The first full stage of the Tour of Swaziland begins with a rolling course on an overcast day. Przemyslaw Niemiec is our leader, and Ferrari will seek to protect his jersey until we head into the mountains. While the stage is rated as flat, we must also expect the breakaway to have a fair shot at the win, due to the numerous hills throughout the course. While there is no clear favorite amongst the sprinters, the top 3 predictions are for Rizza Abdallah
and Di Nucci
Realizing the chances of success, the first attack comes from Aaron Gate. He is followed by Lukasz Bodnar and Carlos Verona.
The peloton have decided to let them go, and we reach the first sprint, which Gate takes ahead of Verona and then Bodnar. At this point, they have pulled out the gap to 3'30".
The breakaway reaches the dirt roads that mark the base of the first categorized climb with a lead of 6'15". There is 108km remaining.
Gate beats his companions once again to take 10 points. Verona takes 8, and Bodnar takes 6.
The peloton crosses 6'30" later led by Ferrari, with 93km remaining. Sterbini takes 4 points, and his team mate Gerardi rolls over the top to take the final 2 points. They have begun to up the pace.
On the second climb, Gate takes the points once again (6), ahead of Bodnar (4), while Verona (2) is losing contact in the rain.
The peloton, still led by Ferrari, crosses with a gap of 5'30".
The gap keeps falling with Ferrari's pace, and it is now down to 3'15" with 53km left to race. Not really looking good for the boys up the road.
Haddou's chase is so painfully close. They have been around 30 seconds off the back for the past 20 kilometers.
Haddou does catch up, but right after he makes contact Massimo Iannetti makes his move. He has 37km to make up a gap of 1'45" to the breakaway, and Ferrari is still setting an infernal pace behind.
Iannetti holds a 45" gap to the peloton as he approaches the breakaway on the slopes of the final categorized hill.
Just as Iannetti makes contact, Gate launches an attack.
Verona is dropped as Iannetti pushes the pace to catch Gate. The gap has opened slightly, as they now have 1'35" on the peloton.
As Iannetti approaches Gate's wheel, it is now Bodnar who begins to tail off.
The peloton is taking this seriously now as Jayco - Red Bull sends a couple of big guns to the front in Moinard and Vorganov.
Iannetti has caught Gate and now attacks over the top of the climb to take 6 KoM points. Gate will definitely take the jersey though at the end of the day. Bodnar takes the final 2 points. The Gate and Iannetti now have 2 minutes on the peloton with 23km remaining. This is going to be close.
Iannetti decides to go it alone, though, as Gate finds himself unable to follow his wheel. Verona has been caught by the raging peloton, and Bodnar is doing everything he can to bring himself up to Gate's wheel.
More riders are dropped, with Haddou being furthest back. I guess you could say he has Haddounough of these hills. Gavazzi is dropped also, and his team has sent.... Oh no... its Matteo Carrara. Questionable tactics here.
Iannetti continues to power on alone. He has just crossed the final intermediate sprint with 1'00" on Gate and Bodnar, and 1'45" on the peloton. He has 15km to go. Still close, but he is just edging out of the magical ratio...
And the furious pace set by Jayco - Red Bull has caused a split in the peloton. No GC favorites are caught out, but many of the sprinters have been, including Di Nucci, Abdallah, Chacon, and Rizza. Also here is 3rd overall Ian Stannard.
The leaders all come to the front of the peloton, but instead of the pace upping as one might expect, it seems that they all came to the front to soft pedal. Here is Gadret, Eltink, Niemiec, Alarcon, and Krasnoperov. The slow pace has allowed the peloton to re-form after the split.
Iannetti's chances now look a lot better, as the slowing pace has allowed him to increase his lead to 2'30". Now it looks like he has a very real shot at taking yellow, but he needs to win by 45".
Gate is right in the middle, at 1'20" behind the lone leader, with Bodnar still at 20" behind him.
Rapha Condor have come to the front now for their sprinter Cherif Abdallah. The peloton is flying once again.
They pull back the remnants of the initial breakaway with 4.5km remaining, but the Pirelli man is still up ahead.
He approaches the 1 kilometer banner with a gap of 2'15". Its in the bag!
Vorganov leads the peloton at 2km to go. Jiriakov is on his right, and Maisto is on his left. Moreno is also up there, as well as Abdallah, Haedo, and Eltink.
But here it is! Iannetti Ian-nets his team a well-deserved win today. Will he take the GC lead as well?
The situation is exactly the same as before in the peloton with Vorganov still leading the sprint. Sonnery, however, is moving up very fast on the right.
Still very similar inside the final kilometer, with Vorganov, Sonnery, and Moreno pulling ahead with Jiriakov in tow. We can see green jersey wearer Tennant contesting the sprint as well.
But the slight uphill seems to suit Moreno the best, and he takes 2nd ahead of his team mates Sonnery (3rd), and Vorganov (4th). A great showing from Jayco, but their manager has to be kicking himself that they didn't pull back Iannetti to make it 1-2-3.
Jiriakov holds on for 5th, while Haedo takes 6th, Eltink comes in 7th, Kairelis finishes 8th, race leader Niemiec takes 9th, and Bono rounds out the top-10. The timer reads 1'35", so it looks like
Iannetti will be our new race leader. Niemiec's time in yellow was short lived, but perhaps they intentionally let it go to save the team for the mountains.
Matteo Carrara seems to have lost the most on the day, as he crosses the line around 3 minutes back. Very disappointing as he would have been a real contender for the overall. Although maybe now he will be able to go for a breakaway in the mountains to make up his lost time.
But the race turned out to be as unpredictable as was suspected. The winners here were Pirelli who flew the coop to take the lead, and Jayco - Red Bull, who demonstrated the strength of their team by taking 1st, 2nd, and 3rd from the field sprint. Iannetti is no slouch when it comes to the hills though, and it will be interesting to see how well he can defend his lead, or even if his team will, as Pirelli also have Saldarriaga in a competitive position, and he is quite a bit better in the mountains.
And this was one of them that I failed to export, so sorry about that.
