once again sorry about the delay. All thanks to SN for helping get this into working condition
Welcome to Portugal to the highly delayed seventh round of the Criterium Series. A hilly course awaits here, and as such the favorites are Hoogerland of Falcon, Zaini of LEGO, and Kangert of home country team Pearl Adidas.
The race got off to a pretty quick start as Manarelli of Red Bull launched the opening attack. Manarelli, the Brazilian Nation Champion, is an interesting name to look out for for. With 77 Sprint, he is too good to enter any of the flat Crits, so it will be interesting to see how he may do here.
He is followed by Allonca of Santander, Vigano of Energie, and Libert of LEGO. Shortly after, three more riders take flyers off the front, Sarmiento of Colombia, Nizzolo of Quicksilver and Goncalves of Pearl.
A short while after Yamaha joins in the fun, sending Martino off the front.
Pretty soon, the the eight attackers settle down into a nice break.
However, today was never a day for a simple catch-and-sprint setup, and with 45km to go Castroviejo of Santander and Belkov of Tinkoff attack, leaving only Falcon (of Hoogerland notability) without a man off the front.
As such, Falcon decides to go the front. This does two things. One, it ramps up the pace, and the chase, and two, around a tight corner...
might want to cover your eyes p3druh
down goes Kangert.
With the pack flying now, he is going to have serious trouble getting back to the front of the race, even with Pearl dropping two riders back to help chase.
Meanwhile, Castroviejo and Belkov have made the junction, creating a front group of ten.
Perhaps seeing the race slipping away, Pearl decides to get another man up front, and now Mancuso attacks, followed by Machado of Colombia (34.5 km to go now, by the way).
They pretty quickly catch the break, and now Pearl has two men up front. Important for them as well, as things aren't looking good for Kangert, who, having ridden away from his helpers, is trying to bridge the 2'00" minute gap to the pack on his own.
Now Energie wants to try and get another man into the front move, and so Pires takes a flyer off the front.
He is followed by Kunshin of Tinkoff.
But what is that! In the back right of the Kunshin picture? Is it...Yes! Hoogerland has launched his opening salvo. Now, with 27km to go, the race is getting started.
Hoogerland is followed by Kritskiy of Tinkoff, Ji of Red Bull, and fellow three-star favorite Zaini of LEGO.
A few counter-attacks come from within the break as Hoogerland and co. make the junction, and so as the 20km to go flag is passed, the situation is Machado out in front, with Kunshin +4", and the rest of the attackers (literally every single rider mentioned as making an attack so far in this report) +22" behind the Russian.
As now every team has at least one rider off the front (and many have two, with Tinkoff even having three), the race is likely to come down to these eighteen, especially as Kangert has not yet caught the pack.
About a km later, as Machado and Kunshin are wrapped up by the other sixteen, Zaini, Hoogerland, and Pires all take flyers.
This leads to a solid ten kilometers of attacks, with one rider after another taking digs. For example (to please Smowz) here is a picture of Ji sticking his front wheel into the lead of the race with 14.4 km to go.
However, with 10km to go, as the riders crest the hill for the final time, the attacks have settled down.
The situation is (all gaps to preceding group):
1 - Ji, Kunshin, Sarimento, Machado
2 (+21") - Hoogerland (attempting to bridge)
3 (+8") - Kritskiy, Pires, Libert, Zaini
4 (+47") - other nine attackers
5 (+1'48") - pack, with Kangert, who has finally made the junction, taking a dig off the front.
However, this does not stay the same for long, as the front three groups come together over the crest. But what's this!
Kunshin and Ji have created themselves a gap on the descent! With 9km to go they hold a 16" gap.
But as the two of them cross the 5km to go banner the gap has increased to 24".
With the sprinting prowess of Machado and the help of Sarimento, Colombia had been having to do a majority of the work reeling them back in. The rest are helping now, but is it too late?
With 1.5km to go, it is clear now it is. The gap has not decreased at all, and it is a two man race.
Who will win, the Russian that has already brought home a race victory for his team, or the Chinese rider from the team with the least successful Crit Series so far?
Meanwhile, a little behind lies the next seven, setting themselves up for the battle for third.
Machado is leading out Sarimento, with Zaini on his wheel, then Pires, Libert, and Kritskiy, with Hoogerland off the train. This looks like it will be another disappointing result for the Dutchman. Machado and Zaini seem the most likely to come out of here with the last podium spot.
But back up to the front, as Ji has launched a powerful acceleration. Can Kritskiy follow?
You be the judge.
i'm going to go with no
Victory for the Chinese man from Red Bull, a shock result here in Portugal!
And behind, after Kunshin, comes, as expected, the Colombia riders. They lead the chase group across the line, first Machado, then Sarimento. Kritskiy picks up a second top 5 for Tinkoff, with Zaini in sixth and Libert in eighth for LEGO, who must be a little disappointed, although two top ten's isn't too shabby. Hoogerland takes seventh and Pires ninth, while...
...Mancuso picks up a point for Pearl, who must be ruing their bad luck. Lastly, Kangert rolls over for nineteenth, his powerful attack confirming his strength, and making his crash all the worse.
Results:
1 Jianhua Ji Red Bull 1h48'44
2 Aleksej Kunshin Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
3 Honorio Machado CafÈ de Colombia + 27
4 Cayetano Sarmiento CafÈ de Colombia s.t.
5 Timofey Kritskiy Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
6 Tommy Zaini Team LEGO s.t.
7 Johnny Hoogerland Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
8 Jude Libert Team LEGO s.t.
9 Bruno Pires Energie - Diesel s.t.
10 Salvatore Mancuso Pearl Adidas + 1'40
11 Domingos GonÁalves Pearl Adidas s.t.
12 Giacomo Nizzolo Quiksilver-Kraft s.t.
13 Daniel Allonca Santander s.t.
14 Jonathan Castroviejo Santander s.t.
15 Davide ViganÚ Energie - Diesel s.t.
16 Maxim Belkov Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
17 Carlos Alexandre Manarelli Red Bull s.t.
18 HipÛlito ElÌas Martino Yamaha - Greenpeace s.t.
19 Tanel Kangert Pearl Adidas + 2'28
20 Marco Cunha Energie - Diesel + 4'12
21 Valeri Valinin Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
22 William Germ·n RodrÌguez Parra CafÈ de Colombia s.t.
23 Tobias Larsson Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
24 Thomas Ziegler Yamaha - Greenpeace + 4'28
25 Reinhardt Janse van Rensburg Yamaha - Greenpeace s.t.
26 Taylor Kuphaldt Quiksilver-Kraft s.t.
27 Carlos Betancourt Quiksilver-Kraft s.t.
28 Freddy Cruz Quiksilver-Kraft s.t.
29 Bjorn Selander Quiksilver-Kraft s.t.
30 Andreas Stauff Team LEGO s.t.
31 Abdelkader Belmokhtar Red Bull s.t.
32 Nikola Aistrup Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
33 Gert Rajala Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
34 Michael Matthews Red Bull s.t.
35 Stijn Joseph Pearl Adidas s.t.
36 Jacopo Guarnieri Team Falcon-Husqvarna s.t.
37 JÈrÈmie Allain Team LEGO s.t.
38 Miguel Angel Rubiano Chavez CafÈ de Colombia s.t.
39 Gracjan Lejman Yamaha - Greenpeace s.t.
40 Juan Abenhamar Gallego Martin Santander s.t.
41 Artemio Moschella Team LEGO s.t.
42 Vasco Pereira Pearl Adidas s.t.
43 Adam Semple Red Bull s.t.
44 Elia Viviani Energie - Diesel s.t.
45 Fredy Colop Energie - Diesel s.t.
46 Nico Gauer Yamaha - Greenpeace s.t.
47 Rafael Valls Santander s.t.
48 Daniel Eliad EL AL - IDF s.t.
49 Rafael Serrano Santander s.t.
50 Jaroslaw Marycz Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft s.t.
51 Maxim Burlutsky EL AL - IDF s.t.
52 Shlomi Haimy EL AL - IDF + 5'08
53 Nizan Margalit EL AL - IDF s.t.
54 CÈsar Vaquera CafÈ de Colombia + 5'56
