Welcome all cycling fans! You've zapped across to the final stage of the Baltic Chain Tour. So far, we've seen some very unpredictable days, with many favourites not even finishing near the front, crosswinds and a breakaway victory. What novelties will the final stage bring us?
Actually, I can predict one of them already, as this stage features a KoM sprint. Whoever wins this one, will also win the KoM classification. It will be interesting to see how many managers care about these sweet points and send a rider into the breakaway!
Degenkolb leads the GC and is looking to seal the deal today. Cavendish, Rowe and Drapac are his only threats left. Assuming there will be no time gaps, of course.
As expected, with a very valuable KoM sprint just 11 kilometres after the start of the stage, many riders try to break away. Rachid and Kiriakidis are the furthest ahead of this mess.
Three kilometres left to the KoM sprint and we can see that 12 riders are trying to get away from the bunch. The names are:
Desperately trying to join then before the KoM sprint:
Larsen De Haes Kopfauf
And 30 seconds behind them:
Blums.
The 11 get together and everyone is sprinting for the KoM jersey. And it's Azman with the best odds!
He's still ahead of Lilholt and De Haes with 300 metres to go...
And wins the KoM sprint! I'm surprised he didn't celebrate!
Alright, time to cool down and see if these riders were also interested in being the break.
They are. 5 minutes on the pack with '115 kilometers to go. That's quite a bit for a 12-rider group. Is the peloton making the same mistake as yesterday?
It doesn't seem like it. Thanks to Novatek and Carrefour, the leaders only have 3,5 minutes left with 85 kilometers to go.
And it's crosswind time again! 69 riders have dropped from the bunch. Though no names are notable.
This time however, the pack gets together again without too much fuss. But it could be a sign for what's to come. Kraftwerk seems to have woken up because of it, and Walsleben is now leading the pack. Looks like they are mainly trying to make sure Cavendish is safe, because the lead has been two minutes for quite a while now.
15 kilometres left, and the breakaway is now 1'12 ahead. With so many riders in it, it's once again a question if the pack will have what it takes to catch them.
Attack from the breakway! This may either be good or bad for them, as 'with 11 kilometres still to ride, I felt like them working together would increase their chances to stay away.
Anyway, the four leaders are now
Bettiol Azman Owen De Haes
7 seconds in front of the former breakway compainions, and still 1'12 in front of the pack!
On the right, Lilholt bridged the gap to the four leaders by himself and seems to be using his extra speed to get away from them!
He quickly manages to get 14 seconds on the other four! Though in the background, we can see the pack catching up rapidly thanks to the amazing work of Gaudin. You can't rule them out just yet, though it's clear that this once again won't be a normal bunch sprint.
Bettiol is fighting furiosly and manages to close the gap with Lilholt all by himself. The others are in his wheel, so we now have five leaders again. 5 kilometres to go and still a minute on the pack.. Oh boy, not again?!
Just like Lilholt a few seconds earlier, Bettiol not only gets the lead but even accelerates further to an incredible speed! He's now going solo!
Meanwhile at the pack, it's once again Kraftwerk and Carrefour with the trains. The usual non-sprinters like Goss, Van Asbroeck, Nizzolo, Ewan and Vantomme can be seen very far in the background. As per usual, we can now say.
If he stays ahead, it looks like Bettiol will be the only one to do so. As with 1,2 kilometres to go, the pack is getting quite close already. Will he hang on?
Meanwhile in the peloton, Willwohl is leading out Cavendish very well.
Degenkolb seems to be playing it safe, though if Cavendish gets a good final this might mean he's losing the lead. Scary stuff from him!
Behind Degenkolb is quite a gap to the next rider, so we'll have to see if this has any implications after the race.
though with 300 metres to go, it's clear that they won't be fighting for a stage win anymore. It's Bettiol who has plenty of time to cheer and celebrate his win of the fifth stage of the Baltic Chain Tour! A very nice breakaway win for the Italian', who could compensate Lander's invisiblity in this race for Ayubowan.
Cavendish indeed finishes second, while Degenkolb isn't looking to get a top 5-spot. We'll have to see what this means for the GC!
Coutinho finishes off a great streak in third. Holloway is fourth, while Lander probably heard what I just said and snatches fifth.
Degenkolb, Feiereisen, Willwohl, Drapac and Matthews complete the top 10.
Behind Roelandts (15th), there's quite a significant gap to Ewan and Rowe. But no time gaps have been given. That's quite a relief for the latter two, who could've lost a lot of points today!
Alright, time to breathe again. We're nowheading off to the final podium. Let's applaud for Bettiol's stage win first!
But now the main question: What happened to the GC?
The answer: Degenkolb is the winner of the Baltic Chain Tour! He won stage two and performed okay in the other stages, allowing him to stay two seconds ahead of Cavendish. Congrats to him, though it's a bummer for Kraftwerk, who put in a great team effort and could've gained a lot of valuable points in their relegation fight if they caught Bettiol in the final stage.
Third place is for Drapac, the very surprising winner of stage 3. He manages to finish one second ahead of Rowe due to bonification seconds in the final stage. The latter was quite invisible compared to Drapac, but rode a very good prologue which edged him over some better sprinters.
A round of applause should also be given to Coutinho. He wans't even close to getting mentioned as a favourite, but delivered in every stage thanks to the help of some great positioning. Therefore, his fifth place is well-deserved.
6th, 7th and 8th are Holloway, Lo Cicero and Lander. Three sprinters who all only showed up in one stage. But at least they didn't lose time on the corsswinds. Therefore, their final ranking is still acceptable.
Closing the top 10 are David and Vermote, who did benefit heavily from the lack of a bunch sprint in stages 4 and 5 and were able to join the top 10 due to their result in the prologue.
The green jersey ranking is even closer than the final GC, as Degenkolb and Cavendish both finish with the same amount of points. But in the end, Degenkolb takes home the jersey. Another bummer for Kraftwerk.
And as already covered thoroughly earlier on, Azman wins the KoM jersey. And it's quite a pretty one!
And a completely invisible Ewan wins the U25 jersey., which shows that experience was very important this Tour. Together with Matthews' performance, at least that's something for Podium Ambition.
Lastly, Repsol wins the team classification, mainly due to Dunbar's great racing in the breakaway yesterday!
And now we've reached the end of the Baltic Chain Tour. A 5-day classic that certainly didn't meet the predjudices a flat stage race faces. We've seen five chaotic days with upsets all around, including two breakaway wins. Let's hope this kind of excitement will become the standard in the next years of MG racing.
Baltic Chain Tour – Stage 5
