Perfect weather.. final race of the season.. many fans will enjoy this day with the off-season ahead.
Speaking of fans: the locals will cheer for Wyss/Hollenstein or Schurter to deliver today. Kolobnev or Bole will try to spoil their party though!
And so will those 11 riders going for the ever dangerous break of the day:
Lim Aulas Bru Salleh Chiarello Sutherland Herrada Hasnaoui P Van der Ploeg Bekmanis Menchov
So Sauber putting a rider into this group, which establishes a 2'30" quickly into the race..
The breakaway's lead peaked at 8 minutes, but Vontobel and Nordeus (as well as Nutresa) start chasing close to halftime:
114km to go and the gap goes down to 7 minutes again..
Bonsucro joining the chase and the peloton is down by 3'40" with now 63km remaining..
34km and 2 minutes now..
We see the first serious attack out of the bunch (80 riders left):
Kolobnev with an early move!
Kolobnev opened up a 30"-gap quickly, but couldn't yet bridge across the early break, which is further 30" in the front.
It's getting loud at the roadside, as Wyss attacks 22km before finish! It's the most challenging climb and also the second to last here.
This may be a crucial moment and a few more riders try to jump behind Wyss:
Bole Schurter Feillu attack on the same climb!
Those latest attackers all caught up to the early breakaway quickly: 18km remaining and Wyss is already at the front of this new 18-men-leading group:
Hollenstein also joined the fun, while a group of further 5 attackers has yet to do the same:
Godoy Passalacqua Rosskopf Fahnert Sayar
The bunch (66 riders) is already 2'30" in arrears and sitting up..
Group Godoy bridged across the leading group, too. At this final hilltop, the action is on again:
Wyss went first, followed by
Kolobnev Bekmanis Bole
16km to go and Wyss is really pushing it today!
And he does in style: the local hero easily opened up a 50"-gap with now just 7km to go!
Kolobnev couldn't follow and is back in the group of favorites/early escapees (22 riders)...
6.5km remaining for this group, where Sayar tries to launch a late move!
Still 47" disadvantage on Wyss...
..who's going strong towards a huge victory on home soil!
Sayar 28" in arrears with just 3km to go, while group Kolobnev/Bole is further 34" behind!
And so Wyss indeed takes out the Zuri Metzgete 2014! The first Swiss to win this race in it's fifth edition and he does it for a local team, too! way to end a season.
+ 39" Sayar, who holds off the sprinting bunch til the finish. A strong 2nd!
The group comes in with the same time and we saw a rather weird sprint there:
Bole launched his sprint way too early and has to settle for a 4th place, as Bekmanis surprisingly came out of nowhere to complete the podium! What an effort from the early escapee.
Aulas 5th ahead of Schurter, Van der Ploeg, Rosskopf, Passalacqua and Bru. So a mix of early escapees and favorites completing the Top-10.
A dissapointing finish for Godoy (17th) and Kolobnev (18th). Both maybe suffering from their efforts to join Wyss with his winning move. Kolobnev as the first top-favorite to attack today.. clearly didn't pay off.
