Currently, the clear leader of the individual rankings is our Mads Veiby with 350 points, well ahead of Kwiatkowski (232), Quintana (225) and Sagan (204). Still those same three names, but their decline is starting to get serious.
I might have underestimated Trek slightly, as a team they are still in the lead with 812 points. Aviva follows with 761, Quickstep (719) has overtaken Astana (711). Currently, Trek's five cards are Sagan, Vanmarcke, Talansky, Barguil and Kristoff. Bardet isn't far behind, but he's out with a patella tendon tear and might even miss the Tour. Talansky is one of the top favourites to win the Giro, along with Quintana.
Speaking of Astana, the team was very happy with Slagter's LBL victory, plus Quintana was on the podium in the Basque Country, Kulpaka just made the Romandie podium, Jovanovic further increased his total. Currently Cattenao's 66 points count towards the team's total, but plenty of riders are waiting in the wings, like Majka (AVG 78), Aru (77) and Dumoulin (81), though his MON 72 doesn't compare to his TTR 84.
Quickstep doesn't look like much of a threat for the final rankings, like the real team it's already played most of its hand, especially with Heubach and Mendez. The latter will find it hard to make a difference in the easier hilly classics later in the year. They have many fine sprinters, starting with Groenewegen and followed by Bouhanni, Demare, Nizzolo, Vanbilsen, Cisco Lozano, Ciolek, Viviani, Guardini, Petit and Pelucchi, but they will only steal points from each other. Expect them to take the most victories yet again.
Aviva isn't just waiting around, of course. So far we mostly rely on Veiby and his 350 points. The scoring potential of Myles (140) and Arnau Zamora (108) is rather limited, Tewelde did well in the Ardennes Week but only managed 85 points so far, Koloda (78) currently makes up the numbers. But we still have Jorgensen in hand, Biello has only raced one day so far, Frech's MON 78 could net stages in Tour and Vuelta. And of course, our performances in August and September are legendary.
May 2021: Giro d'Italia (1/5)
***** goal: 1st in climber standings
Race squad: Gallardo, Hontecillas, Kipp, Myles, Pozin, Sequeiros, Tacconelli, A. Zamora, G. Zamora
Another five-parter, I'm afraid, but with rare screenshots. Sergio Henao won't defend his title, he's missing the race. PCMCE made a rather bold choice by declaring Dominik Nerz (MON 78 AVG 76) to be the main favourite. Colour me sceptical, even if he won the Giro del Trentino. The next rider seems the obvious choice, Nairo Quintana. He's down to MON 81, but he is still the best stage racer around.
Next are Trek's Talansky and Hayden, plus Quickstep's Pinot. Hayden's MON 81 puts him on level with the best, but so far he's played super-domestique. Talansky is last year's runner-up, so Hayden might not get a choice but to support his captain. Astana also brought Majka, another serious threat, he was on the podium in 2018. We also need to mention Matej Mohoric, Adam Yates, Rivelino Laurie and Daan Olivier. It's going to be an exciting race with a battle for victory right to the end.
The 2021 Giro started with a team time trial in Palermo. Hontecillas is our captain and aiming for a top 10 finish, which won't be easy. Thanks to team mates who are a lot better than him against the clock we were 3rd, 30 seconds behind Trek and 13 seconds behind Movistar. Our ex-rider Köszegi crossed the finish line first and took the stage plus the leader's jersey. Talansky starts in pole position in the GC race.
Stage 2 was flat except for a cat. 4 hill 10 km out. In case the breakaway makes it we sent Sequeiros ahead. The quintett of riders was first given some room, then chased hard, then allowed a gap of 6 minutes, but with 25 km to go a mass sprint seemed likely. The breakaway made it into the climb, Vichot was the strongest, Sequeiros had to give up at the peak. Nizzolo, hiding behind a team mate, got a small gap and the duo pushed on. Myles was well positioned behind Modolo and his Cannondale team mates, surprisingly, Modolo started his sprint 3000 metres out.
Modolo and Myles surged past the Quickstep duo, but Nizzolo was just biding his time. As Modolo faded, he flew past. And there was still Vichot ahead, but Nizzolo was too fast and beat him to the line. Myles would have needed 50 more metres to overtake Vichot, but 3rd is far from bad.
The next day we already faced a tough and long mountain stage, 223 km from Reggio Calabria to Cosenza, ending in a descent. A big task so early in the race. Tacconelli is our number one choice to fulfil the sponsor goal of winning the KOM classification and we were able to sneak him into the breakaway. But the competition was tough on this stage and Cattenao came out top with 55 points, Tacconelli collected 40.
In the peloton, the attacks came thick and fast on the penultimate climb. Hontecillas was losing positions quickly and just had to hope to stay in a working group. It was an irregular descent heading towards the final climb, Kipp helped Hontecillas regain most of his energy. Quintana and a few more riders were still ahead and had caught the remains of the breakaway. But then the groups merged together and 25 riders tackled the final climb.
Hontecillas survived the culling and even made it to the front of the group, now down to 12 riders, as they reached the peak. However, lacking DHI and SPR he finished 12th and last in the top group. Adam Yates won the stage ahead of Quintana and Mohoric. Talansky slipped into pink, 30 seconds ahead of Yates, Hontecillas is just 1 second behind.
We desperately needed the early rest day, even afterwards only Kipp had excellent freshness. We gave Gallardo a chance in the breakaway on the hilly stage 4 and it was the most unbalanced group ever. Just two riders, Gallardo with his FLA 58 and Brandao, FLA 81! Riding into a strong headwind. Two more riders joined them in the end, but they'd been bridging the gap for half the stage. The quartett gave up and was caught 40 km out.
Gallardo felt slightly inadequate
Going into the final two short climbs Hontecillas had the support from Kipp, Gallardo took over just past the the peak. The final climb was quite steep and not Hontecillas' speciality, but it was mostly into the headwind so gaps were hard to achieve. Hontecillas could even follow the uphill sprint from the race leader. However, Mohoric won and had a gap of 19 seconds to Dombrowski and Zoidl, the next group of 25 riders was 29 seconds behind.
Myles was 4th on stage 5, only behind Nizzolo, Colbrelli and Fernandes. And a day later he recorded his first ever victory! The stage to Napoli was classified as hilly, though there seemed no need for that, there was just one climb in the middle of the stage. A strong tailwind made the stage fast and Hontecillas nearly dropped out of the peloton in the finale, only 41 riders arrived together, and that included the last survivors of the breakaway. Deja Vu for Vichot, he was caught under the flamme rouge this time.
Myles was looking very comfortable, most sprinters had been dropped, race leader Talansky himself was setting the pace in the final 10 km. But then he slowed down with 4 km left and Myles, without attacking, surged past him and nobody was on his wheel. He waited to start his sprint, only Moser overtook him briefly, but Myles had no trouble outsprinting him. Quintana decided to sprint, too, and finished 2nd ahead of Moser, with the bonus seconds he moved past Hontecillas, Yates and Mohoric in the GC.
If only it were always this easy
The next stage led down the dreaded cobbled Via Appia to Rome, with many cobblestone sectors in the second half. Hontecillas suffered and lost contact to 20-ish riders with 30 km to go, but thankfully, none of them were GC candidates. He arrived safely but knackered with the rest of the GC candidates. He'll have to face the climb to Blockhaus tomorrow with only "good" freshness. Myles was in the top group, but our ex-rider Gougeard had survived from the breakaway and won the stage by 42 seconds, Myles was 4th. Our sprinter has now taken the lead in the points rankings and wears the red jersey for a day.
Time for a mountaintop finish on the mighty Blockhaus climb, though the approach was mostly flat. Since it didn't seem very breakaway friendly, we wanted to give Pozin a rare chance to join the early escape. He's still not developed much further, but for some reason the peloton didn't want to let him go. Odd, but no problem, since the breakaway was caught at the foot of the final climb.
Both Zamora brothers took turns protecting Hontecillas, then Tacconelli took over. Eventually, three riders jumped clear, Quintana, Olivier and Talansky. Quintana won the stage ahead of Olivier, Talansky lost 11 seconds but still leads Quintana by 11 seconds in the GC. Hontecillas was at the back of the next group and couldn't avoid a 20 second gap in the uphill sprint. Majka, Boswell, Mohoric, Adam Yates, Dombrowski and Braglia were 1'58'' behind Quintana, Hontecillas 2'18'. He's still 7th in the GC but bound to drop further the next day.
Because a day later the first ITT waited, completely flat and 23 km long. Hontecillas was only 140th, but just about managed to remain in the top 10, as 10th. The time trial was won by BMC's Olondris, our best riders was Geraldo Zamora, 9th, just 16 seconds behind.
The GC situation after the stage and ahead of the second of three rest days: Talansky leads Quintana by 24 seconds. Olivier lost a minute and is now 1'45'' behind, a minute ahead of Yates. Mohoric and Dombrowski follow close behind, then Nerz, Zoidl, Laurie and Hontecillas, who's just over 5 minutes behind Talansky.
Phew, everybody's freshness is back to excellent after the second rest day. Stage 10 featured just three small but very steep hills, including an uphill finish. Sequeiros joined a breakaway with Geschke, Delaplace and Elissonde and won our second stage! Geschke, on paper the weakest rider, dared to attack 10 km out, but he was no match for Sequeiros' sprint after he had caught the German with just over a kilometre to go. The gap was up to 34 seconds on the finish line.
Mohoric attacked and overtook the rest of the breakaway to finish 3rd and move up to 3rd overall. The time keepers were not on the side of Hontecillas, who was 10th. Though he arrived just behind Talansky, he was given a gap of 13 seconds, while the next 16 riders all got his time.
Stage 11 was similar, again with three hills, just as steep, only all of them are twice as long. And this would prove to be another setback for the the GC ambitions of Hontecillas. He failed to make the top group of 9 riders and couldn't quite hold onto the next group either. Mohoric once more distanced the rest and won the stage by 33 seconds. He was followed by Majka, Yates, Dombrowski, Olivier, Talansky, Boswell and Schmäh. Quintana was too passive and lost a minute more, Hontecillas was 14th, 1'48'' behind, he drops to 11th in the GC. A top 10 won't be easy, there are a lot of good riders to compete with.
To win the KOM jersey we really wanted Tacconelli in the breakaway on stage 12 to Fanano. But he started from the last row, so when the attacks came we went with our next choice, Arnau Zamora. It was a strong breakaway, 9 riders, nearly all were as good or even slightly better climbers than Zamora. Maybe disappointingly, the AI riders didn't care about the KOM points, Zamora collected 78, enough to claim the jersey.
The three climbs came in the second half of the stage. The gap to the peloton at the bottom of the first cat. 1 was only about 5 minutes. Since we had a tailwind on the climb, Zamora took charge and increased the gap to over 10 minutes, which assured the breakaway would make it. It was a long descent to Fanara and Zamora's DHI 74 is decent. He attacked at the top of the climb and exhausted his sprint energy. Kruiswijk was giving chase, but couldn't catch up and then there was a small disagreement when the Dutchman was caught by other riders, Zamora's lead increased to 50 seconds.
But I had forgotten to closely check the finale of this stage, there was a short steep ramp to the finish line and Zamora had nothing left to give. Chernetckii, on the other hand, did and the speed difference was comical. Thankfully, the finish line wasn't 30 metres further away and Arnau Zamora won the stage by less than a bike's length. Stage #3 for Aviva.
Mohoric was aggressive and successful again, this time putting an impressive 90 seconds into nearly all top 10 riders, bar Laurie and Dombrowski who were between Mohoric and the rest. Talansky's lead is down to 18 seconds, he's got the long ITT in hand, but there are more tough mountain stages ahead and a brutal hilly stage finishes the Giro, which suits Mohoric perfectly.
The suprise winner of the MTT was Belkins's Sebastiaan Pot, 15th in the GC ahead of the stage. Hontecillas had a rather bad day, he was only 24th, slower than everybody in the top 18, but he's still 11th in the GC. The following long flat stage went to the breakaway, no Aviva riders in there, Fenn beat Vermote, Denifl and Oscar Svendsen.
On stage 15 Arnau Zamora squared up against Pinot (MON 80) and Kreuziger (79), and was well and truly beaten. That duo survived, Pinot won ahead of Kreuziger. And Pinot collected 73 KOM points, Arnau only 28. Pinot is still only 22nd in the GC, so he might attack again and fight for the KOM classification. Hontecillas was 13th on the day and moved up one position in the GC, past Zoidl. Yates was best of the GC riders, followed by Talansky, who extended his lead this time around. We've reached the last rest day.
After the final rest day came the last time trial, over 50 km long and again completely flat. Poor Hontecillas lost 6'43'' and dropped down to 13th in the GC, with the top 10 now 4 minutes away. Talansky was only beaten by Ennex Arnold, Mohoric lost nearly 3 minutes, Quintana closed the gap to him considerably, while Dombrowski and Boswell lost a few GC positions. Talansky's been in the driving seat so far, his gap has grown to a pretty comfortable 3'45'', but that's not going to hold.
The next morning we had a notable non-starter, Olivier, who was 6th in the GC, was hit by tonsillitis. Stage 17 was a last reprise before four very difficult final days of the Giro, a flat stage with just one late cat. 4. David Pozin finally made it into a breakaway, a good group of 8 riders. And we fancied his chances, he might not excel in any stat, but he does have SPR 70, more than any of the other escapees.
The sprinter teams had a different idea though, and the gap was under 2 minutes with 40 km to go. However, the breakaway was working well and the gap was still 90 seconds 20 km out and with the hill just ahead. Pozin (now HIL 73) took to the front of the group, then Wallays attacked and Pozin tried to keep up. He didn't quite manage, but Bouet came back and was kind enough to pull him along. The peloton wasn't far behind anymore, but had lost formation. Going into the final 3 km, Sequeiros, protecting Myles, was at the very front. Myles let a number of sprinters go past before latching onto Zabel.
But the trio ahead would decide the stage after all, Pozin was patient, the last rider to start his sprint, he had to take the outside lane in the final 90 degree corner, but he had the highest speed and won this stage. His first professional win, congratulations! Myles then won the mass sprint from the pack to finish 4th, two fine performances.
Pozin edging out Bouet and Wallays
A brutal stage to Cortina d'Ampezzo zapped our riders of energy, and we still had three more tough stages ahead. We'd have preferred to keep Arnau Zamora in hand for the next day, which features the Cima Coppi. But the attacks came thick and fast as soon as the flag went down, so the blue jersey joined a dozen riders, all of them decent climbers. They kept attacking each other before the climbing even started, consecutive peaks leading higher and higher into the mountains. Eventually things calmed down and Zamora was allowed to take top points on all climbs while the gap had grown to nearly 20 minutes, so the stage would go to the breakaway.
It went to Krujswijk, the best climber in the group, followed by FDJ's Graeme Cross, who's also slightly better than Zamora. Our man was 3rd, 2'05'' behind, he now has 180 KOM points, followed by Kruijswijk (119) and Cross (104).
A lot happened further back in the peloton and Hontecillas suddenly found himself dropped by about 25 riders. He had to ride the short descent to the foot of the final climb alone but managed to draw level with the pink jersey again, crisis averted. He was a bit too wasteful with his energy reserves and eventually lost a minute in the final kilometre.
However, Talansky was fearing for his pink jersey, which he'd been wearing since stage 4. Five top 10 riders had gotten away from him and the gap was growing and growing. Eventually, his nice lead of 3'45'' going into the stage has been reduced to just 1'03'', Quintana was 25 seconds faster than Mohoric and moved up to 2nd in the GC, 8 seconds ahead of Mohoric. Yates is now 2'36'' behind, Laurie and Dombrowski seem to have secured 5th and 6th in the GC now, Boswell is trailing them by 5 minutes.
Stage 19 took us across the Stelvio, the Cima Coppi. But a relatively easy finish saw the top 15 arrive together in a big group, with one exception, Quintana lost 1'10'', dropped to 3rd and is in danger of losing his podium position, Yates is only 23 seconds behind. Sky's Godoy was the strongest climber in the big breakaway and won the stage by over a minute, ahead of a group of six riders, Tacconelli was only 6th, his lack of ACC and SPR prevented a better result. No danger for Zamora, his KOM jersey looks pretty secure.
Four massive climbs and wind speeds over 60 kmph would really shake up the the GC on stage 20. We actually tried to get Hontecillas into the early breakaway but he was chased down hard, so once more it was up to Arnau Zamora. With 78 more KOM points he secured our important objective, he just has to finish tomorrow. But he ran out of energy up the final climb and finished 10th, while his breakaway companion Artaud won the stage. But he only won it by 8 seconds, because Majka, rather than working for Quintana, left the group of favourites behind with 50 km to go.
That group was down to just 8 riders, Köszegi working for Talansky, then five more riders from the top 10 and Hontecillas, who was barely hanging on. He was getting quite excited because the rest of the top 10 were in the peloton and already 5 minutes behind. However, the strongest of them, Boswell, caught up with him on the final climb.
But soon Talansky was in real trouble and Hontecillas played a small part in that, making a risky decision. He and Talansky had been dropped by the other riders on the penultimate climb, but then the pace of that group dropped to a crawl and allowed the duo to return. And Hontecillas had the nerve to launch an attack, hoping the others would ignore him. But most of the group followed his attack - except for Talansky, who was in serious trouble. And the other 5 riders then rode a much faster tempo and easily dropped Hontecillas. So our captain fell in behind Talansky again on the descent and ended up losing 3 minutes to him as well, up the final climb.
But Talansky couldn't hold onto his GC lead, in fact, he dropped off the podium entirely! Quintana, Yates and Laurie arrived nearly 4 minutes ahead of Talansky, Mohoric needed 20 more seconds. But that was enough for Mohoric to slip into pink and we now have a very exciting final stage ahead. It's a brutal hilly stage, and Mohoric has 38 seconds on Quintana, 1'05'' on Yates, Talansky is 2'23'' behind but might even face a challenge from Laurie, who's been overperforming in this Giro. Hontecillas has actually moved back into the top 10, up to 9th. He's only 23 seconds ahead of Zoidl and 41 seconds ahead of Nerz, both superior in hilly terrain.
So, the final stage, this is the stage Vincent Kipp has been waiting for so patiently. He was actually low on the list of favourites for the stage, he'd done little the last few days and was our only rider with excellent freshness. Starting near the back of the peloton there were already 6 riders ahead by the time he attacked, but he found two more takers who helped him cross the gap. On paper there was one rider stronger than him in the group, Betancur, but we knew his form isn't great from a breakaway a couple of days ago. The peloton was up to 10 minutes behind, but was getting serious so Kipp took control of E1 to make sure they – or at least he – wouldn't be caught. On the final climb he left the rest standing and won the stage with 2'25'' to spare. That's five stages for Aviva, a new Giro record for us!
Things were not looking good for Hontecillas, though. Already on the second of five climbs he suddenly found himself in 50th position, nearly losing contact in a peloton reduced to 64 riders. Sequeiros helped him get back to the front and he regained all his energy. But all bets were off on the final climb, the GC riders put on a fireworks display. Hontecillas just about caught Nerz and Zoidl again towards the top with his last energy reserves and as a group, from 8th in the GC, Boswell, to 20th, Vuillermoz, things drastically slowed down for a while. Then Boswell attacked and got away, Hontecillas had to wait a little longer to regain his breath, but he was also allowed to attack as well and eventually gained a minute on Zoidl and Nerz. 9th overall, despite 75 km flat ITTs and strong climbers, a good performance.
Second on the day was Rivelino Laurie, another great ride from him. But Mohoric and Yates weren't far behind, while Quintana was struggling again and lost a minute, while Talansky lost nearly 2'30''. This means Mohoric wins the Giro a minute ahead of Adam Yates, who overtook Quintana. Laurie finishes another couple of minutes behind, but ahead of Talansky, as predicted after yesterday's stage. Then come Majka, Dombrowski, Boswell, Hontecillas and Zoidl.
Donald Myles is 5th in the points rankings, the best of the sprinters... well, many of them missed the time cut during the last few days, 23 riders on the last stage alone, including Nizzolo and Modolo. The points jersey goes to Adam Yates. Arnau Zamora is King of the Mountains, a 5-star objective. The white jersey clearly went to Braglia, now 25 years old with MON 81, he finished 15th overall. Sky wins the teams classification by 10 minutes ahead of Astana. Trek (941) still leads the WT team rankings, but Astana (909) has cleary overtaken Aviva (837) thanks to Majka and Quintana – the Colombian has also overtaken Veiby in the individual rankings.
June 2021: Criterium du Dauphine (1/2)
** goal: Stage Win
Race squad: Gallardo, Hontecillas, Jorgensen, Kipp, Myles, Tacconelli, A. Zamora, G. Zamora
Jorgensen won't try to defend his TdS title, the Swiss Tour only features one mountain stage this year, the 2021 Dauphine is more to his liking. He's reached MON 81, a new record for us, and of course we hope he'll get to MON 82, his limit, during the Tour de France or at least the Vuelta. He gets excellent support, and we have good breakaway options for every stage.
36-year old Froome wins the prologue, his first victory in 24 months. Arnold and the fabulous Dowsett complete the podium. The mass sprint on stage 2 goes to Denny van der Woude, his first ever victory in his 4th season, all of them with Trek. He beat Edgar Riofrio and Ewan. The hilly stage 3 to La Mure was no problem for Jorgensen. Kipp attempted to win the stage and attacked right into the final climb of 4 km. But Aru caught up with him under the flamme rouge and distanced him in the uphill sprint, Majka also overtook him, a 1-2 for Astana.
The first mountain stage, finishing in Grenoble, also ended with a 1-2 – but for Aviva! Arnau Zamora was slightly surprised by how easily he dropped all his breakaway companions on the final climb. Vichot, Van Baarle, Spilak... fine riders, but no climber among them.
Jorgensen was controlling the peloton from the front, which already caused suffering. Then Majka attacked and Quintana soon followed, Tacconelli was an invaluable help in keeping them in sight and a brief attack was enough for Jorgensen to join them, together with Froome.
A long descent followed, which Jorgensen (DHI 74) attacked into. At first, only Majka was able to keep up with him, then Froome made it a trio, but Quintana couldn't close the gap. Jorgensen attacked again with the same result. The trio was in danger of reaching the exhausted Zamora, so going into the final flat kilometres Jorgensen let Majka lead. Froome held on, but only barely. Jorgensen comfortably outsprinted Majka and Froome, the trio arrived a minute behind Zamora. Quintana had been caught by the next group of 7 riders which wasn't terribly fast, they all lost 2 minutes to Jorgensen.
But the flat ITT the following day made Jorgensen drop from 3rd to 9th in the GC, he's now 3'16'' behind Froome. We still have a mountain stage ahead with a long final climb, the podium might still be in reach. Arnau Zamora was 15th in the ITT and moved right behind Jorgensen into 10th. I very much doubt he can defend that position.
Hontecillas easily won the stage to Val-Thorens. He didn't even wait until the very long final climb, instead he left the rest of the breakaway behind on the penultimate climb and without much effort won the stage by 5 minutes. His first victory of the season after many fine GC results.
Jorgensen "only" moved up to 5th in the GC. The long final climb wasn't terribly steep and he was pulling 30 riders before he dared a brief attack only answered by the Astana duo and old Froome. Quintana was 2nd, Jorgensen beat Froome in the uphill sprint for 3rd, Majka followed right behind them. Herrada distanced the rest and holds onto his podium position, 8 seconds ahead of Majka, with Jorgensen a further 30 seconds behind. Arnau Zamora dropped to 12th in the GC, he could possibly have done better, we just let him ride at a steady pace and he arrived with energy to spare.
Jorgensen had a few unflattering words for Quintana after the final stage of the Dauphine. Kipp had waited once more for this final hilly stage, though it turned out to be more mountainous after all, and he had trouble following Elissonde, Fraile and Craddock.
But the breakaway was doomed when Jorgensen took his heart in his hands and tried to improve his GC position, though the stage profile was far from ideal. Supposedly hilly, and our captain hates hills, with a final peak more than 20 km from the finish line. However, seeing the struggling Kipp we figured the Col de Tamie (9.7 km @ 6%) and especially the last climb, the Col de la Forclaz-de-Montmin (8.4 km @ 7.7%) might suit our captain well. So he moved to the front on the Tamie and attacked with nearly 50 km to go.
He didn't overexert himself and regained energy on the descent between the climbs and then rode a longer attack on the final climb of the day. Only Quintana followed, but refused to share the workload even though the gap to Froome was growing.
Jorgensen had to ride the rest of the way from the front and then Quintana easily outsprinted him to take the stage. Froome had found an ally in Omar Fraile, they caught Jorgensen inside the final km and Fraile even overtook him. Jorgensen wasn't happy with Quintana's behaviour and made it known to his opponent and the world.
The great news is, even without Quintana's help Jorgensen pulled it off and moved onto the podium. Herrada, Majka and most of the top 10 arrived 1'08'' behind. What a last hurrah from Froome (now AVG 75): His first major victory since the Tour de France 5 years ago!
Strong performance on the final day at least. He was aaggressive because he felt he should be on the podium and not finish behind a rider like Herrada (MON 77).
Due to current circumstances I'll be posting the TdS over the weekend, rather than my usual weekday schedule.
@Kiserlovski01: Thank you, "a great read" is the best compliment! Hontecillas did all he could in the Giro, 20 minutes behind the top 5 isn't great, but it was the best he could do. Winning the five stages more than made up for it, I always see it as a team effort and like it when everybody gets to celebrate something.
Finally, the first WT race for the rest of our summer team. It's altogether a strong group of riders, some have improved since the start of the season. New addition Volker Frech will captain the team and is aiming for a top 10 result. He is a decent stage racer with MON 78 and TTR 75 (both maxed out), good REC but weak STA and RES, plus no ACC or SPR. Maybe not that good after all, we'll have to see how well he performs. Also our best sprinter, Theo Biello (now SPR 83 ACC 82), finally starts his WT season. He has a packed schedule in the next two-and-a-half months.
This edition of the Tour de Suisse wasn't very selective and ended with small time gaps, just over a minute separating the final top 6. We began with a hilly prologue and were a little disappointed not to see Frech high in the results list, he was 30th, losing 25 seconds. Blaesi made a good first impression as 9th. Durbridge won ahead of Fowler and Thiarra.
Stage 2 was considered hilly, but it was pretty flat except for one big mountain in the middle of the day. It would have been a fairy tale had our new Swiss rider Hoang Doc Blaesi won the stage. He'll become a good stage racer and already has nice secondary stats like FLA 71 and SPR 72. He easily left his breakaway companions Ulugbek Tynyanov and Erich Pekarik behind on a late unclassified bump, but the peloton was upon him with just 2 km to go.
Of course, winning isn't everything – it's the only thing! Because we still won the stage with Theo Biello! Matthews started his sprint too early, Biello waited for the flamme rouge to leave his slipstream and won convincingly. What a great start to his season.
Stage 3 to Schwarzenburg was another hilly stage, but with an undulating finale with lots of short ramps. Berhane stood no chance against his breakaway companions, but eventually the peloton caught them all. Frech, with Bilbao's help, made it into the top group of 17 riders who gained 38 seconds on the rest. Durbridge has to hand off his leader's jersey to Kulpaka. Piton won ahead of Giro winner Mohoric and Ulissi – Piton's finally off the mark, the first WT win for this strong puncheur.
Wow, Biello wins the second mass sprint, too. It was a tricky finale with a downhill finish, Biello attacked into the final 3 km and didn't let anybody get past him, not even Jovanovic. Next we faced another hilly stage with a lumpy finale and this time it looked like Frech would lose a minute against Piton, Kulpaka and the rest, but the time keepers were on our side on this occasion. The stage went to the breakaway, McLean was a bit disappointed to lose out to Morton, who rode for Aviva back in 2016 and looked beatable. Morton also took the race lead.
Then came the queen stage to La Punt. It started with two ferocious climbs, had some larger lumps in the middle and finished after a descent from another HC climb. Rotson Dracke was in the breakaway and was first atop the early HC climb, he ended the day with the mountain jersey, collecting 26 points, BMC's Gilkinson is close behind with 22 points.
The favourites caught the breakway on the last climb. That is, surprisingly Volker Frech did most of the catching, with help from Fernandez and then Dracke he rode the whole climb from the front and dropped more and more riders. The group was down to a dozen, then the Katusha men Aller and Henao fell behind, next even the strong Trek duo of Hayden and Talansky, until there were only six left: Kulpaka, Kwiatkowski, Van Garderen, Ulissi, Barguil and Frech. Barguil won ahead of Ulssi and Kulpaka. Frech is on the podium after that fine performance, but keeping the position in the upcoming two hilly stages will be a challenge.
The following day 9 of the 11 riders from the breakaway survived to fight for the stage, a minute ahead of the favourites. Our man Dracke was 4th, behind Navardauskas, Cort Nielsen and Vanmarcke. Even more disappointing than not winning the stage was that Navardauskas collected more KOM points and has overtaken Dracke by one point.
Which meant Dracke was back in the breakaway a day later and finished 5th out of 8 this time. But with Navardauskas absent in the breakaway, Dracke went on to win the mountains classification. In the peloton, Frech survived once more, when the attacks came, so many riders followed that Frech could hang on, protected by Bilbao all the way to the finish line.
A beautiful day for a relaxed cycling tour
A flat ITT, 26 km long, rounds off the Tour de Suisse and will decide the race. It was an Australian podium, Durbridge ahead of Dennis and Fowler. Four of the next five riders were American, but neither Talansky nor Van Garderen made the GC podium. Instead it's a Polish double, Kulpaka rode well enough to hold off Kwiatkowski by 11 seconds. We had hoped for a better ride from Frech, who was 23rd and lost 1'40'', but our captain remained on the podium nonetheless, because Ulissi wasn't fast enough.
What a start in the World Tour for Volker Frech, first race and he makes the podium. Not quite what Jorgensen managed last season, but impressive enough. Biello fulfilled our stage win goal by winning a mass sprint. While he already won a mass sprint last year at the Vuelta, this is the first time we attained a goal that way.
Volker is an old person's name? Man, two good friends of mine are called Volker and they're both younger than me. I'm officially old. Get off my lawn, you kids!
Astana has really pulled away from us in the last month. The Kazachs now lead the WT team rankings with 1164 points ahead of Trek, while Aviva is trailing by over 300 points. Since the Giro we only added 12 points, only the top 5 count and our best scorers in June were Jorgensen, Frech and Biello, who only just started their season. The relegated Lotto-Belisol is 8th in the WT standings and bound to return to the top flight next year.
1
Astana Pro Team
1164
2
Trek Factory Racing
1029
3
Aviva Cycling
849
4
Team Sky
781
5
QuickStep Team
779
6
Orica - GreenEDGE
514
7
Cannondale
414
8
Lotto - Belisol
403
9
Tinkoff - Saxo
395
10
Team Katusha
297
Astana can count on Quintana (1st individually, 454 points), Slagter (9th, 192), Majka (13th, 183), Kulpaka (17th, 178) and Jovanovic (20th, 157). Our top 5 are still Veiby (2nd, 350), Myles (19th, 166), Arnau Zamora (24th, 134), Hontecillas (28th, 122) and Tewelde (37th, 85). We can expect that all five of Astana's men will keep on adding points to their total: All of them will race the TdF, Quintana still is the #1 favourite to win the race, Kulpaka and Majka could make the top 10, Jovanovic will win a few stages.
1
Nairo Quintana
Astana Pro Team
454
2
Mads Veiby
Aviva Cycling
350
3
Matej Mohoric
Tinkoff - Saxo
346
4
Andrew Talansky
Trek Factory Racing
343
5
Michal Kwiatkowski
Lotto - Belisol
312
6
Diego Ulissi
Cannondale
256
7
Peter Sagan
Trek Factory Racing
204
8
Hugues Piton
Team Sky
192
9
Tom Jelte Slagter
Astana Pro Team
192
10
Sep Vanmarcke
Trek Factory Racing
188
So the gap is bound to grow further next month and we'll have to score big in August again. I already promise no funny business in Hamburg and Plouay, no team attacks, we don't want anybody to say we cheated our way to the top.
Let me start off by admitting I thought the wage limit for this transfer period was 6k, a slight mistake on my part, I could have offered 6.5k. But it wouldn't have made much of, if any, difference.
Only 12 riders have a contract for next season. Obviously, there are some riders we'd love to keep but are far beyond our restrictions. IAM was able to snatch up the magnificent Mads Veiby. Our two world class sprinters are also leaving us, Myles signed with Orica, but poor Biello was slighted and will have to sit out the next season. Jorgensen moves to Team Sky, Hontecillas will join Marrou at Caja Rural. Let's hope the team's back in the WT next year. McLean and Kipp also demanded double-digit wages. McLean follows Veiby to IAM, Kipp found a new home in France with FDJ.
We could have extended with Pello Bilbao, Ruben Fernandez and Maurits Lammertink, but they are all over 30 years old and we've found enough interesting young riders to let them go. Gerardo Zamora cannot improve further, either, but he's a bit younger and we didn't want to tear him and his brother apart, so he's staying. We also offered new contracts to our Kazach duo Sergienko and Koloda, Koloda will stay with us for another year, but Igor Sergienko turned down our offer.
We replace him with another Sergienko, Jaffar. There are five Sergienkos in the db and three of them were born in 1996, they can't all be brothers, so I won't assume it in this case. He's one of 16 new signings, which also include a familiar face, Delfi Grande returns after two disappointing seasons with Katusha. He earns 11k a month with the Russian team but accepted our offer of 6k. As always, we'll have to wait and see how good the rest of the new signings turn out. Among them is Matthew Kolk, a young Australian climber who just finished 7th in the Dauphine. Watch out for him in next year's Tour Down Under.
NC news: Just two Aviva victories this year. Frech was allowed to join the breakaway in Germany on a hilly course around Triberg and won by over three minutes. More impressive was Pello Bilbao's victory in Bembibre, which saw him win the sprint from a select group of favourites, edging out Ion Izagirre and Francisco Moya.
Welcome to the Tour de France 2021, starting in my home town, Berlin. PCMCE rates the Astana men Quintana and Kulpaka as the top favourites this year, but only one of them can captain the team and it has to be Quintana, who's aiming for his third victory in a row. Trek is also present with both Barguil and Talansky, though as expected, Bardet did not recover in time. Sky will back Van Garderen, Quick-Step has one card to play with Pinot. Lotto-Belisol received a wild card, so Kwiatkowski's back in the mix as well. We decided that both Jorgensen and Frech will ride for the GC after Frech proved his mettle in Switzerland.
The opening stage is the only hilly stage of the whole race, completely flat for 240 km until we reach a nasty little climb to the finish line. The breakaway didn't stand a chance, a strung-out peloton fought for victory. Matthews took the stage just ahead of Kwiatkowski and those two gained 32 seconds on the next 167 riders, with Koch picking up the bonus seconds for 3rd.
Stage 2 was the team time trial. Sky won 11 seconds ahead of Astana and 23 seconds ahead of Aviva. Hugues Piton, 2nd in LBL and finally with a first victory at the TdS, was awarded the win and the yellow jersey. Old habits die hard and despite Biello I simulated the flat stage 3. Our man was only 9th, Matthews took his second stage ahead of Demare and Jovanovic.
A day later we headed to Geraardsbergen, featuring a few dreaded cobbled sectors. The breakaway consisted of only two riders and yet there was no fight in the peloton for the intermediate sprint. For possibly the first time ever in all my careers I let Biello sprint for these points, nobody else bothered.
The finale with the Mur of Geraadsbergen was as nightmarish as expected. According to the display Jorgensen and Frech, who are both protected, lost at least 90 seconds to a group of about 15 other GC riders. But according to the official result, they lost nothing. Four riders got away and gained 2'34'' on the rest, stage winner Demare, Boom and Vanmarcke as well as Isidro Macon, the surviving member of the early breakaway. Vanmarcke gets to wear yellow for now.
Most favourites were in the reduced peloton, but a few lost 4'30'' and more. This includes Adam Yates, Dauphine winner Froome and Rui Costa, 4th in last year's Tour de France.
Biello was only beaten by Jovanovic and Matthews on stage 5, a fine result considering the many good sprinters in the race. He had Jovanovic's rear wheel but the Croatian waited a long time with his sprint so Biello had to start a little early and couldn't overtake his rival, while Matthews squeezed past on the other side of the road. The simulated stage 6 went to Jovanovic, Biello was only 13th.
We have a new GC after the first ITT on stage 7: Dumoulin won ahead of Dennis and Talansky. Frech was a good 13th, while Jorgensen was 103rd, 4'11'' behind. Boom was 4th, enough to become the new leader by 1'47'' ahead of Dennis, with Dumoulin close behind. Frech is now 7th in the GC, Jorgensen 29th.
In the GC battle Van Garderen, currently 4th, is just a few seconds ahead of Kulpaka, Kwiatkowski, Frech and Quintana. Barguil is about 2 minutes behind them, Pinot and Majka are within a minute of Barguil. Another 40-ish seconds behind are Olivier and Jorgensen. We'll know a lot more in the next few days, because we are facing five mountain stages in a row!
It's always a shame to see leaders leave, but so far you always replaced them well and improved every season, so I am quite sure you can do that as well this year!
Solid start to the Tour, but Aviva usually starts to really shine in the second week when breakaways become more important, so I can't wait to see how those turn out for you!
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