Welcome to Bergamo for the start of the 2014 Giro di Lombardia. The skies are blue today and the temperature is not too low, but the wind is quite strong. All in all the weather seems decent for the riders today, who surely won't hope for any rain coming along.
The first attackers after the start are immediately free to go, and become part of the leading group of 12. At the first climb they have a lead of 3 minutes already, so it's safe to say the following 12 names will form the break of the day: Lebas, Zahner, Aru, La Lavandier, Agostini, Bystrom, Bongiorno, Heymes, Van Goolen, Kuznetsov, Rabie and Dzamastagic. Surprisingly many of these riders have a strong leader in the pack, apparently many of them wanted to leave the work to others.
The pack does not seem to worry about this, as Tinkoff Credit Systems Bank, Becherovka - Kiwibank, Festina-Canal+ and Good Energy set the pace in the pack, which for now is quite slow.
The break is allowed to gain more and more time, and by the time we reach the foot of the Valico di Valcava the 12 leaders have managed to get a lead of over 8 and a halve minutes. There's no need to worry yet for the pack though, as there still is 180 kilometers of up and down to go.
After the break hit 11 minutes, at the same climb, the pack has accelerated a little. Just after the summit the lead has been brought down to just under 10m30. The first riders have been dropped in the back of the pack meanwhile. Of course all favourites have managed to make it in the pack though.
The Colle Brianza has not caused much of a stir. Festina-Canal+, Pendleton's and Good Energy have brought the gap down to 7m30 with 120km to go, but furthermore not much has happened.
The Colma and Muro di Sormano have not brought the excitement many have eagerly awaited now. The steep slopes have deterred any attacker, and so the only thing that has happened is that the lead has once again shrunk. The 12 escapees hold about 5m30 with 85kms left to ride.
At the Madonna del Ghisallo the first favourites come to the front. Most notably Trofimov, who immediately heads for the 10th place in the pack, which with 60km to go is 3m12 behind the 12 escapees.
One man does not manage to get to the front though. At the short flat section of the Madonna it's Ricco who crashes! It's a seemingly very painful crash, but it does look like he is able to continue.
In the descent afterwards a large group is dropped. Not only Ricco is in this group, Levarlet is as well. Boasson Hagen loses his main lieutenant this way, although Festina-Canal+ is trying everything to get Ricco back in the pack, but quickly it becomes apparent he is in severe pain after his injury.
With 30km to go the break heads up the penultimate climb, the Villa Vergnano, with a lead of about 2 minutes.
And finally some excitement again! It's at the foot of the climb where the attacks start from the pack. Bakelants goes first, and he is followed by Trofimov, Gilbert, Boasson Hagen, Ponzi and Cunego.
The chase of the pack is taken over by Team Bpost - Vlaanderen and Vesuvio - Accumalux, but the 6 riders are allowed to gain a lot first, as the pack was lead by their teams before the attacks.
A. Schleck sets a seriously high pace in the pack now. The gap for the 6 chasers decreases to just 25s with the steep sections of the climb still to come. About 40s ahead of them is the original break, still fighting to maintain its lead.
It was a bit expected, but the chase group of favourites is caught just before the steep section. Only the original break is ahead of the pack now.
At the steep section itself we see attacks again. In the front of the break many try to get away, but in the rear it's a new rider among them. Cunego has made the jump, but his gap is only marginal to the pack.
The situation does not get any clearer, but what does become obvious is that after the steep section only Zahner, Aru and Cunego are ahead of the pack.
At the summit Cunego has gone past the leading duo, and can now look forward to over 20kms of a solo attempt.
At the same time, a large group is dropped from the pack. Costa and Ginanni are the main victims caught behind.
In the descent the two early escapees remaining are caught by a new chasing group. It consists of the same riders as the previous time, apart from Cunego who is now replaced by Martin. F. Schleck is leading the pack now, closely behind them.
With just over 15km to go the chase is caught by Van Garderen, who has finally decided to show himself. Cunego still has a lead of 45 seconds though.
The Giro winner powers on. Perfectly utilizing the chaos in the pack Cunego heads into the final 10km with a lead of almost a minute on the pack, which consists of 46 men.
The foot of the final climb, the San Fermo di Battaglia, is the sign of a new attack. Trofimov, Gilbert and Ponzi are off again. Cunego is still far though.
The three chasers don't stay away for very long. Bakelants accelerates and closes the gap again.
There seems to be only one winner in all these events: Cunego keeps on gaining and heads into the steepest part of the climb with a lead of 1m16. He has less than 7kms left to ride now.
The chase shrinks to 27 riders, as a group of 17 is dropped on the climb. Schreurs is the only noteworthy victim here.
Just before the summit Bakelants manages to get a gap on the group. He doesn't need to accelerate, nobody just was able to follow.
Cunego heads into the final 5km at the same time. Unless he crashes victory seems in the pocket for him.
Another group is dropped from the chase before the summit. Pozzato, Flügel and Claeys are the main victims.
Another small group has to let go. Boasson Hagen, A. Schleck, F. Schleck, Guldhammer and Roche can't follow.
Meanwhile Bakelants's effort doesn't pay off, as he's caught in the descent.
The group doesn't want to make more efforts now and with 4km to go stops working completely. The group of 5 that had just been dropped rejoins.
Over two minutes ahead of them Cunego heads into the final kilometer.
The chase once more accelerates with 3km to go, just to counter the attacks that have been going on now. Nobody gets dropped though.
There's no arguing about the winner today. Cunego takes a fully deserved victory in Lecco.
The acceleration in the chase seems to have turned into a sprint. Ponzi, Trofimov and Van Garderen fly past Bakelants.
Ponzi takes 2nd place with 1km to go, but both Trofimov and Van Garderen have a higher pace than him.
Storming forward is Pozzovivo. He has been anonymous all day, but here he sets an incredibly high sprinting pace, higher than anyone else's in fact. Whether it's enough for 2nd is yet to be seen.
Trofimov manages to get next to Ponzi, but Pozzovivo has made up many meters already.
With 500 meters left to ride it's still Trofimov in second, but Pozzovivo is coming very close. Van Garderen has collapsed, something which F. Schleck had already done before.
2nd place is now taken over by Pozzovivo with 300m to go. Trofimov will now have to defend his 3rd against Valverde, who has popped up at the far right.
Pozzovivo gets a 2nd place. A very surprising result for the Italian, and surely wildcard team Kappa-ENI will be pleased with that result.
The sprint for third goes to Valverde, and Trofimov will have to live with fourth.
Ponzi, Bakelants, Gilbert, Van der Hugenhaben, Van Garderen and Martin complete the top-10. Boasson Hagen and Schleck will have to settle for 11th and 12th.
The big loser of today, Ricco, rolls over the line over 10 minutes after today's winner.
