He also finished in 6th place overall in the GC, after a crazy day in the breakaway, during which he gained 27'02!
The Vuelta was - Igor Antón (Euskaltel), Marcos Garcia (Caja Rural), Pierre Rolland (Europcar), with the points jersey going to Boassen-Hagen, and Matteo Rabbotini in KOM.
The Giro was 1.Thibaut Pinot (BNP-Paribas) 2. Alberto Contador (B&O Tinkoff Bank) 3. Ryder Hesjedal (BNP-Paribas)
Points- Matthew Goss (Movistar)
KOM-Stefano Pirazzi (CSF INOX - Cantina Tollo)
Sorry it's taking so long guys, I'm really struggling time wise at the moment as my assignments at uni are all coming together to eat my days, nights, and time in any other dimension you feel worth mentioning, will do my best to get one out this weekend, but i may change the style of the story, so that its more about the reviews and less about the book, I can't see where time willl be coming from for the next 3 weeks...
Right folks, I decided as Uni is such a huge part of my life at the moment, severely reducing my valuable PCM time, that I'd reduce this season into probably, 3 sections, this is Part A, covering January until the end of April.
"2016 was I suppose something of a new beginning for Shy Vogel, things went differently for him, and it forced him to think about how he went about his riding. It'll surprise no one who saw him later in his career, and those who followed him throughout will surely agree, that the display of character in 2016 truly summed up the phenomenal rider that he was" -Daniel Benson, CyclingNews Managerial Editor
The Image Review...
Having somehow come out on top last year, I felt rather obligated to return to Australia (That and the fact that I loved the country, that helped too!) Adelaide was the scene for the seasons beginning, It saw me finish 13th Overall after much more attacking riding on the crucial stages, but I still hung onto the Youth Jersey, which was a happily received consolation prize at the end of my first race.
For all that I had a fantastic season last year with some great cobbled results, to me this photo still represents my coming of age as a rider. It's taken in the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and shows me sprinting around my old team mate Johan Vansummeren. The two of us fell out at BNP-Paribas, mostly due to the managements decisions, and I think to me this is the day when I moved beyond him and became my own rider.
After that it was back to the cobbled races, and in this picture, on the Oude Kwaremont in the E3 Prijs. The team had given everything and as we moved onto the difficult cobbled climb I decided to see what happened if i really dug in with an attack. That answer? I ripped the peloton to shreds and finished almost 2minutes ahead of second place, leaving myself as the absolute favourite for the big classics at the end of the week.
Well, I was favourite for about 45minutes anyway. After the race I decided to go back to the Kwaremont and have a couple of goes trying to find the best line up the climb, before the Tour of Flanders brought me here next week.
Naturally I got over aggressive, pushed it slightly too hard and came off the bike, I went flying, landed badly on my arm, spraining my wrist and shoulder, I'd miss the two classics which my entire season were supposed to be focussed around!
The Tour of Flanders 2016, After a year with nothing to his name, Spartacus was in no mood to hand around, and he put in an attack in exactly the same place where i'd landed myself in hospital. His attack wasn't countered straight away, after all, his best placing last year was 9th in the classics! He disappeared and once Spartacus is gone, he's gone, he won the RvV with one of the most convincing displays i've seen in years.
In contrast to a race full of magical attacks the weekend before, the Paris-Roubaix was a very different affair, nobody wanted to let a rider get away to repeat Fabians' Feat, and every attack was countered instantly. This brought a group of 13 to the finish line together, and in a fantastic display of power, Turgot showed the classics depth we have here at E.ON by taking the win!
My return to racing came at the Amstel Gold Race, I gave everything i had but was slightly out of shape, and had to wave goodbye to the main group 15 riders as we got into the last 10km. None the less, it showed once again that my potential as a hilly classics rider was there, and it really got me motivated to make the best of a bad situation!
The last of the Spring Classics, La Doyenne. I gave everything i'd got which once again proved to be enough for 6th place. Jelle Vanendert was a worthy winner here, meaning the that The Flanders and Ardennes Trio's were shared between 6! Different riders.
For me that start to the season was a mixed one, I had a couple of victories which really pleased me, Omloop Het, and E3 Prijs, But it's no lie that I was gutted to miss out on the big cobbled classics, this year was really looking to be perfectly set up for me! Edited by baggieboys32 on 05-12-2012 06:12
For many years my old team BNP-Paribas have held something of a monopoly upon the Giro D'Italia, taking 3 of the last 4 editions! This year looked like their leader Thibaut Pinot would do it again, until ex-BNP Paribas star, Daniel Martin turned up with a fantastic final week and snuck the victory by under 20"! :In the process winning his second Giro.
The US NC's didn't go my way this year. A major disadvantage of riding in a German-Italian team, is that they don't hire many guys from Stateside. I finished in the front group behind victor, Jakob Rathe.
A photo from the history books rather than my own collection here, Alberto Contador and his Movistar team took Le Tour by storm. El Pisterolo collected 5 stage wins and held over 10minutes back to the Third place!
My season meanwhile was continuing down in Poland. I was having a year of trying new things, and decided the hilly par cours held some potential for success! I was right, I won the GC and was really improving in terms of my abilities as a hill-climber. After missing out on Flanders and my subsequent attack on the hills of the Ardennes, had lead to something of an eye-opening discovery, and I was starting to look towards the coming WC's as a possible target!
