Santos Tour Down Under Stage 2: Lobethal - Stirling
The circuit in Stirling has become popular lately in the TDU. A puncheur usually takes the win, as the climb, although gentle, is a bit too much for most of the sprinters. The Italian will be one of the favorites again today.
The break of the day was easy to take today and had 5 riders, including Marteen Tjallingii (Ag2r), Chris Sutton (Garmin) and Kenny van Hummel (Rabobank). However, with Quickstep chasing in the bunch their hopes of arriving are slim. at best. At 70 kilometers from the finish line and already in the final circuit they have 4 minutes in front of the main group.
The break was eventually reeled back in with 21 kilometers remaining. However, the gap only decreased dramatically when teams like Saxo Bank and HTC started helping Quickstep. If the Belgian team had remained in front on his own it would have been very difficult to catch the break.
The gentle slope is making the buiding of the trains difficult. Lotto are the best positioned, with Jurgen Roelandts and Andre Greipel, closely followed by his former teammate Jose Joaquin Rojas. Vacansoleil has Stefan van Dijk pulling Peter Sagan and Joost van Leijen behind, while in Discovery Heinrich Haussler is working for Marcel Kittel.
The sprint was rather chaotic today, as many riders were on par or ahead of the main favorites as the sprint started. As they approached the last kilometer Johan van Summeren was leading ahead of Daniel Martin and Rein Taaramae. The first puncheur, Jure Kocjan, was fourth and progressing.
Simon Gerrans wins in Stirling! The local rider makes a great progression in the last meters to win ahead of the leader, Tony Gallopin. The finish was rather good for a puncheur and the local crowd was delighted that the winner was Gerrans.
Gallopin will increase his lead in front of the GC, while Jure Kocjan had to settle for the third place even though he looked good for the stage win. Peter Sagan does not look as strong as he did last year and is only 12th in the GC 16 seconds behind Gallopin.
Santos Tour Down Under Stage 3: Unley - Victor Harbor
The finish in Victor Harbor is again meant to be decided in a mass sprint. Victor Harbor lays in the coast south from Adelaide and, although the organizers have prepared a final loop around the hills close to the city, the odds are all in favor of the usual suspects in the sprints: Gallopin, Modolo, Swift or Farrar.
The race was quite broken as the group of 3 in front reached the first intermediate sprint in Mount Compass (73 km to go). Denis Galimzyanov (BMC) took the points ahead of Linus Gerdemann (Astana) and Thomas Voeckler (Movistar). However, they were not the only ones ahead, as another 10 riders were ahead of the pack in two different groups. The wind was again present in the race and wasn making the control of the race a bit harder.
The last members of the break, Stefan Schumacher and Jurgen van den Broeck, were eventually caught with only 9 kilometers remaining. The bunch had a hard time chasing and only when Euskaltel and Sky decided to chase did the advantage come down.
The fight for positioning in the sprint was again tough. Lampre had Viviani working for Hutarovich, Euskaltel had Ventoso ahead of Sacha Modolo and Sky was the other well positioned team, as Gregory Rast was trying to get Ben Swift well positioned. Tyler Farrar tried to take an advantage of that and placed himself behind the British.
Sacha Modolo took the early lead of the sprint as the riders head for the last kilometer of the stage. The Italian has a small lead on Jose Joaquin Rojas, while Peter Sagan and Daniele Benatti are also in the chase.
Sacha Modolo wins in Victor Harbor! The Italian repeats his last year's win in the Tour Down Under and gets his first win with his new Euskaltel colors. Modolo was strong enough to hold on the lead as Rojas never stopped trying to go past him. Daniele Benatti overtook Sagan and completed the top 3 for the stage.
Euskaltel has worked hard this first half of the Tour Dwon Under but got the result they were expecting. The Spaniard team broadened their views when signing riders and one of the foreigners has given them the first win of the season. Tony Gallopin held on to the leader's jersey one more day, but now both Sacha Modolo and Simon Gerrans are 6 seconds behind.
sutty68 wrote:
Gallopin riding a good race at the moment but can he hold on to the end
I would say the question is whether someone can make a gap on Willunga hill. If Gallopin stays with the best (and he has lots of chances of doing it) my bet is on him.
pcm2009fan wrote:
Nice to see the guys are keen to give their legs a good strectch in Australia. Is Modolo's 63 the highest sprint stat?
Today's stage is also rather short and rather easy. The only real difficulty is Menglers Hill, which is 20 kilometers from the finish. However, it should pose no trouble for the favorites in the mass sprint.
Nacer Bouhanni (Ag2r) tried a solo run for the win today, but this is normally not a smart thing to do. However, he had a gap of 2' 30'' with 64 kilometers remaining. In the bunch, Andre Greipel took the opportunity to bag 3 bonus seconds in the two intermediate sprints.
Peter Stetina and Fabian Cancellara tried a late break but they were eventually reeled back in before Menglers Hill along with Bouhanni. In the climb, Bjorn Leukemans attacked to get the mountain sprint points and wear the KoM jersey tomorrow.
Peter Sagan took advantage of the small chaos due to the hill and launched a tremendous attack at the top. No one was keen to follow and the Slovak built a gap of 1' 30'' with 8 kilometers remaining. Sagan is on unchartered territory, as no breaks have won to date in the TDU.
Peter Sagan enters the last kilometer on his own and is going to get both the stage and the leader's jersey! With the kind of advantage he is going to get in the finish line he could as well settle the GC in the TDU.
Peter Sagan wins in Tanunda! It looks like we were living a repetition of last year's Tour Down Under, Gallopin won both years in Clare, Modolo did the same in Victor Harbor and now Sagan wins in Tanunda as he did last year. The big difference is that Sagan will have a gap on the bunch this time.
Jose Joaquin Rojas leads the bunch after a messy sprint 52 seconds behind Peter Sagan. Marcel Kittel and Tony Gallopin arrived behind the Spaniard. The fourth place allows Gallopin to at least maintain the first place in the points competition.
Today's result leaves the Slovak first in the GC 46 seconds ahead of Tony Gallopin. Considering the past editions of the Tour Down Under this is a big advantage, but if there is one stage where some seconds can be recovered that is in tomorrow's climb to Old Willunga Hill.
Santos Tour Down Under Stage 5: McLaren Vale - Old Willunga Hill
The penultimate stage in Australia is the hardest of the route. However, it hasn't made any differences in the GC in the past two editions when it was climbed. Peter Sagan should have no trouble to hold onto the lead if the fight is reduced to the last climb. Alexandre Vinokourov was the winner at the top of the hill 3 years ago, while last year the stage was won by Davide Rebellin.
Two different groups joined together to form a quite big break of the day. Halfway through the stage there was a big group of 15 riders in front, what should make the chase rather interesting, especially considering that the job has been left to Vacansoleil. Among those in the group in front, the most important riders are Matthew Goss (Saxo Bank), Francisco Ventoso (Euskaltel), Igor Anton (Rabobank), Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto), Marco Pinotti (BMC) and Taylor Phinney (HTC).
If there was any doubt on whether Bauke Mollema would be willing to work for Peter Sagan, this picture of the first climb to Willunga should clear all the doubts. The Dutch did a hard job to weaken everyone and bring the break closer in that part of the stage. However, Thomas Voeckler went past the KoM banner 1' 25'' ahead of the pack, so Vacansoleil still has work to do in order to decrease the gap.
Michael Matthews (Garmin) tried a solo attack and 7 kilometers from the finish has a nice gap. The Australian has 30 seconds on Eros Capecchi, who also is on his own. Their former break fellows are 45 seconds behind and a bit disorganized. On the bunch Quickstep and Vacansoleil are doing the hard work, as the difference is still 1' 30'' to Matthews.
The main group absorbed the break at the start of Willunga Hill, but they still had Matthews and Capecchi ahead. The position of the Australian is good at the start of the climb, as he still has 1 minute on the bunch. Cameron Meyer and Rui Costa lead the peloton in the first slopes of the hill.
Matthews is tired, but reaches the last kilometer 20 seconds ahead, it is going to be a close one. Last year winner Davide Rebellin attacked in the bunch and Bjorn Leukemans is trying to follow the Italian.
Davide Rebellin wins in Old Willunga Hill! The Italian repeats his win from last year after Michael Matthews got overtaken in the final meters of the stage. The Australian couldn't hold on to his small lead and ended being passed by 6 riders.
Joost van Leijen took the second place in the stage ahead of Rui Costa, while the World Champion, Bjorn Leukemans, had to settle for fourth after he couldn't do a finish as good as when he is in top shape. Peter Sagan had no trouble in the climb to Willunga and even got into the top 10 of the stage. The Slovak is set to take back to back wins in the TDU, as it is highly unlikely that he loses time tomorrow in Adelaide.
Santos Tour Down Under Stage 6: Adelaide - Adelaide
The Tour Down Under says goodbye with a criterium in the streets of Adelaide that poses not much of a challenge for the riders. The most probable outcome today is a mass sprint were the usual names will fight for the victory (Farrar, Modolo, Gallopin, Sagan...). Peter Sagan has a gap big enough in the GC to have any trouble defending his jersey, so he looks set to take back to back wins in Australia.
The start of the stage was frantic, as almost all of the teams wanted to be in the break. The Lotto riders were especially active, like Van den Broeck or Demare. Halfway through the stage a group of 16 riders was in front; however, the gap to the main group was always between 30 seconds and 1 minute. The most important riders in the break were Thomas Voeckler (Movistar), Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto), Kanstantsin Sivtsov (Katusha) and Maarten Tjallingii (Ag2r).
Vacansoleil did the work they had to do to control the race and as the bunch enters the last two laps of the stage the fight is focused on the final sprint. Quickstep, Lampre and Discovery are setting the pace in the main bunch. The bad news are the crashes of two riders that were in the top 20 and look like they are going to lose their places: Rui Costa and Alexander Kristoff.
Lotto is leading the best train ahead of the sprint, as Rigoberto Uran leads Andre Greipel. Tyler Farrar is taking advantage of the German wheel. In Vacansoleil, Greg van Avermaet is leading Peter Sagan, while in Quickstep it is John Degenkolb towing Tony Gallopin.
Mark Renshaw is giving it all for his teammate Marcel Kittel, as he leads the group onto the last kilometer. Behind the Discovery duo, Andre Greipel and Tyler Farrar are the best positioned to take the stage win.
Marcel Kittel wins in Adelaide! The German sprinter completes a great job by the Discovery Channel team to grab his first stage win. Kittel was threatened in the last meters by Tyler Farrar but held on to his small lead. The third spot of the stage was for Andre Greipel.
The Tour Down Under finished with the second overall win in a row for Peter Sagan, who also took the fourth place in the final stage. The Slovak was also best in the points competition. Tony Gallopin and Marcel Kittel will join Sagan in the final podium, as the German sprinter jumped to the third position of the GC thanks to the bonus seconds of today's stage. Tony Gallopin was also the best youngster.
The European season starts one more time with the Tirreno - Adriatico. The organizers have prepared a new route for this year's Tirreno that is a bit more focused on the climbing abilities of the riders, as there is a mountain top finish in Prati di Tivo. The time trial will be less important, with only 9 kilometers of ITT in San Benedetto del Tronto and the opening TTT. Other than that, the riders will find two tough hilly stages arriving in Offida and Chieti. Both of them have the potential to set bigger differences in the finish line if some rider is brave enough to try an attack from far away.
Favorites:
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil): Bauke Mollema is again the reference this year for the toughest races of the season. The Dutch already won the Tirreno - Adriatico last year and, even though the reduction in time trial kilometers will not work in his favor, he is still the man to beat.
- Denis Menchov (Quickstep): Denis Menchov moved to the almighty Quickstep team to be a stronger reference for the team in the Grand Tours. However, it is still to be seen whether that will translate to smaller races like the Tirreno - Adriatico. Dries Devenyns and Pieter Weening will probably have something to say about that and the Russian could end up working for them if he has a bad day.
- David Lopez (Euskaltel): David Lopez took over the leader role in the Euskaltel team after last year's Tour de France. That result, along with Xavi Tondo's departure from Euskaltel, leaves him as the undisputed leader of the team in the mountains. Euskaltel could suffer a bit in the team time trial, but other than that it is a route that fits well of Lopez's characteristics.
- Frank Schleck (Radioshack): Frank Schleck narrowly missed the podium in the Tour de France and in the World Championship last year and he looks even stronger heading to this season. The Luxembourgish will greatly appreciate the increase in toughness of the mountains in the Tirreno and the decrease in time trial kilometers.
Other notable riders include Roman Kreuziger (Radioshack), who could even challenge the leadership by F. Schleck if the Luxembourgish doesn't feel good, Steven Kruijswijk (Movistar), Dries Devenyns (Quickstep), Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Robert Gesink (Vacansoleil) and Hubert Dupont (Rabobank).
Even though there are only two opportunities for them, the best sprinters are in Italy this week. Among them, the fittest for the partial wins seem to be Tyler Farrar (Saxo Bank), Ben Swift (Sky), Tony Gallopin (Quickstep) and Sacha Modolo (Euskaltel).
Weirdly enough, he signed for Euskaltel.
