Greetings, still from France
The race just keeps getting harder and harder, and I’ve started to wonder how much it will take to be professional. I’m the only rider in my team, who can do well in the race. Today Aleksandr Rotyakov told me something. He told me that he over the past had been trying out different sports, and after some time he became bored of it. Now he was wondering if this would happen with cycling. I kept thinking about it during the stage. Here’s the profile,
This stage looked harder than stage 1. The climbs were a little bit steeper and a little longer. Not really a suited stage for my team and I. We’re not climbers. Already at the beginning of the stage, we were riding fast Orica - Greenedge accelerated and made sure the right riders escaped in a breakaway. Aleksandr Ryabkin was so tired from the climbs yesterday, that he couldn’t get away. He simply didn’t have the strength to do that. Instead it contained, Romain Bardet – AG2R La Mondiale, Antonino Parrinello – Androni Giocattoli, Yoann Paillot – La Pomme Marseille and Gaël Malacarne – Bretagne – Schuller. Antonino Parrinello was wearing the mountain jersey, which should have been Aleksandr’s.
When we had ridden about half the stage I tried an attack. At this point the gap was 1.50 between the breakaway and the pack. I thought this was a great moment to attack and join the breakaway. The tempo was slowed and the riders started talking. I rode to the front and accelerated away. But suddenly Sojasun saw me as a thread. No idea why they did that. How in the world could they see me as a thread? Ok, I know I’m a very good rider, and I easily could have ridden home alone, but couldn’t they just give me a small gap?
In the end it came down to a sprint again. I don’t love sprints and I don’t hate them. It’s a part of cycling that everybody sprints for the win. I just think it’s much cooler to ride home alone. It makes me feel like a boss.
But the pace just increased and increased and it was going so fast. Half my team was dropped with more than half of the peloton. So I was with Sergey Nikolaev in the front group which contained about 65 riders. The finish was uphill and it looked like Baden Cooke – Orica – Greenedge would win another stage, but right on the line David Millar – Garmin – Sharp snatched the victory. I got my second 57th place of the race, and I don’t hope this will be where I usually end. I would like to end in a better finish than that.
Tres bién
I’m pretty sure that’s what you say when something is good in France. But my day was completely the opposite. I couldn’t do what I wanted and I couldn’t even relax. This reminds me of the beginning of my cycling, when I used to ride my steel bike. It was amazing downhill but really bad uphill. That is pretty much how the day was. Riding really badly on flat roads. One thing made it even worse. I will cover that later in the review, which as always, begins with a stage profile,
Nothing to special to talk about in this stage. Some riders escape and gets caught by the sprinters towards the end. “Same procedure as every year James”, quote by Miss Sophie in the film Dinner for One. It’s a very popular New Year movie in Denmark. I used to watch it every 31th of December. Well back to business. What happened in the stage?
This day’s breakaway contained five riders. Maxime Bouet – AG2R La Mondiale, Yukiya Arashiro – Team Europcar, Romain Sicard – Euskaltel – Euskadi, Kenneth Vanbilsen – Topsport Vlaanderen and Duber Quintero - Colombia. I wanted to join but wasn’t allowed to attack by Dmitriy Konyshev. He told me I would get a better chance tomorrow and therefore shouldn’t waste energy today. Oh and by the way, we all had to waste energy today, because of the big thing I still won’t cover until later.
Instead I could sit in the pack and do nothing. Hurray for not riding in the break. I had plenty of time learn something about the professional cycling career. One of the riders I respect most is probably Mikhail Ignatiev He is the same type of rider as me, and he has almost won a stage in the Tour de France. Great rider. I managed to get into a small dialog with him, which is translated so no worries,
“Hello, Mikhail.”
-”Hello.”
-”Can I ask you a fairly simple question?”
-”Yes.”
-”When you breakaway, do you then believe you’re going to win?”
- “I usually do so, but sometimes I have bad legs, and I lose a bit of the willpower.”
Then Valerio Piva called in the radio, which made our dialog end. For now it was time to work. All my teammates rode up to the front of the pack like I did. We had to make sure not to lose anything.
But then the big thing happened. A crash right behind me! I could hear when the bike hit the ground! Strangely enough I’ve never crashed in a race, only during training. I didn’t look back. All I was thinking about was keeping my wheel. Sergey and Konstantin, our best flat riders crashed as well. Sergey shouted something in Russian, so it must be him, because he always shouts when he crashes, and not everybody speaks Russian.
Pretty much every rider in top 10 crashed. Baden Cooke the leader, and David Millar number three crashed! IAM Cycling turned up the pace and I dropped. I couldn’t believe it! My legs didn’t want to help me, and then suddenly I was in the same group as Romain Feillu and David Millar . Nobody wanted to relay and we rode in 1.47 behind the front group. Matteo Pelucchi won today and he is now number two.
Privet
That’s the informal Russian hello. I’m allowed to say it now as we are starting to know each other well. You are following my cycling journey and I appreciate it. Therefore I’ve done this review with a good feeling inside, although the stage wasn’t anything special. Here it is,
The stage is pretty much like any other flat stage. No real difficulties and nothing to be worried about. I’m just going to stay with the pack unless I get a good chance to breakaway. Dmitriy has said that I should wait until tomorrow, because that will be a good chance for me. Instead another rider from the team can breakaway. And that’s just what happened. Konstantin managed to get into the break with 4 other riders. The motorcycle took a picture of it, and we received that picture,
So the break contained five riders. Konstantin, Frédéric Amorison – Crelan – Euphony, Jan Ghyselinck – Cofidis, Solutions Crédits, Kevin Reza – Europcar and Xavier Florencio – Katusha. Konstantin was obviously talking a lot to Xavier , as he is riding for our pro team. I didn’t know what they were talking about, as I just sat in the pack, slowly riding on. I was feeling ok, and sure I could stay with the sprinters today.
Later on, Konstantin was dropped from the breakaway. He didn’t have good legs, and the others attacked a lot. Maybe it was because IAM Cycling was upping the pace in the pack. Pretty much the whole team were relaying, except Matteo Pelucchi and Martin Elmiger , who had a good chance of winning today.
Once I caught Martin Elmiger’s wheel, Matteo Pelucchi rode up and pushed me to the side, while he sounded very angry. I pushed back, and told him that he couldn’t always get the right wheel. He slowed and I didn’t see him anymore. At the front, Konstantin was now back in the pack.
With around 20 km to go, the gap between the breakaway and the pack was around 1.45. The breakaway could possibly hold on, and the teams with sprinters would be fooled. Had I been in the breakaway, I would have won the stage. This was a golden opportunity. Xavier attacked and got away. I was thinking something like; if the breakaway is going to win, and I’m not in it, then the winner has to be from my team.
This would be an amazing finish. Xavier was on his own in the final few meters, and I was literally in the pack. But suddenly some La Pomme Marseille rider slowed right in front of me, just as the sprinters started sprinting. That really pissed me off, and I didn’t know how in the world I should not face red!
A gap was formed in front of me, and that rider somehow made it as big as 59 seconds. What the heck was he doing? Was he trying to make many enemies or what? You can’t just stop inside the final few meters and hope everything is ok! No, you just can’t do that!
At the front, Xavier was caught on the line and he only received the 9th place. The angry Italian from earlier, Matteo Pelucchi won the stage and I finished as number 63. Stupid Frenchman, why would he do that?
Spasibo za khoroshiy den'
That means thanks for a good day. I always thank God when I’ve had a good day in cycling. Over the years I’ve done that many times, thinking about how many good races I’ve had. And now, today has just been considered as another good day. Maybe my cycling skills have come because of that; that I thank God after every good ride. And here is the good stage,
72.5 km. That’s not a lot. It’s almost the same distance I rode when I was 15 years old. With the short distance I didn’t have to do a lot today, unless I managed to get into a breakaway, which was my plan. The other days, Dmitriy didn’t want me to get into a break, so today was my day. I had to get away. So what do I do? I attack as the first rider to make sure I get away from the pack. I got company by Martin Maaskant – Garmin – Sharp, Jan Ghyselinck - Cofidis, Solutions Crédits, Pieter Jacobs – Topsport Vlaanderen – Baloise and Juan Pablo Suarez – Colombia. I was relaying a lot, and did about 40 % of the work.
After a long time in the front of the race, the gap started to decrease drastically. From leading by 5 minutes, we were now only leading by 1 minute. There were still 15 km to go, and Jan Ghyselinck seemed nervous. He tried a stupid attack and didn’t really get away. We managed to re-join him shortly after, but the lead over the pack was now only 40 seconds. I’m told to never look back in a race, but this time I broke the rules, and checked to see how close the pack was. They were threateningly close!
When you sit in a breakaway like this, you start to think about what people say; “The difference between good riders and bad riders is based on the do or die density.”I thought of all the great riders who had done this. Fooled the sprinters and won right in front of them.
I remember Alexander Vinokourov’s win on Champs-Elysées. Right there he showed a bit of it. I could really need it now, as I could hear the pack behind me! Martin Maaskant opened the sprint in my group. I did as I had to do. Waited, and waited, and waited, and then at the last possible moment, I overtook the other riders and looked like the winner!
But maybe I started to sprint too late... Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg came with an incredible speed, and quickly everyone was in front of me. I had the win in my hands, but didn’t get it… My plan failed…
After the race, all my teammates congratulated me, and said I had done extremely well. Thinking about it, it was actually a very hard task to fool the sprinters… This is only my first race as a professional. A 8th place is decent in this tough race.
– AG2R La Mondiale, Antonino Parrinello 
– Androni Giocattoli, Yoann Paillot 
– Orica – Greenedge would win another stage, but right on the line David Millar 
– Garmin – Sharp snatched the victory. I got my second 57th place of the race, and I don’t hope this will be where I usually end. I would like to end in a better finish than that. 
– Team Europcar, Romain Sicard 
– Topsport Vlaanderen and Duber Quintero 
- Colombia. I wanted to join but wasn’t allowed to attack by Dmitriy Konyshev. He told me I would get a better chance tomorrow and therefore shouldn’t waste energy today. Oh and by the way, we all had to waste energy today, because of the big thing I still won’t cover until later.
, who had a good chance of winning today. 
– Garmin – Sharp, Jan Ghyselinck 
