Off we go! The riders start the Cheshire Cycling Tour with a 200 km cobbled stage, which sees quite a lot of elevation. Not only could this stage be immediately decisive for the GC, there are also a lot of KoM-points in the second part of the stage.
As the riders enter the first cobbled section, the first attack is already a fact! We see the national Faroese champion, Veyhe, accompanied by some other weaker cobblers: Petelin, Ikibe and Cheung. There are some stronger cobblers here as well though: Van Baarle for home team cycleYorkshire, Yechezkel, Ruiz and most importantly Kasperkiewicz! The King Power rider is arguably amongst the top-15 cobblers present, so it will be interesting to see how much time the break gets.
At the first intermediate sprint, the leading group has grown to 14 riders. The extra names are Varga, Lecourt De Billot, Lasinis, Beniusis, Nechita and Rajapakshage. The sprint gets won by Varga ahead of Lecourt De Billot and Ruiz. 177 km to the finish line and at 1’15” we find the duo of Nakane and Reus, at 2’ we see Cominelli and Stoltz, and at 4’30” of the fourteen leaders the peloton, now led by Team UBS and Podium Ambition.
The four chasers come together and join the fourteen leaders with 170 km to go. Soon, the riders tackle the next cobbled sector, with Van Baarle setting the pace up front. The weaker cobblers immediately in trouble, but they manage to hold on for now. The peloton, where Andorra Cycling Project now puts in a man for leader Summerhill, now following at 6’. 18 leaders is quite a lot, will they manage to control the situation?
At the second and last intermediate sprint of the day, Van Baarle does a good job holding off Lecourt De Billot and Veyhe. The peloton at 6’ with 150 km to the finish line now. The first rider has been dropped there, it will be interesting to see whether Salcone manages to finish inside the time limit.
131 km to go as the leaders pass the finish line for the first time today. Even though there are already five KoM’s categorized, many others aren’t. Different uphill sectors today even reach or come close to a gradient of 10%, so let’s hope the cobblers brought their climbing legs as well!
Strade Bianche UK edition confirmed? The leaders now pass Lyme Park, with its famous mansion. There are still 18 leaders, even though some of them have already been dropped once or more on the cobbled sectors. 125 km to the finish line and the peloton at 5’. Hodeg and Schomber have joined Salcone and could try working together to avoid finishing outside of the time limit, as the time difference grows quickly between those three and the peloton.
Just before the first KoM-sprint (4th cat.) of the day there was a cobbled section, which saw the leading group reduce from 18 to 10 leaders. The points go to Kasperkiewicz, Varga and Cominelli, the other seven riders still in the leading group are Yechezkel, Van Baarle, Stoltz, Nechita, Ruiz, Lecourt De Billot and Reus.
The peloton reaches the top 5’30 later. Still the same three teams doing all the work, Podium Ambition, Andorra Cycling Project and Team UBS. Nevertheless, more and more riders are being dropped in the peloton, without a reason to believe they’ll come back anytime soon. Owen and Allegaert were also seen in trouble uphill, but they do make it back quickly.
91.5 km to the finish line as the ten same leaders arrive at the same KoM for more points. Kasperkiewicz is the strongest again, while Israeli champion Yechezkel and Varga grab the other points.
With the leaders in the background crossing the top of the hill, the peloton has been reduced to 150 riders! Gaday at the back of the peloton, definitely not where he is supposed to be! It soon becomes clear he has suffered a puncture! A group of 74 riders then crosses the top of the hill 4’30” after the ten leaders, which means the peloton has split in two! The most important names in the second peloton are Kulppi, Schreurs, David, Kosic, Chatarunga, Benoot, Ferreira, Insausti, Zepuntke, Sibilla, Kuroeda and the man who just suffered a puncture, Gaday! Still 90 km to go for the head of the peloton, and as the parcours goes up and down the whole time, this might become a massacre!
10 km later, the peloton passes at the finish line again. As Polar decides to use somebody for chasing duties as well, Team UBS loses a domestique with a flat tyre, it will be hard for Fouquet to come back now. So, 80 km to the finish line and the ten leaders are 3’30” ahead of the peloton. The peloton has grown to 91 riders again, as next names have made it back to the first peloton: Kuroeda, Insausti, Chatarunga, Kulppi, Schreurs, Ferreira, Benoot, Sibilla, David and Gaday. Some other names went missing though, as Neilands has lost touch with the peloton without suffering a puncture! Zepuntke already 4’ behind the peloton, that’s definitely not looking good!
Andorra Cycling Project wants to make the race hard! It looks like the peloton has already started the finale with 75 km to the finish line, as Kireva reduces the peloton to only sixty riders next to Lyme Park! The continuous up and down is really hurting some favourites, as some big names have been dropped (again)! Breen, Van der Haar Thwaites, Kulppi, Sibilla, Chatarunga, Kuroeda, Schreurs, Insausti and Nooytens immediately lose a minute or more, which will make it very hard to come back as long as Andorra makes this race hard!
The ten leaders still barely losing ground though. The other nine obediently follow road captain of the day Kasperkiewicz on the cobbles.
UBS and Podium Ambition also have their leader in the first group and decide to uppen the pace even more! Although the splits are far from definite, Bohli has already reduced the peloton to only 28 riders! We’ll soon find out who is here and who is not, as the leaders are about to fight for another KoM!
At the first of two ascents of Cats Tor (3rd cat.), Stoltz takes the maximum of the points ahead of Van Baarle and Kasperkiewicz, with the King Power rider increasing his lead in the KoM-classification! Nechita and Yechezkel are dropped on this hill and probably won’t come back anymore! Reus and Ruiz also in trouble, but they might still make it back to the head of the race!
If you thought the peloton would allow some riders to come back on this hill and take their time and save some energy, well, you were wrong! The peloton now getting reduced to 25 as some big favourites are in trouble! Vanmarcke, Paris – Roubaix winner Blythe and Keukeleire have to let go of the others!
Daniel and Eeckhout, who were also in the peloton, get dropped uphill as well. Even though the race isn’t easy, the peloton actually trails by 4’ to the leaders now, where Kasperkiewicz is leading again on the next cobbled section! So, the eight leaders (which are the ten leaders without Nechita and Yechezkel) have a 4’ lead over a 23-headed peloton with 63 km to the finish line. The 23 names? Bohli, Summerhill, Kireva, Kumara, Van Keirsbulck, Kump, Spengler, Hsu, Dunne, Owen, Havik, Rowe, Vanspeybrouck, Young, Kung, Stallaert, Theuns, Vanthourenhout, Debesay, Cullaigh, Laporte, Trentin and Altur!
56 km to go and as the leaders pass the finish line again, their group gets reduced to seven riders, as Reus can’t follow them anymore. The peloton of 23, still led by Bohli, loses two riders on that section: Cullaigh and Dunne! So 21 riders there now, who came back to a 3’ time gap!
38.5 km to go as the leaders reach the top of Cats Tor for the second time. Hodeg gets lapped as Kasperkiewicz wins the KoM-sprint against Van Baarle. The other leaders are unable to follow those two and the gap immediately grows bigger than 30”, will the other five leaders still see them again?
Meanwhile, Bohli has been dropped in the first group of chasers, as luxe domestique Vanspeybrouck has started working! The Belgian rider from Andorra Cycling Project has reduced the group of favourites to 16 riders, who now follow the race lead at 2’20”! The riders who have been dropped in this group of favourites aside from Bohli are Laporte, Young, Kireva and Kumara!
31.5 km to go and the leading duo of Kasperkiewicz and Van Baarle reach the end of another cobbled sector! Ruiz has been right behind them the whole time, but seems to find it very hard to make that last push and get in their wheels! Cominelli and Varga are 45” behind, Stoltz an additional 25” and Lecourt De Billot even further. Then, at 1’50” of the race lead, we find the group of favourites of … 13 riders?!
Thirteen riders indeed! Big favourite Summerhill suffers a puncture and has domestique Vanspeybrouck waiting for him! Somebody must have poured some nails on this sector, as Stallaert suffers a puncture here as well!
Exactly 25 km to the finish line as the gap between our two leaders and the other chasers from the original breakaway is getting bigger!
The group of favourites, where Lecourt De Billot has been reeled back in, is back at 2’05” though! As Vanspeybrouck stopped working to find his leader Summerhill, the pace has dropped a little. The Belgian does a great job though and as can be seen, he brings his leader back to the group of favourites! Stallaert joined the two Andorra riders to also come back. Looking at the other cobbled riders, we already have to wait for almost four minutes before the likes of Blythe, Vanmarcke and others cross this point. Bush quite randomly in between the first group of favourites and the other cobblers. As he is all by himself, it will be hard for the American to come back to the first group of favourites.
18.6 km to the finish line as the leaders reach the final KoM-top of the day. Kasperkiewicz still has something left in his legs and attacks on Swiss Hill, where Van Baarle has to sit down quickly!
Just before the other surviving riders from the break of the day get reeled back in, Cominelli takes the last KoM-points at almost 2’30”! Vanspeybrouck tried leading the chase, but it seems he is out of energy after bringing leader Summerhill back to this group earlier! Havik gets dropped though!
If nobody else wants to help, I’ll do it by myself! Summerhill attacks just after reaching the top of Swiss Hill! 16 km to go as he has to make up 2’34” on leader Kasperkiewicz and 2’ on Van Baarle!
Everbody looking at eachother now in this group of favourites, as nobody wants to work for another! Havik makes it back, as Owen, Van Keirsbulck and Altur decide to do some work. Nothing too heavy though, as Kasperkiewicz’ lead over this group quickly rises to four minutes!
The King Power rider meanwhile coming closer and closer to a stunt! 9 km to the finish line as he now leads by more than one minute over Van Baarle, two minutes over Summerhill and four minutes over the first group of favourites! The American champion has only come closer 30” in almost 7 km, so as long as Kasperkiewicz doesn’t fall still on the cobbles, the win could be his!
Van Baarle very close to standing still with 6 km to go, on one of the final uphill sectors of the day! Summerhill flies by into second, now at 1’40” of the race lead! The Dutchman from home team cycleYorkshire still 2’15” ahead of the following group though, so a magnificent third place is still on the tables!
What a performance by Kasperkiewicz! He survives the penultimate cobbled sector with 2.5 km to go, and as Summerhill is nowhere to be seen, the lead of the Pole has only reduced by five seconds!
Aha, finally some action in the group of favourites! Spengler attacks and tries to gain seconds on most of his rivals, and maybe come back to finish third! It won’t be easy though, as Van Baarle is close to starting his final (cobbled) km of the day, and is 1’40” ahead of the Swiss!
Summerhill would have demolished everyone today if the break hadn’t stayed ahead, and that might not have happened if the American hadn’t suffered a puncture. Nevertheless, the American had some bad luck, and a second place will probably be his today. He enters the last km, but at the same time Kasperkiewicz is already in the last 600 metres, which aren’t as steep as the first part of the final climb anymore! Unless a puncture hits the Pole, victory should be his, as Summerhill is even losing some ground now and back at 1’40”!
But no punctures for Kasperkiewicz! He wins the first stage of the Cheshire Cycling Tour after a great race!
The stars and stripes arrive two minutes later! That’s a lot of time, but after we have seen Summerhill being so dominant on the cobbles this season and Kasperkiewicz wasted a lot of energy today, it might be very close at the end of the Cheshire Cycling Tour!
Superb result for Van Baarle though, who manages to stay ahead of Spengler and finishes third at 3’30”!
Trentin then convincingly beats Stallaert for the sprint for fifth place at almost five minutes of today’s winner.
Hsu and Vanthourenhout will make King Power manager Bikex an even happier man, as they surprisingly finish in seventh and eighth place, with the former now leading the U25, as Kasperkiewicz takes all other jerseys! Debesay and Altur complete the top-10 ahead of Rowe, Theuns, Vanspeybrouck and Van Keirsbulck. Then, Kump, Havik, Owen and Kung lose some extra seconds, with Gaday at seven minutes and riders like Bush, Blythe and Vanmarcke at eight to nine minutes! Zepuntke even finishes outside the top-100 and loses more than thirty minutes! Four riders finish outside of the time limit: Schomber, Salcone, Hodeg and Kopfauf.
