Criterium du Dauphine Stage 5: Valence - Le Mont Ventoux
The big mountains start with the finish at the top of the Mont Ventoux. Today's stage doesn't look too difficult, as only the colossus will make a difference. Before it only small climbs will be scattered in an otherwise easy route.
A group of 4 riders formed the break of the day: Rinaldo Nocentini (Katusha), Maxime Monfort (Ag2r), Pierrick Fedrigo (Euskaltel) and Dani Moreno (Movistar). However, none of them seemed like a real threat in the GC, as they had already lost time. With 79 kilometers remaining they had a gap of 6' 15''
The peloton was taking things easy, with only Vacansoleil setting a not too demanding pace. However, this went bad for Mollema as he crashed in the descent of the Col de Madeleine. Mollema got on his bike again, but there were question marks over his performance after the fall. The break, that still had a gap of 5' 30'', would welcome the stop in the pace of the peloton. They only had 30 kilometers remaining.
Steven Kruijswijk (Movistar) is the first of the leaders to attack. He does it with 18 kilometers to the top, taking advantage of an attack by his teammate Paolini. Some other riders join him, like Linus Gerdemann, Elia Viviani and the former leader Carlos Barredo. Mollema is safely back in the peloton.
The peace in the break was soon broken, as Maxime Monfort had a lot more gas than his fellows. As he goes through the 10 kilometers banner, he has 1 minute on the other riders of the break; 3' 40'' on Steven Kruijswijk; 3' 55'' on Pieter Weening and 4' 05'' on the main group.
Pieter Weening's attack was really good and soon started to open a gap. By the 7 kilometer mark he was already 2nd in the stage, 1' 40'' behind Monfort. Besides, the Belgian was showing signs of exhaustion. Meawhile, Mollema attacked in the main group, which sits 2' 45'' behind Monfort.
Mollema also pulled away from the favorites group rather easily. When 4 kilometers were remaining Weening got past Monfort, while Mollema was 1 minute behind. The favorites group was losing 2' 05'' already.
Weening reaches the last kilometer with the victory in his hands, maybe also the leader jersey. Mollema is losing 40 seconds and the groups of favorites is still 1' 55'' behind. Monfort exploded and was caught by the favorites group already.
Pieter Weening wins in the Mont Ventoux! The Dutch completes another great attack to get his third win of the year. Bauke Mollema crosses the finish line 4 seconds behind and that means the he will wear the leader jersey after today.
In the favorites group, a late attack by Ruijgh gives him the third place, 1' 45'' behind Weening along with Dupont and Sella. They arrived 20 seconds before of the other favorites. It is remarkable how 3 Dutch coped the three spots in the podium today.
The sixth stage in Dauphine is really short at only 106 kilometers between the towns of Gap and Briancon. However, it is not as easy as it would seem. The riders will have to climb the Izoard before the final descent towards Briancon. At the finishing town there is also a tough climb in the streets of the city.
The break of the day reached the bottom of the Izoard, 50 kilometers to the finish, with a gap of 5' 20'' on the peloton. Pavel Brutt (Katusha) had a small gap on the other 11 riders, where quite good riders were present, like Alberto Contador (Euskaltel), Sylvain Chavanel (Ag2r), Oliver Zaugg (BMC) and Rigoberto Uran (Sky).
Four much more dangerous riders, but with time lost in the GC, jumped as soon as the Izoard started: Juan Jose Cobo (Sky), Vincenzo Nibali (Lampre), Frank Schleck (Radioshack) and John Gadret (Discovery). The front group had still 12 riders 10 kilometers from the top of the Izoard and was 2' 15'' ahead of these 4 and 3' 30'' ahead of the bunch.
Nibali and Frank Schleck seemed to have good legs and started passing riders from the break at 3 kilometers from the top and 24 to the finish in Briancon. Contador, Sorensen, Zaugg and Kloden are 30'' ahead of Chavanel; 1' 30'' ahead of F. Schleck's group; 2' 10'' ahead of Gadret and Cobo and the bunch was losing 2' 35''. Pierre Rolland and Dries Devenyns started pulling in the pack, as Vacansoleil wasn't doing a high pace.
The serious attacks in the main group only happened in the last couple of kilometers in the bunch. Kreuziger (Rabobank) was the first to try, but Tiago Machado (Saxo Bank) was more successful at opening a small gap. Pieter Weening tried to follow but couldn't match the pace. Meanwhile, Alberto Contador is already alone at the front.
Contador went past the mountain sprint 15'' before Oliver Zaugg. 1' 05'' later was the group of Frank Schleck; 2' 15'' behind was Machado and 2' 30'' were Ruijgh and Kreuziger. The peloton was traling close to the Rabobank riders.
Contador reached Briancon with only 35'' on Frank Schleck's group, but he still had the tough slopes inside the city. Oliver Zaugg had crashed in the descent and was travelling with Kreuziger and Van Garderen 2 minutes behind Contador. They were closing in Machado, but the pack was also starting to chase them down.
Frank Schleck wins in Briancon! The Luxembourgish overtook Contador in the last part of the climb to repeat his win in the French town. Sylvain Chavanel took the second place while Contador was third. The bunch accelerated quite a bit in the last kilometers and reached the finish line only 1' 30'' behind the winner.
With no changes in the GC today, it seems like tomorrow will be the day for the main riders to settle down who is the strongest in the race. Mollema and Weening didn't seem as strong as in the Mont Ventoux today, but maybe they were just saving for tomorrow.
Criterium du Dauphine Stage 7: Briancon - Saint-Francois Longchamps
The penultimate stage in Dauphine is one of the toughest in the cycling season, as the riders will have to face the Galibier, the Croix-de-Fer and the climb to Saint-Francois Lonchamps, a ski resort three quarters through the climb to the Madeleine. If there is a stage where the climbers might recover lots of time, it has to be in this kind of terrain.
The Galibier climb was very fast, as every team wanted tobe in the break but no one succeeded. In the Croix-de-Fer, however, the race broke into pieces after a dangerous break started to gain time on the bunch. 10 kilometers from the top Peter Stetina (BMC) and David Lopez (Euskaltel) had 15'' on Mikel Nieve (Discovery) and Eros Capecchi (Liquigas). 45'' back were Thibaut Pinot (Ag2r) and Marco Pinotti (Radioshack). None of these riders was too dangerous in the GC. 4 minutes behind the leaders were 2 riders that had jumped after the break: Juanjo Cobo (Sky) and Frank Schleck (Radioshack), while the bunch was 6 minutes back.
Vacansoleil was showing a lot of weakness as a team, as they couldn't bring back the time from the break. The peloton crossed the KoM sprint in the Croix-de-Fer (51 km to go) losing 6' 45'' on Peter Stetina, who was alone in front. Garmin was collaborating a bit in the chase, but not doing great either.
Stetina did a good descent of the Croix-de-Fer and started the final climb on his own. He mantained a good lead of 1' 05'' on David Lopez, 1' 30'' on Mikel Nieve and 2' 55'' on Capecchi, Pinot and Pinotti. The bunch had cut the lead of the American to 5' 10'', so the stage win seemed to be in the lead riders. 13 kilometers to go for Stetina.
Emanuele Sella (Astana), in the young leader jersey, was able to jump away from the peloton while the top riders in the GC were looking at each other. The Italian was 4' 50'' behind Stetina 8 kilometers from the finish. Meanwhile, the pack was losing time in the first part of the climb. They were 6' 25'' behind and Mollema's lead could be in danger if he doesn't take the responsibility to chase.
Mollema finally answers as he follows Steven Kruijswijk when his fellow Dutch attacked. Stetina0s lead is meanwhile growing, as he has 2' 40'' on Lopez and Nieve; 4' 25'' on Sella; 5' 55'' on Kruijswijk and 6' 10'' on Mollema. Stetina is the virtual leader of the race with only 6 kilometers remaining.
Peter Stetina is going to win the stage and 2 kilometers to the finish he is playing for the leader's jersey with Mollema. Meanwhile, Mikel Nieve is second but has dropped back to 3' 15'' behind. Mollema is still 5' 05'' behind and Tejay van Garderen is with Weening 6' 05'' back.
Peter Stetina wins in Saint-Francois Longchamps! Tremendous effort by the American, who clearly was the strongest in the break and advantaged Mikel Nieve, the second in the stage, by more than 3 minutes. The other survivor of the break was another Spaniard, David Lopez, who arrived almost 4 minutes behind.
Emanuele Sella and Bauke Mollema reached the finish line together, where the Italian was able to beat the Dutch in the sprint to take the fourth place in the stage. Steven Kruijswijk was the next of the favorites, while Pieter Weening lost more than a minute to Mollema.
Weening didn't only lose most of his chances to win the Dauphine, but he also lost the second place in the GC to Pieter Weening. Sella also made an impact to rise to the fourth spot overall, 2 minutes behind Mollema. Nieve also made a good step forward, placing himself 7th, 4 minutes back.
Criterium du Dauphine Stage 8: Faverges - Grenoble
The Criterium du Dauphine ends today with a fairly easy race in the fisrt part of the stage. However, the climb to Saint Bernard du Touvet is tough and its top is only 28 kilometers from the finish line. Bauke Mollema will have to be very careful in the ramps of this climb, as his lead is not big enough to be comfortable at the top of the GC.
The first intermediate sprint of the day was 73 kilometers to the finish and a vary big group of 16 riders made it in front. Several important riders were ahead, like: Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto), Levi Leipheimer and Heinrich Haussler (HTC), Thor Hushovd (Garmin), Rigoberto Uran (Sky) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Discovery). Such a big group could well make it to the finish, although the gap to the pack was not huge, at 4 minutes.
The bunch started the climb to Touvet losing 2' 55'' on the break after the work by Quickstep and Vacansoleil. Quickstep seemed to be ambitious, as Devenyns started to set the pace as soon as the tougher slopes began.
Joaquin Rodriguez took a small lead at the top of the climb to Touvet. He was 20 seconds ahead of Marco Marcato and 1' 15'' ahead of the rest of the break at the top, while the bunch were still 2' 25'' behind. However, some attacks were already happening in the main group.
The main group of the break was soon caught, while Rodriguez and Marcato were still ahead. At the end of the descent, with 13 km remaining, Bart de Clerq was in front of a group of 15 riders where the top three of the GC was present. However, Emanuele Sella and Tejay van Garderen had missed the cut and were losing 50 seconds.
Joaquin Rodriguez was still ahead with only 5 kilometers remaining, but his gap was only 20 seconds to Marcato; 45'' to Bart de Clerq; 1 minute to the group of favorites; 2' 10'' to Nieve and Van Garderen; and 2' 35'' to the main bunch. The Spaniard was suffering to get his first win of the season.
Mollema and the group of favorites chased down De Clerq and Marcato, but as they started sprinting the win looked safe for Rodriguez. Meanwhile, the bunch was fighting hard to reduce the advantage of this group in front.
Joaquin Rodriguez wins in Grenoble! The Spaniard narrowly completed the breakaway, as the chasers were closing in led by Bauke Mollema. The Dutch beat Marco Marcato for the second place in the stage and won the GC in France.
This is a good presentation of his credentials for the Tour win, as this is the last race of Mollema before the great French race. He will be benched for the Tour de Suisse. Sella and Van Garderen did lose time at the finish but they held on to the 4th and 5th in the GC. A great result for both of them, as was the podium place of Peter Stetina.
The Tour de Suisse is the longest among the stage races in the World Tour apart from the GTs. It is therefore a good test for those who will be fighting for the overall win in the Tour de France. However, some riders have opted to skip the race in Switzerland to prepare better for the Tour. Among those are Bauke Mollema, Hubert Dupont and Dries Devenyns.The defending champion of the race is Frank Schleck, who won in the opening season of the story. The Luxembourgish could be in the hunt for the GC, but it looks like the latest time trial will be too long for him.
Favorites:
- Denis Menchov (Katusha): Menchov gave signs of his quality earlier in the season, being 2nd in the Tirreno - Adriatico and 5th in the Basque Country. However, he hasn't been a contander for the top spots since then. The route in Switzerland seems to favor him, as the long time trial fits his abilities very well.
- Levi Leipheimer (HTC): Leipheimer's chances of doing something good in Dauphine soon disappeard as he crashed in the third stage. He even crashed again later in the race and carried the injuries for the rest of the race. He seems to be recovering for the Swiss race, where HTC could be the dominant force with Andy Schleck, Chris Froome and himself.
- Cadel Evans (Discovery): The Australian has had a poor season so far, always in the shadow of Mikel Nieve and Janez Brajkovic in the team. Even though Nieve will be racing in Switzerland as well, it looks like the leading role will be given to Evans this time. Cadel can go well in all the terrains of the race and if he regains the confidence he had it would be a surprise not to see him among the best.
- Rob Ruijgh (Rabobank): For one reason or another Rob Ruijgh has a 2nd place in the mountains classification of the Basque Country and a 3rd place in the Mont Ventoux as the highlights of his season. The Dutch was supposed to join his fellow Dutch Mollema and Weening in dominating the mountains, but nothing is farther from reallity. However, he could take advantage of some of the best climbers not showing up and confirm the hopes of those trusting in his qualities.
The first stage in Switzerland is a short prologue that will make only small differences in the GC. The short stage in Liechtenstein will see the usual favorites challenge for the win: Cameron Meyer, Samuel Sanchez, David Millar...
Cameron Meyer (HTC) was again one of the first riders to start the prologue. The Australian set a very good time of 6' 07'' clearly beating the best time so far by Jurgen van den Broeck by 11 seconds.
The British David Millar (Sky), winner of both time trials in Dauphine, couldn't improve Meyer's time. He was only 3rd, 4 seconds behind.
Levi Leipheimer was the second of the HTC strong time trialists. The American couldn't match his teammate and ended 5 seconds behind in the 4th provisional position.
Samuel Sanchez (Katusha) has been a while without wining a time trial and this time would be no different. The competition in this area has grown a lot this year. Sanchez was 2nd provisionally, 1 second slower than Meyer.
The weather conditions were a lot worse when the next of the favorites started. This meant that Marco Pinotti (Radioshack) could only set the 29th time, 10 seconds worse than Meyer.
Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank) also suffered the worse wind conditions and couldn't be better than 15th, 8 seconds behind Meyer.
The last riders to start had much better conditions, as the wind decreased a lot. Denis Menchov (Katusha) was therefore able to match Meyer's time and set the 2nd provisional time.
Chris Froome (HTC) was the last among the favorites, but the surprise came earlier as Tejay van Garderen improved the best time so far by 1 second. Froome also did a great time trial but couldn't improve Van Garderen. The British was 2nd with the same time.
Tejay van Garderen is a quite surprising winner of the stage and will wear the leader's jersey tomorrow. The bad news of the day was the poor time trial of Cadel Evans, who lost 16 seconds in this short space.
The first long stage in Switzerland is a circle around the ski town of Davos, better known by the World Economic Forum that takes place every winter. The route is very easy in the first 100 kilometers, when the climb back to Davos start with a couple of climbs. The first of those is the hardest: the Wiesenberg. However, the climbs are a bit far from the finish, so it will be difficult to see the favorites attacking.
The break of the day was soon formed, as there was no real fight from the bunch to bring them back. The group of 8 riders reached the second intermediate sprint (73 km to the finish) with a gap of 4' 25'' on the bunch. Among the riders in the group were Peter Sagan (Vacansoleil), Cameron Meyer (HTC), Lloyd Mondory (Liquigas) and Matthew Goss (Saxo Bank).
The Wiesenberg broke the group in front to pieces and Peter Sagan was on his own at the mountain sprint (26 km to go). 40 seconds behind was a group of 5 chasing him, while the bunch was 2 minutes behind. There was no movements among the favorites so far.
The top of the smallest hill after the Wiesenberg was 16 kilometers to the finish. However, no movements had happened as they were about to reach the top. Only Cunego seemed to have a slight advantage. Sagan was still 55 seconds ahead at that point.
Pieter Weening (Quickstep) attacked in the last meters of climbing and opened a gap. Tremendous attack by the Dutch. With 7 km remaining he went past Peter Sagan and had 55 seconds on Bart De Clerq, Mikel Nieve and Damiano Cunego and 1' 15'' on the bunch.
The chasers were cutting down the gap with Weening, but he reached the final kilometer 35'' ahead. Peter Sagan was still following Weening and fighting for the second spot in the stage. Meanwhile, the bunch was almost reaching the group of chasers.
Pieter Weening wins in Davos! This is the fourth win for the Quickstep rider, who is now tied in the first place of this ranking with Davide Rebellin and Bauke Mollema. Peter Sagan reached the finish line 25 seconds behind, what means that Weening takes the leader's jersey as well.
Cunego and De Clerq took the third and fourth places respectively as the bunch was closing down on them. The stage was not meant to have an impact among the favorites but Weening hits first and will probably wear the leader's jersey for a few days barring a breakaway.
The third stage has a big mountain in the Lukmanierpass (18.5 km, 4.7%) but too far away from the finish for it to be really relevant. However, a break could take advantage of it to go for the stage win, as there are lots of descending kilometers from there to the finish.
The start of the race was crazy, as all the break attempts were eventually reeled back in by the bunch. This meant the riders started the Lukmanierpass as a bunch. The stage had been very fast, but no rider attempted a break in the climb. Therefore, with 85 kilometers remaining the race seemed set for a fight in the last small hill. Davide Rebellin took the points, while Cameron Meyer took the provisional lead in the mountains jersey.
The bunch didn't really break in the climb to Pallardi and it was only 4 kilometers from the top to the finish line, most of them descending. Xavi Tondo went first through the top, followed by Emanuele Sella, Ben Hermans and Cadel Evans.
The sprint started as soon as the riders stopped descending. Ben Hermans led the way ahead of his teammate Cadel Evans, while the BMCs Oliver Zaugg and Alessandro Ballan were following.
Ben Hermans wins in Lumino! The Belgian was able to hold the lead on the last meters, when Oliver was closing on him. Cadel Evans took third while Emanuele Sella was fourth. This shows how important was to end the hill well placed, as none of the usual sprinters was in the mix.
The bad news came from the downhill after the leaders ad finished. Pieter Weening and Jerome Coppel crashed out of the race in the descent and that leaves the race without the current leader.
Ben Hermans is the new leader after the bonus seconds he got from today's stage. The Belgian has a good chance to keep the jersey tomorrow, but in day 5 the climb to Serfaus will be a tough test for all the race candidates and therefore much action can be expected.
