You join us here in Cambridge NY for the 2016 edition of the Tour of the Battenkill. Most of the big guns are here for a tough classic: bumpy in all forms of the word, with dirt, gravel, cobbles and hills, a real classics man will take this one out. It's two laps of the traditional route, resulting in a 200+km race with a little over 25km of cobblestones. A beautiful summer's morning greets us here as we begin your full, uninterrupted coverage of what should be a corker.
Wang, Barta and Matthews are our break it seems, the latter should be enough to want the peloton to make a hard second half of the race, as if he's in a group of favourites he's faster than almost any of them, whilst Barta is a cunning ploy by Spartacus - a good teammate who'll hopefully be there to help later on.
Zepuntke's had a misfire of a year so far but his team is keeping the faith as they lead us into the second lap - the break have 4'58" with 90km to go. The crowds are three or four people deep, the Americans are out in force to cheer for Summerhill.
75km to go and Azteca must have been asked to start doing work after 120km hiding, so Samayoa is attempting to bridge.
The Honduran is caught and his would-be companions won't be far off - 40km to go and they have a slim 20 second gap.
The Game of Thrones Begin
House Strava sends forth Gaudin and Summerhill, Zepuntke, Vanbilsen and Maes hang on for dear life whilst Cancellara, Baugnies and Teunissen are having a bit of difficulty, however all are tagging along now as the peloton splits exactly in half - two groups of 54, with Nepom the main casualty.
The splintering bunch
Onto the penultimate cobbled sector and we do have a front group of 21:
House Strava: Baugnies, Langeveld, Gaudin
House Eritrel: Debesay, Lagab, Bikienga
House Lierse: Vanbilsen, Joseph, Verhelst
The White Walkers: Summerhill and all the people in the team who like him as a person (his manager on the radio)
House SPARTACUS: Spartacus, Sibilla Jacobs, Wyss Zepuntke Teunissen Maes Franzoi Bester (we hear the Telekom manager has collapsed with shock that they have a rider here) Visconti
and the up and coming Gaday.
Gaudin has done his thing and leaves 10 men clear in a split. Franzoi, Debesay, Lagab, Baugnies, Maes, Cancellara, Vanbilsen are all here along with Teunissen and Zepuntke, a we hear both managers have collapsed in shock that they haven't screwed this up yet. Meanwhile out further in front...
Ice has taken full control of this song as the home favourite makes his move with 23km still left to go. Meanwhile we received news I spoke too soon: Zepuntke has screwed it up and has been dropped. Whoda thoughit?
Tradition & Globalisation - The MGUCI must be over the moon
Viano do Castelo has given our supreme overlord and part-time MG manager faith as Debesay rides his heart out for his leader; he pairs up with the fiery-kitted ba dum tss Baugnies to catch the Iceman. No clearer is the effect of Amadou Bakari on African cobbled cycling shown than here, as the most dominant team in this chase is from the motherland. 16km and one cobbled hill to go.
The Strava leader now puts in a dig of his own, which sheds some dead weight in, surprisingly, the form of Vanbilsen.
What is this sorcery? Actual weakness shown by Danny Summerhill? Or a gentle bluff as he peels off and lets Debesay free. Could be too big a risk too late, but you must bear in mind the two up front are alone and were the main chasers for 8km before!
The duo have found each other now and have 24 seconds heading onto the final cobbled sector and under the 10km banner, though the 6 chasers are working in an orderly fashion: can they shut the gap?
This is the best of bluffs or the worst of nightmares for Summerhill in the one American race he could win: he's slumped over the handlebars and mere metres seperates the leaders from the chasers as Lagab gets an armchair ride up the hill. Time to think about who's the best sprinter? There's no clear favorite but with the conditions the Algerian must be the favourite!
The duo crest with a small gap and we get a glimpse of a familiar sight: Strava domestiques leading the hunt for minor places.
The Eritrean tires but doesn't crack! Meanwhile the gap has increased to 30 seconds with 5km to go without the help of Summerhill or Lagab.
2km to go, one last hill and Teunissen sees his last chance for that elusive win as he pushes for everything to catch the two up ahead and
they can practically touch them now! It's all downhill from here, except when it's uphill at the end, but it's downhill now: who will have the legs - if either of the leaders do they might want to start now - 1600m left!
The two at the back may just be tired - Debesay is anyway as he cracks whilst Baugnies' last hope is positional advantage as the rest bide their time and Franzoi opens proceedings from 5th wheel, but then thinks better of it.
1km to go, everyone is going except Baugnies - and he might want to now!
700m, Baugnies has the crucial gap meaning nobody can get in his slipstream, everyone else is launching with Cancellara, Franzoi and Debesay the only ones left with a shot at the win.
No change at the front with 400m left, however a clear pecking order means we know who'll be 6th, 7th and 8th while Teunissen picks up great speed to challenge for the podium, and Franzoi is looking like a good bet for 2nd but isn't catching the Belgian!
Baugnies will take the win, meanwhile Cancellara is half a wheel away from 2nd, and Teunissen is running out of road for a podium finish!
A great, gutsy win from Baugnies here whilst
it’s a bittersweet finish for Teunissen as he overcomes the two in the middle and shows he would have won if he'd been positioned better, Franzoi holds off Cancellara for 3rd. Maes takes 5th ahead of Debesay who's unlucky to take only 6th and Lagab who didn't have the legs to capitalise on a perfect opportunity. Summerhill will be bitterly dissapointed with 8th.
