Here I am again! Got some extra motivation so decided to write another report for a race that's raced few weeks ago. Thanks again for comments, means alot.
Ok, now it's sure - I am changing the difficulty to Extreme after Romandie finishes (basically just before Giro). These results are just crazily good and it's not really challenging anymore. I firstly thought it's because Cancellara/guys are really good on their fields, but it doesn't look so. I am too good for this game, it seems. () So yeah, you can be happy now!
Stage 4 of Romandie is definitely what's called "calm before storm". One steady stage, rated as flat but with alot of short and steepy hills in it. As we don't have sprinters here, we might try something with Spartacus in final few kilometers. However, that depends on situation, so let's just wait and see if race is going to allow something like that.
Tour de Romandie [Stage 4]
23rd April - 28th April, 2014
Awful conditions today. Alot of fog and just from the start, guys had serious problems to recognize the right path and road for race. However, everything went well and without many crashes/problems. Only 3 guys made an attack and created a BOTD group. None of them were our guys, as we once again decided to focus on protecting our leaders/late attack.
However, peloton, especially our team, Giant and Katusha never let that breakaway group get too far and it was quite predictable that they're going to get caught. It looked like Giant & Katusha had some serious plans for their sprinters for todays stage.
Finally, 8 kilometers to go, at entrance of Freiburg city, peloton managed to catch breakaway group. Still, none of the teams decides to create a serious train and everything looks un-organised now. Might change in following kilometers, might not. Katusha & Giant were still in the front, while FDJ joined them too. Our guys were quite high in that group too. It looked like we saved a yellow jersey once again!
As none of the teams managed to organise a train before 5 kilometers to go and pace calmed down a bit, we thought that attacking would be a perfect solution at that moment. And we had a perfect guy for that kind of action too, so Spartacus attacked in his style - 5 kilometers to go!
Absolutely huge acceleration by our best rider and at 3 kilometers to go, he had something like 20 seconds of advantage. Peloton accelerated, but as Herr Fabian is someone who's known for great flat and TT ride, it was hard to believe that they'll catch him. However, nothing were decided yet.
Back in peloton, none of the teams/riders wanted to exhaust themselves before the final sprint so they looked really un-organised in that chase for Fabian. However, Bouhanni decided to do something crazy, something that matches his cocky attitude, something unusual for him - he attacked from his seat and that looked like a successful attack, as he gained few tens of meters over peloton. Sprint started!
Nothing really happened before the finish line except that Fabian once again widened the gap and managed to take on absolutely great win in front of peloton. The gap was increased to 45" seconds which was his final advantage on the peloton. Just amazing!
Back behind, Bouhanni kept a great pace and thanks to a little sprint at the end, he managed to keep himself in front of peloton and take a valuable 2nd position for his FDJ team. Quite strange sprint in the peloton, as GC guys also participated in it. Not that surprisingly, Froome.exe 3.0.0.1 finished on 3rd place.
That was one great day - another stage win and another day in yellow jersey. However, two next stages/days are going to be one real challenge before Giro. Firstly, the only mountain stage up to Nufennenpass and then MTT to Hospental. Gonna be painful!
The Suriname photo-taking prodigy produces yet another stunning report
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Can't think of any epic comment to reply Alak & Code, so yeah guys, thanks! I agree Valv, he just needed someone to wake up his dark, trolling, ugly side.
Indeed Fernando. Fabian is just unstoppable this year! Thanks for suppport!
Oh, and here we are finally, in front of the hardest stage that our team raced this year. Absolutely deadly 5th stage in Romandie this year, with over 30 kilometers of climbing over Swiss Alpes. There's almost no way that we can save yellow jersey on this profile, with this competition, until some miracle happen.
Tour de Romandie [Stage 5]
23rd April - 28th April, 2014
Very strong breakaway group attacked early this morning, with some great climbing names in it, such as Peraud, Martin, Anacona, Clarke...We, as a team that has yellow jersey in our hands, let them go as all of them are far in GC. Turned out to be a bad decision, but more about it below.
Anyways, race continued and we had everything under control basically whole day. Sergent & Vandewalle did one hell of the job today and proved why they're part of this beautiful cycling project.
Enough of pathetic. We're back in the race, where, on the downhill just before HC climb started, Simon Spilak attacked. Slovenian is yet another great climber that is far in GC and that attacks early today. He gets some gap, as we weren't interested in chasing that.
Soon, the longest and the only KoM rated climb started. Few outsiders, such as Voeckler, Nieve, Rogers, Talansky and Pirazzi attacked from basically the bottom. However, Betancur was there too! Now, that looked like a serious attack. Colombian rider quickly got to the top of that group and started setting one very high pace.
Of course, favourites in peloton couldn't just sit and watch Betancur going and literally winning this race, so they attacked too. No one else but Purito Rodriguez was the one that launched these attacks. Nibali & Froome both followed that and the real racing started!
However, thanks to narrow roads and absolutely no way to get to the front of the group, Kiserlovski was boxed behind. Great acceleration by all the favourites and as it was expected, they quickly made one group in the front. Race leader & our teams leader here wasn't the part of it. First (of two) "black" moment of todays stage.
However, Kiserlovski reached the top of the group behind, upped the pace seriously and started some strooong relaying turns that, after few kilometers, managed to connect two groups again! 2 things were clear there - Kiserlovski has great legs today; Kiserlovski used some of the energy already. However, Peraud (who was the part of BOTD) was still in front of the peloton at that point. No one really had interest to catch him, which was a perfect situation for French rider.
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The 2nd climb of the day and the only one KoM rated finished soon. On the downhill, Peraud kept gaining more and more time over the guys in the group behind, mainly because no one really was interested in following him. Arredondo & Kiserlovski were both in that 2nd group (favourites) and they were just sitting there and waiting the last climb. You could just feel tensions in the air. Calm before storm.
And, it was like that! Just as the guys arrived to the bottom of the last, 8 kilometers long climb, favourites started attacking. After few neutralised attacks, the first one that no one (neither Froome!) could follow came from Nibali. Hesjedal tried to follow that, but it wasn't successful attempt, at all. Kiserlovski kept calm and decided to ride his own rhytm. He still was in the favourites group behind, but it seriously looked like he's cracking again.
The gap between Peraud and him melt away in just few minutes and around 4,5 kilometers to go, Nibali & Peraud made a group at the front and surprisingly, they started co-operating. Froome & Rodriguez attacked the group behind and this was the situation on the road at that point.
E1
E2
E3
Peraud
Froome
Kiserlovski
Nibali
Rodriguez
Contador
Hesjedal
Betancur
& friends
But then, one big shock for us again - Contador, Betancur, Mollema, Hesjedal & Rolland all attacked and Kiserlovski's group (Pinot & Inxtausti) couldn't follow that. Nothing could've been done against that, so Robert just kept watching them go. We had to focus not to lose much time at taht point, despite the fact that yellow weren't ours anymore (provisionally).
The two guys on the top of the group kept co-operating and as a reward for a great attitude, Nibali let Peraud win the stage. This is why we do love cycling. After 4 hours and 46 minutes racing you let someone win can't be seen in many sport, really. Brave ride from Vincenzo too, which will surely move him up in GC. 49 seconds after, Rodriguez & Froome arrived together with Brit getting a podium in final sprint.
Guys like Betancur, Contador, Hesjedal and few others finished in the meantime. However, huge 5 minutes after the winner, group of Kiserlovski arrived to the finish line. We surely lost yellow jersey, but there's no one that can blame Kiserlovski. He gave his all and it's the only reason he didn't outsprint Intxausti & Pinot for 10th and 11th position. This competition is really strong and after living the dream for 4 days, we finally had to face the reality.
However, that 12th stage place should definitely bring us a Top 10 GC place with which we would be really happy. Let's take a look on the results table to see where Robert ended up in Overall classifications.
Oh, it was just matter of time. It was good while it lasted, we'll now focus on that final MTT and will try to keep 7th position in our hands, which is kinda good with basically all the best climbers (except Movistar duo) are here. That give us big hope for Giro, where most of these riders won't participate.
It's great to see that new guys are coming, reading this and liking what I am doing. In some moments, I think about making another pause that would probably kill this totally, but then I read the comment such as one from jihardy or Ruben18 and I wish to write another report. Thanks alot guys!
While most of the guys that will take a participation in this years Giro d'Italia are racing in Romandie, other group of guys that will be on well-deserved holiday in that period (May) are now in Italy on this cool one-day classic and they're mostly here to keep their form and to stretch their legs a bit. That of course doesn't mean we won't watch a great race here!
GP Industria & Artigianato [1.1]
27th April, 2014
GP Industria & Artigianato is one old Italian classic that was firstly held in 1967 year under the "Circuito di Larciano" name. From 2005 though, it's UCI Continental Race rated as 1.1 classic. As you can see from the profile above and from the name of this classic before 1976 (where the name was changed to the actual one), it's raced around Larciano city. 5 big hills with one of them (in the Larciano city) repeating for 4 times. Even despite the fact that the finish isn't on hilly gradient, it's surely the race reserved for puncheurs or at least hilly sprinters. Without any doubt, it will be one great race to watch.
Talking about the competition here, it's not really a strong one, but that's also fully understandable, considering that some UWT races are going on right now and that all best guys are focusing on them. Even despite that, some quality puncheurs & climbers such as Nocentini, Kesiakoff, Frank, Trofimov, our F. Schleck, Ponzi, Rebellin, Sinkiewitz, Hoogerland, Battaglin and many other PCT good names showed up here. Definitely not the race for someone that wants to see the biggest names of worlds cycling, but mainly for cycling enthusiasts who are following even this level of racing.
Frank Schleck is surely one of most sounding names in this race and he's without any doubts our leader here. As he's still in good form after great Ardennes Classics for the team, we expect great result for him (let's say podium would be satisfying, but we're surely aiming for the win). The part of the squad is pretty young here with guys such as Alafaci, Felline, Silvestre, while on another side we do have group of great oldies lead by one and the only Jensie Voigt - Beppu, Popovych and Hondo. Really solid squad that should (especially Felline & Voigt) protect and help Frank as much as they can to get a good result here.
With being quite anonymnous in last few races, our another target here is to get a rider in a breakaway. We still didn't decide, so it may be some young gun but it can also be some experienced lad. We'll see. We gotta go now as the race is going to start in few minutes and this is all for the preview of GP Industria & Artigianato. See ya soon on the race report!
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Sunny, clear and beautiful day in Italy today - definitely something that suits Schleck, Felline & Voigt perfectly who are all in great form today. It really smelt great at that time as we were more than ready to face Larciano hills and to finally race this beautiful, historic 1-day classic.
GP Industria & Artigianato [1.1]
27th April, 2014
The initial pre-race plan was to get in the breakaway today and as it didn't change in the meantime, we decided to do so. Precisely, Beppu decided to do it, so he attacked and alongside 3 more PCT/CT guys he made BOTD group. He is, with all respect, our weakest rider here and he was the strongest in BOTD so it could get only good for us.
Once the guys in front got a serious gap, around 7 mins the race entered usual "chasing" mode when every big team had its turns on the top of peloton. We, of course, were passive as we had the strongest guy in breakaway group so there was no reason to do so.
Anyways, after 3 out of 5 laps/hills passed, the guys arrived to the 4th one and that's actually where action started. Precisely, not really there, but on the downhill of that hill, where Nocentini, alongside Ponzi, Hoogerland and Caruso attacked. That was one really strong group, so despite having the guy in the breakaway, we decided to chase that.
However, only 5 kilometers after, 27 kilometers before the finish line, thanks to IAM and Trek, peloton caught that group. The main favourites were now exhausted which was the perfect scenario for our team. 3 guys from BOTD group also dropped in the meantime and it was peloton versus Beppu now.
20 kilometers to go exactly and just on the start of last climb, Beppu gets caught thanks to IAM. That was one really brave ride for Japanese rider, but it was just matter of time when he'll get caught. We quickly had to focus on neutralising attacks or perhaps attacking on that hill, so Felline, alongside Voigt & Schleck quickly reached the top of the peloton and started setting their own pace. The race was in our control at that point.
Thanks to very high pace of our guys, none of other guys managed to get any gap on the hilleven though many, such as Nocentini, Rabottini, Battaglin tried. However, Nocentini somehow managed to make slight advantage and 8 kilometers to go he was the only one in front of 20men favourites group, where we had 3 riders (Voigt, Felline & Schleck). It still looked perfectly good for us.
However, just as it was noticable from the first moment he attacked, that move had 'unsuccessful' written all over it. 5 kilometers to go and thanks to Trek & IAM guys once again, Nocentini's gap is neutralised and the main favourite for this race is now probably out of win battle. Our guys, especially Felline & Schleck were still on the top of that E1 group and were patiently waiting for their chance.
It was kinda hard to decide whether we're going to attack at 3-5 kilometers to go or just wait and prepare sprint for Felline. We didn't have much time to think about it, so we went with the 2nd option - sprint "train" for Felline. Voigt was pretty much useless at that point, as he was protecting Schleck whole day, so our sprint "train" had just 2 guys Schleck-Felline. However, as all other guys sprinted on their own, that wannabe sprint train looked like a good decision at that point.
Schleck surprisingly had a great acceleration at that point and he somehow kept the position on top of the peloton. Fabio was of course following that all the time and saved some energy for final kilometer. Meanwhile, Duarte, Frank, Kesiakoff, Rebellin, Durasek and few others were all in full-speed mode. 1 kilometer to go and Felline finally gets out of Schleck's wheel. There was no way we could predict what's going to happen at that moment.
Even despite having bad daily & fitness form, Felline made one huuuge acceleration at that point and he could only thank to Schleck for that. For few moments, it looked like he's going to finish on 2nd position behind Duarte as the finish line got closer, but somehow, out of nowhere, Colombian couldn't keep the sprint pace anymore so he stopped sprinting and sat on his bike. That gave Felline one big advantage once again which he used wisely!
We won! Once again big win for our team! It's like dream, there's just no way we won this amount of stages/races so far. 2nd big win for Felline this year after San Luis. To make thing even better, Schleck managed to get 4th position aswell. Just a perfect race for these guys, even though they're on something called "vacation"!
) So yeah, you can be happy now! 
Nice touch with the screens!
