Wow, never noticed this returned too! Awesome, one of the best stories on the site! The field for the Giro looks really weak, I think Dan can keep the pink till the end.
I am back at home tomorrow. So might post a mountain stat GC ranking. It's indeed not the strongest but neither very weak. Stats in general a bit lower for stage racers than in actual dbs.
Soler though best climber in the story. Then strong HTC, Colnago, Lampre duo plus Anton, who also is one of the best.
As promised a quick look on the peloton`s best climbers at the moment. In bold those, who are in the Giro. In Italic those, who are in California. I was a bit wrong though. Soler isn`t the best. Contador is still stronger.
A.Contador
83
J.M.Soler
82
A.Schleck
82
J.Van den Broeck
81
V.Nibali
81
R.Kreuziger
80
F.Schleck
80
R.Riccò
80
I.Antón
80
B.Wiggins
80
D.Martin
80
R.Gesink
80
M.Scarponi
79
J.Rujano
79
R.Porte
79
So there are 7 of the best 15 climbers in the Giro. Though to be honest only 2 of the 5 best.
Amgen Tour of California - Stage 5
Tough stage to rate. Lots of hills but most not looking too tough. Though the first and last mountain sprint are very steep and with only 40km left until the finish, the last might be the crucial one.
We don`t really have a rider for such finish, but on a good day even Matt Goss might be able to make it over the hills. Must be a very good day though to be honest.
8 breakaway riders with classic riders Nuyens and Breschel clearly the most popular.
Up to the mentioned Santa Rosa Creek Road. 6km with an average of more than 6%. Lampre, Leopard and RadioShack really doing a high pace here and quickly we must realize that it won`t be a stage for Goss.
Fuglsang and Hesjedal save in the first rows while Kessiakoff really having an awful day here. He is still in the peloton but struggles. Big fight by him though to keep his good GC position.
With 18km to go on the last real difficulty we decided to give it a try. The group still is about 50 riders big and only one rider left in front with a 1min gap.
Ryder Hesjedal showing that he slowly finds his form as he attacks for us now followed by Rebellin. Both are more than 3min back and only want the stage.
Shit. This did not work at all. While Cancellara put down the hammer on the attack bringing them back other riders immediately attacked: Gerdemann, Spilak, Brajkovic, Wiggins, Gautier, Sagan, Schleck and even Danielson.
So instead of attacking it`s Hesjedal now working for our other two riders with some help of Liquigas
All riders are caught. All but Simon Spilak, who is still trying in the descent.
And indeed he keeps a small gap to celebrate a nice win.
Sagan was close to make it 2 in a row but he only wins the bunch sprint behind for 2nd. Gerdemann once more with a nice sprint as 3rd while all our 3 riders were safely in the group. No big GC changes today.
One of the toughest climbs this Giro. The Großglockner in Austria with an average slope of 8,3%.
And also the other 3 climbs aren`t easy with the first being very long.
Dan Martin has the lead and looked strong so far in the mountains. So today it`s about defending the jersye obviously.
Roux, Albasini, Wyss, Gavazzi, Noe and Cioni form todays break.
When they have a 6min lead it`s Mauricio Ardila following them. With Wyss he has a team mate ahead.
A bad sign? Igor Anton must feel great today. His team is totally going for it and chasing alone. Good for our team mates obviously.
On the first pass, Sella also trying to attack solo. 7min gap to Ardila, who is close to join them on the top. Also Arroyo with an attempt a bit later.
Tyler Farrar with an awful day and he is already dropped having a hard day. With him though 3 Lampre riders, 2 Sky and one Leopard. Not much later Rowe, Bobridge, Murphy and Dao join those. So 5 Garmin rider in the last group...only Butler, Duggan, Stetina left with Martin early on.
Nibali attacked on the first half of the final climb. Moreno, Garate and Kiserlovski follow.
This leads to a big split of the peloton and as Duggan and Butler were already dropped here, it`s awful news that the Maglia Rosa is not in the first group of 26! riders! Also Stetina with him.
Both totally shocked by that acceleration and now in huge problems.
Ricco and Anton obviously have noticed this quickly and do attack in the American corner. They easily catch Sella and only Arroyo/Ardila are still ahead.
Behind them a very strong riding Oliver Zaugg solo ahead of the trio Nibali, Pozzovivo, Van Garderen.
Then a group containing Soler and Cunego.
And before Martin/Stetina are coming another group around Scarponi in between.
Ardila and Arroyo in this order just survive the higher speed of the GC riders. Big win for the Colombian.
Igor Anton indeed the strongest of the favourites today. Well played Euskaltel as he takes 3rd ahead of Ricco. But when is Martin coming?...he still has quite a bit to ride...
Zaugg already lost 30s as 5th. Nibali, Van Garderen and Pozzovivo another ~15s.
Cunego and Soler probably not 100% happy with their loss, while the next Intxausti, Hoogerland, Siutsou all overperformed.
Scarponi already lost 1'47. Cataldo 1'58. Not the best Giro for Quickstep.
And then also Bonnafond, Garate, Amador and Garzelli and a couple more until Daniel Martin comes to the finish losing 2'32 today! Stetina was long with him and supported him as much as possible. He comes in another 17s.
This obviously means, that Martin has lost the GC lead. But he stays in 2nd 1'21 behind Ricco and only 10s ahead of Anton. Zaugg as surprising 4th already more than 1min later then.
All riders todays were inside the time limit luckily as some of our guys were in the last group.
23km ITT today. Top favourites are Bradley Wiggins and Fabian Cancellara. Clearly two of the greatest time trialists of all time.
Though we have some hopes that the US ITT championship Taylor Phinney can show something today. He was allowed to save his energy until today and his form is pretty good. Also Fuglsang is hoping for a good result as the TT might help him to pass some other GC riders.
As 80th in the GC Phinney is on the road early. He beats the actual split time by Jesse Sergent by 2s and extends the gap to 21s in the finish. So our best bet for today is sitting on the hot seat for now.
Ageing US rider Leipheimer is more a pure chrono man these days with some decent uphill skills. Just like Bak he is beating Phinney at half time but then struggles to keep the pace until the end. Both finish behind Phinney then.
Jakob Fuglsang starts. The Danish jersey shows his skills against the clock. And also Cancellara now. The wiss unfortunately looks very strong at half time. Then again we know that Phinney had a better second half.
Also notable that Fuglsang goes into 2nd at the split beating all but Cancellara while also Kessiakoff going strong as provisional 5th at this point beating former ITTT World Champion Porte.
Wiggins shows his skills now by going into the lead at the split. 2s faster than Cancellara with Fuglsang still in 3rd there.
In the finish Fuglsang also 2nd now 37s behind Cancellara. Strong performance and also Phinney as 3rd at the moment still doing very well.
Wait. What?
Linus Gerdeman going crazy. He already performed a whole lot above his normal level. Today though he goes the fastest at the split. Also Brajkovic and Spilak with good times in the mean time.
In the finish unfortunately Brajkovic did beat our duo as he comes in with the same time as Cancellara. Spilak in between our riders.
But then comes Gerdemann who beats Wiggins by 7s to take the stage! Awesome result for him. Nobody really had him on his list this morning.
Fuglsang as 5th and Phinney as 7th with good results. Best US rider as well with Phinney beating Leipheimer as better time trialist. GC wise Brajkovic has a 21s lead over Gerdemann, while our riders are in the 2nd half of the top10. So still going well with tomorrows mountain stage hopefully helping Jakob to improve a bit.
The stage up to Mt. Baldy might not be very long but it`s definitely the toughest stage and is expected to see some huge selection. In especially the last part of the long climb is difficult. While Fuglsang might not be the best climber in this race, he surely is one of the better and with support of Kessiakoff and Hesjedal, he is supposed to do well here to improve his GC. Also the other two go for their own GC as good as possible.
Not a big surprise that a big group tries their luck. 11 riders including Kruijswijk, Kern, Moncoutie have a gap of only 70s even though we are almost at the Mt. Baldy climb already and less than 40km to go in total.
25km and almost at the KoM when Spilak attacks. The 4th in the GC has a huge form it seems and while not being the very best climber, he mustn`t be allowed too much.
More riders like Sanchez, Kern or Gautier will also give it a try.
The highered pace leads to a selection of 18 riders only in the first group. Luckily Fuglsang within them while Hesjedal and Kessiakoff are dropped an in the next bigger group. First just does not have the form while 2nd prefers the shorter climbs more. That said, we soon reach the short downhill and hopefully they can close the gap again.
Less than 5km and now it`s Bradley Wiggins, who attacks. Behind him Brajkovic immediately tries to follow and save his GC lead.
A bit behind our duo Kessiakoff/Hesjedal almost makes it back to the favourite group where several riders struggle to keep contact now. Danielson, Busche, Sanchez, Kern, Moncoutie all in the later part.
In the front part though we see Jakob Fuglsang going strong.
Wiggins is around the corner while Brajkovic still fighting for his GC lead. Then already our leader chasing together with Spilak and the best climber in the field: Andy Schleck. This means, they gapped the next riders around Gerdemann, Gautier, Porte, Rebellin.
Final kilometer and Wiggins still has a nice gap, while Brajkovic struggles now. Andy showing he is the best climber and goes fast while Fuglsang can`t follow him. Neither Spilak, who looks done.
Todays winner though with a strong attack Bradley Wiggins. But the gap really melted to Schleck, who possibly has missed to go with him earlier.
Brajkovic still on the podium today. His time loss of 51s though costs him the race lead. Wiggins only takes it by 1s, which is really unfortunate for the RadioShack rider, who fought a lot today.
Fuglsang as 4th climbs one spot to 6th in the GC as Peter Sagan lost too much here.
Spilak, Gerdemann, Rebellin, Gautier, Porte and Moncoutie the next riders. Last already 2'28 behind. This means Schleck goes into 3rd spot ahead of Gerdemann and Spilak.
Our dropped duo though with a nice comeback going past several riders in the end. Hesjedal as 11th and Kessiakoff as 13th today ahead of those, who tried to stay with the best at half time of the climb. GC wise Kessiakoff even improves to 9th (also due to Sagan), while Hesjedal goes into 14th. Well done boys.
Indeed Fuglsang was strong that day. Thought those, who have shown super form like Gerdemann, Gautier, Spilak would beat him there. Luckily they didn`t.
Regarding Martin in the Giro...he is no real GT rider. Neither is Stetina. Both lack the backup stats as they are around 70 only in recovery etc. Huge difference to others like Ricco, Anton, Nibali. Though since I started this story, I try it year for year and so far he always got a bit better. Podium obviously the goal now.
The end of the 2nd week has one of the toughest stages. The combination of Monte Crostis and the Zoncolan shows the difficulties. Very steep sections on both climbs can create huge gaps.
The Crostis already sees huge selection and most of those won`t come back to the top group. While Duggan and Butler were really huge support today they dropped halfway up and unfortunately also Peter Stetina got dropped here, which leaves Dan Martin alone in the lead group.
Earlier already Nibali and Scarponi struggled but found their way back. Second though with Stetina in this group now. 17 riders in the favourite group ahead.
Only 14 riders are left in the leading group as also the break was caught early. And we only face the start of the Zoncolan now.
Van Garderen with a huge ride today riding all the Crostis and the start of the Zoncolan from the front for his team mate and GC leader Ricco.
Also in this group: Soler, Anton, Arroyo, Duarte, Zaugg, Pozzovivo, Sella, Mollema, Karpets, Nocentini, Cataldo and Dan Martin, who feels much better today in comparison to yesterdays stage.
A group around Nibali, Hoogerland, Masciarelli, Kiserlovski and Amador already 90s behind while Stetina starts the climb another 75s later together with Garate and Siutsou.
With 6km to go Dan Martin accelerates trying to create a gap. His legs definitely better than yesterday.
Though after 2 corners he is passed by Riccardo Ricco, who is just stronger on the climbs it seems. A bit behind Anton also gapping Pozzovivo/Zaugg, while Movistar struggles with Soler/Arroyo, where the helper actually looks stronger. Duarte and Van Garderen another bit behind.
Ricco takes the stage and also Igor Anton passed Dan Martin on the final meters. Still a very good 3rd for Dan and a good sign after yesterday.
Huge gaps today as Zaugg/Pozzovivo already lose 2min and ~90s to Dan Martin. Podium chances getting better for us with this stage. Nibali losing more than 6min today with Cunego almost at 9mi8n and Stetina as 22nd with more than 9min.
Almost 30 riders missed the time limit today. Unfortunately two of our riders within those: Brent Rowe and John Murphy both need to end the race, which means two important helpers on the flatter stages.
Tyler Farrar really had a horrible stage here as he had horrible legs. Luckily he came in as one of the last today being able to continue the race.
Final stage in California and it`s another chance for Matthew Goss here. So far the German sprinters Ciolek and Greipel were too strong.
So we decided to test the breakaway. Taylor Phinney had a free race until the TT, where he did a good job. Today he is in the group of the day alongside Paterski, Wyss, Thwaites and +4.
It started with a couple of riders but as it was just behind a corner, almost the full peloton did crash or got blocked with only 15km to go!
You see around 20 riders being lucky in the front. Easy to catch the yellow jersey by Wiggins there. But also lots of Garmin riders. Actually all 7 Garmin riders in the lucky group. Also 6 Skil riders but their biggest name, Ciolek is missing.
In a 2nd group that were stopped for a few seconds only RadioShack with 5 riders including Greipel and Sanchez but missing Brajkovicas also Peter Sagan.
The Leopard Trek duo Gerdemann/Schleck is missing in those 2 groups just like Spilak.
With 12 km it`s Taylor Phinney attacking the break as the next group around Wiggins/Fuglsang is coming closer. Another few seconds behind the Radioshack group with the crash victims being more than 2min behind. What a huge and unexpected mix of the GC today.
The break is almost caught and then another crash...Fuglsang and Goss luckily ahead of this but Hesjedal and Kessiakoff were lucky to avoid the asphalt. It`s Tom Veelers on the ground. Possibly the main sprinter by Skil in this group. Unfortunately Matthew Goss was around him when he crashed and lost his train due to it.
4km and Phinney as last is caught. Behind we already set up the Garmin train of non sprinters. Not the greatest support for Goss. But he is the fastest sprinter in the group at least.
Though he still is not winning. Easy win for Van Hummel. So Skil`s 3rd option. Unfortunately Goss needed too long to find contact again to the main train and only gets 2nd.
Team wise a good stage for us obviously. Hesjedal, Kessiakoff and Fuglsang also in the top10 of the stage.
The RadioShack group found contact on the final 3km. So Sanchez and Sagan will improve in the GC a lot as the other GC riders all lose 3min in the end.
For Fuglsang this means the 2nd in the GC behind Wiggins while Kessiakoff as 8th and Hesjedal as 11th complete a huge result in our home race.
That all said, it`s not really the way of GC improvement we had wished for.
The result shows how many riders lost their GC today. Very unlucky. Also a couple of riders had to abandon injured. Some very popular names such as Basso, Kruijswijk, Uran or Kern, who apparently was the first to crash today.
A good day followed by a bad day followed by a good day? So what has to come next then with yesterdays good stage? Let`s better hope Dan has better legs again and not continueing his up and down Giro.
It was only a 2 rider break today as the GC riders made it clear to go for this stage. Some 2nd tier riders such as Karpets, Nocentini, Scarponi or Masciarelli this Giro did attack mid stage and are still a bit ahead but mainly Euskaltel were really going for it chasing them all down.
On hte penultimate climb Nibali as 10th in the GC did attack and immediately many riders struggled. Unfortunately our riders seem to continue their rythm as Stetina gets dropped out of the 22 rider favourite group while also Dan Martin is at the very end.
The top top riders realize this quickly and accelerate. Ricco, Anton, Pozzovivo, Zaugg, Nibali and Cataldo. Those six the strongest today it seems.
Behind them the Movistar duo Soler/Arroyo, who just like Dan Martin struggle a bit today. Also Hoogerland, Duarte, Garzelli, Masciarelli etc. with problems now.
Over the top of that climb 5 riders in the first group: Nibali, Pozzovivo, Ricco, Zaugg and Soler. Bad news as they had a 50s gap to the next group including Dan Martin alongside Anton, Arroyo and Duarte. Really surprising to see the Euskaltel rider in here after his performance so far. Instead it`s Soler now in the lead group, who struggled earlier.
Then the duo Hoogerland/Garate, who both have a fantastic Giro so far ahead of solo rider Stetina, who found his pace and now gapped Cataldo, Van Garderen and Intxausti. So looking better for our co-leader again.
Unfortunately when Arroyo and Anton attacked, Dan was not able to respond immediately. But in the US corner here he sees the riders ahead and still giving everything. In especially as Zaugg struggles to keep contact there.
Not a big surprise that the stage goes to Ricco. A decent surprise though that Igor Anton passed all others to go for 2nd! Strong performance after his earlier struggle.
He actually gained more than 1min on Nibali as 3rd and Soler in 4th. Pozzovivo and Zaugg, who are the biggest danger for Dan Martin both finish ahead of him and gain 1-2min but Dan keeps his podium spot. Though he mustn`t allow himself a lot of similar stages in the 3rd week.
Stetina as 11th with an excellent result and much better than thought at times.
Unfortunately export problems here. Tomorrow with GC again.
Result
Also a long list of DNF riders including another Garmin. Jack Bobridge as 3rd Garmin rider has to leave the race. Tyler Farrar survived one more stage!
