sutty68 - Thanks In the end, it was fighting for the podium, but he made it! The win is only a few years away, I hope!

Daggen - Glad you like this result He did his best and came close!

Ollfardh - Winning the Tour is probably his main career focus right now! The rest of the season is mainly for Stijn. Willy's nearly dead after this Tour

Alberto Contador (winner): I rate this Tour victory among my most beautiful. It was an intense battle with a mixture of styles. We saw an iron strong Froome who was constant and only cracked in the final stages, we had Van Den Broeck who came dangerously close in the end, a Wouters who held the jersey beyond expectations... In the end, though, I performed every day again and it got me this jersey.

Peter Sagan (Green Jersey): Of course I'm happy with the jersey. I fought hard for every point, but with Mark (Cavendish) having to leave the Tour halfway, I'd loved to see it differently. I'd like to come back and really earn it. Winning on the Champs was an amazing feeling.

Jurgen Van Den Broeck (2nd): The profile of this Tour was quite hard. That second week especially was the hardest on me. But I managed to minimize my losses in my weaker moments. When you can do that, and gain some time on your better moments, you ride a podium. Two years ago, I also finished 2nd. I hope I can take it to the next step, but Contador was just too strong here.

Jérôme Coppel (8th): I'm the first French in the Classification, surprisingly. I knew my form was good when I came here, but I never expected to finish in front of Rolland and Pinot. I hope I can come back next year and do even better!

Andy Schleck (5th): I expected to do better this year. There were quite some TT kilometers, but still. I could've done better, but there were some riders who ruined my plans with some silly attacks. I'm not saying any names, but a certain young Belgian really put my race down by his weird racing style. He's got a lot to learn.

Willy Wouters (3th): It's amazing. I've been on the podium in Paris before, wearing the Young Jersey, but this year it was different. Standing next to Contador and Van Den Broeck, it's... There are no words for it. At the second rest day, I really started believing in my chances, but Contador and all his experience where too much for me. I don't feel defeated, though. I think I earned the podium, and I belong here. If you look at my entire campaign, I can only say I've performed better than I every hoped I would. No less than three stage wins, a jersey, a podium, it's too much! On top of it all, the jury rewarded me with the Combativeness Reward, for my attacking style throughout the entire Tour. It's just the icing on the cake. The reaction from the French crowd might have even surprised me most of everything.

After this Tour, I can't even think about my bike anymore. I'll go on a long break. There isn't much planned for me anymore this season. I think I've signed up for the Canadian Classics, though. It's strange to "end" your season before August, but I've had a very tiring season so far, and the team management understands this. Tirreno - Adriatico, Critérium du Dauphiné, National TT Champion and now the podium in the Tour. Whoever bet me this season, will walk away a rich man!

After the Tour, it's usual for teams to start negotiating contracts. And, not unusually, big names get fought for. Everyone would like to have Alberto Contador's signature on their contract. Two young Belgians, both considered big talents, are no exception to this rule. Stijn Van Gent, winner in Harelbeke and Wevelgem, and Willy Wouters, third in the Tour, have an unseen demand, it seems. Being old friends, they challenge any team interested to offer both of them a contract. Eager to keep racing together, the two talents do attract a lot of attention.

It's rare these days, but real friendship does still exist. Stijn Van Gent and Willy Wouters are keen to move to the same cycling team, even against reduced pay. Many team managers expressed criticism, and the two don't get spared in the media either. Despite the criticism, there is a bidding wars going on at the moment. Vacansoleil - DCM expressed their deepest sympathy for, what they call, the Two Musketeers. But the Dutch now see a big opponent lurking around the corner. Team Garmin - Barracuda have also shown interest in attracting the two talents: "With Greg Van Avermaet leaving, we have an open spot for a leader for all cobbled races. And man like Wouters would be able to count on a lot of support in the Grand Tours."

After the year of revelation for the both of them, Stijn Van Gent and Willy Wouters, aged 24 and 23 respectively, are considered the future of professional cycling. "They will be the ones to beat for the next 10 years", predicted Tom Boonen right after the Tour of 2014. Thévenet, winner of the Tour in 1975 and 1977 has his own way to describe the duo: "combined, they are Eddy Merckx".

Daggen wrote:
Ian. Could you PM me the stats last year the year before and their debut year? If you don't have them it's okay but it would be nice to keep some archives of them

Thanks in advance

rogvi97 wrote:


Conclude me in that too!

TimoCycling wrote:
Just caught up with the story, really, really good story mate! Keep continueing this story! Almost the 100 page mark.

Miguel98 wrote:


Your back??? Where are you've been?

sutty68 - Both within the top 10 of the UCI Ranking at the moment, so I think any team would like to have them on board By the way, TT1 is third in ranking for promotion to world tour!

rogvi97 - As long as he isn't getting dropped out because of doping, it all suits me fine

Bikex - I wanted to finish it off, what can I say? Thanks!

dienblad - Well, I am getting better at PCM playing on hard difficulty, but I'm not sure about going to extreme. His fitness was 99-98 for the first two weeks, then he was really strong. But in the third week, his fitness was about 94, and then he really got killed by climbers like Contador, VDB...

Daggen, rogvi97, Neillster - I have already PM'ed this to Daggen, but I'll say it here: I haven't been keeping track of their progress, but I do have the original database (starting stats) and their current ones. If you want to, I'll PM those to you at the end of the season! (if you could remind me about that at the end of the season, that'd be great!)

TimoCycling - Thanks a lot, mate! 100 pages will be a little party here

FreitasPCM - Willy won't stare himself blind on the Tour, he wants to go for all Tours one day Hopefully he can get a win in every one of them!

wogsrus - Thanks! He squeezed out ever bit of energy he had!

Jakstar22 - Thanks a lot, mate Garmin is definitely being considered!

Jesleyh - Thanks, mate! That award wasn't too hard, since I was the jury But I felt he earned it, with his solo(-attempts).