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A race made only for the toughest riders in this peloton, as we are live in Liechtenstein to see the 2018 of GP Liechtenstein, 240 kms of mountain. No one understands yet how the MGUCI allows such a race to be in the calendar, but we have a lot of riders (190), ready to kill themselves today
I wouldn’t say we have perfect conditions, as the sky looks like it could rain in any given time, but there’s no wind, so we hope for an attacking race
Four riders already thought that from the very beginning, and with the bunch’s permission, they have formed the BotD
Hamilton Lagab Eislers Trillini
Novak was going hard in the second descent of the day, and this forced a split in the bunch, with riders like Keinath, Haig, Brambilla or Krasnoperov behind, but Vesuvio closed the split and everything went back to the initial state, though around 35 riders are really dropped from the bunch. Maybe they’ll be able to get back in the group, but it’s an early indicator of weakness and that they might not finish this race inside time limit
Isostar and Gazelle are the two teams that are working in the front, and they have never allowed a gap bigger than 3 minutes to the 4 escapees. Weird, but remembering what happened in Badaling, the favourites wants to be safe about a breakaway win not happening
Lagab gets dropped from the breakaway with 80 kms to go and still 4 laps to the circuit with the “short” climb. The gap for the breakaway has rised to 5 minutes, while the bunch is getting decimated climb by climb, with now being around 120 riders left on it
Eislers is the next one, two laps after Lagab, to get dropped from the breakaway, which means only Hamilton and Trillini left in front with a 2’30 gap, while they are starting to overtake lapped riders. With 55 kms to go, only 75 riders left in the bunch, with the biggest names dropped being Kozhatayev and Scarponi
The adventure of Hamilton and Trillini ends with 45 kms to go, as Gazelle continues to set a decent pace to wear down Madrazo’s opponents
Less than 30 kms left, only one short climb left before the monster final climb, and only 50 riders are left in the bunch. Between the dropped ones, Kangert, Gilanipoor and most importantly, Brambilla
Spilak goes from very far, from the bottom of this climb with 27 kms left! And it looks like Herklotz tries to go after him, while Madrazo, Taaramae and Pluchkin trust their team-mates so far
Tratnik has done a fantastic job so far, and he seems tireless today, so despite the gap of the duo ahead increasing to 30 seconds, the Slovenian keeps working in the front of the now very reduced favourites group
Pluchkin attacks in the moment that Tratnik can’t keep working any longer, once the gap is almost one minute to Spilak and Herklotz. And Taaramäe and Madrazo follow the Moldovan with easy. Kritskiy is suffering a bit more due to his not so good punch, but he’s close to them, so he should join this group soon or in the downhill
By the time that all riders have reached the summit of this climb, Spilak and Herklotz hold a 40-seconds gap to the 4-rider group of Madrazo, Taaramae, Pluchkin and Kritskiy, who is suffering a lot to stay with them.
And almost one minute behind them, Gesink leads a rather big group which includes Martin, Tenorio, Barguil, Sicard, Wellens, Bonnin, Salinas, Olivier, Marquez, Galta, Bontenackels, Velits, Tratnik and Sosnitskiy.
Keinath, Vinhas, Kratochvila and Seboka are another minute behind this group, while there’s another group 30 seconds behind these riders which contains Nerz, Bennett, Koch, van der Hugenhaben, Arndt, Reis or Karnulin
Taaramae, Madrazo and Pluchkin are working together to catch the leading duo, while also dropping Kritskiy, who happens to be a terrible descender, so makes sense for him to lose time in the descent. Still 17 kms to go, and the race is pretty much open
Also, the group behind has been destroyed in the descent, with Barguil and Tenorio ahead of a group with Sicard, Wellens, Martin, Gesink and Bonnin, while the rest is in a group led by Salinas
Final 10 kms for the leading duo, in the moment that they start the final climb of the day. The gap is 35 seconds to the chasing trio of Taaramae, Madrazo and Pluchkin. Kritskiy is in no ones land, one minute behind the second group, and another minute ahead of a group with Gesink, Barguil, Tenorio, Martin, Sicard, Wellens and Bonnin
With 7 kms left, the gap is static at 35 seconds. Surely an exciting climb ahead of us, with these two groups fighting for the win today. Kritskiy keeps losing time, and at this rate, he will be caught by Gesink’s group in not a long time, the group where Bonnin has just been dropped of
Herklotz is finally helping Spilak in the work, as most of the work has been done by the Slovenian. With 5 kms to go, the gap is now down to 30 seconds
Spilak has literally stopped with 3,5 kms to go, and Herklotz with him, so it helped the chasing trio to catch them inmediately. So now we have 5 riders fighting for the win in the leading group with 3,5 kms to go, which are brutal
Spilak attacks with less than 3 kms to go, and Herklotz goes on his wheel without thinking too much!
Two kms to go! Spilak and Herklotz have opened again a 35-second gap, as it was before they suddenly stopped a couple of kms before. The gaps to groups behind have obviously been reduced with this “brake”, but none of these riders are dangerous for the Top5 riders today
And Herklotz explodes with 1,5 kms left! Spilak is going to break free for his first win in this race!
Final km for Spilak, who is acelerating now to get away from Herklotz! He has already opened a 20-second gap to the German rider, who is starting to fall into the clutches of the group behind, as the gap is now 25 seconds, and one km before it was almost 50
But there’s no energies left in the group that fights for the final podium place, and they won’t catch Herklotz
And Simon Spilak wins GP Liechtenstein for the first time in his career! Really deserved win for the Slovenian, who was the first to attack today, and also took most of the work in his duo with Herklotz. A big win for him, in what’s his final season at his prime, and showing that a third TDF title is possible
Herklotz is very tired, as Madrazo, who will have to settle for fifth today, but Pluchkin and Taaramae are sprinting fast with 150 metres to go, and Herklotz place is in real danger!
But Pluchkin runs out of energy in the final 30 metres, and can’t complete his comeback over Herklotz, who finishes second today, showing his strenght for the upcoming Vuelta a España. Pluchkin gets a third place ahead of last year’s winner Taaramae, who should be very disappointed with his performance, thinking that he hasn’t been able to win neither of the two mountain one-day races he has took part this season, despite dominating Paris-Nice. So Spilak takes the first and only battle between them before le Tour, where both are the main favourites for the win. Madrazo arrives in fifth place as we said
Kritsky is sixth today. He failed to stay in Pluchkin’s group in the final downhill, and this made him lose all his chances of a Top5 today
Tenorio wins the sprint for seventh place, ahead of Sicard, Gesink and Martin, while Barguil was dropped in the final two kms and will have to settle for 11th today, ahead of Wellens
Bonnin is clearly the biggest surprise of the day, finishing 13th, showing that RBC has something else than Phinney for the mountains. Behind him, Galta and Olivier complete the Top15
What a day for Slovenian cycling, as for the first time, a Slovenian rider wins a PT classic for a Slovenian team!
