Back on the flat terrain here in Manchester we have a very close GC battle so far. Yeung and Duggan won the two stages so far and lead the GC and with Cassidy being the only rider who scored on both days so far we have several riders that could get the GC lead today.
Favourites obviously the sprinters and for Speirs, Westling, Ahlstrand, Jorgensen, Brammeier or Friedman it`s already the last real chance to get this win.
Daniel Clifford (Ireland) is the first with an attack. Right behind him it`s Joseph Dombrowski (Chipotle). The young, talented US American had a very solid ride yesterday and wants to get more points on the flat course today.
Squire (ANC) is joining them and after 4km ridden they already have a gap of 80s. Obviously the peloton wants a smaller group to be ahead quite early.
Hong Kong took over the control in the peloton. Yesterdays winner Yeung is also working for his team mates. In return he should get their help on the final hilly circuit.
Lawrence Warbasse (Sram) doesn`t like the slow pace and attacks.
Boswell (Kenda) and Downey (Aviva) did the same and so we have a breakaway of 6 when they reach the former attackers. 43km left and a lead of still ~80s.
Denmark and Sweden are also working now. These two might have the best sprinters here and want to take care for a sprint finish. So already with 39km left the higher the pace and the gap slowly melts.
This again shakes things up and Boswell and Squire are the last remaining of the breakaway when the peloton caughts them. Behind them Kennaugh (Pendletons) is attacking.
So once again these crits prove to be very aggressive with lots of different riders going for the attack. Almost impossible to control the race this way.
Kennaugh is joined by Cleaver (IG Sigma) and Cassidy (Ireland). The last mentioned is interesting as he was always having a good feeling for the right group so far.
Also Hampton (Raleigh) and Duggan (Sram) are attacking now. While Raleigh had an awfull second crit, Duggan once again tries it on the flat terrain to extend his lead.
5/9 laps done and Duggan leads together with Cassidy. Both overtook the former breakaway and other late attackers and lead by 16s now. Behind them a group of 7 containing Cleaver, Squire, Boswell, Hampton, Kennaugh, Barclay and O`Brien. Last two were the newest attackers.
The peloton is another 1'30 behind and allows them a bit of a gap.
One lap later HongKong and Team Denmark reduced the gap a lot and Opie (Raleigh) and McEvoy (Pendletons) are trying to attack. A bit surprising that the HongKong National Team is working so much on the crit series. Neither on hte flat nor on the hilly terrain they have a real favourite. Still Yeung proved this thesis wrong by winning the hard hilly crit yesterday.
Kennaugh, Duggan, Barclay and Hampton are the last riders ahead of the peloton but the gap is very small.
Hansen is also pulling those riders back and Team Denmark is preparing everything for Jorgensen at the moment.
Last lap or 6,6km to go. On the right you see Aviva Ryanair bringing Brammeier in a good position. Or do they try to work for Speirs, who is a bit behind with a small gap.
Chipotle for Ben King in the middle and Jorgensen in the Danish jersey a bit behind him. Ahlstrand at the moment the better placed Swede on the left with Westlin being behind Speirs with Bennett and Moren behind him. The Swedes should probably work together as they would be by far the best duo then.
The front appearance of Team HongKong and all the work by them becomes obvious now. Ho-Tig Kwok attacks with 5,5km to go. Can he resist the fast pace of the sprinter teams?
2,6km and still a decent gap for Kwok. Will the sprinters also lose their 2nd flat criterium?
Brammeier and Ahlstrand in a very early position. Other sprinters like Speirs or Jorgensen look a bit better placed.
The gap kept the same on the last 600m but the sprint became more serious. Denmark on the left for Jorgensen with Speirs and Friedman behind him. Sweden for Ahlstrand in the middle and Brammeier a bit lost on the right highered the pace.
Jorgensen and Speirs seem to be the best placed riders when Klostergaard starts the sprint for his team mate. But Kwok still has a 300m gap almost reaching the Flamme Rouge.
With 800m to go Jorgensen and Speirs are starting their sprint but still 200m to Kwok.
Behind them Friedman and Ahlstrand are slowly losing contact to the top sprinters here.
Jorgensen seems to be the better of the two sprinters as Speirs can`t pass him. And so close. Kwok still in front.
And he makes it. What a race for HongKong so far. The second win for them and none of them could have been expected.
Jorgensen in 2nd ahead of Speirs, who clearly were the strongest in the peloton today.
Westling on a rather disappointing 4th by looking on his team. Brammeier comes in 5th after an awesome finish seeing that he was in a bad position for a long time. Ahlstrand in 6th at least makes it halfway a good result for Sweden. Klostergaard as 7th with a very nice result after bringing Jorgensen in the perfect position and still finishing ahead of Moren, Friedman and King.
Disappointing result for Bennett today, who wasn`t able to get more than the 13th.
GC wise this means that Hongkong has the double lead with Yeung and Kwok, while Duggan is one point behind in 2nd. Jorgensen at leasts moves himself into the shared 3rd but with a hilly stage left it`s quite unlikely that a sprinter wins this criterium series in Manchester.
Ho-Ting Kwok
Jonas Aaen Jørgensen
Isaac Speirs
Mattias Westling
Mike Friedman
Kieran Page
Guillaume Boivin
