Written by Ello Ello at 18:16 17/11-2019
Episode 1: The Long Road
Henri: Hi, my name is Henri Tolstokozhev and I’m the manager of Ello Ello. Ello Ello is a successful English cycling team, competing across the world against the best cyclists in the world. Season 51 is going to be the teams 16th season and for the first time ever we start the season already in the top division.
Narrator: professional cycling is a cut throat world. Of the 144 riders who start a race only 1 can win and behind every winner is a team of 5 riders who regularly don’t often go unnoticed.
Storm: So ye, I’ve been at Ello Ello now for 7 seasons, I’ve raced 112 times and once, I finished 9th and um, that’s about it. Ye, it’s one of those things , like, Lincoln, Geo, Rudi, Iancu they all get the plaudits but ye, they know that it’s the guys like me that ye, truly make them what they are *laughts*
Narrator: now for the first time ever, we will follow a pro cycling team for a whole season, meeting the people behind the success. It’s a sport where winning is everything, it’s All or Nothing.
Day 1:
*we here 6 different voices all talking at once, hearing the occasional word, ‘Wakatipu’ ‘Volta’ ‘Chakraborty’ before cutting to the one member of the room not joining the main discussion*
Piotr Herman: I am Piotr and I coach. The other coaches, they’re pretty … lively. We all travel a lot to different races but we try to call once a week to plan out the remaining season, it’s quite the phone call. Today we planned the first section of the season, it’s an important part because it includes two classics and features all the preparation for the Volta ao Porto.
*cut back to the coaches discussion except now Bertus de Keijsere is the only one talking and pointing to a whiteboard*
Bertus: so we’re agreed, Wakatipu and LA we’ll use to build up to Alpe de Huez, Lofsdalen, Eissh and ZBZ.
Placido Maciel: I still think Liechtenstein instead of Lofsdalen.
Piotr: but the best rider we have available for that slot is Marc and he’s much more suited to a one-dimensional race such as Lofsdalen.
Bertus: Plus it allows a better block of rest ahead of ZBZ and the Volta.
*cut to just Bertus* Bertus: It’s always hard setting schedules, there’s a lot of things you have to plan around. Rubik having some rest so he can come back stronger, Base getting the ideal build up to the Volta and questions such as who should captain at Alpe de Huez, Hannity who’s probably the best rider in the team right now or Iancu who looks in better shape currently.
Narrator: The team eventually settle on Iancu to captain.
*cut to Lincoln* Lincoln: obviously it’s not the decision I wanted, I’ve just had a get end to the previous season and I think it’s meant my legs are just a bit heavy at the moment. Iancu’s very talented and I know that I’ll get chances during the season.
Narrator: Whilst nowadays Iancu is one of the team’s most successful riders and truly put the team on the map by twice winning Vuelta a Valparaiso it wasn’t always that way. For many seasons it looked like Iancu wouldn’t live up to his early promise with only 9 results in his first 9 seasons he finally broke through in season 47 with his first victory in Valpa before becoming the first rider to defend a Valpa victory by doing it again in season 48.
Iancu: it was such a relief when I crossed the finish line in Valparaiso and it’s so great to know that I’ve won 3 jerseys across my career. I think it’s fair to say I’ve only got a few more seasons left but I still love racing. I’m really excited to have been given the chance at Alpe de Huez, it’s going to be hard because division 1 classics are always going to be but hopefully I can get a top 9.
Narrator: As Iancu prepares for one of the biggest races of his career the season has already began. in Rwanda, where Geo Anamia finished 12th.
Henri: obviously 12th wasn’t what we wanted but it’s also safe to say that we’re not always going to get the victory. It’s important that over the next week we don’t over race the guys so we can give our all in the races we do participate in. We haven’t really got many cast iron targets for the season, we want Rudi Base to get another podium finish at the Volta and we’ll see where we are for the Vuelta in Spain but the real target this year is the YC of Vuelta a Valparaiso where Daniel Sammut Castelletti will try and complete the jersey set for this race.
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If anyone has any feedback for this I’d be delighted.
Subscribers: 23
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Comments
Great piece!
Good read !
Nice:)
Going to read them all!
Good work. I hope Storm can add to his 3k of total winnings some day!
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