A day with many questions to answer. First off, how are the cobblestones? Are they better than last year, or are they still as bad as can be? How many riders will finish the race? How many riders will finish half the stage? How many riders will puncture? How many riders will enjoy today? How many riders will eat seventeen Big Macs right after finishing? The two most important questions though are: who will win the stage, and who will win the GC? Last year Maes was passed by Richardson in the final kilometer and fell one second short of winning the race. Now he is in the yellow jersey, but far from guaranteed of the victory as almost all rivals are close to a minute behind, the margin you can lose in a final kilometer if you're really empty.
Despite the start being on cobblestones, some non-cobblers do fancy an attack. Laizer and Hirschi attack, followed later by Gunnlaugsson, Menicucci and Veber. The rain definitely won't be making conditions easier today.
At the back, some riders have already lost contact with the peloton. Thorsen and Manfred will struggle against the time limit.
Not even halfway on the first long, 25-kilometer section and only about 40 riders are left in contention. All riders who attempted to be in a breakaway are long gone. Important riders behind already are Paprstka, Bovenhuis and white jersey Kalf. Many riders puncture, if it is someone important we'll update you but for now the favorites are unscathed. The cobblestones do look a bit better but last year it was dry, now it is wet.
100 kilometer to go, the pack reduced to 21. Here are the names: Maes (1st, 5h41'19) Naesen (3rd, + 47) Sbaragli (4th, + 49) Van Avermaet (5th, + 50) Skala (6th, + 53) Minoungou (7th, + 55) Sinkeldam (8th, + 59) Baugnies (9th, + 1'01) Nolf (10th, + 1'03) Okbamariam (11th, + 1'04) Van Lerberghe (12th, + 1'05) Planckaert (14th, s.t.) Manamalage (15th, s.t.) Weber (17th, s.t.) Oelerich (20th, s.t.) Taubel (25th, s.t.) Tsatevich (32nd, + 3'20) Coronel (40th, + 3'30) De Vreese (41st, s.t.) Lhotellerie (45th, s.t.) Taillefour (71st, + 5'34)
At two minutes: Kuznetsov (13th, + 1'05) Kvist (18th, s.t.) Kluge (19th, s.t.) Schoonbroodt (22nd, s.t.) Dakteris (29th, s.t.)
And at three minutes: Boev (2nd, + 40) Erdenesuren (28th, + 1'05)
Kalf (26th, + 1'05) at five minutes but in the same group as rival Resell (42nd, + 3'30).
A short bit of asphalt between sectors, immediately followed by another ten kilometer of cobbles. Maes drops down a bit in the group, where Abraha and Paprstka made the jump forward while Planckaert lost contact.
No interest in an intermediate sprint in Pissila, De Vreese, Oelerich and Coronel get free seconds. Bovenhuis and Schlechter hanging at 30 seconds, ahead of Schoonbroodt, Thomas and Rathe. The next group of Gaudin, Young and Schwarzmann at two minutes.
Naesen surprisingly struggles to follow. Doesn't seem to be any bike trouble so perhaps the Belgian isn't in the best of shapes. Paprstka leaving a few bike lengths again, Lhotellerie dropped a bit earlier and the chasers continue to fall further away.
Baugnies and Maes lead the riders off the sector for a longer asphalt section. Fifteen riders still with them: Van Avermaet Minoungou Sinkeldam Nolf Okbamariam Van Lerberghe Manamalage Weber Oelerich Taubel Abraha Tsatevich Coronel De Vreese Taillefour
Sbaragli Skala Paprstka at 35 seconds,
Naesen at 1'10 with
Bovenhuis Schlechter Lhotellerie close to two minutes behind.
The asphalt becomes cease fire as all mentioned riders are allowed back before we start the next sector. Schoonbroodt, Rathe and Planckaert are close but they will fall further away again now. Thomas has fallen back to group Gaudin.
82 kilometer to go with a cobblestone sector of 21.5 kilometer up next. They are indeed improved over last year, as back then there was no large group at this point and almost everyone was on their own. The last riders is only an half hour compared to hours behind, though the time limit will catch some riders out for sure.
A puncture in the front group for a Strava rider. It's Oelerich! They still have Sbaragli and Van Avermaet in the front group though. Maes laying down the pace like he has done most of the day.
The German would be the first of a quartet of punctures amongst the front group. Other riders requiring a bike change are...
... Manamalage...
... Taillefour...
...and Minoungou.
Other riders lost contact due to their own fault, because the pace of the yellow jersey is crucifying. Schlechter, Bovenhuis and Lhotellerie dropped halfway through the sector. Naesen got in trouble again, quickly followed by Coronel. Sbaragli and Skala reduced the number of Strava and Carrefour riders to one and two, and Weber dropping meant BNZ is no longer represented.
Maes lead all the way and deserves the seconds and points at the intermediate sprint ending the sector. Baugnies second, Van Avermaet third. The other riders to cross the line with them are: Nolf Van Lerberghe Okbamariam Taillefour Tsatevich Abraha Taubel Manamalage De Vreese Paprstka
Taillefour and Manamalage managed to recover after their puncture.
The gaps to the riders behind are: Sinkeldam (+ 24) Minoungou (+ 1'08) Weber (+ 1'49) Sbaragli, Skala (+ 2'18) Coronel (+ 2'32) Naesen (+ 3'11) Bovenhuis, Oelerich (+ 3'27) Schlechter (+ 4'04) Lhotellerie (+ 4'48) Schoonbroodt (+ 5'38) Rathe (+ 6'00) Thomas (+ 6'15) Gaudin, Planckaert, Schwarzmann, Young (+ 6'42)
and everyone else more than eight minutes behind, we think as we run out of observes to follow the different groups. We do know Manfred is just ahead of the broom wagon at 47'45.
Three kilometer asphalt followed by another three kilometer of cobblestones. Sinkeldam and Minoungou got back and managed to stay with them on the cobblestones where no punctures occurred. We now have a stretch of thirty kilometers without cobblestone before we head onto the final sector of twenty-five kilometer right to the finish line. A few riders behind might want to use this opportunity to return to the group.
Weber, Sbaragli, Skala, Coronel, Naesen, Bovenhuis and Oelerich all managed to get back before the intermediate sprint in Taparko, which Coronel even manages to win ahead of De Vreese and Baugnies.
Schlechter makes it back just before the final sector as well. The 23 names in the front group, and therefore contenders for the victory are: Maes Naesen Sbaragli Van Avermaet Skala Minoungou Sinkeldam Baugnies Nolf Okbamariam Van Lerberghe Manamalage Weber Oelerich Paprstka Bovenhuis Taubel Abraha Schlechter Tsatevich Coronel De Vreese Taillefour
A chasing group at 1'15 containing Planckaert Rathe Schoonbroodt Young Lhotellerie Schwarzmann Gaudin
Thomas eight minutes down all of a sudden, no clue if he got a puncture or something.
Speaking of punctures, Skala suffers one right when the finale should kick off. He drops back to the chasing group.
This is not the same picture. Nolf suffers one as well, what a drama for Carrefour! They still have Tsatevich in the front group but will his tire hold?
The next puncture is not a Carrefour rider but the only BNZ rider: Weber. Hard to tell the jerseys apart with all the mud due to the rain all day. Schlechter drops without mechanical trouble. We're only about a quarter into the cobblestone section, and more action is happening at the back of the group than the front. Maes continues to dictate the pace.
Baugnies takes over from the yellow jersey and increases the pace. Immediately five riders go overboard: Coronel, Abraha, Okbamariam, Paprstka and Bovenhuis. Strava has all its three riders nicely near the front, Maes taking a rest midpack.
One rider who goes faster than Baugnies is Nolf, who manages to return after his puncture! He even brings some old friends back into the fray: Okbamariam, Abraha, Paprstka and Bovenhuis. Fifteen kilometer to go.
Ten kilometer to go and the positions in the group stay roughly the same. De Vreese moving alongside Baugnies ahead of Minoungou and the Strava trio. Maes in ninth position. Skala and Weber next up the road at 1'20, Coronel at two minutes.
Finally we have the first move. It's Taillefour, the rider lowest in the GC (71st @ 5'34). That means he could be given some margin without being a danger to the GC. He needs to make up a lot of time to even get close to the GC top ten.
Baugnies quickly jumps onto his wheel, followed by Sinkeldam, Van Avermaet, Van Lerberghe and Minoungou. Maes either waits or doesn't have the strength to follow, these five are a lot more dangerous to him than Taillefour. Tsatevich cannot even follow the pace set in group maillot jaune.
At seven kilometer the six leaders already have a gap of 40 seconds. Even Abraha rides away from the chasing group and no response once again from Maes. He cannot expect help from Bovenhuis, De Vreese, Oelerich, Paprstka and Sbaragli as they have a leader up front, and Naesen has looked weak all day and should not do more than necessary. Nolf, Manamalage and Taubel all look at the yellow jersey.
Baugnies attacks from the front and the others cannot follow. Sinkeldam cannot even follow the chasers, led by Taillefour. Abraha still between the two groups.
Five kilometer for the leader: Baugnies. The GPS says he has a gap of ten seconds over the chasing four, with Sinkeldam and Abraha at 25. Maes hides behind Oelerich and De Vreese, and the gap is 1'10. This means Baugnies is virtual GC leader by a few seconds!
Baugnies extends the gap, now leading by twenty seconds. Taillefour and Van Avermaet broke away from Van Lerberghe and Minoungou, while Abraha leaves Sinkeldam behind. At this rate Maes won't even end on the podium.
Taillefour clearly has a better day than the opening stage, as he rides away from Van Avermaet! Can he still catch Baugnies and agree to a deal? Stage win for the Frenchman if he gives everything until the finish line, with the Belgian taking the GC?
Group yellow jersey coming closer to Sinkeldam, Minoungou and Van Lerberghe. Abraha moved past them all and is on his way to Van Avermaet. The gap to Baugnies is still too large for Maes.
Final kilometer for Baugnies. Taillefour at seventeen seconds and not getting any closer, the Belgian looks set for the double unless he receives a visit from the man with the hammer. A certain other Belgian lost a minute on the final kilometer and with it his almost-assured GC win.
Behind them, Abraha rides away from Van Avermaet and is on his way to the final podium spot. Van Lerberghe and Minoungou marginally ahead of group yellow jersey who did catch Sinkeldam. Maes has to attack now to salvage a podium.
Jerome Baugnies has won a lot, but the third stage of Tour du Faso is another very big achievement for his trophy cabinet! Obviously he is too tired to celebrate after 127 kilometer of constant shaking, but he has survived. The stage win is his but will he also win the GC?
Fabien Taillefour cannot be too unhappy with second place, at 23 seconds. The race in general could be labeled a disappointment though, as the gap to the chasers is probably not enough to elevate him to the top ten in the general classification where he definitely should have been.
Behind the internal celebrations, the battle for the GC is still wide open as group yellow jersey seems to have saved the best for last. They caught Van Lerberghe and Minoungou and are almost at the back of Van Avermaet and Abraha. But Maes himself is not setting the pace, Paprstka, De Vreese and Oelerich are ahead of him. Perhaps if no time differences are awarded again he might be lucky.
The pace difference is so huge that Paprstka amd De Vreese fly past Abraha 100 meters later. 250 meters to go for this group, 37 seconds have passed since Baugnies crossed the line. He's 1'01 behind Maes and already picked up 25 bonus seconds at the finish, looking good for the Los Pollos rider!
Tomas Paprstka edges out De Vreese for the final podium spot. The gap to them is exactly one minute, which means regardless of where Maes finishes, Jerome Baugnies is the winner of Tour du Faso 2020!
Nolf takes fifth place ahead of yellow jersey Nikolas Maes who once again becomes runner-up in this race. The gap is a bit bigger this year, sixteen seconds to be precise, but he once again loses the race by a tiny margin. Three time's the charm, so come back next year and win right?
Sbaragli, Taubel, Abraha and Okbamariam complete the top ten and take the final bonus seconds.
Bovenhuis, Manamalage and Van Avermaet finish eleventh to thirteenth. They are still given the same time as Paprstka, + 1'00. The riders behind them are not determined to be in the same group, no matter how much cash is thrown at the jury.
Tsatevich riding his own pace towards the end, losing 2'01. Van Lerberghe, Minoungou and Sinkeldam blew up after attacking, while Naesen and Oelerich also finish in this group.
Behind them are mostly solo riders or small groups. Weber at 3'59, Skala at 6'18, Coronel at 6'50, Schlechter at 7'45, and Schoonbroodt and Schwarzmann at 9'04 as last riders within ten minutes. Lhotellerie and Gaudin at 10'09, just ahead of Rathe, Planckaert and Young at 10'48.
Thomas and Kluge are the biggest disappointments of the day, finishing at fifteen minutes. Boev was second in the GC before this stage, but finishes at 21'21. The time limit is set at roughly forty minutes. Quicibal is the last rider to cross the line, in 87th place. Everyone else had to abandon and picked up from the road side. It means the number of survives in this race almost tripled compared to last year, showing the improvements from the local government paid off. I would advise them against improving any further as this is a nice balance.
Jerome Baugnies takes to the stage completely covered in dirt, first to collect the stage win trophy and then the general classification. Poor podium girls who spent hours on their lipstick which turns black after one kiss. Nikolas Maes is thinking where he could have gained sixteen more seconds, but that was not as obvious as the same question last year. The final rider on the podium is Kristian Sbaragli. The bonus seconds on stage two were pivotal for his ascent to the podium, beating teammate Van Avermaet by six seconds and Paprstka by seven. Sixth is Nolf, seventh is Taubel, eighth is Okbamariam, ninth is Abraha and tenth is Manamalage, in the same time as Bovenhuis. Naesen, Minoungou, Sinkeldam, Oelerich, Van Lerberghe, De Vreese, Weber and Tsatevich take twelfth to nineteenth. Taillefour's performance today only takes him to twentieth.
A small consolation for Nikolas Maes is winning the points classification, by two points over Jerome Baugnies. Last year that was also his consolation price, increasing the number of parallels between both editions. Kristian Sbaragli, Boev, De Vreese, Naesen, Van Avermaet and Taillefour finish in the remaining ranking points positions.
The battle for the youth classification received little attention due to the excitement at the front, but Erik Nordsaeter Resell finished ahead of Steven Kalf on the stage by 1'59. The latter's lead was 2'25, so the Estonian wins the youth classification by 26 seconds. Jonas Rutsch takes the final podium spot. The teams classification ends in a tie between Philips and Strava, which means the sum of finisihing positions decides the win. The former has a score of 48 + 70 + 29 = 147, while the latter scores 23 + 36 + 39 = 98. Strava wins the teams classification! Third is Carrefour - ESPN.
