The 2013 World Tour season kicked off in Australia and after the two hilly and four flat stages it's the belgian Maxime Monfort taking home the win! The RadioShack rider took a stage win after a nice solo ride in Stage 3, that provided him the needed seconds for the overall win. Home favorite, Baden Cooke became 2nd after a surprise win on the Willunga Hill outsprinting stage 1 winner, Angel Vicioso and Simon Spilak. Old man Schulze had also great results with the Euskaltel team, taking a stage win and a nice 2nd home after fierce battle with Graeme Brown in the sprints. Speaking of Brown, he was also starting his season nicely, he won the last stage, while also podiuming twice. Another old man had a nice race, fresh New Zealand champion, Greg Henderson was also shining, getting a stage win combined with some appearances in the top 3. The KoM competition was quite one-sided, Lotto'sLars Bak took the win after participating in numerous breakaways. In contrary, the points competition was really close only 2 points seperated the winner Samuel Dumoulin and Lars Bak. The best young rider became the polish Kwiatkowski, taking a nice win home to start off the season, while the team competition was dominated by RadioShack. These were the main happenings in Australia, hope you liked them and see you soon in Argentina, where thing finally kick off to the newly formed US Postal team!
Spoiler
Sorry for the wall of text, but I'm seriously trying to improve my English writing skills, and need a lot of practice!
@sutty - Thanks, but I'm looking to improve it more and more!
Tour de San Luis
Preview
Route
A really easy flat stage, but the wind might surprise the favorites. Otherwise, it seems like a pure mass sprint stage, so watch out for the sprinters and their teams.
Another pure flat stage, but the final kilometers are containing uphill sections, somebody may be able to challenge the fastmens.
Stage 3 is the first stage for the GC candidates, the hilltop finish can easily create some shakeups.
A crucial time trial comes the day after, which is 19.2 kilometers long, so that might be a big struggle for some favorites. The race can be lost here, pretty easily.
Not an MTF, but still the 2nd category climb before the finish will still make it hard for the peloton, maybe somebody will gain time after a late attack. Its possible nonetheless.
Stage 6 brings us the hardest obstacles, the MTF on the Mirador del Sol will surely prove to be deciding one regarding the General Classficitaion. This stage is a must watch for sure.
At last, another one for the sprinters after the hard days, I expect a high-speed battle here.
Looking at the startlist, the first thing that comes to my mind is that, how nice to see Henao with the nr. 1! Checking the opponents, it seems like that Poels, Pellizotti and Wegmann are going to be the main contenders, while Navarro, Kroon and Di Luca are also going to be fairly strong. Our goal can be done!
In the sprinters department it's Favili, Ventoso and Phinney standing out, these guys are going to put up a real show hopefully! Of course, there is a chance for other outsiders too, there can be some really big surprises because of the early-season fittness.
A nice and easy flat stage to start things off, a good chance for a mass-sprint here.
My bet: Ventoso
Daily Recap
The stage started off with a breakaway establishing themselves at the front, the core pieces of the break were Europcar's frenchie, Bryan Coquard and the brit sprinter, Russell Downing.
The peloton took it easy today, the chase was led by the World Tour teams mainly, namely BMC and Lampre. Well, it is a bit generous to call it a "chase", because the BotD's lead was at around 8 minutes.
Despite the hard efforts by the escapees, their group got caught after the hard and organized chase by Orica and BMC. As the peloton came close to the 10 kilometer mark, BMC hit the gas and started to work for Phinney. Our sprinters were quite close to the front, the team was thinking of a train for Boivin, who was feeling really good throughout the day.
Live coverage
Just 3.5 kilometers left, 3 trains at the front, BMC, US Postal and Lampre are at the front, working for Phinney, Boivin and Favili respectively. The red-black leadout seems to be the best, as Blythe brings Phinney into a perfect position. Our own Rathe is struggling a bit, now Lampre overtook us!
And it started, Phinney is in the lead, but Kruopis and Favili are catching him! Ventoso and Kump are also coming, while Boivin is fading, Kruopis in the lead, here they come, it's really close!
Elia Favili takes it! What a start of the season for the italian, getting the win right ahead of Kruopis and young wonderkid Kump! Interesting stage, BMC's Phinney wasn't fast enough and takes the 4th and brazilian Mattos Andriato gets 5th. The best US Postal rider is canadian Guillaume Boivin, who finishes 10th after losing a lot of speed during the last kilometer.
Not a bad start, but Guillaume has to find some more speed in his legs. The 10th is decent though. Tomorrow he won't be favoured by the uphills so much, but we still have hope for him, at least to reproduce the 10th from today.
@Ian Butler - Thanks Ian, I'm glad you like the reporting!
Tour de San Luis
Stage 2
Stage Profile
Another nice flat stage, but this time it contains some uphill section in the last 10 kilometers. That doesn't really improve the chances of our very own canadian, but maybe he can surprise the big guns.
My bet: Kruopis
Daily Recap
Let's open our daily recap with a shot of the daily breakaway, which contained some promising talents, such as Wesley Kreder and British Time Trial Champion Alex Dowsett. The early escape of 5 got off to a good start, getting a 6 minute lead in a hurry, but the pace in the bunch wasn't really challenging just yet.
While the break was fighting with the tough wind conditions minutes in front of the peloton, it was Orica chasing with a slight intensity with a little help from Favili's Lampre team. As the pace stepped up around the 40 kilometer mark, the breakaways advantage melted quickly. There was no chance that the peloton is going to let them go all the way. And now, let's tune back to our live coverage!
Live coverage
We're at the 10 kilometer roadsign here in Argentina, the bunch is just about to catch the escapees. World Tour teams, BMC, Orica and Lampre are all working hard to make the catch, and that seems unavoidable. Our train is in the second or the third row of the peloton, lead by Andre Cardoso. Boivin might have a slight chance of a top 5 today with a good leadout.
The sprint is about to start right now, BMC is dominating the field for Phinney, who gets an incredible leadout by the british sprinter Blythe! There aren't too many people that are able to follow them, it's only Gatto, Ventoso and wonderkind Kump ! Our train broke apart, Boivin is in terrible position at the back of the other sprinters, so it's not looking too good for the blue armada. At tje front Phinney started his sprint with 1.5km out, it may be too early, but so far he is unchallenged!
Just one kilometer left, the american promise is still leading the way! He seems untouchable, Kump, Favili and Kruopis are all tracking him from behind! It's around a half kilometer to go, Phinney in the lead, but Kump and Gatto are closing in! Can he hold onto it?
Yes, Taylor Phinney takes the stage in a reasonable fashion! Nice win for him after yesterday's 4th! As for the others, Gatto finishes 2nd, while slovenian Kump gets his second 3rd position in a row! Favili and Kruopis are rounding out the top 5, our own Boivin finishes quite decent picking up an 11th place.
Despite not improving yesterday's result, I'm quite happy with the preformance of Boivin. After all, he had to fight his way back to the front, thanks to our screwed leadout. Next stage is a hilltop finish... Sergio, are you prepared?
It's playing time! Hilltop finish, Henao's terrain, so we expect something nice here! The final climb is brutal, really tough percentages, maybe some time gaps will appear too.
My bet: Henao
Daily Recap
The stage took a slow start the escapees got away soon, that's what we're starting our recap with. Today the breakaway experience was awarded to a group consisting of four, headlined by Manuel Cardoso and Gatis Smukulis. They quickly opened up a five minute gap to the peloton, but the bunch didn't let them go any further than that.
Back in the pack it was Lampre and Orica controlling the pace, those two teams were working their asses off to bring everything back together before the last climb. And now, let's get to our live coverage.
Live coverage
We're right at the bottom of the Mirador del Potrero, just as it starts to hit the tough percentages, a bunch of riders from the pack including Thomas Dekker bridge the gap between the escapees and the peloton, which stands around 20'.
The break finally gets caught, we're at the middle of the climb, the pacing is done by Vini Fantini and Lampre, but there are several attacks. It's Christensen trying to get away from Saxo, but Dekker is also there again. Taking a look back the main favorites, Poels and Henao are at the front good positioned, will it be a showdown?
The sprint starts when there is about 1.5 kilometers to go, it's the danish Christensen at the front, then Dekker, but now Vacansoleil's Poels and Westra are also coming coming strong! Where are the columbians?
Just 600m left, Poels takes the lead and there are two colombians! Henao and Duarte are around the 6th -10th positions, but they have higher speed than the others! It will be really close!
Henao caught Poels, these two guys are going to battle it out? Can Henao overtake him? They're together now and Visconti is also coming strong! A surprise win by him? No, the leading two are reaching the finish line...
...aaand it's Poels winning! The dutch guy beats Henao by half of a bike length! What a stage for the Vacansoleil rider, nice win, perfectly timed win! Sergio Henao gets 2nd, while Visconti takes the 3rd. The other top 5 places belong to Westra and Duarte, so there were two teams, Vacansoleil and US Postal standing out. The leader's doesn't leave Favili's shoulders, as he was able to come with the favourites nicely, taking a top 10 home in Stage 3.
Stage Results
1
Wout Poels
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
4h23'40
2
Sergio Henao
US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor
s.t.
3
Giovanni Visconti
Movistar Team
s.t.
4
Lieuwe Westra
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
5
Fabio Duarte
US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor
s.t.
6
Danilo Di Luca
Vini Fantini - Selle Italia
s.t.
7
Xavier Florencio
Katusha Team
s.t.
8
Manuele Mori
Lampre - Merida
s.t.
9
Franco Pellizotti
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
10
Elia Favilli
Lampre - Merida
s.t.
General Classifiation
1
Elia Favilli
Lampre - Merida
12h41'44
2
Wout Poels
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
3
Sergio Henao
US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor
+ 8
4
Giovanni Visconti
Movistar Team
+ 12
5
Xavier Florencio
Katusha Team
+ 20
6
Lieuwe Westra
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
s.t.
7
Franco Pellizotti
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
8
Fabio Duarte
US Postal Service presented by Berry Floor
s.t.
9
Danilo Di Luca
Vini Fantini - Selle Italia
s.t.
10
Manuele Mori
Lampre - Merida
s.t.
Points Rankings
1
Elia Favilli
Lampre - Merida
45
2
Taylor Phinney
BMC Racing Team
39
3
Marko Kump
Team Saxo - Tinkoff
32
KOM Classification
1
Manuel Cardoso
Caja Rural
15
2
Russell Downing
Team NetApp - Endura
14
3
Wout Poels
Vacansoleil - DCM Pro Cycling Team
10
DS Reaction
Nice stage by Henao, could've won it, but his position before the sprint wasn't good enough. Apart from that, it was really promising. If he can improve just a bit, he seems ready for even more.
