While Anthony Dod Mantle and Rolf Sørensen have flown to United Arab Emirates, to cover the upcoming Dubai Tour. Lars Von Trier and Jørgen Leth stayed in Australia to cover the Great Ocean Road Race in Geelong just 75 kilometres south-west of Melbourne. The town dates back to the mid 1830’s, today the 2nd largest city in Victoria.
Geelong waterfront
Jørgen Leth: This is the first race of the season for Astana’s top sprinter Andrea Guardini, I was talking to him, right after he came to Australia about the race:
JL: Andrea, how to you see your options in the race.
AG: On paper I should have a good shot at this, especially with LuLu to help me over the last hill’s and lead me to the sprint.
JL: Just to clarify you a talking about Luis León Sánchez.
AG, (with a little “sigh”) : Yes… but Lampre’s Davide Cimolai is here he might be a problem, more of a puncher than I am, the terrain might favor him a little and I am not in my best form right now, far from actually.
JL: Good luck, and thanks for your time.
The Race
The stage starts in pouring rain with wet slippery road, but that doesn’t seem to effect the riders, there is a wild fight at the front where many unsuccessful attempts are many during the first 50 km of the race, without anyone getting away.
Finally a breakaway is allowed to go, 3 unimportant riders not very likely that they will make it. In the rear part of the peloton a bad crash takes 10 riders down including IAM Cycling race favorite Leigh Howard. They have to close a gap of 2’30.
Andrea Guardini is struggling way to early on the route, the many small climbs combined with his bad form takes is’t toll and as the pace increases hard near the 20 km mark, he fall’s further and further back.
Some 8 km left and the breakaway is over, immediately Grégory Rast from Trek – Segafredo counters, now the rain is pouring down again, even harder than before.
Luis León Sánchez feel good, and with Guardini gone he decides to try and close the gap alone.
Sánchez is getting closer and closer for a while it looks good but it was too late, Grégory Rast win in front of Sánchez, Marco Marcato from Wanty - Groupe Gobert takes the last podium.
While Anthony Dod Mantle is filming on location in Dubai International Marine Club, Rolf Sørensen records a voice-over about the Dubai Tour at the hotel:
"A very new event The Dubai Tour just started in 2014, the tour offers a nice season start especially for the sprinters, in relative flat terrain with nice temperatures normally clocking at around 25 degrees Celsius, not to mention the great infrastructure and accommodations."
3/2-6/2 Dubai Tour (2.HC)
Rather unusual every stage start from Dubai International Marine Club heading in different directions from there. 3 of the 4 are true sprinter stages, only stage 3 takes the riders over some hilly section, the hardest a cat 1 climb in the Al Hajar Mountains, with some 40 km of hilly terrain left before the finish at Hatta Dam.
Hatta Dam
Astana brings Lars Boom and Michele Scarponi as race Leader both optional for the CG and Andrea Guardini as sprinter. There is no set goal for the tour.
Rolf Sørensen and Anthony Mantle is at the former Dubai Guesthouse (now known as Union House) where the United Arab Emirates was formed in 1971, the destination of the first stage. From here Mantel is instructing the film units along the stage route, while Rofl is keeping him up to date on what riders to follow etc.
The Union House Flag is located in the center of Dubai City near the coast, close to the Jumeirah Mosque.
Emir residence, Za'abeel Palace Dubai:
The Race
The race starts win a series of attacks and a high pace from the peloton. After some failed attempts are brought back, Astana’s Kazakh rider Ruslan Tleubayev attacks and gets some second with a small group but not enough, they are reeled in too.
Eventually after more than 50 km of hard strenuous pace, a group are allowed to get away, there are no Astana riders in the breakaway. Local rider Mohammed Murawwi from “Sky Dive Dubai” takes the only KoM sprint.
Astana’s squad youngster, 24 years old Maxat Ayazbayev has got the unpleasant job of getting water for the entire team today. He does a great job despite the hard pace.
There is a crash in the middle of the peloton, Astana’s stage favorite Andrea Guardini goes down along with ten other riders. Scarponi, Smukulis and Vanotti slows down to help the sprinter back. Especially Scarponi are digging very deep to bring the group back.
Getting close to the 5 km mark Astana’s train is sitting fine Zeits first, then Boom with Guardini on wheel.
The stage was won by Manuel Belletti from Southeast over Nicolas Marini from Nippo, Nikias Arndt Giant – Alpecin takes the last podium.
Andrea Guardini gets in 5th.
Rofl Sørensen interviews Vinokourov right after the stage:
RS: How to you see the stage today.
AV: First of all I want to mention Scarponi, what he did for a teammate today was amazing, there was no radio contact he did that by his own accord.
Guardini is out of form, crashed, got back and came in 5th - pretty impressive.
Jørgen Leth is back in Europe, the old cycling fan is trilled, Leth like France very much and the early classics, but as a country he loves Spain even more, especially Andalusia but Valencia is just fine. It is the evening before Tour of the Valencian starts in Benicàssim.
Leth: “Tour of Valencia is a classic first held back in 1929, but due to lack of funding is has not been held since 2008 but luckily this year it is back. It would be a shame to lose an old race like this won by many legends, such as Merckx, Hinault and Jalabert.”
3/2-7/2 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.1)
The tour consists of 5 stages, 15 km ITT, two relative flat and two hard with uphill finish. Stage two finishing in the small mountain village “Fredes” at an altitude of 1090m, and stage four finishing at Xorret de Cati, this climb have been a part of Vuelta a España several times, last won by David Moncoutié in 2010.
Astana brings Dario Cataldo as leader.
Luis León Sánchez, at the same time free to rides for his own GC possibility’s, he is in better form than the leader, and has a very good ITT.
The sprinter will be Matvey Nikitin.
Llieutenant will be Eros Capecchi , a strong helper it this terrain.
Stage 1/7 Benicàssim - Oropesa del Mar - ITT 15 km
Leth reports:
This year the tour starts in Benicàssim, a town and tourist destination about 80 km north of Valencia.
The stage is a 15 km ITT, heading for Oropesa del Mar another costal town nearby. The ITT has a rather steep hill climb.
Astana’s Luis León Sánchez is amongst the top favorites along with Movistar’s Adriano Malori.
Team sky’s Nicolas Roche was the first to set an OK time, sitting in the Hot Seat for some time.
Then Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko did a surprisingly good ITT, coming from a great podium in “La Tropicale Amissa Bongo” he came in 22 sec. better than Roche.
Rider after rider came in with Lutsenko still in the Hot Seat but eventually he got beaten by Quick Step’s Bob Jungels with 12 sec.
Then it was Astana’s team leader Dario Cataldo, he was looking good right from the start and also he did a fine time, setting 3th best losing 21 sec. to Jungels
Dario Cataldo
Then it was BMC’s Manuel Quinziato setting a very good time 2nd - 6 sec. after Jungels.
Now Astana’s stage favorite Luis León Sánchez, but to everyone’s surprise he was not very fast today, setting same time as Dario Cataldo at the time setting him just 5th on the leaderboard.
Pre-stage favorite Adriano Malori from Movistar set a super time 22 sec better than jungles.
4/2-2016 Palm Jumeirah, Dubai , United Arab Emirates
3/2-6/2 Dubai Tour (2.HC)
Stage 2/4 International Marine Club – Palm Jumeirah 190 km
While Anthony Mantle is today controlling the crew and filming from a helicopter, Rolf is near the finish line on Palm Jumeirah archipelago waiting for the riders, just 6 – 7 km from where the stage will begin.
Rofl reports: Palm Jumeirah is an artificial archipelago of 5.7 km² built into the Persian Gulf, with residential buildings, hotels, resorts etc.
The stage is mostly flat, from Dubai city it takes a sweep into the desert before moving back to the coast and up to Palm Jumeirah
Helicopter shot Palm Jumeirah
The Race
Every morning attack is reeled back by a fast peloton, getting close to the first intermediate sprint Andrea Guardini sees at option to grab the points.
After the sprint two riders gets away in today’s breakaway, it is Frederik Ludvigsson from Giant – Alpecin and Brenton Jones from Drapac. Jones takes the only KoM sprint.
Andrea Guardini has great legs today, Astana sets riders in front to keep the breakaway in line, they never get more than about 3 min.
It comes to a mass sprint finish won by Theo Bos from Dimension Data over Daryl Impey Orica.
Astana’s best was Lars Boom (7th)
Rolf catches Boom right after the race:
RS: Lars it looked like you were pulling for Andrea, but it did not work out, what happened ?
LB: Ya, it was all my fault, I was getting squeezed a bit and focusing on getting free I started my sprint too late, Andrea never really got the chance to gain speed.
Jørgen Leth and Lars Von Trier is having a late breakfirst at Hotel la Tinença de Benifassà at the foot of today’s final climb to Fredes.
Leth explains to Trier :
“The route will favor riders strong in hilly terrain but also able to ride in mountains, the last climb is no Alpe d'Huez but hard enough to create some decent caps.
I belive we can expect Astana’s Cataldo to do well here and even Sánchez on a good day. The main competitors will be Team Sky’s Nordhaug and Ag2r’s Vuillermoz, the film crew should keep and extra eye on those 4 riders.”
Pobla de Benifassà
Besides the usual morning break which would not stand a chance on a stage like this, the first important event was a big crash bringing Katusha’s stage favorite Alberto Losada down.
He made it back over the next 10-15 km without help, but must have reduced his possibility’s, kind of strange that he did not get help.
The break get some TV time and the KoM points on the category 2, won by Davide Villella (Cannondale), but it is over before the final climb. Right from the bottom stage favorite Lars Petter Nordhaug attacks, countered by Alexis Vuillermoz.
Astana leader Cataldo has a hard time with the sudden change in pace falling a bit backwards to the rear of the favorite group, while Sánchez having diamond legs sits up front.
Sánchez sense that the group may not be able to close the gap, he accelerated to try and close it on his own. With 7 km to the top, he joins the front group. They got about 30 sec to the other favorites.
With a little under 3 km to the top a group with Cataldo, Bouet (Quick Step), Trofimov (Tinkoff) Bongiorno (Bardiani), and Nocentini (Sporting Lisboa) is getting very close from behind. Dario Cataldo has found a better rhythm now.
Sánchez still with explosive legs got the feeling the others are at their limit, he decides to set in the final attack.
Sánchez wins a brilliant solo victory with 37 seconds down to Francesco Manuel Bongiorno and Alexis Vuillermoz, Nordhaug gets a disappointing 4th losing 1’05.
Cataldo get 5th in the same time as Nordhaug a good finish from him, considering the situation.
Luis León Sánchez now leads the GC with 1’11 to Vuillermoz, Cataldo 3rd at 1’15.
After the stage Lars von Trier meet with a journalist from Cinematic Magazine at “La Taberna de Fredes”
It took the world of Cinema by surprise that Lars von Trier would make a huge documentary about Cycling, can you comment on that?
LT: Took me by surprise too, but you might say surprises have always been my thing.
Can you comment on the scale of this, how long may the film be, how many races or cycling seasons?
LT: I don’t know how many races, when we got what we need we stop filming, we have a budget of maximum 1 seasons, I think it will be about that much. The length of the film I have no idea, could be 2 hours, could end up in 10 hours TV series. It is too early to say, look me up in a 4 month, then I can tell you a bit more.
Can you comment on what to expect from this project?
LT: No sex, no depression, no guns or violence, simply a film about life in the world of professional cycling.
The journalist gets a picture of Trier with a camera.
Stage 3/4 International Marine Club – Hatta Dam 199.3 km
Hatta is a small village belonging to United Arab Emirates, but enclaved in the Sultanate of Oman, even though the dam itself is partly man made, there are also large natural water pool in the arear.
The route passed over a short but very steep climb in Al Hajar Mountains (Arabic: جبال الحجر, stone mountains).
Hatta fresh water pool
After the stage Rolf Sørensen get hold of Michele Scarponi to get a comment:
Rofl: Astana did fine today, can you describe the stage as you saw it ?
Michele Scarponi:
There was a morning break of 5 riders, all more than 4 min behind in the GC, we estimated the strongest to be Alexis Gougeard from Ag2r.
Me being amongst the stage favorites we did not want a possible breakaway win, right from the start we had riders in front helping to keep the pace up along with Bora, Sky and IAM, the break was caught before the cat.1
Andrey Zeits was sitting close to me when the climb started, he look at me and said: “I got the legs, should we give it a go?” I said go for it and Andrey set an insane pace, with me on wheel, we got a gap.
I did not look back, had enough with just following the pace, but then I noticed that Mikel Nieve was on my wheel, he had closed the gap. The radio said we got a minute.
Andrey had made a great effort, he was done with 1 km to the top. Mikel Nieve attacked as soon as I was alone, he seemed very fast and I did not counter, had to try to hold my own pace.
I was very tired, but my pace was enough to keep the others behind me, but Nieve was fantastically strong today. Now you have to excuse me, I have been called to a doping control.
Rofl rounds of the interview after Michele have already left:
Sky’s Mikel Nieve wins the stage with a stunning 3’07 to Scarponi, the next group with Dries Devenyns from IAM in front get in at 3’24.
Jørgen Leth and Lars Von Trier arrive at Sagunto early night, going out in the old town for a late dinner at a nice restaurant. Leth explain to Trier about the setting for tomorrow’s race while they wait for the food:
Restaurant Palau del Duc, Sagunto
The start town is a remarkable historical site, the city is known to have existed before 500 BC. In 219-218 BC the city was sieged for eight months before it fell to Carthaginian warlord Hannibal. The Roman later redeveloped Sagunto to a city of about 50.000. Remains of a Roman Theater still exits.
Sagunto castle ruins dates back to the original Iberians settlement, the huge impressive fortification contains elements from a mosaic of cultures Iberians, Romans, Goths and Arabs.
With no top sprinter in this race, it is likely that Astana will attempt a breakaway win.
The Race
Today Astana’s Llieutenant Eros Capecchi was allowed to explore his own options, as the stage was not supposed to change the GC. He does not get in the original break, but when the climb starts he attacks, catch up and wins the KoM sprint.
After the climb Capecchi takes a breather in the back of the breakaway, he is not having the best legs and wants the others to work as long as possible. The breakaway are 7 riders, they get a little more than 4 minutes.
About mid stage Capecchi got his strength back, and starts to work with the group, but the peloton is fast and with 15 km left they only got one minute, looks like they won’t make it.
Astana set up a train with Sánchez and Lutsenko to get Matvey Nikitin in the best position, it works out fine but other are faster. Nikitin makes it as 7th.
The stage was won by Borut Božič (Cofidis) over Nicola Ruffoni (Bardiani).
Stage 4/4 International Marine Club – Buri Khalifa 132.0 km
Rofl Sørensen is ready to make an interview with Andrea Guardini near the Marine Club.
Rolf: "The last stage of Dubai Tour will be raced over 132 km inside Dubai City, finishing at Burj Khalifa - برج خليفة, (Khalifa Tower) - the tallest building in the world."
Rolf turning to Guardini: "You will be amongst the favorites today, how do you see your options ?"
AG: "This tour has been a disappointment for me personally, best result 5th at stage one. I hope we have better luck today, I should be able to get a podium if the team and especially Lars has the power to set me off at the right time and place."
Rolf: "Thank you and good luck."
Burj Khalifa
The Race
The morning break gets more than 3 minutes very fast, the break is not very strong but with a short stage and eight riders they could pose a threat to the sprinter teams.
Astana sets two riders up front to keep the breakaway under control, and the distance is steadily reduced to about 2’30.
With about 40 km left it is like all the sprinter teams realize that the breakaway might be dangerous, especially Orica and Sky sets a very high. The result is that most of riders can’t keep up and the front group is reduced to less than 30 riders, Astana has only got Lars Boom and Andrea Guardini left in front.
Boom are worn out before the sprint start trying to keep Andrea Guardini up front. Astana’s top sprinter gets another disappointing result crossing the line as 8th.
The stage is won by Daryl Impey (Orica) in front of Manuel Belletti (Southeast – Venezuela)
The GC stays unchanged with Mikel Nieve winning the tour in front of Michele Scarponi
31/1-2016 Victoria, Australia
2/2-2016 Tamani Marina Hotel, Dubai
2/2-2016 Benicàssim, Spain
