Looking at the profile this was expected to be one of those days, when Falcon – Norheim would be completely absent in the final. Jesper Mørkøv got in the morning breakaway to chase that small chance, but as expected the winner was not to be found in this group and on the final climb it became obvious that especially Euskaltel - Euskadi was really determined to get the win.
Time for the first Nordic race of the season, and thus an important race for the team. Since the race is Danish and we have a lot of fit Danish riders we have decided to bring an all-Danish team to please the local audience.
The bookmakers have Kasper Jebjerg as one of the biggest favourites for todays race, but we have brought 8 riders intending to go for the win, should they get the chance.
It is in general a hectic stage with a lot of attacks all day and with 3 km to go Pelle Clapp is alone 15 seconds in front of the peloton, but that is not enough and everything gets decided in the bunch sprint. Jens Erik Madsen does a good job keeping Kasper Jebjerg in a good position until Kasper starts his sprint with 1 km to go and completely destroys the opposition.
We met team manager Allan shortly after the victory:
What an amazing race by my riders! Riders were attacking all day long, but no one could escape the Falcons today. By attacking near the finish Pelle Clapp forced the other sprinterteams to use a lot more energy in the last 8 km than they had hoped leaving the playing field open for Jens Erik and Kasper. This race was one of the main goals of the season for us, so everyone is just ecstatic right now.
This race will most likely be dominated by the Spanish teams as both Euskaltel and Movistar are here with good teams and the route is most likely to hard for most of our riders to make any real results. Falcon – Norheim should keep their eyes open for the small opportunities that may arise. A stage win, mountain jersey or whatever may prove possible.
Stage 1 Havard Nubö gets in todays break and tries to win the first KoM sprint but without any luck. Halfway through the stage it looks like the break is looking good – but Nybö looks tired. Havard drops as soon as the group hit the last climb of the day but he manages to finish in the second group.
Stage 3
Time for the King stage of the race. A stage none of the Falcon riders have been exited about. None of the riders had the legs to get in the breakaway today, but HÃ¥kan Nilsson impressed by fighting his way to a 14th on the stage.
Stage 4
Not as hard as stage 1 and 3, but still with a small mountain about halfway on the stage. Could be a good day for the right breakaway.
As in the previous stages Movistar and Euskaltel drive a hard bargain not even allowing smaller groups of crappy riders to get more than two minutes ahead until finally after 50 km a 3-man break is permitted to sit 4 mins in front. Luckily this calmed things down a bit allowing all our riders to come over the maintain in the peloton. With the peloton entering HÃ¥kan Nilsson goes on to the attack and enters the last km with a small gap to the peloton, but not quite big enough.
Stage 5
With a fairly big hill in the beginning of the stage and an uphill finish this look like another day for the Spaniards. As expected all of the riders tried their best, bust just didn’t have the legs to challenge Movistar and Euskaltel.
Final Standing:
1. Mikel Nieve, Euskaltel – Euskadi
2. Beñat Intxausti, Movistar
3. Javier Moreno, Movistar 13. Håkan Nilsson, Falcon – Norheim
Mountains: Mikel Nieve, Euskaltel – Euskadi
Points: Mikel Nieve, Euskaltel – Euskadi
Young rider: Ion Izagirre, Euskaltel – Euskadi
Team: Movistar
Team manager Allan claimed not to be disappointed that his team didn't really get anything from the race:
Movistar and Euskaltel really showed us that we are quite far from being able to compete at absolute top level. The riders did their best and I think they learned at lot from the race.
April really was a month of good and bad days. Jeppe Lykke Hartvig Nielsen won his first ever victory in a race against all the other Nordic teams and Kasper Jebjerg won the first Nordic race of the season. Apart from these we had a few decent secondary results and a bunch of races, where the team really didn’t stand a chance.
Team manager Allan on April:
We have had some great moments this month. The young riders jersey in Circuit Sarthe and the victories in both Himmerland and Köln. We really hadn’t expected Jeppe to start winning quite yet, so that is amazing. The last couple of months have shown that Kasper is a very good rider for the small one-day races. And that’s obviously why he has now taken the lead in the continental ranking.
Rider of the month: Simon Gerrans, Orica – GreenEdge. Gerrans won the award for dominating Tour de Romandie. A lot of other riders have won big victories, but no single rider managed to dominate the World Tour races of the month
The following month is a busy on for Falcon – Norheim as the sponsors want results in three smaller stage races and the team want to do well in both Scandinavian race in Uppsala and Rogaland GP.
Our reporter caught the team manager to a quick of the teams current standings:
Well it looks good if you just focus on the numbers, with Kasper Jebjerg in the continental lead and the team ranked as the 3rd best continental team on the CQ ranking, but you should remember the background. We have throughout the season ridden the smallest possible races for our schedule. That has made it easier for us to win, and we haven't had many racedays, where we were over matched. We will not go for promotion quite yet as we have several races to prove that the top teams are way above us at the moment.
That brings us on to the transfer rumours - Which riders are you hoping to sign for the next season?
At this time of the season we are not allowed to speak of specific riders in public, but as everyone knows we want all the best Nordic riders to be on our team, and hopefully our current success will help us get some good signings.
Alex Rasmussen have earlier in the season shown interest in the season. Other Nordic riders with expiring contracts include: : Thor Hushovd : Fredrik Kessiakoff, Tobias Ludvigsson : Lars Ytting Bak, Nicki Sørensen, Michael Mørkøv, Lasse Bøchman
Pretty much the same teams on the starting line as Rund um Köln. We will go for the victory once again.
On the early climb Gunnar Grönlund attacked and got away with Michael Valgren Andersen (GM-LRØ) and two germans. They did not manage to make the break last all the way.
Nearing the finish the Germans pulled hard to get a bunch sprint but Bruno Pires and Rasmus Guldhammer cheated everyone with a strong attack 5 km from the line.
Result:
1. Bruno Pires, Saxo Bank – Tinkoff Bank
2. Rasmus Guldhammer, Christina Watches - Onfone
3. Tino Thömel, NSP - Ghost 8. Håkan Nilsson, Falcon – Norheim
9. Havard Nybö, Falcon – Norheim
This french stage race should be a decent route for us. Obviously we will chase the breaks (as usual). The GC will most likely be decided on the 4th stage, which has a lot of cobble-paved hills. Jens Erik Madsen is our best bid in both bunch sprints and on the cobbles. Our sponsors want us to have at least one day in the point jersey.
Stage 1 Havard Nybö gets to represent Falcon – Norheim in the 6 man Break of the day. Early on the stage was to small mountain sprints. Nybö got beaten by P. Voss on the first climb. Realizing that Voss was better on the hills Nybö attacked early for the next climb and just managed to hold on to his lead winning the second sprint in front of Voss. Both riders now have 8 pts. in the competition.
With 88 km to go another group of 6 riders come up to the front group. The twelve riders have a lead of 7 minutes, decreasing rapidly. Most of the breakaway spent a lot of energy sprinting for the last intermediate sprint of the day 38 km from the finish line. The break now had a lead of less than three minutes and Havard decided to see if his companions perhaps was too tired to follow him in the attack at this moment. But evything is brought together before the finish.
Just at Nybö got caught by the peloton led by AG2R three riders attacked, and Michael Færk Christensen counterattacked with all he had quickly getting a gap and winning a splendid solo victory.
Stage 2
For the first time ever Falcon – Norheim set out to defend a leaders jersey. In spite of this the stage will be driven like we usually do (at least to begin with). Nybö has the mountain jersey and todays stage hold to KoM sprints, that we will do our best to help Nybö win. Havard is still struggling his way up through the peloton at the time of the first KoM and on the second he gets passed right on the line, but the lead in the classification is extended. Nearing the finish line Christensen tries to repeat his success from yesterday, but he can’t get quite as big a gap and get caught by the sprinters. But 10 meters too late. Two out of two for Christensen!
Stage 3
Another day defending jerseys. Today there’s four mountain sprints, so if Nybö want to keep the jersey he has to do well today. Lots of breakaways and Nybö picked up a few extra points for his dots. The finish ended up as a fairly regular uphill bunchsprint without any chance for our Nordic riders.
Stage 4
The decisive stage of the race in regards of the GC. It has quite a lot of mountain points as well, but I think we will see Nybö aim to get through the race in one piece. Having Michael in yellow at the end of the day would be a huge surprise as he isn’t very good at hills and outright crappy on cobble.
19 riders go in the break, but all Falcon – Norheim riders stay and try to keep their position in the peloton knowing that the hills and cobbles are going to drain a lot of power. A wise choise as all riders are completely exhausted when they cross the line 3:37 after todays winner. Just enough for Christensen to keep the lead.
Stage results:
1. David Le Lay, Saur - Sojasun
2. Kurt Hovelynck, Landbouwkredit - Euphony
3. Arnold Jeanneson, FDJ - BigMat 25. Havard Nybö, Falcon – Norheim
Leader: Michael Færk Christensen, Falcon - Norheim
Points: Michael Færk Christensen, Falcon – Norheim
Stage 5
Falcon – Norheim’s main mission for this stage will be to secure the GC victory. Todays break had Gunnar Grönlund participating. He was the best placed rider in the breakaway, so it was no threat. In the end it came to a bunch sprint and AG2R got rewarded for their hard work.
Ian Butler wrote:
This race is a big name to win! Brilliant
Thanks. It really was a stroke of luck, that they allowed him to get such a gap on the first stage, same time as the peloton had broken into two pieces and (apparently the good cobbleriders) lost a lot of time.
This is one of the victories that only came by seeking even the smallest chances.
The only Swedish race – and one of the least prestigious races on the calendar. But because it’s located in Sweden it is important for us. We go there with all five Swedes (though not all of them are fit). Hopefully we can make the locals happy today.
Early in the race M. Reynès (Nutrixxion) went away and Christofer Stevenson went with him. The two quickly got a good lead as it’s hard to organize a chase on these small roads. The two work very well together and after 70 km of the race they have a lead of more than 9 minutes.
Especially Indeland and Bank BGZ work hard to catch up with the duo, and the peloton starts breaking in to pieces on the circuits small hill. All Falcon – Norheim riders are perfectly positioned near the front not risking to get caught behind.
With 12 km to go and a lead of 1 minute Stevenson decides to go for the win alone, but the Spanish rider is the strongest of the two today and he not only catches up with Stevenson but also leaves him behind. Desperate for the win every single Falcon rider goes on to the attack with 4 km to go but too late and Reynès wins a bike length ahead of Jens Erik Madsen. What a disappointment for the team and especially the Swedes.
Final Standing:
1. Marc Reynès, Nutrixxion Abus
2. Jens Erik Madsen, Falcon - Norheim
3. HÃ¥kan Nilsson, Falcon - Norheim 6. Jeppe Lykke Hartvig Nielsen, Falcon - Norheim
9. Havard Nybö, Falcon – NorheimEdited by Atlantius on 17-10-2012 20:37
The last Nordic one-day race of the year. Obviously today the Norwegians will be responsible for covering the breakaways. Berg gets away with 8 other riders, later to be joined by teammate Haavardsholm. With 20 km to go the break has a 2 minute lead. Anything can happen on these small cobbly hills. With 6,5 km to go it looks like the race will be decided between Berg, Konrad and Navarro. Berg knew he was the fastest on the line of the three so he did his best to just sit in there, but Navarro was too strong on the hill. Another Spanish victory in the North.
Final Standing:
1. Daniel Navarro – Saxo Bank – Tinkoff Bank
2. Geir Berg, Falcon - Norheim
3. Patrick Konrad, Vorarlberg 4. Jens Erik Madsen, Falcon - Norheim
Vuelta a la Rioja 
Pieter Jacobs, Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
Håkan Nilsson, Falcon – Norheim
Himmerland Rundt 
André Schulze, NetApp
Havard Nybö, Falcon – Norheim
Dimitri Champion, Bretagne - Schuller
Simon Gerrans, Orica – GreenEdge. Gerrans won the award for dominating Tour de Romandie. A lot of other riders have won big victories, but no single rider managed to dominate the World Tour races of the month
Fabian Cancellara, Radioshack – Nissan, 1250 pts
Radioshack – Nissan, 3805 pts
Italy, 3692 pts
Finland, 264 pts 
Bruno Pires, Saxo Bank – Tinkoff Bank
Leonardo Duque, Cofidis, le crédit en ligne
Daniel Schorn, NetApp
