Welcome to Kenya, where most of the very best climbers of this division will fight for the climbing crown of Kenya.
Can Alarcon get his first win in 2013? Can Pozzovivo win another mountain race this season or will we see a completely different winner? Maybe an outside favourite or even the home climber Ndbri?
We will know it soon.
French oldie Voeckler and Kenyan rider Kangangi are the first with an attack.
No question that the crowd is happy to see the home team active.
But before the climb even starts everything is back together and the roads begin to be in weaker condition. Will this have any influence today?
Beltran is leading solo at the moment with Kebede, Battaglin, Ignatenko and Paillot. A bit further behind Didier is trying to join.
Good to see Kenya Airways being very active at the moment and really want to be in the breakaway. In comparison to the second CT team with Iberia, who haven`t tried anything so far.
We have reached the climb for the first time. All attacks are neutralized and the pack is going on the uphill part together.
When will we see the first successful attack.
Bintang for Alarcon, Repsol for Kashechkin and Metinvest for Popovych are doing the pace at the moment. It`s not that fast at the moment and all riders can follow. It will clearly be harder later that climb and in especially on the 2nd lap.
Petrov, Kebede, Ignatenko and Blanco created a 40s group now. While the Russian teams only have outside favourites here, Repsol and CSC have really great climbers here and put the pressure on the other teams.
With 142km to go and about half of the climb finished we again have a complete peloton. It takes quite a long time today to form the break of the day and again lots of riders try to attack.
In the steepest section a CSC rider is creating a 70s gap. It`s once again Blanco.
He reaches the village at the top solo. He already has a 3min gap and the other teams obviously missed the right attack and in especially Kenya Airways will be a bit unhappy.
Several teams are doing the pace at the top. One of those is Kenya Airways. Surely they want to present themselves a bit here.
With the flat on top almost done he still has only 3`30 ahead of the peloton. Even without being a huge danger it`s surely not in the interest of the other teams to allow him a huge gap.
The long descent is done and luckily we haven`t seen any serious crash and with 3`40 the gap is at his maximum with 60km to the finish.
2nd lap started. Now it becomes more serious. Vespa for Pozzovivo, Bintang for Alarcon and Bouygues for Taaramae are working right now. Maybe the three biggest favourites today.
We start the final climb. 14km left and these will be incredibly hard ones. Blanco is almost in reach which shows the high pace now. Many riders start to struggle and it won`t take long until we see some selections.
13km and Blanco is caught. Now we see the first attacks by favourites.
Kiserlovski, Taaramae, Alarcon, Caruso and home favourite Ndbri with the first attack. No question that this is more than serious with 2 of the best climbers here.
Riders like Pozzovivo did the chasing and so the lates attackers are caught. At least we see some selection now.
Only 50 riders are left in the first pack with 2/3 of the peloton losing contact. Most notable names behind are Rodrigues, Ochoa Quintero (both Hollister) and Kunshin (Tinkoff).
More attacks. Popovych is the initiator and again Alarcon follows. Behind him Pozzovivo and Gomez Marchante are the first to react. Karpets, Suaza, Caruso, Abal, Kolesnikov and Kashechkin are the next to follow.
Surprisingly Bouygues are playing the Suaza card here while Taaramae is still waiting.
Suaza obviously just covered the group and Solis was chasing them down for Taaramae. Incredibly strong team lineup for them here.
Only Alarcon is able to go on. He continues pulling ahead and is now really going all-in.
8,7km to go and Alarcon has a ~30s gap. Behind him Vespa and Bouygues are sending out their elite helpers to chase him.
7,6km and a group of 40 is remaining in the favourite group. But we see several riders having problem in this group of course such as Devolder, Moreno, Kunshin or Agudelo. The favourites really accelerate now and so several outside favourites start to struggle.
Only 14 riders are left in the group behind Alarcon. All the big climbers are in there and surprisingly also Kenya`s Ndbri, who is overperforming here.
In the next group of 8 we have Karpets, Montenegro, Vasquez, Kolesnikov, Rodrigues, Efimkin, Stetina and Van Huffel still ahead of the Devolder, Moreno group.
Nazaret (Bintang), Anton (CSC), Solis, Suaza (Bouygues) and Cataldo (Vespa) are the last remaining helpers in the first group and do an excellent job here.
Under the 5km banner Alarcon is caught making it a group of 15.
Some riders have also problems to follow this pace now and also fall back.
Cataldo and Anton have done their work and aren`t that surprising seeing that they supported Pozzovivo and Abal.
But more surprising are other two. Kashechkin surely underperforms here as also Caruso.
Kenya can still dream of a home win as Ndbri is still in the first group.
3,5km left and more attacks. Taaramae and the just caught Alarcon start this wave with Abal and Pozzovivo immediately following. Ndbri and Kiserlovski follow a bit later.
We have lots of single rider groups now or a maximum of 5 riders. Huge selection since the newest attack.
Taaramae is leading with a few seconds over Abal. Behind the Spaniard we have Alarcon and Pozzovivo. Kiserlovski in 5th ahead of Gomez Marchante and Nazarez. Kashechkin, Popovych and Ndbri try to come back with Solis and Suaza just following them obviously as Taaramae is leading right now.
Flamme rouge for Taaramae. We still have nearly the same groups than with 2km to go. But the Estonian already has a 40s gap while the rest is much closer with only 12-17s gaps.
Taaramae constantly increased his lead and wins totally deserved. His team was the strongest today and so he was able to be less exhausted on the last 3km.
Big win for Bouygues on the direct way back to the Pro Tour.
Abal probably a small surprise on the 2nd. He was expected to fight for the podium or top 5. But finishing ahead of Pozzovivo and Alarcon is a great result for him.
Pozzovivo gets the last podium and has a nice start into the season. Alarcon a bit disappointing as 4th only. He did try today but in the end he wasn`t rewarded.
Kiserlovski can probably live with the 5th as it will bring Hollister enough points to keep a good point ratio.
Gomez Marchante outsprints Nazart for 6th. Bintang at least takes some points from this race due to his good performance.
Solis another surprise as 8th here. Great race for him. Popovych finishes as 9th a bit behind his expectations I guess.
Suaza as 10th and already 3rd Bouygues rider makes it a pretty perfect race for them.
Kashechkin on a disppointing 11th and Ndbri on a brilliant 12th finish next. Great home race for Ndbri. He was always very active but was powerful enough to beat riders like Caruso (13.) or the Tinkoff and Lukoil riders.
