It is wide open, only Iglinskiy has got some important seconds to help him in the final GC, the other are sprinters prob. not strong enough for stage 5 & 6.
We are optimistic
Christina Reports: The stage start in Manosque, The origin of the city is unknown, but it was a regional market during roman times. Around the year 900 destroyed by the Saracens, but a castle was built in 982, and the city evolved again.
It is 17°C and sunny with no wind, a nice spring day in southern France.
South gate of the ancient city centre (1382):
This is a stage where we don’t think you can win much, but at the same time a stage where you could lose it all. We won’t do anything except helping Ellisonde with the full team. He must not get in trouble on Col du Ferrier.
A strong morning break of 10 riders gets away, at first we relax leaving the responsibility to race leader Cannondale. But the break gets more than 10 min. and we decide to let Thurau pull very hard at the last 10 km before the mountain to reduce the gap a little.
The break is strong, and we won’t pull on the climb to Col du Ferrier, risking to jeopardize our possibility’s later in the race. Over the top the distance is more than 11 minutes, we set Stefan Schumacher with his good downhill to lead on the descent, afraid the breakaway might move in the GC.
Mission accomplished: The break wins the stage, but they do not move into top 10, Our best was Sonder (18)
Media Coverage: Winner surprises in stage 7 of Paris–Nice
Form an early breakaway over more than 200 km, Winner Anacona won the 7th stage of Paris–Nice. The strong break included very good riders as Jérôme Coppel from AG2R, Amaël Moinard BMC, Domenico Pozzovivo Sojasun and mountain jersey holder Arthur Vichot from FDJ.fr, but Anacona was clearly the strongest on the last km.
This is the first professional win for the Colombian rider from Katusha, with the full name “Winner Andrew Anacona Gomez”, Anacona also won a stage in Girobio as an Amateur back in 2011.
Rasmussen Reports: The race continues from where it ended yesterday in Venafro, the settlement date back to pre-historic times, likely founded by the Samnites before 300 BC. But the first certain existence of Venafro as a town starts under roman colonization in the first centuries AD.
Is is 18°C and sunny, today with a lot of wind, more that 50km/h.
Pandone Castle, originally 10th century.
The stage is very long and not as flat today as the previous days, starting with some hard climbs. But it ends with 50 km of mostly downhill and straight, it is very likely that we might get another mass sprint.
If possible Bøchman will attack to get some KoM points. We might also attempt something with Tony on the last climb if he feels very good.
After a period of turmoil Lasse Bøchman attacks countered by Adriano Malori from Cannondale, it ends up as a 4 piece break with Bob Jungels (Coca Cola) and Juan José Cobo (Banco Santander).
Bøchman is under pressure in the strong break, the pace set by Malori and Jungels is very high. First José Cobo has to let go, and with about 20 km to the line also Bøchman have to say goodbye to the front group.
With only the duo in front Mitchell Lovelock-Fay with Tony Gallopin on wheel creates a small gap right after the 5 km sign, when Mitchell is used up Gallopin attacks, but on the last meters Elia Viviani (Garmin) passes him and Tony misses the podium.
Rasmussen: Not the best stage for us, Lasse lost a lot of energy without getting rewarded, but ok finish from Tony.
Tony & Mitchell is 44 sec. behind, the rest of our team is out of any GC possibility.
Media Coverage: Malori takes the lead in Tirreno – Adriatico
After the 4th stage Adriano Malori takes the overall lead with just 4 sec. to Maxim Iglinskiy.
Adriano Malori was sitting in a 4 rider breakaway most of the day, in the end reduced to just him and Bob Jungels, when eventually the strong tempo rider set in a final attack leaving also Jungels behind with just 9 km to the line.
This was Malori's 2nd win of the season, after winning a stage in Tour Méditerranéen.
Stage:
1
Adriano Malori
Cannondale Pro Cycling
4h58'49
2
Bob Jungels
Coca Cola
+ 31
3
Elia Viviani
Garmin - Sharp
s.t.
4
Tony Gallopin
Christina Watches - Onfone
s.t.
5
André Greipel
Lotto Belisol
s.t.
6
Peter Sagan
Astana Pro Team
s.t.
7
Matthew Goss
FDJ.fr
s.t.
8
Arnaud Demare
Garmin - Sharp
s.t.
9
Jürgen Roelandts
Lotto Belisol
s.t.
10
John Degenkolb
Team Argos - Shimano
s.t.
GC:
1
Adriano Malori
Cannondale Pro Cycling
15h12'29
2
Maxim Iglinskiy
Lampre - Merida
+ 4
3
Alexander Kristoff
Katusha Team
+ 28
4
Elia Viviani
Garmin - Sharp
+ 33
5
Peter Sagan
Astana Pro Team
+ 34
6
André Greipel
Lotto Belisol
+ 36
7
John Degenkolb
Team Argos - Shimano
+ 38
8
Sep Vanmarcke
Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox
+ 41
9
Stefano Pirazzi
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
+ 42
10
Arnaud Demare
Garmin - Sharp
+ 43
Points:
1
Elia Viviani
Garmin - Sharp
29
2
Alexander Kristoff
Katusha Team
28
3
André Greipel
Lotto Belisol
25
Mountain:
1
Bob Jungels
Coca Cola
24
2
Dirk Bellemakers
Lotto Belisol
13
3
Adriano Malori
Cannondale Pro Cycling
13
Team: Cannondale Pro Cycling
Young: Arnaud Demare Garmin - Sharp
Edited by Tamijo on 03-06-2016 23:58
Christina Reports:
The final stage is a short but hard mountain ITT, from Nice to Èze-Village.
The area of Nice has one of the oldest finding of Human settlements in Europe, Terra Amata where Neanderthals lived on the beach, somewhere between 427,000-364,000 years ago, eating exotic animals like the now extinct europe straight-tusked elephant, auroch an oversized extinct cattle ect.
Èze-Village
It is 16°C sunny with 32km/h mostly crosswind.
Ellisonde proved that he do not like ITT’s even if they are uphill, he came 28th losing 52 sec. That said the lost time was not enough to changes his GC position he stayed 4th, overall a brilliant result outperforming any expectations we had prior to the race.
Ellisonde on the route
Media Coverage: Cannondale takes everything, on the final day of Paris–Nice
The last stage of Paris–Nice was won by Fabio Aru from Cannondale with 14 sec. to Rui Costa Team Saxo – Tinkoff. This was Aru’s first win since a stage in Giro del Trentino last year.
Aru
The stage made just a few changes to top ten overall, Rui Costa passing Igor Antón for 2nd, and Fabio Aru passing Pierre Rolland for 8th.
Daniel Martin also Cannondale got 3rd losing only 14 sec and thereby won Paris–Nice 2016. This was Martin’s first win in a stage race since he won USA Pro Challenge in 2014 riding for Lampre, he also won one day race Milano – Torino the same year.
10/3 Stage 5/7 Tivoli - Torricella Sicura: 192.1 km
Rasmussen Reports: The race continues from where it ended yesterday in Tivoli, Tivoli has a series of interesting historical sites. The late-Renaissance Villa d'Este (1500’s), The roman era Temple of Vesta and many other Roman sites including the World Heritage Site Hadrian's Villa, from where Emperor Hadrian governed the empire from 128 AD
Weather is fine 19°C sunny with a Fresh breeze
Hadrian's Villa
As we are outside top 10 in the GC, this is the stage where we have to improve. The plan is to put pressure on the peloton to try split in up, leaving the sprinters behind as early as possible, hopefully getting Tony over the line in a small group of the best climbers.
As planed we put pressure on the peloton, first on the climb to Fagge Village with Mitchell Lovelock-Fay and on Mount Laga with Lasse Bøchman. The effect is ok, the peloton is reduced to about 30 riders getting close to the top of Mount Laga
Mitchell adding pressure:
Just before the top Tony attacks, and with his fast downhill Tony and a group of other favorites gets about a minute to the peloton, but Tony runs empty a few km to early, and gets caught from behind, he get over the line as 17th, yet only losing time to the first 3.
Tony descending from Mount Laga:
Rasmussen: I am not sure about today’s strategy; we might have had a better result protecting Tony instead of acting as race leaders. Anyway we got into top ten, but with 29 riders at the same time as Tony this is far from over.
Media Coverage: Breakaway win in Tirreno – Adriatico
Tanel Kangert from Bardiani Valvole took a solo win at the 5th and hardest stage from an early breakaway.
This was the 28 years old Estonian’s first win in a WT race and his first professional win since winning the Tartu GP in 2010, if you don’t count the many times he has been Estonian champion, but he has many other good results, his best a 4th in the 2014 Giro.
From the peloton Thibaut Pinot from FDJ.fr attacked getting close to Fagge Village and started a hard chase on the morning breakaway, even though he could not hold Kangert in the end, this let him to a 2nd on the stage and more important to an overall race lead with just 3 sec to Yury Trofimov.
Rasmussen Reports: From Torricella Sicura the caravan has driven just 6 km down to Teramo in the nearby valley. The settlement dates back to an Italian Pre-Roman tribe, most likely founded 800-500 BC.
It is 19°C with a clear sky with just a moderate breeze.
Teramo Cathedral (constructed 1157-1176)
Form Teramo the stages moves north to Frontone through some medium climbs in the Apennines, ending in a short uphill finish. We expect it to be a stage too hard for a mass sprint finish. Maybe even hard enough for changes in the very narrow GC. We will focus only on Tony.
The breakaway of strong rides takes off, while we just sits back to enjoy the sun in the relaxed peloton, Then as the breaks gets more threatening the pace gets much higher, this combined with narrow roads makes the stage hard, forcing everyone to try to get in front.
Peloton on the narrow roads in the Apennines
But it ends with a breakaway win, where none of the GC favorites try to attack and most of the riders get home together. The only change in the GC was Moreno Moser taking over Philippe Gilbert’s 10th place. Our best was Patrick Clausen (14).
Media Coverage: Dutch Day in Tirreno – Adriatico
A breakaway of 5 riders took over every attention on the 6th stage, making an otherwise boring stage, worth watching for spectators as well as TV viewers. While the peloton led by FDJ just kept the break out of GC reach, the front group attacked on every climb, and at every opportunity to get rid of the others, but always just for a while before the 5 was back together.
They all reached the 1 km mark together, where Sebastian Langeveld was the strongest beating fellow Dutchman Lars Boom to the line. This was Langeveld’s first win since 2014, where he won a stage in Tour de Suisse, he also won a stage in Tour of California earlier the same season.
12/3 Final Stage 7/7 Civitanova Marche - Civitanova Marche : 215.8 km
Rasmussen Reports: The last stage starts and finishes in Civitanova Marche, about 120 km south east of where we ended yesterday. Civitanova Marche is a coastal city by the Adriatic Sea with a population of about 40.000. The settlement in ancient times known as Cluana was founded around 800 BC by a pre-roman tribe.
It is rather cold today just 8°C cloudy and a very strong breeze.
Even though there are two cat. 4 climbs on the route, the last 30 km is very flat and we predict a mass sprint finish. Unless an unimportant breakaway brings home the bacon.
A relative strong breakaway including a strong Palini from Katusha, Lars Ytting Bak and Lasse Bøchman moves to the in front, to help keep things under control.
The hard tailwind seems to help the break, with just 40 km to go the break still has 2’30, the pace is now very hard. Then our sprint hope Patrick Clausen has a puncture, falling far back in the peloton, he won’t win today.
After the 5km mark Mike Teunissen pulls very hard, while the peloton seems to fall apart, Teunissen, Lovelock-Fay and Gallopin gets a small gap with a few other riders. Looks good for a while but they can’t hold the peloton in the end. Our best was Tony Gallopin (11).
Rasmussen: not the best stage, but a fine result overall, Tony got the top 10 that we needed.
Media Coverage: Another sprinter disappointment
The last stage ended in a solo win by Katusha’s Andrea Palini. A morning break of 3 took off, and not long after Palini in another group of 3 attacked and caught up the original breakaway. He never saw the peloton again.
This was his 2nd win of the season, after winning Roma Maxima not long ago, by far the 26 years olds best season, already winning more than he ever did before.
Without any stage win, 25 years old Thibaut Pinot from FDJ won the Tirreno – Adriatico, based on his 2nd place at stage 5, just passing Yury Trofimov from Saxo – Tinkoff. This was Pinot’s first overall win since the 2011 Settimana Ciclistica Lombarda.
Paris–Nice
Tirreno – Adriatico
