A tough hilly classic, which is underlined by the bookmakers. They're holding Nicolas Roche as the biggest favourite, thanks to his combination of being able to perform well on both mountains and hills. The bookmakers also fancy Di Maggio Ben Nasser
for the win. The home crowd will certainly cheer for Di Maggio, but Pozzovivo is also a good bet for an Italian win today.
The weather conditions are excellent, no wind to speak about, and the sun shines on the riders. Only 12 teams decided to race this race, meaning we're only having 84 riders in the peloton, which probably is favourable for aggressive riders.
Immediately, we get the first attack of the day. Afonso Matzbacher Cominelli Khatuntsev Nadiradze
are the 5 who try early. Especially wild card team Armavia seems pumped up for this race, being in the very first move of the day. They clearly want to show themselves in this race.
Vespa, Venchi and Pirelli aren't happy to let them go, and they quickly start the chase. And they succeed, after a 15 kilometers long chase, they're brought back.
Nadiradze
isn't done, and launches another attack with 151 kilometers to the finish line. He's followed by Matzbacher Ignatenko Antunes Speirs Polanc
They're allowed a decent gap back to the peloton, and it looks like they will form the break of the day.
But Venchi has a weird tactic here, as they're clearly not happy with only having Speirs up front. Cimolai
launches our next wave. He's followed by Pietropolli Cohen Flaksis Maesen & Van Den Eynde
It’s interesting to see that all teams that had a pre-race favourite try to send their riders in an early move. Maybe an early move will be decisive? Bpost has been doing well so far, and they've got 3 men up front now.
Pirelli realizes the danger in such a big group, and they don't want to have Flaksis as their only option for a good result here, so they pick up the chase, and after a while, they succeed in catching them.
125 kilometers raced, and a breakaway has finally been allowed to form. The lucky escapees are Matzbacher Speirs Antunes Andersen Flaksis Stolz & Cohen Sarkisov Van Den Eynde
Armavia must be happy, they've succeeded in having a man up front. It's also interesting to see that Flaksis now is allowed to go, after his own team chased down his first attempt.
The 9 riders up front quickly gain 3 minutes to the peloton, then Maesen Cominelli Anguilet
decide it's time to attack. T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft is the main chaser behind in the peloton, but they're happy to also allow those 3 riders clear.
The three riders make the catch with 110 kilometers left, meaning we have a group of 12 up front. Bpost and Proximus - Trek both have 2 men in the group.
Maesen leads the breakaway over the first difficulty of the race, their lead is 3’48, and growing.
With 90 kilometers left, Busche
finds out he should have been in the front group, and he attacks. No one follows him, and he can prepare himself for a long, solo chase.
T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft and Venchi don't fear Busche, and only 3 kilometers after his attack, he has gapped the peloton with a good minute. Will this be one of those days you should have been in the breakaway to win?
Santambrogio
thinks highly of Busche's attack, and he goes after him, hoping they can surprise the peloton.
Busche needs no more than 17 kilometers to join the breakaway, their gap down to the peloton is 4 minutes, Santambrogio is in between, 1'45 behind the front group.
Bono
is keen to be in the front group aswell, he attacks from the peloton with 70 kilometers left. T.CS Bank - OJSC Rosneft and Venchi are still looking happy on the front of the peloton, and Bono quickly gains a minute.
Up front, Santambrogio joins forces with the 13 men up front, their gap is still growing, slowly, but steadily. Their lead is 4'46 with 60 kilometers to the finish line.
Bono manages to join the front aswell, meaning we have 15 men up front with only 47 kilometers left. Their gap starts to look threatening, 4'06 is their lead. Who's going to chase behind?
De Greef
leads the peloton onto today’s major difficulty. The peloton has started to stretch, the gap is 3’44 with 45 kilometers left of racing.
It doesn't take much of the climb before the breakaway splits. Santambrogio, Bono, Matzbacher, Antunes, Angulet, Andersen and Busche proves to be the strongest in the group, and they pull away from the others.
Behind, De Greef is doing some amazing work. It only takes 1800 meters of the climb before he forces a split, and only 8 riders manage to keep up with De Greef. The 9 riders that have pulled clear from the rest of the bunch are De Greef, Vanendert & Vansummeren Iannetti, Roche & Cheula Di Maggio, Aru & Reda
A magnificent pace from De Greef! Suddenly, 3 teams got a huge advantage, now they only need to co-operate well, and it should be hard for the other favourites to catch them. Behind those 9, it's Passalacqua
who desperately tries to close the gap for his captain, Pozzovivo. But the gap is growing, De Greef is flying!
Back to the very front of the race, and the 3 late attackers have pulled clear of the others. Bono, Santambrogio and Busche haven't given up on the win, not yet. Santambrogio is doing most of the pacing, he knows he has no captain behind that can give the team a good result, meaning he's Ferrari's only chance for a good result.
De Greef continues his incredible pace, and the group is soon down to 5. De Greef & Vanendert Di Maggio Iannetti & Roche
continue to gain time on the rest of the peloton. With 1 kilometer to the top of the climb, their gap is 1'08. De Greef is about to catch all the breakaway riders, except for the front 3.
Behind, Ben Nasser De la Fuente & Gil
are desperate in their chase. Their chase is incredibly strong, and they're leaving Pozzovivo Kolobnev Froome
behind.
Over the top, and De Greef is still pacing well. Ben Nasser and the duo from Bianchi follow next, 46 seconds behind. But De Greef should be an empty box soon, after all his hard work on the climb. Will Roche, Di Maggio and Vanendert start to co-operate then?
The answer is a clear NO, combined with a strong chase from Appleby
the favourites are all together again, with only 29 kilometers left of the race. The trio up front is still going strong though, their gap is 1'55 down to the group led by Appleby.
With 19 kilometers left, the favourite group is down to 12. They are Froome Di Maggio Weening Roche Ben Nasser Vantornout, De la Fuente & Gil De Greef & Vanendert Pozzovivo Kolobnev
Bianchi shows once again that their team is strong, being the only team with 3 riders in this strong group. Question is, can they finally take advantage of it? They've failed to do just that in a couple of races so far this season, is this the turning point?
With only 15 kilometers left, on the third last hill (including the uphill sprint), Vanendert
attacks, determined to make De Greef's strong work all day worth something. Di Maggio
is the only one who follows, and when Vanendert stops his attack, Di Maggio continues. But he sees the top of the hill in front of him, and he stops his attack then. At least their attacks mean the 3 brave riders up front gets caught.
The catch of Bono, Santambrogio and Busche means we have 15 riders that will fight it out for the win. How many of them decides that the finishing sprint is their best shot at victory?
6600 meters to go, on the final hill of the day (except the sprint), Ben Nasser controls things at the back of the group. It's Iannetti who sets the pace, and everyone looks like they're saving themselves for a decisive sprint.
But over the top, 5 riders attack! Pozzovivo Gil Roche Vanendert Di Maggio
are their names, and with 5000 meters to go, they've a gap of 28 seconds.
Pozzovivo Vanendert
are the strongest of the 5, and they're gapping the 3 others, who gets caught by the rest of the favourites. But it looks like they're coming late for Pozzovivo and Vanendert. With 3600 meters, they're holding a good lead of 21 seconds.
The sprint starts with 1500 meters to go, and there's no time to waste for Pozzovivo and Vanendert. They immediately start the sprint, side by side, head to head. One of them is looking like the certain race winner.
Hitting the steepest section of this uphill sprint, Vanendert proves strongest, and he's going faster than Pozzovivo, soon able to see the finishing line.
But behind, Di Maggio is flying, he clearly hasn’t given up on the victory. He’s storming to the line! But did he start his sprint too late?
Yes, he has, and Vanendert can celebrate the victory! He finished Bpost’s great work in a perfect way. Pozzovivo follows in second.
Di Maggio is a clear 3rd, while Roche follows in 4th.
Then Weening sprints home for fifth, ahead of De la Fuente in sixth, and Ben Nasser in seventh.
Kolobnev, Gil, Busche, Froome and Vantornout follows next, for the places 8th - 12th.
De Greef can celebrate both Vanendert's win, and his brilliant work. He ends the stage as 13th. Santambrogio claims 14th.
