And so my first race as a leader this season comes to an end. In the beautiful city of Barcelona, we'll take on a tough circuit, passing the Montjuic 8 times in total.
It should be a very interesting stage. The Top 10 are still in reach, with 35 seconds on Nicolas Roche, but so far my efforts to create some gaps haven't been successful.
99 km to go
Mirroring yesterday, Jan Barta is in the break for the day, again with Artem Nych, among others.
Into the city, they have a little more than two minutes of advantage.
13 km to go
At the penultimate crossing of the Montjuic, the peloton has shrinked to around 60 riders, but everyone ahead of me in the GC was still there. I had to do something, but I decided to be more patient today.
Meanwhile, Jan had to let go of the others up front. He wouldn't make it today, but the group still had a minute on the pack.
6 km to go
I waited just until Jan is caught - and then we made our move! Again, Patrick is leading me out. Will it work this time?
We achieve some seperation and go on the descent together!
0,5 km to go
The break is going to make it today, but we're coming closer!
I finish sixth, as we stay clear of the peloton - but how much time did we make up?!
Matthews is clocked 26 seconds behind me, which means I'm ... 11th overall. At first, I was devestated to have missed my goal of a Top 10 so narrowly after all that effort. But then, my DS came towards me, smiling ...
That's right! I may have missed the Top 10, but today was enough to claim the young riders jersey as a consolation price! And what a price that is!
To recap, I'm very happy with this race. Not only is this my first major young riders classification that I've won, I also showed some great fighting spirit, especially on the final two stages. And that really paid off, not only in the rankings, but also in my personal standing with the team management. They assured me multiple times how pleased they were, and while I always take such overwhelming praise with a grain of salt, I think it is a good sign looking forward to July!
A busy month is behind us, the first big one of this season. Lots and lots of races could be won, and lots of points along with them. Let's have a look:
Peter had an amazing stride on the cobbles, he swept the three Belgian classics after winning OHN in february. He did fail when it mattered most, though: Fourth at Milano - San Remo was below expectations. Huge win for Dylan Groenewegen though.
We had a quieter stage racing campaign in March, with 6th places in both France and Italy and my 11th in Spain. No other team was dominating, though Richie Porte was very convincing.
For our biggest surprise, let's turn to ...
Bora-Highlight
... Jay McCarthy's massive victory on the "white streets", the Strade Bianche! Originally in the race as Peter Sagan's super domestique, he was allowed to break free in the final kilometers, and with everyone watching Peter, no one cared for Jay!
Certainly the biggest win of his career, and that in his Champions jersey - what a moment!
Nothing major happened in our continental tour participation, but worth mentioning:
Due to Peter's great results in the classics, both he and the team easily stay atop the World Tour Rankings. BMC had a great month as well with Porte and the classics team scoring a lot, while Sky lacks the top results, but compensates that with sheer quantity.
In other news ...
Not really news, but I thought I'd take the time to reflect on surprises and disappointments of the early season:
Certainly a positive surprise was Sonny Colbrelli. He started the season with a fifth overall in Dubai, went on to 2nd at OHN, 4th at Strade Bianche just to top it off with a podium spot at la Classicissima. Also, Dylan Groenewegen - need I say more?
I myself look back on March with fond memories. 15th as a helper at Tirreno - Adriatico, 11th and the young riders jersey in Catalunya, that's nothing to sneeze at! Now, onto the Basque Country!
Thanks guys. It was a good month especially for Sagan, but that MSR result is a little bit of a downer ^^ I was just as surprised to see Dylan win though.
From saturday, I'll be out of town for a week, and I don't want to split the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, so I'll take a small break now. Regular updates start again monday, the 24th.
Vuelta al Pais Vasco 6 Stages | April 3 - April 8, 2017
The Vuelta al Pais Vasco originally dates back as far as 1924, but only had eight editions before going on a long hiatus, not least due to WW2. In its current state, the race is run since 1969, when Jacques Anquetil won the first iteration in over 30 years.
For Basque Country standards, this is a relatively easy course. It takes until stage 5 for a proper uphill finish to happen, which puts an extra emphasis on the concluding time trial. So if anyone wants to gain some time before that, they'll need to invest a lot to create gaps on stages 3 and 4.
Top Riders
Tom Dumoulin
Team Sunweb
Alejandro Valverde
Movistar Team
Julien Alaphilippe
Quick-Step Floors
Vincenzo Nibali
Bahrain - Merida
Esteban Chà ves
Orica - Scott
Mark Cavendish
Team Dimension Data
Sam Bennett
BORA - hansgrohe
Ben Swift
UAE Team Emirates
The competition isn't as tough as in Catalunya, but still lots of strong riders will contend for the overall win. Tom Dumoulin is the top favorite thanks to his superior time trialing, but the stronger puncheurs such as Valverde and Alaphilippe will try to make his life miserable in the hilly stages.
There is a decent field of sprinters as well for the first two stages, among them our very own Sam Bennett. The Manx Missile is the obvious favorite, though.
Bora - Hansgrohe
As mentioned above, Sam has a good shot on the first two stages to maybe snatch a win.
Sam should have some nice chances in stage 1-2, possibly even 3 & 4. Otherwise a great attacking squad to make this race as hard as Buchmann needs it for a great overall. With this BQ variant it's always that the positioning before the final climb on Stage 5 determines your chances on a good or bad GC result, luckily Pösti and Jay should be the perfect men to ride Emu into position for that. And then, of course, a good day on the TT is needed for a Top10, which could be possible if luck and legs are on Emu's side
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya
Jérémy Roy
Franco Pellizotti
Yury Trofimov
Andrey Zeits
Michael Matthews
Geraint Thomas
Steven Kruijswijk
Esteban Cháves
George Bennett
Nicolas Roche
Benjamin King
)
Greg Van Avermaet
Jakob Fuglsang
Vasil Kiryienka
Alexander Kristoff
Bahrain - Merida
