Another criterium, this time a bit longer, with 170km around the city of Mino. Note the short, but steep, hill that may cause problems to some of the riders.
20km went by until the first attack. Cozza (BMC), Broco (Nespresso), Taillefour (NVidia), Wacker (Ultra Adventure), Inoue (Ernst and Young), Belmokhtar (Acqua & Sapone) and Olman (Irn Bru) are trying to make the break.
Taillefour and Inoue are with a small advantage over Belmokhtar and Olman and Broco, Cozza and Wacker are even further behind.
Some kilometers after, all the three groups are now together, though Wacker spent a little time on his own trying to join the group thanks to being dropped in the hill by Cozza and Broco.
The break is trying to increase the gap, and that's exactly what they are doing so far. 120km to go, the gap is 6'20''.
At about 100km to go, the gap is 7'20''. Sony Ericsson feels that they should decrease the gap, so Johansson and Renäng hit the front of the pack.
But the work of these two riders seems not to be enough for some teams, as Wal-Mart also relays.
Therefore, the break's advantage is lower. 4'31'' at 70km.
30km after, the peloton can see the break but the gap isn't that small, 2 minutes and a half.
The peloton is now being led by Nespresso and NVidia (despite the fact these two teams having a man in the break). EON and Olympus also join the chase.
Attack in the front! Broco and Taillefour try to get out of the group. Only Olman and Inoue don't counter the attack.
An ineffective attack, as a few kilometers later, just before the final hill, the last man of the break, Broco, is caught.
Meanwhile, falls in the pack! Li and Raisin (Ernst and Young), Bru Pascal and Anastopoulos (Acqua & Sapone), Abdelmotelb (Ultra Adventure) and Grabovski (Irn Bru) hit the ground.
The hill starts and the sprint preparation is on! On the right side, Richeze leads Hoffman. On the other side, Ascani and Glomser lead Gatto and Weissinger, respectively, while Bazajev is between Miyazawa and Awang.
The hill ends and there are some changes. Miyazawa, Awang, Weissinger and Richeze are nowhere to be seen. Hoffman and Bazajev try to follow Gatto. 5km to go.
In the middle of the road, Glomser leads alone. Murphy, Sohrabi and Miyazawa now follow Bazajev on the left side. But, on the right side, Podgornik comes from nowhere leading Priamo and Keisse, and he don't slow down!
Podgornik leaves Priamo and Keisse in an excellent position, as it's EON Ruhrgas all over the front! Gatto sprinted past Ascani and it's trying to reach EON's riders. Just a thousand meters to go!
Priamo now leads, Keisse is right behind him, Hoffman are side by side trying to fight for podium places.
Priamo crosses the line and raises his arms. He is today's winner. Keisse and Hoffman complete the podium.
Raisin, sided by Li, loses more than 4 minutes today.
