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Today's stage is 207km long, and has a quite steep climb 25kms before the finish. Will someone make an attack, or will the pack stay together?
After a high pace at the start, the pack started to hold their pace back, and let a 5-man break get away, with Kreuziger and C.Meyer being the biggest names. Despite the BotD being really strong, the pack didn't chase hard.
However, as we reached the 1st cat. climb of the day, Movistar decided to step up the pace, and inredibly quickly chased down the break. Because of this high pace by the spanish team, even pre-stage favourite, Daniel Moreno got dropped. His whole team dropped to him and chased the Peloton. At the end of the day he reached the finish ca. 2mins down on the winner.
On the rest of the climb, nothing really happened, as Movistar's pace was just too high for the riders to attack. Great ride by them.
The peloton reached the last 5kms together (except Moreno), and one of the favourites, Pietropolli launched an attack, as the pace dropped a bit. He quickly got a good gap, and as the sprint launched he had a quite comfortable lead. Our riders didn't feel good, and we decided not to participate in the sprint, in order to don't make unnecessary efforts for nothing.
At the 1km mark the italian was still in the lead, and looked sure for the win. Luis León Sánchez followed at 2nd, and early-launcher Tony Gallopin was there too.
And Pietropolli wins it after a well timed attack in the last kilometre! Congratulations to the italian, he was the cleverest of the riders. Race-leader Lastras comes 2nd, and LLS takes the 3rd place. The best Spider is Gömböcz at the 16th. Not a great stage for us.
sutty68 wrote:
A quiet day for the team (for a change)
Well, at least the guys got some rest, hope they'll bounce back on the next stage.
Welwyn wrote:
Quiet, but steady at the same time.
Thanks for the comment, it's really-really appreciated!
I'll try to put the next stage up from Catalunya, and probably the Gent-Wevelgem, however I'm not too sure about the latter. Let's see how it works out.
Stage 6 in Catalunya is not a really interesting one for me personally. IT doesn't have any real big difficulties, and the final climb is not steep enough to create gaps. Most likely a reduced bunch sprint, or a breakaway win will be the outcome of the race.
After a quite slow 20kms the BotD formed, with Zubeldia being the biggest name. Our rider, Nagy tried to get into the break, but couldn't make it.
After a while, the break got a huge, 10min, lead and Movistar decided to get some time back on them. However, their pressure wasn't enough, and with 10kms to go it was quite sure, that break will take the stage.
At the 3km mark spaniard Haimar Zubeldia broke away from his breakaway companions, and got a great gap immediately. Can he make it?
Meanwhile in the peloton Movistar was pacing, and nothing really interesting happened. The riders were prepping for the sprint. We decided to go for Clemson, and made a train for him. But now, let's take a look at the front of the race, where...
...Haimar Zubeldia soloes to the line, and wins the stage! Great effort by the spanish oldie! His former companions Dumoulin and Chaves are completing the podium. Clemson wins the bunch sprint, and get 4th. Great stage for him!
Results
Sorry for the pictured results, I forgot to export.
@kritzo - indeed, it was bad to see him win the bunch sprint for the 4th.
Gent - Wevelgem
As the G-W is the least cobbled, cobbled classic, our leader is still undecided. Mike Pye is not a really strong finisher, so the lead will be kind of "free for all". Let's see, who will take the leading Marshallbot!
This years edition doesn't contain too many cobbled sections, so the races main tough difficulty will be the length of the race. Who will take this one?
After the split, a 20 man select group remained at the front. OPQS forced the pace further, and BMC helped them. 4 of our Spiders were still in the leading group.
As we closed to the sprint, 16 more riders caught up with the help of Vacansoleil. BMC formed their train at the front, and our riders followed their high pace.
The sprint started, and Boonen went straight off to lead the pack, and led under the Flamme Rouge. Pal was right on his wheel, and was trying to make his jump, but was just not strong enough to make it.
But coming out of nowhere Alessandro Petacchi wins the race! What an amazing sprint by the old italian! He overtook Boonen, and our very own hungarian gun, Pal.
Results
Sorry for the pictured result, the Excel file went corrupt.
There won't be any updates until Monday, as I'll travel to London on Sunday morning, and then come back at the evening, and before that I'll have to learn a lot. Sorry guys, the next days are going to be very busy. However, on Monday the Spiders are going to be back with the last stage of Catalunya, and then with a Monthly Review. To be honest, I can't wait to finish March, as I really want know the Cobbled and the Ardennes Classics. Thanks for following, and please tell me if you have any questions about specific riders!
Thanks for following!
