The Manx International is set to begin and the weather conditions couldn't be better. Hagen as the clear favorite, with Kinoshita, Anuar Aziz, Di Maggio, Gautier and Ignatiev as maybe the biggest challengers. Kwiatkowski in shape as well. Juul-Jensen to bounce back from a disappointing San Sebastian? Kump?
The usual business at the beginning of the race. A few first empty-handed attempts to break clear from the pack:
Oomen however fighting to stay ahead and he does, accompanied by two more riders to build the break of the day about 35km into the race:
Clifford Oomen Semple
A first shocker shortly after the first climb up the 'Snaefal', that has to be ridden three times today: a crash with several riders going down!
Costa Zaini Dennis Omarsson Lietaer Rovny Milan Belmokhtar
as the most notable riders involved. Quite a shocker for Costa and Zaini in particular. They would be brought back by their domestiques about 10km after the crash though. Too early to say, if someone suffered an injury from this incident.
Grieg, Indosat, In-n-Out, Valio and Meiji as those teams sharing the work in the chase of the breakaway. The breakaway's gap peaked at about six minutes, but with 50km to go, the peloton had already reduced the disadvantage to 2'35" - not showing any interest of getting fooled by a breakaway today.
Russo now leading the pack into the final climb (20km remaining). He's been impressive in San Sebastian most recently and he's working hard for Anuar Aziz again. The breakaway group is still ahead though, leading by 1'17" at this point. Meiji (Hiratsuka, Gilanipoor) as the main support, with a few big guns (like Hagen in first place) already moving forward to the front of the peloton.
Horrible news for Costa though, as he can't follow the pace anymore. Clearly suffering from his early crash, all hopes for a result here are already gone.
With the peloton now narrowing the gap to less than a minute, the breakaway group goes into pieces:
Oomen attacks from the group with 18.6km to go! Clifford and Semple can't follow.
17.5km left and the first big attacks from the peloton now:
Kwiatkowski with Hagen quickly jumping behind!
They easily go past Clifford/Semple, Oomen is about 40 seconds ahead..
Kinoshita as the first trying to follow Hagen/Kwiatkowski, but he's 30 seconds in arrears with now 17km to go! He did open up a gap on the bunch though, where two more riders are now going for an attack:
van der Hugenhaben and Juul-Jensen!
Back to the front now, where Hagen/Kwiatkowski went past Oomen with now 15km to go. They are on the descent from the 'Snaefal' climb, with just one short uphill sector to come.
Hagen attacks and Kwiatkowski can't respond in first place!
Van der Hugenhaben and Juul-Jensen couldn't go clear from the peloton, that is still at 70 riders - though quite stretched at this point. This group is 24 seconds behind Kinoshita:
in that order van der Hugenhaben Anuar Aziz Mugerli Quevedo Mohoric Kung Hardy Pomoshnikov Durasek Gautier Juul-Jensen Ignatiev Reichenbach Di Maggio Vogt Barbin Palini Zaini Betancourt
Less than 9km to go for Hagen, who's 8 seconds ahead of Kwiatkowski.. Kinoshita yet fighting to bridge across Kwiatkowski, but 20 seconds behind at this point.
The big group with the other favorites is 29 seconds behind Kinoshita..
32 seconds with 8km to go: Mugerli now leading the chase for Quevedo/Mohoric. Ferrero's trio moving forward and also Betancourt/Di Maggio made up some positions in the meantime.
3.5km to go for this group and just when Kinoshita caught up to Kwiatkowski, the duo slowed down for a few moments and got reeled in by the peloton (51 riders)!
Hagen still leading solo - with a promising gap of 43 seconds on the main group:
in that order Quevedo Mohoric Kung Kwiatkowski Kinoshita Michely Zaini Gautier Hardy Gaimon Barbin Mugerli Betancourt Waeytens van der Hugenhaben Palini Juul-Jensen Di Maggio Ignatiev Anuar Aziz
A few changes of positions with Ignatiev dropping further behind for now. Isostar looking strong so far, but Kump apparently not the main man today.
Hagen enters the final 1.5km of the race with still a 46" advantage on the main group (that is down to 33 riders in the meantime)..
..and here comes the group with again some significant changes for the now very important positions prior to the bunch sprint:
Quevedo Mohoric Kinoshita Juul-Jensen Barbin Palini Ignatiev Kung Michely Zaini van der Hugenhaben Anuar Aziz Reichenbach Kwiatkowski Waeytens Betancourt
Ignatiev moving forward again, with also Juul-Jensen and Kinoshita in a good position to compete against Isostar's strong looking duo. Ferrero with two more options for the top spots, while Kwiatkowski seems to struggle after his efforts so far.
Hagen won't care about the bunch sprint, as he soloes to another victory! He doesn't bother to celebrate, totally focussed on this next win he had been aiming for. After following Kwiatkowski's move on the crucial climb, he appeared to be a class of his own. Well done, yet again.
The sprint for 2nd place:
Quevedo still ahead of Mohoric, who's launching his finishing sprint now!
Juul-Jensen and Barbin close behind, with Ignatiev and Palini on the further positions. Kinoshita quickly losing speed though! He seems to pay for his efforts to catch up to Kwiatkowski..
Anuar Aziz and van der Hugenhaben too far behind to fight for a Top-5, but they are significally faster than Kinoshita now..
..this is going to be a tight decision between Quevedo, Mohoric, Barbin and maybe Juul-Jensen as well! They are close to the finish line..
..and Barbin played his sprint skills to perfection, lunging in for a narrow 2nd place ahead of Mohoric and Quevedo! This has been a thriller for the two final podium spots and Ferrero got the better end. Still a great team result for Isostar, obviously.
Juul-Jensen comes in 5th - definitely a very good result after his disappointing San Sebastian performance.
Ignatiev 6th ahead of Palini - Ferrero just went for a 2-6-7 here. Huge.
Anuar Aziz has to settle for an 8th place. No disaster, not special either.
van der Hugenhaben and Reichenbach complete the Top-10 then. A solid result for van der Hugenhaben, as he's not exactly known as a fast finishing puncheur.
Zaini 11th ahead of Di Maggio, who missed out on a good result here yet again.
A fast finish secures De Clercq a strong 13th place ahead of Waeytens and Kinoshita. The latter looked strong on the final climb, but once he and Kwiatkowski got reeled in by the pack, he struggled to keep the pace. A disappointing result after a gutsy ride.
Betancourt 16th ahead of Michely, Kung, Hardy and Cerny. Not a disastrous performance like in San Sebastian, but neither anything near his strong ride from two years ago.
Kwiatkowski eventually finishes 21st: after being the first favorite to attack, he definitely looked on his way to a much better result here. Just like Kinoshita, he suffered from his efforts though.
A bad day for Gautier as 24th..
Kump 35th as the leader in a next smaller group crossing the line. As said before, still a great result for Isostar today.
Opposing to Berg Cycles, which had a terrible day eventually: McEvoy as their best finisher as 53rd, 3'17" behind Hagen. It seems like they mainly worked for Costa, who crashed early and got dropped later on - eventually finishing 126th.
