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Nokia - Ekspla: Project Baltic | Vuelta a Castilla y León
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| ste_18 |
Posted on 03-03-2013 11:59
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Well the team was the favourite but this doesn't mean it would be easy. Sometimes happens to loose but the team has done a decent work |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 14-03-2013 21:38
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Hello everyone!
Sorry for a continued absence that has seen this story drop off the front page but I've been extremely busy in the last couple of weeks and so I've had hardly any time to progress with this story. However, things are easing up and a holiday is on the horizon so everything's back to normal again! Hooray!
The Nokia's are off to Istria (Croatia) and preview will be up soon 
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 17:47
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| TTspecialist |
Posted on 14-03-2013 21:43
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Stromeon wrote:
Hello everyone!
Sorry for a continued absence that has seen this story drop off the front page but I've been extremely busy in the last couple of weeks and so I've had hardly any time to progress with this story. However, things are easing up and a holiday is on the horizon so everything's back to normal again! Hooray!
The Nokia's are off to Istria (Croatia) and preview will be up soon
Not being grammar nazi,but it's Istra, not IstrIa  . |
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 14-03-2013 21:47
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TTspecialist wrote:
Stromeon wrote:
Hello everyone!
Sorry for a continued absence that has seen this story drop off the front page but I've been extremely busy in the last couple of weeks and so I've had hardly any time to progress with this story. However, things are easing up and a holiday is on the horizon so everything's back to normal again! Hooray!
The Nokia's are off to Istria (Croatia) and preview will be up soon
Not being grammar nazi,but it's Istra, not IstrIa .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istria_c...ria_county
Edit: Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Istria
Edited by FroomeDog99 on 14-03-2013 21:49
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 14-03-2013 21:48
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Classics Specialist
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I think you can spell it either Istra or Istria
Edit: Zabel'd
Edited by Stromeon on 14-03-2013 21:48
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| ste_18 |
Posted on 14-03-2013 21:48
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Protected Rider
Posts: 1384
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TTspecialist wrote:
Stromeon wrote:
Hello everyone!
Sorry for a continued absence that has seen this story drop off the front page but I've been extremely busy in the last couple of weeks and so I've had hardly any time to progress with this story. However, things are easing up and a holiday is on the horizon so everything's back to normal again! Hooray!
The Nokia's are off to Istria (Croatia) and preview will be up soon
Not being grammar nazi,but it's Istra, not IstrIa .
Not a mistake: in italian is Istria while in Croatian and in Slovenian is Istra. At maximum the mistake is to consider Istria as a Croatian city, it's usually considered an Italian city iirc.
Zabel'd twice.
Edited by ste_18 on 14-03-2013 21:49
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 14-03-2013 21:50
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 Istrian Spring Trophy
 TEAM NOKIA - EKSPLA 
Leader: Ramunas Navardauskas
Free Element: Jussi Veikkanen
Free Element: Kjell Carlström
Team-mate:  Gatis Smukulis
Team-mate: Raivis Belohvosciks
Team-mate:  Tanel Kangert
Short opening prologue + weak field + In-form Navardauskas = WIN
Or so we hope. Navardauskas is in great shape at the moment and with not much competition in the time-trialling stakes nothing but a win will really do. Two uphill finishes mean this race should be interesting and unpredictable, we are hoping for our two Finns to do something here.
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 14-03-2013 22:48
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Tour de France Champion
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Hope Ramunas does you proud in Croatia |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 15-03-2013 21:38
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sutty: He's been training really hard the past week or so so I'm sure he'll do pretty well
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 15-03-2013 21:51
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Istrian Spring Trophy
Stage 1: Umag
With no real rivals in the time-trialling department, all eyes are turned towards Ramunas
Smukulis seems to have a glint in his eye as he sets off. He finished 13th, which isn’t bad but looking at the weak field it was a bit of a below-par performance for him
Ramunas comes across the line soon after and smashes the provisional time set by  Eric Young by 11 seconds! Surely that would be enough to hold on?
Belohvosciks put in another good performance in the prologue and finished 7 seconds behind Navardauskas
Tanel Kangert is away down the ramp in his first race for Nokia-Ekspla. However, he’s not anywhere near peak form yet and, whilst not really being a time-triallist, 65th place would be something he would look to improve upon in the coming months.
In the end, Ramu’s performance was miles ahead of everyone else’s. He comfortably takes the race lead and with Raivis in 2nd it's a great 1-2 for us
| 1 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | 4'52 | | 2 | | Raivis Belohvosciks | Nokia - Ekspla | + 7 | | 3 |  | Robert Bartko | LKT Team Brandenburg | + 9 | | 4 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 11 | | 5 | | Eric Young | Bissell Cycling | s.t. | | 6 |  | Lasse Bøchman | Glud & Marstrand - LRØ | + 12 | | 7 |  | Lluis Guillermo Mas | Burgos BH - Castilla y León | s.t. | | 8 |  | Andrew Tennant | Rapha Condor - Sharp | s.t. | | 9 |  | Anton Vorobyev | Itera - Katusha | + 13 | | 10 |  | Jeremy Vennell | Bissell Cycling | s.t. |
1 Ramunas Navardauskas - Grabs our second win of the season in a dominant display
2 Raivis Belohvosciks - Better than everyone else out there apart from Ramunas - great effort!
3 Jussi Veikkanen - Solid effort from someone not great on the TT bike
The competition in the hills doesn't look that formidable either so, while it won't be easy keeping the leader's jersey, it shouldn't pose too many problems for us. Stay tuned for tomorrow's uphill finish!
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 17-03-2013 11:30
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Istrian Spring Trophy
Stage 2: Umag - Labin
With a very bumpy second half, this stage should prove pivotal to the GC. The hill at the finish is very narrow and for the last kilometre or so is really really steep. The biggest threat to Ramunas will undoubtedly come from Stefan Schumacher, just 11 seconds back and much better on the hills.
There was action right from the start as lots of riders looked to go on the offensive. Carlström had similar ideas, and won the first mountain sprint ahead of Lachlan Morton
However, all these attacks were brought back and by the time we crested the first of the 2nd cat Climbs, a break still hadn’t managed to get away!
Kjell attacked again and managed to build up a bit of a gap before winning another of the sprints
With just over 25km to go Carlström decided to go on the offensive and broke away from his companion Matthias Bertling. Meanwhile in the peloton several different riders were trying to get away, hoping to build up a substantial lead before the final climb
However, he was soon overtaken by two dangerous riders,  Daan Olivier and  Dan Craven
They were joined by four other riders: McNally, Belda, Vorobyev, and  Branaa. At the foot of the climb this group had an advantage of 1'20 to the pack, with Kjell now back with the rest of the Nokias
Strong work on the front from Smukulis and Kangert meant we weathered dangerous attacks from favourites Lasse Bochman and Michael Rasmussen
With 2kms to go we made the catch but Rasmussen was having none of it and set off on the offensive again
400m to go and you can see the finish line up in the top of the picture but the gradients were hovering around 15-20%! Rasmussen was in front with his team-mate Schumacher just behind him but Navardauskas was closing in fast with the good kick that he's got...
But it's not quite enough as it's a Christina Watches 1-2 - Schumacher looks across at Rasmussen to see his team-mate striving for the line. Navardauskas is a close third and the trio have opened up a big enough gap for it actually to register with the game! Bochman is fourth, 27 seconds behind, and the rest of the pack come in a further 11 seconds afterwards, with Smukulis sneaking in to the top 10 as well!
| 1 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | 3h55'31 | | 2 | | Michael Rasmussen | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 3 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. | | 4 | | Lasse Bøchman | Glud & Marstrand - LRØ | + 27 | | 5 |  | Christer Rake | Joker Merida | + 38 | | 6 | | Fred Rodriguez | Team Exergy | s.t. | | 7 | | Daan Olivier | Rabobank Continental Team | s.t. | | 8 | | Stuart Shaw | Drapac Professional Cycling | s.t. | | 9 | | Gatis Smukulis | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. | | 10 | | Matt Cooke | Team Exergy | s.t. |
So has this result, with bonus seconds taken into accout, altered the GC?
| 1 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | 4h00'14 | | 2 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 1 | | 3 | | Michael Rasmussen | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 22 | | 4 | | Lasse Bøchman | Glud & Marstrand - LRØ | + 48 | | 5 | | Raivis Belohvosciks | Nokia - Ekspla | + 54 | | 6 | | Daan Olivier | Rabobank Continental Team | + 56 | | 7 | | Anton Vorobyev | Itera - Katusha | + 58 | | 8 | | Lluis Guillermo Mas | Burgos BH - Castilla y León | + 59 | | 9 |  | Jeremy Vennell | Bissell Cycling | + 1'00 | | 10 |  | Nico Eeckhout | An Post - Sean Kelly | s.t. |
Unfortunately yes, Schumacher leads Ramu by 1 second but you can be sure we will be fighting for every bonus second available!
After a valiant effort today, Carlström will wear the polka-dots tomorrow!
| 1 | | Kjell Carlström | Nokia - Ekspla | | 32 | | 2 | | Matthias Bertling | Team Eddy Merckx - Indeland | | 24 | | 3 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | | 16 |
1 Carlström - Did really well to lead the mountains classification by the end of the day through persistent attacking
2 Smukulis - Great pace-work allied with a strong finish on top of the hill
3 Navardauskas - Disappointed to lose the GC lead but a strong performance nevertheless
Whew, an exciting stage that one! More of the same perhaps tomorrow, although the last climb isn't quite that steep. The whole team did a great job today, everyone contributed a lot. Look out for Ramu sprinting for those bonifications tomorrow (hopefully)!
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 17-03-2013 11:32
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World Champion
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Just one second. You can do it Navardauskas. |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 17-03-2013 18:00
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Ramunas and Raivis are looking really good |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 18-03-2013 21:28
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Miguel: We're all rooting for him!
sutty: Yep, let's hope that Schumacher can't pull away from them in the next stage
Tried racing stage 3 today but for some reason the game crashed, first time that's happened for a while, so I'll try again tomorrow
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 18-03-2013 22:48
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Lets hope it sorts itself out and is nothing serious |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 19-03-2013 07:27
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Tour de France Champion
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Hope the crash was one time only! |
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| Daggen |
Posted on 19-03-2013 08:41
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Sprinter
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You're going strong  |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 19-03-2013 19:41
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sutty and Ian: Don't worry it seems fine now!
Daggen: Yep, just need that 1 second from somewhere
I've been tinkering around with the graphics recently because I think my screenshots always seem to look a bit dark and so they look really nice now - hope you'll notice an improvement in quality in the next report
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 19-03-2013 19:56
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Classics Specialist
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Istrian Spring Trophy
Stage 3: Vrsar - Motovun
Another uphill finish awaits us but it's not anything like as steep as yesterday's. Should favour a punchy sprinter like Rodriguez or Reihs
Christina Watches seemed determined not to let a break form at all and set an extremely high pace - some of our team were struggling to hold on!
But at last, after 60kms of attacks being brought back, a break formed. We made sure that no one in it had any KoM points so Carlström could defend his jersey. The break didn’t contain any dangerous riders and probably wouldn’t be much of a threat
Smukulis, Kangert and the poor old Christina domestiques were controlling the pace at the front as we pegged the gap to about 3 minutes as the break crested the 2nd category climb, the sprint of which was won by Thomas Rabou
Unfortunately we were unable to bring the break back before the intermediate sprint, where Ramunas could have got those vital bonus seconds. Thereafter we concentrated on bringing back the attacks and counter-attacks that started coming from the pseudo-favourites
The break was brought back with just under 10km to go as we started the final ascent. However, some riders - especially Belda and Gjolberg - refused to give up as the peloton was down to about 70 riders now.
As more and more attacks started coming, suddenly one stuck! A group containing Fred Rodriguez, Floris Goesinnen, Anton Vorobyev, Michael Reihs, Barton, Vennell, Craven and most importantly of all, Navardauskas, established a 40 second lead over the pack, which contained the yellow jersey!
800m to go, the finish line's in sight and the gap's still sticking! Rodriguez and Goesinnen are out in front with Navardauskas in third at the moment
It's going to be very tight at the finish... Meanwhile, Schumacher has attakced and looks to be bridging the gap with a powerful uphill sprint
Goesinnen takes it ahead of Ramunas and Rodriguez! Now come on, please give those gaps… Please…
Yes! Result! 19 seconds + time bonifications mean Ramunas definitely takes over in yellow!
| 1 | | Floris Goesinnen | Drapac Professional Cycling | 4h04'43 | | 2 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. | | 3 | | Fred Rodriguez | Team Exergy | s.t. | | 4 | | Michael Reihs | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 5 | | Dan Craven | Team IG - Sigma Sport | + 19 | | 6 | | Jeremy Vennell | Bissell Cycling | s.t. | | 7 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 8 | | Anton Vorobyev | Itera - Katusha | s.t. | | 9 | | Chris Barton | Bissell Cycling | + 47 | | 10 | | Daan Olivier | Rabobank Continental Team | + 56 |
| 1 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | 8h04'46 | | 2 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 30 | | 3 | | Floris Goesinnen | Drapac Professional Cycling | + 1'00 | | 4 | | Fred Rodriguez | Team Exergy | + 1'12 | | 5 | | Michael Reihs | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 1'19 | | 6 | | Anton Vorobyev | Itera - Katusha | + 1'28 | | 7 | | Michael Rasmussen | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 1'29 | | 8 | | Jeremy Vennell | Bissell Cycling | + 1'30 | | 9 | | Dan Craven | Team IG - Sigma Sport | + 1'31 | | 10 | | Lasse Bøchman | Glud & Marstrand - LRØ | + 1'55 |
1 Smukulis - Great work on the front all day set up the result from Ramunas
2 Navardauskas - Caught on to the right attack and takes over the race lead!
3 Kangert - More good help at the front of the pack
Well that couldn't have gone any better and we're now in possession of all four jerseys! The last stage is a flat sprint so all of them except points are pretty much secure. See you there
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| Daggen |
Posted on 19-03-2013 22:43
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Well done |
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