Tour Down Under - Stage 6
Get used to seeing this profile, since it is used over and over throughout the season.
As you would expect on a short stage like today's, there was a constant stream of attacks. In the end a ten man group including Popovych, Roger Hammond (Garmin), Ruben Plaza (Movistar) and Jerome Pineau (QST) got away.
4 more riders, Liewue Westra (VAC), Simon Clarke (Astana), and Daniel Oss and Mauro Finetto (Liquigas), would also join up to create a large 14 man group.
The entire breakaway was swept up with about 10 KM to go, but a few KM later, Brett Lancaster (Garmin) launched a late move.
Back in the chasing peleton, our train of Martens, Matthews, and Brown was able to assume control at the front. On our wheels were Cavendish, Petacchi, Bennati, EBH, and other lesser sprinters.
To everyone's shock, Lancaster would barely hold off Cavendish to take a gutsy win. Graeme Brown took an impressive 5th place, beating, among others, Boonen, EBH, and Hushovd. Now why couldn't we sprint like this at the beginning of the race? Ultimately it was a bit of a disappointing race, as we didn't manage to score a single stage win. Martens did take home 9th overall which will hopefully please the sponsors.
January Review/February Preview
January is a pretty quiet month, but we got some decent results in Australia and none of our guys got hurt, so I'm content.
Mark Cavendish won rider of the month, which he certainly deserved after winning 2 stages and the overall at the TDU. Timothy Roe (BMC) was awarded best young rider due to his 4th place at the Australian Championships. IMO EBH or even Michael Matthews should have won, but that's CyaLogic for you.
Looking ahead to February, we will continue to train our guys up. We start in Mallorca at the Vuelta Ciclista a Mallorca. We then head to Portugal for the Volta a Algarve and stay in the Iberian Peninsula for the Vuelta a Andelucia, which features our first Time Trial of the year. We finish off the month with the GP Lugano in Switzerland and the first cobbles of the year at Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne.
Our second race of the year is the Vuelta a Mallorca. All of the stages are a bit hilly, but there are no uphill finishes so the overall race should be tight.
Race Report
The attacks started right from the gun. The first group to get away had six men. Here we see them sprinting for the first sprint points of the race. Jonathan Bellis (SaxoBank) took the points ahead of Steve Hounard (AG2R) and Victor Cabedo (Orbea).
That group would quickly swell up to a 15 rider break. Our own Tom Slagter got into the break, although we didn't expect it to stay away with that many guys in it.
And look at that, we were right. That group was quickly swallowed up, but a new one got away, and again Slagter was in there.
With all the top sprinters looking for to wear the yellow jersey, that group didn't have a chance. The hills left Vermeltfoort in trouble at the back of the peleton, so Sebastian Langveld came to the front to lead out Matti Breschel. Andre Greipel (OPL), EBH, and Francisco Ventoso (Movistar) got the primo spots on Matti's wheel.
After attacking once and quickly being pulled back, Geoffrey Lequatre (RadioShack) would attack again with just 5 KM to go.
In the end Lequatre faded quickly which left 5 men battling for the win. While Breschel was the weakest sprinter of them all, his 75 hill stat really helped him out. Unfortunately Sky's wunderkind Boasson Hagen was able to take the win by less than a bike length. Despite the disappointing loss, it is nice to see Breschel riding well ahead of the Spring Classics.
Vuelta a Mallorca - Stage 2
An interesting stage here. It isn't hilly enough for the leaders to really come to the fore, but what few pure sprinters there are here will struggle to hold on over the little bumps.
Race Report
Our first two breakaways were Grega Bole (Lampre) and Alessandro Vanotti (Liquigas).
Michael Reihs (Christina Watches) took the first KOM sprint ahead of Bole and Jonathan Bellis (Saxo).
The group would continue to swell and 12 riders would get off the front. There were no big name riders, so the group was allowed to go away.
Manuel Ortega (Andalucia) took the intermediate sprint ahead of Pelle Clapp (Christina Watches).
Despite the size of the group and the undulating profile, Omega Pharma drove the peleton for Andre Greipel and pulled the break back inside 10 KM to go. You can see our train with Tjallingi, Coen, and Breschel moving up the right side.
In the sprint, Breschel got onto Greipel's wheel, while EBH sprinted up the right side with Bennati and Haussler on his wheel.
Bennati continues his great early-season form and takes his second win of the season. Ventoso came out of nowhere to take 2nd, while Breschel just edged out Boasson Hagen and Francisco Gavezzi (Lampre).
Results
I forgot to export the results, but the top 10 was Bennati, Ventoso, Haussler, Breschel, Gavazzi, EBH, Sagan, Greipel, Mirco Lorenzetto (Lampre), and Fernandez (EUS).
Vuelta a Mallorca - Stage 3
Today we get the first outright hilly day. If there is a bunch sprint, there should be only 10 or so guys in it.
Race Report
13 men got away off the front, and considering the amount of climbing, the peleton were not afraid to give them a nice gap. David Millar and Benjamin Noval (Saxo) were among the riders in the break.
Marcel Wyss (Geox) would take the first sprint ahead of Adrian Palomares (Andalucia).
On the first big climb, Andy Schleck attacked! Levi Leipheimer and Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) tried to follow but they couldn't match the Luxembourger.
Schleck caught the break and started pull away on the last big climb. Millar and Wyss battled onto his wheel, while the rest were quickly pulled back into the peleton.
Today was not a good day for us. Carlos Barredo was the last of our riders to drop, but there were still over 30 riders ahead of him.
At the front, Schleck put in a big acceleration and dropped Millar, while Wyss, to his credit, was able to fight back to Andy's wheel.
Unfortunately for the two leaders, the peleton were able to close on them inside 20 KM to go. As soon as the catch was made, the big contenders started their moves. Mikel Nieve (EUS) was the first to attack. We can see Frank Schleck (Leopard) looking over at his defeated brother as he chased Nieve down.
All the attacking came to nothing, as 20 men came to the finish together. Among them were the Schlecks, Nieve, Sammy Sanchez, Anton, Damiano Cunego, Tom Danielson and Boasson Hagen.
In the sprint, Frank Schleck took it up where Bennati left off. Sammy Sanchez, despite being a better sprinter than Frank, settled for 2nd ahead of Vasil Kiryienka (Movistar) and Biel Kadri (AG2R).
Barredo rolled across 56th, 3 minutes 55 seconds behind Schleck. He still beat the rest of the team by minutes, and now sits 34th on GC.
Results
Again no exported results (sorry), but EBH takes over the GC lead.
Edited by TheDealer on 06-08-2011 00:58
Today is another hilly day, but like yesterday, there is a sizable decent at the end of the stage.
Race Report
A flurry of early attacks led to this, a 13 man breakaway, which featured Lars Boom for us.
As soon as the hills hit, 4 riders were dropped, the biggest name being Koldo Fernandez (EUS).
On the uncatagorized 2nd hill, the group split again. Petrov (Astana), Larsson (Saxo), Pujol (Omega Pharma), and Cherel (A2GR) pushed ahead. Boom was dropped at first, then got back, but was then dropped permanently on the Cat 2 Coll de Puigmayor.
Shortly after Boom fell off the group, Gustav Larsson really upped the pace and no one else could react. Larsson held a 4 minute advantage to the peleton, and he is quite a gifted time trialist. Could Gustav time trial to a win here?
With Barredo feeling good, he attacked. Barredo managed to catch Boom and get a bit of help, but he was not able to get away as the peleton swallowed up Barredo.
On the last little hill, Mikel Nieve attacked. He caught and passed Boom, but could he get a gap to the rest of the contenders?
At the front, Gustav Larsson came home with a huge gap, 2 minutes 58 seconds to the 3 "chasers".
Petrov and Pujol distanced Cherel in the finishing straight, with Petrov taking home a nice 2nd place.
Cherel barely hung on for 4th place ahead of the group containing all the main contenders. Lars Boom managed to hang on to this group although he had no energy left for the sprint.
Barredo could not match the hard pace on the last little hill and he fell into a group with about 15 other riders. Luckily, the judges awarded Barredo the same time as all the top favorites.
The last stage is another hilly stage, but again there is downhill and flat between the climbing and the finish.
Race Report
A nine-man break got away today including our man Sebastian Langveld. He was joined by riders like Matteo Tosatto (Saxo), Christophe Riblon (AG2R), and Luis Lavarde (Columbia es Pasion).
Early in the race, race leader Edvald Boasson Hagen went down! Luckily for the man in yellow, the pace was still slow and he was able to get back to the peleton.
On the biggest climb of the day, the group split apart. Tosatto, Riblon, and Lavarde pushed forward and Langveld couldn't keep up.
Riblon took the mountain sprint ahead of Tosatto. At this point the gap was around 4 minutes.
Vasil Kiryienka, who unfortunately was cut off at the top of the picture, attacked! EBH, not willing to let the win slip away, quickly countered.
EBH and Kiryienka would quickly catch the original break, but then Mikel Nieve attacked and blew by everyone else.
The attacks led to a quickening of the pace in the peleton, and again, Barredo couldn't handle it.
After his teammate Nieve was pulled back in, Sammy Sanchez went on the attack. Euskatel were really trying hard to drop EBH today.
In the end, it wasn't meant to be for the Basques as it came down to another reduced bunch sprint of about 30 riders. In the sprint, Kiryienka, who is not known for his finishing kick, managed to top Sammy Sanchez and Frank Schleck, who had to settle for 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Overall, it was a very disappointing race for us. Breschel did well in the first two sprints against superior competition, but when the hills got harder, none of our riders could do anything. The next race will be the Volta ao Algarve in about a week.
