The first three days in Switzerland went without any major problems, of course I have lost a lot of time, but not racing for the GC or anything here obviously. Thomas has shown some glimpses of him coming into form and I think the team has his situation under control. You don’t want to be peaking too early and there’s no question he isn’t exactly peaking right now. I think he is going to do great in France.
Stage 4/9
Today was a transition stage before four back-to-back mountain stages in what is without a doubt one of the most mountainous editions of Tour de Suisse ever. The plan today was to put a man in the break today, and that turned out to be me. I found myself in a quite interesting move aswell with no less than 14 riders including me being allowed to get a gap.
In the early break.
My legs were awful today though. F****** typical. I have managed to put myself in a very strong break and then my legs can’t do anything. With 80 km left we had more than 8 minutes on the pack, which started to pick up the pace at this point. It was a furious chase with the break seemingly having the upper hand. Not me though as I was about to run out of gas any moment really. Oh well, with 25 km to go I had to let go. The break still had about 4 minutes at this point.
In the break was my old teammate from Team GLS, Brian Vandborg (now Barloworld). When talking to him in the break you got the idea that he was pretty strong today and with about 9 km to go he got a gap on the remaining breakaway riders!
It was going to be a photofinish between Brian and the sprinters!
He held them off though! Great win for Brian. Because of me finishing several minutes after the pack today I wasn’t able to congratulate him until he had been on the podium. Obviously he was extremely happy as this was no doubt the biggest win of his career. I hope to see him at the Tour again. He’s a great rider, but he has been followed by bad luck in the last couple of years.
1 Brian Vandborg Barloworld 4h24'41
2 Mathieu Drujon Team Milram s.t.
3 Fernando Torres Slipstream - Chipotle powered by H3O s.t.
4 Daryl Impey Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
5 Fabio Sabatini Team Milram s.t. 146 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 6'25
Stage 5/9
Another day in the mountains and so will the next three be aswell. I don’t feel uplifted by this prospect, but I guess I have to get used to it. I haven’t been riding a whole lot mountain stages during my career actually, and if I want to ride for the GC in a Grand Tour someday this is something I need to get through.
Stefan Schumacher went out on an epic adventure today, but he wouldn’t succeed.
Linus and Thomas did great today, but as the rest of the pack they couldn’t match neither Contador nor Mollema, who distanced everybody by at least 3 minutes. Contador took the win!
Linus finished 3rd, 3 minutes back, as he took the sprint of the chasing group. Thomas was also in there, but he didn’t bother sprinting. Another nice signal from our GC candidates though. I finished in a group alongside Cumming, Schumacher, ‘Litu’ Gomez and Bragazzi, about 10 minutes later.
More mountains, so let’s just cut right into it. Contador took the win again and, you guessed it, Mollema took 2nd place. Linus had another great day as he took 3rd place again. Thomas lost some time though as he finished 10th, more than 6 minutes down.
Eventhough I finished more than 25 minutes down today I had a pretty good ride as I finished alongside Edvald in 38th place. Not bad I’d say. Of the remaining three stages there are still two mountainous to go and on the last stage we have a flat one, where I might try to go in the break again. Let’s see.
My mountain legs are getting better by the day.
1 Alberto Contador Team Astana 6h22'21
2 Bauke Mollema Rabobank + 28 3 Linus Gerdemann Team High Road + 3'44
4 John-Lee Augustyn Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
5 Alberto Losada Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
6 Denis Menchov Rabobank + 5'21
7 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes + 5'52
8 Tom Stubbe Saunier Duval - Scott + 6'06
9 Michael Rogers Silence - Lotto + 6'48 10 Thomas Dekker Team High Road + 6'56 38 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 25'16
We’re coming into the last third of our final preparation race for the Tour de France. I can feel my form getting back gradually, but still there’s not really a chance for me to ride my own chance here. Not only because of the route but also because we have to protect Linus and Thomas. There’s just over two weeks now to Le Tour and you can really start to feel the anticipation in the peloton among the riders who know they’re going. I’ve been talking quite abit with my good friend Niki Østergaard, who is racing for Astana now, and he’s of course hoping he is also going to the Tour. That would be nice if we were going to do our first Tour at the same time. Niki is also turning into a very strong rider, shockingly similar to me in what he can do and I’m quite surprised he didn’t show more in the Ardennes this season. Just a matter of time I guess.
Stage 7/9
Another mountain stage today. Not as difficult this time around though with only one ascent, it’s on the finish line though which cancels out my chances of a result. I was just sitting next to Thomas all day keeping him out of the wind, of which there was quite a lot today actually, making this stage pretty rough for me.
Another good friend of mine, Chris Anker Sørensen kicked off the action at the final climb. Contador went with him.
They were joined by Devine and Rogers, and these four would make up the front group.
Thomas and Linus found themselves in a huge group with the other Top 10 riders.
Unfortuneately Chris couldn’t keep up with the three others and Devine and Rogers couldn’t keep up with Contador who took another win!
Thomas and Linus finished in the next group with Thomas losing a bit on Linus, to move past him into 4th place with Thomas now in 5th. Contador is consolidating his lead before the last mountain stage tomorrow. I finished in the peloton just over 6 minutes later, so I had another solid ride this time.
Today’s stage could end up gaining me a good result actually because of the profile. We have two big climbs before the final climb up to St. Moritz, but from the top of the final climb into the finish the run-in is completely flat for 25 kilometers, so if I can get myself dragged over there, why not go for it in the sprint?
I managed to stay in there over the penultimate climb, but unfortunately the pack split up in the descent leaving me, Kirchen and Hagen behind, isolating Linus and Thomas up front.
The last bit of the peloton going up the final climb.
Me, Hagen and Kirchen put in a lot of work in the group we were in though and we kept the deficit at a very acceptable level eventhough we wouldn’t come across again. When Contador put in his inevitable attack Thomas went with him alongside Mollema. He got a gap on the pack but Contador was not matchable.
Mollema and Thomas were both reeled in though but the pack could do nothing about Alberto Contador, who looks absolutely frightening ahead of Le Tour.
Another win for the Tour de France favourite.
Thomas and Linus finished respectively 5th and 6th among the chasers and they both look very good ahead of Le Tour. I finished in an 8-man group alongside Kirchen and Hagen in 34th place, just over 8 minutes back, so I’m content so far. I’m going to be stronger in Le Tour.
Last stage now and at some point I would just like to get this over with, I simply cannot wait for Le Tour anymore. Nevertheless though I’m starting get a lot of energy and I me and my Ardennes opponent Jelle Vanendert decided to go today. We attacked in a descent not far after the start and following we were joined by Nick Nuyens, so a pretty strong trio in front today.
The beautiful Alps in the background as we were making our way to Zurich.
We had more than 8 minutes with 70 kilometres to go, but from this point the pack started upping the race, reeling us in. Inevitably our move was cancelled out, but it was nice to do some hard work on the front today and even nicer was that I was the last from the break to be reeled in with 25 km left to go. At least we still have Edvald and Mark to gain us a result and I was listening intently to the radio as the pack surged past me and left me in its wake.
And the sprint went really well today for a change. Edvald was leading out Mark, and from a bad position he just scorched into the lead with Mark in his wheel. A so powerful move that Mark couldn’t even get past, as Edvald won the last stage of the Tour de Suisse.
A nice way to wrap it all up. I finished several minutes later, but I don’t really care I was just happy to hear that we had finally taken a win here in Switzerland. Next up is the Danish Championships, where I will for the first time take part in the time trial aswell. After that it’s off to London for Le Tour de France.
Cruising towards the finish line in Zurich knowing we had won the last stage.
1 Edvald Boasson Hagen Team High Road 4h19'32
2 Mark Cavendish Team High Road s.t.
3 Marco Frapporti Tinkoff Credit Systems s.t.
4 Lucas Haedo Team Milram s.t.
5 Kenny De Ketele Slipstream - Chipotle powered by H3O s.t. 123 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 13'56
mb2612 wrote:
again you have messed up some screens, on the plus side, you are starting to look good, are there some stages for you in this years tour?
Photobucket isn't working properly
There's quite a few stages for JAJ in Le Tour, but his main task is to support Dekker. But he'll get his chance surely
Just two more races and it’s time for Le Tour. The ride through France would be even sweeter if I was wearing the Danish National Jersey though, so I will be completely focused to win the road race no doubt. I could have asked for a better route, but I won it on the same course two years ago, so it should be even more possible this year, as I’m a lot stronger now than in 2009.
Time Trial
As I have mentioned earlier this is my first time in the time trial ever. With the form I’m in though, I don’t think it’ll be all bad. I also ended up having a pretty nice confirming ride as I finished in 16th place, a shade under 3 minutes slower than today’s winner Søren Kierkegaard. My High Road teammates all finished ahead of me though, but I’m not really surprised about that as they’re all good riders in this discipline.
I only managed to get you a picture of the bronze-medalist, Lasse Bøchmann.
I was just 15 seconds shy of the Top 10 in the end! Pretty damn good time trial performance I’d say, I might just take the yellow jersey already in London, or?
Back in the pack Team GLS all of the sudden started setting a very high pace, as they weren’t satisfied with how the race situation was right now. Our gap on the pack of just about 1 minute remained pretty static though, and with 10 kilometres left the breakaway was finally hauled in. Neither Kirkegaard nor Steensen can match me in a sprint, I had this one!
But as we hit the final flat part I was sitting a bit behind to catch my breath, and somehow, well, I just simply couldn’t close the gap again. They just rode off!
I tried with everything I had to come across again but that just resulted me in blowing up with 2 kilometres to go! I was out of it completely as Steensen and Kirkegaard would fight it out for the win. The gap wasn’t far back and I wouldn’t even finish on the podium today.
Steensen is the new Danish Champion! 6 different champions the last 6 years now. I ended up 26th. Awful day. Bring on Le Tour!
Is the tune I’m going to listen to when I head out on the Prologue in a few days in my first ever Tour de France. Normally you wouldn’t be allowed to do this, but since I don’t really need any radio communication on the prologue as I will most likely suck pretty badly, there really isn’t any idea in getting split times along a 8-km route, now is there?
Anyway I’m in London right now with 8 other riders I’m going to share up and downs with in the next three weeks. I would like to say we have the strongest team of all for this race. Besides me it’s Team Captain Thomas Dekker, his 1st Lieutenant Linus Gerdemann, our two sprinters Mark Cavendish and Edvald Boasson Hagen, our two time trial specialists Bradley Wiggins and Dominique Cornu, and two very important helpers for Thomas, Thomas Løvkvist and Kim Kirchen. I’ll be rooming with Løvkvist during the race, which is pretty nice because we can understand each other languages, and he’s cool guy so I don’t mind that.
Above all I’m here to support Dekker, but I might get my chance at some point to go for a stage win, unless Thomas is sitting in the yellow jersey of course. As much as I would like to come and win a stage here, I realize that this is all about giving Thomas the best conditions possible to win this race overall, and I think he can do it. He was on the podium in 2008 and 2010, so he has proved he is one of the guys you can’t count out here. Of course there’s the almost invincible Contador, but hopefully Thomas can take him down. If I should talk a bit about my own chances then I have circled two stages so far where I could fight it out with best. We’re talking about the stages 7 and 8, which are both quite hilly and their finales likewise. Because it’s in the first week there might be some teams who will try and hold everything together so the pack hits those decisive climbs with all the riders within a shout of victory. Here I might strike.
Talking about the favourites I have already mentioned two. Dekker and Contador, but also there are Andy Schleck, Robert Gesink, Cadel Evans, Alejandro Valverde and then of course loads of outsiders like our Linus Gerdemann, Luis Leon Sanchez, Bauke Mollema, Frank Schleck and I could go on and on.
One of my biggest dreams as a cyclist is to wear the yellow jersey in this race, but I don’t think it’s going to be this year. On stage 5 there’s a 60-km team time trial, where I’m not sure whether I will be able to stay with the team. Had if not been for this stage, then the stages 7 and 8 would have provided me with a great chance of taking the yellow jersey. But as said I don’t think it’s going to happen.
I’m off to do a few laps on the prologue course with the team now. I’m hoping for a great race. Jonas out.
I was overwhelmed when I started the Giro d’Italia last year, you’d need a new word to describe the feeling I had when I stepped out on the team bus and started warming up for the prologue. People were crammed together in front of the team bus just watching me and my teammates spin and there were just people everywhere you looked. The team presentation yesterday was quite unreal too, I almost felt like a rockstar as we rolled in on the stage on our bikes to be presented to the British crowd one by one. This was of course extra special for Mark and Bradley eventhough this is their second time experiencing this. Especially Thomas, Bradley and Dominique were really focused today. All of them were eyeing the chance of taking the yellow jersey already today on the prologue and I must say they all stand a very good chance of doing so. Thomas was lacking that final strength in Tour de Suisse, but he’s absolutely ready now. You can just see it in his eyes.
Prologue
We’re five Danes in this year’s Tour de France. Me, Jonas Hoberg, Brian Vandborg, Chris Anker Sørensen and Søren Kirkegaard, the newly crowned Danish TT Champion, and he had a pretty good ride today, finishing 20th.
I was the fourth last rider from our team to take off, prior to that Edvald, Mark, Kim, Thomas L. and Linus had all posted pretty good times and there is no doubt that we’re all in great form for this race. I had goose bumps when the guy by the start ramp counted down from five and there hoards of people standing on each side of the road, behind the barriers of course, but anyway, it was…..an amazing sight. My ride wasn’t too bad either. I finished 91st, 43 seconds slower than today’s winner.
My first Tour de France Prologue.
Double Defending Champion Alberto Contador showed his GC credentials today as he finished 7th, 10 seconds back.
Dominique had awful legs today unfortunately and he had to settle for a place just inside the Top 20. Thomas legs weren’t much better, but he did score a very nice 4th place, just 7 seconds slower than today’s winner. Bradley then went 5th, 8 seconds down, meaning we wouldn’t get the yellow jersey today. But who would?
I didn’t get a picture of him for you unfortunately, but I’ve got his name. Bauke Mollema has carried his great Dauphine Libere form over to Le Tour as he took the jersey today being just one second faster than home-favourite Damien Monier.
A great start for us no doubt and I’m really happy to finally be going here. I was extremely nervous before this stage I must say, but it feels like the pressure is now off a bit. The next three days are relatively flat, so we will be looking to Mark and Edvald for some good results there.
I’m off and away at my first Tour de France. Yesterday’s prologue went somewhat as I would have expected, but I’m quite pleased with my performance there anyway. Should I somehow make it through the team time trial on Wednesday, I might be within a shout of the yellow jersey, but I don’t want to go there yet. I’ll take it stage by stage right now. We’re still in England as this first stage of Le Tour departs from London with finish in Canterbury, again just like in 2007. The plan is to protect Dekker and try and set up Hagen and Mark for the final sprint. Surely a win for Mark here would be special.
This is where the racing truly commences.
The atmosphere in the bunch was really nervous today and the pace was extremely high, even higher than in the Giro, not that it was too fast I was just a bit surprised that the difference would be so huge. Also it looks so much more difficult to get in the early break here, it seemed like the the leading teams would never let up and let a break go. Eventually though the dust settled for a bit, just until the chase commenced of course.
Some visual evidence of my first Tour de France Stage.
Wiggins was assigned to lead out Hagen and Mark today, but it wasn’t included in the plans. I didn’t really mind though as I was comfortable enough just having a look at the proceedings this time around. Hagen had a difficult starting-point in the sprint though with Mark in his wheel.
Gavazzi and Vermeltfoort were looking good as Hagen and Mark were closing.
Unfortunately Mark got boxed in by the LPR rider in the picture, so Hagen tried to go after Gavazzi. It was too late though as the Italian took a surprising win ahead of Edvald.
I rolled in safely in the pack next to Dekker and Gerdemann, who both made it through aswell.
Tomorrow we have another stage for the sprinters and after some getting used to today, I might try and help Mark in the finish.
Seems like there’s a first for me every day in this race. Two days ago I raced my first prologue in Le Tour, yesterday I raced my first stage. Today I’m signing in to race my first Tour de France stage in, well, France. We’re back on the continent now after two days in Southern England, and I’m counting on that I’m going to see some of those big yellow flowers along the route today, which you always see in commercials for this race. At the start of the season I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to go here, but now I’m happy I did. Every day just gets better and better and already today people have gotten a bit more calm and the jostling for positions has gone down a bit aswell, which is nice. I talked to Chris Anker this morning, and we joked about me and him attacking together on a mountain stage later and battle for polka dot jersey. Surely just a joke?
Anywho, I had a much more relaxed day today, at least the first part of it. The break was reeled in safely again today, but then with, I think, 13 kilometres left, Cornu crashed in the middle of the pack and pulled down a whole lot of riders, including Mark’s lead-out man Hagen!
Our big Norwegian bites the tarmac!
Cornu getting up again, fortunately no one was injured.
Somehow Hagen got back up and managed to be the only rider involved in the crash who would make it without losing time. Some big riders did though, including the likes of Frank Schleck, Luis Leon Sanchez, Janez Brajkovic, Gomez Marchante, Di Gregorio and Anton. It was pure luck that only Hagen and Cornu went down as we were all riding behind Cornu. Just like that and Dekker’s GC aspirations could’ve ended.
Well the absence of Edvald meant that I was going to lead-out Mark today. I, ehm, failed pretty miserably as Mark in a last-ditch effort grabbed Tom Boonen’s wheel.
Mark was way back – I’m sitting a few metres to the right.
Mark was out of it before it even began eventhough he did get inside the Top 10, he hasn’t had a great start to this Tour at all. Lucas Haedo bursted into the lead with Ventoso trying to keep up.
Haedo was very strong though as he had timed his move to perfection to take stage 2! Mark finished 10th and I took 14th place as I tried to keep up a bit. It doesn’t mean anything though and we can’t use those results for anything. Hopefully we’ll grab tomorrow’s stage before the TTT.
I must admit I haven’t had a closer look at this stage’s profile until this morning, where I found out during the team briefing that it’s actually quite hilly (I was getting goose bumps already). It’s tough like LBL or something like that but there are two short hills very close to the finish, with the last topping just 4,5 kilometres from the line. That’s why today’s team effort was dedicated to Edvald. Sitting in 9th place in the GC, just 13 seconds behind Mollema, he could grab the yellow jersey with a win today. And the more we looked at the profile the more we realized just how tailor-made for Hagen, today’s stage is.
The early break today was reeled rather quickly today, so a pair of strong riders countered. Pliuschin and Cherel.
We were at the front in the pack though trying to set it up for Hagen. Cornu, Løvkvist and Wiggins were the first three to work their a**es off until Kirchen put up a crazy pace at the last hill. At this point the breakaway was reeled back in. I was sitting in Kim’s wheel with Edvald behind me, ready to lead him out just as soon as we hit the home stretch. The plan was working so far. I looked back at some point to see Edvald following effortlessly, while the other big guys were in serious problems keeping up.
Kim putting the first nails in the coffin!
As soon as Kim let up I was on point, what a rush this was, I was leading Hagen down the home stretch, with the entire cycling world watching!
I kept the lead for some time until Hagen decided it was time to go. All the others could do was to watch!
EDVALD TOOK IT!! Icing on the cake, I was 2nd!
Better yet we now also have the yellow jersey! I felt like celebrating, but with the prospect of 17 coming stages, I paced myself again though. But what a moment, it’s kind of the same feeling as when I won Liège-Bastogne-Liège. This team is just amazing and the atmosphere is great right now. Also this takes some pressure off of Dekker, as the team has already had success. Tomorrow it’s getting serious again though as it’s time for the 60-km team time trial, where we need to put Dekker into a great position.
I woke up at 6 this morning, turned on the telly, to discover breaking news from Denmark. No surprise that the world of cycling was shocked when Francaise des Jeux’ manager announced his Tour team a few weeks ago, as the team was lacking its in-form star rider, Matti Breschel. Apparently that had gotten too much for a group of Danish fans, who were burning Francaise des Jeux flags in front of the team’s headquarter in France. I wasn’t actually that surprised about this reaction as he exclusion of Matti might have been the worst decision in the history of cycling according to me. Anyway, I know Brian is talking to him about joining our team in the future and a deal shouldn’t be far off.
Back to the stage as today’s 60 kilometres are quite important. I’m not really fussed about the stage as I will most likely lose a lot of time with the incredible TT Specialists we have brought for this particular 60 kilometers. Thomas is already sitting nicely in the GC, but it would be nice for him to gain some more time on especially Contador before we head into the mountains.
A little something about the stage. We take off from Lengwy and finish the day in Verdun. We’re still in the Northern part of France, Lorraine to be exact and there’s still some way until we hit the first serious mountains.
The City of Verdun
Just to give you an idea of our whereabouts.
No doubt with the team we brought we were vast favourites today, but Contador’s Astana team is looking pretty damn strong aswell, so they are the ones we have to face-off against most likely. We started off in a reasonable pace which gave us the 5th fastest time at the first check, about 20 seconds slower than Astana. Still 40 kilometres to go though. From here on in we upped the pace and at the last check just under 20 kilometres from the finish we had taken the lead! Leading Astana by almost 40 seconds! And I was still hanging in there and still feeling pretty good.
With 8 kilometres to go though I started struggling, at this point Mark had already lost 50 metres or something like that.
While I had lost a few bike lengths – we could now eye Rabobank up the road!
The team storming towards victory!
As we entered the final 4 kilometres we were told to just pile on the pressure for the rest of the way and give as much as we absolutely could. This resulted in us catching Rabobank just on the line as we took a commanding win!
As you might see I just managed to latch on the rear of the train.
We beat Astana by 1’36! And in 3rd place Caisse d’Epargne by 2’20! I was so proud of myself. I managed to only lose 7 seconds today meaning I’m now sitting in 6th place in the GC. That’s just until we hit the mountains but nevertheless, it still feels pretty damn good and what a different start we’ve had here compared to last year’s Giro, where everything went wrong for our GC rider. Thomas was incredibly happy of course as he now has a minute and a half on Contador. This is looking pretty good I’d say.
Why are you focusing on Cavendish in the sprints, when Hagen is a better sprinter?
If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages, then maybe we can all learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but to hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up, or Fight Like Hell. -Lance Armstrong
With the yellow jersey firmly within our own ranks we were obliged to be the team at the head of the pack today. Unfortunately I’m not too big a star to avoid working at the front as I was sitting there the whole day with Løvkvist, Bradley, Cornu and Kim. Mark and Hagen were staying in the background to be ready for the sprint as it would most likely end in one. Oh, a thing I completely left out yesterday was that I’m actually wearing the white jersey today. I’m not leading the competition, that’s Edvald doing so, but since he has the yellow jersey I’m showing off the colours today. Rather amazing really and I have now managed the two Grand Tour young rider jerseys, as I also had it for a few days in the Giro last season.
Alexandre Pliuschin has had a great season so far and he is really looking to win a stage at this year’s Tour as he was in the break again today. In the end though, him, Van Garderen and Colin couldn’t keep the pack at bay. We’ll have a mass sprint finish.
As I was getting more and more comfortable in this race I was told by Brian and Rolf in the support car, to lead out the sprint today. A big task to set up two of the world’s best sprinters in Edvald and Mark. With Edvald already having won a stage, we worked for Mark today, who has had a difficult season without any wins. I was feeling great though as I moved them both all the way to the front in a perfect position. I was leading from the 6 kilometres mark all the way to the sprint, so when Hagen took over I was exhausted. Mark better finish this.
Hagen leading with Cav in his wheel!
And when Mark is in a position like this, no-one can match him and he took a dominant win!
Hagen took 2nd to slam it home, as they’re both now in the fight for the green jersey, which is Mark’s big goal for this Tour. I didn’t have the legs to get a decent result after my efforts, so I took 19th. Didn’t matter though, another stage win and I couldn’t be more thrilled as I congratulated Mark on the win. Three stages in a row. Tomorrow is the first of the two stages back-to-back stages I want to do well on, after that we hit the Alps.
GC 1 Edvald Boasson Hagen Team High Road 18h58'30
2 Thomas Dekker Team High Road + 22
3 Linus Gerdemann Team High Road + 27
4 Kim Kirchen Team High Road + 33
5 Thomas Lövkvist Team High Road + 42 7 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 53
