It’s no surprise the cobblers are the organizer’s favourites, but with such a stacked field it’s still the question who will come out on top.
After some fruitless attack a group of four consisting of Sweeny, Harrison, Poljanec and Boutopoulos gets away, but the gap only gets bigger after a long series of counter attacks when the peloton let another group of five get into the chase. Those five are Nommela, Dekker, Ballerini, Gunnlaugsson and Vanthourenhout.
The peloton still doesn’t seem to be content with the situation and chases, resulting in Harrison dropping back to the pack. The three other initial attackers also can’t stay in front and are now behind the five former chasers.
The former attackers are already reeled in in the first cobbled sector with 140 km to go. But as a result of the pace a group of 29 including most of the favourites gets a gap to the rest of the pack.
The split is ultimately undone, but the favourites will have to be attentive from now on to not be on the wrong side of a decisive split.
Another result of the first split is the peloton calming down a bit, so 10 riders get away over 2 minutes and form our break of the day (kind of). Those 10 are Dakteris and Bolivar, Schreurs and Monk, Siric, Van Lerberghe, Moricz, Nieuwenhuis, Menten and Karatzios.
Karatzios and Monk are soon dropped, but there is another attack from the peloton – and apart from Boros and Rutsch Senechal is on the move too! There’s no immediate reaction from the other favourites.
It gets messy as there are more attacks while some earlier attackers are falling back. To make the confusion even bigger the first riders are lapped, so we’ll take a look at the race situation:
With 43 km to go a group of four is in the lead, consisting of Rutsch, Jacobs, Senechal and Spengler. Chokri is right behind them. The group including the other favourites is about a minute behind with some of the former attackers still in between.
With 34 km to go the situation is a bit more organized. Jacobs is making the pace for his captain Spengler and Senechal, the peloton including all the other favourites is a minute behind. Rutsch is right in the middle of this two groups on his own. The other riders on the picture are lapped.
Shortly afterwards Jacobs is spent and Spengler attacks! The result is him alone in front with a group of 27 (including his former companions), but the gap is down to 34’’. Will his effort be fruitless in the end?
It is indeed. The next attacks result in him being caught and dropped, now Gerts, Per, Pedersen and Wisniowski are in front of the race. Polanc tries to jump to the front on his own. A group of nine is half a minute behind the leaders. Sulimov, Senechal, Jacobs, Anderberg and Tiller are the biggest names not in the chasing group.
Polanc made it to the front, but Wisniowski attacks and gets a gap! The other four are 15’’ behind, the next chasers ( Ferreira, Van Hooydonck, Kamyshev, Kasperkiewicz, Teunissen, Vanbilsen, Altur and Neilands) are another 30’’ behind. It’s 15 km to go.
With 11 km to go Wisniowskis attack is neutralized, but as a result Polanc was dropped and is now 28’’ behind the leaders. Another 37’’ behind is the next chasing group minus Ferreira and Neilands.
The leaders enter the last cobbled sector and still have more than a minute to the group of six with Polanc still in between. If the others can’t distance Pedersen here it’s his race to lose as he’s the best sprinter out of the four.
With 5 km to go the four are still together. Polanc was caught by the chasers and the group of seven is only 37’’ behind now. It seems like the leaders don’t work that well together anymore.
With 2.5 km to go Gerts attacks, but the others are on his wheel immediately. The chasers are still closing in and are only 23’’ behind. They at least are working together well.
Gerts‘ attack is also the start of the sprint. He’s still in the lead under the kite with Wisniowski and Pedersen on his wheel. Per already seems to fall behind. The chasers are losing time now, so it’s between those four in the end.
With 500 m to go Wisniowski has taken over the lead. With a sharp corner (including some fans and barriers on the road) still coming this could be the win for the World Champion.
And he takes the win! But Pedersen was fast in the end and takes second place in front of Per. Gerts finishes in 4th.
Altur wins the sprint of the chasers and finishes in 5th place. Van Hooydonck, Teunissen and Kasperkiewicz finish in 6th to 8th place.
Kamyshev and Vanbilsen complete the top 10. Polanc finishes in 11th. 2 and a half minutes later Ferreira, Neilands and Spengler finish in 12th to 14th. Sulimov beats his teammate Senechal in the sprint for 15th.
At the end of the field 23 riders miss the time limit.
[PT] East Midlands Cicle Classic 
