Signore, Signori, benvenuti a Bologna! We're in Emilia-Romagna for the final day of PCT racing in the 2022 season - and given how the current standings look like, we're wondering whether we'll see just "business as usual", or if we can witness a big miracle in the promotion or relegation race!
As we're in the "Learned City", the organizers decided to not include any location names on today's map, except for start and arrival - and to be honest, we're not "learned" enough to find out which roads exactly the riders will take. What we know is that we'll start in south-eastern direction, and then turn south-west - probably around Imola. Then it's a pretty hilly parcours - including some really steep ascents - until we get back to Bologna.
From there, the riders will tackle five times the ascent to the Santuario della Madonna di San Luca, with the finish line being slightly after the hilltop - so sprinting might actually matter if things are getting really close. But we expect the top puncheurs to make the decisive selection on the climb anyway - we'll see how it goes!
The bookmakers more or less agree with the preview, seeing the top puncheurs as today's top favorites as well: 2018 winner McCarthy goes first on their list, followed by Areruya and Hagen - who might be in for a last big result at this level before his 4th decline. Benoot and 2019 winner Beltran are next, alongisde Jensen who gets two stars as well. Rounding off the list are Bystrom, Bilbao, Chernetskiy and Waeytens - even the bookies have no idea which one of the Trans riders will actually be their leader in the end.
So, let's see how this season ends - and who wins the final HC classic of the year! We'll first take a look at what happened after the start and on the rollercoaster part of the course, before covering the five San Luca ascents with live images! Enjoy!
What happened so far
It's a typical autumn day here in Bologna - partly cloudy, yet still pretty warm. And we don't have any significant wind today. So the stage is set - may the strongest rider win!
The first attack came from two teams who had not much to gain nor to lose in this race, with Debesay and Siddikov riding away from the pack.
They were followed by two riders whose teams still are more or less desperately fighting against relegation, with Manfredi and Lunder.
And then we had a first rather big group, containing five riders: Enger, Sunderland, Govekar, Novikov and Brun. Another rider for Gjensidige - although the group would obviously need to make it for this strategy to work out.
There wasn't a straighforward logic about which riders the pack would let go and which ones they'd chase down, but in the end six more riders were allowed to break free: Tediashvili, De Witte, Baroncini, Reddish, Covi and Visser.
Non c'è due senza tre, as the Italian would say (corresponding to "all good things come in threes"), and so Gamper made it three Lierse boys ahead of the pack. He was joined by Vermaerke.
Nepalese NC Chhetri and Ghanaian Kusi continued adding some pretty rare country flags to the breakaway, whereas Ablenado got quite some support by the race direction to make it to the front as well.
Meanwhile, the pack had gotten organized - and we didn't have any truly surprising teams joining the pacemaking. Early on, the "turn takers" were Poljanec, Pruus, Vermeersch, Cannister, Turnbull, Henttala, Iino and Trentin. Kipkemboi didn't participate, but made sure no-one else interfered with them.
So if you correctly counted the attackers, you should have a sum of 20 riders up front. Here are all the names again, to get a better overview:
Covi
Gamper
Siddikov
Reddish
Enger
Lunder
Baroncini
Vermaerke
Govekar
Ablenado
De Witte
Novikov
Visser
Kusi
Tediashvili
Sunderland
Manfredi
Debesay
Brun
Chhetri
Covi and Chhetri should be the best puncheurs, followed by Sunderland, Kusi, Visser and Govekar. However, there's no really strong hill rider up front. This is not true in terms of climbing, with Manfredi and Ablenado being strong mountain riders - but that's probably not what really matters today.
The dark horse might be top sprinter Enger, who's just two stat points weaker on the hills than the strongest puncheurs, and has by far the highest top speed. But for this to matter, the group would need to make it - which is far from granted obviously.
30km into the race, the gap was 3 minutes.
Here's a slightly closer look at the rollercoaster part of the course - the riders had to tackle some really nasty hills, with short sections of way above 10% gradients. Compared with some of these, the final climb looks much easier - but longer, and to be done five times.
As the breakaway reached the easternmost point of the race - we supposed it was Imola - the gap to the peloton was 4'25". The teams with more than one rider up front clearly split the tasks - one was taking turns, the other one(s) saving energy for some later moves.
One final geographical guess, as we really have no clue about the rest of that hilly part; we might be in Borgo Tossignano here, crossing the Santerno river. But that's really just some guesswork - what we know, though, is that the climbing started now!
The trend of the gap had already turned around, by the way, with the pack getting a couple of seconds closer. 4 minutes left, and 130km to ride.
Those hills definitely were impressive - this might be the top of the steepest one, and although the pack is well visible, that was a 3'27" gap separating the groups!
This was the ascent to the highest point of the race, and the breakaway's advantage was already down to two minutes shortly after the halfway point!
Quite some riders were already struggling to keep up in the pack, with splits opening and being undone in quick succession - as quick as the succession of hills. Hugentobler might have been the most notable name in a bigger dropped group.
The pace definitely increased in both groups as we got closer to Bologna! The gap remained constant, but more and more riders couldn't keep up with the pack - at one point even McCarthy missed out on a (temporary) split.
This was the descent from the final hill before getting back to Bologna - it's time to get some live images now!
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
Here we go, we're back in Bologna! And as you can see, there's at least one pretty important rider in this group - Hagen's main domestique and Norwegian NC Dyrnes! The same however holds for McCarthy's prime helper Storer as well. No race favorites have been dropped yet, though - except if you considered Kritskiy to be one of them.
The breakaway is holding onto that 2 minutes advantage.
A couple of turns later, the escapees are tackling the San Luca ascent for the first time! Just 2km long, but the middle part is pretty steep - and it will appear even steeper when you're going up for the 5th time!
Sunderland is leading them on the first ascent, with the group still being 2'08" ahead of the pack. 60km left.
Hence, two minutes later we can see the peloton at this point. Iino, Pruus, Skjelmose Jensen and Poljanec are the pacemakers, with Hagen being the furthest ahead in the pack of the favorites.
Some presumably important helpers like Eriksson, Gaudu, Raileanu, Stannard or Calmejane are however pretty far down in the pack and will have to be careful to not get dropped before they can actually be useful!
But also some team leaders like Meurisse, Stuyven or Hugentobler (yes, he made it back) are close to the tail end of the pack - as is Skjerping, Gjensidige's main hope for getting the necessary points to avoid relegation!
The escapees are done with the first ascent to San Luca, having reached the sanctuary. As said in the introduction, the final meters to the finish line are flat or even slightly downhill. Sunderland and Chhetri are the first riders on top.
We also get a nice view of Bologna - what's less nice for the breakaway, though, is the fact that the peloton can already see them pretty well now. Indeed, the gap went down by 20" on this ascent.
Apparently, Beltran is feeling pretty good, as he's already in 2nd wheel, right behind his teammate Poljanec. Aranburu and Gebrezgabihier are next, with Betancourt, Hagen and Waeytens close to the front as well. McCarthy, Areruya or Benoot are taking it a bit easier on that first out of five ascents.
Only 100 riders remain in the peloton after this first San Luca climb. In the first groups of distanced riders we mostly find those who were dropped earlier already, but made the catch right before or during the climb. So we're talking about the likes of Storer or Dyrnes, but we also see Vink, De la Cruz or Barcelo.
Meanwhile, the front group - now back in the streets of Bologna - is down to 19 riders, with Lunder being the only rider losing touch on the previous ascent, and not making it back on the downhill. He trails by a minute, with the pack being 1'43" back.
Another group of 13 riders got dropped from the pack on the downhill, and with Meurisse, Hermans, Fabbro or Ndayisenga we have several riders here who could be exptected to be in the peloton at this point of the race.
It's the start of ascent #2 then, with Novikov leading the way for the escapees. Lunder is almost back in the pack, which is still trailing by 1'40".
They did indeed catch the former breakaway rider before heading onto the climb again, with Cuming and Hoem now setting the pace.
Still the same 1'40" gap between the two groups after half of the climb is done. The breakaway still consists of 19 riders, whereas the peloton has grown to 132 men - that will surely change as they reach the top.
Whereas his teammates Gamper and Siddikov just got dropped, Covi is setting the pace over the finish line at the end of the second ascent. The pace must have been pretty high, as the pack was unable to gain a significant amount of time.
Cuming was leading the peloton throughout the entire climb, with Velasco now in second wheel. Their respective leaders follow closely behind, was we see all of Bystrom, Waeytens and Benoot in positions 4 through 6 (with Van Wilder up there as well).
The pace in the pack still was high enough to create some splits again, though. Whereas Storer initially made the cut this time, he still dropped back to the first chase group on the downhill, and he's now riding alongside Dyrnes, Stannard, Meurisse, Hugentobler or Asgreen.
And pretty bad news for Minions, as Stuyven is even another minute further back.
The 17 remaining escapees tackle the San Luca climb for the 3rd time - with their gap having gone down to 1'21". 30km left - it doesn't look great for them, but maybe some riders could still hold on to get a good result?
Olesen, Van Wilder and Leemreize are now in the first positions of the pack, whereas the race favorites aren't close to the front. So we probably can't expect any long-range attacks.
There are 69 riders left in the pack - and it's unlikely to see the peloton grow back to more than 100 riders again.
It's game over as well for Vermaerke and Kusi, who lose touch with the rest of the breakaway with 1.5km still to climb. Up front, it's Covi setting the pace - it looks like his teammates did a good job of setting him up!
This probably definitely Gjensidige's hopes of a surprise breakaway win, as Leemreize is now definitely putting the hammer down, simply catching the break on the 3rd ascent already!
All of the breakaway? Well, not entirely! One small group of indomitable escapees still holds out against the chasers - let's take a closer look at who they are!
And here's the answer - Visser and Govekar are trying to achieve the impossible, attempting to reach the finish line ahead of the pack. Well, they probably will this time, but likely not two laps later...
Covi, Baroncini and Chhetri missed the right moment to react, and are trying to catch up with them now.
But whereas the front two indeed are still 40" ahead, Leemreize was just too strong for the rest of the breakaway. Well, that went fast - shattering the silent hopes of quite some team managers here.
And look at the damage that was done on this climb! Only 22 riders remain in the first chase group - with lots of big names missing out! In the second group - which admittedly is still very close and should rejoin - we have McCarthy, Hagen, Jensen, Errazkin or Hirschi - even if they come back, that should serve them as a serious warning now!
And it's really bad news now for Gjensidige, as even their biggest hope in Skjerping is yet another group further back - or in other terms, a full minute behind the peloton! Dyrnes, Stannard, Storer, Meurisse or Hugentobler all are back there as well.
After the short initial downhill and another brief uphill section, the two first chasing groups have merged - except for Hoem, who just got dropped. Visually speaking, Skjerping's group isn't that far back - but the official time gap says 1'19"!
Visser and Govekar are still ahead, but just by 36".
Govekar actually attacked his teammate on the flat section, but that move was never going to lead anywhere. The leading duo start the fourth ascent with a 48" advantage - they actually were faster on the downhill and the flat, but we'll see if they've got enough left to fend off the pack until the top again.
By the way, you can ignore the 3rd rider here - this is Drapac who just got lapped.
Cuming and Ardila are leading the pack at the foot of the penultimate climb of the year - and in 3rd position we already have Aranburu! Does that mean he's working for Jensen, or is he preparing an attack?
Waeytens is the only other top puncheur close to the front of the group, which makes us ask similar questions about himself and Bystrom.
Govekar and Visser didn't stand a chance, as they're caught even ahead of the flamme rouge - on the penultimate lap. Ardila is setting a firm pace - which means that Areruya and Bilbao, who are dangerously close to the end of the 59 rider group now, should move up quickly!
Acceleration by Aranburu! It's not sure whether he's actually attacking or if he just wants to shake as many of Jensen's opponents off already, but this definitely is a serious move!
Velasco is trying to keep the Spaniard's wheel, but he might struggle to do so - and so it's no surprise that Hagen, Waeytens or Bystrom are trying to react as well!
Wow, that's some serious carnage! Only 19 riders are currently left up front - with Areruya by far the biggest name missing out! He has now realized that this could be a decisive split and is trying to close the gap on his own, whereas Hirschi or Bilbao are even further back!
Bystrom is trying to capitalize on that split, clearly working for Waeytens now! Areruya has made it back, whereas Gaudu is seriously struggling to hold on!
The group is down to 18 riders - here are the names:
Benoot
Raileanu
Velasco
McCarthy
Aranburu
Jensen
Waeytens
Bystrom
Beltran
Gaudu
Areruya
Hagen
De Plus
Gebrezgabihier
Betancourt
Errazkin
Chernetskiy
Rodriguez
The last name in that list - bib #141 by the way - is surely the most surprising one, this could be an unexpectedly good result for Bordeaux!
42" behind the front group are Helme and Ardila - meaning that Kraftwerk indeed have zero riders of their huge hills squad in the first group!
Bilbao and Boily are in the next chase group, 53" down - alongside Hirschi, Seibeb and breakaway rider Govekar. All others are over 1'30" behind already.
13km to go!
Bystrom is a pretty good downhill rider - which can't be said about the likes of Areruya or Chernetskiy, though! Gaudu, Errazkin and Rodriguez have lost a couple of meters as well - but they should be able to come back on the flat section leading to the final climb.
10 kilometers left in the 2022 season!
And here they are back in the streets of Bologna, on this flat section! 7.5km to go, meaning roughly 5km of flat roads - if they start playing games up front now, the chasers could make it back! Otherwise, however, they shouldn't stand a chance.
The chasers are on one hand Bilbao, Helme and Ardila, 56" back, and Hirschi, Boily, Seibeb and Govekar on the other hand, 1'20" down.
You can also see Schreurs in the mix, but he's just another lapped rider.
5km to go, 2.5km to the start of the San Luca ascent! Bystrom, Raileanu and Velasco have been setting the pace - a good pace, as those behind haven't been able to get any closer! So one of these 18 riders - probably minus those who are working now - should win the final HC race of the year!
Under that 5km road sign, Bilbao launches his desperate attempt of catching up on his own, given that both Helme and Ardila couldn't really help him anymore. Will he succeed? He's still 52" down!
OK, fasten your seatbelts please - the final ascent of the season is imminent! Raileanu makes sure to bring Benoot into a great position; the latter is followed by Beltran, Areruya, McCarthy and Chernetskiy.
On the right side, we have Hagen ahead of De Plus and Gebrezgabihier, with Waeytens in between the two "trains".
The Carlsberg guys are doing their own thing, whereas Betancourt, Errazkin and Rodriguez are kind of stuck behind Velasco.
2.5km left!
And the climb is on! Raileanu is at the front, leading out Benoot, who only has Hagen in his wheel now!
Beltran is in the wind already, followed by Waeytens, Gebrezgabihier, Areruya, McCarthy and De Plus.
Aranburu - easily recognizable by the former Spanish NC stripes on his sleeves - is working for Jensen, who in turn is followed by Chernetskiy.
Betancourt, Errazkin and Rodriguez are further down, with helpers Velasco, Gaudu and Bystrom instantly dropped.
And Bilbao? Well, he's still 54" down and not looking good anymore, let's just claim he's definitely out of it!
Raileanu has also hit the wall now, and Benoot doesn't want to hit the front yet. So it's Beltran pulling, with Benoot, Gebrezgabihier and Waeytens in the 2nd row. Hagen, De Plus and Areruya are next.
Errazkin and Rodriguez have been dropped alongside Raileanu - the rest of the riders you see in that 2nd group are lapped.
Red kite! Last kilometer of the season - but what a tough one it is! The riders are in the Curva delle Orfanelle, marking the steepest section of the ascent - and it's still Beltran pushing! And he seems to do some more damage, as Chernetskiy and the Carlsberg duo seem to be struggling!
But Beltran might have shot his bolt early, as Waeytens moves past him a couple of meters later! Gebrezgabihier is also moving quicker, whereas Benoot decides to stay in the Columbian's slipstream for now.
However, the biggest news here is that McCarthy just got dropped! The same holds for Chernetskiy, but the Australian not even being in the fight for the Top 10 is a huge (negative) surprise!
700m to the line!
200m later, we still have this group of 10 - but Betancourt seems to be in troubles as well! So might be Jensen, who simply can't follow Aranburu's wheel - the Spaniard actually joins the podium fight now!
Waeytens is still up front, but Benoot has left Beltran's slipstream and is moving fast now!
And Benoot indeed takes the lead! Beltran and Waeytens are neck-and-neck in 2nd and 3rd, but we shouldn't rule out Gebrezgabihier and Aranburu yet! Jensen seems to have found a second wind, too, catching back up with his teammate - and all of a sudden, that could be a huge team result for Carlsberg!
De Plus and Areruya are still in the mix as well, but they need to move up quickly now! For Hagen and Betancourt, it seems to be game over. Chernetskiy is still riding in 11th position - whereas Rodriguez has overtaken McCarthy for 12th place! What's going on here?
Wow, that's a big gap for Benoot now! Beltran and Waeytens have been joined by Aranburu now, with Jensen, De Plus and Gebrezgabihier still doing well, too. Areruya however really needs to do something now!
100m left, and we're now done with climbing - Benoot still looks great, but Beltran accelerates one more time and looks to be closing in!
Waeytens still has a tiny lead over Aranburu - can he hold on?
Gebrezgabihier seems to have the edge for 5th now, with Jensen and De Plus fighting for 6th - and Areruya is only 8th!
And further behind, we can see Rodriguez closing in on Chernetskiy!
Tiesj Benoot does it! What a final race of the year by the Belgian, beating all of PCT's other top puncheurs and taking the win in the Giro dell'Emilia! Congratulations to Philips!
But who is taking the next spots? Beltran still looks good for 2nd, but the sprint for 3rd should be pretty close!
In the end, it's a clear 2nd place for Eduard Alexander Beltran in his final maxed race! And this definitely seals promotion for Cedevita, congratulations!
The same is true for Carlsberg - although they miss out on today's podium, with Alex Aranburu being beaten by Zico Waeytens for 3rd place! Well done by both!
Amanuel Gebrezgabihier then rounds off today's Top 5 with what is a great result for him, beating both Laurens De Plus and Kristian Haugaard Jensen! That's two riders in the Top 7 for Carlsberg - will it be enough to overtake Cedevita in the rankings? We'll have to wait for some more riders to finish the race before we'll know...
Edvald Boasson Hagen and Carlos Betancourt round out the Giro dell'Emilia's Top 10, with the latter narrowly winning the sprint! For both, it might have been their last race at this level - at least the last one being competitive. Definitely a strong one, congrats to the best CT riders in this race!
Chernetskiy then takes 11th place, which is a decent result - but clearly not the miracle that his team would have needed to survive.
And in 12th place, we already have the 3rd strongest CT rider - which surprisingly is Rodriguez, who surely had a stellar day out there, beating some far stronger riders!
The strongest one he was able to beat was the - on paper - strongest rider in this race, as McCarthy ends his 2022 season on a very disappointing note. His team will still have a lot to celebrate tonight regardless of the result, though!
Next up is the first domestique, a mighty strong Raileanu who deserves a lot of praise by race winner Benoot for his fantastic job! Well done!
Errazkin, who got dropped alongside Rodriguez, wasn't able to keep up with the latter - but still secures the final Top 15 spot of the race.
And we have yet another Philips rider in Velasco, taking 16th place. Gaudu adds some valuable points for Cedevita - at this point, they trail Carlsberg 107 vs. 115, meaning they'd drop to 5th place by one single point!
The next one, though, is a potential team leader, who finally accepted a domestique role - Bystrom. His work was rewarded by a podium for his team, though, so that definitely was the right call.
Somewhat surprisingly, 19th place goes to Schönberger - with Boily taking the final Top 20 spot.
In this group, we can also see Ardila, who finishes... 26th. This means he gets 5 points, bringing Cedevita's score up to 112 vs. 115 - Orange stays ahead of Green by 4 points in the end!!! Both will be happy with this race, though, as this seals promotion for both!
And as Dahlberg crosses the line 44'21" after the race winner, the 2022 season is officially in the books for PCT (and the remaining CT teams)!
And the rider who wrote the last chapter in this season's story is Tiesj Benoot! Staying calm on the final kilometer, keeping top favorite Eduard Alexander Beltran's wheel and outsprinting him on the last 500 meters, was enough to take a big win today! Congratulations!
The Columbian, on the other hand, found a reconciliatory end to the season - and to his Cedevita career, as rumors say.
Zico Waeytens might be the most surprising name on the podium - especially looking at who's missing there - but thanks to some great teamwork, clever positioning and just really strong legs, he surely deserves that 3rd place to cap off his season!
So, that was PCT's 2022 season. We already talked about promotion - where no magic moves happend on the last day. Unfortunately for Gjensidige, we have to say the same about the relegation fight - despite their double representation in the breakaway, they never were seriously in the mix for the big points that would have been needed to avoid going down. But I'm sure they'll be back in PCT after a one-year stint in CT!
I hope you enjoyed the 2022 season, and this race in particular, and I also hope to see you again next year whatever division you'll be competing in!
Giro dell'Emilia 
