Last stage and a view on the GC shows a good advantage for Borges. Also Chaabane and Chu look optimistic to keep their podium.
The stronger Mendes, Geschke etc. though mustn`t be underestimated as a good attack could eventually bring them on the podium as well.
Also the KoM ranking below is still close and with 3 Cat.4 climbs enough points are rewarded to change the ranking a lot.
4 riders in todays break: Rake is interesting as best placed being +2'55 De Greef as best KoM rider being 4th at the moment only 6 points behind Borges in that ranking.
The other two are: Ebsen
5 points for De Greef. So only 1 point left. Raje and Semple behind him at least make him fight for it.
No surprise to see Evonik helping out the Bonsucro guys. 2 consecutive wins and today is a good chance to make it three. This would also let Geschke pass Mendes.
While Rake is the best, it`s Semple taking both sprints as only interested rider. He is just +2'58 and now overtook Rake for best placed rider of the breakaway.
Then some attacks out of the peloton: Toribio (+2'55) Jones (+2'43) McConvey (+2'49)
Close but successful. 5 more points for De Greef and this is the lead. Rake just behind him ahead of Ebsen.
6 Evonik riders now pushing hard to catch the group. Jones is already dropped of the last attackers and soon to be caught. The others have a bit more gap but are in sight.
Now also Echelons. Tough racing here. Only 67 riders in the first group including Toribio and McConvey as well again.
Then a group of 20 a bit behind including
Tang (15.)
Parisien (28.)
Lang (48.)
At the end of the first group Haga (12.) and Montaguti (16.) are really fighting but are close to be dropped.
Rake first at the KoM but De Greef taking more points secures him the jersey. Well done. Rosskopf as 3rd already a peloton rider as all others are caught.
For some weird reason the peloton did slow down a lot at times. Was it a leader being close to be dropped? Was it some other reason? I don`t know. But 126 riders are together again with 5km when the breakaway is caught though. This almost secures Borges the GC win as attacks should have come earlier. Only one short hill too come and the pace is not that high to let the weaker puncheurs suffer. Even the sprinters surely hope for another chance.
That said Evonik is no longer in the first rows and also BoI did not jump in for Mendes.
Manarelli will not win I guess. He was working all day for Borges as the GC win is surely a higher priority.
2km left and two sprinters jump out of the peloton.
First is Forero, who seems to be in shape again after his crash. 2nd is Fonseca, who won the first sprint finish in this race.
Behind the Bonsucro Armada is also starting their sprint. Also in the good positions:
Haddou
Fisher
Dahlberg and with a smaller gap:
Serebriakov
Right at the end of the peloton: Simon Geschke!
Why? His team did work all day and now he must be careful to not be dropped!
Weird stage this is.
The early sprint might actually work out for this duo and it`s Fonseca going in the lead with 1km to go.
Borges in 3rd also on a very good way to even extend his gap. Mendes behind him will at least secure the 4th ahead of Geschke, who is not sprinting.
Great win for Fonseca though. A stage win on unexpected terrain though and todays weirdness surely helped him as he was dropped just like most other sprinters earlier.
In the end he also is able to celebrate stage win no.2 ahead of Forero.
Mendes as 3rd with a last sign but instead an attack was expected and needed to improve. Duggan 4th and Wyss 5th also could have done better ahead of Borges 6th, who will take the GC.
