Time for stage 3. Another stage for the sprinters!
Stijn: With a time-trial tomorrow and a few tougher stages coming up later, this is the last chance for sprinters until the final stage. I hope to position myself well and sprint for the podium, maybe!
Willy: Tomorrow is the time-trial. There are no KoM points to be earned today, so I'll save my legs for tomorrow.
Willy Wouters
It was a day without any history. the early breakaway got around 4 minutes but was brought back well in time.
I peddled along in the peloton and I feel ready for tomorrow.
Stijn Van Gent
John Degenkolb's lead-out train is really impressive and the only force strong enough here. Only one lead-out means all sprinters want to have his wheel.
As for me, I was too far behind. But Jens (Debusschere) was right on my wheel. So instead of both sprinting for maybe a 10th place, I decided to go early and lead-out Jens, so he could sprint for a higher place!
I got boxed in for a moment and we had to keep our legs still. Yet Jens still did a great job. He finished 5th. I ended up on the 14th place.
Another top 5 here. We're doing well collectively!
So far, things are still going good. We're motivated to make our second half here even better, though! Tomorrow is the time-trial, Willy couldn't be more excited, and nervous!
A first true test for Willy. The time trial is almost 20 kilometers long, which should be a good distance for him.
Stijn: The next three days will be tough on me. In this time trial, I will ride hard and see where I end up!
Willy: My main priority coming here. I once ended up 5th at the European Championships U23 in the time trial, and I had only ridden three times on a bike at that time. I've had more time to train now, and I want to see how far I've come! Luckiliy, the profile is fairly straightforward, so my lack of technicality and refinement on this bike won't affect my race too much.
Stijn Van Gent
Unlike Willy, I haven't been training hard on these bikes. It's wildly uncomfortable to ride even 20 kilometers on it, but I tried to give it my all.
Willy Wouters
I had amazing legs today, I could feel it immediately. My warm-up had gone extremely well, too. So I raised my hopes. With a lack of time trial toppers here, maybe I'd have a chance at a beautiful result.
Suddenly, I got the rider who started before me in my vision. It was a major motivation to ride even harder and overtake him before the finish!
I was able to keep the high pace with which I started and was now on the road with the best prosivional time at the check point!
Crossing the finish line, I realized I had done very well today. I took the hot seat and kept it for a while, until Rosseler broke my time with 2 seconds!
To my surprise, nobody else came to beat that time. Which means... I have finished 2nd in this time trial. I couldn't even have dreamed about this result! Granted, I did have the advantage of the wind, which slowed down the riders later on the road, but still, what a result!
What a day! Willy has now moved up the the 19th place in the GC. With his current form, it'd be great if he could keep that, or even improve to a top 15!
The next two stages are for the punchers and climbers. It'll be interesting to see how we cope!
The two final decisive stages of this Tour de San Luis. An uphill finish and a tough stage with two big lumps.
Stijn: I'll just have to endure these stages and then put it all on the final stage, where a mass sprint can be expected.
Willy: These two final stages offer some nice chances. We'll want to defend the KoM jersey, but further improving my GC is another option. I'll race stage 5 passively and see where I end up. I'll draw my conclusion for stage 6 then.
Stijn Van Gent
For me, the past two days can be summarized in one picture.
I did my best to hang on where I could but mostly it was about seeing the better climbers go off and leave us behind. Luckily I stayed clear of all bad luck and I feel ready for the final stage.
Willy Wouters
Stage 5 saw a big lead-out to the final climb. There, Kiryienka was the first to attack. I stayed calm, inside the peloton.
I tried to stay at the front of the pack, though. You don't want to fall behind on this climb and have to make up ground.
On the climb, I had a tough moment around the halfway point. The sun was really burning hot and I felt my legs getting heavier.
Wegmann increased his race lead. In the end, I managed to pull through and finish 8th!
In stage 6, I changed my tactics. I went on the first climb to try and secure some more KoM points.
The peloton wasn't keen to let me ride far, though, probably because I'm within 5 minutes of the race leader.
Still, I didn't give up easy and so I took 12 more points today, not a bad catch, but will it be enough?
The big climb near the end came brutally to me. I had to let a lot of riders go and I thought I would lose my top 20 place for sure, now.
But coming over the climb, I pulled together my remaining strenght and teamed up with a few others to limit the damage.
Kiserlovski won the stage and planned to overtake the race lead, but Wegmann came in a minute and 11 seconds later, enough to keep his leader's jersey. With only a flat stage left, the race lead can't escape him now.
I finished 13th and actually move up in the GC. 14th is my new position, what a pleasant surprise!
Well, things are still going good. It looks like that 14th place is in the pocket. If we survive tomorrow's stage, it'll be a great conclusion to our first race.
Time to wrap up our first competitive race here in Argentina!
Stijn: A final chance to show my top speed here. Let's hope for a good one!
Willy: If I can finish within the pack, I'll be 14th at the end of this Tour de San Luis. Personally I think that's a great achievement to start my career and my season with.
Willy Wouters
Willems went off the bat solo today. He ensured we didn't have to work at all and we could sit easy in the peloton.
I finished safely inside the pack and long to get back home, now!
Stijn Van Gent
The troops of Degenkolb came to the front. Jens (Debusschere) said he'd repay my lead-out earlier in this race by leading me out today. I thanked him and followed his wheel.
Jens had quite a kick. Now we have done this tons of times in our pre-season training camps, but a race is always different. Still, we were kicking fast!
But I couldn't finish it off. My jump came a bit too early and I was overtaken by several riders, only to finish 6th.
Not the best result after such a great lead-out, but in the end, we can look back on a good Tour de San Luis.
I fall asleep after stage 4, wake up and it's done! Great read Ian and great performance from Stijn and Willy!
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
After our debut in Argentina, we were ready to set foot on European ground and try our chances there!
Stijn: Some good opportunities for us here. We've come here with Jurgen (Roelandts), so I'll be doing lead-out duties for him. Two of the three hilly stages are actually quite all right, so Jurgen will hope to get a stage win here.
Willy: Algarve offers a tricky route for a rider like me. Stage 3 will be won on acceleration, so I might fall behind a bit, there. I'll have to see where I end up on the GC, but that time trial is definitely an item for me!
Stijn Van Gent
As previously announced, I did lead-out duties for Jurgen. It was a nice experience, but we received little help along the way from other teams, so we came up short on man power in our train.
Jurgen won the sprint in stage 1, but unfortunately, the breakaway had stayed clear and so we only won the sprint for place 6.
After that, we had difficulties carrying the burden of having the favorite for the remaining sprints and so we always came up short on manpower for the chase and the lead-out. No stage win for Jurgen, unfortunately.
[bWilly Wouters[/b]
I kept a low profile during the race. My legs were actually not feeling super and on the third day, I lost over 15 minutes. I came in with no energy whatsoever. Lars (Bak) tried to make something of our race here by attacking hard and often.
Despite his spirit, he never got away completely, being too high up the classification. Then remained the time trial. My legs were better and I managed to get a 10th place! Lars did even better.
So that was Algarve. Less spectacular than our debut race, but you can't always be on the top of your racing. We did some of our team duties, either carrying water or leading-out the sprinter. No personal glory here, but we learned a lot here.
Stijn has some exciting races coming up, with Omloop het Nieuwsblad and Kuurne - Bruxelles - Kuurne!
See you in Belgium,
Stijn & Willy
Edited by Ian Butler on 23-05-2015 09:42
Good luck a TT! 
