The 38th edition of the GP La Marsellaise occured earlier today, opening the french cycling calendar of 2017. Last year Dries Devenyns, took the win, as we beated Thibaut Pinot in the final meters. However, this year the belgian isn't in the startlist, whick makes Pinot and Gallopin the main contenders for this year. Lets take a look at todays profile:
This classic route opened the day with a 6-man breakaway that featured S.Cordeel (WIL), J.Calleeuw (RLM), A.Maldonado (A93), J.Bakeloh (SKT), F.Canal (ADT) and P.Lang (ROT). The breakaway was mostly controlled by FDJ, Direct Energie and Lotto Saudal, who gave a maximum of 6'07'' to the escaped riders. The riders entered the main difficulty off the day with only 3'35'' to spare, and looked doomed the entirity of the break.
They would eventually be caught at the beggining of the second-to-last hill as A.Madrazo (DMP) and H.Duijn (WIL) immediatly tried to surprise the peloton but a strong FDJ pushing the peloton quicky caught them. By the end of the hill the bunch was reduced to about 60 cyclists, without majors missings. As we approached the final hill FDJ, Direct Energie and Cofidis appeared well placed in the front, but it was A.Geniez (ALM) to launch the first attack, soon FDJ duo Molard-Pinot persued the french as only Calmejane (DEN), Bagot (COF), Bouet & Jeannesson (FVC) and Gallopin (LTS) managed to keep up the pace.
As soon as Molard caught Geniez, Pinot launched his attack, with Calmejane, Gallopin and Bouet the only ones to follow his attack. As the hill came to an end, the 4 man had a 37'' advantage over the peloton who was down to 25 riders. In the final descent though, Pinot made a big mistake in a short curve exiting the road (without falling) and losing contact to the others, ending back in the "min-peloton". It would be a 3-man sprint to decide the winner and Bouet (the underdog) tried to surprise with 800m to go, but he didn't suceed and we ended with a big sprint between Gallopin and Calmejane, which saw the latter conquering a great win, the first of the season.
Therefore, the podium was entirely French, with a 13'' gap to T.Dupont (WIL) in 4th and J.Simon COF) in 5th, with Finetto, Dumoulin, Baugnies, Vantomme and Fonseca closing the top 10.
struggles with my computer are pretty much over, so time to track back
27/01/17
Laureano Rosas is going to try and defend his jersey here, but will Argentina ride for him or Sepulveda? The GC determining stage saw Costa, Mollema and Nibali as main favourites.
Deep into the slopes Rosas had still two men with him: Sepulveda and Molina. With those: Nibali, Sioutsou, Navardauskas, Max.Richeze, Bernal, Torres, Pardilla, Arredondo, Atapuma, Costa, Mollema, Yo. Godoy, Tiviani, Moyano, Barrientos.
Juan Molina was the guy to then inject the pace for most of the mountain, and he really did damage: one by one Sioutsou, Pardilla, Arredondo, Costa, Barrientos, Yonder Godoy, Navardauskas, Mollema and Tiviani fell behind. With 5 kilometers to go it meant that still 5 argentinians were in the leading group, joint by 4 colombians and Nibali. But the shark surely wasn't the outsider, as he made his move to attack the south-americans soon afterwards.
That meant Sepulveda taking over, with finally having Molina at the end of the group. There Richeze fell back, with him Bernal and also Arredondo. But Nibali quickly found a gap of about 10 seconds, so that Atapuma took the pace up in the group behind. On his wheel Torres and still Rosas, with Moyano and still Molina hanging on. Another acceleration by Moyano couldn't be held though, so that Rosas blew up with 3 to go. Moyano quickly caught up to Nibali, and JD Atapuma came along too soon. Torres on the wheel of Rosas going backwards, and the Argentinian was still guided by young Molina.
At the end it was Moyano leaving the couple behind shortly behind the flamme rouge and riding to solo glory. 13 seconds behind Atapuma, another 2 to Nibali. Rosas in 5th with 36 seconds of a disadvantage, on the wheel of Molina still. Further behind Arredondo, Torres, Sepulveda, Richeze, Bernal
The GC after this stage went on the shoulders of Bahrain and Vincenzo Nibali, who looks likely to take a win at his debut race. Second for Rosas currently, with Moyano in third ahead of Atapuma and Sepulveda. Molina wasn't just able to grab the young riders jersey, which instead lied on the shoulders of Bernal.
28/01/17
Another day for the sprinters, another day for Gaviria? Well, the southern american attackers tried to break the streak again, but Etixx denied it again. You have to praise the workrate of Cavagna, Declercq and Serry on these hot days for sure. They launched it another time perfectly for Gaviria - Boonen - Richeze. And the Colombian once again set up fast at 200, holding off the Italians another time. Gaviria taking his fourth ahead of Ruffoni and Viviani this time, with Guardini, Malucelli and Navardauskas on minor places.
29/01/17
Another day in the office at San Juan. The breakaway tried, really hard, but once again Tiviani was the last man caught with 4 to go. At least he could take over the mountains jersey on the last stage and give himself a warm end to a great effort in this tour.
At the end it was all about Gaviria again, even though it was Boonen a little bit earlier. Richeze had to work and hadn't had full power left, so Navardauskas madfe a move to go for the win. He impressively shaked off LM Gaday, who tried to go with him, with pure speed. So he turned first on the finishing straight head down powering up, and could hold off Boonen to go into the final meters with a small gap. Gaviria though again went from 200 with tremendous speed, once more showing VIvinai only his backside. But could he reach the flying Lithuanian? No!
Ramunas Navardauskas prevented Gaviria from making it 5/5 by riding a brave attempt and succeeded. Gaviria in 2nd ahead of Malucelli, who had grown strong towards the end of the race. Guardini and Viviani once again beaten men.
Trofeo Porreres, Felanitx, Ses Salines, Campos (1.1)
The first big day of the Malorca Challenge, which traditionally might end in a sprinters finale. It's basically Andre Greipel, who always was successful here, against the others.
The break of the day contained of Javier Megias (Novo), Garcia (Inteja), Lizarralde (Euskadi), Galarreta (Amore) and Zurita (Bolivia). They held on for most of the race, but on the last 20 kilometers it was all gone. Megias was the last to catch, with 16 to go. A little bit early for Lotto, as attacks started to come then: Mas and Calabria tried their best. A bigger move came from Jon Irisarri, who did really do hurts, but he got as well rejected as a late move from Sergey Lagutin.
Bora, Lotto and Fortuneo worked well together to come as a pack on the final straight, where the new guy Moreno Hofland lead out Andre Greipel. From his wheel Pelucchi collapsed big time, so did Vangenechten. Instead, Dan McLay tried to rise against Greipel, but surely went too early as he didn't pass the German and really suffered on the final 100 meters.
As the Gorilla went through to a favourites win, the places in behind were different. Two kind of unexpected guys on the podium, with Dylan Page (Caja Rural), who was already great here last year, and Albert Torres (Inteja). On the following in this tough sprint Lukasz Wisniowski ahead of young German Konrad Gessner (Germany).
This really turned out more to be a strong mans sprint than a real one for the sprinters, as many big opponents for Greipel fadede against the only big time sprinter participating.
Lotto Soudal on their move to make it 2/2 in Mallorca? With Wellens and ´Bennot they had two guys to challenge Movistar's favourite duo Valverde/Quintana.
In the break we had Vervaeke (Lotto), Bravo (Euskadi), Belda (Burgos), Poljanski (Bora), Lozano (Novo), Cullaigh (Wiggins), E.Garcia (Bolivia). The group rode away to a decent advantage, mostly because Movistar got almost no assistance besides Team Sky. Being 6 minutes down with slightly over 70 to go Movistar started a big time cahse up the mountain, burning the remaining Arcas, Dayer and Amador up the mountain. So Nairo lead the peloton up the Cuber with only a few guys on his wheel: Valverde, Majka, Buchmann, Konrad, Wellens, Weening, Aranburu, Koch, Foliforov. Still Vervaeke, Bravo, Belda and Poljanski ahead though by 1 and a half minute, when Nairo pulled on a tremendous pace for his leader.
The groups now completely exploded: In the chase only Buchmann and Foliforov could resist the pace, and hang on to Quintana and Valverde. From the front group Belda dropped everybody, and lead with half a minute over the trio. Another half a minute down now Valverde injected the pace on the descent, being fast enough to catch everybody besides Belda. From the back though Amador and Wellens came back on the descent, while Nairo dropped back and enjoyed his rest. Like this Amador lead a very reduced group on the final 5 kilometers: Valverde, Buchmann, Poljanski, Wellens, Vervaeke, Belda, Bravo, Foliforov.
The constallation had to lead into attacks, and Tim Wellens tried his luck. With the last of his reserves Amador tried to pull him back, and at 2 kilometers it was only 3 seconds different, when Valverde took his turn and caught the Belgian. Belda got dropped in the process as he couldn't hang on to that. Right as Valverde had Wellens Vervaeke came through with a huge counter, that only Poljanski followed at first. No help for Valverde from the others, but the Spaniard went up to his job and got alone on the drive.
Vervaeke, who had done the major work in the attack, really struggled on a sitting acceleration of Poljanski while taking his turn, and then couldn't hold on to the Poles wheel anymore. He never came back, but instead got sucked off by the group. Alejandro went on the finishing straight though 8 seconds down on Poljanski, there might have been a little bit too much of a waiting game in behind. But then Garikoitz Bravo got nervous and took the turn on the finishing straight, going fast and early. Valverde took the present and thus his slipstream, with Wellens and Buchmann on his wheel. Mr. Hills came through with ease, shaking the Belgian off.
But at the end it wasn't enough to beat a celebrating Pavel Poljanski with a first victory in his first race for Bora. Valverde in second, and with Buchmann another Bora guy in third. Behind Foliforov, Bravo, a tired Wellens and Vervaeke.
Bora and Lotto with one already, can any team strike back? Valverde has to be hungry for it surely.
Those three teams also kept the race together until the Creu, the final uphill ramp. A breakaway attempt of Riesebeek (Roompot), Bizkarra (Euskadi), Gregori (Bolivia), Mora (Spain), Prades (Caja) was never going to be dangerous, as Movistar really pushed the pace into the final kilometers.
There Amador as the last man standing for Valverde single-handly denied an attempt by Kiriyenka until Valverde took over the pacing himself. On his wheel at first Majka, but the Pole wasn't up to the punch as well as his teammate Poljanski. Instead it was Garikoitz Bravo biting himself on the wheel of Piti. Behind him the group thinned out more and more, until only Buchmann, Konrad, Wellens, Benoot, Vervaeke, Lagutin, Irisarri, Aranburu, Belda, Garcia de Mateos.
Onto the last 500 meters the majority of those were gone as well, so in one line: Valverde - Bravo - Wellens - Buchmann - Lagutin - Garcia de Mateos - Belda
Valverde sprinted right from the fore, but he just wasn't able to drop the resisting Bravo. Other guys struggles, in first line Buchmann, and thus further gaps opened up. The final 100 meters saw Wellens trying to go past the leading two, but Valverde still had some more speed to offer and pushed again, denying the move. Garikoitz seemed happy to be in the slipstream and waited until the final 40 meters to make his move. There the Basque did do a flying move, but it just wasn't enough to win the whole thing.
Instead Alejandro Valverde took the very well deserved win. Behind him Garikoitz Bravo with another amazing result. Following Wellens, then with a gap Lagutin and Garcia de Mateos. Belda in sixth, with a strong updoming Benoot in behind.
Lotto-Soudal back into winning business with Greipel back as favourite? With Bouhanni he has a first-class opponent this time though.
The breakaway of J.Irizar (Euskadi), Garikano (Spain), Marquez (Inteja), Ledanois (Fortuneo), Calabria (Novo) tried their best, but Cofidis was keen on winning this. They, together with Lotto mostly, took up responsibilities and pulled the pack back to the group. The sprinting trains of Lotto, Cofidis and Bora (this time for Baska) batteled out the best positions: and Lotto won this battle, setting up Greipel with Roelandts and Hofland.
The mad man sprinted from the fore, with McLay on his wheel. Bouhanni though batteling directly into the train, almost causing a crash and making Mc Lay lose balance and drop out on the train. Though this also cost Bouhanni some speed, and Baska came around him on the right. Page on his wheel tried to hold on, then Torres following. But the gap to Greipel was unfillable, who made it 2/2 for Lotto-Soudal's train. In second Bouhanni, who was able to pick up the pace again and finish second with an impressive sprint. In behind Baska on third on the podium, ahead of Torres and Page.
After the race we saw a little rant of McLay on Bouhanni, who certainly was a major factor for the lost race of McLay. But the jury decides not to set the Frenchman back for irregular riding, but instead keep the results:
The newly promoted second WT race of the season found a wide amount of possible scenarios. However, the favourites of this race might be the puncheurs with a decent sprint, such as local guns Gerrans, Haas or Jay McCarthy. But this could always go either way, pure sprinters in a slow race or real puncheurs in a fast race could take this day.
Starting from scratch Orica-Green Edge was willing to control the pace. While the breakaway group formed, Bak (Lotto), Bevin (Cannondale), Gate (Aqua Blue) and Hamilton (Australia), Jack Haig was the guy to keep them in reach. Later, as his day was gone, Sky, Dimension Data and BMC joined the party, so that the lead was down to 3 minutes at the toughest ramp halfway through the race. There it was Sebastian Henao, who together with Damiano Caruso pushed really hard to drop some sprinters. Unluckily also van Poppel was a first victim, additionally the likes of Bennett, Howard and Theuns were gone early.
As the break was nearly in reach they calmed down early, just to prevent themselves of having too many attacks too early making it hard to defend. Thus attacks were open to happen, and so did Valls. The spaniard went with TDU surprise Machado and Michael Woods, so that in the end a dangerous trio went clear with the former 4. They had an advantage of 1 minute for a long time, but in time for the final 20 kilometers the break was taken in.
It was the moment for Richie Porte to attack on the third last section. Nobody could really follow this outstanding move. Well some tried at least, so right behind Porte a group found themselves together, including Robert Gesink! Sergio Henao with him, as well as Bakelants. Cameron Bayly (Australia) and Lachlan Norris (UHC) also made the junction on the descent. The quintett reached out to Porte after the descent, but on top of the next hill it was a quintett again as Norris was dead and gone. In the peloton Morton really went on a hard drive, and on his own he held the group in a range of 20 seconds. From the back a smaller group of dropped riders rejoined the peloton, including Nikias Arndt who was brought back by Kelderman.
The dutchman and Morton also controlled the final climb, but the group extended their lead to half a minute. Katusha now joined back the pacemaking, and Sven Erik Bystrom took a very hard turn at the front together with Lukas Pöstlberger as there weren't many guys left to kick. At 15 seconds with 3 to go now the group at the front had a little bit of disagreement, which the "peloton" used to come back on them. At the end youngster Chris Hamilton and Geschke were the guys to bring the group back, and suddenly Nik Arndt was one of the main favourites and maybe the fastest man left. But for how long have his legs suffered now.
In the meantime another move, this time by Peter Koning! Nobody really willing to chase for a moment, and he quickly has 8 seconds. Then it's Bakelants for Enger, who came back with the Arndt group, but he wasn't fast enough. The guy who did the job after flamme rouge though was Ruben Guerreiro, and he took the pace all the way for Jarlinson Pantano. Just as koning was reached it was Gregor Mühlberger to take stuff over for Jay McCarthy, and doing the final leadout.
The Austrian really had some power in his legs left, as nobody seemed to be able to jump off his wheel until 150. Brambilla failed an attempt to set up Vakoc on the right, but instead Battaglin went left near the barriers to surprise everbody. In the middle though Arndt waited late to not hand the victory to Enger, and thus had something to make up for beating McCarthy and Battaglin. But Enger rounded him anyway. Though, it was not enough for the Norwegian.
Instead it was a first big result for Enrico Battaglin at LottoNL, beating Enger and Arndt in the final sprint. Jose Goncalves in 4th with another strong Katusha performance, ahead of Canty and McCarthy. Mühlberger still came 9th, which was much better though than some struggeling giants such as Gerrans, Froome or Vakoc.
Kittel, Cavendish, Groenewegen, Viviani, Degenkolb, Modolo: A lot of top class sprinters participating in the first fast-men festival of 2017: The Dubai Tour. Also a first meeting of the arguably best clean sprinter vs. the arguably best messy sprinter.
The breakaway of 4 - Henttala (Novo), Brammeier (Acqua Blue), Mirza (UAE), Domagalski (One) - was able to collect the points in the sprints, but nothing more; as the sprinters were keen on taking this. QuickStep and DiData worked their ass off to make a sprint royale happen, and they did well. With Jungels panzerwagening stuff out the pack reached the flamme rouge together, when Sabatini - Trentin - Kittel batteled against Eisel - Renshaw - Cavendish.
The better end for the German, who got his final sprint launched perfectly by Trentin. And in a sprint royale he is still the best. Kittel took the win with ease, beating Groenewegen and Degenkolb. Cavendish only 5th behind Sascha Modolo today; surely room for improvement today.
Henttala (4) and Domagalski (5) the surviving guys from the breakaway with bonus seconds here, which throws them into 3rd and 5th overall. The first leader of course is stage winner Marcel Kittel.
The break got both sprints again, and Domagalski added another 4 onto his bonus count. No virtual blue, but still an amazing performance for a third division team if he can hold on to that. Well, the breakaway couldn't resist the pack, but yes, Domagalski made it into the finish with the pack. But who won out of it?
Marcel Kittel tried his very best, and Trentin settled him once again on the best possible place. He went a little bit late this time though, and Viviani overpaced him with 200 to go. As also Groenewegen came up from the other side, Kittel had to go. And wow, such speed. On his wheel Degenkolb didn't even try to come out of the slipstream. On the right though Mareczko pushed forward off the wheel of his fellow rival Viviani, injecting some huge speed.
But it wasn't enough for Kittel, who made it 2/2. Again the others in reach to each other; this time Mareczko slightly surprising in 2nd. Then Groenewegen and Degenkolb ahead of Cavendish in 5th.
This time the group had no Domagalski, but it also had as less of a chance as on the two previous days. QuickStep in control doing a good job, especially Martinelli and Schachmann doing some great powerhouse work.
Turning onto the finishing line stuff was a little different...at first it was LottoNL leading it, no sign of the QuickStep dominance anymore. Secondly fan favourite Erviti was still up the road after a late attack. Wynants went full gas on catching the spaniard, and then it was Groendahl to go. Renshaw tried to break his rythm, but the young Norwegian was just too strong. He guided his teammates onto the last 350 meters, where JJ Lobato set up his turbo from the front. This was a very effective move, as the new siging rode a fantastically fast leadout for Groenewegen. Like this no one contested the dutch until 150 to go, from where he got himself going. Marcel Kittel, with Cavendish on his wheel, tried to come through on the last 50 meters.
And he did it again! What a tremendous amount of power at the end as Kittel beats Groenewegen again, this time by not even 10 cetimeters. In third Cavendish, before Viviani and Modolo rolled in.
A short prologue opens up stage 1 of the Herald Sun Tour. Riders from the 3 WT teams, Orica, Sky and Dimension Data, are of course expected to be the main protagonists here.
Luke Rowe led the opening stage for a long time, until Gate took over his place. Then it was Kerrison setting a new time, and neither GC favourites nor Prologue specialists could beat him. But right before the end it was Leigh Howard with a big time. However, he couldn't prevent the IsoWhey guy from winning the first "stage" of the Herald Sun Tour, and missed out by 0.64 seconds. Third on the podium was Gate then.
Already the big stage at the 1st real one, if you count out Arthurs Seat. Chavito vs. Froome? Or even TDU star Robert Power? What is guaranteed though is a showdown on the road up to Falls Creek!
Let's cut the first part of the race, that started early in Wangaratta, short: The break of the day - Katsonis (Drapac), Talbot (St. George), Hindley (Australia), Frame (JLT), Christie (New Zealand) - got eaten up pretty early, as Sky wanted to set up Froome in the best possible position. Together with Orica they dropped also our leader, Kerrisson, pretty early.
Further into the climb Froomes men, Elissonde as latest, were used up early. Still Haig, Power and Chaves for Orica with them though, and Haig took over the pulling then. With those also left Morton, Acevedo, Bayly, Shushemoin, Storer, Earle and Oram, though the latest 3 were droppped even before halfway up the climb as well. Then amazing happened and we saw a first attack. Cameron Bayly went for it, and this accused Power to counter the attack. Froome took over the pace in the peloton, which finally killed Haig. Soon also Acevedo was dropped.
The duo upfront worked very well together though and built an advantage of 20 seconds, though clearly Froome wasn't full gas at that point. But he got absolutely no assistance, neither from Morton (who might understandably think that it isn't his work with a TDF champion), nor from the other guys with a man up the road.
Stuff changed with 4 to go, when Power suddenly struggeled upfront. Froome found some fire and also Chavito gritted a teeth or two. A Chaves acceleration then was too much for Morton, who got dropped from the quartet. Soon they reached Power again, who kind of did a bit of relais work: Pulling himself empty for Chaves to bring him back to Bayly. One on one now between Froome and Chaves you think now?
No! As the pace dropped a little and Bayly rowed himself back in the trio Shushemoin made his move for Attaque Team Gusto. The Kazakh pulled in a big one and opened up a gap pretty quickly. Maybe the duo thought that it was a tired Bayly. Well we won't know that, but certainly it was able to recognize a significant change of pace with 1.7 to go. There Froome pulled a hard turn surely digging deep, cause after 400 meters Chaves wasn't able to hold on to that anymore. Now it was Froome flying, and with 800 to go he was back at Shushemoin. Directly he went past the Kazakh, dropping also him a few seconds after that. The last 500 meters the brit enjoyed solo glory, before he raised his arms for the winners pic.
Second went to a brave riding Alexandr Shushemoin, only 7 seconds down on Froome. 18 seconds for Cameron Bayly, who rounded off a great day for Attaque Team Gusto, and 19 for Chaves. Then already a bigger gap to Morton and Power, who came in 48 seconds down on today's winner and the Herald Sun Tour top favourite.
The hilly and for this point of the season pretty long TTT was an intense first battle of the GC candidates and their respective teams. Big time gaps between the teams accured, and thus a good result was a weightful thing to start with:
The strongest team on the circuit was Movistar, with their first win of the season they lead Jonathan Castroviejo into the leaders jersey. Him and Amador were the main factors of this strong performance. A second place for Katusha ahead of Sky, both pretty close. BMC and Etixx both really suffered as they went very fast in the first section and then had to pay their tribute lateron. Especially BMC were down to 5 early overpacing on the uphill sections. A decent surprise came from CCC Sprandi, who managed to finish impressively in 7th.
The second stage to Denia gave the opportunity for the sprinters to make their move. Though at first a breakaway containing Estevez (Euskadi), Llacer (Spain), Guardiola (Ukyo), Salas (Burgos) and Lastra (Caja Rural). The later was the most successful in hunting for KOM points, and thus finds himself in polka dot tomorrow. Estevez and Salas close to him though.
Until the last climb Cofidis and Direct Energie controlled the peloton. There they reached the last 2 attackers in Guardiola and Salas, but soon a bigger move was set up by Arroyo. He was turned down by Coquards men, until Kwiatkowski made his move. This was the sign for Movistar to set up a hard pace, and Dani Moreno did really put some hurts onto everybody in the pack.
Strong descending of Castroviejo lead to an open situation at the end of the race, as Bouhanni was dropped and Coquard had to work his way upfront again. This situation was an opportunity for Bilbao, who started his sprint very early. Only Amador really following him, the others looked at each other for a moment. Then Simon started his sprint, but that one was not powerful enough. Instead, Coquard accelerated from far behind, going strong with Gilbert on his wheel.
It was surely not enough for the early starters though, from which Bilbao was the stronger one. He took a perfect first win for Astana ahead of Amador. Third indeed to Coquard, though ahead of Skujins and Bravo.
Spoiler
1. Bilbao
2. Amador
3. Coquard
4. Skujins
5. Bravo
6. Lagutin
7. B.Prades
8. Ligthart
9. de Plus
10. Chernetskiy
The break found their hunts for points at the Cote de la Tour, where Pacher secured his polka-dot jersey. But in terms of the finish it was indeed Katusha and FDJ together with Veranclassic to hold everything together. And indeed those 3 teams had their best riders at the front of the race for the sprint. Both sprinttrains fought hard against each other, but at the end of the day Haller was the guy that lead Kristoff out perfectly. Kristoff now had to deliver, but he just couldn't match the speed of Demare. Others far away, so that the couple even got rewarded by a second of time difference to the third. Minor places for Boeckmans, who achieved the last podium spot, Laporte and Siskevicius.
No chance for the breakaway, that only contained of 3 guys this time: Sprengers (Vlaanderen), Pardini (Veranclassic), Dassonville (HP BTB). Pardini with the most points on the climb but no stage or jersey success.
Instead another day for the sprinters. Again Kristoffs train was a little bit stronger, and this time the Norwegian delivered. A tad later timing for both train and his sprint with a little lesser gradiant on the final kilometers and it worked out. This time he won by half a bikelength over Demare. Third again for Boeckmans, this time though ahead of McLay and Lecrocq.
The Hatta Dam stage: The GC decicive stage. Kittel in the lead seems unbeatable so far, can he continue his success?
Etixx rode all day in the wind to keep not only Kittel out of the wind, but also Alaphilippe. On top of that, Trek with some good work for Degenkolb and also Bahrain on the speed. The breakaway, Al Kaabi (UAE national), Fonzi (Willier) & McCormick (One), only had a short time of living. At the end of the day only around 20 riders reached Hatta Dam together due to the horrible wind:
Schachmann, Jungels, Kittel, Alaphilippe (Etixx), Korsaeth (Astana), Boem (Bardiani), Dillier, Drucker (BMC), Colbrelli, Per (Bahrain), Erviti, Barbero (Movistar), Domagalski (One), Groenewegen, Lobato, Grondahl (LottoNL), Henttala (Novo), Moscon (Sky), Degenkolb, de Kort (Trek), Modolo, Mohoric (UAE Abu Dhabi)
From those, obviously now designing the GC, Jungels lead stuff out for Alaphilippe while De Kort set up Degenkolb and Groenenwegen swapped roles with Lobato for today. It turned out to be Degenkolb first to start the long and steep sprint really upp Hatta Dam, followed by Lobato then. Alaphilippe not able to react at first, but he might come back later if he kept his speed for a little later. Instead also Kittel and Colbrelli in the wheel with Barbero and Modolo trying to follow.
The later 2 were cooked until the finish, instead Alaphilippe and Mohoric came up together from behind, clearly benefitted by being ligther than the others. Also Kittel falling back in big trouble, while Colbrelli surely is not on top of his game yet. Instead, Lobato tried to come round the final meters and sneak the victory away from Degenkolb, which succeded. A big one for JJ, defending his title as fastest man up Hatta Dam. Second for Degenkolb, third for Mohoric two seconds later. Three seconds for Alaphilippe, only 8 for Modolo and Kittel!
That meant that Kittel stys in yellow 12 seconds ahead of Degenkolb and Lobato!
Back to normal business with Stage 5 of the Dubai Tour. Feng (Bahrain) and Mirza (UAE) on the move, but as over the whole race Eixx was control this also pretty windy race. That meant a mass sprint again, with Kittel going from the perfect position. Mark Cavendish in his wheel, then Groenewegen, who could use a good result to upgrade his GC standing, and Degenkolb. Though again, Mark Cavendish with trouble to hold Kittels speed, so that he got overtaken left and right. Groenewegen came round and already looked pretty decent, when his engine got a big stuck. Instead Degenkolb and a very fast Sascha Modolo came up and overtook the Dutchmen.
Nobody though denying Kittel his 4th victory and the overall. Modolo in second going up one place in the overall, same for Degenkolb in third.
Danny van Poppel should be the man to beat for today's stage, but Sky also has to defend the yellow jersey. Many work on their shoulders, but they can keep everything together for a mass sprint.
There it was surprisingly Gazprom vs. UHC for the best sprint train , at the end Greg Henderson was the guy to lead the race up the finishing straight. Travis McCabe the guy he lead out, in behind Howard (Acqua Blue), Tsatevich, van Poppel and Thwaites.
Leading the sprint late up was McCabe, maybe a little bit too late as van Poppel passed him with an early attempt. However, the Dutch sprinter didn't fully have it yet, so he wasn't up to the job on the final meters. Instead, Scott Thwaites came round his wheel and celebrated the first victory for Dimension Data. In this tough sprint he's followed by van Poppel and Howard on the podium. No changes in the GC.
Spoiler
1. Thwaites
2. van Poppel
3. Howard
4. McCabe
5. Tsatevich
6. Kerrison
7. Docker
8. van der Hoorn
9. Hill
10. D.Sunderland
Another day for Sprinters, the revenge for van Poppel? Another time it was mainly Sky doing the work. A late attack by a quartet of Hill, Kauffmann, Cam Meyer, van der Ijke and Docker came very close, but with the help of Dimension Data all came back together on the final 400 meters.
There Nikolai Trusov launched Alexei Tsatevich perfectly, which took the others by surprise. Only young Dylan Sunderland and Taco van der Hoorn. Where up to the speed on this side of the road, and they enjoyed the benefit of the fading sprinter.
The second time now that the best positioned sprinter faded, and instead it was between the other two guys. In the battle of the unexperienced youngsters Taco van der Hoorn won it in a fotofinish against Dylan Sunderland. Third for the Russian, ahead of van Poppel, Howard, Thwaites and Bewley.
Spoiler
1. van der Hoorn
2. D.Sunderland
3. Tsatevich
4. van Poppel
5. Howard
6. Thwaites
7. Bewley
8. Giacoppo
9. Henderson
10. Kerrison
