Thanks all, very much appreciated PT is looking good, but way too soon to think about promotion But with our calendar and goals ( Top 10 in P-N and P-R), if we achieve the goals we have a good chance. Preview of month and February will follow tomorrow.
Question to you all, would you prefer normal style reports for the stage races (Etoile de Besseges) or shorter to speed things up to get to more important races e.g. P-N ?
Edited by Alakagom on 19-03-2011 20:20
Just a small anouncment, from now on I am changing image uploader from imageshack to photobucket. I hope those he couldnt see the pictures instantly will see them now.
This month started off superbly, getting invite into first World Tour event was a great surprise and we treated it like a holiday. I would never have thought we would achieve that much success here.
UCI Rider of the Month
No surprise here, Leonardo Duque takes his first ever UCI award for the rider of the month. Great feat by Leonardo and the whole Cofidis team. Kireyev placed 11th in TDU and was very active featuring in many breaks. He will be happy with this award as well.
Cofidis Rider of the Month
No surprise here as well, though it was close call between Leonardo and El Fares, Duque performed on every stage amazingly, so he deserves this award most. It was definitely the best performance of his carer and we hope we can now become a top rider. His fitness after the race peaked to early though, so he is gonna have a small holiday for himself.
The stats of our team remain unchanged. We really hope that Rein Taaramae will develop throughout this season, he has until July to do so and then his big goal of wearing the leader’s jersey at least for a day. It’s gonna be hard but it is achievable.
UCI Pro Tour Rankings
I have never expected this, we lead the PT rankings with Leonardo and the team rankings. The prestigious white jersey of the leader of Pro Tour is gonna be a massive bost for our team morale. We couldn’t start the season better.
Continental Rankings
Continental Rankings are lead by Marek Rutkiewcz, he palced 5th in Tour de San Luis being the best placed conti rider. The rankings are really not important that much, but as well it gives the rider morale boost along the leader’s jersey.
CQ Rankings
Those rankings are the one we really care about, and the amount of points we won in the first month alone is staggering. With now few steady and good performances from our team we look to be on our way to Pro Tour. We will take one step at a time though, and now concentrate on French races, we will try to get to invites .HC and Pro Tour races as many as possible, giving us most points.
We will trying to build up our fitness mostly in France in February. We will try do win some of the races to build up our points and hope the Paris-Nice organisers will invite us to the race. We will ask also Milano-SanRemo organisers for a wild card, after such a great performance in Australia.
Grand Prix Cycliste La Marseillaise is a one-day event held around the French City of Marseille. It is usually the first European event of the season, and it will kick off Sky’s European season.
Previous Winners of the event include Baden Cooke, Jeremy Hunt, Nicki Sorensen. Last year edition winner Jonathan Hivert, will particiapte as our co-leader and supprting rider for Joly.
The team is build around Samu Dumoulin here, he will be our leader here and we will count on him in the fianl 100 metres if it comes to sprint. Ista is here to build up his form for classics later in month, so we don't expect much from him. We also give our younger and less experienced ridr chance to show themsleves and learn for this experience.
Strong starlist for the inagurational race of the European season, we don't know most of the riders form so it is hard to predict a fvourite here, Vaugrenard is the best puncheur here, Rutkiewicz is the leader of Conti after Tour de San Luis and he may surprie here. Defintely a very wide, open field, and we will only know the strong riders half way through the race.
Edited by Alakagom on 21-03-2011 21:01
The first European Pro Cycling race is about to begin.
On the first kilometres there were many attacks, and that included our rider Buffaz. We don’t hope for much, but it is always good to have a man in break.
After 10km of riding the breakaway of the day is formed, including Buffaz, R.Ottema (De Rijke), J.Ockeloen (Donckers) and A.Jeanneson (FDJ).
There were many attacks, when one rider was caught by Buffaz the next went after him immediately. A.Jeanneson attacked with 80km to go and looks good to break away from the break.
But on the biggest hill today, solely by Buffaz’s work he is caught. The gap now is around 3’02 minutes.
On the second last hill, Anthony Charteau is trying to breakaway but we have the situation all under control so far.
Dumoulin even manages to create a gap on the downhill, but we won’t continue this fast pace as we don’t won’t to tire him too much before the expected sprint.
Joly and Rutkiewicz tried a last attempt attack, that didn’t pay off. Saur controlled the pace and caught them fast. Confusing isn’t
Saur in the middle (Cyril Lemoine) and us are the too clear trains that will fight it our today. Zingle felt great today and is leading us Monier with +5 daily form and Dumoulin.
6 way battle for victory under the flame rouge, Dumoulin is just leaving Monier wheel, who has excellent job for him. Jack Bauer (Endura) is coming really fast, Will he overtake us?
Nahh, Dumoulin powers to his first victory in the new season. Even Monier holds to the second. Great start in February for us, and that’s one of the reason, Cofidis is going all extreme now and the next race Etoile is gonna be played on extreme. Until then, cheerio.
The Étoile de Bessèges is a five day stage race in Early February, based in Southern France, around the town of Bessèges. The Stage Race is the first on European Soil for the season, and follows on from the GP Cycliste la Marseillaise, which is held a few days earlier.
2011 Étoile de Bessèges celcebrated its 41th edition of the Stage Race, and since 2005, it has held a 2.1 ranking on the UCI Europe Tour.
Cofidis Team
Samuel Dumoulin Nico Sijmens Jens Keukeleire Damien Monier Adrien Petit Tony Gallopin Tristan Valentin Nicolas Edet
Following the victory in the GP Cycliste la Marseillaise, Cofidis will be sending vry similat team. Samuel Dumoulin will be our undisputable leader and will have Jens as his lead-out along Nico Sijmens.
The 2011 route is sligthly easier than the last year's one so we expect the bonus seconds from sprints will decide the race. Adrien Petit has a goal on his own, and will try to win muntain jersey.
Team objectives :
- Top 5 GC Dumoulin
- Stage win - Dumoulin
- Mountain Jersey - Petit
Following strong starlist in GP Cycliste la Marseillaise, it is as strong here. Peter Sagan must be the favourite here, with great sprint and pucheurs abilities the race fits him perfectly. It's gonna be intresting battle in every stage, and as still we don't no a lot about rider fitness and this race will be a good indicator of the form of riders preparing for next month big clasics and stage races.
Edited by Alakagom on 25-03-2011 17:59
PT is looking good, but way too soon to think about promotion 
But with our calendar and goals ( Top 10 in P-N and P-R), if we achieve the goals we have a good chance. Preview of month and February will follow tomorrow.
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![i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m537/Alakagom/PCM0025.jpg [/img]<br />
<br />
But on the big downhill the break is finally caught. We shouldn’t expect any breaks now, but we need to be vey cautious from favourites attacks.<br />
<br />
[img]https://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m537/Alakagom/PCM0037-1.jpg](https://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m537/Alakagom/PCM0025.jpg [/img]<br />
<br />
But on the big downhill the break is finally caught. We shouldn’t expect any breaks now, but we need to be vey cautious from favourites attacks.<br />
<br />
[img]https://i1130.photobucket.com/albums/m537/Alakagom/PCM0037-1.jpg)
