Welcome to the USA for the 2013 Tour of the Battenkill. It's a sunny day here, with everything set for a good day of racing. The big pre-race favourites are Vanspeybrouk, Baugnies and Maes.
Quickly, a breakaway is established with the peloton not worried about any of the men going off the front. Six-men are in the group as the gap climbs over a minute, the names are Bablidze, Serry, Beyer, Ferreira, Ciocan and Predatsch.
Behind, Boeing set a relaxed pace on the front of the peloton, letting the gap grow to over 5 minutes.
At the halfway stage, the break's advantage has started to come down. It peaked at 8 minutes, but has now come down to below 6 minutes.
Surprisingly, with 85 kilometres left there is the first attack from one of the favourites, albeit a minor one. Coyot decides to go on the offensive, attempting to bridge up to the break.
His attack turns the chase on behind, with BPost and HTC both setting the pace. This brings the gap down further to 3'45" as the 50 kilometres to go mark is reached.
Soon enough the Frenchman has reached the front group, making it a group of seven as the race reaches the third-to-last cobbled section.
That is also where more big favourites attack. This time it is two of the biggest riders, Baugnies and Vanspeybrouk!
As those two try to build a gap, the break has reached the penultimate cobbled section. This is where Coyot ramps up the pace, and no-one can follow!
Baugnies and Vanspeybrouk meanwhile have a gap of just over 30" with 25 kilometres left. Boeing and Sram head the chase behind, trying to pull everything back together.
Under 20 kilometres to go, Coyot leads with a solid gap to the peloton.
Meanwhile, Baugnies and Vanspeybrouk have caught the final rider from the break, Serry. The young Belgian can't offer much assistance to his teammate though, struggling to hang on.
Here's the current situation on the road:
1'25"
54"
31"
Coyot
->
Baugnies
->
Peloton
Vanspeybrouk
Serry
The peloton's ace proves to be too much for the group in the gap, as they get caught. BPost and HTC return to the front to try and pull back Coyot.
BPost then stop chasing, so that Vanspeybrouk can attack again with just 15 kilometres left!
The big favourite powers across the gap and catches a tired Coyot. They hold a 30" gap but HTC is chasing hard behind.
They catch the duo, bringing everything together for the last 10 kilometres. Interestingly though, Vanspeybrouk stays on the front and sets the pace.
On the final cobbled hill, Albert and Vanspeybrouk both set a high tempo on the front. No-one is dropped yet though, so everything could be decided in a sprint.
That looks like what's going to happen, with 22 riders emerging together at the top of the climb!
The two BPost riders hold the lead as the sprint begins, with Albert in first position.
As they hit a small hill though, Baugnies moves past them into the lead. Breschel is also well positioned, while one of the better sprinters Steegmans is surprisingly going backwards.
Over the top the HTC rider remains in the lead, with Vanspeybrouk overtaking his teammate to move into second. Behind, a split has happened with the first nine riders pulling away from the rest.
Under the flammage rouge, Breschel kicks!
He moves out of Vanspeybrouk's slipstream to pursue Baugnies, who still holds a slim lead. Behind, Veelers and Jacobs are also doing well.
With just 500m left, Baugnies looks like he has got this!
Breschel hasn't given up though, kicking again to move past Vanspeybrouk. Can Baugnies hold on?
He can! Baugnies takes a great victory for HTC, after leading for the whole of the final 2 kilometres.
Breschel and Vanspeybrouk take second and third, both coming so close. Veelers and Jacobs round out the top five.
Also finishing in that front group of nine are Steegmans, Eisel, Albert and Thomas who take positions 6-9 in that order.
Maes is the final rider to get into the top ten, finishing with a great sprint from the group of thirteen. Who knows what he could have done with better positioning.
Only one rider didn't finish today. It was Eefting, who crashed early on in the race and retired injured.
