Strade Bianche
Amador (29th) best Movistar Team finisher, unlucky at muddy, windy, tremendously demanding Strade Bianche
Michal Kwiatkowski (SKY) claimed the day's honours at arguably the hardest edition of Strade Bianche to date. Rain falling over long stretches of the race, strong winds and additional danger at the 'sterrato' sections due to both factors all made for a nervous race, full of splits and crashes that eventually diminished the chances of the Movistar Team's main hopeful Andrey Amador.
The man from Costa Rica, well supported until the second series of gravel roads by his Movistar team-mates -including Carapaz and Arcas, both finishers despite a crash for the Spaniard, with a blow to his vertrebrae and a minor wound to his forehead-, had to get through a pile-up halfway through the race -he didn't crash, yet he sustained a blow to his wrist when avoiding those on the ground- and later had an ill-timed puncture. All of them dropped him back to 29th place across the line, more than ten minutes behind the winner.
Amador will be part of the Blue roster in Tirreno-Adriatico, prefaced by the GP Larciano on Saturday as Nairo Quintana resumes racing following the Abu Dhabi Tour. Another unit already awaits in northern France for the start of the 75th Paris-Nice, with a flat loop around Bois d'Arcy set to bring the first mass sprint (149km).