Omega
Pharma Quickstep got the best possible start when they won the opening team
time trial and placed Mark Cavendish in the blue leader’s jersey. Now it’s time
for the season’s first showdown between Cavendish and Andre Greipel.
Depending
on how stage 3 evolves this could be the only stage for the pure sprinters in
this year’s Tirreno-Adriatico and naturally, no one wants to miss out. The
stage covers 232 km from San Vincenzo to Indicatore and has a very tricky
finish. With 1200 meters to go the peloton crosses a railroad overpass while
turning left into a roundabout. The weather forecast shows light rain all day
long and with many top sprinters in the race - plus GC contenders who want to
stay up front - it will almost be a miracle if nobody goes down in that corner.
Luckily the riders will have a chance to study the finish as the final circuit
of 12,4 km will done five times.
As stated
in the beginning, this is the long-awaited dual between Mark Cavendish and Andre
Greipel. It’s the first time this season the two super stars are going up
against each other mano-a-mano and
it’s almost impossible to pick a winner. Lotto-Belisol and Andre Greipel have
been phenomenal so far this season with an outstanding leadout train, but Mark
Cavendish showed in Tour of Qatar that he doesn’t need a leadout to win.
Lotto-Belisol
probably won’t have much to say in the overall classification as Jelle
Vanendert already is one minute down after the TTT, and without any riders to
win the medium stages in this race, Andre Greipel is their only hope. So far,
Lotto-Belisol’s leadout train has been impeccable and I don’t see why that should
change now. Yes, there are many talented sprinters at the starting line but
none of them has a leadout train like Greipel do. With Kaisen, Sieberg, Hansen,
Roelandts, Reynes and Henderson to lead him out, Andre Greipel simply can get
it any better.
The only
one with a kick powerful enough to get a jump on Greipel is Mark Cavendish. No other
sprinter can match Cavendish’ kick in the final 200 meters and in the blue
leader’s jersey, Cavendish will be eager to show who the best sprinter in the
world is. Personally, I think Andre Greipel will win this stage, but if Mark
Cavendish manages to position himself on Greipel’s wheel, he might have a
chance to surprise the German Gorilla with an early kick.
The way I
see the rest of the field are only fighting for the 3rd place on
this stage. Of course, both Greipel and Cavendish can get it wrong, but with
only one big chance to win a stage, none of them can afford to miss this
opportunity. And yes, Peter Sagan is
here too, but even though he seems to be flying these days, I don’t see him
beating Greipel nor Cavendish in a pancake flat finish. Maybe he can use his
amazing bike handling skills in the rainy conditions to gain some positions in
the final, but outsprinting the two big favorites? I doubt it…
It makes it
difficult to pick a joker with so many strong sprinters in the race, but I
would like to point out Radioshack’s sprinter, Giacomo Nizzolo. The young Italian has started out this season very
well but is still without a stage win. He was beaten by Greipel in Tour Med and
by Bos in Volta Algarve but last week he won the sprint behind the winning
break in G.P. Camaiore. Nizzolo can count on excellent support from Danilo
Hondo - who used to leadout Petacchi in the mass sprints - and even though
Hondo isn’t much of a leadout anymore, nobody knows their way around the front
in the final kilometers like the German veteran. I think Giacomo Nizzolo will
have an excellent season this year and I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes the
podium on stage 2.
Winnerpick:
Andre Greipel
No comments:
Post a Comment