After another crucial stage yesterday, with a lot of time losses, we are back for the last stage of this Tour. There is no reason to believe Borges will lose the GC lead, but as there are still five riders at around a minute or less, things could change quickly.
The first attack seems to be the right one. We have seven leaders, including two couples: Hirschi, Amanuel, Wallays, Richardson, Pellaud, Thijssen and Clarke. The Swiss rider from Sauber the best placed in the GC, 37th at more or less twelve minutes of the yellow jersey.
Two riders in the top-10, so Project: Africa makes sure to work in the peloton, and so do Duolingo and Campari Asahi Procycling.
Just as yesterday, the riders tackle several laps on the same parcours, with the same hill every lap. The hill today can’t be compared to the one yesterday though. In the leading group we see Pellaud constantly in the back, not doing any work. 100 km to go and the peloton is 3’15” behind, the maximum time difference so far was 4’30”. Moscon’s troops now also helping in the chase.
Valio – Viking Genetics and Strava now also doing their work in the peloton. The gap to the leaders is 2’30” with 70 km to the finish line. A first small split occurring behind the first 25 riders, but nothing to worry about so far.
Last 50 km of this Tour of South Africa! Pellaud now more than 100 km as the last rider in the leading group, while they are 2’40” ahead of the peloton. At the moment, we have a full peloton, but we see more and more splits occurring. The leaders should be at the head of the peloton now.
As the riders enter the last 40 km, Xero Racing comes to the head of the peloton for the first time. The peloton now split in two groups of around 65 riders.
Hansen leads the peloton over the local hill for the second to last’ time. Lemus Davila (17th GC), Felline (15th), Gogl (19th), Min (22nd and white jersey) and Saggiorato (24th) have been caught by surprise (and bad positioning) and are a bit behind.
The constant bickering for good positioning at the head of the peloton is causing more riders to be caught in a bad group! The peloton now exists out of 48 riders and is 1’30” behind the leaders with 30 km to go. Other names to be behind now are Grmay (13th), Faiers (23rd), Roux, Thiery (26th), Haas (21st), Lavery (20th), Eenkhoorn (28th and second white jersey) and Diaz (25th).
Thanks to the work of the Nordstrom riders, 24 names make it back, including the just mentioned ones. Other names that now have a “second chance” are Lemus Davila, Felline and Gogl. 28 km to go.
After attacking yesterday and working hard today for Pellaud, Hirschi now has to let go of the six other leaders. 23 km to go and the peloton, which has now grown to 90 riders again, is 1’45” behind the race lead in the penultimate lap of the day.
Basso brings the peloton to 1’20” at the top of the local hill, while also catching Hirschi. The peloton really stretched out after the Italian’s efforts!
And thanks to those efforts, a group of 21 has a nice gap over the others entering the final 20 km! The riders up front are Houle, Debesay, Basso, Robov, Goh, Hirschi, Roux, Borges, Haga, Kreder, Buchmann, Selander, Claeys, Konig, Thiery, Moscon, Seibeb, Meurisse and a very surprising Van Heerden!
But the pace goes down a bit, as Felline makes it back, and the bigger peloton of 58 is also now close to coming back with 15 km to go.
The final 2/1.5 km has an incline of about 3%. Clarke wants to make the difference here and attacks moments before entering the final lap! Wallays and Pellaud join him!
Pellaud still has fresh legs after chilling all day, he goes solo with 14 km to go! The peloton at 1’30” and the five chasers at 15”, can he hold on?!
Exactly 10 km to go as the Swiss has a 25” lead over Wallays and Amanuel! The other three from the leading group seem to have given up, while a peloton of 44 riders is now 2’40” behind!
He survives the local hill, increasing his lead over the chasing duo to 40”! 9 km to go, the win is coming closer!
Aha! Some action in the peloton as well! Villella (10th) knows numbers 7 to 9 ( Seibeb, Meurisse and Ssabagwanya) are at the back of the peloton, and attacks!
At the same time Wallays and Amanuel are already 1’20” behind leader Pellaud, as he only has 5 km to go!
Villella has 7.2 km left, but his gap over the peloton is only ten seconds! Goh doing the work to keep the Nordstrom rider at bay.
One km further as Goh hasn’t made the catch yet, but together with yellow jersey Borges and number two Houle they actually have a small gap over the others in the peloton!
Pellaud now in the final 2 km, which are slightly uphill! It seems the race isn’t over yet, as the two chasers have come a bit closer and are at 1’10”!
Behind Villella and the group of three with our yellow jersey, small splits are occurring! The group of seven right behind them exists out of Juul-Jensen, Gautier, Moscon, Claeys, Kreder, Konig and Buchmann.
1.5 km to go as Pellaud is losing more ground! Amanuel seems to be leaving Wallays behind and is now at a minute of the leader!
2’15” behind the leader, the pace is also going down. Villella has been caught and the favourites seem to be regrouping, as the other three former breakaway riders are on the verge of getting caught as well.
Pellaud now holding on strong! He keeps his minute lead, as the two chasers are back toghether! A peloton of 24 riders then still 2’15” behind! Sauber Petrones Racing now 900 meters away from a great win after a terrible week!
As our leader enters the final 400 meters with a 1’30” lead over the group of favourites, Claeys attack in search of extra seconds and maybe even a podium place!
The other two breakaway riders are caught in the background, but Pellaud was simply too far away! The Swiss wins the last stage of the Tour of South Africa!
Fourty seconds later, Houle sprints to a second place for the second stage in a row! A strong Konig completes the stage podium ahead of Buchmann (4th) and GC winner Borges (5th)! Konig’s great sprint sees him rewarded with a third in the GC as well!
Kreder then sprints to a sixth place, as the other top-10 places go to Claeys (7th), Wallays (8th), Amanuel (9th) and Seibeb (10th). Some other minor changes in the top-10 of the GC, as Gautier slides back into eight, while Meurisse drops one place and Ssabagwanya finishes the Tour of South Africa in 11th place. Thanks for being here with me the past week, I’ve enjoyed this Tour a lot!
