Showing posts with label Alejandro Valverde. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alejandro Valverde. Show all posts
Monday, 11 July 2016
2016 Tour de France: Fine win by Tom Dumoulin lights up dull Queen's stage
What was billed as the Queen Stage of the Tour turned out to be a stately procession through majestic scenery. Apart from the last few kilometres of the Arcalis climb when the GC contenders started to attack and the initial climb of the day, no-one was prepared to attack Sky and Chris Froome so they naturally rode tempo for much of the day allowing the break to build up a huge gap.
The stage began climbing from the very start up to the Port de la Bonaigua. There were attacks all the way up including Peter Sagan going for a long foray to pick up intermediate sprint points along with Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde racing clear of the peloton. For a moment the stage looked to be about to live up to its billing.
Contador soon faded and later retired from the race suffering both from his crash wounds and a fever. Valverde carried on caught the breakaway. They crested the Bonaigua and hurtled down the descent. On the flat, however, the Sky train started to catch up rapidly. Not long after Valverde eased up and waited for the peloton, who then let the large break of 20 riders or so disappear into the distance. Did Peter Sagan persuade Valverde to leave the break, so he could pick up sprint points? If Valverde had stayed in the break would certainly have been caught.
Both Thibaut Pinot and Rafa Majka were in the break. This time Pinot was the stronger and picked up enough points to take the climber's jersey off Majka's shoulders. Then just before the start of the final climb up to Arcalis Tom Dumoulin took off and remained in front to take his first Tour de France stage win. The excellent Dumoulin is the first new rider to be added to the list of stage winners this year.
Overall there were a few changes but nothing like what one might have expected. Now there are only eight riders within a minute of Chris Froome. Tejay Van Garderen, Fabio Aru and Warren Bargueil lost a little time along with Pierre Rolland, who is now four minutes behind Froome.
White Jersey holder, Adam Yates, has extended his lead over Louis Meintjes a little. Mark Cavendish holds onto the Green Jersey but Sagan is only seven points behind now. Unfortunately Mark lost his lead out man – Mark Renshaw, who fell ill overnight and had to abandon.
Today is a rest day. Hopefully in the second week GC contenders will show more ambition and attack Chris Froome and Sky.
Sunday, 3 July 2016
2016 Tour de France: Stage 2 – Saint-Lô to Cherbourg
Today will surely be a day to remember for Mark Cavendish – his first Tour stage while wearing the Yellow Jersey. However, it will be very tough for him to hold onto Yellow today with a short, tough uphill finish.
Given his huge respect for the Tour and its history and traditions, Mark will do his very best to honour Yellow fighting to hold onto it. However, the final run-in features the 3rd category Côte de la Glacière with sections up to 14%.
This tough finale is likely to rule out not just Cav but also Marcel Kittel and André Griepel. Instead it should suit riders, who shine in the Ardennes classics, particularly Liège-Bastogne-Liège. This means riders like Dan Martin, Alejandro Valverde, Greg Van Avermaet and Joaquim Rodríguez. It will also surely suit World Champion Peter Sagan. Also the GC contenders will want to be there, so as not to lose time on their rivals. Last year Chris Froome was very impressive on the Mur de Huy – the finish climb of Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Unfortunately the finish may give an indication of how well Alberto Contador is recovering from yesterday's crash.
However, I'm going for the experienced and wily Valverde with Sagan as a second option.
Mark Cavendish in Yellow for this stage
Thursday, 23 July 2015
#TDF2015: Brave stage win for Simon Geschke, TJ out, Froome gains time + beast today
Stage 17: top 23 headed by Simon Geschke
Overall after Stage 17 down to 23rd.
Simon Geschke claimed his first Tour de France stage win with a very brave ride to Pra Loup. He attacked from the breakaway with over 40K to go to the finish a little before the start of the long climb up the Col d'Allos. He held his advantage over his chasers on the scary descent down the Col and had enough time to get up the slightly more than 6K climb up to Pra Loup despite a frantic chase from Andrew Talansky. Thibaut Pinot, Geschke's closest chaser at the top of the Col d'Allos crashed on the descent. Although Pinot remounted quickly he was passed by several riders later on the descent.
For the GC contenders the big news of the day was Tejay Van Garderen abandoning the race with respiratory problems apparently caused by a cold picked up at the end of the very hot Stage 13. TJ's departure moves Alejandro Valverde onto the Paris podium.
Chris Froome descended the Col d'Allos well and during the stage held off attacks from Contador, Nibali and Quintana. Contador crashed on the Allos descent and lost 2.17 to Froome on the day. Late attacks on the climb to the finish saw Valverde concede 7 seconds to Froome and Nibali 15 seconds.
Overall Froome is now 3.10 ahead of Quintana, 4.09 on Valverde, 6.34 on his team mate Geraint Thomas, 6.40 on Contador and 8.04 on Nibali. Warren Barguil is the leading French rider 13.08 down.
•••
Stage 18: Gap to Saint-Jean-de Maurienne 186.5 kms
If yesterday's stage was tough, today's will be even tougher with the climb up the Col du Glandon followed by a Tour first up Les Lacets de Montvernier just before the finish. I'll be surprised if all the leading contenders finish close together at the end of this stage. Nairo Quintana will surely hope to take some time out of Chris Froome today. Unless Froome has a really bad day then it is now really only Quintana who can prevent Froome from winning in Paris.
Wednesday, 22 July 2015
#TDF2015: crunch time – first of four Alpine stages
Today is the first of four Alpine stages, which will either confirm Chris Froome as the winner of this 2015 edition or someone else – most likely Nairo Quintana – will take over the Yellow Jersey. Today's 17th stage is the same as the one run in June for the Dauphine where Romain Bardet gained time on the difficulat descent off the Col d'Allos. Can he, Valverde, or Nibali do the same day or will Sky make the climb up the Allos difficult enough to shake off their rivals?
In Paris I think we will see Froome, Quintana and Valverde taking the top three places? In that order? Probably but Quintana still has a chance to win this Tour over the next four days. I think that the rather robotic Tejay Van Garderen will slipout of third place. He seems to have been content to follow the leaders and not make any attack himself. Will that change in the Alps?
Monday, 6 July 2015
#TDF2015: Griepel wins in Zealande, Yellow for Cancellara – Belgian classic today
Stage 2: From Griepel first up to 17th
The potential chaos for chaos in Stage 2 duly arrived with wind and rain ripping the peloton to pieces with some of the overall contenders notably Nibali, Quintana and Pinot losing significant time on Froome, Contador and Van Garderen. First of the leading contenders is Van Garderen on 44''. He is followed by Froome (48''), Contador (1 minute), Pinot (2'07"), Nibali (2'09"), Valverde (2'22") and Quintana (2'27").
However, a rider like Nibali, may well make up some or all of this deficit on tomorrow's cobbled stage to Cambrai.
Despite having plenty of team mates in the leading group Mark Cavendish didn't win the sprint coming in fourth after André Griepel, Peter Sagan and Fabian Cancellara. Mark afterwards complained that Mark Renshaw, normally such a reliable leadout man, had peeling off too early leaving him to sprint 300 metres rather than his preferred 200 metres. Mark's fourth place and Cancellara's third meant that Tony Martin missed out on the Yellow Jersey as Fabian's bonus seconds put him in Yellow instead.
•••
Stage 3: Antwerp to Huy
Profile of Stage 3 with plenty of sharp climbs
towards end of stage finishing with Mur de Huy
The tough end to Stage 2 could see further time gaps between some of the overall contenders as the stage ends with the ascent of the Mur de Huy with an average gradient of 9% but with parts up to around 20%. This climb features in the La Flèche Wallonne won this year by Alejandro Valverde, who must fancy his chances for a repeat performance today.
Saturday, 26 July 2014
2014 Tour de France: race of truth from Bergerac to Perigueux
Stage 20: Bergerac to Perigueux 54 km time trial
Today's 54-kilometre time trial is the last crucial Tour stage for the overall contenders and it is a tough one. The course undulates throughout with very few flat sections, so it will suit a powerful time triallist. World Time Trial Champion Tony Martin is the clear favourite. He has no problem climbing as his long solo victory in the Vosges showed.
The real battle is going to be for the final placings in the Top 10, especially the remaining two places on the podium in Paris with only fifteen seconds between Thibaut Pinot in 2nd place, Jean-Christophe Peraud (3rd) and Alejandro Valverde in 4th. It would be good to see both Frenchmen Pinot and Peraud on the podium but it is very difficult to call who will be on the steps. It is also possible that if some of them have a really bad day that Tejay Van Garderen on a good ride could move further up the order than imagined.
Météo France is forecasting sunshine with some clouds, although some previews are suggesting rain in the morning with the weather clearing up in the afternoon.
Thursday, 24 July 2014
2014 Tour de France: Nibali stamps his authority on race
In a demonstration of great strength on the final big climb of this year's Tour Vincenzo Nibali rode away from his rivals winning the stage by 1:10 from Thibaut Pinot. This is Nibali's fourth stage victory this year and it is the first time since Eddy Merckx that the winner of the Tour has won four stages.
Nibali has extended his overall lead to 7:10 with Pinot taking second place from Alejandro Valverde, who was the big loser today and dropped to fourth. With his third place on the stage Rafal Majka secured his win in the King of the Mountains competition. However, there is only 15 seconds separating Pinot, Peraud and Valverde in the fight for the two remaining podium places. The Bergerac time trial on Saturday will be exciting.
2014 Tour de France: Stage 18 – last mountain battle
Stage 18: Pau to Hautacam 145.5km
Today's relatively short but tough stage with the climbs of the famous Tourmalet and to the finish atop Hautacam is the last mountain stage in this year's Tour. It would not be a surprise to see Nibali further cement his position as Tour leader by winning this stage. The real battle will be for the podium places with Valverde and Pinot keen to strengthen their positions before the time trial on Saturday and the threat from Jean-Christophe Peraud. Pinot's FDR probably made a mistake yesterday by going hard on the penultimate climb, leaving Pinot without enough teammates for the final climb.
The Hautacam was the springboard for Lance Armstrong's doped up Tour victory in 2000.
Should be another exciting stage to watch.
Wednesday, 23 July 2014
2014 Tour de France: Tough mountain stage – big battle for podium
As expected today's stage produced another exciting race with Rafal Majka taking his second stage win this Tour and consolidating his hold on the Climbers Jersey. He now has 149 points to Vinzenzo Nibali's 118. Its a healthy but not invincible lead. There was a further shake up of the Overall Classification with AG2R coming off best in the Podium Stakes, while Vincenzo Nibali further tightened his hold on the Yellow Jersey. He is now 5:26 ahead of Alejandro Valverde and is clearly a level above everyone else in the race.
Romain Bardet's successful attack on the last descent forced Thibaut Pinot to chase on the ascent of Pla d'Adet, which then allowed Jean-Christophe Peraud to follow Nibali's attack and Pinot lost some ground with Peraud only 8 seconds behind him. Valverde looked to be in trouble but recovered, caught and overtook Pinot and gained 5 seconds. Because of his time trialling ability Peraud is looking good for a podium place but there is still, of course, the last mountain stage to come tomorrow. Expect further changes!
2014 Tour de France: short killer day in Pyrénées
Stage 17: Saint-Gaudens to Saint-Lary Pla d'Adet 124.5km
Although, with the exception of the sole time trial, this is the shortest stage (124.5km) it will also be one of the toughest. There are four categorised climbs crammed into the second half with little if any respite between them. The first three climbs are 1st Cat, while the Pla d'Adet is an HC. Being a short stage with a mountain top finish the racing is likely to be fast. I expect further shifts in the overall classification.
The impressive Thibaut Pinot (now wearing the White Jesey for best young rider) will be looking to put more time into those who can time trial better than he, in particular Jean-Christophe Peraud who is just over a minute behind. Pinot would also love to move into second above Alejandro Valverde, who is only 49 seconds ahead and who has looked uncomfortably at the top of the climbs. He was briefly dropped by Pinot yesterday but recovered on the final descent. Today there is no final descent, so any gaps made on the final climb will stick!
Equally Romain Bardet and Tejay Van Gardenen may well try to get back some of the time they lost yesterday – certainly not to lose anymore. I wouldn't be surprised to see Vincenzo Nibali take another stage win today. Should be as exciting as yesterday!
Tuesday, 22 July 2014
2014 Tour de France: Valverde + Pinot gain Bardet + Van Garderen lose
Anyone who had seen Michael Rogers' performance winning stages in the Giro d'Italia will not have been surprised at how he powered away from his breakaway companions on the final descent to notch up a fine solo victory. This was his first Tour stage win. See list of overall stage wins here.
Although the racing amongst the favourites only really started on the final climb – the Port de Balès – there was a considerable shake up in the overall classification. The fast pace set by first by Moviestar on behalf of Alexandre Valverde and then by FDJ for Thibault Pinot split the peloton into pieces. The big losers on the day were Romain Bardet, who dropped from 3rd place to 5th and Van Garderen who dropped from 5th to 6th. More significantly they lost a lot of time on both Valverde and Pinot, who did a particularly impressive ride today and moved into third place. Vincenzo Nibali is still very comfortably in charge.
Saturday, 19 July 2014
2014 Tour de France: Polish rider Rafal Majka wins Alpine stage
Young Polish rider, Rafal Majka, won the very tough Alpine stage to Risoul. He managed to hold off another late charge from Vincenzo Nibali, who again took more time out of his rivals. This is Majka's first Tour de France stage win. See updated list of Tour de France stage winners from 1903 - 2014.
Nibali now has a 4:37 advantage over Alejandro Valverde, who lost time on Nibali as well as Romain Bardet, Thibault Pinot and Tejay Van Garderen. Now only two riders are within five minutes of Nibali, who will surely win, barring a very bad day on the Pyrénees or an accident.
Saturday, 12 July 2014
2014 Tour de France: first hilltop finish – Tomblaine to Gérardmer La Mauselaine
Today's stage from Tomblaine to Gérardmer La Mauselaine is the first to feature a hill-top finish. It is also the first stage since Stage 2 in Yorkshire to include some serious hills. This time the climbs are all concentrated within the last 28 kilometres – with two 2 Category climbs (Col de la Croix des Moinats - 7.6 km@6% and Col de la Gros Pierre 3 km@7.5%) followed by the Category 3 La Mauselaine 1.8 km@10.3% scramble to the finish.
Very often the abrupt transition from days of riding on the flat to the first climbs will catch some riders out and that may well happen today, especially as many are tired after the first seven days of racing.
Today is an opportunity for Nibali's rivals to try to get back a few seconds. The gains surely won't be big but a few seconds clawed back from Vincenzo will be good for the morale. Once again a break will doubtless form and last at least until Col de la Croix des Moinats when everything should kick off in the peloton.
Possible winners today include Valverde, Rui Costa, Simon Gerrans, Contador, Nibali himself and, perhaps, Sagan.
The next three days in the Vosges should show who the real contenders are this year. Very unlikley that the race will be won here but it can certainly be lost.
More details from the excellent Steephill site.
Friday, 13 September 2013
Chris Horner grabs lead as Vuelta heads for very exciting finish
This year's Tour of Spain is headed for a grandstand finish with everything to play for between the top four riders. In today's penultimate mountain stage Chris Horner overcame Vincenzo Nibali's three second lead, to take the leader's jersey by three seconds. At 1.06 min Alejandro Valverde is close behind and Joaquim (Purito) Rodriguez, today's stage winner, not out of contention at 1.57 min. Everything will be down to tomorrow's fearsome climb of Angliru.
Can Chris Horner take the Vuelta at nearly 42 years young? Can Nibali recover or is he shot – having lost time on the last three mountain stages? What of Valverde or Purito? Still possible for any one of these four to win! Not to be missed tomorrow.
Can Chris Horner take the Vuelta at nearly 42 years young? Can Nibali recover or is he shot – having lost time on the last three mountain stages? What of Valverde or Purito? Still possible for any one of these four to win! Not to be missed tomorrow.
Wednesday, 11 September 2013
Vuelta enters its final week with four in the frame
After yesterday's rest day the Vuelta resumes with some tough stages before the finish in Madrid on Sunday. Until Monday's stage it looked like Vincenzo Nibali would be the comfortable winner. However losing a little time on Monday means that he is now only 28 seconds ahead of nearly 42-year-old Chris Horner, 1.14 mins ahead of Alejandro Valverde and 2.29 ahead of Joaquin Rodriguez, who is often very strong in the third week of a major tour.
After a flattish stage today, there still are three mountain stages to come culminating in the very steep Angliru climb on Saturday, where the Tour of Spain could yet be decided.
Chris Horner, Nibali's closest rival, has ridden a remarkable race, especially for a man of nearly 42. This is certainly easily Horner's best ride ever in a major Tour and he has looked strong on all of the climbs. After Armstrong there are inevitably doubts, so I just hope he is clean.
Saturday, 13 July 2013
#TDF13 Cav wins in St Amand Montrond – now 25 stages overall! Fabulous stage!
After just missing out yesterday to Marcel Kittel, Mark Cavendish won his second stage in this 100th edition of Le Tour and his 25th stage win overall. On Friday he easily beat Peter Sagan, the only other sprinter left in the select leading group after a very eventful stage. This takes Mark's overall stage victories to 25 putting him equal to André Leducq. Only Bernard Hainault with 28 and Eddy Merckx on 34 have more stage wins. See full list of stage winners here.
Cav was the last rider to get across to the Saxo-Tinkoff express when the yellow jersey peloton split into two. Peter Sagan, showed again how well he can read a race by getting himself into this select group and once again picking up significant points towards his Green Jersey total.
Afterwards Cav said that you only have five seconds to react when an echelon goes in the wind. TV footage suggests that Froome might also have got across but hesititated – fatally. Instead he appears to get on the blower to the team car for instructions. It is possible, of course, that Froome was further away from the break than the TV pictures suggest due to the foreshortening effect.
This Tour is turning out to be a wonderful mixture of the predictable and the unpredictable. After last Saturday's first stage in the Pyrénees it looked as though Sky had taken control of of the race as they had last year. Next day it all fell apart for Sky leaving Chris Froome isolated for much of that tough mountain stage. Order appeared to have been restored with the time trial with Froome establishing a healthy lead over all of his rivals. On Thursday Sky depleted by the enforced retirement through of Boasson Hagen yesterday they were unable to protect Froome who lost 1.09 mins to Alberto Contador, Bauke Mollema and Laurens van Dan.
So much for me thinking this would be a quiet transition stage with no change to the overall standings and just the expected bunch sprint at the end to provide excitement. Instead a leathal combination of the wind and a number of teams, sparked off initially by Omega Pharma Quickstep, pushing hard on the front, second placed Alejandro Valverde lost a huge amount of time from a puncture at the wrong moment. He is now 16th at 12.10 down and has lost any chance of a podium place.
Mark Cavendish must love this part of Central France. In 2008 he took his first Tour stage win in Châteauroux and won again in the same town in 2011. Sky, however, ought to have been warned that today's stage might not be good news as in 2011 a
similar stage saw Bradley Wiggins crash and break his collarbone on the same day that Cav won in Châteauroux.
Tomorrow's lumpy stage from Saint-Pourçain to Lyon could be very interesting if there are attacks on Froome and the Sky team. There is hardly a flat section in the stage, which has seven climbs – two 3rd Cat and five 4th Cat. Normally you might think with the Mont Ventoux climb tomorrow this stage would be one for an escape to succeed. However, given Sky's obvious weakness some of his rivals may be keen to test Froome again. Will any of the sprinters apart from Peter Sagan be able to hang in to Lyon.
Overall standings
1. Chris Froome 51.00.30
2. Bauke Mollema 2.28
3. Alberto Contador 2.45
4. Roman Kreuziger 2.48
5. Laurens Ten Dam 3.01
6. Jacob Fuglsang 4.39
7. Michal Kwiatkowski 4.44 (White Jersey for best young rider)
8. Nairo Quintana 5.18
9. Jean-Christophe Peraud 5.39 (the leading French rider)
10. Joaquin Rodriguez 5.48
11. Daniel Martin 5.52
12. Cadel Evans 6.54
13. Michael Rogers 7.28
14. Andy Schleck 8.32
15. Maxime Monfort 10.16
16. Alejandro Valverde 12.10
17. Andrew Talansky 13.11
18. Rui Faria da Costa 14.22
19. Daniel Navarro 14.50
20. Sylvain Chavanel 14.57
2. Bauke Mollema 2.28
6. Jacob Fuglsang 4.39
13. Michael Rogers 7.28
14. Andy Schleck 8.32
17. Andrew Talansky 13.11
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
#TDF13: after the rest day fascinating week in prospect leading to Ventoux
The Tour resumes today after yesterday's journée de repos with a marked change of tempo after Saturday and Sunday's hard days in the mountains. Today's stage across Brittant should see the sprinters come out to play with a bunch gallop in St. Malo. To date all the leading sprinters have a stage each. Will today see Cav reassert his customary authority or will Griepel win again as he has been consistently beating Cav and Sagan in the intermediate sprints.
Tomorrow is the shortish time trial with Froome expected to take further time off his rivals, in particular Contador and Valverde. Next up are two further sprinter friendly stages – firstly to Tours on Thursday and then Friday to Saint-Amand-Montrond. Saturday's hillier stage to Lyon could also see a sprint but may equally be a day on which a break manages to stay away.
Sunday – 14th July Bastille Day – sees one of the 100th edition's big highlights: the climb up Mont Ventoux from Bedoin. As last Saturday the sudden transition from relative flat to mountain slopes may catch out some riders.
Can't wait!
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