96 riders in total are going to compete today for the title of the Intercontinental Champion. 24 best riders from every Conti RR have qualified to represent their continent in this race in Doha, Qatar. Who is going to be the winner today? The biggest favourites are Bewley, Degenkolb, Holloway, Kristoff, Howard and Swift.
And we immediately have a breakaway attempt! Camilo and Van Wyk are the riders trying to get away almost immediately as the riders start turning their paddles, but unfortunetely for them, the peloton brings them back in after only a few kms.
But the second attempt is successful! Minoungou, Craven and Sai-Udomsin are allowed to get away and are building up a big lead quickly.
225km to go 5'00" gap
200km to go 9'30" gap
175km to go 10'30" gap
150km to go 11'30" gap
The peloton then starts chasing down the leading group. At the same time the news are that the wind around Doha is not as strong as in the last few days in previous races. At least so far.
Team Europe is the only team currently leading the chase with 100 km to go. Riders pacing are Rasmussen, Cohen, Coppel, Maksimov, Ignatiev, Rowe and Kolesnikov. The advantage for the leading group is now only 5'10".
No major changes with 70 km to the finish. Peloton is 3'40" behind while Asian riders are now helping Europeans with the chasing. New names helping at the front are Ponzi, Archbold and Lee. But it is Jerome Coppel who is clearly doing the most of the work today.
With 40 km to to the finish we finally have some action with Kolesnikov attacking. The break now has only 1'50" gap. However both Kolesnikov and exhausted riders in the breakaway are quite quickly chased down back to the peloton.
The wind has got a lot stronger in the few past moments and some riders were clearly blowed away by the strong wind and a big gap has appeared between the first and the second peloton because of a really fast pace from European team! The biggest names caught up at the back are: Afewerki Coppel Granjel Cabrera Richeze Cisse Impey Salleh Saber Itami Castaneda Guillen Boivin
Looks like the majority of the riders down the road are from America and Africa with Asia and Europe having only a few riders there.
With 25 km to the end another 13 riders are dropped from the main group. Two big sprinters are dropped in this group: Lo Cicero and Avelino. The other interesting names in this group are Alarcon, Augustyn, Hoffman, King and Kinoshita
The pace in the peloton is so fast, but that could not stop Ignatiev to try his luck. Russian riders seems to be racing really aggresively today! On the other end of the peloton A.Nepomnyachsniy and Tzortzakis are dropped and peloton reduces to only 29 riders, namely: Kvist Ponzi Hagen Jaser Rowe Van Poppel Taaramäe Ahlstrand Degenkolb Mandri Delgerbayar Bewley Maksimov Kwok Ji Kolesnikov Swift Trofimov Coquard Van Garderen Park Sakala Kristoff Wu Houle Howard Van Heerden Holloway Amador
Ignatiev couldn't stay away from the peloton and is back in the group with 15 km to go as Amador, Wu and Coquard are dropped from the peloton.
Surprisingly another rider dropped is Ahlstrand! One of the biggest favourites of the race in a some big troubles.
However the pace in the front group of 26 has suddenly dropped significantly and a group of 43 riders is chasing down. Afewerki is working really hard to bring himself (and all these riders on his back) right back to the game for the win with 10 km to the finish line as we are suddenly enjoying a strong shower here in a desert!
Hagen is pacing the front group with 5 km to go, with Ji, Maksimov, Ignatiev and Mandri being the other riders working at the front. Two riders were also able to get back into the front group. These two riders are Kinoshita and De Maar. We are still not seeing any sprint trains so far.
And the two big frount groups have merged together again with 3 km to go! But it may be too late for these riders from the back to get right into the battle for the win. However we stll have no sprint trains at all! The riders leading the race right now are Van Heerden, Hagen, Ignatiev, Kristoff, Ji, Bewley, Degenkolb, Swift, Howard and Van Garderen.
With 2.5 km to go the final sprint finally starts! The European on the left is Hagen, the European currently leading the race is Ignatiev, then we have a 'sprint train' that is leaded by Kristoff with Bewley, Degenkolb, Swift and Howard all following. The riders on the right are Van Heerden and Taaramäe.
With 1.7 km to go it looks like riders from 'the train' are going to fight for the win today. Kristoff is still leading, with Ignatiev sprinting on the right in this photo.
And we are going into the final km! Kristoff is still leading, but it looks like Bewley is going out from the slipstream, as well as Degenkolb that is sprinting on the left side, with Swift and Howard trying to maximize their speed to the right side of the road. Ignatiev is losing pace and he clearly won't win today.
It looks like this is going to be decided between Degenkolb, Bewley and Swift with Howard a little bit behind as Kristoff just in-fact gave away a perfect lead-out to his opponents. Rowe and Impey are currently leading the fight backwards as Ignatiev is clearly dropping off now.
With 300 m to go it looks like Bewley may have a small advantage over his European rivals, but even Howard clearly haven't said a last word in this fight as he is clearly going a little bit faster than his opponents at the moment!
Wow, it looks like Bewley won't win this as he fades away in the last few hundred meters! He probably timed his sprint a little bit too early here!
This is going to be a really close on the line between Degenkolb Swift!
But it is John Degekolb who is the Intercontinental Chapion by a really tiny margin as Ben Swift takes the second place and Leigh Howard finishes 3rd. Sam Bewley is without a medal only on 4th place.
Kristoff finishes as the best from the rest on the 5th place. Rowe, Holloway, Ignatiev, Houle and Hagen complete the top 10 as the best rider from Africa is 13th Daryl Impey.
Doha, Qatar. Who is going to be the winner today? The biggest favourites are 
Bewley, 
Degenkolb, 
Holloway, 
Kristoff, 
Howard and 
Swift.
Camilo and 
Van Wyk are the riders trying to get away almost immediately as the riders start turning their paddles, but unfortunetely for them, the peloton brings them back in after only a few kms.
Minoungou, 
Sai-Udomsin are allowed to get away and are building up a big lead quickly.
Rasmussen, 
Cohen, 
Coppel, 
Maksimov, 
Ponzi, 
Lee. But it is 
Afewerki
Granjel Cabrera
Richeze
Cisse
Impey
Salleh
Saber
Itami
Castaneda
Guillen
Boivin
Avelino. The other interesting names in this group are 
Alarcon, 
A.Nepomnyachsniy and 
Tzortzakis are dropped and peloton reduces to only 29 riders, namely:
Jaser
Van Poppel
Taaramäe
Ahlstrand
Delgerbayar
Kwok
Ji
Park
Sakala
De Maar. We are still not seeing any sprint trains so far.
