Today’s race through the hills of New Zealand promises to be an interesting one. As predicted Ginanni goes in to the day as the biggest favourite. Froome, Roche, Efimkin and Sinkewitz are also getting good prices from the bookkeepers and now it is only 226km until the final result will be known.
The first attack today comes from Kin-San Wu.
Following after him are: Sergio Sousa Maani Altanzul Charles Anguilet
Now another trio tries to bridge up as well: Lawson Craddock Gregory Hugentobler Pieter Jacobs
And then another four: Yvo Kusters Paul Voss Tom Danielson Joon Yong Seo
Obviously with 11 riders on the attack, someone is going to have something to say about it and indeed, Roman Senyenov does just that as he pulls in 6 of the riders. The 5 riders who have managed to hold on out the front are: Sergio Sousa Maani Altanzul Charles Anguilet Kin-San Wu Lawson Craddock
The peloton has decided that it is restless, however, and so three more riders try to bridge: Clement Lhotellerie Ryan Roth Maher Hasnaoui
However, only Lhotellerie manages to work his way up, as Vespa control the attack of the other two.
The next attack is from Patrick Lane and Muhamad Adiq Othman but once again this is controlled by Vespa – this time Andrea Pagoto.
We now hit the first climb, which maxes out at 9.5%. As the break goes over the top the gap has hit 2 minutes, but even so we find some riders trying to attack across this plateau. This time it is: Aaron Gate Alexandre Geniez
This time it is David Garbelli who does the tough work for Vespa and brings these two back. But that doesn’t last for long as we have four more riders trying to get away: Amaro Antunes Muhamad Adiq Othman Paul Voss Julien Berard
The gap to the front 6 is down to 1’30” as this latest attack is controlled by one of the Kings. But once again the attacks just keep coming as yet another four try to get across. This might be one of the most aggressive races so far this season. The four this time is: Kristian Sbaragli Gregory Hugentobler Danny Pate Alexandre Geniez
The internet goes absolutely insane with Pate on the attack! You can feel the others quaking in their cleats. Perhaps because of Pate or perhaps because of the bumpy terrain these four succeed in pulling out 20” very quickly. They still have 2 minutes to come across, but this is the most successful-looking bridging attempt thus far.
And indeed they keep the hammer down and successfully come across to the leaders. ING, Vespa and Cisco were really working hard to prevent this but now we have a lead group of ten riders with 173km remaining. Their gap has fallen to only 1’11”, however.
But it is not to be as the pace remains really high in the peloton and 8km after they meet up Moris Possoni makes the catch, as the 2nd lap of this initial circuit is about to begin. After 61km of riding we are back to exactly how things started.
So, inevitably, the attacks start up again. This time the first group away is: Patrick Lane Aaron Gate Stefano Pirazzi Marcio Portela Joeri Adams
And by some miracle they are allowed to get away with no fuss! With three CT teams represented and two of the weaker PCT teams making up the break and no real threats on the hills, the peloton are clearly glad to just slow down for a little while to recover from the hectic first hour and a half of racing.
The only interesting occurrence at this point is that Sergei Lagutin falls, but he manages to get back in to the bunch.
Even human disaster Samai Samai manages to hold on to the peloton after the second lap is completed. The gap hits a maximum of 6’24”, before the teams of all the favourites work together to start to wind things back.
With about 78km remaining, we hit the base of the first of the final six hills which will decide this race. The gap is now at almost exactly 5 minutes. Six main climbs await the peloton, including the tough final climb which is faced twice. This first climb probably won’t be decisive, and there is still a fairly long flat section before the following long climb which really kicks things off.
Adams leads the break up this first climb, which gets rather steep, but no one seeks to set a particularly difficult pace.
But all that changes after the first climb is complete. By the base of the second climb things are already looking grim for the break, with the gap now down to 3’54” and plenty of tough riding ahead. Lots of strong domestiques are on the front now such as Iannetti, Konte and Van Huffel.
Certainly those cynics who were expecting sprinters to do well on this course are proven wrong as already we are getting riders shelled out of the back of the group. There are no favourites out here thus far, but the numbers are thinning and we still have four more tough climbs to go.
Indeed the pace is really on as the gap has dropped to 2’40” at the top of the climb, meaning that the break have lost 1’14” in well under 10km and by now their legs are surely hurting.
There is a short descent down to the third climb, and this one is probably the hardest of the day with a 13% section to really hammer home to these riders just how much riding they have done today. Vespa and Cisco both take the lead through this particular section and keep the pace nice and high.
By the time we get to the 4th climb in this section the peloton is down to 90 riders, meaning that 46 have already lost contact. So far the biggest name is the Portuguese champion Sergio Sousa, who gets to show off his jersey, but for all the wrong reasons.
The gap drops below 2 minutes over the top of the 4th climb. Now there is a long descent with only a small bump to interrupt it before we take in the two laps of the finishing circuit. It is on this descent, about half way down with 21km to go, that we get our first serious attack. It is Simon Gerrans!
The gap to the break has dropped to under a minute and with Gerrans tear-assing down the climb behind them, all of the break decide to go, all of them except Adams that is, who sits up.
But this proves to be an ill-fated move, because just as Gerrans reaches the group they are all brought back in by Hivert. The penultimate climb has just started and so the favourites will have their chance to really go for this.
And go for it they do as outside favourite Carlos Barredo is the first one with an assault.
And he is followed by the energetic Gerrans and French hope Jeremy Roy!
They pull out a great gap but a new attack surges past them – it is Tommy Zaini and Patrick Sinkewitz! Roy manages to latch on as they go past.
Getting on the front to do the hard work of bringing this trio back is Chris Froome, which he manages. He doesn’t miss the next attack though, and as Sinkewitz goes again Froome jumps on to his wheel. Nicholas Roche, Aleksandr Efimkin and Francesco Ginanni all get on to this attack as well. These are five of the biggest favourites.
Of course such a dangerous move attracts some attention and the one who brings it back is Pengda Jiao. Oz Cycling are really making their intentions known today. They really don’t want to miss any of the moves.
The peloton ride nervously through the tough 9% section that marks the toughest part of this climb, before we get another attack right before the peak. This time it is CT star Dietmar Mehr-Wenige!
Barredo and Gerrans try to latch on to him, and Oz decide to send up Giovanni Visconti too. Unfortunately for them the attack is contained by Fabio Taborre and Matteo Montaguti. Over the top and we still have 89 riders in this group, though some are holding on by the skin of their teeth and won’t be in contention for the win.
But before we even get to this final climb there is yet another attack. This time it is Yusuke Hatanaka and Dale Appleby who try to chance it.
But Montaguti once again does the work to contain it and so we face the final 3.7km climb with anyone still in with a chance. We have seen that gaps are possible but hard to maintain, so surely someone is going to risk the attack?
And indeed it isn’t just anyone but pre-race favourite Ginanni! Efimkin is right there on his tail and Froome is once again alert and joins the other two as well.
A series of riders attack together to try to join this or at least to neutralise it. They are: Barredo Gerrans Roche Zaini Hatanaka Roy Visconti
But they are far less successful than the three other attackers and they can’t force a gap. Ginanni, Efimkin and Froome, however, have managed to prise out a gap of 30” with 1.5km remaining. This could work!
Ginanni opens the sprint just before the kite with Efimkin in his wheel and Froome at the back of the trio. The bunch is breathing down their neck.
Roche, Sinkewitz and Zaini are all well-placed at the front of this group, with several other favourites near the head of the pack. Oz are particularly well represented.
With 600m to go Froome is trying to come around, though he is puffing hard. Efimkin has to make his move now.
Meanwhile, Zaini is sprinting brilliantly while Sinkewitz is fading a bit.
He opened the sprint up front but neither of his companions could get around him – Francesco Ginanni takes a magnificent victory which he really fought for.
Efimkin just didn’t have the energy to come around him, and Froome fell slightly off the pace but easily holds on for his podium place.
Zaini, meanwhile, just beats a resurgent Roche to take a 4th place, which the Italian will certainly be happy with.
Roy sprinted well to take 6th and Jiao is the highest placed Oz rider in 7th. Sinkewitz faded to a disappointing 8th. Taborre, despite doing all that work earlier, manages to take a solid 9th place to make Cisco’s day even better. Lloyd rounds out the top 10, ending the day as the 2nd Oz rider out of their 4 riders in the top 20. In the end the second group on the road was reduced to 21 riders, shelling off more than half of the group with the pace on the final climb.
