The first stage start in Aubagne, 17 km east of Marseille. Aubagne was founded sometime before the 11 century, where it was mentioned several times and excavations have proved the existence of a fortification.
The route travels through the pass between Massif de l'Étoile and Le Massif du Garlaban before heading north up to Rousset, from there back south to the costal La Ciotat and along the coast to the finish in Cassis.
The route passes several hard climbs, hardest the cat.2 at Route des Crêtes with summit about 30 km from the finish line, also the final circuit in Cassis with two short but steep bumps.
Top 5 media favorites:
Fabio Felline (Trek) Jan Hirt (Astana) Xandro Meurisse (Wanty)
Luis León Sánchez (Astana) Javier Moreno (Delko Marseille)
Aubagne produces potteries and ceramics. especially ”Santons of Provence”, small colorful figurines in clay
Race
Km: 145
The rain is hammering down on the riders and with wind at 21 km/h very cold this morning. BORA’s Aleksejs Saramotins opens the stage with Mickael Delage (FDJ) at his wheel.
Before the first summit also Lukas Pöstlberger (BORA) and Julien Antomarchi (Roubaix Lille) have joined the leading group, several other riders on the move in-between the group and the bunch.
Lukas Pöstlberger takes the KoM in front of Aleksejs Saramotins
35 years old Latvian veteran Aleksejs Saramotins opens the stage, he has 6 professional victories and 7 National Championships
Km: 28
Another 4 riders join the breakaway: Lars Ytting Bak (Lotto Soudal), Nicolas Baldo (Auber), Jaco Venter (Dimension Data) and Grégory Habeaux (Aqua Protect)
Mickael Delage (FDJ) wins the first cat.2, Julien Antomarchi the 2nd, at this point the distance is 3’25”
Movistar, Trek, Roompot, Astana dedicates riders to the pursuit, Hugo Houle working for Astana.
The long climb to Col de l'Espigoulier completely fractalize the breakaway, Lars Ytting Bak first over the summit. Peloton at 1’57” and we can expect some of the dropped riders to be swallowed soon.
Lars Ytting also takes the cat.3 while Pöstlberger wins at Route des Crêtes
Overnight KoM result
1
Lars Ytting Bak
Lotto Soudal
30
2
Mickael Delage
Groupama - FDJ
28
3
Lukas Pöstlberger
BORA - hansgrohe
28
38 years old Danish Lars Ytting Bak have been a professional since 2002, mainly known as lead-out first for Mark Cavendish at HTC and more recently for André Greipel at Lotto
Km: 2.5
Over the climb at Route des Crêtes Jan Hirt attacks, attempting to make the decisive move, but he was caught by the peloton at the top.
The last two breakaway riders Bak and Pöstlberger were caught before they reached the 10 km banner.
Fortuneo leads the group now reduced to just 22 riders, quite a confused finish with the leading group constantly overtaking riders distanced by a lap.
Fortuneo’s Pierre-Luc Perichon leading the favourite group, he won Paris-Camembert in 2012 his best result so far
Km : 0
Romain Hardy (Fortuneo) attacks from about 3 km, with the top favourites watching each other he was able to glide away more or less unnoticed, a brilliant move that secures him the stage win in Cassis.
Xandro Meurisse (Wanty) 2nd in front of Fabio Felline (Trek) 3rd
The first 10 riders get the same time including Astana’s Sánchez, Valgren and Hirt.
This was 29 years old French Romain Hardy’s first win since he won Tour du Doubs in September last season – the rider to his left was a lap behind
Astana Pro Team
With Luis León Sánchez 4th and Michael Valgren 5th and also with Jan Hirt in top 10, we are well positioned to make a good result, ok start.
The third stage with start in Buga, where we also finished yesterday from there heading for a summit finish at El Tambo at the edge of the Andes, between Pereira and Santa Rosa de Caba.
Pereira is the largest city located in what is known as Colombia coffee axis, with a metropolitan population of about 700.000 protected as UNESCO World Heritage Site known as the "Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia".
We got two relative hard climbs today, a cat. 1 “Alto Cerritos” near Cartago, and the finish will also count as a cat.1 KoM sprint. We should expect a semi mountain stage likely to favour a rider with a strong climber/puncher combo. Not being too hard a stage like this may also favour the breakaway with the top teams likely to save energy for harder days yet to come.
Top 5 media favorites:
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) Ben O'Connor (Dimension Data) Gianluca Brambilla (Trek) Egan Bernal (Sky) Sam Oomen (Sunweb)
The rural landscape that surrounds today finish is very beautiful
Race
Km: 163
The stage opens with an attack from KoM leader Anthony Delaplace (Fortuneo) and Bryan Gomez (Holowesko). Behind them others riders fight to get away and we soon get a 2nd group of four riders and a 3rd group of 9 riders laying some distance to the peloton.
Then suddenly we get a bad crash in the first part of the bunce, Taylor Eisenhart (Holowesko) hit the tarmac very hard, he got head injuries and is bleeding badly, surly can’t continue. Another 17 riders got caught and are also down, worst hit seems to be Daniel Lehner (Felbermayr) and Fabian Lienhard (Holowesko).
Astana has Magnus Cort, Riccardo Minali and Sergey Chernetckii down, but they all seems to be fine.
23 years old American Taylor Eisenhart abandons with a skull fracture
Km: 80
Over the next 30 km, we end up with just 2 riders catching up with the front group Brice Feillu and teammate Maxime Bouet, we now has 3 riders from Fortuneo amongst the leading four. All the others were reeled in.
Dimension Data, Astana, BMC working in the peloton.
Maxime Bouet wins the intermediate sprint, and then it is time for the cat.1 Alto Cerritos, very soon Bryan Gomez shows signs of fatigue, leaving the three Fortuneo riders alone at the front.
Seems to be over for 23 years old Colombian Bryan Steven Gómez Peñaloza, still looking for his first professional win
Km 16
Maxime Bouet won the cat.1 in front of Brice Feillu obviously not fighting each other, Rémi Cavagna attacks from the peloton and just makes it past a dropped Anthony Delaplace to take 10 points.
Never the less Delaplace will keep the KoM lead, if the favourite fight it out on the summit finish and that is the most likely with the distance constantly around 2 minutes.
After the KoM Astana have upped the pace so much that the peloton sometimes break, soon to be reunited again, but it is stressful and you just have to stay close.
The distance to the break melts fast with about 20 km left the breakaway was over, now with 16 km left it is Astana leading in a more moderate pace, Sunweb and Sky sitting right behind them.
After some days as team leader, Magnus Cort Nielsen is now pulling hard as domestic for Miguel Angel Lopez
Km: 0
Astana’s leads right up to the final climb, but on the narrow road that turned out not to be a great idea with Miguel Angel Lopez stock behind his teammates other riders attack and he was distanced especially by De Marchi, Roche and Pauwels who got a small gap to the other favorites.
Sergey Chernetckii having fine legs help Lopez on the first 2/3 of the climb, getting back in the favorite group, but it too late for a top result.
It comes to Alessandro De Marchi leading teammate Nicholas Roche (BMC) to a clear victory in front of Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data), with De Marchi claiming the last podium a great stage for BMC.
This was 34 years old Irish Nicholas Roche first win since the Irish Championships back in 2016, his last Pro Tour win was stage 18 in 2015 Vuelta a España
Astana Pro Team
Was a very disappointing result for us, not the most important stage, but knowing we might easily have lost time here is just not good enough
The 2nd stage start in Miramas, some 50 km northwest of Marseille. Traveling northwest into the hills called the Massif des Costes, south of The Durance River. After a series of hilly climbs heading back to Istres, just 10 km south of where we started, for some short laps in the town leading up to the finish.
The first half of the route is quite hard, but with the second half almost flat it is likey to end with a mass sprint.
Beside a small Celtic fortification dated to around 6 century BC, Istres was first mentioned in the 10th century, as "Ystro". At the time the city has a fortification and the old town of Istres was built around it.
Top 5 media favorites:
Daniel McLay (Education First) Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept) Daniele Bennati (Movistar) Rudy Barbier (AG2R) Matteo Pelucchi (BORA)
The old town of Istres, today centered around Notre-Dame-de-Beauvoir Church (13 century)
Race
Km: 160
It is quite windy today 25-35 km/hour, could definitely effect the riders on this rather long stage. Over the first flat 35 km, we get an early attempt by Maarten Wynants (Lotto-Jumbo) and Julien Antomarchi (Roubaix), behind them also a few others riders was on the move, but this early attack was shot down prior to the first climb.
Astana’s Nikita Stalnov accelerate with just 2km to the top, looking for some cheap KoM points. Winning the KoM in front of Maxime Vantomme (Aqua Protect) and Floris Gerts (Roompot),
Stalnov was promoted from Astana City to Astana Pro Team for the 2017 season, after a fine 3rd in Tour of Turkey, his first season on the Pro Tour was somewhat disappointing
Km: 71
Later first Wynants (Lotto – Jumbo) and later Antomarchi (Roubaix) joins the breakaway, the group builds a lead of more than 9 minutes mid stage.
Over the many climbs four riders share most of the KoM points. Vantomme with 36, Gerts 26, Stalnov 24 and Wynants with 18. Antomarchi is constantly in difficulty and often have to close gaps inbetween the climbs.
Overnight KoM result
1
Maxime Vantomme
WB Aqua Protect Veranclassic
36
2
Lars Ytting Bak
Lotto Soudal
30
3
Lukas Pöstlberger
BORA - hansgrohe
28
31 years old Belgian Maxime Vantomme was the strongest on the mountain sprints today
Km: 6
We get two crashes over the final 27 km, first 27 riders down in the peloton no very important names involved, the crash causes the peloton to split in the high winds, with both KoM jersey holder Lars Bak and Youth Jersey holder Gregor Mühlberger caught in the 2nd group and soon after also Jan Hirt down in a smaller crash of three riders.
All in all 84 riders loses about 1’30” to what we could call the favourite group.
Floris Gerts attacks from the breakaway, they got 2’39 to the next group.
Floris Gerts best and latest win was Volta Limburg Classic 2016, his third professional victory
Km : 0
Floris Gerts wins in Istres in front of Maarten Wynants 2nd and Nikita Stalnov 3rd
Daniele Bennati (Movistar) wins the peloton sprint for 6th
Although it seemed for a while as if many riders would lose time, most of the peloton was granted the same time and the stage had no impact on the CG.
25 years old Dutch Floris Gerts, was with World Tour team BMC since 01/08-2015, but this season he rides on UCI Pro Continental level
Astana Pro Team
On a stage where we had little to no options, it was fantastic to see Nikita single handed produce a result and giving his teammate a relative easy ride. Also Hugo Houle with a fine 3rd in the peloton sprint
Today we got the Queen stage, starting in Pereira close to where we finished yesterday. From there heading about 100 km south in the Cauca valley for La Paila, this part of the route is relative easy.
In La Paila we are turning left now heading for the Andes Mountains, this 2nd half much harder with three brutal cat.1 climbs before the final summit finish in Salento counting as a Hors catégorie climb. Officially a 12.3 km climb at 8.5%, but actually the last 20 km is mostly hard climbing.
Salento was founded in 1842 where political prisoners arrived to the area sentenced to reconstruct the main route from Popayán to Bogotá. After the release prisoners was given land here and founded what was then called “Barcinales”, In 1865 the name was changed to Villa de Nueva Salento.
Top 5 media favorites:
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) Ben O'Connor (Dimension Data)
Sam Oomen (Sunweb) Egan Bernal (Sky) David Gaudu (FDJ)
Today Salento is primarily a tourist destination, a town of about 3600 people. View of the Coffee Tree Boutique Hostal
Race
Km: 142
Jhonatan Narvaez (Quick-Step) opens the stage with Mark Christian (Aqua Blue) at wheel. Over the first uncategorized climb the pace is very hot, with constant attacks from the peloton and generally a very high pace.
We get a crash with 18 riders involved but no one very important, strongest on paper Nicola Conci (Trek), due to the crash Florian Kierner (Felbermayr) abandons with a broken wrist.
Getting closer to the intermediate sprint and with 50 km gone by, things settle down, it looks like we will have a 12 rider breakaway with distance stabilized around 3 minutes.
After two years at CT level, just 20 years old Ecuadorian Jhonatan Narvaez signed with Quick-Step after winning Circuit des Ardennes amongst other good results in 2017
Km: 50
The breakaway includes KoM holder Anthony Delaplace, best placed in GC is Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue) and Henrique Casimiro (Efapel) both at 2’25.
Over the three cat.1 climbs Aldemar Reyes (Manzana) takes 38 KoM points, Jhonatan Narvaez 34 points and Stefan Denifl 30 points, but with Anthony Delaplace also getting 12 points he still clearly lead the KoM prior to the HC finish.
Stefan Denifl first and alone over the final Cat.1 with 19” to Aldemar Reyes and Jhonatan Narvaez, last rider in front of the peloton is Maxime Bouet but he just has 10” left.
The peloton at this point reduced to 41 riders at 1’07”
Stefan Denifl born in Tyrol Austria, won the Int. Österreich Rundfahrt last season, also taking a stage win in Vuelta a España
Km 2
This early season, the long stage, the high pace and the hard gradients at high altitudes is quite a handful for the riders, they are now spread out over the mountains, some riders not over the Cat.1 when the favourites starts the final climb.
Just as we reached the 12 km climb to Salento, Denifl was caught as the last from the breakaway, with that the pace settles a bit.
An early attacks from Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) failed and so did an acceleration from Serge Pauwels (Dimension Data) and finally a move by Navarro and Rudy Molard (FDJ) was reeled in.
With 2 km to the top we get an acceleration from Ben O'Connor (Dimension Data), Sam Oomen (Sunweb) and David Gaudu (FDJ)
Egan Bernal (Sky) and further back Nicholas Roche (BMC), Sergey Chernetckii and Miguel Angel Lopez attempt to close the gap.
A good move by O'Connor, Oomen and Gaudu creates a gap
900m
Under the red kite Nicholas Roche set in an impressive acceleration passing David Gaudu and Sam Oomen now he is very close to Ben O'Connor, less than one km left but at some horrific slopes.
Gaudu, Bernal and Lopez seems to be slowing down, now forming a 2nd group but already lost some time to the leaders, clearly not much fuel left.
Sergey Chernetckii and Gianluca Brambilla (Trek) at this point the 3rd group.
Irish Nicholas Roche was born in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in France 1984, spending his childhood living in both Ireland and France
Km:0
Ben O'Connor was the only one with energy left to open a final sprint, laying important seconds to his clear victory today, by that not only taking the Queen stage in Salento but also the overall race lead.
Nicholas Roche 2nd at 48” and Sam Oomen 3rd at 1’05”
This was 22 years old Australia Ben O'Connor’s first victory since he won a stage at Int. Österreich Rundfahrt in July 2017 his first year at world tour level
Astana Pro Team
Not a great but an acceptable result. Miguel Angel Lopez not at podium position but he moved forward to 4th with also Sergey Chernetckii having a fine race currently at 5th in CG, but sadly a huge gap to a podium as it is now.
The 2nd stage start in La Ciotat at the Mediterranean coast, 35 km southeast of Marseille, from there moving into the lower alps passing three climbs, hardest Col de l'Espigoulier at Massif de la Sainte-Baume.
After the climbs the stage flattens out and we are turning west for two points sprint before we are heading back southeast for a finish in Marseille. Even though the stage flattens out at the last part it is undulated and we may expect a puncher rather than a pure sprinter finish.
La Ciotat existed as a fishing and trade port from the 5th century BC.
In the Middle Ages La Ciotat started as a hamlet, but the port and marked town grew to a large independent and fortified city from the 1400’s onward.
Top 5 media favorites:
Oliver Naesen (AG2R) Fabio Felline (Trek) Bryan Coquard (Vital Concept)
Daniele Bennati (Movistar) Michael Valgren (Astana)
Eglise Notre Dame de l'Assomption (1626), overlooking the port.
Jacques Guillet (acrylic on canvas) "La Ciotat Notre Dame du port"
Race
Km: 162
Thomas Joly (Roubaix Lille) opens the stage, Guillaume Levarlet (Auber) quick to respond. On the early Cat.2 climb, Igor Anton (Dimension Data) and Nathan Brown (Education First) joins the lead.
Thomas Joly hangs a bit over the top and behind him also Thomas Scully (Education First) have laid some distance to the peloton. Brown takes the KoM in front of Levarlet.
French 22 years old Thomas Joly started as trainee on Roubaix Lille Métropole last August
Km: 138
We get a very serious crash on the downhill involving many top riders, Fabio Felline, Oliver Naesen, Pieter Weening, Taylor Phinney and Xandro Meurisse. A total of 12 riders down, but they get up and back to the peloton quite soon.
Over the top of the Col de l'Espigoulier only three riders are left in front of the peloton, Brown takes the KoM in front of Anton, while Levarlet have lost 1’37” on the climb.
Peloton at 4’49”
American Nathan Brown best result was winning Tour de Beauce back in 2013, Brown have raced 4 grand tours but without any significant results
Km: 22
Levarlet get back to the leading group, and Nathan Brown takes the final KoM, by that winning the overall competition. At that point peloton at 4’02.
From here a hard chase begins, with peloton pace high enough to split the peloton basically over every small hill and resulting in some small crashes.
With 22 km to the line the breakaway was over. At this point the peloton was reduced to 67 riders.
The break over just as the peleton is about to pass the hill climb in Ensuès-la-Redonne before we reach Marseille
300 meters
51 riders pass under the 10 km banner in the leading group.
With 7 km to the line Luis León Sánchez attempts a winning move, but does not get away.
Oliver Naesen (AG2R) opens an early sprint from pole position, getting some 10-15 meters under the red kite.
Michael Valgren, Romain Hardy and Fabio Felline starting the sprint later and now side by side are closing in, with Arthur Vichot just a cycle length behind.
Belgian Oliver Naesen have some fine results, but his only win at world tour level is Bretagne Classic 2016 his 2nd professional win
Km:0
Fabio Felline clearly with the best finish wins the final stage of Tour La Provence in front of Oliver Naesen and Arthur Vichot.
Fabio Felline also wins the overall GC in front of Romain Hardy and Xandro Meurisse
After this Italian Fabio Felline has 15 professional wins, his first a stage in Circuit De Lorraine 2010, his latest prior to today the prologue in Tour de Romandie last season
Astana Pro Team
Michael Valgren came 5th at the stage and by that also 5th in GC, fulfilling our exactions.
With Luis León Sánchez 6th and Jan Hirt 9th we can consider the race a success.
Vuelta Ciclista a la Región de Murcia (1.1) 10/2 2018
Mazarron - Alto Fortaleze del Sol, Lorca 190.6 km
The race starts in Mazarrón a port town located about 60 km south of Murcia. Form there we are heading inland passing several minor climbs, before reaching the ultimate challance ”Collado Bermejo” with summit about 45 km form the finish. After that is is downhill and relative flat, until we reach the last 2.5km climbs up to the finish line with slope at 3.5-4.5%.
The race is rather long and usually with enough obstacles to come to a dramatically reduced peloton reaching the final kilometres, should be decided between the lighter riders with enough resistance and stamina to have anything left for the uphill finish. Unless of course the morning breakaway can fool the peloton
Lorca was conquered by the Alfonso X of Castilla 1244, but Lorca continued to be the centre of battels between the Moors and the Visigoths until The Kingdom of Murcia took Granada in 1492 and the Muslim threat disappeared.
Top 5 media favorites:
Michael Woods (Education First) Patrick Konrad (BORA) Emanuel Buchmann (BORA) Richard Carapaz (Movistar) Joe Dombrowski (Education First)
Castle of Lorca is a fortress of Moorish origin constructed between 8th and 12th centuries
Race
Km: 128
Just as we hit the first hard hill, the race begins to take form. In front we got three riders, who already attacked a few minutes ago. Sergio Samitier (Euskadi-Murias), Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal) and Héctor Carretero (Movistar)
Behind them Yevgeniy Gidich at 50”, at the same time another 6 riders attacking from the peloton currently at 1’37”
At first Education First and to some extent also BORA attempts to keep up a fast chase, but after the climb things settle down in the peloton, and the 10 breakaway riders unite into a group.
The last six riders are: Vegard Stake Laengen (UAE), Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias), Ibai Azurmendi (Team Euskadi), Adrián González (Burgos), Marco Frapporti (Androni) and Isaac Cantón (Polartec Kometa)
Van der Sande communicates with the team car to get instructions, his only win after 6 years as a “pro” was a stage in Tour de l'Ain 2016
Km: 67
We get an easy ride with a limited pace, where everyone seem to agree on a gap of around 3’30, then we get a huge crash.
Not only was a 19 riders taken down, but it provided for a split with another 66 riders losing a minute, the entire Astana team either down or behind the favourites.
The large group just makes it back before the crucial climb to ”Collado Bermejo”, but it was costly for many teams, including Astana where Grivko and Gruzdev was part of the chase.
Astana had two riders in the crash Fominykh and Bizhigitov, none of the crashed rider would get back
Km 22 km
With the distance to the breakaway reduced to about a minute on the first 2/3 of the climb, we saw attacks from first Rodolfo Torres (Androni) Enrico Battaglin (Lotto – Jumbo) and Tiago Machado (Katusha) later also Damiano Cunego (NIPPO) all of which bridged to the breakaway.
But the pace went up in the peloton and just before we reached the bottom of the downhill the breakaway was swallowed, 56 riders now form the leading group.
A new attack soon after, this time José Herrada (Cofidis), Sander Armée (Lotto Soudal) and Enrico Battaglin (Lotto – Jumbo)
Enrico Battaglin opens from the distance, Battaglin has seven grand tours under his belt with 2 stage wins
800 meter
The attacks sticks right up to the last 2.5 – 2.0 Km, where the three riders are reeled in one by one.
Under the red kite we have three teams fighting for the stage.
In front Patrick Konrad leading for Emanuel Buchmann (BORA), with Joe Dombrowski (Education First) at wheel
Not far back Gidich with Omar Fraile, at their left Michael Woods (Education First) just passing his leadout Hugh Carthy.
Patrick Konrad leads under the red kite, slope 4,7%
Km:0
Emanuel Buchmann wins Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia 2018 in a relative close reduced sprint.
Joe Dombrowski 2nd and with Patrick Konrad 3rd a great race for BORA.
25 years old Emanuel Buchmann is likely to be Germany best shot at a new GC hope, 15th in last year’s Tour de France
Astana Pro Team
With no expectations and against on paper much better riders Omar Fraile’s 4th here is an unbelievable great result. Just shows how much great form can lift a rider with the right legs on the day.
The route is not as hard as yesterday, but that said we got another montain stage with summit finish, to end this year’s Colombia Oro y Paz.
We start in Armenia not far from Salento where we finished yesterday, from there we are again heading for first La Paila and later Pereira where we have also passed before, finaly another about 50 km north into the Andes for a summit finish in Manizales.
Manizales is a city of about 370.000 inhabitant located at 2200 meters above sea level. The area of Manizales is known to have been belonging to the pre-Columbian tribe Quimbayas known for their brilliant gold works. The modern city was founded in 1849.
Top 5 media favourites:
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) Ben O'Connor (Dimension Data)
Egan Bernal (Sky) Sam Oomen (Sunweb) Nicholas Roche (BMC)
Quimbayas Gold
Race
Km: 145
Niklas Larsen (Virtu Cycling) opens the stage, building a lead of 50” by himself.
When the peloton reach the early KoM climb we get another attack behind him. Aldemar Reyes (Manzana) Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis) Maxime Bouet (Fortuneo) Riccardo Zoidl (Felbermayr) Sergio Paulinho (Efapel) Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue) Aaron Verwilst (Vlaanderen)
Niklas Larsen wins the early KoM in front of Stefan Denifl
Only Mate, Bouet, Zoidl, Paulinho and Verwilst survive the hard but successful pursuit, while Reyes and Denifl fall back to the peloton. After he was caught also Larsen burns out and falls back.
Maxime Bouet wins the Cat.2 in front of Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis)
French veteran Maxime Bouet’s best result was winning the Volta ao Alentejo em Bicicleta in 2009, where he also won the first stage
Km: 8.5
The breakaway builds a lead of almost 10 minutes, and Maxime Bouet also attacks and win the last climb before the summit finish moving to 2nd in the KoM.
Virtual KoM before the summit finish.
1
Anthony Delaplace
Team Fortuneo - Samsic
50
2
Maxime Bouet
Team Fortuneo - Samsic
40
3
Aldemar Reyes
Manzana Postobon Team
38
Sergio Paulinho makes an attack from the breakaway, at the early part of the final climb, 9 km to the top.
37 years old Portuguese veteran Sergio Paulinho won two GT stages, Vuelta a España 2006 and Tour de France 2010
Km 600
Paulinho was reeled in, but the accelerations was too much for Aaron Verwilst he seems done.
The peloton have been reduced to 40 riders by “natural” selection from the back, before we get the first attempt, with 1.7 km to the top Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) accelerates.
Up front his teammate Luis Angel Mate also attacks and was first under the red kite, Sergio Paulinho 2nd, Maxime Bouet and Riccardo Zoidl together in the third group.
With the peloton at over four minutes the winner must be one of those four riders
Spanish Luis Angel Mate was born in Madrid 1984, he came to Cofidis in 2011
KM:0
Before we get to the stage decision let’s look at what happens between the favourites:
Exactly as he passes under the red kite Jesus Herrada was reeled in by Merhawi Kudus leading the favourites in front of Egan Bernal.
A few meters further back we got Nicholas Roche, Ben O'Connor, Sam Oomen, Daniel Navarro, Jesper Hansen with Miguel Lopez, David Gaudu, De Marchi, Jaime Roson all rather close. Also the dropped Aaron Verwilst have managed to stay with this group.
Dimension Data’s Merhawi Kudus leads the yellow jersey group under the red kite
KM:0
At the same time Luis Angel Mate crosses the finish line winning the final stage in Manizales in front of Sergio Paulinho and Maxime Bouet, all from the breakaway.
Maxime Bouet taking KoM points at the finish line wins the overall KoM.
In the favourite group race leader Ben O'Connor attacks closing the gap to Merhawi Kudus.
Further back Miguel Angel Lopez also accelerated with Alessandro De Marchi at wheel, now in forth position behind the leader, Sam Oomen and Egan Bernal who has just passed Kudus, 400 meters left for O'Connor.
Sam Oomen with the fastest last 200 meters wins the Yellow group sprint in front of Egan Bernal and Ben O'Connor all in the same time. With this Ben O'Connor overall winner of the tour.
Nicholas Roche, Merhawi Kudus and Miguel Angel Lopez loses 34” to the race leader.
This was Luis Ángel Maté Mardones third win after winning a stage in Tour de San Luis 2010 and a stage in Route du Sud 2011
Astana Pro Team
We did not lose our 4th in GC, but all in all a rather disappointing tour for us. We need to do better than this if we expect to be a top world tour team.
The stage begins in the city Almería, in the province of the same name, part of Andalusia in southern Spain. From there south passing Roquetas de Mar for the first time before we are heading for the town Berja
The route takes several turns in the Berja area passing climbs in the Sierra de Gádor, before heading for El Ejido and then finishing in Roquetas de Mar.
The town Berja located in the Sierra de Gádor mountains dates back to pre-roman times, unclear if it was founded by Phoenicians or Iberians. The town has a rich historical inheritance: Remains of Roman amphitheatre, aqueduct, and mosaics. Muslim citadel of the ninth century, Spanish/Muslim baths from the 12/13th century and many pre industrial 18th century buildings.
Top 5 media favorites:
Bernhard Eisel (Dimension Data) Juan Jose Lobato (NIPPO)
Fabio Felline (Trek) Daniele Bennati (Movistar)
Scott Thwaites (Dimension Data)
Plaza Porticada de Berja
Race
Km: 98
Sergio Pardilla (Caja Rural) opens the stage with Diego Pablo Sevilla (Polartec) at wheel.
It comes to a breakaway of 7 riders the others are Benoit Vaugrenard (FDJ), Silvio Herklotz (Burgos), Dries De Bondt (Véranda's Willems), Bruno Armirail (FDJ) and Ruslan Tleubayev, they built a lead of 3’30, but heading into the mountains it is down to under 3 minutes
34 years old Spanish Sergio Pardilla most important win was Vuelta A La Comunidad De Madrid in 2010, he has a total of 6 professional wins
Km: 45
On the final long climb in Sierra de Gádor, the pace gets higher and riders from the breakaway can’t keep up, first Armirail then De Bondt then Sevilla and finally Pardilla lose touch.
Over just 9 uphill km the peloton reduced the gap from 3’25” to 1’09”, Michael Gogl (Trek) Maxime Monfort (Lotto Soudal) and Mads Würtz (Katusha) doing the hard work in the bunch, now 64 riders.
Astana’s Tleubayev leads the breakaway over the top, but it seems like an impossible mission.
Kazakh Ruslan Tleubayev won the Asian Cycling Championships in 2014, amongst his other results is a stage in Tour of Hainan 2016
Km: 9
Silvio Herklotz is the last man standing from the breakaway, in the end reeled in by Mitchell Docker (Education First), after this we see some smaller accelerations from Marcel Sieberg (Lotto Soudal) and Mas Bonet (Caja Rural) that comes to nothing.
Finally we see a last attempt from Toms Skujins (Trek), but with Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal) Imanol Erviti (Movistar) and Marco Canola (NIPPO) soon at his wheel Skujins decide not to waste too much on this attempt and it never comes to much.
We are in for a mass sprint finish
Local Spanish Luis Guillermo Mas Bonet was one of the riders to attempt something from the distance today, he was born 1989 in Ses Salines at the southern tip of Spain
500 meter
The sprint starts from some 900 meters, with 1/2 a km left we got Sean De Bie (Véranda's Willems) in front of Juan Jose Lobato (NIPPO) leading at the left side.
Just right of Lobato, Laurens De Vreese, and to his right side 2nd best placed Baptiste Planckaert, attempting to pass on Planckaert right side we see Nacer Bouhanni with Daniele Bennati at wheel.
26 years old Belgian Sean De Bie best result was winning HC category race GP Impanis-Van Petegem in 2015
Km:0
It comes to a photo finish victory by Daniele Bennati very fast on the last few 100 meters. Nacer Bouhanni 2nd in front of Baptiste Planckaert.
Sean De Bie’s 4th also need a mention as he was also very close just as Fabio Felline 5th.
37 years old Daniele Bennati is one of those legends still racing, somewhat overlooked compared to other veterans, considering his 51 professional win, 11 GT stage wins and 25 grand tour participations
Astana Pro Team
Very respectable effort form De Vreese making it to a top 10 result here
The stage starts and finish in Laigueglia, a relative small Italian town on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea about 70 km from the French border. The stage is raced partly climbing in the Ligurian Alps northwest of Laigueglia, and partly on the costal road of the Gulf of Genoa, between Laigueglia and the larger city Albenga to the north.
Starting as a semi mountain race and ending as a hilly classic with several hard short climbs from Laigueglia up to Colla Micheri. The race is favouring the punchy climber that would normally no well in both Ardennes classics and pure mountain races.
Evidence of a Laiguegliese territory dates back to the twelfth century, at this point a small fishermen village, form the 15th century the village developed into a flourishing port town. After attacks from Turkish pirates in 16th century costal defence towers were constructed to protect the wealthy town.
Top 5 media favorites:
Nathan Haas (Katusha) Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo) Daryl Impey (Michelton) Adam Yates (Michelton) Michael Valgren (Astana)
Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl restored parts of medieval village Colla Micheri, his remains lie in the garden of his family's home in the village.
Race
Km: 152
Nicolay Cherkasov (Gazprom) opens the race with a solo attack, building a two minute lead quite fast.
After about 20 km we get the next move from the peloton, this time four riders Matteo Bono (UAE) Niklas Eg (Trek) Marco Benfatto (Androni) and Jaco Venter (Dimension Data)
Alexis Vuillermoz (AG2R) gets a puncture. He has to close a 2’30 gap, without help from his team.
The 5 riders unite before the first of the three mountain climbs and pass the top with a 3’15” advantage over the peloton.
21 years old Nikolay Cherkasov started with Gazprom-RusVelo as a trainee last august, after some fine results as an amateur
Km: 76
The distance between the break and the peloton stabilize around 3’30 over the 2nd climb.
The only rider in the breakaway fit for this kind of terrain is Niklas Eg on paper a lot stronger than the others.
Approaching the third climb Julien Simon (Cofidis) and Manuel Belletti (Androni) attacks, they get about a minute, but they are reeled in by a very hard pressure from Robert Power (Michelton) leading the peloton
22 years old Robert Power have been with Michelton since 2016, he came 13th in Grand Prix la Marseillaise 28/1 this season, his best result to date was 3rd in Japan Cup 2016
Km: 23
The original breakaway passes the last of the long climbs in the Ligurian Alps with a 2’03” gap to the bunch, but with more than 70 km left their options seems to small and the gap is shrinking further on the downhill and the flat.
A sudden acceleration at the first ascent up to Colla Micheri breaks up the peloton with only 36 riders making it to the first group, a disaster for Astana as they have no riders in the leading group.
The hard pursuit that follows also means the end for the breakaway.
Astana is serious difficulties
Km: 1
Astana soon have to use top favourite Michael Valgren as workhorse for teammate Luis León Sánchez, as it seems to be the only option to get back in the race.
Meanwhile up front the leading group is getting smaller and smaller, as more and more riders can’t keep to with the extreme pace.
Over the top of the final climb it is split into two groups:
Adam Yates (Michelton) Giovanni Visconti (Bahrain) Laurent Pichon (Fortuneo) Matej Mohoric (Bahrain) Rigoberto Uran (Education First) Simone Ponzi (NIPPO) the leading six riders
About 30 seconds behind Enrico Barbin (Bardiani) Enrico Battaglin (Lotto Jumbo) Fabio Aru (UAE) Lars Boom (Lotto Jumbo) Marco Marcato (UAE) and Pieter Serry (Quick-Step) are desperately fighting to get back.
Louis Meintjes, Samuel Dumoulin, Sergey Firsanov, Roman Kreuziger about another 30” back and behind them Luis León Sánchez unlikely to get a good result after a long pursuit.
This situation does not change and we get the leaders first under the red kite with a nice gap to the next group, clearly the win will be amongst those 6 riders
Fortuneo’s Laurent Pichon leads the first group under the red kite, his season best was 13th Étoile de Bessèges, he will improve on that today
Km:0
Laurent Pichon starts the sprint and keep leading right up the last 100 meters, but Simone Ponzi was the fastest today, winning the 2018 Trofeo Laigueglia
Adam Yates 2nd in front of Matej Mohoric 3rd
This was Italian Simone Ponzi’s first win since he won Gran Premio Nobili Rubinetterie in 2014, his 8th professional win
Astana Pro Team
The first true disaster of the season, we did not expect this to develop that early but no excuses that was very bad positioning
Ah, shame that Astana was caught out of position and thus had no way of playing a role in the outcome of the race! But I hope you're not getting discouraged from not dominating the races. I myself am much more a fan of realistic results and also struggling sometimes, so in that sense your story perfectly delivers
Still wishing you luck for all the upcoming races, after all, the season barely started yet!
Also, I thoroughly enjoy the little bits of information and pictures at the start of the races as well as your screenshots. They look super nice!
