Welcome to the capital of Portugal, where the weather is very nice today with a bright sun and a temperature of 27 degrees Celsius. It's quite windy, but it shouldn't cause echelons. Most riders don't seem to mind this weather and thus we should have a good day of racing here.
When we set off the pace is obviously quite low, and it's two Good Energy riders who are having a quiet chat at the front of the pack.
One of them decides not to take it easy today though, and Kamyshev is the first to launch himself from the pack.
This rewards him with a place in today's break of 6, together with Albasini, Silva, Giling, Hofland and Hepburn. The Aussie seems to be in the break to relieve his domestiques from work for Bewley, but this does cause a smaller amount of riders willing to chase.
In the pack it's obviously the sprinter teams leading. Pokerstars.com for Boonen, VolksWagen-Mapei for Pozzato, surprisingly Becherovka - Kiwibank for Bewley, Lotto – Australia Post for Bennati and Good Energy for Guarnieri.
As is usual in flat races, the break gets allowed to gain a bit of time. For the next kilometers nothing special happens. Some teams decide to join the chase, some teams decide to temporarily quit chasing. At least it provides some pretty pictures along the coast.
Not until 125 km from the line and a lead for the break of over 7m30 the pack starts to make some pace, and the lead is slowly but surely decreasing. The hilly section is yet to come though. The first outsiders, Burghardt and Summerhill start to show themselves in the front of the pack. Are they making a plan to go together? They do ride next to each other, so it doesn't seem impossible.
The increasing pace in the pack does have its result. With 100km to go the lead is 6m01, which is a decrease of about 1m30 compared to 20kms before. The race is still quite boring, but not for Carvalho, who must be surprised to see his fanclub right on this section of the route.
In the hills the situation must be quite disappointing for the teams who relied on a strong puncher, as it's still the sprinter teams leading the chase, which is now dominated by Pokerstars.com. At 50km from the line, the pack still needs to close 3 minutes on the break.
Just a few kilometers later we have an attack from the pack! Vanmarcke attacks. Surely Rothaus wants to have someone ahead of the pack but must think it's too early to launch Ballan. Nobody follows Vanmarcke though, so his move seems doomed right from the start. Nevertheless he quickly builds up a lead of over 30 seconds.
Vanmarcke at least timed his attack well. Ginanni is leading the chase now, and his high pace is causing trouble to not only the other chasers, but also his leader Bewley. He has to slow down and Vanmarcke gains.
In a relatively quiet phase the lead of Vanmarcke is growing a little, but the original break is losing lots of time. With 30km to go and a lead of under 1m30 Albasini decides to jump away from his fellow escapees. Kamyshev follows.
In the pack some fresh blood has joined the chase. Pokerstars.com, which has largely been responsible for the chase today, has given over to the other sprinter teams.
With 25km to go Vanmarcke pays the price for his solo ride and collapses. He is caught on today's penultimate hill. Further up front, where the original break has reuinted, Albasini tears the group apart.
At the summit of the hill, which is 22km away from the line, the situation is as follows.
Leaders: Albasini, Hofland, Silva
+'29 Giling
+'38 Hepburn
+'53 Kamyshev
+1'16 Peloton including all favourites.
The pack has some trouble organizing itself, and the lead is growing a bit again. Several sprinters have suffered on the hills, but not Bewley who is in the leading ten positions of the pack.
Several riders have suffered too much on the hills and pay the price on the flat after the downhill. Among them we find Guerao and Stauff.
The first pack is torn apart to just 51 riders, most of them tired. The chase is going to get very interesting now.
New attack with just over 15km to go, and it's a big one! Pozzato attacks, and he is followed by Vanspeybrouck, and further to the back we have Kozontchuk and last year's winner Burghardt trying to get away from the pack as well.
Most attacks fail, but one doesn't. The initiator of this series of attacks, Pozzato, storms past the next early escapee, Hepburn, and quickly builds up a lead of over 30 seconds to the peloton with 14.4 km to go.
The pack has motivated itself to chase again, but the difference has already grown to 55 seconds with 12km to go.
Just before the final serious uphill slopes Pozzato catches the solo leader Hofland, who had jumped away from his fellow escapees.
The sprinters are in serious trouble now with no helpers left. In his desperation Bewley goes leading the pack all by himself.
It's hard to say it helps though. With 10km to go Pozzato has ditched his co-leader and is heading towards the summit with a lead of over a minute to what's left of the pack.
Just two km later Pozzato is just a small spot far away for his closest chaser, Hofland, who is already 30 seconds behind.
The pack's chasing isn't useless though, as it at least ensures a fight for a higher final spot. Giling is caught, and Albasini and Silva become realistic targets as well.
The second pack is still chasing, hoping a top-10 might still be possible for the sprinters in it. The gap has been quite stable all the time though and it doesn't look like they'll make it back.
Meanwhile up front it's Pozzato who's still flying. His lead over the next chaser is 48 seconds with 5km to go and it looks like the Italian is going to take a victory here.
The fight for place two is very exciting though. Pokerstars.com has Ginanni lead out Boonen, but Bewley, Kennaugh, Impey and many other sprinters are present as well. And let's not forget the 3 escapees between the pack and the leader.
After an incredible effort they are caught with 3.5km to go already though. A clear sprint train is now visible in the pack.
A determined Pozzato ignores all this and heads into the final 2.5km with a lead of 1m14 to the pack.
An interesting series of events now occurs in the pack. A Becherovka - Kiwibank sprint train, Howard leading out Bewley, storms forward, while the Pokerstars.com sprint train fully collapses.
With 2.5km to go Bewley ditches Howard in order to shake off the other sprinters. That leads to the following situation in the pack:
Bewley
Howard
Roelandts
Boonen
Guarnieri
Impey
Kennaugh
Mohs
Ginanni
Kupfernagel
Rowe
Pozzato may be showing signs of exhaust, but there's no sign he won't win with just one kilometer left to ride.
The fight for place two has narrowed out as well. Bewley, Roelandts and Boonen will fight for that.
With 1km to ride Boonen has the highest speed, but Bewley has a good gap. Roelandts isn't in contention for 2nd seemingly.
But here's the winner: Filippo Pozzato wins the 2nd edition of the Lisbon Classic after an incredible solo ride for the last 15 kilometers.
Bewley easily hangs on for second, ahead of Boonen and Roelandts.
5th place goes to Impey.
The rest of the top-10 is filled by Reimer, Van Garderen, Kennaugh, Guarnieri and Vanspeybrouck.
