The final stage will decide the entire GC! A 2nd cat and then a last mountain top finish!
5 men took the opportunity to breakaway early today:
Diniz Peterson Plaza Meintjes Pozzo
Like yesterday, Karcher are fine letting it go.
With no intermediate sprint, nothing else happens until they hit the slopes of the 2nd category climb!
The peloton keeps their pace, stringing out the group a bit it no real selection yet.
Gradient goes up to 18%! No attacks from the break so far.
The peloton hit the same part 5 and a half minutes later. Cabreira is in good position.
It's too late for a new runner at the KOM now, so no attacks. Plaza leads them over the top.
The peloton also go over, and every GC rider is in the pack, except one. Iglinski was caught out of position and dropped as they crested the top Dyadichkin has come back to help and they are just over a minute down.
The peloton doesn't wait. Instead, the tempo is kept high on this technical descent.
It's all flat now until the last hill and a few breakaway members want to make it there alone. Pozzo and Peterson attack!
When Pozzo stops, Peterson and Plaza come straight by. They've gapped Diniz and Meintjes.
The climb beckons ahead. All the jerseys feature at the front.
The Iglinski group has thinned to 5 guys. The gap holds. it doesn't looks like they have the man power to bring him back into the fold.
The final climb of Trentino 14 has started! The losing duo from the break is almost caught. The gap to the breakaway is still 2 minutes.
And almost straight off the bat Rigoberto Uran attacks! After sitting back the last few days he won't do it now! Kaschechkin and Kiserlovski follow behind!
But they inexplicably stop short, and Pozzovivo makes a counter attack! Brajkovic is glued on him as other favorites trail behind.
Seemingly very concerned with their GC places, Gonzalo and Torres follow suit. But no move from Cabriera, who only has Karpets to help him now.
Meanwhile, Pozzo attacks again in the front. Plaza grind hard to reach his wheel again, but Peterson opts to fold his hand. Instead of chasing with only a 35 second advantage, he chooses to simply wait for the group behind.
All the attackers come together and we are left with an 8 man group.
Uran Pardilla Peterson Brajkovic Duarte Pozzovivo Cataldo Popovych
Obviously a few have missed out, and don't like it. Berhane attacks. Marzano and Kiserlovski follow!
But again Kiserlovski just stops and Lovkvist jumps to take his position. They catch the two jersey holders fairly easy.
The peloton slows down again. Not the stalling pace of stage 3 but not blistering.
One positive for a team behind with a leader is Maloja. Iglinski has made it back on the climb as the pace slows!
Peterson moves to the front of the favorite's group and starts to pace. He no doubt saved some energy for this by dropping back early. Brajkovic is able to rest his legs.
A 5 man group sis created with the riders behind. Meanwhile, Pardilla is dropped from the group ahead. Remember, he is still high up in the GC, so if he cracks he could sink.
6 km to go and the breakaway is completely caught. 9 rider in the front group now. Peterson is giving everything he has. For the first road stage (on the last), a breakaway won't win it!
And Peterson cracks. Brajkovic sets out on the front! A gap could be forming for the GC guys caught behind breakaway riders!
But as they go under 5 km, Duarte seems to want to take it anyway. Most breakaway riders have dropped. 7 guys left.
Duarte Brajkovic Cataldo Uran Pozzovivo Popovych Plaza
A great ride for Popovych, after some disappointing days.
The jersey wearers have cracked. obviously they weren't up to snuff. A 4 man group is created from it: Lovkvist, Marzano, Berhane, and Pardilla.
Karpets is drilling it on the peloton, but they still are 3 minutes behind. 1 man can't stop 7 stronger ones.
Plaza is gone. The strongest for the pack is in front now. With 4km to go, it's still a good ride for him.
It all looked good for them, but not anymore. With 3.5 km to go, Popovych is dropped. Pozzovivo is gone all of 5 seconds later! Duarte is destroying the group!
That leaves 4 riders in order:
Duarte Brajkovic Uran Cataldo
The pack, now almost 4 minutes behind, is splitting up. Cabreira stills its there, but Karpets, Nazaret, Nerz, and Repsol boys Kashechkin and Kiserlovski are getting a gap.
He put in a valiant ride, but Cataldo can no longer hold on to the other 3. But he will completely be happy with his skill set to have put in this amazing ride! Pozzovivo lingers 25 seconds behind.
Janez Brajkovic attacks! Attack! Attack! Attack! Can anyone follow his acceleration with only 2 km to go?!
No! Duarte jumps but Brajkovic already has a huge gap!
Behind everyone is separated. This stage has been grueling. no one else is attacking, just surviving.
Gonzalo and Torres are finally back in the fold. The gap is growing every second.
Brajkovic has 20 seconds. And he isn't stopping. From start to finish he has been superior to his competitors this race!
There he goes! Heading towards the finish of the last stage!
Janez Brajkovic wins stage 5 of the Giro del Trentino, and almost sure the pink jersey along with it! He swings his hands in the air. Victory for him and Heineken - Cal Giant!
Nazaret, who finally decided to pedal, is pulling the Gonzalo group up the climb. It's now or never to limit the losses to his GC position.
39 seconds later, Fabio Duarte comes in. He didn't attack, which was perhaps more expected, but he is responsible for almost the complete disintegration of the group. He earned this 2nd place, and he will certainly shoot up the GC.
If not for moving late on stages 3 and 4, Uran would have been in contention for the win. but he attacked early here, and it payed off big time. 3rd place, 52 seconds behind.
Cataldo rounds out his ride at 1'37''. Fantastic riding by him to hang on for that long, though he really cracked in the end.
Which is why Pozzovivo almost caught up to him. In a way it's disappointing, as he wanted to three-peat here for sure,. He's still in the running for the podium as riders finish.
Jaroslav Popovych has been criticized to the limit recently. Response to his poor results and his age comes today. 6th place, just over 2 minutes behind: 2'04''. A fantastic ride to answer the critics. Won't help his GC much, as he is so far down, but he makes a statement anyway.
Fast forward 1 and a half minutes. The first group of riders finishes: Lovkvist, Berhane and Marzano. All will improve on their GC places today. They grab 7th, 8th, and 9th.
Pardilla comes in at 4'40, rounding out today's top 10. He really cracked hard in the end, but it helps Bacardi's eeam classification hopes vs. Kappa. Plaza finishes right behind at 4'57''.
Magno Nazaret finishes 12th, managing to squeeze into Plaza's time.
Which means the rest of the group is behind. first it's Nerz. Unfortunately he's fairly irrelevant after losing so much time on stage 3. His time is 5'11''.
10 seconds later the rest of the group finishes. Kiserlovski and Kashechkin finish together, almost sat up. Very questionable tactics by the 2 of them to seemingly not even be tired after that treacherous climb!
Torres and Gonzalo follow up on the same time.They hope to keep their jerseys, and as their manager's expressed, top 10. That looks like a distinct possibility.
Karpets is the next one after 5'41''. 15 seconds later Samwel leads home the Cabriera group. It's official now that he lost the jersey to Brajkovic... by a lot. Morton and Pozzo also finish in this group.
Maxim Iglinski finishes 23rd in what passes for the same time as the group ahead. Not where he wanted to be but after being dropped on the penultimate climb it wasn't a bad recovery ride.
And finally the "peloton" finishes at 6'21''. Kimeli is a notable GC wise, other are leaders who more or less failed this Tour.
After 132 other riders cross the line and 40 minutes pass, American Michael Wolf bookends the stage for Heineken. This also means that no riders abandon from the race this year! Congrats to all the racers!
Janez Brajkovic wins the 2014 Giro del Trentino. He was in every move and split that mattered, and in the end was just purely stronger than the rest, taking the final stage and pink jersey. Major congrats to him and his team!
Duarte takes 2nd, 1'17' down. He was by far the closest to winning here, but even he could match the race winner.
Domenico Pozzovivo manages to snatch the podium! It looked pretty bleak but consistency pays dividends and he shouldn't be too disappointed with 3rd.
4th place goes to Cataldo. He's rode well, but today really sealed it, gaining huge time on the other riders in his class. Magna will be very happy!
Kappa get a 3-5 thanks to Marzano. He finished in the 2nd chase group today, but his gains on stage 3 earn him a top 5. Being aggressive can really pay off! if anything, this stage race showed that.
Uran jumps to 6th for his ride today. The fact that he msised every split before this didn't help him at all, and with his ability I'm sure he expected much more from this race, but getting 6th consolidates at least some satisfaction. Pardilla also snagged 11th for the team's troubles.
The former 1-2-3 of the race moves down a bit. Cabreira, Gonzalo, and Torres end the race at 7-8-9. Still a good result when their manager's hoped for top 10 before the stage.
Natnael Berhane sneaks into the top 10 and takes the young rider jersey. Consistent riding for him. Didn't get into the lead group today but also wasn't gonna get caught behind, attacking and staying in the rankings with aggressive riding.
Minor placings are Lovkvist 12th, Popovych 13th, Kimeli 14th, and Iglinski in 15th. Disappointing for Kiserlovski to get 16th. Questionable tactics all week.
Heartbreak for Gonzalo. He ends up tied on points with Brajkovic, but because of the last stage points, Brajkovic wins the draw. Very sad for FCB.
Torres gets the mountain jersey. Nothing changed at the end.
And Bacardi takes the team classification from Kappa. Consolation for Uran as well.
