In Qúébec we saw Rudy in the way we know and love him.
He did his best to challenge the big boys by attacking and in the end lacked a tiny bit in the sprint. Still a decent result, especially considering how crappy the rest of the team was!
Québec Results
1
Rui Costa
Movistar Team
4h58'25
11
Rudy Verboven
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ '17
61
Mikel Nieve
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 3'25
91
Pablo Urtasun
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 4'44
95
Miguel Mínguez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
101
Jure Kocjan
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
106
Juan José Oroz
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
107
Pello Bilbao
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
110
Ricardo García
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
In Montréal we once again rode for Rudy, this time teh team did a better job and Romain even managed to show his NC-jersey!
Once again Rudy tried to follow Gilbert in the attacking and once again he has to realise he's not quite on th level of the world champion yet...
We finished the Vuelta with some slightly good stages, though the closes we got to a win was Ion’s 2nd place on stage 15. Also our goal of a GC top 10 was taken in peace and quiet thanks to Samuel’s routine.
Tour de Pologne on the other hand was a complete and utter disaster. Sure Cristiano rode a solid race but without a single point scored it’s hard to really call a 12th place in the GC a fullblown success…
Tre Vali Varesine was better, even though we were hardly calling the shots. A man in the break and an anonymous 10th place to Igor and a 13th place to Rudy was what we got home from Italy.
GP Plouay was one of those races where we didn’t know what to expect and in the end another crash for Rudy decided that it would end up in a day of nothingness…
Fortunately he recovered well from his crash to get a solid 7th place in Fourmies. The UCI wanted us to get a podium but that was never really on the table so we are happy every point we get.
GP de Wallonie was another Rudy-race and he just keeps getting better though he’s not quite where he can match Gilbert and Henao yet. It did give him some good drive in his legs, which he put to good use in Brussels cycling classic finishing 4th in the sprint.
After traveling to Canada Rudy continued trying hard to impress. In Québec he got close with an 11th place, while Gilbert managed to crack him completely in Montréal. Still he’s young and it’s only his first pro season so there’s no shame in being weaker than the world champion!
Rankings
First Name
Last Name
Days
Points
Samuel
Sánchez
19
232
Rudy
Verboven
7
106
Ion
Izagirre
14
72
Igor
Antón
15
44
Gorka
Verdugo
19
32
Juan José
Lobato
19
28
Rubén
Pérez
4
28
Spoiler
Egoi
Martínez
14
16
Adrián
Sáez de Arregi
15
10
Pablo
Urtasun
4
10
Miguel
Mínguez
15
0
Mikel
Astarloza
14
0
Ioannis
Tamouridis
14
0
Pello
Bilbao
11
0
Gorka
Izagirre
11
0
Jon
Aberasturi
7
0
Cristiano
de las Campos
7
0
Jure
Kocjan
7
0
Robert
Vrecer
7
0
Jorge
Azanza
6
0
Ricardo
García
6
0
Ricardo
Mestre
6
0
Garikoitz
Bravo
5
0
Tarik
Chaoufi
4
0
Romain
Sicard
3
0
Juan José
Oroz
2
0
Mikel
Nieve
1
0
Stefan
Radochla
1
0
André
Schulze
1
0
Riders not mentioned did not race this month. Full rankings can be found in post #2
Rider of the Month
This month saw several good results, but one rider did something truly exceptional scoring points in 5 of 7 races and several times being close to equaling the world champion along the way!
Rudy Verboven
Coming Up
Il Lombardia will be the last big pointscoring event of the tear where we hopefully will see Antón and Sánchez lead the team to success.
Rudy will continue his spree of late-season classics pretty much wherever one of those is ridden.
The final WT-race of the year is in Beijing where Nieve will get a final chance to prove that he deserves to be in a leading role on the team next year as well.
All in all we need to scrape together as many points as possible whereever we can.
Something Basque
This month we will have a look to one of our neighbours, who have a situation not unsimilar to ours: Catalunya.
In the parallel universe known as the real world they are about to have a much desputed vote of independence from Spain. As usual the government in madrid are doing everything to avoid it and thus we feel our fates interconnect.
This documentary should help understand the background of our Brothers in Arms a bit better.
Nobody really cares for points anymore, except for the relegation battle.
Makes the finale at least a bit interesting.
Edited by Silvio Herklotz on 07-11-2014 15:45
To be honest, a lot of teams are closer then the ones you mention. But Belkin wants to be on the podium and Euskaltel wants to stay in the WT, so that will be the important ones
Ollfardh wrote:
To be honest, a lot of teams are closer then the ones you mention. But Belkin wants to be on the podium and Euskaltel wants to stay in the WT, so that will be the important ones
I'm intrigued as to how close we are
I have a feeling it might be very few points deciding who gets to stay and who needs to go so knowing the gaps would increase the tension for the final races a bit further...
And yes I do care A LOT about the points!
Edited by Atlantius on 07-11-2014 16:16
For the 8th race of the series we will do the same as in the 2nd: Compete in something we usually suck at.
The hope is that doing this will help the locals get better at this and have fewer embarrassing moments in the main races.
This time around we will be racing a Team Time Trial on the same route that was used in Volta Ciclista a Catalunya 2005 and 2006.
The route is a fairly flat 22 km trip around Salou where the team will be given the time of the 5th rider crossing. As not all teams have five rides in the series there have been a series of one-off mergers based on history of the riders and team nationality. The mergers have formed like this:
RadioShack and Garmin – Sharp: The only two American teams here. Movistar and Sky: López and Zandio both used to ride for Movistar/Caisse d'Epargne. Orica, Ipparalde and Cofidis: The French teams combined with Keukeleire having raced for Cofidis previously. Saunier Duval: The two remaining riders Durán and Garate rode together on Saunier Duval in 2005. They will get a reunion with three other still active riders form that team to make it a full 5. Caja Rural and NetApp: To make everything fit...
Obviously the points system has also been adjusted for this one. A total amount of points will be given to the team but spread over the riders finishing in the “team time” only meaning that if 5 riders finish together in 2nd best time they get 50 points in total allocated as 10 points each.
Québec has a decent shot at a result today with Veilleux and Houle leading the charge.
With RadioShack/Koldo following right after we will surely get a time to aim for early on as the four RadioShack riders have more TT-depth than most other teams here though no real powerhouse.
Duran, Gárate and friends just manages to beat the intermediate time of the local Basque teams, but they are nowhere near the North Americans. As could expected you might add.
Euskaltel-Euskadi have big hopes for today when it comes to getting Ion back on top of the rankings.
At the intermediate time they are 3rd best, but could possibly get some advantage of being more riders to share the load towards the end.
Movistar/Sky aren’t quite as many, but they have the advantage of two real powerhouses in Castroviejo and Intxausti and has to be counted among the favourites today.
2nd fastest at the intermediate.
Camaño leads Caja Rural towards the intermediate in 5th best time.
Orica are usually rather good at TTT’s but this team is less than impressive…
Even David Millars Scotland are looking much better today even though they also are far from best intermediate time.
The home team makes the most of it and takes best intermediate less than a second ahead of RadioShack. With Purito being their strongest TT’ist I dare say it’s something of a surprise. The question is if they’ll be able to keep it up.
Meanwhile it’s obvious that RadioShack went out too strong as they first get beaten in finish by Eus-Euskadi and then right after by Movistar as well.
Euskaltel – Navarre are looking less than aerodynamic in spite of having a couple of riders who were part of Euskaltel’s good TTT at the Vuelta.
Vlaanderen have decided to make some publisuty for Rudy Verboven with their helmets today. Sadly enough their intermediate time indicates they have left a bit too much for him.
Flecha leads Catalunya over the line in 3rd best time 19 seconds slower than Euskaltel-Euskadi and 1 seconds slower than Movistar.
Euskaltel-Navarre have really gotten things moving in the final part and finishes in exactly the same time as Movistar. What a surprise!
Vlaanderen are not quite as miraculous but still manage to push RadioShack down to 6th place after what long looked like a winning time from the American outfit.
knockout wrote:
It's so close between Intxausti and and Ion at the top of the overall ranking.
Do you have an idea of how many races will follow?
(I want to see Benat winning the series before he possibly leaves my team )
They really do a great job of building up the tension! There will probably just be one more race this season to decide it all. I don't know which though...
Milano - Torino was one of those races where had to chase our luck.
Ioannis made sure to get in the break, but that's about as much as can be said about our race.
The break was caught and we wre nowhere in the finale.
Results
1
Rui Costa
Movistar Team
4h44'03
44
Gorka Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 3'16
46
Cristiano De las Campos
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
54
Ricardo García
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 3'54
55
Ioannis Tamouridis
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
61
Jure Kocjan
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 4'23
73
Pello Bilbao
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 5'34
108
Tarik Chaoufi
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 8'42
115
Stefan Radochla
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 9'42
Of all the cobbles-less classics this is our least feavourite, but we hope Verboven can get away from here with a few points.
Early on Rudy even got a puncture to make things worse.
We didn't manage to repair the damage and it ends in a day to forget for everyone on the team.
Results
1
Zdenek Stybar
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
4h58'27
92
Rudy Verboven
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'45
115
Robert Vrecer
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
116
Rubén Pérez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
138
Pello Bilbao
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
172
André Schulze
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 9'03
174
Ricardo García
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
178
Stefan Radochla
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
180
Jon Aberasturi
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
A race for sprinters meaning Verboven in this case.
Finally Sicard got the message and showed his NC-jersey on home soil.
Points to him for effort even though the final sprint didn't really go our way.
Tamouridis did his best to bring Verboven ahead, but the sprint was so crowded that Rudy lost his wheel finishing 21st while Ioannis left with a solid 13th bringing a few points to the rankings.
Pretty hard for you at the moment. Can't really imagine you in PCT though... Best luck on maybe staying WT, but otherwise we'll just have a nice PCT battle next season then
It goes without saying but we need a good result here!
García makes sure we are represented in the break. Just in case...
In the finale Samuel covered most of the action in the end just squeezing into the top 10.
Unfortunately Nieve still haven't quite recieved the message and failed to fight his way to a top 20 even though it was hardly contested.
Well done by Samu, but another disappointment from Nieve and with Betancur on 4th place it has little significance in teh relegation battle.
I know you're all thinking, "Why does Rudy keep crashing?". I wish I could tell you, but I have no clue myself. The U23 race was going great for me, I had an entire team riding for me and together with the Germans we were leading the peloton.
And as much as I hate to look back at it, here is the moment of my crash. One of the German guys collided with my steering wheel and I lost control. We were too far in the final, the podium was gone.
I started a chase, but it was no good. Each time I was close to the front group, someone attacked again. It felt like the entire peloton was against me. In the end, I finished 9th, totaly exhausted.
I was close to tears after the race. I had a really good day and a medal was definitely possible. Bad luck has dominated most of my season, and this just tops everything. Thank you, Team Belgium for the great support. I'm sorry it was for nothing. But I'll be back! I have 2 more years to win this title.
And for now, it's just recovering for the Elite Road race. I'll try to work as hard for Phil as the team worked for me today!
I can be short about the worlds. I did my best protecting Phil, and suddenly he attacked, against the team plan. The rest of the team didn't know what to do, and we never saw him again. So it was a boring race inside the peloton for me. While Phil was probably the strongest rider in the race, I think he went a bit early. He could've gotten a win instead on a third place.
Then my final race for the season, Paris-Tours. I was to lead the team, but I was really tired from the worlds. My team also didn't like the crosswinds, and we were chasing most of the time. I never really got to the front of the race, so a bad ending for my season.
Well, that's it. My first season is over. Highlight was my top 10 notation in the Fleche Wallon, amongst some other stage podiums and classic top 10's. Now it's just waiting to see if the team stays in the World Tour. I really hope they do, cause I want to get revenge in the classics this year!
One of the most prestigous late season hilly classics. As such we wanted to do something.
Ine the end Gorka Izagirre got a spot on the break.
Surprisingly they lasted more or less to the end only passed by Nibali.
Izagirre finished 4th one place short of the big points after a very active race.
Symptomatic for our late season you could say...
Giro dell'Emilia Results
1
Vincenzo Nibali
Astana Pro Team
5h02'22
4
Gorka Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 2'14
14
Rudy Verboven
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 4'07
24
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 6'10
27
Cristiano De las Campos
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
39
Egoi Martínez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 7'46
53
Pablo Urtasun
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 10'38
59
Pello Bilbao
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 10'53
73
Ricardo García
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 13'01
Anothe late Itlian classic where we desperately need a good result...
This time around Antón was the one to carry our hopes the furthest.
He did well to cover the big names alld ay in the end finishing in a safe top 10 knowing that he couldn't challenge for more today.
Gran Piemonte Results
1
Peter Sagan
Cannondale Pro Cycling
4h14'50
9
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 54
25
Mikel Nieve
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 3'06
30
Rudy Verboven
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
40
Rubén Pérez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
56
Pablo Urtasun
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
61
Robert Vrecer
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
84
Pello Bilbao
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
86
Ricardo García
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
Off to Japan for yet another hilly classic with still growin desperation on the team.
The most prominent Basque in the team was Gorka Nieve.
In the finale we had both Antón and Verboven looking good. Until Orica decided to block the entire road so only Rudy got the top resutl he deserved.
It's also worth noticing that Schulze managed to finish first in a sprint his year. 92nd is actually quite decent for him...
Japan Cup Results
1
Joaquím Rodríguez
Katusha Team
5h07'34
9
Rudy Verboven
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 46
16
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
59
Pello Bilbao
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 5'03
62
Juan José Oroz
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
63
Ricardo García
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
65
Robert Vrecer
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
86
Miguel Mínguez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 8'13
92
André Schulze
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 11'19
The final classic of the season for us. If we were getting desperate in Japan it was nothing compared to the tension before this one.
To make a long story short we tried and failed. Again.
Pello spent quite some time all alone in front early on, but was caught.
Urtasun went out in the next break with some others, but that didn't last either.
The strategy with these attacks was to make it a hard race so that Rudy could get some advantage over the pure sprinters. The race did get hard, but sadly also too hard for Verboven and teh result was a complete failure for us...
Paris - Tours Results
1
Lars Boom
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
5h00'49
44
Rudy Verboven
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'50
46
Ioannis Tamouridis
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
51
Pablo Urtasun
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
74
André Schulze
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
77
Rubén Pérez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
100
Egoi Martínez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
106
Ricardo García
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 2'42
116
Pello Bilbao
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
That sums up a very disappointing wave of late-season classics for us. Nor real successes and a lot of bad luck made a bad combo.
My first pro season has come to an end after the World Championships. I have to say that what I showed was not always great, but I learned a lot. I'm already looking forward to next year and I hope to do better. I believe the team has avoided relegation and we'll stay in the World Tour.
The last races of the season for Euskaltel were Milano - Torino and Giro dell'Emilia. As I'm still training to get better on hills, I did not do great on either race. We did not really have a leader for Milano - Torino, so we did not achieve anything as a team either. However, in the Giro dell'Emilia was going pretty well for our team, where Izagirre took a 4th place after being in the break all day, and we worked hard to get Rudy and Igor a good finish. It was just too bad that Rudy couldn't get a top 10 too, as we were still fighting to avoid relegation at that time.
Next up were the World Championships, which is a very stressful period. Racing for your country is really something special. I was selected for both the u23 ITT and the RR. With the Time Trial not being one of my specialties, I was happy with my 23rd place. The Road Race profile was too hilly for me to do anything and I spent most of the finale chasing after attackers. Riquelme from Chili won, while Herrada was our best rider, but he was well outside the top 10. I finished 43rd, which is quite disappointing for me.
Rui Costa
Pablo Urtasun
Jure Kocjan
Philippe Gilbert
Romain Sicard
Tarik Chaoufi
![imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg](https://imgur.com/KlJUqDx.jpg[/img[img]]https://imgur.com/yUygrQ.jpg)
Ioannis Tamouridis
Stefan Radochla
Zdenek Stybar
Willem Brouwer
Vincenzo Nibali
Peter Sagan
