The fifth stage finishing in Zakopane is the first where potentially the favorites will start to fight for the final win in the GC. The final part of the stage is a circuit that will be raced twice. It includes the climbs to Glodowka and Dobra do Olczy. The second of those is only slightly more than 5 kilometers away from the finish line so any breaks that happen in the climb will be very dangerous. Nevertheless, the attitude of the riders will be crucial as to whether there are significant gaps or not.
There was quite a big battle at the start of the day for the break to take shape. A group of 5 finally managed to break away: Pablo Lastras (Movistar), Miguel Rubiano (Ag2r), Anthon Roux (IAM), Stefan van Dijk (Giant) and Chris Sutton (Vacansoleil). At the top of the climb to Wierch Olczanzki their gap was 5' 15'' but with 97 kilometers to go the peloton had a lot of time to control it. However, considering that 2 breaks have already made it home there was some concern.
Julien Simon, Nairo Quintana and Christophe Riblon attacked from the peloton to fight for the KoM points and were already close to the break at the 1st climb to Glodowka, the toughest climb in the final circuit. The gap was only 25 seconds. Meanwhile, the peloton was 3' 20'' behind with LottoNL at the front. There was a moment of nerves a few kilometers before as the peloton broke into 2 and a few important riders were in the second group, including Joost van Leijen. There were a lot of riders still at the peloton at this stage and the situation was much calmer.
LottoNL were still at the front at the 2nd climb to the Droga do Olczy, with 46 kilometers to go. Its top will be only 5 kilometers from the finish in the final lap. The Dutch team were keeping a steady pace which was slowly making the gap to the break smaller. The chasers had already made contact with the front group and Nairo Quintana was already 3rd in the KoM classification. With more than 1 lap still to go the favorites were still keeping their calm.
The race was completely out of control as the riders climbed the Glodowka for a second time. The front group was formed by 10 riders both from the early break and important riders. It included riders like Mikel Nieve, Chris Anker Sorensen, Rein Taaramae and Francesco Gavazzi. David Lopez was riding 30 seconds behind and 55 seconds back were Philippe Gilbert and Stefan van Dijk. BMC was leading the bunch of around 60 riders and were 1' 15'' behind. With 23 kilometers to go there was still a lot to fight over.
BMC and LottoNL joined forces at the peloton and managed to bring back all of the attackers during the descent and the flat part before of the last climb of the day. Lotto tried to attack with Bjorn Leukemans and Jelle Vanendert but they had no success. With 10 kilometers to go there was an impasse as the riders awaited the climb to Droga do Olczy. Kenny van Hummel was leading the pack with Bernhard Eisel right behind while Euskaltel's Greg van Avermaet and David Lopez were close to the front.
Frank Schleck was first at the top of the last climb to the Droga do Olczy but he was followed by David Lopez, Philippe Gilbert and a few others. The strong headwind in the last climb made it difficult for any attackers to open a gap. Bernhard Eisel was keeping things under control and reacted quite well to the attacks. The Austrian looks set to retain the yellow jersey one more day. Filippo Pozzato and Mikel Nieve were in an attacking mode today but none of their attempts were successful.
Davide Rebellin attacked in the mildly uphill road towards Zakopane. The Italian opened a gap of 15 seconds at the front of the race but Joost van Leijen, Chris Anker Sorensen and Simon Gerrans were already leading the chase. The gap for Rebellin was not enough to think that he had the stage in his hands as he still had 2 kilometers to ride. He still had much to fight if he wanted the win. It was very difficult to guess who the favorite would be if the peloton caught Rebellin back.
Davide Rebellin was still leading the way with 800 meters to go but he was about to be overtaken by Kenny van Hummel. The Dutch is a very fast sprinter but has done a lot of work for Bernhard Eisel today. Mark Renshaw was right behind while Joost van Leijen and Philippe Gilbert were a bit behind. Renshaw should in principle the favorite among the riders that are close to the front as he is a good sprinter and he has not done much work today.
Alexander Kristoff wins in Zakopane! The Euskaltel rider appeared out of nowhere in the final few meters of the stage to take the win from Kenny van Hummel. We had not seen Kristoff close to the front in the whole stage and the Norwegian apparently saved a lot of energies by riding in the middle of the pack. Van Hummel was second ahead of Mark Renshaw. Both had been close to the front in the last kilometers and considering they are very fast were considered favorites.
The top 5 was completed by Emanuele Sella and Lloyd Mondory. In the end as many as 67 riders were in the front group at the finish and Bernhard Eisel comfortably kept the yellow jersey. Tomorrow's stage will be much more difficult but his gap to the favorites is still bigger than 1 minute, which will require an attack from far out from them to make it work. They will not be able to wait for the last climb. Eros Capecchi is still 3 seconds behind in the GC.
Jerome Coppel is one of the candidates to become one of the stars of the coming years in the World of Cycling. The 27 year old French started in the World tour 4 years ago in the squad of the Vacansoleil - DMC team before joining Ag2r - La Mondiale for a couple of seasons. He was learning the job in all those years and only started to get significant results when he joined the Garmin - Sharp team last season, which was re-branded to IAM Cycling for 2016.
Back at the start of 2015 Garmin was a broken down team which only reference rider was Mathias Frank. Only the podium that the Swiss managed to get in the Tour de France the year before had prevented the team from collapsing due to their bad results. They needed a rider that could share the leading role of the team with Frank and they trusted it to Jerome Coppel, whose only relevant result had been winning the Young rider jersey at the Criterium du Dauphine.
Of course, no one expected him to get a lot of results when he did not have anything significant from before but Coppel managed to get a 10th position in the GC of the Tour de Romandie. He was starting to become a more than decent time trialist but could not get anything out of the National Championship. However, the turning point in his career so far was the World Championship in Richmond. He was the 2nd choice for France along with Jean-Christophe Peraud. His performance was absolutely outstanding and only missed on a medal by 6 seconds, taking the 4th position.
This result consolidated the progress that he had been making and he was given again a leading role for IAM Cycling this season. His performances have kept improving and he already got top 10 results both in the Tour de Romandie and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. More than that, he capitalised on the opportunity when Mathias Frank was not at the squad to grab a podium in the Criterium du Dauphine. If he keeps making progress like this we could well be talking about Jerome Coppel as a candidate. So far, IAM has become one of the relevant teams in the World Tour instead of being threatened with getting relegated to being a Pro Continental team and that is an achievement in itself.
Best results:
ITT World Championship
4th (2015)
Criterium du Dauphine
3rd (2016), Points (2016), Mountain (2014), Young (2014)
Stage 6: Bukovina Terma Hotel Spa - Bukowina Tatrzanska
Today is the day that the favorites have waited for in the Tour de Pologne. The stage takes place all in the surroundings of Bukowina Tatrzanska, where the riders will ride 5 times a circuit close to 40 kilometers long. It includes 3 climbs: Zab, Gliczarow Gorny and the climb to Bukowina Tatrzanska. The finish line is placed at the top of this last climb. The favorites will not be able to speculate today with the result as the riders that were in the break in stage 1 have a good gap in the GC.
The break was on the large side today as the peloton found it very difficult to control the race in the first lap. The group of 7 at the front included Francesco Gavazzi (Cannondale), Maarten Tjallingii (Quickstep), Simon Spilak (Tinkoff), Julien Simon (FDJ) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Euskaltel). They had a gap of 5' 40'' at the third climb to Zab, 103 kilometers from the finish line. Furthermore, Mikel Nieve and Anthony Roux were trying to bridge the gap and were 1' 25'' behind. The bunch could not let the break go too far as Gavazzi and Damiano Cunego were 1' 23'' behind in the GC.
One lap later LottoNL were still chasing the break but the pace was not that fast and the gap was still at 4 minutes. No other teams were helping and they alone might not be enough to bring the break back with 64 kilometers to go. A bit more than 100 riders were still forming the main group with several climbs to go. Julien Simon was provisionally the leader of the KoM ranking ahead of Maarten Tjallingii. The favorites should start increasing the pace quite early if they want to have a chance of taking the GC in Poland.
Mikel Nieve was first at the 4th climb to Gliczarow Gorny ahead of Maarten Tjallingii and Francesco Gavazzi. Julien Simon seemed to be done and dusted and struggling to keep hold of the front group. With a couple of categorized climbs to go his lead in the KoM might be in danger. Meanwhile, Steven Kruijswijk and Denis Menchov had started to pick up the pace and the gap to the break had been brought down to 2' 30''. Bernhard Eisel was still well positioned at the front of the bunch.
Igor Anton and Wout Poels jumped from the group of the favorites at the first climb during the last lap. Andy Schleck tried to go with them but did not have the legs to make the move. Halfway through the climb to Zab they were only 30 seconds behind the break, while the bunch was 1' 15'' behind the leaders. BMC were chasing with riders like Emanuele Sella and Dries Devenyns so the pace was much higher. They were trying to win the GC with Eros Capecchi, only 3 seconds behind Bernhard Eisel in the overall.
Davide Rebellin was the first of the favorites to attack. He did it halfway through the second climb of the circuit, Gliczarow Gorny. With only 11 kilometers remaining it seemed way too late to try to gain back more than 1 minute on Bernhard Eisel or Eros Capecchi. The Italian was followed by Frank Schleck, Jose Serpa, David Lopez and Cadel Evans. BMC was still setting the pace but all of the top riders in the GC were still close to the front of the group. With only 2 kilometers to the top of the climb they were already catching riders from the early break.
Davide Rebellin did not open a gap in his first attack but counter-attacked to a subsequent jump by David Lopez and got to the top of the climb first. He had built a small 10 seconds gap on Mikel Nieve, Igor Anton, Jose Serpa and Frank Schleck, while Robert Gesink was 30 seconds behind and trying to bridge the gap. Lopez, who had attacked 1 kilometer to the top, did not have the legs to join them. His group was only 40 seconds from Rebellin and Bernhard Eisel was having no trouble to keep up with them.
Domenico Pozzovivo led the group of the leader towards the climb to the finish line in Bukowina Tatrzanska. With 2 kilometers to go only Davide Rebellin stayed ahead of the group of the leader and with a gap of 45 seconds he was very close to getting the stage win in the queen stage of the Tour of Poland. Bjorn Leukemans and Tom Boonen were following Pozzovivo but there were as many as 80 riders in that group, far too many considering that the stage was hard enough.
Bjorn Leukemans started the sprint if the group of the favorites but it was going to be for the 2nd place, given that Davide Rebellin entered the last kilometer with 40 seconds on the group. Leukemans was followed by Filippo Pozzato, Pavel Brutt, Frank Schleck and Jelle Vanendert. However, the most interesting part of the sprint would be to see if some gaps opened and Eros Capecchi managed to put a few seconds between him and Bernhard Eisel.
Davide Rebellin wins in Bukowina Tatrzanska! The Italian tried to win solo yesterday but was caught within the last kilometer. Today was a different story and he proved to be the strongest riders in the hills. This is his second win of the season, the first being in Willunga Hill during the Tour Down Under. The sprint for the 2nd place in the stage was taken by Jelle Vanendert ahead of Robert Gesink. The top 5 was completed by Pavel Brutt and Bjorn Leukemans.
In the end no time gaps appeared in the final climb among the riders in the main group and that means that Bernhard Eisel will retain the yellow jersey with 3 seconds on Eros Capecchi. The Austrian is the virtual winner of the Tour de Pologne as tomorrow's stage does not have any difficulties and should be for the sprinters. The only rider to make some progress in the GC was Davide Rebellin, who climbed to the 7th position overall.
Seems to be a hard stage with a lot of action, Davide Rebellin did the right thing at the right moment, getting a better GC possibility and a stage win.
The Tour de Pologne finishes with a very easy stage in the surroundings of Krakow. Most of the stage will be a circuit mostly in the streets of the city that is 13 kilometers long. The circuit is completely flat so a mass sprint should be almost guaranteed if the teams of the sprinters do not make another mistake as in Katowice. The points' competition should be the only interesting prize today apart from the stage win.
The only KoM sprint of the day was placed only a few kilometers into the stage, with 105 kilometers to go. Tom Slagter was alone at the front with a gap of 1' 40'' on the bunch. There was no fight for the points in the bunch, which meant that Julien Simon would be the winner of the competition at the end of the day. The first intermediate sprint had been done only a couple of kilometers before and Marcel Kittel was 1st. Andre Greipel got very close to Alexander Kristoff in the points' competition.
A few other riders joined Tom Slagter later in the day, including Gregory Rast (Orica), Beñat Intxausti (Discovery), Jeremy Roy (Ag2r) and Reinardt Janse van Rensburg (Cofidis). They formed a group of 6 riders. With 70 kilometers to go they had already entered the final circuit in the streets of Krakow. Thier gap had grown to 4' 40'' so the bunch had already begun the chase. Lotto, Astana and IAM were setting the pace while LottoNL were happy to let them take that role.
The effort by the break was not that useful today as the bunch measured the gap better today and with 8 kilometers to go the gap was only 25 seconds. Lotto put strong riders like Tony Martin, Bradley Wiggins and Jelle Vanendert to chase and that was the end of the hopes of the escapees. Meanwhile, Bernhard Eisel, who is about to take the overall win, was very much at the front of the pack to avoid any crashes. With many sprinters at the front the stage win would be very hard to get.
Lotto only had Jelle Vanendert to help him ahead of the final sprint and they were still 3 kilometers from the finish line. No other team had been able to set up a sprint train so the German would have to do with that. However, Gregory Rast was still fighting ahead of the bunch but his gap had been reduced to a mere 10 seconds. Mark Renshaw had been very clever to take Greipel's wheel early on while other sprinters that were well positioned were Kenny van Hummel, Jurgen Roelandts and Tyler Farrar.
Jelle Vanendert had to get to the side with more than 1 kilometer to go and that was when Andre Greipel was forced to start the final sprint. It was way too early and the sprint would be really long for the German. Mark Renshaw and Kenny van Hummel were right behind and enjoying a lead out from the National Champion. However, a small gap opened behind them as Jurgen Roelandts could not keep up with the pace and had to bail out of the sprint. Tyler Farrar was trying to close that gap.
Andre Greipel was still leading the way with 500 meters to go, proving that he was in a top shape in the Tour de Pologne but Mark Renshaw and Kenny van Hummel were starting to gain back on the Lotto rider and seemed to have better momentum towards the finish line. The win was probably too far away for anyone behind, including Lloyd Mondory who was making a lot of progress but was still behind Tyler Farrar at that point. On the other hand, Alexander Kristoff was nowhere to be seen and the points' jersey was very much under threat.
Kenny van Hummel wins in Krakow! That was an amazing week of cycling for the LottoNL - Jumbo team. They had had an awful season so far and dearly needed some wins. The Dutch narrowly beat Mark Renshaw for the line and grabbed his 3rd win in 2016, the other 2 being back in the Paris - Nice. Lloyd Mondory made a lot of progress in the closing stages of the sprint but had to settle for third, while Tyler Farrar and Marcel Kittel completed the top 5.
The joy of LottoNL did not finish with the stage win as Bernhard Eisel managed to take the win the overall race, a massive success for the Austrian. He will be joined by Eros Capecchi and Lars Petter Nordhaug in the podium. The final result of the race was a massive surprise but the favorites for the win seemed to be more worried about the preparation for subsequent races than about the actual race. In the points' competition the win was for Andre Greipel as Alexander Kristoff could only be 13th in the final stage, very far from the leading positions.
The second and last Grand Tour of the year will be the Vuelta a España. Lots of important riders in the World Tour have travelled to the North of Spain in late August to take part in one of the most important cycling races of the season. The Vuelta will feature a new route this season starting in Pamplona, close to the Gulf of Biscay. The mountains will be the main attractive of the race with mountain top finishes in Ancares, Lagos de Covadonga, Cuitu Negru and the Bola del Mundo. However, the lack of flat individual time trials made quite a few riders avoid the Spanish race.
The first winner of the Vuelta since the new era, Hubert Dupont, will be missing from the race but Peter Stetina and Bauke Mollema will take part. The American hopes to defend the title he got in 2014 but it will be a hard task for him as his season has been plagued with crashes that have hampered his performances so far. The main hope for the locals will be David Lopez. The Basque accumulates 3 podiums in Grand Tours and where better to win his first than in home soil.
Favorites:
- Robert Gesink (Ag2r - La Mondiale): Gesink does not have the winning record to be a massive favorite for the Vuelta but the Dutch has very much focused on the Spanish race when preparing his season. Other climbers were favoring the Giro but Gesink stated that he is feeling as fit for the Vuelta as for the Giro. His best result of the season was undoubtedly the 2nd place in the Dauphine but he is due a podium in a Grand Tour after the disappointment in the Giro.
- Cadel Evans (Movistar Team): The Vuelta is really important for Movistar and Cadel Evans accepted to sacrifice the Giro. The season of the Australian has been full of good positions in different races but he only had a podium finish in the Tour de Suisse, where he also collected 2 stage wins. Evans would have liked a race with a bit more flat time trial kilometers but he should also be among the top riders when it comes to the mountains.
- Laurens Ten Dam (Team Cannondale - Garmin): The winner of the last Giro d'Italia and the last Tour de France is obviously one of the favorites, if not the key favorite, to win the Vuelta a España. Ten Dam has not only won the Giro but he got 4 stages in the Italian race and a further 2 wins elsewhere this season. The only question mark on his performance is that he might get to the Vuelta too tired compared with other of the favorites and he has not raced since the National Championships.
- David Lopez (Euskaltel - Euskadi): The last of the favorites is another obvious rider, David Lopez. The Spaniard was 2nd in the Giro d'Italia and aims to be the first Spaniard to win the Vuelta since the new World Tour was created. Lopez accumulates 3 podiums in Grand Tours and already won the Paris - Nice and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco this year. He will be grateful that the only time trial of the race is quite hilly as he would surely lose time in a flatter stage.
Other riders with a chance could be Levi Leipheimer (HTC - Highroad), Frank Schleck (Etixx - Quickstep), Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto - Soudal), Denis Menchov (Team Katusha) and Peter Stetina (BMC Racing Team).
The best sprinters that have come to the Vuelta are Marcel Kittel (Astana Pro Team), Kenny van Hummel (LottoNL - Jumbo), Tyler Farrar (Tinkoff - Saxo), Mark Renshaw (Discovery Channel), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) and Mark Cavendish (IAM Cycling).
The Vuelta starts as it is usual in the last few years with a team time trial. The opening stage will take place in Pamplona this time, in the North of the country. The 16 kilometers route is plagued with changes of direction in the streets of the city, which is famous for the bulls running across the streets. Therefore, the differences among the favorites are not expected to be significant, although any time gaps albeit small are always welcome.
Lotto was the first candidate for the win to start. The Belgian team used to be one of the poorest teams in terms of team time trials last year but they signed a few strong riders in the area, like Tony Martin. Movistar had set the early pace in the stage but it was no problem for Lotto to beat them as the Belgians improved on that time by a 16 seconds margin. This was a good start of the Vuelta for Jelle Vanendert, who normally struggles in time trials.
HTC was one of the top favorites for the stage, only behind Quickstep in the bookies. The American team has a very strong lineup including Andrew Talansky, Levi Leipheimer and Juanjo Cobo. The only piece they were missing for the team time trial was David Millar and in the end his teammates missed him as they came 2nd provisionally at the finish line, 12 seconds behind Lotto. This puts the time from the Belgian team into perspective as it was considerably faster than one of the top favorites.
Discovery Channel started a bit behind HTC. The American team did not really aim for the stage win today. Their target was not to lose too much time and leave Mikel Nieve close to the top of the sheets at the end of the day. Their performance was not bad at all and they managed to get the 3rd provisional time 12 seconds behind Lotto. They were almost completely tied with HTC. This will surely leave Nieve happy as his chances in the GC are as good as before the stage.
Tinkoff has not had a good season so far but nevertheless they were outsiders for the stage win today. Their main target for the Vuelta will be getting sprint wins with Tyler Farrar and stage wins through breaks with other riders. It looks unlikely that Tiago Machado tries to go for the overall. Even though they had many solid time trialists they could only set the 5th best time, 16 seconds behind Lotto. This is a repetition of what has happened to the team the whole 2016. Even Farrar has only been able to win once so far.
Bauke Mollema will be the leader of Vacansoleil for the Vuelta, a race he already won back in 2013. They were in damage limitation mode today but were a bit below expectations, setting the provisional 10th time, 18 seconds behind Lotto. Nevertheless, the differences were so small among most of the teams that today's result will not really make a difference in the whole schema. Andy Schleck will also feature in the Dutch team hoping to improve on a really poor season so far.
Astana won the Team Time Trial World Championship last year so now everyone has an eye on them whenever there is a TTT. However, today was not the day for them and they crossed the line with the 14th best time, 20 seconds behind Lotto. It is strange that they performed that bad but the fact that they did not have any rider remotely suitable to fight for the GC probably made them save energy for other stages. Marcel Kittel and Davide Rebellin should look for stages in sprints and hilly stages respectively.
Quickstep was the favorite to take the stage win in Pamplona. They had very good riders against the clock like Marco Pinotti, Janez Brajkovic and Maxime Monfort, which should have given them the edge. However, they could only take 2nd place so far as they crossed the line 4 seconds slower than Lotto - Soudal. It is a good start of the Vuelta nevertheless for Frank Schleck as the Luxembourgish is aiming to recover his good form in Grand Tours that he had a few years back.
The last team to start the time trial was another of the top favorites: Trek Factory Racing. The American team featured the World Champion, Cameron Meyer, along with other top riders like Tejay van Garderen and Michael Rogers. However, as with Quickstep they were a bit short of Lotto's time and had to be content with a final 2nd position, 4 seconds behind Lotto and tied with Etixx - Quickstep. This is a good start of the Vuelta nevertheless for Tejay van Garderen as the winner of a Tour de France bids to be back in a podium of a Grand Tour.
In the end it was Lotto that took the stage win in Pamplona but in truth the differences were so small that they should not make a difference in the outcome of the race. The nicest surprise of the day was the 4th position that Giant - Alpecin managed to achieve. The struggling German team is looking to finish the season on a high, especially in the classics of the end of the season where Joost van Leijen could shine. Their objectives in the Vuelta should be trying to grab a stage win via a break.
