sutty68 wrote:
It's always nice to see the green jersey near the front at the finish !
Tamijo wrote:
Wow Chávarri 2nd, a possible podium if he can keep this level.
I was totally amazed by how well he did too! Especially since he didn't come with the idea of going for the GC but looking at how well he did on the first mountain stage, it's possible he'll be shifting his focus now.
tsmoha wrote:
Well done on that stage and nice to see my GT variant in action
Thank you for providing these great stages, I'm really having fun racing them so far.
The eighth stage was the first of the two mainland stages finishing outside of South Africa. It led to Mbabane, the capital city of the recently renamed kingdom of Eswatini. Today's course was one of the few with multiple major climbs.
Kadri, Vanmarcke, Le Lavandier and Krigbaum were four and set up the break of the day. Dayer Quintana teamed up with Kruijswijk to bridge and make it a 6-man group.
Four riders, including Dayer, were dropped before the last cat.1 climb, in Eswatini's Malolotja National Park. The pack sat about 2'45" back at its foot.
Le Lavandier got rid of Kruijswijk on the way up, which made him the last survivor out front. Chasing him was a bunch of about 25 riders. A constant succession of short accelerations and dead moments would keep the peloton from making up much time though.
Already on the climb just outside Mbabane, Juan Pardo attacked the Group Maillot Jaune. Eder reacted but just couldn't match Pardo's pace. No reaction yet in the bunch.
Le Lavandier kept 33" at the line, securing another prestigious (stage) win for the PCT AG2R team after Formolo's Giro triumph. Pardo passed Kruijswijk for second. As opposed to Chávarri, who finished third, Pardo's time gap was awarded. Eder continues to sit in the white jersey and 4th overall.
Stage 9, and time to leave Eswatini again already. Two categorised climbs around halfway and the false flat finale could cause some trouble for the sprinters. It's a day that should suit men like Sagan and Barbero well.
Eduardo Sepúlveda and Søren Kragh Andersen got away early on the Eswatinian dirt roads. All other attacks were neutralized, so the two of them faced a seemingly hopeless situation.
Sepúlveda won the first KoM sprint but shortly afterwards their move stranded.
Five kilometers from the line, a group consisting of Restrepo, Haas, Italy's champion Fedi and Guo opened a small gap. To keep Barbero's chances alive, Quintana led the chase, keeping the gap at status quo, just 5".
The four were forced to give up on the slightly rising final straight, when Bilbao had taken over from Quintana. While Chávarri had to leave a gap, Barbero could start his sprint from a perfect position. Not a single opponent sat close.
We ended up securing a historic 1-2-3, with Barbero securing the biggest win of his career ahead of Bilbao and Chávarri. No time gap was awarded but our sprinter's win did result in him wearing the green jersey on tomorrow's stage.
Wow, RuralvÃa went absolutely wild there. Amazing historic 1-2-3. A bit surprise there were no time gaps here. But we all know how pcm counts those...
dominox wrote:
Wow, RuralvÃa went absolutely wild there. Amazing historic 1-2-3. A bit surprise there were no time gaps here. But we all know how pcm counts those...
Couldn't quite believe it myself when our 3-man train got the best of everyone, It's good to see Barbero was able to get something out of his good form already. If he keeps this up, who knows what might happen in the points standings...
Nine down, one to go before the rest day. A long and rather easy one, but we have seen GC men getting caught off guard on this kind of route before.
Breakaway consisted of five riders: Vichot, Nick Van Der Lijke, Creel, Krigbaum and Wout Van Aert. Their lead wouldn't get much bigger than 5 minutes.
Carlos Barbero fought for more points at both intermediate sprints. On both occasions he came second in the bunch, behind Marcel Kittel.
The breakaway was over with just under 10 kilometers to go. As the finale really suited Peter Sagan, that was whose wheel Carlos wanted to sit at.
However, he wound on the wrong side of the road, sitting at the back of Lotto-Soudal's train for Jasper Stuyven.
Lotto's train couldn't match the speed of Dimension Data's, yet the final sprint was still rather close. Sagan won ahead of Stuyven and Kittel. Carlos didn't have his best day and concluded in 6th, losing the green jersey to Stuyven again.
Tamijo wrote:
Splendid stage 9 in TDF - contratz - all in all a great start lets hope it will continue like this.
Always a great layout in your story but that transfer post was exceptional - lovely.
Thanks for the kind words, always appreciated.
Stage 9 was just exceptional. Barbero everything to fall together one time in order to be able to win, not being a top sprinter. Glad it did on stage 9. And then Chávarri climbing so well is another pleasant surprise.
Back at it again after a well-deserved but seemingly short rest day. Today's main difficulty was the Sani Pass, where the finish line at over 3000m would be crossed after a two stage climb.
A total of 12 riders broke away from the pack before the first KoM sprint, where our man Caicedo bagged the only point up for grabs. Afterwards, the group's lead grew to a maximum of around 9'30".
Barbero was taken by surprise at the first intermediate sprint, where Kittel took two points more than him. An attack near the second sprint made the point standings remain status quo after today.
The riders out front were still twelve at the foot of the .HC Sani Pass climb. Whilst Katusha didn't find another team to share the workload with, the gap was still down to 3'45".
The climb saw a dangerous trio of Simon Yates (GC 2nd), Pinot and Contador attack. Kelderman kept relying on his team to close the gap for now.
At that point Caicedo, Galtier, Sepúlveda and Le Lavandier rode clear at the front.
Sepúlveda turned out to be the strongest as he left Caicedo behind with 2.5 kms to the top.
Some 55" behind him, Chávarri tried to catch up with the three early attackers. He did so with the support of Dayer Quintana as they had dropped yellow jersey Kelderman.
Sepúlveda neared the shorter second stage of Sani Pass with an advantage of around a minute.
Caicedo didn't have the legs to follow the Argentinian and decided to drop back. So had Galtier, which made for a welcome situation for Contador, Pinot and Chávarri, as Simon Yates had been dropped.
As could have been expected, Sepúlveda was caught one the domestiques were done. Poels and Kelderman tried their best to limit the damages.
Pinot and Chávarri both blew up when Contador started his final sprint. The Spanish veteran landed what was only his first win of the season.
Chávarri ended up losing 30" to Contador and saw Poels bridge and pass him from behind. Fourth place did suffice to move into the polka dot jersey and second overall!
Second key mountain stage in a row, with a ride to AfriSki, one of the rare ski resort in (southern Africa). Before reaching the actuel ski station, conquering Moteng Pass and Mahlasela Pass will be needed.
Ahead of the first mountain sprint, a total of 10 riders broke free from the peloton. Among them were Caicedo, Kruijswijk, Kwiatkowski and KoM contenders Sepúlveda and Le Lavandier.
Caicedo had a long pull just ahead of the HC Moteng Pass, where their lead had come down to a little under 3'. As a result, Kragh Andersen, Meurisse, Biermans lost contact.
Still before the climb yesterday's winner, Alberto Contador, was involved in a crash. He got back on his bike soon yet it would be a big ask to catch up again with a pace that wasn't going to drop anymore.
Once on the climb, the breakaway was soon down to five. Our man Caicedo showed some signs of weakness on the steepest slopes 5 kms from the top.
In the pack, Bilbao started to pace when a group of decent non-GC climbers attacked. At that point the escapees had 5' again, with these chasers sitting 3' ahead of the bunch.
Contador had to let go with about 3 kms to the top. He'd end up losing almost 15 minutes. That way he saw what was probably a final chance to bag a record 6th overall win, vanish.
Caicedo couldn't stay with the strongest of the break, which were Kwiatkowski and Sepúlveda, the new KoM leader. They were joined by Lutsenko, who had bridged from the chasing group.
Our man sat in a group of four, about 1'45" in arrears. With a lot of accelerations happening in the bunch, their story was as good as over.
Lutsenko cracked first, and Sepúlveda and Kwiatkowski had the GC men on their heels too with just 1 km to the top of Mahlasela Pass.
Chávarri had another stunning day and decided to play his card then. No Pinot or Keldermand to follow him, just Wout Poels and Juan Pardo.
In the dying meters of the climb, Eder probably was a little too conservative with his efforts, seeing as the rest of the stage consisted of a very short downhill. He gave Poels a few meters and never could make up that gap again.
Poels eventually won by 32". Eder came second and took a handful of seconds on the next group. Poels does pass him in the GC, but he's put quite some time into better time trialists such as Pinot and Van Garderen.
Tour de France (2.GT) 
Colombia
