Our opening attach happens not far into the race, and the riders string out behind Gavenda trying to cross. With him is Pszczolarski.
Behind and trying to catch up is Christensen, followed by Kortsidakis.
184 km
Two more make it across, Vlasov and Helme.
181 km
The peloton reaches the first of the dirt roads, and so far there is good cooperation from several teams working at the front.
124 km
Some rain starts to fall over the course, this is going to make the dirt roads a bit muddy and certainly make a hard race even more challenging for the riders.
108 km
The rain stops just a few kilometers later as we pass Fortezza di Montalcino in the southern part of the circuit portion of the race.
102 km
Our second pass up the climb of Montalcino sees no real struggle from either the breakaway or the peloton as the pace simply isn't high as everyone is content to keep a reasonable pace.
60 km
The last serious climb of the day starts to see some real damage done though as Polanc puts in a punishing turn, dropping the peloton from nearly 170 to just 38 remaining riders in the lead group.
None of the major contenders would miss out luckily, but several of the outsiders such as Watson, Caruso, Palini and Dyrnes would be elminated.
48 km
The skies have opened up again, as the rain starts to come down on the riders. The breakaway holds only a slender 1'38 now over the favorites group.
31 km
That is the end of the race for Gavenda who has dropped from the break and sees how quickly the favorites fly by.
29 km
The best domestique of the field has taken to the front as Buchmann works with Van Garderen right behind him.
27 km
And now we see the move they set up, this must have been the spot Van Garderen chose before the race to make his move, he seems to have caught the bunch a bit off guard!
25 km
The rest of the breakaway is quickly caught with this acceleration as Tejay is opening up a 12" lead currently.
21 km
A strong pull from Boily is able to bring the favorites all back together, a group of 25 with the top names all still in play.
The biggest names missing are Anuar Aziz, Vogt, Paulinho and Reichenbach.
19 km
McCarthy takes advantage of the slowing pace and makes a move of his own now!
16 km
He is brought back quickly, but immediately a counter from Gautier as he tries to pry open some space.
14 km
Another attack that fails, as surprisingly it is Pszczolarski having a fantastic race in service of Prevar, who pulls him back.
The other 4 riders that remained in the breakaway are all still sticking around, trying their best to support their teams favorite the rest of the way. Helme for Gautier, Vlasov with Chernetskiy. Christensen is protecting Schreurs and Kortsidakis just trying to hang on and whatever he can for Koretzky.
10 km
Gautier doesn't give up, he makes a second attack now quickly gaining a 16" advantage on the field.
7 km
Three kilometers later, he's extended the lead to 27" now as the favorites are having to take some turns to pull him back.
5.5 km
A big move from former winner Bellis quickly pulls him back and splits the group with only a few staying with him.
The lead group now, 9 strong as Gautier would hold onto them is as follows:
Bellis
Kelderman
Skujins
Gautier
Mohoric
Gastauer
McCarthy
Bakelants
Koretzky
The second group behind now has 7 more riders and a 24" disadvantage.
Prevar
Van Garderen
Gebrezgabihier
Chernetskiy
Betancourt
Schreurs
Waeytens
4 km
A counter attack from Mohoric is marked by Skujins, and Bakelants on his wheel.
3 km
There is a gap now behind our three top favorites as they enter the barricades and are really piling on the pressure.
2 km
The field behind is getting scattered with Gastauer in front of Koretzky. Behind them McCarthy, Kelderman, Van Garderen who has overcome the gap from the 2nd group and Betancourt as well.
500 m
Mohoric leads the trio up the final brutal climb, a grade right now just over 8%.
300 m
On the steepest part over 16% it is Skujins who makes the first move and pulls ahead of his counterparts.
fin
He will carry that momentum to the finish! Toms Skujins wins Strade Bianche!
The fight for 2nd sees Bakelants just edge out Mohoric.
In the closest match of the day we see McCarthy just edge out Koretzky for 4th.
The last of the top spots would go to Betancourt in 6th, Kelderman in one of he worst finishes here with 7th, sure to be disappointed somewhat with that. Van Garderen takes 8th, perhaps suffered some from his long range attack.
Teammate Buchmann takes 9th and Schreurs finishes the top 10.
