I'm building my team around 2 guys. Offcourse 1 of them is the french star and national champ Thomas Voeckler.
[img-r]https://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc438/Michael_Schwaenen/nations/Voeckler_Thomas_EuropcarProf11.jpg[/img-r]Thomas Voeckler
Nickname: Le Chouchou
Age: 32 Most important victory's:
2x National Champ ( 2004 & 2010 ) 2004 9 days mailot jaune in Tour de France 2007 Paris-Nice Mountain Classification 2009 5th stage Tour de France
Goals
French Championship
Tour de France
But my personal favourite rider Pierre Rolland. He is my hope for winning the Tour as the first frenchmen since Bernard Hinault in 1985. Within 2-3 years that's a real posibility.
Before the transfer market closed I got a chance to recruit 1 final member for my team. This pushed my wages slighty over budget so I'm going to count on the revenues from the races.
My last rider and also a new team leader is Riccardo Riccò. Il Cobra may have a bad reputation when it comes to doping , but I think he really can make a difference for me. He's first task will be helping Rolland in the Tour but he can get his own chance in the giro.
Offcourse Riccò is my leader but without any chances for him to win I'm going to try to follow in an escape with my riders.
First stage
The first stage is without any real mountains or hills so it is a chance for the sprinters to take the gold. Haussler and Matthews are the guys with the most chance of winning.
As soon as the race starts every team wants to have a rider in a breakaway. After a few attempts a group gets formed.
In it are among others Ben Swift and my rider Yohann Gène. The group never gets more then 2 minutes lead. Because in the peloton the pace never rests.
Vacansoleil, Radioshack and especially Rabobank keep persuiting. With about 70k's still to go the peloton takes over the escape.
After a few attempts a new group forms itself, nobody from my team in it this time. The most important rider is Vigano from Leopard.
When the finish line got closer to gap also got smaller. At 10k's from the finish the escape gave up, and we were going to sprint for the stage.
My green train prepared themselfs for the sprint and my hope for the stage win Chavanel.
As the finish line got closer more team were taking there place in front.
As the sprint starts it's obvious that it's going to be a fight between Chavanal and favourite Haussler. Haussler created a gap buth Chavanal began to close it but as it turns out not fast enough.
Haussler takes the win and I came in a close 2nd.
Winner:
The results.
1st Heinrich Haussler - Team Garmin Cervelo
2nd Sebastien Chavanel - Team Europcar
3rd Riccardo Ricco - Team Europcar
4rd Geraint Thomas - Sky ProCycling
5th Francesco Chicci - Quick Step Cycling Team
As it turns out ricco jumped along in the weel of his teammate to a 3rd place, nice.
Overal good job.
Edited by Schwami33 on 25-08-2011 12:30
Before the start of the second race we got a chance to ask Chavanel what he found of his second place in yesterdays race.
Then over to the main event of the day, the 2nd stage of the tour down under.
Again it is a mostly flat stage and another chance for the sprinters. Or with a bith of luck it may be my first stage win with Chavanel.
His effort in the race yesterday payed off, Gène is riding in the moutain jersey today. If we can keep this till the end of the tour down under it would be a great achievement for our team. So good luck Yohann !
Following tradition a few riders try to make it with a early stage escape. This time a group of 17 cyclists get ahead of the peloton. In this group are some smaller sprinters like Haedo, Dehaes and Hondo. But also Astana rider Gasparotto takes his chances.
But offcourse such a large group didn't have many chances and only got a maximum of 2 minutes lead, and at 96km the got overtaken by the peloton.
A new group escapes from the peloton. In it are Pedersen, Wegelius, Brändle and the frenchman Boucher. The group rides together a lead of 4 minutes.
As we get closer to the mountain sprint we see that Boucher comes to the front, we'll he be collecting the moutain points ?
If it was Boucher's intention to take the points he will be disappointed. The points go to Pedersen who earnes a little money for his team Leopard-Trek.
In the background the peloton starts to increase the pace in the hope of catching the breakaway.
And with only 3km to go the breakaway was over. Now it's time to prepare for the sprint and hope for a victory for Chavanel.
This time i couldn't get mjy train on the rails so I placed my sprinter Chavanel in the weal of Feillu. I had also a back up plan with Arashiro trying to get into Haussler's weel.
It was the fast aussie of HTC Matthew Goss that started the sprint and that with British national champ Thomas in his weel. Can Goss stay in front ?
It doesn't look so, 5 riders are going head to head for the victory. Who is it going to be ? Feillu, Goss, Thomas, Chicci or Cardosso ? In the background we see my 2 sprinters having a bad day and they don't play along for the podium, to bad.
We see Chicci taking the lead and going for the victory. But in the background we see Haussler coming at a phenomenal speed , will he be fast enough ?
Haussler clearly came to late and could only pass Goss.
After his fifth place yesterday Chicci takes the win for Quick-Step. And a weel behind him Cardosso came in second closly followed by Thomas.
The complete top 5 of today were.
1 Chicci
2 Cardoso
3 Thomas
4 Feillu
5 Haussler
9 Arashiro
12 Chavanel
In the GC Haussler still stays leader
1 Haussler
2 Chicci +0"
3 Cardosso +3"
4 Chavanel +10"
Buth most important for our team Gène still keeps his moutain jersey, way the go Yohann !
After the race the journalist got a quote from Yohann about the importancy of his jersey.
This stage is where the tour down under will most likely be decided. It's a hilly stage so the pure sprinters probably won't survive to the finish. The objective of the day is to defend Gène moutain jersey and let Ricco go and hope for a stage win. Let's see how it turned out.
Goss still won't give up an launched an attack ! In the peloton Haussler never really got any lead. So now the question is will the peloton be able to catch the unleashed Matthew Goss ?
In front Goss takes the victory, Haussler never got close to him. An amazing victory from aussie Goss.
The stage results:
1 Matthew Goss HTC-Highroad
2 Heinrich Haussler Team Garmin - Cervelo
3 Sergei Ivanov Team Katusha
4 Rigoberto Uran Sky ProCycling
5 Pablo Lastras Movistar
9 Riccardo Ricco Team Europcar
GC
1 Heinrich Haussler Team Garmin - Cervelo 10h22'27"
2 Manuel Cardoso Team Radioshack + 43"
3 Francesco Chicci Quick-Step + 44"
4 Geraint Thomas Sky ProCycling + 45"
5 Riccardo Ricco Team Europcar + 45"
After the queen stage let's look at the leaders in al the classifications.
[img-l]https://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc438/Michael_Schwaenen/nations/YellowJersey.gif[/img-l] Heinrich Haussler
[img-l]https://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc438/Michael_Schwaenen/nations/image-1.jpg[/img-l] Heinrich Haussler
[img-l]https://i1211.photobucket.com/albums/cc438/Michael_Schwaenen/nations/20px-Jersey_white2svg.png[/img-l] Geraint Thomas
