I thought we could do a predictions competition for Paris-Nice. The ones who wanna participate just have to post their Top 3 prediction for each stage (only one stage at the time of course), and the winner can then decide a rider that I will try and sign when that time comes.
I'm gonna change the format of this pred competition a little, so instead of predicting each stage you predict the final top ten for the race. You can make your predictions until stage 4, as the GC won't be set from the prologue to stage 3 anyway.
If you need a startlist, then let me know, then I'll post it here.
RABOBANK
Thomas Dekker
Joost Posthuma
Marc De Maar
Koos Moerenhout
Oscar Freire
Max Van Heeswijk
Thorwald Veneberg
Mauricio Ardila
GEROLSTEINER
Stefan Schumacher
Davide Rebellin
Ronny Scholz
Tom Stamsnijder
Beat Zberg
Oliver Zaugg
Peter Wrölich
Carlo Westphal
TEAM CSC
Jens Voigt
David Zabriskie
Frank Schleck
Stuart O'Grady
Marcus Ljungqvist
Nicki Sørensen
Allan Johansen
Martin Pedersen
ASTANA
Andrey Kashechkin
Antonio Colom
Matthias Kessler
Benoit Joachim
Steve Morabito
Julien Mazet
Maxim Gourov
René Haselbacher
CAISSE D'EPARGNE
Luis León Sánchez
Constantino Zaballa
Francisco Pérez Sánchez
Nicolas Portal
Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver
Mathieu Perget
Sébastien Portal
David López García
FRANCAISE DES JEUX
Bradley Mc Gee
Philippe Gilbert
Carlos Da Cruz
Rémy Di Gregorio
Frederic Guesdon
Jérémy Roy
Christophe Mengin
Cyrille Monnerais
COFIDIS
Sylvain Chavanel
Nick Nuyens
Sébastien Minard
Ivan Parra
David Moncoutié
Leonardo Duque
Staf Scheirlinckx
Hervé Duclos Lassalle
SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR
Juan José Cobo Acebo
Koldo Gil
Iban Mayo
Remmert Wielinga
Francisco Ventoso
David De la Fuente
Christophe Rinero
Leonardo Piepoli
DISCOVERY CHANNEL
Jason McCartney
Brian Vandborg
Steven Cummings
Egoi Martinez
Sergio Paulinho
Gianni Meersman
Volodimyr Bileka
Jurgen Van Goolen
T-MOBILE TEAM
Michael Rogers
Kim Kirchen
Thomas Ziegler
Axel Merckx
Jakob Piil
Servais Knaven
Michael Barry
Adam Hansen
CREDIT AGRICOLE
Thor Hushovd
Laszlo Bodrogi
Christophe Kern
Alexandre Botcharov
Dimitri Fofonov
Anthony Charteau
Cyril Lemoine
Francesco Bellotti
UNIBET.COM
Victor Hugo Pena
Laurens Ten Dam
Luis Pasamontes R.
Arnaud Coyot
Jose Rujano
Matteo Carrara
Jeremy Hunt
Marco Zanotti
LIQUIGAS
Roberto Petito
Dario Cataldo
Alessandro Spezialetti
Eros Capecchi
Wladimir Miholjevic
Alessandro Vanotti
Murilo Fischer
Michael Albasini
AG2R PREVOYANCE
Christophe Moreau
Yuriy Krivtsov
Martin Elmiger
John Gadret
Stéphane Goubert
Jean-Patrick Nazon
Ludovic Turpin
Alexandre Usov
PREDICTOR - LOTTO
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Cadel Evans
Dario Cioni
Josep Jufre Pou
Roy Sentjens
Matthew Lloyd
Tom Steels
Preben Van Hecke
TEAM MILRAM
Volodymyr Dyudya
Matej Jurco
Ralf Grabsch
Fabio Sacchi
Alessandro Petacchi
Enrico Poitschke
Alberto Ongarato
Erik Zabel
AGRITUBEL
Nicolas Jalabert
Emilien Benoit Berges
Samuel Plouhinec
Juan Miguel Mercado
Benoít Salmon
Cédric Hervé
Freddy Bichot
Moises Dueñas Nevado
QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC
Tom Boonen
Kevin Van Impe
Carlos Barredo L.
Juan Manuel Gárate
Serge Baguet
Mauro Facci
Andrea Tonti
Kevin Seeldrayers
AUBER 93
Florian Morizot
Niels Brouzes
Jérémie Galland
Maxime Máderel
Mathieu Drujon
Jean Mespouléde
Renaud Pioline
Steve Chainel
LAMPRE - FONDITAL
Tadej Valjavec
Patxi Vila
Giuliano Figueras
Sylvester Szmyd
Marco Marzano
Gorazd Stangelj
Morris Possoni
David Loosli
EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI
Koldo Fernandez
Unai Uribarri
Iñigo Landaluze
Amets Txurruka Ansola
Juan Jose Oroz Ugalde
Ivan Velasco Murillo
Aketza Peña Iza
Aitor Galdós Alonso
March 11th:Paris-Nice 2007 – Prologue | Issy-Les-Moulineaux > Issy-Les-Moulineaux – 4,7 km
Prologue Profile
The first ProTour race of the season gets underway today and we’ve set our ambitions very high for this race. We have two riders for the GC, Fränk Schleck and Jens Voigt. Jens has worked towards this race a bit more focused than Schleck and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jens will be our captain after the critical 4th stage of this tour. We have brought a strong team to back up our two captains: Tour of California winner Nicki Sørensen alongside David Zabriskie, Stuart O’Grady, Martin Pedersen, Marcus Ljungqvist and Allan Johansen. Today’s prologue won’t decide anything but who will get to ride in the yellow jersey on tomorrow’s stage, but it’s still critical that Jens and Fränk proves a point to themselves today and rips up a great time trial. Jens is in really good shape and I think that he will be our best bid for a winner today. Normally it would be Dave, but he isn’t anyway near his peak condition, so we don’t expect that much from him, eventhough he’ll always be top ten material on a time trial like this.
Dave was our first guy out on the route and he really did a good job beating the best time set by Astana’s Antonio Colom, clocking a time that was 2 seonds faster than the spaniard. We reckoned he would be beaten by Michael Rogers, the 3-time World TT Champion, but Rogers wasn’t near his best at all and he only managed to creep in 5 seconds slower than Dave. Maybe a good indication for our american.
Dave rode a strong time trial beating former World TT Champion Michael Rogers by 5 seconds on the 4,7 km course
Then it was Schleck’s turn. We didn’t really expect too much from him, but boy did he rip up the time trial of his life today. There was a pretty hard climb on this prologue topping with an intermediate time, and at this point Fränk beat Dave by 2 seconds, he couldn’t keep the pace on the descent however as he finished in a provisional second best time, 2 seconds slower than Dave. Then another big favourite turned to the stage, Stefan Schumacher. And that guy was unstoppable today, he barely beat Fränk’s intermediate time, but apparently he had ridden amazingly fast on the descent as he beat Dave’s time by 8 seconds.
Fränk turned in the performance of his career today, but it wasn’t enough to hold off an amazing Stefan Schumacher
Then a few of the favourites for today turned to the stage. But even guys like Luis Léon Sánchez and Bradley McGee couldn’t do anything about Schumacher’s time, which now seemed capable of holding of the comeback from any rider. Home favourites Sylvain Chavanel couldn’t do anything about Schumacher’s time either. Then it was Jens Voigt’s turn and I know he had really been looking forward to this prologue. He started out in the exact same tempo as Schumacher, clocking the very same intermediate time as his countryman, but unfortuneately he couldn’t dig any deeper as he managed only to be beaten by a fraction of a second by Schumacher. Shortly after it was another favourite for the GC, Cadel Evan’s turn, but the australian dissapointed badly by finishing 52nd on the day, 22 seconds of the winning time.
Jens established his GC aspirations on today’s prologue, while Cadel Evans doesn’t seem fit enough to finish on the podium
In the last round of this year’s Paris-Nice prologue the two remaining favourites, Andrey Kashechkin and Thomas Dekker took off. Andrey was the first off and he turned in a great performance clocking third best intermediate time by actually being just as fast as 1 and 2, Schumacher and Voigt. On the last part he hit the wall a bit, but didn’t manage to steer home in a provisional third best time, 4 seconds off Stefan Schumacher. Just as Schumacher was getting ready to get his yellow jersey, another young man took off, Thomas Dekker. Schumacher thought he’d won when Dekker was off the pace by 1 second at the intermediate time but a heroical finish saw him beat Schumacher’s time by 2 seconds to win the prologue and the yellow jersey. Jens finished 3rd, 2 seconds behind Dekker, while Fränk finished a fantastic 9th, telling his opponents to watch out when they hit the biggest climbs of the tour.
Paris-Nice 2007 – Prologue Result | Issy-Les-Moulineaux > Issy-Les-Moulineaux – 4,7 km
1 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 8'15
2 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER + 2 3 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
4 Andrey Kashechkin ASTANA + 6
5 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 8 6 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC + 10
7 Bradley Mc Gee FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
8 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS + 11 9 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 12
10 Antonio Colom ASTANA s.t.
11 Davide Rebellin GEROLSTEINER + 13
12 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS s.t.
13 Juan José Cobo Acebo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 14
14 Jason McCartney DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
15 Brian Vandborg DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 15
16 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER s.t.
17 Michael Rogers T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 18 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
19 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
20 Kim Kirchen T-MOBILE TEAM s.t. 33 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 18
79 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC + 26
85 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC s.t.
121 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 32
Thomas Dekker won the prologue of the Paris-Nice, so now he’s ready to ride the 1st stage in yellow
7th – 11th March:Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia
Here are the result from the last stage of the Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia, where Carlos Sastre were racing for the first time of the season, as he’s working towards this summer’s Tour de France.
Stage 5: Ceuti – Murcia (Flat):
1 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC 2h55'39
2 Gabriele Balducci ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO s.t.
3 José Rojas Gil CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
4 Guennadi Mikhailov ASTANA s.t.
5 Gerben Löwik RABOBANK s.t.
6 Bram De Groot RABOBANK s.t.
7 Assan Bazayev ASTANA s.t.
8 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
9 Luciano Pagliarini SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
10 Jacob Moe Rasmussen TEAM GLS s.t. 24 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC s.t.
25 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC s.t.
60 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC s.t.
123 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC s.t.
124 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
125 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC s.t.
128 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
27th Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia Final GC:
1 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE 15h18'39
2 Francisco Mancebo RELAX - GAM + 34
3 Alexandre Moos BMC Racing Team + 57
4 Stefano Garzelli ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO + 1'03
5 Eladio Jiménez KARPIN - GALICIA + 1'27
6 Michele Scarponi ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO + 1'45
7 Branislau Samoilau ACQUA SAPONE - CAFFE MOKAMBO + 1'46
8 Marco Fertonani CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'55
9 Przemyslaw Niemiec MICHE + 2'04
10 Xabier Zandio CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'10 13 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC + 2'16
28 Christian Vandevelde TEAM CSC + 3'28
31 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC + 3'39
39 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC + 4'52
50 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 7'59
66 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC + 12'44
90 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC + 17'41
118 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC + 27'08
So a stage victory and with Bobby Julich finishing 13th we can be more or less satisfied as he we didn’t have any ambitions for this race. We’re just glad that Haedo finally won that stage he was hoping he would get in Tour of California.
Edited by niconico on 06-08-2007 13:24
Very nice story..love it
You are not riding Milano-Torino? and can I ask what is your training % during marts-april...how do do prepare the riders untill the big TDF race in July ?
Joor wrote:
Very nice story..love it
You are not riding Milano-Torino? and can I ask what is your training % during marts-april...how do do prepare the riders untill the big TDF race in July ?
Thanks
Yeah did ride Milano-Torino, but forgot exporting the result and as I didn't do very well I didn't feel like taking the trouble to write down the result and put it here. It won't happen again About the training. Right now I'm almost through Paris-Nice and Fabian Cancellara who has the three cobblestone classics as his main goal is training with 70%, I think he is 69/80 + 5/something. I have about 20 days to the Tour of Flanders, so very soon, within the next five days I will increase his training rate to 100%, then maybe he'll also be able to win Three Days at Panne
And to eveyone: Everybody who wants to take part in the pred competition please post your predictions for the final top ten before the fourth stage (the one that ends on Montée Laurent Jalabert) Thank you.
The startlist for the race can be found if you scroll up a few posts.
Edited by niconico on 05-08-2007 15:49
March 12th:Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 1 | Cloyes-sur-les-Loir > Buzançais – 186 km
Stage 1 Profile
Following yesterday’s prologue it will now be the sprinters who have any chance of victory. We didn’t find it very likely that a breakaway would stay away today as this were the sprinters first occasion for a ProTour showdown in this season, so they will be keen to anything to win today. We were very satisfied with how our GC contenders handled their race yesterday, so today it was all about protecting Fränk and Jens.
Anyway a break got underway of course, containing no less than 13 riders. It was Loosli (LAM), Ziegler (TMO), Van Hecke (PRL), Nuyens (COF), McCartney (DSC), De La Fuente (SDV), Haddou (BTL), Jalabert (AGL), Scholz (GST), Peña Iza (EUS), Gourov (AST), Chainel (A93) and Albasini (LIQ), who got away from the pack.
The yellow jersey, Thomas Dekker, allowed his team to take a breather while a 13-man break formed up the road
It seemed to be a tough job for Rabobank and the sprinter teams to control this breakaway, but I guess Milram and Quickstep knows the drill. The gap topped at 7 minutes with 110 km to go of today’s stage and slowly but safely the breakaway was reeled in with everything set up for a mass sprint. Two riders from break gained something from the break however. Ronny Scholz won the only mountain sprint on the stage and the first of the race to win the KOM jersey after this stage, while Nick Nuyens took some bonus seconds along the route to climb to 5th in the GC.
Ronny Scholz of Gerolsteiner will wear the polka dot jersey as the first rider of the tour after winning this mountain sprint.
With 8 km to go it was all square, the breakaway was reeled in and the sprinter teams had set things up nicely for their sprinters. After winning two mass sprint finishes in the Tour Down Under, Stuey was very keen on particpating in today’s mass sprint and so he gave it a shot. A lot of the hot shot sprinters were here, including Boonen, Pettachi, Freire and Hushovd and I’d put my money on of those to win this stage.
Stuey positioned himself as a master of his craft, which he really is, and he looked really good coming through the last corners in the city of Buzançais. He’d caught the wheel of french home turf favourite Jean-Patrick Nazon hoping he would be the perfect lead-out man for him. But Nazon didn’t have enough in the tank as Boonen’s train scooped by Stuey, who had no response whatsoever. When Boonen is set off perfect by his train he always wins, and today was no exception. He really proved something to his fellow sprinters out there today, giving them absolutely no chance of holding his wheel, winning by maybe 5 metres.
Belgian star Tom Boonen claims victory on the 1st stage of the Paris-Nice to take an early lead in the points competition, while Thomas Dekker retains his yellow jersey
As for our part, the Stuey did pretty good finishing 6th, letting himself know that he’s getting in shape with a lot of time to spare until april. Jens and Fränk was also guided through today perfectly, so a spot on day for us.
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 1 Result | Cloyes-sur-les-Loir > Buzançais – 186 km
1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 4h17'04
2 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t.
3 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM s.t.
4 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
5 Jean-Patrick Nazon AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t. 6 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
7 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
8 Oscar Freire RABOBANK s.t.
9 Koldo Fernandez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
10 Alberto Ongarato TEAM MILRAM s.t. 60 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC s.t.
62 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
75 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC s.t.
77 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC s.t.
79 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC s.t.
84 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC s.t.
88 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 1 GC
1 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 4h25'19
2 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER + 2 3 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
4 Andrey Kashechkin ASTANA + 6
5 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS + 8
6 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t. 7 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC + 10
8 Bradley Mc Gee FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t.
9 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS + 11
10 Antonio Colom ASTANA + 12 11 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
17 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC + 15
30 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 18
76 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC + 26
77 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC s.t.
112 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 32
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 1 Points Competition
1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 25
2 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 25
3 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM 22
4 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER 22
5 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE 20
6 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM 20 7 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC 20
8 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC 18
9 Andrey Kashechkin ASTANA 18
10 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE 16
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 1 King of the Mountains Competition
1 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER 4
2 Jason McCartney DISCOVERY CHANNEL 2
3 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL 1
Tom Boonen wins stage 1 of the Paris-Nice, ahead of Erik Zabel and Marco Zanotti
March 13th:Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 2 | Vatan > Limoges - 177 km
Stage 2 Profile
Another more or less flat stage. Same deal as yesterday. Again there was a lot of attacking right from the start and 10 riders managed to get away from the pack to form the break of the day. Among these ten riders, we were represented by our swede Marcus Ljungqvist, who were accompanied by former CSC rider Brian Vandborg (DSC), Drujon (A93), Bichot (AGL), Mengin (FDJ), Lemoine (C.A), Portal (CAI), Haselbacher (AST), Knaven (TMO) and Minard (COF).
Marcus Ljungqvist decided to show the team colours today by participating in a breakaway with big names like Knaven, Mengin and Vandborg
There were three 3rd category climbs along the route and we were actually hoping that Marcus could try and win the polka dotted jersey today, but we decided not to cause a stir and just stick with taking our relays without sprinting for points, confident that we would get on the podium for something else later on in this race. But still Marcus managed to be lucky enough with his positions when the group passed the sprints, to narrowly edge out the others in the group to take the lead in the king of the mountains competition.
The gap topped at about 7 minutes with 100 km to go, and from this point Milram, Quickstep and Rabobank cranked it up a notch and began gaining some time on the breakaway riders. It went incredibly fast and with 40 km to go the breakaway was back on level terms with the pack. The pace was incredibly high and no riders were encouraged to try and break away from the pack.
Again today Stuey was feeling pretty good and he wanted to stick close to Boonen to try and catch another top ten place and as Quickstep were setting things up for Boonen, Stuey crammed himself in between Boonen and his lead-out man Serge Baguet. There was a pretty steep hill on the home stretch, that would no doubt encourage punchy riders to participate in the sprint.
Matthias Kessler and Phillipe Gilbert opened up as they hit the small hill and they went directly to the lead ahead of Baguet, Stuey and Boonen, but as they hit the flat part of the stretch the two guys faded out and Boonen and Stuey closed in on them. Boonen was again the stronger rider and he fired by Kessler to take his second stage victory of the tour ahead of Freire, who finished his sprint amazingly fast to just edge out Stuey and Kessler.
Stuey did a fantastic job positioning himself, but no one can beat Boonen right now, as he raced home for his second victory of the tour
So Freire proving himself something today ahead of tomorrow’s stage, where he really fits the profile perfectly. Alongside Stuey he’s my biggest favourite for tomorrow.
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 2 Result | Vatan > Limoges – 177 km
1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 4h21'03
2 Oscar Freire RABOBANK s.t. 3 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
4 Matthias Kessler ASTANA s.t.
5 Philippe Gilbert FRANCAISE DES JEUX s.t.
6 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
7 Constantino Zaballa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
8 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t.
9 Alberto Ongarato TEAM MILRAM s.t.
10 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER s.t. 55 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC s.t.
57 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC s.t.
58 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
61 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
126 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC s.t.
130 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC s.t.
131 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC s.t.
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 2 | GC
1 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 8h46'22
2 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER + 2 3 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
4 Andrey Kashechkin ASTANA + 6
5 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS + 8
6 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
7 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 9
8 Bradley Mc Gee FRANCAISE DES JEUX + 10 9 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC s.t.
10 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS + 11 12 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 12
13 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC + 13
28 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 18
68 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC + 26
72 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC s.t.
97 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 32
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 2 | Points Competition
1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 50
2 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM 38 3 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC 38
4 Oscar Freire RABOBANK 35
5 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER 33
6 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE 31
7 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM 29
8 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 25
9 Alberto Ongarato TEAM MILRAM 23
10 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM 21
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 2 | King of the Mountains Competition
1 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC 5
2 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER 4
3 Sébastien Portal CAISSE D'EPARGNE 4
4 Sébastien Minard COFIDIS 4
5 Christophe Mengin FRANCAISE DES JEUX 4
6 Jason McCartney DISCOVERY CHANNEL 2
7 René Haselbacher ASTANA 2
8 Nicolas Jalabert AGRITUBEL 1
9 Servais Knaven T-MOBILE TEAM 1
10 Mathieu Drujon AUBER 93 1
Tom Boonen wins another stage to strenghten his position in the battle for the green jersey
March 14th:Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 3 | Limoges > Maurs la Jolie – 215,5 km
Stage 3 Profile
After Boonen’s second win on yesterday’s stage you get the impression he won’t be able to match that result, when looking on today’s profile. But with the kind of form he’s displaying right now you just can’t count him out just yet. Because of the hilly last 50 km, we believed that Stuey could win the sprint today as we thought a lot of the sprinters would be dropped on the penultimate 50 km today.
It started off pretty annoying for us as a massive 23-man breakaway got away from the pack, in which we didn’t have a single man in. So we had to do an awful lot of work right from the start. Pretty annoying as it could’ve been avoided by just staying focused when attacks began.
A huge 23-man breakaway seperated itself from the pack without any of our riders, meaning that we had to work in bunch
We managed to reel them in luckily, which was very important as we didn’t want to experience a Tour of California-déjavú without any of our riders being in the break. After about 80 km the terrain turned a bit more flat, which meant new attacks and some pretty big names decided to take off. 7 riders attacked but they were quickly split up in three groups, with Mayo (SDV), Rodriguez Oliver (CAI) and Petito (LIQ) in the first group, Piil (TMO) and Flickinger in the second group and Guesdon (FDJ) and Moreau (A2R) in the third. Moreau was quickly dropped by Guesdon and also Rodriguez in the leading group got dropped by his breakaway companions. Mayo and Petito stayed ahead the other breakaway riders the rest of the day, but with 75 km to go their gap to pack topped at 5 minutes and from this point Rabobank began reeling them in.
Italian classics talent Roberto Petito and basque Iban Mayo broke away from the pack with big names like Moreau and Guesdon chasing
As Mayo and Petito hit the 2nd category climb Côte de Fangas, their gap had dropped to 3’30”. Meanwhile, Milram and Quickstep had also begun taking part in the chase, meaning that Zabel and Boonen were ready. 5 km up the climb, Piil, Moreau, Flickinger, Guesdon and Rodriguez were reeled in by the pack. The hilly terrain did cause riders to drop off the pack including two of our own guys Allan Johansen and Martin Pedersen. With 20 km to go, Roberto Petito dropped Mayo in the lumpy terrain, at this point he had a lead of only one minutes to the pack. Petito hit the wall however and with 15 km to go it was all set off for those sprinters who’d survived to battle it out. Stuey was there, Boonen was there and Zabel and Freire was there. Stuey used his descenting skills to try to pull away from the pack on the last 5 km but he only got to the front of the pack an no further, meaning he was in a bad position as the sprint began.
Oscar Freire was the first to pass Stuey and eventhough Boonen also came pretty fast by he wasn’t gonna catch Freire today, as the spaniard claimed his first and Rabobank’s second stage victory of the tour. Stuey finished 8th, and Fränk and Jens is looking really strong ahead of tomorrow’s critical stage to Montée Laurent Jalabert.
Freire was in his right element today leaving no chance to his fellow sprinters as he raced his way to victory.
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 3 Result | Limoges > Maurs la Jolie – 215,5 km
1 Oscar Freire RABOBANK 5h02'38
2 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM s.t.
4 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
5 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
6 Jean-Patrick Nazon AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
7 Francisco Ventoso SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t. 8 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
9 Koldo Fernandez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
10 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER s.t. 44 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
68 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC s.t.
74 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC s.t.
92 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC s.t.
99 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC s.t.
154 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC + 4'10
170 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 7'32
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 3 | GC
1 Thomas Dekker RABOBANK 13h49'00
2 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER + 2 3 Jens Voigt TEAM CSC s.t.
4 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 4
5 Andrey Kashechkin ASTANA + 6
6 Luis León Sánchez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 8
7 Nick Nuyens COFIDIS s.t.
8 Bradley Mc Gee FRANCAISE DES JEUX + 10 9 David Zabriskie TEAM CSC s.t.
10 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS + 11 12 Frank Schleck TEAM CSC + 12
15 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC + 13
27 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC + 18
59 Nicki Sørensen TEAM CSC + 26
123 Allan Johansen TEAM CSC + 4'36
142 Martin Pedersen TEAM CSC + 8'04
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 3 | Points Competition
1 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 73
2 Oscar Freire RABOBANK 63
3 Erik Zabel TEAM MILRAM 58 4 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC 51
5 Thor Hushovd CREDIT AGRICOLE 49
6 Alessandro Petacchi TEAM MILRAM 45
7 Stefan Schumacher GEROLSTEINER 44
8 Jean-Patrick Nazon AG2R PREVOYANCE 33
9 Koldo Fernandez EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI 32
10 Marco Zanotti UNIBET.COM 30
Paris-Nice 2007 – Stage 3 | King of the Mountains Competition
1 Iban Mayo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR 7
2 Christophe Mengin FRANCAISE DES JEUX 6
3 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER 5 4 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM CSC 5
5 Roberto Petito LIQUIGAS 5
6 Sébastien Portal CAISSE D'EPARGNE 4
7 Sébastien Minard COFIDIS 4
8 Pierrick Fédrigo BOUYGUES TELECOM 4
9 Thomas Ziegler T-MOBILE TEAM 4
10 Christophe Kern CREDIT AGRICOLE 4
Oscar Freire won the final sprint stage of this edition of Paris-Nice, to create some excitement in the points competition
Tirreno-Adriatico
Today the italian version of Paris-Nice began, the Tirreno-Adriatico, which is also a ProTour Race. As I’m in France right now for the Paris-Nice I can only give you results. So here is the result of today’s 1st stage.
Tirreno-Adriatico 2007 – Stage 1 Result | Civitavecchia > Civitavecchia – 160 km (Flat)
1 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 3h34'26
2 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
3 Jimmy Casper UNIBET.COM s.t.
4 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM s.t.
5 Allan Davis DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
6 Graeme Brown RABOBANK s.t.
7 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
8 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
9 Luca Paolini LIQUIGAS s.t.
10 Steven De Jongh QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t. 17 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
56 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
66 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC s.t.
108 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC s.t.
110 Karsten Kroon TEAM CSC s.t.
121 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC s.t.
154 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC s.t.
158 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
Tirreno-Adriatico 2007 – Stage 1 | GC
1 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC 3h34'16
2 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 4
3 Jimmy Casper UNIBET.COM + 6
4 Salvatore Commesso TINKOFF CREDIT SYSTEMS + 7
5 David Kopp GEROLSTEINER + 8
6 Marcus Burghardt T-MOBILE TEAM + 9
7 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM + 10
8 Allan Davis DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
9 Graeme Brown RABOBANK s.t.
10 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t. 20 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
59 Fabian Cancellara TEAM CSC s.t.
69 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC s.t.
109 Lars Ytting Bak TEAM CSC s.t.
111 Karsten Kroon TEAM CSC s.t.
122 Luke Roberts TEAM CSC s.t.
154 Alexandr Kolobnev TEAM CSC s.t.
158 Bobby Julich TEAM CSC s.t.
It'll take some time finishing the next update, but until then, anyone interested can post their predictions for the Final GC, which has to be done before the next stage. That is if anyone is interested of course.
The winner gets to choose one of my summer signings.
Arh sh*te, my Paint Shop Pro trial has expired and apparently I can't fool those sneaky bastards my downloading it again Anyone knows where I can find another image editor?
About the training. Right now I'm almost through Paris-Nice and Fabian Cancellara who has the three cobblestone classics as his main goal is training with 70%, I think he is 69/80 + 5/something. I have about 20 days to the Tour of Flanders, so very soon, within the next five days I will increase his training rate to 100%, then maybe he'll also be able to win Three Days at Panne 
Anyone knows where I can find another image editor?
