The final stage. One for the sprinters.

Valencia tried to chase down the 11 man breakaway with Vilela, but it didn't work, and they gave up eventually.


After all the climbs, I was our only rider in the peloton of 50.


I forced the pace to try and drop the guys in front of me in the GC.


However, the break took the win, and while Losada was dropped from the peloton, his teammate and countryman Garcia took the win.


I was completely done, but finished in the main group. Unfortunately some of the break took enough time to push my down to 11th overall.

The break of the day contained 3 riders. They were Cantwell, Schwarzmann and Guardini.


The first riders to attack for the victory were Kocjan and Thomas.


We decided this was time to act. Robinson jumped out of the peloton with me in his wheel, and Sagan saw the danger. We managed to catch the group above.


I was in a 5 man group which held off the peloton until 20km from the line, when we were all caught.


Of course I still had energy in the tank, and I decided to attack once again on the penultimate climb. Jonathan Tiernan-Locke followed.


We made the gap work, while a tired Simon Geschke was catching up.


To hold off the other favourites, I had to put in most of the work. I was hoping, come the sprint, that the others were tired as well. I had the lead with 700m to go.


Unfortunately they still had energy, and I was on my last legs. Still, a third place is a good start to my classics campaign.

Results

Virgilijus continued his great season with another win over in France.


While Jorge only had to travel a short distance from Mallorca to take a great 2nd in Almeria.

Then Virgilijus was at it again with another win in the Roma Maxima.

A break of 4 got away. The riders that hit the white roads first were Rakusa, Declerq, Pierfelici and Caldeira.


As the numbers up front whittled down, I was in the select group of 21, along with Ospina, Duque and Diluca.


That damn idiot Vladimir Karpets all but ruined my race by blocking me just as the attacks started. This was not how I wanted to go down.


I went on a solo chase of the favourites up front. I was still a chance of making it.


As we rode through into Siena, I was almost there, but it was too late to catch up.


Tejay van Garderen took the win.


I sprinted home in 7th.


Dalivier also managed to take 10th.

Two years ago the first victory of my career occurred on this course. We come here now with a strong team, and hopefully we can repeat success.

Sergent, Cancian, Lalouette and Cavazzana make the break today.


I made the attack on the downhill which everyone followed.


It was fighter Juan Antonio Flecha versus all of the favourites and more in the 31 man chasing group.


He did enough to take the win, while I finished somewhere in the group.

Alec Diluca was able to take a stage win at the Settimana Coppa e Bartali.


The race was also Thibaut Pinot's first for the team. He managed to take an impressive 2nd place.



The team's wildcard application to Liege-Bastogne-Liege has been accepted, meaning I will have another turn at the Ardennes.

A nice profile for me to hopefully improve on my embarrassment from last year. We send a good team in support.

Again we had a 4 rider break.


Once we got to the business end of the race, Atapuma and I joined in with the favourites.


Eventually Lars Petter Nordhaug was the best.


I put in a good sprint to take 6th place.