Hey coach, I want to say thank you because of your trust towards me even if i only could disappoint you lately. I really want to repay it with a good result but i think you should not let Thomas V, Thomas P or Pierre work for me but let them attacking, too. i want you to know that i will follow every raceplan you work out as good as possible.
Christian
Hey Thommy P,
i know that the coach told me to be the absolute leader but i want u 2 know that I won't stop you racing for your own victory. Instead i'm willing to help you on your attempt. u only have 2 tell me!;.))))
Europcar <3
has anybody interest to go to valkenburg a few days earlier to visit the route in every detail?
Back in Argentina we started off with a mountain stage where Po-Ding failed to keep his lead in spite of us working hard reeling in his competitors without him having to do anything. And then he even went on to complain after the race. Not the team spirit I had expected from out North Korean Comrade I have to admit…
The last two stages I pretty much just rode through them and took it easy the last few km after having made sure Po-Ding wasn’t missing anything. At least he won the white jersey from his GC 3rd.
Also I have been looking a bit at the calendar and have a small(?) request...
Since there's no Icelandic races in the UCI-calendar Glava Tour of Norway are the closest thing to a home race for me. It would therefor mean a lot to me if I could get to race that and even more if I could get to do it in a free role.
Apart from that you are free to use me as you see fit, though I'd prefer it if there's plenty of mountains along the way.
Hi Po-Ding.
We were planning to discuss the schedules for the next season part when we are confirmed to ride the races.
That involves most of your suggestions actually, good to see we agree.
But the problem is, that in the TdF, there's also going to be Froome.
He's a dirty cheater and will do anything to stop you from winning you, and will win it himself. He has some secret potions that makes him almost as strong as The Great Leader. I know it sounds impossible, but it's really true and he always uses them for the TdF.
We can hire some North - Koreans(since we know they are the strongest) to protect your family, if you want?
Po-Ding had the position of GC leader after the TT, with a small margin on Rodriguez. We already feared that Po-Ding couldn't hold on to Purito, who's definitely one of the best climbers and seemed to be in top-form. The next stage involved some climbing, and Po-Ding couldn't hold on to Rodriguez. Po-Ding simply doesn't have that acceleration, while Rodriguez has an amazing one. He attacked and Po-Ding couldn't follow, and the team couldn't reel him in.
Anyway, Po-Ding & the team did good and got 3rd in the GC in the end.
No hard feelings, good job by both the team and the North-Korean!
He took the U25 jersey in the end.
Peeters on his way to Oman GC win.
After the first stages being a breakaway fest, things got normal in stage 4.
We have Peeters in Oman and had high hopes for him. There was a hard pace up the 'Green mountain' and riders dropped in big groups. But Peeters didn't drop. Not at all.
With a km to go, there was a group of 7 left. Peeters finished the race in style with a great kick, even getting 8 seconds on the nr.2.
With a hilly and flat stage to go, Peeters is in pole-position to take the GC and also leads the KoM classification.
KUTGW!
Movistar really sent an amazing squad here, with Valverde & Costa both here. They were confident that they could take the win, but nah. Anton and Valverde decided it in a sprint-a-deux, but Anton was the one having more energy left. Impressive win!
Catalunya really close!
5 of 7 stages now have been ridden, with only 2 hilly stages remaining. Porte won the first mountain stage and was runner-up in the second, while Contador won the second and was runner-up in the first.
They're now both on the exact same time in the GC, and the hilly stages will for sure be exciting!
We have good news once again! All of our requests to join races have been accepted. That means we'll ride 5 WT races in this part of the season!
Let me show you the calendar:
March WT.1 Ronde van Vlaanderen [31 March]
In March, there's only De Ronde left. We're looking forward to showing off our cobbles team.
April CT.4 Scheldeprijs [3 April] WT.1 Paris-Roubaix [7 April] CT.4 Brabantse Pijl [10 April] WT.2 La Fleche Wallone [17 April] CT.5 Tour of Turkey [21-28 April] WT.4 Tour de Romandie [23-28 April]
April is quite a busy month. First, we have Scheldeprijs, where Coquard is looking for a Top 10. Paris - Roubaix follows, which is the most important race of this part of the season for us. Khamphan, Turgot & Gaudin probably have this as their main season goal. Then there's Brabantse Pijl, which contains a few cobbles. Schröder may shine at Flèche after that, and then with Turkey & Romandië, we have 2 mountainous races, with the latter being more important.
May CT.6 Quatre Jours de Dunkerque [1-5 May] CT.6 Rund um Koln [12 May] CT.5 Tour of California [12-19 May] CT.6 Tour of Norway [15-19 May] CT.6 Bayern Rundfahrt [22-26 May] CT.6 Ronde van Belgie [22-26 May]
May has got a lot of stage-racing. Starting with cobbled & hilly Dunkerque, we'll go to Rund um Köln, a hilly classic. Then we move to the USA, for a tough stage-race where communism will slaughter capitalism.
Then we move up to Norway, for some flat stages and a hilly stage.
After Norway, we travel south to Germany, Bayern-Rundfahrt, where a long TT will probably decide this.
At last, there's Belgium, where we'll have a Flanders and an Ardennes stage, plus a TT.
June WT.3 Criterium du Dauphine [2-9 June] CT.6 Tour de Luxembourg [12-16 June]
Allright, this is going to be our calendar, possibly there'll be 1 or 2 more races, but we haven't decided on that yet.
Every rider is now allowed to put up suggestions about races they want to ride. We cannot guarentee that the rider will ride that race, but the chances are big. We'll contact the riders later.
Hello Bosses,
i see goal there for me. I will be ride Roubaix for you, and i will try win for you!
I be very happy to have chance to ride big races, and i want know in which races i be planned for, except Roubaix and Vlaaandern? Will i be ride Dunkerque too, and will we be ride in Asia in next part, in China and Nippon?
Good to hear. Top 10 shouldn't be too hard for you, should it?
Dunkerque sounds realistic, you will most likely ride there. We don't have the program ready yet, won't take too long though Edited by Jesleyh on 26-01-2014 13:47
We've already finished Part 1 of the Season. Time flies. We've had a good Part 1, that's safe to say. We're by far the best Continental team if you look at the ranking. Let's take a look at the rankings:
Rider:
1
P. Sagan
1220
2
F. Cancellara
980
3
T. Boonen
874
4
N. Quintana
755
5
A. Greipel
709
6
W. Brouwer
695
7
A. Valverde
662
8
J. Rodriguez
535
9
J. Degenkolb
518
10
A. Contador
517
15
P. Kim
442
30
T. Peeters
301
31
L. Khamphan
283
Sagan comfortably leads this one, by winning Gent-Wevelgem and podiuming both MSR & E3. Really impressive result for the youngster.
Our best rider is Po-Ding. He's ranked 15th, he had some impressive results, winning Algarve being most notable.
Peeters(30th) and Khamphan(31th) are also ranked high. Khamphan had some nice results on the cobbles, and sometimes even in sprints, while Peeters of course won Oman.
Team:
1
Omega Pharma
3107
2
Belkin
2695
3
Sky
2445
4
Movistar
2247
5
RadioShack
2082
6
BMC
1532
7
Cannondale
1382
8
Europcar
1346
9
Argos
1300
10
Lotto
1254
We certainly have a good position on the team rankings. We're 8th. As a CT team, that's extremely good. OPQS, generally the best team in the first part of the season, leads the rankings, by a nice margin on surprising 2nd, Belkin.
The second best CT team is Androni. They're ranked 19th, about 800 points behind us. We look good for promotion!
Highlights
This is a good moment to show some Europcar highlights of Part 1. We've had a lot. We have selected 5 of our highlights that will help us describe our first part of the Season. You'll find some nice screenshots in the spoiler.
1. Po-Ding wears 'orange' in San Luis and gets third in the end.
Spoiler
This one marked the start of the season. It was a good start. Unfortunately, Wiggins & Rodriguez turned up. But Po-Ding held on on the early climbs and rode a great TT(1 sec behind Wiggins), and therefore gained the leaders jersey. Purito was too strong on the long climbs, despite guys like Nokkvason & Malacarne trying their best to help.
2. Po-Ding wins Tour of Algarve GC
Spoiler
[/center]
Another nice highlight here. The climbs didn't give big differences, and therefore Po-Ding could finish it off in his favourite discipline, the long Time-trial.
3. Peeters wins Tour of Oman GC
Spoiler
A nice race in Oman that was a breakaway fest at first. Therefore Coquard couldn't win any sprints. Peeters managed to win the summit finish and he didn't lose time on the hills. He was therefore crowned GC winner!
4. Khamphan Podiums Omloop het Nieuwsblad
Spoiler
This was an important race for us. It had an amazing line-up.Even though it had, we managed to get control over the race and Khamphan, guided by the two cobbles-loving Frenchies, managed to take a podium spot.
5. Khamphan secures a 6th place in Gent-Wevelgem sprint.
Spoiler
A WT race, so a very important race. While we had higher expectations of E3(which became a fluke) than here, Khamphan managed to get a 6th spot in the sprint finish. A surprisingly good result, and deserves to be one of the 5.
Other highlights this season were:
- 4th place GP Marsaillaise(Voeckler)
- Stage Podium Paris-Nice(Peeters)
- 4th & 6th Dwars door Vlaanderen(Khamphan & Turgot)
- 2nd place Stage Criterium International(Coquard)
- 2 GC Top 10s De Panne(Di Silvestro & Gaudin)
So yeah, a pretty succesful season up to now. We hope to continue this line in Part 2 and we're certainly favourite for promotion.
We'll live up to that, I promise.
Big news! We have presented our goals for Part 2.
Here they are:
1. Paris - Roubaix Top 10
Rank: Easy
This goal will be the first one. It'll be coming up fairly soon, it's one of the first races of the next part. Top 10 should be a realistic goal. Khamphan can do this. Even if he has a complete off-day, both Turgot & Gaudin are capable of achieving the goal.
2. Scheldeprijs Top 10
Rank: Easy
Easy might be a big word, but Coquard should be able to get a Top 10 in Belgium. Mass-sprint for sure, this one, and we're going to give him a good leadout train.
3. La Flèche Wallone Podium
Rank: Hard
This one should be very hard. We have faith in Schröder though, he should be able to ride a good race here. If it's enough for a podium is a tough question. We hope it is.
4. Tour of Turkey Stage-win
Rank: Medium
We fear for a strong line-up in this race. We will sent a pure climber there(Rolland or Peeters) to grab a stage-win in the stages that involve a lot of climbing. We will probably also sent Coquard.
5. Tour of Norway Top 3 GC
Rank: Medium
Again a goal aimed at Schröder. We're planning to sent him as a leader here, and we want to get a Top 3 here. The hilly stage should be key. We've heard of other teams making this a goal and therefore expect some strong puncheurs at the start.
Actually harder than you'd think. Po-Ding should be our man here, or maybe Peeters, but Po-Ding will be leader. A long TT and a lot of climbing suits him well, and we're hoping he can grab the U25 jersey, though it won't be easy, with guys like Quintana, Betancur, Hinault & Talansky possibly participating as well. Though the pure climbers will more likely go to Suisse, where there's less (pure) TT kilometers
I have been busy with racing lately, but I have a lot to tell you. We did not do very well in the E3 Prijs, but a bit better in Gent - Wevelgem. My last race in the early season was the Driedaagse De Panne. It turned out to be an awesome race. On stage 2, Gaudin and I broke away with a small group and we made it to the finish. I finished 9th and moved up to 10th in the GC. The last stage was a Time-Trial, which is my specialty. I even got to ride in the Youth jersey, because Phinney was riding in the leaders jersey. I finished just outside the top 10 of the stage, but I moved to 9th overall. When I started this season I never dreamed of a result like this, but now I just have to keep this up. Now I just have to wait until I get my schedule for the next part of the season. I can't wait.
Tour of Turkey [21-28 April]
Rund um Koln [12 May]
Tour of California [12-19 May]
Tour of Norway [15-19 May]
Tour de Luxembourg [12-16 June]
wears 'orange' in San Luis and gets third in the end.
Podiums Omloop het Nieuwsblad
