Christina Reports

The stage starts where we finished yesterday in Vitoria-Gasteiz capital of Basque Country. The city dates back to a Visigoth settlement from 581 AD “Victoriacum� although its location is not certain. By 1181 The king of Navarre founded “Nova Victoria�, this time at its present location.
It is 12°C, a little rain from time to time, no wind.

Cathedral of Santa María de Vitoria, construction started late 13th century.



From Vitoria the route moves north into the core of the Basque Mountains, passing over a series of climbs before the ultimate challenge on the uphill finish at Alto de Arrate,
We will try to attack again today. In the peloton we will protect Lawson Craddock and Kenny Elissonde.

The Race

The morning breakaway is four riders Rodríguez (Coca Cola), Hivert (FDJ.fr), Maté (Banco Santander) and Rohan Dennis (Orica). Stefan Schumacher attacks to try and catch up, and he almost makes it, but he never gets contact.



The Alto de Ixua (cat.1) 5.3 km avg 7.7%, is where the first move is made by the favorites, Kelderman, Moreno, Kangert, Villella and De Clercq attacks. At this point the breakaway has 1’04 to group Kelderman, 2’23 to the peloton with our leaders.




The final climb starts, we are sitting ok, but then a sudden right turn into a narrow road, the peloton explodes and we are sitting to far back to react, we are caught by traffic but also struggling with the hard World Tour pace.




In the meantime the breakaway is over, up front Kangert from Bardiani attacks and gets a fine gap to the next group with 3.8 km left he has got 31 sec.



Kangert can’t hold the distance; he is caught by Kelderman and De Clercq it looks like it is between the trio.

TV Highlight: Alto de Arrate – final

Kelderman wins the stage with 22 sec to Kangert, Dombrowski takes the last podium. De Clercq having a very bad last 500 m. Out leaders Craddock (26), Elissonde (31) and Bøchman (32) all lost 2’25 today.

Winner Profile:

This was the first win for Kelderman since winning a stage in Vuelta a España in 2014, where he also got 4th overall. The 25 years old rider from Amersfoort in the Netherlands started as a Professional in 2010 riding for Rabobank Continental Team. From 2012 advancing to World Tour Rabobank, today renamed Belkin.

Rasmussen Reports:

The race is held in Antwerp province the northernmost province of the Flanders, with start in Antwerp city. First mentioned in 4th century Antwerp seems to date back to a Gallo-Roman settlement. After around year 1000 the area became a Margraviate under the Holy Roman Empire, but it was in the 16 century that the city became an important trade center.

It is 16°C with a clear blue sky and a moderate breeze.






Scheldeprijs as first held in 1907, making it the oldest exiting race held in Flanders. The field of sprinter are very tough, basically all the stars are here: Cavendish, Kittle, Greipel ect.; we have got Francisco José Pacheco and Tony Gallopin hoping for one of them to get a top 10.
In 2014 we got a top 15, we did not race here in 2015.

The Race:

A beautiful day on the northern Belgium, the breakaway is 5 riders but with all the strong sprint teams it is more than unlikely they will make the finish line first.



It is mainly Belkin for Cavendish and Astana for Kittel pulling the peloton forward.




The breakaway is only a few seconds in front and we get a train up with Lampaert/Teunissen leading out for Pacheco and Gallopin

TV Highlight: The Collision

Our train collide with the back of the breakaway, promptly stopping Pacheco and Gallopin with no room to go forward. The stage was won by Marcel Kittel (Astana) in front of Mark Cavendish (Belkin). Mike Teunissen does quite well getting in at 12th.

Winner profile:

This was the third win for Kittel this season after winning 2 stages in Tour of Qatar. 27 years old Marcel Kittel born in Arnstadt in what was East Germany. Kittel started as professional in 2011 riding for Skil–Shimano, from 2014 transferred to Vodafone and from this season Astana. Having a major breakthrough in the 2011 Four Days of Dunkirk winning 4 stages and points jersey.

The stage starts in Eibar, the city was first mentioned in 1193, In 1346 it received city rights from Alfonso XI de Castilla. From the 16th century Eibar became the center of weapons production. Famous Basque painter Ignacio Zuloaga y Zabaleta (1870-1945) was born in Eibar.

It is 13°C, just a little cloudy and a light breeze.



The stage is rather hilly with a hard uphill finish, we will focus on protecting Lawson Craddock and Kenny Elissonde, but might try a breakaway too.

We get Mitchell Lovelock-Fay in the morning breakaway, they get about 6’30 to the peloton. But Mitchell hasn’t got the best legs today he can’t compete with the others in the mountain sprints.




Getting to the two hardest climbs Alto Aritxulegi and Alto de Agiña Kenny Elissonde attacks, at this point the breakaway has got about 4’30.




Mitchell has a hard time with the fast pace in the break, he decides to fall back to help Kenny but that does not matter as Kenny gets caught by the peloton after just 10 km. Up front Diego Rosa (Bardiani Valvole) attacks, at this point the break has about 3 minutes, with 23 km left.



Diego Rosa is now alone in front. At the last km Lawson Craddock is struggling to just hang on, but Kenny is better sitting close to the front of the peloton.




Diego Rosa wins the stage with 41 sec to Carlos Betancur (Astana) the last podium goes to Daniel Martin (Cannondale) at ’51. Kenny has not much left at the final, he is passed by several riders before he crosses the line as 16th and Craddock get in at 21th both in the same time as Martin.

TV Highlight: The winner at Alto de Ibardin

Winner profile:

27 years old Diego Rosa was born in Corneliano d'Alba in North West Italy not far from Torino. Rosa started relative late as professional in 2013 riding for Androni Giocattoli. This was his first win since 2013 where he won a stage in the Giro and well as a stage in Österreich Rundfahrt.