National Championships

[Dr. Maserati]

They would be stupid if they didn't

I would love to see him ride, however his form wasn't so hot in the Dauphine and AG2R said they were not going to fill the last places on the Tour team until after the respective National Championships.

I did wonder was the release of the team kit for the Tour just extra motivation for their riders to win their respective Championship!!

 

[ak-zaaf]

man, the dutch nc's was one crazy ride. probably something we're not gonna see in july
insane performance by joost van leijen, who will probably sign at skil or vacansoleil in the near future.

rabo won, but had a poor ride. tjallingii was awesome but nobody from rabo expected that. that it turned out this way was pure individual class.
by tjallingii and moerenhout.

and after that i got to watch the final 25km of the belgian race on rtbf.
missed a lot but didn't really got gilbert's plan. silence seemed desperate (again).
the way quick-step kept cool was impressive.

ah well, not bad for a sunday

 

[Belokki]

Good to see Boonen slowly bouncing back

GO!! GO!! Tomeke!

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Boonen really got owned on the climb though. 3 Silence riders + Leukemans rode away. But when Nuyens joined them the cooperation was gone and in the downhill Boonen and friends came back.

 

[Amsterhammer]

man, the dutch nc's was one crazy ride. probably something we're not gonna see in july
insane performance by joost van leijen, who will probably sign at skil or vacansoleil in the near future.

rabo won, but had a poor ride. tjallingii was awesome but nobody from rabo expected that. that it turned out this way was pure individual class.
by tjallingii and moerenhout......

....ah well, not bad for a sunday

Totally agree with all this. Mart Smeets was rather impressed by van Leijen, though it was so funny at the end when Ducrot said 'it can't be him'.

 

[Mellow Velo]

ROAD RACE CHAMPIONS

Allemagne: Martin Reimer (Cervélo, Continental Pro)
Autriche : Markus Eibegger (Elk Haus-Simplon, Continental Pro)
Belgique : Tom Boonen (Quick Step)
Danemark : Matti Breschel (Saxo Bank)
Espagne : Ruben Plaza (Liberty Seguros, Continental)
Estonie : Rein Taaramae (Cofidis)
France : Dimitri Champion (Bretagne-Schuller, Continental)
Italie : Filippo Pozzato (Katusha)
Kazakhstan : Dmitriy Fofonov
Luxembourg : Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank)
Norvège : Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Saxo Bank)
Pays-Bas : Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank)
Pologne : Krzysztof Jezowski (CCC Polsat-Polkowice, Continental)
Portugal : Manuel Cardoso (Liberty Seguros, Continental)
Royaume Unis: Kristian House (Rapha Condor)
République tchèque : Martn Mares (PSK Whirlpool-Author, Continental Pro)
Russie : Sergueï Ivanov (Katusha)
Slovaquie : Martin Velits (Milram)
Suède : Marcus Ljungqvist
Suisse : Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank)

TIME TRIAL CHAMPIONS

Allemagne : Bert Grabsch (Columbia)
Australie : Michael Rogers (Columbia)
Canada : Svein Tuft (Garmin)
Danemark : Lars Bak (Saxo Bank)
Espagne : Alberto Contador (Astana) En savoir plus
Estonie : Rein Taaramae (Cofidis)
France : Jean-Christophe Péraud (Creusot, Élite 2)
Italie : Marco Pinotti (Columbia)
Kazakhstan : Andrey Mizurov (Tabriz, Continental)
Lettonie : Raivis Belohvosciks (Betonexpressz, Continental)
Lituanie : Ignatas Konovalovas (Cervélo, Continental Pro)
Luxembourg : Kim Kirchen (Columbia)
Norvège : Edvald Boasson Hagen (Columbia)
Pologne : Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas)
Portugal : Tiago Machado (Boavista, Continental)
République tchèque : Frantisek Rabon (Columbia)
Slovénie : Jani Brajkovic (Astana)
Suède : Alexander Wetterhall
Suisse : Rubens Bertogliati (Diquigiovanni, Continental Pro)
Ukraine : Andriy Grivko (ISD, Continental Pro)

Which, by my reckoning, should make the Sexy Bank virtually undetectable at the tour.

 

[scooter]

Ruben Plaza wins in Spain
2. Zaballa
3. Mikel Astarloza


Valverde is out of the game in last km , 5 km uphill

amazingly cyclingnews is reporting Chris Froome got 4th in the Spanish National Road Race.

1 Rubén Plaza (Liberty Seguros)
2 Constantino Zaballa (Paredes Rota dos Móveis)
3 Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
4 Chris Froome (Barloworld)

 

[titan_90]

amazingly cyclingnews is reporting Chris Froome got 4th in the Spanish National Road Race.

1 Rubén Plaza (Liberty Seguros)
2 Constantino Zaballa (Paredes Rota dos Móveis)
3 Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne)
4 Chris Froome (Barloworld)

That is just pathetic
Do they have a bunch of 3-year olds working for them now

 

[craig1985]

I assume that there are harder NC's to win then the Estonian one?

 

[Bala Verde]

Totally agree with all this. Mart Smeets was rather impressed by van Leijen, though it was so funny at the end when Ducrot said 'it can't be him'.

Ha that was funny! I think he said something to the extent that all three pro teams should be terribly ashamed of themselves if van Leijen rides away with the jersey...

 

[craig1985]

IIRC there was atory that in 2006 that if Sebastian Langeveld let Michael Boogerd win, in return he would get a contract with Rabobank?

 

[Bala Verde]

IIRC there was a story that in 2006 that if Sebastian Langeveld let Michael Boogerd win, in return he would get a contract with Rabobank?

That is the rumour, or perhaps maybe not a contract, but that he had sold the race... Clearly, Langeveld demonstrated in that race that he was a very talented youngster. Usually RAB dominates the Championship, so it was quite amazing that he held out till the last kms.

Obviously all involved dismissed it, and Langeveld, on his website even refers to that incident and briefly states that the 'best man won that day'. I can't recall the race situation exactly, but they were both ahead. I think if it had come head to head, Langeveld would have beaten Boogie in the sprint... On the other hand, you never know how much someone still has in the tank.

It's part of cycling I guess, buying and selling, bargaining, negotiating and striking deals.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I could never imagine boogerd agrreing to striking a deal with SL.

 

[grimpeur]

I'm waiting for all the inevitable crashes in the French road race because the riders won't have radios to warn them to look for obstacles in the road. There may be no french riders left to ride the TdF.

Interesting comment from Dimitri Champion 2009 French Road Champ, For the first time in years the use of race radios was prohibited during the French national road championships. “"It was funny, there were more conversations between riders, it was another race,” said Champion.

 

[craig1985]

I saw a brief 10 second highlight of the SPanish RR andi t showed that was raining/had been raining, was it like that the whole race?

 

[ak-zaaf]

That is the rumour, or perhaps maybe not a contract, but that he had sold the race...

that was about as obvious as it gets.

langeveld and boogerd in front, langeveld the better sprinter from a smaller team.
boogerd riding next to him, in front of the camera asking "breukink asks if it's ok?" several times. in the final km's langeveld 'suddenly' gets cramps, boogerd wins solo, langeveld is on the rabo roster the next season.


no big deal, but it was so stupid to do it in front of a camera.