It took us a while to get pictures and a proper report for this race, but it's finally there: a tough and true challenge here in Sid Moussa, Marocco. 180km in total and a steep climb, that has to be climbed 20 times!
The expected top-favorites are Weening, Rodriguez or local hero Chaoufi, who definitely hopes for an extra boost to compete with the best!
It's an interesting race right from the start, with several early attacks leading to a rather high pace and a first split in the bunch - but as soon as first group of 3 riders is allowed to go clear, the dropped riders (inlcuding Weening, Barrio or Kirchen) manage to catch up again.
So let's have a look the first escaping group: Van Niekerk, Durán and Giogieri lead by 1'40" on the pack with still 160km to go.
They are joined by two more riders - Ghafari and Shapira - two laps later and this 5-men-group established a 4'30" gap in the meantime.
This gap grew up to almost ten minutes, but with now 95km remaining, the peloton already started to chase down the break of the day:
Gazelle does all of this work by now, cutting down the gap to 6'10" quickly..
And the higher pace would again lead to a major split in the bunch! Still more than 50km remaining, but only 21 riders managed to stay in the first peloton, where Gazelle pulls the strings hard!
Some notable names find themselves being dropped quite early today:
Serry Valencia Teklit and the guy on the picture is..
..yes, local hero Chaoufi! That's unexpected and horrible news for Air Kenya, who still have one rider in the breakaway at least.
It's more like an elimination race so far and again some big names are dropped by the chasing peloton:
Rodriguez and Barrio are next in line to fall behind with still 25km to go! Rodriguez with bad luck though, as he crashed on the descent a few moments before..
And now we see the first attacks in the peloton (19 riders remaining), which is still 2'35" behind the breakaway group with 20km remaining:
Niyonshuti launches a move on the climb! Let's also have a look at who's in the now small bunch:
Another group with Morton, Serry or Carrare is 30" behind.
Niyonshuti caught up to the early escapees quickly, but so did Weening, Sammy Sánchez and Martinez! So this 4 plus the 5 escapees make for a 9-men-group in the lead with 14km to go!
The next group with now 14 riders (group Morton caught up) is down by 1'23"!
This new leading group seems to be the group, where today's winner will come from, as the chasing bunch is already 2'52" in arrears as we enter the final lap (7.5km)!
Surprisingly, it's now Giogieri with the next attack! Does he have enough energy left after being in the break of the day already?
Well, at least his surprising move gave him a 30"-advantage quickly. Time for the top-favorite to jump behind:
Weening goes with 6.5km remaining! Followed by a strong Niyonshuti!
They catch up to Giogieri just a few moments later and they also established a decent gap on the group behind (which went into pieces in the meantime). 6km remaining and Niyonshuti with another acceleration to go for a solo-attempt:
E1/ Niyonshuti
E2/ Weening, Giogieri at 0.11
E3/ Martinez, Sánchez at 0.37
E4/ Durán, Shapira, Van Niekerk, Ghafari at 1.13
P/ 16 riders with Blazquez, Rodriguez, Furdi, Serry at 4.09
Weening managed to follow Niyonshuti's attack and the two enter the final 5km with a 45"-gap on Giogieri and Martinez!
Already a minute behind is Sammy Sánchez with early escapee Durán, so it looks like a fight between the leading duo now.
Yap, it's going to be one of this two! We're under the kite and Niyonshuti kicks off the sprint from the leading position!
27" behind, but maybe too late, is Tamayo Martinez, who dropped early escapee Giogieri in the meantime..
Just a few metres to go and Weening loses ground..
And he can't compete with today's strongest: Adrien Niyonshuti takes out this tough classic! A somehow deserved victory, as the South African definitely was the most aggressive favorite here.. still, a nice 2nd place for ever-shining Pieter Weening!
Also Juan Sebastian Tamayo Martinez will be satisfied with completing the podium 35" later! He easily dropped Tyron Giogieri, who did very well though and grabs a great 4th place after being in the break of the day!
Another early escapee - Durán - sprints for 6th, ahead of a rather disappointing Sánchez, Shapira and Ghafari!
Some bad luck for Iberia today with Rodriguez crashing (finishing 14th eventually) and no Top-5.. Completing the Top-10 are Van Niekerk and Feng.
HTC's best is Serry as 19th and CSC had a day to forget with Barrio finishing as 31st. Same goes for Jaguar with Teklit as 38th.. in other news, 16 riders fell out of the time limit. Check their names in the results.
A great moment for the South African team MTN - World Bicycle Relief to celebrate a win in Africa! Especially after such an interesting race with Niyonshuti being one of the main reasons for the race's thrill. Congrats!
