Tour d'Andorra
Stage 2
Hello, and welcome to Stage 2 of the Tour d’Andorra. Tiago Machado was the strongest man yesterday, taking the stage win and leaders jersey in Envalira. The downhill finish into Andorra at the end of the stage should lead to a fastest finish, with Andrei Amador surely the favourite given his more superior downhill ability.
A group of 5 riders formed the day’s breakaway, with Romain Zingle, Chamorro, Cardoso, Slagter and Chernetskiy all present. Cardoso clearly targeting the KoM jersey, after amassing 20pts yesterday, and will no doubt take the jersey today.
A combination of UBS, Shimano and Porto set themselves up on the front of the peleton, and as we reached the first HC climb of this year’s Tour, the gap to the break was around 3’05”.
Chernetskiy was not having a good day, despite being in the break, and soon fell of the back approaching the top of the climb. Would he be able to fight back on on the descent, or would he be swallowed up by the peleton.
Strangely, there was no fight from Cardoso for the KoM points, as Slagter rolled through for maximum points. Cardoso would take 3rd, behind Chamorro and ahead of Zingle. Chernetskiy holds onto 5th over the top with the peleton taking the rest of the points. Nothing for Shirota…
Cardoso rolled through the Intermediate Sprint, unchallenged by Chamorro or Slagter, who took 2nd and 3rd respectively. Zingle with 4th but no points or time…
So much for this being Cardoso’s day in the break and taking the KoM jersey! Hitting the climb, he goes backwards and is dropped from the escape group. Chamorro sets a pace that is too much for him, and with a HC climb and a Cat.2 climb to come, will one of the remaining riders off the front spoil the glory for Karcher.
UBS and Shimano continued to set the pace on the climb, slowly reeling in Cardoso in the process. There was around 2 minutes now separating the 98 strong peleton and the lead group.
Zingle was the next to pop on the climb, as Slagter and Chamorro continued to drive the pace. To be honest, the Belgian had done no turns on the front since the start of the first climb of the day, so it was clear he was not as strong as the others. Meanwhile, Cardoso was back in the main group.
ATTACK CONTADOR! Where has this come from? 3km to the top of the HC climb, and there’s an acceleration from the Spanish rider! Completely unexpected, and will no doubt force others to respond. Monsalve is the trying to close the gap, whilst UBS continue to ride tempo.
Contador catches the remaining pair of break riders over the top of the climb, and they now have a 1’00 advantage over the chasing pack. Monsalve was brought back very quickly after being unable to match the pace of the Contador. A group of 26 riders made up the chase group, but the likes of Ratiy, U25 jersey wearer Ablenado, 2014 winner Pozzovivo and Robert Kiserlovski are all in a group further back.
Onto the final climb, and back to status quo at least with the favourites. Despite his inferior descending ability, Contador set the pace down off the HC climb, and Machado owes a lot to Figueiredo for pulling it all back together. The other group behind also isn’t too far off come the climb, so shouldn’t have too much trouble latching back on if the pace slows again.
In all the action, we had completely missed the KoM sprints from the HC climb. Chamorro took the maximum points, making him and Slagter joint-top with 34 points. Cardoso and Shirota are just 2 points behind…
ATTACK BERHANE! Let battle commence. The Eritean is next to go, looking to make up time he lost yesterday. The usual suspects are behind, with the active Contador leading the chase back.
The Eritel rider is joined by Marquez on the climb up to the top, with Valls in pursuit behind. The leading pair have around 30” over the main pack behind.
Into the snow towards the top, and the peleton is in pieces. Amador is next to make a move, sailing past Valls, Berhane and Marquez. Machado and Duarte are in the gap between chase and peleton, Uran latching onto the Berhane Group.
Taking the KoM points, Amador has 11km and 22” between him and a victory. It was every man for himself behind, so would this work to his advantage…
5km to go, and Amador’s lead had extended to 42”. Machado was doing all he could to defend his jersey, but it was all in vain. No dometiques to help him here, and none of the others looked willing to lend a hand either! Further back, Monsalve, Contador and Albenado looked to be losing at least a 2 minutes to Amador.
It is an utterly commanding victory from Amador! The Costa Rican takes the stage by 53”, and has plenty of time to celebrate and take the plaudits from the fans in a wet, cold Andorra.
Marquez takes the sprint for 2nd, ahead of Berhane for the bonus seconds. Uran sprints home for 4th with Valls in 5th. Nazaret takes 6th, Duarte 7th and Yellow Jersey wearer Machado in 8th. Denifl does well to hold onto the sprint for 9th, unlike Intxausti who loses some time but takes 10th.
The big losers of the day are Monsalve, Talansky, Contador and Ji who all finish in a group 1’41” down on Amador, but it is race over for Pozzovivo, who loses nearly 4 minutes!
