The final race of the season! Giro di Lombardia sees the PT season come to an end, and there are still plenty of things to decide, without even thinking of who will win this race. The title battle between Festina and Moser; Spilak and Koretzky (and a 180-point gap) vs Sagan and Vakoc. The relegation battle between Porto, Ayubowan, Strava and Tinkoff for 2 places of heaven and 2 of hell.
After Strava and Moser shut down a first breakaway attempt because it had too many riders, 4 riders were given the “okay” to go and form the breakaway in the final monument of the year.
Brändle Kennaugh Bouglas Ludvigsson
Interesting move by Festina, putting a rider up front so they are free to work in the bunch, saving domestique for later in the race or to give them a chance to score minor points for the title battle
The breakaway has reached the first climb of the climb, Valico di Valcava, with a gap of almost 9 minutes to the bunch. There are still 180 kms left, so no problems for the peloton, where Strava, Hugo Boss and Ayubowan have been working to not let the gap to grow too much
In Valico di Valcava, the gap kept rising, without any team wanting to go fast in this climb, so it reached 11 minutes, until Tinkoff tried to up the pace in the last 3 kms of climb, making some “roster-fillers” to be dropped.
But the bad news was a crash in the descent of this climb, involving Slagter and Beltran. Neither had to abandon, and both were again on his bikes really soon
This isn’t good news for Beltran and Aker, and to a lesser extent, to Hugo Boss, as the speed in the group has been increased by Festina and Tinkoff, and while it looked they could make it back to the bunch at the end of the descent, the gap has rised a minute since then. For me, it’s strange that they are trying to eliminate Beltran or a Ponzi domestique, but it can make for an exciting race if this rhythm continues, as we still have 140 kms left of racing
Beltran and his team-mates were able to join the peloton again in Colle Brianza, as the rhythm suddenly decreased there. Although in the flat roads leading to Muro di Sormano, Strava, Tinkoff and Evonik put a really high pace, which reduced the gap to the breakaway to only 4 minutes with 100 kms to go
The breakaway hasn’t reached yet the steppest part of Muro di Sormano, but Kennaugh and Brandle are using his superior climbing skills to already drop Bouglas and Ludvigsson
Big moment in the race, as Alarcon is setting a really high rhythm in the steepest part of Sormano! Let’s see later the consequences. And in the breakaway, Kennaugh cracked Brandle and will try to do a 100-km solo. With a slow first part of climb in the bunch, his gap rised to almost 7 minutes again
Beltran is injured, as there are still over 150 riders in the group when he gets dropped, and this is a disaster for Aker, as everyone waits for him! Including last year’s runner-up Dyrnes...
That moment when two-times winner of Lombardia Frank Schleck is dropped from the bunch in the descent of Sormano in his last ever race... Goodbye Frank!
Kennaugh and Brandle start Madonna del Ghisallo, a mythical climb in this race, with an advantage of 3 minutes. There are still 66 kms to the finish, and we should start to see some moves by climbers who can’t wait for the sprint, or at least some team who want to put a high pace here
And of course it’s Hugo Boss using the race MVP Jose Alarcon. During a brief moment, Hugo Boss had been able to make split with Alarcon, Minguez Ayala and Ponzi, but Gazelle was attentive to not let them go away
Still over 80 riders in the favourite’s group, and obviously no big names missing. The most important riders dropped are Jensen and Vanendert
Important moment in the title fight, as Festina is using Koretzky to catch the breakaway in the terrain that leads to the penultimate climb of the day, Villa Vergano, which might leave just Spilak vs Sagan and Vakoc in the finish. Kennaugh and Brandle have now only 1 minute of gap
That’s some serious pace by Alarcon, and very quickly, all the race favourites have placed themselves in the first places of the group, with Ponzi following his team-mate in the front, having Bakelants, Trofimov and Spilak right behind him, and Sagan, Ginanni, Nepomnyachsniy and Skujins a little further behind
Finally! Someone daring to attack Hugo Boss! In the top of Villa Vergano it’s Spilak making a move, which Trofimov tries to follow quickly, though Slagter gets in the way, working for Ponzi
And obviously Slagter doesn’t even let Spilak to have a little gap, showing how strong is Hugo Boss. Everything is looking perfect for Ponzi, who is looking to win for the 3rd straight year this race
10 kms to go, and the riders are about to start the final climb of the day, and the last chance to avoid a win from Ponzi today. There are still 51 riders in the first group, so let’s see who they are
Again it’s Spilak the first to attack in the final climb! And again Ponzi rely on his team-mates to close that gap
Master-piece by Hugo Boss. They caught Spilak, and in that very moment, Ponzi attacked. And only Spilak and Trofimov couldn’t follow the Italian’s acceleration, while Bakelants is still in the group, maybe because he couldn’t find a gap to attack
Spilak and Ponzi can’t do anything but keep attacking each other in this climb, never dropping the other. Meanwhile, Bakelants has left the group behind, and is close to reach the leading trio. Schleck tried to follow the Belgian, but he’s not made for this “short” climbs.
Ponzi cracks!!! That final attack by Spilak was too much for the defending winner!
Last km of climb for Spilak, who has a 10-second gap to Trofimov, and 15 further to Ponzi. Bakelants was caught by the group, and without anyone taking care of the chase, the podium places might be already gone. After the climb, there’s a quick downhill of 5 kms to the finish in Lecco
Only 2 kms for Spilak, and Trofimov hasn’t been able to properly catch his wheel in the descent, so the Slovenian is looking very good for his first monument win!
There won’t be anyone stopping Spilak from winning this race, with Trofimov losing time now and the Slovenian having past the Flamme Rouge
Simon Spilak wins Giro di Lombardia and gives Festina his third PT title in-a-row! What a month of October for Festina who has made a big comeback to take the title from Moser in the last two races of the season!
Second place for Trofimov, who might have saved Tinkoff from relegation, though they’ll have to wait for the group’s sprint to confirm it
Third place for Ponzi, who despite missing out on a third win here, he can’t be unhappy with the race, with Hugo Boss controlling everything until he attacked. Spilak was stronger and that’s it
Final km for the group, and watch out for the riders that are in the first places of the group, because the relegation battle can’t get any hotter, as Bakelants is sitting in second place behind Lutsenko, McCarthy is around 6th place, and there’s a Porto rider too involved in the sprint. We’ll see what happens
Lutsenko wins easily the sprint for fourth, with Koretzky completing Festina dominance today with a top5 finish. Skujins is a clear sixth, while Ginnani beats Bakelants in photo-finish for 7th. Not looking good for Strava, as they won’t have any depth scoring. Vakoc is ninth, and McCarthy gets the final top10, beating Edmondson by milimetres. That one spot could decide who relegates remember
Arndt, Kelderman, Schleck, Herklotz, Sagan, Machado, Tratnik, Silva and Smirnovs in the Top20. That’s some depth for Porto, with Figuereido in 22th too. Ayubowan has Bellis in 26th... Well, this is going to be really really close between the four teams fighting for two spots in 2018 PT
And with the image of Simon Spilak celebrating in the podium his first ever monument win, we say goodbye to the 2017 season! Thanks for following our coverages since the first race back in January!
