Welcome to Riga - Jurmala 2019! It's a beautiful day to ride a bike, and a good two dozen sprinters are here to make the most of it. Let's jump in!
The riders were timid to get things started. It took almost 10 kilometers before Ginanni launched the first attack. Gazelle has no option for the sprint, so we would expect them to be active today. Neuman follows a few meters behind him.
A second batch of riders try to catch up to them. Walsleben leads the charge ahead of Groselj and Schoonbroodt.
Swisslion really wants to avoid chasing duties in the peloton today and sends another rider on the way: Poljanec attacks as well.
The rest of the peloton wasn’t happy with two riders from one team up front and Poljanec never established much of a lead - in contrast to the other five. Some 23 kilometers into race, their gap breaks the three minute mark for the first time.
A very diverse group of riders makes sure that it never gets much bigger than that. Puccio, Boom, Daniel, Meiler, Carboni, Neilands, Dlamini and Burghardt are some of the names taking longer turns at the head of the peloton.
We can jump ahead as nothing really happened for a while. Then, the only slightly more intensive slope of the day very briefly splits a small group off the front of the pack. Four of the top favorites are up ahead: Demare, Van Stayen, Guarnieri and Bewley. The split closes pretty much immediately, but their placement underscores their ambitions for today.
We’re still more than 30 kilometers from the finish, but the peloton is closing down on the escapees already. As the gap drops below a minute, Walsleben attacks to prolong his time in the spotlight a little longer.
There’s some wind and coupled with a quick pace, the peloton stretches and a few splits keep opening, closing and opening again. Most top sprinters manage to keep themselves close to the front, but large parts of some teams’ sprint trains are further behind, like Soupe and Baska for Bewley or Selig and Lobato del Valle for Guarnieri. We’ll have to keep an eye on how things develop.
Walsleben’s attack didn’t last too long and with the peloton now in sight, Ginanni tries to not only be the first but also the last attacker of today.
As we head into the final 20 kilometers, one significant split has actually sustained within the peloton. Only 51 men are on the right side of it. Around 1’30 behind them is a large group that includes Martinelli and Theuns, Lutsyshyn and Ulanowski, Lavoine and Tewelde as well as many of the prime sprint helpers from teams like Europcar, Moser and Kraftwerk, among others.
Puma and Evonik were central to the chase and both Demare and Van Stayen were consistently placed closely to the front. Air France did a a lot of work as well for Kennaugh so far. The escapees are pulled back with 14 kilometers to go. Is that enough for the rear group to make it back? And how much energy do those riders even have left?
If anyone thought this would calm down, they’re proven wrong quickly. Summerhill attacks! Puma and Air France try to keep everything together.
They do so very effectively but in the process, another significant split opens up! The biggest name in this second group is Avelino, and time is ticking: He only has 7 kilometers to get back to the front …
… where we have another attack! Summerhill had been caught again, but now Varga goes on the move and Stoltz tries to counter!
It took a little while, but Cavagna and Oomen set up the chase. Most other domestiques are gone and many of the top sprinters are taking position very close to the front. The duo has just under 20 seconds of advance but once these sprinters go full throttle, that might vanish quickly.
Van Asbroeck opens the sprint. He’s very early but he prefers that over the risk of losing to late escapees. Kennaugh is right there with him.
Demare sits behind Cavagna with Van Stayen and Guarnieri to his sides, Bewley just a notch behind, in Bonifazio’s slipstream to the right.
There’s a tiny gap filled by Summerhill, then we have Lo Cicero shooting around the corner next to Kuznetsov leading Kump, Cavendish and Guerao.
Howard and Maksimov lead the next wave of sprinters ahead of Saber, Ciolek and Avelino, who got back up here.
Vanderbiest, Itami and Groenewegen have even more ground to make up, everyone else seems too far behind.
Van Asbroeck gave everything to catch the two escapees and he did. But he doesn’t have anything left in the tank and no one takes the lead, so everything slows down drastically - who will accelerate next?
There’s the all-out sprint we’ve been waiting for! Heading towards the flamme rouge, Van Stayen and Demare take the lead. Puma worked a lot today, can the French reward them? Bewley next, then Kennaugh!
Bewley takes the lead, Lo Cicero and Guarnieri try to close the gap to the front. There’s a sharp right turn ahead of the finish line, which doesn’t bode well for the riders still trying to make up ground.
Avelino and Itami are currently very fast in the middle of the road, but Kump, Cavendish and Howard to their left are as well.
The line is getting closer and things are, too: As a rule of thumb, the further back you are at this point, the quicker you are. But Lo Cicero and Guarnieri have the highest pace among those six in the first line! They’re looking good, Kennaugh still the third fastest.
Meanwhile, Groenewegen is charging to the front with great speed next to Guerao, as the riders around them are slowly fading.
Guarnieri takes the lead onto the final few hundred meters, can anyone penetrate that first line of six?
Lo Cicero now ahead by just a sliver! Van Stayen is fading quickly, the other three seem fairly stable! Guerao and Groenewegen are still the quickest behind them, but they’re running out of road!
Another change of lead as Guarnieri goes ahead! Lo Cicero really struggling now!
Guarnieri takes it! Bewley shows tremedous tenacity and takes second place from Lo Cicero! Kennaugh fourth, Demare fifth.
Groenewegen finishes sixth ahead of Cavendish, Maksimov and Howard, who had strong final meters.
Guerao completes the Top 10 ahead of World Champ Kump, Itami and Van Stayen, who cracked horribly in the final few hundred meters.
Saber, Avelino and Ciolek come next. They were just positioned too badly to do better than this.
Vanderbiest leads two of the former aggressors over the line in Stoltz and Summerhill, with Bonifazio in between them. Lierse messed up today, or maybe they were just unlucky that it was Van Asbroeck who was closest to the front when it was time to close the gap to the two late escapees.
In the end, this came down to positioning once the two final escapees were caught - reacting quickly to Van Stayen’s acceleration was key, especially as the final turn took away a lot of room to overtake -, and then endurance once the line came closer. Guarnieri’s timing was perfect, while Bewley, who was in the wind much earlier, took second place on raw strength.
Riga - Jurmala GP 
