The final stage of this exciting Tirrano Adritico race is usually reserved for sprinters who are fine tuning their legs here for the upcoming Milan San Reno classic. Certainly the riders legs have been through the mill here and we have seen a titanic battle between Frank Schleck
and Jan Bakelants
resulting in Schleck just edging out the Belgian by three seconds. It will be worth keeping an eye out for those two finish today as they are fairly close to each other in the points classification. Philippe Gilbert
and Simone Ponzi
are well placed there also.
Rank
Name
Team
General
1
Frank Schleck
Vesuvio-Accumalux
77
2
Philippe Gilbert
Pendleton's Twicer
71
3
Jan Bakelants
Pearl Adidas
70
4
Simone Ponzi
Wiggle - San Pellegrino
62
The latter rider is a very capable sprinter and is listed amongst the favourites today along with pure sprint men Juan Van Heerden Maximiliano Richeze Peter Kennaugh Paride Grillo Juan Pablo Forero
and Óscar Guerao
There are 128 riders left in the race today following a number of riders eliminated from yesterdays stage which may make it more difficult to chase a breakaway. We have seen in reduced fields in the CTour this year some success for breaks. The break today featured one of the riders expected to go well on GC Edvald Boasson Hagen
He was joined by: Kristof Vandewalle Tim Dees José Antonio Baños Ballester Francisco José Terciado Michel Sibilla Freddy Johansson Jakob Fuglsang Pedro Sibila Romero Christopher Schmieg Morgan Kneisky
and Leonardo Bertagnolli
It is nice to see a Wiggle rider in there after they have done so much chase work in the race and having proved themselves as by far the strongest team here it will be someone else's turn to try and reel this in. Certainly a lot of strength in the break but no-one who is a threat to Thomas De Gendt
King of the Mountains lead.
This makes the two primes (again 5 points for the winner, 3 for second and 1 for third) rather academic but still there is some attacking for them. Leonardo Bertagnolli
takes the first from Tim Dees
and José Antonio Baños Ballester
The second KoM prime is taken out by the under fire Edvald Boasson Hagen
over Francisco José Terciado
and Jakob Fuglsang
The final climbs of the race have broken the breakaway up somewhat.
With Kristof Vandewalle Christopher Schmieg Freddy Johansson
unable to get back into the front group.
With Wiggle committed to the breakaway it is down to Wikipedia (for Van Heerden) and Rapha Condor (for Peter Kennaugh) to chase.
With the hills firmly behind the chase has been well organised here and with 50km to go the lead 9 riders distance is down to under 4 minutes.
The break do get to roll over the first sprint with Francisco José Terciado
taking it over Edvald Boasson Hagen
and José Antonio Baños Ballester
Late attacks as the peloton gets closer means that José Antonio Baños Ballester
nabs the second sprint point over Jakob Fuglsang
and Leonardo Bertagnolli
With Wikipedia and Rapha Condor just beginning to look a bit leggy in the chase Santander join in the hunt.
Indeed it is they who manage to catch their prey with Fuglsang the last caught.
Coming into the last 5 kilometers the Spanish team seemed to have timed their efforts perfectly they form a three man train of: Jesus Del Nero, Aitor Galdos and Óscar Guerao
The men in black of Rapha Condor behind do have some numbers with their train of four being: Chris Froome, Andrew Tennant, Jonathan Bellis and Peter Kennaugh.
What a tremendous race this has been for the Wildcard team who have followed last years wildcard team Wiggle in being a real thorn in the Protour teams backsides.
Juan Pablo Forero
and Maximiliano Richeze
are hanging around and as we scan back we can see the Wikipedia train.
Dominique Rollin, Danny Summerhill and Juan Van Heerden
have some work to do in the closing stages to get close to their rival trains.
Chris Froome
disappears back into the bunch as Borut Bozic
moves up onto Van Heerdens wheel. Also moving up onto Richeze's wheel is Simone Ponzi
with Kevin Peeters
also up there.
Ponzi is not the only GC contender near the front as Dominique Rollin
drops back we can see Frank Schleck Aleksandr Efimkin Robin van der Hugenhaben
and Jan Bakelants
We are under 3 kilometers to go now and the speed goes up another level and Wikipedia speed through very quickly.
This has forced Óscar Guerao
to start his sprint very early at 2300m out. He does draw level with Danny Summerhill
with the Rapha duo of Bellis and Kennough in the middle.
Ponzi seems to have been taken out of the equation, but looking to sneak up to bonus second contention is Jan Bakelants
on Maximiliano Richeze
wheel.
Coming up to the one kilometre to go kite we see Juan Van Heerden
making his kick. Is this too early once more?
The South African looks powerful this time but he does have Borut Bozic
right on his tail.
As we scroll to the overhead inside the last kilometre we can see Óscar Guerao
blown away and Peter Kennaugh
straining for more power.
Maximiliano Richeze
has some GC men on his tail with Jan Bakelants Diego Ulissi
and Frank Schleck
With Van Heerden and Bozic battling for the stage win up front, Bakelandts can sniff a sneaky GC win here as he goes up the inside of Richeze.
In fact now Van Heerden and Bozic seem to be fading too, Schleck can only watch on in agony as Bakelandts battles with Richeze and Ulissi to get up to the top three.
Simone Ponzi
and Alessandro Ballan
are coming up too.
Van Heerden will be relieved to see the line coming up, Bozic has been unable to make the move on him.
Indeed Juan Van Heerden finally takes his maiden victory in Wikipedia colours.
Schleck may well like to hug Kennaugh and Bozic as they battle to 2nd and 3rd to nab the final bonus seconds places. Agonisingly for Bakelandts he takes 4th place, with Schleck back in 9th place it means they share the points jersey!
Richeze is 5th, Ulissi 6th, best young rider Ponzi 7th and Ballan 8th.
This brings to a close a really tight Tirrano Adratico, a number of these riders will surely be in action in the upcoming Milan San Remo. The glory of this race belongs chiefly to Frank Schleck and Jan Bakelandts along with supporting acts by Ponzi and his Wiggle team, Gilbert, Rapha Condor and today Juan Van Heerden.