There are slightly less hills today than at the Amstel Gold Race but the hills that do occur are longer and steeper! Especially terrifying for me is the triple ascent of the Mur de Huy with that being the finishing ground for the race. The favourites are the usual people - Amstel winner Gilbert; the Spanish duo of Valverde and Rodriguez who will be looking for a win after a podium place and others like the Schlecks; the Astana pair of Iglinskiy and Gasparotto, and Team Saxo Bank's Kreuziger.
The breakaway took a while to form as usual, as you can see with these early attacks
After about 60km or so a rather dangerous break formed containing (L-R) Habeaux, Pinot, Jeandesboz, Veuchelen, Gautier, Nordhaug, Mate and Koren - Mate and Pinot reapeating their efforts from Amstel.
Now it was time for the climbing to start - we get our first taste of the famous Mur de Huy - with gradients regularly at 17% it was far steeper than anything I had experienced at the Amstel Gold Race; or at anytime before in my career
Soon enough, though, it started to lash it down and the weather was really unpleasant; making descents difficult with lots of surface water on the road. With 80kms to go the break was starting to come back to the peloton with a lead of just 4 and a half minutes.
Matteo Bono looks very sorry for himself as his bike gets run over by a motorcycle after he fell off; becoming the first casualty of the aforementioned surface water.
The crashes kept coming as riders slipped around on the wet roads during the descents. Here Pieter Van Speybroeck of Topsport-Vlaanderen seems oblivious to the fact that Robert Kiserlovski is lying prone on the floor in front of him. Having heard of this through the radio, I decided to take extra caution on the descents, not wanting to be the next victim of the weather/road combination.
After a few more crashes (including Veuchelen of the breakaway) it was time to ride up the Mur de Huy again. I had slipped back a bit in the group but I was still concentrating and trying to get back to where Roman was near the front.
With 20km to go the favourites were starting to mass near the front. Roman is at the front of the picture with Valverde behind him on the right with Gilbert next to him and then Schleck between their shoulders and Iglinskiy behind Gilbert in the bright blue of Astana
Karsten Kroon, enterprising rider that he is, decides to employ the same strategy as of a couple of days ago and attacks with 15km to go - with the break still holding a minute's lead
However a sudden acceleration from the Movistar Team meant both Karsten and the break were brought back pretty quickly. The reason for this sudden spurt of speed... Ataque de Valverde!
Rather predictably, it's Gilbert and Andy Schleck who counter, getting to Valverde and the trio soon starting to vanish into the distance.
The attack seemed to have stuck and so a chasing group of favourites and pseudo-favourites decide to set off in pursuit, creating a minute's gap to the peloton in the process. The group contained Luis Leon Sanchez, Hesjedal, Martin, Frank Schleck, Gerrans, Samuel Sanchez, Kreuziger, Iglinskiy, Evans and Carrara. The notable exceptions were definitely Rodriguez and Gasparotto.
Just 3.5kms to go now and the Valverde attack has been reined in to create a lead group of 13. It would come down to a sprint or a daring attack up the Huy
Gilbert is the first to launch the sprint with Valverde, Kreuziger and Schleck right behind him fighting for his wheel
Meanwhile there's a big crash at the back of the peloton as the action hots up at the front
300m to go and it's Gilbert who has stayed out in front by a long way but look at Kreuziger go! He's closing in on Valverde and Schleck is fading whilst Martin and Iglinskiy start to accelerate a bit more
Philippe Gilbert can celebrate once more as he takes La Fleche Wallonne after an incredible show of sprinting and acceleration on the Mur de Huy destroyed all his competitors.
Valverde puts in a good show to finish second again - heartbreak for the Spaniard after being very close both times but Kreuziger has bettered his showing from the Amstel Gold Race with an incredible 3rd place finish!
I come across looking pretty tired here on the left next to teammate Bruno Pires but I finished 30th, in the middle of a thinned-out pack 1 minute and 27 seconds behind Gilbert so I’m pretty pleased with that! And for Roman as well of course!
So here's how the results stack up... I'm delighted to finish in 30th place above some big names like Jurgen van den Broeck and Michele Scarponi; who while they are better at mountains than hills; are still formidable climbers. The big surprise of the day is Joaquin Rodriguez, an odds-on favourite at the start, finishing in 23rd place.
1
Philippe Gilbert
BMC Racing Team
5h00'36
2
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
+ 12
3
Roman Kreuziger
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
4
Andy Schleck
Radioshack - Nissan
+ 26
5
Maxim Iglinskiy
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
6
Tony Martin
Omega Pharma - Quick Step
s.t.
7
Simon Gerrans
Orica-GreenEDGE
s.t.
8
Luis León Sánchez
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
9
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
10
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel Euskadi
s.t.
11
Ryder Hesjedal
Garmin - Barracuda
s.t.
12
Fränk Schleck
Radioshack - Nissan
s.t.
13
Matteo Carrara
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
14
Wout Poels
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
+ 1'27
15
Gianni Meersman
Lotto Belisol
s.t.
16
Robert Gesink
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
17
Rinaldo Nocentini
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
18
Karsten Kroon
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
19
David López GarcÃa
Movistar Team
s.t.
20
Greg Van Avermaet
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
...
30
Matthias Fischer
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
The next report will be [hopefully] soon and I'll be racing the last and oldest of the Ardennes - Liege-Bastogne-Liege. See you there
Just one other race that we've been racing in to report on and that's the extremely tough 4-day CT race Circuito del Trentino. After an impressive team time trial on the first stage, where we finished fifth; two strong top 10 finishes from Chris Anker Sorensen, who elected to race Trentino instead of La Fleche Wallonne; and another top 10 finish from Daniel Navarro Garcia meant we were sitting pretty going in to the final stage.
The final stage would be tough, but a great ride from Chris Anker saw him grab a 3rd place finish on the stage ahead of names like Damiano Cunego, Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins and Vincenzo Nibali!
The race was dominated by an in-form Stefano Garzelli who not only took the General Classification but the points classification and the mountains classification too. Ivan Basso came second; while a great last stage from Chris saw him leapfrog Cunego into third place in the GC! A great result for him! Daniel Navarro Garcia also came in a handy 9th place in the GC as well; so it was a very good time for Saxo Bank!
See you soon in L-B-L! Edited by Stromeon on 13-01-2013 21:25
It was time to unleash La Doyenne! We would be looking for Kreuziger to continue in a similar vein of form and personally, I was hoping for a similar finish to the 30th I got in the previous race.
Today our friend Karsten Kroon decided to change his strategy and attacked from the outset. No-one seemed to want to follow him and he soon built up a minute's lead all on his own; waiting for someone else to come and join him in the break
After an inordinate amount of time some riders decided to go off in pursuit of Kroon. By the time the foremost three (Willems of Lotto Belisol was a bit further down the road), consisting of van Goolen, Levarlet and Szymd had caught up with him, the gap was over eight and a half minutes back to the pack
The first half of the race was very quiet so for me it was about settling into a good rhythm (I'm the one next to BMC's Johann Tschopp)
The breakaway, with Kroon doing a lot of the work on the front soon pulled that advantage out to 11 minutes so the peloton began to respond. With the terrain starting to undulate a bit more suddenly a massive split occurred in the peloton and nearly all the team leaders lost out, falling back to a larger group of about 130 that fell off the back. Here you can see the likes of Frank Schleck, Roche, Cunego and Menchov falling back but behind them was the other Schleck, Rodriguez, Valverde, Gerrans, Hesjedal, Nibali and more! Drama! We would have to see if this group could get back to the ‘peloton’ of 50 riders
So in an extremely controversial move that didn't go down well at all with Kroon; we decided that we would make the pace at the front of the peloton. If we could take advantage of this split and get the gap over about 3 or 4 minutes back then Kreuziger would have a really good chance at going for the win after his impressive showing at La Fleche Wallonne. However, Gilbert was still there so we had to remember he was still the big favourite to win.
With still 120km to go three riders responded to our upping of the pace and... attacked! Rui Costa, Samuel Sanchez and Chris Froome were the three showing a lot of daring a long way from the finish; but their attack was ultimately futile
Now all hell was breaking loose - the breakaway was caught and many riders kept constantly attacking - promiment amongst those were Costa, Nieve, Devenyns, Henao, Rogers, and Kelderman
We finally relented on the pace; not wanting to tire ourselves out too much, but it was a mistake of sorts, as it allowed the persistent Sanchez to get away, followed by Meersman, Devenyns and Carrara; and then by Froome and Nieve
Now come on Ryder Hesjedal, why are you sitting INSIDE Nocentini's bike?
I'm beginning to fall off of the back of the pack with... Gilbert??? What is going on here?
Unfortunately he made it back to the group and I found myself floating in no-man’s land. Meanwhile up front the Sanchez/Froome etc group was caught.
Me just after a descent as the parcours starts to get trickier. I was a good two minutes behind the front group but a minute ahead of the 'favourites' group
This group behind me had now split and the first half caught me
With 40kms to go, here’s how things stood: The lead group consisted of 32 riders, including Kreuziger, Gilbert, Valverde, Frank Schleck, Sammy Sanchez and Damiano Cunego. The next group was 59 seconds back and included Andy Schleck, Joaquin Rodriguez, Simon Gerrans and Cadel Evans. The next group was 3 minutes and 54 seconds back on the first group and contained Mollema and Albasini. And the next group was 58 seconds behind them and included me and Ryder Hesjedal. Nibali, Martin and Gasparotto were all further back.
The percentages reach 20% on the Redoute! I’m in the middle of the group in the centre
Andy Schleck, Gerrans and Iglinskiy attack from their group and join the leaders with 25km to go
Samuel Sanchez is on the ground!
With just 15km to go - disaster strikes as Kreuziger is dropped from the lead group which had shrunken significantly to about 10-12. Cunego and Gerrans are the aggressors
Just 10km to go now and the lead group is Gilbert, Gerrans, Cunego, Valverde and the Schlecks. Kreuziger is 30s behind
Now we've just got 2km to go at the front and Gilbert is leading Cunego and Valverde with Gerrans and the Schlecks a little further behind; and Kreuziger about 40 seconds behind them trying desparately to catch up
This time it's Valverde who initiates the sprint and pulls out a lead of a bike length over Gilbert! It's going to be close! You can just see the distant figure of Kreuziger behind Gilbert’s head.
But Valverde has started his sprint too soon and has been overtaken by Gilbert and Andy Schleck with 200m to go...
And Gilbert does it again! Another commanding ride from the Belgian! This means he's now taken all three of the Ardennes classics in the same year! What an achievement! Andy Schleck comes second and Valverde misses out again in third.
Kreuziger crosses the line in seventh position, not to be sniffed at all; and I cross it (as can be seen here) rather disappointed with my own performance, maybe it was the stint at the front that blew my legs; but 61st was a little drop in standards after my pleasing 30th at La Fleche Wallonne.
So here we have the standings: lots of notable names missing from the top 20 list like Rodriguez [again] and Gasparotto; and surprises like Kelderman and our man Sorensen, fresh from a third place in Trentino!
1
Philippe Gilbert
BMC Racing Team
6h33'48
2
Andy Schleck
Radioshack - Nissan
s.t.
3
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
s.t.
4
Damiano Cunego
Lampre-ISD
s.t.
5
Fränk Schleck
Radioshack - Nissan
+ 49
6
Simon Gerrans
Orica-GreenEDGE
+ 56
7
Roman Kreuziger
Team Saxo Bank
+ 1'23
8
Luis León Sánchez
Rabobank Cycling Team
+ 2'29
9
Ben Hermans
Radioshack - Nissan
+ 2'40
10
Robert Gesink
Rabobank Cycling Team
+ 2'54
11
Chris Froome
Sky Pro Cycling
+ 3'04
12
Gianni Meersman
Lotto Belisol
s.t.
13
Rinaldo Nocentini
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
14
Thomas De Gendt
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
15
Ivan Basso
Liquigas-Cannondale
s.t.
16
Wout Poels
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
17
Alexandre Vinokourov
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
18
Chris Anker Sørensen
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
19
Maxim Iglinskiy
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
20
Wilco Kelderman
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
...
61
Matthias Fischer
Team Saxo Bank
+ 14'16
I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here at the hilly classics and it's been great working with Roman and seeing so many great riders riding alongside me in the peloton. However, there's not much time to rest as I am off to Switzerland tomorrow for the GP de Romandie.
See you there
Thanks for the kind words everyone - Matthias has gained valuable experience from these classics I'm sure. And Kreuziger definitely did great
@SSJ2: yes, but on my computer the jpg's (which I started the story on) take a lot longer to load than the png's - png's load instantly on my computer so there must be something strange I'll try and convert them to jpg's if it's the other way round for everyone else then
After all the classics it's time to get back into stage-racing mode again and I've arrived in the beautiful country of Switzerland for the GP de Romandie. It's the final race before the Giro for Kreuziger, who's been hammering out the race days - he has a very intensive schedule at the moment but he's not doing anything after the Tour.
First off is an extremely short prologue - just 3.7kms! This won't affect the overall standings much but will help to separate riders by those crucial seconds.
The early pace was set by Rabobank rider Jos van Emden who took the lead with a barnstorming time of 4 minutes 45 seconds!
Wiggins once again had a good ride in a prologue, finishing 3 seconds behind van Emden
Levi Leipheimer shrugged off some indifferent form to put in a good performance just a second behind Wiggins
There was a great performance by the young gun Taylor Phinney, an excellent time-triallist and he came home two seconds faster than Wiggins! Van Emden's time was looking more and more impressive as the time-trial went on.
I was sitting in the start gate ready to go. It would be an intense effort prologue, owing to its extremely short length, and that didn't quite suit my strengths
It all felt like it was over before it started but I did pretty well, coming in a provisional 17th, 11 seconds down on current leader Jos van Emden
A quiet period followed, with no-one else breaking into the top 3. It was down to Kreuziger to get a good result again.
It turned out to be another great ride from our in-form Czech man. He finished a provisional 4th, just 3 seconds down on van Emden; with only Brajkovic and de Gendt to come who could challenge him.
In the end it stayed that way - a great prologue for Kreuziger! And I finished in a respectable 33rd place.
Special mention to stage winner van Emden though, what a performance from the Dutch rider!
1
Jos Van Emden
Rabobank Cycling Team
4'45
2
Taylor Phinney
BMC Racing Team
+ 1
3
Bradley Wiggins
Sky Pro Cycling
+ 3
4
Tejay Van Garderen
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
5
Roman Kreuziger
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
6
Manuel Quinziato
BMC Racing Team
+ 4
7
Levi Leipheimer
Omega Pharma - Quick Step
s.t.
8
Janez Brajkovic
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
9
David Zabriskie
Garmin - Barracuda
s.t.
10
Joost Posthuma
Radioshack - Nissan
+ 5
...
32
Matthias Fischer
Team Saxo Bank
+ 11
I'm pretty pleased with my performance there considering it wasn't quite the length for me and so I will go on to Stage 2 with some confidence; and we will be looking to push Kreuziger upwards in the standings a bit
See you there
So we're back on the road for the second stage of the GP de Romandie and it's quite a hilly parcours in the latter two-thirds of the race - should be plenty of attacks!
After a rather tepid start to the race, the breakaway formed quite quickly and pulled out a lead of around 5 minutes on the peloton. The members of the break were: Belarussian champion Kushchynski; Oroz, Dumoulin, Kaisen and Marzano
Olivier Kaisen wins the first mountain sprint to get the KoM jersey competition up and running
Meanwhile back in the peloton I was feeling pretty good today and I was looking forward to the later hills. My free role in the race means I could try an attack later if I wanted to!
Suddenly, there was an attack! Branislau Samoilau of Movistar initiates it and is followed by Jakob Fuglsang and Hubert Dupont
I decided to take advantage of my feel-good factor and followed them out of the peloton. The original break was just over two minutes away so could provide some rest and recuperation if we reached it soon
I caught up with that group and behind us another half-dozen riders attacked. No-one wanted to take up the pace at the front of the peloton, surprising, especially for Rabobank who had been pushing the pace all day for their yellow jersey holder Jos van Emden.
With 35kms to go we caught up with the main break and were followed into that group by Australian champion Simon Clarke, Dries Devenyns and Christophe Le Mevel, with Emanuele Sella and Fabio Falline just behind. The advantage had increased slightly to 2 and a half minutes
The battle for the next mountain sprint was on and I came in second, just behind Fuglsang with Le Mevel accompanying us to third
Once we had passed the mountain sprint (you can see it in the background here) the leading group of 14 split with the trio of myself, Fuglsang and Le Mevel pulling out a bit of an advantage - and our lead over the pack was now nearly 4 minutes!
The peloton started to wake up and riders like Iglinskiy and Wiggins were trying to attack but they weren't getting away. Meanwhile, I somehow managed to win the intermediate sprint!
The peloton had got their act together and had closed the gap down very quickly to under two minutes
Soon we were caught by the rest of our leading group and the gap had now shrunk to 50 seconds with 12kms to go. It was surely over for us now.
Chaos erupted as many people attacked out of the peloton to join the lead group which was then absorbed. I decided to give it one last shot with 7km to go, just to see what would happen!
With 3.5kms to go I was joined by Rui Costa, Devenyns, Wout Poels and Iglinskiy; but our advantage was rather slim over the pack and they would overhaul us in the sprint
Meanwhile Kreuziger, along with Fuglsang, was making a move at the front of the peloton who were just 18 seconds behind me as we started the sprint at the front
And here you can see me, sprinting desparately but falling back into the pack
Under the Flamme Rouge and it was Wiggins, Txurruka, Poels, de Gendt and Vinokourov leading but also there was van Garderen, Iglinskiy, Devenyns, Costa and Kreuziger closing in with Roman going like the proverbial train!
500m to go and Kreuziger has shot through the rest of the field along with Poels and they look certain to take first and second... the question was, which one would take which spot?
Wout Poels wins the stage with Kreuziger not far behind! A great result from Kreuziger, he is doing fantastically well at the moment! Vinokourov won the sprint for third, centimetres ahead of Wiggins.
I crossed the line completely out of energy but proud of my efforts today and I finished 26th - not bad at all!
That was a very interesting stage indeed and it was quite action-packed for myself!
1
Wout Poels
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
4h49'10
2
Roman Kreuziger
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
3
Alexandre Vinokourov
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
4
Bradley Wiggins
Sky Pro Cycling
s.t.
5
Amets Txurruka
Euskaltel Euskadi
s.t.
6
Thomas De Gendt
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
7
Karsten Kroon
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
8
Anthony Geslin
FDJ-BigMat
s.t.
9
Dries Devenyns
Omega Pharma - Quick Step
s.t.
10
Michele Scarponi
Lampre-ISD
s.t.
...
26
Matthias Fischer
Team Saxo Bank
s.t.
Special mention to Karsten Kroon who had a great sprint to finish 7th, a great result for him after his daring attacks during the Ardennes classics didn't really pay off in terms of results.
And also, a little surprise for us - take a look at the top 5 of the general classification:
1
Roman Kreuziger
Team Saxo Bank
4h53'52
2
Bradley Wiggins
Sky Pro Cycling
+ 6
3
Tejay Van Garderen
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
4
Janez Brajkovic
Astana Pro Team
+ 7
5
Levi Leipheimer
Omega Pharma - Quick Step
s.t.
Kreuziger is leading and will wear the yellow jersey tomorrow! I'm also in third place in the mountains classification and, given my free role in the team, I might try and pursue the KoM jersey later on in the race
Chris Anker Sorensen, who elected to race Trentino instead of 
Chris Froome, 
