The Tour of Swaziland enters the hills for the first time here on Stage 4. Here we should expect to see the first major gaps in the GC forming as the favorites try to stretch things over the very hilly final kilometers. Will Massimo Iannetti be able to hold onto his jersey? He's a capable climber, so it should be interesting to see. The favorites for the stage win are Jose Alarcon John Gadret
and Mikayil Krasnoperov
The first attack is initiated by Nicolas Brolin. He is followed by And Bajadali and Jaume Rovira. The peloton are once again content to let it go and they quickly pull out a gap of 2'00".
Amaël Moinard is not so content, however, and he leads another move from the peloton to try and catch the initial breakaway up the road. He is followed by Muhamad Adiq Othman, Andreas Dietziker, and Abilfez Ajewole.
Pirelli aren't concered about this move either, and they ride an easy pace on the front.
Moinard pulls his group up to the leaders with 145km remaining after a long chase. Of this group, he is also the best placed rider, sitting in 15th at 1'37" back.
At the first intermediate sprint, Moinard wins in front of Rovira and then Brolin. The gap is 9'30" with 128km remaining.
Pirelli decide that the gap has grown big enough and begin to speed it up. The gap is now down from its max of 10'25" with 120km left to go.
The first climb is uncontested. Rovira takes full points (6), while Brolin takes 4, and Bajadali takes the final 2. Its not looking good for the D2 team though, as Dietziker has been dropped pretty hard and is now 1'40" back. The peloton is at 8'00" back.
At the second sprint, Moinard barely takes it ahead of Rovira and Othman. 5'40" with 59.5km.
There's action in the peloton now as Constantino Zaballa attacks just before they reach the intermediate sprint point.
The breakaway now reach the slopes of the final part of the race. They have 38 kilometers of dirt roads to go, and much of it is uphill as there are two more categorized climbs. Dietziker is 27" behind. Zaballa is 2'18" behind Dietziker, and the peloton is 1'26" behind Zaballa.
And not long after they start climbing, Ajewole is dropped by Moinard's pace.
So too are Othman, Bajadali, and Brolin. It seems that Moinard is a level ahead of his companions.
Meanwhile, Zaballa has caught Dietziker. They are 2'08 ahead of the peloton and 2'04" behind Moinard and Rovira.
Zaballa drops Dietziker, and shortly after catches his team mate Ajewole, who takes a strong pull. It seems like CSC has set this up well today.
The leaders hit the first of the final two KoM points, with Moinard taking the full 10 points, and Rovira taking 8.
1'10" later, here is Othman (6), Bajadali (4) and Brolin (2). Zaballa will cross 1'35" further back (don't have the pic).
But it looks like things are heating up amongst the favorites. Alarcon has attacked over the top with Gadret right on his wheel. They are around a minute behind Zaballa, and they already have 30 seconds on the peloton.
Alarcon may be too much for Gadret as he starts to pull out a slight gap to the French champion...
Carrara attacks now. He's got some work to do , as he sits 5'48" back in the general classification.
Alarcon has now caught the CSC duo on a short downhill section. Gadret manages to latch on to the back as well. They are 2'30" behind their team mates Moinard and Rovira who are looking more and more likely to take the win, and they have about 30 seconds on Carrara and a minute on the peloton.
Carrara manages to catch on shortly after. It seems as though they have slowed a bit.
Up ahead, Othman attacks his companions as they go under the 20km banner. He probably feels the heat from the Alarcon group behind them and realizes that they need to pick up the pace.
Moinard crosses the final KoM with Rovira. They have 1'30" on the Othman group, 2'40" on the Alarcon group, and 19.5 kilometers left to race. Their chances are looking better and better.
Brolin has taken the final points on offer as they cross the top together. Othman's attack didn't really get anywhere.
And the peloton catches Gadret and Alarcon thanks mostly to Osella of Ferrari and Saldarriaga, who looks to be defending his leader's yellow jersey.
It doesn't stay together for very long though as Alarcon, Carrara, and Gadret attack again.
But once again, Osella shuts it down.
Its now Gadret's turn to lead the attack. Alarcon follows, and this time Zaballa gives it another shot as well.
Meanwhile, Rovira and Moinard are still up ahead with 3'00" on the peloton. They are done climbing except for a few rollers, so one of these two will surely win. Rovira definitely has the better sprint, but it is an uphill sprint, and Moinard is better on the hills, so who will take it? Also, will Moinard have the time he needs to take yellow? He has already gathered a couple of time bonuses, plus the ones on the finish...
Alarcon has a slight gap again and he catches the remnants of the early breakaway. He tries to power past them, but Bajadali jumps straight onto his wheel.
The peloton catch the remnants of the breakaway, but Alarcon and Gadret are still ahead. Now there is a big move from Eltink. He is followed by Jiriakov, Moreno, Carrara, and Colorado.
The attack does nothing except bring back Alarcon and Gadret though. The peloton is down to 29 riders, with no surprises missing.
Alarcon is relentless today! He makes another move on a slight rise with 4 kilometers remaining. Gadret tries to respond but looks a little slow.
Moinard and Rovira go head to head at 2.2km It looks like they just want a drag race.
Moinard gets a slight gap here inside the final kilometer as they start to sprint.
And Moinard continues Jayco's streak of dominance with an impressive stage win! Not a bad performance from Rovira either, as he was the only one from the breakaway that was even able to hang with Moinard. We'll have to see what the final gap is, because we may have a new yellow jersey.
With Alarcon and Gadret still up ahead and the seconds ticking by, Iannetti comes to the front to try and save his yellow jersey. A true display of his class.
Alarcon leads the sprint with a small gap on Gadret, who is approaching very quickly though.
Iannetti still leads the peloton. He is doing everything he can to limit his losses to Moinard. Carrara, Bono, and Niemiec are closest behind him.
Niemiec is flying as he and Iannetti begin to pull away. In the distance they can see Gadret pulling level with Alarcon.
Alarcon holds off Gadret for 3rd, taking the final time bonus.
Niemiec takes 5th with what looks like a slight gap to the rest. It will be interesting to see if the gap is registered. Moreno takes 6th, while Colorado finishes 7th.
Veloso takes 8th, Iannetti fades into 9th, and Eltink finishes the top 10.
The gap from Moinard to the peloton registers as 1'58", so it looks like we will have a new yellow jersey wearer tomorrow. That's not to say that Iannetti didn't put in a great effort trying to defend it, as we saw him taking up the reigns in the peloton trying to reduce the gap. There were no gaps between Alarcon and Gadret and the peloton, but Alarcon did get an 8" time bonus. It may come as a surprise that recent Tour of Colorado winner Saul Raisin did lose time today, so that will probably mean than Krasnoperov's leadership will now go unquestioned.
Iannetti's consistency in the finishes will put him in the green jersey tomorrow, as he is now tied for points with Sonnery. Gate will keep his KoM jersey by 2 points to Rovira, and Jayco - Red Bull take the lead in the Team rankings, which most would agree is an accurate reflection of their results so far.
Not as many gaps as we may have expected between the favorites today, as they all finished together in a rather large group of the competitors and some of their more able team mates. Tomorrow should be a different story, as it is the first day in the real mountains. Moinard does have a pretty big lead on the favorites and is a very strong rider, so I would think that the big guns will have to do something special tomorrow if they want to unseat him before the final day.
And this was the other one that I failed to export.
