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Nokia - Ekspla: Project Baltic | Vuelta a Castilla y León
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 14-02-2013 16:16
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 Stage 1 Dunas Douradas - Albufeira
Today was the first day of racing up against some big names for our little Baltic team and a furious pace was set at the front right from the line. It took some good riders to escape; and here we have the break, with  Stefano Garzelli winning ahead of Matteo Rabottini,  Julian Sanchez Pimienta and  Michal Kwiatkowski.
The stage undulated a lot and it was up, down, up, down all day. Here one particularly steep descent can be seen in the background
With 40kms to go and the gap to the break hovering just under the 3-minute mark,  Jussi Veikkanen decided it was time to show off the new jersey with an attack up the 3rd category climb to Picota.
However he was reeled in fairly quickly on the descent as the peloton accelerated to catch the breakaway. The group was starting to thin out into a long line
Somehow against this pace  Karsten Kroon of Saxo Bank and  Marcus Burghardt of BMC managed to get away
15km to go and as soon as Kroon and Burghardt catch up to the break, Sanchez Pimienta attacks. The charging peloton is in the distance down the road
The rest are caught but with 5km to go Sanchez Pimienta still holds 30s.  Smukulis comes to the front of the peloton to try a little move just before the end
2km to go and the Caja Rural rider is all but caught as now Veikkanen comes to the front, leading out  Navardauskas for a sprint. None of the other teams really seem to have an organised lead-out though, and we've seen nothing of  Sagan yet...
Under the Flamme Rouge -  Julien Simon is ahead on the right with  Jure Kocjan, but it's Sagan powering through the field! Navardauskas is still up there, in his Lithuanian jersey
Under 500m to go and Sagan bursts through the pack but look who's following him - Ramunas Navardauskas!
Sagan easily wins it by several bike lengths, but Ramunas has held on to beat Pozzato and claim second! What a great sprint from the time-triallist!
Confirmation of that astounding result can be seen below!
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | 3h58'29 | | 2 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | s.t. | | 3 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | s.t. | | 4 | | Manuel Cardoso | Caja Rural | s.t. | | 5 | | Elia Favilli | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | s.t. | | 6 | | Jure Kocjan | Team Type 1 - Sanofi | s.t. | | 7 | | Julien Simon | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. | | 8 | | Juan Antonio Flecha | Sky Procycling | s.t. | | 9 | | Brice Feillu | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. | | 10 | | Barry Markus | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | s.t. |
1 Navardauskas - Astonishing sprint to somehow finish 2nd, behind Sagan!
2 Veikkanen - Punchy attack was a good idea and excellent lead-out for Ramu
3 Smukulis - Tried a late attack that didn’t work, but was good idea
Well, what can I say? Great result today, Ok the rest of the field might not have been top-tier sprinters but there were a few decent ones and Ramunas isn't a sprinter by nature! Let's hope for a similar result tomorrow, it will be hard and I expect Sagan to pull off another win, the way he dominated today shows that he's on song.
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 08-12-2025 18:00
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 14-02-2013 16:19
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Great sprint by Navardauskas, though he seem to be missing his NC-jersey?
It's included in the link I sent you and just has to be placed in the same folder as the main jersey 
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 14-02-2013 16:27
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Great start from Ramunas, only beaten by Sagan |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 14-02-2013 16:37
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Atlantius: All sorted now, I somehow installed it in the wrong place and managed not to notice! Should be all fixed for stage 3! (have raced stage 2 already) 
sutty: Yep, he was never going to beat Sagan so it's almost like a win 
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 14-02-2013 17:47
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Right behind Sagan, so that's pretty much like winning, great  |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 15-02-2013 14:04
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Ian: Yep, but it would still be nice to get an 'actual' win
Stage 2 coming up soon, unfortunately I raced it before I sorted out the NC jerseys but all should be fine for the all-important stage 3!
Edited by Stromeon on 15-02-2013 14:05
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 15-02-2013 21:32
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Stage 2: Faro - Lagoa
As the break tried to establish itself, there was an early attack from  Jelle Vanendert, probably one of the favourites for the stage!
With all sorts of attacks and counter-attacks flying around as the peloton, led by Liquigas, refused to let a break settle, we saw that with the second intermediate sprint looming, there were only two men out in front at that moment. Ramu seized the opportunity and sprinted to third place, gaining 2 bonus seconds
After 50kms, a break of seven finally got together and gained a lead of a couple of minutes. The break consisted of  Jose Rujano, Serge Pauwels,  Assan Bazayev, Gianni Meersman, the Ukrainian champion  Kvachuk, Berthou and  Anders Lund
As we started to climb and descend through the steep cat.3 hills, lots of riders were dropping off the back, including Vanendert, clearly not at peak fitness yet!
Meersman wins both of the mountain sprints as Bazayev and Pauwels are too busy looking behind
As we begin the descent to the finish, there are just 90 riders left in the pack, all 6 Nokias have made it! The break still has a 3 minute advantage, could be tight at the finish
Just over 10km to go and a small group of Favilli, Burghardt (again) and Galland, decide to try their luck at an attack. The gap to the main break is just 51 seconds now
We decide to employ the same tactic as yesterday (as it worked so well then) with Veikkanen leading out Navardauskas (in the white jersey)
Just 3km to go and as everyone's caught, Burghardt attacks again!
1km to go and the Saur rider Galland has come out from Burghardt's wheel and is storming away. Navardauskas seems to have gotten a little lost in the middle of the peloton
Surprise, surprise, it's Sagan who wins, powering through the field! The attacking trio hold on to the end to claim the next three spots but Navardauskas started sprinting too late, underestimating the slight downhill, and is well within the middle of the peloton. He's not really a sprinter, after all!
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | 4h38'15 | | 2 | | Elia Favilli | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | s.t. | | 3 | | Marcus Burghardt | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 4 | | Jérémie Galland | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. | | 5 | | Julien Simon | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. | | 6 | | Fabio Felline | Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela | s.t. | | 7 | | Rubén Pérez | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. | | 8 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | s.t. | | 9 | | Troels Ronning Vinther | Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank | s.t. | | 10 | | Gorka Izagirre | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. |
Those two seconds have proved very useful indeed, keeping Ramu ahead of Favilli in the GC
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | 8h36'04 | | 2 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 26 | | 3 | | Elia Favilli | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | + 28 | | 4 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | + 32 | | 5 | | Marcus Burghardt | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 6 | | Matteo Rabottini | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | + 34 | | 7 | | Alexander Kvachuk | Lampre - ISD | s.t. | | 8 | | Stefano Garzelli | Acqua & Sapone | + 38 | | 9 | | Julien Simon | Saur - Sojasun | + 40 | | 10 | | Jérémie Galland | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. |
1 Navardauskas - Holds on to 2nd place in the GC
2 Veikkanen - Kept a close eye on Navardauskas throughout and lead him out, albeit unsuccesfully
3 Carlstrom - Just because the old fella deserves a point for coming out of retirement
Navardauskas still holding on to that 2nd spot - if he can hold on to the bunch in the next stage with the uphill finish then a top 10 GC is a real possibility, he should do well in the time-trial at the end.
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 15-02-2013 22:53
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A quieter day today, but at least Navardauskas holds on to his place in the GC |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 16-02-2013 09:41
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Holding on to that 2nd place |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 17-02-2013 21:11
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Might not still be 2nd after the next stage, but doing a good job so far
Sorry there's a lot of time in between reports, quite busy at the moment, but hopefully will have a bit more time soon
Edited by Stromeon on 17-02-2013 21:12
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 17-02-2013 21:27
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Stage 3: Castro Malhim - Malhao
Very strong winds, undulating hills and narrow roads meant today would be a difficult day for the peloton - and an uphill finish meant the team would have to work hard for Navardauskas and his GC hopes.
Kjell Carlstrom went on the offensive early on after an attempt to get Ramunas some bonus seconds in the early sprints failed somewhat, he only got 2 seconds after being blocked by the car
He succeeded in getting into the BotD, and was joined by Karsten Kroon, Preben van Hecke, and Sergio Ribeiro
Kroon won the first mountain sprint ahead of van Hecke and Carlstrom
The next mountain sprint van Hecke got his revenge over Kroon - Carlstrom was struggling rather and came fourth
With the break struggling rather after the long descent the first attacks started to come from the peloton. Grega Bole was the first to initiate a move, and he was swiftly followed by Juan Antonio Flecha and Maxim Iglinskiy
But for some reason it was Saur setting a furious pace (lead rider 9th in GC) - leading to people like  Richie Porte dropping off the back
This meant that everyone was caught on the ascent of the last, steep 3rd category climb, with the gradients rocketing
Kroon just held on to claim the mountain sprint, he will take over leadership of the KoM classification
A group led by Iglinskiy attacked near the foot of the downhill and built up a 30 second gap (whoops mouse cursor sorry)
They were brought back after a few kilometres, and as we started the ascent of the Alto do Malhao, Julien Simon attacked - this is why Saur have been setting the pace so high perhaps!
There was chaos in the peloton and no-one wanted to bring him back! The gap went up to 35 seconds with just under 2km left
The sprint was on! Under the Flamme Rouge - Simon's advantage has been cut drastically by the chasers, led by Iglinskiy and Westra. Navardauskas was still hanging on in there, but only just!
And the winner is... well you guessed it, didn't you? The yellow jersey does it again!
Navardauskas finishes safely in the pack and so will retain his second place in the GC, just ahead of today’s best of the rest  Kreuziger.
Sagan dominated that sprint to such an extent that he was given an 11-second time gap as well as the bonus seconds for winning the stage!
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | 4h52'38 | | 2 | | Roman Kreuziger | Astana Pro Team | + 11 | | 3 | | Igor Antón | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. | | 4 | | Amets Txurruka | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. | | 5 | | Beñat Intxausti | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 6 | | Maxim Iglinskiy | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 7 | | Julien Simon | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. | | 8 | | Grega Bole | Lampre - ISD | s.t. | | 9 | | Giampaolo Caruso | Katusha Team | s.t. | | 10 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | s.t. |
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | 13h28'22 | | 2 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 55 | | 3 | | Roman Kreuziger | Astana Pro Team | + 59 | | 4 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | + 1'03 | | 5 | | Marcus Burghardt | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 6 | | Igor Antón | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. | | 7 | | Dmitriy Fofonov | Astana Pro Team | + 1'07 | | 8 | | Julien Simon | Saur - Sojasun | + 1'11 | | 9 | | Grega Bole | Lampre - ISD | s.t. | | 10 | | Gorka Izagirre | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. |
Points: Peter Sagan
KoM: Karsten Kroon
U-25: Peter Sagan
Team: Liquigas - Cannondale
1 Carlström - Got into the BotD and put in a valiant effort
2 Navardauskas - Stayed with the rest of the pack and remains in second place overall
3 Veikkanen - Did quite a lot of work for Navardauskas near the end and deserves some credit
Well it looks like we'll battle it out in the final time-trial! I think Ramunas would fancy his chances against the rest of that top 10, apart from maybe Kreuziger, in the time-trial. Sagan's too far ahead I think, especially after he wins tomorrow's stage
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 17-02-2013 21:39
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Good to see a Nokia rider in the breakaway. Navardauskas looking very good!! |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 17-02-2013 22:45
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Sagan is just a beast  |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 19-02-2013 18:23
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Ian: The first of many in the break I think
sutty: His beastiness is getting quite annoying now...
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 19-02-2013 18:36
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Stage 4: Vilamoura - Tavira
The only stage classified as flat in the Volta ao Algarve, this stage provides another opportunity for Sagan to extend his dominance.
With the rest of the peloton not wanting a break to form early on, Navardauskas (in the orange) went on the attack for the intermediate sprint and won it, just ahead of Greg van Avermaet; gaining 6 very useful seconds over the rest of the competition!
The break hadn't really settled by the time they got to the mountain sprint, with other riders further down the road trying to join them, but Zdenek Stybar triumphed over Andre Cardoso and van Avermaet; meaning that Kroon secured the mountain jersey after his efforts yesterday
That's a steep drop - hope no one's got vertigo!
The rest of the stage was rather uneventful, apart from a dramatic fall by Gorka Izagirre, who is well placed in the general classification. He recovered fairly quickly, however, and got back to the peloton
With 10km to go the break was caught and so we were set for the sprint for 2nd place!
5km to go and Ramunas had decided on a novelty tactic: follow the leader! He got in behind Sagan's wheel as nobody really seemed interested in forming a train up front
Eventually, with only 3km to go, Lampre, Farnese Vini, and Sky set up small trains for their sprinters Petacchi, Guardini and  Sutton
750m to go and Sagan has been blocked by the trains and it's Pozzato who's decided to go for the sprint instead of Guardini, and he's out in front, followed by Manuel Cardoso and Vicente Reynes
It's a win to celebrate for the local fans as it's Cardoso who wins ahead of Reynes and Julien Simon, with Sagan finishing a very disappointing 9th for him, despite a late acceleration. Ramu was unable to hold on to the pace at the front and came 22nd.
| 1 | | Manuel Cardoso | Caja Rural | 4h38'41 | | 2 | | Vicente Reynès | Lotto Belisol Team | s.t. | | 3 | | Julien Simon | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. | | 4 | | Rubén Pérez | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. | | 5 | | Christopher Sutton | Sky Procycling | s.t. | | 6 | | Jure Kocjan | Team Type 1 - Sanofi | s.t. | | 7 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | s.t. | | 8 | | Elia Favilli | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | s.t. | | 9 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | s.t. | | 10 | | Gianni Meersman | Lotto Belisol Team | s.t. |
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | 18h07'03 | | 2 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 49 | | 3 | | Roman Kreuziger | Astana Pro Team | + 59 | | 4 | | Julien Simon | Saur - Sojasun | + 1'03 | | 5 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | s.t. | | 6 | | Marcus Burghardt | BMC Racing Team | s.t. | | 7 | | Igor Antón | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. | | 8 | | Dmitriy Fofonov | Astana Pro Team | + 1'07 | | 9 | | Grega Bole | Lampre - ISD | + 1'11 | | 10 | | Gorka Izagirre | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. |
Ramu can get 1 point in the MVC competition because of the early sprint but he doesn’t really deserve 3, and neither did anyone else!
Sagan's dominance is finally over; but the most important event of the day for us was the intermediate sprint. Navardauskas has now increased his lead and with that increases his chances of staying in the top 10 after the time-trial. Join us tomorrow - it's gonna be tight!
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 19-02-2013 19:03
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He should get that point for the sprint, though |
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| Atlantius |
Posted on 19-02-2013 20:11
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He should be able to keep at least a podium place on the last stage
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 19-02-2013 20:13
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Sagan didn't win
And Ramunas closed the gap by six seconds |
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 20-02-2013 18:22
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Ian: I've given it to him in the overall ranking
Atlantius: Hopefully, but his TT stat is only 73 compared to prologue 75 and the field is quite strong...
sutty: Yay! I'm sure it will be valuable time come tomorrow
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| Stromeon |
Posted on 20-02-2013 18:47
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Stage 5: Lagoa - Portimao
The final stage is upon us and... it's the race of truth!
We had three strong time-triallists in our squad here. The first was Raivis Belohvosciks, hoping to repeat the top 10 placing he achieved in the prologue in New Zealand
Next up was Gatis Smukulis, sporting his new Latvian TT champion's jersey
The best early time was set by the Sky rider Richie Porte, starting fairly early after dropping a few minutes in the hills
Next up for us were the two Finns - Carlstrom and Veikkanen; but they're not so great on the TT bike and both finished well off the pace
 Vasil Kiryienka had a storming run and eclipsed Porte’s time by a massive 24 seconds - that would be hard to beat!
Soon it was Navardauskas time!
However, as he crossed the intermediate time-check, it didn’t look good at all - provisional 49th and 59 seconds down on Kiryienka would put him quite a way down on the GC.
Up ahead, 3rd placed Roman Kreuziger was doing fairly well and would certainly overtake Navardauskas in the GC
Ramu crossed the finish line - 26th! Much improved but a minute and 15 seconds down on Kiryienka.
Sagan crossed the line, 5 seconds faster than Ramunas! That could leave him vulnerable to Kiryienka in the overall, however!
So how do the overall standings stack up? Ramunas probably should keep a top 5 spot, but he could well be edged out!
| 1 | | Vasil Kiryienka | Movistar Team | 34'16 | | 2 | | Richie Porte | Sky Procycling | + 24 | | 3 | | Lieuwe Westra | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | + 32 | | 4 | | Jonathan Castroviejo | Movistar Team | + 36 | | 5 | | Beñat Intxausti | Movistar Team | + 41 | | 6 | | Rubén Plaza | Movistar Team | + 46 | | 7 | | Ion Izagirre | Euskaltel - Euskadi | s.t. | | 8 | | Adriano Malori | Lampre - ISD | + 47 | | 9 | | Dominique Cornu | Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator | + 50 | | 10 | | Martijn Keizer | Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team | + 53 |
Well look at that - 1 second is the margin between Sagan and Kiryienka! Wow! And Navardauskas drops to 7th, a bit disappointing I suppose given his starting position
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | 18h42'29 | | 2 | | Vasil Kiryienka | Movistar Team | + 1 | | 3 | | Beñat Intxausti | Movistar Team | + 42 | | 4 | | Roman Kreuziger | Astana Pro Team | + 45 | | 5 | | Ion Izagirre | Euskaltel - Euskadi | + 47 | | 6 | | Rubén Plaza | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 7 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 54 | | 8 |  | Vladimir Karpets | Movistar Team | + 1'00 | | 9 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | + 1'09 | | 10 | | Marcus Burghardt | BMC Racing Team | + 1'10 |
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | | 82 | | 2 | | Julien Simon | Saur - Sojasun | | 46 | | 3 | | Elia Favilli | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | | 40 | | 4 | | Manuel Cardoso | Caja Rural | | 39 | | 5 | | Filippo Pozzato | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | | 39 |
| 1 | | Karsten Kroon | Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank | | 16 | | 2 | | Preben Van Hecke | Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator | | 14 | | 3 | | Matteo Rabottini | Farnese Vini - Selle Italia | | 12 |
| 1 | | Peter Sagan | Liquigas - Cannondale | 18h42'29 | | 2 | | Ion Izagirre | Euskaltel - Euskadi | + 47 | | 3 | | Ramunas Navardauskas | Nokia - Ekspla | + 54 | |
| 1 | | Movistar Team | 56h08'47 | | 2 |  | BMC Racing Team | + 2'06 | | 3 | | Euskaltel Euskadi | + 2'11 | | ... | | 9 | | Nokia - Ekspla | + 7'58 |
1 Smukulis - Despite not being in good form at all, he put in a solid effort to finish inside the top 30
2 Navardauskas - Not a great time-trial for his standards, but still better than the rest of the team
3 Belohvosciks - Disappointing but gave it everything today
Ramu is a bit unfortunate to finish 7th overall after a rather disappointing time-trial (mainly because I'm pretty bad at time-trials on hard ) but a top 10 in the GC ahead of names like Nibali and Valverde is a great achievement nonetheless! I think we can be pretty happy with our result here going forward in the season and I think that we' should do really well when our riders are actually in good shape!
Our next race is the Beverbeek Classic, followed by Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne, quite an important race in our calendar; and then we're at the end of February already!
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