Hong Kong Challenge opens with a hilly stage from the Man Mo Temple on Lantau Island to the city center. The first part is relatively flat, but the hills follow each other in quick sucession in the second part. Puncheurs want to gain as much time before tomorrow's time trial, while the specialists in that department want to limit the losses.
The start is uphill. Antonijevic is the first rider to attack, a KoM sprint in eight kilometer is probably the incentive.
1500 meters to that sprint, six riders have joined Antonijevic: Schultz Ries Wahyudi Bardet Garcia Cepeda
Two more try, but have some ground to make up: Ssabagwanya Honore
Wahyudi clearly the strongest on this category two climb and takes the first ten points for the polka dot jersey. Cepeda takes eight, Schultz six, Bardet four and Ries two. The chasing duo at a minute, the peloton at 1'30.
Antonijevic struggles to follow the pace of the other breakaway members and is passed by Ssabagwanya and Honore, who are still marginally ahead of the peloton. A small hill already caused some victims at the back, but we enter a long flat stretch soon where they can rejoin.
About 50 kilometer into the race and Antonijevic is caught definitively. Honore rides away from Ssabagwanya but both of them are still not that far ahead of the peloton. Gap E1 to peloton is two minutes. Marquez and Kanerva are two surprising names in a second group at two minutes, together with some time trialists such as Gonzalez Salas and Robert.
With 75 kilometer to go, the six leaders turn onto a climb of the first category which signals the start of the hilly final zone. The two chasers eventually gave up their suicide mission, with Farfetch, Swisslion, Aramco and Repsol at the helm of the peloton now at 1'30. The maximum lead of the break was 2'30. Most of the riders who were behind the peloton caught up again, the few that are left make no attempt to return.
Ries looks the strongest, having a gap to the others with 1.5 to the top of the climb. Cepeda, Wahyudi and Schultz holding on, but Garcia and Bardet drop off. The latter is surprising as he was thought to be the strongest climber in the group. Higuita and Konig lead the peloton, with team leaders such as Preidler, Cattaneo, Izagirre and Kelderman found in the front positions.
Ries powers on to win the mountain sprint and the sixteen points on offer, his lead is 40 seconds to the next riders.
Wahyudi and Schultz next for twelve and ten points, then Cepeda just about hanging on ahead of the peloton. Higuita powered up the entire climb and brought many riders in trouble at the back, and also caught Bardet who did hang on to take four points.
In terms of the virtual mountains classification, Wahyudi leads with 22 points, ahead of Ries with 18, and Cepeda and Schultz with 16. One climb of the second category and three of the third still remaining, with a maximum of 28 points still to be obtained.
There is no interest in the next mountain sprint, won by Mutsumine as leading rider ahead of Prevar, Dzhus, Houle and Kebede, free points hurt nobody. 40 kilometer to go, the peloton slowly thinning out but no one who requires explicit mentioning.
Kebede powers up a category three hill and receives the six KoM as reward, even with a slight gap. Meurisse tasked with closing the gap, Slagter in third position ahead of other favorites such as Preidler, Izagirre, Kelderman and Cattaneo.
At the back, it's carnage. Mullen is in the group which just lost contact, with Prevar, Gebrezgabihier, Trofimov, Nepomnyachsniy and Watson also falling off. Cort Nielsen, Borges and Eiking are struggling at the back, while Moscon lost out on a previous hill.
18 kilometer to go, quickly counting 52 riders in the front group. Meurisse, Topchanyuk, Bravo, Kebede and Pons are tasked by their respective leader to set a pace which makes returning impossible. Riders previously in danger are still at the back by the skin of their teeth, but still in the group. Two categorized climbs to go.
On the next hill, the favorites show themselves at the front but only to check proceedings, not to attack. The corresponding mountain sprint is won by Slagter ahead of Preidler and Padun, but Wahyudi will wear the polka dot jersey tomorrow. Next we find Izagirre, Cort Nielsen, Areruya and Kelderman. A bit further down we have riders such as Denifl, Faiers, Gallopin, Borisavljevic, Chaves, Konig and Yates. Paillot is the only pure time trialist remaining.
On an uncategorized hill thirteen kilometer from the finish line, it is go time. Slagter goes first, followed by Preidler, Areruya, Padun and Kelderman. Cattaneo elects to let Pons chase.
The Italian probably the wrong choice as the gap is 35 seconds already with ten kilometer to go. Kelderman continues to increase the pace in agreement with the other four. Carpenter now leading the chase for Denifl, with Cort Nielsen, Chaves and Yates at the front of the chasing group but without helpers to chase.
The chasing group has made a huge mistake. Six k to go, the gap is 1'10. Bettiol was almost dropped but is now forced to chase, together with the return of Pons. At this point it is a question of limiting the loss rather than challenging for the win.
Preidler attacks at the front and establishes a gap of 20 seconds. He needs to attack as he is the worst time trialist amongst the attackers, and uses the remaining kilometer of the climb to gain as much time as possible. The other four looking at each other, allowing the Austrian to get away, but the gap to the group of other favorites is still increasing to 1'40 now.
Preidler continues to extend his lead, the chasers not in sight at the top of the hill. The final four kilometers are a downhill dash to Hong Kong, and with the Austrian being very competent on his bike, he might extend his lead even further.
Forty seconds later, Kelderman leads Slagter, Padun and Areruya over the climb. Cooperation is gone completely, no intent to catch Preidler.
Yet they continue to gain time on this group. Konig attacks (a teammate of Preidler no less) just before the top with a response from Yates, but the gap to the race leader is three minutes. Their GC ambitions have taken a serious hit.
Rolling over the line to confirm his victory. Georg Preidler wins the first stage of the Hong Kong Challenge! One of the few riders who wanted to race, rewarded with three trips to the podium for the stage win, the yellow jersey and the green jersey.
Behind, Slagter and Padun lead the sprint for second, the chasers having come a bit closer due to the celebrations.
Slagter finishes second, Areruya third, Padun fourth, Kelderman fifth. The deficit to Preidler is 33 seconds, which isn't the end of the world as all four are better time trialists and should gain back that time tomorrow. Importantly, Slagter and Areruya take bonus seconds over their rivals. The latter becomes leader in the young rider classification by virtue of beating Padun today. Kelderman, as arguably the best time trialist from this set, must be favored to take yellow tomorrow.
Konig is the only rider which got a bit of a gap in the end, and finishes sixth at 2'52. The group behind him is not given the same time, so he didn't unintentionally sabotage his teammate.
Yates the clear winner in the sprint for seventh, timed at 2'59 from the winner. The top ten is completed by Cort Nielsen, Dyrnes and Izagirre. Other important riders in this group are Chaves, Borisavljevic, Lunke, Faiers, Cattaneo, Borges, Denifl, Bazhkou, Paillot, Dunbar and Eiking.
The next group of riders comes home at nearly six minutes, including riders such as Prevar, Uwizeyimana and Trofimov. They, as well as everyone who finished behind them, can likely be removed from GC contention. All riders do make the time limit, Quispe the last one at 47 minutes, so all pure time trialists can still challenge for tomorrow's win.
