Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final, the decisive stage of this year's Tour of Qatar! More than 700 kilometers are behind us, but the most important 4,800 meters are awaiting us today! Everyone on his own, a head-to-head for the GC win - that's what we've been waiting for!
The stage of today's epilogue show is Lusail, a city under construction, planned on the drawing board. We have yet another pan-flat course, where the pure tempo machines will get their chance for a stage win - and likely a decent GC result, too.
While the overall win will likely be out of reach for the pure time trialists with a deficit of 57" for most of them, a Top 15 or even Top 10 place might be possible. On the other hand, the sprinters will give all they have left to defend the advantage they have worked on in the last five days - some interesting fights are surely going to be on today's menu!
Before we head into the race, let's take a look at the current GC situation of those who are likely to do well today, and of those who did well so far:
Rank
Time
Rider
Prl
Res
Fl
Rec
106
+ 57
Haugard
79
77
72
70
80
+ 57
Van Winden
79
68
73
72
79
+ 57
Lammertink
79
76
74
70
73
+ 57
Hepburn
79
77
71
72
72
+ 57
Brändle
79
73
75
72
71
+ 57
Sütterlin
80
77
71
67
63
+ 57
Paillot
80
74
70
68
58
+ 57
Yatsevich
80
81
70
67
55
+ 57
Malori
79
73
78
72
53
+ 57
Stoltz
80
79
80
75
48
+ 57
Coppel
81
75
75
69
45
+ 57
Vlatos
81
71
72
67
40
+ 57
Viviani
79
77
78
74
38
+ 57
Hansen
79
73
77
70
37
+ 57
Würtz
79
78
77
76
32
+ 57
Chavanne
82
76
75
74
29
+ 57
Leung
82
77
73
69
20
+ 55
Ji
65
68
79
71
19
+ 54
Vincent
69
71
69
69
18
+ 54
Van Baarle
77
76
76
73
17
+ 52
Vanderbiest
74
69
74
81
16
+ 50
Per
71
75
79
71
15
+ 50
Arashiro
66
67
81
73
14
+ 49
Andersen
83
78
81
72
13
+ 49
Silvestre
77
71
78
74
12
+ 30
Swift
69
69
73
80
11
+ 28
Coquard
79
74
73
84
10
+ 25
Van Stayen
60
71
76
80
9
+ 24
Kemboi
81
77
78
81
8
+ 21
Howard
68
70
76
79
7
+ 20
Kennaugh
63
71
77
80
6
+ 20
Ahlstrand
72
73
74
79
5
+ 15
Groenewegen
72
71
73
85
4
+ 10
Degenkolb
67
71
76
74
3
+ 2
Grosu
70
70
73
79
2
+ 1
Bewley
70
75
77
84
1
15h37'43
Holloway
70
76
77
77
Inside the current Top 20, some names stick out:
First of all, Kemboi. The Kenyan is in a great position for a huge GC result, being only 24" off the lead. His sprint training in the offseason obviously really paid out, and there's no rider with a similar prologue strength ahead of him. However, last year he had a sub-par epilogue, gaining "only" 11" on Bewley (who has declined since) and 16" on Grosu. With the stage being 500m longer this year, can he jump to the top of the standings and upset a whole division?
Coquard is in a slightly better position than last year, too. In 2019, he was 38" behind the leader and still finished 3rd overall - can he improve on this result after many disappointing stage results?
The Top 12 are separated from the rest by almost 20", as there's a clear gap after Swift. However, Andersen had one stage result that could prove to be really important, as he's today's top favorite and "just" needs to gain 24" to claim a Top 10 GC result. Silvestre shouldn't be underestimated, either.
And then, there's the big bunch of those who are 57" behind. Given that they're only 2" behind 20th, we're likely to see many of them between 10th and 20th in the final GC - can anyone even make a Top 10? It will be a close call, that's for sure!
But let's still talk about those who are up front. Holloway, Bewley and Grosu are separated by only two seconds after five stages - if anyone of them has a great day today, he could really have a chance of claiming the win! Especially Grosu should be really motivated, as he's got a shot at back-to-back GC wins here!
Degenkolb will likely slip down a bit - can he stay inside the Top 10? Can Groenewegen repeat his 2nd GC place from last year? Or is Kemboi simply too strong for all those PT riders? We'll find out!
The final stage kicks off with the most unlucky fellow of the race - Menten has actually already done a 130km ITT, so the 4,800m today shouldn't be a challenge for him. We have a first reference time: 5'43", which is an average speed of 50.4km/h.
Schäppi is a much better time trialist - but he only manages to shave off a few milliseconds from this time. Still, he's the new leader.
But not for long, as Oliveira is 12" faster than the Swiss. What's this time worth? An average speed of 52.2km/h definitely isn't bad, but we're probably still going to see some faster rides.
Fominykh is almost faster, but not quite. 1" his deficit, which is currently 2nd place.
But the reference time is soon lowered by 2 seconds, as Frison crosses the finish line! We're up to 52.5km/h.
It's clear that we won't get times that are half a minute faster; instead, the race is going to be very close! Scotson challenges the current best time, which stands at 5'29". When will he stop the clock? 5'24" ... 5'25" ... 5'26" ... 5'27" ... 5'28" - we again have a new leader! The Aussie edges out the Belgian by one second, with an average speed of 52.7km/h.
Goldstein leaves a good final impression as well, finishing currently 3" down in 3rd place.
A bit more is expected from Jungels, who just fell short to make the stage preview - but he wouldn't have deserved this, as he only takes 5th, 4" down.
Which is still better than Wohler, who loses two more seconds to get provisional 7th place.
Walsleben posts the same time, but a few milliseconds slower. 8th place for the German.
A slightly better time then by Fejes, but he can't challenge for the lead, either. 6th place, 4" behind the still leading Scotson.
The exact same time is then noted down for Gradek, who slips just behind the Hungarian, though.
But now, we have Belgian ITT machine Campenaerts out on the road - that must be a new best time, no? Let's see... 5'25" ... 5'26" ... 5'27" ... 5'28" ... 5'29" ... 5'30" ... 5'31" - no, that wasn't fast enough. 4th place, in between Goldstein and Oliveira, who are both 3" off the lead as well.
Next to challenge Scotson is Kukrle - and he's pretty fast! 2'23" ... 2'24" ... 2'25" - new best time by the Czech! He was slightly more than 2 seconds faster than the Australian, riding at an average speed of 53.2 km/h!
The next rider then is the first name of the stage preview, as Haugard starts his race. But better stats not always bring a better result, as the Norwegian ITT NC loses 4" - which isn't even worth a provisional podium spot!
Before we get to the Top 100, let's just tage a look at the provisional standings at the finish line:
1.
Kukrle
5'25"
6.
Campenaerts
+ 5"
2.
Scotson
+ 2"
7.
Oliveira
+ 6"
3.
Frison
+ 3"
8.
Jungels
+ 6"
4.
Haugard
+ 4"
9.
Fejes
+ 6"
5.
Goldstein
+ 5"
10.
Gradek
+ 6"
The GC is pretty much identical to the stage result, as the vast majority of the riders had the same time pre-stage.
Well, we were actually too early with this overview - as Meyer, still just outside the Top 100, brings down the best time by another three seconds, posting a time of 5'22"! This gives us an average speed of 53.7km/h - can anyone still go faster than this?
We then have Dlamini, who might be doing the TT of his life! He even seems to challenge the leader - 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" ... 5'25" - not quite, but it's still 3rd place for him, matching Kukrle's time! A pretty great result so far by the South African - and a surprising one for sure!
Tzortzakis is actually an even better time trialist - but as we said earlier, being better on paper not always means being faster out on the road. To be precise, he finishes 7" off the best time, which is enough for provisional 6th place.
The next decent time is posted by Zakarin, who claims provisional 5th place, 5" behind Meyer.
This time is almost matched by Rajapakshage, who is just a few fractions of a second off the Russian's time. 6th place for him.
Much more is expected from the Dutch ITT champion - and he is fast, indeed! 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" ... 5'25" - Van Winden claims 4th place, matching the times of Kukrle and Dlamini, but apparently not having the milliseconds on his side.
And yet another Dutch ITT specialist - and Lammertink is at least as fast as his fellow countryman! 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" - we have a new 2nd place! Definitely a good performance, which might give some more confidence to Grosu, seeing that the material works well!
Weinstein narrowly misses out on the provisional Top 10, posting the same time as Tzortzakis and Haugard, but being ranked behind those two in 12th place.
And then we have rider number four posting exactly this time, but Moser is "only" 14th. Nonetheless, the Italian matches much stronger time trialists, which must be considered a success after he failed participating in even a single sprint these last days.
Yet another Team Tinkoff rider - and he's quite a lot faster than his teammate - so fast that even Meyer gets somewhat uneasy ... 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" - Dal Col matches the 2nd time, but slips into 3rd, just behind Lammertink.
Hepburn was 73rd pre-stage, and hopes to improve this rank after today's stage - but he won't move forward as far as he might have expected. Only 19th place for him so far, 9" off the leader's pace. That's definitely disappointing.
It's a better result for Austrian ITT champion Brändle - but how good will it be? 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" ... 5'25" ... 5'26" - that's 4 seconds off the best time, and a final time no-one has posted so far. 7th place for him.
And yet another favorite for today's stage win - and another good performance. How good? 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" - very good, as Sütterlin posts the new best time! The German is one second faster than Meyer, taking over the lead with an average speed of 53.8km/h! Well done!
Next at the finish line is Kuboki - and the Japanese puts in a good performance as well. 4" down, which means 8th place.
Then we have a rising star, who'll likely dominate time trials in the future - but Ganna isn't top-notch yet, losing 7" and claiming 13th place.
We definitely expected more from Paillot - but the Frenchman obviously didn't have his best of days. He loses 10" and doesn't even make the provisional Top 20! OK, he's riding for Farfetch - maybe he had a mechanical problem?
Yatsevich is - on paper - at the same level as Paillot, but he seems to do much better - even good enough for the lead? 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" - no, not quite. He finishes milliseconds behind his teammate Dal Col to claim provisional 5th place.
Well, how many good time trialists have Team Tinkoff actually brought here? Quite a lot, that's for sure! Malori is next - but he's 5" off the leading pace, which means 10th place at the moment.
When talking about Stoltz, we can't really speak of a good time trialist - wrong team, anyway - but he definitely is a top prologue rider. And he seems to post a top time today as well! 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" - yet another rider 3" behind Sütterlin - but the fractions aren't on the Luxemburger's side. "Only" 6th place for him.
Now, we only have 50 riders left. Let's take a look at the current standings before the decision in this stage - and the GC - awaits us!
1.
Sütterlin
5'21"
6.
Stoltz
+ 3"
2.
Meyer
+ 1"
7.
Kukrle
+ 4"
3.
Lammertink
+ 3"
8.
Dlamini
+ 4"
4.
Dal Col
+ 3"
9.
Van Winden
+ 4"
5.
Yatsevich
+ 3"
10.
Kuboki
+ 5"
Team Puma definitely have great material - can Aregger benefit from this? Yes, at least he posts a decent time, 4" behind his teammate. 10th place for the Swiss rider.
Now, it's time for French ITT champion Coppel. And he is the best Frenchman so far - but losing 5" is definitely not what he expected. 14th place is a big letdown.
And here is last year's epilogue winner Vlatos! He has shown that he likes this course - can he make it two in a row? 5'17" ... 5'18" ... 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" - no, he won't win today! Vlatos even loses the duel against Meyer for 2nd, currently taking the final podium spot! No, it isn't Festina's best race so far...
Next at the line is Zhao, who was so fast that he was almost missed by the cameras! How fast? Very fast! 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" - the Chinese matches the 2nd best time, but is only ranked 4th - still, it's an amazing result for him!
Viviani was 40th in the GC pre-stage - the tension is rising! Maybe it was too high for the Italian? His result is absolutely underwhelming, losing 12" and barely making the provisional Top 50!
It's definitely not the fault of changing meteorological conditions, as shows Hansen's ride! The Dane is another one challenging the leading time! 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" .. 5'23" - he narrowly misses out on the provisional podium, being just 2" down - and that means 5th place.
Teammate Würtz is next, and he is even the better time trialist - but again, just on paper. A race to forget for the Dane, losing 8" and barely making the Top 30.
This picture is what Evonik - ELKO have been longing for for several years - Chavanne wearing their jersey! And the Swiss makes a good debut time trial for his new employer! 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" - strong, but not as strong as expected. That's 7th place for him - probably not really what he (and his manager) was hoping for...
Leung was in the mix for the final sprint several times - but failed to gain any bonus seconds which could have given him the edge over some other good TTers. And he'd actually have needed some advantage, as he loses 6" today, placing him on the final provisional Top 20 spot.
And now, we get to the Top 20 of the GC. So far, Sütterlin leads the provisional GC, ahead of Vlatos and Zhao (who apparently had better stage results than Meyer). Let's see who is the first to beat the German GC-wise - and could someone still steal him the stage win now?
Well, it won't be Ji for sure. The Chinese was 2" ahead in the GC pre-stage, but loses 34" today - far outside the Top 100.
And without any surprise, Vincent is far off the pace, too. 29" lost today is no Top 100, either.
But it's a completely different story for Van Baarle, as the Dutchman is a good time trialist. Yet not good enough to fend off the German, as he loses 9" - meaning a 6" deficit overall.
Sütterlin is already well within the Top 20 by now - how far can he move up?
Vanderbiest is definitely not a slouch when it comes down to prologue riding, either. But a 5" lead just isn't enough. The Frenchman loses 18" today, making him drop outside the Top 50 in the GC. He surely expected more from this race - but then he should have participated in a few more sprints...
Per was very active throughout the whole race, which gave him a 7" advantage on Sütterlin - but that is by far not enough, as the Slovenian loses 24" today.
And then we have the most active rider of this year's Tour of Qatar, which without any doubt is Arashiro. He brings the same advantage on Sütterlin as Per - but loses even more time; 37" to be precise.
But now let's go back to some stronger time trialists - or more precisely, to today's top favorite! Andersen had an 8" lead on Sütterlin pre-stage, and he probably won't lose that!
On the contrary, he's even challenging the German for the stage win! 5'18" ... 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" - the Dane is just one second off the best time! Which - due to some bad luck with time fractions - is only 5th place, but he takes over the virtual GC lead with a 7" margin! A Top 10 should now be very likely for him - or can he even get more?
Silvestre had the exact same time as Andersen pre-stage (meaning 49" off the GC lead), and he's a good time trialist, too. Can he fend off the Dane's attack?
Well, no. He's rather fighting against Sütterlin, to whom he can concede 7" to surely stay ahead, which would be a final time of 5'28". Can he make it?
5'24" ... 5'25" ... 5'26" ... 5'27" ... 5'28" ... 5'29" - meaning he now has exactly the same overall time as the German! But thanks to better stage results, he stays ahead - although still dropping one spot to Andersen.
As we saw in the stage preview, there's a pretty large gap between 12th and 13th - 19 seconds to be precise. Which is therefore Swift's margin on Andersen, meaning he needs a total time of at most 5'40" to definitely take over the virtual GC lead.
5'36" ... 5'37" ... 5'38" ... 5'39" ... 5'41" ... 5'41" - it's the same overall time as the Dane! But Andersen had the better stage results and therefore moves past the Brit! Swift's 91st place today definitely didn't help for this...
Coquard doesn't really care about defendig his spot - he wants to attack the podium! And for this, he needs a great time today!
It looks pretty good, as he just loses 4", which is provisional 16th place. Which gives him an 18" lead over Andersen in the virtual GC, where he is the new leader! He surely delivered, now he's got to watch the others, and hope...
It is common knowledge that Van Stayen is among the worst time trialists in the peloton - and he stands by his reputation, finishing in today's Bottom 10. If he ever dreamt of a good GC result, well, tough luck. But he surely didn't, did he?
This young man however does dream big - but he needs to ride big as well! He's only got a 4" advantage on Coquard, who did really well today. Can he fend off the Frenchman's attack?
5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" ... 5'25" - yes, he can! He posts exactly the same time as Coquard, and although he is ranked one spot behind, he surely won't care - as he is the new virtual GC leader, by just 4 seconds!
And by the way, he definitely wins the white jersey with this result - but that was rather clear right from the start...
So the best time trialing sprinters have delivered, now up to the others to defend their spots! Where will Kemboi and Coquard finally land?
Howard isn't a good time trialist - but losing 37" today is definitely way too much! Thanks to his consistent results in the sprints, he still ends up just one second behind Sütterlin and Silvestre. That's provisional 7th place for him in the virtual GC - and 7 riders are yet to come.
Kennaugh is actually quite a bit slower in ITTs than Howard - but not today. He even beats the Australian by 7" - which makes him end up with the identical overall time as Andersen and Swift!
However, having missed out on quite some sprints - and therefore on good stage results - he is the worst of this trio in the GC, meaning he's currently 5th.
Ahlstrand is one of the best time trialists remaining - but what a bad day he must have had today! He was on par with Kennaugh pre-stage - but even loses one second to the Brit and therefore drops to 6th, with 5 riders still to come!
We saw some riders overperforming today - and some decent time trialists not performing at all. What happened to Ahlstrand and Howard? And how will the GC Top 5 do?
Last year's runner-up Groenewegen matches Ahlstrand's prologue skills - will he match his bad result, too?
Well, no, that's what we can already say. He is faster, actually. But by how much? He has got a 9" advantage on virtual GC leader Kemboi - can he keep the Kenyan at bay?
A time of 5'34" is therefore his minimum goal! 5'29" ... 5'30" ... 5'31" ... 5'32" ... 5'33" ... 5'34" ... 5'35" - that's one second too much! Groenewegen drops one spot, as he is now 1" behind Kemboi in the virtual GC - and 3" ahead of Coquard! So currently, 2nd and 3rd are exactly like last year - but 4 more riders are yet to cross the line!
Degenkolb is not among the best time trialists - but as expected, he's still faster than the likes of Kennaugh. The German loses 29" today, which sees him comfortably in between Coquard and Andersen in the virtual GC, currently in 4th position.
And now, let's wait for the Top 3 - the next 5 minutes will bring the final decision in this race!
Last year's winner Grosu has got a 22" margin on virtual leader Kemboi, meaning he has to reach a time of at most 5'47". Last year, he easily defended his position in the epilogue - can he do the same even without the yellow jersey on his shoulders?
5'41" ... 5'42" ... 5'43" ... 5'44" ... 5'45" ... 5'46" ... 5'47" ... 5'48" - no, he's one second too slow! Which means we note down the exact same overall time as for Groenewegen - but the latter having better cumulated stage results, Grosu slips down to 3rd in the GC! And this means that Coquard is definitely off the podium - what a bummer, when you're just 4" behind the leader!
Only two riders are still out on the road - both of them aging stars - and the first one is Bewley. He still has a decent speed in those races against the clock, so let's see if he can finally dethrone virtual GC leader Kemboi!
He can lose one second more than Grosu, i.e. he must post a time of at most 5'48"!
5'43" ... 5'44" ... 5'45" ... 5'46" ... 4'47" ... 4'48" - he precisely matches this time! So Kemboi and Bewley now are ex-aequo - but the Kenyan has got much better stage results, meaning he's still leading!
What a crazy race! We have two riders ex-aqeuo in 1st and 2nd, two riders ex-aequo one second behind in 3rd and 4th - and a 4" deficit is just good enough for 5th place. Crazy! And we still have a rider left!
And that rider is doing crazy things as well! Holloway is incredibly fast - much faster than he could theoretically be! He's even attacking the best time of the stage - what did that man have for breakfast?
Let's see if he can even get away with a stage win; he needs to beat 5'21" for this!
5'17" ... 5'18" ... 5'19" ... 5'20" ... 5'21" ... 5'22" ... 5'23" ... 5'24" - well, it wasn't to be; he finishes 12th of the day. 12th!!!
And I'm absolutely sure that he won't care at all about that "lost" stage win, as Dan Holloway wins the 2020 Tour of Qatar with an absolutely insane epilogue performance - even faster than Salem Kemboi, who ends up second overall!
It's really unbelievable - and I guess I won't find enough superlatives to write about this shocking result. Sure, it was absolutely possible that he would win the GC - but who would have thought he would even get a Top 15 result today? Not me. Definitely not.
So let's just breathe a bit to digest what we just saw. And let's not forget that we actually have a well deserved stage winner, too - and that's the one we will celebrate in an instant!
But 2nd place is actually a much bigger surprise, with Cameron Meyer delivering a nice performance today.
And that stage winner is Jasha Sütterlin! While the German surely was among today's favorites, it's still a surprise that he walks away with the win - but it's simply a job very well done! Congratulations!
Panagiotis Vlatos will be slightly disappointed by his 3rd place, as he fails to get back-to-back epilogue wins here by just one tiny second. Nonetheless, it's a good performance - at least he delivered, quite in contrast to the team's main star...
Jingbiao Zhao and Soren Kragh Andersen both are on s.t. with 2nd place, missing out on the podium by some fractions of a second. Which must be especially bitter for the Dane, being the pre-stage top favorite. At least, this performance is worth a good GC result, as we'll see in a few seconds.
Today's Top 10 are completed by Lasse Norman Hansen, Gabriel Chavanne, Steven Lammertink, Andrea Dal Col and Kiril Yatsevich.
And here is the sensational GC winner, the really big surprise - a man who didn't even make the preview lists anymore after his decline. Please welcome on stage...
Dan Holloway! He didn't get a single stage win, but with 2nd, 3rd, 2x 4th and 19th, he was the most consistent rider throughout the five sprinter stages - consequently riding in yellow today. And boy, did he ride! With an absolute overperformance that's hardly explainable, he did not only easily defend his jersey, he actually blew away the competition!
With a 12th place today - even better than on stage 3 when he took a day off - he even was the strongest sprinter today - ahead of Coquard and Kemboi. It's an amazing win - sorry for all those superlatives - both for the aging star himself and for EA Vesuvio. Congratulations!
Salem Kemboi was surely dreaming of the highest step on the podium, as one sprinter after the other failed to take that virtual GC lead from him. Until the very last rider. Nonetheless, the U25 star can be more than happy with his achievement this week - one podium finish and 2nd overall are definitely great results! The downside for him is that this superb result isn't worth any points - and he'll definitely be hated by most PT teams now, stealing them a big bunch of points! And his "regular" PCT competition will be afraid - very afraid!
From an oldie to a youngster - and now back to an oldie: Sam Bewley claims 3rd place this year, exactly matching Kemboi's overall time, but having lower stage finishes in total. But taking a podium from Qatar - after a decline this off-season - is surely great news for the Kiwi. And he has clearly shown the others that he's still there - may they like it or not!
Next are two riders who miss out on the GC podium by one very tiny second! Dylan Groenewegen, 2nd last year, definitely had this option again - but he'd have needed to go 2 seconds faster (probably). But it's still a good GC result for him, especially compared to the pre-race top favorites!
The same predicate - good GC result - is true for defending champion Eduard Grosu. Well, defending the title was never an option today, with Holloway just riding in a league of his own - but just as Groenewegen, being 2 seconds faster would have meant 2nd place overall. 5th is surely a bitter-sweet result for the Romanian - one he can surely live with in a few days. But probably not right now.
Bryan Coquard definitely can't live with his 6th place. He started the race as a top favorite once again - but simply didn't deliver on the sprint stages. Surely, he got that one win on stage 3, but two 9th place finishes were all he got out of the other stages - absolutely underwhelming! It remains a mystery why his team didn't support him like on stage 3 throughout the whole race. And I guess his manager will be rather clueless right now - a very strong leadout didn't work last year, a much better balanced one failed this time - what else should Festina try?
To be fair, it needs to be said that he'd have claimed 2nd place being just 5" faster today - or having taken just a few more bonus seconds, which would have been very easily possible!
7th place goes to the 2nd best sprinter from the preview - John Degenkolb. The German had a horrible start, with a completely failed leadout, but struck back by winning stage 2. However, one more podium finish along with some off-days wasn't enough to get a better situation ahead of today's finale. Still, he easily managed to stay within the Top 10 - which honestly isn't that bad for freshly promoted ISA - Hexacta.
We then have the first "non-sprinter" in 8th place - today's stage favorite Soren Kragh Andersen. Well, that's not completely true, as the 8 bonus seconds he gained on stage 4 finally get him this Top 10 result - else he'd have finished around 15th place, s.t. with 4 other riders!
And even now, two other riders match his overall time - but Ben Swift and Peter Kennaugh have a worse total of stage ranks, hence they take 9th and 10th. Which is probably towards the lower end of the expectations for both, but it's still a Top 10. Which means that two of those Top 10 positions go to PCT teams - not too great news for the PT squads. But they just had to beat them...
It can be seen as some sort of consolation prize, but winning the points jersey actually confirms that Eduard Grosu had very consistent performances throughout the race! Although he wasn't able to repeat last year's overall win, he at least makes it two points jerseys in a row - well done!
Sam Bewley and Dan Holloway share 2nd place in this classification - just one tiny point off the win! Given that Holloway took the last spot of a group of 5 riders with the same time today, the jersey was actually just milliseconds away for him! But hey, he'll surely not complain, walking away with the overall win!
John Degenkolb in 4th place is only 4 points down as well - these four were definitely the most consistent sprinters, as Dylan Groenewegen in 5th position is 13 points behind the German!
It's absolutely no surprise to see Salem Kemboi winning the young rider standings - with a huge margin of 30" on Jingbiao Zhao, who was the best youngster today. Nicholas Dlamini is 3rd, ahead of Filippo Ganna and Callum Scotson. When looking at the preview, all of them bar Dlamini were listed - so that one came out pretty much as expected.
Fortunately, we now have a clear winner of the team standings, so the organizers actually call the right squad on stage! And the winner is... Grieg-Maersk! With 5th, 6th and 23rd places today, they were 3 seconds faster than Team Tinkoff - La Datcha and Team Puma - SAP!
So we do have the predicted winner on top here as well, with the other 8 mentioned teams all in the Top 10 as well - except for Farfetch. Instead, we have Rakuten Pro Cycling claiming 4th place, which is a bit of a surprise.
And with this ends a great week of cycling here in the desert! What will likely be remembered is the surprising yet dominant win of Dan Holloway - a win he'll not be able to repeat next year. Yeah, I commit to this statement, so scoff at me if he again does the impossible!
We had a great youngster claiming 2nd overall, too, in Kenyan champion Salem Kemboi. What we had as well was an extremely close race for the podium, with 4 riders within a single second (5 within 4") - but only two of them actually making it.
I hope you had fun following these 6 stages - now I wish you a lot of pleasure with the continuation of the season, and maybe see you again next year?
Edited by Fabianski on 14-11-2020 12:33
Tour of Qatar 
