Welcome to France, the bookies are saying that the sprinters are the favourites today, it will be interesting to see if that will be the case once we reach the finish line!
The first attackers of the day are: Andersen, Baudin and Insausti.
They’re followed by a larger group of Van De Paar, Steinhauser, Johnson, Toumire, Kawasaki, Tjotta, and quickly get a gap of 3 minutes.
With 74kms to go the most difficult part of the race is over. The situation is that the break still has a 3 minute gap. There’s been another gap created of 30 seconds to the people leading the chase in the pack. Notable riders behind the gap are Eislers, Jensen, Lagane and Kump. Biggest names in the “leading group” are: Villella, Bertilsson & Waersted, Liepins and Major. The gap is closed shortly after and with 60kms to go thee break’s gap is down to 2’11”.
With 32kms to the finish line we start seeing some action in the pack as Novardianto goes for an audacious move with Wackermann in tow!
Their gap never gets above 30 seconds but interestingly enough it’s the big guns on Tafjord that brings them back! It seems like they’re all in for Bertilsson!
With 22kms to go the breakaway’s gap is down to around 1 minute and the pack almost has visual contact. In the meanwhile the pack has reduced in size due to a raise in speed. At the moment it stands at 55 riders, with every meaningful favourite still in the group.
With 18kms to go Katrasnik launches an attack that brings 6 other riders with him! They immediately create a gap to the pack of 15 seconds! Yzeiraj, Lienhard, Ruiz, Naud, Jensen and Wackermann are the last riders making this an incredibly dangerous group!
As they get contact to the remaining frontrunners Baudin tries to go alone. The 15-man group behind him has a 22 second gap to the peloton. Currently led by Strava!
As they get over the penultimate climb with 12kms to go it’s pure chaos on the course! But above the chaos a 7-man group has risen, after brief contact with the pack. Ruiz, Naud, Tesfaye Heyi, Jensen, Sirironnachai(Who made great use of his teammates’ hard work to create contact again), Wackermann, make up the core group with Baudin still counted as part of it but he’s holding on for dear life. They have a gap of 50 seconds to the pack.
With 10kms to go Ruiz, Naud, Tesfaye Heyi and Jensen get a gap over the other 3 and look like the clear cut favourites to decide the win!
4kms later the finale is opened with Tesfaye Heyi launching the attack that immediately sends Jensen on the brink of collapse as he has to let go of the three others.
The Dane makes a brief recovery as they enter the final climb, this time with Naud and Ruiz as the leading riders.
As they reach the plateau towards the finish line with 2,5kms to left to race it’s looking like a win going to a PCT team as the aforementioned pair has a 15 second gap to Jensen and Tesfaye Heyi who have a 21 second gap to Sirironnachai. Behind the Thai rider there’s a 9 man group of various riders including Eiking all trying to make a last ditch effort for the higher spots in the race!
800 metres to go and it’s Ruiz from the front with Naud in his wheel! On paper the Peruvian is the superior finisher of the two but Naud’s in the advantageous position!
With 100 metres to go it’s looking good for the Peruvian!
AND HE DOES IT! He celebrates in style, he managed to take advantage of the move earlier on and never left the front for a second, a hard-fought victory he can be proud of! Naud can be very happy with his second place as well!
Jensen snatches third as Tesfaye Heyi fails to make it a full PCT podium here.
