It's raining here in Down Under, but there's also good news for those, who hope for a "predictable" race: it's also a windless day, so there will be no excuses for a favorite to not find a good position within the peloton.
The world of cycling is eagerly awaiting yet another battle between two of the fastest men: Boonen and Bennati! Like said in the race-preview, we don't want to count off the super-strong Kiwi Bewley, wildcard-invitee Vantomme or local hero Goss though.
The race kicks off with Franzoi stretching himself just at the very front of the field.. we don't know if it's any sign of his physical condition today, so let's just continue with the real action..
The first 5 riders give it an early try to break clear:
Durbridge Duenas Balloni Dillier Sagan
They couldn't quite create a notable gap as several more riders attacked the bunch frequently!
So 15km into the race, only two of them still maintain a small gap, joined by a third escapee:
Durbridge Sagan Russom
The race is far from being settled though and we see more and more riders attacking, which makes it hard for the 3-men-break to establish a comfortable gap!
We now have still more than 135km to go and we've 6 riders in two leading groups, with the pack being 55" in arrears only:
Durbridge and Sagan hold on to their leading positions, followed by
Russom Schär Jungels and Le Bon
Local hero Durbridge obviously has something to prove today: of course this is his only chance to go for a decent result.
But the situation remaines the same: the breakaway attempts do won't really work so far! The mentioned groups weren't allowed to stay clear and with 122km remaining, they are pulled back by the peloton!
The attacking continues and makes for an eventful race! 5 riders give it another go:
Haas Joseph Chtioui M. Velits Sergent
But it's a short-lived attempt, really. Only 5km later, they're swallowed by the pack, which provides some tough times for any escapees so far.
Next in line, 3 riders:
Monterastelli Sibilla Haas
Simply Red Bull seems to have several options for breakaway attempts and with Haas, another Aussie tries to break clear more than once!
Guess what? It's yet another tough challenge for those three to create a decent gap and the situation looks quite different as we now reach the half of the race, 100km to go:
Sibilla launches another attack, followed by Joseph Ghyllebert Kvasina, as well as
Velits Chtioui Marinangeli, who are 20" behind!
And for the first time in the race, it looks like a group is allowed a bigger gap! With 94km remaining, those 7 riders lead by 2'40" on the peloton!
In between we have a chasing group of 5 riders, facing a 1'20"-gap:
Lund Stalder Blythe Viviani Corioni
Most notable: Blythe seems to prefer a breakaway instead of joining a sprint packed with much faster guys. No real surprise. Three teams - UBS, Simply and Venchi - now have two riders in those escaping group!
With 80km remaining, the chasing groups catches up to the leading seven, making it a 12-men-breakaway.
Those twelve managed to establish a 4'10"-gap in the meantime. We finally found our break of the day. It took us a while..
And now we've the "business as usual": the peloton starts chasing only a few km later.
With 55km remaining, the gap is down to 3'05" again, thanks to three teams sharing the work - Puma, Wikipedia and Pokerstars.
20km to go: the escapees fight hard, but their lead is down to a minute thanks to the brutal pace back in the pack..
A 12-men-group ain't that easy to catch, it seems! The race is already in it's final 10km and the peloton - now led by Project 1t4i, Milka, Koenigsegg and Puma - struggles to narrow the gap as quickly as they did before..
..the breakaway holds on to a 42"-lead with 8.5km remaining!
But once the chasing teams worked perfectly together, the escapees had no chance. The group is caught just under the 5km-mark!
And hey, there's one guy trying to surprise with a late attack: Franzoi! The Italian obviously feels good, so his early stretching was no sign of weakness or something!
(For some reason, I miss a screenshot here. I'm pretty sure I captured a shot of the peloton and "trains" - even though there wasn't much of a real train - but either I forgot to do so or the game just bugged me.)
Franzoi couldn't hold off the sprinting bunch though. A brave but empty-handed effort. Well, it's always worth a try!
So he sees the sprinters taking control just under the kite! We'll have a closer look soon, all we can sa by now, that local hero Goss is in leading position with less than a km to go!
Here's a better view on the situation, 10 riders seem to be within reach for the victory with a few hundred metres remaining:
Goss Marinangeli Bennati Vanderbiest Vanderaerden Van Heerden Boonen Bewley Gasparotto (as Bennati's last leadout) Croket (as Vanderaerden's leadout)
Goss still holds on to do decent advantage and top-favorite Boonen kicked off the sprint from rather far behind. Same goes for Bewley, who looks a bit off place.
We're getting closer to the line and 5 riders seem to be a class of their own today:
Goss
Bennati
Vanderbiest
Vanderaerden
Boonen
Van Heerden
Goss manages to keep his speed so far, but there's still some way to go! Also Boonen accelerates now and tries to move forward, leaving Vanderaerden's slipstream. Van Heerden is still within reach, but can't really hang on to Boonen's wheel..
And that's what the fans were hoping for! With Bennati and Boonen now moving forward with a top-speed, it looks like we get a head-to-head finish between those two and still leading Goss!
Vanderbiest and Vanderaerden can't keep their pace, but still hang on to a Top-5-finish, while Bewley moves forward from far behind after accelerating for the second time!
It's well deserved close finish for a flat classic like that!
Bad news for local hero Goss, who kept a great pace for a couple of hundred metres. But he's beaten by the two top-favorites eventually. Anyway, a nice 3rd for Gossy and Wikipedia!
So we had our eagerly awaited matchup between Bennati and Boonen, with the Italian taking out the Great Ocean Road Classic with a small margin! A prestigious win for Bennati and - of course - a very important result for his team Puma. Congrats on a well timed sprint. Boonen was the fastest in the end, but might have kicked a second too late.
Behind Goss, Vanderbiest held on for a nice 4th, ahead of Bewley, who was fast as Boonen, but who also struggled on the first hundred metres in the sprint.
Vanderaerden (6th), Marinangeli (7th) and Richeze (8th) couldn't compete with those very best today, but may be satisfied with decent results.
Wildcard invitee Vantomme wasn't well positioned as the sprint kicked off and had no real chance for finishing better than his 9th. Vanoverschelde completes the Top-10, while Van Heerden lost a lot of ground in the end. His team might have hoped for more than his 11th place. At least, Simply Red Bull was one of the most active teams today. Same goes for Venchi and UBS.
Puma's manager will notice this great win for Bennati with satisfaction! We've seen a thrilling sprint and a quite interesting race with several attacks til the end.
Final Results/
1
Daniele Bennati
Team Puma - SAP
4h26'35
2
Tom Boonen
Pokerstars.com
s.t.
3
Matthew Goss
Wikipedia
s.t.
4
Romain Vanderbiest
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
5
Sam Bewley
Milka - AVG
s.t.
6
Michael Vanderaerden
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
7
Sergio Marinangeli
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
8
Maximiliano Richeze
UBS - BMC
s.t.
9
Maxime Vantomme
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
10
Kobe Vanoverschelde
Aker - MOT
s.t.
11
Juan Van Heerden
Simply Red Bull
s.t.
12
Alessandro Ballan
Koenigsegg
s.t.
13
Anthony Lavoine
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
14
Lars Croket
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
15
Enrico Gasparotto
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
16
Matteo Trentin
Project 1t4i
s.t.
17
Leigh Howard
Milka - AVG
s.t.
18
Claudio Corioni
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
19
Marcus Burghardt
Team Bacardi
s.t.
20
Marco Corti
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
21
Bert-Jan Lindeman
Koenigsegg
s.t.
22
Danny Summerhill
Wikipedia
s.t.
23
Kristian Sobota
Team B&O
s.t.
24
Adam Blythe
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
25
Davide Viganò
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
26
Morgan Kneisky
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
27
Paride Grillo
Koenigsegg
s.t.
28
Preben Van Hecke
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
29
Enrico Franzoi
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
30
Valentin Iglinski
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
31
Matthieu Ladagnous
Pendleton's
s.t.
32
Geert Steurs
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
33
Sten Stenersen
Team B&O
s.t.
34
Koen De Kort
Project 1t4i
s.t.
35
Lars Boom
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
36
Gianni Meersman
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
37
Martin Velits
Rothaus - Aegon
s.t.
38
Armindo Fonseca
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
39
Kristof Vandewalle
Project 1t4i
s.t.
40
Marcel Barth
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
41
Evert Verbist
Milka - AVG
s.t.
42
Jan Ghyselinck
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
43
Kiel Reijnen
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
