The 2020 season is upon us, 190 riders are ready to kick things off here in China. The elite puncheurs will fight for the first win of the season - let’s get right into it!
The flag is waved, who is going to be the first to go on the attack?
Festina switched kits in the offseason and they want to show it off: Giannoutsos makes the first move followed by Arifin and Niu.
But that won’t be the end of it, of course. Kolesnikov leads another two riders who are in new jerseys: Lemus Davila sports the all-new Mapei gear, although the former T-Mobile team apparently hasn’t been able to get new equipment yet, looks like management has some work to do there. And we also have Sequera of Generali, who’ve changed the orange of last year for a white-red-blue combination.
Surprisingly, that’s all the attacks we’re seeing early on in this race. And so this sextet makes its way through the Chinese countryside, quickly building a gap of six and a half minutes as they head towards the first circuit with five laps over a combination of short hills.
Here’s a quick look at said hills. The main difficulty is the middle ascent, of course, with gradients of up to 10%.
The pace in the group isn’t super high and as they descend from the hills for the third time, the gap is down to around four minutes. All six of them are more oriented towards climbing rather than shorter hills or even flat roads, with the exception of Kolesnikov, who’s an excellent rouleur, and Niu, also a good allrounder. Lemus Davila and Sequera are the strongest climbers among them and would be favored to stay ahead the longest, but to have any shot at a good result, they likely have to pick up the pace a little.
In the peloton, the teams of the top favorites have already assumed their roles at the front. King Power for Lutsenko, Evonik for Skujins, Rakuten for Kinoshita, Isostar for Mohoric and Aegon for De Bie are the main forces in the chase.
In the fourth lap, we see the first effects of the pace within the pack. A small split opens with 65 riders caught behind. The biggest names among those are Vakoc and Kump alongside teammate Dyrnes, as well as the entire teams of Grieg and Bennelong as well as Generali and Puma - although those two have a man each in the breakaway, of course. This split will likely be closed soon, but those teams have to be more careful if they want to end up in the points.
The fifth lap goes by without anything of note happening - the peloton is indeed intact again - and the breakaway approaches the final climbs with around three minutes on the pack.
Speaking of the final climbs, here’s a closer look at them. It’s again a circular course, but with only a little more than two laps. The climb isn’t super steep at any point, but it’s uneven and the short-ish final climb seems to invite a sprint of the top puncheurs, unless someone wants to force a selection earlier.
In the peloton, Moser (for Sagan) and Air France have joined the rotation at the front. Former world champion Hagen is already in a good position, carefully avoiding any pitfalls. Isostar does the bulk of work by now, currently with four riders working.
Under the continued pressure of Isostar, a small group of 26 riders splits off the front of the peloton on the first descent. Making the cut among the favorites are Skujins and Lopez, Kinoshita, Sagan, Hagen, De Bie, Lutsenko and two names we haven’t mentioned yet in Ponzi and Van Garderen. Some of the main names missing are Bakelants, Buchmann and Kwiatkowski. We’re still a long way from the finish, of course, and this split would close quickly, but we see that team support might be crucial here.
Into the final longer climb, there’s another larger split in the peloton that seems to be permanent this time. Some luxury domestiques like Serry are among the riders falling behind, but once again neither Puma nor Bennelong or Grieg have any riders in the main pack. Nordstrom, ISA and Generali have been more attentive this time around and their main guys are still ahead of the split.
With exactly 20 kilometers to go, we have two situations unfolding simultaneously. Likely much less consequential is the attack by Kolesnikov as the peloton comes within a minute of the group. However …
… we also have an attack from said peloton and it’s a big one! Kinoshita tries to escape the Evonik brigade. A bold move, especially with Lopez ready to chase in second position. Let’s see how this turns out.
The Rakuten leader gets a decent gap and provokes more attacks in response. First it’s Bellis, then Hagen himself! Kangert shows impressive strength trying to follow last year’s winner.
But Lopez chases furiously and brings them back in no time. Kinoshita is still almost half a minute ahead …
… where he makes his way towards the breakaway. Arifin fell behind and will be swallowed by the peloton shortly. But it’s also worth noting that Kolesnikov brought half a minute between himself and his former companions. That’s 1’15 on the peloton with 17 kilometers left, a lot of which are downhill.
Lopez’ brutal pace shatters the peloton behind him and only 20 riders are able to keep up. Most top favorites kept up, but Bakelants, Gastauer, McCarthy and Bellis are missing.
Shortly afterwards, another few riders have to sit up. Among them are Jensen, Vakoc and Boswell.
And more attacks keep on coming at the front. Now it’s Ponzi who flies past Lemus Davila and towards Kinoshita.
Kolesnikov crosses the summit with still more than half a minute on his closest chasers, potentially on his way to a really strong result here. But the pace behind him is incredibly high.
Niu manages to hang on to Kinoshita and Ponzi for now. Giannoutsos had lost contact a bit earlier, Sequera now also falls behind towards the main group of favorites, where Mohoric now attacks. We’ll take stock of who else is in that group in just a second.
Mohoric’s attack blew that group up and only six riders were able to follow. Those are Hagen, Koretzky, De Bie, Van Garderen, Skujins and Kwiatkowski (plus Sequera is still here).
They are 20 seconds behind the trio ahead, and have 24 seconds on the next chase group led by Buchmann with Gerts, Sagan and Lutsenko.
Another 20 seconds behind, Formolo is chasing a Top 15 result with Lopez, a phenomenally strong Riesebeek, Kangert and Lemus Davila. Then there’s a 50 second gap to the peloton of around 50 riders including most of the previously distanced riders like Jensen, Vakoc and Bakelants.
But back to the front, where Van Garderen closes the gap to Ponzi and Kinoshita to make it a group of 11 chasing Kolesnikov. The Buchmann group is also close to catching up.
They do, and so does the Formolo / Lopez group a little later. With the peloton more than a minute behind, it seems likely that the winner comes from among these 22 riders.
Kolesnikov has been spectacular so far and enters the final 3 uphill kilometers with 23 seconds on the chasers where Lopez has taken charge again. This could be one of the more spectacular upsets we’ve seen, but if he gets caught too early, he could still fall quite far in the end result.
Mohoric isn’t trusting Lopez and wants to take matters into his own hands! He attacks, immediately followed by De Bie, Koretzky and Kinoshita.
The group is stretched thin as everyone tries to keep up. Hagen leads Kwiatkowski, Skujins and Buchmann, then it’s Ponzi, who messed up his positioning a bit, with Van Garderen and Formolo in his wheel. Lutsenko and Sagan missed the move and have a long way to get back to the front now. Behind them, it’s Gerts as well as the remnants of the breakaway and the remaining domestiques at the backend of the group.
Kolesnikov isn’t even looking up as the favorites sprint past him. Just focussing on his own rhythm, he still has a shot at a Top 15 or at least Top 20 result here.
No one wants to pace the others into the final kilometer and things slow down again. Gerts just barely made it to this group of now 15 riders, which is likely to sprint for the win in a few seconds now.
One last look behind though, where the peloton has also reached the final ascent. Sepulveda attacks from the front, either for himself or as a setup for Vakoc. If they catch the group ahead, which seems entirely possible considering it’s escapees and domestiques likely at the end of their ropes, the final five Top 20 spots are still up for grabs.
But let’s turn our attention to the front again. Koretzky leads the favorites towards the finish, with Hagen, Mohoric, De Bie, Kwiatkowski and Kinoshita lined up behind him ahead of Ponzi. Formolo and Kolesnikov fall off the back and Sagan doesn’t look great anymore either.
The finish line comes closer and Koretzky still leads, but Ponzi comes to his left with incredible speed and Hagen still looks strong on the right hand side as well! Mohoric lost a lot of ground, now next to Van Garderen and Skujins. Isostar and Evonik did arguably the most work today and they might not be rewarded.
With 9 riders clearly ahead, Gerts, Buchmann and Lutsenko are fighting for the final Top 10 spot, but none of them is looking great.
Ponzi takes a decisive lead and no one can match his pace! Koretzky is struggling now, can he hold on to the podium?
UBS start their Pro Tour return in the best way possible and their huge investment starts to pay dividends already: Simone Ponzi win the Badaling International!
Hagen just beats Koretzky at the line, but that is still a great result for the Festina leader.
Kinoshita stays ahead of De Bie, making it two newly-promoted teams in the Top 4. Kwiatkowski, another huge free agency signing, has a nice debut for his new team and finishes sixth.
Somehow missed the screenshot here, I apologize
Van Garderen outsprints Mohoric and Skujins to finish seventh, a good result for him, a disappointment for the latter two and their teams.
Gerts is one of the bigger surprises of the day, finishing 10th ahead of Buchmann. Lutsenko and Sagan won’t be happy with places 12 and 13, in contrast to Formolo and Kolesnikov I assume, who round out the Top 15.
Inside the final kilometer, the peloton does indeed catch up with the group ahead, but Lopez, Niu, Kangert and Sequera still lead the way towards the finish. From left to right behind them are Smit, Sepulveda, McCarthy and Kump just ahead of Gastauer and Vliegen.
None of the peloton riders seem to have anything left in the tank so Lopez and Niu simply stay in the wind all the way and take places 16 and 17, a great result especially for the latter, as well as for Kangert, Sequera and Riesebeek, who complete the Top 20 ahead of Calmejane.
Setting aside the riders in the Top 15 who would have hoped for more, some of the stronger puncheurs deemed as contenders pre-race disappointed heavily. cycleYorkshire’s leadership duo of McCarthy and Bellis combined for a 36th and a 61st place, but that 36th is far from the worst result compared to some others. Kump finished 39th, but he wasn’t considered a serious favorite, in contrast to Bakelants, who ended up in 50th position. Jensen scored a 58th place for Volvo, one place ahead of Vakoc, although ISA - Hexacta at least gets some depth scoring with three guys in the Top 50 ahead of their leader.
A few others were saved by their respective deputies or a breakaway rider stepping up. Those include Vogt (55th) and Chernetskiy (57th), Boswell in 69th, Teuns in 103rd (plus Talansky in 54th) and, although to a lesser extent due to lower expectations, Arndt ins 60th place.
Somewhat predictably, but still disappointingly, neither Grieg nor Bennelong end up with a rider even in the Top 75. In contrast, Evonik and Isostar show the most impressive depth, with five riders in the Top 50, four and three of which, respectively, are even in the Top 30.
Badaling International 
