I'll try to lead this small Italian team to glory in the first story I've written since ... well, a long time ago I guess?
The team
The goals
The budget
So with no room in the budget, we'll have to do with mediocre trainers for now. Although we did kick out the regional scout for a legendary one. He will mainly be scouting in Italy. Although the Dutch manager won't mind hiring 1 or 2 of his countrymen for next year, if the budget allows us to, that is.
Australian National Champs:
1. Simon Gerrans (Credit Agricole)
2. Matthew Lloyd (Silence Lotto)
3. Cadel Evans (Silence Lotto)
Tour Down Under (PT):
1. Philippe Gilbert (Française des Jeux)
2. Karsten Kroon (Team CSC)
3. Iñigo Landaluze (Euskaltel)
Selection
From the start, the attacks were flying as usual in the classic opening race of the Italian Season. We sent our guy Trafelet into the break of eight, which quickly gained 2 minutes on the peloton.
But in the background, the sprintersteams kept the gap at two minutes, and Mori (Saunier) made the jump with four others. Not good for us, because now the peloton definately didn't want to let the break go, since it was too big.
So as expected, the break was caught pretty short after. Time to send Trafalet back to get some water bottles for the rest, so he can also rest a bit from his earlier efforts. It's time to send Zaragodny in the next break...
This break had more luck, Glomser and Agnoli joined the earlier eight in the photo above, and the ten leaders worked well together to gain a maximum lead of seven minutes. Finally though, the sprinter teams started working, and the gap went down fast. Zaragodny tried a desperate solo attempt with 33km to go...
And ofcourse, he failed miserably. There is no chance against the combined forces of Quick Step (Steegmans/Davis) and LPR (Petacchi). In the end, the sprint was prepared. Our sprinter Rossi has no remote chance of winning against these guys, but in the right wheel, he might get a nice top ten finish. However, we couldn't join the Quick Step train, which led out for Steegmans, with Petacchi in his wheel. So we chose another train, the Saunier Duval one, where the yellow dudes were pulling for Flahaut. Rossi was sitting there comfortably
When the sprint started, the Quick Step train on the right hand site passed everyone. Rossi caught the wheel of Petacchi when he passed him. And in his slipstream, Rossi finished a very respectable fourth. Behind Petacchi, Davis and Steegmans, well done!
Result
The sponsor was very satisfied with this result, five starts and confidence is already very good. We're well away!
Edited by ruben on 09-10-2008 12:35
Really great start, with suprising 4th place Hope you keep this for a long time. And btw good to see a story that doesn't start with down under or quatar
After a silent first twenty kilometers of the race, NGC's Bruno Rizzi decides to fire things up with an attack. He initiates a break made up of four men, including himself ofcourse.
However, it quickly becomes clear that this break wasn't meant to be. For one, it's to small to keep a decent lead on the pack. And two, the peloton doesn't even consider giving them enough space to keep the lead. So, we set up for a mass sprint.
Enrico Rossi feels confident, he is good at surviving the hills and has a good form. We see that Glomser is riding confidently up front and tell Enrico to try and follow him.
Rossi did exactly that, and more, because with 50 meters to go, he tries an ultimate jump...
And to general astonishment, Rossi beats Glomser on the line!
Victory!!! The first succes of the season so soon. It seems our riders are coming into form quickly for the Trofeo Laigueglia later this month, which is a first sponsor goal.
Stage 2
We have to defend Rossi's leaders jersey today in the thoughest stage of this tour. I can't see why we won't succeed, as the stage is not hard enough to lose a rider like Rossi. We send Nosotti into the break so we don't have to control the race.
There is lots of attacking in the front group and the co-operation was pretty bad. Nosotti tries to get the guys working together, but fails. So, with 106km to go, the pack is back together. Ten kilometers later however, the tireless Nosotti tries again.
The peloton let's go again this time, but the gap never gets bigger then 2.30 minutes. With 38km to go, it's all together again. LPR lead the peloton and we decide to put some helpers at the front too to prevent attacks getting away. With 7.7km to go however, Mazzanti has succeeded into getting a small lead on the peloton.
On the final climb of the day the attacks inevitably come. Pfannberger passes Mazzanti as if he were standing still. Rossi is positioned at the front of the peloton, but decides to wait till the top of the hill before he plays his cards.
And yes, at the top, more counter attacks follow. Rossi attacks too and seems to have found the wheel of Danilo di Luca. A small group breaks lose from the peloton and Rossi is in good position. However, it took some effort from Rossi to get there, and he is too tired to win the sprint. D'Aniello wins in front of Di Luca, but Rossi keeps his leaders jersey with his 3rd place!
Results
With one stage to go, it looks like we possible score a suprising GC win here...
So, in the last stage of this race, we will try to keep the leadersjersey of Rossi, which should not be very hard, considering this is a sprint stage. Richard Faltus, a young Czech rider from Sparkasse, breaks away, which is fine for us.
We control the gap and for a long time, Faltus can enjoy a lead of 2.30 minutes. In the end, our team and other sprinter teams start riding at a higher pace, and Faltus is quickly caught. In the finale, nobody tries anymore escapes. The sprint is being prepared and Rossi is right in the wheel of Biondo of Flaminia, It's looking great!
Rossi easily passes Biondo and takes his second win shortly after. This tour has been a tremendous boost for our team! 2 stagewins and final victory!
Results
Giro di Grosseto - Stage 1
Selection:
The first stage of the day starts relatively hard compared to the rest of the stage. There are some hills to be conquered in the first part, while the second part of the race is mainly flat. We sent Corsini into the break and see what happens next.
All seems to go well and the break of the day gets a six minute lead on the peloton. However, when the pack begins to chase, it splits into pieces due to the wind. Indeed, echelons are formed. Although everytime, the pack seems to melt together again in one long line...
With less than 30km to go, the break of the day is already caught. The high pace in the peloton breaks it into pieces again. Our sprinter Beuret and our leader Maisto are in the first part though, so that's good for us. It gets even better when a few kilometers later, there are some twenty riders left, with Beuret and Maisto still there!
Can Beuret finish it in the sprint with these 'lesser' men?
No he can't. He still did well enough for us though! The bad part is that no significant timegaps were made. The biggest part of the peloton finished in the same time. A shame!
This is the thoughest stage of the tour, in which we try to get a good result with Maisto and Reda. Ackermanns job was to get into the break of the day, but he lucked out. There were many attacks and he could not keep up with the right one, initiated by a certain Alessandro Petacchi. Clearly Petacchi feels today is the right time to test his form.
The escapees got a max lead of about seven minutes from the peloton. Then, Barloworld decided to reduce the gap inch by inch. Finally, just before the most important and final climb of the day, the break was almost caught. In a desperate attempt, Krauss tried to avoid getting caught.
At eight kilometers from the top, the attacks started coming from the peloton as well. Maisto felt good and reacted to these attacks. Together with seven others he reached the break, and they left them behind immediately. From the peloton a new group attacked at four kilometers from the top, including Reda from NGC. They looked liked closing the gap with the leaders...
But just before the top of the climb, the attacks in the front started again. Maisto kept up with the best. But so did Sabido, the GC-leader. Reda was still recovering from his earlier attack and was now in a chase group of some eight riders. Still, it was an ideal situation for NGC. Maisto didn't work in the first group, but Reda also didn't work in the second group. We were in each group, but we didn't have to ride, tactical perfection!
With six kilometers to go, the second group came very close to the first group. Reda was now fully recuperated and we had to try something to slow down Sabido, technically the best sprinter in the lead group. Reda attacked from the 2nd group!
With four kilometers to go he caught, and passed, the lead group, they didn't see Reda coming. Maisto was sitting on Sabido's wheel to counter any possible attacks from him. Like expected Sabido reacted to Reda's attack in an attempt to keep his jersey. This was perfect for our plan to wear him down. Maisto was sitting on his wheel, and with one kilometer to go he did his ultimate attack
As you can see Sabido was waisted from his efforts and was already falling back. Maisto had no sprinter to fear. Or?... Well, Peter Velits, the U23 world champion, had something left in his tank. Meter per meter Velits closed the gap to Maisto, but it wasn't enough! Maisto kept a decent lead and took the double, stage win and leadersjersey!
Results
Giro di Grosseto - Stage 3 (Slot)
Our plan for this stage was to send a rider in the break of the day so we don't have to control the peloton in this nasty stage, categorized as flat, but with some nasty bumps on the way. Trafalet made it into the break, as planned!
As expected, Barloworld and Euskaltel took over the job of controlling the peloton today. Both Sabido and Galdos had chances of taking the final victory if they won todays stage. Our sprinter Beuret had to prevent that, although we knew that would be hard.
Trafalets group was caught and passed with twenty kilometers to go. Soon after, Beuret was sitting on Galdos wheel, while Maisto was in Sabidos wheel. Yet, Galdos proved to be too strong and Beuret could not pass him in the sprint. Galdos took the stage and the final victory of this tour.
Results
Final General Classification
Although we missed the final victory by an inch, we shouldn't be sad about this race. Beuret took two 2nd places, Reda took a 3rd place, Maisto won a stage and finished 2nd in the GC and we won the team classification. Thanks to the good races so far we went up to 2nd position in the Continental ranking!
Hard is more realistic most the time, but thats mainly because extreme isn't even a fair setting. Keep it at hard. I'm pretty sure it won't be that easy to win in the pro tour, or later in the season when riders actually have form.
Our goal was to get in the top ten here, but this will be very hard, considering the strong field in this race. After a fantastic first half of the race with countless and nameless attacks, finally a rider gets away. It's our own Ackermann, who escapes for a long solo ride.
The pack is not worried by Ackermanns efforts at all, and keeps the gap between six and seven minutes. A counter-attack group forms with 72km to go, the initiator of this attack was Salvatore Commesso, oldies never die!
At the foot of the climb, Ackermann is caught, but so is the counter attack group. Everything is together again and the favorites can battle it out on this climb. Emmanuele Sella waits until halfway the climb, when he decides to attack. Grivko reacts and takes over hard!
Grivko also drops the Liquigas rider in the picture, and leads 34 seconds over the peloton, where Rebellin is forcing the pacing, making Rossi and Beuret having trouble following the group. Then new attacks come from Nocentini, Sella, Rebellin, Barredo, Tankink and some others react, forming a group of nine riders!
Just before the top though, one rider drops off and falls behind. Then it's our turn to do something. Reda, who couldn't possible attack on the climb, because that would surely have killed him, attacks at the top of the climb. In the downhill, he is the sole pursuer of the escape group.
Yet, on the flat, the front group starts attacking again, and Reda can't do that because that would kill him. He keeps a steady pace in order to gain the required top 10 finish.
Back to the front, Schumacher has accelerated and it looks like Simoni is the only one close to following him, 2 bikelengths behind.
Suprisingly however, Schumacher blew himself up with that attack, and Simoni passes him in the final meters! Wow, Simoni winning a sprint against Schumacher, who would of ever thought that. Probably Schumi forgot to take his daily dose of EPO?
Reda managed to finish 9th, he was passed by some attacks from the peloton on the flat, but he had energy left in the sprint to pass Mazzanti again. Beuret finished 17th and also did well in the end.
Result
Talents
We have scouted in Italy (Tuscany) and we are following the developments of these two riders:
GP di Lugano
Selection;
Reda
Tizza
Zaragodny
Corsini
Cattaneo
Nosotti
Ackermann
Trafelet
(forgot screen)
Again a very strong field in this race, what's up with that? Zaragodny decides to pull an Ackermann.
Yet, his attempt fails, as 16 others breach up the gap to him, and there is no way in hell Barloworld wants to let a 17-rider breakaway group get away. Oh well, it was a nice try...
Next, Diego Nosotti tries a solo with 90km to go. He gets a nice lead, but he also gets 5 pursuers. Nosotti waits and we have a nice six men lead group. But beware, the infamous Mikhaylo Khalilov is also here...
The peloton chases relentlessly in the final, and it's no suprise that Pavel Brutt decides to attack from the lead group. Nosotti is quickly left behind as one of the weaker links, but fights back! Just before the final climb, Nosotti and Brutt are leading.
The peloton hits the final climb, and catch the early break. As soon as the groups melt together it's man-in-form Gilberto Simoni who attacks! Does this guy have any limits? Well, Sella, Moncoutie and anothr guy who's name I didn't catch join.
We had a few choiches, either try and get fifth in the sprint, or try silly breakaway attempts and try to win. So obviously we tried the last. Francesco Reda gave it his all in one last attempt at catching the four leaders.
This ended in a big fat fail, as we was caught by the upcoming sprinters just before the finish line. The four escapers however stayed clear, and it was the guy who's name I didn't catch, Sandy Casar, who took the victory.
Ackermann finished 13th after a decent sprint, but we probably could have done better if we used better tactics.
There was also good news
We got a wildcard to Milan San Remo Edited by ruben on 11-10-2008 11:15
A real heroic race. And to our own astonishment, we actually stand a chance of winning, since Beuret is one of the best cobble riders in this starting field. Masciarelli is the initiator of an early breakaway of three
After the first cobble stroke, it becomes clear Masciarelli is too strong for his breakaway companians. Although Patour returns after behind left behind. The other breakaway rider is caught by the peloton again. It also becomes clear Beuret has a very good day, he didn't suffer at all at the cobblestone section.
The race is very calm, until Cofidis suddenly decides it's time to destroy the peloton on the middle portion of the race, where a very long cobblestone stroke is situated.
After this stroke, the breakaway riders were caught and passed. Beuret was still looking extremely good, even though only 35 riders were left. On the second part of this long stroke, three more riders had to let go. Beuret told us he didn't even lose 1% of his energy yet. Things were looking great.
In the peloton the race is still controlled by Cofidis, so nobody can get away. Their top favourite Chavanel has fallen and abandoned, but they still had Scheirlinckx as backup, he is almost as strong as Chavanel, so it was an understandable decision.
With 50km to go, we hit the 2nd large cobblestone stroke of the day. This one will probably be deciding. Backstedt tries and force a break, but Beuret rides alongside of him as if he were riding an easy tourist race.
The peloton quickly breaks due to Backstedts pace, and Beuret sees his chance, he goes infront of Backstedt and highers the pace some more. This causes huge problems in the first group. Only four riders are even capable of following Beuret. Scheirlinckx is one of them, until he gets a flat tire. Another Cofidis man down by luck.
So we only have four riders left, Paolini, Backstedt, Commesso and Beuret. They don't really work together well, since Paolini is a threat in the sprint. Commesso and Backstedt kept attacking, while Beuret simply rode his own pace and thus closed all gaps. Then, just before the final cobble stroke, it's Paolini who suprises everyone by attacking himself!
Beuret settles in 4th position and doesn't worry one bit. As soon as they hit the final cobble stroke, he pushes the pace way up again. This time, he passes Paolini fast, and only Commesso is able to follow. But even he is losing ground now, it's quickly 1 bike length...and then two...
With seven kilometers to go, Commesso's resistance is broken, he completely collapses and Beuret gains ground fast. At the finishline, he has all the time to cheer in every possibly position. A great win for our Swiss cobble specialist!
Results
Paris Nice
1. Damiano Cunego (Lampre)
2. Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel)
3. Sandy Casar (Française des Jeux)
Tirreno Adriatico
1. Danilo di Luca (Team LPR)
2. Stijn Devolder (Quick Step)
3. George Hincapie (Team Columbia)
Hope you keep this for a long time. And btw good to see a story that doesn't start with down under or quatar
