The race is a sprinter classic, with some climbing at the first half, but the 2nd half is first downhill and later just gently undulated and we must expect a mass sprint finish, which may or may not favour the punchy sprinter over the pure sprinter depending on how hard it was raced.
Starting in Almeria we are heading north for Tabernas, famous for being the location of many spaghetti westerns and other film in the nearby Tabernas Desert. From there a circular route, first up to Uleila del Campo, then via Sorba and over the climb at Turrillas, before getting back to Tabernas. From here back to Almeria before riding further south for the finish in Roquetas de Mar
In 955, Almería gained the title of medina (city) by the Caliph of Cordoba, at the same time construction began on the still existing fortification Alcazaba of Almería.
Top 5 media favorites:
Magnus Cort Nielsen - Jasper Philipsen - Edward Theuns
Fabio Jakobsen - Vyacheslav Kuznetsov
Hundreds of films have been shot in Tabernas Desert since the early 1950’s, most legendary probably Sergio Leone’s epic Spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West from 1968
Race
Km: 98
Just two rider form the early breakaway Jorge Arcas (Movistar) and Louis Vervaeke (Sunweb) with a lot of hard kilometres ahead and just two riders out in front, the peloton takes it easy at the initial km of the race, allowing a gap of almost 3 minutes over the first 10 km.
The distance further grow to 4’20 but after some 32 km we se a more organised and forceful pursuit in by Lukasz Owsian (CCC), Markel Irizar (Trek), Dries Devenyns (Quick Step) and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Soudal) and from there the gap stabilise at about 2’25 for a long period.
26 years old Spanish Jorge Arcas have been with Moviestar since 2016. His list of achievements basically empty, maybe his day today
Km: 19
The breakaway regain some distance over Alto de Turrillas, but loses it fast on the downhill, reaching Almeria city with 37 km left the gab is under one minute, it seems no longer that the duo will reach the finish line first.
Under the 20 km banner the breakaway was over, notably every rider made is over the climbs in the peloton and still we got a full peloton soon riding into Roquetas de Mar finishing the race on a circuit in the town itself.
Louis Vervaeke in front of the duo riding into Almeria, the 25 years old Belgian best result was winning Tour des Pays de Savoie in 2014
Km 7
The circuit in Roquetas de Mar is technical, with many difficult and sharp corners, providing a high pace finish with constant fights for position, it is Astana and CCC side by side and Quick Step right behind when the peloton crosses the finish line to start the final lap.
The riders start the final lap with 6.8 km to the finish, Fuglsang, Cerny and Mørkøv leading the three trains
Km 0
Both Astana and CCC mistime the sprint a little by opening a bit too soon, while Quick Step patiently await the perfect moment for Florian Senechal to open for Fabio Jakobsen.
Fabio Jakobsen wins Clasica de Almeria in Roquetas de Mar in front of Justin Jules (Wallonie-Bruxelles) and Matteo Malucelli (Caja Rural)
With two stages in Herald Sun Tour and now a win in Clasica de Almeria a great start of the season for just 22 years old Fabio Jakobsen, Fabio won 7 times last season including Scheldeprijs, showing great potential in his first season at the highest level
Astana Pro Team
Magnus Cort Nielsen missed the podium to Matteo Malucelli with inches, slightly below out target but a fine result anyhow. We are generally satisfied with the way the team preformed.
@VoetsT - thanks a lot always nice with such positive response.
@Sutty68 – Ya, we missed your target with a very narrow margin, need that little extra luck that we did not have today.
Not bad in Almeria, I too find myself mistiming a lot of sprints in PCM18, but Im sure it will get better soon.
Lutsenko should have a good shot at the win in Trofeo Laigueglia but someone like Felline is pretty suited to it as well, in PCM 15 Felline used to win basically everything for me in a Trek career.
Good top 5 finish in Almeria! MCN showing good legs, but when it is that close, you can be frustrated. Laigueglia should be a good opportunity for the team to do well with Lutsenko
@valverde321: Thanks
It is not easy to time it always perfect, but that is fine, I like to keep it realistic and Cort is not strong enough to win tons of races.
@the_hoyle: Can't completely rule out a tiny bit of frustration as that happened before my eyes
Regarding Laigueglia I can say that the Bookmakers do not have a single Astana riders in Top 10 and Fabio Felline is 2nd on that list... but they often dont see whats comming so lets see.
The profile clearly favour the punchers passing hard climbs spread over the stage, and on top of that two short hill close to the finish line, but the gradients may not be hard enough to split the favourites to much so a good sprint might also come into play.
The race starts and finish in Laigueglia, from there we start an easy stretch north along the coast up to Ceriale, but then we head inland with the next 120 km raced in the Ligurian Alps passing four climbs, before we head back to the coast for the last small climbs both within the final 10 kilometers.
The church of San Matteo located in the historic centre of Laigueglia, was constructed between 1754 and 1783, it is flanked by two bell towers.
Top 5 media favorites:
Nathan Haas - Fabio Felline - Diego Ulissi
Bjorg Lambrecht - Jens Keukeleire
Church of San Matteo at dawn
Race
Km: 98
Sam Bewley (Mitchelton) opens the stage with Federico Zurlo (Giotti Victoria) and Meiyin Wang (Bahrain), also Giuseppe Fonzi (Neri Sottoli) Alessandro Pessot (Bardiani) and Mikkel Frølich Honoré (Quick Step) was on the move but they did not make it.
Instead a group of four joins the breakaway just as the first climb starts, Hernando Bohórquez (Astana), Davide Gabburo (Neri Sottoli), Daniel Crista (Giotti Victoria), Leonardo Bonifazio (Sangemini) and Marco Frapporti (Androni), they reach their maximum lead on top of the 2nd climb with 4’12”.
Federico Zurlo have been struggling on both climbs and will soon be swallowed by the peloton how has now up the pace and are now cutting of the distance fast.
The 7 riders left in the breakaway have just passed the finish line in Laigueglia, heading for the next two climbs, almost 100 km left, the gab reduced to 2’43
Km: 33
The breakaway can’t keep up with the peloton led by Trek – Segafredo, first Fumiyuki Beppu and more seriously later the combined force of Peter Stetina and Giulio Ciccone.
The demanding pace set by the duo also shows on the weaker riders in the bunch with chunks of riders planted further down the road, and the pain of those fighting to hold on.
Marco Frapporti makes a last desperate attempt but it is all over at the first part of the final climb, but that won’t give any rest to those in agony Diego Ulissi (UAE) attack with Diego Rosa (Sky) at wheel. A bold move with more than 30 km left, but understandably trying to get rid of the better punchy sprinter. Especially Rosa might suffer from a large group sprint.
Where Ulissi haven’t seen any notable results this season, Rosa 4th in Cadel Evans may signal good form
Km 0.0
The acceleration was not enough to split the favourites, 42 riders makes it to the top together and stays together right up to the finish line, seen from a spectator view a boring edition of the race with little action over the final 10 km.
Fabio Felline wins Trofeo Laigueglia in front of Nathan Haas and Simone Velasco
This was 28 years old Italian Fabio Felline’s 2nd win this season, he also won a stage in La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, his latest race win was also Trofeo Laigueglia back in 2017
Astana Pro Team
Alexey Lutsenko was actually timing his sprint fine and with a perfect lead-out from Davide Villella, but got boxed in and never able to pass his teammate.
We are overall satisfied with the sprint setup, but the positioning and with that also result could have been much better, so a bitter sweet taste as we can only congratulate Davide Villella on his 7th, a very fine result from him and at the same time regret that Lutsenko did not get anything from the race.
Squad:
Ion Izagirre - Pello Bilbao - Andrey Zeits - Davide Villella
Artyom Zakharov - Jonas Gregaard Wilsly - Hernando Bohórquez
Expectations:
This will be the first real test for Ion Izagirre after he joined Astana and we expect him to deliver a result, a podium is our hope but a top 5 will be fine. With Pello Bilbao as wingman anything outside top 8 will be a huge disapointment.
Vuelta a Andalucia – Ruta Del Sol (2 HC) 20/2 – 24/2 2019
Stage 1. Mijas – Granada 193.4 km
The stage does not actually start in the the historical core of of Mijas, but about 15 km further south in what is called a Cala de Mijas by the coast, and after the neutral start we are climbing up to the original Mijas, soon the pass the first KoM at an altitude of 500 meters.
Then down again and passing Málaga we are following the coast to Torre del Mar, before heading inland and around Sierras de Tejeda on an undulated route towards the finish in Granada
The stage is categorized at as a mountain stage, and with the altitude gain of more than 1000 meters from Torre del Mar into the mountains over just 40 km it is clearly hard, but with the hardest part centred at mid-stage and a gentle almost downhill finish, we don’t expect too much damage done between the favourites.
As mentioned the historical Mijas was a relative small town/village located at an altitude of about 400 meter about 8 km from the coast, the area has been inhabited since prehistoric times but mainly based on farming and fishing activities with a small population, 4000-5000 in the 1800’s and about 10.000 in the 1970’s, but with a tourist boom at the costal parts of the municipality today it has passed 80.000 people.
Top 5 media favorites:
Chris Froome - Mikel Landa - Alejandro Valverde
Rigoberto Uran - George Bennett
“Mijas Pueblo” the historical Mijas
Race
Km: 162
So many riders will be on the move today that it would be too much to mention every single one, anyway passing the early KoM first was a three rider group passing in this order Jetse Bol (Burgos), Evan Huffman (Rally), Rafael Reis (W52).
Between the above mentioned and the peloton another 7 riders, most notably Angel Madrazo (Burgos) and also Astana’s Hernando Bohórquez have been allowed to ride his own chance today, but soon everyone except Jetse Bol was reeled in.
Evan Huffman (Rally) and Rafael Reis (W52) gives it another go, passing Jetse Bol and now leads the race as a duo.
It has not started to rain yet although the sky is dark, but it seems like the roads are kind of slippery, maybe a bit of rain here previously anyway just as we are soon at the end of the downhill we get a huge and important crash of at least 35 riders, just to mention the most prominent: Bennett, Costa, Kwiatkowski, Landa, Uran, Valverde and Wellens.
Other important riders also caught in the chaos but are back within a few minutes. Beñat Intxausti (Euskadi) abandoned the race, most of the others seem to be without and serious injuries.
Rafael Reis and Evan Huffman lead the race, as they hear about the crash over the radio
Km: 39
Astana, the only world tour team with every rider in the first group up the pace for a short while, but realizes that it will be hard to keep it up over this many km and stop their pursuit, but that was too much pressure for Reis or maybe he was called back, we don’t know.
In the confusion after Astana suddenly stopped the hunt another 9 riders joined Evan Huffman forming a new breakaway group, the last rider to be reeled in was Angel Madrazo (Burgos) just after he won the hard Alto del Navarro (cat1) alone in front of the peloton.
We now have separated a favourite group of about 40 riders. The pace is hard but not devastating as we are passing climb after climbs and now in worsening weather conditions with more and more rain falling.
Pello Bilbao (Astana) attack
Spanish Pello Bilbao will turn 29 in just 5 days, the strong climber had a fine season last year with GC 6th in the Giro and a stage win in both Critérium du Dauphiné and Tour of the Alps
Km 7
Pello Bilbao did not get far a strong Team Sky brought him back instantly, and it is also Astana and Sky domination the front of the group over the next 30 km leading up to the finish, Astana setting a moderate pace just high enough to prevent new attacks.
The rain keeps coming and now it is also very foggy, like riding inside a cloud, but luckily we haven’t seen more crashes.
Besides Bilbao who leads the group, Astana has Ion Izagirre and Andrey Zeits in the first group, all the top teams has 3-4 riders left, except Katusha with just Daniel Navarro Garcia
Km 0
Just prior to the upcoming reduced sprint Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky) attack, Ion Izagirre well positioned at the wheel of Bilbao immediately responds and sits at the wheel of the Sky rider, they build a small but decisive gap to the riders behind.
Not surprisingly Izagirre was not able to pass the faster finisher and Michal Kwiatkowski wins in Granada, in front of Ion Izagirre 2nd and Jack Haig (Mitchelton) 3nd.
There was no official gap between the first 44 riders
This was 28 years old Polish National Champion Michal Kwiatkowski’s 28 professional victory, his most prominent cycling monument ”La Classicissima di primavera” in 2017, officially Milano-Sanremo
Astana Pro Team
Going into this stage would have taken 2nd anytime. That it was narrow should not make the result less sweet, but can’t deny a silent “damn it” heard in the team car.
Good start for Sky, although I would've thought this would be the day Froome has an advantage over Kwiat, but guess not. Great 2nd place too! Love when theres fog!
