The second half of Paris-Nice starts today with the most important stage of the race probably, or at least, the most important of the road stages, with the finish in Morzine-Avoriaz after climbing Col de la Ramaz and Col des Gets. Rein Taaramae, the main favourite for the GC win, is already in the race lead after yesterday’s win in the hilly stage, and we should expect another stage win for the Estonian
Ten riders have attacked from the start of the stage, and it looks like T-Mobile isn’t really worried about them, because while UBS is trying to catch them with Page, T-Mobile riders are never pulling from the bunch
Zakarin Varga Van Niekerk Bayly Petrovski Hagen Polanc Betancourt Janse van Rensburg Fabbro
Bayly is first in the intermediate sprint, though no one cared about it, so the Bennelong was first because he was placed there in the relays of the breakaway, which with 90 kms left has a 3’20 advantage to the bunch
We are about to start Col de la Ramaz, the first climb of the day, and T-Mobile has kept the gap in a reasonable 2’30 time. We’ll see if some favourites already use this climb to attack, as maybe should do someone like Morton, or they’ll wait to Avoriaz
Very brave move by T-Mobile, as basically they are doing a team attack from the base of Ramaz, as Geniez, Fernandez, Moschella and Taaramae have distanced themselves from the group about 40 seconds. But even weirder is that Battaglin is the one working in the bunch to close the gap. Or maybe he’s trying to join the move too
That move of Battaglin made another split, with Amador being left in the middle of the bunch, where Desigual works for Tenorio, and T-Mobile’s group, together with Danacik. The gap of Taaramae’s group is already 1 minute to the bunch and 45 seconds to Amador. Also this group is starting to catch one by one the breakaway riders, like Zakarin or Varga
Amador knows that in that position he wasn’t going anywhere, so before Fraile and Schleck caught his group with Battaglin and Danacik, the Costa Rican attacked them trying to reach Taaramae’s group
It seems like a good choice was made by Amador, and he’s now in Taaramae’s group, surrounded by 4 T-Mobile and 1’10 ahead of Tenorio’s group. Fraile and Tenorio almost broke away for the bunch, but Heymes with the White jersey helped Schleck to close the gap
A little aceleration of Fraile at the outside of a corner, and everything blows up in the chasing group, as only Tenorio, Schleck, Hirt, Danacik and Heymes can follow the Spaniard, leaving Berg in the bunch with the responsability of the chase
And another group is formed with some Berg riders, including Gesink, and Martin and Machado
One of the Rein-bots was finally dropped, Geniez, so only Fernandez and Moschella were left for Taaramae, though Amador was surprisingly working in that group too for some time. Heymes is working for Schleck in the next group after Fraile used all his energies in the chase, but that didn’t stop Gesink’s group from joining Schleck’s group, making a bigger group with Tenorio, Schleck, Gesink, Hirt, Machado and Martin of the favourites there.
In the bunch, it’s now Volvo working for Wellens with Ludvigsson, while Boily tries to support Berhane
A few kms later, there was a huge shake up of the race, after the breakaway was caught, and most of the group behind joined together, leaving 25 riders in the first group with a mix of GC riders and some of the breakaway riders, where now it’s Bartl working for Gesink, although we’ve seen weakness from the Dutch rider in one moment, where he was almost dropped from the newly formed group
Bartl, Gesink Taaramae, Moschella, Fernandez, Marquez Amador Tenorio Schleck Bayly Betancourt, Berhane Hirt Guldhammer, Hagen Polanc Reis, Machado Janse van Rensburg Fabbro Van Niekerk, Martin Ludvigsson, Wellens Olivier
Morton and Quintana joined the first group almost in the summit of Ramaz, where Polanc launched an attack to get the points, being followed by Hirt, Schleck, Taaramae, Guldhammer and Berhane
Col de la Ramaz
Polanc 16
Hirt 12
Schleck 10
Taaramae 8
Guldhammer 6
Berhane 4
Amador 2
Quintana, Nerz, Faiers and Chamorro have being dropped from the first group with that acceleration of Polanc, while in the front it seems like Hirt has continued the attack and with Schleck, Taaramae, Guldhammer and Berhane, they have escaped from the group in the first part of the descent
If we had to give to someone a “Rider of the Day” award, it would be for David Bartl without any doubt. He was the one helping Gesink when several favourites were ahead of him, the one who made the junction to Taaramae’s group, the one who paced that group until the top of Ramaz, and he’s still in the group trying to bridge the gap to the leader’s group, which has 35 seconds of gap
The leading group is starting Col des Gets and their gap has rised to 1’20 thanks to Bartl being a bad descender and also not having enough energies to continue the chase, and also no other rider seemed like wanting to work in that group, which allowed the group of Quintana, Nerz, Chamorro, Faiers and Fernandez to join them again
Taaramae attacks with 20 kms to go, trying to leave everyone behind and do a solo until the finish. With his acceleration at least he has dropped both Berhane and Guldhammer. The gap to the next group is still around 1’20, as Amador has taken the chasing duties, which has made Nerz, Quintana, Bartl, Moschella and Fernandez to be dropped for the group
Taaramae’s attack was fierce, and for Hirt the climb was just 400 metres too long, as he exploded and couldn’t follow the Estonian anymore, but Schleck was able to hang on his wheel by the skin of his teeth
Col des Gets
Taaramae 6
Schleck 4
Hirt 2
Seeing the race situation, Tenorio couldn’t wait anymore to try to catch some of the riders ahead of me, with Amador joining him in the attack. A few metres behind, Gesink, Martin, Wellens and Machado were also in the move
Taaramae and Schleck start Montee de Avoriaz with a 50-second gap to Hirt, Guldhammer and Berhane and over 1’30 to Tenorio and Amador
Schleck and Taaramae are working together to increase their gap to the rest of riders, as with 12 kms to go it’s already 1’15 to the next group. Tenorio and Amador have been caught by Gesink’s group, so maybe now being 6 riders to collaborate, they can at least catch the group of Guldhammer, Hirt and Berhane
10 kms for Taaramae and Schleck, and they are still increasing their gap to 1’30 with Guldhammer’s group. Also Gesink’s work should make the junction between the two chasing groups into a bigger group
Hirt made a huge mistake trying to follow in Les Gets Taaramae’s attack, seeing as Guldhammer and Berhane paced themselves in that climb, and now Hirt has no energies left with 9 kms to go, being dropped of that group, and quickly falling into the clutches of the next group in the road
With 8 kms left, Gesink’s group finally caught Guldhammer’s, and now there’s a 9-rider group 1’35 behind the leading duo
Wellens, Martin and Hirt can’t keep with Tenorio’s pace with 6,3 kms to go, and are dropped from the chasing group. The gap stands at 1’40 to Taaramae and Schleck, who have been riding very pasive in this climb, surely saving energy to fight for the stage win later
Taaramae and Schleck are entering the fenced zone, with only 3 kms to the finish line. Their gaps doesn’t change, and is still around 1’40. I expect the race leader to try an attack to drop Schleck before the sprint, in order to increase his gap in GC before the Eze MTT
They are really close to the final kms, and still no attacks, so maybe they made a truce and only attack in the final kms for the stage win in order to both secure 1st and 2nd in GC. Anyway, now the gap to the second group looks to be increasing in a few seconds, reaching 1’45 for the first time
Very late sprint for both riders, as they only launch the sprint with 600 metres to go, with Taaramae in first place and Schleck on his wheel
There was never a real challenge in the sprint by Schleck, so Rein Taaramae wins his second stage in-a-row in Morzine-Avoriaz! Great win for the Estonian, who will see his lead in GC increased from just a few seconds to almost a minute to Schleck, who will rise to second in GC with this great performance, showing that his age won’t stop him from performing at great level
Amador sprint to third place, ahead of Tenorio, Gesink, Guldhammer and Machado. Their loss will be around 1’40 to Taaramae and Schleck, so all of them will have to fight for the 3rd place in the final podium.
Berhane didn’t have the legs to sprint at the end, and has end up losing a few extra seconds to the other riders
Martin, Hirt, Reis and Wellens will lose almost 3’30 today. A real shame for Hirt, who was strong enough to actually made the winning split, but not strong enough to stay with Taaramae and Schleck in Les Gets, and paid the price for it
Faiers, Marquez and Morton arrived four minutes after the stage winner. Another disappointing day for Morton, who is really struggling in this race
What a stage! Fantastic racing from the very first climb in Ramaz, which has led to huge gaps in today’s stage, though thing didn’t change too much in the final climb in Avoriaz, with most of the gaps remaining as they were at the bottom of the climb.
Taaramae has now 55 seconds of advantage to Schleck in GC, and over 2 minutes over Gesink. 3 stages still left, but it looks like instead of riders challenging Taaramae for the GC win, we might only see more dominance from the Estonian in the next stages
