Made my pro cycling debut this week in Qatar. It feels awesome. It went really well I think. Spend some time in the breakaway too.
Below are my personal results from Qatar
Tour of Qatar results
Stage 1:
1
Mark Cavendish
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
2h58'11
124
Drago Di Silvestro
Team Europcar
s.t.
Stage 2:
1
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team
14'30
11
Team Europcar
+ 35
Stage 3:
1
Marcel Kittel
Team Argos - Shimano
3h05'18
34
Drago Di Silvestro
Team Europcar
+ 1'37
Stage 4:
1
Mark Cavendish
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
3h04'06
75
Drago Di Silvestro
Team Europcar
s.t.
Stage 5:
1
Mark Cavendish
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
3h28'30
69
Drago Di Silvestro
Team Europcar
s.t.
Stage 6:
1
Matthew Goss
Orica - GreenEdge
-
53
Di Silvestro
Team Europcar
s.t
General Classification:
1
Mark Cavendish
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
-
48
Drago Di Silvestro
Team Europcar
+ 3'21
Remaining schedule
Now that the Tour of Qatar is done, I will inform you all on the rest of my schedule.
First I will fly to Portugal for the Volta ao Algarve. After that I will race all cobbled season in Belgium, starting with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. The last race scheduled at the moment is Driedaagse De Panne. I will also make my World Tour debut in the E3 Prijs. Looking forward for that.
CT.6 Volta ao Algarve [14–17 February] CT.4 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad [23 February] CT.5 Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne [24 February] CT.6 Nokere Koerse [13 March] CT.4 Dwars Door Vlaanderen [20 March] WT.2 E3 Harelbeke [22 March] WT.2 Gent-Wevelgem [24 March] CT.6 Driedaagse De Panne - Koksijde [26–28 March]
That is all for now. Till the next update.
~ Drago di Silvestro
Edited by mvhoogdalem on 14-01-2014 13:21
I have ride 4 races so far, and it going really good. 2 podiums already, but no win unfortunate. But I did get leader jersey after strong time trial. Here picture of me!
Picture goes around the world, people in North Korea very pride of me. I received telegram from our Great and Noble Leader to congratulate me, I feel very honoured. I will try to defend this jersey, but will be hard against Spaniard.
Hi there, Team Europcar wants to tell everyone that we have good news from the Algarve front. We got there with high hopes, and with a season goal. That goal was getting a Top 3.
The startlist wasn't that strong, but guys like Costa & Spilak certainly aren't weak either. The first two stages were flat, so without a good sprinter, we couldn't go for a win. Arashiro secured a nice Top 10 for us in stage 2 though.
Then, stage 3.
That was a stage that involves a lot of climbing. The mission for our lovely North-Korean was to hold on to the first group. He did it. Therefore, he was on pole position to get a GC top 3, since he was on 20 seconds in the GC.
So there was only a 34km race against the clock left. And Po-Ding just blew it, he was awesome! He took the win, and even took the GC.
That means that we've easily reached our goal of a Top 3.
Po-Ding securing both our first stage-win and GC win of the season. Just look at the magnificent landscape!
Leading in Argentina
Algarve isn't the only place where Europcar is doing really well. In fact, we're now wearing the leaders jersey in Tour de San Luis.
In the first hilly stage, things got a bit hectic, but in the end, Po-Ding managed to secure a nice third place, just 30 seconds off Purito's pace. Then, there was a 19km TT. Wiggins was the favourite here. He lived up to that, but guess who came only 1 second behind him? Indeed. Europcar's superstar, Po-Ding Kim!
He took the leader jersey. Surprisingly, that is from Schnaidt, an earlier escapee, his shoulders. Anyway, Purito rode a impressive TT, and is now only 9 seconds behind. With mountains and hills still to come, it's going to be exciting!
Sprinting in Qatar
The most interesting race of the season was also running last week. We sent Coquard there, but we'd never expect both Kittel & Cavendish there. Bryan Coquard therefore couldn't do a lot more than some Top 10s. Due to the TTT and Omega-Pharma Quickstep being awesome on an echelon stage, Cav won the GC. There were 7 OPQ guys in the GC Top 10!
Surprise in Malaysia
The Tour of Langkawi, one of the longer races of the world, is being raced right now. After the mountains, Spilak lead the GC, and was therefore certain of winning the GC. That's what everyone thought. But a break got away, and was given just too much space.
Friggin Marc de Maar from Curaçao, took the win, the GC lead, and will probably take a Tour of Langkawi GC win with him too!
I'm sure he'll have enough space on his impressive palmares to put that win somewhere
Our next races(beside the already running ones) are: Tour of Oman Omloop het Nieuwsblad Kuurne - Brussel - Kuurne
Especially for the last ones, we have high hopes. Of course, we'll be sending our strongest squads for the cobbles, lead by Khamphan.
I just won the Tour of Algaria! No idea where that was, managers just pushed me onto airplane again. The landscape was not very special either. First two stages were boring, for sprinters. Then, we have climb!
Manager Europe told me to hang on, so I did. I'm very good at following orders. So I get fifth place, in same time as winner Spilak.
Next day, is time trial, my favourite! I needed to win and get 20 seconds on Spilak, but big enemy is Costa. Doctor Fu arrived just in time for my vitamin capsules and I start the time trial!
I ride very hard, with managers shouting in radio to go even faster!
I win the Tour of Algaria!
Is great success for me! First stage win and first GC win. Also first wins for the teams, so managers Europe and Car really happy. Too bad organisation did not get podium flag right. I expect retaliation from our Great and Noble Leader for the shame they brough to out country. But organisation was nice, so I feel bit sorry for they getting executed.
Next race is back in France, Paris is Nice. I hope for leadership there after my good results so far, but will have to talk with managers about it. Thank you for all your support, fans!
I'm sitting in my hotel room in Argentina at the moment without knowing when we will get to do some more racing, perhaps they just took a break while Po-Ding was in Portugal to race?
I went to Argentina to work hard enough to earn my chances later on in the season.
And that is what I did on the first two stages!
Though I have to admit I'm not very proud of stage 2...
On stage 3 I got to work helping Po-Ding right from the start. Fortunately he finished 3rd which made helped relieve the pain from a very hard day a bit.
On stage 4 it was time for the TT-specialists. I’m more of an all-rounder myself, but finishing in the best 1/3 in my first pro TT isn’t that bad I think.
Po-Ding took the leaders jersey so that meant much more hard work for me the following days.
Hello, it's me, Lue. To improve my english, my teacher tell me to make blog, so i make blog! I send to him, he makes mistakes better, and he sends back, and i put on internet!
Hello Guys it's me again, Lue. It's been a really stressfull day, first the racing and then the partying! My first race went really really well! I finished third, only behind this Tom guy and some funny Dane. When i started sprinting, and started to overtake people, that swiss guy that nearly won gave me a really surprised stare. Unpayable for!
Anyway, the congratiolations after the race were the best part. I talked to loads of people at home that stayed awake to see me, and after a little while, even the president called and congratolated me! I better get some sleep now ahead of tomorrows race, so see you all there! Edited by Dippofix on 02-12-2013 14:26
After the very good result in Algaria, it is time for my first World Tour Race: Paris is Nice. Is a funny name, but I like it. Doctor Fu thinks it will be riding circles around Eiffel Tower. I look at map and Paris has no mountains, only hills and possibly time trial. This is really good for me. I am ready to leave tomorrow to join the rest of the team. Doctor Fu won't be coming, but he did give me a lots of vitamine capsules, so I ride very strong.
The team is hope for promotion, with aside from Po-ding successes also podium in Omloop for fellow Communist Lue. Is great result for him, so I must try to do very good in Paris, we could use another victory. I do not know who is team mates there, but I hope is not Arashiro again. Manager already put Arashiro in Algaria team and he was useless! I am a bit nervous for first race in World Tour, but when we start I just ride hard and bye-bye nervous!
I'm sorry Po-Ding, but Arashiro will join you on the trip to Paris. He's a team member as well, and since we have to pay his salary, we just have to send him to races as well, otherwise it would be a waste of money, right?
He was already there before 'we' started to manage the team, and he has an expensive contract clause, so firing him would be worse...
But on the plus side,
A very strong team will make the trip to Paris, with Peeters & Nokkvason as fellow good climbers as well
Oh dear.
I'm really sorry for that Po-Ding, I didn't want to upset you. But I'm afraid it's too late now, we've already sent the papers to Paris with our startlist.
So you have to make the best of it, which you certainly can, because you'll have a good team behind you
Maybe, you can convince Arashiro to come to the good side? He might be open for the communist world, you never know
I for one will do my best to help my Korean comrade to glory in France. I doubt it is pure concidence that we share national colours!
I'm actually really looking froward to it since I know there should be good chances for snow. Perhaps if things go well we can even visit the glorious new ski resort Masik Pass in the off season?
Drago di Silvestro update 
Tour of Qatar results 
Volta ao Algarve [14–17 February]
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad [23 February]
