As some might remember, Crossroads (The Vino Diary) was a story I did on 2015 about Astana, sadly that story was killed by a pandemic disease called Photosshoienza able to destroy the team, in the middle of Critérium du Dauphiné at 12/6 2016, Astana withdrew from from the World Tour.
The Photobug seem to be gone again so if interested take a look: Crossroads (The Vino Diary)
The team is back, this time without Vincenzo Nibali, Fabio Aru and others, but now with more danes, besides Jakob Fuglsang other good danish riders has joined, notably 2x stage winner of Vuelta a España 2016 Magnus Cort Nielsen and Michael Valgren 2nd in 2016 Amstel Gold Race.
SETUP:
Spoiler
PCM 2018
database : PCM litepack + Variants Pack 2018
Not sure every race will be reported, but no races will be simulated, (only TTT)
Level: Extreme
Crash ration 0.7
2018
Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne - 6th - Michael Valgren
Volta ao Algarve - GC 6th - Luis León Sánchez
Volta ao Algarve - KoM - Alexey Lutsenko
Tour of Oman - GC 3rd Jakob Fuglsang
Tour of Oman - GC 4th Sergey Chernetckii
Tour of Oman - Team
Tour of Oman - Stage win (2) - Sergey Chernetckii
Clásica de Almería - 9th - Laurens De Vreese
2018
Classic de l'Ardèche - win -Michael Valgren
Colombia Oro y Paz - 4th - Miguel Angel Lopez
Colombia Oro y Paz - 8th - Sergey Chernetckii
Vuelta a la Región de Murcia - 4th -Omar Fraile
Tour La Provence - Overall 5th - Michael Valgren
Tour La Provence - Overall 6th - Luis León Sánchez
Tour La Provence - Overall 9th - Jan Hirt
Étoile de Bessèges - Overall 5th - Michael Valgren
Étoile de Bessèges - Stage win (2): Magnus Cort
Vuelta a San Juan - Overall 3rd - Jakob Fuglsang
Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca - KoM - Yevgeniy Gidich
Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca - Overall 10th - Sergey Chernetckii
Latest Winners:
2017: Richie Porte - 2016: Simon Gerrans - 2015: Rohan Dennis
Squad:
Omar Fraile, Oscar Gatto, Sergei Chernetski, Jan Hirt, Hugo Houle, Nikita Stalnov, Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev.
Expectations: We are here with a weak team, but we expect to see Jan Hirt attempting a top 20 GC, Oscar Gatto trying to get in the sprints even though it will be hard. Omar Fraile is here as the outsiders fighting to get in those breakaways.
Some notable riders on the startlist:
Gaviria, Démare, Groenewegen, Ewan.
Valverde, Kiryienka, Gilbert, Krujswijk, Matthews, Martin, Bennett.
Todays stage start in Port Adelaide a suburb in the northwest part of Adelaide city, heading northeast to Lyndoch, a relative small town in Barossa Valley about 55 km from Adelaide city centre. The main challenge will be the cat.2 climb to Humbug Scrup, besides that a sprinter stage with a slightly downhill finish.
Top 5 favorites:
Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) Arnaud Démare (Groupama – FDJ) Dylan Groenewegen (Team Lotto NL – Jumbo) Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) Caleb Ewan (Michelton – Scott)
Lyndoch was names after General Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, by his friend Colonel William Light.
Race
Km 145:
Welcome to the race, the weather is brilliant sunny with little wind. As soon as the flag drop we see the first attempts. It is Gediminas Bagdonas (AG2R La Mondiale), Hugo Houle (Astana Pro Team) and Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky) they got just 23”.
The early break
Km 141:
While Houle has problems keeping up with the first group having dropped a few seconds, behind him a group of three riders has distanced the peloton unclear who that is, also Lars Ytting Bak (Lotto Soudal) is now on the move behind them. Accordingly peloton pace is quite high.
Km 125: Houle was joined by the trio and together they have now fought their way up to the first group. The trio was Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Soudal) Koen De Kort (Trek – Segafredo) and Thomas Scully ( EF Education First - Drapac p/b Cannondale).
But it is not settled yet, Lars Ytting Bak (Lotto Soudal) is still somewhere in between and we see new attacks all the time.
The front group
Km 99:
Lars Ytting Bak has joined the front group just a few km from the KoM, with a km to the top Houle attacked the KoM, seem he took the others by surprise. Only Bagdonas and Kiryienka reacted, but too late with just 200 meters to go he won’t miss this one.
Result of Humbug Scrup KoM
Hugo Houle
10
Gediminas Bagdonas
6
Vasil Kiryienka
4
Koen De Kort
2
Astana’s Hugo Houle takes the overnight KoM lead
Km 80: We got a huge crash in the middle of the peloton, even though it is a long way to go, this may play in favour is the seven riders up front. Dylan Groenewegen, Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel is reportedly down.
35 riders are effected by the crash, Tom Van Asbroeck seem to be badly hurt unlikely to continue
Km 60: Houle and Lars Bak is struggling to keep up with the high pace, they are now hanging at 26”
Km 38:
While Lars Bak never makes it back, Houle have re-joined the leading group before the last intermediate sprint. The have 1’48” to the peloton.
Combined results of the two sprints both in Cockatoo Valley
Marcel Sieberg
8
Gediminas Bagdonas
8
Thomas Scully
4
The leading group is down to six
Km 8:
The breakaway is over.
Km 3.0
The only team with a prober train is Astana, Jan Hirt - Omar Fraile - Oscar Gatto, but with the top sprinter they have to face, will it be to any use?
Before the final kick
Km 0.0
The top sprinters do what was expected from them, Arnaud Démare takes it in front of Fernando Gaviria. Some meters behind it is Phil Bauhaus, Mark Cavendish and Alvaro José Hodeg to round of top 5.
Top favorite Dylan Groenewegen may have been affected by his crash.
Démare wins in Lyndoch
Astana Pro Team
We are happy to report that Hugo Houle took the KoM lead at the first stage of Tour Down Under, best in GC is Omar Fraile as 21. We are satisfied with today stage, we failed to get a stage result but that was expected
The 2nd stage start in Unley, a south-eastern Adelaide suburb finishing on a circuit route around Stirling, in the Adelaide Hills. Although it is categorized as flat it is quite undulated and may favor lighter riders, one early KoM at Tea Tree Gully. Yesterday’s crash victim Tom Van Asbroeck won’t start today.
Top 5 favorites:
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) Ben Swift (UAE Team Emirates) Arnaud Démare (Groupama – FDJ) Philippe Gilbert (Quick-Step Floors)
Stirling was founded in 1888, focusing on apple growing and market gardening to satisfy Adelaide demands, today famed for its colourful autumn landscape
Race
Km 145:
Welcome to the race, the weather is as fine as yesterday. Two groups have formed trying to get rid of the peloton. In front Jasper Stuyven (Trek – Segafredo) Dylan Van Baarle (Team Sky) and Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale), behind them Hugo Houle (Astana Pro Team) Stef Clement (Team Lotto NL – Jumbo) and Nico Denz (AG2R La Mondiale)
Attempting to break
Km 137:
The first group takes the KoM just on front of the others. (cat 2, wrong on the profile)
Result of KoM at Tea Tree Gully
Benoît Cosnefroy
10
Dylan Van Baarle
6
Jasper Stuyven
4
Stef Clement
2
The KoM
Km 67:
After the KoM Hugo Houle decided to fall back, saving his energy for later. Jasper Stuyven (Trek – Segafredo) won both intermediate sprints. The distance from the five rider to the peloton is now 2’34”
Combined result of the sprints in Oakbank and Mylor:
Jasper Stuyven
10
Dylan Van Baarle
6
Stef Clement
4
Hugo Houle wait for the peloton
Km 28:
The distance is 1’16”, so it looks like very small chances in favor of the breakaway. Jasper Stuyven attacks.
Stuyven attacks from the bottom of the hill climb
Km 10:
Stuyven was brought back then Clement counter, but the fact that the breakaway start fighting each other won’t help. Close to the 10 km banner it is over.
The breakaway is over
Km 0.6:
Most of the better sprinter was still in the leading group of more than 100 riders approaching the final uphill section towards the finish line.
It is Démare in front of Fernando Gaviria opening the sprint.
The uphill sprint start
Km 0.0:
As so often before Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) has an unbelievable fast kick on stages like this one, from 5th position he’s very fast on the last 400 meters, claiming victory in Stirling, in front of Arnaud Démare.
Valverde takes the stage to Stirling
Astana Pro Team
Not a stage to remember for us, Houle has the KoM lead but will be hard to keep it.
The 3rd stage start in Glenelg, a suburb in south-west part of Adelaide. From there crossing Fleurieu Peninsula from St Vincent Gulf to Great Australian Bight finishing at Victor Harbor. Another stage categorized as flat, with just one early climb at Penys Hill road after 37 km, counting as cat.1, the finish are three rounds on a relative flat short circuit.
Top 5 favorites:
Arnaud Démare (Groupama – FDJ) Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) Dylan Groenewegen (Team Lotto NL – Jumbo) Marcel Kittel (Team Katusha Alpecin)
Victor Harbor and also Adelaide’s Outer Harbor are spelled without the “u”, although the official Australian spelling follow the English ‘harbour‘
Race
Km 110:
The 16 KoM points at the early climb has attracted attention from the riders and we have seen a lot of fighting to get in the break this morning, we have seen Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal), Manuele Boaro (Bahrain – Merida) Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) attempting, but starting the KoM we only have Hugo Houle (Astana Pro Team), Lukasz Wisniowski (Team Sky) and Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Soudal) in front with a gap of 1’32”.
the three escapee’s
Km 107:
The pace set by Lukasz Wisniowski and Marcel Sieberg was too much for Hugo Houle, he almost completely cracked and was also passed by Benoît Cosnefroy (AG2R La Mondiale) attacking from the peloton.
Result of KoM at Penys Hill
Lukasz Wisniowski
16
Marcel Sieberg
12
Benoît Cosnefroy
8
Hugo Houle
6
Jan Hirt
4
A drained Houle passing the KoM as fourth, Cosnefroy will take over the lead in that competision
Km 28:
After the KoM Cosnefroy, Wisniowski and Sieberg continues the breakaway together, Houle falls back. At this point they got 1’07”, we must expect another mass sprint.
Combined results of the two sprints at Myponga and Victor Harbor
Marcel Sieberg
8
Lukasz Wisniowski
8
Benoît Cosnefroy
4
Cosnefroy, Wisniowski and Sieberg
Km 8:
It is unclear what has happened, the cameras haven’t caught it, but 18 riders have lost contact and in the main group, 5 Katusha riders attempting to get stage favorite Marcel Kittel back but it seems to be too late.
The break was over a few km ago, up front Astana leads the peloton, hoping to place Omar Fraile right for the upcoming sprint.
Omar Fraile at the wheel of Sergey Chernetckii
0.0 Km :
It comes to a rather unorganized but very close sprint, Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) wins in Victor Harbor with just centimeters over Caleb Ewan (Michelton – Scott)
Photo finish
Astana Pro Team
Best stage result for us, with Omar Fraile in top ten, but two day’s in the King of Mountain jersey was all, at least for now.
Jakob Fuglsang 
Miguel Angel Lopez
Pello Bilbao
Jan Hirt
Davide Villella
Alexey Lutsenko 
