Today is the final stage in the Tour of Swaziland, and our race will most assuredly end with a bang. We have 150 kilometers of racing with 2500 meters of altitude gain and a decisive climb right before the finish. Current race leader Moinard will seek to defend his jersey, and his job will be made easier because Jayco have shown to be the strongest team in the race. This is the last chance for the climbers do something special, so we should see some action on the final climb.
The first attack comes on the initial downhill. It is Andrew Bajadali from Emu, and no one wants to join him.
Bajadali takes the first climb, worth 10 points to add to his 6 from earlier in the race. The peloton are close behind him, but are not actively chasing. The remaining KoM points go to the Red Bull team who are setting the pace.
While Bajadali hovers around 15 seconds ahead of the peloton, Perez Cuapio and Brolin launch an attack from the peloton.
Shortly thereafter another move comes from Besada of Oz, Pagoto of Vespa, and Lagana from Pirelli.
As the breakaways up the road merge, there is yet another attack from the peloton. This time it is Oz team mates Othman and current king of the mountains Aaron Gate. They already have Besada up ahead, so that will make it 3 Oz riders in the breakaway! Perhaps they are setting something up for Shaun Lewis once again?
The first intermediate sprint goes uncontested, and the first three riders to roll across the line are Bajadali, Perez Cuapio, and Pagoto.
The pair of Oz riders are now joined by Nordhaug and Marchewka from Aker Solutions, and Egon Luzi from Vespa. They are 1'00 ahead of the peloton, and 1'10" behind the group in front of them.
Jayco - Red Bull are all riding on the front of the peloton for Amaël Moinard, with John Gadret leading them. The pace is calm though, and they are allowing the breakaways' gaps to grow.
The breakaways all come together with 93km left to go. They have 2'50" on the peloton now. Here is the list of riders: Besada, Othman, Gate Lagana Luzi, Pagoto Bajadali Marchewka, Nordhaug Perez Cuapio Brolin
The riders don't contest the next intermediate sprint either. Brolin crosses the line first, followed by Nordhaug and then Perez Cuapio.
The gap reaches its maximum of 5'20" with 70km remaining. Now Ferrari and Rapha Condor come to the front to begin the chase. Here we can see Rapha's blend of national champions, with Abdallah (Egypt) on the front, Belmokhtar (Algeria) in the middle, and Jirakov (Liechtenstein) in 5th.
Bajadali takes the 2nd KoM sprint 96 points), ahead of Brolin (4) and Lagana (2). Surprisingly, Gate does not contest the sprint or have his team mates block out the points, and Bajadali is now the new virtual leader at 22 points. The gap is 4'00" with 43km to go.
There is no sprint once again at the final intermediate sprint point, and Gate crosses first, followed by Luzi and then Othman.
The next climb is won by Bajadali again (5), with Perez Cuapio taking 2nd (3) and Lagana taking the final point on offer. Not looking good for Aaron Gate...
And back at the peloton, the first attack comes from Shaun Lewis on the climb. This is a very interesting move, as he has practically his whole team up the road in the breakaway.
Lewis gets a 35" gap over the top of the hill, but still has a rather large gap to make up to the breakaway: 2'30". Its not his preferred terrain here either, because it is mostly flat.
Mikayil Krasnoperov attacks as well in an attempt to bridge up to Lewis. He also has a team mate in the breakaway, so this could turn out to be a very effective attack.
After a long chase, the two eventually catch the breakaway. They do not have a very significant lead though, as we can kind of see the peloton baring down on them. But four riders have attacked away from the break before Lewis and Krasnoperov made contact.
These four would be Pagoto, Nordhaug, Bajadali, and Lagana. The peloton have pulled back the group behind them, so it is all together aside from these 4 now.
Nordhaug attacks his companions now, and Bajadali is the only one to react quickly.
Bajadali's counter attack has given him a small gap to Nordhaug, and Lagana has pulled himself up to his wheel. Pagoto has been dropped and caught by the peloton.
As they enter the early slopes of the final climb, Bajadali has 20 seconds on Nordhaug and Lagana, who have a further 40 seconds on the peloton.
Bajadali still holds a 30 seconds lead as the rest of the breakaway is pulled in by Maisto and Osella of Ferrari. There are 4 kilometers remaining on the climb.
And here is the moment we have all been expecting. Jose Alarcon makes his move in a final attempt to win the race. He quickly approaches Bajadali, who doesn't seem to have anything left.
Surprisingly, there is no reaction from the other favorites, and Alarcon presses ahead solo to get a gap of 33 seconds.
Gadret desperately chases to save his team mate Moinard's yellow jersey, but in doing so he stretches the peloton and begins to create gaps.
Now Krasnoperov give it a go, but he has quite a gap to make up to Alarcon, who he can just see disappearing around the corner.
Moinard finds himself unable to keep up with the surges and is now caught behind a split. Gadret, realizing the destruction that he has caused, now drops back to help pace his team's leader.
There is now a very elite chase group forming, which includes Osella, Niemiec, Ndbri, Jiriakov, and Colorado. Krasnoperov and Alarcon are still both ahead.
Alarcon summits with a 30" lead on Krasnoperov, who is only 10 seconds ahead of a new 20 man group that has formed, containing all of the favorites and most of the Jayco team with Moinard. After they summit, the riders will face a short 3 kilometer descent to the finish line.
The 20 man group has broken up just as they summited the climb, and now it is Francisco Colorado with a gap to the rest.
Alarcon has kept his gap at 30 seconds over Krasnoperov and he now enters the final kilometer of the race. His chances of taking the stage win today look very good.
Theres trouble for Jayco though as it looks like Moinard has lost contact once again! He is digging deep to limit his time losses here, with help from his team mate Veloso and Maisto from Ferrari.
And back at the front of the race, Alarcon coasts to the stage win! While we don't have any specific time gaps, I'm hearing that Moinard has been dropped hard and is losing significant amounts of time. We'll have to see what the time gap is at the end, but with his time bonus, Jose Alarcon will need to win by just under a minute to take the overall win. This is going to be close...
Krasnoperov is next to cross the line. While he couldn't quite match Alarcon today, he has to be pleased with this result, as the gaps he has along with the time bonus will surely help him out in the GC battle. We can also see Colorado coming in behind him for 3rd.
The elite group of 15 is now inside the final kilometer as they begin the sprint. It looks like Osella is leading out his team mate Niemiec, who currently wears the green jersey.
The lead out works as Niemiec leads the group in for 4th. Jiriakov puts in a good ride today for 5th, while Osella holds on for 6th. Bjelkmark takes 7th, Dueñas is 8th, Eltink finishes 9th, and Ndbri is the last of the top 10. Also finishing on the same time as this group are Lewis, Carrara, Duenas Nevado, Moreno, and Raisin.
Moinard's group finishes with Gadret pulling out a small gap in the sprint. Not good news for Jayco: they are over 2 minutes behind. This means that Moinard will lose his jersey, a disappointing result for having such a strong team around him.
So Jose Alarcon come out on top of the first Tour of Swaziland! Krasnoperov's exploits today will boost him into 2nd overall, and Moinard will just barely hang on to the podium in 3rd, thus bumping Ndbri off of it. Bajadali will win the King of the Mountains jersey, as Aaron Gate did not even attempt to defend it, even though he was given ample opportunities. Niemiec's consistency throughout the race, helped especially by his win in the opening time trial, will land him the Points Jersey, while Alarcon will also win the Young Rider competition by default. Jayco - Red Bull showed clearly that they were the strongest team, even though they underperformed slightly in the mountains by riding for Moinard. It payed off though, as their sacrifice kept him on the podium.
