TheManxMissile wrote:
What did you expect from Tirreno? Of course the biggest of guns were gonna show up, it's a WT race
I made a mistake, but my other medium is a stage win in Algarve, so it's not really a problem, I'll send Pozzovivo and Visconti and if I miss it I'll just move on.
It's my first time setting them, I might have overshot the line between reasonable and not but, yeah, thanks Ollfardh for giving me reasonable other ones.
Hi there,
Really looking forward to my first race in portugal, what starts pretty soon. I will try to play a role in our sprint train for Kris. He should have some decent chances, and my task is to ride the shit out of me for maybe a stage victory here. Maybe I will even get a chance myself, to go in a breakaway or something like that. Can´t wait for the start of my first race with the guys!
You will here from me soon, Kristjan
Breakaways, Breakaways and a few more Breakaways, Strade, Marseille and Kuurne
GP La Marseille
Our season began in France, with the GP la Marseille, our goal for the race was a top 10:
Our main event of the day was when Hoogerland and Schleck joined this group.
Position
Name
Team
Time
1
Juan Manuel Gárate
Movistar
3h 32 29
15
Johnny Hoogerland
Vacansoleil - DCM
+ 1'45
21
Benoît Vaugrenard
Vacansoleil - DCM
+ 4'40
27
Björn Leukemans
Vacansoleil - DCM
+ 4'40
31
Fränk Schleck
Vacansoleil - DCM
+ 4'40
49
Pim Ligthart
Vacansoleil - DCM
+ 4'40
81
Nicky Van Drenthe
Vacansoleil - DCM
+4'40
84
Bobbie Traksel
Vacansoleil - DCM
+4'40
Our race wasn't all that bad, with Johnny finishing 15th, although we had hoped for more with this race, we were just unlucky with a breakaway.
Kuurne - Brussels - Kuurne
Bobby Traksel joined the first move of the day, but couldn't stay away.
Our main move of the day, Luca Paolini went off the front. Unfortunately the peloton didn't let him get far.
Overall we made some good attacks, but the peloton held us back. Stijn Vandenbregh managed a 19th for our efforts.
Position
Name
Team
Time
1
Zdenek Stybar
Garmin - Sharp
4h30'56
19
Stijn Vandenbergh
Vacansoleil - DCM
s.t.
27
Björn Leukemans
Vacansoleil - DCM
+44
29
Nicky Van Drenthe
Vacansoleil - DCM
+44
33
Luca Paolini
Vacansoleil
+44
35
Lars Ytting Bak
Vacansoleil - DCM
+44
49
Bobbie Traksel
Vacansoleil - DCM
+ 4'22
58
Pieter De Vries
Vacansoleil - DCM
+ 5'49
62
Mirko Selvaggi
Vacansoleil - DCM
+ 7'56
Strade - Bianchi
Unfortunately for everybody involved, a mistake in contact terms led our sponsor to believe that we intended to win Strade - Bianche, so we relied on the one thing we could trust to work, breakaways and we came so close...
Bobbie Traksel actually gets into the break this time.
The final hill and 1km to go, with Bobbie in third wheel, we had a serious chance.
Traksel was still in third, but beginning to fade, unfortunately he never came back and finished fourth.
We definitely didn't have the best day, aside from Bobbie's remarkable performance our best work was 51st for Giovanni and we didn't take our goal, but then again, we were lucky to get close.
Currently I´m in Portugal, at the Algarve ...there I´m racing to bring one of our teammates a stage win, especially Kris could be a man for it.
Some time before I´ve been to Nelspruit, South Africa. There is my Team Scotland-Iceland, participating in the EHST. I am glad to be invited to this team, riding such an epic racing league. It´s created and hosted by the Euskaltel team.
I had a great time in hot africa, while I worked hard on my form and tested myself in the breakaway of the Nelspruit Classic. Maybe you ask yourself, what the hell is Kristjan trying in a breakaway on a hilly one day race with an uphill finish? I wanted to test myself on hard terrain, just showing the flag of the north down here.
I spent a great but painful time in a breakaway, really having nothing to do with the final result. BUT I highlited my ambitions to improve myself when it goes up- and downhill, for helping my teammates better and making myself to a more diverse classic specialist. See you soon, Kristjan
An impression of our breakaway at Nelspruit classic:
GP La Marseille 
Kuurne - Brussels - Kuurne 
Strade - Bianchi 
Algarve 
Nelspruit
