sutty68 wrote:
Looks like Daphné did a Great job

With Tom Boonen out with a thigh fracture until the end of March the man to beat on the cobbles right now is Fabian Cancellara, which puts a lot of pressure on our team. Which was shown right away in the first cobbled classic of the year ‘Omloop het Nieuwsblad’.

No team willing to ride at any point today after the 5 man breakaway forced us to sacrifice our entire team minus Jesper and Fabian. Over 150km relaying at the head of the peloton in the cold February wind. Fun was something else.

It was with just 35km just after the Molenberg that we caught the early escapees at the cost of losing Hondo and Roulston.

As to be expected it was right there that Sep Vanmarcke attacked in the Paddestraat, hard riders Geraint Thomas and Niki Terpstra joining him. Fabian was the unlucky one to not respond in time forcing Stijn, Jesper and I to try and chase the trio down. Efforts which went fruitless as the three at the front where simply too strong, their lead increasing to almost 2 minutes. At which point Fabian took matters into his own hand accelerating out of the reduced peloton joined by Roelandts and Leukemans as the three set up their own chase.

The Swiss would eventually catch the trio, which had been reduced to a duo as Vanmarcke was simply too strong today. Soloing his way to the victory. Leaving Fabian too sprint out his frustrations ahead of Thomas and Terpstra.

A ball of misery I crossed the line completely exhausted as 27th.

1	Sep Vanmarcke	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	4h23'58
2	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	+ 23
3	Geraint Thomas	Sky Procycling	s.t.
4	Björn Leukemans	Wanty - Groupe Gobert	s.t.
5	Jürgen Roelandts	Lotto - Belisol	s.t.

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne was much of the same with us once again working at the head of the peloton all day, though this time it was Fabian in the role that Vanmarcke held before. As Fabian his attack on the Oude Kwaremont led to the Swiss his first win of the season. He made it look so easy at times.

Where the day before I still tried, today I just let myself roll over the finish as 33rd. My remaining energy better served in the Strade Bianche and Paris-Nice to come.

1	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	4h49'18
2	Björn Leukemans	Wanty - Groupe Gobert	s.t.
3	Jürgen Roelandts	Lotto - Belisol	+ 41
4	Sep Vanmarcke	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Maarten Wynants	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.

When we passed Castlenuovo Beradenga, about 40km from the finish. It were the men from BMC who put themselves ahead of the peloton as for the first time that day the pace in the peloton really was thrown up, quickly reducing the 2 minute gap with the early escapees in the process.

Whenever a breakaway gets caught you know that attacks will happen, yet still in my own naivety I was more occupied with Danilo Hondo handing me a bottle for the finale than keeping my eyes at the head of the peloton. With our passage in Pieve a Pozzono roughly 25km from the finish the breakaway was caught by the BMC and Movistar led peloton. This was the cue for Phillipe Gilbert to attack on the gravel roads of San Giorgio. Right away he took a big gap which grew to 2 minutes as the Movistar team was simply out of energy to chase and we couldn't set up a chase quick enough as half of our team was in the back of the peloton.

After a quick chat with Peter Sagan we agreed to have both our teams set up a chase. Rast, Popovych, Hondo and Devolder joined by the Cannondale team quickly managed to bring down the gap to 1 minute. With just over 10km left something dramatic would have to happen for us to catch the ex World-Champion. Fabian thought he had just the dramatic act to do so.

Ahead of the final descent towards Siena, he, Jesper and I placed ourselves ahead of the peloton seemingly joining in the chase. It was Popovych though who let a tactical gap grow between the three of us and the rest of the team as we dived into the descent. A gap which would quickly grow as Cannondale wasn't able to set up a chase quick enough.


Following in Fabian his wheel a look behind me showed me Jesper and the blue-magenta form of Damiano Cunego in my wheel. (Peter Sagan had missed the shifting. Lucky us!) Both guys behind me would not be there for long though as Fabian hammered away at the head onto the steep incline into Siena. It wasn’t until about 500m from the finish that the Swiss started to slow down. I had just enough energy left to put out a short sprint as I rode towards my first podium finish of the year behind the unbeatable Gilbert.

2nd and 3rd most certainly wasn’t bad. Yet I couldn’t help but slam my steer in frustration. If only I had been more focused when Gilbert went on the attack. I could win here and next year I would show just that.

Fortunately enough a beautiful redhead who stood next to the finish-line showed to be capable in easing my pain. Oh Claudia, what a lovely night it was.

1	Philippe Gilbert	BMC Racing Team	4h31'17
2	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	+ 50
3	Fabian Cancellara	Team Tissot	s.t.
4	Jasper Stuyven	Team Tissot	s.t.
5	Damiano Cunego	Lampre - Merida	+ 1'08
6	Peter Sagan	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
7	Domenico Pozzovivo	Ag2r - La Mondiale	s.t.
8	Simon Spilak	Katusha Team	s.t.
9	Stijn Devolder	Team Tissot	s.t.
10	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEDGE	s.t.

Even though the course in the Tirrento-Adriatico probably suited me better. And lets not forget about the better weather and nicer hotels. I have always had some sort of love affair with Paris-Nice. The way it moved itself from the cold regions of Paris down to the sunny Riviera, while crossing mountain ranges where you could be freezing at one corner and basking in the sun at the next. It just felt like the perfect way to transition from winter into spring.

Today it was mostly a chore though. Getting the wrath of our directuer sportif on my back after yesterdays escapade after the Strade Bianche which caused me to miss my evening flight, meaning I didn’t actually arrive here in Paris until just 3 hours ago.



An excuse on how I had needed some time for myself to sleep off my disappointment and a promise to buy him a good bottle of wine patched up everything just nicely though.

Oh and I finished the 3km prologue as 113th, exactly 20 seconds behind first yellow jersey wearer Geraint Thomas. Andy Schleck our leader for this week took 3 seconds more than I did on the 3km course finishing the day as 146.

1	Geraint Thomas	Sky Procycling	3'47
2	Taylor Phinney	BMC Racing Team	+ 2
3	Rohan Dennis	Garmin - Sharp	+ 3
4	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	s.t.

Besides the heavy crosswinds nothing worth mentioning happened on this day. The wind was strong enough to make the peloton break apart into echelons, which mostly affected the sprinters as none of the favourites for the general classifications got caught up at the back. In our case we mostly had to thank Jens Voigt as the German was a true road captain for us. Guiding the inexperienced echelon riders in our team such as myself (or the guys who were just bad at them such as Andy Schleck) through the stage.

The stage winner wasn’t a surprise regardless the course development as Greipel took the flowers ahead of his lead-out man Dehaes.

1	André Greipel	Lotto - Belisol	4h20'40
2	Kenny Dehaes	Lotto - Belisol	s.t.
3	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
4	Robert Gesink	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Elia Viviani	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
-
53	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	s.t.

Where the previous stage was the victim of a beheaded sprint. Today all the sprinters were on the appointment as Viviani inched out Coquard and Modolo in a side-by-side photo finish.

1	Elia Viviani	Cannondale Pro Cycling	4h33'20
2	Bryan Coquard	Team Europcar	s.t.
3	Sacha Modolo	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
4	Theo Bos	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
5	Francesco Lasca	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
-
70	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	s.t.

With the Cote de Mauvagnat a category 2 climb about 15km from the finish, today would not be a prey for the sprinters. Besides the nervosity to be within the first 30 places when turning onto the short cote, the GC riders did not bother to attack each other today. As a 50 man sized reduced peloton sprinted for the victory. With Thibaut Pinot taking the win ahead of a strong Chris Froome.

1	Thibaut Pinot	FDJ.fr	3h44'37
2	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	s.t.
3	Geraint Thomas	Sky Procycling	s.t.
4	Elia Viviani	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
5	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto - Belisol	s.t.
-
29	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	s.t.

The from his ban returned Franck Schleck was one of the prominent names in the early breakaway consisting of Rubiano, Landa and Caruso. Our original plan for the day being for Franck to compete for the mountain points, but he had failed to do so successfully which made our directeur sportif switch up our plans.

With the peloton slow and my legs feeling good it were Jens and I who attacked near the top of the Col du Rouvery throwing ourselves into the descent towards Saint Romain.

It didn’t take long before we caught up with Franck who had let himself drop from the front of the race. Both Jens and Franck emptied their tanks up till the top of the penultimate climb catching all remaining escapees in the process. Leaving me to continue on my own as I was dropped off at the top with a 2’12� lead on the peloton.



Keeping a good cadence I reached the final climb of the day the Cote de la Sizeranne with my lead just under 2 minutes. Halfway through the climb I could already begin feeling the acid creeping into my legs. My legs starting to turn more on grinta than actual energy.

Due to multiple attacks within the peloton my lead at the top had decreased to 48 seconds. With 8km of mostly downhill left it was going to be a close one.

Our DS wasn’t helping, his words sounding like another knife in my legs as he told me that Nicolas (without the H) Roche had escaped from the peloton and was mounting a serious chase. My lead rapidly decreasing with the unleashed Irishman behind me.

The flamme rogue was a temporary remedy to the pain as I pushed out another short acceleration, but it didn’t stop the heavy breathing that sounded behind me from coming closer though.

No matter how hard I pushed on the pedals I couldn’t keep the yellow-blue bicycle and its Irish owner from coming along side inch by inch. Slowly robbing me from both the flowers and kisses of the day along with the leaders jersey.



I could only bow my head in defeat as I crossed the line just behind Roche. Not even granted the pleasure of smashing something in the team bus, as I was directed towards the podium to pick up the white jersey a direct result of my now 2nd place in the general classification. A sour consolidation prize after the sacrifice by Franck and Jens which had gotten me so close to a win for the second time this week.

1	Nicolas Roche	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	4h40'18
2	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	s.t.
3	Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Belisol	+ 27
4	Roman Kreuziger	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
5	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	s.t.

1	Nicolas Roche	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	17h22'48
2	Nicholas Arcier	Team Tissot	+ 10
3	Geraint Thomas	Sky Procycling	+ 19
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 20
5	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	+ 22
6	Taylor Phinney	BMC Racing Team	+ 23
7	Rohan Dennis	Garmin - Sharp	+ 24
8	Thibaut Pinot	FDJ.fr	+ 25
9	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
10	Elia Viviani	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 28

Sleep had not been easy to come by that night as I spent most of my nightly hours looking at the by Burstner sponsored white jersey laid out across the chair in the corner of the rundown hotel room. Within exactly 7 days I had managed to finish twice in a sport where wins where hard to come by, frustrating to say the least.

It was a headset with the tunes of the Arctic Monkeys that brought some relief during a mostly restless night.

With La Montagne de Lure being the finishing place for the day any defense of my white jersey would have to be supported by super natural powers I did not posses.

Nonetheless my morale did return a little bit throughout the stage as I received various compliments from a bunch of riders and I started to feel much better towards the end of the day.


With 25km left the Sky train checked in the morning breakaway as had been part of the daily schedule all week. It didn’t take more than 5 minutes on the slopes of La Montagne de Lure before the Sky duo Froome and Porte attacked out of the peloton. Whether it was the impressiveness in the attack itself that paralyzed the others or merely simple tactics. Nobody reacted to the attack. Allowing me to accelerate away from the group a temporary showing at the front line as it didn’t take long before the likes of Horner and Evans blasted by me. Quickly followed by the other favourites among which Andy Schleck who wasn’t having the greatest of days as he had all the trouble in the world to keep stuck in Laurens Ten Dam his wheel.

Keeping my own pace I still managed to keep my loss limited as I crossed the line as 35th a good 4 minutes behind the stage winner Froome. Thibaut Pinot who mounted an impressive chase and finished the day as 2nd made sure the white jersey had been ripped off my shoulders properly.