Onto the classics then with GP La Marseillaise. It's a course that should suit me, hills and a sprint, so I was counted amongst the favourites. Nevertheless, Enrique getting in the break meant I had to wait. I tried focussing on Weschenbach, who I met in Gabon and Tour Down Under. Unfortunately, the break was not caught and I sprinted to a 14th place. It's not bad, but it's not good enough. I used a lot of racedays early in the season, but the results aren't there.
My next race is in Belgium with Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. Unfortunately, we're not riding Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne and Nokere-Koerse this year, but Clasica Almeria and Strade Bianche are on the menu!
In Tour of Oman our clear focus was Cristiano and the GC.
So Orbe wen in the break on the first flat stage seeing as we didn't have anything else to do.
Some of the breakers just made it to the finish line, but without Haritz. Still a day in the break is always good to see from the youngsters.
Roughly the same happened the following day except our man in the break was Aberasturi and the sprinters didn't mistime the chase.
Orbe made his comeback to the break on stage 3, with the same result as previous days.
Stage 4 is the one it's all about. Sicard found his way into the break showing the French national jersey on home soil.
Cristiano missed the winning move as did everyone else, but finished third in the sprint for second.
Stage 5 turned into a much more important stage than anyone had expected.
We had Iván in the break, and they made it all the way. Having already spent some energy trying to get away early he wasn't really in conention for the sprint win, but a posium is much appreciated as well.
At the same time the peloton broke into pieces leaving less than 20 riders in the main group. Good thing that Sicard is having a good race and helped Cristiano be right where eh was supposed to.
And then we even saw him with a good finish just squeezing inside the top 10.
On the final stage everyone expected a bunch sprint, but then suddenly Contador attacked. Seeing as noone really started to chase Cristiano attacked as well.
The peloton just managed to catch de las Campos but he still got a nd place which along with the bonus seconds puts him on the GC podium and in white.
What a ride!
We have decided to keep a closer watch on another feature we love and have always been known for: Attacking.
Thus we will introduce a new monthly award to go alongside Rider of the Month namely attacker of the month as well as a seperate ranking keeping track of our riders times in BOTD.
As we didn't have it in our last monthly newsletter we will make this a small appendix...
Breakawayrider of the Month (February)
Two riders were in 3 breaks each this month. Florencio spent 15 race days on it and Bilbao did it in 7. Also Pello even took some results out of the breaks so the award clearly goes to:
The first outing for our renewed cobbles-team. With several of the biggest stars not here we had high hopes for Verboven getting his first big cobbles result.
A good part of the team was dedicated to staying with Rudy for as long as possible, and those who have a hard time handling cobbles failed to get in the early break.
The good thing about being Euskaltel in a cobbled race is that noone expects us to pull the heavy load so Verboven was allowed to be protected far into the race by Florencio and GarcÃa.
He came to the final twenty km with all the big names and when it came to the final sprint he was still very much there,
Sagan and Greipel were already a bit ahead, but Rudy rejected all logic - as usual you might add - and decided to lead the pack trying to close the gap.
Good thing he have grown so strong…
We had high hopes that Rudy would be able to do well here with an on paper strong flat lineup.
On top of that we had an official Top 5-goal.
Seeing as the big teams have had some trouble organising the chase in smaller races this year we decided to try to get a man in the break.
In the end that man became Pello Bilbao.
The break held on to a small gap for a long time, but with 5 km to go our focus shifted.
Rudy Verboven was back to his old luck getting a puncture at a crucual time in the race.
Pello & Co. Was caught with just 1,5 km to go.
Meanwhile the boys tried riding the sprint for Xavier, who at least scored some points though far from what was needed in order to fulfill our goal.
It was however disappointing that Koldo Fernadez wasn't there for the finish.
I am about to board the plane to Italy for the Tirreno - Adriatico and I think it is time to give you all an update on how the season is going so far. I have been training really hard in the off-season and it seems to have been the right choice.
The first race for me was the Tour of Oman and it went really well. The team did a great job, keeping me out of trouble on the flat stages. On the only mountain in this race I finished 4th after Riblon won the stage with a strong attack. On the fifth stage the breakaway stayed away and the sprint behind was a chaotic one. Due to the guys keeping me at the front I managed to get a 10th place.
On the final stage I did not think I would be able to get on the podium anymore, but when I saw Contador go, I went after him. I couldn't reach him, but finished 2nd and got some bonification seconds. This put me 3rd in GC and I won the young rider jersey. Hopefully this is the start of a great season for me.
I guess you could say I have had a love/hate relationship with the classics, and I think my last week just summed it up. It started with Omloop het Nieuwsblad. I had to let go early last year, but this year both me and my team have improved, so I was still there when a group of 21 riders was going to fight it out for the win.
Sagan is world class and I'm never going to beat Greipel in a sprint, but suddenly I was sprinting against the best of the world and it wasn't going all that bad, was a podium in a big classics finaly happening?
Yes it was! Not Degenkolb, Van Avermaet, Vanmarcke or Kristoff, but Rudy Verboven takes 3rd place in Omloop Het Nieuwblad. I was probably cheering harder then Sagan when crossing the finish, but this is great for me, and for my team as well. Christiano gave the tema a very nice podium in Oman and now I give Euskaltel a great result in a cobbled classic!
The podium was great, as the Belgian crowd gave me a lot of applause, maybe even more then the other two. Yet I couldn't stay long, as I had a plane to Almeria to catch for the next day. A bit unfortunate, but I guess that's the life of a cyclist.
And then well, the joy was over. I had a good race, legs were still ok. I was preparing for a sprint when suddenly my race was over. A flat 5 kilometres before the finish line. I might have cursed or throw away my bike, but I was actually quite calm. I guess you can get used to the bad luck after a while. I got a podium at Omloop, who cares about Almeria
Well, my sponsor did of course, it was a Spanish race. Determined to get him another result, I went to Strade Bianche. I had a good race, once again following the best guys in the world, but the narrow finish provided chaos. Arkaitz and me are in there somewhere, but well, this was just a joke. It's a nice finish and all, but the small roads ruined the race for a lot of teams. I hope the UCI takes a look at it.
So, that was my Milan - San Remo preparation. I retrospect, I think I should've gone to Paris - Nice this year, it might have been a perfect route for me, but oh well. Don't overdo it, Rudy. The form is great, but of course the pure distance of La Primavera alone makes it uncompareble to these preparation races. I remember my 3rd place in Omloop and hope for a decent result in two weeks. See you in Italy!
Since Paris - Nice haven't got any mountains this year (or TT for that matter) we have sent a team focused on hills lead by Ion Izagirre
The first few stages were flat so we just made sure to keep Ion out of trouble while using as little energy as possible.
Wouldn't have hurt for someone to go in a break though.
On stage 4 Gorka Izagirre jumped in the break early on, but then decided to drop back to the peloton to take care of his brother in stead,
Not that it made much difference since the stage was too easy for anyone to gain any time,
Stage 6 on the other hand was amazing. Landa got in the break where he took the mountain jersey while also hanging og to a stage 9th resulting in a GC 10th.
Further back the guys took good care of Ion delivering him right where he needed to be for the final battle of the big names.
He was where he needed to be even though his bick kick lacked today resulting in a stage and GC 5th.
On stage 7 we missed the break and Ion was caught on the defense towards the finish. He did manage to limit his losses though.
For the final day we were back in the break. This time with Mikel Astarloza. That break lasted all the way but Mikel's sprinting abilities was not quite where they needed to be in order to take the win.
In the peloton the boys defended our two top 10 spots in a rather anonymous way.
Results
Best Rider
Place
Time
Stage 1
Ricardo GarcÃa
31st
s.t.
Stage 2
Ricardo GarcÃa
33rd
s.t.
Stage 3
Igor Antón
33rd
s.t.
Stage 4
Ion Izagirre
22nd
s.t.
Stage 5
Ion Izagirre
21st
s.t.
Stage 6
Ion Izagirre
5th
+ 9
Mikel Landa
9th
+ 1'34
Stage 7
Ion Izagirre
9th
+ 2'37
Stage 8
Mikel Astarloza
5th
s.t.
General Classification
1
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
32h40'38
7
Ion Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 2'39
10
Mikel Landa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 7'00
22
Mikel Astarloza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 12'26
45
Gorka Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 15'39
48
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 15'41
92
Ricardo GarcÃa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 18'56
93
Romain Sicard
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 18'58
-
Miguel MÃnguez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
DNF
Points Classification
1
Peter Sagan
Cannondale Pro Cycling
46
23
Mikel Astarloza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
9
25
Ion Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
8
26
Mikel Landa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
8
47
Gorka Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
2
Mountain Classification
1
Maxime Monfort
Trek Factory Racing
51
4
Mikel Landa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
19
18
Mikel Astarloza
Euskaltel - Euskadi
7
37
Ion Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
1
Young Riders Classification
1
Peter Sagan
Cannondale Pro Cycling
32h41'40
3
Ion Izagirre
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'37
5
Mikel Landa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 5'58
Team Classification
1
Belkin Pro Cycling Team
98h16'57
2
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 7'11
At the bottom line a very good race for us, which also sees us complete an easy goal without any trouble.
Yup, crashed again. Not much to say about it. I went down in a wet descent, and was forced to chase. I didn't feel that well after the crash either. To get a result in this race, everything would have to work 100%, and it clearly wasn't the case. The good feeling was gone, so we decided to work for Ion instead. It didn't work out very well, as he finished just outside the points. I finished in the pack after an anonymous race. I'll need to improve a lot before coming back here.
Back home then for the big cobbled race. I've shown what I can do in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, but these races are harder, longer and all the best riders will be there. Gent-Wevelgem is probably the one that would suit me most, but we'll see. I heard my fanbase has improved after Omloop, so I hope to see some of that!
That fall in Milan - San Remo was worse then expected. I fear my back was hit again, cause I couldn't take the cobble sections as well as I would've liked. Needless to sat both E3 and Gent - Wevelgem went a lot worse then expected. A part of me wanted to abandon, but I feel I need those extra kilometres for the Ronde. So I continued and finished somewhere far, far behind.
Next up is Driedaagse, my final preparation for the Ronde. To be honest, it's going to be a big question mark for me as well. How good am I? If De Panne doesn't go well, there's no real reason for me to even try Ronde and Roubaix.
Milano - Sanremo is far from our speciality, but nevertheless we had some hopes for especially Rudy as a ride capable of both handling hills and sprinting.
Back to his usual luck he crashed on a wet descent and we had to reevaluate our strategy.
We decided that Ion was our best bid with Rudy gone, but this edition didn't get quite selective enough and for the 2nd year in a row this became a 0-pointer for us.
Tirreno was a much more traditional stage race route so here we brought a team shaped sround de las Campos with some solid support.
First up was a TTT where we got an approved 12th place losing only 22 seconds.
On stage 2 we had Pello in the break, where he earned a day in the mountain jersey.
Towards the finish the peloton cracked in half, but the boys did well to make sure Cristiano was in the right place thus not losing any time.
Nothing much to tell from Stage 3.
Stage 4 was a day for answers. Sadly the answer was that Cristiano wasn't among the ten best riders here in spite of solid effort.
Stage 5 saw Castroviejo in the break, but that was pretty much the last highlight of the race for us even though Jonathan got close on the flat stage 6. Probably should have saved that energy for the closing ITT though.
The first big test for our cobbles-squad except that Xavier Florencio was allowed to sit this one over in order to participate in his home Vuelta de Catalunya.
The race ended in complete invisiblity. At least no one crashed…
Results
1
Tom Boonen
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step
4h32'32
85
Rudy Verboven
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 11'34
94
Koldo Fernández
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
99
Egoitz GarcÃa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
101
Markel Irizar
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
154
Jon Aberasturi
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 15'42
181
Ricardo GarcÃa
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 18'28
184
Arkaitz Durán
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
186
Imanol Erviti
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
Gent - Wevelgem
For the second big cobbled classic we were back in strongest cobbles-formation.
Irizar attacked early on showing everyone that we are in fact in these races as well.
The break made a good show of them, but as expected didn't have any influence on the finale.
Sadly Rudy have had a hard time recovering from that MSR-crash and couldn't affect todays race much either.
The good thing to take from these races must be that Rudy still haven't been left alone by his teammates.
I think it's safe to say that March started on a high note and finished on a very low one.
Oman was an amazing result from Cristiano, sadly he was far from following up on it in Tirreno. Guess that's cycling…
Pretty much the same could be said about Rudy, who were amazing in the cobbled season opener, just to crash in MSR and suffer in the following cobbled races.
Paris - Nice went only just as expected for Ion, but was turned by Landa squeezing into the top 10 as well giving us quite a few points from the race.
2014
2013
CT.6
Tour of Oman
152
150
CT.4
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
90
-
CT.5
Clásica de AlmerÃa
10
38
WT.3
Paris-Nice
298
72
WT.3
Tirreno-Adriatico
0
179
WT.1
Milan-San Remo
0
0
WT.2
E3 Harelbeke
0
0
WT.2
Gent-Wevelgem
0
0
Total
550
439
All in all a slightly better performance in the races we raced both this year and last while replacing a 0-pointer for Omloop was a fairly good call.
Even more so as we maintain a significantly higher points/day than we finished at last season.
Rider of the Month
No one can really claim to be an obvious winner of this award. Both Cristiano and Rudy got very good results, but also some disappointing ones to follow up with.
Ion did what he had to do in Paris-Nice, while Landa got lucky to be in the right break.
In the end we have decide to give the award to:
Rudy Verboven
Due to an amazing cobbles-result and the fact that his bad results was for a large part down to really bad luck.
Attacker of the Month
As last month Pello Bilbao was very active. This month the award goes to our youngest rider, who raced 6 days in Oman and was in the break 3 of them
My final test before Ronde went quite well. I rode pain free and the team was really strong. I even tried attacking for the win.
Unfortunately the two other guys didn't feel like chasing. Kudos to Van Avermaet, but more was possible here.
I finished 3rd, which is good. The TT kills any GC ambition of course, but it's a good result nonetheless. Let's see what I can do in the following flat stages.
Compared to the previous two races there has been a small change due to Astana being left manager-less.
That means that Roche has joined team Ireland and Bosic, Brajkovic and Mohoric will join Slovenia while the two Flemish riders will have to watch this one from home.
For the current ranking I refer to the post on page 1.
In the first stage a huge break got away with GarcÃa in it. He even made it to after the break was caught in half.
It only took one cobbled sector for him to get dropped though.
Nevertheless it helped to inspire Rudy to a late attack.
He couldn't catch up with Greg Van Avermaet ahead as he didn't get any help from his companions, but he did win us a good 3rd place.
Largely thanks to some brilliant work by Aberasturi to keep him out of trouble all day.
The following day it was Xaviers turn to go in the break, while the rest was dedicated to protecting Rudy.
In the end it became a bunch sprint, where Rudy got us another Top 10
Stage 3 was a mor re gular bunch sprint, which meant no sign of Verboven in the finale, though it was cool to have him wearing green for the stage.
The final ITT is hardly woth talking about as it was just about as bad as we had expected. Decent ride from Irizar though.
