The Coppa Placci is about to start and the big questions is, if the best puncheur (Di Maggio) will struggle on a course, that looks partly mountainous. Other top puncheurs like Gautier, Meyer or Ben Nasser handle a more mountainous terrain slightly better and we do have 45km of climbing here. Teuns, Serry or Siskevicius may fancy their chances to beat those guys and there's a few more possible podium contenders like Teklit, Dieteren or Mehr-Wenige (who is as one dimensional as Di Maggio though)..
The first few breakaway attempts do not go far:
#1 - Hofstede, Grand, Zaraliev, M Walsleben, Fisher
#2 - M Walsleben, Fi Rocchetti, M Velits, Koch
#3 - Fi Rocchetti, Kenyeres, Gallego Martin, Hofstede, Räim
..eventually, it's just one rider allowed to stay clear:
Rocchetti! And that's quite an interesting move, since Federico Rocchetti won last year's San Marino Hill Classic (which has been replaced by the Coppa Placci) from the early breakaway group. This year, it's Filippo Rocchetti joining - or building - the break of the day for Campari, establishing a three minutes gap with still 150km to go. No other rider would try to join him, it will be a long day all alone at the front.
The peloton is led by teams such as Eddie Stobart, ENI-MOL, Delvaux and also Campari it's colours with Ben Nasser positioning himself at the front of the bunch (obviously not helping to chase the solo escapee though):
44.4km to go for the pack, is down by 2'35" - never allowing the gap to grow bigger than five minutes..
Delvaux and ENI-MOL still at the front of the peloton in this really quiet race so far, but the chasing teams struggled to catch Rocchetti with now only 10km to go!
The solo leader is still 1'15" ahead and Eddie Stobart has stopped working at the front.. the pack, however, has been reduced to 47 riders with all but the final climb behind us now. No attacks yet, it's really not the most entertaining race so far..
As said, there's been some major splits in the peloton though and looking back the latest groups being dropped, we see a few notable names:
Mendes certainly as the biggest name in a group one minute behind the pack!
Hugentobler Skjerping Anderson in the same group with Mendes, yet trying to fight their way back..
Also Seibeb and Othman were dropped on the penultimate climb of the day and they are a few seconds behind group Mendes now..
Gougeard even further behind!
Good news for some of those riders though, as the peloton still hasn't upped the pace, allowing Rocchetti to grow his lead back to 1'47" with now just 7km to go and the solo leader already entering the final climb!
Mendes, Othman and Skjerping make it back to the main group.. opposing to Seibeb or Gougeard, who won't be a factor today!
Just 5.5km remaining and the peloton (63 riders) still does not go all-in.. Rocchetti holds on to a 1'47" gap!
Meyer finally attacks!
Di Maggio jumps behind a few seconds later, opening up a small gap on the peloton quickly!
Meyer, however, faces a 1'28" gap on Rocchetti, who only has 4.3km to the finish!
No other rider tried to attack, but the best puncheurs finally moved to the front of the pack in order to chase Di Maggio and Meyer:
1.9km to go now and Rocchetti still in the lead!
+ 0.29 Meyer + 0.27 Di Maggio and the peloton catches up to him!
Di Maggio
Gautier Othman Teuns Siskevicius Vichot accelerate and finally close the gap to Di Maggio..
Ben Nasser a few metres behind, but struggling to hang on..
Teklit Thill on the further positions, trying to follow!
The win will go to either Rocchetti or Meyer though! Just one kilometre to go and the solo leader holds on to a 17 seconds gap on Meyer, who goes for another acceleration with the clear goal to go past Rocchetti for the victory!
The group with Di Maggio/Gauthier is 40 seconds in arrears..
Gautier now at the front of this group, with Othman right behind him! A strong recovery from Othman, who already got dropped earlier on..
Teuns, Siskevicius, Vichot and a struggling Di Maggio on the further positions..
A small gap on a next group with Ben Nasser at the front:
Azman Denz now ahead of Teklit..
Jang ahead of Thill..
Kadri Mehr-Wenige Sushemoin Serry with a gap on Henao, Bostner and Shapira!
Just a few hundred metres to go and Meyer still hasn't caught up to Rocchetti, who has launched his final sprint as well..
..for the win: Rocchetti takes the win from the long solo breakaway! History repeats.. kind of: after Federico Rocchetti won the San Marino Hill Classic for Campari last year, it's now Filippo Rocchetti winning the Coppa Placci for Campari - again, from a breakaway. Sick stuff.
Meyer came close, but has to settle for a 2nd place. Much stronger than his biggest opponents, but still a disappointing race with Eddie Stobart amonst those teams failing to control a solo escapee!
The sprint for 3rd place is on now: Gautier ahead of Teuns and Siskevicius, as Othman struggles to follow on first hand!
Vichot right behind him with a strong Azman, a still struggling Di Maggio, Denz and Jang not far behind now..
Gautier holding on to a small advantage on Teuns.. Siskevicius can't really make up ground neither..
Vichot went past Othman with Azman/Jang trying to go past him though!
Denz clearly ahead of Di Maggio now.. Ben Nasser is moving forward, just like Teklit, Serry and Kadri..
+ 54" for Gautier as 3rd! Just like for Meyer, a missed opportunity for something better..
Teuns 4th ahead of a strong finishing Jang as 5th!
Siskevicius has to settle for a 6th place, which ain't particularly disastrous, but not too special either..
Vichot comes in as 7th ahead of a surprisingly strong Azman and Othman. The latter two should be happy with those results.
Just like Denz, who completes the Top-10 with the same time as Gauthier!
Serry 11th ahead of Teklit, Ben Nasser, Kadri and Mehr-Wenige as 15th then.. a disappointing race for Di Maggio as 16th eventually. He tried to follow Meyer, but totally suffered from his efforts on the final 1-2km of the day..
Shushemoin 17th and giving Kraftwerk Machine some depth scoring..
Thill 18th ahead of Henao as their team's best.. Thill looked strong for a while, but could not compete with the best eventually..
Kebede completes the Top-20 ahead of a group with Bostner/Shapira (22nd/23rd), Piccoli (24th) Grmay (25th), Gunman, Ockeloen (Rothaus' best finisher as 31st), Lindau (32nd) and Panayotov (35th). So several teams without any Top-20/25/30 result here.
So with this inaugaral edition of the Coppa Placci done, we still got a Roccheti winning in San Marino's annual hill classic. From a neutral point of view, a disappointing race with only two major attacks (too late into the race) and the top teams allowing a solo escapee to bring home (a surely nice) victory (for himself and his team)..
