The sprinters have had their say, now it’s time for the mountain gods to rise at Mount Olympus at the end of the third stage. The one who wins today will be taking a big first step towards the final victory as well, even though the winners of today’s stage doesn’t necessarily has to be the GC winner, as proven by Beltran last year. A lot of KoM-points today as well, so Robov better be in the breakaway if he wants to hold onto his lead there.
Robov does what he has to do and is part of the break. Before we head into the mountains, the first and only intermediate sprint is won by Gonzalez Cortes, who was also in the break yesterday but won zero KoM-points. White jersey Peak is also present, and so are Skjerping, Ivanov and Poljanski.
Five more riders join them on the first mountain of the day (third category), those are Bonnin, Conci, Williams, Lehtinen and Kebede.
While Peak attacks to grab the KoM-points, seven more riders make it a leading group of 18: Bernard, Paulinho, Hirschlein, Yamamoto, Richardson, De Vos and Reynders.
Gonzalez Cortes wins the first KoM-sprint ahead of Robov and Poljanski.
Shortly after the front group gets shattered on the second mountain of third category. The points go to Bernard, Paulinho and Kebede. In the peloton, that’s not too far behind, the work is being done by the two Spanish teams, Repsol – Netflix and Desigual. A lot of names from the 18 have already been caught again, with Robov being close to getting caught as well.
Still 155 km to go, but it’s already quite clear that yellow jersey Maksimov won’t be riding in yellow tomorrow.
The peloton has now decided to calm down a bit, so it’s time for an overview with 150 km to go. We have nine leaders: Ivanov, De Vos, Bonnin, Bernard, Paulinho, Kebede, Hirschlein, Conci and Poljanski. Then some others are trying to come back on their own: Gonzalez Cortes, Robov, Skjerping, Yamamoto and Williams. The peloton follows at 4’35” now.
Gonzalez Cortes and Robov make it back but immediately get dropped again on the next mountain (fourth category) together with Bonnin and Kebede. This time Paulinho takes the maximum of the points, followed by Ivanov and De Vos. The four riders who got dropped do make it back quickly though, with the peloton at 6’ now.
Williams manages to make up two minutes in the following descent and joins the leading group as well. The leaders then tackle a short but steep hill of second category, where Ivanov takes ten KoM-points ahead of Bernard and Bonnin. Robov still leading the KoM-classification though, by at least twelve points over anyone else in this break. The peloton, where we now see domestiques of Farfetch and Popo4Ever as well, crosses the top at 5’30” with 115 km to go.
Just over 100 km to go and we find the fifth out of nine KoM-sprints of the day, this time of fourth category. Bernard wins it ahead of Paulinho and Poljanski, the Frenchman now second in the KoM with seven points less than Robov.
The sixth mountain of the day is one of third category. Paulinho just manages to win the sprint against De Vos, the Portuguese now has one point less than Bernard. Williams dropped again, which gives us 11 leaders who have 4’15” over the peloton with 90 km to go.
58 km to go and the eleven leaders still have over 3’ minutes against the peloton. Next to the Kykkos Monastery, Bernard wins the next KoM-sprint of fourth category against Kebede and teammate Poljanski. Meanwhile, some surprising names being dropped by the peloton of just over 100 riders now: Ablenado and Gebremedhin.
Oh no! The GCN climbers have been caught by surprise and need to close a gap to the first 55 riders in the peloton! Pantano Gomez, Vinhas and Potocki are not the only riders in trouble though, as are Andriafenomananiaina, Schleck, Pereyra, Min, Hiratsuka and Kolar.
Bonnin and Gonzalez Cortes are dropped at the front of the race with 47 km to go, their lead over the peloton now at 3’05”, with Lemus Davila being dropped there as well.
Still 45 km to go but Tenorio wants to make this a hard and long finale and uppens the pace already! Pluchkin, Denifl, Wellens and Kudus are directly behind him, but more climbers have to let go, including Roson, Giogieri, Areruya, Buchmann, Senni and Stancu! Most of them quickly come back though, as Tenorio decides it’s still too early to spend all his energy.
Four leaders get a gap over the others and sprint for the KoM-points on the penultimate climb of the day, not including the final climb which awards 20 KoM-points. Bernard wins it ahead of Ivanov, Robov and Kebede. Although the revival by Robov is impressive, Bernard now leads the KoM-classification.
The pace is now completely gone in the pack of 36 riders, which follows at almost six minutes with 35 km to go! Roson and Pantano Gomez even close to coming back now!
Before we head to the final climb, Bernard increases his lead in the KoM-classification by winning the penultimate climb of the day (fourth catgory). 26 km to go and a peloton of 32 riders, where Giogieri has been dropped again at 5’ now!
Wellens tried attacking on that penultimate mountain but immediately stopped when he saw the others following him, which increases the lead of the four leaders again! It’s looking more and more as if we will get a very surprising winner today!
16.5 km to go and the four leaders start their ascent of the Mount Olympus with a 5’15” lead over the favourites! Will it be enough to be victorious on this mountain with an average gradient of 7.1%? Paulinho and Conci at 30”!
If you feel really good, why should you bother waiting?! Kebede attacks with 16 km left to climb, Ivanov is the only one following him so far!
The leading duo quickly get a minute over Bernard and Robov! 15 km to go for them, and the favourite group still at 5’15”! The nineteen names in the group of favourites are Tenorio, Pluchkin, Denifl, Wellens, Kudus, Guldhammer, Monsalve, Uran, Carthy, Bennett, Stancu, Choi, Scarponi, Guerreiro, Senni, Latour, Gonzalez Cortes, Pomoshnikov and De la Cruz.
But the lead of Kebede and Ivanov is increasing instead of decreasing! 14 km to climb and they now have 6’ over the group of favourites, where nobody wants to do the work for somebody else! Riders like Preidler use this situation to try and come back to this group.
12.5 km to go and Tenorio and Pluchkin decide to work together in the group of favourites and bring the leaders back to 5’! Scarponi, Guerreiro and early breakaway rider Gonzalez Cortes are being dropped, which leaves sixteen in this group.
Bernard and Robov have come back with 11 km to climb! Their gap over the group of favourites is dropping rapidly, with that group 4’ behind now! Senni and De la Cruz. Have been dropped there as well now.
10 km to go and the gap to the four leaders increasing to 4’15” again as Tenorio and Pluchkin are looking at the other favourites to help them in the chase! The other six riders of the original breakaway are now close to getting reeled back in.
Although Wellens has Bernard up front, he now starts working as well, which is dropping the lead of the four leaders rapidly again. They now have 2’45” with 8 km left to climb!
But it’s not over yet for the courageous leaders, as they still have 2’30” with only 6 km left to climb! The chasing group only has 14 riders left now, with Poljanski the only one there from the orginial breakaway. Stancu has been dropped there.
Poljanski and Wellens have kept the pace steady for a while, and now becomes clear why! Teammate Bernard attacks with 5 km to go, the other leaders are unable to answer his attack!
Poljanski and Wellens are putting the favourites to sleep, and it is working! 3 km to go for Bernard, who has a 1’30” lead over Kebede and Ivanov, a 2’ lead over Robov and 3’ over the group of favourites!
Bernard increases his lead over the others and is solo’ing to victory!
Wellens decides he has waited long enough and attacks with 1.5 km to go! Tenorio tries to follow the Belgian!
Wellens doesn’t get a big gap over the other favourites immediately, but I’m sure his manager won’t care, as Bernard crosses the line and wins stage three of the Tour of Cyprus on the Mount Olympus!
At 1’30” Pluchkin is the best of the rest, while Wellens completes the Fablok party with a nice podium finish. The rest of the names to come in at (almost) the same time and still have a shot at winning the Tour of Cyprus are Bennett (4), Tenorio (5), Monsalve (6), Guldhammer (7), Carthy (8), Ivanov (9), Kudus (10), Denifl (11), Latour (12), Uran (13), Kebede (14), Pomoshnikov (15) and Choi. The next group already comes in 4’30” later than this group, where Min sprints himself to the white jersey.
Not everybody finishes inside the time limit of 1h10’. We say goodbye to Awang, Minali, Bonifazio, Ciolek and Lutsyshyn.
