Stage List
TTT - 1
ITT - 2
Flat - 9
Hilly/Mountain - 9
Movistar Start List
Nairo Quintana
Roman Kreuziger
Elia Viviani
Adriano Malori
Luis Leon Sanchez
Dayer Quintana
J J Lobato
Pello Bilbao
Rafael Valls
The Giro is here. The first GT of the year gets under way with not too many big names starting. The Movistar GC contingent of Nairo Quintana and Roman Kreuziger would be challenged mainly by Chris Froome and Fabio Aru. A host of others were looking to make an impact, but not necessarily the favourites to challenge for the top spot - Thibaut Pinot, Julian Arredondo, Romain Bardet, Pierre Rolland Alexandre Geniez and Andrew Talansky. Chris Froome was in superb form coming into this race and would be the favourite. Nairo has been saving himself for this event and it would have to be seen whether the extra freshness would help him up the climbs. The three TT stages would give the advantage to Froome.
Number of starters : 197 Number of finishers : 162
The following is a summary of important stages...
Part 1: In our Domain
Stage 1 - Team Time Trial - Flat - 21.7 km
The Giro started off with a low difficulty medium length time trial. Movistar made full use of the combined TT skills in their team to take the stage win and start the race in a positive fashion. Sky took 2nd, keeping Froome close.
Stage 4 - Flat
The third consecutive flat stage saw Movistar's best sprint performance of this year's Giro. Elia Viviani closely followed Marcel Kittel to the line to take 2nd place. This was Kittel's third win on the bounce!
Stage 5 - Hilly with uphill finish, including 2 minor intermediate climbs
An early breakaway was allowed to stay ahead till just 2.5 km ahead of the finish. Julian Arredondo mounted a late attack which was countered but not he was not caught before the finish line, giving him a stage win. Kreuziger finished 3rd and took the pink jersey. The top six finished with the same time, meaning Froome lost 16 seconds to this group.
Stage winner - Julian Arredondo Movistar - Roman Kreuziger 3rd, Nairo Quintana 6th, same time, Adriano Malori 7th, Dayer Quintana 8th, Luis Leon Sanchez 9th, 16" behind Other important results - Fabio Aru 2nd, Adam Yates 4th, Thibaut Pinot 5th, same time, Froome 16" behind
Stage 6 - Flat with uphill finish, including 1 minor intermediate finish
Another similar stage to stage 5 saw a similar ending. The breakaway was caught a lot earlier this time but the stage win came from another late attack. Moreno Moser, this time, took his chance with the dallying of the favourites and attacked with less than 5 km to go. The leading group followed his attacked but it came a bit too late as he held on for the win a few metres ahead of Kreuziger. Nairo took over 2nd place overall with his finish on this stage.
Stage winner - Moreno Moser Movistar - Roman Kreuziger 2nd, Nairo Quintana 6th, same time Other important results - Alexis Vuillermoz 3rd, Pierre Rolland 4th, Fabio Aru 5th, Thibaut Pinot 7th, Chris Froome 8th, Adam Yates 9th, 34" behind, Simon Yates 10th, 1'1" behind
Stage 8 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major intermediate climbs
The first stage packed full of incidents! A 7 member breakaway formed early on. The leaders forced the pace from the start of the first intermediate climb and joined the breakway to make it 23 man lead group. By now, there was no chasing pack so to say and it would come down to these leaders to fight it out for the stage win. This group was down to 19 members by the end of the first climb and further reduced to 13 by the middle of the second ascent. Romain Baret was the first of the favourites to attack. The counter saw the group further break up so that only 7 remained till the base of the climb to the finish. More attacks came from Bardet, in tandem with Aru but they were countered by the Movistar lead pair of Nario and Kreuziger, and they left the former duo in their wake. Froome was left playing catch-up, but did very well to claw back the gap. He left the Astana pair behind, and almost caught up to the Movistar pair, but not in time for the finish. The stage was decided by a photo finish, with the organizers giving the win to Nairo. (You decide if they were right, I'm still not sure!!)
(That's Roman in pink and Nairo in the Colombia NC jersey. Unfortunately, I couldn't grab a screenshot at the perfect moment)
Stage winner - Nairo Quintana Movistar - Roman Kreuziger Other important results - Chris Froome 3rd, same time, Fabio Aru 4th, Romain 5th, 51" behind, Pierre Rolland 6th, 1'40" behind, Domenico Pozzovivo 7th, 1'48" behind, Julian Arredondo 8th, 2'3" behind
The standings after stage 8...
Spoiler
To be continued...
Edited by AbhishekLFC on 09-01-2016 09:13
Stage 9 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 44.3 km
How one stage changes the whole course of events!! Having been on the back-foot coming into this stage, the race profile held up candy in front of Froome to enjoy. Putting his best foot forward, and also with the knowledge that another similar stage was in the offing just 3 stages away, he left his competitors a long way behind on this stage. He overturned a 59 second and 53 second deficit to Kreuziger and Nairo, respectively, and turned it into a lead of 2 minutes 2 seconds and 1 minute 50 seconds respectively. All anyone else could do was marvel at his achievement.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Adriano Malori 5th, losing 2', Luis Leon Sanchez 10th, losing 2'38", Nairo Quintana 11th, losing 2'43", Roman Kreuziger 13th, losing 3'1", lost the team lead Other important results - Alexandre Geniez 6th, losing 2'3", Thibaut Pinot 7th, losing 2'12", Domenico Pozzovivo 12th, losing 2'59", Romain Bardet 14th, losing 3'2", Fabio Aru 16th, losing 3'14"
Stage 11 - Hilly with 1 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
A moderate difficulty hilly stage led the peloton to the second TT coming up the next day. The stage itself was an uneventful one with the breakaway not surviving. The leaders managed to stay together till Nairo and Kreuziger attacked 3 km to the line. They were overhauled and Adam Yates took the win. Chris Froome gained a further 6 seconds by finishing in second place.
Stage winner - Adam Yates
The GC before the second ITT...
Spoiler
Stage 12 - Individual Time Trial - Hilly - 42 km
A TT with a hilly first half and a flat finish promised a better return for Movistar and Froome's other rivals. Although the time gaps were not as big, Froome still took full advantage of being head and shoulders above the rest in this type of stage. He would eventually finish 2nd on the day, just a second behind team-mate Talansky, but that would be enough to further extend his lead at the top. A good ride from Movistar's Sanchez saw him take 3rd place on the day.
Stage winner - Andrew Talansky Movistar - Luis Leon Sanchez 3rd, losing 52", Roman Kreuziger 5th, losing 1'13", Adriano Malori 6th, losing 1'15", Nairo Quintana 8th, losing 1'28" Other important results - Chris Froome 2nd, losing 1 second, Thibaut Pinot 10th, losing 1'38", Romain Bardet 12th, losing 1'54", Aru 28th, losing 2'49"
The GC after stage 12...
Spoiler
Stage 14 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
With Froome running away with it in the GC after the damage done in the ITTs, it was getting desperate for Movistar in their quest to catch him. This stage, however would not help in that quest, as Nairo had to settle for finishing with the same time as Froome. Fabio Aru powered to the top of the climb to the finish to take the stage win. Pierre Rolland followed him home. Both took some time off the leader, Froome. Kreuziger lost more time to Froome on this stage. Froome gained 4 seconds on Nairo by finishing 3rd.
Stage winner - Fabio Aru Movistar - Nairo Quintana 4th, 53" behind Other important results - Pierre Rolland 2nd, 25" behind, Chris Froome 3rd, 53" behind, Romain Bardet 7th, 2'33" behind, Thibaut Pinot 8th, 3'25" behind
Stage 15 - Flat with mountain top finish
The morning breakaway extended their lead to more than 23 minutes at its furthest lead. At the end of the stage, they finished almost 13 minutes ahead of the GC leaders, putting stage winner Yuri Trofimov up into 7th place overall! Behind him, Geniez fell early on but recovered to make it home. At the climb to the finish, Aru and Bardet managed to shave meagre seconds off Froome with a late surge. So did Nairo, but this wasn't the kind of attacks that would get Froome's opponents back into contention.
Stage winner - Yuri Trofimov Movistar - Nairo Quintana 10th, 12'42" behind Roman Kreuziger 12th, 13'42" behind Other important results - Fabio Aru 8th, Romain Bardet 9th, 12'28" behind, Chris Froome 11th, 12'50" behind, Thibaut Pinot lost 14'19"
Stage 16 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major intermediate climbs
In an attempt to put Froome and Team Sky in a spot of bother, Movistar started putting the pressure on the peloton by riding at a high pace from the first climb itself. This tore the peloton apart, with the leading group consisting of mostly the GC leaders and a few of their helpers. What looked like a good strategy to strategy to start with backfired on Movistar as their lead pair ended up short of helpers as compared to Froome, who still had 3. From there, it was again Sky who did the pace-making, while Movistar sat back and stuck to their wheels. It was clear that Froome was the freshest among the leaders and he duly pulled away from the others. A last two remaining riders from the morning breakaway got involved in the action with Dario Cataldo splitting the difference between Froome in 1st and Nairo in 3rd place. This performance more or less put Froome out of reach of his competition and he could now go into the second rest day thinking about only self-preservation.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Nairo Quintana 3rd, 1'1" behind, Roman Kreuziger 8th, 2'27" behind Other important results - Pierre Rolland 5th, 1'57" behind, Fabio Aru 6th, 2'9" behind
Stage 18 - Muntain with mountain top finish, including 2 major intermediate climbs
The breakaway did not have any riders who could cause trouble for the GC leaders and were allowed to build up a huge lead. At its peak, they were ahead by more than 23 minutes! Tanel Kangert left his breakaway mates behind on the way to the finish line and the stage win. In the chase group consisting of the leaders, both Nairo and Aru were able to get the edge on Froome they were long cherishing. Although this was a morale victory of sorts, Froome's overnight lead of almost 4 and a half minutes meant that there was still a long way to go before he started sweating about the safety of his position.
Stage winner - Tanel Kangert from breakaway Movistar - Nairo Quintana 9th, 16'36" behind, Roman Kreuziger lost 19'51" Other important results - Fabio Aru 10th, 17'5" behind, Chris Froome 11th, 17'22" behind
The GC after stage 18...
Spoiler
Stage 19 - Individual Time Trial - Mountain - 26.9 km
The fourth TT stage of the race! This one was more of a leveller as it went uphill for the latter two-thirds of its length. Nairo Quintana rode like a man possessed to race up the mountain in what was again not his strongest discipline. He took the stage win, but managed to gain only 11 seconds and a 4 second time bonus over Chris Froome, who finished in second place. In the end, this TT was a lot closer and more evenly balanced than the previous two had been.
Stage winner - Nairo Quintana Movistar - Roman Kreuziger 5th, losing 31", Dayer Quintana 10th, losing 48" Other important results - Chris Froome 2nd, losing 11", Alexandre Geniez 3rd, losing 15", Romain Bardet 4th, losing 23", Pierre Rolland 9th, losing 43", Fabio Aru 12th, losing 53"
Stage 20 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major intermediate climbs
A lone rider, Santaromita went away on a breakaway, pulling out a lead of more than 18 minutes at one point. Slowly but surely, he was pulled back in by the peloton, with the teams of the leaders ensuring a high pace be maintained. Fabio Aru had the misfortune of falling on this stage at a time the head the of the pack was picking up speed. He tried his hardest but could not get back to the peloton as his team now focussed on Romain Bardet's well-being. Thankfully, for him, despite the incident, he managed to keep his 3rd from the clutches of his team-mate by a few seconds. On the second stage in succession, Nairo showed his climbing prowess by attacking first and staying away from the other leaders. Froome was the only one who could stay within touching distance, finishing 12 seconds behind Nairo, and confirming the Giro trophy would have his name on it. Nairo would now settle for second place, barring any misfortune. This was, infact, a sort of let-down.
Stage 21 - Flat with 1 minor intermediate climb
The final stage into the city of Trieste surprisingly had a minor climb along its route. The breakaway stood no chance to the pace set by the peloton as the sprinters lined up for their final hurray. Marcel Kittel took yet another stage win on the flats of Italy, meaning he had taken all the bunch sprints in this race. The leaders endured no problems on this and finished with their overnight times.
We beat him going up hills, we beat him going up mountains, we even beat him in two of the four TTs, yet he still won by over 3 minutes! I have absolutely no complaints about the way Nairo and Kreuziger performed in this race and am very proud of their achievements. For Nairo it was 3 stage wins, yet only 2nd place. For Kreuziger, it was the Pink Jersey for four stages, a couple of second place finishes and a third place finish. The KOM for Nairo just goes to show his domination in the mountains. Focussing only on the positives, Dayer Quintana showed he could be a star of the future getting a top 20 finish here. Viviani actually out-sprinted Kittel on a couple of stages, but unfortunately these were ones in which the breakaway won. A terrific effort! Congrats, Froome. But just remember, you took more than 4 minutes off Nairo in the two flat TTs. Yet you won by just over 3 minutes. Yes, the TTs count, but somehow, this loss doesn't feel right.
Movistar Starting List
Mikel Landa
Luis Leon Sanchez
Alejandro Valverde
Alex Dowsett
Adriano Malori
Pello Bilbao
Gorkha Izagirre
Jesus Herrada
Winner Anacona
The first big race since the brutal Giro. The team was chomping at the bit to get racing again. The race would see Landa come back as leader of the team after sitting out of the Giro. He would be ably assisted on his quest by Luis Leon Samchez and Alejandro Valverde. With only one flat stage, Movistar did not bring any sprinters to this race, concentrating on strong domestiques instead. The main challenger, once again, would be Chris Froome. Elsewhere, it was a case of more punchers registering for this race than climbers, despite the course probably suiting the latter better. Given their prowess, it should come down to a dog-fight between Froome and Landa for the title.
The following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 10 km
The first stage played into Frome's hand, being as flat as a board. He won it with time to spare over his main rivals. Movistar's best came from Jesus Herrada and Luis Leon Sanchez who finished in 5th and 6th place respectively. Landa managed to limit his losses in his weakest element.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Jesus Herrada 5th, 19" behind, Luis Leon Sanchez 6th, 20" behind, Mikel Landa 46" behind. Movistar took the team lead Other important results - Rui Costa 10th, 26" behind, Tejay van Garderen 33" behind, Diego Ulissi 34" behind, Mathias Frank 36" behind
Stage 2 - Mountain with mountain top finish, with 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
This stage saw many small attacks throughout its duration. However, the various breakaways could not build up a sizeable lead, as the peloton managed the pace to keep them in check. The stage ended with a four man group pull away from their rivals and battle it out on the final slope. This grop had Landa, Frank, Froome and Barguil. A little way from the top, Froome put on the after-burners leaving the others in his wake and claiming win number 2 in as many stages. Frank and Landa jumped up to 2nd and 3rd in the GC respectively.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Mikel Landa 2nd, 25" behind Other important results - Warren Barguil 3rd, Mathias Frank 4th, 25" behind, rui Costa 5th, 48" behind, Jakob Fuglsang 6th, Diego Ulissi 9th, 1'7" behind, Alexis Vuillermoz 10th, 1'7" behind
Stage 3 - Hilly with flat finish, including 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
A stage which was not necessarily assured of seeing a sprint finish because of the small length of its finishing flat, did see one as the sprinters got a bonus. There was a late breakaway which formed almost half-way into the stage and was caught with just 7 km to go. John Degenkolb showed his full sprinting prowess and powered to a stage win. Despite not having a recognised sprinter, Movistar managed four top 10 finishers.
Stage winner - John Degenkolb Movistar - Luis Leon Sanchez 5th, Mikel Landa 6th, Gorkha Izagirre 9th, Alejandro Valverde 10th
Stage 4 - Uphill with 1 major intermediate climb
A stage which was largely a steady uphill climb saw the only big name retirement of the race in the form of Diego Ulissi. It also saw the first big breakaway of the race being formed. After the last climb, the leaders and their helpers did their best to gain ground on the breakaway on the uphill, but couldn't rope the last two. This resulted in Masakazu Ito taking a famous win. Behind him, the leaders finished in a bunch, except Frank who lost time. Froome , by finishing 3rd, took the 4 second bonus. Landa leapfrogged Frank for second place.
Stage winner - Masakazu Ito Movistar - Mikel Landa 4th, 1'1" behind Other important results - All other leaders besides Frank finished in Landa's group
Stage 5 - Hilly with 3 major and 3 minor intermediate climbs
Frank's bad luck continued as he fell early on in this stage. He did claw his way back to the peloton. The breakaway was ineffective on this stage and it left the path clear for a showdown among the big names. True to form, Froome took another giant stride in securing first place by racing to his third stage win of this race, increasing his lead at the top of the GC in the process. Landa lost time to his other immediate rivals, Barguil and Rui Costa, pushing him down to 4th in the GC, just ahead of Frank.
Stage winner - Chris Froome Movistar - Mikel Landa 4th, 1'19" behind Other important results - Warren Barguil 2nd, Rui Costa 3rd, 39" behind, Bauke Mollema 5th, Alexis Vuillermoz 6th, 1'19" behind, Jakob Fuglsang 7th, 1'41" behind, Mathias Frank 8th, 1'57" behind
Stage 6 - Flat with 1 minor intermediate climb
This was the only classified flat stage of the race. The leaders took it easy as the teams of the sprinters did all the hard work chasing down the breakaway. They were caught well before the line and there was not else to report from this stage except that Degenkolb took another stage by winning the bunch sprint. Luis Leon Sanchez got himself another top 10 finish.
Stage winner - John Degenkolb Movistar - Luis Leon Sanchez 7th
Stage 7 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 4 major intermediate climbs
The last two stages were the highlight of this race, given the tough profiles that were handed out to the riders. To add to the difficulty, there was rain on this stage. Three Movistar riders took turns to hit the floor, going down one of the treacherous descent (the same one). This included Jesus Herrada, who had put himself into the breakaway to gather KOM points. He managed to get back to the breakaway. The other two never made it back to the peloton. On the third climb of the day, Froome, his two helpers and Landa went away from the pack and were never seen again. They caught up with the breakawayon the next climb. By this time the pace of the leaders, had dropped the Sky domestiques. Movistar immediately put Jesus on domestique duties to Landa. Froome, looking to gain an advantage attacked before the summit of the fourth climb. He was allowed to follow through but could not get away. He was caught by Landa with help from Jesus a third of the way up the climb to the finish. Jesus was then dropped by his own team-mates' pace. Landa attacked with 3 km to go and Froome had no answer. There were huge time gaps to the others.
Stage winner - Mikel Landa Movistar - Jesus Herrada 3rd, 4'28" behind Other important results - Chris Froome 2nd, 48" behind, Bauke Mollema 4th, 5'4" behind, Jakob Fuglsang 6th, 6' 9" behind, Tejay van Garderen 8th, 6'36" behind, Rui Costa 9th, 7'12" behind
Stage 8 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 3 major intermediate climbs
A similar stage to the last one with slightly smaller climbs for the riders to contend with. This also saw a lot smaller time-gaps being created among the leaders at the finish. Jesus Herrada was in the breakaway again, doing enough to guarantee the KOM jersey. The leaders, having left the pack behind, caught up with the breakaway at the foot of the climb. Having Jesus in the break paid dividends again as he nursed Landa up the first half of the climb to the finish. Landa attacked again as his opponents began to weaken and had enough in reserve to take the win. Two in a row for the Spaniard.
Stage winner - Mikel Landa Other important results - Chris Froome 2nd, 31" behind, Rui Costa 4th, 55" behind, Alexis Vuillermoz 5th. 1'16"
General Classification
1)Chris Froome (Sky)
2)Mikel Landa (Movistar)
3)Rui Costa (AG2R)
A thoroughly enjoyable race that! A climber's paradise this was. This was a very good outing for Movistar once again with 2 stage wins and wins in 2 classifications. They pulled off an amazing double play by putting Jesus Herrada in the break in the last two stages, thereby him getting the KOM jersey and Landa getting a much needed assist at the end of the stages. A nice way to get back to the big races after the disappointment felt in Italy. Yes, Froome won here fair and square, there was no question of that. This outing should, however, get the team's spirits soaring again...
Movistar Starting List
Roman Kreuziger
Leopold Konig
Adriano Malori
Dayer Quintana
Ion Izagirre
Sam Bennett
Rafael Valls
Eduard Korniets
The Tour de Suisse got underway just as the Criterium Dauphine hit its half-way mark. Movistar sent two of their leaders to this, Kreuziger and Konig, to fight for the GC. The domestiques were also split up into teams of two, to help each going up the slopes. Comepetition would be tough in this race with Fabio Aru, Richie Porte, Wilco Kelderman, Vicenzo Nibali, Dan Martin, Rigoberto Uran, Ilnur Zakarin and Rafal Majka all in the race for yellow. A couple of ITTs would make the race very interesting as far as the leaders go, given that none of them were greatly superior over the others.
The following is a summary of stages...
Stage 1 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 6.3 km
Tom Dumoulin has been in red-hot form all season in the ITTs and it was no different here as he took a comfortable win. The Movistar duo of Kreuziger and Konig did themselves no harm with top 15 finishes.
Stage winner - Tom Dumoulin Movistar - Roman Kreuziger 14th, Leopold Konig 15th, both losing 26"
Stage 2 - Hilly with flat finish, including 1 major intermediate climb
A little bit of a hilly stage did not deter the sprinters. They kept up with the pack as the breakaway was swept up and launched themselves to the line at the finish. Marcel Kittel, also in tremendous form this year, took the win. Movistar failed to make a mark in the sprint.
Stage winner - Marcel Kittel
Stage 3 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 1 major and 2 minor intermediate climbs
The early breakaway could not stay ahead very long as the jostling for the top spot in the GC began in full earnest in this stage. The first attacks came from Tom Dumoulin and Sebastien Henao in the 2nd minor climb. They were caught easily by the rest of the favourites, who then launched their own attacks. Going up the climb to the finish, Kelderman pulled away from the rest as Movistar struggled to keep both their leaders in touch. At the end, the leaders were spread out over the climb as Kelderman took the win.
Stage winner - Wilco Kelderman Movistar - Leopold Konig 3rd, 2'7" behind, Roman Kreuziger 7th, 3'26" behind, Rafael Valls 10th, 5'2" behind, Dayer Quintana 12th, 5'35" behind Other important results - Fabio Aru 2nd, 1'42" behind, Vicenz Nibali 4th, 2'49" behind, Richie Porte 5th, Rafal Majka 6th, both 3'36" behind, Ilnur Zakarin 8th, 4'26" behind
Stage 4 - Flat with 1 minor intermediate climb
The only flat stage in the race went according to script with the sprinters fighting it out to the finish. A short bumpy section 10 km from the finish caught out several riders, including Sam Bennett, leaving him out of contention for the sprint. For a moment, it was Roman Kreuziger leading the sprint out of the final straight. He was caught and overtaken by eventual winner Lars Boom and Mark Cavendish. Kreuziger's 3rd place gave him a 4 second time bonus, pushing him from 5th to 4th place in the GC.
Stage winner - Lars Boom Movistar - Roman Kreuziger 3rd
Stage 5 - Uphill
A stage where the peloton gradually moved uphill all through saw the breakaway build up a huge lead of more than 26 minutes at its peak. The teams of leaders gradually brought this down, but the peloton only managed to finish 14 minutes off the pace of the break. Mattia Gavezzi took the win as the leaders settled for a stage with no time gaps.
Stage winner - Matteo Gavazzi
Stage 6 - Mountain with 3 major intermediate climbs
The most incident packed stage of the race. Going down the first long descent, Movistar riders Konig, Kreuziger, Dayer, Korniets along with Alaphilippe, Steegmans and Villela all fell. They managed to recover with the peloton slowling down. Some time later, incredibly, in the same descent, Konig and Korniets fell again, this time with no one else joining them! Thankfully they recovered again as the pack traversed the plateau between climbs 1 and 2. Meanwhile, the breakaway built up a lead of over 12 minutes. The leaders' cat and mouse saw several attacks, but in the end none managed to gain an advantage as they settled into the pack behind the breakaway to save themselves from further effort. Tom Slagter took the win, with the lead the pack coming down to just over a minute.
Stage winner - Tom Slagter
Stage 7 - Mountain with 3 major intermediate climbs
The most incident packed stage was followed by the most difficult. 3 huge climbs faced the riders as they out. The who's who of the GC pulled ahead on the second climb of the day, already catching up with most of the early breakaway. Reaching the start of the third climb, the lead group was down to 8 riders, representing the top 8 in the GC. As in stage 3, Kelderman was too strong for the others as he gradually pulled away and stayed away. Aru too showed his good form and prowess by staying to Kelderman. The fortunes of the Movistar riders reversed here with Kreuziger managing to finish ahead of Konig, overtaking the latter in the GC too.
Stage winner - Wilco Kelderman Movistar - Roman Kreuziger 3rd, 53" behind, Leopold Konig 6th, 2'4" behind. Movistar took the lead in the team classification Other important results - Fabio Aru 2nd, 29" behind, Richie Porte 5th, Vicenzo Nibali 6th, Richie Porte 8th, 2'4" behind
Stage 8 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 1 major intermediate climb
Louis Meintjes put himself into the break to try to salvage some good from what had been a bad race for him. It did not work out however as the breakaway was caught with over 40 km to go to the finish. Kelderman and Zakarin launched a tandem attack on the only intermediate climb of the day and were never caught again. Kelderman eventually pulled away from Zakarin and claimed his third stage of the race, putting an exclamation mark on his race win! It was only a matter of getting through the ITT up next. The Movistar pairing held their own behind the lead pair and secured 3rd and 4th place, barring major catastrophe in the ITT.
Stage winner - Wilco Kelderman Movistar - Roman Kreuziger 5th, Leopold Konig 6th, 2'52" behind, Dayer Quintana 10th, 3'14" behind Other important results - Ilnur Zakarin 2nd, 1'42" behind, Rafal Majka 3rd, 2'12" behind, Fabio Aru 4th, 2'31" behind, Rigoberto Uran 8th, Richie Porte 9th, 3'14" behind
Stage 9 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 20.8 km
Another time trial, another win for Dumoulin. This is getting crazy! He has become a time trial, drawing comparisons to the Fabian Cancellara once showed in his hey-day! Movistar managed three top 10 finishes to mark a good end to a satisfactory race.
Stage winner - Tom Dumoulin Movistar - Ion Izagirre 7th, losing 1'7", Leopold Konig 8th, losing 1'8", Adriano Malori 9th, losing 1'10", Roman Kreuziger 11th, losing 1'11" Other important results - Wilco Kelderman 3rd, losing 23", Rigoberto Uran 4th, losing 51", Richie Porte 13th, losing 1'15", Vicenzo Nibali 14th, 1'16"
General Classification
1)Wilco Kelderman (Tinkoff-Saxo)
2)Fabio Aru (Astana)
3)Roman Kreuziger (Movistar)
Mountain Classification
1)Wilco Kelderman (Tinkoff-Saxo)
2)Tony Martin (Giant-Alpecin)
3)Fabio Aru (Astana)
Team Classification
1)Movistar
2)Tinkoff-Saxo
3)Astana
Well, Kelderman won everything! This is ominous form just before the start of the Tour! Could it really turn into a three-way battle for the title. Given that Kelderman is fresher, having not gone to the Giro, he could pose a definite challenge to Froome and Nairo at the TdF. Movistar's performances seem to have taken on more consistency after a somewhat indifferent start to the season. Kreuziger kept his good form from the Giro a got himself a well-deserved podium. A podium in the Young Riders' is also a positive. Movistar has been picking up podium positions in that category in almost all races throughout the season. The riders go away for the National Championships up next. A few days rest fot this team manager. When they get back, the TdF awaits!
This stage was Nairo's only outing after the Giro and before the Tour. As with Romandie before the Giro, Nairo was usurped again in his prep race to the best Movistar finisher slot. This time it was Gorkha Izagirre who took 2nd place in the GC to Nairo's 4th place finish. The good part was that Nairo's preparations went well and he can now put all his focus into the final bit of training before the Tour.
Fine 2nd in Du Sud, looks like that was an existing fight between the first 3, on that descend towards the line ?
Going over the top, it was a four way battle for the lead, with Nairo still in it, but tiring. That little divot you see halfway down the descent is where Pichon and Jauregui attacked. Gorkha kept pace, Nairo was slow to counter and faded. The finish saw Pichon take the sprint a few metres ahead of the exhausted pair of Gorkha and Jauregui.
Edited by AbhishekLFC on 15-01-2016 16:24
