Okay guys, few pretty big news connected to this story are below, so please read them if you want to stay informed about it. None of them are bad , so just relax.

Firstly, I am once again having problems with my PC. That's shame, but luckily, nothing is lost this time. The PC is on service repair currently and it should be in my hands in about 4-5 days. However, I prepared and stored 2 reports (not counting the one below), so I'll hopefully fill up the time until my PC comes back.

The second stuff is I started preparing my PCM14 story basically from last night. No, this story isn't going to stop, definitely. I'll for sure finish the first season and decide about the future of this then, but it's far from this point and I don't want to think about it now. I just wanted to give a little reason why I am not updating this so often.

Thirdly, thank you all! Despite the fact I finished on 2nd place, only 3 points behind Shonak and his aCross story in SToM, I am more than happy. Thanks to all of you who voted for me, as that really means alot. This is now getting too long, so have fun reading the report and see ya!

Third stage of Giro del Trentino - the first serious challenge for best climbers here and the first stage where we expect some serious gaps at the end. Zubeldia is prepared and we're hoping that he'll get close to Top 10 now after that TTT disaster. Breakaway might get it today, so we'll definitely consider that option, too.




Very strong breakaway, with only 3 riders in it, was created early this morning. As the guys were pretty strong climbers (Didier, Hoogerland and Garcia) everyone expected peloton to react on that move. But no, peloton let that go and the gap was widening as the time passed. It was a great chance for us and Laurent!



The gap was bigger and bigger and at around 43 kilometers, it was huge 13 minutes. It was more than clear that breakaway will win this at that point. However, Johnny Hoogerland decided to make a move there and to go on his own until the end. Garcia is trying to follow that, while Didier gave up already. Laurent told us after that he felt serious stomach pain at that moment.



Meanwhile, behind in peloton, at around 21 kilometers to go, the group of 3 strong riders tried to escape. Monfort, Kangert and Brambilla were their names. However, peloton caught that quickly and everyone calmed once again. The final climb was about to start.



Hoogerland had no problems to keep the lead over Garcia. He just looked calm, in-shape and ready for everything. 10 kilometers to go, he has the advantage of around a minute and he has this in bag. However, behind, Didier is struggling alot. He was more than a 3 minutes behind at that point, which indicated that something was really wrong with him.



Johnny was just closer and closer to the finish and nothing changed on the top of the race, except Didier's gap who was at around 5 minutes in the time when Netherlands National Champion reached last 3km and banner-zone.



Meanwhile, in peloton... Nieve and De Gendt were really active. They were constantly trying to escape, but these tries weren't actually successful, as Zubeldia/Busche duo managed to re-catch them again and again. We needed a gap, but we couldn't afford an attack at that point. Haimar just kept going from his seat.



In the meantime, 5 minutes and 7 seconds in front of the peloton, Johnny Hoogerland managed to get a stage win here. Great, brave ride and absolutely deserved win for Androni's rider! Garcia, however, finished as 2nd with only 38 seconds behind.



Sam Sanchez was the first guy from peloton to cross the finish line, at the end. He finished only 30 seconds behind our Laurent Didier, who managed to finish as 3rd on the stage despite the all problems he had. Also, Zubeldia finished as 6th at the end, which was great result for us, again.



Real shame that Didier couldn't make it and win the stage, but with 3rd and 6th positions at the end, we're satisfied with this Trentino's stage.

1	Johnny Hoogerland	Androni Giocattoli	6h11'20
2	Marcos García	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 38
3	Laurent Didier	Trek Factory Racing	+ 4'40
4	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	+ 5'07
5	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	+ 5'32
6	Haimar Zubeldia	Trek Factory Racing	+ 6'00
7	Thomas De Gendt	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
8	Ivan Basso	Cannondale	+ 6'16
9	John Darwin Atapuma	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
10	Bradley Wiggins	Team Sky	s.t.

GC

1	Johnny Hoogerland	Androni Giocattoli	9h26'08
2	Marcos García	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 11
3	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'50
4	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	+ 3'35
5	Laurent Didier	Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'43
6	John Darwin Atapuma	BMC Racing Team	+ 3'59
7	Thomas De Gendt	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 4'20
8	Bradley Wiggins	Team Sky	+ 4'22
9	Ivan Basso	Cannondale	+ 4'36
10	Maxime Monfort	Lotto Belisol	+ 4'45

Points	Johnny Hoogerland [Androni]	31 points
KoM	Laurent Didier [Trek]	26 points
U25	Joseph Domborowski [Sky]	9h31'13
Team	Trek Factory Racing	27h59'04

Not really good ride, considering we could win the stage with Didier. However, I tried to wheelsuck the breakaway and 2 guys constantly attacked Laurent, until he died while trying to catch them. Shit happens.

Haimar is definitely having a great form for Top 10, considering the last stage is very,very hard and only reserved for the bests. He's in form currently and we'll see what we can do! ;)

The best description for 4th stage of this years Trentino is probably "calm before the storm". It's hilly stage with a flat finish where we do expect a group of favourites finishing together and some hilly-sprinter winning. Felline would be a guy for this if he isn't out of form. He already proved us that we were wrong in the Stage 1, hopefully he'll do it again.




The breakaway group was once again created pretty early and once again we decided to send one of our guys there. It was Fabio Silvestre this time, who's out of form currently and he participated in BOTD just because of sponsors. All other guys were climbers/puncheurs so our chance for stage-win from breakaway was nearly 0.



Nothing important for us happened for us basically until the last climb, but one very rare and interesting thing could be seen - Androni Giocatolli giving their all on the top of the peloton to save Hoogerland's jersey. They were doing it well, as the gap never reached 6 minutes.



However, we'll just skip to the last 20 kilometers as the race was so interesting until that point. Anyways, 20 kilometers to go and guys in front finally got rid of Silvestre and there are only 4 of them. They're still keeping the gap of around 2 minutes, which can be enough but doesn't mean it will be. The last climb is in next few kilometers.



And, while the guys in the breakaway group decided to co-operate on climb and not attack on it, a totally different scenario could've been seen in the peloton. 21st in Overall, Tanel Kangert, attacks. No one decided to follow that. Our guys were on the top of the peloton and they waited for their chance.



The guys in front played it fair and didn't attack on the climb. However, no one said that they couldn't attack on the downhill? Deignan & Rutkowski used that chance and made a move. At that point, they really looked stronger than other 2. Still 7 kilometers to go for them.



As the terrain was mostly flat and downhill until the banner-zone and last 3 kilometers, the guys in front quickly arrived to it. Only 3 kilometers to go for Rutkowski & Deignan and this is the current situation on the field:

E1	E2 (+20")	E3 (+40")	P(+1'30")
Rutkowski	Kangert	Zubeldia	Big group
Deignan		Favourites	...

One of them is going to win this. Or no, wait! Kangert is coming like a rocket from behind. The guy re-gained all the time and successfuly caught up with this group. Can he now over-sprint them? Meanwhile, group behind started the sprint too. No way some of them is going to win this, but they will at least neutralise the gap. No Felline in that group, so Zubeldia is out guy there.



Although it looked like Kangert is going to win this easily, it wasn't really like that. Kangert was in the lead basically until the last 100 meters, where Rutkiewicz regained the energy and managed to take a win here. Great win for this Polish team and their leader, Marek Rutkiewicz! Kangert finished as 2nd, while Deignan was the 3rd, at the end.



Good sprint from Haimar behind, as he managed to get the 6th position. By this, he moves up to 12th position and it's almost 100% sure that he's going into Top 10 on the last stage and Final Classification.

1	Marek Rutkiewicz	CCC Polsat Polkowice	4h27'38
2	Tanel Kangert	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
3	Philip Deignan	Team Sky	s.t.
4	John Darwin Atapuma	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Matteo Rabottini	YellowFluo	s.t.
6	Haimar Zubeldia	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
7	Bart De Clercq	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
8	Davide Rebellin	CCC Polsat Polkowice	s.t.
9	Simon Clarke	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
10	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	s.t.

GC

1	Johnny Hoogerland	Androni Giocattoli	13h53'46
2	Marcos García	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 11
3	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'50
4	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	+ 3'35
5	John Darwin Atapuma	BMC Racing Team	+ 3'59
6	Thomas De Gendt	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 4'20
7	Bradley Wiggins	Team Sky	+ 4'22
8	Ivan Basso	Cannondale	+ 4'36
9	Maxime Monfort	Lotto Belisol	+ 4'45
10	Simon Clarke	Orica GreenEdge	+ 4'54

Points	Johnny Hoogerland [Androni]	31 points
KoM	Laurent Didier [Trek]	26 points
U25	Joseph Domborowski [Sky]	14h00'19
Team	Team Sky	41h22'07

Not really, Sutty. Haimar moved to 12th in GC which is great and we're definitely aiming for Top 10 in the last, 5th stage. We also got 6th position, so it's not a huge disaster! ;)

Also, this is the last report I got in reserve. Luckily, I just got the call that I'll probably be able to pick up my PC tomorrow or on Friday, but nothing is sure yet.

The king, the last and the 5th stage of Giro del Trentino 2014 is in front of us. By far the hardest stage finishing on climb Sega di Ala which is known for some deadly percentages who are going up to 20% at some points, even. The stage for only the best climbers and the lighter guys in the peloton. Haimar and the team is ready, so here we go!




Once again beautiful, sunny and enjoyable day in Italy. Many WT teams decided to send in their guys today, just that they can focus on their leaders and not on chasing in peloton. However, we decided to skip this one, as we honestly didn't have any good climber for it.



Although the todays stage is rated as mountain, there are few long flat parts, as you can see. Sergey Firsanov used one of them and around 80 kilometers to go, he decided to make a move. As the gap wasn't big, he quickly managed to catch the breakaway.



It was expected that the race will be boring and not so interesting until the first and only rated hill today. And, it was like that. The gap started to melt away and it was getting more and more clear that the peloton will catch the breakaway group. But when?



And surprisingly, even on the 2nd last hill, we didn't see any action. It looked like we'll definitely have to wait for the last hill. The last hill started at around 10 kilometers ago. Leaders, including Zubeldia, Sanchez and Basso quickly arrived to the top of the group, as the guys behind started dropping already. It's going to be a looong day for some of them.



Meter by meter, guys were dropping behind. 8 kilometers to go and only the strongest guys are left now. We seem to be the only team with 2 riders in front. Busche is protecting Zubeldia and it was only the matter of time when the American will drop, too. However, Haimar still felt great!



On the top of the race, Firsanov, as clearly the best climber over there, made some advantage over other breakaway guys and no one can stop him now. Around 5 kilometers for him and he has 2 minutes advantage over the favourites. Should be enough for a win.



And, that moment had to come, too. Zubeldia lost his main helper, Matty Busche and it's now all on him. Spanis oldie is now playing on experience and is accelerating from his seat. Guys behind are just looking at each other, but no one decides to follow that. Great, great, great!



One by one, Zubeldia outpaced the breakaway guys. 4 kilometers to go, he still looks very fresh and it's now Firsanov versus Zubeldia versus Favourites group. This is going to be one very interesting finish!



Although he knew that the guys behind were arriving, Firsanov didn't panic. He easily set his own pace and was slowly getting closer and closer to the finish line. 3 kilometers left for him and he still has 1 minute advantage over Haimar. This is the current situation:

E1	E2 (+1'30")	E3 (+1'57")
Firsanov	Zubeldia	Basso
		De Gendt
		Monfort
		Kangert
		Nieve
		De Clerq

1 kilometer to go for Firsanov! It's pretty clear that he secured the win now, as Zubeldia is far down the road. But, he still has few hundred of meters to go and he can't give up now.



Meanwhile behind, Basso finds last atoms of energy and attacks! He quickly catches the Haimar. One of them is going to finish 2nd and another as 3rd. Rest of the favourites has no energy to keep up with Basso's pace.



Firsanov easily gets the win! A really brave ride from a Russian and more than deserved win. Great late-attack, he was clearly the best on the mountains from BOTD. Such a great result for this "small", PCT team.



However, a more important battle for us was held 1 minute behind. Basso somehow managed to catch up and even overtake Zubeldia in the fight for 2nd position. They both got some pretty serious gap over the 2nd group. Such a great podium place for us.



It will be very, very interesting to see the Overall and Final GC now. We definitely made it in the Top 5, but what's the place that Haimar finished on at the end? Check out below!

1	Sergey Firsanov	RusVelo	4h20'11
2	Ivan Basso	Cannondale	+ 1'09
3	Haimar Zubeldia	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'24
4	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	+ 1'45
5	Thomas De Gendt	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
6	Tanel Kangert	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
7	Maxime Monfort	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
8	Bart De Clercq	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
9	Brent Bookwalter	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'31
10	Fabio Duarte	Colombia	+ 3'23

GC

1	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	18h19'17
2	Ivan Basso	Cannondale	+ 13
3	Thomas De Gendt	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 45
4	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'08
5	Haimar Zubeldia	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'09
6	Maxime Monfort	Lotto Belisol	+ 1'10
7	Sergey Firsanov	RusVelo	+ 1'41
8	Bart De Clercq	Lotto Belisol	+ 1'45
9	Tanel Kangert	Astana Pro Team	+ 1'54
10	Marcos García	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 2'07

Points	Haimar Zubeldia [Trek]	36 points
KoM	Sergey Firasnov [RusVelo]	28 points
U25	Davide Villela [Cannondale]	18h24'13
Team	BMC Racing Team	41h22'07

Quite solid Giro del Trentino for us with 5th position and only 1 second behind Sam Sanchez who finished on 4th. However, Zubeldia managed to get points jersey at the end, with few constant Top 10 results.



We're definitely satisfied with the race. Awful TTT from team, but nothing could be done against it as our squad definitely wasn't great in that discipline. Even despite that, we managed to get Top 5 place and one jersey in our hands. LBL is next race while Giro d'Italia 2014 is getting really close! See ya soon!

Indeed! Much stronger and better ride from Haimar than we could even expect. Now, just imagine we had a better TTT. That race would've easily gone into the hand of the experienced Spaniard (who already started declining )

Also, good news everyone! Somehow, by some very rare miracle, the one specific thing is done before the "deadline" in Serbia. I recieved my PC before I even expected and I am very happy. This is now going full gas.

Liège–Bastogne–Liège! The race started before more than 100 years ago, one of five monuments, one of the hardest and the longest classics in professional WT calendar. "La Doyenne" or "the oldest" on English is about to start. Everyone's more than prepared for this spectacle and there's nothing to wait for. We're soon starting, be prepared!




As the race name says, it starts and finishes in the city of Liege, in the Eastern part of Belgium in the Liege province. The race follows a straightforward 95 km route from Liège to Bastogne, and a winding 163 km route back to Liège. The second half contains most of the climbs, such as the Stockeu, Haute-Levée, La Redoute, and Saint-Nicolas before finishing in the northern Liège suburb of Ans. The many hills give opportunities to attack to some lighter and more explosive riders. The percentages on these hills are really steep with Côte de Saint-Roch (12% and 128km after the start) and Côte de Saint-Nicolas (11.1% and 255km after the start) being the steepest ones.

Absolutely all the best puncheurs and even most of the climbers are here every year and there was no reason to be different this year. The guys such as Rodriguez, Valverde, Gilbert, Martin, Nibali, Costa, Gerrans and Kwiatkowski can always surprise on this type of terrain, but they're not the only guys who can win this, of course. There are some of the all-arounders, such as Cancellara, Sagan, Kreuziger, Mollema and Henao who are always dangerous and can always make a difference with some early attacks. Definitely one of least-predictable races in the calendar and that's what makes it so special.



Pretty much the same team as in all Ardennes classic is here, with the exception of Kiserlovski who isn't here and who's preparing for Romandie and Giro after. However, we brought Popovych instead of him and we're sure that Yaro will be a great replace. Once again, we don't have a defined leader for this, as the 4 guys can actually lead our team. Arredondo, Schleck brothers and Cancellara they are. However, we'll choose the leader in the race, depending on how are the guys feeling and are they prepared to fight for the win here!



There are also some helpers such as Jungels, Busche and Voigt who are always a threat for some late-attacks or stuff like that. If they don't give a chance to attack, their role will be quite simple - protect the leaders. The sponsor goal is Top 10 here and hopefully, with good in-team co-operation, we'll make it. More or less, that was all for this preview. See ya soon on the roads of Belgium and La Doyenne!

DS of Trek FR - admirschleck