Hello and welcome for the second edition of the GP Lugano. Without further ado, let’s see who is part of the break of the day, and what teams want to chase it down.
Covi is the first to attack, and together with five other riders the youngster can get away from the peloton. The riders following his attack are Monaco, Yamamoto, Vanmarcke, Tesson and Kron.
The riders doing the early work in the peloton are Rajovic (Swisslion), Dzhus (Popo4ever), Schelling (Philips), Predatsch (Mapei), Burke (GCN) and Elosegui (Farfetch).
The four mountains in the opening and middle parts of the race definitely scare some managers. 120 km to go as the six leaders are at the top of the second peloton, with a lead of 4’30” over the peloton, whereas their maximum lead was 5’30”. Nobody dropped yet.
100 km to the finish line as the peloton reaches the top of the penultimate mountain with a time gap of 3’55”. So far it’s still grupo compatto.
Kurianov has some fun and drops the rest of the peloton just before the top of the final mountain, where the peloton is 3’30” behind the three leaders with 85 km to go. Seems like the whole peloton will go to the finale together. Will we see 60 riders same timing again, just as last year, or is anyone able to make a difference on the hill(s) in the finale?
Swisslion really trying to force a selection here, as they aren’t afraid to take risks in the downhill section(s) after the climbs, causing splits in the peloton! Mapei and Popo4ever see their leaders are positioned well, and start helping! 51 km to go as in the first group the strongest riders should be Kelderman, Buchmann, Padun, Prevar, Turgis, Paulinho, Dowsett, Waeytens, Moscon, Slagter and Beltran!
But with 40 km to go it looks like all of the teams missing out have brought back at least one of their leaders. A peloton of 59, led by Padun himself, now at 1’40” of the six leaders. Only two more hills to go, all the rest is flat/downhill.
21 km to the finish line as the six breakaway riders are caught by the first peloton at the top of the penultimate hill. Nice effort there by two times Avenir stage winner Storer to make up a minute in no time. The second peloton a bit further behind, Debesay was unlucky and had a puncture that saw him drop from the first to the second peloton.
Storer leads the peloton of 61 inside the final 15 km, with the final hill coming soon. Still some strong punchy sprinters like Houle here, most of them at the back of the group though. The five best positioned puncheurs at the moment are Ackermann, Prevar, Buchmann, Moscon and Beltran.
11 km to go as we start the final hill of the day!
Final ten kilometres! Cuming is setting the pace as we see some movement in the peloton with several favourites being brought forward! The puncheurs at the front are Dowsett, Moscon, Gebrezgabihier, Bettiol, Kelderman and Beltran!
We’re almost at the top of the hill with nine km left, and so far nobody has attacked! Cuming now finally losing places, as Bettiol sets the pace!
And nobody attack at all before the top of the hill! Just after that Zaini comes out of nowhere and attacks with 8 km to go! Can he hold on in the descent?!
Cuming was still near the front and immediately gave everything he had left to close the gap. 6 km left as 35 riders remain in the first peloton! The best sprinters should be Ackermann, Smirnovs and Houle, with only the Popo rider positioned at the front of this group at the moment!
4 km to go, the situation still the same!
Only two km to the finish line as the positions are still more or less the same and Ackermann is the only sprinter near the front of the group, or is somebody like Turgis or Bille feeling strong enough to beat him? Or are we overestimating the German, and is he too tired to deliver a good sprint after today’s race?!
Bettiol leads Turgis and the rest of the group of favourites under the flamme rouge, but Ackermann can’t wait any longer and starts his sprint with 800 meters to go!
500 meters left, Bettiol trying to keep up with Ackermann, but nobody else able to do so! The riders battling for the other podium spots are Turgis, Beltran, Dowsett, Buchmann, Prevar and Padun!
Bettiol really doing well here, as he’s still not too far behind Ackermann in the last 200 meters! Nevertheless, unless the German falls completely still he shouldn’t be losing this one anymore!
Final 100 meters! Buchmann on his way to finish on the podium!
But nobody coming close to this guy anymore! Congratulations to Ackermann and Team Popo4ever for winning the GP Lugano!
After a long and strong sprint, Bettiol finishes second ahead of Buchmann (3rd). Turgis gives Farfetch a nice scoring day with a fourth place ahead of Beltran in fifth. We see four teams with two riders in the top-10, as Dowsett and Cuming finish sixth and seventh, Prevar eighth (and other teammate Padun 11th), and Campari has Kebede and Mutsumine on places nine and ten.
Edmondson is the first CT rider in 12th ahead of division colleague Manfredi in thirteenth. Bille is MOL’s first rider in fourteenth, whereas top favourite Kelderman has to be content with a 15th place, which will make manager Abhi doubt if he’ll be coming back here. Other top-20 spots are filled by Moscon (16th), Paulinho (17th), Slagter (18th), Smirnovs (19th) and Zaini (20th).
