valverde321 wrote:
Wow, huge time losses there, after what was turning out to be a pretty good race for the team. Perhaps a stage win could consolidate the race.
Ya only good thing is that it add to the realism that Jon Izagirre can't fight against that level of competitors. He exploded completely on that cat.3.
Edited by Tamijo on 10-09-2019 21:54
From Eibar we move northwest over the first climb at the village San Migel, reaching Markina-Xemein we turn right up to the coast at Ondarroa, then southeast passing two more minor climbs before we start the hard cat.1 Alto de Azurki. Downhill we are heading for a sprint in Elgoibar finishing the first and largest circuit and then south almost back to Eibar starting the final circuit including the two last climbs, first the very steep cat.1 Karakate and finally cat.2 Asensio and its 2nd top Karableta before its downhill with less than 7 km to the finish line.
The entire stage is run in the Basque Mountains at west side of Guipúzcoa province.
The now 44 years old Pedro Horrillo was born in Eibar, Horrillo was riding as a pro from 1998 – 2009 claiming 8 professional wins.
On 16 May 2009, during Giro d'Italia he missed a curve in the descent of the Colle San Pietro and fell 60 meters into a ravine, he was alone when the crash happened, found because his bike had clung onto the railing by the roadside. Unbelievable lucky he survived but with serious injuries, this was his last professional race day.
Horrillo with teammates Bauke Mollema , Paul Martens and Mathew Hayman
Race
15°C and raining at the start area, with almost no wind.
George Bennett (Jumbo) opens the race, Daniel Navarro Garcia and Mikel Landa at his wheel. Landa takes the early KoM, a group of 8 riders including Astana’s Jakob Fuglsang and KoM leader Omar Fraile chasing.
Between the two first climbs Enrico Gasparotto (Dimension Data) bridge the gap to the leading group, Bennett takes the 2nd KoM.
New Zealander George Bennett (29) won Tour of California 2017, the first New Zealander to win a GC at World Tour level. This was Bennett only professional victory
Fuglsang and Fraile never make it to the leading group and a reeled in by the favourite group at the cat.1, which is already reduced to just 26 riders.
Enrico Gasparotto first over Alto de Azurki (cat.1), soon after the original breakaway was reeled in.
On Karableta (cat.1) Ion Izagirre attacks with Michael Woods at wheel, Izagirre wins the KoM and the duo got 38” after the downhill, but so far Woods have not been willing to work at all.
Ion Izagirre best season result was 2nd behind Nairo Quintana in Tirreno – Adriatico
Michael Woods attack and drops Ion Izagirre, but the Basque grind himself back and now its Izagirre at Woods wheel, the acceleration further increase the gap to almost a minute but the time they start the final climb.
The favourite group speed up on the last climb and they are caught with 1.5 km to the top, Simon Clarke (Education) takes the KoM.
An attack from Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) split the leading group starting the downhill we got: Valverde – Martínez – Izagirre – S. Yates – Pinot – Kelderman in front
At 11”: Martin, Cháves, Thomas, Woods, Quintana.
At 36”: Froome, Soler, Clarke, Wellens
Simon Yates strongest today, he wins the stage in front of Daniel Felipe Martínez and Wilco Kelderman, the trio have opened a 19” gap on the final kilometres, Ion Izagirre wins the sprint in the next group for 4th.
With this Simon Yates has the same time as Geraint Thomas, but Thomas keeps his GC lead with .10’s of seconds and wins Itzulia Basque Country with the smallest margin you could imagine after 6 stages and 737 hard kilometres.
This was Simon Yates first season win and the first win since he won the GC in La Vuelta last season
Astana Pro Team
On stage level a fine day, but we lost the KoM, we got no stage wins and we finished way down the GC, a result below the level Astana should have in any stage race, not good enough.
Result Stage
1
Simon Yates
Mitchelton-Scott
3h18'27
2
Daniel Felipe Martínez
EF Education First p/b Cannondale
s.t.
3
Wilco Kelderman
Team Sunweb
s.t.
4
Ion Izagirre
Astana Pro Team
+ 19
5
Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
s.t.
6
Geraint Thomas
Team Sky
s.t.
7
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
s.t.
8
Esteban Cháves
Mitchelton-Scott
s.t.
9
Daniel Martin
UAE Team Emirates
s.t.
10
Michael Woods
EF Education First p/b Cannondale
s.t.
Spoiler
4
Ion Izagirre
+ 19
30
Jakob Fuglsang
+ 8'06
31
Pello Bilbao
+ 8'06
39
Omar Fraile
+ 8'23
41
Jan Hirt
+ 8'31
63
Laurens De Vreese
+ 11'56
GC
1
Geraint Thomas
Team Sky
19h11'36
2
Simon Yates
Mitchelton-Scott
s.t.
3
Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
+ 23
4
Chris Froome
Team Sky
+ 1'22
5
Esteban Cháves
Mitchelton-Scott
+ 2'04
6
Wilco Kelderman
Team Sunweb
+ 2'38
7
Daniel Felipe Martínez
EF Education First p/b Cannondale
+ 2'42
8
Tim Wellens
Lotto Soudal
+ 5'01
9
Daniel Martin
UAE Team Emirates
+ 5'31
10
Nairo Quintana
Movistar Team
+ 6'00
Spoiler
14
Ion Izagirre
+ 7'55
27
Jakob Fuglsang
+ 16'11
37
Pello Bilbao
+ 18'39
39
Jan Hirt
+ 19'37
44
Omar Fraile
+ 22'19
71
Laurens De Vreese
+ 33'31
Points
1
Thibaut Pinot
Groupama - FDJ
60
2
Geraint Thomas
Team Sky
59
3
Ion Izagirre
Astana Pro Team
54
KoM
1
George Bennett
Team Jumbo-Visma
24
2
Simon Clarke
EF Education First p/b Cannondale
22
3
Omar Fraile
Astana Pro Team
18
Team: Mitchelton - Scott
Young: Daniel Felipe Martínez (EF Education First)
The Story is on hold as we are getting close to 2019 real life season end, an it would be a good time to upgrade the database to reflect the actual skill’s of the riders we have seen over the last season.
From an Astana point, it means that we will get a more competitive squad on the slopes with Jacob now a top Puncher as well as a fairly good stage racer and Lopez now also a slightly stronger GC rider, and as a climber better than Jacob. But at the same time we will see Magnus move down from being a top sprinter to a more realistic semi good sprinter,
But this also means that many other riders will been adjusted so that we will see riders like Bernal, Pogačar and Carapaz amongst best GT contenders. Sagan will be slightly more human and new stars in sprinter heaven will take over like Ackermann and Ewan.
All in all I want to update about 150 riders so might take a little time but I hope it will make a more interesting story.
Good luck. I do the same in my story from time to time, but mostly only the bigger names. I usually leave the younger riders like Pogacar to develop on their own too, since they'll improve for sure anyway.
7/4 Oscar Rodriguez - Gran Premio Miguel Indurain
7/4 Fabio Jakobsen – Volta Limburg Classic
8/4 Onur Balkan -Tour of Mevlana
8/4 Diego Ulissi - Vuelta a La Rioja
8/4 Thomas Boudat - Trophée Harmonie Mutuelle
8/4 Marko Kump – GP Adria Mobil
8/4 Luc Wirtgen – Trofeo PIVA
8/4 Kyle Murphy – Joe Martin Stage Race
9/4 Jacob Hindsgaul Madsen - Monts et Châteaux
14/4 Marius Mayrhofer (Sunweb dev.) - Ronde van Vlaanderen
14/4 Thymen Arensman – Trofeo Edil C
14/4 Antoine Duchesne – Circuit Cycliste Sarthe
Injuries Astana (14/4):
Name
Weeks
Dario Cataldo
4
Davide Ballerini
4
2/4 - Jonas Gregaard – fully recovered.
14/4 Luis León Sánchez – fully recovered.
Other Important riders with serious injuries after Itzulia Basque Country:
Name
Team
Weeks
Luke Rowe
Team Sky
9
Nikias Arndt
Team Sunweb
9
Michal Kwiatkowski
Team Sky
8
Nils Politt
Team Katusha- Alpecin
7
Tom Jelte Slagter
Team Dimension Data
6
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck-Quick Step
5
Lukasz Wisniowski
CCC Team
5
Giacomo Nizzolo
Team Dimension Data
5
Ben Swift
Team Sky
5
Sonny Colbrelli
Bahrain - Merida
4
Florian Senechal
Deceuninck-Quick Step
4
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
3
Gianluca Brambilla
Trek - Segafredo
3
Tony Gallopin
Ag2r La Mondiale
3
Oliver Naesen
Ag2r La Mondiale
2
Fernando Gaviria
UAE Team Emirates
1
Nacer Bouhanni
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
1
Rafal Majka
BORA - hansgrohe
1
David De la Cruz
Team Sky
1
Daniel Oss
BORA - hansgrohe
1
Marcus Burghardt
BORA - hansgrohe
1
Emanuel Buchmann
BORA - hansgrohe
1
Ruben Guerreiro
Team Katusha- Alpecin
1
Bryan Coquard
Vital Concept - B&B Hotels
days
In a press releases (14/4) Team Sky have announced that after a high-speed crash into a wall while training, Chris Froome was hospitalised with a series of fractures, he is not expected to be racing for several months, likely also to miss Tour De France.
10/4 Scheldeprijs (1.HC)
Antwerpen – Schoten 198.1 km
After a few failed attempts we get a stable breakaway of 6 riders, building a lead of just under 4 minutes, but with more than 130 km left the pack already start to cut down the distance. Astana’s Rodrigo Contreras part of the riders taking turns at the front.
About to hit the first cobbled sector distance reduced to 1’45 and the break was over with more than 20 Km left.
A late attack from Søren Kragh Andersen and Mathieu Van der Poel from 15 km, reduce the leading group to 32 riders, and starts a series of attacks and counter attacks, but it comes to a sprint between a relative large group.
Dylan Groenewegen in front of Peter Sagan and Elia Viviani
Magnus Cort Nielsen with an acceptable 4th.
2018: Peter Sagan - 2017: Greg Van Avermaet - 2016: Mathew Hayman
Squad:
Alexey Lutsenko - Magnus Cort Nielsen - Laurens De Vreese
Hugo Houle - Yevgeniy Gidich - Artyom Zakharov – Andrey Zeits
Expectations:
With Alexey Lutsenko lately focusing his training more towards cobbled races we expect a result between top 10 and 20 from him, considering the top class riders he will be facing here, Magnus Cort Nielsen is somewhat tired after his early season but just in ok shape for this race, after which he will enter a longer break only interrupted with one race day in Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Wow, nice to see this back! I've been hoping it would return one day! Paris - Roubaix will be tough to win, but with good daily form I think Lutsenko could do it.
Also not sure if you added Froome's injury or not, but quite realistic
valverde321 wrote:
Wow, nice to see this back! I've been hoping it would return one day! Paris - Roubaix will be tough to win, but with good daily form I think Lutsenko could do it.
Also not sure if you added Froome's injury or not, but quite realistic
Thanks
Yes I fixed a "Froome crash" to make a more realistic 2019 without him, just did it a bit early as I was in the process of DB update anyway and he did not make any important result in 2019 in real life. Will bring him back at some point, not sure when right now.
Paris – Roubaix was first run in 1896 from Porte Maillot in Paris to Roubaix with a total of 280 km, the race was created by Théodore Vienne and Maurice Perez, they also had the velodrome built which opened in 1895.
The start has been moved several times, latest start in Paris was 1939, from 1977 the start was moved to Compiègne about 80 km north of Paris, where it still starts. A city of about 100.000 people located at the west edge of the huge forest Forêt de Compiègne at the banks of Oise river. In roman times Compiègne was an important crossing point of the river, protected by a fortification.
Two riders have won the race four times Roger De Vlaeminck (1972, 1974, 1975, 1977) and Tom Boonen (2005, 2008, 2009, 2012)
Top 5 media favorites:
Niki Terpstra (Direct Energie) Sep Vanmarcke (Education First) Yves Lampaert (Deceuninck) Greg Van Avermaet (CCC) Alexander Kristoff (UAE)
Compiègne town hall, constructed from 1511-1530, the town hall was gradually completed, allowing the first meeting to be held in 1513
Race
The weather is changeable and not bad for the season, a few drops of rain at the start but not heavily wet roads, just a light breeze from west, and temperatures around 12°C.
Leonardo Basso (Sky) opens the race, somewhat unusual considering the importance ofg the race, we do not get the huge morning fighting, just 13 riders attempting to get away, and just 9 riders making it into the breakaway hitting the first cobbled sector.
Most prominent Gianni Moscon (Sky) and Stefan Küng (Groupama), Astana has Hugo Houle in the breakaway. After the first few cobbled sectors we also get a breakaway attempt from Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck) and Lars Boom (Roompot-Charles) but that duo never gets a clear gap and only produce the first few groups dropped by the pack duo to the higher pace provoked.
Leonardo Basso was dropped after about 50 km, swallowed before the cobbles
25 years old Italian Leonardo Basso first to try his fortune, Basso came 9th in Trofeo Laigueglia in February, his best result 7th in Gran Premio Bruno Beghelli last season
From here we get the expected race with a pack slowly thinning out, Magnus Cort dropped with about 72 km left leaving Alexey Lutsenko alone in a pack of 48 riders, the breakaway at this point just three riders Gianni Moscon, Stefan Küng and Hugo Houle with a gap of just 52”, Hugo Houle fall back to help.
Edvald Boasson Hagen with a daring acceleration on the cobbles from 63 km, bridge to Moscon and Küng. With 51 km left this new trio has 41”, and they out of the blue on dry stones we get a huge crash at the front of the pack, taking down 19 riders and blocking another 8th, on the tarmac Alberto Bettiol, Dylan Van Baarle, Greg Van Avermaet, Jasper Stuyven, Niki Terpstra, Sep Vanmarcke, Tiesj Benoot, Wout Van Aert, Yves Lampaert, Zdeněk Štybar and many other strong riders.
Now just 8 riders in what is now the first group, as the morning breakaway was caught right after the crash. Alexander Kristoff (UAE) Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) Arnaud Démare (Groupama) Edvald Boasson Hagen (Dimension Data) John Degenkolb (Trek – Segafredo) Peter Sagan (BORA) Stijn Vandenbergh (Ag2r) Søren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb)
A huge crash may turn Paris - Roubaix upside down
Now we get a frantic fight, between two major stars of the cobbles, Peter Sagan putting the hammer down in the leading group, Niki Terpstra doing the same in the pursuit, everyone else just praying to hang in.
This continues over 27 brutal kilometres until finally most of the better cobblers bridge to the 8 riders previously leading, forming a new 18 rider favourite group, with exactly four and a half cobbled sectors and 23.3 km left to the finish line.
The top favorites close to group Sagan
A few km later we get a daring attack from John Degenkolb, a somewhat strange strategy as he is one of the best sprinters in the group.
Degenkolb was reeled in, but in the process, we get a split. Wout Van Aert literally exploded losing time very fast, but also a group of 10 with Zdeněk Štybar, Søren Kragh Andersen, Jasper Stuyven and Alexey Lutsenko has lost about 20”, leaving the lead to Niki Terpstra, Greg Van Avermaet, Sep Vanmarcke, Peter Sagan, Yves Lampaert, Alexander Kristoff and John Degenkolb
Group Štybar close the gap with 13 km left, but just as they where hoping for a moment to breath, counter attack from Sep Vanmarcke
30 years old Sep Vanmarcke best result in Paris-Roubaix was two times 4th in 2016 and 2014, we came 3rd in this year’s Ronde van Vlaanderen
Vanmarcke get to Roubaix Velodrome with 33”, but he has mistimed it a little bit and gets caught within the last km. It comes down to a reduced sprint between the mentioned 17 riders.
Jasper Stuyven (Trek – Segafredo) clearly the stronger today winning Paris – Roubaix with a brilliant sprint.
Jasper Stuyvens best result in Paris – Roubaix was 4th in 2017, his best season result so far 3rd in Gent-Wevelgem. With his best result overall previously being Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne 2016, this is without contest his best career result.
26 year old Belgian Jasper Stuyven wins Paris-Roubaix after a disappointing 2018 as 27th. The other riders around him, all behind with a lap
Alexander Kristoff 2nd and Yves Lampaert 3rd, Alexey Lutsenko finish 7th.
Emanuel Buchmann (BORA), Frederik Frison (Lotto Soudal), Dries Devenyns (Deceuninck) , Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa – Samsic) and Marcus Burghardt (BORA) crashed out of Paris – Roubaix, only Dries Devenyns with heavier injuries
Astana Pro Team
A top 10 result here much more than we expected, obviously helped by the unusual circumstances with the huge crash but a little luck is often a part of good results.
Looks like an exciting race, but a shame it usually ends with such a large group, despite that never really happening in real ife. Lutsenko with a really good result though. A good result that he can work on beating in the years to come.
Was surely an exciting race to run, especially with Alexey in that 8 riders group that survived the crash, but I think it was fine that the favorites got back, not to get a very crazy result. Stuyven winning was a small surprise but not too crazy, all in all a reasonable top 10.
Not sure Alexey will every be a P-R winner, too many good youngsters on the way towards the cobblers heaven
Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (WT) 16/4-21/4 2019
6 stages - 941 km
The race has just been a part became part of the UCI World Tour since 2017, before that a 2HC since 2010.
Latest Winners:
2018: Eduard Prades - 2017: Diego Ulissi - 2016: José Gonçalves
Squad:
Sánchez first race after his injury, but he should be in ok shape, Jakob Fuglsang on the other hand, at a form curve low just starting to build up to a Giro peak.
Jakob Fuglsang - Luis León Sánchez - Jan Hirt
Pello Bilbao - Merhawi Kudus - Hernando Bohórquez - Daniil Fominykh
Expectations:
With a relative weak start list this is a win goal, a podium would be acceptable anything less a huge disappointment
Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (WT) 16/4-21/4 2019
Stage 1: Konya – Konya 149.7 km
This season the tour departure city is Konya, amongst the largest cities in turkey with a population of over 2.1 million, known to have existed as far back as 1500 BC as part of the Hittite empire. The City is located in the south-western edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau close to the northern most part of the Taurus Mountains.
19°C and sunny, with just a light breeze, the stage consists of some flat km in the Konya area, but at the the mid-section we will visit the village Kızılören in the outskirts of the Taurus mountains, with some climbing and KoM points involved, where we will find the first overnight KoM holder.
Top 5 media favorites:
Alexander Kristoff (UAE) Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) Pascal Ackermann (BORA) John Degenkolb (Trek)
Alâeddin Mosque was constructed between 12th and 13th centurie, containing the mausoleum for the Rûm sultanate dynasty
Race
Fumiyuki Beppu (Trek) opens the stage with Nickolas Dlamini (Dimension Data) at wheel, a few other riders attempt to join, only Ben Perry (Israël) succeeded joining the breakaway.
Japanese veteran Fumiyuki Beppu, just turned 36 a few days ago. Despite having raced at WT level since 2010 he have no victories besides national and regional Championships
Perry attacked early on the climb passing with 36” to his breakaway mates. The pack another 1’59” behind.
25 years old Canadien Ben Perry came to Israel Cycling Academy in 2018 after two years at Continental team Silber Pro Cycling, his best result was 2nd in the GC of Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay (2.2) back in 2016
Astana is not expecting anything form a flat stage like this, but they are working with Hernando Bohórquez and Daniil Fominykh to indicate they are a top GC team and won’t like to see any gaps today. The distance stabilizes around two minutes.
The Peloton keeps a high pace
The breakaway is over before the 2nd climb, allowing Massimo Rosa (Neri Sottoli) to take the KoM by a late attack with teammate Luca Raggio
23 years old Italian Massimo Rosa got his first contract with PTC team Wilier Triestina in 2018, he is yet to have a notable result in a professional race
It comes down to a mass sprint in Konya, a photo finish featuring Dylan Groenewegen in front of Pascal Ackermann and Fabio Jakobsen, with Caleb Ewan and Daniel McLay also very close.
Dylan Groenewegen had a pretty good spring, winning two stages and the points jersey in Tirreno – Adriatico, he also won Scheldepries. With today’s win adding to a total of 39 professional victory
Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (WT) 16/4-21/4 2019
Stage 2: Alanya - Antalya 150.9 km
The 2nd stage win be run between Alanya and Antalya along the Mediterranean cost, both large and popular resort locations. Antalya clearly the largest both in population and popularity with 1.2 million inhabitants and more than 12 million tourists a year.
Resent excavations seem to prove that Attaleia was founded in the 3rd century BC or earlier, but according to tradition King Attalus II of the powerful Greek Pergamon city state founded the city (159-138 BC) and it was also named after him.
16°C and partly clouded, we got windspeeds at 32-38 km/hour coming from the sea, this will result in crosswind on most of the stage, will be important to stay alert with break in the peloton being a possibility. Besides the danger of crosswind riding, a very flat easy route today.
Top 5 media favorites:
Alexander Kristoff (UAE) Caleb Ewan (Lotto Soudal) Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) Pascal Ackermann (BORA) John Degenkolb (Trek)
Antalya with Hıdırlık Tower, believed to be built by Romans in the 2nd century
Race
We get a few short-lived attempts including amongst many others Astana’s Hernando Bohórquez, but the first group to get some distance was initiated by Mitchelton-Scott’s Jack Bauer, with him Edwin Avila (Israël) Jérôme Cousin (Direct Energie) and Nathan Van Hooydonck (CCC), these riders will form todays breakaway.
35 years old New Zealander Jack Bauers best season result was 2nd in national championships ITT. Has best overall result was winning Japan Cup Cycle Road Race (1.HC) in 2013, a controversial race originally won by Michael Rogers who later tested positive for clenbuterol
The crosswind makes the teams nervous and we got a very long paceline everyone wan’t to have one-two riders up front in case of a split. We are about half way through, the gap is around two minutes.
Astana with Hernando Bohórquez, Daniil Fominykh and Merhawi Kudus in the paceline
The breakaway was reeled in exactly as we are about to pass the only intermediate sprint with 47 km left, allowing the sprinter to get a shot at the points, Christophe Laporte (Cofidis) just able to get the 3 points in front of Nathan Van Hooydonck from the breakaway, race leader Groenewegen takes the last point.
26 years old French Christophe Laporte came to Cofidis in 2014 after three years at low level teams: Best season result 7th in E3 Harelbeke, amongst his best results are two times winner of Tour de Vendée (1.1) 2015 & 2017
There was some crosswind attacks by some teams over the last part of the race and the pack was stretched out, but the rubber band did not break and it came to a mass sprint finish, or rather it could have been a mass sprint if Danny Van Poppel (Jumbo-Visma) haven’t dared to accelerate from 1.8 km, leaving all team trains behind.
25 years old Danny van Poppel born in Utrecht, Netherlands, came to fame with a stage win the Vuelta a España 2015 just 22 years old, with today’s victory he has 16 professional wins. This was his first season victory and he haven’t got other really noteworthy season results
