From: To: Date: 5th February 2006 Subject:Re: Etoile de Besseges
>Hi boss, thanks for this opportunity, but it didn’t go great – I just haven’t had
>enough time to get to know the team
>Stage 1: Robbie McEwen won a sprint, whilst Geraint was our best man in 19th.
>Stage 2: The worst ProTour rider won. That’s right, Mads Kaggestad won in a sprint from a break, which bloody annoyed me a lot – if he can win, why can’t we?
>Stage 3: McEwen won again, and we didn’t feature…again
>Stage 4: The only hilly stage didn’t split up the pack enough, and Robbie McEwen won out of a 32 way sprint, with Darren Lill our sole rider in the front group in 12th
>Stage 5: Bonnet edged out McEwen, and Leonardo Caneschi, who was in the stage 2 break, wins the overall. Our best rider was Darren Lill in 21st.
Sorry about the results, but they’ll get better soon, I just need to gel with the riders.
>Good Luck in China, or wherever you are (you really need to tell me)
Hi James,
We’re doing well here in Malaysia (I told you like five times), but don’t worry about results – we just need some racing days under our belts in time for California and South Africa.
Tour de Langkawi Stage 4: Another sprint, but Danilo was toast after yesterday’s stage, so Marcel Kittel was our best rider in 17th, behind winner today Alexandre Usov
Stage 5:
Back into those mountains, with a 3 tiered climb up the 33km Genting Highlands, with some tough gradients for us to get out teeth into.
8 guys went in the TV break, but we just let it go, as the best guy was over 16 minutes back, so they took a 5 minute lead into the first climb. That’s when we started to shred the pack, with Wyss and Kittel doing an incredible job of skimming the pack down to just 32 with 8 km to go, which was when Mizourov made his move. This time, there was no way Jose was going to let him get clear, and from then on, it was just a case of picking off the early escapees, and holding off the chasing group of 12 to take a fantastic victory, and basically secure the overall jersey.
Chacon celebrates, but isn't the happiest winner ever
Needless to say, he was still disappointed when the press found him:
CS: Another superb victory Jose – feeling any better?
JC: Nope. I had no competition again; it was just far too easy
CS: So you felt this whole Tour was a waste of time
JC: It was a good training ride, and the views were nice [walks off]
CS: What does it take to make that man pleased?
So win number 2, but I suppose Jose was right – this wasn’t a difficult win, but we can only face the competition that turns up, and respond to it, but more disappointing was the fact both Alex and Saul have dropped down in the GC, and lost the U25 jersey. So it’s a win on paper, but the team mood was pretty downbeat in the team bus today.
Stage 6: Danilo manages just 19th – those two mountain stages were just hell for him. Lloyd Mondory and Usov make it a one two for Ag2r. Stage 7: Danilo does better in 14th, whilst Mondory takes back-to-back wins Stage 8: 3 in a row! Mondory takes his 3rd stage victory, and the points jersey with it, whilst Marcel is our best rider in 24th Stage 9: A 16km ITT that should have only sorted out riders who were seconds within each other. Our day was so much better.
Ed Clancy missed out on a podium by 6 seconds, but it was Alex who was today’s star. He finished 11th in 19’48, but more importantly, moved up to 5th in the GC, and took the U25 jersey by 0 seconds!!! What a result, we were over the moon with such a great ride. The mood on the team bus was celebratory, and Saul told me he even managed to crack a smile from Jose Chacon, but I think he’s lying, not even my legendary golf joke got the Venezuelan to get a laugh!
Ed Clancy was our best rider in 4th, but it was Alex who was the star of the stage
Stage 10: Angelo Furlan finished the race in Kuala Lumpar with a win, but it was us who dominated the podiums, with the overall, climber, U25 and team wins. We celebrated well into the night, and were all rewarded with lovely hangovers, apart from Jose, who I vaguely remember drunk the most, but seems not to have had any side effects.
Trofeo Laigueglia
With world champion Paolo Bettini in the starting line up, we knew we’d have our work cut out for Darren Lill, so we decided just to wait it out in the pack, and try and grab a top 10 spot.
Rory Sutherland tried to slip into the break, but it was easily shut down.
The final hill gave all the action, and it was all Darren could do to hang onto the front group. 4 guys got clear, and Paolo Bettini took a simple victory from those 4, whilst Darren blew up in the chase group of 27 and finished 30th.
Tour of California
We bring Kirk O’Bee to win those sprints in his home town, and Darren will once again lead the team. A top 15 spot is all we can hope to achieve, with riders like Jan Ullrich and Levi Leipheimer riding, so we’ll mainly be aiming to be as active as possible in the breaks, and bag ourselves a stage win.
Stage 1: A short TT which David Zabriskie simply walked. Ed Clancy outperformed all our expectations, as he took a superb 5th place, although that could have been because James frightened the bejeezers out of him with his British Army sergeant impersonation.
Stage 2: Brad Viera covered the break, and helped himself to the climbers jersey whilst he was at it. Everything was looking rather nice, when race radio told us to get up to the front with 5km left. There on the floor was Darren, covered in blood, trying to get up amongst the riders who had landed on him. Me and James quickly sorted him out, got him going again, but the damage was done, and he’d finish 2’26 down. Back up front though, Theo Bos had blown up completely, so it was down to Kirky, with no team support and no lead out. Did that phase him? NO! He won a 5 way sprint to take victory in his home country. Awesome!!!
