18/4 Stage 4/5 Pergine Valsugana - Condino (Valle del Chiese) 171.8 km
Christina: The Caravan has moved just about 10 km north to Pergine Valsugana, 10 km from Trento. The stage is not as hard as yesterday, but it is hard enough to gain time in the GC, last year Roche, Ulissi,, De Gendt and Urán took over a minute on the peloton, just from attacking on the last climb.
Pergine Valsugana is a town of about 21.000 inhabitants, the arear was settled in pre roman times and possibly also in Roman times, but it is first time mentioned in documents in 845, in 1183 a church was established.
Chiesa Parrocchiale di Santa Maria, Pergine Valsugana, built in 1556 over an earlier 1183 Church.
Pre-race strategy: We will protect Ellisonde trying to defend his GC, but at the same time getting in a break, hoping to win the stage.
Profile:
As opposed to last year’s horrible weather, today it is fine. Very early on the stage Davide Malacarne attacks, ready to do one of those long solo breaks.
Another attacks from the peloton, on the climb to “Comano Terme” (cat2), Louis Meintjes (MTN), Enrico Zen (Vini Fantini) and Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM), they reach Malacarne before the top.
After the climb, Matteo Rabottini (Lampre) attacks, trying to catch the breakaway, he is a more serious threat to the GC, only 4,25 behind the leader.
Matteo Rabottini never make it to the front, he gets eaten by the peloton in the final very steep climb to “Daone” (cat3.) over the top several dangerous attacks, first a group with Roche, then a group with Acevedo, behind that Ellisonde in a group of 10, and then the reduces peloton of 50 riders.
Group Roche, and the situation with 4.6 km to the line:
The race is won by the breakaway, Jonathan Fumeaux over Enrico Zen, Davide Malacarne takes the last podium.
Group Ellisonde and the rest of the peloton catch up to the others groups in front, and 57 riders get the same time as race leader Nicolas Roche
Christina: Not a bad stage, we get a top 3, and more importantly Kenny Elissonde does not lose time, the way he did last year.
sutty68/AbhishekLFC: Looking at the times in GC. It is unlikely that we can get a podium, nothing is impossible but…..on the other hand a top 4/5 is not completely unrealistic.
Christina: The Caravan has moved about 50 km back west to Arco, a small town by the Sarca river, just 6 km north of Riva Del Garda. This is the toughest stage of the race, with a “hors catégorie” mountain finish on Sega de Ala, last year Ellisonde made a great finish on this stage with a top 5 stage, resulting in a top 5 GC.
Sega di Ala is just a tiny mountain village 14 km from Ala, at mount Lessini. Just outside the Parco Naturale Regionale della Lessinia Natural Park.
Old Postcard from Sega:
A morning breakaway of 6 riders, famous fighter type riders Jens Voigt (RadioShack) and Thomas Voeckler (Jules) and a relative strong climber Rohan Dennis (Orica- GreenEdge) they are all more than 10 min behind in the GC. But it seems unlikely that they will win the stage, with a very hard finish.
55 km left, a new attack 5 riders with Kudus (MTN) Scarponi (Katusha) and others. At the foot of the climb to Brentonico (cat 2.) they are 1’13 in front of the peloton, 1’48 behind group Voeckler, 44 km to go.
Voigt takes the mountain sprint at Brentonico, Group Voight are now 53” in front of Group Kudus, and 2’56 ahead of the peloton.
Disaster strikes Liberty Seguros, Nicolas Roche crashes at the downhill section after Brentonico.
Almost from the bottom of the final climb, Ellisonde attacks, bridging a gap to the remaining breakaway, left is Rohan Dennis and Morris Possoni (Ceramica Flaminia) at this point they got 35 sec. to a favourite group of 50 riders, and 2’33 to Nicolas Roche.
Ellisonde easily gets rid of Dennis and Possoni, holding a steady 30-35 sec. down to the next group, but on the last km, Fabio Aru (Cannondale) attacks, leaving the other favourites behind, Ellisonde is close to his limits, he has to slow down a little, he has got a little left to sprint with, but it is not enough. Aru comes out of the dense fog, and beats him on the line.
Ten Dam take the last podium, in front of a very impressive Roche, what a brilliant fight from the race leader today, after his crash.
Christina: Great and brave effort from Ellisonde, he was so close. We got what we wanted a result just a little better than last year and we won the Team classification.
Got to run, have a plane to catch for another important race in Herning tomorrow.
Christina: Today it is Grand Prix Herning, our first race in Denmark this season. The race is known for its dusty gravel roads, about 30 km combined. Even though we haven’t had the best results here 9th.2013 and 20th.2014 – the management wants a much better results, they aim for a top 3 and between us I would say top 5 would be fine.
There have been found burial mounds in the area from (3950 - 3300 BC) but no prove that these people lived in what is now Herning, but archeological evidence shows that in the center of Herning, was settlement in Iron Age, Houses and a well have been dated 375 - 749 e.Kr.
In historical times a lord build an estate called “Vig” in 1579, later renamed and rebuild as Herningsholm.
Today Herningsholm is a museum dedicated to the writers and printers of the Danish heathland.
Pre-Race Strategy: We decide to stay in the peloton, and help bring back any break, hoping for a mass sprint.
Profile:
Roster:
Anders Bjerregård
Francisco José Pacheco
Lasse Christiansen
Mads Würtz Schmidt
Martin Pedersen
Morten Høberg
Philip Nielsen
Yves Lampaert
A lot of attacks right from the start, but the peloton is fast it won’t allow a breakaway. 30 km with a lot of failed attempts before a group of 4 with Jesper Hansen (Novo Nordisk) gets a more stable gap.
Things calm down but not for long, after a while the peloton accelerates hard again, and the break is over, everyone is back together about 150 km left.
As expected that won’t last for long, soon a new attack of 4 riders with Dion Beukeboom (De Rijke), this time it seems like the peloton haven’t got the energy, they are allowed to build up a respectable gap.
The Peloton is not in the mood for a giveaway today, group Beukeboom is caught in good time for the teams to set up the sprint trains. We get up a good train for Francisco José Pacheco right in front of the peloton.
Francisco José Pacheco is not in top form, his legs are sore when he gets to the sprint. Even thougt he starts in front, he get taken over by rider after rider. The race was won by Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme) over Tomasz Smolen (CCC Polsat). Pacheco get 6th place.
Christina debriefing in the tour bus: Well, far from what the management wanted, this won’t make them smile, and actually not that I had hoped for either, but a result much better than the previous years, at least we are getting better. Somehow just not a race we are very comfortable with.
21/4 - 28/4 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (cat. 2.HC)
21/4 Stage 1: Alanya - Alanya: 135,4 km
Christina: I am in Alanya, Turkey for the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey. Kenny Elissonde won this race last year, so in this case we can’t improve. The management wants a stage win, and we all hope this will be our race again this year.
The city had a population of about 100,000. The City and harbor was originally protected by Alanya Castle, originally build in the Hellenistic period (323-31 BC), current version mostly built under the Seljuq Sultanate of in early 1200’s, the castle lost its strategic value in the late middle ages but still exist. Alanya Castle was added to UNESCO’s World Heritage in 2009.
The Byzantine era Church of Saint George inside Alanya Castle was later used as a mosque.
Pre-race strategy: With no KoM points at stake today, we will sit in the peloton and save energy, hopfully doing something noteworthy in a mass sprint.
Profile:
Roster
Kenny Elissonde
Philip Nielsen
Stefan Schumacher
Frederik Wilmann
Lasse Bøchman
Martin Pedersen
Morten Høberg
The morning break is 3 riders, the strongest is clearly Maarten Tjallingii (REWE) they get a max. of a little more than 6 min.
The weather is perfect, a lot of locals and tourists follow the race, running on a closed circuit passing through by the beaches of Alanya several times.
The break is no challenge for the peloton and they get caught in good time for a mass sprint. The pace is very high on the last to 20 km, most of our riders sits a little too far back in the peloton, we are unable to get a train forward. The stage is won by Andrea Guardini (Omega Pharma) over Maxime Vantomme (GUNK). Our best is surprisingly Ellisonde (8).
Christina: Very disappointing, not that we get a top 10 with Ellisonde, but the fact that our sprinters Philip Nielsen and Morten Høberg does not compete on a stage like this.
Stage:
1
Andrea Guardini
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team
2h57'13
2
Maxime Vantomme
GUNK
s.t.
3
Marco Haller
BigMat - Auber 93
s.t.
4
Jonas Ahlstrand
Avianca
s.t.
5
Mauro Finetto
Vini Fantini - Selle Italia
s.t.
6
Marcel Meisen
REWE
s.t.
7
Steven Tronet
BigMat - Auber 93
s.t.
8
Kenny Elissonde
Christina Watches - Onfone
s.t.
9
Raymond Kreder
Garmin - Sharp
s.t.
10
Gianni Meersman
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team
s.t.
GC:
1
Andrea Guardini
Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team
2h56'53
2
Maxime Vantomme
GUNK
+ 8
3
Marco Haller
BigMat - Auber 93
+ 12
4
Koen Barbé
GUNK
+ 14
5
Maarten Tjallingii
REWE
+ 16
6
Andrew Ramirez
Jamis - Hagens Berman
+ 18
7
Jonas Ahlstrand
Avianca
+ 20
8
Mauro Finetto
Vini Fantini - Selle Italia
s.t.
9
Marcel Meisen
REWE
s.t.
10
Steven Tronet
BigMat - Auber 93
s.t.
Points:
1 Andrea Guardini Omega Pharma - Quick·Step Cycling Team 25
2 Maxime Vantomme GUNK 20
3 Marco Haller BigMat - Auber 93 16
21/4 - 28/4 Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey (cat. 2.HC)
22/4 Stage 2/8: Alanya - Antalya: 149,9 km
Christina Reports: We are still in Alanya, for another flat stage to Antalya. Antalya is the capital of the province, a city of about 2 million people. A Paleolithic archaeological site located at Yağca village 27 km northwest of Antalya at the foot of the mountains, shows evidence of human habitation dated 150,000-200,000 years back in time, including a fragment of a Neanderthal skull.
Antalya:
Pre-race strategy: We expect another mass sprint, and will rest in the peloton all day, hopefully we can to better in the final sprint today.
Profile:
The morning break is 5 riders, the strongest seems to be Stijn Neirynck (Topsport Vlaanderen) with a good sprint and flat.
The peloton won’t really let the break get away; they are hanging at about 1 min. until the sprint is over, and then reeled in. Then another break, this time it is Chase Pinkham (Jamis), Jonathan Cantwell (Saxo), Francisco Mancebo (Caja Rural) and Brett Lancaster (Orica).
But again they get only a little TV time, the peloton get them back 10-12 km before the line. We get a much better train up today, although we don’t get Philip Nielsen in it, Morten Høberg is set up fine.
The stage is won by Andrea Guardini (Omega Pharma) over Davide Cimolai (Vini Fantini). Høberg ends up 6th.
Christina: Fine result, at least we got a train up a did our best.
