The last stage starts with the winds gusting at more than 50 km/hr.
Abal's poor day yesterday means that the gap at the top has become comfortable for Dekker but it very close in the fight for the podium as well as the rest of the top 10. Another rider who had a bad day in the last stage was Haig and he will be hoping to amends here. It was the opposite for Cattaneo, Hirt and Nerz and their target will be to keep their improvements going.
A lot of riders present here who've already been in breakaways in the other stages. Only three intermediate climbs, but the third one gives a decent points haul. Smirnovs is the big absentee, providing the perfect opportunity to Gastauer to claim the KOM jersey.
Egger wins the first KOM sprint, followed by Gastauer and Affonso. Gastauer is the new KOM leader. The break leads by 7'34".
Hughes wins the second KOM sprint, with a gap back to Egger, Gastauer, Furdi and Chernetskiy, the other points scorers here.
There is a big pack split on the second climb, with three groups now going up the mountain. Keinath is the highest placed rider not in the lead group.
E2 and E3, including Keinath, from above come back together after the descent.
Cink, Hughes, Chernetskiy is the order through the intermediate sprint point. The break's lead is 9'33".
Wind speeds are up even further, going past 60 km/hr now!
There is a split again in the peloton. E2 has 25 riders, including all the GC toppers...
...except Reis (Porto-Prio) and Nairo Quintana, who are in the peloton behind.
Affonso is dropped from the break.
10 km to the top of the HC climb. Chernetskiy is struggling. Cuasquer, Gastauer and Vanendert have also been dropped.
Mager and Chevrier are dropped from the break next. Furdi looks to be struggling.
Kangert is the virtual GC leader for the moment! But he goes on to get dropped from the break too!
It's all kicking off in the next group as Monsalve can't keep up. He's dropped. McCarthy drops back to help out his leader.
The Dekker group now trails the front of the race by 10'3". Kangert is no longer the leader.
Hughes and Cink go past the HC KOM point in that order. The race situation at the moment is as follows:
Away from our cameras, the Dekker group has also split up on the climb. Sicard has got a gap while Abal has been dropped for the second stage in a row. They are currently riding as follows:
E7 (4'41" ) -> Sicard
E8 (5'29" ) -> Dekker, Cattaneo, Hirt
E9 (5'53" ) -> Nibali
E10 (6'3" ) -> Abal
E11 (7'6" ) -> Galta, Nerz, Formolo, Sosnitskiy, Rosch, Keinath Nairo Quintana at 12'47" Monsalve, Haig at 13'5"
Reis (Porto - Prio) is even further back!
The Dekker group catches Sicard and Affonso on the descent. Nibali is visible in the distance.
Rosch is dropped from the Galta group.
Affonso is dropped from the Dekker/ Sicard group and is picked up by Nibali. Abal rides up to them.
At the front, it is now Hughes, Cink, Egger, Kangert and Furdi riding together. 25 km to go.
Cink wins the second intermediate sprint followed by Hughes. The others are dropped from this group again. Chevrier catches up to them and takes third in the sprint.
With 15 km left, the situation is as follows:
E1 -> Cink
E2 (20" ) -> Hughes
E3 (3' ) -> Sicard, Dekker, Chevrier, Mager, Kangert, Egger, Furdi, Cattaneo, Hirt, Gastauer, Chernetskiy, Cuasquer
E4 (4'28" ) -> Vanendert
E5 (5'5" ) -> Nibali, Sosnitskiy, Abal, Galta, Nerz, Keinath, Formolo Nairo Quintana at 6'33" Monsalve at 11'28"
Reis (Porto-Prio) is even further back!
(E3)
Vanenedert gets caught and dropped by the Abal group. The latter group catch Chevrier, Chernetskiy and Mager, who are dropped from the Sicard/ Dekker group.
Now, Gastauer, Kangert and Furdi are dropped from the Dekker/ Sicard group.
Abal is in trouble again as he is dropped from the Nibali/ Galta group.
7 km. Hughes is caught by what's left of the Sicard/ Dekker group.
Cink is caught a kilometer later. Hughes is still hanging on. The Nibali/ Galta group (visible is pic) is at 2'39". Abal is at 3'39". Nairo Quintana is at 6'55".
Hughes is dropped.
Cink is dropped with 4 km left.
Nibali's pace is dropping Galta! Abal is visible in the background.
Cattaneo and Hirt are away! Dekker looks to be struggling a bit having done a lot of work so far. 2 km to go. With the way the race has turned out, both riders are looking at making major gains in the overall standings.
We catch up to them again with 500 meters to go. It's a drag race to the top of the mountain!
And Hirt is too fast for Cattaneo! Hirt takes the win on this final stage! Cattaneo will be disappointed to lose out after his huge effort but he'll surely be climbing onto the podium with what has happened to Abal and Monsalve.
Sosnitskiy is the freshest in the next group and it shows as he distances both Sicard and Dekker to take 3rd on the stage. This is another rider making some gains in the GC. Sicard gets some time to Dekker, but it's not nearly enough.
A very tired but absolutely satisfied Dekker takes 5th on the stage and seals his win!
Cink is 6th...
...with Hughes 7th. Two huge rides from these guys from the day's break.
Nerz, Nibali and Keinath complete the top 10.
Formolo is 11th. Gazelle have had a good day.
Galta finishes 12th and secures his U25s jersey.
Abal is 13th, nearly 8' down. He loses his podium spot.
Nairo Quintana comes in almost 11' behind.
Monsalve has lost over 20'.
Today's stage winner - Jan Hirt.
The overall winner - Thomas Dekker.
A super-hard stage sees 25 riders fails to make it to the finish. There were no retirements reported, so we can assume they all missed the time limit!
In the GC standings, behind Dekker and Sicard, Cattaneo moves up to 3rd, with Hirt getting 4th. Abal drops to 5th. Monsalve has a nightmare, falling to 19th after the final stage. Haig ends up 33rd! Even worse off was Reis (Porto - Prio) and Pinot, who both lost more than 32 minutes and end up 44th and 49th respectively.
In the KOM race, Gastauer took advantage of Smirnovs's absence from the break and took the jersey away on this stage. Edet keeps his 3rd place.
Dekker wins the Points classification, ahead of Sicard. Hirt moves up to 3rd after the last stage.
Galta is the U25 winner, followed by Formolo and Mager. The latter duo were greatly helped by their performance on this stage.
After having led the race for the most part, Orange give up the team classification lead to Gazelle on the last stage. Moser pick up 3rd.
