After last day’s hilly finally, this time should be another chance for sprinters. The two 2nd category climbs near the end may prove to be launch pad for attacks, but it’s unexpected to see them escape the peleton and the mass sprint today. The favourites today should be Allan Davis, Nolan Hoffman, Mirko Lorenzetto and the leader, Simon Geschke.
Let’s begin the racing!
Two young talented riders form today’s break, it’s Dylan Van Baarle & Rohan Dennis.
They don’t contest the intermediate point, with Van Baarle crossing the line first ahead of Dennis. The story is different in the peleton where Allan Davis wins the sprint for 3rd ahead of Vaitkus and Geschke.
Metinvest-Emirates pace after the first point increased by some margin, and with 8km to another intermediate sprint, the gap is less than 40 seconds now.
Metinvest-Emirates pace helped to catch the break before the intermediate sprint. Allan Davis takes relatively easy win ahead of Vaitkus and Geschke.
13km later and we have a brave attacker! It’s Petter Renang that decides there’s no point anymore hiding in the peleton and goes off alone.
With 40km to go he crosses the first of the two 2nd category climbs with exactly 3 minute lead on the peleton. We have 27km to go to the second and last climb today.
The pace in the peleton is not surprisingly controlled mostly by both Hollister Procycling & Metinvest-Emirates, for Allan Davis and Nolan Hoffman respectively.
With 3km to go till the end of the 2nd climb we have three attackers from the peleton. It’s Ignas Konovalovas, Pavel Brutt & Michiel Elijzen are the attackers. They close the gap to Renang to just 27 seconds in few moments!
800 meters to go till we finish the climb and the 3 attackers join Renang. They have right now 28 seconds on the peleton, they will need to increase that soon if they want to have a chance of escaping the peleton. 15km to go.
The break goes over the top with Renang dropping to the peleton, Pavel Brutt wins the full points on offer, with Konovalovas on 2nd and Elijzen coming 3rd.
On the descent and it’s Sram – Riboxx that takes up to the front! Patrik Sinkewitz decides to have a half-hearted attack on the descent. 24 seconds is the gap with 12km left.
And the combined forces of Sram – Riboxx, Hollister Procycling & Metinvest-Emirates catch the break with 6km to go. Well timed catch.
Metinvest-Emirates creates the only sprint train today with Peter Kusztor on the front with 3km to the finish! Vitaliy Popkov is 2nd in line and Hoffman sits comfortable behind him. Allan Davis sits on Hoffman’s wheel, with Gatis Smukulis and Mirko Lorenzetto hanging around closely.
1.2km to go and it’s Popkov on the front giving perfect lead-out for his teammate. On the left coming from nowhere is the king of mountain jersey wearer Dietmar Mehr-Wenige flying right now! Gatis Smukulis won the fight for Hoffman’s wheel, with Allan Davis slightly blocked, he finds himself out of the main picture whosoever.
800 meters to go and while Hoffman can’t make any impact whatsoever on the surprisingly leading Dietmar Mehr-Wenige on the front, it’s the leader that makes massive acceleration coming from behind Mehr-Wenige and is looking like the fastest rider at the minute. Will he be able to overtake the German Champion though?
With ease! Simon Geschke is away from everyone! His acceleration has to be said like Cav-esque! He’s looking to take 4th win in a row for Rothaus here! What a record they are setting here. It’s Smukulis who is slowly overtaking both Mehr-Wenige & very disappointing today, Nolan Hoffman. Vasili Kiryenka is making move on the left behind Smukulis with Tendero following his wheel! Could Kireynka take few surprising bonus seconds here?
One of the easiest win by Geschke he’ll ever have. The margin is absolutely staggering. No – one was even close today. If Geschke continues with this form and grabbing those bonus seconds, he along Boom could possibly make it 1-2 in GC here.
Simon Geschke
Jesus Tendero
Vasili Kiryenka
Jérome Giaux
Gatis Smukulis
Nolan Hoffman
René Mandri
Allan Davis
Vitaliy Popkov
