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Matthias Fischer | Sleeping
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Posted on 25-11-2024 13:39
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 30-12-2012 18:36
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Tour de France Champion
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Let's hope he can help Roman the best he can! |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 31-12-2012 12:51
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@Ian: Yep - I think with a bit of help Kreuziger could push for top10 maybe even top5 GC over the next few stages, especially the next one 
@sutty:  but next stage might present some difficulties
Next stage about to be uploaded...
Edited by Stromeon on 31-12-2012 12:51
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 31-12-2012 13:24
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PARIS - NICE
STAGE 5 ONET LE CHATEAU - MENDE
Well here we are today, with a very tough uphill finish and a couple of difficult climbs in the latter half of the race.
There was a very strong attack from Nicki Sorensen at the start of the day, looking to get into the break and possibly earn some mountain points
It took a while for a break to form, with the peloton (especially OPQS) determined not to let any break of any sort through. But eventually they let a break of five through. (L-R) Jeannesson, van de Walle, Champion, Cadel Evans, and Nicki.
We traverse through a narrow valley as the terrain starts to get hillier
With 37km to go as the peloton catches up with the breakaway, Evans has none of it and ventures forth up the hill. Sorensen did miserably at the mountain sprints, gaining only three points.
The pack accelerated to try and catch him and I felt myself beginning to slip away on the steep terrain
Evans was soon caught after trying to solo up to the top of the Category 1 mountain. A new group of attackers emerged, including Young Jersey rivals Henao and Taaramae
Henao makes it up the penultimate mountain first with his group still maintaining a minutes lead over the peloton with just seven kilometres to go.
More attacks off the peloton - including Mallorca winner Sanchez and Christophe Le Mevel.
All three groups are reunited at the foot of the last ascent. I have long since receded into the distance, exhausted and not feeling great about my day's work. But Roman was still there near the front of the peloton.
But Le Mevel and Sanchez attacked again and Le Mevel triumphed in a difficult uphill sprint.
I was still halfway up the hill at this point but a random Spanish dude took pity on me and tried to encourage me along
I crossed the line nearly nine minutes after the leaders; my only consolation was that I had beaten Rafal, who you can see in the background.
I was quite disappointed with my work today. I was expecting it to be tough, but not this tough, and I finished after statistically lesser climbers in the team like Miyazawa and Pires. But Kreuziger finished an excellent eighth (he looked absolutely exhausted after the race) to improve his GC position.
| 1 |  | Christophe Le Mevel | Garmin-Barracuda | 4h40'08'' | | 2 |  | Luis Leon Sanchez | Rabobank Cycling Team | s.t. | | 3 |  | Chris Horner | Radioshack-Nissan | s.t. | | 4 | | Pierre Rolland | Team Europcar | s.t. | | 5 |  | Andy Schleck | Radioshack-Nissan | s.t. | | 6 |  | Tony Martin | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | s.t. | | 7 | | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | s.t. | | 8 |  | Roman Kreuziger | Team Saxo Bank | s.t. | | 9 |  | Lieuwe Westra | Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 10 |  | Alexandre Vinokourov | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | ... | | 75 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | +8'57'' |
Well that stage certainly shook up the GC quite a bit, so let's have a look at the top 10 after stage 5:
General Classification
| 1 | | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | 18h23'24'' | | 2 | | Tony Gallopin | Radioshack-Nissan | +19'' | | 3 | | Jose Ivan Gutierrez | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 4 | | Lieuwe Westra | Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 5 | | Tony Martin | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | +22'' | | 6 | | Roman Kreuziger | Team Saxo Bank | +24'' | | 7 | | Luis Leon Sanchez | Rabobank Cycling Team | +25'' | | 8 | | Chris Horner | Radioshack-Nissan | +30'' | | 9 | | Christophe Kern | Team Europcar | +34'' | | 10 | | Alexandre Vinokourov | Astana Pro Team | +38'' |
Chavanel somehow holding on to his lead relatively convincingly and good performances from Young Jersey holder Gallopin has put him second, but after a good performance today, Kreuziger is lifted up to 6th position!
See you tomorrow for some consolidation work, hopefully!
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 31-12-2012 14:38
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
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Well you can't expect Matthias to be on top of it already, he'll come around soon enough |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 31-12-2012 16:01
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Tour de France Champion
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Kreuziger has done himself the world of good by moving up to 6th on the GC |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 31-12-2012 19:43
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@Ian: Hopefully so, his performances so far aren't really reflecting his stats 
@sutty: yep - lets see if he can hold on or push on maybe
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 31-12-2012 20:30
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
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He definitely has to push on |
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| Jesleyh |
Posted on 31-12-2012 21:25
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 15274
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Well, I understand that he's a bit disappointed. He should look it from the bright side though: It can only get better 
Feyenoord(football) and Kelderman fanboy
PCMdaily Awards: 12x nomination, 9x runner-up, 0x win.
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 31-12-2012 23:05
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@Jesleyh: That's definitely a better way to look at it
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| tovhol |
Posted on 31-12-2012 23:06
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Nice story so far
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 31-12-2012 23:26
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PARIS - NICE
STAGE 6 SUZE LA ROUSSE - SISTERON
Today was a relatively flat day, gently undulating you might say, but should be a sprint showdown at the end.
When I woke up this morning, my legs still felt so tired after yesterday; and this problem was exaggerated as the pace was really high at the start, with the lead teams (OPQS again damn them!) refused to let a breakaway form
Eventually they relented and a break did form but it was hard work keeping up at the front. Here we are at quite a key point in the race in my view; the second of the steep hills. We had to make sure the non-goat Haedo didn't fall back here so he would have a chance in the sprint later on.
Straight after the mountain sprint point, the dangerous and unpredictable Taaramae attacked down the hill. We weren’t really sure what he was trying to achieve as the break now had an advantage of over six minutes and it would be a difficult task catching up with them.
But that's what he seemed intent on doing and you can just see him between the trees here, a couple of minutes behind the break as they attack towards the mountain sprint.
Fast-forward a bit and the break (with Taaramae coming over the mountain first) had built up a substantial lead of seven minutes with just 55kms to go - the pace was going to get very strong in a minute...
So with the help of OPQS, we started driving the pace forwards a bit (I'm the one at the back of the photo, behind Miyazawa and Sorensen)
Unfortunately, it didn't seem like enough and we soon ran out of energy.
Then suddenly, from absolutely nowhere, Gilbert was off up the hill, down and away. But Kreuziger managed to follow him; and Chavanel (yellow) and Hushovd (green) can be seen next to the motorbike trying to catch up
They were then reeled in but Roman had other plans, launching a daring attack with just 5km to go. The gap was just over a minute to the break but they could still make it to the finish; in so doing setting back Kreuziger’s GC hopes.
Taaramae (front) starts the sprint, Kreuziger (middle in the gap) tries to go with, and a reduced peloton accelerate massively, leaving stage contenders - the in form Jorgensen and not-so-in form Haedo - at the back.
But all our efforts came to nothing as Hushovd seized the day for the third time this race and won in convincing fashion.
| 1 |  | Thor Hushovd | BMC Racing Team | 4h29'02'' | | 2 | | Tony Gallopin | Radioshack-Nissan | s.t. | | 3 |  | Allan Davis | Orica-GreenEDGE | s.t. | | 4 | | Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 5 | | Lloyd Mondory | Ag2r La Mondiale | s.t. | | 6 |  | Giacomo Nizzolo | Radioshack-Nissan | s.t. | | 7 |  | Robert Hunter | Garmin-Barracuda | s.t. | | 8 | | Heinrich Haussler | Garmin-Barracuda | s.t. | | 9 |  | Christopher Sutton | Sky Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 10 | | Julien Simon | Saur-Sojasun | s.t. | | ... | | 35 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | s.t. |
So another nightmare day for JJ, who hasn't managed to scrape a single point so far in three sprint finishes. Tomorrow should be an interesting day, maybe Roman can get away before the massive downhill at the end, who knows? See you there
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 31-12-2012 23:26
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@tovhol thanks - glad to have you following
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 31-12-2012 23:30
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
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Until the next race, where Roman can get a good result and, hopefully, Matthias, too! |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 01-01-2013 13:09
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Tour de France Champion
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A day to forget for the team, but lets hope tomorrow brings better news |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 01-01-2013 15:47
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@Ian and @sutty: Let's hope so! Thank you for your continual support both of you over the course of my story so far; it's really helping my motivation levels stay high
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 01-01-2013 15:49
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CALENDAR AMENDMENT 
I will be racing in the National Championships at the end of June; I won't be in great shape for them but it's nice to have a go, you never know what might happen! I had previously left this off of my calendar 
Edited by Stromeon on 01-01-2013 15:49
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 01-01-2013 16:19
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3507
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PARIS - NICE
STAGE 7 SISTERON - NICE
Today would be a very dangerous day for the GC contenders as splits would occur at the tops of the mountains before the two steep downhills and you would lose a lot of time if you were caught on the wrong side of one. Our task today: keep Roman at the front of the peloton
We had barely got started in the stage before a group of nine riders attacked, followed by two more!
And so, what's this? A 16-man strong breakaway with a four-minute advantage already! What’s the world coming to?
OPQS, the perennial breakaway-chasers, certainly weren't very happy with it and sent their whole team bar GC top 10ers Chavanel and Martin to relay at the front of the peloton!
The going started to get really tough after we'd done a third of the parcours; with gradients consistently hovering around the 9-10% mark. You can see me here near the front talking to my still yellow-clad friend Chavanel.
Luckily not all the breakaway riders were competing for the mountain sprints, otherwise it would have been chaos! Here Charteau just pips Jeannesson to the line ahead of Evans (in the break for the THIRD TIME this race).
Meanwhile, back in the peloton, we had a positively lethal downhill to deal with. Very Strong winds, open spaces, high minus-gradients - it seemed tailor-made for a crash as we all sped downwards at 65 km/h
At the foot of the descent we realised it was a very important moment coming up. There would probably be a split at the top of the mountain, and we had to keep Kreuziger at the front so he could get on the right side of it. Thus you can see us at the with our best friends OPQS at the front.
Jeannesson of FDJ-BigMat secures the KoM jersey by beating Charteau and Evans again in the Category 1 mountain sprint.
The inevitable split occurs and Miyazawa is stuck in between them! The first group was now down to about 80, with all of us except Miyazawa and the non-goat Haedo making it. However, the break’s current 5 minute advantage wasn’t being whittled down very considerably with 45 kms to go.
And from that point, it was downhill all the way to Nice where a shining Mediterranean was surely waiting to greet us
Martin decides it's OPQS chase time again as the gap had been steadily levelling as we had downhilled and they wanted to avoid the possibility of Evans threatening the GC etc.
With 10km to go, we realised that the peloton wasn't going to catch the breakaway but we had reduced the gap sufficiently enough so that none of them could challenge for the GC
Haussler took the win after a breakaway 'bunch sprint'
Look at that - tell me that isn't that the most beautiful last kilometre of a stage?
But surely the most disappointing moment of the day came when Jorgensen crossed the line first out of the peloton, showing what might have been if we'd put in a bit more effort.
There was then a big split in the middle of the peloton and unfortunately, I found myself on the wrong side of it, losing another couple of minutes in the GC standings. For me, personally, unless something extraordinary happens tomorrow, this hasn’t been a very good race and I feel that I’ve let myself down with my performance.
| 1 | | Heinrich Haussler | Garmin-Barracuda | 5h56'14'' | | 2 | | Sebastien Duret | Bretagne-Schuller | s.t. | | 3 | | Lars Boom | Rabobank Cycling Team | s.t. | | 4 |  | Ignatas Konovalovas | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 5 | | Cadel Evans | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 6 | | Tomas Vaitkus | Orica-GreenEDGE | s.t. | | 7 | | Andrey Zeits | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 8 | | Ion Izagirre | Euskaltel Euskadi | s.t. | | 9 | | Ian Stannard | Sky Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 10 | | Alessandro Vanotti | Liquigas-Cannondale | s.t. | | ... | | 102 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | +4'03'' |
Although I suppose one has to look on the bright side; I'm not in any form at all at the moment and my fitness is quite low; as I'm aiming for a main peak in August-September for the Vuelta and in mid-late April for the Ardennes; so results should improve as the season goes on. And I'm also quite inexperienced at this level, and it's beginning to show. Well, see you soon for the Stage 8 MTT!
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 01-01-2013 17:14
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Tour de France Champion
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Well, as your form it can only improve so looking forward to that! |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 01-01-2013 17:19
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PARIS - NICE
STAGE 8 NICE - COL D'EZE
So the MTT had arrived! Hopefully Sylvain's advice will have improved my TTing skills, we'll see
I was off the ramp, round the roundabout and up the hill. I didn't feel great today but I wanted to get a good result to set aside the disappointing other stages
A couple of German people had made it out here to support their contingent, which was very nice to see
At the intermediate checkpoint, I was a provisional 26th, 21 seconds down on the early pace set by Vladimir Gusev. I would need to improve massively to get a good result, knowing the large number of riders to follow me.
I crossed the line, disappointed, knowing yet again it just wouldn't be good enough. I finished even worse, a provisional 55th and 40 seconds the deficit.
And now onto the other riders...
Nibali looked determined - this time-trial suited him more than a lot of the others; but put in a sub-standard performance and came home 32nd.
Andy Schleck looked very determined after not the greatest of tours for him but rectified everything today with a magnificent run that put him top of the provisional leaderboard
And then it was Kreuziger's time to shine. Dangerous contender Martin can be seen behind him.
Sylvain Chavanel wasn’t quite up to his usual pace and finished a bit off the pace
Unfortunately Roman wasn’t quite at the races today either and finished 25th; still a good result though; and better than anyone above him previously in the GC, bar Martin.
And Andy Schleck managed to hold on to claim victory by an impressive margin.
| 1 | | Andy Schleck | Radioshack - Nissan | 19'24'' | | 2 | | Pierre Rolland | Team Europcar | + 12'' | | 3 | | Chris Horner | Radioshack - Nissan | + 13'' | | 4 | | Luis León Sánchez | Rabobank Cycling Team | + 14'' | | 5 | | Robert Gesink | Rabobank Cycling Team | + 16'' | | 6 |  | Maxime Monfort | Radioshack - Nissan | + 22'' | | 7 | | Christophe Kern | Team Europcar | + 27'' | | 8 |  | Rein Taaramae | Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne | + 33'' | | 9 | | David Moncoutié | Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne | s.t. | | 10 | | Jean-Christophe Péraud | Ag2r La Mondiale | + 34'' |
So… how do the final standings stack up?
General Classification
| 1 | | Luis León Sánchez | Rabobank Cycling Team | 29h10'03'' | | 2 | | Chris Horner | Radioshack - Nissan | + 4'' | | 3 | | Tony Martin | Omega Pharma - Quick Step | + 24'' | | 4 | | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma - Quick Step | + 26'' | | 5 | | Alexandre Vinokourov | Astana Pro Team | + 42'' | | 6 | | Lieuwe Westra | Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. | | 7 | | Roman Kreuziger | Team Saxo Bank | + 43'' | | 8 | | Christophe Le Mével | Garmin - Barracuda | s.t. | | 9 | | Amaël Moinard | BMC Racing Team | + 46'' | | 10 | | José Iván Gutierrez | Movistar Team | + 47'' | | 11 | | Tony Gallopin | Radioshack - Nissan | + 52'' | | 12 | | Robert Gesink | Rabobank Cycling Team | + 1'10'' | | 13 | | Andy Schleck | Radioshack - Nissan | + 1'24'' | | 14 | | Eros Capecchi | Liquigas-Cannondale | + 1'32'' | | 15 | | Michael Rogers | Sky Pro Cycling | + 1'37'' | | 16 |  | Sergio Luis Henao | Sky Pro Cycling | + 1'43'' | | 17 | | Pierre Rolland | Team Europcar | + 1'50'' | | 18 | | Christophe Kern | Team Europcar | + 1'53'' | | 19 |  | Mikhail Ignatiev | Katusha Team | + 1'57'' | | 20 | | Matteo Carrara | Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team | + 2'02'' | | ... | | 68 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | +13'31' |
Luis Leon Sanchez! He's snuck up from around 5th to take the General Classification, and he's on a roll this year, with victory at Mallorca and Andalucia in the GC and now a win at Paris-Nice! Veteran Chris Horner has also jumped up the standings after a good final stage to finish a pleasing second for him. And World TT champion Tony Martin takes the final podium placing after excelling in the time-trials and keeping up in the hills and mountains.
68th in the GC I suppose isn't bad actually, considering the struggles that we have had during the race. And Kreuziger dropped down one place to 7th, but has earned some results, and more importantly some World Tour points that I expect will be hard to come by as the season goes on (apart from the Vuelta where we will have a fit, firing and hungry Contador)
Hushovd takes the points classification easily after dominating three of the sprints. Chavanel managed to pick up points on most of the stages by a mixture of TTing and sprinting
Points Classification
| 1 | | Thor Hushovd | BMC Racing Team | 89 | | 2 | | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma-Quick Step | 73 | | 3 | | Tony Gallopin | Radioshack-Nissan | 66 | | 4 | | Heinrich Haussler | Garmin-Barracuda | 62 | | 5 | | Luca Paolini | Katusha Team | 58 |
Jeannesson takes the KoM, as was revealed yesterday, after doing well in two breakaways during the hilllier stages. Charteau held the jersey until Stage 7 and finished second.
Mountains Classification
| 1 | | Arnold Jeannesson | FDJ-BigMat | 38 | | 2 | | Anthony Charteau | Team Europcar | 28 | | 3 |  | Simon Spilak | Katusha Team | 23 | | 4 | | Cadel Evans | BMC Racing Team | 22 | | 5 | | Rein Taaramae | Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne | 18 |
Gallopin took the White Jersey after an impressive all-round performance, both climbing and sprinting. I finished 6th, something to be happy about I supppose!
Young Rider Classification
| 1 | | Tony Gallopin | Radioshack-Nissan | 29h10'55'' | | 2 | | Sergio Luis Henao | Sky Pro Cycling | +51'' | | 3 | | Rein Taaramae | Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne | +4'29'' | | 4 | | Ion Izagirre | Euskaltel Euskadi | +8'56'' | | 5 |  | Rafal Majka | Team Saxo Bank | +11'59'' | | 6 | | Matthias Fischer | Team Saxo Bank | +12'39'' |
Team Classification
| 1 | | Radioshack-Nissan | 87h30'06'' | | 2 | | Team Europcar | +1'27'' | | 3 | | Sky Pro Cycling | +2'55'' | | ... | | 15 | | Team Saxo Bank | +13'19'' |
Whew! That was an energy sapping race. I'll have a short break, and when I'm back for the Criterium International, there will be news of happenings at Tirreno - Adriatico and Milano - San Remo.
See you soon
Spoiler EDIT: 100th post 
Edited by Stromeon on 01-01-2013 17:26
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 01-01-2013 17:25
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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Aha, Criterium International, I like that race. Let's hope Matthias can train some more and work up his shape until then! |
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