Welcome to Italy for the last race of the month! You won’t see a C1 classic having so many CT riders amongst the top favourites, but as Ghandi once said: “Human's destiny is not a coincidence, it's a choice.”
Only CT teams in the attack as well! Ries starts the party, Primozic and Joeaar follow him. The peloton lets them go.
Already 50 km behind the riders as they are on their way to the important part of Milano – Torino, the part where it’s actually hilly. The riders that have been working in the peloton so far are Elosegui, Dzhus, Cepeda Hernandez, Lauk, Mohs, Manfredi and Mullen. 140 km to go as they are 2’30” behind the race lead, with the maximum gap having been 3’45”.
It’s going slightly uphill with exactly 100 km to the finish line. The leading trio now 4’ ahead of the peloton, but it seems very unlikely for them to actually hold on until the finish.
Manfredi leads the peloton on the climbs and in the descent, teammate Mundle takes over on the flat. Centovalli wants to make this a hard race, and they seem to be getting help from Philips and Polar. The first fourty riders have (temporarily?) been dropped with 80 km to go, among them Diaz as most notorious name.
The finale is getting closer, as the leaders are on the longest climb of the day with 55 km to go. The peloton has calmed down a bit again, following at 2’30” and being back to 157 riders.
40 km to go as four Philips riders lead the peloton, including two times Avenir stage winner Storer. Slowly, more splits are being made, so it’s a good thing riders like Juul-Jensen and De Plus have made their way to the front as well recently. Still 1’45” behind the race leaders.
30 km to go as the finale is really about to begin! The three leaders have a 30” gap over the peloton of 140 riders, where no big name is overboard yet. After 160 km of flat and longer but not steep climbs, it’s time for the five final steep hills of the day (if you count the penultimate structure as one hill, which I will do).
The three leaders might have survived the first climb, but not the second one! The peloton catches them just at the end of the steep sector of this hill, with Primozic surviving the longest. Still a false flat on this hill as well though, will we see some damage?
Yes, we do! Mullen, Saggiorato and Topchanyuk are responsible for a gap being formed between the first 43 riders! The most important names not in the first group are Anuar Aziz, Dieteren, Hoelgaard, Pellaud, Poljanski, Smirnovs, Costa, Frankiny, Kebede and Umerbekov.
Just 14 km left as we’re on the same hill because fuck yes, and we see most of the aforementioned names have made it back due to the work of Costa and Frankiny. Guldhammer and De Plus should start to move up if they want to finish high, as they’re at the back of this group as well.
Saggiorato and Topchanyuk ripping the group apart again! 11.5 km to go as they can start their descent to the scary looking hill. The best placed favourites at the moment are Kelderman, Izagirre, Prevar, Juul-Jensen and Padun!
7.5 km to go as we are on the first part of the penultimate hill! If you’re not in the peloton of 57 now, you won’t be winning. Names that are not here include Poljanski, Dieteren, Smirnovs, Pellaud and Watson.
Topchanyuk doesn’t hold back on the first part of that penultimate hill, as the group of favourites is stretched out with 6.5 km to go as the riders are ready to conquer the steepest parts of the day! The favourites that are currently best placed are Izagirre (8), Juul-Jensen (9), De Plus (10), Afonso (12), Dyrnes (13), Kelderman (15), Prevar (17), Guerreiro (18) and Turgis (20).
5.5 km to go as the group of favourites is more compact again as we are on parts of up to 20% steep! Saggiorato and Thiery setting the pace, but leader Moscon not positioned ideally at the moment!
The final steep parts definitely separated the wheat from the chaff! 5 km to go as Bratashcuk starts the descent with leader Prevar in his wheel, and the closest rivals being Izagirre, Turgis, Pernsteiner, Guerreiro, Juul-Jensen, Kelderman, Moscon, Zaini, Meyer, De Plus, Dyrnes and Edmondson!
And it’s exactly those fourteen riders that have created a gap in the descent, as they enter the final hill with 2 km to go! The five first names behind them are Dowsett, Destribois, Thiery, Gebrezgabihier and Mudarra!
Pernsteiner and Guerreiro want to protect their leaders and don’t let the chasers come back. They are leading out the group of favourites with 1.7 km to go, but the Portuguese already starts fading 100 meters later.
1.2 km to the finish line as three riders are right next to each other in the first row: Moscon, Turgis and Kelderman! The three riders right behind them are then Juul-Jensen, Prevar and Izagirre!
Kelderman leads under the flamme rouge, as Turgis starts losing places already! Meyer coming through the middle now!
700 meters to go as Kelderman is still in the lead! Moscon sits down for a second but is still right behind him, while Juul-Jensen launches into third! The CT big three are showing what they are capable of and what they will show even more in PCT next year!
Moscon refuses to give up as he’s trying to keep riding next to leader Kelderman with 500 meters to go! Let’s not forget what happened in Coppa Placci, where the Italian overtook the Dutchman after being overtaken himself just before! Juul-Jensen now in the wheel of the Philips rider, with Meyer in fourth and Edmondson trying to make it a CT top-5!
But these three have a small gap with 400 meters to go, as Juul-Jensen launches his sprint!
But he’s not gaining ground on Kelderman! The Dutchman still in the lead with 300 meters to go, as Moscon has also not given up yet!
200 meters to go and the positions are still the same…
Last 100 meters and this is Kelderman’s to lose!
He starts cheering with 50 meters to go!
And he wins! Ladies and gentlemen, Kelderman is ready to come back to the PCT! He’s not alone though, as a strong Moscon and also strong Juul-Jensen complete the podium right behind him!
Meyer holds on for a great fourth place, while Izagirre just beats a strongly finishing Dyrnes for fifth and the title of best PCT rider of the day.
Edmondson will gladly take seventh ahead of big names such as Prevar (8th), De Plus (9th), Guldhammer (10th) and Gebrezgabihier (11th) and Turgis (12th), who really suffered on the final climb. Pernsteiner the first domestique coming in, with a respectable thirteenth place.
