Namibia plays host to the second African race of the season, the Nedbank Cycling Classic.
The race has the smallest field of the season, with the favourites being: Claeys Dowsett Kiryenka Rabon
A breakaway of 7 formed early on, including Canadian national champion Charles Dionne and the only Namibian in this race, Ermin van Wyk
Van Wyk Timofeev O'Shea Wouters Blot, Dionne Van Leijen
With 115km to go they are into the hills, and have been joined by Matzbacher.
But just 7km later they are caught. The peloton has launched into the hills at a furious pace, and only a 15 men remained.
But the 29 man group peloton, which included the likes of Dale Appleby, soon caught up again. So everything is as it was, except a few have already been dropped for good, and as the hills continue one or two continue to fall away.
A surpising move now as Jack Bobridge launches an attack. As Oz team leader, this race was perhaps a rare opportunity to be a serious Top 10 contender in a hilly classic, so why attack with over 90km to go? Nobody goes with him either, as he starts to build a lead
30km later, so with 64 km to go, his lead is now over 5 minutes
The peloton certainly arent going slow though. Rapha and Bianchi lead the pace and have whittled the group down to 19 riders.
Shaun Lewis
Dimitri Claeys
Frantisek Rabon
Wladimir Gustov
Andreas Matzbacher
Geoffroy Lequatre
Ricardo Serrano
Ruben Elvira Lobato
Matic Strgar
Alex Dowsett
Dimitri Jiriakov
Dale Appleby
Rob Partridge
Zakayo Ndbri
Hillary Kiprotich
Ivan Rovny
Vasili Kiryenka
Artem Ovechkin
Aleksandr Khatuntsev
Thats bad news for 3 of the D2 teams who have wildcards to the race then - a Top 20 position now seems out of the question for Alstom, Delhaize and UPC. Pancake, Mangel, Vermeersch and Wielinga being in the next group of 5, along with the Namibian Van Wyk
That group of 19 is on the decrease though. First Khatuntsev, then the Kenyans Ndbri and Kiprotich, with Lequatre, and then Matbacher soon after.
We are down to 13 when Lewis drops off - which also means Bobridge is the only remaining hope for the Oz Cycling Project. Its turning out into a very strong hope though. 28km to go, his lead is still up at the 4 minute mark!
Gustov, Ovechkin and Strgar are dropped to reduce the 'peloton' to 10 riders, and the gap is falling to just over 3 minutes with 22km to go. Furthermore, Dowsett attacks!
Rabon and Rovny go with him, but they arent allowed to go clear because their own teammates also attack soon after, Kiryenka and Appleby
Dowsett trys again. Claeys and Rovny follow, but further attacks by Rovny, Kiryenka and Appleby see to it that the group of 10, remains a group of 10
This attacking behind is actually playing into the hands of Jack Bobridge though. His solo efforts continue, leading by 2'43 under the 10km to go banner
7km to go and Dowsett trys again to get clear!
Claeys responds and moves past him, and finally a gap seems to be forming
Dowsett pulls himself up to the wheel of Claeys, they do indeed now have a 40 second gap on the rest of that group, as Claeys launches the sprint early with a full 3km to go
But where is Bobridge? He is entering the final kilometre!
Victory! An incredible solo effort for Jack Bobridge, and the early move risk certainly paid off.
Claeys and Dowsett now enter the final kilometre, and Dowsett launches from behind Claeys
And so Alex Dowsett will take 2nd, Dmitri Claeys 3rd. They finished 1'45 behind Bobridge
Those two quickly established over a minute over the others in the closing kilometres, and it is Frantisek Rabon who comfortably takes 4th
5th for Rovny, with Pivovarna Laško's Serrano in 6th and a TCS Bank sandwich, ahead of Kiryenka. And its two in the top 10 for the Slovenian D2 team, but Lobato has to settle for 9th as Jiriakov passes him on the line.
Appleby is 10th, with fellow Rapha Brit Partridge having been tailed off at the end, but still taking a strong 11th.
Its a bit of a wait before the next riders, Ovechkin, Strgar and Lewis, with Gustov, Ndbri with Matbacher, Kiprotich and Lequatre completing the Top 19.
But Khatunstev has faded away, so their is one Top 20 spot left for a D2 team to take. Its a sprint between Mangel and Pancake of Alstom, Wielinga of UPC and Vermeersch of Delhaize. Wielinga took the wheel of Pancake, but the Canadian is dead and Wielinga takes too long to realise it, making it a head to head between Mangel and Vermeersch and its the former Giro d'Italia stage winner Mangel who takes 20th place.
