After Course de la Paix disappointment, I hope this race will be better for me
First stage ends in Valloire, after climbing Col du Telegraph. Not an easy stage to start a race.
Ronde de L’Isard winner and runner-up, Paret-Peintre and Power will be again my main rivals for this race, together with a bunch of Italian riders that can perform well in both mountain and hilly stages
With 5 km to the top of Telegraph, the leading group is only composed of 9 riders, from where always is pulling Lafay, Paret-Peintre team-mate
Before reaching the summit, I launch an attack. It looks good, but just before topping the climb, Paret-Peintre catches me
In the descent to Valloire, Fabio Tuzi and Robert Power also become part of the leading group. We are going to fight for the stage win the four of us.
In the sprint, Frenchmen Paret-Peintre takes the win. I just finish forth
The second stage will take us to Plateau d’Assy. A hilly stage where you always have to be careful for not loosing ground on your rivals
After the intermediate sprint, all my team-mates that still are in my group crash
We have to do twice the Plateau d’Assy climb, and in the end of the first one, I’m dropped of the selected group of Power and Paret-Peintre. With Unieuro’s help (for Tuzi), I don’t lose lot of time
Power destroyes everyone and takes stage win and race leading
I managed to finish in third place, almost 4 minutes behind the Aussie rider. These are the gaps from today
Looking at Power stats, he’s better than me in every single stat except MON and ACE, in which we are level
This stage is the only one that might not affect GC. Despite being the last 25 km in ascent, until the last 2 km, is only a “false flat” that will wear down our energies. With another mountain stage and a hilly ITT left, better save some energy.
After a few attack from “low categorised” riders, we’re heading into the final kilometres, which feature a constant 6% slope in its final 2 km
After being the first to sprint, I explode with 100 metres to the line, and I’m passed by lots of rider, with the Italian Davide Ballerini taking the stage win
That gap to Power is huge, and with a ITT, despite not completely flat, it should get bigger before going to the last stage. From now, a top3 in GC and/or a stage win will be my target
German rider from team AWT-GreenWay, Max Schachman takes the win, with Power and Paret-Peintre finishing at 7 seconds. My time is 9 seconds slower than my two rivals. Better than I could expect
The GC is like this
For final stage, we have the final climb to Plateau des Glieres. My goal will be the stage win, as the overall seems impossible with a 4-minute gap with Power
With 100 km to go, we’re climbing Plateau des Glieres by another slope of this climb. We will descent the climb by where we will climb in the end of the stage
Obviously, the group explodes, and after the descent there’s only a 20-men group in the front. Now, I only have one team-mate, Stef Cras, who looks to be in a great day (prov. +4)
At the bottom of the final climb, Paret-Peintre is 1 minute in front of my group (and Power’s). And also, three of my team-mates have a +5. For me it’s a -2.
Eduardo Estrada (D’Amico) wins from the breakaway
I arrived 2 minutes and a half later than the Colombian rider, and looks that I will keep my third place in the overall
And there it is. Third in the GC, which is won by Robert Power, with Paret-Peintre in second.
By only one point, I’m able to keep the mountain jersey at the end of the race
After the announcement of my signing for Lotto Soudal for the next two seasons, I will be racing Giro della Valle d’Aosta.
It looks that Power and Paret-Peintre will be racing Volta a Portugal do Futuro, which concurs with my race. Because of that, I’m the only favourite for this race. My only possible rival might be Sam Oomen (Rabobank Development Team), but he has only 68 in MON
The stage is decided in a sprint. Tom Wirtgen wins the stage.
A gap is made between the top10, which includes me, and the rest of the peloton. 35 seconds “before starting” the race
First mountain stage with end in La Salle after climbing Col des Saisies, Cormet de Roselend and Col du Petit Saint Bernard
In Petit San Bernard I attack. I open a huge gap quickily, before catching the breakaway in mid-ascension
I’m the first to reach the top of the Petit Saint Bernard
I take the stage win, and the leading of the race
After two stages in France, this stage will take us to Italy, ending in the sky station of Valgrisenche
Alexandre Geuens, a team-mate, who is fifth in GC, set an incredible rhythm to drop almost everyone except Oomen and Bresciani
In the final climb, Oomen tries me a few times, but I always take him back
Finally, I launch my attack with 5 km to go
Another win in Valgrisenche!
The GC is now this
Three stages left, but my first GC win is really close
Forth stage is a flat one, but the end has a slightly uphill which might create some gaps
In the sprint, Dutch Arvid de Kleijn (Jo Piels) wins the stage, with Wouters finishing third
In the GC, it all remains unchanged
This stage is the hardest stage of this stage race. Ending in Torgnon, we will have to pass through Col Tsecore (HC), Col Saint Pantaleon (1º) and Torgnon (1º)
In the first climb of the climb, Col Tsecore, Rabobank set a high rhythm for Sam Oomen, which eliminates three of my team-mates.
In the descent, Garcia Cortina (AWT-Green Way) crashes and with the confusion, the group is reduced to 16 riders. In the front, 4 riders have 5 minutes on my group, but they’re not dangerous for GC neither for the stage.
With 6 riders in the front of a 16-men group, we definitely look like Sky in Tour de France, in which btw, Froome is on yellow jersey after having won in both Pierre Saint-Martin and Plateau de Beille
Rabobank is again setting the rhythm in Col Saint Pantaleon, so I decide to go in front and pull from a few metres. The result? I drop everyone except my team-mate Stef Cras
With 6 km to the top, we catch the rest of the breakway and become head of the race
Cras is pulling really high, so he might not be able to get to the top with me, as I would like to, so I would have to go alone in the last climb.
Finally, with 3 km to the top, he can’t keep any longer, so he droppes. I reach the summit in first place, with Cras, Bresciani and Oomen over a minute behind me
In the descent, I’m able to increase my gap to two minutes, and in the last part we recibe a bad new. Stef Cras has crashed
In the climb, I ride in a slow rhythm for not burn myself in the end, so with 3 km to go I push to my best just for fun, because Oomen was already 3 minutes behind me
Third stage win in this race for me. What a succesfull week for me
Oomen ends almost 6 minutes behind me, what an exhibition. Obviously, the +5 worked out
Last stage is a 9 km MTT to Champdepraz
Starting the MTT with a -2
After an slow start, I go onto increasing my rhythm as the km go through. I cross the line and destroy the clock!
I win the GC with more than 11 minutes on Bresciani and 16 on Oomen. Another 3 team-mates are in top10
I clearly win points jersey from Bresciani
And thanks to today’s win, I take enough points to overtake Sergey Rozin in the mountain classification
What a sucessfull week. 4 stage win + GC + points + KOM. I think it will take me a long time to even match a week like this
A few days later, I have another race in Italy, the Trofeo Almar, with start and end in Taino
We start the last climb with 12 to go. After the summit, we have the descent to Taino, where maybe a small group will fight for the win
In the moment that the group reeled in the breakaway, I launched my attack, that only Lorenzo Rota could follow
Behind us, Power is thirty seconds away.
We’re heading to the sprint, and as we’re slowing, Power is closing on
I manage to out-sprint my breakaway mates, to take my ninth win of the year!!
Rota and Power joins me in the podium
Succesfull month, with 4 stage and GC in Aosta, and the win in Trofeo Almar, apart from my signing by Lotto Soudal
By the way, this race have been ridden the same that 2016 Tour de France has ended, with Chris Froome taking his third win in the French race. Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde were second and third.
Froome was able to add two more stage win to his account, in La Toussuire and L'Alpe D'Huez, making 4 in the total, the same as Valverde, who won in Huy, Cauterets, Mende and Gap. With both Kittel and Degenkolb winning 3 stages, and Dan Martin winning in Mur de Bretagne and Rodez, 16 wins out 20 (+ TTT) were won by 5 riders. Only Cancellara, Cavendish, Quintana and Contador were able to win a stage apart from that 5 riders
Back to racing after one dry month. Now I have to race the most prestigious U23 race: Tour de L’Avenir
Starting with a prologue in Saint-Flour
My only goal for the prologue is not to lose more than 30 seconds on Power and Paret-Peintre who will be my rivals for the GC
At the end, I only lose 17 seconds on the Aussie, and 9 on the French
Second stage is a flat one, for a sprint in Brioude, where my team-mate Enzo Wouters is the favourite, together with Russian Danil Nemykin (Itera-Katusha)
Finally, in the sprint, Wouters is surprised by Victor Tournieroux (Chambery CF)
Third stage of Tour de L’Avenir, with end in Saint-Galmier
In the last climb of the day, the attacks come from everywhere. Power launches the most succesfull attack
Power is the first to reach the summit, so he pulls away. I decide to stay with Lafay, Paret-Peintre and Oomen, two minutes ahead of the remaining parts of the big group
Power takes the win, and yellow jersey with that
The GC now is led by Power. I lay on forth place
The forth stage is a flat one, for sprinters
In the lead-out to the sprint, a little split is made in the group, and Power is caught
Danil Nemykin wins the sprint, and no gap are made in the end
First mountain stage in Tour de L’Avenir, with summit finish in Plateau de Solaison
During the stage, I find out that Power has no team-mates in this race, so we should try to play tactically to win this race
Here we start the climb to Plateau de Solaison
An attack from Benjamin Brkic (Tirol) sets the race on fire. Power and Paret-Peintre follow him, so I’m forced to do the same
After a new attack from Paret-Paintre, Power looks to be fading
With their “Valverde tactic” (attack and stop), Power and Paret-Peintre have exploded
With my own rhythm I manage to place in the front, dropping Paret-Peintre and Power
Finally, I win the stage in Plateau de Solaison!!
These are the stage results
I take the yellow jersey!!
Also, I’m leading the points clasification
Three stages ahead of us, two of them being two great mountain stages, and I will be with the leader’s jersey
Easy stage with a potential hard finish. Will be decided in a reduced group sprint or in a breakaway
The stage is definitely for the breakaway. My team are not chasing them hard
Suiss rider Giacomo Ocanha sprints his breakaway mates
No gaps for the GC guys ahead of the final two stages
Big mountain stage, with end in La Rosiere, after climbing other two monster climbs
The breakaway guys are like 12 minutes down on GC, so they look no dangerous, but while climbing the first mountain of the day, they have an advantage of 15 minutes, after any of my team-mates pulls from the group (the best is 58 in MON).
Chambery takes over the group, destroying my team-mates in the process with 70 km to go. Also, bad news for me, as I have a provisional -4.
Oh no! I have crashed
This are not the best news for me. At least, the crash has not affect me a lot. In the middle of the second climb, I’m almost back in the group, but Chambery is pulling really high
Finally, I have come back to the group. I hope that they slow down a bit, so I’m able to hold on until the summit of this climb
We’re starting the climb to Le Rosiere with the other GC guys and ten minutes away from the head of the race
Power is the first to attack with 12 km to go. He opens a gap with Paret-Peintre, and a bigger one with me
With a -3, I have nothing to do. The gap with Paret-Peintre I think is over 4 minutes now. In the end, it could be over 6 minutes. GC is over for me
Paret-Peintre beats to the line Rozin (from breakaway) to win in Le Rosiere
I come almost 6 minutes away from the French rider
Paret-Peintre is the new race leader
Last stage of 2016 Tour de L’Avenir. Queen stage, with the Molard-Croix de Fer climb, and for the end, La Toussuire
What a start of the final stage! Some riders looks to not be happy with the breakaway, and finally Paret-Peintre launches his attack, making me to follow him, together with Power, Lafay and Brkic
After been first at the top of Col du Molard, I pass first at Col du Croix de Fer
We’re starting La Toussuire, the climb where the race will be decided
Brkic attack from the bottom, and no one tries to follow him
As the rhythm is low, and Brkic is almost in place to overtake me in GC, I attack
I don’t go anywhere, but I keep pulling for trying to open a gap with Power and Paret-Peintre, who with 4 km to the top, attack me
Brkic wins in La Toussuire, in front of Paret-Peintre, who wins the GC
I cross the line in forth place, almost 3 minutes later than Brkic, which is enough to secure my forth place in GC
With Lafay collapsing in the last km, I’m able to reach the final podium of the Tour de L’Avenir
Another third place in a GC. It's good but not enough. Next week we'll be racing Giro del Friuli, the last stage race of my season
Last stage race of the 2016 season, so I would like to win my second GC of the year to end in a good way the season, before joining Lotto Soudal
We start with a TTT. We are the favourites for the win, so I might have a little advantage before the mountain stage. As Power has again only one team-mates in this race, he’s out of GC contention, because he will lose a lot of time, but Paret-Peintre won’t.
And here is the win for us! Stef Cras will be first leader of the race. We have taken 48 seconds on Paret-Peintre, and 13 seconds on Geoghegan Hart (Paix winner). Power lost almost 7 minutes. Wow!
Sprinter’s stage with end in Forni di Sopra. With the little hill with 6 km to go, I’ll have to be careful, but I will try not to sprint, so one of my team-mates will wear the yellow jersey for one day
But in that little hill, I set a high rhythm with James Shaw protecting me, I manage to open a little gap
YES! What a win!
I also take the leader’s jersey by 1 minute on Geoghegan Hart and Costa
Third stage is a hilly one that should not create any gaps. Must be decided in a small group sprint
Nothing happens before last climb of the day. And during it, only Costa manages to attack, but only in the last metres of the climb
All is set for this 16-men group to fight for the win
And is Adrien Costa who takes the stage win. I only can finish in third place
Obviously, I keep my yellow jersey, now with a 54-second gap to Costa, and 1’04 to Geoghegan Hart
Edited by Aquarius97 on 19-09-2016 11:18
