Today’s stage enters the hills for the first time as we cross the Appalachian Mountains into West Virginia. There are a total of 8 categorised climbs on this brutally tough 222km course. The riders will start with the immaturely-named Big Knob, which measures only 1.9km but is steep at 9.3%. I swear that I won’t make any jokes... Cherry Run Road is next at 3.7km in length with an average of 8.3%. Wills Mountain is a bit longer again at 6.6km but averages a much more reasonable 6.3%. Little Allegheny Mountain is next, which is 3.1km at 8.9% and then the race climbs to the Larimer Township along a road that is 4.5km long at 8.2%. This leads into a lumpy section that culminates at the National Pike, which is 3.3km long at 6.2%. The road through the Coopers Rock State Forest is 4.5km long at 4.7% and then our route through the Appalachians culminates with the climb to Brookhaven of 3.5km at 4.8%, before descending to the finish in Morgantown. In summary, there are a huge number of very steep climbs today one after the other.
Today will be interesting because the shorter climbs favour the punchier GC riders. The biggest favourites are Kiserlovski and Anton, as well as his teammate Soler. Other riders who are being tipped include Sicard, Kessiakoff and Ochoa Quintero.
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Our first attack is lead by Mayo, who is clearly looking forward to having a chance to work for himself rather than pacing Greipel around.
Others going with him are: Hirschlein Oliveira Van Ooijen Claes Hacecky Martinez
They are reeled in pretty quickly, however. Perhaps 7 riders is too many? Regardless, the exact same riders go again, but without Hacecky this time.
The first climb is the rather tough Big Knob. Though not particularly long, it does reach 19.1% at its maximum. Focus are setting the early pace here, with Kirsch on the front. He brings our second attack back.
Over the top, Kirsch still leads ahead of Skujins and then Monsalve. Some of the sprinters are struggling near the back, with De Fauw, Kip and Maksimov already dropped.
Our next attack comes from Hirschlein, who was in both of the previous efforts.
However, the sprint point is coming up and this is a prime opportunity for the sprinters to get something out of today, particularly with some of the worse climbers falling off the back. At the point, it is our current yellow jersey Serebriakov leading over ahead of Greipel and then Feillu.
Our next attack comes from four riders. They are Antunes Le Bon Karagobek Martinez
They pull out a two minute break, so things are going very well for them. Behind, a chase group jumps off the front of the peloton. They are Claes Beppu Van Ooijen
Climbing up Cherry Run Road to our second KOM point, the gap continues to go out. The maximum gradient is about 14.5%. Over the top the order is Le Bon in first place, ahead of Antunes and then Karagobek.
The chasers come over the top 1’24” behind the leaders, but Claes has already been dropped by the other two! The peloton is another 2’10” behind these two chasers, but they are now down to only 34 riders. The pace up the previous climb caused a split, and some riders were poorly placed near the back. The list of names missing includes: B. Feillu Vasquez Szmyd Becerra Vital
They are lucky to get back in before the 3rd climb starts. The maximum here is 12.1%, but it is longer at 6.6km. There is a tough fight in the break for the mountain points this time, with Le Bon taking the maximum ahead of Antunes and then Karagobek in third.
The gaps over the top are:
1’25”
2’21”
3’19”
7’05”
4 Leaders
--->
2 Chasers
--->
Claes
--->
Peloton
The peloton are down to just 26 riders now, and the riders dropped include many of the same climbers who were dropped before, who are just constantly poorly placed near the back.
Thankfully for these guys and their teammates, they do manage to get back in once again, thought they will have to position themselves better if they want to perform well in GC.
Little Allegheny Mountain is our next climb, which is 3.1km long and averages 8.9%. There is a section near the middle that is over 20%, which really tests the legs. Up front, the fight for the points is once again fierce, and this time it is Karagobek who takes them ahead of Martinez and then Antunes.
The gap to the two chasers extends a bit and it seems likely that they may not quite make it up to the break of the day. Not only that but the peloton’s deficit is decreasing and they are starting to speed up.
1’52”
3’37”
1’55”
6’44”
4 Leaders
--->
2 Chasers
--->
Claes
--->
Peloton
There are a couple of small uncategorised climbs between the fourth and fifth climb today and on the second of these Claes is caught by the bunch. It also gives us a good chance to have a look at the peloton.
The only two climbers who have been dropped permanently from the peloton are Vasquez and Becerra, which isn’t hugely surprising as neither of them like these short, punchy climbs. Expect to see them later on in the big mountain stages.
Up the fifth climb, which maxes out at 14.4%, there is once again a tough fight for the points. Karagobek takes the maximum again this time, ahead of Antunes and Martinez, who glare at each other and are clearly not impressed with how close their sprint is.
There are still 114km to go, and the gap has gone out again to the peloton, which is now almost 7’30” behind the four leaders. The two chasers are about half way across this gap.
Speaking of the peloton, Serebriakov, our yellow jersey, is finally dropped. He is really rising to the occasion today. Monsalve goes back to try to pace him for today. Hollister are playing a fine game here, splitting themselves between defending yellow and giving Kiserlovski a chance to take it down the track.
But what’s this! Serebriakov drags himself back in as some rain starts to come down to make this day even harder! That puts us back up to 28 riders in the peloton, and here is the complete list of everyone here:
It is a great effort from both Hollister and Focus for having six riders each in this group. Proximus doesn’t have anyone in this bunch, which isn’t overly surprising.
Our next summit arrives, and here it is Karagobek who takes the points, this time ahead of Martinez and then Le Bon. This means that Karagobek now has 22 points and thus the provisional lead in the mountain jersey, which is a great result for him.
The speed in the peloton has picked up a bit again, and they are now down only 6’20”, with the 2 chasers really falling off the pace, and only 1’38” ahead of the pack. They look like they have sat up somewhat.
There is some action up in the bunch as once again Serbriakov droops off the back. Monsalve once again drops back to pace him, but with the pace up it seems almost certain that they won’t be coming back into the group today.
The race carries on for a moment and with 62km remaining the two chasers are caught. They put in a good fight today but never quite made it. Given that neither of them are particularly good puncheurs, it isn’t overly surprising.
With 62km remaining the gap is down to 5’34” and it is coming down rapidly. Several teams are putting the hammer down, most notably Focus, CSC and WWE, with Hollister also working for Kiserlovski, and wisely giving up on Serebriakov’s lead.
Through the sprint point, the leaders do put in an effort, surprisingly, and it is Martinez who wins it ahead of Le Bon and Karagobek. If these guys go on to win the stage then the bonus time will be useful. But this is looking less and less likely by the second as Soler lifts the pace in the bunch on an uncategorised steep section.
And what an effect this has! Several domestiques are dropped: Oliveira Mayo, Hoste Armstrong Dempster
And our two former chasers Van Ooijen and Beppu. This puts us down to only 21 riders now, with WWE dropping down from 4 to 2 in the bunch.
Focus decide to pile on the pressure now, and this is an amazing sight at this point in the race – they have 5 riders here relaying to toughen up the race for their leader Sicard.
And the race hits the penultimate climb. The slopes here are much gentler with an average of 4.7% over 4.5km. It is Szmyd who comes to the front and powers along. On his own he takes 1 minute off the break’s lead and their days are starting to look very numbered.
Over the top Le Bon takes the points ahead of Martinez, with Antunes in third. The lead is down to only 57” on the charging peloton, which is now lead by Anton and Kiserlovski, who both have pretty much run out of domestiques around them in this peloton!
Bad news for Aker solutions as their last domestique Hirschlein drops. Even worse news for them quickly follows as their GC leader Agudelo is dropped too. He is much more of a mountain goat and the constant punchy climbs have clearly not been to his liking.
Antunes is dropped from the break and caught, as the gap is down to 47” in a tough uncategorised section.
And Martinez decides it is time to have a dig for himself. The cameras focus on him for a few seconds before even more exciting news crackles over the race radio. Kiserlovski has put in an attack on a short descent! Martinez is clearly trying to tee something up for his team leader – great tactics from Hollister here! There are 21km ahead of the race with 1 more categorised climb to come.
Neither of them can get too much of a gap however, and Soler hits the front again and manages to catch not just Kiserlovski, but also the last three men in the break. The winner will now come from the peloton for sure.
Of course, with the stage win now to play for, more attacks start. Sicard, Kiserlovski and Kessiakoff light the touch paper.
Seeing 3 of his biggest rivals riding away, Anton ups the pace and he drags Soler and Szmyd up with him.
The peloton has completely splintered. The second group on the road contains Sano Morizot Txurruka B. Feillu Navarro
Sano is trying to close the gap to the leaders.
Over the top of this final climb the six leaders are all together, lead by Kessiakoff.
The gaps are as follows:
37”
26”
18”
Kessiakoff
--->
Sano
--->
Morizot
--->
Nicacio
Kiserlovski
Txurruka
Ochoa Quintero
Sicard
Feillu
Anton
Navarro
Soler
Szmyd
With 9km to go, Kessiakoff decides that this is his chance and he puts in a dig on a small rise.
Behind, meanwhile, Ochoa Quintero and Nicacio have caught the group in front of them, though Nicacio is struggling to stay in contact with them. He is another man who will wait for the longer climbs to really shine.
Kessiakoff is pulled back, but with 5km to go, he attacks again! He will really want to put some time into the better climbers and he is in a prime position to do it.
Sicard and Kiserlovski is straight onto his back wheel, and Soler is able to bring the other three up to this trio. With 1km left, the leaders are still together and it will be a six way sprint for the stage victory.
And the man who has done so much hard work today, Mauricio Soler, takes a fine stage victory! This is made even sweeter because in second place is his team leader Igor Anton!
Kiserlovski is in third and Kessiakoff has enough left in the tank for a fourth place. Sicard and Szmyd are the fifth and sixth riders in this group and both will be pleased to be up amongst these riders. The clock now starts to see how long it is over the other favourites.
And 1’17” our first contenders come around the corner. It looks like Sano has some of the other chasers for company now! He takes seventh place, while Txurruka, Navarro and, surprisingly, Ochoa Quintero round out the top ten, but these three will mostly be pleased to have simply limited their losses.
Nicacio lost contact on the run in and is another 30” down, 1’47” behind the stage winner. Most of the other domestiques in that final selection roll in about 4’30” down, but the biggest loser in today’s stage was Agudelo, who is 4’57” behind, and will have to do a lot of work to win that back.
Surprisingly, only one rider was outside the time limit at the end of today’s stage, and that is Roman Maksimov, which is a big loss for CSC, given that he is not a bad helper for tomorrow’s TTT, and he had 2 sprint podiums in this race already.
Looking now at the jerseys, our stage winner Mauricio Soler takes the leader’s jersey, ahead of his teammate Igor Anton, with Robert Kiserlovski in third place. Aleksandr Serebriakov may have lost the yellow jersey, but he very slightly extended his lead in the points jersey earlier in the day. Muhammet Karagobek pulls on the mountain jersey, only one point ahead of Le Bon. Hollister have taken a commanding lead already in the team competition, which is a testament to the strength of their squad. Finally, in the young rider’s classification Romain Sicard takes over it and is more than 4 minutes ahead of second place. He will probably hold this to the end of the race. It is also worth noting that Focus riders make up the top 4 positions in this category.
