Welcome to Georgia for the Sakartvelo Trophy! It's early in the morning because the riders have to cover quite some distance, 233 kilometer over tough climbs, to finish before we have to turn on the lights. Let's get underway quickly then!
The breakaway band consists of eight members: Betilson Chokri Dainese Feiereisen Kiflay Nareklishvili Paprstka Teggart
Nareklishvili showing himself for his home crowd, if they were allowed to stand next to the road.
The maximum gap in the early part is 7'22 to be precise, but nothing the peloton should worry about given the climbing capabilities of those up front. Teams participating in the early chase are Swisslion, BNZ, Los Pollos, Carlsberg and Tryg.
The breakaway reaches the top of the first climb intact, though some small gaps open up at the start of the descent which were quickly melded. They still lead by six minutes with 150 kilometer to go. The peloton also remains in one piece with the exception of Stavrakakis who rode over a rock and needed a tire change, but he would rejoin after the descent.
The second of three major climbs does take casualties. Chokri lost contact three kilometer from the top while Betilson and Dainese followed a kilometer later. The remaining five lead by four minutes at the top.
Mainly Swisslion, Carlsberg and Tryg set a bit of pace and catch the three dropped riders with 65 kilometer to go, definitely not five as the banner suggests. We have to go up and down a mountain before we get here again. The peloton is down to 79 riders with the usual suspects losing touch on the previous climb. 2'30 to the leaders but that is obviously shrinking.
Avetisyan attacks from the peloton in the hope to join the leaders. The final climb starts in twenty kilometer, the Armenian hopes to have joined by then.
The situation at foot is as follows: the five lead by 1'22 over Avetisyan and 1'55 over the peloton, where some riders managed to rejoin to increase the headcount to 90. The final climbed is brutal. It's not that long, ony seven kilometer, but at an average of ten percent with a few steep sections. The legs have to be working perfect otherwise this becomes a nightmare.
Avetisyan is quickly caught, but teammate Feiereisen places an acceleration at the front to which only Paprstka and Kiflay follow. Teggart and Nareklishvili say goodbye.
As the local hero is caught by the peloton, we have the first attack from a favorite! Fabbro kicks off, followed by Herrada and Vuillermoz.
A few hundred meters later the Italian passes leader Feiereisen, the breakaway riders really struggling on the steep inclines. We're only at the halfway point though. Vuillermoz a few bike lengths away while Herrada is back in the pack. Storer and Gilanipoor setting the pace to keep them close.
Rabottini takes over, in a long line behind the Italian: Gilanipoor Bardet Giogieri Herrada Pedrero Bablidze Russom Schultz Dall'Oste Mai Krizek Hadi Cort Nielsen Hagen Juodvalkis Burmann Reguigui Mosca
After that a gap opens up. Bonnin and Seboka are behind and most likely out of contention.
But Fabbro is on a mission. He leads by 45 seconds two/thirds up the climb. He needs to extend his lead because the chasers will no doubt gain back time on the flat after the climb. Mosca lost contact in the chasing group.
Eighteen riders reach the top, still Gilanipoor and Rabottini in the lead. However, Fabbro is long gone, the gap is more than a minute as he heads into the first part of the descent.
After the first part we have a plateau. 27 kilometer to go, Fabbro's lead is measured at 1'26. Twelve riders chasing with Gilanipoor still carrying them. The Guave trio plus Hadi are ten seconds behind the group, having been conservative on the descent. Juodvalkis and Reguigui at forty seconds, Mosca and Bonnin at a minute from the chasers.
Fabbro even extends his lead as we head back up a small climb, 1'30 now. The Guave group returned to the chasers while the next two duos merged to form a quartet, at fifty seconds. Gilanipoor should at one point run out of energy you'd think.
The Italian is done with climbing, 22 kilometer to go with a descent and a short flat section to go. Rabottini retook the chase and gained back a few seconds, but the lead is still 1'20. Group Bonnin is losing time, almost two minutes behind the chasers now and almost caught by group Seboka/ Vuillermoz.
Puncture for Burmann! What an unfortunate timing, not only did he have to risk his life by getting to a halt on the descent, he loses his valuable position in the chasing group and drops back to the merged Bonnin/ Seboka group. The group he drops out from gained back twenty seconds to Fabbro on the descent, the gap now around a minute.
Fabbro is struggling! Nine kilometer to go and the gap is halved. A tiny bit of uphill but for the rest it's mostly flat to the finish line, where the chasing group of fifteen has the advantage.
A tunnel with six kilometer to go and the gap on entrance is nineteen seconds! Is the Italian going to get caught after a brilliant climb? Gilanipoor and Rabottini working their ass off to get this race to a sprint. In that case, Hadi, Hagen and Pedrero might be the favorites, but after 233 kilometer and many climbing it is all about freshness.
Four kilometer and the gap stays around 20 seconds, Hadi now leading despite arguably being the best sprinter. Everyone is riding on their last legs which favors Fabbro. The two remaining Guave's constantly hanging at the back of the group, perhaps saving Bablidze for a local surprise.
2500 meters, Fabbro manages to extend his lead to 24 seconds. Cort Nielsen is now the lead chaser with Hadi and Schultz behind him.
Final kilometer, almost status quo, 23 seconds. He's gonna do it! The "sprinters" are towards the back of the chasing pack so have even more ground to make up. Schultz and Cort Nielsen on the front row.
Spoke too soon? Fabbro has no energy left and the chasers do press out a sprint...
...but Matteo Fabbro holds on! No celebration for his legs and arms hurt too much, but he pulls off a 35-kilometer solo over tough climbs to win the Sakartvelo Trophy!
Matthias Krizek had most energy left and finishes second! Very successful C2 outing for the PCT team. Nicholas Schultz completes the podium ahead of Cort Nielsen and Giogieri. Thirteen seconds is the final gap.
Herrada sixth, Hagen seventh, Bardet eighth, Dall'Oste ninth and Russom completing the top ten.
Pedrero eleventh, Rabottini twelfth and Mai thirteenth. Hadi not delivering his sprint to only take fourteenth, ahead of workhorse Gilanipoor in fifteenth. Bablidze finishes last of the group but becomes the best Georgian in sixteenth.
Reguigui and Hirschi finish just ahead of the big group at 1'46. Ssabagwanya nineteenth, Smirnovs twentieth, and the top twenty-five completed by Zordan, Juodvalkis, Valter, the unfortunate Burmann and Mosca.
Every rider who started the race also manages to finish it, which deserves a round of applause. The biggest shock of the day is Quispe not even finishing last, beating Quaade and Zariff by a minute!
Having recovered enough to be able to stand and walk, Matteo Fabbro takes to the podium, which apparently takes place in the clouds.
