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Nokia - Ekspla: Project Baltic | Vuelta a Castilla y León
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 20-03-2013 08:12
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Tour de France Champion
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Great to see Ramunas grab the GC Lead Schumacher 
And the pictures are a lot better  |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 20-03-2013 08:27
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World Champion
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Yeah for Navardaukas.  And those pics looks really good too. |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 20-03-2013 08:35
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'Eeey, nice job 
Shots are mucb brighter now, good |
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| TTspecialist |
Posted on 20-03-2013 08:39
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Gratulation! |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 20-03-2013 18:52
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Daggen: Thanks
sutty: Yeah! Put them dopers in their place! 
Miguel: Thanks for the banana
Ian & TT: Thanks, Ramunas did great
Thanks for all comments regarding picture quality, they're certainly a step up from the old ones which always seemed a bit too dark
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 20-03-2013 19:25
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 Istrian Spring Trophy
Stage 4: Pazin - Umag
A short flat stage rounds things off here on the Croatian peninsula. The second half of the stage is a criterium round the streets of Umag, where the action kicked off three days ago. We don't have a sprinter, but we might look to launch Navardauskas if he's feeling well
The pace was quite fast all day, with Chipotle at the head for their sprinter  Steele Von Hoff. A break did form, but never pulled out an advantage that exceeded three minutes
We were down to the sprint in no time at all and it was An Post who set up the best train with their sprinter  Nico Eeckhout at the back followed by  Schumacher in the points jersey and  Fred Rodriguez
Suddenly there was a mass crash near the front of the peloton and Tanel  Kangert found himself lying on the floor behind Exergy’s Zachary Davies. Also on the ground were  Carlström and the day’s favourite - Von Hoff
Spoiler Being the last kilometre of the race it was slowed down which allowed me to get some fun shots of the crash 
Nico Eeckhout won by a couple of inches over Schumacher in a close sprint, meaning Schumacher takes over leadership of the points jersey from Ramunas, but not the overall as he managed to stay inside the lead group, avoiding the crashes
(3km rule didn't seem to apply here - does it usually in PCM?)
| 1 | | Nico Eeckhout | An Post - Sean Kelly | 2h53'03 | | 2 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 3 | | Fred Rodriguez | Team Exergy | s.t. | | 4 |  | Wesley Kreder | Rabobank Continental Team | s.t. | | 5 |  | Michael Reihs | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 6 | | Michael Kurth | Team Eddy Merckx - Indeland | s.t. | | 7 | | Stuart Shaw | Drapac Professional Cycling | s.t. | | 8 | | Niki Østergaard | Glud & Marstrand - LRØ | s.t. | | 9 |  | Christer Rake | Joker Merida | s.t. | | 10 | | Eric Young | Bissell Cycling | s.t. |
| 1 |  | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | 10h57'49 | | 2 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 18 | | 3 | | Floris Goesinnen | Drapac Professional Cycling | + 1'00 | | 4 | | Fred Rodriguez | Team Exergy | + 1'04 | | 5 | | Michael Reihs | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 1'19 | | 6 |  | Anton Vorobyev | Itera - Katusha | + 1'28 | | 7 |  | Jeremy Vennell | Bissell Cycling | + 1'30 | | 8 |  | Dan Craven | Team IG - Sigma Sport | + 1'31 | | 9 | | Nico Eeckhout | An Post - Sean Kelly | + 1'47 | | 10 | | Lasse Bøchman | Glud & Marstrand - LRØ | + 1'55 |
| 1 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | | 54 | | 2 | | Fred Rodriguez | Team Exergy | | 42 | | 3 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | | 36 | | 4 | | Michael Reihs | Christina Watches - Onfone | | 31 | | 5 | | Floris Goesinnen | Drapac Professional Cycling | | 28 |
| 1 | | Kjell Carlström | Nokia - Ekspla | | 32 | | 2 | | Matthias Bertling | Team Eddy Merckx - Indeland | | 24 | | 3 | | Thomas Rabou | Competitive Cyclist Racing Team | | 24 |
| 1 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | 10h57'49 | | 2 | | Anton Vorobyev | Itera - Katusha | + 1'28 | | 3 | | Daan Olivier | Rabobank Continental Team | + 2'03 |
| 1 | | Christina Watches - Onfone | 32h57'06 | | 2 | | Nokia - Ekspla | + 50 | | 3 | | Bissell Cycling | + 1'58 |
Tanel and Kjell are both fine - none of them are severely injured but might take a bit of time to recover.
Overall that was a great race for us and has resulted in our first overall victory ever as a team. Also credit to Carlström for securing that KoM jersey on the difficult Stage 2. We leave this race with our heads held high (although slightly annoyed at the OP team Christina Watches sent here) and this result should lift us back up the rankings a bit. Our next race is the Volta ao Alentejo, a sprinters stage race so we'll have Bagdonas and co back for that one! See you there!
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| krisa |
Posted on 20-03-2013 19:28
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still looking good for Ramunas
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| SSJ2Luigi |
Posted on 20-03-2013 19:40
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(3km rule didn't seem to apply here - does it usually in PCM?)
I think it is absent in PCM
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 20-03-2013 19:47
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Eeckhout does it again!
Seems like a bad fall there! |
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| FroomeDog99 |
Posted on 20-03-2013 19:48
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SSJ2Luigi wrote:
(3km rule didn't seem to apply here - does it usually in PCM?)
I think it is absent in PCM
It has before for me (in the last 200m though) |
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 20-03-2013 19:50
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That last pic of the crash. |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 21:21
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 20-03-2013 21:47
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krisa: Yep he's doing great so far and is way ahead of all the other team members in the rankings
Ian: He's becoming a bit of a pain in the neck Over a hundred riders went down and several lost over three minutes from the crash!
Miguel:  My favourite one is actually the first one, where the Joker rider is doing a pretty good forward roll
Edited by Stromeon on 20-03-2013 21:47
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 20-03-2013 21:54
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CALENDAR AMENDMENT!
After a recent meeting of the board of directors for Nokia-Ekspla, several members raised their concerns over the amount of races we were participating in, and whether it would be enough to gain sufficient points to be able to promote to the Pro Continental division. Therefore, after a long and heated discussion, a conclusion was made with the addition of the following races to the calendar:
| 09/04 | | Rund um Köln | 1.1 | | 22/04 | | Ronde van Noord-Holland | 1.2 | | 24/07 - 29/07 |  | Tour Alsace | 2.2 | | 03/09 | | Grote Prijs Jef Scherens - Rondom Leuven | 1.1 | | 29/09 |  | Memorial Marco Pantani | 1.1 | | 13/10 | | Chrono des Nations | 1.1 | | 21/10 |  | Japan Cup | 1.HC |
This includes some difficult Alpine climbs in the Tour Alsace, some challenging cobbles in the GPJSRL, time-trialling over 50kms in the Chrono des Nations, and our first ever .HC race in Japan!
Edited by Stromeon on 20-03-2013 21:57
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 20-03-2013 23:12
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34002
Joined: 22-08-2010
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Brilliant overall victory for Ramunas in Croatia
Along with the mountains and young rider classifications as well |
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| TTspecialist |
Posted on 21-03-2013 08:22
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Excellent driving from Navarduskas |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 23-03-2013 10:54
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sutty: I think it's really got the team up and running
TT: Yep, here's hoping for some more victories like that
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 23-03-2013 11:01
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 Volta ao Alentejo
TEAM NOKIA - EKSPLA
Leader/Sprinter: Gediminas Bagdonas
Sprinter/Lead-out: Janek Tombak
Free Element: Rene Mandri
Team-mate:  Normunds Lasis
Team-mate: Egidijus Juodvalkis
Team-mate: Marius Bernatonis
The team returns to Portugal for the second time this season, after the Volta ao Algarve last month. A rather boring race, if I'm honest, and with none of our sprinters really in good shape, it's not a race we're focussing on much, rather just to get Bagdonas and co into shape.
Most of the usual suspects are here - the ubiquitous Eeckhout and Reihs amongst them - so we'll have our work cut out.
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 23-03-2013 11:15
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Volta ao Alentejo
Stage 1: Castelo de Vide - Redondo
The first stage will most probably be a bunch sprint although there is a 2nd cat climb that we go over twice in the latter half of the stage that could cause some problems.
Christophe Premont of Wallonie took the points as we went over the Serra da Ossa climb for the first time and will wear the mountains jersey tomorrow
Climbing over the hill near the finish meant setting up a train was difficult but we got there and we're in the best position at the moment to launch Bagdonas for the sprint. Juodvalkis heads up, followed by Mandri, Tombak and then Bagdonas
2km to go and Tombak's leading out Bagdonas at the front with Mandri just dropping off next to him. On the right, it's  Pliuschin leading out Kern for Leopard Trek
Suddenly from absolutely nowhere our old rivals, Christina Watches come shooting out to the front with both Schumacher and Reihs sprinting
Bagdonas gets swamped and it's Eeckhout who takes another victory for An Post. 13th place for Gediminas represents a very disappointing result indeed especially after he was placed in such a good position by the lead-out - the final stages of which still need a lot of work
| 1 | | Nico Eeckhout | An Post - Sean Kelly | 3h57'04 | | 2 | | Julian Kern | Leopard - Trek Continental Team | s.t. | | 3 | | Michael Reihs | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 4 | | Pieter Ghyllebert | An Post - Sean Kelly | s.t. | | 5 | | Martin Pedersen | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 6 | | Filipe Cardoso | Efapel - Glassdrive | s.t. | | 7 | | Alex Candelario | Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | s.t. | | 8 |  | Jon Aberasturi | Orbea Continental | s.t. | | 9 |  | Sam Bennett | An Post - Sean Kelly | s.t. | | 10 | | Stefan Schumacher | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. |
1 Mandri - Best stint of the three at the front put us in a winning position
2 Juodvalkis - Again got the train into a good position
3 Tombak - Decent lead-out
A rather disappointing day for the team, not least because we were in such a good position. Work needed on the sprinting!
Tomorrow is an uphill finish, which could make things interesting
Edited by Stromeon on 23-03-2013 16:35
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 23-03-2013 11:38
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Meh. There's alway's more stages. |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 23-03-2013 12:53
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34002
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A quiet start in Portugal  |
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