Well, Cancellara with 68MO and 74HIL surely couldn't fight with 81MO and 81HIL guy there, so it's still great result in my honest opinion. Edited that, accidently put that Coppel's from FDJ.

Thanks alot for your support, Phil and Sutty.

5th stage is one that's surely going to decide alot here. It's only mountain stage in this years Tirreno and I guess that fact tells alot about it. We'll see what we can do.




We once again decided to be part of breakaway. This time, on Tirreno. Big group decided to attack at the start of the stage, so our Bob Jungels decided to join them. Some strong names here, such as Albasini, Slagter, Kangert...



Our photographer was just amazed by the nature of Italy, so decided to take few more photos of break group. Shame we can only let you see 2.



Peloton wasn't really worried by breakaway, so they let them gain some time quickly. Basso and Pozzovivo couldn't agree with that decision, so they decided to attack aswell.



They were caught soon. Last rated mountain and 2nd climb before finish starts. Nothing happened until the middle of that mountain, where Zubeldia started accelerating from his seat. Everyone was surprised. He's protected by Busche and guys looks great.



No one surely expected this and Zubeldia now has pretty nice advantage of more than half a minute. There's still alot to come and that's the only thing that worries us.



Guys back behind arrived to top of that mountain and Zubeldia still had lead, but it was decreasing. He's in trouble. Meanwhile, in front of the race, Slagter attacks the rest of breakaway group and manages to escape. He looks unstoppable today.



Last hill already struggled. Zubeldia is exhausted and all he's trying to do now is to stay in same group as leaders. Hesjedal attacks, but it's still 10 kilometers to. Is it too far for this kind of attack?



2 of main favourites, Sanchez and Uran decided to follow that and they attacked aswell. However, both of these attack were neutralised soon, just when riders passed under 5kms banner.



Slagter kept great ride in front and he's now entering last 3 kilometers. He's surely going to win this, considering how big advantage he has.



And yes, just as expected, young Dutchie managed to capture the win here! What a brave attack from Slagter and totally deserved stage win here.



But, there was one way more important fight for us, down the road. Actualyl, we started loosing that 'more important fight' , as Zubeldia couldn't really keep anymore with 2nd group, group of leaders. Only 1 kilometer to go make situation even harder.



Porte wins the sprint in favourites group. Alot of guys are there, which is quite strange in this mountainous stage.



Zubeldia finishes 50 seconds after this group. Who knows what could've happen with this if he didn't attack on previous hill. That surely killed him...

1	Tom Slagter	Garmin Sharp	5h44'53
2	Giovanni Visconti	Movistar Team	+ 46
3	Richie Porte	Team Sky	+ 3'15
4	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	s.t.
5	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
6	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
7	Michael Rogers	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
8	Laurens Ten Dam	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Roman Kreuziger	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
10	Rui Costa	Lampre - Merida	s.t.

GC

1	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	21h45'20
2	Richie Porte	Team Sky	+ 2
3	Roman Kreuziger	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 6
4	Rigoberto Urán	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 21
5	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	+ 24
6	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 25
7	Haimar Zubeldia	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'15
8	Rui Costa	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
9	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 1'40
10	Damiano Cunego	Lampre - Merida	s.t.

Points	Andre Greipel [Lotto]	22 points
KoM	Tom Slagter [Garmin]	12 points
U25	Tom Slagter [Garmin]	21h50'47
Team	Tinkoff - Saxo	64h46'17

Pretty bad result for us. 7th place isn't that bad, but the gap between 6th and 7th is. This maybe looks like first our goal that won't be reached. But we'll surely try attacking tomorrow, we won't give up just like that!

Yup, I guess he can easily blame bad strategy from team, as that early attack wasn't really the best thing to do at that moment...

Indeed. Brave attack from Haimar that didn't really paid of at the end, but at least he shown that he still has some energy left with being 36 y/o.

Guys, I once again (after Langkawi) decided to do "quick" reports on the last 2 stages of Tirreno, as nothing really impressive and interesting happened on them. The story will continue it's usual pace after this. MSR is coming soon (after 2 short 1-day classics) and that's one of the reasons I decided to skip this, also.




7th stage of Tirreno was basically last one we had a chance to correct the situation in GC. Breakaway was created and Jungels was part of it, once again. However, peloton controlled race all the time and caught the escapees on 5 kilometers to go.

Haimar tried on the bottom of last hill, but it was just impossible to break away and gain few seconds. After the peloton caught him and sprint started, Sagan easily managed to win this, like made for him, stage.



We were quite disappointed that we had no chance to get that Top 5, but it's all called cycling. You cannot always win. Nothing changed in GC, neither in any other classification after this stage.

1	Peter Sagan	Cannondale	4h53'03
2	Simon Gerrans	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
3	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Sky	s.t.
4	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
5	Cadel Evans	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
6	Giovanni Visconti	Movistar Team	s.t.
7	Rui Costa	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
8	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	s.t.
9	Philippe Gilbert	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
10	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.

The last stage of Tirreno is short 10km time trial. We really didn't have riders that could compete here, so I decided to skip this one.




Surprisingly, at the end, Roman Kreuziger managed to win this with 2 seconds in front of his team-mate, Michael Rogers. Guys that were expected to do better, such as Spilak, Hagen and Porte all finished in Top 10, without a big time margin.



Our best guy was Zubeldia on 18th place with 15 seconds of disadvantage. Not the worst result from Haimar, actually.

1	Roman Kreuziger	Tinkoff - Saxo	10'24
2	Michael Rogers	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 2
3	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Sky	+ 5
4	Simon Spilak	Team Katusha	+ 6
5	Niki Terpstra	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 7
6	Peter Sagan	Cannondale	s.t.
7	Manuele Boaro	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 8
8	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	+ 10
9	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	+ 12
10	Richie Porte	Team Sky	s.t.

GC

1	Samuel Sánchez	BMC Racing Team	26h48'57
2	Richie Porte	Team Sky	+ 4
3	Ryder Hesjedal	Garmin Sharp	+ 24
4	Rigoberto Urán	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 29
5	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 33
6	Roman Kreuziger	Tinkoff - Saxo	+ 1'12
7	Rui Costa	Lampre - Merida	+ 1'19
8	Haimar Zubeldia	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'20
9	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 1'46
10	Thomas De Gendt	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	+ 1'58

Points	Peter Sagan [Cannondale]	32 points
KoM	Tom Slagter [Garmin]	12 points
U25	Tom Slagter [Garmin]	26h55'07
Team	Tinkoff - Saxo	79h59'20

Pretty good result for Haimar, but it could've been much better...

What can I say about this race? One in many one day Belgian classics as preparation to what's coming soon. We're only few days behind Milano - San Remo now and only 2 one day races to come (including this one).




The route is basically flat, although it doesn't really look like that on profile screen. Riders are constantly passing throught the cobbled finish, which means this is circuit type of race. Around 10 laps in Nokere, a town in region of Flanders will surely bring us alot of fun.

Talking about startlist, it really isn't strong here, except few good names that seems like lost in here. Surely, most popular name and definitely the biggest favourite for winning this is our Fabian Cancellara, who said that this is his last cycling day before Milano San Remo. Cobblestones elite decided to skip this race, but we still have few great names such as Phinney, Wynants, Offredo etc...



It can sound a bit harsh and rough, but win is a MUST for our team with this startlist. We do have Nizzolo, Devolder, Rast and Cancellara and I think all of them are capable of win on this terrain. I think this was pretty good tactical move, as we can surely rule the race from its start to its end.



As you can see, we also do have Stuyven, Roulston, Popovych and Hondo who all are part of our cobblestone squad. Nothing except win will be considered as good result and these guys knows that. Race starts soon, see ya!

DS of Trek FR - admirschleck

Everything except really dominating Nokere would be surprise. So, yes, we will try to do that.

Pretty much nothing to say about the race that I already didn't in the preview, so let's just jump on the racing and race report.




Huge breakaway gorup was created early and we were part of it. Actually, Danilo Hondo were part of it. Quite strange, as he should be on the outsiders for win of this race, but he told us that he doesn't really feel well and that he probably has no chances outside of the breakaway. That's why he found his place in E1 group.



The race was really one dimensional in first part of the race. Offredo changed stuff a bit when he made a move and joined BOTD group. We had everything in control, although we let him go. It was about 90 kms to go at that point.



And once again, big nothing in next 60 kilometers. Peloton chasing E1, E1 trying to stay in front and that's it basically. Then, Hondo decided to make a move and try something on his own!



However, Offredo did everything to neutralise that and the E1 group was once again compact. As the riders were getting closer to 20km-to-go sign, peloton were getting closer and closer to them. Finally, they managed to catch them at 22kms to go.



Few kilometers of strategies and stuff like that passed and guys entered last ten kilometers. Then, Phinney attacked! Someone's trying to follow him, who's that?



Oh, of course, it's Fabian Cancellara! He just sat and overtook young American. Phinney can't keep Cancellara's tempo and he's dropping. What a show of power from Swiss ITT champion.



As there were only 5-6 kilometers to go in that point and peloton had about 40 seconds of disadvantage, it was pretty clear that Cancellara is going to get this. He entered last kilometer with around 200 meters of advantage, which should be just enough for a great solo victory for him.



As the last kilometer was all cobbled, it was no problem for him to keep the pace up and take a win here. Just as expected, Spartacus dominated!



But that's not all! Guess what? Nizzolo took the win in mass-sprint finish back behind in peloton and made this result even better, as Trek now got 1-2!



Pretty much the best scenario we could get here. It was expected from us, we fullfilled expectations. Like a boss.

1	Fabian Cancellara	Trek Factory Racing	4h30'43
2	Giacomo Nizzolo	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
3	Ramon Sinkeldam	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.
4	Tom Veelers	Team Giant - Shimano	s.t.
5	Jens Keukeleire	Orica GreenEdge	s.t.
6	Matteo Tosatto	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
7	Iljo Keisse	Omega Pharma - Quick·Step	s.t.
8	Maarten Wynants	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Mickaël Delage	FDJ.fr	s.t.
10	Johnny Hoogerland	Androni Giocattoli	s.t.

Thanks everyone, it was indeed great day for Trek Factory Racing. Now only Handzame Classic and MSR is next. It's going to be one hell of the race, I feel.

And, the last race before longest and probably one of most important classics and races generally for our team, Milano San Remo is Handzame Classic. No cobblestones this time, same region (Flanders), same country (Belgium), let's hope it will be the same winning team, as last time (Trek).




The route is pan flat without any cobbles, which is somehow weird when we're talking about one day classics, Belgium and this part of year. Anyways, finish is in the town of Handzame, which is in Flanders region. The race should be finished in mass sprint, due to its route.

Startlist is quite interesting. Some solid names once again, but this time without the bests. Best riders over here are all basically on same level and some of the names are: Veelers, Phinney, Napolitano, Wynants, Oss, Meersmann, van Poppel, Steegmans and others. Should be very fun race to watch and follow, so be sure to check the thread soon.



Speaking of our team and our squad here, we brough pretty solid squad here lead by Rast and Danny van Poppel as our main sprinter. Both of them are without wins this season, which is quite interesting when you see that some weaker riders here already do have wins (Styuven and Boy van Poppel). Should be good enough team for some solid Top5 place, at least.



That was all for the preview of Handzame Classic, see ya soon on the field of this interesting race.

DS of Trek FR - admirschleck