Well the first race of the season was here. None of the guys were in peak condition, but considering it was the first race, we took that that wouldn't be the case for the other teams either. To improve our popularity Down Under, we brought all of our aussies with us, captain for this race Stuart O'Grady, our new talented sprinter Matthew Goss and time-trialist Luke Roberts. All three of these were of course very anxious to prove themselves. The rest of the team counted northern classics talent Matti Breschel, along with his countrymen Allan Johansen and Lars Bak and to round up the scandinavian concept we brought the Swede Marcus Ljungqvist and the Norwegian Kurt-Asle Arvesen.
Today's 1st stage was very short 48 km ride on a street circuit through Adelaide. Our captain for today's stage was aussie veteran Stuart O'Grady, eventhough he is past his prime we thought that he could do a pretty good job.
After 6km of racing the first break away sat off, six riders got away from the peloton, but they were quickly split off in to groups of threes. The leading group consisted of Baranauskas (AGR), Mouris (DFL) and Clerc (Bouygues). For the whole time they maintained a gap to the second group of about 30 seconds. The second group consisted of Power (Navigators), Docker (Drapac) and Barbé (JAC).
The leading group never really became dangerous
With 15 km to go it was all over for the three men in front as Predictor - Lotto sat a tremendous pace to set things up for Robbie McEwen. With 12km to go Stuey got a bit stuck in the jostling for position. But Matti did manage do drive Stuey up through the peloton to get a pretty good position.
Stuey and Matti sitting pretty close to McEwen.
The sprint was on and of course McEwen bursted away immediately while Matti couldn't really set it up for Stuey. Then Stuey managed to set up himself from a difficult position, but he seemed really strong and he quickly made his way past his opponents. McEwen however was already gone, and Stuey couldn't touch his countryman today who won the stage with Stuey finishing 2nd.
Robbie McEwen claims victory on the 1st stage of the Tour of Australia.
Considering the position Stuey was in he did really good, I guess tomorrow he will try and catch McEwen's wheel on his own.
1st stage result:
McEwen 1h02'35"
O'Grady st.
Cooke st.
Siedler st.
Dumoulin st.
Guidi st.
Rigotto st.
Clarke st.
Dean st.
De Fauw st.
With yesterday’s good result by Stuey we were hoping to fight with Robbie McEwen for the yellow jersey today. Stuey was feeling pretty good and the plan was to sit in the peloton to support him and wait for Predictor – Lotto to reel in any potential breakaways.
The attacks started right from the outset from Mawson Lakes. Already after 4 km, Lithuanian Agritubel-rider Balciunas set off with four other riders, including 2 aussis, to follow. The peloton didn’t look interested at all in following the five riders and with 62km to go the breakaway, consisting off Balciunas (AGR), McLachlan (Drapac), Day (Navigators), Haynes (DFL) and Lisabeth (JAC), had a 5 minute deficit on the peloton.
The five-man breakaway riding in the deserted Australian countryside
With 60 km to go, however, the peloton began reeling the breakaway in, and with 55 km to go the breakaway group were split up into two groups, with McLachlan, Day and Haynes in the leading group. 10 km after that, Haynes got dropped and with 25 km to go all of the breakaway riders were back in the peloton. The only rider to gain anything from this breakaway was Navigator’s Ben Day who earned himself the King of the Mountains-jersey, by winning the only mountain sprint of the stage.
The jostling for positions had now begun, but again it looked as though Stuey would get caught up in it again. But his amazing experience did anyway earn him a great position right behind the AG2R rider Martin Elmiger. He was in a fantastic position.
Stuey looking good
And there was really no doubt when the sprint began. Elmiger opened up way to early and Stuey cruised home to claim the first victory for him and Team CSC in 2007. McEwen was terrible today, so because of the bonus time awarded to Stuey he also claimed the leader’s jersey.
No doubt about that one!
Stage Result
1 Stuart O'Grady 3h35'17
2 Fabrizio Guidi s.t.
3 Mikel Gaztanaga Echevarria s.t.
4 Julian Dean s.t.
5 Elia Rigotto s.t.
6 Ciaran Power s.t.
7 Mark Renshaw s.t.
8 Martin Elmiger s.t.
9 Hilton Clarke s.t.
10 Baden Cooke s.t.
General Classement:
1 Stuart O'Grady 4h37'20
2 Robbie McEwen + 12
3 Fabrizio Guidi + 20
4 Mikel Gaztanaga Echevarria + 24
5 Baden Cooke s.t.
6 Martin Elmiger + 30
7 Elia Rigotto +32
8 Julian Dean s.t.
9 Hilton Clarke s.t.
10 Samuel Dumoulin s.t.
Third day of racing ‘Down Under’ and we are in the lead. Stuart claimed a superior mass sprint victory yesterday amd he is looking really strong. Our young gun Matthew Goss on the other hand is feeling a bit sore, and he won’t be participating in the mass sprints after all. We didn’t really feel like working a whole lot for keeping the jersey today, so we sent off home-favourite Luke Roberts, so we didn’t have to sit at the front of the pack all day to reel in potential escapees.
And there was a lot of attacking from the outset from the city of Stirling. When the attacks were over, there were 4 groups out in front. In front it was Feillu (AGL) who rode solo in a few kilometres before the group with Roberts (CSC), belgian veteran Nico Mattan (DFL) and Lancaster (MRM) caught up with him. Just behind the front group, there was a group consisting of Barbé (JAC), Pichot (BTL) and Gardeyn (UNI) chasing the leaders, while even further back a two-man duo consisting of Bodrogi (CAG) and Docker (DRP). The deficits between the groups were pretty static around 30 seconds all day, and the peloton didn’t give the leaders a very big gap so already with 60 km to go all riders were back on level terms.
This opened up for new attacks and frenchman Pichot (BTL) took advantage of this when he set off in a very decent effort for the win. Already 10 kms later he was almost 3 minutes ahead of the pack. He fought very well the frenchman, but with 15 km to go it was all over for him.
In spite of a strong effort Renier couldn’t hold back the chasing pack
Then it was back to the same routine again – getting ready for the sprint. The team put Stuey in a good position, and he looked really good coming into the finish in Hahndorf.
Stuey in a good position ahead of the final sprint
And guess what happened – Stuey did it again. Another superior victory against his fellow sprinters to increase his lead in the GC. He was very well placed on Siedler’s (MRM) wheel and again it was the easiest thing in the world for Stuey to stroll past him a claim his second victory of the Tour of Australia.
Stuey increases his lead in the GC
After another victory it now seems likely to actually win the race. But no doubt that the 5th stage will be the all-deciding stage. So lets see how Stuey is feeling when that time comes.
Stage Result:
1 Stuart O'Grady 3h38'09
2 Fabrizio Guidi s.t.
3 Samuel Dumoulin s.t.
4 Nico Eeckhout s.t.
5 Julian Dean s.t.
6 Pierrick Fedrigo s.t.
7 Robert Hunter s.t.
8 Mikel Gaztanaga Echevarria s.t.
9 Robbie McEwen s.t.
10 Martin Müller s.t.
General Classement:
1 Stuart O'Grady 8h15'09
2 Fabrizio Guidi + 28
3 Robbie McEwen + 32
4 Samuel Dumoulin + 44
5 Mikel Gaztanaga Echevarria s.t.
6 Baden Cooke s.t.
7 Martin Elmiger + 50
8 Julian Dean + 52
9 Elia Rigotto s.t.
10 Robert Hunter s.t.
Another flat one and another mass sprint finish. Stuey had incresed his lead in the GC quite a lot after yesterday's win. But ahead of tomorrow's queen stage, Stuey might need more time on guys like Fédrigo, Brochard and Dessel. Another stage through the desert-like australian countryside with start in Strathalbyn and finish in Yankalilla.
Controlling the pace
Again today we had an early breakaway to control. They rode away from the pack after 20 km. It was Pichot (BTL), Wilson (UNI), Docker (DRP), Poulhies (A2R), Feillu (AGL) and De Fauw (JAC). With 70 km to go they had about 7 minutes back to the back, so at this point we had to start working to reel in these guys.
The breakaway built up a decent lead
50 km to go - CSC has strung out the peloton
With 45 to go the front group split off with only Pichot (BTL) and Feillu (AGL) leading over the pack. 5 km later Feillu was dropped and only Pichot was now left. But it didn't last long, only a few km later he was reeled in and the peloton was getting ready for another hectic sprint finish.
Stuey did things by himself today but he had a bit problems finding a decent wheel before he eventually caught belgian champion Nico Eeckhout's.
Stuey had a frew problems but did manage to catch the wheel of Eeckhout.
But Stuey didn't quite manage to finish the job as Milram's Rigotto, leader of the U-25 Classement, was really strong today a managed barely to hold of a strong Stuart O'Grady, who again built on his overall lead, to be in a good position ahead of tomorrow's all-deciding stage.
Rigotto claimed victory ahead of Stuey
Stage result:
1 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM 3h47'59
2 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC s.t.
3 Julian Dean CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
4 Pierrick Fédrigo BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
5 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
6 Fabrizio Guidi BARLOWORLD s.t.
7 Erwin Thijs UNIBET.COM s.t.
8 Laurent Brochard BOUYGUES TELECOM s.t.
9 Mark Renshaw CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
10 Martin Elmiger AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
GC:
1 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC 12h02'56
2 Fabrizio Guidi BARLOWORLD + 40
3 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM + 44
4 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
5 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PREVOYANCE + 56
6 Julian Dean CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
7 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM s.t.
8 Mikel Gaztanaga Echevarria AGRITUBEL s.t.
9 Martin Elmiger AG2R PREVOYANCE + 1'02
10 Pierrick Fédrigo BOUYGUES TELECOM + 1'04
Tomorrow Stuey will need the best of help from especially Kurt-Asle, and he needs to watch out for guys like Fédrigo, Brochard and Cyril Dessel, who has the abilities of doing someting on the last climb towards the finish. But Stuey should be able to ride pretty well up the steep climb with the kind of form he's showing. So we're pretty confident that he can defend it, and that's with no doubt our no. 1 priority - to keep Stuey in the yellow jersey all the way to Adelaide.
Today is the day. The day where the Tour of Australia will be decided. The most of the day is a fairly flat affair, but then about 20 km from the finish there is a savage hill, that will definitely cause a lot of problems. But also a lot of excitement.
The climb just before the finish in Willunga
The start today is also in Willunga and again there was a almost compulsory early breakaway. After a few kilometres last year's Tour of Flander's Runner-Up Leif Hoste (PRL) attacked with lithuanian Baranauskas (PRL) on his wheel. Shorth thereafter another group of three riders took off and after 40 km the group consisted of these 5 riders: Hoste (PRL), Baranauskas (AGL), Renshaw (C.A), Power (NIC) and Pollock (DFL). At this point of the stage the group had a lead of 5 minutes back to the CSC-controlled peloton.
The breakaway on their way to Willunga
CSC controlling the breakaway
With 85 km to go and with about 65 to the Willunga Climb the gap back to the pack topped at about 7 minutes when we decided to increase the pace to reel back in the breakaway before it got too dangerous. With 30 km to the penultimate climb the lead had decreased to only 3'30". 10 km later Pollock got dropped from the group and he was back in the pack with about 10 km to the climb. With only 3 km to the climb were Renshaw and Power also back in the peloton and just as the peloton commenced driving up the final climb before Willunga, the two remaining riders Hoste and Baranauskas were also reeled in. The final was on!
Stuey and Kurt-Asle in a good position entering the final climb
The first attack came from the frenchman Cyril Dessel (A2R) and Stuart and Kurt were right on his wheels, and the three riders built up a good lead over the pack where the remaining CSC riders feel back and handed over the initiative to the other teams. The three guys in front rode away on the climb, but veteran Laurent Brochard (BTL) joined up with Stuey, Kurt and Dessel, to make the leading group even stronger. And these three guys were the strongest. After reaching the top they were about a minute and half ahead of the nearest group of another nine riders, where we also were represented with Breschel, Ljungqvist and Bak. These didn't work of course and they left the six riders, Rigotto (MRM), Gaztanaga (AGL), McEwen (PRL), Guidi (BAR), Thijs (UNI) and Dean (C.A), with a lot of work to be done. They never caught up however and the four guys in front could fight it out on the last few kilometres. The nine-man group was also caught by the peloton on the home stretch.
The leading group heading up the Willunga Climb
Heading down towards the finish line
With this performance from Stuey on the climb he had almost bagged the yellow jersey, but with two riders in the leading group we also had an advantage to take the stage victory. Stuey was with no doubt the strongest finisher in the leading group, but also Kurt is a very fast guy, so he decided to act as lead-out man for Stuey.
The last few kilometres - Stuey getting ready behind Arvesen
For a moment it seemed like Laurent Brochard would claim the stage as he bursted of when he started his sprint, but after Stuey fired off Arvesen's wheel he worked his way up to Brochard to pass him and claim a fantastic stage victory, no doubt the most fantastic of the race.
What a win for Stuey - amazing stuff!!
After crossing the finish line, the whole team rushed to Stuey to congratulate him on the stage win and bagging once and for all the leader's jersey. And Stuey was very aware of how this was at all possible, talking to an australian reporter immediately after the stage.
"I wanna thank my teammates and especially Kurt, who led me out in the sprint and there's no doubt that I couldn't win without him, because Brochard was really strong today and I didn't think I could catch him, but Kurt really set me up perfectly"
GC:
1 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC 15h37'27
2 Laurent Brochard BOUYGUES TELECOM + 1'12
3 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC + 1'16
4 Cyril Dessel AG2R PREVOYANCE + 1'24
5 Fabrizio Guidi BARLOWORLD + 2'20
6 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM + 2'24
7 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
8 Julian Dean CREDIT AGRICOLE + 2'36
9 Mikel Gaztanaga Echevarria AGRITUBEL s.t.
10 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
Tomorrow the peloton will return to Adelaide to the same circuit as they raced on on the opening day and Stuart will this time be riding in yellow. The only way he can lose that jersey is if he crashes, but the team is backing him up and I'm sure he'll earn a standing ovation tomorrow on the podium in Adelaide when he gets his fifth yellow jersey.
The final day of the 2007 Tour of Australia. We’re back in Adelaide on the same street circuit, where the riders fought it out on the 1st stage. Today it’s eight laps instead 1st stage’s four, which makes today’s ride 96 km long. Stuey is in yellow and nothing can be done about that – unless if he crashes and has to abandon, but the whole team has been protecting him through all previous stages and they’ll again today keep him out of problems. Today’s plans were slightly different. Stuey didn’t want to participate in an eventual mass sprint, so we assigned Kurt-Asle Arvesen to be lead-out man for young Matti Breschel.
Eventhough it was a short stage, we still had a few opportunists out to test their chances. After 6 km Christian Knees (MRM) attacked, with four riders, Mondory (A2R), McLachlan (DRP), Mouris (DFL) and De Fauw (JAC), hot on his wheel. Also Degano (BAR) and Brooks (NIC) attacked, but they never caught up with the five riders ahead of them, they stayed about 30 seconds behind all day
After 35 km the breakaway had built up a lead on 4’30”
CSC cruising through the streets of Adelaide, well knowing they have won the yellow jersey
It was a quiet day for GC Runner-Up Laurent Brochard, who bagged the King of the Mountain’s Jersey on yesterday’s stage to Willunga
Fabrizio Guidi wearing green eventhough Stuey was the real winner of the points competition
U-25 leader Rigotto protected by his teammates ahead of today’s sprint
The breakaway kept increasing their lead until 55 km to the finish. Here their gap topped at around 5 minutes, before Allan, Kurt-Asle, Lars, Luke, Matthes and Magnus set the pace higher to reel in the breakaway contestants. With 10 km to go our job was over when Predictor – Lotto and Unibet.com took over to finish the job, reeling in the breakaway and with about 20 km to go, all riders were back on level terms.
This was the signal for Matti and Kurt. Matti found Kurt’s wheel and the two of them began making their way to the front of the pack to set up Matti in a good position. It was hard however, and Kurt couldn’t get Matti exactly where he wanted to be, but still there were something to work with. With 7 km to go there was a mass crash. My heart stopped for a second thinking it could be Stuey, but luckily he had escaped only to see teammate and fellow aussie Luke Roberts to go down.
Kurt and Matti trying their luck
It wasn’t quite enough for Matti though. After 6 days of hard work, Kurt’s legs was sore and he couldn’t really set off quite fast enough to give Matti a shot. The young dane did well given the circumstances and he managed to ride home a decent Top 10 result. Good job by the young lad. McEwen however seems to be untouchable in Adelaide as he sprinted home to claim his second victory of the race winning the first and the last stage.
McEwen just loves Adelaide
So a fantastic race has come to an end with the best ending we could’ve imagined. Our goal before the start was to win a few stages and maybe get Stuey in the yellow jersey, but because of that stage to Willunga, we had actually counted more on Kurt-Asle to be our man for the GC, though he did pull off a 3rd place in the GC. Good job by the team, tomorrow we’ll be heading home to the CSC headquarter, to make our final preparations for our 2 races in february. I won’t be in both of them, but I’ll be the sports director for one of them, and after this result I can’t wait to get going with february.
Stage Result:
1 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO 2h08'39
2 Hilton Clarke NAVIGATORS INSURANCE s.t.
3 Sebastian Siedler TEAM MILRAM s.t.
4 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM s.t.
5 Julian Dean CREDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
6 Samuel Dumoulin AG2R PREVOYANCE s.t.
7 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
8 Matti Breschel TEAM CSC s.t.
9 Fabrizio Guidi BARLOWORLD s.t.
10 Wesley Van der Linden CHOCOLADE JACQUES - T. VLAANDEREN s.t.
GC:
1 Stuart O'Grady TEAM CSC 17h46'06
2 Laurent Brochard BOUYGUES TELECOM + 1'12
3 Kurt-Asle Arvesen TEAM CSC + 1'16
4 Cyril Dessel AG2R PREVOYANCE + 1'24
5 Robbie McEwen PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 2'04
6 Fabrizio Guidi BARLOWORLD + 2'20
7 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM + 2'24
8 Julian Dean CREDIT AGRICOLE + 2'36
9 Baden Cooke UNIBET.COM s.t.
10 Sebastian Siedler TEAM MILRAM s.t.
Stuart O’Grady won the points jersey, while Laurent Brochard claimed the ‘King of the Mountain’’s jersey
Rigotto won the U-25 Classement
Next Up......
February PreparationsEdited by niconico on 10-07-2007 12:12
The morale was high in the team following Stuart’s win in last month’s Tour of Australia, which by the way was his third overall victory in the biggest race in Australia. Eventhough the UCI calendar consisted of quite a few more races than it did in january, we decided only to race in two of them. The Etoile de Bességes and the Tour of California.
Today we had a team meeting, where we were to decide on the two teams racing these two races, but also to decide, how to assign these two races between our sports directors. With my arrival to the team we were now seven sports directors: Bjarne Riis (Den), Kim Andersen (Den), Jørgen V. Perdersen (Den), Dan Frost (Den), Alain Gallopin (Fra), Scott Sunderland (Aus) and myself. In the Tour of Australia I was directing alongside Bjarne and Scott.
The true purpose of all these spring races was to hone the fitness of our cobblestone specialists and our hilly classics specialists ahead of Milan – San Remo and the six big classics in April, where we’ve set our expectations for the team skyhigh. O’Grady, Breschel and Ljungqvist, three of our cobblestone specialists raced in Tour of Australia, so we decided to give them the month off, to prepare for the first smaller cobble races of the season, in the start of March.
Here is what we decided on:
Etoile de Bességes: Fabian Cancellara, Karsten Kroon, Alexandr Kolobnev, Martin Pedersen, Michael Blaudzun, Lars Michaelsen, Volodymir Gustov and Chris Anker Sørensen.
Sports directors: Alain Gallopin and Jørgen V. Pedersen.
Tour of California: Jens Voigt, Bobby Julich, David Zabriskie, Christian Vandevelde, Kasper Klostergaard, Nicki Sørensen, Inigo Cuesta and Juan José Haedo.
Sports directors: Bjarne Riis, Dan Frost and me.
So I got to participate in Tour of California, which is quite big as it’s one of important races for our sponsors, but with the team we’ve picked we should be able to to pull off a great result. Jens Voigt will be the leader of the team, as he’s looking to build on his form ahead of Paris – Nice, where he will also be our captain. All of our three americans are also going to show up, which our sponsors would appreciate I'm sure. Also we’ll be looking to participate in the mass sprints with our new signing, Juan José Haedo.
Jens Voigt will be looking to increase his form in Tour of California, ahead of his big goal: Paris – Nice.Edited by niconico on 10-07-2007 15:13
A.Schleck how to you make these framed and kind of edited (like your team introducing) posts. Sporting is also master of that..i like to make some magazines in my strory
Guido Mukk wrote:
A.Schleck how to you make these framed and kind of edited (like your team introducing) posts. Sporting is also master of that..i like to make some magazines in my strory
Well I just made mine in Paint. And then I just found the pictures I wanted and inserted them, and just tried a few things, moved things around etc to finish it. But I think that Paint Shop Pro would be better to do it with.
brilliant team for Besseges. 
