Team for the Panne race which has now become one day - Durbridge/Mezgec/Edmondson/Hepburn/Kluge - Durbridge for a reduced finish and Mezgec for the sprint - Ewan was supposed to ride this race with Hayman as his guardian - Alas Hayman is ill.
Team for Coppi/Bartoli is L.Hamilton, Juul-Jensen, Tuft, Bewley and Albasini - Hamilton and Juul-Jensen are the leaders - This is the race in which Power got pulled - Anyway Albasini has been ill while Juul-Jensen is the superman who keeps on riding.
Alvaro Hodeg of Quick Step impressively wins stage 1 of Catalunya after a brilliant lead out. Another Colombian sprinter.
To be fair, apart from Bouhanni, there’s no good sprinters at Catalunya. And Bouhanni isn’t that great.
But you’re right, that lead-out was something else.
De Gendt wins stage 2 of Catalunya from S.Yates and Pinot. A.Yates crashes out.
No word on Adam Yates injuries.
The silence is deafening - Had to chuckle that when Yates crashed Chaves rode back to check on his condition, so he has no concern about GC - MS is playing games with Chaves who is in good condition - Anyway he goes to Colombia for one month after Catalunya - Gotta say the MS team in the mountains has been strong so far which augurs well for the Giro - Somehow the peleton gave Eeekhorn and Craddock 67 seconds in stage 1 of Coppa Bartoli - EF does a good TTT and Craddock can hold onto the lead.
Adam Yates has a broken pelvis. No surgery required, off the bike for 10 days min.
Valverde crushes everyone in stage 4, not a good day for MS.
The MS climbers were disappointing. Chaves goes on a suicide mission. Power and Haig were disappointing. S.Yates suffered from attacking the previous day. Verona was Ok as was Impey.
Somehow MS came second by 10 seconds to Sky in the TTT after two mechanicals and a bike change. GC will be challenging.
And D’Hoore wins the WWT race at Panne. Her first win for MS.
At last MS got rewards for their efforts in Catalunya with S.Yates breaking away to win the last stage - The win and the time gap got him agonisingly close to the podium which was decided on countback - It ended up on finishing places with LaTour 154 and S.Yates 156 - MS had spent the previous two stages narrowly failing to bring in the break which of course also happened when De Gendt won the stage - I feel that MS did too much work at the front in Catalunya and it home when S.Yates was isolated on the queen stage - Apparently Chaves crashed in the final stage - Unfortunately Bernal who was serving it up to Valverde on the final stage was brought down when Rojas crashed in front of him, and Bernal seemed to damage his shoulder and collarbone - Over to Coppa Bartali where L.Hamilton should have finished 3rd on GC behind Rosa and Mollema, except for having rotten luck - TTT in which MS finished third had two mechanicals and a bike change - During stage 4 when MS split the peleton in the last 30kms, there was a crash in the last 3kms which brought down 2 MS riders inc Hamilton - And then to top up the ‘catalogue of bad luck’ during the final stage ITT, a cat ran in front of Hamilton causing him to crash and then have to change bikes - Anyway it was a promising performance by Hamilton - Trentin finishes 7th in the reduced bunch sprint at Gent Werelgem which was won by Sagan from Viviani and Demare - Trentin and Mezgec were in the reduced group after the fina CLIMB - MS MADE a tactical mistake in the final in that Mezgec should have done the final sprint - Mezgec could have finished 4th in that sprint - The women’s race was heartbreak for MS - D’Hoore seemed to have the final sprint won by died in the last 50 metres - Anyway focus this week will be on Dwars De Vlaanderen and Ronde De Vlaanderen.
So this week we had Dwaars De Vlaanderen which was a repeat victory for Lampaert of QS from Teunissen and Van Marcke - Raced in poor conditions which split the peleton and a group of 5 got away in the last 15kms - Women’s race was won by Van Dijk with Van Vleuten fifth - She was in a group of 8 riders that broke away from the pelton over the last climb - Sunweb had two riders and played the numbers game.
MS have a minor crisis with injuries in an already thin squad of 24 riders - A.Yates has a broken pelvis, Nieve who hasn’t raced this season has fissures of the hip, have no idea about Howson wh hasn’t raced since the Herald Sun Tour while 4 or 5 other riders have suffered from illness. of course this has resulted in some reduced numbers in races.
Team for one day race Miguel Indurain
Haig
L.Hamilton
Power
Verona
Albasini
MS won this race last year with S.Yates, though this year it will a case of younger riders gaining experience.
It’s the same team for Pais Vasco stage race starting on Monday with the addition of Juul-Jensen who is the ironman going from race to race - It’s a loaded GC field and it would be good to see Haig do a decent GC - Think this race may be a case of following wheels.
Team for Flanders Field
Trentin
Hayman
Durbridge
Mezgec
Bauer
Edmondson
Hepburn
Very confident that Trentin can do top 5 or better - Has been in major split in each of his Belgium races.
Women’s team for Flanders Fields is
D’Hoore
Van Vleuten
Allen
Crooks
Roy
Elvin
Can get a good result in this race with three live options depending on circumstances.
And Brayden Chaves makes his debut for the Mitchelton conti squad at Trofeo Piva and Giro Belevedere this weekend - Will be interesting to see how Chaves goes on these hilly circuits.
Valverde wins Gran Premio Miguel Indurain from Verona and Schultz.
Haig was in the breakaway for much of the day but when Movistar brought it all together only Power could go with Verona for support.
It was interesting tactics by MS - Thought they would have been better to follow wheels and leave it to the final with three riders as obviously Verona, Power and Haig were in in form - Anyway Verona followed up his good ride in Catalunya and was the last rider to stay with Valverde, while Schultz put in a super impressive ride.
Damp start to the RVV
Lots of crashes and mechanicals.
Sep involved in a crash early, needed to chase back hard.
Bauer just went down.
Live youtube stream
Terpstra solos away from the peleton with 20kms to go - Catches the leading three being Pedersen, Van Baarle and Langeveld and then drops them on the second last climb - Pedersen tries desperately to hold the wheel but has to settle for second, while Sagan got away on the last climb but is brought back to the peleton in the last 8kms and Gilbert sprints for third - MS had a poor race - Trentin looked to be struggling with 70kms to go, while Durbridge looked OK but he and Edmondson got caught behind a crash on a climb with 50kms to go and Mezgec got a mechanical with around 60kms to to go.
Was a DNF.
Robert Stannard did win it though, for Mitchelton Bx
Apparently Chaves did his job in splitting up the peleton in the last 50kms - Stannard is a gifted rider who has some similarities with Matthews - Stannard climbs a bit better than Matthews, though doesn’t sprint as well.
Hammer Series coming to HK on the 14th of October - Should be a good day.
Alaphillipie owning the first two stages of Basque Country. QS braining it in spring.
Reckon Roglic is good for GC. He will take time in the flat 19.5km ITT.
Climbs in the first two stages are too steep for Haig. Today could be a breakaway.