Calendar and Results 2008

My plans for the next few months.

June 8th Sunday: Skoda Tour de Luxembourg
June 15th - 22nd: In Switzerland (Tour de Suisse, Stage 2, 5, 6, 8 and 9)
June 29th Sunday: National Championship (Bochum Germany or other country?)

July 5th - 27th: Tour de France (All the stages including the Team Presentation)

August 24th Sunday: Eneco Tour (Benelux)
August 31st Sunday: Deutschland Tour

September 1st Monday: Deutschland Tour
September 7th Sunday: Vattenfall Cyclassics (GER)


Autograph collection:

1. Stuart O'Grady
2. Karsten Kroon
3. Allan Johansen
4. Kurt-Asle Arvesen
5. Matthew Goss
6. Anders Lund
7. Matti Breschel
8. Marcus Ljungqvist
9. Lasse Bøchman
10. André Steensen
11. Jens Voigt
12. Andy Schleck
13. Nicki Sørensen
14. Michael Bludzun
15. Alexndr Kolobnev
16. Kaper Klostergaard
17. Bobby Julich
18. Gustav Erik Larsson
19. Fränk Schleck
20. Carlos Sastre Candil
21. Chiris Anker Sørensen
22. Lars Bak
23. Volodymir Gustov
24. Jurgen Van Goolen

Hopefully, I will get these men to give their autographs on my jersey.
25. Juan José Haedo (at Td Luxembourg or Td Suisse)
26. Fabian Cancellara (ditto)
27. Inigo Cuesta Lopez de Castro (during Tour de France, I think he will be there)
28. Bradley McGee (Eneco Tour?? or Deutschland Tour??)
29. Jason McCartney (Eneco Tour?? or Deutschland Tour??)

Bayern-Rundfahrt 2008 Part II

I predicted (or at least knew) where they were going to put up the sign
indicating the beginning of the feed zone. And they were exactly where I
thought they would be!

By taking a look at the document on the organizer's site and at the picture
from Google Earth, I predicted the point as "N49 52.237 E10 48.879". Here is
the actual photo of the signs.


As you can see it was a hot summer day down there. Around 9:00 the temperature
was already 24 degrees Celsius and in the afternoon it was over or close to
30 degrees Celsius.

The end of the feed zone was at the end (in the direction of the race) of the
village called Unteraurach. I thought the signs would be at the beginning
of the village. I missed them by 100 meters. Here is the photo. You are
looking at the village from the opposite direction of the race course.


Around 11:40?, the first team car arrived there. It was a Credit Agricole car. By 12:00,
most of the team cars were there.



Here are the team cars. You can see the rough location by looking at the
road sign.


Our Team CSC car was also there.　At the feed zone, I picked up three musettes
and two bidons. Three musettes were of Aqua & Sapone Caffe Mokambo, Topsport
Vlaanderen and Wiesenhof-Felt. Two bidons were of Thuringer Energie and
Team Gerolsteiner.

... Wait a minute! Wiesenhof-Felt? This team ceased to exist at the end of 2007.
Who used this musette?


At the finish.


There was still this small breakaway when the race arrived at the finish. They were to make one
more round.



So Team Milram had to keep the pace up for the race leader,
Christian Knees. They were to catch the breakaway in the following round.



Eventually, the race was won by Heinrich Haussler of Team Gerolsteiner. 
I did not know he was participating in BRR, but the moment I saw a jumpy
feisty man in Gerolsteiner jersey at the finish line, his name came to my mind. 



Team CSC riders. Lars Bak and Karsten Kroon after the finish.



Karsten Kroon



Marcus Ljungqvist receiving a bottle of some cold drink and the instructions how to get to
the cars where he could change and rest.

After this, I went to a bit remote place on foot where Team CSC cars parked and waiting for the riders to come home. They were friendly. I had fun hanging out there.

Bayern-Rundfahrt 2008 Part I

Team CSC accepted the invitation at the last minute. Team CSC participates
2008 edition of Bayern-Rundfahrt.
According to  

Bayern-Rundfahrt (planned) participants according to Team CSC official site.

1. Lars Bak
2. Matti Breschel
3. Lasse Bøchman
4. Karsten Kroon
5. Marcus Ljungqvist
6. Stuart O'Grady
7. André Steensen

And according to Cyclingnews.com, Bradley McGee is also participating.
We may have two Aussies with broken collarbones. If and when McGee is
there, I will get his autograph.

Team CSC announced that they would participate in BR on May 21st. Until
then I had no plan of going to see the race. I will go visit the riders on Sunday,
June 1st. The parcours is between Bad Neustadt a.d.Saale and Erlangen with
a feed zone somewhere between Mühlendorf and Unteraurach. I am planning to
see the start, feed zone and finish if possible.



Tour de Luxembourg (planned) participants according to Team CSC official site.

1. Kurt-Asle Arvesen
2. Fabian Cancellara
3. Volodymir Gustov
4. Juan José Haedo
5. Bobby Julich
6. Stuart O'Grady
7. Andy Schleck
8. Fränk Schleck

It will be the first time this season for me to see JJ Haedo. I will get his autograph.
And I will get one from Fabian Cancellara. I could get it at Roubaix but I held out
on it.

If I get McGee to autograph my jersey at BR and Haedo and Cancellara to do so 
at TdL, my jersey will be loaded with 27 autographs. Two more to go then.

Iñigo Cuesta Lopez de Castro and Jason McCartney must give me their autograph.



Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré participants according to Team CSC official site.

1. Lars Bak
   
2. Iñigo Cuesta Lopez de Castro
   
3. Alexandr Kolobnev
   
4. Karsten Kroon
   
5. Carlos Sastre Candil
   
6. Chris Anker Sørensen
   
7. Nicki Sørensen
   
8. Jurgen Van Goolen
   

Last year I was there to see all the stages. It was great! I enjoyed myself. I enjoyed
painting on the street.

Unfortunately this year I decided not to be there simply because the race is held in
a "too remote" region. Avignon is over 800km from my home. Instead, I decided to 
see Tour de Suisse.

Tour de Swiss 2008 Part I

The event is held 14th to 22nd of June this year. Last year I followed 
all the stages of Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré. It was fun! I intended
to do the same this year but it turned out the first couple of stages
would be held tooooo far away from my home in Germany. Shame!

So I switched to Tour de Swiss. Switzerland is not too far.

I intend to visit Switzerland between 15th and 22nd. I cannot follow
all the stages simply because I have to be careful about the money. Tour
de France is nearing and I know I spend a lot of dough in July.

My plan for the moment, I will ...

• Stage 1:14th (Saturday) be working and will miss out on the stage
  
• Stage 2:15th (Sunday) be in Langnau im Emmental
  
• Stage 3:16th (Monday) be somewhere and training on my bike
  
• Stage 4:17th (Tuesday) ditto
  
• Stage 5:18th (Wednesday) be at Lukmanierpass
  
• Stage 6:19th (Thursday) be in Ambri, I guess
  
• Stage 7:20th (Friday) camp out at Klausenpass and be painting
  
• Stage 8:21st (Saturday) be at Klausenpass
  
• Stage 9:22nd (Sunday) be in Bern
  

This way, I will save some money while having fun and can train
myself to be fit for Tour de France.

Reference altitudes and longitudes

1. Langnau im Emmental (N46 56.397 E7 47.144) The Start of Stage 1 and 2
   
2. Altdorf (N46 52.964 E8 38.490) The Start of Stage 8 and 9. William Tell?
   
3. Bern Finish (N46 57.710 E7 27.946) The Finish of Stage 9
   
4. Klausenpass (N46 52.103 E8 51.379) The Finish of Mountain ITT, Stage 8
   
5. Mauensee (N47 10.025 E8 04.333) The ravitaillement of Stage 9
   
6. Lukmanierpass (N46 33.797 E8 48.068) A category 1 mountain top of Stage 5
   
7. Ambri (N46 30.851 E8 40.912) The start of Stage 6 and it is an airport
   

You can copy what is between (  ) above and paste it in "Fly to" in Google Earth.

Tour de Luxembourg 2008 Part I

I had thought that this site
(http://www.tdl.lu/) was the official site of the organizer of
"Tour de Luxebourg". I recently found that I could have been wrong.

I found this site by Škoda Auto Luxembourg (http://www.skoda-auto.lu/).
You can follow the link from the menu above "Škoda Tour" to
"2008 edition". And additionally, this Škoda site
points to another site, which seems to be the official site of the
Tour. (http://toupatcri.googlepages.com/skoda-tourdeluxembourg)

I intend to visit Luxembourg Sunday June 8th to watch the last
stage of the event. I will join Schleck fan club people at "Côte de Clausen"
Côte de Clausen is the finish but before the race finished there, riders
pass that point several times. That would be a great place to sit and
enjoy.

If you use Google Earth, you can see how these places look
like from the sky. 
I use Garmin MapSource (since I own a Garmin GPS navigation system)
and Google Earth to locate (more like to decipher the blunt descriptions 
found on organizer's web site) the points I  would like to be on the route.

Mersch (M49 45.000 E6 06.347) The Start
Stafelter (N4939.508 E6 10.540) The ravitaillement, I guess

You can copy what is between (  ) above and paste it in "Fly to" in Google Earth.

Calendar and Results 2008 (May 4th)

Autograph collection after Rund um den Henninger-Turm (01. 05. 2008)
and Tour de Romandie (04. 05. 2008)

1. Stuart O'Grady
2. Karsten Kroon
3. Allan Johansen
4. Kurt-Asle Arvesen
5. Matthew Goss
6. Anders Lund
7. Matti Breschel
8. Marcus Ljungqvist
9. Lasse Bøchman
10. André Steensen
11. Jens Voigt
12. Andy Schleck
13. Nicki Sørensen
14. Michael Bludzun
15. Alexndr Kolobnev
16. Kaper Klostergaard
17. Bobby Julich
18. Gustav Erik Larsson
19. Fränk Schleck
20. Carlos Sastre Candil
21. Chiris Anker Sørensen
22. Lars Bak
23. Volodymir Gustov
24. Jurgen Van Goolen

24 riders so far.

Next stop.
June 8th Tour de Luxembourg (last stage)
June (15th - 22nd) Tour de Swiss (several stages?)

July 5th - 27th Tour de France (all stages including the team presentation ceremony)

Rund um den Henninger-Turm Part II

Shortly before the start, participating team were introduced. Our
Team CSC riders are here.


47th edition of Rund um den Henninger-Turm is on.


André Steensen notices that the glove on Matthew Goss's right hand
is different from the ones on sale for the general public in Team
CSC's webshop. Team riders' equipment (jerseys and etc.) are
specially made for the team and we (general public) can not get them.


Silence-Lotto.


Team Milram.
While the team presentation was on, Marco Velo had fun making fun of
a German photographer. He silently pantomimed comically that the
photographer directly in front of him should cut off the annoying
curly mustache(big Kaiser's mustache).


This is the famous German photographer.