Tour de Romandie Stage 5: Aubonne - Signal de Bougy (ITT)
The most decisive stage of the Tour de Romandie is the time trial between Aubonne and Signal de Bougy. The 20 kilometers long stage will probably decide the winner of the race, as it will be very difficult to make time differences tomorrow.
Tejay Van Garderen (Garmin) was one of the favorites for the stage and he duly delivered by setting the best time in the finish line. However, he was only 2 seconds faster than Hubert Dupont.
Samuel Sanchez (Katusha) started right behind Van Garderen but he couldn't match the American's time. Sanchez was 4 seconds slower and set the provisional 3rd best time behind Dupont.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) is doing an amazing season but he couldn't match the pace of Van Garderen by just 1 second and therefore took the second provisional place in the stage. He will also move behind the American in the GC.
Rigoberto Uran (Sky) was 7th in the GC before the stage and he could improve after setting the 5th best time only 2 seconds behind Van Garderen.
Cameron Meyer (HTC) looked like an outsider before the stage, as the climb in the first part of the time trial didn't suit his characteristics. However, he could recover and smash the clocks by improving Van Garderen's time by just one second. Meyer will probably take the stage win, as none of the riders behind seem able to overtake him.
Miguel Angel Rubiano (Lotto) started 5th in the GC, but clearly the time trial is not his thing. He ended with the 19th provisional best time, 16 seconds behind Meyer. This result will drop him out of the top 10 in the GC.
Bart de Clerq (Lampre) was much better than Rubiano and set the 10th time, 10 seconds behind Meyer. The Belgian is a good all-rounder and has a chance to finish inside the top 10 in the GC.
Davide Rebellin (Movistar) was too slow in the time trial and he will also lose the top 10 place in the GC after recording the 45th best time, 22 seconds behind Meyer.
Peter Stetina (BMC) was paying for yesterday's efforts as he could only set the 82nd time, 31 seconds behind Meyer. The American will lose the spot in the GC to both Meyer and Van Garderen, but retains the 3rd provisional place.
Simon Gerrans (Quickstep) is not a great time trialist, in fact he is a pretty bad one. He could only set the 110th time, but only 38 seconds behind. He did lose the leader's jersey, but he only fell to the 5th overall spot.
Cameron Meyer is therefore the much surprising leader of the race ahead of the last stage. He only has 2 seconds on Van Garderen and Stetina, so the bonus seconds could be an issue. However, with a mass sprint widely expected it shouldn't be a problem.
The last day in Romandie has some of the toughest climbs in the route, but they are so far from the finish that the most probable outcome is a mass sprint or a break of riders who have lost time in the GC. The two climbs could mean that some of the sprinters could be left behind and other could have a chance.
George Hincapie (BMC) filtered in the break of the day, quite strangely because he was less than 30 seconds back in the GC. After a bold move, he broke the group of 11 where he was travelling in the first climb of the day, the Col du Mollendruz. He went past the KoM sprint with 35 seconds on Ivan Basso (Radioshack) and 1' 10'' on the group of 9 chasers, including Alessandro Petacchi (Vacansoleil) and Gerald Ciolek (Katusha). The bunch was 5 minutes behind.
The peloton soon realized that he couldn't let Hincapie much time and soon started to chase. Most of the riders of the break were reeled back in the climb of the Col du Marchairuz. Hincapie had a 3 minutes gap at the top, but still 62 kilometers of stage remained. However, the most disturbing thing was seeing the leader, Cameron Meyer, suffering in the back of the group in the last climb.
Cameron Meyer (HTC) ended losing track with the main group in the last part of Marchairuz and his overall win was in big danger. At the last intermediate sprint George Hincapie was still in front but his lead had dropped to 1' 10'' on the first group of chasers. Cameron Meyer's group of around 50 riders was already losing 3' 10'' and HTC only had 24 kilometers to cut the loss.
George Hincapie was still ahead when he reached the 9 kilometer banner. The last part of the route was around the Lake Lehman. The main chasing group was only 25 seconds behind now and HTC was doing a great job of cutting the loss and now the leader was losing 1' 40'' on the American. HTC was having the help of some other teams and the organization on the front group was not ideal.
Jakob Fuglsang (Radioshack) attacked in the last kilometers taking advantage of the doubts in the chasing group. He went past Hincapie and had a gap of 40 seconds on the peloton with 3 km remaining. Cameron Meyer managed to connect with the main group and therefore is now set to win the Tour de Romandie.
Fuglsang reached the last kilometer 15 seconds ahead of the pack. Meanwhile, Alexandre Vinokourov was leading the way in the mass sprint ahead of Tony Gallopin and Peter Kennaugh.
Jakob Fuglsnag wins in Geneve! The Danish rider narrowly wins by a small margin ahead of the sprinters. Tony Gallopin was very close to grab the win in the last meters but he couldn't overtake Fuglsang. Alexandre Vinokourov took the third spot in the stage.
In the GC, after much suffering in today's stage Cameron Meyer was able to take the win. He is not a great climber and he suffered the chasing pace of several teams in the climb to Marchairuz. His team and himself did a good job, but he was also lucky that his group was much more organized than the front one.
The Criterium du Dauphine repeats presence in the calendar this year after last year's great show. The route of the race will be the same as last year, making it one of the most interesting stage races of the calendar. Two time trials, including a rather long one and famous climbs like Mont Ventoux, Galibier, Izoard or Croix-de-Fer will be again in the race. Frank Schleck won in a dominant fashion last year, but as many other riders he is focusing on the Tour de France. Maybe we can have some surprises considering the shape of many riders will not be up to the highest standards.
Favorites:
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil): If we take out the Tour Dwon Under, the Dutch rider has been among the top riders in all the stage races he took part this year. He seems to have taken a big step forward in terms of his abilities and has to be marked among the favorites in most of the races where he takes part.
- Hubert Dupont (Saxo Bank): Hubert Dupont has had a rather anonymous season so far, as the French rider only has the 9th GC places in Pais Vasco and Romandie as his best results of the season. However, he has always had a tendency to leave his homework for the Grand Tours. The great results he has obtained in those have usually overshadowed his other results. He has chosen Dauphine to prepare for the Tour, so the two races in home soil seem perfect for the French to start counting victories this season.
- Tejay van Garderen (Garmin): Garmin knows that Tejay van Garderen's characteristics as a rider don't suit going for the Grand Tours GC, so without a real Grand Tour rider they will probably try to win some stages. That has allowed Van Garderen to bring his peak form forward and challenge for smaller races. This strategy already paid off in Romandie, given that he is a very good time trialist.
- Levi Leipheimer (HTC): HTC has plenty of choices in this Criterium du Dauphine. They could either support Andy Schleck or Levi Leipheimer, as they both seem fit and strong enough to challenge for the first positions of the race. We have favored Levi in our analysis because of his better time trialing abilities, where Andy is expected to suffer and start the mountains with quite a bit of time lost.
sutty68 wrote:
I wonder if the Schlecks will dominate this year
I am doubtful in the chances of the Schleck's. They are mostly focused in the Tour...
baseballlover312 wrote:
Farrar needs a stage already.
He is having an awful season. It is amazing how he fell from the best sprinter to being completely anonymous. Let's see if he can get one or two wins in the first week of the Tour.
Criterium du Dauphine Stage 1: Nancy - Nancy (ITT)
The first stage in Dauphine is a rather long ITT to be considered a Prologue. Its really flat 12 kilometers favor the specialists a lot, so David Millar, Cameron Meyer, Bauke Mollema and Tejay van Garderen have to be considered favorites.
The recent winner of the Tour de Romandie, Cameron Meyer (HTC), was the first of the favorites to start. He had an easy time improving the best time so far, by Jurgen van den Broeck, by 20 seconds and setting a 13' 56''.
David Millar (Sky) also started early. The British was able to improve on Meyer's time by recording a 13' 52'', 4 seconds faster than the Australian. The dominance shown by Meyer in the time trials soon came to an end.
Levi Leipheimer (HTC) was the first of the GC favorites to start. Meyer's teammate had a good time trial but couldn't improve the best time. He set the 3rd provisional time, 9 seconds slower than Millar.
Samuel Sanchez (Katusha) already won a time trial earlier this year, but he couldn't improve Millar's time today. He was 3rd when he crossed the finish line, 6 seconds behind the Brit.
The next of the favorites for the stage win was Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank) The Dutch is the strongest time trialist among the riders fighting for the young jersey, but he couldn't complete a good time trial and ended losing 12 seconds to get the 8th provisional time.
Denis Menchov (Katusha) was even worse than Westra. The Russian only managed to set the 10th provisional time and lost 15 seconds to David Millar, a rather poor result.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) kept himself in the first places of the stage by setting the 4th best time, only 7 seconds slower than Millar. The Dutch rider will want to put a good difference in the two time trials against other good climbers.
The last important time trialist to start was Tejay van Garderen (Garmin). The American rode strongly to grab the 4th final place, 6 seconds behind Millar.
David Millar has therefore won the first stage win for Sky this season. The British rider excels in prologues and it has served him to beat the Romandie winner Cameron Meyer by 4 seconds, a rather big gap for 12 kilometers time trial.
Sylvain Chavanel started his career in the Lampre team. Even though he got the stage win at only his second stage, he had to spend most of the year working for the team leader Filippo Pozzato. The French had a rather anonymous season, though he will always remember the stage win in La Chapelle St Ursin. The following year wasn't much better. He moved to the new Quickstep team looking for opportunities where to show his class. Even though he spent most of the year as a domestique his performance in the Eneco Tour was remarkable. He managed to take the good break and ended the race in the podium.
His role in the team had improved in 2011 after his performance in the Benelux, but it raised to another level as the French was able to take the 3rd final spot in Paris - Nice. That major achivement put him on par with Dries devenyns on the Belgian team and he responded with a great season adding podiums in Gent - Wevelgem and Quebec. He only managed one stage win in the Volta a Catalunya, but his season was outstanding.
In a rather interesting decision Quickstep decided to use his budget to sign Pieter Weening and let Sylvain go. The French started the year as the star rider in the new Ag2r - La Modiale team. However, the season hasn't gone as well as expected nad Chavanel's best result to date is and 8th place in the Ronde. Even though the team is very new, the pressure to obtain results is starting to increase. However, the calendar doesn't fit them very well as they don't have a solid leader for the Tour. Chavanel's best chance to improve will probably be the GP Ouest France in Plouay.
Wins:
2009
- 1st Stage 2 Paris - Nice
2011
- 1st Stage 3 Volta a Catalunya
Other notable results:
- 3rd 2010 Eneco Tour
- 3rd 2011 Paris - Nice
- 7th 2011 E3 Prijs - Vlaanderen
- 3rd 2011 Gent - Wevelgem
- 2nd 2011 GP Cycliste de Quebec
- 9th 2012 Milano - Sanremo
- 8th 2012 Ronde van Vlaanderen
Today the riders face a long stage towards the south. At 228 kilometers, the route will be a test for the stamina of the riders, though with barely a couple of small climbs the prediction is for a mass sprint.
The break of the day turned out to be a solo effort by Denis Galimzyanov (BMC). The Russian reached the first climb of the day, the Cote de Montcharvot, with a gap of 6' 40'' on the peloton. However, with 100 kilometers still remaining his chances seemed to be slim at best.
Galimzyanov was soon reeled back in, so soon that the pack even allowed themselves a period of relax before the speed increased again in the last 25 kilometers. The pack arrived at Dijon with only one sprint train taking shape. In Vacansoleil, Sebastian Langeveld was leading Bernhard Eisel. Elsewhere the sprint preparation was rather chaotic.
Tyler Farrar took the lead as the sprint started, trying to taste victory for the first time of the year. However, he had Alexandre Vinokourov, Bernhard Eisel and Yauheni Hutarovich trailing close behind.
Alexandre Vinokourov wins in Dijon! The tightest sprint of the season allowed Alexandre Vinokourov to take the first win in Astana's short history. The Kazakh managed to beat Yauheni Hutarovich and Tyler Farrar by the slightest of the margins.
No changes happened today on the GC as expected. Alexandre Vinokourov will be wearing the points jersey tomorrow, but it will be really difficult that a sprinter can win the jersey, as tomorrow's finish is already quite difficult.
Criterium du Dauphine Stage 3: Tournus - Saint Etienne
The third stage gives us the first taste of mountains in the Dauphine. Even though the climbs are not very demanding, we could see a good show in the second part of the stage, where there are three consecutive climbs. However, considering the last of them is quite far from the finish it will be up to the combativity of the riders whether we see a good stage or a rather dull one.
The start of the stage was really fast. Lots of break attempts were reeled back in by the peloton and the final break didn't settle until more than 50 kilometers had been raced. In the end, a big group of 17 riders took the lead, including important riders like Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto), Johan Van Summeren (Quickstep), Jakob Fuglsang (Radioshack), Carlos Barredo (Katusha) and Ben Hermans (Discovery). At the first climb of the day they had already opened a gap of 5' 10'', but they still had 100 kilometers to race.
Sky and Rabobank took the lead of the peloton for the chase and brought down the difference to 2' 50'' in the third climb of the day, the Cote de Duerne. With 44 kilometers remaining and several riders already suffering at the end of the bunch the stage could be hard for many of them.
The toughness of the day made the favorites think twice about chasing the break, as the pace of the pack never increased dramatically. Besides, Sky didn't have a team strong enough to bring down the break by themselves. Therefore, the front group, which had decreased to 13 riders, reached the final descent 1' 50'' ahead. They were fairly sure of arriving ahead by now.
The peloton reached the final of the descent pushing only to get down the difference with the break. No one wants a break this size to get a big amount of time even with several high mountains stages ahead.
Luca Paolini leads the final sprint in the break ahead of Jakob Fuglsang, Carlos Barredo and Linus Gerdemann. Most of the riders in the break look for their first win of the season. Meanwhile, bad news in the peloton as Levi Leipheimer crashed in the final part of the last descent and lost contact with the pack.
Carlos Barredo wins in Saint Etienne! The Spaniard was clearly the strongest in the final sprint, as he got easily past his main rivals to get his first win of the season. Two Italians trailed behind Barredo, Luca Paolini and Elia Viviani. Jakob Fuglsang, the favorite to take the win in this group, had to settle for the 5th position in the end after having spent much energy in the beginning of the stage to catch the break.
The GC is now completely revamped, as Carlos Barredo takes the lead 1 second ahead of Jakob Fuglsang. The biggest disappointment of the day is Levi Leipheimer, who lost more than 3 minutes in his crash and will be one of the first riders to hit the road in tomorrow's time trial.
Criterium du Dauphine Stage 4: Bourg-les-Valence - Valence
The long time trial of the Criterium du Dauphine arrives before the serious mountain stages, giving the specialists the chance to put a fair amount of time on the purest climbers. At 42 kilometers and with only a small climb the differences between riders should be rather big.
Levi Leipheimer (HTC) had to start really early after his crash in yesterday's stage. He only had a handful of riders before him, but he had his teammate Phinney to give him references. Leipheimer managed to beat the time set by Phinney in the finish line by 26 seconds, setting a 1h 00' 23''.
More than 100 riders later started the next of the favorites for the stage. Denis Menchov (Katusha) managed to beat the best time in the second intermediate by 1 second but couldn't do the same in the finish. He took the second spot 3 seconds slower than Jelle Vanendert. A bit disappointing for Menchov.
Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil) had a good time trial and improved the best time everywhere. He beat Tiago Machado in the intermediate by 4 seconds and in the finish by 3 seconds. His final time was 59' 34''. The Dutch increases his chances in the GC with the magnificent result in the time trial.
Mollema's happiness didn't last long, as Tejay van Garderen is revealing himself like a great time trialist. The American got the first time in the finish line 11 seconds ahead of the Vacansoleil rider. He already was second in Romandie thanks to his time trial abilities.
Samuel Sanchez (Katusha) already won a time trial this year in Pais Vasco but he couldn't repeat here. He crossed the line with the 4th best time, 21 seconds slower than Van Garderen.
Cameron Meyer (HTC) is not on top of his shape, as he could only set the 4th provisional best, 20 seconds behind Van Garderen. The GC is impossible for the Australian here and maybe that has to do with his performance here being worse than in Romandie.
David Millar (Sky), in the points jersey, was again too strong for the other riders and beat Van Garderen time by a good 6 seconds. None of the riders behind will be able to improve Millar's time, so he is going to take his second win in Dauphine. His time: 59' 17''.
Luca Paolini (Movistar) started third in the GC and wearing the young leader jersey. However, his 45th provisional time, 1' 25'' behind Millar will mean that he falls behind Geraint Thomas, Alejandro Valverde and even David Millar in the GC.
Jakob Fuglsang (Radioshack) was probably the favorite to get the yellow jersey in the time trial but he couldn't deliver. He finished 27th, 1' 09'' behind Millar and Geraint Thomas beat him in the GC by only 5 seconds.
Carlos Barredo probably enjoyed yesterday's win and starting last today, but he couldn't defend the yellow and finished the stage in the 39th spot, 1' 19'' behind. Geraint Thomas is the new leader, while Fuglsang is second and Barredo third. David Millar has jumped to the 7th overall, 21 seconds back.
Among the favorites for the GC, the most important riders are as follows:
Van Garderen 10th + 33''
Bauke Mollema 13th + 45''
Pieter Weening 32nd + 1' 42''
Hubert Dupont 33rd + 1' 42''
Rob Ruijgh 50th + 2' 07''
George Hincapie 66th + 2' 19''
Frank Schleck 79th + 2' 28''
Levi Leipheimer 120th + 3' 13''
, I always think that Romandie has eight stage 
