We join you here in Portugal for Viana do Castelo, one of the most brutal races on the calendar. It clocks in at over 200kms, almost a quarter of which are cobbled. It features many tough sectors as well as a fully cobbled descent and a very tough sealed climb, which could see punchers who aren’t scared of the pavé do well. The riders who do both together the best may be Polanc and Tsatevich, who had two very different times in the recent Gent - Wevelgem. It’s a sunny day here but almost every race I have reported so far has started nice and ended badly so I’m calling thunderstorms.
A big breakaway group, which consists of 11 riders. They are: Boonen, Dahlberg, Jansen, Jeandesbosz, Venturini, Golas, Ghani, Biondo, Domene, Gaviria and Brynjolfsson. Only 3 teams aren’t represented in the breakaway but they’re let go anyway, quickly asserting a gap of over 5 minutes.
Thanks to the pace of Grieg, Podium Ambition and Isostar many riders are dropping off. It’s now Debesay in difficulty, the first favourite to go. 90km to go, and the breakaway has 5 and a half minutes on the now only 67-strong peloton.
After his team’s stellar work it’s Wisniowski kicking off proceedings for the favourites, with Daniel anticipating the move and following behind. No other responses yet. Not long to the main climb now, 25km left for the favourites.
The domestiques of other favourites won’t let them go that easily and start to chase them down. The gap is holding around 20 seconds but something has to give soon.
And it does as the peloton make the catch, but it’s not all bad, at least for the Pole, as Jansen from the break is here to help. However some escapees are still up the road, with 2’51 and 20km left, so they better chase fast!
Brynjolfsson goes solo from the breakaway, he has about 3 minutes with 17km left. The Icelandic rider with a serious shot at a surprise here!
Domene decides to have a go as well, and leaves Golas, Gaviria and Dahlberg behind him. All other breakaway members have been caught or almost will be.
With 10km to go Golas also tries to make a move. The gap to the breakaway members looks unassailable at this rate, the duo here have 3 minutes and there’s another 50 seconds to Brynjolfsson.
Daniel leads up the climb but doesn’t dent the breakaway advantage or the size of the peloton. Have they given up?
Brynjolfsson is taking the descent well and has a full minute on anybody else. Victory is surely assured if he makes it down safely.
The same duo of Wisniowski and Daniel go again with 5km to go. Vanbilsen, Burghardt and Kump give chase
Up ahead it’s a very unexpected but well taken win for Brynjolfsson.
All back together for the peloton and they’ll be sprinting for 6th. 3km to go.
2nd isn’t really a fair fight as the very strong in his own right Domene easily beats out the still very pleased CT rider Golas.
Another CT rider Dahlberg edges out young gun Gaviria for 4th, having worked well together to stave off the peloton.
Two of the strongest sprinters left were from Isostar as Giaux and Kump respectively come 6th and 7th, ahead of Wisniowski, Daniel and Harrison.