Well Done SN, but somehow Karl_Rab managed to predict this quite a while back - nearly ruined my whole piece
“I’m sorry for that, but I did warn you.” He said as I came round
“I suppose you did,” I spluttered as I spat out blood.” And then it suddenly dawned on me. Only one person I knew would apologise for beating me up. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it, Dave.”
“I believe I can finally end this charade,” he replied. He took off his mask, and standing before me was my ex-assistant David Jones.
I thought someone had mentioned DJ a while back. Now Im curious what will happen to Smile. Maybe hell be brutally murdered so Crommy can start a fresh with PPDB 07.
He closed his eyes, then began. “It all started when I was 29” he said, “I’d developed late as a cyclist, and this team was the only who would give me a chance. Even when I ruptured ligaments, they still backed me, paying for my surgery. That is why I owe them everything.” I sat their mutely.
“In April last year, they contacted me with a “special” assignment whilst at Credit Agricole, and I’d signed before I’d read the agreement.”
“So that’s why Credit Agricole did rubbish last season.” I interjected
“Of course. I can’t believe you even doubted me.” He stated. He continued, “I maintained the fiction I was in charge at Credit Agricole so I could begin my new work – transforming Team GLS into a team of ProTour ranks. I moved behind the scenes, becoming your so called masked stranger to protect my anonymity. I prepared to take over leadership after a year of a caretaker, when I suddenly discovered myself with it.”
“With what?” I asked
“You”
I spluttered. “Why me?”
“Allan, you were one of the greatest managers I have ever met, look at your achievements so far. A giro win, ProTour promotion within a season. The opportunity was just too perfect, so I contacted you, desolate in London. And from there, I have been working and guiding you into this role, behind the scenes, doing more than you could imagine. Do you even realise what I had to do to get the board to except you – I tried everything, and it was only the threat of losing me that has saved you. Now is the time for me to finally complete this, to finish what set out to do.”
“To do what?” I whispered, enthralled by his speech.
“Why, to become your assistant of course, to move out of the shadows and join the light. Allan, the time has come for everything to change, and this time, your change will be for the good.”
“Right,” I sighed. “Now can I get some medical attention?”
Classic Haribo
The boys were a bit surprised when I joined them this morning black and blue. Dave had been very careful not to break any bones, but one of my eyes is nice and black, and the other has swelled shut. I look like a blind mole, but I can still lead I told the team, although they didn’t look entirely settled when I went vague over how it had happened.
This is one of the most annoying races I’ve ever seen.
The original break of 7 was split into two as we went over the hills, and the front group of 3 contained the Kazakh Fofonov. I sent Masciarelli off on an attack up the longest hill, and Belloti followed, but Ag2r, current leaders of the Continental Tour had the pack under control, and caught Andrea quickly.
Then Rabobank set a really high pace, with Mayo doing a lot of the work . This led to a front group of 15, including Evgeny Popov and Andrea for us, who’d recovered from his earlier break.
Then, on the flat, something really strange happened. My two riders just suddenly went out the back! It was really peculiar, they weren’t hurting, they weren’t struggling, they didn’t change pace, they just suddenly went backwards. That spelt the end for our chances, and Giovanni Visconti went on to win in front of Hubert Schwab. Evgeny and Andrea came in twelfth and thirteenth, 4’13 back. Strange, and very frustrating.
GP Chiasso
Over to Italy, and another poor show by the team in some awful weather. With 8 circuits of the same hill, I was delighted to see David Millar lead the initial attack for Saunier Duval. He managed to get clear of the 9 riders who followed him, and the pack let him go when the others were caught. 6 more riders joined him on the third circuit. During the next few circuits, we sent Elias and Ricco to try and bridge the gap, but this failed as an impressive Quickstep team upped the pace.
Then, up the final circuit, Kim Kirchen responded to an Efimkin and Belloti attack, and we didn’t see them again. Evgeny Petrov joined them, and they rode away whilst we frantically tried to organise a chase.
Kim Kirchen took the win, with Efimkin second for Acqua & Sapone, with Belloti third. Evgeny Popov was our best rider in tenth.
I’m starting to get nervous about these poor results.
I know you all to well crommy.
I would like to see a new character emerge for your next story. To me Smile just reminds me of welll......... a smile. Maybe you could think up of a more original name
GP Lugano
Another awful showing as we faced up against Ballan and Kirchen again. Ballan attacked a lot today, but a 15 man break got out in front, and whilst it never built up a huge lead, it did enough. 5 riders remained in that front group, and managed to go all the way, with Cheula of Barloworld taking the stage win. Ricardo managed to get in group number two to come in ninth.
Not good enough for a rider of his calibre. The lack of wins is starting to get the team down
CYCLING24-2012 MONTHLY ROUNDUP
Posted online on at cycling24.co.uk, and broadcast on Cycling24 TV in 20 countries (including the new Falkland Island channel), direct from Allan Smile, director sportif extrodinaire
The great news in February has been the return of Dave Jones as my assistant. This veteran was my assistant I 2006, and has decided to return after a season at Credit Agricole. I look forward to his great input and am lucky to have him aboard once again. This months racing has been frustrating: our riders haven’t been in the best form, and lots of decisions have gone against us. But we’ll hopefully get back to our winning ways next month Results:
--Tour de Langkawi: Aritz Moyano 3rd plus climber’s jersey and stage 3 win, Evgeny Popov 5th (1 second off 4th!!!)
--Trofeu RDP Algarve: Alfredo Balloni 9th
--GP Internacional Costa Azul: Alfredo Balloni 4th plus two podium places, Ricardo Ricco 2nd stage 1 plus 7th (GC) and climber’s jersey
--Classic Haribo: Evgeny Popov 12th, Andrea Masciarelli 13th
--GP Chiasso: Evgeny Popov 10th
--GP Lugano: Ricardo Ricco 9th Rankings:
Continental Individual Rankings:
Unpublished until March Continental Team Rankings:
March! Doctor’s Report: An injury free month again Best Rider of the Month: Ricardo Ricco
Whilst his results haven’t been the best this month, Ricardo has shown real fire and determination as he has constantly attacked, and only an unlucky finish denied him a great win in stage 1 of the Internacional Costa Azul. He has worked hard, and will hopefully get the results he wants next month. His climber’s jersey in Portugal is all the example needed to show his attacking spirit Best Under 25 Rider of the Month: Aritz Moyano
It’s hard to remember Aritz is a neo-pro. At 22 and in his first race,he showed off some true class in the mountains of Malaysia with an awesome stage win, and walked home with a top 3 finish and a climber’s jersey as well. What a prodigy! Next Month: We start off with some classics, and then only four letters are needed – P-P-D-B
Le Samyn
In this totally flat race, 12 riders got out front and stayed out front. Despite our best efforts, 11 of them finished ahead, and Magnanelli of Rabobank Continental won. Our best rider was Balloni in 14th. This is not good enough, I’ve got to start getting results
Driedaagse van West Vlaanderen
Now this is a tour which we can win. With two flat stages plus a time trial, Mazur’s and Kittel’s TT skills push them as favourites. All we need to do is make sure no break makes it, and they should do the rest.
Stage 1
We did the job well. In absolutely awful conditions, I made sure the riders stayed warm and just took it easy, which we did. Both Kittel and Mazur finished in the bunch sprint, whilst Richeze took top spot, and Stephane Poulhies, our team sprinter for this race, took sixth, behind Alessandro Ballan. A great sprint from him, he’s up with riders far better than him.
Stage 2
I sent Kilic and Schulze off today in an attack, and they were away fo awhile, then what seemed like half of China attacked, and that splet the end of that then. Oh well…
Eventually, 5 riders got clear, but today ended in a bunch sprint again, just as we wanted, and we kept Kittel and Mazur in the pack, so they should do well in the TT tomorrow. Wouter Weylandt won today’s race for Quickstep, and Stephane Poulhies produced another excellent result in seventh: don’t discount him tomorrow! All set for tomorrow’s TT, although Piotr and Marcel haven’t been looking great, I really should pay more attention to their form.
Stage 3
It didn’t go as expected today, the condition of the riders wasn’t great, and I neglected that. Marcel Kittel set off, and smashed the lead, setting a time of 17’04 as David Jones encouraged him in one of our cars. Piotr was soon after in the Polish champions jersey, and I told him to really push it as I followed him in the second car. He did, and even overtook some poor Unibet rider, and set a new best of 16’52. Good, but not good enough. Rik Verbrugghe was first to push Piotr off top spot, then Viktor Renang surprised everyone to take second spot. Petter Renang also pushed Marcle down into fourth. All I could do was watch as yet another chance evaded me, and despite Dave’s best endeavours, I’m still quite down. I suppose a podium spot is better than nothing.
Today was finally the day where all the preparations had finished, “the time for everything to change.” David was announced as my new assistant, and the press was a bit startled by the return of our superb partnership. Dave really had managed to hide himself well.
Karl_rab wrote: I know you all to well crommy.
I would like to see a new character emerge for your next story. To me Smile just reminds me of welll......... a smile. Maybe you could think up of a more original name
Well, when I tried to think up a name, I considered the e-mail address, and with Allan Smile, hey presto, you get a smile
From:
To:
Subject: Ster Van Zwolle
It feels good to be back in the seat boss, it’s been a while. Not so tough course today, totally flat, so Alfredo was our obvious team leader today. Big early break today, so I had a quick whip around the radios, and Martin Høberg Nielsen was the obvious choice to send up there, he was feeling strong. Break reached 8 guys, and they just kept on pulling away. Martin was second strongest sprinter in there as I realised this break was gonna make it, so I told him to hold onto Ponamerev’s wheel, the break favourite, which he did. Sorry to say this boss, but he couldn’t come round him, so had to settle for second. It ain’t easy with such a young team, he is shattered with a large S, neatly framed on a wall by a bunch of more little s’s. I’ll be in the Trofej Porec soon, whilst you have a go in the GP Knorr, so I’ll report to you tomorrow. The times they are A-changing. Bob Dylan said that, and I can feel it, it gonna happen tomorrow.
GP Knorr Giro del Lago Maggiore
A long race name, a long, hard slog today. We were up against my old protégé Alex Holder today, who races for Team Endeka, and I had a nice chat with him before hand, he was a good friend. The team is led by Belda, and it’s his first outing, a first success maybe?
I sent Olesen off in the initial break, the young Dane could spring an upset in the mountains today. He didn’t last long though, and I found it rather nice that he was seen as a threat. The next TV break contained 7 riders who were more than capable of panicking at the sniff of a gradient, so I largely ignored them. However, even a 15 minute lead can’t be ignored, so us and Endeka brought it back under control. As we went over the first climb, the boys noticed there names on the tarmac, which gave them a real confidence boost. Not that I wrote themn there or anything in a puerile attempt at boosting morale. No way, not me, never.
Up the final climb, and the break was still up the road, with 7 km left. Not to worry though, I decided to be aggressive and strike hard and fast: Moyano, Belda, Popov and Ricco all attacked, and after the other team managers recovered from shock, they sent their leaders after mine: not that it did any good I hasten to add, my ploy had been to surprising, except for Alex Holder, who didn’t bother waiting for his manager to get him going. He led my quadruplet into the finishing 2 km, and with 300 metres to go to go, we were still behind him as he blew up. So, easily passing him, all four of my riders fought it out, and we had a 1-2-3-4. Now that’s more like ti, back to the glory days for Allan Smile. The media reckon it’s a one off, but not for me, I’m back, and with Dave Jones by my side, impossible is nothing.
Glory Returns
1. David Belda CYCLING24-2012 4h26’27
2. Riccardo Ricco CYCLING24-2012 s.t.
3. Evgeny Popov CYCLING24-2012 s.t.
4. Aritz Moyano CYCLING24-2012 s.t.
5. Alex Holder TEAM ENDEKA s.t.
From:
To:
Subject: Trofej Porec – Back in business
>Just got news boss of your result! Well, it’s the same here! Horrible weather though.
>Little Franz Schulze broke into the big time today with his first pro win, and boy
>was it a good ‘un.133 km of rolling hills, nicely flat and ripe for our sprint team.
>Great scenery as well, spotted some sunflowers so I took a nice pic. I once grew
>some sunflowers. Unfortunately though, my bro tested out his new air rifle on them
>It was like the horticultural version of the Somme. Not pleasant. But I digress. We
>were strong, we could control this race, but no need to. Franz just zoomed after
>11 other guys, and that was it for the day. A couple of riders got dropped, and lots
>of attempted breaks near the end, but Franz managed to hold it all together.
>Tobena of Elk Haus nearly did pull off a break, but with 1700m left, Franz managed
>to catch him, recover behind his wheel, then move on for a great win. We’re about
>to go celebrate, so I won’t be very coherent for the next couple of hours.
Great stuff Dave, back to our winning ways. By the way, you’ve just sent me a text saying, “syeuhgf iejt kjnvm. Yg 0000000000 jbsjfb”. Just how much have you drunk?
And so the first chapter of my storytelling closes. Well, I've found it fun, and we’ve brought up a great person in Allan, and I hope you can forgive me when I close this Cycling24 story – the allure of PPDB was just too great, and waiting the rest of the season just didn't feel right. With success on the way, Allan Smile has now finished, and I will begin my new story with PPDB soon.
