|
May 18 to 24, 2009: 89th Volta a Catalunya
|
| |
24.05.2009: 6. Sant Cugat - Circuit de Catalunya (111 km)
Columbia finally rewarded
Results:
| 
| 
|
Greg Henderson
Alejandro Valverde
|
| |
68th at 0"
|
27th at 6'28"
|
|
| | | |
Together with Caisse d'Epargne and Cervélo, team Columbia surely was among those who have worked the most during this Volta a Catalunya and Kim Kirchen and his team-mates have finally been rewarded with the stage win of Greg Henderson on the last day. On the Formula-One Circuit in Montmélo, near Barcelona, the New-Zealander was faster than Mondory, Sabatini and Hushovd. On a very hot day, the stage started fast with lots of attacks, but the team-mates of Alejandro Valverde never lost control of the situation. The battle was intense on the Alt de San Feliu, where the peloton broke into several pieces for a moment, but it calmed down after that until the final. Svein Tuft made a promising move in the last five kilometers, but the Canadian time-trialist was caught by the peloton before the one-kilometer-mark and had to make leave the place for the bunch sprint. Kim Kirchen finished the stage in 68th position and is noted in 27th place in the final overall classification, 6'28" behind Alejandro Valverde who wins the 89th Volta a Catalunya ahead of the surprising Martin and Zubeldia. Maybe Kim had expected a better result on this race, but it clear that his form will still be improving in the next weeks until the Tour de France.
23.05.2009: 5. Torredembarra - Barcelona (151 km)
Second run for Hushovd
Results:
|
|
|
Thor Hushovd
Alejandro Valverde
|
| |
43rd at 0"
|
28th at 6'28"
|
| | | | |
Typical profile for the Catalunyan region with some solid climbs at the beginning and then a flat part towards the end of the race and, again, team Columbia was very present, trying to win the stage. Kim Kirchen also appeared several times at the head of the peloton and was among others first on the summit of the Alt de les Ventoses, major climb of the day. And the tactics of the yellow and white ones nearly succeeded since the break of the day consisting of Fedrigo, Veikkanen, Chavanel, Martens, Arvesen and Lang was swallowed up with five kilometers to go and Kim's team-mate Greg Henderson was perfectly placed in the peloton for the massive sprint. But at the end, Norvegian Thor Hushovd was faster and won his second stage ahead of Fabio Sabatini, Henderson, Breschel and the fast Columbian Leonardo Duque. Kim Kirchen crossed the finish line in 43rd position in the middle of the pack.
22.05.2009: 4. La Seu d’Urgell - Torredembarra (201 km)
Trusov wins bunch sprint
Results:
|
|
|
Nicolai Trusov
Alejandro Valverde
|
| |
115th at 0"
|
29th at 6'28"
|
| | | | |
The riders headed backwards towards the Mediterranean sea on the 4th stage, with a course that was less selective than on the previous days. Eventually, there wasn’t any categorized climb at all between La Seu d’Urgell and Torredembarra and the last 80 kilometres were virtually downhill. Of course, the sprinters were eager to battle for the win and Kim Kirchen’s Team Columbia, with the fast Eisel and Henderson in its roster, was very active in the peloton behind the early break, consisting of Serrano, Ramirez, Cozza and Sapa. And the timing was perfect: after 175 kilometres in the lead of the race, the break was caught again shortly before the finish. Cervélo, Columbia and Milram continued to do the work at the head of the peloton, but it was an outsider from team Katusha who was fastest in the sprint: Nicolai Trusov won ahead of Hushovd, Sabatini and Henderson. Kim Kirchen crossed the finish line at the end of the bunch in 115th posiiton, after having done his share of work for the team. With two stages remaining until Sunday, there were not overall changes today.
21.05.2009: 3. La Pobla de Lillet - Valnord (Andorra) (176 km)
Julián Sánchez Pebre surprises
Results:
|
|
|
Julián Sánchez Pebre
Alejandro Valverde
|
| |
38th at 5'02"
|
29th at 6'28"
|
| | | | |
Julián Sánchez Pebre has created a big surprise by winning the queen stage of the Tour of Catalunya. The rider from the modest Contentpolis team was part of an early break that took off even before the first climb of the day, the coll del Port. Arrieta, Fedrigo, Moinard, Lewis, Duran, Vázquez, Sánchez, Cata Martínez and Chavanel had a maximum advantage of 3 minutes of the peloton, but on the first slopes of the main difficulty of the day, the final climb up to Andorra, there was only Julian Sanchez left in the lead. At that moment, the Spaniard had one and a half minutes advantage on the peloton, but this gap was melting like snow in the sun. At the end, with an extraordinary effort, Sanchez was able to make it to the line with just 6 little seconds advantage on the next chasers, led by Daniel Martin. The young, british climbing talent managed to hold off Valverde on the line for second place, taking a small revange for yesterday's sprint finish. Martin and Valverde had attacked in the last kilometers of the climb out of a first bigger group containing among others Zubeldia, Astarloza, Gomez or Fulgsang. Valverde of course retained his lead overall, where he has now 15 seconds advantage on Martin and 22 on Zubeldia. Kim Kirchen was not quite able to hold on to the best today on the climb to Andorra, and he arrived at the finish in 38th position, more than five minutes down on the winner. In the overall classification, Kim drops down several places and is now noted in 29th position, more than 6 minutes late on Valverde.
20.05.2009: 2. Roses - La Pobla de Lillet (182 km)
Valverde confirms leaderschip
Results:
|
|
|
Alejandro Valverde
Alejandro Valverde
|
| |
30th at 1'16"
|
17th at 1'30"
|
| | | | |
Another tough stage with three climbs of first category, among them the Collada Sobirana, who drove the riders up to 1200 meters of altitude, shortly before the conclusion down in La Pobla de Lillet. Four riders were not afraid of this profile and broke away after 30 very fast kilomters. William Bonnet, Stéphane Augé, Jérome Coppel and José i Ruiz took up to five minutes of advantage before the peloton reacted. Just like yesterday, it was Aitor Hernandez who launched the first counter-attack after the regroupement, but his attempt was reeled in. Several more attacks were neutralized on the last climb, but finally, a group of 10 formed in the lead with Valverde, Gomez Marchante, De la Fuente, Martin, Fuglsang, Tondo, Astarloza, Zubeldia, Dychenko and Samuel Sánchez, whereas Kim Kirchen was chasing in a next group shortly behind them. But the 10 riders stayed away in the downhill to the line and on the last, sligthly uphill straight line, nobody of them was able to hold off Alejandro Valverde who confirmed his leaderschip with the stage win, ahead of de la Fuente and Daniel Martin, the son of former ACC Contern rider Neil Martin. Kim Kirchen finished the stage a little bit more than a minute later at the end of the first bigger group of around 20 riders and crossed the line in 30th position. Overall, Valverde has now 14 seconds advantage on Haimar Zubeldia, 15 on Samuel Sanchez and 1'30" on Kirchen, still in 17th place.
19.05.2009: 1. Girona - Roses (163 km)
Matti Breschel wins sprint decision
Results:
|
|
|
Matti Breschel
Alejandro Valverde
|
| |
28th at 0"
|
17th at 8"
|
| | | | |
Four riders have animated during a long while the first stage of the Tour of Catalunya, namely Loyd Mondory, Arnaud Labbe, Samuel Dumoulin and Francisco Martinez. They attacked right after the start and maintained an advantage of about 4 minutes on the peloton over the top of the Alt de Es Angels, situated after 60 kilometers. But towards the end of the stage, the gap decreased rapidly and at the foot of the Alt de Sant Pere de Rodes, last climb of the day, the break was terminated and a new race was about to begin. Aitor Hernandez was the first one to arrive at top of the climb, with 10 kilometers to go, but he had only a few seconds advantage on a first peloton of about 50 riders, among them Kim Kirchen. On the downhill to Roses, Hernandez was quickly caught by this group and a last attempt from Sylvain Chavanel with a few kilometers to go was also unsuccessfull, so that the stage was decided in a sprint. Matti Breschel was fastest on the line ahead of Jerome Pineau and Xavier Florencio, whereas Alejandro Valverde is the new overall leader now, with Hushovd not being present in the first group. Kim Kirchen was well there, up at the front today and he finished the stage in the middle of the first group in 28th position, moving up to 17th overall now, 8 seconds behind Valverde.
18.05.2009: P. Lloret de Mar (3,6 km)
Hushovd does it again
Results:
|
|
|
Thor Hushovd
Thor Hushovd
|
| |
40th at 9"
|
40th at 9"
|
| | | | |
3,6 kilometres in the streets of famous touristic town Lloret de Mar with a small uphill in the first part of the course, that was the opening act of the 89th Tour of Catalunya. After 2007, Kim Kirchen is back in the Volta again, trying to find out something more about his form since recovering from the early season crash. On a course that should suit him well with lots of climbs during the week, Kim will judge himself and try to find some good results. Team-mate Greg Henderson set a first reference time in the prologue in 4'49", before Kirchen crossed the finish line in 4'56" (average speed 43,8 km/h), which meant a place outside the Top 20 in the provisionnal result list. Shortly after that, the defending champion of this prologue, Thor Hushovd, made an impressive demonstration of his power on the twisty course, setting a new best rate in 4'47" (average speed 45,1 km/h). This was enough to take today's win ahead of Valverde and Henderson, respectively one and two seconds slower than the Viking. Kim Kirchen was finally noted in 40th position of this first act, 9 seconds late on the winner, before tomorrow's first climbs on Stage one between Girona and Roses will certainly cause much larger gaps.
Month of may
Good season start for Jempy Drucker
The 60th edition of the
Results:
|
| Flèche du Sud
|
(P)
|
|
|
Taylor Phinney
5th at 6"
|
| |
(1)
|
|
|
Marcel Kittel
8th at 0"
|
|
(2)
|
|
|
Simon Zahner
10th at 1'10"
|
|
(3)
|
|
|
Marcel Kittel
70th at 0"
|
|
(4)
|
|
|
Frederik Johansson
6th at 16"
|
| |
|
|
|
Simon Zahner
10th at 1'13"
|
| | | | | | | | |
Flèche du Sud started with a 4 kilometer prologue in the streets of Esch-sur-Alzette, a very important test since last year,
Swiss rider Marcel Wyss made the first major step for his final overall victory already here, on the very first day. And Jempy Drucker did and outstanding job on a twisty and technical course that suited him very well, finishing 5th of the stage. He was only 6 seconds behind the winner and accomplished his loop in the same time than team poursuit world champion and olympic silver medalist Michael Christensen from Denmark. After the race, Drucker was handed out the yellow jersey of best Luxemburgish rider, even if team-mate Christian Poos also showed a tremendous performance and finished only one second down on him. But the two Luxemburgish riders couldn't do anything against the big favourite, individual poursuit wolrd champion Taylor Phinney. The American wonderboy, only 19 years old, won the stage 3 seconds ahead of German Marcel Kittel and 4 seconds ahead of Swiss cyclo-cross specialist Simon Zahner. The first stage ended as expected in a bunch sprint, since there were no topographic obstacles on the course during the last 40 kilometers. Marcel Kittel, second of the prologue on the day before, showed out to be the fastest on the line, ahead of Luxemburgish rider Cyrille Heymans and prologue winner Taylor Phinney. Jempy Drucker also matched up in the final sprint and took a good 8th position, which allowed him to move one up overall, where he is now in 4th position, still 7 seconds late on Phinney. The second stage between Wiltz and Troisvierges was announced as queen stage of the Flèche 2009, but if the course was indeed very difficult at the beginning with the climbs of Knupp, Kehmen and Hoscheid, the local circuit around Troisvierges at the end wasn’t that selective. 6 riders have animated the race during most of the day, namely the Luxemburg’s Christian Poos and Ben Gastauer, former cyclo-cross world champion Bart Wellens, Simon Zahner, Maint Berkenbosch and Julian Munoz. Poos certainly was the most active rider today, but he was dropped in the final together with Wellens, leaving the victory to Simon Zahner, who also took control of the overall classification. Jempy Drucker finished second of the sprint in the first bigger peloton and thus finished 10th of the stage. Overall, the Luxemburgish rider is now noted in 9th position, 1’13 back on the new leader Simon Zahner. The third stage was very animated and marked by lots of attacks, for example the one of Pascal Triebel, who was in the lead of the race during a long time in a group together with among others Zdenek Stybar. But in the end, it was status quo for the GC contenders, since the day ended in a bunch sprint won by Marcel Kittel ahead of track champion Roger Kluge. Ben Gastauer also tried his luck on the very last climb of Langengrund, but his attempt was neutralized by no other than white jersey Simon Zahner in person. Jempy Drucker finished the stage in 70th position inside the peloton. The next day, he was up front again, finishing the last stage in 6th position and 3rd of the sprint in the main peloton, behind the strong Roger Kluge, scratch world-cup winner on the track and Marcel Kittel, two times time-trial world champion in the junior categories. Ahead of them, three riders had been the strongest of the day, namely the stage winner and team-mate of Jempy Drucker,
Results:
|
| GP de Plumelec
|
|
|
Jérémie Galland
DNF
|
| Boucles de l'Aulne
|
|
|
Maxime Bouet
DNF
|
| | | | | |
Frederik Johansson, Hungarian Pèter Kusztor and, once again, Ben Gastauer. In his very last attempt to take over the final win from Simon Zahner, the Luxemburgish rider attacked on the col de l'Europe and gained a few seconds on the leader. But it wasn't enough and in the final overall classification, Gastauer is still 16 seconds late on the Swiss winner. Jempy Drucker, as for him, finishes 1'13" late on Zahner as 10th overall, a good result for a good race, during which the Luxemburgish rider was constantly among the Best.
One week later, in the tough and reknowned French races Grand-prix de Plumelec and Boucles de l'Aulne with the best French professionnals, things didn't turn out as well for Jempy Drucker. In none of the two events, he was among the few riders (80 respectively 35) that finished the race.
Three days after the Grand-prix OST-Fenster, Jempy Drucker's marathon program continued with the Giro del Friuli, a stage race in the Treviso region previously won by
Results:
|
| Giro del Friuli
|
(1)
|
|
|
Marco Coledan
7th at 7"
|
(2)
|
|
|
Julian Porte
96th at 10'04"
|
(3)
|
|
|
Kristjan Koren
61st at 4'10"
|
(4)
|
|
|
Nicolas Baldo
13th at 3"
|
(5)
|
|
|
Alexander Filipov
126th at 8'
|
| |
|
|
|
Gianluca Brambilla
70th at 20'28"
|
| | | | | | | | |
Di Luca, Simoni, Chiappucci, Argentin or Gimondi, to name only them. Already in the first stage, Jempy showed a convincing performance by integrating
a group of 8 riders that broke away after a very, very fast start. The break was composed by Drucker, Beney, Mammini, Lebas, Bertazzo, young talent Travis Meyer (5 times junior world champion on the track) and the local Angelo Ciccone who worked well together with a maximal advantage of 4 minutes, over the climbs of Prosecco and San Michele del Carso. With 2 kilometers to go, the gap was still more than a minute and the tactical games started. Italian rider Coledan was the smarted and with an attack just under the red flag, he went away to the stage victory. Jempy wasn't able to participate in the sprint and he took 7th position at the end, 7 seconds late on the winner, but still 40 seconds ahead of the peloton. The second stage finished in the mountains, not far away from the mighty Monte Zoncolan, but there were lots of attacks on the first kilometers and positions changed constantly. Despite the fast pace, there were still around 120 rider together when they tackled the last climb at Duron. Russian rider Egor Silin and Australian Julian Porte made the deciding move on that climb and they arrived at the finish with
around a minute advantage on the next chasers, with Porte taking the stage victory after an attack at 500 meters from the line. Jempy Drucker was dropped on the first slopes of the Duron and finished 10 minutes late in a sixth group of around 10 riders, together with yesterday's winner Coledan, dressed with the white leader's jersey. Just like the first stage, the third one was also dominated by an early break that resisted until the end: Pavel Kotchekov, Rohan Dennis, Alessandro Trotta, Enrico Battaglin, Gianluca Brambilla, Thomas Lebas, Dominik Nerz, Esad Hasanovic, Kristijan Koren, Alessandro Colo', Andrea Di Corrado and last year's overall winner Alexander Filippov took off on the second climb of the day and arrived in Pordenone with 2 minutes advantage on the next chasing group and 4 minutes on the main peloton, which after a tough racing day consited of only 50 riders, including Jempy Drucker who finished the race in 61st position. The stage victory went to Slovenian rider Kristjan Koren and the new overall leader is called Gianluca Brambilla this evening. At the end of the fourth day, Jempy's CC Differdange team had something to celebrate after the victory of Nicolas Balso. The French rider attacked with 2 kilometers to go together with Peter Sagan, who probably had good souvenirs today by passing the Lago di Bandie, where he became silver medal winner at the junior world cyclo-cross championships in 2008. But in the sprint to the line, Baldo was faster than the Slovakian in today's stage, 3 seconds ahead of a next chasing group of around 80 riders. At the end of a race that was marked by lots of attacks and two passages over a gravel road, similar to those at the Eroica in Tuscany, Jempy was again among the best, finishing 13th of the stage. The last day was again very, very animated, and it was one of the most active riders of this stage race, Russian Alexander Filipov, who took the win after a nice solo ride of 20 kilomters. Of the maximum 50 seconds advantage on the chasers that he had during the break, the defending overall champion was able to keep 20 at the finish: enough to win the stage, but not enough to frighten Gianluca Brambilla. The Italian was fourth of the stage today and took the overall win of the Giro di Friuli ahead of another Russian, Pavel Kochetkov. The race today was decided on the climb of Sammardenchia, and Jempy Drucker was not able to hold onto the first two groups. He finished the stage on his own, 8 minutes behind the winner, but still more than 4 minutes ahead of the last group of the day. In the final overall classification, Jempy is noted in 70th position and with two Top 20 places and the stage win for the team from Nicolas Baldo, he can surely be very satisfied with the outcome of the first stage race in his season.
At the beginning of May, 202 difficult kilometers waited for Jempy Drucker in the Ronde van Overrijssel. It was another cyclo-cross specialist,
Results:
|
| Ronde van Overrijsel
|
|
|
Kenny Van Hummel
21st at 0"
|
| Grand-prix OST-Fenster
|
|
|
Kirk Carlsen
14th at 3'20"
|
| | | | | |
Thijs Al, who has animated the race for a long while, together with Sander Oostlander. But lots of wind, some cobbled sections and the Holterberg
|
Photo: acc contern
|
made it difficult for the two leaders and they were caught by a group of 57 riders, including Jempy Drucker. In the final part of the race, the Luxemburgish rider tried to attack, but without success and the race finished in a sprint, with the same protagonists than at the Ronde van Noord-Holland. But not in the same order as Kenny Van Hummel was faster this time than Baumann and Boos. Christian Poos and Jempy Drucker haver participated in the final rush and Poos took an excellent 6th place, whereas Drucker finished 21st, one position ahead of Tejay Van Garderen, who beat him for the victory in the 4th stage during last year's GP Tell. The next day, at the Grand-prix OST-Fenster, Jempy Drucker must have had some tired legs and he hid in the peloton during the opening kilometers. His team-mate Christian Poos however was at the front from the first to the last lap, so that Jempy rode a defensive race at the end. He was constantly with the best chasers and ended the race in 14th position. More details here.
Jempy Drucker has resumed competition at the end of the month of April, but it seems that he has trained very well since February, since he has started his season very stronly. His first race was the Arno Wallaard mémorial, in memory of a young rider of the
Results:
|
| Arno Wallaard Memorial
|
|
|
Lieuwe Westra
9th at 13"
|
| Ronde van Noord-Holland
|
|
|
Théo Bos
127th at 33"
|
| | | | | |
Skil-Shimano team, who died in 2006 of a heart attack, and Jempy evenutally took 9th place. After less than an hour of very, very fast racing, the peloton split into pieces and, for his first road race since 8 months, Drucker managed to get into the first group. They were 47 at the front, including riders like Andy Capelle, Geert Omloop, René Jörgensen, Chris Barton, Eric Baumann, Matthé Pronk or Aart Vierhouten. The gap to the chasers remained inside the minute for a long time, but started to increased towards mid-race, after 90 kilometers had been covered in less than two hours. With 30 kilometers to go, Eric Baumann and Lieuwe Westra broke away fromt the first group and, even though their gap never got very big, they managed to make it to the finish, with Westra being faster than Baumann on the line. Jempy Drucker finished 13 seconds later in the first chasing group. The 64th edition of the Ronde van Noord-Holland was held on a totally flat course and, without surprise, finished in a bunch sprint. Rudi Vriend and Bart van Haaren opened the road during most of the race, but they were caught again towards the end and five times world champion on the track, Theo Bos, who tries himself on the road since the beginning of this season, was faster than Kenny Van Hummel. Jempy Drucker was part of a small group of around 20 riders who was dropped from the main peloton in the last kilometers and he crossed the line 30 seconds late in 127th position.
|
May 1st, 2009: 49th Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop
|
| |
01.05.2009 Eschborn - Frankfurt (191 km)
Wegmann stops Kroon
Results:
|
|
Fabian Wegmann
|
|
| |
|
DNF
|
| | |
After his splendid win in Liège-Bastogne-Liège only 5 days ago, Andy Schleck lined up in the Henninger Turm race, now named Eschborn-Frankfurt City Loop. It was mainly to help his friend and team-mate Karsten Kroon to achieve a third win in that race and eventually, the Dutch rider was well present at the front of the race, but had to settle down with second place against Fabian Wegmann. It was the third time in 10 days that a Saxo-Bank rider finished second, but it is undoubtful that the Milram victory was well deserved. For the only German Top cycling team of course, the 1st May of course was a main goal in the season and they were very strong. Linus Gerdemann started the first serious attack and, together with his team-mate Russ as well as Totschnig, Sinkewitz, Hermans and Lagutin, the former team-mate of Kim Kirchen stayed in the lead of the race for quite a while, before being caught again. On the Mammolsheiner Berg, shortly before entering the local circuit, 7 riders took off, including Kroon, Wegmann, Christian Knees (another Milram rider), Paul Martens, Jelle Vanendert, Bert De Waele and Matteo Carrara. But soon, the defending champion and the German National champion left the others behind and fought out the victory among themselves, with Wegmann being just a little faster on the line. Andy Schleck was offensive at the head of the peloton on the second loop throught Taunus, behind Gerdemann, but he had a mechanical problem at a very bad moment in the race and diseappeared from the front group. He isn't noted in the result lists of this very last of the spring classics.
Note: "This site contains links to other Internet pages, on which content and presentation we don't have any influence. These refences are indicated merely for your information and and we can't be made reliable for any of the content of any of the Internet pages our links may take you to."
|
Schleck
Drucker
Photo: acc contern
Photo: acc contern
