Tour d'Andorra
Stage 1
Hello, and welcome to the first stage of the Tour d'Andorra. We head straight into the mountains for Stage 1, with a climb as soon as the riders head out of Vielha.
The stage began with a lone attack on the first climb of the day, and it was
Shirota to make the move. Looking strong on climb, he quickly opened a gap and comfortably took the KoM points at the top.
Waeytens and
Cardoso attacked out of the peleton to take 2nd & 3rd respectively over the top of the Cat.1 climb, with the peleton behind picking up the remaining points.
On the descent, the Japanese Champion was joined by the two attackers, whilst
Avetisyan jumped clear of the peleton to make it a quartet off the front.
The intermediate sprint went the way of the KoM sprint, with Shirota taking the line ahead of Waeytens and Cardoso.
Porto-Prio, Wiesenhof and UBS dominated the front of the peleton, and our escape group had around 3'05" gap at the base of the second climb.
Again, it would be Shirota who would be the strongest on the climb, riding away from his companions in the break to take maximum points at the top of the climb.
Avetisyan would take 2nd, ahead of Cardoso and Waeytens in 3rd & 4th. Just like the first climb, it would be the peleton mopping up the remaining points.
Porto-Prio and Wiesenhof slowly increased the pace on the descent, and at the bottom of the climb the gap was down to 1'15", With the limb to the finish to come, it would not be a day for the break.
Second intermediate sprint would be a carbon copy of the first, with Shirota unchallenged to take the points. Waeytens crosses in 2nd, with Cardoso in 3rd.
30km to go, and the peleton would catch the break before the final ascent. With
Silva,
Afonso and
Costa drilling the pace so high, they would take the points and bonus seconds at the final intermediate sprint, and with that, we hit the final climb.
Amador was looking lonely at the front, whilst
Úran,
Denifl, like a lot of other favourites, only had one or two domestiques left.
Where did those guys come from? Suddenly Amador has 4 domestiques for company, and they mass towards the front for setting the pace. Could this be good day for the Costa Rican?
The peleton was down to around 50 riders with 10km to go, as the lesser riders and used-up domestiques continued to go out of the back. All the favourites were still present and correct, so it was leading to a tense finish.
5km to go, and
Kiserlovski lead
Denifl to the front.
Chamorro was working hard for
Úran, whilst
Machado and
Amador had moved into good positions.
Behind them,
Monsalve was looking to close the gap, along with the likes of
Duarte and
Valls.
Just over 1km to go, and
Denifl makes his move. He knows he doesn't have it in a sprint, so has to go long!
Has he really just done that... Denifl's long range attempt turns into a lead out for
Machado. The Austrian just doesn't have the legs and goes backwards quickly under the flamme rouge.
The fight for the victory would go down the three men in the sprint -
Machado,
Úran &
Monsalve
Less than a metre to the line, and there is still no separating the three riders! Who would take the victory!
Machado celebrates but we will need a photo finish to verify it. Machado's celebrations are correct, and he is confirmed the victor on Stage 1 in Envalira.
Monsalve takes 2nd, with
Úran in 3rd.
Amador wins the sprint behind for 4th place, ahead of
Brajkovic in 5th. Top 10 is completed by
Marquez, a fading
Denifl,
Contador,
Intxausti and
Duarte, who are all awarded the same time as
Machado.
The big losers on the day are
Berhane and
Ji, who come home in a second group and lose 1'14" to their rivals.
Daniele Ratto would have a horrible day in the saddle, finishing outside the time limit by over 20 minutes, and was withdrawn from the race. Generali would start Stage 2 with one less rider in their ranks.
