Wow, it has been some years for sure! But anyway, it´s great to see one of those guys back in the story section. Back where it all began several years ago. Good to see you back valverde
Always liked the style of your writing. Good luck with this new one. I´ll have a look for sure!
@ tsmoha - Indeed, its been great, although I think its almost been more that the challengers all keep dropping out or stepping on each others toes.
@ Batista - Wow, really cool to see you here again! Im glad my story could bring you back from your break of posting of 4 years! Happy to have you here, and thanks a lot!
What a Giro so far for you! Mas is hitting great form after his Romandie win and Viviani is finding top form in the second week! Looking forward to the final week and hopefully you can add to the gap and not be caught
WOW! Looks like the Contador comparisons for Enric Mas are not all that far off! He was expected to lose time to other contenders in the two ITTs in the final week, and he didn't lose time to any other GC riders in either, as well as winning the more hilly TT on Stage 15 a massive result!
Stage 16, 17 and 18 went to the break, although 18 was also a GC battle, where Mas won the sprint to the line as a larger group of favorites reached the line together. At this point it was obvious Roglic and Porte are not in top form as even lesser riders are outperforming them.
Stage 19 was the only stage Mas lost time to other contenders, Fuglsang looked like the only real threat, but with only the final TT to gain time on Mas his lead looked safe.
In the final TT, Mas once again had a great day and was only 1 second off from the win again! This performance should solidify him as one of the top GC riders in the world and only 24 years old, he could be near the top for many years to come!
Viviani sealed the points jersey as well, in the final week, but Ewan keep things interesting.
Bennett really took charge of the KOM race in the final 1/3 of the race and with 2 more breakaways and another stage win, he was able to haul in a lot of KoM points.
Overall it was a great race for the team, we pretty much dominated it from start to finish! Mas really rode well with limited support, although the field was a bit weaker than in previous years, so perhaps the later start date made it hard for riders who rode the classics to extend their shape into the end of May for the Giro.
Looks like Mas sealed the deal in the ITTs then. At least in his fight against Fuglsang, who had this one strong stage eventually. Never won a GT in my whole PCM life, so if course I have to congratulate for this huge Giro! (still slightly disappointed by the rather weak competition though)
A Great performance from Mas to bring home the Maglia Rosa , and he stormed the youth classification too and Viviani bringing home the sprint jersey too, happy days
tsmoha wrote:
Batista is around? Why not go totally mad and make a new Batista story?
Hey tsmoha, another famous name of the story section.
Thanks for the nice suggestion. I was thinking about it several times but there wasn´t enough time in the past. But how knows...what the future brings...
@valverde321
I had to leave a comment here today. As all the great memories came up again...man that was a crazy time back in 2009 with all those incredible stories.
@ tsmoha - Thanks! I did the triple with Nibali on PCM 15, but 15 is probably the easiest edition of the game Ive ever played, gameplay wise and fitness wise.
@ sutty - Indeed it is, thanks!
@ batista - Indeed 2009 was an incredible time Thanks!
@ Freitas - Yeah, I think hes spanish cyclings future as well. Thanks!
@ tamijo - Thx
@ baseball - Yeah, I think a lot of the crashes hurt the quality of the contenders
Chris Froome showed he will be heading into the Tour de France as the top favourite once again. He was beaten by Bob Jungels twice on the mountain stages, but he absolutely obliterated the field on Stage 7, which was enough to take the GC win. On stage 8 Jungels lost another 3 minutes to Froome after a crash before the decisive moment, but his 2nd place was safe, and first to Froome was already out of reach so no real pressure to chase super hard to get back on. Essentially Jungels only lost the race on Stage 7. Still a great tune up for Jungels though, who will look to get onto the podium at the Tour.
Tour de Suisse (2.UWT) 2019
Stage 1
1
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
+00:00
2
Joey Rosskopf
CCC Team
+00:01
3
Miles Scotson
Groupama - FDJ
+00:04
4
Rohan Dennis
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:05
5
Jan Tratnik
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:05
Stage 2
1
George Bennett
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
2
Richie Porte
Trek - Segafredo
+00:23
3
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:35
4
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
+00:35
5
Domenico Pozzovivo
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:35
Stage 3
1
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
2
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
+00:00
3
David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
+00:00
4
George Bennett
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
5
Domenico Pozzovivo
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:00
Stage 4
1
Caleb Ewan
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
2
Dylan Groenewegen
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
3
Peter Sagan
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
4
Arnaud Démare
Groupama - FDJ
+00:00
5
Pascal Ackermann
BORA - hansgrohe
+00:00
Stage 5
1
Jens Debusschere
Team Katusha - Alpecin
+00:00
2
Dylan Groenewegen
Team Jumbo - Visma
+04:53
3
Caleb Ewan
Lotto - Soudal
+04:53
4
Peter Sagan
BORA - hansgrohe
+04:53
5
Alexander Kristoff
UAE - Team Emirates
+04:53
Stage 6
1
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+00:00
2
Michal Kwiatkowski
Team Sky
+00:00
3
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
+00:00
4
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
5
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto - Soudal
+00:00
Stage 7
1
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
2
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
+00:00
3
George Bennett
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
4
Steven Kruijswijk
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:00
5
Richie Porte
Trek - Segafredo
+00:00
Stage 8
1
Alexey Lutsenko
Astana Pro Team
+00:00
2
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:00
3
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
+00:00
4
Richard Carapaz
Movistar Team
+00:00
5
Andrey Amador
Movistar Team
+00:00
Stage 9
1
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
+00:00
2
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:14
3
Domenico Pozzovivo
Team Bahrain Merida
+00:14
4
George Bennett
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:20
5
Steven Kruijswijk
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:24
Final GC
1
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
+00:00
2
George Bennett
Team Jumbo - Visma
+00:03
3
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
+00:10
4
Richie Porte
Trek - Segafredo
+00:58
5
Domenico Pozzovivo
Team Bahrain Merida
+01:13
6
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
+02:26
7
Steven Kruijswijk
Team Jumbo - Visma
+02:34
8
David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
+02:35
9
Mikel Landa
Movistar Team
+03:06
10
Daniel Martin
UAE - Team Emirates
+03:57
...
16
Julian Alaphilippe
Deceuninck - Quick Step
+05:25
Final Points
1
Romain Bardet
AG2R La Mondiale
95
2
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
84
3
Caleb Ewan
Lotto - Soudal
60
We came into the Tour de Suisse with no real GC threat, so it was stage hunting for us, and Alaphilippe won Stage 6 for us, which was exactly what we had hoped. Dumoulin won the race and will also be looking to win the Tour as he is on good form atm. George Bennett is have an amazing year after his strong Giro, now 2nd here which is a great result for him.
Team Sky have probably the two best GC riders in the race, and Bernal who could probably fight for a Top 5 if he was on another team. The Tour hasn't seen a French winner in a few decades now, and Bardet is the best hope again this year, but with so many TT kms it will be a tough ask. Jungels is Deceunincks GC hope here, and he showed that he can beat Froome in the Dauphine, so with the slight TT advantage to Froome he could be quite the dark horse in this race, as well as Dumoulin who could be the biggest threat to Froome of a rider that isn't his teammate. Thomas is the previous winner and will want to defend his title though, so who knows what Sky will do.
The First Week
The first week has almost no climbing, but that doesn't mean the GC fight cant be lost already. Stage 1 is a prologue where only seconds will be lost, but stage 2 is a cobble stage which could give a rider like Nibali or Jungels an advantage over someone like Froome. Thomas would likely have the advantage over his teammate on the stage as well.
Stage 4 is a Team Time Trial, where Sky will want to be the favourites, but a weaker TTT team could have their GC rider fall out of the race with a poor ride, as 62km could be a time loss of over 3mins if its a bad day.
The last few stages to end out the week should suit the sprinters, but as always the favoruite for the Green Jersey will be Peter Sagan
The Second Week
"Only" one TT in the 2nd week of the Tour, a 67km ride which should suit riders like Dumoulin, Jungels and Froome. We also finally hit the mountains after almost 2 weeks of riding as the riders will climb to Hautacam. Stage 13 could be a long day for some if they arent feeling well.
The Final Week
If you were wondering why it might look like a weaker sprinters startlist, well here is your answer. The last week of this race could be hell for many riders, as there are only 1 day without climbing. The other 6 stages will be days filled with climbing, so this could be where sprinters dont make the time limit. The Mountain TT will be the final day to battle for the GC and it will be a thrilling end to the race, but there will be fireworks on many of the stages beforehand as well. Stay here for coverage of the race, in the coming days!
Mas has hit a new level, wow what a statement that Giro is, absolutely outstanding He and Jungels look like a dangerous duo after that Dauphine performance - time for a well earned break for Mas though, I guess he'll go to the Vuelta and make the Spanish fans go crazy for the new Contador?
Great to see George Bennett doing well taking another stage and the KoM and then coming so close in Tour de Suisse - shame Paddy Bevin couldn't quite make it 3 Kiwi stage wins in a GT! Must say I hope Bennett can go back to challenging for GT Top 5s soon, but he sure did come back from early losses at the Giro well!
That Luz-Ardiden stage is a cracker Cool DQS lineup there with Jungels going for his first TDF top 10 after last year's 11th, and both Gilbert and Alaphilippe too as well as Styby and two young sprinters!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [PT] Xero Racing
Some nice results! What are the stats of Mas currently?
Looks like a strong field for the Tour, which is always nice! (I just finished a tour which was won by Kwiatkowski...). Looks like mitchelton scott also has a great team with them with the likes of the brothers Yates. chaves and Haig. Wondering if they go for stage wins or the GC.
Stunning performances of Mas, winning the Giro and a great follow-up result in France too. Good to see Vivani claim a few stages and the points jersey after missing out on a win in that first week.
Great prep race for Jungels in France, and Le Tour should quite suit him this year. Best of luck!
Giro d'Italia 2019 Week Three
, and he stormed the youth classification too 
Criterium du Dauphine (2.UWT) 2019
Tour de Suisse (2.UWT) 2019
