There's also an Eneco Tour report at the previous page, don't forget to check that as well
Favourites
*** Rigoberto Urán
** Bauke Mollema, Michal Kwiatkowski
* Kim Po-Ding, Rafal Majka, Daniel Martin
Welcome to stage 1 of the Tour de Pologne, in Rovereto, which is in Trentino, Italy. We'll have a tough mountain stage today, with a finish in Madonna di Campiglio. The climbers should prevail here, but let's see.
Race report
Almost immediately after starting the attacks start. 7 riders decide to set off rightaway, with the names in order of the race being Ospina (Colombia), Kump (Saxo), Hägg (NetApp), Le Bon (FDJ.fr), Belkov (Katusha), Nowak (CCC) and Sulzberger (Orica).
The pack seems reluctant to let such a big group go and Bol (Belkin), Vangenechten (Lotto), Ratto (Cannondale) and Pichot (Europcar) accelerate. Nevertheless Huffman (Astana) attacks.
The chaos in the pack causes one rider to escape again. Hägg leaves his companions behind and becomes the solo leader.
He can't hold on to this very long, as Kern (AG2R) sets up a strong attack and catches up quickly.
6 more riders attack, which makes it likely the pack accelerates again. Kolobnev (Katusha), Mestre (Euskaltel), Nowak (CCC), Dodi (Lampre), Kump (Saxo) and Neyens (Lotto) attack.
Despite the high pace in the pack they all catch up with the leading duo.
Various attacks out of the break cause the break to split in two halves. Mestre, Hägg, Dodi and Nowak are picked up by the pack.
Kolobnev, Kern, Kump and Neyens slowly but surely get an increasing lead.
The pack, lead by Castroviejo currently, allows this. Nobody seems to be interested in attacking anymore.
The break keeps the pace high at the for some reason uncategorized Fai Della Paganella. This leads to the first victim already, as Neyens has to let the others go.
Movistar for some reason seems unwilling to let this relatively weak break go. Llanet and Castroviejo have a high pace. The break wants to remain ahead and accelerates again. Kump becomes the victim of this, meaning we have only Kolobnev and Kern left.
At the short flat section Movistar changes mind though and lets the break go.
In the downhill Hägg seems to be the unlucky rider of the day, first missing out on the break, now crashing as well. He can luckily continue though.
In front the break is again made of 4 with Kump and Neyens rejoining.
In the downhill it started to rain. If you had looked at the sky, it shouldn't have been unexpected.
In Riva del Garda we have our only flat sprint of today. Kern beats Kolobnev and Kump for the points.
At the Passo del Ballino, the first categorized climb of the day, Movistar ups the pace once again with Llanet and Castroviejo decreasing the lead from 3'30 to 2'30 in 4 kilometers.
Despite the high pace 3 riders find the power to attack. Andy Schleck (Radioshack), Fédrigo (FDJ.fr) and Dimitriou (NetApp) try to close the 2m20 gap to the 4 leaders.
7 km from the top the break splits again, with Kolobnev and Kern once again dropping Kump and Neyens.
1km later they are already caught by the newer attackers, who have built up a lead of a minute on the pack. 1 minute is also the gap they have to close on the 2 leaders.
Movistar, now also helped by Sky, sees this as the signal to up the pace again. Many riders are dropped, including most, if not all sprinters.
This also causes Kump and Neyens to be caught quickly.
Meanwhile in front Schleck and Dimitriou, who dropped Fédrigo, caught up with the leaders.
The first mountain sprint is surprisingly won by Kern. Kolobnev beats Schleck for second.
At the start of the Passo del Durone Fédrigo is caught. The 4 leaders have a minute left.
Did I say 4? Make that 3. Kolobnev is dropped.
And soon it's Kern who also gets dropped. The 2 leaders left have a small gap.
At the top only Schleck is left in front. Dimitriou was dropped and caught quickly. It looks like the same fate is ready for Schleck as well soon though.
And indeed, in his element, the downhill, Schleck gets caught. 35km to the line and we have a group of 45 riders left.
A bit later a group of 13 is dropped. With Basso, Owniak, NetApp's GC-hope Barta and Poels included it seems quite strong!
With 11.5km to go we start the final climb. We see many riders helping in front, including last year's no.3 Henao. Group Basso is already 1m30 behind.
With 5kms to the line there's no clear change in the pack. We've had no attacks at all and only Dimitriou has been dropped and swallowed by group-Basso.
2kms from the line we've still had no attacks. The cause might be the rain turning into snow. Capecchi, Rebellin and Fédrigo have been dropped as well.
1.5km from the line suddenly a very impressive attack by Urán. Mollema and Costa don't hesitate and follow.
Under the banner these 3 have a clear gap. Rolland, followed by many, is coming out of the fog and trying to close the gap.
Urán seems the strongest and with 500m to go gets a bigger gap.
The battle for 4th is quite far already. Rolland and Martin seem to have the best opportunity.
Kwiatkowski is finally coming to the front. Off-day or bad tactics? He doesn't seem to be too well anyway.
At the line
Urán takes an impressive win.
Mollema beats Costa for second.
Rolland beats Martin for 4th.
The best Pole of today is Majka at 6th. Duarte 7th, De Vries 8th, Talansky 9th, Kruijswijk 10th, Kwiatkowski 11th, but this pack for 6th place already lost 44 seconds + bonis to Urán.
Selwink wrote:
There's also an Eneco Tour report at the previous page, don't forget to check that as well
Hihi, it seems the student has become the master
Indeed, final stage of Eneco Tour is up on previous stage too. Cobbelzz!!
What a crazy stage for NetApp. Hägg with massive bad luck but a strong will, Dimitriou with some nice racing alongside former superstar Andy Schleck, and then Jan Barta losing all hope for a Top 10 early on with a huge time loss. But all out for stage win now please. Edited by Shonak on 25-09-2014 18:12
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
A top 10 GC in Eneco = points. That's better than everything what was expected.
Pologne started good.
@Selwink: A startlist would have been good. I couldnt remember who I sent and I always searched for a hint who my team is working for. Only with 1,5 km to go Costa is mentioned the first time. For future reports you should add those information..
knockout wrote:
@Selwink: A startlist would have been good. I couldnt remember who I sent and I always searched for a hint who my team is working for. Only with 1,5 km to go Costa is mentioned the first time. For future reports you should add those information..
Eneco has been going terribly for us but at least people like Kroon are showing their faces in the break. Hoping Majka can do something in his home race after a decent but unspectacular first day.
Fantastic Eneco Tour there Shonak. Sure Fabian was the GC favourite, but we are more than pleased with our two stage wins and his third place finish which sees us achieve our medium goal. Will be good to write that up after a so-so TDF.
- Epic report to start off the Tour de Pologne with some great screenshots, don't really know why I sent a team there though! Super to see Andy Schleck put in an attack even though he got caught about 1 hr before the finish.
knockout wrote:
@Selwink: A startlist would have been good. I couldnt remember who I sent and I always searched for a hint who my team is working for. Only with 1,5 km to go Costa is mentioned the first time. For future reports you should add those information..
What a ride by the entire team in Eneco. Gilbert finishing it off with the traditional 11th place finish. 4 guys in the top 13 and GVA was anonymous. Imagine if we'd actually tried!
I'll choose to ignore Poland. Whose stupid idea was it to start in Italy anyway? My whole team beaten by Basso...
Manager of Bunzl - Centrica
ICL's World Tour Champions and Talented Bottlers
Kakhi, you moron!! You were supposed to go up the GC not to get dropped early and finish behind 100th
So Eneco was a total disaster in the end. Doesn't matter, he was quite good everywhere else, I can live with it. Though I would have thought at least that somebody would be entering the break. Sad that the whole teams focuses on Kakhi and we get nothing out of it..
Missing a top 10 , a stage win, and a podium on the TT in eneco .. Feel really sad for Leukemans , perhaps his last chance for a pro stage win ever -.-
Eloy Teruels sets the first time that other riders have difficulty beating. 6’38 will be far from the winning time though.
When only the “number 1’s” are still to finish the best time is held by Gaudin ahead of Millar and Teruel.
Barta squeezes in on the final podium spot.
Talansky disappoints by only getting 4th best.
The North Korean beast will surely be here to show the Americans who’s boss and he is better than the Americans so far, but still 2 seconds slower than his team mate Gaudin.
The US Champion in USA PCC means high expectations…
New best time from the big favourite. He will be a hard man to beat in this form.
Sure Fabian was the GC favourite, but we are more than pleased with our two stage wins and his third place finish which sees us achieve our medium goal. Will be good to write that up after a so-so TDF. 
