The morning breakaway is three riders, especially in this strong wind, it is almost impossible that they will make it, unless nobody will work in the peloton. When they get to Côte des 36 Tournants, after about 20 km they got 2’53”
The breakaway is: Julien Vermote (Etixx - Quick Step), Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data) and Tony Hurel (Direct Energie)
We have a major crash when the peloton hits the climb, 10 riders down, and between then some very strong riders:
Pieter Serry (Quick Step), Sergio Luis Henao (Sky), and Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie)
Ryder Hesjedal (Trek – Segafredo) doesn’t get back in the race, he has to abandon with an dislocated elbow.
After the climb we also got an attempt from Alessandro Vanotti but the peloton gives him no chance to get away.
150 km to go – peloton at 4’51”
The pace in the peloton is not hot, but with Simon Geschke, Rory Sutherland, Darwin Atapuma, Alejandro Valverde and Gianluca Brambilla sitting in first row, it takes some guts to try anything now.
120 km to go, peloton at 6’32
The peloton is speeding up a bit and with a side wind of 43 km/hour Astana has chosen to place most of the team near the front, surrounding Jakob Fuglsang
100 km to go, peloton at 5’27”
80 km to go, peloton at 4’20”
70 km to go, peloton at 3’42”
The pace is harder an irregular, clearly Movistar is attempting to break the peloton every time they hit an uphill section, Jakob Fuglsang (with Malacrane) has moved further forward not to miss the cut, if everything starts to explode. Just a little further back also Tiralongo (with Zeits).
45 km to go, peloton at 1’50
Movistar’s Amador has set a strenuous pace one Côte de Bohisau, riders are dropped from the back of a stretched peloton.
30 km, peloton at 1’05 – things seems to have slowed down a bit.
Then we got the push, on the first passing of Mur de Huy, Movistar set a high pace and then launch Valverde, two riders get with him Alaphilippe and Rodriguez, in the picture also Teklehaimanot the last rider from the breakaway, he won’t be there for long.
Behind them also Martin and further back Jakob Fuglsang.
Over the next 20 km Valverde, Alaphilippe and Rodriguez build up a lead of 1’06, while Martin and Fuglsang are caught by the peloton, approaching Côte d'Ereffe with about 10 km to the line, Martin, Kwiatkowski and Gilbert, lead the bunch.
The peloton finally catch the breakaway just as they are about to start the final climb to the finish at Mur de Huy, Fuglesang is well placed in front but he explodes at the Mur, and rider after rider passes him.
Julian Alaphilippe has just a little more than the others, he wins La Flèche in front of Tim Wellens and Alejandro Valverde.
Evaluation:
Overall:
His have been a great season start for the only 23 years old Frenchman, he has won Strade Bianche, 2nd in Amstel and the CG in Vuelta Mallorca, and now this important classic.
The big positive surprise was Lotto’s Tim Wellen’s, not considered a top 10 favorite by the press, he came 2nd.
Most disappointed must be Tinkoff with Roman Kreuziger finishing outside top 20.
Astana:
Fuglsang did a bit worse than expected, might have been too risky to go alone from too far out.
Ollie23 wrote:
Fantastic season by Alaphilippe so far! What's his contact situation?
I'm not an Astana fan but I like the fictional team you're leading Keep up the good work!
First of all thanks for watching.
Yes Alaphilippe is having a blast of a season.
Astana was not chosen because im a huge fan, more due to not finding any other story about the team, while looking for a "medium" protur team.
Edited by Tamijo on 29-03-2017 13:38
Ollie23 wrote:
Fantastic season by Alaphilippe so far! What's his contact situation?
Alaphilippe has no contract for the comming Year, and a very affordable price tag of just 69.000 euro, might look at him in the transfers, but that price might just grow a lot.
It is a very hot day in west Croatia, good for tourism by the Adriatic coast, but a long day for the domestic water carrier.
Alex Kirsch from Stölting Service Group starts what is to become the breakaway of the stage. Soon he is joined by Adam Phelan (Drapac) and Sylwester Janiszewski (Wibatech - Fuji Żory). A later attack from Anton Muzychkin (Minsk) also succeed, he joins between the KoM and the Intermediate sprint.
Sylwester Janiszewski wins both the first KoM and first Sprint. He seems to be the strongest in the break today, in prime condition.
A little less than 150 left, we got a large crash, hitting Astana especially hard as team leader Fabio Aru are down. The pace is not hard and Astana sends riders back to help, so they rejoin the peloton, but hard to say whether we got serious injuries.
The breakaway build a lead of about 6 minutes.
Sylwester Janiszewski wins the last intermediate sprint
But when Gatis Smukulis are back getting bottles for the teammates with some 50 km left, the distance is reduced to just 3’09, and with a peloton speed of an average 47-49 km/h it is shrinking fast now.
40 km left, peloton speed now 50-51 km/h the distance is down to 2’38.
The peloton is transforming into a long thin line, even though the profile seems flat, there is constant up and down although not hard. Astana is sitting relative low, about time to move forward.
As expected the breakaway are caught in to time for the teams to prepare the sprint.
Ruslan Tleubayev lead the Astana train in front of Lieuwe Westra and then Andrea Guardini.
When the sprint start we got Wanty - Groupe Gobert in front, and just a few inches behind Trek – Segafredo, a few meters further back Astana.
Again we get a bad timing from Astana, Guardini starts his sprint a bit late, at a point where Bonifazio have already passed him inside in the last cornor.
Niccolò Bonifazio (Trek) wins in Zadar, Kenny Dehaes 2nd and Marco Marcato 3rd both Wanty.
Andrea Guardini a disappointing 6th.
Evaluation Stage :
Overall:
This was the 3rd season win from the only 22 years old Italian riders. After he won G.P. Costa degli Etruschi and a stage in Tour Cycliste International La Provence, both in February. Absolute an interesting young sprinter.
Most disappointed must be Astana with their to favorite finishing outside top 5.
Astana:
Even though both Guardini and Westra did not show a good daily form, a 6th in a race like this one is just not acceptable. Neither team manager Serguei Yakovlev nor Guardini was giving interviews after the race, clearly a bad atmosphere on the entire team.
Ollie23 wrote:
Fantastic season by Alaphilippe so far! What's his contact situation?
Alaphilippe has no contract for the comming Year, and a very affordable price tag of just 69.000 euro, might look at him in the transfers, but that price might just grow a lot.
Yeah, would expect so based on his season so far. Based on Tour of Croatia Bonifazio seems like a good option
21/4 Stage 3/4 Ala - Fierozzo Val Dei Mocheni 183.5 km
It is partly clouded, could he nice sunshine on parts of the route, but a shower is also possible. There is almost no wind.
7 riders take off, on the early section before the mountains, the peloton is relaxed and they build a gap of more than 7’50 minutes before the first climb.
It is Grmay (Lampre), Laengen (IAM), Vakoc (Quick Step), Taliani (Androni), Urbano (Roth), Conti (Southeast) and Frapporti (Unieuro).
At the first uncategorized climb Matteo Busato (Southeast) attacks from the peloton.
There is no cooperation in the peloton, none of the stronger teams want to take a leading role. Sky, Katusha and Astana takes some turns, but the pace is irregular and the distance grow to 8’48.
Finally Astana accepts the fact that they got the “pink” jersey, and Lars Boom takes some hard turns on the flat section between the climbs.
Busato joins the breakaway with 81 km to the finish, the break has 15.4 km to the top of the 2 category climb, they got 6’56 to the peloton. Busato is best placed in GC: 18th at 6’08.
At soon as the peloton hits the 2nd category [b]Astana[/b] set a full team in front, now with a serious pace, immediately riders start dropping of the back.
Situation over the top:
6 riders in front, Conti and Frapporti caught in between one by one, peloton 58 riders at 7’51.
Astana has lost Boom, now sitting in A3 3’30 behind the peloton.
Passo Redebus (cat 1) is a two section climb, all in all 17.3 km at 4.1%, the first 4,5 and the last 4.3 km very hard with sections of more than 10%, but with a 8 km flat in the middle.
Tanel Kangert is setting pace on the first section, he has very good legs today, clearly pressing the juices out of the compeditors. The peloton keeps breaking up everyone struggling hard to hang on and close the small caps.
1 km to the top of Passo Redebus, Astana has isolated Froom and Yates in a small favorite group with 5 Astana riders. Front of breakaway at 1’03.
Selected riders:
Kennaugh at 1’36, Meintjes, Landa , Jungels, Cunego at 1’49, Niemiec, Caruso at 2’32.
The situation considered the best option Froome has is to accelerate to split up Astana. The attack come as a surprise, Nibali doesn’t react.
At this point, the two Astana riders having most left in the fuel container is Nibali and López in a joint effort the get contact with Froome on the descent.
When the three riders pass under the 10 km banner the situation is:
Alone in front Petr Vakoc (Etixx)
At 44” Group Nibali
At 2’35 11 riders (Kennaugh, Landa, Cunego, Cataldo, Kangert, Yates, Meintjes, Jungels)
The upcoming summit finish at Fierozzo Val Dei Mocheni, is a 7.9 km climb at 6.9% the last 2 km flatting out a little.
At the very start of the climb on a 9.5% slope Froome attacks again, dropping both Astana riders, and soon catches Vakoc.
Nibali sense a sign of weakness in a limited pace set by Froome, he speed up a little and soon he is back on wheel.
Froome wins in Mocheni Valley, he has that little extra acceleration to take the stage.
Nibali right behind him 2nd in the same time.
Bob Jungels takes the last podium at 1’28, in a group with Yates, Meintjes and Landa.
Evaluation Stage :
Overall:
This was the 4th season win for last year’s Tour de France winner, so far Froome haven’t won any Pro Tour races, but it is early season.
A very nice outcome for Etixx - Quick Step’s upcoming young climber Bob Jungels, a podium though not seen as a race favorite by media and bookmakers.
Most disappointed must be BMC, with Damiano Caruso falling from 2nd to 9th in the GC.
Astana:
A perfect day for the team, a win would be nice but a lot more important to hold the jersey and not lose time to Froome. Not to mention 4 riders in top 10.
20/4-2016 La Flèche Wallonne
Keep up the good work!
19/4 -23/4 2016 Tour of Croatia 2.1
19/4-22/4 2016 Giro del Trentino - Melinda 2.HC
