Hello Everybody. I will be racing you through the grand TDF of the year 2000. I hope you enjoy following it. I will be playing with the Once Deustche Bank Team and my objetive is to try to up Abraham Olano or Laurent Jalabert to the Final Podium or maybe if i can´t do the other thing, just try to win stages or win a leader competition like the king of the mountains or the green jersey.. Gladly the 2000 db comes with the Tour from that year and that´s very cool
11 flat stages
2 middle mountain stages
5 high mountain stages
2 individual time trials both totalling 75 km
1 team time trial of 69 km.
There are a total of 21 stages covering 3630 km, and the Tour will visit Lausanne in Switzerland (home of the UCI) and then into Germany, with a relatively flat individual time trial on stage 19 from Fribourg to Mulhouse. Given the proximity to his home, we can look forward to a showdown between Jan Ullrich, Armstrong and their key rivals
Lance Armstrong will count with Tyler Hamilton and Kevin Livingston to do the job again in the mountains. These home-grown American riders are powerful, smart and loyal and should give Armstrong the set-up basis he needs to repeat as TDF champ this year.
Jan Ullrich has had yet another year of well-publicized problems with his health & weight, but the classy and powerful Ullrich sure will appear. Ullrich's solid Telekom squad is committed to putting "Der Kaiser" back in Yellow in Paris, as well as supporting Erik Zabel's quest for yet another Green Points Jersey.
Marco Pantani remains an enigma: Can Pantani come back as a Tour contender? The question .. Is Yes sure it will.
Ullrich and Pantani are the most dangerous foes at this 2000 Tour, but Alex Zulle will have the entire Banesto team at his beck and call. Zulle's emerging teammate Jose Maria "El Chaba" Jimenez, winner is a true joker for the 2000 Tour.
Fernando Escartin also has both the powerful Kelme team dedicated for him, and his dynamic young teammate Roberto Heras is a pocket rocket that will put the pressure on the competition when needed.
Won't forget the pretenders to his throne either - like the ever-present twins Abraham Olano and Laurent Jalabert (O.N.C.E.). Both Olano and Jalabert are the best talented man and powerful people that everybody wants in a team. Sure they are prepare for this year's Le Grand Boucle.
Festina squad will hope that the evergreen experience of Marcel Wüst will shine in sprint finishes in the first week, while Angel Casero and Joseba Beloki can provide some firepower on GC. Chris Moreau will hope for some time trial results on stage 19, as the Belfort native wants do do well on his home turf.
What can Bobby Julich (Credit Agricole) and Frank Vandenbroucke (Cofidis) hope to offer ? Both are an enigma; but they are talented..
AG2R Prevoyance had their sprinter Jaan Kirsipuu. If Kirsipuu doesn't make it into yellow in the first stages, AG2R will support climbers Benoit Salmon and Andrei Kivilev for "le classement general." Kirsipuu's sprint crown will certainly be contested by Roman Vainsteins of Vini Caldirola.
Saeco has Laurent Dufaux as their team leader on GC but the absence of perennial power sprinter Mario Cipollini will certainly take some wind out of their sails... Commesso along with classy young Saeco talent Massimiliano Mori are looking for stage wins.
Farm Frites ..Robbie McEwen will be in the hunt in the sprint finishes, while talented German Andreas Klier will look for breaks to infiltrate and Russian champ Sergei Ivanov will hope for a top 20 GC ride.
Can Stephane Heulot bring glory to La Francaise Des Jeux? The 29 year old Frenchman is looking to finish in the top 5 by Paris, but it's doubtful that his legs will allow this. Au contraire are FDJ's young French sprinter, Jean Patrick Nazon. Nazon (23) has a great finish and with luck, could be in the hunt for a stage win.
Lotto-Adecco may be the sleeper team of the 2000 Tour...with climbing & GC talent Kurt Van de Wouwer looking for another good TDF, mostly maniac attacker Jacky Durand and powerhouse Rik Verbrugghe, Lotto looks like team managers Claudy Criquielion and Jos Brackveldt will make the maximum effectiveness of their troops for Le Tour.
Mapei-Quick Step has some issues. Issues of wealth and bounty. And transition and change.Newly crowned Italian champion Michele Bartoli is back and feisty, looking for some stage wins. Top sprinter Tom Steels of Belgium is looking to dominate the final rushes for the line. So what's it gonna be for Mapei-Quick Step? Hard to tell for sure..
Polti will have...surprise! Richard Virenque.Besides Virenque, Polti has Dutch sprinter Jeroen Blijlevens, a real danger man in a bunch finish.
Is Memorycard-Jack & Jones the little engine that could? Memorycard-J&J has as dangermen time trial specialist Michael Sandstød for a shot at yellow in the first TT at Futuroscope. Waiting in the wings is Bo Hamburger Hamburger is 30 and a mature rider in all senses.
Hello Bonjour! Welcome to Le Tour. Bonjour-Toupargel, a new French team for 2000, is headed by Jean Cyril Robin for the GC. Bonjour is hoping to say "allo" and make an early impact with breaks from Francis Simon and Didier Rous, while sprints will be the job of elder Nazon brother Damien.
Last but not least, Rabobank hopes that Michael Boogerd has had decent results so far this year, but nothing to write home to Holland about. Backing Boogerd will be a solid team of old faithfuls like Wauters, Vierhouten and Dekker, with young talent Grischa Niermann having their first look at Le Grande Boucle.
.. So Let´s Start ..
.. Let´s Start with Futuroscope Individual Time Trial ..
The opening stage for the 2000 Tour De France is a fast, flat 16.5km loop around the Futuroscope Theme Park. At 3.5km, the Cote de Jaunay-Clan is the only climb of the day, with the rest of the opening TT a rapid, rolling loop around Futuroscope.
Although Lance Armstrong (USPS) is touted as the favorite and his final start position and early experience as a sprint triathlete should help, many expect him to be hard pressed by David Millar (Cofidis), winner of the recent Route Du Sud 15km TT stage. Don't forget Lance's major TT rival Jan Ullrich,who is the defending world TT champ and Alex Zulle,Christophe Moreau or Angel Casero..
For my team and for me is a very good stage and i will try to win it with Abraham Olano or Laurent Jalabert and take some time to the favourites ..We´ll see
.. And Here The result of the Prologue .. Not good news for my riders..
Olano lost many time .. Jalabert less..Anyway no one of them were at the top ten..
Alex Zulle won the prologue,second was Lance Armstrong, and Ullrich and other favourites were near to the top 10.. The condiitons of the day were a constantly rain, so the result was a little unexpect..
Here the Video.. Next stage Tomorrow.. I Will try to catch some second with Olano and Jalabert in the sprints bonifications
I Play in Hard difficulty because it seemed the real power of pcm, and it´s very realistic too .. Yeah i think i will upload every stage
Edited by sali on 15-04-2013 08:46
sali wrote:
I Play in Hard difficulty because it seemed the real power of pcm, and it´s very realistic too .. Yeah i think i will upload every stage
Oh I can't follow then. I can't watch youtube videos because of internet (8GB a month) and java (need to update but not enough internet. Any chance you can do a bit of a report as well?
The first open road stage from Futuroscope to Loudun is 194 kilometres of almost dead-flat racing. This will no doubt result in a very fast stage, with the sprinter's teams aiming to set things up for the finish in Loudun.
But i try to do something with Jalabert and Olano in the Sprints Edited by sali on 15-04-2013 19:20
I am very sorry this ended, there was a replay error (spoiler) and my PCM stopped working properly so I had to stop it, by the time it was fixed I had lost motivation, shame... anyway good luck Sali.
Spoiler
What went wrong was I played the stage as normal and selected replay and saved it as normal but when I came to open it it opened but the profile and route were that of the following stage, many climbs but the riders did exactly the same things. They were going 40km/h up a 10% climb on a dusty track and a sprinter took the victory, it was perplexing and then it failed to work properly and was all screwed up, I apologise for not explaining the issue before now
Stage 2.. It was a rainy day like the day before, but here we are .. Let´s go.. First thing i want is to put Jalabert and Olano in the bonification of the first Sprint
I can't follow then. I can't watch youtube videos because of internet (8GB a month) and java (need to update but not enough internet. Any chance you can do a bit of a report as well?
