EAT 14h

[Robyklebt]

The ape comes back to the main program. Hoping to find a big enough group...

Team:

Not all completely clear yet, but

R. Avranescu: TTT locomotive
D. Gao: Star sprinter
N. Legrand: Star classic
N. De Pellevoisin: Star support rider, learning the trade
A. Tasman: Star explorer, will do the reconnaissance of all stages
Y. Touré: African star, possible GC man
V. Villa: Pavé star and great sprint helper for Touré

are clear
For the 2 remaining spots... lots of riders possible
Buttu, Gong, Häfeli, Mollagholipour, Momyshuly, Scodreanu, Yamada and Yrjönpoika basically...
Goals.. It's not football, so we don't try to score.

[Ronson]

Yeah, another little tour with the Ape and bw. I'm looking forward to seeing you both again

[bergwerk cycling]

Yeah, another little tour with the Ape and bw. I'm looking forward to seeing you both again

me too ... hope of a view more gamer with us .-)

[gaurain rx]

So, Gaurain should join this afternoon field in these African roads. Team without gk leader, but let's discover it a bit more:

1. Ghislain Lambert : Should be number one at start. Last big race for the old Gaurain sprinter.
2. Franco DelPonte : Flat rider, also one of the last big event for him.
3. Matthieu Deroy : Young sprinter. Will be there to learn, close to the old boss.
4. Yannick Frognet : Strong flat guy. Will be quite important in Gaurain's team.
5. David Jaret : The old flatie, weak berg but a good reg. Could be the man who controlls the escapes.
6. Marissa Lopard : Another strong flattie, with reg and beautifull downhill.
7. Georg Preidler : The young new climber. There, why, I don't really know, maybe to help Vanhuis.
8. Piet Vanhuis : Maybe the gk leader. Anyway, only classic at the party.
9. Terence Vrunethen : 60-80, important one on every fields.

So, costs : 474k, Way too much, way too much.
Goal : Stages, Stages, and stages again.... And why not playing red Jersey for once.
Potential changes : Timonier for Vrunethen or Preidler, Dépucelle or Maréchal for Preidler.
Out of the race : Grossteub, McKinley,

[Robyklebt]

Rakhat and Fariborz after all for the apes. The first one, good decision hopefully. 3 chances to win a stage, probably stage nr 5 the best. 2+9 harder but definetly worth trying. Mollagholipour on the other hand... his TT brought him here.. .but well, Yamada would have been better I think. More reg too.

Anyway, GC: I see Jagger. Gaurain said Soares. We'll see. But ok, haven't really analyzed it that closely. TTT and TT decisive, the normal stages are not really there to make big differences I think.

Stages: Sprint only 2 90+ guys.. Gaurain and Celtic their managers, if they want they should get their sprints. OK with me, sprinter nr 3 with Gao. Narcisse Arsène de Pellevoisin and Fariborz Mollagholipour will help too. Rest will see...

[gaurain rx]

Well, should be an interesting Tour.

Gc definitely Soares or Jagger. Don't see anybody who can compete with them and they both have the team to decently controll the race. I bet on Soares, mostly cause of stage 5... But maybe TTT will be the most important point... And there, bw has the advantage.

Last podium place: hard to predict. Bourne in my point of view with the best paper. Szary also a good chance. Nijstroem also in this fight. Flat TT guys? I don't think so. Climb are steep and race could be hard for them on some middle mountain stage. But yeah, they could get their chance if the tour is ridden really slow. Preidler, my guy, is in my point of view also not chanceless. Will also depend how the things goes.

Green could be for sprinters, so I guess Tinazzi or Lambert. But it depends again how the race will go.

Red jersey and teamclassement seems totally random

White yeah, Kornacki, Nijstroem and Preidler seems involved.

Still not convinced of my lineup, mostly Preidler. With Grossteub p3 gk seemed obvious and easy, even P1 could hve been possible (even if I clearly doubt).

[Robyklebt]

Sprint today like expected, but was veeeeeeery easy to get... only 2 serious attackers finally, half of the group then started to work at 15', which was too early like that. BW (yellow)-Gaurain (Lambert)-Celtic (Tinazzi)-Petit Singe (Gao nr 3, far from 1, but x money sprinters and can only help a bit early...) So... no chance. Sprint then, I half expected a 50 sprint from the 4 87+ sprinters, all hanging on each other.... then Tinazzi went early with his train, not sure if planned or not, if planned not even bad, just was the logic wheel for me today, so didn't work for him. Gao even managed to overtake him, ha! Not enough against Lambert of course, although closer than I thought.

Tomorrow, first chance for Momyshuly. Although I never know what to do with stuff like this.. not enough flat poor Rakhat, Yesid would have been better for tomorrow. Pretty open, he has his chance, but others too. The main adversaries for tomorrow Vanhuis, the multi-pauls and Osvaldo. Not necessarily in this order, since I don't really believe in the multi-pauls at this point. Other classics.. who knows, form and stuff, depends a bit on Vanhuis too, so Legrand wants to be a co-favorite as well. And Yaya Touré of course who is very motivated.

[Pirkio]

Can I come and Eat something with you? Launch time EAT tour looks very "good"

[gaurain rx]

Yes, easy sprint today and finally sprint went really good for me We should get some more ms, 5 even possible in my point of vew but it will depend of course how the race turns out.

Positive points is that everybody is actually online (excpet Paulpaul/ulpaulpa). Jager took also 2 bonisecs which could maybe make the difference at the end.

Tomorrow could be an interesting stage, depends how it will be ridden. Anyway, it will definitely be an interesting finish. If it goes "regular", it should be Rakhat against the classic riders (and so, Vanhuis as "leader" of the classic crowd) but last climb could provide other opportunities.

[gaurain rx]

So well, Rakhat dominated the Classics today. Stage went easy for the fav's. Early escpare of 5 with Rastullah, Vagaderi and Samurai. Fight for some red points... Then, some tempo for an intersprint. Lambert +2. Not enough but still good to take.

Final climb fully blocked by Sku till the 7. then, all climbers attack, well, I was totally surprised by Sku attack as I thought he would try to sieb. In the peloton, bw rides for his gc leader Jagger. Vanhuis joins for the stage and attacks one kilometer before the end followed by Legrand. They take back Rakhat on the last kilometer. But the silly climber sprinted from far and surprised his oppenent and his teammate to take the win and red jersey.

Bw keeps yellow but with Jagger now. He keeps the gap with Sku which is a quite good operation for him today.

[Robyklebt]

Rakhat! Good, the ape happy, first win of his career, excellent, and a stage win here, excellent too. If a second one comes it will be bonus now. GC not much happened. Attack by Soares and Osvaldo, but caught again, for him here probably a sieb would have been better. But ok, not really my problem, something tells me I won't play a role in the GC But Momyshuly with a stage, all is good!

Tomorrow... recovery day for some of the apes, Narcisse, heavy recovery needed, for the rest just recovery since there's nothing else to do, only Avranescu and MOmyshuly would actually need some. Favorites, likely the classics with sprint, but who knows, escape, sprint... mmh, difficult, even if Gaurain was thinking about that in the chat too... I'll keep Gao fit, just in case:) If Celtic is there and wants to have a try it could even work, since he has nothing else. We'll see.

[gaurain rx]

So well, hard stage to analyze.

Winners : Rastullah, Sku and vagaderi clearly

Loosers : Bergwerk and Radorniak for sure. But ok, all the rest of the pack can be considered as loosers even if it's mixed situations..

So winners first, Rastullah get the stage, yellow and white after a long escape, what else could he expected, nothing. Maybe take some green points for Bergman? Well, maybe but I'm not sure he's a real green contender.

Vagaderi collected points for red, seems he's the only one to fight for it, so also good day for him.

Sku gained 45 unexpected seconds in gk, great deal for him. Even if he didn't rode perfect (siebed to late, didn't wait for Mc Leod) he's clearly back in the fight against Jagger.

Loosers. Bw lost 45 unecessary seconds in gk by being not alert at the right moment. He let all the space to sku and the loss could have been way worse if Sku had siebed earlier.

Radorniak lost all his chances with his both leaders, more than 4 minutes loss. Hard day for him.

Rest, harder to analyze.

Bier lost a lot on the last km. Wrong sprint tactic and stage was gone or it would have been an easy win for him. Nijstroem only 45 secs loss for white is still ok. Even more, Radorniak is out of the fight so not bad for him.

Ape didn't won but what did he had to loose, nothing really. Maybe with Legrand in the front group he could have done something.

Celtic and Cost didn't have the team to compete today. Celtic went in the escape but it didn't worked for him.

Samu was off as obviously Ulpa.

Gaurain could have won a lot. Stage, Yellow, gk podium and white. Finally nothing happened. Group was a bit too far away, yellow finally unreachabble in any case, only 45 secs won for podium and white on respectively Bourne and nijstroem. Even if it's a start, it won't probably be enough. A pity after the work I did today. Bergwerk resisted quite well with only 3 guy against 6 Gaurain/Sku riders.

[Robyklebt]

Yep, agree on most.
BW... I actually thought he was offline for the whole first part? But since I was off quite a bit too, don't really know. But anyway, it really was his job to defend yellow today. To do some minimal control work against the group. SK took that over, alone. Big weakness by the sitter there. Not working just for not workings sake, the bill came. Because THAT'S what killed him. That's what cost him 45". Just put in a guy in green together with SK pretty early and... Zamora and Murillo attacking doesn't bother him. Even if he's off at the moment of the attack, like ProTour said he was (but then who goes to the toilet at that time???) a guy in green in, and the attack can't really work. Or, at leeeast, if not working is THAT important to ProTour, put in a guy in green when you go to the toilet before the decisive moment of the stage.... With a minimum of work, both brain and tempo, that farmer there just wasn't possible.

Me: Didn't win, didn't lose. Can't lose That was really a stage where I could only win. Tried with Touré, didn't work as expected. Thought I'd be dropped after the hill, but ok, was before. Stage, wasn't interested, hoped for a chance for yellow for a day or so, didn't work ok.. No problem, although the reason given by Vagaderi for not waiting will of course mean that now there will be a fight for red. NOW Momyshuly is interested.
Gaurain... 45" won for white, not bad, chances there. Stage didn't work, group too far and worked too well finally. DelPonte in front too weak. In the back... I think a sprint was VERY possible today. If BW pays attention and the Blu attack goes nowhere... The sprinters have good chances to come back in our group I think. But... didn't work out like that... finally it worked out for Gaurain too, stage wasn't possible anymore, but 45" for white and the podium is better than nothing.

Tomorrow... usually a sprint, with lots of people recovering from today... Ape kind of unhappy with the riders he finally killed today... Except Gao all his awesome sprinters (Villa, Touré, Tasman, Avranescu) are under reg...grrrrr! Mollagholipour finished ultrafit... grrr. But Narcisse Arsène de Pellevoisin is almost at 1000 again, so some little work for the sprint will be possible.

Yellow: Big step for BK, clearly, now I think I have to agree with Rougecroissant... Soares favorite! But we'll see, maybe BW can react.
Green: Still Lambert nr 1 for me. Then Tinazzi, Gao etc. Don't think a classic or Momyshuly or anybody else has a chance.
Red: Big step forward for Vagaderi. But as I said, a step backward too. Before this stage he had "permission" to go chase it from everybody... now not anymore.
White: Bier vs Gaurain now
Team: Who cares... but SK looks good.
Best African, the only thing that really counts. Absolute domination by Yaya Touré!

[Ronson]

What a stage yesterday. Was not able to join the first 20min, bw seems not able to find a sitter
k, my job to control the gap and save the gc for Jagger. Maybe with options to ride for McLeod for a classic finish. So I controled the gap between 8 and 12min.

At km124 I siebed to weaken the sprinter and other classic sprinters. Feared that my stars Colina and Chacon don't reach the finish within 45min. Don't know why the sprinters rode with 6 bw in their wheels ... what they drunk to believe in a ms yesterday?! But Gamito to strong

bw on, so I attacked with Zamorra and Murillo at km147. No block from bw, just Gaurain in Zamorras wheel. So sieb at themountain to drop Jagger. Unfortunatelly Bonillas was not fighting and I don't wait for McLeod, with McLeod we could have more than a minute at the end.

Anyway, it seems that in a stage race with the bw and Blu-Bardhe the team wins who made the fewest mistakes. If not, the Ape takes the grown

[Robyklebt]

Pff, no no, it's the ape that wins. Unless he's not there to win, like this time

[gaurain rx]

Ms was not that foolish for yesterday. They reached it in other groups. But it needed perfect collaboration and also somebody to kill the escape in front.

Today, nothing happened. Ok, Sku took 2 secs more on bw. Then sprint easy. Peloton controlled by Celtic and Gaurain. Celtic won the ms.

Know are coming maybe the 2 most imprevisible days for gk. First one is good for Sku, second for bw. After that, we can clearly established who has the best paper to win gc I guess.

[Robyklebt]

Yeah, agree. But in our group with BW sleeping the tempo then probably would have been too high.
Yesterday the expected super easy sprint, Tinazzi this time. Anyway, so far we split up the wins nicely.

BW
Gaurain
Petit Singe
rastullah
Celtic Club

5 days, 5 different winners, of course I hope to break the harmony today and get the second stage win. Escape less of a problem than I though, only 4 riders left in front, and Blu announced that he wants to help control, not too sure why, but ok. He has chances for the win too maybe? Anyway, was scared of more attacks, yes, tomorrow is the TTT, important for the GC guys. That's really only 4, BW and Blu for yellow, Gaurain and Bier for white. So pretty happy with only 2 teams ahead. Might manage to keep one guy more fit after all?

[Ronson]

... Blu announced that he wants to help control, not too sure why, but ok. He has chances for the win too maybe? ...

No no, my intention is another one.

[Robyklebt]

Grr... didn't think really you'd get it, grrrr. Plus should simply have accepted the deal actually.
My plan was simple too, ride and drop Soares... but blah... way too strong this fighting still.. would have taken another 5 km probably to drop him, even if he probably lost way more energy then Rakhat himself. But well, so all I had to do to get the stage anyway was riding the flat too... but no, wanted to win solo, that was over after the 16 I thought, still wanted to try how much time I gain on the 9... Actually started hoping a bit after only losing 1" on the 0, but then 2" on the +1, ok, that's it. Should have taken the deal, but that's what happens if I already have a stage, grrr. Second one not needed that badly, let's play around a bit.... so Soares wins it. Ah well. Next time maybe I take the deal

[bergwerk cycling]

perhaps only riding at 18 and 16 to drop him?

So a few seconds more for me ... grrrr.


But a few seonds more or less take no matter i think, the gap could grow tomorrow again ... very difficult for me with the 2 strong riders, 1 middle and 6 "Luschen" ... and Stage 9 a few seconds again ... last TT maybe 50-55 sec. back ... but that "Drops is gelutscht" i think.

[gaurain rx]

Stage of today, a bit survivor one.

I can't talk about the first 70km. Then intersprint for green, Lambert took 2 more points against Tinazzi but the fight is still open really.

Then the last climb as nothing really happened before. A bit of tempo by bw to try to weaken the climbers was the most interesting part. Climbers clearly exploding the classics, Rakhat also trying to sieb the 2 sku guys. In the back, one Gaurain group and then one bw, close from each other, closer than I thought actually. Rakhat attacked in front to get the stage but he was not strong enough to resist to the 2 sku guys. Soares, the gk leader, showed he was best by winning the sprint very easilly.

So, Soares 1'01 in gk on Jagger if I'm right with the bonisecs ... THis is a lot, I think Soares is definitely fav' now but lets first see what will happen tomorrow. For podium, Bourne seems to be the big man if bw TTT works as it's expected by me. Then, fight still remains for p4 between Rakhat Momyshuli, Georg Preidler and Mauricio Osvaldo (in this order).

Green fight will be an hard one, 8 points between Tinazzi and Lambert, I don't fully delete Dacquan of it too and even Bergmann who is scoring points in every stage (that's why I'm happy Vanhuis and co stealed him some points on stage 3 and 5 or he would be really close from green).

Red will be a match between Vagaderi's classic and the ape's climber apparently.

White seems clearer. Preidler did a really good shot today. 1'55 ahead of Nijstroem should already be enough but still close.

Team, well a lot can still happen in this classification.

[Ronson]

Ui, don't expect that finish. Assumed that Rakhat will take the offer to win this stage easily.
He had two options and choosed the 3rd
1. option hang at the Ossi-train and take care of paul und ulpa in the case the don't drop and attack at the niner at km146
2. option, if paul und ulpa drop ... as very likely take the offer and help in the flat and take the stage offered (or don't help and attack at km146)

Anyway, Soares thanks! btw, with 554 he was lucky enough to stay in reg.

[Ronson]

...
So, Soares 1'01 in gk on Jagger ...

1'31

THis is a lot, I think Soares is definitely fav' now but lets first see what will happen tomorrow. ...

Yes, a bit more than expected. But I am not sure at the fav role. Would like to wait and see the TTT tomorrow.

Then, fight still remains for p4 between Rakhat Momyshuli, Georg Preidler and Mauricio Osvaldo (in this order).

You can ignore Ossi. Guess he won't reach finish with my TT-team tomorrow.

Green fight will be an hard one, 8 points between Tinazzi and Lambert, I don't fully delete Dacquan of it too and even Bergmann who is scoring points in every stage (that's why I'm happy Vanhuis and co stealed him some points on stage 3 and 5 or he would be really close from green).

Not Bergmann more probably Jagger or Soares

[Robyklebt]

Only 16+18? Don't think that works... they stay, the way the fighting system works it's almost impossible to drop somebody with only 2-3 mountain points less in 1-2 km. Doesn't really matter how steep. Need to have them fighting a few times and then drop. And Soares was fighting... he probably had more than 100 less than Rakhat after the climb. 551 at the end? So 691 before the sprint.. so around 700 at the GPM... Rakhat still had over 800 then. 832 I think. Maybe should have tried at the 9 again? Probably...

The fight for 4th place? This is the most boring fight ever, who cares? 4th? Even the fight for 3rd isn't all that fascinating, but 4th? MONEY, yes, otherwise...

Have to admit that for first it looks much clearer for Soares than I thought now. Ok ok, 15" are from Rakhat, at least, grrr, why not drop him... grrr. But yeah, didn't think it would be almost a minute from Soares to Jagger yesterday. The time lost the other day hurts even more. But let's see the TTT first.

[bergwerk cycling]

TTT ... no really suprise today i think.

The 3 best TTT teams are infront ... if i ride the same way as rado i would be perhaps 5-6 seconds better.
But think dont beat him this way ... if you check the skills from rado and mine best 5 riders and add it you will see, that rado is a little bit better and his riders are much more balanced than mine.

But if i want to win here my tactic is not so bad, ok 3-4 km earlier to start stronger maybe ... but i'am very frightened that i could wait!


Maybe, perhaps or whatever ... we dont know it really ... fact is, that without a great fault Soares is not to beat now.