The Zagreb to Ljubljana Classic is ready to be kicked off! 172km of short climbs await the peloton today and the big question is, wether the race will be selective or not.
Clear top-favorites will be Efimkin, Flügel and Kolobnev anyway - all three of them finished within the Top-4 in thise race two years ago. Hoogerland or Roy fancy their chances as well, though.
4 riders ride one minute ahead of the peloton for a while, establishing this rather small gap right from the start of the race:
Holm De Souza Viennet Bontenackels
It's now "only" 147km to go and while this group was allowed to stay clear, the gap is still at a minute due to several more empty-handed but "pace-keeping" attacks back in the bunch.
No other group was allowed to escape though and so the four early escapees built up to a 3-minutes-gap with now 129km remaining.
Hayakawa was the only one to manage jumping behind this group and he caught up quickly, making it a 5-men-break of the day.
85km remaining, we're entering the second half of this classic and therefore the more challenging part of the route.
Swedbank, Pivovarna Lasko and Volkswagen-Mapei started to lead the chase back in the pack in the meantime. The gap is at 5'20" now.
The rather easy profile makes for an interesting race now: there's no "this is the climb you have to attack" here, so the question was, where the favorites may launch a crucial move.
And maybe here's such a move: still 28km to go and Gautier gives it a try, followed by Kolobnev!
It's a short-lived attempt though, as the peloton - still led by Swedbank - reeled them in quickly.
Gautier ain't done though, he launches another attack with 23km remaining! The early escapees are still ahead, leading by 1'20" now.
20km to go, it's going downhill from now on to the finish climb:
Gautier established a 35"-gap on the peloton, while
Efimkin Flügel Ben Nasser now jump behind! It's an action-packed race.
All of those four top-favorites caught up to the early breakaway with 14km to go, they were also joined by Roy in the meantime.
But the peloton is still chasing hard and the descending road makes it a tough challenge for the leading group. The gap is down to 24", do they stand a chance?
Not really - or at least: not yet! The group is swallowed by the chasing peloton 10km before finish.
Ben Nasser won't give up and launches another attack now!
He's joined by top-favorite Efimkin and Roy! 9km remaining and those three lead by 20".. better luck this time?
Again: no! While they still ride ahead of the bunch with 4km to go, the attackers are soon-to-be-caught from the peloton.
No splits in the field either, so it looks like we will see the 112 riders entering the finishing climb as a whole. Positioning will be the key..
And here we go, the peloton reaches the "flamme rouge" and it's going uphill from now on!
Cousin and Kessler lead the bunch in order to work for their captains Gautier/Flügel.. while the latter is in a good position, Gautier finds himself around position 14-15 by now.
Behind Kessler, there's also two HTC-guys (De Maar/Baugnies), as well as Efimkin, Roy, Flügel, Ben Nasser, Kolobnev and Hoogerland..
Ahead of the last corner, Kessler takes a narrow lead on now suffering Cousin! That's quite surprising, that the top-favorites couldn't overtake them yet.
Still in the mix though: De Maar, Baugnies, Efimkin, Roy, Flügel, Ben Nasser, Kolobnev, Hoogerland.. all others behind may struggle to slip through.
400 metres to go and yes, Kessler now even established a small gap on the others! Roy with Kolobnev at his wheel seems to be the fastest behind, while both Cousin and also Efimkin struggle to hang on with Kessler! This may hinder Ben Nasser, Hoogerland and also Flügel, as they are boxed in, it seems.
We're coming closer to the line and Kessler holds on! Roy and Kolobnev indeed are the strongest behind, where it's still head-to-head all over the place.
Cousin falls behind with Hoogerland now leaving Efimkin "slipstream", while HTC's duo is still in the mix for a great result.. Flügel now is right behind this duo and also Gautier, who rode so aggressive here, but was in bad position at the bottom of the climb, joins at least the mix for a Top-10..
But no one could beat Matthias Kessler, who takes out this classic! That's an awesome win for him, of course.
Roy finishes as clear 2nd ahead of Kolobnev, who couldn't repeat his victory from 2011, but should be satisfied nevertheless.
A close sprint for the further positions: Hoogerland edges out Ben Nasser, with both completing the Top-5.
HTC's Baugnies and De Maar did great to finish ahead of Efimkin, who struggled even though he had a good position for this sprint.
BPost completes the Top-10 with Cousin surprisingly beating his captain Gautier.. top-favorite Flügel dropped to 11th in the end, ahead of a Tinkoff-trio (Rybakov, Zakarin, Kozontchuk)!
Neither Reimer (22nd) nor Pakthusov (30th) or Geschke (36th) couldn't sprint for a decent result, even though the two Germans had hoped for the peloton to enter this climb alltogether. Sram with a zero-pointer, as Duggan finished 35th as the team's best. Same foes for CSC (Gil, 49th).
Many managers or fans had expected Volkswagen to be on the top of podium here.. but definitely not Kessler, who got his biggest win in 2013 for sure!
