With 7 categorized climbs on route, this stage will likely decide the king of mountain winner in the race. With 3 hilly laps at the end this stage is even harder than yesterday tough finale, it will be hard to predict who will succeed today, but we should expect plenty of attacks.
Jonas Decouttere is the sole attacker in the first few km’s.
And he crosses the first 2nd category climb of the today with a 1 minute advantage on the peleton. No-one in the peleton attacks for the rest of the points and Hannes Blank crosses the line on 2nd with Bjorn Selander on 3rd.
As we come into the 2nd climb today few kilometers later, it’s a bit of a surprise move as Patrik Sinkewitz attacks from the peleton, conceivably for the remaining KoM points. Decouttere wins the point ahead of the German with Bjorn Selander on 3rd once again followed by Blank.
The pace in the peleton is quite comfortable set by Rothaus – Aegon, Hollister Procycling & Metinvest-Emirates. This job is made easier by just one attacker today so far.
The pace coming to the intermediate sprint increased marginally and Jonas Decouttere was caught in last 3km before the sprint. This allowed the favorite to fight for the points and bonus seconds available. It’s Allan Davis takes the win ahead of Hoffman and Geschke. Those three should be the main riders at the end of today too!
On the 3rd climb today, and the first climb categorized as 1st category climb today it’s again, Patrik Sinkewitz that attacks at last minute to take 16 points here. Blank crosses 2nd taking 12 points here, with Zabalo on 3rd with 10 points.
In virtual standings, it’s now Patrik Sinkewitz leading with 36 points overall, second to him is Decouttere on 29 points, and after being caught, it might be hard for him to collect much more points today.
On the descent, it’s the young Aussie talent in Rohan Dennis that decides it’s good time to attack and show himself off to the cameras.
He crosses the 1st category climb first with 4 minutes advantage and 75km to go. In the peleton it’s again, Patrik Sinkewitz that produces late attack to snatch 2nd place and increase his lead in the king of mountain rankings! Selander and Blank come 3rd and 4th, which moves them up in the virtual rankings on 2nd and 3rd behind Sinkewitz.
47km to go and we begin the last hilly circuits. Dennis finishes the climb with just less than three minutes of a gap, he’ll need bit of luck to stay alone from the galloping peleton behind!
In the peleton meanwhile we don’t see Sinkewitz attack this time, on other hand it’s Hannes Blank that comes 2nd, Zabalo 3rd with Selander again coming 4th, quite a repeated sequence today. This in fact means that Sinkewitz lead in the KoM rankings is cut short, here are the virtual standings with two 2nd category climbs to go:
1
Patrick Sinekwitz
50
2
Hannes Blank
42
3
Bjorn Selander
34
2nd time around and quite a similar situation once again. However this time the German panicks a little and attacks with another late attack. Dennis of course takes full points with Staf Scheirlinckx taking 2nd and Sinkewitz taking 3rd here ahead of Selander which propels him into 2nd in the standings ahead of Blank.
One more to go and the gap with 15km to go is reduced to less than a minute. From the peleton, it’s Ignas Konovalovas that decides to give it a try.
600 metres to go for Konovalovas and he holds 30 seconds lead. Dennis almost collapses in just few metres and is already at the back of the peleton, however the Aussie can be proud of his effort.
None of the favourites in the KoM rankings got any points on the last category meaning Patrick Sinkewitz wraps the king of mountain jersey with only 2 days to go. High pace from Metinvest-Emirates makes sure with 5km to go, the Lithuanian champion should be caught.
Similar to other days, it’s also that makes the only train of the day so far. On the front it’s Kusztor ahead of Popkov and Hoffman who’s been quite disappointing so far, he’ll want to make things straight here. However on his wheel is the leader, Simon Geschke who looked unstoppable yesterday!
Popkov takes over with 2.5km to go, on the front, Konovalovas is giving his all, however looks unlikely to hold.Geschke is in perfect position behind Hoffman. Both Hopman & Lorenzetto are looking good so far too. We can see Gatis Smukulis and Allan Davis lurking about.
Popkov opens his sprint with 1.3km to go! Hoffman’s on his wheel, with Geschke following. Smukulis, Lorenzetto and Davis are the only ones looking to challenge the two favorites on the front with decent positions!
Hoffman opens up the sprint! On the left, it’s Allan Davis is looking to make a sneaky move already catching up with the leaders. However it’s Geschke that has best position still waiting to come out of Hoffmam’s back wheel.
And while he does, at the same time it’s Allan Davis making the acceleration! This is going to be a two riders race now! Both look very similar in terms of speed and there’s nothing to separate them so far!
100 metres to go and they look about even! Can the Aussie end the Rothaus – Aegon dominance here so far? Hoffman’s is looking for 3rd here, best yet, but with such a good leadout slightly disappointing. From the behind we can also see yesterday’s big surprise Jesus Tendero making a move.
Photo finish! They look about even from here!
The organizers take a closer look and the winner is…
Simon Geschke takes his 3rd stage win here marginally ahead of Allan Davis and 5th win for Rothaus in 5 in the race so far! What a ride by the whole team! Hoffman finishes on 3rd, with Tendero repeating another brilliant performance making 4th. Smukulis rounds of the Top 5 with another fine result.
Patrick Sinekwitz 
Bjorn Selander 
Allan Davis
Nolan Hoffman
Jesus Tendero
Gatis Smukulis
Vasili Kiryenka
Dries Devenyns
Vitaliy Popkov
Mirko Lorenzetto
