David's Plan:
Today, is probably the biggest race of my life, so far. The team has Lofkvist here, for the team goal of a Top 10 finish, so I've decided that since its unlikely I will be leader, to have as much fun as possible, and of course, being the biggest Canadian rider at the race, I want to atleast show myself once to the crowds, in a good way. Michael Barry is also here for Sky, and its been really cool going to Media interviews with him. As for the team here is everyone else:
Not much worth reporting, in the earlier stages of the race, so with 10km to go, I'm still in the front Chase group, who are just behind the remnants of the breakaway, but I can tell I wont be going for the win today.
5km to go and Michel Kreder of Garmin, makes his winning move! He's followed by Di Luca of Lampre.
Then, here comes Peter Kennaugh of Sky, who has the freshest legs of the team, as he passes the slowing breakaway riders. Kreder is 10 seconds ahead of Di Luca with 4km left now.
Here they are going down the hill with 2km left in the stage. As you can see, the peloton isn't that far behind now, surely the duo will get caught!
But Kreder proves everyone wrong and takes the win ahead of The Killer! And what an underdog for the win too! Kennaugh takes 10th completing the teams goal that we set all the way at the beginning of the season.
It clearly wasn't my day to win, and I'll cross inside the Top 100, so still not terrible to say the least. Still I'm hoping for better in two days time.
baia wrote:
It could be worst....but i know it´s an hard race for David.
+1 Good luck for the other Canadian race
+2 Hopefully Montreal will suit David better. Awesome that you accomplished the goal of a top ten.
Thanks everyone! Montreal should suit David a lot better, and hopefully he can have better luck, on a course which will suit David much better. But accomplishing the Top 10 was very good. I never thought Kennaugh would do it for us either.
And just as a general timeline, I'm hoping to have the season done by next weekend. Then I will do a few things, and probably start working on my stages a but more, before I fully devote myself back to the story.
David's Plan:
I think I have a much better chance here, than I did in Quebec. Still I'm not expecting a win, and I think I will probably try to get in the break today. Our team looks strong this time, as we've added Eddy Boasson Hagen to replace Possoni, in hopes that we might even win the race. There are a lot of favourites, like Gilbert and Valverde so it will be a very tough race, although those guys didn't seem to be in form in Quebec so we'll see.
Squad:
Now onto the race, and early on, I tried deploying many attacks, no of which were successful, maybe that was a good sign, maybe it was a bad sign. Anyway, I didn't force anything, and decided to hold place inside the pack.
40km to go, and the breakaway was brought back, but with 20km to go, a new lead group had formed with Peter Sagan, Frank, and Txurruka all getting away!
With 15km to go, I went to the front of the peloton to bring them back, as the trio still had a lead of almost 2 minutes. By 10km I had brought them back to 1 minute, before I dropped back to save a little in the tank for the final sprint which was almost guaranteed to happen at this point.
5km left and the break is fully caught, thanks to Lofkvist, who's raising the pace, for his Scandinavian buddy, Boasson Hagen.
About 3km out, Boasson Hagen makes his move, and no one can even get onto his wheel he's going so fast! Soon gets a good gap, possibly enough for the win, but Gilbert and Valverde have yet to attack, and can still make it up to Hagen.
Inside the last kilometre, Hagen has a huge lead, and it looks good for the win!
And he does it! What a win by Boasson Hagen, as he shows off his guns! It was great to see the Swedish Champion working for the Norwegian Champion, you dont see that too oftem, now do you? This will surely make the sponsors happy, but so far, they have yet to cringe a smile all season long.
My girlfriend managed to snap a pic of me crossing the line inside the Top 30, so a much better result today, as my legs just felt good.
Sky ProCycling Squad: Roman Kreuziger Davide Appollonio Juan Antonio Flecha Fumiyuki Beppu Simon Gerrans Alex Dowsett Rigoberto Uran John-Lee Augustyn
The first week of the Vuelta is rather easy, so the riders, will have some rest on the flat stages, other than the sprinters teams, which is mainly HTC. Still Stage 3 or 4 might see some time gaps! The team is here to work for Roman Kreuziger, who is here to go for the double deuces, or basically 2nd place in two GT's. First doesn't look possible for him with him being slightly out of form, but its still a wide open race.
Stage 1: Prologue
As is most GT's the first stage is kicked off by a prologue. This one, had some good results for Sky, as Kreuziger finished inside the Top 10. Signs that his form isn't as bad as he says it is.
Result:
Stage 2
We've got a sprint stage. No surprise to see the two rivals Cavendish and Farrar take the top two spots, Cav being just slightly quicker, but Freire really disappointed the hometown fans, finishing 15th. Rojas was also 11th. Appollonio was 35th, not a very good result for him.
Result:
Stage 3
Finally we get to some lumpy stuff, but its still not much of anything really. A breakaway won the stage, but after that, the winds just ripped the peloton to shreds, and Kreuziger lost 4'22 to Bennati, definitely a stage to forget for him.
Result:
Stage 4
Another breakaway victory, this time denying Cav his second stage win, as Iglinskiy takes the win ahead of Garcia Acosta. Farrar takes 2nd again.
Result:
Stage 5
Were on another flat stage, but this time the BOTD makes it home safely again! Surely HTC are resting for......... well I dont know, but I guess Cavendish isn't going for the Points jersey. Another disappointing result for Appo jet, but Rojas gets closer to Cavendish on this stage, as he's the top Spanish sprinter.
Just some general news, but the rest of the season will probably fly by, in the next few days, so check back often, so that you dont miss an update, and also I will post results of the Tour of Britain right after the Vuelta updates, which was quite a crazy race. And there will be a blog coming dont worry
Stay tuned, and as always thanks everyone for following and commenting, it makes this more enjoyable!
PCM.Daily NFL Fantasy Football Champion: 2012 PCM.Daily NHL Prediction Game Champion: 2013 PCM.Daily NFL Prediction Game Champion: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021
Just catched up with races in Canada, nice win for Eddy and decent result for David in that race.
Good luck for Kreuziger at Vuelta.
Thanks to you, i am David's fan now
@Avin - Well thanks for reading. I'd say 27th is a big improvement. And thanks Kreuziger should do well but the sponsors will need a good result as they're only about 1/4 of the way full on the happiness bar. Truthfully I might have to go in my save and edit that later.
@Avin - Well thanks for reading. I'd say 27th is a big improvement. And thanks Kreuziger should do well but the sponsors will need a good result as they're only about 1/4 of the way full on the happiness bar. Truthfully I might have to go in my save and edit that later.
How long is David's Contract?
Is it possible for him to be transfered soon
I'd like to see him at a team where he will get alot of experience eg. maybe ride the giro?
@Avin - Well thanks for reading. I'd say 27th is a big improvement. And thanks Kreuziger should do well but the sponsors will need a good result as they're only about 1/4 of the way full on the happiness bar. Truthfully I might have to go in my save and edit that later.
How long is David's Contract?
Is it possible for him to be transfered soon
I'd like to see him at a team where he will get alot of experience eg. maybe ride the giro?
His contract ends in 2013, so next season.
Its possible, but things at Sky aren't so bad, are they?
You're last question might get answered next season.........
Stage 6 is the first real Mountain stage of the race, which should add a lot of drama. Although its categorized as a Medium Mountain stage, many are calling it a true mountain stage. A huge break of 8 riders mostly made it to the line, but Scarponi attacked on the climbed and passed the break. The break however still held on to most of the top 10 places, including Flecha. Kreuziger lost 1'12 to Scarponi.
Result
Stage 7
Not too much happened today. Fernandez managed to win with Voeckler as a bunch of splits happened, but nothing too drastic.
Result
Stage 8
We've finally got another regular flats stage, and this time Turgot takes it. The breaks have been really lucky this year, as there doesn't seem to be one team that can agree on brining back the breaks. Farrar takes the peloton home.
Result
Stage 9
Now a hilly TT. We have a strong team here for this, but Samuel Sanchez, one who isn't all that great at TT's wins the TT, an Omen possibly? Konovalovas, takes 2nd, with Kreuziger 3rd, so a really great stage, for Sky with Kreuziger putting quite a bit of time into most of the other contenders.
Result
Stage 10
Again another Mountain stage, this time there's no doubt. Sanchez again shows he's on form, as does Nicholas Roche, who finished 2nd just ahead of Kreuziger. And finally this puts Kreuziger into a great position. Roche is really over-achieving though, as he's very high in the GC. Anton is again the big disappoint, being pretty much invisible.
