Luckily, we're probably going to have an easier job defending the lead than Garmin had yesterday. It's only when we get to the hills before the uphill finale that it might get a little problematic. Hopefully another day in red tomorrow!
Since it would only be a plus for Kangert's chances if there weren't any bonus seconds available for speedy guys like Purito, we don't do anything against the early breakaway trio of Zandio, Tankink and Fraile.
The plan does seem to be working. With 10 km and only the final hill to go, the leaders are still almost two minutes ahead.
Unforunately, hell is about to break lose for Kangert, who isn't having the best day (-3).
First to go: Kreuziger. Surprising to see him going on the offensive instead of helping Contador/Roche/Majka, considering yesterday's loss. No matter to Rodríguez, who is quick to tag along.
He then prolongs the offensive by jumping again when Kreuziger sits up, and creates a gap by himself. As a result, he starts the final hill a few seconds ahead of the peloton.
The attacks also bring an end to what looked like a potentially successful breakaway.
Or maybe not? When Purito latches on to the back in order to recover for a short while, Tankink launches off the front solo and opens the gap again.
Purito's unability to continue his attack also allows Contador, LL Sánchez, Rolland and Slagter to catch up after a new wave of attacks.
What about Kangert, then?
He couldn't follow Contador's move and is a few seconds off the back; following Henao in an attempt to get back up to the other GC contenders.
Good news is Tankink holds on for the stage win and steals the 20 bonus seconds!
Sánchez is a surprising 2nd, perhaps earning himself a free role alongside team mate Quintana at Movistar. Contador takes 3rd, while Purito falls back to 7th.
Moving on to a more question: is there a gap behind them?
Damn it. 24 seconds is registered between Rodríguez and Fraile, who just about stayed in front of the peloton.
Sánchez is therefore the new leader. Still very close in the GC, however.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
29 km of climbing speaks for itself. With a second half of the stage that barely includes a single flat meter, and four riders within a span of 11 seconds at the top of the GC; we are hopefully in for a real show!
In order to have some help for Kangert ready up the road, Chevrier joins the day's long breakaway. Locatelli, Brajkovic and Madrazo also go on the attack.
The quartet stays intact for most of the day, but finally shatters on the second-to-last climb after an acceleration from Brajkovic.
An unlucky daily form (-4) for Chevrier meant that he was the weakest in the group.
The peloton begin the final climb just 1'30 behind Brajkovic; a gap that immediately starts to shrink further when Quintana launches a controversial attack against his own team mate Sánchez!
Kreuziger jumps across the gap to Quintana shortly afterwards, as they bring back Locatelli and Madrazo 1 km from the top.
Rodríguez meanwhile sets off from behind!
Let's not forget about a still leading Brajkovic, though! He crests the summit with almost a minute's advantage on the favourites.
15 km remains. It's going to be a hard time trial for him.
A jump back to the pursuers shows that Rodríguez has caught and left Quintana and Kreuziger behind in the final meters of the climb.
Kangert also took on the last part of the climb very well and has led Contador and some other riders across to Quintana and Kreuziger. No sign of the red jersey, however!
The last move from Purito was a little too much for all the other favourites. Over the top, he springs clear and starts pursuing Brajkovic alone.
Next on the road is in fact Kangert, who realised that everyone else was on the brink of cracking and accelerated clear.
A group with Contador, Quintana and Slagter follows just a few seconds further back, however. Then there's another little gap to a group with race leader Sánchez.
Up front, Brajkovic can no longer maintain the gap to Rodríguez.
The reason for that quickly becomes obvious, when the Astana rider can't even stay in contact on the descent.
Further back, Contador has leapt out of the first bigger group and is now trying to chase down Kangert and Rodríguez.
A struggling Kangert is soon caught, and the two form an alliance in order to bring back Rodríguez (and Brajkovic).
It is too late to stop Purito, though!
Despite their best efforts, Kangert and Contador couldn't get back to Rodríguez. They cross the line as 2nd and 3rd - having caught Brajkovic - the same positions they finish on in the overall.
Slagter and Henao are the next to reach the finish, after also successfully breaking out of the dysfunctional group that formed after the climb.
They both move up the GC today, finishing 4th and 5th.
Over a minute later, Sánchez finally comes home as well. He drops to 6th in the GC, and will no doubt be furious with Quintana in the team bus later.
The latter does in fact not even finish with this group. He was dropped towards the end of the descent and leads home the next group; almost four minutes behind Rodríguez. Disappointing from him.
No doubt that the best rider wins the overall in the end. Rodríguez destroyed everyone today, and wins the race almost a full minute ahead of Contador.
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: Preview February 23rd, 2014
To many cycling fans, this race marks the real start of the season. It's also the first of the next few months' many cobbled classics. Though far from the most difficult of them, it should still be a good indication of who to look out for at Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix in two months!
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The startlist is, arguably, one of the strongest ever. OPQS have brought their entire core of potential winners in Boonen, Stybar, Terpstra and Vandenbergh. None of them have any results to their name during 2014 yet, so they'll likely be very motivated to change that on home soil.
Cancellara should be the main danger to their plan. "Spartacus" showed signs of strong form in Oman, and has probably improved even more since then. He will, as always, be a headache for Patrick Lefevre.
Then there's the likes of Pozzato, Chavanel, Vanmarcke and many other second rate-favourites. On a good day, they could potentially challenge Cancellara and Boonen, but whether that day is today remains to be seen.
Our goal will be a top 15/20. Team leader Paiani is only starting his season and will need a few races to find the racing rhythm. Don't expect much, except perhaps presence in the early breakaway.
Vuelta a la Región de Murcia: Preview February 23rd, 2014
While the northern classics specialists are doing Omloop, those preparing for Paris-Nice and Tirreno - and later the Ardennes or one of the GTs - are down here in Spain for one of the hardest one-day races on the entire calendar.
After ascending Alto del Collado Bermejo (which alone should shatter the peloton to pieces), the race finishes on Alto de Castillo, above Lorca.
In Vuelta a Andalucía-winner Joaquím Rodríguez's absence, Alejandro Valverde is the clear favourite. Coming over from Portugal and a 2nd place overall in the Volta ao Algarve - only beaten by world TT champion Tony Martin due to a long ITT - he will face tough opposition from an Alberto Contador also in good form.
No other top tier-climbers have showed up, but Daniel Moreno could be unpleasant for them if he has good legs. Kwiatkowski and Kangert are both also strong contenders for a top 5 or even a podium; just like Andalucía protagonists Sergio Henao, Pierre Rolland and Tom-Jelte Slagter.
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Omloop Het Nieuwsblad February 23rd, 2014
Knowing that our chances of a top result are slim, we place García in the early breakaway as a springboard if Paiani were to try a long-range attack later in the race.
The group consists of six riders initially, but that number is increased by one when Martin Elmiger escapes the peloton and catches up with around 100 km to go. Paiani wasn't feeling at his best, and opted not to follow the attack.
With Elmiger adding new energy to the break, they start to pull away from the peloton again after a decreasing trend. García is unfortunately hit by bad luck and punctures out of the group, 60 km from the finish.
He does eventually get back after a lengthy chase, but the effort leaves him unable to follow when Elmiger increases the pace and breaks away alone.
Back in the peloton, the pacemaking teams are still unwilling to maintain a high pace after stretching out the group on the cobbles.
When yet another slowdown occurs with 35 km to go, we seize the opportunity to anticipate the big favourites by launching Paiani off the front, with assistance from Smukulis.
Smukulis helps opening the gap as much as possible, before dropping off at the beginning of the next sector of cobbles. The attack has meanwhile at least lured OPQS to the front, with Stybar leading the charge.
When they - once again - slow down at the end of the sector, Pozzato decides he has had enough nonsense and attacks! Cancellara jumps after him.
Seemingly without much effort, they bring an end to Paiani's breakaway. Moreover, the move also narrows down the peloton to a select group of no more than 15 riders.
All escapees - with the exception of Elmiger - have meanwhile been caught and passed.
Cancellara carries out the attack over the next cobbled section, which further reduces the group to just nine other riders: Boonen, Van Avermaet, Langeveld, Vanmarcke, Pozzato, Gaudin, Ladagnous, Roelandts and Paiani.
Still a few too many for Van Avermaet, who brings Boonen and Cancellara with him with a new attack once they get back on the normal road again.
Surprisingly, Cancellara isn't able to follow and has to sit up while the two Belgians open a gap.
Boonen isn't done, though. He counters a few hundred meters later, leaves Van Avermaet behind and flies past a tired Elmiger.
Langeveld meanwhile jumps from Gr. Cancellara.
Van Avermaet and Langeveld link up to bring Boonen back together, but the other favourites have apparently given up, as they really come to a slowdown. Good news for Chavanel, who gets back in contact thanks to this.
A desperate Cancellara tries a new move a little later, but only manages to drop Paiani. He might've been able to hold on a little longer without the earlier attack, but it's easy to say that in hindsight!
He tries to find a new rhythm, but eventually runs out of energy with a little over 5 km left and gets passed by Haussler and Degenkolb, who missed the formation of the favourite group earlier.
Perhaps unhappy about the two fast sprinters getting back to the group; Pozzato puts in a new attack after the final sector of cobbles.
Further up the road, Boonen celebrates winning his third Omloop in a row!
The two-way sprint for 2nd is won by Van Avermaet. His excellent cooperation with Langeveld and well timed attack wasn't enough against Boonen, but he shows that he is a contender for the Ronde this year.
Pozzato takes 4th after his attack. Roelandts also attacked towards the end, but couldn't quite make it back to the Lampre rider.
The rest of the elite group follows a few meters further back. 11th placed Cancellara is probably extremely disappointed.
Paiani comes home alone, another minute and a half later. It was too bad he couldn't hang on to the favourite group, but a 14th place is around what we expected ahead of the race. No reason to complain, really!
Skujins also does a brilliant race on his own, finishing solo as well in 15th.
Greipel wins the bunch sprint for 16th, in a group also including Stybar, Boom, Gilbert, Breschel and Phinney. Not the best day for them.
Even worse for the likes of Paolini, Thomas, Turgot, Terpstra and Leukemans; who were all dropped early and finish more than 10 minutes back.
The results file wouldn't open for some reason. I've reconstructed the top 30.
I've gotta say, I love the look of those Movistar helmets! I think they're the ones I made, but never really sure.
Really nice Omloop report, even though the team wasn't quite as good as maybe the past few races, but then again it isn't the teams strong point.
Props for re-constructing the whole Top 30, I personally would have saved myself the time and taken a screen (in a similar situation), but it looks better that way, which I suppose is why you persevered to write it all down.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Thanks, guys. I really hate the cobbled classics in a way, because I just can't help writing long reports for them with so much happening!
valv321 - I actually quite enjoyed rebuilding the results. It didn't take more than a couple of minutes, so not a particularly big effort either
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Vuelta a la Región de Murcia February 23rd, 2014
Despite a massive 17 riders involved in the early breakaway, they barely even make it to the base of Collado Bermejo before being brought back. A great effort from Cazaux was the reason for that.
He finally gets to pull aside when the climb increases in gradient, leaving the pacemaking for Taaramae.
With the intention of limiting the peloton to just a small group at the top, the Estonian champion winds up an extremely hard pace.
Not enough to stop Haimar Zubeldia from trying from a long way out, though.
The experienced Trek-rider establishes an advantage of around 45 seconds without too much troubles; which stresses Contador into rushing to the front to elevate the speed.
The strength of the acceleration is in fact so big that only four riders manage to follow: Kwiatkowski, Kangert and Taaramae for us, plus former Italian champion Franco Pellizotti.
Contador's pace is pushing all of them to the limit, however. After just a few hundred meters, Kwiatkowski is the only one left in his wheel!
Valverde has in the meantime attacked out of the peloton after being stuck in a poor position earlier.
A while later, Contador finds himself completely alone when Kwiatkowski also cracks. Zubeldia remains ahead with just a short bit to left to the summit.
Contador joins him at the front at the start of the descent. Neither of them feel like continuing the effort together though. The subsequent slowdown lets Kwiatkowski, Valverde and Pellizotti back in contact.
Kangert and Ten Dam also connect with the leaders before the descent ends.
The unanimous refusal to pace the group stays all the way to the start of the final climb. Even more riders therefore join: Nieve, Moreno, Slagter and Gallopin
Through the tunnel leading up towards the finish, Valverde is fed up with the looking around and launches a big attack!
Pellizotti and Contador try to respond, but an incredibly strong Valverde easily shakes them off to win the race dominantly!
2nd to Contador, who also got a little gap on the others. Kwiatkowski couldn't do anything against the Spaniards, but sprints to 3rd. Kangert follows a little further back, in 6th.
All in all, a very good race for us. Kwiatkowski was surprisingly strong, considering it's his first race of the season. Looks promising!
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
It was a pretty good race, for sure. I'm excited to see how he'll fare in Tirreno a couple of weeks from now!
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Grand Prix di Lugano: Preview February 24th, 2014
Being forced to cancel last year's edition due to bad weather became a wake-up call for the people organizing this race. With a new route - including less climbing and much lower altitudes - they are back again; perhaps hoping to attract some big sprinters.
The parcours might still be a little too tough for them, however. Eight times up the two-kilometer Vigilio could be a problem for the sturdiest of them, let alone the longer final hill of Collina d'Oro, where the gradient exceeds 10%.
Siskevicius, Kwiatkowski and Koretzky all hopped on a late flight from Spain last night in order to show up for this race. Against this field, all three of them have good chances of winning, if things play out well. With Martinez also present, it'd be disappointing if we were to miss the podium altogether.
Old TDU-rival Fabio Felline looks like the toughest opponent in a sprint; whereas Martin Elmiger also needs to be watched after the way he rode in Omloop yesterday. Handling this race could be more tricky than it might look!
Vuelta a Andalucía: Stage 3
Omloop Het Nieuwsblad: Preview
Grand Prix di Lugano: Preview
