Volta a Catalunya review: Irish eyes are smiling

March 24, 2013 Sheree Leave a comment

Daniel Martin won the Volta a Catalunya in style after a series of podium and top-five finishes in prior years. He finished on the right side of a key split on the opening day, took the lead on the queen stage and then intelligently maintained his advantage with bonus seconds. Martin becomes only the second Irishman (and first Brummie) to win this race since Sean Kelly. Irish eyes will be smiling and, one suspects, Irish arms will be raising a few glasses.

The podium l to r Rodriguez, Martin, Scarponi (image courtesy of Garmin-Sharp)

Race summary

On stage one Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) was the fastest of a 13-man leading group containing many of the overall contenders which crossed the line 28 seconds ahead of the rest, ahead of Valerio Agnoli (Astana) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). The day’s break had been absorbed back into the bunch on the last of three ascents of the Cat 3 Alto de Collsacreu, with around 20km remaining. It was on that descent that the winning move was forged by Sky’s Bradley Wiggins in the company of the winning trio and, among others, Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp), Robert Gesink (Blanco), Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).

Meersman made it back-to-back victories the following day as he sprinted up the slight rise to the finish on the 160.7km stage from Girona to Banyoles ahead of Daniele Ratto (Cannondale) and Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEDGE). After catching the day’s three-man break, the sprinters’ teams assumed control, driving up the pace to ensure no one could launch an attack before the bunch finish, albeit one marred by a crash behind the leading riders.

23-year-old Colombian climbing ace Nairo Quintana (Movistar) lit the after-burners in the final 500m of stage three with an impressive attack which no one was else was capable of containing to take the first mountain stage atop Vallter 2000. His team captain Valverde finished runner-up, six seconds back, to take over the leader’s jersey. Rodriguez, who’d dragged Valverde to the line, finished third, to move up to second overall some six seconds behind, with Wiggins third, ten seconds off the lead.

On the final climb Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) was the first to unsuccessfully break ranks in the last 5km followed by Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp). But both were hauled back by the metronomic Sky train before Wiggins surprised everyone with an attack of his own that split the remaining pack. However, it was the young Colombian who prevailed with his powerful, unstoppable acceleration.

Martin finished solo atop Port Aine-Rialp, an 18.9km hors categorie climb, a full 36 seconds ahead of closest rivals Rodriguez and Quintana (Movistar), taking over the race leader’s jersey from Valverde, who abandoned after a fall. Disappointed with his performance the previous day, Martin was part of the 23-man break which formed after about an hour of racing on the mountainous 217.7km queen stage. It was only on the penultimate climb, the hors categorie Port del Canto, that the break started to fall apart with Giro champion Ryder Hesjedal setting the pace for teammate Martin.

Back in the bunch, Sky reduced the break’s advantage to less than three minutes and whittled the chasing group down to around 50 riders. Martin’s cousin Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) attacked out of the leading group near the summit and continued to the final ascent before he was caught by a group of six riders from the earlier break which included Martin, who subsequently shed his companions and went on a solo attack 8km from home. WIth his head bobbing distinctively with the effort, he managed to hold off the chasers and the attacks of a number of others to win on ‘home’ turf – he’s been based in Girona for a number of years.

Francois Parisien (Argos-Shimano) adroitly negotiated numerous roundabouts to take his first win of the season and his first ever bunch sprint victory. With the peloton having ‘lost’ a number of sprinters, the unfancied 30-year-old Canadian finished ahead of Samuel Dumoulin (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Stephane Poulhies (Cofidis). Race leader Martin bolstered his lead by taking bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint and, ever attentive, finished ninth on the stage.

Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) recorded his second victory of the season when he put in a powerful surge up the finishing straight on 178.7km stage to Valls to soar past Gianni Meersman and Samuel Dumoulin. The trio were part of the 50-man leading group after the peloton had split on the final climb of the day, Alt de Lilla, sweeping up the eight-man breakaway on the rapid descent which followed. Race leader Martin hoovered up more intermediate bonus seconds to take him 17 clear of Rodriguez, 45 ahead of Quintana and 54 up on Wiggins.

The final stage was won by Vacansoleil’s Thomas De Gendt, who proved to be the strongest in the final five-man break ahead of David Lopez (Sky) and Robert Kiserlovski (RadioShack-Leopard). The break had been driven 22km from the finish by the ambitions of the rider who finished fourth, Michele Scarponi. Dan Martin sealed the overall – and the most prestigious victory of his career – when he rolled in 21 seconds later with the chasing bunch and the rest of the overall contenders whose attacks he and his team had controlled throughout the stage which had included eight tough ascents of the Montjuic climb in Barcelona.

Joaquim Rodriguez was runner-up, while Scarponi’s aggressive riding on the final stage saw him jump onto the podium. Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEDGE) took home the points jersey, Cristiano Salerno (Cannondale) was top dog in the mountains and Martin’s own team Garmin-Sharp won the team classification.

Analysis & opinion

Impressive performance from 23 year old Quintana (image courtesy of Movistar)

An impressive performance from Quintana (image courtesy of Movistar)

With the start of the Giro d’Italia just over a month away, the press are more likely to speculate about the state of readiness of fifth-placed Bradley Wiggins instead of congratulating the Garmin-Sharp team on their superbly orchestrated and well-deserved win. When you look at the overall results it’s littered with names we would expect to see gracing the GC of the forthcoming Grand Tours. So there’s no need for anyone to panic except perhaps Euskaltel-Euskadi who, despite animating a number of stages, have yet to register their first win of the season. But, never fear, their ‘home’ race Vuelta al Pais Vasco is fast approaching!

Most of the WorldTour teams have something to take away from this race: either consistent top ten placings, a stage win (or two in the case of OPQS) or a good overall result. However, the two riders who most impressed me were overall winner Dan Martin with his dogged persistence and Nairo Quintana who has an explosive acceleration to rival those of Alberto Contador and Joaquim Rodriguez, if only he could time-trial.

General classification

1. Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) 29:02:25

2. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) +0:17

3. Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) +0:34

4. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) +0:45

5. Bradley Wiggins (Sky) +0:54

6. Robert Gesink (Blanco) +1:07

7. Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) +1:18

8. Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) +1:26

9. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto Belisol) +1:28

10. Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) +1:41

Links: Preview, Official website

One-day races

Gent-Wevelgem review: Sagan wheelies his way to victory

March 24, 2013 Jack Sargeant 2 Comments

Peter Sagan rode to success in Gent-Wevelgem, accelerating out of an elite breakaway group in the closing kilometres to take a solo victory and – in typical Sagan style – wheelie over the line. Following behind were Borut Bozic and Greg Van Avermaet, who finished second and third respectively.

Not one for finish line understatement! (image courtesy of Cannondale)

Race summary

Interestingly the race started with a strong group of favourites getting off the front of the peloton, containing Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and three of his teammates, including Mark Cavendish. Also escaping was a Sky trio headed by Bernie Eisel, Andre Greipel (Lotto Belisol), Lars Boom (Blanco), Daniel Oss and Taylor Phinney (BMC) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale).

However, there was a key rider missing – Fabian Cancellara. The RadioShack-Leopard favourite didn’t make the group, meaning that his team quickly looked to shut it down, and did so before it could cause real problems. In the notorious Belgian crosswinds few moves stuck for long, though one which did was launched by Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil) just inside the 90km mark. Going with the Spanish Classics specialist were Assan Bazayev (Astana) and Mathieu Ladagnous (FDJ), with the trio opening up a gap of over a minute in just a few kilometres. The peloton behind had been whittled down to around 60 riders, with Cancellara and then Boonen withdrawing in quick succession inside the final 70km – the latter having fallen, complaining about being pushed into a kerb by another rider.

With not much happening for the next few kilometres, the action resumed with 56km to go as IAM’s Heinrich Haussler attacked out of what was left of the peloton. A chase group formed and caught him quickly, with the lead trio being swept up soon after. It left 13 riders leading, in what was an extremely strong group. Sagan had made the split, as had Eisel and BMC’s Greg Van Avermaet.

Lotto Belisol had their representative in Jens Debusschere, though he punctured and dropped out of the group, meaning the Belgian team took up the peloton’s chase with the hope of delivering Andre Greipel to the finish. Despite having their men Eisel and van Avermaet in the escape, Sky and BMC were also contributing to the work in the peloton, with Ian Stannard (Sky) and Philippe Gilbert (BMC) buzzing around frustratedly behind, as well as Blanco’s Boom.

However, the chase was never really organised effectively enough to close the gap, which continued to stay at a little over a minute. With 20km remaining the deficit was around 1½ minutes, and whilst over the next 16km – just before Peter Sagan made the winning move – it was cut to just half a minute, it wasn’t enough.

After Stijn Vandenbergh (OPQS) made the first move with 4km, Sagan quickly jumped onto his tail and then attacked himself. As if being the stand-in Cancellara, the Slovak time-trialled his way to the victory, eventually coming across the line on one wheel, 28 seconds ahead of Borut Bozic (Astana) and van Avermaet in the group behind. There was simply no stopping him.

Analysis & opinion

As is usually the case in all good Classics, Gent-Wevelgem was a strange, unpredictable sort of race, seemingly with any coherent strategy the teams may have produced blown away in the crosswinds. The tone was set with the unusually strong and large breakaway group which got away early on, before being quickly shut down.

Riders didn’t seem to know whether or not they should go with the breakaways, and, as is so often the case when crosswinds blow up, it was a case of he who dares wins. Teams were left unsure whether or not they should bring the break back, bearing in mind some had teammates up the road but had their race favourites in the bunch. This led to some non-committal chasing from the confused peloton, and in the end played right into the hands of Peter Sagan and those who were actually up the road.

It was a miserable day for Tornado Tom (image courtesy of Danielle Haex)

It was interesting to see Sagan attack so early at the finish, as if to flex his muscles ahead of the Tour of Flanders. He was probably the fastest finisher and easily the strongest rider in the escape group, and there was no real need for him to go so early – other than a sheer demonstration of just how strong he is at the moment. He won’t race Paris-Roubaix, though will ride Flanders, and could well cause an upset there.

On the Roubaix and Flanders note, it was bizarre to see both pre-race favourites retiring today. For Fabian Cancellara there should be no real problems, especially after he showed his excellent form with the win at E3 Harelbeke on Friday. For Tornado Tom Boonen, things are a little more concerning. Not only is he in slightly shaky form, but he retired after injuring his knee in a crash. Hopefully it won’t keep him out.