A very busy week combined with a weekend of being very ill has meant that I've fallen behind with my updates. So here is a summary of the news from Covilha, and the continuing positive growth of Benfica - TMN - Delta.
Volta ao Algarve
The first home race of the season, the first race under the new banner of Benfica - TMN - Delta, and the first chance for the team's GC riders to mount a serious assault on an overall victory. There were some big names present, but Tiago Machado was confident of his chances on a parcours featuring 4 hilly stages and an ITT.
And he certainly challenged. Sitting 6th overall, 24" down after 2 stages, Machado failed to counter an attack by Maxim Iglinsky in Stage 3 and falling to 10th overall. Stage 4 had all its climbing done early, meaning that Machado was only 50" off the lead going into the final ITT stage. But his performance was no match for Sylvain Chavanel and Edvald Boasson Hagen, who shared the best time, 18" clear of their nearest contender. Machado could only come home 72" down - and finishing 70" down on Boasson Hagen, in 11th place overall.
Tour de Haut Var
The Tour de Haut Var is a bizarre, 2-day race featuring some very difficult climbing. Stage 1 started with two early Cat.2 climbs, before levelling out. The finishing circuit included several small climbs, on which Jonathan Tiernan-Locke and Rui Costa attacked repeatedly. While Costa fell short, JTL was able to lead the peloton home and take the yellow jersey.
Stage 2 included some fearsome climbs - A Cat.2, 2 Cat.1s and an HC, to be precise. With Benfica-TMN leading the pace to bring home the breakaway (which had a lead of more than 13min at one point), it was no surprise that Jake Keough and John Murray started to fade. With no more engines to pull, JTL, Costa and David dela Fuente broke out on their own 20km from the finish, but in the end the likes of Jens Voigt (9th), Chris Horner (7th) and Maxime Monfort (6th) were too strong. JTL fought till the end, finishing only 25" off stage and overall winner Alejandro Valverde to secure 4th in the GC and 3rd in the points competition.
Vuelta a Andalucia - Ruta del Sol
2 names, 5 stages and another chance for the 7-man Benfica-TMN squad to get some results on the board. Stage 1 was an ITT: Taylor Phinney, getting his first real workout of the season, came in 2nd @2". Oss was 18th @19", and Kolobnev - holding the team's GC ambitions - 28th @21"
Stage 2 ended on a slight uphill kick which suited Kolobnev. The team kept it close together and drove the peloton across the flat. Kolo started his sprint a little too far back, finishing 12th, but on the same time - 21" off the leader. Taylor Phinney, who started the day in the blue points jersey on behalf of leader Christian Vandevelde, came in with the same group to maintain 2nd in the GC, and retained the Young Rider's jersey. Much more climbing to come in this race!
Stage 3 was another bumpy stage, with 1 each of 1st, 2nd and 3rd category climbs. Taylor Phinney stayed with the front group almost all the way, crossing the line with Daniel Oss, 26" behind the winner Fabian Wegmann (Garmin). Kolo again tried to make an impact in the last few kilometers, but was unable to make an attack stick, eventually crossing the line in 14th, given the same time as Wegmann but losing 8 bonus seconds on leader Vandevelde to be in 12th overall, @29". Wilco Keldermann, the Rabobank youngster, took the white jersey away from Phinney by 26 seconds, to lead that competition from the American by 22", and by 39" from 3rd placed Daniel Oss.
Stage 4 saw Oscar Freire taking his second stage win of the Ruta del Sol in a bunch sprint. The 5km downhill run to the finish was frantic, with Kolo just edging Francesco Ginanni on the line to take 2nd place, and some bonus seconds that move him up to 6th overall, 17" down on the red jersey of Christian Vandevelde.
In Stage 5 Daniel Oss, in an attempt to gain some bonus seconds, joined the day's breakaway of 7 riders, and proceeded to take both ISs without contest. Towards the end, a group of 4 Spaniards and Alexandr Vinokourov bridged the gap, standing around 2' at that point, and drove it home. On the one hand, this put pay to Kolo's assault on the GC (after coming across the line 24th, he finished 11th overall, 90" off the lead). On the other hand, there was a real chance that if Daniel Oss could make it to the top of the uphill finish far enough ahead of white jersey wearer Keldermann, he could win that competition. In the end, it was too much to ask for... Oss finished a mere 13" off Kelderman, with Phinney slipping back to 4th.
The stage was won by David Arroyo of Movistar, who put 1'27" into Christian Vandevelde on that finish to win overall, 28" clear of his nearest rival.
Rankings
Those races brought a busy February to a close. Daniel Oss is our highest ranked rider in the Continental Rankings, in 7th place. JTL and Kolo sit in 10th and 13th respectively. Androni and Cofidis are the only teams ahead of us, with a 47 point gap to bridge if we want to secure that elusive World Tour spot for next season.
Up Next
Strade Bianchi and the Vuelta Murcia open March's racing. The cobbles squad, led by Daniel Oss will head to Belgium for a 4 day camp before the Classics season gets into full swing with Nokere Koerse and Milan-San Remo.
March is proving to be fruitful for Benfica - TMN - Delta. A mixed programme of classics and short stage races, it was certainly going to be a test of both the team's logistics and fitness. And the team has - so far at least this month - risen to it claiming 8 Top 5 finishes!
It is March 23rd 2012, and there are celebrations at the team's Covilha base. Because just 250km south in Redondo, in the heart of the Alentejo region, the 6-man Volta ao Alentejo squad was celebrating the 5th victory of the season, and the first for a Portuguese rider - Manuel Cardoso took the mass sprint after the perfect lead-out.
With the rest of the Volta to go, along with several other races this month, there is high hope of maintaining a good position in the Continental rankings; here is a quick summary of our highlights since we last updated you.
Strade Bianchi - Alexandr Kolobnev - Fourth Vuelta a la Region de Murcia (St. 1) - Tiago Machado - Fourth and Rui Costa - Fifth Murcia (St. 2 - ITT) - Nelson Oliveira - Fourth Murcia (GC) - Tiago Machado - Fourth and Rui Costa - Fifth Nokere Koerse - Taylor Phinney - Fifth
The conditions for Nokere Koerse were appalling, so even identifying the team became difficult!
Milan - San Remo - Rui Costa - Eleventh Beaten in a two man sprint after a series of breakaways over the Cappi climbs. Former world champion Alessandro Ballan (BMC) took the win ahead of Langeveld (OGE) and Cancellara (RNT). Mauricio Ardila (SLB) suffered a fall mid-way through the race, breaking his shin and ruling himself out of action for at least 2 months.
World Champion Mark Cavendish (SKY) enjoys a chat with fellow-countryman Jonathan Tiernan-Locke during the ride to San Remo. The pair finished with the peloton, almost 9 minutes back.
Classic Loire-Atlantique - Taylor Phinney - WINNER Breaking away early on, the young American was able to hold off the advancing peloton and take his first victory in red and green, with the peloton 1'20" behind
The team currently has 6-strong squads at both the Settimani Coppi e Bartali[i] and [i]Volta ao Alentejo. In the Italian race, David de la Fuente - while setting the pace on the front of the peleton - unexpectedly found himself in a breakaway. Determined to make the most of his superior climbing, he won both 2nd category climbs of the day and - with no categorised climbs in Stages 2 or 3 - guaranteed himself 2 days in the green mountain leader's jersey.
Stage 2 was a strange parcours. Only 80km long, but over a very steep climb. No points for the climb, though, this was all about position and time on the finish line. It was Jonathan Tiernan-Locke from the Benfica squad who got closest to taking the win, finishing 5th.
With 2 more hilly stages before the final ITT stage, the team will look to defend the KoM jersey, rather than fighting for the GC. That said, if Tiago Machado or Alexandr Kolobnev found themselves in a position to fight for overall classifcation (both are 51" back), we won't be telling them no!
Meanwhile in Portugal, the Volta ao Algarve has 3 stages to run, and all 3 could conceivably come down to sprint finishes. We will certainly be aiming to defend the yellow jersey on the back of Manuel Cardoso.
The end of March proves to be as busy as the beginning, with the 3 Days of De Panne and 3 more Classics to come. April will start more calmly, with only 5 races scheduled for the first 12 days - but one of these is Paris-Roubaix, so don't expect the pressure to drop!
