Stage 1 - a TTT


Its the first TTT for us in the season.
Except Castrovijo the other riders are not very good in TT , and with Viscoti and Javier Iriarte at aroung 60 fitness will be almost impossible to get a good result.


Stage reuslts

1.Rabobank
2.RadioShack-Nissan +1s
3.Omega Pharma QuickStep +9s
........
........
19.Movistar +48s



W.Kelderman took the Leader's Jersey.

Stage 2 - a long stage for the sprinters




After 100 km the break-away had only 50 seconds over the peloton . Mybe because in the BOTD there were Gasparotto , Gilbert or Di Luca.


The BOTD was caught and it will be a mass sprint. Rojas was not well placed in the last 3 km.





A win for Boonen.

1.Boonen
2.Benatti
3.Pietropolli
4.Paolini
5.Greipel

........
13.Rojas

Not a very good start. Lets hope that tomorrow will be better.

Stage 3 - another chance for the sprinters.





The break-away was caught and it was going to be a mass sprint. Rojas took Greipel's wheel while Ventoso was right behind Cavendish.



It looked like Cav's train was stronger but Ventoso was really tired .



A win for Cavendish . Rojas jumped from Greipel's wheel with 300m to go but finished only 3rd.

Stage results

1.Mark Cavendish
2.Andre Greipel
3.Jose Joaquin Rojas
4.Luca Paolini
5.Allan Davis

Boonen is still the leader.

Great sprint from Rojas

Thanks sutty . Rojas is starting to get in shape for his biggest goal in spring : Milano San-Remo . I hope for at least a top 10.

Stage 4



This is probably the hardest stage so far in this season . More than 240 km , with several climbs and the last 2 km being extremely steep . We all know the short , steep climb with the narrow roads from Chieti.

Unfortunately I could not upload the pictures but here is the Top 10.

1.Maxime Monfort
2.Daniel Moreno +10s
3.Damiano Cunego +10s
4.Damino Ulissi +34s
5.Michel Albasini +47s
6.Stephen Cummings +47s
7.Tom Boonen +47s
8.Gustav Erik Larsson +1 : 04
9.Maxim Iglinsky +1 : 04
10.Daniele Pietropoli +1:04
.............
17.Nairo Quintana + 1 : 35

Not a bad result for Quintana , knowing that short , steep hills are not his favourites . Still thonk that a top 10 in the GC is possible. Now is 17th.

Stage 5 - the queen stage from Tirreno



This stage will pretty much decide the GC so we want Quintana do to a good job , hoping for a top 10 in GC.



Here we are at the start of the last climb.We can see Boasson Hagen facing the cruel 22% slopes of the Prati di Tivo .The peloton contained only 40 riders. Quintana seemed to feel pretty well.



Lagutin had 40 seconds over the front of the peloton when we entered in the final km. Monfort took the lead in the pack defending his Blue Jersey, with Moreno behind him . Quintana was also there.

Stage results

1.Sergey Lagutin
2.Maxime Monfort +20s
3.Daniel Moreno +20s
4.Nairo Quintana +38s
5.Damiano Cunego +38s

Monfort keeps the Blue Jersey , while Moreno and Cunego complete the poduim.Quintana is 9th.

Good result. 9th is very nice

Not bad! 9th is good enough

Thanks emre99 and Ian . 9th is indeed good . Now lets see if he can still be in the Top 10 at the end , after the ITT.

Quintana seems to be riding well in Italy

Stage 6



There are only 2 stages left and we still dont have the stage win that the sponsor wants so must try and take advantage of every opportunity



So we decided to send Rojas and Visconti in the BOTD. Daniel Martin , Scarponi , Flecha , Morkov , Agnoli and Di Luca are there as well.


It seemed like the break-away will suceed. With 30 km to go we had 5 minutes over the peloton. Visconti who did all the work , while Rojas was resting , was left behind with 40km to go and decided to abandon.




Di Luca attacked with 10 km to go , while the peloton was 2 minutes behind.




With 5 km to go Albasini and Moreno attaced from the peloton.




So here we are on the final climb . Rojas decided to go in front and make sure that Scarponi or Dan Martin will not attack . The stategy worked. It will be a sprint and Rojas has a big chance to win. In the back we can see Moreno trying to catch us.




A win for Rojas ! It was quite close , Morkov was stronger than we thought but Rojas was super fast .

Stage results

1.Jose Joquin Rojas
2.Michael Morkov
3.Michele Scarponi
4.Juan Antonio Flecha
5.Daniel Martin

The peloton came at around 1 minut behind .

A Great victory from Rojas

That should keep the sponsors happy

Stage 7 - a short ITT



Jonathan Castroviejo set an mazing time of 12'34" .But will it be enough to bring Movistar another stage win ?




Here is Edvald Boasson Hagen , the main favourite at the start of the TT . But he is only 2nd , 6"behind Jonathan.



This is Gustav Erik Larsson . He is a time-trial specialist and he is only 2"slower than Castroviejo . Only the best 3 riders from the GC are still riding : Cunego , Moreno and Monfort. Catroviejo almost feels the win.











Its indeed a win for Castroviejo , while Monfort secures his GC win .



1.Jonathan Castroviejo
2.Gustav Larsson +2"
3.E.B.Hagen +6"
4.Moreno Moser +6"
5.Maxime Monfort +7"





1.Maxime Monfort
2.Daniel Moreno +1'15"
3.Damiano Cunego +1'36"
4.Gustav Larsson +2'01"
5.Wildo Keldermann +2'32"
........
9.Nairo Quintana +3'36"


What can I say ? I am very satisfied with the results from Tirreno . We achieved the sponsor's goal , winning not only 1 stage , but 2 , and Quintana managed a top 10 in the GC.

Handzame Classic and Milano - San - Remo will be up tomorrow . We hope for some good results from Rojas.

Congrats, nicely done

Great time trial victory for Castroviejo, Well Done

Thanks and probably the sponsor will be even happier with 2 stage wins


Handzame Classic


So here we are participating at this race to prepare for MSR. We have both Rojas and Ventoso . We dont know who is going to sprint but I think both are capable of winning.




The break-away contained 9 riders , including Bob Jungles , Sebastien Rosseler and Carlos Barredo .




They got caught by Movistar . We decided to take control of the race and we led the peloton in the last 8 km . Here, with 2 km to go , Rojas was the lead-out for Ventoso , who was in a great shape .




YES ! 4TH win of the season for Ventoso . Thing look good before MSR .

Results

1.Francisco Ventoso
2.Robbie Hunter
3.K.Goddaert
4.G.Brown
5.Adam Blythe

Really good story! Looking forward to the rest! Good Luck with it!

Another Brilliant victory from Ventoso