Mollema the new leader

Bauke into the leader's jersey!

Stage 5: Sierra Nevada - Valdepeñas de Jaen



Although there are not big mountains in the fifth stage of the Vuelta the stage is quite difficult. The route is a constant up and down of hills and small mountains that finishes in Valdepeñas de Jaen with 1 kilometer averaging 12% gradient. Before the final hill the riders will have to face the Alto de Valdepeñas, where some attacks could happen.



The start of the stage was very fast as Vacansoleil was controlling all the break attempts with a big number of riders. It could well be that a break could have the chance to make it to the finish line, but it seems that Mollema wants to keep the leader jersey. In the end a group of 6 including Luca Paolini (Quickstep), Marco Marcato (Lampre) and Romain Feillu (Euskaltel) got away but their gap halfway through the stage was only 3' 50''.



The break never had a chance today given the amount of control that Vacansoleil put. Luca Paolini was the last rider to be caught, already in the first slopes of the second climb of the day to the Alto de Valdepeñas (15 km to go). The options for the stage win are now wide open as mainly the hills riders should do well today.



Mikel Nieve crossed the KoM banner ahead of Denis Menchov and Bauke Mollema after the leader attacked within the last kilometer of the climb. Tejay van Garderen is coming close behind but the small gap they have opened could be enough for them to get the stage win as it is only the descent and the small climb to the finish line ahead.



Denis Menchov got a small of 8 seconds ahead of Bauke Mollema and Mikel Nieve in the descent which could give him an edge in the final uphill kilometer. 30 seconds behind came the group with the other favorites including Frank Schleck and Pieter Weening. The climb to the Alto de Valdepeñas was harder than at first thought for many, as almost half the peloton decided to take a break given that they were very close to the finish line.



Mollema and Nieve closed on Denis Menchov in the last kilometer and it would be a matter of who is a better puncheur from now on. It looks clear now that they are going to get some seconds on the rest of the favorites for the Vuelta, as they are clearly ahead as they begin the final climb.



Bauke Mollema wins in Valdepeñas de Jaen! Mollema left clearly behind his 2 rivals to take his second stage win in a row in the Vuelta. He even managed to put 10 seconds between himself and the chasing duo, where Mikel Nieve got the second place in the stage. 33 seconds behind the winner a group of 4 arrived: Pieter Weening, Frank Schleck, Tejay van Garderen and David Lopez. The rest of the favorites lost 1' 07''.

A stage that didn't look like too important for the final classification turned out to give a good boost in the GC to Bauke Mollema. He will now face the transition stages towards La Covatilla with a nice 30 seconds margin over his immediate chasers.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	5h09'30
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 10
3		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
4		Pieter Weening	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 33
5		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	s.t.
6		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
8		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'07
9		Alexandre Vinokourov	ASTANA	s.t.
10		Simon Gerrans	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	18h59'05
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 32
3		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 35
4		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 56
5		Pieter Weening	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 57
6		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 1'05
7		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'09
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 1'38
9		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'43
10		Peter Stetina	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'45

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	60
2		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	40
3		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	36
4		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	32
5		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	31

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	30
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	26
3		David Millar	SKY PROCYCLING	22
4		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	20
5		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	20

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	19h02'32
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 1'14
3		Juan Antonio Flecha	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 2'08
4		Jonathan Castroviejo	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 2'12
5		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 2'13

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	56h24'30
2		RABOBANK	+ 2'22
3		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 2'27
4		LAMPRE - ISD	+ 2'31
5		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 2'36

taking a stage with the leader's jersey

Mollema stamping his authority

Stage 6: Ubeda - Cordoba



The route of the Vuelta continues through Andalucia as the riders will head to Cordoba in the sixth stage of the race. The stage is rather easy today, but the Alto del Catorce por Ciento could negate the opportunity for a mass sprint. Given that the climb is quite hard the puncheurs may have something to say in the final part of the stage.



The bunch took it easy at the start of the stage and as many as 30 kilometers went by with no attacks to form the break of the day. In the end, a group of 9 was formed including Michael Albasini (Radioshack), Geraint Thomas (BMC), Gerald Ciolek (Katusha), Lars Bak (Liquigas) and Chris Sutton (Garmin). They soon built a nice gap of 9 minutes over the bunch as Vacansoleil clearly had no intention on chasing even though Sagan is one of the sprinters that could get over the final climb without trouble.



The bunch started chasing a bit late and they reached the bottom of the climb 2' 45'' after the riders in the break. Sky, HTC and Saxo Bank all had riders working in front in the flat but they still have work to do if they want to catch the break. The problem for them is that they now enter a terrain where the chasing will be much more difficult.



Michael Albasini's pace in the middle part of the climb could only be followed by Maxime Monfort, Geraint Thomas and Marco Marcato. They got to the top of the climb (21 km to go) 45 seconds ahead of the other riders from the break. Meanwhile, the bunch is still losing 2' 10'' as Anthony Roux works for Astana at the front. The chances of a final sprint are decreasing with every kilometer.



An attack by Maxime Monfort shortly after the top of the hill only dragged Michael Albasini behind. They both reached the 10 kilometer banner, where the descent towards Cordoba started, 15 seconds ahead of the chasing duo. They will have to risk a bit in the descent if they aim to maintain the gap ahead. The peloton gave up on the chasing but even though the pace was decreased more than 40 riders had already been left behind.



Monfort and Albasini reached the final kilometer ahead and they would sprint for the stage win among themselves. The Swiss should have an edge given he is a faster rider than Monfort. In the bunch, a crash happened in the descent catching Rob Ruijgh and meaning that Alessandro Petacchi had to abandon the race. That will leave Vacansoleil with more trouble controlling the flatter stages.



Michael Albasini wins in Cordoba! The Swiss clearly beats Maxime Monfort in the final sprint and takes his first win in a long time. The laziness of Vacansoleil to chase meant that the teams of the sprinters had to do a huge job and ended up giving up at the climb of the day. Behind the leading duo Marco Marcato took the third place in the stage ahead of Geraint Thomas.

The main bunch lost 1' 05'' in the finish line and Ben Swift beat Jose Joaquin Rojas for the fifth place in the stage. A few of the sprinters lost contact with the bunch in the climb or didn't have the legs to sprint properly, so it gives their teams the reason not to have worked before. The stage didn't really make a difference in any of the classifications as not even the points jersey suffered major changes.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Michael Albasini	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	4h55'47
2		Maxime Monfort	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	s.t.
3		Marco Marcato	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
4		Geraint Thomas	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
5		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 1'05
6		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
7		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
8		Tyler Farrar	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	s.t.
9		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
10		Dries Devenyns	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	23h55'57
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 32
3		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 35
4		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 56
5		Pieter Weening	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 57
6		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 1'05
7		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'09
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 1'38
9		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'43
10		Peter Stetina	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'45

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	60
2		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	47
3		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	41
4		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	36
5		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	33

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	30
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	26
3		David Millar	SKY PROCYCLING	22
4		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	20
5		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	20

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	23h59'24
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 1'14
3		Jonathan Castroviejo	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 2'12
4		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 2'13
5		Miguel Angel Rubiano	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	71h14'01
2		LAMPRE - ISD	+ 2'31
3		TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 3'09
4		RABOBANK	+ 3'27
5		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 3'32

Peter Sagan is one of the best sprinters in the story, but classifying him as a sprinter wouldn't do much justice to the ability of Sagan to perform in very different scenarios. Sagan started his career in the Liquigas - Cannondale team, where he stayed two years. He got some good results, crowned by a podium in the 2010 World Champioship in Melbourne where he got the winning break.

However, his days of glory in terms of wins have come in Vacansoleil. Even though he hasn't been able to improve on his 17th place in the 2010 World Tour rankings (probably he will do this season) his palmares has increased a lot with overall wins in the Paris - Nice and in the Tour Down Under, twice. This year's win in Australia was much celebrated as he did a brave attack in a stage that was deemed to be wuite boring and ended up giving him a gap big enough to take the overall win.

In terms of stage wins, Sagan has also added 7 to his record, including 2 in the Tour de France and 1 in the Giro d'Italia. He has been able to win flat sprints mainly, but his performance in sprints with hills close to the finish has always been good as well.

Best results:

Tour de France	2 stages (2012)
Giro d'Italia	1 stage (2013)
Road World Championship	3rd (2010)
Milano - Sanremo	5th (2010)
Tirreno - Adriatico	1 stage (2013)
Paris - Nice	1st (2011)
Volta a Catalunya	2nd (2009)
Tour Down Under	1st (2012, 13), 6th (2010), Points (2013), 2 stages (2012, 13)
Tour of Beijing	1 stage (2011)

UCI World Tour Rankings:

- 2009 Liquigas - Cannondale: 29th (96.78 pts)
- 2010 Liquigas - Cannondale: 17th (176.77 pts)
- 2011 Vacansoleil - DMC: 22nd (169.33 pts)
- 2012 Vacansoleil - DMC: 21st (191 pts)

Sagan just like in real life, just amazing

Yay, two Brits in the top five

Oh man looks like i got lots of catching up to do again, i need to stop with these long breaks from pcmdaily

Who has won the other grand tour(s) this season so far? and who are the current rainbow jerseys?

I hope Frankie Schleck does well in Spain. He's always been my favourite rider in the F.N.S for some reason

3 americans in the top 10, nice!

Tejay has to be the favourite of the three

The Giro was won by Rob Ruijgh, ahead of Tejay van Garderen and David Lopez and there was no Tour this year.

Stage 7: Almaden - Talavera de la Reina



The seventh stage will be a transition stage towards the center of the country where a mass sprint is expected. There are no mountains in the stage and only the small hills in the middle part can cause a little bit of trouble. Nevertheless, a very easy stage.



The making of the break was not as straightforward as yesterday, but in the end a group of 8 riders got the permission of the bunch to go away 20 kilometers after the start. The main riders in that group were Alberto Contador (Movistar), Luca Paolini (Quickstep), Yoann Offredo (Ag2r) and Chris Sutton (Garmin). They had a gap of 8 minutes halfway through the stage, when Saxo Bank, HTC and Sky started chasing. Vacansoleil showed again that they have no intention of controlling the race in the flat stages.



The bunch chased down but surprisingly couldn't close the gap fast enough and the break still had 2 minutes within the last 15 kilometers of the stage. Even though Lampre and Euskaltel are also collaborating in the front it is looking increasingly likely that the break will make it all the way to the finish line.



An attack by Lars Bak in the break was responded by Alberto Contador and the Spaniard left everyone else behind. With 10 kilometers remaining he has 13 seconds on Lars Bak and 40 seconds on the rest of the break. The bunch keeps fighting but as the kilometers go by the scale is moving towards the break.



Bak was chased down by the rest of the break at the 4 kilometers mark but Contador still maintained a 30 seconds margin ahead. Meanwhile, the bunch was getting closer but they didn't seem to have time to fight for the stage win.



The main bunch was about to reel the break back in at the last kilometer while Alberto Contador was already cruising for the stage win ahead. The main sprinters, like Vinokourov, Sagan ad Rojas are trying to overtake as many riders as possible to at least increase their points count.



Alberto Contador wins in Talavera de la Reina! The Spaniard takes his first victory of the season after completing a very long break. It has been a major surprise that a break made it all the way to the finish line today, as this was one of the clearest opportunities in the race. With Vacansoleil not willing to waste energies chasing, it looks like the teams of the sprinters haven't brought enough flat riders to control this type of stages.

Several break members took the next positions of the stage, as the top 5 in the stage was completed by Chris Sutton, Stefan Schumacher, Luca Paolini and Fredrik Kessiakoff. This will have an effect in the points classification as it now seems that the GC riders will have an edge over the sprinters given the amount of mountain stages remaining.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Alberto Contador	MOVISTAR TEAM	4h41'22
2		Christopher Sutton	TEAM GARMIN - SHARP	s.t.
3		Stefan Schumacher	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.
4		Luca Paolini	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
5		Fredrik Kessiakoff	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
6		Alexandre Vinokourov	ASTANA	s.t.
7		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
8		Cameron Meyer	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
9		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
10		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	28h37'19
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 32
3		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 35
4		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 56
5		Pieter Weening	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 57
6		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 1'05
7		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'09
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 1'38
9		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'43
10		Peter Stetina	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'45

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	60
2		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	56
3		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	48
4		Alexandre Vinokourov	ASTANA	39
5		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	36

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	30
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	26
3		David Millar	SKY PROCYCLING	22
4		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	20
5		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	20

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	28h40'46
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 1'14
3		Jonathan Castroviejo	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 2'12
4		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 2'13
5		Miguel Angel Rubiano	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	85h18'07
2		LAMPRE - ISD	+ 2'31
3		TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 3'09
4		RABOBANK	+ 3'27
5		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 3'32

Alberto showing his intentions

All guns blazing for El Pistolero!

Stage 8: Talavera de la Reina - San Lorenzo del Escorial



The eighth stage between Talavera de la Reina and San Lorenzo del Escorial could be more difficult than the profile suggests, as it has more than 3.000 meters of accumulated height gains. The riders will have to face the climbs to the Puerto de Mijares, San Bartolome de Pinares and the Alto de Santa Maria before the final uphill sprint in the cobbled streets of San Lorenzo del Escorial.



A total of 12 men formed the break of the day and they topped the Puerto de Mijares 5' 30'' ahead of a bunch that was taking things easy. Among the riders in the group were Fran Ventoso (Euskaltel), Yauheni Hutarovich (Lampre), Alessandro Ballan (BMC), Ben Swift (Sky), Jure Kocjan (HTC) and Anthony Roux (Astana). The quality of the break was very good, what gave them a good chance to do a good job given that the mass sprint is completely discarded today.



The last categorized climb of the day arrived, the Alto de Santa Maria and, in an interesting move, Bauke Mollema decided to attack. Mikel Nieve tried to follow but he decided that it would be better to stay with the bunch given the amount of kilometers remaining. Mollema crossed the KoM sprint 2 minutes behind the break and with a gap ahead of the bunch of 40 seconds. The Dutch looks ready to settle the first position of the race in the first week.



At the second intermediate sprint, in San Lorenzo del Escorial (13 km to go), the break still had 2 minutes on Mollema. Their chances of making it count are increasing with every kilometer that goes by. Meanwhile, the main group is 3' 30'' behind as the chase took a while to become organized.



The chase by the group was really poor as they couldn't close the gap to Mollema, still 1' 30'' with 6 kilometers remaining. Radioshack, Discovery and Rabobank all have men relaying but their effort doesn't seem enough. Their only hope is that Mollema has wasted a lot in the attack and that he pays his efforts in the last uphill kilometer.



Alberto Contador and Sergey Firsanov both tried to attack from the break in the last kilometers but didn't succeed. 11 riders reached the final 2 kilometers as they enter in San Lorenzo del Escorial. For the third straight day the break is going to make it all the way to the finish, something that hasn't happened very often in GTs lately.



Alessandro Ballan leads the sprint halfway through the final hill. The Italian is showing that he is the best in the front group in the cobbles. The three sprinters of the group are surprisingly right behind, Francisco Ventoso, Ben Swift and Yauheni Hutarovich but in theory the BMC rider is the big favorite to take the stage win.



Alessandro Ballan wins in San Lorenzo del Escorial! The BMC rider takes his first win of the season in the Vuelta and the 10th for his team so far. BMC keeps challenging Quickstep for the dominance in the World Tour. However, his win was not as easy as expected. Yauheni Hutarovich came almost to par with him before dropping back a little bit before the finish line. The next riders of the break were Ventoso, Swift and Monfort 17 seconds behind the winner.



Bauke Mollema a lot of his advantage in the final hill, but only with the strongest riders of the peloton. A small group of 10 riders arrived 14 seconds behind the Dutch but the narrow roads up the hill and the cobbles meant that a lot of riders were caught in cuts of the peloton, including Pieter Weening, Denis Menchov, Peter Stetina, Frank Schleck and David Lopez.

The outcome of the stage was very positive for Mollema, as he increased the gap on many riders, but not only him was a winner today as Mikel Nieve, Tejay van Garderen, George Hincapie and Hubert Dupont progressed in the GC. Tomorrow the riders will have to tackle a more typical mountain-top finish were many of the riders that lost time today should try to regain a bit.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Alessandro Ballan	BMC RACING TEAM	5h12'33
2		Yauheni Hutarovich	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
3		Francisco Ventoso	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 17
4		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
5		Maxime Monfort	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	s.t.
6		Alberto Contador	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 43
7		Anthony Roux	ASTANA	s.t.
8		Michael Rogers	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	s.t.
9		Sergey Firsanov	TEAM GARMIN - SHARP	s.t.
10		Kanstantsin Sivtsov	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	33h52'10
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 46
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'23
4		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'57
5		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 2'07
6		Bart De Clerq	LAMPRE - ISD	+ 2'15
7		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 2'36
8		Peter Stetina	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 2'37
9		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 2'57
10		Pieter Weening	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 2'58

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	64
2		Peter Sagan	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	56
3		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	52
4		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	48
5		Yauheni Hutarovich	LAMPRE - ISD	43

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	30
2		Alberto Contador	MOVISTAR TEAM	27
3		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	26
4		Maxime Monfort	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	24
5		David Millar	SKY PROCYCLING	22

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	33h57'38
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 38
3		Michael Rogers	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	+ 55
4		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 1'08
5		Anthony Roux	ASTANA	+ 1'54

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	101h00'50
2		LAMPRE - ISD	+ 4'18
3		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 5'50
4		RABOBANK	+ 5'59
5		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 8'40

Nice win for Alessandro

Interesting riding from Mollema. I wonder if he's just looking to defend the leader's jersey for as long as possible, or is he a genuine contender who is just looking for easy time on his rivals in these early stages?

Mollema refuses to lose any time!