Today was the final stage, and was flat, still no screen ARGH!
It was unlikely Robert would win GC, but he still had to defend the points jersey.
Today's stage was a 106.8km long stage finishing in Doha.
Who would follow in the footsteps of last year's winner Tom Boonen?
The breakaway was large, so the peleton were not big fans, an alliance of FDJ, Omega Pharma Quickstep and Garmin made sure they didn't make yesterday's mistake.
The unlucky breakaway was made up of
Sbargeli of MTN, de Clerq of Lotto, Lequatre of Bretagne Schuller, Monfort of RadioShack, Vandanschoot of Accent Jobs, Schaidt of Champion Systems andMorajko of CCC. Some big names involved but they still only reached 4:18.
The peleton got the privilege of riding on some beautiful roads, but most of us were a bit too preoccupied to notice! This is us entering Doha for the first time.
We put up a mighty lead out, as always I led out Ricardo, who's job it was to put Robert in position.
As ever Ricardo's lead out was unbelievably strong. He was vying with the best, Bouhanni, Hunter etc, and he was holding his own.
As the lead out men peeled off the sprint descended into chaos, Robert! caught out, Demare in a commanding position, cavendish and Roelandts coming strong too.
Just a few metres from the line, Dèmare was holding on but Cav and Farrah had the momentum Robert was still blocked in!
Cavendish took it, Farrah getting second, Demare holding on for third, Robert a decent 6th.
Here is the result, showing cavendish as the official winner of the Tour of Qatar stage 6 and the overall, sorry the other photos didn't work!
Something was salvaged from the desert for us though, the Points jersey! Robert proudly takes it home, a great result for us as underdogs!
Walter is predominately a Time Trialist, he's strong on the flat and can sprint, but not well more of a workhorse in that discipline, in the climbs it varies, he is a good rider on the smaller ones, but if the going gets tough. He gets going, back down the hill and home again Edited by The Hobbit on 28-09-2013 15:56
Today the mysterious businessman known only as the Hobbit invited me to meet him. He is a big fan as he loved cycling and is Indonesian, so I had to sign my first autograph! though oddly giving it to someone more famous than me!
He announced that he had big links with lots of large companies, I already knew this, I mean how else could he make an entire tour in our country in just a few months! What happened next shocked me, though, not in a bad way, but it was amazing, some of the best news of my proffesional career, but it put me into a rather awkward position too....
You have no idea how many times I've written this but fine, (this is soooo boring)
Today's route is a rolling circuit which finishes on a climb, not hard enough for climbers, and too hard for sprinters, one for the punchers of the Ardennes Classics.
Here's our squad, I'm in good shape, so I'm 'leader' but in seriousness, we're all just free roles.
This man, Thomas Voekler, what was he doing, despite being a big favourite for the day he was expending a great deal of energy, what tactics were he employing to try such a risky strategy, and would it pay off?
The first team to spot the danger was AG2R la Mondiale. They moved quickly to counter their countryman's threat, stabilising the gap at 5:00 minutes,.
Voekler joined on, and AG2R started to crack, the pace began to slow, and no one else was willing to take up a chase.
The first to seize the opportunity was our very own Ricardo Acosta. He may not be the best climber in the world, but he was a real fighter, and maybe he could win the sprint from a small group.
The pro tour seemed to agree it was a good move, notably Euskatel and Saxo bank! they both sent 2 men, he was joined by sørensen, Kreuziger, Kocjan and Izagerre.
They got a stable gap of just under 2 minutes and began to hunt down Voekler.
But the break didn't fancy being caught, with one lap to go Grivko and Voekler began to increase the pace!
There were other attacks, like this one from Cancellara, Navardauskas and Amador. However none of them had as much drive as Ricardo's move
With only one km to go the break was fighting to hold on, well Voekler was, the others were just desperately trying to hold his wheel!
As the Euskatel and Saxo guys rounded the bend the break was slowly but surely falling away, could Voekler hold on?
Yes he could, his bizarre strategy worked! His companions held on for podiums as well, drama in this first stage! Ricardo snuck in 10th, last of the attackers.
I finished in the peleton, which came across the line in one piece despite a chaotic sprint.
These are the results, the GC is exactly the same really, both me and Ricardo are in a good place, who knows what will happen tomorrow.
Edited by The Hobbit on 29-09-2013 12:36
Today was hilly again, but with a descent to the finish it could be won by a sprinter like Sagan, if he was here.... Or a late attack could do it, or who knows even a breakaway
The seats in the break were valuable commodities again, many men trying to take up a spot.
The final decisive break was maybe up of:
Amorison of Crelan, Galland of Saur Sojasun, Levarlet of Cofidis, Curvers of Argos and Russian Champion Vorganov of Katusha.
They got a big lead, just over 5 minutes, but Europcar and Sky didn't want another man to 'do a Voekler'
The attacks came early, this one from Montaguti, trying to do the same as Ricardo yesterday but with a little bit more success!
It worked, and I was among those who joined him. The group was me, him, Paulo Tiralongo, Linus Gerdemann.
The group swelled and swelled, slowly Nairo Quintana, Vasil Kyrienka and Florencio joined in.
We caught the break at 10km out, but we'd been going for another 12k so we were starting to lose momentum.
In fact we were aught over the top, so it looked like a group of 19 would contest the sprint, but Ricardo was dropped, so it was all on me! I was pretty tired though, so no win for us.
Under the 1km to go banner Weggman and Izagerre were looking good, but it was anyone's game.
Weggman faded, but it wasn't Izagerre's yet! Vasil Kyrienka wanted to take it for Sky!
And he did! Kyrienka of Belarus wins the final stage of Haut Var! Izagerre only manages 3rd, while Voekler quietly moves through the pack behind to make absolutely sure he takes yellow!
I finished near the back, happy I'd made the front group but disappointed that I'd spent too much energy earlier on.
Voekler wins with Izagerre and Kreuziger rounding off the podium.
It was a good race for us, we may not have been too high in GC, but at least we showed our faces!
We managed a good 4th in the team stakes, showing we had a good race.
This is a hilly race which our manager's have highlighted for me as a key build up before the Tour of Indonesia which is my biggest objective as a home tour. It is very hilly with a lot of sharp climbs before a flat finish, not really one for me, but I need to work on this aspect of my performance.
I was well and truly leader today. I was in the best form and was the best on the hills of all of us. I needed to build form and confidence before Indonesia where I was under pressure to do well.
It took a while for the breakaway to form, Sky were pulling really hard. In the end it was made up originally of:
Popovych of RadioShack
Rosetto of BigMat
Georges of AG2R
Kritsky of Katusha
Kniesky of Roubaix Lille Metropole
They were joined by:
Teruel of Movistar
Cummings of BMC
Ligthart of vaconsoleil
Verdugo of Euskatel
Fouchard of Cofidis
There were hundreds of small attacks, in the end the cameramen just gave up!
Here is Gadret, Sørensen and Gautier having a pop. This was still 46km out.
What was more important was what happened later, the group fell apart on the descent, with it finally reforming as a 20 man group with only 38km left, most of the favourites had made the cut.
This move was made by Siutsov and Voigt, it was working well, but there was still 30km to go so instead of following I slowly reeled them in.
Nothing was escaping the group today!
Ignatiev, Sella and Gautier made another move, but Sky and RadioShack, who both had 2 riders slowly pulled them back too.
For some moves I had to counter, like this one from Velits and Voigt, I may have caught Velits but Voight was still up the road!
In fact he lead us through 20km, and with Voight, you can never know!
Unfortunately he was cought, so miraculously we were still together over the top, the pace slowed as we made ready for this sprint, with some decent sprinters attached I didn't stand a chance.
Euskatel were in a commanding position, Izagerre and Kocjan leading us through.
But the basque party was being upset by Thomas Dumoulin, he was beginning to storm through, could he hold on.
Meanwhile my fears were well placed, I was at the back AGAIN.
And Dumoulin did it! He won the race in France for a French team, and Euskatel had to settle for a lesser podium double, but still a cracking race for them.
I was near the back, but I hadn't lost time, so things looked good for Indonesia, as that has a TT, it will be interesting to see how I do in my first professional one!
Before the race he engineered from scratch, there have been some rumours about the powerful Indonesian businessman known only as the Hobbit. Our prediction at the moment is that he has carefully controlled this slow release of rumours to possibly increase his publicity and maybe increase the viewing numbers of the Indonesian Tour itself.
It may be helpful to The Hobbit but if there is one person it isn't helping at this point it is the first ever Indonesian professional cyclist, Walter Susilo. He was unavailable for comment on the subject, unsurprising as he makes his final preparations for the 2.hc race for which he will be under pressure to perform. In an earlier interview he said it would be the highlight of his season, and claimed he was sure the Hobbit had his reasons for withholding, or not, as may be the case, this information, but said he knew no more than everyone else.
But is there a secret? And what is it? Rumours are abound, stretching from an international scoping empire to a much simpler Indonesian Championships race, it could be anything.
Its here!
The highlight of my season, the Tour of Indonesia is finally here, and all the build up, rumours and pressures are nothing now, all that matters is my performance now.
The route doesn't particularly suit me, as flat finishes aren't my best attribute, but we'll try our hardest, and maybe we'll take a win with an attack or get lucky in the sprint.
We have a strong support cast trying to put me and Ricardo in the best possible position to win this race.
We had a representative in today's break, but nobody else did. Our Johannes Blom took it upon himself to make a solo effort today to improve our position in Indonesia from a marketing perspective.
He got a gap of 7:20 but Sky weren't slacking off today, they started chasing hard
With 27.4km to go we saw the first action of the race, Rebellin attacked for the KOM points left behind Johannes.
But he managed to stay out in front, and with 22km left he bridged to Johannes, but the Swede was primarily my team mate, and didn't fancy working.
The Frenchman didn't appear to be a fan of working either though, and they were caught 18km out.
He didn't want to give up either, and on the false flat of the final climb, 8km out, he attacked again, this time with BMC's Matthias Frank. Sky had been puling hard, but by now they were beginning to struggle slightly.
I would've followed, but a slowing Sky rider blocked me blatantly! I had no room, or I'd have fallen into the sea!
As such he went over the top first, but his gap was less than a minute, could he hold on against sky on the technical descent?
It looked like he could make it, with less than 3km left he began slacking off and cruising, had he made a fatal mistake?
Jonathan Tiernan Locke was destroying us in the sprint, he looked strong for leading home the peleton, but could he catch Rebellin.
It didn't look like he could, the Frenchman soloed under 1k and looked easy as he TTed to the line.
I was near the back, again, this really isn't my thing, I have a good turn of speed, but my positioning is all wrong!
Meanwhile Rebellin did what I would have done if Sky hadn't got in my way and raised his arms, celebrating a momentous victory in this first stage and cementing the jersey, but could he hold it?
It was tight for second as JTL faded badly but just held on ahead of Kyrienka and Voigt.
I came in comfortably 11th, just outside the top ten, but on the same time.
Rebellin will be in trouble over slowing for the sprint, as he was given the same time and as such only has the time bonuses between him and the rest. Only Kyrienka is better at TT than me of those ahead, so maybe I could finish well.
Johannes performed well for the KOMs, so he is in the lead ahead of Rebellin, but there are more points to come!
The white jersey looks an achievable goal as I can beat both of these in the TTs and if I do ok in the climbs I feel its mine to lose.
Find out later how well I'm doing in my biggest goal of the season.
Today was a sprint stage, but still pretty tough, with an uphill finish! Our plan was to set it up for Ricardo but to also make sure I was in a strong position.
There were 20 KOM points on offer, so Johannes set off to defend his jersey.
This time he had company though, from:
Johannes Blom
Gretsch Argos
Gerard Bretagne Schuller
Kalojiros. Baubnecht
Van der Lijke Rabobank development.
IAM took up the chase, aided by CCC and Sky, so they only got 4:24.
Blom defended the jersey, taking the first KOM points, and picking a few up at the second point.
But he was dropped over the top so was Kalojiros, so the others went to the line on their own.
The run in was chaotic sky lead through the twisting and undulating roads. Today good positioning might be more important than raw pace.
Ricardo wasn't feeling so good, so it looked as if he would make it his goal to put me in the best possible position.
He did a fantastic job, putting me in the top ten under 1km to go. However with the sprint being uphill I should have waited later, it was going to sap my energy badly and others still had lead outs.
I was right, I faded badly and it looked like being a three horse battle for the win.
The main men were...
Gavazzi, Sutton and Gallopin.
Gavazzi was in a commanding position on the final run in, but out of nowhere Dumoulin had launched up.
While Gavazzi and Sutton faded, Dumoulin steamed through to take the win, a great show which surely means he'll be one to watch in the coming days.
I finished up near the front of the bunch, a decent showing for me.
Not much change in the overall, just a few bonus seconds, the real test is yesterday, the TT should shake the punchers out of the bag and favour riders like Gallopin and myself. Meanwhile Johannes extends his lead in the KOM, and there are very few points left, so that looks sown up.
it's going well guys!
