Very interesting stage that we have today. Not the usual mountain stage you would find anywhere else, but this is Paris-Nice, and this combination of “minor” climbs could give us fantastic racing like yesterday, with several riders having to go all-in in order to improve the GC places or even try to fight with Taaramae for the GC win. Also, with the last climb, Lelex Mont Jura, being more of a false flat than a proper climb, attacks need to come in the previous climbs. This is also a stage with a high chance of a breakaway win, and also the most important stage in the race in the fight for the KoM classification
Six riders tried their luck in the first kms, but it seems like Aker is confident on a stage win for Guldhammer thinking of his sprint and the “easy” final climb, and it’s not letting them go
Egger, Varga, Teklehaimanot, Bayly, Bevin and Saggiorato were the 6 riders that are now caught before the intermediate sprint
All of them keep attacking, except for Egger, trying to see if Aker will stop chasing, and this time Polanc joins the attacks. Bayly wins the intermediate sprint, which obviously isn’t a big deal.
Once they start the first climb of the day, Aker stops chasing, and six riders will form the breakaway, with of them, only Polanc having KoM points, with 16 points.
Polanc Varga Teklehaimanot Bayly Bevin Saggiorato
Saggiorato wins this Cat.2 KoM, ahead of Polanc and Bevin, while Varga has been dropped way before the top of the climb, which leaves the breakaway in just 5 riders
Cat.2 KoM
Saggiorato 10
Polanc 8
Bevin 6
Bayly 4
Teklehaimanot 2
Calmejane attacks together with Bester right after the first climb, seeing he had missed the chance of joining the breakaway and fight for KoM classification. But Aker started chasing again, which would make the gap to the breakaway to be heavily reduced, from 6 minutes in the top of the previous climb, to less than 3 minutes only a few kms later
But T-Mobile isn’t bothered by Calmejane’s attack for KoMs, and forces Aker to stop the chase, so after a few flattish kms, now we have a 8-rider group in the front of the race, as also Varga has rejoined the group. They have a 4-minute gap with 100 kms to go and 5 climbs left. Riders are also facing winds around 40 km/h, but it looks like it will be tailwind in the later parts of the stage
A very powerful Bevin wins the sprint for a Cat.3 KoM, ahead of Bayly and Polanc, who little by little is getting closer to the KoM lead, now being tied for 3rd place with Schleck, and only 10 points away of Taaramae’s lead
Cat.3 KoM
Bevin 6
Bayly 4
Polanc 2
Teklehaimanot is the best in Col de la Plagne, a Cat. 2 climb, who clearly shows who are the strongest in this breakaway, and that as always in this race, Calmejane has badly timed his attacks. Polanc is already 2nd in KoM, only 4 points behind Taaramae in the provisional standings
Cat.2 KoM
Teklehaimanot 10
Saggiorato 8
Polanc 6
Bevin 4
Bester 2
Six riders remain in the breakaway, after Varga and Calmejane have been dropped for good in the previous climb, and won’t have a chance to make it back. Their gap to the peloton is almost 7 minutes with just over 50 kms left, so they have a realistic chance of gettng a stage win.
An amazing final 300 metres of climb makes Teklehaimanot to win another Cat.2 KoM, while Polanc has finally moved into the provisional KoM lead after yet another 3rd place in a climb. Bester was dropped in the first slopes of this climb, so that leaves just 5 riders in this group
Cat.2 KoM
Teklehaimanot 10
Saggiorato 8
Polanc 6
Bayly 4
Bevin 2
With a breakaway win being almost confirmed today, T-Mobile took thing very easily in this climb, thus leaving the gap to grow to the point where Polanc was in the provisional GC podium, someone that made Aker nervious, so they started to work in the bunch in order to reduce that 9-minute gap
The peloton starts Col de Menthieres, the only Cat.1 climb of the day, being 7 minutes behind the 5 breakaway riders. Aker has been working hard in the latest descent to reduce, but once the climb started they got out of the way, in the moment they are neutralising Calmejane
Teklehaimanot’s pace is quite impressive, and neither Polanc and Bayly can’t stay in the leading group for much longer. It looks like Polanc might be pacing himself with the hope of gaining some big time in GC, but Bayly gave it all and cracked
Things get interesting in the bunch, as Porto is starting to pull a high pace with several domestiques, probably trying to set-up an attack by Machado
Bevin is dropped too from the breakaway, and with still 3 kms left in this climb, only Teklehaimanot and Saggiorato stay in the lead. One of those two riders will win today’s stage, so they shouldn’t be making from now wrong steps or they’ll give the win to the other for free
Surprisingly, the first one to attack is Tenorio, who is quickly followed by Amador. Taaramäe decided that it wasn’t his fight, and that it was up to Gesink’s team to defend their podium spot
Teklehaimanot and Saggiorato couldn’t drop each other in this climb, with Saggiorato taking the KoM points and getting really close to the KoM lead. It might depend on how much points Polanc gets in this climb
Cat.1 KoM
Saggiorato 16
Teklehaimanot 12
Bevin 10
Polanc 8
Bayly 6
Strange move by Vinhas as with a big pull he made, he basically launched an attack by the two first riders in GC, and they are bringing a top domestique for Taaramäe in Marquez with them
Schleck is struggling to follow Taaramae in the last km of climb! The Estonian attacked again, in order to catch Amador, after the Costa Rican had been dropped by Tenorio, and now Andy could find himself in no-ones land if he can’t make it to Taaramae now
Saggiorato attacks and drops Teklehamainot with 12 kms to go, once the descent was over and the road start to rise again
Taaramae, Tenorio, Schleck and Amador are in the same group now, over a minute ahead of the bunch. And it seems like they forgot that Marquez and Goos were close to join them, but couldn’t catch their leaders in the descent and are now back in Gesink’s group, where Chiarello is working now
And Taaramae doesn’t care about anything or anyone, as he attack in this flattish roads. Schleck stays on his wheel like if his life depended of that move, while Amador and Tenorio seems to be waiting for the bunch to catch them
Only 9 kms to go, and this is the race situation. Saggiorato keeps a 30-second gap to Teklehaimanot, and looks set to win the stage. Other breakaway riders are already 3 minutes back and will be eventually caught by the GC riders, as Taaramae and Schleck are just 4 minutes behind the stage leader. If this climb was harder they could have a shot at the stage win
The group with the rest of favourites is one minute behind, and Hirt is currently attacking out of it
Hirt has finally escaped from Gesink’s group, who has been heavily reduced to just 7 riders, with Tenorio, Guldhammer, Martin, Berhane, Amador and Reis joining the Dutch rider, as riders as Machado, Wellens, Morton or Olivier have been dropped of their group
Only 4 kms left for Saggiorato, who is going to get a big win today, the biggest of his career for sure. He still hold that 30-second gap to Teklehaimanot.
A few groups down the road, Gesink's group has increased his number of riders, as riders as Machado were only dropped temporally
Hirt looks like he’s going to catch Schleck and Taaramäe, who at the same time, looks set to catch Polanc’s group. Hirt is getting a nice gap to avenge his time loss yesterday when he proved to be the strongest rider apart from Taaramae and Schleck, and having already 55 seconds on Gesink’s group, he could make a huge jump in GC to the podium zone. Meanwhile, Machado has attacked out of that group, trying to make some time on Gesink and Amador to fight for a podium spot
Big effort by Machado, as in a very short distance has almost caught Hirt, and put almost a minute to Gesink’s group. Taaramae and Schleck have now caught Polanc’s group, which also has Bevin and Bayly
But all of this fight will matter very little to Mirco Saggiorato, as the Swiss rider takes a great win here in Lelex Mont Jura. UBS had probably hoped more from Amador in the mountains against Taaramae, but they’ll get away with a stage win of this race.
Teklehaimanot reduced a bit the gap to around 20 seconds, but he wasn’t strong enough to follow Saggiorato’s attack in the false flat, and could never recover
Final two kms for the group that will fight for the third place in the stage, but it’s clearly more important the gap that keep rising to Gesink’s group. Once Hirt and Machado reached this group, everyone started to work together in order to maximize their gain, including the breakaway, as they could also make a decent GC result with this move
Taaramae wins the sprint for third place, increasing his GC lead thanks to the bonus seconds, and will take the lead in the Points jersey. They arrived 3’40 after Saggiorato. Following Taaramae were Schleck, Bevin, Polanc, Hirt and Machado, as Bayly was dropped inside the final km, and will lose a bit of time to this group
Almost 2 minutes is the time loss for riders like Gesink, Amador, Tenorio, Morton, Martin, Guldhammer, Wellens, Reis or Berhane
The U25 leader, Heymes, finishes in the same group as his biggest rival in Vasyliv. He’s losing a couple of minutes on Faglum Karlsson, but he had a great advantage to the Volvo rider to stay in the lead of this classification
Marco Saggiorato goes to the podium, not only because he has won the stage, but also because he’s the new KoM leader, after surpassing Polanc’s total points by only 2 points
Another exciting day in the GC fight, with Taaramae being the best again, as expected, increasing his lead to 1’03 over Schleck thanks to the bonus seconds. Machado is now 3rd in GC, more than 3 minutes behind Taaramae, but also one minute ahead of Gesink, who only has a two-second gap to Hirt, probably the rider that won the most in GC today.
Taaramae has also taken over the lead of the Points standings with a 15-point gap to Groenewegen, but probably more important, 18 points of advantage over Schleck
T-Mobile having not only Marquez in the second group, but also an amazing Fernandez, makes them increase their lead in the Teams classification, to over 3 minutes with Porto
