Thirteen circuits of a difficult climb followed by an even more difficult climb to the finish. Whoever designed this course won't hear very many nice words from the riders! The best climbers of the PT have gathered en-masse to try and claim the win. Who'll get it today? Let's find out.
Twelve riders have formed the break today. We take a look at them as they descend the 14% gradients of the descent for the first time.
Soon enough, Nieuwenhuis and Vabo are also dropped.
Kamp and Basso are dropped with 200 km left.
Stehli and Dieteren suffer the same fate just a kilometer later.
All the dropped riders are caught by the pack on the 5th climb.
Trakhov is dropped with 166 km left.
Jaramillo and Dzhus are dropped next.
147 km to go and Otruba is dropped on the sixth time climbing the mountain.
The first strong riders are now dropped from the pack as well - Powless, Eenkhoorn, Blums, Buitrago, Stancu and Darbellay.
Cort Nielsen is also dropped soon after.
The peloton is down to 28 riders, with all the favourites still here. They trail by 5'41". They're on the climb for the 8th time.
Zimmermann, Champoussin and Zwiehoff attack with 94 km to go. This would be quite an outrageous event!
Three climbs later, and with 63 km to go, Zimmermann and Champoussin catch Storer, the only surviving rider in the break.
Zwiehoff is at 45 seconds. The 26 rider peloton is at 2'56".
Lopez is dropped with 57 km to go. This is definitely not what his team would have had in mind. He had to do a lot of work for his team leader with other domestiques all dropped much earlier.
All the attackers were been caught before 41 km were left. 24 riders are in the lead group, with all of the break now dropped.
McNulty attacks a kilometer later! The three previous attackers are dropped.
McNulty is caught 15 km later. Inkelaar, Warchol and Galta are the latest to be dropped. The lead group is down to 19. We're on the climb on the circuit for the final time.
Higuita is next big name to be dropped.
With 22 km to go, Kudus, Lecuisinier, Morton and Bernal get a gap to the others.
The group comes back together with 10 km to go. There are 18 riders here:
Eight riders are dropped two kilometers later - Shikai, Areruya, Sivakov, McNulty, Aular, Amezawa, Novak and Faglum Karlsson
Padun is dropped next, a kilometer later.
Morton and Dombrowski attack with 6 km to go.
Phinney is dropped.
Kudus has joined up with the two leaders.
Reis is droped with 3.5 km to go.
Morton riders away from the other two at the front. 2 km to go. Behind them, Sivakov has steadily made his way back up to Reis.
Bernal and Lecuisinier catch Dombrowski and Kudus with 1.5 km to go.
Morton leads by 45 seconds with 800 meters remaining! Pogacar and Haig are the only ones remaining in the third group.
The gap increases to 51 second with half a kilometer left for Morton.
Morton wins! And with a comfortable margin to boot.
Dombrowski takes 2nd ahead of Kudus.
Bernal edges a sluggish Lecuisinier for 4th.
Haig keeps Pogacar at bay for 6th.
Sivavkov finishes strongly to claim 8th. Reis and Phinney come in after that.
Shikai is 11th.
Padun is 12th, followed by Aular, McNulty and Novak.
Faglum Karlsson is 16th, ahead of Areruya.
Amezawa is 18th.
Warchol and Higuita complete the Top 20.
Today's winner - Lachlan Morton.
Morton was definitely among the favourites, but might not have been a lot of people's first pick to win today! He proved them wrong and took a famous win in what is perhaps the hardest classic in the calendar, definitely outside of the cobbles. Dombrowski and Kudus showed good form as well to complete the podium. Bernal also gets a good Top 5, but Lecuisinier will likely be a little disappointed not to have finished higher than 5th today.
