Aberta 9h

[team fl]

A flat tour! Yay! Team FL taking part! double yay! Although it seems that the "Hi freaks" guy is favorite in GC AND bunch sprints, Team FL try with the following riders to challenge something...

x1 Kenny Banzer
x2 Henri Bienvenu
x3 Benni Büchel
x4 Joe Friesenbichler
x5 Tomasz Kowalski
x6 Arunas Paulauskas
x7 Martti Rosenblatt
x8Janis Smedins
x9 Vikkelä Ville

Goals: Do not fall from the bike.

[luques]

Luques too taking part!
Objective, have some fun and experimenting the new sprint system

Lineup:

Kamizuru
Polyakov
Sini
Blacklow
Vilen
Golban
Bulloch
Tajibayuly
Alexeev

[flockmastoR]

HI FREAKS

EM also at the start and already won the first 2 stages. So no more goals

[team fl]

Favorite check after the prologue and stage 1:

Easy for the GC: It's either Zeilinger, who has an advantage of 1 sec at the moment, or Yaseev if he wins some bonus seconds. Rest is out of reach more or less, esp. if EM and Aux are vigilant enough not to let a group win with too much time or sth. like that.

Green is even easier, that should be Arias easils. EM's sprint train is just too strong (possibly one of the strongest in the game at the moment) even for CircleCyle, BengalsUdine or TV Treffelhausen.

White looks good for Gracés from Aux. Here too, the only chance for somebody else would be a successful attack with enough time gain.

The mountain classement will be decided on Sunday, the only stage with mountain points. I expect a lot of attacks. The most lucky one of the ones who want get it will be the winner here.

Team classement is Aux terrain again with the usual exceptions (group win with time gain etc...)


The conclusion is: Boring tour, but for Team FL at least a financial relief after three month of horrible numbers...

[team fl]

HI FREAKS

EM also at the start and already won the first 2 stages. So no more goals

Not all sprint stages? No GC? that's NOT the spirit...

[team fl]

Uff, what a stage. First EM off (announced) and CircleCycle controlled in the peloton against a group with Kowalski and, more important, Gracés from Aux. Kowalski first only wanted to win another GC place with the intermediate sprint, but then, after EM gave up the chase in the peloton, it was clear the he had the best chances for the stage win. In the end, the group was 1' in front of the peloton, Gracés now in yellow (and white), Kowalski, who won the stage, now in green. Will be interesting to see how the further stages develop, now that EM will ride for sprints for sure and Aux is interested in keeping groups out of GC chances (and maybe even chances for the team classement). GC and white should be clear now, although - as today shows - everything is still possible.

[flockmastoR]

1) It's Alberta not Aberta

2) quiet interessting stage
didn't put a rider in tempo because it wasn't clear if i come at 9:10 or 9:40 or 8:55. Group was way too strong to control it on my own. The riders i put in first didnt start near 1000 because of 2 different groups yesterday. With 100km to go and Ries at 400 with only Froböse and Zahrobsky left and about 4 minutes. It was just not possible to get them (alone). Ok i could have asked for help (what I don't do since some months) or I could have said it 5km before stopping. But why should then the other sprinters ride for me? In the end CircleCycle safed my podiums place and he safed me the possible help from Aux. If the group gets 15 minutes Aux doesnt have to control that much (at least if he doesnt want to safe the team score). Now its about 1:30 on possible attacker, so he can't risk too big gaps.

Alternatives to my behave today:
1) Other team: 1TT, 1Sprinter 7 FLatriders. More help for my sprinter and more riders to control, less riders to keep fit. problem: Aux with his 2 TT guys still favorite as he has one to escape and one to sprint seconds and if he wins the first stage the GC is over for me. Also the green jersey is wide open without train.
2) Kill my team today to maybe keep yellow for 1 day: from 100 km to the goal go in with Froböse and Zahrobsky to get the group fast (maybe FL and Treffel would stopped than) but then chaos for the last 50-60km? But then the next attacks the next day. I could stop the TT guys from attacking but with my 87s guys not fit there will be probably no sprint again this tour

Anyway going for green now. Hope Aux is better in defending his jersey but his team will be able to

[auxilium torino]

Naturally we will ride for GC and tomorrow we want collaborate with you again, Flocke!

I present my team for Alberta tour:
Marcelo Graces [Uruguay]
Igor Yaseev [Russia]
Philipp Franke [Germania]
Giulio Ascoli [Italia]
MarcoLuis Solis [Mexico]
Michael Laudrup [Danimarca]
Alejandro Lizarraga [Mexico]
Kumiku SanchezCanto [Peru]
Gregorio Balbuena [Mexico]

started with Yaseev as captain, after stage 3 is Graces the new one!

Target stay White, Team Classment and a Stage win, but we try to defend the yellow Jersey too, for sure!

(Laudrup is really desepcioned, hoped to become a free way for red...)

[flockmastoR]

Sprints look really good. Jimmy with his second Win. Looks good for green, if there is another MS it should be safe.
Tomorrow looks hard but I think we should manage a sprint easily. Only thing that could happen is that there is a bigger group because of the red jersey. Think FL, Treffel, Circle will try their luck. All in all my team looks a bit better tomorrow than today. Ries on the way to 1000 again. Furtwangler and Gouderaux awfully dead. Can do some more tomorrow but Aux still has to work first. (Musst schon etwas mehr als ich tun. Bin noch etwas sauer dass du gerade dann attackieren musst wenn ich nicht da bin)

[auxilium torino]

ich habe nicht attackiert, nur FL gefolgt, konnte ich nicht riskieren, falls du zu spaet kommt, auch weiss und team zu verlieren...

in endeffekt, war der richtiges entscheidung, ausser das bin der einziges team ohne sprinter dabei gewesen...

ausser das, ich erwarte mehr eine attacke aus bengals seite, aber eine grosses gruppe, komm sowieso nicht weg morgen

[flockmastoR]

gefolgt oder attackiert. Das ist gleichgültig. Wenn du es nicht riskieren willst kannst ihn ja auch wieder einfangen sofort.

[luques]

Good win to all who won something

Sini good but Arias and EM train too strong! Should have joined the escape more often but in the morning i can't give my best