The fifth stage is ranked flat, eventhough there are five classified climbs in the final 90 kilometers of racing. The 192 kilometers take us to Gansingen, and Degenkolb Holloway Van Heerden
are once again favourites for the stage win, just like they were on stage 3.
174 riders line up, meaning no one has abandoned Tour de Suisse so far. It’s another day in sun and no wind for the cyclists, meaning we will hopefully not see any abandoning today neither.
A breakaway of four gets today’s stage going, as they have built a lead of 2’40 after 35 kilometers of racing. The riders having fun up front are Koren Grabovski Vermeltfoort Wynants
Back in the peloton it’s Venchi-Sugoi
working for their sprinter Van Avermaet
He was nowhere to be seen at the first sprint stage. The Italian team can only hope he finds his legs today. The breakaway’s lead is up to 5’20 130 kilometers away from home.
The escapees show no interest in the first mountain points today, and it’s Koren
leading them over the first categorized climb of the day with 107 kilometers left. Their advantage is up to 7’50.
The same goes for the intermediate sprint 87 kilometers away from home, and it’s Vermeltfoort
taking the six bonus seconds and sprint points. The peloton has started to take back time, as the four escapees are now 6’40 ahead.
Grabovski
gets the honor of six mountain points with 76 kilometers to go, as the breakaway riders focus on maintaining their lead. The gap is now down to 5’40.
Koren
is back at the front for the third categorized climb, as he leads the breakaway with 54 kilometers to go. They lead the peloton by four minutes.
Back in the bunch it’s Simply Red Bull Aker-MOT Pokerstars.com Venchi-Sugoi
doing the chasing. They control the breakaway well, being 3’20 behind 45 kilometers away from home.
On the penultimate categorized climb, there’s action in the breakaway! Both Grabovski Koren
want the six mountain points, with the Ukrainian timing his move best to get them. It’s starting to look decent for stage glory for them as well. With 36 kilometers left they still lead the peloton by 3’20!
Koren
takes the six sprint points with 27 kilometers left as the four riders up front are giving it everything to stay away! Though, the gap back to the peloton is down to two minutes.
Ouch! Serebriakov
isn’t able to follow the bunch on these hills, and his team sends down several team mates to help him, including Izagirre Monsalve!
The leader of the young riders competition can’t be happy about that.
Koren
gets revenge on the final third category climb as he outsprints Grabovski
for the six points on offer. It’s only 14 kilometers to the line, and they still got a decent lead of 1’20!
No, no chance today neither for the brave attackers. It’s Rujano
making the final catch as it’s pretty much all green at the head of the peloton with 6.3 kilometers to go.
3.600 meters left, and we might be looking at a sprint between overall contenders, sprinters and the race leader! Pokerstars.com has made a train with Rujano Kluge Holloway
with Boasson Hagen
attached.
To their right is Craven Marinangeli Terpstra Amador Grivko Pluchkin
2.4 kilometers to go, and Rujano
serves as Holloway’s
final lead out man! That’s definitely something. Behind him it’s Boasson Hagen Van Heerden
On the right side of the road, from top to bottom, you see Craven Grivko Marinangeli Frank Pluchkin
Marinangeli
thunders into the lead with 1.4 kilometers to go! And it doesn’t look like the other sprinters want to open their bid for glory!
Finally, as they go under the one kilometer to go banner, Boasson Hagen Pluchkin Holloway (on the right) Grivko
start to sprint, with Van Heerden
struggling to make any note of himself on the left.
Though, Marinangeli
has built up a nice lead already! Is it too late for the others?
It’s definitely not! Boasson Hagen Pluchkin
storm past him on the left, looking for a copy of yesterday’s stage! Also accelerating are Holloway Grivko
on the right with only 500 meters to go.
But today there’s no way around Boasson Hagen
The Norwegian wins stage 5 and extends his overall lead. Though Pluchkin
follows in a close second, meaning the Norwegian’s lead only grows with eight seconds.
Holloway
is the only sprinter able to fight for the stage win today as he comes home in third, ahead of Denifl Amador Pedraza Frank Grivko
Schleck Monfort
just underline that this was a tough flat stage, being ninth and tenth on the stage.
There looks to be a split after the first 58 riders, but luckily no riders in the top 20, except Monsalve
who had dropped long time before the sprint to help Serebriakov,
is on the wrong side of the split.
As predicted, there will be no exported results. The good news is that first time I played the race, the exported results were back for the sixth stage.
