The queen stage is immediately the last stage in the Middle East, so my advice to the riders would be to finish as close to the first place as possible. Thanks for coming to my TED talk, now let’s see what riders decide to attack, and maybe battle for the stage win in a couple of hours.
Several strong climbers and well placed riders in the GC opt to attack early! As we will only cover 114 km today, we’re already in the final 100 km as we can give you a first view of the situation. The first two riders are Omarsson and Nakane. 15” behind we find Raileanu, with another 10” behind eight more riders: Borisavljevic, Shapira, Paulinho (2nd GC and 2nd KoM), Abdurrahman, Senni (14th GC), Kunshin, Stancu and Aular. 25” behind that group we find Giogieri, while the peloton is one minute behind the Swisslion rider.
On the Jebel Al Akhdar the first twelve riders all come together. 5 km to climb on the mountain of second category, while the peloton is 1’45” behind.
Cherkasov keeps the pace high in the chase. Raileanu and Giogieri, who were both chasing riding alone for a while before the ascent, now in trouble.
Senni wanted those KoM-points, but got overtaken by Kunshin. Borisavljevic crosses the top in third, while Raileanu and Giogieri have already been caught by the peloton. Cherkasov and the rest of the peloton go over the top 2’15” later. Some sprinters and weak domestiques have been dropped already. Two mountains of first category to go now, with the finish on a mountain hors catégorie.
A steep decent on a small road, rider safety doesn’t seem too big of a concern for the organisation.
Only nine leaders left with 75 km to go, as Abdurrahman can’t keep up with the others and gets blown back to the peloton. That peloton, led by Cherkasov and Barbero, is 2’15” behind.
As if the devil himself is a fan of cycling, the first and only intermediate sprint of the day lies at 66.6 km of the finish line. Kunshin says thank you for the prize money, while Paulinho gets four points and is now tied for eighth in the battle for the green jersey.
Once again, are we sure this is safe? A peloton of 131 riders starts their ascent of the Jebel Wijma (9km at 7%) 2’15” later than the nine leaders, who seem to be riding on some kind of glass bridge.
Aular is separating the wheat from the chaff now, as he is already going solo with 5 km to climb! Stancu, Senni and Kunshin are some meters behind him, while Borisavljevic is the fifth man in the race. A peloton of 47 riders now 2’05” behind, where Slagter is surprisingly not in that first group!
The Jebel Wijma does give us some nice views. Aular already at 1.5 km of the summit, while Stancu, Senni and Kunshin and Borisavljevic are 2’15” behind. Only 30” behind those four we find a peloton of 45 riders, still without Slagter!
The Venezuelan takes the sixteen KoM-points, and with 52.5 km to go, let’s have a look at the time differences and positions so far.
Squire and Ivanov in second and third 3’05” later, as the peloton has caught the other four who were ahead as well! 40-ish riders here, in the descent we’ll have a better overview of who the biggest victims are!
44 km to the finish line for Aular as he starts his ascent of the Jebel Yasab, 10.5 km at 8.1%!
32 riders do so as well exactly 3’ later. The biggest names (climbers +78 mtn and/or decent GC) missing and their time difference to this group are Latour (+1’), Laas (+1’), Nitu (+1’), Bonnin (+1’30”), Roson (+2’), Moazemi (+2’), Nazaret (+2’), Scarponi (+2’30”), Figueiredo (+2’30”), Abal (+2’30”), Paulinho (+2’30”), Topchanyuk (+2’30”). Slagter and Siskevicius are 3’ behind the first peloton, while Duarte and Giogieri are even further behind.
Barthe and Ivanov are getting dropped from the first peloton, as Aular’s lead has been cut to 2’15” with 5 km to climb! In the background, nobody is coming any closer to the first peloton.
Strong domestique work by Dees sees the first group slowly thinning out. 3 km to climb as the gap to the leader is now 1’45”. 27 riders left in the first peloton.
1.5 km to the top as Squire attacks! The American was at the back of the first peloton and close to getting dropped, but he hopes to rise in the KoM-rankings with a nice point haul now, is he able to overtake Aular? Stancu now getting dropped because of Carpenter’s domestique duties.
The Berg Cycles rider holds on well. 33.5 km to go now, with a small descent and one hell of a mountain to come.
The Zalgiris domestiques seem to be out of energy, as it’s favourite Tenorio himself leading the group of favourites over the top 2’ behind Aular and 1’ later than Squire.
Provisional KoM, still twenty points to win on the final mountain.
Aular starting his ascent of the Jebel Shams, final obstacle of the day, with only 50” over the group of favourites! 24.5 km at 7.2%!
That group of favourites coming closer quickly because of one man: Tenorio! Is the Spanish champion wasting his energy too soon, or does he just feel that good? Squire is on the brink of getting caught, the other names still hanging around in this group are Carpenter, Borisavljevic, Monsalve, Kudus, Carthy, Choi, Uran, Nerz, Pomoshnikov, Intxausti, De la Cruz, Martin, Padun, Areruya, Senni, Ablenado, Bartl, Hirschlein, Gilanipoor, Benoot, Bernard and Bostner.
Tenorio still leads the group of favourites, but doesn’t want to play all his cards yet. Good news for Aular, whose lead increases to 1’20” again. Borisavljevic and Squire now getting dropped.
Nobody taking over from Tenorio! The Spaniard is getting annoyed by it, and drops the pace even more to let Borisavljevic and Squire come back! Aular enters the last 20 km with a bonus of two minutes! Could it be?!
Borisavljevic even took the lead in the chasing group, but a dropped rider isn’t going to bring them any closer! Carpenter now back with domestique duties, as they trail our leader by 2’15” with 17 km to the finish line!
The Zalgiris rider bringing the group of favourites closer again. 15 km to go as the gap is now 1’30”. Borisavljevic and Squire dropped again.
Exactly 13 km to the finish line as Carpenter brings the group of favourites under the minute again. Hirschlein dropped, Benoot also in trouble it seems.
But Carpenter is out of energy with still 12 km to climb! The gap quickly increasing again, and Benoot back in the chasing group with Hirschlein coming closer as well!
Last 10 km! Aular has a gap of 2’15” over the group of favourites now, where Carpenter comes to the front again! It seems like this mountain has no end, but the hardest parts are even yet to come!
9 km left and Carpenter comes a bit closer again. A gap of 1’50”, while Hirschlein gets dropped for the second time.
After his short break, Carpenter is back in business. 8km to go and the gap between Aular and the group of favourites now 1’15”. Benoot in trouble again.
First attack coming from that group of favourites now! Areruya with the acceleration and De la Cruz trying to follow him with 7.5 km to the finish line!
7 km to the finish line and it looks like Aular’s days are numbered. Areruya 20” behind, while De la Cruz wasn’t able to follow him. Counterattack by Martin and yellow jersey Padun!
Areruya leading now with 6 km to go! Aular, Martin and Padun at 25”, while Nerz leads the group of favourites an additional 35” further! Senni starts feeling his earlier efforts and loses touch with that group!
The group of favourites thinning out quickly now! Bartl, Ablenado, Gilanipoor, Bernard and Bostner are dropped, while Areruya remains in the lead with 5.5 km to climb!
Areruya enters the last 5 km with a 25” lead over the chasing trio, where Aular is holding on remarkably well. Another 25” behind we find the group of favourites, which now includes ten riders as Carpenter has also been dropped there!
As the two Fablok riders make it back to the tail of the group of favourites, Areruya lose five seconds with 4.5 km to go! Aular now losing the wheel of the other chasers, he should be collapsing anytime soon!
4 km to the finish line! Areruya has twenty seconds over Martin and Padun, an additional ten seconds over Nerz who leaves the other favourites behind, and an additional 15” over those other favourites!
But there goes Uran for home team Minions! He quickly goes by the other chasers, with Kudus right behind him! Areruya still in the lead with 3.5 km to climb, but the chasers now coming closer quickly!
The Colombian makes the catch with 3.3 km to go, and it’s back to zero for 13 leaders! Those are, in the order they are on the road: Uran, Areruya, Kudus, Nerz, Tenorio, Carthy, Martin, Padun, Choi, Monsalve, Intxausti, De la Cruz and Pomoshnikov.
The first five get a small gap over the others with 2.5 km to go! Intxausti and De la Cruz are really out of energy now, as they are in group 3 behind Carthy, Martin, yellow jersey Padun, Choi, Monsalve and Pomoshnikov!
What is happening now?! The five leaders increase their gap over the chasers, but favourite Tenorio seems unable to follow the others! 2 km to go, and it looks like we’re in for a big surprise!
1.6 km to the finish line and as Tenorio breaks down entirely, yellow jersey Padun attacks in the second group in an attempt to save his GC! He is coming closer quickly now!
Padun joins the leaders with 1.3 km to go and he brings Monsalve with him! Martin trying to join that leading group as well, while Tenorio is suffering like never before!
I hope no rider is afraid of heights, because damn! Uran leads the first group into the final km, while Martin was unable to close the gap and Areruya seems to be left behind now!
Kudus starts his sprint with 800 meters to go! Padun still in fifth, if he can hold the wheels of the riders ahead of him, the GC win should be his!
Final 500 meters and Nerz will have to be content with fifth! Kudus still in the lead, but Padun seems to be gaining terrain now!
Uran and Monsalve are unable to follow the other two with 300 meters to go and are battling for the podium! What a thrilling finale for the GC win! Small gap between Kudus and the yellow jersey, who in theory would be fine with a 10” gap, as he will be collecting 12 bonus seconds as well!
Padun out of energy! He stops sprinting with a bit more than 100 meters to go for Kudus!
Kudus takes the stage win! Now we’ll have to see what the time difference is…
19 seconds! Ladies and gentleman, Kudus wins the Tour of the Middle East! Padun loses it by seven seconds but has three nice consolidation prizes: the green, the white, and the polka-dot jersey!
Uran comes in third ahead of Monsalve and Nerz. In the GC, we see exactly the same positions.
An exceptionally strong Areruya comes in sixth after opening up the debates 7.5 km ago. Martin beats Tenorio for seventh, and in the GC , the positions are also the same.
The top-10 gets completed by Carthy and Pomoshnikov, with Choi being the second MOL rider a bit later. Intxausti then in twelfth ahead of De la Cruz, while Aular finishes his crazy solo with a nice fourteenth place.
