Stage 6: St. Paul Trois Chateaux - La Montagne de Lure
The queen stage today. It is the only real mountain stage of the Paris – Nice. La Montagne de Lure is a tough climb, 13.8 kilometres long and 6.6% average gradient, located south of Gap. I wouldn't consider it an hors categorie, but it's tough enough to make some differences. The riders will have to ride 5 climbs before, but those are gentle enough not to leave anyone in the way.
The break of the day was made up of Björn Leukemans (Omega), Daniel Martin (Omega), Giacomo Nizzolo (Leopard), Dries Devenyns (BMC) and Xavi Tondo (Radioshack). The break was settled once none of the riders were dangerous for the general classification. They had up to 8 minutes advantage before Saxo Bank started pushing. That was late enough, as they had 2 and a half minutes at the start of the last climb. Not one kilometre of the climb had passed when Leukemans thought he was feeling good and launched the attack.
And Leukemans attack was as good as it gets with these guys. When he was 1 km to the finish he had 30 seconds to the group and 2 minutes to the favourites. He could aim for the yellow jersey, as he was only 2' 00'' down. Unfortunately, those were not in a fighting mood today, and we hadn't a successful attack yet.
And Bjorn Leukemans wins the queen stage! A great win that could come with the yellow jersey. His break partners came 48 seconds after and the favourites at 1' 33''. Adding the bonus times Leukemans came 13 seconds short.
It was a beautiful attack from the stage winner, and it paid off to take the risk of attacking from the base of the Montagne de Lure. It is a shame that the main riders were not keen for some battle today. A good stage anyway.
The penultimate stage is really hilly, 7 climbs before the last climb in Fayence. The hardest of all will be the Col de Bourigalle, 30 kilometres away from the finish. The riders fighting for the GC haven't been really active on these last days, but they still have a couple of opportunities to attack today and tomorrow. Even Dupont is in risk of a lone bonus time for one of the outsiders.
The break of the day was built quickly today: Scarponi, David Millar, Cancellara, Kruijswijk and Hincapie. They enjoyed more than 2 minutes lead at the bottom of the Col de Bourigalle. During the ascent, things started moving. Gregory Rast launched a heavy attack responded by none. He was 9 seconds behind in the GC. Behind, there was a group of 6 chasers: Dupont, Mikel Nieve, Andy Schleck, Tiago Machado, Mondory and Tony Martin. In the descent, the chasers got to Rast.
The climb to Fayence arrived and by then it was clear that the win was in the break. One minute thirty behind was Dupont's group and thirty seconds behind, the bunch. It was Mikel Nieve who tried to go in this climb, and he was successful to a point as only Dupont followed. The leader was showing real strength today.
Michele Scarponi wins the sprint at the front and takes the victory. Behind, Mikel Nieve and Hubert Dupont sprint together 9 seconds ahead of their group. The bunch arrived 1' 44'' after Scarponi.
The leader showed he was very solid today, even if it's only a handful of seconds ahead no rider has been able to put him in a difficult position yet. Among the winners of the day are Tony Martin, Lloyd Mondory and Mikel Nieve, all of they moved ahead on the GC. on the fight for the green jersey, Dupont took it back, even though Vanendert won the sprint of the pack.
And one week later, we are in Nice. The last stage features three tough climbs. The Col d'Eze is only 15 kilometres from the finish, so anything could happen with the small differences between the strongest of the race. However, the bonus times in the finish will not be enough to dispossess Dupont.
The breakaway today had Daniel Martin and Andy Schleck, who had a good fight on mountain points. Daniel Martin came winner of the KoM jersey 5 points ahead of Schleck. The bunch never looked interested in following, as the main rider in the break was Schleck, more than 3 minutes down. At the beginning of the Col d'Eze, it was clear the win was in front.
Thiago Machado attacked in the Col d'Eze and none in the group could follow. He desevedly got a victory in the Paris – Nice, as he was by far the most combative rider. Radioshack would be happy too, as they had secured the win in the teams classification.
The life of Hubert Dupont was much easier today. No serious attacks happened in the pack, so he could cruise to the finish to be the winner of the Paris – Nice. In the way, he also got the green jersey. Jelle Vannendert couldn't get any points, and that was it.
UCI World Tour rankings riders (after Paris - Nice)
1
DUPONT Hubert
Saxo Bank
134
2
MARTIN Tony
HTC
90
3
MONDORY Lloyd
Liquigas
80
4
VANENDERT Jelle
Omega
65
5
NIEVE Mikel
Omega
57
6
RAST Grégory
Radioshack
52.22
7
PERAUD Jean-Christophe
Leopard
40
8
MARCATO Marco
Liquigas
37
9
MARTIN Daniel
Garmin
32
10
LEUKEMANS Björn
Omega
25
11
SWIFT Ben
Sky
25
12
BARREDO Carlos
Lampre
20.55
13
SCHLECK Andy
Leopard
20
14
MACHADO Tiago
Radioshack
14.22
15
CHAVANEL Sylvain
Lampre
11.55
UCI World Tour rankings teams (after Paris - Nice)
1
Saxo Bank
147
2
Omega
147
3
Liquigas
129
4
HTC
96
5
Radioshack
92
6
Leopard
75
7
Lampre
55
8
Sky
45
9
Garmin
44
10
BMC
32
Teams earnings (in euros)
1
Saxo Bank
529,200
2
Omega
529,200
3
Liquigas
464,400
4
HTC
345,600
5
Radioshack
331,200
6
Leopard
270,000
7
Lampre
198,000
8
Sky
162,000
9
Garmin
158,400
10
BMC
115,200
The teams earnings will be used to calculate the wage budget at the end of the season. At that point, I would like to use the help of the people following this story. You would be in charge of making the offers of the teams for the riders. I will explain this in more detail once we reach there. The salary for each rider this season is 165,000 euros.
The Volta a Catalunya is the next step in 2009 World Tour. The design of the race is rather disappointing, as the most interesting stages come first. It could happen that the race is decided in stage 4, when the riders hit the mountain top of Vallnord. Anyway, the small differences that we saw in the Paris – Nice could lead us to emotion until the last stage.
The prologue of the Volta a Catalunya is really short, there won’t be any differences between the riders and the only purpose is to open the race. In reality, the stage was even shorter at 3.6 km. However, there are 10 UCI World Tour for the winner, as in every other stage.
When half of the riders had completed the prologue, Ben Swift had the best time at 6’ 40’’. Is Sky becoming the benchmark team for prologues?
Not so fast! David López (Omega) came quickest improving 1 second the time of the British. The last riders were starting and it looked likely that David López would be wearing the white and green leaders jersey.
And he did. The one who came closest to beating Lopez was Ivan Basso (Liquigas), but he was hundreds of a second too slow.
Prologues are not very thrilling, but we have to get over with them. We will most probably see a change of leader tomorrow, as the bonus times will play their part.
The first long stage of the Volta a Catalunya is a little bit of a trap, with the climbs of two first category: Alt des Angels and Alt de Sant Pere de Rodes. The latter is only 23 kilometres to the end, so an attack there can give the victory. The time bonuses will most probably give us a new leader today.
Early on the stage, the break of the day was set. You can see the four riders at the top of the Alt des Angels: Cameron Meyer (Garmin), Sylvain Chavanel (Lampre), Bradley Wiggins (Sky) and Fabian Cancellara (Leopard). The maximum difference they enjoyed was a little bit more than 5 minutes. However, Omega and Saxo Bank soon started to push the throttle in the bunch.
At the foot of the last climb, the break had a minute and a half on the pack. As soon as the climb started, Wiggins and Cancellara took off; they had an advantage of more than 30 seconds on Meyer and Chavanel halfway to the top.
Back in the pack, Contador was putting a good rhythm. There were a couple of riders in trouble, but nothing remarkable. They pack got to Meyer and Chavanel and the break of Cancellara and Wiggins ended in the descent. Among those left behind was Johan Van Summeren, seventh yesterday, who suffered a fall and never came back even though Tyler Farrar tried to help him back to the pack.
So it was down to a big sprint. Saxo Bank and HTC were the teams giving speed to the pack, Freire and Cavendish would be the man sprinting for the teams (no kidding, the stats are still 55).
Jose Joaquín Rojas (Leopard) was first during most of the sprint, but Freire (Saxo Bank) and the leader Lopez came charging from behind. As you can see in the picture, we had to go to the photo finish to decide the winner. And it was David Lopez, who makes two in a row and keeps the yellow jersey!
Great performance by the leader, whose only option to keep the jersey was wining the stage. Omega and Saxo Bank did a good job bringing down the break; they should know that Freire and Lopez had good legs today.
The profile of today’s stage is very similar to yesterdays. We have three first category climbs: Alt de Coubet, Alt de Jou and Collada Sobirana. The top of the last climb is only 8 kilometres to the finish, so it could be interesting to see if anyone can attack there.
The break of the day got a very nice advantage and started to climb the Coubet with 7’ 30’’ over the bunch. The riders that got away were: Intxausti (BMC), Kloden (Radioshack), Swift (Sky), Scarponi (Lampre), Van Emden (Leopard) and Tjallingii (Garmin). At that point, Omega decided that the advantage was too dangerous and started to pull at the front.
The rhythm was very high and they cut down one minute on the climb. The wear started taking a hit at some riders, but in the end the only one that lost contact was Gregory Rast. At that point, Saxo Bank joined the effort on hunting down the break.
Climbing the Alt de Jou the break had around 2 minutes on the pack. Saxo Bank took a bigger responsibility in the chase, and also to hunt down the attacks that were launched. Bradley Wiggins is in the picture trying to break away with the chasers right behind.
Starting the Collada Sobirana the pack started to break to pieces. The break ended shortly after and there were around 40 riders in the front. However, it was surprising that the fighting suddenly came to an end. The pace slowed right away, maybe because nobody had the legs after the hard rhythm of the day. That allowed many of those left behind to rejoin the front group. On the top, around 80 riders made it in the group. It was going to be a big sprint to the finish again.
The sprint was slightly uphill at La Pobla de Iillet and Andy Schleck proved to have the best legs. Barredo came second and our amazing leader came third to bag some more bonus seconds.
The bad performance of the day came from the third in the World Tour rankings, Lloyd Mondory. He arrived 5’ 30’’ after the winner along with Cunego. On the top of the charts was again David Lopez, who has almost secured the points classification with three great stages. Andy Schleck jumps to second in the overall standings, 10 seconds behind.
Today’s stage is the queen of the Volta a Catalunya. We go all the way up to Vallnord, one of the ski resorts in Andorra. Before, the Coll de Port has 10.5 kilometres with an average gradient of 6%. Let’s see if David Lopez keeps the good fitness he has shown through the Volta.
The break of the day soon took a big advantage. While ascending Capolat (not marked as a KoM sprint in the profile), Hushovd (Garmin) and Cunego (Lampre) already had 5’ 30’’ on the peloton. Omega, Radioshack and BMC showed themselves in the front of the pack, but none put a good rhythm. Cunego was not a threat, having lost 6 minutes two days ago, but Hushovd was in the fight for the leaders jersey.
The difference between the break and the pack kept increasing, although more slowly now. The duo had up to 6’ 30’’ climbing the Coll de Port. The pack increased the pace climbing, but were not able to reduce more than half a minute at the top. Worse than that, they lost all they have made on the descent, so they had to start again. HTC started to join the party ahead of the peloton.
The pace was not really good, so Pinotti (HTC) decided to go on his own in the short climb after the descent. He dragged with him Nuyens (Saxo Bank), Van Avermaet (BMC), Gadret (Sky) and Marcato (Liquigas). They soon were a minute ahead of the pack, where Omega riders were on their own at the front.
The only fall of the day happened when Fabian Cancellara lost the control of his bike descending towards la Sue d’Urgell. He was 8th in the overall classification, but that didn’t seem to worry his Leopard teammates. They were busy trying to defend Schleck’s 2nd position.
We arrived to the Alt de La Comella with Hushovd and Cunego were comfortably in front. The pack was putting the squeeze on the chasers. Pinotti and his friends were back in the peloton in the first ramps of La Comella. After that, we had all sorts of attacks. At the top, Hushovd and Cunego had 3 minutes over Ventoso (HTC) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Lampre). 3’ 40’’ on Samuel Sanchez and 4’ 00’’ on the peloton. The break was starting to look good, as we were only 26 kilometres from the finish.
Next up was La Massana. Many riders started to show signs of wear in the short climb. Hushovd and Cunego had now only 2’ 00’’ on Ventoso and Rodriguez. However, they were not getting on well, as the Lampre rider wasn’t giving a hand to his fellow Spaniard. Samuel Sanchez was 20 seconds behind, but they were all caught in the short flat before the start of the last climb.
When the slopes began to be steeper, Omega was showing big signs of weakness. The lead of the two at the front began increasing with 5 kilometres to go, they were now 2’ 20’’ ahead. The pack was one big mess by then. Lots of riders tried attacks only to run out of strength a couple of meters after. The most successful attack came by Liquigas Peter Sagan. The Slovak left the rest of the field easily and soon was 30 seconds ahead.
One kilometre to go and Hushovd was sure he good wear the leader’s jersey. Could he add the stage victory as well? Both riders were barely keeping their bicycles straight due to the effort. Meanwhile, Sagan was now close to a minute over the group and set to jump in the overall standings.
Victory for Thor Hushovd! The Norwegian is now the leader and has also the KoM jersey. A magnificent ride by Cunego and Hushovd!
Peter Sagan was the fastest climbing Vallnord and arrived 1’05’’ behind the winner. He is now 2nd in the general classification.
Fourth in the stage was Levi Leipheimer in the green jersey. Andy Schleck tried to attack late in the stage, but he didn’t have the legs. The same can be said of the former leader, as he couldn’t even follow Schleck while he attacked.
We have seen a great stage today. It was by far the best in the season so far, and difficult to match, although we still had a big group at the finish. Thor Hushovd is now set to win the Volta if nothing weird happens. There are three stages left, but they are rather flattish. Garmin could even let a breakaway win to avoid the danger of bonus time.
I love the idea of the story. However did you also set all riders fighter value to 55. If so, I think it should have been a higher value there to make the stages more interesting.
proglang wrote:
I love the idea of the story. However did you also set all riders fighter value to 55. If so, I think it should have been a higher value there to make the stages more interesting.
Why? It doesn't have any effect on the AI riders anyway.
proglang wrote:
I love the idea of the story. However did you also set all riders fighter value to 55. If so, I think it should have been a higher value there to make the stages more interesting.
Why? It doesn't have any effect on the AI riders anyway.
Yes, everything is set to 55. The riders will change stats at the end of the season, and its only 50 racing days. It won't be that painful.
I'm not sure it doesn't have any effect on AI riders. In my experience those with high stats are more prone to attacking and looking for breakaways. That can be useful for some types of riders.
The UCI has announced today that the calendar for season 2010 will have 60 racing days. The calendar will be completely modified to allow for the races that didn't make it in the 2009 season. The main stage race next year will be the Vuelta a España. The organization has distributed the profile of three stages in the first week:
Stage 4: Baza - Sierra Nevada
This will be the first mountain stage of the Vuelta. The climb to Sierra Nevada is long but not very tough, but the riders will have fresh energy. A good stage to know who will fight for the overall standings.
The fifth stage is the easiest one so far in the Volta. We will go down from the mountains near Andorra to the coast next to Tarragona. The last 50 kilometres are very favourable for the riders so we will see a fast pace.
The break of the day was made of 7 riders: Bradley Wiggins (Sky), Robert Gesink (Omega), Marco Pinotti (HTC), Fabian Cancellara (Leopard), Xavier Tondo (Radioshack), Beñat Intxausti (BMC) and Filippo Pozzato (Lampre). The peloton took things easy on the first part of the stage and they got a maximum difference of 8 minutes before the chase began.
The team that started the chase was Saxo Bank. They were in front of the peloton for at least 80 kilometres and looked more interested to defend Freire's fifth position in the overall classification than Garmin in Hushovd's leader jersey.
With 4 kilometres to go, the last members of the break were brought back to the pack. We were set for a mass sprint. Liquigas, Radioshack and BMC were trying to put their fastest riders in a good position.
Mark Cavendish denies Hincapie! First win of the season for the British in the mass sprint at Torredembarra. A very quiet stage where most of the riders will have recovered some energies after yesterday's hard stage.
Thor Hushovd mantains the leaders jersey easily and is the absolute favourite to win the Volta a Catalunya.
The stage arriving in Barcelona is another one for the sprinters. It is really flat for the last 80 kilometres, so any breakaway will have a hard time maintaining a lead. Hushovd's lead is in no big danger today.
Today's break was fairly small, only Michele Scarponi, Borut Bozic and Daniele Bennati made it. They earned a handful of mountain points, but none was a threat to Hushovd's red jersey. Their biggest gap to the peloton was 5 minutes, on the second climb of the day.
Meanwhile, in the last third of the race we had a couple of falls: Francisco Ventoso (HTC) and Laurens Ten Dam (Sky). They both were in the top 20 of the overall standings, but although they got the help from Matthew Goss they never made it back to the pack.
As expected, the break didn't make it to the finish. There were lots of interests in other teams, specially BMC, Radioshack, Liquigas and Omega. he longest line on the sprint has Hincapie been dragged by a teammate, Freire and Lopez behind. They were ready to sprint.
Hincapie is quickest! Second came Oscar Freire and Levi Leipheimer was third. A much needed victory for BMC, and 10 points in the bag for the UCI World Tour. He also moved to second on the points classification, but too far from Lopez.
One day left and Thor Hushovd is ready to claim victory in the Volta a Catalunya. A short and flat last stage should be a walk in the park for the Norwegian.
Stage 7: Sant Cugat - Circuit de Catalunya, Montmelo
An easy one to end the Volta. Only 106 kilometres between Sant Cugat and the Circuit de Catalunya, where the F1 Grand Prix of Spain is raced every May. Thor Hushovd will be cruising to victory if nothing special happens.
The stage started really slow, but we already had some drama with only 10 kilometres. David Lopez, third overall and green jersey was on the ground. However, he had nothing serious and was soon back in the peloton. As many as 7 Omega riders waited for him to drag him back.
The break of the day took a long time to form. Only after the climb were some riders eager to attack, and it was only 3 of them: Laurens Ten Dam (Sky), Greg van Avermaet (BMC) and Steven Kruijswijk (Radioshack). They had a max advantage of 2’30’’, but when Garmin thought that the victory was at risk they started pushing.
15 kilometres to go and the break were back in the pack. The sprinters began positioning themselves for the finish. In the right of the picture, Cadel Evans is dragging yesterdays winner George Hincapie. Could he make it two in a row?
He could! Two in a row for Hincapie and 1-2 in the stage for BMC! Sagan and Freire were left one bicycle short of a stage.
This win allows Hincapie to move up to 4th overall. However, he couldn’t win the green jersey, as David Lopez made a good defence of it by finishing 5th in the stage. As expected, Thor Hushovd had no big trouble to claim the overall victory in the Volta a Catalunya after a long break in the way to Vallnord alongside Damiano Cunego.
The Tour of Flanders starts our short spring classics season. In three consecutive weeks the riders will be racing Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and Amstel Gold Race. On the classic between Brugge and Meerbeke the riders will “enjoy” lots of cobbles and 16 murs, including Koppenberg and Kapelmuur. A long, 260 kilometres, and dangerous stage that will take every bit of energy out of the riders.
The profile of the Ronde van Vlaanderen is really flat for the first 160 kilometres. From then on, it's a succession of murs, both in asphalt and cobbles. It is a race for the strongest and fittest. You need also a bit of luck to win, as punctures and falls are very common in the race.
Brugge welcomes us with a terrible day. It's raining and the sky is completely overcast. This will add to the riders miseries in the race, but what is Belgium without a bit of rain.
A first break was soon formed, a long way from the murs. The riders in it were: Sebastian Langeveld (Liquigas), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Leopard), Oscar Freire (Saxo Bank), Tyler Farrar (Garmin), Edvald Boasson Hagen (Sky), Matthew Goss (HTC) and Wouter Poels (Omega). With 200 kilometres to go, they had a gap of 4' 30'' over the group.
160 kilometres to go and we started to see the first falls. Petacchi (Lampre) and Vanendert (Omega) were the first on the ground. They had no trouble going back to the peloton, but Petacchi would have a miserable race afterwards.
Matthew Goss was also down before long. He had a hard time getting back to the break, as he had lost 2 minutes recovering from the fall. However, when he caught them they had 9 minutes over the peloton and 135 kilometres to go.
The pack seemed to wake up and reduced the difference to 6 minutes before the murs started. BMC and Lampre were pushing so hard that the peloton broke in two in the first hill. 20 riders, mostly BMC, Lampre and HTC, had up to 2' 30'' over the rest after two murs.
With 70 kilometres to go, at the Koppenberg, Freire, Boasson Hagen and Poels decided to go alone. The pace of the peloton was very inconsistent and the difference was still 6 minutes. A handful of riders were already struggling while one group chased the other.
At the Varent hill, the leaders were together again. 5 minutes back was the very reduced peloton (around 40 units) when Peter Kennaugh (Sky) decided to launch a very hard attack. He had 50 kilometres ahead and he tried on his own. Samuel Sanchez (Saxo Bank) tried to follow but he had no legs for it.
28 kilometres and 3 murs to go and Peter Kennaugh had cut down the gap to the leader by 4 minutes. He was about to catch them now. That would make two Sky at the front. The peloton was 3 minutes back and the chances of anyone behind of wining were starting to fade.
The riders arrived at the Kapelmuur and the rain was still falling. Boasson Hagen was pulling in front as Peter Kennaugh seemed a lot fresher than the other in the break. Behind, a group of 21 riders was chasing. However, they were very disorganised and the gap was still at 3 minutes. With 17 kilometres to go, the win was in the break for sure.
Trouble hit Boasson Hagen at the Bosberg, as he had a puncture. When he was on his way again, Philippe Gilbert joined him. The belgian had attacked from the group behind at the Kapelmuur. At the front, Kennaugh attacked and was followed by Farrar, Freire and Peraud.
With 5 kilometres to go, the group of four was going to fight for the victory. Langeveld, Goss and Poels were 40 seconds behind but they didn't look like a threat to victory.
Kennaugh wins the Tour of Flanders! He easily sprinted ahead of the other in the break. In the fight for second, Freire edged Peraud and Farrar. 50 seconds behind arrived Langeveld, Poels and Goss. Eighth position was for Gilbert, while Jurgen Van den Broeck and Edvald Boasson Hagen completed the top 10.
A very needed victory for Sky, that will allow them to leave the last position of the World Tour rankings. Kennaugh showed himself very strong to bridge the gap between the pack and the break in only 25 kilometres, the ones with asphalt hills. It is one week now for the next monument, the Paris-Roubaix.
