Stage 3 - Porto-Vecchio > Col de l'Ospedale The classical queen stage for the Corsica International, with a summit finish up Col de L'Ospedale (14.4km, 6% slopes) and obviously the climbers fighting for the GC victory:
Duarte as the race leader and the big goal to repeat last year's overall win here. Kudus (and his teammate Novak) as yesterday's next best performers amongst the premium climbers, with Choi, König and Úran already more than 20 seconds behind Duarte. Shikai, Velits and Monsalve with more than 30 seconds disadvantage, Henao Montoya (as one of today's big favorites for the stage) with + 0.47 on Duarte.. also Berhane/Ji and Nazaret almost need to gain a minute on Duarte, if they want to take the GC.
The break of the day is quickly formed, eight riders are trying their luck to fight for the KoM classification and a lucky stage/GC win:
Koshevoy Dall'Oste Niyonshuti Van den Broeck Lehtinen Suryadi Baltazar Parra Bustamente
That's quite a strong breakaway group with several solid climbers and Van den Broeck (2nd in 2015) as a former podium finisher in this race! A few tactical options for teams like Euskaltel and WCC, there's some potential for an interesting race in this group!
Koshevoy took the first intermediate sprint ahead of Parra/Baltazar.. but more important should be the fight for mountain sprints:
Lehtinen took the first ahead of Van den Broeck.. Niyonshuti took the second ahead of Suryadi and Van den Broeck.. Van den Broeck took the third for the virtual lead in the rankings.. Dall'Oste took the last ahead of Van den Broeck!
Provisional KoM Van den Broeck 16, Dall'Oste 8, Lehtinen 8, Niyonshuti/Rocchetti 6
Koshevoy and Suryadi were the first riders dropped from the early break and with mainly Repsol taking care of the chase, the leading group is just 33 seconds ahead of the peloton with now only 15km and the final climb to come!
The pack is down to 53 riders with only third-tier climbers being dropped (Grigrian, Mat Senan/Wang or Sinelobov, Koshevoy - to name a few).. and obviously, GC leader Tleubayev!
10km before the finish, all escapees have been reeled in by the pack (40 riders), where still Repsol sets the pace:
Ndayisenga and Novak leading the reduced bunch up the climb and more and more riders can't hang on anymore:
Martinez, Brandt, Mai, Roson, Oomen, Affonso, Hasta, Poels..
Anacona and Signorini as the most notable riders being dropped already!
No big attacks yet, but Repsol's pace made the main group go into further pieces with now less than 6km to go and just 21 riders left in the group:
Novak took over the lead and he pulls Kudus towards a gap on the main group now! What a performance from Novak so far, who goes clear by 14 seconds with his captain right behind his wheel!
Duarte at the front of this main group (19 riders), that is 16 seconds behind Kudus/Novak with 5.8km to go:
in this order Duarte Iino Úran Gilanipoor Monsalve Shikai Berhane Henao Montoya Velits Nazaret Choi König Rodrigues Brenes Senni Stetina Bennett Lemus Davila Pantano Gómez (who struggles to hang on though)
A next group lost contact a few moments before:
Warbasse Ji Carthy Haga
Henao Montoya now taking over the leading position in the first chasing group, that is 28 seconds behind Kudus/Novak with now 4km remaining..
Shikai, Berhane, Úran, Velits on the further positions.. Duarte and Choi with a small gap then and in danger to miss out on a split in this group?
Yes, and no! There's indeed a few rider going clear for a final push towards the leading Repsol duo:
Henao Montoya keeps pacing and he's going clear!
Shikai Úran a few seconds behind, also going clear from the group..
Velits could not hang on..
Duarte indeed missed the split, but he's trying to follow now!
1.7km to go and Novak keeps leading Kudus! What an effort so far and given his strong performance yesterday, Novak may actually not only fight for his captain's GC ambitiouns from now on!
Henao Montoya though is closing the gap and both Novak and Kudus definitely look exhausted, for good reasons..
Úran/Shikai half a minute behind, but also with a notable gap on group Duarte, who could not follow on those moves!
Final kilometre and not only Henao Montoya, but also Shikai/Úran managed to catch up to the leading duo!
Novak/Kudus fight hard, but they really don't have much energy left here.. Henao Montoya, however, did not really show an attempt to go past them yet, instead he allowed the chasing duo to connect to this new leading group: Shikai going past Henao now..
Still about 30-35 seconds in arrears, the next group: Velits now at the front with Duarte and Brenes catching his wheel for a final push!
Choi follows quickly, König still there.. Nazaret seems to struggle now though..
Back to the front, where Novak is still ahead of Kudus - both can't launch a finishing sprint though:
Shikai can, however, and he opens up a small gap on Úran! Henao launching his sprint too late, it seems!
Yes, indeed: Henao Montoya is still behind Kudus with just a few hundred metres to go!
Shikai flying towards the finish with a comfortable gap on Novak, who's still ahead of Úran!
Shikai takes the stage thanks to a great final sprint! A comfortable victory and obviously there's hoping to also achieve the GC win that way!
Úran comes 2nd with the same time as Shikai! That's good news for Shikai, still: Úran had a 7-seconds advantage on Shikai prior to the stage and Shikai gained 8 seconds on Úran today!
Henao Montoya finally went past Repsol's exhausted duo to finish 3rd on the stage..
Novak and Kudus complete the Top-5 with also the same time as Shikai! And that will be a tough one for the GC, as Novak had quite a comfortable gap on Shikai prior to the stage..
+ 34" for Velits as 6th on the stage
+ 43" for Brenes, Choi, Duarte and König
GC leader Duarte losing more than 40 seconds (without bonifications), so he could not defend yellow to repeat last year's victory!
+ 1'10" Nazaret as 11th on the stage
+ 1'41" Gilanipoor and a rather disappointing Berhane
+ 2'22" Senni as 14th
+ 2'30" for a group with Monsalve, Rodrigues and Bennett
+ 3'35" for a small group with Warbasse, Ji and Carthy
What a result for Novak today! He indeed moves up to 1st in the final GC and takes a surprising (but deserved) overall victory at the Corsica International 2018! Thanks to his great timetrial performance and of course his even more impressive ride today, he narrowly slipped into yellow for probably the biggest win in his career. A stunner for Repsol, obviously! Just like Duarte last season, he's the next rider to win the GC without winning a stage here.
Shikai just 2 seconds off Novak as runner-up in the GC! A strong performance today though and with a stage-win bagged, it's certainly been a great result for him, who had some really disappointing races this season..
Úran could not repeat his victory from two years ago, but he completes the podium as 3rd - with just 3 seconds off the GC winner. What a tight decision eventually, where bonifications and yesterday's TT result became a crucial factor.
Kudus completes a huge result for Repsol as 4th in the GC with just seven seconds behind Novak eventually. He could not beat his teammate today, but we better expect him to feel happy for Novak and this big GC win!
Henao Montoya rounds up the Top-5 ahead of Duarte, who was maybe just missing a good working teammate today. His 6th place in the GC ain't disastrous though and with a stage-win in addition, he certainly can be happy with the overall outcome..
Choi adds a great 7th place for Meiji - König, Velits and Brenes complete the Top-10. Another rather disappointing result for Velits, who hadn't the best TT result and who could not go with the best of today's queen stage either. König with a solid 8th though, just like Brenes as 10th.
Nazaret 11th ahead of Gilanipoor, who adds at least depth for Xero (just like Bennett as 17th) - Berhande has to settle for a 13th place ahead of Senni, Lemus Davila and a disappointing Monsalve as 16th. Rodrigues 18th ahead of Iino and Pantano Gomez..
Duarte and Tleubayev with a tied win in the points classification!
Van den Broeck will be happy to take the KoM classification..
Kudus adds another white shirt as clearly the best U25 rider..
Meiji - JR East wins the team classification ahead of Repsol and Xero!
