Another month has gone by and soon we're in March. February though, was a decent month for the team with Chris Froome winning the Vuelta a Andalucía. But apart from Froome's win, we've been forced to secondary placings in all the races we've been riding. Let's hope for more success when the World Tour season will start for real in March.


Since there's been no World Tour races since Santos Tour Down Under, then there's still no changes in those rankings. That means i'm still in the lead, but only for a short period probably. In the team rankings, Sky is still in the lead in front of Omega Pharma - Quickstep.


In the CQ-rankings, i've moved in front of Meersman, but i'm still in second since Peter Sagan has surpassed both of us. Dominating the Tour of Oman and Qatar, plus a small number of one day races, has given him a very comfortable lead already. In the team rankings Omega Pharma - Quickstep is in first, while Sky Procycling lies in third.



In the upcoming month of March, i'll only be riding two races. This will be the peak of my spring session. The two races will be the very prestigious Paris - Nice and the Milano - SanRemo. I'm looking very much forward to both of them, and i hope to be able to keep my shape up, because if i success in doing so, i may get my own chances.


February's "team-mate of the month" is one of our grand old men. After the Le Samyn, i wasn't in doubt to whom i'd reward this price to. Eisel has already had many race days this season, but he hasn't been able to make any results yet. After a disappointing week with Kuurne and Omloop, he was looking for success in Le samyn, but things once again didn't go his way, and immediately he was ready to help me in the final bunch sprint. Such team spirit has to be rewarded!

Sutty: Me too! Judging from the other guys at the team, Salvatore is really one of the guys who are in the greatest form at the moment. That will surely prove to be usable in the upcoming races

Freitas: Hehe, wish to see that too! Well, he did it in GP Quebec last season, so why not MSR this season

Pre-Tactics
The 2013 version of the Paris - Nice is about to start. Our team has brought a strong lineup with good chances for stagewins and an overall podium spot. First stage is an ultra short prologue with great speed, and Boasson Hagen will be our greatest hope for a result. My objective will be to save as much energy as possible and don't crash.

Kind of peculiar our strongest gc-contender, Roche, was one of the first riders to go on track today. But as time went, everybody realized that it was because of the weather, as it began to rain heavily later on. As planned he got unhurt through the prologue, and even without major loss, being only 16 seconds away from the eventual winner.


As Roche, i was lucky enough to avoid the rain as well. Time trialing has never been my strongest side, but prologues are different. With my sprinting ability i should have an advantage on such a short distance, and see it as a long sprint, rather than a time trial. But my breakthrough on prologues obviously wasn't supposed to be today, since everything didn't seem to come into rhytm. 37 seconds down on the winner, at the 100th place, was what it came to be.


Slowly the favorites for todays victory began to enter the track. Orica - GreenEdge rider, Weening, sat at the provisional lead with a marvelous time of 3'32, when his own team's favorite, Lancaster, only managed to take home provisional 2nd, 5 seconds behind Weening.


Argos Shimano disappointed today, with both Ludvigsson and Dumolin, not managing to ride home any acceptable results. The only one who managed to get some success for the team was Geschke, who made the top 10, 14 seconds behind the eventual winner.


Former world champion in time trialing, Tony Martin, started in the middle of the field, where the rain was really heavy. With only small margins deciding the winner, this surely had influence on his time. But even though of the rain, Martin managed to take provisional first as expected, but only 2 seconds ahead of Weening. Would this time hold?


Another strong contender for the stage win, Navardauskas, was also caught in the rain. But the rain didn't seem to bother him, and when he crossed the finishline he was only 2 seconds behind Martin. Was Tony Martin slow, or was the other riders just having a fantastic day?


Kwiatkowski was also one of the biggest favorites today, but whether it was the wet roads or just bad legs, was the question, as the Polish rider finished way off, no more than 25 seconds down on the winner.


The expectations when being at homefield, gave Sylvian Chavanel a great pressure before todays prologue. But the French didn't disappoint at all, and even managed to fly past Martin's time, being no more than 5 seconds better than the former world champion.


As the final riders began to enter the course, the young Italian Malori was looking for success. He was probably aiming for a podium spot, but eventually he was 10 seconds slower than Chavanel's time, which placed him just outside the top 5.


Finally our own favorite entered the course. The rain had been gone for some time, but the roads were still slippery when Boasson Hagen rode down the ramp. There was still some strong riders who had yet to start, but it looked as though it was Chavanel's time you had to beat.


The atmosphere in the team bus was boiling as Edvald rode towards the finishline. The clock showed that he was very close to Chavanel's time! But unfortunately the clock favored Chavanel, with 3 seconds advantage. Therefore he took provisional 2nd ahead of Martin.


Another disappointment came from Gilbert, who had been too slow on the course, finishing surprisingly 21 seconds down on the winner.


Vincenzo Nibali eyes great chances for an overall victory in the race, and today he showed that he's ready for the fight, by taking eventual 10th place, 15 seconds down on the winner. It will be frightening to see him on the final mountain time trial at stage 8.


Last rider who would threaten Chavanel's terrific time, was Sagan who was flying in the corners. Even though he looked extremely fast on the course, he lost some time over the last kilometer. 16 seconds down on Chavanel, who thereby took the victory, Sagan would end at 15th.

I'm glad i was able to avoid the rain, because at some point it looked to be really heavy. This stage didn't ment a lot to me, so i'm happy that it went fairly painless. Also Roche came through very fine, so he'll be ready to compete for the overall win later on. Edvald was also really strong, but also unlucky enough to finish 2nd, which is a really annoying place to finish at. Let's get next stage going!

Sutty: Yep, things luckily went as planned but Chavanel's time was just unbeatable, so i agree that Edvald should be really happy to have beaten Martin for 2nd.

Ian: Hehe yeah, it's an easy number to remember, and the more down Salvatore is in the gc, the more likely it will be that he can go for a stage victory later in the race. So 100th is definitely nice

Ollfardh: That depends whether his form will be rising through the Paris - Nice and in the time between MSR. After a long and early start of the season, i'm not sure he'll be able to keep up his shape after the Paris - Nice. So no, he'll probably peak in the last days here in France, but he'll still compete in MSR in great condition. I promise that

Jackstar: Thank you very much Jackstar! It really means a lot to read such a great comment, and especially from another story-writer. I hope i can continue to keep it up in the future

Hey guys! First of all i want to thank all of you who voted for me in the award for the one-rider story of the year. They say that 2nd is the worst place to take, especially when that was the place i finished last year, but i was even glad just to be nominated! I was very surprised to see so many voting for Salvatore, and it really meant a lot to me, seeing that people still like the story. Thank you so much for that!

But about Salvatore... As you've probably noted for a long time, updates doesn't come regulary and very often. I'm sad that can't be, but things have been in my way, and motivation has been low for some time. Therefore it's probably no surprise that i'm putting this on hold for an undecided time. I'm very sad that i couldn't keep this going any longer, but i've had a great time writing what have been made up in periods throughout the last 1½ year.

I hope that i'll regret this announcement in the future (as i've done before ), and take the challenge up again. Since playing with Salvatore has been one of the main reasons i've continued playing PCM, then i'm not the slightest in doubt that if i will ever get back to story-writing, it will be a continuation of this story!

So, if this will be the last update in this thread, i want to thank all who've followed along and commenting. Writing for yourself is great, but when other people acknowledges your work, you're having yourself an even greater time!

Pre-Tactics
We've arrived for the depature of the second stage. On the paper this looks like a clean sprinter match, so we'll just hang in there with Edvald well protected. There are some strong sprinters on the startlist, but we believe Edvald is able to compete against the very best. With only 3 seconds seperating him from Chavanel in the general classification, he might even take the yellow jersey!

Five riders got out early, all French riders except Lampre's Palini. They were no particular threat to the general classification, nor the stage if the pack could agree to end the stage in a bunch sprint.


Aaah, the race to the sun... Always a delightful opener of the spring, with lots of sun and warmth - No? The rain started pouring down as the breakaway was almost caught near the finishline. It was Argos, Lotto, Cannondale and Orica that pulled the front, making a clear note that all their captains were ready to fire off. The breakaway had no chance!


The teams started to set up their trains as we were nearing the final. Eddy was on his own, as we believed he would have better chances by following one of the favorites. He quickly found Sagan's wheel and held onto him. Him and his Cannondale team looked very strong.


Eddy definitely picked the right wheel, as the other trains seemed to fall apart and leave their sprinters in a bad position. Cannondale with Sagan and Edvald behind, took the front immediatly!


The new interesting sprinterduo, Farrar - Sagan, powered their way forward towards the finishline. Things looked pretty good for Sagan, although Eddy was also sitting well in there, and Mezgec with Degenkolb in the rear came fast behind from a worse position.


Farrar didn't seem to do the difference, as Mezgec quickly caught the Cannondale duo, forcing Sagan to start his sprint a little earlier than expected. Edvald tried to hang on, but he was obviously struggling a little bit from the high pace. Greipel also came fast from behind now!


Degenkolb and Sagan was even now, only a couple of metres from the line - It was going to be a very close finish! Greipel was comming really fast from his poor positioning behind, but with the speed he was going with now, he might even be able to threaten Sagan and Degenkolb's winnerchances?


It got very close in the end, but Sagan's long sprint seemed to fatique him a little. Degenkolb took a great victory with a really powerfull leadout by Mezgec, while Greipel took a disappointing 3rd and Edvald brought home a fine 4th, with guys like Boonen and Goss behind him.

We knew it was going to be a tough challenge for Eddy, but he did a really good job in picking the right wheel and powering to the finishline. We're going to be chasing those bonus seconds the next days to get him in the leaders jersey! The rain was evil as hell, but we all got through the stage without a single scratch, so this is a mission complete for us. Tomorrow's stage looks like another sprinting stage, so we'll continue the pattern.