Tamijo wrote:
Pretty good top five in a national, considered not amongst the favorites

sutty68 wrote:
Brave ride from Fabio.

The biggest part of our team races on Ibiza. With 8 riders present on this Ponferada 2014-like route we should be able to do something here. The race starts with a 5-man breakaway including our very own Hector Saez.



The break leads to nothing though as they're reeled in before the last climb. Intxausti's attack is neutralised. In the descent, Barbero, who made it over all climbs, tries to sneak away!
Ion Izagirre and Jesús Herrada react and the Basque accelerates again! Barbero and Herrada hesitate and the TT champion may be gone for the road title too...



He takes the double! Behind, Lobato and good old Valverde complete the podium. Barbero lost his good position at the last roundabout, but still sprints to a 5th place.

1		Ion Izagirre	Team Katusha	4h27'41"
2		Juan José Lobato	Movistar Team	+ 27"
3		Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
4		Enrique Sanz	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.
5		Carlos Barbero	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
6		�ngel Madrazo	Tinkoff-Saxo	s.t.
7		Rubén Fernández	Team Katusha	s.t.
8		Carlos Verona	Movistar Team	s.t.
9		Joaquím Rodríguez	Team Sky	s.t.
10		Lluis Mas Bonet	Team Sky	s.t.

Tamijo wrote:
Very good !

DiCyc wrote:
5th is pretty good

sutty68 wrote:
Good fifth place for Carlos

Zardini is on his own in Genua, Italy's 6th city. Near the Ligurian Sea, he's facing a tough route with 13 times a "two-level" climb of which the second part contains slopes at over 15%.



The race is opened by a trio of less good climber: sprinter Andrea Guardini (IAM), time trialist Carboni (SKY) and Santoro (WGG), a talent for the hills.

The scenario turns out to be quite predictable as everyone waits and waits until the last steep ramps. Villella opens up a gap to teammate Aru and starts begins the last descent with a smal gap...



...which turns out to be sufficient! Villella keeps off Aru and he's the successor of 2016 champion De Marchi.

Zardini suffers and finishes in 15th, still over 3' down.

1		Davide Villella	Astana Pro Team	6h00'56"
2		Fabio Aru	Astana Pro Team	+ 24"
3		Vincenzo Nibali	Tinkoff-Saxo	s.t.
4		Enrico Battaglin	Team Sky	+ 1'20"
5		Fabio Felline	Lampre-Merida	s.t.
6		Matteo Rabottini	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
7		Moreno Moser	Movistar Team	s.t.
8		Alessandro De Marchi	Team Cannondale - Garmin	+ 1'52"
9		Ivan Santaromita	Tinkoff-Saxo	s.t.
10		Domenico Pozzovivo	Team Katusha	s.t.
…	…	…	…	…
15		Edoardo Zardini	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 3'23"

Vandenborre is on his own as well in the pan flat and wind-prone area around Geel. The race starts at a high pace already and several riders are dropped almost immediately.



As the pack calms down, an interesting breakaway featuring Serry (BMC) and the Etixx-duo Gilbert-Lietaer is formed. They stay together until all of them are reeled in with still 60K to go.

Then, once again the pace is upped, causing the peloton do be reduced to some 30 riders. Collecting water bottles at the wrong moment means the end for Vandenborre in the front group.



With just over 1K to go, there one single echelon left: Lotto's sprint train with Van Staeyen, Roelandts and Stuyven and Etixx's Roy Jans. Is one Etixx-guy able to use the Stannard-strategy?



No. There's simply no beating Jasper Stuyven today. He takes over the jersey from last year's winner Van Avermaet. Vandenborre makes this a great training ride and finishes almost 15' down in 28th.

1		Jasper Stuyven	Lotto - Soudal	5h22'21"
2		Roy Jans	Etixx - Quick-step	s.t.
3		Jürgen Roelandts	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
4		Michael Van Staeyen	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
5		Edward Theuns	Lotto - Soudal	+ 1'46"
6		Yves Lampaert	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	+ 2'23"
7		Jonas Van Genechten	Etixx - Quick-step	+ 3'04"
8		Kenneth Vanbilsen	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
9		Nikolas Maes	Etixx - Quick-step	s.t.
10		Guillaume V. Keirsbulck	BMC Racing Team	+ 3'33"
…	…	…	…	…
28		Sam Vandenborre	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 14'41"

2017 NATIONAL CHAMPIONS:

	ROAD RACE:		TIME TRIAL:
	Jack Haig		Rohan Dennis
	Marco Haller		Patrick Konrad
	Yauheni Hutarovich		Vasil Kiryienka
	Jasper Stuyven		Sam Vandenborre
	Adrian Soares Rocha		João Rafael Barbosa
	Guillaume Boivin		Ryder Hesjedal
	Ever Rivera		Julian Arredondo
	Robert Kiserlovski		Robert Kiserlovski
	Zdenek Stybar		Jan Barta
	Rasmus Guldhammer		Mathias Krigbaum
	Alo Saharov		Gert Joeaar
	Nacer Bouhanni		Thibaut Pinot
	Marcel Kittel		Tony Martin
	Sam Bennett		Ryan Mullen
	Davide Villella		Adriano Malori
	Alexey Lutsenko		Alexey Lutsenko
	Aleksejs Saramotins		Gatis Smukulis
	Aidis Kruopis		Ignatas Konovalovas
	Bob Jungels		Bob Jungels
	Lars Boom		Wilco Kelderman
	Patrick Bevin		Jesse Sergent
	Alexander Kristoff		Edvald B. Hagen
	Michał Kwiatkowski		Maciej Bodnar
	Rui Rodrigues		Nelson Oliveira
	Alexey Tsatevitch		Anton Vorobyev
	Peter Sagan		Peter Sagan
	Luka Pibernik		Simon Spilak
	Jacques J.V. Rensburg		Daryl Impey
	Ion Izagirre		Ion Izagirre
	Marcel Wyss		Tom Bohli
	Dmytro Krivtsov		Andriy Grivko
	Geraint Thomas		Alex Dowsett
	Andrew Talansky		Taylor Phinney

After the NC weekend, which brought us one jersey, this is our team schedule for the rest of this month:

05-12/07	Österreich Rundfahrt	2.HC		Austria
05-13/07	Tour of Qinghai Lake	2.HC		China
17-21/07	Sibiu Cycling Tour	2.1		Romania
25/07	Prueba Villafranca de Ordizia	1.1		País Vasco
31/07	Circuito de Getxo	1.1		País Vasco

We can't confirm our August schedule for now as we're still waiting for some answers concerning wilcards we applied for. Will we be present in San Sebastián, La Vuelta or any other WT race? Just stay tuned.

DiCyc wrote:
Nice to see Sam at the list, however I am a bit surprised how Pinot can win the French National ITT

I hope that you do well in this month

sutty68 wrote:
Sam the Belgian TT Champion

STAGES:

05/07		165 km to Kühtai
06/07		161 km to the Kitzbüheler Horn
07/07		123 km to Matrei in Osttirol
08/07		150 km to Sankt Johann / Alpendorf
09/07		209 km to Sonntagberg
10/07		192 km to Poysdorf
11/07		24 km TT in Podersdorf am Neusiedler See
12/07		138 km to Vienna

	LAST WINNERS:			GC FAVOURITES:			TEAM LINEUP:
	Mikel Landa			Lachlan Morton			Beñat Intxausti
	Winner Anacona			Juan Chamarro			Carlos Barbero
	Peter Kennaugh			Patrick Konrad			Sam Vandenborre
	Riccardo Zoidl			Ben Gastauer			Eder Chávarri
	Jakob Fuglsang			Beñat Intxausti			Fernando Grijalba
							José Gonçalves
							Aldo Lature
							Jonathan Klever

We're up for one of the toughest .HC stage races on the calendar. A lot of our guys had a hard time at their respective NC races, but we're sure they will do their work for our leader Beñat. We're not facing the strongest field but Chamarro won la Vuelta a Mallorca earlier this year and I'm sure Konrad will be motivated to shine on home soil. A top-5 GC finish is certainly possible and it would be nice if Sam were to perform well wearing his Belgian jersey for the first time.

The first stage is a tough one right away. After 6 shorter and rather steep climbs, the finish is located in the mountain village of Kühtai after a HC climb.

We won't bore you with the short story of the BOTD getting caught, so we'll move on to the last climb immediately.



Under the 10K-to-go-banner, it's Eder Chávarri who has managed to open up a gap. But the climb is tough, really tough. Eder is caught by a strong Felbermayr team. Sam and Beñat also give it a go, but their attacks are neutralised as well.



In an unexpected group sprint, home rider Patrick Konrad proves to be the strongest man today. Obviously, he's the first leader in this race too. In the background, Beñat (7th) loses 23" while Sam finishes further back in that group.

1		Patrick Konrad	Bora - Argon 18	4h58'47"
2		Paul Voss	CULT Energy Pro Cycling	+ 7"
3		Juan Chamorro	Colombia	s.t.
4		Ben Gastauer	Ag2r La Mondiale	s.t.
5		Stefan Denifl	Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels	s.t.
6		Benjamin Brkic	Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels	+ 23"
7		Beñat Intxausti	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
8		Peter Velits	IAM Cycling	s.t.
9		Simon Geschke	Team Giant-Alpecin	s.t.
10		Sindre Lunke	Bardiani CSF	s.t.
…	…	…	…	…
18		Sam Vandenborre	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.

1		Patrick Konrad	Bora - Argon 18	4h58'37"
2		Paul Voss	CULT Energy Pro Cycling	+ 11"
3		Juan Chamorro	Colombia	+ 13"
4		Ben Gastauer	Ag2r La Mondiale	+ 17"
5		Stefan Denifl	Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels	s.t.
6		Benjamin Brkic	Team Felbermayr Simplon Wels	+ 33"
7		Beñat Intxausti	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
8		Peter Velits	IAM Cycling	s.t.
9		Simon Geschke	Team Giant-Alpecin	s.t.
10		Sindre Lunke	Bardiani CSF	s.t.