The Giro is here, and Belkov reached level 4 just in time for the tour. He managed to avoid illness and injury to be here, and has a strong backing of 3 Belarus riders, 1 Italian, and three Frenchmen. German Sprinter ace Ciolek is also here for the first week for the sprints. He will be aided by Davide Malacarne and Vasil Kiryienka, with Yauhen Sobal helping wherever he is needed. The French riders will be domestiques purely for Maxim Belkov.
Defending champion Danilo Di Luca avoided the drugs scandal many others fell to, and is back in form carried over from the Ardennes Classics.
SportingNonsense wrote:
Great win in Romandie, its always a nice stage to target (And dont you think youre overdoing the sarcasm karl?)
nope i like it just the way it is, if rjc dont like it he will tell me
Haha, I like the fact my story is clearly an outlet for Karls pent up frustration at the fact he can't play the game at any level above Easy His sarcasm is funny at times.
Cheers SN. I sometimes feel like its cheating to be able to so predicatably get results like that, but its the AI's fault for being so rubbish. I'm still only 19th anyway on the ranks, with 6 points. Thats 4 more over Euskatels 2 scored by Hagen. But I'm only 11 away from Milrams 17 points!
Deadpool wrote:
I think you could pull off a top 10 and a stage win, but that's just me
SportingNonsense wrote:
Great win in Romandie, its always a nice stage to target (And dont you think youre overdoing the sarcasm karl?)
nope i like it just the way it is, if rjc dont like it he will tell me
Haha, I like the fact my story is clearly an outlet for Karls pent up frustration at the fact he can't play the game at any level above Easy His sarcasm is funny at times.
Cheers SN. I sometimes feel like its cheating to be able to so predicatably get results like that, but its the AI's fault for being so rubbish. I'm still only 19th anyway on the ranks, with 6 points. Thats 4 more over Euskatels 2 scored by Hagen. But I'm only 11 away from Milrams 17 points!
Deadpool wrote:
I think you could pull off a top 10 and a stage win, but that's just me
We'll see
for your information i play at normal
well i raced once on hard but i sucked!! but im sure if i played the game as religously as other people i would be able to play on hard or even extreme, but i dont play the game that much, hardly any in the past few months.
Stage 2 will see a bunch sprint, and Ciolek HAS to get a top 3 here, and every day for a week really, to stand a chance of getting the Ciclamino (sp?) jersey, which happens to be a sponsors goal...
It's looking ok as the break is caught, and Ciolek is protected by Malacarne, Kiryienka and Sobal still. But over the final climb, Ciolek has to use too much energy to keep up near the front, and so with 4.5km to go, he runs out of blue bar having taken Napolitano's wheel.
GC:
1 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS 4h52'39
2 Thomas Lövkvist COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 4
3 Haimar Zubeldia COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 6
16 Maxim Belkov AUBER - BELTELECOM + 15
Points:
1 Manuel Quinziato LIQUIGAS 25
2 Danilo Napolitano LAMPRE - FONDITAL 25
3 Thomas Lövkvist COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE 20
4 Francesco Chicchi T-MOBILE TEAM 20
5 Haimar Zubeldia COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE 16
In good news, Aleksandr Kuschnyski went up a his last experience level, and will provide excellent support for Belkov over one more mountain in those mountain stages now. Brilliant.
soda wrote:
Just read trough the whole story very nice. Keep up the good work B)
Wow, you must have spent a while reading all that! Glad you like it so far.
Stage 3
A hilly stage that we thought Brouzes could do well on, with 90 fitness, he should have no problem with keeping up with a break. But as the stage began, 2 bottles only would mean no break would make it to the end. As it was, they were all caught by the intermediate sprint.
As the road kicked up, all the squad started to go backwards, leaving Belkov solo in the 41 strong pack.
He was hanging on in the back, thankful for his stat increase and good fitness.
With 3km to go, Belkov still at the back, Moletta was leading out Gasparotto, whilst Scognamiligigigigigigio shot up the other side of the road.
Scog. wouldn't be able to hold of Gasparotto's reply, but still took a solid 2nd place for him. Belkov finished in the pack.
After a rest day, the riders were all feeling ok again.
A run of 3 flat stages come now, and if Ciolek wins all 3, he may be in with a chance of the points jersey. The chance of that happening is about 1% i reckon.
And I was right. Brouzes went in the break, and was dropped by some far worse riders. He was then caught with 35km to go, at which point the peloton went from 49-50kmph to 45kmph, slower than the break, which then pulled out a bigger lead. It's depressing how screwed up the logic of this game is at times. It's not trying to play the most logically correct game, it's just trying to beat YOU (or in this case, ME).
Rodriguez led out the breaks sprint, but would he hold off a selfish Haedo?
No.
No time gaps, and Ciolek managed to sprint to a brilliant 31st position! Wow! What the hell am i paying him for?
Stage 5 of this years Giro is the second in a row of pan flat stages. This time we weren't going to mess around with breakaways, just concentrate on keeping Ciolek's chances alive.
As multiple breaks went, and came back, eventually a break settled off the front.
We planned the chase to start just as the gap peaked at 8 minutes, therefore allowing the break enough of a time gap to get over the two interesting points on the route, and leaving 30km + of spare space in case of anything extra happening (punctures, etc).
And it worked well, the break was caught with eventual help from Milram, and constant help from Cofidis, with 35km to go. Ciolek was looking good with + 4 daily form, and Kiryienka was also looking good with + 5 daily form to drag him to the front.
That also worked well, with Ciolek being up at the front with 5km to go, not boxed in, and able to find a suitable wheel to get on - Scognamiliigoslosdgsdio's.
For a while, it looked like Ciolek would get no-where, but when Scog. opened up the gas, Ciolek responded, following him to an awesume finish!
Whilst we are clearly disappointed not to be able to get a win, 2nd place is a considerable improvement on other placings previous.
Di Luca crashed in the final 3km, but was given the same time.
As to what was wrong with Ciolek? I'm not sure. He hasn't increased in fitness since the first flat stage, i can only guess that he was so boxed in there was nowhere for him to sprint.
Anyhooo.
Stage 6
As tomorrow hits the climbs for the first time, today is the last real chance for Ciolek to shine. His rather poor climbing skills will probably mean he is dropped from the peloton early on in each day, and will eventually succumb to the time gaps.
Again, we helped chase down the breakaway with plenty of time to spare, with Cofidis and Milram supplying plenty of help.
With just over 3k to go, Ciolek found himself on Chicchi's wheel and on the inside. We were hoping a gap would open up for him to sprint through as they sped around the twisty finish.
And sure enough, as Chicchi opened the gas past Haedo, Ciolek followed through the gap.
But just couldn't find enough to get past Haedo as well.
Another great finish for the team though, and the sponsors will be getting happier after the rather slow start to the season.
The first mountain stage finishes up the Blockhaus climb, which is pretty darn steep! And long! This is the first serious test of Belkov's climbing in a grand tour, so we shall see how he does.
Brouzes goes in the break and takes the two climbs to maintain his second place in the KoM ranks.
As we hit the climb, the pack is all together... but not for long.
As we hit further up the climb, Iglinski has attacked and gone clear. Di Luca, Simoni and Cunego are 2 minute down on him having attacked later and gone past several other would-be escapees.
Belkov is hanging on in the peloton, until one of the main contenders is dropped and half the peloton falls back. Belkov is then inbetween both groups dying, and when caught from behind, the peloton sits up and then causes Belkov to hit red during the final km, loosing minutes of time.
Iglinski takes the win, and the lead, over Di Luca and Cunego.
very nice. Keep up the good work B)
