Yesterday, the break succeeded and Jallays won. The day before, Guldhammer won the fourth stage and took over the yellow jersey from Uran. If he wants to win the GC, he will have to try and take even more time today on the Colombian and Cattaneo, who are better time-trialists. The first part of the stage is alright, but then the riders will tackle La Cumbre (HC), before they head onto Laurel Springs (1st cat.) and finish in Brush Peak (2nd cat.).
A lot of teams (if not all, except for the GC favourites) try to be in the breakaway and after 35 km we finale seem to have a group up front, including 14 riders. Kom-jersey Schreurs is also the best placed rider (17th at +- 1’30”), the other names are Roson, Bonnin, Dieteren, Raileanu, Kolar, Min, Hirschlein, Ablenado, Kunshin, Higuita, Aular, Nazaret and Topchanyuk.
Before we head onto the hard part of today’s race, the riders tackle East Casitas Pass (4th cat.). Roson takes five points, Min three and Kunshin one. Schreurs takes nothing but remains in first place with 34 points. La Cumbre rewards 20 points to the first over the top though. In this group Roson has 19 points and Dieteren 14.
60 km to the finish line and the fourteen leaders start their ascent of La Cumbre: 15.4 km at an average gradient of 7.5%! The peloton is only 3’30” behind, the work there is being done by Aramco, Kraftwerk, Xero and Zalgiris.
Half the climb done and the peloton has been reduced to 89 riders, with no big names missing. They have come a bit closer to the leaders, who are still together. The gap now at 2’45”.
5 km to climb and Schreurs sees his polka-dot dream crushed! He’s the first to be dropped in the leading group. The peloton of now 76 riders following the thirteen leaders at 2’30”!
Bonnin feeling good and grabbing twenty KoM-points on the top. The other points go to Roson, Raileanu, Aular, Min, Ablenado and Topchanyuk. Schreurs has one point more than Roson though, so if the leaders get caught before the finale starts, he could still win the KoM-classification!
But the leaders now have an advantage of 5’30”, with 42 km to go. The peloton of 56 riders crosses the top of La Cumbre, the best placed rider to be dropped is Mosca (21st).
After a long climb the riders go into their last 20 km. First they will climb to Laurel Springs on a mountain of first category, after a short descent they will then ascend a mountain of second category to Brush Peak. Our nine leaders at the moment are Roson, Bonnin, Raileanu, Kolar, Min, Ablenado, Kunshin, Aular and Topchanyuk. At one minute we find Hirschlein, Higuita and Nazaret. Two minutes further is Dieteren, while the peloton is now swallowing Schreurs another 2’30” down the line, at 5’30” of the nine leaders.
With 5 km to go on the steep climb, the first twelve riders are still in the same positions. Meanwhile, at 4’45” from the nine leaders, Dieteren says hello to the peloton of 58 riders.
Kolar attacks with 4 km to climb and at 14 km to the finish line! He doesn’t get away though, and nobody of the first nine gets dropped.
Roson now in the attack entering the last km of the penultimate climb! Not only could this be the decisive move for the KoM-jersey, it could also lead to the stage win, as the peloton is slowing down a bit and back at 5’! The three riders following the Spaniard are Aular, Raileanu and Bonnin!
Raileanu is the first to cross the summit at 10 km to the finish line, the rest of the points go to Aular, Roson, Bonnin, Ablenado (at 30 seconds), Kolar and Topchanyuk. The only one who should still be able to pass Roson is Schreurs, so it’s safe to say the rider from Repsol – Netflix has won the KoM-classification of the Tour of California!
Denifl attacks in the group of favourites at 1 km of the top of the penultimate climb! Henao Montoya and Yates are the first to follow, those four are 4’16” behind the four stage leaders. Just behind them three more names: Eastman, Bennett and Uran! Then a gap to the 52 other riders in the peloton, where nobody has been dropped and it’s top favourite Cattaneo leading the chase!
Cattaneo, yellow jersey Guldhammer and Martin are more than 30” behind the six in front of them, but get a gap over the rest of the peloton, where Nerz, Preidler, white jersey Padun and the other leaders have to act quickly!
Our four leaders, Roson, Aular, Raileanu and Bonnin, start the last climb of the day, 5.5 km at 6% average. Ablenado is 30” behind, the favourites now at 3’45”.
Just before the top of the penultimate climb, Nepomnyachsniy (24th GC) is dropped in the peloton! Still 37 riders in the peloton, that is 20” behind the group Cattaneo and an additional 40” behind the group Denifl!
The group Denifl (including two riders from the early breakaway, Higuita and Nazaret) 3’45” behind the four leaders as they start their final ascent of the Tour of California! They still have a 40” gap over the three chasers and an additional 20” over the 25-headed peloton, where following names have been dropped in the descent: Chaves (16th), Squire (25th), Fraile (23rd), Yates (15th).
4.5 km to climb for the favourites as Martin brings Cattaneo and yellow jersey Guldhammer to the group Denifl. The Austrian doesn’t like this at all and immediately attacks! Yates and Uran are the first to react!
3 km to go as Denifl finally sits down! Yates still feeling very good and in the attack now! He’s 2’15” behind the four leaders, is it still possible to overtake them?! 40” behind the group Yates are the other six favourites in the attack, then it takes an additional minute for the peloton to come by, which exists out of 36 riders again, including Chaves (16th), Squire (25th), Fraile (23rd) and Yates (15th) again. No Nepomnyachsniy (24th) though.
Cattaneo in trouble with 2.8 km to go! The Italian is losing the wheel of the other five ahead of him and might therefore be losing the GC! Another GC favourite, Uran, now being blown back from the wheel of Denifl to the five chasers, where Martin sets the pace!
The four leaders enter the last 1.5 km together now! The five chasers from the early breakaway at 45”, and additional 45” further we see Yates, who’s coming closer quickly!
The Brit now passing Hirschlein, but Denifl is coming closer again and only trails by 10”! The six chasers, Henao Montoya, Eastman, Bennett, Uran, Martin and Guldhammer an additional 25” behind, while Cattaneo already loses 1’30” to Yates! The peloton then only 30” behind the Italian now, the most important names dropped there so far are Chaves (16th), Fraile (23rd) and Yates (15th)!
Guldhammer uppens the pace in the chasing group and Uran, gets dropped with 1.8 km to go! If he manages to keep a decent pace he should still be able to take the win in the time trial tomorrow though! Yates and Denifl together now!
Impressive display by yellow jersey Guldhammer now, who simply closes the gap to the other two favourites while also dropping the four riders following him!
600 metres to go for our four leaders though! Aular in the lead, followed by Bonnin! The Venezuelan should be the best sprinter, but what can he do after a stage like today’s?
At the same time, Uran is close to being overtaken by Padun, Konig and Nerz! Cattaneo has already been overtaken by them and is now riding right behind them, next to De la Cruz and Senni!
The leaders now into their last 400 metres! Roson trying to overtake Aular on the outside of the curve!
The Spaniard has to sit down! Aular has two more guys to deal with in the last 200 metres!
And that’s exactly what the Venezuelan from Berg Cycles does! Aular wins the sixth stage of the Tour of California ahead of Bonnin, Raileanu and Roson!
The other riders scoring some MGUCI points are Kunshin (5th), Min (6th), Topchanyuk (7th) and Ablenado (8th).
The top-10 is then completed by Kolar and Yates! The Brit has a small gap over Guldhammer and Denifl, but as he was only 8” behind in the GC this should be enough for yellow!
The favourites are now rolling in. 40” later than Yates, Eastman, Bennett, Henao Montoya, Martin and Hirschlein cross the line. Padun and Konig made a nice comeback in the final km and join them.
Uran and Nerz lose 1’20” to Yates. 40” later, three more riders come in, including top favourite Cattaneo. The other two riders are De la Cruz and Senni.
Pomoshnikov and Preidler cross the line at 2’40” from Yates. Just ahead of them we see Faiers, Abal and Uwizeyimana.
