We're heading for Port Elizabeth, where a circuit race will be the final stage of the Tour of South Africa. Again a hilly stage, that ain't as hard as yesterday's queen stage though. However, with a pretty open GC battle, there's of course a chance for Van Garderen to lose yellow - Froome as his biggest threat, obviously.
The break of the day is quickly built:
Craven Bauer Thaouta
The KoM leader is showing his colours once again. While the mountain classification is already sealed, it's now about a stage-win for Bauer and his two breakaway companions.
Unfortunatelly, we do have some crashes again. This time, they all happen in the final third of the stage and so it may be possible losses for the first big names involved:
Costa Caruso Levarlet Mehr-Wenige Hategeka McEvoy Pavarin Jans
go down in a nasty crash about 50km before finish! Costa with another fall after yesterday's unlucky crash inside the final 8km of the stage. With the pace in the peloton now rather high, they are all in danger to at least lose some time on the main group eventually. But there's still a chance to catch back to the peloton though.
The next crash with more than ten riders involved and it's devastating news for Berg Cycles, yet again:
Costa hits the turf for the second time today!
Zaini Teklit Mohoric Navardauskas Serry Mugerli
Also Teklit not with his first crash in the race.. but amongst all crash victims today, it's Costa, who ain't looking good after his two falls today and three crashes in two days. He's definitely going to lose big minutes today, as he can't keep up with those crashed/dropped riders!
And the peloton obivously does not stop chasing the early break: 17km to go and the pack has been shrunked to 76 riders, mainly due to those crashes. The early break leads by 1'23" and a few teams keep the pace high.
The recently crashed riders didn't make it back to the peloton yet:
Mohoric about 2 minutes behind..
Zaini, Levarlet, Teklit further 25 seconds..
Costa is looking hurt and drops far back now..
Mohoric is not only fighting to keep his GC position, but also to defend his U25 lead. He's supported by Navardauskas, who's also been involved in the latest crash and the duo is chasing the pack to limit the damage..
..but his biggest contender for the U25 jersey is looking good in the main group:
Le Gac tries to escape from the peloton with 8km left! The early break is a minute ahead.
Mohoric is 1'30" behind the peloton, where Le Gac obviously has no mercy and accelerates the pace:
Tsatevich trying to catch up and there's also Froome, Van Garderen and Di Maggio in the front of the pack now.
Le Gac couldn't go clear and now goes Froome!
With just 12 seconds behind Van Garderen in the GC, the Brit surely has a realistic chance to slip into yellow today. And with now just 6.4km remaining and the breakaway still leading by 54", he has to put some pressure on the man in yellow now.
Tsatevich again leading the peloton in order to catch up with Froome. He's a strong support for Van Garderen so far in this stage.
And Froome couldn't open up a gap, as Tsatevich brought it back together a few moments later. The pace leads to a bigger split in the pack though and as we're already approaching the finish now, there's just 20 riders left in the main group. The already mentioned dropped riders as the most notable names.
The early break reaches the final kilometre, with Bauer leading the trio onto the slightly uphill finishing stretch. There are waiting for each other to launch their sprint, but they are also pretty exhausted and significally slower than the nearing first chasing group.
..where it's again Froome, who's accelerating first! Van Garderen close behind him, Ulissi and Reichenbach on the further positions. Le Gac, Palini, Venter, Kreder and Di Maggio not far behind in the more promising positions in this group.
Bauer the strongest of the early break, but the GC favorites are already close behind him! Froome, Van Garderen and Ulissi with some great speed and while Froome couldn't drop Van Garderen with his attacks, he's still in contention for yellow, if Van Garderen somehow cracks in those final few hundred metres!
There's a clear gap to Reichenbach and Kreder, who lead the group into the final metres..
Froome can't keep up with Van Garderen, who's sprinting towards the overall victory and the stage-win! Ulissi (wearing the green jersey in TVG's place) and Bauer (wearing polka dot) still fighting to beat the yellow jersey. But Van Garderen has an advantage with just one and a half bike length to go!
And Van Garderen sprints to his second stage-win! He beats Ulissi and a strong Bauer completes the stage podium on this final day here in South Africa. That's definitely a stylish way to defend your yellow shirt.
Froome gave it a try today, but he has to settle for a 4th place on the stage and the runner-up in the GC.
Craven holds off the other GC contenders to finish 5th on the stage: Thaouta 6th ahead of Kreder, Reichenbach, Le Gac, Di Maggio and Venter.
+ 1'19" for Mohoric as 24th on the stage. He fought hard to limit the damage, but couldn't catch up to the first group after his fall. He will definitely lose his white jersey with today's result from Le Gac.
+ 1'30" for a next group with Teklit, Mehr-Wenige and Mugerli
Tough luck for Teklit once again and he may drop a place or two in the GC..
+ 2'07" for a group with Hategeka and Caruso
+ 4'04" for a group with Levarlet, who clearly suffered from his crash
+ 5'16" for Zaini, another crash victim
+ 13'10" for Costa, who might be just happy to finish the stage somehow
Van Garderen celebrating a huge GC victory with two stage-wins and the points classification as further key points. A huge points haul coming in, as he also had a few days in yellow here. Definitely a strong perfromance for him. Well done.
Froome 2nd ahead of Di Maggio, so the best puncheurs delivered in this race. Froome gave TVG a good fight today, but he couldn't get away to finish the GC 32" behind Van Garderen eventually.
Ulissi 4th ahead of Reichenbach then. Venter a strong 6th thanks to his stage-win yesterday, while Teklit dropped to 10th today. Palini 7th ahead of Paulinho and Le Gac, who went past Mohoric (11th) in the final stage. Good GC results for Mugerli, Walker, McEvoy and Tsatevich, who complete the Top-15.
Zaini (18th), Mehr-Wenige (25th), Hategeka (27th), Levarlet (31st) and of course Costa (39th) with some heavy losses today. Particularly Costa with a tragedy in yesterday's stage and today's two crashes in addition. You could hardly have more tough luck than he had in the final two days of the tour.
Bauer not only a strong 3rd on today's stage, but also celebrating his KoM victory. Taking the lead already on the first day and defending the polka dot until the end, that's some nice points for Berg Cycles, who had this bad luck with Costa.
Le Gac rode a good final stage, but of course he did benefit from Mohoric's crash as well. Winning the U25 competition by 31" eventually, Mohoric probably wouldn't have lost the jersey if he hadn't been involved in a rather late crash. Still, congratulations to Le Gac, who rode a strong tour when former race-leader Caruso began to struggle since the TTT.
