Hi, Today was one of two decisive stages of this years Tour de Romandie.





We needed everyone in the pack so nobody of our team attacked.
After 40 kms 6 riders got away from the pack. Their gap was constantly rising until they reached 9 minutes on top of the first mountain of the day.





On the flat part after first mountain Ollo and Garro started chasing.



They did one hell of a job. And on start of the second mountain BOD were only 3 minutes in front of the pack. Then it was up to Bruseghin and Garcia to do the pace. But with 2kms to the top of the second mountain, Samy Sanchez started a series of attacks.





I sent Quintana to the front. He gave his all but just before the a start of the last ascend only 2 guys were in front. He was empty so I now could lean only on Alejandro.



Another series of attacks began. Alejandro said that we need to go now or we never catch them. He is more experienced in such situations so I agreed.



I sticked to his wheel and just try to keep up the pace.



We got away. We were in front of everbody. Only 3kms to the top of the mountain and then decend nearly to the finish.
Wiggins couldn´t waited any longer. He knew he have to attack.



Roche also attacked out of the pack.
We were soon on the top.



Valverde is much better decender he threw himself down the mountain like he was on the skies.




After 5 kms Roche caught Wiggins and it became a battle of Us-Them and the pack.



We were 1 minute ahead of them and 2 minutes ahead of pack.
But Roche didn´t wanted to cooperate and the pack soon caught them.
Peloton was only 1,30 minute behind us.



Now the toughest part for us came. 5kms on flat. And against us 4 top TT-ers in their countries.


Tony Martin, Peter Velits, L.L Sanchez and Bradley Wiggins.

After only 2kms they briged the gap to 1 minute.
We were only 3kms from the finish when I said to Valverde thank you brother.I will give you this win. (He would have outsprinted me anyway)
Than he said to me: I know how to make it special. Just look:






I hope it was good satisfaction to him for what he did for me.
If you read this Alejandro. Thank you again.


Stage:

1	Alejandro Valverde Belmonte	Movistar Team	4h53'21
2	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	s.t.
3	Rigoberto Urán Urán	Sky ProCycling	+ 45
4	Johann Tschopp	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Roman Kreuziger	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
6	Bauke Mollema	Rabobank Cycling Team	s.t.
7	Mikel Nieve Ituralde	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
8	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
9	Jean-Christophe Péraud	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
10	Bradley Wiggins	Sky ProCycling	s.t.

GC:

1	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	17h23'54
2	Alejandro Valverde Belmonte	Movistar Team	+ 19
3	Luis León Sánchez Gil	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 1'25
4	Michele Scarponi	Lampre - ISD	+ 1'33
5	Samuel Sánchez González	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'34
6	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 1'35
7	Bradley Wiggins	Sky ProCycling	s.t.
8	Steve Morabito	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'40
9	Peter Velits	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 1'42
10	Denis Nikolayevich Menchov	Katusha Team	+ 1'49

Points:

1	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	20	86
2	Alejandro Valverde Belmonte	Movistar Team	25	66
3	Luis León Sánchez Gil	Rabobank Cycling Team	0	48
4	Geraint Howell Thomas	Sky ProCycling	0	38
5	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	3	30

KOM:

1	Guillaume Bonnafond	Ag2r La Mondiale	14	22
2	Stephen Philip Cummings	BMC Racing Team	13	21
3	Juan Manuel Gárate Cepa	Rabobank Cycling Team	20	20
4	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	12	17
5	Bram Tankink	Rabobank Cycling Team	0	15

Team:

1	Movistar Team	14h43'31	52h18'09 (1)
2	Sky ProCycling	+ 51	+ 20 (2)
3	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'50	+ 3'57 (3)

Young:

1	Rigoberto Urán Urán	Sky ProCycling	4h54'06	17h28'46 (1)
2	Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas	Movistar Team	+ 2'43	+ 27 (2)
3	Guillaume Bonnafond	Ag2r La Mondiale	+ 4'03	+ 7'42 (7)
4	Fabio Felline	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	s.t.	+ 1'40 (5)
5	Wout Poels	Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team	s.t.	+ 1'03 (3)

Brilliant riding and love the finish
Legendary

Though time to move up difficulty?

to Extreme? I think it´s only due to 99 fitnes of both Valverde and Rui.. But if it continues through the Vuelta than I will probably have to do it
Hope it´s not too boring.

What a Great Performance from the Team, Well Done

Hey guys!



I just living best momemts of my career. I won 3 stages and I gave one to Alejandro. Right?! NO!





I won even last Hilly TT! Just look.

1	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	30'04
2	Alejandro Valverde Belmonte	Movistar Team	+ 4
3	Luis León Sánchez Gil	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 13
4	Peter Velits	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 18
5	Bradley Wiggins	Sky ProCycling	+ 21
6	Samuel Sánchez González	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 28
7	Maxime Monfort	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 30
8	Geraint Howell Thomas	Sky ProCycling	+ 32
9	Marzio Bruseghin	Movistar Team	+ 37
10	Michele Scarponi	Lampre - ISD	+ 39

Alejandro came only 4 seconds behind me. How great is that?

Here is final GC:

1	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	17h53'58
2	Alejandro Valverde Belmonte	Movistar Team	+ 23
3	Luis León Sánchez Gil	Rabobank Cycling Team	+ 1'38
4	Bradley Wiggins	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'56
5	Peter Velits	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 2'00
6	Samuel Sánchez González	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'02
7	Michele Scarponi	Lampre - ISD	+ 2'12
8	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma-QuickStep	+ 2'18
9	Denis Nikolayevich Menchov	Katusha Team	+ 2'29
10	Steve Morabito	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'33

I also won Points jersey:

1	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	15	101
2	Alejandro Valverde Belmonte	Movistar Team	12	78
3	Luis León Sánchez Gil	Rabobank Cycling Team	10	58
4	Geraint Howell Thomas	Sky ProCycling	5	43
5	Bradley Wiggins	Sky ProCycling	8	37

I won only one KOM sprint but even that was enough for great 4th place:

1	Guillaume Bonnafond	Ag2r La Mondiale	0	22
2	Stephen Philip Cummings	BMC Racing Team	0	21
3	Juan Manuel Gárate Cepa	Rabobank Cycling Team	0	20
4	Rui Alberto Faria Costa	Movistar Team	0	17
5	Bram Tankink	Rabobank Cycling Team	0	15

Quintana was only 32 seconds behind Uran. He still happy how things shaped though.

1	Rigoberto Urán Urán	Sky ProCycling	30'54	17h59'40 (1)
2	Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas	Movistar Team	+ 5	+ 32 (2)
3	Tejay Van Garderen	BMC Racing Team	+ 9	+ 16'47 (8)
4	Thibaut Pinot	FDJ-Big Mat	+ 18	+ 33'33 (10)
5	Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolás	Movistar Team	+ 22	+ 41'56 (13)

And finaly we also won Team Classification.

1	Movistar Team	1h30'53	53h49'02 (1)
2	Sky ProCycling	+ 1'02	+ 1'22 (2)
3	RadioShack-Nissan	+ 1'16	+ 7'57 (5)

Now I will have my well earned rest. I was invited for some charitative actions I will maybe report some of them. Later I will go visit USA! You probably don´t know but I´m really of Los Angeles Clippers. NBA basketball team. I´m also pretty good at basket. My first race will be NC.
Hope you enjoyed Tour de Romandie aswell as I did.

Seeya soon.

Rui.

It definitely was a massive domination from Rui.
Hope that doesn't mean he's a big cycling-king suddenly, though. I quite enjoy him as the underdog

he is not I changed his stat only little bit.. I will probbably do something and show his stats to the world.

Rui had a totally brilliant time in Switzerland and was just too good for everyone else to challenge him

That was brilliant!

Thanks a lot sutty and Freitas I really apreciate that you are following so closely.
I would like to use this comment to ask all of you who are reading that what would you liked to see? it can be anything from screenshots through reports to more about Rui himself. I don´t know him personaly so everything you will read about his hobbys or stuff like that will be totally fictional.
But I would really apreciate if you could tell me what you like about my stories and also what would you like to see me doing. I really like writing reports and I would like to be even better in it. Thanks for your feedback.

JuanMotr.

I'm liking it a lot so far. A bit more personal tough from Rui (fictional) would be nice

I am enjoying the story as it is

But if i had to choose something to add then i would say a few more screenshots

Hi today started the first of two days of performance camp in French Alps.
Today we were riding in two lesser famous but nonetheles hard mountains.
Maybe you don´t know what is the Performance camp so let me explain:
It´s two day camp where first day we go on mountains and the second day there is 50kms long ITT. It is like normal training camp with one big difference there is a squad of trainers, scouts and doctors which are rating us in scale from 50 to 85 in 13 different categories. We could choose when we want to do this camp I choosed today (3-4 May) and after WC. And I will see how I improved particular areas. Trainers will also tell us on which part of race we should concentrate. So I´m really courios on how will results go.

Here are few photos of today´s training camp:







Today it was all about climbing, downhilling, endurance and stamina.
Tommorow it will be more about recovery, flat, hill and again about stamina.

I will probabbly report day after tommorow as at that time I should have got my results.

Seeya

Rui

What a great, great story element this is, can't wait for the results

Yesterday was great. I think I broke my personal record on 50kms long ITT.
It was really beutifull sunny day and I was enjoying every second of riding the new type of our time-trial bike.
Here are few photos of me riding best I could:






Today my personal trainer came to me and gave me a letter with my skills I will gave you a copy of it:



I´m quite happy with the outcome. Next week I´m leaving to USA I will blog you from there.

Seeya

Rui

Awesome training camp that was

I laughed so hard when was typing Mr.Costa (sutty called him like that once) and Ian what do you think of his stats?

I think it's incredible you managed that result with those stats on hard. It really was a great race

Hope all the guys enjoyed France and the training camp

Ian: Thanks
Sutty: they for sure had a great time