The prestigious cobblec classic in Lincoln is just about to start. It's a rainless day here in Britain and the riders can't await to kick off.
Top-favorites should be De Haes, Joseph and Ostergaard, with some more names being rated as similar strong though.
6 riders established a 1'30" as they enter the second of ten laps, so this looks like the break of the day:
Jacobsen, Kaus, Poulhiès, Hasnaoui, Tiernan-Locke and Farabaugh
Yap, the group was allowed to go for a bigger gap. We're halfway through the race, 89km to go, and the peloton starts to take control of the gap now: 4'18" advantage for the escapees, while especially Risa, TomTom and Lierse show their colors at the front of the bunch.
And it's Lebris, who launches the first serious attack back in the pack! The French tries to jump away 83km before finish, with Herklotz trying to follow immediately!
Also Saramotins jumps behind and he catches up to Lebris/Herklotz a few moments later. So it's three teams, which do have at least two possible favorites for this race. A tactical move. 3'20" disadvantage on the early escapees.
It took those three just one lap to bridge this gap though, so as we face 66km remaining kilometres, the leading group consists 9 riders now.
Back in the peloton, Lierse and Risa send several domestiques to the front, working hard in the chase. The bunch is down by 3'00" at this point.
But as the two teams struggle to narrow the gap, the remaining favorites do have some pressure: Takenouchi attacks the peloton 32km before finish and the leading group's advantage is at 3'40" again.
24km (two laps) to go and the leading group goes into pieces, as Saramotins and Lebris set a high pace to hold off the chasing bunch!
No big surprise, that only Herklotz was able to follow this duo. The mid-race attacking trio enters the final lap with a comfortable lead:
E1/ Lebris, Saramotins, Herklotz
E2/ Break of the day (except Kaus, who got dropped) at 1.34
E3/ Group of favorites (19 riders) with Ostergaard, Joseph, Takenouchi, De Haes at 2.32
So Takenouchi couldn't establish a gap on the remaining bunch of favorites. Will this disadvantage of more than two minutes be too much?
The top-favorites at least won't give up at this point: 12km to go and we see some more attacks in the peloton.
Joseph, De Haes (who gave it an empty-handed try the lap before) and again Takenouchi!
A few moments later (10km remaining) we see a maybe crucial move at the very front though:
Saramotins attacks the leading trio and opens up a nice gap quickly!
Only Lebris looks strong enough to follow this move, but he faces a 20"-gap with now only 9km to go!
It's a thrilling fight between those two, while Herklotz seems to suffer from his efforts. 6km remaining and the situation is as follows:
E1/ Saramotins
E2/ Lebris at 0.08
E3/ Herklotz at 0.39
E4/ Joseph, De Haes at 2.12
E5/ 20 riders with Ostergaard, Takenouchi, Schär at 2.32
Biggest name being dropped by this 20-men-group is Schoonbroodt, but his team is in the mix for the win anyway. The duo Joseph/De Haes seems to be too far away to bridge the gap to the leading riders.
Lebris catches up to Saramotins 4km before finish, while Herklotz is still 32" in arrears and Joseph/De Haes 1'54"...
Joseph and De Haes are also soon to be swallowed by the 20-men-group of favorites, it looks they finally gave up chasing.. this may the group to fight for the 4th place.
The leading duo will soon enter the final km and tough climb with cobbles... Saramotins in the better position at Lebris' wheel..
They kick off the sprint prior to the climb... Saramotins leaves Lebris' slipstream, the two are head-to-head!
Saramotins looks too strong, establishing a nice advantage of two bike lenghts..
Yes, he takes it! Saramotins wins the Lincoln GP 2014! 18" later, Lebris crosses the line as 2nd. A thrilling finishing lap and a strong 80km-effort by those two..
..as well as Herklotz, who lost his bike, but still completes the podium! Definitely a great result for him and his team.
And Declerq adds a nice 4th place for Puma thanks to a dominating sprint finish back in the bunch. Also Lander (10th) makes the Top-10 eventually!
In a close sprint for the final Top-5-place, De Winde beats Mortensen and Lilholt. A rather disappointing De Haes comes in as 9th, behind teammate Lindgren. Joseph has to settler for 13th and also Ostergaard had yet another poor Lincoln-day as 14th.
Takenouchi (22nd) paid for his attacking style today and other promising names like Schär (21st) or Hamilton (15th) didn't show anything to deserve more than their actual results.
