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The Way to Nice - A short story - Finished!
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 27-06-2012 14:44
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Tour de France Champion
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You will have to get used to the tiredness because there will be a lot more of that throughout the season  |
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| johannes-w |
Posted on 27-06-2012 18:26
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@ Ian & sutty: Judging from the comments I'd say you're about the only people following the story  -  So even a bigger thanks for your regular comments as they are a big motivation . I find it's actually quite fun writing a story
Maybe I'll have another stage up tonight and you really don't want to miss that one - epic finish  |
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| baggieboys32 |
Posted on 27-06-2012 18:41
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Sprinter
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@Johannes I enjoy reading, I would suggest that your story gets much teh same as mine, a lot of readers, but most don't leave comments, don't be disheartened by it, we are enjoying it, thoguh i agree comments are always nice, I'll try to leave a few more from now on
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| fernando97 |
Posted on 27-06-2012 18:43
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I'm following also! This is a very nice story, and I especially like your pictures. They look wonderful. |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 27-06-2012 19:39
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Tour de France Champion
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Looking forward to an epic finish 
You'll always have a follower in me, so keep up! |
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| johannes-w |
Posted on 27-06-2012 21:15
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Thanks guys and sorry if it sounded a little whiny
Greetings from France,
Another day - another stage.
The weather has been beautiful today and after a massage yesterday and a good long sleep I felt really good today. Here is how stage 3 went down:
Tour Méditerranéen - Stage 3
Today we were present in the breakaway group with Talabardon, which was important as there were quite a few mountain points at stake today. Aside from Talabardon there were four other riders, but no one had any previous mountain points. So to draw level with Feillu any rider from the group would have had to win all climbs today. As Talabardon won the first KoM prize with ease we could only be beaten by ourselves, if that group stayed in front long enough.
Talabardon winning the points on the first climb
In the flat part after the first climb two more riders joined the group, but they didn't have any previous points either. After that the advance expanded to four minutes.
On the second and toughest climb of the day two riders already dropped back from the break, while Talabardon led the group over the summit.
Talabardon accelerates on the second climb
The gap decreased slowly with 40 kilometres until the finish they had a gap of three minutes, but Talabardon tried hard to keep the group running. Under a lot of effort Talabardon managed to also win the last mountain sprint, meanwhile Le Lay had attacked out of the peloton and almost caught up to the escapees already, as they reached the last summit.
The break passing the last summit - in the back you can see Le Lay already
So Talabardon had to work hard again for a few kilometres to help Le Lay save a little energy. With 20 kilometres to go they were only one and a half minute in front.
As Talabardon couldn't help him anymore Le Lay decided to increase the speed. Now he was off on his own, still 15 kilometres in front of the finish.
Sadly not what you might think - it's still one round of 8 kilometres left
Le Lay got caught on the finishing circuit. It came down to a sprint from a big group of about 50 riders. It wasn't really a mass sprint, because there were only a few real sprinters left in the first peloton.
Roux jumped out of the group with an early sprint, using a little ascend with 3 kilometres to go. He already had a few meters between him and the others, but it was clear they came with a higher speed going into the last kilometre. Roux then did it the good old Zabel way and celebrated just a little too early.
[ I've heard about it, but never actually seen it myself happening in Pcm - only in real life: Enjoy Freire vs. Zabel @ 45:40 minutes ]
Anyways Sijmens knew how to use that chance best and won the stage in front of Roux.
Top 10 - Stage 3
| 1 | Nico Sijmens | Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne | 2h57'47 | | 2 | Anthony Roux | FDJ-BigMat | s.t. | | 3 | José Iván Gutierrez | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 4 | Stefano Garzelli | Acqua e Sapone | s.t. | | 5 | Frédéric Amorison | Landbouwkrediet-Euphony | s.t. | | 6 | Borut Bozic | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 7 | Carlos Alberto Betancourt | Acqua e Sapone | s.t. | | 8 | Francesco Gavazzi | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 9 | Dmitriy Muravyev | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 10 | Gaëtan Bille | Lotto Belisol | s.t. |
Top 10 - GC
| 1 | John Degenkolb | Team Argos - Shimano | 9h11'45 | | 2 | Borut Bozic | Astana Pro Team | + 4 | | 3 | Nico Sijmens | Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne | + 12 | | 4 | Anthony Roux | FDJ-BigMat | + 20 | | 5 | Mathieu Ladagnous | FDJ-BigMat | s.t. | | 6 | Boris Shpilevsky | Ag2r La Mondiale | + 24 | | 7 | José Iván Gutierrez | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 8 | Aidis Kruopis | Orica - GreenEDGE | s.t. | | 9 | Reinier Honig | Landbouwkrediet-Euphony | s.t. | | 10 | Jimmy Engoulvent | Saur - Sojasun | + 26 |
Top 3 - KoM
| 1 | Yannick Talabardon | Saur - Sojasun | 32 | | 2 | Brice Feillu | Saur - Sojasun | 32 | | 3 | Nairo Quintana | Movistar Team | 24 |
We only went in the break to secure Feillu's lead and we ended up having a second KoM leader. So we can call it a good day, although we were a little sad Le Lay's attack narrowly failed.
Also I am cofident about my own shape ahead of tomorrows deciding stage.
Your sincerely,
Jérôme
TOMORROW: GRAND FINALE OF TOUR MED |
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| fernando97 |
Posted on 27-06-2012 21:19
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I can't wait for Mt. Farón. |
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| dienblad |
Posted on 27-06-2012 21:52
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Nice finish!
Have to admit: love your screens and the reports, nice story!
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| Ad Bot |
Posted on 24-11-2024 01:35
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 27-06-2012 23:08
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Engoulvent only 26s off the GC lead, hope he has some good stages to come |
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 27-06-2012 23:10
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You're sure of one jersey already, time to conquer the next |
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| Eden95 |
Posted on 28-06-2012 06:40
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Hoping that Coppel does well up Mont Faron
Indosat - ANZ HQ
"This Schleck sandwich is going to cause serious indigestion for Evans" - Phil Liggett |
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| FreitasPCM |
Posted on 28-06-2012 10:44
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Grand Tour Champion
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Really like the screens you take. Hope for a nice Coppel to shine later on in Nice. |
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| johannes-w |
Posted on 28-06-2012 11:22
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Thanks again for the comments everyone. Glad you all seem to like the screens, it's fun editing them a little.
Hey all,
The premises were quite good for our team looking at the overall, as we had five riders in yesterdays fifty men group, who didn't lose any time and with Engoulvant even one rider in the Top 10 overall. I was one of them as well, by the way. So I get right to the point - here is what happened today:
Tour Méditerranéen - Stage 4
The first part of the day was dominated by a seven men breakgroup. We didn't even try to send a rider in the group, because we had other plans for today. Also our KoM lead was pretty solid, with only two categorized climbs left, one of them being the Mont Faron and the best placed escapee in the KoM ranking being Preidler, currently sixth with 16 points. The group had a five minute lead at their best. Midway into the stage we decided to get our plans going and started to help out Team Argos around race leader Degenkolb to reduce the gap to the escapees.
And it worked quite nicely - with 45 kilometres left to go they only had about three minutes left.
Levarlet and Engoulvant working in the front of the peloton together with the Argos riders
Although being the KoM leader Talabardon wanted to do his share by getting new water bottles for all of us
Some riders already tried a first attack on the second to last hill. Especially Cataldo and Niemec looked strong as they could close the gap to the break easily, but they only had half a minute with some hard kilometres left to the finish. We, or more accurately Brice Feillu, as he was working on the front now, increased the pace again. Thanks to that there were only two escapees left in front - Preidler won the KoM sprint in front of Bichot, but as they probably wouldn't make it to the finish atop Mont Faron, our KoM leaders didn't need to worry.
As I felt better than him today Le Lay and I decided, that he would work for me on the way up the to the last climb.
On the bottom of the last climb the remaining two escapees were finally caught as well. Going into the first corner up to Mont Faron Caruso and Van de Walle immediately attacked. But my team mates had it quite well under control as we led the peloton. So the two of them didn't have a chance to get away.
Great team effort for the big goal
I had a good position myself, as I was riding inside the first ten to fifteen riders of the peloton the whole time. With the roads getting steeper I noticed that I would most likely be able to keep up with the best today, while a few good riders were already suffering. So our team continued to keep the group together, with three and a half kilometres to go it was just Le Lay riding in front of me.
Even more motivated by the hard work the team did all day long for me I started a little attack two and a half kilometres in front of the finish. As I noticed no one was able to follow me, I decided to keep pushing and could even increase my lead.
The deciding attack?
I had a 34 second lead to the next group with only one and a half kilometres left to go. But there was no time to take it easy until the last metres.
Even Didi was cheering for me with 1.5 kilometres to go
With fifty metres left I knew, that I had won the stage, but it took me a few minutes to realize that I had even won the GC, too.
I had quite the lead
Top 10 - Stage
| 1 | Jérôme Coppel | Saur - Sojasun | 3h15'38 | | 2 | Jonathan Tiernan-Locke | Endura Racing | +36 | | 3 | Andrey Zeits | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 4 | Cameron Meyer | Orica - GreenEDGE | s.t. | | 5 | Stefano Garzelli | Acqua e Sapone | +47 | | 6 | Marco Marzano | Lampre - ISD | +58 | | 7 | David Le Lay | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. | | 8 | Damiano Caruso | Liquigas-Cannondale | +1'30 | | 9 | Branislau Samoilau | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 10 | Tejay Van Garderen | BMC Racing Team | s.t. |
Top 10 - GC
| 1 | Jérôme Coppel | Saur - Sojasun | 12h27'35 | | 2 | Jonathan Tiernan-Locke | Endura Racing | +44 | | 3 | Andrey Zeits | Astana Pro Team | +48 | | 4 | Cameron Meyer | Orica - GreenEDGE | +56 | | 5 | Stefano Garzelli | Acqua e Sapone | +1'07 | | 6 | David Le Lay | Saur - Sojasun | +1'12 | | 7 | Marco Marzano | Lampre - ISD | +1'18 | | 8 | José Iván Gutierrez | Movistar Team | +1'42 | | 9 | Simon Clarke | Orica - GreenEDGE | +1'50 | | 10 | Carlos Alberto Betancourt | Acqua e Sapone | s.t. |
Top 3 - KoM
| 1 | Brice Feillu | Saur - Sojasun | 32 | | 2 | Yannick Talabardon | Saur - Sojasun | 32 | | 3 | Georg Preidler | Team Type 1 - Sanofi | 26 |
The best moment of my day 
Yes!!! We made it. My first race of the year and I won it. What an amazing start, but to be honest the team has played a huge role today, the work from every single one of them was just great.
I have to admit the last kilometre was brutal. My legs felt like they were burning. After the finish I had to think of the famous phrase from Jens Voigt( ) back in the day.
Now that we have a few days until our next race, the Tour du Haut Var, we will probably even have the time and the permission to celebrate a little. After all Le Lay had been strong enough to hold on to another Top 10 spot for the team today and of course there is the mountains jersey. By the way the two of them cut up todays mountains jersey in half, so that they both have a part of it.
I have to go now the other guys are knocking on our room door like crazy, time to get a little drink.
Your sincerely,
Jérôme
Edited by johannes-w on 28-06-2012 11:37
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 28-06-2012 12:18
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Tour de France Champion
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Wow, congrats, that's beautiful!
Nice that Voigt helped you endure the pain |
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| Alakagom |
Posted on 28-06-2012 14:09
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World Champion
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Brilliant reports and pictures and now great victory at Tour de Med. Everything seems to be shaping up ideally for Paris Nice.
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 28-06-2012 19:42
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Tour de France Champion
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Great win for you there, bet you are wearing a massive smile at the moment  |
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| johannes-w |
Posted on 30-06-2012 21:21
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Believe me I was smiling
Hi,
I just wanted to give you a short update. We had a few days of training since the Tour Med finished. It' s been a lot of fun riding together with the other guys from our team. We did some nice rides the last days. Yesterday we also did some time trial tests.
Two pictures of me on the TT-bike
We are already in a hotel close to the start of the Tour du Haut Var, which will start in two days. It's a two-stage race and both of them have a hilly profile, especially the second one will be very demanding. It's probably more a mountain stage, because it even features a HC climb. This will be a very good test of my climbing abilities.
Our line-up will be the following:
David Le Lay
Guillaume Levarlet
Yannick Talabardon
Jérôme Coppel
Brice Feillu
Jonathan Hivert
Jimmy Engoulvent
Maxime Méderel
Favorites from the other teams should be:
Nocentini (AG2R)
Leipheimer (Omega Pharma - Quickstep)
Chavanel (Omega Pharma - Quickstep)
Van Garderen (BMC)
Also worth mentioning are Tiernan Locke and Zeits, who will be at the start. They both finished on the podium in the Tour Med right behind myself. So you can expect them to be in good form as well.
Although I showed a strong performance in the Tour Med our DS told me I will probably not be the leader in this race, as the route favors Le Lay and he deserves a shot at the leaders role, too. He is a fantastic rider. But it's not yet completely clear and decided, after all the daily form and the situation in the race will play a big role as well.
For me this race should mainly be a preparation race to get in the right shape for Paris - Nice. Maybe I'll test my legs on the second stage. We'll see...
Your sincerely,
Jérôme
Edited by johannes-w on 30-06-2012 21:22
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| Ian Butler |
Posted on 01-07-2012 08:39
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Tour de France Champion
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Working for Le Lay could help you possibly more than leading here. This way you'll be in pain two days straight
Now that's quite a training |
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| johannes-w |
Posted on 01-07-2012 11:12
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Hi,
So the first stage ot the Tour du Haut Var is over. We did a lot of climbing today, but it will be even more tomorrow. As my shape isn't too bad I really could "enjoy" todays stage. Here is what happened:
Tour du Haut Var - Stage 1
Mederel and Markus Fothen attacked quite early after the start and had a gap pretty fast. A little bit later Zabriskie attacked as well and was riding between the two leaders and the peloton for several kilometres.
The first mountain points were won by Fothen in front of Mederel, Zabriskie crossed the line in third place, but he hadn't closed the gap back then. It took him another few kilometres to finally close the gap on the downhill.
The second KoM sprint was won by Mederel in front of Zabriskie and Fothen. The three were now leading with six minutes.
Mederel winning the sprint
On that climb another five riders attacked for the remaining points out of the peloton. Those were Champion, Di Gregorio, Nocentini, Geniez and Muravyev. They stayed in front of the peloton after the climb and worked on closing the gap to the leaders. They quickly had a gap of three minutes to the peloton while the leaders were another four minutes ahead with still 120 kilometres to go.
When there were 70 kilometres left, at the bottom of the last categorized climb they still had a five minute lead. While the chasing five man group was only forty seconds away from the front. Riding up that climb the groups finally merged.
The three first escapees hanging in at the back of the group
The third mountain sprint was like a one and a half kilometre long sprint from the whole group, as everyone wanted to get the final points.
Champion proved to be the strongest on the last climb
Mederel only managed to get fifth and was quite exhausted afterwards. Therefore he got dropped at the intermediate sprint.
The gap then stayed the same, about four minutes, for quite a while. With only 30 kilometres left not much had changed. But then Omega and Liquigas started leading in the peloton and increased the pace drastically, so that the gap was melting down in the hilly final, but with 20 kilometres left the group was still leading by three minutes.
Fifteen kilometres before the finish Mederel was caught after a long day in the break, so we joined in leading the peloton. I also did my share as we were riding for Le Lay today.
Heading into the last ten kilometres the leaders only had one minute and thirty seconds left. That's when Le Lay attacked together with Chavanel on his wheel.
The two came closer and closer to the escapees, but it definitely wouldn't be fast enough any more. The break would decide the victory between them today, too bad Mederel couldn't keep up with them.
After hanging on to Le Lays rear wheel for a few kilometres Chavanel decided to attack again.
Chavanel was able to get to the end of the group, so he was awarded with the same time, but Le Lay couldn't follow him anymore, as he was too exhausted.
Champion, who already was the strongest on the last mountain, won the sprint out of the group, while Le Lay even got caught from the peloton.
Champion is todays champion[ Sorry for that one]
Top 10 - Stage 1
| 1 | Dimitri Champion | Bretagne - Schuller | 5h01'06 | | 2 | Rinaldo Nocentini | Ag2r La Mondiale | s.t. | | 3 | Dmitriy Muravyev | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 4 | Rémy Di Gregorio | Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne | s.t. | | 5 | Alexandre Geniez | Team Argos - Shimano | s.t. | | 6 | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma - Quickstep | s.t. | | 7 | David Le Lay | Saur - Sojasun | + 28 | | 8 | Simon Spilak | Katusha Team | s.t. | | 9 | José Iván Gutierrez | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 10 | Eros Capecchi | Liquigas-Cannondale | s.t. | | ... | | 15 | Jérôme Coppel | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. |
Top 10 - GC
| 1 | Dimitri Champion | Bretagne - Schuller | 5h00'42 | | 2 | Rinaldo Nocentini | Ag2r La Mondiale | + 10 | | 3 | Dmitriy Muravyev | Astana Pro Team | s.t. | | 4 | Rémy Di Gregorio | Cofidis, Le Crédit en Ligne | + 24 | | 5 | Alexandre Geniez | Team Argos - Shimano | s.t. | | 6 | Sylvain Chavanel | Omega Pharma - Quickstep | s.t. | | 7 | David Le Lay | Saur - Sojasun | + 52 | | 8 | Simon Spilak | Katusha Team | s.t. | | 9 | José Iván Gutierrez | Movistar Team | s.t. | | 10 | Eros Capecchi | Liquigas-Cannondale | s.t. | | ... | | 15 | Jérôme Coppel | Saur - Sojasun | s.t. |
Top 3 - KoM
| 1 | Maxime Méderel | Saur - Sojasun | 20 | | 2 | Dimitri Champion | Bretagne - Schuller | 18 | | 3 | Markus Fothen | Team NSP - Ghost | 16 |
Maxime Méderel
Well we didn't win much today. Mederel is leading the KoM ranking, but tomorrow there will be a lot more KoM points and he probably won't be able to defend his lead. On the other hand we didn't really lose much either, because Le Lay and I only finished 28 seconds behind the winner. Le Lay also at least finished in the Top 10, but we are looking for a little more tomorrow.
Therefore stage two will be very interesting, so make sure to take a look at my blog again.
Your sincerely,
Jérôme |
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| sutty68 |
Posted on 01-07-2012 12:30
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Tour de France Champion
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Great start for you Jerome |
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