Stage 5 of the Balkans International takes the peloton 195km from Bileća to Dubrovnik on the Croatiin coast. In fact, the peloton gets pretty close to Dubrovnik 50km into the race and the takes on 2 laps of a tough circuit in the hills around the town. Before finishing with another climb near the finish, a quick downhill and a short kicker to the line.
After a quiet stage 4 featuring a large group sprint, Stage 5 look like to be much more selective, and aside from the very tough stage 8, the most likely stage to threaten the Waeytens Yellow Jersey. The stage features another flock of mountain points – 2 Cat 2s and 8 Cat 4s plus 3 sprint points. Plus the finish has Cat 2 points on offer. None of the climbs is huge but there is a lot of climbing.
Beltran wears the points jersey today as Waeytens wears Yellow. Denz wears White and Calmejane continues to cling to his 1 point lead in the KOM standings.
The favorites for this stage are:
As the riders start with have winds close to 30k and they will be crosswinds for most of the first 50km. The first KOM point is only 5km into the stage so we quickly get a lot of attackers including a number of riders high in the KOM standings and of course Barbin.
But he can’t get away and with the KOM point in sight we have 7 riders off the front, including 5th ( Barrio), 7th ( Phelan )and 11th ( Becis) in the KOM competition. In the best position is Phelan who can be seen at the top of the shot and has 12 seconds on the next group.
Phelan takes the points ahead of Laas and Vichot. It isn’t enough to give Phelan the KOM lead. We will update the break and the KOM as things shake out further.
The attacks keep coming and we have now 16 riders up the road 5 groups including 4 from Generali, outside favorite Padun (who is 5’38 back on the GC) and, of course, Barbin. Of the original attackers only Becis has dropped back.
5km later we have a front group of 17 riders and another 8 riders in between. And the peloton either decides that is enough or is worried that one of the latest attackers is Di Maggio who is theoretically a stage favorite (although he has been terrible so far and sits in 138th place over 18 minutes down). Zhao begins the chase.
The Di Maggio group is brought back and that seems to signal the end of the attacks. The last rider away is Edet for Air France, guess they figured having a rider in the break would give them a legitimate excuse for not working.
Lets take a look at the full break ahead of Edet, we have 19:
4 from Generali: Latour Rosskopf Lavery Krizek
4 from Popo4Ever Padun Andriafenomananiaina Krasnoperov Laas
3 from Kulczyk: Barbin Pozzo Cominelli
2 from Andorra: Barrio Novak
2 from Delvaux Vichot Moschella
And the rest: Sakalou Zaini Declerq Phelan
The closest on GC is Krizek at 4’43. Barbin, Barrio, Sakalou and Phelan have significant mountain points.
At the first sprint point with 164km to go the break just rolls through, they have 4’36 on the peloton and Edet has joined them to make it a 20-rider break.
With 149km to go the break is within 1km of the Cat 4 KOM point at Ivanica. A climb we will do 3 times. Phelan goes first and Declerq and Sakalou follow.
At the top the points go to: Phelan 5 (32) Zaini 3 (3) Declerq 1 (1) Phelan now hold the virtual KOM jersey. When the peleton crosses they are just under 6 minutes back.
With 130km to go the break reaches the sprint point in Dubrovnik and rolls through with no action. They lead by 4’53. In about 1k they will start the main climb on the circuit for the first time. The Cat 2 climb to Mocilje is 4.5km at 8.1%. The peloton is 4’40 behind when they reach the climb, Schwarzmann is on the front for T-Mobile.
1.5 km from the top Sakalou launches an attack. No other riders respond and he quickly gets 28 seconds.
With 1.0km Declerq responds and that draws out Latour and Phelan. Then the rest respond.
As Sakalou takes the 1st place points he has 41 seconds over the 3 already mentioned who have 19 seconds over Padun, Pozzo and Novak with the rest of the break another 13 seconds back.
Declerq beats out Latour for 2nd with Phelan 4th. The break is spread out over the hill now with Cominelli dropped on his own at the back. The full KOM points are:
The next two mountain sprints come quickly so Sakalou pushes on alone. On the climb Padun bridged across to the first 3 chasers and they are 44 seconds back. Then comes Pozzo and Novak 36 seconds back but about to be caught by the other breakaway riders except for Cominelli who has a 1’11 gap to close. The peloton is taking it’s time on the climb and they are over 6 minutes behind Sakalou.
Sakalou crosses the Cat 4 climb at Birac all alone, he has 1’31 over the next group. He has 4 km to the next summit.
Latour and Padun take the rest of the points at Birac.
Sakalou also takes first at the next climb but the race is coming back together.
Phelan and Declerq 8 took the points this time. So the scoring from those 2 KOM is:
Further back in the break Krasnoperov has also lost touch with the main group. Cominelli is almost back in the peloton and Peeters has become the first rider dropped from the peloton.
With 105 km to go the break is all back together and 18 riders strong. None of the attackers pressed their advantage beyond the KOM. The lead over the peloton is about 7 minutes. Krasnoperov is half way between the break and the peloton.
We have completed all the climbs in the first circuit, in the flat section between the peloton begins to drive with T-Mobile, Moser, Europcar, Duolingo and Rukuten working. There are 168 riders still in the peloton.
With 1km to the top of the 2nd ascent of the Cat 4 Ivanica Phelan attacks followed by Declerq. The peleton are now 3’44 back and Krasnoperov has been caught.
At the top it is: Phelan 5 (44) Declerq 3 (13) Sakalou 1 (32)
The break split on the climb but quickly comes back together. The peleton kept working on the climb and is 3’17 back with 87km to go.
The break has a glorious view of the Adriatic as they start to head back down to Dubrovnik before the 2nd and final ascent of the main climb.
As they have for much of the stage Latour and Padun are sitting on the back of the break with a team mate protecting them. Andorra, Kulczyk and Delvaux also have riders not working most notably Moschella.
The break rolls through the sprint point in Dubrovnik and starts the 2nd climb to Mocilje with a 3’09 lead over the peloton. Phelan is dropped early on the climb, he could still lose the KOM lead.
With 1km to go Edet decides he is interested in the KOM and jumps off the front of the break.
But Kulczyk don’t like that and Pozzo closes him down. But With 1km to go Edet breaks free and just holds off Padun for the points.
The full list is: Edet 10 (10) Padun 8 (11) Laas 6 (6) Andriafenomananiaina 4 (4) Zaini 2 (5)
The peloton crests the climb 3’21 behind and is down to 95 riders but no major riders have been dropped. In the break Barbin, Declerq and Barrio have been dropped.
1km from the top of next cat 4 Moschella attacks and opens a gap but Rosskopf drags him back as they approach the summit.
The order over the top is Rosskopf, Moschella, Vichot. None of those riders are a player in the KOM standings.
The flurry of attacks on the last climb gaps Edet, Lavery, Pozzo and Novak. And they have a significant deficit. Zaini is also dropped but it looks as if he will get back on.
The peloton reaches the top of that climb 3’25 back and Waeytens is well placed.
The next cat 4 comes quickly. This time Vichot attacks first and again it is Rosskopf closing him down. Then Sakalou counters.
But the Popo4ever riders time it best and they take all 3 points slots.
With Sakalou not able to take any points in the last set of climbs it looks like Phelan will wear the KOM jersey tomorrow unless Sakalou wins the stage and the one remaining cat 4.
The last round of attacks leaves us only 6 riders at the front of the race: Latour, Rosskopf, Padun, Andriafenomananiaina, Laas and Sakalou. When the peloton crosses the lead is 3’08. There is only one significant climb left up to the finish.
With 50km left for the peloton the lead is down to 2’39. Moser, Spar, Puma and Rakuten are working and there is a lot of flat road before the final climb. There are 68 riders left in the peloton.
With 40k to go the lead is down to 2’20 but the chase has slowed unfortunately for the break so have they. Rosskopf has cracked and Latour is on the front.
With 0.5 km to the top of the last Cat 4 Sakalou attacks and only Padun can immediately follow.
Over the top Padun comes around to take the points and drops Sakalou.
He has decided it is time to go alone, he quickly opens up 17 seonds on Sakalou and has another 17 seconds on Latour.
The peloton cross the climb 2’52 back, they seem to be running short of domestiques with the energy and inclination to work although they are 73 riders strong.
With 20km to go Padun has opened up almost a minute on Latour. The others are out of it. The peloton have cut the lead back to 2’29 with Spar and Puma on the front. We are 10km from the last big climb to Srdj.
With 10km to go and 1.6km to the final climb Padun’s lead is down to 1’09 over the peloton, Swisslion and Kraftwerk are also helping.
Padun reaches the final climb. It is really two climbs a steady 5km climb a downhill and then 0.5k punchy ascent to the finish line. His lead is 57 seconds and all the other breakaway riders have been caught.
The peloton reaches the base of the climb, they can see Padun, but they have run out of domestiques willing to lead. Lierse has riders but they have no need to make the catch and will wait to see who attacks.
Sensing the inertia, Kelderman makes a move.
Konrad closes him down and pulls out a long list of the favorites. The yellow and green jerseys are right at the back of the line. Padun looks doomed.
The move draws a group of favorites clear but with 6km to go the White Jersey Denz loses the wheel and Hagen, Sagan and Mohoric draw clear.
Following the 3 front running favorites chasing Padun the next group inlcudes:
Denz Konrad Kinoshita Kelderman Trofimov Calmejane Buchmann Waeytens Lutsenko Beltran Van Garderen Guldhammer Arndt
Skujins and Schreurs, 9th and 3rd on the GC didn't make the favorites group. Both Bobridge and Smith have missed the move for Bennelong.
As they near the top of the first part of the climb Kinoshita drags the group back to the front 3. Padun is also caught. So with only 4km to go we have a 17 rider group with nearly all the favorites together. Although a few look to be on their last legs, including the Yellow Jersey.
Skujins and Schreurs, who have been joined by De Bie, are 57 seconds back.
As they go over the top the group has split into 3, Sagan attacked pulling Hagen clear. The next group that tried to follow but couldn’t includes Kinoshita, Calmejane, Konrad and Mohoric, they are quickly 11 seconds back while the reaming 11 riders including the Yellow jersey are another 13 seconds back.
With just over 1k to go the gaps are about the same. You can see the sharp ascent in the final meters. A lot of time could be lost. Hagen has been sitting on Sagan’s wheel and now Sagan attacks.
All the attack does is provide a launching pad for Hagen as Sagan is caught by the next group. Hagen has 16 seconds on the second group and the Yellow Jersey group is another 16 seconds back. The Yellow Jersey looks in real trouble, how much time can he lose in the last 0.8km?
But Hagen doesn’t have much left and it is a slow motion finish. With 0.1km to go he looks good for the win though, with a 24 second gap.
Hagen wins stage 5 with a 20 second gap.
Sagan 2nd, Konrad 3rd, Mohoric 4th (on 26 seconds) and Calmejane 5th (on 30 seconds) An excellent ride for Calmejane he was only 38 seconds off the lead at the start of the day and the leader is struggling.
Most of the rest of the lead group trail in over the next 1 minute.
The Yellow Jersey finishes in 14th, 1’35 down. Smith and De Bie ride across to finish with the tail of the leading group.
Waeytens holds off Hagen, although with little room left. But Waeytens also lost 1’05 to Calmejane. So we have a new leader, Europcar’s Lillian Calmejane. He is 28 seconds up on Waeytens and 39 on Hagen. Given that tough last stage Hagen seems like the favorite now and that the time given up on Stage 1 won’t matter. Completing the GC top 5 are Sagan (1’23) and Beltran (1’36).
Bad day for Schreurs and Skujins who drop out of the top 10 to 15th and 20th respectively.
Hagen now leads the points jersey ahead of Beltran. As noted earlier Phelan has the polka dot jersey and Mohoric puts 57 seconds into Denz to take over the young rider jersey. T-Mobile with their 3 strong leaders now have a big lead in the team competition.
Balkans International 
