A 192km stage all around Ronse but this time there are some serious cobbles to contend with, Podium Ambition with Thomas, Hristov and Grashev are the favourites, alongside Bush and De Vocht, unless of course the hills prove too tough, in which case riders like De Haes, Marcos, De Vreese are favoured.
As for the GC battle, Clifford is alright on the cobbles and might even be looking for time on other puncheurs due to the difficulties for him tomorrow, while Klemme, Diggle and Tiernan-Locke will have to limit their losses if they want to contest the overall victory.
There are also some very strong winds blowing, today promises some very exciting racing!
Muhlberger leads the race to join the morning breakaway but De Maar opens up hostilities by trying to join the attacks! He must still want to defend his title despite being 6’17 down in the GC. The peloton surprisingly lets him escape and a large group forms:
Muhlberger De Maar Foliforov Jung Chan Dahlberg Karwowski Konwa Bazzana Mraouni
The break quickly establishes a large lead, Bazzana wins the first climb points and by the first intermediate sprint where Dahlberg rolls over first, they have a lead of 8’30.
World Cycling Club have really put their eggs in one basket, having Bush pace the peloton for Clifford, the combination of Bush’s strength and the wind is creating small gaps all over the peloton, and 31 riders have already been dropped, no stage or GC contenders but Taborre is set to lose even more time today.
Bush is single-handedly destroying the pack, already many splits occurring and anybody not at the front is in danger, as another 52 riders are dropped including the three Podium Ambition riders Thomas, Hritsov and Grashev as well as Pozzato who seems to be badly injured.
Bush takes a rest and the La Poste team takes control, this give the group of Podium Ambition riders a chance to get back on, but the danger is still there given there are 130km left and a break 9 minutes up the road to catch.
The break has 90km left and a 7’30 lead now, of the last 4 climbs the first has gone to Karwowski followed by three fights between Bazzana and Konwa. The first two going to the former and the most recent to the latter. Chan and second in mountains standings Foliforov have been dropped, which will help Clifford still keep his lead in the mountains standings, but Bazzana is closing in on him.
Diggle, Bille and Drakakis have come down, they have plenty of teammates coming back though, so they have no trouble coming back to the peloton which is only 90 riders strong now.
With 40km to go the break decimates due to a fierce KOM sprint where Bazzana topped Konwa. Putting Bazzana in the provisional KOM lead. Those two manage to escape with Mraouni and De Maar, they still have 4 minutes on the bunch.
Surprisingly Konwa and Bazzana have dropped Mraouni and De Maar with 25km left and still 3 minutes on the peloton.
Hugentobler has realised this is the time to go! Clifford sees the danger and chases with Ngandamba on his wheel Bille, De Haes, Marcos and Grashev are all in close attendance, followed by a slight gap to Navardauskas, Van der Haar, Kinney, Backaert and Rathe with Karwowski being picked up from the break by them.
Behind that there’s another 30 riders, led by Østergaard and Park. On the back of this a few big names are struggling, most noticeably Klemme, Diggle and Nzeke.
The pack has sorted themselves out by the bottom of the climb Hugentobler has caught Dahlberg from the break but still has to close 2 minutes on the 2 leaders, he currently has a minute lead on a 15 rider group containing:
Ngandamba, Bille Clifford, Backaert Grashev, Thomas Muhlberger Van der Haar Navardauskas Jung De Haes, Marcos, Kinney Mygind Giaux
There’s a 36 rider group containing all the other favourites just a minute behind that group, where Park and Bridges are desperate to get back to the front.
Frantic racing leads to some risks being taken which causes Hristov and Owen to come down in the chase group, fortunately nobody else is down.
Konwa is much stronger than Bazzana the penultimate time up the climb and they have somehow increased their lead on Hugentobler to 3 minutes, with 14km left, the win is almost in the bag for them.
12km left on the penultimate climb, and there are some riders struggling on the back of the chase group leaving just 8 riders in the chase:
Ngandamba, Bille Clifford, Backaert Grashev, Thomas Van der Haar Mygind
With 8km left, Konwa and Bazzana have somehow grown their lead to an amazing 4’30 over Hugentobler and De Maar, with an extra 45 seconds on the 8 man chase group, most likely due to the race decimating and forming a chase becoming difficult. The stage win is almost guaranteed to them, but Konwa is only 4’38 down on Clifford in the overall standings, so he’ll be racing for the overall too now, while Clifford only has Backaert to chase and limit his losses.
This group has 7km to close the 41 second gap to Hugentobler who has caught Mraouni. Navardauskas and Marcos have managed to bridge to the chase as they catch De Maar.
Konwa and Bazzana enter the final kilometre with an amazing 4’24 on Hugentobler, and this is the final of 9 showdowns today for the two as so far in the mountain sprints they have topped the other in 4 sprints each.
Konwa takes the win! He pushed the pace up the whole climb and Bazzana was simply too tired and never managed to pass him, Now we’ll start the clock to see if Konwa can take the leaders jersey.
Hugentobler leads Mraouni into the final kilometre, still with a 30 second lead on the chase,
Hugentobler maintaining a gap of 30 seconds on the chase, it was a bold attack but it didn’t win that much more than a third place for him. Everyone is too tired for a true sprint today as Ngandamba, heads off Grashev in the race for fourth. Thomas and Van der Haar take 6th and 7th respectively.
Clifford has shown his first sign of weakness today, collapsing in the final metres and losing 14 seconds to the front of the group. This secures the jersey from Konwa by just 1 second! Promising a great battle tomorrow.
Following Clifford is Backaert and Marcos. Before Bille takes his first place outside the top ten by finishing 11th, all satisfied to not lose too much time. Not as good for Navardauskas and Mygind up that final hill as they couldn’t follow the pace.
Park escaped the larger chase group and finish 40 seconds in front of them, who managed to limit their losses to just 2’30 on Hugentobler today, so there is still potential for them to contest the overall on the hilly stage tomorrow, but it’s very unlikely.
