valverde321 wrote:
Pretty close gaps in the TT considering how long it is.
Yes that is true !
Fuglsang should have a shot at a Top 5 still.
Have no idea (honestly haven’t played the mountain stages yet) he is riding at about 90% so I don't expect him to get that high, but you never know how the form of the competitors are, and the impact from daily form
The tour caravan has traveled about 100 km, from Barbentane just south of Avignon to a start in Peynier, some 30 km northwest of Marseille. From Peynier we move into the semi mountains in Provence, passing over a number of un-categorized and categorized climbs, hardest Massif de la Sainte-Baume, before the finish in Brignoles, a historical town mentioned in writing as far back as 558 AD.
The route is relative undulated, but the climbs not too hard and the last 17 km slightly downhill. So this is the last option for the sprinters before we finish in Nice.
Top 5 media favorites:
Magnus Cort (Astana) Elia Viviani (Quick Step) Arnaud Démare (FDJ) John Degenkolb (Trek) Caleb Ewan (Lotto)
Between the 12th and 14th century the village of Peynier got fortifications and walls, at the time the most important settlement in the area.
Race
Willie Smit (Katusha) attacks from km zero.
After a while we get another attack: Jan Polanc (UAE), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain), Valentin Madouas (FDJ), Warren Barguil (Arkéa) they join Smit after about 5 km raced.
Meanwhile also Maximilian Schachmann (BORA), Michael Schär and William Barta both from CCC Team have attacked and will join the breakaway within the next 3 km.
Matej Mohoric best placed in GC 37th at 4'28” and also best in the KoM 2nd just one point short of leader Pierre Rolland.
A very dangerous breakaway for this kind of stage Schachmann, Mohoric and Barguil very strong on a profile like this.
Willie Smit (26) born in Lydenburg, South African best result was winning the African Continental Championships in 2017, making him able to sign with Katusha for the 2018 season
The main attraction for the spectators and TV viewers over the first 150 km was the fighting for the KoM points. In close fights on all climbs Matej Mohoric and Warren Barguil both took 13 points.
Matej Mohoric took the KoM lead winning the first cat.2 and also took maximum points on the 2nd climb. Barguil took the last climb in a very close fight with Madouas and Schachmann, after this Mohoric leads the KoM with 12 points to Pierre Rolland.
The fighting on the categorized climbs was hard, French Warren Barguil (27) with a narrow win, Barguil won the Mountains classification in TDF 2017
The sprinter teams had a hard time today, with such a strong breakaway. Matej Mohoric, Maximilian Schachmann, Michael Schär, Valentin Madouas and Warren Barguil pass the last climb with 2’32” and just 16.5 km to the line.
Polanc was dropped on the climb, William Barta and Willie Smit reeled in earlier.
Lotto Soudal, Quick Step and Astana have been fighting the breakaway most of the day, but it looks like they may have lost the battle
Maximilian Schachmann and Warren Barguil starts the sprint and side by side leads under the red kite.
Matej Mohoric comes fast from the wheel of Schachmann winning the stage in Brignoles, in front of Barguil and Schachmann.
Magnus Cort Nielsen wins the peloton sprint for 6th. The peloton lost 1’09 and with that Matej Mohoric also took the U25 lead.
This was the first season win from Slovenia Matej Mohorič, born in Kranj 1994 (24). Last season Mohorič won a stage in Giro d'Italia and the GC in world tour race Binck Bank Tour just to name a few great results in a very strong season
Astana Pro Team
With a breakaway of that size and shape not much to say, we lost an option for a stage win, but could not risk to wear down the entire team for that.
Perfect stage for a breakaway really and it shows with strong riders who have probably been waiting for this stage since the race started. Shame they stayed away though, or Cort might have won.
valverde321 wrote:
Perfect stage for a breakaway really and it shows with strong riders who have probably been waiting for this stage since the race started. Shame they stayed away though, or Cort might have won.
Was the perfect time fra a strong group to stay away, and nice seen from the view of realism as that often is the case on those late hilly days.
sutty68 wrote:
One of those rare occasions in which the break stayed away for the win , still Magnus Cort Nielsen won the bunch sprint
An opportunity lost, but as mentioned above I kind of like it when the result is realistic and it was a logical outcome at this point in the race where many strong rider have lost time.
We are in Nice for what will be the Queen stage of the tour. After the neutral start in Nice, km 0 will be in Saint-Laurent-du-Var at the west bank of Var river.
The stage is composed of 5 categorized climbs spread out over a curved route leading up to the summit finish at Col de Turini, 15.8 km at 6.8%
This is the first time Paris–Nice visit Col de Turini mountain pass, the pass was included three times in Tour de France. 1948, 1950 and 1973.
Top 5 media favorites:
Romain Bardet (Ag2r) Simon Yates (Mitchelton) Richie Porte (Trek) Geraint Thomas (Sky) Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb)
Col de Turini also features every year in Monte Carlo Rally, being one of the most famous stages in Rally, often with ice or snow on the many hairpin turns
Race
Mads Würtz (Katusha) opens the stage in front of Lilian Calmejane (Direct Energie) and Julien Vermote (Dimension Data).
We get a lot of riders on the move attacking at the early climb. Manuel Amaro Antunes (CCC) Pierre Rolland (Vital Concept) and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain) have joined the trio before we reach the top, and behind them a group of 9 riders are closing in. Further back Daniel Martin (UAE) and William Barta (CCC) also got more than 2 minutes on the peloton.
Calmejane wins the early KoM
French Calmejane (26) best season result was 4th in Strade Bianche just a few days ago. Calmejane won the mountains classification in Paris-Nice back in 2017.
The first 15 riders join forces soon after the climb, the breakaway now also includes strong climbers Amanuel Gebreigzabhier (Dimension Data), Tejay Van Garderen (Education First), Richard Carapaz (Movistar) and Winner Anacona (Movistar), with now three riders in the leading group Movistar in a good situation.
We get the first major and very serious crash, Kelderman, Bernal, Poels, and A. Yates down, also resulting in some abandons including Julian Alaphilippe, the other mentioned GC riders all get back.
The fighting for the KoM is the most important events until we get to the ultimate climb.
KoM points won by riders in the breakaway:
Dylan Teuns
Bahrain - Merida
22
Lilian Calmejane
Direct Energie
19
Pierre Rolland
Vital Concept - B&B Hotels
18
Tiesj Benoot
Lotto Soudal
13
Julien Vermote
Team Dimension Data
7
Tejay Van Garderen
EF Education First p/b Cannondale
6
Mads Würtz
Team Katusha- Alpecin
6
Tim Wellens
Lotto Soudal
3
Anthony Perez
Cofidis, Solutions Crédits
3
Amanuel Gebreigzabhier
Team Dimension Data
3
Manuel Amaro Antunes
CCC Team
1
With this Pierre Rolland will take the KoM lead with 6 points more than Matej Mohoric
French Pierre Rolland (26) takes the KoM lead today, in the picture 2nd on côté de Gourdon, at his prime Rolland was 4th in Giro d'Italia back in 2014
The pace was rather hot all day with Astana leading most of the time over the first 120 km, group Martin was reeled in relative early and also 5 riders from the breakaway was dropped before the last climb.
From a maximum lead of almost 6 minutes, the breakaway had about 4 minutes mid-stage, and just 1’42 at the bottom of the final climb.
The 10 riders left in front are, Amanuel Gebreigzabhier, Dylan Teuns, Lilian Calmejane, Manuel Amaro Antunes, Pierre Rolland, Richard Carapaz, Tejay Van Garderen, Tiesj Benoot, Tim Wellens and Winner Andrew Anacona
Astana working in front of the peloton
The favourite group was reduced from 30 to 20 riders over the first 9 km of the climb, but never the less a strong Lilian Calmejane attacking from the breakaway has rebuilt a substantial lead, now 3’25 in front of the race leaders. 5 km to the top for Calmejane.
Calmejane got 10 professional wins, amongst them two grand tour stages, stage 8 in Tour de France 2017 and stage 4 in Vuelta a España 2016
Now also attacks start from the favourite group, the first from Simon Yates and after that attacks and counterattacks all the way up to the finish line.
Over the last 500 meter Tom Dumoulin drops everyone with a constant devastating pace, also passing Calmejane with a few 100 meters to the top.
Geraint Thomas and Richie Porte also reach Calmejane close to the top.
Tom Dumoulin wins at Col de Turini.
At 11” Geraint Thomas 2nd and Lilian Calmejane 3rd also Richie Porte get the same time.
Astana’s best Jakob Fuglsang 8th in the 3rd group with Primoz Roglic, Simon Yates and Romain Bardet they lose 33”
Now with his third stage win Tom Dumoulin in complete control of the race. It has been a while since he participated, last time in 2016 he ended 12 in GC, he has never before won a stage in the race
Astana Pro Team
All in all a fine stage for us, with Jakob Fuglsang moving up the GC. The race it still very open with few seconds from GC 5-8 so a very thrilling last stage to come.
Pello Bilbao was sitting low in a crucial situation and got dropped way too early, but luckily Dario Cataldo had great legs and could help Jakob on the final climb.
It is 18°C and sunny, we are in for the last stage in the tour, again with start in Nice and again at the banks of Le Var, not far from where we began yesterday. Today we will off course come back to Nice for the grand finale.
The stage is on paper not as hard as yesterday alone because it is not a summit finish, but that said we got six rather hard climbs over a route of 93 km and it will for sure be a hard fought stage with potential to change the leaderboard.
Nice was founded during the Greek Empire sometime between 500 – 350 BC, named “Νίκαια” after Nike (Νίκη) the goddess of victory, Nice became one of the busiest trading ports on the Ligurian coast.
Top 5 media favorites:
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) Tom Dumoulin (Sunweb) Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) Michael Woods (Education First) Michal Kwiatkowski (Sky)
Nice is the second-largest French city on the Mediterranean coast after Marseille
Race
Already on the very first climb we get an indication of how hard and fast a short stage like this will get. An opening acceleration form Daniel Martin (UAE) countered by Warren Barguil (Arkéa) starts a wave of attacks, resulting in a total of 20 riders in different group laying distance to the bunch.
After the first KoM won by Daniel Martin (UAE), we get a group of 14 riders joining forces at front, besides the above mentioned also with KoM leader Pierre Rolland (Vital Concept) KoM 2nd Matej Mohoric (Bahrain) in the group, more riders behind trying to close up.
Barguil wins the 2nd KoM, peloton at 2’27 with about 65 km left.
The 14 riders in the first group
Warren Barguil (Arkéa) seems to be the strongest rider in the breakaway today, also taking the next climb.
In the meantime the peloton get faster and faster, and more and more riders are reeled back in. Getting close to the category 1 climb, just a duo of Barguil and David Gaudu (FDJ) left in front of the bunch. They pass the top with 27” again the KoM won by Barguil
David Gaudu (FDJ) reeled in before the 2nd cat 1, but Warren Barguil keeps up a great fight to stay in front also over the last climb, taking a total of 36 points today and winning the King of Mountain competition of the tour.
French Warren Barguil (27) won the mountains classification in 2017 Tour de France
Romain Bardet (Ag2r) and Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) attacks on the downhill and got a slim lead to the favourite group of 26 riders when they reach the flat section, but with 2.5 km to the line Barguil still got 16”.
All 10 riders in the top of the GC are still together so seemingly the stage won’t change the GC.
Bardet and Fuglsang attacked on the downhill but could not catch Barguil
Both Bardet and Fuglsang start their sprint early to attempt to make the best of their small lead, but burn out way too early to reach the line first.
Even though it get very close in the end, Warren Barguil wins the final stage in Nice.
Michal Kwiatkowski 2nd and Alejandro Valverde takes the last podium. Astana’s best Sánchez 7th.
Not losing any time today Tom Dumoulin wins “La course au soleil” in front of Geraint Thomas and Primoz Roglic. Dumoulin also takes the points classification.
Warren Barguil as mentioned wins King of mountain. Egan Bernal U25, and Jumbo-Visma best team.
Quite unusual all four victories Warren Barguil had before this one was stages in grand tours, two in Vuelta a España 2013 and two in Tour de France 2017
Astana Pro Team
On stage level, we could not make a difference today but not losing time and stay on the bike was a goal in itself for Jakob.
On race level top 5 was a great result and a little better than expected, also the stage win from Magnus was a goal we fulfilled, so all in all Vinokurov satisfied with the first important tour on European soil.
2018: Michał Kwiatkowski - 2017: Nairo Quintana - 2016: Greg Van Avermaet
Squad:
Ion Izagirre - Gorka Izagirre - Miguel Angel Lopez
Alexey Lutsenko - Merhawi Kudus - Laurens De Vreese - Jonas Gregaard Wilsly
Expectations:
Tirreno – Adriatico is a high Priority Race for the team, the management expect at top 5 result, should be able to meet that provided that we do not lose too much in the TTT.
Ion Izagirre will be our leader but we got a strong team, Gorka , Miguel and even Alexey might to well in case we should lose Ion.
Sadly no GC riders caught off guard on that last stage, which is always tricky. A good race still, won a stage and almost won a second and made the top 5.
The stage starts in Camaiore from there heading south passing Pisa in the low lands before heading into the Metalliferous Hills where we are passing a few hilly climbs before we reach our destination Pomarance.
The first “true” stage of the race is not too hard, but the last 7 km are uphill and we might see the GC favorites and punchers gain some time on the rest of the peloton. We expect a reduced favorite group fighting for the stage win, maybe even GC attacks and will keep our leaders close to the front.
Camaiore is a town in the south part of the Apuan Alps, in northern Tuscany. The first mention of the village at the time named “Campmaior” dates back to 984. The village then as well as today closely connected to the lager nearby city Lucca. Today the ”Comune” Camaiore has a population of about 32.000.
Top 5 media favorites:
Jelle Vanendert (Lotto) Sergio Luis Henao (UAE) Ion Izagirre (Astana) Rigoberto Uran ( Education First) Michael Matthews (Sunweb)
The origins of Badia di Camaiore date back to 761, founded by Benedictine monks, most of the current construction from 12th century
Race
Giovanni Carboni (Bardiani) opens the stage in front of Moreno Moser (Nippo) and Mads Pedersen (Trek), they will soon be joined by Olivier Le Gac (FDJ), Leonardo Fedrigo and Matteo Montaguti both from Androni.
Moser takes the first KoM in front of Montaguti and Pedersen. Fedrigo was dropped on the climb and will never get back
Italian Giovanni Carboni (23) came to Bardiani from CT team Unieuro Wilier in 2018, still looking for his first victory on professional level, but the young climber won a hard stage in youth race Valle d'Aosta Mont Blanc in 2017
On the downhill from the climb a brutal crash in the peloton forces Rafal Majka (BORA) and Damien Howson (Mitchelton) to leave the tour. Michael Matthews, Esteban Cháves, Kenny Elissonde and Marc Soler was also amongst the 30+ riders in the crash, the riders get back to the bunch after about 15 km, except Robert Stannard who has some nasty cuts and will lose 19 minutes today.
The pace gets harder and harder now and the peloton just a minute behind the leaders, when Pedersen wins the last KoM in a close fight with Moser.
Moser with 8 points take the overnight lead in the KoM. The break was over with about 25 km to the finish line.
After two years with Astana, Italian Moreno Moser (28) signed with Nippo. Moser won world tour stage race Tour de Pologne back in 2012
Rigoberto Uran (Education First) attacks from the distance and Ion Izagirre (Astana) counters, the duo has 16” starting the final climb with 3.8 km left.
2nd in Tour de France and also 2nd in Milano-Torino 2017, Colombian Rigoberto Urán jumped back into the spotlight, but with a disappointing 2018 it will be interesting to follow what he can do in 2019
Izagirre can hold of the fast punchers speeding past him on the climb, but Uran keep up a fast pace and with 2 km left he leads a group of five having a gap to the bunch with Domenico Pozzovivo, Sergio Luis Henao, Chris Froome, Peter Sagan.
Expectedly Peter Sagan clearly the fastest finisher in a group like this wins in Pomarance
Chris Froome 2nd and Sergio Luis Henao 3rd.
Uran and Pozzovivo stalled over the last km, and were passed by Nelson Oliveira and Jelle Vanendert coming fast from the bunch.
This was Peter Sagans 6 season win and stunning 115th career victory
Astana Pro Team
Izagirre took a chance and failed with his late attack following Uran, but he did not lose time so that was fine, no way he could win the stage form a large group without going early
The stage starts in Pomarance where we also finished yesterday. The first part of the stage continues in Colline Metallifere mountain/hills south of Siena heading east. The last part of the stages raced in the less undulated river valley of Tiber south of Perugia heading further east for a finish in Foligno in the Topino river valley.
The stage although very hilly at first ends with almost 100 km on mostly flat terrain, so it may well become the typical sprinter finish.
Foligno is an Ancient pre-Roman settlement founded in the 10th century BC, by the Umbrians, an Italic people living in what is now central Italy.
Top 5 media favorites:
Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo-Visma) Peter Sagan (BORA) Pascal Ackermann (BORA) Marcel Kittel (Katusha) Alexander Kristoff (UAE)
Sara Waterer : Foligno rooftops (A4 drawing pen & watercolour)
Race
Benjamin Thomas (FDJ) starts the race by attacking on the downhill from the first small hill. Many riders attacking on this early hilly section, amongst them Astana’s Gorka Izagirre part of what is leading group before everything are brought back.
A few km after the early attack was reeled in, Gorka Izagirre attacks again and will be part of what will become todays breakaway. The others are Koen De Kort (Trek – Segafredo) Simone Velasco (Neri Sottoli), KoM leader Moreno Moser (Nippo) Olivier Le Gac (FDJ) and Christopher Juul Jensen (Mitchelton)
Gorka Izagirre best result this season was winning a stage in Tour of Oman, his 8 professional victory
Even though Simone Velasco on paper is far from the strongest riders in the breakaway, he attack and wins the first KoM in front of Moser.
On the 2nd KoM it is Christopher Juul in front of Moser, making the latter hold the jersey overnight.
Koen De Kort wins the intermediate sprint.
Italian Simone Velasco (23) took a podium in Trofeo Laigueglia earlier this season, Velasco won Trofeo Citta di Loano (1.1) in 2013 and two Italian youth races in 2015
The distance was 4 minutes over the first KoM and stabilized around 3 minutes over the 50-60 km leading up to the point sprint.
But now with 70 km left it is Education First seriously upping the pace, may wonder what the plan is as they have no top sprinter, but they cut the distance to under a minute over the next 40 km.
Education First leaves the front and sprinter teams Katusha (Kittel), UAE (Kristoff) and Quick Step (Fabio Jakobsen) finish the job.
The riders in the breakaway shake hands and the breakaway is over with 20 km to the line
It comes down to the expected mass sprint finish, in a photo finish Dylan Groenewegen (Jumbo) wins the stage to Foligno in front of Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Pascal Ackermann (BORA)
Ironically none of the teams working to bring back the breakaway got a rider on the podium. Astana’s best Alexey Lutsenko 9th.
Stan Dewulf (Lotto Soudal) abandoned today after a solo crash.
This was Dylan Groenewegen’s first season win, last season Groenewegen had 14 wins including two stages in TDF
Astana Pro Team
The flat stages are only about staying vertical for us, so a fine day at the office.
, still Magnus Cort Nielsen won the bunch sprint 
