Welcome to the fifth and final stage of 2018's Tour d'Andorra. And what a stage it will be: 10 very steep climbs across 200 kilometres. Surely this is going to give some insane time gaps?
Suaza will be entering this stage in the leader's jersey once again, and is looking to seal the deal. Though with this stamina potentially becoming a dealbreaker, Pinot, Campero and Anacona will fancy their chances too! All others will have to hope for a very good day if they still want to win.
Also with so many climbs, we'll have to take a look on this KoM ranking too, which Suaza leads with 52 p. Though with only 10 points for the winner of each sprint, a breakaway rider will have to dominate them to become a danger to him.
The first attack of the day include some very big names! It's:
With Seibeb (GC #35, +13'47)and Manfred (GC #58, +25'59) in the background, trying to follow.
Seibeb reaches the first four. Manfred struggles to do so, and now has Rosa and Lewis in his wheel.
Lead group – 1 min – three chasers – 1 min – Peloton.
A bit later, De Marchi and (a bit later) Parra Bustamente also try their luck. Compal tries to control the dangerous break.
De Marchi is 8'22 behind in the GC, Parra Bustamente 6'43. Two more riders who are potentially looking for a major coup!
Meanwhile, Lewis takes the first mountain sprint. Hughes, Pomoshnikov, Costagli and Elissonde can be seen behind him. Still trying to reach the first group are Seibeb, De Marchi, Parra Bustamente and Rosa. Manfred has been caught.
The attacks from the pack aren't over yet. Rujano and Bugge now go. And they've already caught Rosa... Are we even going to get a steady breakaway this stage?
Whilst De Marchi wins the second mountain sprint, meaning the KoM isn't really in danger yet, I feel like it's already time for an overview:
Mountain #3, and the breakaway has once again fallen apart. De Marchi, Lewis, Elissonde, Costagli and a struggling Pomoshnikov now have over two minutes on any chasers. Will try team up and stay together this time?
Looks like it, as they reach the top of the next climb together. Lewis wins the sprint, the others seem to try to save their legs.
Lewis wins the next climb too and seems to be going for the KoM jersey! 42 points for him already, while Suaza has 52. Though there's still a long way ahead.
On top of the next climb, we can see Lewis now ties for first in the KoM, while De Marchi and Elissonde are behind him. That means Costagli and Pomoshnikov have been dropped!
Actually, the gap is two minutes already.. Will be hard for the latter two to come back during the descent. The leader's gap to the peloton is now 8 minutes.
Three mountains to go and it seems like Lewis is getting out of steam. De Marchi and Elissonde drop him and are now heading to the final climbs alone.
Meanwhile, the peloton only has 35 riders left, mainly due to the hard work of Atapuma. No notable names have been dropped though!
Gap from the leaders to this peloton – still 8 minutes.
De Marchi takes another KoM sprint while Elissonde seems to care more about the stage win. Lewis is still racking up points behind them though, and the current KoM situation is as follows:
Lewis – 64 De Marchi – 58 Suaza – 52
It's still anyone's game!
30 kilometres and two climbs to go, and De Marchi now drops Elissonde! Seems like Elissonde was just too tired to go for the KoM sprints after all!
On the background: The peloton, with 31 riders, still 8 minutes behind.
Speaking of that peloton, just before the top of the second to last climb, the first big names are now beginning to drop. Brajkovic, 12th in the GC, is the first victim, who is going to suffer for 20 more kilometres for sure.
10 kilometres to go for De Marchi, who is three minutes ahead of Elissonde, who is four minutes ahead of the peloton. Who will be the first to attack from the peloton?
It's Pinot! Suaza immediately tries to follow.
Panayotov gets them back by himself and now sets a good pace at the front of the group.
Though Campero and Anacona can't follow! They may try to diesel their way to the finish, though things aren't looking too good for them right now.
Panayotov uses the speed he had to chase the others to attack by himself. Now, it's Suaza's turn to react once again! His rivals are trying to get him tired!
5 kilometres to go. De Marchi has 3 minutes left.
Suaza reaches Panayotov and a massive gap appears. They have one minute on them already!
In the background, König is leading the chase.
With four kilometres left, here's an overview. Two main questions now: Will De Marchi hang on? And what can Pinot still do, GC-wise?
At least we know the answer to that second question already: Not much! He even has to let König, Hacecký and Ratiy go!
One kilometre to go, can Suaza, Panayotov and breakaway companion Elissonde do anything about De Marchi winning this stage?
The answer is no! Way too tired to celebrate, Alessandro de Marchi wins the fifth and final stage of the Tour d'Andorra. What a nice win for the breakaway maniac and his team, Telia.
Behind them, even if it's unnecessary, Suaza shows his dominance one more time and beats Panayotov in a sprint for second! Panayotov and Adasta will now have to wait and see how much ground he made up to the riders above him in the standings.
A tired Elissonde finishes fourth. Good result by him from the break too, obviously.
1'15 later, Ratiy just outsprints Hacecký and König for fifth then.
1'12 behind those three, Cataldo, Kiserlovski and Pinot complete the top 10. Though they all lost over three minutes on De Marchi.. Damn!
A bit further in this group, Campero: 3'53 on De Marchi.
The worst performance of the day goes to Anacona, 5'09 on De Marchi. What a disappointment after his dominance only a few stages ago. The best he can hope for is a top 10-position now.
Pomoshnikov is even further behind: 8,5 minutes. Though he gambled with his breakaway presence, and lost.
Off to the podium, then! First of all, De Marchi has found some energy back and is able to cheer after his stage win!
Then the GC win is no surprise anymore: Jaime Suaza was the only consistant rider, and takes the GC with ease. A very well-deserved win from Compal's star rider.
Behind them, a lot of surprises though. Look who pops up first: It's Panayotov! Stage 1's winner made an awesome comeback in the final stage and snatches the best possible result; right behind Suaza.
Third is Pinot, who had just enough left in the tank to keep his lead over many others in the GC, despite a poor showing in the final stage. He's followed by König and Hacecký. Of those two, the latter has to easily be the most satisfied.
Campero drops to 6th, still a very respectable result by him. The same can be said by Ratiy in 7th. Anacona finds himself back in 8th after his poor final stage. So much more was possible for him...
Cataldo and a very average Kiserlovski find themselves back in the top 10, too. Followed by De Marchi, who deserves another shoutout at 11th!
Suaza also takes the points jersey. And he's just as happy with it as with the GC win!
The KoM jersey then. Almost forgotten about by the broadcasters due to the hectic final, but in the end, it's De Marchi's! A deserved bonus for his incredible stage win.
Lastly, Potocki gets the U25 jersey, which should come as no surprise.
Oberfranken takes the team classification win, after being quite far behind Banco de Bogota at first. A nice comeback from them.
And that was all the coverage of 2018's Tour d'Andorra. Which means we'll have to leave you now, at least for another year. What was the biggest surprise of them all? Suaza's domination? De Marchi's stage win? Panayotov's second place? Or something else? We will be glad to hear your thoughts in the comments section!
Tour of Andorra – Stage 5
