Decided to write something every 3 stages, seems a good idea, seems I then win every third stage. Maybe should change to daily writing to win every day?`No no, every 3 days is ok. So Tourmalet Sunday then Aguilar del Campo, and Angliru next week, Pueblo de Sanabria and Madrid in the last week. Sounds nice, nice wins!
Anyway, 3 eventful days.
Stage 4 huge group goes. Bachchan as expected. Pepelita from Moja's follows. Which already makes me unhappy. 88 climber, while not the outright favorite depending on downtraining he certainly has chances to gain the 1'30" or a bit more, that he will lose to Konig in the TT. Especially if we look at celt's not outstanding team, rather weak flat skills. And normally he's the stage favorite too. The classic Pais Vasco arrival at Arrate above Eibar.
Next, celt doesn't ride either, but attacks behind.. .at over 20' already. Ok, that I will catch. But what's the point. 86 mountain, 65 TT, good reg, good second climber, weaknesses in the flat team, but not ready to even control a little bit? Ride at 10' and I will join most likely, not trying to catch the group, but keep it at around 10'. Which IMO should have been his tactic too, let Moja lose ahead with Pepelita, instead of winning with Neumann in the peloton. Of course that win was not assured, but 88-55 with 52 sprint vs 87-53 with 48 and 86-55 with 48 sprint... that's more than enough chances. So why not just stay in the back, ride, hope for help? From my side probably would have come, while Neumann on paper is stronger, with the right block... can work. Follow with 1 point difference often works, first time at least, second time not.
So Moja going for Pepelita, celt doing nothing.. please, I start as number 3 here, certainly have chances, I'm an optimist anyway, but forget me starting to work when the stage favorite attacks and the GC favorite doesn't work but tries a pointless attack when the group is over 20' ahead.
Advantage went up over 30' Txomin Juaristi tried a nice comeback from the peloton, went a bit before the celt attempt, in the end was 13' back.
In the back then at km 150 attack by Eiffel Belhassen. Followed by Prilasnig, Moja 77 74 classic. Sow and Schiwkow, 82 climbers. Good. No sensible reaction in the back, celt was trying his own absolutely pointless and ridiculous farm tricks I think, not actually sure what was doing. Riding with Jelinek, 79 mountain was the only thing to make sense there, no idea what he did, but certainly wasn't riding with Jelinek. So at 152 attack with Larios, red. Neumann follows, Konig can't, we easily win a minute to Konig. Just ride up to Belhassen/Eiffel/Prilasnig. Neumann? Not in tempo. Fuck that, I go green, if he wants he can ride. or he can attack and go with Prilasnig while I then have to try to come back. But no, he does nothing, and that doesn't work so 1 km green, second km at 6 percent then no tempo at all (actually wanted green but in too late). WHAT THE FUCK??? I presented him a 95% made chance to win around a minute to Konig on day 4, and he wants that I present him the thing 99% made?`No way. At this point I decided to hack his computer, infect it with a bunch of viruses, lock the computer, demand money to unlock it, get his home address and send him some sarin, anthrax and to be safe a parcel bomb too. Fortunately for both of us my terroristic tendencies were once again hindered by my lack of the required expertise
. In the end Eiffel and Belhassen in front were predictably dropped by Sow and Schiwkow, in the back now Konig could follow an attack, and then countered, and since Neumann and Larios were hanging on each other gained 15". Instead of winning 1' we lose 15", idiotic. And I don't blame myself for it!
Anyway, big chance to gain time lost, in front Bacchan wins the stage, gets red and the mountains jersey. And now he and Stendera, 64 mountains but 58 TT and more reg become serious contenders for the GC.
Stage 5
Started exactly like stage 5. Huge group with Bachchan. This time the Donkey is there, with 2 riders, Krankl and Faye. And of course no plan to ride, more than happy to simply fight for stages now. Everybody else in front with the same plan... let Phoenix work for his GC win, that was basically going to be decided on stage 5, and try to get the stage. Then after the advantage had reached 10' celt starts riding in the back. What a joke.. now, after 34' he thinks about the GC? On hte first mountain in the back the Donkey tries a double attack, Swift-Belhassen. But somebody siebs, so out, Swift the optimist still tried. There the plan was a) bring Belhassen in front, stage win with him more likely... And maybe some GC fun later?
Phoenix stopped after the first mountain, Dead and Alive double attack from the group, Krankl and a Hessen, Hütter follow. Hessen the weaker guy, only 52 mountain. Phoenix chases, but gets no help.
Km 62 Brotcorne and Belhassen attack, since Swift never came back to the peloton after being siebed. Ok for me, less strong flat riders in the peloton then. But irrelevant, I could have gone with Messerli Belhassen and would have worked, Celt continuing his horrible, absolutely horrible riding, simply doesn't react. He just let's Brotcorne go. And go, and go. And go go "Chasing" with a half dead and useless even if fit rider, or something like that. . And then restarts trying his truly idiotic and pointless farmer attempts. Great attack in between though, Stendera, Hessen who had missed the early escape went now, in between Celts farmattempts... 72-78 the ones by celt, 75 Stendera. Km 80 the climb starts with a 5. What happens? Right, with Belhassen and Brotcorne with way too much time, further ahead Faye and even further ahead Krankl, the Donkey does the incredibly unexpected and surprising thing, he attacks. Green with Larios. Neumann, Sow, Schiwkow follow. Eiffel hanging there as a last minute decision too. After all going green he will follow... Who's missing. Celt. Stuff like this makes me lose all my belief in humanity, seriously, an attack that was basically announced, everybody knew it was coming, and Konig is not hanging? Trying some completely pointless, completely senseless farmer tricks with his riders? Ok gone, and done, wait for Martin who had followed Bogarin, Donkey with 6 riders ahead of the peloton Celt wasn't even fucking covering the km (Ok I might be a bit hard to the poor guy, but seriously, this is some of the worst riding I've ever seen, and I have ridden with both Toru Oedt and JoyRide, so I know bad, this here for a guy with his experience is mind boggling, so no, I'm not being hard on him.) But well, I demand Moja tempo again, this time works, he went out once, I reacted by putting Brotcorne back in... which really was enough vs the sorry collection of losers riding for celt in the back. Ride ride, in front Krankl proposes to McCulloch to ride green, since we were too fast in the LArios-Neumann group.
In the back, first km of the final climb, a +9, Eiffel in tempo, double attack, Neumann can't follow, he had asked if we ride together from there, I had answered with "secret plan"... he really needed to cover there, not just follow, then he probably catches me back soon... or I don't go yet, join him after that km instead of so. But like this, perfect. Larios goes, Neumann misses the first km after the attack, then in, gains time back, but not that much, on top still 31" second? Krankl 7" ahead of Larios, excellent, then Krankl pilots Larios and McCulloch to the finish. Stage for McCulloch, no energy to sprint anyway, and even if I had, I profited so much from having Krankl ahead thanks to him that he could have had the stage anyway.
1'09" won to Neumann, Sow and Schiwkow
2'24" to Konig. And Bachchan, Stendera.
Winner of the day: Larios and Stendera. Larios obvious, but Stendera after not being in the first group really did a great comeback.
Today:
Early group, 2 Alive and Deads, 1 Phoenix, 1 celt. I give them 3 minutes, don't like the leader, Phoenix, who most likely will lose the leadership at some point, yes, but it'^s not sure and even if, we're talking about x days in rosa/yellow but really red until then.... But Alive attacked again immediately, 2 guys ahead... nothing else. Donkey thinking. Go for stage? Save energy for tomorrow? AFter tomorrow? Etc. Bah, fuck it, try stage ,started at 10', gained time back fast, too fast, so Alive send another 2 riders. And there he wins it unless I get help, so asked Moja, he joined, then seemed clear, climber win. Final climb, Belhassen dropped on the first 8, Eiffel in tempo to cover, then out, wait for Belhassen... Jelinek in tempo, double attack with Konig, 14" ahead. Bah... that was a good attack, maybe celt is finally getting into the zone, getting his mojo back! 4 km left, 6 8 6 8, Larios in, Neumann joins, 12", then 8", then 5" before the last km... We both attack, land 1" ahead of Konig. Sprint, Neumann ahead, I try to go at 150, Neumann went there too, so didn't get anywhere, back to following and went at 50, lucky win for Larios. But I'll take it. Neumann IMO was stronger today, I had yes alone from the 8 on, Neumann still in tempo, probably very close that I ended in the same km... But as I said, I'll take it.
So situation now:
Bachchan 66-79 with 52 TT and 53 reg
Stendera at 35". 64-73 with 58TT and 64 reg.
These 2 being 2 makes them more dangerous, cooperation makes sense. Today Stendera, his boss being off, lost 26", on other days he might stay there. And Hessen has an excellent team to work for him. 67-82 and 70-76, both reg and downhill there. So a cooperation of those 2 makes them harder to crack IMO. The terrain to win enough time is there, but.... For me of course Stendera losing time today is excellent, at some point he might be too far behind Bachchan to collaborate...
Bachchan's team in the mountain is much weaker. Bachchan is the second strongest climber in the team. ...Without Hessen he'll be in trouble soon. With him... much harder to crack.
Pepelita at 11'01", irrelevant at this point
Larios 19'03"
Sow 20'02
Schiwkow 20'03
Sow and Schiwkow should be no problem for Larios. The ones ahead. There's the Tourmalet stage, then Farrapona, then Angliru and finally Covatilla, multi climb stages where dropping Bachchan early looks possible. If a bigger time gain is needed, 5'-10' at once, If just waiting for the final climbs turns out not to be enough. Not an unsurmountable task. Just waiting for the last climb of course should give quite some time gain as well, plus Moncalvillo too.
Neumann 20'43
Konig 21'16"
1'40" back for Neumann. He can mostly let me try to get back the time to the 2 ahead. Right now he's back including the TT too, with 7 more he should win 1'03" in 30 km, let's say 1'10" in the whole thing. Less if he downtrains... Be it as it may, he's back right now. But there's lots of mountains left, Tourmalet and Moncalvillo before the next training. So 88 vs 87. And he has more reg, so he still can hope to come back I think. Even if downtraining is a danger for him.
König 2'13" back, should win 2'15" in the 30 km, 34 so more, so he's slightly ahead of Larios. And around 1' ahead of Neumann. But to be honest, if celt continues to ride like he has so far.... he is absolutely no danger. If he continues like that both Moja and Donkey can give him another 2' almost whenever they want...yes, he was that bad so far.
So lots happened in these 3 days, hopefully less in the next 3 until my next post (and win, and win!), then I can make it shorter....