Settimana Coppi e Bartali, Stage 3 - Review

I have to say that I was flattered reading the favourites of the day and to see Evald as the no.1. Though I think they will be wrong, as I’m not waiting for the sprint.

The day started well, soon my riders had found a good position early on, ready for today’s challenges. Without anyone going for the breakaway, I decided to give it a go myself instead of waiting for someone to tail, so O.Petersen was sent away, and to my surprise, no one followed him!

When Petersen had got a minute on the peloton I slowed down, so the distance wouldn’t increase anymore. No way he was riding this stage on his own. Soon another man attacked himself up to Petersen, that man was Daniele Aldegheri, riding for Christina Watches - Onfone.

Not long after 3 new guys joins up for todays breakaway, just in time for the intermediate sprint. Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Ben Greenwood (Team IG - Sigma Sport) and Luigi Miletta (YellowFluo - Selle Italia)

O.Petersen are by no doubt the worst sprinter in the breakaway, so to stand any chance at all he tries to catch the other by surprise, attacking 3km from the line. The other are observant though and doesn’t give me a huge lead.

Petersen is still leading with 0,5 km to go, but he’s completely exhausted, can he make it?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! With only 10m left to go they catch up
with him.

The picture doesn’t describe it good as the speed difference was HUGE. The two lads behind actually managed to catch up before the line. It was so nerve wracking that I forgot to take a photo on the line, I actually thought I ended 4th, but checking the results Petersen managed to finish the sprint on 3rd, and I was happy with that.

On the top at the first Klimber Classification point, there is no sprint. Nobody seems to care. Petersen is beginning to get tired already so there was no point in sprinting with him.


When we begin on the climb up the hill the 2nd last time, EBH goes for the attack, maybe a little early, but I will try on an incredible thing. Too bad for me though, my backup plan goes wrong down the hill heading into the last climb as Merino goes in a crash. I didn’t get a photo of it though, was busy at that time with EBH. When I pressed it , they were already up racing again, behind the peloton and out of today’s race.

Boasson Hagen get’s a nice little lead, having 48 seconds at the top of the climb and 45 in the bottom of the last climb, but he’s beginning to get tired, I have pushed him to hard and have to put down the effort a little. A few other riders attacks as well, and goes past Edvald, but I don’t try to follow them. Edvald needs to have some reserves incase the yellow jersey catches up in the last climb and make a counter attack. Up the last climb, astana gives 100% in the front of the peloton (you can see EBH’s white circles in the top of the picture, around the corner.)

At the top edvald only has 14 seconds to go down to the yellow jersey which now is ina group of 4 with 1 teammate chasing edvald down the mountain. Not quite catching up but registered with the same time in goal (annoying).

Positive thing to take into consideration is that Merino, wins the sprint in his group, though without the biggest opponents..

Conclusion
Well, being in a breakaway which last so long that the 4 others finish top 7 is annoying when yours has to give up. Edvald didn’t lose any time to the holder of the yellow jersey and he climbed over 50 spots in the GC
Though he is now 51 seconds behind the leader as todays winner, Pirazzi overtook the yellow jersey by one second.
None of my goals was achieved today, so not happy with the results. Though a nice test for Edvald, showed good form against the other favorites as Pirazzi is not expected to be in the top after 6 stages.
I have to take some self-critic as edvald should have gone up the last climb instead of 2nd last.
And my motto are: “the deeper you fall, the higher you will bounce back!� Going for a stage win tomorrow.
Stage Result

1	Stefano Pirazzi	Bardiani - CSF	4h19’11�
2	Giampaolo Caruso	Team Katusha	+ 26�
3	Daniele Aldegheri	Christina Watches - Onfone	s.t.
4	Fortunato Baliani	Vini Fantini - Nippo - De Rosa	s.t.
5	Luigi Miletta	YellowFluo - Selle Italia	s.t.
6	Ben Greenwood	Team IG Sigma Sport	s.t.
7	Carlos Quintero	Colombia	s.t.
8	Enrico Battaglin	Bardiani - CSF	s.t.
9	Fabio Duarte	Colombia	s.t.
10	Johnny Hoogerland	Androni Giocattoli	s.t.
12	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Norwegian Road Racing	s.t.

General Classification:

1	Stefano Pirazzi	Bardiani - CSF	7h04’14�
2	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	+ 1�
3	Giampaolo Caruso	Team Kausha	+ 17�
4	Fredrik Kessiakoff	Astana Pro Team	+ 19�
5	Ivan Rovny	Ceramica Flaminia - Fondriest	+ 25�
6	Emanuele Sella	Androni Giocattoli	+ 31�
7	Maxim Belkov	Team Katusha	s.t.
8	Johnny Hoogerland	Androni Giocattoli	+ 35�
9	Marcel Wyss	IAM cycling	s.t.
10	Daniele Aldegheri	Christina Watches - Onfone	+ 36�
16	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Norwegian Road Racing	+ 51�

Points Classification:

1	Enrico Battaglin	Bardiani - CSF	28
2	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	25
3	Stefano Pirazzi	Bardiani - CSF	25
6	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Norwegian Road Racing	20

Mountains Classification:

1	Kenichi Sakakibara	Vini Fantini - Nippo - De Rosa	20
2	Evgeny Zverkov	Itera Katusha	16
3	Patrick Jäger	Team Vorarlberg	14

Next Stage
Any advices for tactic? I’m not sure if I should try to get away, or going for the sprint win and 20 bonus seconds.. What do you think? Here’s the profile:

Settimana Coppi e Bartali, Stage 4 - Preview

Stage Profile:

The last hilly stage of the tour. Only 20 bonus seconds and a TT to catch up in the last two stages, so Edvald have to be within 50 seconds when the day is over. But more improtant is to be within 25 seconds of Fredrik Kessikoff and very talented TT and my favourite in the GC as it looks atm.
My Stage goals:
Nothing else than a stage victory will be good today, after the last two days bad riding.
Tactics:
Unkn0wn

Settimana Coppi e Bartali, Stage 4 - Review

All my riders will have a easy day today, except EBH,as I don’t think anyone is strong enough to help him today anyway. So luckily for me, I don’t need to do a job with the team in this stage, as Bardiani - CSF are eager to protect their jersey.

After a while they let a breakaway get away, but it never has more than 3 minutes, so all the focus was turned towards the peloton, but for the record, the breakaway was a 6 man group, consisting of Zsolt Der (Utensilnord - Ora24.eu), Hossein Alizadeh (Amore & Vita), Julio Camacho (Colombia), Mauro Da Dalto (Cannondale) and Martin Pedersen(Christina Watches - Onfone).

The action didn’t start before they were halfway up the hill towards the KoM point. Then all of the riders top 20, except EBH was attacking, and attacking and attacking. But I was just riding in a steady pace up the hill, and halfway in the downhill, the leading group had set including 15 riders. 15 very strong riders. But the group was without names like Francesco Gavazzi who was 2nd in the GC before the stage. I was also getting a fantastic message at that time as Edvald had absolutely perfect legs today.

The pace was set already from the 1meter of the climb, but it was first with 5km to go the real action started. Emanuele Sella, Giampaolo Caruso, Fortunato Baliani and Fabio Duarte attacked, and in that moment I paused the simulator spending 5 minutes thinking about what to do, as I decided to sit tight and be calm as both Fredrik Kessiakoff and the yellow jersey were still in my group.

I soon regret it though, as Pirazzi and Kessiakoff didn’t manage to cut down the distance, so with 1.9km to go on the climb, and 50 seconds behind the attacking group, Edvald sets off, trying to gain some time on Kessiakoff, which I at that time thought of as Edvalds biggest threat towards the yellow jersey, and Pirazzi.

Edvald managed to catch up with Baliani and Duarte, but Emanuele Sella, and Caruso was another 25 seconds ahead over the finish line. I also managed to put 28 seconds in between Edvald and Pirazzi/Kessiakoff, very vital seconds on kessiakoff at least as he is a very strong TT.

Stage Result

Settimana Coppi e Bartali, Stage 5 - Review
Finally, the Individual Time Trial, this should be a good winning possibility for Eddy. He’s biggest contender is Kessiakoff, the swedish astana rider, 4 seconds in front of EDvald in the General Classification before today’s race.
Edvald looks perfect in his Norwegian champion jersey, ready to set off.

Edvald is feeling average today, nothing more or nothing less, but it should still be enough for a good result though. And at the halfway point Edvald takes the lead, Kessiakoff haven’t passed yet though. The momentum continues and when Edvald crosses the finish line he is in the lead with 14 seconds. But what matters is whats happening behind him. Baliani had only 2 seconds on EBH before today’s stage and are not interesting as he was over 30 seconds behind at the half way. The one after him, is very interesting though. Fredrik Kessiakoff, he has the lead halfway 0 seconds in front of Edvald, I was holding my breath. Waiting for Kessiakoff to cross the finish line, had Edvald’s finish been strong enough? YEEEESSSS!!! Kessiakoff crosses the line 7 seconds behind Edvald! That is most likely securing Edvald’s stage win, and Kessiakoff is by that behind Edvald in the GC as well.

Duarte is far behind Edvald in the GC halfway, so he is not dangerous. Pirazzi has also lost the 23 second lead he had on Edvald at the halfway point, and by that Edvald is top 3 in the GC! Now the interesting thing is how much does Caruso and Sella lose? Will there be hope for Eddy in the GC? Sella is riding very well, he was only 21 seconds behind at the halfway mark. Edvald strong finish is enough though, to have gap of 48 seconds, enough to be within 20 seconds, which was my goal.

Only Caruso left out there. And so far looking great for Edvald. Caruso was 29 seconds behind at the halfway point. If I have doubled that time I should be happy. Luckily for Edvald Caruso finished 1’01� behind him, which makes the difference up to him only 10 seconds.

Finally a stage win for Edvald! And he took just as well over the green jersey as well.


Stage Result