Spain usually means sun, and today is not an exception. The weather is beautiful, giving the riders perfect conditions for today's race. The bookmakers hold Di Maggio Ben Nasser Cobo
as favourites for today's classic. Clearly, the bookmakers have faith in the puncheurs, as the profile is rated hilly, but what can pure climbers like Castaño Alarcon Niemiec
do?
We're ready to roll, all 84 riders should look forward to this race, racing in the region of Asturias.
It takes surprisingly "long" before we have our first attempt at a breakaway. But 10 kilometers into the race, Ortega Ignatenko Haavardsholm Afonso La Lavandier Montaña Ma
are the attackers. Interesting to see Haavardsholm representing Venchi in the breakaway, looks like they don't want to do much work at the front of the peloton today, despite having one of the favourites for the win in their team.
Team Bianchi Ferrari - ERG Aker Solutions - Bergans
are not happy to let Venchi slip away in the breakaway, and they reel them back.
But the 7 who attacked the first time don’t give up that easy. Only 4 kilometers later, they’re on fire again!
But they're caught. It's especially Bianchi and Aker Solutions who paces the peloton. It's said that all good things come in threes, and Ignatenko launches for the third time, after his first two attempts were caught. He's followed by Saldarragia Sastre
Quintana Ma La Lavandier Scholz Aru
decides this is a good move, and they launch an attack a few meters behind the front three.
With 130 kilometers to go, the 8 seem to have established themselves as the breakaway of the day. That's not good news for Ma, who gets dropped from the other 7 on a short and steep section of climbing. But the 7 riders in front need to continue their hard work, as their gap to the peloton is only about 1 minute.
As it looks like we've established the breakaway of the day, more riders want to be there. Antunes Martynenko Pietropolli
goes after them.
They are successful in catching the breakaway, and they also drag Ma back up in the process, which means we've 11 riders up front with 121 kilometers left of racing.
It looks like Cerne don’t have faith in Antunes up front, and Afonso
attacks away from the peloton. He’s followed by another rider who has tried his luck earlier; Haavardsholm
95km to go, and the climbing is about to start. It’s Scholz
who leads the breakaway onto today’s first major climb. But they will need to continue to push hard, as the peloton is chasing only 2 minutes back. Afonso and Haavardsholm have also made contact, and we’ve no less than 13 riders up front before the climbing starts. Is this another classic win for a breakaway?
Proximus obviously found out on the first climb of the day that Ma isn’t as strong as the other riders in the breakaway, and early on the first major climb of the day, De Maar attacks from the peloton. No one follows him, and he’s quickly starting to pull a gap back to the peloton.
And it only takes De Maar 3 kilometers of climbing to make contact with the breakaway. Strong ride from him, going 2 minutes faster than the front group on 3 kilometers!
Rast
recognized that De Maar's attack was successful, and he tries the same stunt as De Maar.
And just like De Maar, Rast only needs 3 kilometers to make contact with the breakaway, and with 86 kilometers left, it's 15 men up front, having 3 minutes on the peloton.
Not surprisingly, Ma Martynenko
loose contact with the breakaway as they’re close to the summit of today’s first, big climb.
Behind in the peloton, there's some drama two kilometers away from the summit. No else than Alarcon
hits the front, and he immediately creates a split. Only 4 other riders were alert to the sudden rise of pace in the peloton, they were: Schwab Agnoli Rovira & Duenas Nevado.
Have Aker Solutions pulled an early masterstroke here?
The 5 riders stay clear of the peloton on the following descent, and at the foot of the next big climb, the third last, Alarcon’s hard work has extended their lead over the peloton. They’ve caught Ma and Martynenko, and they’re 1’35 behind the breakaway, but 1’15 ahead of the peloton. But it’s sort of a weird tactic from Aker Solutions, as neither Rovira or Duenas Nevado helped Alarcon on the downhill, Alarcon is pushing the pace all on his own.
Grau Rovny
also wanted to follow Alarcon's move, but they were a bit late on the trigger. They're ahead of the peloton, but 40 seconds behind the group of 5.
Schwab
decides to help Alarcon on the climb, and him, Alarcon & Rovira
don’t need much of the climb to make contact with the breakaway, meaning there’s no less than 16 riders up front. Behind, Rovny and Grau have caught Duenas Nevado and Agnoli, they’re chasing the front group, being 1 minute behind with 70 kilometers left.
The peloton is chasing hard, meaning there's only 49 riders left in the peloton. The gap up to the front group is no more than 2 minutes 67 kilometers away from the finishing line. It's mainly Pirelli - Alfa Romeo
who's working well in the peloton, and they're helped by Bianchi and Vantornout
Bianchi clearly have strong faith in Cobo today, chasing their own rider, Scwhab, who's up front, together with Alarcon.
After the little flat midway on the third last climb, we’re back to climbing again, and Alarcon takes charge in the front group. Their lead is only 1’45 now, meaning the peloton are controlling this dangerous move well.
Bianchi really don’t want to let Schwab ride his own chances, now they sacrifice national champion Gil
to reel back the dangerous front group. It looks like they’re succeeding, as Gil is going faster than Alarcon at the front.
Eventhough Gil went faster than Alarcon on the climb, it didn’t mean that Alarcon went slow. Over the top, only 4 riders are together at the front, they’re Alarcon & Rovira Saldarragia De Maar
But their lead is only 1’40, and there’s a long descent before next climb on the menu. It looks like they've been too aggressive, as Bianchi is really controlling things well.
But the 4 up front aren't giving up, and they've used the descent well. It’s Alarcon and De Maar who’s doing all the work, Rovira and Saldarragia aren’t helping at all. But their lead is now 3’20, and Alarcon again takes the lead in the group, as we’re starting the penultimate climb.
Back in the peloton, there seems to be full agreement between the teams with the biggest favourites, as they’re all working. But they're starting to run short of time and kilometers. With 40 kilometers left, they're still 3'20 behind the front 4.
Up front, Alarcon’s pace on the climb forces Saldarragia to let the others go, meaning there’s only 3 men left in front now. Behind in the peloton, Gil is at the front again, hoping to do the same as he did on the previous climb; climb faster than Alarcon.
Only 1 kilometer after Saldarragia is dropped, Alarcon says goodbye to De Maar and Rovira aswell. He's facing 35 kilometers of solo racing, where 30 of them are downhill and flat. The gap back to the peloton, led by Bianchi, is 3'45 over the summit of the penultimate climb, meaning they should be able to control Alarcon on the long, flat run-in to the final climb.
20 kilometers to go, and Team Bianchi
continues to push the pace in the peloton. They're also helped by Pirelli - Alfa Romeo
who's trying to set up their climber, Castaño, for the win on the final climb. But the two teams aren't working hard enough! Alarcon's lead has extended to more than 4 minutes, and there's only 16 kilometers left for him. He shouldn't be able to loose this.
And with 6 kilometers to go for the peloton, 2.5 kilometers before they hit the final climb, they catch Saldarragia. Some of the favourites try to use the final flat kilometers as a launchpad for their attacks, and it's Zaballa
who launches an attack. He's followed by Niemiec Ben Nasser
Zaballa's acceleration doesn't last long, and it's only Niemiec and Ben Nasser who manage to get a small gap on the rest of the favourites. But it looks like it's only desperate attacks, as Alarcon is still way ahead of them, still holding a lead of 3'30 as he starts the final 3500 meters with climbing.
3500 meters of climbing left for the peloton, and Castaño
immediately hits the front, looking to pace as hard as possible on the whole climb.
But Castaño isn't only motoring, with 3100 meters to go, he attacks from the front of the peloton. Kolobnev Roux Weening
try to follow him, and they're the only ones who is following Castaño's attack.
But Castaño is superb, he blasts past Niemiec and Ben Nasser, no one is able to follow him. There's 2.3 kilometers to go for him, meaning he has climbed 1200 meters. And he has reduced the gap to Alarcon with a lot on the first 1200 meters of the climb. he's "only" 2'40 behind now, meaning he has climbed 1'30 faster than Alarcon so far. Could he catch him?
Cobo
has finally started to move. He catches Ben Nasser and Niemiec with 1900 meters left, but he's 23 seconds behind Castaño. The other favourites aren't far behind either, they're all flying this final climb, compared to Alarcon at the front.
But Alarcon is under the 1 kilometer banner now, and his win looks secured. He has limited his losses on the final climb, with 900 meters left, his lead is just below 2 minutes.
Castaño
also looks safe in 2nd place. He's still going faster than the trio behind. He's now 45 healthy seconds ahead of Cobo, Niemiec and Ben Nasser.
With 1000 meters to go, it's Cobo
who leads the sprint for 3rd. Niemiec Ben Nasser
are locked on his wheel, but it’s De la Fuente
who’s sprinting fastest. He has bridged up to the other 3, and he’s looking to challenge for the last podium place.
Alarcon
can start to celebrate early. He concludes an amzing solo ride with victory.
Behind, Cobo
bounces back in the sprint for 3rd. He's holding the fastest bike in the fight for 3rd, gapping the other 3.
Castaño
crosses the line in 2nd place, only 1'19 behind Alarcon. He climbed almost 3 minutes faster than Alarcon on the final climb, gapping all the favourites by a lot. Extremely strong ride by him!
Cobo
takes the final spot on the podium, after a strong sprint, leaving Niemiec, De la Fuente and Ben Nasser in the dust.
But no need to be disappointed for any of the 3, Niemiec takes 4th, De la Fuentes gives Bianchi two riders in the top 5, and Ben Nasser ends 6th.
Weening is 7th, ahead of Kolobnev in 8th, and Di Maggio in 9th. Gil concludes his strong work with a 10th place, giving Bianchi 3 riders in the top 10. A strong performance from the German team.
But it's Alarcon who smiles the most, as his solo stunt paid off, meaning he can celebrate on the podium.
