Let’s find out who’s this year’s winner of the Coppa Placci! Kelderman is without a doubt the favourite to be victorious in 160 km, but anything can happen of course.
Astonishing starting place in San Marino, as the riders will start the Coppa Placci going downhill for a while, and I’m quite sure that many of them will be happy this isn’t the finish, as the mountain would maybe prove to be too long for the pure puncheurs.
After a 11 km descent, two riders decide to join forces and attack! Filutas and Oelerich represent the colours of MOL and Strava!
Five more riders join them a bit later: Wildauer, Bercz, Battistella, Goncalves and Hoehn.
Munton and Kron make it nine at the front with 138 km to go. The leaders then ignore an orange light. It is important to follow what the MGUCI will do about this. Replacing Adastra N Hell Energy Cycling in the PCT with Los Pollos Hermanos could be fair punishment.
3’30” later the peloton is at the same place on the parcours, Centovalli – Fiat take their responsibility and wait in front of the red light. The other teams at the front of the peloton and looking to do some work to catch the breakaway are Gjensidige, Philips, Carlsberg and Sauber.
Exactly 100 km to go and the nine leaders are 4’ ahead of the peloton. Their maximum lead was 4’30”, so the peloton is not planning on letting the gap get too big.
73 km left and the first splits in the peloton are a fact. Some puncheurs were not paying attention and are caught in the second group, those are Caruso, Afonso, Zaini, Roux, Venter, Felline, Palini, Mehr-Wenige, Jung, Vichot and Barbin. They get brought back quickly, but this was definitely a warning to move up rather sooner than later if they want to score some points today.
Bad luck for Filutas! He has a puncture at 60 km from the finish and sees the other leaders get away. Their lead over the peloton has been reduced to 2’30”.
Only 40 km left as the peloton is 1’30” behind the eight leaders. Filutas still in between. Some riders are now being dropped definitely, but no big names so far.
Filutas has been reeled in by the peloton, where we see the same four teams doing the work with 30 km to go. The lead of the eight up front has grown a bit to 1’45”. 100 riders left in the peloton now, the most important names still all present.
Kron attacks with 25 km to the finish line, but the other riders in the breakaway don’t let him go. The peloton still at 1’30”!
The Dane immediately feels the consequences of his actions and has to let the other seven leaders go with 20 km to go! Watson now working hard for leader Kelderman, which brings the peloton under a minute and causes more gaps to appear in the peloton itself! The acceleration of the Australian from Philips has brought several riders in trouble: Costa, Afonso, Felline, Tsatevich, Barbin, Vichot, Roux, Mudarra, Jung, Zaini, Dieteren and Pernsteiner won’t be winning the Coppa Placci this year!
While the seven leaders are close to being caught with 16 km to go, another 30 rides have been dropped on the hilly parcours! They could still come back, but let’s have a look at the 26 names that have made it up front (not counting the seven from the breakaway): Juul-Jensen, Eiking, Zingle, Fabbro, Moscon, Hoelgaard, Frankiny, Zordan, Edmondson, Kelderman, Saggiorato, Smirnovs, Quevedo, Portela, Aasvold, Mosca, Minguez Ayala, Destribois, Chhetri, Seibeb, Basso, Watson, Petilli, Palini, Thiery and Barbero. Those last three names seem to dropping as well though!
11.5 km to go and the seven from the breakaway have been caught! Watson, Petilli, Palini, Thiery and Barbero have been dropped in this group, which gives us 28 leaders!
Entering the last 10 km and it’s quite certain the winner will be in this group, as the chasers are already more than a minute behind! Basso is now having a hard time following the pace and could very well be the next rider to be dropped!
8 km to go and Juul-Jensen setting the pace! The seven riders from the breakaway and Basso still holding on.
Eiking attacks! Penultimate hill of the day with just over 5 km to go and the Norwegian from Gjensidige decides it’s time to try and decide the Coppa Placci! Moscon and Kelderman are the first on his wheel!
Eiking gets a gap and only ten others are able to follow him! The names, in chronological order, are Moscon, Kelderman, Frankiny, Fabbro, Hoelgaard, Edmondson, Zordan, Quevedo, Destribois and Mosca. Nobody has any teammates with him anymore, so it’s a free-for-all from now on!
Only 3 km to go and while the riders are still in the same order, small gaps are being created in the last ascent of the day! Zordan, Quevedo, Destribois and Mosca. Are a bit behind Hoelgaard and Edmondson, while those two have a small gap to make up against the first five!
The riders go up their last hill of the day with 2 km to go! Destribois and Mosca seem to be out of contention for the win, which leaves us with nine names to decide the third winner in the history of the Coppa Placci on the sprint uphill!
Zordan and Quevedo haven’t closed the gap between them and the seven up front though, while Frankiny now takes the lead with 1.5 km to go!
The riders go under the flamme rouge, and Quevedo actually makes it back to the leading group! Frankiny, Fabbro and Moscon now in the first places!
Moscon launches his sprint with 800 metres to go! Kelderman the first rider on the Italian’s wheel!
500 metres to go and Kelderman comes next to the Italian! Edmondson following the Dutchman very well, can he still go over him?! Eiking now being dropped as his legs are feeling the consequences of his recent attack!
Edmondson has to sit down with 300 metres to go and starts losing places quickly! Kelderman in the lead, but Quevedo going very fast now and flying into third place already! What a surprise would it be if the Venezuelan actually overtook Kelderman!
Another surprise though, as Moscon is back in the lead with only 150 metres to go! Kelderman seems to have overestimated himself and starts losing his pace! Is the Italian able to finish it now?!
Yes! Moscon does what nobody expected with 500 metres to go and wins the Coppa Placci with a very convincing lead over the others! Kelderman drops back to third, as an amazingly strong Quevedo is the runner-up today!
Places 4 to 8 then go to other riders who were in the final attack: Hoelgaard (4), Frankiny (5), Fabbro (6), Edmondson (7) and Eiking (8).
Behind them we saw other riders come back in the final kilometres, Ssabagwanya makes manager aidanvn happy with a surprising ninth place, while Zordan only just manages to hold off the others and gets the last top-10 place. The other names in the top-20 are Aasvold (11), Minguez Ayala (12), Dieteren (13), Zingle (14), Destribois (15), Bercz (16), Portela (17), Juul-Jensen (18), Chhetri (19) and Pernsteiner (20). Two more Centovalli riders in the top-25, with breakaway rider Hoehn also in the top-25.
