Its 2009, and Francaise Des Jeux, the French ProTour team, is looking to reboot after loosing Phillippe Gilbert and many of our other top riders. But we aren't looking to simply get to where we were, we want to get to the top. Our goal is to have a Tour de France winner by 2011, and a French Tour winner by 2013. For now, we have to make do with what we have.
Here is the team, we have a small team for the Protour, and we are primarily French with a few others thrown in:
Our main goal this year is obviously the Tour, but we will also be targeting other French races such as Paris-Nice, GP Ouest, Dauphine Libere, and Paris-Tours:
Sandy Casar is our main man, he has two goals this season, a Top 10 in the Tour, and a stage win in the Tour:
Sebastian Joly is our man for the hills, he's going to be looking for good results during stages of races, and smaller classics:
Benoit Vaugrenard is our top time-trialist, he'll be looking for wins almost exclusivley in that type of racing:
Although Anthony Geslin will ride some of the larger races for the team, he will lead the team almost exclusivly in smaller races (the Tour down Under not withstanding):
Although this is a rebuilding year, we have signed on some big sponsors, Renault to supply cars for us, along with LCL Banque and Europcar as they wanted their names on our shirts:
I know that I don't have a great track record on stories, but bear with me, there are a few reasons this one might survive. One, I don't have to move all the picture files by flash drive to a different computer anymore. Two, I'm making my reports smaller, that said, my dad travels a lot (this is his computer), so you'll see posts really only on the weekend. This story probably won't go anywhere, but I'm gonna try.
PCM.daily 2009 DB V2
Hard Edited by Deadpool on 25-04-2009 02:39
I lost some of the pictures, so hopefully later reports will be better
Here's the team for Down Under, Geslin will be leading, with back up from some other riders. We'll be looking for the overall with Geslin, and stages here and there. With a really strong sprinter field we most likely won't see any chances there:
The profile is mainly flat, but with a small hill near the start and some more bumps along the way:
We sent Coppel on the attack, but he would be the fifth across the KOM sprint. Duran of Fuji would take the sprint and the jersey:
Coppel would be dropped from the chase group, so for most of the stage the race looked like this:
E1: Duran - Fuji, Mori - Lampre
E2: Reimer - Cervelo, Knaven - Milram
E3: Coppel - FDJ
Peloton
All would be caught, and as the sprint neared a crash split the pack in two:
Geslin was in the front, along with a few other FDJ riders. Many of the sprinters missed the front, and even the ones who were up there weren't able to get orgainzed.
Muller of Milram got a big jump, but Geslin was flying, with a kilometer left Geslin was right behind the front riders:
Muller would hold on to win, but Geslin came through for a brilliant third and a well earned Protour point (sorry, lost the pic).
The top 63 were all given the same time, most everyone else was given a time 1'16" back.
sorry, more lost pics, hopefully it wont happen again...
Here's the stage profile:
I sent Guedson off the front early, and he was joined by Oroz (Euskatel), Del Nero (Fuji), Kireyev (Astana), and Bouyer (Bouygues). They spent almost the entire day off the fron, with Guedson taking the KOM sprint.
They would be caught with around 10 kilometers to go, and as the sprint neared Geslin was way at the back of the one big sprinter train, with all the major sprinters on it. So I told him to follow one of the weaker sprinters who was farther ahead, to get him up to the front. As the sprint started the train fractured and he jumped on to the wheel of Bennati.
Hushovd would win, having been lead out by Haussler, followed by Pozzato and Freire. Geslin however passed Bennati, and took fourth. He is obviously in good form, which is important, because we need all the points we can get here:
I think its good atm as you arnt "milking" wasting time on the poorer races if you dont pick up a top 3 here i think you might be starring at the face of relegation
Ad wrote:
I think its good atm as you arnt "milking" wasting time on the poorer races if you dont pick up a top 3 here i think you might be starring at the face of relegation
Thats the point, I will do all PT in full. Also, some (but not) all .hc races will be played, some fully, some just a stage or two. I might also throw in some fun races, like Nokere-Koerse.
The route, with a nice kick near the line it would be Geslin again for us:
Here is the team (again), but here is there fitness, as you can see Geslin is doing well for mediocre fitness:
Two jerseys for us at the start, to quote Borat, "Very Nice:"
I told Guedson to go at the break, he'll ride the Tour for us and be the breakaway man everywhere. Obviously we also wanted him to take the KOM jersey outright. He would be joined initially by Spilak (Lampre), Dominguez (Fuji), and Isasi (Euskatel, not pictured):
They would lated be joined by Roels (Milram), Poulheis (AG2R), Dyachenko (Astana, they really sent a B team), Drapac, and Pollock (both Drapac).
Guedson would attack and take the KOM sprint (and the jersey outright) with ease:
The sprint was chaos, the main train went backwards, and although the main sprinters fought back they were obviously tired. Geslin went back because he couldn't hold Goss's wheel (got to love the AI) and found himself behind Pozzato, about 40 riders back as the sprint started (sorry, the one pic I lost).
Pozzato though jumped at the start, and flew up the pack, with Geslin following at his wheel, and with a kilometer to go Geslin was around 15 riders back and moving forward. The big name sprinters were getting near the front, but still guys like Duque and Goss were holding them off:
Geslin flew even farther forward, but ran out of real estate and took 8th. Duque took an important win for Cofidis (seriously, if it weren't for Cofidis and Bouygues, I'd think we'd be going down):
Needless to say the ability of Geslin with 55 fitness to ride like this against the sprinters who are obviously not in good form bodes well for the hills, as the hillly riders will hopefully be out of form as well.
Another flat stage before the queen stage of the race, Guedson will attack for the KOM sprint, and yet again it will be Geslin for the final sprint:
Guedson attacked near the gun, but was beaten out by Voeckler and others for the KOM sprint. A bunch of other riders attacked at the top of the hill, and so around 5-7 groups formed (a fluctuating amount, as groups kept breaking apart), with Voeckler and Edvald Boasson Hagen in the front group.
Guedson was in the last group with Duran (Fuji), and Knaven (Milram):
Everyone was caught, and as the sprint began the few trains were way back. Geslin was on the wheel of Haussler (in front of Hushovd):
By constantly following different riders (Haussler to Haedo to Pozzato) Geslin moved way up and took a strong 5th, as Arvesen took a very unnnessecary three points for Saxo Bank:
Stage:
1 Kurt-Asle Arvesen Team Saxo Bank
2 Filippo Pozzato Team Katusha
3 Óscar Freire Rabobank
4 Daniele Bennati Liquigas
5 Anthony Geslin Française des Jeux
ha, and y'all (to quote Chris Tucker) thought this story was done already...
Big day today, its the Queen Stage, and, as this is Australia, it means it actually has a decent sized hill near the finish:
A big, eleven man break went today, but I told Guedson to take the day off, as the group had no chance of surviving, let alone reaching the KOM sprint:
About fifteen kilometers before Wilunga hill a number of favorites, most notably Horner and Albasini attacked, for no apparent reason, as they all just stopped and drifted back into the pack. Obviously Sean Yates was on the radio for the Astana car:
Still, as the climb neared the break still had around a minute on the pack, and it wasn't coming down, so I told the guys to chase:
As we reached the base Duque of Cofidis leaped, and so did Geslin. We decided to go early to hopefully catch the better hill riders (read: Pozzato) off balance:
Needless to say, it failed, and as the riders neared the KOM sprint around 14 riders were off the front, with Geslin near the back:
Over the top Pozzato and Gutierrez would pull away to go in front, followed by a ten man group, and then Geslin, who was way back with Pasamontes (uck):
Geslin and Pasamontes would be picked up by the pack just as the sprint started. Nowhere near what we were looking for today, but it'll have to do. Luckily, Cofidis and Bougyues did no better, so maybe we will stay up:
Meanwhile Pozzato crused to a stage (and overall, baring a crash or something on the final stage) victory:
Ad wrote:
I think its good atm as you arnt "milking" wasting time on the poorer races if you dont pick up a top 3 here i think you might be starring at the face of relegation
is the new points system running in your db deadpool? if so then the best bet might be to go for kom and points competitions. i don't think you have the riders to challenge for the overall in races but you have riders capable of winning stages and the KOM comps.
it'll definately between the french teams for who goes down though. Milram have improved this year. in the original official db they were a certainty to get relegated.
Its the last stage of the race, and its a meaningless crit. No KOM sprints, and no hope of a victory, only a crash can help us now:
It was an average day, break goes, break gets brought back. As the sprint began Geslin was on Graeme Brown's wheel, and he was being followed by Freire. Hutarovich was also near the front, but was nearing the end of his energy:
Freire would come through and take the win, while Geslin took another useless top 10 (this time a 9th):
Well, at least we got something from the race:
Stage:
1 Óscar Freire Rabobank 1h52'20
2 Wouter Weylandt Quick·Step s.t.
3 Enrico Gasparotto Lampre - N.G.C s.t.
4 Greg Van Avermaet Silence - Lotto s.t.
5 Robert Förster Team Milram s.t.
6 Filippo Pozzato Team Katusha s.t.
7 Graeme Brown Rabobank s.t.
8 Jos Van Emden Rabobank s.t. 9 Anthony Geslin Française des Jeux s.t.
10 Guillaume Blot Cofidis s.t.
Just an advice: When you save your screens, save them as PNG, not JPEG, as you have done... Then your screens get better 
).
