EBH knocks out his 2nd GC win this season, shame for BMC though wasn't expecting that gap and in the end there was barely anything in it

From 5th to 50th for Leukmans.

Good 5th place for Pennarossa. Too bad some communist beat him in the youth class.

Last Crit. Int. stage will probably come tomorrow. Was at 5 km to go, but then the game crashed...

Anders Myrvold soooo close to a stage win, fantastic ride from the youngster, and great reports from Atlantius

No surprise our hard goal of Top 5 in GC was missed by a mile ...

@mvhoogdalem - game crash with 5km to go, very annoying

So this confirms that Time Trials on PCM14 are just randomised then. None of what I have just seen makes any logical sense.

It's so bad that I don't even care about losing the race like that. I'm too busy laughing at the result.

Vandewalle BOOM!

also Grawunder leading in some competition!

Also 3rd place overall is pretty decent for our team!

Well, with De Panne finished, we are almost done. Ok, 5 more Catalunya stages, but Selwink tends to have a good pace. One more from Criterium and then a few classics Dwars Door Vlaanderen, GP Indurain and Volta Limburg. If those can be done by early next week, that would be great

The race report is now up over at the Euskaltel-Euskadi HQ.

With stage 3 up next it's time for the mountains. The race favourites will surely want to leave a big impression here, and gain some time. It's quite windy today, but at least the sun is shining.

Unlike the two previous stages the break has no trouble being created today. Brambilla (TFR), Cardoso (CJR), Malacarne (EUC) and Firsanov (RVL) are allowed to build up a lead quickly.


The first kilometers are quite uneventful. The lead of the four leaders grows gradually, and the sprint at the summit of the Alto de Coubet (Cat.1) goes to Firsanov.

At the flat after the climb we have two attacks. Luis Leon Sanchez (BEL) is joined by Julian Kern (TNE). Sanchez drops Kern, but both eventually make it to the front group.
In the back, Klimov (RVL) has to abandon due to a mass crash, which also involved Benoot (OPQS), Corti (COL) and Ospina (COL).


The Alto de la Creuta is the HC climb of today. Of course some attacks from the pack were expected. However, only Szmyd (CCC) decides to give it a go, early on in the climb. He manages to catch up with the six leaders with three kilometers left to climb.


At the summit Brambilla is the fastest, taking the provisional lead in the KoM classification. The pack crosses the summit, which lies 64km from the finish, about 4m30 later than Brambilla.


While the riders are descending over the road which will later on be ascended to the finish line in La Molina, the weather has turned. At this altitude, it's even snowing. Nevertheless, the riders decide to continue going at a high pace. This does have its impact on the pack. Vorganov (KAT), Bilbao (EUS) and Brown (CAN) all go down on the descent.


The two intermediate sprints are won by Kern and Cardoso, while the gap has decreased to two minutes with 30km left to ride.

With 15km to go Sanchez and Brambilla decide to leave the break behind. A wise decision, as the other 5 riders are caught with 12km to go by the Garmin-lead peloton.


With 9km to go the attacks start from the pack. Kreuziger, Valverde, Hesjedal, Rodriguez, Uran, Van den Broeck, Bardet, Yates, König, Pinot, Alarcon, Nieve, Nibali and De Gendt all attack. Main leftover seems to be Contador, although he seems to sacrifice himself for Rodriguez.


With Intxausti and Moreno close to catching up Nibali decides to go again with 7.5km to go. Valverde immediately marks his attack. A bit back Contador has decided to let the pack go as well.


At the flat section the leading group splits. Pinot, Nibali, Valverde, Rodriguez, De Gendt, Hesjedal, Bardet, Yates, König and Uran remain in front, while Contador catches up to the chase, which now consists of 5 riders.

With 5km to go Pinot accelerates. He's marked by Bardet.


In fact, all riders in the leading group try to follow him. Except for one: Valverde seems to have wasted his efforts earlier on.


Eventually Bardet can't follow Pinot, and the Trek rider manages to get a gap. Valverde finds the back of the group again.


Kreuziger and Intxausti attack from the group, which is currently the third in the race. They're already 45 seconds behind the second group with 4km left to ride. Contador goes after them alone soon.


Pinot had managed to maintain a stable gap of 12-20 seconds, but with two kilometers left Rodriguez accelerates. Valverde tries to follow him.


Intxausti managed to drop Kreuziger, and is now heading closer to the rear of the chasing group, which is about to catch Pinot.


Pinot hears some good news from behind. Rodriguez's attack has stalled, and it looks like the young Frenchman is gaining again.


With 1.3km to go König accelerates. Others try to follow him, but seem to have trouble doing so.


Pinot still leads with 1km to go, but the gap is becoming smaller again. König and Pinot look like the two main contenders for the stage win.


König is in fact so strong that he manages to distance the favourites group. There will probably be a gap between second and third.


Of course, there's a stage to be decided first. König reaches Pinot's rear wheel at the end of the last corner, but there's still the overtaking. The Czech has 600 meters for doing so.


Urán takes the lead in the chasing group, where Intxausti has managed to catch up to the last wheel.


Uran gets away from the group, and even comes close to the two leaders. König has left Pinot's wheel, and is now trying to get past him. It looks like we now have three contenders for the win!


König may go at a higher pace than Pinot, the line is getting closer and closer, but Pinot still leads.


And Pinot holds on to the lead at the line! He wins stage 3 of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. The line couldn't have come at a better moment for him. König and Uran complete the podium behind him.


The sprint for fourth goes to Rodriguez, ahead of Bardet and Valverde, who loses the race lead to Pinot. In this group Kreuziger managed to find the last wheel at the very end, thus limiting his loss to 15 seconds.


Stage Results

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Thibaut Pinot	Trek Factory Racing	4h38'50
2	Leopold König	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	s.t.
4	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 15
5	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
6	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
7	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
8	Thomas De Gendt	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Ryder Hesjedal	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.
10	Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
11	Adam Yates	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
12	Roman Kreuziger	Katusha Team	s.t.
13	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 54
14	Daniel Moreno	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 1'18
15	Jose Alarcon	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.

GC

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Thibaut Pinot	Trek Factory Racing	+ 12h06'00
2	Leopold König	BMC Racing Team	+ 12h06'04
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 12h06'06
4	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 12h06'15
5	Ryder Hesjedal	Team Giant - Shimano	+ 12h06'21
6	Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 12h06'25
7	Beñat Intxausti	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
8	Vincenzo Nibali	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
9	Thomas De Gendt	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
11	Adam Yates	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
12	Roman Kreuziger	Katusha Team	s.t.
13	Alberto Contador	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 12h07'04
14	Daniel Moreno	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 12h07'28
15	Mikel Nieve	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Points

Rank	Name	Team	Points
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	43
2	Carlo Calzone	Movistar Team	32
3	Sam Bennett	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	28
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	26
5	Thibaut Pinot	Trek Factory Racing	25

KoM

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain
1	Gianluca Brambilla	Trek Factory Racing	40
2	Sergey Firsanov	RusVelo	36
3	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	29
4	André Cardoso	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	28
5	Carlos Verona	Team NetApp - Endura	28

-25

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Thibaut Pinot	Trek Factory Racing	12h06'00 (1)
2	Romain Bardet	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 25 (2)
3	Adam Yates	Garmin - Sharp	+ 25 (3)
4	Jose Alarcon	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 1'28 (4)
5	Mitchell Birt	Orica - GreenEdge	+ 3'19 (5)

Teams

Rank	Team	Time
1	Team Tinkoff - Saxo	36h20'57 (1)
2	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'44 (2)
3	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 2'35 (3)
4	BMC Racing Team	+ 4'31 (4)
5	Sky Procycling	+ 4'31 (5)

Almost the perfect start to Leo's BMC career. Great try nonetheless.

Good try by Intxausti, nice that he was rewarded with points as well as aovoiding time losses while gaining time on Contador.

Also Nieve is apparently looking like a real cyclist

And that's the top-5 goal through the drain

Nice to Leo perform for BMC.

Good, now Burton can focus on getting that stage win.

Hoping that the team will turn our time loss into a chance of getting a stage win Also König starts of the battle for Vuelta leadership perfectly

Hello and welcome to the last stage of the Criterium International. The riders will be facing several climbs today before they finish on the Col de l'Ospedale. It is very cloudy today on Corsica, hopefully it doesn't start raining during the race.




Straight from the start Losada (Movistar) and Rosa (Androni) attack from the peloton. They are followed by Damuseau (CCC) and Pauriol (Sojasun). The peloton is not interested in chasing them and they quickly gain a lead of 2 minutes.




Damuseau is the first one at the intermediate sprint in Pianottoli Caldarella. All eyes are on the peloton though, because for some reason Goos and Malori of Belkin have a gap. Movistar has put a rider at the front to reel them back in, which succeeds a kilometer later.

Sprint 1:
1. Damuseau (CCC) - 3 points
2. Losada (Movistar) - 2 points
3. Pauriol (Sojasun) - 1 point




We have reached the top of the Côte de Roccapina and it is Losada that crosses the line in first place. The peloton is 8 minutes behind. Belkin and Cofidis are leading the peloton and they are increasing the pace.

KoM 1:
1. Losada (Movistar) - 6 points
2. Pauriol (Sojasun) - 4 points
3. Rosa (Androni) - 2 points




At the top of the Côote de Viggianello it is Rosa who comes through first. Pauriol and Losada follow, which means we now have 3 riders with 8 points for the mountain jersey. The peloton follows at only 3 and a half minute. 85 riders remain in the peloton. Oroz of Movistar has increased the pace a lot. No favourites are caught behind though.

KoM 2:
1. Rosa (Androni) - 6 points
2. Pauriol (Sojasun) - 4 points
3. Losada (Movistar) - 2 points




Damuseau wins the KoM sprint atop the Col de Sainte-Lucie-de-Tallano, in front of Rosa and Pauriol. A kilometer back are Txurruka (Euskaltel) and Failli (Neri). They attack at the foot of the climb and are a minute behind the leaders. The peloton is 2 minutes behind the chasing duo.

KoM 3:
1. Damuseau (CCC) - 6 points
2. Rosa (Androni) - 4 points
3. Pauriol (Sojasun) - 2 points


Huge drama for Vacansoleil on the downhill as leader Schleck has fallen in a corner. He will have to waste a lot of energy to get back.




Marczynski (Vacansoleil), Schwabe (NetApp) and De la Montagne (Giant) attack on the Col de Bacinu. Especially the Frenchman is a dangerous rider for the GC.




Rosa wins the sprint atop the Col de Bacinu, which means he wins the mountain jersey unless Pauriol wins the stage. De la Montagne has dropped his companions and has reached Txurruka and Failli. They are 1 and a half minute behind the leaders. The peloton has split on the climb and only 36 riders remain. They are 2 minutes behind the leaders. Notable names that are missing are Poels, Basso, Niemiec, De las Campos, Aru, Lipawsky and last year's winner Hinault. They are 2 minutes behind the peloton and stop caring about the race. Malori is also dropped and is riding in between the 2 groups.

KoM 4:
1. Rosa (Androni) - 6 points
2. Pauriol (Sojasun) - 4 points
3. Damuseau (CCC) - 2 points




We have entered Porto-Vecchio and the breakaway has been caught just before the final intermediate sprint. Pellizotti goes through first, followed by team-mates Bagot and Navarro.

Sprint 2:
1. Pellizotti (Cofidis) - 3 points
2. Bagot (Cofidis) - 2 points
3. Navarro (Cofidis) - 1 point




Schwabe tries to attack again, but he is lacking the energy after his earlier attempt. Mollema brings him back easily. It is not going fast enough to drop anyone so far.




Elissonde ignites the peloton with his attack. More and more riders get in trouble and seem to be losing contact with the peloton. Elissonde has a 15 second lead, but he is losing ground.




Elissonde still has small lead of 10 seconds over the peloton, which now only has 19 riders in it.




Elissonde is caught by a small group that has gone clear of the rest. The riders in this group are Elissonde, Mollema, Kelderman, Peraud, Hintermuller, Navarro and Coppel. Top favourite Quintana has missed the split and he is 40 seconds behind.




After 3 boring kilometers we are now entering the last kilometer of the race. Peraud is the first to launch his sprint, but the 2 Belkin riders are right on his wheel.



Belkin is going for the 1-2 here. Mollema is in front, but Kelderman probably wants to win here too.




Mollema wins the stage with Kelderman in 2nd. If everything is correct, Mollema wins this year's Criterium International with a 1 second gap over team-mate Kelderman. Belkin rode the perfect race here with 2 stage wins and 2 riders at the top of the GC. Peraud finishes 3rd, while Elissonde comes in 4th. A good day for the French youngster. Quintana finished 11th in the GC, 1 second behind Riblon. In the end though it is only Cofidis that manages to achieve their goal for this race.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	4h42'51
2	Wilco Kelderman	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
3	Jean-Christophe Peraud	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 11
4	Kenny Elissonde	FDJ.fr	s.t.
5	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
6	Daniel Navarro	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.
7	Jérôme Coppel	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.
8	Nairo Quintana	Movistar Team	+ 55
9	Nicolas Roche	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
10	Dominik Nerz	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 1'04

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	6h24'25
2	Wilco Kelderman	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 1
3	Jérôme Coppel	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	+ 18
4	Jean-Christophe Peraud	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 25
5	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 31
6	Kenny Elissonde	FDJ.fr	+ 51
7	Daniel Navarro	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	+ 58
8	Tiago Machado	Movistar Team	+ 1'12
9	Sylvain Chavanel	Team Europcar	+ 1'20
10	Christophe Riblon	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 1'22

Rank	Name	Team	Points
1	Bauke Mollema	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	23
2	Wilco Kelderman	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	20
3	Adriano Malori	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	15

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain
1	Diego Rosa	Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela	18
2	Rémi Pauriol	Sojasun	14
3	Alberto Losada	Movistar Team	8

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Wilco Kelderman	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	6h24'26 (1)
2	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 30 (2)
3	Kenny Elissonde	FDJ.fr	+ 50 (3)

Rank	Team	Time
1	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	19h15'32 (1)
2	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 25 (2)
3	Movistar Team	+ 2'44 (3)

What a crappy race

Nokkvason with a decent, but not quite good enough effort.

Retarded AI thanks to what looks like 'narrow roads syndrome'. I can think of no earthly situation where an 80MO should lose 13min's on a stage like that.... f*ck sake he was beaten by Lumiere

Kenny was good though! Climbing with the best at the end and even animating proceedings. But we miss our Hard Goal by 1 place so ultimately what was the f*cking point in turning up?

Bullsh*t AI is bullsh*t and way too common in EPIC

Well that was easy, had an Top 10 goal here and failed miserably 5/6 goals failed this season part

Quintana? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING THERE?

Valvede did a decent performance in Catalunya but it looked as if the support was not good enough. I hoped that Sami Sanchez would help him a bit longer but he's an old man and seemingly has to rest from time to time...