SB Nation User Blog: semprenaroda

Indoor Cycling World Championship 2009

semprenaroda — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:32:39 -0000

This tournament already started in Tavira, the hometown of Palmeiras Resort Tavira, portuguese continental team. Honestly, i didn't knew even that exist this kind of cycling. Seems the Germans are the specialists and the founders of this genre.

Some results and videos.

More info.

There is some game similar with soccer (cycle ball), but they shoot with the front wheel, but can defend with the hands!! The teams are formed by two players only.

example:

Seems cool!!

Nuno Ribeiro speaks!

semprenaroda — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 12:08:26 -0000

Nuno Ribeiro speaks!

Nuno Ribeiro spoke recently about his positive, saying that he just merely took what they gave him, trusting on the staff team.

Garmin interested in Nelson Oliveira!!

semprenaroda — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:32:01 -0000

Garmin interested in Nelson Oliveira!!

The silver medal in U23-ITT in Medrizo said that are some teams interested in him, and Garmin seems to be the most interested. He doesn't decided yet if goes to USA, or stay in Portugal in his current team, Artesania Galicia/CC Lugo a sub23 team, or in the LA-Paredes Rota dos Moveis, a continental portuguese team. After did a 5th in the ITT of Tour de Avenir and a 2th in the WC, he demonstrated his chrono talent, and if he cross the Atlantic, he will have as a teammate the Australian who beat him in Medrizo.

Volta a Portugal - Stage 6

semprenaroda — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:31:38 -0000

Volta a Portugal - Stage 6

Today is another interesting day, probably no major differences at the end of the day, but the finish is in a 3km climb. Last year the winner was Nuno Ribeiro, the current yellow jersey.

Live ticker.

The live stream should begin at 4pm, as usual.

Yesterday was another stage for a bunch sprint, but Andalucia managed to won the stage. Manuel Lopez who was in a break too, did the last effort to give to Manuel Piedra (his teammate) his first professional win.

Volta a Portugal 2009

semprenaroda — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:02:28 -0000

Tomorrow will begin the 71th Volta a Portugal, the route begins in Lisboa and the riders only will go east and north, a total of 1601km. Algarve and Alentejo will miss the peloton this year. (is almost like half-Portugal!!)

Volta a Portugal has a big history and is the showcase for our riders: Joaquim Agostinho, Marco Chagas, Alves Barbosa and more recently Orlando Rodrigues, José Azevedo, Candido Barbosa are icons of our national cycling and all of them left their mark in this race. The phenomenon in cycling of the fans who only see the TdF, happens here the same way with Volta a Portugal, portuguese doesn’t follow the national cycling but mostly see the Volta. For the portuguese teams this race could define a good from a bad season, i believe that most of the portuguese teams wouldn’t exist if this race hadn’t the media that has.

So like i said, Lisboa will open the race with a prologue of 2.4km, in the main avenue of our capital, the Avenida da Liberdade. Some years ago that the race didn’t go to Lisboa, but despite the show that will be, a beautiful one, i think is not the best idea start here because most of the people are in vacations, and the Algarve like last year should have more supporters in the streets.

Next day is the longest, probably will finish in a bunch sprint and Petacchi has his first opportunity. His main opponent will be our best sprinter Manuel Cardoso (Liberty Seguros), and currently our national champion. Candido Barbosa (Palmeiras Resort Tavira) should be in sprints too, and like last years he should take at least a stage. Oscar Gatto, the veteran Cesar Quitério (Loulé), Francisco Pacheco (Andalucia) who won 2 stages in 2008 and Danillo Hondo are the main sprinters here.

The third day is a hilly stage, who has a 3rd category climb about 11km to the finish, and another 3rd category climb in the finish, good final for Barbosa or even Ruben Plaza.

Next day and the GC conteders have their first big test, they will pass in Serra da Estrela, and a 1st category climb will appear in the middle of the stage.

Fifth day and one more mountain stage, the last 40km will have two 1st category climb, ending in Alto da Sra da Graça, a notorious climb here, with 8km and ramps of 12% gradient. Next day is the rest day, the GC contender have to prepare the second part of the race.

One flat stage, with some climbs but the sprinters should have their chances.

One more stage that finish with a 3km climb, and next two days for the sprinters.

Last two stages are decisive and will culminate in a beatifull fight between the GC contenders who survived to the many obstacles encountered so far. The penultime stage is the ascent to the Torre, a 28.5km climb to the higher point in Portugal Continental. This is the queen stage, and should be a great show!!

Last day is a flat 30.8km time trial that should decide the winner if still there is any doubt.

Making a summary, i think this is one of the best route of last years, with many climbs and mainly because has various stage that could dictate the winner, but not so many opportunities for the sprinters. Ten stages with a prologue, and a rest day between.

There will start 123 riders for the Volta, one of the edition with fewer riders. Andalucia, Xacobeo Galicia, ISD-Neri, Contentpolis-Ampo, Landbouwkrediet-Colnago, PSK Whirlpool and Lampre are the foreign teams invited.

Talking about GC, there is two teams who should control the peloton and the race, Liberty Seguros have Hector Guerra who finished 2nd last two years, and Ruben Plaza the spanish champion.

The two spanish already showed this season good understanding, and i think the shared leadership shouldn’t be a problem. Honestly, Guerra should be the main favourite, but the door for a surprise from Plaza should stay open. Guerra has showed a great consistency in portuguese races and in Volta too, he won last two stage races that he raced: the Trofeu Joaquim Agostinho and in July the Vuelta a Madrid, showing a good progress for his main objective.

The other big team is Palmeiras Resort Tavira, but Candido Barbosa could be a factor of destabilization in the team. Barbosa is the most knowed and mediatic portuguese cycling, and portuguese fans are anxious to see a portuguese rider win the race again, he pursues this objective for years ending two times in 2nd and a 3rd too, but the 8th place last year, isn't a good sign. David Blanco winner of last year edition, and first foreign won 2 times the Volta, is the lider. Like last years he had a discrete season ending in good places but without a win.

Our other hope is Tiago Machado, the young man leader of Madeinox Boavista, finished in top10 last year with the young jersey. He is one of the most talented and agressive rider in our peloton, and already did some mistakes in his career because of that, but his speech is cleary, he knows that has to try to save energy and only use, in crucial points. He is a very good time trialist (our national ITT champion), and should be at front in hilly stages too, but the Torre and Senhora da Graça finishes, i have to see it first in front, to believe.

Damiano Cunego will be here too to prepare the Vuelta and the WC. My guess is that he should play a similar role that Cobo Acebo did last year: Top10 in GC, and a stage win.

João Cabreira, Bruno Pires, Santi Perez, Damiano Caruso,David Bernabeu (winner of TdP) are good riders, who could do surprises too, and they will try the GC.

A note for the almost 40 year rider Joaquim Andrade from LA- Rota dos Moveis, he already anounced his retirement in the final of the season but first he will conclude his 21th Volta!!

I hope you liked and assure that it will be a fantastic race.

Official site. (click in "etapas" , to see the profile stages)

His first big Victory!!

semprenaroda — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:07:49 -0000

Hei guys, there was a great weekend for portuguese cycling, i can’t remember when a portuguese won a race outside of our country. Coincidence or not, in this day (10 May) of 1984, died our greatest cyclist Joaquim Agostinho, after a fall in a stage of Volta ao Algarve.

This isn’t his first victory, but one of the most important for him, mainly because it's his first in Caisse d’Epargne. There are many riders that lead all their careers to achieve a victory like this, Costa in his first oportunity, didn’t miss. How many guys won in first season? (i know isn’t his first but i think it's almost as if it were.). So, what i want to talk about here is what influence this sucess will have on a young guy like him?

Personal, he will be more motivated than ever, and he knows now that when is in good shape he is capable to race at front in pro level. How many young talents that came in pro level and and go unnoticed? Another thing an more important i think, is his status now on Caisse d’Epargne. I know that CGE is a big team and Costa have a long way to claim leadership (if some day it will), but in his first moment that his teammates worked for him, he won. This his a bust of confidence not for him, but for his teammates too, who now recognized him like a rider who can trust. I doubt in current year that Caisse will name Rui Costa their leader for any race, but in the next opportunity that he has,teammates and DS should help him again with more confidence so he can get another victory.

The fans here in Portugal are increasingly confident that this will be our next star, maybe the next Azevedo or even Agostinho, but yeah, is to early to guess. Looking at their current skills, i think he is a rider for classics, and how is good in ITT, should be good in a week stage race too. Never seem him in a big mountain stage, but i think he could has difficulties there, i presume that he is more a rider like Lovkvist or Gendermman. One of his dreams is win Tour de France, but until he do a big Tour, we can’t say if he is capable or not, most likely to see this, is await to next season.

He began this season in T-A, Milan San Remo and in April he did almost every Pro Tour Classics (missed LBL), and heii!!, a 58th in P-R for a first try, i think was pretty good?! And i think he was the first portuguese to finish that race!!

Looking for CGE’s calendar in next months, i presume his next race should be Route du Sud (doubt that he will do Catalunha? if he goes should be a bonus for his victory!!), During the Tour he will come to Spain for some more races.

For the first time this season i went to site of Caisse d'Epargne, and is new and much more cool than 2008. I found this video with Eusebio Unzue talking about his young pupile:

Rui Costa par Eusebio Unzue
by Equipe-Cycliste-GCE

For who missed the queen stage and decisive of 4th Days of Dunkerque, here is the last 4km.Was quite exciting!!

His home page.

In the final today's interview, was asked him about if he thinks he will win the TdF someday, the young talent responded " I want think step by step, one at a time". Keep this thinking, thanks GPE, congrats Rui Costa. Chapeau!!

Vuelta a Asturias - Stage 4 LIVE streaming

semprenaroda — Fri, 01 May 2009 13:29:51 -0000

Vuelta a Asturias - Stage 4 LIVE streaming

Today is the queen stage, finish in a 1st category climb (Alto del Acebo)

Resume of 1st stage of Vuelta as Asturias

semprenaroda — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:49:42 -0000

Resume of 1st stage of Vuelta as Asturias

(the resume is in spanish)

Results:
1º Glen Chadwick (Rock Racing), 3h23m36s
2º Tiago Machado (Madeinox-Boavista), mt
(peloton)
3º Bruno Lima (Madeinox-Boavista), a 3m03s

Tiago Machado made a big step to win this race.

Volta ao Alentejo keeps his tradition!!

semprenaroda — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:59:32 -0000

What a fantastic race that was 27th Volta Alentejo. I would have loved if some TV did coverage. The stage race consisted in 5 stages: 2 initial flat, 1 time trial, the queen stage (average mountain), and then a final flat stage again.

Like last year in the first day a breakaway had suceed. Liberty Seguros and Madeinox Boavista controlled the peloton, but after 100km with many attempts to escape, the young french Maxime Bouet (Agritubel) managed to skip the peloton and took Glen Chadwick (Rock Racing) and Vitaly Kondrut (ISD) with him.

These three guys finish with a advantage of 34 seconds for the peloton where Bruno Lima (Madeinox) was the faster. The stage winner was Bouet who beat in sprint Glen Chadwick and Kondrut respectively.

So, like last year the Portuguese teams failed to control the race in the first day. The main favourite Hector Guerra (winner of last year) and others like Tiago Machado, Moreau or David Blanco, would have to do seriously work to recover the time lost for these three.

Second stage and early break made by Eládio Jimenez (CC Loulé-Louletano) and William Aranzazo (Boyaca es para vivirla) but they were caught near the finish. The stage finished in a bunch sprint and Filipe Cardoso (Liberty) won, Cesar Quitério (Loulé AcquaShow) in 2nd and Bruno Lima (Madeionx) in 3th.

Third stage was the 19km time trial around Beja. Hector Guerra did the best time and took the lead in GC. Moreau was second in the ITT, and third was Timofey Kritskiy (Katusha).

In GC, Guerra led with less than two seconds for Kondrut, and three for Bouet.

On saturday was the queen stage (6 mountain's categories), and for the comments that i saw in Portuguese forums: "the most exciting of the season so far". With 60kms to finish Oscar Sevilha and Mancebo incorporated a group of 17 riders who led the race. The group had 2 minutes of advantage and even Isidro Nozal (Liberty) who was in that group, had to wait for the peloton to work for Guerra.

This group was caught, and in the final climb (6km to the finish) Hector Guerra had no teammates. However, this wasn't enough as Guerra was still able to caught in the last kilometer Glen Chadwick and Tiago Machado who had jumped the peloton. Guerra brought with him a group of some riders where the fastest was our veteran Candido Barbosa who took his first victory in Palmeiras Resort Tavira.

In the beggining of last day the GC remained the same, and Hector Guerra could be the first rider to win the Volta ao Alentejo for two times.

GC:

1º Héctor Guerra (Liberty Seguros), 13h29m56s
2º Vitaliy Kondrut (ISD), a 2s
3º Maxime Bouet (Agritubel), a 3s
4º Christophe Moreau (Agritubel), a 18s
5º Glen Chadwick (Rock Racing), a 19s

So, in the last stage, Hector Guerra only had to pay attention to intermediate sprints and the final sprint. For the first point Liberty let a breakaway of ten riders to gain the intermediates sprints, but when this group had a gap of 1.30, Liberty took the chase. Initially thought that Liberty will let this breakaway suceed, but the gap was down to 20 seconds!! Palmeiras took that help and caught the fugitives. Was more one bunch sprint and the finish was a little uphill, Candido Barbosa (Palmeiras) took his second stage at sprint, and surprises of the surprises: Maxime Bouet (Agritubel) was third!!! and took the yellow jersey, for one second!!

One more time the DS of Libery Seguros (Américo Silva) wasn’t good in the picture because Liberty helped to chase that front group where weren’t any GC threat. Even in the final sprint, unlike Moreau and Nicolas Jalabert who helped Bouet to take that third place, in Liberty no one helped Guerra in that finish, and he was 4th just behind Bouet!! For Hector Guerra this is his third Volta ao Algarve that he finished with the best time. In 2004 he had a penalization because of his time trial (many criticized the decision of the judges). Last year he won, and in this edition, he lost because of the bonus times. (in the three last editions there wasn’t!!)

Volta ao Alentejo has proud to say that probably is the only race that in 27th editions, nobody has won more than one edition.

Confidence is really the key?

semprenaroda — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 01:44:04 -0000

I just saw the last news edition in CN. And reading the “Haussler, the confidence” report, i highlight this sentence from the so far, revelation of the season:

"The main thing is the confidence”

Thinking about this guy, he did somethings interesting last years, and already attracted our attention. In sprints he usually finished in top 5 at least, or even in podium, but winning?!! My ideia of him in cobbles is that he had some interesting results in previous years, but nothing like that we are seeing.

Every athletes have two sides: physical and mental. HH improve in both, especially in menthal. So what is main factor to raise confidence, start winning, a new team?

About sprinting in his case (who already proved his ability) i think confidence is the key like he said, but coobles isn't enough!! I suspect that he did very hard work in winter (different from previous years) and learn very much in this team, especially with some experienced like Hunt and Hammond, Klier. And about his new DD? He or they have credits in training guys for cobbles?

His move for Cervelo was the right choose, he finally did the jump that we are expected, now let see if he can keep it there.

Thinking in guys that can't win, first thought goes for: Juan Antonio Flecha!! He has everything to win stages, classics, but he can’t, why? I think his time for he move to another team... quickly.

About Ciolek, i think his time in Team Columbia was not good for him. In Telekom he won the confidence to take stages, now he lack in that. Let see what he can do this year, i think he only need to start winning to have a wonderful season.

What is your thoughts about who have high or low confidence right now? We will see Haussler keeping this form in next weeks or is too much for him?