Why?: Well after sodding around with a Pegasus like Aussie draft team led by riders like Michael Matthews, I realised it was not much fun with repetitive samey stages. So I thought rather than my usual build up from nothing, I would pick one of the big boys. Lets pick one that actually could win absolutely everything - answer is simple Schleck boys + Cancellara! Of course no sooner do I decide to start one then someone else starts one with Saxobank. Well lets see how we compare
Difficulty: Hard (played 3 stages of TdU on Normal won them all so...).
Database: PCM Version 2.1 with patch 1.4.1
Teams stated goals: Win Le Tour, Win Vuelta, Win RvV
Team other important races: L-B-L and Paris Roubaix
Sponsors goals: Top 5 Tour of Romandie, Top 5 Giro del Lombardia, Top 3 W ITT
My personal Goals: Well in its first season I am going try and win all three GTs as well give most of the classics a damn good go with Sparticus and Schleck the elder. I intend to inject some humour into this so to hopefully inspire a cult like following...
and here starts the story...
Edited by Smowz on 08-05-2011 06:56
... won the 1996 TdF with a little help from two vowels and a P. Well his pee is still coming out pink so he suddenly decided to hand over the reigns to me Erik Vikling my highly ridiculous attempt to come up with a Danish sounding name. Anyway Erik's ancestor somewhere down the line may have been one of those charming pointy hatted fellows who pretty much ransacked the whole of Europe about 1000 years ago. Anyway I digress onto sorting out the schedules for this highly talented squads seasons.
Our first big issue is what to do with the brothers from some obscure country that we always wonder where they are going to magic the fifth and sixth rider for the Worlds from. Well these primadonnas want to half the race winning potential of the team straight away by racing in the same races all year round. I quickly give their papa a call in my finest Spanish and the Haedo brothers soon come round to my way of thinking. Result, JJ Haedo will ride the Tour de France and LS Haedo will most certainly not! But the brats apparently need to ride with each other most of the time, so I relent and let them do the Vuelta together!
Oh yeah the other brothers, well surely I did not even need to mention that it would be a huge waste of the teams resources having them both rider the Ardennes and Tour de France. Well they proved much more reasonable, actually Frank is getting cheesed off with your younger brother is much better than you comments. Happily Frank will ride the Ardennes and Vuelta, whilst Andy will ride the Giro and Tour.
Over to Zurich, and I find Sparticus still mumbling something about not being able to wear the World Champions jersey in every race this season. I tell him to take it out on the riders on the hell of the North. I point out that he can take real revenge on Evans at the TdF as the organisers have put in a nice little cobbled stage. I am interested to see what the Cancellara machine can do on the hills and we have programmed him in for some of the season ending hilly rides. This should get him in shape for a second assault at the worlds.
So back in Copenhagan, I have two more people knocking on the Saxobanks managers office. First is a freshman 14 year old Richie Porte, I ask for his birth certificate and it seems if he really was christened with the name Richie and he is in fact 24 years old. Good grief, young man you should be podiuming a Grand Tour by now - he calmly tells me thats not the way they do it in Australia. You have to waste your early sporting years on obscure British empire sports like Ragbee and Kriket, he then proceeds to start talking about something called Ozzie Rools and I interrupt him. So Richie, I tell him, I hear you can Time Trial well but the question is can you climb better than Gustav Larsson. He says yes, he can climb better that Larsson and even Cancellara. Okay, young pup lets give you the Tour of Austria/ California and Dauphine races to hone your skills. If he proves his worth there, then domestique duties at the Vuelta will give him some respect!
Lastly we have Matti Breschel, who is waving a contract offer for Rabobank in my face. I have to resort to lying, I tell him that he is to be given leadership in one of the cobbled classics (I mean a stage at the 5 days of Dunkirk, but I didn't tell him that). Then I proceed to tell him with a straight face that I want him to win the points jersey at the Giro. He looked at me quizzically and asks whether he can lead the Danish team at the Worlds. I cannot help laughing here, why boy, I say if thats all you want why didn't you say, of course you can lead the Danish team at the worlds (guys like Chris Anker and Nikki Sorenson are born domestiques and need some one to haul around Australia).
With three Aussies in the squad I thought we might as well splash out and all go out for a spot of pre-season training lord knows some of the boys needed it. I even went out with some of the Danish boys onto the worlds course, actually convinced Matti Breschel that it was a course that suited him perfectly which should keep him quiet for the year.
Fuglsang and Nikki Sorenson looked in good nick in the training camp so they would be joint leaders in the Tour Down Under procession that Protour teams are forced to 'race'. Meanwhile in the Aussie championships we all had a good laugh at Cadel Evans in his bright red BMC jersey in the TT. Even funnier was that he and Mickey Rogers got beat by that German Haussler fellow, he gets to wear the Aussie jersey round the world in TTs this year.
In the RR, we give Baden Cooke the spirit of Sparticus as he rides away from the pack with some tubby looking youngster. Richie Porte, stung by my criticism of being out of shape (he is badly so but then his first race this year is in May so...) tried to join them. But those meanies at HTC will not let him. So Cooke and Cantwell I think his name was rode away and we all watched in stun as Cookie dropped the 22 year old with about 15 to go and won the title. Evans was second again ho ho.
The Tour Down Under was to be fair quite a lot of fun to begin with, a reasonably in shape JJ Haedo won a couple of stages (until I ramped up the difficulty). Mr Clean now Vinokourov showed his shape by winning stage 3 and the overall, a group of eleven riders including Nikki Sorenson (finishes 3rd overall) and Jan Arge Jorgensson (finishes 10th overall) got 20 seconds there. The Willunga hill stage was not decisive but Manuel Quinzato managed to attack on the descent and just held on to win that stage. Farrar beat Cavendish in the other two sprints, lets see if he can beat the Manx missile when it counts.
With the first cobbled races at the end of February and the Paris Nice in early March it was time for some of our key riders to get off Bondi Beach and putting in some hard yards on the peleton. Rather than travel back to freezing Europe, the cobbled squad would go to Oman and the Paris Nice sqaud would go to Southern Spain.
By the way the cobbled sqaud is as follows:
F. Cancellara
M. Breschel
S O'Grady
F Hoj
K Klostergaard
D. Klemme
M Morkov
B Cooke
The Paris-Nice/Ardennes squad is:
F Schleck
J Voigt
G Larsson
J A Jorgensson
N Sorenson
A Steenson
J Bellis
J Marckz
Sheikk whathisface the organiser of the Oman race wanted a Schleck in his Oman race, which in truth was desperately short of star quality. So it was not enough that we would be sending the worlds best TTer in Fabian Cancellara, he wanted F Schleck. I tried to reason that we were sending the next great Danish star Matti Breschel, but the fellow was having none of it. I put the word out to Schleck the elder that he was going to have to catch a connecting flight in Malaga and Matti Breschel would have to go to Andalucia.
Not too bad really, we get to see whether Frankie was telling the truth when he said he had been practicing in the magical time trialling wind tunnel rather than looking through his phone directory for Luxembourg benefactors over the winter. Also keeps Matti away from the cobbles team, who know who their real master is the slave lord Sparticas!
Oman was the standard Middle Eastern fare, lots of flat windy stages. Cooke was not in any kind of real form, and old timer O'Grady actually seemed to sprint better. Even so, the Continental fodder on show was having a great time putting the Sky teams sub par sprinters to shame (well ours too if truth be told). Then mean old Sparticus got his engine purring and simply rode away on the gale force day where the peleton was split in itti bitty pieces and half the field was on the ground. The Sheikh's of Oman made their race different from the almost identical Tour of Qatar by putting a nice ITT at the end as opposed to tiny TTT at the beginning. Of course Cancellera was going to whip everybody in that one, he even went out on a boat the night before partying (daily form -5) and still won by half a minute over the Sky boys. Schleck came 5th in the TT, which was a pretty good effort even if the field was short on quality.
Andulucia had a more testing circuit, for most of the peleton still shedding the winter fat this was going to be hard work. Making the toughest stage come first was particularly mean and the sight of some great climbers like Dominic Pozzovivo weezing their way up the mountain top finish was not one I care to see. With a TT to come on stage 4, good old Jens gave it a real effort as did Gustav Larsson. But both didn't/couldn't go with the big move with early season men like Trofimov and Kern moving over a minute clear. The TT at only 9km was going to give either Jens or Gustav the overall win, but Larsson showed he was number one here by winning the TT and moving to a podium overall slot. Jens was on a bad day, following narrowly failing to win the hilly stage previous. Big Jens stropped his way to 3rd on the TT and only got 5th overall.
wow... thats a lot to read! you really do know how to write imaginatively. good luck with the story. are going to go more indepth with more important races, like Tour or Giro?
27th February - Omloop Het Volk (or whatever its called now)
Finally a few screenies of gameplay for you lot to digest, as we reach out first big classics at the end of Feb. Team leader Cancellara was in confident mood following the Tour of Oman, and 'co-leader' Matti Breschel put in some hard yards in Andalucía.
Anyway here is the cobbled squad and the shape its in for this first cobbled race.
... and I was I thinking that that this would be a gentle intro to the world of cobbled riding.
Onto the riding the day starts with its usual attacks, it is Team Sky who are throwing their weight around making damn sure that no-one from Katusha or Garmin gets away in the early break. In fact when the break does go it forms with 9 riders:
With such reknowned cobblers such as Rigoberto Uran, Xavier Tondo, Thomas Rohregger and Peter Stetina in this one, it was hardly surprising it was given some leeway. A little later two riders from two of the smaller teams got away, local rider Lisabeth of An Post probably causing excitemnet amongst Belgian cycling geeks.
They bridge no trouble whatsoever and have a front row seat watching some Spanish climbers in the break having to tackle these badboys some 4 and a hald minutes clear of the Sky/Rabobank led peleton.
The second section had one of those nasty uphill cobbled sections, and the Sky led peleton were keeping the break at around five minutes. They were causing problems and got an interesting split going.
The Sky boys had dragged Vanmarke (Topsport), Leukemans (Vaconsoliel), De Walle (Landboucredit), Klemme and Klostergaurd (Saxo) out with them. Arveson would be nominated to go with this dangerous group. Unfortunately for Saxo Klemme and Klostergaurd were not quite good enough to hang with the other four.
It was a clever move by Sky and good for those riders of the smaller teams. The other teams took a bit of time to digest what was going on as this powerful group of cobblers caught and passed the early breakaway. I looked on in amazment as Uran actually went with those four (and Klostegaard and Klemme coundn't. But it did not last, meanwhile in the peleton, Quickstep and Katusha took responsibility to chase back hard. Lotto and Rabobank decided to be royal pains in the butt attacking at every oppurtunity. Whilst Garmin, Cervelo and Saxo wheelsucked.
Here is a nice picture of whats going on, note Breschel is on a -5 Daily form day so is a bit back from O'Grady and Cancellara. The Katusha/Quickstep pace setting does its job, whittling the gap from 3.30 at 40km to go to about 90 seconds with 20km to go. This also gradually drops the 'peleton' down to about 22 riders which included all the rest of the favourites. Sky tried to get Flecha up to the 4 man Arvesen group at 20 to go. But on the last Cobbled section Boonan powered over with the major players. Flecha though still had a big card to play at the end of the sector.
This was THE MOVE and Cancellara with Pozzato right on his tail went with it, Boonan was a bit late but also powered across on the flat. Guys like Hoste and Van Summeran tried in vain to come back also. But the ratpack had been formed - Fabian looked around and did the sprint sums and knew he was on a loser here so tried to go to the front and motor away. But with 1km to go it did not look good.
Boonan made his move first, Pozzato was not going to overtake... which beggers the question what is the point Pipo following Boonan around if you are not going to be able to outsprint him! Anyway Flecha looked the coolest and here he goes
and away he goes... that'll sap poor Boonans confidence no doubt.
Success for Team Sky, Hooray rule Britannia well rule Flecha anyways.
1
Juan Antonio Flecha
Sky Professional Cycling Team
5h15'34
2
Tom Boonen
Quick·Step
s.t.
3
Filippo Pozzato
Team Katusha
s.t.
4
Fabian Cancellara
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
5
Leif Hoste
Omega Pharma - Lotto
+ 45
6
Johan Van Summeren
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
7
Kurt-Asle Arvesen
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
8
Bert De Waele
Landbouwkrediet
s.t.
9
Stijn Devolder
Quick·Step
s.t.
10
Manuel Quinziato
Liquigas - Doimo
s.t.
11
Heinrich Haussler
Cervélo Test Team
s.t.
12
Óscar Freire
Rabobank
s.t.
13
Staf Scheirlinckx
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
14
Matti Breschel
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
15
Björn Leukemans
Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
16
Roger Hammond
Cervélo Test Team
s.t.
17
Philippe Gilbert
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
18
Kevin Hulsmans
Quick·Step
s.t.
19
Lars Boom
Rabobank
s.t.
20
Greg Van Avermaet
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
21
Sergueï Ivanov
Team Katusha
s.t.
22
Nick Nuyens
Rabobank
s.t.
23
Wouter Weylandt
Quick·Step
s.t.
24
Thor Hushovd
Cervélo Test Team
+ 2'04
25
Tyler Farrar
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
26
Sebastian Langeveld
Rabobank
s.t.
27
Sep Vanmarcke
Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
s.t.
28
Stijn Vandenbergh
Team Katusha
s.t.
29
Sylvain Chavanel
Quick·Step
s.t.
30
Stuart O'Grady
Team Saxo Bank
+ 3'37
31
Denis Galimzyanov
Team Katusha
+ 4'24
32
Carlos Barredo
Quick·Step
s.t.
33
Laszló Bodrogi
Team Katusha
s.t.
34
Daniel Oss
Liquigas - Doimo
s.t.
35
Domenik Klemme
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
36
Kasper Klostergaard
Team Saxo Bank
+ 5'04
37
Danilo Napolitano
Team Katusha
s.t.
38
Tom Veelers
Skil - Shimano
+ 5'44
39
Maxim Iglinskiy
Astana
s.t.
40
Rigoberto Urán
Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
Not too bad a start for Sparticus here, we now know that he will have to try and get away from his rivals. Also interesting that dangerous riders are given some leeway... though Quickstep always looked well in control. Breschel and Cancellara had rubbish daily form (-5 and -2 respectively) so fingers crossed for the next day.
Finally a Saxo Bank story! I can say exactly, how good is this story so far. I think it's absolutely great reading, Smowz. Keep it up, I'll definetly read this!
All of the guys from yesterday had made the short trip over to Kuurne and once again. Sky were lording it over the peleton, but by the first cobbled section they were willing to let a decent break develop and Hoj was allowed to go with the usual bunch of no hopers.
Today Liquigas controlled things, with Sky and the cobbled sections were not really whittling things down much. Before the last sector there was about 60 riders left in the main pack. Hoj had left the pathetic breakaway ages ago, but was not building a race winning lead.
So on the last sector after watching pathetic little digs from the Lotto crew, Sparticus went to the front to put in a proper dig.
Sky's Flecha tried to go with, but failled to hold the wheel of the Swiss as he powered across to the remnents of the breakaway. Unfortunatly it was too far out for the win and the Liquigas/Quickstep/Sky led peleton pulled him and then Hoj back.
Breschel was on daily form -5 again so as the sprint was set up, Cancellara went again (with Flecha on his wheel) but was swamped in the finale. Pozzato and Quinzato took 1st and 2nd and Flecha held on for 3rd.
Rank
Name
Team
Time
Player
1
Filippo Pozzato
Team Katusha
4h42'57
2
Manuel Quinziato
Liquigas - Doimo
s.t.
3
Juan Antonio Flecha
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
4
Sylvain Chavanel
Quick·Step
s.t.
5
Leif Hoste
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
6
Johan Van Summeren
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
7
Stijn Devolder
Quick·Step
s.t.
8
Greg Van Avermaet
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
9
Kurt-Asle Arvesen
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
10
Philippe Gilbert
Omega Pharma - Lotto
s.t.
11
Heinrich Haussler
Cervélo Test Team
s.t.
12
Sep Vanmarcke
Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
s.t.
13
Fabian Cancellara
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Player
14
Martijn Maaskant
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
15
Kristof Vandewalle
Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
s.t.
16
Greg Henderson
Sky Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
17
Nick Nuyens
Rabobank
s.t.
18
Roger Hammond
Cervélo Test Team
s.t.
19
Danilo Napolitano
Team Katusha
s.t.
20
Stuart O'Grady
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Player
21
Daniel Oss
Liquigas - Doimo
s.t.
22
Sergueï Ivanov
Team Katusha
s.t.
23
Matti Breschel
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Player
24
Tom Boonen
Quick·Step
s.t.
25
Andreas Klier
Cervélo Test Team
s.t.
26
Bert De Waele
Landbouwkrediet
s.t.
27
Thor Hushovd
Cervélo Test Team
s.t.
28
Stijn Joseph
Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator
s.t.
29
Carlos Barredo
Quick·Step
s.t.
30
Egor Silin
Team Katusha
s.t.
Not a great result really, but that was not the point Cancellara had shown that he can get away from the pack over cobbles. Also Breschel is now going to be pack reducation fodder!!!
Meanwhile in Switzerland the Ardennes squad were honing their skills in the GP Lugano. Following some excellent pace work by Gustav Larsson and Jens Voight, Frank Schleck put in an excellent attack. Unfortunately Ryder Hesjedal went with the beanpole Lux man and Schleck cannot sprint so was number two. More encouragement.
Edited by Smowz on 30-09-2010 22:23
Following the teams failure to snatch victory in either of the end of February cobbled classics and Frank Schlecks minor failure in Lugano there were much mutterings at Saxo HQ. Our March schedule would include the following Protour races:
1) Paris - Nice: The race to the Sun, known recently as the race where Contador forgot to take his contiminated meat and got a hunger bonk. They have a tasty looking stage into Mende and as usual the last two stages are pretty nasty. Early chance to get used to TdF style racing.
2) Tirreno-Adriatico: Race of two seas, here is where we see the Italian doping frat out in play. Three lumpy stages at the back end will decide here. Early chance to get used to Giro racing.
3) Volta a Catalonia. The Volta, features a tiny TTT and a couple of lumpy stages in the middle. Early chance to get used to Vuelta racing.
4) Milan San Remo: Sprinters classic, only we will be trying to pull this one apart.
5) Gent-Wegelum: The cobbled race without that many cobbles. Still unlike KBK the cobbles are close enough to the end to cause serious difficulties.
Our cobblers also have the E3 Prijs (day before G-W) and the three day West Flanders tour which clashes with Paris Nice.
No question who our key men are:
Frank will lead at Paris Nice and the Volta, whilst Cancellara will be the main man at Tirrano, E3, Gent Wegelum. We decide to temporarily swap these two experienced pros for the Paris Nice and Tirrano:
The intention will be to go with many options at Milan San Remo, Cancellara, Schleck, Voigt and Breschel will probably be our hopes of high placings.
So we had the hilarity of Voigt on cobbles at the Tour of West Flanders...
But Saxo enjoyed themselves and why not, our biggest challengers were the misguided Vaconsoliel team. We got 5 riders (Klostergaurd, Klemme, Hoj, Breschel and Cancellara) in the decisive break of 13 riders on the cobbled opening stage. From there Breschel and Cancellara simply rode away, with Fabian graciously allowing Matti the win. Even more sweet was Cancellara and Baden Cooke leading out Breschel to a sprint win on stage 2 and Breschel took second to Van Hummel on stage 3. Nice one Matti....
You will find dear readers that I do spend about a week between updates as I tend to do this at weekends were I am not too busy!
Some feedback first:
Kissusha: Enjoying your stage editing work, is the tour of the basque in the PCM database? I have made one short (and probably a bit naff) short stage race for SN's British DB, hoping he has the motivation to complete that one despite the limitations of PCM 2010!
Janne_837: Your Radioshack story has been a really good read, enjoyed it a lot more with the difficulty at a hard level. Certainly nice to see a constantly updated and continuing story - hope you can keep up the great work!
The Hoyle: Always good to see a Sky story, enjoying the presentation have to echo whats been said on your thread just do the story in whatever way you enjoy! Certainly I want to give the readers the lowdown on the more key races rather than a stage by stage breakdown. The focus of this story will largely be on the Classics and GTs.
Roturn: Congrats on your adminship! Well deserved - enjoying your stage editor work also. Actually finding an on form Breschel quite powerful on cobbles but I cannot quite get him up there on sprints.
Roman: Nice to have a man game ite on board. Check that one out readers, Roman's Milka team would be an outstanding tip for promotion next year.
LilParka: Thanks any encouragement is always greatly recieved.
Pellizotti2: While it is always nice to see a traditional story, I think originality is also important. The alternative all Italian team is a nice one, even if it does star Ricco!!!
Edited by Smowz on 09-10-2010 12:05
Forget the Tour Down Under, this is where the cycling season really kicks off. Weighing in with 7 stages and a opening prologue, the Paris-Nice ranks alongside the Dauphine as France's two premier mini stage races. The proximity to the spring classics and the fact that the mountain roads are damn near impassable means that the Paris Nice tends to have more punchy hills. Perhaps not quite as lumpy as the brutal Basque country tour, the Paris Nice usually contains a number of tactical hilly stages usually with at least on hill top finish.
The last Paris Nice will live long in the memory as stage race king Alberto Contador managed to spectacularly 'bonk', as Caisse d'Epargne's Luis Leon Sanchez took full advantage to register his biggest career win. This years startlist does seem pretty atypical, with your usual bunch of classics men looking to hone their form.
From the list, the Orange men of Euskatel... Sammy 'I am a basque really I am' Sanchez and Igor 'lets try to stay on my bike' Anton probably the biggest threats. But have they any form? You also have Liquigas disgruntled posh boy Roman 'top 10' Kreuzinger, Lampre's Damiano 'not quite as good as my wage' Cunego and Robert 'one bad day' Gesink to consider. Also Caisses LL Sanchez brings his square jaw into play once more.
The French press will be bigging up the hopes of Le Mevel, Fedrigo, Gadret and even Moncoutie but we know better than that. Sastre won't be taking this seriously and we will try not to laugh at Sky's attempt to be taken seriously with Simon Gerrans. Please no-one mention Linus Gerdemann oh I just did.
You have always got to be aware of plenty of hidden favourites here, the opening TT will be one to watch to see who's on form and who's not. Garmin's Ryder Hesjedal has already caught our eye at the GP Lugano, whilst Manual Quinzato has been at the top of his game this year already. Our own squad is just off where I think it needs to be to win this one. Frank Schleck should really be aiming for the podium and Larsson may sneak the opening TT. His support crew will be led by Chris Sorenson, who will be Frankie's final man in the tough stuff.
Here are the parcours for this years edition:
The stage into Mende is the one to target, Frank Schleck should have the advantage here. Stage 7 also looks tasty, this also should be tough enough to force a serious selection.
The early part of the race would be dominated by two things, the nicely designed opening prologue which had a nasty little cobbled section. This mixed with differences of form to give some interesting results.
This fella Lars 'Sonic' Boom
... and Seb 'we wish he didn't ride for Radioshack' Rosseler
Gustav Larsson took it easy over the cobbled section, but finished really fast...
It wasn't enough though as Boom took the stage, but rather uniquely there was time bonuses at the first check (and not at the finish) so Rosseler took the overall. Cue several websites being flamed by Armstrong fanboys!
Stage classification for opening TT
Rank
Name
Team
Time
Player
1
Lars Boom
Rabobank
11'17
2
David Zabriskie
Garmin - Transitions
+ 1
3
Sébastien Rosseler
Team RadioShack
s.t.
4
Gustav Erik Larsson
Team Saxo Bank
+ 4
Player
5
Benoît Vaugrenard
Française des Jeux
+ 10
6
Tom Boonen
Quick·Step
s.t.
7
Yaroslav Popovych
Team RadioShack
+ 11
8
Mikhail Ignatiev
Team Katusha
+ 12
9
Rui Costa
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 13
10
Ryder Hesjedal
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
11
Stephen Cummings
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 14
12
Ignatas Konovalovas
Cervélo Test Team
+ 15
13
Sandy Casar
Française des Jeux
s.t.
14
Manuel Quinziato
Liquigas - Doimo
+ 17
15
Lars Ytting Bak
Team HTC - Columbia
s.t.
16
Nicolas Vogondy
Bbox Bouygues Télécom
s.t.
17
Roman Kreuziger
Liquigas - Doimo
+ 18
18
Matthias Brändle
Footon - Servetto
s.t.
19
Paul Martens
Rabobank
s.t.
20
Linus Gerdemann
Team Milram
s.t.
25
Fränk Schleck
Team Saxo Bank
+ 21
Player
31
Stuart O'Grady
Team Saxo Bank
+ 22
Player
38
Luis León Sánchez
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 25
40
Damiano Cunego
Lampre - Farnese Vini
+ 27
41
Michael Rogers
Team HTC - Columbia
s.t.
43
Christophe Le Mével
Française des Jeux
s.t.
47
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 28
48
Jarosław Marycz
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Player
63
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 32
79
Simon Gerrans
Sky Professional Cycling Team
36
91
Robert Gesink
Rabobank
+ 39
98
Jonathan Bellis
Team Saxo Bank
+ 41
Player
120
Carlos Sastre
Cervélo Test Team
+ 45
132
Jonas Aaen Jørgensen
Team Saxo Bank
+ 49
Player
135
André Steensen
Team Saxo Bank
+ 51
Player
156
Nicki Sørensen
Team Saxo Bank
+ 58
Player
The other thing that would in fact dominate the rest of the race was whether or not Tom Boonan could actually get a sprint win. Most of the best sprinters had gone down to Italy, but Tommake knows he can get a better supply up here in France. Actually the Belgian hero actually thinks that by preparing here he will be in better shape for the cobbled classics. Boonan rode well in the opening TT -
but found Katusha's Nappy (Danilo Napilitiano)
and Cofidis' Dummy (Samuel Dumoulin) to quick on stages 2 and 3.
Stage four was a bit too hilly for Tommeke, he still finished a credible 11th. Actually the stage proved quite interesting as last years winner LL Sanchez was in the early breakaway. Actually in an earlier press conference he had declared his intention to step up as a Grand Tour leader, despite never really looking all that impressive on long mountain climbs. Well here was a very clear signal that he was not on form.
Of course those muppets at Saxo were not going to take any chances and chief whipping boys for this race O Grady and Jorgenson went and reeled in that break.
This forced a slightly stronger break to go with Paul Martens, Luca Mazzanti and eventually Simon Gerrans made a nice 3 man break. Astana'a Gasparatto and Liquigas on fire Manual Quinzato made the chase group, with the silky smooth climber David Moncoutie just behind these.
This proved very difficult for the peleton to bring back, Martens surprised his breakaway companions and sneaked away. It was pretty clear Gerrans and Mazzanti were marking each other and despite a late surge from Roman Feillu out of the bunch sprint... Rabo's Paul Martens held on for a memorable win.
The best news of the day though was Rosseler the race leader had crashed at 12km to go and so we had a new race leader Dave Zabriske!
omearnion12*
