the "second week" started with a medium long time trial (38.2 km) in and around Manacor. Somehow I don´t fear these anymore, I´ve not trained myself to a Froome, but my huge training effort pays out somehow now. I only lost 59 seconds to victorious Durbridge finishing 13th.
1
Luke Durbridge
Astana Pro Team
43'29
2
Rohan Dennis
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 1
3
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
+ 3
4
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
+ 12
5
Cameron Meyer
Bwin
+ 20
13
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 59
Oliveira could place himself 7th, while Froome is still in the lead and with another stage podium here. I gained myself one place, coming nearer to the Top 5 we want now.
Next up was kind of a weird stage to Mont Cano, a mountain stage which was all flat until the monster at the end. Visconti was our man in the huge break of the day, which got caught before the climb even started.
While climbing there were several attacks, but they all got dragged back by firstly Kozhatayev and then Sterbini, which lead to a group of seven at the front with Sterbini, Froome, Benoot, Kwiatkowski, Barguil and Arredondo.
Out of these Froome let fly with Kwiatkowski, who could hang on to the dominator nearly until the end. But you know, no chance against Froome this Vuelta. I battled myself into the finish on P4, just behind Warren on the podium.
This lead me up to 8th GC, it seems like the climbing rythm is coming into my legs now.
Sadly I couldn´t show that on the upcoming stage, because it was flat as a pancake. The flat race to Taragona shoul´ve been a day for Willy, but at the end it was a strong breakaway victory by de Gendt.
Simliar to this was stage 14, a flat stage from Santiago de Compostela to Ferron. Only change to the previous was that the break was caught and Hofland won the stage from a sprint. Willwohl has to pay his tribute now to the climbs and misses out on the finals due to recovery issues.
Upcoming was the long mountain stage to Fuente del Chivo. 211 kilometers with long climbs before the final mountain.
For me it was one of the most painful days in Grand Tour cycling, at the moment I can only imagine that certain Galibier day as harder. I set several attacks starting from over 100 kilometers out to eat in the legs of my opponents.
But Froome and his team once again managed to crack me once again, the latest at 2 kilometers to go where no one could resist his power. Despite that it was a sucessful day, being best of the rest and finishing 2nd just ahead of the polish allrounder.
What a day that was! We kicked some ass up the mountain together, so that he went up to third and I went up to 5th GC.
1
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
5h38'29
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 45
3
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
+ 56
4
Carter Jones
CCC Sprandi Polkowice
+ 2'01
5
Beñat Intxausti
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
6
Jarlinson Pantano
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 2'10
7
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 2'27
8
Warren Barguil
Etixx - Quick-step
s.t.
9
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
s.t.
10
Sebastian Henao
FDJ
s.t.
11
Luca Sterbini
Astana Pro Team
+ 5'20
Stage 16 was much calmer, a flat one to another beutiful spanish town, this time Salamanca. Legs were heavy after that effort yesterday, and the sprinters seem to also have some issues with that. Caused by this the break made their way through another time. Julien Simon nailed it best to celebrate on the line, I stayed out of trouble to place myself 5th in the General Classification into the second rest day.
current GC:
1
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
60h16'08
2
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
+ 15'01
3
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
+ 17'06
4
Beñat Intxausti
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 17'12
5
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 17'16
6
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 18'27
7
Thomas De Gendt
Lotto Soudal
+ 18'54
8
Daniel Martin
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 19'41
9
Warren Barguil
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 20'26
10
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
+ 21'44
We want to save that top 5 into the third week, but there are all chances to go back or up in the tables. 3rd and even 2nd is in reach, but big names like van Garderen are waiting for some trouble of mine to reach into the big positions.
Bis bald, AndyEdited by Croatia14 on 21-12-2015 10:05
it´s the third week of the Vuelta, and contrarily to the prediction it´s gone even harder. But the harder it gets the better my legs work, you know.
For stage 17 I wanted to bring my great legs from one climbing stage over the recovery day to the next brutal stage. The roads to Pena de Francia were not too long, but there were several long climbs before the breakdown.
Pretty early the break looked very good with climbers in it far down in the GC. While the first headed up the final climb Froome had everything in control behind.
He surprisingly did not tried to attack all away from him, just rode in front until the finish line so that no one was able to accelerate away from him. So the main favourites mostly stayed all together lead by the man in red.
But they missed out on two of the nine breakaway man, so that Duarte could celebrate a victory for Desigual in front of Chevrier.
The day after was hilly. What´s meant hilly by the oranisators was a stage full of big climbs with no mountain but a steep downhill finish in Mijares.
The pace was really high throughout the race, especially Cannondale wanted to bring up Dan Martin for today and had the break under control. The last man surviving was Jarlinson Pantano once again, the former MC leader.
The latest mountain was mainly attended by a Warren Barguil attack, who put a hurt on everybody despite the Astana train who chased him down at the beginning of the final descent.
As the pace slowed down afterwards I knew the time has come to try something, so I made my way to tryina great a gap to the pack with 6k left.
Green jersey Michal Kwiatkowski was the man to come with me, but after that one look back I concentrated myself on going full gas. Maybe a stupid idea having one of the best descenders in the cycling peloton behind me, but I´ve improved my downhill skills a lot too. Rushing onto the final kilometers I couldn´t hear Michals bike anymore, which made me believe even more and shattered all the hurts out of my legs.
Finally I saw the line and knew, my work has been succesfully done. So much speed down the hill, so much glory to take here beating Kwiatek and finally Froome on a day.
A great day for me, a great day for the team and a place up in the GC. Seems like the third week is a great one to deliver for me.
1
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
4h37'20
2
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
s.t.
3
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 38
4
Luca Sterbini
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
5
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
Having the last week in front of us the standings look better than ever, so now we want to take that podium we´re just six seconds away of:
1
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
72h44'27
2
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
+ 15'05
3
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
+ 16'26
4
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 16'32
5
Beñat Intxausti
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 17'16
6
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 18'27
7
Warren Barguil
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 20'30
8
Daniel Martin
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 20'49
9
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
+ 21'48
10
Thomas De Gendt
Lotto Soudal
+ 22'28
Three days to come, a hilly stage with a steep finish, the climbing cracker and the Madrid ITT. Gimme more like this!
But he was stronger than my chasing group lead into the finish by Kwiatek.
He missed out on Duarte from the break, who could save himself on the line just before the threat in red. And Barguil, who could beat Froome for the first time and celebrate a delicious victory.
1
Warren Barguil
Etixx - Quick-step
5h00'32
2
Fabio Duarte
Desigual
s.t.
3
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
+ 12
4
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
+ 34
5
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
9
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
+ 1'11
It´s time for the big one. La Bola del Mundo.
Starting up Visconti was our man breaking away, but all was until control by Chris Froome. Until Barguil started a huge one. From far out he went, and left Froome isolated three minutes behind him before La Bola del Mundo. Immediately when the climb began Froome started to burn a fire on everyone. He killed everyone on the first climbing kilometer, and gone was he to chase Barguil down.
My plan was to save as much energy as possible for the final kilometers which were the steepest. So I rode my own pace uphill, without any interest in other riders. I wanted to show the kenyan in red that I´m alive and capable of beating him in tough climbs. Following I started my huge chase steadily upping the tempo catching & cracking one after the other.
Kwitkowski, TvG, Henao, Arredondo...one after the other these guys couldn´t follow me, and with the flamme rouge in sight I finally had him. The Astana fella in red was under control, and near in reach was Barguil as well.
But the big question arrised, how the hell I should ride him of my wheel. He just wanted to lean on my bike to get pulled to the line. And wasn´t just that easy to leave behind with the catch & crack plan. With him & Warren on the back wheel we were under the red flage, when the gradiant kicked up once again and both man cracked under my final accelaration, the first one on this climb for me. With all what´s left I finished the race with a big smack, showing the world that I am back, capable of beating the best of the best on the toughest climbs in the third week of grand tour action.
1
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
4h43'32
2
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
+ 40
3
Warren Barguil
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 53
4
Rohan Dennis
Team Cannondale - Garmin
+ 1'40
5
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
s.t.
6
Sebastian Henao
FDJ
+ 1'58
7
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
+ 2'06
8
Beñat Intxausti
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 2'19
9
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
+ 3'11
10
John Darwin Atapuma
Desigual
+ 4'12
WHAT A DAY!
Finally we had the ITT in and around Madrid. Five guys left for our team, and for Patrick, Willy and Giovanni this was all about the joy and the cheering fans. For Nelson and me it was different. He had a top 10 in mind, I wanted to defend my lately achieved second place in the GC against Kwiatkowski and Arredondo.
The 34.4 went much worse than the other TT, and Kwiatek really had a good day to finish third behind the two aussies Durbridge & Dennis. Oliveira had a decent 12th, while I place myself on P27.
1
Rohan Dennis
Team Cannondale - Garmin
37'43
2
Luke Durbridge
Astana Pro Team
+ 4
3
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
s.t.
4
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
+ 10
27
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 1'46
47
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
+ 2'57
Still that was enough to secure second, and climb the podium together with Kwiatkowski and Froome, who exchanged Roman Kreuziger as current Vuelta champ. Here you go with...
...The final Vuelta standings:
General Classification
1
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
83h07'06
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 17'50
3
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
+ 19'23
4
Tejay Van Garderen
Bwin
+ 20'11
5
Julian Arredondo
Bwin
+ 20'27
6
Beñat Intxausti
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 21'10
7
Warren Barguil
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 23'00
8
Alejandro Valverde
Desigual
+ 28'56
9
John Darwin Atapuma
Desigual
+ 33'57
10
Thomas De Gendt
Lotto Soudal
+ 35'30
Points Classification
1
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
223
2
Michał Kwiatkowski
Nike
222
3
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
155
Mountains Classification
1
Warren Barguil
Etixx - Quick-step
86
2
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
69
3
Fabio Duarte
Desigual
67
7
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
30
Young riders classification
1
Lachlan Morton
Lampre-Merida
2
Luca Sterbini
Astana Pro Team
3
Sebastian Henao
FDJ
Team Classification
1
Bwin
250h11'31 (1)
2
Astana Pro Team
+ 4 (2)
3
Nike
+ 8'22 (3)
4
Bora - Argon 18
+ 3h09'04 (11)
All in all we had a great Vuelta, who would have thought that after a desasterous pre-Vuelta and first week. Two weeks later I will leave the Vuelta with two victories, a second overall and a big smile to know I can beat the creme de la creme of cycling again.
I will enjoy some autumn sun down here in the south now, before the pre-Lombardia classics will come to prepare myself for the last big race this year.
for the big autumn classic Il Lombardia, which is the last season goal being the WT classic with most climbing of the season, we had some Europe Tour races to prepare ourselves for the huge task to podium at Il Lombardia. Let´s see how we did before.
GP d'Isbergues, 20.9.2017
The bumpy french classic was scrapped by the winds, so that I was the only Bora man in the final. From the leading group of 20 I placed a late attack exactly at the right time, so that no one wanted to do the chase immediately. The stronger sprinters of the group had no teammates left, so I could secure a nice little victory on a race i never planned to go for.
Second on the finish was Lander out of the group beating Senechal.
Then we had the World championships, a cobbled & bumpy long race for the colorful stripes. Our man was Degenkolb, and Andre & I brought him to the final 25 kilometers. When the pair of us was gone, Degenkolb had to ride after too mmany attacks and cracked in a huge manner. Sadly no top 10 for him supported by Zabel & me for the Bora flags; the winner was Slovakian superstar Sagan
1
Peter Sagan
Tinkoff-Saxo
6h10'49
2
Alexander Kristoff
Rusal
s.t.
3
Zdenek Stybar
Bwin
s.t.
4
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
5
Yves Lampaert
Rusal
+ 53
13
John Degenkolb
Etixx - Quick-step
+ 4'56
19
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 5'47
Giro del Piemonte, 2.10.2017
This one should be the big indicator on how well Lombardia will go. Only two days left until the race and a hilly race to do in Italy, I'll take that. Sadly the race was pretty calm, stuff started to happen late at the final hill before the run into town. We came over the climb with a group of around ten left to start the final 8 descending kilometers. Maybe you recognize the similarity to the Vuelta stage, where I could beat Michal on a run in not too different to this. However, I made sure to ride this descent all from the front to avoid crashes and use the downhill speed best.
The incredibly high pace made up for the disadvantage of giving the other guys some slipstream, so that no one was able to come around me before the finishing line.
A great result here is showing how amazing my form is right now, beating hilly classics specialists like Vuillermoz.
1
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
4h23'21
2
Edoardo Zardini
Bardiani CSF
s.t.
3
Alexis Vuillermoz
Etixx - Quick-step
s.t.
4
Andrey Amador
Team Cannondale - Garmin
s.t.
5
Miguel Angel Lopez
Colombia
s.t.
Pretty sure I´m perfectly prepared for a great Lombardia to finish my 2017 season.
Congratulations for the 2nd place and the two stage wins in the Vuelta. What a comeback, starting in the lowest division and working your way back up to former glory.
this is me writing you guys the last time from a race this season. And what could be a better season closer than the biggest autumn classic of all, Il Lombardia.
243.7 kilometers from Bergamo to Lecco are lying behind me now, full of dramatic changes of the race-momentum. My main supporting cast contained the three italians Ravasi, Malacarne and Facchini, the others were german sprinters like Koch who where here to learn.
The early break contained Bagaglini (Astana) and Eijssen (Topsport Vlaanderen), who waived their flags on the cameras for a long time. They were joined by our young fella Ravasi, who chased solo behind and made up a gap of 6 minutes, while me and my team didn´t have to do any work and were allowed to more or less enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Over the last big mountain we had an interesting scenery. As the peloton was pretty big in terms of the amount of riders, I stayed a little further back just setting up a pokerface about my daily form. The pace wasn´t too high, and as I worked my way up the peloton to prepare for the descent I recognized M.A. Lopez and N.Quintana were missing. But not down the road as I expected - the tempo still was not too fast - but up the road with an advantage of around a minute. Seing Ravasi and his companions getting overtaken we were clear that only this two were upfront.
Astana then decided to put on ahigher tempo on the chase, burning Pozzovivo & Formolo for the mighty Kenyan in the chase. They brought the couple of Colombia and Desigual back, as I placed myself at the front of the peloton for the final hill. Putting on my attempt on the early slopes of the hill I immediately had a Quintana with a stunning counter acceleration on my wheel, not too sure about who of the brothers as Nairo might suffered under the earlier effort.
My plan was to come over the last hill first and then to use my downhill skills to create enough speed and throw my improved body shape into count for a possible group sprint. Coming over the top this plan seemed to work out, I just couldn´t get rid of that Colombian from my backwheel. As I took a look backwards it seemed like there was a group of 9 including me leading, with the others not in sight.
Surely the guy behind me was Nairo, but I made it over the climb having him behind me so why shouldn´t work out downhill either? Like at Piemonte I went big with all I had on the final descent, but the full gas tactic didn´t seem to work out this time. I left my sprint very early not to get surprised by a strong acceleration, but Nairo could stay with my speed. Until he cracked with not much left to go. As he ran out of gasoline Simon Yates had a big task to come around him to take away the victory from me.
But similar to Nairo with his long-range attack I had to pay for my huge effort on the final kilometers, running out of stamina with a small gap but not much to go. Simon and my old mate Dom were much faster than I, but would my advantage be enough? Or would the man in black take this away from me?
NO! My first classic since Liege-Bastogne-Liege back in 2009 was secured. 8 years have passed since that, and you can´t imagine what a pleasure this truely monumental win was for me.
1
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
6h41'07
2
Simon Yates
Bwin
s.t.
3
Dominik Nerz
Orica-GreenEDGE
s.t.
4
Miguel Angel Lopez
Colombia
s.t.
5
Chris Froome
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
6
Nairo Quintana
Desigual
s.t.
7
Dayer Quintana
Phonak
+ 1'01
8
Dylan Teuns
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
9
Louis Meintjes
TEAM Touch Africa
s.t.
What a closer this was. Maybe even the bad luck at Giro & Tour with the missed race days payed out in the end.
Let´s say goodbye to this season with the picture of the finishing line. Champaign for the team, I´m paying guys!
Salamanca, 8.9.2017 
Bergamo, 3.10.2017 
GP d'Isbergues, 20.9.2017 
