Nice 3rd, as this race is probably the toughest Ardennes classic to win in Pcm2010 (start from the front and someone comes as a rocket from behind or start from the back and you are not able to finish at the front)
L-B-L 1980 will be remembered forever because of the wheather conditions and Bernard Hinault fate. He won the race but he also lost his feeling in two fingers of his right hand. Swedish Sven-Ã…ke Nilsson (Miko - Mercier - Vivagel) was one of 21 riders who finished this epic race. He tells us about it in his own words.
"0° C rain/snow and hard winds isn't the hardest conditions I've biked in. In Sweden we sometimes trains in lower tempetures but you never ride so fast (downhill) or so long (260kms). Another fact that made this race so hard was our clothes. In 1980 we didn't had arm & leg warmers and no neopren gloves or shoe covers. All clothes was in wool and we had to take them off when they become wet.
I remember when we reached Bastogne (halfway through the race) and 50% of the riders had abandoned. It was cold but I kept on going. I actually made it to the finish but I am not in the results. I was confused with another rider." (Don't remember exactly but I think it was Frits Pirard)
Note: This is what Sven-Ã…ke Nilsson told me in his own words during a training ride. He is mostly known for his 3rd in Vuelta a Espana (1982) and 7th in Tour de France (1980). He also worn the KoM jersey in Tour de France.
Omega Pharma - Lotto
Squad: 1. P.Gilbert
2. J.Bakelandts
3. A.Deldaele
4. D.Devenyns
5. S.Kruijswijk
6. J.Van Summeren
7. J.Vanendert
8. J.Veikkanen Marc's Comment:"You've heard it before: Philippe is our leader and the rest of the team will work for him."
Philippe Info: Marc's Comment:" When I look in the Squad it says 95pts, when I look at his Profile it says 97pts. However, he is in shape and he can win this!"
Favourites
Alejandro Valverde (HTC) Ryder Hesjedal (Rapha) Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma)
Roman Kreuziger (Leopard) Damiano Cunego (Liquigas) Alberto Contador (SaxoBank) Andy Schleck (Katusha) Alexandr Kolobnev (Leopard)
I am actually a little bit sad when I say: Welcome to the last of our 10 classic this year! It will be an thrilling race, hope you enjoy it!
As usual Omega Pharma tries to put one rider in the break. Armand Deldaele makes an attampt but he is caught. Jussi Veikkanen makes our second attempt and succeeds.
A group of riders are created in the front. They will not have any chance to win this but ,at least, they make their teams and the sponsors happy.
The bunch enter the first climbs and the final 70kms. Liquigas and Rapha is pacing and the bunch is streched out.
A few hills later Rapha pace by themselves. I am really impressed by this team and I am looking forward to see what they can do next year!
The break is in Côte de la Redoute. They still cooperate good and the gap is 2'32with 37 kms to go.
The bunch enter Côte de la Redoute. Is this the house of Philippe's fan-club? I really hope he can make his fans happy today!
It feels like the bunch is to big when we're on the top of Redoute so Devenyns makes an attack to increase the pace. Hopefully, HTC and Rapha will do everthing to catch him and make some riders struggling.
And it's exacly what happens. Several riders are in trouble but Philippe is still fresh.
With 27kms left, Dries Devenyns is alone in the front. The bunch is chasing him 40 seconds behind.
The pace is really hard in Côte de la Roche aux Faucons and Philippe is given an small gap when Monfort makes an small attack. When Philippe discovers that he has an small gap he can't stay cool anymore and attacks! It's 20 kms to the finish so this could be to early!
However, it's an good attack and he is given a gap of 1'00 minute. Alberto Contador (SaxoBank) and Alejandro Valverde (HTC) are between Philippe and the bunch.
with 10kms to go, Philippe is still in an solo lead. Valverde and Contador are 35 seconds behind and the bunch is 1'10 behind and Philippe looks really strong!
Valverde attacks again and leaves Contador behind. He is now 10 seconds behind Philippe and will probably catch him.
Some other favourites tries to attack in Côte de Saint-Nicolas. Thomas Dekker (RadioSchack) and Simon Gerrans are among thoose. However the bunch is still 50 seconds behind Philippe and Contador is caught.
Valverde and Philippe enter Ans together. Philippe is an better sprinter than Valverde but it's an uphill sprint so everthing can happend!
Philippe takes the wheel of Vaverde but he can't follow him when the sprint starts. Such a shame! It's good bye to the victory.
Nice try by Philippe, but Valverde was too strong.
Still, very good performances by Philippe. 1st - 3rd - 2nd, 3 podiums. It's a pity he couldn't get the triple, but add that to a win in MSR and several other wins and it's surely a very good season for him.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad (Gilbert: 2nd)
E3 Prize Flanders (Degenkolb 1st)
Gent - Wevelgem (Gilbert: 3rd) Tour of Flanders(Johan van Summeren: 2nd)
Scheldeprijs (Johan van Summeren: 1st) Paris - Roubaix(Johan van Summeren: 2nd)
Brabant Arrow (Gilbert: 1st) Amstel Gold Race(Gilbert: 1st) Walloon Arrow(Gilbert: 3rd) Liège - Bastogne - Liège(Gilbert: 2nd)
Marc's Comment:"On the podium in every classic is an big success! We only won four of the classics though and 3 of our win was in the semi-clasics, Branbaste, E3 Prijs, Scheldeprijs. However, Philippe's victory in Amstel was amazing and Jan BAkelandts was 2nd behind him! Furtheremore, Philippe also won Milano - San Remo!"
Intreview with Philippe Gilbert: You couldn't make the triple?
You have had an amazing spring! Will all your results be shadowed by your failure to make the triple? "No I am stil proud over my results. 1st in Appia, 1st in San remo, 1st in Brabantse, 1st in Amstel, 5th in Vlaanderen etc. I have been top-10 in almost every classic! I think I have showed that I am the best classic rider in the world, I can still make the triple next year!
Whats happening now? "I will go to the Giro and try to take the leader-jersey for a few days before I pull out. Then I will go to Agrigento and take a closer look at the WC course. After spending whole May in Italy I will go to some hot and sunny place in June for an holiday and I won't return before the Belgian Championshpis!"
This was close, a little bit to close actually. kwkke10 and shraggi has the same score (1) but kwkke10 is given the win since shraggi has won once before.
Congrats kwkke10 you can keep it until next bet (World Championships!)
Epiolog
What do think about this story? Has it any future with PCM 11 out there and when the classic season 2013 is over? I would have loved to move this story to PCM11, and a better AI, but I am not going to buy PCM11 right now so I will probably go for another seson and another try to make the triple! What do you say?
Current CQ Ranking - Individual Men
At the end of April, Philippe is still in the top of the CQ Ranking. The leap down to Hesjedal, who is 2nd, is 600pts so he will probably keep the lead for a while.
Current CQ Ranking - Teams Men
Omega Pharma is the strongest Team in the world, at least in the spring. Team Katusha is more than 1000 pts behind, well done guys!
CQ Trophies - February Ryder Hesjedal:"Ryder is the Rider of this month. He won two stages and overall at Vuelta al Pais Vasco and then he finished as 4th, 2nd and 5th in the Ardennes."
Florent Rouve:"He was 12th at Hel van het Mergelland and rides aggresive in every race."
UCI ProTour - Individual Men
Philippe leads the UCI Pro Tour after some impressive results in April. Top-5 in 4 classics says it all.
UCI ProTour - Teams Men
Omega Pharma dominates this season. Philippe is in top of almost every race but if he fails thay still got van Summeren, Bakelandts or Devenyns.
Steven Kruijswijk had signed a new contract with Omega Pharma which means he will probably be their new captain in stage races for next season. How will Jurgen van den Broeck and Philippe Gilbert react at this?
Next up for Kruijswijk is the Giro where he finished 8th last year.
...
Alejandro Valverde has renewed his contract with HTC
Ben Hermans has renewed his contract with Rapha
Nikolas Maes has renewed his contract with Rabobank
Björn Leukemans has renewed his contract with SaxoBank
Brilliant story keep it up! and i think you should carry on till next season classics
@kwkke10 i guess its fair as ive already won but you were still lucky
"That stage will start full gas, be ridden full gas and will finish full gas"
Omega Pharma - Lotto
1. S.Kruijswijk
2. J.Bakelandts
3. A.Blythe
4. K.De Haes
5. D.Devenyns
6. P.Gilbert
7. K.Goddaert
8. P.Pauly
9. J.Veikkanen Marc's Comment:"Philippe is here to take some stage wins and will abandon after 11 stages. Devenyns and BAkelandts are here to help our leader, Steven Kruijswijk who can make it all the way to the podium. Goddaert is looking for some stage wins and Blythe and de Haes are here to help him."
Philippe Info: Marc's Comment:Philippe's shape is decreasing after an amazing spring! He is looking for, at least, one stage win and some stages in pink. The prologue in Taranto suits him well and if he does something good there he should be able to take the lead in the first hilly stages before he abandon. It wil be an hard mission though.
Philippe's Comment:"Aprt from Liquigas, this is probably the weakest startlist I've ever see. It will be hard to beat Cunego, Ricco and Basso in the hills though, they're prbably in better shape than me.
Philippe is 2nd at the intermediate-time but he can't match Adriano Malori (Lampre) in the final kilometers. Malori wins the stage and Taylor Phinney is 2nd on the same tima as Philippe...
Our hope for the GC, Steven Kruijswijk, is 19 seconds down on Malori, loosing 4 second on another GC contender, Ivan Basso (Liquigas)
Even though he can't match Paride Grillo (HTC) and Enrico Rossi (RadioShack) Philippe makes an great sprint an finishes as 3rd again! He moves up to 2nd in the GC and takes the lead in the Points rankings.
Philippe and Cunego attacks in the big climb but they are caught with 4kms to go. Devenyns win the sprint (yeah I won an uphill sprint on PCM10!) and Philippe finishes 8th. THat's enough to take the leader jersey with 3 seconds! Yes, Philippe will ride in pink tomorrow!
The pink jersey is moving! Philippe tries an attack at the final lap on an hilly couse in Chieti. Only Damiano Cunego (Liquigas) can follow him but they're brought back by the pack.
No one are even close to Rossi and Grillo who dominates the sprints this year in the Giro. Grillo wins today and Adam Blyhe is the best placed Omega Pharma rider at 6th. Philippe is right behind him at 9th.
Today, Philippe just waited for the sprint. With 3kms to go Devenyns and Bakelandts made the lead-out and 3kms later Philippe raised his hands in the air. An amazing win but the pink jersey makes it even more amazing!
We knew that Philippe were going to lose the pink today but it would have been an shame to abandon in pink so rides through the stage. He is dropping at the final climb.
Steven Kruijswijk shows that he will be fighting about the pink jersey when Philippe finally looses it after 5 days. Kruijswijk is 3rd at this stage, won by Domenico Pozzovivo (Farnese - Vini)
Probably the last shot of Philippe in pink this year since he lost 13 minutes.
After one rest day and one time-trail stage Philippe abandons Giro d'Italia after 11stages. He wore the pink leader jersey in 5 stages, won stage 8 and was on the podium twice. He will now take an well-deserved holliday!
When Philippe is on the way on the airport he hears on the radio that his team-mate Goddaert was 3rd on stage 11.
Nice sum up of the Giro so far. Without writing too much you did a great report of these 11 stages, nice. And great results for Philippe! Indeed, a deserved holiday for him now.
lluuiiggii wrote:
Nice sum up of the Giro so far. Without writing too much you did a great report of these 11 stages, nice. And great results for Philippe! Indeed, a deserved holiday for him now.
Kruijswijk had trouble to follow the Italian trio and lost 30 seconds on Pozzovivo and 1'00 minte on the stage winner Ricco. With two stages left, n 45 km long time-trail and one flat stage in Milano Pozzovivo lead the GC 29 seconds ahead of Kruijswijk and 1'28 before Basso.
Kruijswijk is an better time-trailer tha Pozzovivio so there were no dobt, he were going to pass him in the GC. The only threat was Basso 1 minute behind Kruijswijk.
The final time-trail in Turin was dominated by Adriano Malori (Lampre) but all eyes were on the fight about the pink.
Pozzovivo finished as 63th and he was 5'21 minutes slower than Malori. Poor Pozzovivo, he lost the pink jersey on stage 20...
Steven Kruijswijk rode an decent time-trail. After 3 weeks of racing you can't compare yourself against the time-trail specialists. Kruijswijk finished as 16th, 3'05 behind Malori.
Ivan Basso is flying on the course. He passes the first intermediate time as 5th and it looks like he will win the Giro once again, but with 10kms to go he suddenly fades and it's good night for him! He is 12th 2'39 behind Malori which means: Steven Kruijswijk (Omega Pharma) wins Giro d'Italia 2013 with 33 seconds!
All Kruijswijk had to do now was to stay upright during the final stage, and so he did!
After an month of his well deserve holliday, Philippe returned to Belgium for the Nationals. His shape is really bad (55 pts) so it will be impossible to win this. However, he will give it an try!
Philippe joined today's break since it's the only chance for him to take the beautiful Belgian NC shirt. Two riders joined himand while the rest of the team slowed down the bunch the gap growned to 10'00 minutes.
However, Quickstep stated to pace with 110 kms to go and they could easily catch the break. With 20kms to go Philippe's adventure was over and it was now up to the favourites to fight about the win.
Maxime Monfort attacked with 10kms to go and three riders followed him. The other three riders were Stijn Devolder (Katusha) Kevin Ista (Cofidis) and Johan van Summeren (Omega Pharma). Johan van Summeren felt he had to attack to win this an made an attempt with 5kms to go but the other riders followed him without any problems.
Maxime Monfort won the Belgian CHampionships while an disapointed van Summeren missed the podium. Philippe mangaged to stay in the bunch and finished as 49th, 1'44 behind todays winner Monfort who will be easy to recognize in the Belgian NC jersey!
Marc's Comment:"Pretty weak startlist so this should be an easy one. However, the race is hard to control and our squad isn't in the best shape so don't be to sure over our glory."
Philippe Info: Philippe's Comment:"Iam back after two monhs of holiday. It was very nice but it will be even nicer to back on the bike. My shape isn't the best but so either the startlists so I could may win a stage?"
Ghislan Medved was in the breakaway today and they were given an huge gap so when it was 20kms to go everybody knew that one of the riders in the break were going to win and take the lead. Ghislan knew that he didn't had any chance in the sprint so attacked on an small cobble-selection.
Suprisingly, the other riders in the break didn't cooperated so Ghislan Medved won the stage and took the overall lead!
In the bunch, Philippe did as Medved and attacke on the cobbles. He was given an small gap and stayed away from the bunch. However, there was no time gap but he showed that he will be up there this autumn as well!
Results Stage 1:
1 Ghislain Medved Omega Pharma - Lotto 4h29'37
2 Tino Thömel Team NSP s.t.
3 Kevin Peeters Landbouwkrediet s.t.
...
This stage was up and down all day so Ghislan Medved had problems to follow the bunch. In the end he had to drop and he lost the yellow leader jersey. Such an shame for the young Belgian.
Another guy who doesn't seems to have any problem due low shape is Philippe. He attacked at the last KoM sprint and with 10kms to fo he had an gap of 50 seconds!
Philippe takes his second stage win. An amazing Tour de Wallonie for Philippe. Sadly, his gap 32 seconds wasn't enough to take the overall lead. Instead he is 4th overall, 4 seconds behind the new leader Tino Thömel (Team NSP)
Results Stage 4: 1 Philippe Gilbert Omega Pharma - Lotto 4h26'47
2 Andreas Schillinger Team NetApp + 32
3 Michael Matthews Rabobank Cycling Team s.t.
The last stage ended up in an bunch sprint. We had no leader for the spint so we ended up as 5th, 6th, 7th (Philippe) and 10th. Kurt Hovelynck (Topsport) won he stage and Thömel kept the overall lead.
Results Stage 5 - Final Stage
1 Kurt Hovelynck Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator 4h09'10
2 Steven Caethoven Veranda's Willems - Accent s.t.
3 Dominique Rollin FDJ s.t.
... 7 Philippe Gilbert Omega Pharma - Lotto s.t.
Final GC:
1
Tino Thömel
Team NSP
22h05'06
2
Lucas Sebastián Haedo
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
+ 4
3
Kevin Peeters
Landbouwkrediet
s.t.
Spoiler
4 Philippe Gilbert Omega Pharma - Lotto + 7
5 Florian Monreal Team Eddy Merckx - Indeland + 8
6 Tom Slagter Rabobank Cycling Team s.t.
7 Johim Ariesen Cyclingteam Jo Piels + 12
8 Maxim Debusschere An Post - Sean Kelly s.t.
9 Joaquim Durant Jong Vlaanderen - Bauknecht s.t.
10 Michael Tronborg Team Differdange - Magic-Sportfood.de s.t.
11 Bob Schoonbroodt Cyclingteam De Rijke s.t.
12 Michael Matthews Rabobank Cycling Team + 1'24
13 Alex Rasmussen Katusha Team s.t.
14 Kurt Hovelynck Topsport Vlaanderen - Mercator s.t.
15 Artem Ovechkin Katusha Team + 1'30
16 Andreas Schillinger Team NetApp + 1'32
17 Coen Vermeltfoort Skil - Shimano s.t.
18 Steven Caethoven Veranda's Willems - Accent s.t.
19 Ben Jacques-Maynes Trek Livestrong U23 s.t.
20 Dominique Rollin FDJ + 1'36
Marc's Comment:"4th Overall and 2 stage wins is an good result for Philippe in his current shape!" However I got a question for you readers: Philippe have signed a new contract for next season. Unfourtanley it's not with Omega Pharma. We offered him 3 contracts but he refused them all so eventually the AI placed him in another team. Should I tell you which team later today or should I wait to the end of the season?
I don't like Valverde in PCM, because when he's in top shape, he always wins.
