Welcome for the final HC classic of the season! Let’s not waste too much time and go over to the live images of the race!
It takes fifteen km before we see the first attack, but the first one is the right one! Stenersen takes six riders with him: Martins Sandoval, Olei, Aular, Nareklishvili, Fouche and Dina.
130 km to the finish line as the riders reach the first climbing sectors of the race. The peloton is 5’15” behind the race lead. In the peloton, the riders working are Aniolkowski (Popo4ever), Thijssen (Aramco DP), Soulious (Farfetch), Rekita (Minions), Cima (Campari), Rajovic (Swisslion) and Cepeda Hernandez (Philips).
Up and down, up and down. Before we head onto the local lap where the riders have to conquer the same wall five times, there are still some other walls to be climbed in the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. This one has a gradient of up to 20%, something that the riders will definitely feel later on. 90 km to the finish line as the seven leaders are 3’ ahead of the peloton, where some weaker climbers have already been dropped.
We are on the local lap with 60 km left as the riders get to know the hill where it will be decided later on. What a wall it is. An average gradient of over 9% that lasts for more than 2 km, with the steepest parts up to 14%! The seven leaders still 3’20” ahead of the peloton, where Swisslion is setting the pace.
The seven leaders on the second out of five ascents, as Stenersen unsurprisingly is the first to be dropped. 44.5 km remain, the peloton still around 2’50” behind.
Here and there we have seen some favourites at the wrong side of a split, but with 35 km to go they are all inside the peloton of 78 riders. Popo4Ever setting the pace now, as they trail the six leaders by 2’30”.
Three out of five ascents done as Dina and the other five leaders cross the finish line with 29 km to the finish line (or 0 meters, depending on how you want to interpret it). The peloton at only one minute now due to work of Fernandez and Guerreiro.
25 km to go as the breakaway riders are on the verge of getting caught by the group of favourites right behind them. 34 riders remain in that group, Monsalve and De Plus the most interesting names missing.
The six breakaway riders managed to stay ahead of the group of favourites in the descent, they have a 45” lead with 17.5 km to. Farfetch going all in for Turgis as Yates is taking turns at the head of the group. The group now back to 52 riders, including Monsalve and De Plus.
15.3 km to the finish and less than a km to climb on the penultimate ascent of the day, as the breakway riders are caught! Not (only) due to the domestiques setting a high pace, but also because of a surprising attack! Gebrezgabihier with an acceleration, the first riders in his wheel are Ulissi, Beltran, Gautier and Kelderman!
The MOL rider sees he isn’t able to create a gap and stops attacking. Another attack following soon though, as Betancourt tries to distance the others just after the top, entering the final lap with 14.5 km left!
The Polar rider reaches the top of the small hill after the finish line with a gap of 20” over the group of favourites containing 24 riders! Penasa on domestique duties trying to close the gap, as we see the biggest name missing is once again De Plus. Steep descent now, followed by some flat kilometres until we head onto the final ascent of the day and of the PCT season!
Less than 10 km left as the Colombian is still 20” ahead of the group of favourites!
Once they are on the flat, Penasa closes the gap in no time. 25 leaders, 7.5 km to go!
Under the banner of the final five km now! Some teams that still have a domestique use it for setting a not so very hgh pace, but the other groups are coming closer quickly now.
22 riders come back with exactly 3 km to go as the riders are preparing to go onto the deciding hill, none of the riders coming back should be a threat for the win anyway.
2.2 km left, the riders are on the final hill! The first three riders at the moment are Kelderman, Bettiol and Prevar!
1.5 km to climb as Reckweg is about to be lapped, and Kelderman and Prevar are still in the lead. They are followed by the three Farfetch riders, Claeys and Beltran!
Kelderman not holding in and accelerating under the flamme rouge! Prevar, Claeys and Beltran are next to each other behind him, and they are on their turn followed by Gautier, Bettiol, Turgis, Waeytens, Di Maggio and Klemme!
Gautier trying to squeeze between the three riders ahead of him with 800 meters to go, as the Dutchman from Philips still leads the way!
Claeys and Beltran in trouble, as only Prevar is able to follow Kelderman’s wheel with 700 meters to go! Di Maggio moving up ranks quickly now!
Final 500 meters as Prevar and Kelderman are next to each other! Turgis moving into third now, but Beltran also not giving up yet!
Turgis wants to show why his team has been working so hard today! He comes next to the two leaders with 400 meters to go!
Final 300 meters, as it seems to be between these four, who have almost reached the top of the hill! Who has the most energy left for a final kick?!
Prevar leads again with 200 meters to go! Is this it?!
The final 100 meters are downhill and the Ukrainian still in the lead, surely this can’t go wrong for Popo4Ever anymore?!
And it doesn’t! Ukrainian champion Prevar wins the final HC classic of the season! Turgis finishes second, which is still a nice ending of the season for PCT champions Farfetch! Kelderman ends his CT season with a decent third place, showing the competition he’s back and ready to compete for the prizes in the PCT next season! Beltran finishes the race in fourth.
Gautier finishes fifth, while Bettiol makes manager jph a happy man with a strong sixth place. Waeytens (7th) and Di Maggio (8th) also finish in this group.
Right behind them Bilbao (9th) and Ulissi (10th) complete the top-10 ahead of MOL’s second rider Gebrezgabihier in 11th. Chaves then finishes 12th ahead of Benoot (13th), Yates (14th) and Claeys (15th).
