F1 Rejects Cycling Challenge: Tour de France underway!

[Hermann95]

are all teams shown on this list? because i can't find my team...

[Shadaza]

are all teams shown on this list? because i can't find my team...

The Loyer Racing Tigers are there, only the front 18 teams are shown and there are 21 teams. Don't worry, it was only stage 1.

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Stage 2


Klaus Fahrrad romps home to victory on a stage that ended up much tougher than anticipated.
The Fosters rider added yet another stage win to his impressive tally after coming out on top of a 35 rider break. Fellow Fosters rider Daniel Sims and NSA rider Jason Melbourne are regular front runners and launched an aggressive break on the first climb of the stage. Critically the Minardi and Restov led Peloton let the pair get a 10 minute lead and only really began to chase down during the last 3rd of the stage. The chasers did manage to catch Sims and Melbourne, but the pace took it's toll with many riders unable to keep up. This also opened the door for the stronger riders to launch an attack in the final 15km of the stage.


Behind Fahrrad came the Alitalia rider of Jacomuzzi and the PCR team leader, Ricardo Lupo. The Italians seemed to enjoy the stage as Minardi's Ranozzi placed 5th. Between them came the juggernaut French Hitachi rider, Le Bleu, who managed to kick Jerry Fletcher out of the main squad!

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS2GC_zps95ba9763.png
William Goodspeed failed to keep up and loses the overall lead, the leaders jersey now passes over to the Hunter cycling team, with Timur Chokin managing to hold on to the back of the breakaway, his excellent Prologue performance the deciding factor. Hunter cycling also take the young rider jersey, with 4th place in the overall standings Labelle. It was also a good day for Hitachi, with Daniel Morales now 2nd overall and Francois le Bleu 5th. Donald McRae is 3rd overall for Team CIP, little has been seen from him before and it will be interesting to see if he can hold it.

Today's stage really played into the hands of Fosters, as Sims managed to hold enough strength to keep with the leaders at the end and as always Andy Badger was there to give Fosters a perfect score for the teams race. As a result, along with today's stage win, Klaus Fahrrad takes overall lead of the points standings and will wear the Green Jersey, Daniel Sims was first past the post on 3 of the 5 mountain checkpoints and will thus wear the mountain jersey.

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS2Teams_zpsd3bbe663.png
Despite losing the overall lead with Goodspeed, Minardi managed to place 3 riders in the break and take overall lead of the teams, Hitachi and PCR also managed it so the top 4 teams ended up with the same time. Most teams managed to keep their core riders either in the break or at least the peloton so did not lose much time, but it proved a rough day for Lansvale, Cycling Circus and the Mercenary teams as they dropped way back. Hunter cycling may have 2 well placed riders but didn't have a 3rd man with them. LRT are flying under the radar so far on their first event, but maybe they can show their skill on the next stage, stage 3 will be a flat stage so expect the sprinters to be out in force. See you then.

[Hermann95]

are all teams shown on this list? because i can't find my team...

The Loyer Racing Tigers are there, only the front 18 teams are shown and there are 21 teams. Don't worry, it was only stage 1.

I just didn't lnow how much teams are participating. thank you for the information.
Hopefully we can get a bit better at the next stages...

[go_Rubens]

I'm excited for the sprint. Let's see Petrovich claim his prematurely undecided throne!

[Shadaza]

Stage 3


The 3rd stage of the TDF was meant to be a simple stage with a mass sprint at the end and although the field finished all together (mostly!) it was far from simple.
A group of riders lead by Alitalia's Vincenzo Jacomuzzi took part in an early breakaway that the Hunter Cycling lead peloton had more trouble catching than expected.
Many riders were then taken by surprise by the pace going into the last 3rd of the race that many of the expected front sprinters fell behind. But Loyer Racing Tigers and Restov Cycling lead the charge to catch the breakaway and the field was bunched up for the last 5km.

But the damage had already been done and when Andy Badger of Fosters lead the final charge there was only one all out sprinter there to beat him, Wilson Ricky of PCR, he was well placed enough to take a rather simple run to the line. Restov seem to be a team that like fast paced stages scoring a decent 2nd and 4th with Drecker and Radiski. Jakob Schmidt managed a top 3 for Appalachian after sprinting from quite far back whilst Andy Badger amazingly managed to hold on to 5th despite the fact he isn't even a sprinter.

The majority of the front runners finished with the pack and so no time was lost or gained. However Twining's Janne Nordman fell at the final corner and lost a few minutes, Pavel Gafurov of NSA dropped down to help a downed team mate and lost time and Fantomettes Yevegni Dus also fell at the last corner and within sight of the finish line had to pull out of the tour after fracturing his hip.

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS3Points_zps0061a628.png
Vincenzo Jacomuzzi has been very aggresive over the early stages of the tour and takes a surprising lead in the points standings, taking the Jersey from stage 2 winner Fahrrad. He is tied on points with this stage winner Wilson Ricky.
All teams (bar the Red Bull Raiders) finished with the same time today so there is no change in the team standings.
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Sim's Wins!

Daniel Sims has claimed victory on the 4th stage of the TDF after a stage long battle with Batteries Jeroen Braams. The pair were part of a 6 man break away just before the half way point of the hill stage, the other 4 riders were Stefano Firenze (APB) Jason Melbourne (NSA) Gimmi Maltacchi (Mabbazzana) and Ricardo Lupo (PCR). However the other 4 lost touch with the front 2 after failing to keep up.

Hunter Cycling team, trying to protect Chokin's lead of the tour, did a reasonable job of holding the peloton but ultimatly could not catch the breakaway and eventually had to send Chokin forward on his own. A number of riders clung on to the yellow jersey as a sort of rally point with a group of around 30 riders. Before the Minardi team found this too slow and launched an attack of their own with 4 riders with a few hangers on from other teams.

Though all this was not enough to catch Sims and Braams who came into the final 5km with a 2 minute lead. Initially it looked like Braams had the better of Sims but the Aussie found some late pace and blitzed passed over the last km to come home with a clear solo victory.

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS4_zps9af3a86e.png
Behind the top 2, Rinaldo Ranozzi, Jacomuzzi and Francois Le bleu (Minardi, APB, Hitachi) had found some space at the front and came home to lock the top 5.
Minardi had a very decent stage with Tromsen and Viruleon finish 6th and 7th. It seems Minardi timed their attack well. Timur Chokin came home a respctable 10th place for Hunter Cycling, but this isn't enough to hold overall lead of the tour. 12th place for Fahrrad is an amazing result, as the German rider had a 3 quarters of a way into the stage!

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS4GC_zps4bace5fb.png
As a result of the stage, Sims and Braams move to 1-2 in the standings. Chokin is down to 3rd place 37 seconds off the lead. Francois Le Bleu is the front French runner of Le tour, whilst there are 6 Italians in the top 18!

With 4th place on the stage, Jacomuzzi increases his lead in the points standings and now cleanly holds the jersey. Daniel Sims is leading all the other jerseys though, General Classification, Young Rider and Mountain. He will obviously wear the yellow leaders jersey, Braams will wear the mountain jersey and Ranozzi will wear the young riders jersey.

Last years tour winner Yevegni Yurkov isn't having the best of times so far and none of UBC's general classification threats placed very well.

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j478/ERR40/TDFS4Teams_zps65e5c9d2.png
It is Battery Energy that win the stage for the teams race, by 45 seconds from Minardi. However the Minardi team overall increase their lead at the front as Battery were some minutes behind. Between them are Hitachi, PCR, NSA and Twinings. Those teams seem to be quietly getting on with things as aside from Wilson Ricky winning stage 3 for PCR there has been little to shout about from any of these teams! Despite the strong performance from Sims and Fahrrad, the Fosters team had to sacrifice time bring the German back up to speed and as a result an exhausted Andy Badger failed to keep up today.

Let me know if you want a more detailed update for your team.

[Hermann95]

I would like to have a detailed update of my team please. I barely noticed anyone from my team.....the first time they where much better....

[go_Rubens]

Well, maybe my team is more focused on the mountains this time. I was slightly disappointed to not see Petrovich up there after he lead the points standing before we had to start over. Oh well I have mountain climbers who I'd like to see have at it for the GC, so all's not too bad.

[Shadaza]

I would like to have a detailed update of my team please. I barely noticed anyone from my team.....the first time they where much better....

General Classification of LRT
20.Daniel Van der Bruegge +01'37
53.Jim Stingwell +09'05
54.Davide Simoni +09'09
67.Sebastian Pinter +09'58
69.Anton Pushkin +09'58
71.Christian Stark +10'01
77.Miguel Sombrero +11'02
90.Paolo Nesterini +14'22
111.Vladislav Stark +21'43

Daniele Van der Bruegge is right up there and with some luck could break the top 16 soon but may struggle when the mountains kick in.

Considering his skills it is a little disappointing to see Davide Simoni down in 54th but he seems to be on a support role anyway. The rest of the GC contenders in the squad, Pushkin, Sombrero and Nesterini are not all that far off the pace, Loyer Racing Tigers have been sticking together well and lurking in the shadows a bit, other teams have their riders spread far out.

As for sprinting, I have just run Stage 5 and can report the team has had some better luck. Will post the results later today.

So Loyer Racing Tigers have been quiet, but it remains to be seen if they are holding something back or are a little swamped. The Team can still challenge for both General Classification and Points but it could switch it's aims to any of those two. The squad is quite balanced but won't be challenging for the Team competition and I can't see any riders aggressive enough to go for the mountain jersey.

[Shadaza]

Ok, I have decided to pull my finger out. From 8pm GMT I will live stream the next stage of the Tour de France, I will be streaming a single stage at 8pm every day on Twitch.tv on this channel: http://www.twitch.tv/err_40/. So tune in today for some action.

I will then aim to post the results of the stage here on the same day, though I give no guarantees about that part.

Here are the results for stage 5, a sprint stage.



Jimmy Kay won the stage for Mabazzana after timing his late run to perfection. As stages come this was as standard as it gets with only an early break by points leader Vincenzo Jacomuzzi of any real note for the first 90% of the stage.

The Loyer Racing tigers are on the board at last with Vlad Stark taking a fine points finish. (TB continued.)

[go_Rubens]

Petrovich was in the hunt for once. Well, kind of. Well, we just have to suck it up and hope our mountain men play hardball later, as our sprint campaign doesn't seem too motivated now.

Still looking on positively though; I don't lack motivation myself.

[Shadaza]

Report soon

[Shadaza]

Report soon

[Shadaza]

http://www.twitch.tv/err_40

[go_Rubens]

*Sees Stage 6 Results*

AWWW YEAHHH