Welcome back in Slovakia! The most awaited race of Continental Championships is here! On the menu we have 7 times over Smrekovica climb, well known from Tatranska Klasika.
The biggest favourites of the day are Schleck, Spilak, Taaramäe, Pluchkin and Madrazo.
We have a really strong group of riders in today's breakaway. These are: Faiers Preidler Rodrigues Van den Broeck
They are able to get as much as 7 minutes on the main field.
Alex Kirsch decides to try his luck with a mid-stage attack and joins the main breakaway group quite soon. With 80 kms to go, they have an advantage of 5 minutes.
At the same time it is clear the level of the field is way higher than during B Champs. Skujins is the best example of how great the competition is in this race as he drops together with riders like Froome or Hagen.
Team Estonia is doing majority of pacing in the peloton as Tanel Kangert is doing the most of work.
And some riders are going down! The biggest names involved in a crash with 80 kms to go are: Lecuisinier Nerz Krasnoperov König Barguil Brambilla De la Cruz
Blikra sadly has to abandon from the race.
Barguil is able to get back his team mate Lecuisinier to the main field quite soon. But it looks like it is game over for all other riders involved.
Preidler and Kirsch are dropped from the breakaway group. First group of 3 still has 5 minutes advantage over the peloton with 60 kms to go.
In the downhill Faiers and Rodrigues drop Van den Broeck as well.
Penultimate lap of the race: the peloton has just 59 riders remaining. 45 kms to go, but still almost 5 minutes behind the leading duo. The best riders missing are: Sosnitskiy Schelling Costagli Pomoshnikov Brajkovic Karnulin Contador Ratiy Abal
And Schleck goes! Just Taaramäe trying to keep with him, but unsuccessfully at the moment!
Madrazo ups the pace behind and rips apart the peloton. The riders able to keep with him are: Spilak Pluchkin Tenorio Kritskiy Velits Machado Lecuisinier
Riders like Gesink, Denifl, Guldhammer, Cattaneo, Sicard, Martin or Keizer, Intxausti or Herklotz are a minute behind.
Schleck catches the front duo on the top of the climb and immediately attacks! Taaramäe around 20 seconds behind with Faiers and Rodrigues being in between them.
Pluchkin destroys the chasing group as only Madrazo and Spilak are able to keep up with him. They are 30 seconds behind Taaramäe. Kritskiy loses around 20 seconds at this moment Tenorio and Velits are once again 20 seconds behind the Russian.
A minute behind is a group of 6 with Guldhammer, Machado, Gesink, Cattaneo, Denifl and Sicard.
And yet another minute back is a group of Lecuisinier, Herklotz, Marquez, Martin, Keizer, Intxausti and Dekker.
In the downhill Taaramäe catches Schleck and Faiers. This trio is about to start the climb of Smrekovica for the last time.
A minute behind is a group of 5: Spilak, Madrazo, Pluchkin, Kritskiy and Rodrigues.
And another minute behind there is a group of 8 as Tenorio and Velits are caught by the group behind them.
All other groups are more than 2 minutes behind so it looks like the fight for the top 10 is going to be between these riders.
Madrazo, Spilak and Pluchkin almost immediately drop Rodrigues and only a while later they attack! Kritskiy is unable to follow them while the other 3 riders are able to jump over to the leading group including Schleck and Taaramäe!
After a couple of kms it is Schleck this time who provokes another action as they lap some backmarkers. Only Taaramäe and Pluchkin are able to follow, while Madrazo and Spilak are able to drop Faiers.
Behind them, Tenorio, Velits and Denifl are slowly chasing down Kritskiy. They dropped Guldhammer and Rodrigues, while Machado, Sicard, Gesink and Cattaneo are losing a minute on the group that inludes local star Velits.
And Schleck drops both Taaramäe and Pluchkin at the same time as further behind Spilak cracks Madrazo!
The situation on the top of the climb is absolutely clear! Schleck catches his team mate Thill by a lap and he suddenly has an advantage of 2 minutes on his biggest rivals!
But what a surprising scene to be seen as both Spilak and Madrazo catch Taaramäe and Pluchkin. Looks like Estonian and Moldovan overestimated their abilities to keep up with Schleck and so their rivals were able to catch them just in time when the final downhill section starts. Looks like we have a great battle for... sadly only silver and bronze.
The situation on the top of the climb: Schleck
+ 2.00 Taaramäe, Pluchkin, Spilak, Madrazo
+ 3.40 Velits, Kritskiy, Tenorio, Faiers
+ 4.00 Denifl
+ 6.20 Guldhammer, Rodrigues
+ 7.00 Intxausti, Keizer, Sicard, Machado, Cattaneo, Gesink, Lecuisinier
+ 8.00 van den Broeck, Preidler, Martin, Marquez
all other riders more than 9 minutes behind
The downhill brings no big changes on the road in the chasing group and they are still 2 minutes behind the leading rider.
Denifl loses even more time on the group in front of him, while Guldhammer and Rodrigues are caught by the group behind them.
And Schleck wins!
The sprint in the chasing group wins Pluchkin as the bronze goes to Taaramäe! Spilak and Madrazo finish 4th and 5th.
Home hero Velits wins the sprint for 6th place to satisfaction of all the fans and his manager. Tenorio takes 7th place as the best 2nd leader of his team as Faiers completes the biggest surprise of the day and finishes 8th.
Kritskiy is the slowest man of the group.
Empty Denifl finishes 10th a little bit in the land of nowhere.
A huge sprint for the last places of Intercontinental Road Race wins Guldhammer ahead of Lecuisinier, Intxausti, Keizer, Machado and Sicard.
Still finishing in the group, but without a place for the next race are Cattaneo, Gesink and Rodrigues.
Schleck, 
Spilak, 
Taaramäe, 
Pluchkin and 
Madrazo.
Faiers
Preidler
Rodrigues
Van den Broeck
Skujins is the best example of how great the competition is in this race as he drops together with riders like 
Hagen.
Lecuisinier
Nerz
Krasnoperov
König
Brambilla
Schelling
Pomoshnikov
Velits
Gesink, 
Guldhammer, 
Martin or 
