The 2017 Tour of Bulgaria is underway and kicks off with a tough mountain stage from Troyan to a summit finish on Ezeroto Popok: three Cat1 climbs today and it begins right from the start.
Eastman and Suaza as the top favorites, closely followed by Valls and Penasa. Surely a great lineup for a C2 race!
While we do have some first breakaway attempts, that did not really have gone far yet (Lejman, W Ford, D Rosa and Pirazzi as the first trying to go clear), we also have the first shocker of the race just at the half of the first climb:
Penasa is down on the road! We did not see what exactly happened, but it's certainly the worst possible way to start a mountain race: crashing on the first ascent.
The general pace is quite high with several more riders trying to get away, but the peloton not willing to let them go clear:
Again Rosa, Pirazzi, Lejman, W Ford, Grabovski and Georgiev this time..
..but as we are soon to reach the first mountaintop, three riders seem to have finally get away from the peloton, that has been reduced to just 71 riders with this ridicolous pace so far:
Pirazzi (who takes the first mountain sprint) Løvik (who comes 2nd) Appleby
They are about two minutes ahead of the bunch now, but the situation on the climb is still alarming!
The peloton is down to 66 riders and we see several small groups being dropped from the pace so far! That ain't good news for the only crash victim:
Penasa (and his teammates Konwa, Pozzo, Cieslik, Mullen) find themselves in between those several small groups and with still 2.5km to the mountaintop, group Penasa is about 5 minutes behind the peloton! This is definitely not the way Penasa wanted to start the tour..
Did we say it was the worst possible start into the race?
Penasa crashes again! This time, he's hitting the turf on the descent of this climb.. wow. Obviously, he's in some kind of panic mode with the latest gap probably being reported to him at the mountaintop. In his mission to make it back to the peloton, he clearly went too fast (or paid too less attention). We've just raced about 38km of the tour and one of the top favorites has already crashed twice.. terrible, terrible stuff.
So let's rather continue with some good news for once:
Penasa has finally being brought back to the peloton! The race settled down after the first big climb and with the breakaway group being allowed to establish a 4-minutes-gap in the meantime, the pace has been slowed down.
It took Penasa more than 40km to catch up to the peloton though, we now have 115km to the finish. The bunch is up to 103 riders with mainly sprinters or other less talented climbers being dropped and trying to stay in the time limit today.
Løvik took the Cat3 climb ahead of Pirazzi, but the Italian bounces back at today's second Cat1 climb. Løvik comes 2nd and Appleby is dropped from duo with now 59km left in the stage.
The peloton is about three minutes behind at this point. On the chase again.
Osorio leading the peloton into the final 35km of the race. The second big climb has caused some damage again, as the pack is down to 66 riders again, yet trailing by 2 minutes on the leading duo.
A few minor riders have been dropped: Woods, W Ford, Bookwalter, Nordhaug - for example
Repsol has taken over the commando at the front of the peloton and we're now on the final climb: 11.5km remaining and the leading duo is soon to be caught by Repsol and the 64-men peloton!
It's been a quiet race on this final climb so far: just 6km to go and Repsol is still controlling the thing:
Nakane and Serrano setting the pace Mannion and Briceno as the Azteca domestiques, who work for Eastman
Now only 2.3km to go and still no attacks.. Serrano now right in front of Valls and the GC contenders start to find good positions at the very front of the group, that is down to 40 riders in the meantime..
Valls attacks with just 1.4km to go!
Karnulin jumps behind!
Eastman nowhere to be seen at the front of the main group, in fact, he doesn't look good at all.. same goes for today's only crash victim..
.. Penasa has been dropped from the 29-men-group, that is trying to hang on with Valls/Karnulin!
1.2km left for the leading group and Penasa now suffers from his two crashes and the hard work to get back into the pack. He has some support from Cieslik, but he will likely lose some valuable time on those final kilometre now. Tough start for him.
Less than a kilometre to go for the leaders and we see a small gap at the front now:
Valls getting away from Karnulin!
Another gap on the next group, where a few riders try to accelerate as well (appearing in this order):
Definitely not the best positions for Suaza and Eastman in particular! Also Tvetcov in danger to lose contact now, same goes for Atapuma..
Valls going strong and holding on to a 8-seconds gap on the group with now just 400metres to go!
Panayotov going past Karnulin, with Salinas, Anacona, Solis and Kebede in the more promising positions now. Bardet seems to struggle, Campero and Suaza ain't too far behind. Bennett at the back of this 14-men-group.
Eastman in troubles! He's a bike length behind Bennett and that's surely not where we wanted to be at this first stage!
25 seconds behind Eastman, there's a small group with Tvetcov, Atapuma, Mannion, Moschella and Rujano
Furhter 55" down on the road, there's group Penasa, who's currently 1'28" behind Valls.. still a way to go.
Valls takes the opening stage! He holds on to his small gap until the end, as no one else could bridge across or close the gap at least. No huge gap, obviously, but surely a first sign of strength.
Solis now as the fastest in the chasing group..
+ 8" for Solis as 2nd and Suaza as 3rd!
A strong finish for both and Suaza, who hadn't been perfectly positioned earlier on, may be happy enough to at least gain some bonifications.
An unlucky 4th for Karnulin, who at least tried to join Valls. Suaza narrowly beating him for bonus seconds though.
Panayotov, Salinas, Campero, Bardet, Kebede, Anacona, Bennett and Cataldo all finish within the same time as Solis - so 8 seconds lost on Valls. No Eastman in the list though..
+ 27" for Eastman, who finishes 14th behind Manfredi
A bad start for Eastman, who should be considered one of the best climbers here. He will surely need to bounce back from this (small) losses in tomorrow's timetrial arleady.
A few more small groups tumbling in: Atapuma at 0.59, Roe at 1.05, just like Tvetcov and Battaglin! Moschella at 1.15..
+ 2'13" for Penasa
His teammate Cieslik leads the group over the line and Penasa will be happy that this day is over. What a horrible start into this race. Two minutes lost on Valls is quite something, but what's more important, he might have suffered an injury afterall. Or was it just the lack of energy after his huge efforts early into the stage? We will see the next couple of days.
Valls the first GC-leader with 16secs on Solis and 20secs on Suaza. Solis likely to lose this place tomorrow, but it should be an interesting fight between Valls and Suaza. Also Eastman will aim to narrow the gap, that has opened today. Roe as another possible dark horse for the timetrial. Tvetcov of course, even though he surely didn't do too well today.
