[Francis Cebedo]

Man, what happened to cycling.tv? It blacked out on me with two minutes to go. Anybody else?

---------

Results


Provisional
1 Joan Horrach Rippoll (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears 3.55.53
2 Addy Engels (Ned) Quick Step-Innergetic 0.05
3 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
4 Manuele Mori (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir
5 Fortunato Baliani (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare
6 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Selle Italia-Serramenti Diquigiovanni
7 Sven Krauss (Ger) Gerolsteiner 1.03
8 Alberto Ongarato (Ita) Team Milram
9 Joerg Ludewig (Ger) T-Mobile Team
10 Manuel Beltran Martinez (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team
11 Patrick Calcagni (Swi) Liquigas 2.25
12 Jason McCartney (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 2.35

General classification after stage 12

1 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC
2 José E. Gutierrez Cataluna (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 2.48
3 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.26
4 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 4.17
5 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 5.38
6 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 6.37
7 Victor Hugo Pena Grisales (Col) Phonak Hearing Systems 6.54
8 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
9 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir 7.13
10 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas 7.33


16:46 CEST
Four leaders coming up to 1 km to go and Engels attacks. But Baliani and the rest mark him. Mori and Sella are almost back on too.
16:46 CEST
Horrach counters! Big attack, and that might be it.
16:47 CEST
Horrach gets a 50m gap and the rest stop chasing. But now there are five in pursuit. Caisse d'Epargne scores!
16:47 CEST 171km/0km to go
Joan Horrach celebrates as Engels takes second ahead of Sella, Mori, Baliani and Belli. Great finish.
16:52 CEST
Krauss beats Ongarato for seventh, then Ludewig and Beltran. Calcagni rolls across for 11th, then McCarty at 2'36. The peloton seems to have made it down the descent intact. Gonchar is not there, but Kessler and Ullrich are.
16:55 CEST
The bunch rolls in at 7'02, led by Bettini and Delage. That's going to move Sella up the GC to fourth, depending on when Gonchar comes in.
17:01 CEST
Gonchar has lost at least four minutes, so he's out of the top 10 on GC. Bad luck for the Ukrainian, who crashed earlier today and rode a great time trial yesterday.

But the honours of the day go to Joan Horrach (Caisse d'Epargne), who has given his team a much needed victory after coming close on a few occasions. The biggest change on GC was that Emanuele Sella moved up from 22nd to 4th, while Gonchar moved from third to a fair way down. Gonchar is 13'40 behind the winner, thus has lost 6'40 to the GC men today.

 

[Dwayne Barry]

Man, what happened to cycling.tv? It blacked out on me with two minutes to go. Anybody else?

I think it crashed for everyone, fitting given the difficulty Mori and Selle had on the descent.

 

[harlond]

I think it crashed for everyone, fitting given the difficulty Mori and Selle had on the descent.

Yes, today's lesson learned definitely seems to be stay off Mori's wheel.

I just read the CN live update, but what happened to Gonchar, and should Ullrich have waited to give him some help?

 

[weltyed]

i see the chicken didn't start today. not sure how he did in yesterday's ITT, but with all the crashes today it was a good thing he didnt ride.

 

[Jesse D Smith]

i see the chicken didn't start today. not sure how he did in yesterday's ITT, but with all the crashes today it was a good thing he didnt ride.

He finished in 108th place, about 6:30 off the pace, same time as Benoit Joachim of Disco. Not too bad. Perhaps he just wanted to do the TT and see how he has progressed.
One other observation, of the slowest twelve riders, four of them were Selle Italia riders.

 

[Francis Cebedo]

He finished in 108th place, about 6:30 off the pace, same time as Benoit Joachim of Disco. Not too bad. Perhaps he just wanted to do the TT and see how he has progressed.
One other observation, of the slowest twelve riders, four of them were Selle Italia riders.

What in the world are you talking about??

108th place is Sergei Gonchar. 'The Chicken' is Rasmussen, btw. And who cares about Joachim?? Gonchar just wanted to do the TT?

These are the slowest riders today. There's no Selle Italia:

165 Arnaud Labbe (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
166 Amael Moinard (Fra) Cofidis, le Credit par Telephone
167 Aaron Olson (USA) Saunier Duval-Prodir
168 Charles Wegelius (GBr) Liquigas
169 Carl Naibo (Fra) AG2R Prevoyance
170 Michael Rogers (Aus) T-Mobile Team
171 Yohann Gene (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
172 Ivan Mayoz (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
173 Yoann Le Boulanger (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
174 Sergiy Matveyev (Ukr) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 18.48
175 Andoni Aranaga Azkune (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
176 Giovanni Bernaudeau (Fra) Bouygues Telecom
177 Frantisek Rabon (Cze) T-Mobile Team
178 Cyrille Monnerais (Fra) Française des Jeux 18.56
179 Jason McCartney (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 21.49
DNF Mark Scanlon (Irl) AG2R Prevoyance
DNF Roberto Laiseka Jaio (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
DNS Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Française des Jeux
DNS Michael Rasmussen (Den) Rabobank
Sorry I had to reply. But your post gave me a dang headache

francois

</pre>

 

[Guest]

Hmm, Disco is fighting the good fight, 4 in the top 20 - too bad the time gaps are huge!


1 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 44.31.52
2 José E. Gutierrez Cataluna (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 2.48
3 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.26
4 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 4.21
5 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Selle Italia-Serramenti Diquigiovanni 5.31
6 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 5.38
7 Manuel Beltran Martinez (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 6.36
8 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 6.37
9 Victor Hugo Pena Grisales (Col) Phonak Hearing Systems 6.54
10 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
11 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir 7.13
12 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas 7.33
13 José Ivan Gutierrez Palacios (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears 8.17
14 José Luis Rubiera Vigil (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 8.28
15 Joan Horrach Rippoll (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears 8.37
16 Juan Manuel Garate (Spa) Quick Step-Innergetic 9.17
17 José Rujano Guillen (Ven) Selle Italia-Serramenti Diquigiovanni 9.19
18 Andrea Noe' (Ita) Liquigas 9.24
19 Francisco J. Vila Errandonea (Spa) Lampre-Fondital 9.43
20 Francesco Bellotti (Ita) Credit Agricole 9.44

 

[weltyed]

dude, take some aleve. i think he was answering my question about how the chicken did in the TT. he placed 109, just behind the disco rider. and he was talking about the selle italian riders in the TT, not today's race.

and i do think rasmussen was just in it to check his TT form. he has some pretty tough demons to shake. for someone who prefers to train alone and seems to be removed from his team, he doesnt ride well alone. must be the mtb background.

or the mechanics who are out to get him...

 

[Dwayne Barry]

Yes, today's lesson learned definitely seems to be stay off Mori's wheel.

I just read the CN live update, but what happened to Gonchar, and should Ullrich have waited to give him some help?

I guess either he was feeling the effects of his crash early in the stage and/or was just on a bad day and threw the towel in. Didn't he say after taking pink that he was really surprised he did it as he was there just to prepare for helping Ullrich win the Tour in July?

I don't know how much help anyone would have been to him and you've got to figure with all the mountains coming that his chances of holding any kind of high placing went out the window today. You would think if he wanted the help or a high GC was part of T-mobile's goals they would have sent Ullrich, Kessler etc. back to him. Afterall those guys can't possibly be concerned with their GC places.

 

[Francis Cebedo]

dude, take some aleve. i think he was answering my question about how the chicken did in the TT. he placed 109, just behind the disco rider. and he was talking about the selle italian riders in the TT, not today's race.

Right. Sorry Jesse D.

 

[harlond]

I guess either he was feeling the effects of his crash early in the stage and/or was just on a bad day and threw the towel in. Didn't he say after taking pink that he was really surprised he did it as he was there just to prepare for helping Ullrich win the Tour in July?

I don't know how much help anyone would have been to him and you've got to figure with all the mountains coming that his chances of holding any kind of high placing went out the window today. You would think if he wanted the help or a high GC was part of T-mobile's goals they would have sent Ullrich, Kessler etc. back to him. Afterall those guys can't possibly be concerned with their GC places.

Thanks, Dwayne. I know I've read that he was their leader for the Giro, which suggests to me he was aiming for a high placing, but I guess either he couldn't be helped, as you suggest, or his leadership role wasn't that fixed.

 

[fastfullback]

Yes, today's lesson learned definitely seems to be stay off Mori's wheel.

Funny. Reading the live report on cn I was thinking much the same thing, and also thinking that Sella doesn't learn very fast...

 

[Dwayne Barry]

Funny. Reading the live report on cn I was thinking much the same thing, and also thinking that Sella doesn't learn very fast...

Well the second crash Selle wasn't on his wheel, Mori crashed around a blind corner into some barricades (so the organizers probably suspected riders could go down there) then I think a few seconds later Belli came around and barely avoided him as he was sitting on the ground. Then a few more seconds passed before Selle came around the corner and hit him. Just bad luck.

 

[il sogno]

Just wondering why Lampre, Phonak and Liquigas didn't contribute to limiting the break. I mean yeah they had riders in the breakaway but letting Sella and Belli move up so far in the GC may not be a good idea.

Here's the updated GC

1 Ivan Basso (Ita) Team CSC 44.31.52
2 José E. Gutierrez Cataluna (Spa) Phonak Hearing Systems 2.48
3 Paolo Savoldelli (Ita) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 3.26
4 Emanuele Sella (Ita) Ceramica Panaria-Navigare 4.21
5 Wladimir Belli (Ita) Selle Italia-Serramenti Diquigiovanni 5.31
6 Tom Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 5.38
7 Manuel Beltran Martinez (Spa) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team 6.36
8 Franco Pellizotti (Ita) Liquigas 6.37
9 Victor Hugo Pena Grisales (Col) Phonak Hearing Systems 6.54
10 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Fondital
11 Gilberto Simoni (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir 7.13
12 Danilo Di Luca (Ita) Liquigas 7.33

 

[fastfullback]

Well the second crash Selle wasn't on his wheel....

See, that's another reason to buck up for cycling.tv instead of relying on free text. Although it was more entertaining to think that Sella was repeatedly following the guy off the road.

 

[Francis Cebedo]

Just wondering why Lampre, Phonak and Liquigas didn't contribute to limiting the break. I mean yeah they had riders in the breakaway but letting Sella and Belli move up so far in the GC may not be a good idea.

I have the answer to that...

Cause they're still racing to win. They're not out to protect their top 10 yet.

That logic actually makes sense. Isolate Basso and his team. CSC had a very hard day today and still lost 7 minutes to the breakaway. This is the only strategy that can unseat Basso I think. Fire away at CSC. They can't cover everything!

francois

 

[Guest]

IThat logic actually makes sense. Isolate Basso and his team. CSC had a very hard day today and still lost 7 minutes to the breakaway. This is the only strategy that can unseat Basso I think. Fire away at CSC. They can't cover everything!

Exactly! Same thing will be seen at the TdF this year once one or two dominant racers rise to the top of the GC.