Even without Van Aert and Jansen in their team, Jumbo are at the front of the pack after the last corner as we enter Champs Elysees. Lotto are there as well. Ewan will be targeting not only the stage win but the green jersey as well
Two Grand Tours are finally showing and Ewan was not able to keep his speed for long in the final kilometer. Groenewegen didn't look strong enough to take the win either, but Sagan who was invisible this Tour is looking great today!
And it's indeed Sagan who takes perhaps the most prestigious win in the World of sprinters. Groenwegen got third, which was more than enough to win the green jersey. Hopefully, this will be just the first of many to come
Chris Froome finished safely in the pack today to claim a record fifth Tour de France. Can he make it a record breaking 6 next year? We'll see as he is not getting any younger and even though he looked dominant this next year will be another race
Not far behind Froome we had Jumbo's Steven Kruijswijk finishing which has been the best Tour de France of his career. The Dutchman was not strong enough to compete with Froome or Bardet, but he was quite comfortable with his place on the podium throughout the race
An interesting mix of riders for Jumbo in their very first race of the Tour de France. It includes the Giro performers, Primoz Roglic and Laurens De Plus as well as the strongest climbers for the Tour, Kruijswijk and Bennett.
Everyone was expecting the race to be decided on the last climb of the day, but despite the attacks of Woods, Fuglsang and Mas we were set for a sprint between the strongest climbers of the race. This was due to a great pace set in the group by Kruijswijk on the climb and then by Bennett on the downhill.
Kruijswijk chasing hard behind the attackers
George Bennett put Kruijswijk and Roglic in a perfect position with 1 kilometer to go and the Jumbo duo was set for a great result, but sadly for our team neither were a match for Jakob Fugslang's speed in the last hundred meters.
The Danish national champion celebrating on the finish line
A flat classic in Great Britain was exactly what Groenewegen needed after the Tour the France. And with Van Aert back in the team in the team and as a lead out for Dylan, it looked like quite an easy mission for the Dutch rider, with Gaviria being the only rider close to match his speed at the finish.
This was the first race for the fresh Dutch Champion Danny Van Poppel. Sadly, he wasn't in a great form and was not able to contest in all the sprint opportunities, but came very close to a stage win in the last stage when he was denied the win by Vakoc, who survived dramatically from the breakaway to take a win on the finish line.
With Van Poppel not being able to be involved in as many stages as he would have liked, it was Mike Teunissen who stepped up and got a stage win after being denied one by Caleb Ewan in the opener. Ewan continued his form from the Tour to win two stages and held the yellow jersey until the last two stage of the race. Andre Greipel also got a win to his name, something you don't see a lot of these days.
Teunissen celebrating after a very tricky stage finish
The sixth stage proved to be decisive stage for the GC as it was the only stage where the sprinters were actually dropped by the puncheurs, except for Rick Zabel, who surprisingly managed to hang on, with Teunissen's as well as Ewan's hopes for the GC being ruined there.
Kwiatkowski, who was already a stage winner prior, was the strongest man in the queen stage and claimed the stage win as well as the general classification, in front of Zabel and Gallopin. Neilson Powless was Jumbo's best rider in 8th, a very good result for the young American rider.
Winning on home soil in the national colors must feel very special
Van Poppel, Van Aert and Teunissen were our leader in the race without climbs. But after a very poor time trial, Van Poppel and Teunissen were way out of contention for the GC, while Van Aert still held hopes for a good GC, but the first place seemed out of reach.
Van Baarle made a very interesting move in the first stage by going into the breakaway and taking advantage of the intermediate sprints and the golden kilometer to claim the race lead, which he would keep for quite a while.
It was a rather poor race for Jumbo until the fifth stage, when in a tricky finish, the black and yellow team managed to put 3 riders into the first four of the day, with Van Aert and Van Poppel making a double.
Van Aert and Van Poppel celebrating
The race was surprisingly decided in the sixth stage, where Peter Sagan managed to fool the pack in a stage that did not announce itself as a more than just a mass sprint. Sagan put 22 seconds into the rest of the field and took over the race's lead.
Sagan would keep the lead after the last stage as well, where the attack of Teunissen, Van Aert and Van der Poel, ended up not being awarded a time gap at the end of the stage. The second place in the stage and the seconds won in the golden kilometer where enough to put Van Aert into second place overall though.
Sagan was the only rider that put time into his rivals on the road
Ineos enjoyed a pretty good race in Norway with Halvorsen winning the first stage and finishing second in the following one. Then it was Eddie Dunbar's time to shine as the Irish ride was the first rider to cross the finish line in the queen stage, the only stage win an uphill finish. 13 more riders were given the same time as him though and the race for the overall win was still on.
Dunbar celebrates winning the queen stage
Things would take a very unexpected turn in the next stage when three Jumbo riders (Tolhoek, De Tier and Powless) fooled the rest of the pack on the last uphill section, in a moment when the race looked to be settling down, and went on to take some serious time over their rivals: 35 seconds, which would put them in the first 3 places in the GC.
An iconic image
The last stage of the race was very hard to control for Jumbo Visma. After losing Kuss due to illness in one of the previous stages, De Tier was forced to abandon the race as well after a crash.
Terpstra and Asgreen were part of a very strong breakaway and were a real danger for the GC, especially when join by Kenny Elissonde from the pack in the closing kilometers. But with Tolhoek and Powless riding themselves very hard in the pack as they were out of team - mates, they managed to bring the group close enough to the stage winner to be awarded the same time as them and thus keeping the first two places overall. A second victory for Jumbo - Visma in Norway after Van Aert's win in the Tour of Norway.
Despite some very heavy attacks in the closing kilometers by Lutsenko and then by Lars Boom, there was no chance to avoid a mass sprint today, with Jumbo controlling the final kilometers very well with Van Emden, Van Aert, Teunissen, Groenewegen, Arndt, Boom and Lutsenko even getting a gap to the rest of the field.
Gronewegen was put in a fantastic position by his team - mates and even though the Dutch rider had a very good speed he was not able to be first on the finish line. Nikias Arndt had amazing legs in the final kilometer and was faster than the Jumbo rider.
It is not clear at this point since after both riding the Tour, it will be hard to say which of Bennett and Kruijswijk is in a better form. Only time will tell. Van Poppel hasn't been looking great lately, but we hope he can get some form and get involved in the sprints.
Some interesting choices here as some riders will be riding their third GT this year: Dumoulin, Quintana, Nibali, Pinot, Porte, Zakarin. It will be very hard to see them involved in the fight for the GC though.
Speaking of the fight for the GC, it's hard to see past Ineos here who have brought Froome, Thomas and Bernal here. Movistar also have a very good team with Landa, Carapaz and Quintana.
Jakob Fuglsang is the only GC rider that will be riding his first and only GT of the season here. It will be interesting to see how much of an advantage that will prove to be for him.
First stage of the Vuelta is a TTT and with Tony Martin in their line up, Jumbo were set for a good result. A bit of miss communication in the last meters as both Kruijswijk and Bennett dropped a few seconds to their team - mates, but a strong result nonetheless
Jumbo's time looked good enough to actually take the stage win, but it didn't last for long as not far behind team Team Ineos set a new best time, with their stellar line-up. 17 seconds faster than Jumbo
The other team with a stellar line-up here, Movistar completed the podium today, 28 seconds behind Ineos. Some big time gaps already in the GC after the very first stage of the Vuelta!
It was supposed to be a race for sprinters on the paper, but four attackers, including Peter Sagan, managed to surprise the pack after making a move with about 10 kilometers left to race.
Lutsekno, Stuyven, Politt and Sagan on the move
Sagan and Stuyven were clearly the strongest sprinters in the group, but neither of them would end up winning the stage. After many failed attacks this season, Lutsenko would finally get a important victory to his name, using the uphill section at the end of the race to outsprint Sagan.
Only minor climbs on today's route but it was enough to give us our first leader of the King of the Mountains classification in the person of Cyril Lemoine
At the end of the stage it was a battle of two trains for the stage win, and the Bora one clearly had the upper hand on Jumbo's
Danny Van Poppel was insanely fast in the last hundred meters of the stage, but it was too late to contest the stage win. Fantastic win for Pascal Ackermann, who opens up his tab in La Vuelta
It was a windy day in Spain and some gaps were created in the gap in the final kilometers, with the pack being split into multiple groups and plenty of GC riders found themselves on the wrong side: Bernal, Dumoulin, Thomas, Carapaz, Landa.
Lemoine went into the breakaway today but he is not exactly a climber and he stand no chance of keeping his jersey. It was Pardilla and Boswell who battle throughout the day on the many categorized climbs, with the Spaniard coming out on top by a couple of points.
The breakaway started the last climb of the day with a huge advantage, but the climb was absolutely brutal and with 3 kilometers to go all of the escapees have been caught.
As soon as this happened, things slowed down in the pack, which rode the climb on a insane pace and Quintanan saw the opportunity to make a move
Froome was soon to counter him though and as soon as he got a steady pace, Froome dropped the Colombian of his wheel, who was struggling in the last kilometer and ended up being caught by Bennett, who was having great legs today
A victory for Froome, who is carrying out his Tour form and is looking in a perfect position to make the Tour-Vuelta double for a second time in his career!
Pauwels was third in the KoM rankings after yesterday's stage and with both Boswell and Pardilla missing out on the break today, he managed to gain enough points to take the lead in the polka dots classification
Caja Rural might concede the KoM jersey at the end of the day, but they are in the driving seat to take the stage win with 3 riders in the breakaway as the pack doesn't seem interested in catching them today
And Caja Rural played their numbers almost to perfection. Alex Aranburu tried a solo attack which eventually failed, but then Lastra launched Irisarri in a perfect position and only the fantastic kick of Samuel Dumoulin in the last meters of the stage saw the Spanish team miss out on the stage win
Today is only the second chance for sprinters in this Vuelta and Jumbo's train was at the front as we approached the finish line. There were some terrible news though as Van Poppel lost contact with the train in the narrow roads at the finish and was in no position to benefit from the excellent work done by his team-mates
This turned out to be a formality for Ackermann and Bora as the German is launched in the final kilometer by Selig
Ackermann is clearly the strongest sprinter in the race but today it seemed just too easy
Massive breakaway group today and a fantastic battle for the polka dots between Pauwels and Pardilla. The Spaniard will be back into the jersey at the end of the day but only for 1 points. Things are far from over
Despite the many strong riders in the breakaway, Nathan Haas managed to get away quite early on the last climb and no one was able to catch up to him resulting in a very spectacular solo win for the Australian
Behind, in the favorites group Bennett tried to shake things up but he was not able to get too far away with Ineos setting up a very good pace for Froome, who attacked himself in the last kilometer to catch Bennett and even gain time on the Kiwi
On paper, today's stage seemed made for a breakaway, but the only thing that the break would fight for will be the KoM points. And Serge Pauwels will be back in the polka dots tomorrow, with Ian Boswell back in the mix as well. Pardilla missed out on the breakaway today.
It was quite a strange choice by the pack to ride today's stage very hard, but in the end no gaps were made between the favorites, with Adam Yates claiming the stage win after a very close sprint with Michael Woods and Miguel Angel Lopez
Some odd things happening in Spain as we approach the end of the first week of racing. Yesterday we saw a stage designed for a breakaway go to the favorites and today we will see a stage made for sprinters go to the breakaway.
With 5 kilometers to go, Garikoitz Bravo Oiarbide was in the lead, followed at a few seconds by a group of 9 riders. with the pack almost 5 minutes behind
The Euskadi rider put in a fantastic performance, but he was not able to hold on to his lead in the end, being caught in dramatic fashion right on the finish line by the other escapees, even missing out on the stage podium, with Lotto's Rémy Mertz claiming the stage win in front of Jon Aberasturi
Primoz Roglic did a fantastic job in the final kilometers to make sure no attacks would fool the pack today and the victory will be settled in a sprint. Dylan Groenewegen was boxed behind Teunissen by Kristoff in the final kilometer though and by the time he got out it was too late to save himself a place on the podium.
Alexandr Kristoff took the win in front of Matteo Moschetti and Peter Sagan, in a very close sprint.
