Good day from Kenya! Pcm.daily coverage coming on a warm and very windy day from the hot and sunny country on the east side of Africa, especially famous for their fantastic runners and their World Tour Team.
The favourites for today surealy are the likes of:
Denifl, Amador, Martin and Dekker.
Right from the beginning it's full gas on the dirty roads, attack after attack is getting slammed on the ground. But until the foot of the mountain no group can go clear. Even there it's a battle all up the way, in the middle of the climb we don't even have a group yet established.
Leading the race so far is a group containing...
Clarke Chhetri Kelly
A little further back Sonnery, another thirty seconds to Navarro and Adriamihajanarivo. 2 minutes behind these currently sits the pack. Interestingly with Rujano alsready pretty close to the front.
The group finds themselves together right before the descent:
Kelly Chhetri Sonnery Navarro Clarke Adriamihajanarivo
The really struggeled to reach his companions though.
The pack starts the descent 5 minutes later. Many teams contributing to the chase, Compal in first line but also UBS, Telcom, Meiji, Ayubowan, Aeropostal, Novatek and Flores.
Surely they don't want to give the break any opportunity! Back on the flat road the maximum advantage of 6 has already gone down to 3 minutes. Until 30 kilometers to go it's down to 1 minute, the wind hasn't played a role so far.
With 15 kilometers to go we've started the final climb. One lonesome guy from the break has survived until here,...
...it's Chhetri. Surely he'll be caught by the peloton soon though...
...lead by Gilanipoor and Saggiorato. An interesting fact to add is that we have heavy crosswinds at this part of the race.
Very surprisingly...
...absolutely nothing happens until the 10k to banner, where the steepest part is already done. Still Chhetri holds on, what a fantastic effort from the nepalese guy. Saggiorato still in control and nobody is willing to make a move.
5 kilometers to go and...
...still nothing. The UBS guy still leading, Roglic took some small turns in the meantime but nothing big. Still 95 guys in the pack, and the mountain classic is coming near to a finish. Embarassing.
2.5 kilometers, tailwind situation.
Still no attacks. Amador though is taking it up from the front now racing his own drag race. Roglic is strong enough to follow him, right in touch also Monsalve, Contador and a slightly fading Rujano.
Flamme Rouge
And Amador is attacking it now. Martin and Denifl up to the fore now too. Contador still has Roglic in front of him, and the dark horse we mentioned yesterday, Yates, is also involved.
400 meters and...
...the final sprint is on. Martin looks very good as Amador drops a little in terms of pace. Still also Roglic and Denifl involved. Dekker comes up fast, but from too far behind most likely.
Who is going to take it though?
Nobody else than Amador, who managed to pick up his pace again. The race for second is incredibly close, but Denifl takes it ahead of Martin and Roglic.
5th goes to Monsalve beating Dekker and a very disappointing Contador.
A more than decent 8th place for Adam Yates before the first bigger gap appears.
The final Top10s are then taken by...
... Rujano and Brajkovic, before the best African rider in Berhane comes in just missing out the Top10.
Meanwhile the battle for Laterne Rouge is one between Sagiv and Orue. Honorably they share the result as both got taken out of the race at the same time.
The final words though belong to Andrei Amador, who was the only guy to deserve this victory. He has to give credit to Mirco Saggiorato though who set him up beautifully by pulling two third of the final climb. Congrats to Team UBS!
Kenya 
