Sunny Barcelona plays host to this one-day race, as the name suggests. The course covers 9 laps of a 20 km circuit, which includes the tricky climb to Montjuic. Luckily for the sprinters, they're climbing the less steep side, although it does include a few steep sections.
Attackers escaped a mass sprint finish in last year's edition of the race, so it will be interesting to see whether the sprinter teams have got their act together this time around.
After some slow opening kilometers, three riders break clear over the first climb of Montjuic. The names are Chevrier, Squire and Bongiorno.
The sprinter teams are delighted by the small number of riders up front, and the trio has soon opened a gap of 8 minutes over the peloton.
In charge of the pacemaking there we have Prio-Porto.
Later in the race, the Portuguese team gets some assistance from Die Berg, which is interesting given that they have a rider in the leading group.
They are really rushing towards the finish, and the break's advantage has dropped to around two minutes with two laps and 40 km left to race. Onto Montjuic for the penultimate time, Serov attacks!
He quickly closes in on the break on the way to the top, but struggles in the wind after getting down on the flat again. Slowly but surely, he makes his way up to them, and sits just 15 seconds back as we hit Montjuic for the last time.
The main field is less than a minute behind however, now with Die Berg doing all the work to reel the escapees in.
A brave attack from Serov, but it is all for nothing as the peloton catches up with him just as he reaches the break.
Along with Chevrier and Bongiorno, he gives up while Squire kicks again to stay clear a little longer.
A very clever move as it turns out, since it seems like Die Berg aren't interested in chasing anymore - allowing Squire to open a gap of 1'30 with 10 km to go.
Amazingly, the gap continues to grow and has gone up to more than two minutes when the peloton reaches the same banner.
Die Berg are clearly looking for someone else to take the lead for a while, and for some unexplainable reason they're not getting any help from the other sprinter teams!
Realising that the chances of this ending in a sprint are slipping away, Mironov sets off from the group with Duque for company.
But is it already too late? Squire has entered the long home stretch!
The two pursuers are closing quickly, but he still has a solid advantage.
Behind, Duque gets an early jump on Mironov with 2 km to the finish in a desperate last try to bring Squire back.
Squire is too far ahead, however. After a perfectly timed attack, he steals an unexpected win for ANC!
A sleeping Mironov missed Duque's early launch completely and never managed to come back to challenge for 2nd place. The Lukoil team are probably still happy with the result, considering that they were seen as one of the weaker teams before the race.
The clock stops at 38 seconds, meaning that they clawed back almost two minutes on Squire in the final kilometers.
The main field comes home another two minutes later, led by Abakoumov, who gives Die Berg two riders in the top 4. Final spot among the top 5 goes to Anton Martin, giving the home crowds something to cheer about.
Santos, Belletti, Golas, Brammeier and Galle follow in place 6 through 10. Pre-race favourite Kankovsky led out the sprint early and disappoints with a 14th place, just like Rizza in 16th.
Needless to say, that was a major screwup by the sprinter teams. They could easily have fought for the victory instead of 4th place if it wasn't for the typical PCM12-flawed finale. ANC will be happy, at least.
