Los Galacticos

[el Galactico]

NRW-Tour - historic last stage

Before we started into this 4th stage of the NRW-Tour it looked like it will become one of our worst tours in our history. The GC was decided after stage 1 and also in the jersey competitions we lost all our chances. On stage 3 Inacio Araujo became 2nd but with just a milimeter behind his opponent. At this moment the disappointment was big and we just waited for the end of this tour. But then came day 4, the last stage and finally a really historic result for our team.

Most of the stage was controlled by Marzahn and Franco who both fought for the green jersey. After that we took over the control and then used a chance to attack with Sabrosa and Sarrabl about 35 kms before the finish when the peloton suddenly slowed down the tempo. The attack was a big success as nobody reacted. The duo started to gain more and more time and in behind one of the stage favorites Ponte Vecchio attacked with his both classic riders. Inacio Araujo was in their wheel and could relax while he tried to close the gap to our duo Joao and Arturo. On the last steep part of the stage it was already clear that he won't be able to come in front and from behind the fit Araujo attacked away from his group, making this stage to a TRIPLE-success. The first one in our history.

[RS Ostfriesland]

Nice one. And also nice work from Fink!

[el Galactico]

GP Bielsko - Biala
Thiago sprints out his opponents...

Today our lazy classic rider Thiago de Lemos won the Cat. 2 race "GP Bielsko-Biala" in a sprint of a big group. A very nervous race from the start was controlled by several teams and no group was able to have at least a chance to come to the end. On the last hill Boyd Gallagher, the best classic rider in the peloton, attacked but with the united power of several teams he was caught 2 kms before the end. Then came the sprint and Thiago surprised the favorites with an early sprint opening and according to the gently sloping last meters he was able to bring this sprint to a success finally.

It is already his 3rd victory. Now it is only missing the good training to become a real star in 2012! Come on Thiago....!!!

[el Galactico]

Transfer Information
Galacticos about to buy a climber...

The Galacticos are seriously thinking about to buy a new climber after Sebastian Araujo failed in last year and made the beginning of our nearly 3 month break from RSF. Nowadays the wish to have again a climber in the team grows more and more as we had great times when our legend Ben Gourgue won a lot of important and thrilling events in 2010. On the other side there are still a lot of facts which are not really positive. Will the team have enough time and motivation to ride the GT's? Or even 1 week races as the Dauphinee? On weekends it will be still very difficult to ride races. Is it worth to buy a climber and maybe then participate half-active in these tours. Is a 80-70 maybe a better type of rider. Winning classics and be under Top 10 in climber's tours when we want to ride them?
A decision has to be done until the end of this month...

[el Galactico]

Retirement

Joaquim Tigre
175 races
993 eternal points
1x Brazilian NC
3rd Paris - Tours 2011

He had to go to make space for upcoming new talents for 2012. Maybe 1 or 2 others have to follow.

[el Galactico]

Transfer news

After the retirement of Joaquim Tigre it was Ricardo Junqueira who had to be sold after his catastrophic training through all his career.

New in the team is our big hope for 2012:

Ignacio Salazar (72-55-69-52-56)

We let it open to his training in the first 2 months what kind of a rider he should become. 80-70 or a pure climber.

[el Galactico]

February and so on...

Our first post of the 2012.

The month January is over and as nearly traditionally it was a bad month for the team. Even if we rode 26 races, which is a record for us since some month in 2010, i guess, we were not able to win a single race. The only good results which are worth to be mentioned are the 4th place in GC of Joao Sabrosa at the Sachsen Paves and the win of the youth rider jersey by our 21 year old climber Ignacio Salazar in his first tour/race for the team at the Volta Rio. Therefore he got the title for the rider of the Month, as there were not much opponents after Luiz failed in winning a stage of our season highlight, the Tour Down Under which we won the past 2 years.

Another very difficult topic was the "Rider of the Year 2011 - Award".
This time there was no clear candidate as in the years before with Leandro or Guilhe and Gourgue. 4 candidates were a bit better than the rest. Joao Sabrosa with 3 stage wins, Thiago deLemos with 4 and the 2 best were Inacio Araujo with 3 stages, one of them the Emilia classic race in autumn 2011. Last but not least Erik Jacobson with 5 stage wins, 2 half-classics with Bourges and Agostoni.

Finally we were able to present our number 14 in the team with Anderson Rodriguez from Fortaleza, Brazil. He should become a good helper for light hilly races.

[el Galactico]

National Championships

Brazil - Thiago defends national title in Brazil

Thiago de Lemos was able to defend his title in Brazil after an very stunning race, especially at the last 10 kms, where he fighted against the n°1 of Brazil Leon Alberti. Finally he catched the strong classic rider 2 kms before the finish line and then outsprinted him easily to become brazilian champion for the second time in a row.
Our first win in 2012 after the traditional bad January with no wins.



Uruguay

Santi Suarez did a very strong race and was one of a 2-men group which came together to the finish line. Unfortunately he lost the sprint quite clear so that he finally became 2nd of the Uruguay NC.

Argentina

Manuel Sosa ended up the race on place 3. Finally chanceless against the strong classic rider of Alkworld.

[el Galactico]

National Championships

Brazil - Thiago defends national title in Brazil

Thiago de Lemos was able to defend his title in Brazil after an very stunning race, especially at the last 10 kms, where he fighted against the n°1 of Brazil Leon Alberti. Finally he catched the strong classic rider 2 kms before the finish line and then outsprinted him easily to become brazilian champion for the second time in a row.
Our first win in 2012 after the traditional bad January with no wins.



Uruguay

Santi Suarez did a very strong race and was one of a 2-men group which came together to the finish line. Unfortunately he lost the sprint quite clear so that he finally became 2nd of the Uruguay NC.

Argentina

Manuel Sosa ended up the race on place 3. Finally chanceless against the strong classic rider of Alkworld.

Bolivien

Our rain dancer from the middle of South America Ramon Cervalles made the big shot with a surprising win of the bolivian championship by outsprinting a rider of our former "mentor" Team Australia.

[el Galactico]

100.000!!!

Yesterday our team broke through the 100.000 eternal points mark as team number 53 in RSF history.

This is a big step for us and it makes us proud to be here for such a long time and with such success (at least sometimes ).

And fitting to this jubilee it was a win of Luiz Lazequeira which brought us over this mark of 100.000!!!

We needed 830 races to get to this point. On this way there were a lot of good and bad results. With 116 stage wins we are already on Place 38 for the most victories.

[el Galactico]

Calabria

Luiz Lazequeira won the tour, green and both stages. An all around win which brought us stage race number 7 and the wins 116 and 117. Number 3 and 4 for Luiz who now has to hold this form and start to win a lot of races.
A former report about this tour was stolen by my internet.


Ruta del Sol
nothing more to say. thanks

RS Ostfriesland: fact #2 gala is right. every time, every day!

[RS Ostfriesland]

Gongratz! Nice group today.
But was a bad idea, that i hang with Loerts. If he rides for OShea, i can get about 10 sec von socca. :/ grr

[sylvainmeteo]

I rode too much at the end (in the down) Gala had 200 energy point more than me, even Vuvu with 63 down is in front of me...

[el Galactico]

Omloop Het Nieuwesblad

Marcelo Lima finished 4th at the traditional season opener for classic races, the Omloop Het Nieuwesblad in Belgium.
A mostly uninspired race by all participants, includes us as well, lead to a about 50 men group which fought for the win after the only escaper Celtic was caught some kms before the end. In the sprint Marcelo lost his wheel for the sprint against the winner from Team Lausitz which cost him a podium place finally. Nevertheless a good race for the team as our leader Joao Sabrosa finished 9th and Santiago Suarez on P16.
In the future we hope to be more active in the following races.

[el Galactico]

Transfer news

We like to present to you our rider number 15 for March.

Due to the lack of good riders, or at least our luck to get these good riders, we had to decide what to do with the money and after we saw what was on the transfer market after midnight it was a easy decision to buy Rodrigo DeLaSerna from Costa Rica .
With his skills of 52-63-79-75-48 he is far away from being a perfect time trialist, but this is not our first goal. He should only become a good one who can maybe get some points and money on very easy tours with time trials. Depending on how he developes he is not aware of being sold again in 2-3 months.
It is a kind of try out after we were not able to buy a proper classic rider and also no mountain helper for Ignacio.
So, let's see.

[el Galactico]

Boucles du Sud Ardeche

Before we forget it. on the 28th of February our team was able to get the 6th win in this month at the "Boucles du Sud Ardeche" in France.
In a strong group with a lot of good classic riders we didn't expected to have lots of riders in the first group at the end and therefore in the competition for the win.
So this lead to an attack about 30 kms before the finish line with Sabrosa and our half active classic rider Soares in his 48th race for the team. Some other teams had the same idea and attacked so that a strong group of classic riders was built. This group was able to stay in front while in the peloton behind them nobody had the courage to get them back or to raise the tempo on the steep mountain parts.
In the end Joaquim Soares took the win out of the group by outsprinting all his opponents, while our classic talent Marcelo Lima stayed in the peloton and won the sprint there as well.
It was the second win for Soares in his career and for the team it was win number 119 overall.


Rider of the Month - February

After the bad January where it was easy to decide for a rider of the month, the february was the complete opposite with 5 different winners of stages and 6 stages overall.

But finally the tour win and the green jersey + 2 stages by Luiz Lazequeira made it easy again to give him the title for this month.

Now in March he prepares at Paris - Nice for one of our top goals this year, Milano - San Remo.

[el Galactico]

Paris - Nice 2012 - Stage 2

As we hoped Luiz Lazequeira was able to win the second stage of Paris-Nice 2012 by outsprinting his biggest opponent Hasic at the slightly sloping finish line.
A big group was just catched in between the finish and the flag for the last km. The team is very happy with the biggest win for the team since Inacio Araujo won
Tre Valli last year. Now we hope that he will be able to defend the green jersey until the end of the tour and become the second Galacticos rider to win the green jersey of Paris - Nice after the one by Leandro daSouza in 2010.

[el Galactico]

Milano - San Remo
traditionally 5th?

This year's Milano - San Remo our team took the peloton which was dominated by strong sprinters which made it quite easily to the finish line. Luiz and the rest of the team tried to get rid of them but had to see that there was no chance this time. In the final sprint Luiz got into a good position but was overtaken by 4 opponents nevertheless, which brought us the same position as in the past 2 years with place 5.
The team manager was not very confident about the race as he gave the order to stop tempo after Le Manie when the sprinters were about 50 seconds behind.
We will never know if this would have been enough for the win. Our guess was that either the sprinters or the classic riders would have beaten us nevertheless so we stopped.
Now the focus is on the classics next weekend with the double out of E3 Harelbeke (won by Diego del Rios in 2010) and Gent - Wevelgem 2 days later.

[el Galactico]

World Champion
Gala leads own rider Thiago de Lemos to the title

Thiago de Lemos is the new World Champion.

A 6 men group, which decreased to 3 at the last hill, made it to the finish line where Thiago was the best sprinter and won the title by outsprinting both of his opponents left.
6th win for Thiago which makes him the best classic rider of our team since the foundation in 2008.

[el Galactico]

Tour de Panne

Stage 1

On stage 1 it was Damiano Wallnöfer who went into the escape for the team with the hope to win the stage. Finally this was maybe the wrong decision as in behind Marcelo Lima was able to stay in the first group until the end. Finally he became just 2nd in this group so that it was a good decision to escape even if Damiano only finished 4th in this group. But besides that he was able to get the red jersey, which he now (after stage 2) has already won for the whole tour.

Stage 2

Stage 2 was the first of 2 clear sprint stages and Luiz was able to get the big deal by outsprinting all his opponents with an early sprint from the wheel of the Team Lausitz sprinter. This leads now to the constellation that he leads in the fight for green, while Lima now leads in the classement for the best youth rider. Besides that the team is also leading in the team classement and as we already said it is Damiano Wallnöfer who already won the red jersey.

[el Galactico]

Tour de Panne
big success in Belgium

After Luiz Lazequeira was able to win stage 2 of the tour by outsprinting his opponents, he was able to save the green jersey at the first half-stage one day later when he became 6th. Finally he and Alexander vonKrusestern were equal in sprint points. Therefore Luiz won the jersey by the better GC position. After the second day Damiano Wallnöfer already was the winner of the red jersey as well as there were no more points left on the road at stage 3 and in the TT.
Unfortunately we had to give away each the white jersey of Marcelo Lima and the team classement after the TT, where we went down to P2 in both classements.
Nevertheless the tour was a big success for the team with a final win of 561.748 €.
Meanwhile the tax for selling riders increased to over 60% for the first time in team history.

[el Galactico]

Transfer news

Today after the Tour de Panne the team sold Arturo Sarrabal, long time helper for hilly races. With 34 years he decided to end his career at this point.
His career was quite unspectacular. He did a lot of good jobs for his leaders Erik Jacobsen and after that Luiz Lazequeira. In very less cases he was able to ride for himself and there he also got his only win when he rode the NC of Chile as the only one of the team and won it.
A second result which is worth to be mentioned in his career was his strong 2nd place out of an escape in the spring classic Fleche Wallone.

Arturo Sarrabal
147 races
1093 eternal points
1x NC Chile
2. Fleche Wallone 2011

To fill the open space in the team, we were able to sign a contract with a new rider from Chile. His name is José Villarica and he should be a helper for flat races. He is already 22 years old but until now did no professional race.
His skills: 51-77-7253-46, reg. 36

[el Galactico]

Ronde van Vlanderen
The world champ misses podium by milimeters

This year´s Ronde van Vlanderen started very annoying when nobody formed an escape so that the start of the race was really boring with no action. But then the Ronde developed more and more to a good race when they reached the first hellingen and pavés. About 80 kms before the end, short before the Koppenberg, it were Damiano and Santi who started an escape out of the peloton with no others in their wheel. The confused peloton showed no reaction first and the hopes for an beautiful escape win in this important race were growing more and more but unfortunately the CC team then started to chase these 2. Finally Santi was very strong but he had no chance against the "uberteam" from CC. About 8 kms before the end he gave up the escape and finally finished 26th. He would have been the deserved winner of this race, but as so often it was not enough for our team in an important classic race.

Since 2010 we participated in 9 of the 12 cycling monuments. Incredbile 7 times there was finally a rider which finished the race in the TOP 5, but never better than Place 2 (Castillo, Flanderen '10).
The waiting for the big deal continues...

The final sprint of this year's "Mooiste" then was also no big success as the big chaser CC was not able to win and Thiago finished 4th, one place in front of him). Unfortunately the winner of the race was in Thiago's wheel.

The spring classics continue to be very bad for the team even if we today managed to get rid of our conservative form of riding in the classic races before...

[el Galactico]

Amstel Gold Race 2012
Amstel title for Salazar

Ignacio Salazar wins the Amstel Gold Race 2012 by outsprinting his last 6 opponents after a stunning finish at the Cauberg. In the end he had the most power and overtook Jesper Rommedahl short before the finish line.
A very big success and the best motivation for the next upcoming highlights like the Fleche Wallone or La Doyenne.

1. Ignacio Salazar
2. Lars Hans Nordought (Bunny Funny)
3. Jesper Rommedahl (Pokemon Club)
4. Joao Costa (Fraeggfichten)
5. Fernando Tirado (Radler)
6. Yesid Ramirez (Petit Singe)
7. Samuel Cameroon (Pavler) +0:01
8. Theophil Läppli (fresim)
9. Nima Suarez (Lorient)
10. Billy Bummler (Radler)

[el Galactico]

Giro 12: 1. Herning TT

After our 3 GTs in 2010 we inscripted for the Giro 2012 again. Basically because there are some very interesting stages to ride. The team is very expensive with a salary of about 520 k and our only goals are at least 2 stage wins and a lot of fun. We wont have any chance in the GC and the fight for the sprint jersey is also not easy as there is a ubersprinter in the group with Hechelheim from Franconia. But nevertheless we decided to ride it as this is our last year in RSF and there were no good alternatives in May.
A group of 17 teams which is a good number for me. Some known teams like Franconia or Aix and some good newcomers like Edewecht who could surprise make it a interesting tour with much potential for stunning stages. We hope that we can also get a part of the cake here.

Line-up:
1 Ignacio Salazar - goal: stage win and maybe Top 10.
2 Lucio Pachenco - helper for Ignacio, play the double card in the mountains
3 Marcelo Lima - goal: stage win
4 Joao Sabrosa - escaper, helper for Sabrosa (useless since Franco is in)
5 Thor Hjelmstad - flat star and helper for Luiz
6 Damiano Wallnöfer - lonely italian, mental leader of the team, escaper
7 Ramon Cervalles - bolivian champ, escapes and helper
8 Manuel Sosa - go for the "Flaschenträger"-title
9 Luiz Lazequeira - however win a stage against Hechelheim


First stage was a Prolog in Danmark over 9 kms, means no chance for anyone in our team.

1. Herning TT

1. Enrico Santana (Sport)
2. David Gough (vagaderi) +0:11
3. Ivica Kostelic (TheDreamTeam) +0:19
...
44. Damiano Wallnöfer +1:32
46. Thor Hjelmstad +1:34
49. Marcelo Lima +1:36
50. Lucio Pachenco +1:37
60. Ignacio Salazar +1:39
63. Luiz Lazequeira +1:41
80. Ramon Cervalles +1:46
94. Joao Sabrosa +1:49
106. Manuel Sosa +1:52