Knock on wood? Not only the song title of the famous song by Eddie Floyd which was frequently covered, for example by David Bowie and Amii Stewart ... Knock on wood, it also allows to avoid "tempting fate" or destiny. It's also well know that many professional cyclists have some kind of ritual around a cycling race and Andreas Klier's idea thus seems quite interesting ... Indeed, the German rider of the Garmin-Barracuda team has invented a new product, MyKnoaky, which allows to knock on wood at any time!
Let's discover what it's all about in this interview we did at the start of the 6th stage of Paris-Nice in Suze-la-Rousse!
The birth of MyKnoaky
After a short flashback on his Paris-Nice so far, I asked Andreas Klier to present the MyKnoaky product.
The 70th edition of Paris-Nice 2012 ended today with a time trial on the Col d'Eze. The final decisive stage wasn't as important as it could have been if the general classification had been different than the one we had. Indeed, Bradley Wiggins ends this solo effort as the fastest man of all riders at the start in Nice and with this stage victory, the British rider also confirmed his yellow jersey and thus the final victory of this race to the sun.
The summary of the 8th stage: Nice > Col d'Eze
Under a bright and shining sun (the race to the sun really corresponded to its surname this year!) the riders started one by one in the streets of Nice at the bottom of the climb to the Col d'Eze.
9.6 kilometers long, this ascent had been qualified as very difficult by many riders, including those at the highest places in the general classification.
The longuest stage of Paris-Nice 2012 took place today between Sisteron and the usual stage finish on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
Longuest stage but also breakaway with the biggest break since it went up to values above 12 minutes for the two leading riders. Finally, Thomas de Gendt managed to get away alone and thus won this 7th stage, in the same way as when he won the first stage of Paris-Nice 2011 in Houdan!
The summary of the 7th stage of Paris-Nice 2012 - Sisteron > Nice
This morning at the start of the stage in Sisteron, 5 riders were said to not take the start: Leigh Howard (GreenEDGE), Rémy di Gregorio (Cofidis, le crédit en ligne), Marcus Burghardt (BMC Racing Team), Lars Bak (Lotto-Belisol) and ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 1859x
The sixth stage of Paris-Nice 2012 took place today between Suze-la-Rousse and Sisteron and it was the 3rd stage in row with a distance of 178 kilometers.
The creation of bordures at the very start of the stage was finally at the origin of the leading group where the two riders who battled for victory tonight in Sisteron came from. Luis Leon Sanchez won the stage with only millimeters difference from Jens Voigt on the white line which was drawn in the Avenue de la Libération of the city known for it's famous rocks.
The summary of the 6th stage of Paris-Nice 2012: Suze-la-Rousse > Sisteron
5 riders didn't come to the start this morning: Dmitriy Fofonov of the Astana team, Rémi Pauriol (FDJ BigMat), Maarten Neyens (Lotto-Belisol), Klaas Lodewy ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 3467x
Today one of the most important stages was on the programme in Paris-Nice 2012, between Onet-le-Château and Mende, with no less than 6 climbs of which 3 in the first category and a mountain top finish. Contrary to the highly expected stage victory for Alejandro Valverde, it was finally the Dutch rider Lieuwe Westra who won this stage and who gets very close to Bradley Wiggins who remains the leader in the general classifciation.
The summary of the 5th stage of Paris-Nice 2012: Onet-le-Château > Mende
This morning, just before 11.30AM, this 5th stage of Paris-Nice 2012 started in Onet-le-Château, for 178.5 kilometers towards Mende and its famous Montée Laurent Jalabert which is officially called the Côte de la Croix Neuve.
The only rider who didn't come to the start this morning was the Dutch man ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 3602x
Gianni Meersman, who already finished 3rd in yesterday's stage, won today's stage in Rodez! The Belgian rider thus climbs two steps on the podium after a stage which was marked by a 5 men breakaway, which was taken back at about twenty kilometers from the finish. Attemptes from Thomas de Gendt and Andreas Klöden didn't really work out and this stage thus ended in a sprint again.
The summary of the 4th stage of Paris-Nice 2012: Brive-la-Gaillarde > Rodez
After Andy Schleck abandoning yesterday with a gastroenteritis, two of his team mates with Radioshack-Nissan also got hit by this disease: Joost Posthuma and Jan Bakelants didn't come to the start. Taylor Phinney of the BMC Racing Team had the same problems.
...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 3937x
The third stage of Paris-Nice 2012 took place today between Vierzon and the Lac de Vassivière over a distance of 194 kilometers. A 3 riders strong breakaway animated this stage, but once they were taken back, the final uphill part of the stage towards the lake allowed this stage to finish in a bunch sprint, sprint which was won by Alejandro Valverde of Movistar Team.
The summary of the 3rd stage of Paris-Nice 2012
The start in Vierzon took place at the end of this morning, with 173 riders at the start. Indeed Andy Schleck (Radioshack-Nissan) decided not to come to the start because of an acute gastroenteritis. Aidis Kruopis (GreenEDGE) didn't start either.
Andy Schleck declared about his abandon that he really wanted to try. But against sickness you cannot do a lot. I need to let my body recover from this. This is bad news, I wanted to perform well in ...> Read the whole story | 1 comment | shown 4582x
The second stage of Paris-Nice 2012, between Mantes-la-Jolie and Orléans, has been marked by the wind, crashes and the final sprint of the breakaway which was won by the Belgian rider Tom Boonen of the Omega Pharma-QuickStep team. Bradley Wiggins takes the precious yellow jersey which he would have liked to take after yesterday's time trial.
The summary of the 2nd stage of Paris-Nice 2012: Mantes-la-Jolie > Orléans
The start of the stage was in Mantes-la-Jolie at the end of the morning (at 11.54AM), with 176 riders at the start.
This afternoon, the first stage of Paris-Nice 2012 took place as an individual time trial between Dampierre-en-Yvelines and Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse. The Swedish champion of this discipline, Gustav Larsson, turned out to be the fastest on the 9.4 km long circuit.
The summary of the first stage of Paris-Nice 2012
Under a grey sky, Alexandre Geniez of the Project 1t4i team was the first to start ahead of the castle in Dampierre-en-Yvelines, on his way to the Côte des 17 Tournants which was on the race route just after the start.
Though the rain was threatening all day long, it only really started to rain at the start of the 10 last riders. Luis Léon Sanchez (Movistar Team) was the first rider to start under the rain. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), the last winner of Paris-Nice and World Champion time tria ...> Read the whole story | no comments | shown 5874x
This article is not yet available in English. You can read it below in French:
Ce dimanche, Paris-Nice 2012 partira de Dampierre-en-Yvelines pour un contre-la-montre de 9,4 kilomètres vers Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse avant d'enchaîner sur un peu plus de 1.146 kilomètres dans les 7 étapes suivantes.
Dans cet article vous trouverez la liste des partants, avec leurs numéros de dossard et quelques informations supplémentaires sur les 22 équipes présentes dans cette 70ème édition de Paris-Nice.
176 coureurs se présenteront au départ, représentant 27 nationalités. La France (40) est le pays le mieux représenté, suivi par la Belgique (23) et l'Espagne (22).
L'ordre de départ du contre-la-montre inaugural entre Dampierre-en-Yvelines et Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse