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La Pomme Marseille - Bye for now!
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 05-05-2013 11:37
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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 4 Jours de Dunkerque
After a short period of absence due to many different reasons, we're back again for the next race. We're now in the northernmost part of France, and Dunkerque, for five stages spread over four days.
It's mainly a race for the sprinters, since the classic cobbled climb into Cassel has been replaced with a relatively easy hilly stage with an uphill finish in the Olhain park. The gaps are unlikely to be huge on that stage, so the race could come down to bonus seconds in the GC battle.
The participants includes above all one major name: Greipel. The likes of Bozic, Ventoso, Simon and Stallaert will look to challenge him in the sprints.
We'll go for a stage win if possible, and try to get Evaldas or Clement into the overall top 10. The expectations really aren't that big from our side.
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| Ad Bot |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 05-05-2013 11:39
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World Champion
Posts: 10497
Joined: 23-06-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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Let's hope that Clement does good. |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 05-05-2013 21:15
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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You're excellent in keeping up with real time races  |
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| FreitasPCM |
Posted on 05-05-2013 22:28
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8389
Joined: 08-09-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Good luck, hope you can make it to the top-10!  |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 05-05-2013 23:09
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Lets hope the team do well at Dunkerque  |
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| wicked01 |
Posted on 07-05-2013 19:15
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Amateur
Posts: 11
Joined: 16-10-2012
PCM$: 200.00
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Wonderful story so far! It has inspired me to take on the challenge of the roubaix lille metropole team! This would be my first game on PCM, so I may try and post it up on here! |
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 09-05-2013 14:06
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Thanks all. Good to hear all these nice things.
Decided to do a quick summary from Dunkerque. My motivation is a little low at the moment, but that'll hopefully pick up soon.
4 Jours de Dunkerque
An undramatical opening stage came down to a mass sprint finish, as expected. Evaldas managed to find the perfect position behind Greipel and the Lotto train just before the sprint was launched, but for some very strange reason, the Gorilla decided not to sprint today.
Inside the final 3 km, he dropped off his leadout man's wheel and plummeted down the field, causing Evaldas to disappear as well. Instead, the stage win went to Astana's Kazakhstani champion Ruslan Tleubayev. Evaldas finished in 10th place, after an impressive comeback in the finale.
Stage two went a lot better for us. The day's primary breakaway withstood the chasing sprinter teams a lot longer than expected, and actually looked sure of victory with a couple of kilometers left to the finish.
Luckily for us, race leader Tleubayev panicked and launched a rocket sprint with 3 km to go, bringing the break back inside the final kilometer. After that, he fell through completely due to the huge effort and left the podium spots for Jake Keough (UHC), Davide Appollonio (AG2R) and Evaldas.
The third stage featured a short little hill near the finish. It was obviously irresistible for Clement not to attack. Unfortunately, Astana kept him in a tight grip and reeled him in with just 2 km left to the finish.
From there, Bozic set Tleubayev up perfectly and he made no mistakes. Second stage win for him, beating Evaldas to the line. These bonus seconds moved him up to 3rd overall, behind Tleubayev and Keough.
Onto the queen stage. An attack around halfway into the stage from several pre-race favourites left us struggling to close the gap that emerged.
After massive amounts of work from us, Clement almost managed to catch up with all of them with an impressive kick up the final climb. Unfortunately, he couldn't reach the last three, and Yannick Talabardon took the victory for FDJ. Frustrating 4th for Clement, meaning no bonus.
Tleubayev, Keough and Evaldas all stayed in contact and defended their overall positions. Oh, and Thomas grabbed the KoM jersey.
That left only one last mass sprint. After several days of failing to feature in the fight for stage wins, Greipel finally returned to his usual self and won the stage with remarkable ease ahead of Keough and Evaldas.
Tleubayev missed the bonus seconds in 4th place, but still defended his race lead against Keough on a countback. 3rd place for Evaldas is more than we expected, although it would've been nice to have Clement further up.
Final GC
| 1 | Ruslan Tleubayev | Astana Pro Team | 20h14'39 | | 2 | Jake Keough | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling | s.t. | | 3 | Evaldas Siskevicius | La Pomme - Bouygues | + 12 | | 4 | Gediminas Bagdonas | AG2R La Mondiale | + 20 | | 5 | Yannick Talabardon | FDJ | s.t. | | 6 | Fabien Schmidt | Team Sojasun | + 22 | | 7 | Francisco Ventoso | Movistar Team | + 28 | | 8 | Davide Appollonio | AG2R La Mondiale | s.t. | | 9 | Jay Thomson | UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling | + 30 | | 10 | Fabrice Jeandesboz | Team Sojasun | + 36 |
Edited by Pellizotti2 on 09-05-2013 14:07
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 09-05-2013 14:42
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Great performance overall from Siskevicius |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 09-05-2013 15:06
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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Hope the motivation returns soon. A great report with lack of motivation, though |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 10-05-2013 16:49
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World Champion
Posts: 10497
Joined: 23-06-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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3rd is good. |
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| baia |
Posted on 11-05-2013 10:00
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5398
Joined: 04-10-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Great final result for La Pomme and  Siskevicius.
Hope your motivation comes back soon.
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 12-05-2013 10:50
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Thanks for the nice words.
Tour de Picardie
We're soon going to take a small hiatus from racing during June and July, much like in 2012. There are still three races to come before then however, starting with Picardie. A trio of flat stages means it's all for the sprinters.
We've sent a squad built around Evaldas, plus Clement as a bit of a joker as he prepares for the two upcoming classics GP Plumelec and Boucles de l'Aulne.
Stage 1
Despite a strong field of sprinters including Marcel Kittel and Adrien Petit, this race turned out to be a massive success for us. On the opening stage, Clement used a small hill near the finish as a springboard for one of his classic late attacks. He never really got much of an advantage, but the sprinter teams underestimated his strength and never closed him down.
Petit sprinted in for 2nd place a few metres behind, with Evaldas edging ahead of the rest to give us two on the podium.
| 1 | Clément Koretzky | La Pomme - Bouygues | 5h02'26 | | 2 | Adrien Petit | Cofidis, Solutions Crédits | s.t. | | 3 | Evaldas Siskevicius | La Pomme - Bouygues | s.t. | | 4 | Laurent Pichon | FDJ | s.t. | | 5 | Geoffrey Soupe | FDJ | s.t. |
Stage 2
With stronger sprinters in the race, we didn't really feel like pacing the peloton to the defend the jersey on stage two, however. Apparently, no other teams did either, which led to that the breakaway duo of Etienne Tortelier and Miguel Rubiano entered the final 30 km with 7 minutes gap.
In other words a secure stage win. Right?
In this case, no. The two leaders suffered from a brain malfunction of some sort towards the end, as they suddenly just stopped cooperating and almost stopped on the road. At the same time, the peloton started to speed up, and with 6 km to go, the leaders were brought back...
A sprint finish instead then, and after yesterday's complete failure, Kittel returned to his best and blew everyone else away in the final kilometer.
Geoffrey Soupe picked the right wheel and followed the German's slipstream up to 2nd place, with Petit nabbing the final bonus seconds from Evaldas.
Clement finished an impressive 7th, but unfortunately lost the lead to Petit on a countback. Still 2nd, on the same time at least.
| 1 |  Marcel Kittel | Team Argos - Shimano | 4h42'17 | | 2 | Geoffrey Soupe | FDJ | s.t. | | 3 | Adrien Petit | Cofidis, Solutions Crédits | s.t. | | 4 | Evaldas Siskevicius | La Pomme - Bouygues | s.t. | | 5 |  Kenny Van Hummel | Vacansoleil - DCM | s.t. |
Stage 3
Solid results thus far, but believe it or not - the best was still to come!
A few weeks before the race, a guy from the team's fan club recommended me to go check out what turned out to be an incredibly tricky finish. Several turns in the final kilometres, and more importanly, insanely narrow!
Intrigued, I decided that we'd go have a look at it right before the race to work out what sort of tactics to use. I think the rest speaks for itself.
After a perfectly executed leadout train, it was only a sprint for 3rd for the other sprinters. Boxed in earlier, they simply couldn't come up quickly enough.
The stage win for Evaldas and 2nd for Clement, though the latter was actually the big winner by taking back the jersey to win the race! Not to mention that we also doubled at the top in the points and U25 classifications.
| 1 | Evaldas Siskevicius | La Pomme - Bouygues | 4h08'53 | | 2 | Clément Koretzky | La Pomme - Bouygues | s.t. | | 3 | Geoffrey Soupe | FDJ | s.t. | | 4 |  Marko Kump | Team Saxo-Tinkoff | s.t. | | 5 |  Rubén Pérez Moreno | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. |
Final GC
| 1 | Clément Koretzky | La Pomme - Bouygues | 13h53'04 | | 2 | Evaldas Siskevicius | La Pomme - Bouygues | + 4 | | 3 | Geoffrey Soupe | FDJ | + 12 | | 4 | Adrien Petit | Cofidis, Solutions Crédits | s.t. | | 5 | Marcel Kittel | Team Argos - Shimano | s.t. | | 6 |  Jonathon McEvoy | Team NetApp - Endura | + 16 | | 7 | Aurélien Duval | FDJ | + 20 | | 8 | Etienne Tortelier | Team Sojasun | + 26 | | 9 | Adrián Sáez de Arregi | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. | | 10 |  Oliver Zaugg | Team Saxo-Tinkoff | s.t. |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 12-05-2013 10:52
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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Wow. That's what I call a big success  (Thanks to the two dumbasses who could've won stage 2 easily) |
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| FreitasPCM |
Posted on 12-05-2013 10:58
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Grand Tour Champion
Posts: 8389
Joined: 08-09-2009
PCM$: 200.00
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Great result! |
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| dienblad |
Posted on 12-05-2013 11:23
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3772
Joined: 10-09-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Again some great results for the team!!
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| Pellizotti2 |
Posted on 12-05-2013 13:04
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World Champion
Posts: 10121
Joined: 01-05-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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 Giro d'Italia
Alongside our recent races, the Giro has been running for the 96th time. All three podium finishers from 2012 returned, but only one of them managed to repeat the feat in a relatively weak starting field.
Unlike usual, the first week played a very important role and knocked several names out of contention. Last year's runner-up Ryder Hesjedal, 3rd from the Tour Bradley Wiggins and Robert Gesink were hit the worst - all losing more than ten minutes on the tricky days in the hills.
The two big winners from those stages were to the tifosi's delight defending champion Michele Scarponi and Tour 2nd Vincenzo Nibali. It quickly became obvious that it wasn't just fluke, as the duo went on to dominate the race all the way through and take the top two spots on the final podium.
Having moved into la Maglia Rosa already after winning stage 7, it was Nibali who proved to be the stronger of the two. Four stage wins and many small gains on various mountain stages eventually pushed his winning margin up to over three minutes, despite the fact that Scarponi seemed to have more left in the tank during the brutal final few days.
Sergio Henao was the final man on the podium, albeit distant from the top two. Together with 4th placed Richie Porte, he took over the Sky leadership when Wiggins fell apart in the first week. Another bunch of minutes further down, Domenico Pozzovivo completed the top 5. He couldn't quite reach last year's level, but still only finishes two spots lower than before.
The rest of the top 10 list never even got close to the places above them. The Gesink-Hesjedal-Wiggins trio worked their way back in the last week, with Hesjedal in particular being extremely strong. The remaining two names are the race's biggest positive surprises: Santambrogio and Izagirre.
| 1 | Vincenzo Nibali | Astana Pro Team | 83h20'31 | | 2 | Michele Scarponi | Lampre - Merida | + 3'02 | | 3 | Sergio Henao | Sky Pro Cycling | + 8'24 | | 4 | Richie Porte | Sky Pro Cycling | + 11'54 | | 5 | Domenico Pozzovivo | AG2R La Mondiale | + 18'37 | | 6 | Mauro Santambrogio | Vini Fantini - Selle Italia | + 26'22 | | 7 | Robert Gesink | Blanco Pro Cycling Team | + 26'35 | | 8 | Ryder Hesjedal | Garmin - Sharp | + 28'02 | | 9 | Bradley Wiggins | Sky Pro Cycling | + 28'22 | | 10 | Ion Izagirre | Euskaltel - Euskadi | + 29'54 |
Here's a brief summary from the stages:
| Stage | Winner | 2nd | 3rd | | 1 | Andrea Guardini | Yauheni Hutarovich | Mark Cavendish | | 2 | Sky Pro Cycling | Garmin - Sharp | BMC Racing Team | | 3 | Fabian Cancellara | Moreno Moser | Fabio Taborre | | 4 | Igor Antón | Michele Scarponi | Vincenzo Nibali | | 5 | Mark Cavendish | Arnaud Demare | Andrea Guardini | | 6 | Igor Antón | Mark Cavendish | Matthew Goss | | 7 | Vincenzo Nibali | Fabio Taborre | Ryder Hesjedal | | 8 | Fabian Cancellara | Bradley Wiggins | Richie Porte | | 9 | Vincenzo Nibali | Fabian Cancellara | Sergio Henao | | 10 | Vincenzo Nibali | Michele Scarponi | Robert Gesink | | 11 | Michele Scarponi | Domenico Pozzovivo | Vincenzo Nibali | | 12 | Mark Cavendish | Arnaud Demare | Andrea Guardini | | 13 | Fabian Cancellara | Tomasz Marczynski | Pablo Lastras | | 14 | Xavier Florencio | Ivan Santaromita | Vincenzo Nibali | | 15 | Tanel Kangert | Ilnur Zakarin | Przemyslaw Niemiec | | 16 | Jürgen Roelandts | Fabian Cancellara | Thor Hushovd | | 17 | Wesley Sulzberger | Mauro Santambrogio | Matteo Montaguti | | 18 | Vincenzo Nibali | Ryder Hesjedal | Michele Scarponi | | 19 | Michele Scarponi | Vincenzo Nibali | Nairo Quintana | | 20 | Ryder Hesjedal | Michele Scarponi | Vincenzo Nibali | | 21 | Gianluca Brambilla | Moreno Moser | Matteo Montaguti |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 12-05-2013 13:19
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21854
Joined: 01-05-2012
PCM$: 400.00
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Awesome color code in the brief summary
Great to see Nibali take the pink jersey and the Italian battle with Scarponi must've been great for Italy |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 12-05-2013 13:24
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World Champion
Posts: 10497
Joined: 23-06-2011
PCM$: 200.00
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PCM was too real in the Giro, imo. |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 12-05-2013 15:29
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34654
Joined: 22-08-2010
PCM$: 200.00
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Looks like the team enjoyed themselves in the Tour de Picardie |
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| baia |
Posted on 12-05-2013 16:54
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Grand Tour Specialist
Posts: 5398
Joined: 04-10-2007
PCM$: 200.00
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Perfect Tour de Picardie.
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