Ireland's Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) has put in a fantastic performance of the final 50km at stage 2 of Lidl Deutschland Tour (2.Pro) today, with an onslaught of aggressive racing that shed the field several times.
While Visma-Lease a Bike were the first squad to really try and shake it up, Ryan simply moved them aside when the road kicked up just inside the 50km to go marker and started inflicting the hurt that split the race.
The young Irishman and eventual stage winner Mads Pedersen (Lidl Trek) were the two men of the race; their very different characteristics combining for a stage-winning attack.
That move - comprised of just three riders - went clear with less than 2km to go and just as the front of the bunch made contact with the back of the larger breakaway Ryan had dragged clear about an hour earlier.
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At the finish, Pedersen was best in the three-up sprint for victory, taking the win from Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility).
Ireland's Ryan was in 3rd place, on the same time as the winner and just ahead of the remains if the peloton. And the gains made by the Wicklow man today propelled him up the general classification to 4th overall, with a fighting chance he can improve on that position over the next two days of racing.
But as the dusted settled on today's 174.6km stage from Heilbronn to Schwäbisch Gmünd, Ryan can been happy not just with his results today, but with the fact that only Pedersen could match him in the final. even though the Irishman had been involved in a full gas effort for almost 50km.
How it unfolded
With 46km to go, Ryan was ever-present at the front as the main field hit the Lauterburg climb - some 3km averaging eight per cent gradient - and the breakaway was just dangling off the front, at about 20 seconds.
As Visma-Lease a Bike piled on the pressure at the front of the peloton, the heavier riders were being spat out the back and splits were starting to appear all over the main field. Ireland's Ryan was holding his place at the front with ease.
As the climb progressed, a front group of about 20 detached itself and looked like it might ride away. However, that gaps then closed - as race leader Jonathan Milan (Lidl Trek) was being dropped.
Ryan then stepped up and took on the pace-setting at the front of the bunch, with 44km to go and as the breakaway men had been swept up.
The Irish rider's pace immediately inflicted serious damage through the field and drew a small group clear, numbering four riders, including Toms Skujiņš (Lidl Trek), Jørgen Nordhagen (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Kevin Vermaerke (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
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Once they got up and over the top of the climb they began working together, gaining a maximum advantage of 40 seconds, though it had dipped below 30 seconds with 30km to go.
However, over the next 10km the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team led the chased in the reduced bunch and by the time the leaders hit the smaller kicker just before the finish, for the first of three passages of the finish area, the gap was just a handful of seconds.
But the hard racing to that point really began to tell in the bunch. And rather than the peloton catching the four leaders, the bunch split and only the best riders from it went on to catch Ryan and the other three he was with.
When about 10 more riders joined the leaders, on draggy roads, Ryan kept driving the pace at the front and was waving through the others on the front, looking for them to cooperate and properly distance the remains of the main field just seconds behind them.
When the leaders crossed the line for the first time, with 19.2km to go, they looked like they were working well and determined to keep the effort going.
As the leaders completed the lap of the finishing circuit and crossed the line again, with 9.8km of the stage remaining, they were just seconds ahead of five chasers, with the remains of the peloton at 50 seconds.
However, when the chasers caught the leaders - swelling the front group to just over 20 - the cooperation in the group faltered and the gap to the remains of the main bunch dipped below 20 seconds.
With 3km to go, as the riders hit the short incline again just before the finish, the gap was down to only 10 seconds and it looked like the leaders would be caught. And though the gap was closed, Ryan attacked at the front on the climb and forced a gap as only Pedersen and Tobias Halland Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility).
Pedersen took the maximum three bonus seconds going over the top of the climb, just ahead of Ryan, before the Dane then put his head down, doing a big turn on the front of the three-man group with now just 1km to go to the finish.
And that's the way it stayed to the line, the leading trio remaining just a handful of seconds ahead of a regrouped peloton, with Pedersen winning the sprint for victory from Johannessen and Ryan in 3rd.
Danny van Poppel (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) won the sprint for 4th place from the 40-rider bunch, some six seconds down on the three leaders. And that time gained by Ryan today, coupled with some time bonuses he snatched today and yesterday - as well as some well-placed riders being dropped today - has moved him up to 4th overall.
He is 21 seconds down on new race leader Pedersen, who also rode a stormer today. Johannessen is 2nd overall at 12 seconds, then Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) in 3rd at 21 seconds and Ryan 4th, also at 21 seconds.
With tomorrow's, and especially Sunday's final stage, terrain included some small lumps and bumps near the finish, Ryan might get another chance to go on the attack, especially on Sunday, and improve his general classification position.
