218 tough kilometers lay ahead of the 173 riders, but the conditions couldn’t be much better. It’s cloudy but dry, not too warm, not too cold, hardly any wind - let’s get right into it.
The first batch of attackers with the start line still visible in the background consists of Grosser, Bar, Furdi, Gregaard and Rhim.
Yatsevich, Fouche, Ardila, Rajapakshage, Mraouni and Schelling follow and the attacks don’t stop there. Let’s see how many riders the peloton is comfortable with letting go.
Just as they reach the first short cobblestone sector of Waters Road, Luchshenko, Lampawog, Robeet and Perez make it to the rest of the breakaway riders, as did Gunnlaugsson and Rodriguez just moments earlier. That makes it 17 riders in the group of the day, now 2’30 ahead of the peloton.
Robeet is the best cobblestone rider by a good margin here, but there are a number of decent rouleurs including Mraouni and Bar to hopefully (for them) get them far today.
Through this first combination of cobblestone sectors, Mapei duo Grosser and Rodriguez get sent off the back of the breakaway group. Rajapakshage, Fouche and Yatsevich would follow soon after, but while those three made it back after a bit, the Mapei guys would not.
Grieg, King Power, Huski Chocolate and Carlsberg - Danske Bank are the main teams working in the peloton in this first third of the race. The 15 remaining guys up ahead work well together, but the gap remains capped at around 4 minutes.
At the first crossing of the Patterson Hill Road, the cobbled climb with slopes over 10%, Robeet puts the pedal to the metal, so to speak, and not many can follow. Rhim, Schelling and Lampawog are the only guys with him at the top, and you can also alread see the peloton back there, which has sped up as well over the last few kilometers.
At around the halfway mark of the race, we see the first attacks of second row contenders from the peloton. Owen initiates the move and has Van Baarle and Kuroeda with him. Malecki, Moulingui and van den Berg try to catch up.
A bunch of riders follow as well, starting with Vermeersch and Marzuki, then Laporte, Ferreira and Centrone. They start to make their way through former breakaway riders, but the peloton is chasing well for the moment.
At the front, Bar, Luchshenko, Furdi and Perez had returned to form the remaining group of the day of 8 riders. They have just over a minute on the recent attackers and just over two on the peloton.
Moulingui doesn’t have the best day, he’s overtaken by another bunch of attackers and would soon be back in the peloton. Those attackers are Sanogo, Young, van der Hoorn and Bovenhuis.
At the start of the next longer connection of cobblestone sectors, all attackers including the original ones merge to one big group (with only Young and Bovenhuis still chasing). The peloton trails them at 1’50.
With strong cobblers like Sinkeldam, Roosen and Lindeman leading the pack, more and more riders fall behind there. Baugnies is the most prominent victim, he was poorly positioned and is now trying to make his way back to the around 55 riders in the main group.
At the front of the race, 10 riders have survived that cobblestone passage:
Owen
Kuroeda
Ferreira
Marzuki
Laporte
Malecki
Centrone
Lampawog
Schelling
Robeet
Still around 1’50 on the peloton with 70 kilometers to go.
Over the tough cobbled climb of the Stage Road, Sinkeldam really put the hammer down and reduced the bunch to just 31 riders. Notable absences include Per, Potts, Fenn and the aforementioned Baugnies, who are all in a group of 18, 45 seconds behind. Also in that group are Sanogo, Rhim and van Zyl as their teams’ “best positioned” riders, while Xero captain Rowe is another minute further behind.
EA Vesuvio and Voyagin - Bird still have Centrone and Kuroeda in the breakaway of course, while Indosat and Cedevita don’t have any riders in either of those groups and are out of contention - not that this is a surprise, all due respect. Meanwhile, Malecki is being dropped from the breakaway.
Thanks to big efforts by both Per and Kruijswijk, that group rejoins the main peloton. 50 kilometers to go, only around a minute left for the 9 men breakaway.
Here’s a closer look at the final 40 kilometers. Coming up shortly is another combination of mostly flat-ish cobblestone sections, then some mostly flat asphalt roads to recover and/or prepare for the finale which features first the brutal cobbled climb up the Patterson Hill Road and then, after a short descent, the final cobbled and again uphill kilometers into the finish.
Robeet opens the final stretch of this race with an attack. Maybe not the rider you’d expect to go at this stage after all his efforts, but all the more impressive.
Meanwhile, Baugnies has to pay the price for all the chasing he did earlier. He can’t keep up anymore. Polar still has Manamalage in the peloton though. In contrast, with Rhim dropped and Young long gone after his failed breakaway attempt, Zwift is out of riders in the Top 50.
Benoot is leading the peloton on the first of the four consecutive cobblestone stretches coming up here. His pace is shedding more and more domestiques off the back of the group and brings the breakaway - where Robeet’s attack went nowhere - closer and closer. Leaders of some of the teams that have done the most work so far, including Trentin, Gerts and Zepuntke, are already coming to the front here, as is Senechal.
This group of 11 riders is dropped from the peloton next, including Sulimov, the hard working Sinkeldam, and the last three remaining ISA - Hexacta riders around Sanogo.
More selections at the front as well: Ferreira and Owen get a small gap to Centrone, Kuroeda and Laporte. But their catch by the peloton is only a matter of when, not if.
Just before the last cobbles for a bit, Fenn, van Zyl and Manamalage are dropped, leaving those teams without a rider further up the road as well. 35 riders are still ahead of these guys.
Just as Centrone, Kuroeda and Laporte are caught, Senechal is the first major name to attack! Trentin, Blythe and Gerts lead the pack in pursuit.
It’s then Ringheim and Marcos though who bring Senechal as well as Owen and Ferreira back. Among the riders dropped in the background is Potts, but Kruijswijk is surprisingly still hanging on for Gazelle.
The attacks continue! Now it’s Pedersen, another big threat.
Pedersen gets a decent gap and so does David in pursuit. Altur on the left tried to get away, too, but Kamyshev has come to the front and shut that down.
Kamyshev reels David back in fairly easily but Pedersen still holds out. Menten and Gaday come to the front now, Generali is one of four teams with still three men in this group ( Podium Ambition, King Power and Grieg being the other three).
Alongside his former breakaway colleague Laporte, Kuroeda has to relent and loses contact. 25 men left ahead, Pedersen still with a small 20 second gap.
The pursuit is stalling a bit, so Senechal attacks again, and David tries to latch on once more.
The two move past Pedersen with ease and get a gap themselves, but now Gaday and Trentin make a move!
Everything comes back together and things calm down for a short while, with domestiques like Darbinyan or Menten leading the way, but now, just two or three kilometers away from the Patterson Hill Road, we have perhaps the most dangerous move yet: Ringheim launches a big acceleration and pulls team leader Wisniowski with him! Kasperkiewicz tries to follow.
Neither he nor Debesay can get there so the never tiring Marcos comes back to the front. 20 seconds for the Grieg duo and just around this left corner, the ascent begins!
In the end though, it seemed like Wisniowski didn’t want to go all out yet, and Debesay makes the catch for the peloton as they head onto the climb.
It looks like the attack was just a prelude, because now Wisniowski puts the hammer down and the group behind him crumbles. Only Debesay, Gerts, Trentin and Blythe are able to stay with him, then there’s a group of 8 of the other major favorites. Falling behind are Ringheim, Kruijswijk and Owen, as well as the likes of Pedersen, Kamyshev, Centrone and a few more outside the frame.
Reaching the summit of the climb, Blythe is really struggling there on the left, his spot in the first group was taken over by Kasperkiewicz with a massive effort. Further down the road, David and Altur are at the end of their means for now, falling behind Gaday, Senechal, Van Hooydonck, Per and Zepuntke.
We’re not entering the final descent with a group of 5 at the front though but with a group of 3: Trentin and Gerts did not manage to follow Wisniowski’s demanding pace. They’re now being chased by Per, who got a small gap to the next group, where in turn Van Hooydonck has fallen slightly behind.
The leading trio heads into the final 3 kilometers with 33 seconds on Trentin and Gerts, that seems like a comfortable gap. Those two are almost joined by Per now, then this group of 4 including Senechal, Gaday, Zepuntke and Blythe, who’s still visibly exhausted.
Van Hooydonck and the incredible Kruijswijk follow at 26 seconds from here, then another 31 to Altur, Owen and David.
Kasperkiewicz leads Wisniowski and Debesay towards the flamme rouge (please excuse the weird pinkness). The Grieg leader is not only the strongest rider of these three in general, but the best sprinter, too, so it would take something extraordinary for him not to win this. Can one of his companions pull that off?
It’s not going to be Kasperkiewicz, who has no chance to follow Wisniowski as he passes by. What about Debesay?
He tries it, coming out of the slipstream in the final couple of hundred meters!
But he doesn’t have a shot! Lukasz Wisniowski wins the Tour of the Battenkill! Strong results nonetheless for Debesay, who improves on last year’s fifth place, and Kasperkiewicz.
Some pretty quick guys are fighting for 4th place here, but this is more about endurance than explosiveness. Trentin went first, but Gerts is already passing him by …
Behind them, Gaday is leaving Zepuntke and Senechal behind, what a day for Generali. Can he even attack the group ahead?
Gerts seems to have secured 4th, but Trentin and Per now actually do have to worry about Gaday!
But they manage to hang on. 4th to Gerts, 5th to Per, a great effort after being distanced earlier and leading the chase then. Trentin finishes 6th, somewhat validating his team’s efforts, then Gaday makes it two Generali riders in the Top 7.
Senechal, Zepuntke and Blythe complete the Top 10.
Then it’s Van Hooydonck and, again remarkably, Kruijswijk ahead of Altur. 13th is certainly not what the Spaniard had hoped for, but Owen in 14th at least gives P-A some decent depth. David comes in 15th.
A bunch of domestiques fill the remaining Top 20 spots, first Ringheim, then Benoot, followed by non-domestique Centrone on a good 18th place for EA - Vesuvio. Kamyshev and Pedersen individually would have probably aimed higher than 19th and 20th, but they did work for their team leaders before.
Tour of the Battenkill 
