An interesting race in Africa: Tunis features a huge peloton packed with most of the best sprinters in PCT/CT.
Even though one may fear this short ascent on the circuit, sprint-stars like Napolitano, Vantomme will feature the list of top-favorites, where riders like Roelandts or Haussler stand good chances as well.
It took one lap to allow a first group of two riders to break clear from the peloton:
Borges Lindgren
established a 1'00"-gap quickly.
A few laps later (116km to go), the two escapees were joined by Ngue, leading the race with a 2'30"-gap.
Also two more riders tried their luck: Afewerki (+ 0.44) and Barguil (+ 0.55) still fight to close up to the leading group.
And with exactly 100km remaining, the chasing group joined the leading three.
The now 5-men-breakaway already lost time on the peloton though: only 44" for the escapees by now.
But it seems that this wasn't a serious attempt by the pack, as the gap grew as soon as the escapees caught up to each other.
Teams like Sram and Hollister show their colors at the front of the bunch, keeping things in control.
70km to go and Rajala crashed. Bad luck for the Estonion champion, as he won't stand a chance to fight back. Anyway, that's one way to show his NC-shirt..
The "real chase" has just begun: it's still Hollister and some Sram-guys to lead the pursuit.
With 44km to go, the gap is under 3 minutes again, melting down quickly.
As soon as Prio joined those two teams in the chase, the early escapees got reeled in soon.
Vandousselaere gave it a try about 25km before finish, joining the last remaining escapee Afawerki, but both are caught with 16km to go. No split yet. A mass-sprint today?
Some riders still believe in this climb giving a chance to fool the pure sprinters:
Sieberg and Petrie-Armstrong attack the pack with 11km to go!
But they couldn't break clear.. just 6km to go and yet another Vespa-rider tries to jump away:
Quinziato
and Vaitkus
with a late attempt. Especially Vaitkus is kind of a surprise, but this may answer the question, wether him or Docker will lead the team in a possible bunch-sprint today.
Just as the previous attempt, the two couldn't create a gap though.
But both Sieberg and Vaitkus won't give up fighting: they launch another attack with now only 2.7km remaining!
Guess what, it's yet another empty-handed move. The two didn't stand a chance against the peloton. We will see a mass-sprint on the uphill-finish.
Ventoso leads out Avelino with an advantage of already two bike lengths on the following riders:
Napolitano Castanedo Abakoumov Roelandts Haussler
followed by Serebriakov
a struggling Vaitkus and teammate Docker!
Ventoso did his work for Avelino, who still holds on to his leading position, losing groun though.
The others narrow the small gap with 700 meters left and Vantomme is joining the mix.
It's going to be close sprint it seems, as Avelino looks in trouble:
Napolitano
Avelino
Haussler
Castanedo
Roelandts
Serebriakov
Ventoso
Docker
Abakoumov
Giaux
Guarnieri
Vantomme
Haussler moves forward, with Serebriakov in his slipstream. Also Guarnieri with a fast kick coming from far behind.
With the finish-line approaching, things change with every meter being raced:
Avelino with another acceleration! Seems like he has some power left.
Haussler, Serebriakov and also Docker in good position, while Roelandts and especially Napolitano look in trouble!
And yes, Óscar Avelino takes out the GP Tunis! Thanks to a great support by his whole team, a nice leadout by Ventoso and of course his "comeback" late in the sprint, he celebrates a win against some outstanding sprinters!
A close one behind: Aleksandr Serebriakov takes the 2nd ahead of Heinrich Haussler!
Mitch Docker seems to be in shape, bringing in a decent 4th, ahead of Jurgen Roelandts, who might have expected a podium here.
Mathieu Drujon completes the Top-10, beating sprinters like Castaneda (11th), Vantomme (12th) and Abakoumov (15th).
Abdallah (17th) scores some points for his African CT-team, while Gavazzi certainly had hoped for more than his 21st place. The split in the pack happened in the final sprint, so crucial one.
