@TMM - Thanks, it was indeed an amazing one for me!
@fcancellara - Puskaric at his best.
@the_hoyle - Thanks, and the GC lead is always a great one to have.
@jseadog - Yeah, and it's promising for the Giro.
@sutty - Indeed, he is just pwning.
@IanButler - Indeed, thanks for the compliments.
@Colinas - Yes it is, I'm really glad about it.
The hardest stage so far comes, to prepare the riders legs to tomorrow's queen stage. Let's see if the riders will spare their energy or attack to surprise the others.
The daily break was quite small today, it consisted of only 4 riders, with the biggest name being Tejay Van Garderen, who lost plenty of time (ca. 27mins) in stage 2.
The break got a huge lead (ca. 10min), and there was only 85km left to chase, so SpiderTech decided to up the pace, and sent some domestiques to the front. The gap wasn't closing in too fast, so it looked like the break will survive the stage at the front.
As we reached the final hill, it was sure that the break will make it, they had a lead of 3 minutes. The pack worked hard, but still couldn't bring them back. They pace meant too, that the attacks were pretty much worthless, because of the high pace at the front. But back to the break now, Tejay Van Garderen attacked at the start of the hill, and never looked back. He just left his companions in their wakes!
And he won it with ease! Phenomenal riding by the young American, he was certainly the strongest from the break. Sylvain Georges takes the 2nd, and the with that performance also the leader's jersey, and Garmin's Howes came in 3rd.
In the peloton no splits happened, and they finished together.
The queen stage of this year's Romandie. 2 hard mountains, and a downhill finish. This is the last chance for the climbers to attack.
The breakaway wasn't particularly strong early in the stage, with Lagutin being the most famous from them, but when at the middle of the stage Pinot joined them, then it started to get more interseting.
Our tactic was pacing the P, as much as we can, in order to drop Georges and Howes. The latter part worked well, as Mellberg dropped Howes, but Georges seemed to be strong, so we had to switch to Plan B, where we attack him downhill, where we are the strongest. At the 2nd climb the pack caught the escapees except for Pinot, who still had a plenty of a lead. Right as we went over the top Wiles and Puskaric made a double attack, with Wiles working for Puskaric. They managed to open a 30sec gap, and came down from the top, as fast as they could. In the pack former MTBer Peraud was working a lot, and couldn't let us get a bigger gap.
Turning into the last flat section, our lead was almost gone, and we had troubles keeping the gap. Oour group just reached Pinot, and he could also hang onto our group.
Unfortunately the Spiders got caught before the finish, and now they had to sprint even to hang onto the group. The others were coming fast...
...and Scarponi was the fastest! What a brilliant job by him! Samu Sanchez gets 2nd, and Froome comes in 3rd, beating Puskaric. Wiles finished in the 1st group too.
Note: I forgot to take more screens, I was a bit too excited.
Tour de Romandie Stage 6
The all decisive TT, held in Crans Montana. It will be a pretty hilly one, so apart from a good TT ability, a good punching ability. Who will be the winner, and will the GC change after the stage? From 2-20 the gaps are really close.
The greatest example of the hardness of the course is Tony Martin, who finished way down in the middle 20-ies, and had serious troubles during the route.
Some words about the favourites. The checpoint was dominated by
the Spiders, but at the end of day, they couldn't do anything against Froome, who won the stage before of Sammy Sanchez and Maxime Monfort. Our key riders, Puskaric and Wiles finished 6th and 7th respectively.
GC-wise Georges finished the race 1st, Froome took the 2nd before Sammy Sanchez. Our two main riders were 5th and 10th.
Puskaric also took the points jersey with his 2 stage-wins and some other good results.
This year's Giro D'Italia starts in Denmark with an 8.3 km long prologue and 2 pan-flat stages in the "neighbourhood" of Horsens. After these stages, a rest day comes for the riders, to transfer into Italy. Afterwards a 30.5 km long TTT comes, which should make some gaps between the GC contenders. The fifth stage is a pure transfer stage with no real difficulties, then a hilly day comes with some hard up and down sections, and it also looks ideal for a breakaway. Stage 7 brings the GC contenders the first real opportunity to test the opponents legs on hard terrain, as it finishes on the top of Rocca di Cambio. This concludes week 1.
Week 2
Week 2 starts with a very similar stage as yesterday's, it finishes at Lago Laceno. However, it's not a summit finish, as there is ca. 3kms of flat before the finish. The next stage is a great opportunity for the sprinters. Afterwards we head to some hill in 3 stages, with one hilltop finish in Asissi and 2 bumpy, good for breakaway- looking stages. After the hills another opportunity for the sprinters, and then the riders will reach the first high mountain stage of the Giro. The 14th stage up to Cervinia, will surely be really important GC-wise, and that finishes Week 2.
Week 3
Week 3 is the hardest of the 3, and starts with a really hard stage finishing on the Pian dei Residelli. That's one of the numerous places, where you can lose the Giro. Afterwards a bit easier hilly stage comes, finishing on Falzes. After that stage, a big mountain stage comes with a downhill finish in Cortina D'Ampezzo. Stage 18 is the last opportunity for the sprinters to get a win, and to score points for the points jersey. Although the Giro was pretty hard so far, the hardest two stages are just coming. Stage 19 is an incredibly tough one with several big climbs, finishing on Alpe di Pampeago. The 20th stage is also a hard mountain stage, including the Cima Coppi, Prato delle Stelvio, which is the final mountain. The Giro ends with a 30km long TT in Rome.
Facts:
3 "real" Summit Finishes
3 "false" Summit Finishes
1 downhill finish
69km of TT (38.5 is ITT)
Edited by fernando97 on 30-10-2012 21:10
AndySchleck - 2/2 B. Piasecki, Ti
baggieboys32 - 9/1 Pye
bahrdk - 8/1 Bahr
Colinas - 0/1 Groen
fernando97 - 5/1 Gombocz
kolnierz - 1/2 A. Piasecki, De la Fuente
Miguel98 - 7/3 Van der Valde, Noble, Kern
sutty68 - 7/1 Sutton
swede007 - 8/1 Mellberg
Teddy the Creator - 8/1 Yoshinabe
vitapen - 7/2 Solodovnikov, Peruzeta
Ian Butler 0/1 DeLarge
Giro D'Italia
