Thanks guys, indeed a great stage for Haimar. This is my 2nd post separated from the report, but I really felt like I should tell this now.

I am very,very,very busy with real life stuff last few days and absolutely can't find the time for any hobby, not even some cycling hours, so I guess you can feel my pain (). Also, on another side, after playing and reporting some MG races, I am a bit bored of PCM and my motivation is low at this point, so I will make a pause that will probably last one week max and I'll continue this regulary, then.

No way I am going to stop this now, so don't worry. Thanks for the support and understanding!

Managed to finish Basque Country, but I still didn't sort out my 'busy life' (), so don't expect too many reports in next few days. Thanks for support, by the way.

Last mountain stage here and probably the one where we should expect gaps. Tomorrow is time-trial, so it's definitely great chance for pure climbers to try to get some advantage over guys such as Froome and other great time trialists that are high in GC.




Strong breakaway pass without our guys in it once again. It's really strong one, with Kelderman and Fedrigo as definitely 2 strongest guys here. They're all way back in GC, so they may actually get a chance to win a stage here.



Surprising for this kind of profile, but absolutely nothing happens in peloton, nor in E1 group until some final kilometers. Peloton let the breakaway group win this, as none of them are dangerous for GC. 10 kilometers to go and first serious moves are made. Froome is accelerating from his seat!



Frank Schleck was the only Trek's rider that followed that from start. Zubeldia and Andy were a bit late, but Andy somehow managed to catch them later. However, Froome looked just too good for others and around 5 kilometers to go, he's going. No one can stop him now.



However, stage winner is about to be decided in the front of the race. Kelderman and Fedrigo set the high pace and no one could follow that. One of them is going to win the stage, but who?



3 kilometers to go and Fedrigo used his experience. Kelderman turned his head around to see where other guys are and experienced French used that to attack and make some gap. He's going for the win now!



Froome continues to make advantage over the other GC contenders bigger and bigger. Quintana is attacking behind him, while Schleck is now on top of the group behind, waiting for the sprint.



Fedrigo just kept his high pace up and won the race easily, in front of Kelderman and all the other guys that were in BOTD group. Totally deserved and tactically perfectly played.



Schleck wins the group sprint for our team, after Froome and Quintana finished in front of this group of yellow jersey. Quite an achievement for us here, Frank still got it!



Andy finished just 20 seconds behind that group. Now, only TT is in front of the our guys, before Paris-Roubaix, final cobblestone classic of the year.

1	Pierrick Fédrigo	FDJ.fr	2h19'47
2	Wilco Kelderman	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 34
3	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	+ 1'04
4	Michael Albasini	Orica GreenEdge	+ 1'14
5	Rubén Fernández	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
6	Chris Froome	Team Sky	+ 2'12
7	Michael Schär	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'35
8	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 2'51
9	Fränk Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'18
10	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 3'31

GC

1	Chris Froome	Team Sky	17h27'34
2	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 52
3	Rigoberto Urán	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 1'14
4	Fränk Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'19
5	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'35
6	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 2'00
7	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
8	Daniel Moreno	Team Katusha	+ 2'43
9	Andy Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'24
10	Wilco Kelderman	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 3'49

Points	Chris Froome [Sky]	79 points
KoM	Wilco Kelderman [Belkin]	42 points
U25	Nairo Quintana [Movistar]	17h28'26
Team	Movistar Team	52h27'08

Maybe we're a bit disappointed that we missed the podium and considering that Frank isn't the best TTer, it will be really hard to get back on it. However, Top 5 is just great, as it is finishing in front of Valverde, Moreno, Contador, Sanchez, Costa, Horner...

Last stage of Basque Country is 9km long time-trial. Not much is expected from this, as it is very short. Martin is expected to win, but don't be surprised if you see Froome on the podium, the guy is in insanely good form!




Bob Jungels, one of the outsiders for todays race, was on 74th place in GC and 2nd in our team. He set the best provisional time, although he started after some strong TTers, such as Ludvigsson, Oliveira, Tuft and others.



He even kept his lead in next 30 minutes. But then, Tony Martin started off the ramp and it was pretty clear who's the first favourite for the stage-win here. Perfect ride by Panzerwagen, who easily overtook Bob with more than 16 seconds of advantage.



Definitely the biggest surprise of the day was Zubeldia. Of course, experienced Spaniard is definitely solid on time-trial, but finishing provisional 2nd, 12 seconds behind Martina and 7th at the end was something totally unexpected.



No one could of course even come close to the time of Tony Martin, so we'll just skip to the Top 4. Frank was the first one of this 4 guys to start and he knew that he has to put in a great ride to finish on podium. Not sure if the +21 on Martin and 30th position is good enough, but that's how he finished. Now, we can only hope that at least one of the 3 left guys is going to fail.



Uran was the next one. He really looked focused all the time and at the end, he got pretty solid 20th position, as he finished 3 seconds in front of Frank.



Quintana had a pretty bad ride today, as he finished on 48th position. No one expected this, but luckily for him and unluckily for us, Nairo managed to keep his final GC position.



At that point, only one rider had to finish his ride and the 2014 Basque Country race will be finished. His name was Chris Froome. Absolutely great ride for Froome, since he finished only 2 seconds behind Martin, on 2nd stage position and win in final GC. More than deserved.



Not sure if we're happy or disappointed with 4th position in Final GC, but that's the reality at this moment. Paris-Roubaix starts tomorrow, so we really don't have any time for this kind of casual "chat". This was all for Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco 2014. See ya next time!

1	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	12'15
2	Chris Froome	Team Sky	+ 1
3	Richie Porte	Team Sky	+ 3
4	Maxime Monfort	Lotto Belisol	+ 7
5	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	+ 8
6	Philippe Gilbert	BMC Racing Team	+ 10
7	Haimar Zubeldia	Trek Factory Racing	+ 12
8	Luis León Sánchez	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
9	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 13
10	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	s.t.

Final GC

1	Chris Froome	Team Sky	17h39'50
2	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 1'21
3	Rigoberto Urán	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 1'31
4	Fränk Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'39
5	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'47
6	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 2'12
7	Alberto Contador	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 2'13
8	Daniel Moreno	Team Katusha	+ 3'15
9	Andy Schleck	Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'49
10	Wilco Kelderman	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 4'02

Points	Chris Froome [Sky]	91 points
KoM	Wilco Kelderman [Belkin]	42 points
U25	Nairo Quintana [Movistar]	17h41'11
Team	Movistar Team	53h04'37

I just can't promise anything about that break. I'll try to play whenever I can, so I can even try to avoid making some longer break actually, but won't say anything about it at this point. Let's just enjoy the preview below.

Voigt is is on 4 fitness and was very tired because the attack, while Schleck is one 2 fitness and was much more fresh. That explains it, I think. Also, Jensie is already 42y/o, so I think his stats are already decreasing (not sure, tho).

And after talking about it for few weeks, the worlds biggest, most popular, the toughest classic is in front of us. Welcome to the Hell of North, welcome to the Paris - Roubaix. Definitely the most important sponsor goal in whole season for us. Can we manage to repeat last years result?




The route is basically the more or less the same one compared to 2013, but some presentation is always welcome, so let's go. The race starts in Compiegne, very north of France and finishes in Roubaix, basically on border of Belgium. The race features some of the hardest cobblestone sections, such as Arenberg forest, Carrefour de l'Arbre, Mons en Pevele and many others. I mean, just look at that killing profile, it's definitely something unique and something that you've never, ever seen in any other cycling race. That's why this is so special race for us and for many, many people around the world.

I think there's absolutely no reason to talk about starlist. Every single professional rider that know a shit about cobblestones and how to ride on them is here. Starting from some names such as Cancellara, Boonen and Vanmarcke, who are surely the three biggest favourites for winning this and finishing with some young Colombian PCT riders who has absolutely no idea why they're here. Anyways, without a further ado, take a look on that image, I think it'll give you the best overview of the startlist, definitely.



Last year, Cancellara won this with some smart tactics and outsprinted Vanmarcke. But, one guy wasn't here and his name is Tom Boonen. He's more prepared than ever and that's why we had to carefully choose our squad here. It's not all about ability to go over cobbles now, but about current form and possibility to help our total leader - Herr Fabian in any situations. Therefore, we brough some names such as: Devolder, Rast, Popovych, Roulston, Hondo who are definitely great on cobbles.



The 2 guys who've been following our old guns throught the whole spring-classics season, Styuven and Jungels are also there and that makes our 8 riders squad for this years edition. We're more than ready to take this challenge and justify the name of champions. That's it for the preview, hope you enjoyed it. See ya on the race...cobblestones.

DS of Trek FR - admirschleck