A hilly circuit with lots of climbing. Todays race is something for the puncheurs but ends after a descent.
A big breakaway of 10 riders is allowed to go. Several teams with a top favourite are within this one including helpers from Bank of Ireland with the strongest puncheur at the start and Evonik with Geschke being a good bet today. Orbe Van Ooijen Dunne Orken Vosekalns Senni Lehtinen Rosseler Hasnaoui Guama de la Cruz
Several teams are doing the pace behind.
Bonsucro for Godoy, Risa for Haas, Ameriabank for Pozdnyakov as also Bank of Ireland for Mendes despite having one in the break.
The group had a maximum of 8min today but with 35km to go it`s under 2min. So looking good for the peloton. 3 more laps to go.
Just before the start of the penultimate climb we see the first serious attack by Passalacqua. The Italian one of the best puncheurs in this field.
While he is almost reaching the breakaway more riders jump after him.
We see Pozdnyakov Haas Moinard
and a bit later also Selander.
But the peloton caught most of them immediately. 3 riders of the former breakaway are still in front: Lehtinen Vosekalns Hasnaoui
A bit behind them Haas a few seconds ahead of the peloton.
Bank of Irealand did a good job to bring those back as well.
But instead of calming down a bit we see more attacks.
Which is good actually as we hit the last climb and still have 92 riders in the peloton. Wyss Godoy
As it is the last chance to attack many more follow: Bøchman Mendes Selander Pozdnyakov Haas
A bit behind but also attacking now are: Geschke Moinard Passalacqua
Those three though can`t close the gap and so we see Evonik and Euskaltel doing everything on the last kilometers to catch those. 3 riders each are working at the front of the peloton.
7 riders are in the front group having a 44s gap to the next. In especially the missing of Simon Geschke is surely helping them as his sprint would be superior.
So it`s even more surprising that the strongest sprinter but probably weakest puncheur is attacking now with exactly 5km to go: Pozdnyakov
As the remaining 6 riders looked at each other for a bit too long, one rider was able to come back. It`s Geschke joining them after a strong attack.
22s later some riders missed the attacks. Most notable names surely are Tiernan-Locke, Passalacqua, Sarabia, Feillu, Cioban, Parisien, Losada, Montaguti, Rosskopf or Firsanov.
Mendes in the first position starting the sprint. Can they reach Pozdnyakov in time?
Also Wyss and Selander looking strong here while hte others struggle including Geschke, who obviously did spend too much time to join them.
From behind Tiernan-Locke and Moinard also try to sprint for a top 10.
With 1km to go, Pozdnyakov looking still good. The others did allow him too much of a gap and so he might not even need his good sprint today.
Indeed he keeps his gap until the finish line and is able to celebrate a big win for Ameriabank. Well done. Really deserved winner.
Mendes shows that he could have won this. He takes 2nd with a decent gap to the next but might regret not following Pozdnyakov immediately. Wyss continues his good season by finishing 3rd ahead of a (again) very strong Selander.
Geschke as 5th with a good result seeing that he first has missed the attack.
Behind him a strong Bochman and already Tiernan-Locke with a nice sprint. He is even passing Haas and Godoy in the end.
Veilleux as 10th as best Canadian.
Disappointing race for some of the later riders such as Rosa (13th), Duggan (16th), Parisien (19th), Moinard (22nd), Passalacqua (28th).
