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Nokia - Ekspla: Project Baltic | Vuelta a Castilla y León
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 26-03-2013 12:38
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Tour de France Champion
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Not the bast of starts to the race, but hopefully things will improve tomorrow  |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 26-03-2013 18:56
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Things can only get better, can't they! 
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 26-03-2013 18:59
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Tour de France Champion
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Lets hope so |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 26-03-2013 19:08
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3507
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 Grand Prix of Sochi
Stage 2: Anapa
An absolutely furious pace set by both Christina Watches and An Post all day meant that there were a lot of unsuccesful attacks and no break managed to gain an advantage of more than two minutes during the entire stage
As we prepared for the sprint, there was a fairly big crash at the back of the peloton, with  Magnus Bäckstedt seemingly deciding to do some sort of crotch-thrust as he prepares to remount 
Ermm... not quite sure what's happened here...  Dariusz Batek of CCC seems completely unaware of the midget zombie army behind him... 
Meanwhile up at the head of the race we saw an equally extraordinary sight! Three different sprint trains on PCM! THREE I tell you! On the left was An Post for  Eeckhout, in the middle Christina for race leader  Furlan with  Mandri a couple of wheels back fancying his chances today; and on the right WIT for Merlo with  Bagdonas behind
It was very close as we went under the 1km banner. Bagdonas was still in with a chance against the likes of  Cardoso (left), Markov, Merlo and Furlan (centre) and Eeckhout (right)
Just 400m to go - Furlan was in the lead but he was going round the outside of the corner while Bagdonas had the 'racing line' on the inside and wasn't too far behind
However he just didn't quite hold on to his line and swerved off course and it was Eeckhout who came back strongly to beat Furlan. 8th for Gediminas - a little disappointing but it is a strong field of sprinters here so he shouldn’t be too disheartened
| 1 | | Nico Eeckhout | An Post - Sean Kelly | 2h59'00 | | 2 | | Angelo Furlan | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 3 | | Michele Merlo | Team WIT | s.t. | | 4 | | Bruno Lima | Onda | s.t. | | 5 | | Tomasz Smolen | Bank BGZ | s.t. | | 6 |  | René Obst | Team NSP - Ghost | s.t. | | 7 |  | Alex Candelario | Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | s.t. | | 8 | | Gediminas Bagdonas | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. | | 9 |  | Graham Briggs | Team Raleigh - GAC | s.t. | | 10 |  | Arran Brown | MTN - Qhubeka | s.t. |
1 Bagdonas - Decent sprint in the end
2 Mandri - Finished 14th, not too bad considering he was a couple of wheels too far back
3 Konovalovas - Good work protecting Bagdonas in the peloton
The sprinters did well to survive the zombie apocalypse Let's hope it doesn't recur tomorrow, when the going gets tough. We've got a fairly strong set of riders for the hills, so we'll be looking for a slightly better result tomorrow - join us then
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| Jezemekoule |
Posted on 26-03-2013 19:43
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Stagiare
Posts: 198
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I like you north squad and looking forward to Czech cycling tour and GP Kralovehradeckeho kraje |
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 15:56
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| SSJ2Luigi |
Posted on 26-03-2013 19:50
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MIDGET ZOMBIE ARMY!
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 26-03-2013 22:51
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34002
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Another decent sprint from Gediminas
Loving the zombie army |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 28-03-2013 12:33
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Classics Specialist
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Jezemekoule Thanks - They should be interesting races
SSJ2 and sutty: It's weird how they're all in exactly the same position
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 28-03-2013 12:36
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World Champion
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Not bad racing from Bagdonas. The midget zombie crash needs a place at the fun pic's. |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 28-03-2013 12:41
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Miguel98 wrote:
Not bad racing from Bagdonas. The midget zombie crash needs a place at the fun pic's.
Submitted it already, just waiting for the admins to approve it
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 28-03-2013 12:58
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3507
Joined: 06-10-2012
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Grand Prix of Sochi
Stage 3: Novo Rossiysk - Nebug
The first of the two hilly stages, expect a few gaps to start opening up here
Since nearly all the mountain points that are available in the tour can be garnered today, we decided to send  Smukulis up the road as he was feeling quite chipper today to see what he could do
He was joined by Yanto Barker, Gabriele Pizzaballa and Alexander Rybakov, who you can see being overpowered in the intermediate sprint here
Gatis was definitely on good form, it was a good battle between him and Pizzaballa for most of the mountain sprints but he was just edging it at the moment
However, with Christina Watches setting an absolutely furious pace on the front, the break was reeled in with 40kms to go!
Smukulis was having none of that! He wanted that mountain jersey!
He looked determined, a man on a mission
However Christina Watches were onto their pace-making duties once again and he was brought back, but it looked like he'd claimed enough points to secure the KoM! Enrico Franzoi was the first of the new attackers as the race heated up with 20km to go; utilising his excellent downhill ability
He was brought back but then a massive attack from Pieter Ghyllebert opened up a 30 second gap in no time at all!
2km to go and the gap was holding despite the fact that almost the entire peloton was relaying on 99 effort
And that's a massive win for Pieter Ghyllebert, holding off the peloton by a good 20 seconds!
A few other attackers crossed the line afterwards but the sprint was on for fourth place and Bagdonas was doing fairly well!
He finished 5th, a good result
Only about 30 riders finished in that lead group behind Ghyllebert, meaning Bagdonas moves up to 8th overall, and Smukulis, thanks to his bonus seconds from the intermediate sprint, into 7th!
| 1 | | Pieter Ghyllebert | An Post - Sean Kelly | 4h25'36 | | 2 |  | Stanislav Kozúbek | Whirlpool - Author | + 22 | | 3 |  | David Blanco | Efapel - Glassdrive | s.t. | | 4 | | Jaroslaw Dabrowski | Amore & Vita | s.t. | | 5 | | Gediminas Bagdonas | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. | | 6 | | Sergey Firsanov | RusVelo | s.t. | | 7 | | Markus Fothen | Team NSP - Ghost | s.t. | | 8 |  | Martin Lind | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 9 |  | Peter Kusztor | Atlas Personal - Jakroo | s.t. | | 10 |  | Dan Craven | Team IG - Sigma Sport | s.t |
| 1 | | Pieter Ghyllebert | An Post - Sean Kelly | 11h52'03 | | 2 | | Angelo Furlan | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 8 | | 3 | | Nico Eeckhout | An Post - Sean Kelly | + 18 | | 4 | | Tomasz Smolen | Bank BGZ | + 30 | | 5 | | Stanislav Kozúbek | Whirlpool - Author | s.t. | | 6 | | David Blanco | Efapel - Glassdrive | s.t. | | 7 | | Gatis Smukulis | Nokia - Ekspla | + 36 | | 8 | | Gediminas Bagdonas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 42 | | 9 | | Marco Frapporti | Team Idea | s.t. | | 10 | | René Jorgensen | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. |
| 1 | | Gatis Smukulis | Nokia - Ekspla | 72 | | 2 | | Gabriele Pizzaballa | Team WIT | 40 | | 3 | | Yanto Barker | UK Youth Cycling | 34 |
1 Smukulis - Great work in the break to take all those mountain points, and then hang on in the group once he got caught
2 Bagdonas - Good sprint to come 2nd out of the pack
3 Kangert - Hung on in the group at the end despite his form not being amazing
A very good stage for the team, with two riders in the top 10 and the mountains jersey pretty much secured. Now the challenge will be to hold on to that tomorrow, where the stage is more difficult with some very steep parts.
And it looks like the zombies have gone, I think all the riders are quite relieved
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 28-03-2013 13:02
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Tour de France Champion
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A Great day in the Mountains for Gatis Smukulis |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 28-03-2013 18:48
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Good day in the hills |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 31-03-2013 19:57
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3507
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Yep 'twas a good day for the team
Stage 4 will most probably be up tomorrow and then hopefully I'll be able to squeeze the last stage in because I'm going on holiday Wednesday-Saturday and after that will be a busy couple of days so don't worry if progress is a little slow during then
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 01-04-2013 11:10
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3507
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Grand Prix of Sochi
Stage 4: Nebug - Nebug
Undoubtedly the hardest stage of the tour of Sochi; not only is it up and down all day with some very steep gradients it’s almost 250kms long! Everyone will be sapped at the end of today, and to add to that the finish is very narrow and uphill, like that stage in Istria previously
A group of nine riders formed and pulled out quite an advantage. Not many dangerous riders in there, however, apart from Enrico Franzoi who showed his hand quite boldly yesterday towards the finish
It was Franzoi who took the mountain sprint but Gatis was never under threat there
By the time we'd reached the end of that terrifyingly steep and long descent - -11% in places - the peloton was really strung out and only 70 or so riders remained at the front as An Post started to up the pace
The pace was rather sedate, as all the favourites started to look at each other but it was Jacques Janse van Rensburg who went on the attack with 20km to go. He was followed by Dabrowski and Ostergaard
They were brought back but Ostergaard counterattacked and he was followed by Padour and our very own Tanel Kangert, chasing a stage win
However they were brought back almost immediately with the peloton intent on catching the break, which they did after just a few more minutes
After a bit of a quiet period Padour attacked again on the penultimate climb and gained a decent margin of around 25 seconds
However he was reeled in just as we started the last climb
The mad dash to the line was on! Janse van Rensburg was out in front, followed by Smolen and Blanco, overtaking would be difficult on these narrow roads, so the people in front had an advantage. Bagdonas was somewhere just behind, but probably a bit too far back to be challenging for the win
As we rounded the last two corners positions had remained pretty unchanged, although Janse van Rensburg was fading and Bagdonas was gaining
Tomasz Smolen takes a magnificent win ahead of David Blanco and Jaroslaw Dabrowski! Bagdonas just seemed to run out of energy in the end and finished 10th.
However, a few gaps had started to appear in the peloton just behind him - would the officials decide that they were big enough?
Yes they do! Big gaps in fact. Ghyllebert loses out on his yellow jersey, which is handed over to Smolen, and Smukulis was dropping off the back so will lose possession of his young rider jersey
| 1 | | Tomasz Smolen | Bank BGZ | 6h29'57 | | 2 | | David Blanco | Efapel - Glassdrive | s.t. | | 3 | | Jaroslaw Dabrowski | Amore & Vita | s.t. | | 4 | | Stanislav Kozúbek | Whirlpool - Author | s.t. | | 5 | | Marco Frapporti | Team Idea | s.t. | | 6 | | Rasmus Guldhammer | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 7 | | Jacques Janse Van Rensburg | MTN - Qhubeka | s.t. | | 8 | | Martin Lind | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 9 | | Luca Zanasca | Team WIT | s.t. | | 10 | | Gediminas Bagdonas | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. |
The general classification has shifted around quite a lot today, has Bagdonas moved up or down?
| 1 | | Tomasz Smolen | Bank BGZ | 18h22'10 | | 2 | | David Blanco | Efapel - Glassdrive | + 12 | | 3 | | Stanislav Kozúbek | Whirlpool - Author | + 20 | | 4 | | Jaroslaw Dabrowski | Amore & Vita | + 24 | | 5 | | Gediminas Bagdonas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 32 | | 6 | | Marco Frapporti | Team Idea | s.t. | | 7 | | Rasmus Guldhammer | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 8 | | Dan Craven | Team IG - Sigma Sport | s.t. | | 9 | | Martin Lind | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 10 | | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg | MTN - Qhubeka | s.t. |
1 Bagdonas - Job well done to stay in that lead group of 15 or so riders and avoid losing time
2 Kangert - Showing signs of activity after a good idea of an attack
3 Mandri - Fitting in to his role of super-domestique nicely
A solid day for the team. The 10th place may seem a little disappointing but moving up to 5th in the GC is great! A decent/good result tomorrow [flat stage definitely ending in bunch sprint] for Bagdonas would cement that position or maybe even move up!
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| Miguel98 |
Posted on 01-04-2013 11:13
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World Champion
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5th for Bagdonas currently.  |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 01-04-2013 11:23
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Tour de France Champion
Posts: 34002
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Bagdonas did well to grab a top ten |
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| Farmer Sam |
Posted on 01-04-2013 15:46
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Domestique
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You've got a great story here, keep up the good work! |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 01-04-2013 17:52
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3507
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Miguel: Yeah!
sutty: Good effort by him to stay in there along with several other [slightly] better climbers
Farmer Sam: Thanks! Your story looks good too - good luck with that
Edited by Stromeon on 01-04-2013 17:56
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 01-04-2013 18:19
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Classics Specialist
Posts: 3507
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Grand Prix of Sochi
Stage 5: Nebug - Krasnodar
Another very long but this time very flat stage rounds off our stay in Russia (though we'll be back ) Yesterday's long tough stage will have two effects on most of the sprinters who lost time, either they'll be tired and won't do so well today, or they'll have stayed at the back and conserved their energy for today
We were feeling quite adventurous today and so decided to set up a train, in the hope that we wouldn't run into any of the problems that always seemt to beset it. However, as you can see, with Smukulis doing a fine job on the front the rest of the train just vanished off the back, stuck behind some other riders and Gatis was left on his own
We decided to give Lasis a chance in the sprint, since he wasn't part of the train after his misdemeanours there earlier this season. However the AI decided to set up a 10-man train with all the favourites as soon as we decided this so all hope was pretty much lost
Furlan won and luckily both him and the second and third place finishers were sufficiently behind Bagdonas not to move ahead of him in the GC so he keeps his 5th place
| 1 | | Angelo Furlan | Christina Watches - Onfone | 4h33'23 | | 2 | | Bruno Lima | Onda | s.t. | | 3 | | Alexei Markov | RusVelo | s.t. | | 4 | | Jonathan Bellis | An Post - Sean Kelly | s.t. | | 5 | | Tino Thömel | Team NSP - Ghost | s.t. | | 6 | | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg | MTN - Qhubeka | s.t. | | 7 | | Tomasz Smolen | Bank BGZ | s.t. | | 8 | | Alex Candelario | Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies | s.t. | | 9 | | Arran Brown | MTN - Qhubeka | s.t. | | 10 | | Cristiano Fumagalli | Miche - Guerciotti | s.t. |
| 1 | | Tomasz Smolen | Bank BGZ | 22h55'33 | | 2 | | David Blanco | Efapel - Glassdrive | + 12 | | 3 | | Stanislav Kozúbek | Whirlpool - Author | + 20 | | 4 | | Jaroslaw Dabrowski | Amore & Vita | + 24 | | 5 | | Gediminas Bagdonas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 32 | | 6 | | Marco Frapporti | Team Idea | s.t. | | 7 | | Rasmus Guldhammer | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 8 | | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg | MTN - Qhubeka | s.t. | | 9 | | Martin Lind | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. | | 10 | | Jacques Janse Van Rensburg | MTN - Qhubeka | s.t. |
| 1 | | Angelo Furlan | Christina Watches - Onfone | | 72 | | 2 | | Tomasz Smolen | Bank BGZ | | 66 | | 3 | | Pieter Ghyllebert | An Post - Sean Kelly | | 40 |
| 1 | | Gatis Smukulis | Nokia - Ekspla | | 72 | | 2 | | Gabriele Pizzaballa | Team WIT | | 40 | | 3 | | Yanto Barker | UK Youth Cycling | | 34 |
| 1 | | Rasmus Guldhammer | Christina Watches - Onfone | 22h56'05 | | 2 | | Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg | MTN - Qhubeka | s.t. | | 3 | | Martin Lind | Christina Watches - Onfone | s.t. |
| 1 | | MTN - Qhubeka | 68h48'55 | | 2 | | Christina Watches - Onfone | + 19 | | 3 | | Nokia - Ekspla | + 1'18 |
1 Smukulis - Excellent job on the front - if only everyone else had been paying attention
2 Bagdonas - Did actually finish 11th in the end, quite an achievement considering he was barely inside the top 30 when the sprint started
3 Lasis - Had a go but was in the wrong position
Well I think we can be pretty happy with 5th overall, the mountains jersey and 3rd in the team classification. Our next race is the Rund um Koln - the next day in fact! We will go there rueing missed opportunites, but looking forward to the next few races.
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