Back in Moscow for what is always an exciting race! The last couple of years have seen a bunch sprint finish decide the winner, but the two years before that saw late attacks successful. What will be the result this time? Well, the next few hours in Moscow will determine that. The race is flattish but has bumps at all the right places to help the daring. Will anyone be up for the challenge or will the teams of the favourites keep a tight leash at the front? Let's find out as they get underway...
Favourites
FLA
HIL
RES
SPR
ACC
Van Stayen
76
79
71
84
78
Degenkolb
76
69
71
84
81
Coquard
73
66
74
84
83
Bewley
77
70
75
82
82
Ahlstrand
74
67
73
83
82
Ewan
75
71
71
83
81
Grosu
73
73
70
83
80
Kennaugh
77
65
71
82
81
Swift
73
67
69
83
81
Howard
76
68
70
82
79
Demare
73
80
72
82
81
Van der Lijke
73
76
71
82
79
Groenewegen
73
67
71
82
81
Five riders for an early break and the pack seems fine to allow it.
Furdi Schappi Gradek Masnada Harper
The gap builds up as we catch up with the break with 150 kilometers to go. Podium Ambition and ISA Hexacta are mostly controlling the pace but they're also getting help from Air France, Festina, Generali, eBuddy and Volvo. Strange that Generali are also helping given Masnada's presence in the break! Evonik and Grieg are also near the front but actively helped in the chasing yet.
A lot of pedal strokes later...
The break now have just 90 kilometers to go and are still working well together. Not much has happened in the interim as both this quintet and the pack play cat and mouse with the gap. It stands at 2'24" now.
eBuddy has upped the pace in the pack in the last few kilometers, closing down the break's advantage to just over a minute. ISA, Festina, Aker, Grieg, Air France and Aegon all have riders taking short turns at the front. Evonik are still happy to leave it to the others. 50 kilometers to go.
As the gap to the peloton reduces further, Gradek places an attack from the break with 37 kilometers to go.
Seven kilometers later, Gradek still holds a 8 second advantage to the rest of the break with the peloton a further 46 seconds behind.
Grieg, Aker, Air France and Generali share the load at the front now. The race favourites have started gathering around the 20th position.
The break catches Gradek with 27 km remaining. Harper gives it a go next.
20 km left. Aker had four riders at the front some time back. Now they're down to one. Not sure who they're working for here but it could be a long drawn set up for a late attack. 15 riders have been dropped from the pack but no big names are but no big names are among them.
Up ahead, the break is back together. Gradek looks tired as his earlier efforts seem to have caught up with him.
The break is caught with 17 kilometers to go.
15 more riders riders have been dropped. Holloway and Silvestre are fancied names in this group.
Kragh Andersen, to the right of picture, and now sitting up, tried to attack but was chased down immediately. Aker have vanished from the front. The sprinters are slowly moving forward. Degenkolb, Van Stayen, Coquard and Groenewegen are all in the first twelve positions. 15 km to go.
67 riders fall off the back of the pack. Eislers, Enger, Reimer, Jakobsen and Aregger are the big names in this bunch.
More riders are distanced just after this with Petit, Kragh Andersen, Pedersen, Bar, Vanderbiest, Moser, Nelson, Keukeliere, Blythe, Kennaugh, Rowe, Theuns, Senechal, and Fenn all a part of this group.
At the front, Grosu is the only one left with a leadout, in the form of Roosen. Coquard, Ahlstrand, Bewley, Van Stayen, Ewan and Demare are all closely following the eBuddy pair.
Bad news for Aegon as their leader Groenewegen starts getting distanced with 7 kilometers to go.
Arashiro attacks the thinning peloton, who are down to just 33.
Arashiro has built up a 12 second lead as more riders make it back to the pack including Groenewegen and most of the Petit/ Pedersen/ Moser group dropped with 10 km to go.
Kennaugh, Holloway, Silvestra and Reimer are the big names who've failed to make it back.
Karatzios takes up the chase with 4 km to go. Ewan takes his wheel with Coquard next and the other favourites following. Arashiro's gap is holding at 13 seconds.
The increase in pace by Karatzios causes another split. Kragh Andersen. Nelson, Keukeliere, Blythe and Kupfernagel are among those dropped.
Arashiro is still holding a 13 second gap as we reach 2.5 kilometers to go. The peloton are back up to 94 riders but the Kennaugh group again haven't made it back. We see Van Stayen, Ahlstrand and Ewan having to chase themselves now. How will this impact the final sprint?
On the final incline, just as the pack slows down, Kwok attacks and catches Arashiro. Per has attacked as well.
Under the kilometer banner, the trio are together and lead by 21 seconds. The pack, led by Indosat, Grieg and Stoltz for Evonik, are chasing in earnest but is it too late?
The leaders increase the gap by another couple of seconds as they have just 700 meters left now. The sprinters have no leadouts in the pack!
800 meters left for the peloton as Van Stayen takes the lead. The lead group have 500 meters remaining. Just behind the Evonik rider, Ahlstrand is sprinting through the middle with Coquard to his right. Wisniowski is on the far left of the picture. Pedersen, with Ewan on his wheel is between Ahlstrand and Coquard.
300 meters to go for the leaders. Their gap is down to 16 seconds but they surely won't be caught now! Arashiro is still leading.
500 meters for the pack. Van Stayen still has a gap a the front with Ahlstrand and Coquard next. Ewan and Wisniowski are next. Grosu, on the right, seems to have found his sprinting legs.
Arashiro starts to fade with just a 100 meters left and its Per versus Kwok for the win! The pack are just 11 seconds behind now.
300 meters for the pack. Ewan and Grosu are gaining on Coquard.
Kwok holds the lead with 50 meters left!
It's really close but Kwok holds on to take the win! Per just couldn't make up the gap and settles for 2nd. Arashiro, the initiator of the winning move has to be content with 3rd.
Behind, Van Stayen and Coquard have started losing ground. A combination of having to chase and launching early must be the cause of this.
Ahlstrand best held his speed from a long way out and claims 4th, the best of the favourites. Grosu is 5th with Ewan finishing 6th.
Coquard stops the rot at 7th just ahead of Swift in 8th.
Howard finishes with van Stayen just about holding on for a Top 10 spot. He won't be happy with that. Wisniowski is 11th.
Wohler makes it another Bennelong rider in 12th. Demare is 13th.
Dzamastagic in 14th and Stioltz in 15th make up somewhat for Van Stayen's underwhelming result.
Yzeiraj, Hsu and Bar come through next.
Both Groenewegen and Bewley won't be happy with 19th and 20th place respectively.
Today's winner - Ho-Ting Kwok.
After two years of sprint finishes, a late attack takes the win at Moscow once more. Kwok played it perfectly to take advantage of a slowing of the pack to join the decisive attack, and then sprinted at the perfect time to keep Per at bay at the line. The latter gets important points for his team's title push while Arashiro deserves a lot of praise for the late attack and his points will also be important in their team's relegation battle. The sprinters fought it out for 4th in the end with Ahlstrand winning that battle and getting his team closer to survival. Aegon and Moser will be among the teams not very happy with race.
