Hi all. Yesterday I finished my first big stage making project, a variant for the Tour de France. After the work I put into it I really want to show it, so I thought I might do a quick story with me playing Rabobank in my own variant. That way I can try writing a story as well and maybe start a career story later on.
First the facts;
I'll be playing my own TdF variant (check it out in the PCM 11 stages section) with the Boogerddb and the 2011 startlist. (made by Petz_e) I'll play on hard and hope I can cope with PCM 11, as I never really played the game until now.
Tyriion (DS of Rabobank for the Tour) announces starting line up.
The team has been tailored to the needs of Robert Gesink, our absolute leader. With a strong team for the team time trial on stage 2 and helpers for all sorts of terrain Rabobank feels sure they can aim for a top 5 position in the GC.
Lacking a sprinter the real action will start in week 2, when we hit the mountains. From then on we hope Gesink can be in a top spot and compete with the likes of Contador, the Schlecks, Evans, Wiggins, Basso and a host of other contenders.
Three cat 4 climbs and the super sprint are the outstanding features of today. Rabobank will keep its head down and see how things develop.
There's a fair amount of wind today in this makes for hard racing for the first 50 km. Then we finally get a group of 7 riders who get a gap on the peloton. Immediately the pace drops.
Names in the break are M Schär (BMC), K Koren (LIQ), J Engoulvent (SAU), D Loosli (LAM), S O'Grady (LEO), D Muravyev (RSH), A Perez (EUS)
After the pace drops and the gap is up to 2 minutes another three riders try to bridge the gap.
J Roy (FDJ), J ElFares (COF) and N Terpstra (QST) chasing the breakaway.
The first climb of the day is won by Loosli. In the peloton on this first climb in the Tour another duo ride away from the peloton that is by now 4'10" down.
I Erviti (MOV) and P Brutt (KAT) making a late attempt.
Things stabilize now and the first three chasers reach the big break before the 2nd climb of the day. J Roy goes right on to win that prime as well.
Loosli just falls short to secure the polka dot jersey.
Erviti and Brutt follow at 1 minute and the peloton at 5'48". But with 80 km to go Saxobank decides to take matters into their hands and up the tempo.
Saxobank doing the work with 7 guys.
Meanwhile Brutt and Erviti have caught up to the break before the sprint in Soissons. O'Grady easily wins this before Brutt and Terpstra. Back in the peloton it's Hushovd before Cavendish and Greipel for the last 3 scoring positions. Saxo's work has reduced the deficit to 3'25".
Then it's the final climb, where a third guy in the break scores points. So a three-way tie for the polka dots.
Brutt easily sprints up this hill.
But even more exciting is what this Mont Maigre does to the peloton. Still lead by Saxobank the peloton splits over the top and thanks to the wind the gap grows. Main victims among the 36 left behind are N Roche (AGR), C Kern (EUC). Also Tjallingii is on the wrong side of the split, but we let him drift along as it doesn't really matter.
Roche and Kern (middle) see their GC ambitions dwindle on the very first day.
And it looks bad for those left behind. With not too long to go HTC and Garmin take the wheel in the peloton and seriously up the speed.
The peloton stretches.
Not only do they quickly catch the break, but with 10 km to go another split happens. This time only 55 riders manage to stay at the front, but with them are all GC contenders and also Gesink and Boom. The other Rabo riders are caught napping and fall back. Some big names were caught after all. Brajkovic, Kreuziger and Renshaw won't be in the first bunch at the line.
Szmyd can't keep up and causes a split.
With Renshaw being dropped it's Garmin with the strongest train. They quickly drop all except for Feillu and Rojas who picked Hushovds wheel. Farrar is the final lead out and launches Hushovd into the final 2 km.
Work done Farrar drops back.
Hushovd stays strong, but can't shake the two riders on his wheel. Cavendish and Boasson Hagen try to close the gap to the first three riders.
Going into the final k
Rojas has nothing left and is stranded on Thors wheel. But Feillu is able to make a move and beats everyone to the line to celebrate the first French victory on day 1!
Day two is the TTT, where the first differences in the GC will be made. Our plan today is to take it relatively easy until over the climb and then really open up and finish strong.
57 km of TTT will bring a shift in the GC.
We start as 8th team, after teams like Katusha, Saxobank and Astana. Those teams should give good markers for our own time.
We are setting off.
Out of the teams that started before us Quickstep surprisingly does best at the first intermediate checkpoint. 20'46" is the time to beat so far.
Quickstep starting the climb after Ludes.
And we can't beat the Belgian squad. Falling 18" short we at least beat Saxobank and Contador.
Rabo at check 1, we have to pick up speed now.
Soon after us it's RadioShack setting the best time, beating Quickstep by 20".
The Shack burning rubber.
Late starters Sky, Garmin and HTC all fail to beat this time, but it's Leopard who squeeze out 1" advantage at check 1.
Check 1 times;
1
Leopard
20'21"
2
RadioShack
1"
3
Garmin-Cervelo
12"
12
Rabobank
40"
At the 2nd checkpoint it's now Astana setting the fastest time out of the teams in front of us. We fail to beat it again, coming up 28" short.
Check 2 and Garate starts to feel his legs.
Leopard and RadioShack remain the strongest teams, with Leopard now 2" ahead. The gap to the rest increases, with only Garmin able to follow somewhat. We improve to 10th, but it's time to really increase our speed now.
1
Leopard
56'27"
2
RadioShack
2"
3
Garmin-Cervelo
21"
10
Rabobank
1"19"
Meanwhile the yellow jersey has trouble keeping the pace in his team.
Feillu dropping the pace in the Vacansoleil train.
The tactics we set out for this day start to pay off as Rabobank sets the best time at the finish out of the first 10 teams. 1h21'15" is the new time to beat.
We finish strong, setting the best time until now.
It's indeed a good time, as team after team fails to beat it. Of course the Shack boys are faster (1'16" but a lot of teams who had an edge on Rabo before the finish fall short now.
Sky fails to beat us, they miss 1".
Now it's waiting for the last three teams, who were the fastest (apart from the Shack) as well. Out of those Garmin looks worst, having only 5 riders going into the final k.
Garmins fast riding takes its toll.
Leopard, Garmin and HTC all manage to beat our time, but it's quite a surprise to see Leopard losing out to RadioShack by 18"! They faded badly in the last part of the race.
Yeah, didn't think the difference would be quite that big tbh, but hard seems to give an advantage to the AI. But Gesink is 23rd in the GC at the moment, so it will all be ok I think. A bit early to tell even.
Stage 3 is very long and flat, except for the finishing stretch, which kicks up to 8%. It's time for us to show our faces in this stage. Maybe Gesink could even do well on the short climb towards the finish.
The longest stage in the Tour with an exciting finish.
Maybe deterred by the distance the peloton takes an easy start. The pre-race favourites are Gilbert, Hagen and Rojas. In yellow is Klöden, and Feillu wears the green jersey.
Nothing much going on in the first 25 km.
Finally we have a first attacker. L Mangel (SAU) tries his luck.
Every break starts with one guy, could this be the one?
He is quickly joined by a wide variety of riders, including our Niermann.
Niermann wants to be in the break, but the peloton doesn't relent.
This break got to big, so after 40 km of riding it all comes back together. But the attacks keep going on now, so it's only a matter of time until the break of the day is formed. M Irizar (RSH), K Koren (LIQ), I Erviti (MOV)and D Loosli (LAM) were active on stage 1 and are in the break again. They are joined by two other Lampre riders, A Malori and G Bole, as well as S Turgot (EUC), L Westra (VAC), M Ignatiev (KAT), S Hinault (AGR), T Gallopin (COF), A Coyot (SAU), W Bonnet (FDJ) and our own Barredo
14 riders in a breakaway.
The break works well together and quickly builds a lead. In Verdun Loosli takes the first place in the intermediate sprint. The last point for the peloton is snatched up by Hushovd, 5'07" behind.
The world champion collecting points one at a time.
Immediately out of Verdun the break face the first rated climb of the day. It's Westra joins the battle for the mountain classification by winning in front of Ignatiev and Bonnet.
Barredo can't join in the battle for the points, as the other dutch team gets screen time.
Now the race is somewhat boring, as long flat stages tend to be somewhere in the middle. The kilometers are left behind and with 100 km to go the break have an advantage of 7'42" over the peloton. RadioShack isn't putting in too much work, as Irizar is the best placed breakaway rider. But there's more at stake then just a jersey, so Omega-Pharma, HTC and Garmin step up to the front of the peloton.
The speed is upped, Gesink keeps a close eye on it.
At the second climb it's now Gallopin who manages to get the point, in front of Ignatiev and Irizar. The break still have 5'41" at this point.
Ignatiev just missing out again.
Meanwhile G Meersman (FDJ) is the first rider to abandon, probably after a fall. Nothing on radio Tour though.
The third rated climb looks to be the last for the breakaway, so it's time to decide who can put on the polka dot jersey this afternoon in Nancy. Again it's Ignatiev trying for it, again he gets 2nd place. It's Westra who gets the point and who gets the second jersey Vacansoleil will hold after this stage.
Vacansoleil getting good results in the first week.
And Westra and Ignatiev prove to be the strongest breakaway riders, as they attack with 20 km to go and just 57" advantage over the peloton. Barredo couldn't follow anymore at this time and had to drop back.
Trying to fend off the inevitable.
They are later joined by Irizar, but against the HTC/OPL/Garmin led peloton the three don't stand a chance.
Irizar makes it into the final 10 km, but has to surrender not long after this.
As the speed drops off a bit it's Voigt who sees an opportunity, so he attacks.
How far can he go?
Neither HTC nor the other earlier chase teams seem to be able to mount a new chase, so we set Sanchez and Boom on that task. But even they don't succeed in capturing Voigt, but they drop off Gesink in a good position for the final climb.
Gradient of 8% here.
Cavendish now leads the hunt for Voigt, but the real speed up the slope is made by Gilbert and Klöden. Gesink runs out of energy quickly, and blocks Hagen and Petacchi.
As the riders continue towards the finish Gilbert and Klöden almost reach Voigt. Hagen and Petacchi find openings and start to sprint, but they are far back. Gesink, Cavendish and Evans start fading.
Can anyone catch Voigt?
And it's Voigt who holds on to it!
After losing out on the TTT yesterday Leopard takes its revenge.
Sadly enough I forgot to export the results, but there were no big gaps. Here's the top 11 of the stage at least.
Time for a short and flat stage. No special plans from us, not losing time shouldn't be a problem.
The shortest stage so far.
Attacks start off right from the mark and it looks as though 4 riders will be allowed to ride.
C Kern (EUC), A Grivko (AST), A Perez (EUS) and S Lang (OPL) in an early move.
But too many teams have missed out on this move, so the first 4 are joined by another 6 riders; M Irizar (RSH), L Duque (COF), P Brutt (KAT), M Delage (FDJ), J Engoulvent (SAU), B Leukemans (VAC). Some well known names there.
Ten riders in the break after 25 km.
But there's still some teams that aren't happy and try to send riders to the front, like Burghardt and Flecha.
More riders trying their luck.
But when those two are followed by another 5 riders it's Movistar that takes up the chasing duty. They have missed out so far and now think the break has gotten too big.
Chasing the break.
This move brings it all back together again, but not before the 18 odd riders up the road have taken all sprint points at the intermediate. Irizar taking 20. Now there's about 90 km to go, so the next move has to be a strong one. Boom decides to open up and see what riders join him.
Boom tries to set up a group.
But there is no reaction what so ever in the peloton. They let the lonely Boom have about 4', but then RadioShack starts the chase. Apparently Boom is too high up in the GC, around place 25 with 1'25.
The Shack chasing down the lonely breakaway rider.
And not surprisingly Boom is caught with about 17 km left to race.
Boom can't hold off the pack.
Garmin and HTC are now making the pace, but like yesterday it's Leopard with a late attack. Today it's Cancellara trying to solo the final 12 km.
Cancellara puts pressure on the sprinter squads.
But it's too far, even for Spartacus. Especially Garmin look in control with 5 to go. They have set up a train for Hushovd, being lead out by Hesjedal, Dean and finally Farrar. Greipel, Rojas, Hagen, Galimzyanov and Feillu have grabbed the worldchampions wheel. Behind Feillu there's a small gap to the HTC boys.
Garmin in control.
But around 2 km later Hesjedal is spent and the pace drops. Cancellara sees this as an opportunity and attacks again. Bak leads Goos, Cavendish and Petacchi onto Feillus wheel. On the right side Boonen, Oss and Hincapie try to move into a good position.
3 to go and Garmin seems to be slipping.
But Dean is able to hold the front and as they turn onto the final straight it's Farrar kicking off the sprint, with everyone still in Hushovds wheel. Goss and Cavendish have been forced out to the left by Boonen and Oss. They'll have to make up a lot of ground.
The final straight line.
About 100 m from the finish it's Thor alone as Farrar drops back. Hagen and Greipel are only able to pull up alongside, the high speed made by Garmin has stumped their sprint. Cavendish on the left is blocked by Feillu. Boonen looked very fast as well, but had to come from too far back and sees a whole bunch in front of him now.
Almost there
And it's indeed Thor Hushovd holding on to the win, with Hagen 2nd for a Norwegian 1-2. (Where have we seen that before?)
Stage 5 is where the fun starts. 207 km long and 4 summits to be climbed. Today we have to be in the break and Gesink has to be kept up front. The weather is horrible with pouring rain and strong gusts of wind.
The Vosges loom between Strasbourg and Belfort.
Attacks start rightaway. Barredo pays attention and moves into a promising group of 7.
Barredo early in the stage.
The peloton doesn't let up though and it takes attacks of 5 more riders to calm things down. After 50 km of racing 11 riders are out front. Barredo, D Loosli (LAM), E Martinez (EUS), B Leukemans (VAC), A Vanotti (LIQ), F Willems (OPL), J Galland (SAU), A Engels (QST), C Kern (EUC), A Roux (FDJ) and J ElFares (COF).
The weather is horrible, but these 11 will brave it all.
The break reaches Colmar and the sprint 7'10" in front of the peloton. N one is really interested though, Leukemans takes it in the break. The peloton doesn't sprint for the last 4 places.
The break then start the ascent of Le Schlossberg. Short and steep it measures 6,5 km @ 6,8%. During the ascent Barredo keeps back to be able to contend the sprint at the Col de la Schlucht.
Barredo watches Martinez take the first mountain prime.
The peloton crosses the summit 7'28" down and in the downhill things start to go wrong. There are several, Karpets being the most notable.
Too fast into the corner...
Meanwhile the break have started the Col de la Schlucht. 26,6 km long at 3,6% it's only demanding feature is the length. Barredo quickly moves up and sets a high tempo.
Barredo powering up the Col de la Schlucht.
But it's not enough to win the mountain points. Martinez just beats Barredo on the line.
So close.
That's no polka dots for us today. The peloton are keeping tight control and have picked up the pace over the Col de la Schlucht. They are 5'56" back and dropping several riders, such as Hagen, Boonen, Greipel, Galimzyanov and mountain jersey wearer Westra.
The mountain king doesn't like the real stuff.
The next col is de Col de Bussang, 6,7 km and 4,8%. The exertions earlier show their signs on Barredo, who worked very hard to keep the break away early in the stage. Now he and Galland drop.
Paying back earlier efforts.
No one in the group now contests Martinez over the summit. The Euskaltel rider leads them over 3'04" in front of the peloton.
Martinez will wear red-and-white after today.
The Col de Bussang also proves too much for the last sprinters. Cavendish and Petacchi drop back. Just Hushovd left.
No sprinters in Belfort.
Then the last summit, the Ballon d'Alsace. 10,3 km long at 6% it will decide over the fate of the breakaway. The first victim off this mountain is in the peloton however, as Voeckler manages to fall uphill.
Not Voecklers day.
Martinez proves he is the strongest of the 9 left and drops the others. He now has 1'43"left on the chasing peloton.
Martinez 4/4 summits.
The others all get caught before the summit, where Chavanel decides to make a move.
Chavanel doesn't fear the wet descent into Belfort.
The downhill from the Ballon proves to be the most treacherous one of all. Several riders fall, though no big names.
Usually Cancellara has no trouble.
The same can't be said for Ten Dam.
At the foot it's Martinez 32" in front of Chavanel, who has 33" on the peloton. With 10 km left all seems controlled and the winner will be one of the 89 riders left in the big pack.
Chavanel can see Martinez.
And then fate strikes. A big crash in the second half off the peloton drops some big favorites. Contador, van den Broeck, Leipheimer and Hushovd are all down. The pace drops off immediately.
The rain is a main factor today.
Up front Martinez is spent and Chavanel quickly takes the lead. Going into the final kilometer solo.
Great ride by Sylvain Chavanel!
No one is able to reach him or Martinez. But Rabobank still has something left. Sanchez moves up with Gesink in his wheel and the two are able to get a small gap on the rest.
That's a great lead out.
And it's enough! Gesink is able to hold off Velits and Casar for the 3rd place.
After all that, at least we have white jersey for Robert. I guess he will lose it after stage 8 for a while, as the gaps are pretty close still and TTing isn't his strongest point.
Ten Dam will hopefully have nothing too bad, he's the only one in our squad to fall today.
On stage 6 (and stage 7 for that matter) nothing can be gained for us. We won't be active in breaks to protect Gesinks white jersey and to conserve powers for the long ITT on stage 8.
Going down Le Doubs towards Dijon, today will be for a sprinter.
Shortly after the start is the first rated climb, so attacks start immediately. The fastest two off the mark are Westra and Muravyev.
Muravyev takes the point in front of ex-mountain jersey Westra.
Next are Sieberg and Bole, who try to make it a group of 4.
Moving towards the front of the race.
And then a big surprise. The second best rider in Strasbourg, Hagen, tries to get into the break.
Hagen sees the first group of 2.
Of course the peloton won;t let such a dangerous sprinter go and so everything is brought back together. After 50 km of riding we have a more traditional break of 14 riders cycling through the Doubs valley.
Duque, Flecha, Koren, Sieberg, Vaitkus, Turgot, Engoulvent, Westra, Kolobnev, Hinault, Bole, Schär, Delage and Muravyev are all well known breakaway names by now.
Reaching Briançon the break cross the 2nd climb. They have 6'37" advantage over the peloton.
Kolobnev grabbing a point in front of Duque.
As the peloton traverse Briançon they are down 7'16" and Garmin picks up the pace.
Garmin preparing yet another sprint for Hushovd?
With 50 km to go the break still hold 4'09". No one is really interested in sprinting at the intermediate, though the same can't be said for Cavendish and Hushovd back in the peloton.
Cavendish beating Hushovd for 1 point, a sign?
The 14 up front hold on until the last mountain, where things get very close.
Photo finish on a cat 4. Turgot narrowly takes it over Duque.
But with the two big sprinter teams Garmin and HTC cooperating the inevitable happens.
This will be another sprint.
As the preparations for the sprint start both Rolland and Szmyd think they can escape.
Escaping with 8 Garmin riders breathing down your back?
Again it's Dean in front of Farrar and Hushovd who leads the peloton into the final three. And again all other sprinters, including Cavendish, can only hold onto the Garmin train.
Cavendish in the best seat on board the Garmin express.
But Goss fights his way back up and tries to lead Cavendish past. Then Farrar hits the front and all who followed the HTC train get blown away. (no screen, sorry)
So Hushovd can start his sprint once again in a very comfortable position and with Cavendish no where near to challenge.
Boonen cracks and Greipel can only watch as Hushovd powers away.
But Cavendish proves he is one of the fastest in the final 300m as he almost catches the Norwegian demi-god. But once again his positioning robbed him of a victory as Hushovd builds his lead in the points jersey.
On to stage 7, a small rest day for most riders in the peloton. Short and completely flat you only have a tough day when you are riding for Garmin.
On to the site of tomorrows TT, Bourg-en-Bresse.
The usual suspects attack early on again, but strangely enough Garmin, HTC and Vacansoleil decide to let no one escape. So after 70 km of riding the whole peloton sits together in the atrocious weather.
The weather isn't nice, neither are the sprinter teams.
After that it all slows down and the only exciting thing to happen in a long time is a puncture by Arroyo.
That's one way to get on the telly.
The peloton actually makes it to the intermediate sprint in one piece, so the battle for the points jersey can rage unchecked. All big sprinters are expected up front, but it all ends in a dud as Cavendish completely blows them all away.
Cavendish wins over Greipel.
Finally, with 60 km left to race it's a solitary rider who manages to escape the peloton. Like yesterday Hagen fancies his chances in a break more then in a bunch sprint.
Brave Hagen going solo.
He gets a gap of max 4'30" before Garmin starts to reel him back in. Nothing much happens and with 10 left it still looks like this.
Hagen with 58" left.
With 5 to go Garmin forms their train of terror (TTT ) again and the other sprinters position themselves behind this to witness the capture of Hagen.
A familiar sight, no HTC train to be seen anywhere.
But this time it looks a bit different as Goss manages to pull up alongside the Garmin train. Greipel and Rojas decide to hop onto Cavendish' wheel. Galimzyanov, Petacchi and Swift sit on Hushovds wheel.
Today we have two trains.
But it's all for nothing as Farrar blows away the HTC train. Cavendish manages to push into that move behind Galimzyanov, the others are all dropped.
Farrar doing a superb lead out.
But as Hushovd starts his sprint Galimzyanov cracks and Cavendish once again looks out of position.
Hushovd on his way to his third stage win?
And the gap proves too much for Cavendish, who manages a second place again.
Last sprint chance before the Alps goes to Hushovd.
But before the smoke clears de Gendt comes in, beating Hagens time by another 55".
Is this a top 10 time?
But then it's time for TT world champ Cancellara. He seems to be from another planet, beating de Gendt by 2'30" setting the record at 1h03'53". But will it be enough?
Cancellara focusing on the start.
Then it's time for S Sanchez, the first big GC contender. He has lost some time in the first week, mainly because of the TTT. He sets a decent time, being 3'32"slower than Cancellara.
Samu Sanchez has a lot to make up.
At the same time our biggest TT hope is on the track. LL Sanchez can't convince though and comes in 4 mintues slower than Cancellara.
Spanish TT champion doesn't mean a thing in the Tour.
Now we're in the top 25 and the GC contenders and big time trialists follow each other rapidly. But neither Zabriskie nor Millar can convince in the intermediate times and they have considerable gaps to Cancellara.
Contador trails yellow jersey Klöden by 2 minutes, but is very good against the clock. And he shows this by setting the provional 2nd time, only 1'24" slower than the number 1.
This time will surely push Contador up the ranks.
Next up is van den Broeck, who has a very strong day. He sets the 4th time at 3'08". He will be very happy about that.
VDB with a decent showing.
Vinokourov, Evans and Wiggins are next and they all set very nice times. They join Cancellara and Contador in the top 5.
Vino 5th at 1'59".
Evans 2nd at 42".
Wiggins 3rd at 47".
And after Wiggins it;s time for our captain, Gesink. Although he has a good day he knows this isn't his terrain. Time will tell what his provisional 36th place is worth. Losing 4'29"to Cancellara doesn't really matter, but this means he loses between 3 and 4 minutes to the other GC contenders. There will be a lot of work to do in the mountains to come.
The white jersey gave wings and Gesink actually keeps it.
Now it;s time for the last contender for the stage victory and maybe even a candidate for the yellow jersey if Klöden and Leipheimer don't do well. Tony Martin is on the track and he looks to challenge Cancellara.
Off he goes...
But he doesn't make it. Martin gets 2nd at 22".
Hushovd doesn't challenge either, but he's the absolute master in the points classification. He rightly enjoys his day in the green jersey.
Green looks good.
Now it's just the Schlecks (and some of their helpers) and the Shack duo Leipheimer/Klöden left.
F Schleck does horrible, here he gets overtaken by Voigt.
A Schleck actually doesn't do too bad.
F Schleck loses almost a minute to Gesink, meaning he won't be in real contention for the GC. Andy does a lot better, coming in 27th at 3'43".
The Shack duo do a lot better and keep their 1-2 postions safe. Leipheimer coming in 6th at 1'34" and Klöden actually getting onto the podium missing Martins time by 6 seconds.
He already had yellow, but Klöden's the best of the GC contenders to boot.
Yeah well, Klöden seems to be in absolute uber form. And Gesink only has 69 TT in this database, so I think the time loss isn't that big. I had a +3 day luckily, else it would have been worse I think.
Really strong Hushovd so far.
Loads od time to make-up for Gesink before the mountains, but i believe he will go up the rankings everyday.
Kloden must be on something
Good luck for the next stages
but a lot of teams who had an edge on Rabo before the finish fall short now.
) again and the other sprinters position themselves behind this to witness the capture of Hagen.
