The last act of the 2018 Vuelta al Pais Vasco here, and it's a tough one. With seven categories climbs and a very tough summit finish, it's all to play for, and the GC is finely poised for it, with 3 riders within a minute of Sean De Bie, who took yellow on a similar stage three days ago. Bobridge sits just 23 seconds away and has looked good and even conservative so far, aside from his descent-attack on stage 2. Third currently is Trofimov, at 43 seconds, who has stuck with it in the hills and benefitted from his team's TTT victory and his own 3rd in yesterday's time trial. But really he hasn't looked on the top level of puncheurs. A duo who have have been looking good uphill are Bakelants (a minute down) and Sagan (1'39), who will both be thinking they can overturn their GC deficit today.
Meanwhile further down the likes of Skujins and Gastauer will have one last chance to break into the top 10. The former, who won the last road stage, has had shocking time trial performances but has earned a 2nd and a 1st in the last two hilly stages. The latter had a shocking Stage 2 performance, but has looked in good nick since then. It's still all to play for on the roads to Arrate, perhaps Basque Cycling's most historic climb and forever a staple of this great race.
One other battle I haven't mentioned is one that's even closer than the GC and that is the KoM race. Current leader Joao Costa claimed 58 points on stage 2 and hasn't been in the breakaway since, and in the mean time Paterski (54pts) and Stachowiak (52pts) have utilised multiple breakaways to nearly catch him. With 54 points on offer before the finish, no less than 28 riders are in the running (plus more with 16 points on the line at Arrate!) but surely the winner will come from that trio (or Scheit, who gained 50 on Stage 2).
The Philips man attacked as soon as the flag dropped thanks to his position at the front of the bunch, but Stachowiak was very quickly on his case. In a first this week, this attempt was succesful.
Le Gac (14th KoM, 12pts) Pernsteiner Dall'Oste Hatanaka Kolar (9th KoM, 18pts) Stachowiak (3rd KoM, 52pts and 13th Sprint, 20pts) Costa (1st KoM, 58pts) are your breakaway today, and because we may have a proper KoM fight I'll bring you reports on all of them this time!
Kolar sat up too early on the Cat.2 Krutzeta and let Costa and Stachowiak by as they both slip further away from the others, and each other. Costa now with an 8 point lead, and the break with a 2'58 gap with 105km to go. Evonik, Aegon, Vesuvio and Grieg doing work in the peloton.
Pernsteiner, despite being out of the KoM competition, pushes Costa and even pips him on the line, I'm told, as Stachowiak struggled. And the gap up to 12 points now.
Like a man who has just left the stove on, Paterski remembers he was meant to be in the breakaway and attacks the peloton! Looking like too little too late for the Vesuvio rider with Costa another 14 points ahead, but at least he hasn't given up.
Costa is again denied the win, this time he's fourth as Dall'Oste goes early on the Cat.2 and claims max points. But nice for him, Stachowiak again drawing a blank here.
Stachowiak claims 2 points back on the short Cat.3, but Le Gac and Dall'Oste deny him any meaningful points. Currently it's Costa leading by 16. Also Paterski behind being recaptured by the peloton, as this group of 7 has a healthy 4'36 with 46km left.
30km to go and aside from Bekmanis and Phelan continuing their stellar work this week it's just the favourites at the front now, as Bobridge, skujins, De Bie and Bakelants are all waiting to pounce. It could even be on one of those hairpins ahead, where we can see the breakaway's gap melting as they start to tire on this tough Cat.1.
Pernsteiner and Dall'Oste are the strongest here as they forge on with a little over 2 minutes back to the peloton: a nice gap with this far to go, but not enough I'm afraid seeing how it has melted from 5 to 2 in just two climbs here.
Gastauer quietly takes the lead with 900m left of the climb, it will be interesting to see if he can forge a gap with hs tempo here! Especially if the next man in line, Skujins, follows him!
And yes, we can see they have both left the peloton behind without even getting out of the saddle! They both aren't leaving anything to chance and are taking the race into their own hands - Gora Gora!
An unfortunate sight here - 5th on GC, Bibby has lost touch with this upping of pace. A shame for Gazelle after their race seemed back on track with his win yesterday. He has Konrad and Ginanni with him, whilst his teammate Kangert stays in the bunch to defend his top 10 spot. Also news about the dropping of Zingle and... Vanendert. Just not going to say anything about the latter's team's luck at this point in the week. Someone please check on the manager though, bring him some tea.
Meanwhile on the descent Skujins and Gastuaer have been reabsorbed into the peloton.
With the KoM secured it looks like Costa is waiting for the peloton as Hatanaka attacks him. These two are 1'45 ahead of the pack, whilst Le Gac is 2'05 and the leading duo is 2'40 ahead. If those four can work together they could make it to the final climb and give it a go!
Or not... Pernsteiner taking no prisoners or companions with him to Eibar, the Austrian in no mood to be caught today as he attacks Dall'Oste on the Cat.3 and increases his gap to over 3 minutes!
Gastauer also wants to ride into Eibar alone as he attacks the peloton again. Skujins a little out of position but now also trying to escape!
Bobridge now looking to follow this with a counter of his own, closely tagged by Sagan, Bakelants, Van Garderen, Waeytens, Mohoric and De Bie!
Waeytens can't follow but the rest can as Bobridge catches up to Skujins. Trofimov and Costa out of position and trying desperately to catch up!
A wee graphic of the race situation, as we can see Pernsteiner is flying away with a healthy lead over the rest, whilst Beltran, Ulissi, Kangert, Vakoc and Klemme among others are still back in the peloton, having caught Waeytens!
Costa now attacking Trofimov, and also Beltran who has bridged across.
The Aker duo and Waeytens pass the flailing Trofimov and catch Costa, but they're already 51 seconds behind the yellow jersey group and, in all likelihood, your top 7 at this Vuelta al Pais Vasco!
Also down below we can see Joao Costa and Gastauer being caught by Bakelants' pace downhill. It will be interesting to see if the polka-dot jersey waits for his team leader here, I suspect he will.
5 unhelpful domestiques, 1 breakaway survivor, 5 good puncheurs and 2 worried leaders here, 40 seconds behind the Costa group. Trofimov losing his podium spot the big name, also Klemme losing his top 10 spot to Gastauer, Beltran, Vakoc and Skujins! Yates, Barbin and Ulissi the other big names here, as well as Caruso Mehr-Weninge, chasing a stage top 20 I guess.
Pernsteiner has 2'14 on the favourites and 54 seconds to Dall'Oste through the intermediate sprint with 6km to go. He can see to the other side of Eibar, and gets a glimpse of the famous Arrate climb where we finish today! Can he hold on?
Behind, Skujins kicks off the attacking on the false flats to start the climb! Just Dall'Oste and Pernsteiner up the road, as we see Costa (dropping), Hatanaka and Le Gac in this group. Nobody dropped by that first move, in fact it may have just been an (unsuccessful) attempt at grabbing 2 bonus seconds past Le Gac as Skujins sits up here.
A massive 2 minutes to the Costa group now, even Gastauer could make this the final top 8!
Pernsteiner within their sights as Van Garderen goes onto the attack now!
End of the line for Dall'Oste here, meanwhile Mohoric now is dropped by this attack! Along with Gastauer and the breakaway survivors.
Van Garderen has got away from the other 5 favourites after a prolonged effort, as is just metres from Pernsteiner now! 4.1km to go, and Tejay going all-in for the podium!
Mohoric nearly a minute behind the De Bie group will not be returning. The gap only increasing to everyone else now as Van Garderen catches Pernsteiner.
Will be interesting to see if any of Hatanaka, Le Gac, Dall'Oster and Pernsteiner can make the top 10, at least two of them should with minutes in hand to the Costa group.
700m later, and Bakelants has shut the gap using the non-co-operating (of course, with Mohoric behind) Pernsteiner's extra bike length to his advantage.
Skujins is paying for his early efforts today and loses the wheel of the yellow jersey! Sagan in trouble being behind the Latvian and must come around and shut the gap!
However the Slovakian can't, and so it's 5 (yes 5, Pernsteiner hanging in there!) riders into the last 2500m and De Bie, Bobridge and Bakelants all with the GC win within reach! Van Garderen, with the most to gain from Sagan's demise, pushes the pace.
Mohoric, as he has all week, is putting in a very mature ride and clawing back time on the favourites! The blue jersey staying within his limits and aboutt to reap the rewards if he can overhaul Sagan, who leads him by 38 seconds on GC!
1.6km left and it's a stand-off at the front, much to the benefit of De Bie! Of Course, Bobridge requires only a small gap and bonuses to overhaul De Bie, but it's a surprise to not see Bakelants going for the GC win, or Tejay (or even Pernsteiner) using the situation to their advantage for the stage win.
Just outside the flamme rouge now and the same situation as Bobridge takes the lead now. The toughest slopes are behind us, but will we see Bobridge's TT skills come into play on the false flats of the finish?
De Bie losing ground! The Belgian slow to open up his final sprint, and with Bobridge in control this could be disaster for the yellow jersey! Just 23 seconds are needed for the jersey to switch hands.
Bobridge with a superb acceleration, and this could be the GC win! Just 500m left. Putting his track skills to good use!
The Costa group catching all but Gastauer and Dall'Oste fromt he dropped riders. The Mohoric-lead chasers are losing ground in the finale, which will see Sagan lose his 4th place to Van Garderen!
De Bie up to speed but in danger of being given a gap! Like earlier, the extra man of Pernsteiner in fourth position could be the key to him getting a s.t. result, which is all he needs!
Bobridge is easily the quickest here, and with Tejay coming around Bakelants it could be disaster for De Bie in the last 200m!
Those track skills coming in handy as Bobridge takes a magnificent victory, which could secure him the overall win! Meanwhile
Bakelants holds off Van Garderen for second.
Bad news for De Bie, as that is surely a gap now Pernsteiner and Van Garderen are out of the road between him and Bakelants. He overhauls the Austrian for fourth but that won't be any consolation.
Mohoric speeds away from his companions for sixth at about 55 seconds' deficit to Bobridge. it won't be much use though, unless Sagan and Skujins come in more than 32 seconds after!
Which they won't, as Sagan crosses in seventh with about 10 seconds to spare. Not a bad day for Skujins, but not what he would have hoped for. Finally into the top 10 though, and he can be proud of his aggressive racing. For Sagan it's an awful day though.
Gastauer leaving Dall'Oste behind but the Italian clinching a nice top 10 ahead of his leader Waeytens (11th), who stops the clock about 3'50 down. Another solid outing for the Belgian, around these 10-15th spots for a few days now. Beltran comes in 12th, also at 3'50 and so will be eagerly waiting for his time gaps to Gastauer and Bibby/Kangert on either side.
Costa likely stays in the top 10 but losing some spots here to Gastauer, Skujins, Van Garderen and Mohoric, coming in with Vakoc at 4'12. But the gain over Bibby and Trofimov should leave him 9th I think.
The biggest loser here, though, is Trofimov, who's not even in the 1st (Barbin, Ulissi, Yates) or 2nd (Klemme, Caruso) group arriving from that original group with Barbin and Klemme. He'll ship potentially over 6 minutes, depending on how the jury awards gaps. Even worse for Bibby, nearly 8 minutes down. An awful day for Gazelle with Kangert losing 7 minutes as well. Meanwhile I've heard Pernsteiner's great result here has seen him jump towards the top 15 on GC! And potentially with a great Isostar day and a crappy Gazelle one, we see a Teams Classification change?
Whilst we wait for confirmation on time gaps, we can see that Bobridge's win secures the white points jersey he has been riding around in - a mark of his consistency on every stage.
Costa wins an exciting KoM fight, soured a bit by the tired Stachowiak and the stronger climbers coming in today! Well-deserved, though.
And the least competitve jersey is, obviously, the blue jersey for Best Young Rider, which has never left the shoulders of Matej Mohoric since he grabbed it on Stage 2. A very nice ride in the yellow jersey fight by the Slovenian, of course, one of the strongest puncheurs actually and very nearly in the top 5 despite not a great TTT or ITT.
And confirmation here of a 14-second gap, which means Bobridge is the 2018 Vuelta al Pais Vasco winner! A smart race, and though he wasn't the best in the hills he rode well and stayed with the favourites every day (and won today, of course), and the victory was secured by his great team in the TTT, and himself in the ITT. De Bie is unlucky with second but can look back with pride at his race. Meanwhile, Bakelants and Van Garderen are very deserving of their spots.
A close fight for the lower spots: Costa actually only slipping one spot due to Gastauer bleeding a lot of time to Bobridge et al, whilst Trofimov loses a lot of time and is 9th after coming in as a top favourite. Beltran will be pleased with his consistency to come 10th despite the TT kilometres, whilst Gastauer's aggression really deserves more than 11th, by an agonizing 2 seconds. Just his disaster Stage 2 letting him down, as well as cracking today.
That's all from us after a great week here in the Basque Country, it's been a wild and entertaining race with no shortage of action. We've enjoyed it and I hope you've enjoyed it too. Goodbye.
