Everything is set up for a nice and sweet summer ride out in Italy. Wait, one thing lays in between of this dream and the reality. 80 kilometers covered of gravel. Have fun folks!
The first attacks coming up straight out after neutralisation. Some bigger names involved, for example Dimitri Claeys and Daniel Oss involved. But on the first 40 kilometers no group is able to get away, especially because Orange drilles a frenetic pace for Kamyshev.
And then, with 115 kilometers to go we have our first fuo that went clear:
Te Brake and Terpstra.
Meanwhile in the peloton teams are sharing the pacemaking quite well. Teams involved are: Orange, Becherovka, Gen-I, Vesuvio, Pokerstars, Pendeltons, Evonik. Reaching the climb with 95 to go Jayco also joins the party in behind.
The front group though still has 4'30 going up the hill and also down the descent.
In the peloton things stay calm and nobody tries to taste the sweet cheers of an attack, which means a wasted opportunity for the punchier guys. Even contrary the pace is incredibly slow, pretty strange that not even Evonik tries to tire out Bewley a little where Van Avermaet has an advantage on him.
With 72 kilometers to go the party begins, as...
...the breakaway reaches the first cobbled section. We can expect a significant pace increase in behind as soon as the peloton arrives on the cobbles.
At kilometer 60 the advantage has already gone down to 2 minutes. Leaders position themselves at the front now from 3rd position on,...
...in the following row: Kamyshev Bewley Burghardt Van Avermaet Senechal Vanspeybrouck Blythe Nolf Vanmarcke Altur Degenkolb Gusev Trentin
All others a little bit further back in the pack. Meanwhile we have had a couple of crashes until 45 to go, Boom and Walsleben involved in these.
The breakaway duo though is braught back with 40 to go, which directly lead to...
a pace increase by Bewley
on the next cobbled section. Burghardt right on his wheel won't let the Kiwi go. Senechal brings everything back together though when...
... Burghardt is having a go on a flat but non-cobbled section. Bewley stays very cool though and doesn't respond immediately, instead the very strong Marzuki goes after him for Greggy.
Seing that the helper wouldn't let him go he shows a lack of resistance and falls back into the group that rode away on the flat pace. It contains of 13 members,
while the other favourites sitting back in the pack lead by Pokerstars.
Again...
... Burghardt attacks the group with 30k to go as Evonik doesn't live up to the expectations to remain a decent pace. Bewley and Vanspeybrouck follow this dangerous move immediately.
Kulppi though seems to be on the form of his live and takes the three back in showing some authority and directly setting the pace, dropping Marzuki though in the process.
Further back Degenkolb takes a huge turn for Kluge, causing...
...some mighty damage on everyone but Gusev and Sulimov, who then takes on the chase. The quartet is only 45 seconds down on the leading group!
Talking about the leaders, we are now at 20 to go and Kulppi is finally done. But not only him, also a group containing...
Senechal Kamyshev Altur Nolf
couldn't deal with the pace anymore. Makes it 7 upfront. The current situation with 16.5 to go is:
7 riders
Group Senechal (+1'00)
Group Gusev (+1'30)
Peloton (+2'30)
No further action upfront (a half-hearted attack by Burghardt) until 10k to go, but further back...
...Kluge attacks his group, where the domestiques Kulppi and Sulimov finally fade. He bridges over to the group ahead, also getting rid of Gusev who falls back near to Kulppi.
On the front no attacks and only 7 kilometers to go. Van Avermaet lead the group for quite a time now, and the pace is not a soft one he's knocking.
From the peloton...
... Veelers and Daniel tried something and now try to fight for some decent minor places.
The time gaps are pretty much stable with just under 5k to go:
Leading Group (7)
Group Senechal (5) +1'30
Group Veelers (4) +3'00
Peloton (16) +4'00
But instead of attacking each other the lead group slows down, as nobody wants to help any opponent by offering him slipstream. This way the advantage goes backwards to 42 seconds with 3 to go. Now...
... Van Avermaet is having a go! Can that be the move we all have been waiting for? No, as Vanspeybrouck catches his wheel and the pace falls back again. And only 2.3 kms left!
Meanwhile in behind...
Veelers really goes for it, leaving first his other companions and then even Daniel in behind. He can see the group ahead now!
Further back Fenn totally ripped the peloton apart, taking Rowe, David and Wisniowski with him. Also Vandenbergh stays in touch with the ones ahead.
1.7 kms! Are you kiddin me?
Everything is pretty much back together as even Veelers now is in touch with the leaders. Never seen that sloppy racing of a leaders group anywhere! But what an effort of Gazelle's dutchman to bridge the gap to both groups.
Flamme Rouge!
You haven't seen that anywhere in cycling before. Veelers goes hard and could even take a Top 5 as he streams past many guys. The top riders will battle out the victory here, and it looks more and more like a head-to-head between Van Avermaet and Bewley. Who is going to take this?
500 meters...
Bewley is now slightly faster than Van Avermaet, but don't count the Belgian out yet. Vanmarcke and Burghardt look like being comfortably 3rd and 4th, while all other positions are still up for grabs.
Now the final decision: Who is the winner of today?
Sam Bewley! Who would've guessed it. Playing his cards perfectly once again with the good old tactic, defending every move ant then outsprinting the group easily. Van Avermaet fought hard to outsprint him but was chanceless at the end. He definitely should've tried more before if it was his goal to beat Bewley.
A rather strong 3rd place goes to...
... Vanmarcke for Vesuvio. He rounds of the podium ahead of a strong Trentin, who wins the photo finish against Burghardt. Finally a happy fourth. P6 goes to a very anonymous Blythe in front of Vanspeybrouck.
The Top 10 are rounded off well by...
... Senechal, Nolf and Kluge, which means that Veelers faded a lot at the end and just missed out on a Top10. Still a good result ahead of some wellknown guys like Altur, Daniel and Kamyshev, who's team won't be happy with the result given the work they've done.
Our final picture of the day is as always dedicated to the winner, Mr. Sam Bewley. Half man half amazing he'll stand here for a couple of times more I guess. For now he's got the threepeat, which will make this day a sweet one in his career.
Italy 
