Welcome to the traditional CT finale in Switzerland. While the division win is long decided and there’s no relegation danger in CT, the fight for the last promotion spots is still close. Duvel sits in the last promotion spot while Genii and Würth basically need to win today to have a chance to get past the Belgians. Both teams probably won’t mind too much as their spots should be enough for disband promotions anyway (baring any surprising late decisions by the MGUCI). Spark is probably the only team still within reach of those two, but will need some depth on top of a win to have any chance for 6th or 7th place in the rankings.
We have a 12 man break today. The only PCT team Kraftwerk is most prominently represented in this group with its three riders Dahl Olsen, Kretschy and Teutenberg. With them are Cabanas, Centrone, Pickrell, Todome, Fretin, Koide, Lecourt De Billot, Buratti and Al-Wahibi, the latter two with a last hooray for their disbanding team.
The gap went up to about 7 minutes, but is already declining when the leaders arrive at the Lake Zurich with 180 km to go.
A hundred km later the 12 leaders take their turns in the hills around Zurich. They still have a 3 minute gap to the chasing peloton. There are also the first splits back there, but no one of interest was impacted so far.
Another 15 km later there’s the first dangerous split. Rodriguez, Schönberger, Svab, Pibernik, Hermans, Smit, Sirironnachai, Hamilton, Quevedo, Morin, Hofstede, Raileanu, Lopez and Yates are the best puncheurs among those dropped for the moment.
It takes the group around 20 km of chasing to make it back. The break is 2’30 in front with 50 km to go.
Serrano attacks from the pack shortly afterwards.
He’s joined by Beltran and Guerreiro and the three quickly get a gap of a minute in the last long climb. They’re also catching in on the weaker riders of the break and are only 1’25 behind the leaders now.
The attackers are brought back in the descent. Raileanu immediately attacks.
This leads nowhere, but Nikiema tries it too and he gets a small gap. The remaining break is nearly caught now.
This attack is also shut down with 33 km to go, but this only tackles more attacks. This time no one is able to get away though, but there is always the danger of a decisive split.
The next big attack follows in a flatter part of the race and this time it has to be decisive as Wackermann is part of it. With him are Bernard, Guerreiro, Bystrom, Govekar, Zordan, Nikiema, Eiking, Serrano, Moscon and Lyu. Pacher and Jensen are trying to bridge across, because there’s probably no team left able or willing to chase – apart from Spark maybe who totally missed this attack!
With 20 km to go the two chasers have made it to the others as has Beltran. But Serrano, Eiking, Guerreiro and Bystrom are already on the go again.
And those four get a gap! With 13 km to go (and being in the last climb) they have 46’’ to a group of 37 (the smaller groups around are lapped riders).
The leaders are under the 5 km mark now and still have 47’’. In the chasing group no one really committed to the chase, but now Jensen puts in some effort.
He gets the gap down a bit, but as soon as he hesitates the pace goes down again. With 2.3 km to go the four leaders should battle it out among themselves.
Eiking launches his sprint with 1.2 km to go, but he cant’t fool the three others. Behind him the order is Guerreiro, Serrano and Bystrom.
With 600 m to go the order is still the same, though Guerreiro is closing in.
The Portuguese is in the lead with 200 m to go, but Serrano is faster and already by his side!
And Serrano takes the win! Guerreiros 2nd place should be enough to claim 6th place in the rankings, but baring some depth scoring that’s about it. Eiking wins the battle of the two Norwegians for the final podium spot against Bystrom.
Wackermann once again shows that this is really his race by winning the sprint of the chasers for 5th place. Behind him are Bernard, Govekar, Moscon and Lyu in 6th to 9th. The latters result should secure the 5th spot in the rankings for his team. Pacher completes the top 10.
Congratulations to Serrano, whose win is also a nice reward for his attacking spirit earlier in the race!
A quick calculation should see Duvel staying in 5th place in the rankings and thus securing promotion in their debut season! Würth should have overtaken Genii, though that’s probably just a statistical issue as the confirmed disbands should see them both promoted too. Spark wasn’t able to make up ground today, so their promotion chances probably depend on additional disbands (and the outcome of the Giro dell’Emilia and its effect on the PCT rankings).
But for now let’s just celebrate the end of another fantastic finale here in Zurich, another fantastic season in the MG circuit in general and the CT in particular. No doubt there will be plenty of beer available today!
[C2] Zuri Metzgete 
