24 hours have passed since the preview and we all know what that means: It's time for the start of the GP Yekaterinburg! 213 kilometers and nine climbs of a pretty damn hard climb near Yekaterinburg. The winner will be one who's very good at getting over them, that's for sure.
Three riders have the biggest grin on their face, though it's mixed with some stress too. I'm taking about Di Maggio, Gautier and Zaini, today's biggest favourites by a long shot who should battle it out to find out who's going to become today's winner!
In fact, Di Maggio already shows himself near the front at the starting line. Is he bluffing? It's a sign of good confidence at least.
A few early attacks were attempted by many teams, though they all looked a bit goofy as they couldn't even pass Helme at the front of the peloton. The first rider who did manage to do so was Dina. He was swiftly followed by Quicibal, Tewelde and Poljanec.
And it does indeed look like this will be the break of the day. Many teams send a rider to relay, but not a single one is setting any kind of pace. In fact, the breakaway's lead reaches 5 minutes already!
If you had to go out today and were only able to tune in for the finale, you haven't missed a thing. Compal recently took over the chase after having been invisible for the first 150 kilometers. Valio and ENI-MOL were the ones relaying earlier.
We're now at the second final big hill with 30 kilometers to go. The break is still 1,5 minutes ahead, but will we see any long-range attacks from the peloton?
Nope! Actually they didn't even get closer to the leaders. Maybe we'll get something happening at the small climbs that are still to go, but it's starting to look more and more like we will get a sprint on the final hill. And the breakaway staying ahead until at least the final kilometers can't be rules out either. This will get explosive no matter what!
Here we go! With 12 kilometers to go, top favourite Gautier gives it a go on one of the smaller hills. Though as you can see, his lead is tiny as he reaches the top already., thanks to the swift pace of Amanuel. Will he even get a gap, or is he wasting energy?
The break is still a minute ahead.
He did manage to create a 17-second gap, and is now approaching the four leaders with 10 kilometers to go. Can he use them to make another jump?
He doesn't even seem to aknowledge them and passed them as if he's in a car on the highway. Only 21 seconds now though... Seems the best he can hope for is being a little bit ahead when the final climb starts.
His rivals don't seem to care much yet. Riders like Di Maggio and Zaini are leaving everything in the hands of their teammates are are quite far behind on the peloton. Actually the whole front of the pack is still infected by teammates instead of the leaders. They will likely start moving up now.
The gap is now 24 seconds...
We've started the final climb, and the gap is 24 seconds once again. And we can indeed seen that many favourites have moved up to the top spots. Especially Anderson, Othman, the Kadri and Vichot duo and Zaini, who are all in the top 15.
Riders who are still positioned poorly are Di Maggio (only around 30th!), and Gougeard (a bit in front of Di Maggio). They have some catching up to do!
4 kilometers and we finally see that Amanuel drops the lead of the peloton. Anderson now leads the chase, presumably for Gaspar, who could be feeling more confident today.
The lead is slowly getting lower: 20 seconds now! A good attack by a favourite could bridge the gap.
3 kilometers and five riders have a small gap to the peloton, though they are not the names you should expect!
Anderson Othman Gallego Martin Zahiri
and Pedersen.
Michely is trying to close this gap for Di Maggio, who is still off-screen...
1,8 kilometers to go and Gautier is nearing the red kite! Behind him, Gallego Martin, Zahiri and Pedersen couldn't keep up with the pace anymore and are dropping. Anderson and Othman are still going strong though, and three riders have now joined them:
Oelerich Bille
and Kadri.
Michely, Kasa, Gunman and Hategaka are positioned well, too.
But what about Di Maggio and Gougeard then? Well, they are still chilling around 25th position. They need to do something quickly as otherwise, with the exception of Gautier, this will become a battle between outsiders...
Attack by Kadri, who drops the other four chasers, who are on the left! A new train now starts of attacking riders: Hategeka, Vichot, Gunman and Zaini.
Gautier seems to have this one in the bag though, he is almost under the red kite and has half a minute on Kadri...
The two “trains” now seem to melt together under the red kite, as only Vichot was able to get a gap over them. It seems like he's settled for second place barring a great late attack by one of the riders... Oh Di Maggio, where art thou?
Time to move to the steady camera at the finish line to see the final outcome of the race. And the first to pass the line, as expected, is Cyril Gautier, the winner of the 2018 edition of GP Yekaterinburg! He doesn't seem to be cheering about it, perhaps because of the low points available in this race, but he should be happy with a nice solo after a daring attack. Congratulations to him!
A well-deserved second place goes to Kadri, the only rider who was able to launch a successful attack on the final hill. Gautier was unreachable, but the second place is a nice reward for him for sure!
But we can see that the fun for Delvaux isn't over yet, as Kadri's teammate Vichot becomes the best of the rest by winning the sprint for third!!! Hope Gautier will enjoy being hamburger'd by two pink guys on the podium...
Bille and Anderson meanwhile bring back an impressive amount of points back to the PCT by finishing fourth and fifth. Othman also saw his agressive racing getting rewarded with his sixth place.
Hategeka, Pibernik, Zaini and Gunman complete the top 10. Of those, Hategeka and Zaini probably wanted more. Much more in Zaini's case.
Kasa finishes 11th as the third Swisslion rider. In front of Silva who is one of the seven (!) Generali riders who finish between 11th ans 21st. In between them, Rosa finishes 14th, Di Maggio finishes 16th (damn...) and Seibeb only managed to finish 19th.
Some even bigger disappointments behind them: Gougeard couldn't impress with his 34rd place... Kebede was another outsider who only managed to get 24th and won't score many points here.
But among the disappointed riders, we also have a very happy one. He didn't celebrate at the finish, but seems to be happier now on the podium. And with this, we finish our report of the GP Yekaterinburg. Once again, congratulations Cyril Gautier!
GP Yekaterinburg
