A very disappointing race for us. The three sprinters sent by Movistar to enjoy the lovely flat stages came up empty handed. Also, both Intxasuti and Sanchez were not able to keep up with the pace of the peloton in different stages, ruling them out of contention for the GC. Alexander Kristoff put his abilities in different types of profiles to good use to claim the win ahead of Peter Sagan, who is equally capable. Finishing 3rd in the team classification was the only small light shining out of this otherwise dark race for us.
Tour de l'Ain
After the poor, comes the superb. Roman Kreuziger lead Movistar's challenge in this race, using it as his preparation for the Vuelta. A strong overall team meant Movistar started this race as favourites and finished it as winners. In fact, they swept all the classifications! Kreuziger won the GC and the Points classification, Ion Izagirre won the Mountain classification, Dayer Quintana was the winner of the Young Riders' classification and Movistar comfortably won the Team classification! Talk about ideal preparations .
Two flat stages and two hilly stages meant that this race would favour the punchers. Movistar sent in a young team, resting their big names for the Vuelta. Defending champion Winner Anacona was present, but he was acting as the chief domestique this time around. Ruben Fernandez did well in his first race as leader of the team, grabbing a well deserved 3rd place in the GC. He won a stage along a the way.
Vattenfall Cyclassics
A classic known for being one that favours the sprinters was no different this time either. Movistar sent in their two best sprinters to challenge for the win. They set the pace from the halfway stage and whittled the group down to about 45 riders. With the help of Giant-Alpecin, they were able to catch the early breakaway with about 3.5 km to go. However, Giant's sprinter train was too strong and they eventually had to settle for 8th, 11thand 12th places. Marcel Kittel won.
@trekbmc and Tamijo : It's encouraging to see different riders taking up the mantle of high finishes when the leaders are not around. I'm quite pleased with the both the Limousin and the Vattenfall results
Stage List
ITT - 2
TTT - 1
Flat - 6
Mountain/Hilly - 12
Movistar Starting List
Nairo Quintana
Roman Kreuziger
Benat Intxausti
Alejandro Valverde
Luis Leon Sanchez
J J Rojas
Adriano Malori
Ion Izagirre
Eros Capecchi
Spain brings us the last GT of the year. After last year's topsy-turvy Vuelta, what will this edition bring? This was the question on everybody's lips. All the top contenders for every classification wanted to sign off from the GTs in this year on a high note. Movistar sent in a super-strong team, probably their strongest for the year in GTs. Nairo Quintana was aiming for the rare Tour-Vuelta double. Roman Kreuziger would be the co-leader. Benat Intxausti would be taking up the super-domestique role for Nairo. After his star turn last year, he would have be the one to drag Nairo up the most difficult of climbs in his quest for glory. Should tragedy strike to any of the co-leaders, Benat would be called on to take up that role. The likes of Malori, Valverde and Sanchez also being present meant that Movistar were going all out to win their home GT. The field is not exactly the strongest with only two teams sending their top GT contenders. Dan Martin, Ilnur Zakarin (both Tinkoff-Saxo) and Fabio Aru would be the challengers in Nairo's bid. Would this year be as exciting and unpredictable as the last? Let's find out.
Number of Starters: 198 Number of Finishers: (To be updated)
Part 1: Out of the Spotlight (Stage 1-7)
Following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Team Time Trial - Flat - 12 km
Movistar lived up to their pre-stage billing as favourites to win the team time trial, putting Luis Leon Sanchez into the Red jersey.
Stage winners - Movistar Other important results - Tinkoff-Saxo (Dan Martin, Ilnur Zakarin) 2nd, losing 16", Astana (Fabio Aru) lost 1'18"
Stage 3 - Hilly with 3 minor intermediate climbs
This stage saw an early breakaway stay clear of the pack till less than 10 km was left. The minor climbs failed to split the main bunch as the main GC contenders sprinted it out for the win. Dan Martin took the stage.
Stage winner - Dan Martin Movistar - Luis Leon Sanchez back in Red again after Rojas had taken it in the previous stage by virtue of better positions. Rojas lost time to drop down in the standings. Took the lead in team classification Other important results - All leaders finished in the main bunch
Stage 5 - Flat with 1 major intermediate climb
A very strong breakaway kept themselves at arm's length of the peloton all through the stage. Movistar's efforts of chasing them down went fruitless as Kristoff Vandewalle took win after attacking his fellow escapees going up the climb just before the end of the stage. Dan mMartin was able to shave 20" off the peloton and went into Red.
Stage winner - Kristoff Vandewalle from breakaway Movistar - All leaders finished in peloton, 2'23" behind, lost the team lead Other important results - Dan Martin 7th, 2'3" behind, took the Red jersey, all other leaders in peloton
Stage 6 - Flat for half, mountain for half with mountain top finish, including 1 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
Another stage where an early breakaway formed with hope of surviving. This time however, the efforts of Europcar and Cofidis brought them back.However, their riders could not benefit from the same as once again Dan Martin showed his strength going up smaller mountains and took the stage win. He managed to extend his lead some more over the chasing Movistar trio of Kreuziger, Nairo and Intxausti.
Stage winner - Dan Martin Movistar - Kreuziger 2nd, 8" behind, Nairo 4th, Intxausti 6th, both 19" behind Other important results - Zakarin 3rd, Aru 5th, both 19" behind
A look at the standings after stage 6...
Stage 7 - Hilly with 1 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
This year's Vuelta was throwing up surprises again. An early breakaway survived on a seemingly innocuous stage so early on in the race. Marc de Maar just managed to stay ahead of the peloton and took the stage. Dan Martin got himself a podium finish and increased his lead to almost a minute. A very bright start for the Irishman. Can he sustain it? And what can our leading trio do to change the status quo? Still two more weeks of racing to go...
Stage winner - Marc de Maar from breakaway Movistar - Sanchez 4th, Kreuziger 6th, Ion 7th, Nairo 9th, all 1' behind Other important results - Dan martin 3rd, 45" behind, Aru 5th, 1' behind
To be continued...
Edited by AbhishekLFC on 02-12-2015 16:05
Stage 9 - Hilly with mountain top finish, including 1 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
This stage saw a surprise member of the early breakaway. Fabio Aru, currently in 21st place, took his chance. The peloton did not bother chasing him down too early. At the bottom of the first climb, Dan Martin also attacked. This was followed by attacks from Ilnur Zakarin and Robert Gesink. Movistar soked up all the pressure as their leaders held themselves back. With every member still in the leading group they pulled back Zakarin adn Gesink going up the first climb itself. Then they caught Aru going down the first descent before reeling Martin back before the start second climb. The peloton started to break up at ths point but the leaders went over the second climb together. At the base of the climb to the finish, Michal Kwiatkowski attacked and no one follow him. Nairo pulled away from teammate Kreuziger, grabbing second place both in the stage and in the GC. Movistar were now 1-2 in the GC, with Martin losing more than three minutes.
Stage winner - Michal Kwiatkowski Movistar - Nairo 2nd, 55" behind, Kreuziger 3rd, 1'5" behind, Intxausti 5th, 2'12" behind, Ion Izagirre 6th, 2'31" behind, Sanchez 7th, Valverde 8th, both 2'45" behind Other important results - Zakarin 10th, 2'45" behind, Dan Martin 14th, 3'10" behind
A look at the standings going into the ITT..
Stage 10 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 34.5 km
Halfway through this race, Movistar conveniently reminded everyone who the best team is! Movistar riders sweeped up the first five positions in this ITT! This sort of team domination is hardly ever seen, especially in the GTs. There was no doubt where the team classifications were headed, unless something drastic happened. Both Nairo and Kreuziger increased their lead at the top of the leaderboard.
Stage winner - Nairo Quintana Movistar - Kreuziger 2nd, losing 4", Ion Izagirre 3rd, losing 10", Intxausti 4th, 15", Malori 5th, losing 31", Sanchez 12th, losing 1'1" Other important results - Dan Martin 7th, losing 44", Zakarin 8th, losing 50", Kwiatkowski 9th, losing 52", Aru 15th, losing 1'9"
The standings after the ITT...
Stage 11 - Flat with mountain top finish, including 1 major intermediate climb
Another tricky stage saw another early breakaway survive as the teams of the leaders were interested more in protecting their interests from each other than chasing. Alexsander Dyachenko took the win while behind him the leaders did not create big time gaps.
Stage winner - Alexsander Dyachenko Movistar - Nairo 4th, Kreuziger 6th, both 47" behind, Intxausti 10th, 1'37" behind Other important results - Zakarin 3rd, Dan Martin 5th, 47" behind, Aru 8th, 1'16" behind
Stage 14 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major intermediate climbs
A mountain stage where all the leading teams worked together to pull back the early breakaway. The fast pace meant that none of the leaders could attack till the half-way point of the final climb to the finish. Just as the less stronger riders started to struggle, Dan Martin launched an attack to try to catch the others unawares. He was easily pulled in and then left behind by both Nairo and Kreuziger, the latter pipping his leader to the line, with both celebrating the Movistar 1-2.
Stage winner - Roman Kreuziger Movistar - Nairo 2nd, s.t., Valverde 8th, 1'9" behind Other important results - Dan Martin 3rd, 41" behind, Kwiatkowski 5th, Zakarin 6th, both 51" behind, Aru 9th, 1'9" behind
Stage 15 - Hilly with mountain top finish, including 1 major intermediate climb
The peloton let the early breakaway stay ahead again as they posed no threat in the overall standings. Movistar set a relatively fast pace with no attacks from any of the leaders till the foot of the climb to the finish. Zakarin was the stronger of the Tinkoff-Saxo teammates this time as he launched the first attack. But to no avail. Nairo streaked away from the rest, getting a lead of more than a minute and a half over Kreuziger and Zakarin, both finishing with the same time. Dan Martin slipped further down the timesheet.
Stage winner - Johann Tschopp from breakaway Movistar - Nairo 5th, 2'8" behind, Kreuziger 7th, 3'49" behind Other important results - Zakarin 6th, 3'49" behind, Dan Martin 9th, 4'43" behind, Aru 10th, 4'57" behind
Yes, this is what we want to see from Movistar in the Vuelta. Ill-timed attack by Dan Martin on stage 9, but he probably didn't stand a chance anyway. Still, pretty impressive show from Tinkoff-Saxo, too, currently also 5 riders in the top 15.
Couldn't really expect too much in Eneco.
