Final stage in the Herald Sun Tour and it`s pan flat. A single Cat.3 could change the KoM. The sprinters are expected to take it while the GC is difficult to be attacked even though it`s just seconds in between.
One word. Boring! No single rider of the 8 potential KoM winners are in todays break...In fact all 7 in the group have no points at all...hence congrats De Clercq on this KoM jersey win. Molano Bengtsson Koch Kuroeda Varga Videika Sebright
Spark sending one of theirs is weird seeing yesterdays gamble with the GC and totally hoping for sprinter teams to control the breakaway might be dangerous as 2-3 riders in here are within 2 minutes.
In the end though Spark also worked behind alongside Spotify plus the sprinter teams of mainly Chiquita, Isostar and Podium Ambition.
18km left and 1'25 gap but you see the weather. Dark clouds. Heavy wind and a group of 30 already dropped!
Also the breakaway with some kind of tiny echelons.
Videika, Kuroeda, Molano in the lead. But the peloton is close.
Moments later all together in the peloton, which is more or less a long and dangerous line with lots of Podium Ambition and Chiquita in the front rows!
Van der Ploeg 14th and Petrus as 7th are hanging dangerously at the end and often belong to a group of 24 that is dropped and coming back and dropped again.
Around the corner and suddenly a big gap behind the first 12 riders.
Soupe-Ewan-Nelson-Hristov-Owen for Podium Ambition
Manarelli-Drapac-Matthews-Weiss-De Haes for Chiquita
Then also Salleh and Corti isolated.
Under the Flamme Rouge Manarelli starts the sprint for Drapac, but what a genius. The Aussie isn`t following and hence Soupe-Nelson behind him are now fooled.
They had to go around Drapac and the gap was huge already. Will it be an easy win for Manarelli?
Yes. It definitely is. Big win for him and nice tactic by Chiquita if this was on purpose.
Nelson in 2nd behind him.
Salleh in 3rd after having good positioning in the group but lacked the team mates to beat the first two. He also will win the point jersey for consistency as Mezgec isn`t seen anywhere.
Matthews, Soupe next and then only Von Hoff and Kip to start the remaining sprinters.
Except for Petrus and Van der Ploeg no real GC changes and hence Yatsevich takes it over the Spotify duo.
