Written by Team Dinmore at 15:06 16/4-2010
Ramiro Monteros (52 - Captain)
Harley Newcomb (34 - Team Mate)
Titus Scoggins (32 - Team Mate)
Monte Moraga (33 - Team Mate)
Deston Morel (34 - Lead Out)
Gerard Minnich (33 - Lead Out)
Squad leader Ramiro Monteros has a lot to prove after the team narrowly missed out on entry last year and he placed 4th in the inaugural Cymru Taith. The Honduran rider will need to prove his worth in this tour, as a frustrating lack of result this past season have left both the management of the riders exasperated. He lacks support from teammates in the high mountains due to a lack of funding, meaning training cannot be carried out, but the hope is that his strong time trialling abilities will be put to use in the two big time trials.
As the Volta approaches all eyes will be on the men at the front of the race. Just a few days after the spectacle of Zürich-Bern-Zürich, the races adds to an already impressive start to the season as all of the main men in the mountains in the top 2 divisions have had their chance to shine, giving early season pointers towards who to look at for the Germany Tour.
In just its second year as a race the Volta has already grabbed a lot of headlines, mainly over the events of last year and the now infamous VCBM saga that unfolded, and is a place for the big teams of tomorrow and of today to show how they plan to assault future tours.
The Giro of OCM has a tough course, with 3 mountain stages, two hilly, two time trials, a prologue as well as 2 stages for the fast men to impress. These ten stages make the race a rival to Germany Tour in difficultly to ride, but lacks the stature of the more illustrious Germany Tour.
One of the big stories so far is the fact that the whole of the podium from last year’s race and fourth place are not eligible to race due to their teams being too high up in the rankings. This means that the man who has the most chance of retaining a high placing is Ian Defley of Dodge. The Aussie star has spent some time in the wind tunnel and is now a force to reckoned with, so far as GC men are concerned, in the individual tests against the clock.
So far as time trials go there are 4 clear favourites for the prologue and the test around the streets of Aveiro and of Porto itself, Philip Hostede, Salvino Zubeldia and the Super Bros duo of Luther Mars and Jeremiah Masson. These 4 may be the ones fighting for the stages and the glory that comes with the victories, but the real battle will be elsewhere.
So far as the GC is concerned there is a wealth of talent in the mix, ranging from the ages of 22 to the healthy age of 30 there is a chance that a rider of any age could contend for the overall victory. The main men as far as pure climbing is concerned are Frank van Galen, Ubaid Ghiyath, Ian Defley, Tito Vera and Ramiro Monteros. These are the men that can pull away when the gradient hits double figures and these are likely winners on a summit finish. However, some of these riders may struggle in the time trials and will have to be content will having a "good day" in these races.
The all rounder’s and the more conventional stage racers are perhaps more likely to take overall victory than the pure climbers, but they will rely on their time trials and fast finishes to take them to the top and will have to hope for a consistent performance throughout the whole tour. Men like Adler Talcott as all rounders and Bartosz Ozóg, Christoph Frisch, Yasir Sahir, Yasunari Yamauchi, Harman Girault and Isaak Papadimitriou as the stage racers, and they will all no doubt be challenging for the overall providing they don’t suffer too much at the hands of the climbers and tire too early on to press home their advantage over their skinnier rivals.
The other big battle is for the green jersey, this is where the highly tuned engines that are sprinters will partake in a Battle Royale for supremacy of the flat. This is possibly the most contested jersey with at least 16 rider who could hope for a decent result in the two likely bunch sprints, however, where the real contenders shine through is in the hills, to see if they can stay with the puncheurs and pick up valuable points in the undulating stages before and after the big mountain stages. This therefore gives you a list of real green jersey candidates; Gerald Karda, Jahn Roselund, Torben Sturmann, Dan Korosec and Douglas Sullivent. In addition though are two name that may take you by surprise Adler Talcott and Ian Defley, but when the road goes up these are two of the fastes over hills and mountains respcetively adn will no doubt hope to emulate Keegan Shiable's domination of the high stage like in last years edition, if it is possible...
Of course it would be careless to forget that not everyone is aiming for the yellow or green jersey, there is of course the rather sinister looking black jersey for the fastest riders aged 25 and under. Many of the overall contenders are eligible for this honour and therefore could be walking away with two jerseys if all goes to plan, these include; Cruz Sierra, Mas''ud Qutaiba, Bartosz Ozóg, Ubaid Ghiyath, and Tito Vera.
All that remains to say is good luck to all those who ride, and may the best rider triumph come the finale on day 22!
Subscribers: 2
| |
Comments
@Kernow
all you have to do is increase the scroll amoint, in the case it is at 5, but dont go too high or its gets jumpy and you cant read it anyway :)
eg:
marquee bgcolor="#cccccc" loop="-1" scrollamount="5" width="100%">Our line-up
Nice Work! - wow the top scroller is faster, how did you do that?
Great stuff! Good luck with the tour. See you've been practising the html as well.
sorry if i left anyone out, please feel free to have a moan
|
Other Team's Press Releases
|
|
|
|
No press releases available..
|
|
|
|
