Miguel98 wrote:
Again, Brajkovic proves to be the stronger but i think if Urán didn't had fall and lost 8 minutes, it could have another result.
Brajkovic is the Gilbert of this story. He cannot do a 3 week race or be there in the mountains but give him some hills and he will do wonders. Surely he will be the favorite for the Fleche Wallonne and the GP Quebec this season.
Straight after the Vuelta al Pais Vasco the riders face the Paris-Roubaix. The route of the Paris - Roubaix will change a bit compared to that of two years ago, but it is always similar enough. The race this year arrives after two cobbled races, Jelle Vanendert won the E3 Prijs and Oscar Freire did the same in the Gent - Wevelgem. We don't have the hills here, so a slightly different profile of rider has better chances.
Favorites:
- Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto-Belisol): Leukemans is doing a great cobbles season, as he was 4th in the E3 Prijs and 2nd in Gent - Wevelgem. However, he keeps looking for his first win this season. Paris - Roubaix is surely the safest bet for the Belgian.
- Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep): Quickstep and Chavanel are doing a great season. The French has already won 1 stage at the Volta a Catalunya, was 3rd overall in Paris - Nice and 3rd in the Gent - Wevelgem. However, he has also suffered falls in Catalunya and Pais Vasco that made him retire from both races. This raises questions on the fitness of Chavanel ahead of Paris - Roubaix.
- Oscar Freire (Rabobank): Oscar Freire will start the race in Compiegne full of confidence after his win in Wevelgem. Rabobank is in much need of the points that Freire can get, as the rest of the team isn't performing especially well.
- Lars Ytting Bak (Liquigas): Liquigas has had a terrible start of the year and they need to turn things around quickly. The Lars Ytting Bak and Alessandro Ballan duo should give them plenty of chances to start adding good results in the Paris - Roubaix as they are both good cobblers.
The route of the Paris - Roubaix doesn't change much from one year to another. The length is close to 270 kilometers with around 55 of them in cobbled sections. In this case there are no hills as in the other cobbled classics that we have seen this year in the World Tour, but this is the race in the calendar with more cobbles.
The race didn't start in the best way for Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto), as he suffered a fall with 156 kilometers to go. It was only the fourth paved section but even though he recovered quickly enough it is always difficult to compete after a crash.
The break of the day never had much hope of making it to the finish, as none of the 6 riders are good over the cobbles. In the group were riders like Eros Capecchi (Lampre), Chris Anker Sorensen (Saxo Bank) or Michele Scarponi (Radioshack). With 70 kilometers to go they still had 4 minutes on the bunch.
Lotto started working hard in the front of the bunch with 55 kilometers to go. Only 38 riders remained in the front group with 42 to go, as another section of cobbles ended. Beñat Intxausti (Katusha) and Taylor Phinney (Euskaltel) suffered falls and are not in this group. Meanwhile, the break only has 1' 15'' on this reduced group.
Quickstep was blocking the race with 20 kilometers to go, as they didn't let any of the late attacks suceed. They had 8 riders in the front group and seemed confident on Chavanel's speed in this reduced group sprint.
The worst news for Chavanel happened with only 8 kilometers to the finish. He lost control of his bike and crashed on the slippery road. Even though many of his teammates waited for the French, it would be almost impossible to bring him back into contention for the win.
A total of 37 riders entered the velodrome after 270 kilometers of racing. Rabobank and Lotto were the dominant forces in terms of number of riders with almost full squads for both of them.
Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank) was the first to start the sprint, behind him came Jose Joaquin Rojas, Roman Kreuziger and Lloyd Mondory. The Dutch opened a gap that would be difficult to close for the faster sprinters.
Lieuwe Westra wins in Roubaix! Massive surprise as the rookie Lieuwe Westra wins the 2011 Paris - Roubaix. The Rabobank rider started sprinting far from the finish but when the strongest sprinters wanted to react the Dutch was out of their reach. Behind Westra came two Lotto riders to complete the podium: Jose Joaquin Rojas and Miguel Angel Rubiano.
A disappointing race for many of the favorites, as crashes hampered the chances of Chavanel and Leukemans. Meanwhile, Freire could only be fourth in the final sprint and Bak was only 10th. The main winners of this Paris - Roubaix are the teams Rabobank, with three riders in the top 10, and Lotto, with 4.
Alexandre Vinokourov has been the main alternative to Tyler Farrar in the sprints so far. He is also the points jersey specialist, as he was able to grab it in Tirreno - Adriatico and Tour of Poland last year and Paris - Nice and Volta a Catalunya this year. He accumulates as many as 11 stage wins, with 2 in the Tour de France and 2 in the Vuelta a España.
Vinokourov has lately been trying to improve his puncheur skills, as the dominance of Farrar in the mass sprints is big. However, the Kazakh usually has an edge in stages that end with hills, as he goes past them much easier than the American.
Vinokourov's main target for this season will be to win stages in the Giro di Italia. The points jersey will be difficult to get in a very tough route, but Vino will be in the chase. The Kazakh can also be a threat in the next Fleche Wallonne. He will have to work hard to stay with the front group, but if he manages to hold on he will be one of the candidates in the uphill sprint in Huy.
Wins:
2009
- 1st Stages 14 and 15 Tour de France
- 1st Mountain Jersey Tour de France
2010
- 1st Stages 5 and 6 Santos Tour Down Under
- 1st Points Jersey Santos Tour Down Under
- 1st Stages 1 and 3 Tirreno - Adriatico
- 1st Points Jersey Tirreno - Adriatico
- 1st Stage 1 Tour of Poland
- 1st Stages 16 and 21 Vuelta a España
2011
- 1st Stage 1 Paris - Nice
- 1st Points Jersey Paris - Nice
- 1st Stage 5 Volta a Catalunya
- 1st Points Jersey Volta a Catalunya
Other notable results:
- 6th 2009 Tour de France
- 2nd 2010 Santos Tour Down Under
- 4th 2010 Tirreno - Adriatico
- 9th 2010 Milano - Sanremo
- 6th 2010 Tour of Poland
- 5th 2010 Vattenfall Cyclassics
- 2nd 2011 E3 Prijs Vlaanderen
The classics continue with another travel to Belgium. This time there are no cobbles though, as we head to the Ardennes. The set of favorites will therefore be different for this Fleche Wallonne than in the last classics. This is the first time that the Belgian classic appears in the story, but last year we could watch the Liege - Bastogne - Liege. The local Dries Devenyns (Quickstep) was the winner ahead of Filippo Pozzato and Jose Joaquin Rojas.
Favorites:
- Bjorn Leukemans (Lotto - Belisol): The Belgian is a bit disappointed after a fall hampered his chances of taking a win in Paris - Roubaix. The season of Leukemans has not been bad at all, but he is still missing a win. Although he would prefer to have some cobbles, the Fleche Wallonne is still a great chance for him.
- Janez Brajkovic (Discovery Channel): Brajkovic is having a tremendous season so far, as he was able to win the Vuelta al Pais Vasco and came 2nd in the Paris - Nice. He is the first in the World Tour so far, so he will get a good lead if he is able to make a good job in Belgium.
- Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma - Quickstep): The Belgian is the last year winner of the Liege - Bastogne - Liege. This year has been quite successful so far, after he made a good team with Sylvain Chavanel. The French had the leading role in the cobbles but the Belgian will be the main rider for this Ardennes classic.
- Filippo Pozzato (Lampre - ISD): Pozzato has been disappeared this season, with only a 5th in the E3 Prijs as remarkable result. Lampre is in great need of points, as they are only 13th overall in the World Tour rankings.
The Fleche Wallone is a fairly hilly classic that centers most of its route around the Mur de Huy. The tough hill in the Belgian town will be climbed as many as 3 times. The length of the race is not very long at 201 kilometers, but it is quite tough, especially in the last kilometers.
The break of the day soon opened a big gap. The group had 9 riders, including Alberto Contador (Euskaltel), Jakob Fuglsang (Radioshack), Lieuwe Westra (Rabobank, the winner of Paris - Roubaix) and Nick Nuyens (Saxo Bank). In the first climb to the Mur de Huy, with 100 kilometers to go, they still had 7' 10'' on the bunch.
Lotto had taken the responsibility to chase the break with around 45 kilometers to the finish. The gap started decreasing and was 3' 25'' with 32 km to go. That is when the high pace started to take its toll in the group leaving many riders behind.
Jakob Fuglsang decided to attack from the break with 17 kilometers to go. The Danish is a good classics rider, but not a good friend of the hills. Behind the rest of the break, the favorites group (25 riders) comes 2' 50'' behind the Radioshack rider.
The group of favorites was even slimmer with 10 kilometers to go. Only thirteen riders were in it, as some of the outsiders like the World Champion Joost van Leijen (Rabobank) and Pieter Weening (HTC) didn't make it in this cut. Ahead, Fuglsang is leading with 25'' on Vincenzo Nibali; 50'' on the others in the break and 2' 10'' on this group.
Jakob Fuglsang reaches the last climb with 35'' on his followers, so he has a good chance of winning the Fleche Wallonne. The group of favorites is meanwhile closing in the riders that were in the break.
Nibali was caught halfway through the climb as the group of favorites closed in the men in the break lead by Damiano Cunego and Bjorn Leukemans. Jakob Fuglsang is still comfortably ahead.
Janez Brajkovic wins in Huy! The Discovery Channel rider grabs the win in the Fleche Wallonne in the same month he took the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. Jakob Fuglsang cracked on the tough last kilometer and could only be fourth in the finish line.
Joining Brajkovic in the podium will be Bjorn Leukemans and Dries Devenyns. The two Belgians were denied by the Slovenian in the last meters of the race. Leukemans launched the last attack but could held on to his lead when Brajkovic started the last sprint. Leukemans has now been second twice this season, here and in Wevelgem, but is still looking for the win.
The last grand tour to appear in our story is the Giro di Italia. The Italian race has been the most mountanious race among the 3 week races lately, as it takes advantage of the Apenines, Alps and Dolomites to make wonderful stages. The riders will face mountains from the island of Sicilia, where they will face the Mount Etna, to the Alps and Dolomites, where big colossus like the Finestre, Fedaia, or Zoncolan will have the leading role.
Favorites:
- Hubert Dupont (Saxo Bank): The French has won the two Grand Tours raced so far, so he has to be the main favorite for this Giro. He is probably the best climber in the world. However, he hasn't been successful this year so far as his best result of the season so far is the 8th overall in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco.
- Bauke Mollema (Vacansoleil - DMC): The Dutch has made a huge step forward this year. He still has to prove himself in a 3 week race, but he already won the Volta a Catalunya and was 4th in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco. He might not be as good a climber as Dupont is but he could be in the leading group.
- Jelle Vanendert (Lotto - Belisol): Jelle Vanendert has a great team behind him, but that also means that he doesn't get the leading role in the team in many races. However, he was able to grab the win at the E3 Prijs. In the last Vuelta a España he was 4th, only 1 minute away from the podium.
- Pieter Weening (HTC - Highroad): Weening was very close to winning his first Grand Tour last year in the Vuelta a España. However, he lost it in a stage that wasn't supposed to be a threat in the last week. He has already had some good results this year, as the 5th in the Volta a Catalunya and the 3rd in the E3 Prijs.
The Giro starts with a short team time trial in Torino to start setting up the order of the riders in the GC. TTTs are always unfair to good riders in bad teams, as cycling is mainly an individual sport. The time differences that can be made are not very big, as the stage is only 19 kilometers long.
Lotto was only the second team to hit the road in Venaria Reale for the opening stage of the Giro. The beat Liquigas time in the intermediate point but were unable to do so in the finish line, where they lost 8 seconds to the Italian team.
HTC was the next team to arrive in the finish line and they couldn't improve Liquigas time. However, they only fell 1 second short. This will be a good sign for Pieter Weening, as his only target was to lose as few time as possible today.
Saxo Bank did a good job for Dupont after setting the same time as Liquigas in the finish line. The Danish team had only set the 4th time in the intermediate point but their second part of the time trial was very strong.
RadioShack started the Giro very strong, as they were able to improve the time set by Liquigas in 2 seconds. They were the main favorites before the stage started and they delivered, as they have good time trialists like Marco Pinotti and Jean-Christophe Peraud.
Euskaltel's aim was not to lose much time and they delivered. The Spanish team ended losing 9 seconds on the provisional leader, RadioShack. It wasn't much, so this leaves Tondo in a good position to start the Giro.
Rabobank did a good job on losing only 6 seconds to RadioShack on the team time trial. The Dutch team was 5th when they crossed the finish line in Torino. Rabobank don't have a real contender for the GC, so they will be looking for individual wins in the race.
Katusha has just improved the best intermediate time just before Vacansoleil clocked the second time, 2 seconds behind the Russians. However, both teams failed in the second part of the stage. The Dutch team could only be 11th when they crossed the line 25 seconds slower than RadioShack.
Discovery Channel was the last of the candidates to hit the road. The American team never was among the first in the timesheets and they ended grabbing the 11th spot 10 seconds behind RadioShack.
RadioShack were the winners of a time trial were they were the pre-race favorites. The first leader of the Giro di Italia will be Frank Schleck, as the Luxembourgish was the first to cross the finish line. Among the favorites, Bauke Mollema had the worst time, 25 seconds behind Frank Schleck.
A marathon awaits the riders for the second stage of the Giro. The route of the race is really flat, but its length seems more like a Milano Sanremo than a Grand Tour stage. The main sprinters will be the favorites, but they will need some stamina to fight in the probable mass sprint.
The brave 4 riders that tried a breakaway today were Alberto Contador (Euskaltel), Thomas Voeckler (Movistar), Yauheni Hutarovich (Lampre) and Ben Hermans (Discovery). They had a big gap of 9 minutes on the bunch with 120 kilometers to go, but the chasing had already started in the main group.
Alberto Contador will wear the first mountain jersey of the Giro, as he goes first through the only climb of the day. The break is however about to end, as the peloton goes through the KoM sprint only 50 seconds later.
With 10 kilometers remaining everything looks set for a mass sprint in the bunch. There has been moderate wind all through the stage but no team has wanted to start a battle on this last kilometers of the stage.
Lampre had the best train approaching the finish in Parma, therefore John Degenkolb was first halfway through the sprint followed by Alexandre Vinokourov, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Denis Menchov. The Saxxo duo of Farrar and Goss didn't seem to feel good today for the sprint.
Jose Joaquin Rojas wins in Parma! The Spaniard got past Vinokourov and Degenkolb to claim his first win since Plouay last year. Behind Rojas came Vinokourov and Degenkolb. It seems like the long stage weighed a bit too much on the two of them and Rojas is more of a classics rider.
We also had a change of leader, as Jakob Fuglsang took the pink jersey on the positions over Frank Schleck. Rojas has now jumped to third overall with the same time, as he got 10 bonus seconds at the finish.
Today’s stage takes the riders west towards the town of Rapallo, next to the Tirreno Sea. The route will be fairly easy but has a small trap within the 10 last kilometers: the climb to Madonna delle Grazie. This short climb will probably upset sprinters and will give the chance to a puncheur of taking the win.
The break of the day took a lot of time to take shape, as he riders took the first 40 kilometers of the race easy. The 4 riders in the break were Davide Rebellin (Movistar), Giacomo Nizzolo (Sky), Stefan Van Dijk (Rabobank) and Thomas de Gendt (Quickstep). They soon opened a gap of 5 minutes with around 100 kilometers to go.
Alessandro Petacchi (Vacansoleil) was able to bridge the gap with the front group in the climb to the Passo del Bocco. However, the bunch was already starting to chase and went through the top only 1 minute later.
One of the best climbers in the field, Frank Schleck (Radioshack), suffered a fall in the descent. With only 26 kilometers remaining and considering the high pace in the peloton he will surely lose some time at the finish.
Filippo Pozzato was the first to attack in the climb to Madonna delle Grazie but Brajkovic went past him before the sprint. The Slovenian had a few seconds on Pozzato and Uran at the top. However, they lost their advantage on the short descent.
Four riders got a small advantage after the last small hill before the finish and they seemed ready to fight for the win: Tiago Machado (Euskaltel), Pavel Brutt (Katusha), Carlos Barredo (Katusha) and Ben Swift (Sky).
Tiago Machado wins in Rapallo! The Portuguese takes his first win in two years after remaining ahead in the sprint over Barredo. Third arrived the Sky rider Ben Swift as the main sprinters lost their positions in the last two climbs.
Machado will now take the pink jersey by only 1 second on the bonus time he got today at the finish. Frank Schleck was the main loser of the stage, as he crossed the finish line almost 5 minutes behind the winner. This makes the target of a top 10 difficult for the Luxembourgish.
