Romandie 9h

[team fl]

April was a fool's month so far for Team FL. Bad training, bad results. So, perhaps in the end it may change. Or not. Well, these riders will show if they're able to:

x1 Nathaniel Biedermann, the quiet Leader from Schellenberg
x2 Tony Hassler, the angry companion from Schellenberg
x3 Harry Hole, the drunken Norwegian from Oslo
x4 Stefan Küng, King Küng I. from Liechtenstein
x5 Wesley Lichtenkiesel, the monster from Eupen
x6 Takashi Murakami, the contemporary artist from Tokyo
x7 Pit Schlechter, Yves cousin from Luxembourg
x8 Gaudenz Taverna, the Prologue guy from Schaffhausen
x9 Xaver Unsinn, nonsense from Füssen

Goal: nothing but trying to have more fun than until now...

[flockmastoR]

hm 9:00 is probably the best time for me but still not really good

[Ronson]

I will start here too. Seems like a strong field.

[pircpirc]

HI,

My team starts at the big outsider , because no mountain nor flat rider under TOp 25.
But we will try to satisfy the sponsors by showing ou jerseys in the one or other stage.
Good luck to all.

[Alkworld]

Thought about for quite a while, if I should be here and finally did it. Cervantes looks like my captain here, but every time I look at the profile of Sunday's ITT again, it looks more like Picasso will be the real captain. A first glance at the field would tell me that one of the top mountain riders will make it here. Eifelriders' Diamantis and ByZickl's Nipp being my top candidates, but also CC's Vino might play a role here, if he can gain some time on the stages. But he also could have problems due to the lack of helpers in his team. Riders with a low downhill skill like Gauß or Alcazar might lose too much time in the TTs. So: It's a bit hard to say, who'll be the best here, it's not that obvious this time.

[AlmavivaItalia]

this is also for G2?^^

[pircpirc]

First day best day will resume well the result of Team Suessem during this race, because we reach to Top 10 positions and the first place in team classement.
But as also announced, tomorrow it will be different, but we will try to play best our role of outsider.
At the moment it's really difficult to name the favorite of the race because we don't know enough about form, tactics of the teams. Maybe after tomorrow it will be a bit clearer.

[Team Saller]

Yesterday at 10 hour in the evening it looks like a big field with lots of good manager and drivers.
But then today in the morning the fields splittet. And no Samu with his Nasawa .
I think lots of teams has a chance to win this tour. We would see it on the next days.
I hope to see Manolis at the top of the podium but it gets hard!

[team fl]

Nope, this is G1, otherwise very confusing. But you are free to open a thread for G2 of course.

Stage one as expected for the time trialists. Matei won with very good form, wearing yellow and green, Taverna fourth as expected. Soared did well, Cervantes the big disappointment so far

First the General Classement after stage 1:

01. 00:00 Bogdan Matei (ByZickl)
02. 00:02 Jens Gries (Moscow Team Pro
03. 00:03 Tjark Eemsdam (Team Ruhrgebiet)
04. 00:05 Gaudenz Taverna (Team FL)
05. 00:06 Fredrik Sonntag (Team Suessem)
06. 00:08 Oliver Heaviside (Equipe Mathematique)
07. 00:08 Mikko Haervorn (Saffunzanos)
08. 00:09 Marc Hozay (Team Suessem)
09. 00:10 Zdenek Hulka (Medvedi)
10. 00:10 Francisco Soares (SK Blu-Bardhe)

But now here the favorite check, presented by Team FL


General classement

***** Francisco Soares (SK Blu-Bardhe)
**** Manolis Diamantis (Eifelriders)
*** Stefan Nipp (ByZickl)
**Carl Gauss (Equipe Mathematique)
* Acacio Alkazar (CC-Racing Team)

Points classement

*** Carl Gauss (Equipe Mathematique)
** Grigoriy Vinokourov, Acacio Alkazar (CC-Racing Team)
* Miguel Cervantes (Alkworld)

Mountain classement

*** the one who wants it
** a surprise rider
* another rider

Youth classement

*** Francisco Soares (SK Blu-Bardhe)
** Corbin Westwood (Saffunzanos)
* Pablo Picasso (Alkworld)

Team classement

*** CC-Racing Team
** Equipe Mathematique
* SK Blu-Bardhe

[Ronson]

Hello,

please find the line-up of SK Blu-Bardhe below:

#1 Francisco Soares - the leader!
#2 Pedro Chinchilla - the important and strong helper
#3 JuanMora Gutiérrez
#4 Luis Gutiérrez
#5 Rafael deAlvarado - one of the man who can the race quick in the hilly parts
#6 Antonio Zamora - the second strong man who can the race quick in the hilly parts
#7 Mauricio Osvaldo - he will care about Soares in the mountains
#8 Augustin Chacon - really needful helper with very good skills in downhill
#9 ManuelJosé Colina - just a helper

Goal: Soares should be the man for the youth gc and will fighting for a place at the podium. Furthermore the team would like to reward it self with the team gc.

Please find below my favorite check.

General classement:
***** Manolis Diamantis (Eifelriders)
**** Stefan Nipp (ByZickl)
*** Francisco Soares (SK Blu-Bardhe)
** Grigoriy Vinokourov (CC-Racing Team)
* Carl Gauß (Equipe Mathematique)

Points classement:
*** Carl Gauß (Equipe Mathematique)
** Grigoriy Vinokourov (CC-Racing Team)
* Miguel Cervantes (Alkworld)

Mountain classement:
A rider/team he is fighting for.

Youth classement:
*** Francisco Soares (SK Blu-Bardhe)
* Corbin Westwood (Saffunzanos)
* Pablo Picasso (Alkworld)

Team classement:
*** ByZickl
** SK Blu-Bardhe
* Equipe Mathematique

The flat finish at the most of the stages makes this edition much more interesting.

[Ronson]

Ui, FL pass the fav role to Soares I assume that it's too soon for him, he need 81+ for the mountains.

[team fl]

Ui, FL pass the fav role to Soares I assume that it's too soon for him, he need 81+ for the mountains.

Which mountains?

I think it mainly depends on how the stages are ridden. If Soares manages to stay among the 80+ climbers and classics (yes we have one int he peloton ) then he is my top favourite. If not, then of course is just a sausage .

[team fl]

Second stage, very exciting. Lots of action from the beginning: First group caught early, second group failed to cooperate after the first mountain sprint, peloton with early tempo. In the end, it were CC-Racing Team and Equipe Mathematique who dictated the pace and let the fight about the stage among themselves. In the back, there was lots of chaos of course, with Cervantes finally winning the sprint in the main group, 9 secs behind, Gauss, Vinokourov and Alkazar. Gauss is now wearing yellow while Vinokourov could catch the red mountain jersey. Soares wears white and is still in a very good GC-position. here the GC-Top10 after stage 2:

01. 00:00 Carl GaussEquipe Mathematique)
02. 00:02 Francisco Soares (SK Blu-Bardhe)
03. 00:05 Miguel Cervantes (Alkworld)
04. 00:06 Juan Mora Gutiérrez (SK Blu-Bardhe)
05. 00:06 Shawn Kemp (Saffunzanos)
06. 00:07 Grigoriy Vinokourov (CC-Racing Team)
07. 00:10 Manolis Diamantis (Eifelriders)
08. 00:11 Sören Svensson (Team Ruhrgebiet)
09. 00:15 Corbin Westwood (Saffunzanos)
10. 00:15 Razvan Pirvu (ByZickl)

[pircpirc]

Today first real stage ater the short prologue yesterday. A very interesting stage where Team Suessem played well his outsider role and shows the sponsors jersey in all escapes at the beginning. In the end for sure, the team was not able to play a decisive role, as GC riders dominate the stage.

Finally, the first 23 riders arrived in a lap of 10 seconds, so the final winner will be one of these riders.

[Quick]

BIG helping mistake. Costed about 30seconds... seconds, which could be missing at the end... but ok - probably no chance against gauß anyway. With so hard mistakes - for sure not. The attack was planned immidiatelly after the 6 and then - having about 50seconds time letting gauß work. So...no chance, just saving the last seconds. Maybe tomorrow it will be better...

[Alkworld]

Nice first stage (apart from those 3km yesterday) today, it even got a lot more intense than I was dreaming of. Nervous beginning with two tries of groups and the second one looked good until the sprint for the mountain points. Too bad because Oscar would have loved to go for the stage win. CC and Mathe then riding hard earlier than expected and splitting the peloton into many groups. In the end it was a clear win for one of the two, exactly as everybody expected in the first place. Congratulations to Gauß, who could already give a first glance of his parasiting skills

[flockmastoR]

Nice first stage (apart from those 3km yesterday) today, it even got a lot more intense than I was dreaming of. Nervous beginning with two tries of groups and the second one looked good until the sprint for the mountain points. Too bad because Oscar would have loved to go for the stage win. CC and Mathe then riding hard earlier than expected and splitting the peloton into many groups. In the end it was a clear win for one of the two, exactly as everybody expected in the first place. Congratulations to Gauß, who could already give a first glance of his parasiting skills

O well i heard someone talking about him having no chance during the race, maybe that person changed his mind some times during the race to fill the chat with it.

[flockmastoR]

Team FL: Mich stören taktisch jetzt grad (km 172) zwei Sachen. Sags dann nach Ende der Etappe

Die auflösung fehlt aber noch?

[team fl]

Team FL: Mich stören taktisch jetzt grad (km 172) zwei Sachen. Sags dann nach Ende der Etappe

Die auflösung fehlt aber noch?

I thought I cleared that in the chat. It just depends my team, so it is very subjective, but here we go again

1.) I didn't like to ride for Cervantes, but I did not see any other option as long as CC and you where pulling the whole group in front of Nate and Toni. So I waited for your attack, which happend just seconds after my chat message.

2.) I did not understand SK Blu. It was clear he could not follow Gauss or the CC riders with Soares, but still stopped just seconds behind your group writing he did not want to pull everybody alone. His decision, but also his seconds in the GC as the main favorite in my eyes. Then I would have made tempo with the other climber beside Soares to minimise the gap after a CC or Mathe attack. He didn't and finished in the group behind. Well, he would have too with tempo in the front group, but it's to much relying on others in my eyes.

So, these were the two points. In general I can say that I was in a clinch about riding, but still think it was the right thing to do. Maybe a bit too much, yes, especially with Nate, but it didn't change much. I will decide that from day to day, still 4 stages to go before the TT. Problem is, my riders cannot keep up with CC's or yours, so there are not many options left than just riding in the back stupidly or giving up early. Would have been different with a working group of course, but that was also not the case.

[Alkworld]

Nice first stage (apart from those 3km yesterday) today, it even got a lot more intense than I was dreaming of. Nervous beginning with two tries of groups and the second one looked good until the sprint for the mountain points. Too bad because Oscar would have loved to go for the stage win. CC and Mathe then riding hard earlier than expected and splitting the peloton into many groups. In the end it was a clear win for one of the two, exactly as everybody expected in the first place. Congratulations to Gauß, who could already give a first glance of his parasiting skills

O well i heard someone talking about him having no chance during the race, maybe that person changed his mind some times during the race to fill the chat with it.

That's unfortunately too unspecific for me to still understand it. Who had no chance now? And who changed his mind? I think without Vino's mistake barely anybody would have had even the slightest chance to stop the two of you. The race being close suddenly just limited CC's options a lot.

[Quick]

Good stage today. Vino with 900 at Start couldnt get rid of the medvedi-rider... but things could be worse. Acacio won my stage, GK looks ok for 2 Top 10-places but not for a win. Maybe i could have a shot at green, but Gauß strong. ...Ok, maybe Gauß is happy with yellow. Tomorrow he won't lose time but probably won't win any too...then an extreme hard stage... think there we could win even more time, than today. Vino with 10' behind... no chance. 4 TT less...downhillskill ok, but he won't win 10seconds there... and he would probably need a few more, because of losing some secs uphill.

On the other hand Diamantidis could gain 6 seconds today... Maybe enough to stay in front of Nipp, maybe enough to beat Soares too. Maybe not enough to stay in front of one of them. Still very open tour...

[flockmastoR]

mit meinem trainingsglück momentan sinds morgen nur noch 3 ZF punkte

[flockmastoR]

mit meinem trainingsglück momentan sinds morgen nur noch 3 ZF punkte

sag ichs nicht

[Alkworld]

Interesting stage again today, as expected we had another big group, which was cooperating well again, this time surprisingly with a CC rider in it. And as expected Mathe chased to group again although it was obvious that some of the helpers urgently need some rest. When switching from tired pullers to the other riders, the group got messed up a little unfortunately (the CC rider playing a key role in it) and in the end, this killed the chances of the group, although we won't find out if the group could have made it otherwise. Later in the race, Cervantes tried an attack together with Alberto, Küng on his wheel, while at the same time Toni Hassler and Nate Biedermann were busy elsewhere. The chances of the group could have risen tremendously with one or two more riders, but also the peloton might have reacted in a stronger way. Unfortunately also here, we won't find out After CC and Mathe got some help (ok, first time this tour, I won't complain) chasing Cervantes (who won't win anything in GC, I suspect), the end was as usual, Vino and Gauß dominating, although this time, Picasso almost could follow Vino's attack and in the end finished only 1s behind today's winner.
Tomorrow, again, looks like a clear thing for those two again (or JAT, Gröbner or Alcazar of course), but maybe they start fighting each other (everybody else would welcome that). Last time I checked, Gauß hasn't been the most successful downhill rider in the peloton