Peloton Cafe || 2014 Tour de Taiwan Stage 5 – Wouter Wippert

Wouter Wippert has claimed a third podium place for Drapac Professional Cycling at the Tour de Taiwan, finishing in 3rd on Thursday’s fifth and final stage in Dapeng Bay.

The flying Dutchman was edged out by just 10 centimetres by Fabian Schnaidt (Team Vorarlberg) and Benjamin Giraud (La Pomme Marseille 13) who took the top two placings respectively in the 168km finale along the waterfront.

Earlier this week, Wippert earned a second place in the first stage and took victory on the third. It was a mammoth effort from Drapac as defending champions for the overall prize for the past two years. Over the five stages, the team managed a top-four place on each day.

Wes Sulzberger finished as the team’s best-placed rider in the General Classification, won by Rémi Di Gregorio (La Pomme Marseille 13), in 10th place, 16 seconds off the pace.

Stage 5 went down to the wire with the peloton only coming together to fight it out for the win in the final two kilometres following a determined chase from Drapac.

“It was once again a great team effort from the guys,” explained Wippert. “They chased down the breakaway for a good 100km with only a little bit of help from other teams.

“In the final kilometre it was chaotic and I had to close some small gaps,” he continued. “With 250 metres to go I waited just two seconds on a wheel in front of me before the last corner and at that moment two guys passed me with a bit more sped. I came back but just not enough to get the win.”

Directeur Sportif Henk Vogels was pleased with the week.

“The team rode well for each other all week and didn’t finish outside the top-four on any day,” he said. “They rode well again today but Wouter probably left his sprint a little late.

“Wes’ result on GC was strong and had he not crashed in Stage 3 he most probably would have finished in the top-five.”

Drapac snapshot results Stage 5 - 
1. Fabian Schnaidt (Ger) Team Vorarlberg 3:55:27
3. Wouter Wippert (Ned) Drapac Professional Cycling @0:00:00
48. Wes Sulzberger (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
73. Mal Rudolph (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:00:15
84. Robbie Hucker (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:03:14
85. Ben Johnson (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling

Final General Classification -
1. Rémi Di Gregorio (Fra) La Pomme Marseille 13 15:23:53
10. Wes Sulzberger (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:00:16
33. Wouter Wippert (Ned) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:09:50
49. Robbie Hucker (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:10:38
69. Mal Rudolph (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:14:34
71. Ben Johnson (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:15:02

2014 Tour de Taiwan: Stage 5 Results

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2014 Tour de Taiwan: Drapac Deliver Wouter Wippert To Another Podium On Stage 5 (Peloton Cafe)
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Peloton Cafe || 2014 Tour de Taiwan Stage 4 – Ioannis Tamouridis (image copyright Tour de Taiwan)

Greek champion Ioannis Tamouridis of SP Tableware won the queen stage of the 2014 Tour de Taiwan at the Zengwen Reservoir thirty-three kilometers after passing the summit of Guanziling where Nathan Earle now with Team Sky imposed himself one year ago. He moved up to second place, only four seconds down on race leader Rémy Di Gregorio who is also under serious threat by new points classification leader Marco Zanotti of Parkhotel Valkenburg with only one stage remaining.
Local hero Feng Chung Kai of Team Gusto managed to cross the KOM line of Guanziling in first place, which earns him his third polka dot jersey in three consecutive years at the Tour de Taiwan as there’s no more climb on the route. He made the junction with Di Gregorio, Italian climber in the making Davide Formolo of Cannondale and Iran’s Hossein Alizadeh from Tabriz Ranking who rode away in the climb. A group of twenty riders was formed at the front, from which Tamouridis, Brian Bulgac, also from Parkhotel Valkenburg, and Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) broke clear with five kilometers to go.
“I had no choice but open my sprint from 500 metres out, otherwise we would have been caught”, explained Tamouridis who outsprinted Bulgac and kept an advantage of only two seconds over the chasing group. “This is my first race of the year and I didn’t have a good preparation so it took me a few days to find the rhythm. My motivation went down after Euskaltel folded. I had joined the World Tour pretty late at the age of 32 but I was hoping to stay there for a while. One year ago, I was racing Tirreno-Adriatico before the big Spring classics and the Giro d’Italia. It’s another world!”
Tamouridis made a top 10 at the Giro (on stage 12), where Bulgac was also racing for Lotto-Belisol. He finished his duty with the Spanish Pro Team on a high note with coming ninth at Paris-Tours in October. “Now I’m second on GC and really not far from winning the overall classification of the Tour de Taiwan but I’m already happy with what I got today as I didn’t think I could win something here with the condition I had but the hard work made in the World Tour last year definitely helped me winning here”, said the Greek who might take profit of his experience as a track rider to score some more time bonus during the last stage. “Terrific Taiwan” consists in fourteen laps of a 14km flat and windy circuit around Dapeng Bay in the south of the country.
“We’ve passed the hardest stage”, commented Di Gregorio. “I’ve avoided the traps so far but I don’t feel like I’ve won the Tour de Taiwan yet. It’s not easy to control a race with a team of only five riders. My team-mates have done a great job in the past three days but it seems much longer than that. We feel the fatigue and I cross my fingers for keeping the lead tomorrow.”
With three intermediate sprints and ten seconds time bonus up for grab on the finishing line, the top ten riders on GC can still hope for succeeding to Bernard Sulzberger who won the Tour de Taiwan last year.

2014 Tour de Taiwan: Stage 4 Results

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2014 Tour de Taiwan: Ioannis Tamouridis Sprints To Stage 4 Victory (Peloton Cafe)
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Peloton Cafe || Wouter Wippert (image copyright Mark Gunter)

Wouter Wippert was delivered to victory on Stage 3 of the Tour de Taiwan by a phenomenal Drapac Professional Cycling team effort on Tuesday afternoon in Changhua County.

The win was Wippert’s third of the season, off the back of a runner-up finish in Sunday’s opening stage in Tapei City.

“It was a massive team effort from the boys today,” said directeur sportif Henk Vogels. “They chased down the breakaway right until the death to get that win for Wouter.

“Wouter is showing just how good he is when there is an uphill finish. Today was really impressive.”

Wippert was left satisfied with the win, grateful for the effort of his teammates and for redemption after his close call earlier in the race. The 23-year-old Dutchman however, admitted that it had been a “hard” 142 kilometres of racing. With a four-man breakaway establishing itself just before the 60km mark, it was only with 20km to go that the group was reduced to two riders – Aldo Ilesic (UnitedHealthcare) and Gleb Gorbachev (Uzbekistan). Ilesic dropped his companion, setting out alone over the final kilometres but a determined chase from Drapac reeled him in just in time.

“It was a very nervous last 10km. Mal [Rudolph], Benny [Johnson] and [Robbie] Hucker all closed the gap to Ilesic leading into the final climb,” Wippert explained. “I was alone with Wes [Sulzberger] and about halfway up I started sprinting. With 400 metres to go, I caught Ilesic.”

Drapac was nearly rewarded with a second rider, in the form of Sulzberger, on the podium however the Tasmanian fell badly in the finishing straight before running across the finish line in order to finish.

“It was unlucky for Wes that he crashed just before the finish line because that 3rd place would have resulted in time bonuses which would have moved him up on GC,” explained Vogels.

Sulzberger remains Drapac’s best-placed rider for the overall and is now 16 seconds off the race lead of yellow jersey Rémi Di Gregorio (La Pomme Marseille 13). He suffered bruising and grazing in his crash and is expected to line-up tomorrow.

The Tour de Taiwan continues Wednesday with a 161km penultimate stage to Tainan City.

2014 Tour de Taiwan: Stage 3 Results

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2014 Tour de Taiwan: Wouter Wippert Claims Victory In Stage 3 (Peloton Cafe)
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Peloton Cafe || 2014 Tour de Taiwan Stage 2 – Benjamin Giraud (image copyright Tour de Taiwan)

Benjamin Giraud of La Pomme Marseille has won stage 2 of the Tour de Taiwan that featured an unprecedented finishing venue on an airport runway in Taoyuan. The success was complete for his French team sponsored by Taiwanese cycles CKT as Rémy Di Gregorio took over the lead from Unitedhealthcare’s Luke Keough as he rode for time bonus in intermediate sprints for two days in a row.

“I’m happy for the team”, Di Gregorio said. “It’s pretty special for me to become a race leader through intermediate sprints, as I’m a climber but not a sprinter, but I’ve realized from reading the road book that time bonus might be the decisive factor for the overall win. I’ve come here for that after riding strongly in the French early season races. I’m ambitious. But racing in Taiwan is a total discovery for me. I’m hoping that the terrain will favor my characteristics in the next two days.”

With two seconds lead over Giraud but mainly eleven seconds over former Tour de Taiwan winner John Murphy (Unitedhealthcare) and Cannondale’s trio formed of Cameron Wurf, Davide Formolo and another Frenchman, Jean-Marc Marino, Di Gregorio is in a perfect position for winning the first category one stage race of his career at the age of 28.

After putting the hammer down in the only climb of the day behind the lone leader Wu Nan of Giant-Champion System at half way into the 152km long stage, La Pomme Marseille was represented by four riders in the 16-man strong leading group that entered the final circuit with an advantage of 55 seconds. The gap grew to more than three minutes as the peloton gave up because of a demoralizing strong wind on the runway of Taoyuan military airport. It was blowing at up to 74km/h!

“I had to remain covered until the very last moment”, commented Giraud who was known as the fastest sprinter of the sixteen leaders. As he feared to be boxed in, Di Gregorio’s former FDJ team-mate Wesley Sulzberger now racing for Drapac felt he had to open the sprint. The finishing line was only 150 metres away but it was still too far to resist to the wind. Giraud overtook him with style with just 50 metres to go.

“This is my second stage win at the Tour de Taiwan after last year’s one”, noted the Frenchman who also claimed stage victories at the Tour of Qinghai Lake and the Tour of China in 2013. “I love the racing here and this very special finishing circuit made it a very interesting one. It was a good idea to make us arrive in an airport. The route wasn’t hard but the wind made it a very difficult race today. Now we have a yellow jersey to defend. We’ll give our best to keep it.”

2014 Tour de Taiwan: Stage 2 Results

2014 Tour de Taiwan: Benjamin Giraud Sprints To Stage 2 Victory (Peloton Cafe)
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Peloton Cafe || 2014 Tour de Taiwan Stage 1 – Luke Keough (image copyright Tour de Taiwan)

Luke Keough of Unitedhealthcare delivered a masterpiece of pure American criterium style racing as he overcame the wet conditions of the roads to emerge as the winner of the first stage of the 2014 Tour de Taiwan in front of Taipei’s city hall.

“Last year I crashed in that same stage with similar weather conditions, so I knew what to do this time”, Keough commented as he got off his bike to celebrate his first international victory. “It was a little crazy at the end with a few crashes that took some of my team-mates down. But I still had Martin Irvyne and John Murphy staying together to lead me out. They did a perfect job.”

“It’s big for us to come to Taiwan and win”, the American continued. “One of our sponsors, Maxxis, is from here. Today’s stage was a test for every part of our equipment. It’s great to keep performing in Asia. We’ve had some good success recently.” No later than yesterday in Malaysia, Uhc’s Colombian climber Isaac Bolivar completed Le Tour de Langkawi in third position overall while road captain Bradley White won stage 5.

“We have a strong team and big races coming up in Europe with wild cards for Milan-San Remo and Paris-Roubaix”, added the 22 year old from California who is known as a specialist for this kind of short, fast and flat racing. “He was lucky to be on the other side of the crashes”, noted runner up Wouter Wippert from defending champions Drapac. “I had to close a gap, so the sprint was too short for me.”
A born sprinter, Keough indicated that he might not be able to keep the jersey all the way through the five stages of the Tour de Taiwan but his team has ambitions for the overall classification with Murphy who won the 2008 edition of the race.

However, one of the hot favorites for this year profited greatly from the characteristics of stage 1. It featured only five laps and 52 kilometers with the famous tower Taipei 101 as a backdrop for the finish but Frenchman Rémy Di Gregorio of La Pomme Marseille rode away in the first lap, accompanied by Greek Apostolos Bouglas from SP Tableware. Staying away until the last lap, they captured the time bonus es on offer in the three intermediate sprints. Having bagged seven seconds, Di Gregorio has an advantage over the other climbers ahead of the hillier stages. “He rode very smartly, that’s exactly what I would have tried to do if I was still a rider”, noted Taiwan’s cycling legend David McCann who is now a sport director for Synergy Baku and designated Di Gregorio as the man to beat as of now.

2014 Tour de Taiwan: Stage 1 Results

2014 Tour de Taiwan: Luke Keough Delivers Criterium Master Class (Peloton Cafe)
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Peloton Cafe || 2014 Tour de Taiwan Stage 1 podium (image copyright Tour de Taiwan)

Wouter Wippert has avoided a crash in the finale of the opening stage of the Tour de Taiwan to finish in second place in the 52km criterium in Taipei City.

The result marks the Dutch recruit’s fourth podium of the season, with a win and two runner-up placings at the New Zealand Cycle Classic in January.

“Wouter was disappointed to finish second today as he knew he was good enough to win, but happy to stay upright,” explained Directeur Sportif Henk Vogels. “I am very happy with the performance and it certainly is a good sign of things to come.”

The peloton negotiated five laps of a 10.4km circuit in the Taiwanese capital in wet conditions on Sunday, with UnitedHealthcare’s Luke Keough finishing first across the line, followed by Wippert and then Georgios Bouglas (SP Tablewear).

A two-man breakaway dominated the race, only coming back to the fold for the final lap, with Drapac content to wait it out until the finale to make a move. The greasy roads, with rain falling in Taipei over much of the past 24 hours, made for a “chaotic” finish, according to Wippert.

“The finale was definitely chaotic so it made for hard racing,” the 23-year-old explained. “Wes [Sulzberger] did a great job, he moved me into eighth wheel with three corners to go and soon after that there was a crash.

“I had to hit the brakes and that allowed Keough to position himself on the inside corner,” Wippert continued. “I was able to make some slight gains in the last 100 metres but Keough was still two metres head of me at the finish line.”

Wippert will now wear the polka dot jersey heading into Monday’s second stage, 152km’s that is dominated by the Cat.1 climb at the halfway point in Taoyuan County. With Drapac two-time defending champions with Rhys Pollock and Bernard Sulzberger (2012, 2013 respectively), Wippert said that the team was motivated for a high placing tomorrow.

“Every single one of the guys here is in good condition and so we will attack the stage as a team – we’re definitely strong enough,” he said.

Wippert is the best-placed Drapac rider in fourth place on General Classification, four seconds in arrears of the stage winner Keough, with Apostolos Bouglas (SP Tablewear) and Rémy Di Gregorio (Team La Pomme Marseille 13) in between thanks to time bonuses earned from intermediate sprints.

Drapac snapshot results:

Stage 1 - 

1. Luke Keough (USA) UnitedHealthcare 1:06:24
2. Wouter Wippert (Ned) Drapac Professional Cycling @0:00:00
3. Georgios Bouglas (Gre) SP Tablewear
27. Wes Sulzberger (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
42. Robbie Hucker (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
52. Malcolm Rudolph (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
84. Ben Johnson (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling

General Classification after Stage 1 - 

1. Luke Keough (USA) UnitedHealthcare 1:06:24
2. Apostolos Bouglas (Gre) SP Tablewear +0:00:02
3. Rémy Di Gregorio (Fra) Team La Pomme Marseille 13 +0:00:03
4. Wouter Wippert (Ned) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:00:04
30. Wes Sulzberger (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling +0:00:10
45. Robbie Hucker (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
54. Malcolm Rudolph (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling
85. Ben Johnson (Aus) Drapac Professional Cycling

Team Classification  - 

1. Synergy Baku Cycling Project 3:19:12
2. Japan National Team @0:00:00
3. SP Tableware
5. Drapac Professional Cycling

2014 Tour de Taiwan: Second Place For Wouter Wippert In First Stage (Peloton Cafe)
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Peloton Cafe || 2014 Tour Down Under Stage 5 – Wes Sulzberger (image copyright Mark Gunter)

Drapac Professional Cycling returns to the scene of their 2012 and 2013 overall victories at the Tour de Taiwan this weekend with the UCI 2.1 event beginning this Sunday in Taipei City.

The Tour de Taiwan marks the first of several forays into Asia in 2014 for the Australian Professional Continental outfit and Directeur Sportif Henk Vogels believes that the team which stays vigilant will be rewarded with the overall.

“There are some hard finishes so we’ve got some good riders – I know that Robbie Hucker’s going quite well and I’ve got faith in our two sprinters,” he explained. “Generally in races like this, there will be one day where a breakaway will stick and you’ll gain some time. That, paired with some of the harder finishes are going to be very important for the overall.

“For us really, we’re going to be going for stage wins,” Vogels continued. “The overall is also very important but we’ll just play it day-by-day and be aggressive like we have all year.”
Drapac heads to Taiwan with a team primed for the challenge, consisting of Robbie Hucker, Ben Johnson, Malcolm Rudolph, Wes Sulzberger and Wouter Wippert.

Wippert claimed the team’s first stage victories of the 2014 season at the New Zealand Cycle Classic in January and will once again team up with Rudolph for the two sprint stages which bookend the five-day race.

“After New Zealand it’s good to have Mal back with me again – the trust that we are developing gives me extra confidence for the sprints in Taiwan,” said Wippert. “We have a strong team so we will go there with a certain level of expectation.”

Drapac has taken overall victory for the last two consecutive years in Taiwan – first with Rhys Pollock and then last season with Bernard Sulzberger. Despite riding to a silver medal at the recent Oceania Road Championships, Sulzberger was suffering from an infected tooth and so having since received treatment, will be unable to defend his Taiwan title.
Sulzberger will be replaced in Taiwan by his younger brother Wes who said that given he has similar strengths to that of Bernard, the race could play into his hands.

“It would be nice if I could repeat his win, just a bit of a name change, that would be really satisfying,” he admitted. “I’m feeling like I’m in pretty good form at the moment so hopefully we can do something.

“The form’s been building,” Sulzberger admitted. “I had a little bit of a break, not off the bike but with a few shorter rides and just enjoyed things a bit. I feel that over the last couple of weeks, the training’s coming along really well and at Oceanias I felt really good and had a bit of a dig in the windy conditions but Bernie was good enough to finish it off for me.”

With two consecutive victories for the team in Taiwan, Vogels said that while there would be an increased focus on Drapac, the five riders competing in 2014 would not be under added pressure to deliver a similar result.

“It’s only pressure if they put it on themselves,” he explained. “It’s not going to come from the team, that’s for sure.”

The 2014 Tour de Taiwan begins Sunday, March 9 and concludes Thursday, March 14.

Drapac Professional Cycling Primed For Title Defence At Tour de Taiwan (Peloton Cafe)
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2014 Herald Sun Tour || Cannondale Pro Cycling (image copyright jxpphotography)

While Europe gears up for the upcoming Classics season, Cannondale Pro Cycling will focus its attention on Asia and attend the Tour de Taiwan for the first time. Beginning March 9 through March 13, five members of the Green Machine will face five stages of race action.

A multi-cultural and well-selected group of men have been assembled for this race by team director Alberto Volpi. American Ted King, Canadian Guillaume Boivin, Australian Cameron Wurf, Italian Davide Formolo, and Jean-Marc Marino from France (the last member of Cannondale Pro Cycling to debut in 2014) all have plans to aim high at the Tour de Taiwan.

Going into the Tour de Taiwan, King and Wurf are the two experienced domestiques. They have similar goals for this race – carry their teammates as well as they can for the best possible outcome.

“I’m happy to support my team from the inside. Bringing the captains to victory means a lot for me. I’d love to have some opportunity to shine, and think this race is one of those moments. Opportunities like this don’t come often,” said King. “I’ve had a light season thus far having only ridden the Dubai Tour. Since then, I’ve been training very hard and hope I have good form for this race. I want to do well and prepare myself to go back to Europe for the Belgium Classics and race hard for good results.”

“I am determined to put the Cannondale Pro Cycling jersey front and center. It’s a huge privilege to compete in the heart of cycling development,” said Wurf. “Asian racing is generally very aggressive with numerous attacks, and I believe this could suit my riding style. I’ve had a good season thus far, and I am determined to find all the opportunities where I can excel during this race. We’re bringing a very strong and exciting team to Asia. I’m eager to race with Davide Formolo for the first time. He’s such a promising rider. I’m also ready to support Boivin as he seeks victory in the sprints. Our team is very balanced. I plan to be competitive and ride hard no matter how the race plays out.”

Boivin, who took top ten in three stages at the Herald Sun Tour in early February, is looking forward to play his chances in the sprints. “We are obviously going into Taiwan with a very strong team, and I think we can take stage victories and do well in the race overall,” said the Canadian. “As for me, I have noticed windows to win and compete in sprints, and I’m hungry for my first win of the season. It would be great to do that before returning to Europe.”

Cannondale Pro Cycling Moves To Take Asia By Storm At Tour de Taiwan (Peloton Cafe)
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