Andrew Talansky is one of the most promising youngsters in the peloton. The American is only in his third season as a professional but he has made quite an impact so far. Talansky turned professional in 2013 with the Radioshack team and, even though he did mainly domestique tasks he managed to grab one stage in the Tour de Romandie and the mountains classification in the meantime. However, once the season was finished Talansky changed team to the HTC - Highroad team, where he would not have Frank Schleck above him in the team.
The HTC team was lacking climbers, given that only Levi Leipheimer was in the team, and they gave him the leading role in races like Tirreno - Adriatico and the Vuelta a España. The American did not disappoint and took a highly surprising podium in the Italian race. He was helped by the fact that HTC had a very good team time trial and he managed his gap with other riders in the hilly and mountanious stages. The end of the season also brougth the best of the HTC rider. He took the 6th place in the Vuelta and rounded his season with another podium in the Tour of Beijing.
This season Andrew Talansky has been given the leading role in the HTC team and his season will be focussed around the Tour de France. HTC has signed Juan Jose Cobo, who will be the leader in the Giro d'Italia and will go to the Tour de France to help Talansky meet his target. So far, Talansky's season has not been very remarkable but he got one of the two wins that the American has so far.
If Talansky's progression continues in this way he could well be amogn the next generation of riders that fight for the wins and podiums in the Grand Tours.
sutty68 wrote:
I honestly thought that Talansky had been more successful than that
He has only been in the story for slightly more than 2 years, so he has done very well. My guess for the perception is that I started to make my reports a bit more detailed around the 2013 season so it might be easier for you to remember.
The spring classics are over and the spotlights are back to the stage races for the middle part of the season. The Tour de Romandie will as usual be used as a preparation race for the Giro for some riders and as a finish of a peak of fitness for the riders who have other targets later in the season. The Swiss race has become quite unique, as it has 2 time trials in 6 days of racing in an era when the time trials do nothing but decrease elsewhere. That is why riders that can both climb and time trial have its sights in this race, like Tejay van Garderen and Bauke Mollema.
The route is quite interesting this year, including a very mountainous 4th stage finishing in Aigle and the 20 kilometers last day time trial. These will be the 2 days that will probably determine who wins and who loses the race. However, there are other days that will be important, like the second stage in Sion. In terms of winners, there has been variety but it has been always a good time trialer lately, like Cameron Meyer and Tejay van Garderen. The American is actually the rider with the best record here.
Favorites:
- Tejay van Garderen (Trek Factory Racing): Van Garderen is the current winner of the Tour de France but he has taken things easy in the start of the season. He has raced in the Tour Down Under, Volta a Catalunya and Vuelta al Pais Vasco but could only get a top 10 in Australia. However, his targets for the season start with the Swiss race, where he is a major favorite given the amount of time trial kilometers. Besides, he is the current champion of the race and he will like to defend his title.
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC): Mollema's planning of the season has been quite similar to the one chosen by Van Garderen. Therefore, he has not been among the best in the races that he has raced so far. It will be tricky for Mollema to beat Tejay, as they seem to be fairly matched in the mountains and the American is a bit of a better time trialist. As Mollema is preparing for the Giro and Van Garderen will skip it, the form of the American should be a bit better than Mollema's as well.
- Peter Stetina (BMC Racing Team): Peter Stetina is also a rider that is preparing for the upcoming Giro d'Italia. However, the American has been more than active in the races early in the season, getting podiums in the Volta a Catalunya and Pais Vasco. The bad news for him is that with many kilometers against the clock he will need to drop the rest of the field in the mountain stage, which seems not that easy.
- Cadel Evans (Movistar Team): Cadel Evans is one of the best time trialist among the Grand Tour riders and he seems in good shape after his 5th places in the Fleche Wallonne and the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, two races that did not quite fit his best abilities. The Australian will also be skipping the Giro and is also peaking for the Swiss race.
Other important riders in Switzerland are Andrew Talansky (HTC - Highroad), Robert Gesink (Ag2r - La Mondiale), Rui Costa (Tinkoff - Saxo), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Discovery Channel), Matthias Frank and Jerome Coppel (Garmin - Sharp).
The quality of the sprinters is not that good given that there are not many chances for the sprinters but riders like Simone Ponzi (Team Katusha), Ben Swift (Sky ProCycling), Alexander Kristoff and Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Andre Greipel (Trek Factory Racing) and Kenny van Hummel (Belkin Pro Cycling Team) are in Switzerland.
sutty68 wrote:
I honestly thought that Talansky had been more successful than that
He has only been in the story for slightly more than 2 years, so he has done very well. My guess for the perception is that I started to make my reports a bit more detailed around the 2013 season so it might be easier for you to remember.
Ascona is the host of the starting stage of the Tour de Romandie. The southern town, close to the Italian border, is on the shore of the Lago Maggiore, which provides stunning scenery for the time trial. This will only be the second time trial of the season, given that many other races have given up on the discipline, and the first that is truly a prologue so we might see different faces among the top 10 of the stage.
Tejay van Garderen (Trek) started very early in the day, when the rain was hitting the riders hard. However, it did not stop the American from setting the best time so far, 11 seconds ahead of Samuel Sanchez. Tejay has not been very active in the races in Europe so far but it looks like he is committed to a good performance in the Swiss race.
The second of the favorites in this starting prologue was Levi Leipheimer (HTC). He has been quite inconsistent in the last few years, with a few hopeful top 10s in one week races but never progressing beyond the odd breakaway elsewhere. His time trial was not bad at all and he only lost 4 seconds to Tejay van Garderen, taking the 2nd provisional place in the stage. This could well be a race where Leipheimer does ok if he manages not to lose to much time in the stage finishing in Aigle.
Garmin has brought both Jerome Coppel and Matthias Frank to the Tour de Romandie. With the French being a better time trialist it is difficult to say who will be the leader for the race and the team has not made any statement clarifying the situation. Coppel did a good job today and finished 5 seconds behind Tejay van Garderen, in the 4th provisional place in the stage.
David Millar (Vacansoleil) is one of the specialists of the time trials and he will be very happy racing at Romandie. The British rider did well in this first stage losing only 3 seconds to Tejay van Garderen and taking the second provisional place in the stage. This kind of performance will surely put him among the best for the stage. Millar will be one of the pillars of support for Bauke Mollema, especially given that the quality of the climber in the team is a bit lacking.
The biggest favorite to take the stage win was as always Cameron Meyer (Quickstep). The Australian had been 2nd in the time trial in the Pais Vasco and looked for his first win of the season. However, it was not meant to be as he recorded the same time as Tejay van Garderen only missing out on the tenths of a second. The former winner of the Tour de Romandie will not have a chance to fight for the podium this year as the mountain stage in Aigle will surely be too much for him.
The new Discovery Channel signing, Jean-Christophe Peraud, managed to take his maiden win in his new team in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. However, he still has not proved why he has been given the leading role for the Tour de France in the team. He started to give hints about that today, by losing only 2 seconds against Tejay van Garderen and taking the 3rd provisional place in the stage. The French should do very well in this race, given how good his balance between mountains and time trial is.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) was among the last riders to start the race in Ascona. The Dutch has not been brilliant this year so far and he did not really have a good day today, only taking the 9th best time 6 seconds behind Tejay van Garderen. Given that Mollema is going to do the double Giro - Tour it might be understandable that he does not want to anticipate his peak in fitness and will wait to the actual Grand Tours.
Alexander Kristoff (Euskaltel) already won the prologue of the Paris - Nice last year and he repeated the feature this year by improving on Tejay van Garderen's best time. Only 1 second separated the two of them. This is the second win of the season for Kristoff, who had already won the mass sprint in Lleida during the Volta a Catalunya. It will be interesting to see whether Euskaltel tries to defend Kristoff's lead tomorrow as it might be within his abilities to go through the climb to Lens among the best.
The differences at the end of the stage were not very big, given that it was only 5 kilometers long but the losses of other favorites outside of the top 10 are: Andrew Talansky, 7''; Matthias Frank, 10''; Peter Stetina, 11''; Robert Gesink, 13''.
The first long stage of the Tour de Romandie is actually the longest in the route. The riders will have to cover 200 kilometers between Ascona and Sion, including the climb of the Simplonpass, which rises to as many as 2,005 meters above the sea level. The latter part of the stage tackles the climb to Lens, a second category climb but very irregular in its slopes. That should filter out lots of riders and we should see a small group making it to the finish line.
The break of the day was very small but with lots of quality. Only three riders were in it: Pieter Weening (Tinkoff), Michele Scarponi (Movistar) and Roman Kreuziger (Belkin). They are all good climbers and that meant that at the top of the Simplonpass (117 kilometers to go) they had built a gap of 6' 30'' on the bunch. Euskaltel felt the need to chase halfway through the climb and put Zdenek Stybar and Juan Antonio Flecha to work.
Euskaltel put more than half of the team to chase in the valley towards Sion and by the time they reached the first intermediate sprint they had reduced the gap to only 1 minute with the break. It was placed in Uvrier, with 44 kilometers remaining. Even though the riders in the break are good climbers the gap is not going to be big enough. Meanwhile, in the sprint of the group Alexander Kristoff was first ahead of Jerome Coppel and Cameron Meyer. It seems strange that these riders join the points competition, as they should have no chance.
The break was reeled back in at the first passage through the finish line in Sion. However, as soon as the climb started other riders attacked and a group was soon formed at the front of the race, including Hubert Dupont, Simone Ponzi, Anthony Roux, Francesco Gavazzi and Davide Rebellin. Simon Gerrans and Bjorn Leukemans are also trying to join that group with 30 kilometers to go. In the bunch it is Emanuele Sella and Peter Sagan who are doing the chasing but they are not overly worried about the gap.
Simon Gerrans and Bjorn Leukemans made it to the front group but they did not remain together for a long time as Simone Ponzi took advantage of the small descent with 4 kilometers to the top of Lens to attack and go solo. This is a surprising move, given that the Italian is the quickest rider in a sprint. Hubert Dupont tried to go catch him but when he moved the group was already 25 seconds behind. Meanwhile, Bauke Mollema, Cadel Evans and Oliver Zaugg are trying to bridge the gap and are only 15 seconds behind this group.
The high pace that Euskaltel set through most of the stage was beginning to wear riders and the group of the leader only had 30 riders at Lens. At the beginning of the descent Simon Gerrans and Davide Rebellin had been able to join Simone Ponzi at the front, with Francesco Gavazzi and Bjorn Leukemans chasing. The group of the leader was 55 seconds behind, which could be enough to cover the 18 kilometers remaining ahead.
Francesco Gavazzi and Bjorn Leukemans managed to join the break shortly after the descent was finished but that was not enough to hold the group of the leader behind and Davide Rebellin had to attack again when they were about to be caught. He was followed by Francesco Gavazzi and Simone Ponzi, the quickest riders in the group. With 3 kilometers to go they had 30 seconds over a charging group led by Oliver Zaugg. It is remarkable how Ponzi is fighting for the win even though he might have a better chance sitting in the group and waiting for a sprint.
The riders did not start the final sprint from too far away and Simon Ponzi was the first to go with a bit less than 1 kilometer to go. He was initially leading Davide Rebellin and Francesco Gavazzi. Their gap had come down to 15 seconds over Miguel Rubiano, who attacked from the group in the closing kilometers to try his luck in getting to the front group.
Miguel Rubiano wins in Sion! The Colombian surprised the very tired Simone Ponzi as they were about to cross the finish line and got his second victory of the season, adding to the one that he got in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. Rubiano's faith was quite remarkable, as he managed to close the gap and beat Ponzi in the final meters of the sprint. It was quite an achievement considering how fast Ponzi is in this kind of finales.
Davide Rebellin and Francesco Gavazzi followed and the quickest in the group's finish was Emanuele Sella. In the end, the group that made it in the same time was as big as 67 riders, as another group joined the 30 that had made it through Lens at the front. The GC is therefore barely changed and it is also not expected to change too much tomorrow, when a mass sprint is expected.
The Tour de Romandie is not particularly friendly for the sprinters but today they have a good chance to take the stage win. However, their teams will have to work very hard to control the probable breakaway as the final kilometers of the stage are not good for a chase. Besides, the two climbs and the difficult terrain of the second part of the stage will probably favor sprinters that go well in the hills.
The break was formed very quickly today and that meant that the riders could enjoy a rather quiet first part of the race. The four riders in the group were Gianni Meersman (Tinkoff), Matti Breschel (Cannondale), John Atapuma (Sky) and Yoann Offredo (Astana). They reached the climb to Chatel-Saint-Denis, halfway through the stage, with a gap of 6' 30'' over the main bunch. All of them had time lost yesterday and therefore Euskaltel was not too worried, although they were sharing the job of pacing the bunch with Belkin and Trek.
The bunch was quite stretched in the second climb of the day, Peney-le-Jorat, as Belkin put Tom Danielson and Steven Kruijswijk to work at the front. With 44 kilometers remaining the gap of the break was still 3' 25'' and so the peloton had no time to lose, especially considering that the terrain is mainly favorable towards the finish line. There were a few riders suffering in the climb but in the end everyone made it in the bunch.
The descent towards the Lake Leman was very quick and the riders soon reached the second intermediate sprint of the day in Chardonne (12 kilometers to go). The sprint in the group was won by Alexander Kristoff, ahead of Francesco Gavazzi and Peter Sagan but most of the sprinters cannot be bothered to fight for the point's competition as they don't have lots of chances. The gap has come down to 1' 30'' but the chances of the break are still very much alive in this terrain, even though riders like Tejay van Garderen are working at the front of the pack.
Yoann Offredo tried a late attack from the break but with 3 kilometers remaining his gap had been reduced to only 10 seconds, so the break was effectively over. However, it was a very close affair today. The only team organized enough to have prepared a train so far is Euskaltel, where Sacha Modolo is ready to work for Fran Ventoso. Other sprinters like Ben Swift, Andre Greipel and Jose Joaquin Rojas are also well positioned, what should assure a good sprint in Montreux.
Alexander Kristoff was not the main sprinter for Euskaltel today but he wanted to try his luck nevertheless and started to sprint from far away. His presence might have been surprising for Sacha Modolo, who was doing a perfect job to deliver Fran Ventoso to the last kilometer of the stage. The Euskaltel director will probably be quite upset about the behavior of the Norwegian. Meanwhile, Daniele Bennati reached the front of the group to lead Andre Greipel out, while Ben Swift and Jose Joaquin Rojas were right behind Ventoso.
As expected, Alexander Kristoff did not manage to hold his speed for long and he drifted back when the rest of the sprinters accelerated. His teammate Fran Ventoso soon took the lead but Ben Swift was looking threatening on his wheel. Behind them Sacha Modolo was also losing places and the only rider that seemed within a shot of the win was Jose Joaquin Rojas. Andre Greipel was badly placed before the start of the sprint and was out of the fight already.
Ben Swift wins in Montreux! The British had to work very hard to get past Fran Ventoso in the last few meters of the stage. The British had been in the mix in many stages this year, especially in the Tour Down Under, but he had never gotten better than 3rd and the pressure was starting to build for one of the best sprinters out there. The second place went to Ventoso, who was chasing his third win of the season, while the third place went to Jose Joaquin Rojas.
It was quite a strange sprint because some unlikely riders joined the party, like Davide Rebellin, who took fourth ahead of Andre Greipel. Simone Ponzi was one of the favorites, as he always is in difficult stages that might finish in a sprint, but had to settle for 6th. The GC did not change in the end ahead of tomorrow's queen stage, where most of the top 10 will disappear from the top places.
Today's stage is a continuous up and down big mountains in the area between Martigny and Montreux. The riders will have to tackles 4 1st category climbs: Col des Planches, Champex-Lac, Les Giettes and Villars-sur-Ollon. Obviously, this is the queen stage of the race and should clear quite a bit the GC. The finishes at the bottom of a climb are a bit more unpredictable, as they can produce either bigger or smaller gaps depending on the attitude of the riders so it is difficult to say who might come out on top today.
It took a good while for the break of the day to take shape. In the end it was 6 riders who made it, including Pieter Weening (Tinkoff), Ivan Santaromita (Astana), Luis Leon Sanchez (Discovery), Sergey Firsanov (Lotto) and Damiano Caruso (Cannondale). At the top of the Col del Planches they had a gap of 4' 30''. The climb was very hard for the break as they had strong head wind all through the climb and that meant that the bunch saved a lot of energy compared to them. Euskaltel and Vacansoleil were setting the pace in the peloton but they were not in a rush.
Belkin and Hubert Dupont decided to spice the stage a little bit and the French attacked at the top of the Col des Planches. Euskaltel tried to bring him back but once they started climbing to Champex-Lac they let him go not to wear themselves out too much. When the French had 4 kilometers to go in the second climb of the day he was already close to joining the break of the day and had already built a gap of 3 minutes on the main bunch. While Euskaltel gave up other teams like Movistar and BMC did not want the race to slow down and started increasing a bit the pace.
The flat between the second climb and the third, Les Giettes, was much more interesting than anticipated. Euskaltel decided to use his strength in the flat and they were able to reel the break back in just before the first intermediate sprint in Massongex. The other surprising fact of that section of the race is that Tejay van Garderen crashed out of the bunch and none of his teammates waited for him to help him back into the peloton. Considering he is the only option for Trek in the GC that is rather surprising. In the intermediate sprint Alexander Kristoff was quickest ahead of Miguel Rubiano and Peter Sagan.
No team was willing to dramatically increase the pace in the penultimate climb, Les Giettes, so several important riders attacked with 3 kilometers to go. A group of 4 made the top of the climb with a gap: Chris Froome, Mikel Nieve, Rob Ruijgh and Robert Kiserlovski. With 46 kilometers still to go they had 30 seconds on Juanjo Cobo and Andy Schleck, while the group of the leader was losing 1' 40''. Euskaltel is the only team chasing and no other team seems keen to help. Meanwhile, Tejay van Garderen made it safely back to the group of the favorites but it will be interesting to see if he has any sequels from the crash.
The flat between the two climbs killed the options of the break that had formed at Les Giettes as Francisco Ventoso gave it all in the flat to catch them back just before the start of the climb to Villars-sur-Ollon. With 9 kilometers to go in the last climb there have already been attacks from Pavel Brutt and Mikel Nieve but no one managed to hold on ahead. Meanwhile, Alexander Kristoff has started to give signs that he will not be able to hold on with the best much longer.
Robert Gesink tried to open a gap in the middle part of the climb but was unable. The next to try it was Peter Stetina and, as always, his attack is the hardest in the mountains. With 5 kilometers to the top of the climb the American has managed to open a small gap over a group that still has 35 riders. The head wind is also present in the last climb of the day and it might be one of the reasons why the group is still so big. Meanwhile, Alexander Kristoff lost contact with the favorites and is already 4' 30'' behind.
The last part of the climb was the easiest and also the road changed directions, avoiding the head winds. Peter Stetina had managed to hold on to the lead but his gao at the town of Villars-sur-Ollon was only 10 seconds. The group was lead by Bauke Mollema and Tejay van Garderen under the KoM sprint. The riders would now face a 12 kilometer descent before the last flat 4 kilometers towards Aigle. The group is still very big as only Damiano Cunego lost contact in the closing stages of the climb.
It is always a shame when something like this happens but David Lopez, Kanstantsin Siutsou and Marco Pinotti crashed at the bottom of the descent, with barely more than 5 kilometers for the finish line. This was especially bad for Lopez, as Euskaltel had been working all day long in order to leave him in a good position for the stage. Unless they miraculously rejoin the front group there will be no one from the Spaniard team in the front group at the end. Peter Stetina was caught as expected and Tejay van Garderen and Matthias Frank tried an attack in the descent but it did not work. In principle, the fastest men of the group should be Davide Rebellin, Rinaldo Nocentini and Tiago Machado but after such a hard stage it is difficult to say.
Tejay van Garderen took the lead on the final sprint, obviously unharmed from his previous crash today, but had Bauke Mollema right on his back wheel. They seem to have found a few meters on the rest of the group that might prove decisive. Chasing them were Andrew Talansky, Oliver Zaugg and Miguel Rubiano. The Colombian seems to be in a state of grace this season and could be quite dangerous if he finds the speed.
Bauke Mollema wins in Aigle! The Dutch was quickest in the final sprint than Tejay van Garderen and the rest of the group and takes his first win of the year. Mollema had last won in the Vuelta a España, in the uphill finish in Monte da Groba. The win will not let him take the lead on the bonus seconds as Van Garderen finished second and takes the yellow jersey, 4 seconds ahead of Mollema. Tiago Machado was very quick in the finish but had to settle for third, while Rinaldo Nocentini and Andrew Talansky completed the top 5.
We had mentioned before that this stage would probably clarify a little bit the GC but it did not quite do it. The top 10 is still only separated by 11 seconds and that will leave almost all of those riders with a shot at the win in the last time trial. However, the fact that they are basically ordered accordingly to their result in the prologue will probably limit the changes in the final GC that we will see in the last stage.
The queen stage is followed by a much easier stage in the surroundings of Fribourg, where the sprinters should have the chance to battle for the win. The stage will consist of 6 laps around a circuit on the South of Fribourg with the start and finish lines inside the town. The only real difficulty of the day is the climb to Ependes, but that should not be a problem for the sprinters and it is quite far from the finish line.
The break of the day was formed in the first attempt but it only had 5 riders: Rafal Majka (Garmin), Matti Breschel (Cannondale), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Bart de Clercq (Sky) and Tom Slagter (Ag2r). On the fourth climb to Ependes (but only the first that gave points for the KoM competition) their gap was a quite large, sitting at 10 minutes. That was with 76 kilometers remaining. Rafal Majka was very interested in the KoM points as he could well finish the day at the top of that classification. Meanwhile, no one is interested to chase in the main bunch and they are letting the gap grow.
By the time they peloton reached the second intermediate sprint, in Marly, it was clear that the sprinters had given up on the stage. The gap to the break was a massive 12 minutes with barely more than 1 lap to go. However, the spice in the bunch was put by Peter Stetina. The American knows that he does not have a chance tomorrow in the time trial and decided to attack today in the penultimate climb. So far, the peloton was struggling to catch him. In the sprint of the bunch it was Alexander Kristoff who beat Ben Swift and Simone Ponzi for the line.
Rafal Majka attacked from the break in the last climb to secure his win in the KoM classification and persisted with the attack, but he was reeled back in by the rest of the group. The next attack was made by Alejandro Valverde, probably the slowest of the group in a sprint, who attacked within the last 7 kilometers and soon built a gap of 30 seconds. Unluckily for him, Matti Breschel seems determined to bring him back. Meanwhile, Peter Stetina is still around 30 seconds ahead of the bunch, still holding on a good battle.
Alejandro Valverde goes into the last kilometer with a tiny gap of 10 seconds over the rest of the break. The small hill that runs between the 1.5 and 1 kilometers mark seems to be killing the chances of the Spaniard. Tom Slagter and Bart de Clercq are leading the chase in the small climb. If they get to catch Valverde the Dutch and Matti Breschel should be the quickest riders in the group sprint.
Tom Slagter wins in Fribourg! The Dutch was clearly the best in the last kilometer of the stage and takes another win for Ag2r. The French team will not be fighting for the top places of the GC but will nevertheless go back home with a smile. The second place in the stage went to Bart de Clercq, but he was never threatening Slagter's win. Matti Breschel rounded the top 3 of the stage.
Peter Stetina could not stay in front of the pack and was reeled back in with more than 5 kilometers to go. The American had to know that it was hopeless trying to survive ahead of the bunch for that long. However, that was the moment when Bauke Mollema took the opportunity to attack. The Dutch soon opened a gap and he managed to get to the last kilometer with a gap of 35 seconds over the main bunch. If he manages to open a gap over the peloton today it could well mean the final win in the Tour de Romandie.
Bauke Mollema was comfortably 6th in the stage, more than eight minutes behind the break, but in the end he was not awarded a different time than the peloton as the sprinters closed most of the gap. Incidentally, the sprint was won by his teammate Peter Sagan. Maybe someone should have told the Slovakian to slow down a little bit in the final meters of the stage.
Michael Matthews and Rui Costa followed the Vacansoleil riders, while Davide Rebellin took the lead in the points' competition with his 13th place. There is only one more day of racing in the Tour de Romandie and Tejay van Garderen is the clear favorite to take the overall win and probably the last stage. However, the American will have to be at his best as he only has 4 seconds on Bauke Mollema and 5 on Jean-Christophe Peraud.
