baseballlover312 wrote:
Farrar struggling this year.
Yes, he just doesn't seem to be up for the job this year. It is not a problem of sprinting skills though, but it seems like he cannot position himself properly for the sprint. His best result so far this season was a 2nd in the last stage of Tirreno - Adriatico.
The route in Liege is the same that the riders did two years ago. It is long and very hilly, especially in the way back from Bastogne towards the finish in Ans. The length and toughness of the route should make the race more interesting than the previous races in the Ardennes, where a rather big sprint happened.
The break of the day took some effort to take shape. In the end, a group of 7 tried the adventure, including Matthew Goss (Saxo Bank), Andreas Kloden (HTC), Carlos Betancur (Vacansoleil) and David Millar (Sky). Halfway through the stage, at the Cote de St Roche, they still enjoyed a lead of 6' 45'' over the bunch.
Roman Kreuziger (Rabobank) was able to bridge the gap to the break with 93 kilometers remaining. He jumped from the peloton with several other riders, including some very dangerous ones like Damiano Cunego and Xavi Tondo. However, this also meant that the peloton increased its pace a lot and were already 1' 50'' behind the break.
A crash with 87 kilometers remaining involved some of the main riders in the race, like Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil), the World Champion Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) and Denis Menchov (Katusha). Tom Danielson had to abandon due to the fall.
All the escapees were finally caught after an increased pace by the bunch. However, things slowed a bit on the way to La Redoute. Oscar Freire was the first to try and attack on the tough climb, but his attack wasn't too successful as Movistar was setting a good pace in the reduced bunch.
The race broke for good in the Roche-aux-Faucons, 21 kilometers from the finish. Davide Rebellin (Movistar) took advantage of his team's effort to attack. At the top of the hill he had built a gap of 30 seconds on Bjorn Leukemans, who tried to join. Jure Kocjan was 1' 20'' behind and the main group was already 1' 40'' back. Janez Brajkovic tried to join but couldn't follow the pace.
Rebellin's attack was good, but it looks as though today might be the day for Bjorn Leukemans. The Belgian caught and left him behind before the penultimate climb, Saint Nicholas. Meanwhile, a surprising Frank Schleck joined Rebellin. They were 40 seconds behind. 1' 20'' behind were Janez Brajkovic and Dries Devenyns, while Oscar Freire is on his own behind the two.
Rebellin and Schleck handled the acceleration of Brajkovic and Devenyns and will fight for the second place in the climb towards Ans. Meanwhile, Bjorn Leukemans is ready to take his first major win.
Bjorn Leukemans wins in Liege! The Belgian finally wins a major win and where better than in Liege. He completed a great attack after Rebellin broke the race into pieces and finally gets a much deserved win. This is also the first win for Lotto this season.
A tremendous Frank Schleck beats Davide Rebellin in the sprint and takes the second place in the race. The Luxembourgish wasn't among the pre race favorites and it is a massive surprise to see him perform so well after having done nothing in the season so far.
Behind them, Brajkovic and Devenyns took the fourth and fifth spots, while Freire arrived on his own to take the sixth place.
Xavi Tondo's career started to show some promise when he made his debut in the Team Radioshack. He got the 6th place in the Tour de Suisse and the mountains jersey. However, the Spaniard left the team to join the new Spaniard outfit: Euskaltel - Euskadi.
Tondo has been the leader of the Euskaltel team for the last three years and things have not gone wrong for him. He has been in the top 10 of the World Tour in every year and has a record of 3 stage wins. His best moment was his win at the top of the Farrapona climb, in the 14th stage of the 2010 Vuelta. He finished 5th in that race, his best Grand Tour performance in his career.
However, Tondo is still missing a major win, as he only has stages victories in his record. However, he got close to getting wins in the Tour de Romandie 2010 and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco 2011. He got second places in both of them. The second one was especially important for his team, as Euskaltel is based in Pais Vasco.
This season has been bad for Tondo so far. He has not earned a single World Tour point yet, what talks of the poor performance of the Spaniard so far. Pais Vasco was one of his targets for the season, but the team chose to work for David Lopez after his break on the first day of racing. Tondo will have high hopes for the Tour, where he expects to repeat the performances that lead him to top 10 places in the last two he raced.
Wins:
2009
- 1st Mountain jersey Tour de Suisse
2010
- 1st Stage 2 Tour de Romandie
- 1st Stage 14 Vuelta a España
2011
- 1st Stage 2 Vuelta al Pais Vasco
Other notable results:
- 6th 2009 Tour de Suisse
- 8th 2010 Liege - Bastogne - Liege
- 2nd 2010 Tour de Romandie
- 5th 2010 Vuelta a España
- 7th 2011 Volta a Catalunya
- 2nd 2011 Vuelta al Pais Vasco
- 10th 2011 Giro d'Italia
The Tour de Romandie returns after a 1 year parenthesis with a new route to test the riders' abilities. The team time trial has been substituted by an individual one 20 kilometers long, so any time trialist that can limit the loss of time in the second stage ending in Leysin will have a good chance of doing a good result. Pieter Weening is the defending champion of the race, but the long time trial doesn't favor his chances of winning again in Switzerland.
Favorites:
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil): Who could be the main favorite in Romandie but the man who took the win in the Tirreno - Adriatico, was in the podium in Pais Vasco and is leading the World Tour standings. Even though this race will be quite open, Mollema is still a good time trialist and will challenge for the overall victory for sure.
- Levi Leipheimer (HTC): Even though Andy Schleck seems to be the HTC's leader for the stage races this year, Romandie's characteristics fit Leipheimer much better than the Luxembourgish. Levi is one of the best time trialists out there, what should give him an edge on the fight for the final win.
- Cadel Evans (Discovery): Evans will also take the place of his usual leader, Mikel Nieve, in Romandie. Nieve is more a pure climber than Evans, so his chances wouldn't be as big in this route. Besides, the Australian has to start his season rolling as he hasn't done anything remarkable yet. A crash in the Tirreno - Adriatico ruined his chances in his main target for the season.
- Tejay van Garderen (Garmin): It is surprising to see a Garmin rider among the favorites for a race after the miserable season they had last year. Besides, they lost their main rider Alexandre Vinokourov to Astana. However, Van Garderen could well be fighting with the main favorites in this race thanks to his time trial abilities.
sutty68 wrote:
Would be great to see Pieter do the double in Romandie
I can't see him winning in Romandie, too many time trial kilometers for him. Anyway, Pais Vasco also had a rather long time trial and he won nevertheless.
Tour de Romandie Stage 1: Martigny - Martigny (ITT)
The prologue in Martigny is really short, at only 3.5 kilometers. The stage has no other use than gifting a stage win for a specialist and setting the very short first differences in the race.
Cameron Meyer (HTC) was the first of the contenders for the win in the stage to hit the road. He comfortable beat Jurgen van den Broeck for the top position recording a 6' 11', 7 seconds better than the Belgian.
David Millar (Sky) was close to the Australian, but could only set a time that was 2 seconds slower. He took the 2nd provisional spot.
Levi Leipheimer (HTC) also started early. He was the first among the final win favorites and, though he couldn't match Meyer's time, he got the 3rd provisional time 2 seconds slower.
The great dominator of the time trials so far was Samuel Sanchez (Katusha), but the Spaniard couldn't improve Meyer's time and took the 2nd place 1 second slower.
Rigoberto Uran (Sky) could also be in the chase for the final win if he plays his cards well. He tied Sanchez's time, 1 second behind Meyer.
Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank) also managed to tie with Sanchez and got the 4th provisional position in the stage.
Tejay van Garderen (Garmin) started well his battle for the GC and took the 5th spot 1 second slower than Meyer. A lot of riders seem to be piling up right behind the Australian.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) started his chase for his second stage race of the season with a loss of only 1 second to Meyer.
Cameron Meyer took the stage win and leader's jersey, but he is going to have a tough time defending it tomorrow on the mountain top finish of Leysin. The time differences were really small as expected, so all of the favorites are fairly matched.
The finish of the second stage in Leysin is the only mountain top finish of the Tour de Romandie. It is probably the most decisive stage apart from the time trial on Signal de Bougy. Before Leysin the riders will face the gentle climb to the Col de Pillon. It will be difficult to open big gaps today anyway, because the toughness of the stage is not big enough.
A very big group took shape after several attempts in the first kilometers of the stage. Among the 12 riders in it were Alessandro Ballan (BMC), Beñat Intxausti (Katusha), Simon Gerrans (Quickstep), Ben Hermans (Discovery) and Lars Peter Nordhaug (Ag2r). They had a solid gao of 5' 15'' on the peloton with 82 kilometers remaining.
HTC, Vacansoleil and Saxo Bank seemed to be the teams most eager to take the break down as they dragged the bunch in the flat before the Col de Pillon. As they started the climb, the gap with the break was 2 minutes. In the front group Simon Gerrans had launched the first attack of the day in the break.
Ben Hermans and Alessandro Ballan go first through the mountain sprint of the Col de Pillon, 21 kilometers from the finish. They have 20 seconds on Simon Gerrans, Chris Horner and Enrico Gasparotto. There are several riders trying attacks in the bunch, like Xavi Tondo and Frank Schleck, but they are not successful. The bunch is one minute behind the leaders.
Frank Schleck was unlucky enough to crash with 8 kilometers to go, hampering his chances in both the stage and the GC. The leading duo was already starting the final climb, while the bunch was closing in only 35 seconds behind.
The break was soon caught back, but there were no attacks after that. Andy Schleck (HTC) was marking such a high pace in front of the pack that it looked as if he was going to break it without attacks. That is hard to do in a climb that is not so hard.
Davide Rebellin (Movistar), Xavi Tondo (Euskaltel) and Bart de Clerq (Lampre) took a few meters on the rest of the pack as entering the last kilometer. It looks like one of the three are taking the stage win.
Davide Rebellin wins in Leysin! The Italian was the fastest in the final sprint and took the win ahead of a fast Miguel Angel Rubiano. The third spot was for the Lampre rider Bart de Clerq. In the final kilometers the group finally broke and only 53 riders ended in the same time.
Rebellin takes now the lead of the GC 1 second ahead of De Clerq. However, it is difficult to see the Italian maintaining the lead after the time trial. Tomorrow another hilly stage awaits the riders, but it is difficult to see an attack succeeding.
The third stage of the Tour de Romandie does three cycles around the town of Romont. The race will be difficult to control as, even if there are not big climbs, the accumulated climbing will be quite high. The toughest of the climbs will be Le Gibloux, which top is only 16 kilometers from the finish in Romont. There might be some riders that try to break the race in its slopes, as not many places to attack can be found in this year's Romandie.
Levi Leipheimer (HTC), 11th in the GC, suffered a crash in the first half of the race (108 km remaining). The American is one of the favorites for tomorrow's time trial, so it would be a shame that his performance was hampered by a crash. Several teammates waited for him to help him rejoin the group.
The break of the day was pretty dangerous in this hilly terrain. The group of 8 riders included Ben Swift (Sky), Peter Kennaugh (Garmin), Tony Gallopin (Quickstep) and Laurens Ten Dam (Liquigas). They had 6' 20'' on the peloton as they crossed the 2nd KoM sprint of the day in Dompierre. They still had 77 kilometers in front of them.
The bunch, towed by Vacansoleil and Saxo Bank, reached the bottom of the last climb of the day losing 2' 25'' with 21 kilometers to go. It is looking good for the break at this time, as it will be difficult that they lose so much in this climb. Frank Schleck (Radioshack) was again unlucky, as he reached the climb behind the pack after a puncture.
Rein Taaramae (Radioshack) goes first in the top of Le Gibloux. The group of the break only has 5 riders remaining while the peloton is still 1' 35'' behind. Frank Schleck rejoined the group in the uphill section.
The break had the stage win guaranteed already as they entered the last 3 kilometers of the stage. Peter Kennaugh looks like the favorite for the win in the uphill finish of Romont.
Rein Taaramae leads the way as the riders in the break enter the last kilometer of the stage. He is followed by Tony Gallopin, Kanstantsin Sivtsov and Peter Kennaugh. Gallopin is surely the man with the fastest speed in a normal sprint but he isn't looking that good on the hill.
Rein Taaramae wins in Romont! The Estonian rider takes the first win of his career by outsprinting faster men in the uphill sprint of Romont. Tony Gallopin was fast enough to take second, while Peter Kennaugh, who looked the favorite, had to settle for the third place.
The bunch arrived 57 seconds behind the break after a chase that never looked like succeeding. Roman Kreuziger won the sprint of the pack. The GC suffers no big changes, as all of the riders in the break had lost quite a bit of time.
The fourth stage doesn't have such an interesting finish as the previous stages, as the tough climb to Enges (almost 7 km averaging 6.8%) is more than 40 kilometers away from the finish. A break of riders who have lost time in the GC might be lucky and succeed today.
The break of the day had some dangerous riders in the GC, as Mikel Nieve (Discovery), Simon Gerrans (Quickstep) and Peter Stetina (BMC) are all within 10 seconds of the leader and are dangerous riders, especially Nieve. Other riders in the 12 men break were Thomas Voeckler (Movistar) and Nick Nuyens (Saxo Bank). They had 4' 15'' on the bunch entering the last 80 kilometers.
Movistar had a hard time chasing the break, as they only put two men in front. Astana and Katusha decided to start helping in the climb to Enges. However, the pack still was losing 2' 50'' at the top of the climb.
Simon Gerrans will lead the mountain jersey after taking maximum points today. The break has gone down to 7 riders after the two climbs, but the most dangerous riders are still in there. The gap is still 1' 35'' and that could be enough for tomorrow's time trial.
Simon Gerrans and Peter Stetina attacked from the break and got themselves a lead of 35 seconds with 8 kilometers remaining. The peloton had some trouble down hilling the last climb and is 1' 50'' behind. The duo looks good for the win in Neuchatel.
Gerrans and Stetina did arrive at the last kilometer ahead. However, the other members of the break had been caught by the pack. The men behind pushed a lot in the last kilometers and the gap of the two in front was only 40 seconds.
Simon Gerrans wins in Neuchatel! A very close sprint between the two escapees ends with the first win of the season for the Australian. The peloton closed down on the break a lot in the last moments and ended 28 seconds behind led by Jure Kocjan and Lieuwe Westra.
The Quickstep riders now takes the leader jersey ahead of the time trial. He has 7 seconds on Peter Stetina and 33 on Davide Rebellin. However, the main favorites for the win in the stage are a bit behind. It will be interesting to see if they can recover the difference with the Australian.
