Let's make it 2/2 on the Isle of Man. It's puncheurs versus punchy sprinters in this hilly classic today. Favourites of this race are mixed, puncheurs (Top3) are given a slight advantage over punchy sprinters (Kump, Meyer,...):
Starting the race the first attacks come right from the beginning: The first ones this time are Nikolaev and Samayoa.
Many others attempted to bridge over to the couple, but noone was able to do so and get constantly clear from the pack. That means that those two will have a long and hard day out.
In the pack the race is controlled by Hugo Boss, Bank of Ireland, Indosat, Strava, Grieg and Becherovka. Interesting move by the way from VisitUkraine, they don't have to do any work with the man up the road.
Vontobel and Prio join the chase, after the lead peak of 5 minutes with 100 to go is reached.
100 km - 5'00
80 km - 4'00
60 km - 3'15
Also Aker and Lierse join in now.
50 km - 2'30
There is only 1 passage of the bigger hill left, so we rexpect the attacks really to start not earlier than with 20 to go on the final climb. A very calm race so far, no minor attacks to spice stuff up here.
40 km - 1'30
35 km - 1'07
30 km - '40
Indosat is the team pushing really hard here. With 26 km to go, they've wrecked the duo finally, interesting that it was before the final climb, which will bring on some action in 5 kilometers. Still 172 riders in the pack.
21.5 kilometers: It's time to go!
But only when the steepest section was done we had a first attack, that nobody was able to follow. Big move by...
... Damiano Cunego, creating an instant gap. He was the expected guy to go into offense, and he did so nicely!
He already leads by 45 seconds, when...
... Bilbao makes his move. Kump further down in the pack surely won't be their leader today. The riders trying to follow by the way are only secondary ones: Lavery, Borges and Zaini.
Only the Portugues makes it though to ride a counterattack, which leads to the current race situation (when the steep slopes are over, 17 to go):
With 11 kilometers to go the chase found themselves together:
1 minute behind Mr.Giro, 1 minute ahead of the big pack. Anuar Aziz doing most of the work there, but with 8k they're 1'10 behind Cunego, who heads into the downhill already. A huge problem fpr the group of 5 that they dropped Zaini, having all the guys in tehre with maximum 65 DH.
Instead the peloton reduces the difference to 40 seconds. A rough pace set by Hoelgaard and a denied attack by Di Maggio lead to that.
The pack comes much closer to the group with 6.5 to go, only 17 seconds seperating them still. Horrible worksharing at front, while...
... Kreder and Dall'Oste drop the hammer behind. The Italian working even though Van Asbroeck has been dropped before, but Waeytens might feel good today.
And with 5 to go they are caught indeed!
Now even the win is possible, Cunego has only 50 seconds left. Kadri and Tsatevich look very well positioned, while Kump is a long way down.
3 km - '20
And he is cooked! With 1.9...
... Dall'Oste really has managed to pull him back! We'll have a chaotic sprint finish today, who'd have thought that after the strong moves on the climb?
But maybe it's still VisitUkraines day, as...
... Prevar launches the sprint first with 1100 meter to go. Remember that with the short distance and the speed positioning might be the most valuable factor here.
500 meters!
Still Prevar in the lead, but others are coming. While
Di Maggio Anuar Aziz McCarthy Zaini Cunego
all fade now, it's the likes of
Bilbao Edmondson Felline Borges
move up strong. Intense!
200 meters to go. Can the Ukrainian hold on?
Only Felline, Bilbao and Edmondson left to deny him. Felline in prime position now!
Now on to the "finishing line": It is...
...indeed Oleksandr Prevar with what surely is the biggest victory of his career. Fabio Felline as Pro Tour guest and Pello Bilbao after his strong earlier effort complete the podium.
After those...
...first Joshua Edmondson and then a huge bunch of close riders, from which Serry was the strongest. Cunego 6th after his classy effort but big fade, then the initial favourites Anuar Aziz, Di Maggio, Borges and McCarthy to complete the Top10.
As always we're closing out with the pic of our surprising winner today, Oleksandr Prevar. He really has been on the right place at the right time today, and then delivered with power when his captain lost a victory he might thought he had already!
Isle of Man 
