Today’s 16th stage is in California – around the iconic Lake Tahoe and our finish indeed in Tahoe City. We start off the day with the very long climb up Mt. Rose. It is an agonising 23.6km in length but averages only 5.4% with a maximum of 13%. The race follows a plateau for a while with a couple of uncategorised climbs up Captain Pomin rock and to Emerald Bay. Finally the race reaches the second categorised climb of the day up Mount Watson, which is another long one at 10.7km with an average of 4.3%. The final run in to the line after the descent is an uncategorised climb of about 2.5km at 3-4% most of the way up. It will hurt the legs after more than two weeks of racing. Today could truly be classified as a medium mountain stage and with the descent after the major climbs of the day some are tipping the break again.
As the rain starts to truly belt down our first attack is from Oliveira. He was in the break on the 8th stage as well, but has done little else of major note since then.
The next attacks to follow him are Beppu and Karagobek. Karagobek wore the mountain jersey from stages 4-10 but he is a long way off the pace in that competition at the moment, so is clearly just looking for a stage result.
With these three up front another attack goes. This time it is from Le Bon and Uuguunbayar. While the Mongolian rider can’t make it up the Frenchman gets into the break giving us four men up front. Le Bon and Karagobek were both in the break on stage 4 and so have clearly got used to working with each other.
The sprinters are hurled out of the rear of the pack with 6.6km still to climb. No one in the fight for GC is here, which is a nice change. They should easily avoid the time limit and indeed with the long, flat section they might well get back into the peloton before the final climb of the day.
The lead riders are still struggling to pull out a strong gap as we crest the snowy peak. The gap is at 1’23” as Oliveira leads over for the 16 points, with Karagobek in second and Le Bon in third. Kopp jumps out of the peloton to take the points for fifth for some reason, but does not continue his attack. Proximus probably just wanted a bit of TV time.
As expected the sprinters get back on the descent and the only people we have lost today are Insausti, Tommersen and Blanco.
We hit the plateau and Hollister marshal to the front tapping out a rhythm. They seem content to finally let the break’s gap go out and it duly does.
As we get to our first sprint point with 80km of the race remaining the gap is at 6’12”. Karagobek leads over ahead of Beppu and then Oliveira in third.
We round Lake Tahoe and from one cliff to the other the riders can see each other. The gap is hovering around the 6’30” mark.
We go through the second spinrt point and this time Beppu leads Oliveira and Le Bon through. There are 36.7km to go and the gap is down to 4’32” with a fairly tough climb still to come.
Flipping back to the peloton it is easy to see why – Hollister, Focussed and CSC are all working really hard to make sure that the catch is made here!
And we hit the base of Mount Watson. Feillu leads the pack on to the climb, with some teams clearly looking to take the fight to Hollister. With 27.5km to go our gap is down to only 1’34” – that’s 3 minutes dropped in under 10km!
Up front the first two to crack are Oliveira and Beppu... and Karagobek follows moments later as Le Bon goes solo with 8.3km to the summit!
Our first rider in the top 20 cracks and it is Hirschlein, who sits 20th overall and 2nd in the young rider competition. The pace is high and he is unlikely to come back. So high is the pace that Morizot makes the catch of Le Bon after only 1 kilometre of his solo effort. The big names are going to be fighting this one out.
Castroviejo tries to go with him but can’t hold his pace. Things don’t slacken off in the peloton as several more top 20 riders crack – Vasquez and Vital are the first to go, then Martinez and then Agudelo. Seeldraeyers follows soon after. Feillu is really pushing the pace hard here and everyone is really stretched out.
Sicard takes a big pull on the front and he manages to real Kessiakoff in. But the effort puts more riders into trouble – this time it is Nicacio and Seledkov who are clinging onto the back.
Soler leads the race over the top with Szmyd in second and Anton in third position. Both Nicacio and Seledkov have managed to hold on.
The race drops down the descent but there are two more obstacles left – a small climb half way down the descent with 10km remaining which hits 12% and then the gentle rise to the finish line. We hit the first of these two – it is 600 metres long – a once again it is Kessiakoff who springs a move!
He is a dangerous man to let away with a technical descent still to go, and so Kiserlovski sets off in pursuit. He is followed by: Nicacio Anton Sicard Navarro
This means we now have 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 8th all up the road ahead of the chase group.
They catch Kessiakoff on the descent and he leads them down to our final slope. The gap to the chasers is out to 40” with 5km to the line.
With 4.5km remaining as the road starts to flatten out quite a bit Sicard, Nicacio and Navarro launch an attack in an effort to make up some time.
Sano and Feillu are trying to bridge up behind them and though the Japanese rider really tries all that he can, the Frenchman makes it up on his own. Sano sits about 30” back, but another 30” ahead of the other chasers.
With 2km remaining and the road slowly heading upwards the chase group comprises: Agudelo, Castroviejo Ochoa Quintero, Szmyd Soler Txurruka Morizot Seledkov
The riders up front come together once again, reeling in the attacking trio. There are only 1600 metres to the line and the gradient is around the 4% mark, so Anton and Kessiakoff try to get away.
Kiserlovski come up to them but no one else can manage it! With 700 metres to go, these three are going to sprint it out for the stage win!
Who will raise his arms in victory?
Kessiakoff takes his second stage victory! Kiserlovski just takes second ahead of Anton, who will have to be content with the 8 bonus seconds. Sicard manages to take fourth with the same time as the others, and Navarro also avoids time loss with his fifth place. Not so lucky are Nicacio and Feillu, who both lose 43” on our stage winner today, but both will just be happy to make up time on closer rivals.
And the group behind them...
Sano is caught on the run-in but holds on for 8th, 1’24” behind the lead group. Szmyd is 9th and Soler is 10th. Unexpectedly, Agudelo loses a small amount of time on this final hill.
Not a lot of changes in GC today, though Ochoa Quintero and Szmyd continue to bleed time to the other teams’ leaders. The work that they have been doing since the start of the race is clearly starting to be felt in the legs. In fact Kessiakoff can probably start thinking about 4th place overall now. The battle for second in the team competition remains closer than ever – Emu Export now lead Focussed Cycling by just 40”.
