Last stage and again one of the hardest with 3 HC climbs and 1 Cat.1.
Shared with the 6th stage definitely the queen stage. Last chance for the climbers to drop the puncheurs. Last chance to improve in the GC. Last chance for Bennett, Kirsch etc. to go past Kennaugh. Last chance for Cattaneo to show his climbing skills. Same goes for Dombrowski of course.
Let`s have a closer look on the first mountain. Well deserved HC I guess as the slopes are quite high the whole climb.
Also the next 3 climbs are more than tough. The climbers barely can relax as the slopes are cruel for most of the time. That`s not looking good for the puncheurs by looking on the profiles.
11 riders in the breakaway and even though his manager did hope so: No Dombrowski. Amanuel (33./18pts) Bazhkou (47./30pts) La Lavandier (49./-) Viennet (121./1pt) Sulimov (79./-) Waeytens (26./22pts) Lane (74./14pts) Tanovitchii (69./36pts) Kung (35./-) De Bie (30./18pts) Dyrnes (43./-)
As you can see two former stage winners in Waeytens and Viennet. Also some of them are a bit of a danger GC wise and KoM wise as Antunes is not in here.
Still the peloton or in this case Volkswagen allows them to get a gap. 4min now after 30km raced.
But as soon as the climb starts, Oz has a plan for Bennett, who lost the lead yesterday. 5 riders accelerate with Bennett sitting behind them. The gap is up to almost 8min but that`s probably not their reason to do something. They want the GC back.
The first two riders are dropped.
No surprise that it`s the two riders fighting for the Lanterne Rouge in Bennett and Petit. But then again they have 125km to ride and 3 1/2 climbs, so being dropped that early could be a problem. In especially for Bennett, who could lose the point jersey if being OTL.
3 riders mainly fight for the KoM lead.
Amanuel wins it closely ahead of Waeytens and Tanovitchii and they move closer towards Antunes` lead.
8min later the peloton reaches the top and we have a first split. 63 riders behind and only top30 rider in there is Houle. Today seems to be the day for him to lose many spots as he is surely more a puncheur than a climber.
Their gap slowly grows to more than 3min and by looking at the first two dropped riders, it doesn`t look very well as they are already 25min behind the peloton.
Starting the next climb the gap is down to 5min due to Oz`s work behind.
Even though the pace dropped a lit we have another huge split in the peloton being half up the Cat.1.
Biggest name here for sure Shikai, 9th in the GC.
Still 4 Oz riders at the front with some Puma guy disturbing a bit.
Besada though looks very tired as he does the most work with Phelan, Weiss and Kimmince behind him.
Shikai with 3 helpers tries to come back to the peloton, which isn`t easy due to the high pace there.
Again Amanuel takes the KoM ahead of Waeytens and Tanovitchii. This will be very close between those 3 and Antunes in the end.
Good effort by Meiji as Shikai is brought back into the peloton. He immediately heads towards the front to avoid being hit by another split.
Volkswagen and Alstom took over and the pace immediately drops a bit. The gap is over 6min again.
Half way up the HC no one else than Kennaugh goes into the lead with 50km to go. Bennett is right behind him though.
Why is Kennaugh doing this? Eventually due to his isolation! No Volkswagen rider is able to stay in the 51 rider peloton as Le Bon was dropped recently. So he might be the GC rider with the less support at the moment as most others have at least one helper left.
One rider being dropped due to this acceleration is former race leader Vogt, 15th in the GC, but he surely will lose a lot of positions today.
Also Pranata is no longer looking well and is the next to being dropped.
5km later and Kennaugh is still in the lead having reduced the peloton to 37 riders.
Next KoM and this time Waeytens wins it over Amanuel and Kung.
Bad luck for Amanuel as he has to share the KoM at the moment with Waeytens with Antunes dropping to 3rd 4 points down.
Tanovitchii in 4th another 3 points down.
But as the peloton is already there it`s unlikely that we will see any changes on the final climb.
A small group of riders lost contact on the top including: Olivier, Campero/Koetzky, McCarthy and Ziesler.
But in especially McCarthy does npt want to give up his 6th in the GC and leads the group back into the peloton.
Also Koretzky is coming back after a 13km solo. But with the final climb starting soon it`s unlikely that he will stay very long this time. His 10th is probably not to defend.
The 39 rider favourite group did relax a bit on the descent which also explains some riders making it back. So the breakaway is still a bit ahead. And it`s still Kennaugh doing all the work for 40km already!
The other riders just have to use this against him if they want to win the GC.
10 km to go and the breakaway is caught. And here it is. The long expected attack by Cattaneo. At the moment he is 8th in the GC 3'01 down but surely wants into the top5 by overtaking the puncheurs.
And Kennaugh immediately follows.
This causes another split with 22 riders in front and 23 behind including some mentionable names:
Ziesler
Barguil
Antunes
Olivier
Dombrowski
McCarthy
Koep
Meintjes
Bardet
Wellens
Bongiorno
Lecuisinier
Arndt
Koretzky
Some of those riders being dropped are huge surprises in especially if you name some of the riders in the first group like Kelderman or Skujins, who just can`t be dropped it seems.
The duo in front has a 30s gap with 7,5km to go with Morton, Bennett, Kirsch, Reis, Elissonde, Galta and Shikai trying to come back.
And the 8th rider in this E2 group is Kelderman!!! Where from does he take all his energy?
But then it happened. With 6,5km left he can`t follow and is dropped into the next group. But no need to blame him. Nobody had expected him to be the 10th best climber today! Probably the biggest surprise in this years race.
Morton and Kirsch realize that the pace is too low to join the duo and attack out of their group.
But Bennett and surprisingly strong today Galta ar joining Kirsch soon afterwards while Morton is going solo trying to bridge the gap.
Behind the trio it`s Shikai, Elissonde and Reis next ahead of Grmay, Keldermann and Mat Senan.
Skujins and Barguil solo then ahead of the first bigger group with most other climbers.
Bennett obviously has a weaker day which is quite unlucky as his team had planned something. So the Aussie is back into the Shikai, Reis, Elissonde, Galta group behind Kirsch.
Look at this. Kennaugh demonstrates his full power today as he gaps Cattaneo. Is this the decision? Do we see the 2013 Avenir winner here? Most likely to be honest. Even in the direct duel against Cattaneo he seems to be stronger! So it would be well deserved.
Flamme Rouge! And look behind Cattaneo. Morton with a great ride here almost being back and inside the podium fight! Great performance by him today as well.
50km pace making and then still being the strongest in the end! Well deserved win and chapeau to the winner of the Tour de l'Avenir in 2013: Tim Kennaugh.
He is now to be named in a row with Gesink, Pluchkin, Phinney, Tenorio and Eastman. GT and PT race winners! Future looking great for the Brit for sure.
38s behind Cattaneo finishes as 2nd and the gaps already show that he can improve his position a lot and even the podium is possible.
Morton being 30s later means, that he is overtaken by the Italian.
Kirsch comes in next but already 2'12 behind Kennaugh! Wow. He is 1s down to Cattaneo in the GC! So 3rd for Kirsch and a great 2nd for Cattaneo! Who did expect such a huge jump by him today?
Elissonde with a strong 5th today.
Galta next ahead of Reis, Shikai and Bennett. Poor Bennett to have such a bad day here which will cost him the podium as he drops back to 5th even behind Morton who finishes as great 4th.
Grmay, Mat Senan and then already Kelderman! He will finish as 6th in the GC, which is an awesome result for him.
Behind Skujins and Barguil, who came in solo, Antunes brings in the first bigger group with Bongiorno, Dombrowski, Koep or Lecuisinier.
Shameful. Just shameful.
Kennaugh already took a shower. Other riders are almost at home again and the duo Bennett/Petit start the final climb 1h after Kennaugh finished!
No other rider is on the road as even the 198th finished already.
In the end those two took it more than easy finishing 1h40min behind and are well deserved disqualified. Shame as a point jersey wearer should fight a bit more.
So the jersey gets a more deserved winner in Rick Zabel.
Unfortunately again the game didn`t gave me an exported result...so the final result must be with pictures.
Tanovitchii (69./36pts)
