A turbulent Giro would be my assessment of the race, lots of controversy, lots of attrition, but for all the activity there was little change at the top throughout. Believe it or not, there were also other races going on at the time, most notably the Tour of California, where it was Peter Sagan who took an unlikely victory.
Giro D'Italia
The Stage-Winners + GC developments
Stage 1- Orica-Greenedge took a convincing win here, probably as they should have, being the only team to really target the win in the first stage. Gerrans takes pink.
Stage 2- A fairly straightforward sprint day, but crashes took out quite a few riders, decimating leadout trains and the uphill sprint punished those that went early, allowing Elia Viviani to come from far back to win. Matthews takes over pink from his teammate.
Stage 3- Matthews wins in pink after a strong display from OGE, having two riders in the break, before eventually closing the move down and having Matthews sprint to victory in pink. Pozzovivo crashes badly and that's the end of his race.
Stage 4- Surprisingly brutal stage where a lone rider from the break in Formolo takes the win, but behind the race splinters to pieces with Uran, Hesjedal, Inxtausti all losing significant time. Clarke takes 2nd on the stage, but posts up anyway, and moves into pink.
Stage 5- Jan Polanc takes the win from the break on the summit finish, and there are only small gaps created amongst the favourites, but Porte, Contador, Aru and Landa look the strongest. Contador moves into pink.
Stage 6- Greipel takes a win off the back of a superb leadout. Pelucchi recovers from a bad fall earlier in the race to finish second. There is a dramatic crash when a spectator brings down Colli, who quits the race, but Contador also crashes, with initial reports of a dislocated shoulder exaggerated.
Stage 7- Ulissi takes an uphill sprint on the longest stage of the Giro, not much action to report.
Stage 8- Benat Inxausti wins a summit finish from the break after sitting on Reichenbach's wheel all the way up the climb. Landa is allowed a little bit of freedom from the group of favourites to take 2nd, but the gaps are pretty small.
Stage 9- Tiralongo takes the win on a medium mountains stage from the break, but again, Aru, Contador, Porte and Landa put time into the rest of the field.
REST DAY
The Stage-Winners + GC developments
Stage 1- Orica-Greenedge took a convincing win here, probably as they should have, being the only team to really target the win in the first stage. Gerrans takes pink.
Stage 2- A fairly straightforward sprint day, but crashes took out quite a few riders, decimating leadout trains and the uphill sprint punished those that went early, allowing Elia Viviani to come from far back to win. Matthews takes over pink from his teammate.
Stage 3- Matthews wins in pink after a strong display from OGE, having two riders in the break, before eventually closing the move down and having Matthews sprint to victory in pink. Pozzovivo crashes badly and that's the end of his race.
Stage 4- Surprisingly brutal stage where a lone rider from the break in Formolo takes the win, but behind the race splinters to pieces with Uran, Hesjedal, Inxtausti all losing significant time. Clarke takes 2nd on the stage, but posts up anyway, and moves into pink.
Stage 5- Jan Polanc takes the win from the break on the summit finish, and there are only small gaps created amongst the favourites, but Porte, Contador, Aru and Landa look the strongest. Contador moves into pink.
Stage 6- Greipel takes a win off the back of a superb leadout. Pelucchi recovers from a bad fall earlier in the race to finish second. There is a dramatic crash when a spectator brings down Colli, who quits the race, but Contador also crashes, with initial reports of a dislocated shoulder exaggerated.
Stage 7- Ulissi takes an uphill sprint on the longest stage of the Giro, not much action to report.
Stage 8- Benat Inxausti wins a summit finish from the break after sitting on Reichenbach's wheel all the way up the climb. Landa is allowed a little bit of freedom from the group of favourites to take 2nd, but the gaps are pretty small.
Stage 9- Tiralongo takes the win on a medium mountains stage from the break, but again, Aru, Contador, Porte and Landa put time into the rest of the field.
REST DAY
Stage 10- A sprinter's stage, at least on the profile, but a low-profile break took the win, with Niccola Boem of Bardiani the strongest. Porte punctures in the finale, losing 40 seconds, then a further two minutes for receiving assistance from a rival team.
Stage 11- Another medium mountains stage, with another breakaway win, after the peleton had the break easily in hand at one stage. Ilhnur Zakarin takes a very classy victory, holding both the peleton and the chasing group at bay to win.
Stage 12- A very tough stage, with only 40 riders arriving at the uphill sprint finish, and Gilbert takes a commanding victory, with Contador looking strong in second. Aru looks anything but strong, going hunger flat and losing a bit of time.
Stage 13- Modolo wins a technical finish after being perfectly led out by his team, but a late crash again affects the GC, bringing down Porte and Contador. Contador reacts quickly, and only loses 40 secs to Aru, Porte is much slower and loses 2 mins. Aru moves into pink, marking the only time Contador has ever lost a leader's jersey at a Grand Tour.
Stage 14- In the ITT, the weather favours the early riders, and Kiryienka takes the stage win. Contador is the strongest of the GC favourites, putting time into all his rivals and takes 2'47 on Aru, and 4 mins on Landa.
Stage 15- The first excursion into the Dolomites, and Astana showcase their power, dropping riders out the back, but they fail to put any pressure on Contador, nonetheless Landa wins the stage, overtaking a late Trofimov attack.
REST DAY
Stage 11- Another medium mountains stage, with another breakaway win, after the peleton had the break easily in hand at one stage. Ilhnur Zakarin takes a very classy victory, holding both the peleton and the chasing group at bay to win.
Stage 12- A very tough stage, with only 40 riders arriving at the uphill sprint finish, and Gilbert takes a commanding victory, with Contador looking strong in second. Aru looks anything but strong, going hunger flat and losing a bit of time.
Stage 13- Modolo wins a technical finish after being perfectly led out by his team, but a late crash again affects the GC, bringing down Porte and Contador. Contador reacts quickly, and only loses 40 secs to Aru, Porte is much slower and loses 2 mins. Aru moves into pink, marking the only time Contador has ever lost a leader's jersey at a Grand Tour.
Stage 14- In the ITT, the weather favours the early riders, and Kiryienka takes the stage win. Contador is the strongest of the GC favourites, putting time into all his rivals and takes 2'47 on Aru, and 4 mins on Landa.
Stage 15- The first excursion into the Dolomites, and Astana showcase their power, dropping riders out the back, but they fail to put any pressure on Contador, nonetheless Landa wins the stage, overtaking a late Trofimov attack.
REST DAY
Stage 16- The hardest climb of the Giro was Contador's time to shine, bridging a minute gap to the front group, before attacking and dropping Aru. Landa and Kruiswijk were the only ones to keep contact. Landa sat on before a late attack, and gained 38 secs, but the GC looked secure for Contador with Aru losing big time.
Stage 17- A sprint stage, with late attacks looking pretty dangerous before they were brought back into the fold by another great Lampre-Merida leadout, which set up Modolo for another win.
Stage 18- A big break fights it out for the stage victory, with Gilbert taking a rare mountains victory. Behind, Contador puts big time into Aru and Landa and Astana are essentially beaten.
Stage 19- Astana finally show some inventiveness, with a long range move from Aru netting a win and a minute and a half advantage, as an isolated Contador is unable to chase.
Stage 20- This time Contador gets shelled out the back through attrition and after some fluffing around, eventually Astana decide to work for another Aru win, which he duly takes, but Contador rides steadily, and still has 2 minutes in hand by the time he makes the finish.
Stage 21- Again the sprinters teams fail to bring back the break, and Ilio Keisse takes a rare win with Durbridge in second.
Stage 17- A sprint stage, with late attacks looking pretty dangerous before they were brought back into the fold by another great Lampre-Merida leadout, which set up Modolo for another win.
Stage 18- A big break fights it out for the stage victory, with Gilbert taking a rare mountains victory. Behind, Contador puts big time into Aru and Landa and Astana are essentially beaten.
Stage 19- Astana finally show some inventiveness, with a long range move from Aru netting a win and a minute and a half advantage, as an isolated Contador is unable to chase.
Stage 20- This time Contador gets shelled out the back through attrition and after some fluffing around, eventually Astana decide to work for another Aru win, which he duly takes, but Contador rides steadily, and still has 2 minutes in hand by the time he makes the finish.
Stage 21- Again the sprinters teams fail to bring back the break, and Ilio Keisse takes a rare win with Durbridge in second.
Giro Tactics
Astana were by far the strongest team in the race, but failed to use their numbers to put any time into Contador until the final two days in the mountains, by which time it was too late. Often, the Kazakh team worked in Contador's favour, once he was isolated, they would go to the front and maintain a solid tempo, and he simply followed wheels until late on in each stage. The only time this strategy actually worked was on the final stage up the Mortirolo, where Contador got dropped, but with over a 3 and a half minute buffer at this point, I wouldn't say that this is proof that it was a good strategy.
Looking at the final time gaps, it is clear that the time trial played a huge part in the results. Without it, both Landa and Aru would overtake Contador on GC, though obviously the Spaniard would have ridden differently in those circumstances. Also crucial was the bad luck of Porte, the only GC candidate thought to go as well, if not better than Contador in the TT. Unfortunately, the Australian had a horror second week, losing almost 5 minutes on sprint stages, and suffering an injury before bombing in the TT and the subsequent mountain stage.
Sprint stages were the scenes of quite a few stuff ups by the teams of the fast men. Stage 10 looked to be very easy to control, but the loss of Pelucchi meant that IAM stopped chasing, with no one taking over for a while, and by that time the break had a strong tailwind and the sniff of victory. Stage 11 saw OGE come to the front too late when a stage win for Matthews beckoned, and the final stage in Milan saw the sprinters cat-fighting as Trek refused to help as they would prefer to keep the red jersey than have more points available on the finish line.
The points competition was won by Giacomo Nizzolo, and in reality, he seemed to be the only one targeting the jersey initially, taking a lot of intermediate sprints, which won him the jersey in the end, surprisingly enough over Gilbert, whose two stage wins and multiple break appearances allowed to hoover up quite a lot of points.
Nobody really had their eyes set on the mountains jersey as a race long goal, and it came down to a battle between Kruiswijk and Visconti, who got most of their points in breakaways. Landa, interestingly could have taken the competition quite easily, if he had gone for the points on a few occasions, but he was entirely focused on his GC prospects. Giovanni Visconti took the win, just desserts for his performance and his animation of the Giro.
Astana won the team classification, and there wasn't any suspense there, and the organisers opted for Phillipe Gilbert as the most aggressive rider, probably the consolation prize for taking 2nd in the points competition.
Astana were by far the strongest team in the race, but failed to use their numbers to put any time into Contador until the final two days in the mountains, by which time it was too late. Often, the Kazakh team worked in Contador's favour, once he was isolated, they would go to the front and maintain a solid tempo, and he simply followed wheels until late on in each stage. The only time this strategy actually worked was on the final stage up the Mortirolo, where Contador got dropped, but with over a 3 and a half minute buffer at this point, I wouldn't say that this is proof that it was a good strategy.
Looking at the final time gaps, it is clear that the time trial played a huge part in the results. Without it, both Landa and Aru would overtake Contador on GC, though obviously the Spaniard would have ridden differently in those circumstances. Also crucial was the bad luck of Porte, the only GC candidate thought to go as well, if not better than Contador in the TT. Unfortunately, the Australian had a horror second week, losing almost 5 minutes on sprint stages, and suffering an injury before bombing in the TT and the subsequent mountain stage.
Sprint stages were the scenes of quite a few stuff ups by the teams of the fast men. Stage 10 looked to be very easy to control, but the loss of Pelucchi meant that IAM stopped chasing, with no one taking over for a while, and by that time the break had a strong tailwind and the sniff of victory. Stage 11 saw OGE come to the front too late when a stage win for Matthews beckoned, and the final stage in Milan saw the sprinters cat-fighting as Trek refused to help as they would prefer to keep the red jersey than have more points available on the finish line.
The points competition was won by Giacomo Nizzolo, and in reality, he seemed to be the only one targeting the jersey initially, taking a lot of intermediate sprints, which won him the jersey in the end, surprisingly enough over Gilbert, whose two stage wins and multiple break appearances allowed to hoover up quite a lot of points.
Nobody really had their eyes set on the mountains jersey as a race long goal, and it came down to a battle between Kruiswijk and Visconti, who got most of their points in breakaways. Landa, interestingly could have taken the competition quite easily, if he had gone for the points on a few occasions, but he was entirely focused on his GC prospects. Giovanni Visconti took the win, just desserts for his performance and his animation of the Giro.
Astana won the team classification, and there wasn't any suspense there, and the organisers opted for Phillipe Gilbert as the most aggressive rider, probably the consolation prize for taking 2nd in the points competition.
Tour of California
It was a surprising race in many respects, but not in who dominated the sprint stages, with Mark Cavendish taking 4 stage wins, only being bested once by Sagan, after crashing earlier in the stage. Wouter Wippert (Drapac) also sprinted very well, taking two second places and a third, but also being aggressive and leading out the sprint from long distance, rather than being content to just follow wheels.
Sagan was in his best form of the season, taking it right up to Cavendish on the flat sprint stages, as well as winning the short TT and the uphill sprint finish. These, whilst impressive, were largely expected performances, but his 6th up Mount Baldy was one of the best big climbs of his life, and he stayed close enough that he was able to take the GC with a 2nd on the following sprint stage.
The winner of the Mt Baldy stage was the big revelation from this race, in as much as a guy who finished second in Liege-Bastogne-Liege can be discovered, but Alaphillipe keeps on showing greater and greater depth of talent. He again performed as expected up until that stage, finishing just off Sagan on the hilly sprinty days, and doing a very good time trial, but he wasn't being touted as a stage winner of a summit finish with the calibre of riders next to him, and he has set down an impressive marker for his future talent. He was unlucky, in truth, that he was up against a rampant Sagan, as normally the strongest climber, who can also do a good TT, wins California.
It was a surprising race in many respects, but not in who dominated the sprint stages, with Mark Cavendish taking 4 stage wins, only being bested once by Sagan, after crashing earlier in the stage. Wouter Wippert (Drapac) also sprinted very well, taking two second places and a third, but also being aggressive and leading out the sprint from long distance, rather than being content to just follow wheels.
Sagan was in his best form of the season, taking it right up to Cavendish on the flat sprint stages, as well as winning the short TT and the uphill sprint finish. These, whilst impressive, were largely expected performances, but his 6th up Mount Baldy was one of the best big climbs of his life, and he stayed close enough that he was able to take the GC with a 2nd on the following sprint stage.
The winner of the Mt Baldy stage was the big revelation from this race, in as much as a guy who finished second in Liege-Bastogne-Liege can be discovered, but Alaphillipe keeps on showing greater and greater depth of talent. He again performed as expected up until that stage, finishing just off Sagan on the hilly sprinty days, and doing a very good time trial, but he wasn't being touted as a stage winner of a summit finish with the calibre of riders next to him, and he has set down an impressive marker for his future talent. He was unlucky, in truth, that he was up against a rampant Sagan, as normally the strongest climber, who can also do a good TT, wins California.
Bayern Rundfahrt
Alex Dowsett took the win on a hilly TT course, to go with his hour record, and he managed to hold onto the GC as well. Sam Bennet and John Degenkolb took two sprint wins apiece.
Tour of Norway
Alexander Kristoff took the two sprint stages with a dusty looking sprints to kick things off on the right foot for the Norwegians, but it was a Dane in Jesper Hansen who simply climbed better than everyone on the hardest day on the race, and then was there or thereabouts in defending his lead.
Baloise Belgium Tour
A series of Belgian classic-style races ended up with a predictable winner in Greg Van Avermaet, with the super impressive youngster Tiesj Benoot finishing in 2nd.
Tour Des Fjords
The second of the Norwegian races looked to be right up Alexander Kristoff's alley, but it turned out to be Marco Haller, his teammate, who took his first big win, largely thanks to a breakaway that he was part of staying away to the finish. Probably just as well, as Daryl Impey ended up putting some time into Kristoff and would have won the race, but for that break.
In other racing, it was a productive time for Kris Boeckmans who took overall victory in both the Tour de Picardie and the World Ports Classic, confirming his early season form where he took some good results as well.
Alex Dowsett took the win on a hilly TT course, to go with his hour record, and he managed to hold onto the GC as well. Sam Bennet and John Degenkolb took two sprint wins apiece.
Tour of Norway
Alexander Kristoff took the two sprint stages with a dusty looking sprints to kick things off on the right foot for the Norwegians, but it was a Dane in Jesper Hansen who simply climbed better than everyone on the hardest day on the race, and then was there or thereabouts in defending his lead.
Baloise Belgium Tour
A series of Belgian classic-style races ended up with a predictable winner in Greg Van Avermaet, with the super impressive youngster Tiesj Benoot finishing in 2nd.
Tour Des Fjords
The second of the Norwegian races looked to be right up Alexander Kristoff's alley, but it turned out to be Marco Haller, his teammate, who took his first big win, largely thanks to a breakaway that he was part of staying away to the finish. Probably just as well, as Daryl Impey ended up putting some time into Kristoff and would have won the race, but for that break.
In other racing, it was a productive time for Kris Boeckmans who took overall victory in both the Tour de Picardie and the World Ports Classic, confirming his early season form where he took some good results as well.