It's a lovely March day in San Marino as we get ready to start the fifth edition of Coppa Placci. The best punchers of the CT are here to try and win this classic. Let's see how they go.
Favourites
MON
HIL
RES
ACC
Boswell
71
80
73
76
Moscon
73
79
77
73
Hagen
66
81
68
73
Edmondson
69
79
72
76
Betancourt
72
79
69
72
Dyrnes
72
78
73
77
Quevedo
71
78
72
75
Vogt
62
80
71
63
Schultz
76
76
80
71
Hoelgaard
74
77
72
74
Budyak
74
78
67
68
Hugentobler
68
78
69
76
Zordan
73
77
72
74
Meyer
68
78
69
75
Pernsteiner
75
77
71
72
Masnada
77
76
75
73
Watson
65
78
72
72
Juul-Jensen
69
77
72
77
Le Gac
69
77
74
69
Laas
74
76
73
76
Paulus
74
77
68
71
McKenna
74
76
72
77
Five riders form the early break of the day:
Favilli Delbove Fejes Centrone Tesson
Garcia attacks a few kilometers later and joins the break.
With 80 kilometers to go, it is Jura, BNZ, McCormick and Popo4Ever at the front. They trail by 2'24".
The break lead by 53 seconds as we reach 40 kilometers to go. The peloton has 147 riders remaining, including all the favourites.
Delbove is caught 5 kilometers later.
Favilli attacks his breakaway companions with 31 kilometers left.
With 20 kilometers to go, there is a huge split in the pack! The peloton is down to just 35 riders. Hagen, Tatarinov, Le Gac, Doubey, Rodriguez and Sakalou are in the group just behind. All other favourites are still in the first group though.
The second group make it back with 18 kilometers left.
Zordan and Moscon decide to attack from distance. 14 km to go.
Up ahead, Fejes has gone clear solo.
Zordan and Moscon catch the break, including Fejes, a couple of kilometers later.
Favilli attacks and gets a gap.
The peloton trail by just over a minute. There are 65 riders in there.
Moscon, Zordan, Garcia and Tesson catch Favilli. Fejes and Centrone have been dropped. 11 km to go.
Tesson is now dropped.
Hoelgaard attacks from the pack and catches Centrone. Masnada, McKenna and Destribois are chasing.
9 kilometers to go. Hoelgaard, Centrone, Masnada, McKenna, Destribois, Fejes and Tesson are together now.
Favilli and Garcia are dropped from the lead group.
Masnada, Hoelgaard and Destribois have caught Favilli and Garcia.
McKenna catches E2 a kilometer later. Garcia is dropped.
Dyrnes, Edmondson, Quevedo and Redecker have attacked from the pack.
5 kilometers left. All four of the latest attackers are caught by the pack. Fejes, Centrone, Tesson and Garcia are also caught.
Dyrnes and Quevedo attack again a kilometer later. Garcia is chasing.
Up ahead, Hoelgaard has caught E1, from where Zordan has been dropped, who in turn has also dropped Moscon, with the latter being caught by teammate Masnada. McKenna, Favilli and Destribois are in a group further behind.
Dyrnes and Quevedo catch the McKenna group with 3 kilometers to go.
Laas attacks from the pack now.
Laas catches Garcia.
Up ahead, Hoelgaard still leads with 1500 meters left. Zordan has been caught by the Jura duo. 1500 meters to go.
The same five riders - McKenna, Destribois, Favilli, Dyrnes and Quevedo - remain in the next group. Laas and Garcia is in E4.
The other favourites are in the reduced peloton of 36 riders.
Hoelgaard has extended his lead to 29 seconds with a kilometer to go. Behind, Dyrnes has caught the Moscon group.
Dyrnes is away from the others in the second group with 600 meters to go.
All those behind the front five have caught by the pack in the meantime.
400 meters. Hoelgaard's lead is down to just 11 seconds! Can Dyrnes really pull this off?
Boswell attacks and catches the Moscon group.
The peloton is up to 70 riders.
Dyrnes catches Hoelgaard with 200 meters to go!
Boswell is away from the other three in his group. Pernsteiner and Schultz have caught up to the Moscon group.
Hoelgaard is still ahead with 100 meters to go. Boswell is 15 seconds behind this group. Pernsteiner is accelerating from the next group.
Hoelgaard realizes that Dyrnes has nothing left. He celebrates before the line!
Hoelgaard indeed takes the win. Dyrnes is 2nd.
Boswell takes 3rd followed by a fast finishing Pernsteiner.
Zordan edges out three others for 5th. Schultz is 6th, Moscon is 7th and Masnada is 8th.
Warbasse makes it two in the Top 10 for McCormick, finishing 9th.
Meyer takes 10th, ahead of Laas.
Iino is 12th, followed by Destribois.
McKenna is 14th, with Ivanov completing the Top 15. Betancourt is 16th.
Paulus is 17th.
Johannessen, Favilli and Budkyak complete the Top 20. Quevedo's earlier efforts sees him end up 21st.
Today's winner - Daniel Hoelgaard.
Hoelgaard takes an unexpected win, but there is never any doubt about his qualities, so it is perhaps not so unexpected. Dyrnes takes a fine 2nd for his team after his more fancied teammate struggled to keep up. Boswell continues his excellent season with another podium finish.
