14/2-2016 Laigueglia, provincia di Savona, Liguria. Italy
Trofeo Laigueglia, 178.5 km (1.HC)
Laigueglia - Laigueglia
After about a week’s rest, Von Trier and Leth have flown to Italy to cover the Trofeo Laigueglia one day race.
Laigueglia is just a small town with under 2000 Inhabitants, first mentioned in 1191 a fishing village at the time. In the 17. century the village was also trading olive oil, grain and wine under protection of the Republic of Genoa.
Vinokurov is here with the team and Jørgen Leth is making a pre-race interview with him:
JL:
Vino, can you say something about the squad you have got here.
AV:
Yes, Jacob Fuglsang is our race leader, on paper clearly our best shot here, he is also amongst the bookmaker favorites along with Orica’s Esteban Chaves and Sky’s Nordhaug.
But it is Jacobs first race of the season and we also got Dario Cataldo, he is in better form and could also do good in this one. So we will see who has the better legs.
All in all we got a good squad here, we are confident to perform well.
JL:
What about the strategy, will you control or take part in a breakaway.
AV: The plan is to stay together in the peloton from start, but it is not unlikely we will send rider out when the climbing starts.
JL: Looking forward to this, thanks for your time.
The Race
At the first climb a breakaway is forming, 4 riders is in front of the peloton the strongest is Kiel Reijnen from Trek-Segafredo, but it seems to be unlikely a rider from this group can win.
The climb is 12,7 km long, but not hard with just 2.8% avg.
The front group hits the 2nd climb with 5’12 to the peloton, the “Cima Paravenna” is 6.1 km with 6.1% avg.
On the descent a large crash takes 26 riders down, including Taaramae, Velits and other strong riders.
Everybody gets back on the downhill, Sky sets a harder pace and the distance is reduced little by little, at the last of the longer climbs with 70km to the finish, it is down to 3’21. Astana’s Tanel Kangert attempts an attacks.
“Testico” is 6.8 km with a 4,4% avg.
Kangert never get more than a min, he decides to fall back.
The last 25 km include 3 hard but short climbs. The pace is now hard and the favorite group gets down to 44 riders with 19 km left, Reijnen from the break is still alone in front, but it will soon be over.
The last climb, “Colla Micheri” 1.9 km, 8.2% avg, Jakob Fuglsang attacks, not long after Lars Petter Nordhaug joins him, the two race favorites are alone in front with just 5km left.
Nordhaug has the most left, he wins the stage over Fuglsang, they got 0’38 to Alexis Vuillermoz from Ag2r taking the last podium.
Astana gets 3 riders in top 10, Fuglsang is a little disappointed but all in all a great result for the team.
Cataldo is not happy, he had a rather bad day comming in as 30th
After Tour of Qatar Anthony Dod Mantle took directly to Oman to enjoy a few day’s rest at the “Shangri La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa” at the Gulf of Oman.
Rolf Sørensen joined him there the day before Tour of Oman to talk over the race.
Rolf explains: The Tour was first held in 2010, and is a rather important race won by prominent riders like Fabian Cancellara, Gesink and Froome.
17/2-22/2 Tour of Oman (2.HC)
Rolf: 4 stages are officially flat, but stage 2 has a rather bumpy finish, not suited for the pure sprinter. Stage 4 with mountain finish at Al Jabal Al Akhdar (The Green Mountain) should decide the race about 6 km with 10% avg.
Rolf: Astana bring their top sprinter Andrea Guardini looking for his first season win or at least podium. With competitors like Cavendish Sagan and Evan it may not be easy.
In the GC Astana best shot will be Scarponi with Lars Boom as outsider.
Tinkoff brings the strongest squad with Contador, Sagan and Majka, BMC also strong with Gilbert, Porte and Van Garderen. But form is an issue this early in the season so others might well steal the bacon.
Stage 1/6 Al Musannah - Sultan Qaboos University 158.6 km
Rolf records a preview of the stage, while Mantel is already on the route directing the setup of the filming:
“The stage starts near the Millennium Resort Mussanah, at the coast about 100 km west of Oman’s capital Muscat, heading inland for a small climb, before finishing at Sultan Qaboos University in Al-Seeb, a coastal city of about 200.000 people, some 30 km vest of the capital.
The stage is likely to be a mass sprint with Sagan, Cavendish or Evan as the favorites, but on the right day, Guardini could take it.”
The Race
The morning break gets away without any reaction from the peloton, it is Maher Hasnaoui (Sky Dive Dubai), Luka Pibernik (Lampre) and Joseph Cooper (Avanti), on paper they should not stand a chance.
Cooper takes the mountain sprint, securing an overnight jersey.
The breakaway gets about 7’30, Astana’s veteran Michele Scarponi signals to Alexey Lutsenko that he should get to the front, animating the sprinter teams to start the pursuit, it works and together the sprint teams reduce the distance little by little.
At the 20 km mark the breakaway is within reach. But while Lars Boom is looking very good today, it looks like Guardini feels tired he looks very uncomfortable in the saddle. Michele Scarponi is not looking too good either.
The sprint is won by Mark Cavendish with quite some margin, Caleb Ewan 2nd, and Michael Matthews 3rd.
Even though Boom delivers Guardini fine, Boom beats his teammate on the line to 6th place, Guardini was completely drained running out of energy in the end, taking a disappointing 7th.
It is going to be a silent dinner at the hotel tonight.
16/2-2016 Costa D´Oiro Ambiance Village, Portugal.
After a 100 km taxi ride from Faro Airport to Lagos, Leth and Trier have arrived at Costa D´Oiro Ambiance Village Hotel in Lagos. The two is having dinner with Astana team manager Stefano Zanini.
Leth explains to Trier:
The race dates back to the late 60’s, up to the early 90’s a smaller race always won by Portuguese riders, but today stronger riders use it as a preparation for the spring classic.
Contador was winning the race in 2009 and 2010; at the time riding for Astana.
In 2003 the race was won by Danish climber Claus Michael Møller.
17/2-21/2 Volta ao Algarve (2.1)
The tour consists of 5 stages, two of them flat. The GC will most likely be decided on stage two, with several climbs in the Serra de Monchique mountains chain and mountain finish at Alto da Fóia, combined with the 18 km ITT at stage 3. Time gabs is also likely at stage 5 at the uphill finish at alto do malhão.
Serra de Monchique
Stefano Zanini:
The race is hard to predict, but last year’s winner Sky’s Geraint Thomas is here again, he must be seen as the top favorite.
We got Cataldo as our main contender for the GC, we also got Sánchez but I guess Alto da Fóia will be too much for him. Top helper Eros Capecchi is destoned to help Cataldo when the riding gets tough.
Jørgen Leth makes an interview with Astana’s young sprinter Matvey Nikitin:
JL: Today stage might well come to a mass sprint, how do you see your options?
MN: As you know I am not a top sprinter, but if I get the chance I will of course give it a go. I am far from stage favorite, but at the right day with good legs maybe a top 5.
Jørgen round off with a short stage description:
The stage runs from Lagos in the west part of Algarve, an ancient maritime town dating back several 100 years BC. To Albufeira, another old town dating back at least to Roman times. Both towns is today important tourist destinations on the Algarve coast.
Lagos´ slave market, built in 1444, was Europe’s first slave market!
The Race:
The race starts with 9 riders getting about 1’20, the peloton won’t let then go, and a hard chase begins, over the next 40 km the pace is very high before the break is finally brought back.
Many riders are suffering from the pace, and some are now fighting to get back, after they have been dropped. Astana’s squad are intact but especially Dmitriy Gruzdev have been suffering, he is now released from all duty’s, just trying to hang in.
A new breakaway of 4 riders are formed, this time the peloton lets them go.
Carlos A. J. Lozano from Rádio Popular, wins the KoM sprint and gets the overnight mountain jersey.
The break does not make it, it comes to a mass sprint finish.
The stage was won by Jens Debusschere (Lotto Soudal) over Daniel Oss (BMC) and Matti Breschel (Cannondale)
Astana’s train is fine but the young sprinter Nikitin is not strong compared to the other teams. He gets in at 13th.
Rolf gets hold of Vinokourov for a short comment right before race start:
RS: How do you see today’s stage?
AV: We expect it to be too hard for the pure sprinter, if he got it, we will try something with Boom in the last hill, only 10 km to the line he may be able to get clear of the peloton.
RS: Do you expect Sagan to try something similar?
AV: Yes I do.
Al Bustan Palace (Ritz-Carlton)
The Race
Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko attempts to join different morning attacks, but they all fail. Eventually 2 riders get away, it is the relative strong Jan Polanc from Lampre, and the weaker Matej Mugerli from Synergy Baku. They get about 3 minutes.
A large crash takes down Astana’s 25 years old domestique Arman Kamyshev, but he gets back, seemingly without serious damages.
With about 45 km left, on a small hill Lutsenko tries another attack, the breakaway has got 2’50 at this point.
The sprint teams react promptly, bringing Lutsenko back over the next 10-12 km.
Everything comes to a standstill up to the first KoM climb, now with some 22 km to the line Michele Scarponi takes a chance attacking from the foot of the climb.
The timing is perfect, the sprint teams realize they can’t keep up and resign, while the GC team is unprepared and undecided about who is to take over. While he gets more and more time on the peloton, Scarponi is closing in on the original breakaway.
Close to the finish Michele Scarponi passes a completely drained Jan Polanc and wins the stage, Matej Mugerli takes the last podium losing 55 sec. to the duo.
Michele Scarponi now leads the race with 1’20 to Cavendish and 1’31 to the other GC favorites. May not be enough but it is a good beginning.
At Hotel Oriental in Lagoa, Jørgen Leth makes a voice over about the stage:
The stage start in Lagoa, a town of about 6000 people, close to the larger Portimão, the first part of the stage is flat, mostly following the coastline first west then north. But the last third of the stage moves into the mountains, with four climbs before the hard finish at Alto da Fóia.
The bookmaker favorites are Thomas, Kiryienka and Landa all from team sky.
Hotel Oriental
The Race
It is raining most of the day resulting in unusual many crashes, stressing the teams often trying to help their leaders back or losing important domestique’s in critical situations.
Right from the start Sánchez attacks a few times, but the peloton led by sky all day is not allowing him to get away.
Instead it is Lieuwe Westra getting away in a group of 4 riders, but the peloton is fast never letting them get more than a few minutes.
Protected sprinter yesterday, today reduced to watercarrier, Matvey Nikitin is getting bottles for his teammates.
After the first KoM sprint the original break is over. Many new attacks are attempted but Sky push hard and no one gets a useable gap.
Further back Sky’s own top favorite Geraint Thomas is paying the price after a crash, he is losing contact with the favorite group. Thomas will lose a devastating 6’43 today.
On the final climb Sky’s Leopold König with teammate Vasil Kiryienka on wheel takes the lead, Astana’s Dario Cataldo is sitting in a group not far behind.
In the end it is Movistar’s Andrey Amador having the legs, with a strong sprint finish he beats Kiryienka with centimeters, König gets 3rd place.
Dario Cataldo gets in at 4th just losing 18 sec. Eros Capecchi and Luis León Sánchez gets in 15 and 16 both losing 1'15
14/2-2016 Laigueglia, provincia di Savona, Liguria. Italy 
16/2 Shangri La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa
16/2-2016 Costa D´Oiro Ambiance Village, Portugal.
