3 races for PrivatBank in February, looking to do even better then in January where Polivoda was definately the strongest sprinter, perhaps not the smartest tho.
Tour de Bretagnes
Spoiler
Stage 1 – Boring stage really, sprint was certain to happen. Lasca (Kappa) won it, Cardoso came in third.
Stage 2 – Again not much happening this stage, teams seem tob e afraid of wasting precious energy by going into early breakaways.
This time the sprint, which was slightly uphill, was won by our own Filipe Cardoso!
Stage 3 – WE HAVE A BREAKAWAY! It’s Barbari (Barcelona) Who tries his luck. Meanwhile the faster sprinters are fighting for the green jersey.
Sprint comes, Cardoso gets too excited and burns his energy way to early, causing hi mto finish 9th. Moren (Vattenfall) won this stage.
Stage 4 – Mur de Bretagne ahead! But first thing first, today’s lonely rider at front is Hampton (Halfords). Again it’s the faster sprintes fighting for the primes, Cardoso saves his energy,m as he’s also a decent puncheur. And then, we are there, the Mur which will have tob e conquered 3 times. And as exected it’s rainig attacks, involving our very own Fonte. None really makes i tand the strongest guys remain. At the end Furdi (Gazelle) shows he’s the strongest here, Fonte takes fourth, now 3rd in the GC.
Stage 5 – Again it’s Barbari who wants to leave the pack early. He’s way down in the GC and we told our guys to not follow them, Cardoso should be strong on those kind of finales, but he wasted alot of energy yesterday, trying to score points for the green jersey. Barbari takes it with some margin.
There also were some late attempts, but we managed to neutralize them, so a sprint for second. Florencio (Barcelona) won that, making an incredible 1-2 for that team. Cardoso took fourth.
Stage 6 – Tanguy (Halfords) attacked on the first categorised climb, like he just wanted the points, however the guy decided to go on his own.
Shower of attacks again in the hilly finale, Gazelle has it under control. Or do they, when Olsson, Mori, Fonte, Gingsjo and Talabardon keep their lead in the last lap Furdi desperatley attacks after 3 more guys punched out. Tanguy wins, and behind the group with Fonte will battle for the GC lead. Fonte can take it, but he sprints like shit. Olsson (Risa) takes the GC lead, ahead of Fonte and Furdi (Gazelle).
Stage 7 – Decision time.
Hacecky (Kappa) and Lilholt (Vattenfall) Decide to go early, and the pack shows no interest in chasing them down. Easy win for Lilholt, as Hacecky wasn’t quite able to keep up with him.
And then again, it’s raining attacks but all are covered as usual, so a sprint, as the cobbles weren’t too selective. Furdi takes third, Fonte 6th, securing 2nd in the GC and Cardoso 10th, getting enough points to get green, equal in points with Lasca (Kappa)
I think we should be happy the cobbles weren’t selective. Again a green jersey, and a stage win, sprints going well so far!
GP Postojna
Spoiler
We have Buts in the break today, so our three leaders won’t have to worry about the chase.
They never stood a chance to make it tho.
A lot of attacks in the finale, all doomed to fail. As we enter the final KM Kump (Pivovarna) hold a minimal lead infront of a raging peloton. Somehow he manages to find a little bit of reserve, and hold on to his lead, a very nice performance by him!
Mori and Scarponi make it a 2-3 for Kappa and Vorganov manages to get eigth.
Eight, yeah. When you have both Vorganov and Cardoso in the peloton after a stage like this you should atleast expect a top 5, and another one in the top 10, nevertheless those points are important aswell, atleast it’s not a 0-pointer yet.
Middle East Tour
Spoiler
Our first goal of the season, getting a stage win would accomplish it for us.
Stage 1 – In the rain of late attacks, after Polivoda won some primes a small group managed to get away from favorite Rohregger. Lutsenko (MTN) took the stage 22’’ ahead of the group with Kononenko and Martinez (Kenya) Kononenko took 3rd in the sprint.
Stage 2 – Suryadi (Armavia) decides it time to go alone. He fights until the end, where a raging peloton of climbers is coming fast, but he manages to hold them off. Kononenko wins the sprint for second.
Stage 3 – Attack after attack, none succesful so we’ll sprint again, for the win this time. Jiriakov (Sauber) proves to be fast and takes it ahead of Ghafari (Kenya) and Kononenko, so 3 podiums in 3 days now.
Stage 4 – We’ll hit the real mountains today. And Mestre is feeling strong placing attack after attack after attack……. Final climb, and Mestre blew himself up, well done… Martinez (Kenya) takes the win, ahead of Rohregger (Magna) and Rodas (MTN). Kononenko comes in almost 2 minutes behind, Mestre loses over 3 minutes.
Stage 5 – Sprinting time! Grmay (Armavia) forms the break, Diaz (Evian following, and eventually joining him. But ofcourse they get reeled in so we’ll sprint. It’s Chicchi (Boeing) who wins after Polivoda got boxed in.
Stage 6 – Again a chance for the sprinters. Attacks are all neutralised and Mestre and Kononenko are working for Polivoda. Rodas and Landa both tumble, killing their hopes for a good GC as the peloton in on full speed now.
Gomenyuk now takes a monstrous turn delivering Lima and Polivoda at the final hill. Ghafari can’t keep up with the mand this is one of the most beautiful sprints of the season, this should be in everyones review of the season, such dominance! Polivoda takes the win meters ahead of Beletti (Magna) and Lima who held onto third.
Stage 7 – One man break Nel (MTN) get’s reeled in and it’ll be a sprint again. Polivoda get’s dropped off quite well by Gomenyuk and Lima Beating Chicchi by a wheel’s lenght. So 2 in a row now!
Stage 8 – Mountains again. Polivoda, Chicchi, Belletti, Matzka and Baumann are all dropped early, too early as later seems they won’t reach the time limit.
Meanwhile Mestre feels strong again and attacks, similar to stage 4, fail again? Well no, he gets reeled in by the favourites but stays there, unlike Kononenko who hit the wall. Rohregger wins the stage ahead of Martine zand Mestre, who seems to be at the level we expected hi mto be.
Stage 9 – Mestre is strong, again, and attacks, again. Landa, who fell on an earlier stage takes the win, gaining some time back, ahead of Rohregger and Mestre, who seems the be the third best climber here, if only he didn’t lose 3 minutes on stage 4…
At the back Lima didn’t make the time limit along with some others…
Stage 10 – The final mountain! And it’s a sprint of 43 men, not decisive at all. Suryadi (Armavia) takes an important win for the PCT team which is the favourite for relegation. Kononenko and Mestre are both up there.
Stage 11 – This is where the GC will be decided, a long time trial.
The Boeing team seems to have some decent time trialists back in the GC. Ahmed, Stoenchov and Mihaylov all set decent times on the clock, but we want to see the battle for the GC.
First is Kononenko who sets a decent time aswell, Passing Ihlenfeld and Ndbri who were seconds ahead in the GC, moving up to 8th.
Landa stays where’s at, 7th.
And then, perhaps the most exciting battle: Mestre has to gain 6 seconds on Colorado, both are similar timetrialists, but Mestre gains some time over the first two checkpoints and ends up winning 6 seconds, putting them in the same time, final placings will decide their positions!
Jiriakov gains 3rd after Alizadeh, his teammate disapointed and even lost his placet o Mestre and Colorado who move up to 4th and 5th.
And then Martinez who has to gain time on Rohregger to take the GC, but he simply can’t Rohregger win both the TT and the GC!
Kononenko was 4th in the TT, Mestre 9th.
Stage 12 – With all real sprinters eliminated this could be the stage for a breakaway. And so it happens, Scarponi goes alone, soon having a huge gap, at the end he won with almost half an hour advantage!
Behind him Alizadeh, Parra and Rodas fall. Bad time to do that, as Di Luca was preparing the sprint for second. Gomenyuk easily win that sprint, shame our team didn’t chase Scarponi. But for Gomenyuk second must feel like a win.
So a very succesful tour for us. 4th and 8th in the GC, 2 stages, a lot of podiums and attractive racing.
As everyone knows our starrider this season is Russian sprinter Roman Maksimov. We paid him a visit in his new home in Novozybkov, Russia near the Ukrainian border.
I: Hello Roman, how is it to be back in Russia? RM: Great, I can finally visit my family and friends again, although they still live in Moscow, which is quite far away.
I: What do you think of your new team? RM: Great mix of Russian speaking guys and some guys from whole other countries like the Portugese. At the teambuildingcamp they all seemed to be very friendly.
I: We know you're a fast sprinter, but you hate climbing, how will that work out this season? RM: Well, currently I'm training hard to improve my climbing abilities. I think it shouldn't be a massive problem.
I: Now I'll ask what we want to know, what is your program this season? RM: Wait a second, let me get my calendar.
I: So you will start racing in late April? Isn't that a bit late? RM: I don't think so, this gives me more time to spend with my family, and gives me extra time to train on those hills.
I: You are pretty convinced you'll have a good year, right? RM: Yes, the team's given me a nice schedule with races like Donetsk and Moscow GP, those two will also be my big goals for the season.
I: Now a totally different question. Are you afraid you'll miss this team once you'll head back to CSC-Orbea? RM: Ofcourse! Here I can speak Russian, there I have to speak English, which is quite difficult sometimes. But also CSC is a great team, friendly staff and I'd love to ride on a higher level again.
I: Is there anything else you want to say? RM: Yes. I hope I can race the worlds this year, if the course suits me, so if it does, please select me!
I: Thanks Roman for giving us your schedule of the season.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
Glad to hear Roman is enjoying his time back in Russia, and we can't wait to see him start racing again. And with all of the points you have picked up without him, promotion could happen. And if it does we could possibly workout a deal to keep Maksimov there long term if PrivatBank wants, because he won't want to comeback to CSC if you guys are racing in the PCT as well.
A month with some tactical mistakes, and no Maksimov yet. Time to forget, or be happy I’m such an idiot subscribing us fors ome races we don’t have specialists for?
Volta ao Algarve
Spoiler
Our first C1 appearance of the season, with the hopes of Fonte getting a top 10.
Stage 1 – A flat stage where immediatly we show ourselves by asking Daniel Hoelgaard to attack. He eventually drops his 2 companions to try and hold off a speeding peloton, which is preparing a mass-sprint. He can’t manage to hold them off and Boily (Alstom) takes the win, Filipe Cardoso managed to finish in fifth.
Stage 2 – Again flat, and again green in the breakaway, this time it’s Cunha, who probably is the best guy from our team when it comes to breaks. In the end we get another sprint, of GC contender as the sprinters struggled earlier during the race. Scarponi (Kappa) takes a nice win, our best guy is Fonte in 17th.
Stage 3 – Decision time on Alto do Malhao. None of our riders seemed eager to attack on this stage and thus for most an ‘easy’ day in the pack. Again it ended in a sprint of the climbers with Mendes (Prio) winning in his home country. Fonte was 18th and has a good position for the time trial.
Stage 4 – The breakaway contains of 6 riders, again no PrivatBank-Green tob e seen. They don’t make it so we’ll have a mass-sprint for the second time. Feillu (BPost) raises his arms and wins the stage, Cardoso again 5th.
Stage 5 – The deciding time trial. Fonte will be looking to move into the top 10, as he’s a decent time trialer. His skills aren’t C1 worthy and he comes in as 21st, still moving up in the GC to 11th which is very creditable. Mister Zabriskie wins the TT, the GC goes to Tinkoff Credit Systems and their rider Vasili Kiriyenka
So not a bad first C1 appearance from our team, 11th is certainly not bad on this level, but a top 10 looks so much nicer, better luck next time.
Vilnius GP
Spoiler
The route should suit Cardoso with an uphill finish, but also most of the better climbing sprinters from the CT are here to win…
Our Cypriot rider Athanasiades decides not to help Filipe and attacks, finding himself in the break of 4 guys.
They never stood a chance and get reeled in quite far from the line, so we’ll have a sprint. Weirdly enough Cardoso is nowhere to be found and Gomenyuk turns out the be our sprinter today. He definatley isn’t a bad sprinter himself, but the uphill section is too much for his, causing him to finish 12th. Lasca (Kappa) wins the race in Lithuania. Bad result. All I have to say.
Trofej Porec
Spoiler
Cobbles, we fear the mand have made a huge mistake entering races such as this, nevertheless we think Ansons could get us some valuable points in these races.
We have a break of 3 riders and surprisingly we hear over the radio: ‘’We have Bakzhou from Credexbank, Vattenfall rider Gingsjo and from PrivatBank Meenhorst.’’ Well we got excited for moment there but obviously the guys doing the radio here aren’t from the same level as the Tour de France. (No offence tsmoha, just have to write something…) Ostergaard (Die Berg) can’t hold his nerver under control and attacks a long way from the finish. He gets to the 3 in front, with still Privatbank rider Meenhorst, new shirts and teams is definatley something to get used to, but struggles to keep up with them as they attack en group. At the end we finally get a group of five making it to end, with Ostergaard and Saramotins, who despite being a huge target in the transfer season, doesn’t ride for our team, which the reporter claims to be…
Coyot (Allianz) proves tob e the strongest of the 5 and wins. Ansons get 3rd in the peloton sprint, causing hi mto finish 8th. Good result, considering we don’t have any specialists. These points can prove tob e very valuable.
Tour of Sochi
Spoiler
Our second C1 race this season, again with Fonte aiming for a nice GC.
Stage 1 – Not much to report here, bad weather caused some riders to fall but there aren’t any major injuries. Mass-sprint and Hoffman, from the other Ukrainian team wins, Gomenyuk is 9th, Polivoda was too far back.
Stgae 2 – The early break has no chance against Hoffman, who again will try to win a GC like he did in South Africa. Or… Passeron decides to go alone against a peloton which is preparing a sprint for the stronger sprinter, as there are several hills tob e conquered.
Rothaus will be happy as Aurelien manages to hold them off and taking a briljant victory, behind him Bibby takes 2nd and Polivoda stabs Hoffman, overtaking him on the line for third, sorry Metinvest, we also need points.
Stage 3 – A wet race, and the GC will take shape here. A group of 37 riders create a gap, and Fonte is caught napping, he later said he was dropping to the car the get a new pair of racing glasses, as the ones he wore at the time we pretty dirty.
The large group caught behind manages to get back, just before the final climb. Fonte has to drop quite early and ride on his own pace to the top. Kritskiy (TCS) wins the stage. Fonte is 40th, almost 4 minutes behind.
Stage 4 – The time trial, Fonte is looking to make up some places. He sets a good time with only 30 guys to finish. In the end it’s enough to get a 15th place in the TT, won by Dekker (Vueling).
GC-wise he climbs to 27th, which would mean scoring some minor points.
Stage 5 – Hoelgaard attacks, for like the 5th time this season. He’s pretty valuable to our team, making publicity in those breaks. It’s doomed to be a sprint tho, Mezgec (SRAM) is the strongest this time, Polivoda sat on his train and got 7th.
Fonte holds on to 27th in the GC, won by Kritskiy. Not too bad of a race for us with Polivoda getting a podiumfinish, but point’wise this simply isn’t good enough.
Windhoek ITT
Spoiler
3 Guys from our team were sent to Africa to ride a timetrial.
Kononenko is first of our team, setting a provisional 1st, which would be worth a 19th place in the end.
Following his is Buts, and I quote the reporter here: ‘’ Now we have Vitaliy Buts out on course. Buts is a multi-talented rider who you would want on your team if there is a TTT around, but he is also a brilliant lead-out man. It is the first of these talents he will be hoping to tap today as he heads out of the starting gate.’’ In the end he gets a 24th place.
Athanasiades is the last rider from our team and again I quote the reporter: ‘’ Desperately trying to win some prize money to avoid bankruptcy, the Cypriot Marios Athanasiades is the next rider out. This is his specialist discipline and he will hope to get a provisional top ten.’’ Well we can say he isn’t too desperate as he got paid his full year salary already, and he has it stored in PrivatBank, ofcourse.
Nevertheless he managed to finish 12th, as thus winning some extra money.
The race is won by Ford, rider for Oz, a team with all three riders in the top 10.
Not too bad, we got some points and Marios proves he’ll be a valuable domestique.
With Cardoso in his home country, with a brilliant lead-out train should be able to atleast win a stage, considering stage 1 and 2 are rated flat, but are quite hard in the end. And maybe even compete for the GC win as there are just 4 flat stages.
The goal we set ourselves here is win atleast 1 stage and get a top 3 GC.
PrivatBank's line-up
Arturs Ansons
Leader
Volodymyr Gomenyuk
Domestique
Vitaliy Buts
Domestique
Volodymyr Dzhus
Domestique
Bruno Lima
Domestique
David Chokheli
Domestique
Nicolae Tanovitchii
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
Oops, we did it again, cobbles…
Let’s hope Ansons can score some points again, or maybe a breakaway to make it with one of our riders…
PrivatBank's line-up
Roman Maksimov
Leader
Oleksandr Polivoda
Lead-Out
Volodymyr Gomenyuk
Lead-Out
Arturs Ansons
Lead-Out
Marco Alexandre Ferreira Cunha
Domestique
Volodymyr Dzhus
Domestique
Nicolae Tanovitchii
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
Quite obvious what we want here, in our country, knowing Metinvest won’t race here.
If the race proves to be too hard for our Russian Rocket, we always have Ukraine’s finest sprinter, Polivoda.
This is one of our official goals, our win goal to be precise and we expect nothing less than victory. It just has to happen. Edited by fjhoekie on 25-03-2013 11:02
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
With the current season heading to mid-April we already have some huge news. The team has signed some sponsor contracts for 2014, meaning PrivatBank won't remain the sole sponsor of the team.
Stepping in as secondary sponsor is Nemiroff, a Ukrainian producer of alcoholic beverages, mainly vodka and horilka. Nemiroff is a company which is active in 50 countries all over the world, and by stepping in as a sponsor of a relatively small team it hopes to gain more customers in the countries the team rides, which like this season will also be in Africa and Asia.
Also 3 minor sponsors signed a contract. First one is Hotel Leopolis, located in Lviv. They will have some rooms available at any time for our 'exotic' riders from Cyprus and Portugal who can't always travel home inbetween races. They don't have a place on our shirt, but we'll mention them throughout the season.
Also Aerosvit Airlines will sponsor us next season. After having serious money problems in 2012 the company hopes to get back out of the red by flying the team's fanclub from race to race (Oh yes, we also have a small fanclub )
Last but not least Antonov will step into the sport. Antonov is a Ukrainian aircraft maker. Besides the financial aspect of sponsoring they will supply us with an enourmous An-225, which is the largest plane in the world, so we can easily transport our buses and cars.
All our current sponsors, SCOTT bikes, Catlike and Nalini renewed their contracts and PrivatBank still has atleast a 2 year contract with the team.
Now the funpart, revealing the jersey, made by the fantastic designer ANFreeman:
We are very happy ANFreeman took the time to design a jersey for us, eventhough it isn't sure yet if the team will stay, at the end of the season the UCI (SNUCI or whatever) will have to make a decision whether we can stay or not.
Only 3 races this month, and again we made the tactical failure and subscribed for a cobbled race, not the last one of the season…
Besides we also had our win goal this month, at our home race in Donetsk.
Volta ao Alentejo
Spoiler
A race in Portugal, made for Cardoso, on paper that is ofcourse, he still has tob ring it home.
Stage 1 – A flat stage, with a hill near the line, ideal for Cardoso.
But first local tv-hero Cunha decided to give the rest of the team a fairly easy day by attacking from the start. Not too far into the race Santos, one of the main favourites here plants his face on the tarmac, no easy conditions here.
That would later be proven by Ansons, who was keeping Cardoso out of the wind. They both fell, bye bye chances for Cardoso.
The sprint is surprisingly won by Ciocan (Mobil). Our back-up sprinter Lima finished 12th.
Stage 2 – A predicted uphill sprint awaits the riders, which again would be great for Cardoso. However his muscles were stiff after yesterday’s fall and so he decides to go in the break, to get the feel back.
The final sprint is won by Sutton (Risa), again Lima is our best man, 15th today.
Stage 3 – As flat as it gets here, so maybe the ideal chance for Lima if Cardoso still has pains. But no, the team is being idiotic, and not for the last time I can tell… Cunha decides to sprint from a long way out, hopeless…
Rizza (Die Berg) wins, Cardoso 17th.
Stage 4 – We see Cunha up front again, the man’s probably our best guy here getting atleast some TV-coverage.
Santos recovered from his stage 1 fall and wins, Cardoso is 17th again.
Santos also takes the GC.
So, our worst race yet, and we expected to get a podium… Not much more to say really…
Tro Bro Leon
Spoiler
Cobbles, our speciality… NOT!
We do the right thing tho by sending Buts in the break, to get TV-coverage.
Buts stays calm all race long, despite attacks in the break, and from favourites behind. 12 riders will sprint for vicory, including Buts and the other 3 from the early break.
Buts gets the perfect wheel of Maes, who starts his sprint way too early, giving Vitaliy a headstart. On the final cobbles he has a massive lead, which he won’t give away. So some succes after the Alentejo disaster, and what a nice surprise this is!
Probably our nicest victory yet.
The top 3 is finished by Steegmans and Coyot, in total we had 4 men in the top 20, giving us a fair amount of points.
So even when you can’t plan a season, you can still be succesful. Will Maksimov win Dobrich later this season???
Donetsk GP
Spoiler
Our win goal, Maksimov’s first race, fail or victory?
When there’s a breakaway, there has to be a chase, and we weren’t part of it. Our rivals pull back the escapees without any help from our side, nice and easy day in the pack.
But when the catch is made the others are fed up with our tactics, so why not send Cunha in the next attack, forcing the others to react, again. And so it happens. Withous succes tho, the other teams didn’t let this happen, also because Cunha is known for these moves.
And then: Tiziano Dall’Antonia decides to use a new tactic, completely surprising everyone. He winst his race, so goal failed…
Behind him Abdallah takes second in fornt of Abakoumov.
Gomenyuk takes 9th, Maksimov 10th, 3 others made the top 20.
Despite not winning we take a fair amount of points. Can’t be happy withour tactics tho…
No train and freaking Gomenyuk out sprinting our leader…
We’ve already called PrivatBank, and they assured us to finance a new radio-system which we can use in our cars at Turul al Romaniei and all races after that.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
Our next goal after the Donetsk fail. We set ourself a top 10 goal here, and Kononenko should be able to achieve it, he already performed well in The Middle East Tour, and the prologue should favor him.
We also bring 2 sprinters for the 7 flat stages, we expect to get maybe 2 or 3 stage wins if the big guns go to Boras Runt.
PrivatBank's line-up
Roman Maksimov
Leader
Volodymyr Gomenyuk
Lead-Out
Arturs Ansons
Lead-Out
Vitaliy Buts
Lead-Out
Marco Alexandre Ferreira Cunha
Domestique
Marios Athanasiades
Domestique
Volodymyr Dzhus
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
Boras Runt is flatter than the profile would suggest, and so we hope our opponents will leave their fast men home. Roman should easily get over the small hills here and because we already know only a few teams will race here we don’t expect too much of a challenge, certainly not for a podium.
Our Lead-Out is quite weak duet o Polivoda and Lima being in Romania, nevertheless Gomenyuk is a greak final man and Buts has already shown his strength.
PrivatBank's line-up
Roman Maksimov
Leader
Filipe Cardoso
Lead-Out
Volodymyr Gomenyuk
Lead-Out
Arturs Ansons
Lead-Out
Vitaliy Buts
Lead-Out
Marco Alexandre Ferreira Cunha
Domestique
Volodymyr Dzhus
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
Roman’s home race, so expect something from him. This being a C1 race doesn’t help his chances, but it’s flat, and in his homecountry so he might surprise.
We lack the power tob ring back a break so we can only hope Roman isn’t seen as the top favourite.
PrivatBank's line-up
Eduard Vorganov
Leader
Roman Maksimov
Sprinter
Volodymyr Gomenyuk
Lead-Out
Marios Athanasiades
Domestique
Volodymyr Dzhus
Domestique
Anatoliy Sosnitskiy
Domestique
Daniel Hoelgaard
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
No idea what we can expect here, Eduard isn’t a top class puncheur but he might surprise because his sprint isn’t too bad.
Our real reason to come here is the number of flat stages Maksimov can contest, despite using this as a trainingrace for the youngsters Gomenyuk alone should be able to drop of Roman in a good place. The green jersey is our goal here.
PrivatBank's line-up
Roman Maksimov
Leader
Bruno Lima
Lead-Out
Vitaliy Buts
Lead-Out
Marco Alexandre Ferreira Cunha
Domestique
Marios Athanasiades
Domestique
Volodymyr Dzhus
Domestique
Nicolae Tanovitchii
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
Flat race in Estonia, shame it’s also a C1 race. Don’t really know what to expect from Maksimov here, we think he might be able to get a top 5, but top 10 is demanded.
Let’s just hope Boras, Moscow, Southland and this isn’t too much to handle for Roman. Edited by fjhoekie on 04-05-2013 18:32
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
A C1 race we mainly use to train some of the promising young riders we have on loan this season, no real expectations. Maybe Polivoda can get close in a sprint and Mestre a top 20 GC but that’ll be all…
PrivatBank's line-up
Eduard Vorganov
Leader
Ricardo Mestre
Super-Domestique
Roman Maksimov
Sprinter
Volodymyr Gomenyuk
Lead-Out
Vitaliy Buts
Lead-Out
David Chokheli
Domestique
Nicolae Tanovitchii
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
Eduard should do well here, as the final kilometres of the hilly stages aren’t too hard and he has a good sprint. With help from Ricardo and David we’re confident a top 5 should be achievable.
We also bring Maksimov here. Stages 1 and 5 could be perfect for him, whereas 2 and 6 could prove to be too hard.
PrivatBank's line-up
Cesar Andre Fonte
Leader
Filipe Cardoso
Co-Leader
Mykhaylo Kononenko
Domestique
Marco Alexandre Ferreira Cunha
Domestique
Marios Athanasiades
Domestique
Arturs Ansons
Domestique
Volodymyr Dzhus
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
With home-riders Fonte and Cardoso being able to survive some hilly stuff we think we have a chance to impress at this race. Both have already proven they can ride a good GC and Cardoso already won something.
A top 3 should be possible if the best of the continental puncheurs stay at home, but a top 5 is demanded from our men.
PrivatBank's line-up
Eduard Vorganov
Leader
Filipe Cardoso
Sprinter
Mykhaylo Kononenko
Domestique
David Chokheli
Domestique
Anatoliy Sosnitskiy
Domestique
Nicolae Tanovitchii
Domestique
Daniel Hoelgaard
Domestique
Goals, Expectations and Hopes
With this race only having 3 stages we expect a lot of competition here, a GC win would mean a lot of points per raceday…
Nevertheless we bring a strong squad here with Vorganov leading. With both hilly stages ending downhill he should have an advantage because of his sprinting skills.
The one flat stage should bef or a sprinter, but we don’t think a lot of them will be present, so Cardoso should be a good bet for that one.
We think this should be a good race with strong riders so I’m not sure what to expect GC-wise, a top 10 should be possible at any time tho.
We are still active in May, so that recap will come a few days after Tallinn Tartu has been finsihed. Just wanted to post this right now so I can't change my preview on the Azerbaijan Tour.
Manager of Team Popo4Ever p/b Morshynska in the PCM.Daily Man-Game
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Altough, only 2 races in May say a lot about our squads there.
