Stage 3 - Golden Bauhania Square > Tai Mo Shan Final day in Hong Kong and the short stage race concludes with a summit finish on 'Tai Mo Shan' - at almost 10km length, the climb averages 8% slopes with some truly steep sectors up to 20%! Definitely the key day of this event, but the GC situation is already quite interesting after the two first stages. Meyer with quite a comfortable gap, but will he really be able to defend two or three minutes on a climb like today's?
Warbasse may be considered the top favorite for the GC after performing so well in yesterday's ITT. König ain't too far behind with 30 seconds though and of course there's still a lot of possible GC threats, who are not too far behind König neither. Pinot however needs to gain more than a minute on König and one and a half on Warbasse. That's quite a disadvantage for the premium climber in this field.
It took them a while, but six of today's early attackers would also form the break of the day:
Cuming took the first Cat2 climb ahead of Canecky and LLS/O'Brien, Canecky the Cat4 climb ahead of Cuming and O'Brien..
Helme would try to break clear from the peloton halfway through the stage, but he did not come far..
..with now 43km to go, the leading group passes the Tai Mo Shan for the first time (though not yet climbing to the summit, obviously) and the breakaway group goes into pieces:
Cuming takes the Cat1 sprint ahead of Canecky and O'Brien and he keeps pacing to go for a rather long solo attempt!
And while it's looking good for Gunman to defend the KoM lead, the Kiwi is the first notable name being dropped from the peloton on this penultimate climb of the day. No real surprise to see the GC's 6th losing time today, but he might have hoped to give it a longer fight today..
23km to go and Cuming is about 1'40" ahead of the pack (75 riders), where we see a surprisingly early attack on flat roads now:
König and Russom try to go clear!
Warbasse and Haas trying to follow..
Cuming still leading solo with now just 11.5km to go for himself.. the gap on the peloton grew back to 2'20" in the meantime!
Which is also caused by the fact, that the pack slowed down once they caught the latest attempt by König/Russom!
Andorra leading the field now, with Meyer showing his leader shirt at the very front as well. König back in the front rows since being swallowed, with several other GC contenders already positioning themselves for the crucial summit finish..
..and as soon as the pack enters the final climb, we see the next attacks going with now 8.8km left:
Cataldo went first.. Panayotov tries to join him!
The duo openend up a 34 seconds gap on the bunch quickly and Cuming's lead is down to a minute now..
..and Cataldo keeps pushing with now 6km to go:
he flies past Cuming with Panayotov again following his acceleration! The peloton hasn't really shown any reaction so far, but it ain't too far behind with still a significant gap for Cataldo/Panayotov now: 1'25" to be precisive!
König remembers, that he already went for an aggressive tactic earlier on and he goes for the second time with now 5km remaining! It's pretty clear, that he also needs to put some pressure on Warbasse and of course Meyer as well!
Russom again trying to follow soon after König went clear, but he's 19 seconds behind him!
Diaz and Atapuma also going clear from the pack now!
A few more riders trying to accelerate, with König, Russom and Diaz/Atapuma quickly going clear with some notable gaps!
4.4km to the mountaintop and the pack is now just at 23 riders:
Meyer still there, but now heavily struggling to keep up with the current tempo!
Hategeka and Haas have been dropped before and they will definitely have a tough time up this steep roads here..
Cataldo and Panayotov staying together, as Cataldo could not shake off his opponent.. just 2.7km to go for the leading duo, that still has a good gap on the next groups:
..and that's König now, who went past Cuming and who's still 15 seconds ahead of Russom! The leading duo, however, is more than a minute ahead..
Further 40 seconds behind, a group of 4 riders has formed:
Atapuma Diaz Pomoshnikov Jang
And behind them, a bigger group with both Pinot and Warbasse struggling to show any reaction on König's move:
in order of appearance Ranaweera Khodayari Pinot Henao Stancu Nitu Lopez Pirazzi Warbasse Haga Sarmiento Gidich Serrano Marzuki Suryadi Izagirre Bjelkmark Domagalski
Meyer keeps fighting, but he's now already 4'12" behind Cataldo/Panayotov and so he will lose the GC lead for sure. It's his fight for still a high GC result now!
Final kilometre for Cataldo and Panayotov..
..König narrows the gap to just 17 seconds! He's about 50 seconds ahead of the duo in the GC and so he's definitely fighting for the overall victory.. Russom is 35 seconds behind now..
Group Atapuma went past Cuming as well and they have a nice gap of 52 seconds on group Pinot/Warbasse as well!
König almost connected to the leading duo, but as soon as they kick off the sprint, he's down by a few seconds again! This may become a tight decision for the overall victory..
..and for the stage of course: Panayotov though goes clear from Cataldo with just a couple of hundred metres to go!
And Panayotov takes the queen stage! Attacking from the bottom of the climb, the duo did benefit from the main group (and GC contenders) reacting too late. A nice win, obviously and also a realistic chance to take the overall victory!
+ 2" Cataldo comes 2nd and will definitely make a huge jump in the GC, too..
+ 25" König and that's probably enough to take the GC!
+ 59" Russom, who finishes a very strong 4th on this tough climb
+ 1'17" Atapuma, who recovered well from his shocking first stage here
+ 1'20" for Jang and Pomoshnikov
+ 2'08" Diaz, who totally cracked on the final metres
+ 2'16" for Pinot, who finishes as the strongest from the bigger group, that went into many pieces once the sprint for the line went off! Still a rather disappointing performance from Pinot as 9th on the stage. Given his disadvantage prior to the stage, this probably won't be enough for a good GC result after all!
Henao close behind him as 10th...
GC's 5th Haga comes in as 15th with 3'06" lost on Panayotov.. ahead of him, it's been a good day for Stancu, Pirazzi, Coming and Lopez..
A terrible day for Warbasse though: after his strong timetrial yesterday, he never looked good on today's final climb and losing 3'54" on Panayotov as 20th on the stage is simply not acceptable.. he totally destroyed his high GC ambitiouns for this event!
+ 6'21" for Meyer, who finishes a still solid 40th on the stage
+ 8'27" for Hategeka, who certainly must have hoped for something better today..
+ 10'28" for Haas, who finishes alongside Gunman and no chance to defend his good GC position
Opposing to König, who indeed moved up to 1st in the final GC! That's what he came for and even though he could not take a stage-win here, today's performance must be considered a good one. Securing the overall victory with a few other top favorites struggling? Job done.
Panayotov a strong 2nd with just ten seconds off König's overall time. A narrow decision and a bit unlucky for today's stage winner, who will be happy enough with this achievement though: he's also a shared winner in the points classification with Haas and Reus all on 25pts eventually.
Cataldo completing the podium for a good result. Russom a very strong 4th ahead of Jang, Pomoshnikov, Diaz, Haga, Pinot and Meyer. A disappointing result for Pinot as 9th, but he simply did not have the legs (or attention?) to follow today's biggest moves. Meyer dropping from 1st to 10th today, which is still a good overall result after his strong first two days.
Lopez 11th ahead of Warbasse, Ranaweera, Gidich and Bjelkmark. Atapuma could only move up to 33rd today and Haas drops from 2nd to 32nd (Hategeka from 3rd to 30th)..
Gunman the KoM though and it's been a good race for BNZ Cycling!
Lopez secured himself a nice U25 victory ahead of Ranaweera and Gidich!
Minions as the best team and we say goodbye. An interesting race over three days, with König as the first ever winner of the Hong Kong Challenge. See you again (hopefully) next year.
