What a tragedy! With Gaudu in charge of the Ardennes, Fernando Barceló planned his whole spring around this race. And it seemed to have paid off! With a brilliant solo ride on day two, he got the yellow jersey. He defended it on the next two stages, losing only 14 seconds thus far - before crashing on the final road stage and losing almost five minutes. Had he finished in one of the two bigger groups behind Alaphilippe that day, he’d have had a shot at the podium. A stage win is still a great achievement against this competition, but it’s a tough look back at these six days.

So, guys … have you heard about Massimiliano Utro yet?

Also, David Gaudu really comes into his own as a team leader here after a disappointing start of the season.

Slightly less flashy, but with Utro in 8th place, still a strong team result.

Yeeehehesss! What a big one! On a course that saw the last uphill section passed 7 kilometers from the finish line, Gaudu jumped on the right move with Woods and Wellens and had the quickest finish. What a massive moment for both the team and the young French!

It's telling that three stage wins constitute a quieter month for us now. Viviani did well in preparation of the Giro, Petit and Utro added their own highlights as well.

alexkr00 wrote:
And I thought Van Aert benefited too much by me controlling him when I finished second with him in Amstel

Great to see the nerdiest looking cyclist I've ever seen turning into quite the puncheur.

valverde321 wrote:
Great results in the Ardennes. Gaudu is having a strong campaign with his new team after a slow start.

Shonak wrote:
Gaudaaa!! I mean - Gauduuu!!

rogvi97 wrote:
Strong ending to the classics season with a massive win

David Gaudu was still carrying momentum from his victory at La Doyenne so he just kept going. He laid the groundwork for his GC win by attacking on the first road stage alongside Sam Oomen, who took the stage win by centimeters but we can look past that, I guess.

Consonni also came incredibly close a day later, but after a breakaway win on stage four, David Gaudu cemented his claim to the yellow jersey by winning the only mountaineous stage of the race. He will take a well-deserved break now before he continues with preparations for the Tour, while Consonni moves on to the Giro.

Shonak wrote:
Gaudu on a roll, both a monument and first big stage race. Shame he wont ride Giro with this form.

FreitasPCM wrote:
Been reading through this story in the last couple of weeks too, entertaining as yours have always been.

Croatia14 wrote:
Bog time performances! LBL is a huge one, and can we please have stats for Utro?

LLDS wrote:
Missed a couple of weeks of this story, it is as good as I remember .

Tamijo wrote:
Regarding the settings I dont know about Impossible have not tried it.
As you say instead i generally accept the AI training/goal setup. To avoid playing as close to 100% all the time.

Do sometimes "improve" the training in planner, fatigue can be a problem if you dont. But I am not optimizing to get 100% at important races, if at mid 90's I accept.
You can read all my rules at the first page of my story if you want inspiration to get more realistic results, 2018 sadly too easy if you are a veteran PCM user.

Tamijo wrote:
Regarding you story havent had the time (MG), but will attempt to follow.

Pretty solid result, although with a better timing, the win would have been within reach. But that was a risk we took when we sent Simone Consonni to the Tour de Romandie instead of helping out here, so it’s all good.

The first grand tour of the year is coming up and I thought this warrants an actual preview. First, a quick overview of the stages:

The 2021 route skews heavily towards mountain stages, with not a lot of opportunities for puncheurs to show their worth. Six mountain top finishes plus a mountain time trial will instead provide a stage for the premier climbers to really duel it out for the GC win. One of the flat time trials is also a team time trial.

Note: For some reason, this is the same route as last year. Realised it too late to change it, hope it doesn't matter too much.

Leaders	Sprint Support	Mountain Support
Pierre Latour	Simone Consonni	Jesper Hansen
Elia Viviani	Nathan Haas	Victor Lafay
	Marco Mathis	Pierre-Luc Périchon

Last year, our only leader was Elia Viviani, who was supposed to score as many sprint wins as possible. He disappointed a little with just one (although Consonni added another), but he gets another chance this year. Consonni will be his leadout again and Haas and Mathis should provide decent support as well.

In contrast to 2020, we also have GC ambitions here with Pierre Latour. He showed a lot of promise in the spring, but this is obviously a different beast. We're not expecting podium contention or anything, but a Top 10 would be nice.

Primoz Roglic	Team Jumbo-Visma
Richard Carapaz	Groupama - FDJ
Tadej Pogacar	UAE Team Emirates
Miguel Angel López	Astana Pro Team
Vincenzo Nibali	Team Ineos
Pavel Sivakov	Team Ineos
Mikel Landa	Bahrain - McLaren
Steven Kruijswijk	Movistar Team
Enric Mas	Movistar Team
Adam Yates	Mitchelton-Scott
Wilco Kelderman	EF Pro Cycling
Rafal Majka	BORA - hansgrohe

The riders competing for the pink jersey mirror the contenders of last year for the most part, but there have been some team changes. Jumbo-Visma had a dual lead with runner-up Roglic and Kruijswijk last year, but the latter has moved on to Movistar. 2020 winner Carapaz now rides for Movistar, Italian legend and 2020 third place Nibali rides for Ineos alongside Sivakov, who's developed very well over the past year or so. Pogacar and Superman Lopez are the other main contenders.

Caleb Ewan	Lotto Soudal
John Degenkolb	Lotto Soudal
Jasper Philipsen	UAE Team Emirates
Sam Bennett	Deceuninck-Quick Step
Fabio Jakobsen	Deceuninck-Quick Step
Alexander Kristoff	Groupama - FDJ
Pascal Ackermann	BORA - hansgrohe
Jakub Mareczko	CCC Team
Luca Mezgec	Mitchelton-Scott
Giacomo Nizzolo	NTT Pro Cycling
Mark Cavendish	Bahrain - McLaren
Wout Van Aert	Team Jumbo-Visma

Caleb Ewan won the points jersey last year alongside three stages, so he's a big favorite again this year. Ackermann and the Deceuninck crew could be the biggest rivals (alongside us, hopefully). Kristoff is the second new face of the Groupama-FDJ team, we'll see if he can do well here.