After yesterday’s stage, we expect that this stage won’t be easy, as Valverde and Porte should try to drop Voeckler and Navarro if they want to win this race. Valverde might wait until the last km to launch his attack, with his powerful uphill sprint that could give him the seconds that he needs, but Porte will need for sure to attack from far.

The plan for Tejay is to follow those riders if they attack, and if they don’t, maybe he can try something. We should remember that the sponsor wants us to win the race.

In the start, Alexis Gougeard attacks to get in the breakaway, when he realised that Matvei Mamykin, who wears the U25 jersey and is the same time as Tejay follow him.

In the bunch, Direct Energie are forced to chase the Russian. This might be just what the stage needed, a high rhythm from the start.

Suddenly a big crash occurs in the bunch, with Valverde down again. Some minor riders have to retire. This means that now, the “main group� in composed only with 19 riders, including Porte, Nieve, Jungels and Kruijswijk and some domestiques. No sign of Voeckler or Navarro in this group, so maybe we should try to take advantages of this situation



We quickly catch the escapees, including Gougeard and Mamykin. Now Tejay has 3 team-mates with him; Cort Nielsen, Alarcon and Gougeard. In the bunch, Direct Energie and Cofidis are trying to reduce the gap, which now is around 1’30



Finally, they catched us in a categorised climb, but Gougeard didn’t stop on his work, and went full gas on the climb, reducing the group to 50 riders. Of those who were left behind, the biggest name was Dani Navarro, second in GC, and leader of the KoM



Now, with 80 km to the finish and 3 more climbs + the uphill final, the leading group have less than 30 riders. This is going to be one of the best stages of the year, and we are only in January



In the last climb of the day, Tejay decides to pull himself, and that is too much for Voeckler, who is dropped within 1 km from the top. Although he would rejoin in the descent



Jelle Vanendert attacks with 7 km to go, before the final climb, and as he is far in the GC, nobody chase him. He looks really good for the stage win. Tejay attacked two times in that climb, but everyone followed him.

After a 2 km descent, we had the last kilometer in uphill. In the sprint, Jelle Vanendert was caught within 100 metres to the finish, and Voeckler was dropped again.

Richie Porte was the fastest ahead of Jungels and Serry. Tejay could only sprint to tenth place, last of the group.



Voeckler arrives like 20 seconds later, and he will retain the lead, as Porte was 46 seconds behind him, so the Aussie will be around 15-20 seconds short of the lead

Thanks to be second in a intermediate sprint, Tejay is up to sixth in the GC, 41 seconds behind Voeckler. And a big surprise, Tejay is the new KoM leader, thanks to be the first to reach the latest climbs of the day.

We won’t be winning the race, as our sponsor asked us, but a sixth in GC + KoM should be a good result, and we still have one stage left which we will try to win with Magnus

Stage

1	Richie Porte	BMC Racing Team	4h17'25
2	Bob Jungels	Quick-Step Floors	s.t.
3	Pieter Serry	Quick-Step Floors	s.t.
4	Thomas De Gendt	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
5	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
6	Steven Kruijswijk	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	s.t.
7	Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
8	Michael Woods	Cannondale - Drapac	s.t.
9	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	s.t.
10	Tejay Van Garderen	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	s.t.

Last stage of the race, a flat one which should finish in a sprint. A 6-men breakaway was in front until last 15 km, when they were brought in by Alexis Gougeard

Having just 6 riders and not a single lead-out men for Cort Nielsen meant that he needed to look for wheels to follow, and that was not a easy thing. Magnus never was in contention for the win.

In front, Elia Viviani was always in control and won the stage ahead of Nikias Arndt. Magnus could only finish seventh



Thomas Voeckler wins Vuelta a Mallorca ahead of Richie Porte and Alejandro Valverde, with Tejay being our best rider in sixth place, and also winning the KoM

Stage

1	Elia Viviani	Team Sky	3h35'35
2	Nikias Arndt	Team Sunweb	s.t.
3	Yukiya Arashiro	Bahrain - Merida	s.t.
4	Tom Boonen	Quick-Step Floors	s.t.
5	Moreno Hofland	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
6	Marco Haller	Team Katusha - Alpecin	s.t.
7	Magnus Cort Nielsen	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	s.t.
8	Maarten Wynants	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	s.t.
9	Coen Vermeltfoort	Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij	s.t.
10	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.

GC

1	Thomas Voeckler	Direct Energie	15h32'13
2	Richie Porte	BMC Racing Team	+ 20
3	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 26
4	Bob Jungels	Quick-Step Floors	+ 37
5	Pieter Serry	Quick-Step Floors	+ 39
6	Tejay Van Garderen	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 41
7	Michael Woods	Cannondale - Drapac	+ 43
8	Steven Kruijswijk	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	s.t.
9	Thomas De Gendt	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
10	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	s.t.

Points

1	Yukiya Arashiro	Bahrain - Merida	46
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	40
3	Richie Porte	BMC Racing Team	39
4	Thomas Voeckler	Direct Energie	38
5	Maarten Wynants	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	33

@sutty68 Not a bad first race for Tejay, if we consider we had a cold before the race

First one-day race on the World Tour calendar. A race mostly flat, but with some hills in the late part of the race, it might change to outcome of the race. An expected mass sprint with riders like Navardauskas, Blythe, Enger, Zabel or Phil as main favourites for the win.



We bring here the same team that raced Tour Down Under, with Bauhaus, Halvorsen, Conti, Farrar, Bernal, Amezqueta and Costa.

Easy day until the last 30 km, where the race started to get harder to control. Attaks from Erviti, Keisse and Bakelants made Julen work really hard to catch them.

With 15 km to go, Jelle took control of the situation, with Valerio, Kristoffer and Phil on his wheel



Kristoffer leads-out perfectly Phil, but Selig is in front with a superb sprint. In the last metres, Phil seems to be reducing the gap, to the point that a photo-finish will be needed to know the winner



Oh… so close for Phil, as Rudiger Selig takes the win today. The victory is still escaping from Phil’s hands this season



Kristoffer ends just outside the top10, with Jelle also in the top20

1	Rüdiger Selig	Bora - Hansgrohe	3h53'43
2	Phil Bauhaus	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	s.t.
3	Adam Blythe	Aqua Blue Sport	s.t.
4	Ramunas Navardauskas	Bahrain - Merida	s.t.
5	Sondre Holst Enger	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
6	Daniele Bennati	Movistar Team	s.t.
7	Davide Cimolai	FDJ	s.t.
8	Juan José Lobato	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	s.t.
9	Vyacheslav Kuznetsov	Team Katusha - Alpecin	s.t.
10	Filippo Pozzato	Wilier Triestina - Selle Italia	s.t.
11	Kristoffer Halvorsen	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	s.t.
12	Roberto Ferrari	UAE Team Emirates	s.t.
13	Iljo Keisse	Quick-Step Floors	s.t.
14	Luka Mezgec	Orica - Scott	s.t.
15	Rick Zabel	Team Katusha - Alpecin	s.t.
16	Jelle Wallays	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	s.t.
17	Manuel Belletti	Wilier Triestina - Selle Italia	s.t.
18	Mathew Hayman	Orica - Scott	s.t.
19	Patrick Konrad	Bora - Hansgrohe	s.t.
20	Christophe Laporte	Cofidis, Solutions Crédits	s.t.

@VoetsT Thanks!

Four completely flat stages, except for the Hatta Dam finish in the third day, will see some of the best sprinter fight for wins here.

Marcel Kittel not only starts his season here, he is the reigning champion of the race. He will be joined in this race by Fabio Sabatini, Alexey Lutsenko, Heinrich Haussler, Ruben Guerreiro, Raul Alarcon and Vicente Garcia de Mateos.

Mark Cavendish, 30-times stage winner in Tour de France, is also here, together with Michael Matthews, Dylan Groenewegen, Sacha Modolo or Matteo Pelucchi

I guess that there's no need to say that our goal is to win GC with Marcel, together with stage wins

Team doesn’t leave Spanish roads, as we have to race in Valencia for the next five days. A mixed route, with the opening TTT, the first in our history, followed by a mountain finish and a flat stage. To end the race we will have the ascension to Xorret del Cati and another flat stage.

David Gaudu was expected to be the leader here, but due his crash in Mallorca we won’t take part in this race. So now the only objetive for the race is try to win a stage with Cort Nielsen in the sprints. We think that he has a great chance to do it, as the biggest sprinters here are Tom Boonen and Niccolo Bonifazio.

Despite the lack of top sprinters, in Valencia we have lots of stars, with the starlist led by Alejandro Valverde, Geraint Thomas and Philippe Gilbert. Also, riders as Tony Martin, Andrew Talansky, Dan Martin, Tiesj Benoot or Jakob Fuglsang are taking part in this race, so we’ll have a good fight for GC

Our six riders for the race will be Magnus Cort Nielsen, Adrien Costa, Victor Campenaerts, Taylor Phinney, Alexis Gougeard and Nils Politt

Five more days in Australian roads this week, and we are finished with the continent for the season. With an interesting route, starting with a 8 km prologue, and one, even two, stages to completely change the GC, with the climb to Falls Creek the second day, and a hily circuit in the final day.

We come here with almost the same team as in Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Race, with the only change that Phil Bauhaus won’t be here. He has flown home in order to prepare for his next race, Vuelta a Andalucia, and he won’t be replaced, so we’ll start with 6 riders. Kristoffer has his first goal of the season in this race, so the team will work for him in the flat stages, while Valerio and Egan will try to finish as high as possible in the GC

Valerio Conti, Kristoffer Halvorsen, Egan Bernal, Julen Amezqueta, Tyler Farrar and Jelle Wallays will be our six riders in the race

Seeing the profile there is a lot to be said about the stage. We’ll work for Marcel, so he can have the first chance to win this season.

With only a 3-men breakaway, only Vicente had to pull today, until Heinrich started to set the sprint with 15 km to go.

Fabio led-out perfectly Marcel, and despite Cavendish early-effort and Modolo’s late-effort, no one could beat the German today

1	Marcel Kittel	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	3h07'05
2	Sacha Modolo	UAE Team Emirates	s.t.
3	Mark Cavendish	Team Dimension Data	s.t.
4	Michael Matthews	Team Sunweb	s.t.
5	Ramunas Navardauskas	Bahrain - Merida	s.t.
6	Leigh Howard	Aqua Blue Sport	s.t.
7	Roberto Ferrari	UAE Team Emirates	s.t.
8	Eduard-Michael Grosu	NIPPO - Vini Fantini	s.t.
9	Adam Blythe	Aqua Blue Sport	s.t.
10	Matteo Pelucchi	Bora - Hansgrohe	s.t.

It’s time to defend the GC lead. Another win today would be a big step for the overall win for Marcel. He needs to have some advantage before tomorrow’s stage, with end in Hatta Dam.

Marcel was able to gain 2 seconds in the intermediate sprints today, a brilliant tactic, as today’s breakaway was formed by only 2 riders, Konrad and Kazmarek.

The team dominated the preparation for the sprint, using all of our riders in order to let Sabatini lead-out Marcel in the perfect place.



But this time, Marcel was not the strongest. It turned out to be Mark Cavendish. Marcel was able to finish in second place, which means that he keeps the GC lead by 4 seconds



Now, GC looks to be a two-way battle between Kittel and Cavendish, the two world best sprinters, unless someone like Matthews can create a gap in Hatta Dam

Stage

GC

@sutty68 Day one, win one

@AbhishekLFC Thanks! Although Marcel is not in what we should call good form, his objetives are far

Hi, I’m Adrien Costa and I’m going to tell you how it’s going for me Vuelta a Valencia. For me this is the second race of the season, after Vuelta a Mallorca. The team comes here with the goal of a stage win, after the sad news of David Gaudu injuring his leg in Mallorca, which has left us without a leader for the race.

The first stage is a team time-trial of 13 km. As we are only 6 riders, instead of 7 like most teams, we might have a little problem to perform well today, although we have a team with lots of riders who are good in both flat and timetrial.



I have to say that I’m in top shape right now, and I’m sure that i’ll get freedom to ride for myself in the hard stages. I hope to get a decent result in the race, as it seems that i won’t have lots of chances to ride for myself this season.

Ninth place for us, only 11 seconds slower than Team Sky, who won the timetrial. They are really strong



The second was probably the hardest one in this race, and i’m hoping to do a great result today.



Taylor was in the breakaway, and was caught with less than 7 km to the mountain finish. I surprised myself when with less than 4 km to the end, I was comfortably in a group of 30 riders



I was dropped with less than 2 km to the finish, but somehow i was able to finish inside the top10, just a few seconds behind Geraint Thomas! To my surprise, I was taken to the podium, because i was the new leader in the U25 standings!

Alejandro Valverde was the deserved winner, and Mikel Nieve leads now the race

Stage

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	4h03'56
2	Daniel Martin	Quick-Step Floors	s.t.
3	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	s.t.
4	Rein Taaramäe	Team Katusha - Alpecin	s.t.
5	Tony Martin	Team Katusha - Alpecin	s.t.
6	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
7	Moreno Moser	Astana Pro Team	+ 32
8	Geraint Thomas	Team Sky	+ 43
9	Adrien Costa	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 51
10	Pieter Weening	Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij	+ 1'03

GC

1	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	4h20'41
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
3	Daniel Martin	Quick-Step Floors	+ 2
4	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 7
5	Rein Taaramäe	Team Katusha - Alpecin	+ 9
6	Tony Martin	Team Katusha - Alpecin	s.t.
7	Moreno Moser	Astana Pro Team	+ 39
8	Geraint Thomas	Team Sky	+ 44
9	Adrien Costa	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 1'03
10	Enrico Battaglin	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	+ 1'17

@VoetsT Thanks, but Hatta Dam is coming up...

Welcome to the Hatta Dam stage, it’s time to survive today for Marcel. He needs to lose as less possible time today if he wants to keep in the fight for the GC. But people as Matthews, Lobato, Boasson Hagen or Navardauskas won’t make that easy

The key for today will be to have Marcel perfectly placed for Hatta Dam, so no one can create big gaps with him by splitting the group.

The race started with 17-men group attacking for the breakaway, including Vicente. In the group, Raul was taking pulls together with some Sunweb rider in order to not let the gap grow up too much. As we have already had in this year, a big crash happened. The biggest victims? Romain Bardet (yes, he is riding here, don’t know why) and Ramunas Navardauskas, and both riders had to abandon the race. We’ll see how this affect Bardet, because he is one of the riders who are going to fight to win Tour de France.

The route was really tough and before Hatta Dam barely 40 riders were still on the group, with Marcel only having Alexey in that group.



Despite Alexey and Marcel best efforts, Michael Matthews took the win as expected, and was able to create a decent gap, around half a minute with Cavendish, who finished second. Marcel crossed the line in ninth place, and he hopes to have been given the same time as Cavendish



But neither Alexey or Marcel are given the same time as Cavendish’s group. Alexey loses 49 seconds and Marcel over a minute, so GC hopes are done. The only positive things is that Alexey now leads the U25 standings

Stage

1	Michael Matthews	Team Sunweb	4h35'08
2	Mark Cavendish	Team Dimension Data	+ 27
3	Adam Blythe	Aqua Blue Sport	s.t.
4	Esteban Chaves	Orica - Scott	s.t.
5	Sep Vanmarcke	Cannondale - Drapac	s.t.
6	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Dimension Data	s.t.
7	Alexey Lutsenko	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 49
8	Romain Hardy	Fortuneo - Oscaro	s.t.
9	Marcel Kittel	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 1'03
10	Michael Gogl	Trek - Segafredo	s.t.

GC

1	Michael Matthews	Team Sunweb	11h34'07
2	Mark Cavendish	Team Dimension Data	+ 17
3	Adam Blythe	Aqua Blue Sport	+ 33
4	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Dimension Data	+ 37
5	Sep Vanmarcke	Cannondale - Drapac	s.t.
6	Esteban Chaves	Orica - Scott	s.t.
7	Marcel Kittel	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 55
8	Alexey Lutsenko	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 59
9	Romain Hardy	Fortuneo - Oscaro	s.t.
10	Patrick Konrad	Bora - Hansgrohe	+ 1'08

In the 8 km prologue, local men Damien Howson proved to be the fastest, with a decent margin for that distance. Our best man was Tyler Farrar, just outside the top10

The second stage is the one who is the most likely to decide who will win this race.



In that climb, Damien Howson kept proving that he was the best rider of this race, by winning for the second day in a row. Valerio tried to attack for the win, but he ran out of energy soon, and he couldn’t do anything about Howson’s comeback for the group. Still a fifth place is a good result for him.



Third stage had a steep climb with 12 km to the finish, so team went full gas on the climb in order that Valerio could take some time of his rivals and even fight for the win.

The tactic went perfect, as only Vuillermoz was able to stay in a group with 3 Cepsa riders (Jelle, Egan and Valerio)

Valerio had to pull himself, until Vuillermoz realised that as 2nd in GC, he was in a position of almost taking the leader jersey. Valerio took advantage of that, to out-sprint the French rider



Second win of the season for Valerio, who has started incredibly the season. Valerio is now in forth place in GC, thanks to the almost 2 minutes loss of Pellizotti today

A flat stage awaited us in the forth stage, with Sondre Holst Enger winning it with easy, ahead of two of our riders, Kristoffer and Valerio, who takes 4 bonus seconds and is now 4 seconds behind 3rd place



In the final stage, which had several hills in the final circuit, saw the team doing a perfect job for Valerio, as the Italian went onto winning his second stage in the race.



The move made him climb to the third spot of the podium, with Howson winning the race. Also Valerio was the winner of the Points standings.

GC

1	Damien Howson	Orica - Scott	14h40'31
2	Alexis Vuillermoz	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 15
3	Valerio Conti	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 24
4	Serge Pauwels	Team Dimension Data	+ 1'10
5	Sam Oomen	Team Sunweb	+ 1'41
6	Franco Pellizotti	Bahrain - Merida	+ 2'27
7	Paolo Tiralongo	Astana Pro Team	+ 2'31
8	Miguel Angel Lopez	Astana Pro Team	+ 2'44
9	Matvei Mamykin	Team Katusha - Alpecin	+ 2'45
10	Omar Fraile	Team Dimension Data	s.t.

Points

1	Valerio Conti	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	82
2	Damien Howson	Orica - Scott	75
3	Alexis Vuillermoz	AG2R La Mondiale	62
4	Serge Pauwels	Team Dimension Data	34
5	Sondre Holst Enger	AG2R La Mondiale	30

KoM

1	Davide Martinelli	Quick-Step Floors	28
2	Valerio Conti	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	26
3	Johannes Fröhlinger	Team Sunweb	24
4	Vincenzo Albanese	Bardiani - CSF	22
5	Alexis Vuillermoz	AG2R La Mondiale	18

@sutty68 Yep, his risky move of starting the season in top shape is bringing us lots of success. After Oman, he will take a deserved rest before preparing Ardennes + Giro

Last stage of this race, now without any GC hopes, Marcel will try to take a second stage win for the team and recover the lead on the Points Jersey

Alexey tried to enter the breakaway, but Sunweb and Orica didn’t let him go anywhere, so Heinrich was the one who entered the breakaway at the end



Aren’t the gas prices to high to be in Dubai?

It was clear that the breakaway would fight for the win today, and Heinrich was, without any doubt, the best sprinter in that group. And also, he could play the “I have Kittel in the bunch� card, in order to not pull in the last kms.

Gautier started his sprint really early, trying to surprise, but Heinrich sprinted in the perfect distance, to take his first win of the season, the number 4 for the team.



Marcel didn’t have the legs to sprint, and even less the will to sprint without a stage win in sight.

Michael Matthews wins Dubai Tour for the first time, ahead of Mark Cavendish and Adam Blythe. Marcel and Alexey finish in seventh and eighth places, with Alexey winning the U25 stadings, and Marcel being second in the Points one

Stage

1	Heinrich Haussler	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	2h30'11
2	Pierre-Luc Périchon	Fortuneo - Oscaro	s.t.
3	Cyril Gautier	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
4	Manuele Boaro	Bahrain - Merida	s.t.
5	Arman Kamyshev	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
6	Jakub Kaczmarek	CCC Sprandi Polkowice	s.t.
7	Jhon Anderson Rodriguez	Delko - Marseille Provence	s.t.
8	Mirco Maestri	Bardiani - CSF	s.t.
9	Dylan Groenewegen	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	s.t.
10	Mark Cavendish	Team Dimension Data	s.t.

GC

1	Michael Matthews	Team Sunweb	14h04'18
2	Mark Cavendish	Team Dimension Data	+ 17
3	Adam Blythe	Aqua Blue Sport	+ 33
4	Sep Vanmarcke	Cannondale - Drapac	+ 37
5	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Team Dimension Data	s.t.
6	Esteban Chaves	Orica - Scott	s.t.
7	Marcel Kittel	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 55
8	Alexey Lutsenko	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	+ 59
9	Romain Hardy	Fortuneo - Oscaro	s.t.
10	Patrick Konrad	Bora - Hansgrohe	+ 1'08

Points

1	Mark Cavendish	Team Dimension Data	67
2	Marcel Kittel	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	58
3	Michael Matthews	Team Sunweb	47
4	Adam Blythe	Aqua Blue Sport	38
5	Heinrich Haussler	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	31

KoM

1	Michael Matthews	Team Sunweb	20
2	Mark Cavendish	Team Dimension Data	14
3	Adam Blythe	Aqua Blue Sport	12
4	Esteban Chaves	Orica - Scott	10
5	Sep Vanmarcke	Cannondale - Drapac	8

U25

1	Alexey Lutsenko	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	14h05'17
2	Michael Gogl	Trek - Segafredo	+ 14
3	Carlos Verona	Orica - Scott	+ 44

@sutty68 Good weather, 5* hotels, and wins. Who would not enjoy that?

After yesterday’s result, the team were eager to help Magnus to win today’s stage, including me. Magnus was really close to win, but Bonifazio was faster than him. He had to settle for second place



The forth stage was not an easy one, with the climb to Xorret del Cati at the end



As you should know, the goal is to save the U25 jersey and if it’s possible keep our spot inside top10 in GC. Neither of those tasks will be easy, but I will give it all.

I arrived to the foot of Xorret del Cati in perfect place thanks to Alexis and Magnus, and both were pulling in the climb until I decided to attack. It was a risky move, because if I didn’t separate from the group, my race was over



In the very moment I launched my attack, I knew i was going nowhere. What a stupid move. Just when I was sitting again, Dan Martin attacked, and Valverde followed him. I was exhausted, but still in third place. I reached the summit together with race leader Mikel Nieve, so I had a valious ally for the little descent



Valverde used his better descent and sprint abilities to take his second stage in the race, and also takes the race lead.



I was able to out-sprint Nieve for third place. What a result!



I have consolidated my lead on the U25 classification, but sadly I didn’t climb any place on the GC, as gaps to Fuglsang and T.Martin, who were not in the 8-rider group that arrived 10 seconds later than me, were not enough. To be exact, Tony Martin has the same time as me, but he must be in front due to the TTT hundreds or the sum of stage places



Final stage of the race, and it is a flat one. The team will work for Magnus, but maybe any of us (not me, obviously) can get in the breakaway.

As I said, Nils got in the breakaway, as the break was already too big (13 riders), so it would be almost impossible to catch.

Nils played very well his cards, but Nick van der Lijke was just faster than him



I finished safely in the bunch to mantein my white jersey and my place in GC, while Magnus was second in the bunch sprint

GC

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	14h01'04
2	Daniel Martin	Quick-Step Floors	+ 15
3	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	+ 50
4	Rein Taaramäe	Team Katusha - Alpecin	+ 1'07
5	Moreno Moser	Astana Pro Team	+ 1'37
6	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
7	Geraint Thomas	Team Sky	+ 1'42
8	Tony Martin	Team Katusha - Alpecin	+ 1'49
9	Adrien Costa	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	s.t.
10	Enrico Battaglin	Team Lotto NL - Jumbo	+ 2'11

Points

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	55
2	Daniel Martin	Quick-Step Floors	41
3	Mikel Nieve	Team Sky	30

KoM

1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	32
2	Daniel Martin	Quick-Step Floors	24
3	Björn Thurau	Kuwait - Cartucho.es	22

U25

1	Adrien Costa	Cepsa - Estrella Galicia	14h02'53
2	Tiesj Benoot	Lotto - Soudal	+ 1'44
3	Laurens De Plus	Quick-Step Floors	+ 3'29

Second sponsor goal of the season, and again we don’t have any chance to win the race with the team that we bring here.



Lilian Calmejane is the expected leader, but this is his first race day of the season, so that means that Adrien Costa could have freedom today, as he proved in Valencia that he is in top shape. The team is completed with Stefan Denifl, Alexey Lutsenko, Alexis Gougeard and Taylor Phinney. The big favourites should be riders as Mikel Nieve, Miguel Angel Lopez, Philippe Gilbert (last year winner) or Fabio Felline

Ten riders formed the initial breakaway, with none of them being dangerous at all. In the final km of Alto del Collado Bermejo, Lilian decided to attack. Just in the top of the climb he caught the remains of the breakaway



In the bunch Adrien and Stefan were waiting for their chance, while other teams had to pull if they wanted to bring back the escapees.

Lilian’s efforts made that the leading group were able to be in front at least until the start of the uphill finish to the Castillo de Lorca



Somehow Lilian was able to enter the final km with some advantage to the group. Stefan was helping Adrien to be well placed, although that was really hard



Now the danger was Mikel Nieve, who had attacked from the group was closing on Lilian, who was really exhausted, but the French made the impossible to win the race. Amazing ride by Lilian!



Fabio Felline ended in third place, with Adrien and Stefan finishing just outside top10, but Lilian’s exhibition really makes us believe that he can do something big in bigger classics. We hope that his is the start of something big

@sutty68 Riders are winning more than i expected in this moment of the season

Another one-day race in the Spanish calendar, and as yesterday in Murcia, we’re still on the south of Spain for a more sprinter-type race. The big favourite will be Nacer Bouhanni, but we come here with a strong team in support of Phil Bauhaus, with Cort Nielsen, Halvorsen, Costa, Phinney and Lutsenko to work for the German talent. Other possible winners today are Adam Blythe, together with his team-mate and reigning winner of the race, Leigh Howard, Rick Zabel and Juanjo Lobato

In the early part of the race nothing was going on until a big crash while crossing the line for the first time happened, with all our riders except Magnus involved. We don’t have images of the crash, but the bunch were splited in several groups



At the end, despite an incredible work from the team, Phil didn’t had the legs to win today, maybe affected by the early crash. Orica rider Luka Mezgec took the win ahead of Pozzato and Lobato, with Phil in eighth place