Short version: potential + surprises – killer instinct
Finishing the season with only 4 wins on 118 race days does not sound too good at first and while the top end results are lacking, it's abundantly clear that Karl can develop into a big rider. The teams decision to put Karl into all 3 GTs resulted in a crowded race schedule and near death during the last few Vuelta stages. Something Karl won't do again in the future.
The season started well with an early win up Mt Barker in Australia and 6th overall. As a preparation for his first goal Milano-Sanremo, Karl rode Mallorca, Oman and Paris-Nice which made it clear that he needs to improve his climbing for the GTs. As a defending champion, Milano-Sanremo was a huge disappointment, as the sprinters held on over the Poggio and Karl finished only 13th.
Karl refocused on the cobbles hoping for a better result than last years 15th in Wevelgem. A solid 8th at E3 was followed by a 2nd place at Wevelgem, but like last year there was nothing to gain in Vlaanderen finishing the Ronde 18th. With a 10th place in Roubaix, Karl finished off the cobbles on a positive note anxiously awaiting his first GT.
The Giro was all about teamleaders Aru and Craddock, but Karl got the green light on flat and slightly hilly stages. Karls dream landing the Maglia Rosa for a few days was already crushed after the TTT where TomTom finished 3rd last. Still, after a 5th and a 2nd place on stages 2 and 3, Karl wore the Maglia Rossa for 2 days. To top it off Karl won Stage 11 from Forli to Imola making his season already a success. In the end, Karl finished 4th overall in the Points competition, but mostly was lucky avoiding the timecut in the mountains.
After a short recovery in Swizerland, Karl won the Austrian NC RR before heading into the Tour. A good prologue as 65th and finishing 23rd on the tough hilly stage 2 put him into white for the next 4 days. The rest of the tour was suffering at its finest, but at least he had the perfect preparation for his last goals of the season, Clasica San Sebastian and the ENECO Tour.
Like last year Karl stayed with the best over the last hill in Spain, but his overconfidece showed again, as he led out his group of 7 getting oversprinted by 3. Angry, he destroyed the competition the next day at La Poly Normande winning with time to spare.
The ENECO Tour GC is always decided on the last days cobbled stage, where Karl finished 2nd like last year. Prior to that, a medium time trial and a bunch of sprints sort the classifications. Sadly, noone at TomTom remembered the team time trial and so, Karls GC ambitions were thwarted on the second stage losing almost 2 minutes. Angry at his management, Karl finished the Vuelta without any results and was barely alive when he got called up and somehow finished the WC ITT and RR.
Landmarks
23rd
WorldTour ranking
6th
Santos Tour Down Under + Stage 4
8th
E3 Harelbeke
2nd
Gent - Wevelgem
10th
Paris - Roubaix
1st
Giro Stage 11 + Points jersey for 2 days
4th
Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian
1st
La Poly Normande
1st
Austrian RR NC
done
finished all 3 GTs in a single year
Outlook
After a single disappointing season, TomTom pulled the plug and ended its sponsorship. UKs Vodafone jumped on board trying to compensate the loss of top climbers Fabio Aru and Lawson Craddock. The former dutch connection is still obvious in Giro winner Wilco Kelderman, climber Daan Olivier, cobbler Sebastian Langeveld and puncheur Mike Teunissen. Additionally, the climbing squad gets a boost in Spains Diego Rubio and the two italians Domenico Pozzovivo and Diego Rosa.
Karl Milde is the undisputed captain for the cobbled classics and apart from Langeveld out on his own. Having the best punch and stamina among the classic specialists means he'll prolong his spring peak to take a swing at the hilly classics. Skipping the Giro his late season focus will once again be on stagewins at the Tour, San Sebastian, ENECO and the a stagewin at the Vuelta
The team has great depth for mountains and hills, but lacks top end leaders apart from Kelderman. A number of perfect sprint leadout man still lack a sprinter to finish it off, but all in all the team should be far away from relegation. Hopefully, Karl alone is sufficient for that.
The one thing every young cyclist dreams of...winning Le Tour, bringing the yellow jersey into cold Iceland...this was the main aim of young Gudjon when he decided to join cycling...but aging out his dream got further and further away...it wasn´t his talent but just his body that wasn´t made for this...no one would say he isn´t strong on the bike, but he is more the man for the fast pace, when you need all your energy at once...the heartbreaks when younger guys flew away on the icelandic mountains were gone soon when he by far beat the best sprinters of the icelandic cycling scene...and so the new dream came...being the first icelandic to win the biggest stage of the Tour de France every year...on the cobblestone in front of the Arc de Triumphe...being the fastest man on the holy Champs Elysee
2015 - Season 1 BMC Developement Team
Gudjon signed a contract with BMC, to develop as good as possible with youngsters around him and the captain role for sprint races. At only 19 years of age, he immediately had thetrust of his teammates. The muscalar body of him, untypical for a cyclist, clearly had the potential of scaring the shit out of his opponents and show some strength in the battle for positions when it comes to sprint preperations.
From the beginning of the season on, Gudjon had the goal to acclimate on the world cyclist scene, coming to central europe from only racing in scandinavia. However the big icelandic managed to create some decent U23 results without having a sprint-train in any race. He quickly learned how to give and take backwheels on the final kilometers, and he also learned how hard this elbow-battles can be.
Already in this season the first one-day-race victory came clear for him, at the GP Liberazioni in Italy at U23 category. Additionaly he took a whole lot of five stage wins on different european U23 or 2.2 stage races, taking three green jerseys. But the most unexpected coup he took was in France, when the two-meter-man took the mountains jersey at the short Tour de Pays de Sevoire..
His debut season lead to an interest of many Continental and even three Pro-Conti-Teams (Bretagne, Androni, Cult Energy). So pretty early BMC let him go as they saw not the potential for him to go straight into their professional team. After good talks with many teams, Gudjon decided to go to a smaller team, not sure if it rides in the PCT or CT the next year. Cult and Roubaix-Lille were the last team with chances on him, and finally he decided to go to the team which wanted him most, french team Roubaix-Lille Metropole.
2016 - Season 2 Roubaix-Lille Metropole
The second season of Gudjons career started surprisingly on Pro-Continental level. The main men like Vantomme, who were the main factor for the promotion, left the team for World Tour Cycling. But Roubaix themselves added even better riders to the team: Not only Palmarsson for the sprints with Tleubayev, Lander and Krieger to help him, but also Chaves and Damuseu as climbers and with Antomarchi a popular french puncheur. Nevertheless Chaves and Palmarsson had the shared captain role for their target races.
The big deal for Gudjon was the chance to go for victories in .2 races as well as racing french WT races and see how the big names do. His major goal was to score as many points as possible, to keep his team up in the PCT.
From the beginning on Gudjon did exactly what was expected from him. Scoring points in 1. or .HC one-day races with consistent results, dominating french races on .2 level like winning the GC of flat tours. Even scoring his first World Tour points by finishing in the Top 10 in Plouay. At the end of the season Gudjon has scored a total of 1562 total points in the CQ-Ranking, which alone would´ve kept the team on PCT-Level. Adding the points scored by the likes of Chaves and others, they nearly even qualified for the World Tour. But at the end of the season trouble came in....
Carglass decided to buy the team out of the hands of the regional cycling club, which changed the aim of the project massively. Instead of a nice and friendly climate the tradition should go and short-term glamour should be brought in by new riders. A lot of riders decided to get away, even if they would get much more money with the team. So did Gudjon, and as he heard of the young Project MTN, Qhubeka and Zolu decided to go with he couldn´t resist to join the first ever african World Tour Team, which just achieved promotion.
Jens Zemke as the manager expanded MTN-Qhubeka to Zolu, and the young leaders Meintjes and Kudus were joined by Palmarsson and Enger, which made one of the most promising teams of all for the future.
2017 - Season 3 Zolu Kingdom - MTN Qhubeka
Season three began, and Gudjon had his first chance on the one goal he dreamed of: The victory on the Champs Elysee. If he could deliver before and his team choses him for this big task. This year he had a great team on his side, similar to Roubaix-Lille but stronger and more talented.
The year started well with the preperation of Gudjons first ever Milan - San Remo, with vitories in the arabic races, his first ever WT-win in Down Under and good form on some BeNeLux-Classics. But he didn´t expect too much of the earliest monument of the year; the final hills seem like they´re too much for him. But Palmarsson proved that everyone who counted him out was wrong, winning the bunch sprint. Trouble was that Benoot survived a late attack on this very slow race and took a solo victory on the Via Roma.
From then one there was a planned long rest time, until we came back to action at the Tour de Suisse, where he could deliver and win a stage. But the debut Tour de France went damn bad. Niccolo Bonifazio was unbeatable with a Sprint Train containing Selicha and Ewan. Palmarsson took some points in the mountains for the points jersey, but he couldn´t come back to Bonifazio, who mostly won the battles aginst Palmarsson, Cavendish, Kittel and Sagan. But on the very last stage, when Bonifazio was already the winner of the green jersey and Nairo Quintana looked like the first Colombian to take yellow home, Greipel had on one of his best days of his declining career. He brought Gudjon perfectly on the backwheel of Bonifazio, from where he outpaced everyone with an unbeatable sprint to achieve his big dream, to raise his hands on the allmighty cobbles of the Champs Elysee.
Although it was hard to motivate for more, Gudjon still managed to achieve decent results after this. A fourth place in Plouay as well as some good results in late classics like Paris-Tours ended an awesome season of Gudjon.
But then he decided to think about his career. What could be further goals for him? The Via Roma? The Petacchi? Even the treble of all points jerseys of Grand Tours in one year? The last point fall in his interest, and still being only 21 years of age, he decided to try a historic season. Therefore he needed a team where he was the top sprinter on all three Grand Tours. Gudjon decided that he don´t want to stand in Sondre´s way and blocking his Grand Tour aims for a whole year, so he moved on to a team with big names but no sprinters who could try to take his place. He was in talks to the new team British Airways, but they signed Cavendish. Bonifazio at Astana and Kittel at Giant were also men he feared, so he decided to join Lobato and Rojas at Movistar. As a young kid he dreamed of this team, with the likes of Alejandro Valverde climbing hills and mountains like no one could do.
2018 - Season 4 Movistar Team
The treble of all three jerseys. If Gudjon manages this on the age of 22, he is on the olymp of cycling. Movistar, lost Quintana to British Airwayes, gave Gudjon all the freedom he wants for the three Grand Tours, but decided to give him neither a train nor decent helpers on flat terrain despite Terpstra - yes, Niki Terpstra at Movistar - at Le Tour.
The season started amazing. with victories in Mallorca and a surprising second behind van Avermaet at Gent-Wevelgem on the one side. On the darker side, the Classicissima was way too fast for Gudjon this time. He got caught out on the Poggio.
The season lead into the Giro, and Gudjon showed his class. He took one stage, losing most of the flat and hilly stages to breakaways but winning the bunch sprint. Quintana was big trouble for us this time, as he managed to win many Mountain Stages, were sadly points were given at the Giro. Gudjon breaked away on stage 20, where he was equal to Quintana before, and took some weightful points in Bonus Sprints, while the small Colombian couldn´t catch the winning breakaway on top of one of the hardest days in the Giros history. Then at the last stage, we had a perfect example of the whole Giro. Rubio could take the win in Milano, despite being a climber solo on a pan flat stage, but there was too less help by the other contestants. At least the red jersey was won and the first part of the treble was done.
The year quickly headed into the Dauphine, where Gudjon amazingely took two stages, and came in top shape to the Tour. But this year France had a strange time. The GC winner was clear early, Quintana took it wide ahead of Pinot(Zolu Kingdom) and Wellens(Lotto-Soudal). But for the points jersey Bonifazio had a tough fight against Palmarsson. After missing out one hilly sprint, Palmarsson was in disadvantage early. By the time, he took nearly every bonus sprint, but at least couldn´t beat the Sagan-Selicha-Bonifazio train. Astana controled the Green Jersey more and more, even despite the fact that Palmarsson came near to Green on stage 20, being in disadvantage by just ten points after some big attacks for green points on the mountain stages. Another time it was the Champs Elysee to decided, but this time all went another way. Bonifazio took both Bonus Sprint and final sprint, while Palmarsson, mostly unprotected, finished on P8, even overtaken by Kristoff in the sprinters classification. He just lost too much energy the days before to kick out of the legendary tunnel near the finish line.
So the plan failed, but he didn´t want to give up the sprinters classification for the Vuelta. This changed after ten stages, when Marce Kittel was far far away from everyone, and World Champion Kwiatkowski decided to show off and at least even take the points classification as a puncheur. Palmarsson was too weak to really deliver, finishing threee times on P2 but not having a victory out if the Vuelta or Tour at all.
The year finished for him with the disgusting record of 13 second places and only one stage win on the three Grand Tours; he also got less points in the CQ-Rankings than the year before. But still this year was weightful for him, he learned a lot about what´s possible and what´s not, how big the influence of a suiting team can be and how bad some plans can fail. So he tealked with nearly all World Tour Teams, and even when Movistar changed the sponsoring name to Festina and they purchased some sprinters Gudjon knew that it was time to leave. He stand in talks once again with the Brits, also Lotto-Soudal with Benoot and Wellens were attracting his interest. At the end he waited until Bonifazio signed with British Airways, Kittel went to Lotto, Zanconelli to Festina, so he could chose being clearly the best sprinter left on the market. Giant-Alpecin decided to offer him a good future plan. Terpstra, kind of his mentor at the Movistar time, came with him, and together they had a good team for the following campaign.
2019 - Season 5 Team Giant - Alpecin
New year, new goals, and after the harsh fail last season Gudjon stayed calmer with his plans. He said that he wants to focus on the Green Jersey, leaving out Giro and Vuelta. Other goals should be as a major the Classicissima and Half-Classics, minor goal is to get as many wins as possible in this season. With a team containing Degenkolb, Phinney, Arndt, Zabel, Groenewegen, Hofland, Sinkedam, Terpstra, van de Meer, Hofstede and many more promising sprinters and powerhouses, the focus on a suiting team in terms of goals was higher than ever.
The season started nicely with crucial victories in Down Under, France, Belgium and Qatar. His preperations for the classics went perfectly, so he surprised with victories at Gent - Wevelgem and E3 Prijs after late attacks.
He delivered on many other early classics too (like K-B-K), the only race he tried to deliver but couldn´t completely was again the classicissima he lost to Zanconelli and Bonifazio. The season went on with a long break until the Tour de Suisse, where he prepared for the Tour.
Starting Le Tour Gudjon took the white jersey at stage 2, where he finished together with a group of 6 (Bonifazio, Benoot, Kwiatkowski, Selicha, Sagan). He could hold onto it until stage 4, and on this cobbled stage Palmarsson rode a big attack. Chasing Sep Vanmarcke together with Taylor Phinney he just couldn´t reach him, but gain enough time on the peloton (1"40) to take yellow and green. And this jersey gave him wings. Gudjon took his first win on stage 5, where he could deliver a finesseur attack on the last descent to take victory in yellow.
Further Gudjon was able to keep yellow until stage 10, the first mountains stage, surviving all the wind, cobbles and hills. He wouldn´t win a stage later on in this race for two issues. Most of his target stages were won by breakaways, and Giant had Alaphillipe to protect in his GC ambitions. But Palmarsson showed his strength on all sprints, so no one could take the green jersey off his back until he reached Paris. Here Palmarsson was beaten by the Swift-Sagan-Cavendish-Bonifazio train, while Zabel failed to bring Palmarsson into a good position out of the tunnel; Gudjon only finished second. But on the bright side he was allowed to go on top of the final Tour Podium for his second time. But this time not as stage winner, but as the Points jersey winner next to Kwiatkowski in yellow (winning in front of Barguil and Wellens), and the best climber Warren Barguil in the polka dot jersey.
After this big result Gudjon decided just to go for as many victories as possible to end this season. He finished with a total of 28 victories, some great ones like finally the GP Plouay, Paris-Tours, and the complete dominance of winning everything at the Tour de l'Eurometropole to mention here. The only sad thing for him that he couldn´t win Vatenfall Cyclassics at his first attempt. Crashing with 30 to go he couldn´t jump onto a group of four, from which Selicha took the win over Zanconelli, GvA and Benoot.
This year in total was the most sucessful year for Gudjon, underlined by winning the CQ-Ranking with a total of 3606 points.
He was early sure to leave Giant to partner up with young superstars Wellens and Bennot who both came back to Lotto-Soudal. Buth then he did something different. His instinct told him to stay at Giant-Alpecin, when they announced to let world champion Alaphillipe go but sign Marcel Kittel back, to focus mostly on racing with fast man. So Gudjon Palmarsson firstly resigned with a team, but as usually for just one year to have all options himself.
The next year might be the first time for Gudjon to leave out the Tour de France, because he finally wants to win on the Via Roma as well as taking La Vueltas sprinters jersey, so that he has the points jersey of all 3 Grand Tours in his hands.
Matthieu Durand
Trets, Bouches-du-Rhone, France
Turned pro as 20 years old
Climber
Armée de Terre
Bio
From an early age Matthieu Durand was singled out as one of French cycling greatest ever prospects. From the Age of 4 he was out on his bike. His teenage years saw Durand tear apart the local cycling scene. He then served 4 years at the age of 16 in the French army before finally realising that cycling was his true calling and joining Armée de Terre. He has been singled with Romain Bardet as the true hopes for a French cycling scene that was faltering for so long.
Season 1 (2015) -
Durand started off slowly with the young French cyclist truly struggling to stand out in the strong continental scene. However with GC victories at Ronde de I'sard, Volta a Portugal and finally the Le Tour de Bretagne in the later half of the season has seen Durand demonstrate his massive potential to the European cycling scene.
Top 3 Resuls of Season 1
Ronde de I'sard- GC 1st and stages wins 1,2
Volta a Portugal- GC 1st and stage wins 3
Le Tour de Bretagne- GC 1st
Outlook for 2016
Durand's amazing debut season resulted in a few WT teams taking an interest in the talented young French cyclist.
The 3 most interested teams where as follows:
BMC Racing
Giant-Allpecin
Team Europcar
In the End Durand has decided to move to BMC Racing where he can progress as a climber and GC contender. This will hopefully start out with assisting TVG before moving on to being a top GC rider in his own right.
Game Version Patch 1.2.0.0: "PCM.daily Expansion Pack 2015 V0.8" database. Grand Champion Potential. Game Rules: Normal Difficulty at the start, throughout season 3-4 mostly on Hard. Quick simulation of most flat/uninteresting stages.
Season Summary
Due to a burning passion of his father for the Tour de France, young Steffen Moldef was "forced" to watch cycling events already at a young age. While he was too young at the time to watch what Jan Ullrich had achieved in 1997, Moldef began to develop a passion for the cycling sport because of the heated duels between Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich at the start of the century. Because of his german nationality and his tendency to root for the underdog, Moldef began to idolize Jan Ullrich and endeavored to imitate his style of cycling and bought plenty of Jan Ullrich merchandise. At the age of 8, his father bought Moldef his first racing cycle, and the young boy immediately began training, attempting to come ever closer to his idol. Benefitting from his surroundings (Moldef and his family lived close to the Alps), the young Jan Ullrich started to develop a considerable talent for the sport, especially when mountains had to be scaled. This natural talent was further nourished by his father's support when it came to his eating regime, exercising and proper resting. Driven by his dream to one-day be hailed as the next Jan Ullrich, Moldef spent most of his youth on the cycle.
It was thus at his 19th year of age, after having participated in smaller regional races, that Moldef was offered what he had always wanted: The chance to become a professional cyclist. After having scouted him due to an admirable performance in a race in the alps, the small continental team LKT-Brandenburg decided to sign on the young german. And so his career began...
Since it was his first season as a professional racer, young Moldef was primarily tasked with protecting the team leaders and fetching water for whoever was in need. Occasionally he also had to work hard at the front of the peloton to help reel in a breakaway group or to pace for his leaders. But because of his rather weak skills in pacing on flat terrain, he was mostly found at the side of his teammates.
His first race experience already came in January, at the PCMdaily Cups (). Due to his weak form and his extreme nervousness, Moldef scored an unimpressive 48th, 49th and 17th rank. After a period of intensive training, Moldef's next stop was the Volta ao Alentejo () where he was tasked to help his teamleaders wherever he could and came in 57th in the GC. After a rest period of one month, Moldef was invited to join his fellow teammates in representing the team colours at the Tour de Berlin (). As it turned out afterwards, this proved to be somewhat of a turning point in Moldef's career. While his 5th place at the individual time trial of stage 2 was already impressive, Moldef managed to hold on to the peloton and finished the race as 7th place in the GC. More importantly though, this gave Moldef an immense confidence boost and also showed his team manager that there was potential hidden within the young german.
Nevertheless, the team had more important things to worry about than guiding a young rider. Sponsors needed to be kept happy, and thus the strongest riders in the team had to perform and the younger ones had to help. Therefore, Moldef found himself conducting water boy duties during his next races.
However, a second crucial event in his first season was approaching fast: The Oberösterreichrundfahrt (). Lacking any other decent riders, the LKT-Brandenburg team decided to field Moldef as the team leader in the 3-stages race. The team couldn't have made a better decision. Staying relatively anonymous in stages 1 and 2, Moldef managed to follow an attack by the stronger riders, and even found the energy reserves to cross the finish line as the first rider, thus winning the general classement.
Following his recent victory, Moldef received another boost of confidence, and owing to a weak field (e.g. no Tony Martin) managed to take home 5th place in the german ITT championships. His last race of the season proved to be the german championships two days later, where he rolled over the finish line as an unimpressive 58th place.
Due to his most recent accomplishments, a number of teams voiced their interest in signing the talented young german, amongst them even World Tour Team BMC. In any case, Moldef had never really felt happy with the team and thus a change of team colours was the only reasonable result. Ultimately, he decided to stay in Germany and joined the german ProContinental Team Bora - Argon 18.
The rest of the year was spent with intensive training and a meticuoulos preparation for the coming season. Noone yet knew who he was, and Moldef had plans to change that...
Alrighty, this concludes the write-up of the first season. I'm currently in season 5, and I might write up the rest soon if people are interested? Spoiler Alert: He'll perform a bit better in the years to come than he did in his first season (though he's in no means "dominating" the scene yet)
I was also thinking of starting a new career from scratch with a new rider and turn it into a proper story report with screenshots and everything.
Anyways, hope a few people at least enjoyed it and hope you guys will have a great day!
Edited by Moldef on 29-08-2015 18:26
Game Version Patch 1.2.0.0: "PCM.daily Expansion Pack 2015 V0.8" database. Grand Champion Potential. Game Rules: Normal Difficulty at the start, throughout season 3-4 mostly on Hard. Quick simulation of most flat/uninteresting stages.
Season Summary
After his first season as a professional cyclist, Steffen Moldef was greeted by his new members during a training camp in Mallorca at the start of January 2016. After a few days of getting to know his new teammates at the Bora - Argon 18 team, Moldef and a few other riders had to take a short plane ride to compete in the PCM Daily Cups. Already Moldef managed to impress by taking home a 5th and 7th place in Cup 3 and 1 respectively.
Due to his good results, Moldef was chosen as one of the team members in the Tour de San Luis (). Similar to his start in the previous season, the german found himself fulfilling team duties. As a result, he finished the race in the 23rd place, but managed an impressive 6th in stage 5's ITT. Good perfomances at time trials should prove to be a very strong suit of Moldef in this season.
Immediately after wrapping things up in Argentina, Moldef found himself back on a plane to Spain, where he competed in the Vuelta a ciclista a Mallorca (). This race included some of the streets that the Bora - Argon 18 team had trained on during their camp. But due to his primary duty being waterboy, Moldef stayed relatively anonymous throughout the race, although he was able to hang with the best for a while during the queen's stage where he eventually finished as 12th. But time losses previously and on the next day meant that Moldef didn't place within the top 25 in the GC.
Next in line was a training period for some one-day races in France towards the end of February and March. But due to the relative flatness of the courses, Moldef had to once again help his teammates, thus failing to ride home a good result. This should slightly change though in April, where Moldef was able to place 10th in the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain ().
Throughout the rest of April and the beginning of May, Moldef once again didn't impress particularly, ranking somewhere in the peloton during the one-day races, and finishing 16th in a 3-stage race in Poland.
The Bayern Rundfahrt () was supposed to be the first race where Moldef could ride for himself, as he was given the role of free element. However, a fall on the first stage resulted in lower back pains which bothered the young german throughout the other stage. Not surprisingly, he only finished 40th in the GC.
However, freed from pain one week later, and being in the lineup for the Uno-X Tour of Norway (), Moldef did much better and reeled in a 12th place in the GC, his best result in a stage race since winning the Oberösterreichrundfahrt the previous year.
Next, he spent the Tour de la Mayenne () and Rund um Köln () helping his teammates. These results were followed by another impressive showing at the german time trial chamionships, where Moldef placed 6th.
But this good result could not excuse what was so far a rather lackluster season. The lack of good results and the corresponding lack in confidence meant that Moldef didn't feel ready to sign on with a WT team. In the end, he decided to prolong his contract at Bora - Argon 18 for another year.
Having clarity about his feature seemed to have broken the restraints on the young german, as he found himself winning his very first race after signing the contract at stage 1 of the Internationale Österreich Rundfahrt (). Perhaps it was the fond memories of Austria, where he also managed to win a stage and the GC last year in another race that gave Moldef more energy. Owing to his win on the first stage and a handful of great finishes for the rest of the tour, Moldef was able to place 2nd in the GC.
Regaining much of his lost confidence, Moldef reeled in a 4th place in the GC in the Vuelta a Burgos (), a 5th overall in the Czech Cycling Tour () and finished 4th overall in the Tour of Britain (), his last race of the season.
With such great results in the back of his mind, Moldef had no lack of motivation and wanted to perform even better in his next season.
This concludes the 2nd season. I've now played up to the Tour de France in the 5th season, so let's see how things go there Edited by Moldef on 29-08-2015 18:27
[img-l]https://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b543/Sh0nak/_PROCYCLIST_ORANGE_zpseidkhbu0.jpg[/img-l]After the disbandment of his dream-team Euskaltel-Euskadi in 2013, French-Basque Igon Vizcaya has been orientless on where his path should lead in the future. However, for now, the more pressing concern is the present..
Season 1 – Marseille-13-KTM at 2.500 until 2015
Only a few teams were intersted in Vizcaya. Ultimately he had a good day in a Junior Race at the Côte d'Azur and a scout from Marseille-13-KTM invited him to a team training. They signed Igon a few weeks later for the coming 2015 season, although he didn't fit their profile, but for them it was time to expand their horizons Igon's family guessed.
Due to his uncanny, hideous inability & straight-out incompetence to ride in the wind or be efficient in the flat parts of a race, french basque climbing-gifted talent Igon Vizcaya was told by the manager to improve his power and flat riding right from the start. Many hours were spent in the spring campaign trying to get in the breakaway of the day and the few times it worked out, he was usually by far the weakest link in the chain. The entirely flattish races Marseille attented wern't much Igon's liking. Results have not shown his efforts at all; often times he was fairly empty and crashed into the bed for a deep sleep. Low point was his meeting with the pavé of Tro Bro Léon, where he went down in the first section just a few hundred meters in and caused a mass crash.
First success came for the Team Marseille 13 – KTM finally at the Tour de Bretagne. Teammate Benjamin Giraud won three mass sprints and claimed with his wins the points jersey; another jersey was also obtained by Marseille 13 – KTM: The King of the “Mountain”… Igon Vizcaya went into multiple breakaways to get his first (very) little recognition in the peloton. Either way, a Polka dot looks all the same, be it Tour de France or Tour de Bretagne…
A few days later, Vizcaya achieved his first top result at the GP Dyachenko where he came 4th, following the reduced sprint up a steep ramp. The nominal leader Loubet was out of form that day, lucky for Igon in that case and he was eager to make a case for future leadership. Just a day later though: Vizcaya went down in Moscow and suffered a patellar tendon rupture. Too bad since Vizcaya was just coming in fine form for his busy schedule in June and July, and thus missed for sure Route du Sud, one of his season highlights.
Management told him initially he’d be back at the start of July, which is why he prepared for races such as Course Cycliste de Solidararnosc and Sibiu Cycling Tour. The healing process was slowed down though and Marseille 13-KTM management was reluctant to agree to a contract extension. This set the doubts in motion and Vizcaya was already worrying about his future. Thankfully, Murias Taldea (a newly established basque team) was on the look-out for basque talent, and soon the two of them agreed to a contract for a year.
The prolonged return to the peloton due to injury meant that he’d miss GP Sochi as well in the end. This meant that Tour de l’Ain and Tour de Lumosin were contested on average fitness. With decent results at Tour du Doubs and Tour du Gévaudan Languedoc-Roussilon managed to finish the year with some little results, proving it could have gone much better.
Fed up with the lack of mountainous stages and all that flat nonsense-training, Vizcaya set out for his other homeland on the other side of the Pyrenees.
[img-l]https://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b543/Sh0nak/_murias_taldea_zpsetlwce2p.jpg[/img-l]The injury has left a mark on Vizcaya’s well-being despite the slow resurrengence of decent results. Staying on the low-budget Murias Taldea with little race days was a chance to come to know the spanish races...
Season 2– Murias Taldea at 2.500 until 2016
Right from the start, Vizcaya was enjoying his time in his other home country side, the basque country. He wouldn’t stay for too long if all things would work out: Come back from the injury and get some good results. It was both what he and Murias Taldea wanted.
At the prestigious PCMDaily classics in early January, he was one of the best riders on day 1, coming second in San Sebastian. He continued his formidable showcase at the Vuelta a Mallorca, getting a 9th overall behind the likes of former Tour de France champions Chris Froome and Alberto Contador. A strong 5th place at the Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia backed up his great early season form. Still a win was still illuminating to him, and the impressive line-up of the Route du Sol didn’t help his case to finally land a win. Behind the likes of Bob Jungels, Tony Gallopin and again Alberto Contador he took (for many maybe) surprising a 4th place overall, showing two strong performances on the mountaineous key stages.
Backed up by this great results, Murias Taldea and Vizcaya hit a month without racing and Igon noticed how small the team was; in fact little variety of racing was provided. It seemed that Murias Taldea had just too much of a narrow focus when there was a whole world outside there. But that was okay: It was the little world he made himself. And it motivated him even more: To get great results in order to reach a higher racing league.
In his second peak of the year, Vizcaya contested some flat races. Most notably were GP Indurain though, where he came 18th despite being out of competition for almost two months, and then came Klasika Primavera de Amorebita. This old basque classic was one of the season highlights for the team and when Vizcaya broke out of the peloton in the last lap, right at the top of the climb, going daredevilish in the descent, the basque fans at the road started going crazy. With a huge advantage, Vizcaya confirmed his ambitions and fulfilled the team’s hopes in this moment. Winning their first basque race.
The third and lastly last peak after a long period of resting, began at the Oberösterreich-Rundfahrt. Vizcaya came 8th overall despite being on shit-low fitness, having appreciated the many regional, delicious basque dishes in recent weeks. Whilst the tour was then running, Vizcaya put in many hard training hours to be in the best shape for Vuelta a Burgos. Bizarre things were happening at le Tour during that time: Chris Froome pulled out of the Tour on the last on the road to Champs-Elysses. Whilst being in yellow. Tejay Van Garderen overtook Quintana on the last Time Trial and has now won le Tour; Giro winner Quintana would have almost made the impossible Giro-Tour double though but narrowly lost.
For Vizcaya himself, things were looking bright. Some decent performances cumulated and peaked ultimately in his win at GP Kranji, followed up by a 5th place at Trofeo Internazionale Bastialli. Unfortunately against top tier riders like Gesink and Pozzovivo, Vizcaya was shown his limit at Vuelta a Burgos. With one sole, multiple mountain stage, Vizcaya had no way to right this performance and was eventually left disappointed by not coming into the Top 10 at least.
For a year, Vizcaya was as basque as they come. Then he signed a contract with Europcar, also thanks to fellow french-basque Romain Sicard. In the search of french Alps.
Game Version Patch 1.2.0.0: "PCM.daily Expansion Pack 2015 V0.8" database. Grand Champion Potential. Game Rules: Normal Difficulty at the start, throughout season 3-4 mostly on Hard. Quick simulation of most flat/uninteresting stages.
Season Summary
Heading into this third professional season, Moldef's goal was to establish himself as one of the strongest continental tour racers in order to catch the eye of some WorldTour teams. After all, his idol Jan Ullrich won the tour at the age of 23. Thus, if he wanted to follow in the famous' german footsteps, he'd have to make his debut at WorldTour races fairly soon. After all, it doesn't happen very often that you come into the tour and win the maillout jaune on your very first appearance. An excruciating preparation for the season was supposed to be the foundation on which Moldef's hopes rested. He also planned to make an appearance in some WorldTour races if his team Bora - Argon 18 would receive a WildCard for them.
Traditionally, the season kicked off for the youngster in Spain, where he once again competed in the PCMdaily cups (). And Moldef couldn't have wished for a better start, as he came in 2nd in the 1st cup, and actually improved by one place for a win one week later at the 3rd cup. Similarly to last season, his next stop was to be the Vuelta ciclista a Mallorca ( 2.1). Improving upon his 12th rank in the GC last year, Moldef left Spain the beautiful island of Mallorca with a 7th rank this time.
Only three days later, Moldef joined his teammates at the Dubai Tour ( 2.HC). Due to the extreme flatness (they might as well have cycled in the Netherlands), young Moldef was relegated to help his faster teammates. Joining a breakaway on the 3rd day of racing proved to be futile. But since he wanted to make use of his excellent condition, Moldef decided to lead his team at the Volta ao Algarve ( 2.1) in Portugal, where he managed an excellent 3rd in the GC. He booked his place on the podium mostly due to his excellent performance against the clock on the 4th stage, which he won.
Without much rest, Moldef was already in the saddle just one week later, at the G.P. Città di Lugano ( 1.HC) in Switzerland. This was a very hilly course and Moldef placed an admirable 9th.
After unimpressive performances in one-day races in Italy and France, Moldef ended the month of March by joining his first ever WorldTour race, the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya ( CWT). The Catalunya tour has traditionally been one of the first testing grounds for the strongest climbers and Grand Tours contenders in the world. The 2017 edition was no exception and was won by Mikel Landa, ahead of Wilco Kelderman and Chris Froome. However, it needs to be mentioned that Moldef sold his hide at a high price. Placing in the top 20 in five of the seven stages (of which he was within the top 10 on three occasions), netted him an excellent 7th place overall.
A few days later, Moldef managed to confirm his rapid growth by placing 3rd at the Gran Premio Miguel Indurain ( 1.1). Due to WildCard obligations, Moldef also started at the Amstel Gold Race ( CWT) and the La Fléche Wallonne ( CWT). An uneventful Amstel Gold Race (won by Michal Kwiatkowski) was followed by a long breakaway ride on the Fléche Wallonne, which eventually saw him cross the finish line as 35th (which Julian Alaphilippe won).
Moldef's next stop was the Tour de Romandie ( CWT), another WorldTours race for which his team received a WildCard. Due to a lack of other stage racers (Team Leader Dominik Nerz was injured), Moldef was appointed the leader role. Simply saying he convinced would be an understatement. The german talent placed within the Top 7 in every single stage (aside from the opening Team Time Trial) and even managed to win the 2nd stage and ultimately the points classification jersey. He placed a respectable 4th in the overall standings, just behind Alberto Contador, Fabio Aru and Romain Bardet.
At this point (early May), his team was sitting in the first spot in the Continental Tour rankings, largely because of the achievements of Moldef. Wanting to protect their spot, Moldef was denied a request for rest and was scheduled to race 10 days after the Tour de Romandie at the Bayern Rundfahrt ( 2.HC). Despite being tired, the wannabe - Jan Ullrich impressed his fellow german countrymen by placing 4th in Stage 2 and in the GC. One week later, and at the end of the Uno-X Tour of Norway ( 2.HC), Moldef had to concede defeat only to Julian Alaphilippe of France and placed 2nd.
Despite being extremely tired, there was to be no rest for the successful. Less than two weeks later, at the beginning of June, Moldef was already present at the Skoda-Tour de Luxembourg ( 2.HC) where he eventually ranked 6th. After an unimpressive showing at the Rund um Köln in preparation for the natonal championships, Moldef barely missed out on wearing the german national ITT jersey by placing 2nd behind Tony Martin. Two days later and two ranks down saw him cross the line as 4th at the german national road championships.
But once again, his team manager was relentless. Due to Bora - Argon 18 having dropped to 2nd rank, Moldef was due to start at the Internationale Österreich Rundfahrt ( 2.HC). But more importantly, before starting in Österreich, Moldef had to decide about his future. His contact was expiring at the end of the season and many many WorldTour teams were looking to add the german stage racer to their squad. Eventually, Moldef decided to stay in Germany and joined the WorldTour Team Giant - Alpecin. The reason for his decision, aside from the fact that he would be able to stay in Germany, was that he would be one of the strongest stage racer in the team, thus enabling him to perhaps test his legs at one of the Grand Tours next season.
Proving his tenaciousness, Moldef placed within the Top 10 on five occasions in Austria, which eventually meant a 2nd place in the GC. Finally, the young german was allocated some rest days. He was able to regain some strength before joining the peloton again at the beginning of August at the Vuelta a Burgos ( 2.HC) where he finished 5th. But fatigue was catching up with him fast, and the Czech Cycling Tour in the middle of August was his last race. Once again, Moldef was able to bring home a podium position by placing 3rd in the GC after a win on the hilly stage 2.
An interesting trivia of this season: Despite placing in the Top 10 in almost all stage races he participated in (which were many), Moldef did not win a single youth rider classification, but came in 2nd almost every single time ()
The remained of the season was spent with regeneration and preparation for the oncoming season. After all, it was to be his first season as a WorldTour cyclist. Finally, Moldef was able to rub shoulders with the best of the best. And it was about time as far as he was concerned. He was turning 22 and had only two more years remaining if he wanted to equal Jan Ullrich's feat of winning the Tour de France at 23 years of age. Would he succeed?
In Other News - 2017
At the Giro d'Italia (), Fabio Aru won ahead of Thibaut Pinot and Vincenzo Nibali. Danny van Poppel surprisingly won the sprinter's jersey, while Mikel Landa won the Maglia Azzurra and Miguel Angel Lopez the Maglia Bianca.
In France, Thibaut Pinot managed to improve upon his second rank of the previous year by winning the Tour de France () ahead of Alberto Contador and Wilco Kelderman. Nacer Bouhanni proved to be the best sprinter, whereas Wilco Kelderman was the best climber. The strongest rider under 25 years was the South African Louis Meintjes.
At the Vuelta a España (), Great Britain's Adam Yates celebrated victory by beating Wilco Kelderman and Chris Froome. Yates also won the points classification and the youth classification, but had to concede the climber's jersey to Wilco Kelderman.
Dennis Rohan from Australia won the [ITT] World Championships, and Peter Sagan ended his season as the World Champion.
Eventually, Moldef's team Bora - Argon 18 just barely missed out on the promotion by placing 4th, and Moldef finished the season as the 7th best rider in the Contintental Tour.
Peter Sagan capped a wonderful season by being the rider with the most amount of victories (29), while Team Tinkoff had the most victories as a team (64). French superstar and Tour de France winner Thibaut Pinot was the Number 1 rider in the UCI World Tour, ahead of Alberto Contador and Peter Sagan.
This concludes the 3rd season. I'm almost finished with Season 5, so I'm expecting to have the next 2 seasons written up fairly soon Please let me know if you think these posts are waaaaay too long Edited by Moldef on 30-08-2015 11:35
[img-l]https://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b543/Sh0nak/bernaudeau_zpsftvukqzb.jpg[/img-l]Team Europcar was struggling to achieve public’s interest with Voeckler’s retirement and Rolland’s move to Team SKY, but Bernaudeau was ready to teach some of that cycling romantism to his new prodrigee. Igon Vazcaya Energy Wasting Attack™ incoming.
Season 3- Europcar at 9.500 until 2018
Vazcaya and his new manager decided on three peaks at the start of the season: Vizcaya was keen on getting a good vibe early on and wanted to prove his worth already then, so he’d do some solid racing from February to March. Afterwards, he’d hit a longer break to be prepared for June and July, which would eventually conclude in his last set of races around August and September. He expressed hope that he could ride one of the Grand Tours but Bernaudeau was not sure at that point if he was up to it.
However, doubts soon vanished: Vizcaya came 9th in a top tier field at the Tour of Oman, although it was once more apparent that he suffered big time in the crosswinds and the flat. This hard racing led to some impeccable form, resulting in him taking the 6th stage and the KoM jersey of..
Paris-Nice. Indeed, Vizcaya went into a daring breakaway that day and was richely awarded. In the overall result, he held on to one of the Top 10 spots by coming 7th, although he lost quite a few plac on that last Mountain Time Trial-day unfortunately. After this great ride, Vizcaya was slightly disappointed that he only achieved a 7th place at Criterium International then.
Bernaudeau wanted then to convince him to make the most of his legs and suggested to participate in the Ardennes and the Volta Pais Vasco. But Vizcaya insisted on his initial schedule and instead claimed already a spot for the Vuelta a Espana, fully knowing himself that le Tour probably comes too early. You know the french public, they do put a lot of pressure on you in these weeks. Plus, they had Alexis Vuillermoz on the squad who be a good bet for the Ardennes and a potential stage hunter for le Tour.
After almost two months of the bike, Vizcaya returned to the scene in Norway at the Uno race there. It was a solid plan to reach a good form Criterium du Dauphine, where he once again raced against top tier riders such as Froome and Quintana. He fairly impressed on some stages and although he couldn’t grab another KoM jersey, the 11th place in the GC was a special reward for two months of discipline diet. The next three races turned into a true show of strength then: At the Route du Sud, he attacked on the mountaineous stage and nobody was able to follow him, thus adding a nice double-victory to his palmares and celebrating his first full stage race victory!
Another one was to follow soon, after the French Championships (9th) he raced the Österreich Rundfahrt. Things looked good but not great. His rivals put some serious time into him, Konrad on stage 1 and Vervaecke on stage 2. But it was well appreciated that they could drop some big names like Daniel Martin or König. On the uphill finish to St. Johann, Vizcaya was the strongest in the sprint up the ramp, raising his hands for the stage win. But unfortunately he didn’t put serious time into Vervaecke; it’d change soon though since Vervaecke suffered a terrible off-day up on the way to Sonntagberg, losing up to 3 minutes. This effectively meant another stage race victory, even before the worrisome TT stage.
Leading up to the Vuelta a Espana, Vizcaya was visiting the ports of San Sebastian for the Donostia-Donostia Klasikoa; this WT classic suits him quite well and on the last deciding climb he was one of the riders able to almost hang on to Froome and Quintana. The Colombian took the win though, Vizcaya couldn’t quite get back to them in the descent. But a third place was another amazing result for the French Basque, especially in the Basque Country where they wait for quite some years to celebrate one of their own. Another race ahead of Vuelta was the Arctic Race of Norway, where he came 2nd both on the final stage and in the GC.
The route was a bit different compared to previous years: Not quite sooo many hillsprints, instead many flat stages in the first few days. This meant that Vizcaya could ride himself into the best form for the third week, where the real tough mountain stages would await for them. His support at Europcar was bad, distant hope for stage wins was the best chance really they got. Throughout the race, Vizcaya was alone in the mountains and that should cause some thinking for future plans. Regardless of that, he was free to do as he pleased. In some stages he was up with the best then, whilst at others he got quite a beating.
The first Time Trial was dreadful and awful; he was by then about 7 minutes behind the race leader, but in the mountains he made a slow, slow resurgence up the GC. Up Pla de Beret in the third week, it was happening then: He was riding good pace after the favourites attacked and stopped, and this gave him a chance to regain some places so he forced his legs to do that damn spinning, it hurt as hell. The basques here in the Pyrenees went crazy for him. But instead, he even ended up with a stage win since Ulissi (who sat on his wheel) was unable to overcome him in the finish. The same Ulissi (AST) was riding a great two first weeks but totally bonked on the epic stage 18 from Salardu to Luz Ardiden.
This multiple mountain stage saw immediately attacks from the lower GC contenders such as Arredondo (BMC), Gallopin (LTS) and Vizcaya. As a result, race leader Meintjes (ALM) and second placed Ilnur Zakarin (KAT) abandoned their teammates and took on the race. A large group with lots of favourites but little amount of helpers was a result and over the many passes and climbs that were raced on that day, the various attacks made for one of the most special stages of the day. In the end, Meintjes managed to come first and put some much needed time into Zakarin. The Angliru was a steep hell of a beast featured as penultimate stage, where the South African beat this year’s Giro Winner Zakarin again. Vizcaya came 6th on that climb and profited immensely from the complete bonking of KoM jersey winner Arredondo as well as some time loss from Gallopin and Riccardo Zoidl (MTN). He advanced from 13rd to 9th that day but the worries were still there since the ultimate stage was a 40km long Time Trial which he somehow had to get through. It went better than expected fortunately, and he managed to keep on to his top 10 spot, coming 10th overall at the tender age of 21 at the Vuelta a Espana.
You’d imagine that after this great Vuelta, Vizcaya was pretty damn popular in France. But truth is: The entirety of France had only one man on its mind, Thibaut Pinot. Winner of le Tour 2017. National Hero.
Racing concluded for Vizcaya at his first monument, Il Lombardia where he was feeling the long the season and came 36th. But he didn't want to end the season like that: He followed the invite to Japan and raced this Cup race in the East; coming 3rd in the three man group against McCarthy (SKY) and Trofimov (KAT). And thus his season 3 concluded.
World Tour teams have well spotted the potential of this young man by now, but even the lack of support was troublesome, he thorougly enjoyed this year at Europcar. His sudden rise to the public is well-documented in the fact he came 6th in the continental rankings and 20th in the CQ Ranking. Most notably though, he was the highest rider from a ProConti-Team in the World Tour rankings.
With Vuillermoz leaving, Bernaudeau will be trying to keep his future gem no matter what. For now, another year is already awaiting. Oddly enough, Vuillermoz and Vizcaya have almost single-handlely achieved to bring Europcar up to World Tour. The future may bloom bright for Bernaudeau if he can use this momentum!
Top Results
10th & 1 Stage Win
Vuelta a Espana
UWT
1st & 1 Stage Win
Österreich Rundfahrt
2.HC
1st & 1 Stage Win
Route du Sud
2.1
9th, KoM & 1 Stage Win
Paris-Nice
UWT
2nd
Arctic Race of Norway
2.HC
3rd
Clasica San Sebastian
UWT
7th
Criterium International
2.HC
9th
Tour of Oman
2.HC
11th
Criterium du Dauphine
UWT
Short Season Summary
Giro d’Italia
Tour de France
Vuelta a Espana
MSR
Cavendish (EQS)
Zakarin (KAT)
Pinot (AST)
Meintjes (ALM)
Ronde
Degenkolb (KAT)
Quintana (MOV)
Froome (SKY)
Zakarin (KAT)
Paris-Roubaix
Degenkolb (KAT)
Yates Simon (SKY)
Quintana (MOV)
König (TCS)
L-B-L:
Alaphilippe (EQS)
Il Lombardia:
Kwiatkowski (TFR)
WT ITT: Dumoulin
World Ch. Alaphillipe
Velo d’Or: Froome
WT Leader: Froome
WT Team: Tinkoff-Saxo
Spoiler
I've included this summary now also in the other two seasons. May give a better picture for the career.
Game Version Patch 1.2.0.0: "PCM.daily Expansion Pack 2015 V0.8" database. Grand Champion Potential. Game Rules: Normal Difficulty at the start, throughout season 3-4 mostly on Hard. Quick simulation of most flat/uninteresting stages.
Season Summary
Moldef had big things in mind when starting his fourth season as a professional cyclist. Having recently joined the german WorldTour team Giant-Alpecin, Moldef was promised a start at the Giro d'Italia ( CWT GT), and potentially at the Vuelta a España ( CWT GT) as well. Needless to say, the young german felt pumped for the new season and did not want to disappoint his new team.
He kicked off his season by competing in the Santos Tour Down Under ( CWT) at the start of January. Despite heavy legs, Moldef rode well and thanks to a fifth place in stage 5, he finished the first stage race of the season as 7th. Simone Andreetta from Italy was the eventual winner. Moldef's next race was, once again, the Vuelta ciclista a Mallorca ( 2.1). Aside from the hilly course that was to Moldef's liking, he also fell in love with the scenery and landscape during the previous visits. However, as he was still trying to get in better shape, a 4th place in the queen's stage was only enough for 6th overall.
The 22-year old joined the peloton in various races in Spain and France, but as his primary goal was to build up rhythm, there wasn't much to write home about except an 11th place at the Tour du Haut Var-matin ( 2.1).
His first important objective of the year came during the second week of March at the Tirreno - Adriatico ( CWT). A strong finish as 6th and 2nd at the mountain stages, and a solid ride against the clock (4th) meant that Moldef would find himself on the podium at the end of the race as 3rd behind winner Wilco Kelderman and Louis Meintjes. Not only that, but he finally won another Youth Rider Classification after having placed 2nd countless times before.
A few days later, Moldef could book his first (and second) victory of the season after wins in stage 3 and 4 of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya ( CWT). Since the two stage victories happened in the most difficult stages, Moldef also managed to hang on to the leader's jersey and won the entire tour. His first win at a World Tour race. Winning the climber's jersey was icing on the cake.
Since the Giro d'Italia drew near, Moldef spent April mostly conserving his form and keeping fit, and as such the only important result that needs mentioning was a 7th place at the classic of Liège - Bastogne - Liége ( CWT). This strong result was made possible by joining a looong breakaway which held up until 10 km before the finish line. As Moldef still had some energy left, he could hang with Michal Kwiatkowski (who won) and the best for a while before eventually being dropped.
Next up was the Giro d'Italia ( CWT GT). Due to relatively flat stages in the first week, Moldef had trained in such a way that he would spike during the 2nd and 3rd week. Aside from that, Moldef would not start as the team leader, as Vincenzo Nibali was his teams chosen GC contender. Moldef was supposed to be his first lieutenant and he accepted this role. Perhaps him protecting Nibali when all other teammates were dropped was also a reason as to why Moldef wasn't able to hang with the very best during the first difficult stages. After stage 13, Moldef was placed 9th, and Nibali 6th. However, things were about to change as Nibali suddenly started struggling and Moldef had to take over. The german was able to finish each of the 6 remaining mountain stages within the Top 6. Ultimately, he ended the Giro ranked 5th in the GC, just 17" behind Fabio Aru who was 4th. The Maglia Rosa was taken home by french superstar Thibaut Pinot. The jersey as the best youth rider was some consolation for the 22-year old, although he was actually more than satisfied with his first ever Grand Tour.
At this point, Moldef and his GM sat together to discuss the schedule for the remainder of the season. The GM wanted Moldef to take a break and ride at the Vuelta, but Moldef said he was already way too exhausted so he really didn't think he could come back in shape for the Vuelta. After a long and drawn out session, it was decided that Moldef would attempt to stay in shape by riding at the Tour de Suisse ( CWT) and the national championships before heading to the Tour de France. However, both men knew that due to fatigue, Moldef would very likely be unable to compete for the top ranks in the GC in France.
But first things first: Moldef's campaign in Switzerland was off to a booming start as he won the time trial on the first stage. However, a 12th place in the hilly stage 2 was not enough to keep the jersey, and eventually Moldef left Switzerland with a satisfying 6th place in the GC after congratulating overall winner Robert Power ().
5 days later, at the German [ITT] championships ( NC), Moldef once again proved what a strong time trialist he was. Being one of the first riders on the course, Moldef refused to hand over his first place and eventually ended the day as the winner. For the next 365 days Moldef would thus ride in the german time trial champion jersey during time trials. A no-show at the German championships due to a flat course was the last preparatory race before the Tour de France ( CWT GT).
After a disappointing 119th rank in the opening time trial, Moldef could already tell that he would probably be better off hunting for stage victories than trying to compete with all the GC contenders. Moreover, this was his first Tour and the majority of his teammates were there to support sprinter Marcel Kittel. Hence, Moldef took it easy during the first week and the first hilly stages as he was eyeing the KoM jersey. Despite his prowess as a cimber, Moldef had never earnestly attempted to win the mountain's jersey, as his primary goal was always to place well in the GC. This time however, things were different since he was not in the best of shapes (but still in pretty good shape).
Having lost many minutes already, Moldef used the first hilly stage to test his legs in a breakaway, which in itself was rather an unusual feeling for the young german. Having collected enough points to take over the KoM jersey for a while, he lost it soon enough to the GC contenders again. Not wanting to be outdone, Moldef joined a promising breakaway on the 10th stage. Not only did Moldef collect the majority of climber points, but the breakaway also managed to stay clear of the pack, and as the strongest climber present, Moldef took the stage. Winning a stage at his beloved Tour de France was perhaps his biggest achievement so far, or at least on par with the victory at the Catalunya tour or the 5th palce at the Giro. Throughout the remainder of the tour, Moldef was able to get into a few more breakaway, and, having secured the KoM jersey ahead of time, he was able to ride for a better place in the GC during the last mountain stages. And these stages perhaps proved that Moldef was better than he actually thought he was. Both times he managed to cross the line as 3rd. Nevertheless, at the end of the 21 stages, Moldef was not able to place better than 16th in the GC, but joining the untouchable Thibaut Pinot on the podium in his KoM jersey was definitely a reason not to be disappointed.
After the tour, Moldef was too exhausted, but still joined his team in a few races to repay some of his teammates for their support earlier in the season. Needless to say, the young german also extended his contract for another 2 years, as he was very happy with the team and he was promised a leader role in the next season. This next season was perhaps the one Moldef was most anxious about. He was turning 23. Jan Ullrich won the tour at 23. He desparately wanted to match his idol, and next year he was promised to be the team leader at the tour. Obviously this meant that the entire season would be scheduled in a way that he would be in his best possible condition at the Tour. Moldef was pumped...
In Other News - 2018
At the Giro d'Italia (), Thibaut Pinot won ahead of Nairo Quintana and Romain Bardet. Juan José Lobata won the sprinter's jersey, while Thibaut Pinot also claimed the Maglia Azzurra. Steffen Moldef was the winner of the Maglia Bianca.
In France, Thibaut Pinot managed to repeat his victory of the previous season and won the Tour de France () ahead of Fabio Aru and Nairo Quintana. Peter Sagan claimed the maillot verde, and Steffen Moldef was the best climber. The strongest rider under 25 years was the Australian Robert Power, who placed 9th.
At the Vuelta a España (), Thibaut Pinot did NOT win... He was not competing luckily. The race was won by the dutch Wilco Kelderman, who celebrated his victory by finishing ahead of last year's winner Adam Yates and Richie Porte. Kelderman also won the points classification, whereas Francesco Bongiorno took home the climber's jersey. Strongest youth rider was the swiss Valentin Baillifard.
Rigoberto Urán turned out to win the [ITT] World Championships due to a relatively weak field, and Julian Alaphilippe was crowned World Champion just a few days later.
Moldef missed out on the Top 10 in the UCI WorldTour rankings by finishing 11th, and his team Giant-Alpecin improved immensely by ranking 5th.
Peter Sagan was once again the rider with the most amount of victories (25), and Team Tinkoff also had the most wins amongs the teams (80). Not surprisingly, Thibaut Pinot was the best placed UCI WorldTour rider, and also won the Vélo d'Or ahead of Julian Alaphilippe and Wilco Kelderman.
Thiat's it for Season 4. Next one will be the first time that I will have honestly contested the Tour de France, so let's see how it'll work out...
Edited by Moldef on 30-08-2015 11:38
[img-l]https://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b543/Sh0nak/s04_1_zpsyrmruv7m.jpg[/img-l]Europcar was back on the World Tour level; looking at their roster, it was clear that one man more than any other had to perform for them to stay in there. Igon Vizcaya had unexpectly turned into Bernaudeau’s big hope after Rolland and Vuillermozu departure…
Season 4.1- Europcar at 9.500 until 2018
His manager and Vizcaya himself decided on a two Grand Tour schedule. Due to unnatural many Time Trial kilometers in Spain, Vizcaya switched to do the Giro d’Italia. He was also eager to win the white jersey at le Tour, and may looked to fulfill a young rider double in his dreams. However, Europcar’s situation demanded it that Vizcaya performed well throughout the season. This is why there was a special focus on World Tour events.
After some shuffling and rescheduling, Paris-Nice, Vuelta a Catalunya and Volta Pais Vasco were his big races in the early campaign. Volta ao Algarve and a short trip to the pavé of Omloop het Nieuwsblad were his first preparation races for that.
At Paris-Nice, the fight for the top spots was closely contested. Most notable were Gallopin (BMC), Meintjes (ALM), Aru (TCS) and Alaphilippe (EQS). The French World Champion from Etixx eventually took the win a second ahead of Meintjes, whils Gallopin lost the jersey on the final day. Aru came 3rd 8 seconds later. Right in this feast of close second battles was Igon Vizcaya who grabbed another stage win, just like last year. This time around, it was strength and of courageous riding though. A 7th place in the GC was a welcome point-haul but more was needed.
Later the Volta a Catalunya seemed to turn into a similar affair of close battles for seconds; this time between Pinot (EQS) and Yates (MOV). Both of them held the jersey, with Kelderman (LTJ) and Vizcaya in firing range. Many other top tier riders were present like Grand Tour winners Froome and Quintana, but Vizcaya impressed them all by finishing multiple times on the podium. On the penultimate stage, he broke away early on the bottom of the climb and received crucial support by Fabio Aru later on (TCS). Although Majka took the stage win from the breakaway, the surprising time gain on his rivals meant that Vizcaya was about to win his first World Tour stage race, and it came true!
After the victorous ride in Catalyuna, the basque public was burning with desire to see a similar showdown by Vizcaya in the Basque country as well. Whilst local hero Mikel Landa took a stage win and went on to win Pais Vasco, Vizcaya was maybe too motivated; energy wasting attacks in the traditional Europcar style turned out to be futile. On the penultimate stage, Vizcaya eventually overstepped the limit and lost some major time, also losing his 4th place in the GC and dropping down to 11th in the end. After this event, Vizcaya and Bernaudeau agreed on skipping the Ardennes races for this year. Vizcaya was already tired and since he wanted to do the Giro at all costs, the time for the well-deserved rest had come.
At the Giro d’Italia the line-up was huge to say the least. For Sky, there were Froome and Nibali, Tinkoff Saxo had Quintana, Fabio Aru and last year’s winner Zakarin and former Europcar poster boy Rolland. Telefonica (formerly Movistar) enlisted Adam Yates for his services. Add to that an impressive list of second-tier super leaders like König, Kennaugh, Majka or fellow french climbing superstar Barguil. Unfortunately for Vizcaya, the Giro started off with a 8km TT and a later Team Time Trial, this resulted in a time loss of roughly 2 minues before Vizcaya had seen any hills. In the first weeks, Vizcaya made about two, moves then; each of them could have resulted in a stage win but he was each time caught in about the last kilometer. This was especially bitter when he could have beat Froome and Quintana on the gravel roads of Tuscany. Mostly throughout the race Adam Yates held on to the pink jersey. Vizcaya lost major time (2 minutes) on the way up Monte Termillio, franky put: Because his teammates did not provide him with any water, he was terrible pissed about that… He ended up riding up alone the climb, overtaking many great names in the process. Robert Power came to the front and Vizcaya held only 15 seconds in his Maglia Bianca over the Australian throughout most of the second week until the big mountains would come, additionally Migual Lopez would be name to keep an eye out. The dull second week of the Giro was at least sweetened by a stage win of Vizcaya’s teammate, young talented top puncheur James Oram.
On the beautiful Monte Grappa, introducing third week of the Giro, Vizcaya was the only rider attacking but couldn’t make a difference, especially since the climb was quite far away from the finish still. At least he was able to drop Nibali on this climb, which allowed him to move up to 4th. The next day, the stage started off horrible.
About half way through the mountains, Vizcaya was involved in a crash with his teammate Sivertsen; together they managed to come back. As Vizcaya was flying through the peloton, another crash happened, which caught him again. This cost him precious energy and hurt enough to grant him a grimace all the way up, but he could continue fortunately. However he was vastly disappointed that NO One of his teammates dropped back at any point to help him back into the peloton… Instead, he thanked Robert Power for not exploiting his bad luck. When the third time a crash happened, Vizcaya just narrowly avoided it! But the Monto Zoncolan was still waiting. However before the Zoncolan, action continued: Quintana attacked, just like Power and Lopez did and they got away. Of course Vizcaya was just grabbing a new bottle because no teammate around. Fortunately Froome missed the split, so he could hang on the SKY train if Vizcaya lasted… They caught them in the descent but fairly, Vizcaya would have preferred to recuperate a bit before Zoncolan… Naturally, he completely bonked at the Zoncolan. As a result, he just wanted to limit losses, ride his own pace. And survive the day. Zoncolan showed him his limits. He was far down the climber ladder. As high as the Zoncolan may be, here Viszaya was faced with an abyss.
Out of Maglia Bianca and having enjoyed a rest day, the Mountain Time Trial up Les Corones was waiting. The Time Trial was devastating though (Vis Stat: MT 78, TT 64). They always say the first day in the saddle after a crash hurts the most but this was unnatural bad performance this time around. He got even caught by Barguil on the way up.
Meanwhile, Yates took the jersey back from Froome since the Briton had even suffered a bad day as well – quite not as bad as Vizcaya though, who was still 10th in the GC and was now eager to keep this result. He’d be difficult though. At the stage from Brescia to Aprica (#19), Viszaya was the first rider to attack on the penultimate climb Mortirolo. But close to the top, the three top riders of the Giro caught him alongside Lopez and some others a bit later. Whilst Tinkoff-Saxo had the ability to dictate pace at its will in the last two mountain days (including a ferocuios pace up the Monte Gavia), Quintana failed to capitalize on this team strength. Simon Yates eventually remained in the Maglia Rosa to take his first Grand Tour win! Viszaya advanced on 9th on the day of the Mortirolo stage thanks to his eager attacking and held the place on the last mountain stage as well as the hilly, closing Time Trial.
It was a long first season half, culminating in a tiresome but ecstatic Giro, who was close until the last days and where Viscaya confirmed his potential as a future Grand Tour contender, although there was still a long way to go. However Maglia Bianca winner Migual Angel Lopez as well as Robert Power had proven tough rivals already for any distant hope in that matter.
For now, he looked forward to weeks of rest ahead of le Tour.
Top Results - until 31st May 2018
1st & U25
Volta a Catalunya
UWT
9th
Giro d'Italia
UWT
7th, U25 & 1 Stage Win
Paris-Nice
UWT
11th
Vuelta a Pais Vasco
UWT
DB PCMDaily v1.1Edited by Shonak on 12-08-2015 23:32
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
[img-l]https://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b543/Sh0nak/s04_2_zpsmugmr8uy.jpg[/img-l] The first half of the season was done; Volta a Catalunya and a 9th place at the Giro were highlights, but fairly certain there were also many doubts and close misses keeping Viscaya’s mind occupied, as he was regretting some and preparing for the Grande Boucle..
Season 4.2- Europcar at 9.500 until 2018
The weeks of rest were truly needed after this tough Giro d’Italia. Bernaudeau continued to ask Vizcaya about a new contract, he was waving with big bills and wanted a contract extension of two years. However, Igon remained firm and the contract negotations were rescheduled to the end of the le Tour. Then, Viscaya would decide his future.
He only raced the french championships, where he tried but stood no chance against World Champion Alaphilippe. The first week of the biggest race of the season then was terrible and a horrific adventure for Viscaya. He lost time after the made a late attack on a hilly stage on day 3, when he had to pay for his bad rhythm and lost contract to the favourites. Things got worse on the next day when he was one of the few GC contenders who lost time on the pavé to ..
However, things would soon change, as the second week approached. With some daring performances and late attacks, Viscaya brought the french public to his attention and soon they started cheering for them as he was riding in front of their in the white jersey of the best young rider. His moves in the second week came from steep ramps and narrow curves; it was dangerous riding in the second week, as a result we saw many crashes. And we saw the rise of a a true basque rivalry: On the mountaintop finish of stage 9, Viscaya made an attack on the penultimate climb, pacing himself all up the way to Morzine. It was his fellow Basque Landa who came up behind him and outsprinted him for the stage win. The day afterwards, Viscaya bonked extremyl close to the mountaintop and lost precious time in the descent. Rookie mistakes? Maybe, but Viscaya made a comeback already after the rest day on stage 11, when he once more attacked in a steep ramp; Mikel Landa caught up to Viscaya in the downhill though, and once again forsaked Viscaya the victory. At this point, Landa has established himself as the strongest climber in the race, however Pinot (EQS) and Froome (SKY) still held significant time advantage over him. Other riders who were notable strong were Poels (TGA)and Aru (TCS). Quintana, huge favourite ahead of the race, had to pay for his Giro endeavors and was merely able to play a supporting role for the Sicilian Aru on his team. Due to his strong time gains on the fairly hilly stages and a big split in the peloton on stage 14, where Viscaya by a mircale and thanks to Kevin Reza ended up on the right side and astonigshly hang on to the pace of the pact, he was placed within the Top 10 after two weeks.
Whilst France and the world were all eyes on last year’s winner Pinot and Chris Froome, Viscaya came well into the third week and hit his form peak just right. A strong ride up Bagneres du Lauchon saw him gain 5th place. The next came an epic multi mountain stage, which was noteworthy for its lack of any uphill racing in the last 50 kilometers; the peloton took on the challenge and delivered attacks right from Kilometre Zero. Most active rider was probably Bauke Mollema; due to the pace of the pact only 18 riders formed the leader group & peloton at 100 kilometers out! Viscaya held himself fairly in the background; this is how he saved enough energy to outsprint the likes of Alaphilippe and stage-away snatcher Mikel Landa for his first ever Tour de France stage win! This was a dream come true and never before were the goosebumps so real and intense.
Still in the white jersey, the Col du Tourmalet was waiting as the last chance for Pinot to make up time on maillot jaune Chris Froome. Viscaya meanwhile was eager to protect his standings, however it was a futile task anyway since the horrendous time loss in the Time Trial as the last test on stage 20, was too much for Viscaya to bare: He dropped from 5th to 7th, but as he was riding up to the Champs-Elysses, there was undoubled the feeling of having made it for good now.
Although support was lacking in the Tour and Guerrin, Europcar’s best climber by far, was mainly riding for his own good instead of Viscaya’s and the team’s, Igon felt wonderful and was on an all-time for the year: He signed a one-year extension with Europcar, 47.600 were too good to pass up and frankly, he did not want to end up as a domestique. Now that he had tasted France like never before, it was clear what would be his main goal next season. To come back and improve on this!
With three Top 10s in his three Grand Tours, Viscaya was notably one of the hottest prospects in the business currently. And the basques loved him just like they did Landa. At the Clasica San Sebastian, Viscaya forced his luck again but the finish was too far out. As a result, he was caught, later on Alaphilippe went to win the stage from a late breakaway, in which Viscaya was also present. However hanging on to Froome was the wrong choice in that moment since the Briton let go off the wheel of Meintjes and created a gap that Viscaya was unable to close. After the Clasica, it was time for a long stay at home and proper recovery ahead of Il Lombardia and the World Championships, where he hoped he’d be selected.
Whilst Viscaya was preparing for the late season as soon as he got the call from the national coach, Mikel Landa was teaching everybody a lesson at the Vuelta a Espana meanwhile. However his ridicioulous bad TT legs, put him off the podium and so it came that former World Champion Kwiatkowski won for Astana the Vuelta ahead of Kelderman and Adam Yates. Meanwhile, Volkan and Van der Poel were the winners of the two preparation races for the World Championships, GP Montreal and GP Quebec Viscaya participated in. No results worth mentioning though.
The World Championships were hosted in Spa Francorchamps, Belgium this year. This made for a hilly parcour with little gradient though; ideal for a rider like Alaphilippe who was known for his fast finishing abilities, his great stamina (two L-B-L wins) and he’s strong riding in the flat parts. Viscaya was nominated as a helper but also optional leader. Igon was unfortunately involved in a crash as the weather got worse and the rain made for a slippery road. In the final kilometers, the peloton saw many attacks, eventually Adam Yates, Alaphilippe and Kwiatkowski broke free, they caught up to the last surviving breakaway rider Durbridge and Yates outsprinted Alaphilippe just by few centimeters. Thus Adam Yates was new World Champion and Alaphilppe couldn’t defend last year’s victory. Igon was disappointed at his own race, and finished far down the ladder.
Things would get better at the Race of the Fallen Leaves. Here it was all down to climbing prowess: Over the high mountains an illustrious group of some key riders formed itself; SKY with World Champion Yates, Rafal Majka and Tour winner Froome was predominant in strength numbers. Viscaya held himself in the background; over the penultimate climb he was able to follow the pace of König as he was chasing Aru and some others. On the last then, came the key moves but Viscaya simply couldn’t quite hold up with the front group over the last few hundred meters. When he crossed the top, they were just a few seconds ahead of him… too vital, as he missed the slipstream of Geraint Thomas. In the end, a four men group made it to the finish where Tiesj Benoot (LTS) outsprinted the two Brits Simon Yates (MOV) and Thomas (COF). Viscaya came in the second group; having recovered well in the downhill he finished his last race of the season at a strong 5th place.
After this race, Viscaya was ready to fall into a deep sleep. Europcar hasn’t renewed the contract with the team, but Bernaudeau found a great replacement: The reknown brand Ekoi, french bike accessoires manufacturer, stepped up and took over the leads. The team finished 12th in the World Tour rankings and kept easily its place in the World Tour; Viscaya himself ended up 8th at the World Tour, however only 18th in the CQ ranking.
The goal for next season is clear: Bernaudeau wants to give Ekoi a great welcome present and so Viscaya will be their expensive poster boy at the coming Tour de France.
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
No, he's french basque like Sicard and his name is Igon Viscaya like stated multiple times (why'd you think FO would be his name?! Sorry I misread it in the post before).. Faux Orange is just a title and a hint towards former Euskaltel-Euskadi, that's all.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Karl Milde (22)
23rd
6th
8th
10th
1st
4th
BMC Developement Team 
Zolu Kingdom - MTN Qhubeka 
Team Giant - Alpecin 
) where he was tasked to help his teamleaders wherever he could and came in 57th in the GC. After a rest period of one month, Moldef was invited to join his fellow teammates in representing the team colours at the Tour de Berlin (
(though he's in no means "dominating" the scene yet)
). Similar to his start in the previous season, the german found himself fulfilling team duties. As a result, he finished the race in the 23rd place, but managed an impressive 6th in stage 5's ITT. Good perfomances at time trials should prove to be a very strong suit of Moldef in this season. 
), Moldef did much better and reeled in a 12th place in the GC, his best result in a stage race since winning the Oberösterreichrundfahrt the previous year.
) and finished 4th overall in the Tour of Britain (
), his last race of the season.
GP Dyachenko
Baltic ChainTour
Luigy Caberera 
2.HC). Due to the extreme flatness (they might as well have cycled in the Netherlands), young Moldef was relegated to help his faster teammates. Joining a breakaway on the 3rd day of racing proved to be futile. But since he wanted to make use of his excellent condition, Moldef decided to lead his team at the Volta ao Algarve (
CWT) and the La Fléche Wallonne (
2.HC) where he eventually ranked 6th. After an unimpressive showing at the Rund um Köln in preparation for the natonal championships, Moldef barely missed out on wearing the german national ITT jersey by placing 2nd behind Tony Martin. Two days later and two ranks down saw him cross the line as 4th at the german national road championships. 
Tour of Oman
