We finish up with our second hilly stage. Pretty short at 143.6 km, but very bumpy. 5 categorized climbs including the finish and a bunch more that are also difficult, but don't give KOM points. It should be the final chance to change every jersey. Though that's probably obvious since, as I said before, it's the last stage.
The first attacks are off, and I just wanted to show how the peloton is currently carving through a narrow valley. Hopefully there won't be avalanches killing the peloton this year!
We're 40 km and no breakaway has formed. Pace is high, and the pack is routinely splitting and reforming as riders shoot away and then are caught. Lutsenko himself is at the front for some reason.
We reach the bottom of the first KOM, and a bunch of riders are up the road. Meurisse is first, then Grmay and Ahmad Zamri together, then Ropero, and finally Dunbar, who is almost back in the pack. From 1st guy to peloton is about 2 minutes.
The first three collect over the top. Meurisse, Ahmad Zamri, Grmay is the order. The chasers are being caught at the same time.
Still 2 minutes at KOM #2, also a 4th category. Ahmad Zamri wins this time. Grmay 2nd, Meurisse 3rd.
And Ahmad Zamri takes the next one too, making him the provisional KOM leader. But still two 3rd cats left. Meurisse is next this time, Grmay last. It was a long chase to form the break, and these three already look pretty tired. Gap is about 1'45''.
The peloton is stretched out over the top, but nobody important has been dropped yet.
They don't contest the sprint in front, understandably. None of them will make a dent in that competition at this point.
With 21 km to go, the gap is closing, and Ahmad Zamri is getting impatient. He's the first breakaway rider to upset their cooperation.
He doesn't get a gap though, and they're almost caught as we start the bump right before our penultimate 3rd category. That's Lopez himself on the front, clearly looking to do damage early.
And this is how we see our first GC contender dropped. Unsurprisingly, it's yesterday's winner, Fiedler. We'll see how much he loses and how far he slips.
12 km to go, and Ahmad Zamri tries one last ditch effort, and it will at least win him the combativity award. Grmay gives up immediately and is caught. Meurisse tries to respond, but it doesn't look like he can.
And we now see our first attacks from the peloton. It's Lopez, Kinoshita, and Lutsenko, the three riders who saw their GC hopes fall away due to the TT yesterday. The real contenders don't have to respond to this.
And they don't. Lane stays on the front while the others establish a gap. Lopez used Meurisse as a block, and has opened up a tiny gap on the others while catching Ahmad Zamri.
But Kinoshita wants the mountain points, so he kicks again to take them. Lopez and Lutsenko grab the rest.
Over the top, the Japanese rider has a small gap on the other two, who have a small gap on the peloton. Ahmad Zamri is finally caught.
Or maybe not? Vichot was pacing the peloton over the top, but it seems he has been able to force a gap and is going with it, trying to catch the leaders, who are much stronger than him on paper.
8 km to go, and Kinoshita has about a minute back to the peloton. It contains 26 riders still, as you can see from this overhead. All the top 10 guys are here except Fiedler, who is in the 2nd group.
As we enter the straightaway before the final climb, the 3 previous attackers are now back together in front. The two chasers look cooked and are going backwards.
2.5 m to go, and we're on the final slopes. It's not exceedingly steep yet, but Izagirre feels this is his best opportunity to make a GC move and try to shake the time trialists! He doesn't have a great kick, what damage will he do?
Well, he immediately neutralizes the 3 leaders, and is now at the front of the race. His attack seems to have basically started the uphill sprint early. Besides the weird presence of 4 cycleYorkshire riders (including Coppel), it's mostly the main contenders at the front.
And the race leader digs on the right. Bobridge didn't have anyone clinging to his wheel, and decides to go all in!
You can see the carnage behind. Brändle is the GC guy most in trouble now, pictured at the bottom of your screen. The rest of the top ten guys are trying to cling to the swarm starting to mass behind Gesink.
Lutsenko and Kinoshita are the only riders in proximity to respond to Bobridge's move. Izagirre digs in and tries to close it down, while Lopez has cracked!
We're well into the final kilometer now. It eases at the top, so this last few hundred meters is do or die. Lutsenko really wants to hold on for the points, but he can't any longer, and Kinoshita leapfrogs him. Behind, Gesink remains calm and in the saddle, but his tempo is now extremely high and is causing great difficulties for the others.
And just as we round the final slight turn where the road levels off, Kinoshita is gone, just like on stage 2. Bobridge has a clear way to the finish now, if he can hold off a charging Gesink, who passes Izagirre.
Finally, Gesink launches his sprint. Fraile is still looking spry on the right, and Gidich is staying with them too. Most of the time trialists are being tailed off now and don't seem to have much left, but they're staying together in a single group.
Gesink has a lot of power, but it's all for GC time now. Not enough road left to catch the Australian.
Jack Bobridge has dominated Slovenie this year, and his takes an impressive win to cap it off!
Gesink wins the sprint for 2nd, 17 seconds back. he'll get the 12 second bonus too. That's a pretty good ride for his skillset.
Unfortunately for him, Fraile is perhaps even more impressive in 3rd, finishing on the same time and getting a time bonus of his own. The gap shrinks, but he'll hold his 2nd on GC. Gidich makes up a bit for his teammate's failure, and Izagirre holds on well from his earlier attack to finish 5th, both on the same time as well.
The rest of the contenders (and some random others) get very lucky that they catch Kinoshita just in time to grab the same time as him - 34 seconds back. Oliveira, Krizek, Cuming, and Kennaugh round out the top 10.
And honestly, that's a pretty controversial jury decision. All of these other riders pictured, including Goncalves, Haga, and Coppel get that 34 second time gap, despite those last guys finishing at almost double that interval.
Lopez trails off the back of that group, a race to forget.
Brändle fought hard to finish 23rd, with a 1'36'' gap to our winner. He shouldn't drop too far on GC.
Not the case for Fiedler, who pedals squares to the finish and is in a group 4'34'' back. Still honestly an impressive week for him. He'll fall out of the top ten, but is still gonna score decent for GC.
So, where does that put us? Bobridge wins everything. He takes the stage, and GC easily. He also passed Lutsenko for the green jersey with this stage win, and takes the polka dot jersey too over Ahmad Zamri's efforts. His team could not have asked for more from him.
The shakeup at the top sees Fraile impressively take 2nd. Gesink's efforts do net him the podium place, as he passes Oliveira. Besides that, not a ton of change. Izagirre gains time, but not enough to get into the top 5. Fiedler falls to 13th, so everyone behind him there moves up.
Gidich takes white and sneaks into 10 on GC, one second behind his teammate Brändle, who in the end only lost one spot today. Lutsenko leapfrogs a ton of pure time trialists today to end up 12th, which is better than it looked yesterday. Similar for Lopez and Kinoshita, but further down the rankings. King Power also still take the team classification, as they had guys in the top times on every day.
So, that's it from Slovenia! Hope you enjoyed 5 days of exciting racing!
