25/2 Stage 5/10 Tapar – Genting Highlands: 124,3 km
Rasmussen reports: The Caravan is back in Tapar heading for a Hors catégorie finish in Genting Highlands in the Titiwangsa Mountains. Genting Highlands is an hill resort and entertainment area developed in the early 1970’s, with hotels, casino and theme park, a “20th Century Fox World” movie inspired theme park is due to open during 2017.
Genting Highlands:
Pre-race strategy: Today it is all about protecting Elissonde. Last year Kenny Elissonde got 2nd on this stage. We hope he can do it again.
Profile:
Francisco José Pacheco joins the morning breakaway, not what we had planned, but hopefully he can help Elissonde later.
Schumacher makes another unexpected move, he set in an attack a few km before the climb starts, I am shaking my head in the team car, but done is done we will see what happens.
The first of the better climbers to make a move is Joseph Dombrowski (RadioShack), could be a tactically move, for him to help race leader Jan Bakelants later. Dombrowski rushes up the mountain overtaking the breakaway and is alone in front.
Others are successfully getting away from the larger group, Rafael Valls (Caja Rural), Branislau Samoilau (Champion System) and Ion Izagirre (Liberty Seguros), At this point Francisco José Pacheco is empty and falls back, but Schumacher is helping Ellisonde for a while. Then another dangerous attack, Romain Bardet (FDJ.fr) attacks and race leader Jan Bakelants (RadioShack – Leopard) follows.
Bardet and Bakelants have left the peloton behind:
Elissonde was not prepared sitting a little too far back, but he soon realizes that the group he is in is to slow he will have to make his own move now, 5km to the top:
Janier Acevedo (Jamis) get up to Elissonde, the two riders helps each other up the mountain, passing Izagirre, Samoilau and Valls, getting closer and closer to the 3 riders in front who are now together. The distance is now under a minute.
But it is too late for Acevedo and Elissonde, Romain Bardet wins the stage over Joseph Dombrowski. Elissonde lost 43” (4).
Rasmussen on the phone to Christina: Not as perfect as last year, maybe a bit harder competition and I think Elissonde waited too long. But a top five in a hard race like this is not bad at all.
Stage:
1
Romain Bardet
FDJ.fr
3h18'35
2
Joseph Dombrowski
RadioShack - Leopard
s.t.
3
Jan Bakelants
RadioShack - Leopard
s.t.
4
Kenny Elissonde
Christina Watches - Onfone
+ 43
5
Janier Acevedo
Jamis - Hagens Berman
s.t.
6
Pierre-Luc Périchon
Bretagne - Séché Environnement
+ 1'26
7
Alexandre Geniez
FDJ.fr
s.t.
8
Rafael Valls
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
+ 1'50
9
Ion Izagirre
Liberty Seguros - Würth
s.t.
10
André Cardoso
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
+ 3'33
GC:
1
Jan Bakelants
RadioShack - Leopard
16h47'08
2
Romain Bardet
FDJ.fr
+ 8
3
Janier Acevedo
Jamis - Hagens Berman
+ 59
4
Kenny Elissonde
Christina Watches - Onfone
+ 1'03
5
Joseph Dombrowski
RadioShack - Leopard
+ 1'23
6
Pierre-Luc Périchon
Bretagne - Séché Environnement
+ 3'01
7
Alexandre Geniez
FDJ.fr
s.t.
8
Ion Izagirre
Liberty Seguros - Würth
+ 3'25
9
Rafael Valls
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
s.t.
10
Simon Clarke
RusVelo
+ 4'24
Point:
1
Davide Cimolai
Vini Fantini - Selle Italia
87
2
Tony Gallopin
RadioShack - Leopard
57
3
Jempy Drucker
Accent Jobs - Wanty
55
Mountain:
1
Romain Bardet
FDJ.fr
32
2
Simon Clarke
RusVelo
26
3
Andrea Fedi
5-Hour Energy
22
Team: RadioShack - Leopard
Young: Romain Bardet (FDJ.fr)
Edited by Tamijo on 26-01-2016 06:15
Sylvao/Sutty: Thanks a lot !
AbhishekLFC: Mostly flat from here, the CG will not change unless some weird things happen, and the top riders get bonus sec.
Rasmussen reports: The Tour buses have travelled 117 km west to Mentakap in the center of Peninsular Malaysia, for a stage to Kuantan by the east coast. The stage has some small hilly climbs but is otherwise quite flat. Mentakab is famous for inter-racial unity, the township consists of all kinds of religions, and religious houses such as mosques, churches, Hindu temples, Chinese temples, Sikh gurdwara, Buddhist monastery.
Mentakab:
Pre-race strategy: We will just rest the team and protect Elissonde.
Profile
A morning break of 7 relative strong riders, the best places in the GC is Axel Domont (Bretagne) 14’42 behind.
The peloton rides unusually slow trough the hot but scenic Malaysian landscape, the breakaway get a maximum of more than 16 minutes.
We set almost everyone up front with about 40 km left, to avoid the risk of a breakaway rider moving up the GC, the gab is slowly reduced. The stage is won by Axel Domont with 9'31 to the peloton.
Hard race today, we waited to long for others to take action, and had to use a lot of energy in the end.
Disclaimer: Our cameraman ended up at “Don’t Tell Mama” beach bar a little north of Kuantan last night, with some Danish journalists and a few local girls, so we have a lack of pictures from the stage.
The race continues north from Kuantan, along the coast of South China Sea heading for the small beach town Dungun, a flat stage with just 1 hilly climb in the middle. North of the town on the other side of Sungai Dungun (Dungun River), is a high class 5 star beach resort and hotel “Tanjong Jara”.
Pre-race strategy: Based on yesterday’s experience, we would like to have someone in a break, to transfer the responsibly to other teams.
Profile:
We get Stefan Schumacher in the morning break of 5, they get about 5 minutes, the peloton is not prepared for another breakaway win.
With about 20 km left the peloton is getting very close, Schumacher has no option but to try a final attack.
But the peloton is too fast, it all ends in a mass sprint, Davide Appollonio (Jamis) wins the stage over Davide Cimolai (Vini Fantini). Our best is Schumacher (16).
28/2 Stage 8/10 Kuala Terengganu - Tanah Merah 164,1 km
Rasmussen: Another 78 km north along the coast, to Kuala Terengganu the capital of Terengganu sultanate, a city with a population of a little more than 400.000. Chinese references to a state named Tan-Tan, presumably in the Terengganu area dates back to about 600 AD, later Chinese ref. to Teng-ya-nu and Teng-ya-nung is found in history books from about 1200 AD.
Chinatown (Kampung China), Kuala Terengganu:
Pre-race strategy: Again we will try to get in a breakaway, and at the same time defend the GC.
Profile:
We get Daniele Aldegheri in the morning break of 8 riders, seemingly Walter Proch (Lampre) is the strongest rider in the break.
The break gets a huge margin to the peloton, with a maximum of over 14 minutes. Getting close to the 5km mark Tomohiro Hayakawa (Team Nippo) sets in a surprise attack, everyone else of off guard and he get away.
Tomohiro Hayakawa takes the win over Andrea Fedi (5-Hour Energy), Aldegheri comes in 6th.
Rasmussen: Quite disappointing that Daniele set up a good opportunity, and then in the end lets a relative weak rider get away with victory.
1/3: Stage 9/10 Pasir Puteh – Kuala Berang 123,9 km
Rasmussen: The caravan has moved 38 km west towards the coast for a start in Pasir Puteh on the bank of Sungai Semerak (Semerak River), Pasir Puteh is the place where a famous Malaysian warrior “Tok Janggut” took up arms against the British in 1915, rebelling against taxations. From Pasir Puteh a short flat route to Kuala Berang about 30km southwest of Terengganu.
Tok Janggut:
Pre-race strategy: Still hoping for a breakaway win, while defending GC.
Profile:
Stefan Schumacher breaks early, followed by another 7 riders.
With about 50 km left the break has just about 3’50, and the peloton start the hunt in a high pace, it as Andreas Klöden (RadioShack) and Carson Miller (Jamis) leading the chase.
But the attackers works perfectly together and wins the stage, it is Masahiro Shinagawa (Nippo) who wins today, 2nd victory in a row for Team Nippo - De Rosa, Stefan Schumacher gets in 6th.
Rasmussen: Well, seems we just cannot nail those breakaway wins.
Sports director Christian Andersen reports:
We are here in West Flanders Belgium, for Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen (Three Days of West Flanders), the first cobbles race of the season. The staff is very excited to see how our cobbles riders cope with the competition, some good world tour teams here.
The first stage is a prolog in Middelkerke, a tourist destination on the North Sea coast.
Pre-race strategy: We have no expectations to this stage, only hope not to lose too much time.
Profile:
The export file was corrupt, so a little different here.
Riders:
Our local rider from Izegem, West Flanders, Yves Lampaert on the route.
Result:
Christian Andersen: Our best was Yves, losing 38 sec. (100), not a good result let’s hope we are a lot better on the cobbles.
2/3: Final stage 10/10 Tasik Kenyir – Kuala Terengganu 116.1 km
Rasmussen: The caravan has moved 38 km for a start by Tasik Kenyir an artificial lake, from here the race takes us to Kuala Terengganu, for at circuit race finish in the city. The stage is a bit hilly but without any KoM points.
Tasik Kenyir:
Pre-race strategy: Still hoping for a breakaway win, while defending GC.
Profile:
We get Daniele Aldegheri in the morning break of 6 riders.
Not long after Stefan Schumacher decides that he want to be part of the fun, he attempts a solo break, hoping to join the front group.
Stefan Schumacher gets up to the front, the peloton is steadily increasing the pace. But the breakaway fights hard and they manage to keep the distance and it comes to a sprint for the line. The winner is Evert Verbist (Accent Jobs) with a small margin to Stefan Schumacher and Luca Wackermann (Lampre )
Rasmussen: Good podium finish by Stefan, and overall a great race by Kenny, here in Malaysia.
1/3-3/3 Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen
2/3 Stage 2/3 Brugge - Kortrijk-Bellegem: 181.5 Km
Sports director Christian Andersen reports:
The caravan has moved about 40 km to Brugge the capital of the region, The town was first fortified by Julius Caesar, later in 865 AD the Margravate of Flanders reinforced the fortification, to protect against the Viking attacks of the period. Brugge had its golden era between the 12-15 century, In 1309 Brugge got a Stock Exchange most like the first in the world.
Brugge approx. 1700:
Pre-race strategy: As we have no estimate of our relative strength, we will just protect Yves, and see what happens.
Profile:
There is a lot of attacking from the start, it all ends up in a huge break of 13 riders, seems that the strongest rider in the break is Pieter Vanspeybrouck (Ventilair–Steria), with a good combination of Cob/Flat/Spr.
Sebastian Balck attacks and try to get up to the front group, but after a lot of km caught in between the break and the peloton, he has to fall back again.
The weather is awful, only 9°C and heavy rain, with a high pace in the peloton it is a horrible day, especially for the weaker riders.
With about 15 km left the breakaway is caught, and from here many attacks are made, between the riders in front, a group now down to 38 rider, but all are brought back until Ronan van Zandbeek (Team De Rijke) attacks with just 5 km to the line.
Zandbeek wins with 19 sec. to Maxime Vantomme, 3rd place to Luke Durbridge losing 38 sec., more than 60 rider gets over the line in the same time as Durbridge. Our best was Patrick Clausen (12) having a great day today considering he is not very strong on Cobbles. Yves get in as 16th.
Rasmussen: It was sort of ok, even if it does not show in the result we had a fine stage Yves Lampert, Mads Würtz Schmidt and Patrick Clausen, all young unexperienced rider, was hanging on up there in the front of the favorite group, right up to the end.
Still something wrong with this race, export corrupts again. Here is a simple overview of the results:
