Peter Stetina is another of the rising stars in the cycling universe, as he only became known for the public last year. In a very short time he has become one of the leaders of the BMC Racing Team, this years main rival of Quickstep for the dominance of the World Tour rankings. The American rider has spent all his career so far in the BMC team, but spent his first two years as a complete stranger to the public. He acted as a domestique for the likes of Hincapie or Nieve.
It wasn't until 2012 that Stetina improved his climbing skills enough to get results. From one day to the next one he went from a total stranger to podiums in Romandie and in the Dauphine. He both times took advantage of not being a favorite to filter into dangerous breaks that made it all the way to the finish line. His win in Saint-Francois Longchamps was especially remarkable, as Vacansoleil just couldn't bring back Mikel Nieve, David Lopez or himself. Stetina beat them in the final climb fair and square.
This year has been confirmation for Peter Stetina. He had some bad luck at the start of the Giro, as he lost 8 minutes in a flat stage in Denmark due to a crash. He gave away the team leadership to Tejay van Garderen, but that didn't stop him from reaching the top 10 in the GC, the mountain jersey and stage wins in Lago Laceno and Sestri Levante.
The only doubts that can rise for Peter Stetina is the competition with his fellow American and teammate Tejay van Garderen. Tejay won a lot of respect inside the team after taking the second place in the Giro d'Italia. They both have another year in their contracts, so it could be interesting to see how that relationship develops.
The last stage in Poland is a walk in the park around Krakow with only the stage win to fight for. The stage is pancake flat and not even the points jersey will be in contention, as Rojas has almost secured the competition.
The mass sprint was in doubt as a huge group of 12 riders had 5' 30'' on the main bunch with slightly more than 60 kilometers remaining in the stage. Among the riders in that group are some good names like Samuel Sanchez (Katusha), Steven Kruijswijk (Movistar), Michael Albasini (Radioshack), Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre) and Geraint Thomas (BMC).
The break put the bunch in some trouble but in the end Michael Albasini was the last rider from the break to be caught already within the last 10 kilometers of the stage. Discovery Channel, Sky and HTC were the teams most interested in a mass sprint finish and they had to work hard in the final circuit inside Krakow to catch the break.
The sprint trains were clearly defined today with three teams well organized ahead with 4 kilometers to go. Lampre was ahead as Elia Viviani was ahead of Yauheni Hutarovich with Saxo Bank's Tyler Farrar right behind. Sky had Mark Cavendish working for Ben Swift with Marcel Kittel behind. The third train was Euskaltel's as Alexander Kristoff towed Sacha Modolo and another Discovery rider, Heinrich Haussler was also prepared to sprint.
Yauheni Hutarovich leads the sprint as we go into the last kilometer of the stage. However, it looks like it is going to be very close as Tyler Farrar, Marco Marcato and Sacha Modolo are all close behind the Belarusian.
Ben Swift wins in Krakow! The British takes his second win in Poland ahead of Sacha Modolo, Tyler Farrar and Yauheni Hutarovich. It looked like Mark Cavendish had lost a bit of track with the other trains but Swift made up for it and taking a couple of slips he could overtake everyone else and come up as winner.
The Tour of Poland finished with a rather unexpected podium as the break on the first day conditioned the race a lot. Johan van Summeren was the final winner ahead of Jurgen van den Broeck and Wout Poels. The only jersey that had to be decided, the points one, went to Jose Joaquin Rojas as expected.
The run to the Vuelta ends with the Vattenfall Cyclassics. The German race has been given HC category for this year and many favorites for the Vuelta have ignored it altogether given that this is a race for sprinters. The 250 kilometers in the surroundings of Hamburg are most likely decided by a mass sprint, although on 2010 Beñat Intxausti was able to take a win after an escape from the bunch in the last hill.
The most successful rider in Hamburg so far has been Tyler Farrar after winning last year and taking the second place in 2010. The route this year is exactly the same as in the previous editions and a similar outcome is widely expected.
Favorites:
- Tyler Farrar (Saxo Bank - Tinkoff): The defending champion of the Vattenfall Cyclassics arrives in Germany with only 1 win in the whole season. His team is no better, as their total win account is only 2. However, Farrar has always had a good time in this race and should have a good help in Matthew Goss.
- Ben Swift (Sky Procycling): Ben Swift won twice in the Tour of Poland two weeks ago, what shows how good a shape he has in this part of the season. In the process, his wins are bringing back the confidence that the British team had lacked in the past years. Swift will also have good support in the race, as Gregory Rast is one of the best leadout man he could ask for in this flat, long race.
- Jose Joaquin Rojas (HTC - Highroad): Rojas is another of the riders that performed very well in the Tour of Poland. The Spaniard got one stage and the points jersey after being competitive both in the flat stages and in the hills. Rojas has always been good in the sprints in long races and, therefore, this race fits perfectly his abilities.
- Marcel Kittel (Discovery Channel): Kittel was another of the stage winners in Poland. The German got his tally up to 2 this season. Racing in home soil Kittel should have a plus but the support that the team can provide him is nothing spectacular. Only Heinrich Haussler, the former German now Australian has the capabilities to place Kittel in a good position ahead of the final sprint.
Other notable riders that could have options in the race are Francisco Ventoso and Sacha Modolo (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto - Belisol), Jakob Fuglsang (Vacansoleil - DMC), Gregory Rast (Sky Procycling) and Matthew Goss (Saxo Bank - Tinkoff).
The route of the Vattenfall Cyclassics has not changed in the last years and this time it is no different. The only difficult parts of the race are the 4 climb to the Waseberg, a hill with 1 kilometer averaging 10% gradient. However, it should not be enough to break the mass sprint in the finish line in Hamburg.
The break of the day had already nearly to no chances halfway through the race, as they were only 3' 40'' ahead of the main bunch. In the group of 8 the most recognizable faces were Ben Hermans (Discovery), Giovanni Visconti (BMC), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) and Thor Hushovd (Garmin). The pace in the main bunch is being set by Sky and Saxo Bank and they are doing a good job of controlling the break difference.
The early break was soon brought back in, but another much more dangerous group emerged after the second climb to the Waseberg. As many as 36 riders were ahead including some of the pre-race favorites like Ben Swift, Marcel Kittel and Matthew Goss. The main bunch is chasing hard behind, but 40 kilometers from the finish line the gap is doing nothing but increase. Surely the high winds today on the Hamburg region helped the peloton breaking up.
There were a lot of doubts in the main bunch and the gap increased dramatically when Discovery decided to start pushing in the break. Weirdly enough they had done nothing until the last 20 kilometers even though they had Kittel in the group. At the last climb of the Waseberg they had already biult a gap of 2 minutes on the bunch.
The Discovery Channel train led by Heinrich Haussler was so strong in the last kilometers that they even opened a gap on most of the riders in the break. The Australian had the local favorite Marcel Kittel and Ben Swift behind. Matthew Goss was in a strange position in the other side of the road and wasting very valuable strength towards the final sprint. It is strange that no other trains came up and that many riders just seemed to refuse to sprint (or didn't have energy left).
Ben Swift seems like the strongest and opened a nice gap on Kittel as they go into the last kilometer of the stage. The two of them seem to be the only ones fighting for the race win as Matthew Goss and Heinrich Haussler wasted too much energy in the positioning.
Ben Swift wins in Hamburg! The British continues his great spell of results and takes the Vattenfall Cyclassics in a dominant fashion. Marcel Kittel was the only rider that threatened Swift in the final sprint as the local favorite takes the second spot in the podium. Another Discovery rider and a former German, Heinrich Haussler, will complete the podium in Hamburg.
The gap opened by the top 4 was so big in the run to the final sprint that 54 seconds went past before Fabian Cancellara led the second group across the finish line. The first places of this group were filled with Discovery and Garmin riders, as those were the teams with the biggest number of riders in the big break. It is also remarkable that 5 Australians featured among the top 10.
sutty68 wrote:
Swifty has definitely got form at the moment
He has definitely found himself a spot among the best sprinters in the story now. He is the sprinter with most wins in the season tied with Sagan (if you consider Sagan a sprinter, which is arguable).
The second and last Grand Tour of the year will be the Vuelta a España. The Spanish race will repeat the same route that was raced three years ago, when Hubert Dupont took his second straight win in a Grand Tour. The mountains are much more spread out around the three weeks of climbing than what we have seen lately in the Giro and the Tour. They will start as soon as the fourth stage, when the riders will have to climb to Sierra Nevada.
The first weekend of racing will bring us the mountain climb to La Covatilla before the only ITT of the route in Salamanca. However, the hardest stages will be those of the Asturias around the 14th stage. The mountain top finishes in La Farrapona and L'Angliru should almost settle the GC. Only if the differences are really narrow a change in the top positions will be possible in the last stages in the Pais Vasco. However, Hubert Dupont managed to get 1 minute back from Pieter Weening in the 19th stage in Bilbao to claim the overall win.
Favorites:
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC): Bauke Mollema reaches the Vuelta a España with no results since the disappointing Giro, where a couple of crashes didn't allow him to fight for the top positions in the GC. However, not everything was negative as he was able to take two stage wins in the meantime. His shape for the Vuelta is unknown, but none of the favorites really had a good performance in the Tour of Poland.
- Mikel Nieve (Discovery Channel): Mikel Nieve was even more unfortunate than Mollema in the Giro. The Spaniard got injured in another crash and even though he finished the race he did it without shining a single day. The race in his home country should make Nieve perform better, as Discovery is expecting much from him and the team is in dire need of World Tour points.
- David Lopez (Euskaltel - Euskadi): David Lopez was the best in the Giro among the top 4 favorites that I have chosen for the Vuelta. The Spaniard was very solid in the 3 weeks in Italy and only surrendered the 2nd position in the GC to Tejay van Garderen in the last time trial. He also did quite good in the Tour de Suisse, getting a top 10 even with the fatigue from the Giro in his legs.
- Denis Menchov (Omega Pharma - Quickstep): The Quickstep team has so many candidates to be leading the team for the Grand Tours that Denis Menchov had to give way to Dries Devenyns for the Giro. The Russian will be the team leader for the Vuelta a España, where the time trial in Salamanca should allow him to take a good position in the GC before the most decisive stages of the race.
Other notable riders that should play a role in the GC are Hubert Dupont and Rob Ruijgh (Rabobank), Frank Schleck (Radioshack - Nissan), Levi Leipheimer (HTC - Highroad), Tejay van Garderen and Peter Stetina (BMC Racing).
Among the sprinters present in Spain, the most important will be Tyler Farrar (Saxo Bank - Tinkoff), Ben Swift (Sky Procycling), Andre Greipel (Lotto - Belisol), Sacha Modolo (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Marcel Kittel (Discovery Channel) and Yauheni Hutarovich (Lampre - ISD).
The Vuelta a España starts in Benidorm, in the Southeastern part of the country, with a 14 kilometers long team time trial. The length is not enough for big differences to appear in the GC, so in theory it will not be a too important stage for the race. However, the teams are always keen to start wearing the leaders jersey and the stage win is also a good incentive.
HTC was the first among the teams that have a chance to win the stage to start. However, they cannot take the lead at the finish line. Lotto had set the early reference time and the HTC team could only be 1 second slower than the Belgians. They placed themselves in the provisional second spot in the stage.
Saxo Bank arrived right behind HTC but they were never a threat for the stage. The Danish team crossed the line 6 seconds behind Lotto taking the 4th provisional time. It is a bit of a disappointment or them, as they will probably end the day outside of the top 10.
Euskaltel was a bit better than Saxo Bank and they took the 4th place from them after being 3 seconds slower than Lotto. David Lopez will be satisfied at not losing too much time in a discipline that has traditionally not suited the Euskaltel team too much.
Rabobank had a good day and joined the top places in the stage, only 1 second slower than the Lotto team. Lieuwe Westra was a good help for Rob Ruijgh and Hubert Dupont in their bid to do a good Vuelta.
Quickstep started halfway through the field and crushed everyone else by beating Lotto's time by 20 seconds. The Belgian team arrived in Spain after taking the overall win in Poland with Van Summeren and they showed they have plenty of confidence. The only bad point in their time trial was that Denis Menchov was not among the top 5 of the team and he lost 5 seconds with his teammates.
Vacansoleil was around the times of the other teams, nowhere near the great time that Quickstep set a few minutes before. The Dutch team finished with the provisional 6th time, 22 seconds behind. Bauke Mollema will start already with a deficit straight away but he is still the main favorite for the final win in Madrid.
BMC seemed like the only team remaining capable of beating Quickstep but, even though they took the second place, they couldn't get close to the reference time set by the Belgians. Not even with good time trialists like Van Garderen and Pinotti. They lost 12 seconds in the finish line.
Discovery was the last team with options in the stage to hit the road, but they weren't really competitive. They crossed the line with the provisional 10th place, 24 seconds behind Quickstep. Nevertheless, Mikel Nieve will not probably be too disappointed with the time loss given what other favorites did.
Once all the times were registered only Quickstep and BMC came up with a clear advantage on the other teams. It won't be a massive advantage but it is always a bonus to have a handful of seconds to play with.
The first long stage of the Vuelta a España is fairly easy along the eastern coast of the country. The riders will start close to Benidorm, in La Nucia, and ride south towards Playas de Orihuela. A mass sprint is expected, but it is not as straight forward as the profile suggests given that the last 500 meters of the stage are slightly uphill.
Only 4 men were brave enough to try a break win today, as the chances are very much against them: Thor Hushovd (Garmin), Ivan Basso (Radioshack), Fredrik Kessiakoff (Euskaltel) and Linus Gerdemann (Astana). They had a gap of 5' 20'' in the first intermediate sprint in Santa Pola (85 kilometers to go) but Quickstep was already chasing. It was curious that Quickstep had put Gallopin to chase as he could be a contender in today's sprint.
The break was soon reeled back in, with 23 kilometers still remaining in the stage. Sky, Saxo Bank and HTC seemed very keen for the final mass sprint and probably even overshoot their work. It is normally better to keep the break alive a little longer to avoid other attacks.
The four last kilometers arrived as the sprint trains were already formed. Discovery had the leading one, with Heinrich Haussler ahead of Marcel Kittel. Saxo Bank had Tom Boonen leading Tyler Farrar and Ben Swift was on their wheel. Almost on par with them was the Astana train, as Anthony Roux was towing Alexandre Vinokourov. It looks like the strength of the riders is very full and it will be a fairly matched sprint.
The sprint is very close as the riders go into the last kilometer of the stage. Alexandre Vinokourov leads Joost van Leijen, while Andre Greipel and Simone Ponzi are chasing close behind. It looks like the uphill in the last part of the sprint has encouraged different kinds of riders to get involved and that could give us some surprises.
Andre Greipel wins in Playas de Orihuela! The German takes his first win of the season in a rather chaotic sprint finish ahead of Peter Sagan. The Slovak was one of the favorites, given the slightly uphill finish, but Greipel was clearly in a great shape. The top 5 was completed by Daniele Bennati, Simone Ponzi and Alexandre Vinokourov.
Apart from the final sprint in Orihuela not much else can be said about the stage today. Andre Greipel jumped into the top 10 and could even storm the leader jersey tomorrow if he wins again. However, it is quite unlikely given the climb to the Alto de la Santa shortly before the finish line in Totana.
The way south continues in the Vuelta as the riders head towards Totana in the third stage. The stage is difficult to predict, as the Alto de la Santa is only 13 kilometers from the finish line. It could be a mass sprint, but probably some of the fastest men will have trouble climbing the hill with the main group.
The break of the day was on the large side at 11 riders. The group took a long while to settle in front, as the bunch was not too convinced of letting go such a big group. Among the riders in front were Geraint Thomas (BMC), Michael Albasini (Radioshack), Theo Bos (Rabobank), Julien Simon (Ag2r), Luca Paolini (Quickstep) and Marco Marcato (Lampre). Halfway through the stage they enjoyed a not too big gap of 4 minutes as many teams were keen on a mass sprint today.
The surprising attack of the day came from the World Champion. Bjorn Leukemans attacked hard in the climb to the first hill of the day and opened a gap even with the teams of the sprinters setting a good pace. At the top of the climb (46 km to go) he was losing 1 minute with the break and had opened a gap of 1' 05'' with the main bunch. He could have a chance if he gets to the second climb ahead.
The flat between the two climbs was too much for Leukemans to stay in front and he was reeled back in with some members of the break. However, Michael Albasini looked so good at some parts of the climb that the mass sprint was in danger. Johan van Summeren then took things in his own hands and finally caught the Swiss as they went past the Alto de la Santa.
The descent was not too steep and allowed the sprinters to recover some positions in the main bunch. 4 kilometers from the finish line there were two prominent trains taking shape. On one side we had Astana with Anthony Roux and Alexandre Vinokourov. On the other side it was Jurgen Roelandts for Lotto towing yesterday's winner Andre Greipel with Yauheni Hutarovich on his wheel.
The beginning of the sprint was very messy and some important riders got involved. Going into the last kilometer of the stage Dries Devenyns was leading the sprint with a good margin ahead of Damiano Cunego, Tejay van Garderen and Roman Kreuziger.
Jose Joaquin Rojas wins in Totana! The sprinters finally appeared and the Spaniard took yet another win this season. This was probably the most important win for him, as they are really close to his birth place. Another of the best sprinters after a climb, Peter Sagan, came second with the leader Lloyd Mondory third. The rather messy sprint caused many sprinters to be caught badly positioned and having to do massive recoveries in the last meters.
The Alto de la Santa was not as hard as it first seemed as only a handful of riders lost contact with the group there. Therefore, the changes in the GC were limited to the bonus seconds that Mondory got in the finish line. Tomorrow will be very different as Sierra Nevada awaits the riders in the first big mountains stage of the race.
The first mountain stage of the Vuelta will take place in Andalucia. The riders will have to face the Alto de Filabres at the start of the stage, a very long but gentle climb that will hopefully create a quality break. After that the terrain is much easier, although with some small difficulties, until the final climb to Sierra Nevada. The characteristics of the climb, with not too steep slopes and a very wide road, make it difficult to open significant gaps among the favorites.
The fight to form the break was simply nonexistent today. David Millar (Sky) and Lars Peter Nordhaug (Ag2r) attacked right after the start of the stage and easily opened a gap as the bunch was in no mood to chase. However, once the terrain allowed for chasing Rabobank and Vacansoleil started controlling the race and the gap of the leading duo was 6' 30'' with 80 kilometers remaining.
The riders took it easy and the bunch allowed the leading duo to start the climb to Sierra Nevada with a margin of 2' 15'' ahead. However, Rabobank and Vacansoleil increased the pace as soon as they reached the slopes of the final climb. Rob Ruijgh was willing to give Dupont back his assistance in the Giro and started increasing the pace at around 20 kilometers to the finish line.
David Millar left behind Lars Peter Nordhaug with 15 kilometers remaining, but in truth it was a pointless move as the main bunch led by Ruijgh was already 35 seconds behind the British. If the Dutch can hold on to this pace bigger gaps than expected will definitely open today.
Rob Ruijgh let other do the work in the second part of the climb, but there were still 27 riders in the front group with 8 kilometers remaining. It looks like the riders are being very conservative in this first contact with the mountains and don't want any nasty surprises. However, some important riders have already dropped out of the group like Rinaldo Nocentini, Dries Devenyns, Cadel Evans and Pierre Rolland.
Another small group loses contact with the main group and their loss is close to 1 minute as they enter the last 4 kilometers of the stage. Levi Leipheimer, Roman Kreuziger and Robert Gesink are all in it. Meanwhile, Dries Devenyns' group is already losing 2' 50'' as the Belgian could be saying an early farewell to his options of doing a good Vuelta.
The main riders left it all to do for the last kilometer of the stage. Bauke Mollema attacked and Frank Schleck soon followed. Steven Kruijswijk and Mikel Nieve are also showing good legs in the final part of Sierra Nevada. On the other side of the group it looks like Hubert Dupont was not as strong as it looked like given the pace by Ruijgh and is having trouble following the move.
Bauke Mollema wins in Sierra Nevada! He was the strongest in that final acceleration and even could put 10 seconds on his closest chasers. The Vacansoleil rider is willing to get the reminders of his unlucky Giro and has won his first stage in the Vuelta and fifth win in the season to prove that he has come to Spain to win. 4 riders crossed the line 10 seconds behind: Frank Schleck, Mikel Nieve, David Lopez and Steven Kruijswijk. The rest of the group lost 26 seconds today.
Today's stage leaves Bauke Mollema as the new leader in the GC but the differences among the top 15 are very narrow, at less than 40 seconds. Frank Schleck sits 2nd, 13 seconds back, while Pieter Weening is third, 14 seconds behind. Mollema also leads the mountains classification.
