“Queen stage” in Switzerland, just one day away from the end of the race, with this brutal mountain stage between Aldorf and Airolo. The stage doesn’t finish in a climb, but in just 151 kms the riders will have to climb 3 HC climbs; Sustenpass, Grimselpass and Nufenenpass, the last one 23 kms away from the finish in Airolo.
Andrey Amador is the race leader entering the final two stages, but Tiago Machado with his stage win yesterday stays in second just 13 seconds behind him, while Herklotz is 41 seconds behind the race leader
In the first kms, only three riders would try to get in the breakaway (and succeeded), but it was clearly a strong trio
Gallopin
Kennaugh
Nibali (19th GC, +4’57)
In the first slopes of Sunstenpass, other 3 riders would attack; Boom, maybe looking to help his teammate Gallopin, Van Niekerk and Barbero surely with the intention of fighting for the KoM jersey
And it wouldn’t take long until KoM leader Prado would attack from the bunch, looking to reduce on his own the 4-minute gap that separate both groups. Meanwhile, Barbero shows he’s not able to cope with these major climbs, and gets dropped from the breakaway really early into the climb.
Also, really strong winds are expected all-day, including a very likely head-wind in the final descent and last flat kms of the stage
Gallopin shows his strength in the fight for the points in Sustenpass, as neither Kennaugh, Prado or Nibali could put any fight to the Frenchman. Boom and Van Niekerk were dropped a bit before the sprint, with the Aegon rider more likely to comeback in the descent.
The bunch seems unaware that Nibali is less than 5 minutes away from the race leader, and when the bunch gets to the top of the climb, they are around 12 minutes behind the breakaway, which would put Nibali into the provisional race lead, with a 7-minute margin over Amador
As expected, Boom was able to reach the breakaway group during the descent, but would crack very early into Grimselpass, and then a very weird scene happened, as Gallopin decided to wait for Boom instead of following Nibali’s group. Surely Aegon DS knows something we don’t...
The gap has been reduced to 8 minutes in the bottom of Grimselpass, thanks to the effort of Puma
Nibali vs Kennaugh, once Prado gets dropped with more than 10 kms to the top of the climb. Even if the GC upset is really unlikely, the current gaps really give the Italian aging star a chance for the stage win in Airolo
And there goes Nibali, trying to do a 60-km solo! The Italian drops a dead Kennaugh and goes for the exhibition!
The bunch is still 7’30 behind Nibali, and so far since the Italian broke away from everyone else on the breakaway, the gap has only been increased, despite the work of Stussi, Hadi or Bayly. Around 50 riders remain in the bunch at this point, with still 5-6 kms to the top of Grimselpass
Max points for Nibali obviously in the top of Grimselpass, but that’s not really what the Italian is looking for with his attack. After all, Prado has the KoM win pretty much settled
Absolute disaster for Thomas Dekker, as the Dutchman gets dropped in the final km of Grimselpass, as Bongiorno puts an insane rhythm than barely 30 riders managed to hang on the bunch. And Dekker is already 2 minutes behind the bunch at this point...
Nibali starts the final climb of the day with a gap to the bunch of 5 minutes. Should be enough for the stage win, or at the very least, to reach the summit of Neufenpass in first place, but we’ll see how ferociously the GC riders attack this climb
And Hirt doesn’t even wait for the second slope, attacking right from the start of this climb. And Dombrowski, Preidler and Salinas look to be following the Czech’s move
Initially Bongiorno tried to chase those 4 riders down, but after around a km of battle, the Italian gave up, and that group started building a nice gap over the bunch. Hirt and Dombrowski currently are 12th and 13th in GC, a bit over 3 minutes behind Amador in GC, and could be looking to jump into the Top10 with this move
Really slow pace in the bunch, that has allowed Dombrowski/Hirt group to get 2’30 over them in just 3-4 kms, and Nibali to be back at 6 minutes and in the provisional race lead, but Schleck gets tired of this and decides to attack
Herklotz doesn’t wait even a second to follow Schleck and stick onto his wheel, but no one else has a quick reaction, only Morton starts to pull of this group by himself
Herklotz cracks! Wow, Schleck second acceleration was brutal and the German wonderkid is struggling to follow the Luxemborgian legend
How much is UBS paying Morton to work for Amador right now? Because it’s starting to look really ridiculous
Problems for Machado! Yesterday’s stage winner is heavily struggling right now, with Morton’s pace being too much for him, and pretty much for everyone on that group except Amador and Yates. Wellens and Quintana haven’t surrender yet, but both have lost a few metres to the wheel of Yates, that won’t be easy to get back
Third attack of Schleck and it finally looks like Herklotz won’t be able to follow it, after barely hanging on Schleck’s wheel for a couple of kms. Schleck has the duo of Dombrowski and Hirt at 50 seconds, with Nibali 3’30 further ahead
Really annoying how Amador hasn’t done anything on his own this stage yet, and still relies on Morton to pull from his group, where Guldhammer has joined too. But Amador is losing this race to either Herkotz, Schleck or Nibali, and likely missing on the podium too, he needs to react soon!
Schleck got to Dombrowski’s group, but he slowed down a bit, allowing Herklotz to join that group, something that Schleck doesn’t want, as he needs to drop him to have a chance to win the race
Around 20 kms left for Nibali, who obviously goes first over Neufenpass, and with the stage win pretty much secured, as the second group has decided to stop riding and wait for Amador’s group (lol), the question now is if Nibali can really have a shot to the GC lead
The two chasing groups are now separated by 1 minute at the top of Neufenpass, and the first group is already 5 minutes behind Nibali. This would give Nibali the race lead if the gap remains as this in the finish in Airolo
Right now Herklotz is clearly the most interested in pulling in the first chasing group, though he’s getting a lot of help from Hirt, who wants to jump in GC as high as possible. They have already reduced the gap to Nibali to 4’30 with 12 kms to go, and increased the gap to Amador to 1’15
Just 5 kms to go for Nibali, who is about to enter the flatter part. He’s quickly losing time to Herklotz’s group, who already is at 4 minutes behind, but at least he’s keeping the gap to Amador’s group, a group that is 2 minutes further behind
Fantastic stage win for Vincenzo Nibali in Airolo! A 60-km solo ride! Amazing ride by the Italian, that has lost major time in the final 5 kms, but we’ll know better when the rest of riders come
Hirt wins the sprint for second place, ahead of Herklotz, Schleck and Dombrowski. They arrived 1’54 after Nibali, recovering about 2 minutes in the final 5 kms
+3’01 for Yates, who attacked Amador’s group in the final kms, gaining big time from that move
+4’08 for Guldhammer, Amador, Wellens and Morton. Amador loses the race with this stage, and he barely did any effort to save that lead...
+11’05 for Dekker, Bibby and Machado. Terrible day, especially for the latter, as no one saw it coming after his massive performance yesterday. Dekker can even feel lucky after being dropped very early and only end up losing this time
Vincenzo Nibali goes to the podium as the stage winner today in Airolo! No words for his performance today, that 60-km solo speaks for itself
But probably Nibali isn’t the biggest winner of the stage, as Silvio Herklotz retakes the leader’s jersey, and now really has all odds with him to become the youngest winner of the race in a lot of years.
His lead over Andy Schleck is 48 seconds, and with the final stage being way much easier than this one, the German should be confident about getting the win home for Puma.
Andrei Amador drops to third place, 1’41 behind Herklotz, and maybe he’ll have to focus on defending that podium spot instead of thinking on jumping a spot in GC, as there are four riders that are 1 minute or less behind him in GC. Starting with today’s winner Nibali, 2’10 behind Herklotz (29 behind Amador), followed by Hirt (2’26/45’’), Guldhammer (2’38/57’’) and Dombrowski (2’53/1’12). The rest of the Top10 is completed by Wellens, Morton and Yates, while horrible day for Machado sees him dropping from 2nd to 12th, and without a chance to even improve his GC position now
Several riders couldn't make it into the time limit for today, and they are out of the race
