Tour de France 2013 15h

[Robyklebt]

Time to open the thread instead of designing... lack of motivation, maybe this helps.
The ape will start in the afternoon, last time I checked seemed to be 16h the planned time? No idea if still the case, but anyway, let's suppose it is 16h.

The team:

Early preselection:
- Patricio Bochini
- Nicola Buttu
- Gao Daquan
- Primoz Groselj
- Fariborz Mollagholipour
- Rakhat Momyshuly
- Narcisse Arsène de Pellevoisin
- Hanspeter Peterhans
- Pompiliu Scodreanu
- Daiken Sekiguchi
- Abel Tasman
- Michele Trapani
- Victor Villa
- Coolboy Zibi

So 14 out of the 19 riders in the team. Easier to write down the 5 guys who won't be there, they even get to comment!
-Romulus Avranescu: I'm disappointed, my time trial skill could have helped a lot in the team time trial. I don't think I disappointed in my races so far, always did my job. Now I'm seriously thinking about joining my younger twin Remus at NoPikouze. It seems the manager there appreciates the qualities of an Avranescu!
-Whitcliff Ford: 1 month too early Monsieur Singe told me. I think I'm ready for the big stage, but I realize that with Peterhans and Mollathing we have more experienced riders that have similar strenghts to mine, so that's ok. My goals are more the cobblestone races anyway.
- Tatsuya Hara: I wouldo have been a goodo solushon tsu keepu za salary down. But I thinku za Tsour de Fransu wouldo have been too hardo for me. I needo tsu geto stronga!
- Nicolas Legrand: C'est scandaleux. Je comprends que je ne suis plus jeune, que mes chances de participer au tour cette année ne sont pas trop bonnes, mais de même pas m'inclure dans la liste des pré selectionnés? Quelle insulte. L'équipe peut soumettre 15 coureurs, Monsieur Singe décide de soumettre que 14. Mais sans mon nom, on avait encore 1 place libre. C'est quand même insultant. Si je suis pas selectionné pour une des 9 places, je le comprends, mais même pas dans cette liste? Quel fumier ce Singe.
- Gaspard Trenteseaux: Ben, le tour passe pas en Belgique cette année, alors je m'en fou un peu du tour. Je serais près pour la Doyenne, c'est ça qui compte pour les vrais amateurs du cyclisme.

Anyway, it seems the 5 guys who won't start for sure all took the decision well, I'm confident the other 5 who won't start in Corsica in 10 or so days will take it as well.
-

[sylvainmeteo]

Maybe there, maybe in the morning ^^ I wait start times ^^

[team fl]

16h? would mean morning for me then....

[Robyklebt]

It seems it will be 15h, at least that's what Leso posted in the TdF thread. Or some other thread.

In the meantime the ape selection has been done:

1 R. Momyshuly: His fantastic performances in June showed that he is ready to lead the team at the Tour. His goal this time around won't only be stage wins, but also the GC
2 P. Bochini: He will be there to support Rakhat and Abel as long as possible, and in the flat stages work for Gao
3 D. Gao: Sprint time. There should be 7 sprints, his goal is to win at least one.
4 P. Groselj: Here to learn, the number 2 in the team, will stay with Rakhat as long as possible, and support him until it's time for the Kazakh to do his thing.
5 F. Mollagholipour: The man for the last kilometers in sprint stages.
6 N. de Pellevoisin: The capitaine de route, he'll certainly try to get into an escape or 2 as well, but like for Bochini, the most important part of his job will be to protect the different leaders
7 P. Scodreanu: Here as a support rider, for Gao in sprints, for Tasman in hillier terrain, for the climbers in the mountains.
8 A. Tasman: There to win in hillier stages, and to protect Rakhat in the mountains as long as possible
9 C. Zibi: Will lead the team in the team time trial, after that will share helping and possibly attacking duties with Bochini and de Pellevoisin.

2 other riders will join the team in Corsica, in case one of the riders above is ruled out at the last moment by an injury, another health problem or a positive doping control.

Those 2 are:
- Nicola Buttu: Who would most likely come in for anybody with over 55 in the mountain dropping out, and would roughly have the same rola as Bochini in the team
- Victor Villa: The man for the sprints if something happens to Gao.

We'll have comments by these 11 riders later this week, when they arrive in Porto Vecchio, which will happen on Wednesday at 14h21. Some of them will be required to leave Corsica for some other races of course. For the moment just some comments by the 3 riders that definetly won't start:

- Hanspeter Peterhans: I hoped to be there, but I'm aware that Fariborz just passes the hills better than me, so he was a more obvious choice. I hope to be able to ride some other Pro Tour races later on in the year, I'll spend the 3 weeks in Bad Ragaz, training with Hugo Ma.. Mar.tini! A coach the team will hire for us during the Tour.
- Daiken Sekiguchi: It was pretty clear that the Tour would be for Pompiliu and Abel. I still think Nicolas and me were the better choice actually, but not up to me to decide. Petit Singe told me after our last medical tests that I was losing watts, so wouldn't start at the Tour, if he claims so... ok. Basically our career now is over, we'll go to the training camp in Bad Ragaz and wait. Maybe we'll still ride some races after the Tour, maybe we'll officially retire during the Tour, don't know, we'll see.
- Michele Trapani: I stil feel fine, and showed during the Tour de Suisse that I'm there. With Rakhat I could have done a good result, we showed how well we work together repeatedly over the last months. But I understand that we want to give experience to Primoz, who is really talented, he'll have a great career, pretty sure. Disappointed? Not really, I never really planned to ride the Tour, so that's ok. Retiring? I'm in the same situation as Nicolas and Daiken, hang around in Bad Ragaz with Hugo and the others, not much training for me going on there, then we'll see. San Sebastian or maybe I'll retire before that.

[luques]

Luques Team announced today that will take part to TdF 2013!

First time in the history of this little team.

A press conference will be held on Friday 06-28, the day before the start of the tour, where we will give more details.

But for those who are curious here is the starting list (not the final):

Starting List:

Mario Esteban: The leader of the team, we expect much from him this tour. He already started well the month with 3 victory at Dauphiné.
Ernesto Costa: A good helper for Mario, can be a treat in hilly stages
Pablo Mansilla: Another good man for hilly stages, good sprinter, bought recently will have to show what he can do
Kevin Bulloch: A young flat skilled helper, let's see how he will improve during the TdF
Mauro Ciccio: Our sprinter, still he has to find the first victory with us... will it happen at the TdF?
Jyrki Vilen: An incredible finnish rider, he is always struggling, don't be surprised to see him in a breakaway or in some crazy actions
Maxim Alexeev: A russian rider, ehm... you ever met a russian? so you know what to expect
Alexandru Golban: He is our time trialist, not the best in the world but he will need to do a great job on the team time trial.
Joel Blacklow: Another young, will help Ciccio with Bulloch.

More details on Friday...

[team fl]

Team FL most likely here. The team management has not decided yet with which line-up the LIechtenstein cycling team will attend. Many options to chose from:

Climbers:

Eddie Sixpence and/or Roy Liechtenstein

Classic riders:

Stefano Benni, Stéphane Antiga and/or Jan Flachbart

Helpers:

Victor Fargas and Tomasz Kowalski almost sure

Henri Bienvenu and/or Kenny Banzer for the flat

Benni Büchel for the TTT

Sprinters:

Joe Friesenbichler and/or Martti Rosenblatt

could lead to this:

x1 Eddie Sixpence
x2 Roy Lichtenstein
x3 Stéphane Antiga
x4 Stefano Benni
x5 Henri Bienvenu / Kenny Banzer
x6 Victor Fargas
x7 Jan Flachbart
x8 Joe Friesenbichler
x9 Martti Rosenblatt

or this:

x1 Eddie Sixpence / Roy Lichtenstein
x2 Stéphane Antiga
x3 Kenny Banzer
x4 Stefano Benni
x5 Henri Bienvenu
x6 Victor Fargas
x7 Jan Flachbart
x8 Joe Friesenbichler
x9 Martti Rosenblatt

[sylvainmeteo]

I think I would start here likely...

1) Matt, the climber who doesn't want to train...
2) Erik, the super classic guy
3) Shane, our classic with sprint OR Laszlo, our super young classic
4) Pavol, our great 60/85
5) Gergely, the escape hunter
6) Brandon, the powerful flat guy with sprint
7) Arvydas, the flat guy with reg
8) Sowerby, the little TT guy
9) Brad, our semi hill sprinter

510k with Shane, 494k with Laszlo

Still don't know which guy to choose between these 2 good classics (Laszlo is the only 72/80 inthe game with 24 years)

EDIT : after seeing all the profiles, I think I'll go for the Laszlo option

[luques]

A little preview of the press conference of my team (Full URL viewtopic.php?f=44&t=3743&p=72150#p72150 in Italian, the one on rest day will be more 'funny'):

G: First Tour, much inexperience, what is your objective?
We have clear goals, Mario must enter in Top 10, even if it won't be easy. For Ciccio it is important to take the first victory and if this will led to the sprinters shirt, why not? Anyway we look for a stage win, you will see us ofter in the escape or in long attacks!

G: Many good managers at the start, Singe, FL, SM who you fear? What is your thinking about the final result?
Obviously we don't fear no one, otherwise we wouldn't start the Tour! As the favo thing... For the GC I see favo the FL-Climber-Duo that already do well in the Giro, also Singe has some great climbers. Anyway Mario is always present to make an attack and win!

Friday the Official Starting List.

[gaurain rx]

So, if I start Giro, it will be more likely at 15!

1. Georg Preidler : Gc leader. He wants to win, that's it!
2. Yannick Frognet : He's really excited to ride here. He was on fire on tdf preparation races!
3. Patrick Ledigé : Second young classic. Can still improve during the Tour, I hope;
4. Xavier Lemembré : Young classic. Trained quite good so he's in. Just unhappy there won't be any cobble this year;
5. Marisse Lopard : Last big event for the 33 years old Marissa. She will bring her experience to the newbies!
6. Tom Seeldrayers : The young puppil from Uni team prooved us he deserves a place in the lineup!
7. Charles Timonier : Classic helper. In trio with Tom and Xavier, it might work quite good.

Last places for Maréchal, Petitjean, Verne and De roy! Reg guy and sprinter in best position to get them but who knows!

[Pokemon Club]

So, if I start Giro, it will be more likely at 15!

You talk about Giro 2014 ? hihi

[team fl]

I already see some funny inscriptions:

- Quickstep: quite new team (187 races) with four riders for a sprint train (72 with 76 flat, 72, 85, 89) and only one rider over 80 flat.

- Saxo-Bank -tinkof: Div. 7 team with 20 races.

- Red Wine: TTT team with one strong leader (85 Mountain) and three classic riders over 60 sprint.

- Recien Nacidos: 3 riders over 80 mountain with former r Quick rider Melotte (88 mountain, 61 sprint) as leader. only one rider with 80 (or more) flat.


I really don't know, if I can take three frustrating weeks with sitter searching and dealing with other stupid situations. Have to rethink my inscription until tomorrow.

[Robyklebt]

No no, no rethinking!

The sprint parasite is newish... don't think I know him.. mmh, probably I do, but will be simple... either he rides for the sprint early and then others help with the end or.... or... with max 89 he is not unbeatable, even if that should be the best train around.
20 races guy? More often than not the newbies don't destroy races....
Red Wine. What's the problem? He gains time in TTT, then has to defend it in the mountains, there I don't even see the problem.
Recien? He'll most likely be offline as usual, try some team time trials when he's on, and have fun with the german language..

Mention to cool guys:
- SM, who will drive you crazy for 3 weeks with his chat idiocies.
- Ape, who will heat the water, when he really needs it
- Luques, who seems relaxed enough, even though he plays chess.
- Maybe Gaurain, who will be unhappy about lots of things, lots of the time
- Maybe Bergwerk who will drive you ultracrazy by not understanding the most simple concepts.


But ok, my riders gave short statements to the press today:

1 Rakhat Momyshuly: I'm ready. Stages? Won't be easy, can't expect that it works like in June every month, but I feel good, not afraid of anybody. The GC, same deal, I see no reason why not to believe in my chances. Of course Trapani here would have helped me a lot. But Groselj is talented.
2 Patricio Bochini: I'm happy to start here of course. I think I did good races in June, no win unlike Buttu, but did well enough. Here I will be helping Rakhat, Abel and Gao mostly, but if there is a possibility to go in escapes, I'll try to get the right one
3 Gao Daoquan: I'm aware that so far my career hasn't been that great, I know I'll have to deliver here. It looks like there will be a fairly big number of good sprinters, but regardless of the opponents, I will have to deliver here. I hope to bring 2 wins home.
4 Primoz Groselj: In a way it would have been better for the team to bring Trapani, I know that. But Trapani never really seemed to eager to do the Tour, so I'm more than happy to start my first GT here. Ideal of course would have benn all 3 of us. White? I don't think I can compete for the white jersey, and it's not really a goal anyway. I was very happy to win it at home in Slovenia, but at the tour a stage or more for Rakhat is more important than the white jersey. I'm here to learn as I said, but of course I'll try to do as well as possible anyway.
5 Fariborz Mollagholipour: After the Giro, I'm not that impressed with the build up here so far. A lot of show, not much heart. My job? Here we'll have Gao, so often I will have to protect him, going for sprints.
6 Narcisse Arsène de Pellevoisin: Of course I'm happy to start at the Tour, I'm french after all. The goals? Personnally would be nice to get a stage of course. For the team... stages with Gao, Momyshuly, and GC with Momyshuly are our main goals.
7 Pompiliu Scodreanu: Well... I think I deserve to be here, don't understand Sekiguchis criticism. At this point I'm 3 times the rider he is. And 10 times the human being. I had no problems riding for him, I never criticized selections or team orders when I wasn't nominated or had to ride for others. Like here, I'll mostly ride for Tasman or help our climbers, that's normal, they have better chances to win than me. And I'm better at helping them than Sekiguchi would have been. So of course I'm here and he isn't.
8 Abel Tasman: The goal of course is a stage win. But I won't have that many chances, the Giro was a better parcours for me. But didn't win anything there, so maybe it will work better here? Gao and a train? We'll see from day to day. Gao is pretty good at getting his own wheels, but of course having a train doesn't hurt him either, so we'll see from day to day, sprint to sprint about how to do the final sprint.
9 Coolboy Zibi: I'm pretty excited, hope it gets hotter. The Giro with it's freezing temperatures wasn't really for me, I bring my best in the heat, so I look forward to this. The TTT, Romulus would have been a good help there, yes, but we'll do allright without him too. For the rest... a good TT later on, then mostly helping and maybe I can get into an attack too? We'll see.

[team fl]

Well I guess I will just be there and try to be happy. Line-up is pretty fix now:

x1 Eddie Sixpence, Changed No. 2 for 1 with Roy
x2 Roy Lichtenstein, see above
x3 Stéphane Antiga, if you have a French guy, you have to bring him at the tour
x4 Stefano Benni, the old man, still waiting for his 20th stage win.
x5 Victor Fargas, the man for everything. Helper and free to go for stages if possible
x6 Jan Flachbart, good for the TTT and for hilly stages. Nice reg, will be a good guy for the Tour.
x7 Joe Friesenbichler, the sprinter. A bit weak for the mountains, but we have nothing else.
x8 Tomasz Kowalski, the ITT and TTT guy. And a good helper for all other stages
x9 Martti Rosenblatt / Kenny Banzer / Henri Bienvenu. Not sure which of the three of them I should bring. Rosenblatt for sprints and trains, Banzer or Bienvenu for helping and flat. hm....

Salary will be incredibly high with over 550k. But the team management doesn't care. Not about anything. Why two climbers? Because we can. Because Roy is good for hilly stages too, because two is more than one.

[Recien Nacido]

bin dabei Team stellt sich selbst auf . Gehalt wird bei 550k in etwa liegen . Ziele hm hm schwer zu sagen ma schaun wer am ende dabei sein wird.

[sylvainmeteo]

Don't like that Nool...

[Robyklebt]

Good I wasn't here today. Otherwise I very very likely woul have kicked Tasman for Trapani before the race. Thanks for the sitting for Poke (I guess). First sprint no win, as expected, next one Gao will convince everyone.

[sylvainmeteo]

Yep, Deroy and derNeunte with good form, no chance for Brad today as I expected, Brad get 3rd and the most strange thing was derNeunte beat Brad at the intermediate with a 50m sprint...

Tomorrow will be interesting, after tomorrow even more

[luques]

Little recap for those who weren't there:

All really calm and quiet, luques attack for the gpm... saxotinkof tried for the stage but was not so much convinced!

At the end of the sprint a little problem between Costa and Ciccio so didn't take the right wheel and ended only 5th behind the other sprinters...

Funny group anyway

The beginning of the mountain stage will change many things, now good yellow for gaurain!

[gaurain rx]

Well, first stage and really really not a lot to say.

No escapers, luques only went for an uncontested red, then intersprint with only Friesi, Derneunte and Keselowski sprinting for some green points! A little attack by saxo at one point, but never dangerous, colaboration of 5 teams (on 8 online) to get a ms so it was easy!

Then sprint... Interesting that everybody (except me) tried it with his own train... And that finally my little deroy dominated the rest (after fantastic last 50m)! So well, Yellow/Green, exactly what I did not wanted for today's stage! Even if I'm the man of first stage and I have to admit that Deroy's form was set for such an event!

Imo, this tour can be quite interesting, with Recien already provocating (me) even before the start of the stage :

But let's do a fav' review :

1. Gaurain will clearly go for Preidler. Strong leader of course with a team almost only devoted for him (and 5%for De roy). Little lack in TTT comparing with the other countenders but for the rest (individually and team speaking), he's the most complete countender.

2. Recien has Melotte, who can be a good leader... He has 2 climbers to help him (one with downhill, one with Flat), one great classic, a quite good and homogen TT team and hill team (second weakest has 59 hill). Problem could be the reg of the climbers and also from the usefull helpers (where flat is also weak). But with his way of riding, recien will be quite dangerous!

3. Luques has Mario Esteban. 87 moutain with good donwhill, lack of reg and TT. His team is a bit weak, which means he won't be able to try big moves, but he could profit from the rivality of the others, follow and then counters! That would be a perfect position for him!

4. Singe with Rakhat Momyshuli and Primosz Groselj. Groselj is fav' for white jersey (as seeldrayers will most likely ride for Preidler). And then the rakhat guy... But ok, I finish later ^^

[Robyklebt]

Recien provoking, bah, I missed that, grrr
Anyway, good I wasn't there, otherwise I very very very likely would have kicked Tasman and brought Trapani.... since the idea occurred to me I liked it better and better, 3 climbers, mmhhh, what do I have them for? But somehow don't think would really have improved my team.... so better like that.

9 teams only, sucks though.

[Robyklebt]

Luques wins, Poke got the sitting win on the wrong day, grrrr
Otherwise not much happening, mini escape, Saxo tinkoff whatever with weird escaping tactics. Ok that he has less mountain, ok not to ride then... but sprinting at 250 at the intermediate, 50 would have done it... so dropped by Narcisse and some Red Wine... Narcisse twice lucky, thought ok, then let's sprint at the last GPM, get the ugly peas.
SM riding for his sprinter today, he is weird.... 95% it doesn't work. And didn't. FL offline, only app, so couldn't do much... sprint he had the right wheel, but very likely couldn't make this guy sprint, still second. Wilcox, red wine with a horrible sprint, almost managed to lose yellow, one mountain point he got by chance on the cat 2 saved it.
Tomorrow should be similar, but probably the group at the end will be smaller, good chances fewer classics will be there. We might get a new yellow too. 2 jerseys for apes, maillot a pois and maillot blanc... I rather win a stage sooner or later, but for the moment I'm ok with some minor jerseys.

[luques]

Ok not much to say!

Only a new Big Thank You to Poke! and a Big Sorry for you guys for not being there! but i am sure that with poke was exciting the same

Now i go drink with Pablo after the victory

Tomorrow looks much more difficult for my team and with Benni online would not be easy but we are still confident to make a great TdF.

See you tomorrow!

[team fl]

GW to Luques. Although I would have liked a stage win too, I am not unhappy that it didn't work out. Would have been a bit undeserved, although esp. Martti Rosenblatt worked a lot yesterday .

I don't know why, but in the end, I could not set the sprint from following to a any distance (450m, ..., 50m). I just could not chose it. Everytime I had to leave the app completely after it got stuck in the list of the sprint distances. Anyway, I could not have chanced anything anyway, as I had to leave the race 3km before the end. I just hope I don't have to do this a lot during this tour. But this week-end it will be even worse: FR - SU I will not be able to play myself. I hope that it was not a big mistake to inscribe...

But now, let's have a look at the positive things: Most probably I will be able to ride myself today, over a PC, weeee!

[sylvainmeteo]

Nice win Quickstep, nobody interessed on the stage today

Nice day for me with green now

[luques]

Today not many energy to spend because tomorrow important team time trial, but we get some good tips regarding the form of some riders on the last hill.

Rakhat and Adams didn't follow, Adams also lose some time but i think he will get back tomorrow.

For my team, some work, we know that Benni was the favo but we still have some hope with Pablo, when he went in the group with the leader of Redwine we didn't want to take him back and so bye bye Pablo , but he will have other chances!

Mario demonstrate today to have a good form and be in a good shape, he didn't lose the wheel of the best climbers.

Tomorrow the gc will be defined better, we need a miracle if we want to remain on top of gc seen our time trial skills