Thanks guys, really glad you enjoy the story so far.
A solid start for the team, but as the others have said don't go into too much detail in the smaller races save the detail for the big tours etc.
Well, of course at the start I get a bit over motivated, but I think it will settle down over time.
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Paris-Nice, March 2013
Paris-Nice is the official kick-off to the classic season. From here on out, every week will be another important race and Paris-Nice is certainly for many top-riders the first big goal of the season .From Issy-les-Moulineaux the course will take us over several climbs and deliver enough tests to determine a worthy winner. Punchers and Time Trial-Specialists have advantages on this course, while pure climbers might miss the real tough challenges & the heights of the french mountains, which the Tour de France offers.
The prestigious race is organzided by the ASO and features an illustrous list of previous winners. Sean Kelly holds the record with 7 straight wins from 1982 to 1988. Great riders like Miguel Indurain, Laurent Jalabert, Alexandre Winokurow, Alberto Contador or Jacques Anquetil have won the race multiple times and declared it as one of their favourites. It is not only a preparation for the upcoming weeks but also serves as a first landmark and point of orientation for a potential Grand Tour win later on.
The Euskaltel-Euskadi Lineup includes: S. Sánchez
M. Astarloza
I. Izagirre
J.J. Lobato
R. Pérez
R. Sicard
I. Tamouridis
P. Urtasun
Obviously Euskaltel-Euskadi hope to ride a good Paris-Nice this season with Sánchez as the obvious leader. However, one shouldn’t underestimate Izagirre’s importance, who is in a great form recently, and could pull off a surprise. At least, there’s hope for it in Katu’s word when he talks about Ion. J.J. Lobato and Urtasun will be our guys for breakaways who may have advantage if it comes to a small sprint.
Serious Contenders for the overall triumph in Nice are Contador (TST), Valverde (MOV), Costa (MOV) Porte (SKY), Chavanel (OPQ) & Gerrans (OGE). I give outsiderr chances to Pinot (FDJ), Quintana (MOV), De Gendt (VCD) Roche (TST), Moreno (KAT) and T. Martin (OPQ), if the german TT-specialist performs well in the hilly stages.
Stage 1
Tamouridis is looking good in his greece national TT champion jersey, eh? Unfortunately he can’t keep up with the best, albeit being a TT champion in his home country. After all, keep in mind, Greece isn’t just that much of a cycling nation.
Izagirre, right after the start. He starts off strong, but loses time on the 2nd half. In the end, he is Euskaltel’s best rider at the finish, losing a bit more than a minute to Taylor Phinney and Tony Martin who completely rode their own race amongst the 1st half of the riders. Still, there are many favourites yet to come.
Samuel Sanchez at the intermediate. 45 seconds isn’t too bad for him and he doesn’t lose too much time until the finish. No surprise though that he can’t compete for the win today, which belongs to Taylor Phinney (BMC) ahead of Tony Martin (OPQ) and Martin’s teammate Chavanel.
Stage 2
It’s an awfully rainy day on this flat stage. Pérez takes advantage of his good position at the top of the peloton, when he attacks with Garcia (COF).Together with Envoulent (SOJ), Miyazawa (TST), Lutsenko (AST) and Gérard (BSE) they try to form an early breakaway, but are soon caught by the fast peloton.
Nearly 50 kilometers into the race and finally a breakaway got away. In it are Voigt (RTL), King of Breakaways, Lindeman (VCD), Lutsenko (AST) and Longo Borghini (CAN). Tamouridis can see through the fog and rain the breakaway – or actually it’s more the accompanying race car of the leaders in the stage. His early attempt wasn’t successful as Sinkeldam was on his wheel and BMC & Omega Pharma weren’t willing to let the Argos rider get away, but alone Tamouridis chances of catching up the break are definitely existing.
Ruben Pérez crashes in the field, while is getting bottles for the other riders. Ouch! This surely looks painful, but no other riders are involvede in the crash. He quickly gets back into the slow peloton though and doesn’t seem to be injured. Meanwhile, Tamouridis & his fellow riders are gaining some serious time on the peloton, are currently at 6’28’’. Since Voigt is the best ranked rider, with over a minute behind Phinney, this breakaway might be successful. Or, let’s just dream for a bit.
“Damn it”, I say to Katu, as Tamouridis loses the wheels of his competitors as they accelarate at the intermediate sprint. It’s 40 kilometers to go and the lead quickly diminishes for all the riders. They won’t get any slower and Tamouridis loses ground on them, while the peloton comes back. At least, the rain stopped for a bit.
There’s not much left to do for Tamouridis. The peloton is way too fast for him and he loses too much time. Looking back at them, he shakes his head in disbelieve. How the hell could he miss the split of the breakaway? He catches some bottles and prepares to hand them to Sanchez & Lobato.
At the foot of the small hill, 8 kilometers in front of the finish line, a small crash puts Sinkeldam and Gallopin out of the fight for the victory today. Certainly the finish might have been something for both riders, but the still wet road demands its tribute and the high pace in the peloton demands risks of any rider if they want to win. The breakaway is ready to get caught, Voigt is struggling up front as the last contender of the break. Classic, Voigt, I’d say. Meanwhile, Lobato gets very well over this rather small climb, and with 5 kilometers to go, Euskaltel have many riders up front, although only one real sprinter.
Porte attacks and Urtasun follows him. Meanwhile, Lobato keeps an eye out for what Edvald Boasson Hagen (SKY) is up to.
Gora Pablo, Gora Euskadi!
Urtasun! The spaniard was the first to launch his sprint and took advantage of the downhill section. Although E.B.H. was quickyl making ground up to him, in the end it was enough for the spaniard to take the stage win! He is still a bit wet when he is interviewed by the reporter of the Paris-Nice committee. He smiles off the podium and later grins all over his face when Katu congralutes him and takes him in the arm.
I later ask him if it was good to follow Porte’s wheel when the australian attacked, and Urtasun smiles and says: “Of course. I won, so I suppose I did everything right today. Because of that, I had a great position in the field and then when Richie suddenly pulled out and told me, I should do the work, I just thought I had to sprint now. It was still a long way to go, I think, 1.5 or 2 kilometers and all the time in the wind, that isn’t nice at such a high speed – but yeah, the downhill played in my favor. I am massively happy now!” And truly, yes, so is the team. When I arrive later at the team bus, the team is still cheering and sing a basque song about Urtasun. The man from Navarra certainly knows how to celebrate his victory this early in Paris-Nice as he dances on the top of the team car. As a reward the team gets some nice prize money and 11 World Tour points, since Lobato finished also on a great 4th place.
Especially Sanchez looked relieved and happy after Urtasun’s victory and I ask him, if this puts off some pressure of his shoulders. “No, it doesn’t. I always give myself pressure and what to do well, but the team is hardly in this way. They don’t say, you have to win and they don’t complain. It’s family for me. They are proud regardless of what you do and I am proud of them every day.”
Stage 3
The road from Avallon to Saint Pourcain sur Sioule remains largely unspectacular for Euskalte-Euskadi. Since they won yesterday’s stage, their riders are motivated to show a good performance today too, but fail to get into a breakaway.
Greipel (LTB) takes the stage wins ahead of Tom Boonen and Theo Bos. The overall classifciation remains the same as no riders lose any time on the Taylor Phinney today.
Stage 4
Another rainy day at Paris-Nice. Sicard takes his chances at the hilly road and gets into the breakaway. It’s obvious that the frenchman wants to perform well in his home country and wants to show himself. Maybe with a strong performance he can recommend himself for the Tour de France, he admitted to me later that day. With him are Millar (GRS), Ligthart (VCD), Le Bon (FDJ) and Domont (AGR). He certainly isn’t the only frenchman who wants to succeed today, but the best rider in the breakaway are obvioulsy Millar and Ligthart. Meanwhile, Scarponi (LAM) crashed back in the peloton and had to get back into the peloton without any help from his teammates. “Weird”, I think and suppose that either Niemiec is their captain or they hope for a surprise win of Petacchi today… that’d be something else, I guess, but when I look closer at the route...
... it's obvious that Petacchi shouldn't stand a chance. This steep, last climb can hardly be seen in the normal profile route, and I hope our boys have really listened carefully in the team meeting that morning.
Although the break has no miscommunications, they fail to get some serious time on the peloton who aren’t inclined to let the break get too far away.
The first climb of the day see’s a rather slow peloton. Sánchez looks good upfront. Weirdly, Niemiec continues Lampre’s strange story of the day and crashes riding uphill. Again, no teammates help one of their best riders to get back into the peloton, but since he’s only a few seconds behind, he manages to get back witgout any problems. I take a look at Fabian Wegmann, german champion, and the boy, riding for Garmin-Sharp, certainly looks good so far.
There’s quite a difference in the physique of Sánchez and Phinney, I think and wonder, which type of rider can manage to win Paris-Nice? There’s no time trial left in this stage race, so I rather bet my money on Sánchez than Phinney, but who knows? Maybe the american gets the famous wings by being the leader.
The steep summit of the 3.-Cat climb splits the peloton. Stage 2-winner Urtasun falls back. Even further back is Niemiec, who couldn’t pass the other riders fast enough to avoid the split. Intxausti (MOV) is a bit up front and doesn’t seem too good either but he should manage to get into the peloton fairly easily. 70 kilometers to go; this race is finished for many of the riders already. Meanwhile, Euskaltel don’t have too much hard time, keeping most of their riders in the peloton. In the break, most of the work is done by Sicard and Millar, while the others either don’t want to do much work or a just not up to it on this hilly parcour. They help though as soon as the road goes down or is rather flat… “Hm, not many flat parts of the stage remain anyway”, I respond to Katu’s explanation and look forward to an exciting finish.
The sun came back for a few moments but when Contador attacks, with Rui Costa on his wheel, the rain starts on command. Does the spaniard even control the weather, one could wonder, since he is known for having a neck for races in the rain. The photographer in this picture clearly does not care too much about the race, since he misses the attack, or maybe he just doesn’t like Contador.
Everything on one picture: Visconti tries to keep up with his teammate Valverde to get an advantage in the group of Contador. Moreno (KAT) attacks again and again. The breakaway with Sicard is soon to be caught. An attack by Sánchez was unfortunately not successful and only powered him out. He now tries to keep a position in the chasing peloton (3 Omega Pharma riders pace for Chavanel) and conserve his energy for the final steep climb.
Contador and Moreno want to catch Millar in the downhill. Sicard is with them in a group. Looking good, that young french boy, I say. Further back, Porte now works to get the favourites back into the peloton. Sanchez and Izagirre are looking good. Eventually, the group of Contador is caught by the power of Omega Pharma and the team paces as Taylor Phinney is long time gone from the pack and will not have any further chances of wearing the leader’s jersey.
Col du Cheval can be seen in the back, as the riders fight for their position at the front of the group. We can see, Omega Pharma setting the pace, while Rui Costa and Castroviejo (both MOV) and the 3 Euskaltel riders (Izagirre, Sanchez, Sicard) keep their out for Contador and Moreno.
Chavanel takes the stage win (and the leader’s jersey) for his team. Behind him is a true phalanax of Movistar riders (Valverde, Rui Costa and so forth). Euskaltel riders got caught in the sprint and couldn’t make a serious move in the sprint. In the front, we can see Sicard who is tired and happy that the stage is ending, but also probably proud of a good enough performance today.
Wow, well done Urtasun! And i like the length of the reports, you go in to real detail there. I also think it's very helpful that you leave some information on the screen, like the profile and the groups thing.
Thanks guys. Yeah, Pablo's win was really a nice start to Paris-Nice. Euskaltel's first World Tour win this season. Since we have sort of a momentum going on with two recent wins, we might as well keep going, eh?
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Paris-Nice, March 2013
Stage 5
Chavanel looks comfortable on this day despite the tough stage that is up today. The breakaway is rather big with 8 riders (compared to other breaks in the early season) and not too many riders think that they have a shot today against the likes of Contador, Porte & Valverde. Back in the picture, we can see however a confident squad of Euskaltel riders, who certainly like the profile of this stage. However, there’s no rider in the break, which consists of Soupe (FDJ), Dekker (GRS), Veilleux (EUC), Lindeman (VCD), Bille (LTB), Koren (CAN) and Huguet (ARG). The last rider, Taaramee (COF) certainly is the one to watch out for in the break. Since he is already 23 minutes behind in GC, there’s no need to chase too hard this early. However, Soupe has a real shot at getting the leader’s jersey, with only 5’30`` minutes behind, and the break soon gets up to 7 minutes lead.
Clerrmont Ferrand is the build-up to the final climb, Mont Signou. Pérez gets a last time the bottles for his teammates that day as the race begins to be getting more intense.
Just as the peloton hit the climb, it started to rain. Of course, why shouldn’t it rain –again? Rui Costa is the first to attack. Movistar have many riders in their squad capable of winning today, however the break is already about 7 minutes ahead, so this is a move for the GC rather than an attempt to win today.
Weening (OGE) attacks despite his teammate, Gerrans (OGE), already chasing Rui Costa. Maybe Orica think they have better chances when two riders catch up to the portuguese rider? Meanwhile, Astarloza enjoys unimpressed his drink.
Taaramee isn’t inclinend to wait for his win until the climb, rather he takes surprisingly in the flat, and quickly gains time on his competitors.
The weather keeps changing and changing. For a few minutes, it’s bright as daylight can be, and then it starts to rain. I just look out for a rainbow, when I get surprised by Sánchez’ attack. The Euskaltel riders up front, first increased a bit the pace and now try to prevent an organized chase. Fortunately for Samu, Contador and Rui Costa (who was caught by now) wanted to attack with him, but got caught in the peloton. The road’s free ahead.
Contador and Moreno break free from the peloton. Tony Martin does his work for Chavanel. The audience cheers despite the rain, which is getting weaker again and can hardly be seen in this picture. Sanchez has some seconds upon the peloton, but maybe not enough for a serious time gap on his rivals?
Unbelieveable fast, the peloton has caught up to the breakaway in a few kilometeres. Taaramee’s early attempt was not successful as he now stands no chance in the sprint. Soupe, Dekker, Koren and Veilleux have the most energy left… Further behind, Contador and Sanchez try their best as Moreno clings on and the peloton is gearing up behind them.
As Dekker takes the stage win for Garmin-Sharp, Sanchez loses ground on Contador and a very Valverde, who came rushing from behind. In the end, it wasn’t enough and even Porte was close to passing him. Sanchez fails to make up any time on his rivals. Still, it’s a good enough result and Sanchez’ form is definitely improving. Behind him, an blown up peloton gets into the finish one at a time.
Stage 6 Although the finish up to Montbrun les Bains finishes on a constant slight way up, there’s not much doubt that this will be decided in a masssprint. Ultimately, Greipel finishes first, ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen, who now moves up to 2nd place overall, thanks to the bonus seconds. Otherwise there’s have been no changes in GC. J.J. Lobato on a 9th rank is okay, and our breakaway attempts failed earlier on.
Stage 7
Well, well – look at that stage, and then tell me, our boys don`t have a chance to win today? Since the General Classification and all the jerseys are far from decided, Paris-Nice is still there to be won, despite strong showings of Movistar and Omega Pharma. Everything is up to grabs today and a strong performance could secure the overall victory for any rider. The only thing that can be called is probably that Edvald Boasson Hagen wins the points jersey, since he is already 30 points ahead of Chavanel, ranking 2nd.
Sometimes in a downhill section, the pace is so high, that no riders can break away. However, when a rider like Tommy Voeckler starts the break, other riders definitely are encougared to follow him, since his instinct rarely betrays him – and that makes him, together with his skill, as formidable contender for any breakaway win. However, Voeckler is at this point all alone. Sicard knows the fellow french rider quite good and leads a second break which attempts to catch up to the prince of breakaways, together with Gallant (SOJ) and once more Taaramee (COF).
As soon as Sicard catches up to Voeckler, another breakaway attempt tries to join them from behind. In it is the winner of yesterday, Thomas Dekker (GRS), now riding in the KoM jersey. Looking good for him. Durasek (LAM), Paolini (KAT) and Vichot (FDJ) could be strong contenders for a possible stage win too – and a breakaway of 8 riders was successful yesterday, why not today again? Maybe 8 is the magic number of Paris-Nice.
On a surprisingly sunny day, the riders are enjoying the view and the weather. Breakaway gains now constantly time on the slow peloton. So much, that Sicard is for a while ranked third in the virtual classification, only behind his fellow breakaway-mates Vichot (FDJ) and Paolini (KAT). I doubt that this will last to the end, but at least it’s a good sign, it shows that Sicard is riding a decent enough Paris-Nice to maybe challenge Voeckler, Dekker & Taaramee today. Still, there are 3 climbs up ahead, including a mountain finish, so… I suppose, I think too much about it.
Ah yes, climbing is much more comfortable on such a sunny day, but don’t get too comfortable, Sicard, I say to myself, “you lost a lot of time on the way up.” I cross my fingers that the lead will last, which quickly crumbles under the pace of Omega Pharma. At the top of Saint Michel, Vichot takes the points ahead of Voeckler. Dekker still leads with 3 points to Taaramee and 5 to Vichot, but there are still many points up for grab, so Dekker shouldn’t feel too safe. I am surprised that he didn’t even figgt for the points back there, but alas, maybe he wants to save his energy for the stage win, just as Sicard.
On top of the second climb of the day, Sanchez attacks and hopes to gain enough time on his rivals, to make use of his great descending skills. Rui Costa and C.A. Sörensen attacked earlier, but were too surprised by Sanchez fast attack. We see how Costa wants to hang onto Sanchez. A bit further back, Contador apparently has the same plan as his fellow spaniard & friend, Samu. And it`s not even funny anymore: Just as Costa was at first surprised by Samu’s speed, Sanchez is now equally surprised by Rui Costa’s determination. The portuguese quickly rides past the spaniard, and our rider can’t catch up to Costa in the downhill, although he gains some time on the peloton.
The stage goes into its final climb and Paolini (KAT) is not looking make it easy for sicard. Although one has to question the tactics, the stage win is obviously quite important to the team. “We could use Sicard as a relais station for Sanchez”, I suggest, but Katu first wants Sicard to try his own chance. Next to Voeckler, he follows Paolini’s wheel. And also, what the hell are these ladies doing on the side in high-heels?!
Voeckler launched a quick counter-attack and now everybody is just looking at him in agony. That’s the thing when you ride with Voeckler in a break. He is determined to take the stage win. However, Rui Costa alreadyd caught up to the remains of the break away, while Sicard tries to as good as possible. In the background, we can see Sanchez, who is also coming closer, followed by Gesink, who attacked in the downhill and has still has some time on the peloton.
Contador all alone attacks and quickly reels Gesink back into the peloton. While the first attack was followed by other riders, such as Weening, Klöden, Horner & C.A. Sörensen, Contador’s second attack is too strong that any rider can follow at first. Still, there’s a lot of road between him and Samu, who slowly catches up to the group with Rui Costa.
Another backshot of Contador. It didn’t take him long to catchup to the breakaway. Sicard meanwhile tries to protect Sanchez as best and as long as possible. 45 seconds on the peloton, it’s looking good enough, while Voeckler has another 40 seconds on Sanchez.
Sicard does the work for Sanchez, but alas, Samu’s attack might have been a bit too early, maybe he wasn’t quite strong enough today. Rui Costa outsprints Tommy Voeckler on the last meters and steals the stage win from the always-fighting frenchman. Samu lands on a 6thplace, behind Contador, Vichot, Durasek. Richie Porte nearly would have passed him too. At least he gets some seconds on other contenders, but the weak time trial still costed too much time in the end, so he probably doesn’t have a serious shot at the overall victory left. Chavanel remains in yellow ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen. Vichot is the new leader of the KoM classification. I refrain from talking to Samu in the press zone, as he shakes his head in disbelieve. Most french reporters have a lots of questions for Tommy Voeckler and I read later, that he particularly liked riding with Sicard and Vichot in the breakaway, since they have a “good chemistry” apparently and praised the two young french riders, but than quickly added, that his fellow riders in the breakaway shouldn’t have chased him when Rui Costa, Samuel Sanchez and Contador got in it. Still quite quite pleasant words for Sicard from the infamous, bad words-swearing, competitive & apparently not very liked frenchman. Well, in the end, Sicard’s work on the last kilometers might have cost Voeckler the stage win.
Stage 8 The last stage of this season’s Paris-Nice is hilly and makes up for a tough competition over the last stage victory and the finale win in Nice. Although Chavanel looks comfortable as the leader, he still is only 10 seconds ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen. In theory, Sky should be aware that the bonus seconds might secure the victory for the norwegian rider, while Omega Pharma might be inclined to let the breakaway secure their overall win. Many riders will look for their last chance at a stage win at this year's Paris - Nice and the finale should be anything but exciting.
10 riders form the breakaway, and their lead is good enough at the start. The climb at the start of the stage offered many attacks and an opportunity to gain time on the peloton fairly easily. Euskaltel-Euskadi definitely want the last stage win, since they are featured with two riders in the break: Sicard tries it another time and Urtasun might want to get a second win at this year’s Paris-Nice. With over 7 minutes lead in this picture, the odds are in their favour, but the other 8 riders are set up to make it tough for them.
Unfortunately, the group has lost massive time over the on-going parcours. As they head into the 2nd final climb of the day, there’s only around 3 minutes lead left. The riders work formidable together but the pace by Saxo-Tinkhoff and Omega Pharma is just too high. Oddly, Vichot, man in the KoM jersey, lost contact on the climb. I suppose he deserves a rest day after the strong performance yesterday.
It`s crowded in here! Richie Porte constant attacks bring him into the breakaway, which has only a few seconds lead to the peloton left. It still looks good enough for the Euskaltel riders. Just play it cool and easy.
The obligatory attack by Contador, which everybody expected today (the spaniard really wants his stage win), isn’t followed by anyone, but will definitely bring the peloton even closer to the breakaway, where Tankink and Hupont showed courage and attacked 2-3 kilometers ahead of the summit.
Sicard isn’t tempted to make it easy for anyone as he attacks just as the peloton caughts up to him. Porte and Urtasun are willing to follow, but surprisingly, not even Porte can manage to hold Sicard’s backwheel. But the australian might have just pulled a bluff on the inexperienced french man, as he later just passes him fairly easily. Things start to get crazy as Edvald Boasson Hagen attacks later on and is near to catching up to Rui Costa.
As I said before, everything is still up for grabs and the riders are definitely racing like that. Porte, Rui Costa, Gerrans & Valverde are the race’s leaders. Edvald Boasson Hagen didn’t manage to hold up the pace of Valverde, who came from behind, and rather prefered to look at Urtasun, like: “You do the work.” This ultimately meant that the norwegian was caught by the peloton again, and – tell you one thing, Sicard is looking good in here, isn’t he?
Everything can change in one simple small climb. The action took place so fast, it was hard to keep up. Attacks by Porte & Valverde were each countered, the peloton came closer and closer. Sicard just hang on somehow, Contador attacked and so forth. The group was ultimately caught again by the peloton. Somehow then, Moreno Moser was strong enough to escape and is now leading with 20 seconds in this steep downhill section. Many riders wanted to cross the summit first and the countless attacks all puffed in the air, and only Moser remained. But, Downhill you say? Of course, Samu Sanchez tries to gain time on Moser by attacking in a way only he can!
Chavanel tries the same as Samu. Attack on the downhill! He bid his time and definitely know that Paris-Nice is his as soon as he crosses the line. Just as Sanchez, he is an artist on riding downhill like a patient from a mental institution. Sanchez already nearly caught up to Moser and Chavanel is close too.
Sanchez is the race leader as he keeps riding and riding. He is so god damn fast in this downhill, Moser didn’t even realize Sanchez was catching up to him. That’s some serious, insane downhill riding I think. The walls of Nice look a like an Arena, and Sanchez could be the Gladiator of the day.
Gora Samu, Gora Euskadi!
He dit it! Victory for Samuel Sanchez! His downhill artistery gained him the win, when he was courageous enough to attack and just too damn good to win this stage. This is the 2nd victory at Paris-Nice this year and just pretty darn sweet. C.A. Sörensen, who attacked from the peloton when Moser was caught, manages to get 2nd place. 55 seconds behind Sanchez, Edvald Boasson Hagen takes 3rd place, but the time bonus is not enough to win Paris-Nice for the norwegian. At last, Sanchez makes a huge leap forward in the GC and lands on the 4th rank overall.
Overall final classifcations
Overall victory:
1. Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma)
2. Edvald Boasson Hagen (SKY)
3. Tony Martin (Omega Pharma)
This is really pleasant ending to Paris-Nice, considering that many attemps have failed during the stage race. Overall, I suppose, the peloton was just too thick and equal for these stages and no serious damage could been done to either opponent. All favourites were often neutralizing each other in a very fast paced Paris-Nice route, and when time could be gained, it just wasn’t enough. Although the finishes weren’t nowhere to be considered easy, and definitely were a challenge to all riders, great climbers like Contador, Porte and Rui Costa all failed in the end in their attempts to gain time on Chavanel, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Tony Martin. It seems only fitting that on this last day, Sanchez is the winner with the biggest gain on his rivals.
When I arrive at the team bus, Samu just talks with his mother on the phone. The spaniard is really happy, and so is the entire team. We went on to celebrate at the hotel and watch the coverage of Tirreno-Adriatico at night, where Igor Antón hopes to perform a similar deed on Stage 5 as Samu accomplished today.Edited by Shonak on 28-11-2013 13:29
Thanks guys. This finish was obviously perfect for Samu, so I'm glad it worked out. Strong performance by Sicard too on these two last stages, I'd say.
Sörensen attacked around 2 to 3 kilometers from the finish when Moser was caught. Some similiar attacking spirit like Samu, and if you look close on the last picture you can even see him coming around the corner. I thought he'd be caught by the chasing pack but he did well. Sörensen has also shown multiple attacks throughout this season's Paris - Nice, who ended all rather fast and unfortunate, so there was never much room to mention him. And I mostly concentrated on Saxo Tinkoff when Contador attacked, so his strong showing isn't really reflected in the reports and the overall classification. Funnily enough, while Sörensen gained time on this stage, Contador lost some time and completely fell out of the Top 25 (he was previoulsy 5th).
Edited by Shonak on 28-11-2013 13:40
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Thanks guys. Nice to see some people following this story so far. And yup, Sánchez winning the GC by just downhilling like a mad man on the last 5-10 kilometers certainly would have been something.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Just wanted to wish you good luck, seems like nice story. With few things to change (like CTRL+U in screenshots) this can be great. Just keep it up, i love these detailed reports.
Thanks. I won't always have the OSD in the screenshots. These reports still date back some time before I even started this thread. But I like it, when people see at least the stage profile and the time gaps, after all - this is pretty much how it is in real racing too. Hopefully I can find a perfect balance of usage for clear & functional pictures in the future. Edited by Shonak on 29-11-2013 00:44
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Since we have sort of a momentum going on with two recent wins, we might as well keep going, eh? 
