Last stage of the race, but the fight isn’t over yet. Today we have another mountain stage, starting in Airolo, where yesterday’s stage ended, and finishing in Crans-Montana after 145 kms of stage. Actually, route design is a bit weird, as the race starts with Nufenenpass, but climbed from the side that riders descended yesterday to the finish in Airolo, and then around 100 flat kms, before climbing a big climb in Aminona, then 3-4 kms of false flat roads before the 2 final kms kicks up again to the finish in Crans-Montana.
The GC fight might look settled, but Silvio Herklotz must work his way through the GC win yet. His lead over Andy Schleck is just 48 seconds, and the Luxemborgian has proved to be the best rider in the pure mountain stages in the race
Puma has no plans of chasing down a breakaway early in the stage, so 12 riders attack before Nufenenpass and form today’s breakaway
Egger beats Prado in the top of Nufenenpass for the KoM points, but those points that Prado got means that the Mexican rider is mathematically the winner of the KoM jersey in this race.
Barbero got dropped fairly easily from the breakaway, suffering the same fate as yesterday
Due to the “boring races protocol”, we jump straight into the final 20 kms of the stage, when the climb of Aminona starts. Breakaway only has 1 minute over the bunch, that hasn’t give them any chance to fight for the stage win today
Puma puts an insane pace in the first slopes, as Herklotz must be feeling really great today. Schleck, Dombrowski and Morton are well placed around Herklotz, but this could catch un-guarded some top gc riders
We have no explanation for this race situation. Suddenly 6 riders have broke away from the bunch, 4 of them being Puma riders (Hadi, Stussi, Bongiorno and Herklotz) with only other GC riders following being Dombrowski and Machado. And the gap to the bunch is already 45 seconds, because neither Schleck, Morton, Amador or anyone else is trying to close the gap or simply attack that group
The gap keeps rising as neither Thier or Kirsch have enough energies to help that group, and Herklotz’s group is already 1’30 ahead of Schleck’s group, while they are also about to catch the breakaway
And with just 6 kms to the top of this climb (13 to the finish) the gap is already 2’30...
Dombrowski starts to pull in that front group, knowing that he’s getting into the GC podium with this distance
The team that probably has to do the least work here, Bennelong, is the one that is rescuing the podium hopes of people like Schleck, Amador, Guldhammer, Hirt and those riders that were in the Top7 of GC before the stage, as Smith has been brilliantly working for Morton for a couple of kms
Machado attacks in the front! After losing 10 minutes yesterday, he wants a second stage win in the race, and he knows he can’t arrive in the same group as Herklotz, or the German will crush him in the sprint.
Behind, it looks like things got heated with Smith’s pace, and only Morton, Schleck and Amador were able to follow the Aussie rider. Maybe Morton can climb some places in GC this way
Dombrowsi doesn’t want to work for Herklotz, so he attacks the race leader, that is kinda slow reacting to that move. He has a great margin to the American rider in GC, so it’s not really a worry for him if he gaps him at the finish, but if the German wants the stage win he has to be in those moves
Attack by Morton! Once Smith was done pulling, Bennelong’s leader didn’t hesitate and makes his move, maybe trying to catch the leaders
“Vine, vide, ¿vince?” Herklotz finally arrives to Machado/Dombrowski duo under the 10-km arc, but as soon as he gets there, he launches a powerful attack that only the American can follow
View from the helicopter as we can see exactly how many group are down the road. Morton has really opened a nice gap to Amador/Schleck group, but with barely 2 kms to the top of this climb, it’s quite unlikely he’ll catch Machado
Herklotz passes first over the top of the climb, not that it really matters in the KoM fight, but the important thing is that Machado hasn’t been able to recover those 25 seconds he lost in Herklotz’s acceleration, so he’s pretty much out of the stage win fight
Morton is really pushing hard, trying to make up the time lost in previous stages, and he’s now only 20 seconds behind Morton with 5 kms to go! He’s also continuing to keep the gap to Schleck and Amador growing, now over a minute
Herklotz and Dombrowski reach the final 2 kms, and surely they remember it’s the exact same finish as in S2, but that time they were coming from the road that is now closed with barriers
The gaps remain the same when the leading duo is about to enter the final km. I’d say that Dombrowski should have put himself in the first position in order to have a chance of beating Herklotz in a sprint
Now we know why Dombrowski didn’t try to move ahead of Herklotz, he’s struggling to keep up with Herklotz’s rhythm with 800 metres to go!
Herklotz sees this, and decides to hold his sprint, knowing that no one can catch him and the GC win is secured, until the final 300 metres
Game, set and match for Silvio Herklotz, as he crosses the line in Crans-Montana to win both the final stage and the GC of 2018 Tour de Suisse!
Dombrowski manages to hold on that second place in the stage as neither Machado had energies to make an sprint, so the Portuguese settles for third today. 34 and 46 seconds lost to Herklotz at the end for them
Good effort by Morton, being the best of those who didn’t make the “Puma split”. At the end he lose some extra time, arriving at 1’10
+ 1’30 for Schleck, who surely saves his second place in GC, and Amador, who will have to wait for confirmation, but it should be really tight with Dombrowski
+ 2’38 for Yates and Wellens, who tried to follow Schleck and Amador, but couldn’t, and then worked together fine to probably both get a Top10 GC result
+ 3’13 for Meintjes, Guldhammer and Hirt. The latter two are probably losing a spot in GC to Morton, but a good race in overall for both
+ 4’01 for Monsalve and Dekker, two of the big disappointments in the final stages
+ 4’55 for Nibali, who couldn’t hold onto that great 4th place where he started this stage. Kinda expected tbh
Herklotz goes the podium for the first of many times today as stage winner, his second stage win in the race
Now the German celebrates his GC win in Suisse! California, Vuelta and Suisse are his 3 GC wins this season, a season that might be over now, but it’s one of the most brilliant ones for a 24 y/o in MG history, if not the most.
Second place for Andy Schleck, who looked strong in both mountain stages previous to today, but his tactics today were strange to say the least
Andrei Amador saves the GC podium by just 4 seconds over Joseph Dombrowski. The Costa Rican was the race leader up until yesterday, when he lost a lot of time to Herklotz and Schleck, and neither today was very smart. Meanwhile, the American saves his race after a really bad day in the hilly S7
Morton with today’s great ride climbs from 9th to 5th. His manager will be more relaxed now that Morton at least delivered a decent GC result, after overtaking Hirt and Guldhammer, who finish 6th and 7th.
Wellens gets eighth place, as Nibali bad day sees him dropped from 4th to 9th, barely ahead of Adam Yates, who closes the Top10
Not a surprise that Herklotz is the winner of both Points and U25 classifications, but we get to see Ignacio Jesus Prado in the podium as the KoM winner for Moser.
And Bennelong managed to hold onto the Teams standings win to complete a very decent race for the team
