Welcome everybody to my first story, I manage Team High Road in the year 2008! I was thinking about it before but it was too much work, so I decided to do the Grand Tours only. After a season with up’s and a lot of downs I’m going to start the Giro d’Italia within a few days. But first I’m going to tell you about the months before.
It all started in Australia, Rogers and Hansen were the first to go because of there championships. You could see that the opposition was in an even worse shape then the High Road men because Rogers won the TT championships easily and in the road race Hansen was in an early breakaway but nobody could keep up with him the last 20 kilometers. They were already 9 minutes ahead so that was also an easy victory!
Next I’ll tell you the results of the riders.
Pinotti; 1st Amgen Tour of California (Goal of our sponsor)
He won by two good time trials (won them both) and hanging on in the mountains!
Boasson Hagen; 1st at two stages of Amgen Tour of California
Hincapie; 1st at Tour of Flanders (He came in alone after dropping Devolder in the last 10 km) 1st at E3 Prijs Flander
2nd at Milano – San Remo (Breakaway but Freire came by the last 50 meter)
Klier; 1st at Nokere Koerse
This is an easy race to win, the “old men” does a lot for the team so I’ll let him win.
Haussler;
2nd at 3 stages of the Tour Down Under and once he was 3rd (Boy was he disappointed!) 1st at 6th stage of the Tour Down Under (The team was very happy for him)
3rd at Milano – San Remo (2nd in sprint after Freire but Hincapie was still between them)
4th at Gent – Wevelgem
"Hollywood Heinrich" was also Pro Tour Leader for a while after Gent-Wevelgem until Fränk Schleck took it over.
Martin;
9th at Amstel Gold Race (2nd in the bunch sprint on the Cauberg after Valverde)
Kirchen;
He was our main men for the Triple, well he was very depressed the week before and you can see that his results. AGR; 45th / Fleche Wallonie; 21st / Liege-Bastogne-Liege; 21st
After those races he became 10th in the General Classification of the Vuelta Ciclista Pais Vasco but we were still disappointed in Kim because these were his days to shine. He ride every race he wanted and his pre-season was perfect. We had a good chat with him and we are hoping to see him in de Tour de France and the classics after the Vuelta Espana.
Now we are almost at the start of the Giro d’Italia, lets go on to that…
Team High Road at the Giro d'Italia
The riders are still busy in the mountains of switserland, riding the Tour de Suisse. After the last Pro Tour race before the Giro the final selection will be made up. Depending on conditions and their capibilities! A sponsor goal is to take a stage victory, well this will not be the hardest one I think.
These are the 5 man which are already sure for riding the Giro;
"Der Linus"; the young German will ride for the GC. Our goal is to ride top 5 with him. He is capable for it and with the last stage being a time trial it might be possible for more! He have to close to main favorites Ricco and Cunego!
Morris Possoni; A good climbing helper and also one of the favorits of second manager Valerio Piva. And a little bit because he is Italian...
Marco Pinotti; a true helper for years. He is in a good condition and why should I not let him ride the grand tour in his own country! He also plays an import role in the first stage, team time trial!
"Bernie"; he is not in a really good shape jet. But in his Program he asked to ride the Giro so we don't now what to expect for him. One thing is going to do is pull the train for "Caveman"!
"Caveman"; someone we know exactly what to expect of, coming out of the wheel of Eisel as a tiger to the line in every bunch sprint!
The last 4 will places will be took by Wyss, Greipel, Siutsou, Martin, Hagen, Wiggins or Grabsch. This wil be very soon you'll hear about the selection!
Thomas is not in shape because he brook is knee in februari and was out till the end of may. He's getting better every day now and if he progress likes he does now he might diserve a place at the Tour squad!
How do i post the startlist of the Giro d'Italia!?
Well the Giro squad is complete! The last 4 riders are;
Marcel Wyss; upcoming Grand Tour winner can sniffle for the first time. It was or the Giro, or the Vuelta. He is in a really good shape now so we hope he's finishes the Giro. That's his individual goal!
"Wiggy"; he showed in the Tour de Romandie that he was in a great shape and because of the TTT he is one of the best options.
Kanstantin Siutsou; this young talent haven't showed a lot. Most of the time he's a helper but he is really good at it. Also in a great shape. Maybe he can choose a nice day for a stage win on a hilly ride.
Bert Grabsch; the same as Bradley. But Bert didn't ride the Tour of Romandie, but he can be a good helper to pull the sprint and for the TTT.
We didn't knew what to expect, but with riders like Wiggins, Gerdemann, Pinotti and Grabsch we had a very good chance of winning. There are not a lot of picture's of the race because it was not really exited those TTT's.
Totally flat stage, ideal for my TT'ers
The first to start were Caisse d'Epargne, L.L. Sanchez lost more then a minute.
And off we go! Wiggins, Pinotti and Gerdemann up front. It would be a tough 30 km...
Rank Name Team Time 1Bert Grabsch Team High Road 40'40
2Bradley WigginsT eam High Road s.t.
3Marco Pinotti Team High Road s.t.
4Linus Gerdemann Team High Road s.t.
5Mark Cavendish Team High Road s.t.
6Marcel Wyss Team High Road + 22
7Levi Leipheimer Team Astana + 50
21Carlos Sastre Team CSC s.t.
23Thomas Dekker Rabobank + 1'08 25Morris Possoni Team High Road s.t.
26Kanstantsin Siutsou Team High Road s.t.
27Robert Gesink Rabobank s.t. 28Bernhard Eisel Team High Road s.t.
39Luis León Sánchez Caisse d'Epargne + 1'13
42Sandy Casar Française des Jeux s.t.
52Sylvain Chavanel Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone + 1'15
67Vincenzo Nibali Liquigas + 1'25
71Franco Pellizotti Liquigas s.t.
92Alexander Efimkin Quick·Step + 1'31
94Jurgen Van den Broeck Silence - Lotto + 1'35
102Paolo Savoldelli LPR Brakes - Ballan + 1'44
106Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes - Ballan s.t.
123Juanjo Cobo Saunier Duval - Scott + 1'50
126Riccardo Riccò Saunier Duval - Scott s.t.
139Stefano Garzelli Acqua e Sapone - Caffè Mokambo + 1'51
143Mauricio Soler Barloworld s.t.
156Marzio Bruseghin Lampre + 1'57
166Damiano Cunego Lampre s.t.
Reporter; Marcel, do you have a minute!? What did you feel? It were only 30 kilometers!?
Marcel; Well, uh, it was the hardest 30 kilometer in this year as a pro. I'm very unlucky being in a team with Wiggins and Grabsch, i saw that even Linus had some difficulty. Reporter; What do you aspect from your first Grand Tour!?
Well not so much actually, if everything goes like it has too you won't see me a lot. Maybe if i have the right legs i'll try something in the 2nd week. But my task is to help Linus to the top 10. Reporter; Allright Marcel, thank you and good luck further on.
Reporter; Teammate of Wyss, Linus Gerdemann is standing next to me. Linus this is a good start for you as a GC rider.
Linus; that's correct, but i died about 3 times i thougt. I was behind Bradley and Marco, boy, Wiggins sometime pulled the speed up to 54 with this wind. Reporter; so what do you think of the standings so far.
What can i think? I'm 1 minute in front of a lot of other GC riders but my climbing abillity is not that good. The last week there are 5 climbing stages i think, and also a climbing timetrial. Only the last day, a TT, i might take a few seconds on guys like Ricco, Cunego, and Di Luca. Reporter; so those are you competitors this 3 weeks?
Linus; Yes, guys like Di Luca, Cunego, Ricco, Nibali not yet, Garzelli is always strong. But i don't now what to expect from guys like Leipheimer and Luis Leon, maybe they ride for GC, maybe for TDF training. Reporter; so Italy up, who will win?
Linus; A lot of good Italians but i think Thomas Dekker will win. Reporter; Allright, thank you for now Linus!
The riders finished the second stage, let's see what all happend...
It was an almost flat stage, the "uphill" finish was only 1% and still the organisation said that Cunego, Rebellin and Di Luca were the favorites. But we think it's going to be a mass-sprint on the line, well we hope so.
The first break of the day was also the one! Pauriol (CrAgr) started to attack, followed by Hary (Cofi), Mandri (AG2R) and Siutsou.
Liquigas, Caisse d'Epargne and FDJ were leading the pack but weren't pushing.
Mandri wanted too sprint for the first points, Siutsou and Pauriol wanted to let him win because Mandri has 72 sprint and the others 52, 54 and 55.
Damn! Eisel fell on the ground! He touched the rear wheel of a Lampre rider. He is injured but could make it to the finish, hopefully he will recover this night. Otherwise he might be the first to go in this years Giro.
Astana waited for Eisel to come back and then started their hunt. With a maximum of 9 minutes to the break away and stil 133 km to go it was an easy task for the boys of Bruyneel.
Lopez (CdE) was breaking away, i didn't know why because the peloton had a steady pace. But then i was even more flabbergasted, Kreuziger (Liq) was trying to follow him in the break away. But it went never more then 20 seconds.
Siutsou took al the KoM points, that's good because in the Giro there aren't a lot of points to grab. A hard classification to win.
After the last KoM Kanstantin didn't bother any more and the other riders saw it was an impossible case to win today. With 50 km to go they were caught up.
The teammates kept Gerdemann and Cavendish in front, also Sastre (CSC), Soler (Barlo), Sanchez (CdE) and Garzelli (A&S) stayed in front.
Liquigas was pulling the pack but why? For Maurillio Fischer? Grabsch (Pink) is setting up his own little train for Caveman.
Grabsch is going to the front and his pulling hard!
The first moment Bert lost speed Cavendish went like a rocket, the first sprint and a victory. Really a relieve falling of his shoulders. Can he win the 7 flat stages?
Napolitano (Lam) wasn't any were near. Closely followed by Paolini (A&S) and Hunter (Barlo).
Caveman was really happy, this was also his first win of the season! Better late then never. But nobodyelse on the picture...
Bert was also really excited!
In the results i'll always show the names of my team, import riders who lost time, the last one that finished and the one who gave up.
Stage Results
Rank Name Team Time
1 Mark Cavendish Team High Road 4h57'21
2 Danilo Napolitano Lampre s.t.
3 Luca Paolini Acqua e Sapone - Caffè Mokambo s.t.
4 Robert Hunter Barloworld s.t.
5 Paolo Bettini Quick·Step s.t.
6 Stefano Garzelli Acqua e Sapone - Caffè Mokambo s.t.
7 Davide Rebellin Gerolsteiner s.t.
8 Bert Grabsch Team High Road s.t.
9 Gabriele Balducci Acqua e Sapone - Caffè Mokambo s.t.
10 Robbie McEwen Silence - Lotto s.t.
38 Morris Possoni Team High Road s.t.
64 Marcel Wyss Team High Road s.t.
66 Bradley Wiggins Team High Road s.t.
67 Marco Pinotti Team High Road s.t.
72 Linus Gerdemann Team High Road s.t.
99 Bernhard Eisel Team High Road s.t.
105 Kanstantsin Siutsou Team High Road s.t.
182 Chris Horner Team Astana + 3'46
198 Sébastien Hinault Crédit Agricole + 16'47
General Classification
Rank Name Team Time
1 Mark Cavendish Team High Road 5h37'41
2 Bert Grabsch Team High Road + 20
3 Bradley Wiggins Team High Road s.t.
4 Marco Pinotti Team High Road s.t.
5 Linus Gerdemann Team High Road s.t.
6 Marcel Wyss Team High Road + 42
7 Levi Leipheimer Team Astana + 1'10
8 Sergei Ivanov Team Astana s.t.
9 Michael Schär Team Astana s.t.
10 René Haselbacher Team Astana s.t.
11 Kanstantsin Siutsou Team High Road + 1'22
19 Morris Possoni Team High Road + 1'28
24 Bernhard Eisel Team High Road s.t.
Points Classification
Rank Name Team Points
1 Mark Cavendish Team High Road 25
2 Danilo Napolitano Lampre 20
3 Luca Paolini Acqua e Sapone - Caffè Mokambo 16
4 Robert Hunter Barloworld 14
5 Paolo Bettini Quick·Step 12
6 Stefano Garzelli Acqua e Sapone - Caffè Mokambo 10
7 Davide Rebellin Gerolsteiner 9
8 René Mandri AG2R - La Mondiale 8
9 Bert Grabsch Team High Road 8
10 Gabriele Balducci Acqua e Sapone - Caffè Mokambo 7
11 Kanstantsin Siutsou Team High Road 6
Mountain Classification
Rank Name Team Mountain
1 Kanstantsin Siutsou Team High Road 6
2 René Mandri AG2R - La Mondiale 3
3 Maryan Hary Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone 3
Reporter; Mark, Mark, can you tell the viewers about your first victory this season?
Mark; Yeah, I had to wait very long for it but it finally hapend! Bert did a real good job for me and of course the other teammates during the race. Reporter; So Mark, with still 7 almost flat stages to go, how many will you win of them?
Mark; 6, their could be a breakaway once. Reporter; Well then the other sprinters can go home...
Mark; If they want to win the green jersey they have to stay because i don't think i'm going to ride the last week. Only climbing stages and i want to win a stage in the TDF and Vuelta also. Reporter; allright, thank Mark, the organisation asked you on the podium.
Mark; right mate, see ya.
Reporter; Guten tag Bert, sprechen Sie Anglais?
Bert; Jes, a bit. Reporter; nice, tell us about the last 5 km...
Bert; Wel i steed in the weel from Liqiugas men and pouled te sprint for Mark then. Reporter; you had a lot of speed because the pack was spliting up in front.
Bert; Wel i didn't saw, just did the job they asked. Reporter; you were very happy for Cavendish?
Bert; yes me was happy, for Cavendish and for me, now i lost that gay shirt. Reporter, Well thanks Bert, see you the next few weeks.
