Stage 3 in Switzerland is not too hard but the climb to Gibloux, only 16 kilometers to the finish line, has the potential to mix the final part of the stage. The final kilometer is not easy at all, as it is the final climb to Romont. An uphill finish that the specialists can take advantage of.
The break of the day had a nice gap of 4 minutes as they climbed the second categorized hill of the day, Dompierre. Last year Rein Taaramae took the stage win from a break, so the hopes for today are high in this group. The best riders in it are Simone Ponzi (Katusha), Ben Hermans (Discovery), Igor Anton (Rabobank) and Grega Bole (Movistar). Sergio Henao looked as the only one interested in the KoM points and he got many points in the first two climbs.
Mikel Nieve opened the attacks as soon as the bunch started climbing La Gibloux as the peloton was being led by Radioshack in the previous kilometers. The Luxembourgish team has both Frank Schleck and Simon Gerrans with options today. The break is only 1 minute ahead of the bunch, so with 20 kilometers remaining they will find it difficult to reach the finish line ahead.
Simone Ponzi left behind his break fellows and crossed the KoM sprint of La Gibloux 30 seconds ahead of Maxime Monfort. Meanwhile, the bunch is surprisingly still together after attacks from Bauke Mollema, Tejay van Garderen and Simon Gerrans. It looks like a lot of riders are keen to gain a few seconds in the finish line today.
An attack by Tejay van Garderen in the descent was only followed by Simon Gerrans. They both got past Ponzi easily as they go through the last intermediate sprint of the day (5 kilometers to go). A group with Bauke Mollema, Frank Schleck, David Lopez and Lieuwe Westra is following 25 seconds behind and the main bunch is losing 50 seconds.
The group of chasers catches Simone Ponzi within the last 2 kilometers, almost as they start climbing to Romont. The leading duo has maintained their lead, so they should have no trouble in the fight for the stage win. Meanwhile, the bunch is already losing more than 1 minute with them.
Van Garderen leads Simon Gerrans as they enter the last kilometer. They still have the hill climb to Romont, averaging around 6%, to decide who will be the winner of today's stage. Tejay van Garderen will want to put as much time as possible on the chasers in order to consolidate his leader's jersey.
Simon Gerrans wins in Romont! Gerrans took Van Garderen's wheel only to come out in the last meters of the stage and take the win. This is the second win of the year for the Australian, who already took a stage win in the Tour Down Under. Tejay must be really annoyed that he got the second place in the three stages that they have raced so far.
The group of chasers crossed the line 29 seconds later led by Bauke Mollema. This way the Dutch limits his loss in the GC to 33 seconds. Frank Schleck and David Lopez completed the top 5 in the stage and they are also trailing Mollema in the GC.
Even though the climb to Enges is within te last 50 kilometers of the stage, the fourth day in Romandie is expected to be not too hard for the GC contenders. The only serious climbing of the day will be that one and there is much easy terrain for the bunch to catch up later. Probably the favorites will want to save some strength for tomorrow's time trial.
The break of the day had 8 riders, including Jelle Vanendert (Lotto), Theo Bos (Rabobank), Michael Matthews (Garmin) and Maarten Tjallingii (Ag2r). They have a gap of 6 minutes on the bunch with 80 kilometers to go but the teams of the sprinters are hopeful that they won't have trouble to go through the climbing and are already chasing.
The climb to Enges was hard for the break, as they saw their lead cut to barely 1' 30''. However, many sprinters had a hard time keeping the high pace that was being set in the peloton. David Lopez attacked in the last kilometer looking for some points for the mountain jersey.
The good understanding in the break broke in the small climb to Lignieres. Jelle Vanendert and Andrew Talansky left their break fellows behind and crossed the KoM sprint 20 seconds ahead. Meanwhile, the peloton had to reorganize after the first climb and lost its pace. They were losing more than 2 minutes with only 18 kilometers remaining, several of those downhill.
Even though the peloton tried to cut the distance to the break, they were losing 1' 30'' with 5 kilometers to go. Vanendert and Talansky had held behind the rest of the break and, with a 30 seconds margin, they had a lot of chances to win the stage. The teams with GC contenders are also chasing behind, as the Belgian is only 2' 30'' behind in the GC.
Talansky leads the way as he and Vanendert sprint for the win in Neuchatel. The rest of the break comes less than 30 seconds behind, but they are no longer a concern for the leading duo.
Andrew Talansky wins in Neuchatel! In a rather surprising outcome of the sprint Talansky beats the much more experienced Vanendert to take his maiden win. Radioshack get their second stage win in a row in what has been a very productive Tour de Romandie so far. On camp Lotto the disappointment is great as Jelle Vanendert just missed on the sprint by few meters.
The bunch cut the lead of the break a lot in the closing stages, but not enough for the sprinters to be ahead of the other members of the break. Matthews, Kristoff and Gasparotto completed the top 5 of the stage. The GC finally suffered no big changes, with only Jelle Vanendert entering the top 20.
The most important stage in this year's Tour de Romandie is probably the time trial in Signal de Bougy. The 20 kilometers were not really balanced with the amount of mountains that the route presented. However, this year the favorites took advantage of those climbs and the GC is much more spread out than last year.
Marco Pinotti (BMC) was the first among the favorites for the stage win to start. The Italian made good the pre race expectations and was 1 second quicker than the best time so far, set by Taylor Phinney. This would be a good reference time for the leader of the race and teammate Tejay van Garderen.
Cameron Meyer (Quickstep) started the time trial right behind Marco Pinotti. The Australian had already won the opening prologue in Martigny and was keen to take another stage win, as he beat Pinotti by 1 second.
David Millar (Sky) was 12th in the GC before today. However, his time trial was rather disappointing, as he could only manage the 5th provisional time, 10 seconds slower than Cameron Meyer. However, it would be enough to promote him to the top 10 in the GC after the stage.
Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank) is a solid holder of the young jersey and he extended his already good gap on that classification. More than that, he managed to set the 4th provisional time only 3 seconds slower than Meyer after having set the best time so far in the intermediate point.
Rigoberto Uran (Lotto) was even better than Westra. The Colombian is having one of his best races in quite a while and was able to set the third time so far 1 second slower than Cameron Meyer. He was aiming to progress a couple of places in the GC.
Lampre is not having the best of the starts to the season and neither is Bart de Clerq. The Belgian was well positioned in the GC but today he messed it all up a little bit as he could only set the 24th provisional time, 21 seconds behind. That means Westra, Uran and Sanchez will all go past the Belgian in the GC.
If De Clerq's time trial was rather bad, Frank Schleck (Radioshack) was no better. However, in this case it is expected as he has never been a good time trialist. The Luxembourgish only set the 66th provisional time, 35 seconds behind Meyer. This means that the riders that overtook De Clerq in the GC will do the same to Schleck.
David Lopez (Euskaltel) was another of the riders that was supposed to lose some time today. However, he was marginally better than Frank Schleck after clocking the 58th provisional time, 30 seconds back. on Meyer's time. That wouldn't save him from dropping from the 3rd overall to the 6th in the GC after the time trial.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) usually crushes his rivals in the time trials, but this time he would have it more difficult as Tejay van Garderen is a great specialist. Mollema's time wasn't even as great as he usually does in the closing stages of a race, as he could only clock the 7th time so far 7 seconds behind Meyer.
Tejay van Garderen (BMC) has been the character of the Tour de Romandie and he reaffirmed that by winning today. The American beat the favorite for the stage, Cameron Meyer, by 2 seconds and proving that he may well be a contender for the upcoming Giro. Tejay finally found the stage win he had deserved after arriving 2nd in the first three stages.
Bauke Mollema remains second in the GC, but now 42 seconds behind, while Uran progressed to a podium place, Samuel Sanchez is fourth and Lieuwe Westra is 5th. With only one rather easy stage remaining the most probable outcome is for nothing to change tomorrow.
The last stage in Romandie is not expected to produce any changes in the GC, even though the riders have to go through the climbs to Mollendruz and Marchairuz. The most probable outcome is a sprint of a reduced group, as not every sprinter is expected to keep the pace in the climbs.
The break of the day was allowed quite a big gap, as they had 7 minutes on the bunch at the top of the first climb of the day, the Col du Mollendruz (85 km to go). Among the riders in the group of 6 were the winner two days ago, Andrew Talansky (Radioshack), Maarten Tjallingii (Ag2r), Niki Terpstra (Movistar) and Michael Matthews (Garmin).
The second climb of the day was the Col de Marchairuz. Stefano Garzelli put a high pace at the front of the bunch and that made several sprinters lose contact, like Lloyd Mondory and Bernhard Eisel. In the break, which still has a good lead, Michael Matthews couldn't keep up with the pace. The group takes out the fastest men for a possible sprint. Andrew Talansky's two breaks will also be rewarding for him, as he is going to take the KoM jersey at the end of the race.
Niki Terpstra and Maarten Tjallingii attacked from the break and entered with 10 seconds of advantage on the other three members of the break into the last 10 kilometers. The chase by the bunch has been very disorganized since the climbs and they are still losing 2' 30'' on the break. The stage win is going to be in the break.
The two Dutch didn't have much luck and immediately after they were caught Mark Renshaw and Andrew Talansky opened a gap. They reached the last 3 kilometers 10 seconds ahead, while the main bunch had cut the lead below the 2 minutes mark.
Talansky and Renshaw enter the last kilometer sprinting side by side. The American has already won a stage in Romandie, so adding another one would be amazing for him. On the other side, Mark Renshaw is looking for his maiden win.
Mark Renshaw wins in Geneve! The Australian was clearly stronger in the sprint, as he took advantage of Talansky doing most of the work as they approached the finish line. This is the first win of the rookie Australian and the third one in Discovery's tally. Behind them, Samuel Dumolin, Niki Terpstra and Maarten Tjallingii completed the top 5.
The bunch arrived 1' 41'' later, with a gap small enough not to allow any of the break members to get into the top 10 of the GC. Lieuwe Westra, the best young rider led the way. The overall win went to Tejay van Garderen after the American had a fantastic week of cycling and not even Bauke Mollema could cast a doubt on his dominance of the race. The two of them have shown a good preparation towards the upcoming Giro d'Italia. David Lopez and Frank Schleck have also shown good legs, even though the route of the Tour de Romandie didn't suit them at all.
The Giro d'Italia is probably the hardest Grand Tour lately and it comes back to prove it again this year. After a one year absence from the story, the second edition of the Giro promises to be a tight competition among the climbers. It is hard to see Pieter Weening defending his crown, as the Dutch has developed more into a hilly - fighter kind of rider and that should hamper his chances. Hubert Dupont also seems past his best years, but should be in the top 10 nevertheless.
The start of the Italian race will take place in Denmark this year, as the town of Herning will host the two first stages and Horsens will do the same for the third. After that, a long transfer will take place towards Verona, where a TTT awaits. The hardest part of the Giro will be left for the last third of the race, as only the stage in Lago Laceno will be a chance for the climbers in the first week.
The mountains in the last week will be very hard, with mountain top finishes in Cervinia, Piani dei Resinelli, Alpe di Pampeago and the Passo dello Stelvio. However, the amount of time trial kilometers will again be way too low for the kind of mountains that the Giro presents. That will go against riders like Tejay van Garderen, Levi Leipheimer or Chris Froome, who would otherwise have a bigger chance of success.
Favorites:
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC): The last Tour de France winner appears in Denmark as the main favorite to take the GC win in Milano 3 weeks from now. Mollema's start of the season was probably worse than last season, when he won the Tirreno - Adriatico, but he has been in the podiums of the Tirreno and in Romandie. However, he has a much improved team than last year. The signings of Gesink, Fuglsang and Barredo will give Vacansoleil protagonism in the mountains, whereas in the past Mollema had to battle alone as his teammates were too weak.
- Mikel Nieve (Discovery Channel): The emergence of Mikel Nieve as a potentially great rider happened in the Giro two years ago. The Spaniard was in the final podium in Milano only 6 seconds ahead of Levi Leipheimer. He comes back to the Giro after the second overall place in last year's Tour de France, so he is only missing the win in a Grand Tour now. With the kind of support he is going to enjoy (Rodriguez, Evans, Brajkovic) and the lack of time trial kilometers he could well aim for the overall win.
- David Lopez (Euskaltel - Euskadi): David Lopez missed the top 10 in the Tour de France last year, but he has improved a lot this year. He arrives in Herning as the leader of the World Tour classification after winning the queen stage in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and taking the second place in the podium.
- Frank Schleck (Team Radioshack - Nissan): Frank Schleck got close to the podium last year in the Tour de France, so he will only be satisfied if he gets there in the Giro. The Luxembourgish has had a good start of the season, as he was 2nd in the Tirreno - Adriatico and got a top 10 in Romandie where the route was not favorable to him.
Other notable riders that could have a shot for the podium could be Andy Schleck and Levi Leipheimer (HTC - Highroad), Peter Stetina (BMC Racing), Rob Ruijgh and Hubert Dupont (Rabobank) and Steven Kruijswijk (Movistar), Robert Gesink (Vacansoleil - DMC) and Roman Kreuziger (Team Radioshack - Nissan).
The best sprinters will also be present in Italy: Tyler Farrar (Saxo Bank - Tinkoff), Ben Swift (Sky Procycling), Sacha Modolo (Euskaltel - Euskadi), Yauheni Hutarovich (Lampre - ISD), Marcel Kittel (Discovery Channel), Tony Gallopin (Omega Pharma - Quickstep), Andre Greipel (Lotto - Belisol) and Peter Sagan (Vacansoleil - DMC).
Only the first and last stages of the Giro d'Italia are individual time trials, so they could have probably made this one a bit longer. However, at 9 kilometers it will serve to open the first gaps in the GC. These will probably be too big for the sprinters to get the pink jersey, especially considering that the fourth stage in Verona will be a TTT.
David Millar (Sky) opened the fire among the favorites for today's prologue by taking the first provisional time with a nice margin. The British improved on Xavi Tondo's time by 13 seconds, probably enough to stay a long while in the lead.
Millar's happiness didn't last long, as Levi Leipheimer (HTC) improved on his time a bit later. The American set a 13' 23'' that was 1 second faster. HTC always has a good amount of time trialist in their squad.
The best times kept coming in one after the other as Cameron Meyer (Quickstep), the favorite for the stage, improved in 1 second Leipheimer's time. The Australian will not have a leader role in Italy, as he did in Romandie, given the very mountainous route in the Giro.
Marco Pinotti (BMC) again featured among the best time trialists. However, he could only manage a 7th provisional time 8 seconds behind Cameron Meyer. The Italian will be a great support for Van Garderen in the TTT three days from now.
Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank) arrives in Italy with the hope of getting the young jersey, although he will probably have a hard time against the likes of Pinot. He started very well today by setting the 4th provisional time only 4 seconds behind Cameron Meyer.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) has a long way to go ahead of him, but anyway he will be well placed after today's time trial. He clocked the 6th provisional time only 7 seconds slower than Cameron Meyer.
Chris Froome (HTC) needed to put a good time today to try and claim the leadership of his team, as he has enemies like Leipheimer and Andy Schleck inside the HTC squad. However, he could only manage the 10th time so far 8 seconds slower than Cameron Meyer and that puts him behind Leipheimer in the GC.
Tejay's show continues in the Giro d'Italia! The American from BMC was one of the last riders to hit the road today and he crushed Meyer's time by 5 seconds, what gives him the stage win and the pink jersey. Van Garderen was giving huge hints in Romandie that he would be in great shape at the beginning of the Giro and he delivered.
The gaps were not too big in today's stage, let's take a look at where some of the favorites for the GC finished. Those outside of the top 10 are: Roman Kreuziger, +14''; Peter Stetina, +16''; Robert Gesink, +19''; Rob Ruijgh and Hubert Dupont, +21''; David Lopez and Steven Kruijswijk, +22''; Mikel Nieve, +26''; Frank Schleck, +30''; Andy Schleck, +35''.
The second stage in Denmark has again the start and finish in the town of Herning. The only potential danger of today's stage is the wind, as most of the first part of the stage runs along the coast. However, though the day is rainy not much wind is expected. The most probable outcome will be a mass sprint.
Only Cameron Meyer (Quickstep) and Julien Simon (Ag2r) tried the break today. It looks like few riders hoped that they would reach the finish line ahead. They had 5' 25''on the bunch with 85 kilometers remaining. At that point Meyer had taken the mountain jersey for tomorrow and had cut the lead of Van Garderen in the GC to 2 seconds thanks to the bonus seconds. In the peloton Peter Stetina, one of the leaders of BMC had just crashed.
The bunch didn't have to do a great work to reel the break back in. They did so with 33 kilometers remaining. The most surprising thing is that no BMC rider waited for Peter Stetina after his crash and he is bound to lose a good amount of minutes in the finish line. The American is going to say goodbye to any hopes of a good GC today.
The mass sprint was unavoidable once the sprint trains started to take shape. For Lotto it was Jurgen Roelandts working for Andre Greipel; on the other side of the road Heinrich Haussler was towing Marcel Kittel and Sacha Modolo was taking advantage of his wheel. By their side, Vacansoleil had Stefan van Dijk ahead of Peter Sagan, with the Lampre rider Elia Viviani behind.
Peter Sagan was the best placed as the sprinters get into the last kilometer of the stage. Sacha Modolo is following close and they have Johan van Summeren and Tyler Farrar behind.
Peter Sagan wins in Herning! Sagan is unstoppable this year and he bags his 4th win of the season, tying with Van Garderen at the top of this statistic. The perfect lead-out by Stefan van Dijk also played a good role on the Slovak's win. Behind him, Tyler Farrar was second ahead of Sacha Modolo while Johan van Summeren and Ben Swift completed the top 5.
On the bad news of the day Damiano Cunego was forced to abandon after a crash in the last kilometers. This is a hit to the chances of Frank Schleck in the GC, as Cunego was one of his best domestiques in the mountains. In camp BMC, Peter Stetina lost a great part of his chances of a good GC after losing 8 minutes in the finish line. Other rider that will disappear from the front places of the GC is Cameron Meyer, as he lost some time on the bunch after his long break.
The last stage of the Giro in Denmark takes place around the town of Horsens. It is again a very flat route where the wind will be the main source of uncertainty. Other than that, a mass sprint is widely expected again today after the close to 200 kilometers that the riders will have to complete.
Today's break was quite bigger than yesterday's, as the group was made of 7 riders including Sylvain Chavanel (Ag2r), Luca Paolini (Quickstep), Taylor Phinney (HTC) and Ivan Basso (Radioshack). They had a gap of 6' 35'' over the bunch at the only mountain sprint of the day (90 km remaining). However, the BMC team was already starting to increase the pace in the bunch.
Chavanel and Paolini reached the last 8 kilometers ahead of the peloton but they only have a small gap of 25 seconds. They will probably be caught because there are a lot of teams keen to have a mass sprint. Meanwhile, Juanjo Cobo, the leader of the team Sky, crashed and couldn't rejoin the main bunch. He is going to lose much time today.
Alessandro Ballan took Tejay van Garderen to the front of the peloton in the last 3 kilometers to avoid any crashes. The best sprinting trains are the one by Discovery Channel where Heinrich Haussler is leading Marcel Kittel with Jose Joaquin Rojas behind. Vacansoleil also has Stefan van Dijk leading yesterday's winner Peter Sagan with Simone Ponzi behind.
Jose Joaquin Rojas took the lead of the sprint in the last kilometer. Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel are both close behind the Spaniard while the fourth place is for a surprising Tejay van Garderen.
Jose Joaquin Rojas wins in Horsens! The Spaniard gets his first win of the season in the last stage of the Giro in Denmark. Tyler Farrar did a great comeback in the last meters but couldn't reach more than the second place. The prize for the American is the points jersey, as he has made two second positions in a row.
Yauheni Hutarovich, Andre Greipel and Marcel Kittel completed the top 5 of the stage. Both Germans couldn't keep up the pace in the final of the sprint. The GC suffered no major changes, only the disappearance of David Millar, who stayed behind to help Juanjo Cobo rejoin the bunch.
The Giro lands in Italy after the first rest day with a 33 team time trial that will open a bit more the gaps in the GC. The pre stage favorites are the American teams HTC and BMC, Radioshack and Quickstep. However, the abandon of Damiano Cunego in the second stage is lowering the chances of the Luxembourgish team. The time differences will probably be not too big but it is always better to be 30 seconds ahead of your rival than behind...
Euskaltel was never going to be a major candidate for today's time trial. David Lopez knew that he had to live with that before the Giro. As they finished the stage several teams had already finished and they took the third spot, 13 seconds behind their fellow Spaniards from Movistar.
Discovery is a more solid team in the time trials, mainly thanks to Brajkovic and Evans, and they showed it by taking the first place ahead of Movistar. The Spaniard team had done a very good second part of the stage but Discovery clearly beat their time by 9 seconds. They are strong candidates to be among the top teams in the stage.
Bauke Mollema has a much improved support this year in the Vacansoleil team. They showed it today as their time was very close to the reference time by Discovery. In the end they took the second place only 3 seconds behind. Their last part of the stage was especially good, as they were losing 5 seconds in the second intermediate.
Rabobank was a little disappointing today. They have plenty of classy riders to have performed better than the 7th provisional time they got in the finish line. Rob Ruijgh and Hubert Dupont will not be happy with the 15 seconds they lost to Discovery Channel.
Radioshack arrived in Verona with only 8 riders after the crash that left Damiano Cunego out of the Giro. That was supposed to take a toll in the team, but in the end they did a fantastic time trial. They were losing 1 second on the second intermediate point and surprised everyone by setting the best time in the finish line 4 seconds ahead of Discovery.
The joy in camp Radioshack was short lived, as the almighty Quickstep team improved their time in 7 seconds. The chances of the Belgian team of a good GC result are under doubt, as they seem to have given the leading role to Pieter Weening, leaving Denis Menchov leading role for the Vuelta. However, Weening seems characteristics don't seem to fit the route too much. They are in great shape anyway.
The HTC team was the time trial power last year, but the loss of Cameron Meyer to Quickstep meant that they are a bit worse off this year. Nevertheless, they set the second best time in the finish line only 5 seconds behind Quickstep. The weird thing is that Andy Schleck didn't come among the top 5 and lost 9 seconds instead of 5.
BMC was one of the main favorites and also the biggest disappointment of the afternoon. The Americans seem to be paying for the control of the peloton they had to do in the first days and ended up losing 24 seconds in the 10th place of the stage. This means that Tejay van Garderen loses the pink jersey in favor of Levi Leipheimer. Tejay is down to the 9th place in the GC 13 seconds behind.
A small recap on where are the favorites for the GC after the TTT. Those outside the top 10 are: Bauke Mollema, +15''; Robert Gesink, +22''; Mikel Nieve and Frank Schleck, +26''; Steven Kruijswijk, +31''; Andy Schleck, +34''; Rob Ruijgh and Hubert Dupont, +36''; David Lopez, +44''.
