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Nokia - Ekspla: Project Baltic | Vuelta a Castilla y León
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 05-02-2013 19:39
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Tour de France Champion
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Pretty cool team, I must say  |
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| FreitasPCM |
Posted on 05-02-2013 19:58
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Grand Tour Champion
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It's an interesting team with average, but nice riders, should be great. Good luck! |
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| ste_18 |
Posted on 05-02-2013 20:13
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Protected Rider
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Indeed a nice team. I'll follow this story, best of luck btw. |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 06-02-2013 08:12
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Tour de France Champion
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Nice mixture of Nationalities, this is going to be a challenge  |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 16:56
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| cunego59 |
Posted on 06-02-2013 10:31
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Team Manager
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Very nice team presentation, I'll be following!
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| fcancellara |
Posted on 06-02-2013 10:40
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Very nice presentation, the team has a busy season! 
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 06-02-2013 10:40
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Team Leader
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Nice team. Carlström has one or two good seasons on this level left in him
Have to admit though that I miss Kirsipuu out of pure nostalgia
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| krisa |
Posted on 06-02-2013 11:32
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Classics Specialist
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lovely team possition will follow this story and good luck |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 07-02-2013 18:12
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Classics Specialist
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Wow thanks for all the positive responses, I didn't expect the story to get so much attention!
Atlantius: I hope he does I almost included Kirsipuu but I thought that he'd probably only be useful for a year and I suppose he's just a bit past it really 
Meanwhile, the team has been doing some intensive training in Norway, and so there's some pictures here for you to have a look at:
A sprint to finish off with - Bagdonas on the left easily fended off the competition to win
I couldn't really be bothered to make a jersey so just used the Nokia one in game - I know it's very lazy but I think it looks quite good actually
The one who looks like he's wearing a yellow jersey is Navardauskas in his Lithuanian champion's jersey
The first six members of the squad are off to New Zealand now and I'll be able to report on that very soon, hopefully
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 07-02-2013 21:07
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Tour de France Champion
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Looks like a nice training camp |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 08-02-2013 17:13
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Classics Specialist
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 NEW ZEALAND CYCLE CLASSIC
 TEAM NOKIA - EKSPLA 
Leader: Ramunas Navardauskas
Sprinter: Gediminas Bagdonas
Free Element:  Raivis Belohvosciks
Team-mate: Gatis Smukulis
Team-mate: Normunds Lasis
Team-mate: Marius Bernatonis
A very flat race, with mass sprints expected in all four of the road-racing stages. The big time bonifications at the end of the stages will most likely negate the prologue, meaning that the GC will most likely go to a sprinter, but the prologue will separate them by a few valuable seconds, so sprinters who can time-trial, like  Filipe Cardoso,  Reinardt Janse van Rensburg, and  Ed Clancy; should do well here
This year at Nokia-Ekspla we've decided to split our team into 5 mini-teams and on the whole they will take part in all races together, with a few exceptions. We've brought our Sprint Team (Bagdonas, Lasis and Bernatonis) here as well as our TT Team (Navardauskas, Smukulis and Belohvosciks) for a bit of early season-practice. We're not expecting great things from the team, as they're all a bit rusty from the off-season, but it's always nice to start the season with a win
Favourites:
| *** | | Filipe Cardoso | Efapel - Glassdrive | | | Ed Clancy | Rapha Condor - Sharp | | ** |  | Nico Eeckhout | An Post - Sean Kelly | |  | Stefan Radochla | NSP - Ghost | | * | | Gediminas Bagdonas | Nokia - Ekspla | | | Reinardt Janse van Rensburg | MTN - Qhubeka | |  | Alex Candelario | Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 08-02-2013 19:13
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34002
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Hope you put in a Good performance in New Zealand |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 08-02-2013 21:06
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Classics Specialist
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sutty: Thanks - I hope the team will get the season off to a good start
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| krisa |
Posted on 08-02-2013 21:13
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3892
Joined: 12-04-2011
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good luck at the other side of the world |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 08-02-2013 21:38
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Classics Specialist
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The first stage for the team, Navardauskas will be looking to put in a good performance as he is one of the best CT riders in the prologues. With Smukulis, Belohvosciks and Bagdonas for company, the squad is very strong in the time-trials and so will be looking for a couple of guys in the top 10 perhaps.
Smukulis was the first Nokia-man to go - a pretty strong time-triallist but he got the season off to the worst start possible as midway through the course, his chain came off!! He recovered marginally but couldn’t put in as good a performance as he would have liked and finished some way off the pace
Our hopes for the stage were pinned on Navardauskas, but he lost out to his American rival Tom Zirbel by just three seconds in the provisional time as he crossed the line - those two will have a great rivalry in the time-trials over the season I’m sure.
At 36, Raivis Belohvosciks proved he’s not done yet and finished just 3 seconds behind Navardauskas!
A chance for our sprinter Gediminas Bagdonas to show off his Lithuanian Time-trial jersey! He's not quite good as Navardauskas, though, and finishes two seconds behind him just in front of Belohvosciks
| 1 | | Tom Zirbel | Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | 8'49 | | 2 | | Filipe Cardoso | Efapel - Glassdrive | + 2 | | 3 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 3 | | 4 |  | Bob Jungels | Leopard - Trek Continental Team | + 4 | | 5 | | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg | MTN - Qhubeka | + 5 | | 6 | | Gediminas Bagdonas | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. | | 7 | | Raivis Belohvosciks | Nokia - Ekspla | + 6 | | 8 | | Nico Eeckhout | An Post - Sean Kelly | + 7 | | 9 | | Nathan Brown | Bontrager - Livestrong Team | + 8 | | 10 | | Michael Friedman | Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | s.t. |
Introducing... the Most Valuable Cyclist feature! Every stage, 3 riders from the team will come first second and third based on their performance in the stage and will be given 3pts, 2pts, and 1pt respectively. The best rider or the rider who attains the highest position won't necessarily come top, it's about who contributed the most, or above their standard on the stage. A running total will be kept on the first page and at the end of the season a rider will be declared the Nokia-Ekspla Most Valuable Cyclist!
Today's stage:
1 Belohvosciks - prefers the longer time-trials but put in a great effort today
2 Navardauskas - a favourite for the stage, he didn’t disappoint but could easily have won it
3 Bagdonas - a good solid prologue here means if he can get some results in the sprint he could be in with a shout of the GC
Meant as a warm-up race, it's going great at the moment, with three guys inside the top 10! Watch out for guys like Cardoso, Janse van Rensburg and Eeckhout - three of the main sprinters and they've gained some good time on others in the sprints.
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 08-02-2013 21:44
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Team Leader
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Brilliant first stage for the team!
You'll get Zirbel later on I'm sure
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 08-02-2013 22:48
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Tour de France Champion
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A Great start to the race with three in the first seven |
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| Jesleyh |
Posted on 08-02-2013 22:50
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World Champion
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That's a nice first stage indeed. I like the layout, with the banners
Feyenoord(football) and Kelderman fanboy
PCMdaily Awards: 12x nomination, 9x runner-up, 0x win.
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| Jakstar22 |
Posted on 09-02-2013 02:39
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A good 3rd place. Any chance you could post a .png of the jersey. Not in the game?
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 09-02-2013 09:32
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 21379
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Excellent start! Now let's improve those standings even further! |
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