Challenging weather conditions (with slicky roads and a cloudy sky) and 227km of uphill and downhill racing: welcome to British Columbia, where the Apex Mountain Classic is held for the very first time. Thanks to a packed startlist, we can hope for a fantastic race today.

Top-favorites should be Taaramäe, Pluchkin, Dombrowski - with some seriously dangerous competitors like Kritskiy, Amador, Sicard, Úran, Velits or possible dark horses like Barguil, Monsalve or Kudus. To name just a few. It's really an interesting startlist, but T-Mobile surely has some pressure with Taaramäe as it's leader and several strong climbers supporting their captain.

Let's begin with a history of breakaway attempts, that didn't go through:

#1: Siriwardena, Dlamini, Novardianto, Kumara, Vanendert
#2: Mosca, Dulanjana, Ioannidis, Robov
#3: Mosca, Dulanjana, Lammertink, Feng



Eventually, a group of two riders (Mosca, Dulanjana) managed to stay clear though and with already more than 50km done, the duo is accompanied by four more riders, who will form the break of the day with a gap of two minutes 177km before the finish:

Ioannidis
Mosca
Dulanjana
Siriwardena
Chernetskiy
Meier



The breakaway's lead peaks at something like 6 minutes halfway through the race and unsurprisingly it's T-Mobile showing it's colours at the front of the pack and setting the pace for the second half of the course. That's definitely a lineup, that should be capable of controlling the race..



So let's keep it short until the final 33.5km of the race: the early break had no chance indeed! Siriwardena and Meier as the last two escapees being caught by T-Mobile's train!

We're at the bottom of today's most crucial climb up 'Apex Mountain Resort' - 14.9km in total with average slopes of 7%, though featuring sectors with up to 10% quite frequently. Just like at this point, where the magenta squad swallows the last two escapees and totally controlling the race so far.

Geniez - Wöhrer - Battaglin - Moschella doing the work so far, by the way..



Just a few kilometres though, the first real test for T-Mobile is on:

Dombrowski attacks with 29km to go - halfway through the climb up the Apex! That's certainly a first big move and he's opening up a small gap quickly!



Monsalve as the first trying to follow, but he's facing a 16 seconds gap, not yet able to immediately join Dombrowski's attack there!

Some more riders know it's a dangerous move and we see the next attacks happening:



Marquez, Taaramäe and Kritskiy!

Also Pluchkin and Amador at the front of the bunch now, with Pluchkin trying to follow Taaramäe's move quickly. The race is on!



Bad news for Pluchkin though, as he could not follow group Taaramäe yet! 27.6km to go and the first big moves have opened up some gaps between the firsr groups: Dombrowski a few seconds ahead of Monsalve, who's still ahead of group Taaramäe/Kritskiy:

Pluchkin
Dzhus
Barguil
Amador
Sicard build a next group, that is 23 seconds behind Taaramäe!



Close to the first mountaintop (there's a second, short climb then) Pluchkin bridges across group Taaramäe/Kritskiy though - that's 26.5km before finish now..

Marquez has done his work and drops back to Amador/Barguil, who are about 22 seconds ahead of a big group with Sicard (who dropped back), Úran, Kudus, Velits and all other contenders:





Dombrowski entering a short downhill sector to the Apex Mountain Ski Resort with a 24 seconds lead, but we see some changes behind him!



Taaramäe has attacked from his group and he easily went past Monsalve to reach the first mountaintop as the new solo chaser behind Dombrowski!

Monsalve, Kritskiy and Pluchkin are 12 seconds in arrears..

Amador, Barguil and Marquez thus further 16 seconds..



Further down the road, the peloton has gone into pieces now and we see a next wave of attacks going clear and trying to bridge across the leading groups:

Sicard, Úran and Kudus going first!

And then there's a group of 9 riders with a 32 seconds disadvantage on this group Sicard:

Guldhammer
Penasa
Velits
Carthy
Valls
Berhane
Wellens
Brenes
Beltran





On the final short ascent, Taaramäe catches up to Dombrowski! Still something like a kilometre of climbing and then it's 21km downhill to the finish!



Pluchkin/Kritskiy the new chasing group and the duo works pretty well together, narrowing the gap to Dombrowski/Taaramäe to just 12 seconds just a few moments later!

30 seconds behind them, there's Barguil, Amador, Monsalve and Sicard now!



Úran/Marquez further 45 seconds in arrears and a few seconds ahead of the new bigger group with Velits/Guldhammer/Wellens and co..



At the last mountaintop, the chasing duo has indeed caught up to the leading duo - 21km to go now and we have a new leading group:

Taaramäe
Pluchkin
Dombrowski
Kritskiy



The first chasing group is at four riders as well now, trailing by a minute at the beginning of the descent though:

Barguil
Amador
Sicard
Monsalve



A further minute behind, the third group with 13 riders:

Guldhammer
Penasa
Velits
Carthy
Valls
Berhane
Kudus
Wellens
Brenes
Beltran
Marquez
Úran
Quintana



Tough luck for Guldhammer then, as the punctures halfway through the descent! His fight for a possible Top-10 placements is over and he sees Garby going past himself with no chance to join him anymore!



11.5km to go now and the leading group is already 1'16" ahead of group Amador/Sicard, which is 1'29" ahead of group Velits/Úran! Guldhammer won't stay with Garby, by the way (it's just the moment, where he just suffered the puncture)



It's raining and the roads are slicky, but this won't prevent Dombrowski and Taaramäe from going all-in on the steepest downhill sectors! The duo does not show any sign of fear and they hammer down the 11% slopes with an awesome speed now..

..Kritskiy and Pluchkin can't follow! We have a split in the leading group with now just 5km remaining! And the gap quickly grows to 14 seconds and even further on the following kilometres. It will come down to a sprint between those two guys here!



And here we go, the leading duo has reached the short flat finishing stretch in Hedley, with Dombrowski kicking off the sprint with a small advantage over Taaramäe..



..who can't counter his speed: Dombrowski wins the Apex Mountain Classic! Launching the first big attack and then getting caught by Taaramäe, Pluchkin and Kritskiy, he never gave up to power through both the climbs and the long downhill sector to the finish. Surely a deserved winner of the first edition of this race.

Taaramäe has to settle for a 2nd place, that's still fine enough with a startlist like this. He made it look so easy to bridge across Dombrowski on the final climb and their ride down the ascent was truly epic as well. There's only winner though and that's Dombrowski today!



59 seconds later..

Pluchkin wins the sprint for 3rd ahead of Kritskiy, who should be still happy enough to prove his climbing skills against such a heavy competition. Both did well to join Dombrowski/Taaramäe on the last short climb, but they could not match their downhill speed today.



+ 1'17" Barguil and Amador

+ 1'25" Monsalve

+ 1'31" Sicard

Strong results for particularly Barguil and Monsalve, who was amongst the first attackers today. Amador 6th, not bad, not too special either. But it has been said before: the startlist was just sick.



+ 3'03" Brenes and Wellens

Brenes and Wellens dominating the sprint from the first bigger group and that's quite an awesome result for Brenes! He rode a rather quiet race, but followed the right moves to then snatch a great Top-10 result eventually. Well played.

+ 3'08" for the other riders in this group:

Carthy 11th ahead of Beltran, Penasa, Berhane, Marquez, Úran, Kudus, Valls, Velits and Quintana..



+ 3'43" for Preidler as 21st

+ 4'12" for Garby

+ 6'17" for Giogieri, Senni and an unlucky Guldhammer as 25th on the day - his puncture was definitely a shocker and it will surely hurt for Aker: Beltran did quite good as 12th, but with Guldhammer and Galta (28th) finishing that low, the team couldn't really benefit from it's good depth.

Final Results

1	Joseph Dombrowski	eBuddy	6h01'18
2	Rein Taaramäe	T-Mobile	s.t.
3	Aleksandr Pluchkin	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	+ 59
4	Timofey Kritskiy	Team Tinkoff	s.t.
5	Warren Barguil	Moser - Sygic	+ 1'17
6	Andrei Amador	Team UBS	s.t.
7	Yonathan Monsalve	Ayubowan!	+ 1'25
8	Romain Sicard	Air France - KLM	+ 1'31
9	Gregory Brenes	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	+ 3'03
10	Tim Wellens	Volvo acc. by Spotify	s.t.
11	Hugh Carthy	Ayubowan!	+ 3'08
12	Eduard Alexander Beltran	Aker - MOT	s.t.
13	Pierre Paolo Penasa	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
14	Natnael Berhane	World Cycling Center	s.t.
15	Florentino Marquez	T-Mobile	s.t.
16	Rigoberto Úran	Minions	s.t.
17	Merhawi Kudus	Repsol - Netflix	s.t.
18	Rafael Valls	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
19	Peter Velits	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	s.t.
20	Nairo Quintana	Air France - KLM	s.t.
21	Georg Preidler	T-Mobile	+ 3'43
22	Marc Christian Garby	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	+ 4'12
23	Tyron Giogieri	RBC Pro Cycling	+ 6'14
24	Manuel Senni	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
25	Rasmus Guldhammer	Aker - MOT	s.t.
26	Souheil Khederi	Aker - MOT	+ 6'27
27	Thomas Bonnin	RBC Pro Cycling	s.t.
28	Fredrik Strand Galta	Aker - MOT	s.t.
29	Sindre Skjostad Lunke	Aker - MOT	s.t.
30	Volodymyr Dzhus	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
31	Jakub Novak	Repsol - Netflix	s.t.
32	John-Lee Augustyn	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	s.t.
33	David Rosch	Air France - KLM	s.t.
34	Magnus Cort Nielsen	RBC Pro Cycling	s.t.
35	Gavin Mannion	Azteca-NBCSN	s.t.
36	Valens Ndayisenga	Repsol - Netflix	s.t.
37	Abolfazl Gilanipoor	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	s.t.
38	Gianluca Brambilla	eBuddy	s.t.
39	Jianhua Ji	World Cycling Center	s.t.
40	Artemio Moschella	T-Mobile	s.t.
41	Mikayil Krasnoperov	T-Mobile	s.t.
42	Gian Piero Signorini	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	s.t.
43	Paolo Scarponi	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	+ 6'40
44	Víctor Hugo Orozco	Azteca-NBCSN	s.t.
45	Óscar Solis	Azteca-NBCSN	s.t.
46	Michel Koch	Air France - KLM	s.t.
47	Ilia Koshevoy	World Cycling Center	s.t.
48	Aleksey Rybalkin	Team Tinkoff	s.t.
49	Suranga Ranaweera	Ayubowan!	s.t.
50	Daniele Dall'Oste	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
51	Rafael Serrano	Repsol - Netflix	s.t.
52	Yasmani Martinez	Minions	s.t.
53	Rafel Majka	eBuddy	s.t.
54	Enrico Battaglin	T-Mobile	s.t.
55	Farzad Khodayari	Minions	s.t.
56	Mattia Pozzo	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
57	Matthias Frank	Team UBS	s.t.
58	Alexandre Geniez	T-Mobile	s.t.
59	Thomas Lövkvist	Volvo acc. by Spotify	s.t.
60	Cayetano Sarmiento	Minions	s.t.
61	Dominik Fuchs	Team UBS	s.t.
62	Dadi Suryadi	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	+ 6'53
63	David Wöhrer	T-Mobile	s.t.
64	Matteo Badilatti	Team UBS	s.t.
65	Mykhaylo Kononenko	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
66	Bakhtiyar Kozhatayev	Desigual	+ 7'40
67	Daniel Teklehaimanot	Desigual	s.t.
68	Vincenzo Nibali	Desigual	s.t.
69	Adam De Vos	Podium Ambition	s.t.
70	Max Öste-Macdonald	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	s.t.
71	Carter Jones	Desigual	s.t.
72	Ondrej Cink	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
73	Mektel Eyob	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
74	Michael Kolar	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
75	Mirco Saggiorato	Team UBS	s.t.
76	Zouzou Andriafenomananiaina	RBC Pro Cycling	s.t.
77	Meron Russom	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	s.t.
78	Petr Ignatenko	Team Tinkoff	s.t.
79	Evgeny Shalunov	Team Tinkoff	s.t.
80	Chad Haga	Minions	s.t.
81	Sébastien Ivars	Team UBS	s.t.
82	Matej Vysna	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
83	Thomas Peterson	Nordstrom - BioWare	s.t.
84	Jonathan Salinas	Air France - KLM	s.t.
85	Joao Gaspar	Nordstrom - BioWare	s.t.
86	Kashyapa Siriwardena	Desigual	+ 9'44
87	Josef Hosek	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
88	Bartosz Warchol	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	+ 11'28
89	Sam Oomen	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
90	Tyler Brandt	World Cycling Center	s.t.
91	Sepp Kuss	Azteca-NBCSN	s.t.
92	Jakub Danacik	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
93	Jacopo Mosca	Moser - Sygic	s.t.
94	Carl Fredrik Hagen	Aker - MOT	s.t.
95	Ian Boswell	eBuddy	s.t.
96	Gianni Moscon	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
97	Robin Carpenter	RBC Pro Cycling	s.t.
98	Havard Blikra	Volvo acc. by Spotify	s.t.
99	Christian Meier	Azteca-NBCSN	s.t.
100	Niklas Eg	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	s.t.
101	Martin Grashev	Podium Ambition	s.t.
102	Mark Padun	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
103	Peter Stetina	Azteca-NBCSN	s.t.
104	Sachin Dulanjana	Ayubowan!	+ 13'12
105	Artem Topchanyuk	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
106	Mekseb Debesay	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	+ 14'27
107	Aleksa Crncevic	Carrefour - ESPN	s.t.
108	James Piccoli	Nordstrom - BioWare	s.t.
109	Robin Manulang	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	s.t.
110	Alexander Foliforov	Team Tinkoff	s.t.
111	Alberto Bettiol	Ayubowan!	s.t.
112	Takeaki Amezawa	Aker - MOT	s.t.
113	Jernej Svab	Desigual	s.t.
114	Momchil Robov	Podium Ambition	s.t.
115	Chun Kai Feng	World Cycling Center	s.t.
116	Pawel Cieslik	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
117	Théry Schir	Team UBS	s.t.
118	Guillaume Martin	Air France - KLM	s.t.
119	Getachew Sendeku	World Cycling Center	s.t.
120	Fabio Aru	eBuddy	s.t.
121	Sergey Chernetskiy	Team Tinkoff	s.t.
122	Adrian Nitu	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
123	Jaime Roson	Repsol - Netflix	s.t.
124	Murilo Affonso	World Cycling Center	+ 14'59
125	Ilnur Zakarin	Team Tinkoff	+ 16'52
126	Chris Barton	Minions	+ 17'33
127	Maurits Lammertink	eBuddy	s.t.
128	Amanuel Gebrezgabihier	Desigual	s.t.
129	Taylor Newton	Desigual	s.t.
130	Ignacio Jesus Prado	Moser - Sygic	+ 18'06
131	Tao Geoghegan Hart	RBC Pro Cycling	s.t.
132	Jesper Hansen	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	s.t.
133	Marcus Faglum Karlsson	Volvo acc. by Spotify	s.t.
134	Ryan Anderson	Nordstrom - BioWare	s.t.
135	Martin Schoffmann	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	s.t.
136	Nicholas Dlamini	World Cycling Center	s.t.
137	Jack Burke	RBC Pro Cycling	s.t.
138	Antwan Tolhoek	eBuddy	s.t.
139	Patrick Olesen	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	s.t.
140	Jan Drago Petelin	Carrefour - ESPN	s.t.
141	Sergio Ortega	Azteca-NBCSN	s.t.
142	Laurens De Plus	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
143	Anatoliy Budyak	Team Popo4Ever p/b Nemiroff	s.t.
144	Matvey Mamykin	Team Tinkoff	s.t.
145	Joseph Areruya	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	s.t.
146	Jonathan Hivert	Air France - KLM	s.t.
147	Nikolaos Ioannidis	Carrefour - ESPN	s.t.
148	Kristijan Durasek	Nordstrom - BioWare	s.t.
149	Jelle Vanendert	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
150	Burr Ho	Aker - MOT	s.t.
151	Borislav Ivanov	Podium Ambition	s.t.
152	Sean McKenna	Repsol - Netflix	+ 24'15
153	Odd Christian Eiking	Minions	s.t.
154	Jimmy Pranata	Indosat Ooredoo - ANZ	+ 24'58
155	Tim Ariesen	eBuddy	s.t.
156	Mathias Krigbaum	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	s.t.
157	Wout Van Aert	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	+ 25'30
158	Jakub Kaczmarek	Kulczyk - DMTEX	+ 28'39
159	Jordan Schleck	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	+ 31'45
160	Alan Banaszek	Carrefour - ESPN	+ 32'52
161	Anthony Turgis	Ayubowan!	s.t.
162	Fredrik Ludvigsson	Volvo acc. by Spotify	s.t.
163	Rasmus Tiller	Carlsberg - Danske Bank	s.t.
164	Gregory Daniel	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	s.t.
165	Jamalidin Novardianto	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	s.t.
166	Cristian Rodríguez	Repsol - Netflix	s.t.
167	Adam Toupalik	Nordstrom - BioWare	s.t.
168	Salem Kemboi	Ayubowan!	s.t.
169	Félix Emilio Besada	Azteca-NBCSN	s.t.
170	Logan Owen	Podium Ambition	s.t.
171	Michal Paluta	Kulczyk - DMTEX	s.t.
172	Dobrin Lilovski	Podium Ambition	s.t.
173	Eddie Dunbar	Repsol - Netflix	s.t.
174	Christopher Lawless	Podium Ambition	+ 37'35
175	Amith Udaya Kumara	Ayubowan!	s.t.
176	Abou Sanogo	Carrefour - ESPN	s.t.
177	Jhonatan Restrepo	Carrefour - ESPN	s.t.
178	Drew Morey	Podium Ambition	+ 38'11
179	Martin Schäppi	Team UBS	+ 40'09
180	Alexandre Aulas	Carrefour - ESPN	+ 40'44
181	Niccolo Bonifazio	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
182	Marc-Antoine Soucy	RBC Pro Cycling	s.t.
183	Thanawut Sanikwathi	Carrefour - ESPN	s.t.
184	Jakub Mareczko	Lierse SK - Pizza Ullo PCTeam	s.t.
185	Nils Schomber	Xero Racing p/b Octagon	s.t.
186	Cedric Lebris	Nordstrom - BioWare	s.t.
187	Roman Lutsyshyn	Air France - KLM	s.t.
188	Alexander Wetterhall	Volvo acc. by Spotify	s.t.
189	Gatis Smukulis	Nordstrom - BioWare	s.t.
190	Harry Tanfield	Volvo acc. by Spotify	+ 43'26
191	Joni Kanerva	Volvo acc. by Spotify	s.t.
192	Clenne Morvan Moulingui	Minions	+ 53'04