The third stage of the Giro del Capo consists of two climbs. The first is the Franschhoek Pass, which is 6.5km in length and averages a tough 6.9%, including a section over 10%. The second climb is longer at 7.2km, but isn’t as tough, being ‘only’ 5.3% in gradient. The favourites aren’t really that surprising, as the names you would expect top the list; Bellis, Ginanni and Roche. Then again, the amount of success that breaks have had in the last two days shows that anything is possible.
The rainy start to the still sees some riders willing to give it a go. Bruno Borges puts in the first dig of the day. Perhaps Cerne are going to try something different after two days of trying to control the peleton without much success.
The break proves quite popular, as can be expected, and the names that come across to join Borges are as follows: Lagutin Valjavec Seledkov Txurruka Ajewole Appleby Lewis Afonso
There are some really strong riders in this group, chief amongst them being Appleby, who is a solid puncheur in his own right. In terms of GC threats, Borges, Lewis and Afonso are all equally best placed at +2’38”.
These three riders are the only ones who show any interest at the intermediate sprint, and Borges wins it ahead of Lewis and Afonso takes third. The climb starts right after it. Remember that there are 16 mountain points available at the top of this climb, and another 16 at the summit of the second climb of the day. Whoever scores the most points today will take the jersey.
And the breakaway works well together, with Appleby doing most of the pace-setting, though not too hard, as he needs the other riders on the flat. At the summit several of them go for the mountain points and it is Amets Txurruka who takes the points at the top ahead of Appleby and Borges.
Up the climb the leaders worked together pretty well, but two of them are in trouble just over the top, and can’t keep contact on the descent. The two riders to fall off the pace are Lewis and Ajewole. Ajewole has a lot of developing to do before taking on this sort of race, while Lewis would have preferred a long, less steep climb. They hover about a minute behind the leaders, trying to pull them back in.
The peleton are lead over the top by Trilux, about 5 minutes behind the leaders. The break continue to push on after the descent and they manage to extend the lead to 7’10” by the time they reach the intermediate sprint. The two Cerne riders are the only ones interested and Borges takes it ahead of Afonso with Valjavec rolling over in third.
Good news for two particular riders, as Lewis and Ajewole get back into the break on the flat. It remains to be seen how much they can do on the second climb of the day, but at least they are in with some sort of chance. Back in the peleton the manager of Emu Export has the briefest of heart attacks as John-Lee Augustyn punctures, but he gets back in with no trouble at all.
He is lucky that it doesn’t occur any later, however, as several teams start to raise the pace. Saab in particular are keen to push the pace higher, perhaps with an eye towards a stage win for Matti Breschel.
With 57km remaining, and the break 4’40” up the road, Constantino Zaballa decides to launch an attack. Everyone looks slightly confused about this move, as there are no discernible advantages to it.
He is caught fairly quickly, given that no one went with him. He does cause the pace setting to be somewhat disrupted, however, and with 37km to go, just as the big climb of the day is about to begin, the gap to the break is at 3’23”. This time when the attack comes it is far more serious, and Luis Pasamontes puts in an attack with Matt Busche. Zaballa jumps onto Busche’s back wheel and this suddenly becomes a very dangerous trio.
Realising that this group could pose a serious threat, Trilux and Aker work together to pull them in and they make the catch. It doesn’t calm the attacks for long, however, as one of the biggest names of the race launches his attack: Luis Leon Sanchez. Straight onto his wheel are the three previous attackers.
The pace is kept really high, however, and they aren’t able to get away. Once again, this doesn’t deter him and once again LL Sanchez launches off the front. This time he succeeds in getting a gap.
With the race favourite now going solo off the front, it is inevitable that other favourites will go for it. Ginanni and Di Maggio answer the call.
Meanwhile, up front, Ajewole and Lewis are dropped from the break. There won’t be any getting back for them today.
The race leader Saramotins realises that he will need to dig deep to defend his yellow jersey, so he puts in an attack of his own. Bono goes with him, and so too does Rovira, who is on the same time as Saramotins.
A short way up the road, Appleby has put the hammer down. Only Txurruka and, surprisingly, Borges can stay with him. A group of the former breakaway riders forms behind them, with Afonso dropping still further back. Di Maggio, Ginanni and LL Sanchez are catching up, however.
Saramotins’ attack doesn’t really go anywhere, but a new and more dangerous attack goes. This time the riders are Augustyn, Weening and Vanendert, all riders who were considered a chance for a top 10 before the race.
Behind these guys, Pasamontes starts setting the pace on the front of the peleton, making it hard for any other attacks to go away. Matti Breschel and Rui Costa both desperately try, but neither can make anything stick.
Appleby leads the break over the top, or rather he leads Txurruka over. Even Borges has cracked under the constant pressure.
The time gaps over the top are:
Appleby/Txurruka
Borges
+14”
Di Maggio/LL Sanchez/Ginanni/Lagutin/Seledkov/Valjavec
+22”
Afonso
+31”
Augustyn/Weening/Vanendert/Lewis/Ajewole
+19”
Peleton
+28” (1’54”)
Appleby manages to pull out a gap on the descent, dropping Txurruka.
He can’t keep the pace, however, and Txurruka pulls himself back. Indeed, Borges manages to catch up as well and so there are three leaders with a decent advantage over the nearest chasers.
Afonso catches up to the Sanchez group, and indeed Augustyn succeeds in dragging his group with them, with the exception of Ajewole, who has to drop back to the Red Bull-lead peleton. This means that a group of 11 men has formed, but they only have 40 seconds of an advantage and are 1’16” behind the lead 3 as the race goes under 10km left.
Samuel Sanchez himself leads the peleton up to this break and drags them in. The gap is still at 1’16” with 5km remaining and it is absolutely clear that once again the break shall have their day.
Meanwhile 15th place on GC, and Bianchi’s best-placed rider Mazur is dropped from the peleton. Bizarrely, his entire team drop back to help in, including De la Fuente, Cobo and Monfort!
Up front, the sprint starts. Borges has the best kick of the three, and he has the best position at the back. Txurruka is in the undesirable position of first wheel, and Appleby is sandwhiched in between the two of them.
Appleby leaves it fairly late to make his move, but when he does it is a strong one. He comes around Txurruka, but Borges is still on his wheel. Can he come around?
No! Rapha’s impressive run of victories in the South African races this season continues, as Appleby takes the win. Borges follows him to the line for second and Txurruka will have to console himself with the fact that he will put on the mountain jersey tonight.
Roche leads through the 73 rider peleton, 1’28” down on the time of Appleby. Notably, the Bianchi riders did not get back into the peleton, and so they lost 1’56” on the other favourites. That is a tough deficit to make up.
Rovira, surprisingly, is our new yellow jersey. He is still on the same time as Saramotins and finished 8 places ahead of him today, enough to take the lead. As mentioned, Txurruka will wear the polka dots thanks to his climbing efforts. Breschel earned enough points in the group sprint to pull on the green points jersey, taking that away from Saramotins too. Borges’ second place is enough to put him in the young rider’s jersey.
