Of course mollema wins. Who needs mountains when you're Mollema.

He was so lucky. Just missed the crash and then he was all alone sprinting...

That win must surely seal the Overall Victory for Mollema

Stage 19: Noja - Bilbao



The race gets to the Basque Country for two stages before heading to Madrid for the final show of the Vuelta. The stage arriving in Bilbao gives the fans memories of how Hubert Dupont won a race that seemed to be lost for him three years ago in the slopes of the El Vivero. The climb will also be done twice in today's stage in a difficult stage to predict.



A big break was going to be a headache for the teams that can win today in Bilbao. As many as 12 riders have a gap of 6 minutes on the bunch with only 75 kilometers remaining and the quality of the break is beyond doubt, with names like Alessandro Ballan (BMC), David Millar (Sky), John Gadret (Euskaltel), Luis Leon Sanchez (Movistar), Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank) and Anthony Roux (Astana). The bunch is still quiet, what could hint that they are happy for the break to win today.



Discovery and Vacansoleil eventually decided that they wanted to chase hard and at the first climb the El Vivero they had cut the lead of the break to 2' 40''. They had put their best men to chase (Brajkovic, Gesink or Evans) and that was taking its toll on some riders in the back of the peloton.



The peace in the break was maintained until the second climb to El Vivero started. Four riders opened a small gap on the rest of the break: John Gadret, Alessandro Ballan, Anthony Roux and Kanstantsin Sivtsov. However, only 2 kilometers from the top of the climb the gap to the bunch had gone down to only 50 seconds. The only serious attack in the peloton came from Denis Menchov, who is trying to bridge the gap.



The break was finally caught at the top of the climb to El Vivero (12 kilometers to go). Hubert Dupont, Joaquim Rodriguez and Tejay van Garderen led the very reduced bunch across the top. It is difficult to guess who can win this stage, as few sprinters will be in the front group.



A group of only 60 riders remained at the front after the two climbs with all the favorites in it. Among the quick men from the sprint only Jose Joaquin Rojas is in the front group. Joaquim Rodriguez is leading the pack in the descent trying to control any attacks that may happen in the final kilometers of the stage.



Tejay van Garderen leads the way by a good margin as the main group enters the last kilometer. The American is trying to take advantage of the lack of sprinters in the bunch. Behind Tejay it is his teammate Peter Stetina followed by Cameron Meyer and Samuel Sanchez. No sign of Jose Joaquin Rojas, who maybe is not as strong following the 18 days of racing.



Tejay van Garderen wins in Bilbao! The American is rounding a great Vuelta and he caps it with a stage win and not in a time trial. The day was even better for BMC, as Peter Stetina came second in the stage beating Samuel Sanchez in the sprint. The top 5 was completed with Hubert Dupont and Denis Menchov.

In the end none of the favorites lost any time and only Thomas de Gendt lost some time and the second place in the young classification that is anyway completely dominated by Thibaut Pinot. The GC is not effectively over barring any misfortune by one of the favorites.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	4h25'12
2		Peter Stetina	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
3		Samuel Sánchez	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.
4		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	s.t.
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
6		Rinaldo Nocentini	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
8		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	s.t.
9		Cameron Meyer	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
10		Marco Pinotti	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	86h01'19
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7'11
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 9'01
4		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 13'44
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 14'00
6		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 15'46
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 16'33
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 17'34
9		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 17'36
10		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 18'33

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	234
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	147
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	123
4		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	121
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	106

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	136
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	127
3		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	76
4		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	63
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	63

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	86h20'26
2		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 13'04
3		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 13'18
4		Emanuele Sella	ASTANA	+ 14'00
5		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 14'42

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	258h05'26
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 15'32
3		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 18'19
4		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 22'08
5		RABOBANK	+ 28'28

Stage 20: Bilbao - Vitoria



The last climbs of the Vuelta will take place in the penultimate stage. However, this is not a really difficult stage as the climb to Urkiola is more than 45 kilometers away from the finish line in Vitoria. Those last kilometers are completely flat, so if a break does not make it the stage could go to one of the sprinters that gets past the hills of the early part of the stage.



A small break of 3 riders managed to get in front in the first kilometers of the stage. The riders in it were Fredrik Kessiakoff (Euskaltel), Stefan Schumacher (Katusha) and Michael Albasini (Radioshack). When it seemed that they would gain a big amount of time over the bunch another small group broke away including Hubert Dupont. The peloton needed to work because they couldn't allow the fourth in the GC to go away. At the top of the Alto de Elosua (124 km to go) the gap of the break was 4 minutes.



The break didn't last very long, as they were caught during the last climb of the day, the Alto de Urkiola. Hubert Dupont was the first through the banner, making himself 3rd in the mountains classification. Behind him, Simon Gerrans and Rinaldo Nocentini had opened a small gap on the bunch sprinting for the points. HTC had been controlling the whole climb in order to give Rojas the chance to take the stage win.



No other big events happened until the riders arrived in Vitoria. Johan van Summeren was leading the way of what could be a chaotic final sprint. Most of the main sprinters didn't make it through the last climb riders like Rojas or Sagan should be the most likely candidates to take something out of today's stage.



Jose Joaquin Rojas led the sprint from the start as some of the GC contenders joined the sprinters in the hunt for the stage win. Behind the Spaniard were Pieter Weening, Hubert Dupont and Peter Sagan. It would be rather surprising to see the sprinters lose today even if they have gone past quite a few hills today.



Jose Joaquin Rojas wins in Vitoria! That is the second win for the Spaniard sprinter in this Vuelta. The effort that HTC put in controlling the race especially in the climb to Urkiola paid off. Bauke Mollema finished second, but he didn't come close to stealing the win. The top 5 of the stage was completed by Pieter Weening, Frank Schleck and Alexandre Vinokourov.

The riders will have to make a big trip this evening to Madrid, where the short stage leading to the more than likely sprint in the Paseo de la Castellana will put an end to the Vuelta. Bauke Mollema will take home his second Grand Tour after dominating the Tour de France last season.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	5h36'33
2		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
3		Pieter Weening	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
4		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	s.t.
5		Alexandre Vinokourov	ASTANA	s.t.
6		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
7		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
8		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
9		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
10		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	91h37'46
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7'17
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 9'07
4		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 13'50
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 14'06
6		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 15'52
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 16'39
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 17'40
9		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 17'42
10		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 18'39

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	254
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	147
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	132
4		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	129
5		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	126

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	136
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	127
3		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	84
4		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	76
5		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	63

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	91h56'59
2		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 13'04
3		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 13'18
4		Emanuele Sella	ASTANA	+ 14'00
5		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 14'42

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	274h55'05
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 15'32
3		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 18'19
4		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 22'08
5		RABOBANK	+ 28'28

Another Good sprint from Rojas

Stage 21: San Sebastian de los Reyes - Madrid



The end of the show arrives with a very short stage that will take the riders through the typical circuit around the center of Madrid. This will be a stage that will most likely end with a mass sprint. Bauke Mollema will have time to enjoy the ride as he will have won his second Grand Tour by the end of the day.



The start of the stage was not as boring as expected. Many riders tried to join the break of the day and as many as 12 riders formed a group that was going to make the teams of the sprinters work. The main riders in it were Theo Bos (Rabobank), Jean=Christophe Peraud (Radioshack), Robert Kiserlovski (Lotto), Julien Simon (Ag2r), Michele Scarponi (Lampre) and Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Katusha). They still had 4 minutes on the bunch with 43 kilometers remaining, where HTC and Sky were the teams working to bring them back.



Tejay van Garderen crashed heavily when the stage was already very fast and seems to be having trouble rejoining the race. He is third in the overall standings and his good cushion over the 4th should be enough not to make him worried. Three of his teammates are stopping to aid him get back to the pack.



The break was finally caught 7 kilometers from the finish line, as the main bunch is heading for the last lap in the circuit. It doesn't look like any trains have emerged yet, what could lead to a quite chaotic final sprint. Meanwhile, Tejay van Garderen is in pain and losing 4 minutes already. He has to race because that amount of time would take him very close to being overtaken in the third place by Hubert Dupont.



Tyler Farrar might have started sprinting from too far as several other riders are closing down on him as they get into the last kilometer of the stage. Ben Swift leads the chase ahead of Yauheni Hutarovich and Jose Joaquin Rojas. Rojas and Swift have already won twice each in the Vuelta and could break the tie as the sprinter with most wins.



Ben Swift wins in Madrid! The British makes it three wins in the Vuelta and 7 for the season. It is amazing how the Sky sprinter is progressing and delivering a lot of wins with the chances he is provided. Sky had been in the last places of the World Tour for as long as this story has been alive and the kind of success that Swift is having was unknown in the team. Jose Joaquin Rojas was second in the stage, proving that he was also strong during this Vuelta. The top 5 in the stage was completed by Yauheni Hutarovich, Tyler Farrar and Sacha Modolo.

The big new of the day came as Tejay van Garderen crossed the finish line 4' 46'' behind the winner and lost the podium place by only 3 seconds with Hubert Dupont. Obviously the damage from the crash had been bigger than at first thought and he couldn't push in the last kilometers of the stage. The faces were really not happy at BMC camp as only bad luck made Tejay not podium the Vuelta after having already been in the podium of the Giro.

The final podium is therefore led by Bauke Mollema, who will be accompanied by Mikel Nieve and Hubert Dupont. This probably makes Rabobank the best team of the year in Grand Tours, as they put Rob Ruijgh in the top spot in the Giro and Dupont in the podium in Madrid. Mollema's domination of the race gets reflected on the fact that he won the points and mountain jerseys. There are rumours of a change in the points distributions for the World Tour in subsequent seasons to let the fast men fight for the points jersey. In the young classification Thibaut Pinot was easily the winner, while the teams classification went to BMC Racing.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	2h18'37
2		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
3		Yauheni Hutarovich	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
4		Tyler Farrar	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	s.t.
5		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
6		Marcel Kittel	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.
7		Alexandre Vinokourov	ASTANA	s.t.
8		Lloyd Mondory	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
9		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
10		Rob Ruijgh	RABOBANK	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	91h37'46
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7'17
3		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 13'50
4		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 13'53
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 14'06
6		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 15'52
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 16'39
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 17'40
9		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 17'42
10		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 18'39

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	261
2		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	154
3		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	147
4		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	146
5		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	132

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	136
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	127
3		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	84
4		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	76
5		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	63

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	94h15'36
2		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 13'04
3		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 13'18
4		Emanuele Sella	ASTANA	+ 14'00
5		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 14'42

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	281h50'56
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 15'32
3		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 18'19
4		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 22'08
5		RABOBANK	+ 28'28

Great way for Ben to end the Vuelta

But what a dominant ride from Mollema throughout the race

UCI World Tour rankings riders (after Vuelta a España)

1		Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil	705.53
2		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC	620.42
3		Fränk Schleck	Radioshack	566.43
4		David López	Euskaltel	557.48
5		Rob Ruijgh	Rabobank	431.97
6		Mikel Nieve	Discovery	397.56
7		Denis Menchov	Quickstep	377.78
8		Hubert Dupont	Rabobank	304.97
9		Peter Stetina	BMC	288.46
10		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC	253.91
11		Peter Sagan	Vacansoleil	231.22
12		Davide Rebellin	Movistar	224.12
13		Ben Swift	Sky	212.05
14		Johan Van Summeren	Quickstep	207.87
15		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto	205.57

UCI World Tour rankings teams (after Vuelta a España)

1		BMC RACING TEAM	1373.5
2		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	1287.75
3		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	1070.2
4		RABOBANK	1038.45
5		TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	866.45
6		LOTTO-BELISOL	800
7		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	746.1
8		EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI	737.8
9		HTC-HIGHROAD	618.55
10		MOVISTAR TEAM	496.7

Mollema has a massive lead now

The Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec will be the only race of the season that will really suit the hilly classics riders. The Canadian race of the World Tour has changed between Montreal and Quebec lately and this will be only the second time that this race will be held in the story. As 2 years ago, the riders will complete 15 laps to a 12.6 kilometres long circuit that has two small hills in it. Even though the race is not too long at 189 kilometres the thoughness of the circuit should be enough to discard many riders in the closing laps.

Two years ago Janez Brajkovic took the win when he was the dominant force of the classics. However, it looks like he will have a difficult task if he wants to win again this year. The podium was completed by Sylvain Chavanel and Dries Devenyns.

Favorites:

- Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto - Belisol): Bjorn Leukemans will be much more comfortable in the races that close the cycling season than in the recent Vuelta a España. He had a really anonymous race in Spain but that should have served him to be well prepared for the race in Canada. Leukemans already won two cobbled classics in the start of the season and will be willing to add to his tally.
- Simon Gerrans (Team Radioshack - Nissan): Gerrans also raced the Vuelta and, even though he tried a couple of attacks in the latter part of the race he had no success. The Australian was not very impressed by the lack of hilly races this season, but nevertheless he has been able to win three times. Radioshack has a good chance in Quebec given that Roman Kreuziger will also be in the favorites for the race.
- Davide Rebellin (Movistar Team): Davide Rebellin was much more involved in the Vuelta than other hills specialists and even got the 2nd place in the young classification. However, the main target for the Italian will be the World Championships that will take place in Firenze later this month. The race in Canada should give us a hint on the chances of a local victory.
- Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma - Quickstep): The last of the facorites for the win in Quebec is Dries Devenyns. The Belgian is as much a hilly rider as a good climber and, therefore, he gets involved every now and then in the GC of Grand Tours. His chances will surely be higher due to the great support that Quickstep has brought to Canada.

Other notable riders who could be considered outsiders for the Canadian race are Joost van Leijen and Lieuwe Westra, (Rabobank), Rinaldo Nocentini (Katusha Team), Janez Brajkovic and Philippe Gilbert (Discovery Channel) and Roman Kreuziger (Team Radioshack - Nissan).

Previous winners

	First	Second	Third
2011	Janez Brajkovic	Sylvain Chavanel	Dries Devenyns

Startlist

aahhhhh so any things have happened since last time!!

anyways no one could touch bauke in la vuelta

Quebec - Quebec



The Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec is quite short for a classic and that opens the possibilities for the win to riders that don't usually have a good performance in longer races. The circuit is quite hilly, what could make the control of the breakaways rather difficult given that only 7 riders are allowed per team.



There were a lot of breaks in the early part of the race that were reeled back in by a very active Lotto team that had the sporadic help of Quickstep and Radioshack. It wasn't almost until halfway through that the duo that seemed to form the break of the day attacked: Sylvain Chavanel and Johan van Summeren. They both were very dangerous and their gap was only 2 minutes with 84 kilometers remaining.



Bjorn Leukemans, the main favorite for the win, attacks from quite far as the group goes through the finish line with 2 laps to go (24 km remaining). His Lotto team seems to be quite tired and he will take the chase of Van Summeren and Chavanel into his own hands. The duo had 50 seconds on the group at that point. The bunch had previously caught another break attempt with Oscar Freire and Jakob Fuglsang in it.



Bjorn Leukemans neutralized the break and as many as 10 riders formed the front group as they started the last lap, including Davide Rebellin and Janez Brajkovic. Rui Costa attacked from that group in the uphill section of the finish line straight and, with only 12 kilometers remaining it was a very serious attack.



Rui Costa opened a gap of 25 seconds but the chase started by Leukemans brought him back to the favorites group with 7 kilometres remaining. The front group had grown to 17 riders at that point as Simon Gerrans, another of the hot favorites, joined the party. A small group sprint is looking increasingly likely as the final outcome of the race.



Sylvain Chavanel tried the last attack but he was quickly reeled back in and the group reached the final 3 kilometers led by Katusha's Rinaldo Nocentini. Positioning for the final will be key to the success in the slightly uphill final kilometer of the stage.



Joost van Leijen looks for a surprise in the last kilometer and is the first to start sprinting ahead of Rui Costa. It looks like some of the favorites were a bit distracted as the reaction is coming from Jakob Fuglsang and Sylvain Chavanel. Leukemans and Gerrans are nowhere near the first places.



Joost van Leijen wins in Quebec! A surprisingly strong finish by the former World Champion gives him the first win of the season. Van Leijen is contributing to the great season by the Rabobank team and shows that the Dutch team is concentrated not only in Grand Tours but also in classics. Rui Costa was second right behind Van Leijen and they even opened a gap of 11 seconds over the rest.

The podium was completed by Philippe Gilbert even though Brajkovic should have been the man fighting for the win in the Discovery team today. The top 5 was completed by Bjorn Leukemans and Rinaldo Nocentini.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Joost Van Leijen	RABOBANK	4h58'04
2		Rui Da Costa	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	s.t.
3		Philippe Gilbert	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 11
4		Björn Leukemans	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
5		Rinaldo Nocentini	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.
6		Jakob Fuglsang	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
7		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
8		Rob Ruijgh	RABOBANK	s.t.
9		Sylvain Chavanel	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	s.t.
10		Joaquin Rodriguez	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.

UCI World Tour rankings riders (after Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec)

1		Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil	705.53
2		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC	620.42
3		Fränk Schleck	Radioshack	566.43
4		David López	Euskaltel	557.48
5		Rob Ruijgh	Rabobank	441.97
6		Mikel Nieve	Discovery	397.56
7		Denis Menchov	Quickstep	377.78
8		Hubert Dupont	Rabobank	304.97
9		Peter Stetina	BMC	288.46
10		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC	253.91
11		Peter Sagan	Vacansoleil	231.22
12		Björn Leukemans	Lotto	230.57
13		Davide Rebellin	Movistar	224.12
14		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto	220.57
15		Ben Swift	Sky	212.05

UCI World Tour rankings teams (after Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec)

1		BMC RACING TEAM	1373.5
2		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	1287.75
3		RABOBANK	1128.45
4		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	1090.2
5		TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	866.45
6		LOTTO-BELISOL	855
7		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	798.1
8		EUSKALTEL-EUSKADI	737.8
9		HTC-HIGHROAD	618.55
10		SAXO BANK	550.2

Must admit i never expected Joost Van Leijen to be the winner here in Canada

Jose Joaquin Rojas has been one of the stars in the last Vuelta a España. The Spaniard took two stage wins in two sprint finishes, both after difficult routes. His main strength is not on the mass sprints of completely flat stages but in situations where the main group has been slightly reduced by some previous hills. His first year as a rider in HTC - Highroad has proven to be a big success for him and could even manage to finish in one of the top 10 spots of the World Tour classification.

Rojas has always been among the top riders in the World Tour. His first season was marked by a top 10 finish in the Tour de France, but he would soon changed his targets and became more of a puncheur / sprinter type of rider. That paid dividends in 2010, when he moved to the Lotto structure. Rojas took the overall win in the Tour de Pologne along with 1 stage and he also won the GP Ouest France in Plouay. More than that, he also got his first podium in a monument as he took the 3rd place in Liege.

However, as the years went by the relationship of Rojas with his team worsened even after getting a stage win in the Giro and a 2nd place in the Paris - Roubaix in 2011. 2012 was almost a lost year for the Spaniard, as he only got the 30th overall place in the World Tour and his best results of the season were 4th places in the Amstel Gold Race and in Montreal.

In 2013 the best performances of Rojas have come from the Grand Tours. He got 2 wins in the Giro and 2 wins in the Vuelta, something that is only achievable by the very best riders in the peloton. Rojas has been, along with Andy Schleck, the savior of a team where his supposedly top riders (Chris Froome and Levi Leipheimer) have failed miserably to get good results.

Best results:

Tour de France	9th (2009)
Giro d'Italia	3 stages (2011, 13)
Vuelta a España	2 stages (2013)
Paris - Roubaix	2nd (2011)
Liege - Bastogne - Liege	3rd (2010)
Volta a Catalunya	9th (2009)
Tour Down Under	4th (2013), 5th (2012)
Tour de Pologne	1st (2010), 8th (2013), Points (2013), 2 stages (2010, 13)
Amstel Gold Race	4th (2012)
Gent - Wevelgem	7th (2011)
GP Ouest France - Plouay	1st (2010)
GP Cycliste de Montreal	4th (2012)

UCI World Tour Rankings:

- 2009 Leopard - Trek: 19th (128.56 pts)
- 2010 Omega Pharma - Lotto: 11th (248.55 pts)
- 2011 Lotto - Belisol: 26th (137.78 pts)
- 2012 Lotto - Belisol: 30th (165.25 pts)

wow nice win by Van Leijen

Transfer market update 1

BMC Racing has been a great surprise this season as they are on their way to win the World Tour competition replacing Quickstep at the top. They have also been among the first to start recruiting new riders for next season. The American team has signed two riders coming from Quickstep: Dries Devenyns and Tony Gallopin. They both cover areas were the team was not as strong, like the hills classics and the sprints.

Omega Pharma - Quickstep reacted fast to the loss of two of their best riders and hired two riders to do support roles: Maxime Monfort from Ag2r and Filippo Pozzato from Astana. The Belgian team apparently suffered from having too many stars in the team and is aiming towards having clearer leaders the next year.

Bjorn Leukemans finishes his contract with Lotto - Belisol this season but they have reached an agreement to extend the World Champion contract 3 more years worth 750.000 euros per season. The Belgian is an idol in his home country, especially after winning the E3 and the Paris - Roubaix this year, and that is very valuable for Lotto.

Spaniard David Lopez also reached an agreement with Euskaltel - Euskadi to extend his contract for 3 seasons. Lopez is the key rider for the Basque team, as they are mainly focused in the Grand Tours and he was able to get into the podium of the Giro d'Italia earlier this year.

Two very good signings for bmc

The 2013 edition of the Road World Championships will take us to Firenze, in Italy. This year's route is one of the hardest that has been raced, probably at par with the 2009 World Champs in Mendrisio. The circuit will have the climb to Fiesole, a climb hard enough to open the possibilities of not only hills riders in the race. Adding to that, the race is slightly longer than 280 kilometers, what puts the race almost on par with the Milano - Sanremo in terms of length.

Even though the Italians are the local team and have good chances of getting the win, the strongest team is probably Belgium. They have worn the rainbow jersey for the past two seasons, first with Jelle Vanendert and then with Bjorn Leukemans. His chances not only include those two, but also Dries Devenyns and Johan van Summeren.

Favorites:

- Simon Gerrans (Australia): The World Championship is probably the last chance for Simon Gerrans to fix his not so good season. The lack of hilly classics was a good part of the bad results of Gerrans, but even without them the preformance of the Australian should have been better in other places.
- Bjorn Leukemans (Belgium): The current World Champion is ready to defend his jersey but the route of this year's road race doesn't suit him as much as it did last year. The climb to Fiesole is hard enough to get the Grand Tour riders involved and that could mean a more open race. Other than that, Belgium is probably the best support team that Leukemans could have.
- Dries Devenyns (Belgium): The dark side of having such a strong Belgian team for Leukemans is that other riders in the team have the chance to become World Champions. Dries Devenyns is one of those. Even though the Quickstep rider has not won any race or stage this season he is used to race in the very competitive Quickstep team. That usually involves knowing how to race when you don't have a whole team to support you.
- Davide Rebellin (Italy): The last of the favorites is the local hero, Davide Rebellin. Italy has not won the World Championship in this story so far and it is about time for them to get it. They will hardly have a better place to try than at home and with Rebellin they have a very good chance of getting it, even though he is the rider among the favorites that will favor less the length of the race.

Other notable riders that will be outsiders for the rainbow jersey will be Janez Brajkovic (Slovenia), Bauke Mollema and Joost van Leijen (Netherlands), Alessandro Ballan (Italy), Johan van Summeren (Belgium) and Mikel Nieve (Spain).

Previous winners

	First	Second	Third
2009	Tom Danielson	Jelle Vanendert	Edvald Boasson Hagen
2010	Joost Van Leijen	Damiano Cunego	Peter Sagan
2011	Jelle Vanendert	Denis Menchov	Chris Froome
2012	Bjorn Leukemans	Simon Gerrans	Janez Brajkovic

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