The Tour de Romandie comes one week after Liege and before the long break the riders will enjoy until the tough part of the season in August. This is the short tour that fits the climbers better, so expect some of the contenders for the Vuelta to be good here in Switzerland.
Favourites:
- Hubert Dupont (Saxo Bank): The French hasn’t done anything remarkable yet this season, as most of the favourites for this race. However, Romandie will be the testing ground for all of them. Besides, Saxo Bank can take advantage of the team time trial.
- Jelle Vanendert (Omega): Vanendert has been disappeard the whole start of the season and should start showing something in Romandie. He lacks the team strength of Saxo Bank, but should make some time on Dupont in the prologue.
- George Hincapie (BMC): The American had a good result in Tirreno-Adriatico, 10th, considering his shape by then. However, the time trials won’t help him nor his team.
- Xavier Tondo (Euskaltel): Tondo has already had a couple of nice results (11th in Tirreno and 8th in Liege) and is looking to add. He will have the great help of David López when the road gets steeper, so we may see the Spaniards fight in the mountains.
The Tour de Romandie starts with a prologue that fits the specialists. However, with only 8 kilometres the time differences will be really small.
The first reference time came from the favourite to win the stage: Samuel Sanchez. The Spaniard set a time of 10’ 09’’.
The next of the important riders was Hubert Dupont, but he could only be 14 seconds slower than his teammate. The French wasn’t impressive at all.
The wind conditions changed during the day, and that meant Petacchi could only be 11 seconds slower than Sanchez. He was even slower than his teammate Mikel Nieve.
Rigoberto Uran declared that he wasn’t in a great shape ahead of Romandie. However, he was able to set a 10’ 22’’and a top 20 position.
Boonen was aiming for a win, but in the end, the worse conditions made him settle for a 6th in the stage, 10 seconds worse than Sanchez.
Jelle Vanendert was one of the last riders to go out and even though he couldn’t improve Sanchez’s time, he ended in a nice 3rd place for the stage.
The pre stage favourite bagged the win, as Samuel Sanchez wins his second time trial of the year. It was surprising the good performance from the Spaniard Xavier Tondo, who got the second place and the best among the favourites to win in Romandie.
The first long stage in Romandie is rather flat, but it has the Col du Jaun halfway through the stage. That combined with the Wolfeich, 15 km from the finish, could leave a smaller group to fight for the victory.
Only 2 riders made the break of the day: Rein Taaramae (Rabobank) and Giovanni Visconti (Lampre). The duo had 4’ 40’’ on the pack at the start of the Col de Jaun. The start of the stage was very fast, as Dries Devenyns joined one of the groups that broke away. The other teams with favourites couldn’t allow the Belgian to go away and that brought 30 km of battles.
Although the climb to Jaun wasn’t excessively demanding, only 69 riders remained in the main group after the descent. The most remarkable rider left behind was Oscar Freire, but his group wasn’t far behind.
The break was caught just before the last climb, and it wasn’t enough to allow for attacks that break the peloton. Therefore, we were set for a mass sprint with around 90 riders in the peloton. Garmin seems to be the team most interested in controlling the pack.
A messy sprint with men from Euskaltel in front. Lloyd Mondory is at the front, with David López bringing Tondo to the front and Chris Anker Sorensen behind.
Xavi Tondo wins in Fribourg! This stage seems to have taken the strength out of the sprinters, as in the end it was a tight one between two contenders for the GC, Tondo and Vanendert. The only one more of a sprinter kind was Lloyd Mondory, finishing third.
After two great stages Xavi Tondo gets the yellow jersey for tomorrow’s stage. He is 2 seconds clear of Samuel Sanchez and 5 ahead of Vanendert.
The third stage in Romandie has several climbs and closer to the finish today. There could be a nice fight in the last 60 kilometres, as most probably there won’t be a team looking for a mass sprint.
The break today was quite big, with 11 riders. Among them was the World Champion, Tom Danielson (Liquigas), and other riders such as Denis Menchov (HTC), Fabian Cancellara (Leopard) and Pierre Rolland (Quickstep). They had built a gap of 5’ 30’’ by the time they reached the second intermediate sprint.
On the first climb of the day BMC did a double attack with Matthew Goss and Peter Stetina. They crowned the mountain with 2’10’’ lost on the break and 1’ 10’’ ahead of the pack.
However, the BMC duo was not successful and they were caught on the climb of La Vue des Alpes. Meanwhile, Beñat Intxausti was picking up mountain points. The gap of the break had fallen to only 2 minutes at the top.
On La Tourne, the hardest climb of the day, 5 men of the break were ahead: Danielson, Cancellara, Menchov, Bennati and Langeveld. Dries Devenyns attacked in the peloton followed by Weening while they reeled in some riders.
Everyone was brought back to the group in the flat between the last two climbs. A group of around 50 riders started the climb together, but Hincapie jumped soon. He crossed the mountain sprint ahead, but with only 20 seconds his adventure didn’t last long. We were set for a reduced group sprint.
Dries Devenyns leads the sprint ahead of Pieter Weening, Jean-Christophe Peraud and Mikel Nieve. It looks like the riders that can go through the hills are the strongest in the sprint today.
Pieter Weening wins in La Chaux de Fonds! This is the first win of the season for HTC. Behind him were Dries Devenyns and Lloyd Mondory. The French was one of the fastest men in the group but he doesn’t seem to find a way to win in the start of the season.
Pieter Weening has moved to second overall, 2 seconds behind Tondo. The team time trial tomorrow will be interesting to see considering the small gaps between the top riders.
A short team time trial in Yverdon-les-Bains is the route for the fourth stage of the Tour de Romandie. The route is hillier than the route shows, as the riders climb almost 200 meters in the first 7 kilometres.
Garmin was the fourth team to ride today and they set the worst time so far 4 seconds behind the current leaders, Lampre.
The other Italian team was close, but in the end they set the second best time behind their fellow Italians.
Leopard had improved Lampre’s time, but Omega was very strong and set a new best time of 19’ 11’’, 10 seconds better than Leopard. That was a big boost to Vanendert chase for the yellow.
HTC didn’t look very good and ended up 16 seconds behind Omega. Weening will be missing these few seconds in the overall results.
BMC was very focussed on getting a good result in Romandie with Hincapie and Mikel Nieve. The team did a good effort to cross the line on the second position, only 5 seconds behind Omega.
Euskaltel also sacrificed part of the early season to be very fit in Switzerland. The Spaniards tried to defend Tondo’s jersey but failed, as they crossed the finish line 10 seconds behind.
Saxo Bank were favourites for the stage, but didn’t deliver. They were 12 seconds slower than Omega. This leaves Hubert Dupont 20th in the GC, 21 seconds behind.
Jelle Vanendert is the new leader, ahead of 3 other Omega riders in the top 10. There are also 3 BMC up in the classification. Other favourites are Hincapie, 16th +16s; F. Schleck, 19th +20s and Devenyns, 28th, +26s.
The fifth stage in Romandie is the more interesting in terms of the general classification. It seems that this year winner will be a climber, as the key moment of the race will surely be the ascent to Mauborget. That is a climb that can make differences in the peloton and the top is only 10 kilometres from the finish.
Today's break was made of five men: Giovanni Visconti (Lampre), Alessandro Ballan (Liquigas), Tejay Van Garderen (Garmin), Peter Kennaugh (Sky) and Rui da Costa (Radioshack). They had a gap of more than 6 minutes on the pack in the Coldes Etroits.
Another group was formed on the start of the third climb of the day. It had 2 men from BMC, Euskaltel and Saxo Bank, in a clear attempt by those teams to leave helpers ahead for their main contenders. Among them, Oliver Zaugg was the most dangerous in the GC, 11th +14''. This meant that other teams had to take the responsibility to chase.
On the top of the climb Giovanni Visconti adds more points to his lead in the KoM classification and looks set to take that jersey. The second group crosses the top 2' 55'' behind and the peloton is 4' 25'' back.
Once the riders reach the first slopes of Mauborget, Pieter Weening attacks. The Dutch doesn't want to wait and defies anyone who can follow.
Some riders try to follow, but none is able to match the good pace of Weening. The HTC rider has already 1' 35'' on a group with Tondo, Nieve, Devenyns and Rast. Only Ballan and Visconti are also ahead of this small group.
Pieter Weening leads at the top of the Mauborget and only has 10 kilometres to take his second stage win in Romandie. Mikel Nieve is second 1' 28'' behind and a group with Frank Schleck, Hubert Dupont, Xavi Tondo and Jelle Vanendert loses 1' 35''.
Pieter Weening wins in Sainte-Croix! He also looks set to take the leaders jersey, as the difference is going to be more than 1 minute on the chasers.
Hubert Dupont takes second ahead of Mikel Nieve and four other 54 second behind Weening. The general classification is therefore led by Weening, with Jelle Vanendert second and Xavi Tondo thrid. Seeing that tomorrow stage is one for a mass sprint or a break, this means that Pieter Weening is the virtual winner of the Tour de Romandie.
The last stage in Romandie is a rather easy one that will probably end in a mass sprint. Although the riders will have to face the climb to the Marchairuz, it is too far from the finish to cause trouble in the GC.
A break of eight riders was ahead in the climb to Mont d'Orzeire, including: Marco Pinotti (Leopard), Thomas Voeckler (Saxo Bank), Matthew Goss (BMC) and Pierre Rolland (Quickstep). The gap they had built was 6' 45'' at the top.
The gap had gone down to 4' 35'' by the time the riders in the break made it to the top of the Marchairuz. No fight for the points in the mountains from the break riders means that Giovanni Visconti has won the KoM jersey.
There was much drama in the descent for Omega Pharma Lotto, as Jelle Vanendert fell during the descent. As many as 6 other riders from the Belgian team stopped to help the second in the GC back to the pack.
Several attacks from riders looking to improve their general classification position, such as Gregory Rast or Lloyd Mondory, were seen in the last kilometres. None of them was successful. The break was looking good with 20 kilometres to go, as they were 1' 45'' ahead of the pack. Jelle Vanendert wasn't going to make it back, as he was losing 3 minutes. Even Bart de Clerq dropped to help the Belgian and was going to lose the white jersey at the same time.
Matthew Goss and Mathias Frank attacked in the last kilometres and reached the finish line with enough time to dispute the stage victory among them.
Mathias Frank wins in Geneve! The Swiss wins at home outsprinting Matthew Goss. No surprises in the peloton, that arrived 1' 44'' later. That means some of the riders in the break move up in the final standings, Frank to 7th and Pinotti to 8th.
The bad news today were in the Omega camp, as Jelle Vanendert couldn't make it back after his fall. He arrived more than 5 minutes behind along with most of the team. That takes him out of the main positions of the GC. That means Tondo climbs to 2nd behind Weening and Mikel Nieve will climb to the podium.
The calendar of the World Tour takes a long break until the busy months of August and September. The first of the races in these months is the Tour of Poland. The route of the race is a bit strange, as there are 5 really flat stages for the sprinters. The other 2 are fairly hilly and the GC should be decided in those. However, let's see if other riders can make up for the bonus seconds that many sprinters will collect on the first four days of racing.
Favourites:
- Lloyd Mondory (Liquigas): The French is underperforming this year, but he shouldn't be ruled out from contention in the Tour de Pologne. However, we could see some rivals in his own team if Marco Marcato is able to perform close to what he did in Tirreno.
- Janez Brajkovic (Radioshack): Brajkovic has done many things right this season, with a couple of stages in Tirreno and top 5 positions in Tour Down Under, Tirreno and Liege. He might be in contention again in the hilly stages.
- Thor Hushovd (Garmin): The Norwegian would be more dangerous if the Tour de Pologne had a time trial. However, he should be with the strongest in the hilly stages.
- Gregory Rast (Radioshack): Radioshack can be very dangerous, as they have two cards to play for the victory. The Swiss would profit from a bit more mountainous terrain and could be used as a luxury teammate for Brajkovic.
The Tour of Poland starts with a short criterium in Warsaw that will most probably be settled in a mass sprint. It is completely flat, so we have the usual favourites for this kind of stages: Farrar, Vinokourov or Greipel.
A group of eight riders was in front with 65 km to go. The group included: Marco Pinotti (Leopard), Stefano Garzelli (Liquigas), Oliver Zaugg (BMC) and Michelle Scarponi (Lampre). They had a gap of 4’ 30’’ on the pack.
As expected, the peloton didn’t have much trouble reeling the break back. With 2 laps to go, everything looked set for a mass sprint.
A crash happened with 1 lap to go and several important riders were on the ground, including: Peter Kennaugh, Chris Sorensen, Andy Schleck, Tom Boonen and Filippo Pozzato. It is a shame for Pozzato, who could do well in the GC, but will have difficulties now to do a good performance after losing time today.
Alexandre Vinokourov starts the sprint very well positioned, ahead of Grega Bole, Levi Leipheimer and Camron Meyer. Farrar is in fifth place and will have to fight to recover positions.
Alexandre Vinokourov wins in Warsaw! The Kazakh claims his fifth win of the season and starts the second part of the season very strong. Second was Tyler Farrar, who was gaining ground all the way through the sprint.
Vinokourov will therefore wear the leader’s jersey tomorrow, when the sprinters will have another chance to add to their win account.
The second stage in Poland is a marathon between Serock and Bialystok. The profile doesn’t have any interesting point, as the stage is very flat. The chances of a mass sprint are very big.
Only three riders were in the break of the day: Giacomo Nizzolo (Sky), Mathias Frank (Liquigas) and John Degenkolb (Leopard). Their maximum gap to the pack was 10’ 30’’ with 130 km to go. There were other groups between this group and the pack, but they never joined forces.
The timing of the peloton was perfect, as the break ended with 15 km remaining. Garmin took most of the credit as they looked for another win with Vinokourov.
Another fall took place today, much more dangerous than yesterday. Rabobank took a big hit, as one of their leaders, Joost Van Leijen, had to retire. Other favourites involved were Xavier Tondo (Euskaltel), Pieter Weening (HTC), Rigoberto Uran (Sky) and Janez Brajkovic (Radioshack). They all say goodbye to any GC chances they had, as all of them lost more than 3 minutes on the finish.
Tyler Farrar was very well placed as the sprint started, ahead of Tony Martin, Andre Greipel and Levi Leipheimer. Vinokourov was caught out of place and wouldn’t be fighting for victory.
Tyler Farrar wins in Bialystok! Farrar and Vinokourov keep sharing the sprint finishes. The American rider will also grab the yellow jersey on the bonus seconds. Meanwhile, Greipel keeps getting second places; this is the third time this year.
Today’s stage took a big hit on many good hills riders. We will have to see if the likes of Brajkovic, Uran, Tondo, and Pozzato are fully fit for the hills stages ahead. We won’t get a good show if we miss so many of them. It has to be especially hard for Rigoberto Uran, whose season goals were Tirreno and Poland and suffered falls in both of them.
The riders face another long and flat stage in the third day of racing at Poland. The first mountain jersey will be awarded on a very small hill towards the end of the stage but otherwise, it’s sprinters terrain.
The break of the day included names like Alessandro Ballan (Liquigas), Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre), Marco Pinotti (Leopard) and Cameron Meyer (Quickstep).
The peloton did a good job again on chasing the break and with 10 kilometres to go the sprinters began positioning themselves.
Lots of outsiders in the front as the sprint started: Stefano Garzelli, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Vasili Kiryenka and Fabian Cancellara.
Tyler Farrar wins in Lubin! The outsiders had to eventually surrender to the speed of the American. Ventoso was always close, but had to settle for a second place in the stage.
Another not very interesting stage in Poland gives Tyler Farrar his second win in a row and sees Freire wear the first mountain jersey of the race. Tomorrow we have yet another flat marathon, before the more interesting fifth and sixth stages.
