Another stage for the sprinters, after his performance yesterday the bookies have rated Duque an outsider for today's stage. Apparently there's no risk today, so I have the all clear to break away, hopefully I can get in the break.
I tried to stick to the wheels of the attackers, but it was hard work. After failing yesterday, Van Hecke (TSV) tried again with me and Marycz (CCC) in his wheel. It looked like we would get away, but when 2 more riders joined, the peloton brought us back. I tried again but the same guys followed with the same consequences.
Eventually it was myself with Martin Velits (OPQS) who got in the break, after we both got away before with the same followers that caused the peloton to catch us.
Marycz joined us before the climb, which Velits won, ensuring he will wear polka-dot tomorrow. I came 3rd, as I was tired after attacking a few kilometres earlier.
I didn't go for the sprint points, and Velits won them. However, soon after, the other 2 guys attacked. I couldn't keep up so I dropped back into the peloton.
Once everyone was caught, and the road rose for the last time, I made a move. I had 55" with 13km to go, but I was caught 9.2km from the finish.
Pantano and Duque were in a great position, after the former latched onto Romain Zingle's (COF) wheel. When he dropped back, Pantano wheel hopped to the yellow jersey of Chicchi (VIN).
Chicchi mad it 2 in a row! Another great sprint by him, as Garmin's Thomas Dekker took 2nd. Duque managed a great 4th.
My Views
My first day in the break went worse than expected, as I wasn't able to keep up the whole way. But that attack in the final kilometres kind of mad up for it. The sprint is improving and hopefully Duque can keep up his form and give himself another result 3 places higher than the last sprinting stage, which would give him 1st! Tomorrow we have the first climber's stage. We'll obviously be working for Chavez, who's main lieutenant is Chalapud. I'm next in line if anything untoward happens. Until then...
ADIOS
Good idea , would be a bit unfair though considering
1. I'm already up to Navarra in game
2. I quick sim the races that Fabio isn't in.
Good to see the support and I hope it continues, unfortunately I can't find time for another report so I'll have to keep you waiting. It'll probably be 1 or 2 races on weeknights and 3+ on weekends
The first mountain stage not only of the tour but my career. Hopefully Chavez can perform well and stay in contact with the other GC guys.
We got some bad news earlier in the day, Camacho, who fortunately wasn't in the San Luis team, fell ill. But the more pressing bad news was that Pantano up-ended himself nearing the first intermediate sprint. After getting un early jump, Duque overcame his bad positioning to win the sprint.
Third time lucky as Van Hecke was finally in the breakaway, he took the Cat.3 ahead of our friend Zingle and then Lotto's O. Kaisen.
I was the only won who sprinted for the remaining points on the Cat.1, which was won by Zingle. That gave me 8 points onto my KOM tally.
Offroading...
Brambilla (OPQS) and Tiralongo (AST) tried an Italians' break before the road rose, but were brought back swiftly. I tried at the foot of the climb, but failed. Reda (AND) was also brought back after his attack.
Chalapud helped Chavez up the 3.5 km climb and did a damn good job of it too.
Their infernal pace was enough to drop the yellow jersey!
There was soon a 6 man group up front, with our 2 main guys both up there, still powering on with Chalapud's energy seemingly never running out.
Unfortunately, despite a lead-out, Chavez could only claim 2nd, with Sky's Kanstantin Siutsou taking the win and the leader's jersey. Chavez would still wear white though, with me 2nd in that classification.
My Views
Overall a great stage for us. 2nd and 4th gives us a good hold on the early GC, and 1st in the team classification is a nice bonus too! Somehow Duque got 18th on that stage...
Anyway, I'll soon post interviews that happened after every stage so far, as for some reason the DS wasn't letting me before...
Until then...
ADIOS
Nice to see race in my country
It is like a mini GT but havent got any TTs . Contains flat , hill and mountains that you can train yourself for big races.
Spoiler
If you look closer at the spectators on istanbul stage you will see me
#FREELANDA #FREELIA MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
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Daily Song Contest WINNER! With Foals - Mountain at my Gates with Greece! 1 like 1 girlfriend ''I call you the stage god. You are the stage god.'' -baseballover312, 15.07.2016
Stage 1: Journalist: Hello and welcome to the first post-race interviews of the 2013 cycling season. We're here with the first stage winner of the year, Francesco Chicchi! Francesco, what's it like to have just won the first stage of the season? Chicchi: Well I don't really think of it that way, it's the same as any stage win for me, which means I'm extremely delighted and like in most cases with the team too. The guys set me up well for the final sprint and I was able to beat some of the sprinters who are better than me.
Thanks for your time and we wish you the best with the leader's jersey. Now we're here with Fabio Melani! Fabio you've just made your debut on the professional cycling circuit in front of your home fans. How's it feel? Me: Well it honestly feels tremendous. I couldn't have dreamed to be where I am now and here I am with such a great team! My legs may take some adjusting but today was a nice learning curve and hopefully I can keep my performances up.
Stage 2:
We unfortunately couldn't get hold of the stage winner Chicchi today but here's Fabio Melani again! Your thoughts on today's race?
Well I was able to break away today and the home fans were cheering me on. Too bad I couldn't keep up the whole way but I still think that this is a big experience for me.
Stage 3:
We're here now with stage winner and new GC leader Kanstantin Siutsou. How does it feel to be leading after the first stage? It feels really good, we came here looking for a good result and I think I'm strong enough to provide an overall GC win from this position. Tomorrow's time-trial could be a small problem but I should be able to get over fine.
There was much debate whether SKY would be working for you or Johnathan Tiernan-Locke, would you be able to tell us about what happened behind the scenes that allowed the team to make the decision that they would work for you?
Well actually we were working for both me and John. We separated it into one teammate for me and one for him, and for the rest of the race the rest of the team would do the normal pacing and protecting and stuff like that.
Thank you for the insight, we now see second placed Esteban Chavez of Colombia here. Esteban, is it frustrating to have not taken the win from such a comanding position?
Not really. Second is still a very good result, but it's true that from the position we were in, leading the race and making gaps, I should've taken the win. Robinson [Chalapud] was great in protecting me and he just kept on going. All credit to him, and unfortunately I couldn't repay him with the win. I shouldn't have taken his wheel, as he was too tired. It's too energy-wasting to try catching a wheel uphill during a sprint. So it is all my fault. The youth rankings are a big bonus though, as well as the team classification too, which we also lead. So it's a good platform to build on for the next 3 key stages.
Thank you and we'll just have a quick talk to Fabio Melani...
Sorry but I don't have time right now, but pretty much what Esteban said except for the fact that it was all his fault. Haha, Kanstantin was jut too strong today and you can't fault that.
Today in the individual time trial, we were faced with a problem. Almost all of our riders were extremely close to each other in the GC, so Marentes was our only test rider. Still, he's our best time trialist at the tour so it was a good indication. His message was to save energy for the hill.
I set off after Leonardo Duque, but I immediately wasn't feeling great. I tried my best but I was provisional 54th at the finish, 1'38" behind.
Esteban Chavez was looking good in the white jersey, and despite his pour TT skills he was feeling great, and rode for his life on the course.
Unfortunately he was looking like he would lose his jersey, going through the check at what (after Siutsou), would be 67th at 44". Siutsou managed a very good 6th at the check, 11" back, while at the finish, he got 12 at 31" compared to Chavez' improved 25th at 56". Movistar's Jonathan Castroviejo was the winner.
Chavez put in a good 2nd half of the course to keep his white jersey by 1'15"!
Siustsou gave a spirited performance, but not enough to hold on to yellow.
Pinotti rode very well too, getting 3rd at 9". He even managed to take the yellow jersey!
The Queen Stage... The pressure's on the climbers right now, as Marco Pinotti (BMC) surely won't be able to keep his yellow jersey today.
There was a breakaway of 5, with no-one worth mentioning. CCC's Konkisz was the only one to sprint for the intermediate points.
Despite having Delaplace in the break, Sojasun were pacing, this also happened on the climb with Marycz of CCC.
R. Zoidl (GMS) was the first attacker when the road rose a little, It was the first of many, as most riders didn't fancy themselves in the pack, so they tried to go alone. Lotto and Omega Pharma were pacing hard though, and no-one could stay away.
As previous, Chalapud was protecting Chavez up front, while I was chillin' a bit behind .
As predicted, the pace had its toll. It was soon a group of 4 ahead, as they caught and dropped the guys who had fallen behind the breakaway. Meanwhile, Thomas Dekker of Garmin was very enthusiastic, but not so successful in his series of attacks.
As the two reached the leaders, Chalapud was looking terrible, but still doing his best to protect Chavez.
With only 1 km left on the climb, both Pinotti and I were dead, I knew that if I could hang on for 1 km more, I would have a chance of not losing contact.
Despite having no energy, I somehow rode away from the bunch. However it seems that Leonardo [Duque] was a bit overenthusiastic in staying at the front, and chased me back...
After the mountain that was won by Ospina (MOV), Chavez just had to pace himself over the last 10 km.
With 2.5 km left, Ospina was just in front of Chavez, but looked like he was going to fall over because of his fatigue. Chalapud, Castroviejo (MOV) and Taborre (VIN) were pacing behind.
Into the last kilometres, it was down to 2. Chavez and Ospina.
With 1 km left, Ospina was almost down, but still kept going strong! Chavez had to ride really hard not to get caught.
Taborre was the only guy who could bridge, and Chavez immediately took his wheel. We all thought that Chavez would do it, but somehow Ospina found some late energy.
About 10 m after that picture, Ospina literally collapsed. When he finished, Marentes was strongly dehydrated and collapsed too.
I finished in the bunch with nothing left. And when I got past the finish line the 5 riders who had finished ahead were sprawled along the ground. All of our riders were given oxygen and tonnes of water. I don't know about the other teams, but I imagine the same.
Only 3 seconds for the Spaniard. Surely enough to get back tomorrow!
The last GC stage, this will be really big for the team, as we believe that Chaves can win the GC.
There was a 6 man break. Rosa (AND) won the Cat.1 climb while dropping to the back of the group after his relay. There was no contest for the sprints either, Klimov (RVL) and Rosa took them respectively.
For some reason, RusVelo and Androni were actually pacing... WTF!?
Morajko (CCC) and Rosa attacked from the break for the final climb,
The pacing from the peloton just stopped for some reason, and with 4.6 km to go, the lead was 2'55".
Rosa somehow managed to get the win after a great day. Eibegger (GMS) was 2nd and Klimov got 3rd.
Chavez was left behind on the climb but managed to get back in the sprint, finishing with the yellow jersey group. At least 2nd place and the white jersey are confirmed... Unless something weird happens tomorrow.
Spoiler
It does.
I finished in E5, just behind the main bunch.
So, we'll be working for a Duque stage win tomorrow, but until then...
ADIOS
We'll work for Leonardo Duque today on the last stage of my home tour.
Leo was ranked as an outsider for the win, but we thought that he'd be aided by the fact that he had LITERALLY USED NO ENERGY in the previous stages.
There was a 4 man breakaway, with Kvasina (GMS) winning the Cat.3 with no contest and also won the first sprint uncontested with Helven (TSV) winning the 2nd in the same manner.
I was finally given a job to do! I was in charge of getting the sprinters into the best possible position for the final dash. But soon we had more pressing concerns...
Chavez got dropped. Not through a crash or a puncture but he just fell off the pace. We thought that he would get back, back SKY and Movistar took this as an opportunity and started pacing like madmen.
Pantano was out of energy too, from getting position before I came in. We were still in a good position for the sprint though.
Garmin's Michel Kreder took the win ahead of Adrien Petit (COF) and our friend Chicchi. Duque managed 6th.
Chavez couldn't recover, and eventually lost 1'43". He had to settle for 5th in the GC while Chalapud was our best rider, in 3rd, 1'32" behind Castroviejo.
My Views
So, my first professional race has come to an end. Unfortunately Chaves didn't win the GC or in the end come close, but we got the youth ranking, KOM ranking and the team ranking-So a good performance overall. The teams will now take a large break before the Giro di Laigueglia. I'll come back soon with other races' results and continental rankings at the end of January. Until then...
ADIOSEdited by Cycleman123 on 08-09-2013 09:20
, would be a bit unfair though considering
. Good to see that people are still following. 
