We come to it at last. The first mountainous stage of the season and the stage to decide the overall rankings of Tour d'Algiere. David Arroyo comes as the big favourite for the stage today, along Marco Marzano and Dani Moreno. Could an outsider have a chance at winning today ? It'll be hard, but it's a possiblity. The fight for every place will be tough with a very deep field here.
It's a perfect day for bit of cycling after previous rainy days here in Algeria. Crowds are out on mass and riders ready! Let's begin then.
No surprise when the first four attackers form the break of the day. It's been like that all the stages here. Smart play from Die Berg whose rider got involved in the break, should relieve some pressure on the team trough the stage. Break is formed by :
Laurent Didier (WWE)
Mikhail Kochetkov (Die Berg)
Rafiki Uwimana (MTN)
Janvier Hadi (Jaguar)
Team Privatbank leads the peleton and ensures that with 55km to go the break is only 1'03" ahead. Looks they they're bringing them up. Quite early surprisingly. As well as that Ricardo Mestre has been spotted at the front, doing work to help bring back the break, surely wrong tactics by Privatbank to waste their leader's energy needlessly ?
Break is brought back even before the last intermediate sprint point of the race. It's Mahdi Sohrabi (Armavia) who surprised Rizza (Die Berg) and Schinker (Kenya-Airways) with early sprint and takes full points. However Oleksandr Polivoda is more or less confirmed the winner of the points jersey with great consistency over last four stages, that is if he doesn't abandon yet.
With Team Privatbank with full control and 18km remaining we begin the first and final climb of this race. All the top favourites are trying to position at the front right now.
16km to go and already the first attack of the day initiated by Emanuel Kiserlovski (Kappa), which is followed by Evgeny Bakhin (Armavia) & the big favourite Marco Marzano (Kappa). Surely this is way too early to try pull of a move ? Or is he just showing off his strength to his opponents ? Anyway, the attack is quickly brought back by Privatbank.
Amazing! After few moments of peace it's Marco Marzano again that takes over alone this time. What is the Italian playing out ? With 15km to go surely it's way too early for such attack.
With Privatbank hold of the peleton weakening more top riders come forward to the top. After 1km of I presume show boating Marzano eases the pace and is caught by the peleton. Arroyo is so far looking very relaxed in the upper end of the pack and is not breaking much sweat over Marzano's attacks.
While the pace increases, bit lonely, Faycal Hamza drops from the pack and is almost sure at the end of this stage to receive the King of Mountain jersey. Maybe's he's not the best climber, but his fighting spirit is without a doubt very gritty one. Through his efforts he definitely deserves the jersey at the end.
500 metres later and it's another attack! This time it's Francisco Perez Sanchez (Iberia) that leads the charge followed by De Weert (Die Berg), Ying Hon Yeung (Armavia) & Stefan Ihlenfeldt (MTN). Can they last longer then previous attackers did ?
Meanwhile the constant attacks are too much for some. The peleton is finally splitting seriously. It's the last time we'll see Oleksandr Polivoda in the leader's jersey. But give it too him, he gave his all and had a fantastic opener of the season with stage win, points jersey and 4 days in leader's jersey.
Well it lasted for 4km, but it never looked like they were gaining any sort of meaningful gap. It's now 5km till the end of the stage and the pack is led by De Weert. He's pacing them at reasonable tempo, looking to set up Arroyo.
4km to go and it's Arroyo finally putting strong acceleration. He moves with ease to the front and the whole pack is already struggling to keep up. Marco Marzano follows him swiftly. On the right it's Julian Rodas (MTN) that looks like's he's going to be another attacker today, can he do better than the others before him ? Yasmani Martinez (Kenya-Airways) & Yannick Talabardon (Allianz) are trying to close to the gap to Arroyo, meanwhile Perez Sanchez is pacing Moreno to the front.
With the crowd going mad, Julian Rodas is powering on! 3.5km to go and he manages to pull off 35 seconds gap from the chasing pack. He needs to manage his energy well, as the pack can reduce that kind of gap very fast!
Meanwhile in the pack is Arroyo taking full responsibility of chasing Rodas. Absolutely no-one is helping him at all, and with no team-mates around him after De Weert dropped slightly to the back he's wasting his energy trying to catch the escapee. Talabardon, Carrara, Marzano, Moreno, Bakhin, Nieve, Cabreira & Martinez all at the front!
2km to go and Rodas is still pulling on! Marco Marzano makes the move, Arroyo can't follow! Dani Moreno is now trying to bridge the gap. Seems efforts from few minutes ago are costing Arroyo right now!
Rodas
< 0'19" >
Marzano
< 0'14" >
Moreno
Arroyo
Talabardon
Cabreira
Carrara
Martinez
Incredible racing! Can Rodas actually make it ? He's under the flamme rouge and he's holding off Marzano and Moreno by 15 seconds.Very important for the GC battle that Moreno manages to catch up with Marzano here. Very unexpectedly, Arroyo couldn't find the energy to join with the duo. Looks like Die Berg Komt Er win goal is disappearing now if something doesn't happen fast.. Talabardon & Cabreira are bravely hanging on with Arroyo.
700 metres to go and Rodas is still somehow pulling it off. It's 10 seconds right now between him and Marzano & Moreno who are flying now, it looks like he will be caught in the last metres...
500 metres to go. Marzano & Moreno begin their sprint for the line! Rodas looks completely out of any energy and can't even stand up on his pedals. Let's not forget that Dani Moreno got 8 bonus seconds on the first stage. If Rodas doesn't manage to maintain the 5 second gap, even if he wins he will not win the race. Similarly, Marzano needs to drop Moreno if he wants to win the GC here, but I think he's rather concentrating on the stage win right now!
400 metres to go and Marzano almost catches Rodas. He looks totally spent... what an effort by the Colombian! In the distance it's Arroyo trying to drop his 2 companions in the sprint, but is even struggling with that to be honest. Definitely not Spaniard's best day today.
200 metres to go and while everyone think the catch is made, totally out of nowhere Rodas finds energy out of nowhere and begins acceleration to the line. That catches Marzano totally by surprise, can he make up the distance in the last 200 to go ?
And the answer is no he can't ! Julian Rodas takes absolutely stunning win. Words can't describe it. What an effort. Marco Marzano looks astonished while he crosses the line in 2nd, meanwhile quite anonymously Dani Moreno finishes 3rd and this puts him on level with Julian Rodas in the GC, however due to Moreno finishing higher on last 4 stages overall, it looks like he's the winner of 2013 Tour d'Algiere!
I am sure this picture will be in many front pages of newspapers in Colombia tomorrow! Once again stunning win for the Colombian, and with this stage win he ensures that MTN - World Bicycle Relief completes their Top 5 goal here, something they didn't think was really possible at the start. But here you go, that's why cycling is such a great sport ! You can't predict winner that easily!
David Arroyo finishes on ''weak'' 4th place. This will be quite disappointing for him and his team, however I am sure he'll pick up from this and go on to prove he's the best climber in the division in latter races. Yannick Talabardon rounds of the Top 5 today. João Cabreira is the last rider that managed to stay with the best today. Great result for both those climbers!
Matteo Carrara edges out Yasmani Martinez for the 7th place. Great riding from the Allianz duo and with those result plus their other riders doing well today, they win the Team Classification here as well. Dekkers have disappointed here, but the team certainly delivered at the end!
Evgeny Bakhin rounds off the Top 10 today with excellent result for him. With this result he also takes the White Jersey concluding a good race for his Team Armavia.
That's all folks from Algeria. Hope you enjoyed the journey and here are the full results.
Laurent Didier (WWE)
Mikhail Kochetkov (Die Berg)
Rafiki Uwimana (MTN)
Julián Rodas
Marco Marzano
Daniel Moreno
Yannick Talabardon
João Cabreira
Yasmani Martinez
Evgeny Bakhin
