Welcome to the early morning broadcast of GP Herning, Denmark. 182 riders in total here at the start in Herning (7 riders from Denmark), Jonathan Dibben is the youngest rider in the peloton; age 21 (and 3 months), while Sylvain Chavanel is the oldest; age 35 (and 11 months). Looking out of the commentary window we see that we have beautiful weather today, the mayor of Herning gives the start signal: Here we go!
Right from the start we have the first attack of 10 riders: Ignatiev, Molnar, Kurek, Alafaci, Iglinski, Hagen, Wijaya, Sakellaridis, Swift-Metcalfe and Matteau.
More riders are trying to get in the break, Hassan is the last one to attack, in front of him are:
E5
E4
E3
E2
E1
Einarsson
Kocjan
Sterbini
Stuyven
Ignatiev
Santambrogio
Molnar
Weiss
Kurek
Manninen
Alafaci
C.Cancellara
V.Iglinski
Hagen
Wijaya
Sakellaridis
Swift-Metcalfe
Matteau
Strava didn't like this big group (19 riders) and reeled them back in. 10 kilometres later a second wave of attacks, Alafaci, Wijaya and Iglinski for the second time, joined by Lehtinen, Dibben, Franczak, Jonasson and Vasilyev.
Tulik of Strava kept the pace in the peloton high and so after 40 kilometres of racing the break away was swallowed up again, except for Jonasson. And with only one rider in front of the peloton Strava stopped chasing. Two riders - Kuboki and Popov - are using this opportunity to attack, smart move!
There were more riders who tried to get in the botd as well, but they all failed/chasse patate: Losch, Stimulak, Keller, Chawchiangkuang, J.Sagan, Jenko, Tybor, Park and Westling.
Carlsberg, Type 1 and Lierse SK all put one rider in front of the peloton to control the race situation. The three riders in front are on the first cobble section now and they have established a nice gap of 4 minutes. So the break of the day:
Jonasson (30y-ISL), Kuboki (26y-JPN) and Popov (31y-RUS)
The first cobble section and already many flat tires in the peloton, including two important teammates: Jeandesbosz and Dupont, both would make it back to the peloton, but lost a lot of energy in doing so.
Also a crash occurred; Vicelich and Jurco went down hard.
During the second cobble section more flat tires in the peloton (were Strava is taking control again), this led to the following race situation;
A2: 9'12"
A1: 8'11"
P: 3'53"
E1
Jurco (crash)
Flückiger (tire)
Tulik
Jonasson
Vicelich (crash)
Banihammad (tire)
Pfingsten
Kuboki
Navarro (tire)
Corioni
Popov
AramendÃa (tire)
+170 riders
Strava really pushing the tempo now and with 100 kilometres left to go the first big split occurred in the peloton; 73 riders were able to follow, but all 70+ cobblers are there so no panic in the teamcars (yet).
The break of the day felt apart during the third and fourth cobble section and Jonasson, Kuboki and Popov are all riding solo now, combined with the fast pace of the peloton -> they will be reeled in soon for sure.
We are entering the circuit part of the race now= 6x15km (every circuit has 2 cobble sections), Kuboki and Popov are already reeled in by the peloton, Jonasson is still 2 minutes ahead of the pack.
Lap 1/90km left: De Winde (second best cobbler of Lierse SK ) has a flat tire, Generali and Strava continue to lay down a fast pace, so it will be hard for him to come back.
Lap 2/75km left: Jonasson is almost being caught by the peloton, well peloton the group only has 52 riders in it, so 129 riders already know for sure that they are not going to win, in fact only 4 of those 129 riders would make it to the finish in time!
Another flat tire, this time it is the leader of In-n-Out Aulas, futher back we can see Sabatini, who also had a puncture.
Lap 3/60km left: Strava and Generali continue to make this race an endurance race, only 30 riders in the first group now, behind are (in red 70+ cobblers):
A5: 4'12"
A4: 3'17"
A3: 2'35"
A2: 1'52"
A1: 1'00"
De Winde
Hansen
Aulas
Delgerbayar
Lemoine
Kharatyan
Losch
Ruiz
Jonasson (botd)
Offredo
Dahlberg
Rosseler
Kuznetsov
Verhelst
Debusschere
Saramotins
Giger
Lovassy
Pfingsten
Fonzi
Drakakis
Verschoor
Last
Tulik
Lap 4/45km left: 10 more riders get dropped by the elite group, so 20 left upfront now, a good time to take in some energy and get fresh bottles like Joseph is doing. Aulas and Brynjolfsson are trying to get back to the front group, leading a group of 11 riders (A1: 2'21" behind).
Lap 5/30km left: Aulas and Brynjolfsson left their companions behind and were able to reach the front group, strong ride by both of them.
On the second cobble section of lap 5 Taillefour, without getting out of the saddle - started to accelerate hard. A suprising move which the Stravaboys didn't see coming. Instead it was Joseph who reacted first. This short moment of hesitation could be vital in a race like this!
Entering the last lap now and Taillefour has a small gap when leaving the cobble section. The former group of 20 really exploded during lap 5, race overview:
E4: 1'48"
E3: 1'07"
E2: 15"
E1
Karatzios
Wynants
Langeveld
Taillefour
Gil
De Maar
Joseph
De Backer
Steegmans
Bakari
Eeckhout
Lee
Paiani
Aulas
Van Wyk
De Vocht
Østergaard
Lindeman
Last lap/15km left:
Oh no, the riders behind Taillefour refuse to work together, the Frenchman of Generali takes 30 seconds! Wynants jumps from E3 to E2, maybe he can organise a chase with the Dutch speaking part of the group.
Nope, instead they are all trying to get rid of each other, Paiani is the first one to give it a try, he is closing in on Taillefour but still 25 seconds between them.
Also Lindeman and local hero Østergaard go solo:
Taillefour
Paiani
+39"
Lindeman
+1'01"
Østergaard
+1'27"
Langeveld
+1'54"
Joseph
+1'54"
De Vocht
+1'54"
Wynants
+2'04"
Bakari
+2'04"
But Taillefour is already almost done with the last cobble section of the race, can he continue this long solo?
3.8km left to go, Taillefour has the finish line insight, are the others coming from behind or are they starting to think about (podium)places instead?
Clearly the last option, Taillefour (1st) wins the GP Herning!!!
Behind him Paiani, Lindeman and Østergaard are fighting for the remaining two podium places.
And it's Lindeman (2nd) who takes second place in front of Paiani (3rd). Østergaard (4th) was very strong today, too bad he just missed out on the podium.
Bakari and Wynants are fighting for a top-5 position or can Joseph, De Vocht and Langeveld still coming back to them?
Nope, Bakari (5th) takes it in front of Wynants (6th). De Vocht (7th) is stronger in the end than Joseph (8th) and Langeveld (9th)
Steegmans (10th) was fighting hard all day and as a reward he makes it in to the top-10. He already is hanging on to the borders when teammates/co-leaders make it to the finish line.
So Taillefour was by far the smartest today.
And although Østergaard didn't get the win goal for Carlsberg, he did show up on the podium to take the price for best team, making the local cycling fans quite proud.
Strava with a disappointing result here, they did most of the work (especially Angelo Tulik) but Generali cracked the right code to win this race. However Strava not being the best team timewise doesn't mean they don't score big CT points here...
Denmark), 
