My second time here at Criterium International. Last year I finished 7th in the GC. I was in 3rd spot before the final stage’s time trial, but inevitably I would drop down. I hope to improve on this result this year and in order to do so a great performance on the hilly stage 2 is compulsory. I have had to train with a lower intensity after Milan-Sanremo, so my form has got down just a tad, but I should be able to up there on stage 2, which is the reason I came here. I want to win that stage and take my first victory of the season. My last win goes way back. More than 10 months actually, you remember my second stage win in the Giro right? That’s the one.
Stage 1 was one for the sprinters In which we hoped Cav would prevail. I stayed out of the sprint today, as I didn’t wanted to take any chances ahead of tomorrow’s stage. Burghardt and Greg led out Cav, and our train came first out of the last bend. Looking good!
But Cav was surprisingly weak and Greg couldn’t do it by himself. Instead Romain Feilly took the stage and the yellow jersey.
I finished in 41st safely in the pack. Greg was our fastest on the day taking 6th place. Still very disappointing that Mark couldn’t do anything today.
1 Romain Feillu Slipstream - Chipotle powered by H3O 4h30'58
2 Lloyd Mondory AG2R - La Mondiale s.t.
3 Daryl Impey Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
4 Laurent Beuret Team Milram s.t.
5 Maxime Vantomme Team CSC s.t.
Time for stage 2. It’s just 99 kilometres but it still includes lots of hills plus an uphill finish at the top of 4-kilometres climb with an average slope of about 5%. Just my kind of hill. I took 3rd place last year on this particular stage with Chavanel going first. He is also here this time around, but I’ll do anything in my power to keep him off that number one spot this time.
The whole team was supporting me throughout the day and I had some nice response from my legs right from the start. A rather large group of 14 riders broke clear early on, but they never got more than 2 minutes and they were reeled back in as we hit the penultimate climb. The former winner of this race Ivan Basso tried to attack away here, but on the flat after the top Greg hit the front and reeled everything back in.
Crossing the bridge with the final climb just up ahead.
Jerome Coppel was the first to make a move with 3,5km to go. I was still feeling fresh so I decided to jump off the front aswell. I quickly got a gap. Coppel didn’t – at least not as fast as I did.
Rujano then attacked followed by last year’s winner Sylvain Chavanel. I was already quite a bit up the road making my way through the tons of spectators.
I was really motoring and I didn’t sit down in the saddle one of time during my acceleration up the climb. I turned around as I rode under the flame rouge, only to conclude I had busted open a considerable gap to Coppel, who was being chased down by Chava.
Sprinting up the last bit, with Coppel struggling to keep up.
I was definitely going to take my first win of the season now. Question was by how much? Chava had bridged the gap on Coppel, but they wouldn’t close me down. As I raised my hands to celebrate my 20th career victory I still had a solid gap!
Chava just edged in front of Coppel to take 2nd. Sprick and Rujano finished 4th and 5th in the same time as Chava and Coppel. They were 12 seconds back. Joly led the pack in at 41 seconds. So the battle for the overall should be between me and the 4 others. I have to finish this on a time trial. Shit!
My first leader’s jersey in, let’s see, quite a while!
1 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road 2h28'27
2 Sylvain Chavanel Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone + 12
3 Jérôme Coppel Skil - Shimano s.t.
4 Mathieu Sprick Bouygues Télécom s.t.
5 José Rujano Crédit Agricole s.t.
6 Sébastien Joly Française des Jeux + 41
7 Levi Leipheimer Slipstream - Chipotle powered by H3O s.t.
8 Julien Simon Rabobank s.t.
9 Mauricio Soler Barloworld s.t.
10 Fabian Wegmann Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone s.t.
I guess Coppel will be tough to beat/not lose 18 seconds to in the time trial, but hopefully JAJ can do it
Edited by SportingNonsense on 02-06-2009 22:52
I might have said this before, but this time I’m serious. This is THE most important time trial of my career. Sure the one a few weeks back were important aswell, but it’s something different to get on your bike on the start ramp wearing a yellow jersey, that looks exactly like the one in the Tour de France by the way, and try to defend that against a time trial specialist riding on his home turf who only needs to gain 18 seconds on me over 10 kilometres. I got my work cut out for sure.
A rider I didn’t think about who could threaten my lead was Ivan Basso. He was 55 seconds back before this stage, but being a great time trialist. 55 seconds wouldn’t be impossible for him to bring back over 10ks. Chavanel sitting in 2nd place at 16 seconds will also be difficult to deal with. I dug out the results from last year this morning. Turns out I lost 29 seconds to Chavanel on that occasion. That is of course 13 seconds too much, but I feel like I have taken a step up in this discipline, so nothing’s impossible. Also Sprick and Rujano sitting at 22 seconds are not to be underestimated eventhough I feel like I can take those guys.
Let’s fast forward to the interesting part. Ivan Basso put in a great performance finishing the time trial in 10’13, meaning I would have to go below 11’04 to keep him behind me. Last year I did a 10’46, so I was feeling confident about Basso as he had finished the course.
Next interesting rider was Jerome Coppel, sitting in 3rd at 18 seconds and he came absolutely surging out of the start area going 7 seconds faster than Basso at the first check, and a whopping 16 seconds at the finish line. I was on the course simultaneously so I didn’t learn about this until I finished.
Sylvain Chavanel then went 5th, 24 seconds slower than Coppel. So to keep Chavanel behind me I would have to go below 10’37. Tall order I’m afraid.
My first time check was motivating though. I had almost lost my lead to Coppel though going 17 seconds slower than him. But I had only lost 7 seconds on Chavanel.
I gave it absolutely everything but I could feel it wasn’t enough. In the end I was fighting just to keep myself on the podium. I finished in a time of 10’49. Meaning Coppel and Chavanel have passed me. Basso on the other hand fell short. Actually the most serious attack had come from Sprick who had gained 18 seconds on me. Luckily he needed 4 more, so I was going to get my podium spot!
So a great race for me here in France. I’ve learned that I simply need to improve on my time trial abilities if I want to win this one day. It’s no big dream of mine, so starting to focus on my time trial some more wouldn’t be due to ambitions of doing well here, eventhough this is a quite prestigious race to win. I more than happy with a stage win and overall 3rd though. I’ve done well in ASO’s races this season, I hope I get the chance to do the same in Le Tour de France.
1 Jérôme Coppel Skil - Shimano 9'57
2 Ivan Basso Team CSC + 16
3 Perrig Quemeneur Bouygues Télécom + 18
4 Rubén Plaza Lampre + 23
5 Sylvain Chavanel Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone + 24 63 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 52
GC
1 Jérôme Coppel Skil - Shimano 7h09'30
2 Sylvain Chavanel Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone + 22 3 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 34
4 Mathieu Sprick Bouygues Télécom + 38
5 Ivan Basso Team CSC + 49
6 José Rujano Crédit Agricole + 50
7 Perrig Quemeneur Bouygues Télécom + 51
8 Rubén Plaza Lampre + 56 9 Lars Ytting Bak Team High Road + 59
10 Héctor González Agritubel s.t.
As of now I'd say it would be impossible. Just plain and simple. Of course you could catch a break and not have any of the good time trialists perform well on stage 2, but that's a long shot. I'll focus on other stage races, depending on the route I think I'll go for the win in Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico next season.
Basque Tour coming up in a bit.
Edited by niconico on 03-06-2009 19:44
It’s April! You know what that mean. The Ardennes are coming up. First though I’m doing Tour of the Basque Country again, just like the build-up to the Ardennes Campaign the last two seasons. You can’t really question this race as being the perfect lead up to the Ardennes though. I finished 17th in 2009 and 18th in 2010. Kirchen is here aswell but I have been named captain because of my better form. Also our Tour Captain Thomas Dekker makes his season debut here and on top of that our Giro Captain Diego Ulissi also lines up here. Also here to support me are Keinath, Kairelis, Knees and Reynes.
Most of the stages are quite hilly aswell as the first one. Not a lot happened between the favourites though and in the end it came down to a mass sprint in a decimated pack. I was in a good position being led out by UIissi.
Samuel Sanchez and Frank Schleck proved too strong for me, so I had to settle for 3rd as I just managed to edge out Ulissi on the line. Still a nice start though. I will wear the U25 Jersey tomorrow.
Dekker, Kirchen, Keinath and Knees all stayed with the pack and didn’t lose any time today.
1 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom 3h48'28
2 Fränk Schleck Team CSC s.t. 3 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
4 Diego Ulissi Team High Road s.t.
5 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux s.t.
The profile stage two was a bit more inviting with a tough climb topping about 25 kilometres from the finish. We would definitely see some action here and since I’m in great form and trying to finally break into the Top 10 here, I will have to stay focused today.
Valverde was the first to attack and I jumped right on his wheel. I was feeling pretty strong as I took to the front to try and make Valverde let go.
And with 10 kilometres left our three man lead group grew to ten as Sanchez, Schleck, Intxausti, Ginnani, Vanendert, Denifl and Visconti all came across. Trailing us was Di Luca. He wouldn’t bridge the gap though as it ended in a sprint. Again I should be able to beat all of these guys maybe with the exception of Valverde, eventhough I have done that before. Nevertheless, Sánchez took his second win and Schleck his second 2nd place as I again had to settle for 3rd place.
At least I have shown I’m among the strongest riders here right now. I will need to attack on the two next stages though to gain some time before the final time trial.
1 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom 4h07'19
2 Fränk Schleck Team CSC s.t. 3 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
4 Joaquim Rodríguez Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
5 Beñat Intxausti Orbea - Oreka S.D.A. s.t.
Another day another hilly stage, where I need to go on the attack to gain time on the likes of Valverde and Intxausti who are probably the strongest time trialist among the 10 leaders. Unfortuneately I didn’t have the best legs today as I couldn’t stay with Ginanni when he attacked on the penultimate climb with just under 30 kilometres to go. No-one could though as he took a solo lead.
Ginanni up front was too strong on the climb.
He had a big group with all the favourites chasing him though. His gap hit almost one minute before we hit the final climb, so things needed to change drastically if my chance of overall victory shouldn’t vanish up the road.
Valverde who didn’t try to follow the Italian on the previous climb put in a strong attack at the base of the last climb. I tried to go with but I could quickly feel he was way too strong, so I dropped back to the group. A few other riders got a gap over the top, but only Valverde would stay clear.
Ginanni was still up the road though trying to keep Valverde behind him. Meanwhile I was pretty exhausted from my two rather meaningless attacks and I was just focusing on staying in the Favourites’ Group. Ginanni took the win just holding off the Spaniard.
In the end we “only” lost 29 seconds. This isn’t impossible to pull back on tomorrow’s stage. It won’t be easy though as it doesn’t seem like I can get rid of Valverde on the climbs. I’ll try though.
1 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux 4h20'47
2 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott s.t.
3 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld + 29
4 Stefan Denifl Liquigas s.t.
5 Rinaldo Nocentini Team CSC s.t. 13 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
GC
1 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux 12h16'34
2 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott s.t.
3 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom + 29
4 Stefan Denifl Liquigas s.t.
5 Fränk Schleck Team CSC s.t.
6 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld s.t.
7 Joaquim Rodríguez Caisse d'Epargne s.t. 8 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
9 Beñat Intxausti Orbea - Oreka S.D.A. s.t.
10 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes + 1'20
I’m not completely out of contention yet, but to remain in a good position I need to win some time on my opponents. Especially Valverde and Intxausti, who both have an advantage on the time trial in two days. I know I’m in great shape, but I also need a bit luck and have a good day to be able to pull it off as the final climb today isn’t very long, and from the top there’s still 12 kilometres to the line.
I had a great day though, at least my legs were feeling that way. So I didn’t look back as I attacked from the pack led by Saunier Duval on the final climb. Over the top though, I had Frank Schleck with me.
Me and Frank Schleck trying to ride our ways back into GC contention.
Saunier has an insanely strong team here though and they had kept a phenomenal pace up the climb, and eventhough how hard I was going for it. Riccó reeled us in with 7 kilometres remaining. There goes my chance this year I guess.
With 4 kilometres left I tried to attack from the pack on the flat again. Samuel Sanchez countered me. I quickly ran out of steam, but Sammy along with Intxausti, Rodriquez and Visconti kept going and soon they had a decent gap on the pack with just 2 kilometres left. I was completely exhausted and I couldn’t even pick myself up for the sprint. The victory would be contested by the quartet though. Sanchez took his 3rd win!
And the four riders even managed to gain 29 seconds on the pack, meaning my highest possible placing now is 7th place! Pretty frustrating day and I’m quite disappointed with how this has been going so far. Hopefully I can get some consolation tomorrow.
1 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom 4h11'39
2 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld s.t.
3 Joaquim Rodríguez Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
4 Beñat Intxausti Orbea - Oreka S.D.A. s.t.
5 Jelle Vanendert Quick•Step + 27 25 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
GC
1 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott 16h28'40
2 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux s.t.
3 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom + 2
4 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld s.t.
5 Joaquim Rodríguez Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
6 Beñat Intxausti Orbea - Oreka S.D.A. s.t.
7 Fränk Schleck Team CSC + 29
8 Stefan Denifl Liquigas s.t. 9 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
10 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes + 1'20
Stage 5 ended in a mass sprint last year and it did aswell this time around. Me and Valverde were at the front as we neared the finish line. Kirchen did a great job leading me out. Let’s hope I can finish it off now.
But another frustrating result today as I could only muster a 4th place. Valverde won of course with Ginanni and Riccó also coming past me.
Tomorrow I need to beat Stefan Denifl and Frank Schleck if I want to take 7th place. If not I will most like end in 9th. It seems to be a fight between the 6 best place riders as they are all within 2 seconds. I expect it to be a fight between Valverde and Intxausti.
1 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott 4h13'30
2 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux s.t.
3 Riccardo Riccò Saunier Duval - Scott s.t. 4 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
5 Rinaldo Nocentini Team CSC s.t.
Honestly I wasn’t very motivated to do well today and either that or the fact that I simply need to buy myself some wind tunnel time, was the reason I didn’t do very well today. I thought it would suit me quite well this time trial with a few hills along the course, but it never really got rolling for me unfortuneately.
I ended the day in 54th place and was the slowest of all Top 10 riders, meaning I had to make do with overall 9th. It’s actually not a bad result, but honestly I’d hoped for a bit more because I have never felt any stronger at this point of the season as I do this year. There is still the Ardennes Classics and here I want to show my puncheur opponents like Valverde, Ginanni, Schleck etc. that I’m better than them.
The battle for the overall ended in a two way duel between Valverde and Intxausti as I had predicted. The Stage Win went to Mikhail Ignatiev though as he beat Valverde by 13 seconds and Intxausti by 15. So Valverde ended up overall winner for the second year in a row by a slim margin of just 4 seconds.
1 Mikhail Ignatiev LPR Brakes 19'47
2 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott + 13
3 Beñat Intxausti Orbea - Oreka S.D.A. + 15
4 Luis León Sánchez Team CSC + 20
5 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld s.t.
6 Juanjo Cobo Team Astana + 22
7 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes + 24
8 Fränk Schleck Team CSC s.t.
9 Ivan Basso Team CSC + 26
10 Stefan Denifl Liquigas + 27 54 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 57
GC
1 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott 21h02'10
2 Beñat Intxausti Orbea - Oreka S.D.A. + 4
3 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld + 9
4 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom + 27
5 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux + 39
6 Fränk Schleck Team CSC + 40
7 Joaquim Rodríguez Caisse d'Epargne + 41
8 Stefan Denifl Liquigas + 43 9 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 1'13
10 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes + 1'31
After a dissapointing Basque Tour I’m writing to you all from my house in Tuscany. I’ll soon be leaving for Holland, but I just needed to get back home a bit again and distance myself from what I see as a disappointing result in the Basque Country. It’s my best result so far in that race, but still I’m not quite happy with my own performance.
Me and Thomas [Dekker] has been training a lot together these past days and eventhough he is not at his peak and far from it actually I think he will be a great help to me in the coming three races. Kirchen has seemed a bit below his game in the Basque Tour and he haven’t let me know that he really feels strong heading into the Ardennes. Hopefully he’ll show up in good form aswell as we would be very dangerous with two, even three if Thomas brings his A-game, captains to outsmart the other teams.
As I have said during the past few weeks I feel really strong and I think I’ll do a whole lot better in the Ardennes than I just did in Spain. Liege-Bastogne-Liege is of course the one I want to do best in, but I won’t let up in the two other for that reason.
Also this season is the first team I’m really rated among the absolute favourites for these classics. Last year I was a bit more the outsider and rightly so as my best result back then was 15th in Liege. It’s put a new pressure on me that I’m not that used to, but that’s just something I need to forget about when I’m out on my bike.
Another thing I really anxious to show is that I can beat Valverde. I don’t have anything against the guy. It’s just, he is the kind of rider I was striving to be. He was my big idol in some fashion. Now I just want to show that I can beat him and show just how ambitious I am. Just three years ago I was just a simple Continental Tour rider. Back then Valverde didn’t even knew I existed. Now he is going to taste my dust!
I was feeling the tension as soon as I got up this morning and went out on our work-out prior to the race. Seems like the management is putting a lot of faith into me, to gain our results here in the Ardennes. Actually Brian Holm has told me that I was the unofficial team captain. Kirchen is not in his best shape ever, not that he is not strong, he is just not at his A-Level.
Born (CSC) and Yakovlev (AST) were the only early attackers today.
The plan was for me to follow Valverde in everything he did today, as he was the absolute favourite for the win following his domination of the Basque Tour. So when Joaquim Rodriguez kicked off the action with 40 kilometres to go I stayed put.
Rodriquez on the attack in Amstel Gold Race.
On the counter were Sammy Sanchez, Visconti, Ginanni and Vanendert. I stayed in the pack for now and awaited further instructions.
Out in front Sammy had put in the strongest attack as we leading the race.
Meanwhile I was still sitting passively in the pack. Still nothing from Valverde. A second later his teammate Capecchi attacked away from the pack, I didn’t go with that move either. With 20 kilometres left I had had enough clearly Valverde was going to attack today, so me and Thomas attacked away from the pack together. At this point Sammy was already 3 minutes up the road.
On top of that my legs were quite awful today and the win was clearly gone at this point and with 6 riders out in front it seemed like the best result to come away with would be 7th place. I worked as hard as I could over the steep hills but we kept losing ground on Sammy who entered Cauberg on his own. Visconti and Vanendert weren’t far behind though.
Sanchez held off Visconti though while Vanendert blew up completely.
Me and Thomas sprinted for 7th place, which Thomas won so I had to settle for 8th place today. It’s my best result in Amstel ever, but I would’ve expected a bit more. Surely if I had gone with the first wave I would’ve gotten more out today’s race. At least there’s still two to go.
1 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom 6h24'59
2 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld s.t.
3 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux + 37
4 Joaquim Rodríguez Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
5 Jelle Vanendert Quick•Step + 51
6 Eros Capecchi Saunier Duval - Scott + 1'42 7 Thomas Dekker Team High Road + 5'10 8 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road s.t.
9 Riccardo Riccò Saunier Duval - Scott s.t.
10 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott + 5'31
11 Luca Pierfelici Quick•Step s.t.
12 Rinaldo Nocentini Team CSC s.t.
13 Stefan Schumacher Caisse d'Epargne s.t.
14 Damiano Cunego Barloworld s.t.
15 Fränk Schleck Team CSC s.t.
Amstel Gold Race is over. Now it’s Wednesday at that means Mur du Huy. No less than three times actually. We went to Huy the day after finishing Amstel and we have been training a lot on Le Mur these past couple of days and I have a really nice feeling about this race. Like Liège-Bastogne-Liège, I have never been in Top 10 in this race before this season. The tactic for me today is to attack on the penultimate climb. A lot of times you see a lot of favourites attacking earlier and then blow up before hitting the final climb and I want to hit Mur du Huy with as fresh legs as possible. Again today my most important helpers for the finale will be Thomas, Kirchen and Kairelis.
My legs were a bit better today and so I sticked to my tactic of attacking a bit later. A lot of strong riders were still a bit longer up the road, but I felt confident I could chase them down as I had more energy to ride on.
I quickly got a big gap on the peloton where no-one wanted to follow me.
As I hit Le Mur I was still more than a minute behind the 5 leaders (F. Schleck, Riccó, Rodriquez, Vanendert, Velits). I caught and passed Ginanni and Bertagnolli at the bottom of the climb.
Then I got some bad news though as I was told that the leaders were about 1’30 up the climb already. Seems like I have miscalculated once again. No chance of chasing the leaders down now.
Joaquim Rodriquez was today’s surprise winner as he turned out strongest on the climb. It’s well-deserved though as he has been riding very fast lately, and I also went over to him to congratulate him on a great win.. Vanendert and Velits completed the podium.
I got 6th. It’s still not bad but I’m expected to be fighting for podium places and I know I’m in the form to do it. I have one more shot this season though on Sunday. That’s also the biggest of them all, so I will face some intense competition, nevertheless I will not be held out of the fight on Sunday, I haven’t been working towards these races the entire spring season to come away with 6th place as my best. On Sunday I’ll get serious.
1 Joaquim Rodríguez Caisse d'Epargne 5h16'08
2 Jelle Vanendert Quick•Step + 11
3 Peter Velits Team Milram + 22
4 Fränk Schleck Team CSC + 40
5 Riccardo Riccò Saunier Duval - Scott + 46 6 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road + 1'33
7 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux + 2'48
8 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott + 3'36
9 Leonardo Bertagnolli Bouygues Télécom + 3'48
10 Eros Capecchi Saunier Duval - Scott + 3'49
11 Alexandr Kolobnev Team CSC + 3'51
12 Rinaldo Nocentini Team CSC s.t.
13 Samuel Sánchez Bouygues Télécom + 3'56
14 Ivan Basso Team CSC + 4'05
15 Luca Pierfelici Quick•Step + 4'06
Maybe with the exception of Paris-Roubaix this is the biggest of the spring classics, and for a rider type like me there’s nothing bigger. I feel like I’m at the verge of a small flop, especially after no quite living up my own expectations in Amstel and Fleche Wallonne, so today I simply need to be up there. For my own sake. I have had some difficulties in the Ardennes before and to convince myself that I have a future as a great rider in these riders I want to pull off a big result today. Kirchen can’t really be satisfied with how he has fared so far, but he just hasn’t showed the form that he usually does in the Ardennes and therefor he has sometimes been ordered to the front to do relays, which of course has further prevented him from doing a good result.
I didn’t really feel very good on the day in neither Amstel nor Fleche Wallonne but I had a different feeling in my entired body today. In a positive way that is. Normally things kick off at the Redoute Climb, so surely I need to be ready when we hit that hill. And what a hill that is. We have been riding at it over and over again the last two days and I should know every little stone on that road by now.
Anyway, a rather big group of 12 riders went on the break today, while me, Schleck, Valverde, Vanendert, Di Luca etc. prepared for when the route would turn a bit more serious.
La Redoute isn’t the first serious climb but it was here things got started when Giovanni Visconti put in the first attack. Me, Dekker and a lot other riders were onto him though.
Attacking at La Redoute. This is some serious gradients.
It worked out pretty well eventhough no-one could stay with Vanendert on the climb as took a solo lead going down again. We were 7 riders chasing him. Me, Dekker, Nocentini, Visconti, Evans, Cobo and the big revelation of the Basque Tour, Stefan Denifl. Dekker was incredibly strong today and I was lucky to have him with to help me out in the flat.
Vanendert preparing for the next climb, Cote de Sart-Tilman.
Nocentini attacked before the bridge leading up to Sart-Tilman and he quickly gained contact with Vanendert, whose gap was just at 20 seconds.
The Two Leaders, Nocentini and Vanendert at Sart-Tilman, with Dekker towing me and the rest of the favourites a bit further down.
It didn’t look good regarding the win as I led us over the top of the climb as the Front Two had about 50 seconds at this point. I wasn’t prepared to throw in the towel just yet though. On the penultimate climb Vanendert was alone again and looking good. At this point I thought the gap was too big.
I decided to give it a shot at Saint Nicolas climb though as I put in a very strong relay.
It worked! Vanendert must’ve run out of steam because already at the top we had regained contact with the Belgian! We were now 8 riders who would settle this between us.
I led us down the descend while Thomas then again took over at the flat before the climb up to Ans. He was incredibly strong today. But he was working for me and he was setting me up perfectly. As we hit the climb he fell back and I attacked! Visconti tried to go with. Just 1,5 kilometres to go now!
I flew under the 1-kilometres mark before blazing through the infamous left-turn! Where were the others?
The first rider through the final turn was……me!
The first rider through the final turn was……me! Vol. 2
THEY WOULDN’T CATCH ME. THERE IS A GAP! Brian was screaming in the radio that I shouldn’t look back now! Here’s a sight I’ll never forget!
LA DOYENNE for JONAS AAEN, went through the loudspeaker as I crossed the line! I HAVE FRICKIN’ WON IT!
I was practically assaulted by the press a few metres after the line, but I was just looking for Thomas to thank him for the incredible work he had done for me. He wasn’t long off as he managed to hold on for 7th place today. What a day. Even Kirchen seemed ecstatic, but there was reason to aswell.
The biggest day of my career right here and I may have been a bit emotional on the podium as I just couldn’t believe I was in the middle of all this attention. Three years ago I had won a stage in Tour de Normandie. This is really is something else, and I was unable to think about racing for the rest of the day. It wouldn’t really sink in, that I had actually won the biggest classic in the world of cycling.
The following evening I felt obliged to give a speech to thank all my teammates for supporting me through these last three races as well as they did. It may be a cliché but without them I wouldn’t have been here.
I DID IT!
1 Jonas Aaen Jørgensen Team High Road 7h01'14
2 Giovanni Visconti Barloworld + 8
3 Rinaldo Nocentini Team CSC s.t.
4 Stefan Denifl Liquigas s.t.
5 Jelle Vanendert Quick•Step s.t.
6 Juanjo Cobo Team Astana + 27 7 Thomas Dekker Team High Road s.t.
8 Cadel Evans Lampre s.t.
9 Francesco Ginanni Française des Jeux + 2'19
10 Riccardo Riccò Saunier Duval - Scott + 2'30
11 Alejandro Valverde Saunier Duval - Scott + 4'17
12 Luca Pierfelici Quick•Step s.t.
13 Fränk Schleck Team CSC s.t.
14 Alexandre Pliuschin LPR Brakes s.t.
15 Peter Velits Team Milram s.t.
16 Danilo Di Luca LPR Brakes s.t.
17 Damiano Cunego Barloworld s.t.
18 Ivan Basso Team CSC s.t.
19 Leonardo Bertagnolli Bouygues Télécom s.t.
20 Manuele Mori Barloworld s.t.
