I am starting a new story with Astana. It’s a natural team for me as it is my favorite team with all my favorite riders. For all of you who think it will be boring, it won’t because I suck at PCM 09(got it yesterday), I will also probably bump up the difficulty after a while, plus I also have very hard goals. And having so many GC contenders will surely create problems as we have seen in real life.
There won’t be big updates on all the races I’m riding; it’s the Grand Tours that will get the most attention. Also Andreas Klöden will have a monthly column where he discusses the races coming up, and the atmosphere within the team.
In a while comes the team presentation plus the goals.
Ok Goldberger this will be a great story i started an Astana story with the pcm 08 now it´s your turn good luck and Yes i know it won´t be easy with all these amazing riders.
good luck i hope you can win the tour (doesn´t matter whether Contador or Armstrong or Klöden or Leipheimer)
Edited by Batista15 on 26-07-2009 15:11
Lance Armstrong, Assan Bazayev, Jani Brajkovic, Alberto Contador, Valeriy Dmitriyev, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Jesús Hernández, Chris Horner, Maxim Iglinskiy, Roman Kireyev, Andreas Klöden, Berik Kupeshov, Levi Leipheimer, Steve Morabito, Dmitriy Muravyev, Daniel Navarro, Benjamín Noval, Sérgio Paulinho, Yaroslav Popovych, Bolat Raimbekov, Gregory Rast, Sergey Renev, José Luis Rubiera, Michael Schär, Tomas Vaitkus, Andrey Zeits, Haimar Zubeldia.
Johan Bruyneel on the 2009 Astana Team:
“Like always when I’m team manager, we will have a strong team for the stage races. Of course the big news is that Lance Armstrong is making a comeback to promote the fight against cancer, but he will also race hard, I know that. In addition we now have Haimar Zubeldia and our old friend Yaroslav Popovych on the team, two riders who are very important for our big goal the Tour De France.”
Our tree headed attack from last year Alberto Contador, Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden is also back and stronger than ever. And last but not least we have a bunch of young and strong kasakh riders headed by Maxim Iglinskiy and Assan Bazayev. Our main sponsor Astana has given us tough goals for this season, win the Giro, Tour and the Vuelta. We are also happy to announce that we have three new sponsors: M1 d’Euvre, TV ESP and Banco San Sebastian. We get a monthly payment from them, plus a bonus if we can achieve top 10 placings in GP Vlaanderen, The World Championships and Liege Bastogne Liege. Tough goals indeed but we are looking forward to the challenge.”
Three Questions for Astanas top Guns by Cycling Weekly:
Alberto Contador:
CW: What are your season goals this year?
Alberto: My number one goal is the Tour De France, to win It for the second time. My whole season will be focused on that, but if the opportunity is there I would also like to win Paris-Nice.
CW: How do you feel about the team this year?
Alberto: Without a doubt we have the strongest team in the world. I think I am in the perfect place to win the tour again, after last year’s disappointment.
CW: How do you see the leadership issue with the arrival of Lance Armstrong?
Alberto: I think nothing of it. I have nothing to prove, I have already won all the Grand Tours. The race will decide who is the strongest anyway, it always tells the truth.
Lance Armstrong:
CW: How does It feel to be back?
Lance: Feels good. I’m old but I still have the passion and the desire to perform at this level. Now we just have to wait and see how my body reacts to the hard training, but so far I’m feeling strong.
CW: What are your goals this season?
Lance: Well, first priority is to promote the fight against cancer on a global scale. Secondly I think I’m doing the Giro/Tour double this year, I will discuss my race schedule with Johan later.
CW: Are you gunning for the 8th tour win?
Lance: Me? At 37? I don’t know, if everything goes well, then maybe.
Levi Leipheimer:
CW: What’s motivating you this year Levi?
Levi: The races, particularly the Grand Tours. This year I’m team leader in the Giro and also doing the Tour. I’m excited.
Cw: What do you think about Lance’s comeback?
Levi: I love it. To ride and train with Lance is inspiring and I’m sure he will be strong in the races too. He’s already pushed me to the limit on our training ride, so the guy still has it.
CW: The Tour of California is coming up soon. Can you win it for the third time?
Levi: That’s the goal I have been working towards trough the winter, I would love to win my favorite race again, in front of my home crowd.
Next up is a summary of the Team Astana training camp and a recap of Tour Down Under.
Edited by Goldberger on 26-07-2009 19:05
Going to be a quick recap of Tour Of Quatar and Tour Down Under, plus Andreas Klöden’s column . Not wasting too much energy on January and February as they are not really important months for Astana. Aiming for a stage win with Vaitkus in Australia, and possibly the GC with Sweet Baby Jesus Hernandez. In Quatar Bazayev is hoping for a stage win.
Typical spinter stage, flat all the way. We sent Dyachenko in the breakaway, the young Kazakh worked very well and because of bonus second was rewarded with the white jersey at the end of the day. Now Astana started working for Vaitkus, the train with Schar and Rast brought Vaitkus brilliantly to the front of the peleton.
The swiss duo Rast and Schar doing a brilliant lead out
In the end it was a battle against Boonen, and although the Belgian finished strongly it wasn’t enough to beat Thomas. Our first victory of the season.
Thomas swapping his Lithuanian champ jersey with the yellow jersey
Rank Name Tea Time 1 Tomas Vaitkus ASTANA 3h37'52
2 Tom Boonen QUICK STEP s.t.
3 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE s.t.
4 Murilo Fischer LIQUIGAS s.t.
5 Bernhard Eisel TEAM COLUMBIA - HIGH ROAD s.t.
6 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - N.G.C s.t.
7 Gert Steegmans TEAM KATUSHA s.t.
8 Julian Dean GARMIN - SLIPSTREAM s.t.
9 Kayle Leogrande ROCK RACING s.t.
10 Tristan Valentin COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE s.t.
Stage 2,3,4:
The next stage was a bit tougher with a small hill to the finish. Astana sent Dimitriyev in the breakaway to avoid working in the peleton, eventough we had the yellow jersey. The break was caught with 20kms to go. But this time the sprint was too hard for Vaitkus who only got 1oth. The World Champion Ballan took a great victory. Leonardo Duque took the yellow jersey. Stage 3 was another flat race where Boonen showed no mercy in the sprint, Vaitkus 7th. Daniele Bennati was strongest in stage 4, with Boonen second. Vaitkus got caught up behind a crash and could not be up there in the sprint.
Stage 5: Wilunga
Here we go. The toughest stage of the Tour Down Under. Going twice over Wilunga Hill, with 20kms to go the last time over. The early breakaway stayed away until the second time up the climb. Our plan was to have Sweet Baby Jesus attack, while Vaitkus remained in the peleton.
Suddenly Perreiro attacks!!!! This is a dangerous move
Jesus tries to follow an attack by Ballan, while Vaitkus has just hung on to the peleton over the climb.
Ballan, Gerrans and Duque are cruising downhill with 10k to go. The peleton is 45s back, where Boonen attacks, Vaitkus follows.
Vaitkus and Boonen reach the three leaders with 2k to go, but it’s a difficult situation for the sprint.
In the sprint Ballan takes his 2nd stage win, while Vaitkus and Boonen finishes 6th and 7th.
1 Alessandro Ballan LAMPRE - N.G.C 3h33'17
2 Leonardo Duque COFIDIS, LE CREDIT EN LIGNE s.t.
3 Manuele Mori LAMPRE - N.G.C s.t.
4 Daniele Bennati LIQUIGAS s.t.
5 Simon Gerrans CERVELO TEST TEAM s.t. 6 Tomas Vaitkus ASTANA s.t.
7 Tom Boonen QUICK STEP s.t.
8 Oscar Pereiro CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 28
9 Jason McCartney TEAM SAXO BANK s.t.
10 Amets Txurruka Ansola EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
The last stage is won by Tom Boonen, ahead of Bennati. Boonen also wins the GC, while Vaitkus gets a great 5th place.
GP Quatar:
We sent a young team consisting of only Kasakh riders, with Bazayev the team leader. It started badly for Team Astana when we got last place in the team TTT. Bazayev fought well trough the race and got a 10th place and two 11th places. Much more wasn’t to be expected with riders like Mark Cavendish dominating the sprints.
Andreas Klöden checks in:
Hello all Astana fans. January has been a busy month so far with the Astana training camp and races in Australia and Quatar. Good news is that Thomas Vaitkus won the first stage of the Tour Down Under in great style, a fantastic start to the season. Earlier in January we had our pre season camp in the beautiful city of Calp, Spain. We got in a lot of good training while also having some fun. Not to mention the boring stuff you always have to do like interviews, photo sessions etc.
The training was very hard but I think I have built a good base for the season now, with a lot of endurance rides during the winter plus some higher intensity at the camp. I can tell you the American riders like Levi, Lance and Horner was already making us suffer on the climbs. They will be in great shape for the Tour Of California for sure. Me and Alberto will take a softer approach to the season, we are scheduled to ride the Volta do Algarve in Portugal starting the 18th of February. Maybe Alberto can win it? I don’t think I’m in good enough shape yet, but it will come.
If you have any questions for me or the team, just ask and I will answer in my next column. Until then, goodbye and take care.
kirosha wrote:
What DB is it?
And where is the stats of your team?
And please dont show names and cicles any more...
This three advices will make your story better
1) Hey, im playing only with real name DB as i hate having too many teams and races in career, it just annoys me. I have added my own stats tweaks though.
Another problem I have, is in The tour of California. I imagined going there with Levi, Lance etc, but when i look at the startlist the only other PT teams there are BBOX, Euskatel and Fuji. And also an obvious team like rock racing is not there.
Is there any way I can change this in the editor? Or does anyone have a solution?
Tour of California 2009 – Cycling Weekly’s Preview
Finally the Tour Of California is here again. And the 2009 edition is the toughest ever having 8 stages plus the opening prologue in Sacramento. The fact that the race covers 1254km’s makes it an ideal preparation for the even bigger races coming up later in the season. The most demanding and perhaps most important stages for the GC is stage 2 from Sausalito to Santa Cruz, and the stage 6 Time Trial in the beautiful town of Solvang. The race biggest climb though doesn’t come before the last stage, where Mount Palomar has to be conquered. We bet there will be fireworks there.
Here are the 09 stages;
Feb 14 Prologue - Sacramento
Feb 15 Stage 1, Davis to Santa Rosa
Feb 16 Stage 2, Sausalito to Santa Cruz
Feb 17 Stage 3, San Jose to Modesto
Feb 18 Stage 4, Merced to Clovis
Feb 19 Stage 5, Visalia to Paso Robles
Feb 20 Stage 6, Solvang time trial
Feb 21 Stage 7, Santa Clarita to Pasadena
Feb 22 Stage 8, Rancho Bernardo to Escondido
Not the strongest field ever but the the 8 Pro Tour Teams have sent some strong riders. Favorites for the overall include Leipheimer, Armstrong, Cunego, Astarloza, LL Sanchez, Danielson and Thomas Dekker.
It´s always the same with Leipheimer and Armstrong in the California Tour the first tt isn´t the best .
but don´t worry it´s normal
if you said already solvang is the most important.
good luck for this i like your story
(doesn´t matter whether Contador or Armstrong or Klöden or Leipheimer)
