The Ringerike GP is about to get kicked off and it's a windy day (up to 64kmh) here in the near of Oslo. A challenging hilly profile and a special day for local favorite Hagen, who's the overwhelming favorite. Will anyone be able to beat him? Defending race winner Flügel would certainly love to do so.
Countless attacks right from the start, but it's quite a lot of empty-handed attempts at first hand:
#1: Antunes, Bouet, Padun, Stoenchev, Sirironnachai, Svab, C Jones, Di Gregorio
#2: Stoenchev, Svab, Padun, M Costa
#3: C Jones, Kreuziger, Bernas, Marcos
#4: Antunes, Gavazzi, Bridges, Geniez
#5: Sirionnachai, Nardin, S Park, M Costa, Marcos
After 60km of racing, a group of four riders finally is allowed to go clear then:
Vermote Gillett Nardin Park
Grieg obviously with a tactical move to send Gillett into the break of the day. He may be of help if Hagen reaches the breakaway at some point.
88.8km to go now and the peloton started to narrow the gap to the escapees, who are now 5'13" ahead of the pack:
Malacarne leading the chase right now and there's some support from Orange Cycling and Fablok. The winds still blow around 52kmh, but the peloton is still full in numbers.
Hagen with an early attack!
37km remaining and the top favorite tries to go clear. Surely a surprising attack with the peloton still on the chase to catch the break, that is about 2 minutes ahead. But Hagen obviously wants to prove his superior strength and of course there's his teammate Gillett still ahead in the leading group.
32km to go and Hagen opened up a minute-gap quickly: he is soon to join the early break at this current pace.
The peloton is now led by Generali: Molard, Malacarne and Tanovitchii work hard for Ulissi, who's also at the front of the pack now!
With still 28km to go (but only one "big" climb to come), Hagen has caught up to the breakaway, where Gillett is now pulling the strings in order to keep the pace up.
It's a tough one though, as the peloton is closing the previous gap to just 28 seconds now:
Kump now setting the pace and he's doing well to narrow the gap!
And yes, Hagen's effort has been worthless: group Hagen is reeled in with 24km to go and Generali is taking over the control again. Gillett and Hagen remain in the front rows though and now also Kraftwerk show it's colours for the first time.
Hagen ain't done yet! He goes again on the final longer climb, still 14km to go though.
Once again, no one is able to follow on first hand, but Generali is still strong in numbers. Will Hagen succeed this time?
At least, he opened up a 22 seconds gap with now 13km remaining. And the next favorites attack from the peloton (still 131 riders):
Ulissi Flügel Roche van der Hugenhaben Schreurs Anuar Aziz Gautier
try to follow Hagen's move!
12km and five of those latest attackers managed to open up a small gap on the peloton:
Ulissi Flügel Roche Schreurs Anuar Aziz
Hagen is 20 seconds ahead and the pack (with vdH, Gautier and Betancourt at the front) is just 16 seconds behind..
6km left and the chasing group couldn't stay clear from the peloton:
Kadri closes the gap to group Ulissi/Flügel/Schreurs and Hagen grew his lead to 1'04" in the meantime!
Barbin/Ignatiev/Palini for Ferrero, Caruso, Hugenhaben, Juul-Jensen, Paulinho/McEvoy for Berg, Gautier, Di Maggio and Klemme in the front of the bunch now.
The big favorite and local hero is riding towards the victory though: Hagen is still leading by a minute with now just 5.5km to go. It doesn't look like he will crack on those final few kilometres and with the chasing group being caught, there's yet no more attack back in the peloton.
Yap, let's keep this short: Hagen kept the pace high and crosses the line for a comfortable victory on home soil! He attacked twice and his second move would be the winning one. No one could match his attack and it's definitely the dominating win, that his fans and manager had hoped for. In style. Even though he somehow forgets to celebrate at the line.
The fight for the podium will be more interesting then: 1.5km to go, no more attacks, but some positions have changed for the bunch sprint decision. Let's have a look at who's in the most promising positions:
Flügel, Di Maggio, Aziz, Gautier, Betancourt, Costa, van der Hugenhaben? They all lost their good position or never had one. They are definitely too far behind to fight for a Top-10 or even Top-20 here!
Ulissi struggles as the riders enter the final km!
Juul-Jensen in the leading position with Ignatiev, Caruso and Kadri not far behind. Barbin and Schreurs right behind them and further behind, there's Roche, Kump and McEvoy.
Ulissi losing ground quickly and also Juul-Jensen can't easily hold off Caruso, Ignatiev and Kadri!
Barbin and Schreurs go past Ulissi, while Kump looks dead empty now!
Juul-Jensen is done!
Caruso head-to-head with Ignatiev and Kadri, this will be a thrilling finish!
Barbin on the way to complete a great result for Ferrero, Schreurs desperately fighting for a Top-5 result. Ulissi recovers a bit, but Top-5 is the maximum now. Paulinho/McEvoy trying to go past a struggling Kump..
Indeed a tight decision for today's 2nd place, but eventually, Kadri had the best finish to sprint for an impressive runner-up in this HC classic. Definitely a strong showing with his teammate Klemme fighting for a Top-20 result only.
Ignatiev with a similar impressive 3rd ahead of Caruso! A rather unexpected podium behind the clear winner, but they all played it smart and took advantage of their strong kick as well.
Barbin indeed adds a strong 5th for Ferrero! What a day for the team, as also Modolo came from behind to finish a strong 10th!
A tight decision between Juul-Jensen (6th) and Ulissi (7th), who finishes ahead of Schreurs and Paulinho. Ulissi went early, but couldn't keep his speed. Once he cracked, it looked like he would finish further behind. Juul-Jensen cracked later and finishes narrowly better eventually.
McEvoy sprints for 11th ahead of Roche, Kump, Tsatevich and Mohoric. Kump had not much energy left, but Isostar might be happy with three riders in the Top-20 (Mugerli went for 18th place).
Rabon, Klemme, Mugerli, a rather disappointing Aziz and Palini rounding up the Top-20 then. A horrible finish for Flügel (21st), Rui Costa (24th), Gautier (26th), Betancourt (29th), Hugenhaben (30th) and Di Maggio (33rd) in particular. They definitely missed the right moment to get into a good position. Or they had not much left to move to the front of the bunch.
Hagen finally celebrating his victory on the podium then. The local hero and big favorite delivered. Some might have been shocked when his first attack had no success, but the Norwegian had still enough power to launch a second, his winning move. A great day for Grieg, even though they clearly lack a strong backup result behind Hagen's win: Watson finished as 36th.
