It's raining here in Sweden and that's one "nice" addition to a promising race, which should provide a lot of fun for the spectators.
The list of top-favorites is quite long, while Francesco Ginanni, Aleksandar Flügel and Nicolas Roche feature the "top of the tops".
Jaguar throws in Chris Froome and Alex Dowsett, while Cyril Gautier, Aleksandr Kolobnev, Patrik Sinkewitz or Johnny Hoogerland join the top three for battling out the win.
More favorites to be found in the preview, so let's go straight to race itself!
The first ten kilometers were pretty chaotic, with several smaller groups trying to break clear. However, all of them were caught soon and the list of riders involved in that attempts would be simply too long.
So we first have a look at just another attempt with still more than 200kms to go. 5 riders attack out of the peloton:
Davide Villella Yuriy Vasyliv Jesus Tendero Ben Curfs Zico Waeytens
It's a tough challenge, again. Only Vasyliv and Villella manage to maintain a 45"-lead with now 195kms left, so it ain't looking good for escapees by now.
And this has been evoked: the two escapees join the countless empty-handed attacks so far in this race! With still 180kms to go (so already 30kms being done), no group managed to stay clear from the bunch, where the 133 riders are all together again.
Here goes another try and some teams definitely look motivated to get a rider in the BOTD. 4 riders broke clear and quickly established a 1'10"-lead on the pack with 172kms to go:
Michel Koch Philip Lindau Eliot Lietaer Glenn Likhaya
Finally a breakaway, which is allowed to give it a go. As the group enters the finish-climb for the first of twelve times, the lead grew to 4'20". It also stopped raining, so the conditions become a bit easier now.
ING (Diaz Corrales) and Jaguar (Konte) show their colors at the front of the peloton, still taking things not too serious. With 125kms to go, the BOTD holds on to a now 5'30"-lead.
It's raining again.. the escaping group just enters their 5th turn of the final circuit (90kms remaining) with a lead of 6'10".
And the gap starts decreasing now, as Jaguar is joined by Vespa and Volkswagen-Mapei. The pursuit has begun, from now on, the escapees face a tough time once again.
Vueling is joining the chasing teams as well. Matteo Bono is one of the domestiques, who pull the strings hard and the disadvantage is cut down to 3'30" with now 55kms remaining. Plus: it stopped raining for one more time.
The breakaway is still leading with the finish-circuit now only being raced three times (28kms), but the gap is down to 1'30" as the peloton (now led by Vespa) is already within sight.
A few minutes lates, we have the first serious attempts: Alessandro Proni and Francesco Failli break clear from the bunch (where no split happened by now: 116 riders in there)!
But the top-favorited teams can't take any jokes today: Proni/Failli's attempt had no chance at all, 2kms after they went, Volkswagen and Vespa brought them back easily. 23kms to go.
At least the first attack caused some action in the field: Fabian Wegmann is next in line! He goes with 18kms remaining, trying to bridge the gap - 44" - to his breakaway-teammate Koch as soon as possible!
Koch appeared to be not of any use though, as Wegmann launches another attack, just as he caught up to the leading group!
The pack is down by only 25" and the BOTD is soon to be swallowed.. and yes, it starts raining again.
Wegmann crosses the finish-line for the second last time as the enters the final lap (13kms) with a 30"-lead on the peloton! A true fighter he is and therefore a real threat now.
Meanwhile, the higher pace causes a first split in the pack, as now only 70 riders can stay with the best. Most prominent name of the dropped riders is Timothy Duggan. He wouldn't be of any help for Wegmann now, anyway.
And this is the first big news: 8km before finish, Nicolas Roche got a small gap on the descent! Vueling and Jaguar retain the role as first chasing-teams, as Vespa backed down for a moment.
But Roche's move never looked like a "real attempt". Maybe it was all about sniffing at his opponent's daily form or just to accelerate the pace.
Anyway, both Roche and Wegmann find themselves back in the bunch, where Vueling still sets the pace - now accompanied by Tinkoff.
5.5km to go and that means it's going uphill now for the final climb!
And THIS one is what you call an attack: Chris Froome opens the crunch mode and moves ahead of the bunch as soon as the road ascends!
A few seconds later the other favorites try to follow, as Froome's move is clearly a real threat:
Nicolas Roche Fabian Wegmann Ilnur Zakarin Aleksandar Flügel
Strong effort by Wegmann and a rather surprising (while impressive) move by Zakarin, who may work for Kolobnev by doing so.
Top-favorite Francesco Ginanni reacts a couple of seconds later and he's joined by Carlos Betancourt.
Froome has a 7"-gap with now 3.5km to go and everything's still open here.
Three more riders jump behind: Aleksandr Kolobnev, Johnny Hoogerland and Patrik Sinkewitz!
Tinkoff obviously holds a small advantage by having a strong duo with Kolobnev/Zakarin, while Sinkewitz had to deliver with his team working hard in the chase.
With 3kms remaining, it seems that we've seen today's strongest riders attacking and here's the situation:
E1
<- 16" ->
E2
<- 10" ->
E3
Froome
Roche
Zakarin
Wegmann
Flügel
Ginanni
Betancourt
Hoogerland
Kolobnev
Sinkewitz
The bunch is with Gautier already 1'20" behind, while Dowsett and Hermans tried to follow the first attacks and being somewhere in between.
2.5km to go and Froome even grows his lead, which is at 19" right now! Meanwhile the chasing group of favorites is led by Roche, while Kolobnev and Sinkewitz managed to catch up.
Ginanni now leads the group, with Flügel and still Zakarin right behind! Froome's still looking extraordinany strong, growing his lead to 24" when reaching the "flamme rouge"!
Ginanni with a last desperate try to close the gap and of course to knock Flügel and Roche off his wheel.
The latter looks to suffer now! It ain't looking good for Roche, as both Flügel and Zakarin pass him easily.
But at least, those 4 got a bit of a gap to other 5 companions: Betancourt meanwhile tries to hang on.
Froome has enough of a gap tough..
He takes this win in style! A huge win for Chris Froome and his team, beating the big guns with an explosive kick early in the climb!
Francesco Ginanni crosses the line 15" behind, holding off Aleksandar Flügel for 2nd place. Anyway, a strong showing by all of three.
Nicolas Roche eventually managed to maintain his 4th place, beating Ilnur Zakarin, who did very well today. Roche might have expected more, but the Top-3 were simply too strong.
40" behind Froome, the remaining attackers cross the line: Sinkewitz finishes on a decent 5th place, while Tinkoff continues to score big time, as Kolobnev takes 7th.
Betancourt, Hoogerland and a strong Wegmann complete the Top-10.
Alex Dowsett and Ben Hermans attacked too late, but managed to gap the bunch by a minute and giving their teams a nice addition of points.
Cyril Gautier, Maurice Schreurs and Alessandro Proni attacked clearly too late as well, as they finish from 13th to 15th with 2'23" in arrears.
Another rather disappointing performance by Gautier in particular, who just missed the decisive attacks early in the climb. He might have underestimated those moves.
The bunch (reduced to 29 riders in final 4kms) finished 3'16" behind Froome and Kessler led the group by finishing 16th. Geschke was a non-factor today (48th).
