“the first big cobbled classic is here. All the big names will participate. We know that Sep (Vanmarcke) is not yet on his best form, so we will aim for a top 10. Knowing that there are a lot of strong cobblers out there, we hope we can achieve our goal today!”
(Note: don’t blame me if I get bad results at cobbled races, I’m quite awful at them to be honest^^)
Report:
As usual, the race starts with a lot of breakaway attempts. The lucky ones today are:
A. Txurruka
J. Dean
S. Nys
M. Ignatiev
J. Bakelants
I. Konovalovas
G. Ciolek
Here we see the group in action on one of the steep, cobbled sections.
The peloton doesn’t want to give them too big of a lead though, with about 100 kms to go the lead is 6 minutes and increasing. But they are still in control. With 50kms to go two guys attack from the peloton, they are both good cobblers. H. Haussler and S. Scheirlinckx are really brave today!
We decide to sit back and try to keep Vanmarcke nice and fresh for the final of the race. The two have caught up with the breakaway within 20 kms or so, with 30kms to go they also leave the group and go on their own. Still, the peloton lead by Omega-Pharma and BMC is not far away.
The two brave guys are caught when we reach the 15kms to go mark. There is now a group of about 18 people left, Vanmarcke and Stannard are still present for our team, but Stannard fell back from an attack that didn’t went as planned. He is now protecting Vanmarcke, who is having problems with the hard pace. He’s slowly falling off the back!
With only 10kms to go he is not able to follow the crazy pace and a group of 8 guys goes on:
Ballan, Haussler (who managed to hang on when he fell back, Vansummeren, Boom, Chavanel, Cancellara, Paolini and Flecha. Tom Boonen dropped out of the group a while ago. These 8 will fight for victory today! Vanmarcke can’t get back anymore; the gap is getting too big! With 10 kms to go there is an attack again! Boom and Ballan go for it! Will this be decisive?
Behind the 2 the other 6 are not willing to help each other out, and they start looking at each other. Nobody wants to do the dirty work, because when they do, and they catch up with the front two, they will lose the sprint. Ballan and Boom are taking full advantage of this situation, and can’t be stopped! They will fight for the victory!
And it’s Ballan who wins today! The old warrior was too smart for the young gun today! Boom did a great job, but wasted a lot of energy during his attack. The smart Ballan took full advantage of that.
Haussler wins the sprint for the 3rd place behind them, a great job by him!
Vanmarcke and Stannard finish in 9th and 10th.
Comment from Honda:
“We are not really happy today. It’s just too bad that Vanmarcke couldn’t compete with the better guys today. I know we wanted to finish in the top 10, and we did that with 2 riders, but Vanmarcke came in 2:56 minutes behind the winner, we feel we can do a lot better! Nevertheless a decent start for our team. Good job by Stannard aswell!”
A shame that Vanmarcke couldn't get a better result, but Stannard did good
Vanmarcke wasn't that bad though...
Maybe Sep has some more luck in the 'real' big cobbled classics Edited by Jesleyh on 11-02-2013 18:09
“Gesink is going well so far, this stage should be relatively easy to keep the white jersey. We are only going to chase riders that are dangerous for us in the GC. We might let someone attack, Kelderman or Goos will definitely try!”
Report:
As mentioned, we let
Goos
attack. Here he is in a huge group. Spoiler: the peloton won’t let them make it. Goos wasn’t strong enough to win anyways, but he got some experience!
It is actually a really quiet day, just how we wanted it to be! Gesink is strong enough to stay in the front of the peloton, and the others can’t drop it. The finish will be with a huge group of around 50 riders I think. I had some flashbacks of Paris-Nice first stage, where we got a 1-2-3 finish. This time it is not us, but AG2R with a crazy 1-2-3 finish!
Their riders are definitely the strongest sprinters, and Gesink will have to watch out for Roche, as he comes back a little in the GC. Roche pulls of a great sprint and deserves the victory. 2nd place goes to Nocentini, whereas Ravard gets 3rd place. Gesink manages to sprint to 8th place.
Results:
(forgot to export)
Comment from Honda:
“we achieved our goal again, only two more stages and the lead is not big yet, but we are hopeful we can win this Vuelta with Robert. He is looking stronger everyday!”
SSJ2Luigi wrote:
Roche was so happy that he won he retired
Yea, he drunk himself to barely dead that night, his team fired him
But, I'm sorry guys. I kind of screwed up with the result thing. I still think the last two stages will be enjoyable!
Edited by TimoCycling on 16-02-2013 15:40
“we are looking to keep Gesink in his jersey once again. We won’t chase the breakaway, unless there are dangerous guys in there. Maybe we’ll send someone in the breakaway.”
Stagereport:
This stage was a pretty quiet one again, we made our plan work and we got one rider in the BOTD. It is our youngster Marc Goos again. This has been a busy Vuelta Ciclista Catalunya for him! The breakaway is really big, and nobody is willing to ride to get them back.
Here is Goos in the attack:
Here is the full breakaway, as you can see. Rafal Majka is in there to maintain his mountain jersey. We are riding just a little bit, to not let the group get too far away. As nobody in the peloton is doing anything, we will have to keep them within a distance of 10 minutes.
As I sat in our team car, I was thinking about making a move. Capecchi lost some time during the earlier stages of this race, so this might be an opportunity to get some time back. The peloton seems asleep!
I shout in the microphone and tell Seeldraayers and Capecchi to attack together. Seeldraayers has to do the dirty work for the first couple of kilometers, and then it’s up to Capecchi. When he almost reaches the breakaway, we will let Goos help him. Let’s hope the peloton won’t respond!
Our plan is working so far! Capecchi and Seeldraayers are closing in, and Goos is letting himself drop out of the breakaway. We might be in competition for the stagewin, as the peloton still isn’t riding to get back, and the lead is high enough for the breakaway to stay in front. As the breakaway can’t get brought back, I will have to give you the names; they will be sprinting for victory!
- R. Majka
- C. Lemoine
- B. Cooke
- V. Reynes
- K. Hulsmans
- K. Koren
- L. Gerdemann
- M. Pinotti
- M. Possoni
- F. Masciarelli
- M. Velits
- R. Pauriol
- A. Madrazo
One of these guys will win it today, or will Capecchi be there aswell? Seeldraayers is done for the day, with 10kms to go it’s now up to Goos and Capecchi. Goos has been in the breakaway all day, so he gives his last bit of energy and lets Capecchi gain some time!
With 5 kilometres to go it looks like Capecchi won’t make it, the group is too far ahead. The group will fight for the victory.
With 1 kilometre to go, Capecchi can see the group! He is right behind them, but they already started sprinting! It’s a pretty tight sprint, but Lemoine manages to win it! He is definitely the strongest rider of the group! Cooke finishes in 2nd place, and Reynes finishes in 3rd place.
Capecchi manages to finish in the same time as the group! So he gains 5 minutes on the other guys in the peloton! What a great performance and tactic by our team today. With Gesink also finishing nicely in the peloton, we are just one stage away of victory!
Comment from Honda:
“I’m really proud! Our tactic worked perfectly, and Capecchi moved up in the GC. He is now in 10th place! Gesink is 36 seconds ahead of Roche, and we will do everything in our power to keep that first place!”
. I like the hilly races way more
