Terrifying stage today in California. Those riders who don’t like hills will be today in their particular hell with this stage ending in San Francisco
With a climb right after starting the day, there were lots of moves in the first km, with Wang, Molard and Silva being able to get a 2-minute gap in the top of the first climb, although Silva couldn’t follow his breakaway-mates
Cat.3 KoM
Wang 6
Molard 4
Silva 2
Again with very strong wind, the breakaway is caught in the second climb of the day; Ben Lomond Mountain, a Cat.1 climb. There, Juul-Jensen decides to attack with 160 km left in the stage, and riders as Preidler, Koretzky, Slagter and KoM leader Cerny go with him also
This is amazing! Basically all the good puncheurs in the race are attacking now, as Vanendert, Skujins, Jensen and De Bie must think this is the winning move, to go with over 150 km to go
Cat.1 KoM
Koretzky 16
Jull-Jensen 12
Preidler 10
Slagter 8
Skujins 6
Cerny 4
De Bie 2
Sicard has only one team-mate in the now 60-rider bunch, where 2nd in GC, Fraile, is missing. Also, Carlsberg has seen both his climbing leaders fail, as Contador and Garby are in Fraile’s group
We have the best suited rider for this stage in the BotD with 150 km to go. And with a very small leader’s group, they are likely to make their move to stick until the very end. Slagter is the biggest threat for GC, as he is only 40 seconds behind Sicard in GC and is the best climber in the breakaway
Koretzky Jull-Jensen Preidler Slagter Skujins De Bie Vanendert Jensen Cerny
The riders are starting to get nervious in the bunch, and in the next climb, a Cat.2 climb, Tenorio puts Izagirre in the front to work for him. This destroys completely the bunch, as only 40 are left on it. Still more than 100 km left in this epic stage
Cat.2 KoM
Koretzky 10
Skujins 8
De Bie 6
Jensen 4
Slagter 2
In the descent of this climb, both Coppel and Van den Broeck crash. Luckily both can get up and continue in the race. In the mean time we are doing a recap of whose missing in the main group (of riders with 77+ mon, or top20 in GC). Countless important riders who are not anymore in the bunch
Pinot Cort Nielsen Warbasse, Fraile Saggiorato Van den Broeck Contador, Garby Ji Koch Teklehaimanot Senni Dees Brenes Duarte
Frank was the next one to set the pace, even when Izagirre was not even done, but the big news are that Sicard has blown up with 106 km to go! This stage is unbelievable!
Sicard has been very lucky, as in the moment he exploded, Yates and Tenorio attacked, but also caught the leading group, and because there was a downhill coming next, all stopped working. But Jull-Jensen didn’t want this to stop, and attacked again, being followed after a while by Slagter
Dzamagastic is working now for Skujins, as the leading duo has now two minutes when we are about to start the final proper climb of the day - from now, all will be punchy climbs (or hills).
Skujins attacks in the final km of this climb, seeing that Jull-Jensen and Slagter already have 4 minutes on the bunch, and nobody was willing to do the chase. Preidler and Koretzky quickly try to follow the Latvian rider.
Cat.1 KoM
Jull-Jensen 16
Slagter 12
Skujins 10
Koretzky 8
De Bie 6
Izagirre 4
Sicard 2
Still 60 km to finish, but Sicard has already been dropped from a group where Frank, De Bie and Koretzky are doing most of the work for their leaders, and eliminate Sicard is part of it. Intxausti also got dropped at the same time as Sicard
Koretzky and Skujins attack in this Cat.3 climb, forcing a selection in the group. Meyer also tries to follow them in the distance, while De Bie is pulling so hard that has made a split in the group, but Dekker is on the bad side of it
Really not understanding why De Bie has dragged Amador to the leading group, now composed of 7 riders
Skujins Koretzky Jull-Jensen Meyer Slagter Amador De Bie
They have 50 seconds on a group where there are riders like Yates, Tenorio, Jensen, Bystrom, Debesay, Edmondson and Dowsett, and further 30 seconds to the group with Lecuisinier, Dekker, Sicard, etc...
Adam Yates is now on his own after attacking Tenorio and the other riders of his former group, and is 50 seconds away from Amador and his group
Koretzky is now being dropped from the leading group with 40 km left, and also De Bie is suffering a lot to stay in that group
Race situation with 37 km to go
Amador, Skujins, Meyer, Jull-Jensen and Slagter---15’’--- De Bie---30’’--- Yates, Koretzky---30’’--- Debesay---2’20--- Bystrom---30’’--- Sicard, Tenorio, Lecuisinier, Dekker, Wellens, Intxausti, Roglic
And look at what’s left in the stage. This is beyond brutality
26 km left now and both Skujins and Amador has been dropped from the first group after Meyer attacked in the lastest climb and only Slagter and Jull-Jensen were able to follow his move. They have 40 seconds to make up now
Slagter makes his move for the glory with 20 km to go, and Jull-Jensen can’t follow him. Meyer has blown out and is losing a lot of time now. Behind them, Amador left Skujins behind some time ago, while De Bie and Yates are collaborating to lose as less time as possible
Slagter is going to win for sure. With 15 km left he has one minute on Jull-Jensen and another one minute on Amador and Meyer. The question now is he can win enough time to secure himself the GC win, despite having a mountain stage and TT left in the race
Here we have the group with Sicard, Lecuisinier, Tenorio and Dekker, who are 9 minutes behind Slagter in this moment, and they will lose more time in the 12 km they have left
Slagter is on the final climb of the day, Mount Sutro, 1 km at 14%. Only 5 km left for the Dutch rider to get this epic win. The gap to Jull-Jensen has rised over the minute, while Amador is keeping himself within a 3-minute distance, having already dropped Meyer
Final km for Slagter! He is going really fast now, as every second will count in his GC battle against Amador, who is amazingly recovering some time on the rider of Hugo Boss
Tom Slagter wins in San Francisco! He couldn’t have done it better, joining the initial moves with 160 km to go, getting caught around mid-stage, attacking again and holding on the rest of the bunch to win this absolutely epic stage.
He was so concentrated in winning more time that he didn’t even celebrated the win
Jull-Jensen is second, but almost 2 minutes behind Slagter. Anyway, this caps off an incredible race for Carlsberg, with already 2 stage wins
Amador takes third place, losing 3 minutes to Slagter, but he can be considered the winner of the day, as he is now the big favourite for the GC win, despite having to recover aroud 2’40 to Slagter in the last 2 stages. But this shouldn’t be a big problem for the Costa Rican
Meyer takes fourth place ahead of Skujins, both finishing over 4 minutes. Skujins can be a little disappointed, as this was his best chance of a stage win in the race, but Meyer must be really happy with his performance
Yates is sixth, but third of the GC riders. Another great day for the young Brit, who keeps helping his team in their fight against relegation. He has lost around 5’20, but he can be really happy
De Bie, Koretzky, Debesay and Bystrom rounds up the top10. Brave racing by all of them, especially the former two. They all have lost between 6 and 7 minutes
Next rider to cross the line is Dowsett, more than 4 minutes later than the previous one
And the race leader finally have finished the stage. Terrible day for Sicard, but also for Lecuisinier, Dekker and Tenorio who finish with him, over 13 minutes later than Slagter
Fraile’s group arrives now, 26 minutes! behind the stage winner. This was a horrible show from the former race leader
A lot of riders finished outside the time limit. The most affected are some timetrialist who were waiting to shine in the final stage, who know have to go home, like Vlatos, Viennet or Quaade
The image of the glory for Slagter, wearing the leader’s jersey in the podium
