Valle d'Aosta Stage 3: Toniatti wins; Garby in yellow but lead shrinks

On a transitional but still uphill stage, it was yet another brutal day for the racers at the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta. While the course only had 3 categorized climbs, there was an uphill drag back into the start town of Châtel and after the previous two monster days, there were tired legs to contend with as well. To add some more crazy to the day, a 15 man breakaway took off int the first kilometers of the stage and put race leader Marc Christian Garby (Team General Store) on the back heel once again.

The race transitioned to the French town of Châtel, a small hamlet in the Rhône-Alpes region that is popular as a ski resort, for the first of two stages around the area. The race, like many other Italian stage races, was low on funds and found a partner in the town's government to keep the race healthy. It also helps that home region team Chambery CF is in the race along with a Haute Savoie team, the department where Châtel is located in. Anyways, I digress...

 Within the first five kilometers, 15 riders broke off the front of the race and immediately made the race. The breakaway included:

• Diego Brasi and Marco Chianese (Palazzago), Maxat Ayazbayev and Roman Seymenov (Astana CT), Thomas Vanbeisen and Jeroen Vrolijkx (Lotto U23), Oliviero Troia (Colpack), Giacomo Berlato and Andrea Toniatti (Zalf-Euromobil), Rino Gasparrini (Trevigiani), Simon Pellaud (Swiss National), Walter Devecchi (Overall), Jasha Sütterlin (Thüringer Energie) and Loïc Vliegen and Paul Lynch (BMC)

These 15 got a healthy gap but the fun wasn't over for potential GC contenders. As the gap grew out further to two minutes, Gennady Tatarinov (Russia National) and Mikel Iturria (Euskadi) then attacked out of the peloton and set off in pursuit of the breakaway. Manuel Senni (Colpack) joined them shortly afterwards. After the first sprint points, 25 more riders joined the front group and it was now 40% of the peloton out in front with Garby chasing about a half minute behind. After the 2nd climb of the La Beunaz, it was a group of 20 riders that would make the breakaway for the rest of the race.

• Fiorillo (Vejus), Baur, Pellaud (Swiss National), Maxime Le Lavandier (Chambery), Katyrin, Foliforov and Akimov (Russian National), Troia (Colpack), Berlato, Toniatti (Zalf Euromobil), Kozhatayev, Ayazbayev and Semyonov (Astana), Vrolijkx (Lotto-Belisol), Iturria (Euskadi), Sütterlin (Thüringer Energie), Vliegen (BMC), Brasi and Ciccone (Palazzago) and Maestri (General Store)

Over the next 10 kilometers, the gap went from 30 seconds to nearly 5 minutes. A group including Luca Chirico (Trevigiani) and Carlos Barbero (Euskadi) took off after the group but only Barbero and Lotto's would eventually bridged to the group. Going into the final 20 kilometers, the gap was nearly six minutes on the peloton.

With 15 kilometers left, the break was on the uphill run in to Châtel and a group of five had separated themselves. Andrea Toniatti and Giacomo Berlato (Zalf Euromobil), Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev and Maxat Ayazbayev (Astana) and Maxime Le Lavandier (Chambery) lifted the pace and the race blew open. Le Lavandier and Ayazbayev dropped off fairly early while Euskadi's Mikel Iturria bridged the gap to the other leaders.

The four worked well together but with 5 kilometers left they were joined by Ayazbayev, Diego Brasi (Palazzago) and Simon Pellaud (Swiss National). The group of 7 had a gap of a minute on most of the breakaway and still have 5'47" on the rest of the peloton, which included Garby, 2nd place Davide Villella and other high GC placers. With four kilometer to go, Berlato attacked and got 10 seconds. The only ones able to respond were Berlato's teammate Toniatti and Itturia, the rest not able to follow on the shallow uphill. The duo went by Berlato in the final kilometer and Toniatti came around the Basque rider and took the victory, his 3rd of the year.

Behind, Davide Villella attacked the yellow jersey group in the finale, an attack that saw the leader Garby drop off the back slightly. Villella took a further 13 seconds out of Garby's lead, taking it down to just 28 seconds. The biggest GC mover on the day was Astana's Roman Semyonov, who was in the day long breakaway and took enough time to move from 10th to 3rd on GC, just 47 seconds down on Garby.

1. Andrea Toniatti (Zalf Euromobil)
2. Mikel Iturria (Euskadi)
3. Giacomo Berlato (Zalf Euromobil) +7"
4. Diego Brasi (Palazzago) +16"
5. Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev (Astana) +34"
6. Simon Pellaud (Swiss National) +1'03"
7. Maxat Ayazbayev (Astana) +1'12"
8. Roman Semyonov (Astana) +1'26"
9. Mikhail Akimov (Russian National) +1'28"
10. Dimitri Peyskens (Lotto-Belisol U23) +1'30"

G.C.

1. Marc Garby (General Store)
2. Davide Villella (Colpack) +28"
3. Roman Semyonov (Astana) +47"
4. Davide Formolo (Petroli Firenze) +49"
5. Clément Chevrier (Chambery CF) +51"
6. Louis Vervaeke (Lotto-Belisol U23) +57"
7. Alexander Foliforov (Russian National) +1'05"
8. Mikel Iturria (Euskadi) +1'34" 
9. Manuel Senni (Colpack) +1'35"
10. Daniele Dall'Oste (Trevigiani) +1'56"

Full Results for Stage and GC

The GC has continued to tighten up and another mountain filled day on Friday will most likely see the conclusion of the GC battle as Garby will have to put everything on the line to defend his lead over Villella, Formolo and the rest of the contenders.

Garby's last day in yellow?

Valle d'Aosta Stage 2: "A Return to Normalcy" as Villella takes stage honors; cuts GC deficit

After yesterday's surprising ride by Marc Christian Garby (Team General Store), stage 2 of the Giro Ciclistico della Valle d'Aosta saw a return to normalcy of sorts as many of the pre-race favorites duked it out on another uphill finish, this time at Champorcher. Garby would finish the day in yellow but his lead would be much reduced from the previous day.

There were multiple attacks early in the stage with over half of the Astana Continental team trying to get into the day's break at various stages of the race. First it was Bahktiyar Kozhatayev who went but was pulled back quickly before Maxat Ayazbayev tried his hand with Giacomo Gallio (Delio Gallina) but after some kilometers of trying, they were both absorbed. Finally after 40 kilometers, it was Zhandos Bizhigitov along with Simone Petilli (Delio Gallina) who attacked and opened up a nice gap and were later joined by Roman Katyrin (Russia), Simone Andreetta (Zalf Euromobil) and Gallio. The peloton was finally willing to let this one go as they needed to keep something in their legs for the fearsome Col Tze Core, a 15 kilometer climb that averages nearly 7%.

The gap got up to nearly 3 minutes but as the break hit the first slopes of the Tze Core, it was Petilli who immediate attacked his breakaway companions and put time into them. Petilli rode solo up the whole climb while behind, Bizhigitov and Andreetta created an alliance and worked well together to limit their advantage. From the peloton, Fausto Masnada (Colpack) attacked near the bottom and put in a herculean effort to pass Gallio and Katyrin and then catch the chasing duo of Bizhigitov and Andreetta before he reached the summit, where he was only 22 seconds down on a streaking Petilli after dropping the duo. After a short descent, it was the short side of the Col de Joux that was tackled next. Masnada joined Petilli near the beginning of the climb and the duo worked together and at the top, it was Petilli who took maximum points to pad his KOM lead.

While this ride was impressive, it was only in the first 106 kilometer to go and the two climbers still had another 35 kilometers of descent and flat before hitting the first slopes of the climb to Champorcher. While the leading duo plowed on, the peloton were fine with letting the gap balloon as it went from 2 minutes to 3 and then 4 minutes plus with 15 kilometers to go. Finally, with 12 kilometers to go the peloton awoke from their slumber and Davide Formolo (Petroli Firenze) attacked and was initially followed by Davide Villella (Colpack) and race leader Garby but would soon be joined by many more as the race went under the 10km to go banner, the gap now under three minutes.

After the chasers reformed, one of yesterday's attackers, Louis Vervaeke (Lotto U23), put in another attack today at 8 kilometers to go and drew out Villella, Alexander Foliforov (Russia), Clement Chevrier (Chambery CF) and Floris De Tier (EFC-OPQS) and the gap between them and the two leaders was plummeting. Petilli went on solo but with a little over 5 kilometers to go, it was all over for him. De Tier and Vervaeke exploded soon afterwards while Formolo, Daniele Dall'Oste (Trevigiani) and Maunel Senni (Colpack) joined to leaders to make it a sextet. Garby was struggling behind with Vervaeke and nearly a minute back with four kilometers to go.

As the steepest bit of the climb ended, it was just down to Formolo, Villella and Chevrier with the other three gapped by a few handfuls of seconds. Formolo, the worst sprinter, tried to lead it out with a long sprint from nearly a 750 meters to go of shallow uphill but the other two easily came around the the powerful Villella distancing Chevrier for his 2nd win of the year, quite a surprising fact in and of itself seeing as he already won 8 races this time last year. In the end, Villella pulled out 1'19" from Marc Garby's lead as the Dane came across the line in 8th, just behind Pierre Paolo Penasa (Zalf Euromobil), and kept his overall lead by 39 seconds on Villella.

1. Davide Villella (Colpack)
2. Clement Chevrier (Chambery CF) +1"
3. Davide Formolo (Petroli Firenze) +4"
4. Daniele Dall'Oste (Trevigiani) +22"
5. Alexander Foliforov (Russia) +25"
6. Manuel Senni (Colpack) +28"
7. Pierre Paolo Penasa (Zalf Euromobil) +1'15"
8. Marc Christian Garby (Team General Store) +1'19"
9. Louis Vervaeke (Lotto-Belisol U23) +1'40"
10. Roman Semyonov (Astana CT) +1'57"

G.C.

1. Garby
2. Villella +41"
3. Formolo +56"
4. Chevrier +58"
5. Vervaeke +1'04"
6. Foliforov +1'12"
7. Senni +1'29"
8. Dall'Oste +2'03"
9. Penasa +2'46"
10. Semyonov 4'34"

Full Results

Behind the top 10, it is a steep drop off on the results page. The rest of the top 20 came in anywhere from 3'16" to 7'40" and the gaps got even larger afterwards. The final rider, Sergey Vdovin of Lokosphinx, came in at 37'12". Technically he wasn't last as three Ventilair Steria riders missed the time cut. Tomorrow will give the riders some respite as the race transfers to the French town of Châtel and will feature a few climbs but nothing on the scale of the last two days. 

Valle d'Aosta Stage 1: Garby shocks the favorites

Garby was in tears after his stage win (Photo: Race Website)

Before today, I could not have told you who Marc Christian Garby was. Today, I still cannot say much about the 22-year old Dane who rides for Team General Store, the Italian amateur squad that is based out of Verona. Garby put in one of the more stunning rides of this year but riding in the breakaway all day and taking a solo victory in the uphill finish at La Magdeleine.

For the last two years, I cannot find any record of Garby even racing, with his last results coming from 2011 in the Danish National RR and the Scandinavian Race Uppsala. From his Facebook, it says that he was working in a theater up until this year, when he moved to Italy and eventually started to race with the Team General Store in April at the GP Palio del Recioto, where he finished 15th. I won't pretend to know his story because I am just as curious as many others as to how this all came about and what his journey has been like.

On the nearly all uphill journey from Pont-Saint-Martin to La Magdeleine, it was within the first 8 kilometers of the 155 kilometer stage that saw Garby attack with others including Lotto's Louis Vervaeke. The group scaled the first two smaller hills without much difficulty and then continued on the false flat run in up to the foot of the Col St. Pantaléon, the main feature for the day's racing. While the gap had dropped between the peloton and the breakaway, the break was still given a healthy lead and Garby was putting in accelerations, dropping riders from the break and it was only Vervaeke and Giacomo Berlato (Zalf Euromobil) that could follow. It wasn't long after that Garby attacked the duo on the Pantaléon and went solo over the top. After a short descent, it was Garby who had a 30 second advantage on Vervaeke at the foot of the climb with the group nearly two minutes back.



Garby, who has a very lithe build and is suited for climbs, put another 20 seconds into Vervaeke, an impressive climber in his own right, and finished up with a gap of 54 seconds on the Belgian. Behind, it was perennial podium placer Davide Villella taking a small sprint from Russian Alexander Foliforov with Davide Formolo, Clement Chevrier, Mikel Iturria and Manuel Senni all finishing close behind. Behind the leading chasing pack, it was utter shambles as the time gaps were huge and it was minutes rather than seconds between many riders.

1. Marc Christian Garby
2. Louis Vervaeke +54"
3. Davide Villella +2'13"
4. Alexander Foliforov s.t.
5. Davide Formolo +2'16"
6. Clement Chevrier s.t.
7. Mikel Iturria +2'18"
8. Manuel Senni +2'21"
9. Pierre Paolo Penasa +2'53"
10. Daniele Dall'Oste +3'09"

Garby was in tears at the end and thanked his team and everyone for giving him the chance this year and promises to put everything out there. I would like to see an interview with him so that I can understand his near two-year layoff from the sport, the racing side at least. He has raced twice this year with the Danish National U23 team in stage races such as the U23 Peace Race and the Thüringen Rundfahrt but according to a post-race interview, he was still not on 100% form and it wasn't until Wednesday morning that he truly felt like he could win the stage. He hopes to defend the jersey for as long as he can.

Thüringer Energie goes 1-2 in Valle d'Aosta prologue

Sütterlin punching it on the finishing straight (Photo: Race Wesbite)

Taking advantage of some of the only flat parcours they will have, the German duo of Jasha Sütterlin and Maximilian Schachmann (both Thüringer Energie) went 1-2 in the opening 2.5 kilometer prologue with Sütterlin taking the win by a slim .81 of a second. This prologue was a stark contrast to the last few years which featured a twisting uphill prologue that favored lithe climbers.

The opening event of the 50th Giro Ciclisto della Valle d'Aosta took place in Pont-Saint-Martin, a small valley town that sits near the border of the Valle d'Aosta and Piemonte. The course was a 2.5 kilometer loop that went started in town, near the 1st-century Roman bridge, and looped around to the west before heading back into the city center for the finish. Pont-Saint-Martin is one of the small gateways to the Aosta Valley, the smallest, least populated and least densely populated region in Italy and home to mythic peaks and stunning scenery.




The race features 22 teams but with only 5-man teams (and a four man Euskadi squad), the race started with only 109 riders. Sütterlin, a consistent threat in nearly any TT, was the easy favorite and put on a storming performance. Schachmann, last year's 3rd place in the World Junior TT in Valkenburg, continued his streak of impressive time trialling performances with 2nd place and by next year, he should be contending for even more wins. The next closest rider was Swiss Adrian Chenaux (Atlas Personal-Jakroo), which made for an all-Teutonic podium. Chenaux is no stranger to the hills of Aosta as he finished 24th overall here last year.

Diego Brasi (Palazzago) wore #1 on his back, courtesy of Fabio Aru's winning performance here last year, and did well by going 4th and was one of only three Italians in the top 10. While some of the Italian media lamented about Italy's lack of strong time trialling, it should be noted that many of the Italian teams are loaded with climbers and will be looking to the hills to make the race. The mountains of Aosta and Rhône-Alpes, the French region the race will be going through, will negate (or vastly expand depending on how you see it) the time gaps of a short flat prologue.

1. Jasha Sütterlin (Thüringer Energie)
2. Maximilian Schachmann (Thüringer Energie)
3. Adrian Chenaux (Atlas Personal-Jakroo) +2"
4. Diego Brasi (Palazzago) +3"
5. Xandro Meurisse (Lotto-Belisol U23) +4"
6. Daniel Peeters (Ventilair-Steria) +5"
7. Loïc Vliegen (BMC Development)
8. Mattia Frapporti (Trevigiani)
9. Jan Brockoff (Thüringer Energie) +6"
10. Marco Chianese (Palazzago)

Placings for some GC contenders include...

-19th Louis Vervaeke (Lotto)

-20th Mathieu Le Lavandier (Chambery CF)

-27th Haritz Orbe (Euskadi)

-29th Daniele Dall'Oste (Trevigiani)

-39th Pierre-Roger Latour (Chambery CF)

-54th Davide Formolo (Petroli Firenze)

-58th Pierre Paolo Penasa (Zalf Euromobil)

-69th Clement Chevrier (Chambery CF)

-71st Bahktiyar Kozhatayev (Astana CT)

Full Results

Tuesday's flat will be sorely missed as tomorrow will be mountain heavy with four categorized summits along with back-to-back category one ascents in the Col St. Pantaléon and the uphill finish at La Magdeleine. Without a juggernaut like Fabio Aru or Joe Dombrowski this year, the race will be more open but look to some of the highlighted riders for high finishes.

Full Startlist

Thursday Night Shorts

Nate Brown takes title #2 for Bontrager at USA Nationals 

After tag-teaming the road race with teammate Tanner Putt, Nate Brown still had a score to settle with the time trial. The Tennessee native had won the race in 2011 and was 3rd last year (he was also 3rd in the US Professional TT Championships this May) and with Lawson Craddock out, his road to the title was made easier but still would not be a simple task.

The first rider off was bronze medalist from the road race Hincapie Development's Ty Magner, who laid down an impressive time of 37'28" on the flat to rolling 29 kilometer course that finished right outside of the Trek headquarters. This time was so impressive that Magner was in the hot seat for nearly the whole day. Hincapie Devo teammate Robin Carpenter was the first to come remotely near Magner's time with a 37'50", which put him in a provisional 2nd place. Next to come closer was Colorado rider Andrew Hemesath (PrimalWear-McDonald-Audi), who went six seconds faster than Carpenter but was still 16 seconds off the time laid down by Magner.

 Nearly an hour after Magner had set off, Nate Brown launched down the start ramp and proceeded to smash the course, posting the only time under 37 minutes with a 36'59", a time which was topped by only two elite men's riders. Five riders set off after Brown but none of them could touch him. Steven Perezluha (AG Bicycles - Guttenplan Coaching), who showed promise with his Cat.1-2 overall win at the Joe Martin Stage Race in Arkansas earlier this year, finished 3rd at just 10 seconds off of Magner's 2nd place time. T.J. Eisenhart (BMC Development) finished up well with a 4th place, four seconds off Perezluha, to go with his 8th place in the road race yesterday.

Top 10 (Full Results)

1. Nate Brown (Bontrager CT) 36'59"
2. Ty Magner (Hincapie Development) +29"
3. Steven Perezluha (AG Bicycles-Guttenplan Coaching) +39"
4. T.J. Eisenhart (BMC Develpoment) +43"
5. Andrew Hemesath (PrimalWear-McDonald-Audi) +45"
6. Robin Carpenter (Hincapie Development) +51"
7. Eamon Franck (CalGiant) +52"
8. Gregory Daniel (Bontrager CT) +1'04"
9. Zack Noonan (BikeReg.com) +1'09"
10. Robin Eckmann (CalGiant) +1'10"

Teams announced for Giro Ciclisto della Valle d'Aosta-Mont Blanc

Next to the Tour de l'Avenir, the Giro della Valle d'Aosta is the most prestigious stage race for U23 cyclists and this year, the race will feature a prologue and five road stages, two of which will be in and around the French town of Châtel. The 22-team lineup will consist of half Italian amateur teams and a group of foreign squads including continental, amateur and national teams.

The lucky 22 are...

1. Team Palazaggo
2. Petroli Firenze
3. Colpack
4. Zalf-Eruomobil
5. Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli
6. General Store
7. Overall Cycling Team
8. ASD Cerone
9. Gallina Eurofeed
10. Vejus-TMF
11. Haute-Savoie-Rhône-Alpes
12. Chambéry CF
13. Lotto-Belisol U23
14. EFC-OPQS
15. Ventilair-Steria
16. Lokosphinx
17. Euskadi
18. Astana CT
19. BMC Development
20. Thüringer Energie
21. Swiss National Team
22. Russian National Team

The race starts next Tuesday, the 9th, and runs through the 14th. A full course preview should be up relatively soon but no idea when there will be a full startlist available. Here is the full race guide along with route profiles and information about the race.

Transfer News

Directvelo has listed many French riders that will be getting stagiaire roles this summer

• Rudy Barbier will stagiaire (trainee) with Roubaix-Lille Métropole. The Frenchman has two wins to his name this year riding for the Armée de Terre (French Army) including a stage at the UCI 2.2 Paris-Arras stage race.

• Alexandre Billon and Yannis Yssaad will stagiaire with BigMat-Auber93. Both have been riding on the team's feeder squad, C.M. Aubervilliers 93. Billon was 12th overall in the 2.2 Tour of Gironde along with two top 5 stage placings. Yssaad stagiaired with the team last year and has multiple top placings in the French amateur scene.

• Europcar has gone with three stagiaires this summer, all of whom come from their feeder team Vendée U. Former junior world champion Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier, Romain Guillemois and Julien Morice will be joining the green team in August. Lecuisinier is pegged by many as one of France's big hopes for the future, especially in the classics and in time trials. Guillemois recently won a stage in Boucles de la Mayenne and finished 7th in the Liege-Bastogne-Liege U23. Both of these riders were stagiaires with the team last year. Morice was French University champion in the time trial and will be at the European Track Championships.

• Clément Saint-Martin will stagiaire with La Pomme Marseille. Saint-Martin was 2nd in the French Amateur Championships and has been riding for the Oceane U-Top 16 team out of Poitou-Charentes on France's west-central coast.

• Former junior World Champion Olivier Le Gac (BIC 2000) will stagiaire with FDJ. Currently 19, Le Gac is still a university student but was able to take a win in the Boucles de l'Essor earlier this year.

-Elmar Reinders (Metec-TKH) underwent testing with Lotto-Belisol, according to wielerland.nl, and will hear about a possible stagiaire role and/or professional contract after the Tour de France.

-Yoann Barbas (Armée de Terre) will stagiaire with Ag2r-La Mondiale, according to velochrono.com.

-According to Polish tweeter Pawel Gadzala (@8aldwin), Pawel Poljanski will probably ride as a stagiaire for Saxo-Tinkoff. Poljanski experienced a turbulent season as the team he was supposed to ride for, Italian Pro Continental Vini Fantini, did not have money to register him and therefore he was stuck in limbo for the first half of the season.

-Het Nieuwsblad reported that Louis Verhelst (Etixx-iHNed) will definitely be going to the pro ranks next year but to which team is still the mystery. The article suggests that Cofidis has been really going after him. Cofidis is the home to Belgians Jan Ghyselinck, Romain Zingle, Nico Sijmens and Edwig Cammaerts.

The Wayback Machine: Bakelants takes shock Tour de l'Avenir win

Jan Bakelants

With a profound stage win on Sunday and spending some valuable time in the Tour de France's maillot jaune, Jan Bakelants is finally living up to the hype he was given as a U23 star. Sunday's late breakaway win was Bakelants first professional win in his now 5-year career, which is a bit surprising if one were to look at his last U23 season. Seen as one of Belgium's finest young prodigies, 2008 was a year of excellence for the kid from one of the heartlands of Belgian cycling, Oudenaarde.

Bakelants didn't have just one good performance in 2008. He also had more than a few. That season saw Bakelants take 11 victories including four stage race overall crowns. On the domestic front, Bakelants frequently toed the line against Jérôme Baugnies, Ben Hermans, Thomas De Gendt and Sep Vanmarcke. Taking after his cycling faux-fathers of Flemish lore, Bakelants specialized in the long, solo-breakaways that demoralized the men behind him. For example, take his win at the Fleche Ardennaise in June of that year; Bakelants beat 2nd place Aurélien Duval by an astonishing 3 minutes and 12 seconds. 5th place Jérôme Baugnies? 5 minutes and 47 seconds back. This was not a one-off occurrence either as Bakelants put on similar performances at the Tour de Liege and, more importantly, the 5th stage of the Tour de l'Avenir.

For all of Bakelants' talent, his winning was limited mainly to Belgium and Northern France and up to that point, he was pretty untested on ascents longer than five kilometers. The 2008 edition of the Tour de l'Avenir was still in a time when race organizers were not strapped for cash and were able to put on mammoth races. This race was nine stages plus a prologue and featured talent that is all over the current World Tour (Look at the GC from this race...26 out of 30 are professionals). Heavyweight favorites included Portugal's Rui Costa, France's Jerome Coppel, UCI Mixed Team racer Andrey Amador and American Tejay van Garderen, among many others.

That year's race was something much different than the one we see now. With only one true mountain stage, the majority of the route was made up with rolling hills and what the Tour de France would consider transitional stages, races that are deceptively hard and ones that play to the strengths of riders such as Bakelants. On stage 4, a breakaway of five stayed away and pulled out a big gap on the peloton (thank you five man teams!) and by the time Ricardo van der Velde beat out Matteo Busato in a two-up sprint, the peloton was over three minutes behind. American Peter Stetina slipped on the yellow jersey holding a quite comfortable advantage on the hungry pack but the next day was where the race threw the script out entirely. What commenced was an impressive ad-lib performance...

Stage 5

Within the first five kilometers of the 212.5 kilometer journey from Saint Flour to Carmaux, a breakaway got away and their advantage began to grow as the race traversed through the belly button of France. The breakaway was rather large with eleven riders before hitting the first proper climb; riders including Bakelants, Tejay van Garderen, Maxime Bouet, Blel Kadri, Patrick Gretsch, Michel Kreder, Macej Paterski, Stefano Pirazzi and Mitchell Docker. After getting to a maximum gap of over 4:30, the gap began the fall as the climbs became more frequent, eight in total on the course.

On the Côte de Lussagues, Bakelants attacked his competitors as the gap had dropped under two minutes. On the descent, only van Garderen and Gretsch were able to catch up to the flying Fleming. While the initial breakaway was in tatters, the peloton had detonated and any semblance of control was lost as the gap once again ballooned. After the breakaway finally regrouped through the feedzone, the gap was over 5 minutes. Bakelants proceeded to lead the break over the Côte de la Bastié and then with 52 kilometers left, he dropped his breakaway companions and quickly formed a gap.

Bakelants was gone. 15 kilometers later on the Côte de la Malric, his gap was 1'55" over Gretsch, van Garderen and Paterski while the peloton was over six minutes in arrears. Over the lumpy roads of Midi-Pyrénées, the gap went from 2 minutes to 2:30 and beyond. As he crossed the 10km to go and the summit of the Côte de la Roucarié, Bakelants was suffering but still leading by three minutes on the chasers. The chasing bunch was ceding multiple minutes to the peloton, who had picked up their tempo considerably. On the line after 207 kilometers of riding in the breakaway, Bakelants won with a gap of 3'10" on a group of seven chasers. The peloton came in just over a minute later, lead in by Kristjan Koren. 

Stage 5 results

1. Jan Bakelants (Belgium)
2. Mitchell Docker (UCI Mixed) +3'10"
3. Macej Paterski (Poland)
4. Blel Kadri (France A)
5. Michel Kreder (Netherlands)
6. Patrick Gretsch (Germany)
7. Maxime Bouet (France B)
8. Tejay van Garderen (USA)
9. Kristjan Koren (Slovenia) +4'27"
10. Sergej Fuchs (Germany) s.t. 
11. Ben Gastauer (Luxembourg) +4'28"
12. Rasmus Guldhammer (Denmark)
13. Romain Zingle (Belgium)
14. Alexander Porsev (Russia)
15. Troels Vinther (Denmark)

The Aftermath

The rest of the Tour de l'Avenir was no cakewalk for Bakelants because even though he had a substantial lead headed into the 2nd half of the race, he had legit mountain climbers to contend with. The Stage 6 time trial was won by Estonian Rein Taaramäe as Bakelants did well to only cede a half minute to Jérôme Coppel and 23 seconds to Rui Costa. Stage 7 saw the leader lose another 30 seconds to the small leading group containing Costa, Coppel and others as Dominik Klemme won his 2nd stage of the race. Coppel had chopped a minute off the lead in two days and a legitimate mountain stage was looming.

A summit finish at Guzet was on tap for Stage 8 and Bakelants, someone who was adapt to climbs that were less than 5 kilometers, was making a cartoonish gulp as he looked at the profile. The stage was backloaded with a category two and three category one climbs. Bakelants was dropped on the Port de Lers and had to fight on the short descent before the Col d'Agnes, where he had van Garderen, Fuchs and Coppel for company. There was trouble in the form of the main chasing group behind a streaking Arnold Jeannesson in the form of Rui Costa, Taaramäe, Marcel Wyss, Jarlinson Pantano and Andrey Amador, who were taking time out of the Belgian.

On the climb up to Guzet, it was everyman for himself. Jeannesson was putting in a ride that could possibly see him take yellow. Costa had dropped his companions and was on the red line, doing everything he could to take time out of Bakelants, who was struggling after being dropped by Coppel and was trying to hold onto van Garderen's wheel. Jeannesson celebrated a spectacular win while Costa came in at 1'06" and the countdown started. Wyss and Pantano were followed by Caruso, Coppel and Amador. The feelings in Costa must have been growing with every second that that ticked by but when van Garderen rode in 3'43", he was soon followed by an exhausted Bakelants, who had preserved his lead by 36 seconds.

Van Garderen's final day win into Mirepoix, a solo breakaway to salvage a self-described so-so race, saw Bakelants wrap up his Tour de l'Avenir overall in one of the bigger upsets of the last decade in this race. So this should have been the first of many big wins in the Belgian's career and by his 5th professional year, he should be contending for many race wins, single day affairs and stage races alike..right? Guys? Anyone?

And then what happened...

Like many riders who win big races young or experience a very successful season, the next step can be a bit of a stutter step. Bakelants, who was already signed by Topsport Vlaanderen at that point, joined the Belgian Pro Continental outfit for 2009 and by anyone's standards, he had a successful first year. The Belgian rode well in his suited terrain and netted high overall placings in races such as the Tour of Belgium, Ster Elektrotoer, Tour de Wallonie and a fine 9th in the World Tour stage race, the Eneco Tour. Bakelants even finished 2nd in the ungodly hard GP Triberg-Schwarzwald to Heinrich Haussler. This was a impressive season results wise and featured just two DNF's and this was the first stepping stone.

Then Bakelants moved to OmegaPharma-Lotto for the follow two years. Remove many of the short stage races and one-day races and replace them with the Giro, Vuelta and a few other stage races. Granted, Bakelants did well in both Grand Tour performances with a 36th in the Giro and a solid 18th in the Vuelta but what happened to his wheel house, the shorter stage races and harder one-day races? He went 6th overall in the Tour de Wallonie but that was one of his only races in Belgium.

2011 again saw the Giro-Vuelta double along with races such as Tour de Suisse, Paris-Nice and many other stage races. While still his 3rd pro year, he had relatively similar finishes in the Grand Tours with a 22nd overall showing in the Giro and a 31st in the Vuelta. 13th in the Tour de Suisse is solid stuff but he finished just ahead of rouleur-sprinter Juan Jose Rojas. Where was our attacker from l'Avenir? The man with cojones the size of Texas and willing to put it all on the line because even though these finishes were consistent, Bakelants was supposed to be something...different.

Bakelants moved to greener pastures for 2012 in Radioshack-Leopard and by george, they put him in some races that suited his characteristics as a younger rider. 6th in Circuit de la Sarthe, 6th in Tour Down Under, 10th in Eneco Tour and 5th in the Tour de Wallonie...these are not the wins but if he were to focus on these races more, it could show something. His year was once again based on the Giro-Vuelta double and he put in similar GC performances but now he was attacking some stages, particularly the 12th stage of the Giro into Sestri Levante where he was 4th.

While he missed a chunk of spring this year, Bakelants has put in his biggest performances in...guess where...shorter stage races and harder one-day races. 4th in a small sprint in the Swiss GP Kanton Aargau-Gippingen followed by a 3rd overall in the Tour of Luxembourg after attacking the final stage with teammate Bob Jungels. On a hard course in the Belgium National RR, he managed a 3rd place after being stuck in the chasing group behind a flying Stijn Devolder. Even looking at his Tour stage win, Bakelants took it with an opportunistic attack and sheer guts, something that got him a bevy of results as a U23 in 2008.

The point is that just because someone wins the Tour de l'Avenir doesn't make them the next Grand Tour star. Even though it was a ten stage race that year, Bakelants literally won the race on a stage that was peppered with short climbs and while an able climber, the long Pyreneean ascents saw Bakelants lagging behind the elite climbers, a trend that has continued into his elite career. When Bakelants rode two Grand Tours a year, it seemed like Lotto were trying to make him into something that he wasn't. It seems like in every big results he has had in his short career has come from either a) an opportunistic breakaway or b) consistent riding on flat to hilly terrain in a stage race. It seems like Bakelants is finally getting his grove in the pro scene and hopefully his future teams race him in things that are more suited to his skill set.

For every Nairo Quintana there is a Sylvain Calzati. For every Tejay van Garderen there is a Sergej Fuchs. Not every strong U23 rider is going to be a star even those that his great heights in the U23 scene. Look where Jérôme Baugnies is now after being a fantastic U23 rider...he is fighting for a contract earning a whopping zero Euros per month. Jan Bakelant's ride in the 2008 Tour de l'Avenir was an awesome performance and really is one for the history books but what should also be examined is the pro career afterwards. I think he was bookmarked as the rider of the future by some and because of that, he was targeting races that, while posting solid results, were perhaps not the races where he could be getting great results.

USA Nationals: Putt takes Stars-n-Bars in Bontrager 1-2

Photo: @USACycling

Tanner Putt (Bontrager) went one place at the 2013 USA Elite U23 Natioals as the Utah native improved on last year's silver medal performance by attacking the breakaway in the race with teammate Nate Brown and crossed the line triumphantly.

The Blue Mounds circuit, which had to be amended because of safety concerns due to the large field sizes, played up to its brutal design as the hilly Wisconsin course saw multiple breakaways during the day. Bontrager was on a mission to win the U23 RR this year as they have been denied the past two seasons by the now-defunct Chipotle team. The early break consisted of Bontrager's Alex Darville, Cal Giant's Robin Eckmann and Texan Michael Pincus (Super Squadra) and the trio worked together to get a gap of 2:30 minutes. Their gap was not extended any further than that as the peloton was keen on bringing them back and as the 6-lap, 140 kilometer race hit the halfway mark, the gap was only 40 seconds.

With 2 laps to go, Bontrager lined up at the front and drilled it on one of the climbs and the peloton was shattered as a 5-man breakaway emerged from the carnage. Along with Putt and Brown was Robin Carpenter, Ty Magner (both Hincapie Development) and Cal Giant's Sam Bassetti were the survivors and their gap quickly expanded as their teams, arguably the three strongest in the race, lead the blocking efforts behind. Gateway-Harley Davidson rider Daniel Eaton was the man stuck in the middle as he tried for the better part of a lap to bridge to the break but was eventually brought back.

The Bontrager duo of Putt and Brown were putting in a large amount of work as the breakaway's gap hovered between 1-1:45 minutes. Hitting speeds of 75 km/h on the descent, the gap heading into the final lap was out to 1:45 and the race was to be decided between the quintet. The final three kilometers of the race featured a stair step climb with the final kilometer ramping up to gradients touching 11% near the finish. Even with two riders, the Hincapie duo of Carpenter and Magner were not able to reign  in Putt as he attacked near the base of the climb and his teammate Brown attacked soon after and bridged up.

Heading into the finish (Photo: @TrekTeamMatt)

Putt was putting it all out and as the Bontrager duo reached the final kilometer, they were still working well together. While an agreement might have been hashed out, recent Tour de Beauce winner Brown by no means gifted the win as he and Putt both raised their arms, crossing the line together. Behind, it was Magner and Bassetti who distanced Carpenter in the final stretch and Magner took the bronze medal on the line.

Magner out sprints Bassetti for 3rd (Photo:USACycling) 

Behind the breakaway, Bontrager continued to ride well as Connor O'Leary, also of Utah, distanced the chasing group for 6th. It was a good day for Utah as The Beehive State put four riders in the top 10. There was also more than one Putt in the race as Tanner's brother Chris put in a breakout performance for 9th on the day.

Top 10 (Full Results)

1. Tanner Putt (Bontrager CT) 3:14'10"
2. Nate Brown (Bontrager CT) s.t.
3. Ty Magner (Hincapie Development) +29"
4. Sam Bassetti (Cal Giant) s.t.
5. Robin Carpenter (Hincapie Development) +32"
6. Connor O'Leary (Bontrager CT) +1'13"
7. Connor McCutcheon (VRC-Get Crackin') +1'21"
8. T.J. Eisenhart (BMC Development) +1'22"
9. Chris Putt (Canyon-Shimano) s.t.
10. Jonathan Freter (Panther Racing) +1'23"

So happy to win the @usacycling u23 road race today! @BontragerCT rode great today can't thank them enough couldn't have done it without em!
— Tanner putt (@Tannerputt) July 3, 2013

Happy to take 3rd today with @HincapieDevo in the u23 national road race. @RobinCarpenter killed it for 5th. Congrats to @Tannerputt!
— Ty Magner (@Ty_Magner) July 3, 2013

Sometimes you play it as smart as you can and its still not enough. Congratulations to @natebrown0707, @Tannerputt
— Robin Carpenter (@RobinCarpenter) July 3, 2013

Tomorrow will feature the U23 time trial. Noticeably absent is Lawson Craddock so depending on how he recovers from today's efforts, Nate Brown could get a title of his own this weekend. Former junior National Champion Adam Leibovitz will be in town and has been on some great form so he is one to watch for the time trial (EDIT: Leibovitz is signed up for the Elite Men's TT so that's a no-go) and for Sunday's criterium, which takes place around the state capital in Madison.

Provisional Startlist for Thursday's TT