Thanks for the support and motivating me not to move my ass away from computer. But it's truth than I neglected my story, my game and most importantly - yous. So to redress it here's some uptade.
Nunez and Demare are still in good form. They managed to get my team a double win in Rund um Koln (1.1).
Nunez also won GP de Denain Porte du Hainaut (1.1), while Demare came 4th.
It was much worst in World Tour races. In Amstel Gold Race Igor Anton was just 22nd and 9th in Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
Then Tour de Romandie came in and I came up with that idea. Hopefully it's gonna make everything clearer. From now on I'm gonna upload tour stages preview like this.
Tour de Romandie (WT)
Stage 1 - Time Trial
It started from a 4.3 km long prologue. It was won by Bob Jungels who came 5 sec ahead of Adriano Malori who was 6th. Castroviejo finished 9th and Rasmussen 13th.
Adriano Malori during the prologue.
Stage 2 - Hilly
I decided to get best GC place possible with Anton being supported by Pozzovivo and Monslave and fight for a KoM jersey with Castroviejo. First one did pretty well finishing 5th after mass sprint finish of 20 riders while did his part even better winning 2 out of 3 mountain premiums.
Stage 3 - Flat
The only flat stage was dominated by sprinters who managed to grab a double win.
While Castroviejo was doing his job in order to win another (pink this time) KoM jersey for a team.
Stage 4 - Time Trial
23.5 km long time trial went little bit better fom me than day 1 prologue. Castroviejo was 4th and Malori 3rd losing only to Jungles and Martin, which I guess is no shame.
Adriano Malori climbing during Swiss time trial.
Stage 5 - Mountain
Yet it was all to decide on last 2 stages. First one went great for me. I protected Anton, controled the peloton pace and when the time was right I attacked with him and reached a 2-rider long E1 group. It was chased to the very end but strong enough to reach the finish line first. On last km I attacked again and grabbed a solo win with Anton getting 25 sec lead to Henao, 38 sec to Martin and 55 to Kreuziger and a yellow jersey of course. Pozzovivo also did very well and finished 6th that day.
Stage 6 - Mountain
I have to say I was pretty confident of retaining yellow jersey on Anton's back before last stage (probably too much). I just needed to cause a mass sprint finish and with last climb 25 km away from the finish line it didn't seem to be hard. But it was a great day for Henao, who along the others got clear on last climb and was the only rider not caught by Anton, winning by 47 seconds and stripping Anton of both green and yellow jersey.
Tour de Romandie (WT)
Overall: 2nd Anton
Points: 2nd Anton, 5th Castroviejo
Mountain: 1st Castroviejo
Young: N/A
Team: 4th
There's only one race - Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt before I will be finally able to refer to my story's title and take part in my first ever Giro d'Italia.
Edited by wroblitz on 18-10-2012 04:11
For now just quick update.
As I thought it was quite easy to win Rund um den Finanzplatz Eschborn-Frankfurt (1.HC), where my sprinter duet got double.
Arnaud Demare finishing behind Nunez's back to get Coca-Cola a double in Germany.
Won't be that easy in Giro which just started. I'm gonna update it by weeks. For now it's only my starting list:
Igor Anton
Luca Barla
Jonathan Castroviejo
Arnaud Demare
Adriano Malori
Jonathan Monsalve
Juan Jacob Nunez
Domenico Pozzovivo
Alex Rasmussen Edited by wroblitz on 19-10-2012 19:11
My first big tour, since I started with CCC 6 years ago, and essence of my story just started, and I have to say it started quite well, as in first week my riders won 3 out of 6 stages. But in order.
Giro d'Italia
Week 1
Stage 1 - TTT
It all started with TTT marathon, and it looks like Pinktay was right - I do have quite good TT team, which was proven on that day. Despite being last of first intermediate it kept same pace for the rest of the distance and successively worked off the gap to finish 1st with 30 sec lead.
Stage 2 - Flat
Stage 2 was easily won by my super sprinter - J. J. Nunez, who reported on the finish line in Athens miles ahead of the others. Anton, who attacked on last hill and was leading untill last kilometre, ended up 9th, and my other sprinter - Demare was 10th.
Stage 3 - Flat Nunez wasn't so lucky on day 3, but it was great day for Tyler Ferrar who snatched the win from him on final meters.
Then it was a rest day which was good for everyone.
Stage 4 - Hilly
After that we finally moved to Italy, finally got some hills, and Castroviejo finally started collecting points for his KoM jersey.
And when it comes to the finish line it was surprisingly won by Bert-Jan Lindeman from the breakaway group, but Igor Anton and Jonathan Castroviejo came behind him with 41 sec loss, but 20 sec ahead of Anton's main rivals such as Pinot, Henao and van der Broeck. Anton also got a pink jersey, thanks to great TTT performance.
Stage 5 - Flat
Day 5 was back to flat and back to Nunez, who got his second win of the tour, after very determined sprint (Demare was 9th).
Stage 6 - Flat
Also brought a very tight finish in which Nunez came 2nd (no matter how impossible it might look on this picture), and Demare was 9th again, and the win went to Guillaume Boivin.
So after first week it doesn't look too bad, as my team is in possession of 3 jerseys.
But it's truth than I neglected my story, my game and most importantly - yous. So to redress it here's some uptade.
