Let's see the sun shine on the rough hilly circuit of the Giro dell'Emilia, where today's action in terms of a HC race will take place. The most successful rider on this ciruit so far was Di Maggio, but will he be the man to beat?
Many teams try to come into the breakaway, only two manage to achieve that first goal of every race:
Park Bartl
A good sight for Klemme especially that he can rest his teammates here.
Peloton chase:
Wiesenhof
Lierse
Netia
Bank of Ireland
Vontobel
Compal
Strava
VisitUkraine
Ayubowan
150 km - 3'20
125 km - 5'15
100 km - 4'45
75 km - 5'30
Especially Wiesenhof and Bank of Ireland have taken responsibilities in the peloton.
60 km - 3'00
50 km - 2'30
40 km - 1'30
Now the circuit around the finishing climb starts. We'll climb up to San Luca 5 times in the final 40 kilometers.
30 km - 1'30
At the summit of the second passage, with 26.5 kilometers to go, the breakaway is almost caught:
If you take a closer look you see two Wiesenhof guys in behind, that have distanced the peloton. These are indeed Paulus and his main captain Flügel! Some spice into this race already, as they have half a minute over the pack that is lead by Ayubowan.
Park now...
...has been distanced, while his former breakaway companion Bartl still tries to hold the couple off. The peloton now really increased the pace though, as the tremendous descender Scarponi puts the hurts on anybody to close that half a minute for Cunego. And...
...he manages to do so until the next passage. From here 20 kilometers left with 3 times the climb. Still 130 riders left in the pack, but we expect selections soon.
Up the climb we're down to 85, when over the top it's another...
...move by Flügel. Sanchez Gil, Bellis and Dekker try to follow, but are not able to do so. Instead it's again the Sammarinese beast to try and close the gap, Scarponi. But watch out, as Flügel is a stunning descender as well.
Him and Konovalovas almost closed the gap until the next hill. There...
... Sanchez Gil lights up the race with an attack again. Count out that VUK rider ahead, as it's the lapped Lutsyshyn.
Konovalovas closes the gap for Cunego then, and the trio of those...
... attack the race again. A group of 7 riders chasing, with quite surprising names:
Final 1.5 kilometers: Several groups in behind have merged, but...
...it's only 7 guys batteling for the victory: The trio ahead, that have 27 seconds on the group of 4 behinds. The next major group is 1 minute behind already.
800 meters:
It's still calm, and both leading groups coorperate well still. Only Cerny on the ride of his life sits back in the group, understandably as he might save the season for Lierse with a big result here!
Group 3 is lead by Klemme, but also Yates pulling. A vital thing here will be the positioning.
300 meters left for the front group and the sprint is starting now: Flügel...
... goes from the back, while it's Cunego from the front and Sanchez Gil in the direct slipstrem. Who will win it?
Damiano Cunego is it to celebrate a big win ahead of Luis Sanchez Gil. Once again it turned out to be a great choice of sending the allrounders to these classics. Third place for...
...an exhausted Flügel.
Behind him it's...
... Borges, who might have been the strongest man of today. He holds off the others with ease. Dekker, a rather strong Bratashcuk and the big story of the day, Cerny, follow on the minor places 5-7.
For the final top 10s...
... Waeytens is sprinting best to make it an outstanding day for Lierse that should confirm their PCT participation for another season. Behind Caruso and surprisingly Yates as the best rider from Ayubowan to finish off the Top 10.
Klemme comes in at 11th as the best CT rider, but surely had hoped for more with his puncheur/climbers skillset. Behind good results from Gilanipoor and Vasyliv, that both transformed their strengths in here well. In between one of the strongest riders of the day surely, Beltran. With some decent positioning he would've finished in the Top 5 here, if not competed for the win.
But now let's focus back on todays winner: Damiano Cunego. With this race he'll as well almost surely secured promotion for his VisitUkraine. Congratulations!
Italy 
