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Team Festina - Corona
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-01-2011 18:14
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
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Back to neverneverland:
We had decided to bring a supersquad to the Tour of Switzerland to make our former home-nation proud. But it wasn't long before Mauricio Ardila went down. The same did our hero Steve Morabito, and he was definately down. We had some very high hopes for 3 riders in the top 20, and one of them entering the top 10.
We didn't manage that goal. Not by a long shot. 11th in the GC isn't a disaster so we are looking to diminish our losses, and now we should be able to bring some back. Our closest rivals aren't very strong in the TTT and the hills. We need to bring back the lost, before the Tour.
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-01-2011 18:18
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Strong team-effort in the Netherlands:
All through the day we showed our strengths, but in the end Home-favorite Jack Wolfskin and Auber was too strong. There are no hurting when losing out to the better teams, and we must admit that both teams are better.
3rd in a race where our closest competitors weren't around is very nice. Wikipedia seems to be in serious contention now, and Auber seems to be able to get points where they need them, so we can't downright unsubscibe them yet. So for now the top (After Sony) is La Gazzetta, Pearl, Domina, Lipton, Auber, Wikipedia and us. That is a tough nut!
Let's bring some points in the Luxembourgian race of the year.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 25-11-2024 22:02
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| SotD |
Posted on 08-01-2011 18:21
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Alright, alright... Vuelta-disaster seems forgotten
Franck Schleck seemd confident today, maybe a bit too confident, because in the end he wasn't quite able to close the gap. Diego Ulissi played it cool after Samuel Sánchez made the early move. That meant that Diego had lots of energy left going in for 4th today. That is a huge result, which also shows us, that he is about ready to be captain next season. Samuel Sánchez managed to hold on tight to his group, and sprinting for 9th. We are very very pleased with this result, and we keep on taking back points on the rivals.
Next up, the Tour de France. Fingers are crossed for Alberto Contador, but the peleton has never been better, it's going to be a fantastic race for the spectators. Let's hope we can enjoy it aswell, even considering the huge pressure on us.
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| SotD |
Posted on 25-01-2011 15:48
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
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The Tour wasn't bad at all...
On paper we had a very strong team for this years edition of the Tour de France. Alberto Contador with newfound strenght in the mountains and the 2 discussably strongest helpers in Mauricio Ardila and Angel Madrazo... In the sprints Anthony Lavoine and Blaise Sonnery were both among the better sprinters, and with the nationality bonus it couldn't be all bad...
The sprints weren't good, but not disastrous like previously in the season, and Alberto Contador looked like a real candidate for 5th for quite some time. Instead he turned his focus on the mountains jersey, and as both Mauricio Ardila and Angel Madrazo crashed our GC hopes had to fade a bit.
In the end Contador rode himself into 8th GC. Not a great result, but looking at the competition it could definately be worse. Instead his focus on the polka dots turned out beautifully, and he ended up on the podium wearing the jersey. Both Ardila and Madrazo climbed towards the end to battle themselves within the best 30 of the race, and that also gave the charge towards 3rd in the teams classification.
We ended up being the 10th most scoring team, not good at all, but since most of our direct competitors scores less, or slightly more we can be pretty happy with the outcome. The PT is now closer than ever in the battle for top 3, and we hope to come out on top, but we reckon the lost points from the Vuelta could be the toungue on the weightbowl (Danish phrase) - We are very excited to get the next race going that's for sure!
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| SotD |
Posted on 25-01-2011 20:58
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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There's no I in "Team", but 4 letters must equal 4 strong riders!
Seine-Marne-Seine was a race we were looking a bit anxious at, as the profile could indicate a sprint between 50-90 riders. Luckily our team took matters in their own hands. First with loanie Stefan Denifl who set the pace for our brilliant tactics. A large group made La Gazzetta work early on, and we took full advantage of that, as our sportif directeur yelled out the window "Go go go!!!" - Carlos Castaño made the move dragging Samuel Sánchez and Diego Ulissi with him.
From then on there was only one way to go. Foward! With Castaño and Denifl protecting our 2 stars we secured no crashes this time, and in the sprint Diego Ulissi secured 4th while Samuel Sánchez did a very nice 8th. The other 2 guys came in top 20 aswell giving our team a very nice outlet for the upcoming races. Castaño also shows that he is still in shape for the last two races he will attend.
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| SotD |
Posted on 28-01-2011 15:56
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Bada-Badaling...
Last years winner Samuel Sánchez held his head high as we subscribed to this years edition of the Chinese race. This year with an even stronger lineup of helpers to get a strong result.
The race was very bumpy, and we never really knew what to expect, so we just had to stay at the front of the pack. It seemed to risky to attack only to burn out, so we payed very close attention to our nearest competitors in the PT rankings and made our moves accordingly. Most teams seemed to have the same strategy, and so it all ended in a very tough uphill sprint. Diego Ulissi found the front, but wasn't quite able to beat the top guys, and so a 5th seemed very nice. Samuel Sánchez finished right up there aswell to take 9th. We cannot be unhappy with these 2 races that's for sure.
We are still battling very intensely for 2nd, but very closely followed by Wikipedia and Vesuvio (I would expect the closest rivals)... The next race is Asturias. Yet again a race where we have to minimize pointlosses, primarily on La Gazzetta and Vesuvio... Those teams could very well take a lot of points back on us here, but we have a dream that Castaño and Samuel Sánchez will both proviede a good GC result to minimize losses...
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| SotD |
Posted on 30-01-2011 21:15
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Strong individuals in Asturias:
On paper our team seemed very weak in consideration to our competitors; La Gazzetta, Vesuvio and Pearl, but we had 3 riders who didn't care much.
Carlos Castaño knew he wasn't able to do more than top 10, so he started to figure a plan on how to save our PT position. At first he tried going for mountain points. That didn't go well, then we asked Samuel Sánchez to go all-in on the downhill TT, and he did very well getting 2nd. From then on there were no looking back. First it was Steve Morabito who took a brilliant stagewin, and on the final climb up Angliru Castaño made a brilliant move giving us a second stagewin and a 9th overall. We are very happy to hold off Pearl and Vesuvio for now. La Gazzetta took more points than we hoped for, but we are very pleased so far. A good performance in Germany could be what it's all about. We are looking forward to see if Castaño can build on his great shape.
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| SotD |
Posted on 15-02-2011 11:13
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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All about limiting losses in Germany:
There was a tough pack of competition in the german race, Tour of Deutschland - And our closest rivals all had their big guns represented. We, on the other hand had a very strong TTT-lineup, and ever-reliable Carlos Castaño.
Right from the beginning it seemed impossible for us to get a solid performance, but then 2 of our direct competitors went down in a crash: David Zabriskie and Michael Rogers. Unfortunately this crash took Dave well out of the game, while Rogers made a great comeback. As we managed a decent TTT, and Castaño won the 4th stage we started to believe in miracles. The yellow jersey gave Castaño a much needed grasp of air, in the mountaintop-finish where he managed to close the gap to an absolut minimum, being 2nd before the final TT.
Here he did what was expected from him, but it also meant being overtaken by both Vesuvio and La Gazzetta. Not a great perspective looking at the PT standings. To our luck, and La Gazzettas misfortune, their team captain crashed once again, moving Rogers from 4th to 8th. Only thanks to a great TT did he not move even further behind.
A stagewin and a 5th place from Carlos Castaño helps us limiting our pointlosses on primarily Vesuvio and Pearl, while taking a little bit back on La Gazzetta and a bunch on Wikipedia. 5th seems pretty achievable at the moment, but we will look into our every last power to ensure another 3rd place in the overall. Next up is the unpredictable GP de Fourmies. Hopes are high, fears even higher.
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| SotD |
Posted on 16-02-2011 22:05
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Beer company pulls the plug!
The spanish/mexican beer sponsor Corona has let us know that they are not satisfied with our performances in the spanish races of this season, and we can only agree... Although we had every chance to make a huge result in the Vuelta, we didn't manage to because of bad luck, but provided a strong result in any of the other spanish races, we could also have had a new contract.
These are the results we have performed in Spain this season:
11th Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (Carlos Castaño)
- Sam Bewley won a stage and the sprinters jersey
3rd Vuelta al Pais Vasco (Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez)
- No significant stagesucces, but 2nd Team Rankings GC
16th Vuelta a España (Angel Madrazo)
- Huge dissapointment. Alberto Contador crashing in the early stages, thus making only 17th GC. No significant stagesucces, but 3rd Team Rankings GC
9th Vuelta a Asturias (Carlos Castaño)
- 2 stagewins, no jerseys and a bad Team GC.
Looking at the big picture the sponsor have not found the results satisfying, also complaining about our efforts in the TV-breaks. We recognize these reactions as probably a bad move to please our sponsors, but we have had a different aproach to the races, where our goal always was to take the most from the races in terms of Pro Tour ranking points.
Festina is happy to re-sign their sponsor contract, as they enjoyed the overall picture of the season, but especially points out a small palette of historic moments for the team:
- Alberto Contador taking the mountains jersey in the Tour de France, leading the thoughts back to former rider Richard Virenque.
- Giro d'Italia, where the sponsor was especially pleased with young Diego Ulissi, in the taking of 2 stagewins, and Carlos Castaño grabbing 5th place in the GC, after strong guidance from Mauricio Ardila ending in 13th place.
- Steve Morabito is the diamond of the Swiss team. The swiss crowd loves him, and the stagewin in the Vuelta a Asturias jumps to mind as a superior solo performance.
- Tour of Switzerland, where we managed to win the swiss hearts back by taking the Teams classification after a bunch of crashes and a fairly dissapointing GC finishing behind the likes of Martijn Keizer and Fabio Duarte, whom Carlos Castaño had been able to beat all season.
- Diversity of the teams cultural aspect. Eventhough the sponsor would like another swiss rider or two they have complimented us for making the team work with no less than 14 different nationalities, an aspect they would like us to continue in the future.
We are currently looking into the possibilities of signing a new secondary contract with a sponsor from either Spain, Italy, Germany or Switzerland. We have a few in talks, but we are not prepared to make any announcements just yet.
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| SotD |
Posted on 17-02-2011 14:30
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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CONEC presented as new secondary sponsor
After a stressful week we finally got pen-to-paper with the German Industrial Connectors company CONEC. We are very pleased with the new sponsor.
"It is no secret that we have been looking for a team to sponsor, and as one of our highest directeurs have a nephew riding for the team (Patrick Gretsch) - The choise fell easily upon Team Festina."
CONEC recently won an award; The ECN TECH AWARD 2010, which made the company known fairly abroad, and with this the priorities turned into sponsorships to help the company further improve it's status as one of the leading Industrial Connectors-companies.
CONEC's website
As a step into the next season, we allow our followers to have a look at the two shirtdesigns we are currently working on. One will be presented shortly in a slightly altered outlay, whilst the other will figure primarily as a shirt for our Criterium and Tour l'Avenir. Team Festina is also gribbling about some other initiatives which will help the team promote itself. More on that later. Now for the shirts:
As we haven't decided on which shirt to use yet, we are happy to hear from our supporters as to which shirt they would be the most pleased with, and also comments on how to alter the shirt into the perfect one for next season, a season where we look to set new hights for the Teams results.
Edited by SotD on 17-02-2011 14:58
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| SotD |
Posted on 17-02-2011 15:00
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Now with correct pictures. Feel free to comment 
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| mb2612 |
Posted on 17-02-2011 15:32
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Team Leader
Posts: 5759
Joined: 18-05-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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Nice, I like the top one better I think, but they are both pretty cool
 [url=www.pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread.php?thread_id=33182] Team Santander Media Thread[/url]
Please assume I am joking unless otherwise stated |
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| rycadinho |
Posted on 17-02-2011 15:38
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Protected Rider
Posts: 1078
Joined: 28-09-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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mb2612 wrote:
Nice, I like the top one better I think, but they are both pretty cool
Will have to agree with mb2612, even though it's a close call.
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| Crommy |
Posted on 17-02-2011 15:42
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World Champion
Posts: 10018
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 200.00
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Prefer the bottom one, but it's very, very close.
Also: nice to see you keep Festina in as a sponsor, like the continuity 
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| SotD |
Posted on 17-02-2011 15:48
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World Champion
Posts: 12188
Joined: 29-11-2006
PCM$: 2980.00
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Festina has always been my favorite team, closely followed by Kelme and ONCE, so I thought it would be a nice tribute to make the name be seen for several seasons
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| Gustavovskiy |
Posted on 17-02-2011 16:07
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Team Leader
Posts: 6036
Joined: 20-07-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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I also prefer the bottom one. I find it more basic than the other. Nevertheless they both are great shirts
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| Heine |
Posted on 17-02-2011 16:07
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4116
Joined: 08-04-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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I like the first one
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| Kami |
Posted on 17-02-2011 16:10
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3485
Joined: 19-06-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Both great shirts, but the first one comes out better in the shirt viewer.
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| wackojackohighcliffe |
Posted on 17-02-2011 16:26
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 7681
Joined: 19-02-2008
PCM$: 200.00
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bottom one for me. |
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| Roman |
Posted on 17-02-2011 16:45
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 4386
Joined: 29-05-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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I like the bottom one too.
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