Volta a Catalunya 2012 - Stage 5: Ascó "La vostra energia" - Manresa (207km)

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Yes but as much as I like Szmyd he is not a real leader.

I hope Niemiec gets more chances to ride for himself at lampre. Niemiec is a beast. He just doesn't know it yet

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

So is someone (has someone?) put together an analysis of finishing positions so far so we know where the 'battles' are?

 

[Gloin22]

That was the situation yesterday :

VdB-66
Martin-67
Sanchez-90
Uran-92
Pardilla-93
Cunego-95
Danielson-99
Kiserlovski-105
Carrara-107
Cataldo-117
Menchov-119
Szmyd-129
Levi-144
Kruyswiyk-158
Stetina-176

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

That was the situation yesterday :

VdB-66
Martin-67
Sanchez-90
Uran-92
Pardilla-93
Cunego-95
Danielson-99
Kiserlovski-105
Carrara-107
Cataldo-117
Menchov-119
Szmyd-129
Levi-144
Kruyswiyk-158
Stetina-176

So Uran and Sammy are now level. Potentially interesting for the weekend with more sprinters involved - greater change of gaps.

 

[theyoungest]

The final stage offers some opportunity for attacks in the final kms... after all, all it takes is finishing 1 second ahead of the pack and you immediately leap to 2nd on GC

 

[FF'Wilco]

The last two stages can cause more changes in gc then the hilly ones. All because of positioning. Im pretty sure there will be at least one or two rider (e.g. Pardilla) who will have a problem with that and it may cost him loosing few spots in gc just because he finish 100th instead of 40th. And thats stupid. I just hope there will be no crashes happened because gc riders will fight to finish 35 or so.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Dario Cataldo has finished 2nd, 13th, 8th and 5th today since stage 2.

 

[Frosty]

A few early climbs tomorrow. Maybe someone like Garmin or OPL will put Hesjedal or Vandevelde on the front to try and put some of the Green Edge guys in trouble and then keep a high pace until the later climb to not allow them back, or to make them chase hard. I doubt its that steep though. Past few stages suggest that even if a small group of GC people breaks away then Albasini will be able to rely on some of the other guys high up on GC to pull it all back.

Some teams with guys not that far back might try and put them up the road to force GreenEdge to have to least keep up something of a chase, eg Trofimov, or the infamous Quintana.

It is a bit worrying that some of the sprints could involve both sprinters and about 15GC guys. However, stage 7 looks like it shouldnt be the entire peloton coming to the finish. Surely with a climb that close to the finish then some people will go hell for leather at the top, and try to keep a gap to the finish, knowing the value of just 1 second (i know the profiles can look steeper than they actually are)

 

[sucotash]

It is all because of the race director.

He made a stupid mistake on the cancelled stage. They should shorten the stage and ride only the final climb + for example 10 km of flat. It was obvious that 200 km in such conditions + going downhill in ice cold temperature is impossible. The last climb would be enough to make solid gaps, and would alllow GC guys to put a serious fight. Now the climbs are to easy to make a gap, even if someone somehow gains some time uphill it is impossible to hold it for 20 km downhill/flat against ~ 20 riders chasing hard.

Those GC guys have hardly any experience in trying a mass sprint. I hope it will be safe tomorrow. It is stupid that beeing 2 or 15 in a hard World Tour one week race over some nice mountains depends on how high you finish on a flat stage in the bunch

 

[roundabout]

A few early climbs tomorrow. Maybe someone like Garmin or OPL will put Hesjedal or Vandevelde on the front to try and put some of the Green Edge guys in trouble and then keep a high pace until the later climb to not allow them back, or to make them chase hard. I doubt its that steep though. Past few stages suggest that even if a small group of GC people breaks away then Albasini will be able to rely on some of the other guys high up on GC to pull it all back.

Some teams with guys not that far back might try and put them up the road to force GreenEdge to have to least keep up something of a chase, eg Trofimov, or the infamous Quintana.

It is a bit worrying that some of the sprints could involve both sprinters and about 15GC guys. However, stage 7 looks like it shouldnt be the entire peloton coming to the finish. Surely with a climb that close to the finish then some people will go hell for leather at the top, and try to keep a gap to the finish, knowing the value of just 1 second (i know the profiles can look steeper than they actually are)

The last climb on stage 7 doesn't seem to be much. 2km at under 5%. The downhill will be more decisive.

 

[The Hitch]

A shame that stage was cancelled cos I think Samu could have bagged hisself a wt win.

 

[Frosty]

Looking at how the climbs have gone its a shame that Wiggins abandoned the other day. He said he was here to ride for Uran, and the climbs look like the sort where Wiggins could have ridden a very high tempo and hopefully done more damage than the remaining riders have done. Porte could have really hammered along as well. Maybe an earlier notice that the stage was going to be abandoned would have encouraged them to ride on to the finish - at that stage it looked like there were hours and hours to ride on and with bigger objectives looming later in the season and Wiggins being very thin and thus presumably more susceptible to the cold, Wiggo's decision to abandon made sense if they were going all the way but maybe he'd have made a different decision if he'd known they werent going all the way.

 

[greenedge]

Nice work by Simon. I love this attacking Levi.