Atlas - 14:00

[flockmastoR]

I decided to start a thread for the small but interesting afternoon Atlas tour. Let's look at the teams

1. Alive And Dead: Starting with the afternoon December-Tour winner Alessandro Volta. He has good TT but lacks in reg. He has a strong classic helper team with Srivastav, Heuser, Tesla and Celsius

2. bergwerk: The well known afternoon veteran Harry Blind is the captain and he has a young climber (Goodyear) and 2 classic riders (Truelove, OSullivan) as support. Harry has good reg but lacks some TT, his way to win is with his great secondary skills in flat and downhill. He finished 2nd at Calexico behind Volta

3. Kreatief: A team visits the afternoon with 2 climbers, Roland Kießkutscher and Albert Velasco, both with good reg and Kießkutscher with 52 TT. The team could win due to the double leaders. The helping team looks not that brilliant, only Wellington at 69-80. Could be a problem if the team needs to defend.

4. T-Mobile-A: A young climber, Gaizka Gerenabarrena, who is very talented, has some TT, good reg and with Liivik and Lamparter good helpers. Additionally Orter will be the man to save the hill sprints for the sprint leader Merlier.

5. Team Zanarkand: Steff Vervaeke with 85-57 a good climber but only 35reg, he has 2-3 usefull classic helpers.

Volta the favorite on paper but with Blind in his back and 2 Kreatiefs far away from an easy win

[flockmastoR]

Stage 1: flat

The first stage was called flat but has a middle steep climb in between (70+ km to the goal). Andreini and Pollentia (Team Zanarkand) formed an early group. Big discussions in the peloton about the favorite of the race. In the end T-Mobile-A controlled the small group and A&D helped. On the climb, A&D with hard tempo dropping many classic helpers of the other climber teams. T-Mobile-A kept both his classics in front and rode with bergwerk behind. After another sieb in the back by Kreatief, there were 3 groups with bergwerk riding in the last one for Peppercorn, Kreatief riding in the second one for Winston + Merlier also in that group and A&D riding in front for Tesla. Finally A&D stopping and a group with Merlier, Winston and Tesla was formed keeping Peppercorn out of the race. The final sprint was won by Merlier, Tesla finished second and Heuser third. Winston was a victim of strange sprint decisions of his launchers.

Stage 2: ITT
Long TT and a mountain stage following the day after. So the GC favorites tried to save some energy. Volta was somewhere between place 2-6 all race but in the end, he could win the stage and get a gap of more than 1:40 to all other climbers. Kießkutscher finished second (1:43), Geranabarrena third (1:45) and Blind fourth (1:54). Volta taking over yellow from Merlier.

Stage 3: HC
First of two mountain stages after the hard TT. And it started nervous. First group on km 3 were bergwerk attacked with Duffy and Cunnigham and Totschnig (T-Mobile-A) and Fall (A&D) were following. As Loschmidt was still in tempo the group didn't get a big gab and Kreatief caught them back the next km. On km 6 the next attack. This time Duffy and OSullivan (bergwerk) attacked with Cooper, Tayler (both Kreatief) and Andreini, Giovanni (both Zanarkand) following. A&D first just controlling then pushing to catch the group back which was achieved somewhere around km 30. After that Loschmidt kept controlling the race until km 42 where Volta split the peloton and Srivastav pushed for A&D to isolate the Kreatief double leaders. Lots of tempo from A&D in front and Kreatief in the back. The guy who profited most out of it was Blind having 2 helpers himself and probably also with the best energy level out of the TT. Nevertheless, the Kreatief helpers were distanced until km 110. After that the first group started to roll and wait for the attacks. First try was from a classic group around Truelove, OSullivan, Orter and Wright. One km later Wellington and Velasaco from Kreatief. A&D with a slow reaction and some tempo of the already weakened classics before Heuser took over to reduce the gap. Heuser in at the final climb for the first 3 km and noone attacking. bergwerk was porbably hoping that he can use Truelove in the flater part but he was just 30-40s in front of Heuser. Votla finally riding from km 128 and attacking over Velasco at 131. Kießkutscher unable to follow and Blind attacking on the same km. with a gap of around 4s that he increased to 12 until the finish line. Volta finishing second losing 12+some boni on Blind but winning 31+some boni on Kießkutscher.

[Weezel]

Looks decent for Volta, but we have much km to ride. Will be a funny 5 teams tour, because everybody has a climber. Kreatief even two.

Our Goal with Gaizka is white, that should be absolutely no problem and Top 5 in GC what is also very realistic. We would also take some stagewins with Merlier or out of groups

[flockmastoR]

Stage 4: HC

Last of a triple GC stage series. A&D controlling the start with Loschmidt. After some km, bergwerk attacked with Duffy and OSullivan with Taylor (Kreatief) and Wininger (Team Zanarkand) in the wheel. The group got some gap and bergwerk seemed more interested in the red jersey than to bring a rider in good position for a Blind attempt. Loschmidt started to chase at around 4:30 when suddenly a downhill sieb by Kreatief dropped Celsius. Loschmidt helping him and bringing him back together with a T-Mobile-A rider who rode for the siebed Lamparter. After that not too much happened. A&D riding with Loschmidt and Avogadro to keep the group in striking distance. At km 88 the classics of A&D took over with a Heuser sieb and Srivastav riding back the weakened A&D classics. Wellington in front of Celsius, both T-Mobile-A classics there and 2 bergwerks. At km 98 then a classics attack out of tempo by Srivastav and Tesla, Wellington and Tesla following. Volta dropping the classics at km 99 and Heuser riding after that. So the situation was. Blind isolated, Kießkutscher with Velasco and Wellington as helpers, Gerenabarrena isolated with Liivik riding just about 10 seconds behind the climbers group, Truelove riding a group behind. Bergwerk decided to drop OSullivan from the now 2 men leading group to help Blind. After some more km at around km 112 the classic groups were reunited. The final climb had a steep part in the beginning and end with a flat part in the middle. Svrivastav controlling the first part, after being dropped the climbers group waited for the weakened classics. That was the moment for Velasco to attack. Heuser took over and managed to bring Tesla and Volta over the first steeper part. At km 134 Velasco had around 1min gap. Heuser and Goodyear in tempo at +6, +7 keeping the gap at around 1 min. Finally, Volta with tempo at km 136. On km 137 attacks by Blind and Kießkutscher. Volta was first thinking about attacking himself but decided to follow Blind. Right move. After some km tempo together Volta won the sprint against Blind and Velasco who was caught on top of the steep mountain part.

[flockmastoR]

Stage 5: Flat

A stage like a rest day. Nobody even interested in challenging the sprinters and no group in the race. The two IS the most interesting parts with Tesla winning both sprints and gaining 12 points on the other sprinters. In the final sprint. Merlier on Tesla who had his own train. no other dangerous train there and A&D going slowly until 150m to the goal when Peppercorn lanuched the sprint from Merliers wheel winning the race. Merlier sprinting 50m later could only get rank 3 and lost the green jersey to Tesla by 1 point.

Stage 6: Hilly

Somehow the most interestingly looking stage of the second half of the tour with light pave in the middle of the stage and a hilly finish. No group for the first half of the race. Merlier and Peppercorn sprinting at the first IS to gain back points on Tesla. Then Cassata and Winger (both Team Zanarkand) attacked and formed the only escape group of the day. On the first pave km, Orter with the sieb and Volta in the back with his helper deCoulomb who brought him back the next km. No big action following and the united peloton leading to the Debdou Pass. Now Volta made the pace for Tesla and Celsius. Steff Vervaeke attacked to reunite with Winger but reached the top too early (before the +8). He continued for the mountain points and stopped after it. On top A&D with Volta, Srivastav, Heuser, Tesla and Celsius without any danger to keep it together. Tesla winning the sprint in front of Liivik and Truelove.

[Weezel]

Hmmm...let's have a look at the fight for the jerseys.

GC: Actually it seems, that Volta has no real opponent. His helperteam is too strong and Kreatief talked about mistakes with the form lately. So I don't expect any changes here. But maybe Kreatief can do some action with his two climbers.

Points: Tesla 14 points ahaed of Volta, 15 points ahaed of Merlier. As there are not so much good sprinters to place between Merlier and Tesla today and at the last stage, Tesla is the favourite for the green jersey.

Mountain: It will be a fight between the bergwerk-classic O'Sullivan (40 points) and the Zanarkand-climber Vervaeke (37 points). If Vervaeke is going for the jersey hard, he should get it. But his weak point is 35 reg, so there is a chance for bergwerk.

Youth: If my Gerenabarrena does nothing very bad, he will win the white jersey. Actually he is with 82 climb (should be 83 after tonight) 5:04 minutes ahaed of bergwerks 21 year old climber Goodyear.

Team: bergwerk is leading with 59 seconds ahaed of T-Mobile-A and 1:50 ahaed of Kreatief. With a look at the mountain-skills of the riders (85/74 bzw. 75/71) bergwerk is the favo against me (82 bzw. 83/73/72) and Kreatief (86/84/69). If Kreatief uses his double-lead good, he has a chance.

[Robyklebt]

I won the moral GC with Payot, moral green with Gamboa, moral team with my team. Failed morally in the mountains and that youth thing.

[bergwerk cycling]

I won the moral GC with Payot, moral green with Gamboa, moral team with my team. Failed morally in the mountains and that youth thing.

Payet, Payot ... dont know him ... and who needs 88 hill when is is not riding? .-)
26 races 28 years ... what is he doing all the time?

[Quick]

As a truly great sitter, I suck for both, Tesla and Merlier.

[Weezel]

As a truly great sitter, I suck for both, Tesla and Merlier.

This is fairness, great!
So the green-fight is not fully over - but tomorrow we should expect a Tesla-win.
But maybe we can create a big group that comes through or something^^

[Robyklebt]

Moral win for Carpinteiro then tomorrow.

[Weezel]

Moral win for Carpinteiro then tomorrow.

So we see you in Australia?

[flockmastoR]

As a truly great sitter, I suck for both, Tesla and Merlier.

Hoped you are biased towards A&D. Anyway thanks to my 2 sitters.

[flockmastoR]

Stage 7: Flat
Not here for the stage but a boring flat stage that was won by Merlier, don't know if the A&D guys tried on the +6 or how long they could stay in front against T-Mobile-A and bergwerk but with the win and Tesla just finishing 4th, Merlier preserves his chances of the green jersey.

Stage 8: Hilly
Hectical start at stage 8 with a pave sieb, but the yellow jersey could come back after some km of tempo of Loschmidt and after dropping deCoulomb. After that, a 4 men group was formed with OSullivan, Urquhart (bergwerk), Totschnig (T-Mobile-A), and Winger (Team Zanarkand). A&D kept the group closely and the classics already started with the pace at km 99. Srivastav carrying Celsius up the mountain and making tempo for a long time. Celsius helped in the flater parts and Volta made pace for Heuser and Tesla on km 155 (+6). Surprisingly, the 2 T-Mobile-A classics dropped back and only Truelove was left besides all the climbers, even Goodyear was dropped. Therefore it was an easy Tesla sprint win.

Stage 9: HC
Difficult finish with a lot of pave, a HC mountain prior to the final climb. No action first but than A&D flat riders Fall and deCoulomb attacked to steal IS points from Merlier. Then some siebs from Kreatief, some siebs for the mountain points by Vervaeke. On foot of the H.C. climb, the whole peloton reunited, when Celsius did the pace up the hill. No attacks. Rolling until the start of the final 2 pave hills. Orter in tempo to try to sieb some climbers. Was just successfull to sieb Goodyear. Srivastav also in tempo. Velasco attacked, Heuser some tempo on steeper parts of the hill and in the downhill. Km 148 attacks by Blind and Kießkutscher. Volta following Blind, Kießkutscher some seconds in front, Volta in tempo, Geranabarrena coming back from behind. km 151 Kießkutscher attacked again without anybody able to follow and winning the stage. Tesla gaining 5 points as stage 8th.

[bergwerk cycling]

nice tour with 5 activ managern, but
Bääääm today stage 2nd, GK 2nd, Green 2nd, Red 2nd, White 2nd, Team 2nd

maybe time to win tomorrow ....grrrrrrml

[Weezel]

nice tour with 5 activ managern, but
Bääääm today stage 2nd, GK 2nd, Green 2nd, Red 2nd, White 2nd, Team 2nd

maybe time to win tomorrow ....grrrrrrml

You are the new Merlier^^
But better second everywhere than 5th everywhere.

Third stagewin for our team today, first ever win for Gaizka - this is very nice. He had to rest against your better sprinters and had the perfect timing. Let's see, if Merlier strikes again tomorrow.

[flockmastoR]

Stage 10: HC
The finish of the stage looked nice for Tesla again. A big group was formed in the beginning and A&D chased it hard early. The group missed the point to change to the leaders and so it was caught on the steep mountain were A&D had to ride with Celsius in order to avoid dangerous attacks. Kreativ with the sieb by Velasco about 4-5 km to the end of the climb. Probably he thought he can safe his early escaper for the mountain group. Otherwise the earlier sieb would have totally made sense. Volta helping Heuser at that time and at the second km A&D leader dropped back. Due to an error (Jaswant not in tempo after beeing siebed) a lot of time lost and Blind in virtual yellow on top of the Tizi el Fouqani. Climbers worked together very well. Volta chasing in downhill and Jaswant won back some time in the flater downhill and flat parts. At the last and not that steep hill Volta could keep the distance without dropping Tesla or Heuser even on the 8. GC was safe at that point and stage looked like the climbers get it. So easy control of the last kms and Tesla following the remaining classics to secure the green jersey. In front Gerenabarrena won the climbers sprint for the stage win. Tesla reached place 5 and safed green.

Stage 11: Flat
Not much to say, calm last stage T-Mobile-A with control and Merlier with his 3rd stage win at Atlas.

[flockmastoR]

Thanks for the tour. Volta with a start-finish-victory. A&D winning 4 stages (2x Volta, 2x Tesla), yellow and green. Very successfull tour. See you again