@FreitasPCM Yes Guldhammer was awesome. I thought he'd be tired after bridging across to the break and when Sulzberger led up the final slopes I thought we'd win. But Guldhammer was too good.
02.05 - 06.05 Tour of the Gila
Preview and Report on Stages 1 and 2
The Tour of the Gila is tough five-day race in the States. The first stage ends in a long uphill drag and will be sure to set the GC race alight. The second should be on for the sprinters, while a time trial on stage three should really shake up the GC if stage 1 hasn't already. Stage 4 is short flat criterium, another day for the sprinters. But the final stage is the one that really sets that mouthwatering with a really challenging parcours and should keep the GC race interesting right until the end.
Startlist
A very small field starts Gila but it certainly doesn't lack quality. Riders like Efimkin, De Maar, Sutherland, Deignan and El Fares are all good enough to make a strong challenge for GC.
Raleigh team
Thanks to Hampton's injury Raleigh are fielding just five men. Sparling and Townshend are in excellent shape and will be given free roles. Oliphant is our GC man and we hope he will ride himself into race fitness as the tour goes on. Holloway meanwhile will hope to take advantage of any sprint opportunities. Our real weakness is the 3rd stage time trial. We'll have to limit our losses there if we are going to contend for GC.
Race Report: Stages 1 and 2
No break got clear by the time of the first intermediate sprint, so Sparling decided to jump clear and take the bonus seconds on offer.
Sparling couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth
Townshend and Lee Davis (Node4) then made the break with 90km to go.
It was an all British break on Stage 1
The compatriots worked very well together and still had a lead of nearly a minute with 10km remaining. But with a long drag up to the finish it would be tough to hold on. Despite their best efforts, they were eventually caught with just 2.5km remaining. Both Sparling and Oliphant were well placed at the front of the bunch.
Townshend and Davis' daring escape comes to an end
With just over a kilometre to go, Efimkin kicked for the line. Oliphant was placed neatly in his wheel, De Maar not far behind.
Efimkin leads out the sprint
Efimkin was too strong for the others and took a fine solo win. He was a different class today.
Efimkin was unstoppable on stage 1
De Maar came in 37 seconds later, with Oliphant taking a great 3rd place just 10 seconds later. Sparling meanwhile finished in a select group of nine pursuers just over a minute after Efimkin. With Sparling's bonus seconds from the day's first sprint, he was into 4th overall, just behind Oliphant.
De Maar and Oliphant rounded out the podium positions
Townshend was active again on Stage, taking the first KOM unchallenged.
Townshend in search of another KOM prize
He was then joined by another three riders, but none could beat him to the second KOM either.
The Stage 2 break
The catch was made at 8km and the peloton headed for another uphill finish. Once again Efimkin showed his class by winning the bunch sprint, with Yanto Barker 2nd and De Maar 3rd. Oliphant came in 9th.
Efimkin shows the peloton who's boss
At the end of stage 2, the GC remained relatively unchanged, Sparling dropping down one place to 5th thanks to Barker's bonus seconds.
While Oliphant and Sparling were going strong at Gila, the other half of the team were in Moscow for a pan-flat one-day race that had 'sprint finish' written all over it.
Startlist
A number of good sprinters were on the startlist including: Furlan, Pinto, Frapporti, Flahaut, Smolen, Mandri, Bacquet and Stauff.
Raleigh team
Briggs came into this race in superb shape so the team were hoping the Raleigh train might finally pull off a victory.
Race report
The race was pretty uneventful for the most part. A break of six got away but never really looked a threat with a number of sprinters teams wanting a bunch finish. They were duly reeled in.
Smolen clearly didn't want to wait for a sprint finish, however, and surprised the field with a late attack.
Smolen attacks
He stole a march on the peloton and Raleigh were forced to chase. With just 5k left he had a 30 second lead. As they rounded the final corner at 3k, however, Raleigh's efforts seemed to be paying off.
Smolen leads, the Raleigh train in the distance
The catch was made but once again Raleigh's train were swaped. As they headed under the 1km banner, it was Endura's Mandri leading the charge. Sulzberger and Briggs were on the barriers on the right hand side and had quite a bit to do.
Mandri heads the sprint
Briggs came out of Sulzberger's wheel and made a late dash for the line, while Furlan nudged ahead of Mandri. It would be a tight finish.
From right to left: Briggs, Mandri and Furlan dive for the line
It looked like a photo finish on the line with a fast-finishing Briggs coming across at an almost identical time as Furlan. It was Furlan and his team-mates who threw their arms up in celebration however.
Furlan celebrates
But their celebrations were premature. The photo showed that it was in fact Briggs who had edged the win, Raleigh's first victory since January!
After their success in Russia, there wasn't much opportunity to celebrate, as the team had to hot-foot it over to Holland for this short two-stage race. The first stage was a sprint of a prologue, with the second a flat stage featuring a number of cobbled sections.
Startlist
Difficult to pick a clear winner with an unusual parcours, but there were plenty of strong riders on the start line such as Guldhammer, Mandri, De Kort and Dempster.
Raleigh team
Briggs kept his superb shape from Russia but it wasn't clear whether he'd be able to take advantage of it with the parcours not lending itself to sprint finishes.
Race report
Raleigh's best performer on the first stage was in-form Briggs who came in 7 seconds down in 16th place.
Briggs set the best time for Raleigh
Young Bob Jungels set the fastest time, Camano one second behind and Jacques-Mayne in 3rd just 4 seconds back. With no major time gaps across the field it would be all to play for in the second and final stage.
18 men managed to themselves into a breakaway on Stage 2, including Raleigh's Janssen.
The biggest break of the season so far?
The break worked well together, but with such a big group harmony was always going to be a challenge. With 25km to go the attacks started happening off the front of the break, and this spelt the beginning of the end for their chances.
The break's cooperation comes to an end
Two survivors from the break managed to stave off the peloton's advances however: Patron (Wallonie Bruxelles) and Witecki (Bank BGZ). Raleigh - who still had Briggs in the bunch after surviving the cobbles - led the chase for the duo, who still had 33 seconds with just 2.2km.
Raleigh seek to catch the break in the closing kilometres
They pulled level with Patron and Witecki with just 1km remaining. Horton led out Briggs through the centre, Mandri was drove down the far left, and Kochetkov sped down the right. Kump, meanwhile, was placed just behind Briggs' wheel.
The sprint begins at the 1km mark
Briggs came out beautifully from Horton's wheel to take a convincing win as the other contenders faded. Horton hung on for a second for a superb 1-2 for Raleigh.
Briggs and Horton secure a great 1-2 for Raleigh
A stunned Briggs celebrated as it struck him he'd not only taken his second sprint win of the year, but he'd also taken the overall win thanks to the bonus seconds on the line!
So, with Briggs sweeping all before him in Europe, could the rest of the team match his exploits over at Gila?
Stage 3 was a 25km out and back time trial. Neither of our GC contenders are time trial specialists, so their focus was limiting their losses. First and second, Efimkin and De Maar, on the other hand would look to employ their strong TT skills to stretch their advantage.
Sparling put in a solid ride, coming in 1 minute 7 seconds down on the winner in 31st place.
Sparling out on the TT course
Oliphant was more disappointing however, losing 1 minute 18 seconds on the winner, placing 46th.
Oliphant's ride was disappointing
De Maar put in the strongest ride of the top GC men, coming in 7th just 22 seconds down.
De Maar made GC time gains today
Efimkin showed he was only human with an average performance, finishing 25th 1 minute down.
Efimkin lost time to some his GC rivals
The strongest rider on the day was Jason McCartney, finishing 10 seconds ahead of Zwizanski.
McCartney took the TT win
The fall-out from the TT was that Efimkin's lead over De Maar had been reduced to just 19 seconds. McCartney moved up to 3rd with his strong performance, 47 seconds behind. Oliphant slipped down to 8th, 1 minute 37 seconds down, while Sparling dropped to 11th.
Stage 4 was a very short 66km criterium race, the only real chance for the fast men to shine in this tour. With the sprinters keen to get their chance, the attempted breaks never stood a hope.
Coming into the finishing straight, Holloway found himself on the perfect wheel, following Robert Forster's strong burst for the line.
Holloway follows hot on Forster's wheel
Holloway found the speed the come past Forster and take yet another win for Raleigh! The team are certainly hitting a real purple patch in form right now.
The fifth and final stage of the Tour of the Gila was a monster with hardly a flat section of road on the entire 170km route. Overnight leader Efimkin was looking to defend a slim 17 second advantage over De Maar, with a number of other good puncheurs not far behind. Oliphant sat in 8th, 1 minute and 37 seconds down.
With four categorised climbs on the route, Townshend sought to overtake Efimkin in KOM competition and joined the day's break.
Townshend was determined to win his 3rd KOM prize of the season
He won the first KOM, which moved him into the lead of the competition and pretty much confirmed as the polka dot winner. Back in the bunch, the hilly terrain meant that only 83 rider remained in the peloton. With no GC threats in the break, the pack seemed pretty relaxed about the breakaway and with 25km remaining, Townshend and his fellow escapees had a lead of nearly 6 minutes.
Over the last KOM, the breakaway knew their chances of stage victory were high
By now the bunch was down to just 45 riders and the GC battle began to hot up as attacks began firing off the front.
The action in the bunch begins at 20km to go
A dangerous group of GC contenders made it clear, featuring De Maar, El Fares, Lloyd, Sutherland, Barker, Efimkin and Stemper. Oliphant was caught back in the bunch with 3rd-placed McCartney.
A group of dangermen escaped the peloton in the closing kilometres
Up ahead, however, things were looking a lot brighter for Raleigh. Townshend had forged ahead of the breakaway group, taking De Jongh (Jelly Belly) with him. The duo had around a minute's lead over a chasing group of 6 with around 4km remaining and snow began to fall. De Jongh was refusing to do any work - was he genuinely tired or bluffing?
Townshend and De Jongh drive for home through the snow
With the hilltop finish line in sight, Townshend put in another surge at 3km to test to De Jongh and began to open up a small lead. Could he add a stage victory to his KOM prize?
Townshend moves clear of De Jongh with the finishing line in sight
Yes! Townshend stayed clear to take an epic solo win, 41 seconds ahead of De Jongh.
An exhausted Townshend crosses the line
What of the GC race behind? Sparling put in a superb effort on the front of the peloton to bring back the danger group, enabling Oliphant to finish safely with all the other GC men two minutes after Townshend.
The GC men cross the line
Which all meant Efimkin held on to take the overall win, with De Maar in second and McCartney third. Oliphant remained 8th, a very decent performance.
Townshend collects his 3rd KOM prize of the season
While the Tour of the Gilia was finishing on the other side of the Atlantic, Briggs & Co were looking for yet more sprint success in this Italian one-day race.
Startlist
There was a very small field for this race but enough sprinters to give Briggs a run for his money, including Jezowski, Ginanni, Downing, Frapporti and Corioni.
Raleigh team
Race report
The bunch let a five-man group go early on. They combined well and had a dangerous-looking lead of over 2 minutes with 20km remaining.
Could the early break go all the way?
Raleigh put Holohan and Janssen on the front to chase the escapees down.
Raleigh lead the chase
They caught the escape group with 8km to go and then put a full train together to set up the in-form Briggs.
The Raleigh was once again in action today
Coming into the final straight, Horton opened up the sprint, with Suzlberger in his wheel closely followed by Briggs. Ginnani and then Frapporti followed Briggs.
Horton leads out the sprint
Sulzberger came out from behind Horton's wheel on the left, while Ginanni fired past on the right, edging ahead.
Ginnani's acceleration was strong for Sulzberger, leaving Briggs a lot to do to close the gap. Frapporti took full advantage, coming round his countryman to take the win. Ginanni finished second with Briggs securing another Raleigh podium in third place.
Read most of this story yesterday at work, and just caught up again today. Really enjoying your writing and reporting style. Liking the pictures (makes a difference to what I'm used to reporting myself back in the day).
Some really good results with a team perhaps lacking a little in strength at times. You seem to be getting your sprint train in good order, and making some great inroads into the hills surprisingly.
Looking forward to reading more. Especially as it's about riders I actually know about.
I agree the team lacks depth. We're only really a sprint team with a few solid all-rounders. Hopefully next season we can strengthen but all depends on the budget and who is available!
Was a real shame we couldn't win, but I'd have taken second place at the start of the race.
