Some surprising names with three stars. Let’s see if they can live up to the expectations.
We quickly get a breakaway of nineteen riders! Their names: Johansen (Pas Normal), Lovik (Eddie Stobart), Jurado (Volcanica), Rachid (Duolingo),Sagadin (Philips), Tediashvili (Jura), Yudha (Indosat), Kochetkov (BWT Hyundai), Bernaudeau (Polar), Chen (Voyagin), Chaiyasombat (McCormick), Froidevaux (Jura), Saggiorato (Jura), Stoenchev (BWT Hyundai), Brandao (Polar), Mulubrhan (Bralirwa), Walls (HelloFresh), Pronskiy (Popo) and Papanov (Popo). Maximum lead of 4’45”, back to 3’30” on the first climb of the day with 156 km to the finish line.
The first five smaller climbs are out of the way as the peloton heads towards the bigger climbs with a gap of 2’20” to the nineteen leaders. Gjensidige, Strava, Crabbe and Trans setting the pace in the peloton, 62 km to the finish line.
We are on the first ascent now with 42 km to go. The peloton is closing the gap because of the work by climbers Roson and Volta a Catalunya winner Iino. Chaiyasombat wants his moment of glory and attacks, Mulubrhan and Jurado follow the McCormick rider.
Most of the leading group comes back together quickly though, as Stoenchev attacks on top of the mountain, going onto the descent! 35 km left and the peloton still at 55”, with Bystrom currently in the lead there!
The sixteen leaders come back together in the descent as well, as they start the climb for the second time. They’ll have to do some climbing later as well, as this is where the final 2,5-ish km start after their next descent. The peloton 35” behind the leaders at the moment. Some interesting names no longer in the peloton are Naesen, Gogl, Khederi, De Tier, Shirota, Battaglin and Roson.
Just before crossing the finish line for the penultimate time, Chaiyasombat attacks again! Once again Jurado following him, with Lovik joining the attack as well! 22 km to the finish line, the peloton still at 50”!
Aha, the favourites attacking in the peloton as well now! Our leading trio has a 30” gap over the next group of twenty-two with 20 km left after Juul-Jensen was the first rider to throw his cards on the table! Other favourites following or trying to do so are Felline, Eiking, Calmejane, Paez, Boswell, Tsatevich and Paulus!
Eiking attacking again now, closing the gap to the first three riders! Only Calmejane able to follow the move from the Gjensidige rider! 19 km to go, a peloton of 65 riders now at fourty seconds of the five leaders!
But Lietaer now with some great work to close the gap again very quickly! 17 km to go and we’re almost at the top of the climb again, as most of the favourites are now in front of the 57-headed peloton!
Boswell leads the pack for most of the rest of the climb, but it’s Thiery coming over the top as the first rider with 13.8 km to go! Chaves is struggling a bit in sixteenth position, he has to let the first fifteen riders go for now! The first fifteen riders, except for Thiery, are Eiking (Gjensidige), Paez (Aramco), Boswell (McCormick), Calmejane (Trans), Seigle (McCormick), Favilli (Pas Normal), Weiss (Tafjord), Felline (Strava), Vogt (Pas Normal), Vliegen (Bralirwa), Gaspar (HelloFresh), Budyak (Popo4Ever), Juul-Jensen (Pas Normal) and Goh (Duolingo).
But Chaves and some others come back in the descent! 10 km to the finish line, a peloton of 30 at the head of the race!
Domestiques Vogt, Goh and Seigle make sure nobody else joins the leading group. We enter the final 3.5 uphill km, who will be the successor of Simone Ponzi?!
After a busy day in the breakaway, Jurado comes to the front again with 3 km left! Chaves feeling good after all?!
Still mostly domestiques in the top-10 with exactly two km to the finish line. Chaves in fourth and Bagioli in sixth as presumable leaders of their team.
Vogt leading under the flamme rouge with supertalent Schmid in second ahead of Volcanica riders Chaves and Barbero as well as McCormick for Duolingo. The sprint hasn’t started yet, so it’s looking more and more like the most explosive rider is going to take this one home.
Schmid with the acceleration as there are 700 meters left, but Favilli coming quickly on the left side!
Half a km to go and the Italian from Pas Normal in the lead! Not a lot of elevation, so he definitely has a chance to finish this with his sprinting capacities!
Boswell with a late push now, but Favilli’s gap seems to be growing! Final 200 meters!
The final 100 meters are a bit steeper though, and the Italian is having a hard time keeping up the pace! Is Felline, Weiss, Calmejane or Favilli’s teammate Juul-Jensen still able to come back?!
It’s incredibly close, but no! Favilli is just able to hold off Felline and wins the 2021 Badaling International! Calmejane finishes on the podium ahead of Juul-Jensen (4th) and Weiss (5th)!
Thiery as the first PCT rider in sixth, with the other riders in the top-10 being Vliegen (7th), Paez (8th), Boswell (9th) and Eiking (10th). The top-15 gets completed by Tsatevich (11th), Jans (12th), Lietaer (13th), Budyak (14th) and McCormick (15th). Once again a disappointing race for Chaves in 17th.
