F1 Rejects Cycling Challenge: Tour de France underway!

[Shadaza]

Looks like CCI cannot "deploy" their five-plus-one original squadron at the same time for both tours, so:

For Criterium de Dauphine:
Singh
Sucahyo
Roberts
Iketani
Sassetti
da Silva
Jung-Un
Yazaki

For Tour de Suisse:
Edison
Roberts
Sassetti
Vance
Andrews
Kumar
Inam
Tenpenny

You have attempted to enter Sassetti in to both events, and although you have 2 Roberts (Nigel and Dominic) I don't know which one you want to enter in each. Otherwise this is ok.

Hmm, choosing the lineups was very easy as I used up all but one of my current roster! Had to go through a few pickups
Rafal Piotrowski
Moorighan Whitcombe
Carey Brice

For the Dauphine:
Uno Sandberg
Jason Melbourne
John Vonn
Jase van der Boom
Pavel Gafurov
Alexandre Vache
Randall Clarks
Kevin Frederickson

For the Tour de Suisse
Alexey Volkov
Maxim Drozdov
Janice Edwards
Wesley Duncan
Laurens Buivart
James Collins
Colin Thompson
Rafal Piotrowski ****

**** Subject to approval of hiring

All 3 riders are in the team, Piotrowski can take part in the Tour de Suisse for NSA no problem.

I am assuming that Bannister is unavailable for the next event.

Criterium du Dauphine
Quinton Voss
Aronld Abil
Chilserx Dawson
Preston Senerson
Karl van de Graaf
Istvan Feher
Frank Mortarhouse
Leandro Carabon

Tour de Suisse
Leandro Davidson
Brock Carson
Leonel Canfora
Roger Alfonse
David Lee
Evan Stone (Hills, Mountain, Acceleration) GBR
Bernard Albrecht (Mountain, Hills, Endurance) GER
Lukas Ammermueller (Flat, Endurance, Time Trial) GER

Bannister will be available for selection at the TDF. I can not accept the 3 new riders as I have placed a ban on mid season rider creation whilst there are unsigned riders in the free rider pool.

Fantomette picks its 16, with some names pending, of course...

Criterium du Dauphine
Piercarlo Balder
Siggi Judsen
Rui Miranda
Arthur Vergamet
Hiroshi Kekami
Ingo Voeller
Moorighan Whitcombe (pending)
Yevegni Dus (pending)

Tour de Suisse
Alexandre Cadinho
François Ndiekele
Demétrio Molina
Alexandre Charpantier
Nobert Centrone
Jonson Edderly
Fabiano Accelerara (pending)
Pablo Gargano (pending)

Moorighan Whitcombe has just been snagged by NSA, but the other 3 riders are now in Fantomette colours.

I take it that Lomassonn is still injured?

PCR's teams.

Criterium du Dauphine
Tomas Wojtyra
Jaime Carling
Kenta Nakimaka
Daniel Martins
Brandon Plant
Nelson Burbridge
Dougal Dalkeith
Darren Matthews

Tour de Suisse
Bernard Jones
John Jaywick
Wilson Ricky
Hugh Englemann
Ricardo Lupo
Len Kozlovsky
Norman Sumner
Sid Hatayuki

You can enter Lomasson if you wish, his "injury" turned out not to be too bad and he was deemed fit to race after withdrawing as a precaution.

[tristan1117]

My three new riders have been replaced by guys from the free agent pool.

[FantometteBR]

I'll replace them Whitcombe with Max Epoque

[andrew]

All riders in tour de Suisse please

[TomWazzleshaw]

Lansvale's team for Criterium de Dauphine:
Giovani Bicicletta
Jean Velo
Kang Xian Bin
David Lee
Peiter Briggs
Zsolt Gaumbartner
Tomas Knutsen
Yusuke Tanaka

Lansvale's team for Tour de Suisse:
Naseef Aqeem
Tamak Bisiklet
Michael Chow
Roberto di Magenta
Jizdni Kolo
Jean-Marie van Fiets
Nicolas Pedersen
Artem Kraviz

[WaffleCat]

A rider from Hobart,Tasmania has just been named "Tasmanias Best Young Cyclist",and he is ready to step up to the big leagues. His name...is Christian Pond.

Name:Christian Pond
Age:17
Nationality: Australian
Primary Skills:Flat, Sprint and Endurance

[DemocalypseNow]

A rider from Hobart,Tasmania has just been named "Tasmanias Best Young Cyclist",and he is ready to step up to the big leagues. His name...is Christian Pond.

Name:Christian Pond
Age:17
Nationality: Australian
Primary Skills:Flat, Sprint and Endurance

I can not accept the 3 new riders as I have placed a ban on mid season rider creation whilst there are unsigned riders in the free rider pool.

Juan Pablo Martinez - Time Trial, Flat, Endurance
Constant Lagg- Mountain, Recovery, Sprint
Morgan Blosse- Endurance, Sprint, TT
Vinny de Moor - FS, Acceleration, Mountain
Mitchell Starecase - Sprint, Downhill Cobbles
Salimgirey Rasulov - Flat, Mountain, DH
Andrei Garasimchuk - Mountains, Flat, FS
Yusuke Tanaka -Resistance, TT, Acceleration
Aleksandr Stefanovic - Mountain, FS, Recovery
Takeru Watanabe 31(Japan),Fighting Spirit,Acceleration,Prologue
Martin Stensky 24(Slovakia),Downhill,Sprint,Acceleration
Siergiej Grishin 27(Russia),Fighting Spirit,Downhill,Flat
Jacques LaRossa - Acceleration, TT, Sprint
Danilo Ceccon (Italian, 24, acceleration, TT, sprint)

...

Speaking of which, Alitalia is going to bring in Juan Pablo Martinez, and stick him into the Tour de Suisse lineup as a replacement for Alessio Monteverdi.

[TomWazzleshaw]

Now that I've actually seen the list of available riders, I'll sign Yusuke Tanaka as the 8th member of the LSR Criterium de Dauphine team.

[Shadaza]

Now that I've actually seen the list of available riders, I'll sign Yusuke Tanaka as the 8th member of the LSR Criterium de Dauphine team.

Sorry about that! for future reference, the list of available riders is on the second post of the thread, directly beneath the team lineups, I keep this post updated as often as I can. Tanaka is now in your team.

All riders in tour de Suisse please

No problem.

I'll replace them Whitcombe with Max Epoque

Done.

Speaking of which, Alitalia is going to bring in Juan Pablo Martinez, and stick him into the Tour de Suisse lineup as a replacement for Alessio Monteverdi.

No problem.

[pasta_maldonado]

Dauphine squad:
Craig Beic
Denis van Walwijk
Terry Wright
Jacques La Rossa
Terry Skiverton
Thomas Yorke
Daniel Sims
Dave Hedgehog

Tour de Suisse squad:

Klaus Fahrrad
Andy Badger
Matsohiro Mizuhara
Antonio Arena
Jaap van Riebeck
Piero Riccone
Rafael Verwest
Jermaine d'Alberto

Boo Radley-Biggins has also been fired from the squad after messing up his big chance in the Giro. Jacques La Rossa will be hired from the free agents pool to replace him. Whoever created him, this is his chance to make it big! He will be entered for the Dauphine.

[andrew]

would Radley-Biggins be able to join my team then?

[Shadaza]

Dauphine squad:
Craig Beic
Denis van Walwijk
Terry Wright
Jacques La Rossa
Terry Skiverton
Thomas Yorke
Daniel Sims
Dave Hedgehog

Tour de Suisse squad:

Klaus Fahrrad
Andy Badger
Matsohiro Mizuhara
Antonio Arena
Jaap van Riebeck
Piero Riccone
Rafael Verwest
Jermaine d'Alberto

Boo Radley-Biggins has also been fired from the squad after messing up his big chance in the Giro. Jacques La Rossa will be hired from the free agents pool to replace him. Whoever created him, this is his chance to make it big! He will be entered for the Dauphine.

Done, La Rossa is now a Fosters rider and Boo Radley-Biggins is now a free agent but...

would Radley-Biggins be able to join my team then?

Radley-Biggins was not a free agent for long, he is now a Mabbazana rider. If you want Biggins to enter the Tour de Suisse you will have to bench someone else as you now have 9 riders and only 8 may enter each event. You could also try enter Biggins in to the Dauphine by himself if you wish!

My three new riders have been replaced by guys from the free agent pool.

De Moor, Rasulov and Grishin are now UBC riders, hope they work out for you.

[andrew]

John Firclont - Endurance, Recovery, Cobbles
Jimmy Kay - Endurance, Sprint, Flat
Vladamir Mechavic - Flat, Acceleration, Endurance
Fernando Vettel - Resistance, Time Trial, Mountain
will stay doing the tour de Suisse

Sebastian Alonso - Resistance, Acceleration, Time Trial
Joel Janz Marquez 18 (Argentina) - Flat, Endurance, FS
Claudi Gusto 24 (Chile) - Sprint, Downhill, Flat

Gimmi Mallatacci 25 (Italy) Endurance,hills time trial
Boo Radley-Biggins -Mountain, Time trial, FS
will be doing the other tour

[Shadaza]

A rider from Hobart,Tasmania has just been named "Tasmanias Best Young Cyclist",and he is ready to step up to the big leagues. His name...is Christian Pond.

Name:Christian Pond
Age:17
Nationality: Australian
Primary Skills:Flat, Sprint and Endurance

I have been undecided whether or not to accept this rider, on the one hand I said "no more created riders" on the other hand you don't own a team, the main reason I have banned rider creation is to stop people from creating riders to easy fix their problems.

I will let Christian Pond join the series at the end of the season, but if you want to enter a team he will be available right away, there is still room for quite a few teams to join.

[Shadaza]

OK, here are the current entry lists for the Criterium and the Tour de Suisse

Criterium Dauphine

1.Minardi

William Goodspeed
Paolo Lesallo
Gert van Lijwouk
Daniele Rampazza
Gianluigi Ricchi
Artem Tereshin
Thor Tromsen
Philipe Viruolien

2.Twinings Earl Grey

Craig West
Storm Danielsen
James Davies
Shinji Miyamoto
Jose Vasquez
Freddie Donnelly
Janne Nordman
Jacob Denver

3.Community Cycling Initiative
Singh
Sucahyo
Nigel Roberts
Iketani
Sassetti
da Silva
Jung-Un
Yazaki

4.Alitalia Parmalat Bianchi

Stefano Firenze
Claudio Castiglione
Vincenzo Jacomuzzi
Przemyslaw Kolodziejczak
Raphael Le Clercq
Maarten Hooiveld
Emanuele Montella
Artan Karimi

5.NSA Team
Uno Sandberg
Jason Melbourne
John Vonn
Jase van der Boom
Pavel Gafurov
Alexandre Vache
Randall Clarks
Kevin Frederickson

6.United Boxtell
Quinton Voss
Aronld Abil
Chilserx Dawson
Preston Senerson
Karl van de Graaf
Istvan Feher
Frank Mortarhouse
Leandro Carabon

7.Equipe Fantomette
Piercarlo Balder
Siggi Judsen
Rui Miranda
Arthur Vergamet
Hiroshi Kekami
Ingo Voeller
Max Epoque
Yevegni Dus

8.Performance and Cocktails
Tomas Wojtyra
Jaime Carling
Kenta Nakimaka
Daniel Martins
Brandon Plant
Nelson Burbridge
Dougal Dalkeith
Darren Matthews

9.Lansvale Smash Repairs
Giovani Bicicletta
Jean Velo
Kang Xian Bin
David Lee
Peiter Briggs
Zsolt Gaumbartner
Tomas Knutsen
Yusuke Tanaka

10.Fosters Good Cycle
Craig Beic
Denis van Walwijk
Terry Wright
Jacques La Rossa
Terry Skiverton
Thomas Yorke
Daniel Sims
Dave Hedgehog

11.Mabbazana
Sebastian Alonso
Joel Janz Marquez
Claudi Gusto
Gimmi Mallatacci
Boo Radley-Biggins

12.Hitachi Pro Tour
Tadi Nokaro
Jerry Fletcher
Daryl Foley
Oleg Brutschev
Esteban Fuentes
Franceso Rossi
Katsuko Hondo
Paddy Quinn


Tour de Suisse

1.Minardi
Arnets Barriotxega
Róbert Cziczkás
Martin Jaeger
Raul Julandro Jimenez
Quizo Quintana
Shane Reid
Vincenzo Tolano
Takuma Yumoto

2.Twinings Earl Grey

Sven Johansson
Carl Kerr
Alex Harris
Ivan Shermetev
Louis Gallard
Jean Gauthier
Nikolay Borsukov
Marco Venerdi

3.Community Cycling Intiative

Edison
Dominic Roberts
Sassetti
Vance
Andrews
Kumar
Inam
Tenpenny

4.Alitalia Parmalat Bianchi
Lorenzo Romano
Stef Flugshreiber
Vincenzo Mazzola
Heidar Helguson
Mika Pyora
Gianni Marzano
Juan Pablo Martinez
Fermintxo Intxausti

5.NSA Team
Alexey Volkov
Maxim Drozdov
Janice Edwards
Wesley Duncan
Laurens Buivart
James Collins
Colin Thompson
Rafal Piotrowski

6.United Boxtell
Leandro Davidson
Brock Carson
Leonel Canfora
Roger Alfonse
David Lee
Vinny de Moor
Salimgirey Rasulov
Siergiej Grishin

7.Equipe Fantomette
Alexandre Cadinho
François Ndiekele
Demétrio Molina
Alexandre Charpantier
Nobert Centrone
Jonson Edderly
Fabiano Accelerara
Pablo Gargano

8.Performance and Cocktails
Bernard Jones
John Jaywick
Wilson Ricky
Hugh Englemann
Ricardo Lupo
Len Kozlovsky
Norman Sumner
Sid Hatayuki

9.Lansvale Smash Repairs
Naseef Aqeem
Tamak Bisiklet
Michael Chow
Roberto di Magenta
Jizdni Kolo
Jean-Marie van Fiets
Nicolas Pedersen
Artem Kraviz

10.Fosters Good Cycle
Klaus Fahrrad
Andy Badger
Matsohiro Mizuhara
Antonio Arena
Jaap van Riebeck
Piero Riccone
Rafael Verwest
Jermaine d'Alberto

11.Mabbazana
John Firclont
Jimmy Kay
Vladamir Mechavic
Fernando Vettel

12.Hitachi
Claudio Bonotellio
Jorge Luis Hernandez
Daniel Morales
Kozuke Okada
Yuki Shizzuno
Francois Le Bleu
Hirohito Kamizaki
Sochiro Hamasaki


-------
Still missing Battery Energy, Hitachi, Cycling Circus, Team CIP.

Restov are confirmed resting before the TDF.

[Shadaza]

12 Teams have sent representatives to the two tour events, 4 of them opting instead to rest their riders before the Tour de France.

First the Criterium du Dauphine

The opening stage is a 5.8km prologue on terrain that is about as flat it can get.

op
William Goodspeed shows good speed by taking victory by a very healthy 7 seconds on what is a very short stage, a great result for the Minardi team. Alitalia's Montella manages to beat home CCI rival Sucahyo by just a second to secure 2nd place. Kekami gives Fantomette a nice 4th place ahead of Hitachi rider Daryl Foley, a first top 5 stage result for the Brit. Nearly a minute separates the front from the back, on only 5800 metres of running it shows what a strong run from Goodspeed that was!


The team standings show that Performance and Cocktails have taken an early lead from Fantomette and Fosters. At the back lie Twinings, a team that really decided not to waste energy on today's stage.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The Tour de Suisse

The opening day in Switzerland also featured a short time trial, this is where the similarities ended as this stage took place on a hill and the course actually was a little more difficult than it initially appeared.



Another tricky solo hill climb, another Morales win. The Hitachi rider was pushed hard by Thomas Tenpenny, the pair were equal at the mid distance line, but Morales pressed on for a 5 second victory. Francois le Bleu took 3rd for Hitachi, he may not be a time trialist but his recent form has been inspired, Borsukov takes 4th for Twinings though he may be dissapointed as many touted him as the stage favourite. On the same time as Borsukov was the Swiss home rider Fabiano Accelerara who takes his first ever points on his first start for Fantomette. Despite the tricky stage, the field spread was smaller than the shorter flat Dauphine tour!


Hitachi take the lead of the tour after their strong performance, CCI sit 2nd and Fantomette 3rd. A bad day for the Italian teams who sit 10th, 11th and 12th!

--------------------------
So who are the winners and losers of today?

Fantomette have made a great start, with 2nd and 3rd in the two events, CCI and Hitachi have had riders in the top 5 of both events.
On the other end of the scale, Mabbazana sit 11th on both tours and didn't even come close to a top 5 result in either, also a quiet day for Boxtell and NSA on both fronts.

[Shadaza]

Fantastic Voss wins the second stage of the Dauphine. UBC throughly deserved this win having dictated pace from the outset with their sprint train ultimately the best. There were a few dangers, Ingo Voeller (Fantomete) tried to win the stage on his own and made the pack work much harder than expected causing a few riders to drop from the back of the field. Whilst Twinings looked like they had a good shot at winning when they brought their sprint train forward, their inexperience showed and they bolted too early and fell down the order.


Behind Voss came Gusto for Mabbazana in another good sprint result for the team, Hooiveld managed a fine 3rd for Alitalia ahead local man Alexandre Vache. Minardi's Thor Tromsen rounds out the points.

There was very little change in the overall order with Goodspeed still leading the tour as we head into more hilly ground, he might struggle there!

----------------------------------------------

Ricardo Lupo battles the snow and rain to win in Switzerland


PCR's lupo came out on top of a very tight battle in Switzerland, the weather was atrocious and the first mountain climb was barely contested as everybody huddled for warmth, Vinny de Moore for UBC was the only early attacker today who decided to brave things alone and force the field into life. On the long 150km flat the pace went way up as Hitachi and Minardi battled for lead of the peloton.
The horrible weather and tricky mountain took their toll as riders dripped off the back of the peloton until by the start of the final climb only 50 riders remained at the front. From here things went terribly wrong for Minardi and Hitachi, their show of power had exhausted the riders and cracks appeared at the front. The NSA, Fantomette, Twinings and PCR teams were there to make their own fortune and game of cat and mouse breaks took place, with Lupo the ultimate victor, he is made of strong stuff!


Centrone's strong form for Fantomette continues with a nice 2nd place with Carl Kerr a great 3rd for Twinings. Klaus Fahrrad perhaps attacked a little early but comes home a nice 4th as Thomas Tenpenny managed to out power Johansson for 5th. Although things looked close the final climb was brutal and riders crossed the line at a crawl of less than 10km, this led to large gaps across the field.

Artem Kraviz (Lansvale) and Jermaine D'Alberto (Fosters) fought hard for the sprint points with D'alberto the better rider, but it is Thomas Tenpenny who is leading the points jersey after his 2nd and 5th place stage results.


PCR ended up with a wonderful stage result, taking the leader jersey and taking the lead in the teams championship, Fantomette are hot on their heels with a decent result for NSA. John Firclont did surprisingly well for Mabazzana leading the stage with just 5km to go, but it was an awful result for the team and just as bad for UBC, Boxtell may have won in the Dauphine but are looking pretty weak out here, many of their riders fell a LONG way back. Minardi and Hitachi's show of force early on didn't do either any good.

[Aerospeed]

Make sure you head on over to the mibbit chat for live commentary of both Stage 2 races across the afternoon.

What time would that be in Toronto? (And I'm not making any promises, the power in my area has been dodgy at best.)

[QuickYoda41]

Two days in the leader's jersey, Criterium is pretty good for us so far - unlike the Swiss Tour.

[Shadaza]

Make sure you head on over to the mibbit chat for live commentary of both Stage 2 races across the afternoon.

What time would that be in Toronto? (And I'm not making any promises, the power in my area has been dodgy at best.)

Well you have missed todays running, but I may run the next stages at around 7-8pm my time, which should be 2-3pm start time in Toronto.

[Aerospeed]

Make sure you head on over to the mibbit chat for live commentary of both Stage 2 races across the afternoon.

What time would that be in Toronto? (And I'm not making any promises, the power in my area has been dodgy at best.)

Well you have missed todays running, but I may run the next stages at around 7-8pm my time, which should be 2-3pm start time in Toronto.

Thanks. (Power is still dodgy in my area, if anyone is interested. Some around my area have just gotten their power an hour ago after a 44-hour blackout. )

[Shadaza]

There will be a full write up on the way.


Dauphine Stage 3. Firenze spearheads Alitalia attack!


Stefano Firenze wins a stage dominated by the Alitalia team, Minardi and Alitalia kept the pace up over the course of the entire stage and remained calm after what was a very dangerous break. Daniel Sims (Fos), Jerry Fletcher (Hit), Storm Danielsen (Twi) and later joined by Jamie Carling (PCR) looked as if they would have the pace to run all the way to the end after breaking very early, but were ultimatly caught by Firenze.

Giro d' Italia winner Nokaro was 2nd after shadowing Firenze all stage, Gafurov made an early sprint from the line 2km out but ran out of energy, he hung on to 3rd. Plant and Sandberg didn't take many risks, just used pure strength alone to secure 4th and 5th.

The breakaway riders dominated the mountain checkpoints, Daniel Sims looked the strongest of the initial trio and this is reflected both in mountain points and GC. Jamie Carling ran a slightly different strategy but still came off with a good result.


Alitalia move into the lead of the team standings, but it was the NSA team that won the stage, Alitalia did deserve it more, leading the chase along with Minardi, unlike Alitalia, Minardi faltered at the end, trying too hard to protect William Goodspeed! NSA had a great result allround though, the top 3 riders in the top 10 and most of their support riders are in the top 30, Janice Edwards (The only woman in the tour series) is in the top 25! At the back, Foster's B team is really not performing, 18 year old Daniel Sims is very much on his own!

--------------------------------

Tour de Suisse Stage 3

Fosters catch field napping!


Fosters may be struggling in France, but in Switzerland the team is flourishing! Fosters decided to task themselves with leading this flat stage even outpacing Performance and Cocktails. The field was mostly reserved for a sprint finish, the only breakaway was CCI's Park Jung-Un who really had no chance of winning on his own. But at the final climb, just before the finish, the Fosters trio of Andy Badger, Klaus Fahrrad and Jermaine D'Alberto bolted just as most teams were arranging their sprinters. D'Alberto took a comftable victory in the end, only showboating costed him a sizeable time advantage, Jimmy Kay and Brock Carson managed to react in time to secure podium places, a rarity to both as normally they would be support sprinters for their teammates, instead they chased Fosters. Fahrrad managed to cling on to 4th ahead of Michael Chow. Chow is turning into something of an underdog legend.


D'Alberto is now leading the points standings too, this is a much better tour for Fosters!
-----------------------------------

[Aerospeed]

We're #1! We're #1!
(Against half the field : S)

[Shadaza]

Dauphine Stage 4. Minardi edge Alitalia.


Todays Stage 4 was a mostly flat affair, the key being mostly. The opening 50km of the stage was anything but flat with some monster hills, Alitalia decided to move at a real punishing pace, knowing that sprinting is not their strong point on this tour. Midway through UBC took the lead of the stage, hoping to power their way to another Voss sprint victory, with 20km to go they had their sprint train in full swing as once again Twinings and Mabbazana attempted their own counter trains. But the pace was slow, the riders were tired. Instead the hill climbers from Minardi and Alitalia came to the front, 2 from each team were also great sprinters in their own right, so Hooiveld + Le Clercq drew battle with Tromsen and Rampazza. It was Minardi that had the inside line and Thor Tromsen took an excellent victory for Minardi, his first stage win.


Tromsen, Le Clercq were the top 2, separated by less than half a bike length. With Rampazza in 3rd ahead of Hooiveld. Race leader Stefano Firenze took a surprising 5th place ahead of Craig West, Gafurov and Castiglione. The best pure sprinter was Hondo in 9th for Hitachi.


The battle for the points jersey is heating up, Firenze, Tromsen and Hooiveld are on equal points, Firenze will wear the leader's jersey tomorrow but it is uncertain which of the others will wear the points, most likely Hooiveld.

----------------------------------------------



Brilliant Fahrrad beats 13 others.

It has been the 2nd stage win on the bounce for Fosters at the tour de Suisse, as Fahrrad takes his 4th top 10 stage result in a row in dramatic style, he narrowly beat home rival Nobert Centrone and 11 other close rivals to take victory. The 13 hill climbers were always going to do well in this stage, the final hills just too much for the peloton to contend with as these 13 were free to fight for victory. Hussain Inam was the first man to break forward at the halfway point of the stage, he led on his own for ages before being caught by Maxim Drozdov of NSA. The pair were then caught by the 11 others and led to the drag race pictured.


Behind Fahrrad and Centrone came Hatayuki and Johansson, the pair can string great results on a good day, but it is uncertain if you could call them greats yet. Series leader Lupo finished in 5th, Lupo is very much one of the series front runners, I feel few would argue against that! Many climbers should hang their heads in shame that Lorenzo Romano, managed to make the top 18, the 21 year old is famed as just a sprinter and he is recovering from an injury to boot!


The big news of the stage was the fact that Carl Kerr failed to tag on the breakaway, the Twinings rider had the pace of the front men but attacked far too late! So as a result he drops down the order from his excellent top 3 position. The peloton dropped 7 minutes from the leaders today.


The top teams all set the same time, the field may be smaller than usual at this event, but the riders in this half of the double header are giving a strong showing.

[Shadaza]

Dauphine Time trial turns order on it's head!


Jacob Denver of the Twinings team has won a dramatic time trial stage, the American was 12 seconds down on Fantomettes Vergamat at the 3rd checkpoint, but came through to win the stage. The Canadian had been top of the standings for most of the afternoon due to his early start position. Preston Senersen put in a superb performance for Boxtell, the rider was over a minute shy of the top 2 riders at the 3rd checkpoint and somehow put in a monster finish to go 3rd, just 11 seconds off the stage victory. The front 3 were some distance ahead of the rest of the top riders, Karl Van de Graaf put in a consistent performance for a strong 4th as Park Jung Un was awarded 5th place ahead of teammate da Silva by less than one second! The field spread was huge for this long 50km time trial. nearly 8 minutes separating first to last!


The huge field spread means the front order has totally changed. Senersen's monster final sector has rewarded him a 1 minute lead over stage winner Jacob Denver.
Mabbazana have a rider in the top 3! Gimmi Mallatacci didn't have the chance to show what he could do in the GIro, but without being seen much is on a podium place. I don't recall UBC ever leading a tour, so this is great news for them. Daniel Martins is the leading young rider now, ahead of fellow youngster Da Silva by 1 second. Stefano Firenze has fallen down to 9th overall, the Alitalia rider actually had a very creditable time trial effort but it was not going to be enough to beat the 8 specialists ahead of him, Tadi Nokaro is still in the shadow of Firenze.


United Boxtell also take the lead of the teams standings for the first time in their history, PCR are performing well in both tours in 2nd, same can be said for CCI in 3rd. A better performance from both Mabbazana and Fosters can not save them from the bottom 2 places.

---------------------------

Tour de Suisse Stage 5.


Fosters' dream form continues! Jermain d'Alberto managed to defeat Lansvales Artem Kraviz to take a deserved victory.
Both teams controlled the stage in their own way, Lansvale sent van Fiets out on a breakaway to force the pace up, whilst Fosters lead the peloton chase.
Community Cycling Initiative also did well in the stage, Kumar joined van Fiets in the breakaway and the increased pace and tired sprinter allowed Inam to take a surpise 3rd place.


Kraviz began the attack for the line first, but d'Alberto was just too strong for the german and took a superb victory. Behind Inam came Francois le Bleu of the Hitachi team, the Hitachi rider always appears to have a huge amount of energy at the end of stages and claims another strong stage result as he continues to put the boot into the previously undeniable team leader Jerry Fletcher. Ricardo Lupo used his PCR teammates to their best ability and took a top 5 stage result on a "flat" stage.
The fast pace meant a few riders fell off the back of the peloton, but most arrived with the same time, once again, show boating preventing D'Alberto from gaining a time advantage.


Klaus Fahrrad has been in the top 10 for every single stage and as a result leads the points from team mate D'Alberto as Fosters are having a great run. Though the likes of Lupo and Centrone will have to be beaten for a GC victory.

There are still 2 trips to the mountains and a hilly time trial to go, so the order may change dramatically in the coming stages.
Stay tuned.

[Aerospeed]

It's good that NSA have good riders who can consistently post in the top standings... I think I spread them out too much though...

[Shadaza]

Singh takes victory on the 6th stage of the Dauphine after taking a gamble with 6 other riders. The stage was played very safe by the majority of the top riders, the mountain climb did offer a chance to make a lot of time, but not many wanted to take it, instead opting to stay in the peloton. Foster's Daniel Sims was one man who wanted to gamble, he broke very early on leading by as much as 8 minutes and at one stage looked like he could pull off a solo victory.

Eventually, once the big climb had already been completed. A group of riders, spearheaded by Jean Velo decided to break, 7 of them infact. Unfortunately Alitalia's Vincenzo Jacomuzzi could not quite keep up but the other 6 swept past Daniel Sims and found themselves clear with just a few km to go.

It was Anand Singh that took the victory from NSA's Jason Melbourne, Minardis Viruleon and Hitachis Fuentes. Those top 4 are mountain climbers that you would expect to do well, the next 2 are certainly not! Voeller and Velo did a terrific job to hold on, they looked tired at the end, but their teams won't mind!


As you can see, the majority of the leaders played safe and stuck with the peloton. The happiest man today will be Jason Melbourne who jumps up to 3rd place. There are more difficult climbs to come, so we will see if saving energy was a good idea or not, in the coming stages.


Oddly for a mountain stage, the peloton held together quite well, with most teams easily managing to keep at least 3 riders in it. The only exception was Fosters who had quite a rough day. The teams that had riders in the breakaway gained a little bit of time, with CCI jumping up to 2nd. UBC continue to lead for now.


----------------------------



D'Alberto does it again!


On the final "flat" stage of the tour, Foster's D'Alberto takes his 3rd stage win in superb fashion. He managed to beat home Lorenzo Romano of APB, Alitalia finally getting their sprint train right in what has been a disappointing tour for them. Lansvales Karviz got his 2nd top 3 result in two days, he attacked with just under 2km to go but was powerless to prevent D'Alberto and Romano fro passing him. Jimmy Kay had a strong day, winner of one of the intermediate sprints and quite good with the Mabbazana train for 4th as Michael Chow pops up again in the top 5 for Lansvale.

The big news for GC today was Twinings team leader Carl Kerr had a fall within sight of the finish line, he managed to get back up and finish the stage but ended up 2'30 minutes down on most of the field and as a result slips out of the top 10 overall!


D'Alberto dominated the stage, winning one intermediate sprint, coming 2nd in another and winning the stage, he takes a big points lead now and finally takes the points jersey from team mate Fahrrad. Unless Klaus Fahrrad has some excellent finishes in the next 3 stages, D'Alberto should be safe. Though Fahrrad is currently 6/6 for stage top 10 finishes so who knows.

[Shadaza]

Minardi take crucial Dauphine victory!

Minardi's Philippe Viruolien has taken a crucial victory on the penultimate stage of the Criterium Dauphine, the Frenchman delighted the national fans as his late stage breakaway from fellow climbers, Singh (CCI) Fuentes (HIT) and Martins (PCR). This stage was by far the most difficult on the tour and such a victory is only a positive sign for the Tour de France.

Like the last stage, the peloton stayed together for a remarkably long time, with various teams taking turns in the lead, from leaders UBC to backmarkers Fosters (In this tour at least!). The final climb of the day was the real killer and from there break after break occurred to lead to a thrilling end to the stage.


The top 4 as mentioned earlier were joined by Jason Melbourne of NSA, Jason put in a cracking solo ride, he left his attack on the mountain really late and he had to pass numerous riders and catch the break all by himself, a sterling, if tiring, effort. Senerson lead home a group of strong riders that rallied at the end of the stage to stop a major time loss, but 3 minutes behind means the order has changed somewhat.


Heading into the final day it is now Viruolien who takes overall lead with his stage victory, with Melbourne up to 2nd and Senerson down to 3rd. Young jersey holder Daniel Martins is 4th ,as the front group is separated by less than a minute. Anand Singh's form on the mountains has caused him to climb all the way up to 5th. Stage 8 features multiple hill climbs and with the field so close, anything could happen.


This stage was a bit of a disaster for UBC, who lost both team and general classification lead, The NSA (not the spies!) won the stage but PCR's great form has elevated them to the lead, at the back Fosters drop to last, this may well be their "B" team, but their squad may be showing a lack of depth.

------------------------------------

Suisse time Trial day.



Thomas Tenpenny came out on top of the time trial, defeating the favourite Daniel Morales by 11 seconds. The Hitachi time trial ace had a lead of over half a minute after the 2nd checkpoint, but on the flat towards the end of the stage Tenpenny managed a stronger ride. Accelera may not have been strong on the hills, but he seems to be a real time trial warrior since signing for Fantomette, which is strange considering his lack of success for CBR! Martinez earns his first points for Alitalia, whilst Jizdni Kolo takes the final top 5 spot for Lansvale.


Overall Ricardo Lupo actually extends his lead a little over Nobert Centrone, the Spaniard just 1 second ahead of stage winner Tenpenny.
The field spread wasn't all that large, but there were some notable riders in the top 20 that choked, Alexey Volkov for example dropped over a minute more than most of his immediate rivals! Fahrrad may not have made the top 10 on this stage, breaking his chain, but of all the front runners, only the stage winners Tenpenny and Morales were faster! Fahrrad finds himself in between them in the standings.


Performance and Cocktails managed to hold onto their lead of both the GC and the teams, meaning amazingly Performance and Cocktails are P1 in both tours! I don't believe PCR have ever won a tour's team standings before, now they are in the hunt for both! Fantomette are hot on their heels though, the French team seems to be getting better and better after having struggled to even score points at the start of the season. Hitachi and CCI have looked strong all tour also.

[Aerospeed]

Great performances all around, can't complain about that

[Shadaza]

Super Close Dauphine Finale

Stage Victor
A super exciting final day of the Dauphine saw a charged race to the finish, on the final climb 19 riders clumped together, by the end only 6 had a shot in the final km. Philipe Viruolien went in to final climb knowing that it was going to be a fight against Jason Melbourne and Preston Senerson for the overall victory. All 3 of the riders were grouped together when disaster struck Senerson, the UBC rider critically fell on a small downhill section before the finish, his shot at overall victory gone. So it was a straight fight between Melbourne and Viruolieon. They were joined at the front by Alitalia's Firenze, Hitachi's Giro winner Nokaro along with backup teamates for the front to, Gianlugi (Minardi) and Uno Sandberg (NSA). The final 6 were separated by time gaps, with Melbourne ahead of Viruolien on the stage it was going to be close. Tadi Nokaro took the stage victory for Hitachi, but everyone was eyeing up the times.

Stage Result
Nokaro was first for Hitachi, Ricchi trying to help Viruolien got a little carried away and took 2nd ahead of Melbourne. Virulien held on for 4th, would it be enough? Firenze ended up in 5th, he is fighting Nokaro for a top 5 place, it is going to be close all round.

General Classification
Virulien JUST hangs on by the tiny margin of 9 seconds after over 30 hours of racing! Melbourne once again performs strongly on the build up to a major tour. Daniel Martins takes 3rd for PCR, by far his best ever performance. Senerson may have lost his chance at overall victory, but he recovered from his fall to hang on to 4th, as Nokaro leaps in to the top 5 on the final day. Firenze and Singh tie for 6th, with Firenze being given the nod on countback.

Points Classification
The Dauphine offered very little joy for sprinters, it was Viruolien who caps off a great tour by winning the points too, a double first for the Minardi team (GC win and points victory) I believe this is the first time someone has done the double too. Melbourne was beaten to 2nd in this too, with late race hero Anand Singh in 3rd.

Mountain Classification
Jean Velo is turning into somewhat of a breakaway legend, he may not have won any stages this time out, but he takes the mountain jersey and believe it or not was Lansvales best placed rider in the entire tour on GC, just from breakaways alone, a crowd favourite. Daniel Sims was the height of Fosters efforts in this tour, the young rider still only 18 years of age isn't afraid of the solo runs. Ingo Voeller tried to hang on to the back of Jean Velo, but the Fantomette rider just isn't as strong willed as the Lansvale.

Young Rider Classification
Daniel Martins may have been a little fortunate to take 3rd overall in the general standings, but he deserved the young rider victory, having worn the white jersey for most of the tour, Anand Singh put up a big challenge for the honors towards the end of the tour, but Martin sealed his victory by hanging on gamely to Singh on the final day. Pavel Gafurov was 3rd for NSA, the Russian rider perhaps could have hoped for better on this tour, to be 12 minutes off Martin is rather concerning, he'd of been behind even if there wasn't a time trial in the Portuguese favour and you'd expect the NSA rider to be better than that. Da Silva didn't disgrace on what was his first ever cycling tour, Daniel Sims is a constant top 5 fixture in this category and Jaime Carling in 6th had his best ride since last year's Tour de France early stages.


Team Classification
The NSA team have stolen the teams victory on the final day of the tour! Performance and Cocktails did not manage to get a rider in that vital final 6, whilst the NSA team had 2 riders in there and this is the difference. Minardi round of a strong tour with GC victory, points victory and 3rd in the teams standings.
Hitachi had a fairly quiet run, with Nokaro only lighting things up on the final day. Community Cycling Intiative managed a scattering of stage wins and finished 5th, about par for them. Boxtell had a better than average run to 6th, Alitalia had a pretty bad time considering this was their A squad, the time trial really smashed them up, the mountains killed them off. Twinings were anonymous all tour really time trial victory aside, Lansvale can be heroes one day and zeroes the next, seemingly at random. Fantomette and Fosters put their best riders in the Tour de Suisse and Mabbazana are Mabbazana.

--------------------------

Tour de Suisse
Johanson dominates the stage!

A thrilling penultimate stage saw Twinings Sven Johansson put in a storming ride from quite a fair ways back to take a grand victory. The Swedish rider managed to overturn a 30 second deficit to NSA's Alexey Volkov in the final 2km to take stage victory. 90% of the stage was led by Performance and Cocktails, who actually ran at a mega pace to protect race leader Ricardo Lupo. By the final climb the team had done all it could and it was down to the strong riders to duel it out. A few strong (but not TOO strong) riders attempted to break right away but were soon overhauled. It was Volkov that launched the first real attack, he was followed by Foster's Fahrrad and Twinings Kerr, with Ricardo Lupo and most of the big hitters in hot pursuit. It is from there Johansson attacked and on his own reeled in Volkov for victory.
Stage 8 result
Alexey Volkov did manage to hang on to 2nd, a kilometre further and he would have dropped to at least 4th, possibly 6th. Nobert Centrone did make some noise by finishing ahead of leader Lupo, but they ended up classed on the same time. Fahrrad and Kerr perhaps attacked too early, the German managed to hold on to 4th but Kerr dropped quite a bit of time and fell behind Thomas Tenpenny.

Stage 8 General Classification
Don't for one second think this tour is over, the hardest stage in the tour, perhaps even the hardest of the entire racing season is next, but as it stands Lupo hold his 1 minute plus lead to the final day from Centrone. Thomas Tenpenny is in 3rd but the Australian has Fahrrad breathing down his neck, it is still possible for the Aussie to win overall, but I would say he has a job on his hands to hold on to 3rd! Johansson is up to 5th and will be eager for the next stage, if Johansson on todays form turns up he could climb higher still, but his form can be very up and down so who knows? Volkov is back in to the top 10 after his nightmare time trial, he could be one to watch out for tomorrow.

Suisse Teams
PCR went all in for Lupo today and as a result drop a lot of time (they have lost the lead in both tours!). It may seem harsh but they would much rather see a Lupo win. It is Fantomette who take overall lead, they have brought their A squad to this tour and with Centrone at the helm look really good. Hitachi are doing really well in this category, which seems odd when only Morales is really anywhere in the GC, they have a great top 3 rider team on every stage but it is never the same 3 riders! CCI and NSA are looking good in this tour, as they did the other one too.

[Salamander]

A thrilling penultimate stage saw Twinings Sven Johansson put in a storming ride from quite a fair ways back to take a grand victory. The Swiss rider

Johansson is Swedish.

[QuickYoda41]

Minardi's squad for the Tour:

Philipe Viruolien (by the way, yesss! )
William Goodspeed
Raul Julandro Jimenez
Gert van Lijwouk
Daniele Rampazza
Rinaldo Ranozzi
Gianluigi Ricchi
Vincenzo Tolano
Thor Tromsen

[Aerospeed]

Just got the results now. What a finish!

I presume with QuickYoda's post that the Tour de France is the next event?

[Shadaza]

Just got the results now. What a finish!

I presume with QuickYoda's post that the Tour de France is the next event?

Indeed the next event is the Tour de France, but for now, the final of the Tour de Suisse.



Ixausti wins final stage!

The final stage of the Tour de Suisse turned into a cat and mouse game between Alitalia's Inxausti and Minardi's pair of Raul Julandro Jiminez and Vincenzo Tolano.
The 3 were the standout riders in a 6 man early break. The other riders were Juan Pablom Martinez (APB) Pierro Riccone (FOS) and Vinny de Moore (UBC).

With still over 40km to go,only the front 3 were still together. Inxausti attacked early and Tolano chased with Jiminez biding his time. The fast pace took it's toll on both Inxausti and Tolano and from over 2 minutes behind Jiminez reeled them back in by the final 10km. Then Raul Julandro attacked with style, he had a 40 second lead with 1km to only for Inxausti to pull of an amazing final climb to blitz it at the line. A fascinating race.

Of course it was not just a 3 man contest, and there was a tour overall to be fought over. 25 or so of the finest riders, most in the top 10 attacked at mid distance, only 12 of them managed to hold on to the pace at the front including race leaders Lupo, Centrone, Fahrrad and Johansson. Sadly 3rd place and young rider jersey Thomas Tenpenny failed to keep up with the pace.

Stage 9 Results
Hirohito Kamizaki was the prestage favourite and blasts ahead of the others to race to 4th, strong. Pierro Riccone found a 2nd wind for Fosters and unusually finish in the top 5 despite his initial breakaway being caught! Hitachi's Hernandez was also a favourite for the stage but he failed and fell far down the order

Centrone, Fahrrad and Johansson tried to see if Ricardo Lupo would slip up, but PCR, particularly young Bernard Jones, managed to keep Lupo in good enough shape that he easily outpaced his rivals. Ricardo Lupo wins the Tour de Suisse, leading almost the entire tour
http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/Suisse_GC_zps3dade8eb.png
Lupo extending his lead shows that not only is he a great rider, PCR are clicking as a team and have provided excellent support for him. Centrone is the form man of the last few tours, outscoring everyone including rival Klaus Fahrrad in 3rd.

Tenpenny drops down to 7th, the non mountain riders have a tough time as Carl Kerr and Alexey Volkov climb up. The pair are consistent danger men and should both be ones to watch in the Tour de France (should they be selected that is.)

Indeed I would say the top 15 of this tour all would deserve a shot at the Tour de France.

Points Standings
If you thought Lupo dominated GC, look away from the points standings. D'Alberto was supreme over the sprints and took everyone to the cleaners, including Lansvales Kraviz. He took so many sprint points, Fosters teammate Klaus Fahrrad was there in 2nd place through consistency, the German was a factor on every single stage, bar the time trial! Big fail for APB, they came for the sprinters jersey and most the riders just plain sucked, Romano, Helguson, Marzano the best of a bad bunch.

Mountain Jersey
Jiminez led the breakaway from the outset with nobody even particularly bothered to challenge, as a result he manages to amass a huge points total and take the prize for Minardi.

Young Rider
Klaus Fahrrad managed to take yet another young rider victory after leaping ahead of Thomas Tenpenny and holding off Volkov. These 3 are always features in the young rider standings. Bernard Jones and Dominic Roberts did excellent jobs, even better than the time suggests. Jones helped Lupo win the tour and Roberts was the man that tried to keep Tenpenny in check.

Teams
Fantomette brought their A squad and it showed, they ended up winning the teams contest by sheer consistency. They may not have shown the tour de force Hitachi showed in the Giro, but Fantomette looks a refined team. PCR, Hitachi and Foster showed excellent form all tour with Twinings and the NSA teams not all that far behind. Minardi look like the best team in the series over the hardest of stages, but they need to be sharper in the bread and butter stage. CCI are so inconsistent, a problem they have had all year, champions one day, zeroes the next. APB have a few gems in there as well as UBC. Lansvale can giant kill on a good day, not many good days this tour. Mabbazana struggle for depth with a full squad, let alone split across 2 tours, Jimmy Kay isn't an awful sprinter at least.

[Shadaza]

Code: Select all

1       Klaus Fahrrad           FOS     GER     311
2       Nobert Centrone         FAN     ESP     262
3       Alexey Volkov           NSA     RUS     242
4       Tadi Nokaro             HIT     JPN     242
5       Stefano Firenze         APB     ITA     240
6       Ricardo Lupo            PCR     ITA     222
7       Thomas Tenpenny         FHK     AUS     215
8       Jason Melbourne         NSA     AUS     191
9       Phillipe Viruolien      MIN     FRA     173
10      Francois Le Bleu        HIT     FRA     161
11      Nasser Abdulrashid      CCC     QAT     153
12      Terry Wright            FOS     GBR     150
13      Jerry Fletcher          HIT     GBR     148
14      Carl Kerr               TWI     GBR     143
15      Claudio Bonotellio      HIT     ITA     141
16      Marco Venerdi           CBR     SAN     140
17      John Jaywick            PCR     FRA     130
18      Craig West              TWI     GBR     123
19      Abraham Simon           CCC     ISR     120
20      Brandon Plant           PCR     USA     117
21      Sid Hatayuki            PCR     JPN     112
22      Sven Johansson          TWI     SWE     111
23      Stefan Popiel           CCC     POL     110
24      Paddy Quinn             HIT     IRL     102
25      Uno Sandberg (16 CBR)   NSA     SWE     99

After a delay, I have decided to post the updated top 25. I am now opening the entry list for the 2nd Tour de France.
I will also be accepting new, TDF only teams if there is interest.

Let me know if you would like any rider reviews to help build your TDF team of 9 riders.

[takagi_for_the_win]

Let me know if you would like any rider reviews to help build your TDF team of 9 riders.

Yep, my band of trained monkeys shall return for the TdF Whom shall I choose, Oh Almighty Shadaza of Knowledge and Wisdom?

[pasta_maldonado]

If you wouldn't mind, a review of the best Foster's riders wouldn't go amiss

[Shadaza]

If you wouldn't mind, a review of the best Foster's riders wouldn't go amiss

Fosters Appraisal

Fosters is very much a 1 man team, with Klaus Fahrrad undisputed leader.
Over medium terrain few can keep up and he is a top 20 rider over mountains
he just lacks that vital edge on the super difficult stages.

However this does not rule him out of Tour de France contention. Nokaro showed with Hitachi, you don't have to be the best to win the grand tours, he had excellent team support.
So I advise a team built with him in mind.

Andy Badger would be a great choice for wingman, he is good on all surfaces and a great team player, rarely fighting for wins himself but helping the others.

Piero Riccone may be another great choice, he showed a lot of spirit at the end of the Tour de Suisse to fight through the pack even after a failed break.

In terms of Mountain climbing skill, Rafael Verwest is the strongest in the team, he is a little bit selfish though and can often fail to perform on some stages, but on his day
can leave everyone else for dust.

Ed Kevin is also a great mountain climber who unlike Verwest, will give his all for every stage, but Ed won't be troubling the front runners for GC, could be helpful for Fahrrad though.

Daniel Sims is rapidly progressing up the hill climb ranks and when he goes for it, nobody can keep up. He is a great bet for opening week honours but will fade in the mountains.
Still an immensely talented youngster who deserves a shot.

Jermaine d'Alberto showed stunning sprint pace in the tour de Suisse, easily winning the sprinters jersey. With similar stages on le tour, he may go into it the sprinters jersey favourite.
He won't assist Fahrrad much in the long run, but will pick up lots of points on the sprints.


After this is where selection is tricky.
You have 2 good (if not great) time trialists in Terry Skiverton and Ragnar Solmundsson. Skiverton is marginally the better at time trials but is less useful in helping the team on regular stages.

Thomas Yorke has huge levels of stamina, as shown at the Milan San Remo and will pull the team on the flats, if little else.
Dave Hedgehog is an OK backup sprinter.
Mitchell Webb can perform the role of both the above riders, but isn't as strong as Yorke or as fast as Hedgehog.

Terry Wright has the 2nd most points of any Fosters Rider, but doesn't like the multistage tours so his impact would be minimal, even with hills among his strengths.

Jaap Van Riebek on paper should be a handy all rounder, but has yet to show anything amazing on tour.

Antonio Arena has managed some respectable results on multi-stage events and does pull his weight, but he isn't a megastar in waiting.
Whilst the veteran Matsohiro Mizuhara likes to run at the front towards the later end of the tour, he rarely stays there, he may strike it lucky on a few stages but he could also end up with nothing to show for his efforts.

Anyone not mentioned probably has little to add to the Team Dynamic.

Let me know if you would like any rider reviews to help build your TDF team of 9 riders.

Yep, my band of trained monkeys shall return for the TdF Whom shall I choose, Oh Almighty Shadaza of Knowledge and Wisdom?

Should be a fairly easy choice for Restov, considering your team has 9 riders total!
But the 9 riders in the team are each individually strong, so it is a fairly balanced squad.

Dzagoev and Odonker stunned everyone with their sprint form at the Giro D'italia, with Odonker winning the points jersey after the inter team battle with Dzagoev. There is nothing to say they both won't challenge again.
Diniyar Akinfeev would be a great shout for day 1 leader, the rider is quite an intense individual and will be fast right out the blocks. If he fails to take the lead overall, he has a great shot at a top 5 and a healthy points score.

But the heavy duty riders in the team are, Jakub Radiskzi and Sergei Baloshnikov. Unlike Akinfeev, they know the event is an enduro not a sprint and will consistently crank out top 20 results until they end up with superb General classification results, if not many stage wins.

The other riders in the team are not going to score many points outside of time trials. Does this make them useless? Far from it! They form the backbone of the team and will do the lionshare of the work for the 2 sprinters and the 2 GC runners, the team would be useless without them.

[DemocalypseNow]

Alitalia Parmalat Bianchi // TDF LINEUP
#1 STEFANO FIRENZE [ITA]
The lead man. One of the top GC contenders for TdF, he's been edged out by Klaus Fahrrad lately, but if anyone can get close to the German rider, it's Firenze.

#2 VINCENZO JACOMUZZI [ITA]
The right hand man. Almost as good as Firenze on the smaller climbs, but not quite as fast on the time trials or on the HC climbs. A number two option if anything untoward happens to Stefano.

#3 FERMINTXO INTXAUSTI [EUS]
The Basque rider had a great time at the Tour de Suisse which has earned him a place as a mountains helper for Firenze's GC challenge.

#4 ALESSIO MONTEVERDI
Hasn't had the best of seasons so far, but showed some of his potential at the Criterium. Will assist Firenze in the mountains.

#5 EMANUELE MONTELLA
A top time trialist, will aim to take yellow at the start of the tour as he did last year, but can also assist as a domestique on the flat stuff.

#6 ARTAN KARIMI
Karimi is the ultimate chaser. He is the best Peleton leader of them all - if Alitalia need to chase a break, this is the guy to have on the front. He will crank out high speeds endlessly on the flat.

#7 HEIDAR HELGUSON
A double duty domestique, primarily taking care of Romano's green jersey hopes, but also capable of running with Firenze & Intxausti in the tough climbs.

#8 MAARTEN HOOIVELD
Another double duty domestique. Will assist Romano on the sprints, and Firenze & Co on the hills. Has also proven he can take stage wins should the main men fall by the wayside.

#9 LORENZO ROMANO
The top hope for the green jersey. He's possibly the outright fastest sprinter in the ProTour, but has so far lacked the consistency to put together a solid run for the green jersey.

[pasta_maldonado]

Foster's squad for the Tour:

1: Klaus Fahrrad
2: Andy Badger
3: Pierro Riccone
4: Jermaine D'Alberto
5: Daniel Sims
6: Ed Kevin
7: Rafael Verwest
8: Thomas Yorke
9: Ragnar Solmundsson