Movistar Starting List
Roman Kreuziger
Mikel Nieve
Winner Anacona
Dayer Quintana
Antonio Puga
Isidro Pintassilgo
Perfecto Gastesi
Movistar brought a strong climbing team to Andalucia. You could make out that this race was important to them. They were taking no chances in this final year of their sponsor's contract. They lined up with three doms capable of dragging their leaders, Kreuziger and Nieve, over the line. They also gave youth a chance to showcase themselves. Their competition wasn't exactly the most 'competitive'. The likes of John Darwin Atapuma, Igor Anton, Pello Bilbao and Daniel Navarro would provide a substantial threat in the climbs, but one would have to give the favourites tag to Kreuziger and Nieve.
Following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 5.7 km
Roman Kreuziger demonstrated his readiness for this event by claiming a strong 3rd place, in a discipline which isn't his favourite. In a surprise result, Antonio Puga put in a stunning performance to finish in 7th place, just 7 seconds behind the stage winner.
Stage winner - Kristoph Vandewalle Movistar - Kreuziger 3rd losing 3", Antonio Puga 7th, only 7" of the pace
Stage 2 - Mountain with uphill finish, including 3 major and 2 minor climbs
Winner Anacona attacked at the base of the first climb and became part of the long breakaway. After the second climb of the day, he raced off into the distance and was the only one to survive all five climbs, taking the lead in the climbers standings (he would hang on to it for the rest of the race). Roman Kreuziger proved too strong for the rest of the field as he cruised to a stage win up the last ascent. He had laid down the gauntlet early on.
Stage winner - Roman Kreuziger Movistar - Mikel Nieve 4th losing 50", Kreuziger also picked up the points jersey. Winner Anacona was top of the mountain jersey classifications. Movistar grabbed the lead in the team standings Other important results - Atapuma 6th, Anton 8th, Daniel Navarro and Pello Bilbao all lost 1'12"
Stage 3 - Hilly with mountain top finish, including 1 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
The peloton allowed the well represented early breakaway to build up a huge lead. It was up to 18 minutes at one point of time! The good work by teammates allowed Kreuziger and Nieve to hold on to their high positions as the gap was brought down to 6 minutes by the end. Wilson Marentes won the stage and put himself into the top 5 as a result of the time gap.
Stage winner - Wilson Marentes Movistar - Mikel Nieve 6th, 6'2" behind, Kreuziger 10th, 6'26" behind. Kreuziger and Nieve were now 1-2 in the overall classification Other important results - The other leaders mostly finished in the group with Kreuziger
Stage 4 - Flat with 2 minor intermediate climbs
The small climbs on this stage did not deter the sprinters or produce any time gaps. The finish line came up after a long flat portion making it a bunch sprint. Antonio Puga came off age in this stage, grabbing 2nd place. He was the quickest off his sprint train but was overtaken with about 5 metres to go to the finish.
Stage winner - Adrien Petit Movistar - Antonio Puga 2nd, all leaders finished in the pack
Stage 5 - Hilly with flat top finish, including 4 major and 1 minor climb
Another breakaway survived to take victory in this stage. Again a big breakaway set off early. This time their lead never grew very big, but the stage profile made it difficult for the peloton to catch them. At the end, only van der Poel managed to stay off the front of the peloton, grabbing a fantastic solo victory. The bunch sprint behind him ensured no change in positions at the top.
Stage winner - Mathieu van der Poel Movistar - Antonio Puga 14th, remnants of the breakaway got involved in the sprint
Team Classification
1)Movistar
2)Tinkoff-Saxo
3)Canondale-Garmin
Another obective ticked off the calendar. It's important for the team to maintain this run if they are to convince Movistar to continue with sponsorship. A lot of positives to take out of this race. Kreuziger's first outing of the season resulted in a win. Mikel Nieve is staking his claim for a contract extension with performances like these. The climbing department is sorted with riders like Anacona showing his ability. Two top 5 finishes in the young riders classification (Pintassilgo finished 5th) shows that there is enough talent in the team to keep it moving forward. And finally, Antonio Puga stepped up to the plate to stake his claim as a future force among sprinters. Too bad he could not win that stage.
Edited by AbhishekLFC on 09-11-2015 12:13
Movistar Starting List
Alejandro Valverde
Benat Intxausti
Ion Intxausti
J J Lobato
Giovani Visconti
Ruben Fernandez
Eros Capecchi
Isidro Pintassilgo
Riding on the crest of the wave of good performances since the start of the season, Movistar went into their third sponsor objective with a lot of confidence. The team they brought was a little surprising given that they had left all their major climbers at home. Benat Intxausti was given the task of appeasing the sponsors with a top 3 finish. Valverde and Ion Izagirre would be his lieutenants. The course was also somewhat surprising, given that it had only two of the eight stages classified as being either hilly or mountainous. With two ITTs at either end of the race, the seemed to favour riders with good qualities in different disciplines. The likes of Wilco Kelderman, Thibaut Pinot, Michal Kwiatkowski and Pierre Rolland would provide stern competition to the Movistar riders.
Following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 6.7 km
A flat time trial stage went according to script with Kwiatkowski winning the stage. The leading Movistar riders put in solid performances to stay in touch. Wilco Kelderman showed his ever improving overall capabilities by finishing on the podium.
Stage winner - Michal Kwiatkowski Movistar - Valverde 7th, Intxausti 10th, both losing 27" Other important results - Wilco Kelderman 3rd, losing 20"
Stage 2 - Flat with 1 minor intermediate climb
The first of 4 flat stages saw the favourite rider emerge victorious. Marcel Kittel proved too strong for the field and claimed his first win of this race. All the leaders finished in the pack.
Stage 3 - Flat with 1 minor intermediate climb
A slightly less flat stage. However, the result was almost identical. Kittel kept up his form to claim win number two. No time gaps were created among the leaders.
Stage 4 - Flat with 2 minor intermediate climbs
Some more climbing on this flat stage did not deter Kittel from running his rule over the pack. Win number three was in the bag.
Stage 5 - Hilly
A late attack on the finishing descent gave Simon Spilak stage victory. The other leaders did not let a time gap grow between themselves, but dropped the sprinters from the top of the classification. Movistar now had two riders into the top 10, with Intxausti 4th and Valverde 7th.
Stage winner - Simon Spilak Movistar - Intxausti 3rd, Valverde 10th, s.t Other important results - All leaders finished in the leading group
Stage 6 - Flat with 1 major and 1 minor intermediate climb
It took a lot of effort from the teams of the sprinters to chase down the early breakaway. At the end, this flat categorised stage with a sprint finish ended like all others before it in this race - with a Kittel victory! This was number 4 of this race and he'd completed the clean sweep.
Stage 7 - Mountain with 6 major intermediate climbs
This was an incredibly tough stage for the peloton. The early breakaway managed to take advantage of the numerous clmbs to stay out of reach of the leaders. Incredibly, all the leaders finished together. So far, the time gaps were still being reflected from the ITT on stage 1.
Stage winner - Tony Martin from breakaway Movistar - Ion Izagirre 9th, Valverde 12th, Intxausti 18th, s.t Other important results - All leaders finished in the leading group
Stage 8 - Individual Time Trial - Uphill - 9.6 km
A time trial had set the times being protected so far. A time trial would decide the end result. As it turned out, the Dutch ruled supreme, both on the stage and in the overall classifications. Steven Kruijswijk put in a splendid ride to win the stage while Wilco Kelderman just did enough to pip Kwiatkowski to the overall title. The top 12 riders in the overall classifications were seperated by a mere 42"! The closeness of the time gaps meant Intxausti and Valverde were pushed down the rankings after losing over 20 and 30 seconds respectively.
Stage winner - Steven Kruijswijk Movistar - Intxausti 7th, 23" behind, Valverde 17th, losing 37" Other important results - Wilco Kelderman 3rd, losing 13" Michal Kwiatkowski 11th, losing 30", Thibaut Pinot 2nd, losing 9"
Team Classification
1)Tinkoff-Saxo
2)Sky
3)Movistar
After the highs of the previous races, came this rather disappointing low. The main cause of this result could be attributed to the poor scheduling with the Tirreno Adriatico. The course should have been scouted before putting in this race on the rider objectives. A strong climber with decent TT skills would probably have won for Movistar. Mistakes such as these often prove costly, and did so for us here.
Edited by AbhishekLFC on 01-11-2015 12:12
Disapointing that the TT had such a large effect and meant that the team failed their sponsor goal, I guess it had to happen eventually after the run of making it though.
trekbmc wrote:
Disapointing that the TT had such a large effect and meant that the team failed their sponsor goal, I guess it had to happen eventually after the run of making it though.
The eventual downer came here. The team has to pick themselves up and stay focussed for future races.
A good battle going on in the Tirreno-Adriatico right now between Froome and Nairo. Expect a post soon...
Stage List
ITT - 1
TTT - 1
Flat - 2
Mountain/Hilly - 3
Movistar Starting List
Nairo Quintana
Mikel Nieve
Winner Anacona
Jesus Herrada
Gorkha Izagirre
Alex Dowsett
Jasha Sutterlin
Antonia Puga
The Tirreno-Adriatico promised to be a mini GT with many of the big names registering for the event. Mairo Quintana was leading the challenge for Movistar. He would be ably 'challenged' by the likes of Chris Froome, Rigoberto Uran, Carlos Betancur, Mathias Frank and Richie Porte. In addition, many of the top sprinters too had registered for this race. This would be a race worth watching.
Following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Team Time Trial - Flat -22.7 km
The TT form from the previous year had not eluded Movistar as they ended the TTT in second place, behind favourites Sky who dominated the event.
Stage winners - Sky Movistar - 2nd, Antonio Puga got the white young riders' jersey as a result
Stage 2 - Flat with 2 minor intermediate climb
Two small intermediate climbs did not hamper the sprinters as they fought it out in the bunch sprint. Nacer Bouhanni beat pre-stage favourite Cavendish to win the stage. Antonio Puga did not have the legs to compete in the final sprint, finishing in the middle of the pack.
Stage winner - Nacer Bouhanni
Stage 3 - Flat with 2 minor intermediate climb
Another similar stage but with slightly higher climbs saw Cavendish meet his pre-stage favourite billing and grab the win. A decent outing and good exposure for the youngster Puga as he managed a top 15.
Stage winner - Mark Cavendish Movistar - Antonio Puga 14th
Stage 4 - Mountain with 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
Froome and Nibali attacked early in the second major climb of the day to build up a lead of more than 2 minutes. Some determined chasing in the descent and the following minor climb, allowed Quintana to bring the gap down to less half its maximum value. Richie Porte managed to hang on to Nairo's tail, but they dropped Nibali en route to the finish.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Nairo Quintana 2nd, 42" behind Other important results - Richie Porte 3rd, also 42" behind, Nibali 4th, 1' behind
Stage 5 - Hilly with mountain top finish, including 3 minor intermediate climbs
The leaders played a game of shadow-boxing all the way through the minor climbs. Movistar's climbing train were too strong for Sky, and they dropped them from the leading group with ease. Froome and Porte managed to hold on to a decent position to keep their podium places. Impressive rides from Betancur and Uran brought them into contention for a top 5 finish. It was Colombia 1-2-3 on this stage!
Stage winner - Nairo Quintana Movistar - Nieve 9th, 2'20" behind Other important results - Froome 6th, 2'20" behind, Betancur 2nd, 38" behind, Uran 3rd, 56" behind, Porte 10th, 2'20" behind, Frank 4th, 1'31" behind
Stage 6 - Hilly with flat finish
The slight hills on the stage did not break up the peloton and the stage ended in a bunch sprint. Once again Cavendish took victory. The other leaders tried to take take time off Nairo by getting into the top 3 finishing positions but were undone by the sprinters.
Stage winner - Mark Cavendish Movistar - Nairo 10th Other important results - Froome 4th, Betacur 5th, Porte 7th
Stage 7 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 10.2 km
A perfectly flat TT stage favoured Froome. The silver lining for Quintana was that it wasn't a very long TT. The distance is what the difference in the end. Quintana lost substabtial time to Froome for such a short stage, but he had enough of a buffer to hang on for the overall win.
Stage winner - Tom Dumoulin Movistar - Nairo Quintana 14th losing 33", Alex Dowsett 5th losing 15" Other important results - Froome 2nd losing 2", Porte 13th losing 33", Frank 7th losing 27", Uran 9th losing 30"
Team Classification
1)Movistar
2)Sky
3)Canondale-Garmin
A topsy turvy race decided by Nairo's superiority in going up the steepest climb. Nairo's good form in the early season just adds to the overall good feeling running through the Movistar camp at the moment. Let's hope the disappointment at Paris-Nice was only a small blimp on an otherwise fantastic season coming up.
All this hard work was 'oh so close' to going down the drain. After my last post, I wanted to take a backup of my PCM files on my external HD. However, instead of copy-paste, I somehow pressed Shift-Delete! I'd managed to delete everything - saved games, updated DBs, screenshots, everything!!
After two and a half hours of heart-in-the-mouth recovery, I managed to recover those files. And yes, the game seems to be working fine. Phewwww!!!!
Milan-San Remo
The first monuments race of the year and another sponsor objective (Top 5). Surprisingly, not a single top rider on our roster wanted this as one of their objectives! The Movistar riders went about this extremely long race biding their time for the small hills at the end to make their attacks. However, by the time the riders reached the first big climb, only Valverde and Jesus Herrada were able to keep up with the leading pack. The leader for Movistar, Luis Leon Sanchez, gradually dropped off the pace. Despite Ion Izagirre's best efforts, they could not pull themselves back up to the leaders. Valverde was the first to attack among the leaders. This restlessness cost him and Movistar in the end, as he was caught with about 5 km to go to the finish. He hung on for 6th place, finishing in the pack of 5 chasing the eventual winner Michal Kwiatkowski and runner-up Rui Costa. Jesus Herrada finished in 8th place. We missed the sponsor objective by one position.
trekbmc wrote:
Glad you didn't lose the game. That must have been scary...
Shame that Valverde was just 1 position off the sponsor objective, but still not a bad race.
Also 2nd and 4th in the tour of Taiwan is good.
It was very very scary!!
Two good races like you said. What I like most about the squad now is the sheer variety it has. Konig and Intxausti would probably be the 4th and 5th best GC contenders in the team, and yet they're good enough to tick off wins in stage races. At the same time, the likes of Valverde and Sanchez are good enough to compete in the classics and monuments. Add to that the TT exploits of Malori and Dowsett, leaving only the form of the sprinters as the missing piece in an otherwise complete jigsaw...
Movistar Starting List
Mikel Landa
Luis Leon Sanchez
Ion Izagirre
Jesus Herrada
Gorkha Izagirre
Jose Herrada
Alex Dowsett
Eduard Korniets
Climbers, climbers, everywhere! They only put climbs on this race. Our sponsors would only be happy with 1st place on this race! Mikel Landa headed into his third race for Movistar having won the previous two. He was being backed up by a strong climbing team, as Movistar wanted to take home the big prize. The competition as top class too. Froome, Aru, Betancur, van Garderen, Pinot and Majka were just some of the names who would be fighting it out for the GC. Can Landa make it 3 out of 3? Or will someone else show up in better form to stake a claim for the GTs coming up? Let's find out...
Following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Hilly with 1 major and 2 minor intermediate climbs
The first stage was a warm-up to the succeeding stages. A few short climbs led to a flat finish allowing the surviving sprinters to fight it out for the only stage which they got some joy. Earlier, Gorkha Izagirre was a part of the early breakaway and survived the longest. He won all the mountain and points sprints, thereby taking the KOM and the points jerseys. Luis Leon Sanchez also attacked late on but was caught before the line.
Stage winner - Ray Jans Movistar - Mikel Landa 5th, Sanchez 7th, Ion Izagirre 8th Other important results - All leaders finished in the bunch
Stage 2 - Hilly with 1 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
Sanchez failed in the first stage to stay off the front after a late attack. But there was no stopping him over the undulations at the end of this stage. He attacked with less than 5 km to go and the leaders could not organize themselves well enough to catch him. As it would turn out, Landa sneaked ahead in the sprint to make it a 1-2 for Movistar.
Stage winner - Luis Leon Sanchez, went into the overall lead Movistar - Mikel Landa 2th, Ion Izagirre 8th Other important results - Chris Froome 3rd, Ilnur Zakarin 7th, Rafal Majka 9th
Stage 3 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major intermediate climbs
The first big mountain stage brought about the first big time gaps. Movistar protected Landa throughout the race. They did not need to do much of the pace making as both Sky and Tinkoff were setting it up for their leaders. This allowed the domestiques to stick around longer with Landa as they were fresher compared to the opposition. Landa pulled away at the head of the race in the incline up to the finish to claim the satge and the leader's white jersey. Chris Froome came home in second and made it evident that this race would be won by either of them.
Stage winner - Mikel Landa Movistar - Gorkha Izagirre still held on to both the KOM and the points jerseys Other important results - Froome 2nd, 50" behind, Majka 3rd, 1'9" behind, Betancur 4th, 1'9", Aru 8th, 1'36" behind, van Garderen 10th, 1'36" behind
Stage 4 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 4 major intermediate climbs
Another massive climbing stage. Landa managed to stay at the front throughout the stage, ably protected by his domestiques - Gorkha Izagirre and Jose Herrada. In fact, Herrada did such a good job pacing Landa that he managed to finish in the second group on the road, and secure a top 10 position.
Stage winner - Mikel Landa Movistar - Jose Herrada 9th, 2'41" behind, Gorkha gave up his sprint jersey to Pello Bilbao (although still tied on points) Other important results - Pinot 2nd, Froome 3rd, van Garderen 4th, Betancur 5th, all 15" behind, Aru 7th, 1'47" behind
Stage 5 - Hilly with 1 major intermediate climbs
A long breakaway survived to win the stage from the overall leaders. Although it did not start off that, Daniel Navarro was the only member of the breakaway to survive till the end. He was followed home by another group of 7 riders, where other members of the breakaway finished, as also Thibaut Pinot, who managed to gain time on Landa and leap-frogged Froome into second place.
Stage winner - Daniel Navarro from breakaway Movistar - Mikel Landa 21st, losing 2'10" Other important results - Pinot 7th, losing 1'11", Betancur and Froome finished in the chasing group with Landa
Stage 6 - Hilly with 1 minor intermediate climbs
A relatively kinder stage greeted the riders on this day. It was billed as a stage for the sprinters, with a long winded descent starting a long way before the finish line. However, it was clear that the week's efforts were taking a toll on them. The early breakaway was caught by the good work of the sprinters' teams but proved futile in the end. Luis Leon Sanchez, Carlos Betancur and Pello Bilbao emerged from the pack the strongest and beat the sprinters at their own game.
Stage winner - Carlos Betancur Movistar - Sanchez 3rd, Ion 8th, Landa 10th Other important results - Pello Bilbao 2nd, Aru 10th
Stage 7 - Undulating with 6 minor intermediate climbs
Gorkha's KOM jersey was secured when none of his rivals for that jersey joined the morning breakaway. Now the task was to help Landa reach the finish line safely. The breakaway did not pose a massive threat and so the peloton let them stay out in front. In the end, it was the breakaway which survived and Cameron Meyer claimed victory. There was no major drama in the peloton as the leaders in the pack fought it for the minor positions on the stage. Gorkha Izagirre won maximum points the first intermediate sprint to reclaim the points jersey.
Stage winner - Cameron Meyer from breakaway Movistar - Landa 5th, Sanchez 8th Other important results - Pinot 6th, Froome 9th, Majka 7th, Betancur 10th
Team Classification
1)Movistar
2)Tinkoff-Saxo
3)Sky
It's three out of three for Landa. He's raced in three races for Movistar and remains unbeaten. Our riders have now beaten Froome twice in succession, both here and at Tirreno. The signs are very positive going into the first GT of the year, which is now only six weeks away. Mikel Landa has been the most successful signing (already!) in my tenure as Movistar manager. He would surely be one of absolute favourites for the Giro now. Sponsors are happy too...
The team are really racing well now. 
That's pretty amazing. 
