The day has come in which we will be able to witness the 2018 Riga – Jurmala GP. 191,2 kilometers that are mostly flat, but with possible crosswinds as an exciting weather condition.

Bewley as the big favourite here, though with a lot of very good sprinters someone else winning shouldn't be that much as a surprise. Which is uncommon for him! The bookies regard Van Stayen and Holloway as his biggest competitors, though this amateur journalist thinks it's more up to riders like Swift, Ewan, Cavendish and Ciolek to beat him.



Right after the start, a breakaway attempt by seven riders:

Fritsch
Oomen
Walsleben
Cruz
Jones
Oram
Zordan

Quite a few teams with good sprinters trying to avoid relaying!



They're not allowed to leave, though. Moser prevented it from happening. Second attempt then: Van Aert, Orlov and Cheung.



Oram and Korsaeth try to bridge the gap. They have 30 seconds to close, and 20 seconds on the peloton, led by Netia.



Didn't happen, though. Which means we only have three riders in the break of the day!

Once again, the names:

Van Aert, Orlov and Cheung.

2'44 with 151 kilometers to go.



Many teams are joining the chase with about 100 kilometers to go and 4'57 for the breakaway. It's probably psychological; they want to show their sprinters that they believe in them.



With 50 kilometers to go it's Moser doing the most work at the front of the peloton. The breakaway isn't scary anymore though, only 2,5 minutes are left. They might have to slow down a bit, as catching the breakaway early may open the opportunities for a late attack...



And indeed Moser slows down a bit, even though they're still controlling the pace. Maybe a bit too much, though. The break still has 30 seconds until the 10km-border, a moment in which trains are usually being formed in this universe. Will this mean we're getting a messy sprint?



5 kilometers to go and the break still hasn't been caught, even though Orlov had to drop. Still no signs of trains behind Van Aert and Cheung!



4 kilometers to go and we're finally seeing some teams building a train. It's Aegon for Swift on the left and Podium Ambition for Ewan on the right. Kraftwerk is also assembling a train for their star Cavendish, though their riders still have to find each other's wheel.

Also important though, pre-race favourites Bewley, Van Stayen and Ciolek are quite far back and likely won't be starting the sprint in a good position!



2,6 kilometers then and we can see a major change: Kraftwerk has pulled themselves together and abuse the inside corner to be at the very front! Holloway smartly decided to join this train, while Podium Ambition (followed by Zabel) and Aegon have some catching up to do. Behind them, six (!) riders from Moser, but Bewley is only in the bottom right corner...

An overview:

			Kreder
			Willwohl
			Cavendish
			Holloway
		Alaphilippe
		Nelson
		Ewan
	Bauhaus	Zabel
	Groenewegen
Polnicky	Swift		Turek
		Mosca	Chen
		Baska	Bewley
Dakteris			Boeckmans
Scully			Howard

All other sprinters seem to be out of contention for victory, but still have a shot at a top 10-spot. An exception may have to be made for Vantomme though, who failed to set up a train and is now eerily far behind.



1,5 kilometers to go. Aegon is storming up on the right and Saber was able to cling to Swift's wheel!



Under the red kite, Swift is launching his final sprint while Cavendish is still waiting. Holloway, Bewley and Ewan seem to be going for positions 3,4 and 5,but especially with Bewley you never know...



Actually, with Holloway you never know! He storms up and joins Cavendish and Swift for the grand finale with 500 meters to go! Swift went the earliest, Cavendish is still accelerating and Holloway currently has the highest speed. This will get close!

(Also, look at this screenshot. It's exactly like the Windows XP background )



200 meters, Cav couldn't pull ahead and has to worry about Bewley now. Swift is looking to take this one home. Will he?



Of course he will, I never doubted him! Swift wins the first edition of the Riga – Jurmala GP and gives his manager a breath of fresh air for their relegation battle!

Holloway surprises with the silver medal and shows a glimpse of his great results in the past. Cavendish also steps on the podium and he will be glad to hear that two of their leadout riders, did everything they could to score points for his team and ended up in 16th and 18th as well.



Bewley finishes 4th. A little bit disappoint for him, he couldn't join Swift and Cavendish while Holloway could. 5th place is for Van Stayen, who wasn't positioned too well but made a nice comeback.

Ewan, Boeckmans, Zabel, Howard and Kump close the top 10. In front of Bouhanni, Ciolek and Van Asbroeck. A massive disappointment for Ciolek who could've been expected to at least fight for a top 5-spot.As for the other two... Good, but not good enough?



Two more of the pre-race outsiders left to mention then: Saber only manages a 14th place, which would've been okay before the race but he was positioned very well. And Vantomme, who only barely managed to pass the leadout riders and ended up in 15th.



And with that we conclude the coverage of the Riga- Jurmala GP! A race that mostly went as expected, but with its ups and downs in the results. We hope to find back the actual planned race route and see you back on that terrain next season. Ciao!

Results

1	Ben Swift	Aegon - Lavazza	4h01'52
2	Dan Holloway	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
3	Mark Cavendish	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
4	Sam Bewley	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
5	Michael Van Stayen	Evonik - ELKO	s.t.
6	Caleb Ewan	Podium Ambition	s.t.
7	Kris Boeckmans	Grieg - Eftel	s.t.
8	Rick Zabel	Desigual	s.t.
9	Leigh Howard	Bennelong - Mitchelton	s.t.
10	Marko Kump	Isostar - Slovenija	s.t.
11	Nacer Bouhanni	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
12	Gerald Ciolek	Aker - MOT	s.t.
13	Tom Van Asbroeck	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
14	Lahcen Saber	Philips - Continental	s.t.
15	Maxime Vantomme	Netia - Vonin	s.t.
16	Wesley Kreder	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
17	Mark Dzamastagic	Evonik - ELKO	s.t.
18	Willi Willwohl	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
19	Tom Scully	Aker - MOT	s.t.
20	Kristian Sobota	Netia - Vonin	s.t.
21	Libin Chen	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
22	Julian Alaphilippe	Podium Ambition	s.t.
23	Phil Bauhaus	Aegon - Lavazza	s.t.
24	Laurens De Vreese	Evonik - ELKO	s.t.
25	Armands Becis	Evonik - ELKO	s.t.
26	Dylan Groenewegen	Aegon - Lavazza	s.t.
27	Janis Dakteris	Aker - MOT	s.t.
28	Pawel Bernas	Netia - Vonin	s.t.
29	Lasse Norman Hansen	Netia - Vonin	s.t.
30	Tomohiro Hayakawa	Meiji - JR East	s.t.
31	Alex Wohler	Bennelong - Mitchelton	s.t.
32	Yannick Stoltz	Evonik - ELKO	s.t.
33	James Oram	Bennelong - Mitchelton	s.t.
34	Pawel Franczak	Netia - Vonin	s.t.
35	Vyacheslav Kuznetsov	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
36	Ricki Nelson	Podium Ambition	s.t.
37	Felix Grossschartner	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
38	Erik Baska	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
39	Westley Gough	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
40	Adam Phelan	Bennelong - Mitchelton	s.t.
41	Morten Reckweg	Netia - Vonin	s.t.
42	Yudai Arashiro	Meiji - JR East	s.t.
43	Jacopo Mosca	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
44	Soren Kragh Andersen	Grieg - Eftel	s.t.
45	Kristian Sbaragli	Aegon - Lavazza	s.t.
46	Lukas Spengler	Team UBS	s.t.
47	Peter Varga	Team Reddit	s.t.
48	Sonomtseren Delgerbayar	Team UBS	s.t.
49	Julien Vermote	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
50	Jingbiao Zhao	Meiji - JR East	s.t.
51	Daniel Turek	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
52	Jiri Polnicky	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
53	Rafaa Chtioui	Team UBS	s.t.
54	Sang Hong Park	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
55	Marcus Burghardt	Podium Ambition	s.t.
56	Jos Van Emden	Grieg - Eftel	s.t.
57	Amund Grondahl Jansen	Grieg - Eftel	s.t.
58	Lukasz Wisniowski	Grieg - Eftel	s.t.
59	Carter Jones	Desigual	s.t.
60	Tadej Logar	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
61	Dragan Jasovic	Control Team	s.t.
62	Benoit Cosnefroy	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
63	Ben Hermans	Generali - EDF	s.t.
64	Cyrile Thiery	Generali - EDF	s.t.
65	Alexander Edmondson	Bennelong - Mitchelton	s.t.
66	Pedro Sequera	Team Reddit	s.t.
67	Matteo Pelucchi	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
68	Elias Afewerki	EA Vesuvio	s.t.
69	Torkil Veyhe	T-Mobile	s.t.
70	Tom Bohli	Team UBS	s.t.
71	Benjamin Thomas	Generali - EDF	s.t.
72	Gaëtan Bille	Generali - EDF	s.t.
73	King Lok Cheung	Meiji - JR East	s.t.
74	Fernando Gaviria	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
75	Marc Potts	Gazelle	s.t.
76	Jairo Agudelo	Gazelle	s.t.
77	Mikhail Kochetkov	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
78	Pit Schlechter	EA Vesuvio	s.t.
79	Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz	Netia - Vonin	s.t.
80	Marcos Altur	Desigual	s.t.
81	Maciej Ulanowski	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
82	Shaun Nick Bester	Team Reddit	s.t.
83	Remco Te Brake	Philips - Continental	s.t.
84	Ronan Van Zandbeek	Philips - Continental	s.t.
85	Alexey Tsatevich	Desigual	s.t.
86	Mike Teunissen	Gazelle	s.t.
87	Clément Lhotellerie	Aker - MOT	s.t.
88	Kouhei Uchima	Meiji - JR East	s.t.
89	Peeter Tarvis	EA Vesuvio	s.t.
90	Wout Van Aert	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
91	Dylan Page	Team UBS	s.t.
92	Blaz Furdi	Gazelle	s.t.
93	Nicolay Cherkasov	Netia - Vonin	s.t.
94	Jo Kogstad Ringheim	Grieg - Eftel	s.t.
95	Morne Van Niekerk	Team Reddit	s.t.
96	Saya Kuroeda	Meiji - JR East	s.t.
97	Michael Kurth	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
98	David Per	Philips - Continental	s.t.
99	Mamyr Stash	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
100	Jacques Janse van Rensburg	Gazelle	s.t.
101	Kamil Gradek	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
102	Roman Maikin	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
103	Maxim Pokidov	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
104	Matteo Trentin	Aker - MOT	s.t.
105	Sabelo Mngometulu	Control Team	s.t.
106	Hersony Canelon	Team Reddit	s.t.
107	Danilo Wyss	Team UBS	s.t.
108	Sam Bennett	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
109	Mitch Docker	T-Mobile	s.t.
110	Anthony Lavoine	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
111	Roman Senyenov	Gazelle	s.t.
112	Eryk Laton	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
113	Michael Vink	Grieg - Eftel	s.t.
114	Mathieu van der Poel	Aegon - Lavazza	s.t.
115	Theo Reinhardt	Team UBS	s.t.
116	Marcello Pavarin	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
117	Genki Yamamoto	Meiji - JR East	s.t.
118	Moreno Hofland	Gazelle	s.t.
119	Kenji Itami	Meiji - JR East	s.t.
120	Hayden McCormick	Bennelong - Mitchelton	s.t.
121	Ingus Eislers	Evonik - ELKO	s.t.
122	Sven Fritsch	EA Vesuvio	s.t.
123	Martin Schäppi	Team UBS	s.t.
124	Andrea Zordan	Gazelle	s.t.
125	Lucas Manuel Gaday	Team Reddit	s.t.
126	Rafael Silva	Generali - EDF	s.t.
127	Freddy Cruz	Team Reddit	s.t.
128	Cameron Meyer	Team Reddit	s.t.
129	Geoffrey Soupe	T-Mobile	s.t.
130	Kristof Goddaert	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
131	Marco Canola	Generali - EDF	s.t.
132	Marcel Barth	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
133	Geraint Thomas	Podium Ambition	s.t.
134	Andriy Orlov	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
135	Roman Maksimov	Desigual	s.t.
136	Niccolo Bonifazio	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
137	Oleksandr Polivoda	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
138	Jernej Svab	Desigual	s.t.
139	Greg Van Avermaet	Evonik - ELKO	s.t.
140	Karel Hnik	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
141	Nolan Hoffman	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
142	Daniel Oss	Aker - MOT	s.t.
143	Baptiste Planckaert	Generali - EDF	s.t.
144	Edward Theuns	Generali - EDF	s.t.
145	Sven Nooytens	Evonik - ELKO	s.t.
146	Takeaki Amezawa	Aker - MOT	s.t.
147	Polychronis Tzortzakis	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
148	Rüdiger Selig	T-Mobile	s.t.
149	Muhammad Suhaimi Ghani	EA Vesuvio	s.t.
150	Maani Altanzul	T-Mobile	s.t.
151	Darren Young	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
152	Delio Fernandez	T-Mobile	s.t.
153	Moreno Moser	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
154	Husain Al Basri	Control Team	s.t.
155	Michael Schwarzmann	T-Mobile	s.t.
156	Hugo Hofstetter	Aegon - Lavazza	s.t.
157	Nathan Van Hooydonck	Aegon - Lavazza	s.t.
158	Logan Owen	Podium Ambition	s.t.
159	Michael Vingerling	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
160	Davide Martinelli	Aegon - Lavazza	s.t.
161	Max Walsleben	Kraftwerk Man Machine	s.t.
162	Alexander Krieger	Philips - Continental	s.t.
163	Juan Jose Lobato del Valle	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
164	Fulgencio Bru	EA Vesuvio	s.t.
165	Emiliano Contreras	Desigual	s.t.
166	Christopher Lawless	Podium Ambition	s.t.
167	Xhuliano Kamberaj	Isostar - Slovenija	s.t.
168	Truls Engen Korsaeth	Grieg - Eftel	s.t.
169	Clément Venturini	Desigual	s.t.
170	Jakub Mareczko	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
171	Deins Kanepejs	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
172	Adrian Gjolberg	Aker - MOT	s.t.
173	Matthew Ross	Bennelong - Mitchelton	s.t.
174	Petr Rikunov	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
175	Ziga Groselj	Isostar - Slovenija	s.t.
176	Jaime Castrillo	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
177	Domen Novak	Isostar - Slovenija	s.t.
178	Varsham Darbinyan	Novatek-Panarmenian.net	s.t.
179	Martin Laas	Isostar - Slovenija	s.t.
180	Josip Rumac	Isostar - Slovenija	s.t.
181	Fabio Jakobsen	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
182	Lotto Petrus	Philips - Continental	s.t.
183	Piet Allegaert	Philips - Continental	s.t.
184	Sam Oomen	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
185	Aleksandar Roman	Isostar - Slovenija	s.t.
186	Ayden Toovey	Bennelong - Mitchelton	s.t.
187	Laurens De Plus	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
188	Léo Vincent	Euskaltel - Elior	s.t.
189	Ha Jeon Jung	Philips - Continental	s.t.
190	Anatoliy Budyak	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
191	Mikayil Krasnoperov	T-Mobile	s.t.
192	Drew Morey	Podium Ambition	s.t.
193	Amadou Bakari	EA Vesuvio	+ 4'24