A relative huge breakaway form over the first short climb, Dementyev (ISD – Jorbi), Simón (Verva), Fredyuk (Amore), Surutkovych (Synergy Baku), Kustadinchev (Gazprom), Gretchyn (Torku Seker), Plucinski (CCC), and Vdovin (Lokosphinx).
It is mainly IAM Cycling setting pace in the peloton, but also Katusha, Stölting and Astana is helping form time to time. The breakaway never get more that around 2’30”.
12 km to the line.
The breakaway has now under one minute, as the sprint trains are about to form.
A Stölting riders in front, then IAM.
Astana’s Malacarne swings of to the left, now it is race leader Fuglsang giving back to his team, he is leading in front of Valerio Agnoli and Alexey Lutsenko.
5 km left.
The breakaway still has 36 sec., but the trains are coming fast, they need to increase pace to make it.
Astana still led by Fuglsang, have taken a long curve, sitting in the far left side close to the front.
Fuglsang swings of at 2 km, Valerio Agnoli opens for Alexey Lutsenko
Faster riders share the podium, Fabian Wegmann wins Baku Circuit in front of Eduard Vorganov and Leigh Howard.
The two Astana riders finish 4th and 5th.
Evaluation Stage:
Overall:
This was the 1nd season win by the 35 years old German Fabian Wegmann, and his first win since he won the German National Championship (RR) back in 2012.
Might be just a little disappointing that IAM “just” got the last podium, considering the squad they had for this one.
Astana:
Astana very satisfied, with two in top 5.
Evaluation Race:
Overall:
2nd season win for Fuglsang, after his stage win yesterday.
All the top teams did fairly well, the biggest surprise was Kristijan Đurasek taking a podium, clearly out preforming teammate Ilia Koshevoy, based on constant result on the hard stages, 2nd at Ismayilly and 7th at Priqula.
Astana:
Astana was favorite here, and after a bad 2nd to Ismayilly, everything turned out perfect. Two stages, the GC, Team classification & the Youth Jersey
Editorial note
Fast reports are a new concept I will use sometimes, to speed up the story and limit the confusion of to many races running simultaneously.
It will not be simulated
We may even win it, as I can’t tell what will happen when I decide not to screenshot, but it will be races where we have limited possibilities.
May be a little text box, if something very important happens, mostly not.
It will never be World Tour
7/5-8/5 2016 Vuelta Ciclista Comunidad de Madrid 2.1
Astana:
Alessandro Vanotti - Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev - Daniil Fominykh
Diego Rosa - Lieuwe Westra - Luis León Sánchez
Maxat Ayazbayev - Oleg Zemlyakov
A sunny day, wind speed’s very unstable from 5-30 km/h.
After some failed attempts a breakaway start to get some distance, it is Cédric Pineau (FDJ), Blel Kadri (Ag2r), Stefano Pirazzi (Bardiani) and Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal).
Close to the intermediate sprint, also Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Androni ) attacks and after a while be joins the break. With 150 km left they got 3’30
Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) lead the pack, another sign that his team do not expect him to be the best sprinter in their squad.
The distance seems to settle around 4 minutes.
With about 95 km left also Antonio Viola (Nippo) has attacked and joined the breakaway, when they start the clims to Bonafati (6.4 km at 5.9%) they got 2’36.
In the peloton Yury Trofimov (Tinkoff) is pushing very hard on the climb. Astana’s race favourite Nibali is in trouble falling back on the climb, when the peloton split over the top he is in the 2nd half, more than 1 minute behind the race leader.
Nibali gets back to the favourite group but he is not looking good, Michele Scarponi is fighting hard to preserve what energy his captain may have left, to get them over next obstacle San Pietro (5.3 km at 6.7%).
Nibali manages to stay with the favourite group (71 riders) over the top and gain a little strength on the descent.
In the front of the peloton Dario Cataldo has very good legs, looking around he realise he may be the only one.
On one of the smaller hill’s with 20 km to the line he accelerated, completely ignoring his earplug shouting that Nibali is in trouble. He passes Blel Kadri the last rider left from the breakaway.
With 15 km left he got 1’12 to the favorites.
Starting the last uncatagorized hill Saracinello (1.9 km at 7.6%) Dario Cataldo has 1’09, with 10 km to the line.
Over the top there is an attack in the peloton, 7 riders has opened a small gap of 25 sec. The attack was started by Caruso (BMC), immediately countered by race leader Urán (Cannondale) and Villella (Cannondale).
Now also López, Pozzovivo (Ag2r), Formolo (Cannondale), Porte (BMC) and Amador (Movistar) is very close.
Nibali is very close to hitting a wall, he can’t react.
7.6 km to the line for the favourites, 6.8 km for Cataldo still more than a minute ahead.
Dario Cataldo claim a solo victory at the stage to Praia a Mare, teammate Miguel Ángel López has the best legs in the favourite group beating Domenico Pozzovivo in a very close fight for 2nd.
Evaluation:
Overall:
This was the 2rd season win from 31 years old, Italian Dario Cataldo, after he also won the General classification in Settimana Internazionale Coppi e Bartali back in March.
This win it a highlight in Cataldo’s career only comparable with a stage win from Vuelta a España back in 2012.
This was an unusual stage, where many of the favorites was in trouble, only two of the pre-stage top 10 favorites made it (Urán 4th, and Porte 7th) In the end though most of the favorites got the same time.
But there were some interesting time losses: Kruijswijk and Ulissi 2’41”, Kelderman 7'07”, Aru 11’07”, Barguil 20’14”.
The giro lost one rider today Roy Curvers (Giant - Alpecin), he crashed and will be out for several months.
Astana:
Cataldo took a risk today, if he did not win the stage, we would be in a very bad standing with the team.
This stage was a success, but it was very close to become a complete disaster, Nibali showed a weakness we don’t want to see again.
Another pleasant spring day in Italy, sunny with almost no wind.
Yves Lampaert (Quick Step) opens the stage, turning into a 6 riders break, but they are caught.
When the peloton starts the long climb to Fortino (23.3 km at 3.0%) Lampaert tries again, now with Filippo Pozzato (Southeast) and Hugo Houle (Ag2r).
Lampaert win the KoM sprint. The distance is 3’58” over the top.
After the climb also Adam Hansen (Lotto Soudal) joins the breakaway.
He is now the best placed rider in the break 64th at 5’21”
With 150 km to the line the distance is 6’41”
Cannondale have taken is lead of the peloton, and the pace get a bit higher.
With 120 km left 5’32” and with 100 km left 4’50”
In the last hard climb Macchia del Monte (5.8 km at 5.5) Cannondale is now setting a very hard pace.
As we saw yesterday, Nibali even though in top form is lagging “freshness”, with a long stage like this, his energy of dropping quickly, he may have a another problem just to get to the line.
The distance is reduced to just 1’58” over the top, about 55 km to the line.
It is Lampaert and Houle first under the 10 km banner, but with just 36” to the peloton, they will be caught soon.
Cataldo and Kangert are leading Andrea Guardini forward to take part in the expected mass sprint.
With Michele Scarponi and Vincenzo Nibali is fighting at the back to get safely to the line. Fabio Aru also fighting bad “freshness” has already given up now minutes behind the peloton.
Michele Scarponi and Vincenzo Nibali lost contact on the last climb. The pace is also too much for Astana’s sprint train, they never get into the final.
José Joaquin Rojas with the stage in front of teammate Juan Jose Lobato, Grega Bole takes the last podium.
Evaluation:
Overall:
This was the 3rd season win from 30 years old, Spanish José Joaquín Rojas, after he also won Grand Prix Cycliste la Marseillaise and a stage in Etoile de Bessèges, both in February
All the top favorite teams did fairly well, getting riders in top ten.
Today’s positive surprice was Grega Bole from Nippo - Vini Fantini, not a rider you would expect to see on the podium at this level.
The Giro lost another rider today, Jakub Mareczko from Southeast – Venezuela, he withdrew without injuries.
Astana:
The stage was a disaster for Astana, Nibali lost a stunning 3'43” on a stage that should be quite easy.
Astana can only hope his “freshness” will be a lot better on the coming stages and that he has the power to attack, fighting his way back into the GC.
Ya, Nibal & Aru - have no "freshness" (whatever that is) so even though they are in super perfect form they are racing at a level of a domestic.
Edited by Tamijo on 01-05-2017 11:15
Nibali lost another 5'22" on the next again just semihard stage.
This will compleetly ruin the sponsers trust in the team - already not to good at this point and the Giro was the prime target.
So based on the fact that I did not and still don't understand "freshness", not to mention that it would turn a Super Form rider into someone who even though protected can't stay with the peloton, it is impossiable to continue the story at a level where it is fun for me and the readers.
Just this last comment :
Tour of Oman (2.HC) - GC 1st - Michele Scarponi - Rest In Peace
Oh, it's still fun for me, I'm not a big Astana fan anyway.
Apart from that: What a disaster! Looks to me like one of those hidden injuries. You could use an editor and check fitness_i_handicap in the table dyn_cyclist. Change it or even use a weekly save - better than giving up on the story. And if you consider that cheating, I think you should continue anyway. I believe you haven't fulfilled many sponsor goals yet and maybe Astana will be upset, but that will only reduce the wage budget somewhat. You can still bounce back with good results later this season.
Thanks for all your support - You make me seriously consider continuing, and just see what happens, at least to the end of season. (a bit angry with the game though, as it all seems unreal, losing 4-5 minutes on a mountain would be cool, but not running dry half way trough a flat/hilly.)
@Ripley: It's both Nibali & Aru cant be an injury, must be the "freshness"
@AbhishekLFC: No - but im worried it might be the same on every GT, I made the "AI" set the goals and training - seems to be a very bad idea.
Anyway I think i will continue this, in the near future - even though I would also like to do a "be a pro" story.
4/5-8/5 2016 Tour d'Azerbaïdjan 2.1
7/5-8/5 2016 Vuelta Ciclista Comunidad de Madrid 2.1
6/5-28/5 2016 Giro d'Italia
