As ever a break went away, Doi, Rodrigues Silva, Lindgren, Elmiger, Boucher, Galparsoro and Reihs
By 58km to go their gap was falling, as 4 riders attack from the peleton. Lloret, Vorganov, Kiryenka and Bertagnolli.
The move isnt to the pleasing of Santander or Vespa-Caffreys however
The 4 chasers do catch the breakaway though
Now comes Kessler from the peleton, Gil and Vicioso follow
Gil and Kessler go past the lead group, but Vicioso cant keep up with them
Gil quickly drops Kessler, while Vicioso seems to have a gap on the 11 man group - and Valverde attacks from the pack!
He only makes it up to the chase group though as now Nocentini, Ginanni, Calzati and Trofimov go
They steeper climb ends, so they only have to do that 1 more time in the final 38km, but it has certainly done it's damage. Gil leads up front, Kessler is now 45 seconds behind
A further minute back are Rodrigues Silva, Trofimov, Kiryenka, Vicioso and Ginanni. They in turn are 20 seconds ahead of a group of 11, led by Gilbert, also including Reihs, Valverde, Galparsoro, Nocentini, Bertagnolli, Calzati, Wegmann, Lloret, Lindgren and Vorganov
Fedrigo is just behind, and then comes Flugel.
The group of 5, Group of 11 and Fedrigo come together, trailing Kessler by 1'20 and Gil by 2 minutes. Flugel is 40 seconds behind these 17 and then noone, one of these 20 riders will win the race.
34km to go and more attacks - Fedrigo goes immediately after joining the group, Gilbert, Nocentini and Wegmann follow
They get a gap of 30 seconds but Trofimov and Valverde make use of their teammates Reihs and Galparsoro, and bring things back
Up front, Gil did once lead Kessler by 45 seconds. But that has come right down, and Kessler is soon to rejoin Gil
Approaching the final lap now and Kessler attacks Gil
As the pack start the final lap, still a minute behind, Gilbert, Ginanni, Wegmann and Fedrigo lead the way in the attacks
Valverde, Calzati and Trofimov are going strong though, as they pass Gil and move in on Kessler
Into the lead goes Valverde and Trofimov, just ahead of Calzati. Kessler is next, with Nocentini almost hidden but in there behind him. And then Ginanni
Calzati claws himself up to Trofimov and Valverde as Nocentini, Ginanni and Kessler chase
Ginanni drops Nocentini and Kessler to make it a 4 man lead group but a slight slowing in pace allowed Nocentini, Kessler and also Gil to make it 7
They lead Gilbert by 1'30, Vorganov and Wegmann are at 2 minutes, and then Vicioso, Rodrigues Silva, Lloret, Bertagnolli, Kiryenka, Fedrigo, Galparsoro and Flugel at 3 minutes - Flugel having finally caught up with at least the back end of the group, with teammate Lindgren and Sony's Reihs have been dropped.
Bertagnolli and Flugel put in an attack to join Vorganov and Wegmann
The pace of the front group is remarkably slow though, and Gilbert catches them to wipe out the once 90 second gap
And also coming back into play for victory are Flugel, Bertagnolli, Vorganov and Wegmann
12 men up front then, 2 from Wiggle, BMC, and AON, just the 1 for Vespa, Santander, Sony Ericcson, IKEA Bianchi, Nespresso and Lego.
But its not 12 for long, as Gil attacks
Ginanni, Trofimov, Valverde and Kessler make it across
But here come Gilbert, Calzati, Flugel and Nocentini
Calzati hits the front but all 12 riders are backtogether with 6.6km to go
5km to go and up front we have Bertagnolli, Trofimov and Flugel
Trofimov seems intent on leading things out, with Bertagnolli, Wegmann and Flugel tucked in with 2.5 km to go
The finish line is in view as Vorganov makes a surge down the left. If its an attempt to lead Gilbert out, its gone wrong as Gilbert wasnt paying attention and remains at the back (just out of view)
And here we go, Trofimov launches the sprint
Bertagnolli is on the left, and the Germans hoping for a home win are also close, Wegmann could be a challenge with Flugel going strong on the right
But Wegmann falls apart and out of contention, Flugel is the best German hope now and continues to punch above his weight as Bertagnolli desparetly tries to challenge Trofimov
But over the finish line, looking over his shoulder as he crosses the graffiti of his name - Yuri Trofimov wins the race!
2nd for Bertagnolli - a great 3rd for Flugel having had to work so hard just to catch the front groups, Kessler is 4th, Valverde comes through for 5th (bad positioning there), Nocentini 6th, then Vorganov, Gil and BMC round out the Top 10 with Calzati and an exhausted Wegmann. Ginanni and Gilbert simply didnt feature in the finish, and cant be too happy with 11th and 12th
1'24 later, Vicioso takes 13th as he and teammate Rodrigues Silva lead in the 6 man chase group
Behind them most of the peleton were content to ride in comfortably when it was clear that 20 men had gotten away - taking all of the ranking points positions - but 7 men persisted and were paid off in catching Reihs and Lindgren near the finish. 2 ranking spots on offer and Pasamontes trumps 4 IKEA riders to take 19th ahead of Vanspeybrouck.
