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
this is me writing from my point of wealth, from home. Today will be my last entry before the new year starts, and I will look back on my season and the final results.
Greatest Win Il Lombardia
Best Stage Race Vuelta al Pais Vasco (3 stages & 1st GC)
Biggest Disappointment Missing out on two Grand Tours due to injuries and sickness
Worst Performance Stage 5 Paris-Nice, a horrible performance to lose over 2 minutes on a well suiting stage
Grand Tours Giro (Stage win, DNF); Le Tour (DNS); La Vuelta (2 stages and a second overall)
Individual Rankings
Being our leader in almost every race I went for I always had the chance to hunt points, a privilege that might no other rider in the WT peloton had. Therefore I had the pressure of giving results, and looking back on the season I delivered fantastically better than me and my team expected.
As a third place in the Individuals I can only see one goal for next season: to go two up. This years winner was Vincenzo Nibali, who can also claim the Velo d'Or 2017 as his.
Team Rankings
It was all about avoiding relegation, and that´s what we achieved. Of course we had no chance of attempting a top 5, but with them Vuelta points we could save ourselves a lower mid-table position.
Though I was the man to score the main part of our points, some of our youngsters yould make their first steps in the biggest of divisions. The likes of Willwohl, Bokeloh, Koch and Ravasi look as some interesting prospects for the future. Together with our new signing, which will be announced in next years team presentation, we have a good feeling to attempt a Top 10 in the Team Rankings next year.
The two teams we will miss next year in Pro Tour spheres are Lotto-NL and Cofidis, which found themselves far behind in the rankings not even scoring 100 points in total. Substituting the couple will be pre-PCT favourite Sprite (former Trek) and surprise promoter Topsport Vlaanderen. A global and a really familiar and nice team are some sexy joints for the UCI Pro Tour in 2018.
2018 seems to be a good word to end this '17 season, let´s see what the future will bring.
you might´ve thought I´m writing from Argentina, Down Under or something on the southern hemisphere right now? That´s not the case; I´m starting kind of late this season, I will have my first race in March, but let´s come to that a little later.
Lemme first explain why I´m writing you right now from the Basque Country. First of all, it´s fucking snowy out there so I have the time to write you right now and not riding up the hills around the city with the beautiful beaches. Secondly, my main man and former teammate Haimar always told me it was damn nice here. So he helped Franks and my family to achieve kind of a winter home in Spain, which I can use as a base camp right now.
Perfectly fitting was the shorter way to our yearly winter training camp on spanish land. This was the starting signal for my 2018 season, which will start at the Tirreno-Adriatico. Over the hilly spring classic and spanish one-week races we will head into the Giro. But this is not our main target, but more our latest preperation for Le Tour. This is what counts this year. Afterwards we will see what´s left in the tank, whether we might go for a defending attempt at Il Lombardia or close our season.
Our team for this will contain mostly the mates from last year, the biggest talents stayed here. Captaining the team will still be Willwohl when it stays flat together with Haller when it gets a little more punchy and me when it goes straight uphill. My mountain squad will contain big french talent Sarda, Austrian hope Konrad, the next Czech puncheur Vakoc and the German boys Mager & Buchmann, completed by some minor domestiques.
A bigger load of riders stand by our really German sprinters fraction, but which country produces more fast men cycling than Germany. For our two leaders there areZabel & Bokeloh, another two very promising men, as well as Kluge, Meisen, Selig, Schwarzmann, Reinhardt, Reske & Kohlhof to name the best. Burghardt and Gretsch conclude the more weightful man as they share the captain de la rute role.
Let the 2018 games begin!
Bis bald, AndyEdited by Croatia14 on 05-01-2016 21:24
"Let the 2018 games begin!" - That´s how I ended my last update and like that I will start this one.
We went through the Tirreno to build up some form in the race, maybe with some attacks. This years edition comes up without any mountain stage, so there is no GC focus for me. But who knows, maybe we can scratch some points here.
Into the race we go with two main focusses. For the GC we have Buchmann, Sarda and me here; while Sarda and me are here to build up form Buchmann could do something here. Zabel is the sprinters captain after another big step in his developement in the early season, he is supported by Meisen and Reinhardt. Bisolti & Santambrogio are here for the italian flag and supporting cast.
Stage 1, the first race of the season 2018, was quite bumpy with a flat finish in Sorrento. Moreno Hofland, maybe the strongest sprinter at the moment, could survive the hills and win the day over Sagan and Degenkolb. As our sprinters weren´t strong enough over the climbs I gave myself a go from the reduced bunch and finished 7th, with a big gap on the fore though.
The following three days were flat, and all days were pretty similar. Hofland crushed everything to make it 4 out of 4, while our man Rick finished around P10 these days. With no winds or tougher hills these days were all about staying save, which caused no trouble. Until Tivoli many riders challenged Hofland, but neither Ewan nor van der Sande, Cavendish, Degenkolb or Sagan could beat him.
On stage 5 to Torricella Sicura we had the first tougher hills over two bigger climbs, kind of the queens stage of this years Tirreno. The poace was pretty slow, and I thought hey, let´s have at least some selections in this tour and went from far, far out, exactly 43.2 km.
I attacked on the steepest part, with just 4,5 kilometers of climbing left and then 40 kms of flat and descent before the narrow uphill gradiant on the final kilometers. The minute I took with me over the climb I somehow managed to save this, overtook the break and went for solo glory. But at the end it was like it´s mostly is with aggressive breaks, I ran out of stamina, and directly before the kite they rushed all around and ahead of me.
Kind of a heartbreak but however, a good effort, something for my legs and a limited loss only 24 seconds behind the winner Costa.
1
Rui Costa
Rusal
4h26'24
2
John Degenkolb
Etixx - Quick-step
s.t.
3
Kevin Ledanois
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
4
Louis Meintjes
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
5
Fabio Felline
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
12
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 24
With his collected bonus seconds Degenkolb went into blue for the equally tough stage 6 to Frontone. Long and steady climbs, but without steep sections, so I expected a big group at the finish. The breakaway could change the bunch sprint in sight, which could have been in favour of mine. I meen look at this group: N.Quintana, Barguil, Capecchi, Senni, Purito, Müller, van Keirsbulck and Brambilla. And Nairo & Purito didn´t had even a minute of a disadvantage to Dege. But Tinkoff-Saxo had a strong squad to help Etixx, I mean look at the pre-favourites:
What also couldn´t be expected was the influence of the wind. It completely frazzled the race, there was groups all over the day like a promising one caused by the Tinkoff train with me, Dege and Benoot.
But it was all brought back together until the final hill started. Again not too steep, but with the tired legs and despite the headwind a good time to attack for men who had something left, me excluded.
I felt not too bad, but had in mind that the headwind might help me if I suck on some wheels until shortly before the finishing line. This worked not too bad, I lead my group over the finishing line. Sadly there were three riders ahead taking the win.
T-S not successful again, their former rider van der Poel was the winning man over young Ledanois and Costa.
1
Mathieu van der Poel
Lotto Soudal
5h08'40
2
Kevin Ledanois
Ag2r La Mondiale
+ 9
3
Rui Costa
Rusal
s.t.
4
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
5
Eddie Dunbar
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
Dege was far back so Costa took blue for the final flat to Civilanova Marche, where I wanted to defend my lately achieved 7th GC. Here Mauro went into the break, the first time one of our team was in there this Adriatico, but this I thought was never going to win. No trouble for me, but what I thought would never going to happen nearly worked. Surprisingly Hofland wasn´t the man here, but Cavendish managed to overtake the last men standing from the break, Skujins and Ochoa. I sprinted to save my position in the GC (3 people on the same time you know), but at the end nothing changed in the rankings.
1
Rui Costa
Rusal
27h45'22
2
Kevin Ledanois
Ag2r La Mondiale
+ 4
3
Fabio Felline
Astana Pro Team
+ 14
4
Enrico Battaglin
Etixx - Quick-step
s.t.
5
Mathieu van der Poel
Lotto Soudal
+ 19
6
Michael Matthews
FDJ
+ 38
7
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
8
Eddie Dunbar
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
9
Wout Poels
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 1'01
10
Peter Sagan
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 1'47
These were the first 31 points for Bora this year, and a decent start to the season for us, The legs felt good, especially on stage 6, and I can´t do anything but look forward to Milan-San Remo, a secret little dream race of mine.
again I´m writing from San Remo and just two days later - but now including the parcour visitation I have over 300 km more in the legs.
It was la Classicissima for the second time in a row, I somehow love and hate this race the same time. It´s so much about the pure willpower to hurt yourself over such a long distance, and after the race it´s done it´s just lying in the corner all day long.
Our captains should be either Willy or Rick, depending on how long they survive. With a free role I was given the oppotunity to mix the race up on the final hills.
The breakaway of three with Gatto, Torque and Duchesne in it was never going to win, as the first attack of the race came from newly promoted team Topsport, Guillaume van Keirsbulck took his chance 33,2 kms out over one of the Capi bumps. The man pulling him back was Fabian Cancellara, happening right at the bottom of the Cypressa, the legendary penultimate hill of the Classicissima. He led his way for Alex Kristoff and was joined by Nike with Pinot in first row for Mark Cavendish to decide about the pace at the poggio.
But then it all was about exploding, first move came from Peter Sagan in the rainbow stripes.
I sat very near to the fore and told myself, what could be a better move than going on the attack and trying to coorperate with 2agan. Or should I have waited until the bunch catches him? However, I accelerated to start a pursuit.
He didn´t look too good, but over the top of the Poggio I had the problem that I just hadn´t reached him. And did you ever try to catch Sagan on a descent? There is just no way, despite there are some chicks cheering to him right on the street. There were enough there to be fair, the croud down the roads leading onto Via Roma was full of excited spectators screaming all out for us.
Additionally another problem occured as I took a look back and saw Michal Kwiatkowski trying to hunt me down.
Not to forget the peloton still going on a fast pace. But Sagan seemed to have a second breath over everybody else, he extended his lead up to over 30 seconds on the Via Roma, while I was closed on by Kwiatek firstly and then the whole bunch.
Today it was all about the stripes though. What a great day must it be to win Milan-San Remo in the World Champions jersey? Behind him the bunch came in, and I was really not competitive enough for a decent sprint. Bennett was the surprising second coming in ahead of Cav, Hofland and Demare.
While Kwiatkowski still got a top ten, I came in 16th right beneath Petr Vakoc, really a good result for my Czech teammate!
1
Peter Sagan
Tinkoff-Saxo
6h50'32
2
Sam Bennett
Bwin
+ 22
3
Mark Cavendish
Nike
s.t.
4
Moreno Hofland
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
5
Arnaud Demare
Bwin
s.t.
6
Marcel Kittel
Orica-GreenEDGE
s.t.
7
Jasper De Buyst
Lotto Soudal
s.t.
8
John Degenkolb
Etixx - Quick-step
s.t.
9
Michał Kwiatkowski
Desigual
s.t.
10
Tosh Van der Sande
Nike
s.t.
16
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
17
Petr Vakoč
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
I can´t also be mad about a top 20, it´s just not exactly fitting my strengths. But be aware, I´m getting better and better and once I want to be competitive on all kinds of terrain, like guys like Kwiatkowski or Thomas.
Now it´s a quick transport to Catalunya, where the regional Volta is about to start right tomorrow. See you there!
Pretty good attacks by Andy.And is Andy strong enough in terms of stats to get the overall win at Tour or is there a chance you may be going for the win in Giro?And you are going for the win in L-B-L as well,right?
before the action starts in Catalunya I first want to comment on some ideas of some of my most faithful readers.
Tamijo wrote:
If you had caught Peter right there on the top, could have been a very different story.
That might´ve been the case, but Pete was just too strong and I ran out of gas anyway. The stripes must have given him wings that day...
The Schleck Fan wrote:
Pretty good attacks by Andy.And is Andy strong enough in terms of stats to get the overall win at Tour or is there a chance you may be going for the win in Giro?And you are going for the win in L-B-L as well,right?
Everything is possible, but in none of these races I am competing as a pre-race favourite. La Doyenne will be very tough as I´m preparing for stage races this year. Only a big surprise could make me win it a second time, maybe I´ll try something crazy. Giro will be more a preperation race than a goal. This is Le Tour this year. There are some riders like Kelderman, Aru and some other climbing stronger than me, but I am sure to be well prepared to come out of a good position before the huge climbs start. And then, everything could be possible, a podium is my goal there but a first victory at Le Tour would complete my dreams in terms of an active cycling career.
Coming to some action we had that typical mostly hilly terrain we now from Catalunya. This year even more Catalunyan flags hang around the roads as both Catalunya and Pais Vasco declare independance from Spain, which still suffers a big financial crisis.
Captaining our squad were Petr and I mostly notable supported by Buchmann & Konrad - so besides Mager & Sarda our strongest climbing and hills squad here together.
The first stage in and around party-metropole Calella hat two minor climbs and a flat finish for us. Should´ve been one of the less days for a real bunch sprint, turned out to be a little different: Barguil pulled out the sprint very early (seemed like he should be the penultimate man before Arndt, but the man in between lost his wheel. So I had the feeling that it might be the time to follow this. It turned out to be a good feeling, but at the end of the story I couldn´t come around him and finished in between the Giant sandwich of Barguil and Arndt.
In the surprisingly green colours of the sprinters jersey I took on the second stage to Olot. The hilly stage with a punchy uphill finish into the beautiful town with that amazing bridge could bring a little shuffle to the GC. We cought up with a group of 4 (S.Yates, Oomen, Manfredi, Aru) due to some amazing work of Vakoc; they went away on the first part of the hill until he reached out to them with his last energy right before the last kilometer banner.
Thinking of the striped leaders jersey I took on the sprint out of this group and hit it hard early. It turned out to be a little too early as Oomen recovered and took the stage away from me.
1
Sam Oomen
Team LottoNL - Jumbo
4h19'18
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
s.t.
3
Giacomo Nizzolo
Desigual
s.t.
This even stole my leaders jersey, as Warren took some boni early and secured green/white.
For stage 3 to Girona I had 2 second places in my bags and green on my shoulders, but this day with some hills and a flat finish surely shouldn´t be in favour of my #fightforstripes. If there wasn´t that cheeky little descent not too far out. Emmanuel did a perfect job to do some damage uphill to leave me perfect placed and with great legs on top of the hill. SO the stage was mine to once again put on the pressure going downhill
Aru failed to follow and Barguil was too far back as I extended my lead on the short but techniccal downhill section. The main men had no man left (thx again Buchi), so the chase didn´t went well and I could celebrate on the line.
What a great feeling after two second places, to have both stage victory and the overall lead now.
1
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
3h40'41
2
Lachlan Morton
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 16
3
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
s.t.
My gain on this was 16 seconds to the bunch, but the real trouble will start tomorrow with La Molina coming up.
after jumping into the lead lately we continue with the kings stage to La Molina, the only heavy mountain top finish to deal with in Catalunya this year.
The first man to make his move after the break was caught was Simon Yates. He went for it at La Creuta. My last man standing this time was Konrad, and he killed his last reserves to bring this young guy back; he was assisted by the Tinkoff and Bwin guys by the way.
So coming deaper into the climb I was all alone against around 15 guys. Then Aru, the main favourite beneath Kelderman, started his move. I was able to reject that move by giving it an acceleration behind, which reduced the leading group to six (Aru, Kozhatayev, Chevrier, S.Yates, Dombrowski).
Slowing down a little as no one wanted to bring the others to the line lead to the comeback of Arrdondo & A.Yates, though still Kelderman wasn´t in sight. While looking behind to see who´s with me Aru made a wise move to kick it another time - this time I was too late to reach his main slipstream - I had no options than counter accelerate and to try and chase him down.
I got rid of Simon & Julian, but the others just hang onto my wheel while I struggled to reach Fabio. He took his glory with the stage and some seconds, but I was more then happy to lead the chase into the finish. Dead tired, but only with a loss of 17 seconds.
1
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
4h33'26
2
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
+ 17
3
Clément Chevrier
Nike
s.t.
4
Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
5
Joseph Dombrowski
Etixx - Quick-step
s.t.
6
Adam Yates
Bwin
s.t.
7
Joaquim Silva
Nike
+ 51
11
Warren Barguil
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 1'33
13
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 2'30
15
Vincenzo Nibali
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 4'20
So I was still into the lead 19 seconds ahead of the italian superstar for stage 5, which should end in Valls and looked profile-wise like the third.
Maybe I felt a little too confident as the last stages seemed to be the easier ones, as I sat a little too far back when a split in the peloton happened uphill. I was sure that the sprinters teams were working, but what can I say, Tinkoff has the strongest team here and completely surprised my. Due to the bad positioning I found myself in the third group, having to ride myself on the flat to bring us near to the favourites. At least we could limit the damage to 53 seconds to the group of many GC riders.
Out of this Salvador Moreno could celebrate his first professional victory over Amador and Simon Yates. I was now down to 3rd in the GC behind Aru and A. Yates.
Still to come are two bumpy stages, which shouldn´t shake up the GC if everything goes normal. But nothing is impossimble, so we will try something, even if a podium on the GC is beyond our ambitions here.
But who wouldn´t try to win a race if he is already third?
#67 If you can´t seal the deal attempt to steal the deal
Barcelona, 30.3.2018
Hey guys,
this is my final script from the autonomic country Catalunya these days. It´s two bumpy days left to secure the podium or take a shot at the first places.
Stage 6 had a similar profile as the stage before, again with some hills and a flat finish. But this time the sprinters and the leader's team did a better job controlling the race. Nikias Arndt took it for Giant in Port Arefore over an interesting man, Drapac guy Alizada from Azerbaijan and turkish rider Balkan for Touch Africa. I wanted to secure my sprinters jersey (if you can´t have the stripes then why not green!?) and took on the sprint; against pretty average competition I reached an 8th place.
The last stage around Barcelona depite climbing over the Montjuic several times.
As the break already seemed through I saw the Tinkoff guys chatting around and placed myself directly behind Aru. Whise move, because as soon as Kangert & Rajovac started to put the hurts on everybody I was the only guy with the T-S trio.
For 20 kilometers they hold on, but with 20 left all was back together with two times Montjuic to come. Time for another move I thought, going on a run together with Kelderman to back myself up for the lost GC and hoping for another stage. We couldn´t create a big gap, but nevertheless hold on to the last descent where I put the hammer down on him to take a slight advantage onto the finishing straight. Celebration was mine as I rescued this slight advantage for another stage in Catalunya.
But was it enough to create a gap? Not even that, even if that would´ve been way too less though. That´s what I thought, seeing Wilco & Adam behind me.
1
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
2h50'06
2
Wilco Kelderman
Team Giant-Alpecin
s.t.
3
Adam Yates
Bwin
s.t.
So I fell out of the clouds as Ralph congratulated me for winning the Volta. Aru had lost 45 seconds as he seemed to suffer under a gap on the last descent. Additionally, the time bonifications made me overtake Adam by one second, which lead to my closest stage race victory ever.
1
Andy Schleck
Bora - Argon 18
28h34'56
2
Adam Yates
Bwin
+ 1
3
Fabio Aru
Tinkoff-Saxo
+ 19
4
Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev
Astana Pro Team
+ 34
5
Warren Barguil
Team Giant-Alpecin
+ 1'46
You can think of how amazed I was at the podium, celebrating this one I wouldn´t even have thought of crossing the line on the final stage.
What a great way to continue the hills campaign, with Pais Vasco and the hilly classics already on the horizon.
, bet he doesn't want the season to end 
Luxembourg, 1.11.2017 
San Sebastian, 21.1.2018 
