We've arrived at our last race this season. A basically pan flat route lies ahead, with plenty of quality sprinters lined up with their eye on the victory. However, since our only actual sprinter isn't really top notch, we'll be trying some more of the late attacking that has payed off so well earlier this year.
Considering his performances in the last couple of months, Alexander Serebryakov must surely feel the pressure of being watched here. Probably also highly motivated for his last race before joining our team!
Other names that catches my eye are Adrien Petit and Andy Fenn, who are both coming from superb breakthrough seasons. However, the winner could really come from any of the teams. It's a very open race.
Straight to the action, with Perichon kicking off on a slight incline with two laps to go, following the plan we made up before the start.
Perichon trying to escape the field.
The move proves to be perfectly timed. Moments after the gap appears, Team Type 1 pulls aside from the front of the peloton, looking for help from other teams. The problem is - nobody takes over!
This causes the speed to drop significantly. In a matter of three kilometers, Perichon extends his advantage to over two minutes!
Nobody wants to do the pace!
The sprinter teams eventually start chasing again, but far too late. Perichon cruises home to a solo victory, really catching everyone off guard. Talk about perfect way to end the season: four consecutive wins for us!
Stunning win for Perichon!
1'44 later, the sprinters lead home the peloton. Bacquet wins the battle for second, topping Favilli in a photofinish. We even get two men in the top 10, with Koretzky finishing in ninth, while celebrating his team mate's victory!
My apologies for the lack of updates in the recent days. With help from lluuiiggii, I've begun the long process of manually updating everything for the new season.
Some of you may remember that I did the same with my old story: Project 1T4i. It's quite a lot of work, so it's probably going to take a week or two to finish. No big deal, as it's going to be worth it in the end!
The Spaniards really dominated the season's first couple of months, only matched by Tom Boonen, the cobbled classics' top man. The other nations finally started getting involved by the Ardennes classics, where GreenEdge surprisingly dominated - spearheaded by Gerrans and Albasini.
Then we reached the stage races, and inevitably - the Sky dominance. Wiggins picked up the overall titles in both Romandie and Suisse, before getting crushed by his team mate Froome in the Tour.
After the British period, the Spaniards took over again, with Vuelta winner Rodriguez and world time trial champion Contador in charge. The latter almost wrapped up the season last race, Beijing, as well - but ended up just short of his compatriot Intxausti.
No doubt that this year will be remembered as "Spain's super season"!
It's hardly a surprise that Cancellara wins this, after the amazing season he has behind him. In addition to a third Roubaix cobblestone, he also wins three stages + the overall in Eneco Tour and one stage + the overall in Tirreno.
And that's just the victories. It can't be forgotten that his season also includes a second place in Amstel Gold Race, 5th overall and the polkadot jersey in the Tour, 5th in the Ronde and 6th in Milano - San Remo. What's next for this man?
An insanely strong season for Spartacus.
UCI WorldTour Team Ranking:
1
Sky Procycling
1326
2
Orica - GreenEDGE
1087
3
Katusha Team
1085
4
OmegaPharma - Quickstep
1068
5
Lotto-Belisol Team
1016
6
Radioshack - Nissan
970
7
Movistar Team
942
8
Rabobank Cycling Team
784
9
Liquigas - Cannondale
766
10
Lampre - ISD
589
11
Astana Pro Team
523
12
Garmin - Sharp
491
13
BMC Racing Team
463
14
Euskaltel - Euskadi
430
15
Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank
368
16
FDJ - BigMat
347
17
AG2R - La Mondiale
332
18
Vacansoleil - DCM
325
Overall victory and four stage wins in the Tour. Points jersey and four stage wins in the Vuelta. One stage win in the Giro. Victory in San Remo. Overall victory in Romandie. Overall victory in Suisse.
Needless to say, Sky have taken the WorldTour by storm this year. Second best team, GreenEDGE, aren't even close. And the scary part is that even though Cavendish is leaving, they could easily repeat this feat next year.
The impressive surge Serebryakov made during the season's second half proves to be enough to come out on top of the CTour. It'll certainly be interesting to see if he can reach this level once again while representing us next season!
Speaking of us, we end up with two riders in the top 10. Evaldas ends up in third place, just a point shy of second. There's no way he would've been able to challenge for the title anyway, so no reason to complain. Koretzky also finishes among the ten, mainly thanks to the excellent riding in the final races.
Serebryakov's amazing season has come to an end.
Continental Tour Team Ranking:
1
Team Type 1 - Sanofi
2279
2
Team Argos - Shimano
2242
3
La Pomme Marseille
2123
4
Itera - Katusha
1908
5
An Post - Sean Kelly Team
1583
6
Team Idea
1451
7
Endura Racing
1281
8
Team Europcar
1273
9
MTN - Qhubeka
1232
10
UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling
1132
To a delibarative part thanks to the man above, Team Type 1 finishes atop the table, just a few points in front of Argos. They haven't been granted any WT license however, so they'll continue to compete with us in the PCT next year, under the new name Novo Nordisk.
But obviously, the best part about this ranking is looking at the third place. Tactical planning, good teamwork and some smart moves has taken us to a level I couldn't even dream of reaching already this year. Next up, PCT!
The fact that the top three is identical to the one in the WT ranking must surely be considered proof that they have been a cut above the rest. Once again it's Cancellara on top, asserting his position at the top of the world.
Fab takes this title as well!
Team CQ Ranking:
1
OmegaPharma - Quickstep
8024
2
Sky Procycling
7831
3
Katusha Team
7095
4
Radioshack - Nissan
6973
5
Lotto-Belisol Team
6892
6
Orica - GreenEDGE
6808
7
Liquigas - Cannondale
5720
8
Movistar Team
5653
9
Rabobank Cycling Team
4930
10
BMC Racing Team
4121
11
Garmin - Sharp
4047
12
Astana Pro Team
4034
13
Lampre - ISD
3725
14
Team Argos-Shimano
3685
15
Team Type 1 - Sanofi
3275
16
FDJ - BigMat
3025
17
Euskaltel - Euskadi
2968
18
La Pomme Marseille
2835
19
Team Saxo Bank - Tinkoff Bank
2792
20
Vacansoleil - DCM
2790
21
Team Europcar
2786
22
AG2R - La Mondiale
2720
No double for Sky on the other hand. OmegaPharma's consistency pays off with this victory. Worst of all WT teams is AG2R, all the way down in 22nd. Best of the non-WT teams is Argos, taking revenge on TT1 for the missed CT crown.
And once again, you can see how great our season has been. Almost 3000 points, and in front of three WT teams. With the squad growing stronger and stronger, we could actually be targeting a WT license for 2014!
Serebryakov can't reach the top in time, so Boonen holds on to the victory. Gent-Wevelgem, E3 Prijs and Vattenfall Cyclassics are some of the Belgian's more notable wins. Still, he closely misses out on all the monuments - so probably not a season he's fully satisfied with anyway.
Best from our team is Koretzky, who has managed to snatch no less than six wins. Evaldas and Perichon follows closely behind, with five and four on their respective accounts. Will be interesting to see how many Serebryakov gets in 2013!
Tommeke is back to his best.
Team Victories:
1
OmegaPharma - Quickstep
48
2
Sky Procycling
45
3
Lotto-Belisol Team
43
4
Orica - GreenEDGE
38
5
Radioshack - Nissan
37
6
Katusha Team
35
7
Team Argos-Shimano
33
8
Team Type 1 - Sanofi
30
9
Movistar Team
29
10
MTN - Qhubeka
28
...
13
La Pomme Marseille
19
Almost half of them might come from Boonen, but still - 48 wins in one season is really impressive. And this is far from what they could've reached if Martin hadn't got struck by the curse of the rainbow jersey. The former world champion is surely motivated to take more than two wins next year.
And to round off, we end up on 19 - split over five riders. 2012 has without any doubt been an amazing year, and I hope that we will reach the same standard also in 2013. With some strong new names and more money to back us up - I believe that it's very possible!
Really nice season finish witth so many great results, especially Koretzky did well. And also the overview is very nice, i am looking forward to the next year with Serebryakov and few others added.
Also for me there is no doubt about the team story of the year, i actually nominated only your story!
Well, in my opinion it'll be a fight between this and Petronas, though. But it's unpredictable and not too important. The main thing is the story's still alive and kicking and I can't wait for the next season!
C'mon man, excellent reporting, excellent season summary, ever thought of having a career in journalism? This certainly is the top favourite for Best Story.
Vantomme took the Ronde!? Haven't seen that coming Great review, there's no doubt La Pomme Marseille has had an amazing season. 18th in the CQ rankings is crazy
Thanks all for supporting throughout the season. It's what keeps me going!
kimiopn wrote:
Excellent summary with great pictures!
Glad you liked it!
Ian Butler wrote:
A great season overview, the team did excellent! Next goal: winning the PCM Awards
Winning an award would be awesome, especially after closely missing out on two last year - but I doubt I'll get any. The story awards are all dienblad's.
Avin Wargunnson wrote:
Really nice season finish witth so many great results, especially Koretzky did well. And also the overview is very nice, i am looking forward to the next year with Serebryakov and few others added.
Also for me there is no doubt about the team story of the year, i actually nominated only your story!
Wow, thanks a lot! Very much appreciated!
Miguel98 wrote:
Very good summary of the season. Really hope that next season's is even better. Btw, did you got promoted?
To quote myself, from the summary:
"Next up, PCT!"
FreitasPCM wrote:
C'mon man, excellent reporting, excellent season summary, ever thought of having a career in journalism? This certainly is the top favourite for Best Story.
Thank you so much for the nice words! I'll do my best to keep things on the same level as currently, but for the moment I think I'm continuing with my technology studies.
andy222c wrote:
Vantomme took the Ronde!? Haven't seen that coming Great review, there's no doubt La Pomme Marseille has had an amazing season. 18th in the CQ rankings is crazy
Yeah, that was a pretty funny one. He was in a successful breakaway that also included Van Winden and Lodewyck. Boonen in fourth place was probably pretty pissed.
1.HC: Tour de Vendée
This certainly is the top favourite for Best Story. 
