Perfect weather conditions in Russia and the 12 teams are ready to start this hilly classic around Yekaterinburg: a long day with 213km in total. The climb, that is also featured in the final kilometres of the race, ain't too steep (maximum slopes of 8% here) and it might be the big question of the day, whether we get selection prior to the final uphill sector.
We're already more than 50km into the race and several riders might have already burnt themselves with multiple efforts to go clear! A few first riders have already been dropped from the pack, that is keeping a high pace due to the catch-the-break games so far: Thorsen as the less bigger surprise to be dropped after the first two climbs..
With now 158km to go, we finally have found the first breakaway group then! Just three riders are allowed to go clear and they look already quite exhausted after their attempt(s) to form the "early" break:
Venturini Dahlberg Hamilton
Halfway through the race (92km to go), the peloton is starting to chase again: the breakaway's gap peaked at almost six minutes, but with teams like Xero, Azteca and In-n-Out now taking control again, it's quickly reduced to 4'20" at this point.
An usual picture for races with Roux involved: Davison leading the pack into the second half of the day!
In-n-Out though took command of the chase soon after and they are leading the pursuit with up to six domestiques for most of the final quarter of the race:
Hardy and Kreuziger as the last two left with now 25km remaining and the breakaway group as already been swallowed a few moments before! The top teams really in control of the race so far and especially In-n-Out go and demonstrate their strength (and ambitiouns) so far..
No attacks so far into this final lap then - which changes with now just 7km to go! In-n-Out still pacing for van der Hugenhaben and some riders try to go clear prior to the final climb:
Chaves Roux Boily Wyss Gaimon Gilbert
5.6km to go, the riders have not yet entered the steepest sector of the climb, but the attackers indeed could open up a 16 seconds on the peloton!
Pellaud and van der Hugenhaben were attentive though and jumped on the wagon, that is now at 8 riders!
4km to go, we're on 4% slopes now: the leading group goes strong and grows the gap to 24 seconds now! Boily in the leading position with Roux, Chaves and Hugenhaben right behind him.
In the peloton (57 riders now), several riders try to close the gap though:
Vliegen and De Vreese for Proximus Hollenstein and Cieslik for Kulczyk
Vichot right at the front of the group, just like Tvetcov!
Kulczyk's two domestiques working hard for Vichot, who obviously can't bridge across the leading group by himself - but the gap stays at 26 seconds with now just 2km to go (slopes at 5% now). Roux has taken over the pace setting in the first group, that has the following order now:
Roux Boily Chaves Pellaud Gilbert van der Hugenhaben Gaimon Wyss
And Roux is impressive on this uphill sector, as his pace makes the gap grow up to 44 seconds with now just 1.4km to go! The peloton (42 riders) has to give up the chase: Tvetcov and Vichot in the leading positions now, but they won't have any chance to bridge across the leading eight riders:
still the same order with Roux ahead of Boily, Chaves, Pellaud and Gilbert still ahead of Hugenhaben, Gaimon and Wyss!
Once they launched their sprint, the situation changes though: three riders appear to be the strongest, as they open up a small gap on Pellaud/Gilbert with now just 500metres left:
Boily tries to go past Roux and also Chaves is now attempting to go past the leading duo!
Hugenhaben not able to move forward and Gaimon is going past him instead! Wyss still in last position..
Roux struggles to keep the pace from Boily, who has sprinted to the leading position now! Chaves still right behind him though, yet trying to go past Boily..
Pellaud still ahead of Gilbert and Hugenhaben.. Gaimon loses his speed now, Wyss has a tough lane, but tries to go past Hugenhaben anyway!
The fight for line honours will happen between Boily and Chaves though! The latter is now at his top speed and is head-to-head with Boily with just a few metres to go!
Roux couldn't hang on, but he's still in a comfortable position to finish on the podium...
Chaves or Boily? It will be a thriller..
Chaves! A perfectly timed sprint and a great victory in such a hard to predict classic. He did benefit from his great position prior to the final sprint as well. Great stuff for him and his team.
Boily a strong, but slightly unlucky 2nd then. Just like Chaves, he had the perfect wheel with Roux right ahead of him. He almost made it, but Chaves had the happy end.
Roux held off Pellaud to finish 3rd eventually. No huge disappointement, obviously, but he might have spent too many metres in the leading position. It could have worked on an even better day though. Pellaud with a strong 4th.
Wyss managed to go past Gilbert and van der Hugenhaben to finish a strong 5th today. Hugenhaben had some great support from his team today, but his opponents played their tactics to perfection. He did well to connect to the leading group, but couldn't find a better position prior to the crucial moments then.
Gaimon as 8th completes a great team result for Goldcorp then. His good stamina certainly helped him today. Well done.
The bunch enters the final few hundred metres a minute later then:
Tvetcov and Vichot clearly the fastest, as they go head-to-head with a clear gap on the next riders Lietaer, Squire, Diggle...
Vichot takes the 9th place ahead of Tvetcov! Missing out on the decisive attacks is always disappointing and Vichot clearly did it today. You can't say his team and him did not try to close the gap, but group Chaves/Boily/Roux was simply too strong.
Squire sprints to a solid 11th place ahead of Diggle and Lietaer. Also Proximus tried to support their captain on the final climb, but they failed as well.
