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Nordic Cycling | Final Farewell
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 04-02-2013 11:29
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Tour de France Champion
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Bochmann rode a good time trial but only to finish in twentieth place 
But what can riders do when Cancellara is on form |
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 04-02-2013 12:47
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Team Leader
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 World Championships
It’s a tough route in Agrigento, Sicily that highly favours punchers and climbers. Guys like  Gilbert and  Rodriguez should be among the favourites. Especially the Spaniard if he has been able to maintain his great form from the Vuelta. In the same way  Chris Horner has to be considered a dark horse for the race after his great results lately.
In terms of Nordic riders you must always count  Breschel in when it comes to World Championships and he has shown great form in the Vuelta. The route might be too hard for him to hang on all the way and still have energy for a strong finish though. For Sweden both  Ludvigsson and Larsson are looking to be in great form, but it would be a huge surprise if any of them are in the front group when things are to be decided. Instead they’ll be cheering for Kessiakoff but his form is very questionable at the moment. Norway will be hoping that  Nordhaug has a great day as both Boasson Hagen and Hushovd seem to be lacking a bit of form.
Five Falcons have been selected: Bak, Bøchman, Hushovd, Haavardsholm and Ludvigsson.
In the curiosity department three free riders have been chosen to ride for their countries today.
As usual a few riders go in an early break. Löfkvist and Reihs are representing Scandinavia.
For some reason Spain wasn’t content with that break and instead a trio with Ludvigsson, Kashechkin and Bagdonas get going.
Spain and Belgium seems very confident and just keeps on pulling in the breaks. With a bit of luck they will be tired before the finish.
Strongest break in the first 100 km is Szmyds solo break. The only to get more than three minutes gap so far.
With 29 km Purito goes on the attack!
No one follows him in the attack but Columbia and Belgium has no problem pulling him back in. Only Nordhaug and Breschel look like they have something to show on behalf of Scandinavia at the moment.
With 8 km to go 31 riders remain in the front group counting Nordhaug, Breschel and all the favourites.
7 km and Breschel goes on the attack!
The Dane never gets more than 20 seconds and with 3 km to go defending champion Gilbert lead the charge.
Nordhaug does his best to hang on but he has nothing left for the sprint.
The group only just catch up with Gilbert as he starts cheering about his second World Championship in a row.
Edited by Atlantius on 04-02-2013 12:48
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 04-02-2013 13:08
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
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Gilbert rules the World yet again  |
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| Daggen |
Posted on 04-02-2013 13:10
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Sprinter
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Gilbert rules the world |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 04-02-2013 15:16
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
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Wow, he prolongs his title, amazing! |
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:01
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Team Leader
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In deed he does rule the worlds. Lets just hope he wont have another season with the rainbows curse.
This season he has three wins. Only one of them wearing the rainbow jersey...
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:05
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Team Leader
Posts: 6795
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Il Lombardia
I had actually planned to follow the team to Lombardia but in the end I decided not to. It’s not a race that suits the team very well, so it might as well be an experience for the assistant manager instead.
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:20
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Team Leader
Posts: 6795
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Nordic Cycling unions upgrade massively
On a joint press conference the Scandinavian cycling unions announced a number of changes for next year.
They were worried about the low number of race days several of the Scandinavian continental teams could muster up. So they have decided to upgrade a large number of races and even introduce a few extra races to the calendar.
The hope is that these changes will be able to support the increased interest in cycling in the Nordic countries after the huge success of both Falcon – STARK and Saxo – Tinkoff on the World Tour and Christina Watches – Onfone on the continental tour.
The Danish union has added two small stage races and 8 one-day races, while the Swedish union have added five single-day races
Spoiler  DanCake Classic
Post Cup Sønder Vilstrup
Post Cup Praestø
Post Cup Thorsager
Post Cup Harridslev
Post Cup Køge
GP Vejle
Bornholm Rundt (3 stages)
Jylland Rundt (6 stages)
Ikea Cup Grevie
Ikea Cup Svedala
Ikea Cup Hillerstorp
Ikea Cup Kungsäter
Ikea Cup Nybygget
From: https://pcmfreaks.dk/infusions/pro_dow...id=252
Furthermore the Swedish government have announced that they will be pulling their sponsorship of the cycling team as IKEA offered to take the role as main sponsor. The team will continue to focus on having a lot of Swedish riders, but they might open up for riders of other nationalities as well.
The Danish cycling union could announce that Fakta will be sponsoring a new Danish CT-team next season, and the Norwegians announced that Jardar will be sponsoring an additional Norwegian CT-team.
September in Cycling
Rider of the month: Joaquim Rodríguez, Katusha. Vuelta Win and mountain jersey and 4th in the World Championships is enough to get the title this month.
Nordic rider of the month: Thomas Löfkvist, Sky. There was several good performances in Tour of Britain but Löfkvists surprising 11th place in the Vuelta stands as the by far best Nordic Grand Tour appearance of 2013. Looks like he might have found what Falcon signed him for…
World tour ranking:
1. Alberto Contador, Saxo - Tinkoff
2. Joaquím Rodríguez, Katusha
3. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale
5. Thor Hushovd, Falcon – STARK
1. RadioShack - Nissan
2. Liquigas – Cannondale
3.  Katusha
8. Saxo - Tinkoff
7. Falcon – STARK
19. Acqua & Sapone
20.  FDJ - BigMat
CQ-ranking:
1. Alberto Contador, Saxo - Tinkoff
2. Vincenzo Nibali, Liquigas - Cannondale
3. Thor Hushovd, Falcon - STARK
37. Lars Ytting Bak, Falcon - STARK
133. Gustav Erik Larsson, Vacansoleil - DCM
170.  Kjell Carlström, Falcon - STARK
1. RadioShack - Nissan (WT)
2.  Sky Procycling (WT)
3. Liquigas - Cannondale (WT)
4. Falcon - STARK (WT)
8. Team Saxo - Tinkoff (WT)
13.  Vacansoleil - DCM (CNT)
15. Cofidis, le credit en ligne (CNT)
28. Christina Watches - Onfone (CNT)
61. Øster Hus - Ridley (CNT)
64. Joker Merida (CNT)
67. Glud & Marstrand (CNT)
68. Blue Water (CNT)
75. Svenska Cyklister (CNT)
78. Concordia Forsikring (CNT)
Transfer talks
Surprisingly a number of prominent riders still haven’t found a contract:
| Rider Name | Age | WT-ranking | CQ-ranking | Current team | | Joaquím Rodríguez | 32 | 2 (630) | 1 (3136) | Katusha |  Andy Schleck | 28 | 6 (507) | 10 (1696) | RadioShack - Nissan | | Alejandro Valverde | 33 | 9 (429) | 8 (1931) | Movistar | | Damiano Cunego | 32 | 15 (265) | 13 (1255) | Lampre - ISD |
Spoiler I want to keep all four riders in the game as it’s unrealistic that they’ll retire now at this level.
I can’t quite decide whether to
1: Put them in a WT-team in need of a rider like them (except the one that neglected to extend the contract). For this solution is that these riders belong in the WT, against that these four riders will completely change the teams and I don’t really want to award teams for having a major weakness in their roster.
2: Put them in one of the best CT-teams (as sort of a punishment for not signing a contract). I would have been inclined to restrict the geography but the two best Spanish CT-teams are just not good enough.
No matter which model used it will be a one-year contract.
Transfers would probably look something like this:
| Model 1 | Model 2 | | Rodríguez | Vacansoleil – DCM | Europcar | | Schleck | Orica – Greenedge | AG2R | | Valverde | Katusha | FDJ/Cofidis | | Cunego | Omega Pharma | Acqua & Sapone |
I can’t decide so what do you think?
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| maxime86 |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:23
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Classics Specialist
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I would give Schleck to a wt team and the others to ct teams, I would think about retiring Valaverde |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:27
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
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A day of struggle for the team at Lombardia |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:31
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Tour de France Champion
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Rabottini winning Lombardia is massive  |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 00:41
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| PCM rulezz |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:35
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So the season is almost over 
Up to the next one 
Winners never quit, quitters never win.
It's difficult not to be happy when you're surrounded by Belgians. - Mark Cavendish
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:37
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I knew Lomabrdia would be a struggle for us, so I quick-simmed 
suttty, Ian and PCM rulezz: What do you think regarding the unemployed superstars?
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| PCM rulezz |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:40
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I would go for Schleck but just because he is the youngest and he can win a GT Spoiler at least in PCM
Winners never quit, quitters never win.
It's difficult not to be happy when you're surrounded by Belgians. - Mark Cavendish
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:43
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Team Leader
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My team is strictly Nordic riders, so I'm signing him for someone else
Just don't want four riders form the WT-top 15 to go unemployed
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:48
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
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Send Schleck to another USA team |
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| PCM rulezz |
Posted on 04-02-2013 16:53
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Protected Rider
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Ooh ok, this is my opinion
Andy => where Frank is (just like irl)
Rodríguez and Valverde => Movistar (just like in the old days  )
Cunego => Farnese
Winners never quit, quitters never win.
It's difficult not to be happy when you're surrounded by Belgians. - Mark Cavendish
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 04-02-2013 17:00
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
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Tough choice, imo. Cunego to BMC, maybe? |
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 05-02-2013 07:21
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2 WC in a row for Gilbert. Nice
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| Daggen |
Posted on 05-02-2013 07:43
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Sprinter
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What did Svenska Cyklister win this season? |
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Rigoberto Urán
Maxim Iglinskiy
