Thanks for a good report.

Annoying that Sanz got blocked so bad. Was really looking forward to seeing what he could do from the position he held going into the sprint

Also Driedaagse will start sometime tomorrow.

Yeah race planning went a bit wrong...

It's a win goal for us so although we do have a very strong team the quality of the field is much greater than last year, wasn't really expecting Nibbles for example to show up, nevertheless I hope Purito can put in a good race in what is his first race of the season and deliver us the goal.

Giant can still win bunch sprints!!!

Nice to get that first victory

Have to say i was very pleased with the showing of Lampre in the Algarve, two stage wins and the Overall Points Competition to Ferrari and every member of my team finishing inside the top 24

I bring to you my PCM14 debut:

1	Greg Van Avermaet	BMC Racing Team	4h27'12
2	Björn Leukemans	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	+ 49
3	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
4	Alf Pedersen	Sky Procycling	s.t.
5	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
6	Peter Sagan	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
7	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Sky Procycling	s.t.
8	Philippe Gilbert	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
9	Heinrich Haussler	IAM Cycling	s.t.
10	Tyler Farrar	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.

1	Greg Van Avermaet	BMC Racing Team	4h27'02
2	Guillaume Van Keirsbulck	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 50
3	Björn Leukemans	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	+ 53
4	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 55
5	Preben Van Hecke	Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise	s.t.
6	Heimdal Hägg	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 58
7	Alf Pedersen	Sky Procycling	+ 59
8	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
9	Peter Sagan	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
10	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Sky Procycling	s.t.

For results further down check stage standings.

1	Greg Van Avermaet	BMC Racing Team	20	20
2	Björn Leukemans	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	18	18
3	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	16	16
4	Alf Pedersen	Sky Procycling	14	14
5	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin - Sharp	12	12

1	Guillaume Van Keirsbulck	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	4h27'52 (1)
2	Rudy Verboven	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 5 (2)
3	Heimdal Hägg	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 8 (3)
4	Alf Pedersen	Sky Procycling	+ 9 (4)
5	Peter Sagan	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 9 (5)

1	BMC Racing Team	13h23'14 (1)
2	Sky Procycling	+ 49 (2)
3	Garmin - Sharp	+ 49 (3)
4	Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team	+ 49 (4)
5	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 49 (5)

Go Leukmans, it's too bad the win avoided us, but 2nd is still pretty good.

What was that? Great ride by Van Keirsbulck, but Vanmarcke loses 6 minutes. Van Avermaet may have the GC in the bag, the TT isn't that long.

Good ride by Rudy, too bad he didn't get any support.

For Vanmarcke it was bad positioning I think.

If you look closely at the pic where GVA attacks you will see that Rudy did infact get pretty good support from especially Aberasturi. He only fell to the back of the group after Verboven attacked. I was actually pretty impressed with teh way he stayed close to Rudy all stage - even on the cobbles.

Oh, not blaming the team, I meant when he was chasing no support from Leukemans and Pedersen

Ah, yeah that was too bad in deed. Good that he at least got the podium, for a long time I was expecting bot his companions to overtake him in the sprint due to being fresher, which would have sucked.

Just so used to the team not supporting him properly that I was baffled and amazed over Aberasturi's work all day, so I really wanted that to come across

We won this stage last year too.

Great performance by Greg. He's warming up nicely for the big one.

Welcome to the 2014 Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. The weather is nice (of course it is, it's Spain) and the riders seem excited.

Many try to break away in the first few kilometers. This causes a high pace in the pack in the first few kilometers. At the front riders fail to make a sizable gap, but in the back some riders have to let go, mainly due to crashes. One rider has to abandon, and it's a big gun. Andrew Talansky (GRS) can immediately throw away all GC ambitions he had, as he'll need to focus on recovering from his injury, probably in hospital.


In front the break has finally managed to settle. 4 riders have broken away. Koch (CAN), Pichot (EUC), Boev (RVL) and Verona (TNE) are their names.


After the first two intermediate sprints and first KoM have been won by Boev, Pichot and Verona it's time for the Cat.1 climb, where the KoM lead will probably be decided. The break has had an advantage of 5m30, but it has shrunk to 3m20 with 40km to go. At the summit it's Verona who proves to be the strongest and he seems ensured of the KoM jersey for the next stage.

In the descent more crashes occur. The 2012 winner Albasini (BMC) has to abandon, but Markus and Gesink are able to get back up again and continue their races.


A large group is dropped from the pack. Gesink is the main victim, and Markus has fallen even further behind despite having the help of four teammates. Neither seems likely to make an impact in this race.


After Verona wins the final KoM sprint as well, the break seems ready for slaughter. With 10km to go Movistar and Belkin have made an end to the adventure of the four escapees.


With 5km to go the pack comes into a chaos, with everyone trying to head to the front. Eventually though the chaos is cleared and Movistar has benefitted of it mostly, as it has set up Rojas and Lobato ahead of Calzone. The other sprinters follow. In order Bennett, Bos, Kruopis, Steegmans, Von Hoff, Sinkeldam and Dehaes are keeping each other's wheels.


Heading up the final straight it's Lobato who takes over. Meanwhile Steegmans has gone for himself at the far left, Rowe has caught up and Dehaes and Kruopis have placed themselves in the wind at the far right.


With 700 meters left to ride the sprinters have launched. At the back, Valverde, Rodriguez and LL Sanchez are trying to sprint along, keeping a higher pace than the sprinters.


Lobato still leads with 500 meters left to ride, but Bennett, Kruopis and Calzone are all trying to get past him, which, with their higher pace, is far from impossible.


Until 300 meters left this doesn't happen. Calzone, who previously had some troubles getting going, is now at the highest pace of the sprinters and in the lead. Bennett, Lobato and Kruopis will fight it out for second probably.


At the finish it's all quite clear. Calzone wins, ahead of Bennett and Kruopis. Lobato will have to live with a fourth place.


A bit later Steegmans wins the sprint for fifth.


Gesink's GC dreams are over. He loses almost 7 minutes and rolls over the line visibily disappointed.


Also, here's a little fun experiment with a YT vid.


Stage Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Carlo Calzone	Movistar Team	3h48'37
2	Sam Bennett	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
3	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
4	Juan José Lobato	Movistar Team	s.t.
5	Gert Steegmans	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	s.t.
6	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
7	Kenny Dehaes	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
8	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
9	Theo Bos	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
11	José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	s.t.
12	Luke Rowe	Sky Procycling	s.t.
13	Francisco José Ventoso	Movistar Team	s.t.
14	Ramon Sinkeldam	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
15	Steele Von Hoff	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.

GC

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Carlo Calzone	Movistar Team	+ 3h48'27
2	Sam Bennett	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 3h48'31
3	Igor Boev	RusVelo	+ 3h48'32
4	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 3h48'33
5	Michel Koch	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 3h48'35
6	Juan José Lobato	Movistar Team	+ 3h48'37
7	Gert Steegmans	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	s.t.
8	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Kenny Dehaes	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
10	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
11	Theo Bos	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
12	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
13	José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	s.t.
14	Luke Rowe	Sky Procycling	s.t.
15	Francisco José Ventoso	Movistar Team	s.t.

Points

Rank	Name	Team	Points
1	Carlo Calzone	Movistar Team	25
2	Sam Bennett	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	20
3	Aidis Kruopis	Orica - GreenEdge	16
4	Juan José Lobato	Movistar Team	14
5	Gert Steegmans	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	12

KoM

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain
1	Carlos Verona	Team NetApp - Endura	28
2	Michel Koch	Cannondale Pro Cycling	16
3	Igor Boev	RusVelo	14
4	Alexandre Pichot	Team Europcar	14
5	Jérôme Pineau	Team Europcar	6

-25
It refuses to accept these... Probably PCM is bugged as f*ck again. Anyway, Calzone leads this ahead of Bennett and Boev.

Teams

Rank	Team	Time
1	Movistar Team	11h25'51
2	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
3	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Sky Procycling	s.t.
5	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.

Nice solid waste of race days for Albasini there. The only consolation is that it wasn't my GC guy and we have one less top climber to worry about.

Liking the youtube thing Made a mistake and it should've been Trentin instead of Sinkeldam, but that's small details

I can no longer feign surprise when Gesink crashes, but why is the team chasing the break when the leader is behind? So that Bos can sprint to a great 9th place?

Well, I guess Garmin is doing even worse..

Trentin is in CI, so unable to be in Catalunya at the same time.


Burton in the first group in Catalunya is good.

Sagan anonymous 6th place in Driedaagse, Pennarossa good in the first group.

Good report and nice addition withe the video.

Couldn't figure out who from my team would sprint, but seeing the orange dot was a CCC rider it makes much more sense. No damage done, which was pretty much the goal for today so that's good.

Brilliant sprint train from Movistar. I hope they will waste quite a lot of energy on this kind of finishes so they won't be equally annoying in the GC battle

Yeah I know, which was the mistake mvh

Calzone! Verona!

Some solid racing again since Dimitriou's win. Glad it paid off to convince knockout to send him to Catalunya.

EDIT Also, nice one by Häggin De Panne. He's fast becoming breakaway champion galore.