The hard climbs along the route will certainly make sure that the distance wont be the only difficulty in the race. Who'll wrap up the last monument of the year, and thus also win the last real race on the calendar?
Schleck Bakelants Cunego
are the main favourites in the bookmarkers. It's very hard to predict though, since anything can happen in a race this long. Let's just jump to the action!
It seems like most of the remaining riders wants to join as well though, and a ton of attacks succeed each other.
The number of riders in front of the main field soon exceeds Vesuvio's acceptance level, and they quickly send up several riders chasing. It's all back together soon afterwards.
The extreme attacking continues all the way to the first major climb of the day, over fifty km into the race. And the pounces just continue to fly.
It starts to get too hard to attack once the climb's gradient starts to rise though. A group of twelve breaks free at last, and builds up a two-minute advantage over the easing peloton. The names:
Javier Moreno Arkaitz Durán Matej Vysna Wout Poels Johann Tschopp Christoph Mai Chiaffredo Grippo Tim Kennaugh Behnam Khalilikhosroshani Rafael RodrÃguez Segarra Luis Fernández Oliveira Enrico Franzoi
and later also Sten Stenersen, who joins on the way down.
By the time the leaders reach the second serious climb of the day, their advantage has increased to over eight minutes, and still counting. More than 100 kilometres remaining however, so no reason to worry at all.
The chase is picked up down on the flat, and at the foot of the mythical Ghisallo climb, the leading group is just 4'40 ahead. They seem to have realized that their lead is slipping away from them though, since the pace significantly increases. Franzoi and Stenersen are unhitched immediately.
Just a couple of minutes later, the main field also arrive at Ghisallo. One rider completely misjudges the turn up towards the climb and goes down. Surely it can't be... It is! Robert Gesink is down at a very critical moment!
The whole Jack Wolfskin squad drops back to the Dutchman and paces him back on the lower slopes of the Ghisallo. The absolute back of the group is a bad place to be in such a crucial phase though!
Meanwhile at the other end of the main field, Velits and Panayotov are drilling the pace, and the peloton is shattered to pieces. Around 50 riders stay in contact, while the rest are dropped.
Gesink has obviously not made it up yet and is sitting in one of the last groups, while also Alexander Efimkin and Thomas Dekker are missing from the favourite group!
The leaders reach the top of Madonna del Ghisallo in the meantime. They're just 2'25 ahead of the Pearl-controlled favourite group, whilst the unlucky Gesink is almost six minutes back!
Vesuvio takes over most of the work from Pearl after the top of the climb and the distance up to the breakaway is reduced even more quickly. It's down to just 1'15 just before the beginning of the Civiglio ascent.
This is where the action starts, as Taylor Phinney decides it's to time to go! Stefan Schumacher and Yuri Trofimov tag along to the attack.
The three strong men catches the leaders in no time at all, and distances their main rivals by 45 seconds in the process. Vesuvio are really hammering the pace in the second group though.
The catch is made just as they switch from the wide, flat, nice roads to the steep and narrow way up towards Civiglio. This definitely wasn't the ideal time, since several favourites lose position from this.
Riccardo Ricco makes it through well, and he immediately starts to create problems for those caught behind by bouncing off!
Trofimov is the first to set off in pursuit, and quickly gains around thirty seconds as well. Damiano Cunego doesn't intend to let them go tho!
Cunego's acceleration blows the big group to pieces. Only Bakelants, Schleck, Schumacher, Phinney and golden domestique Iglinski manages to stay in contact. The last two really has to dig deep.
Velits a second small chasing group a few hundred metres behind. In this group also Valverde, Ponzi, Caruso, Abal, Ben Nasser, Hoogerland and Ulissi, who is dangling at the back.
Ricco holds on over the top of the climb, leading Trofimov by 16 seconds, the Schleck group by 40s, Valverde & co by 1'05 and a third group including Sella, Pozzato, Gilbert, Van Garderen, Sinkewitz and Hagen by 2'00. A clearly injured Gesink is 6'15 behind.
The first two chasing groups melt into one on the way down to Como, with only Velits dropping off near the top. Cunego descends very fast and creates a little gap together with Trofimov, Phinney and Ponzi. The others doesn't lose anymore than 20s though.
The four escapees are caught early on the San Fermo climb, and the paces drops a little. This allows Daniel Martin and Robin van der Hugenhaben to latch on to the back of the group.
Not for long however, as Cunego accelerates again, once again shattering the group completely. Even Schumacher cracks, together with an amazing Iglinski and Ulissi.
Just moments later, Schleck unleashes all his power in one brutal attack! Cunego and Bakelants both respond, but not with ease!
Cunego seems to have blown up, as he sits up and gets passed by Bakelants, who looks to be the only one capable of responding to this ferocious attack.
Apparently it was just a bluff from Cunego, who catches up with Bakelants and Schleck just as they pass over the top of the climb.
A very strong Phinney goes over the top in fourth, around half a minute behind the leading trio. Along with him also Valverde, Trofimov and Ponzi.
Daniel Martin follows even further behind, leading a group with Van der Hugenhaben, Schumacher, Hagen, Ricco, Iglinski and Ulissi.
The front trio plays cat and mouse games in the descent, but when Phinney's group is almost upon them, Schleck panics and launches an early sprint. The other two quickly moves onto his wheel.
Bakelants charges into the lead inside the final kilometer, with Cunego clearly waiting for the absolute last moment to make his jump for the line.
And at the line, Cunego just about comes up alongside Bakelants and beats him by a centimeter or two in an incredibly close photofinish! The Italian was definitely the smartest in the finale of the race, saving his energy for the right moment! A disappointed Schleck follows in third.
Ponzi sprints clear of the second group to take an excellent fourth place for Wiggle, with Valverde as fifth, an amazingly strong Phinney in sixth and Trofimov taking seventh.
Ricco probably burned his energy a bit too early, by going so hard on the penultimate climb. At least he grabs 8th place, outgunning Hagen and a pretty disappointing Schumacher in the sprint from the next group.
Belgian champion Gilbert really didn't have a good day and never even got into contention. He finishes alongside Sella and Ghisalberti, 40 seconds behind team mate Martin.
Sinkewitz is even worse. The German cuts the line as 33rd, almost four minutes behind the day's winner, in a group with domestiques like Burghardt and Panayotov. Disastrous result for the Spyker team.
The biggest loser of all, Gesink, finishes eleven minutes down. The fall must've hurt him badly, since his team mates dropped him on the climbs when trying to pace him back. Really bad luck for JW team.
