Welcome to the Great Ocean Road Classic! We start the race in the town of Palmerston heading in mostly a north direction through some of the nearby natural parks, before turning back and finishing in Palmerston. It's a beautiful sunny day in the north of Australia, but we do have wind blowing from the south-east over 20 km/h. We will see what role the wind plays here today.
It didn't take long for the first breakaway attack. In fact the riders barely clipped in before Wirtgen and Laizer made their move.
As the peloton moved out of Palmerston and the front two already having a 1'30'' gap, another trio of riders attacked to join the breakaway. McCarthy, Dumoulin and Eisenhart were allowed to get away.
Missing the initial moves was Mostov who then decided to strike out on his own. Can he bridge up to the front of the race? He has 2'00 minute gap to close on his own.
Up front it took a while for Eisenhart to completely join up with the other escapees, but with 15 kms into the race the breakaway has a 2'30'' gap to the peloton.
Skipping forward a few kms and we see that Mostov can just about see the riders up front. He is now about a minute in front of the peloton and a minute behind the breakaway. Still some timetrialing for him to do, but his McCormick teammates are not riding, hoping he can bridge across.
It took a big effort but Mostov eventually made it across with 105 km to go. Thus making it three McCormick riders in the breakaway with a 2'30'' gap. This is our breakaway group now.
Laizer McCarthy Dumoulin Wirtgen Eisenhart Mostov
Back in the peloton is it was teams Trans, BNZ, Bralirwa, Nordica and Guave's Sunlight dictating the pace. Keeping the gap to around 2 minutes as the riders hit one of the many gravel sections.
We fast forward with 50 kms left in the race. The escapees have a 1'10'' advantage over the peloton as they're about to hit the most difficult climb of the race.
Eisenhart, Mostov and McCarthy were caught on the top of the climb. Leaving the trio of Laizer, Dumoulin and Wirtgen up front with a 50'' advantage.
Heading into the last uphill section of the race, there was only Wirtgen left trying to keep the peloton, that has remained intact, at bay.
As the peloton descended off the final hill, Wirtgen had been caught and peloton was stayed intact, or did it? We have 4 Strava riders in Kuznetsov, Kluge, Sbaragli, Oss all having lost contact with 20 km to go. Lucky for them at least their leader Bouhanni is up front.
Speaking of Strava Oelerich still has the freedom to attack with 15 km to go. Katrasnik and Van Lerberghe feel this could be a crucial move and decide to follow.
Oelerich and Van Lerberghe got caught, but Katrasnik put in another attack! 11 km from the finish line.
It was a brave move, but Katrasnik was also caught with 9 km to go. This the situation going into the final 7 km, all the sprinters are at the front.
With 3.5 km to go we can see an attack from Mundle. Katrasnik still has the energy to follow. Mezgec has moved up and has his leader Salleh behind him. Baugnies is also there with Selig, Coutinho, Krieger and Carsi. Ranneries is trying to close the gap.
Katrasnik has come off Mundle's wheel and has launched a long sprint with almost 2 km left. Mezgec is leading out Salleh. Situation behind looks like this:
Katrasnik has opened up a gap heading under the flamme rouge, what has happened? Mezgec previous efforts seemed to have taken his toll, he's done. But no one wants to take up the sprint?! Perhaps everyone is worried about putting their face in the wind too early.
They finally launch the sprint under the last km, but it seems too little too late. Katrasnik has a big lead.
Selig
Salleh
Baugnies
Mezgec
Coutinho
Kragh Andersen
Krieger
Carsi
Wippert
But Katrasnik is not worrying about what is happening behind him. He even has time to properly celebrate his victory. What a ride by him!
In the fight for the podium it was Selig who was strongest, with Salleh 3rd and narrowly missing the podium was Coutinho.
After that is was 5th place for Bouhanni, 6th for Lavoine, 7th Pelucchi, 8th for Krieger, 9th by Baugnies and rounding out the top 10 was Carsi.
