Welcome to the coverage of 2017 Kenya Mountain Classic. 164 kms with the same climb being done twice in the day; the first one in the beginning of the race and the other to finish it. We have extremely high winds (around 70 km/h) which can and will affect the racing today; hopefully in a good way
From the start two riders attack, the Icelandic champion Omarsson and Mraouni. Neither Valio or Minions have a strong leader here, so this can be a good strategy for them
But when the first pass of the climb arrives, other three riders have joined them; Costa, Fabbro and Hudecek. As they are already five riders, the bunch isn’t letting them go, and they only have a 40-second gap
The breakaway was inmediately caught thanks to Eritel’s work, but after that no one wanted to set the pace or attack or anything.
And this was the race pattern until Mamykin attacked with 5 kms to the top of the climb. He was followed by Pokidov a few hundredths of metres later
Already only 40 kms to go, but NOTHING has happened in the last 100 kms. The gap between Mamykin and Pokidov and the bunch is 2 minutes, and there are around 20 flattish kms before the final climb
Oh it’s starting to heavily rain in Kenya in the moment that the climb starts and the breakaway gets caught with 20 kms left
Chad Haga has crashed going uphill at the outside of a hairpin with 16 km to go, while in the bunch it’s SPAR setting the pace with Fabbro at the moment
Only 10 kms to go and now it’s Shushemoin working for Henao in the front. The group is still quite big, with over 80 riders on it, and hopefully we see something soon
This is something i can’t understand why no one wants to attack or put their domestique to set a high rhythm, but the head of the race is going under the 5-km arc, and still 60 riders!!! in the group. We are heading to a mass uphill sprint...
FINALLY! Henao attacks with 3,5 to go in the moment that Denifl was left in the front and stopped
Intxausti and Duarte have tried to follow the Colombian, but they are unable to catch him, while Denifl is pulling from a 8-rider group with Kudus, Roglič, Garby and Marquez as the only leaders there
Less than 2 kms for Henao and his gap to the group which now has Intxausti, Duarte, Denifl and Marquez is over 20 seconds. Another 20 seconds further behind, there’s a group with Roglic, Garby, Brenes and Quintana
Final km for Henao! The Colombian is going to win the race, as the gap has rised to almost 40 seconds, so the fight now is for the second place. Behind both chasing groups, Talansky has attacked from a bigger group where riders as Brajkovic, Contador or Kolesnikov were, quickly catching Roglic’s group
Under the Flamme Rouge both chasing groups have joined, except for Brenes, who will fight for a 11th place at best. So Denifl, Intxausti, Duarte, Marquez, Quintana, Kudus, Roglic, Garby and Talansky will fight for the final podium places
Sergio Henao wins the Kenya Mountain Classic! No one could follow him in his attack and this is the price for his strenght today
And there’s the sprint for the second place! Marquez and Duarte seems to be gaining ground on the rest, while Roglic is falling off the back of the group
Duarte takes the second place ahead of Marquez
Fourth place for Kudus, just ahead of Denifl, who overtook Quintana in the final 10 metres to get the fifth place
Intxausti narrowly beats Talansky for seventh, while Garby and Roglic complete the top10 of the race
Nazaret and Berhane make strong comebacks to finish 11th and 12th ahead of Brenes. Grigian beats Pantano for 14th, while Jung, Ivanov, Kolesnikov, Pomoshnikov and Maillet round up the top20.
