Team LunaLounge

[Luna]

Pablo an Ruben safe in the bunch on stage 5

The 5th stage of the Giro d'Italia from Novara to Novi Ligure saw another bunch sprint finish, although the main field that sprinted it out was significantly smaller than in the previous flat stages. Roundabout 80 riders finished with the same time as race winner Peer Pils from Neutrogena, who scored his first stage win in this Giro. LunaLounge's two leaders Pablo and Ruben Escobar rolled over the line in 67th and 34th position, respectively, staying well secured out of trouble without losing any time.

Columbian Silvano Vazquez sprinted on 10th place, reaching his best result so far, while William Pousson dropped out of his 2nd place overall, ultimately burying all his hopes of taking over the race lead for some days. The time trial specialist lost contact halfway of the stage and finished in 119th position, 25 minutes behind the peloton.

On the next stage the first medium mountains await the riders, making another mass sprint very unlikely. The team will have to stay alert all the time in order to keep its leaders near the front and to not allow any gc contenders to bounce away and possibly gain some seconds over the rest.

[Luna]

No GC attacks on way to Marina di Carrara
Nguyen close to winning, finishing 3rd

Vietnamese Khoi Nguyen rode a strong finale in the Giro's 6th stage from Fidenza to Marina di Carrara, knowing exactly where to position himself and whick attack to follow. He was part of the winning move that took off from the main group 2km from the finish. And after beeing the first to open the sprint he looked like the possible stage winner for a moment but was outpaced by Los Galacticos' Ignacio Castillo and eventual winner Humberto Osorio (Poison Dwarves) on the last few meters.

"I wanted to win", was all Nguyen said after the finish. He tried to say more but his english is still not good enough to express himself adequatly. Instead team manager Luna spoke to the journalists. "He showed a good performance. Of course we all would have been happy with a stage win. But he did everything right. So there's no need to be disappointed. It was only the luck that was missing. He can be happy with his 3rd place. In deed this was the best race he rode for us since being hired."

The Escobar brothers finished the stage in a 33 riders strong group, containing all gc favourites, 17 seconds behind the race winner.

[Luna]

Giro hits the White Roads
Ruben struggles on the Strade Bianche, Pablo limits loss

Yesterday at the 7th stage from Carrara to Montalcino the peloton of the Giro d'Italia was sent over the difficult white gravel roads from Tuscany. In the finale of the 222km stage the riders had to tackle a total of 18km of the uncomfortable nature paths, what showed a shake-up in the overall standings.

Best placed Luna rider was Silvano Vazquez, who finished 25th, 2:08 minutes behind race winner Humberto Osorio (Poison Dwarves), leading home a group of classement riders containing Pablo Escobar, Oskar Schlömilch (Kandoo) and Ernst Gröger (Ansach). Vazquez stayed with the leading group until the end of the last sector of the gravel roads, before he dropped back to Pablo Escobar who was on his own after the last rise 5km from the finish.

"Silvano was strong", Pablo said. "If he wouldn't have been there for me I would have lost much more time in the last kilometres. I'm thankful that he waited for me at that point. He could have achieved a good stage result by his own. But he knew I was far behind without any teammate. For most parts of the dirt roads I had Khoi Nguyen by my side. But then I tried it on my own, attacking on the little climb some 10km from the finish. I found myself in the group of pink jersey wearer Ruben Zettel and was just following wheels for a while. When the dirt track finally ended I attacked again and then there he was. He even pulled to the group with Schlömilch and Gröger. That was great."

Keeping in touch with Gröger, who is an excellent timt trialist, means Pablo sits still 1:24 behind him in gc. A time gap that seems able to be made up in the mountains that are still to come. Besides, Pablo lost 56 seconds over the strong climbers Andrei Pelirhyn (Renault) and Rafael Serrano (Astana). While he is now 16 seconds behind Serrano in gc, he still leads Pelirhyn by 1 minute. The biggest loss he sustained is 1:22 over Poison Dwarves' HectorIvan Palacio, who now lies 32 seconds behind him.

Ruben experienced a much worse day. "When the first splits was made, I saw the group with Pablo still a few metres in front of me. Lionel was pulling me as good as he could. But the gap got bigger and bigger. When it went uphill I accelerated and reached Khoi who had been dropped by Pablo. Together with him i rode the rest of course". Ruben finished another one minute behind Pablo together with Ruben Zettel and overall contender Heal World from Nano Team. In general classification Pablo now leads Ruben by 18 seconds. "I think the signs are set now for Pablo. I don't know how I could make up for the losses I underwent today. From the beginning of the Giro Pablo kinda feared beeing in the role of the sole leader. But that's what he's got now. I'm happy that we hadn't droppped him in the team time trial. Now I will ride for him. And I'll do it with pleasure. He is just much better than me in the climbs."

One day before the first mountain top finish of the Monte Terminillo the brothers lie in 16th and 18th position, respectively, beeing 3rd and 4th best placed overall contenders. The time gaps are in particular as follows:

5. Ernst Gröger (Ansach) ..................... +0.00
13. Rafael Serrano (Astana) ................. +1.08
16. Pablo Escobar (Luna) ..................... +1.24
18. Ruben Escobar (Luna) .................... +1.42
21. Oskar Schlömilch (Kandoo) .............. +1.52
23. HectorIvan Palacio (Poison Dwarves) .. +1.56
30. Andrei Pelirhyn (Renauult Magnum) .... +2.25
31. Heal World (Nano team) ................. +2.28

[Luna]

Good day for the Escobars at first mountain top finish
Pablo 2nd on Terminillo and GC

Pablo Escobar finished 2nd at the Monte Terminillo yesterday at stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia after 189km of racing. Together with stage winner Andrei Pelirhyn (Renault Magnum) and Hector Ivan Palacio (Poison Dwarves) the presumably three strongest climbers of the peloton distanced their followers by roundabout 40 seconds. 2km from the finish Pelirhiyn attacked the two Columbians Palacio and Escobar, who let him go. Escobar managed to get past Palacio a few meters from the line to secure 2nd place, what secured him additional 4 seconds time bonus over Palacio and 12 seconds over the rest of the field.

"We started the climb with moderate tempo, only watching each other. Astana's Serrano was the first to make a move. Palacio and the Moldavian from Renault followed him. So I went with them. At first we've been 5 guys. But Serrano and Chadasch dropped soon. Then we started pulling seriously. I was happy to be up front with the two strong climbers, although the Renault rider was only following our wheels most of the time. That way we kept ourselves out of the battle that took place behind us. That would have cost us much energy, while in front we could simply climb in our own steady rhythm. It was no problem that the Moldavian attacked us short from the finish. I just concentrated on Palacio and on finishing in front of him. That climb went pretty well. We took nearly a minute out of most of the contenders."

As a result of the stage Pablo moved up to 2nd position overall, 43 seconds behind Steel Riders' Saban Eskici, but half a minute in front of Serrano and Palacio, who now lie in 7th and 8th position, respectively.

Even Ruben was able to attack the chase group in the final slopes of the Terminillo after he firstly fell behind when the attacks started but was pulled back by Heal World and Benjamin Gourgue. Together with Chadasch (L RSV) and Rang (Walbeck) he managed to put a small 3 seconds gap between them and a group of five, containing Heal World and Serrano, who both lost 40 seconds on Pablo (plus 12 seconds time bonus). White jersey wearer Ernst Gröger, who's also considerd as a gc threat due to his time trial abilities finished another 40 seconds behind Ruben, meaning 1:20 behind Pablo.

Ruben lies in 11th position with 1:48 on Maglia Rosa Eskici, 1:05 behind his younger brother Pablo.

[Luna]

Late attacks spoil sprinters party
Another 3rd place for Nguyen

Vietnamese Khoi Nguyen scored his second 3rd place in the Giro after being part of a group of 12, that attacked in the slightly uphill finale a few km from the finish in Cava Dei Tirreni. Together with Silvano Vazquez he was attentive enough to follow the decisive move, initiated by two Poison Dwarves riders. He made a good sprint out of that group but unfortunately there once more were two others riders faster than him. He crossed the line behind stage winner Maxime Schlechter (Kandoo-Riders) and Poison's Humberto Osorio. Vazquez finished 8th, at least the best personal result he achieved so far in this Giro.

At the beginning of the 187km long stage from Frosinone to Cava Dei Tirreni Lionel Andrés placed himself into the break of the day, that stayed in the lead for most parts of the race. But 30km from finish he was ordered back to conserve his energy for the coming days, after it became obvious that the group was too much in disagreement to have a chance of getting through.

[Luna]

Vazquez 10th in bunch sprint of Bitonto

The team experienced a relatively quite day on the 230km stage 10 from Avellino to Bitonto. Columbian Silvano Vazquez sprinted to 10th place in the bunch gallop.

Lionel Andrés recovered fully from his efforts of the day before. Now everybody's focussed on the longest stage of this year's Giro that's lying ahead. 260km will have to be covered between Lucera an l 'Aquila, meaning full concentration for everybody over a classics-like distance. Hopefully Austrian Harald Umwerfer will survive. He's most likely to drop on one of the climbs that lie on the route.

[Luna]

Giro stage 11 & 12
Pablo misses decisive move - Morissey 2nd after day long break

Pablo Escobar lost precious time in the finish of the Giro's 11th stage to l'Aquila on wednesday. Although beeing in a good position in frint the field he was not able to follow the attacks of his rivals Hector Ivan Palacio Montoya and Andrei Pelirhyn in the final 2km. Pelirhyn won his 2nd stage in the tour and subsequently now is back in the fight for the overall title. The Luna captain finished 6 seconds shy of both in 6th position. "I don't like this sort of finishes", Escobar said. "It went uphill, but it was not really steep. I'm not suited to this medium gradients. After all it was a long stage, the longest of this Giro, and I felt a little fatigue in my legs. 2km from the finish I saw them attacking. I wanted to follow but I was just not able to respond. The 6 seconds I finished behind them are not a big deal, but in addition to the time bonusses for 1st and 2nd it's nearly half a minute, that I've lost to both. That's no very good outcome of the stage."

In the overall standings Escobar is still lying in front of the other two main contenders, but his advantage has shrinked to 18 seconds over Palacio and 24 seconds over Pelirhyn.

Morissey's day in the break

Until now it was not often in this Tour of Italy that a Luna rider took the opportunity to go in an early breakaway group. But thursday it was Barbadian Amani Morissey who gave it a go in a five man fuga at the 206km stage 12 from Sant Angelo to Porto Recanati. And it became clear very early that the main field didn't intend to chase down the escapees. 50km from the finish they had a lead of nearly half an hour, before the unity broke and the attacks started. Morissey was the first to try to seperate himself from his breakaway companions, followed by others. But the group was alltogether when they hit the last rise 12km from the finish. On the 2km climb they five fell apart in 3 groups with 32-year-old Morissey beeing in the chase. Together with Edson Barroso (Los Galacticos) he managed it to again make the junction with the leading three. And with an advantage of 12:43 minutes over the main field the group sprinted it out as a whole. Morissey seemed to be in a good position a few hundred metres from the line but had to concede victory to Konstantin Uljanov (RC Hypo), who simply was the best sprinter of the group.

After his win in the Barbadian nationalroad race championships in octobre '09 this 2nd place was Morissey's best result of his career. And despite beeing so close to victory he wasn't much disappointed after the stage. "What can I say. I don't consider myself as a very good sprinter. I tried to attack but I failed. I made a good sprint but there simply was one guy faster than me. Loosing behind Uljanov is not a shame. I have to be contend with the 2nd place".

[Luna]

Another brave escape
Andrés caught only few km from finish

The 223km stage 13 from Porto Recanati to Cesenatico saw another breakaway attempt by a LunaLounge rider. This time it was Argentinian Lionel Andrés, who tried his luck. Together with Diego DelRios (Los Galacticos) and Rajan Nandju (L RSV) he formed a group of three at the beginning of the race and like the day before there seemed no to be any motivation by the main field to keep the group under control. After 70km the trio led the peloton by more than 20 minutes. But that was moment when Strohhutbande began to slowly reduce the gap, although it was still at 13 minutes when the lead group hit the first of the two mountains 65km from the finish. The three didn't hurry much, continuously worrying about saving energy for the remainder of the stage. And that probably was the reason for suddenly beeing in striking distance when they came out of the mountainous parts of the race. The end of the game was that they was reeled in easily 4km from the line. A select group of 49 riders sprinted for the win, with Strohhutbande deservedly taking the victory in person of Adriano Leite.

The Escobar brothers finished in the front group in 13th and 25th position.

"I'm a little bit disappointed", 27 year-old Andrés admitted after the race. "It looked pretty well for most of the time. We had such a huge gap. I feel we didn't played it perfectly. Somewhere in the race we wasted too much time. I'm sure we could have gotten through if we had pulled more severely in the mountains. It's a shame we threw away our chances so deliberately. That was unnessecary."

[Luna]

Moldavian climber in trouble
GC favourites drop Pelirhyn at Monte Grappa

Stage 14 from Ferrara to Asolo was feared by Pablo Escobar because of the long flat section after the steep climb up to Monte Grappa. Once beieng isolated he probably wouldn't have been able to react to possible attacks of his rivals. But as the race developed things went in a different direction.

There seemed to be a kind of mutual agreement between the leaders of the race not to attack each other at the stage's only climb, knowing the Zoncolan mountain top finish awaiting the riders at the following day. So the group climbed the 1675m category 2 Monte Grappa in a moderate tempo. But surprisingly a few km from the summit Andrei Pelirhyn, team captain of Renault Magnum, lost contact to the main group. First the gap was only some seconds, but once the race went into the descent it grew continuously. And although beeing supported by two of his teammates, Pelirhyn lost a total of 2:08 over each of the other climbers and gc riders in the field, thanks to the efforts of Pablo Escobar and his vietnamese team mate Khoi Nhguyen, who shared in the work with the Poison Dwarves, who were working for extending the lead of Humberto Osorio in the points classification. Severel other teams joined the party soon after.

"Partway of the climb I already saw Pelirhyn struggling", Ruben Escobar revealed after the finish. "Whenever the pace was lifted by someone, he rode at the very last position of the group. I told Pablo about that and that we might drop him ultimately at the summit. So 2km from the mountain sprint he once more raised the tempo and off he was. It was good to even have Nguyen in front with us. He did an excellent job, especially in the flat parts of the finale. And I think Pablo was happy, too, to be in the action. He was strong in the downhill serpentines, adding his own contribution to increasing the lead over Pelirhyn."

The front group of 34 reached the finish alltogether with Ruben getting 9th in the final sprint.

Gotten rid of Pelirhyn, the tactical situation became a little more lucid one day before the mountainuous stage with finish on top of the Zoncolan on sunday. Now Pablo can concentrate more on his compatriot Hector Ivan Palacio from Poison Dwarves, instead of beeing forced to watch both, Palacio and Pelirhyn.

[Luna]

P. Escobar once more beaten by Palacio Montoya
No pink rest day for Team LunaLounge

After Pablo Escobar was able to stay in front of his columbian rival Hector Ivan Palacio at the Giro's first mountain top finish at the Monte Terminillo at stage 8, he had hopes of again finishing better than his compatriot from Poison Dwarves at the Monte Zoncolan at stage 15, one day prior to the rest day. But in the end he only saw the back wheel of Palacio and had to let it go. He crossed the line in 2nd position on top of the 1730m Zoncolan only 3 seconds behind and thereby lost another 11 seconds on general classification to Palacio, who now trails Escobar by the small margin of 7 seconds.

Escobar and Palacios now occupy 2nd and 3rd place in the overall, with Escobar only 2 seconds behind Turkish man Saban Eskici (Steel Riders). Had Escobar won at the Zoncolan or had he even kept up with Palacio, he would have taken over the Maglia Rosa, what would have given him an extra morale boost for the final week of the Tour of Italy. But it wasn't to be and he had to spend the rest day without the desired jersey on his shoulders.

"Yeah, that was not nice. It's the second time, I've been beaten by him. First time was in l'Aquila. Now I thought the climb would be steep enough for me, but he simply ditched me. Over the rest day I was a little down. But Ruben came to me and bolstered me up. I am really happy to have him by my side here. He convinced me that it's not over yet. Overall I'm still in front of Palacio. And hopefully I can gain some more seconds at the Kronplatz time trial, as well as at the last day in Verona. And who knows what happens between both. It will be all very close. I think it's a great spectacle for the spectators. We will keep on fighting", Pablo was cited by journalistst on the rest day.

Thanks to the moderate tempo on several difficult mountainous stages, Escobar still can rely on a complete team. No riders have exceeded the time limits until now. Even Austrian Harald Umwerfer, who's considered the worst climber in the peloton, is still in the race, while some other teams have already lost one or even two riders.

The mountain time trial up to the Plan de Corones on tuesday offers another opportunity for Pablo to get into the overall lead and finally take over the Maglia Rosa.

[Luna]

Same time as Palacio at Plan de Corones
Pablo Escobar assumes overall lead

Pablo Escobar has taken over the Maglia Rosa in the Giro d'Italia after clocking the 7th best time in the 12.9 km mountain time trial up to Plan de Corones. Escobar was 33 seconds slower than the stage winner of Nano team but 34 seconds faster than Saban Eskici, who lost his pink jersey and dropped to 3rd place overall, now 32 seconds behind the new race eader from Team LunaLounge.

Still 7 seconds behind Pablo lies Hector Ivan Palacio Montoya, now on 2nd place. The two Columbians have finished the time trial in exactly the same time.

Pablo's brother Ruben also showed a strong performance. But although he was even 3 seconds faster than Pablo, what earned him 5th place in the stage, he lost his 6th place overall to the German Oskar Schlömilch (Kandoo), who was third on the day, taking 12 seconds out of Ruben and leading him now by 4 seconds, 1:44 minutes behind Pablo.

"I'm happy to finally wear the pink jersey. I've been waitin for it very long. Before the Giro we thought we maybe could get it some days earlier. But the competition was hard. Then after the Zoncolan I was a bit disappointed, because there I missed it by only 2 seconds. But that's forgotten now. I'm looking forward to wearing it through tommorrows stage", an apperently delighted Pablo Escobar said in italian television. "Everyone knows that regeneration is none of my best strenghts. So it might happen, that I'll lose the lead again tomorrow. But nobody can take away that jersey from me. And maybe it wouldn't be that bad to have an other team in charge for a few days. I don't need to keep it every day now until the end. It would be enough to get it back in Verona. But things still remain very close.

I hear people say that it's head to head between Hector and me. But there are still some others who kept hiding themselves a bit until now. There might as well come someone from behind and gain back some time, in either the coming mountain stages or the final time trial. We'll see what happens."

[Luna]

Suffering after Plan de Corones
Escobar loses jersey to Palacio

One day after Pablo Escobar claimed the Giro's overall lead in the mountain time trial of Plan de Corones on tuesday, he felt the consequences of his efforts on wednesday when he had to watch Hector Ivan Palacio winning the mountain top finish of stage 17 in Peio Terme. Escobar finished in 8th position, 7 seconds behind the winner, and conseuently had to surrender the pink jersey to Palacio, who now leads the Giro by 20 seconds over Escobar.

"That was my day in pink", Pablo said. "I would have enjoyed it, if I just hadn't suffered the whole day. I felt tired, since the Plan de Corones was a very hard day. Now I'm back to 2nd place again and all I can do is to hope for a bad day of Hector to hopefully crunch back a few seconds before the final time trial in Verona. I don't think that I would be able to be significantly faster than him in the time trial. We have to wait and see".

One last quite day before the final mountains

The flat stage 18 from Levico Terme to Brescia on thursday was a last opportunity to shake the fatigue out of the legs before the Giro gets into its decisive last 3 stages. Teams Neutrogena and Strohhutbande kept things together and led the peloton into one last bunch sprint. Peer Pils won back his sprinters jersey from Humberto Osorio through taking the stage win. Silvano Vazquez finished 14th.

[Luna]

Title defence failed
P.Escobar: "I lost the Giro at the Zoncolan"

After Pablo Escobar wasn't able to make up some time against Hector Ivan Palacio in the final two mountain stages of the Giro d'Italia, the concluding individual time trial in Verona on the last day was not more than a fun ride, as it was clear that the leeway was too big to make it up in only 15km against the clock. That means Escobar finished the Tour of Italy in 2nd place overall and missed the goal of defending the title, won by Rodrigo Escobar one year before.

On stage 19 from Brescia to Aprica via the Passo del Mortirolo the team attempted one last try to get into the lead through sending out a rider on the road early in the race, but every escape bid has been foiled by the attentive team of race leader Palacio. As a consequence Pablo was forced to react to the events rather than causing them. At the Mortirolo ascend he followed the attack of the Astana duo Serrano and Monfort and was joined by Palacio, Gourgue (Los Galacticos) and Chadasch (L RSV). The sextet reached the finish 46 seconds behind stage winner René Quenninton (L RSV), who was the last survivor of the escape group of the day, which any Luna rider was denied to be part of. The sprint for 2nd place was won by Poison Dwarves' Palacio, gaining another 12 seconds time bonus. Pablo Escobar got 5th.

"That was another bad day for us", Escobar explained at a press conference after having arrived home in Bogota, Columbia. "In the overall standings the gap between Hector and me was already very big. That was our last chance to make some action. But there was no way for us to influence the race somehow. In the end I even lost some more time there in the final sprint. That was the last blow for me. I finally knew I lost the race."

However, being in that group together with Palacios and the two Astana's cemented the lead over any other rider fighting for the podium. So at least Pablos 2nd place overall was sealed that day.

The next day, at the stage 20 with mountain top finish at the Passo del Tonale, Pablo finished again behind his rival. Palacio and Escobar took places 5 and 6, while in front an escape group covered the first 4 places. Pablo didn't even try to follow the last move of Palacio when he attacked in the final meters, putting another 2 seconds between the two Columbians.

"It was not the last two mountain stages where I lost the Giro. It was at the Zoncolan. I felt very good that day. So I told the boys to keep control of the race and bring back the escapees because I thought I could win the stage. But when I saw Hector flying away from me in the final climb, that broke my neck mentally. I felt like I never gonna beat that man in this race. My whole motivation had vanished. It took many consolation from my brother and the rest of the team to get me back on my feet after that. Wouldn't there has been the rest day, I don't know if I would have been able to mount my bike for the following stage. But they convinced me that at least wearing the Maglia Rosa for one day would be reason enough to give my best in the mountain time trial to Plan de Corones. Even there I was not faster than Hector. But thanks to the small lead I still had over him at that point, I had my podium time. I was happy to wear the jersey, but all the time I knew that I wouldn't win the Giro. So I was still disappointed at the same time."

Besides not winning the overall title the team also failed to score a stage win in the Tour of Italy. Time trial specialist William Pousson came close in the prologue, as did Amani Morissey on stage 12 to Porto Recanati when he was part of the the winning breakaway group. Both only finished 2nd. Vietnamese Khoi Nguyen managed two third places in the difficult finales of stages 6 and 9 to Carrara and Cava Dei Tirreni, respectively.

In the teams competition the Luna boys had been in a comfortable lead for more than 2 weeks, but lost it in the final days to Astana and comüpleted it in 2nd place.

All in all the Giro was one of multiple 2nd places for the squad. Good on all terrains, but there's always been someone better.

Eachone of the 9 riders finished the Giro, contrary to the year before, when it was only 5 riders who fighted in the last stages to keep the overall race lead of Rodrigo Escobar. Maybe that's an indicator for not having tried everything. But at least for Austrian Harald Umwerfer reaching Verona meant a real success for him.

But even the black number of last positioned overall finisher couldn't be defended. In 2009 it was Argentinian Matias Medici who provided the team the beautiful result of covering both, first and last position in gc.

Now the team thinks of the Tour de France in july. A decision about a participation and if yes, how, is still to be made.

[Luna]

Buccaneer & Fairbrother victorious
2 post Giro wins for LunaLounge

After the Giro d'Italia ran out without a single victory for the team, two of the non-participants of the Corsa Rosa showed that the team is still able to deliver race wins.

At the very first day after the Giro it was Barbadian Charles Buccaneer, who was attentive in the finale of Bormio - St.Anton am Arlberg, a small race that led the peloton out of the hosting country of the recent Grand Tour across the border to Austria. 35 year-old Buccaneer was part of a group of 16 that formed 23 km from the finish. He attacked that group with 5 km to go and was only followed by Quick Step's Charles Claes and JohnCouch Adams (Renault Magnum). Coming fresh out of a 3 weeks break of racing, Buccaneer beat his companions in the sprint, 3 seconds ahead of the chasing group. Thanks to that win at may 31st the month hasn't ended without a Luna victory.

3 days later it was Lucas Fairbrother, who was fastest out of a select group of 23, that survived the undulating cobbled course of the Critérium provencal in France. In the final few hundret meters he followed the acceleration of Aixteam's Teddy Sheringham. Both opened up a little gap over the rest of the group. And while Sheringham was swallowed by the sprinting chasers, Fairbrother maintained half a bike length over Henry Sisulu (fresim) and Cerro Torre's David Silva. It was only the third professional win of the 32 year-old Briton, who won Quer durch den Kartoffelacker and the Souvenir Vincent Zuyderwyk of the Tour des Pavés, both in 2009.

The team is now committing the Critérium du Dauphiné, spearheaded by brothers Ruben and Pablo Escobar. While Lucas Fairbrother returned to training mode, Charles Buccaneer is part of the Dauphiné squad in probably one of his last seasons of pro racing.

[Luna]

Escobar brothers active in Dauphiné
Two narrow defeats for Vazquez

In May at the Giro d'Italia Pablo Escobar transpired as the team leader. And his elder brother Ruben supported him as good as he could and whenever it was necessary. The result was the 2nd place overall for the younger one. But for the Critérium du Dauphiné the brothers swapped roles again, Ruben the leader, Pablo the powerful domestique. In the end both managed to achieve a top 10 place, Ruben 5th, Pablo 10th, while the Columbians fired numerous attacks on the podium places or even more.

The race started well for Ruben with a 11th place in the prologue of Evian les Bains, 19 seconds behind stage winner Toke Sarup from Bonebreakers and 18 behind eventual 2nd place overall finisher Mathias Hüberli (Racing Stars).

Also on the 2nd day things went opportunely. The brothers followed a late race move, initiated by Gaurain Rx, and finished the stage together with Hüberli and Gaurain's Heinrich Quinthardt full 46 seconds ahead of the rest of the gc contenders, including Toke Sarup.

Unfortunately Ruben lacked the same attentiveness on the 3rd day when it was again the offensive squad of Gaurain Rx who split the field in the final kilometres. Only Pablo made the jump into the Quinthardt group, while Ruben lost the same 46 seconds, that he gained on day before. With him in the chase group was Mathias Hüberli, who was under the attack from Quinthardt all the week long. Khoi Nguyen and Silvano Vazquez worked hard to limit the losses. Something that would have been unnecessary, if Ruben only were in the attacking group. "I simply was unfocused at that moment. We had Lionel in the escape group. So I kinda felt secure, as if nothing bad could happen that day. The race got nervous, two Gaurain riders attacked before the decisive climb, I heard our directeur sportif giving commands to Lionel via radio. I felt so noninvolved. Then there was the cut and they were gone. It indeed was a little shock for me. Thanks to my team mates we could control the time gap a little bit, so that I didn't lost all the chances for a podium finish. But I defenitely lost the chances for the overall win there. If I would've been in front, there wouldn't have been much chase behind us. We could have made up minutes over the stage race specialists in the race. Such a pity".

The gc minutes that slipped through his fingers would had been desperately needed, because at the 49km long individual time trial on day 4 Ruben lost lots of them. He finished 3.5 minutes behind Sarup and Hüberli, with the latter one still in the overall race lead. So after half of the Dauphiné the brothers sat in 11th and 12th place. But the difficult stages were still to come. And the team was poised to bring back the lost time.

A good team work was performed by the brothers on the first of two mountain finishes to Risoul. While most of the climbers were waiting for Pablo's move, it was only Ruben who followed the attack of the Gaurain duo Quinthardt and Heinhardt. Pablo kept his legs still and by this means allowed his brother to build up a remarkable gap over the main group of climbers. Only Hansa-Team's Clayton Rhodes was able to catch the trio 2km from the finish with a late surge. Ruben ended in second place ahead of the two Gaurains and gained nearly a minute over Sarup and Hüberli, who were shadowed by Pablo.

Elated by the well functioning attack mode, the team kept on riding offensively. On the stage to Grenoble they sent Silvano Vazquez on the road. He was planned to be there for Ruben in the finale after the climb to Chamrousse, a HC cathegorized climb 30km from the finish. And it worked out perfectly. 4km from the top Pablo and Ruben launched their attack. None of the gc favourites were able to follow and Vazquez was busy keeping the gap intact after the descent and in the valley. Vazquez even nearly had won the stage if there wouldn't have been Patrick Ruffier (Pastis Ricard) attacking under the flamme rouge. Ruffier was one of Vazquez' early breakaway companions. The team rode very good, but it was only 25 seconds Ruben gained over Quinthardt, sarup and Hüberli. Anyway, it lifted Ruben to fifth place in gc. A good basis for another move at the next day.

But it doesn't always turn out as you want it to. The second-last stage saw the finish in l'Alpe d'Huez and this time it was Lionel Andrés, who attacked early to serve as a relay station after the Col du Glandon. It looked good for most parts of the stage. Andrés was up the road and at the climb to the Glandon Pablo and Ruben attacked again. But the fusion with Andrés didn't work as good as the day before. The brothers caught their team mate too early and had to wait for him at the final few hundred metres before the summit. That means the gap to the chasers was too slim to be held up until the final climb. They all were caught back before they even reached Bourg d'Oisans. As a result Ruben was forced to let all his rivals go on the way up to l'Alpe d'Huez. Thanks to his brother he kept in touch with Hüberli, but lost 15 seconds to Sarup and 50 to Quinthardt. That ended all ambitions for the overall classification. Ruben was stuck in fifth place. As a consolation the team took over the lead in the teams competition and was set to keep it through the final day.

Dispensed from all gc duties Silvano Vazquez again tried his luck in a long breakaway attempt at the last stage, this time solely for his own purposes. Together with Charles Buccaneer he formed part of a group of ten, which managed to stay in front until the end. The group fell apart in the finishing curcuit of Sallanches with Vazquez constantly staying with the leaders. He reached the finishing line together with Cameron Hynes (Hansa-Team) and David DeLaRoya (RV Frankfurt) and unluckily was beaten again. DeLaRoya won the sprint ahead of Vazuez. Buccaneer finished 10th.

Behind the front group Gaurain's Quinthardt launched his ultimate attack to finally overcome Racing Star's Mathias Hüberli and grab the overall title. Ruben ended the tour in 5th place, Pablo 10th.

"I am content with my 5th place. We made some mistakes but we also made some really good moves. It all could have been worse. The competition was tough. And after all we won the teams competition, what we didn't expected after our mishap at the stage to l'Alpe d'Huez. A stage win would have been fine. But we came close to it and we tried our best. For me I am happy with that 2nd place in Risoul. That was really unforeseeable. Too bad that Silvano wasn't rewarded for his efforts. He's been beaten two times so closely. He very much would have deserved a stage win", Ruben concluded after the final stage.

[Luna]

LunaLounge repeats stage one success in Sittard at Toer
Finally Vazquez!

32-year old Columbian Silvano Vazquez won the 137km first stage of the Ster Elektrotoer from Eindhoven to Sittard yesterday after a huge effort by himself. In the finale of the race the peloton broke apart at a little rise 10km from the finish. Vazquez followed the strong attack by Brian Howell (Blitz Viersen) together with Walbecks Scong Mung with 5km to go and picked up Deep Dhanghadi (Equipe Risque) and Artemij Sewostjanow (Freudenfeuer), who had attacked some km earlier, as well as the escape group of the day, including Luna rider Suhardi Mustaruddin. After the remnants of the main field re-organized their chase, the former Columbian national champion monopolized the tempo work in the front and kept the slim lead over the sprinters teams nearly solely by himself, before Dhanghadi and Sewostjanow took over under the flamme rouge to safe one single second in front of the peloton. He won the sprint of the leading group by half a bike lenght over Mung, who just kept following wheels throughout the whole late race surge.

This win comes as a consolation for 2 misses at the Critérium du Dauphiné one week ago, where he finished inside the top 3 two times. It is his 4th success in total and his biggest so far, having only won a stage of the Tour de Pavés 2009 and a small cat 1 race in Venezuela two months ago, apart from the national championship race in octobre '09.

One year ago it was eventual San Remo winner Keenan O'Reileigh who also took the first stage of the Toer with the same start and finishing towns. Just like O'Reileigh at that time, Vazquez is no honoured with the sprinters jersey, that he will wear at the second stage.

Malaysian Mustaruddin, who has been on the road for the whole day, finished the stage in 8th place, what means his first personal result since his arrival at the team in late march.

[Luna]

Team back in youth business
First results for young gun Duran

After the 3 month winter break of the LunaLounge the team struggled with their finances as well as with getting back to the elite level. Forced to sell some outdated riders and simultaneously fill up the empty slots with competitive material, it was not possible to invest in young riders for a long time. But in the mean time the team seems to have recovered from the effects of its period of inactivity and so was able to present its first neo-pro since 7 months at the beginning of may.

It's Columbian Federico Duran Duran, who brought in some young blood to the squad. Though he is no sprint specialist, he nevertheless is able to reach a comparably high top speed. A quality that will much likely see him be the team's spearhead when it comes to sprnits of all types, be it ordinary bunch gallops or sprints of a select group after undulating terrain or sections of cobble stones.

It was a mass sprint, where Duran scored his first result. He got 17th at the Zhejiang Cycling Cup in China at May 4th, 3 days after his arrival to the team. There he already was the team's highest ranked rider. He continued with a solid 13th rank in the Croatian cobble race Pula - Rovinj, where he got 7th in the sprint for place 7, behind the winning group in which Mexican Guadalupe Mendez occupied 6th place.

In his second season he reached 14th place in two mass sprints until now, at the Gullegem Koerse as well as at the Sint-Elooisprijs, both held in Belgium.
But he started to seriously arrest attention in the Ster Elektrotoer. At the queens stage he was part of a group of 10, that formed at the beginning of the race. After beeing in front the whole day he was one of few survivors who got caught only by 2 schnicker riders, that had attacked out of the main field. Duran reached 4th place, his best result so far in the professional circuit. Resulting from his strong ride he ended the Elektrotoer in 7th place, earning the team an unexpected top 10 finish. In both bunch sprints of the Toer he worked for fellow Columbian and stage one winner Silvano Vazquez and led him to places 15 and 12.

His best result in a one day race the now 22-year-old achieved when he sprinted to 5th place out of a group of 60 at Halle-Ingooigem on wednesday.

With his convincing performances in his first two seasons the versatile Duran earned himself a spot in the team for the Tour de France, that starts on July 3rd.

The team continued to concentrate on buying young fresh riders with the signing of Jack Fishmonger, who is in his first season at the moment. The arrival of the Barbadian follows the departure of Amani Morissey, who left the team after the Giro d'Italia.

Another neo-pro is already planned for the next season.

[Luna]

Satisfaction at first rest day
Pablo Escobar gets his win in the Tour

Climbing specialist Pablo Escobar finally achieved his first grand tour stage win yesterday at the Tour de France's first serious mountain top finish in Morzine/Avoriaz. The Columbian watched the attack of rival Andrei Pelirhyn (Renault Magnum) early in the final climb but he stayed calm and waited patiently for the right moment to counter the Moldovans move 3 km form the finish. He was followed only by Gismo's Jan Böttcher with whom he instantly flew past Pelirhyn. Both fought hard to keep the gap to the chasers, namingly the Ruhrgebiet duo Andersen and Tyukol, and managed to stay in front of them until the finish line in the mountain resort near the Swiss border. Böttcher, who obviously was in good shape, showed a strong performance in the sprint but was defeated by Escobar by the width of a tyre.

This victory is only the second one in the career of 31-year-old Escobar. His first one came at Paris-Nice in March, where he won the stage to Mende and subsequently finished 2nd overall. He already tried to win a stage at this year's Giro d'Italia, but was hampered by his own ambitions for the general classification. "This is without doubt the biggest win for me so far. I always wanted to win a stage in a Grand Tour. I flopped at the Giro, where I dangled undecidedly between going for the overall and trying to win a stage. In the end I won nothing. I learned from that experience. This time I'm fully concentrated on stage wins without giving a damn to the GC. Obviously it works out. I feel much better here at the Tour than I did at the Giro. I'm very happy."

The team didn't expect the win to come so early in the Tour. For that reason they didn't show much effort to control the gap to the break of the day. Only at the first of two climbs they send a rider to the front to set the pace. "No, these kinds of stages usually don't suit me much. I really hate those long flat run-ins to the final climbs. That's why I told the boys to keep it cool and leave the work to the others. But luckily there was a quite harmless group on the road and the whole race ran so slow that it didn't really bother me. So when we approached the climb to Col de Ramaz I changed my mind and ask the team to ride for me. Then we shared responsibility with Renault. Later Team Ruhrgebiet took command of the race at the final climb and the escapees were caught just in time to make this happen, 2km from the finish."

The victory of Escobar was not the first time the team experienced the glory of winning a Tour stage. Two years ago at the team's last presence at the Tour it was sprinter Ben Johnson who took the win at stage 8 from Figeac to Toulouse in a bunch sprint, while in 2007 Barbadian Cameron Shoemaker won stage 10 from Tallard to Marseille out of an escape group. That means 3 participations, 3 stage wins.

Riders and staff now enjoy the rest day with the satisfaction of already having reached their goal. The remainder of the Tour can be ridden completely without pressure, what will give them even more freedom and security. A luxurious situation for everybody involved.

[Luna]

2nd stage victory for Team LunaLounge
Duran celebrates maiden win at Tour de France

On monday Columbian Federico Duran Duran won the Tour de France's 16th stage from Pamiers to Bagneres de Luchon after a heroic two man escape over the full distance of 187 km. The Team LunaLounge sprinter, who collected two 4th places in the sprints in the first half of the Tour, this time broke free right after the start, knowing that the 1755m Port de Bales 20km from the finish wouldn't make a sprint finish much likely. Shortly after his attack he was joined by ximista's Carl Dubois. Since the peloton was obviously happy to let them go the duo built up a maximum lead of more than 17 minutes before they reached the highest ranked climb. About 10 minutes behind, polka dot jersey wearer Morton Greiderson from Team Gismo was chasing for the remaining points for the mountains classification. He constantly came closer but he deliberately dropped back to the bunch after he secured third place at the Port de Bales.

Although having a more than comfortable lead Duran was not so sure about reaching the goal in front of the main group. "It was a hard day out there. We had headwind nearly the whole way. That was really disturbing. At the foot of the final climb I thought I would be empty when we reach the summit. Even Dubois had asked to give up several times. Actually we sat up more than once. But we forced ourselves to continue. At the Bales we gave it everything we had. Luckily we still hat a lead of about 3 to 4 minutes after crossing the top. Had it been closer, I wouldn't have been able to continue after a few km. But we needn't to go full gas at the descent. So I could recover a bit".

The pair reached the finishing town of Bagneres de Luchon with an advantage of a little more than one minute over the yellow jersey group. And thanks to the strength he regained at the downhill, 23-year-old Duran was able to get out of the saddle one last time and use his quickness to fly past his breakaway companion to land the first coup of his career.

"I'm overwhelmed! I cannot express exactly how I feel. I won a stage at the Tour de France, a mountains stage! I'm so exhausted but so happy. I think it takes some time to realize what I've accomplished today".

Duran, who secured the team its second stage win in this year's Tour de France, had another hard day on Tuesday. But this time he fought far behind the main field to stay in contact with the gruppetto. He already lost contact at the climb up Col de Peyresourde only a few km into the stage, and was immediately surrounded by teammates, who helped him trying to keep in touch with the bunch. After struggling up Col d'Aspin and Col du Tourmalet they finally reached the main gruppetto, with whom they finished the queens stage of the Pyrenees 26 minutes behind the winner, safely inside the time limit.

The team now welcomes the second rest day before tackling the final few days of what is already the most successful Tour de France in the team's history.

[Luna]

Pablo makes it 2
Escobar beats Pelirhyn at Col du Tourmalet

Pablo Escobar won his 2nd mountain top finish in the Tour de France at the Col du Tourmalet on Wednesday, outsprinting Andrei Pelirhyn from Renault Magnum in a close head to head race.

Escobar shares a special rivalry with the Moldovan. Pelirhyn and Escobar are both strong climbers and oftenly favourites for winning at a mountain summit. But they usually have different approaches to the races. While the Columbian tends to voluntarily take responsibility and send his riders to the front of the peloton, controling things, Pelirhyn uses to wait and see, preferring to let other teams make the work, then showing up in the finale to torture Pablo through setting a high pace before the final climb. Both already met in the Giro d'Italia, where Pelirhyn managed to win two stages with his tactics, also due to the fact that Team LunaLounge had more an eye to the overall classification rather than on stage wins, thus winning not a single stage. At the Tour de France Pablo aimed to bounce back and beat his antagonist wherever possible.

And his plan seemed to work out. At stage 9 to Morzine/Avoriaz the Columbian leaned back and told the team to keep cool. That way he forced Renault Magnum into the work, at least in the second half of the race. In the end Escobar took the win, thanks to a misplaced attack of Pelirhyn at the final climb. So it was 1-0.

At the stage to Mende Pablo unfortunately wasn't so calm. He won there at Paris-Nice this year and so felt confident to win there again. It was a little blow for him and the team to have worked all day and see Pelirhyn winning in a superior manner. "That was more than needless. I already had one win to my account. I don't know how I could come to the decision to lead him all the way to his stage win. That was embarrassing. They did nothing. We did everything. He won, I finished 5th. No problem to not have won there. But couldn't we have leave the work to them? That was mortifying", Escobar was disappointed after the stage. 1-1.

But the showdown was on Wednesday's stage 18. "I felt strong, very strong. That was the stage I had selected for myself prior to the Tour. I was sure I would be the strongest at the Tourmalet. So I didn't look at the others and made sure that the escapees were reeled in in time for making the duel between us happen". From the beginning of the ascend both kept watching each other constantly, while the group of favourites was led by Team Ruhrgebiet and Astana. 7km from the finish Escobar launched his attack and was only followed by Pelirhyn. The two quickly opened up a comfortable gap and it was clear the win would be fought out between them. "First I felt a bit uneasy about him following my attack. I didn't necessarily expected him to keep up with me, as I thought he would be more tired in the final week of the Tour. But I quickly adapted to the situation and was ready to let it come down to a two-man sprint at the top." There was only one little moment of hesitation, when 3km from the line the Moldovan indicated to stop pulling. But he started again taking turns after Escobar defiantly threatened to sit up and let them be caught by their chasers. The duo reached the finish 16 seconds ahead of Team Gismo's Jan Böttcher and it was the Columbian, who proudly raised his arms into the air after winning the sprint with only a very small margin. "That was close! I am delighted. I needed this win very much, more than that of Morzine. It was necessary to beat him at least once in a direct duel and as a repayment for the disgrace of the stage to Mende. Now I am eminently contend with my Tour."

After all Escobar won 2-1 over Pelirhyn and he will finish ahead of him in the overall classification (Escobar 6th, Pelirhyn 8th). The 2010 Giro d'Italia podium finisher is the first Luna rider to have won more than one stage at the Tour de France. He also scored the team's best overall result at the Tour so far, bettering Rodrigo Escobar's 9th place from 2008.

[Luna]

First stage race overall success for younger Escobar
Pablo wins Vuelta a Burgos

For the first time in his career Columbian Pablo Escobar won the overall title in a stage race when he wrapped up the Vuelta a Burgos with his 2nd stage win in a row on Sunday. The 32-year-old Giro d'Italia podium finisher and Tour de France double stage winner took profit of a strong team performance at the 21km team time trial at the third day. Ranked 5th, 1:06 minutes behind the winning team, the Luna boys managed to limit the losses over flo teamX (2nd, +0:20) and - more important - finish 21 seconds faster than Astana with team leader Rafael Serrano.

It was the Spaniard from Astana, who beat Escobar in a 2-man-sprint the day before, when the stage finished on a little rise in Miranda de Ebro. Serrano also got into the overall race lead and not only from then on was considered as one of Escobars main rivals for the general classification. From that point of view finishing ahead of Astana at the ttt was a big step for Pablo towards winning the Vuelta a Burgos. The key role in the ttt was played by time trial specialist William Pousson, who was seen in front of the squad for most of the time.

Surprisingly, at the 4th day Pablo took the stage win when he overcame favourites Pedro Merino (Astana) and eventual points classification winner Jaco Ysaye from Quick-Step in the sprint out of a select group of 20 riders, that formed 10km from the finish. The 20 seconds time bonus catapulted him to 2nd position in the gc, 5 seconds behind flo teamX' Floflo Dup.

At the start of stage 5 with the mountain top finish near Lagunas de Neila it was clear that the Vuelta would be won if Escobar would reach the final climb in the same group as Serrano. And that was what happened... and even better: Pablo escaped the main group 4km from the finish and was trailed by Serrano by seconds. After a hunt of 3km the Astana climber caught up with the Columbian under the 1-km-mark. But this time it was the Luna captain who had the better legs for the sprint, getting his second consecutive stage win and sealing the overall win, ahead of Serrano and Floflo Dup.

"I'm glad to finally have won a stage race. But I know it wouldn't have worked out without my team and my brother Ruben. This time everybody rode exclusively for me. No sprinter for the flat stages, no breakaway attempts. Only my gc campaign and my challanges for winning stages. That was a nice experience. I'm very proud of the boys. We came to Burgos right after a difficult race in hot Nigeria the day before. Most of the riders were still exhausted at the first day. But fortunately we recovered well on the flattish first stage. They did an amazing job in the ttt, what laid the basis for this success. Also at the two stages with an uphill finish I could rely on them. They all sacrificed themselves for me. I'm proud of beeing part of this team. And I'm happy that they got their podium time after also winning the teams competition. In the finales I felt very secure having my brother Ruben by my side again. On each stage he was there for me until I raised my attacks. Also the Vietnamese again rode a solid race. What a luck we brought him to the team at the beginning of the year. His services have been essential since then"

Also Pablos elder brother Ruben, who additionally finished at rank 5 overall, shared his joy about his brother's success to the media. "That's great. In the past Pablo helped me win the Critérium International as well as the Giro del Trentino, although he had his own chances there of winning stages or achieving a good gc result. I've always waited for an opportunity to give him something back. So I gave it my best here at Burgos. It's not sure if we will ever ride side by side in a stage race. We're both getting older. A start at the Vuelta a Espana is everything but sure. Maybe I'll retire at the end of the season. I don't know if he would continue without me. But I hope he still can get some wins to his account."

After 2006 and 2008 it was Team LunaLounge's 3rd participation in the Vuelta a Burgos. The best gc results so far have been 7th place by Carlos Escobar ('06) and 16th by Zak Thompson ('08), with no Luna rider having won any stages.

[Luna]

Time trialist assumes overall lead at Limousin
Pousson dominates race against the clock


Columbian time trial specialist William Pousson scored his first ever professional win today by setting the fastest time in the individual time trial of the Tour du Limousin's 2nd stage in Saint-Amand-Montrond. He completed the 45 km course 10 seconds faster than Cuban Manuel Cardenas (the RIDERS), who took over the best young riders jersey. enviaM-Sport's Japanese Haruto Kobayashi finished 18 seconds down on 3rd place.

"I'm so glad I finally won a race. I'm already 31 and I knew my time was slowly running out. The fear was there to end my career without a single win. At the beginning of this season I sat together with team and managers to plan the racing schedules. They wanted to ride the ENECO tour, but I requested to go to Limousin, as I know it would have been very difficult for me o win something in Benelux. Only the best riders are competing in the Pro Tour event. So this was my only chance to shine. I'm very thankful for their understanding and the trust they put in me. The whole team changed their schedule for me and I'm happy to pay it back with a win."

With his victory Pousson also moves into the overall race lead. For defending the jersey the team will have to rely on the help of The Riders as well as EnviaM-sport. Those three teams are expected to join forces at tomorrows difficult 186 km stage from Uzerche to Mansac in order to try to keep the losses over the much stronger climbers in the peloton within limits. While fighting for each second against Cardenas and Kobayashim he simultaneously has to watch Daan deBruyne (Equipe Benelux) and Mathias Hüberli (Racing Stars), who respectively sit 1:48 and 1:58 minutes back in the general classification. "It will be very hard tomorrow. I tried to save some energy so I didn't go full gas today. But nonetheless I'm a little groggy now. Definetely I will lose contact at some point. I hope the team will stand by my side to bring me back as often as possible. It would be good to keep my position in the overall or at least save the podium. I could as well drop to 10th position. But I will fight!".

[Luna]

Pousson loses lead, finishes in top ten
Vazquez misses opportunity to win final stage


After William Pousson claimed the leaders jersey at the time trial of the Tour de Limousin's 2nd stage, he lost it immidiately at the queens stage of the next day. The troika of teams the RIDERS, enviaM-Sport and LunaLounge lasted until Pousson and Cardenas (the RIDERS) lost contact halfway into the stage, while enviaM's Haruto Kobayashi was still able to follow one of the groups ahead. The Japanese envia captain managed to stay at third place in gc, but Pousson dropped to 8th. Cardenas fell behind even further and lost some more time at the final stage, while the Luna rider kept his top ten placing through the end of the race.

At the last day 34-year-old Silvano Vazquez made the move into the breakaway of the day, smartly anticipating that the group would make it until the finish line, as the team of the peloton's best sprinter, enviaM, used all its energy to work for their gc leader the day before. Although also Vazquez started a bit tired into the final run, he still was considered the strongest rider of the 4 man breakaway. But due to a moment of nonattention he had to watch Gustavo Vives Palles (the RIDERS) bounce away 2km from the finish and stealing the stage win from Vazquez who had to settle for second place.

Despite the missed chance of a second stage win, the 4 day Tour du Limousin was a success for the team, winning the time trial with Pousson and leading him to a good gc result. Both are achievments, the Columbian never made before. On two occasions he came close to winning a stage. He got 2nd at the races against the clock in the Critérium International as well as in the prologue of this year's Giro d'Italia, but never felt the responsibility of being the team leader for the general classification as he was in the Limousin.

[Luna]

Transfer period open
Team frees Umwerfer, hires Shawn Williams


As the season's end moves closer, Team LunaLounge is planning its composition for the future. Several riders, key players and domestiques, are getting old and are close to retirement. A first step to rebuild the squad has been made last night thru the hiring of Shawn Williams.

Williams, 29, hails from the United States. He has the profile of a classics rider and thereby is planned to replace Vietnamese Khoi Nguyen, who has been the last man for one or both of the Escobar brothers in the alpine stages of the Tours of Italy and France and wherever they have been at the start. Nguyen is now 33 and is expected to quit the sport at any time in the next few weeks.

However, the US citizen is not exactly of the same style as Nguyen. He is more a attacking rider, like he has proven before when winning the GP de Mayotte (cat.1) and the mountains jersey of the 5-Länder-Tour (cat.1), both during his commitment with Team NetApp, the successor of Team Hettstadt. With those attributes he brings some sort of dynamics to the team, considering the fact that with Nguyen the team wasn't able to make an impact to the classic one day races. Given the ability of also riding for himself, he would be still of use when Ruben and Pablo Escobar would leave the team in the coming months.

Especially during their maybe short period of co-existance, Nguyen and Williams could well take profit of each other, since Nguyen still lacks an individual success, whereas Williams on the other side could play both roles, attacking or staying with the Vietnamese in the finale of a race.

Williams turned professional at the age of 21 in December 2009 with team RS Coesitz, where he received his basic education in high level cycling. After he left his first team 3 months later he was caught in some misunderstandings and short time employments with several small teams, before he temporarily found a home at Team Hettstadt/Team NetApp, where he scored his first and only wins so far. But despite his victories his contract wasn't renewed after 2 months. However, thanks to his performances he attracted the attention of the somewhat bigger teams and landed a contract with the french outfit Saxo Banc, where he stayed for another one season. Following his departure there he spent one month without contract before his agent convinced the Luna scouts of his abilities of racing his bike at the top divisions in RSF cycling.

Umwerfer gone

With the same time of Williams' arrival the team parts ways with Harald Umwerfer, who ends his career. The 34-year-old Austrian has been the squad's only rider from European main-land for many seasons and leaves Team LunaLounge without a single representative of his continent.

Umwerfer was an important factor for the wins of the team time trial stages at the Tour du Jura '09, where he also wore the young riders jersey for one day, and the Tour of Southland one month later, where he even got to wear the leaders jersey. Both performances helped the team achieving 2nd place overall with one of the Escobar brothers, Pablo in Jura and Ruben in Southland. He also contributed to winning the teams competitions of the Critérium du Dauphiné '10 and the Vuelta a Burgos some weeks ago.

On individual level he scored numerous top 20 results in the time trials. The top of it being 10th place in the prologue of the Campeonato de los Andes in November '09. But his biggest success he achieved at the 2010 Paris - Nice stage race, where he ranked 7th at stage 6 after being a part of a breakaway group that went through to the finish.

The Austrian is also proud of having finished both, Giro d'Italia and Tour de France. At the Giro he helped team leaders Pablo and Ruben Escobar to 2nd and 8th place overall, mainly by contributing to the 3rd place in the team time trial at the 4th day. He also had his share in finishing the Giro's team competition at 2nd place. At the Tour de France he was even able to find entry into the record books by himself, with scoring 16th and 12th place at the prologue and the ITT at the penultimate day, respectively.


Further planning

Next riders to leave the team are much likely the former mentioned Khoi Nguyen, cobble specialist Lucas Fairbrother and the elder Escobar brother, Ruben. While Escobar will definitely not be sold before September 1st, the two other riders could be possibly set free on short-term in case the team is offered an interesting rider for the next season.

The contract of 38-year-old capitain de la route Charles Buccaneer is likely to be extended for another season. The Barbadian is not only a valuable team member in terms of passing on his experience to his younger team mates, but he is also still a competitive rider, especially on flat terrain.

[Luna]

Druivenkoers Overijse
Young Chris Butler battles rain and breakaway companions


22-year old Cristopher Butler got to his first race win yesterday after a long and wet breakaway ride through Flemish Brabant, Flanders, Belgium. The US rider formed part of a 5 man escape group, that rode at the head of the field for the whole day. While the escapees fearlessly defied the unfavourable weather conditions the peloton hesitated long to pick up the pace through heavy rains and thunderstorms. Halfway of the 200km ride the time gap was over 14 minutes. However, as the chase became more severe the advantage dropped massively until another group emerged out of the peloton 37km from the finish, containing 2 riders from Los Galacticos and one of each, Hundi and El Pablo. It was only thanks to their disagreement they didn't made it across to the front, while in the main field it became clear that they wouldn't make the mass sprint happen.

Butler outsprinted Bearclaw' Marko Tarkkala, who just had a very good Eneco Tour, and Gabriel Santillo (Adler). For Santillo the Druivenkoers was the very last race as a professional and he was accordingly motivated to finish the race in the front group. Although being the better sprinter on paper he was too exhausted in the end to come past Butler and Tarkkala. Björn Ingi Ljosmyndari (LibertySeguros) even didn't contested the group sprint and settled for forth. Felipe Garrido from Los Galacticos originally completed the 5 man break, but dropped back to his team mates after they lifted their attack at the beginning of the 5th of eight final laps of the 10km finishing circuit.

"That's amazing! There was no single moment during the race when I thought I could win this. It was very difficult to claim a place in the escape today. I had to put in a big effort to stay clear in the beginning, while behind me it re-shuffled many times before the rest of the group was finally compiled, so I could wait for them to move up. I was already tired before the escape had really started. Later in the race we could afford to take it very easy a few km. But I was still not sure to have something left for the finale of the race. The weather was really bad!

"In the last two laps I learned from behind that more and more sprinters couldn't keep up with the main field. I got the order to stop taking turns after the last hill with 7km to go, since the chances in a bunch sprint had risen considerably for Duran. I thought, well, I would have been totally dead in the next few minutes, anyway. So saving energy was defenitely not the worst idea. I expected the group to perish soon after, but the guy from Adler just refused to give up. The last two or three km he pulled completely on his own.

"I only watched Tarkkala, as I gauged him the freshest of us. When he made his move 400m from the line, i simply followed. We came past Santillo. He briefly tried to accelerate, but then sat up. That was when I actually saw my chance, for the first time in the race. When Tarkkala started to slow down I went out and just gave it all i had. I am delighted", Butler said after the race.

After the chase group had been swallowed in the final lap, the remainder of the peloton only sprinted for 5th place. In deed Federico Duran had a good stand in the bunch gallop and finished 6th, only beaten by Ottmar Hasler (RSV Cottbus).