Welcome to the GP di Lugano, the circuit race where the curcuits ramp up their dificulty half way through. This has naturally brought out the big guns, lead by Di Maggio who I suspect will be an ever present at these dort of races this year, Roche and Flugel also star.
We are 30km into the race and our 7 leaders have been away from the gun, yet have been unable to push their advantage beyond 2 minutes. tHe riders in the break are: Agostini, Landa, Santaromita, Passalacqua, Lewis, Duenas Nevado and Preidler
Lewis is unfortunate and falls
While Alfonso utilises the fact the break have been kept close and crosses the gap
As do Meyer and Pfannberger
Gustov attacks as well, and he joins with Lewis as they both work their way up to the break. The peloton is still just 2'15" back
Red Bull and Trilux have been doing all the work, and it just got harder for them as Froome attacks on the decent
and with 102km to go the break is up to 12 riders
10km later, as the breaks lead touches the 3 minute mark, Rovny and Bono attack
Hermans follows
Up front Froome takes the left turn that leads us onto the new circuit
It's bad news for Red Bull, as Gerrans falls
Rovny and Bono catch the break on the first pass of the big climb
And Bono leads the break over the finish for the first time
1'20" later and with exactly 70km left to race Hermans comes through solo
The peloton come through at 5'32"
sans Pellizotti who is 3 minutes further back having fallen
As we start to climb for the second time, Hermans makes the juncture
The presure in the break is telling as Meyer, Agostini and Santaromita all drop off
The chase is on in the peloton as well, with riders scattered across the road. The gap is 4'12" with 55km left
One more lap done and the situation has been pretty static, Alfonso is just clinging on to the back of the break, where Froome is refusing to work for some reason
The Red Bull lead peloton is at 3'18" now, and has almost caught the breakaway's straglers
And on the decent Alfonso is dropped
The peloton is down to 44 as Dowsett drops off the back on the decent as well, Rapha are backing Froome all the way, which is odd given his refusal to work.
Landa falls, bad luck for Rothaus
With 30km to go he is back in the peloton, the leaders are still 2'40" down the road and starting to look very dangerous
No sooner have I said this than disorganisation means the gap is just 1'30" with 25km to go
As the peloton splits, Roy, Roux, Gautier and Bosisio all miss the cut, it's a bad day for France
Lewis, Gustov and Pfannberger now drop as the break pick up the tempo
Kessler, Kolobnev, Calzati and Soler now attack
As do Cobo and Roche
with 1 lap to go the lead 7 go through the line
90 seconds later comes a group of 16:
Calzati (Red Bull)
Wyss (saab)
Soler, Lewis, Costa (CSC)
Pfannberger, Flugel (VW)
Kessler (Trilux)
Di Maggio (Venchi)
Grau, Weening (Unicredit)
Busche, Roche (Pirelli)
Gustov, Cobo (Bianchi)
Kolobnev (Tinkoff)
A minute later comes 23 more riders
As the break starts to climb they have little over a minute
Weening leads off the attacks at the base, follower by Kessler, Roche, Di Maggio and Kolobnev
They catch the break, where Froome at least will still be fresh
And Roche accelerates away on the mid climb decent
He's pulled back so now it's Kolobnev's turn
Roche and Di Maggio follow
As the road kicks up only Kolobnev is still clear, Calzati now tries his luck
And Calzati pulls Kolobnev back to everyone else
Flugel tries to attack from the front as the group is whittled down to 13
As we close on the top he has a small gap
And over the other side he goes
Calzati keeps up Red Bull's 100% chasing, but Flugel is pulling away
And as Calzati starts to sprint it seems impossible for them to catch
1km to go and everyone is still following Calzati
Ahead Flugel takes victory, having timed his attack to perfection
Behind Roche gets second ahead of Weening, Kolobnev and Kessler
It's tight after that, Costa just pipping Froome Soler and Cobo before Calzati fades to 10th and Di Maggio hangs on for 11th in front of Rovny
