I've lowered all of his stats by 3 because of his Clenbuterol-suspension. I didn't change the potential. So yes, he has lower Mo-stats than Schleck and Gesink, but will probably return to his old stats within 2 years.
I've lowered all of his stats by 3 because of his Clenbuterol-suspension. I didn't change the potential. So yes, he has lower Mo-stats than Schleck and Gesink, but will probably return to his old stats within 2 years.
That is a good way of sorting out a banned rider, nice idea
Wow, bad thinking from Nibali.
Great riding by Rolland (he's not in Monster but I'm happy anyway )
But the best ones today were the jury, deciding a time gap and making Schleck GC leader!
35km to go
After the early breakaway, consisting of 22 riders, has been caught, it's up to Lars Boom, the winner of stage 4, to attack. The Dutch Rabo-rider creates a maximum margin of 3'30, but then both Lotto and Monster Energy decide that this is enough.
3km to go
Boom gets caught, just as some others that have tried to surprise the peloton (Tschopp, Bak), so the sprinters and their trains are preparing for the mass sprint.
Well, all but one team..... Somehow, Niki Terpstra doesn't seem to find a way to pass Rob Ruijgh and our train falls back a lot. Riding in 25th position, Peter Sagan is chanceless for a good position.
2km to go
The sprint starts and also Lotto - Belisol has made a huge mistake. They've run out of leadouts, so Edvald Boasson Hagen is leading the pack just under 2km to go. His opponents see opportunities here, as EBH definiety can't hold it untill the finish!
(Okay, first Terpstra got blocked by his teammate.... Then I started to sprint with Sagan (Acc >80, Sp 85, fitness 90, daily form +5, enough energy left) but got outsprinted by riders as Taaramäe and Gadret, with Sp <70 in a flat stage, with more than 5km/h slower than them..... WTF?????)
The first restday in the Tour in Biarritz. Looking back at the first 9 stages, you can say that the battle for the GC-win will be between 5 riders: Andy Schleck, Vincenzo Nibali, Alberto Contador, Robert Gesink and Fränk Schleck. Fabio Duarte is currently in 2nd place, but will probably drop in the GC.
Not counting the 1st stage, as it was a ITT, 4 out of 8 stages have been won by a breakaway. Team Monster Energy - Subway has been the most succesful so far, with 3 wins already.
2 negative points: the abandon of Cadel Evans due to a coccyx fracture, and stage, were many riders including Mark Cavendish finished outside the time limit.
6 stages will be raced before the 2nd restday. First, 4 flat stages, than the 2nd and last ITT, followed by the first stage in the Alps.
Edited by dienblad on 13-08-2012 19:06
At the rest day, 3 important riders out of the peloton announce their transfer to a new team:
After 2 seasons with Omega Pharma - Quick Step, American sprinter Tyler Farrar goes back to Garmin - Barracuda. Even 5 stage wins in the '12 Tour couldn't make him happy, so he returns to Jonathan Vaughters.
Tom Boonen, winner of Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Brussel - Kuurne this year, leaves Sony Ericsson after 1 season to form a strong cobbles-team with Filippo Pozatto. Yes, Boonen goes for the Russian money at Katusha!
One surprising transfer: Roman Kreuziger leaves Astana and goes to...... Team Europcar! The French team has received a money injection for 2014, and is aiming for a GT-podium with the Czech.
The Österreich Rundfahrt is a 8-day stage race in Austria, and prvides the riders with a variety of time trialling, flat and hilly stages and monstruous climbs.
Ths year, the 65th edition will be raced. Last year's winner is Pieter Weening, who took the overall win for his Qantas-team.
Startlist
Spoiler
Monster Energy - Ford
1. T.De Gendt
2. F.De Greef
3. M.De Maar
4. M.Kittel
5. M.Lootens
6. J.Mulder
7. C.Vermeltfoort
8. R.Zingle
The first stage from Dornbirn to Bludenz starts pretty flat, but contains some difficult short and steep hills in the last part, that can disrupt the sprinters and their trains.
Our main sprinter Marcel Kittel gets blown a bit at these hills, so he gets outsprinted by 3, with Glud & Marstrand Thomas Vedel Kvist taking a surprising win.
Results
1
Thomas Vedel Kvist
Glud & Marstrand - LRØ
3h46'42
2
Guillaume Boivin
Rabobank Continental Team
s.t.
3
Tomasz Smolen
PSK Whirlpool - Author
s.t.
4
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
s.t.
5
Harald Starzengruber
Team Vorarlberg
s.t.
6
Wesley Sulzberger
Qantas Airways
s.t.
7
Michael Mørkøv
TDC
s.t.
8
Artur Detko
Bank BGZ
s.t.
9
Mateusz Komar
CCC Polsat Polkowice
s.t.
10
Michael Reihs
Onfone
s.t.
Stage 2
Already in stage 2, the peloton has to face 1 of the toughest climbs in Europe, the Kitzbühler Horn: 10km of climbing at an average gradient of 12.9%!!
Today, 3 riders are left in the race for the stage win, as these 3 finish more than 2'30 in fornt of the others. Despite of attacks by Pieter Weening and Thomas De Gendt in the final kilometres, they can't shake off Saxo's Jesús Hernández. The 31-year-old Spaniard even creates a small gap and wins the stage.
The 3rd stage is 146km long between Kitzbühel and Lienz. It's classified as mountain stage, although it features only 1 difficult climb in the middle of the stage.
Stage 5 is the 4th mountain stage in a row. This time, the finish is after a downhill in Deutschandsberg.
An 8-man elite-group crests the last summit together, none of them capable of creating a gap. After the descend, Thomas De Gendt wins the sprint for the stage win, regaining important seconds for the ITT. Cusin finishes in 2nd, Weening in 3rd and Hernández in 6th.
After 4 monstruous stages, finally an easy one, before tomorrow's ITT.
And the peloton does take it easy! A group of 14 riders creates a maximum margin of 13 minutes, and that's okay to the peloton. Of these 14, Pisanellastoria's Giuseppe Muraglia is the strongest, taking the biggest win of his career. 12'26 behind him, Marcel Kittel wins the sprint for the 15th place.
Results
1
Giuseppe Muraglia
Pisanellastoria - Guerciotti
4h53'58
2
Martin Pedersen
Onfone
s.t.
3
Björn Schröder
Nutrixxion Sparkasse
s.t.
4
Matthias Kessler
Team NetApp
s.t.
5
Piotr Sztobryn
CCC Polsat Polkowice
s.t.
6
Matic Strgar
Team Vorarlberg
s.t.
7
Mathias Belka
Team Eddy Merckx - Indeland
s.t.
8
David Dvorsky
PSK Whirlpool - Author
s.t.
9
Matej Stare
Adria Mobil
s.t.
10
Niki Byrgesen
Team Concordia Forsikring – Himmerland
s.t.
...
15
Marcel Kittel
Monster Energy - Subway
+ 12'26
Stage 7
The Österreich Rundfahrt will be decided in the 32 kilometre hilly time trial in Podersdorf am Neusiedler See.
The task for Hernández is easy: loosing not more than '58 to Thomas De Gendt. But already at the 2nd split time, after 23km, the margin is 1'06. In the last 9 kilometres, the Belgian is even 40 more seconds faster. The 3rd time of the day, brings him the GC-lead and the almost certain overall win.
The last flat stage brings the riders to Austria's capitol Wien.
One lucky Bavarian rider and one angry peloton with a German sprinter winning it's sprint '18 behind Andreas Schillinger, that's the story of this last stage. Great effort by Schillinger and bad luck for Marcel Kittel. Safely in the peloton, Thomas De Gendt crosses the finish line and wins the 65th edition of the Österreich Rundfahrt.
Word from the DS
We told Thomas that all he had to do was hanging on to Weening and Hernández in the mountains, to crush them in the ITT. And he did! Great Österreich Rundfahrt for him, winning a stage and the GC!
After the rest day, the riders head to the North along the Atlantic coast line to the town of Arcachon. The stage is almost completely flat.
72km to go
The peloton has decided that 1 rest day wasn't enough and are willing to double that. As a result, the BOTD of 13 riders with Novembrini, Barla, Aramenddia, Kondrut, Docker, Chainel, Pozzato, Bellemakers, Lemoine, Bazayev, LS Haedo, Quemeneur and Passeron in it, knows pretty early that they will battle for the stage win.
18km to go
Probably some of the Qantas-riders (here you see Gerrans and Vaitkus) are chitchatting too much and loose the concentration, as they hit the bars and crash. 100 riders will be held up here and we're looking what important riders have got surprised.
Oh my, it's a real carnage among the GC-contenders! Although none of them has hit the tarmac (only Jurgen Van den Broeck will do some kilometres after the first pile up), some very, very important names will loose time today: Duarte (2nd), Vincenzo Nibali (3rd), Alberto Contador (4th), F. Schleck (5e), Pellizotti (7th) and Van den Broeck (9th) are among them!!!
8km to go
I think some of the riders and teams will be angry at us, and at Lotto-Belisol, as we have taken the lead of the peloton and increased it's pace! Well, before we realized that our opponents got caught in the crash, we were already more than 1 minute ahead on the road. The gap is about 2 minutes now!
Finish
We would almost forget about the BOTD. Well, no attacks among them, so it's a fair sprint. And Filippo Pozzato takes the win, beating Steve Chainel and LS Haedo. A great day for Pippo and Team Katusha!
The first part of the peloton finishes at 4'13. 2'30 (!) behind it, the 2nd group finishes, meaning Nibali, Contador and friends loose very valuable time. The Tour of Van den Broeck is almost over, as he looses 6 minutes to our riders. Geraint Thomas has to abandon due to the pile up with a broken thigh.
Word from the DS
I think there will be a global discussion in the cycling world about fair play tonight. Did we have to wait, our is it part of the game??? Well, all we have to say is: "did the peloton waited when Gesink crashed in the Giro???"
)
and Gesink on the second place! 
