Welcome to arguably the biggest race on the cycling calendar. The winner today will get to spend next season in the famous rainbow-striped jersey and will almost certainly go down as a Man-Game legend. The field today is absolutely packed-out with talent from many of the biggest cycling nations with very few names missing. Will we see one of the man favourites take it out or will we get a surprise winner for the second year in a row?
So let’s have a look at the course. It is 260.7km long with almost no flat terrain for the whole length. We have 14 laps of a tough circuit with three climbs per lap followed by a long descent. We finish the race on the first half of one of these climbs and, while none of these climbs are tough by themselves, it still means that the riders will have to deal with 43 climbs across the course of the day. Here is what the lap profiles and the final climb look like:
Many nations are here without a legitimate chance of winning so some riders have a chance to go for an early shot at getting their name out there. Not only that but some teams will want a rider in the break so that they don’t have to do a lot of work, particularly teams with only 3 or 6 riders. Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy is the first to give it a go.
We have a huge number of riders who really want to go for it today. The riders trying at various points are: Lloyd Soler Bauer Deignan Coppel Bugge Konig Bewley Posthuma Eastman Silva Pakthusov Rodrigues Vrecer Schurter Roman Cherel Popkov Fonte Dyachenko Meyer Wyss Kirchen
And last, but not least, our defending champion Lars Boom!
Most of these early moves are controlled diligently by four riders – Nibali, Vansummeren, Fothen and Hermans. That’s right, Nibali and Fothen are working on the front of a peloton.
As it happens it is Boom’s move which sticks. He gets out in a move with Dyachenko and Fonte and they start to build a gap. Of course the gap is at only 1’30” when Fonte falls off his bike.
Fonte has no real choice but to wait for the bunch and with only two riders out front and well over 200km of riding to do, the others don’t look keen. Plenty of other riders sense an opportunity and look to attack up to the two leaders. This means that the two front riders are in fact brought in and it looks like Boom’s surprise attempt to defend his jersey will have to come in another way. We have now had 50km of racing at high speed but still no break.
To give you an idea of the pace, Goss and Irvine have already been dropped by the bunch. Neither of them are particularly good puncheurs but it does show what sort of pressure is being exerted. Serpa punctures and finds it terribly hard to get back but he will manage it once the pace slows down, no doubt. Indeed punctures aren’t the only thing to worry about as Frank falls. The riders will have to concentrate a lot with this course.
So with no break we unsurprisingly see still more attacks. Some of these are new names and some aren’t: Vorganov Posthuma Nepomnyachsniy Fonte Popkov Mugerli Meyer Coppel Bewley
From this attack, our break of the day finally develops! We have the following names here: Posthuma Mugerli Nepomnyachsniy Vorganov Fonte Popkov
Posthuma is probably the most interesting name in here from a tactical perspective, though it is also worth noting that Vorganov represents the Russian’s ambitions. Finally, you have to find it funny that Fonte crashed out of the original break of three and still ends up in this group.
Back in the pack we can get our first real taste of who will be doing the pace-setting in this race. With 190km to go we have Spain, Germany and, surprisingly, Luxembourg on the front.
This three-way alliance doesn’t last too long and with 6 laps out of the 14 completed Belgium and Italy have joined Germany and Spain up front. The gap is up to 4’40” as Nibali leads the bunch over. There is perhaps no surprise in these nations doing most of the work as they have quite strong favourites and also 9 riders present.
After 8 laps are completed the gap is at this same level. Indeed, none of the teams seem too keen on giving the break any more than 5 minutes. Perhaps they are all remembering last year’s problems? Nibali is still doing most of the work but now he is being helped by Pozzato. You really have to admire the amount of talent in this Italian squad.
Now we get out next fallers – first up it is the German champion Mehr-Wenige. He isn’t the team leader but he is certainly some one who could be expected to help out late in the race. Claeys, who has a similar role in his team, also falls soon after this. Both of them get back and it is clear that Claeys has a valuable role to play as no less than Boonen waits for him.
The race powers on without a great deal of excitement for quite some time. With 70km to go the gap starts to come down from that same point just over 4’30”. The Italians have his well under control and have put some of the stars of world cycling on to the front of the bunch.
With 3 laps to go (55.5km) the gap is down to 2’58” and it is a good chance to check in with what is happening at the front of the bunch. All we see is a sea of blue. Brajkovic is here working for his team but other than him the following Italian riders are setting a cracking pace: Ponzi Ricco Ulissi Pozzato Nibali Sella
Clearly they are trying to line this up for Cunego and are willing to risk all of their chances by putting it all on him.
The rain starts not long after this, just to add a little bit of risk to the whole affair. With 2 laps of this course remaining it is beginning to look like we won’t see much excitement at all. The gap is down to 1’27” but there hasn’t been a peep out of the bunch yet!
All of that changes soon afterwards! With 30km to the line L. L. Sanchez and Spilak make a joint attack out of the bunch. Spilak is undoubtedly a strong outsider in this race so this looks serious!
Clearly some of the favourites see things that way and they follow the attack too! Following these three we have Gilbert, Cunego and Hagen – the Italians have relinquished control of the bunch and have launched their man! Schumacher also makes an assault moments later, much to the delight of the home fans.
The gap is currently at around a minute and Vorganov and Posthuma decide to give it one last effort as they drop the rest of the break.
In fact they are soon caught by their former companions but that is not the most interesting thing out on course! The 6 riders who attacked out of the bunch have 48” on the peloton and the gap is growing – could some of the favourites be stealing a chance from the others? Van Garderen seems worried about exactly that and he sets off in pursuit.
Vorganov waits for a descent before making his next move – it comes at a good time as the rest of the break are caught by the marauding favourites.
In fact Cunego leads the rest of the favourites’ group up to Vorganov so things are now set for a real show-down.
We can see some clear panic from a number of the leaders who missed out on the attack. Gesink, Froome and Efimkin are on the front of the bunch trying to bring it up to the elite riders. The gap is at 34” and the peloton has been reduced to 77 riders. The only leaders missing are Monfort and Claeys, with Claeys probably injured from his earlier crash.
As we begin the final lap L. L. Sanchez decides that he needs to attack again if he is going to get anything out of today – the other riders are all stronger than him on paper, so he has to do something radical.
Unfortunately for the Spaniard no one is willing to give him any room and Hagen leads the favourites up to him again. This has grown the gap back out to 48”.
With the gap growing again there is some more panic. The Dutch get onto the front of the bunch to try to control things but Bellis just goes for a more direct approach – he tries to attack across the gap. Could Rothaus retain the WC jersey?
Possibly, but not with this attack as Reus pushes the pace on the front of the bunch and catches him with 15km of riding still to go.
With 12km to go the extra pressure on the front seems to be having some effect as the lead is now down to 24”. Seeing this, and not wanting to waste this great opportunity, Van Garderen attacks away from the other favourites.
This causes the entire former break to finally drop back to the bunch. All 6 of the favourites are able to follow him but it once again causes the gap over the bunch to stretch. Perhaps sensing an important moment Frank Schleck attacks and very quickly works his way to the front group. Will his fresher legs count for anything here?
Seeing the ease with which Schleck managed to get up to the leaders three more favourites seek to get away from the bunch – Gesink, Efimkin and Bellis.
While they can’t breach the gap like Schleck could, they still get a gap over the bunch. Ricco, Madrazo and Ponzi follow straight after them and finally, Flugel is not far behind them. It is interesting to see some teams like the Italians and the Spanish sending multiple riders up the road.
Speaking of the Italians, Cunego now launches an attack out of the front group! It certainly looks tough and Gilbert and Spilak like the look of it, so they jump on his back wheel.
There are now 10km to go for the leaders and here is the situation:
22"
17"
32"
10"
Cunego
--->
Schumacher
--->
Gesink
--->
Flugel
--->
P (50)
Gilbert
Hagen
Efimkin
Spilak
Van Garderen
Bellis
Sanchez
Ricco
Schleck
Ponzi
Madrazo
Nibali is the next one to launch an attack. Ahead of him Madrazo is dropped by his group and indeed he is then overtaken by Flugel.
It looks like we haven’t seen the decisive attack yet as Schleck and Hagen manage to claw the three front riders back. This certainly makes it a bit more nervous going in to the finish of this race.
In fact the group really don’t want to help each other too much and this means that Gesink is able to bring his group up to the front. Flugel also joins them, which means that this is our front group of 14: Cunego, Ricco, Ponzi Schumacher, Flugel Van Garderen Schleck Gilbert Spilak Hagen Sanchez Gesink Bellis Efimkin
The gap back to Madrazo is at 47” and Nibali is another 18” behind him. The bunch has sat up now and is over another minute back. Ricco and Ponzi immediately come to the very front of the race in order to ensure that Madrazo can’t come back. The Italian team has been absolutely magnificent all race. There are only 5 kilometres remaining now and this looks like it will be the group that will fight it out!
This also stretches the group out a bit so as we come to the final climb we can see quite easily who is well placed. Ponzi has Hagen on his wheel with Ricco behind him and Cunego in fourth position. Flugel, Van Garderen and Schleck are all together just behind these four.
The sprint starts with 1km to go as Edvald Boassan Hagen makes his bid for the line. This uphill sprint is just what he likes!
Damiano Cunego comes past his two domestiques and into second position. He is right at Hagen’s back wheel!
Cunego is at his shoulder with 200 metres to go!
But Edvald Boassan Hagen takes a fantastic victory and is the new world champion! This caps off what has been an outstanding season!
Cunego reaches out to shake the hand of the young man who has beaten him. He will kick himself when he sees just how close he was to the coveted rainbow bands...
But the media is interested in only one man.
Ponzi takes a thoroughly deserved and truly surprising third place, making it two Italians on the podium. Van Garderen is in fourth place, just beating Gilbert.
This was an absolutely fantastic race. The Italians did everything they could and they showed why they were the top favourites to take the race. Ultimately, however, there was nothing that they could do against a certain talented Norwegian. We were treated to the big battle amongst almost all of the favourites that we wanted.
Yevgeni Nepomnyachsniy is the first to give it a go.
Lloyd
Soler
Bauer
Deignan
Coppel
Bugge
Konig
Posthuma
Eastman
Silva
Pakthusov
Vrecer
Schurter
Roman
Kirchen
Nibali, 
Vansummeren, 
Fothen and 
Vorganov
Spain, 
Froome and 
