Live Blogs Pro Cycling Manager 2014, 29 flags challenge (starts in 2017 season)

KrisDK2017-11-04 06:01:35

Stage 1, Bitam-Ebolowa (151 km), hilly stage

Pre race comment to bikenews.net^note Not a real website by Red Bull-Huawei manager Kris Jensen: "This is our first outing as a team, and I've decided to take a mix of experience and youth. I was hoping for a race with less World Tour teams, but it appears that seven of them have decided to use this race to start their season as well. If the big teams want action, the young guys are in for a rough week. Our goal is to place Arashiro highly in the general classification and maybe win a stage"

race report:

Immediately after km 0, Amir Koladozhagh (Red Bull-Huawei) attempted to create the breakaway. The first group of 11 rider was caught, while led the Iranian to try again. Within the group, which counted nine riders at most, there was not a lot of agreement, with riders counter attacking each other constantly. One picture was taken of the nine riders cooperating

The group of nine was not popular with Aqua Blue, UAE and Direct Energie, who worked hard to control and catch the group.

After 14 km, a group of Jelle Wallays (Lotto-Soudal), Gregory Rast (Trek-Segafredo), Maxim Belkov (Katusha-Alpecin) and Koladozhagh had seemingly gotten clear, though the sprint after 15.7 km, which was won by Wallays ahead of Belkov and Timo Roosen (Lotto-Jumbo) who used the sprint to catch the four riders ahead of him, made the group get back together. This event made Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) counter, who got Wallays, Imanol Erviti (Movistar) and Ivan Santaromita (Nippo-Vini Fantini) along. The remainder of the break was caught, which led to an immediate counterattack up the first KOM climb by Alex Kirsch (Red Bull-Huawei), who quickly caught and subsequently dropped Wallays, while Fraile beat Erviti for the KOM points, with Santaromita taking the last point, 20 seconds down. Soon after the KOM, Kirsch caught and subsequently dropped Santaromita, and managed to catch up to the Spanish riders up front, while Wallays and Santaromita worked together to make the gap. The result was a five man break with a 3 minute lead and 110 km remaining, and the five riders, before the last two joined, can be seen here.

At this point, the race had calmed down, with the breakaway slowly expanding their lead to five minutes, and Fraile taking a sprint after 62.7 km, ahead of Erviti and Wallays.

With 70 km to go, the pack increased the tempo a bit, shaving 30 seconds off the breakawaym, making the breakaway respond by increasing the pace as well. The breakaway was split by a KOM with 60 km to go, where Kirsch took the points ahead of Santaromita and Wallays. 5 km later was a bunch sprint, where Wallays took the points ahead of Fraile and Kirsch. This sprint led to Santaromita getting dropped.

The pack used the next 25 km to take a minute off the breakaway, before reaching the last 30 km. With 30 km to go, a section with two very steep hills, over 20%, came. This made UAE go to the front in force, attempting to set up Diego Ulissi. UAE succeded in splitting the pack, and kept the pace high afterwards. With 19 km to go, Fraile decided to attack on his own, while Kirsch kept him on a leash, using a short, steep climb 3 km later to bridge the gap and drop Erviti and Wallays. With 12 km to go, Fraile attacked Kirsch again, and the rider from Luxemburg responded by setting his own pace. Meanwhile, in the pack, all eyes were on Ulissi and nobody noticed that UAE sent Kristijan Durasek up the road instead.

With 10 km to go, Fraile had a 30 second lead to Kirsch, a minute on Erviti and 1.25 on Wallays. The action in the front of the race had expanded the lead, and the gap from Wallays to Durasek meant the Wallys had 3.15 to the Croatian rider, who had taken 25 seconds from the pack.

With 7 km to go, the riders entered the final hilly section, and it was clear that the stage win was to be determined between Fraile and Kirsch, with Fraile leading by 25 seconds. Over the next three km, Kirsch managed to close the gap, and immediately countered, and role solo to win the first race his team had ever participated in.

In the pack, Sunweb, Direct Energie and Katusha were trying to make the race hard, reducing the pack to only 22 riders. They didn’t manage to catch up to Durasek, nor did they ever see the four riders up the road. Kirsch ended up taking the first professional win of his career, 28 seconds ahead of Fraile, 2.11 ahead of Erviti. Wallays finished fourth, 3.01 after Kirsch. Durasek stayed ahead of the pack, coming in 3.58 after Kirsch. In the sprint for sixth, Søren Kragh Andersen (Sunweb) won, coming in 4.31 after Kirsch.

Post race comment to bikenews.net by RBH manager Kris Jensen: “What a way to start as a team. Alex told me that he felt great this morning, and we saw that. Amir started the attacks, but ended up getting caught out and had to fall back, promting Alex to counter and show just how strong he was. In the break, we saw four guys who looked about equal, and Santaromita who didn’t look as good. In the final stretch, Fraile and Alex proved to be the stronger riders. Alex was amazing, keeping cool while Fraile attacked, knowing that he could catch the Spanish rider. Yukiya and Pawel stayed up front, while the younger guys seemed to lack a bit of physical power, and Amir was marked by the effort of trying to stay up front with the attackers. All in all, a great day, and a learning experience for the younger riders. Our tactical standpoint has changed a bit, Yukiya isn’t captain anymore and we’re here to defend now. We have six hard days ahead of us”

Stage 2, Yaounde circuit (107.3 km), flat stage

Pre race comment to bikenews.net by RBH manager Kris Jensen: “This shouldn’t be the hardest stage. We’re in the defensive position and we’re going all in on an overall victory for Alex. This means that the team must stay together and work hard to keep the breakaway on a relative leash. At this point, other teams have a great deal of interest in keeping the pack together, so we need to show our intent on that point.”

The race started with a break at km 0, which contained seven riders. That break was gone as quickly as it started with Katusha pulling it back immediately. The second break, containing six riders, didn’t last long either, with Katusha pulling them back. From the break that was caught, Nick Van Der Lijke (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij), Gijs Van Hoecke (Lotto-Jumbo), Chad Haga (Sunweb) and Alessio Taliani (Androni-Sidermec) countered, which Katusha accepted. Picture of the breakaway

After that, Red Bull – Huawei took the front to defend Kirsch’s yellow jersey and led the pack until 40 km to go where Katusha, Cofidis and Aqua Blue took over the pace setting, while Taliani swept the KOM's and took the jersey.

At 20 km to go, the three sprinter teams stopped chasing, leading the Red Bull – Huawei squad to take the front again, and set up an ambitious attack over the final hill with Arashiro and Kirsch. 13 riders made the split, but the pack was brought back together, except for the four riders ahead who were to sprint for the win. Van der Lijke took the victory ahead of Taliani, Haga and Van Hoecke; while Kristian Sbaralgi (Dimension Data) beat Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) for fifth.

Post race comment to bikenews.net by RBH manager Kris Jensen: “Today was a good day. We were on the defensive, and the guys worked well together. Especially Peak took some hard pulls early, and Ravikant was eager to show what he could do. I genuinely don’t get that why the sprinter teams suddenly stopped relaying with 20 km to go, but that's their loss. It created a weird situation, where we had to set the pace, but we only do so to keep the break on a leash. The attack at the end was Yukiya and Alex trying see if they could gain time on their rivals. The breakaway made it, which doesn’t bother me at all, and we lost 43 seconds to riders who weren't threats in the GC. Result wise a good day, performance wise even better”

Stage 3, Bitam-Ebolowa (108.7 km), hilly stage

Pre race comment to bikenews.net by RBH manager Kris Jensen: “Short stages can be difficult or easy depending on the terrain and your situation. In this case, I don’t think it will be too hard to defend. We’ll try to keep the breakaway on a leash, and not let riders who threaten Alex make the break. The finish could very well be a hill sprint, and I expect UAE and Direct Energie to try and pull the pack together for the finish line. Normally, I’d want Yukiya to go for a stage like this, but the priority is to defend the yellow jersey. I think it’s a bit strange that we get two stages from Bitam to Ebolowa.”

An early break tried to establish themselves, but Lotto-Soudal and Direct Energi were not keen on having 7 riders up the road, leading to a catch after 13km, and a counter from which Mattia Cattaneo (Androni-Sidermec) and Maxim Belkov (Katusha-Alpecin), where Cesare Benedetti (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked from the pack. A picture was taken of the breakaway

The sprint after 16km and the KOM after 31km were uncontested, taken by whoever was relaying (Cattaneo and Benedetti respectively), and the race was calm, with Red Bull-Huawei leading the pack.

With 38 km to go, Aqua Blue and Direct Energie decided to set a high pace, catching leading rider Alex Kirsch (Red Bull-Huawei) in a bad position, though he recovered. 6 km later, Diego Ulissi (UAE) wasn’t as lucky and got caught behind a split, leading to his entire team falling back to help him back up. Stef Clement (Lotto-Jumbo) took the opportunity to sneak away from the pack.

With 25 km to go, Pierre-Luc Perichon (Fortuneo-Oscaro) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) attacked, and havoc ensued over the final stretch, with everyone attacking from a now reduced pack. Perichon and Edet were caught quickly, but counter upon counter brought closed the distance to the early break, who were caught within the final km. Belkov tried his luck with a long sprint, and almost made it. Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) timed his sprint perfectly, and took the stage win ahead of Belkov and Ulissi.

Post race comment to bikenews.net by RBH manager Kris Jensen: “We managed to defend the lead, and Yukiya did an amazing job keeping Alex out of trouble. Aqua Blue and Direct Energi started racing hard too early for my liking, but that may have something to do with the number of younger riders who aren’t used to racing at this level. Our experienced riders, Yukiya, Pawel and Alex called the shots well, and showed that they know how to control a breakaway.”

Stage 4 Oyem-Mitzic (110.8 km), hilly stage

Pre race comment to bikenews.net by RBH manager Kris Jensen: “I look forward to the end of this stage. This is the last hilly stage, the last three should be sprint finishes. The tactics haven’t changed since yesterday, control the breakaway, keep Alex at the front. Ravikant has been complaining about headaches, and if they aren’t better by tomorrow, I’ll take him out of the race to recover”

With sprints after 17 and 28 km respectively, it took some time before the attacks started. Nobody tried anything, and after 9 km, a hard relay by Roompot made any attacks infeasible. The sprint came, and Nick van der Lijke took the sprint in front of KOM leader Alessio Taliani (Androni-Sidermec), expanding his lead in the points competition. Matthias Brändle (Trek-Segafredo) tried to counter after the sprint, but was reeled in by Roompot who, along with Aqua Blue set the pace until the second sprint. Gijs van Hoecke (Lotto-Jumbo) took the sprint ahead of André Looij (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij).

Further back in the pack, race leader Alex Kirsch (Red Bull-Huawei) crashed along with Nicola Marini (Nippo-Vini Fantini) and Brändle, and with the sprint splitting the pack, Red Bull-Huawei could be in trouble, though a quick bridge by Barnabas Peak ensured that the pack was kept together. Afterwards, nothing really happened. Red Bull-Huawei were setting a fairly slow pace to ensure that Kirsch could come back to the front. At the half way point, Androni-Sidermec’s Mattia Cattaneo had enough and decided to attack on his own, taking the first KOM sprint and gaining a decent advantage. In the pack, Lars Petter Nordhaug (ABS) took the KOM sprint as an excuse to attack, and Geschke (Sunweb) attacked after the banner.

Two km later, Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) tried to attack along with Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie), fifth placed Patrick Konrad and Jay McCarthy (both Bora-Hansgrohe). This attack was shut down right after the second sprint, after a powerful effort by Amir Koladozhagh (Red Bull-Huawei).

The battle for the final KOM was rather uneventful, as Cattaneo, still ahead of everyone else took the points, with Nordhaug being the one to relay over the top for second and Geschke taking the final point. When the pack reached that hill, Rafael Valls (Lotto-Soudal) and second placed Omar Fraile (Dimension Data) attacked, and chaos ensued on the following two hills. Bora-Hansgrohe, Movistar and Red Bull-Huawei relayed hard to pull back second placed Fraile, while the main group was reduced to only 14 riders, with the notable absence of Wallays, Durasek and Felline. Patrick Konrad in particular put in a lot of effort in the final stretch to defend his GC position, leading the pack on his own from Fraile’s and Nordhaug and Valls’ capture with 13.5km remaining. With 3km to go, was caught and youth classification leader Calmejane immediately countered. Calmejane managed to catch Cattaneo with 0.5km to go, and Jesus Herrada (Movistar) took second place away from Cattaneo on the line.

Post race comment to bikenews.net by RBH manager Kris Jensen: “Another day, another defense of the yellow jersey. Yukiya did exceptionally well again, helping Alex back up after the crash and helping keep Alex out of trouble at the end, not to mention taking fourth in the final sprint. Alex lost 15s on a few rivals, but none of them were Omar Fraile, so it wasn't that big an issue. Barnabas did well to bridge after the split at the second sprint, keeping the pack together such that Alex could get up without problems, and the fact that Amir managed to shut down that attack with 40 km to go amazes me. The chaos at the end even meant that we got rid of Wallays, Durasek and Felline in the GC. Libreville can’t come soon enough”

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