Welcome to the 2021 Coppa Placci! Today the peloton are in San Marino to tackle an undulating 162km. Eiking and Boswell are listed as the top favourties today by the bookmakers.
15km in and we have our first attacker of the day! It’s Stokbro who is followed by Debesay and Hvideberg. Drizners and Cemazar are following 22” behind.
Andersen, Jacobs, Tesson and Tikhonin have also attacked out of the pack and quickly build a gap of over a minute. The five riders in front have come together to form a quintet and are 30” ahead.
The two groups come together to form the break of the day. They have a 3-minute advantage already after only 28km:
Stokbro
Debesay
Drizners
Tikhonin
Andersen
Hvideberg
Cemazar
Jacobs
Tesson
All riders in the break appear to be very evenly matched, so daily form will be important. UBS and Tafjord have two riders present so it will be interesting to see their strategies.
The break’s lead topped out at just over 4’, but has been quickly whittled down to 2’25” with 85km remaining. McCormick and Gjensidige doing the majority of the pacemaking in the pack, with a little help from Duolingo and Volcanica. A group of 15 riders has already fallen behind, most notably Hugentobler who must not be in top shape here.
The gap continues to fall and with 45km to race, sits at 46”. The same teams continue to work in the peloton.
Attack! Andersen and Cemazar attack the breakaway group with 31km to the finish line. Both riders have benefited from having a teammate in the break and neither have had to do any work all day so should be relatively fresh. They quickly open up a 27” gap to their former companions and a further 45” to the peloton.
Volcanica, Duolingo and Gjensidige have put their foot down in pursuit of the break, but are struggling to make ground. The leading duo are at 1’15 and the remnants are still at 45”. However, with 29km to go, have caused a split! 48 riders remain in the main group. The most notable names missing are Felline, Lavery, Gogl, Tsatevich, Brandao, Sakalou and Vogt. They’re all 52” behind the peloton.
The second group fights its way back to the peloton thanks to the work of Felline, and under the 20km banner a peloton of 98 is 1’03 behind the leaders. Rest of the break at 29”
Andersen must be feeling good today as he attacks Cemazar and opens up a gap with 17km remaining. The rest of the break have quickly been swallowed by the Volcanica lead peloton.
However Andersen’s new-found freedom is short lived as he is gobbled up by a rampaging Bagioli and Kreder-led pack with 11km to go.
Eiking, Paez and Vliegen are badly positioned halfway down the pack which isn’t ideal heading into the final 10km.
The peloton face a steep ramp with 6km to the finish. The favourites are still being kept at bay by the relentless pacing of Kreder. He has teammates Palini and Azman riding with him in the first six positions. Juul-Jensen well positioned also. Eiking has moved up alongside Boswell and Chaves.
Here we go! Juul-Jensen and Azman are off. They attack on the flat bit before the final steep ramp with 3.5km to the finish. Kreder has swung off behind and is toasted, his work is done. Roson takes up chase behind with Chaves, Eiking, Boswell and Calmejane chasing hard behind now.
Juul-Jensen and Azman are about to round the corner into the steep wall that leads to the line. There’s 2km to race and they have an advantage of 19” over the 68-strong peloton behind with Boswell now driving hard on the front.
The leading duo dance under the 1km to go banner. There advantage sits steady at 20”. Boswell, Roson, Eiking and Chaves are fanning out across the road, it’s every man for himself. The leading duo look strong – have the peloton missed their chance? A strong Primozic, Goh and Lietaer
sit slightly behind.
Main group of riders now under the banner. Juul-Jensen and Azman still strong out front with 800m and still a 19” advantage. It’s looking promising. Boswell, Eiking and Roson fight for the inside run on the corner with Lietaer, Chaves and Primozic just behind.
Juul-Jensen and Azman are back in the saddle as they hit a ramp of 9%. 500m remain. Boswell, Eiking, Chaves and Roson equal on the road behind and coming quickly. Goh, Primozic and Calmejane next on the road. Lavery, Paulus and Lietaer further back with Meyer coming up very quickly now.
Boswell hits the front as Juul-Jensen is passed by Azman and looks done. Eiking and Chaves right there too coming on the inside. Roson just behind and Goh sitting steady. Meyer still coming with speed from behind, but is paying for his poor positioning.
200m now and Boswell still leads! The riders are about to round a small bend straight into the line so Boswell has a big advantage by being in front. Eiking is behind by centimetres with a very strong Azman and Chaves next. Juul-Jensen falling backwards with Roson, Goh and Calmejane coming up behind him. Meyer moving into 9th, but he’s left it too late.
And he holds on! Ian Boswell is the winner of the 2021 Coppa Placci! He rode exceptionally well, taking matters into his own hands and taking up the chase towards the finish and leading the group the whole way up the the final ramp. He gets one up over his big rival Eiking here, who misses out by the tiniest of fractions on the line. He can be happy with his performance but it will be bittersweet.
Azman completes the podium with a terrific ride up the final climb after his earlier attack. Chaves bests his previous result here and comes in 4th. Calmejane follows in 5th, with Juul-Jensen hanging on for 6th ahead of Roson in 7th who provides some great depth here for Gjensidige! Meyer, Goh and Paulus round out the top-10.
Korosec next with Palini to give their respective teams two top performers and some good depth scoring also. Serry in 16th is not the greatest result for Crabbe, considering Lietaer’s earlier positioning and Tsatevich’s 42nd place. Paez a bit of a non-entity finishing in 18th without making any waves either. Vliegen in 37th also with an anonymous ride here.