The next Monument is soon to be kicked off: defending champion Bakelants, 2013 winner Trofimov and Boasson Hagen as the top-favorites today. And so is Ponzi, who could make the Ardennes triple. We can hope for a thrilling race!
The break of the day is quickly built and those four riders now face a long day in the lead:
Shilov Khederi Destribois Oelerich
The group's gap peaks at 9 minutes with still 144km remaining..
Teams like Bouygues, AKER, Festina and Good Energy sharing the work in the chase then, while especially the first two teams show quite an effort to keep the pace high. 49km before finish, the breakaway's lead is down to 2'10" and we see the first serious contender attacking:
Schumacher attacks with still quite a way to go!
The German neither managed to bridge across the early escapees nor could he hold off the chasing bunch! Just a few kilometres later, he's pulled back already.
32km left and the attacking goes on, as 7 riders make their first moves (easily going past Oelerich as the first escapee being caught):
Spilak Bakelants Ponzi Skujins
Claeys Hagen Trofimov
try to break clear from a now reduced peloton (59 riders)!
Claeys couldn't follow those other six, who quickly established quite a big gap on the pack (2'30" with now 20km left)!
Trofimov, Spilak, Bakelants, Hagen, Ponzi and Skujins also went past the remaining escapees (Shilov, Destribois as the last two standing tall) and Trofimov initiates another acceleration now.
Already two minutes behind, there's Claeys and Van Garderen then!
They are catching up to Shilov/Destribois with 15km remaining..
Khederi losing ground, but he's still ahead of Ulissi, who also tried to break clear from the peloton..
The victory though seems to go to one of those in the leading group, where we see two riders struggling with now 12.5km left:
Hagen (23 seconds) and Skujins (39 seconds) couldn't hang on with Trofimov's pace here!
Van Garderen (2.39 minutes) already with quite a huge gap, but he managed to drop Claeys and those early escapees in the meantime..
No more attacks until 6km before finish and both Hagen and Skujins desperately fight to make it back to the leading four. Hagen now already 45 seconds in arrears though. Skujins further 24 seconds behind. That's too much to join the fight for the victory.
Van Garderen definitely "just" fighting for position seven today, but he's not too far ahead of the next bigger group, that is likely to battle out for the final Top-10 spots.
24 riders in here and we see most of the other favorites in here. Terrible news for some big guns, who even got dropped from this chasing group though:
Gilbert Froome Gastauer Nibali Kratochvila De Bie
as the most notable names! They are 40 seconds behind this 24-men-group and obviously haven't got the legs today..
..and now for the sprint to the line!
None of those four in the leading group tried to attack and they wait for the final kilometre. A tactical play, surely, as they kick off the sprint shoulder to shoulder.. Ponzi as the most promising contender now and the Italian goes into a narrow lead with the final corner approaching..
Trofimov struggling, he won't finish on the podium!
Ponzi with the strongest sprint indeed, Spilak and Bakelants fight to hang on..
..but that's a dominating victory for Ponzi! Perfect race for him, as he made the crucial split and then hang on with the very best (who might have went for a too passive race in the end). What a special week for him and the team. He indeed completes the Ardennes hattrick! Too good to be true.
2pilak with a still very nice runner-up (his third this week) ahead of Bakelants and Trofimov!
Two solo chasers then going for 5th and 6th place, more than a minute behind Ponzi:
Hagen and Skujins!
So Hagen once again missing out on the victory and also the podium (after two years with a 3rd and 2nd place here). This Ardennes week didn't go as planned for him.
Van Garderen still fighting to hold off the bigger group, as he enters the final corner with a smaller gap now!
At the front of this group, we see the sprint being kicked off and a few names, who haven't shown any attacks so far..
..such as Bobridge, Gautier or Flügel!
Bobridge by far the strongest now, while also Ginanni, Schumacher and Klemme are at the front of this group.
A thrilling fight between Bobridge and Van Garderen, who suffers big time from his efforts to hold off those chasers.. he's lunging in..
..but Bobridge goes past Van Garderen with an impressive sprint!
Gautier and Schumacher completing the Top-10 ahead of Flügel, Ginanni, Klemme, Blel Kadri, Ulissi and McCarthy. Sagan has to settle for a quiet 17th place today.
Claeys (22nd) with a disappointing result, as he struggled after trying to join the biggest guns here. Also Ulissi (15th) or Schreurs (27th) missing out on bigger results. Opposing to Bobridge/Gautier/Flügel, a few of those favorites at least tried to attack at one point..
Horrible race for Gilbert (31st), Gastauer (32nd) and Froome (33rd) then. They got dropped by the bigger chasing group and couldn't fight back then.
