Panflat sprinter classic in Russia`s capital. Napolitano, Vantomme, Lo Cicero, Cavendish, Avelino, Reolandts and Kennaugh are named as top favourites even though we could name 10 more riders, who would have the qualities.
Bad news for Swedbank very early. As you can see it`s very rainy and pretty cold, so crashes might happen more often today. First victim is Swedbanks leader Van Hummel. I said leader as surprisingly the stronger sprinter in Kreder drops to help him alongside with Lindgren.
They don`t really have problems to join the peloton again and doesn`t need to spend too much energy.
Cruz, Timochine and De Bie are the three riders in the breakaway.
Most teams will fully ride for their sprinters, while LukOil was pretty much expected to join the group today. Also Pivovarna has only outside chances while Hollister is smartly placing a rider in here to have a more calm day in the peloton.
Most work behind is done by Bouygues and Evian for top favourites Roelandts and Napolitano.
Also airBaltic is seen very often at the front but interestingly with Matt Rowe already working that early instead of saving energy for the leadout.
Bpost and Tinkoff are at the front as well but just for very short times.
We reached the race half more or less with 110km to go. The group had a maximum of 8min but it`s slowly going down again.
Next to Bouygues and Evian we see a third hard working team with Prio Porto.
3 teams against three riders sounds pretty hard for the breakaway.
With 52km to go the trio goes on their last lap. The gap is down to 3'35 and you can already see the first cars in the background.
They still fight but it looks pretty desperate.
27km and the first attacks out of the peloton. Metinvest with 2 man even. Vitoria Kozontchuk Vaitkus Hoffman
Interesting tactic there. Many had expected Hoffman to wait for the sprint and also Vaitkus was expected to be part of Cavendish`s leadout but just like Matt Rowe he is using his energy already earlier. So Cavendish might have to be on his own later.
The attack only lasted 1,5km until they were caught again by the strong Evian/Bouygues pace train.
17km to go and the breakaway is almost caught. Again the same riders with an attack. You can`t see Hoffman right now but he also attacks a bit later. So the South African definitely doesn`t want to wait for the sprint. He wants to win here and so an attack might be needed against all the high quality sprinters.
But again Evian/Bouygues wouldn`t allow anything but a pure sprint.
With 9km to go also the breakaway is caught and the sprinter teams come to the front.
4,6km: Vaitkus with a final attempt and this looks more dangerous so close to the finish.
When he can start his sprint with a small gap he might be hard to catch again.
But the pace starts to be really high now with the sprint trains of Evian and Piro Porte forming at the front.
Sonnery
Caldeira
Manarelli
Santos
Napolitano
Avelino
Vantomme
Van Hummel
Guarnieri
Cardoso
Drujon
Grosu
Jacobs
Weylandt
Roelandts
Serebriakov
Zabel
Maksimov
Kennaugh
Cavendish
Some top sprinters are definitely missing at the front but the biggest favourites seem to have found good wheels.
Unlucky for Cavendish that his teammates can`t support him a lot and he needs to close the gap on his own.
Also the Bouygues train is still a bit behind and needs to hurry up.
Interesting also the choice by Metinvest (Grosu) and Volkswagen (Zabel) here. And good to see Swedbank`s Van Hummel not being injured or exhausted after his early crash.
2,6km and Vaitkus has just a very small gap.
Bouygues found their way through the front and is forming the 3rd train now with Zabel/Serebriakov/Cavendish behind them.
Guarnieri won the fight for Vantomme`s wheel while Drujon is orientating to the Prio train with Grosu being somehow making a strage move here.
Also Lo Cicero and Tinkoff`s sprinters are now coming a bit further to the front.
Weylandt and Manarelli are really good leadouts today and bring their sprinter in a great position. Santos on the other hand seems too fast for Avelino as he opened a gap.
Vantomme, Zabel, Cavendish, Van Hummel, Drujon with the best position behind those, while Serebriakov surprisingly lost the fight against Zabel for the better position.
Final kilometer and Vantomme is going as first of the top sprinters with Manarelli and Weylandt still leading out.
Zabel started to struggle now, which gives Van Hummel a nice position behind Roelandts.
Vantomme in the lead but Napolitano looks faster now. Also Roelants and Avelino are super fast. These four seem to fight for the win, while Lo Cicero somehow found a gap now and also Van Hummel and Kennaugh still look well placed.
Napolitano seems to have won the sprint but behind him it`s still very close.
Indeed it`s the Italian with his first classic win in 2013. He completed the perfect team work today and takes the win ahead of Roelandts.
Vantomme completes the podium and continues to shine in 2013.
Avelino with a strong 4th today ahead of the biggest surprise in Van Hummel!!!
Cavendish and Kennaugh as 6th and 7th not bad but surely they had hoped for the podium here.
Drujon probably can live with the 8th just like Lo Cicero (9.) and Cardoso as best CT rider as 10th ahead of his team mate Maksimov.
The Russians in general did disappoint a bit today. Maksimov (11.), Krasnov (14.), Trusov (22.), Serebriakov (24.).
Also Guarnieri, Hoffmann, Rasmussen and Castaneda had surely hoped for more.
