Bienvenido a Espana for the next round in the criterium series. Another pan-flat course greets the riders today, composed of the most accomplished field yet, with twelve total top 5's so far among the day's starters, including two winners. With the Pokerstars train, Machado of Colombia, and other consistent top finishers in the field, it should be a good one.
Going with the theme of consistent performers, Bennett of 100% ME, not for the first time, goes on the attack.
He is followed by Marcyz of Tinkoff and Guldhammer (another consistent attacker) of Telenor. They are followed later by Rodriguez Parra (two top 5's) of Colombia, Selander of Quicksilver, and Allain of Lego.
And the six settle down into the BOTD.
why do they even bother...
The BOTD gets a max gap of 4'16" before the pack beings to chase. With 19.2 km to go the break has a 1'04" gap, and a few riders decide to bridge and add new impetus (TM: Paul Sherwen) to the break.
They are Nepomnyachsniy of Milka, Rubiano Chavez of Colombia, and Sergeant of 100% ME.
They try, and although Sergeant and the Kazakhstani get a gap, they are still in no man's land when, with 10.8km to go, Rodriguez Parra attacks, and the BOTD splits up.
rest of BOTD is out of picture
But pretty quickly Marcyz and Bennett get back to him.
And then the other three do.
They have a 56" gap with 7.0 km to go. However Pokerstars and Falcon have hit the front hard, and with about 5km to go they've been brought back into the fold. It isn't untill 3.8km to go, when Petrie-Armstrong (another top 5er) attacks, that we see any more movement.
When the sprint starts with 2.6km to go, the situation is as follows:
1: Petrie-Armstrong in front
2: To the left, Ostergaard of Telenor and Tennant of Colombia
3: Pokerstars Train: in order, Degenkolb, Kluge, Holloway, Brus (too many top 5's to count), with the other Nepomnyachsniy (also Milka) hanging on to the back (out of picture)
4: Falcon Train: Ranneries, Alonso Castillo
5. In back (out of picture): Kritskiy of Tinkoff, Stauff of LEGO.
With .5 km to go, the Pokerstars train has worked to perfection, with Holloway launched up the road. However, Falcon is still challenging, with Airstrup coming out of nowhere to join his teammates.
But Holloway is Holloway, and Pokerstars is Pokerstars.
Victory.
Falcon gets an even larger kick in the pants as Brus sneaks by Ranneriers for 2nd, while Alonso Castillo and Airstrup hit the wall during the last .5km, and finish 8th and 9th.
But once again it is Pokerstars domination on the crit circuit, hard to see how anyone can beat them.
