Welcome to today's closing stage of Tirreno - Adriatico! Whereas Herklotz' GC win should already be sealed, we'll hopefully see a close fight for the KoM jersey in just a few minutes, right after the start! Herklotz, Spilak, Shapira and Robov are the possible winners of this one.
And in a few hours, Coquard will surely try to get the points jersey back - maybe even by winning his third stage?
But for now, let's have a look at what's awaiting us today: Directly after the start in Camaiore - for the third time this year - the pack will attack today's sole climb to Montemagno, where we'll see the last KoM sprint of this race, already after 5.9km. 6, 4 and 2 points are on offer - meaning Robov would have to win to be certain to pass Herklotz, whereas a second place would be enough for Spilak and Shapira - if the German doesn't get any points, of course!
After the short and steep downhill, the road will be almost pan-flat until the finish line. But first, we'll have two intermediate sprint, the first being taken in Donoratico, after 112.4km.
From there, the riders will mostly stay by the seaside, until they reach Follonica, a Tuscan holiday resort with roughly 20,000 inhabitants. With 20km to go, the second intermediate sprint is taken on the finish line - but we'll see two more 10km laps in and around the city, before we'll finally know the last stage winner.
The race starts and ends by the seaside, leading mostly South to South-East. And guess what? We have 30km/h of wind blowing North-East, meaning crosswinds for most of the race! Even though this shouldn't be a real threat for the top GC riders, they definitely will have to be very attentive!
Just a word about the stage favorites: Coquard is the obvious top favorite, with Guerao, Kennaugh, Groenewegen, Samolenkov and Serebriakov having good chances as well - according to the bookies. They see Van der Sande, Nelson, Van Poppel and Soupe as outsiders for the stage win. Let's look at how this final stage unfolds!
Right from the line, it's business as usual, as we immediately get the first attacks. Surprisingly, it's none of the main KoM jersey contenders, but "just" Vink and Janse van Rensburg.
Robov might just have had a bad position in the peloton, but now he tries to catch up with the leading duo. Remember, he has to arrive on top first if he wants to be sure to win the jersey!
With him are Paprstka, Peng and Malori. No reaction from Herklotz, Spilak or Shapira yet.
The second group has indeed caught the leaders, but Prasad obviously wasn't happy about this race situation, as he's just reeled in all of the escapees. 1.5km to go until the KoM sprint.
Robov attacks again, and this time it's the jersey winning move for him! He gets the points he needed:
1. Robov - 6
2. Paprstka - 4
3. Luchshenko - 2
And the final KoM standings:
1. Robov - 38
2. Herklotz - 36
3. Spilak, Shapira - 34
Whereas Robov slowed down right after he accomplished his mission of the day, Paprstka pulls through and is now being chased by Luchshenko, Vink and Peng.
The peloton is just 30" down, though.
But EA Vesuvio doesn't seem to like this breakaway at all, as they are chasing with 6 riders! The gap is now up to 1'43, and it seems to be a question of who gets tired first - EA Vesuvio or the breakaway?
It's the breakaway - at least partially - as Vink gets dropped after 60km. Now it's 3 vs 6 - but the gap hasn't changed significantly within the last 20km.
But as the other breakaway riders are getting tired as well, Vink somehow manages to catch up again - with the gap to the peloton now rapidly decreasing!
The peloton has gotten close enough for Jungels to launch his attack now! He catches the breakaway without any difficulty, as they're all tired by now.
With EA Vesuvio finally having succeeded their mission, the pack should now get some rest.
Well, could someone please explain me what they're doing now? They just sent their man in the breakaway group, and now they're chasing him?!? Seriously?
OK, now EA Vesuvio has finally noticed that Jungels is leading the race, and they stop chasing. Yes, communication is a hard thing - at least it's worth some slapstick now and then. Why not.
It's now Dlamini and Barbier taking over the control of the peloton. And they're taking it easy for now.
Three teams now share the work, with two riders per team taking turns: Andersen and Seigle, Dlamini and Koep, Barbier and Cataldo.
The gap is 2'49, with 15km remaining until the first intermediate sprint. Coquard seems to count on the final sprint to take back that points jersey, ignoring the 12 points at stake on the fly.
No-one in the breakaway group seems to be interested in the points, and so Peng just takes them because he is leading at this time.
1. Peng
2. Luchshenko
3. Vink
40km to go, and the bunch is 2'08 down.
Although it seems rather unrealistic for the break to make it to the line, let's still analyze their chances if they should do it: Luchshenko is the best sprinter of the group, and he has the best stamina, together with Jungels and Vink, who both are no good sprinters. Peng and Paprstka are the strongest flat riders, and not much slower than Luchshenko in a sprint. It would really be a very open race if these 5 got to the finish line together!
We're back at the seaside with 50km to go. The pack's deficit is down to 1'39 - with 30km to go until we reach the second intermediate sprint, it now again seems realistic that the sprinters could get some points there!
Just as the gap falls below the one-minute-mark, Paprstka tries to go solo! Peng and Jungels are in the first, Vink and Luchshenko in the second pursuit. The riders are now experiencing heavy crosswinds!
The riders have now reached the beach of Follonica, with 5km to go to the intermediate sprint, and 25km to the finish line.
The pack reels in Luchshenko and Vink, whereas the three others still are a minute ahead - and will probably take the points!
It's still the same teams in the chase, but Festina has now added a few riders.
Indeed, the breakaway stays ahead, and Paprstka crosses the intermediate sprint / finish line first:
1. Paprstka
2. Jungels
3. Peng
The gap is down to 48", and two 10km laps are left to ride!
And one kilometer before the second crossing of the finish line, it's game over for the breakaway!
Air France has gone, it's just Aegon and Festina making the pace now!
And with 5km to go, the well-know Festina train has formed and is building up even more speed!
Coquard is still quite far back in the bunch, but most other sprinters are with him, as we see Nelson, Kennaugh, Van Poppel, Samolenkov and Nizzolo.
Scully's and Soupe's position is much better, and Groenewegen is perfectly placed at the rear end of his train!
With 3 kilometers left, we have another sharp turn, which isn't really slowing down the Aegon train, consisting of Keinath - Bauhaus - Groenewegen - Sbaragli.
Scully tries to get Groenewegen's wheel, and there's already a small gap behind him.
The Festina train has quite much disintegrated, as they're desperately trying to get Coquard back to the front! Lecuisinier and Barbier are working hard for their compatriot!
Another Frenchman in Soupe tries to follow Scully, with Nizzolo, Van der Sande, Nelson, Santos and Samolenkov.
Kennaugh, Guerao and Van Poppel are far back and seem to be out of contention - as is Serebriakov, but at least he has his teammate in the mix.
Two kilometers to the finish line, and now 8 men have a small gap to the rest! Groenewegen's leadout is working great, with Sbaragli and Bauhaus still going fast. Scully has taken the Dutchman's wheel, followed by Soupe and Nizzolo. Coquard and his final leadout Barbier now are definitely back in the mix, too!
With Lecuisinier fading, the gap opened, and Van der Sande, Nelson, Santos and Samolenkov will need to really hurry up if they want to get something noteworthy from this stage!
But - what's that??? With 1,500m to go, Coquard has just stopped pedalling, and seems to be waiting for Weber, who came from very far behind! What a strange move by the Frenchman!
Instead, under the red kite we now have four sprinters probably fighting for line honors: The perfectly led out Groenewegen, Scully, Soupe and Nizzolo!
Nelson, Santos and Van der Sande are now again with Coquard - who has probably already given up on the points jersey! He'll really have to explain this strange move!
With a great acceleration, and against all the odds, Nizzolo has taken the lead with 600m to go! Did he make his move too early?
Behind, Groenewegen, Scully and Soupe now are about level - hard to say who will take this one!
And Coquard has finally decided to go back to work, and is quickly approaching the leaders! Nelson, Santos and Van der Sande already have quite a gap.
It's still looking very good for Nizzolo with 300m to go, whereas it's almost impossible to say who's second right now. What we know, though, is that Coquard isn't that far any more - and remember, second could still be enough to pass Herklotz in the points standings!
Santos has passed Nelson and is going for a great result, too!
200m, and it's hard to see Nizzolo losing this one! Meanwhile, Coquard has almost closed the gap to the trio ahead, with Groenewegen now somewhat fading! Santos and Nelson are still 6th and 7th.
With 100m to go, Giacomo Nizzolo already raises his arms to celebrate - what a great sprint that was! A surprise acceleration with 800m to go was enough to get Repsol - Netflix another huge result - congratulations!
Behind the Italian, Soupe and Scully are fighting for the remaining podium spots - or will Coquard again find his super-gear? Or could even Groenewegen make his come-back?
Oh man, that is close! But finally, Tom Scully takes a great second place, edging out Geoffrey Soupe by some millimeters!
And Bryan Coquard will be very, very, very disappointed by coming in 4th - his blackout with 1,500m to go ruins it all for him! And even so, he almost got that required 2nd place - what a bummer!
Dylan Groenewegen won't be happy, either. His team got everything right, but he just didn't have the legs to finish it off. 5th is definitely not what he had hoped for - at least, he still leaves Italy with a stage win under his belt.
Emerson Santos then gets a nice 6th place, ahead of Tosh Van der Sande and Ricki Nelson.
It's close again for today's final Top 10 spots, with Danny Van Poppel beating Artem Samolenkov on the line.
And guess who's next? No, not Herklotz, as he "just" comes in 12th, edged out by Martin. But with these 4 points won today, Coquard would actually have needed to win for taking the points jersey. So the German really gave everything to dominate this race - which he definitely did!
On the next places, we have:
13. Yates
14. Taaramäe
15. Kennaugh
16. Guldhammer
17. Varga
18. Frankiny
19. Prasad
20. Aasvold
It definitely wasn't a good day for Kennaugh and Guerao - instead, some others did surprisingly well!
First of all, of course, stage winner Giacomo Nizzolo! He has the worst recovery among the top sprinters, and not the best acceleration as well - but with his superb timing, he was able to beat them all today - and proved the bookies wrong by not considering him!
Just as Scully, who wasn't on their list, either. Nor were Santos or Van der Sande. The messy sprint with a lot of turns in the last 5km certainly favored them - but nonetheless, they simply performed while others didn't!
Then, let's applaud the great winner - of the GC, the points jersey, and the U25 jersey - Silvio Herklotz! He took the GC lead on stage 4, won stage five by taking all other jerseys, and then defended all but one until the end - this must be an almost perfect race for Team Puma - SAP! Congratulations on a dominant ride!
Simon Spilak and Joseph Dombrowski take 2nd and 3rd in the GC, while Rein Taaramäe has to settle for a rather disappointing 4th place.
In the points standings, the German edges out Bryan Coquard by 9 points, with Simon Spilak taking 3rd.
And the fight for the U25 jersey actually wasn't one, as there are more than 9 minutes between Silvio Herklotz and Miguel Angel Lopez. Valens Ndayisenga takes third, mainly thanks to his many breakaway attempts.
Momchil Robov takes the sole remaining jersey - the KoM one! He definitely deserves this win by very offensive riding, and by making the decisive move early in today's stage!
And finally, Bennelong - Mitchelton take home the team standings, ahead of Gazelle and Aegon - Lavazza. The key for this win was definitely their great team performance on stage 5!
And that's it! This year's edition saw a dominant Silvio Herklotz, but we also had disappointingly few serious attacks, be it in the mountains or on the hills. Let's hope for more action and more suspense next year!
Tirreno - Adriatico 
