sutty68 wrote:
It could have been better in Italy but at least Carlos put in a good ride

Tamijo wrote:
Milano - Sanremo wasn't great, but on the overall rankings, Ruralvía - Seguros RGA is doing fine.

sutty68 wrote:
Back on home turf

While the cobblers have travelled to Belgium for the upcoming classics, the riders who prefer climbs and multiple stages find themselves in the northeastern corner of Spain, even though some locals do hate to hear they still belong with this country. But racing still is our main interest as today we'll face a rather short stage near the seaside resort of Calella.

People tend to travel this region for the pleasant climate, but the riders were not very lucky today. Noneless 3 riders attacked early looking for some mountain points before the big GC riders can strike in any of the two upcoming queen stages. The three guys up front passed the finish for a first time with a gap that had been thoroughly decreased already.

Wallays may have managed to outwit both Pereiro and Carpenter for the first red jersey, but him nor the others stood a chance for the stage win. While different sprint trains were taking the stage, Zardini, Bilbao and Tinajero were supposed to support Juan Sebastian Molano. With Tinajero nowhere to be seen, our train was down to three men though.

But they all did just fine keeping up with the other trains. While the red kite neared, Astana, Orica and a sole Bora guy were still in contention.

Zardini swung off and Bilbao took over quite strongly. Luckily he had something left in that tank after having raced Milano-Sanremo one day earlier. But could he do the same as more experienced leadout riders?

Bilbao dropped back a bit and that way Molano had to launch his final kick a tad - too - early. The fact he currently still lacks pure speed and power got proved as he could not keep up his effort until the finish and came home in fifth. Bonifazio won the stage having come back from a crash. Matthews and the solo Bora guy Grosu completed the podium.

sutty68 wrote:
Nice start with two in the top ten

Tamijo wrote:
ya great start

The on paper easiest-looking stage will lead the riders from Gerona to Banyoles, mainly along the Mediterranean coastline. No GC guy will win the race today so for these guys it is just a matter of racing intently. In the meantime sprinters can have some real fun on their proper terrain.

Ocanha, Busato and Izendegi were the very first attackers. The only succesful ones to, as they started to grow a gap immediately. Off they were for a break of the day that was destined to fail prior to taking off.

Such a modest breakaway group meant enduring kilometers of saltless racing. The only noteworthy thing before the chasing would start was a crash. Andrey Amador, Domenico Pozzovivo and Ian Boswell were involved but no-one in the group had a problem in rejoining the bunch.

Inside the final laps Orica and Bora took full charge of the chase, which caused the escapees to surrender quickly. And although Molano had 4 guys sitting right in front of him he chose to move to Matthews' wheel.

Molano managed to lose the wheel of the man in the white jersey and ended up drifting on his own. While trying to gain some ground, he saw a red kite approaching quickly. Could he make up for his earlier move?

In the end a gap opened up between some riders and Juan Sebastian would miss out on a podium spot by a few inches only. Rick Zabel won the stage, which proved following the Orica train would've been a great strategy if only the Colombian sprinter had truly succeeded in doing so.

Tamijo wrote:
Now time for a very diffrent stage

sutty68 wrote:
Another steady stage

sutty68 wrote:
Stage 3 in Catalunya sorted the men out from the boys

And good luck on the cobbles in Dwars door Vlaanderen

With the cobbled classics that one can actually score World Tour points at just around the corner, it's time for a final test. Apart from the latest winner Tiesj Benoot and Florian Sénéchal the main cobblers seem to prefer some further drills before racing E3 Harelbeke in two days' time.

The very first attack was a succesful one. No surprise, as the escapees were only three men. Knowing that such a small group would be easier to control, the pack countered all other attacks efficiently. Then not too much occured as they still had 5' at the foot of the Kattenberg cobbles.

While the gap kept decreasing, two riders managed to bridge to the E1 group. Robert, Tur, Dockx, Doull and Chevrier tried their all but their brave move wouldn't last and that their ship was about to get stranded.

Owain Doull didn't want to surrender yet and accelerated at the Oude Kwaremont. His gap of 45 seconds melted away very speedily though.

At that very same climb the big guns finally didn't keep silent anymore. Too bad our riders got blocked at the second row by other riders and a horribly positioned car. It's up to us to make up for racing so negligent.

There was quite some action at the Paterberg, but a five-men E1 group was reeled in. After crossing the cobbled Varent, we only had Ednaldo Luiz Cortes left in the first group. With only Nokereberg left to conquer the 19-year-old from Brazil did hold onto his place, near the front row.

Tiesj Benoot did not wait for the climb and reached the summit with a small advantage on Taylor Phinney. The latter being exhausted things looked good for the Belgian who could claim a second consecutive win.

Benoot maintained his very small gap but then Phinney and Sütterlin joined forces trying to catch up. Phinney even had to let his mate go.

Sütterlin surprised Benoot inside the last kilometer when he suddenly flew by. While he tried to sustain a long sprint, Benoot tried to counter.

Eventually Sütterlin had been a little overconfident as Belgian champ Benoot easily won the sprint and secured his second win in Waregem.

Sénéchal, Sinkeldam and Böger completed the top 5. Cortes showed big maturity, and attacked from his group at the right time to finish 6th.

One mountain stage down but the true queen stage is yet to be ridden. KoM hunters should strike today, along with the GC riders that failed to perform yesterday. The latter club certainly includes our leader Henao.

Edoardo Zardini joined the breakaway along with Langeveld, Tomio, Bamgboshe and Insausti. Edoardo took things easy at the first climb and concluded the sprint for the King of Mountain points in fourth place.

After the first climb Kratzert and Boswell joined the group, but at the second summit only four guys remained. Kratzert won the sprint at the second summit and grew a gap on Zardini, Bamgboshe and Boswell.

The trio came back but for two of them it would turn out to be their last comeback today. Their last one because only Zardini stayed anywhere near Kratzert. Breakaway down to 2 men with more than 100 kms left.

Zardini took 2nd at the HC climb and the duo continued together. Their gap had shrunk though, from 6' to a mere 60" ahead of the final climb.

Meanwhile Henao had endured all 4 climbs now sitting near Contador.

Kratzert accelerated right at the foot, but Zardini was not planning on letting go of him that easily. He reeled him back in, even did that twice.

Edoardo was the stronger leader, but a three-man group reeled him in mercilessly: Contador, Kelderman and Betancur. This first move was neutralised instantaneously and the entire peloton came back together.

A second attack was decisive for the stage and probably for the overall standings too. This time around Contador and Kelderman were joined by Landa and Morton. Zardini sat in the E3 group, while Henao blew.

Contador did not leave a single doubt about who's boss here this year when he danced away from his company. Kelderman 2nd, Landa 3rd.

While Sebastian barely kept up with the E8, Edoardo did good coming home in a top 10 place after a extremely demanding day in the saddle.