AG2R is set to kick off the 2010 season. The squad has a lot of talent but needs the results to go with this. Our sponsors have given the team the following goals: - Finish in the top 3: 4 Jours de Dunkerque
- Finish in the top 10: Giro d'Italia
- Finish in the top 5: Criterium du Dauphine
- Stage win(s): Tour de France
- Stage win(s): Vuelta a Espana
Meet our leaders:
Vladimir Efimkin
Rinaldo Nocentini
Lloyd Mondory
Here is the rest of our squad:
Tadej Valjavec has been suspended until 2011 for obvious reasons. He will be released after pending litigation. Nicolas Roche is one of our best climbers at the age of 25 and will certainly be used to fight for our season goals. We also have some experienced climbers in men like Cyril Dessel and John Gadret. We do not really have any riders for the cobbles, though Kristof Goddaert shows potential.
Our first race of the year will be the Down Under Classic before the start of the Tour Down Under in mid-January.
This story uses asmod's 2010 DB, which can be found here: https://pcmdaily.com/forum/viewthread....d_id=12765. Now that it has been updated after the 2010 Tour, I expect that we will see realistic results throughout the year.
The Down Under Classic is a good warmup for the Tour Down Under. Because the latter is the first race to give out UPT points, the winner should hold the overall lead for almost two months.
I doubt we will see a breakaway today. The race is too short and the sprinters' teams will seek to keep the field together. Because of this, I did not pay much attention to the breakaway at about the 15KM mark. AG2R and Astana worked together to reel in the breakaway and caught almost everyone as they approached the finish.
The sprint is off! Garmin has a bunch of riders at the front of the field to set up Tyler Farrar. All the main sprinters have lined up behind him.
With about a kilometer to go, Gerald Ciolek jumps out from behind Farrar. It appear he is clear. But wait...
Rabobank's Kai Reus has held out from the break. He is not a sprinter, though, so it will be a close finish at the line.
Had the race lasted another 100 meters, Ciolek would certainly have won. However, Reus holds on to pull off the upset!
AG2R has no major plans for this race. I am saving our best sprinters for later, and there is no real climbing to this race. We may try to get into a couple of breakaways, but I doubt they will last on a short tour made up entirely of flat stages.
The favorites include Tyler Farrar and Gerald Ciolek, who fought hard to (almost) win the Down Under Classic, as well as a home-country rider in Allan Davis.
A breakaway of 11 riders reaches a maximum lead of about five minutes before halfway, but Omega Pharma-Lotto, Astana, and Garmin slowly chew away at it until they are all caught within the final 20 kilometers.
Although Andre Greipel supposedly came into this race as HTC's leader, he pulls teammate (and Australian) Matthew Goss to the front as the end nears. Behind him are Gerald Ciolek, Tyler Farrar, Allan Davis, and Baden Cooke, respectively.
As Goss passes Greipel, Ciolek emerges to their right. At that same moment, Farrar jumps out to the left.
No one can catch Farrar, so he will wear the leader's jersey tomorrow! Davis manages to outsprint Ciolek for second.
Sergio Paulinho attacks from within the breakaway group early on as the peloton starts gaining ground. Sergio will spend most of the day alone.
A couple of riders hit the ground with about 40 kilometers to go, including Philippe Gilbert. Most of his team slows to help him pace his way back up to the field, but it appears their race is ruined.
Three sprint trains develop. Nikolay Trussov is directly in front of Farrar in the leader's jersey on the left line. Ciolek is second in the middle one behind a teammate. The Haedo brothers are 1-2 in the line to the right.
Ciolek leads with 1KM to go. Farrar is gaining on him, but he still has to pass two more riders.
Ciolek wins Stage 2 in front of Farrar and Trussov!
Nice story, although there is no news of Ag2r riders . Maybe you could have add the lineup for Tour Down Under ... so we know which riders are trying to get some form. And which difficulty level you are playing? grtz
