Last stage in this race should be for the sprinters, however there’s decent amount of climbing to be did during the stage. That shouldn’t cause many problems and the big favourites as for past days will be Allan Davis, Nolan Hoffman and Simon Geschke who’ll be looking for at least 2nd place to win the GC with bonus seconds on the line.
Linus Gerdemann stole the show yesterday and will try to do all he can to take this jersey home. However he can’t do much today, he can just hope that Simon Geschke will have a bad day, which in this race so far, didn’t happen much.
First attack of the day and can you guess which rider it is? It’s indeed Rohan Dennis, if there was a combative jersey in this race, he would definitely have won it here.
He is joined by three other riders; Dylan Van Baarle, Anton Vorobev & Niels Scheunemann. Together they have 3 minute lead with 50km to go.
With 20km to go Kai Reus decides to make a brave move with the late attack. The gap to the leading quarter is less than a minute and he should catch them soon.
15km to go and it’s surprisingly the leader, Linus Gerdemann that has to do the chasing on his own! It’s surprising that none of his team-mates are helping him, instead they sit back so far. 20 seconds is the gap and Gerdemann is closing it pretty quickly though.
As the original break is caught with 8km to go it’s another late attacker in form of Ion Izaggire giving it a go! However as we can see it’s Metinvest-Emirates taking it to the front right now! For past days they always made the only sprint train, and failed. Can they succeed today?
5km to go and as Izaggire is caught we have another two attackers! It’s Andrew Tennant and crowd favoruite Dietmar Mehr-Wenige giving it last go today!
They are caught with 2.5km to go and Vitaliy Popkov opens his sprint quite early. On his wheel it’s the South African, Nolan Hoffman. The pace is so high we have just a single line today. Behind Hofman there are:
Hoffman goes with 1.3km to go! Did he go too early today? Vaitkus and Davis sit in best position so far, while we can see Simon Geschke makes a move out of Davis’s wheel. The German needs just 2nd today and he looks like he can do it!
As Hoffman fades it’s Thomas Vaitkus that takes the lead with Allan Davis challenging him on the left! Geschke is following the right wheel, just behind Vaitkus but he needs to make a move soon!
300 metres to go and it’s Allan Davis that shoots away from everyone, he’s looking very comfortable and should take his first win here! Vaitkus is still holding onto his 2nd, but Geschke is making his move now! Can he squeeze him for 2nd?
After few 2nd places, Allan Davis takes the deserved win today. Tomas Vaitkus holds off Geschke for 2nd which means Linus Gerdemann is the winner of 2013 Thuringen Rundfahrt by just 4 seconds!
In other news, at 6km mark there was a crash at the back of the peleton. Two Vueling leaders were involved, Quintana and Sinkewitz. The peleton powered on and the two just couldn’t make up the distance and loose valuable positions in the GC.
The GC looked to be dominated by Rothaus, but Gerdemann’s brilliant win makes him the winner of this edition, very worthy as well. Simon Geschke is a big surprise on 2nd, not many would have predicted that and with more luck today, he could have snatched it at the end. Lars Boom ends on 3rd, and with a stage win under his belt, he should be happy as should the whole Rothaus team. Kireynka and Hudecek make 4th and 5th, preety good results for the two. Kai Reus might be slightly disappointed with his result in GC, but it’s a good beginning to his season.
With the consistency shown over 7 stages, Simon Geschke wins the Points Jersey with ease. Davis comes 2nd here and saved his race with 2nd and 1st in last three stages here. Hoffman will come as the most disappointed big sprinter here, but it could be seen he wasn’t at his best after his massive success in South Africa.
1
Simon Geschke
Rothaus - Aegon
16
109
2
Allan Davis
Hollister Pro Cycling
25
88
3
Nolan Hoffman
Metinvest-Emirates
12
61
4
Vasili Kiryenka
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
0
60
5
Lars Boom
Rothaus - Aegon
7
44
6
Tomas Vaitkus
airBaltic - Endura
20
43
7
Linus Gerdemann
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
0
36
8
Gatis Smukulis
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
0
36
9
Mirko Lorenzetto
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
14
35
10
Jesus Tendero
Rothaus - Aegon
0
34
King of Mountain Standings
Patrik Sinkewitz was very unlucky on the last stage, he compensates his bad luck with at least this jersey. Both Selander and Blank didn’t fight for this jersey, they just crossed the line plenty of time while controlling the pace, however their managers will be happy. Most combatative rider of the race finishes on 4th, in form of the young Rohan Dennis
1
Patrik Sinkewitz
Team Vueling Airlines
60
2
Bjorn Selander
Hollister Pro Cycling
44
3
Hannes Blank
Rothaus - Aegon
42
4
Rohan Dennis
Adira-Isq Project
40
5
Linus Gerdemann
Sram-Riboxx Cycling Team
38
6
Lars Boom
Rothaus - Aegon
30
7
Jonas Decouttere
Swedbank-PEAB
29
8
Xavier Zabalo
Rothaus - Aegon
28
9
Nairo Quintana
Team Vueling Airlines
27
10
Vasili Kiryenka
Tinkoff Bank - Rosneft OJSC
26
Overall Youth Standings
It was very close fight between 3 riders here, but at the end it’s Carlos Betancourt that takes the jersey ahead of the German champion, Mehr – Wenige who could be bit disappointed with this tour.
1
Carlos Betancourt
Hollister Pro Cycling
19h36'09
2
Dietmar Mehr-Wenige
Adira-Isq Project
+ 8
3
Ion Izagirre
Hollister Pro Cycling
+ 8
4
Oleksandr Prevar
Metinvest-Emirates
+ 46
5
Richard Cleaver
Jaguar - Eritel
+ 1'20
6
Tobias Ludvigsson
Swedbank-PEAB
+ 1'36
7
Andris Vosekalns
airBaltic - Endura
+ 2'12
8
Nairo Quintana
Team Vueling Airlines
+ 2'26
9
Dylan Van Baarle
airBaltic - Endura
+ 6'36
10
Michael Schwarzmann
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
+ 7'33
Team Standings
Rothaus dominated the race with their amazing performances, but t the end in the GC it was Sram-Riboxx that had strength in numbers. 4 in final Top 10 in GC is very impressive. Russian outfit grabs respectable 3rd here.
Allan Davis
Tomas Vaitkus
Simon Geschke
Mirko Lorenzetto
Nolan Hoffman
Jérome Giaux
Carlos Betancourt
Luka Mezgec
Lars Boom
Nikolai Trusov
Vasili Kiryenka
Jiri Hudecek
Timothy Duggan
