Christina Reports:

With its hard short climbs, cobbled sections and the length Tour of Flanders is considered one of the hardest one day races in cycling, favoring riders with extreme and versatile skills. Last year’s winner Belgian Tom Boonen is record holder with 5 wins, 2005-06-12-13-15. With his win in 2014 Fabian Cancellara has 4 wins.

The weather is cruel today, raining hard at the start, 8°C and a very strong breeze.

In rain, wind and mud she thrives best - Race founder Karel van Wijnendaele



The first winner back in 1913 was Paul Deman, at the time over a 330 km course, the field was just 37 riders. Deman was doing espionage smuggling documents by bike into Netherlands during WWI, and was arrested by the Germans. But he was racing again after the war and won Paris–Roubaix in 1920.




The race includes many climbs often cobbled, two of the most famous Oude Kwaremont 2,200 meters with 4.2% and Koppenberg 600 meter with 11.6% (max 22%).

“Flanders may as well be a different sport." – George Hincapie

The management expect a top ten result, with the good racing Tony have done lately we hope he can do that. We will do what we can to help Tony, hanging on to the front as long as possible.

The Race:

Mike Teunissen attacks and makes his way up to the front group. Very unlikely they will hold but you never know.




With about 100 km to go, Salvatore Puccio (Vodafone) and José Joaquín Rojas (Liberty Seguros) attacks, after another about 25 km they have caught up to the remainders from the breakaway. 4 riders are now alone in front. Puccio, Rojas, Teunissen and Jonathan Dufrasne (Vacansoleil)




40 km left: Teunissen was forced to fall back due to a high pace set by Puccio and Rojas, the situation is Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) attacked and is now 1’22 after the trio in front. Sebastian Langeveld (Coca Cola) right behind with 1’51 to the front group, a favorite group of 23 riders including Turgot, Cancellara, Sagan and Gallopin at 3’11.




Then the riders approach Koppenberg for the 2nd last time, Cancellara and later Jürgen Roelandts set a frantic pace on the wet stones, the group breaks over.

TV Highlight – The favorite group breaks up at Koppenberg.

Tony lost contact, but keeps fighting for the best possible result, but then at the very last cobbled section disaster strikes, from 11th positions Tony gets a puncture.




Up front a rather large group is melted together, when the sprint starts it is Cancellara, Avermaet, Stannard, Rojas, Roelandts, Sagan and Langeveld fighting for victory, Sagan starts the sprint.




But José Joaquín Rojas profits from his early attack, not having to catch up on the last 40 km, he wins the stage in front of Peter Sagan, Jürgen Roelandts takes the last podium. Tony gets in 16th, 6’10 after the winner.

Winner Profile:

The 30 years old Spanish sprinter José Joaquín Rojas Gil, took everyone by surprise by winning this year’s Ronde van Vlaanderen. This was his first win since winning a stage in Tour of Beijing last year. Rojas transferred to Liberty Seguros from for the current season, but the team was also where he started as a professional back in 2006.

We are here in Logroño for the Vuelta a La Rioja, Logroño is the capital of La Rioja province. The city dates back to a Roman town called Vareia and an even older Pre-roman settlement from approx. 400 BC called Ciudad de Cantabria.
It is 13°C with a little rain from time to time and a fresh breeze.




The stage is quite flat, we will attempt to get Philip Nielsen or Patrick Clausen in a breakaway otherwise our goal is to setup Francisco José Pacheco for the final sprint.



Roster:
Anton Grøn - Francisco José Pacheco - Jens Juul -Kenny Elissonde
Lasse Christiansen - Morten Høberg - Patrick Clausen - Philip Nielsen

We make several attempts to get in a breakaway, but we are not successful, the break of the day is 4 riders.




Most teams have got a hopeful sprinter, and the peloton is not in the mood for a breakaway win, the pace is high over the last 60 km, clearly the break won’t last.



We get a good train up and is in a perfect position when the sprint starts.

TV Highlight – The sprint.

Francisco José Pacheco gets beaten to the line by Mattia Gavazzi (Lampre – Merida)

Winner Profile:

32 years old Italian sprinter Mattia Gavazzi riding for Lampre won the 2016 Vuelta a la Rioja. Has been a great season for him, 6 podiums, 3 of them stage wins in Le Tour de Langkawi where he also took the points classification.

The management has evaluated the first part of the season. We are very satisfied with the results we have achieved so far, met most of our goals and are well placed on the rankings.



World tour:

Peter Sagan (Astana) is leading the tour with 318 points.

Our best are:
8. Tony Gallopin 109 points
28. Kenny Ellisonde 64 points
57. Kristian Sbaragli 8 points.

The best team is Astana with 507 points
We are 9th. with 191 points.

CQ ranking:

Peter Sagan is leading the CQ ranking with 1093 points

Our best are:
2. Tony Gallopin 849 points
39. Kenny Ellisonde 269 points
139. Sonder H. Enger 108 points

The best team is Astana with 2861 points
We are 9th. with 1510 points.

Editorial comment:

The idea is that we slowly build up the team to eventually be able to compete against the best, as we are (at least for now) doing very good, I have decided to increase the competition we meet, from today I will change difficulty form “Hard� to “Extreme� to slow down the pace of the campaign.

At the same time I am thinking about that I might (or might not) be starting a new but very different campaign/story, also on Extreme, so it will also make that easier not having to change Dif. all the time.

Lawson Craddock - Kenny Elissonde - Mitchell Lovelock-Fay - Patrick Clausen - Mads Würtz Schmidt - Davide Malacarne - Lasse Bøchman - Stefan Schumacher

Christina Reports:

The race starts in the northwestern part of Basque Country, in the small municipality Güeñes. The ultimate test of the day is Alto de Ubal, about 7 km of climbing with an average of 7% and a maximum gradient of 14%, located near Lanestosa about 43 km west of Güeñes.
It is a nice spring day in northern Spain, 16°C with a clear sky and no wind.



With all the climbs today we will do all we can to get in a break, trying to collect KoM points and maybe a miracle. The competition is tough amongst the stage favorites are : Costa, Sagan, Betancur, Urán and Kwiatkowski.

The Race:

Lasse Bøchman gets in the morning break and get first over the KoM sprint, but the peloton is right behind and the break is over.




Not long after a new group takes off, Bellemakers from Lotto Belisol, Roldán from Caja Rural, Pineau from Quick·Step and Mitchell Lovelock-Fay, Mitchell has quite strong legs today, and is able to cross the Alto de Ubal first.



In the peloton Lawson Craddock is not on top, reporting back to the team car that he need all the protection he can get today. Meanwhile Mitchell and José Luis Roldán sets a high pace over the next climb, Pineau and Bellemakers can’t follow.




Another attack from the peloton this time it is De Clercq from Lotto Belisol, Bravo from Liberty Seguros, Dario Cataldo from Vodafone and Bob Jungels - Coca Cola. With 25 km to go the front group has 1’24 to group De Clercq and 1’56 to the peloton.




The 2nd group is hammering forward, time for Mitchell and José to shake hands, their adventure will soon be over. Dario Cataldo and Garikoitz Bravo crosses the last top first leaving Jungels and De Clercq behind, with just 7 downhill km left it seems to be between the two.

TV Highlight – Cataldo V Bravo

Dario Cataldo (Vodafone) won the stage in front of Garikoitz Bravo (Liberty Seguros) Peter Sagan (Astana) won the bunch sprint taking the last podium. Our best was Stefan Schumacher (6)

Today’s stage winner was 31 years old Dario Cataldo born in Lanciano in central Italy at the east coast. Cataldo’s is currently riding for Vodafone after a single year with RusVelo. This was Cataldo’s first win for almost 2 years, his last victory was Critérium du Dauphiné back in 2014, Surprising for a rider with his ability’s, Cataldo is a strong climber with a fine ITT.

Again the stage starts in Güeñes, the town was founded in the late 12th century, as a part of Valley of Salcedo ruled by Count D. Rubio Diaz de Asturias. Today the municipality has a population of about 6500 people.
The temperature is about the same as yesterday but today very cloudy, still no wind.



From Güeñes the stage is heading southeast into the lower south western part of the Basque Mountains heading for Vitoria-Gasteiz. The stage is the only one classified as flat and should favor the sprinters, but there is a lot of hills right up to just 7 km before the line, we don’t believe a pure sprinter will win today.

The Race:

The early breakaway is Valverde (Banco Santander), Pinot (FDJ.fr) and the two KoM contenders, Roldán (Caja Rural) and Mitchell Lovelock-Fay. Mitchell takes the first KoM sprint, at the climb Pinot fall back.




The peloton is nor crazy about having Valverde in the front, and soon the breakaway is over. Then on the Cat 2. Schumarcher gets away with Raúl Jiménez (Caja Rural) and Carlos Verona (Quick·Step)




A bit later Valverde, Pinot and Roldán tries again, not a good situation for Lovelock-Fay KoM Jersey, but he haven’t got the legs to follow. The two groups finally melt together.




The pack is getting closer, approaching the last hill Schumarcher decides to give it a final attack, hoping to use his fast downhill to get to the line first. It has started to rain.




But the pack is too fast, Kenny Elissonde finds himself in a good position before the sprint, he grabs the wheel of José J. Rojas.

TV Highlight – The sprint in Vitoria

Peter Sagan (Astana) won the stage in front of Daryl Impey (Vodafone), Kenny gets a very surprising 4th, seems the majority of the sprinters had a hard day.

Winner Profile

This was the 2nd season win for Astana’s Peter Sagan after also winning a stage in Tirreno-Adriatico. 26 years old Peter Sagan was born in Žilina in what used to be Czechoslovakia (from 1993 Slovakia).
Sagan started as professional in 2009 riding for local team Dukla Tren�ín-Merida, in 2010 he got transferred to ProTour team Liquigas only 19 years old, winning green jersey and 2 stages in the 2010 Paris–Nice.