Bookmakers actually rate the flat power riders higher than the top speed of pure sprinters. That said usually it should be a mix of those riders as Richeze, Meyer, Peeters or Corioni have proven in the past to be riders to watch out for in those kind of races.
Several riders tried but only 3 made it into the break of the day. Chenaux Seung Lee Dibben
With Sancor (Richeze) and Fred Whitton (Meyer) the two teams with the strongest sprinters are working at the front. 95km left and a gap of 5min when also Compal (Matthews) joins them.
40km only and less than 2min for the trio when we see the start of lots of individual attacks. It`s Chiquita`s leader Tolleson. The US sprinter was one of those riders, who were expected to attack with their advantage on the flat terrain.
Although the pace was really high behind, it almost took 10km to catch him, which says quite a lot about his strength. And he immediately attacked again just 1km later. This time though the peloton caught him immediately again.
With 20km to go the trio is caught. Due to Tolleson`s attacks, the pace was just too high for them to have a chance.
And you might see it already. The weather is not good today. It has rained at times and now the wind leads to some echelons.
More attacks did happen in the meantime. Some teams really want a difficult race: Weiss Santambrogio Sørensen
In especially Chiquita obviously is looking for a tough finale it seems. Not a big surprise actually seeing that they don`t have a very fast rider.
All those attacks did lead to a huge seletion. Only 56 riders are left in the first group and the 2nd one has no chance to make it back. With only 12,5km left, the gap is too big now.
The biggest names are in the first field. But some notable riders are behind: Peeters Park Thire Westling Dahlberg Giacoppo Uugunbayar Nateghi Abdallah Nielsen Rasmussen Jørgensen
So a few riders, who would have been capable of a top10 here I think.
With 8km to go another attack and this one stronger than the last, who did split the peloton. Again a Gatorade rider involved in Sulzberger followed by Sørensen. The Carlsberg rider is forced to go for his own now as most of his team and in especially the sprinters are in the second peloton.
With 4km to go the sprint trains have formed but still a gap to those solo riders in front. Ignore the right side of the road. Those are mainly helpers that are going to move slowly backwards. The interesting part happens on the left with 3 proper sprint trains very close to each other due to the wind.
Carsi
Briggs
Tolosa
Meyer
Andriato
Sutton
Pelucchi
Richeze
Matthews
Corioni
Vanderaerden
Moser
Sobota
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King
Verschoor
Kuboki
Ratto
2,7km left for the peloton. 600m less for Sulzberger while Sorensen is almost caught.
The Sandor duo Andriato-Richeze the strongest it seems. The Aussies from Compal Sutton-Matthews give them a nice challenge though while the Fred Whitton train of Briggs-Meyer struggles with the high pace. Unfortunate for Pelucchi, who decided for this train, while Corioni and Vanderaerden are the lucky riders without own train.
Under the Flamme Rouge Richeze goes into the wind. Corioni still trying to be pulled a bit behind Andriato.
In the middle also Matthews has to go around Sutton now as he looks faster. Vanderaerden and Moser right of him coming fast while Sobota is still in the middle. A bit behind Meyer and Pelucchi with Briggs ahead. Those are the riders still chasing Sulzberger and fighting for the win as behind them there is a gap.
Richeze is going strong now almost in the lead. Not even a big piece of wood is disturbing him.
And the B World Champion celebrates another big win. Nice way to present this special jersey in his first road race this year.
Coming in as 2nd is veteran Corioni, who proves to still has it. Nice podium for Strava as well.
3rd is biggest surprise. Then again it was really close for Sulzberger to even take the win. Gatorade tried to make the race difficult and this worked well today.
Matthews, Vanderaerden, Meyer (with a very fast finish), Sobota, Moser, Pelucchi and Andriato coming next to complete the top10.
