Final stage of Tour du Faso, and it’s the main stage of the race. It’s the kind of stage you never see, because while being only 125 kms long, 80% of the stage is raced on cobbled, with a total of 101 kms of cobbles!!!
The GC is currently led by Vegard Breen, but realistically, there are still 11 other riders with chances of winning the race, as they all are within 25 seconds of the lead
And absolutely no wind today. A weird thing given how the previous two days were.
The cobbles start after just 5 kms of stage, and by that time, already 6 riders have attacked from the bunch.
Laizer Burke Mihaylov Scotson Partridge Kokorevas
The only half-decent cobbler Laizer, who was already in the first day’s breakaway, so it would be a surprise that this breakaway stays ahead for long
And only a couple of kms into the cobbles, Laizer and Kokorevas leave behind the rest of the breakaway
Big destruction in the bunch, as without anyone putting a high pace, the group was reduced to just 50 riders before the end of the first cobbled section. Also, Kokorevas was dropped by Laizer, who is the lone escapee right now.
Laizer obviously takes the 3 seconds at the intermediate sprint, but the weirdest thing is that no one fought the seconds in the bunch, so Breen and Kluge won 2 and 1 seconds. Laizer’s gap grow to 4 minutes with 100 kms to go
The second sprint wasn’t contested neither, but this time it was Swisslion domestiques taking the seconds. Several riders got back to the bunch with the slow pace over the cobbles, making it a 75-rider group. With 60 kms left, Laizer has a 4-minute gap
Puncture for Breen just after that sprint!! And Swisslion doesn’t want to waste this chance to eliminate the GC leader!
But Breen catched the group quickly once the cobbles returned, and Swisslion stopped riding
With 24 kms to go, the final cobbled section, which lasts until the finish line. Laizer is almost caught by the bunch, that is only 45 seconds behind, led by Swisslion riders
And same as in stage 1, Zhupa doesn’t care about his domestiques and goes to the front and pulls from the bunch, almost reeling Laizer with 20 kms to go. All the favourites are in the first places, knowing that they have to be there in case of splits happen anytime soon
And now it’s a proper attack with 17 kms to go from Zhupa! First a split with Breen, Ferreira, Kluge, Van Wyk and Van der Haar had happened, and when the Albanian saw it, he accelerated and only Ferreira followed him
Drucker has joined the first chasing group, but Ferreira and Zhupa are steadily opening a nice gap, already of 30 seconds with 13 kms left. 25 seconds further behind, Valio has Yechekzel working for Kulppi, while GCN might be having leadership issues, with McLay the better placed in GC, but Jacobs the better cobbler. Breschel is in the first places of that group, while Belgasem is in the back of the group, already struggling, so will lose his Top10 place
McLay’s dream seems to be over, as Kulppi and Jacobs ride away from his group, and he seems to be struggling a lot right now. The gap between the first two groups has increased to 35 seconds. Zhupa is happy with the current situation, as he only needs to finish in the same time as Ferreira in second in order to win GC
Kulppi and Jacobs are bridging the gap to next group, as Van Wyk cracks and is about to get dropped from that group. In that group Van der Haar doesn’t seem to be working for Breen, which means more leadership issues in Delvaux, after yesterday De Bondt stole 1 bonus seconds to Breen
Final 5 kms for Ferreira and Zhupa! Both are working fine so the gap is almost 40 seconds over the next group, with Breen, Kluge, Drucker, Kulppi, Jacobs and Van der Haar. Van Wyk is almost one minute behind, and about to get caught by the next group, where Sauber has taken care of the pace, having 4 riders in that group. A group where McLay is still there
Kluge goes for it with 4 kms to go! At the same time Jacobs gets dropped and Kulppi and Drucker start to struggle. And Breen can’t follow Kluge! Neither Van der Haar helps him, which continues to be weird
Kluge arrives to the leading group and sets a storming pace, which makes Ferreira to suffer. Breen has left behind the rest of that group, but now he’s left in no one land, and could lose a lot of time in the final kms
Less than 2 kms to go, and Kluge seems to have nothing left in the tank. He tried to leave the others behind, and he failed. Now Breen has a chance to comeback to the leading group, and if he finishes seconds behind Zhupa, who seems the freshest rider, he’ll win the GC
There goes Zhupa for the stage win and the GC win! Final km for him, as he drops Kluge and Ferreira, while Breen is about to make contact with that duo
Eugert Zhupa wins the final stage of Tour du Faso! He had lost the win in the last metres the first day, and now he wins the stage and most likely the GC win too!
Kluge gets second place ahead of Breen and Ferreira, which confirms that Zhupa wins GC, whether he gets a gap to this trio or not (he’ll likely to though)
Drucker started the stage fifth in GC, and after finishing fifth in the stage, 2 minutes after Zhupa did, he’ll finish fifth in GC too
Half a minute later Van der Haar, Kulppi and Jacobs cross the line. They’ll also finish 6th, 7th and 8th in GC
Matzka and Veelers complete the Top10 of the stage, finishing almost 4 minutes behind the stage winner. In that group finish also Breschel, Abraha, Taubel, Grand, Van Wyk and Verbist
In this group that finishes 4’40 behind, arrives McLay, the big surprise of the race so far. He might drop even outside GC Top10, but nothing will take away his great race
Eugert Zhupa is the winner of 2018 Tour du Faso! Big win for Swisslion, which was the team that tried it the most in both cobbled stage despite lacking the good support for their leader, who was the strongest and also the most attacking rider in the race. Really deserved win.
Vegard Breen has to settle for the second place in GC, but he wins the Points jersey as a consolation price.
And Roger Kluge completes the GC podium. He was the main favourite before the race, but was never close to win any stage
Lucas Meiler wins the U25 classification, while Delvaux shows their depth by winning the Teams standings.
In the spoiler you can see all the riders that finished outside of time limit
Spoiler
So that’s it from Faso. A very exciting race, with the big cobblers fighting for the GC, with a real battle, unlike previous seasons
