Ozrocker/sutty68: yea nice start, everything from here is bonus.
But im looking forward to see if we can compeete in the upcomming time trail & mountain stage. If the Froome monster is in any kind of shape, we will most likely win those.
Rasmussen: The Caravan have moved 140 km north from Taichung to Taoyuan. The Stage start in the center (Taoyuan District) near the Performing Arts Center, from there north of Taoyuan Airport and then down along the coast for the sprint before Xinwu District, then west to the cat 1 climb in Longtan District, ad further west to the final climb in Fuxing District.
View from a hotel near the finish:
Pre-race strategy: We can’t expect to do well at this hard stage, so we have decided to attempt a break with either Martin if they let him go, or otherwise Sondre Holst Enger.
Profile:
Martin tries to attack but the peloton won’t let him go, It is Sondre who get away with Serguei Klimov (RusVelo), Matthias Bertling (Quantec), Chris Barton (5-Hour Energy), Huub Duyn (De Rijke) and Biao Liu (Champion System Pro). Sondre Holst Enger takes the intermediate sprint.
The group gets about 6 minutes before the peloton accelerates, at the cat 1 climb, Sonder can’t keep up with the group and lose contact, but with a good downhill he gets back relative easy, the distance is now down to 3 min.
Sonder loses contact at the climb:
Then the peloton reach the final mountain Emanuele Sella (Androni Giocattoli) attacks and yesterday’s winner Julian Arredondo instantly follows, soon after they are joined by Esteban Chaves (Colombia), the group with Arredondo in front, passes by the riders from the breakaway, one by one.
The attack from Sella:
It’s is again Arredondo proving to be the best climber in this tour, now leading the tour with 1'52 minutes, only a disaster can take the GC from him now. Sondre Holst Enger comes in 2'34 after the winner (26), Martin lost 4'40.
Rasmussen: Expected failure, but it is a bit disappointing anyway.
Stage 2/3: Porte-Vecchio - Porto-Vecchio 7,9 km (ITT)
Christina: Still in Porto-Vecchio, today for a short time trail, starting in the harbor, going in a circle around the city, and finishing in the westen part of Porto-Vecchio, at the same place as yesterday.
Saint-Jean Baptiste, Porto-Vecchio:
Pre-race strategy: None, but according to the bookmakers we should be able to get inside a top 10 if one of our best time-trailers have a god day.
Christina: Fine result by Pacheco, but Kenny & Lasse lost a little too much time before the mountain stage tomorrow; hope they have better legs uphill.
The Caravan have moved 45 km north from Fuxing District, Taoyuan, to New Taipei City originally known as Taipei County. The area completely surrounds Taipei City. Today it is the most highly populated municipality in Taiwan.
The stage starts at New Taipei City hall, moves north to Tamsui District, and then follow the coast in a circle around the Yangmingshan National Park, and then into the mountains at Wanli District, for the two categorized climbs, before it’s back up the coast for the finish near Linshanbi Recreation Area, Sanzhi District.
Mountains at Wanli District:
Pre-race strategy: Attempt a break with Martin or Sondre.
Profile:
After some failed attempts to attack by Martin Pedersen, we finally gets Sondre Holst Enger away, trying to close a gap to 5 riders, already in front. He is able to catch up after the 2nd, small hill at the start of the stage.
After the last categorized climb the pace becomes so high, that the race is split in many small groups.
The speed is much too much for young Anton Grøn, he is seriously struggling today, and can’t cross the line within the time limit, and he is disqualified from the race along with 5 other riders.
While Sondre fall back from the break-away group, Martin loses contact with the front of the peloton.
But he gets back in the peloton, before the break-away is caught. Martin and Sonder are both in the peloton when the sprint start, they get in at the same time as the winner as 20 & 27th. Today’s winner is Ramunas Navardauskas (RusVelo)
Rasmussen: A very hard stage for the team, they fell the pain after a long hard race.
Pre-race strategy: We will try to attack with Stefan Schumacher, fighting to keep the KoM jersey. Otherwise we protect Kenny Elissonde, to get the best possible GC position.
Schumacher start leading the front, he sets a high pace, and the peloton explode into many pieces, but after a while this is not enough for Chris Froome (Movistar), he sets a crazy tempo, no one can follow, Kenny Elissonde tries to follow, ending in between Froome and the other favorites. But at the descend he is caught by a group of 8-9 other riders.
Froome speeds away 5 km from the top of the last cat.3:
Chris Froome gradually catches rider by rider, finally leaving the last two contenders behind. Not unexpectedly he wins another solo victory, with 2'40 down to Arnold Jeannesson (BigMat).
Froome:
Kenny Elissonde also have good legs, overtaking many riders on the last climb, he comes home 6th. 4'25 after Froome.
Christina: All in all a solid race by the team! Management is pleased.
The Caravan has moved from Wanli District, about 20 km to central Taipei.
The stage is a completely flat circuit route, from Taipei City Hall along Ren'ai Road, up to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the center of Taipei City.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
Pre-race strategy: We won’t attempt to break-away; we expect a mass sprint finish.
Profile:
A break of 5 rider gets away early, without any reaction from the peloton, the break includes Michael Torckler (Bissell Cycling) and Robert Retschke (Quantec).
After 2/3 of the race, the peloton starts a hard pace to try and catch the front group, the result is that a lot of riders can’t keep up and a gruppetto is slowly formed behind the peloton.
In the front Torckler and Retschke accelerate to keep the peloton distant, the others from the break, falls back and is swallowed by the pack.
We get a train up but we get our sprint started a little too late. It is now clear that the two in front, will win the race.
Robert Retschke wins the stage over Michael Torckler, Sondre Holst Enger has a brilliant sprint, he get in 7th.from a bad starting position.
Rasmussen: Seem it was a mistake, not to send someone to that break-away, but anyway a good finish from Sondre.
Final result:
Stage:
1
Robert Retschke
Team Quantec - Indeland
1h05'21
2
Michael Torckler
Bissell Cycling
s.t.
3
Marcin Sapa
CCC Polsat - Polkowice
s.t.
4
Mattia Gavazzi
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
s.t.
5
Nick Van der Lijke
Rabobank Development Team
s.t.
6
Yusuke Hatanaka
Team Nippo - De Rosa
s.t.
7
Sondre Holst Enger
Christina Watches - Onfone
s.t.
8
Ramunas Navardauskas
RusVelo
s.t.
9
Stephen Adams
Team IG - Sigma Sport
s.t.
10
Lee Davis
Node 4 - Giordana Racing
s.t.
GC:
1
Julian Arredondo
Team Nippo - De Rosa
19h43'16
2
Esteban Chaves
Colombia
+ 1'52
3
Emanuele Sella
Androni Giocattoli - Venezuela
+ 2'48
4
Jarlinson Pantano
4-72 Colombia
+ 3'06
5
Oliver Zaugg
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
+ 4'15
6
Philip Deignan
An Post - Chainreaction
+ 4'21
7
Chun Feng
Champion System Pro Cycling Team
+ 5'11
8
Ramunas Navardauskas
RusVelo
+ 5'26
9
Francisco Mancebo
5-Hour Energy
s.t.
Points:
1
Julian Arredondo
Team Nippo - De Rosa
0
70
2
Esteban Chaves
Colombia
0
52
3
Ramunas Navardauskas
RusVelo
8
51
Mountain:
1
Julian Arredondo
Team Nippo - De Rosa
26
2
Chris Barton
5-Hour Energy
22
3
Matthias Bertling
Team Quantec - Indeland
20
Team: Champion System Pro Cycling Team
Young: Nick Van der Lijke (Rabobank D.T.)
Edited by Tamijo on 20-10-2015 06:29
