Hello and welcome to the C2 season opener here in New Zealand, it’s time for the Gisborne GP! 226kms of steep hills is what awaits the peloton here. Plenty of new teams making their MG debut all of them holding their breath for a great result. Some legendary hitters on the start line for the two new Italian outfits as Diego Ulissi and Edvald Boasson Hagen are here to prove that they still have one more good year in them! With that out of the way let’s get right into the race!
First attack of the season is from one of the new teams as Blanca Pareja is first out of the starting block. He’s joined by Kabas, McCutcheon and Sommer.
The second wave of attacks is lead by Brandt, Turner, Wade, Finkst, Maesen, Diaz and Serrano.
This group however doesn’t get a big enough gap as Tjotta works hard for his captain and keeps it under control as Maesen and Serrano try to create a new attack. A group of 11 riders form very briefly before being brought back by the pack yet again.
Serrano keeps being active in his accelerations as we see a bunch of the riders in the initial breakaway attempts also trying to create a gap that they can work with.
The gap for the break is now closing in on a minute as it seems like Tjotta has been told to let this group get away, while there might join a few stragglers in a bit let’s look at what looks like it is going to be the main break of the day: Serrano, Watts, Turner, Wade, McCambridge, Johnson, Diaz, Finkst, Sommer, Serrano, Ganjkhanlou.
With 196km to go the break’s gap is building and is already over 5 minutes as it continues.
With 108kms to go the gap to the break has dwindled down to 3’25” but nothing interesting has happened outside of a couple punctures for Helme and Pernsteiner. Pernsteiner made it back to the pack with ease, but Helme is struggling a bit on his own, but does make it back with 90kms to go.
While the gap is still over two minutes there is a long straight at 83 kms to go that provides visual contact for the pack(if they can look around the motorbike pacing them). The work in the pack is done with a combination of Crabbe, Hilcona, Ekoi, Gjensidige, Manada and Podium Ambition. The most surprising rider taking their turns is O'Connor who you would think could potentially create a result due to some of the inclines but T3A aren’t exactly lacking puncheur options when the final hits. As we are done with the prolonged flat sections of the initial circuit some riders are paying the price and getting dropped but no one of note are getting dropped as the pack still stands tall at 136 riders.
Accelerations at the front of the pack has started to send ripples down the pack as the group containing the main favourites are currently down to just 32 riders with a small gap of 40 seconds that should easily be shut down. Some of the riders in the second group that will have to invest a bunch of energy to get back to the main group are: Villella, Vendrame, Yates, Hagen, Zordan and Hindley.
5kms later with 57kms to go contact is made again but question is as we enter the hilly finale with 10 climbs of varying lengths and toughness left how long will that contact last?
As we enter the 50km mark another small gap is created and shut on a descent, as the work of the leading riders in the peloton has gotten the gap to the break down to under 2 minutes.
With 43kms to go the gap is getting closer and closer to the minute and Ganjkhanlou decides that the break is going too slow as he goes for an attack that is followed by Finkst and McCambridge.
But that’s not the most important thing that happens! As the pack gets into touching distance the Danish Jensen was predicted to be one of if not the best puncheur in the division this year by many and he is trying to open the party as he attacks over a steep hill with just under 42kms to go!
No one follows the Dane, while he is currently flying past the remants of the break of the day and has gained a minute down to the pack. Canty currently putting in a megashift at the front of the group, Podium Ambition seems to have a lot of belief in either Mayer or Lagane in today’s finish!
With 31kms to go Jensen’s gap is down to 44 seconds and there’s some action at the front of the pack!
Pernsteiner goes on the attack with Edmondson sitting in his wheel but no gap is created. It has however meant that most of the leaders are now at the front of the pack and the attack almost cuts Jensen’s gap in half with 29kms to go.
With 24,5 to go Jensen is brought back into the pack as they take on the third to last climb of the day.
The brief drop in pace is taken advantage of by Pibernik as we see another favourite in Teuns try to follow here. This should force some of the other favourites to make a move.
And that they do! Trillini, Paret-Peintre, Lagane, Grosser and Pibernik have been dropped as we see three of the biggest dogs in the division trample them. As you can see in top of the picture there’s a group of three riders that might have just made the decisive move! Eiking and Edmondson are the only ones able to fully keep up with the attack that was launched by Teuns off the back of Pibernik’s initial attack!. 22,4km to go!
Or maybe I read the situation wrong, the others are able to bring back everyone but the Norwegian as he launches another attack!
He is brought back and instead it is now Lagane that is making moves for himself. Surprising to some as he should win any sprint at the line one would assume. While his gap never becomes massive, it has blown up the group to pieces!
You can see just how split the favourites are now. In the group that are about to reel back in Lagane we can see: Paret-Peintre, Trillini, Duchesne, Morin, Eiking, Grosser, Pacher and Edmondson. Still two more climbs to go and with 19kms left everything could still flip on its head!
At the foot of the penultimate climb the split has been shut down for the most part. 26 man big group has a gap of 40 seconds down to the next few groups. No major players are missing outside of Mayer and Zordan.
As you might have been able to spot an attack was in the making in the previous picture as Luchshenko instantly lines up the attack after getting contact with the front group. The attack splits the group up in 3 pieces. Teuns is one of the people that seems to have been dropped by this move.
However a counterattack is instigated by Trillini, but it amounts to nothing as another big move is made on the back of that!
Paret-Peintre was the biggest target for manager Kandesbunzler in the previous transfer window and he is looking to justify that focus as he makes an attack that puts a gap into the favourites. But it is quickly shut down. However, what it does do is that at the top of the penultimate climb the leading group is back down to just 11 riders that most likely will have to decide this race between them! From the back to the front of the group we have: Lienhard who is struggling to hold on, Trillini, Grosser, Edmondson, Luchshenko, Eiking, Duchesne, Lagane, Pacher, Morin and Paret-Peintre. Most notably Jensen is currently in the 14 man group that is 53” behind the leaders, not looking like the Manada debut that he was hoping for!
As we start the descent Pacher decides to attack, he knows he’s one of the weaker people on the final climb and tries to create a gap that he might be able to sustain!
With 5kms as we enter the final climb to finish line Pacher is brought back by an attacking Paret-Peintre, everyone is able to keep up outside of Trillini who cannot keep up.
As we reach the barriers at the 3km-mark, the 11 are back together and Paret-Peintre drops back and Morin takes the front. Keep in mind that to the finish line there are a few hundred metres of pure flat road so if some of the stronger puncheurs don’t drop some of the stronger sprinters we could see a very surprising victor in the season opener!
As it starts to flatten Eiking opens up with Lagane in his wheel and Edmondson a bit further back. There is still 1.3kms to finish line, question is did Eiking open up too early?
It wasn’t a full on openening of the sprint but that doesn’t matter to Luchshenko who flies past the others to make his claim for the throne!
He faulters but out nowhere Pacher appears like he’s been shot out of a rocket
And he does it! Massive win in the season opener for the French puncheur who takes the win with a well-timed burst of speed!
Luchshenko second and with Lagane third. Dissapointing day for Eiking as he has to see all of his hard work only lead to a fourth place finish, Edmondson takes fifth place. Duchesne, Paret-Peintre, Morin, Lienhard and Grosser closes out the top 10. Catastrophic day for Jensen who reached for stars with his early attack but was unable to even land on the moon, instead he had a meteoric downfall all the way down to 14th.
With that let us look at the full results of the season opener:
