fernando97 wrote:
I'm really feeling excited about this story, good luck Valverde! Nice read so far, keep up the great work!
Thanks.
Im going to try and have an update out tonight, by the end of the long weekend (monday) at the latest. Just been busy and enjoying the amazing weather lately, as well as going through course selections and coming up with problems in that area, which is a bit stressful. I've played the first few stages of the Vuelta so its a matter of reporting it now and finding the time to do that.
Wow, that's some weird results in the Giro and the Tour, holy shit!
I dont usually read stories and when I do Im usually the silent reader kinda type, but you know, I have to leave a comment here. Hopefully you can manage to get a stage win with Valverde and probably a top-3 with Sevilla. Good luck, the 2003-season should definetely be more interesting. And cool story from his childhood, I didnt know his mother paid him to NOT win or whatever it was
@ rogvi - Thanks, hope you enjoy!
@ Riis - Yeah, Botero is pretty strong, so his Giro was a pretty good win. Rumsas did podium the Tour in real life but Lance barely finished Top 10 at the Tour. A stage win will be very hard with Valverde. His stats aren't too good for right now. Its looking like Botero might have a better chance at leading with the earlier TTs and hills at this version of the Vuelta (which I think is the 2012 version). And yeah, I thought that was really funny as well. He had talent right from the start.
Vuelta a Espana 2002 - Stages 1 - 4
The start of the Vuelta went well for me, but not for our two team leaders. We brought a squad of: Jesus Manzano, Santiago Botero, Oscar Sevilla, Isaac Galvez, Antonio Tauler, Aitor Gonzalez Jimenez, Ivan Parra, Angel Vicioso and myself.
It all started with a slightly hilly Prologue, 7.3km long! We would have thought that Botero would be the best placed of the riders in our team, but he finished 3rd best of our team somehow and about 30 seconds down on the stage winner, Jose Luis Rubiera. I finished only 18 seconds down which was pretty good for me, but overall the results seemed a little out of place from what you would expect to see.
Stage 2 was a hilly stage, so we expected to see fireworks in this years Vuelta right off the bat. Botero needed his time back, that he lost the day before and the team all believed we could help him into getting that time back today.
We set the pace on the Cat. 2 climb, the whole way up, in the hopes of dropping some of the poorly positioned GC guys, but we could really only manage to unhitch the sprinters and other generally poor climbers. The main group was still around 90 riders large and the pressure we put on at the front looked like a risky move that hadn't been worth all of the effort we put into it. Matthias Kessler was soloing ahead with a 2min gap, and with his strength on the hills, the move was looking more and more like it would pay off. At the 20km to go banner he had a gap of 3 minutes, so the peloton was really going to have to ride if anyone else wanted a shot at a stage win.
Luckily for us, that is exactly what happened and at the foot of the climb, the gap was down to a minute. I had put in my effort of the day and started to fade back. Just as this was happening, Botero made his move on the climb and no one could get across the gap. In fact the gap was opening up, and he flew past Kessler on the climb, meaning Botero was the head of the race.
Botero held everyone behind and took the great stage win. The gaps, looked great as well, and no one that was important finished close enough, meaning Botero also moved into the Golden Fleece. He not only got his time back, but he extended his time gap over everyone else today. A great performance so early on.
Stage 3 was your typical flat day, with Jean Patrick Nazon taking the final sprint ahead of De Jongh and Oscar Friere. Stage 4 was a little different. The end of the stage had a slow but very steady rise about 40km to go all the way to the finish. The sprinters had a bit of trouble with this, and a breakaway of 2 was allowed to win the stage. Sebastien Joly took the win for Jean Delatour ahead of Andreas Klier of Team Telekom, Jean Delatour's 2nd stage win in a row here. They can probably do nothing the rest of the race and still leave happy. Joly moved into 1st overall because of the 2'30 gap to the peloton, but they are of no danger to the final overall standings, so Botero dropping down to 2nd place is okay for us at this point in the race. It takes the pressure off of myself and my other teammates.
Tomorrow we ride the Team Time Trial and we are very excited about the chances for our team. It will be my first Team Time Trial, so I am nervous about how I will do.
Thanks everyone for the comments. I think Botero is doing quite well atm. Valverde seems pretty strong too!
@ Admir - The ad seemed to have worked. I'll keep doing it
@ ThisIsMe - Dont worry. This story will always be something I come back to, I just need to have more time. The past week or so I've been deciding things for school which was very stressful. It leaves little time to see my friends, so I've needed time to actually do that as well when Im not busy, and then I've recently fixed my bike after 3 years and started going to the gym again after a couple months off. I've had issues with my phone that I've thankfully resolved. With me as a story writer I always go through phases were there may not be an update for a week or two, or even longer. Sometimes I just need a break or Im busy. I will usually say when a story is dead.
I dont think it will be long before the next update. It will be a very interesting one as well Edited by valverde321 on 13-08-2014 00:56
Sorry guys. As I said, its not dead. I have the next update open in one of my tabs. I haven't had time to really touch it in about 3 weeks. I worked essentially full time for a good amount of August. I've had 2 days off to get ready for school, whether that be to shop for new clothes, materials and getting back into a school routine. Now Im actually in school again but obviously that takes priority.
Im thinking of continuing this after a long break. Dont know how long it will last, but I'd like to move on to the next season quickly, since 2003 has several good db's on different games. First I've got to finish the Vuelta first (probably in one big update...)
Stage 3 was a flat stage, with not much action at all. JP Nazon took the win in a sprint, with my team leader Botero keeping the leaders jersey, until stage 5 where Sebastian Joly took a breakaway win, 2mins ahead of the peloton making him the new leader of the race heading in to the Team Time Trial, which our team ended up winning the next day, bringing, the gap down to under 1min to Joly for Botero who now sat in 2nd place after the TTT.
Stage 6 was a great one for me. I could see the peloton going slowly, so i made a late attack and bridged the gap to the breakaway. I quickly moved past them, and now had a gap of 3mins to the peloton with 20km to go. The favourites used the hills to attack and soon it looked like I would get caught. Inside the final 1km I could hear them behind me, but I kept sprinting for the line.
I closed my eyes and then I opened them and saw the line. I knew I had won! I looked back after crossing the line to see my team leader Santiago Botero take 2nd place, and great day for the team. The 30 second gap to the majority of the other contenders moved me into 6th overall in the race, and Botero a very slim margin down on Joly still.
Stage 7-11 all ended in sprint finishes or meaningless breakaway wins (in terms of the GC) so we will move on to Stage 12. A break made it clear on the day, but I was feeling a lot better than my teammate, so I followed the favourites attacks late in the day, and gained more time on others. That was until I saw the results. Joly had snuck in to one of the attacks and gained even more time on the other riders, while I moved in to 4th overall. His lead now at 6 minutes. Stage 13, 14 and 15 also ended with not much worth of note.
Stage 16 was another mountain stage and by this point it seemed my team leader, Botero was not in as good form as I was. I went on my own and finished 1min ahead of him, but lost more time to Joly and Garate who won the day by 7 minutes over the next group moving him in to 2nd overall behind Joly.
Stage 17 was the Mountain TT, and I finished 8th on the day and Botero 10th, both about 40 seconds down on Raphael Casero the stage winner. We both gained time on the other GC contenders, moving me in to 3rd overall and Botero 4th.
Stage 18 was a sprint stage again, and Stage 19 saw me move in to 2nd overall behind the new leader, Marek Rutkiewicz by 14 seconds, as I gained time on all the others.
Stage 20 was disaster though. There were mass crashes and there were many echelons as well. I ended up losing 33 minutes, with many other favourites losing time as well, but my hope of 2nd overall was lost.
Stage 21 ended in a ITT, where I just took an easy ride resting my injuries to finish my first Grand Tour. I cant believe I was so close to winning the race if not for the crash, so I will take that experience with me for the rest of my career. The winner of the Vuelta, Rutkiewicz was not a favourite at the start, but this years race threw up a lot of crazy results and it was exciting to watch. I am happy with my 37th overall, and will look forward to next year with Kelme, where I hope to have a bigger role in the team after my showing here.
So thats that. On to 2003 now. If anyone has any preference on which db/PCM version I should use, I will take that in to account, since I've kind of completely forgotten about which game has which dbs and such. 2003 will be more in depth than 2002, but still a little condensed.
Keep it all the way to the final podium!! 
