And we’re back for the fifth stage already of the Tour of South Africa, as the riders will tackle the same hill 14 times on a parcours around Knysna. Only 4 of those ascents are good for KoM-points, and as there are no more KoM’s tomorrow, we will immediately know the winner of the polka-dots before the end of this stage. There’s a decent chance the breakaway takes the win today, while Borges has the job of defending his yellow jersey once again.
The local hill is 5 km long and has an average gradient of 5.1%. The first 2 km and the last one are the hardest parts, whereas km 2-4 are flat. Just after reaching the ascent for the first time, Mutsumine and Hirschi attack. Two other riders just behind them trying to join them: Clarke and Yamamoto. Four decent riders, but Mutsumine clearly the best puncheur. Campari with a couple though, so one of them will probably sacrifice his own chances for the other to succeed.
In the second of fourteen laps, another Campari rider attacks, as Dieteren joins the leading group and brings four more riders with him: Costa, Wallays, Hirschlein and Van der Ploeg. Only the two Andorra riders are a threat for the KoM-lead of Amanuel, but they would have to perform really well. Clarke is the best placed in the GC, 38th at almost six minutes of yellow jersey Borges.
The Andorra riders got the message, as Hirschlein takes the maximum of the points (6) in the third lap of the day. With 18 points still on the road, he now trails Amanuel by 12 points. Yamamoto takes four points and Wallays the last two. The Belgian now 18 points behind the KoM-lead, so theoretically he could also still win it.
180 km to go as the peloton follows at 5’45” there. The teams working in the peloton are quite surprising ones: Team Europcar, Strava and Nordstrom.
As we are on the sixth ascent out of fourteen of the day, the leaders find themselves in the battle for the KoM-jersey for a second time. Not a real battle though, as the two Andorra riders get the points without having to try. Six for Hirschlein and four for teammate Wallays. Hirschlein now officially the only one left in the leading group who can take the KoM-lead, and with how things are looking it seems he will succeed in doing so. More than five minutes later, the same teams as before lead the peloton over the top, and with 131 km to go, Ford is the first rider to be dropped in the peloton.
Around halfway stage, on the seventh ascent of the Knysna hill, Wallays suffers a puncture. Not an ideal moment for the Belgian.
KoM-leader Amanuel really wants that jersey, as he now starts doing work at the head of the peloton. Centovalli – Fiat also with two men at the front now, which sees the gap between the peloton and the leading group reduce to 4’ with 95 km to go.
On the ninth ascent of the day, we find the penultimate KoM-sprint. Hirschlein takes six points again, now sharing the KoM-lead with Amanuel. Wallays, who recently made it back here as well, scores another four points, leading to a virtual fourth place in the KoM. The peloton crosses the summit 3’ later, as Team Europcar uses three riders at the head of the peloton now.
There seems to be an alliance between Team Europcar and Centovalli – Fiat. They reduce the gap to 2’30” as there are exactly 75 km (and five ascents) to go.
At the same time, Wallays pays the price for his comeback efforts and, ironically, gets dropped at the same place he suffered the puncture some laps ago. In the peloton, Kanerva (34th GC) and Palyi (21st GC) are mentioned at the back of the peloton, which now exists of 80 riders!
That Team Europcar - Centovalli – Fiat alliance seems to be very fruitful, as the pace really continues being high! 63 km to go as the time difference to the eight leaders is now two minutes, and the peloton only consists out of sixty riders now! The biggest names missing are Weiss (23rd), Barbio, Haas (18th GC), Tizza (13th GC), Pellaud, Anuar Aziz and Roux (28th GC)!
The eleventh out of fourteen ascents of the day sees the leading group of eight reduced to five riders! Hirschlein, Hirschi, Clarke, Yamamoto and Dieteren are the survivors so far.
The peloton now going at the same speed, as they are 2’15” behind with 53 km to the finish line. More and more names are dropping here, as now there are only 35 guys left in the first peloton! The biggest names that have recently been dropped are Gogl (24th GC), Parra Bustamente, Amanuel, Selander (22nd) and Kreder (15th)! Are there still enough domestiques left to catch the breakaway?
On the twelfth out of fourteen ascents of the day, nobody denies Hirschlein to take another six points and win the KoM-jersey!
In the descent, only two other leaders make it back to the Andorra rider. The other leaders are Hirschi and Dieteren. The three German speaking riders will need some good communication if they want to hold on until the finish line in 40 km. Let’s have a look at the peloton and how far they are behind.
A peloton of 22 riders at 1’45” now! Houle (7th GC) now takes the reins in his hands. Diaz and Lemus Davila decide to help him.
As there are only 22 rider left in the peloton, some big names must have been dropped. And have a look at that! The number two in the GC and stage one winner Debesay has been dropped. Xero now putting all their faith in Meurisse it seems. The other interesting names not in the first peloton anymore are Juul-Jensen (19th), Di Maggio (12th), white jersey Eenkhoorn and Lavery (25th).
The peloton nearing quickly now, as Hirschi decides he should try something! The Swiss Sauber rider attacks just before entering the penultimate lap and ascending the local mountain for the penultimate time!
He can’t get away though! The three leaders are back together with 30 km to go, as the peloton is now 1’15” behind them!
Diaz does some great work and catches the three leaders before the top of the penultimate ascent. 25 km to go, and we now see Saggiorato, Faiers, McEvoy, Min and Robov (4th GC) seem to be in trouble, let’s see what that gives at the top of the mountain!
15 km to the finish line as Diaz leads a stretched out leading group into the final lap! Felline was dropped for a second, but managed to make it back, while Robov is the first chaser at one minute already. The twenty names in the leading group are Diaz, Lemus Davila, Buchmann, Moscon, Claeys, Konig, Seibeb, Grmay, Borges, Houle, Ssabagwanya, Goh, Meurisse, Jaramillo, Hirschi, Gautier, Dieteren, Villella, Hirschlein and Felline.
Home team Project: Africa in the attack again! Seibeb looking for glory as he attacks in the first uphill km! Another African, Grmay, tries to follow him, while the first riders behind him are Claeys, Moscon and Buchmann!
As Belevics gets lapped, six riders are dropped from the leading group! Those are Diaz, Lemus Davila, Hirschi, Dieteren, Hirschlein and Felline!
Grmay isn’t able to close the gap, so now Buchmann tries to catch the Project: Africa rider, who is 15” ahead with 13.5 km to the finish line!
The German now launching an attack himself as the first hard part of the mountain is over! 12.5 km to go and nobody reacting so far!
He doesn’t get a big lead though! As they are almost at the top of the mountain, Seibeb is only 10” behind, with the chasing group another 10” further!
6.5 km to go as Seibeb joins Buchmann in the descent! The chasing group of eight now twenty seconds behind the leading duo! The riders who have been dropped there are Meurisse, Villella, Goh and Gautier!
4 km left and the chasing group of eight now coming really close to the two leaders! Two Project: Africa riders in the top-10 of the stage so far, great result after the disappointing TTT yesterday!
3 km to the finish line and we are back to ten leaders! Houle should be the best sprinter, but does he still have the energy after working so hard earlier? I also won’t make the mistake of saying Moscon couldn’t win the sprint anymore!
Just before the final km there is a small incline on the parcours. Seibeb clearly hasn’t had enough yet, and attacks!
Have a look at that! The other riders look at each other, decide he is no threat in the GC, and let him go! Nice lead for the Namibian under the flamme rouge, as Meurisse is coming close to joining the group behind him!
Surely this can’t go wrong anymore! Seibeb only 500 meters from glory as the chasing group still hasn’t started sprinting yet!
There you have it! Beautiful win for Project: Africa on home soil! Congratulations!
Houle easily wins the sprint for second place, as yellow jersey Borges finishes third and grabs some extra bonus seconds! The other riders in the first group finish as follows: Jaramillo (4th), Buchmann (5th), Claeys (6th), Grmay (7th), Ssabagwanya (8th), Moscon (9th) and Konig (10th).
Today’s stage has definitely shaken up the GC. Duolingo will be happy though, as Borges increases his lead for the yellow and green jersey, while Min now leads the U25-jersey. Xero still has two riders in the top-10, as Houle is now into second and Meurisse drops one place to eighth. Buchmann remains in third, while Konig and Claeys complete the top-5 ahead of Moscon in sixth. Project: Africa also does great with two riders in the top-10 at seventh and ninth, while Villella is tenth so far. Three riders finished outside of the time limit today, all of them from Glanbia Foods Cycling Project: Sebright, Frame and Ford.
