Quite a few hills for a flat rated race as also the uphill finish. So sprinters with good climbing skills will definitely have an advantage. Also attacks by some puncheurs could work well. In especially Gazelle, Air Kenya and Sauber might try last one.
Some riders didn`t even pass the start line and we already have a first attacker. Kochetkov tries to ride away. Die Berg Komt Er with an interesting tactic as Duque and Rizza were seen as one of the top duos here.
He is joined by 3 more riders making it a succesful breakaway attempt quite early in the race. Kochetkov Jiriakov Howson Hatsuyama
So also Sutton has decided to send a guy into todays break while the other 2 teams won`t have much other chances.
Mobil - Castrol and Evian - MIAT with the early work in the peloton. No rush yet as the 4 look to be controllable.
We reach the early Mur. More than 15% on some parts here and actually not the shortest one. In comparison to the famous Mur de Huy or Mur de Bretagne this one is clearly the most difficult.
In the peloton Oz took over from Evian and shares the work with Mobil now.
This has the simple reason that Evian`s Avenir punctured in the wrong moment.
Avenir is already back in the peloton when the next favourite has a problem. Torckler crashes with 160km to go. So enough time for him to come back but more important will be if he is injured or not.
Together with some team mates he is also back in the peloton. Seeing that Murray also went back to him, it`s quite obvious who is their leader today.
Still the same 3 teams working in the peloton. With 115km the maximum of 7'30 is reached and now going slowly back again.
Evian is chasing with a few of their sprinters. So Sonnery and Averin are surely their only leaders today.
With 73km left the gap is under 5min and it started to rain heavily. Hopefully we won`t see more crashes.
30km later and the gap is down to 2'50. Everything looks like a sprint finish today.
Oz stopped their work at the front realizing that Drapac isn`t the top favourite today.
The asphalt is dry here but still we see another nasty crash. Delgerbayar goes down in the first rows but luckily all riders can avoid a bigger crash.
But for some weird reason 4/6 Oz riders fall back to support him to come back. Seriously? He is probably their weakest rider in todays line-up.
This leaves Drapac pretty alone in the peloton with only Phelan on his side.
The peloton became immediately a lot less colourful with 5 Oz riders less.
But more interesting the first attack. Nardin tries it with 30km left. Weening`s team mate was actually seen as solid rider for the uphill finish so it is surprising that they don`t do it the other way around.
Immediately Die Berg Komt Er is chasing hard although one of their riders is still in the breakaway. But Nardin looks too dangerous for them.
10km later Nardin joined the breakaway but the gap is down to 55s.
And all five of them are caught within the next kilometers. It starts to become very interesting now with the sprinters trying to come to the front.
Evian-MIAT and Mobil-Castrol with a 4 rider train each. Magna`s Belletti and Demare were the smartest of the rest hanging on both of them, so one of them might have a very good chance.
Petit
Roman
Coquard
Eefting
Averin
Mora
Sonnery
Dall'Antonia
Belletti
Demare
Sutton
Duque
Nardin
Brammeier
Rizza
Other sprinters like Baumann, Speirs, Abakoumov or Torckler are just behind these without really having contact to the train.
More is doing an excellent job bringing Dall'Antonia into a perfect position. Beforehead the Evian train was stronger and had a bike length advance. Sutton realizes this and switches behind Demare while Duque and Nardin left this train.
1,6km left and Dall'Antonia leaves Mora`s wheel to go the long sprint. Behind Demare and Sutton in the perfect position. Also Averin is starting the sprint with Sonnery just behind.
Sonnery waited another 300m before he accelerated. Rizza and Duque are next to him while the first three already have a small gap.
Neither Demare nor Sutton were able to go around the Italian, who already has a nice gap. Therefore Sonnery is coming fast from behind.
Sutton and Rizza are slowly losing contact to the top sprinters. Dall'Antonia is still leading with Sonnery almost reaching Demare. Also Belletti and Duque are still fighting for a good result.
But no one is beating Dall'Antonia today. With a 8s gap he wins the Emerald Race 2013. Well done.
Sonnery with a nice finish comes in 2nd ahead of the Magna duo Demare and Belletti. Duque and first Aissie Sutton as 6th are coming next.
Behind Rizza, Brammeier and Ortega, Mora finishes still as 10th and celebrates as if it was his win. And actually he totally changed the situation 2-3km ago, when Evian looked unbeatable. Very strong performance by him.
Weening as 12th takes at least a few points in a race not absolutely suiting him. Drapac (20.) and Baumann (37.) surely will do better on the flatter races. In especially Oz Cycling probably had hoped for more but couldn`t fulfill their expectations and made some strange tactical decisions today.
