@sutty68 Phil started in top shape the season, and now after riding Andalucia and PN, he will have a deserve rest before preparing for Giro
Trofeo Laigueglia (1.HC)
A typical Italian one-day race awaits us. Neither heavy mountain neither pancake flat. We come here without any rider who should be able to fight for the win against the likes of Felline, Aru, Porte, Yates’ brothers, Kreuziger, Visconti, Uran or Woods. A pretty strong starlist today, so we’ll hope to get a top10 result.
Our riders today are: Alexander Foliforov, Stefan Denifl, Alexis Gougeard, Guillaume Martin, Ruben Guerreiro, Victor Campenaerts and Nils Politt.
Ruben was able to join the early breakaway after attacking in the first climb of the day. He has freedom for today, and he doesn’t want to waste it
Big crash in the bunch, with only Alexis going down from our team. Some favourites as Uran or Visconti were involved, but luckily nobody was forced to retire
In the descent of the second to last climb, we had another crash. This time with Alexander and Stefan involved.
With all the mess after the crash, three of our riders found themselves in a group with only like 10 riders, one minute ahead of the group. Victor started to pull when We realized of the race situation
We were eventually caught at the top of the final climb, and thanks to BMC’s job the group remained together until the final 2 km, where Ruben tried to anticipate the sprint.
He has done it! His first pro win. Unbelievable race for Ruben. From the break to get caught and then attack to win the race.
I’m sure that the Portuguese rider will never forget this day. Fabio Felline and Carlos Verona were the other riders in the podium
@sutty68 One rider (who asked for anymously) has said that he doesn't care of crashing if team keeps winning
Tour of Oman (2.HC)
Preview
Six days of racing in Oman are coming up, and the team wants to dominate them. We have here Marcel to win the sprint stages, and Tejay to win the GC. As in Dubai, Marcel’s only big rival will be Mark Cavendish, although Dylan Groenewegen might have a chance also. Tejay will face the couple of Quick-Step riders, Dan Martin and Julian Alaphilippe. Also Warren Barguil, Pierre Latour or Robert Gesink should be in the GC fight. The key stage is the forth one, with the climb to the Green Mountain. Also stage 5 could make some diferences in GC, but GC is likely to be determined by Green Mountain.
We only come here with 6 riders, so they will have to work more. We hope that this doesn’t affect us a lot, especially when leading-out Marcel for sprints. Together with Tejay and Marcel, we have brought here Valerio Conti, Ruben Guerreiro, Fabio Sabatini and Heinrich Haussler.
Vuelta a Andalucia (2.HC)
Preview
Final race in home soil in this loaded month of February. A six-day race in south Spain, with chances to everyone to win stages. We have 2-3 sprints stages, a time-trial, a mountain finish and another finish in top a hill. This race sees the debut of Mikel Landa with the team, with Emanuel Buchmann and Marc Soler doing the same, leaving Dimitri Claeys as the only rider which is yet to ride this season. We also bring here Magnus Cort Nielsen, Phil Bauhaus, Vicente Garcia de Mateos and Alexey Lutsenko
Again we have a sponsor goal for the race (Top5), and Mikel should be able to achieve it, despite the lack of race rhythm, as only Ilnur Zakarin, Bauke Mollema and Sergio Henao should be rivals for GC. Other important riders in the race are Gilbert, Bouhanni, Wellens, Tony Martin and Dennis.
A flat stage, which gives Marcel a chance to win the stage, so the team will work for him. Ruben worked all the stage with the other team that wanted the sprint, as a 8-men breakaway was in front.
Our lead-out train worked really well, and Marcel was in perfect place to sprint, but there was a problem: the breakaway hadn’t been caught yet.
This kind of sprint, with the escapees being caught within last km, is not of the like of Marcel. A surprise winner came with Sondre Holst Enger, from Ag2R. I have to say that his team worked all day for him, so a deserved win for the Norwegian. Marcel had to settle for second place.
Only 50 riders finished on the first group, due to a late crash and some splits that were made with lots of km to the end. Luckily for us, all of our riders were on that first group.
1
Sondre Holst Enger
AG2R La Mondiale
3h15'32
2
Marcel Kittel
Cepsa - Estrella Galicia
s.t.
3
Michael Woods
Cannondale - Drapac
s.t.
4
Julian Alaphilippe
Quick-Step Floors
s.t.
5
Mark Cavendish
Team Dimension Data
s.t.
6
Jürgen Roelandts
Lotto - Soudal
s.t.
7
Davide Cimolai
FDJ
s.t.
8
Ziga Horvat
Adria Mobil
s.t.
9
Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg
Team Dimension Data
s.t.
10
Sean Lake
IsoWhey Sports - SwissWellness
s.t.
Stage 2
Another flat stage, although with those two ciimbs in the final 15 km, it might be too much for pure sprinters like Marcel. We will work for him, but if any of our riders has the chance to attack in the final climb. It will depend on whether Marcel feels about being able to stay in the bunch for the possible sprint.
Calm day until the first of the two climbs. In the breakaway, Bettiol, de Vresse and Laengen were three strong riders, and with less than 10 km to go, they still had over 1’30, a gap which might be enough for them
When we started the climb, we soon knew that Marcel wasn’t gonna make it, or if he was, he wouldn’t be able to sprint, so Valerio attacked with Tejay on his wheel. At first, everybody followed them, but almost reaching the summit, Tejay launched his own attack, with no one being able to follow him, catching Laengen, who was on the lead.
Tejay pulled hard in the little descent, forgeting about Laengen. That almost cost him the win today, but Tejay was able to hold the UAE rider by milimetres. What a first win of the season for Tejay!
No gaps were given to the group that fought for third place, with Alaphilippe winning that sprint, so Enger keeps the leader’s jersey, in same time as Tejay
Flat stage which should see a great fight for the first leader’s jersey between Bouhanni and anyone else who dares to sprint with him.
With 30 km to go, the unavoidable happened; a crash, which for our luck only involved Marc.
With that big crash, the rest of our riders found themselves in a 15-men group just behind the breakaway. And we are not waiting for the fallens
Also, the high winds were doing damage in the several groups, and some GC riders like Mollema and Zakarin were left alone to do the chase in the final km, without any team-mates
Nacer Bouhanni takes the win ahead of Phil and Saramotins. With Landa finishing inside the top10, our worries goes to the gap with Mollema/Zakarin
We have the confirmation from the officials. The only GC riders who finished in the first group are Henao and Mikel. Maybe now riders as Felline, Mamykin or Tony Martin will finish inside top10 in GC. People as Dennis, Castroviejo and Gilbert have lost like 1’30, and the big lossers, Mollema and Zakarin, with both being really close to catch the group, specially the Dutch, lose more than 2 minutes
@sutty Race has started well, let's see if we can keep doing it so good until the end
Vuelta a Andalucia
Stage 2
A 9-km TT awaits us in Coria del Rio, and Mikel will need to give his best if he wants to win the GC. It’s also a good stage to know if some of the riders who crashed yesterday are kind of injured. Rohan Dennis is the absolute favourite, as he is the best rider in short TT in the world.
TV wasn’t ready when Manuel Quinziato crossed the line, as he went very early, but he went onto winning the TT by a 3 second margin with his team-mate Rohan Dennis. Tony Martin was the best of the riders still on contention for GC, and takes the race lead.
Mikel didn’t make a great TT, just a normal one, but his goal of finishing ahead of Henao was made, just by 2 seconds. Our best rider today was Alexey, who finished outside top30, 19 seconds down on Quinziato.
This means that only by forth time in the season, we have no rider inside top10 in a race (all previous time were on Australian roads)
@sutty Neither I'm really good playing short TT neither we have a good team for TT (our best riders are Campenaerts and Tejay, both with 75 in TT)
Tour of Oman
Stage 3
Another suppoused to be sprint stage, but with that final kms, everything can happen. As yesterday, we won’t be fully focused on Marcel, but also on Tejay or even Valerio, as he has a decent top speed and that final may suit him well.
45-year-old Davide Rebellin was in the breakaway. Amazing that at his age he is still racing and doing it well. The break was caught before the 10-km mark, and Conti was doing everything he could to keep Kittel in good place, before Sabatini and Haussler lead-out the German rider.
Despite the change in the lead-out due to Heinrich better climbing abilities, the team worked perfectly, and Marcel was left in perfect place for the sprint. He had to do a risky move to pass Enger close to the fences, but it was paid off with his second win of the season.
Together with the stage win, Tejay is the new race leader. He will only have it one day, as tomorrow riders will have to climb Green Mountain
This should be an interesting stage, if riders who are far in GC want to recover some time. Today should a day of defense for Mikel, as it should not be a favourable stage for him. That climb with less than 15 km to go should explode the bunch and GC riders.
Marc decided to go in the breakaway, which freeded us from doing any work in the day, so our rider were fresh when we decided to go full gas before the climb
Alexey is a beast in all terrains, so when the climb started he started to pull like a mad men. The other riders legs will suffer for sure
When Alexey was done, Emanuel attacked with Mikel on his wheel, quickily opening a gap. Mikel decided to stay with Emanuel instead of attacking so they will be two riders pulling in the flat kms left
What an exhibition from our two riders. Mikel pull all the descent, so it was clear that Mikel wanted Emanuel to win the stage, something that the German was able to do. What a win!
Also, with the 19-second gap that our riders create to the little bunch led by Moreno, Emanuel is the new race leader, 11 seconds ahead of Tony Martin and Mikel. Mikel has won 25 seconds in a stage that he didn’t expect at all
Queen stage of the race is here, with that monster climb to Green Mountain. Marcel is the race leader, but obviously all our focus will be on Tejay, as he is together with Martin, Nieve and Barguil, one of the big favourites for the stage. This stage is key, because it’s unlikely that GC will change in the last two stages
With no big names on the breakaway, and all of them far out on GC, we all had an easy ride before Green Mountain. Marcel did a great work to put Ruben, Valerio and Tejay in good place before the climb started.
In the very first slope, Diego Rosa decided to go on the move, with Alaphilippe right on his wheel. Great tactics by Sky and Quick-Step
A few more riders, including Barguil and Kwiatkowski were on that move, and Ruben started to work in the bunch
Tejay was feeling good, although there were lots of riders ahead of him before the final km, but he was confident due to having save more energy for that brutal final km. Meanwhile, Rosa was now on the head of the race
And finally Diego Rosa takes the win today. The Italian rider will also take the leader’s jersey
Alaphilippe and Barguil completed the top3, with Kwiato and Nieve in the top5, for a Sky domination. Tejay was just outside top10, altough he is now forth in GC.
Now Rosa has a 10-second lead on Alaphilippe, and as tomorrow’s stage might finish in a reduced bunch sprint after those 3 climbs, GC is not over yet with those 10 bonus seconds for stage winner
I forgot to export stage results, but i have a screen of GC at this point
After yesterday’s show the team morale is really high. For Emanuel it was only his second pro win ever, and also being in the red jersey is something he wouldn’t have dream before starting the race. The initial plan is to work for Mikel, but if Emanuel feels capable of sticking to other GC contenders wheel, Mikel has already said that he doesn’t care about letting Emanuel win GC. It’s obvious that Mikel wants his domestiques (Emanuel will copy Mikel’s calendar during all the season) to be happy, so later they will give all for him.
The day was as we expected. A big group attacking from the start, and several teams (not only us) working to bring them back. Before the climb to Hazallanas, there was a 3 km section, not part of the climb (in where Contador did a team attack in 2015 edition to win that stage), where a high tempo could be useful for wearing down our rivals
Alexey rhythm in the first 2 km of Hazallanas was so intense that Emanuel was having troubles to stay on Mikel’s wheel. So again it was time to change tactics and go back to Mikel for GC.
Zakarin decided to attack with more than 4 to the end, but Marc kept pulling from the group, as the Russian is not dangerous for GC. But when Emanuel was giving his last energies, Henao attacked. This time it was a dangerous move
Mikel was able to neutralise him inside the final km, but Zakarin was too strong today, and takes the win in Hazallanas
Mikel was able to win the battle for second place to Henao, and with he took the race lead with 29 seconds of advantage to the Colombian. Both Emanuel and Marc finished inside top10, with the German being down to forth in GC.
