The Tour d'Andorra concludes with the most brutal stage in the previous five days: the amount of climbing kilometres is simply awesome. A great day for anyone fighting for the KoM classification. A bad day for anyone less climbing skilled rider.
And obviously, a key stage for the GC conteners: Valls vs Penasa for the overall victory. The other favorites seem to be too far behind, with Anacona as 3rd and Karnulin, Bennett, Panayotov and maybe Cataldo as the biggest threats for that podium spot. On a day like today, anything can happen and so Anacona may secretly hope to still have a shot at the GC victory.
Two riders went clear from the pack right from the start - an interesting duo, that is quickly a minute ahead:
Campero (GC's 11th, + 6.36) Lewis (GC's 53rd, + 19.19)
A few more riders tried to follow, but they can't go clear from the pack: Stetina, Ruijgh, Lemus Davila, Cuming, Ikibe.
Lewis would take the first of nine Cat2 mountain sprints across today's stage:
KoM-leader Pirazzi, Løvik, Briceno and Belkov join the leading duo on the second climb of the day, with Pirazzi taking 4pts at the first climb.
Campero and Lewis though appear to be the strongest and they drop Pirazzi, Lovik, Briceno and Belkov (who never really managed to catch up with this group) already on the third climb of the day, still 149km to go.
The former leading duo is also the new leading duo, with Pirazzi already 1'47" behind as third on the road, fighting to defend his KoM-lead:
KoM#3: Lewis 10, Campero 8, Pirazzi 6, Lovik 4, Briceno 2
KoM#4: Lewis 10, Campero 8, Camier 6, Valls 4, Penasa 2 (all remaining escapees have been caught by the pack!)
On the fifth climb (100km remaining), we see a next wave of attacks - with Campero/Lewis leading by more than two minutes:
Destribois De Clercq + 1.40
Degand + 0.24
Maesen + 0.17
Pirazzi + 0.08
Pirazzi still trying, but Destribois and De Clercq as the most promising of those latest attackers..
KoM#5: Lewis 10, Campero 8, Destribois 6, De Clercq 4, Degand 2
KoM#6: Lewis 10, Campero 8, De Clercq 6, Destribois 4, Le Bon 2 (Degand, Maesen and Pirazzi have been swallowed by the peloton)
Provisional KoM: Pirazzi 77, Briceno 60, Lewis 60, Campero 54
On the fast descent from this sixth climb today, we have the first crash in a tricky corner:
80km to go and still a chance to make it back to the peloton. They are back on the bike quickly, but it ain't easy to catch up with the peloton, that is going for a higher pace now (Campero/Lewis 3.22 ahead - only De Clercq in between): just 44 riders are left in the main group and the crash victims have to go past several smaller groups, that can't follow the pace anymore.
With 66km remaining, Bennett/De Marchi/Koshevoy are finally brought back to the pack. Salinas (1.11 behind) and Atapuma (1.20) couldn't though!
Seventh climb, 59km to go for the leading duo, that is now 5 minutes ahead of the peloton! De Clercq three minutes behind.. Campero takes over the pace setting and wins his first mountain sprint of the day:
KoM#7: Campero 10, Lewis 8, De Clercq 6, La Lavandier 4, Penasa
KoM#8: Campero 10, Lewis 8, La Lavandier 6, Valls 4, Penasa 2 (De Clercq has been caught by the peloton)
Provisional KoM: Pirazzi 77, Lewis 76, Campero 74 - still one more mountain sprint until they will enter the final climb!
30km left, the main group of GC contenders is down to just 25 riders in the meantime:
Valls Penasa Anacona, Manfredi, Krasnoperov Karnulin, Mat La Lavandier Cataldo Panayotov Pozzovivo, Cuming Solis, Rujano Bardet, Ruijgh, Battaglin Moschella, Atapuma Eastman Khripta, Hacecký Lewis Mat Senan Hardy Pozzo
Bennett can't hang on anymore! The Kiwi, who rode so strong in the previous two days, suffers from his crash and with still 30km to go, he will surely lose big minutes eventually. Tough luck and also his teammates Salinas and Antón have been dropped after their efforts to support Bennett.
De Marchi even further behind..
Degand as another one, who will signfically drop in the GC today..
Campero though looks set to improve his 11th in the GC, if he continues to climb like he does now: 29km before finish, he easily dropped Lewis for a long solo attempt!
He's still 3'30" ahead of the main group and takes the final mountain sprint easily:
Provisional KoM: Campero 84, Lewis 84, Pirazzi 77 - there's still the points rewarded at the summit finish!
13.5km to go, the riders enter the challenging 'Col D'Ordino' for a long way up to the finish. Campero's lead is down to a minute with the big guns setting the pace:
Valls and Penasa attack the GC group!
Valls/Penasa with a magnificent attack, opening up a 46" gap on the group quickly! Many riders suffer from the brutal stage and the group of GC contenders goes into further pieces after the latest attack from the top duo:
What a demonstration of strength: Penasa and Valls quickly bridged across Campero with still 8km to go!
The next group ain't too far behind though: 37" to be precisive and there's another split in the group:
Cataldo Bardet Anacona Eastman
Manfredi now being dropped from this new first chasing group!
A next group is led by GC's 4th Karnulin, who obviously can't put pressure on GC's 3rd Anacona today:
Karnulin Moschella Rujano Panayotov Pozzovivo
Krasnoperov 29 seconds behind
Solis further 1'15" in arrears
Valls launched another attack with 5km to the mountaintop and with now 3.5km remaining, he drops the other two:
Penasa 24 seconds behind, Campero has been caught by group Anacona/Eastman, further 53 seconds down the road!
Penasa can't counter this acceleration from Valls, who's already a minute ahead with 1.3km remaining! He gave him a fight again, but Valls appears to be a class of his own.
Group Anacona/Eastman still at five riders and 50 seconds down on Penasa. Manfredi already further 1'38" in arrears, half a minute ahead of group Karnulin, where Krasnoperov caught up again.
Valls celebrating his second stage-win after already winning the opening stage: he would never give away his race-lead and despite not being at his best yesterday, he also never really looked in serious danger to lose yellow. Simply dominating today.
+ 1'11" for Penasa, who really suffered on the final kilometre - finishing with a narrow gap on the next riders
+ 1'30" for Cataldo and Bardet
+ 1'55" for Campero and Eastman
+ 2'11" for Anacona, who might have done enough to defend his podium in the GC
A strong day for Cataldo and Bardet in particular, while also Eastman finally looked better after his crash on the second day. Not an awesome result, but he will definitely move up in the GC with his 6th on this final stage. Campero as 5th adding further points towards the KoM classification, which will bring him the polka dot!
+ 3'53" for Manfredi, who crosses the line as 8th - no chance to attack Eastman's U25 lead, but a solid effort nevertheless
+ 2'11" for group Karnulin, who comes in 11th behind Khripta and Rujano
Moschella with his best performance here as 12th, the same goes for Mat Senan as 13th and last in this group
+ 4'55" for Krasnoperov and Pozzovivo - both totally exhausted after this brutal stage
+ 5'25" for Panayotov
+ 6'32" for Ruijgh
+ 7'41" for a group with Battaglin, Lewis and Solis, who again suffered and might drop out of his Top-10 in the GC
+ 13'23" for an unlucky Bennett as 29th on the stage.. a horrible way to drop off the Top-5 in the GC, even more since he already lost all his GC hopes in Tachira early into the season
Several riders out of the time limit. Check the names below.
Valls celebrating a big GC-win in this prestigious mountain stage race! Slipping into yellow already on the first day, the premium climber would defend his lead until the final day. The victory in the points classification, two stage-wins and five days in yellow. Definitely a dominating performance of the CT's best stage racer this year!
Penasa a clear 2nd with 2'26" behind Valls, but almost four minutes advantage on Anacona, who will be happy to finish 3rd in this tough race. Penasa as Valls only real contender here, taking a stage-win on second day and giving Valls a huge fight until this final climb today. Just like Valls, he struggled in the mountain timetrial, but with two runner-ups (GC and points classification) he definitely rode a convincing tour as well. The same goes for Anacona, who didn't struggle like his teammates Krasnoperov (12th) and Manfredi (13th) on the previous days. Team Reddit with a good performance overall, taking the team classification as a nice reward.
Cataldo a strong 4th ahead of Bardet and Campero. Going with a stage-win as well, Cataldo certainly will be happy with his scoring output here. Bardet with a strong result as well and the same goes for Campero, who did benefit from his outstanding solo ride today.
Karnulin, Panayotov, Pozzovivo and Eastman completing the Top-10 then. Karnulin with a tough day on this final stage, while Eastman finally showed his strength with a solid ride. Definitely an unlucky tour for him, as he clearly suffered from his crash on the second stage.
Rujano 11th ahead of Krasnoperov, Manfredi, Solis (down to 14th today), Khripta, Moschella and Bennett (17th). A terrible crash for Bennett today - the whole Xero squad with a race to forget eventually. Bennett looked pretty strong on the previous two days in particular, but lost it all today.
Campero's result on the summit finish gave him two more crucial points to take the sole lead in the mountain classification. Lewis has to settle for a second place, which still came out of nowhere thanks to his strong ride today. Former KoM-leader Pirazzi 3rd in the classification.
Eastman at least with the U25 win, eventually finishing 2'51" ahead of former classification leader Manfredi. A huge gap to Lemus Davila as 3rd.
And that's it for another eventful edition of the Tour d'Andorra. Some thrilling stages with two dominating GC favorites. A few unlucky crash victims, unfortunatelly: Eastman, Tvetcov and Bennett as the most notable names suffering from crashes here. Valls though underlined his dominance in the CT this year and this result will certainly become a big step towards the CT's individual crown.
