Final day in Bulgaria and the peloton faces the third mountain stage with a summit finish: another early Cat1 climb is later followed by the finishing climb up the 'Beklemento' (19km in total, 5% average slopes). Not the steepest climb for sure, but it can make a difference with still a tight battle for yellow:
Suaza leading the GC by 15 seconds on Eastman and 33 seconds on Valls. Bring it on!
Early attacks from several riders and it's again Antón and Bardet, who are trying for a long range breakaway attempt:
Antón (5th in KoM, 32pts) took the first Cat3 climb ahead of Bardet (7th in KoM, 26pts). They are joined by 11 other riders then:
Sisira, Kamzong, Diaz Groiller and Pereyra would crash on the following descent, but even though the group went into pieces on the climb, they all come together on the following long flat sector.
We're jumping straight into the final 20km, where the peloton is led by Roson and his Repsol team doing most of the work in the chase now.
The breakaway group (still all 13 riders together) is 1'04" ahead now, they will enter the final climb in a few moments!
A quiet stage so far and the peloton struggles to narrow the gap any further: still a minute advantage for the leading group, that has now been cut down to 8 riders.
Sisira, Antón, Bardet looking strong - Pereyra, Sella, Kamzong, Landa and Lovik are hanging on though!
The main group reaches the 5km mark with still 1'12" of disadvantage on the leading group: just 37 riders in this group now, with more and more riders suffering on the climb now.
Mannion setting the pace now, but we haven't seen any attack from the GC contenders yet..
A few minor GC contenders struggling to keep the pace:
Roe (GC's 11th) is already a minute behind the main group Degand (GC's 14th) a few positions ahead of the Australian Ruijgh (GC's 17th) is a further minute in arrears
Those guys will definitely drop a few places in the GC today, as there's still a way to go here and they ain't looking good. A pity for Roe and Degand in particular: sure, they mainly have a support role here, but definitely did quite well until this stage.
3km to go for the group of GC contenders and the first attack now:
Valls goes first, Suaza follows quickly!
Valls (33secs behind Suaza in the GC) certainly needs to do something and he does it now!
The duo opens up a gap quickly and Azteca's domestiques Mannion and Ochoa Quintero do not know what do:
Eastman looks in trouble a few spots further down the climb! The GC's 2nd apparently won't counter anything from Valls or Suaza today. Will he perform like he did in the opening stage?
The other GC contenders stay together, as they probably would not try to fight against Suaza/Valls anyway..
1.5km left for the leading group, that is now down to just 5 riders:
Bardet, Sisira, Pereyra, Antón and Sella
+ 0.18 a group with Kamzong, Lovik, Landa and Valls/Suaza catching up!
The group of GC riders is further 50" in arrears, with Rujano trying to get away now!
The veteran is followed by:
Salinas Campero Karnulin Panayotov
Penasa doesn't look like he will follow
The group is down to 23 riders with the pace going up again. Most notables names being dropped:
Roe another minute behind and likely to lose his Top-15 in the GC..
Bardet kicks off the sprint for line honours, they have just 400metres to go!
Valls/Suaza couldn't catch up to those five riders, but Valls is again trying to get away from Suaza. It's probably too late to open up the needed 35" gap though..
Bardet holds on until the end and takes the final stage here! This will be also crucial points towards the KoM competition, as they are big points rewarded at the finish.
Sisira a strong 2nd ahead of Antón and Sella!
Suaza and Valls came close.. Valls couldn't get away from Suaza however..
Suaza 6th on the stage, finishing with the same time as Bardet eventually. He defended yellow succesfully!
Valls has to settle for 7th. He tried, but couldn't be of much danger for Suaza. At least, with Eastman struggling on this final few kilometres, he will probably move up to 2nd in the GC.
+ 56" for early escapee Løvik, who finishes narrowly ahead of the bigger group of GC riders
Penasa leading this group across the line Bennett completing the Top-10 ahead of Salinas
Landa, Rujano, Kamzong, Atapuma, Panayotov, Karnulin, Cataldo, Campero and Tvetcov all within the same time then...
+ 1'43" for a group with Anacona
+ 2'01" for a small group with Eastman!
The US boy totally cracked on the final few hundred metres, where some late splits happened in the main group. He never looked good even earlier into the climb, but to lose so much time on the final metres of the race surely hurts. He will at least drop to 3rd, but will he also drop off the podium?
Also Manfredi with a bad day, as he finishes with the same time as Eastman as 34th on the stage! Likely to drop off his Top-5 in the GC as well..
+ 3'18" for Solis
+ 4'21" for Roe and Degand
Again, all riders finished in the time limit. A few crashes (Penasa surely as the most prominent victim in the opening stage), but no rider had to abandon from the race in those five days.
And no rider could beat Suaza! The top favorite delivered and brings home the GC-victory, as well as the points classification. He took a stage as well and succesfully countered today's attack from Valls. Surely a deserved overall winner, as he's been quite consistent in the key stages.
Valls will be happy enough with a 2nd in the GC and a stage-win in the first stage. He's also the runner-up in the points classification, which proves his consistency.
Eastman heavily struggled today, but it's just enough to keep a podium in the GC! He finishes the GC with 2'16" lost on Suaza and so he's just three seconds ahead of a strong (and kind of unlucky) Karnulin as 4th.
Bennett with a good 5th ahead of local hero Panayotov, who probably made his fans happy with this good GC result. Cataldo, Campero, Salinas and Manfredi completing the Top-10 ahead of last year's race-winner Tvetcov, an unlucky Penasa (who at least improved to 12th in the GC), Anacona, Rujano and Serrano.. just like Eastman, Manfredi had a terrible day and won't be happy to drop from 5 to 10 in this final stage.
Bardet with a great day: stage-win, moving up to 17th in the GC and to 1st in the KoM classification thanks to 38pts collected throughout the day: his 64pts were slightly better than Antón's 58 and Lovik's 56. Both tried to fight for the polka dot today, but Bardet's stage victory would seal the deal then.
Eastman securing the U25 win despite his struggles today (well, Manfredi struggled as well). A bit of a weird tour for the US boy, who was bad on the first and final day. A couple of great performances made him still finish on the podium. Which must have been the minimum goal here.
Local team VMP - Argon 18 misses out on the team's classification as still a strong 3rd behind Andorra and the winning team Reddit.
That's it from Bulgaria. We enjoyed the previous five days of tough racing. A well deserved GC winner and some well mixed stage-winners. See you next year!
