Movistar Starting List
Nairo Quintana
Leopold Konig
J J Lobato
Winner Anacona
Ruben Fernandez
Alex Dowsett
Dayer Quintana
Eduard Korniets
The last big race before the Giro saw many of the big guns registering again. The leaders of Movistar's Giro challenge decide to take the week before the Giro off in order to concentrate on training rather than competition. So it would the first time that Nairo and Konig would lead the charge together for us in any race. Providing them with tough competition would be Chris Froome and Richie Porte of Sky, Wilco Kelderman and Thibaut Pinot of Tinkoff-Saxo, Vicenzo Nibali of Aeroflot and Rigoberto Uran of Ag2R. It would be interesting to see how seriously the leaders take this race on the eve of the first GT of the year.
Following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Team Time Trial - Flat - 19.2 km
True to their top billing, Team Sky ran away with this stage. Movistar could only manage sixth place and were already playing catchup. Tinkoff-Saxo kept their leaders in a high position by coming in second on the day.
Stage winners - Sky (Chris Froome, Richie Porte, S. Yates) Movistar - 8th losing 35" Other important results - Tinkoff-Saxo (Wilco Kelderman, Thibaut Pinot) 2nd, losing 18", Aeroflot(Vicenzo Nibali) 4th, also losing 18"
Stage 2 - Mountain with 3 major and 1 minor intermediate climb
Ruben Fernandez joined an early break of two riders before the start of the first major climb of the day. The harsh terrain made it difficult for the peloton to chase down the leading group. They put in a lot of hard, managing to catch two of the laggards. Fernandez, however, was able to hold on to his position, finishing about a minute in front of the peloton. The leaders all finished in the bunch.
Stage winner - Ruben Fernandez, took the leader's yellow jersey Movistar - Took the lead in the team classification
Stage 3 - Hilly with 2 major and 3 minor intermediate climbs
Another early breakaway, this time with six riders, survived on another difficult stage, to put the stage winner into yellow jersey once again. Odd Christian Eiking put in a surprisingly strong performance to keep the peloton at bay and win the stage and take the overall lead. Fernandez dropped down to second place. All the leaders finished together in the chasing pack.
Stage winner - Odd Christian Eiking, took the leader's yellow jersey
Stage 4 - Hilly with 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
A stage which wsa billed to be a relatively quiet, giving the sprinters a sniff with a long flat portion leading to the finish did not go according to the script. The overall leaders decided to crank the peloton into high, decimating a third of the peloton. After the climb that caused the chaos, several attacks were thwarted by what was left of the helpers of the leaders. Only at the end did Kelderman and Ulissi pull away from the rest of the group, Kelderman winning the sprint to take the stage.
Stage winner - Wilco Kelderman Movistar - Leopold Konig 4th, Nairo Quintana 6th, both losing 25" Other important results - All other leaders finished in the Quintana group losing 25" to Kelderman
Stage 5 - Mountian with mountain top finish 3 major
The stage eventually decided the race. Tough stage after tough stage! The early breakaway had seemed threatening at one point but were eventually caught before the climb to the finish line. In a rather surprising turn of events, Froome and Quintana, the bookies's favourites, could not hang on to the acceleration from Nibali and Konig. Neither could Kelderman. Nibali turned back time to put in a masterclass in climbing and take both the stage and the overall lead. Konig usurped his team leader to go second on the day and overall.
Stage winner - Vicenzo Nibali Movistar - Leopold Konig 2nd, 12" behind, Nairo Quintana 4th, 1'31" behind Other important results - Kelderman 3rd, 36" behind, Porte 5th, 1'47" behind, Froome 6th, Uran 7th, both losing 2'59"
Stage 6 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 17.5 km
Owing to the time gaps between the top riders and the short length of the time trial, it was clear that this was now a three horse race between Nibali, Konig and Kelderman for the title. Expectedly, Sky riders Porte and Froome took 1-2, in that order, Porte once again getting the better of Froome. Kelderman's effort was not good enough and he ended up losing third place to Porte after this stage. Leopold Konig put in a great TT to 4th and pile the pressure on to Nibali, just down the road. Nibali barely managed to stay under Konig's time, winning the overall title by a mere 9" seconds, having lost 27" to Konig on the stage.
Stage winner - Richie Porte Movistar - Leopold Konig 4th, losing 26", Nairo Quintana 17th, losing 1'3" Other important results - Nibali 12th, losing 53", Froome 2nd, losing 14", Uran 5th, losing 32", Kelderman 7th, losing 38"
Points Classification
1)Laurens Ten Dam (Philips)
2)Sergio Henao (Ag2R)
3)Jonathan Castroviejo (Aeroflot)
Young Riders Classification
1)Odd Christian Eiking (IAM)
2)Dayer Quintana (Movistar)
3)Simon Yates (Sky)
Team Classification
1)Movistar
2)Sky
3)Tinkoff-Saxo
Another satisfactory performance from the team. Quintana's troubles weren't a big surprise given he's not in his peak fitness. He's scheduled to race in Switzerland next. Leopold Konig put a bright performance to get onto the middle step of the podium. A slightly longer TT and he may have stolen it from Nibali. Froome's frailties exposed once again, as we have beaten him now in three races this year. Looking forward to the Giro now...
Stage List
TTR - 1
ITT - 1
Flat - 9
Mountain/Hill - 10
Movistar Starting List
Mikel Landa
Roman Kreuziger
Sam Bennett
Adriano Malori
J J Rojas
Jose Herrada
Dayer Quintana
Eros Capecchi
Isidro Pintassilgo
Number of Starters - 198 Number of Finishers - 189
Seems a long time since I wrote about the Vuelta. And what a GT it was! The first GT of the year comes at a time when Movistar seem to be flying high. They've got excellent momentum and their lead riders are both coming off wins in their prep races. Did they peak too early? As their manager, I don't see any reason why that should be the case. Most of the big names signed up to start this race. The likes of Chris Froome (Sky), Vicenzo Nibali(Aeroflot) and Fabio Aru(Astana) were the favourites going into this race along with our own Landa and Kreuziger. The likes of Mathias Frank (Astana), Steven Kruijswijk (Philips) and Thibaut Pinot (Tinkoff-Saxo) were hoping to pull off an upset. The profile for the race was well balanced, leaving out one long, undulating, almost hilly time trial, which would play right into Froome's hands! Like everything else, this too would have to be overcome.
Part 1: Demons Within (Stage 1-7)
Following is a summary of important stages...
Stage 1 - Team Time Trial - Flat - 17.8 km
The TTT went according to form with Sky picking up the win. Froome went into the Red jersey. Movistar finished in 6th place, meaning that Landa and Kreuziger lost time to Froome, Aru, Frank and Pinot but gained time on Nibali.
Stage winner - Sky (Froome) Movistar - 6th losing 41" Other important results - Astana (Aru, Frank) 2nd losing 19", Tinkoff-Saxo (Pinot) 3rd losing 25", Aeroflot (Nibali) lost 1'19"
Stage 2 - Flat with 1 minor intermediate climb
A flat stage with one small climb was fought out in a bunch sprint as expected. Marcel Kittel kept up his good form to race to victory. Movistar did well to pick up two top 5 finishes, including a podium.
Stage 4 - Hilly with including 1 major and 2 minor intermediate climbs
Mikel Landa caught a cold and was not feeling from the morning of this stage. He and the team decided to keep racing as it wasn't very serious. A surprising result followed on this stage, as the lack of coordination in the peloton allowed the small morning breakaway to survive. Simon Clarke won to give the Aussies some cheer in Italy. This stage saw the first time gaps appearing among leaders. Landa's bad health caught up to him towards the finish as he lost time to some of the leaders.
Stage winner - Simon Clarke from breakaway Movistar - Kreuziger 7th, 50" behind, Landa 10th, 1'29" behind Other important results - Froome 4th, Pinot 5th, Aru 6th, 50" behind, Nibali 9th, 1'29" behind
Stage 5 - Hilly with Mountain top finish, including 1 minor intermediate climb
The leaders stretched out the leads even further on this mountain top finish stage. Chris Froome had too much power for the others going uphill, winning the stage comfortably in the end. Despite his still persisting illness, Mikel Landa did well to finish in second place and clawed back some time he had lost in the previous stage. Roman Kreuziger made it two Movistar riders in the top 5 again.
Stage winner - Chris Froome, took the leader's jersey again after relinquishing it in the 3rd stage to Bouhanni Movistar - Mikel Landa 2nd, Roman Kreuziger 4th, both 13" behind Other important results - Aru 3rd, 13" behind, Pinot 5th, Frank 6th, Nibali 7th, 51" behind
Stage 7 - Hilly with uphill finish, including 1 minor intermediate climb
If there was ever any doubt about Froome's form given he was beaten twice in successive races coming into the Giro, he was making a point to dispel it fast. He won again, racing up the short incline at the head of the group. This time he was not able to create any time gaps, but tied up his second win of the Giro. Movistar took the other two spots on the podium in the stage.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Mikel Landa 2nd, Roman Kreuziger 3rd, same time Other important results - Vicenzo Nibali 5th, Fabio Aru 9th, same time
Stage 8 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 1 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
This stage started with good news for Movistar as Mikel Landa was deemed to have recovered fully from his weakness. Froome showed some signs of weakness allowing some of his rivals to scrape time off him. He still managed a top 5 finish. Keeping the race firmly in his grasp. Movistar again filled up the bottom two steps of the podium in this stage behind eventual winner Nibali.
Stage winner - Vicenzo Nibali Movistar - Landa 2nd, Kreuziger 3rd, same time Other important results - Froome 4th, losing 18", Frank 7th, losing 55", Aru 17th, losing 1'40"
Here are the standings after Stage 8...
Spoiler
Stage 9 - Mountain with 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
A long breakaway survived on a long hard stage. Bart de Clerq held off the overall GC leaders by half a minute to win a memorable stage for him. Landa and Kreuziger were left unawares as the other leaders attacked on the second climb of the day. They were expecting the attacks to come in the last climb of the day. By the time they rallied to respond, the gap was substantial. Despite their best efforts, they gave up almost a minute to Froome and Aru.
Stage winner - Bart de Clerq from breakaway Movistar - Landa 6th, Kreuziger 8th, both losing 1'26" Other important results - Froome 3rd, Aru 5th, both losing 37", Nibali 9th, losing 1'26"
Stage 12 - Flat with 2 minor intermediate climbs
It was Froome's turn this time to miss the attacks made by Movistar. Both Landa and Kreuziger bid their time till the last climb of the day before attacking in tandem. They pulled away into a significant lead, with Aru and Nibali joining them. Froome and his Sky teammates pulled the gap back in the descent to limit the damage. In front of all this, Silvio Herklotz rode away with a stage victory from the breakaway. A surprising number of breakaways were surviving in the early part of this GT!
Stage winner - Silvio Herklotz from breakaway Movistar - Kreuziger 5th, Landa 6th, both 1'11" behind Other important results - Nibali 7th, Aru 8th, both 1'11" behind, Froome 15th, 1'40" behind
The standings going into the ITT...
Spoiler
Stage 14 - Individual Time Trial - Undulating with uphill finish, 59.4 km
The perfect stage for Froome brought him the perfect victory. He put in a stupendous performance to create massive time gaps to all his rivals. Movistar suffered especially with Kreuziger just managing to hang on to his second spot, but Landa dropping all the way down to 7th, from his previous 3rd position. Steven Kruijswijk's second plce performance saw him soar up into 3rd place after this stage. It wasn't all bad for Movistar as Adriano Malori grabbed 3rd place.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Malori 3rd, 1'30" behind, Kreuziger 19th, 4'7" behind, Landa 50th, 6'41" behind Other important results - Kruijswijk 2nd, 46" behind, Nibali 9th, 2'37" behind, Frank 10th, 2'40" behind, Aru 17th, 4'6" behind
The standings after the ITT...
Spoiler
Stage 15 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major intermediate climbs
If ever there was domination at a GT, Chris Froome was epitomising it here. The early morning breakaway failed to keep themselves ahead of the pack, and were caught going uphill to the finish. In that same uphill, Froome put in another Herculean effort to win another stage. This was his fourth stage win in the race, fifth if we count the TTT! Movistar showed further signs of weakness, losing more time on this stage to their immediate rivals.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Mikel Landa 5th, losing 41", Roman Kreuziger 7th, losing 50" Other important results - Aru 2nd, Frank 3rd, Nibali 4th, all losing 27", Kruijswijk 6th, losing 50"
Kreuziger and Landa both doing really well It's unfortunate that nobody can match Froome especially when he has a time trial to take large amounts of time...
Still getting two riders on the podium will be a great result.
Part 3: Grit for Some, Glory for Another (Stage 16-21)
Following is a summary of important stages...
Stage 16 - Mountain with uphill finish, including 4 major intermediate climbs
A tough stage saw the peloton refuse to work together to bring back the breakaway. Pierre Rolland got himself into a two man breakaway, taking all the mountain sprints and finally the stage win. He went into the lead in the KOM classification as well. Froome, Landa and Kreuziger pulled themselves away from the other leaders and built up a sizeable lead. Landa wretched luck continued in the Giro as he fell going down the last climb before the uphill finish, allowing Nibali to catch up and Froome to speed away.
Stage winner - Pierre Rolland Movistar - Kreuziger 5th, 10'51" behind, Landa 7th, 12'6". Dayer Quintana overturned a 6' deficit to gain a 10' advantage over Simon Yates in the young riders classification. Yates was in a lot of trouble on this stage. Movistar returned to the top of the Team standings as well after briefly giving it up to Sky Other important results - Froome 3rd, 10'51" behind, Nibali 6th, 12'6" behind
Stage 18 - Flat with 1 major intermediate climb
Any hopes the sprinters were harbouring of surviving the lone climb towards the end of the stage did not materialise as the leaders attacked at the foot of the climb. Froome had the most left in the tank and won the sprint to the finish. Landa closed the gap to Nibali and Aru.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Landa 3rd, Kreuziger 6th, same time Other important results - Kruijswik 2nd, same time, Aru 7th, Nibali 8th, both losing 1'39"
Stage 19 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
Whatever time our leaders gained on the last stage, was lost here. The toils of the past two weeks and more was showing in their bodies clearly now. The rush of staying in contention for the win was now replaced by the desperation to hang on to what they had. On the other hand, Froome kept pulling away from the others in all stages.
Stage winner - Vicenzo Nibali Movistar - Kreuziger th, 1'4" behind, Landa 9th, both 1'17" behind Other important results - Froome 3rd, Aru 4th, same time
Stage 20 - Flat with mountain finish, including 1 major intermediate climb
A flat first half of the stage was followed by a monster of a climb, before another steep finish. Fittingly, Froome took the last mountain stage of the Giro to put an exclamation mark on his performance. He was so good, he blew away Landa and Nibali, who were having a tough time on this stage.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Kreuziger 2nd, 1'2" behind, Landa 4th, 4'13" behind Other important results - Aru 3rd, 1'19" behind, Nibali 6th, 4'39" behind
Stage 21 - Flat
The last stage was absolutely, although a bit on the longer side. Movistar were still looking for their first win of the Giro and put their best efforts into the sprint train for Bennett. However, their efforts went in vain as he was not strong enough to pull it off. Marcel Kittel won the stage.
Stage winner - Marcel Kittel Movistar - Sam Bennett 6th
What can I say? Chris Froome won 6 stages in the Giro - 7 if you count the TTT! When someone is in such good form, you can only appreciate his achievements and move on. Roman Kreuziger put last year's disappointing Vuelta behind him to finish 2nd, albeit more than 8 minutes behind Froome. The fact that Landa finished more than 16 minutes down in 5th place gives you a scale of Froome's dominance. Furthermore, Froome finished first in all three classifications - GC, KOM and Points, becoming only the second man after Eddie Mercx to achieve this feat at the Giro. Dayer Quintana's win in the Young Riders' classification was a good return for us from this GT. Let's hope the guys can take inspiration from this masterclass they got to witness and be inspired for the rest of the season.
Froome is unfortunately to strong without Quintana, Contador, etc. to contend with.
A shame Landa had some bad luck and lost his podium but at least Kreuziger came 2nd, Landa 5th and Dayer winning the young riders, still a good a Giro especially given Nairo wasn't even here.
trekbmc wrote:
Froome is unfortunately to strong without Quintana, Contador, etc. to contend with.
A shame Landa had some bad luck and lost his podium but at least Kreuziger came 2nd, Landa 5th and Dayer winning the young riders, still a good a Giro especially given Nairo wasn't even here.
I think Nairo versus Froome would have been a treat to watch on these slopes. We haven't had them go mano-e-mano yet in the course of my tenure. We'll see if it happens in the TDF...
Stage List
ITT - 1
TTT - 1
Flat - 1
Mountain/Hilly - 6
Movistar Starting List
Roman Kreuziger
Benat Intxausti
Alejandro Valverde
Mikel Nieve
J J Rojas
Gorkha Izagirre
Ruben Fernandez
Jesus Herrada
Another sponsor objective (Top 3) followed the Giro d'Italia in a week's time. This time again, the big guns chose to come out to play as Froome, Kelderman, Uran, Zakarin and Meintjes were just some of the riders competing for the big prize. Movistar had a few riders in a traing camp in preparation for the TDF. We chose Kreuziger to lead the team, with Intxausti as the second leader and Nieve as the Super Domestique. Alejandro Valverde was given a free role to after stage wins and classifications.
Following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 10 km
A short ITT got us underway at Dauphine. It became quite a close affair with the top 30 riders separated by just 50 seconds. Movistar managed to get two riders into the top 10, but their leaders lost a few seconds on other race favourites.
Stage winner - Bob Jungels Movistar - Gorkha Izagirre 6th, losing 27", Valverde 10th, losing 35", Intxausti 19th, losing 39", Kreuziger 29th, losing 47" Other important results - Froome 2nd, losing 8", Kelderman 3rd, losing 10", Uran 34th, losing 52"
Stage 2 - Mountain with mountian top finish, including 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
Valverde put himself in the early breakaway of 9 riders and won all the mountian sprints of the day. The breakaway stayed todether till the second climb of the day but started breaking up after. Valverde was the last remaining survivor and was caught going up the climb to the finish. He was unceremoniously dropped from the leading group as fatigue caught up in his legs. In a surprising result, Peter Kennaugh kept pace with the leaders in his wok of protecting Froome and had enough in his legs to take the stage win from the other race favourites, even taking time off some of the them.
Stage winner - Peter Kennaugh Movistar - Intxausti 4th, 14" behind, Gorkha 12th, Kreuziger 13th, both 25" behind, Movistar took the lead in the team classification, Valverde took the KOM jersey Other important results - Kelderman 2nd, same time, Froome 8th, 14" behind, Zakarin 10th, 35" behind
Stage 3 - Mountain with flat finish, including 2 mojar and 1 minor intermediate climbs
A hard first half of the stage saw the peloton drop most of its sprinters along the way. The bunch sprint came down to the few remaining sprinters and the GC leaders, with a sprinter taking the win as expected.
Stage winner - Ben Swift
Stage 4 - Uphill with 1 major imterdediate climb
A gradual incline stage saw the leaders hold their attacks till the breakaway was caught going up the only categorised climb of the day. Roman Kreuziger attacked just before the top of the mountain to build up a small lead over the other leaders. He held on to the lead till the end, but failed to gain any time as the leaders caught up. All the leaders finished in the leading group.
Stage winner - Roman Kreuziger
Stage 5 - Hilly with 3 major and 3 minor climbs
A long breakaway survived on this moderately tough stage to claim the win. Anthony Roux put distance between himself and the others in the breakaway going up the last climb to hold on for a memorable win for himself. The leaders almost caught him at the finish, finishing half a minute down on him at the line. Tere were no time gaps again among the leaders.
Stage winner - Anthony Roux from breakaway
Stage 6 - Flat with 1 minor intermediate climb
A stage to rest for the GC leaders, saw a dominating sprint by youngster Alexander Krieger give him the stage win. He started from some way back to leave the others behind at the line. Rojas failed to make the top 5.
Stage 7 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 4 major intermediate climbs
An extremely difficult stage was perfectly planned and exceuted by Tinkoff-Saxo to get them a 1-2 finish, and build up a sizeable lead for Kelderman. Both Kelderman and Zakarin attacked on the last climb of the day before the uphill finish. Zakarin did an immense job in protecting Kelderman till the finish line, also promoting himslef up to third in the standings. None of the other leaders could follow their attack and finished with time gaps. Earlier in the stage, Alejandro Valverde had put himself in the breakaway again to help protect his KOM jersey. He managed to secure it, also finishing third behind the two TCS riders. Intxausti lost his podium position to Zakarin, slipping down to third, with us now in danger of missing another sponsor objective.
Stage winner - Wilco Kelderman Movistar - Valverde 3rd, from breakaway, 1'43" behind, Intxausti 6th, 3'50" behind, Kreuziger 12th, 6'18" behind Other important results - Zakarin 2nd, 40" behind, Froome 4th, 1'43" behind, Uran 5th, 3'11" behind
Stage 8 - Hilly with 3 major and 3 minor climbs
Another long breakaway took advantage of the peloton's tiredness to hold on for the win. Bob Jungels took his second win of the race, following his impressive showing in the ITT. Intxausti failed to get back enough time on Zakarin, meaning we fell short of the sponsor objective again by one position!
Stage winner - Bob Jungels from breakaway Movistar - Intxausti 5th, 1'14" behind, Nieve 6th, 1'25" behind, Kreuziger 7th, 1'41" behind, Other important results - Froome 3rd, Uran 4th, Kelderman 5th, all 59" behind, Zakarin 9th, 1'41" behind
Team Classification
1)Movistar
2)Tinkoff-Saxo
3)Sky
A race where our leaders just didn't have enough to pull out the desired. The fatigue from riding the Giro showed on Kreuziger. Valverde showed that he still has the legs to go up mountains, but he was past his prime as far as challenging for GC was was concerned. Mikel Nieve proved his value again as a domestique, pulling first Kreuziger and then Intxausti through some harsh mountains. I like the fact that he has responded positively his place being under threat in the team. We continue to do well in the team classifications across races. The stage win and the KOM jersey make for a good return from this race.
Edited by AbhishekLFC on 17-11-2015 16:11
Some good results since my last post here, doing good in Italy, Without your top rider(s). Dauphine may have been I little disappointing, but that is what happens, it is not always easy to get the most of every race. And you got the KoM, nice enough.
Tamijo wrote:
Some good results since my last post here, doing good in Italy, Without your top rider(s). Dauphine may have been I little disappointing, but that is what happens, it is not always easy to get the most of every race. And you got the KoM, nice enough.
Dauphine probably needed Landa or Quintana for a higher finish, given the field we were up against. But they were away on a training camp, preparing for the bigger prize. Can't complain a lot though, the riders have really done well this season so far.
Still a pretty good race. 
