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Vuelta al Pais Vasco Discussion
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 09-07-2008 15:47
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Breakaways dominated this race last year and it caused the race to be stripped of it's ProTour status. So the organiser have reverted to the much referred 2007 route which saw Rinaldo Nocentin triumph by 5 seconds over Levi Leipheimer.
Leipheimer returns to the Basque country this season but is no longer such a force to be reckoned with and instead will be working for Fed-Ex team leader Tom Danielson. Fed-Ex hold just a 60 point lead over 3rd placed B&O and Edvald Boasson Hagen, the Norwegian champion, will look to do well and take his Danish side to the top spot. Hagen will have good support with Roman Kreuziger. Watch out for Hagen on Stage 2, a stage that he won in 2007 despite the ProTour competition.
The best hope of Basque glory comes from Team Molteni and Inigo Landaluze and he is also the only rider from the whole of Spain who stands a chance. Leonardo Bertaagnolli (Wiggle), Aleksandr Efimkin (Champion), Wim van Huffel (Pearl Jam), Tadej Valjavec (Ernst&Young), Nuno Ribeiro (Benfica) and Jose Ivan Gutierrez (Zenmind) are all in with a shout too, while IrnBru, NVidia, Fed-Ex B and Sony Ericsson B will hope breakaways rule supreme once again.
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| niconico |
Posted on 12-07-2008 17:30
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Should be a good raced if the breakaways can be controlled, but I think I brought a pretty decent team of domestiques to help out Hagen and Kreuziger.
I hope to be in the top 2 after this and Hagen should revenge his horrible season debut in Köln (which I have only just caught up with).
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| niconico |
Posted on 12-07-2008 21:11
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Pretty good start for Hagen, he just needs to get rid off Danielson and Gutierrez because I reckon that Efimkin can be beaten substantially in the TT. Anyway I'm glad the break didn't make it 
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 13-07-2008 22:29
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Great start by Wiggle, finally wearing a jersey in a race - even if its only a KoM one by 1 point 
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| Deadpool |
Posted on 13-07-2008 23:44
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Great ride by Valjavec, tough that Hagen closed the gap though |
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| mattiasgt |
Posted on 14-07-2008 08:34
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Wooho, time for the B team to rock! 
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| niconico |
Posted on 15-07-2008 18:46
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That's a lot of podiums for Hagen, unfortuneate that there's always one rider who is ahead before the sprints. Anyway I think he has a shot of winning this. He is a quite good TT'er (on a CT scale) and the time trial is hilly so it should fit him perfectly. I just hope Efimkin isn't a very good time trialler. 
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| mattiasgt |
Posted on 15-07-2008 19:48
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Yey, Mori is riding himself a place in the A team.
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| Deadpool |
Posted on 15-07-2008 20:35
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Valjavec hanging tough, too bad he can't get past Hagen though |
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| rjc_43 |
Posted on 16-07-2008 09:58
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Well, Wiggle guys have dropped somewhat. Just shows im lacking that one strong leader i need. Or that i didn't really send any leader here, just a couple of lieutenants like Blanco and Bertagnolli (domestique actually)... ah well, i've got some points anyway with the stage win and holding a jersey for a day. Good enough for me. B)
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| niconico |
Posted on 19-07-2008 20:30
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I don't usually do this so I will claim my right to subtle enquire SN about the approximated ETA on stage 5 action
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 20-07-2008 09:18
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About 10 minutes
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| niconico |
Posted on 20-07-2008 12:18
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Very nice race for me. 2nd for Hagen and a lot of podiums on the stages, so I should gain a little on Fed-Ex here and I hope I'm in 2nd place now since Slipstream didn't race here
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| SportingNonsense |
Posted on 20-07-2008 12:40
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Rankings
B&O are dramatically closing in on the top having gained 172 points on Fed-Ex in the last 2 races (E3 Prijs and this one). Slipstream drop to 3rd while Champion remind us all that they are a very big promotion threat in their leap up to 4th position.
1 Fed-Ex 745
2 B&O 728
3 Slipstream 644
4 Champion 607
5 IrnBru - RBS 595
6 Wiggle - Premier Inn 543
7 LA/MSS/Pearl Jam 524
8 Procycling-BBC 502
9 White Bear Steyr 438
10 British Airways - Cyclingnews 413
11 NVidia 357
12 Dasani - Hincapie Sportswear 351
13 Benfica 316
14 Molteni 309
15 Nippo Corporation 218
16 Gatorade 185
17 Zenmind-Evolution 146
18 Slipstream B 120
19 Ernst and Young 111
20 Virgin Media B 53
21 LA/MSS/Pearl Jam B 50
22 Nintendo B 48
23 Gatorade B 45
24 American Suzuki B 38
25 British Airways B 35
26 Fed-Ex B 28
27 IrnBru B 25
28 La Gazetta B 22
29 Magenta B 17
30 Sony Ericsson B 12
31 France Televisions B 8
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| niconico |
Posted on 20-07-2008 12:46
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Me likey. I just hope my team can keep it up
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| dave92 |
Posted on 20-07-2008 12:54
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very interesting, but hard to judge because of team's schedules, but B&O and Fed-Ex look very good. Still very open though, maybe a Designa like comeback from someone this year.
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