Good day! We are here in Gisborne on the East Coast of New Zealand for the first race of the CT division. We have nice clear skies today, but there is wind kicking up to 30 km/h. This will prove an extra challenge for the riders. Let the race begin!
We start the race and the first attack comes from Johansen. He is followed by O'Loughlin and Hesters.
Vuillermoz is the next rider on the move. Many attacks follow.
It takes over 20 km, but the peloton lets quite a few riders go up the road. We now have a total of 13 riders in the front group, with two more riders trying their hardest to bridge the gap.
A good 70 km into the race and the break is now all together with over 3 minutes ahead of the peloton. These are the breakaway riders:
Near the halfway point of the race now, the riders are done with the 2nd big loop and now have a long section of flat before the hilly final part. We have a look at the peloton and we see the teams from Eddie Stobart, Strava and Gjensidige doing the chasing. The breakaway is less than 3 minutes ahead of them as we can see them at the bottom of this descent.
On the long flat road we see a peculiar sight in the peloton. Le Roux suddenly decides he wants to join the breakaway a 100 km into the race. Gogl has the same idea, but even stranger, we see Chaves is trying to follow or catch them?! He is supposed to be one of the race favourites!
Well that move went nowhere although it lasted for almost 20 km. The riders are about to be caught as we start climbing. Who knows what they were thinking?! The original breakaway is less than 2 minutes ahead with 75 km remaining.
Chaves is now paying for his misguided effort as he's right at the rear of the peloton just barely hanging on. 50 km to go, breakaway under a minute now.
Diaz, McCarthy and Andersen are making their final move as the peloton inches closer to catching the breakaway.
We are onto the 3rd final climb of the day now. The 3 escapees are in sight as we see Strava, Eddie Stobart and Crabbe-CC picking up the pace. 22 km to go now.
An attack by Juul-Jensen now! Most of the favourites are attentive to this move as we see Edmondson, Tsatevich and Eiking following.
We have a 8 man group now that is going over the top first. It's the following riders:
Terrific work from Kreder and Seigle as they bring it back together before the penultimate climb. A total of 33 riders are now in the front group.
Juul-Jensen attacking again! This might be a strategy from Mikkeller as we saw Favilli was able to follow the last move. Paez, Meyer and Boswell are on the Dane's wheel.
Eiking is now attacking over the top!!
There is a group of 10 riders chasing. Trans and Mikkeller have 2 riders in this group and it's Bystrom who seems to be doing the chasing for Calmejane. The group is mainly the same as before with also the addition of Felline.
A 3rd group has come together and we have 22 riders behind the sole leader Eiking who has a 38'' gap going into the final 5 km. The climbing is just about to begin.
Juul-Jensen has now taken over the chasing duties. It appears Mikkeller are riding for Favilli today.
Going into the final 3 km it's now Paez that hits the front. Tsatevich and Felline are in his wheel. Eiking still has 33''.
Eiking has blown up! He's been caught immediately. Paez still at the front with 2.5 km to go.
Tsatevich now moves to the front as the riders tackle the steepest section. The last part is almost completely flat then.
Tsatevich still in front with Felline in his wheel, then a couple bike lengths to Paez, Boswell and Meyer. 1.3 km left.
Under the flamme rouge the riders are now giving it their final sprint effort. This is going to come down to these 5 riders. Tsatevich still at the front, but Meyer is picking up speed.
500 m to go and it's a 3 horse race now. Tsatevich, Meyer and Felline in that order.
Tsatevich was not going to be denied! What a powerful performance from the Russian! Crabbe-CC Chevigny win on their team debut! Meyer is 2nd and Felline 3rd.
The rest of the top 10 is Boswell 4th, Juul-Jensen a strong 5th and Paez 6th.
Calmejane finished 7th, Edmondson 8th, Favilli 9th in the end and Eiking who overestimated himself ends up 10th.
Gisborne GP 
