Today the riders raced the Profronde van Drenthe. The race had a stacked field, with eight of the fourteen teams in the race bringing a rider or duo of riders who have legitimate expectations for victory. The major favorites are the former World Champion, Alejandro Valverde of Santander, and the Italian Francesco Ginanni of Vespa. However a total of ten riders can harbor chances of coming away with victory.
The route was a 40 km circuit, dominated by a main climb, which reached 9% at its peak. After the descent of the hill, there were two final hills, both very short and around 9% steep. The finish was on top of the second hill:
The weather was overcast, and unfortunately the early spring dutch rain decided to pay a visit:
Just after the gun, Damiano Caruso (Wiggle), Johan Lindgren (Ikea), and Murilo Fischer (Nespresso) jumped away from the pack:
Shortly after, Galparsoro (Santander) and Eastmen (BMC) went after them:
The groups would join together on the descent, creating todays BOTD:
Thru the finish the first time (160 km to go), the break held a lead of 4:50 to the peloton:
Besides a one-man crash (Wijaya of Olympus), the race stayed quiet during the second lap, with the leaders steadily increasing their gap to the peloton, where Vespa (for Ginanni), Sony (for Anza and Ghisalberti), Kenda (for Efimkin), and Jack Wolfskin (for Kirchen) were setting the tempo. Santander, with a man up the road, was lurking just behind. The break passed the finish line for the second time (120 km to go) with a 7:40 gap to the peloton. It was the largest gap they would get all day:
The teams that had been setting a polite tempo in peloton now started to gear up the chase. They weren't moving fast enough to dislodge anyone from the pack (except Vanspeybroeck of Ikea, who got caught out over the top of a climb), but they were steadily bringing the gap back down. By the time the break crossed the line for the third time (80 km to go), the gap was down to 3:18 to the pack:
As the gap came down, Rovira (Olympus) and Vicioso (Energie) decided to try to bridge the gap and provide the firepower for the group to stay away:
They made the junction, creating a strong group of seven. When they made it across the gap was 45”, and for a short time it appeared they were the needed spark for the break, briefly increasing the gap, however, as the riders neared the finish, it began to fall again. As they crossed the line for the fourth time (40 km to go), the race situation was as follows. The seven front riders (the BOTD and Rovira+Vicioso) had a 14” gap to Pierrick Fedrigo (Nespresso) who was trying to bridge the gap. The peloton was a further 27” back:
Fedrigo would bridge the gap, and would promptly attack the front riders, breaking the group apart. Lindgren, Eastmen, Caruso, and Galparsoro would try to follow. The former three couldn't reach Fedrigo, but Galparsoro would be able to. Their attacks would however be overshadowed by those from behind.
As the pack captured some of the leftovers of the break, Efimkin, Ghisalberti, Wegmann (BMC), and Bertagnolli (Wiggle), all of them fringe contenders, broke away. They went at a strange time, on the flat, with 35 km left to go:
Valverde initially hesitated, but then decided that now was the time to go. Obviously everyone else decided that now was the time as well, and so a whole spurt of attacks followed, with almost all the other major contenders attacking, with (in order pictured) Valverde, Kirchen, Ginanni, Nocentini (Wiggle), Leukemans (Kenda), and Kessler (Nespresso) all accelerating. Anza briefly toyed with attacking, but was in the end the only major favorite to not make a move, and as Leukemans was the only non pre-race favorite to make a move, still ten riders seemed to be looking for the win:
When the dust settled, with multiple attacks and counter-attacks, including some by former breakaway riders, the race situation was as follows (all gaps to preceding group):
However, by the time the main hill was beginning to pick up, the riders in groups E2 through E5 (minus Caruso) had joined together (Lindgren and Eastmen just holding on). However, Bertagnolli still had a small gap (18”), and they had to catch him before trying to settle the race between themselves:
The favorites group were (surprisingly) able to get their act together, and were bringing back Bertagnolli. However, as he was being caught, Ghisalberti decided to give it a go, flying past the Italian. He would be followed by Ginanni and Nocentini:
They would get a gap that peaked at thirty seconds but eventually Wegmann decided enough was enough and decided to go after them. Valverde, Kirchen, and co., decided to follow, and more attacks and counter-attacks followed, all the way up the rest of the main climb and then down it:
Eventually eight riders (Valverde, Kessler, Ghisalberti, Kirchen, Wegmann, Ginnani, Efimkin, and Fedrigo) would form up in front. By the time the riders crossed the 5 km to go mark three other riders had caught back up because of the slow pace (Nocentini, Leukemans, and Bertagnolli):
And with 2 km to go no one had yet made a move. The riders appeared to be content to let it go to an eleven man sprint. In that case, Wegmann (75 sprint) and Valverde (72) would be the main favorites, but with a uphill sprint anything could happen:
And with just under 1.5 km to go, the sprint is on! Valverde is way back, but Wegmann looks well placed to counter the opening salvo by the pair of Wiggle riders. Leukemans has fallen far enough back that he isn't even pictured:
With 600 meters left, the hill has already shown that riders who started farther back (achem...Valverde) don't have the ability to get up front, and that sprinting ability has nothing to do with it. Meanwhile Kirchen is charging past the Wiggle duo with Ginanni on his wheel. Wegmann doesn't seem to have it, and so Kirchen looks like he might be the strongest.....
And he is!
A spectacular sprint for the Luxembourgian, as he is followed over the line by Ginanni in second and Nocentini in third. Fedrigo did a good job of holding on for fourth, after going well before everyone else, and Wegmann disappointed with only a fifth, as he was the strongest finisher in the final group. Kessler took sixth giving Nespresso two top-tens, and Valverde really disappointed with a weak finish to cap off a weak race in seventh. Bertagnolli really faded to eighth, giving Wiggle its own pair of top-tens, while Ghisalberti took ninth. The Kenda duo of Leukemans and Efimkin took tenth and eleventh respectively, after a fast finish by the Belgian and an equally slow one by the Russian.
Kirchen could not have been more thrilled on the podium, with a great finish for him and his team (especially his manager ):
While Wiggle took home the team prize, thanks to strong riding by the Italian trio of Nocentini, Bertagnolli, and Caruso:
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