Welcome to the Halfords Tour Series in Manchester. Today is the first of four criteriums and we start with a flat city circuit.
Favourites are the sprinters and there we mainly have to watch the non British teams. Speirs, Bennett, Westling, Jorgensen and Friedman might be the biggest favourites while the Brits surely hope for a surprise from their home sprinters Barclay, Opie or McEvoy.
Typical for a criterium are the never ending attacks.
Appleby (IG Sigma)
Warbasse (Sram)
Squire (ANC)
Downey (Aviva)
Lewis (Kenda)
with the first try.
But all the new attacks and high pace changed the situation with every kilometer. We are almost at the race half and still no breakaway was able to survive more than one lap. Right now there are two trios ahead of the bunch.
Lindau (Cykel), Rowsell (Raleigh), Kennaugh (Pendletons) with a 36s gap to Page (IG Sigma), Lindgren (Cykel) and O`Brien (Aviva) and another 41s to the peloton.
Hampton (Raleigh), Duggan (Sram), Cassidy (Ireland) and Boivin (Chipotle) are the next with attacks out of the peloton making it a total of 10 riders ahead of the peloton at the moment with ~30s gaps in between each group.
Huge crash now in the peloton. Lots of sprinters in there as well like Friedman, Kwok, Galle, Ahlstrand, Westling, Young or Barclay. This obviously halfs the favourites and in especially the Swedish duo Ahlstrand/Westling won`t have chances to get a result today. Bad luck for these teams, better chances for the breakaway on the other hand.
With 15km to go we have a new overview and it`s quite a mix at the moment.
McEvoy
Page
Olsson
Cassidy
Andersson
Wiggins
Lindgren
30 riders
Clifford
Brammeier
Kennaugh
Crash
<54s>
13 riders
<32s>
Downey
<38s>
Deignan
<40s>
Hampton
Group
Bennett
Duggan
Cummings
Speirs
Boivin
O`Brien
Rollin
Rowsell
Jorgensen
Lindau
Klostergaard
Opie
King
Cleaver
Behind Team Denmark is doing the work trying to catch the group to have best chances in the sprint with Jorgensen.
But it won`t become easier as the two firsts group fusioned and so 15 riders are in front with more than 1 min. It seems as if this will be the winning group.
Opie and Brammeier surely the best sprinters in there. Pendletons and Raleigh with three riders in there each. The home crowd`s chances for a British winner is much better now.
2km left and more than 1'40 for them. Boivin in the worst position at the front of the group. Also strange to see that Brammeier is leading out his team mates instead of the other way around. Do they already plan to take the Halfords GC win with this surprising result today?
800m left and still Boivin in front. Behind him Duggan and Page in a great position with Lindgren and Rowsell coming next.
Not much to see from tactical advantage for Pendeltons and Raleigh.
Timothy Duggan (Sram) takes the first win surprisingly after passing Boivin. So one of the big favourites for the GC win already collects big points on a flat stage, which will bring him in a very good position now.
Page was the obvious 2nd but behind him it was closer. In the end it`s Lindgren also ahead of a strong fighting Boivin in 4th. Kennaugh and all 3 Raleigh rider next can`t be that happy. Cassidy and O`Brien complete the top 10 and take small points while Brammeier couldn`t play a role in this sprint.
So Duggan obviously will be in the GC lead after the first of four crits and the sprinters will need to hope for a better result on the other flat one.
Timothy Duggan
Kieran Page
Johan Lindgren
Guillaume Boivin
Timothy Cassidy
