Diego Ulissi (Lampre-Merida) lived up to his status as the pre-race favourite by riding to an impressive solo win on the queen stage of the Czech Cycling Tour. Having made it into a front quartet on the penultimate climb, he made his move on the final ascent before soloing across the line to take both the stage victory and the overall lead. Karel Hnik (Verva) beat Davide Rebellin (CCC) and Sebastian Langeveld (Cannondale) in the sprint for second.

After his great Giro d’Italia, Diego Ulissi showed that he was already back in great form when he won the Circuito de Getxo in impressive fashion. That automatically turned him into the overwhelming favourite for this week’s Czech Cycling Tour where Lampre-Merida is one of just two WorldTour teams at the start.

Ulissi didn’t get his race off to the best start as he lost time to all his key rivals in the team time trial but after his confidence had been boosted with yesterday’s win for teammate Sacha Modolo, he was keen to make up for it in today’s queen stage. The Italian didn’t disappoint as he rode to a solo win with a powerful attack on the final of three passages of the short, steep Ecce Homo climb and he gained enough time to move into the race lead with just one stage to go.

After yesterday’s sprint stage, it was time for the queen stage. The riders covered 187.4km from Mohelnice to Sternberk and they were brutal. After a relatively flat 30km, they hit the first of four early climbs that came in quick succession, with the final summit coming with 80.1km to go. From there, they descended to the difficult 10.5km finishing circuit which they covered thrice. It included the short, steep climb of Ecce Homo whose top came just 5.7km from the finish and from there it was a downhill run to the line.

It was pretty cold and light rain was falling when the riders gathered for the start of the most important stage. As expected, there were lots of attacks right from the start. Josef Cerny (CCC) was particularly active but no one had escaped after 11km of racing.

A trio with riders from Verva, Uniero and Tirol briefly got clear at the 17km mark but Cannondale chased it down during the next five kilometres. Jiri Polnicky (Verva) and Thomas Buchacek (Whirlpool) then made it into a group but things were back together at the bottom of the first climb after 30km of fast racing.

Polnicky was very active on the lower slopes of the climb but it was Victor de la Parte (CCC) who created a five-rider group at the 32km mark. They were brought back before the top where Patrick Bevin (Cannondale) won the KOM sprint ahead of Simone Petilli (Lampre-Merida), Jure Golcer (Adria Mobil), Philippe Walsleben (Beobank) and Branislau Samoilau (CCC). CCC had gone very fast one the climb and many riders were dropped, including overall leader Wouter Wippert (Cannondale).

CCC continued to ride hard on the descent but they lost a valuable rider when Samoilau went down. A small regrouping took place as they hit the valley and as the pace went down seven riders managed to escape.

Buchacek, Walsleben, Bram Nolten (Parkhotel), Peter Kusztor (Amplatz), Sjoerd Kouvenhoven (Metec), Ludwig De Winter (Wallonie) and Jordi Simon (Verva) managed to build a two-minute advantage after 50km of racing before they went up the second climb where Buchacek beat Walsleben, Simon and Kouwenhoven in the KOM sprint.

Riders from Klein Constantia and Cerny tried to attack but they didn’t get clear and instead Lampre-Merida took control in the peloton. However, they let Frantisek Sisr (Klein Constantia) and Georg Zimmermann (Tirol) ride away while the gap slowly went out to four minutes.

Simon beat Kusztor and De Winter in the first intermediate sprint while the two chasers approached from behind and impressively they managed to make the junction as they went up the next climb. However, they  were losing ground quickly as CCC were riding full gas in the peloton and so the gap had dropped to just 1.50 at the 85km mark. Cerny was doing a big work for the Polish team.

Walsleben beat Buchacek in a close sprint at the top of the climb, with Simon, Kowenhoeven and Kusztor completing the top 5. Again they started to cooperate and after 100km of fast racing, they had a 2-minute advantage over the peloton which was still led by CCC.

CCC Had reduced the gap to 1.15 when Simon beat Walsleben and Zimmerman in the next intermediate sprint. Immediately after that battle, Buchacek and Simon took off and they reached the top of the next climb together, with Simon winner the KOM sprint. Zimmerman and Kouwenhoven followed a little later before Sylwester Szmyd (CCC) led the peloton to the top.

Zimmerman rejoined the leaders who had an advantage of one minute at the 118km mark. Further back, CCC split the field further in the crosswinds and only 31 riders had made the selection when the break was finally brought back. A second group found themselves 30 seconds behind.

The front group included seven riders from CCC, six from Lampre-Merida, four from Cannondale and two from Adria Mobil. Jan Hirt, Davide Rebellin, Victor de la Parte, Ulissi, Davide Cimlai, Buchacek, Karel Hnik and Sisr featured prominently but as CCC didn’t get any help, they were losing ground. At the 130km mark, the second group made it back.

Zimmerman attacked again and fought hard to maintain a 15-second advantage. That allowed him to win the final intermediate sprint before Ulissi beat his teammate Sacha Modolo to pick up two important seconds.

Szmyd was doing the work in the peloton and got some help from Lampre-Merida and Klein Constantia as they brought Zimmerman back. Moments later, they hit the circuit and as they went up the climb for the first time, CCC and Lampre-Merida created a big selection, reducing the group to only around 20 riders. Felix Grossschartner (CCC) led Bevin and Manuele Mori (Lampre-Merida) over the top.

As they went up the climb again, Sebastian Langeveld (Cannondale) attacked and he was joined by Ulissi, Davide Rebellin (CCC) and Karel Hnik. The quartet reached the top with a small advantage and then pressed on to stay clear until the hit the climb for the final time.

Hnik was the first to attack but Ulissi and Rebellin made it back. Ulissi made an immediate counterattack and quickly got an advantage of 30 seconds.

While the Italian continued to increase his advantage, Langeveld rejoined the chasers but they were unable to make up any ground. Ulissi crested the summit as the lone leader and powered down the descent to take the win. Hnik easily beat Rebellin and Langeveld in the sprint for second before Manuele Mori (Lampre-Merida) completed the top 5 by winning the sprint from a bigger group.

With the win, Ulissi moves into the race lead with and a 26-second advantage over Langeveld. However, he still faces a tough stage on the final day. The short 157.1km stage will bring the riders from Olomouc to Dolany and is mainly a circuit race. After a flat start, the riders will again tackle the Ecce Homo climb that featured in the finale of todayøs stage and then there’s another small climb on the menu before they will descend to the finishing city. Here they will end the race by doing nine laps of 9km finishing circuit that has a short climb (2.9km, 4.0%) and a downhill run to the final 3km which are flat.