Welcome to the first edition of the Lac Megantic Classic. We are in Canada to see a great battle between PT and PCT top sprinters. But with a not-completely flat route, some attackers could make their way into the win and upset the sprinter teams
Four riders form the breakaway of today
Hatanaka Gebrezgabihier Nareklishvili Mamykin
In a rainy and windy day, there was no doubt that we would see crashes, and within 40 km of the start, we have the first of the day. The biggest name involved is Keukeleire, while the rest are either lead-out riders or simply domestiques, like Weber, Krasnov, Hategaka, Omarsson, Venter, Roosen, Zielinski, Craven and Ariesen. Krasnov would not get up and had to abandon the race.
Only a couple of kms later, Marco Guillen would crash alone, although he was able to rejoin the bunch very quickly
MOL seems to have an unlucky day, as when the bunch is going through the final lap of the main circuit where is placed Mome Mountain, a 4-km climb, their leader, Vanoverschelde punctures. At this point, with 120 km left, the breakaway has a 6-minute lead into the main group
Only 40 km to the finish and the riders are climbing Mome Mountain for the final time. The breakaway group now only has around 2 minutes of advantage to a group, where surprisingly, none of the puncheurs present here has tried anything
The gap to the breakaway is worryingly not decreasing with just 20 kms left, and Reimer sees this and make the first move in a uphill zone. The first time his move is shut down by Arissol, but he attacks a second time and is able to create a 20-second gap.
The leading four riders have 1’20 on the bunch with 12 km to go. It doesn’t seems enough for them to get away with the win, and Reimer’s move hasn’t help at all
Just 7 km left in this race, and while the breakaway is about to be caught, the sprint preparations are being a little messy with so many good sprinters here. Basically only Fablok and Kraftwerk are being able to form a 3-men train, for Mohs and Cavendish, and the rest of sprinters are trying to follow each other
Gebrezgabihier using the little bump on the road with 5 km to go to attack and distance himself from the other breakaway riders. His current gap to the bunch is 27 seconds, and with a couple of kms of downhill coming up, there’s a little chance he can make it
3 km to go and the rider from Project Africa has even increased his advantage to 35 seconds. I would say that he has a 50/50 chance of taking the win right now and give his team a really unexpected win, although useless in any relegation fight. Meanwhile, Hatanaka is trying to follow the Eritrean and in the bunch, finally some proper sprint train are being formed
Naud
Irvine
Vinther
Cohen
Maikin
Manninen
Stepniak
Kreder
Lo Cicero
Cavendish
Stallaert
Guardini
Coquard
Goss
Mohs
Guerao
Swift
Arissol
Hatanaka has finally reached Gebrezgabihier’s wheel, and it might be a two-way battle for the win, although this could slow them down and allow the sprinters to catch them.
Kraftwerk’s train is being very dominant, as no one else is even close to them, which puts Cavendish in a perfect position to sprint. In his wheel are Coquard and Goss, who seems to have chosen perfectly the ideal wheel. The other two major sprint train, Valio and Fablok, have massively failed because of blocks, which is making both Lo Cicero and Mohs to have a bad positioning before the sprint, which also happens to Swift, who was following Fablok’s train
1,5 km left for Gebrezgabihier, who is starting his sprint, and is gladly seeing that Hatanaka doesn’t have anything to fight against him. It’s just a battle of him against the bunch.
There, in the bunch, Kreder is already starting to lead-out the sprint for Cavendish. Also, as the other two breakaway riders are being caught right now, they are blocking the right side of the road. Terrible for Fablok train and Swift, who were about to go through there
Under the Flamme Rouge, the Eritrean’s dream is broken, as Cavendish is already starting his sprint, after being perfectly led-out by Kreder, and Gebrehabizier is struggling to go fast now. Behind Cavendish, there’s a real mess of sprint, and whoever can get some free air will have a massive advantage
But it also seems like Cavendish lacks the power to finish this off, and Coquard is going much faster jumping off his wheel
500 metres to go and Coquard is now in the lead. But behind him, there are lots of riders that are coming much quicker than the French. The first of all, Goss, who is already trying to find a space between Coquard and Cavendish. And now is Coquard’s wheel is Stallaert. Fablok still has their 3 sprinters in the mix, and even if none of them gets a really great result, it might be a decent overall result for the team
250 metres left and Coquard is still on the lead. It seems that only Goss or Stallaert can take away the win from him unless the French explodes, which would make the race very open. In the right side, Lo Cicero looks to be gaining a lot of spots and might end up in the podium if he can continue with his current speed until the end
With 100 metres to go, it all looks like Coquard will take the win, with Goss and Cavendish or Stallaert completing the podium, while the 5th-10th places are still very open to changes
Bryan Coquard wins the Lac Megantic Classic!
Second place for Goss, while Cavendish is able to hold on Stallaert for the final podium place.
Silvestre takes fifth narrowly ahead of Demare and Lo Cicero
Guerao, Guardini and Vantomme complete the top10 of the race, with Mohs and Swift just outside of it
Coquard is on fire lately, after taking his first ever win in Norway only a couple of weeks ago
Only the Top100 because the game crashed in the podium and had to re-create the export file
