Thanks for the support NTTHRASH, especially that I started to think the story is actually pretty boring, and even considering quitting it. Anyway, for the time being I played stage 17 of Vuelta (only 4 to go).
162 km, 3 peaks, 4 mountain premiums, and 3 intermediate sprints, I wasn't intrested in. Quite quickly a breakaway of 9 formed including Philippe Gilbert and Mario Gonzalez. With 80km to go they held 10 min lead, so I decided to increase peloton pace. On last hill Barton get clear of the pack as peloton wasn't interested in keeping his pace anymore. He was quite exhausted himself, so I decided to attack with Ricky McArther but then peloton found remains of energy then, and he was chased down. At this stage (just before last peak) E1 held over 5 min lead, and I knew they gonna win it. After reaching the mountain finally group of best riders formed (including 3 of my riders my Kennaugh, Barton and McArther). I protected Kennaugh with Barton but pace was very slow, so having spare youngster I decided to attack with McArther. Peloton accelerated, but still wasn't going as fast as this group could, so with 5,5 km to go I attacked with Barton, who was counter attacked by Kennaugh. Then for few kilometers Barton was taking the wind for Kennaugh, and finally on last 3 km I attacked with best climber. Few minutes later stage was won by Mario Gonzalez who had a great fight for it with Euskaltel - Euskadi's Omar Fraile.
Barton and McArther were overtook by the race leaders, but lucky enough Peter Kennaugh wasn't, and he reported on the finish line first after the breakaway group, 2 min later, and 40 sec ahead of Contador and Co.
Thanks to that move, he executed plan to go on top of Coppel and Martin, and with 4 stages to go he's 4th in general.
I guess I will need a good performance on remaining hilly and mountain stage, and get another few seconds, to keep my position, as there's still a 36 km long ITT to go, where Kennaugh is only 68 TT, and Coppel 77.
Edited by wroblitz on 16-04-2013 23:13
Not that much Ian. Bare in mind it's 2017, Contador is 34 and not as good as he used to be. His TT is 78 at the moment, just 1 more than Coppel's and 2 more than Pinot. It's actually interesting if that small advantage let him gain 1'21" and win the tour... unless it changes after the remaining hilly stage.
Due to lots of successful breakaways lately, I decided to take part in them this time. However the one with Barton in it was caught quite quickly, so I only managed to win first mountain premium and add another 6 points to his score.
Chris Barton wins first mountain premium.
After that all I could do was dictating the peloton pace, and don't let the breakaway grab another win. Breakway was finally caught 14 km before the finish line, and win was to decide between 15 best climbers. Pace was pretty slow, so I made use of my warm-up gel and lunched the attack on final 5 km. I managed to get few seconds, but then the chase started. Group went very fast (especially Pinot), and if race was even few hundreds meters longer Kennaugh wouldn't win it... but he did.
Thanks to that he got another 13 sec to Coppel, and ahead of the hilly and ITT stage, he holds 40 sec lead, which I'm affraid, won't be enough... unless I get another few seconds on hilly stage.
Edited by wroblitz on 18-04-2013 08:23
Good to see this story back, don't follow many but this one was always enjoyable
Hells 500 Crew and 6 x Everester
Don Rd Launching Place
Melbourne Hill Rd Warrandyte
Colby Drive Belgrave South
William Rd The Patch
David Hill Rd Monbulk
Lakeside Drive Emerald https://www.everesting.cc/hall-of-fame/
Only 3 stages of Vuelta to go. My last chance to grab few seconds ahead of ITT and final flat stage in Madrid.
With pretty flat finish I decided to go fast on hills, so it will be down to climbers and puncheurs, instead of sprinters. The other reason for that was the 8-rider breakaway including Westra, Hivert and Hoogerland. It was Kwiatkowski and McArther who imposed peloton pace, and they did very well, as on top of the second hill only 101 riders remained in it.
Kwiatkowski and McArther leading the peloton.
Then, despite good effort from my team. I wasn't able to close the gap, and win, yet again, went to the breakaway. Westra won it, ahead of Morkov and Hivert.
Lieuwe Westra wins stage 19 of Vuelta a Espana.
But to me it was more important to get another few seconds for Kennaugh in order to keep 4th place after the ITT. He counter-attacked Chris Barton with 5 km to go, and went to attack when Barton sank weakly. He planned everything perfectly and managed to finish ahead of the peloton (9th overall). Barton also made it - 25 seconds later and just 9" before the peloton.
Peter Kennaugh finishing 9th and gains another 34" to Coppel.
So, despite not winning, another good race for me. Just wonder if 1'24" will be enough advantage for a 36 km long time-trial (Kennaugh is TT 70, FL 68. Coppel TT 77, FL 71). Any guesses?
One thing is sure - top 3 will stay the same, as Contador won't be able to get 1'21" on Pinot, and Taaramae is out of my or Coppel's reach.
21*C and 36 km of individual effort, and big battle between Peter Kennaugh and Jerome Coppel. Will 1'24" be enough to keep 4th place? Let's see.
So unfortunately Ian was right and it wasn't enough. Peter Kennaugh was in pretty bad form on this day (-3), and Coppel did very well finishing 3rd. The stage was won by Pinot and he just showed it was his tour. Peter Velits came 2nd, and Alberto Contador (thats especially for Ian) - 7th. My best rider - Jimmi Sorensen was 10th, with Ben King just 4" behind him. Kennaugh finished just 29th. He actually came just a wheel ahead of Rein Taaramae, who started after him.
Ben King on the start.
So no 4th place for Kennaugh. What's even more surprising, due to great perdormance by Pinot on last ITT, Ciolek lost his green jersey (just by 4 points), so ahead of last stage in Madrid he needs to finish 11th of higher, so I need to make sure that win won't go to the breakaway... or take part in it with Ciolek and got those 5 points on intermediate sprints.
Edited by wroblitz on 19-04-2013 16:33
Of course I decided to go for the final sprint with Ciolek, rather than collecting points on intermediate sprints. And due to that for the entire race I was chasing a 5-man breakaway group. I managed to catch the last one just 9 km before the finish line. Fomed my train (unfortunatelly Krivenco was too tired to be Ciolek's lead out) and went for it. It looks like 21 races gave Ciolek hard time, as he didn't win it, as he used to do it on first stages, he came 4th (after Cavendish, Boasson Hagen and Burlakov.
Mark Cavendish finally wins - on last stage in Madrid.
Anyway, Ciolek did his part finishing higher than 12th... but I didn't take one thing into consideration - that Pinot might finish on point position (as you wouldn't expect him on flat stage). The truth is - he did... he came 7th! And got 9 points. 5th place gave me 14, so I managed to win the green jersey just by 1 point!
So, very exciting ending of Vuelta a Espana. By the way - Jimmi Sorensen decided to quit on last stage, so he eighter got some injury or great sense of humor. Here's all the rankings.
So, great tour for Pinot, and probably last top 5 in big tour for Alberto Contador, as he will turn 35 next year. Very unlucky for Kennaugh (I just realised Coppel came 55" after the peloton (41th) on last stage and finished in GQ only 1 second ahead of Kennaugh! Anyway I consider 5th place for Kennaugh, and his 3 wins, pretty good result.
Super exciting battle to the very end for a green jersey between Ciolek and Pinot (it's good that it eventually went to "Gerry", as Pinot would be sweating in two). So, won green jersey by 1 point, and lost 4th place by 1 second.
Absolutelly great performance by Chris Barton (my American sponsors will be happy). 3 stage wins, 13th in GQ and 252 mountain points! Ricky McArther showed that one day he can take the tour, giving his U25 rivals no chance whatsoever, leaving them 1 hour behind! And he's only 23 (with MO 76 and 2 stars of further potential). This year he finished 21st in general.
Teamwise it was very good too, as Coca-Cola was the only team competing with Gas Natural, eventually finishing 2nd.
And like always, sutty has the homepage clogged!
SORRY
