By the way, went to the Muse concert in Amsterdam 2 days ago. It was absolutely fantastic!! Although the interaction with the audience is below zero, the music and the light show are 100% perfect! Especially the versions of Madness, Plug In Baby and Time is Running Out were the highlights.
Best concert I've ever seen!!!
The week between De Ronde and Paris - Roubaix, the hilly riders participated in the 79th edition of the Vuelta al PaÃs Vasco. Some riders want to ride a good GC here, others just want to prepare themselves for the Ardennes classics. Last year, Igor Anton was the best rider, but he lost the GC to Czech Roman Kreuziger in the final ITT.
The Route
The route of the 2014 edition is the same as the 2010 one. All of the 6 tages are hilly in their own degree. The race starts with 1 145km stage with start and finish in Zierbana. The 2nd and 3rd stage, with the finish respectively in Viana and Amurrio, are not that difficult.
The 4th stage is the queens stage. The finish awaits at the summit of the Alto Arrate. Stage 5 to Orio features 2 climbs shortly before the finish. The GC will be decided in the final stage, a 20km hilly ITT in Orio.
*** Alberto Contador (Movistar), Chris Froome (Radio Shack), Roman Kreuziger (Movistar). ** JoaquÃm RodrÃguez (Katusha), Andy Schleck (Sky), Fränk Schleck (Omega Pharma). * Ben Hermans (Astana), Luis León Sánchez (Euskaltel), Alejandro Valverde (Dexia).
Our Goals
Considering it is the first race of the season for Jelle Vanendert, we have no GC-ambitions. We'll try to be in a breakaway, but the main goal is to finish the race with all 8 riders .
The 2014-edition of the Vuelta al PaÃs Vasco starts with a 145 kilometre stage with start and finish in Zierbana. The summit of the last hill, the Alto e las Calizas is 21km before the finish. But the last kilometre before the finish is ascending as well.
21km to go
Rabobanks Wout Poels attacks shortly before the last hill starts and he arrives at the summit with a margin of '59 to a chasing group of 28 riders. Jelle Vanendert is able to stay in this group, although it costs him a lot of trouble to do it.
Finish
Poels gets caught in the descend and flat part back to Zierbana. But he must have a fantastic day, as in the uphill sprint for the stage win, he manages to win the sprint, thus taking the stage win. He beats the Schleck brothers. Vanendert finishes in 17th in the same time as his former Dutch team mate.
Results
1
Wout Poels
Rabobank Cycling Team
3h56'42
2
Andy Schleck
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
3
Fränk Schleck
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
s.t.
4
Roman Kreuziger
Movistar Team
s.t.
5
Maxime Monfort
Sony Ericsson
s.t.
6
Chris Froome
Radio Shack - Nissan
s.t.
7
Alberto Contador
Movistar Team
s.t.
8
Jens Voigt
Radio Shack - Nissan
s.t.
9
Jan Bakelants
Dexia
s.t.
10
Leonardo Duque
Radio Shack - Nissan
s.t.
...
17
Jelle Vanendert
Petronas - Monster Energy
s.t.
Stage 2
The 2nd stage brings the riders over 215 hilly kilometres from Zierbana to Viana.
83km to go
A pretty strong BOTD today. 9 riders, with Pieter Weening (Qantas), Taylor Phinney (BMC), Ivan Basso (Astana) and Tony Martin (Red Bull) as th estrongest riders in it, take a maximum lead of 10'30. With 83 km to go, it has decreased to 7'07.
7km to go
Martin, Basso and Weening are the last leaders that get caught, when Dexia's Aussie Simon Gerrans attacks. Wout Poels tries to counter.
Finish
But Gerrans and Poels get caught before the finish in Viana. The sprint of a group of 85 is won by Sky's Rigoberto Urán. 2nd place is for Luis León Sánchez, who misses the win for his new team in their home race by a bike lenghts. 3rd place is for Fränk Schleck. Jelle Vanendert takes another 17th place.
The 3rd stage is probably the most easy one of the Vuelta al PaÃs Vasco. But the last 25 kilometres to the finish in Amurrio are undulating, so expect a lot of attacks.
18km to go
With the BOTD (Tony Gallopin, Marek Rutkiewicz, Jarlinson Pantano) about to get caught at the summit of the final climb of the day, the attacks out of the peloton begin. Rigoberto Urán is the first one uin his yellow jersey, and gets countered by JoaquÃm RodrÃguez, Simon Gerrans and .... Jelle Vanendert. Our Belgian leader has a great day (daily form +5), so he decides to test his legs.
15km to go
The BOTD gets caught, and Gerrans and RodrÃguez are in the lead. The peloton (50 riders) is chasing at a high pace, thanks to Radio Shack and Movistar. Urán and Vanendert have been caught already.
8km to go
The domestiques of Radio Shack and Movistar bring Gerrand and RodrÃguez back. Then with 8km to go, Urán attacks again. But with a peloton that big chasing him, it's a suicidal action....
Today is the queen's stage of the Vuelta al PaÃs Vasco. 151 kilometres from Murgia Zuia to Eibar, with 7 categorized climbs (6 of them in the last 56 kilometres) and the finish at the summit of the Alto Arrate.
The peloton is ascending the 2nd to last climb of the day, and to all surprise, the GC-leader Fränk Schleck attacks. Why this early? WHat is he thinking? The gap to the leading group has decreased to 4'22.
27km to go
Basso collects the maximum amount of KOTM-points at the summit, followed by Kiserlovski, Herrada, Agnoli and Belkov. Fränk Schleck follows at 2'52, and he's joined by Damiano Cunego and Rein Taaramäe. Th epeloton follows at 3'33.
18km to go
Basso, Kiserlovski and Herrada drop Agnoli and Belkov and have started the penultimate hill of the day. The peloton follows at 2'20, and Fränk Schleck attacks again! This time he gets countered by Taaramäe, Roman Kreuziger, Ben Hermans and Rigoberto Urán.
5km to go
Also this attack is fruitless, and they all get caught before the foot of the last climb, the Alto Arrate. AT the foot, with the 3 leaders about to get caught, it's attack number 3 for Schleck. Jelle Vanendert is in the first ranks of the peloton, but is struggling, as he could nearly hang on to the group in every climb....
3km to go
Fränk Schleck closes the gap to the 3 leaders and also leaves them behind. Alberto Contador is the first of the other favourites that joins him. The 2 have a margin of '27 to the chasing group.
2km to go
The pace of the 2 leaders drops a bit, as Fränk has wasted too much energy in his 2 previous attacks. Andy Schleck is the first one to bridge the gap. And with Rigoberto Urán and Chris Froome also about to join, Contador decides to attack, looking for the stage (and possibly GC) win.
Finish
Alberto Contador arrives solo at the summit of the Alto Arrate, taking the stage win and GC-lead. Chris Froome beats Andy Schleck for the 2nd place at '21. Fränk Schleck takes the 4th place at '39 and the other finish more than 1 minute later than Contador. Vanendert finish in a group with Voeckler and Hermans in 21st at 2'35.
We feared that this stage would me too much for Vanendert, considering his fitness level. But he is still in 15th place in the GC, not bad.
Edited by dienblad on 19-12-2012 15:38
The last stage, a 20km ITT in Orio was won by Alberto Contador, who also wins the GC. Kreuziger finishes 2nd in the ITT at '1, with Jack Bobridge taking the 3rd place (at '3), even beating Tony Martin.
In the GC, Kreuziger takes the 2nd place, making it a Movistar double. 3rd place goes to Chris Froome and Vanendert takes a decent 13th place.
The first of the Benelux-hilly classics is the Brabantse Pijl, although it isn't in the Ardennes (well, nor is the AGR). Last year, the organisation has a dreamt winner: Philippe Gilbert.
The Route
After the start in Leuven, the riders pass Overijse, before a long loop South of Bruxelles. Then a final circuit awaits with 4 hills each lap, making it a total of 28 climbs in 195 kilometres.
Although Vanendert has a fitness level of 87 and Sagan of just 80, one of them must bring us the win!
The Race
19km to go
The BOTD, with Rabo's Laurens Ten Dam as the strongest rider, has been caught with about 25km to go. Already entered the last lap with an almost complete peloton, prerace favourite Thomas De Gendt attacks in the ascend of the Hagaard. We don't counter, but take the lead of the peloton setting a high pace to chase our former team member.
3km to go
De Gendt creates a margin of about 30 seconds, what is very difficult to decrease. In the streets of Overijse, with just 3 kilometres and 1 climb to go, he still leads by 20 seconds. Jelle Vanendert (daily form +4) takes the lead, serving as the lead out man for Peter Sagan (daily form +5!!).
Finish
The last ascending kilometre is just too much for De Gendt. He survives to ascend of De Schavei, but has lost too much speed. It's Peter Sagan who pushes his front wheel an inch before De Gendt over the finish line, taking the win in the Brabantse Pijl. But he had to come from pretty far behind, making it a very surprising win.
Wow, that was close!!! Great win for Sagan, thanks to his team mates. But considering the weakness of the field, the 3 Ardennes classics will be totally different.
.
Wout Poels
Andy Schleck
Roman Kreuziger
Maxime Monfort
Chris Froome
Alberto Contador
Jens Voigt
Leonardo Duque
Simon Gerrans
Damiano Cunego
Jakob Fuglsang
Thomas Voeckler
Marek Rutkiewicz
Probably building form for the Ardennes?!
Maxim Belkov
Rein Taaramäe
Brent Bookwalter
