A three man break escape from the pack in the early kilometers. They are soon joined by two others and this makes our break of the day. The riders are Pereyra, Walsleben, Athanasiades, Navarette and Salcone.
At the 170 km to go mark, many teams show themselves at the front of the peloton but the pace is still slow. The break now has a lead of more than 7 minutes.
155 km to go now, and the break reaches the first climb of the day, barring the early kilometers. Their lead is 7'47".
With 135 km to go, the peloton have now started eating into the break's lead. It's all blue at the front as Festina and Grieg do the chasing.
100 km to go now and the break still taking turns. Their lead has dropped to 5'28".
5 km later, the first fall of the day occurs, involving Bauhaus, Lammertink and McLay, among others. They are all in a group chasing back. They succeed in doing so.
There are 70 km to go now, and Grieg and Festina still lead the peloton. Vesuvio and Ayubowan! helping out now. The break's lead is down to 3'5".
55 km to go and riders now starting to get dropped for good.
(The tail of the peloton is visible to the dropped riders but it doesn't look good for them.)
The break are now encountering some serious ups and downs in the terrain. Their lead is down to 2'9".
With 30 km to go, Puma try to take control of the peloton, which is now drawn out in a long line. The break's lead is now 1'42".
Veusvio and Moser have taken control at the front of the peloton with 20 km to go. Have Festina, Puma and Grieg done too much work, too early? Pereyra is dropped from the break and the peloton have him in their sights.
17 km, and Hagen attacks! Gastauer, Kelderman and Prevar try to counter. Spilak is in a bad position at the time of the attack. Another rider from the break, Athanasiades is now caught.
Hagen catches the break with 15 km to go and attacks again!
12 km - The situation as it stands now:
E1 -> Hagen, Gastauer, Kelderman
E2 (12" ) -> Spilak, Prevar
Peloton (30" ) -> Peloton
The high speed chasing from the peloton brings back all the attackers. It is now confirmed that this 43 man group has the winner in it. The next group is more than 90 seconds behind.
Hagen attacks again with 8.5 km to go. The Norwegian really wants to win this! Gastauer and Spilak are able to go with him.
6 km to go and peloton is fractured into tiny groups...
E1 -> Hagen, Gastauer, Spilak
E2 (10" ) -> Borges (PRP), Sagan, Kelderman
E3 (39" ) -> Bilbao, Chernetskiy, McCarthy, Bystrom
E4 (1' ) -> Furdi, Prevar, Van Stayen
Peloton (1'18" ) -> 47 riders
With 5 km to go, E1 and E2 from before merge. The peloton catches E4 and all but Chernetskiy from E3.
Hagen gives up the pace-making duties to Sagan with 2 km to go.
They continue like this till Sagan launches an acceleration with 600 meters left. The others look to take up the best positions.
200 meters and Sagan still leads the bunch. Gastauer seems the most likely to challenge him for the win. Hagen is well and truly boxed in!
And it's Sagan raising his arms in victory here! He finishes ahead of home favorite Gastauer. Hagen somehow manages to squeeze through into 3rd. Borges (PRP) finishes a brilliant 4th, followed by Spilak and Kelderman.
Chernetskiy comes in for a lonely 7th.
Mugerli outsprints McCarthy from the peloton to finish 8th, while Mohoric makes it two top 10s for Isostar.
The day belongs to Sagan as he raises his arms in victory on the podium!
