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Fabio Melani | Road to Le Tour | End of Season
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 08-12-2013 23:25
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Grand Tour Specialist
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 Tour de San Luis
The first race of the season. The race on my own doorstep, the one which I know almost off by heart. Let's do this.
Leader
Esteban Chaves
Sprinter
Jagoba Aurrekoetxea
Main Teammate
Fabio Melani
Leadout Man
Virgilijus Grazhys
Leadout Man
Jeffry Johan Romero
Water Boy
Dalivier Ospina
Big Names
Sprinter: Andre Greipel
Climbers: Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde, Wilco Kelderman, Daniel Martin, Michele Scarponi
DS Kelly: Ok boys, this is our first race of the season, and we need to arrive with a bang. We've been training for 2 months, and now is where it pays off. There are a lot of amazing climbers here, so it'll be hard, but we can work as a team and bring something home. Jagoba, it's your first race, I want you to try your best and give some of these guys a run for their money. I'm not expecting you to beat Greipel, but I hope that you can get a few good results.
Me: With such a good field, it will definitely be hard to do something in the GC, but Esteban has showed that he has the qualities to compete here.
Kelly: Top 5 GC, Top 5 on 3 Stages
Sponsors: Top 3 GC
Me: Top 5 GC, Top 3 on a Stage
Edited by Cycleman123 on 08-12-2013 23:25
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 09-12-2013 02:07
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Tour de San Luis
Well, here it is, the start of the season. An easy stage here to start us off, and hopefully Jagoba can produce a good result on debut.
The first breakaway-ers of the season were Sijmens (COF), Bertazzo (AND) and Hoberg (CWO).
Ospina was the position-getter for our team. After him were Romero, Grazhys and finally Jagoba.
With bad leadouts from our first 2 sprinters, Jagoba was always up against it. He was well behind for the sprint.
Andre Greipel took a runaway victory, ahead of Sinkeldam and then Ligthart.
Jagoba was blocked for the whole sprint. He finished, with energy to burn, in 9th.
I obviously didn't bother with the sprint. Esteban and I finished at the back of the bunch, but in a couple of days you'll hopefully see us fighting up front. 
Edited by Cycleman123 on 09-12-2013 02:08
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 09-12-2013 04:40
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Tour de San Luis 
This one should be a bit tougher, but we should still see a bunch sprint where Jagoba will have enough left in him to sprint well.
There was surprisingly no break, so I decided to attack for the Tour's first KoM points. Unfortunately however, some bad acceleration meant that I could only pick up 4th. I felt pretty gutted, but I wasn't too worried because it's still early days. The other 4 attackers then also became the break of the day.
The train failed. We were even worse than yesterday, due to some horrible positioning.
With 500m to go Greipel had a huge lead. The battle was on though for 2nd.
Somehow Blanco's Tom Jelte Slagter got 2nd, while Pim Ligthart took another 3rd. Again with more energy to burn (despite a long sprint), Jagoba took a close 5th.
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| The Hobbit |
Posted on 09-12-2013 07:20
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Decent start, but a shame you aren't leader....
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 23-11-2024 21:28
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 09-12-2013 07:22
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Hobbit: Esteban is the better rider in all fairness, and Sean wanted to give him a chance to make things right after last year.
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 09-12-2013 07:38
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Tour de San Luis 
The first GC stage. Here we will see if Esteban can compete with the likes of Quintana and co. 
The day started as usual with a breakaway. In the order of crossing for the Cat. 1 KoM sprint, they were:
Rodriguez (AND)
Sepulveda (BSE)
Moyano (CJR)
 Foder (CWO)
With 8.5km to go, there was still, a 2'06" gap between the escapees and the peloton. I was worried, but Dalivier reminded my that the climb was still to come.
Now at 3km and Rodriguez was still leading. I was leading Chaves at the front of the peloton.
We started the sprint in a commanding position, but could anyone catch Rodriguez, pictured there behind a flag.
Irish Champion Dan Martin was in 2nd, but the rest of the big guys were coming. I was now dead from my leadout. I couldn't give it any more.
The flying Colombian had been caught, but another one was taking over. Nairo Quintana was steaming ahead of everyone else, surely to victory.
Yes, he did it! Ahead of Martin and Scarponi. Esteban finished 6th, with me right behind him in 7th.
Movistar took the orange jersey while Chaves and I were 3rd and 4th in the Youth standings behind the GC leader and Wilco Kelderman.
Fabio
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 09-12-2013 09:05
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Tour de France Champion
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The guys have put in some decent rides in San Luis up to now, hope it continues 
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 09-12-2013 10:26
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Sutty: We've done well so far, but with every day comes more possibility for the strongest riders.
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 09-12-2013 10:36
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It's 6 o'clock in the morning. I've just turned on the shower, ready to prepare for breakfast with the boys before today's time-trial. But suddenly, I hear the phone ringing. I run downstairs, in just my underwear, and pick up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi Fabio, it's me Sean. I have some good news for you.
"Cool. Lay it on me."
"Well first let me warn you that this may jeopardize your leadership role in Andalucia, and will be more complicated and physically straining for you.
"Ummm, I'm ready for the good part now..."
"Well, the organisers of the Volta ao Algarve have requested your presence there. And the team will pocket 2500 Euros if you finish the race.
"Wait, but we aren't registered for Algarve, aren't we?
"Well the race organisers said that they can try to make something happen. This is only a may though, so it's not definite.
"Sounds good to me, but I'll be riding by myself?"
"Yes, but imagine the publicity! Even the world's elite don't get this very often.
"Well, when you put it that way..."
"Great! See you at breakfast in a half hour."
"Sir."
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 10-12-2013 06:36
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Tour de San Luis The Profile
This is a challenging time-trial which will test riders' patience, as they cannot give it their all on the downhill due to the touch climb at the end. 
Virgilijus was a provisional 4th at the finish, only 12" behind Malori.
With the home fans now better aquainted with me as a rider, they were now all cheering my name. There were surely at least 200 people behind the start ramp cheering my name and hoping to get a glimpse of their hero. I felt overwhelmed, feeling like one of the stars. Now I had a lot of pressure on me.
I started off poorly though. I was 35" back at the time check, which only saw me in provisional 40th.
Esteban also wasn't riding well. He was caught up to but not overtaken by Wilco Kelderman. Our leader was somehow dead 1.5km out from the finish line.
Meanwhile I was provisional 29th at the end - behind by 1'13".
At least I did better than Esteban, who was 56th, a full 1'40" down. This actually made me the new team leader! Could I deal with the pressure?
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| The Hobbit |
Posted on 10-12-2013 06:55
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Yay, go Fabio
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 10-12-2013 07:52
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Hobbit: Thanks
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 10-12-2013 19:30
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Tour de San Luis 
The Queen Stage. It might be less destructive than last year due to the field, but that also means trouble for us. I have a huge weight of responsibility on me here as the leader. We need to at least break into the Top 10.
There was a break, but there is unfortunately no picture of it, so let's move on to the climb.
The favourites got up front early. But, as with our luck, I got blocked by Diego Ulissi. I was out of the game now, so Esteban attacked and tried to bridge to the favourites.
But somehow, with all the strong climbers that were here, Wilco Kelderman (call Jesleyh) was on fire. He went away solo. Destroying the field which could all be getting Top 10 or even 5 in the Tour de France.
No doubt he took the solo win.
Quintana won the favourites' sprint, followed by Scarponi, Martin and Van den Broeck.
Esteban finished in 9th - not enough to break into the GC Top 10.
Meanwhile I was tired, running on rags. I finished at the back of the group after Chaves.
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| The Hobbit |
Posted on 10-12-2013 19:41
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Uh oh, not so good, come on, claim back that time!
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| Dippofix |
Posted on 10-12-2013 20:15
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Hmm, some bad luck there. 
And i wonder if Jesleyh is allright, how could he not have noticed Wilco's performance yet? 
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 10-12-2013 20:25
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The full results
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 10-12-2013 20:25
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Grand Tour Specialist
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The full results
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 10-12-2013 22:13
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Dippo: I wouldn't say it's bad luck, just a great field.
Hobbit: We hope that our stamina can carry us forward now.
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| Cycleman123 |
Posted on 10-12-2013 22:27
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Grand Tour Specialist
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Tour de San Luis \
The last GC stage. Can we claw back that time? 
In the order the break went over the climb, the members were: 
With 5km to go, we had a similar situation. The favourites and still even the break, were just leading Esteban and I (in white). I looked over at the fans, noticing one little boy in particular. He was wearing a shirt with my face on it, saying "Go Melani" in big bold letters. I realised how much I meant to my home fans. I couldn't let them down without a fight.
With 3km to go, we had caught up. Quintana was leading the 'peloton', as some optimistic souls tried to attack before the sprint.
We were still together into the penultimate corner. Could this be my day? I looked over and saw my idols from teenage-hood suffering,begging for it to be over. But me? I wasn't over yet. I could still fight, and I could win!
The sprint started, and Quintana was looking too strong. As I got up to full speed, I realised the difficulty of this uphill sprint. Still though, I was going, in better shape than the others, until the equivalent of death came knocking. Landa blocked me, got in front of me terribly. I had the energy to do this, but I just couldn't get around...
And so, Nairo Quintana would take the win, but could the peloton come home in time? Could Kelderman stay in the lead?
Yes. The usual suspects finished up front, while I was languished behind the devil Landa.
So a 15th, which could've been so much more.
Edited by Cycleman123 on 10-12-2013 22:30
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 10-12-2013 22:56
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Tour de France Champion
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A brave effort from Fabio
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