I've got high hopes for the Santos squad. I'm aiming for the points jersey and maybe even take a tour win with Meyer. Or maybe even Phinney. Depends who is feeling good on the days with the bumps.
dienblad wrote:
Nice to see you involve BMX-riders in the story. Madill is sponsored by Red Bull for many years now. So nice!
Thanks. Thats exactly why I he got a mention, I was looking for any red bull events in australia in January, couldn't find stuff, stumbled across Madill and thought.... Yeah I can make that work XD. Glad you picked that up
1st Santos stage coming in next couple of hours. I think I'm going to do written reports with photos at the end with captions (Much like how you get on Cycling news, only they have the pictures at the top).
This stage is likely to be one for the Sprinters, as this is known as the sprinters tour. Its a harder race this year though and even this opening stage has some lumps. Its unlikely to cause to much trouble but the riders must be careful.
The action starts early, with three men seeking to get their shirts out in the sun. Brent Bookwalter of BMC is followed quickly by Martijn Maaskant of Garmin-Sharp and Jure Kocjan of Euskatel-Euskadi. Fiveteen kilometers later having fought his way through the field we see the first of the newest sponsors to the world of road cycling in the shape of Red Bull - Cannondale rider Kristijan Durasek setting off in pursuit. Vacansoleil - DCM and Team Moviestar being to set the pace, but not one that threatens any of the breakaway riders.
With twenty two kilometers down, the gap is bridged and the days break is officially formed. No-one else seems to be attempting the join them, the and the teams driving the peleton arent concerned enough to stop the gap from growing at this stage. The team of Bookwalter, Kocjan Maaskent and Durasek work hard, and the gap 1'30" quickly stretches out to over 2 minutes.
As they reach the days KOM sprint, the first meaningful action starts. Bookwalter attacks with 2k to go, quickly joined by Kocjan and Maaskent who fight for the American's wheel. Durasek follows, taking up behind Maaskent. As they get to 1k, Bookwalter sits down, slowing the pace. Kocjan follows suit, but Maakskent cranks up at takes the lead himself, with Durasek sticking too him. His probably the strongest climber in the group today, and shows it by powering past the Garmin-Sharp rider with 500 meters to go to take all 16 points and the mountain jersey at the end of day. His new sponsors are sure to be delighted. Maakskent soon followed him, just ahead of a charging Kocjan and Bookwalter clearly having gone to early coming in 4th.
Back in the pack, now 4'43" behind, a second rider from Euskaltel - Euskadi, Mikel Astarloza looked to mop up the mountains points. No-one challanged him, and so he took the last points. He was soon swallowed back up though as Lampre decided to help the teams of Vaconsoliel and Moviestar in setting the pace with the gap touching 6 minutes. Slowly the start to pull the gap back.
As the first sprint point arrives, 3 of the breakaway riders sprint from the 1k line. Durasek coasts, letting them fight it out, with Kocjan taking 1st place, folliwed by Maaskant and Bookwalter. Durasek quicly rejoins, hasn't done any work for a fair while and seems content to sit on the break for the rest of the day.
Its a similar pattern at the second sprint, with Kocjan again proving strongest in the sprint. Bookwalter manages one better this time however, pushing Maaskant back the third with Durasek just coasting behind in their wheels. Lampre have stopped helping and its back the Moviestar and Vaconsoliel to do all the pulling, but that hasnt stopped them from pulling the gap back to just under 3 minutes. By the time they approach the final 25k, the gap is down to less the two minutes and its seems certain a bunch sprint will settle the day.
Rather unexpectedly at this point Durasek, whom had been just sitting on the back of the break and apparently not wanting it to suceed drops into a huge gear and takes his companions by total suprising, bursting past them with no-one willing to follow. Putting 20 seconds between thenm the gap slowly diminishes but not fast enough to stop him taking the final intermediary sprint of the day. As the rest of the breakaway fight out for the final two places, they just catch up to him, with Kocjan being Bookwalter to second and Maalstant being the unlucky man this time. With that done, the break sit up, none of them willing to take on the final charge ahead of their team leaders.
With the break caught at ten kilometers to go, the teams with sprinters start looking to posistion themselves right. Vaconsoleil and Movie start keep a high pace on the front, with Ventoso, Boeckmens, Viviani and Henderson our likely favourites all lurking close to the front. Redbull have plenty of riders at the front, but seem to be lacking one of the train captains in Lars Bak, who got stuck behind a rider whom came almost to a stop on the climb leading up the the finish.
With 5k to go, there are two clear trains forming. Out in front on the right of the road is a very powerful looking Vaconsoleil train, with Macato, Poppel and Bole doing the work for Boeckmens. Moviestar have put thier money on that powerful looking train, with thier sprinter Ventoso clearly marking out Boeckmens as the man whom he wants to follow. Its a popular wheel, with Henderson of Lotto and Fisher of FDJ taking up behind too.
The second train is the Red Bull train. With Bak not able to work his way back up through the pack in time, Meyer is setting the pace on the other side of the road, with Gallopin, Phinney and Viviani making up the rest. They have some ground to make up through, as the Vaconsoleil train leads by about 4 cyclists.
As the riders at the front begin to peel off, Fisher and Henderson have a change of heart. At 2.2k they swing from the right hand side of the road to the left, attempting to fight for the wheel of the Gallopin who was leading the Red Cannon train. It's a serious problem for the Red Bull team with thier lead sprinter Viviani almost totally boxed in. On the other side of the road, The train now lead by Poppel still has a good lead, although it down to about 2 and a half bike lengths now.
Gallopin sees only one opions, with his leader about to get shut out, he needs to make some room and opens out. Fisher and Henderson are quick to react though and as they drift closer to the wall, Phinney sees one option. At 1.8k he slams into turbo and squeezes between the barrier and Gallopin before it vanished. With the sprint begun, Boeckmens comes from behind his last lead out and quickly pulls an advatage but still has Ventoso stuck on his wheel. At 1k to go, Viviani makes his move as Phinney runs out of power. Ventoso doesnt miss a trick though and moves out from the leading wheel of Boeckmens.
He breezes past Boeckmens and takes an easy victory. Viviani charges down the left, closing fast over the first 500 before creeping every so slowly level, and finally beating Boeckmans by half a bike length before the rest of the sprinters began flooding over the line.
Rank Name Team Mountain 1 Kristijan Durasek Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling 16
2 Martijn Maaskant Garmin - Sharp 12
3 Jure Kocjan Euskaltel - Euskadi 8
4 Brent Bookwalter BMC Racing Team 6
5 Mikel Astarloza Euskaltel - Euskadi 4
Team Classification 1 Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling 10h22'09 10h22'09 (1)
2 Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team s.t. + 0 (2)
3 BMC Racing Team s.t. + 0 (3)
Rank Name Team General Time 1 Elia Viviani Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling 3h27'17 (1)
2 Elia Favilli Lampre - Merida + 6 (2)
3 Matteo Trentin Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team + 6 (3) 4 Taylor Phinney Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling + 6 (4) 5 Tony Gallopin Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling + 6 (5)
Spoiler
6 Adam Blythe BMC Racing Team + 6 (6)
7 Pim Ligthart Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team + 6 (7)
8 Boy Van Poppel Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team + 6 (8)
9 Arthur Vichot FDJ + 6 (9)
10 Geoffrey Soupe FDJ + 6 (10)
11 Luke Rowe Sky Procycling + 6 (11)
12 Marco Haller Katusha Team + 6 (12)
13 Diego Ulissi Lampre - Merida + 6 (13)
14 Romain Sicard Euskaltel - Euskadi + 6 (14)
15 Ramon Sinkeldam Team Argos - Shimano + 6 (15)
16 Tom Slagter Blanco Pro Cycling Team + 6 (16)
17 Ion Izagirre Euskaltel - Euskadi + 6 (17)
18 Luka Mezgec Team Argos - Shimano + 6 (18) 19 Cameron Meyer Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling + 6 (19)
20 Raymond Kreder Garmin - Sharp + 6 (20)
21 Wesley Kreder Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team + 6 (21)
22 Jay McCarthy Team Saxo - Tinkoff + 6 (22)
23 Nathan Haas Garmin - Sharp + 6 (23)
24 Jesús Herrada Movistar Team + 6 (24)
25 Jakob Rathe Garmin - Sharp + 6 (25)
26 Peter Kennaugh Sky Procycling + 6 (26)
27 George Bennett RadioShack - Leopard + 6 (27)
28 Guillaume Van Keirsbulck Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team + 6 (28)
29 Jesse Sergent RadioShack - Leopard + 6 (29)
30 Kenny Elissonde FDJ + 6 (30)
31 George Preidler Team Argos - Shimano + 6 (31)
32 Garikoitz Bravo Euskaltel - Euskadi + 6 (32)
33 Luke Durbridge Orica - GreenEdge + 6 (33)
34 Argiro Ospina Movistar Team + 6 (34)
35 Marc Goos Blanco Pro Cycling Team + 6 (35)
36 Evan Huffman Astana Pro Team + 4'55 (36)
37 Adriano Malori Lampre - Merida + 4'55 (37)
38 Davide Appollonio AG2R La Mondiale + 4'55 (38)
39 Gaetan Bille Lotto Belisol + 4'55 (39)
40 Jens Keukeleire Orica - GreenEdge + 4'55 (40)
41 Michael Hepburn Orica - GreenEdge + 4'55 (41)
42 Jack Bobridge Blanco Pro Cycling Team + 4'55 (42)
((Apologies in advance. Only one picture with this and its not very good. I need to turn my shadows off I think, because basically all the photos were far to dark to be able to see anything.))
Santos Tour Down Under - Stage Two
Mt Barker to Rostrevor - 116.5k
A Photo Finish for Viviani!
Viviani swept into the overall lead today as Red-Bull Cannondale made an impressive show of force on the second day of the Santos Down Under tour. As the picture above shows, today's race result was almost too close to call, with Venteso devastted to only finish second after an incredible late surge see him almost steal victory on the sharp downhill finish.
The day had started with the customary attacks from the pack, but with an early sprint marker many of the teams had half an eye on getting their sprinters points and no-one was allowed to get away with Vaconsoleil and Tony Gallopin of Red Bull -Cannondale marshaling the front.
As the first sprint approached, Sabatini caught the pack napping by leading Viviani out from 1.6k. He almost caught his own teammate napping too and ended up stealing 2 points from his leader who couldnt quite power round in time. Vaconsoleil recovered quickest to get the final two points for Boeckmens.
With the sprint settled, Ramon Sinkeldam of Argos-Shimano and Astana's Andrey Kashechkin we allowed to escape down the road although the gap was never allowed to reach much over two minutes.
Everyone rolled over the second sprint point, with the Astana rider not challanging Sinkeldam as they reached the line first and no-one in the pack willing to prevent Boeckmans picking him his second third place of the day and a few more seconds.
As the riders approached Corckscrew hill, the Redbull team came to the front in numbers, looking to set the pace steady to keep Viviani safe. They remained in control as they began the ascent and steadily rode to the top. A couple of riders attacked in search of some KOM points, however team Moviestar took the lead in chasing them down and by the time they crested the summit it was the leading team that remained in control, although their was an increasing number of riders beginning to make thier way alongside.
As they began the descent, chaos ensued. Spread across wide across the road riders burst into action, almost swamping the Redbull train. It was up to Lars back to pull them back, with Phinney in his wheel ready to lead out for Viviani. With gritted teeth, the great dane put in a incredible shift, squeezing through the middle and getting his nose in front with 3k to go. With such a fast tempo, nothing but downhill to the finish and with his legs feeling good, Viviani tell Phinney to take the space whilst it is there.
So with 3k to go, Phinney leads out the sprint with a raft of other riders following suit and opening up thier own sprints, although there seem to be no other trains left and only solo riders. With 1.5k to go, Viviani moves from out of the wheel of Phinney and looks towards the line. He starts showing his form, and at 1k he has distanced the pack and looks assured for victory.
You can never discount a man who has just won a stage though. Like an absoluite rocket Venteso appeared from nowhere with 600 to go, and began closing. Fast. Incredibly fast. So fast that when the riders crossed the line everyone thought he had won, with even the young Italian unsure if he had taken his first win of the season.
As the result was declared, the contrasting emotions was clear as the Red Bull - Cannondale team celebrated their first win of the seeason.
You've got way too many words...
Ok its broken up nicely into sections, and is well written... but its just so off putting and hard to read it all.
Simply mixing the pictures into the text would make a massive difference, but even then its just a bit much.
Flair wrote:
@Manx: That last report is only about that same length a CyclingNews news article I think.
But its not a cycling news article. For me its just too much, too dull and too hard to penetrate (like most CN reports).
Just a comment and a suggestion, do what you want
A very nice result,
Though I must agree with Manx. However, it's your story. But some people follow many stories here, and if all of those stories would be of that length, it would be impossible to follow all
I can try I guess. I don't really know how i can make them any shorter though without not mentioning most of what happened in the race, Was gonna post the 3rd stage, but I guess I'll redo it then and try and get it up later.
I just suck at pictures I think. I just cant seem to get any pictures where you can see a few riders and that makes any kind of sense.
That's how the other guys tell stories with few words I guess. I'm prolly gonna be slow to update this now, cos i need to somehow learn how to take pictures. Otherwise its just gonna be loads of text which no-one will read it seems, or its just gonna be rubbish cos you wont know what happened.
Flair wrote:
I just suck at pictures I think. I just cant seem to get any pictures where you can see a few riders and that makes any kind of sense.
That's how the other guys tell stories with few words I guess. I'm prolly gonna be slow to update this now, cos i need to somehow learn how to take pictures. Otherwise its just gonna be loads of text which no-one will read it seems, or its just gonna be rubbish cos you wont know what happened.
Whoever follows, will read the text. It was just a suggestion so that the story becomes easier to follow (also for people who don't speak English too well) and there'll be more followers. But in the end, it's your story!
That is probably going to help a millon times ovver atlantius. I couldnt understand how half the stories where managing to get half thier pictures. I'll load up the replay when i get home hopefully get some decent pics.
And ian, i know its my story but theres no point in me doing it if people dont wannna read it. Its still probablyy going to be to wordy but with captioned pics hopefully people that dont wanna read can just skim the pics and results and get enough from them.
Today's plan is to two fold. Viviani is looking strong and for sure can be looking at more stage victories. Meyer however looked very strong up corkscrew hill yesterday and had he been a better decent we might have given him the light to take it on. However, he remains a strong contender for stage 5, where the race will likely be one in terms of overall.
So today, we will look to get Meyer away early and hope his legs are good. Whilst its very unlikely to peleton will let him get any major advantage, all the mountain and sprints come quite quickly and picking up placings in either is going to give us another option for overall jerseys. It should also force other teams to do work, rather then them relying on us as the leaders to do it.
Its a hilly stage, so the rest of the team are going to have to try and make sure Viviani gets to the end. His young and strong, but we aren't expecting another stage victory from him today.
Meyer Attacks with 1k to the KOM
And he takes it!
He keeps a gap, but its not much, the pack not wanting him to go too far
First objective achieved at least. Not sure he will be able to stay in front to the sprint though, so we get Tony Gallopin to bring Viviani up to the front. If the pack are going to bring it together for a sprint, we might as well take part in it.
Viviani takes the first sprint, Meyer following over in second.
Well, in the end only Viviani had the sprint strength to catch Meyer, so it was a bit of a wasted effort. Time will tell if we would rather have had that the second way round. Things slow up a bit after that, before small group go and Meyer again follows, clearly feeling very strong today. Its a strong group including BMCs leader Cummings and they aren't allowed any further then the second sprint. Meyer picking up another second.
Everything was going well, we eventually picked the group back up, we had pretty much the only real train going into the last few kilometers. And then the train buckled.
Viviani lost the wheel and found himself with no-where to go.
Laurens Ten Dam takes the victory for Blanco.
Team did a great job today. Viviani will be annoyed at himself because despite it not being the best stage for him he will feel he had the legs today.
5 Brent Bookwalter BMC Racing Team 0 8
6 Laurens Ten Dam Blanco Pro Cycling Team 8 8
7 Ramon Sinkeldam Team Argos - Shimano 0 6 8 Kristijan Durasek Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling 0 6
9 Martijn Maaskant Garmin - Sharp 0 6
10 Elia Favilli Lampre - Merida 6 6
11 Francesco Gavazzi Astana Pro Team 6 6 12 Cameron Meyer Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling 6 6 13 Fabio Sabatini Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling 0 6
14 Ian Stannard Sky Procycling 0 4
15 Andrey Kashechkin Astana Pro Team 0 4
16 Rory Sutherland Team Saxo - Tinkoff 4 4
17 Stephen Cummings BMC Racing Team 4 4
18 Luke Durbridge Orica - GreenEdge 2 2
King of the Mountains
Rank Name Team Mountain General 1 Cameron Meyer Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling 16 32
2 Kristijan Durasek Red Bull -Cannondale Pro Cycling 0 28
3 Martijn Maaskant Garmin - Sharp 0 12
4 Olivier Kaisen Lotto Belisol 12 12
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
