Welcome to the finale of the Tour of Bulgaria. And just like stages 1 and 3, we're having a mountain stage with three mountains. Bulgaria's department of the MGUCI seems to love this concept!
Compared to those other two stages, the first two climbs are very early in the stage. This means it's very unlikely that any favourite will attempt anything on the first mountains, and will save their energy for the final, lengthy climb.
The bookmakers give the same top favourites as the other mountain stages: Pomoshnikov, Kiserlovski, Ratiy and König. Though of those, Kiserlovski has been the only consistant performer so far and will enter this stage as leader. König cracked in stage 3, Pomoshnikov has been quite invisible, Ratiy has been visible but only in a bad way so far. The latter three will surely be looking for revenge today.
Also an exciting day for some riders who may pull off a huge upset in the GC today. Especially Cataldo, Sepulveda and Medvedev, who quite surprisingly find themselves in second, third and fourth place in the GC right now!
The race immediately starts with a category 3-climb, but that doesn't stop riders from attacking.
It's quite a pattern in this race that the first break makes it. These 8 riders are hoping for the same:
As Nakane wins the category 3 KoM sprint in front of Lehtinen, the KoM ranking becomes something very interesting to follow. After this climb, the standings are as follows:
As the group reaches the second climb, Kasa (GC #27, 5'25) is like what the heck and decides to join the breakaway. Rachid tries the same a bit later, and makes the breakaway a 10-man group. Almost three minutes for them already!
Quite a fight took place for the second and final KoM sprint, which is obvious with 16 points being given! Nakane wins it quite convincingly, in front of Lehtinen. Canecky gets third, in front of Rachid, who climbs up to 5th in the KoM rankings.
It's Andorra setting the pace to the final climb, making sure Lehtinen and others won't be a threat to the GC. With the great help of mainly Urcelay, the breakaway gets caught before the start of the final climb.
This means that, unless Lehtinen or Parra Bustamente gets points on the finish line, Nakane has secured the KoM victory!
13 kilometres to go, and Rujano sets the pace for Kiserlovski. Pomoshnikov is in third place already, is he planning something?
He is! With 7 kilometres ahead, together with Panayotov, he tries to break away from the bunch. König tries to parry the attack, while Kiserlovski tries to pull the peloton back.
The three riders unite and now work together to create a gap. And they succeed to do so, 41 seconds with 6 kilometres to go! Kiserlovski seems to be on his own trying to close the gap, the others are trying to get him tired it seems...
And they seem to do quite well in that. Suddenly, Kiserlovski cracks and a lot of riders pass him as if he's standing still. Banco de Bogota now leads the chase, though they have to be careful, Sepulveda is not at the front of the group...
Five more kilometres. König attacks, and he shakes off Panayotov! They are 12 seconds ahead of him now, and Panayotov has 22 seconds on the peloton.
Banco de Bogota halts the chase to give Sepulveda the chance to recover. This means the pace drops, and Domagalski tries to get away!
He takes Dzhus and Medvedev with him, and tries to close the gap to Panayotov. Quite a weird set of events, as with a lot of respect to them, these are not the names you'd expect to manage to get away with only 3 kilometres left...
Time to double up that statement, as now Lewis (from the break!!!), Parra Bustamente and Gonzalez Cortes (72 MO!) get a gap!
Though they get eaten quite quickly, and now Brajkovic goes!
Even I can't follow what's going on now, and I'm shocked to see that König has dropped Pomoshnikov and is almost under the red skite already, so here is an overview:
Sepulveda is now the one to try to pull the peloton as far back as possible. In the background, we can see Kiserlovski struggling. GC #2 Cataldo is even further behind...
Let's just get to the finish line and see who arrives, shall we?'And that name is König! After a great day one and a poor day three, he bounces back on the moment that mattered the most. A great victory for him, though how great will depend on the gap he's made to the nine riders in front of him in the race. Remember, he needs 2'10 on a struggling Kiserlovski...
A tired Pomoshnikov loses a lot of ground on König in the final metres and finishes 47 seconds behind him. Still a good job by him, and he should enter the top 10.
Medvedev, Domagalski and Dzhus finish one minute and 13 seconds behind König. They should all be very happy with this result. Medvedev started this stage in 4th, so he might even have secured himself a spot on the podium here. What a shocker!
Next it's Panayotov, 1'37 behind König. He tried to hang on with König for too long, and had to pay quite a price near the finish line.
Kennaugh (from a very late attack) and Brajkovic are the final riders to finish before the peloton. They finish 7th and 8th.
Hardy (because why the hell not) wins the bunch sprint and finishes 9th, in front of Bardet who closes the top 10.
The bunch finishes 2'15 behind König. Though Kiserlovski, Herrada and especially Cataldo will have to hope that no time gaps will be given there. Their GC is already on the line, but they could drop very far if that happened.
GC's #12 Abreu finishes even further behind and will have to fear for his top 20-spot.
It's almost time for the final GC, but let's watch König celebrating first!
And we don't have to wait long to see who won the GC. König proved that attacking early can be a good thing. He saw Kiserlovski had a weak day, made him work hard and managed to gain enough time to pass him in the GC. Congratulations!
And behind him it's... Medvedev! Probably the most consistent rider this Tour, he managed to pass Kiserlovski and Cataldo on the final stage. Not the victory, but some champagne will be opened in Eddie Stobart's HQ for sure.
Third place for Kiserlovski then. This should be quite disappointing for him and Andorra. Not only because he lost a nice lead on the final stage, but also because of his stage 5 performance. They will be looking to bounce back in another race.
A moment of appreciation for Domagalski is certainly in place. 75 MO, 69 RES, 65 ACC. But he proves stats doesn't mean all, and especially with his performance in the TT, he manages to end up 4th in the GC. Well done!
Cataldo ends up in fifth, a result Campari will be okay with. But after stage 4, it looked like more was possible for him.
The top 10 is completed by Kennaugh, Pomoshnikov, Sepulveda, Brajkovic and amateur rider Herrada. I feel like especailly Pomishnikov and Sepulveda had the potential to do something better. But they will have to settle with some depth points.
Panayotov ended up in 12th. Though he's not the biggest diappointment, as pre-race favourite Ratiy finishes 20th.
König also takes the points jersey. Damn, how do these podium girls change their clothes so fast?
As already mentioned in the stage report, Nakane wins the KoM jersey on the back of two breakaway appearances. At least that's something for home team Adastra!
Finally, we have another winner due to aggressive racing here, as Dzhus wins the U25 jersey. Though number two Lehtinen obviously also did his best, with the stage 1 win and a breakaway appearance in stage 5.
And Eddie Stobart takes the team GC!
And we have now reached the end of the coverage of the Tour of Bulgaria. A race that this reporter will mainly remember because of Valio's 1-2 in stage 1, and the huge amount of riders that weren't even outsiders who had an influence on both the stages and the GC. Thanks everyone for wat... Reading and we hope you join us back next year!
Tour of Bulgaria – Stage 5
