I'm going on a school trip to Barcelona early tomorrow and will be back home on Thursday. Hopefully next report will be on Thursday, otherwise on Friday.
Kortrijk - Waregem
Quite easy compared to many other cobbled classics. Only seven cobbled sections, with six of them coming quite far out from the finish. The last one will be interesting though, and it's the place where the race might be decided.
Lots of attacks in the beginning, but Sky and Rabobank were not satisfied with the escapees and kept a high pace preventing all breakaways.
Almost halfway into the stage, we still had no breakaway. We decided to try something and sent up Curvers to push the pace up the day's first difficulty, cobbled section 1.
Our tactic succeeded. Curvers splitted the pack near the front and managed to form a small late breakaway together with Hoogerland, Traksel and Klier. Suprisingly, the four strong cobblers were allowed to go.
They cooperated perfectly and quickly increased their advantage to a few minutes. Unfortunately for us, Curvers had a puncture at a really bad time and lost contact with his three companions.
Curvers pushed on by himself, trying to rejoin the three up front, but it didn't succeed. The other three were too strong for him and the gap got bigger and bigger. Such a shame!
The leading trio were soon not a trio anymore, as Hoogerland dropped the other two up a climb. The peloton were still far behind, so this could actually work for Hoogerland. Still a long way to go though.
No teams seemed interested in catching the escapees, so we gave it a last desperate try to bring them back by pushing the pace over the last cobbled section.
It was most likely too late though, as Hoogerland were still up front by over a minute. More interestingly, Traksel and Klier were also still in front, lurking just behind Hoogerland.
Hoogerland got overtaken by the other two as Traksel launched the sprint. Klier were still looking good, staying cool behind him.
And it turned out that Traksel had kicked off way too early, as Klier flew away from him inside the final kilometer. Had this acceleration wrapped it up for the German?
Yep. He maintained his speed and crossed the line solo after crushing Traksel in the sprint. The Belgian was so distanced that he even got a new time. Hoogerland managed to hang on to the third place too.
Flecha took the sprint in what was left of the peloton ahead of Hincapie and Terpstra. Veelers couldn't match them and finished just outside the Top 10. They almost caught Hoogerland and Traksel in the end and was given the same time as them.
@baia: Thank you. @roturn: Yeah, it was really bad luck. And I agree that it's nice to see Klier winning, as he's a half-Swede.
The Critérium International is a two-day stage race on Corsica, covering three stages. That means that two stages will be held during the same day. That itself is a challenge for many riders. The most difficult part is the first stage, which ends on top of the first category Col de l'Ospedale after tackling a lot of other climbs. After that we have the double stage day, which provides both a short road stage and a time trial. A good GT rider is favoured for the overall win.
Result irl:
1
Fränk Schleck
Leopard Trek
7h13'12
2
Vasil Kiryienka
Movistar Team
+ 13
3
Rein Taaramae
Cofidis
+ 30
4
Alexandre Geniez
Skil - Shimano
+ 1'14
5
Tiago Machado
Team Radioshack
+ 1'15
6
Jean-Christophe Peraud
AG2R - La Mondiale
+ 1'16
7
Ryder Hesjedal
Team Garmin - Cervélo
+ 1'19
8
Pierrick Fedrigo
FDJ
+ 1'23
9
David López Garcia
Movistar Team
+ 1'25
10
Sergey Lagutin
Vacansoleil - DCM
s.t.
Schleck the elder took the overall title after prevailing on top of the l'Ospedale on stage one and then defending his jersey in the time trial. Best placed Skil rider was Geniez in 4th, a result that will be hard to repeat.
Skil squad:
An in-form Geniez will do his best to repeat his 4th place from irl. It'll be very hard, but with support from Fröhlinger, Bonnin, Doi, Sprick and Damuseau everything is possible. A good day up the climb and a decent result in the TT can go far. Kittel is just here to build up form, something he doesn't have at the moment, while Ji will have the honourable duty to be water boy.
Wiggins will be the man to beat if he's in shape. Great climber, great timetriallist on a dream course. Nibali and especially Gesink are the only ones who are at the same level in terms of climbing, but they aren't even close in the time trial. Should still be very dangerous. Vanendert, Mollema and Froome are the dark horses on the startlist, but the latter two might have to work for others. However, Froome was brilliant in Paris-Nice and Mollema is almost on the same level as Gesink. It'll be hard for their sports directors to decide who'll be the captain.
Stage 1: Porto Vecchio - Col de l'Ospedale
The organizers of this race doesn't want to give the riders an easy stage to start off the race. Lots of climbing during the stage and also the finish is on top of a climb, the first category Col de l'Ospedale. The guys who are here looking for the overall title will have to be active today. Wiggins again maybe?
If Wiggins is here for the overall, then I don't understand Sky's tactics. The British champion was sent up to work at the front in the beginning of the stage to bring back some early breakaway tries. Surprisingly also Froome were pacing at the front. Löfkvist as captain?
A group of nine established and formed the day's early breakaway. Fröhlinger amongst them for us.
Up the day's biggest climb one man was off in pursuit after them himself. A nice try from Marino (Saur).
In the descent he was joined by Mathieu Sprick, forming a strong chasing duo. No reaction from the field.
They descended perfectly and soon caught the early breakaway containing Fröhlinger, who was immediately sent to the front to work for his teammate Sprick. Still no reaction from the pack.
Up the penultimate climb of the day, Fröhlinger set up a blistering pace, droppinge everyone but four. A nice group containing Fröhlinger, Sprick, Marino, Dion and Méderel. All of them were interested in pacing and they started working together.
As we hitted the lower slopes of the final climb Fröhlinger finished his work and handed over the work to Sprick, who quickly dropped the early escapees.
Under the 10-km-to-go banner also Marino had to let Sprick go. A Frenchman on fire at the moment!
Not far later we got the first attack from the peloton, as Chris Anker Sörensen launched a powerful move. Sprick was caught immediately by this acceleration.
Geniez took the responsibility to close down Sörensen, and completely destroyed the peloton in the process, leaving only six riders following him. The group now consisted of Geniez, Froome, Nibali, Sörensen, Vanendert, Löfkvist and Kennaugh. Surprisingly no Wiggins and Gesink.
With two kilometers to go, Löfkvist tried to punch. It was a very strong acceleration and Geniez had to dig deep to respond. Sörensen, Vanendert and Nibali did the same, while Thomas Bonnin were lurking just behind them.
Nobody was able to follow Löfkvist and the Swede soloed away to a nice stage win. He didn't even mind celebrating, concentrated on gaining time.
Vanendert also gapped the others in the final kilometer to take second, while Nibali outsprinted Bonnin (!) for third. Brilliant recovery by Thomas after being dropped earlier. But where was Geniez?
He finished in a third group together with Sörensen and Froome a bit behind Bonnin. A very nice result for us with two in the Top 10.
Next up of the cobbled classics - E3 Prijs Harelbeke. We're coming closer and closer to the grand three, so we should see a lot of favourites in shape here. During the history it's been won by some big names such as Van Looy, De Vlaeminck, Museeuw and Boonen. The latter one also holds the record in most wins together with Van Looy - 4. The last two editions has been dominated by Fabian Cancellara, who surely will be going for a third straight title.
Result irl:
1
Fabian Cancellara
Leopard Trek
5h06'52
2
Jurgen Roelandts
OmegaPharma - Lotto
+ 1'00
3
Vladimir Gusev
Katusha Team
s.t.
4
Sep Vanmarcke
Team Garmin - Cervélo
s.t.
5
Bram Tankink
Rabobank Cycling Team
s.t.
6
William Bonnet
FDJ
+ 1'01
7
Henrich Haussler
Team Garmin - Cervélo
+ 1'06
8
Sébastien Hinault
AG2R - La Mondiale
s.t.
9
Stuart O'Grady
Leopard Trek
s.t.
10
Serguei Ivanov
Katusha Team
s.t.
No one even came close to Cancellara in this year's real life edition. One attack and bam he was gone. Jurgen Roelandts won the sprint for second place a minute behind Spartacusfrom a small group containing Gusev, Vanmarcke, Tankink and Bonnet. Will the Swiss champion be able to repeat his victory now?
Skil squad: Veelers will be trying to step into the Top 10 after his 11th place in Dwaars Door Vlaanderen last week, backed up by De Backer, Curvers and Docker.
The other four, De Kort, Van Zandbeek, Timmer and Han will be bottle collectors and domestiques in the early race before dropping back when the race begins.
Cancellara is of course the big favourite and will be highly motivated by the opportunity to pick up his third straight win in this race. Boonen and Hushovd will be his main rivals, both favoured by the flat, un-cobbled run towards the finish. The big question is about Boonen's form. He looked terrible in Dwars last week and dropped off the back very early. Has he recovered yet?
Harelbeke - Harelbeke
Kinda similar to Dwaars Door Vlaanderen. Not very much cobbles and most of them coming quite far from the finish. It's still a very hard race though, and hards winds are forecasted. It'll be interesting to see if Veelers&Co will be able to follow the big names in the final.
Ten riders in the break of the day. Some of the names were Cusin (Cofidis), Kaupas (Differdange) and Morabito (BMC).
A bit later in the race, we sent De Kort away in pursuit of them. This kind of tactic has tended to work some times before, so why not try?
He quickly caught the breakaway and soon also dropped them over the cobbles. He built up quite a gap, so we decided to let him go on his own.
We changed our mind a bit later and told De Kort to wait for his companions. Over 120 kilometers solo is a bit too much.
An interesting move then, as Sky's Matthew Hayman launched an attack from the peloton. Not far later we saw a reaction from three riders: Steegmans (Quickstep), De Waele (Landbouwkrediet) and Hoogerland (Vacansoleil). All decent cobblers, and the latter two has shown great form recently.
This move wasn't popular amongst the favourite's teams. Leopard, Garmin and OmegaPharma almost immediately sent up some riders to push the pace. The escapees were allowed to go, but with a controlled gap.
The four late attackers caught the breakaway and one cobbled section later dropped all of the early members, with the exception of De Kort, who managed to stay with them.
Not for long though and the Dutchman was tailed off on the next cobbled section. It was expected though, as he isn't in best shape.
No organized chase in the peloton, and the wind created some echelons. Veelers and a very strong (+5) De Backer were well-positioned and made it into the first group together with just four riders.
More importantly, Cancellara, Flecha and Hushovd were all caught in a small group behind the big peloton after being positioned near the back of the group.
We immediately sent up Docker to push the pace at the front, and maybe, maybe prevent Cancellara, Flecha and Hushovd from coming back.
Docker's brutal pace completely destroyed what was left of the peloton, creating a group of six leading the charge of the breakaway. Veelers and De Backer were both still there together with Gilbert, Vansummeren, Boonen and Chavanel.
A powerful attack from Vansummeren with five km's to go brought back the breakaway. Boonen were glued on his fellow Belgian's wheel and De Backer were digging deep to go with them as well. Veelers didn't have his best day and were doing his best to stay with the group.
Vansummeren pushed on for a long time until finally slowing down and taking a look over his shoulder. Boonen saw the opportunity and quickly nipped past him creating a huge gap. What a strength!
Vansummeren's attack cracked De Backer, who now found himself in a third group together with Gilbert and Chavanel, who were both happy to race for third place.
There was nothing to do about Boonen today though. His attack was just too much for everyone else and he had plenty of time to celebrate as he crossed the line alone. Vansummeren could not respond to Boonen's counterattack and had to settle for second.
Chavanel edged out Gilbert for third in a close sprint after receiving a perfect leadout from De Backer. Speaking of De Backer, where did he go?
He was too tired to match Gilbert and Chavanel in the sprint and dug deep to hang onto 5th place ahead of a very fast finishing Hushovd. A brilliant result for us. Veelers also did well, finishing in 10th.
Thanks a lot everyone. Indeed a great result for us.
26.03.2011: Criterium International
Stage 2: Porto-Vecchio - Porto-Vecchio
After the hard test yesterday, the riders are now facing a fairly easy day. Only 72 kilometer of flat before an expected mass sprint inside Porto-Vecchio. It's the only chance for the sprinters, and we should see their teams working hard to bring back any breakaway attempts. There's almost no sprinters here, so maybe a day for Kittel, even though his shape is bad?
The early kilometers saw a big group containing Fröhlinger jumping away from the peloton and forming the botd. They never got any big gap though, as Sky had a few guys at the front pacing all day.
They might not have been given any major gap, but they used the gap they got well. With five km's to go the break still held a 30s advantage.
They were caught just two kilometers later though. Landbouwkrediet were setting up a train for Traksel, while Geniez were doing his best to keep Kittel in a good position.
A smart move from Geniez gave Kittel a perfect position. He saw that the Landbouwkrediet train got blocked behind the escapees, and quickly pushed on hard on the other side.
Geniez then launched his leadout for Kittel and immediately created a big gap back to the rest. What a brilliant leadout, even though he's not a sprinter. Still no sign of the other sprinters - An easy win for Kittel?
Probably not. Kittel powered past Geniez as we entered the final kilometer, but Landbouwkrediet were coming back really fast with Traksel leading Kruopis and Guillaume Blot (Bretagne).
It was close, but Kittel made it. A photofinish saw him picking up his first win of the season just ahead of Kruopis and a late surging Greg Henderson. Race leader Löfkvist continued to show great form by finishing 6th today.