This is it, the moment we've all been waiting for. Stage ten, from Lousã to Torre. A climb of the highest category followed by two climbs of the first category, including the arrival. Bobridge did not set a foot wrong over the past nine stages, but is the time he gained good enough to remain the leader? Machado needs to make up twelve minutes to the Australian, a very difficult task. Riders like Yates, Slagter and Meintjes did well to limit their loss to roughly six minutes. Anything can happen today, so sit back, take a snack and enjoy today's broadcast.
Fireworks from the start! A third category at only seven kilometers into the stage, and we can see a group riding away with some interesting names: Ji (Stage favorite) Stuyven (KoM leader) De la Cruz (12th GC, + 6'11) Meintjes (10th GC, + 6'04) Slagter (9th GC, + 5'56)
Meintjes, Slagter, Ji the order at the top. The pace was too high for Stuyven to follow, but instead we have other riders making the jump: Roche (14th, + 6'36) Machado (Stage favorite) Brambilla (Stage favorite)
The peloton lead by Ayubowan and Repsol at a minute, with riders like Vogt (26th GC) and Gougeard already dropped. And we still have 160 kilometers to go!
The two teams don't manage to close the gap, so instead Yates (8th GC, + 5'48) and Ndayisenga attack from the peloton to make the jump to the front group that way. Who will assume chasing duties in the peloton now? There are only 78 riders left and the big mountains are still far away!
A small category four climb won by Machado. There are still 52 points available, so anyone who already scored seven points can mathematically still win the KoM title. Brambilla was dropped from the front group and is now with Ndayisenga and Yates at 33 seconds. Bennelong and Evonik the teams at the front of the peloton at 1'15. 135 kilometers remaining.
Even more chaos as the peloton completely split on that previous climb of the fourth category. 18 riders are now in the front group, including Bobridge, Koretzky, Skujins, Boswell, Chaves, Izagirre, Bennett, Reis and Carapaz. Then at 30 seconds we have the trio of Aru, Bongiorno and Jensen. The remains of the peloton at another 30 seconds, where Kelderman, Chiarello and Costa are at the front.
Bobridge and Bennett make the jump to the front group, where Ndayisenga and Yates also managed to join. 34 seconds to Brambilla, who is accompanied by Boswell and Koretzky, and another 33 seconds to the front group of the peloton split. We're still 130 kilometers from the finish line, and we already see battles everywhere.
Then, for some reason, the front group holds back and is caught by the next group, which also holds their legs still. After a hectic first 50 kilometers, the front group consists of 70 riders again, with a second peloton at 1'30 and the group Vogt/Gougeard at four minutes. One should wonder if this fast start will have an impact on the legs when we start climbing for real.
But soon things would kick off again. 115 kilometers to go, it's Slagter who tries again. Following him are De la Cruz, Machado and Yates.
The quartet would be caught five kilometers later. Ndayisenga and Roche are next to try an attack, followed by Yates again.
This attack was also brought back, and the only real consequence was a few helpers being dropped from the front group, now counting 50 riders, and the second/third peloton being driven at a greater distance. But we're not done yet. Reis gives it a go after teammate Machado failed multiple times.
We might just have the definitive breakaway. Ndayisenga and Roche followed the Portuguese and the trio leads by two minutes and 30 seconds at the intermediate sprint. This means we're also at the foot of the first ascent to Torre, rated hors category.
Lövkvist and Moazemi attack in the early parts of the climb. The latter is 22nd in the GC at nearly ten minutes. Latour, Ruijgh and Sergis tried a bit later but did not get far. Stuyven is already dropped and will not pick up any further points.
Slagter is determined to attack today. Sergis with another attempt to follow him.
Smirnovs leads the peloton in the catching of Lövkvist, Moazemi and teammate Sergis. Some internal rivalry we're unaware of? The leaders continue to extend their gap, 4'30 at the moment with Slagter at 2. Bobridge at the front of the peloton but without any teammates surrounding him.
The first rider of the GC top ten to be dropped is Claeys (6th). Jensen (13th), Costa (18th), Paulinho (19th), Quevedo (20th) and Vinhas are also in trouble.
The next victims are Kelderman (3rd) and Izagirre (15th). Arndt (17th) sacrificing his own chances to help the Dutchman salvage a semi-decent GC classification, but given we're only halfway up the climb a top ten will be difficult.
Five kilometers from the top, Skujins (4th) is also cooked.
In fact, there aren't that many riders left in what would be called the peloton. That group has now also split in two: Yates Meintjes Bennett Ji Chiarello Boswell Bobridge
the front group, while the back group at 30 seconds consists of: Jang De la Cruz Chamorro Machado Koretzky Vosekalns Brambilla Chaves Carapaz Bilbao Boily
Roche is the first to cross the finish line. Unfortunately the riders have to go down, climb another climb, go down again and then climb back up to here. A mountain sprint was drawn here, with Roche taking 20 points, Ndayisenga 14 and Reis 12. Slagter fourth with 10 points at 1'48.
Bennett sprints against Chiarello for fifth place and eight points. The former wins, the latter taking only six points. The gap to the leader has come down to 2'29. Meintjes, Yates and Ji crossing a bit later, 2'45.
Boswell dropped from the first peloton, but he can see the trio in front. 3'08 the gap to the front, so only twenty seconds to make up in the descent. But where is Bobridge?
Jang and Vosekalns the next riders to arrive at the top, 4'36.
Here's Bobridge, who must have been really struggling in the last section of the climb. He's together with De la Cruz, Machado and Brambilla. The gap to the front is five minutes already, at this rate Roche (+ 6'36) might become the virtual GC leader.
Chaves, Koretzky, Chamorro, Boily and Carapaz another minute behind.
After the descent, E1 turns onto the Serra da Estrela. Here are the gaps as shown by the GPS:
The Bobridge group made up some time on the descent, so the Australian is still the virtual GC leader. Roche has jumped to second, with Slagter now on the final podium spot just ahead of Yates and Meintjes.
Slagter picked up by group Yates/Meintjes. The gap to the leaders is two minutes. Boswell two minutes behind this group, nearly caught by group Bobridge/Machado. The group Koretzky/Chaves at another 1'30, nearly caught by the peloton containing Kelderman and Skujins.
Jang attacks from the Bobridge group, which still hasn't caught Boswell. The American is even extending his gap a little bit. Machado remaining awfully quiet, not the spectacular and daring attack we might have hoped for.
To make things worse for the Portuguese fans and the Porto - Prio team, Reis is the rider most struggling amongst the leader, while being the best climber on paper. To his relief, we're at the top and he can rejoin in the early parts of the descent. Ndayisenga took the 16 points, Roche 12 and Reis 10.
Bennett again leading the chasing group. The gap has come down to 1'53. Jang and Boswell at 3 minutes from this group, group Bobridge at 4. The peloton, which merged with group Koretzky/Chaves, at 6.
Good news for Stuyven, as this result means he can no longer be overtaken by anyone regardless of the stage outcome. Provided he manages to finish this stage (he's well ahead of the grupetto), he will be crowned as King of the Mountains. Ndayisenga or Roche might get second place, they're only seven and ten points behind Latour with 16 points remaining.
The three leaders turn op the Torre climb again, this time they start halfway up the climb so we don't have to take this monster from the bottom again. Here are the gaps as measured and corrected after the descent:
The live gap between Roche and Bobridge is 6'34, while it's 6'36 in the GC. However, Roche already secured four bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, so he is now the virtual GC leader! Yates, Slagter, Meintjes and Chiarello are still well in contention though, as they might have the fresher legs on the final climb.
14 kilometers, the gap to E2 has gone under a minute. Ji is struggling to follow the pace of the group, while Chiarello has already been dropped.
12 kilometers, 1/4th of the climb done. The gap to the leaders is 55 seconds, but Meintjes launches an attack which will see that being reduced.
Group Bobridge/Machado nearly caught by the peloton. The gap to Roche is now seven minutes. A dilemma for the Australian: give everything to limit the gap or let themselves be caught and hoping the extra manpower will bring him back into contention.
Ten kilometers, and now it's game over for Reis who does not have the legs to finish it off. Ndayisenga and Roche remain as the two leaders, with Meintjes now at only 30 seconds together with Reis. Yates, Slagter and Bennett at a minute. Meintjes leads Roche by 28 seconds in the GC (without taking eventual bonus seconds at the finish into account), so he's nearly at a sufficient distance.
Reis struggles to stay with Meintjes, but Roche is strong enough to stick with Ndayisenga's pace increase. Have they made a deal, Ndayisenga the stage win, Roche the GC? The gap to Meintjes is back up to 48, giving the Irishman a bit more breathing room.
5000 meters, and Ndayisenga is very strong. Let's not forget he is eligible for the youth classification, with current leader Vasyliv in the peloton he will win that classification by a country mile. Meintjes also biting his teeth, but the gap is not coming down. The gap to group Yates does increase though. Looks like they have thrown in the towel.
This is the moment Roche had hoped wouldn't happen, but it does. Ndayisenga has enough of his wheelsucking and attacks! No arrangement, no secret money deal, just pure racing! We are in for a tense final three kilometers, with Roche and Meintjes on their own against each other for the GC lead!
One kilometer left. Ndayisenga leads Roche by 24 seconds and is sure of the stage win. The GPS says Roche-Meintjes is 55 seconds and staying that way, that means Roche will take the GC lead.
Valens Ndayisenga, the young Rwandan climber of Repsol - Netflix, wins the queen stage of the 2018 Volta a Portugal. He also takes the youth classification and is likely to enter the GC top ten with his amazing performance today.
Here is Nicolas Roche, finishing at 32 seconds. Twelve bonus seconds at the finish, four along the road, gap before the stage was 32 seconds, so Meintjes has to finish within 16 seconds!
This is the moment Louis Meintjes should have finished. As you can see, he hasn't. In fact, Roche managed to extend the gap to 1 minute and 17 seconds. The gap in the GC, accounting for bonus seconds, will be 53 seconds. Meintjes must have an amazing time trial and Roche a nightmare if the South African wants to win the GC.
Fourth place for Reis. He was the initiator of the winning move, but he wanted to be the winner and not the fourth placed rider. Pretty disappointing given he was the strongest climber, but the strongest doesn't always win.
Bennett sprints to fifth place ahead of Yates, a little over 3 minutes from Ndayisenga. Slagter did not bother sprinting and loses an extra 27 seconds. Yates moves up a few places in the GC, at exactly two minutes from Roche. It depends on Bobridge whether this is third or fourth. Slagter at 2'33, Bennett at 3'27. The latter could move to fifth depending on Chiarello as well.
Ji crosses the line in eight place. Too bad about all the time loss on the previous stages, otherwise he'd be a top ten contender as well.
Here is Chiarello, who finishes ninth at 5'48. That means Bennett has passed him by a minute. Boily with a very strong final climb (off-camera) to take the final top ten spot.
De la Cruz, Jang and Boswell up next. Especially Boswell did very good on the mountains. We're at over seven minutes now, so Roche is officially the GC leader. We're waiting on Bobridge to see where he ends up.
The Australian sprints but it's futile, twelve minutes from Ndayisenga means he drop to seventh behind Roche, Meintjes, Yates, Slagter, Bennett and just seven seconds behind Chiarello. Sixth place might be on the cards given Bobridge is a decent TT'ist.
Machado, Chamorro, Arndt, Vosekalns, Brambilla, Chaves and Carapaz also in the group.
The peloton, which amongst others includes Koretzky, Izagirre and Vasyliv, arrives at thirteen minutes. This means Boswell has moved to eight place, De la Cruz ninth and Ndayisenga entering the top ten while also taking the youth classification. Koretzky dropping to eleventh.
Kelderman finishing 40th at fourteen minutes, dropping to thirteenth. Skujins at seventeen minutes, just keeping on to a top twenty in the GC. Claeys the biggest loser, twenty minutes to drop from 6th to 24th.
The time limit was set at one hour, which only two riders failed to reach: Atkins and Robert were just ahead of the broom wagon since the first kilometer and were taken out halfway up the final climb.
Bobridge now sure of the points jersey, Stuyven sure of the mountain jersey. And Hugo Boss displaces Puma at the top of the teams classification. Tomorrow's stage might just be a formality for most silverware.
