No rain in Britain today: 33 sun-drenched degrees, no clouds, tough conditions. 182km and the "Snaefall"-climb will hopefully lead to a great race.
Big favorites will be Ginanni, Roche, Flügel, Froome and Efimkin. But the startlist is packed with other strong contenders, so no easy day for none of the mentioned favorites.
The first breakaway attempt seems to be allowed to stay clear, as 5 riders established a 1'20"-gap quickly:
Puccio Lund Cieslik Selander Andriato
The race wasn't really settled once this group grew it's gap, as countless empty-handed attacks happened in the first quarter of the race. Anyway, no more riders managed to break clear from the bunch, which didn't want to let a second group go.
Halfway through the race (93km to go), the early escapees lead by 5'50" and the biggest news is a crash back in the pack: ING's domestique Iannetti fell on a decent and won't stand a chance to close up to the now hard chasing bunch!
Let's have a look at who's leading this pursuit: Vespa, VolksWagen and Jaguar show their colors at the front of the peloton, also Cisco is quite prominent up there.
And finally some more action! Rocchetti attacks the pack with 55km remaining!
He's facing a 3'00"-gap on the still leading escapees. We're already entering the final of 3 laps of today's circuit!
It took Rocchetti 10km to catch up to the break of the day and with now 43km to go, the group leads by 2'46" on the chasing bunch.
Will Rocchetti with his rather fresh legs be able to give a new boost to the leading group or trying to go solo as soon as possible?
The gap is down to 1'34" with 23km to go, so of course it ain't easy for the break to keep the pace of the chasers..
..speaking of chasers: Alex Dowsett seems to have a certain role today - support Froome wherever possible. He leads the peloton, that's soon entering the final of three climbs up the "Snaefall"!
And that's the expected attacks of the top-favorites there: Roche tries to solo away with 19km to go!
He's followed by Ginanni and also Sinkewitz immediately!
More favorites try to jump behind: Froome, Ventoso, Flügel and Efimkin attack the pack just a few seconds later!
Just as this group catches up to most of the early escapees, Froome sets another attack!
Rocchetti leads solo in the meantime, with Selander (+ 0.36) being dropped now and group Froome (+ 0.52) coming closer.
So let's have a look... mid-race attacking Rocchetti enters the final descent solo..
And that's the new chasing group of 9 riders - 32" in arrears with 13km remaining:
De Maar Wegmann Hermans and Lund Mendes Dowsett Zeits Puccio Andriato
So.. with only a short and rather easy speedbump left, it seems the leading 10 will battle for today's win.. two early escapees managed to hang on, a strong effort!
While group Ben Nasser still has a chance to close up, some captains definitely won't fight for a Top-10: Wegmann, Hermans and another big name..
Gautier somehow missed the decisive moves and is way back.. 6 minutes! The race radio didn't say anything about a crash or puncture, so either we missed something here or Gautier totally failed to take care of the crucial moments.. anyway, a disappointing day it will be for sure, as he's already sitting up and soon to be caught by the peloton..
Back to the action: Ginanni kicks off the finish-sprint first, with Ventoso and Sinkewitz on further positions!
1.4km to go and Ginanni couldn't hold on to his leading position, as Ventoso - by far the fastest in this group (on paper) - powers away!
Ventoso Ginanni Sinkewitz Roche Efimkin Flügel
seem to be in the mix for victory, as
Froome Selander Cieslik Rocchetti
already lost some ground! Froome as the only surprise here, sprinting amongst the escapees!
Oh, it looks like a huge surprise: Ventoso is simply dominating the sprint, he enters the final 600 metres with a comfortable gap!
Behind it's Roche moving forward, but it's going to be a close one!
Francisco Ventoso takes out the Manx International in style! What a huge win for his team in this HC-classic, and definitely an unexpected victory as well. But once he managed to hang on with the very best puncheurs, his sprint-kills should have scared everyone in the leading group!
Patrik Sinkewitz had the fastest finish of the top-favorites, finishing as 2nd ahead of Nicolas Roche! A great result for the German.
Efimkin and Ginanni complete the Top-5, with a rather disappointing Flügel sprinting for 6th..
Froome couldn't compete with the other top-favorites, but at least managed to beat early escapee Selander for 7th..
..great results for Cieslik (9th) and also Rocchetti (10th), even though the latter might have hoped to beat the two early escapees Selander/Cieslik at least.
55" behind Ventoso, the next chasing group crosses the line: Ghisalberti, Costa and Ben Nasser finish from 11th to 13th.. especially Ben Nasser should have done better, while all of those three will be disappointed to finish behind some escapees..
Dowsett (16th) did not race like a favorite once he led the bunch, still finishes ahead of Wegmann (17th), Hermans (18th) and today's biggest disappointment and questionmark Gautier (51st). We're sorry for the lack of information on the reasons for his disastrous race.
