Final stage of the Vuelta al Tachira 2014 and we're heading for the traditional hilly circuit in San Cristobal! 115km in total, the peloton awaits 12 laps of a challenging parcours and - obviously - the last chance to attack the GC.
La Vie's Maillet may fear GC's 2nd De la Fuente (+ 1.35) the most, as the Spaniard is the much better puncheur. Also GC's 3rd Kashechkin (+ 1.58) is one of the better puncheurs amongst the GC-contenders, while all other top-favorites definitely need a very good day (and tactic) to do something special here.
It's not only the last chance to attack Maillet, but also the last to go for a breakaway win. So it's a rather hectical start into the day with several attacks but also less chances to establish an early gap:
Izagirre, Russom, Hughes and Cieslik is a first notable group trying to go clear in the second lap!
Empty-handed though and so it's 3 other riders trying to attack only a few kilometres later:
Becerra, Navarro and Niyonshuti! So definitely a group with some names worth a mention. Navarro (GC's 20th, + 4.58) as the most notable maybe.
The strength of those riders may also be the reason for the peloton keeping a high pace and reeling them in 80km before finish! So a tough day for escaping attempts so far, but you notice that Becerra is on the move again.. but, to keep it short, it's another short-lived attempt!
Better luck for the next group in line? 3 riders went with 75km remaining, just as Becerra and also Feillu (who at least tried to launch a move) were swallowed by the bunch:
Beltran, Izagirre and Niyonshuti establish a 1'20"-gap quickly! So this may work..
The latter two obviously motivated today and Izagirre (GC's 22nd, + 5.16) is the best-placed in GC of those three.
And yes, the races settled down once this group was allowed a bigger gap.. with now 32km to go, the trio leads by 2'40" on the bunch, where Heineken and La Vie keep controlling the race.
Those two teams also lead the peloton into the final 25km, trying pull the leading group back now. The gap's at 1'45" in the meantime.
Today's only Intermediate Sprint is taken by the Izagirre, by the way:
Sprint #1
Izagirre
Niyonshuti
Beltran
We haven't heard anything about the reasons, but Kelderman got dropped by the peloton. He might have aimed for line honours today, after being invisible in the first hilly stage. But that's it for him, he won't have a chance to fight his way back, even though his team goes for a full support (no Nerz or Heider, of course).
But now for the bigger news: we're already on the penultimate climb (10km to go) and we finally see the long awaited attacks out of the peloton:
Berhane De la Fuente Pedraza, as well as GC-leader Maillet
on the move, followed by
Marzano Kashechkin and also
Topchanyuk!
So it looks like we can hope for a thrilling fight between Maillet and De la Fuente in particular, while also Kashechkin tries to hang on to at least go for the 2nd place in GC!
It's Berhane, who drops those attackers easily though! The yesterday so disappointing climber goes for solo-attempt, entering the final lap with quite a decent gap on the group(s) behind!
E1/ Beltran, Izagirre, Niyonshuti
E2/ Berhane at 0.33
E3/ Kashechkin, Maillet, De la Fuente, Marzano, Pedraza, Topchanyuk at 1.31
P/ 97 riders with all other GC-contenders at 1.56
Just 4km remaining and the situation behind Berhane has changed again.. group Maillet was swallowed by the peloton, but some more riders launch another attack:
Marzano, Pedraza, De la Fuente, Kashechkin, Topchanyuk!
Maillet won't follow this time and may rely on this team's work now. At least there's some pressure, as both most dangerous GC-contenders (De la Fuente, Kashechkin) did attack!
The stage-win may go to the breakaway though, as the situation with only 3km to go is as follows:
E1/ Niyonshuti, Beltran, Izagirre
E2/ Berhane at 0.31
E3/ Group De la Fuente/Kashechkin at 0.58
P/ with Maillet at 1.10
So Berhane still with a gap on the chasing group(s), but maybe a bit too far behind to join the mix for the stage. But he may do a jump in GC after losing some time yesterday.
Behind Berhane, Kashechkin and De la Fuente force another attack with 3km to go! Both need to put more pressure on Maillet and Kashechkin also needs to shake off De la Fuente to at least have a shot at GC's 2nd!
The peloton is 30" in arrears only, so De la Fuente (+ 1.35 in GC) has some more seconds to gain.
And now also the bunch entered the final 3km, so let's have (another) quick look at the overall situation:
E1 (3 riders, 1.5km to go)
E2 (Berhane) at 0.27
E3 (Kashechkin/De la Fuente) at 1.07
P (101 riders) at 1.35
Back to the leading trio, which enters the final kilometre with an 18"-advantage on solo-chasing Berhane!
Beltran kicks the sprint off from the leading position and opens up a small gap on his breakaway companions!
Kashechkin and De la Fuente are still head-to-head and enter the final climb 39" behind Berhane and 41" ahead of the peloton! It may become a thrilling fight for seconds now, but there's definitely a chance for De la Fuente to grab the overall win!
In the meantime, the breakaway succeeds, with Beltran taking out the stage with a clear gap on the following riders! A very nice win for the South American based CT-team, even though Beltran wasn't a GC-threat anymore.
Opposing to Niyonshuti (GC + 5.59) and Izagirre (+ 5.16) though, who both could make a nice jump, as they ain't too far behind from the Top-10 (Pardilla, + 3.39)!
Niyonshuti crosses the line as 2nd, 14" behind Beltran.. Izagirre has to settle for 3rd, losing 24" eventually.
Same goes for Berhane, who had a strong finish catching up to Izagirre in the end! The climber (GC + 4.56) may also do a nice jump in GC.
Especially as the gap on the chasing group and bunch is quite decent eventually:
De la Fuente beats Kashechkin to complete the Top-5, 1'09" behind Beltran! The peloton with race-leader Maillet is still some hundred metres behind.. will he challenge Maillet for the GC-win?
And here we see Maillet fighting is way up the final metres, alongside Schwab and Nerz! In the meantime, two riders - Pedraza and Lloyd - managed to establish a 20"-gap on the bunch, aiming to steal some seconds (which may be valuable for Pedraza in particular)!
Lloyd completes a nice result for Boeing so far and the duo finishes 1'30" behind Beltran, so almost caught up to De la Fuente.
The bunch, lead by Schwab and GC-leader Maillet crosses the line 1'52" behind today's winner! A close one, but Maillet just defended his lead!
But there are also some bad news for Boeing: there's a split in the bunch! The gap ain't looking that huge, but is at almost a minute!
Panayotov (GC's 8th), Serpa (24th) or Redondo (23rd) are amongst those, who obviously did pay too less attention to the positioning here and will significally drop in GC!
But first of all, congrats to Jocelin Maillet for an unexpected win! He never looked in serious trouble after his huge solo-victory on fourth day (except of maybe one stage, where wasn't to be found at the front of the bunch).
David De la Fuente finishes as great 2nd with 52" in arrears. A huge result for CSC, which also had a great start into the race with Anton Martin grabbing the opening stage... Top-favorite Andrei Kashechkin at least hits the podium. Deserved, as he appeared to be one of the strongest climbers, whenever it counted.
Pedraza defended his 4th today, as well as Brandt his 5th! A very good result for him and well needed for his team after Eastman (13th) never found his way into the race.
Marzano, Nerz, Berhane (thanks to his efforts today), Izagirre (same here) and Topchanyuk complete the Top-10! So Boeing may lost Panayotov (17th) today, but got Izagirre instead! Most disappointing favorites: Samwel (12th), Eastman, Panayotov and maybe Schwab (14th) or Navarro (22nd).
Thanks to the top-favorites more or less failing in the mountains (or no one really dominating), the points-competition was quite open til the end - with a surprising winner (at least for SN himself):
Sam Bennett wins the points-competition by 1 point ahead of Da la Fuente and 5 on Kashechkin! This race was a huge success for the sprinter.
Also Francisco J Terciado will make his team quite happy with some points for winning the KoM-competition! A quite comfortable win over Maillet and Lloyd eventually, thanks to his efforts in yesterday's queen-stage.
