This is the queen stage of the Giro del Capo and it is easy to see why. The previous stages haven’t been particularly selective, but this 158km stage tackles the same climb, the Hoogter Pass, 7 times. It is a tough one, with a max of about 11.2% which averages over 8% for much of it. Unsurprisingly, the puncheurs here are the big favourites. Ginanni tops most people’s lists, with Roche, LL Sanchez and Di Maggio are all short odds. The Bianchi duo of Monfort and Cobo are also on most people’s lists of favourites.
4km out from the start there is a sprint prime. None of the pre-race favourites are willing to go for it, so Michael Wolf takes the bonus points and seconds. The yellow jersey Jaume Rovira is right behind him, with Tadej Valjavec in third. Rovira has done immensely well here, to take a couple of seconds over the favourites – he is clearly intent on defending his jersey against the odds.
The first proper attack comes from a rather surprising name – David De la Fuente. After waiting for Mazur in the race, he is now in 71st place, 4’34” down, on the same time as Cobo and Monfort. Bianchi are clearly aiming for the stage win now.
Maesen goes with him, as does Sorenson. The trio get a gap of 2 minutes without too much trouble. However, with three successful breaks in a row, this break too is destined to be quite popular. Following these three riders are:
Bol Cattaneo Reijnen Aru Seeldrayers Gate
These all bridge up before four more riders try to make the effort:
Reis Wolf Rodas Marinangelli
These last four riders are shut down by Red Bull, who steadily raise the pace. They will be looking for a result from Gadret today, or indeed any one of their entire team of strong puncheurs.
Not to be deterred, these same four riders go again and this time they are joined by Sulzberger. These five riders manage to bridge up. There are now 14 riders in a group up front.
Behind Red Bull keep the pace high. Impey bridges up to the front group when the gap gets down to 40”, but Red Bull keep pushing the pace regardless, and the race comes back together.
Once again De la Fuente launches an attack and this time he is joined by a much more acceptable three riders. They are Agostini, Egger and Lavery.
De la Fuente is the best placed here at +4’34”. At the sprint point about 95km from the end the gap is out to 4’51” and De la Fuente is the leader on the road. Egger takes the points ahead of Agostini and then Lavery. De la Fuente clearly isn’t too bothered by the bonus seconds.
Before the climb starts for the first of seven times there is an attack in the pack. Busche jumps from the group. He is 2’38” down on Rovira’s time and as such he could be a real threat for taking the yellow jersey if he is allowed to stay away. Not only that but he is a good enough puncheur to be able to stand a chance of making it happen.
In a masterful example of how to catch up to a break, over the top of the first climb Busche joins up with the break and by the time he does so the gap is out to over 7 minutes. He is able to recover on the descent. Indeed he recovers so well that he pushes the pace up the second ascent, and succeeds in dropping both Agostini and Egger.
Busche takes the mountain points ahead of Lavery and then De la Fuente. Their lead over the peleton is 6’45”, and there are 69km to go. The peleton is paced up by a mixture of teams, mostly Vespa, Venchi and Cerne.
On this climb the troubles start for some of the favourites. One of the first men dropped is Samuel Sanchez, and sitting next to him is Alex Dowsett. Neither of them look particularly bothered today, which must be infuriating for California Giant’s manager, who would have been expecting a lot from his team leader. They sit up in their group of 40 riders and just cruise around.
The 105 lead riders continue on, but even they aren’t without troubles. The group splits under the tough pace that some of the teams are pushing. Dropped riders include: Bellis Sono Gadret Larsson Mollema Vanendert Monfort Weening Cobo Sorenson
Thankfully for many teams, the work of Sulzberger for his team leader ensures that this entire group comes back together and up the third climb the 105 man group stays intact. The situation over the top is:
2’47”
3’17”
6’04”
3 Leaders
--->
2 Chasers
--->
Peleton (105)
Up the fourth climb the situation is different and once again the group splits. The dropped riders include: Cobo Bellis Salerno Mollema Weening Gadret
Bellis gets on the front of this group and just starts pulling it as fast as he can manage. Others are happy to just sit in his wheel and let him do it.
Up front, meanwhile, Lavery is dropped. As such Busche and De la Fuente go over the peak of the fourth climb alone. They have 1 minute on Lavery and another 4’27” on the peleton, who have now caught Egger and Agostini.
Bellis keeps getting close to pulling his group in, but as he does so riders keep getting dropped from the peleton, where the pace has really increased. He has to work much harder than he would like to, but he manages to pull in all the other puncheurs who were around him.
Busche and De la Fuente, meanwhile, have lapped some of the back markers in this race, which shows the high pace that they are setting. Over the top of the fifth climb the situation they still have around 6 minutes on the peleton. Busche’s dreams of a yellow jersey are getting closer to reality by the second.
In the peleton Gadret and Longo Borghini are dropped. Ferrari send their entire team back to help him, as he is their best placed on GC at this point. There won’t be any coming back for either of them, however, as the pace is ratcheted up by an attack. The attack comes from Vanendert.
Vanendert is followed by a mix of strong puncheurs and highly placed riders on GC, including the yellow jersey himself: Ginanni Iannetti Rovira Augustyn
At the top of the hill De la Fuente finally decides to go past Busche, and drops him without much trouble. He descends like a madman and by the base of the descent already has a minute.
Ginanni goes past Vanendert and gets a small gap on him. He blazes past Lavery, who is looking like he is in a lot of pain.
Di Maggio sees how serious this move has become and attacks up. Augustyn had fallen off Vanendert’s pace, but he is joined by Di Maggio and gets onto his wheel.
Similarly LL Sanchez has realised that this is the crucial moment of the race and he leaps out of the peleton. He gets up to Rovira’s group, which has picked up Lavery. Behind these riders the peleton has shattered. To get an idea of who is left in this race, let’s look at the situation over the top.
These are the riders who are going to be fighting it out, as well as De la Fuente and Busche, of course. De la Fuente has somehow still kept a roughly 5’30” gap over the top.
Di Maggio gets up to Vanendert on the descent and then leads him up to Ginanni. Augustyn is dropped by Di Maggio in the process but still manages to work his way up to this trio.
A 21 rider group has formed behind them which includes not just the two chase groups that formed over the top but also some other riders. These new riders include Monfort, Gautier, Costa, Bauer, Appleby and a couple of Red Bull riders. The gap between these two groups is at 40” on the small flat section before the final climb.
LL Sanchez and Costa now put in a dig to try to get up to the group in front of them, but it doesn’t prove successful thanks to the high pace, so they just sit back in.
Meanwhile Augustyn is on the absolute rivet and falls off the back of his group. The high speed descent really took it out of him. This pace is only raised as the final climb starts. Ginanni launches an attack just as his group is lapping some dropped riders.
Di Maggio can’t match this, and so Ginanni is off on his own, with a great chance to make up time on the others.
At the front of the race De la Fuente goes over the top. He has a minute and a half on Busche at this point and as long as he stays upright the stage will surely be his.
Vanendert can’t stay with Di Maggio, who is desperately trying to claw Ginanni back. LL Sanchez launches a small attack and gets up to the cracked Augustyn, but they are both caught by the peleton. Vanendert still has 30” on the even more fractured chase group behind him.
Pineau launches an attack and he is followed by both LL Sanchez and Roche. They build a small gap on those behind them.
The descent to the finish is predictably fast. Ginanni is caught by Di Maggio, who descends like a demon. Vanendert is caught by Pineau’s group and helps them to build a gap on the other chasers behind.
Meanwhile, Bellis and Roux are desperately working to bring their group back in. Rovira is certainly appreciating their efforts.
And lo and behold, they manage it! Rovira can certainly be guaranteed a high GC position today and several riders look good for top 20 positions overall.
Up front, De la Fuente crosses the line. He doesn’t celebrate at all, partially from total exhaustion and partially from concentrating on getting as much time as possible to ensure a top GC position.
Busche comes through 1’49” behind De la Fuente, which means that... De la Fuente is one second ahead of him on GC! All that De la Fuente needs to now is beat Rovira by 4’28” and he will be in the yellow jersey going into the mountain TT. Regardless, Busche has had a magnificent ride today and has almost certainly gained himself a podium in the overall.
Further down the road LL Sanchez launches an attack on his group, perhaps in an effort to bridge the 40” gap to Di Maggio and Ginanni.
Roche launches after him and pulls out a gap on Pineau and Vanendert.
Within sight of these guys, Ginanni comes around Di Maggio and finishes in third place for the day. A great ride for these two, who will be looking at strong GC positions now.
Roche’s speed in pulling back LL Sanchez allows him to come around for fifth place on the day, with him and Sanchez also gapping their two chasers by 13”. Pineau comfortably beats Vanendert to the line for 7th on the day.
Meanwhile the pack is another 41” back, lead home by Monfort and then Bellis.
But what about the time gap between De la Fuente and Rovira? Rovira has come in 4’55” down on De la Fuente, meaning that De la Fuente is our new overall leader, a mere 1 second ahead of Busche and 37” ahead of Rovira. The top 20 has been completely re-written, with most of the breakaway riders from previous days being washed away and replaced by those in the lead groups today. Places 11-20 are all on the same time, which should make for an interesting day tomorrow.
Breschel remains in the points jersey despite not scoring today, and the same is true of Txurruka in the mountain jersey. Pirelli remain in the lead of the team competition, despite a great team result from Bianchi. Di Maggio looks untouchable in the young rider jersey, and the 3 riders behind him are all on the same time going in to tomorrow’s MTT.
