Written by Ello Ello at 22:12 9/12-2019
Narrator: It’s been a difficult season so far for Ello Ello. Success has been hard to come by with riders chronically underperforming. However the team has a great chance to end that. The Volta ao Porto is one of the premier races on the season’s calendar and is the most prestigious tour race in Portugal. Rudi Basa, one of the team’s stars has historically performed very well here and has always finished in the top 4. In this special episode we will follow the tour in the eyes of Basa, his team mates and the team’s coach
Day 1: Henri (Manager)
Today was such a relief, we knew the drought couldn’t last forever but you always still worry that the result isn’t coming. Rudi did admirably, 4th on the first stage is exactly what we were looking for and you could see that all the individual training these past few weeks to prepare for this paid off. As soon as he came off the bike you could see that delight in his eyes, he loves competing here. It’s also been a great day for the rest of the team, both here, Marc came 29th which was a surprise, and Sadiq, racing elsewhere, came 5th in Andorra, so like buses these results have come in twos.
Day 2: Storm Jonsen (Team Mate)
So ye, today was a kind of sprint day ye. It’s days like this which I both hate and love in these tours. Like ye, on the one hand it’s a pretty easy day in the saddle, the power output is quite low but on the other hand it can be really stressful, especially at the finish ye, where we have to protect Rudi and make sure he gets to the line. But ultimately ye, today went really well.
Day 3: Rudi Basa (Captain) - finished 17th
Hmmm, it’s hard to tell how today went. I know that I’m quite weak compared to the other major contenders on the climbs but I think I should have done better than that. When we got to the final climb, Rupert, Fico and a few others went and I just couldn’t match them.
Day 4: Bertus de Keijsere (coach)
Pretty easy one again today, got a bit hairy when Rudi got a puncture with 50k to go but we got on the back again pretty quickly. It’s been really nice seeing Rudi grow here, I remember the first time we competed here, 5 seasons ago, we had something similar and he was just constantly on the radio, babbling, asking me for updates and today he was much more calm and collected.
Day 5: Rudi Basa (Captain)
Today felt pretty good, I hit the groove really well and I could just feel myself flying through the TT. It was a really nice course, a few tricky corners, but some really nice stints to get in the groove. It was a shame that I came in behind my GC rivals Ludo and Rupert but I’m still happy with how I did.
Day 6: Bertus de Keijsere (coach) - Basa finished 5th
After stage 3 when Rudi couldn’t follow the better climbers we started today pretty nervous. There was a moment where it looked like Rudi may be falling off the back but he held on and whilst he couldn’t match the best in the final 1km a 5th place is really good given that he’s much more TT centred than some of the other big contenders.
Day 7: Marc Marcassin (Team Mate) - Basa finished 10th
It’s been a painful few days. I went down hard on stage 5 in a tricky corner and I’ve been a long way from 100%. It’s not good, I’ve not really been able to help as much as before and it’s kind of just been bottle duty for me ever since. Today went well though. Basa held on again and came across the line 10th. It’s a bit of a pain that he only just missed out on some points but he’s still definitely in the fight.
Day 8: Bertus de Keijsere (coach)
Today was all about saving ourselves for tomorrow. It’s an easy day today just about crossing the line together. Tomorrow is the final TT, Basa will go in 4th with still a chance on the podium.
Day 9: Rudi Base (captain)
Ugh, after some really good TTs today it just didn’t feel so good. I matched my target powers for the first 75% but then I just felt so heavy that I couldn’t make it to the finish with at the target time. However, whilst it wasn’t the stage I wanted I’m gonna come out 4th overall which I’m still pretty pleased about. I’ve been to Portugal now 5 times, 3x finishing 4th, once third and once second. Also apparently I’m not the 18th highest scoring Slovenian of all time.
Day 10: Henri (manager)
It’s been a good tour again for us. We’ve shown up and managed our 5th successive top 4 which is a huge achievement for the team. We know that this may be Rudi’s last Volta but it’s been a great 5 years and we’ve found a lot of success here. Hopefully next year we’ll be back, either wheeling Rudi out again or with someone new!
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Comments
Nice view on your Volta, congrats for your GC placement!
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