Stage 5 of the Tour of Norway features 198 km punctuated by a series of sharp climbs. The atage features two cat 4 KOM points and 4 sprint points. The punchy riders should have an advantage but probably not enough to gain big time. But if the race is more controlled it is also possible a sprinter who is strong in the hills could survive. The top 7 on the GC looks like this.:
1 Fraile
13h55'42
2 Oliveira
+ 13
3 Sepulveda
+ 24
4 Laengen
+ 29
5 Koren
+ 43
6 Sergent
+ 1'12
7 Izagirre
+ 1'27
Of those only Izagirre and Sepulveda are stronger hill riders than Fraile.
The stage favorites are:
Of these the closest other than Izagirre is Bakelants in 12th at +2’20.
If the race comes down to a sprint the green jersey might be up for grabs as Van der Sande only has a 4 point lead over Ewan, 7 points over Reinhardt and 12 points over Ponzi.
As the race gets started, winds are gusting from 25 to 35 km/hour. The first attack comes from Howson.
Howson is followed by Brozyna and Poljanec.
Then a third group attacks featuring Kasa, Serrano and Areruya, the White Jersey. Areruya is 10 points off the mountain lead of Pichon and there are 10 points available. Or maybe he is worried about Brozyna who is 1’12 behind him in the young rider standings.
But Jensen and Roosen try to bridge across to the last trio and all five are brought back.
With Areruya caught Xero Racing take to the front of the field. Either they are trying to bring back Brozyna or maybe get one of their men into the break.
Xero ease off as their rider Dyrnes jumps away following Jensen and Yamamoto.
Another attack comes from Marczynski and Christian.
And finally they are followed by Haugard.
With 189 km to go the pack eases off and we have a 9-rider breakaway. The full list is: Brozyna Howson Poljanec Jensen Yamamoto Dyrnes Christian Haugard Marczynski
Campari again with 2 in the break along with Volvo and Kulczyk – Alitalia. Closest rider on GC in the break is Brozyna at 5’21. While he probably isn’t a threat to Yellow the White jersey will be more concerned. None of the break riders is within 10 points of the KOM lead so unless the break comes back early Pichon looks to have a lock on that competition.
With 162 km to go the break's lead maxes out at just over 5:40.
The breakaway passes the first sprint point without any action. There is 139 km to go and the break has a 4:51 lead over the pack.
With 100 km to go the peloton is riding full gas and the lead is down to 3:14. Podium Ambition, Moser and Fablok doing the most work. Podium Ambition must believe Ewan can make it over the climbs. Moser clearly working for Sagan and since Guardini has been riding on the front Fablok must be focused on Ponzi. Fablok perhaps regretting their lack of work yesterday that left their leader, who was clearly the strongest rider, finished 11 seconds off a stage win.
The breakaway roll through the first KOM at 95 km to go with no action. Brozyna, Yamamoto and Dyrnes take the points. The peloton passes over 3:00 minutes behind. Iberia took the lead on the climb.
With 75 km to go the the lead has come down slightly to 2:58. On the flat the same teams working. The break rolled through the second sprint point with no action.
67 km to go, the break has 2:40. The break is at the base of the 3km climb that is the longer of the two climbs on the finishing circuit. They will tackle it 3 times, the last starting 20km from the end. Let’s call it Big Bear.
Haugard is dropped from the break early in the climb and by the time the peloton is halfway up the climb he is almost back in the pack. The peloton has 65 km to go and they are 2:39 behind. Iberia and Indosat are working on the climb and the Yellow Jersey looks very comfortable. His team have done no work.
The break rolled through the KOM sprint with no action, Dyrnes, Yamamoto and Marczynski take the points. Pichon has won the Mountain Jersey. They now have 55 km to go and are starting the first ascent of the smaller climb on the finishing circuit. Let’s call it Little Bear.
The peloton passes the 3rd sprint point, with 48 km to go they are 2:13 back and in full flight. The break passed this sprint with no action.
The peloton reaches the top of the 2nd climb of Big Bear, there have 40 km to go but they have lost their impetus. No teams willing/able to work on the climb any more, the breaks lead is back to 3:26.
On the flat between Big Bear and Little Bear the pace quickens again and with 37km to go the pack splits. Top 10 on the GC all on the right side of the split. But the White Jersey is on the wrong side and is working on the front. His rival from yesterday the Polka Dot Jersey is close by, perhaps helping him, perhaps laughing at him. The gap to the front group is 1:46.
With 30 km to Brozyna amd Howson are dropped from the break on Little Bear.
The peloton starts the bell lap. They have not made any inroads into the break, the gap is still 3:41. Areruya has not made it back to front and while Brozyna has been dropped from the break, he is the White Jersey on the road.
Halfway up the last climb of Big Bear and Marczynski attacks the break. Poljanec tries to stick with him.
By the top of the climb Marczynski has ripped clear. He has 53 seconds to Poljanec, 1’20 to the rest of the break and over 4 minutes to the remnants of the peloton.
The peloton reaches the top of Big Bear for the last time, 17 km to go they have 3:48 to Marczynski. For the first time Deigual on the front just to control things. They have no interest in chasing Marczynski, he was 6’09 down at the start of the day.
9 km to go Ponzi hovering near the front of peloton. 35 riders have gone clear including all the top 10 on GC another, 25 riders 34 seconds back. But the White Jersey is in deep trouble as Brozyna is in the second group and Areruya is over a 1:30 back. Van der Sande is in the same group as Areruya while Ewan is in the first chasing group so if he scores points the Green Jersey could change hands.
5 km go for Marczynski he has 2:28 on the other breakaway riders who have reabsorbed Poljanec. A massive 4:27 to the peloton. The final meters are going to be far less dramatic today than yesterday.
A full KM further back on the road Bakelants attacks with Ponzi, Sagan, Izagirre and McCarthy. Maybe they can claw back a few slots on GC. Nazaret and Kozhatayev work to bring Fraile up to the attackers. Desigual only brought 6 riders but they have ridden the race perfectly.
4 km to go and we have 3 groups on the road. The 4 big puncheurs in the first group, they are 3:52 behind Marczynski. The second group features the 3 Desigual riders plus McCarthy and Ewan. Great riding from the sprinter. Podium Ambition will regret they weren’t able to close down to the remaining 6 riders from the break. The third chasing group is led by Bibby as he tries to protect Gazelle’s GC placings.
And Tomasz Marczynski wins Stage 5 of the Tour of Norway for Kulczyk – Alitalia. A devastating 20km solo ride, one for the veteran rider to tell his grandkids about.
With 1 km to the remaining breakaway riders open their sprint. Yamamoto and Dyrnes out front. Jensen on Yamamoto’s wheel. Poljanec a little behind. Christian has cracked and is fading.
Behind the Fraile group has caught the Ponzi group. Kangert and Novak have bridge across from what was the 3rd chasing group.
In the breakaway sprint Jensen takes it ahead of Dyrnes, Yamamoto and Poljanec. Christian will settle for 6th.
The next group on the road sprints for home and Ewan edges Ponzi at the line for 7th. Those 9 points are enough to get him the Green Jersey. Sagan take 9th and Bakelants 10th.
Fraile comes over in 12th and takes the Tour of Norway GC for Desigual. The PCT teams will take 2 of the 5 jerseys. They would have had a 3rd but Areruya is unable to limit his losses to Brozyna and loses the White Jersey by 20 seconds. Generali take the team prize after a strong showing on Stage 4.
25 riders finish on the same time as Ewan including the entire top 10 on the GC so no changes there. Tomasz Marczynski moves up to 11th on the GC.
Congratulations to Desigual on a classy Tour of Norway victory, a strong TT still seems to be the key to victory.
Tour of Norway
