Hey guys,
we are in Imola, where the great F1 track is domiciled. As you might think we weren´t that fast over the last days, but still the pace made me suffer.
Stage 9 was hilly to San Giorno del Sarnio, and as the last days weren´t bad enough Facchini crashed out of the race on the 210 km stage. For me the struggle continued, but I managed to limit my losses to 2"38 on this day. Aru took the day in front of Nibali and Formolo out of a group of 30.
Being 30th now in the GC the race went further to Forti, the flat stage didn´t trouble even me. There was no big action despite the mass sprint, which was taken by Demare beating Kittel and Viviani.
Strange was stage 11 to Imola. on the pretty short and hilly day I got dropped mid-stage, but could make myself back to the fore at the end. This stage might would have suited me on my best of form, but today I had nothing to do with the battle for the victory. Bonifazio took it beating Felline on a great day for the Italians.
No days for us, just suffering. But I am still hoping for better days, and the chance to go into some breakaways in the last stage with better legs.
Hey guys,
you know it´s not a good sign when my next letter is coming two months later than the first one.
So I was on stage 12, and surprisingly the hilly stage to Vicenza didn´t went too bad. I could stay in the wheels of the strong men and finish 11th in the first group of 29. Frank won the stage for Sprite, while I climbed up tp 23rd GC.
But in the evening my main man Ralph told me that my data didn´t look too good today and he took me out of the race. Firstly I thought like: "What the hell is going on? I felt better today, do you think I cheated?" I really couldn´t understand the decision.
But after some days I know what he meant. My viral infection went even more crucial. I´ve seen Nibali winning the Giro only from under my blanket. For the guys wondering, Kittel, Chaves and Yates took the other jerseys.
After some horrible weeks I felt a little bit better right before the German national championships. But coming back at the days around Grimma I had neither an impact on the TT not on the road race. Martin won the TT in front of Schachmann, while Geschke took the road race against Herklotz and Degenkolb. Our best man in both races was Reutter placing himself 6th and 8th, while I landed in the mid-twenties.
Influenced by this results I was sure now that I wouldn´t come to the Tour this year. Vuelta could still be an option, depending on how my recovery process works out. Together with Ralph and Robert I had some big talks in July, I signed a new one-year contract with Bora, hoping that we could stay in the UCI World Tour.
We also planned on this season, what´s left for me to target. One option was the Classics way, containing Canada, Plouay and the Cyclassics, the other option was a Vuelta attempt. The result was this: Back into racing I will go at the Clasica San Sebastian in August, followed by the Tour de Pologne and yes, you are hearing right, the Eneco-Tour. Now that I have some race-days back in my legs there will be either the classics package or La Vuelta, followed by Il Lombardia as last big target towards the end of the season.
You know still the disappointement about the ending of the Giro and the fail to ride Le Tour is huge, but there is a job to be done. Scoring some points to keep Bora in the division over Lampre, Lotto-NL and Cofidis. If I could do something at the third GT, that would be like the cherry on top of the cake, which is avoiding relegation.
Next year our team will be stronger; I´m not allowed to say anything yet but trust me. It will. And then it´s time for big attacks. Now it´s time for hard work and the struggle for points.
3 times I was already at Clasica San Sebastian, and in neither of this three attempts I managed to create a decent result. But this year the Basque Country had some great racing for me, so why shouldn´t this continue at my WT-comeback after the tough infection.
The 219 kms are always hard to judge before the race, as it could either be a rangy attack or decided on the last kilometers or even with a reduced sprint on the final straight. Drama can happen here, seen with Greg back in 2015, but that´s not how you guys want to see cycling. And that´s not what cycling is about.
But sometimes if the luck is gone it takes time to grab it back. Coming here as our captain I got involved in a crash with 37.5 km to go on a fast descent.
Bad luck once again for me, but also for some other pre-race favourites including Polanc and Benoot. Their teams dragged us back (mine was too weak at this late point of the race), so we made it back in the pack right before the 20k banner. The race surprisingly slowed down as no one wanted to do the pacemaking. Some riders tried to get away, including me one time, but Nike kind of had this under control. While I was already starting to plan the sprint, getting on Alejandros wheel from strong looking Desigual, Alaphilippe had a last try for Nike. The chase had a moment of slowing down, before the sprinting to catch him began. Valverde must have seen me behind him and strangely went out of gas, so I had to come outside and drag me up some positins. Finally I had a good position in the sprint for minor places...
..but then I went out of gas because of the efforts that were already done. It was just one attack, chase or drag too much for me to get a podium place, but still it wasn´t a too bad effort.
All in all it was a satisfying sixth place for today's comeback. No one could come near to winning Julien Alaphilippe, who once again demonstrated the strength of Nike's puncheurs.
1
Julian Alaphilippe
Nike
5h56'11
2
Mathieu van der Poel
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
3
Igor Antón
Desigual
s.t.
4
Louis Meintjes
TEAM Touch Africa
s.t.
5
Tim Wellens
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
6
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
7
Thibaut Pinot
Nike
s.t.
8
Fabio Duarte
Desigual
s.t.
9
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
s.t.
10
Mikel Landa
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
Sadly there´s no time for me to enjoy the beutiful landscape around San Sebastian, because it´s Poland calling for tomorrow starting Tour de Pologne, where some big points could be up for grabs.
Great read! What a comeback from Andy! Simply too good for the Pro Continental level, excellent results already in the World Tour. If he rides the Vuelta he'll do very well there, I'm sure, the competition is not on the same level as the Giro, let alone Tour.
this is Cracow calling. From where exactly you will get to know lateron...
Ripley wrote:
Great read! What a comeback from Andy! Simply too good for the Pro Continental level, excellent results already in the World Tour. If he rides the Vuelta he'll do very well there, I'm sure, the competition is not on the same level as the Giro, let alone Tour.
That´s why we want to stay safe in the World Tour, and why I have to deliver here!
My plan at the Tour of Pologne was to stay safe from stage 1 to 4, than bring in some massive attacks on the hilly days and come to Cracow at day 7 with a podium place. Let´s see how I did...
The first to stages went right how we planned them, nothing won but nothing lost as well. Stage 3 was interesting, as I lead Willwohl out for the sprint. He took 2nd while I still finished 10th, seems like we have some good legs to burn here.
Willy was in white after this stage, and held on to it until stage 4, which was much harder than expected. It turned out to be a tough uphill sprint, which I finished 8th in. Nike Lotto-Soudal had everything under control until this points with victories of Verhelst and de Buyst, who seemed unbeatable in sprints here.
After 4 more or less flat stages the 5th was the King´s Stage to Ustron. The hilly parcours over a length of 151,3 km had a climbing finish in it. A rangy attack let the race speed up, so that it was pretty tough on the final climb. I came in 6th, finishing on time with winner Adam Yates.
Gurreiro & Dennis from inside my group were out of that long-distance attack, which survived until the very last kilometer. The man from Orica took yellow, whil I found myself 4th, 10 seconds down on Adam.
1
Adam Yates
Orica-GreenEDGE
3h41'30
2
Leopold König
Bwin
s.t.
3
Simon Yates
Bwin
s.t.
4
Ruben Guerreiro
FDJ
s.t.
5
Rohan Dennis
Team Cannondale - Garmin
s.t.
6
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
7
Geraint Thomas
TEAM Touch Africa
+ 37
8
Vaclovas Semberas
Lampre-Merida
s.t.
9
Matteo Rabottini
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
10
Eduardo Sepulveda
Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
s.t.
Stage 6 was long and something for the big enginerooms. And for the breakaway. Starting the hilly 223 km a bigger group went away, highly notable with Malacarne for us and strong climber & polka-dot leader Chernetskiy.
With 23,6 km - it looked very good for the break - I decided to go for an attack.
Nothing less than the GC victory was on my mind. But the man who could follow me were at first Nerz, Semberas and Sepulveda. Some trouble hit me later the stage on a downhill section, and I made a rookie mistake by pulling out my rain coat at the wrong moment. Away Nerz & Sepulveda went, and I never saw them this stage anymore. Adam could catch up to us and dragged Vaclav and me with him up the final kick to finish 5-7. Victorious was Chernetskiy with a great effort in front of surprising Lightart; Sepulveda came third. Malacarne was caught and left behind by us right before the finishing line, so he came 8th.
1
Sergey Chernetskiy
Rusal
5h20'17
2
Pim Ligthart
Team LottoNL - Jumbo
+ 1'11
3
Eduardo Sepulveda
Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
+ 1'37
4
Dominik Nerz
Orica-GreenEDGE
s.t.
5
Adam Yates
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 2'17
6
Vaclovas Semberas
Lampre-Merida
s.t.
7
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
8
Davide Malacarne
Bora - Argon 18
+ 2'34
9
Matteo Rabottini
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
10
Kenny Elissonde
Rusal
s.t.
I´m still fourth GC with ten seconds down on Yates, just with two other guys between us.
1
Adam Yates
Orica-GreenEDGE
24h46'03
2
Eduardo Sepulveda
Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
+ 3
3
Dominik Nerz
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 7
4
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 10
5
Leopold König
Bwin
+ 21
The flat last stage 7 was remarkably tough, due to strong crosswinds. I managed to get it really going, some Top10 GC riders were caught out by the pace, and then it happened again. The most cruel word in cycling. DNF. Near the 5k to go banner I hit the deck hard. Immediately I was sure that a bone was cracked, which obviously meant the end for me this tour.
Lightart won the stage again beating de Buyst, Willwohl sadly couldn´t save the Tour for us with another podium.
The podium 3 weren´t in trouble here, but the Top 10 got shaken. Semberas from 9 to 4 with the likes of König, Simon Yates and myself crashing out or losing time.
1
Adam Yates
Orica-GreenEDGE
28h19'21
2
Eduardo Sepulveda
Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise
+ 3
3
Dominik Nerz
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 7
4
Vaclovas Semberas
Lampre-Merida
+ 47
5
Rasmus Guldhammer
Phonak
+ 1'04
Some great results for smaller teams, especially Topsport. Semberas with some major ones for Lampre, what makes it even further difficult to stay safe.
It´s just painful to see our direct opponents score good points while I should´ve collected them. That´s unfair, but we can´t do shit about it than just coming back stronger. Trouble is that I´m pretty sure I won´t make it to the Vuelta. The race against the clock has begun, but in another way than I like...
Bis bald, Andy
Spoiler
PCM f***ed me over this time...I crossed the finishing line to secure my 4th GC on a windy 7th stage, but instead of that they took me out of the results. After some research I found out that this was due to an injury, which clearly didn´t happen inside the race...
The race against the clock has begun, but in another way than I like...sohad to leave out the Eneco Tour, it was all about Vuelta or not. Despite the suffering of the broken hand I decided that it´s worth a try, as I really want to finish a Grand Tour this year.
So the Vuelta, starting up with a hilly TTT here in Ceuta tomorrow, will be the tour we go for the GC this year. Not what we planned, but we will make the best out of it. Our starting lineup will contain two main groups:
climbing/puncheur squad
Andy Schleck (GC leader)
Patrick Konrad (last man standing for Andy, Co-Captain)
Giovanni Visconti (lieutenant)
Nelson Oliviera (allrounder, guide)
sprinting train
Willy Willwohl (main sprinter) & his leadout
Christian Koch
Rüdiger Selig
Michael Schwarzmann
Marcel Meisen
All in all it seems like we have the strongest Bora GT squad ever here to secure the avoid of relegation. I would have like Christian Mager here as a strong climbing addition, but he is tired after a long season.
Our strong lineup here means that we weakened our sides for the WT one day races in France, Germany and Canada, which puts on the pressure even more. But maybe someone like Bokeloh could add some points to our sheet.
12
Sprite (PCT)
301
13
Cannondale - Garmin
297
14
FDJ
261
15
Bora - Argon 18
257
16
Lampre - Merida
182
23
Cofidis
22
24
Lotto-NL Jumbo
19
It looks pretty good as two teams are failing completely at the moment, but especially LottoNL can still do something if the likes of Kruijsijk, Hofland, Slagter and more wake up. So we need to score in or last WT appearences, the Vuelta and most likely Il Lombardia.
I am writing from the most southern place you can imagine on the iberican peninsula. To be honest the first days of this years vuelta perfectly shown my current GT abilities.
Starting up in Cueto the TTT was not in favour of ours. 27.9 km, flat roads and a disadvantage of 1:26 to winning Orica. Do I have to say more? No, despite the fact that Daryl Impey gets red for at least one day.
Why don´t I have to say more? Because the day after we had already that hilly finish in Penon di Gibraltar. With Kwiatek, Valverde, Martin and van der Poel as favourites it was pretty obvious that Impey shouldn´t hold on to red.
On the day Oliveira was the one in the break for us, while Schwarzmann and Konrad should bring me into the final hill.
Late in the day the break was nearly caught as the pace was very high, all the front of the peloton was in one lane.
Until stuff happened. My legs were already really bad, but coming near to the hill all went even worse. In front of me there was a hard crash, and I had no chance to avoid hitting the deck in a brutal way.
A shitload of strong riders were also down - Kwiatkowski, Valverde, Moser, Atapuma, Kangert, Benoot and Slagter were the strongest of them - and we formed a bigger group to come back. Konrad was my only man left here, while Lotto-Soudal and Etixx tried to catch the leading group of 30.
But that was a race without chances, riders from the first group battled for victory. Froome won, underlining his GC ambitions already on stage 2, in front of Daniel Martin, Intxausti and Nerz, my fromer teammate who improved fantastically.
Michal was the strongest of our chasing group coming in 7th on the tiny roads. I made myself up to 23rd, but lost 3:45 to Froome and now I am over five minutes down after two stages already, plus the pain of course...
Shit happens, somehow more often with me this GT-year. I will see whether I can rehabilitate the next stages and go for a Top 10 in the GC or maybe try something on the late stages. Hopefully I can take something out of this, we need some points looking at the other teams captains:
Cannondale-Garmin: D.Martin, Villela, Dennis
Lampre: Nizzolo, Morton
Lotto-NL: Slagter, Langeveld, Sinkeldam
Cofidis: Stuyven & a strong train
Might lead to an on point ending, if we just finish over Lotto-NL & Cofidis. Until then it´s a hard way to go, and for the next weeks I have to forget the pain.
again I´m writing from one of the most beutiful places in spain where a Vuelta stage could end - famous Alhambra. Somehow I enjoyed the ride uphill to get here, even if the view was additionally breathtaking on top of the furious pace.
As you know there are several strong riders here, especially Froome is on fire already, so you can think of how tough the hilly stage 3-5 were, coming from the crash.
Stage 3 was flat with some cobbles and nature streets ending in Cadiz. I had bed legs again after that crash, but could stay out of trouble. Theuns took the stage beating Barbero and van der Sande.
Next one was hilly to Cordoba; 195 kms long and with some interersting climbs, nature streets and a tough descent to the finishing line. I thought this might be a day for me, although my legs still suffered. But feeling better and better through the race I decided to ride a rangy attack, the breakaway group didn´t look strong and with a heavy backpack of 5 minutes they might let me go at Sevana del Sol.
30 kms were ahead of mine as I set my attack, but first Desigual (Herrada & Duarte for Valverde) and then Lotto-Soudal (Gallopan for Tiesj).
Over the climb I had 15 seconds, but by reaching the group the peloton snacked me back. With the Cerro San Cristobal upcoming, the last climb of the day, I tried my luck another time.
But again it was my former teammate Tony to kill me, and from then on it was just the struggle to hang on. Just when my legs wanted to crack we reached the top of the climb. And I could get back into the group of favourites, where just Kwiatkowski was missing.
First time I saw him again was on the finishing line, where the polish champion celebrated a nice victory. With all what was left from me I bullied myself over the line, just hanging on to the leaders group.
I finished 12th at the end to move up to 15th GC. Morton though, one of our direct enemies, lost some big time here as well as the youth jersey, which was started to be given in 2016 as a light blue one. Van der Poel took it.
1
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
4h26'30
2
Daniel Martin
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 45
3
Mathieu van der Poel
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
4
Tim Wellens
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
5
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
s.t.
6
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
12
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
16
Tiesj Benoot (G3)
Lotto Soudal
+ 1'31
55
Lachlan Morton (G4)
Lampre-Merida
+ 2'59
Coming up to stage 5 we had that beutiful Alhambra finish, with steady but not to hard rises on our way. It was all calm until the final 3 kilometers uphill, where I worked my way up from Schwarzmann´s delivery. Valverde won his first stage for Desigual, coming in ahead of Dan and Mathieu.
For me it was a great fourth place, my by far best result at the moment. Maybe that´s why I´m writing so happily now...
1
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
3h46'12
2
Daniel Martin
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 8
3
Mathieu van der Poel
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
4
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
5
Dominik Nerz
Orica-GreenEDGE
s.t.
6
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
s.t.
7
Tim Wellens
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
8
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
9
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
10
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
s.t.
Despite my good stage result I couldn´t climb on the GC due to a lack of lacks in the peloton. This will change after next stage, a huge one with an enormous finishing climb to the Sierre de Lujar. The sierra follows some uphill roads and rises 1800m high starting from zero; surely it will shake the GC roughly around. If I´m feeling good, maybe a top 10 could stand there after tomorrow's stage...
this is me enjoying the beach in the 17th state of Germany (depends on if you count Bayern or not). We have our first rest day on the most perfect fitting place, but we also have done some hard work to come here.
At stage 6 we already had kind of the queens stage, On the mountanious 160 km it´s up and down all the way, finished by a huge climb at the Sierra de Lujor. That´s 1850 m difference in altitude from the bottom to the top. What a steep and stunning climb that is!
The race was dominated by a break of which Gautier, Porte and Atapuma stood out. they had 13 minutes as a peak of advantage with 62 kms to go, and before the final climb started (28 to go) they still had 12. That was a dangerous constellation for Froome, so his team reached out to kill the peloton.
And Froome already has gone up the road early, leaving everyone far behind, At the end he missed out the leading couple by three minutes, but absolutely destroyed all other contenders, from which Barguil was the best in white. I lost around 4 minutes to Froome, finishing together with Morton, Jones and Arredondo.
1
Richie Porte
Etixx - Quick-step
5h00'25
2
John Darwin Atapuma
Desigual
s.t.
3
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
+ 2'58
4
Warren Barguil
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 4'29
5
Daniel Martin
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 5'27
6
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 5'57
7
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 6'41
8
Lachlan Morton
Lampre-Merida
s.t.
9
Carter Jones
CCC Sprandi Polkowice
s.t.
10
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
s.t.
11
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
+ 7'02
This lifted me up to 12th GC, while Froome seems to already have the victory if he doesn´t crash out. Still I have a chance of a top 10 or even top 5 though.
Already at the team hotel I got the shocking news thet we lost two riders due to the horrendous pace yesterday (Koch & Schwarzmann).
Next up was a flat Stage to Carboneras, results for Willwohl should be even tougher to reach now without any leadout. Oliveira was in the unsuccessful break for us, and I went out myself to position Willwohl at the fore for the sprint.
But he struggled to hold my wheel, though he could come another way round to finish fifth. Michal Kwiatkowski took the day in a very messy sprint.
After this already the next monster waited for us, Calas Alto. A crucial stage of 216 km, with two big climbs ahead of the 1400 hm finish at Calas Alto. Another time the break looked good, when de Gendt and Boswell (the best of the break) went over the penultimate climb (42.3 to go), they nearly had nine minutes in hand.
But Froome wouldn´t be Froome if he would let them take the day easily. Initially I wanted to try something crazy today, but my legs were terrible once again so that prevented myself from that. So the first attack came from Nerz as Froome had only Brambilla and Sterbini left. But why would you attack Froome if he comes back and erases your effort with authority?
I couldn´t hold his wheel already 11 long kilometers before the line, finding myself in a group containing TvG.
We stayed together until nearly the finish line, where he couldn´t hold our wheels anymore. We came in as a group of 6 with Wellens, Intxausti, Dennis, Porte and Morton.
Top of the stage was Giro hero de Gendt from the break, who rescued himself onto the finishing line before the hunting Froome and Nerz could reach him. For me it was P16, staying twelth overall.
1
Thomas De Gendt
Lotto Soudal
6h17'45
2
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
+ 25
3
Dominik Nerz
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 1'12
4
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
+ 1'57
5
Daniel Martin
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 3'15
6
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
s.t.
7
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
+ 3'30
8
John Darwin Atapuma
Desigual
s.t.
Spoiler
9
Carter Jones
CCC Sprandi Polkowice
s.t.
10
Ian Boswell
Nike
+ 3'46
11
Tim Wellens
Lotto Soudal
+ 4'52
12
Beñat Intxausti
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
13
Rohan Dennis
Team Cannondale - Garmin
s.t.
14
Richie Porte
Etixx - Quick-step
s.t.
15
Lachlan Morton
Lampre-Merida
s.t.
16
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
17
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 5'13
Stage 9 fas a flat one to the football teams training camp Mekka La Manga. For god sake it was a stage without trouble for me, Hofland won and I didn´t had to stretch my legs too much. Willwohl without a performance here sadly.
The final day before the break in and around Palma was hilly but pretty calm. After the last hill a group of three went away on the descent and survived. I had a very good bunch sprint to finish the stage fifth.
1
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
4h48'33
2
Beñat Intxausti
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
3
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
s.t.
4
Moreno Hofland
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 58
5
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
Looking now at the GC we must say that tough days are ahead of us. I want that Top 5 now, but this year 2of the three toghest stages are already gone. Top 10 still is a minimum goal, and the standings seem to underline that.
The general classification at the rest day:
1
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
42h34'56
2
Daniel Martin
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 5'38
3
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
+ 6'56
4
John Darwin Atapuma
Desigual
+ 8'17
5
Beñat Intxausti
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 9'19
6
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
+ 9'26
7
Richie Porte
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 10'17
8
Dominik Nerz
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 11'02
9
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 11'04
10
Thomas De Gendt
Lotto Soudal
+ 13'09
11
Lachlan Morton
Lampre-Merida
+ 13'21
12
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 13'23
We now have to concentrate on building something up for the later days, everyon besides the Kenyan is beatable on a climb.
Imola, 20.5.2017 
Luxembourg, 26.7.2017 
San Sebastian, 1.8.2017 
Cracow, 8.8.2017 
, although that crash wasn't good. 
