The tour concludes with a circuit in and around Vilnius, Lithuania. Maybe the trickiest of all flat stages here, even though it comes with only minor difficulties. Crosswinds however may become a factor for the first time in the past five days, as they go up to 45kmh early into the stage.
Nelson slipped into yellow with a stage-win yesterday, but Cavendish and Van Asbroeck are just one respectively two seconds down in the GC. Also Lo Cicero remains a threat for yellow, if he finally wins a stage today. Kennaugh and Vantomme as other possible contenders for at least the stage.
No crashes today and so the first news is the break of the day, that is formed by 14 riders:
The group builds up a lead up to five minutes halfway through the stage..
Podium Ambition as the most active team in the chase then, narrowing the gap to three minutes as they enter the final third of the stage..
..and with Mørkøv leading the pack into the final 13km, the gap is down to just 46 seconds. Also Valio and Kraftwerk sharing the workload with Netia now. The winds still blow at 43kmh and the peloton is already down to 130 riders with more and more riders suffering from the tough conditions and higher pace now.
The breakaway already went into pieces as well: Uchima, Wang, Umerbekov, Kamberaj and Vandewalle remain in the lead, but the peloton is coming closer with now just 27 seconds disadvantage and still 11.5km remaining..
The nest 12 riders have been dropped from the pack and it's certainly the biggest news so far:
Nelson can't follow anymore! The GC leader is totally empty and that's obviously terrible news for the team, that worked so hard today. Also Matthews (GC's 19th) already got dropped earlier on, so Podium Ambition with a tough day now. It's highly unlikely, that Nelson will make it back to the peloton, if it doesn't slow down once the last escapees have been caught.
..which happens soon after: with 4.5km left in the stage, all escapees have been swallowed by the peloton, that is down to 113 riders due to the crosswinds still blowing at the same speed.
The race settles down for a few moments, but Nelson is already 2 minutes down and still no sign of him to recover from his struggles!
Vastaranta with his usual pace setting at the front of the pack, but there's yet no team preparing it's train for the bunch sprint. The crosswinds definitely make for a much tougher stage, than a few sprinters might have hoped for..
Is it a stage for the strong men now? At least, there's a late attack from one of the strongest roleurs in the field:
Ji tries to solo away from the pack with 3km remaining! With Goss totally disappointing so far in the tour, that's certainly not the worst idea. He opens up a small gap quickly.
And Ji enters the final 2.2km with still a small advantage: 4 seconds on the next two attackers!
Burghardt and Wisniowski, who are 9 seconds ahead of the pack!
Manninen trying to pull them back, yet opening up a small gap on the sprinters by himself..
1.5km to go for Ji, who holds on to a 12 seconds gap on the pack!
Burghardt and Wisniowsk couldn't go clear, as they got pulled back soon after they went to bridge across Ji:
Manninen Lo Cicero Goss Kreder Gaviria - Tleubayev Cavendish De Haes - Van Asbroeck - Holloway - Castañeda Bouhanni Keukeleire
in the most promising positions - a rather messy sprint with the crosswinds probably hurting several riders' legs today..
Ji now suffering from his efforts! He can't sprint anymore and his teammate Goss is the first sprinter closing the gap with just a few hundred metres to go!
Kreder, Lo Cicero, Van Asbroeck and Cavendish on the further positions. Cavendish looking exhausted though..
Holloway, Castaneda, Bouhanni and Keukeleire.. Manninen paying for his efforts to pull the late attackers back..
Wisniowski is popping up again!
..and Wisniowski is so fast, that he almost catches up to the leading sprinters just a few moments later!
Ji still with a narrow lead and yet sprinting again: Holloway, Van Asbroeck, Bouhanni and Keukeleire are at some better speed though..
Goss can't keep his own pace anymore and Cavendish indeed cracks! Castaneda ahead of Chen and also Burghardt might become a factor again!
Not for the win though, as it's at six riders almost on the same level with the finish line approaching:
Wisniowski still going very strong to sprint into the leading position! Holloway and Van Asbroeck with a tiny advantage over Bouhanni, Keukeleire and Ji.. Goss, Kreder and Lo Cicero out of reach for a stage-podium, the same goes for Rowe, who moved forward to maybe fight for a Top-10 on the stage!
Big day for Wisniowski though! The crosswinds certainly helped the roleurs to show themselves today and how strong was this guy again? His empty-handed attack to follow Ji didn't prevent him from striking back with a very fast finish - to overtake them all and grab the stage-win that he missed in the prologue. Huge. And definitely crucial bonifications for a high GC result.
A tight decision for the next places then:
Van Asbroeck with a strong 2nd ahead of Bouhanni and Holloway! With Nelson being dropped today and Cavendish struggling on the final metres, this 2nd place may become a GC winning result for Van Asbroeck!
Keukeleire 5th ahead of Goss, Kreder and Ji. Goss with his first notable result, probably too late and less to make a significant move in the GC though. An unlucky finish for Ji, who got away from Wisniowski on first hand, but who hadn't the same recovery to finish as fast as the stage-winner..
Rowe 9th ahead of Lo Cicero then. Chen ahead of Kennaugh, Burghardt, Castaneda and Speirs. Another disappointing day for Kennaugh, who couldn't maintain his form he showed with his stage-win on the second stage here.
A shocking result for Nelson, who tumbles across the line as 115th - losing 3'20" on the peloton eventually. That's just horrible for his team, that had such a comfortable GC situation prior to this stage. Yellow might have been lost anyway (but who knows?), but getting dropped from the peloton surely came as a big surprise. What a bummer.
Van Asbroeck moved up to 1st and he takes the GC-win (after finishing 3rd last year)! One of the most consistent performers this year, the talented sprinter also takes the points classification eventually. A big result for Lierse SK. Well done.
Wisniowski goes up to 2nd! What an epic sprint he delivered today. Sure, the roleurs did benefit from challenging weather conditions, but that's always a possible difficulty that you then have to handle the best way. Which Wisniowski certainly did.
Cavendish struggled on the final two days, but it's enough to secure himself another 3rd place in the GC (which he already achieved back in 2013). The result probably comes with some mixed feelings though, as he had a good shot at the GC-win if he hadn't struggled in the past two days. Still, adding a runner-up in the points classification, it hasn't been a disastrous performance overall.
Lo Cicero and Holloway completing the Top-5 then. The defending race champion had his problems here, but still finds his way into a Top-5 in the GC. No need to be exstatic, but at least he avoided a disaster.
De Haes, Kennaugh, Zaraliev, Vantomme and Vermote completing the Top-10. A big race for two surprising stage-winners: De Haes and Vermote. Zaraliev as another breakaway rider to finish high in the GC, very welcomed points for a struggling VMP team.
Castaneda had one good day to finish 11th ahead of Rowe, Backaert, Marcos and Kreder. Cornu with some points as 16th ahead of Daniel, Bouhanni, Burghardt and Manninen. Goss finishes 30th with just one day inside the bonifications.
Manninen taking the U25 victory ahead of Harrison and Hsu. His strong performance yesterday made him earn a nice shirt for his palmares.
