Rasmussen: Two Hungarian races, called Central European Tour Miskolc GP & Central European Tour Budapest GP, despite the Central European Tour theme, they are both individual one day races (cat. 1.2). Both races are very flat, so the tactics were to stay in the peloton, and not let a break get too much, we believe we got a chance with José.
21/7 Central European Tour Miskolc GP 190,3 km
Roster:
Constantino Zaballa
Daniele Aldegheri
Francisco José Pacheco
Frederik Wilmann
Marc Hester
Mitchell Lovelock-Fay
Morten Høberg
Stefan Schumacher
Despite the strategy, Morten Høberg had very good legs and decided to follow an attack, the break got about 6 min, but it was not enough. We made a train with Schumacher – Hester – Pacheco, but others were faster. Pacheco came in 4th.
Top 5:
1
Yannick Martinez
La Pomme Marseille
2
Liam Holohan
Madison Genesis
3
Julian Alaphilippe
Etixx - iHNed
4
Francisco José Pacheco
Christina Watches - Onfone
5
Shawn Milne
5-Hour Energy
22/7 Central European Tour Budapest GP 120,1 km
Roster:
Angelo Furlan
Constantino Zaballa
Daniele Aldegheri
Francisco José Pacheco
Frederik Wilmann
Marc Hester
Mitchell Lovelock-Fay
Morten Høberg
The Peloton was very fast, clearly they would not let a break go, many attacks was tried not none of them got a serious gab.
In the sprint we formed a train Høberg – Furlan – Pacheco, the timing was perfect Furlan started a prefect sprint, and Pacheco finished the job. Francisco José Pacheco took a win, in a very close sprint.
Great to see the team getting better and better as the year goes on! Some tough races (especially Giro della Valle d'Aosta) but victories on the Rhône-Alpes Isère and a few Eastern Europe races were fantastic! Even some good performances in Canada.
Nice that a few of the other riders have done well now too, with Zaballa going out in style. Even with him gone, the future looks very promising.
OZrocker wrote:
Great to see the team getting better and better as the year goes on! Some tough races (especially Giro della Valle d'Aosta) but victories on the Rhône-Alpes Isère and a few Eastern Europe races were fantastic! Even some good performances in Canada.
Nice that a few of the other riders have done well now too, with Zaballa going out in style. Even with him gone, the future looks very promising.
Thanks !
I hope that the riders replacing Zaballa, will do as good as he has done.
The team should in Theory be a little better next year, but i guess the sponcer will
also be a bit more demanding.
Rasmussen, I am here in Ampleforth Abbey, the start and finish of today’s race. Theoretically a flat stage, but there will be some hill’s on the last part of the route, and a short uphill finish. Aldegheri is in good form, so we want him in a break, otherwise we will try to lead Furlan & Pacheco, to a sprint finish.
Ampleforth Abbey, North Yorkshire,UK:
Roster:
Angelo Furlan
Daniele Aldegheri
Francisco José Pacheco
Frederik Wilmann
Jimmi Sørensen
Martin Pedersen
Sebastian Balck
Simon Bigum
A very frantic stage today, with no rest for the riders at all. Right from the start and all the way through the stage, there was attacks and counter attacks, and a very fast peloton got them back again.
Constant attacks all day:
A last strong attack was made by E. Young (Optum) about 20 km before the line. We got worried at started hunting, at first with Aldegheri and Balck, in the end with Furlan & Wilmann.
Furlan & Wilmann hunting Young:
Just before the final climb towards the line, Young was caught. Martin Pedersen with Francisco José Pacheco on the Wheel, started sprinting. Francisco José Pacheco passed by all competition in the last corner.
2/8, Stage 1, La Virgin del Camino - Cembranos : 138.0 km
Profile:
Rasmussen: Sitting here in a cafe in “La Virgin del Camino” , a small suburb to the City of León, legend states that the Virgin appeared in front of a shepherd here in 1506, and asked him to build a shrine. That is another story. Today the race starts here and we hope for Furlan to get in a break and take some sprint points, and we expect a mass sprint.
Roster:
Angelo Furlan
Constantino Zaballa
Daniele Aldegheri
Francisco José Pacheco
Frederik Wilmann
Jimmi Sørensen
Martin Pedersen
Morten Høberg
We did not get anyone in the early break, only 3 riders got away. So instead we set a rider in front, to control that the break did not get too much time.
It came to a mass sprint, but we messed it up, our train was much too far from the front, when the sprint started. We did not even get a top 20. The winner was Carlos Barbero (Euskadi)
3/8, Stage 2, La Bañeza - Santovenia de la Valdoncina: 143.6 km
Profile:
Rasmussen: I am here in La Bañeza for the start of today’s stage, again we hope for Furlan to get in a break and take some sprint points. Later we expect the usual mass sprint on a flat stage like this.
La Bañeza:
After the usual turmoil at the start, we did get Furlan in the morning break.
Forlan in the break:
But after a while the peloton decided to speed up aggressively, and reeled the break in fast. So we tried again this time with Morten Høberg. When the break was sprinting for the points, it turns out that Høberg was not in great shape. He came last in both sprints.
Høberg in the break:
The break was caught, and it was now time to set up the train, but again today it would not work, the riders lost contact in the small hills, and only Martin Pedersen got in front for the sprint. He came in 5th. The race was won by Maksym Averin (Atlas Personal).
4/8, Stage 2, Cuadros – Cueva de Valporquero: 165.4 km
Profile:
Rasmussen: I am here close to “The cave of Valporquero”, with its beautiful diversity of geological formations, the destination of today’s stage. This will be very different from the previous stages, with a climb to “Collada de Aralla” (cat.1) mid stage and a tough uphill finish. We expect Zaballa to be our strongest rider here, even though he is not in the best of fitness, right now.
scenery from The cave of Valporquero:
We did not get anyone on the first break, but we got Daniele Aldegheri in the “poursuivant”, he was not strong enough to sit in front at the mountain sprints, so he got only 4 points.
Aldegheri, in the second group:
More riders came up from the peloton, there was attacks from the front and “poursuivant” groups, all trying to get sprint/mountain points, or many even hoping for a stage win, but in the end all breaks was caught.
It all came down to the positioning on the final climb towards the finish line. Zaballa was only just strong enough to hold on the front, and had little energy to sprint, Francisco José Pacheco was feeling much better, but was in 9th. place when the sprint started, far behind the race leader.
Pacheco starting his sprint.
But I could hardly believe my eyes, on the last 400 meters, he got past 7 riders, ending 2nd.
5/8, Stage 4, Sena de Luna – La Magdalena : 137.8 km
Rasmussen, here in Sena de Luna for the start of the final stage, the weather is fine 26 degrees and a clear blue sky. The plan is to get Frederik Wilmann in a break, to make the other teams do the hard work, later we hope for Pacheco to make a good finish.
Sena de Luna, church of San Martín:
We manage to get Wilmann in the morning break of 7 rider. The got a little less than 5 minutes, when the peloton started to chase hard about mid stage. As we would expect they did not make it.
Wilmann sitting in the break:
At the last climb, 4 riders broke from the pack. We had to get in front, racing hard towards the finish, to catch them.
We got them, and Pacheco was still strong enough to do a fine sprint. He came in 2nd, right behind Nick Van der Lijke (Rabobank Development Team), enough for Pacheco to get on the podium.
Christina: I am here in Valle, Southern Norway, for the start of Tour de Fjords, the most important race for us in August. We hope for a stage win, but we know this might be a strong field. Any notable result here would be great.
Valle:
Rasmussen: We are not set on a specific strategy we will wait and see what
happens.
Roster:
Constantino Zaballa
Daniele Aldegheri
Francisco José Pacheco
Frederik Wilmann
Jimmi Sørensen
Marc Hester
Martin Pedersen
Mitchell Lovelock-Fay
An early solo break by Kamyshev (Astana), laying some distance to the peloton. At the start of the climb (cat 1) Zaballa attacks, to bridge the gap to Kamyshev, he caught him half way up, and took the points.
Zaballa attacks:
Kamyshev is a much stronger sprinter, so Zaballa had to get rid of him on the 2nd smaller climb, but he could not shake him off, so he had to stop leading, and just hang on to his wheel. Kamyshev leading alone, had not chance against the peloton, and it ended in a sprint. Our team was marked by the climbs, and the fast pace, so we could not hold on to the front, our best was Pacheco (10). The winner was Davide Cimolai (Lampre)
Christina: Here in Forsand the destination of the stage. The strategy today is to try get more points for the King of mountain classification, otherwise we expect a mass sprint.
View of the fjord near Forsand:
The morning break contained 3 riders, none of them strong. Zaballa attacked from the bottom of the first clims, hoping to catch the front group, and get the points on the category 2, but he did not make it, the attack gained him only 4 points.
Zaballa: just missing the cat. 2:
It came to a mass sprint, this time we were in better shape, but the front was very fast, and we could just barely hang on. Pacheco came in 6th. The stage was won by Danilo Napolitano (Accent Jobs – Wanty)
Christina: Here in Stavanger, for today’s TTT stage, we do not have much hope for a good result in this strong field, but I sure hope we are not last either.
Stavanger:
Rasmussen: We got through with all riders, losing 1,35 to Orica – GreenEdge, we became the 20 best team out of 26, nothing to be proud about, but ok.
Orica – GreenEdge took the stage and took over the first 8 positions in the GC.
Daryl Impey is now the race leader.
