The city of Cologne (or Koln as the locals would say) welcomes the riders to compete on a slightly hilly flat course which stretches for a little more than 200 kilometers. The best sprinters from the PT and gaggle of other riders are here to try their luck in this popular race. Who will come out on top? Stay tuned to find out.
Favourites
FL
HI
ST
RS
SP
AC
Coquard
73
67
71
74
84
83
Gaviria
76
72
74
76
83
84
Ewan
75
71
73
71
83
81
Grosu
73
73
74
70
83
80
Demare
73
80
75
72
82
81
Groenewegen
73
67
74
71
82
81
Van der Lijke
73
76
73
71
82
79
Lo Cicero
70
62
68
60
82
75
Manninen
74
66
71
75
81
80
Samolenkov
74
64
75
71
81
79
Vesely
73
68
74
68
81
80
Van Stayen
73
76
71
66
81
73
Cullaigh
74
66
73
70
80
81
Hsu
75
67
75
70
80
79
Almost 40 kilometers of riding is done before the first breakaway forms. Riders seemed to be on a joy ride so far! They four riders making up the break are:
Vanthourenhout Spengler Filutas Jones
With 100 kilometers to go, Puma, ELCO, Polar, Isostar, Aegon, ISA, Popo4Ever and Huski are all contributing to the pace-making.
With 40 kilometers to go, the break has a 48 second lead.
The pack splits with 30 kilometers to go with the high pace of chasing.
Here are where some of the dropped sprinters are currently:
The other favourites are in the peloton, who trail the break by just 19 seconds.
The break is caught with 20 kilometers to go.
The Samolenkov/ Manninen group have made it back as the pack slowed down for a bit after the catch.
The pack is getting smaller as the kilometers tick by. The other dropped favourites are not going to make it back it seems. 8 kilometers to go.
Konychev and Varga attack with 6 kilometers to go.
Varga is caught with 3 kilometers left.
Konychev holds a 9 second lead with less than 2 kilometers left. Kortsidakis is leading the chase.
1200 meters. Coquard takes a short slingshot from Kortsidakis and starts his sprint. He is already past Konychev. Gaviria, Ewan and Demare are also getting set to launch just behind.
500 meters to go. Coquard with a gap at front. Ewan and Demare are catching Konychev, who is putting up quite a fight against the sprinters. The next line is Gaviria, Groenewegen, Tanovitchii and Grosu. They are followed by Van der Sande, Prevar and Aniolkowski.
Coquard still leads with 300 meters to go. Ewan and Demare are nearest to him now.
Just a 100 meters later, and Coquard has fallen off a cliff! His legs are gone and he's already fallen behind Ewan and Demare, with the rest catching up fast.
100 meters to go. The win is surely between the Top 6 now but Coquard is out of it by the looks of it. Ewan also showing some signs of tiredness now.
Still Ewan holds on to the lead from Demare with 50 meters to ride. Gaviria and Groenewegen going head to head for 3rd.
Ewan just holds on to take a fantastic win for his team! Demare finished stronger but ran out of road and will have to settle for 2nd.
Gaviria holds off Groenewegen for 3rd. Grosu is 5th.
Van der Sande finishes strongly to finish 6th. Aniolkowski is 7th.
Vesely is another fast finisher. He takes 8th. Nych mixes it up with the sprinters to claim 9th. Coquard falls all the way to 10th as his legs completely seized up in the end.
Van der Lijke is 11th, and he won't be pleased with that. Manninen is 12th, followed by Prevar, another surprise package.
De Gendt claims 14th ahead of Tanovitchii and Samolenkov. The latter will be very unhappy with this result.
The late attacking Konychev pips Summerhill to 17th.
Cullaigh takes 19th. Hansen edges out Mundle to complete the Top 20.
Today's winner - Caleb Ewan.
(apologies for missing the podium picture)
Ewan was not the fastest finisher but he was strong enough through most of the sprint to hold off Demare and claim the win. The latter almost pulled off a come from behind win. 2nd is still a good result for him. Gaviria held off other challengers to earn the right to stand on the final step of the podium.
