Another short stage awaiting the riders today and again pretty easy one. The only major difficulty on the route is fairly long climb Col de l‘ Espigoulier at the beginning of the stage and then a small speedbump with 30kms to go. Ceratinly not demanding enough to make some problems to the main sprinters. Ale-Jet is looking for another good result today. We will not probably send a rider to the break, but race situation can change that at any point of the stage.
The riders are already climbing to the highest point of the day and look who is leading the charge. Yes, it is V.Buts, who has attacked recently to protect Balloni’s KOM jersey. This move was successful, since Buts has won the KOM sprint.
We had no intensions to continue the break, so later a group of six riders established, N.Neyens being the only well-known rider among them. As they are now at the half of the stage, their lead is 3“50“.
Neyens wins the second KOM sprint, as the breakway is loosing ground to the peleton now.
With 10kms to go the gap is still over a minute, so the breakway riders will probably battle for the win.
Lampre again establishes great sprint train and the victory doesn’t seem so sure for the break now.
I am not very happy with our riders performance today, i told them to watch the break and what happened? The break was successful and stole the victory from the hands of Petacchi. Despite to that, our sprint train was very good today, bringing Alessandro to the front and Balloni still holds the jersey. So at least something to cheer about.
I forgot to click „export“ so here are the results in this form, sorry for that.
This stage is not so easy as the previous ones, it is 146 kms long and with lumpy profile. Riders will be going up and down whole stage and finish with an uphill sprint. Two categorized clims are situated right at the beginning, so expect some early attacks. Lampre will try tu put the pressure on the leading riders from successful break in stage1 and then get a decent result with Petacchi or Spilak, depending on who will be mor fresch in the end.
Vitaliy Buts attacked earlier with some more riders and now wins the first KOM sprint ahead of Witecki and Steenuit.
Buts continues to ride with steady pace towards the second KOM, rest of the break just being caught by the peleton, where NetApp sets the furious tempo. Buts then wins at the top and overtakes teammate Balloni by 4 points.
Lots of riders has joined Vitaliy later, but as NetApp continues the high pace, they are caught after the downhill.
Bart DeWaele attacks from the pack with 27kms to go to join the three riders upfront, who attacked earlier (Sabido,Gioux,Veikkanen). These three are 2 minutes closer to finish now.
With 5kms to go, only Sabido stayed upfront and he still holds a 30 seconds gap, Will he make it for the win? Petacchi not feeling very good today, but in sprint anything can happen.
And it is really Sabido, who grabs the win in front of fast approaching peleton. Fantastic finish for Simon Spilak, who gets the second place, while DeWaele finishes third. Petacchi faded in the last 200 metres and finished as 13th.
Thoughts and results
We were again so close to victory, but i remain optimistic and i am looking for tommorows stage and decisive Mt.Faron. I was even more happy, when i discovered that jury saw the gap between Spilak with DeWaele and the other group. Spilak will be there tommorow to fight for the glory, he showed today he is in form with that second place. Vitaliy Buts is now the leader of the KOM competition. It was hard decision because of Alfredo Balloni, but Buts felt very strong, so i let him attack.
Thanks guys, i appreciate your support.
Sabido was really strong, he won despite we made the fast pace in last 30kms.
Last stage hopefully today afternoon, if not,then tommorowEdited by Avin Wargunnson on 09-09-2011 10:34
The final stage is here and nothing has been decided yet. Four riders still hold the advantage of 1“30“ overall to the biggest favourites, including Lampre’s Simon Spilak. But today’s finish is on famous Mt.Faron, so anything is possible and Spilak will fight hard to gain some time. Yellow jersey holder Dietziker seems very strong, so Simon will probably battle for the podium spot behind him with likes of DeWaele and Voeckler. KOM jersey for us should be secured and we will use all our riders to make the race difficult for the opponents.
The weather is great today in France. Nothing breathtaking has happened in the first 50kms of the stage, except the fact that the group of 14 has formed. There are some dangerous riders in it with +3“37“ in GC only, so NetApp is doing the steady pace.
Kadri has won the only KOM sprint of the day ahead of his teammate Champion and very active Pinto. In the peleton, NetApp increases the pace even more,Spilak is still feeling okay.The leaders are now three minutes upfront.
As the peleton climbs the penultimate hill, only A.Jeanneson remains from the breakaway and he is now leading by a minute. Spilak wearing the white jersey in the middle of the shot, well protected by Kvachuk.
Near the top of that penultimate climb C.Barredo sets a high pace,but that doesn’t prevent Voeckler and Coppel from attacking.
But all the attackers were brought down and now Moncoutie attacks on his favourite mountain Mt.Faron. Will he suceed?3kms left.
Probably yes. You can see Moncoutie easily riding away as now De Waele attacks with Spilak glued on his wheel.
Moncoutie holds off nearing Bart DeWaele and gets the fantastic win.Truly deserved after that fantastic acceleration.
Simon Spilak faded a bit in the sprint, but finishes nice 5th behind Voeckler and Coppel. But where is the yellow jersey Dietziker and who is the winner overall?
And it is David Moncoutie! He is awarded for his efforts and beats De Waele and Dietziker by only few seconds. What a close finish, what a race! Spilak just outside the podium on nice 4th.
Thoughts and results
So the Tour de Med is over and we could be pretty satisfied with Lampre‘s results. Simon Spilak finished fourth in GC, the leading two were too good for him and Dietziker was part of the first stage’s sucessfull breakaway. Simon also won the white jersey competition and Vitaliy Buts brings home the KOM jersey. Added to that, Petacchi had some nice results in the sprints, so overall very decent race for Lampre
Trofeo Laigueglia is an italian one day classic, certainly not an easy one. The profile is very demanding with several tough hills, especially in the second part of the race. Although the last 15 kms are pretty flat, so the race should be probably decieded in the sprint of the small group of strong riders, who survived the hills. Because of that i think some hilly sprinter will get the win.
Team Type 1
201. I.Melero
202. A.Bowden
203. F.Calabria
204. Benj.King
205. K.Reijnen
206. S.Stewart
Race Favourites:
The bunch of really good riders is on the start, including great punchy sprinters and i think that early season fitness and form will be the decisive factors
We enter the race with two co-leaders and the race itself will decide, who has the better chance of good result. Spilak showed some good form in France last week and he will try to counter-attack the dangerous moves, while Grega Bole should look for the sprint finish, if he will have something left after the hills. Marzano has free hands to jump into the early break, rest of the team are the helpers. We expect top 5 from this race, anything better would be great, while anything worse would be disappointment.
The race
We are on the first tough climb of the day and Marzano attacks, as we dont want make the pace during the race.
Nobody wants to bring Marzano back at this point, so he is cruising through the beautiful costal lanscape alone, five minutes ahead of the pack.
Great job by Marzano, but he has been catched on the downhill from the penultimate hill and riders are now approaching the final climb of the day. Only 21 riders in the front group, Katusha,Colnago and Liquigas seem to be the strongest.
There were lots of attacks to be seen on the final hill and later the leading group established (Nocentini, Gusev, Carrara, Bole, Spilak, Sagan and Pozzovivo). Our riders are in great position with 15kms to go. Later Karpets, Kuschynski and De Maar join them.
The three riders seem to be the strongest, as they attacked ferouciously and quicky create a 30 seconds gap (Sagan, Gusev, Nocentini). Pozzovivo is a bit ahead of the next group, where Spilak is empty and Bole is loosing the grip too.
Sagan is the strongest from the leading trio as expected, this type of race is perfect for the young gun and he is the deserved winner. Gusev second not far behind and Nocentini completes the podium. Grega Bole is clearly the fastest from the rest and finishes fourth, Spilak is 6th.
Thoughts and results
This race went as expected, Sagan was the biggest favourite, so nothing surprising. Grega and Simon on 4th and 6th respectively, that is good with pretty strong startlist. Pity that Grega was not able to respond to that strong late attack, but he he is still not in the best shape. Next race for us take place in Sardinia, where Damiano Cunego starts his season.
Thanks, i agree it was a good race for us. I was preparing the sprint and completly failed to react to that attack. But i like these surprises of pcm 2011
Maybe we will do better in Sardinia with Cunego, first reports tommorow
Giro di Sardegna preview
Giro di Sardegna is popular five stages long cycling race in Sardinia. It will be the toughest european race so far in the season with five hilly stages and three mountain/hill top finishes. Stages 2 and 3 are probably the most difficult, as they finish on the top of the mountain. Only very good climbers and punchers will have the chance to fight for the overall win.
De Rosa
191. O.Berdos
192. F.Baggio
193. S.Borchi
194. G.Brambilla
195. E.Girardi
196. D.Margutti
197. F.Piscopiello
198. F.Rocchetti
Race Favourites:
Few top riders are on the start line in Sardinia, names as Rodriguez and Vinokourov are the gurantee of tough opposition and entertaining racing. But the riders fitness is a big question mark, so riders like Pozzovivo or Rebellin surely have the chance to steal the glory
Damino Cunego is making his first appereance in the season here to tune the fitness for March and April. He may lack race days, but he is still our undisputed leader for the race. He aims for the podium in GC and maybe the stage win, who knows. Vitaliy Buts is once again searching for the breakaways and KOM points. Grega Bole is our sprinter, but in this difficult race he will not have so many chances to show his speed .
Edited by Avin Wargunnson on 13-09-2011 09:17
Spilak23 wrote:
Good results with Spilak and Bole!! Too bad Spilak couldn't pull back those three riders so Bole could sprint for the win. Good luck in Sardegna!
Thanks, you are right Spilak used all his energy to bring them back, but it still was not enough
I will post the first stage later today, as i was watching football yesterday instead of playing pcm...
Completly out of time to play in September (lot of time to read the site at work, but no PCM here of course),maybe in October it will be better, so expect very slow updating, but i will not let the story die
Sorry for that
A pity that the story has been stopped, I just read the whole and I love it. I like this team and its riders also do very good reports.
I hope the draw back to some point, a greeting mate!
Thanks a lot guys for the nice words
It raised my motivation to continue at some point, but probably in the next year (January), as i still have problems with internet connection at my new flat, so i can check the site only at work...
And just for your information, i have not played a single stage since September, so i am still at the start of Giro di Sardegna (blame DeusEx 3 and Skyrim now )
