Final day of the Vuelta a Colombia and the stage from Armenia to Cerra Torro is yet another epic mountain challenge: seven categorized climbs are followed by a summit finish, that could hardly be more challenging. If the pace will be as fast as in the previous two mountain stages, we should expect the peloton to be blown into pieces already before the leading groups enter this final climb.
Amador leading the GC ahead of Úran and Henao Montoya.. Ji and Shikai as the big winners from a long range breakaway attempt two days ago.. will we see something similar happening today? Denifl and Intxausti maybe as the last real threats for the GC podium, Choi and Kudus will fancy their chances to stay inside the GC's Top-10 though.
Already the first attack of the day would show, that it's indeed some main GC contenders going for an early breakaway again - Talansky went clear right from the start of the stage! Several big names followed soon after, with Nazaret taking the first mountain sprint ahead of Duarte and Stetina:
Brajkovic (GC's 28th + 19.15) Talansky (20th + 12.51) Stetina (22nd + 15.13, 5th in KoM with 26pts) Camier Nazaret (18th + 10.28) Duarte (17th + 10.28) Venter Lane Quintana (13th + 6.34)
Definitely a breakaway grouped packed with climbing talent! Quintana as the best placed in the GC, obviously hoping for a similar run like Shikai/Ji had two days ago. All others are already more than ten minutes down in the GC, but they should all aim to move up some places, if this attempt will be as dangerous at it seems..
Stetina battling for the KoM classification, but he's not alone with also the other climbers sprinting for points:
At this point - the toughest climb so far (75km to the finish - Duarte would appear to be the strongest of the breakaway group, with Quintana, Nazaret, Stetina and Talansky struggling to follow his current pace! Venter, Lane and Camier already got dropped..
59km to go for the peloton now and on the next Cat2 climb, it's all gone into pieces with Duarte now leading solo by 9'32" on the main group of GC contenders!
23 riders are left in this group:
Amador, Frank Úran, Pantano Gómez, Sarmiento Henao Montoya, Maillet, Kolesnikov Ji Denifl, Rodrigues, Jang Kudus Shikai Intxausti, Brenes Anacona Contador Iino De la Cruz Bartl
GC's 11th Eastman as the biggest name being dropped with still a long way to the finish! He's already a minute behind group Amador and doesn't look good at all. That will be a tough day for the US boy..
Just two climbs ahead - a Cat3 climb now and then the big climb up to the finish! 27km to go for the Duarte, who's getting company again:
Duarte Nazaret Quintana Stetina
Talansky a minute behind, Brajakovic further two minutes.. group Amador still at 7.52!
Duarte though would again go clear at the top of the Cat3 climb, with Nazaret and Quintana trying to follow somehow..
This climb made for another selection in group Amador then: just 12 riders are left in the group, that is still seven minutes behind solo leader Duarte, who's now more than a minute ahead of Quintana/Stetina with 16km remaining!
Contador/Iino a minute back.. De la Cruz another 45sec.. Bartl/Anacona further 1'40" in arrears.. Eastman another minute!
10km to go, Duarte remains in the solo lead with Nazaret dropping Quintana!
Kudus attacked from group Amador! He's quickly two minutes ahead and joining Brajkovic from the early break - the duo is now 6'40" behind Duarte..
Henao Montoya as the next one to attack the group!
Amador well aware and joining him immediately - they have 9km to go now, Kudus easily dropped Brajkovic, who's now soon to be overtaken by Amador/Montoya as well..
Behind Amador, the group of GC contenders goes into further pieces and it's still such a long way to go!
Denifl, Intxausti and Pantano Gómez with a small gap on the next three riders:
Ji, Úran and Shikai!
Choi couldn't follow and he's now a minute behind this two trios!
4.5km to go for Amador/Montoya, who have caught up to Kudus and three early escapees - building a 5-men-group, that is now just 3'33" behind Duarte:
Duarte
at 2.00 Nazaret
at 3.33 Amador, Henao Montoya, Quintana, Kudus, Stetina, Talansky
at 4.02 Denifl
at 6.52 a heavily struggling Úran and Pantano Gómez
at 8.11 Shikai, Intxausti, Ji - all suffering big time!
Duarte enters the final 3km with still a 3-minutes-advantage, but there's some further action in group Amador now:
Amador on the attack, Henao Montoya following quickly!
Amador obviously not interested in showing any sign of weakness and instead of waiting for another attack from Montoya, he's now intitiating a move by himself.. group Kudus can't follow, Denifl has caught up in the meantime!
Just 1.5km remaining for Duarte, who's still holding on to a 2-minutes-gap on...
..Amador and Henao Montoya! The duo went past Nazaret now, who's fighting to hang on..
..a group with Denifl, Kudus and Quintana then, about a minute behind Nazaret..
..Stetina and Talansky have been dropped... Úran, who's been support by Pantano Gómez all the way up, already 3 minutes behind group Denifl!
A big win for local hero Duarte! It's not only a prestigious stage-win on home soil, but also a nice chance to move up in the GC after some disappointing days so far. In addition to that, his points towards the mountain classification at the top of this summit finish will also make him go past virtual KoM-leader Stetina!
+ 1'14" Amador - who dropped Henao Montoya on the final metres! GC-win secured!
+ 1'41" Henao Montoya as 3rd - he gave Amador a fight, but he had no chance afterall
+ 2'25" Nazaret as 4th - another early escapee with a great day
Denifl came close, but...
+ 2'59" Denifl
+ 3'21" Kudus - who will wait for U25 leader Shikai to finish the stage...
+ 3'51" Quintana
+ 4'20" Stetina as 8th on the stage
+ 4'34" Talansky
..and then.. where's the GC's 2nd?
+ 7'17" for Úran, who finishes behind Pantano Gómez! A terrible day for Úran, who will definitely drop off the podium that way..
A tough day for some other GC contenders as well:
+ 8'36" for Shikai, Ji and Intxausti
+ 18'49" for Eastman as 37th on the stage!
Again a few DNFs, so from 176 startes, just 115 finished the race..
..and Amador finished the race as clearly the best! He didn't show any sign of weakness and with another strong finish, he even grows his gap in the final GC. While those two strong breakaway groups today and two days ago looked pretty dangerous at some points later into the stages, Amador appeared to be in control and he does not win the GC and a stage here, but also the points classification.
Henao Montoya a strong 2nd then. After four disappointing years for him in his home race, he finally finishes on the podium again - just like 2012, he comes 2nd eventually. Definitely a nice result with Amador dominating anyway.
Denifl 3rd - a rather quiet podium finish for him. He tried at some point, but with almost four minutes lost on Amador here, he never looked like a real threat. Anyway, he's been consistent and opposing to Úran, he took no day off here.
Kudus great performance today makes him go up from 9th to 4th, finishing ahead of Úran, who goes from 2nd to 5th in the final GC. That's also the U25 victory for Kudus, as Shikai had a tough day in this final stage. He clearly suffered from his huge efforts two days ago.
Duarte today's biggest winner: in addition to the stage-win and the KoM-victory (ahead of Nazaret and Stetina), he's also moving up to 6th in GC - ahead of Ji, Quintana, Intxausti and Shikai! A good day for Quintana as well, going up from 13th to 8th. Intxausti with a rather disappointing GC result after struggling in the last two mountain stages. Ji certainly with a great result though.
Choi 11th ahead of Nazaret, Brenes, Pantano Gómez and Talansky.. Eastman dropped to 21st today..
And so the Vuelta a Colombia 2017 is finished. Quite an entertaining event with Amador taking the first mountain stage in style, two long range breakaway victories on the next summit finishes and a lot of changes in the GC on every key stage. We hope you enjoyed the race to come back again next season!
