With high expectations we look at the start of the 3rd Tour of America also called the 4th GT.
We start with a flat ride from Redding to Chico and of course we also have two early KoM`s for the breakaway.
But anything but a sprint finish would be a surprise actually.
Top favourites is hard to say as we have so many top class sprinters here. Serebriakov and Manan have the advantage that they know how to win here as both won 2 stages each last year.
But we can`t forget Greipel or the American duo Farrar/Keough. Actually it`s quite an interesting little fact that so far in 42 stages we haven`t seen a single stage win by an American. Will this year be the year, where this series ends? Looking not too bad with those two and some decent climbers.
More sprinters, who must be named are of course Castaneda, Rowe, Ferrari, Mezgec, Santos and several more.
Don`t think we ever had such a high quality sprinter field here.
Talking about a high quality field we must also mention the big amount of teams in this year once more.
It`s not the right feeling to ride a GT like race with 5 or 9 teams like in the past. 20 teams and 140 riders sounds much better and while we might enjoy this a lot more, I guess many team managers will become more and more unhappy with every stage as it might turn their season upside down. Positive but also negative.
The honor of being the first attacker goes to Allonca. So a Spaniard and it`s not the biggest surprise as he is well known for his breakaway appearances.
The breakaway though is not formed yet with the first KoM being reached. Pineau though with the first sign of the Canadian Alstom RBC team to take the first mountain points ahead of Khripta and Mihaylov.
Soon afterwards we might have a breakaway of 6 riders as the gap goes up to 2min. Pineau Mihaylov Khripta Silvestre Devine Piamonte
So we see the first US American in the attack in Devine as well, which is obviously nice for the spectators. But in general those teams might have been expected as breakaway teams as none of them has a very good GC rider. That said Gadret is of course a quality rider but not in the same level as Kiserlovski, Kashechkin or Ratiy.
Next KoM and even though Devine takes the higher rated Cat.3 here he won`t wear the jersey tomorrow as Khripta comes over the line in 2nd ahead of Pineau. So we have a shared lead of those last two and the officials will give Khripta the jersey tomorrow.
The pressure must be high on Amex Pro Cycling to deliver the first American stage win, so they send 3 riders to the front. Only a airBaltic rider is supporting them. With Matt Rowe they of course also have a very fast sprinter here and as both teams don`t really look at the GC those sprint stages are even more important than for those combination teams like Hollister or Volkswagen.
First and only sprint today. Pineau Devine Mihaylov
We have reached the final circuit and with 25km to go the gap is down to 1'34. Amex is still working a lot but are well supported by several teams now like Hollister, Volkswagen, WWE or Repsol.
With so many sprinter teams it was never supposed to happen for the breakaway. Not on the first day at least.
Ouch. First crash already on the first day, which is always the worst case for anyone starting a 21 stage race. Vorontsov might be the most notable name here as he is LukOil`s best climber even though a high GC isn`t expected by the Russian.
Time trialists Laidler and Nascimento are the other two.
So let`s hope for those that they all keep injury free, which would be important for their leaders and in especially for the team time trial.
A bit less than 10km to go and the breakaway is caught with Amex forming a nice train here.
That said we still have one rider giving it a last try. Devine is not giving up yet and tries to stay clear. With 5km to go he is still 28s ahead but the pace behind is very fast now.
So with 3km to go when the sprint is soon to be started, he is also caught.
We have a weird sprint here as we don`t see much organization and also the Amex train failed a bit as the supposed lead out riders struggled to come to the front in time.
So it`s only Keough now leading out the faster Farrar and we see no other train at all.
Keough
Farrar
Greipel
Devine
Serebriakov
Awang
Rowe
Cooke
Santos
Salleh
Tzortakis
Sieberg
Castaneda
Ferrari
Manan
Teruel
Vesely
This is early. With 1,7km Keough has done his job. You can`t actually blame him as he did a good job but one more rider ahead of him could have helped here.
So Farrar goes into the win with Greipel, Serebriakov and Rowe following in a perfect position.
1km and Farrar still in the lead but Greipel and Serebriakov both move around him now with Rowe struggling a bit.
No chance for Farrar as he is in 3rd position only but just like Rowe he is struggling now and from behind we see Santos, Castaneda, Manan and Mezgec coming stronger.
200m and Greipel is still in front. But the gap to the riders behind is smaller now as Manan, Santos and Mezgec are coming.
Farrar and Rowe are slow, so is surprisingly also Castaneda.
Great win for Andre Greipel. The Gorilla takes stage 1 in America ahead of Serebriakov.
But the fastest sprint was shown by the four riders behind.
With better positioning Manan might have been able to get another stage win here.
Mezgec, Santos and Tzortakis also with a strong finish ahead of Chicci, Farrar, Eefting and Teruel.
So Tyler Farrar at least showed endurance to take a 8th in todays opener. Nevertheless a disappointment for him.
Castaneda as 11th, Rowe as 13th, Ferrari as 15th or the Sauber duo surely the biggest disappointings though.
Exceot for the three crashers all riders finished within the same time and all of them were able to finish.
