Good to see that Kangert tried his best. Why did Porte do so much chasing on him? Seemed like he did all the work for Movistar.
Brillant performance by Chaves. And nice to see that La Pomme Marseille got the mountain jersey for good.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Porte actually wasn't really chasing at all, he just followed Kangert's attack Quintana was the one who prevented others from opening gaps. He could probably have won the stage easily, but was helping Valverde instead.
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Gent - Wevelgem: Preview March 24th, 2014
Although the parcours is less challenging than the one in E3, I think it's safe to say that we've arrived at the biggest cobbled classic so far. As usual, the question is 'will we see an aggressive race or a sprinter's one?'.
Several protagonists from E3 - including winner Philippe Gilbert and a very strong Sep Vanmarcke - and Peter Sagan - who continues to skip the cobbled races - are missing, but we still have a number of riders capable of turning this into a hell for the sprinters.
Cancellara and Boonen are both here, but will have to look less at each other and more toward other favourites if they want to avoid making the same mistake they did in E3. There's of course always Stybar again for OPQS, in case Boonen were to get into some sort of trouble.
Others worth looking out for are those who are both strong on the cobbles and relatively quick in the sprint - given that the last 30 km of the race could see groups merging before the finish. Kristoff, Van Avermaet and Degenkolb are some examples of dangerous riders in that situation.
We shouldn't forget that there's always the chance of a pure sprinter surviving all the way, however. Cavendish will probably have to work for Boonen, but riders like Greipel and Goss could be tricky.
Lots of climbing today, with the finish located atop the increasingly infamous Col de l'Ospedale (6.0% during 14.4 km)
Race leader Brett Lancaster has no chance whatsoever of defending the jersey, so it's going to be an interesting fight for overall victory. 2nd placed Cameron Meyer wont necessarily drop easily if he has a good day!
Right from the beginning and throughout the entire day, a majority of the pacemaking is done by La Pomme Marseille. Julien Antomarchi, Antoine Lavieu and Guillaume Levarlet are taking the turns, and many riders - including the yellow jersey - start falling backwards already on the category 3 climbs.
Moving to the start of Ospedale, the situation is the same - except that it is now only Levarlet pacing, followed by Koretzky, Taaramae and Kwiatkowski.
A number of riders are trying to escape and establish an early advantage for the rest of the climb, but they are unable to distance the fast peloton.
The gradient increases shortly afterwards however, and the first serious move is made by 5th overall, Sergey Firsanov.
None other than Pozzovivo leads the chase. Kwiatkowski marks closely.
Pretty soon, the chasing group is reduced to those two, plus Pierre Rolland and Daniel Navarro.
Pieter Weening manages to pull Cam Meyer back to them, so Kwiatkowski makes a new acceleration and drops everyone but Pozzovivo.
They're still not really making any ground on Firsanov though, so Pozzovivo sets off to cross the gap on his own.
He does go straight into the lead, and Kwiatkowski is struggling to make contact again. Firsanov on the other hand, only continues to amaze.
Following Pozzovivo clearly forced him to go into the red zone for a long time though, and he is forced to pay the price just before the final kilometer.
Kwiatkowski seems to have kept the most in reserve of the three leaders, as he sheds Firsanov and starts closing the gap to Pozzovivo inside the final kilometer.
The overall is going to be so close! Pozzovivo needs 12 seconds of actual time in addition to the stage win to pass Kwiatkowski, and the gap is hovering between 10 and 15 seconds...
One thing definitely belongs to the Italian: the stage win!
Navarro, Rolland and Weening finish together for place 4 through 6, more than a minute behind Pozzovivo.
Meyer was unhitched inside the final kilometer and consequently gets passed by Weening in the overall. Navarro and Rolland stay behind.
Another 25 seconds down the road comes Taaramae, who rode most of the climb all by himself. Thansk to a massive gap to the riders following him, he finishes 8th in the overall as well as on the stage!
The official results are in the meantime in. Pozzovivo's gap is... 8 seconds!
Thrilling battle for seconds! For a moment, i though he won't make it, but the final km must have been awesome then. Also to follow, i mean
So congrats! Great reporting as always and yet another good race for LP. I've always been kind of a fan of Taaramäe, so its nice to see him inside the Top-10
That was really close but good to see that La Pomme Marseille's plan of making the hard from the beginning paid off. Kwiatkowski clearly kept his nerves in that last climb and was rewarded for it in the end.
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
Big breakaway this morning. 13 riders in total, including - for instance - Linus Gerdemann, Theo Bos and Evaldas Siskevicius.
They eventually become 17, however. Gatis Smukulis leads a new move on the Casselberg, and brings Mathew Hayman, Steve Chainel and Ion Izagirre across to the leaders with around 80 km to the finish.
It's all part of our plan for today, and now Siskevicius goes to the front to distance the main field, in favour of Smukulis.
The tactics are the very same as used in Spain a couple of days ago, but this time it's looking far more promising. After the final climb of the Kemmelberg - 35 km from the finish - the peloton is more than five minutes down!
Siskevicius is spent, but luckily the other breakaway members are starting to feel that this could go all the way!
OPQS and Trek aren't really bothering to make a serious effort back in the main field, so the breakaway's chances continue to increase with every kilometer passing without much of a change to the gap.
Tactics are now starting to come into play for the leaders as well, and Laurens De Vreese is the first to launch an attack, 20 km out.
He stays up front for several kilometers, but Izagirre finally manages to shut the gap on a small climb 15 km from the finish.
His effort also causes the group to shrink even further from the size the Kemmelberg reduced it to. Siskevicius is completely blown away, and Smukulis unfortunately also has to let go due to bad daily form. Jack Bauer, Andrea Palini and Chainel are also dropped.
Meanwhile at the front, there's a new attack - this time from Izagirre.
The incredibly allround Spaniard has looked like the strongest ever since the Kemmelberg, and it looks like this could be the decisive move!
The pursuers try to contain him at first, but it doesn't take very long until it becomes obvious that they are unable to match and give up.
With a magnificent solo escape, Izagirre claims an extremely surprising victory for Movistar!
The most unexpected podium in any race in a long time is completed by Vyacheslav Kuznetsov and Alessandro De Marchi. Tony Hurel and the previously aggressive De Vreese should also be very satisfied.
Bauer wins the sprint for 6th. Smukulis is an excellent 8th, but it could've been so much more if things had only turned out a little different.
We may have missed a top result, but Siskevicius consoles a bit by holding on to 10th place.
Two in the top 10 is far better than we could ever have done if we had tried to race with the favourites, so I still think our aggressive tactics worked out exceptionally well in the end!
Cancellara and Stybar were the strongest among the favourites, but 11th and 13th was all they could achieve today - despite successfully escaping.
Skujins also rode a fine race, and crowned it by finishing 20th.
Fucking A - Ion Izagirre!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's what I want to do with him too, but no luck so far in Gora Euskadi. What's his stats? Strong races by Smukulis and Siskevicius too of course, but shame the daily form didn't quite hold up. Riding aggressively surely paid off here in Gent - Wevelgem for La Pomme Marseille though. Favourites once more take initiative too late, or even fail completely at doing so .
Edited by Shonak on 29-12-2013 23:30
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
He has plenty of good results recently, so his strength was mostly thanks to incredible form, I'm guessing.
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Volta Ciclista a Catalunya: Stage 7 March 24th, 2014
This drawn-out race is finally coming to an end. It hasn't been particularly good for us, but the KoM jersey makes up for the missing overall result slightly.
It will also be interesting to see who wins the stage. Can Moreno perhaps make up for losing the overall by taking a second mass sprint?
We'll see. It's definitely going to be a mass sprint finish, since Marcel Wyss has no chance of staying away as the only escapee today.
The usual teams form trains. Jules is trying to help Martinez, but Lotto, Belkin and Orica-GreenEdge have much more firepower.
The earlier so strong OGE train is surprisingly the weakest this time. Entering the final kilometer, it looks like Hofland vs. Dehaes.
He has failed miserably to finish off his team's leadouts earlier in the race, but today everything falls into place and Moreno Hofland wins the stage!
A little further back, Martinez takes his highest finish of the race: 5th
The other man of the day is Valverde, who gets his revenge on Moreno after falling short to him in Paris-Nice a couple of weeks ago.
baseballlover312, 06-03-14 : "Nuke Moscow...Don't worry Russia, we've got plenty of love to go around your cities"
Sarah Palin, 08-03-14 (CPAC, on Russian aggression) : "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke"
Big thanks to jdog for making this AMAZING userbar!
The next race on the calendar was supposed to be Driedaagse van de Panne, but the AI frustrated me into simulating the entire race. Skujins in 10th overall was the highest placed La Pomme rider, while Cancellara claimed the win.
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Ronde van Vlaanderen: Preview March 31st, 2014
After complaints from basically every cycling fan in the world, the race organisation have finally made some changes to the disappointing Oude Kwaremont + Paterberg circuit route. It's still not as good as in the old days, but they have at least eliminated one lap from the circuit, pushing other climbs closer to the finish.
Kwaremont and Paterberg will still decide the outcome, of course.
Spoiler
1
Tom Boonen
OmegaPharma - Quickstep
6h49'12
2
Geraint Thomas
Sky Professional Cycling Team
+ 1'15
3
Peter Sagan
Cannondale Cycling
s.t.
4
Björn Leukemans
Vacansoleil - DCM
s.t.
5
Johan Vansummeren
Garmin - Sharp
s.t.
6
Stijn Devolder
Radioshack - Trek
+ 2'07
7
Sep Vanmarcke
Blanco Pro Cycling
+ 3'04
8
Filippo Pozzato
Lampre - Merida
s.t.
9
Oscar Gatto
Vini Fantini - Selle Italia
+ 4'17
10
Andrey Amador
Movistar Team
+ 5'45
11
Jean-Lou Paiani
La Pomme - Bouygues
s.t.
In all fairness though, last year's edition wasn't that bad. Peter Sagan looked sure of victory on the Oude Kwaremont, but an incredibly strong Tom Boonen came across and past on the Paterberg.
Other than that, the outcome was very unexpected. Second tier riders stepped up and performed very well, while favourites like Fabian Cancellara and Juan Antonio Flecha failed miserably.
If the previous classics are anything to judge from, the scene looks set for a four-way battle between OPQS duo Boonen/Stybar, Cancellara and Vanmarcke. All of them have been consistently good so far, and surely wont let long-range attackers slip away with the victory once again.
The goal for us is a top 15, but last year's 11th will be very hard to equal. Paiani will at least assume the leading role, after spending all races up until now sharpening his form. And who knows what Kwiatkowski can do?
Quintana was the one who prevented others from opening gaps. He could probably have won the stage easily, but was helping Valverde instead.
Gent - Wevelgem: Preview
Critérium International: Stage 3
Riding aggressively surely paid off here in Gent - Wevelgem for La Pomme Marseille though. Favourites once more take initiative too late, or even fail completely at doing so .
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya: Stage 7
