Lopez won the first race in his career in Luxembourg last year and will be trying to make it a two for two. Let’s see if the Colombian is able to do so.
A group of seven has a 30” gap, but Evonik – ELKO thinks seven is too much, so they are chasing the leading group. Kortsidakis with another attack now, as he really wants to be in the break of the day.
The peloton comes back and another group of four gets away. Three more riders make it seven in the lead a bit later, but the gap between the seven and the peloton never gets bigger than a minute, as attacks keep coming from behind as well. The current leading group exists out of Vermote, Van Hooydonck, Christensen, Kalf, Kortsidakis, Ardila and Stork, although the latter two are having trouble following the pace at the moment. The peloton is 1’ behind with 173k to go, the teams working are Evonik, Moser – Sygic, Isostar, Zwift and Mapei.
A strong Razumov bridges that 1’ gap and brings both Ardila and Stork back to the first group as well. The riders now really starting the hilly parts of the race with 150 km to go, as the peloton is 2’45” behind.
Not an ideal situation for Meintjes, as the South African champion punctures with 107 km to go. Gap between the peloton and the break now 3’30”.
Little throwback to last year as King Power domestique Darbinyan is doing some good work with 90 km to the finish line. He creates a small gap after the first 51 riders in the peloton. The gap gets closed for now, but riders like Meurisse, Meintjes and Serrano will need to start paying more attention from now on.
64 km left as the leading group is on the last flat parts of the day. Constant up and down from now on. The peloton of 110 is 2’20” behind them.
35 km left now as Farfetch is setting the pace in the peloton for leader Meintjes, who has finally come to the front of the peloton. The adventure of Kalf and Razumov in the leading group has almost come to an end, as Christensen attacks on slopes of up to 13%! Kortsidakis and Ardila currently the only two other breakaway riders able to follow the man from Amaysim.
At the top of the climb four breakaway riders still have a 30” gap over a peloton of 88: Ardila, Stork, Christensen and Van Hooydonck. Greek champion Kortsidakis has now been caught by the peloton, and so did Razumov, Vermote and Kalf. 31.5 km to the finish line!
Only 21.5 km to go as Gregaard brings a peloton of 48 back to the four remaining breakaway riders! The biggest names missing and in the group of 30-ish rider just behind is Gastauer! Teammate Kirsch trying to bring that group back now.
We thought Farfetch was riding for Meintjes, but it’s Turgis attacking on that long hill with 20 km to go! The first riders behind him are Mohoric, Sagan, Borges, Lopez, Formolo, Buchmann, Lutsenko, Blums and Yates. Other team leaders, such as Koretzky, Vakoc, Benoot, Chernetskiy and Waeytens will need to react quickly!
But as the riders start the descent with 17 km left we see that Gerts has done a terrific job bringing all those names back, as well as riders such as Preidler and Ulissi. 27 men in the first group, Blums setting the pace!
Turgis with another move as there are 13 km left, but domestiques Gerts, Malecki and Kastrantas don’t let him get away. Two more climbs to go.
Min sets the pace on the penultimate hill, but it’s not too crazy. As he reaches the top, the group of 23 behind has joined the first group. 50 riders are going to the final hill together, what a different finale than last season!
The South Korean must have heard me as he reduces the group to 28 riders. The first seven riders here are domestiques, of which Preidler should be the strongest. The best positioned favourites are currently Borges, Yates and Koretzky. 3 km to go as we start the final uphill section!
1.8 km to go as Budenieks is in the lead but his leader Lopez is a bit caught between several riders! Turgis seems to be the first of the favourites to really accelerate, which is really early!
1.5 km left and the Frenchman from Farfetch currently in the lead! Koretzky and Lutsenko right behind him, with the worst positioned leaders being Meurisse, Chernetskiy, Waeytens, Benoot and Mohoric!
And still Turgis in the lead under the flamme rouge! In his wheel are Lutsenko, Koretzky, Yates and Borges, as then there is a small gap towards Sagan! Lopez’ poor positioning very probably sees him out of the race for victory!
Lutsenko was ready to start his sprint but got blocked on the inside! On the outside we now see Koretzky overtaking Turgis with 800 meters left!
Turgis must really be rooting for countrymate Koretzky as he has now blocked Yates momentarily as well! Half a km left and the Festina rider with a small gap over the others!
The Zwift rider seems to have lost all his momentum and gets dropped back to fourth with 300 meters to go! Turgis on the other hand seems to have found yet another lung as he starts his final sprint, trying to outclass Koretzky after all! Lutsenko now in third, is he finally able to win this race after having been the runner-up in the past two editions?!
200 meters left, Turgis and Lutsenko coming closer to Koretzky! Sagan also on his way back, but he might be just too far back already!
And it’s Turgis back in the lead with 100 meters to go! Incredible scenes!
50 meters to go only, as the Farfetch rider seems to be having some trouble again! Is Lutsenko still able to dive in between the two Frenchmen?!
No! Turgis wins it, and it’s fair to say he deserves it after being the most attacking rider all day! A big surprise nonetheless! Koretzky (2nd) and Lutsenko (3rd) also on the podium!
Sagan and Yates then complete the top-5, while the other spots in the first ten go to a disappointed Lopez (6th) with a great final push, surprising domestique Gerts (7th), Borges (8th), Mohoric (9th) and Waeytens (10th). Other riders scoring decent points are Preidler (11th), Budenieks (12th), Benoot (13th), Buchmann (14th) and Formolo (15th).
