Welcome to Sweden, host of the Scandinavia Open Road Race. The favourites to win today are Froome, Di Maggio and Ulissi, with loads of riders hoping to get a top 5 as well. Today’s race will see perfect conditions, sunshine, almost no wind and decent temperatures, so no excuses to fail!
Bol is the rider to initiate the first attack, followed by Barbas, Cardoso, Sulzberger, Campero and Schoffmann.
The group is quickly neutralized by Bacardi. Five riders try to get clear, and here we see some familiar names: Cardoso, Sulzberger, Campero and Schoffmann. The fifth man here is Slagter. Their lead grows to minute, but Schoffmann can’t follow and drops back into the peloton.
With no teammates upfront Wengeling makes a desperate move, trying to bridge the gap which currently sits at 1:40.
Not much later he reaches the front of the race, where Campero is already struggling.
The break starts the first climb with a 5 minute advantage, and 2 laps later the gap has even grown to 6:37.
With 105 kilometres left in this race, Anderson is the first rider to lose contact with the peloton, which indicates the gap is melting, and indeed it is, after 6 laps the break has 4:57 to the peloton.
Zaini falls, It’s a tricky turn after the descent, but that should be no reason for professionals, and in particular favourites to fall after having passed it several times now. And as no one is waiting for him, we can only assume it’s all on Efimkin now for the team. Which is only confirmed on the next climb:
Ben Nasser attacks! He’s followed by Di Maggio, Ulissi, McEvoy and Bellis. It seems like the favourites don’t like waiting! This means the peloton accelerates so Zaini never has a chance at getting back. He’ll be trying to finish the race tho, to assess his injuries.
They never had a big lead, and are caught again. But they don’t seem to care and just attack again! Only McEvoy, Ben Nasser and Di Maggio manage to get clear now.
At this same time Slagter and Cardoso dropped their companions.
Sulzberger and Wengelin rejoin the 3 others on the downhill, and Sulzberger even tries to leave them them behind, he doesn’t manage to do so tho.
A large group of riders has been been dropped, and in here we find riders like Lövkvist, Ilias and Ndbri.
With about 20 kilometres left in today’s race, the group with Di Maggio, Ben Nasser, Campero, who was in today’s break and hiding behind him McEvoy, has been brought back by the peloton.
Not much later also the breakaway is back, Ulissi upped the pace slightly, perhaps to test his rivals late in the race? Whatever he tried, he stops right after this moment, which means we might actually see a mass sprint here in Sweden! Only 1 downhill section and 1 climb remain. At this point no one even tries an attack, perhaps some riders have already waster their energy?
65 riders form the group which will start the final climb, all favourites, except Zaini and Lövkvist are still here and should fight for victory. Di Maggio launches another attack, this time followed by Ulissi, Ben Nasser and Bellis.
Just under 3 kilometres to go and Di Maggio has a decent lead, Efimkin is pulling the peloton.
And then suddenly Kelderman’s legs said: ‘Poof’, and he created a gap. Gautier’s reaction is start sprinting, flying past Ulissi, Ben Nasser and Bellis. Others in this group are Monfort, Bobridge, Skujins, Efimkin and Der. Some naotable names who are influenced by this are pre-race favourite Froome, Roy and Betancourt, as well as sprinters Kump and Vastaranta. With only 2 kilometres left to the finish, and quite a gap to Di Maggio, these riders may be cycling for minor points now.
Final kilometre for Di Maggio, who still has a healthy lead. Behind the group with Gautier is moving quite fast, not allowing the peloton to regain ground.
Gautier is leading the sprint for second, as Di Maggio cannot be caught anymore. Skujins seems to have the highest sprintingspeed.
Brilliant win for Cesare Di Maggio! His manager will be pleased.
Behind him Gautier wins the sprint for second ahead of Bobridge, Bellis, Skujins, Monfort, Ben Nasser, Efimkin, Ulissi and the man completing the top 10 Der.
Froome wins the pelotonsprint, be in all fairness he could’ve won if Kelderman didn’t blow himself. Anyway Froome’s manager will be wondering why his team didn’t deliver here.
