With this startlist it’s hard to tell who will be the favourites, but König, Aru, Frank, Capecchi and Busche should do really well here.


Just 3 after 3 kilometres Corbel (Bretagne), Sokol (Gourmetfein), Nowak (CCC) and Monguzzi) try to get clear.

Rezman (Vorarlberg) and Mohoric (Sava) also try to get lose, to form a six-man strong break. They succeed in doing this, and at the top of the firs climb they have a gap with the peloton. Sokol had a hard time staying up front after his attack, but he managed to do so, so we now have a break of those 6 riders.

The sprint got uncontested and was won by Nowak, Rezman was second, Sokol third.

The gap is 4 minutes when the 6 riders start their second ascend on the smaller, but also quite steep climb. In the pack it are the teams of RadioShack, BMC, Astana, Movistar and NetApp who are controlling the race.

As well as the Sprint, the KoM was uncontested, and won by Mohoric, infront of Monguzzi and Rezman.
The second sprint went to Corbel, Mohoric second and Moguzzi third.


With 81 kilometres to go it’s Nose who tries the leave the pack. He’s followed by Jungels and Barbin creating the following situation with 75 kms to go:

Corbel, Sokol, Nowak, Monguzzi, Rezman, Mohoric –2.28-> Nose –0.34->Jungels –0.45-> Barbin –0.16-> Peloton.


20 KM later the three mid-stage attackers have reached the initial break away of 6, and they start to co-operate well together. The lead is 3.20 minutes at this time.

The second KoM also has no fight. It’s won by Nose, Barbin gets second ahead of Jungels.
The third sprint goes to Nose, Rezman second, Mohoric third. The lead is 2.51 and Santaromita is leading the chase in the peloton.


30 kilometres to go, this is the last time the break will climb the small hill. They still have a lead of 1:55. The peloton has been reduced a bit, 23 riders gone, no big names lost yet.



On that small hill Santambrogio (Vini) tries his luck. He reaches the 9 riders in front of him, but at the top everyone’s back together. Or not?



Somehow Nowak managed to get away once again, creating a gap of about a minute, and only a short downhill is all what remains until the riders face the climb to Küthai.



But as soon as the climb starts it’s obvious Nowak’s energy has been drained. With 20kms to go he’s almost caught. Just 66 men form the front group now, meaning a lot more riders have been dropped already. But no don’t worry, all favourites are still where they should be!



Astana takes full control over the race now, Agnoli has been leading the pack for 5 kms now, from the point where Nowak was caught until now, when there are 15 kms of climbing left. Aru must’ve said his legs are strong today!



At this very same time Nowak gets dropped, and no one will remember his name, sadly. He rode a good stage and now he only has to make sure he finishes.



Only 10 kilometres to go, and it’s only now that Agnoli has given the lead to Seeldraeyers. Boy that Italian was strong today! Let’s hope for him his work will pay off, in the form of Aru winning.



Several riders are suffering now after Agnoli’s long effort. The groups of riders dropped include Castroviejo and Plaza (Movistar) and Santaromita (BMC)



And here goes Capecchi! There are 7 gruelling kilometres left. Aru, König, Busche, Zoidl, Frank and Santambrogio try to follow the brave Italian.



With 5 kilometres to go Aru and König have caught up with Capecchi, giving the following situation:
Aru, König, Capecchi –0.36-> Frank, Busche, Santambrogio –0.16-> Zoidl –1.00-> 27 riders, Rogina is leading this group.



And now Frank tries to bridge the gap to the 3 leaders! But at this same time Aru and König try to lose Capecchi! There are 4 kilometres to go and this race is full of action.



With 3 kilometres to go it looks like Aru is going solo, no one can keep up with the young Italian. König is following, 24 seconds behind. After him Capecchi is getting closer again, just 8 seconds behind König now. Frank is another 24 seconds down, Busche and Santambrogio follow him on just 28 seconds. Zoidl is staying close them at 17 seconds and the group lead by Rogina is 59 seconds behind Zoidl.



And indeed Aru was strong today! He never lost a second to his opposition in the final 3 kms. Great win for him and the team. Think back to Agnoli’s work earlier, he was certainly the key to this win.



Meanwhile, Capecchi has overtaken König for second. Frank comes in as fourth.



Following Frank are Santambrogio and Busche who get fifth and sixth respectively.



The crowd on the line sees home favourite Zoidl taking seventh, 2:45 behind Aru.



The top 10 is completed by Morabito, Seeldraeyers and Rogina.

And after 32 minutes:

It’s poor Rupnik who finishes last, a few minutes after the autobus had passed the line. Surely this is a day he may want to forget as soon as possible.

(Now this was a single stage, so no points have been awarded for sprints and KoMs, therefore the AI acted a bit strange at those sprints, but the race itself was great to watch.)

Full results:

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Fabio Aru	Astana Pro Team	5h00'25
2	Eros Capecchi	Movistar Team	+ 48
3	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
4	Mathias Frank	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'19
5	Mauro Santambrogio	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	+ 1'54
6	Matthew Busche	Radioshack - Leopard	s.t.
7	Riccardo Zoidl	Team Gourmetfein Simplon	+ 2'40
8	Steve Morabito	BMC Racing Team	+ 4'03
9	Kevin Seeldraeyers	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
10	Radoslav Rogina	Adria Mobil	s.t.
11	Yannick Eijssen	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
12	Alexsandr Dyachenko	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
13	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
14	George Bennett	Radioshack - Leopard	+ 4'20
15	Sylvester Szmyd	Movistar Team	s.t.
16	David De La Cruz Melgajero	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
17	José Joao Pimenta Costa Mendes	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
18	Angelo Pagani	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
19	Valerio Agnoli	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
20	Fredrik Kessiakoff	Astana Pro Team	+ 4'49
21	Jure Golcer	Tirol Cycling Team	+ 5'03
22	Florian Guillou	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	s.t.
23	Dominik Nerz	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
24	Enrico Barbin	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	+ 5'25
25	Stefano Locatelli	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
26	Matija Kvasina	Team Gourmetfein Simplon	s.t.
27	Egor Silin	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
28	Thomas Rohregger	Radioshack - Leopard	s.t.
29	Jésus Herrada Lopez	Movistar Team	s.t.
30	Edoardo Zardini	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
31	Michael Schär	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
32	Paul Voss	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
33	Tomasž Nose	Adria Mobil	s.t.
34	Jesse Sergent	Radioshack - Leopard	+ 6'02
35	Yonnatta Alejandro Monsalve Pertsinidis	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	+ 10'29
36	Ben Hermans	Radioshack - Leopard	s.t.
37	Paolo Tiralongo	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
38	Rubén Plaza Molina	Movistar Team	s.t.
39	Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas	Movistar Team	s.t.
40	Vladimir Karpets	Movistar Team	s.t.
41	Laurent Didier	Radioshack - Leopard	s.t.
42	Bob Jungels	Radioshack - Leopard	s.t.
43	Fabio Taborre	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	s.t.
44	Markus Eibegger	Team Gourmetfein Simplon	s.t.
45	Francisco Manuel Bongiorno	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
46	Vegard Stake Laengen	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	s.t.
47	Harald Totschnig	Tirol Cycling Team	s.t.
48	Francesco Failli	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	s.t.
49	Diego Ares	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
50	Iker Camaño Ortuzar	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
51	Josef Černý	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
52	Lukas Pöstlberger	Team Gourmetfein Simplon	s.t.
53	Hans-Jörg Leopold	Wsa	s.t.
54	Marek Rutkiewicz	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
55	Mateusz Taciak	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
56	Maarten De Jonge	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
57	Martin Schöffmann	Wsa	s.t.
58	Enrico Battaglin	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
59	Paul Lang	Wsa	s.t.
60	Matej Mohoric	Sava	s.t.
61	Luca Mazzanti	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	s.t.
62	Bostjan Rezman	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
63	Jan Tratnik	Tirol Cycling Team	s.t.
64	Markus Eichler	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
65	Stephen Cummings	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
66	Kristjan Fajt	Adria Mobil	s.t.
67	Mateusz Nowak	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
68	Stefan Rucker	Team Gourmetfein Simplon	s.t.
69	Geoffroy Lequatre	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	s.t.
70	Jacek Morajko	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
71	Marco Pinotti	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
72	Matej Marin	Team Gourmetfein Simplon	s.t.
73	Markel Irizar Aranburu	Radioshack - Leopard	s.t.
74	David Wöhrer	Tirol Cycling Team	s.t.
75	Alexander Schrangl	Arbö Gebrüder Weiss - Oberndorfer	s.t.
76	José Iván Gutierrez Palacios	Movistar Team	s.t.
77	Josef Benetseder	Wsa	s.t.
78	Andreas Schillinger	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 12'22
79	Marko Pavlic	Radenska	+ 12'39
80	Junya Sano	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	s.t.
81	Francesco Gavazzi	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
82	Alex Dowsett	Movistar Team	s.t.
83	Felix Grossschartner	Team Gourmetfein Simplon	+ 13'15
84	Simon Pavlin	Adria Mobil	+ 13'32
85	Erwann Corbel	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	+ 13'39
86	Stefano Borchi	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	s.t.
87	Adrian Honkisz	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
88	Cristiano Monguzzi	Vini Fantini - Selle Italia	s.t.
89	Tomasz Kiendyś	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	+ 14'37
90	Tadej Hiti	Radenska	+ 15'11
91	Pierre-Luc Perichon	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	s.t.
92	Jakub Kratochvíla	Arbö Gebrüder Weiss - Oberndorfer	s.t.
93	Armindo Fonseca	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	+ 15'44
94	Federico Pozzetto	Tirol Cycling Team	s.t.
95	Arnaud Gérard	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	s.t.
96	Klemen Stimulak	Adria Mobil	+ 16'13
97	Nikolay Mihaylov	CCC Polsat - Polkowice	s.t.
98	Filippo Fortin	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
99	Jan Sokol	Team Gourmetfein Simplon	s.t.
100	Luka Pibernik	Radenska	+ 17'11
101	Petr Lechner	Arbö Gebrüder Weiss - Oberndorfer	s.t.
102	Andreas Hofer	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
103	Tim Mikelj	Sava	s.t.
104	Daniel Schorn	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 17'57
105	Eduardo Sepulveda	Bretagne - Séché Environnement	+ 22'39
106	Primoz Roglic	Adria Mobil	s.t.
107	Matej Mugerli	Adria Mobil	s.t.
108	Remco Broers	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
109	Stefan Praxmarer	Tirol Cycling Team	s.t.
110	Daniel Biedermann	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
111	Dominik Hrinkow	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
112	Sonny Colbrelli	Bardiani Valvole - CSF Inox	s.t.
113	Patrick Schörkmayer	Wsa	s.t.
114	Nik Burjek	Sava	s.t.
115	Benjamim Edmüller	Arbö Gebrüder Weiss - Oberndorfer	s.t.
116	Mario Schoibl	Tirol Cycling Team	s.t.
117	Lukas Ranacher	Arbö Gebrüder Weiss - Oberndorfer	s.t.
118	Andrej Rajsp	Radenska	s.t.
119	Martin Weiss	Tirol Cycling Team	s.t.
120	Andreas Müller	Arbö Gebrüder Weiss - Oberndorfer	s.t.
121	Jure Miskulin	Radenska	s.t.
122	Aljaž Hočevar	Adria Mobil	s.t.
123	Florian Bissinger	Team Vorarlberg	s.t.
124	Ziga Marolt	Sava	s.t.
125	Martin Otonicar	Radenska	s.t.
126	Maximilian Kuen	Arbö Gebrüder Weiss - Oberndorfer	s.t.
127	Mark Dzamastagic	Sava	s.t.
128	Gregor Pavlic	Sava	s.t.
129	Jaka Bostner	Radenska	s.t.
130	Thomas Hasibeder	Arbö Gebrüder Weiss - Oberndorfer	s.t.
131	Markus Götz	Wsa	s.t.
132	Bernhard Kroger	Wsa	s.t.
133	Tadej Logar	Sava	s.t.
134	Jure Bitenc	Sava	s.t.
135	Gernot Auer	Wsa	s.t.
136	Jure Rupnik	Radenska	+ 31'41

I’m open to all sorts of advice, tips, tricks or anything else! Please note that this is my first ever report.