What a fantastic podium. Everything went right in that Vuelta and 1 rider taking home all three jerseys is just super.
Spoiler
With those time gaps mayhap the difficulty should be raised to make it more of a fight?....
I must have missed the signing of 'Moses' before. Don't worry I'm pretty sure everyone who has played PCM for any amount of time has been screwed by those scouts. At Qatar Optics only 'legend scouts' are allowed.
Also, interesting you always show the potential, personally I prefer to keep it a surprise.
Nerz has been injured in training and on this long flat race, Alberio will be our leader: he has good stamina, not horrible sprint capacity. He should take a sprinter’s wheel and try to sneak in the Top 10.
We are already in the final and the pack has regrouped. Time for Boom to attack and Cancellara to counter. So Nerz takes his wheel. And with Maaskant joining they are doing a chasing trio. Nerz is in the front with so skilled riders on the flat. He is not relaying. Neither is Cancellara after a while.
With 1 kilometre to go it is clear that the escapees will make it. Boom is still in front but Cancellara’s sprint is impressive.
Nerz cannot keep Cancellara’s wheel, but Maaskant is even weaker after all the work done in the last kilometres. At the front Boom resists for the greatest victory of his career.
And the injured Nerz manages to equal our best result in a classic!
1
Lars Boom
Rabobank Cycling Team
5h21'33
2
Fabian Cancellara
RadioShack - Nissan - Trek
s.t.
3
Dominique Nerz
AT&T
s.t.
4
Martijn Maaskant
Vacansoleil - Dcm Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
5
Alexandre Pichot
GreenEdge
+ 35
6
Elia Viviani
Liquigas - Cannondale
s.t.
7
Tristano Pascuzzo
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
8
Lloyd Mondory
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
9
Joost Van Leijen
Lotto - Belisol
s.t.
10
Johan Van Summeren
Garmin - Barracuda
s.t.
Objective
- Top 10
Our Team
Nerz, Alberio, Gerdemann, Stetina, Barry, Oronte
Main Riders
Gilbert, Hermans, Cunego, Van Den Broeck, Schleck, Evans, Cunego, Gesink, Kreuziger, Vanendert
Nerz in fully healed so can we hope for more than Top 10? May be but Gilbert the cannibal is here and he is not alone…
When Kreuziger breaks free AT&T assumes a tempo.
And when everyone is grouped again, Gilbert attacks.
Major danger of course and we sacrifice Gerdemann as the gap was increasing above 30’’. So a small group of favourites is grouped again just before the final climb. Nerz in Gilbert’s wheel, Alberio in Nerz’ wheel!
Alberio is not strong enough but Nerz is looking great with less than 2 km to go!
Well until Gilbert launches his sprint… But Nerz can keep his second place and Alberio gets a Top 10!
Gilbert, Hermans, Cunego, Van Den Broeck, Schleck, Evans, Cunego, Gesink, Mertens, Albasini
Gerdemann launches his attack from the start and Sorensen does not relay that much. Still the interval increases to 11’ with 130 km. Enough for Gerdemann to pass the line 1st.
But not enough to pass it 1st in the last turn… and a large group arrives in the final together. Roche launches the sprint
Just a bit early and gets 2nd to Martens. Alberio struggle to get the 10th.
1
Paul Martens
RadioShack - Nissan - Trek
5h34'12
2
Nicolas Roche
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
3
Marcos Garcia Fernandez
Caja Rural
s.t.
4
Benoît Vaugrenard
Saur - Sojasun
s.t.
5
Michele Scarponi
Isd - KazMunayGas
s.t.
6
Daniel Martin
Garmin - Barracuda
s.t.
7
Michael Albasini
GreenEdge
s.t.
8
Philippe Gilbert
Bmc Racing Team
s.t.
9
Przemyslaw Niemiec
Isd - KazMunayGas
s.t.
10
Tomas Alberio
AT&T
s.t.
Wrap up
We struggled to get a Top 3 in the spring classics and we got 2 in a row here with Nerz! Both him and Alberio makes this summer campaign a great success!
Another objective of the year met. Next on the list is WC ITT Top 3...
@ sutty: that were great results for the team After the Vuelta we tend to get use to winning but so many Top 1 and Top 3 in classics, that is still amazing for our team!
Now let's move to our season 2nd objective: TVG for WC ITT
And a couple of prep races:
Nerz and Alberio are our leader on this HC race. But Gilbert at home is just too strong. A good finishing sprint for our guys though.
Last preparation race for Van Garderen before his real objective: the WC ITT. On this cat 1 race only Baeklants represents a limited threat. He did well taking the 2nd place behind Van Garderen.
1
Tejay Van Garderen
AT&T
4h41'32
2
Jan Bakelants
Omega Pharma QuickStep
+ 12
3
Tomas Alberio
AT&T
s.t.
4
Assan Bazayev
BigMat - Auber 93
s.t.
5
Jürgen Roelandts
AT&T
s.t.
6
Dominique Nerz
AT&T
s.t.
Objective
- Top 3
Main Riders
Martin, Cancellara, Fuglsang, Van Garderen
Phinney is our first American rider and set the best time at the 1st intermediate. But he is down 4’’ to Posthuma in the 2nd and a bit short in the final.
Cornu is the next rider to threaten the Dutch but he fails for a couple of second. Finally Van Gaderen begins, only 3 riders behind him, the 3 favorites! And he equals Phinney’s best time in the 1st intermediate.
The good news is that none of the favourite seems to be in the rhythm, Martin having lost 20’’ for instance! The bad one is that Van Garderen has to slow down a little bit. At the 2nd intermediate he is 4th but down only 8’’.
Surprisingly he feels better kilometre after kilometre and can accelerate. Could he make it? At least he gives it all till the line…
@ sammyt: TVG ows it to you: you are the one who suggested to organise his season to target those WC ITT
Let's move to the next races:
Poels is back after a short break to prepare the last classic of the season. But today is an HC race in Italy. And the best are here and fighting. Rujano gets in the break and it looks like he is going to make it. But the final is difficult and the favourites are making it crazy. Poels can’t follow but still gets his Top 10. Scarponi finally benefits from a Colombian fight to beat them both in the final sprint.
No surprise as the pack is grouped in the final. But everyone looks tired and the wind is huge, so Poels attacks with 6 km to go. However Project 1t4i is well organised and offers the win to his leader.
Big climb in the middle of the stage. Huge wind. But there is no real challenge: Nerz, Gerdemann and Alberio are the 3 favourites for this stage. However our leader is Castroviejo. We keep the break within 2’ and in the big climb our 4 men break free from the pack, close the gap to the break in no time and isolate themselves at the front.
Castroviejo was really struggling and they have to slow down for him to keep the wheels. But at the end of the day:
And a 4’ gap let few suspense for the rest of the race.
Stage 4 – Flat
Even the sprinters are weak and thanks to an up-hills finish. Alberio proved sprint skills: he wins the mass sprint.
Stage 5 – Mountain
Rodriguez Ortiz is favourite today ahead of Gerdemann and Chiarini, making it a match between AT&T and Androni Giocattoli – Cipi.
Nerz first attacks in the last climb, then Castroviejo. Later in the stage, Gerdemann controls Rodriguez Ortiz’ attacks. The pace was not regular enough to catch our 2 riders. However Alberio finishes 7th and lost more than 1’. Gerdemann is the new leader in GC
Stage 8 – Hills
We control the pack and in the up-hill arrival, Alberio proves once again to be the strongest.
Stage 9 – ITT – 40km
Very long ITT to conclude the season and the suspense has been very short: Castroviejo sets the best time from intermediate 1 and wins with 50’’ margin on Gerdemann. Enough for our leader to get the GC and for our team to rank 1-2-3 and 4.
And now the season end. We are currently 2nd in WT ranking behind BMC and his indestructible Gilbert. With just Lombardia to race it seems impossible to win. But anyway it wasn't this year objective
1st of the 2 cat HC races a small group finishes to fight for the win and the favourite takes it after Niemiec brought the group back to Van Garderen who had escaped in the last climb.
1
Sacha Modolo
Colnago - Domina Vacanze
5h26'06
2
Andrey Kashechkin
Atlas Personal
s.t.
3
Yury Trofimov
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
4
Rinaldo Nocentini
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
5
Giovanni Visconti
Movistar Team
s.t.
6
Cristian Castellano
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
7
Bram Tankink
Farnese Vini - Neri Sottoli
s.t.
8
Przemyslaw Niemiec
Isd - KazMunayGas
s.t.
9
Nicolas Roche
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
10
Tejay Van Garderen
AT&T
s.t.
We have just followed the whole day for yet another sprint. Van Garderen was fresh and very well positioned but not good enough to beat Modolo. Can he make the triple in Lombardia in a few days?
1
Sacha Modolo
Colnago - Domina Vacanze
5h43'23
2
Enrico Gasparotto
ProTeam Astana
s.t.
3
Tejay Van Garderen
AT&T
s.t.
4
Giovanni Visconti
Movistar Team
s.t.
5
Tristano Pascuzzo
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
6
Michele Scarponi
Isd - KazMunayGas
s.t.
7
Yury Trofimov
Acqua & Sapone
s.t.
8
Nicolas Roche
Ag2r La Mondiale
s.t.
9
Wout Poels
AT&T
s.t.
10
Salvador Guardiola Tora
Manisaspor Cycling Team
s.t.
Objective
- Top 5
Our Team
Poels, Van Garderen, Roelandts, Cogburn, Mazich, Hamilton
We had to sacrifice Roelandts to chase some dangerous break in the second part of the race. In the final many attacks occur one after the other. Poels was asked not to chase at all, Van Garderen did not most of the time either. So for the sprint Poels was still in good shape to sprint and very well positioned with 1.5 km to go behind Roche and Visconti.
@ Shonak: Yeah the Vuelta was just, and not only GC, but also stages win and Poels Grand Slam (GC, Points, Mountain)
Well we have set very ambitious objectives and at the end of the day, we are above expectations
Sure we have not win any 1 week WT race and we are even down on the other criterias, but that is more than compensated by the 1-2 and stages win in the Vuelta. And on all the other criteria we are above expectation, not to mention WC ITT title
Here is the detail of this year palmares. I find it very impressive...
At the end of the day the 2 recruits you have advised have been our best cards:
However previous ones have down a fantastic job too: Nerz is in the top 15, Alberio and Gerdemann have done great too.
And in the last race of the season we get the Graal:
Poels 1st place was enough but just in case we got Van Garderen in the Top 5 too
So now what? The objectives I have set at the beginning of the story are met. I hope I have respected well your advises. And you surely deserve some for what they have allowed me to accomplish. I seriously don't think I would have done as good on my own.
Because you have guessed it right, I put an end to this story, but that is to reopen a similar one tomorrow: it will work along the same principle and I'll call it:
Then in that case may I be the first to say a huge thank you for entertaining us with such a fantastic story
I know I personally will miss this particular story, one more season and you'd have won most any race you entered. But with such a dominating finish to this season, you couldn't ask for much higher than this
All the very best with your new story, I'll be sure to follow
It was indeed a very nice story although I caught up on it later than most other people. I enjoyed it thoroguly. Looking forward to your new story and hope it won't take away too much time, so that there's enough room for The Red Project.
Don't worry I'm pretty sure everyone who has played PCM for any amount of time has been screwed by those scouts. At Qatar Optics only 'legend scouts' are allowed. 
