Today was the kind of stage where every team tried to get someone in the breakaway, the result was that many and often to big or to strong breaks was established, just to get reeled back in. The pace was very high on the first 30 km.
Stefano Pirazzi, Sebastian Langeveld and Jérémy Roy trying to get away:
Then after 30 km Valerio Agnoli attacks with Grosu from Nippo-Vini Fantini on wheel, to catch a small group about 40 sec up front. Grosu do not make it, but Valerio Agnoli get in what turns out to be the break of the day.
The break gets 5’30 before the hunt starts, it is mainly Dimension Data leading the peloton for Mark Cavendish, and they mean business the gap vanishes fast.
Under the 20 km banner the gap is down to a little more than a minute, all the breakaway will get today is some well-deserved TV time to keep their sponsors happy.
Under the red kite it is Boonen leading for Kittel, on the outside Cavendish just left Sbaragli wheel, to start his sprint. Right behind Kittel it is Daniel Oss with Niccolò Bonifazio to his left.
It is Mark Cavendish taking the bacon in front of Marcel Kittel and Daniel Oss.
Evaluation:
Overall: With a very exiting narrow win, this was Cavendish third stage victory of the season. With his 2nd Kittel take the GC and keeps the point jersey.
This year’s Tirreno-Adriatico is rather flat and it will be at least another race day before the CG favorites comes into play.
Astana: With no sprinter Astana can only hope to be in a breakaway making it first to the line, it has not been possible so far.
The morning break is 5 riders, the break includes KoM leader Florian Vachon (Fortuneo), if the break holds he is likely to close the KoM today, the others are Vliegen and Schär from BMC, Bono from Lampre and Toms Skujiņš Cannondale.
It is raining, not hard but the roads are very wet, on the very first downhill a crash includes Astana’s Scarponi and Grivko.
There is a lot of crashing today, Astana’s Grivko is down again this time with teammate Ángel López. They all get back to the peloton with some bruises but others are not that lucky.
Over Col Saint Roch, Florian Vachon and Matteo Bono is now alone on front with 7’30 to the peloton, there is 40 km to the line with only one climb left, cote de peille, 5.7 km, 7 %
But Movistar sets a high pace, and the break gets caught. Aru attempts an attack over the top but can’t get away,
More than 80 riders approach the line together together. Tom Dumoulin wins the stage in front of Alejandro Valverde, Simon Špilak take the last podium.
Evaluation:
Overall: This was only 25 years old Tom Dumoulin’s first win of the season, after his breakthrough in last year’s Vuelta a España. Even though on paper a tough stage it did not chance anything in top 10.
Florian Vachon cemented his KoM lead
After crashes Kristijan Đurasek (Lampre) Leigh Howard (IAM) and Anthony Roux (FDJ) all finished outside the time limit
Astana: Astana’s best was Michele Scarponi as 11th.
After some failed attempts, it is Jérémy Roy from FDJ opening up the race, followed by first Diego Rosa, quite soon also Pirazzi (Bardiani), Cerny (CCC) and Viola (Nippo) also get away.
The breakaway gets more than 8 minutes, before the peloton decides to up the pace.
The weather is perfect for racing, not much wind and a bright sun, but crashes are rather frequent on the downhill’s and some riders seems to be hurt seriously. Astana only has Davide Malacarne down and just with some superficial scratches.
Diego Rosa wins the last KoM sprint, and even though Stefano Pirazzi get the most points today, it is Rosa in the jersey tomorrow.
That is what the break get today, it is over in due time for the teams to get their trains up. John Degenkolb takes the stage win in front of Jens Debusschere and Mark Cavendish.
Evaluation:
Overall:
This was John Degenkolb’s 2nd victory of the season, after winning a stage in Etoile de Bessèges in early February.
The many crashes resulted in some devastating injuries, worst hit was Ag2r losing both Johan Vansummeren and Matteo Montaguti, Vansummeren out for more than a month with a broken hand.
Kennaugh (Sky), Navardauskas (Cannondale) is also out with injuries.
Astana: Astana got all they could get from the stage, a fine day.
The stage is a hard ITT with about 5% avg. and max gradients up to about 8%.
It is a bit too much to comment on every change in the hot seat as it was changing all the time today.
So in this case I will just mention a few interesting results:
Valverde won the stage over Tom Dumoulin and Romain Bardet.
Valverde:
In general the result was far from media expectations with only Valverde preforming as predicted.
The Positive Surprises:
Tom Dumoulin got 2nd quite a big surprise.
Bardet (Ag2r) got a podium, not a big surprise but a very good result.
Samuel Sánchez (BMC) and Brambilla (Quick Step) both in top 5.
Maybe the biggest surprise Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) got into top 10, did not see that coming.
The Negative:
Aru (Astana) lost 1’18 at 40th
Geraint Thomas (Sky) lost ’53 at 21th
Bauke Mollema (Trek) at lost ’53 at 22th
Stage Evaluation:
Overall: Se above
Astana: Michele Scarponi did a respectable 16th losing 44 sec. to Valverde. Fabio Aru did awful, his form is just too bad to be competitive.
Race Evaluation:
Overall:
With good result’s in both ITT’s, and no time loss in stage 5, Valverde had it coming, it was his Paris – Nice.
Romain Bardet lost quite some time at stage 1 (38”), but with no time lost at Col de la Croix and a podium at Èze, it was enough to secure overall 2nd.
Quintana had a hard time with all those ITT’s, but with his stage win at Col de la Croix got the final podium.
Patrick Bevin had a very fine Paris – Nice, holding the lead for 4 days, until he lost everything on Col de la Croix.
The sprinters could not take the points classification from Valverde, but Arnaud Démare got two nice stage wins, André Greipel & Elia Viviani one each.
The unfortunate sprinter was Nacer Bouhanni, many podiums but no win and just missing the green jersey.
Astana:
Aru was far from able to live up to favorite status.
Scarponi did very fine getting into top 10, considering what could be expected.
13/3 Stages 5/7 Tivoli - Torricella Sicura 192.1 km
KoM Leader Diego Rosa misses the breakaway, instead it is 6 riders, amongst them KoM rank 3 to 5 Pirazzi, Kudus and Tjallingii, Rosa’s KoM lead will be under pressure.
The peloton is cautious, never letting the breakaway get more that 3 minutes, it is mainly Sky, Giant and BMC pulling the bunch forward.
Over the top of the last climb the peloton is down to 41 riders, in front is Martin Elmiger IAM Cycling with 49” to the bunch, he gets caught on the downhill.
Rodriguez (Katusha) and Pinot (FDJ) attacks, at the 5 km mark they got 20”
But on the final uphill it is Cunego (Nippo) who has the best legs, he flies away to take the stage with 21”
The next group is 29 riders, all getting the same time. Astana got Vincenzo Nibali and Jakob Fuglsang in this group.
Evaluation:
Overall:
This was 35 years old Damiano Cunego’s first win since winning a stage in 2013’s Coppi e Bartali and he is now a race favorite with just one hilly stage left.
Besides the unexpected winner, the stage played out more or less as predicted with all the favorites in the 2nd group. The same goes for the overall race favorites.
Astana:
With just one hilly stage left, is will be difficult for Nibali and/or Fuglsang to push for a podium, things are not looking bright.
The only good thing to say is that Diego Rosa is still holding the KoM lead.
9/3-15/3 2016 Tirreno-Adriatico
6/3-13/3 2016 Paris – Nice
