Final stage in Ireland: all competitions still open, with GC-leader Kupfernagel in a good position to defend both yellow and green.
With two wins in a row and 15 seconds over Ciolek in the GC, he's going strong in the past few days. Nizzolo to defend the final podium spot against Vantomme, who's been anything but good in the past few days though.
9 riders going clear right from the start and we will see another thrilling battle for the polka dot today:
Field Moinard (3rd in KoM, 88pts) Quaade Cummings Millan (1st in KoM, 104pts) Sanz Cerny (+ 3.31 in GC as best placed) Wetterhall Speirs
So former KoM-leader Moinard aiming to attack Millan today. With five mountain sprints (all Cat3) on the menu, it's doable!
But first, up for Avelino. As if his race hasn't been bad enough here, he also goes down with a crash about 29km before finish. With the peloton chasing hard at this point, he won't make it back there. Losing his 20th in GC is more than likely that way.
The battle for polka dot is as thrilling as we could have hoped for! Moinard looks strong today and puts some heavy pressure on Millan, when taking the penultimate sprint and also attacking the leading group now:
KoM after 4/5 Millan 114 Moinard 112 Hamilton 94
Two points.. one sprint to come! The peloton, by the way, about a minute in arrears with now 22km remaining..
Moinard couldn't escape from the breakaway and - good news for an totally exhausted Millan - now hasn't got the power to contest for the final mountain sprint! With the peloton nearing, the escaping group keeps pacing and that's it for Moinard and his mission "polka dot". Still a huge fight today.
Speaking of fights: the peloton struggles to pull the breakaway back right in time! Speirs, Cerny, Wetterhall and Sanz as the last escapees at the front of the race.
With the bunch being about half a minute behind, those four will battle for line honours.. Pretty good news for Kupfernagel, who won't have to fear Ciolek taking the stage..
Speirs with the worst position and therefore suffering with the line approaching: Cerny and Wetterhall head-to-head..
..and Wetterhall takes out the final stage!
The peloton crosses the line just a few moments later, finishing within the same time as today's winner:
Vantomme finally with a sign of strength, sprinting for 5th place and maybe crucial bonifications, as GC's 3rd Nizzolo ain't to be seen behind him!
Ciolek, Reimer, Pelucchi and Kupfernagel sprinting for the further positions..
..and while Reimer goes for 6th ahead of Ciolek and Kupfernagel ending up 9th on the stage, that's still enough for Kupfernagel to defend yellow.
For the final results now:
Kupfernagel winning the FDB Eire Tour thanks to some very consistent sprinting and two stage-victories. A kinda deserved win, as he hadn't exactly any very bad days here.
Ciolek 2nd in both GC and points. Maybe not what he was hoping for, but still a good result overall. Vantomme actually went past Nizzolo in the final GC! A kinda lucky 3rd for the Belgian, who kicked off the race with two stage-wins, but suffered big time in the previous few days. Nizzolo took his off-day at the worst moment here.
Rowe, Mezgec, Meyer, Castañeda ahead of Reimer and Renshaw then. Some rather quiet days for the likes of Rowe, Meyer and Castaneda in those final stages, while Reimer did quite well in the more tricky days.
Also Pelucchi (11th) with some better results eventually, while Drapac (13th) wasn't much of a factor in the past few stages.
Kip (beind dropped in a split), Bouhanni (crash) and Avelino (crash & performance) with unlucky overall results. At least Kip (and Bouhanni in the first stage) did have some good sprints here. Avelino though.. a race to forget.
