Thanks . We were happy to let Kelderman take all the glory in Romandie. Nairo had a solid outing and it should prove a good prep for the Giro.
The Giro course should suit Nairo, given, like you said, less TTs, and tough climbs and the MTT. This is a very good chance for him to get back to the top of the podium.
A sneak peak into incredibly strong team Astana are bringing to the Giro!!
Movistar Starting List
Nairo Quintana
Roman Kreuziger
Elia Viviani
Leopold Konig
Adriano Malori
Tiejs Benoot
Isidro Pintassilgo
Juan Jose Lobato
Rafael Valls
The first step in Nairo's monumental quest starts off in Italy. The Giro d'Italia is here and Movistar have pulled out all the stops to bring a strong team. Not as strong as Astana though! Fabio Aru will be excellently supported going up all those steep climbs. With Froome on the decline, and only Pinot the other out and out team leader contending for the GC in the field, this looks like it will come down to a Movistar versus Astana battle for supremacy. One can never count Froome out though! An unprecedented five MTFs makes for an extremely challenging terrain awaiting the riders. So, can Nairo start his GC quest on the right note or will he fall at the first hurdle? Only time will tell...
Part 1: Unlikely Leaders
Stage 1 - Team Time Trial - Flat - 19.1 km
The race started off in the best way possible for Movistar as they won this stage. Astana were just off the pace, literally, by 1 second. Leopold Konig became the overnight leader.
Stage winner - Movistar Other important results - Astana (Aru, Frank) 2nd, losing 1", Sky (Froome) 3rd, losing 13", Orange (Pinot) lost 34"
Stage 4 - Flat with 2 minor intermediate climbs
Viviani took the Maglia Rosa off Konig after a 2nd place finish on stage 2. He held on to it on stage 3.
A 3 man break was joined by another after the first climb. They built up a lead of 7 minutes before the breakaway's lead was whittled away gradually. They were caught on the second climb. Aru and Kruijswijk attacked and they weren't countered directly. The pack chased and kept their lead down. Kruijswijk took the stage win, with Aru getting the same time and taking over the Pink Jersey.
Stage winner - Steven Kruijswijk Movistar - Elia Viviani 5th, Tiejs Benoot 6th, Adriano Malori 7th, J J Lobato 8th 38" behind Other important results - Aru 2nd, same time. All others 38" behind
Stage 5 - Hilly with hill top finish, including 2 minor intermediate climbs
A 7 man breakaway challenged the pack with the likes of Capecchi and Tony Martin in it. Their lead fluctuated from 8 minutes down to 4 and then up again to 11 minutes. A group of 26 riders, including the GC favourites went away from the peloton on the second climb. They could not catch up to the break however as Paul Voss took the stage win. David Villela, having finished 4th on the stage, 8 seconds behind the winner, took the lead in the GC.
Stage winner - Paul Voss from breakaway Movistar - Everyone finished 5'14" behind except Malori and Viviani Other important results - Aru lost 30" to the other GC favourites. Everyone else finished 5'14" behind the winner
Stage 6 - Hilly with 1 minor intermediate climb
A 4 man breakaway built up an 11 minute lead over the peloton. 2 riders attacked with 50 km to go and another one joined some time later. The later 3 were caught and soon after 2 of the original breakaway were also caught. Dan Martin attacked with 18 km to go. Elia Favilli and Robert Power attacked next with 10 km to go. All of the attackers, including the original breakaway riders, except Dan Martin were caught with 7 km to go. 13 riders, including the GC favourites went away with 5 km to go, caught Martin with 2 km to go and raced to the line. Adriano Malori powered his way past the others in a somewhat unlikely stage victory. Villela held on to the GC lead.
Stage winner - Adriano Malori
Stage 9 - Mountain with mountain top finish, with 1 major intermediate climb
Fabio Aru took over the GC lead on stage 7 after Villela was dropped on the mountain top finish. He held on to it over stage 8.
The 5 man break was allowed to build a huge 20 minute lead over the pack. 3 riders attacked on top of the first climb. One was caught on the descent. Although Astana did chase for some time, they turned their attention to the battle among the GC contenders on the final ascent. By this time it was clear that the break would not be caught. Chris Froome and Robert Power were the first to attack with 12 km to go. The remaining members of Astana and Movistar chased the duo. Nairo and Aru attacked together with 2 km to go. Nairo pulled away from Aru and almost caught up to Froome before the finish. Ahead of them, Adriano Jorge Benedito won from the break, by a big margin and took on the Maglia Rosa.
Stage winner - Adriano Jorge Benedito from breakaway Movistar - Nairo Quintana 9th, 18'47" behind Other important results - Chris Froome 8th, 18' 36" behind, Fabio Aru 10th, 10th, 19'4" behind
The state of the GC after Stage 9...
Spoiler
The three favourites for the GC are separated by a mere 5 seconds even as Benedito takes an 8 minute lead over them into week 2.
To be continued...
Edited by AbhishekLFC on 19-05-2016 16:00
Interesting GC situation. Kiserlovksi could be a problem, maybe Benedito even more so, considering he beat Kiserlovski by a decent margin on this stage. And only seconds between the real favourites. Let's see how this plays out.
@Tamijo: They should be good with the GC for a few stages because the mountains start again on stage 13. That's 3 long stages for the favourites to strategize.
@Kiserlovski: Hehe, he was the dropped on the final ascent, else he would've been even closer to the Rosa. Nairo's looking strong so far, so the team's playing it cool as of now.
@Ripley: Kiserlovski doesn't have a strong team to back him up, so it'll be tough for him to hold on to the lead. Benedito, on the other hand has Sky, and that's always dangerous, even with them backing Froome also. The GC battle should get interesting though
Stage 13 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 3 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
Rohan Dennis was the big name in the 4 man breakaway. 3 more riders attacked on top of the first climb. The lead group of chasers was down to 40 riders on top of the third climb. Fabio Aru attacked on the final ascent with 10 km to go. Nairo picked up the pace and broke away from the peloton. He attacked with 4 km to go, catching first Aru and Dennis. He rode away to win solo. Aru got past his team-mate into 2nd place, losing a few seconds to Nairo. Froome lost a lot of time.
Stage winner - Nairo Quintana Movistar - Roman Kreuziger 2'19" behind Other important results - Fabio Aru 2nd, 18" behind, Dan Martin 3rd, Mathias Frank 4th, 1'9" behind, Thibaut Pinot 5th, 1'34" behind, Chris Froome 3'40" behind, Adriano Jorge Benedito 4' behind
The change in the GC...
Spoiler
Stage 14 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 1 major and 3 minor intermediate climbs
Movistar decided to put Konig into the break to try to help Nairo in the latter part of the stage. A total of 10 riders started off on the break. Konig left the others behind on the third climb, building up a massive 19 minute lead on the peloton. Behind them, a group of 11 riders, consisting entirely of Sky and Astana, went away at the base of the fourth climb. They were followed by another small group. Movistar were left chasing from the peloton and soon it was only the duo of Nairo and Kreuziger who could keep up with the pace. Two-thirds of the way up the climb, Nairo was a staggering 6 minutes down on Aru, Astana having left the Sky train behind, and 3 minutes down on Pintassilgo! Slowly, very slowly, Nairo clawed his way back - first overtaking the Sky riders and then pulling past the Astana riders one by one. With about 8 km to go, he had Aru in his sights. Although Nairo had by now left all the other Astana riders behind, Aru's relative freshness allowed him to once again pull out a few more seconds to Nairo in final kilometres. Movistar did pick up another stage win as Konig crossed the line in first place but their strategy has to be questioned, which led to Nairo losing more than a minute on Aru. Froome was effectively out of the running after this stage.
Stage winner - Leopold Konig Movistar - Nairo Quintana 3rd, 4'32" behind Other important results - Fabio Aru 2nd, 3'4" behind, Mathias Frank 4th, 4'40" behind, Thibaut 6th, 4'56" behind, Chris Froome 10'5" behind, Adriano Jorge Benedito 12'49" behind
The GC going topsy-turvy once again...
Spoiler
Stage 15 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 3 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
A 5 man break was joined by 1 more as they managed to build up a 20 minutes' gap over the peloton. The lead group was down to 60 riders after the second climb and to 40 after the third. Kruijswijk and Aru attacked together on the 4th climb. Movistar and Sky joined forces to chase them down. Sky were dropped while Aru had a team-mate at his side now. Nairo caught up to Aru on the climb to the finish. Robert Power attacked next but was caught by the efforts of Aru and Nairo. Aru powered ahead at the end, taking the stage win and extending his lead by a few seconds.
Stage winner - Fabio Aru Movistar - Nairo Quintana 2nd, 34' behind Other important results - Robert Power 3rd, 1'5" behind, Alexandre Geniex 4th, 1'46" behind, Mathias Frank 5th, Steven Kruijswijk 6th, 2'17" behind
Stage 16 - Individual Time Trial - Mountain - 12.7 km
Coming after the rest day meant that the riders should be fresh for this stage. A stage meant entirely for the GC favourites to go head to head as they ride solo up the ascent to the finish. Aru's TT abilities are not the best but he should be able to use his climbing skills here. As it turned out, he led Nairo by 10 seconds after the first time-check. However, he lost steam at the end. Nairo took the stage win and got back some of the time he had lost in the two previous stages.
Stage winner - Nairo Quintana Movistar - Leopold Konig 7th, losing 56" Other important results - Romain Bardet 2nd, loisng 27", Chris Froome 3rd, losing 29", Thibaut Pinot 4th, losing 37", Fabio Aru 5th, losing 44"
The GC remained unchanged, but the gap at the top was reduced...
Spoiler
Stage 17 - Mountain with 2 major intermediate climbs
The only mountain stage of the race which did not end at a summit. A 5 man breakaway built a 16 minute lead over the pack. Froome, Aru, Kruijswijk and Nairo attacked on top of the first climb. They were joined on the descent by Pinot and Frank. Three more riders soon made the gap to this group of GC leaders. They stayed together till Nairo attacked 4 km from the top of the second climb. He used the descent well and stayed ahead of his rivals to pull back some more time from Aru. Ahead, Alessandro de Marchi took the stage win.
Stage winner - Alessandro de Marchi from breakaway Movistar - Nairo Quintana 6th, 6'44" behind Other important results - All his rivals finished 7'6" behind. Aru's lead was down to 35 seconds
Going into the last four stages, it's neck and neck at the top. Will Nairo really come out second best once again? Or can he keep plugging away and overturn the deficit?
To be continued...
Edited by AbhishekLFC on 19-05-2016 19:00
Nice for Benedito with the jersey from 9-13, as we expected it would end in the mountains. Now down to 2 riders fighting for overall win, hopefully Nario has got that little extra in the end.
@DiCyc: Thrilling for you, nail-biting for the team
@The Schleck Fan: Hopefully!
@Tamijo: A total of 7 lead changes so far. Hopefully, there'll be one more before the end . Although given how the mountains have been going, it might not be as simple as Nairo vs Aru for the win. Team Astana are crazy strong!
Stage 18 - Hilly with 1 major intermediate climb
The 8 man early break had a maximum lead of 9 minutes. The lead group behind them was drastically reduced to around 30 riders on top of the only climb. Nairo, pulled along by Konig and Pintassilgo, started pulling away from the front of the pack in the descent. With 15 km left, and having a gap of 20 seconds to the pack, he decided to attack in order to increase his lead. He pulled to around 50 seconds at one point, putting him into the overall lead on the road. However, the combined efforts of Sky and Astana were too much for him. Nairo was caught with 4 km to go. Tired and out of breath, he could not follow the last acceleration of his rivals. He was dropped from that group, and lost time to Aru. Just like in stage 14, another tactical error, this time on Nairo's part, proved costly. Ahead of the GC leaders, Gianluca Brambilla took the stage win.
Stage winner - Gianluca Brambilla Movistar - Nairo Quintana lost 53" to his rivals Other important results - All other GC leaders finished in the same group. Aru's lead had increased to 1'28"
Stage 19 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 1 major intermediate climb
A group of 2 riders formed the early breakaway and were joined by 3 others on the descent of the climb. Steven Kruijswijk attacked with 25 km to go, and pulled out a 1 minute lead. He was soon reeled back in by the pace set by Astana and Movistar. By the time the base of the climb to the finish arrived, the leaders had surpassed the breakaway. The group was down to about 15 riders. They stayed together till Adam Yates attacked with 5 km to go. He was followed by Nairo, Aru and a couple of the latter's surviving climbing train. The latter quartet pulled ahead in the closing stages. Nairo won another stage by virtue of a stronger sprint to the line, getting back a handful of seconds on Aru, who finished 2nd.
Stage winner - Nairo Quintana Other important results - Fabio Aru 2nd, same time, Mathias Frank 3rd, Romain Bardet 4th, 15" behind, Thibaut Pinot 5th, 41" behind
Stage 20 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 1 major intermediate climb
A group of 11 breakaway riders pulled out a 19 minute lead over the peloton. The entire Astana team, bar one rider, went away at the front of the peloton, while Movistar scrambled to stay in touch. Very soon it was all but two of Astana's riders pulling Aru further away from Nairo's clutches while the latter was left with only Kreuziger for support. It was at this point that three more Astana riders sat up, tired from the effort. Nairo took his chance, and left Kreuziger's slipstream to start the solo chase. The Astana riders kept falling back one by one as Nairo clawed his back. He caught Aru 7 km from the summit, Nairo placed a searching attack, and although he was successful initially, Aru caught back up at the summit of the climb. They rode shoulder to shoulder for the next few kilometres. With 2.5 km to go, Nairo launched his next attack.
(The devil shows up as Nairo attacks!)
This time it was decisive and Aru had no answer. The former got back three quarters of a minute from Aru. Ahead of them, it was Peter Kennaugh who took a fine win from the breakaway.
Stage winner - Peter Kennaugh Movistar - Nairo Quintana 6th, 5'40" behind Other important results - Fabio Aru 8th, 6'25" behind, Mathias Frank 10th, 8'42" behind
The GC as it looked before the last stage commences...
Spoiler
Stage 21 - Individual Timer Trial - Flat
The flat, long time trial stage would effectively decide the GC. With Nairo's superior TT skills, the team were quietly confident of him overturning the deficit. Yohan Paillot won the stage from Rohan Dennis with Chris Froome in 3rd palce. The main battle was being fought among the last two riders on the road. From the beginning itself, Aru was fighting an uphill battle. At the first checkpoint, he was already 50 seconds down on Nairo, meaning he had lost his lead on the road. At the second checkpoint, Nairo had extended his lead on the stage to over a minute. Nairo crossed the line in 9th place on the stage, a shade over 90 seconds behind the winner. Everyone waited with baited breathe as Aru approached the finish. As he crossed the line, the electronic display illuminated to show he was more than 3 minutes down on Paillot and almost 2 minutes down on Nairo. He had lost his GC lead on the last stage. Nairo was champion!
Stage winner - Yohann Paillot Movistar - Nairo Quintana 9th, 1'33" behind Other important results - Rohan Dennis 2nd, losing 1", Chris Froome 3rd, losing 13", Mathias Frank 4th, losing 48", Thibaut Pinot 8th, losing 1'30", Fabio Aru lost 3'21"
General Classification
1)Nairo Quintana (Movistar)
2)Fabio Aru (Astana)
3)Mathias Frank (Astana)
Young Riders' Classification
1)Adriano Jorge Benedito (Sky)
2)Robert Power (American Express)
3)Michel Grelet (Cofidis)
Team Classification
1)Astana
2)Sky
3)Movistar
It is very ironic that a TT decides a Grand Tour result in favour of Nairo. With 3 stage wins and 2 jerseys, including the Maglia Rosa, it was mission successful in part one of the three part Nairo special this season. A word of consolation for Aru who did everything in his power, ably helped by his team-mates, to keep hold of the coveted jersey. At the end, it was his poor TT skills which became his undoing. Besides Nairo, Movistar also enjoyed two more stage wins, two other Maglia Rosa holders and the intermediate lead in the Points classification. A great race for the team and an overdue victory for Nairo - his first win in 7 GTs! Two bad team and individual errors almost gifted the win to Aru, but Nairo showed incredible resolve to almost single-handedly overcome Astana in more than one stages. A brilliant effort!
Well done Nairo! I had been expecting that a few stages back, there was bound to be another ITT and thankfully Aru is a pure climber. But with that strong team supporting him, he could have gotten a bigger gap in the mountains, so it wasn't certain. One GT down, two to go. The TdF should offer even tougher competition, while the Vuelta is usually the easiest of the three, but who knows how tired Nairo will be by then.
@Tamijo: Yes, a brilliant Giro. One of the best GTs I've played! On to step 2 for Nairo, the TDF
@The Schleck Fan: Finally! It's been a long time coming.
@Ripley: The ITT gave Nairo something which it had taken away consistently a few times, the GC win in a GT! It was really tough trying to get the better of Astana. They were going all out for the win. Nairo wore the Maglia Rosa for exactly one day - the day it mattered most
@fragnot: I play on hard.
Updates from other races during an after the Giro...
Bayern - Fundfarht
Boucles de l'Aulne
Boucles de la Mayenne
Gorkha took a surprise win in the stage 1 ITT, and did not lose enough time through the remaining stages to hang on to a podium place.
Stage List
ITT - 2 (Both Hilly)
Flat - 2
Hilly - 2
Mountain - 2 (1 MTF)
Stage 1
The prologue time trial has a bit of a kick in the middle portion. Yet, the TT specialists should have their way with this profile. A chance for one of them to get into the leader's jersey.
Stage 2
A transition stage before the tough stages start. The only stage in the race where the sprinters are likely to have some joy. Expect no changes in the GC on this stage.
Stage 3
Another in-between sort of stage whcih could easily have been classified as hilly. Quite a few small climbs dot the terrain, with the highest among them not even classified. Another stage which is not expected to see any change in the GC standings. The punchers should be looking forward to it.
Stage 4
A tough ITT awaits the riders on stage 4. The climb in the middle sector will make things tough for the TT specialists and should give some advantage to the climbers. Pure climbers might find themselves falling out of contention after this long ITT.
Stage 5
The stage where it goes from flat-flat-flat to up-up-up! The climb to the finish is quite steep, and will give the climbers a chacne to get back time. Expect a fight among the GC contenders on these slopes.
Stage 6
A lot of climbing to be done by the peloton on this stage. Although not very high, the continuous up and down is sure to take a lot of the riders. This is a good stage for a breakaway to survive too.
Stage 7
The second big mountain stage for this race should see another fight among the GC leaders. The tall climbs at regular intervals is sure to narrow down the lead group before they arrive at the last climb. The downhill finish might mean that anyone who is lagging after the final summit has a chance to get back some time. Should be an exciting stage.
Stage 8
A stage which is often used as the climax of this race. A good stage for a breakaway, but this stage makes it difficult for anyone to break free of the peloton late on. As such, it is highly unlikely that any major GC change will take place here.
Overall Assessment
An almost perfectly balanced race with 2 stages of each kind! The two ITTs might have a big role to play in the overall outcome, along with the two mountain stages. Should be an interesting battle, given the relatively strong startlist.
. We were happy to let Kelderman take all the glory in Romandie. Nairo had a solid outing and it should prove a good prep for the Giro.
. Although given how the mountains have been going, it might not be as simple as Nairo vs Aru for the win. Team Astana are crazy strong!
