miguejack wrote:
Oh "hell no"! Mate I'm here to stay! What a lovely story Kiserlovski. How's Gonçalves performing?
P.S. I know exams ruin our PCM love

We stay in the Basque Country for the yearly WT stage race. Four hilly stages, a queen stage finishing at the extremely steep Arrate wall and a concluding time trial will decide this year's fight for the yellow jersey.

Intxausti, our leader for this race, is assisted by Zardini and Vandenborre.

All three of them manage to survive until the queen stage, where a very strong Zardini drops all the other favorites. His work pays off as Intxausti grabs the stage and the yellow jersey. Vandenborre sees his strong ride rewarded with the white jersey.

Unfortunately, Intxausti loses his jersey at the next - and on paper - easier stage to Mollema. The penultimate stage ends in a mass sprint of a reduced peloton with Zardini bagging the biggest win of his career.

The final TT sees how Intxausti gives his all but still, he has too settle for the 2nd place. Zardini manages to hold onto his podium spot.



We finish a week of climbing with the points jersey for Intxausti, two podium spots in the GC, stage wins for Zardini and Intxausti and the white jersey for Vandenborre.

Almost a perfect race, but we didn't get what we were awfully close to: our first GC win in a WT race.

miguejack wrote:
Oh dear, those 10 seconds despite that, great race Kiserlovski

Tamijo wrote:
Nice style i will follow

AbhishekLFC wrote:
Great results from the team in the past few races. looking good for a great season! Loving Intxausti's form

cunego59 wrote:
Hey, I really like this, nice and simple layout, great reports. I hope you keep this up, will be interesting to see how far you come, Intxausti is performing really well What difficulty do you play on?

sutty68 wrote:
A Good performance from the guys at País Vasco

Our last race before we go to Belgium for the Ardennes classics. Not too much too say about this race as the breakaway is allowed the win by a non-chasing pack.

Zardini and Intxausti decide to make a good training for the next important races: la Flèche Wallonne and Liège - Bastogne - Liège.

1		Carter Jones	Team Cannondale - Garmin	3h57'14
2		Christian Mager	Bora - Argon 18	+ 1'37
3		Barry Markus	Team Roompot-Oranje Peloton	+ 4'00
4		Sjors Roosen	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	+ 4'00
5		Robert Power	Lotto Soudal	+ 5'55
6		Moreno Moser	Movistar Team	+ 5'55
7		Paul Voss	CULT Energy Pro Cycling	+ 5'55
8		Dries Van Gestel	Lotto Soudal	+ 5'55
9		Edoardo Zardini	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 5'55
10		Koen Bouwman	MTN-Qhubeka	+ 7'37

miguejack wrote:
Well, no one "cares" about this Klasica, so it was a nice train for both of them

sutty68 wrote:
Good Luck with the Classics

Tamijo wrote:
Looking forward to the Ardennes

Off to colder regions for the first of two races in Belgium. This one takes us from Waremme to Huy, with three ascents of the famous and extremely steep Mur de Huy as the major difficulty.



Last year's edition was decided with the sprint of a small group instead of the traditional rush towards the final climb of the Mur.

This year everything seems to go as usual, until a small group break clear at the penultimate climb. They are chased by the pack and reeled in after a few meters on the final climb. A mass sprint anyway.

Tim Wellens is clearly the strongest, creating a 9" gap between him and three-time winner and co-record holder Valverde. No fourth win in a row for him, but another Belgian winner after Gilbert back in 2011.

Behind them, País Vasco winner Mollema settles for 3rd, denying his compatriot Slagter and former winner Gilbert a podium spot.

Zardini is kept at the front by Ochoa and Vandenborre but lacks the acceleration to outsprint the bigger guns. Still a solid result though.

miguejack wrote:
A great place for Zardini! Congrats Kiserlovski
P.S. Wellens is a pure beast