Gilbert riding for OmegaPharma this year, is the race favourite, but Cunego, and Hesjedal both did very well last season. This year we saw, little attacks, until the very end where we saw tons. Gilbert the favourite won the stage, but Hesjedal, an outside shot, finished very high up in 4th, behind, Cunego and Andy Schleck.
In this race we saw the same 3 riders finish together as Schleck won this time ahead of Cunego and Hesjedal, in almost the exact same order as AGR, however, this time there was a crash in the final km which slowed down a couple favourites on one side of the road, and helping out the riders on the opposite side.
Its now, time to prepare for the Tour of Turkey. The team, and I have just arrived here, for the start of the race in two days time, in Istanbul to get acclimatized to the time difference and weather. This is my first time ever being in Turkey so it should be a new experience for me.
Some bad news I have to tell you is that Juan Antonio Flecha is planning on retiring at the end of the season, likely meaning Eddy will have to step up into a top Cobbles rider.
Other than that, there isn't too much going on. Uran has been surprising lots of people with his results at the two of three Ardennes Classics, but we were expecting it.
Anyway, I'm just about to head out on a little restaurant run, with Swifty and a couple other guys. The Directors also think there will be a stage here which I have a shot at winning, so my confidence is very high right now.
Hoscakal Edited by valverde321 on 26-05-2011 22:22
My Plan: So with this being just a short, prologue, I think that I can finish very high up. I'm not sure of the top TTers here, only the GC riders, and Sprinters, but something like a Top 20 could be a reasonable goal for me. And as for the team, we definitely have the strongest time trialling team, so we want to win, or atleast have lots of riders near the top to try and win the Team GC, which has a generous payout to the winner.
I was the very first guy out for Sky, so I was the guinea pig, trying to find the place to go fast, and the place where you can save a little energy (of course not a big issue with a 5km course). The fan turnout was very surprising, but it helped me going, so I'm glad for that. Being the 14th rider to start, I set the fastest Time Check time, which stayed up for almost the entire day, until Martin Reimer knocked me off.
The finish went well for me, as I powered my way over the small climb at the end, and finished with a decent time 8th overall by the time the last rider had crossed the white line. Iggy (Ignatiev) was the teams strongest rider, finishing very close to Seiberg's time. All in all it was a strong day by the whole team as we all finished fairly high up.
Results:
1
Marcel Sieberg
Omega Pharma - Lotto
8'53
2
Mikhail Ignatiev
Sky ProCycling
+ 4
3
Elia Rigotto
Acqua & Sapone
+ 10
4
Martin Reimer
Skil - Shimano
+ 12
5
Fumiyuki Beppu
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
6
Marc De Maar
Sky ProCycling
+ 14
7
Ben Swift
Sky ProCycling
s.t.
8
David Veilleux
Sky ProCycling
+ 16
9
Roman Kireyev
Pro Team Astana
s.t.
10
Sven Forberger
Team NSP
+ 17
11
Maurizio Biondo
Acqua & Sapone
+ 18
12
Andrew Pinfold
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling
s.t.
13
Ian Stannard
Sky ProCycling
+ 20
14
Pierpaolo De Negri
Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli
s.t.
15
Ariel Maximiliano Richeze
D'Angelo & Antenucci-Nippo
+ 21
16
Björn Thurau
Team NSP
s.t.
17
Justin Williams
Team Type 1
s.t.
18
Manuel Vázquez
Pro Team Astana
+ 22
19
Bernardo Riccio
D'Angelo & Antenucci-Nippo
+ 23
20
Jonathan Breyne
Landbouwkrediet
+ 24
Edit: is the new layout at the top better/worse?
Edited by valverde321 on 27-05-2011 23:29
So now we are on to the biggest Hilly Classic of the season. Its LBL, and the fans here are crazy. The overall favourite for all three races was Gilbert, but he has yet to do anything thus far. I'd say he's planning to peak for the late season classics in Canada and Italy. This race saw not very many attacks, only one huge one very late in the race. Cunego and Nibali rode away from the chasing group containing Gilbert. Cunego outsprinted Nibali and Roche sprinted to take a 3rd. The most consistent rider Cunego won this race after being 2nd in the two other races. Gilbert finished 4th, a disapointment for him for sure. Uran finished 11th a very nice result for him, and a good result for us since our company Sky, sponsor the team he rides for.
My Plan: Today is the day for me says my director. I will go into the break and try to stay clear, while also trying to get as much KoM points as I can. The stage is considered flat, but we hope we will catch some sprinters teams off guard, and then, I can do my thing. Swift might be able to survive the hills, but not too many sprinters will, if the pace is high.
And here we go, I attacked just 4km into the stage. If I want to win I will have to stay clear 182km. A couple guys join me but eventually an even larger group is formed, which will make it harder for my goal of getting lots of KoM points, possible.
Well, we get to the King of the Mountains sprint, and Mr. Watson gets a pretty nice pic of us, as I cross the sprint in first getting max KoM points on the stage, so even then I could call the day a success, but I continue on.
Fastforwarding now, to 10m left, the BOTD has been whittled apart thanks to the hills near the end of the stage, and Gourov of Astana has a nice lead. I use my descending skills to try and reack the Kazakh rider, but I am on the brink of cracking, so I have to limit my efforts.
Into the last 2km, I open out the sprint, with a small gap behind me, 2nd place looks safe for now, but I'm starting to close in on Gourov. If I can catch Gourov this would be the biggest win of my career, obviously I like my wins in Beauce better, but in terms of Race rank this would be the biggest.
But I just couldn't catch the guy. Great work by him, and obviously my manager for deciding this would be a good stage for me, and getting it right. Still a 2nd is a good finish, and I move into 1st in the Overall Classification, KoM, Points and Young Riders competition.
The stage crashed before the replay so I had to take screens.
My Plan: Today is going to be a difficult day, with lots of small climbs and a few big ones. I'm hoping, I can stay with the leaders, but I'm not sure of my climbing abilities yet since I'm not on form. In terms of my basic plan its to survive and try to stay in the sky blue as long as I can.
A break of 12 guys got clear, but I had time to relax in the peloton anyway. Beppu and Barry, followed me closely all day, and got bottles for me too.
On the last categorized climb 20 or so riders from the peloton split the group due to the high winds. De Maar and Swift made the split, but the other 5 Sky riders and I missed it. Luckily for us, Barry and Beppu brought it back in no time at all, but one rider, Arashiro managed to get a gap on everyone else and is leading the race heading towards the finish town.
My old mate, Yukiya is still hanging on to tiny gap, as he goes around the final bend. As long as we catch him to stop any time gaps, I'm more than happy to let him win.
Which, he eventually does. Great win mate, its too bad we aren't on the same team anymore. Although little did I know, there were massive bonus seconds available, and 2nd place Rigotto, is now tied with me in the GC, with me still holding the lead. Its too bad, we got caught off guard.
@lluuiiggii Well stage 4 is a hilly stage, and the rest are sprint finishes which have lots of time bonifications so if Veilleux, and Rigotto go into stage 5 with equal time, Rigotto has an advantage.
BikeRoel, and DJP Thanks
BTW, I just noticed I have 4 stars on my profile. Pretty cool.
My Plan: So today is the biggest of the remaining 5 stages, because if I lose time here, its all over. I think the team is planning to have one of our riders in the break today anyway, in case I do very badly, and then there's John-Lee who will stay in the peloton, as a reserve.
Marc De Maar was the rider in the break for us today. Later him and Moreni, of A&S escaped the sights of the other BOTD riders, and rode away pretty much all day.
Now about 3/4 of the way through the stage a weird split (I repeat I didn't team attack, it was a natural split) occured and Barry, Augustyn and Ignatiev formed a good working group, and started to eat away at the gap of the breakaway, while also furthering themselves from the peloton, which at this point is down to about 70 riders.
The three eventually make it to the breakaway, and so now Sky have 4 guys in this move with only 20km to go. Its looking good.
But they are caught pretty much inside the 1km banner, and the puncheurs, and strong sprinters fought it out for the win. Lloyd, won, and Swift shot up from 30th to the Top 15 in the sprint. Meanwhile, I managed to hang on in the peloton, and no threatening riders recieved Time bonuses so I stay in Sky Blue.
