Monday, July 01, 2013

The big guys go stage-hunting















They said they'd be aggressive and aggressive they were. Euskaltel's pair of captains both went on the offensive on Monday's third stage of the Tour.

Going up the last climb of the day, the cat. 2 Col de Marsolino, they both put in digs in turns. First Antón, then Nieve.

The former looked spent even before he jumped and didn't get much of a gap. The latter, though, looked much more on his game and managed to join forces with Chavanel, Nordhaug and Rolland on the road to the finish in Calvi.

A potent quartet it was, but the sprinters weren't going to let another chance at glory slip from their grasp and duly caught them inside the final five clicks.

Simon Gerrans, who famously gave his word to Egoi Martínez on stage 15 of the 2008 Tour that he wouldn't attack him at the end of the stage but still did and ended up with the win, bested Peter Sagan by the tiniest of margins to take his team Orica-GreenEdge's first ever win at the Grand Boucle.

Gorka Izagirre made an effort to get in on the action and ended up tenth.

On a less positive note, brother Ion's white jersey ambitions took a big hit when he punctured right at the base of the final climb - in other words at the worst possible time. Rubén Pérez handed him his well but it was to little help, Izagirre going on to cede close to four minutes.

Results:
  • (1, Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge), 3:41:24)
  • 10, Gorka Izagirre, s.t.
  • 35, Mikel Astarloza, s.t.
  • 45, Igor Antón, s.t.
  • 67, Mikel Nieve, s.t.
  • 96, Ion Izagirre, 3:40
  • 141, Juan José Oroz, 8:26
  • 146, Juan José Lobato, s.t.
  • 149, Romain Sicard, s.t.
  • 176, Rubén Pérez, 9:15

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well riden! It was great to see you riding off the front on Col de Marsolino... Good luck in the TTT...
John

Franck said...

TTT today...Aie aie aie.

Stephen said...

Well as its short they can't loose too much time....can they????

Kristof said...

It's a shame this Rolland guy is still in the peleton, if he was Spanish he would not even have been allowed to start. Oroz and Astarloza should have been waiting for Izagirre, that's what domestiques are for, after all it's the only reason the are in TDF.

 

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