale | s.t. | | 13. | José Luis Arrieta | AG2R La Mondiale | s.t. | | 14. | Maarten Tjallingii | Rabobank | s.t. | | 15. | Jonas Ljungblad | Omega Pharma - Lotto | s.t. | | 16. | Steven Kruijswijk | Rabobank | s.t. | | 17. | Gatis Smukulis | AG2R La Mondiale | s.t. | | 18. | Yuriy Krivtsov | AG2R La Mondiale | s.t. | | 19. | Travis Meyer | Garmin - Transitions | s.t. | | 20. | Jack Bobridge | Garmin - Transitions | s.t. |
Points
| 1. | Óscar Freire | Rabobank | 34 | | 2. | Tyler Farrar | Garmin - Transitions | 26 | | 3. | Gianni Meersman | Française des Jeux | 18 | | 4. | Scott Davis | Astana | 12 | | 5. | Simon Gerrans | Sky Professional Cycling Team | 8 |
Mountain
| 1. | Mickaël Buffaz | Cofidis, le crédit en ligne | 33 | | 2. | José Luis Arrieta | AG2R La Mondiale | 21 | | 3. | Pablo Lastras | Caisse d'Epargne | 20 | | 4. | Jan Bakelants | Omega Pharma - Lotto | 18 | | 5. | Kevin Hulsmans | Quick·Step | 17 |
Young
| 1. | Wesley Sulzberger | Française des Jeux | 18h57'26 | | 2. | Mikhail Ignatiev | Team Katusha | + 3 | | 3. | Lars Boom | Rabobank | + 3 |
Teams
| 1. | Lampre - Farnese Vini | 56h52'27 | | 2. | AG2R La Mondiale | + 0 | | 3. | Garmin - Transitions | + 0 |
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| valverde321 |
Posted on 29-01-2010 19:37
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World Champion
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nice job in the TDU
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| brownwm |
Posted on 29-01-2010 20:56
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well done on getting a podium position in the first pro tour race of the season
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-12-2024 13:36
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 10:02
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World Champion
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The first classic of the season, held in France, ends our first month of competition. But this Marseille Classic isn't one of our important races so we have a rather weak team sent here, lead by Carlstrom, Possoni and Cioni, while in case it cames down to a mass sprint we have Ben Switf. On the favorites list we have some interesting names, but clearly the biggest favorite here is going to be Alejandro Valverde
There were 13 riders in the day's breakaway, including some important names such as Aerts or Cioni. Still they never managed to get an advantage bigger than 3 minutes on the pack.
30 kilometers before the finish the escapes were caught and some new attacks started. Cioni had some energy left so he went with the new attackers to make a new leading group for an while. 5 riders were in the new leading group: Vermeltfoort, Dumoulin, Le Mevel, Kuschynski and Cioni
As soon as the last climb of the day started Valderde made his move. A lot of riders, including Calrstrom, tried to follow him but a only a few had the power to even get away from the pack
Valverde soon joined the leading group, where only Kuschynski and Dumoulin were able to follow him. Cioni was too tired to continue with them and he was brought back in the pack at the end of the ascent
It came down to a sprint between Valverde, Dumoulin and Kuschynski, where clearly the Liquigas rider didn't stand a chance as the French rider and Piti were clearly stronger sprinters than him
Valverde looked like taking an easy win there, but Dumoulin had an amazing acceleration in the final meters and brought Cofidis and important win in France!
Ben Swift was one of the fastest riders in the pack, even though he had no support for the sprint, but still that was enough only for 14th place
Results
| 1. | Samuel Dumoulin | Cofidis, le crédit en ligne | 3h26'28 | | 2. | Alejandro Valverde | Caisse d'Epargne | s.t. | | 3. | Aleksandr Kuschynski | Liquigas - Doimo | + 15 | | 4. | Yury Trofimov | Bbox Bouygues Télécom | + 31 | | 5. | Christophe Le Mével | Française des Jeux | + 36 | | 6. | Sébastien Joly | Saur - Sojasun | + 47 | | 7. | Johan Mombaerts | Big Mat - Auber 93 | s.t. | | 8. | Clément Lhotellerie | Roubaix Lille Métropole | s.t. | | 9. | Pierrick Fédrigo | Bbox Bouygues Télécom | + 1'14 | | 10. | Coen Vermeltfoort | Rabobank CT | s.t. | | 11. | Kevin Peeters | Landbouwkrediet | s.t. | | 12. | Koen Barbé | Landbouwkrediet | s.t. | | 13. | Davy Commeyne | Landbouwkrediet | s.t. | | 14. | Ben Swift | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 15. | Laurent Lefèvre | Bbox Bouygues Télécom | s.t. | | 16. | Johann Tschopp | Bbox Bouygues Télécom | s.t. | | 17. | Pierre Rolland | Bbox Bouygues Télécom | s.t. | | 18. | Geert Verheyen | Landbouwkrediet | s.t. | | 19. | Nico Sijmens | Cofidis, le crédit en ligne | s.t. | | 20. | Mathieu Claude | Bbox Bouygues Télécom | s.t. |
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| brownwm |
Posted on 30-01-2010 10:12
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Breakaway Specialist
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great result for dumoulin on beating valverde
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 10:28
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World Champion
Posts: 13924
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brownwm wrote:
great result for dumoulin on beating valverde
yep. I thought Valverde had it there but it was really nice to see Dumoulin beating him
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 10:30
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Small Tour Specialist
Posts: 2704
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whats your next race alex? |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 10:31
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World Champion
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Batista15 wrote:
whats your next race alex?
wait for the February calendar 
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 11:30
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World Champion
Posts: 13924
Joined: 05-08-2008
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Rider of the month - January:  Chris Sutton
It was quite[img-r]https://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/sky_story/chrissutton-1.png[/img-r] of tight battle for the award of Sky's best rider of the month. Even though Gerrans got a stage win and a 3rd place overall in Santos Tour Down, we've decided that the award should go to Chris Sutton since he's thanks to his performance of winning the Australian Championships he will be wearing the National Champion jersey the whole year.
Sutton was also had some important performances during the sprints in Santos Tour Down Under event though his best place was a 5th spot in the last stage. Sutton will continue his fantastic start of the season by being one of our main sprinters in Tour of Qatar, which will be held in February.
February Calendar:
After we finished January in France with the Marseille Classic we will remain in the same country for the start of February with Etoile de Besseges, but the only rider that is going to ride it and also was in our team for Marseille is Ben Swift. Hayman, Downing and Vigano will also be in our train for this race, while Serge Pauwels is going to be our hope for the overall rankings.
The next race will be the windy one, made for sprinters, in Qatar. Edvald Boasson Hagen will start his season there, as well as Flecha and Bradley Wiggins. Arvesen and Sutton will be other 2 important names that will ride here, hopefully with some good results in the sprints.
Our 2nd French race in February is going to be Tour du Haut Var, where Simon Gerrans should continue his preparation for the Ardennes Classics, which started quite nice with a stage win in Down Under.
Thomas Lovkvist will start his preparations for the Vuelta with a race in Spain, Vuelta a Andalucia, with a nice chance to win be one of the first riders in the opening prologue.
The month will end with 3 classics, 2 of them held in Belgium which suits Flecha, while the last one is in Switzerland and it's made for the puncheurs, where we should see again Gerrans performing at his finest.
Edited by alexkr00 on 30-01-2010 11:30
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 11:37
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Wow you will be involved in many races |
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 11:41
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World Champion
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Batista15 wrote:
Wow you will be involved in many races
well in real life, Sky will be riding those races plus 3 more, 2 of those not being in the database. The last one Clasica del Almeria is in the database but I decided to skip it.
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| brownwm |
Posted on 30-01-2010 11:50
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its nice that you are trying to keep it realistic
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 12:05
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brownwm wrote:
its nice that you are trying to keep it realistic
I'm also trying to bring some of the riders that are riding those races in real life but that will be a little bit harder
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 12:47
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World Champion
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The opening stage in France is a flat crieterium so we should see a mass sprint. There a few decent sprinters present but the main favorite of the day seems to be Jimmy Casper
As expected we are going to have a mass sprint. A flat stage means that Matthew Hayman is on his terrain and today we are going to have a 4 - men train for the sprint. Hayman is the main lead - out, while Downing and Vigano will also be working for Ben Swift
Inside the last 10 kilometers of the stage, the rider that was leading the pack crashed in one of the roundabouts, which caused quite a big crash in the pack. But no real big names were caught there and the good news for us is that the only Sky rider involved in the crash was Nicolas Portal
Back to the sprint, Hayman did an amazing job which lead the 4 Sky riders to the first 4 positions in the pack. Downing also had a nice day and continued Hayman's good job by keeping the lead for Sky
Vigano didn't let us down either and entered the final kilometer of the stage in the lead. But Swift seems to have some problems with the acceleration there, while Casper, who rode in our slipstream the entire sprint, is coming fast
Casper was the fastest there and confirmed that he is the strongest sprinter in the race. Still this was a good stage for Sky as we got 2 podium spots: Vigano finishing 2nd, while Swift got the third place
Stage
| 1. | Jimmy Casper | Saur - Sojasun | 2h59'10 | | 2. | Davide Viganò | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 3. | Ben Swift | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 4. | Fabien Bacquet | Big Mat - Auber 93 | s.t. | | 5. | Krzysztof Jezowski | CCC Polsat Polkowice | s.t. | | 6. | Eric Baumann | Team NetApp | s.t. | | 7. | Frédéric Amorison | Landbouwkrediet | s.t. | | 8. | Sebastian Siedler | Vorarlberg - Corratec | s.t. | | 9. | Danail Petrov | Madeinox - Boavista | s.t. | | 10. | René Weissinger | Vorarlberg - Corratec | s.t. | | 11. | Lilian Jégou | Bretagne - Schuller | s.t. | | 12. | Matthew Hayman | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 13. | Coen Vermeltfoort | Rabobank CT | s.t. | | 14. | Russell Downing | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 15. | Alexandre Lemair | Roubaix Lille Métropole | s.t. |
Overall
| 1. | Jimmy Casper | Saur - Sojasun | 2h59'00 | | 2. | Davide Viganò | Sky Professional Cycling Team | + 4 | | 3. | Ben Swift | Sky Professional Cycling Team | + 6 | | 4. | Fabien Bacquet | Big Mat - Auber 93 | + 10 | | 5. | Krzysztof Jezowski | CCC Polsat Polkowice | s.t. | | 6. | Eric Baumann | Team NetApp | s.t. | | 7. | Frédéric Amorison | Landbouwkrediet | s.t. | | 8. | Sebastian Siedler | Vorarlberg - Corratec | s.t. | | 9. | Danail Petrov | Madeinox - Boavista | s.t. | | 10. | René Weissinger | Vorarlberg - Corratec | s.t. | | 11. | Lilian Jégou | Bretagne - Schuller | s.t. | | 12. | Matthew Hayman | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 13. | Coen Vermeltfoort | Rabobank CT | s.t. | | 14. | Russell Downing | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 15. | Alexandre Lemair | Roubaix Lille Métropole | s.t. |
Points
| 1. | Jimmy Casper | Saur - Sojasun | 25 | | 2. | Davide Viganò | Sky Professional Cycling Team | 20 | | 3. | Ben Swift | Sky Professional Cycling Team | 16 | | 4. | Fabien Bacquet | Big Mat - Auber 93 | 14 | | 5. | Krzysztof Jezowski | CCC Polsat Polkowice | 12 |
Edited by alexkr00 on 30-01-2010 12:48
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| brownwm |
Posted on 30-01-2010 12:58
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great stage for you congrats
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 13:07
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Thanks, but it would have been better if I've got the stage win
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| alexkr00 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 14:27
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The second stage of Etoile de Besseges is another one made for sprinters, but this time we some hills right before the finish. Casper is again the main favorite but yesterday the Sky train was really strong and today they might have a chance to beat the French rider
After crashing yesterday and losing a few minutes in the overall rankings, Nicolas Portal, showed some good form today. After being first on the top of the both climbs of the day, he was the last escape from a large breakaway to be caught, with less than 4 kilometers left from the stage
In yesterday's stage the 4 riders train worked quite well for us, but today we are back to the 3 men formula as the finish proved to be a little bit too hard for Matt Hayman. Russell Downing is now the main lead - out man for Davide Vigano and Ben Swift
And the Brit did an amazing job leading the train. It was almost almost impossible for the other riders in the pack to get in our slipstream. This put Vigano and Swift in a great position for the final kilometers of the stage
Inside the last kilometer it looks like a certain win for Team Sky, but who's going to take it... It will be Vigano of Swift?
Vigano seems clear faster than the Brit young gun there, but he looks like he is slowing down in order to let Swift take the win
Ben Swift wins the second stage of Etoile de Besseges and takes the lead of the race. But, probably, even more important than that, Vigano finished second and brought Team Sky a double!
Stage
| 1. | Ben Swift | Sky Professional Cycling Team | 3h37'01 | | 2. | Davide Viganò | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 3. | Coen Vermeltfoort | Rabobank CT | s.t. | | 4. | Tomasz Lisowicz | CCC Polsat Polkowice | s.t. | | 5. | Russell Downing | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 6. | Klaas Lodewyck | Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator | s.t. | | 7. | Krzysztof Jezowski | CCC Polsat Polkowice | s.t. | | 8. | Boy Van Poppel | Rabobank CT | s.t. | | 9. | Uros Murn | Adria Mobil | s.t. | | 10. | Jimmy Casper | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. | | 11. | Sébastien Delfosse | Landbouwkrediet | s.t. | | 12. | Danail Petrov | Madeinox - Boavista | s.t. | | 13. | Sebastian Siedler | Vorarlberg - Corratec | s.t. | | 14. | Hilton Clarke | Bahati Foundation | s.t. | | 15. | Bartlomiej Matysiak | CCC Polsat Polkowice | s.t. |
Overall
| 1. | Ben Swift | Sky Professional Cycling Team | 6h35'57 | | 2. | Davide Viganò | Sky Professional Cycling Team | + 2 | | 3. | Jimmy Casper | Saur - Sojasun | + 4 | | 4. | Coen Vermeltfoort | Rabobank CT | + 10 | | 5. | Krzysztof Jezowski | CCC Polsat Polkowice | + 14 | | 6. | Russell Downing | Sky Professional Cycling Team | s.t. | | 7. | Sebastian Siedler | Vorarlberg - Corratec | s.t. | | 8. | Danail Petrov | Madeinox - Boavista | s.t. | | 9. | Fabien Bacquet | Big Mat - Auber 93 | s.t. | | 10. | Frédéric Amorison | Landbouwkrediet | s.t. | | 11. | Boy Van Poppel | Rabobank CT | s.t. | | 12. | Eric Baumann | Team NetApp | s.t. | | 13. | Tomasz Lisowicz | CCC Polsat Polkowice | s.t. | | 14. | René Weissinger | Vorarlberg - Corratec | s.t. | | 15. | Hilton Clarke | Bahati Foundation | s.t. |
Points
| 1. | Ben Swift | Sky Professional Cycling Team | 41 | | 2. | Davide Viganò | Sky Professional Cycling Team | 40 | | 3. | Jimmy Casper | Saur - Sojasun | 31 | | 4. | Krzysztof Jezowski | CCC Polsat Polkowice | 21 | | 5. | Coen Vermeltfoort | Rabobank CT | 19 |
Mountain
| 1. | Nicolas Portal | Sky Professional Cycling Team | 6 | | 2. | Phillip Mann | Bahati Foundation | 4 | | 3. | Kamil Zielinski | CCC Polsat Polkowice | 1 | | 4. | Guillermo Lana | Caja Rural | 1 |
Edited by alexkr00 on 30-01-2010 14:28
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 30-01-2010 14:32
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Very nicely done.
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| Batista15 |
Posted on 30-01-2010 14:33
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great stage mate! |
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| brownwm |
Posted on 30-01-2010 15:02
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great result there
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