It`s the second day in Manchester and we are a bit in the Eastern suburbs for the first hilly race. Timothy Duggan has the advantage of his surprising win on the first crit but several puncheurs will try to beat him today.
Appleby, King, McEvoy to name three other big favourites.
On the first climb we see the first attacks. It`s definitely the harder of the two hilly stages as the last climb will hurt a lot.
The four riders are Downey (Aviva), Ahlstrand (Sweden), Bennett (Ireland) and Kwok (HongKong).
But it`s Rapha`s Thwaites being the first to come down the hill again
Cassidy (Ireland) and Brammeier (Aviva) join him on the next climb. The Irish riders are very active so far and Brammeier knows that he needs to get points today after he missed to get any points yesterday in a good position.
2 laps gone and again we see a new breakaway of four riders. Ahlstrand and Cassidy were already in earlier groups. Craddock (Kenda) and Hansen (Denmark) are the new riders now. Maybe this attempt can last longer.
Obviously yes. 2 min gap for them now with several teams sharing the work now. Sram, CykelCity, Pendletons and IG Sigma can be seen.
We reach the second race half and with 4 climbs left more attacks. This time by better puncheurs. It`s HongKong`s Yeung followed by Tiernan-Locke (Rapha), Devine (ANC) and Dombrowski (Chipotle).
The quartett can create a small gap of 30s and are chasing the breakaway now. 1min gap to them.
CykelCity, Sram and Pendletons are trying to reduce the gap. Only 17s are left for them on the next climb and they can be seen just ahead of the peloton.
On the flat the gap is climbing to 53s again. Great fight by the late attackers and they just joined the early breakaway to make it a group of 8.
2nd last climb and still ~55s left. The peloton needs to hurry up now.
With 1 lap to go we see the favourites attacking. Duggan, Appleby, Galle, Olsson, Deignan, McEvoy and Juul-Jensen.
With 5,5km to go they still have more than 1min to gain and it looks like this move was too late. But they surely have the quality to make it close.
The peloton behind did calm down as all teams seem to be happy with at least one rider in the 2 front groups. Well, that said, Team Raleigh don`t have a guy in there as Rowsell and Opie are the last riders left for them in the peloton and none of them is looking very well at the moment.
3,2km left and the group seems to be able to take the win today. Dombrowski and Yeung attack to get rid of their companions.
Craddock, Hansen and Ahlstrand are gone and lose ground with every meter now. They must watch the later group now. Yeung still has a small gap while Dombrowski, Devine, Tiernan-Locke and Cassidy are chasing hard.
Flamme Rouge and Yeung still solo. Cassidy also loses contact now. Can the trio come back to Yeung?
On the steepest section also Dombrowski can`t follow. The podium seems to be safed now but in what order?
Meanwhile the later group around Duggan also started the sprint and is aiming the dropped trio now.
So close now with Devine and Tiernan-Locke reaching Yeung. Who will take this win?
150m left and still no one was able to pass Yeung. Great fight by him so far.
Devine seems to be the better than the last British hope today. But is he good enough to beat Yeung?
No. Yeung takes the glory today and takes the win ahead of Devine and Tiernan-Locke. What a thrilling last kilometer.
Dombrowski finishes on a nice 4th today. His last attack did cost him too much energy obviously.
Already 50s behind Cassidy comes in solo ahead of the first bigger group as the trio was caught.
Appleby, McEvoy, Olsson, Galle and Craddock take the next spots and complete the top 10. Duggan as 12th is missing out the big chance to increase his lead.
Ying Hon Yeung
John Devine
Jonathan Tiernan-Locke
Michael Olsson
Guillaume Boivin
Timothy Cassidy
