The riders set off in the shadow of table mountain, with Gasparotto, Ciolek and Bennati official favourites for todays race.
7 riders form our break of the day: Coutinho, Likhaya, Locatelli, Viennet, Wei, McConnel and Williams
With 63km to go Rapha have kept the break at a minute, and Sambris tries to attack across the gap
He does so easily on the days major obsticle, while Wei has to let go
Over the next climb Sambris piles on the pressure, and only McConnel, Likhaya and Locatelli can stay with him
All 8 come back together on the descent
Nordhaug and Murakami now attack
45km to go and Gasparotto puts in a little dig
Bennati attacks to join him, what are Puma doing???
Now Rovira goes, Rapha have been on the front the whole day, but are they starting to loose control?
With 40km to go Rovira joins the Puma pair, the gaps between the groups are all about a minute
Wei is again left behind, has he saved some energy to help his leader?
30km to go and Wei si back with the break, with 3 climbs left to ride, and Sambris having done most of the work
40 seconds back are Nordhaug and Murakami
Puma's bizarre strategists are next, 1'37" off the lead, but still with a minute on the Rapha controlled peloton
Up the routes steepest climb Nordhaug and Mirakami join the leaders, and both have a man up here to help them
Sambris is having a monster day though, and he splits off the front taking the two attackers, plus Williams and Likhaya with him.
Gasparotto pulls up to the rest of the break over the top
While Rapha seem to be running out of steam and can't close the gap
Aker Solutions are backing Rovira over Nordhaug, as Viennet tries to pull the lead 5 back
Red Bull tire of waiting for Rapah, as Jelloul and Mori attack, Delage joins in, the peloton are 2'16" back with 25km to go, so it's not over yet
The pace clearly isn't slow, as the peloton has snapped in half, Kvist and Santos are the best sprinters to miss out
Rabon joins the attack
The next climb sees Gasparotto get himself and Benatti up to the lead group, have Puma played a masterstroke here?
The peloton are fighting for this now, and while the Red Bull attack was neutralised, Claeys and Mandri are now attacking, with Rabon following them
20km to go and lets try and sort out who is where.
First we have 6 leaders, Sambris, Gasparotto, Bennati, Murakami, Rovira and Nordhaug.
37 seconds later, Likhaya and Williams
Then come Claeys and Mandri, who have just caught a well placed Locatelli, exactly a minute off our 6 leaders
44 seconds further back, Rabon is elading the 20 man peloton, of which Sonnery is the best sprinter
Up the final 14% climb the chasers are all pulled back, and the leaders have just 1 minutes advantage
Murakami puts in a massive effort to try and dislodge Bennati from the lead group, and almost succeeds, still one more chance to get rid of him, and then they just need to worry about Gasparotto. Puma's insanity may turn out to be a masterstroke
the 14 man Peloton is now small enough for me to name completely,
Claeys, Rabon, Rooijakekrs, Locatelli (Bianchi) who are now really pushing on
Bellis, Teklit (Rapha) Bellis has had his team on the front all day and is yet to poke his nose into the wind. Does he have what it takes?
Mori, Vorganov, Jelloul (Red Bull) 3 guys with a decent kick on them, will be a threat if they still have the legs after their earlier attacks
Delage (Puma) can aford to wait
Likhaya (Saab) dead
Mandri, Williams (Cyclevox) a top ten would be an excellent result from here for them
Martineez (Hollister) has had to do nothing all day, could be a threat if the 1'24" gap is closed n the final 16km
Bianchi are swarming at the front
While Rovira and Nordhaug are working hard up front, this will be touch and go
Bellis explodes off the front of the peloton, Rabon tries to follow
12,5km to go and in 2500m Bellis has put 40 seconds into the peloton, and is but a minute off the lead, Rabon is in no mans land behind Bellis
despite Rabon being off the front, Bianchi are chasing. Does Claeys have one more attack in him up the final kick
Red Bull move forwards in the peloton as Rooijakkers good work means Bellis comes back into range
Now Mori tries to attack
Under the 10km banner at the top of the final hill and Murakami has again tried to drop Bennatti, a gap has appeared, will Benatti manage to close it on the descent
Mori gets up to Bellis and Rabon, but Claeys comes flying past them all
Bellis tries to follow him
Up front Bennati is struggling, if he can grab hold of a wheel as it goes past he may not be out of this race though.
Nordhaug makes his move, and with Gasparotto waiting for Bennati, Murakami has to chase
with 5km to go his gap is 25 seconds
The impetus has gone out of the chasing leaders, as 11 riders have come back together and no one wants to drag Bellis to the finish.
Sambris is working hard now to catch Nordhaug, just 20 seconds is the gap
3km to go and Nordhaug seems to be pedalling squares, the gaps come down by another 5 seconds
The chasers have picked up Bennati, but it's between the lead 5 now
2km to go and Gasparotto looses Sambris' wheel, Murakami moves forwards as Nordhaug is left to hang
No one wants to make the catch and have they left it to late? Gasparotto now moves forwards
Gasparotto has to sprint now, but Nordhaug still has a decent gap
Sambris moves into second, but Nordhaug is hanging on
Here comes Sambris, he has been amazingly strong today. In fact all 5 of these guys have impressed me
Nordhaug is clinging to the lead
but can't quite hold on, Sambris judged his efforts to perfection today, making his move on the hardest hill, making everyone work hard to catch him, then forcing Gasparotto to lead out the sprint before jumping away to victory, what a ride.
Rovira passes Gasparotto to give Aker a second man on the podium, while Murakami's massive efforts to drop Benatti on the hills only give him 5th
Bellis unsurprisingly wins the sprint for 6th, ahead of Claeys and Rabon, with Mori 9th and Mandri ronding out the top 10.
