This is the final stage of what has been a truly exciting Coppi e Bartali. There are two climbs on today’s plate, each dealt with three times. The first climb is 2.1km long and averages around 9%, with a maximum of 15%. The second climb is 2km long and averages only 6%, but the maximum gradient of 14.4% is right near the top, meaning that it might prove more challenging to some people.
There are two fights on today. Firstly there is the battle for the stage and the bookkeepers have listed teammates Laverde Jimenez and Ciccarese as the two biggest favourites as well as Herve, Tang, Vicioso and Smelcerovic. The second battle is the fight for the GC overall win where people will be looking to see if Mancebo can keep a hold of his yellow against Colby and Laverde Velez. Truly an interesting day awaits.
The first attack comes from one of this race’s biggest aggressors – Dionne. Alstorm didn’t bring a particularly strong team here, but they have been riding hard to try to make themselves seen.
He is joined by three more riders Jurco Podgornik Kananen
Clearly Jurco’s fall yesterday hasn’t hurt him too badly, and he has tried to make the best of his time loss by sneaking into the break. Once again there doesn’t seem to be a huge fight here and at the base of the climb the lead is out to 1’43”.
There aren’t any attacks up the climb and the gap stays mostly around the 2 minutes mark over the top, but more importantly the peloton splits! 33 riders only are in this front group and it is an elite group indeed! Out of the top 20 riders and the favourites mentioned at the start of the day only the following riders are missing: Lopez Fonseca (8th) Laverde Jimenez (13th and Favourite) Melero (16th) Lundberg (17th) Wilman (18th) Tang (Favourite)
Several riders in this front group start to work for their leaders, and the ones most notable on the front are Kusters Bespalov Krivtsov
The pace is so high that before even the second climb of the day the break is reeled in. There are now just two groups – the 37 rider favourite group and the peloton.
But even this does not last too long as Zarebski and Quemeneur bring the peloton back just as the second ascent starts.
This time almost everyone stays together except for 8 riders, all of whom get on before the third climb. No one has been willing to launch an attack and up the third ascent of the first climb things are no different as Chernetsky taps out a steady pace.
And on the downhill there is finally an attack and who else could it be, but Dionne? Resplendent in his Canadian champion’s jersey, he launches downhill.
The end of the first half of this race is marked by a bridge, which the peloton crosses over, just keeping an eye on each other. No one is willing to follow our solo attacker, and so things remain calm.
Dionne crosses the sprint point first, 1’23” ahead of the lazy peloton. A couple of riders decide they want to contest for the points, but they start too late and so Garcia Rincon just rolls over second ahead of Mockus.
The leader comes to the first ascent of the other major difficulty of the day. It averages about 6% and maxes out at 14.4% near the summit. It will be interesting to see what this does to the peloton.
The lead at the base is at 3’04” and is growing steadily, but not alarmingly like it did yesterday. The peloton take the climb at a leisurely pace and no one is put into too much trouble. With 50km remaining there is a now-familiar sight as the Kingspan boys come to the front and start to raise the pace slightly.
The gap still goes out and it is at 5’23” by the base of the 2nd ascent of this 2nd climb. Unsurprisingly Dionne takes the points at the top and this puts him within striking distance of the mountain jersey. The peloton shows no interest in the rest of the points and Rubiero rolls over ahead of Belda.
The pace finally seems to be taking its toll on some riders as surprisingly Smelcerovic is dropped!
He is fortunate that Alstorm are interested in coming back as well and so the gap is closed before the final climb.
Dionne gets onto the final climb with an advantage of 6 minutes. There is no way that he will be caught now and he realises that he is a good chance at a good place in the mountain competition as well.
On the way up Zambrano looks like he is going to challenge to save his jersey, but he backs off at the last second and so the peloton just roll over once again, about 5’30” behind our solo leader. Belda rolls over in third place behind Rubiero, and seems to realise moments later that if they had gone over the previous two climbs in the reverse of this order he would be the king of the mountain leader! Instead, he has just missed out by two points and Dionne will wear a different red and white jersey home.
On the way down off this final hill Vicioso falls. It is almost like the cycling gods are punishing him for not attacking today.
Not everything in the bunch is simple on the flat run in to the finishing line, however, as Eliad is dropped in a small group of 17 riders, including most of his teammates and Smelcerovic once again.
Thankfully for him the Serbian Telekom riders manage to close this gap down before the finale and so he will not lose his young rider’s jersey.
The roar of the crowd is heard as the hero of the day crosses the finishing line - Dionne’s victory in the Canadian champion’s jersey is huge for a team which has announced that next season shall see it become half Canadian.
The peloton come in 5’42” later, and at their head, with a true show of power, is Mancebo. He takes second place ahead of Herve.
And a look at the final standings – Mancebo takes the overall win comfortably, showing why he is the top stage racer in the division. He also takes the points jersey, which he secured with his second place today. Dionne takes the mountain jersey by a very slim margin. Petrobras will have to content themselves with the team classification thanks to having 3 riders in the top 20. Finally, Eliad’s consistent riding is rewarded with the young rider’s jersey.
