Tirreno - Adriatico Stage 1: San Vincenzo - Donoratico
San Vincenzo hosts the opening of the Tirreno - Adriatico this year. The first stage is a team time trial that will run along the Tirreno sea towards Donoratico. At 17 kilometers it is not expected to produce a great deal of differences, but being so flat is an advantage with the teams that have good time trialists.
HTC were one of the main favorites to take the stage win, as they have plenty of good time trialists, like Froome or Leipheimer. They had a very early slot today and expectedly took the lead beating Lotto by 4 seconds. The feelings were mixed with the American team, as they were expected to do a better time.
Radioshack was the next of the important teams to show up. Frank Schleck and Roman Kreuziger were expecting to lose a bit to HTC and they did lose, but not a huge amount. By the time they reached the finish line they set the 4th best time, only 6 seconds slower than HTC.
Euskaltel was rather worse than Radioshack. The Spaniard team could only be ahead of Liquigas as they crossed the line in 6th place 14 seconds behind HTC. It is not a massive loss, but it will hurt the chances of David Lopez in the GC.
Quickstep had won last year's only team time trial, so it was no surprise when the beat HTC's time for the first place. They were only 1 second faster, but it could well mean that they take the stage win in Donoratico. The addition to Denis Menchov to the team in this time trials and they even left Cameron Mayer at home.
Movistar could never challenge with the top teams for today's win, but they did a good time trial nevertheless. The Spaniard team recorded the provisional 7th best time 9 seconds behind. This is not a massive loss for their leader, Steven Kruijswijk.
Vacansoleil was in line with Movistar and recorded the 7th best time 9 seconds behind the Quickstep team as well. Bauke Mollema has the help of Jakob Fuglsang in all the terrains, but a great deal more is needed to get a better result here.
BMC took all their firepower today and ended up beating Quickstep by 4 seconds! The American team has some great time trialists in Tejay van Garderen, Marco Pinotti and Geraint Thomas and they produced their best performance today. With only Discovery left to challenge for the win, it is looking good for BMC.
Discovery did a good time trial, but couldn't be as good as BMC. They recorded the 3rd best time, 5 seconds behind BMC. Their time is very good for the American team, as they only had a good time trialist in Janez Brajkovic. Mikel Nieve gets a good start in his fight for the GC.
Tejay van Garderen will therefore be the first leader of the Tirreno - Adriatico. However, it is very possible that the American will lose the jersey to one of the sprinters after tomorrow's stage as there are many of them that could cut the lead with bonus seconds.
Tirreno - Adriatico Stage 2: San Vincenzo - Indicatore (Arezzo)
Today's stage could look as a fairly easy stage for the sprinters but it could be tougher than that. The route is very long at 232 kilometers and the central part of the stage has the climbs of Volterra and Castellina in Chianti. Therefore, some of the sprinters could find the stage fairly tough for their abilities.
A group of 5 found no resistance to go away in the first part of the stage. The group included Geraint Thomas (BMC), Maarten Tjallingii (Ag2r) and Thor Hushovd (Garmin). However, the BMC rider was only there to control the break and didn't collaborate much. In the second climb, Castellina in Chianti they had a gap of 3 minutes on Bjorn Leukemans, who was trying to bridge the gap. The bunch was 8' 50'' behind.
Geraint Thomas took advantage of not collaborating too much to attack within the last 40 kilometers. Bjorn Leukemans had bridged the gap to the break, but not even the World Champion seems to have the strength to follow the British. Thomas could get the lead even if he is caught as he took the first place in the second intermediate sprint in Indicatore.
The bunch had to work hard, with teams like Sky or Lampre placing several riders to chase, but it eventually paid off. Thomas was reeled back in 14 kilometers from the finish. The British is a great flat rider and gave them much trouble to be caught.
Even though Jakob Fuglsang was doing a great job taking Peter Sagan in position, the Lampre train with Elia Viviani and Yauheni Hutarovich appeared to take the best position ahead of the mass sprint. The Vacansoleil train was side by side with Katusha's Simone Ponzi on Sagan's wheel. On the other side of the road, Jure Kocjan was working for Jose Joaquin Rojas (HTC), while Danilele Bennati was behind them.
Yauheni Hutarovich and Tyler Farrar were the first to start sprinting and got ahead with 1 kilometer remaining. Two lead men were still behind them, Elia Viviani (a good sprinter himself) and Jakob Fuglsang. However, several other good sprinters were lining up right behind.
Peter Sagan wins in Indicatore! What a fantastic start of the season Sagan is having. The Slovak took one stage and the GC in Australia and now takes his first mass sprint of the season in the Tirreno - Adriatico. It was a very close sprint where he had to hold off the charge of the Italians Modolo and Ponzi.
The early starters, Farrar and Hutarovich lost all their power halfway through and ended up badly positioned. In the GC, Geraint Thomas took the lead as expected. The British took 5 bonus seconds today and he will enjoy the blue jersey tomorrow.
The brilliant World Champion had to be our first featured rider of the new season. Bjorn Leukemans completed his best season so far last year. Even though he only got 2 wins, it was in tow of the most important events of the season especially for a Belgian. In April, he took the Liege - Bastogne - Liege and in September he was crowned as the new World Champion. Hopefully he will not suffer from the "World Champion curse", as all of the riders wearing the rainbow jersey have had miserable seasons.
However, Leukemans' season didn't come without disappointments. Being a great cobbler, his main target of the season was the Ronde van Vlaanderen. However, when he was looking very good a puncture in the Kappelmuur left him without any chance and he could only be 5th in a race subsequently won by Johan van Summeren. Leukemans seems to always have trouble in the cobble races and his best result is a 2nd place in 2011 Gent - Wevelgem. That is his only podium in a cobbled race.
Leukemans' other results last season were overshadowed by his great wins, but he wouldn't have finished 3rd in the World Tour rankings only with that. He managed to get into the podium in Plouay, Montreal and in the Fleche Wallonne and had good result in mostly every one-day race of the season.
This year the Belgian will again be one of the leaders of the Lotto - Belisol team. His main targets are, obviously, the cobbled races in the final of march and April. He lacks the support from his team in those races (only Jurgen Roelandts seems to be strong enough to help), but being such a good cobbler he could crush the opposition on his own if he can avoid the bad luck that seems to have followed him in these races.
The third stage in the Tirreno - Adriatico is most likely the last chance for the sprinters to get something out of the race. Today will not be as hard as tomorrow, as the first part of the stage is very flat and the second part only has several hills. Moreover, at 178 kilometers every rider should be able to hang on with the main bunch.
The bunch didn't fight too much with the men that wanted to take the break. They probably need a rest after yesterday's tough stage. Therefore, a group of 6 riders went looking for the stage win. Among those in the group were Lars Bak (Liquigas), Philippe Gilbert (Discovery), Chris Sutton (Garmin) and Richie Porte (HTC). The group was doing well, but could open a gap bigger than 5' 25'' halfway through the stage.
The hills in the middle part of the race were too hard on the break and they ended up being caught with 18 kilometers to go. Sky was very interested in chasing but in the meantime they dropped the lead out rider for Ben Swift, Mark Cavendish.
Vacansoleil and Lampre had the best trains again today. In the Dutch team it was Jakob Fuglsang leading the leader, Peter Sagan. Tyler Farrar must feel not too good, as Tom Boonen is in Sagan's wheel for Saxo Bank. In Lampre, it is the local Elia Viviani ahead of Yauheni Hutarovich.
Peter Sagan is leading the sprint with 1 kilometer to go. The Vacansoleil rider is looking good and he could do 2 out of 2 in Italy. However, Yauheni Hutarovich, Ben Swift and Tom Boonen are right behind. The stage win seems to be among one of those four riders.
Ben Swift wins in Terni! The British overtook Sagan riding close to the fences and takes his first stage win if the season. Sky had worked hard for him today and all the hard work paid off after a fantastic sprint by Swift. Peter Sagan seemed to run out of gas in the last meters, as he was also overtaken by Yauheni Hutarovich. It is however a great performance again from the Vacansoleil rider.
There were no huge changes in the GC, where Geraint Thomas is still leading. Peter Sagan jumped to the second place thanks to the bonus seconds he took again today and is now ahead of a bunch of BMC riders. Thomas will probably enjoy his last day as race leader. Tomorrow's stage to Chieti is very long and quite hilly in the final part so some gaps are expected.
The riders face the longest stage of the Tirreno - Adriatico today. The route from Amelia to Chieti is really long and tough at 250 kilometers. However, the distance will not be the only obstacle that the riders will have to overcome, as the final 50 kilometers of the stage are very hilly. Today could be a decisive day, as any rider that is not feeling too good could lose quite a lot in the finish line.
Today's break was rather big, as many as 12 riders were in it. But it was not only a question of numbers; several rather important names were in the front group, such as: Joost van Leijen (Rabobank), Dani Moreno (Movistar), Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre), Jure Kocjan (HTC), Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel) and Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Katusha). At the sprint in L'Aquila (136 kilometers to go) they had a big gap of 9' 20'' on the bunch.
Bauke Mollema, the main favorite to take the overall win, did the first important movement of the day. He attacked in the Valico della Forchetta, as far as 45 kilometers from the finish line. The Dutch's attack was initially followed by several riders, but in the end he went alone. 1 kilometer from the top of the climb he is 1' 20'' behind the break and 30 seconds ahead of the main group. The guys in the break are surely not happy as this attack has probably destroyed their chances of a stage win.
Mollema's attack was very brave but didn't last. He was caught in the next small hill along with the break of the day. The next highlight of the day was the intermediate sprint in Bucchianico. Jose Joaquin Rojas took the points and the bonus seconds in a group of barely 50 riders. The increased pace due to Mollema's attack is taking its levy on many riders.
David Lopez was the first rider to ry his luck in the final hill to Chieti. He attacked with 10 kilometers to go and soon opened a 20 seconds gap on the favorites group. The two final hills taking the riders to Chieti cap open some gaps, especially the second part with 1 kilometer averaging 11%.
The response from other favorites was quick. Denis Menchov seemed to have the best legs and caught David Lopez at the top of the first hill. Behind them, a group of 4 took shape 25 seconds behind: Rui Costa, Bauke Mollema, Frank Schleck and Emanuele Sella. Oliver Zaugg tried to follow but was 1' 10'' behind and the group was 1' 25'' behind the leaders.
Denis Menchov seems to be getting a small advantage on David Lopez as they enter the last kilometer of the stage. Behind them, the chasing group is 30 seconds behind while the bigger group continues losing time.
Denis Menchov wins in Chieti! The Russian was the strongest in the climb to Chieti and seizes the leader's jersey after his stage win. Menchov opens his record with the Quickstep in a great fashion, as this win puts him on the way to finishing the Tirreno at least in the podium. David Lopez and Bauke Mollema arrived 8 seconds behind the winner, while Rui Costa, Sella and F. Schleck were 22 seconds behind.
The final winner of the race could well be among those 6 riders, as the following group arrived 1' 59'' behind Menchov. The biggest favorites for the final win were there but there are other riders like Roman Kreuziger, Steven Kruijswijk, Dries Devenyns or Tejay van Garderen who had high hopes in Italy. Van Garderen had a really bad day, as he lost almost 3 minutes.
Tirreno - Adriatico Stage 5: Martinsicuro - Prati di Tivo
The first mountain stage of the season arrives rather early with a very tough stage between Martinsicuro and Prati di Tivo. The riders will not only have almost 200 kilometers but the total elevation gain for the stage will be close to 4.000 meters. Apart from the final climb to Prati di Tivo the other big climb of the day is Piano Roseto. The climb is not as tough as Prati di Tivo but it is 20 kilometers long.
The break of the day has 4 riders in it today. There was not much of a fight to grab it as yesterday's stage seems to be weighing in the legs of the cyclists. The 4 riders are Elia Viviani (Lampre), Ryder Hesjedal (Liquigas), Julien Simon (Ag2r) and Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto). They built a nice gap of 10 minutes on the bunch halfway through the stage. Meanwhile, several crashes hit the bunch including Andre Greipel.
Davide Rebellin did also crash due to the rain that was hitting eastern Italy. Movistar seems to be riding for Steven Kruijswijk so Rebellin will have to work with Castroviejo, who also crashed earlier. They still had 94 kilometers ahead.
Once the bunch reached the climb to Piano Roseto Quickstep and Vacansoleil started to increase the pace. Riders like Pieter Weening, Dries Devenyns, Jakob Fuglsang and Robert Gesink were setting the pace. Hubert Dupont was unlucky enough to have a puncture with 10 kilometers from the top. He will have to do a lot of work to go back to the front.
Elia Viviani and Jurgen van den Broeck were the strongest in the break and reached alone the top of the Piano Roseto. Julien Simon and Ryder Hesjedal reached the KoM sprint 1' 30'' later. Meanwhile, the group of favorites was very slim at the top, only at 20 riders. They were losing 4' 20'' on the break.
The attacks were very quick to appear once the riders reached the final climb to Prati di Tivo. Frank Schleck was the first to do so, 13 kilometers from the finish. Denis Menchov was the first to react as the Russian wanted to defend his lead in the GC. Meanwhile, the break was falling apart and they only had 1 minute on the group of favorites.
8 riders joined to form a group in the lead after all of the attacks. Many of the favorites were in this group. The most surprising riders were Elia Viviani and Bjorn Leukemans, who aren't good climbers. Meanwhile, riders like Rui Costa and David Lopez are losing 45 seconds and risk losing their places in the GC.
However, the group was caught 7 kilometers from the finish by the chasers after they couldn't agree on who should do the pacing. Right after being caught, Hubert Dupont attacked again and this time he could go on his own. The situation 4 kilometers from the finish was: Dupont in front; Menchov and F. Schleck 35 seconds behind; Nieve, Lopez and Mollema 50 seconds back and the favorites group losing 1' 30''.
Menchov, F. Schleck and Nieve pushed in the following kilometers and were about to contact with Dupont as they closed to the last kilometer of the stage. Further back, Bauke Mollema's dominance in the mountains does not look as big as last year. The Dutch is losing around 1 minute alongside David Lopez.
Hubert Dupont wins in Prati di Tivo! The French seems to be taking non GT races more seriously after his move to Rabobank and takes the first win of the season for the Dutch team. He held Menchov and Frank Schleck in the final sprint, while Mikel Nieve was also awarded the same time. The fifth place of the stage was for David Lopez, 1' 15'' behind. The Spaniard even left behind Bauke Mollema in the last kilometer.
Menchov's lead in the GC is stronger after today and he looks very good for the overall win in the Tirreno - Adriatico. It looks like the only rider that could threaten his lead is F. Schleck, but the final time trial favors the Russian and tomorrow's stage doesn't look like a place where Frank could gain more than 1 minute.
The penultimate stage in Italy takes place around the town of Offida. It is located in a very hilly terrain and the organizers have set up a 16 kilometers circuit including the climb to Ponte di Pietra that the riders will have to climb 6 times. It looks like a tough day of racing could be ahead of us with the opportunity for small changes in the GC to take place.
The start of the race was lightning fast, as many groups of riders were reeled back by the bunch, including a very dangerous group of 15 riders with the likes of Vanendert in it. In the end, a smaller group of 8 managed to break away more than 40 kilometers into the stage. It included Simone Ponzi (Katusha), Philippe Gilbert (Discovery), Julien Simon (Ag2r) and Wout Poels (Rabobank) as the most important riders. The gap to the bunch was 5 minutes as they entered the first climb to the Ponte di Petra.
A second and very dangerous group broke away already in the final circuit: Anthony Roux (Astana), Robert Gesink (Vacansoleil), Davide Rebellin (Movistar), Rigoberto Uran (Lotto) and Peter Kennaugh (Garmin). They had but the gap to the break to 2' 10'' in the first intermediate sprint (50 km and 3 laps to go). Behind them, Marco Pinotti was on his own 3' 35'' behind the leaders while the bunch was 4' 50'' back.
Wout Poels and Simone Ponzi are ahead as they enter the last lap (16 kilometers to go). They left the others in the group behind, but Chris Horner and Philippe Gilbert are only 15 seconds behind and trying to reconnect. The others in the break are 1' 10'' behind. Meanwhile, the second group never got a good understanding and are about to be caught by a bunch that never aimed to chase down the break and is still more than 4 minutes behind.
The local Simone Ponzi was the strongest in the break and left Wout Poels behind in the final climb to the Ponte di Pietra. With 5 kilometers remaining the Dutch is 35 seconds behind, while Gilbert and Horner are 1 minute back.
Emanuele Sella (Astana) is the first rider to attack in the bunch. They were in the middle of the last climb to the Ponte di Pietra with 5 kilometers to go. The Italian will most likely be the winner of the young jersey but he wants to improve his 8th place in the GC.
Rui Costa and Bauke Mollema join Emanuele Sella and they seem to have found a gap on the main bunch. Denis Menchov hasn't appeared yet in the front, but he probably only needs to react to an attack by Frank Schelck. Meanwhile, Simone Ponzi is already celebrating in the last kilometer of the stage.
Simone Ponzi wins in Offida! This is the first local victory in the Tirreno - Adriatico this year. Ponzi made easy a very difficult stage and ended up 52 seconds ahead of Wout Poels. He managed perfectly the free role that has been given to him by Katusha this year to deliver the first win of the year for the Russian team. In the sprint for the third place of the stage Gilbert narrowly edged Chris Horner.
David Lopez leads home F. Schleck, Mollema and Sella. Rui Costa was unable to keep their pace is the slight uphill to the finish line and crosses the line 14 seconds later along with the leader, Denis Menchov, and Hubert Dupont. Menchov reacted to Schleck's attack but could not get to the front group and ended up losing a handful of seconds. However, it is difficult to think that he will lose the leader's jersey tomorrow as he is a much better time trialist than Frank Schleck.
David Lopez's place in the podium is under a big threat, as he only has a gap of 3 seconds on Bauke Mollema. It will be a tough day for the Spaniard tomorrow, when he is expected to lose the place to the Dutch. Lower in the rankings, Emanuele Sella managed to jump from 8th to 6th after overtaking Mikel Nieve and Rui Costa. The two of them will have a nice battle with Dupont for the 5th place in tomorrow's time trial.
Tirreno - Adriatico Stage 7: San Benedetto del Tronto - San Benedetto del Tronto (ITT)
The last stage in the Tirreno - Adriatico is, as usual, in San Benedetto del Tronto. However, unlike past seasons it is a short time trial. The riders will go along the coast first to the south and then to the north for a total of 9.5 kilometers. The differences will probably be small in the finish line, but there are some places that could still change in the GC.
David Millar (Sky) was the first of the candidates for the stage win. The British was clearly better than anyone else that had run today and recorded the best time so far 8 seconds better than Samuel Sanchez.
Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank) was also a good candidate for the stage win. However, he was just short of Millar's time. The Dutch managed to clock the 2nd best time so far, only 1 second short of the best.
Marco Pinotti is one of the specialists from BMC and he did a great time trial. However, he missed on Millar's time by only tenths of a second and has to settle with the 2nd place so far.
David Millar was lucky today, as Tejay van Garderen also tied with him but had to settle for the 3rd best on the tenths of a second. This good time trial cannot hide the disappointing Tirreno that the BMC leader had. Even with a very good time today his final result in the GC is 16th.
Hubert Dupont (Rabobank) opened the top 5 in the GC. The French only needed a decent TT to defend his 5th spot and he did it. His 15th time so far allowed him to keep Rui Costa behind. The Portuguese took advantage of Sella's poor time trial to grab the 6th position from the Italian.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) needed 3 seconds on David Lopez to grab the 3rd place of the podium. The Dutch crossed the finish line with a good time: 7th, 5 seconds behind Millar. While it should be enough to displace Lopez, it is nowhere near the exhibitions that he has done recently (last year he won the time trial in the Tour de France and in Tirreno - Adriatico)
As expected, David Lopez (Euskaltel) couldn't keep Mollema behind. The Spaniard clocked the 23rd time, 16 seconds behind. It is anyway a good result for Lopez, improving from his 6th place in the Italian race last season.
Frank Schleck (Radioshack) was far from the first place even for a good time trialist and his 17th place in the stage 12 seconds behind only confirmed that he would have to settle for the second step in the podium. It is anyway a good way to start the season for the Luxembourgish.
Denis Menchov (Quickstep) would take today the biggest win on his career, but he wouldn't settle with that and he also took the stage win! The Russian acted like a Midas king and was 1 second quicker than David Millar to take his second stage win in Italy. Not happy with that, he also took the points jersey.
This year's Tirreno leaves Menchov, F. Schleck and Mollema in the podium. Two of them were already in the podium last year, whereas Bart de Clerq could only be 12th this time. The race also leave us with the feeling that Hubert Dupont will be competitive in one-week races this year, compared with the GT focus of his Saxo Bank career. The other highlight of the race is the confirmation of Emanuele Sella, after the 4th overall he got in Dauphine last year.
