First test for the puncheurs. A circuit with a difficult hill to pass and 12 laps. Four times the KoM hunters have their chance and with a Cat.2 rating you can gain lots.
Biggest question though is if the pure puncheurs can gain time on the climbers before Mt.Fuji. Their problem is that Ricco, Cunego, Van der Hugenhaben or even Bibby are also some of the best on short climbs.
Early on after the first climb two groups of 4 riders are ahead of the long stretched peloton which shows the toughness of the hill.
Biggest surprise though is to see the GC leader Redecker in the second group!
And with him Valls and one of his team mates.
Question is if the Nambibian rider can remain in the lead today. He is not that bad over short climbs but definitely not as strong as the favourites.
Indosat for Anuar Aziz and Ayubowan for Bibby were chasing hard and this led to a restart before the second lap.
Here also the first KoM was rewarded and the KoM leader himself Othman goes for the 10 points. Behind him Khederi, Silin, Ruchira and Russo. Last two while chasing though.
Othman was dropping back into the peloton afterwards while the other two remained in the breakaway with some additions. In full: Khederi Silin Hugentobler Jang
In fact all 4 were already part of the first lap attacks and hence really wanted to get into the breakaway.
Othman surely regretted to drop back and after attacking at the next KoM for the last 2 points he decided to go on and is now joining the group as well. 3'40 to the peloton!
Hugentobler ahead of Khederi and Silin on that one.
The long solo chase though has cost him energy and hence Khederi is the strongest to take the next KoM. This time Silin in 2nd, Othman in 3rd. Jang and Hugentobler as latest after being dropped for now.
Still 4 laps to go but already a first attack by some GC riders! This is early and surprisingly it`s not the pure puncheurs trying to make it a difficult race! It`s top climbers Ricco, Cunego and Bibby.
Again Redecker showing his ambitions to keep the lead and follows. With him his team mate and actually decent GC candidate Augustyn. So Telkom with huge move here. Three riders in there with the top favourite and GC leader!
Unfortunately a crash stops some GC riders and they are in threat to lose big time now as the pace is really high. Those are last years winner Cataldo, allrounder Slagter, Telkom`s next lieutnant Meintjes and nother top10 contenders in Kratochvila and Valls as also Meiji`s top climber Ji.
Kinoshita sees the danger of this group and the potential of staying away from the peloton and hence accelerates to join the Ricco/Cunego/Bibby group and also the break is close now.
The two groups in front merge with 45km to go.
The gap to the 17 rider "peloton" is up to 55s.
Then no news about why Teklehaimanot is a bit behind but he is dropped from there and he is not the only one. Coldeportes with some huge struggle as both Betancourt and Barrio are another 17s behind. Apparently the former peloton of ~50 riders just splitted on that climb and those 3 were not concentrated enough and badly placed. Also Mendes in there!
It`s getting a bit messy now as riders get lapped! Hence big difficulties to see the real groups.
The Kinoshita/Ricco/Bibby/Cunego/Redecker/Augustyn group leads! Easy.
Then only 33s later the first chasing group of 5 riders! And somehow Teklehaimanot found his engine in the descent as he is up there on the climb with 3 laps to go! With him van der Hugenhaben and Rodrigues and also Kadri and Gallopin.
All others such as Anuar Aziz, Craven or Valls another 20s behind.
Meanwhile some of the crash victims such as Cataldo, Ji, Valls coming further up and are a bit bheind in the Betancourt/Barrio group in which also Landa found himself.
Slagter though is several minutes behind and clearly is injured...so bad day for Hugo Boss.
And then the situation changed again completely on top of the third last climb. A 22 rider group is coming together with most of the GC riders together now! It was too long for the attackers and Telkom didn`t really want to work the most in there neither as Redecker probably couldn`t follow a higher pace and Ricco didn`t want to ride against him.
50s behind Mendes, Betancourt, Landa, Ventoso.
Another 40s a group around mainly helpers and then in total 2'30 behind Cataldo, Valls, Meintjes and a bit behind also Ji.
In the descent the Betancourt group rejoined with the peloton and it`s up to 29 riders again. Good news for Cataldo, Valls etc. as the slowish pace also helps them to gain seconds.
One rider though has enough of this coffee ride and attacks: Schelling might be quite unknown for many and to be honest, I had to recheck as well but in fact he is quite a solid rider for these races and now wants to prove his GC skills.
Augustyn for Telkom highers the pace but still allows him a 45s gap. Hence also the Cataldo/Meintjes/Ji/Valls group is back in the peloton of now 54 riders!
12km to go and 1'40 for Schelling! Are they giving him the win for free?
At least not In-n-Out with van der Hugenhaben. He has watched this weirdness for too long and attacks at the same point. 1'30 the gap now.
Ayubowan behind chasing for Bibby now. Gallopin and Ruchira for them.
Schelling is done. Totally. His advantage melted with every kilometer and it`s still 8km to go until Van der Hugenhaben passed him. The gap to the others is at 40s.
Apparently the last climb was one too much for the Swiss.
Meanwhile Augustyn is dropped after his work. And so is Kratochvila and Landa while others such as Kiserlovski, Betancourt, Ji, Teklehaimanot are sitting at the very end of the peloton.
Gallopin really destroying the field here over the final hill. Bibby comfortably sitting right behind him. Also Anuar Aziz, Kinoshita, Ricco/Meintjes/Redecker, Cunego, Konovalovas, Craven, Valls, Cataldo, Scarponi in there!
Then Kadri and Ji following with a small gap while the Betancourt/Landa group is a bit more behind.
Hugenhaben though still 30s ahead and also Schelling in between.
In the descent Hugenhaben though is gaining a bit again and Gallopin has opened a gap. Only Bibby, Kinoshita, Redecker, Ricco and Anuar Aziz with him. Biggest news Cunego in the +14s group. Also in there the other mentioned riders except Scarponi, who got dropped. Therefore Schelling now in there.
Also Ji and Kadri weren`t able to close the gap!
Though it`s too late to catch Van der Hugenhaben. In fact he continued to gain again on the descent and after the groups behind merged again it was a moment of looking at each other only. Hence he is up to 45s!
And it`s thank to Bibby only that it`s not more. The Brit with a stunning sprint, which is unfortunately for him not rewarded with a time gap.
Redecker showing his sprint skills and finishes 3rd. Though while his fight was impressive, Van der Hugenhaben still easily takes the GC lead.
Then Kinoshita and Kadri but in fact all top riders are in that 45s group including some strong performances by the ones of Konovalovas, Kadri or Gallopin.
Also good for Vontobel that Cataldo was able to join them and more important stay with them. So last years winner still in a good position.
Less luck for Schelling, who was totally exhausted...he is losing another minute and comes in with Meintjes and Betancourt. Surely he is the least disappointment.
Scarponi also fought very long but is losing 2'12 in the end, which is still 28s better than Teklehaimanot, Kiserlovski, Ji, Rodrigues, Mendes.
Crash victims Kratochvila and Slagter are the two GC riders, which lose too much today. First more than 4min while Slagter is truly injured coming in as one of hte last almost 20min behind.
