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Paris-Nice

Phil

Maximum Pace
Sep 1, 2007
1,816
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Pre-season is over!

Race started with the prologue last night:

Lars Boom, Rabobank
Jens! Voigt, Saxo Bank, at 0.03
Levi Leipheimer, The Shack, at 0.06
Alberto Contador, Astana, m.t.
Peter Sagan, Liquigas, at 0.10
Xavier Tondo, Cervelo, m.t.
David Millar, Garmin, at 0.11
Luis Leon Sanchez, Caisse d'Epargne, at 0.12
Roman Kreuziger, Liquigas, at 0.13
Samuel Sanchez, Euskaltel, at 0.15

(From Podium Cafe)

Nice to see Jens Voigt back from his crash (although he was also at the Japan Cup last year and Tour of Quatar etc so has been back for a while). Lars Boom looks like he's enjoying the transition to full-time roadie...

Race showing on Jsports Plus, starting approx 11pm each night.
 
Thanks for the post Phil -

I will try to follow Paris-Nice in the internets, but it seems like there will be little action from GC contenders in the next 2 stages, unless someone has an unlucky (or lucky) accident.

it looks like it's going to be an interesting season in pro-cycling - pity there are no GC guys from Belarus (the closest is perhaps Vasil Kiryenka, Valverde's lieutenant from Caisse d'Epargne) :rolleyes:
 
Lars!? wow, let's see how he does throughout the season. A pro tour road season is a lot longer that CX.

More impressive is Jens Voight! The most positive person in the peloton and hands down my most respected rider. To see him in front of Levi and Alberto is surprising but also I think he is focusing more on the classics where as Levi and Alberto have some ways to go before reaching anything close to a peak.
 
Bit of a 2009 PN redux last night, as crosswinds tore the peloton apart with about 15km to go, although this time it was Caisse doing the damage and not Rabobank.

Boom did really well to bridge the split just before the lead bunch got out of touch, shedding a couple of would-be wheelsuckers in the process.

Drama in the last 3km when Contador crashed but managed to get back to the group after borrowing a teammate's bike and getting a loooong tow from the Rabobank team car.

Nice sprint by Henderson at the end to just nip the Lampre rider.

Greg Henderson, Sky
Grega Bole, Lampre, s.t.
Jérémie Galland, Saur-Sojasun, s.t.
Alexandr Kolobnev, Katusha, s.t.
Alejandro Valverde, Caisse d'Epargne, s.t.
 
Contador takes it!

Yeah, it was only a short hill finish but he looks unbeatable up any gradient. It wasn't even an attack, he just rode everyone off his wheel.

Jens gave it his best as usual but couldn't stay close enough to keep the jersey.

Spanish dominance of the sporting world continues...5 of the top 7 in the GC are Spanish.
 
Contador

Action-packed finish to an action-packed week... Great ride by Moinard and Voeckler in the 2-man break to stay away to the end. I think they only had 30 secs buffer for the last 15km or so...

1 Alberto Contador (Spa) Astana 28:35:35
2 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:11
3 Luis-Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne 0:00:25
4 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas - Doimo 0:00:26
5 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:00:30
6 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:35
7 Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:37
8 Reine Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit en Ligne 0:01:07
9 Jean-Christophe Peraud (Fra) Omega Pharma - Lotto 0:01:16
10 Jérôme Coppel (Fra) Saur - Sojasun 0:01:17
 
First of the classics...

Milan-San Remo is coming up on the 20th:

J Sports 1
03月20日 (土) 22:50 - 25:20

Repeat on J-Sports Plus on Sunday
03月21日 (日) 20:00 - 22:00

It's arguable the least popular of the spring one-day classics, but the last two years have seen some very exciting finishes: Cancellera's 2km solo break in 08 and Cavendish's sprint to beat Haussler by a tire width in 09...
 
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