De Brabantse Pijl Popovych surprises at Brabantse Pijl
Oldie Yaroslav Popovych took a surprise win out of the breakaway at Brabatnse Pijl. The chasing pack, around Van Avermaet, Iglinskiy, Gatto and Offredo, started too late its engine and the two lucky breakaway riders rescued themselves over the finish line in the rain of Overijse by over a minute. I rode the final kilometers of the race mostly on my own and came in 15th.
Our plan was to have Marcato as the team leader after his great services for the team in the recent races. However, as soon as we hit the cobblestones he was nowhere to be seen and Gatto and I had to think of a strategy of our own. Without a race radio, we couldn’t do much more than follow BMC and Astana as they set the pace.
With about 40 kilometers, the rain came down heavy and hard. From the once sunny course remained a fight through the mud and pave. Of course, I liked it. But I wasn’t in perfect shape anymore, still tired and exhausted from Paris-Roubaix honestly. So I just stayed a bit back, and Van Avermaet and others eventually attacked. I didn’t go with them like Gatto did, but rather decided to ride my own race and attacked a little bit later on to drop some guys.
I came in 15th. I’m not quite satisfied with my performance, there would have been way more possible. Plus, I should have watched out for Marco Marcato. He’s an experienced rider but the cobblestones have a tendency of making riders disappear into nowhere…
So I wasn’t sure if I’d even race here after Sagan crashed. Initially it didn't make much point to me. My legs ain't so good on those hills as they are on the pavé, our leader was injured and the races just another three nightmarish routes of suffering and exhaustion. Howeve my father convinced me to take advantage of the recent form and just put into those last 550 kilometers until my deserved holiday.
I’ll be riding for Moreno Moser and after Amstel Gold Race, I’ll reassess my situation. The DS has stated that I can decide for my own. The DS is delusional and without hope already, what a sad face he has when Sagan isn’t starting. Thus the DS really needs to get some confidence back soon, maybe with some nice results? In any case, there’s no reason to be unhappy after our recent performances that saw the completion of sponsor goals. So, let’s complete some others, right?
Amstel Gold Race Simon Gerrans wins Gold Race
The Australian from Orica GreenEdge probably can celebrate another great victory by taking the Gold Race out of a small group. He defied the harsh weather conditions, the oppositions many attacks and eventually came out on top by outsprinting the others on the way up the Cauberg.
For us at Cannondale, this race was an assessement how things would work out without Sagan. Turns out: It wasn’ so bad. I had the job to protect Moreno Moser from everything. And I mean everything. Some crashes, wind and rain, freezing, hypothermia. The whole freaking deal. I like to think I did a decent enough job in my first Ardennes classic.
The awful rain early on kept changing but eventually it was here to stay. What was also quite obvious that the favourites didn’t want to wait until Cauberg. Many attacks split up the peloton and heated up the race. I couldn’t follow the attacks and raced calm in a group to the finish, while up front the guys were battling it out. At around those 20 kilometer mark, Moser had to try it on his own to catch up to Valverde, Martin, Gerrans & Co. They had about 40 seconds lead on the peloton and Lotto and Astana just couldn’t get any closer to them. Moser’s move didn’t bring him to them but instead of being caught in no man’s land, his brave attack allowed him to race at his own pace. That was enough to snatch a sweet fantastic 7th place as he arrived on his own on the Cauberg, over a minute behind today’s winner Gerrans.
While Moser can be seen here achieving the 7th place on his way up the Cauberg, I was merely a pawn for today and thus can’t complain about my 44th rank. As I said, I still feel fatigued from Paris-Roubaix and all those northern classics. With Amstel Gold Race being so tough, it doesn’t help my recovery but I decide to keep on riding the Ardennes.
Impressions
Spoiler
Ready for the rain.
Crashes are part of the deal. Luckily, it wasn't me.
La Fleche Wallone Martin takes Mur de Huy the fastest!
Mur de Huy saw an intense finish of various high-class riders as Irishman Daniel Martin further increases his classics count by taking La Fleche Wallone. His Acceleration put him up front on the last kilometer and he crushed the steepest part and got quite a gap on his opposition. Rui Costa came in 2nd and may suffer his own curse of the rainbow jersey. The World Champion just couldn’t get past Martin in the finale and was missing the last percentages of power. Diego Ulissi lead the bunch over the Mur.
It was the same job as last time for me: Protect Moser until no more. La Fleche Wallone is a different race compared to Amstel Gold Race though and race tactics rarely do work twice as great as last time.
The race wasn’t particularly tough but somehow none of our teammates made it to the 30 KM Mark in the peloton. They were all dropped and we were on our own at that point. Sharks all around us, lots of them. Of course the first thing I did was to catch necessary bottles for Moser and then we had to wait for the finale. Or so, I thought.
Valverde, who’s in some stellar form, surprised everybody by attacking a bit far out, when 20 kilometers still remained. His attack saw quite some nervous stares in the peloton, but thanks to the work of Tinkoff Saxo, the Spaniard was caught.
In the ensuing fight for position, Rui Costa and Daniel Martin prevailed the best and received a bit of a lead thanks to Ulissi not holding the pace for a few seconds. That was enough for them to get the clear and stray away to fight it out. Moreno Moser finished 13th, I myself landed a rank way far out on 83th.
I fought up my way in zig-zag manner. Jeez, Mur de Huy is one steep S.O.B. Climbing it one time might be okay, but three times seems like unnecessary torture and Belgian pretentiousness. “Look at our awesome climbs, you should ride it 3 times!”… Well, they do have awesome climbs, and so I have tired legs.
But alas: Two down, one more to go.
Impressions
Spoiler
La Fleche Wallone, Results
Unfortunately both the export file for Fleche Wallone and L-B-L are corrupted or at least don't open,
Thansk mate. Nah, Moser will keep his leader role, I'm not much worth at Fleche Wallone usually.
Thankfully it wasn't Raphael but a teammate (no idea who in particular). When Raphael crashes, there will be lots of images about it.
Also on another note: I noticed that my DB is very weird looking so I think I'll "reboot" the story in the year 2015.
Edited by Shonak on 28-03-2014 19:06
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Oh, the Old one. A mythical creature of cycling. Either love it – or hate it. Some guys think Ardennes races are boring? The hell with them. This is a treasure of cycling everybody wants to win, and most of all I want to win it. But we all start in the small way and thus I continue to lend my support to Moreno Moser in hopes of another Top 10 finish.
Our team saw several riders calling it quits before the race. Koren and Gatto deserved a stay at home for once, while Villela, Marino and De Marchi join in the finale mix of things. The race starts slow and riders want to take it easy for the 100 kilometers, however when roughly at the half-point the peloton splits. Mohoric and I are working for Moser to make the race fast, but it didn’t work out. Roughly 10 kms later, the peloton is back together thanks to Tinkoff Saxo.
It took time again until the race really started heating up after our incident then. Henao, Kangert and Horner placed multiple attacks and they sure made the race interesting at that point. The original breakaway couldn’t hold up with them of course, but neither did the peloton for a while.
When Gilbert attacked at La Redute, Moser and me were upfront. A big list of favourites up ahead were riding crazy like a bunch of teenage girls. All just rode without head.
I wanted to lose my head too and had to follow Gilbert but the Belgian was just too fast. Moser however took on the hunt. I was inspired by that I admit that and so I tried my own thing to reach Gilbert. It didn’t work out and I just powered myself out. However, Moser was close to being part of the finale.
There were multiple groups at that point. Moser found his group in Horner and soon after, all those top riders came together and they worked together to keep the peloton at bay. Moser’s group was together with Gilbert, who was for a while the race leader.
The group consisted at that point of former break riders Henao, Horner and Tangert as well as Valverde, Purito, Dan Martin, Philipp Gilbert and Moreno Moser. The group had enough gap to lay a bit of tactical games. Oddly enough, while Lampre Merida had two riders at the front of the race (Rui Costa, Horner), none of them did any work. Quite a lame attitude, however I wasn’t part of the finale so I don’t complain. Moser must have kept himself always aware as he head into the finale up Ans with a great position as I saw in the post-race video. However, he was missing the desired punch and couldn’t hold up with Purito, who finally got his long deserved La Doyenne victory. Moser finished 5th, a great race by him, and overall a very enjoyable edition of La Doyenne.
For me, La Doyenne also marks the end of my early season. It was a pleasure and La Doyenne has left me once more exhausted and with a desire to win it one day as payback. I achieved a 33rd place, so the oldest one certainly has been the kindest of all those Ardennes classics to me.
I’ll return to racing either at the National Championships or Clasica San Sebastian, however I’ll keep you updated on the upcoming Grand Tours.
Ian Butler wrote:
How do you mean, reboot the story? And what's odd with the database?
It's because I havn't sorted everything out with the game itself when I started the story. I think I kept the original XML files (but I'm not sure). In any case, there are way too high potential stats and it's a hassle to change all of that.
With rebott I mean, that I take over stuff like major WT transfers and development of the biggest talents into a new career and (re)start from 2015. I like to keep a coherent career but the game's just way too screwed in a potential outlook. Better sort out the problem now rathern than later.
Of course anything that happened in this story is "canon", thus Tommeke won 5 times Paris-Roubaix, Purito got his big Liege win and so on.
EDIT Of course I'll also take over every progress Raphael made during this road season. Edited by Shonak on 28-03-2014 19:16
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
