Tim Wellens rode an excellent Mountain Tim Trial yesterday to claim the leader's jersey. He will get to ride in it today. That's a big turnaround from nearly getting dropped on Stage 2! Pluchkin remains close, just 6 seconds behind in fact, and you can rest assured he's not one to go down without a fight. Kudus is 3rd, also a very close 22 seconds down. He's made a couple of moves so far in this race but nothing has stuck yet. Could today be his lucky day? Martin in 4th is the final rider to be inside a minute of the leader. He's had an excellent race so far and will want to end it in the same vein. Denifl and Tenorio have made strides up the standings in the last couple of stages. Can they keep the momentum going and attack the podium perhaps? Choi, Monsalve, Oomen and Latour have suffered after the first stage and will want to bounce back on this last one. Eastman has improved over the course of the race but 12th is surely well below his expectations coming into this race. Uran is another who'll be looking to end on a high, having not done much to inspire confidence in his manager so far.
It is still close in the Points standings as well, with Wellens catching up to Pluchkin yesterday. Tenorio has also put his name in the mix after yesterday's win. Six points separate the Top 3 in the KOM, and there are plenty of points on offer today. In the U25s, Oomen is still comfortably in the lead, and he has really one competitor in Padun. It's going to take a big dropoff from the former for their positions to reverse on this stage.
230 kilometers of hard climbing await the riders as they line up at the start line. Let's see who packs the strongest finishing flourish.
Favourites
MON
TT
STA
RES
REC
ACC
Tenorio
84
80
78
76
79
67
Pluchkin
84
78
77
77
77
73
Eastman
82
77
76
75
76
69
Wellens
82
72
79
80
76
68
Uran
81
77
74
80
75
70
Kudus
82
72
79
77
79
70
Monsalve
81
72
79
80
77
73
Denifl
83
71
73
69
74
63
Henao Montoya
81
70
74
78
75
72
Choi
80
75
77
76
79
68
Oomen
80
74
78
77
78
69
Carthy
81
67
77
76
78
69
The size of the breakaway has kept on increasing as the race has gone on! Today, batches of four to six riders kept attacking out of the pack to eventually form a 26 rider break. The riders here are: Antunes, Bartl Nibali, Santoro, Dall'Oste Ratiy Stetina Stancu Garby Panayotov, Preidler Seboka Bonnin, Uwizeyimana, Scarponi Eyob, Bablidze Kolar, De Plus Ndayisenga Nazaret, Abal Haga Hirschlein Pibernik Kiserlovski
Ndayisenga wins the first KOM sprint ahead of Kiserlovski, Ratiy, Scarponi, Pibernik, Haga and Dall'Oste.
162 kilometers remain for the 162 rider peloton. They trail the break by 4'51". No team has really taken charge yet. Abdurrahman and Dainese are at the front.
The break are together with 10 kilometers to go to the summit of the second climb. They lead by 5 minutes.
Haga wins the second KOM sprint followed by Ndayisenga, Seboka, Kiserlovski, Ratiy, Preidler and Pibernik.
Uwizeyimana, Hirschlein and Nibali are 1'28" behind E1.
Panayotov, De Plus, Santoro, Nazaret, Bablidze and Bonnin has been caught by the pack.
Preidler wins the first intermediate ahead of Ratiy and Abal.
The Nibali group make it back. 82 kilometers to go.
Antunes wins the second intermediate sprint ahead of Pibernik and Kiserlovski.
50 kilometers to go for the pelotom which has 151 riders. Popo4Eever controlling the pace as they trail by 3'17". They are starting the third climb.
Preidler is dropped from the break.
Bartl, Scarponi and Hirschlein are dropped.
Stetina and Pibernik are dropped next. 8 km to the summit.
Bartl makes it back to the front group a kilometer later.
Eyob, Uwizeyimana, Garby, Bartl again and Antunes are dropped,
Ndayisenga is dropped next.
Hirschlein, Nibali and Pibernik have been caught by the peloton.
Stancu and Haga are the next to be dropped from the break.
Abal wins the the third KOM sprint. Seboka is 2nd, followed by Kolar, Dall'Oste, Kiserlovski, Ratiy and Stancu.
After the descent. where the break has blown up, let's take a look at how things stand in the race.
E1 -> Abal, Seboka
E2 --(11" )--> Kolar
E3 --(39" )--> Dall'Oste
E4 --(1'13" )--> Kiserlovski
E5 --(1'38" )--> Ratiy, Stancu, Bartl, Haga
E6 --(2'51" )--> Ndayisenga, Antunes
E7 --(3'48" )--> Garby
E8 --(5'37" )--> Uwizeyimana, Eyob
E9 --(5'55" )--> Preidler, Scarponi
Peloton (6'17" )--> 35 riders, including most favourites
A1 --(7'45" )--> Konig, Borisavljevic, among others
5 kilometers to go till the fourth summit. Behind the two leaders, the second group now consists of Kolar, Ratiy, Bartl, Dall'Oste and Kiserlovski.
Those behind have already been caught!
A kilometer later, more riders have been dropped from the peloton. They include Pomoshnikov (GC 20th), Maillet (GC 31st), Soler (GC 25th), Bernard (GC 38th) and Tatarinov (GC 30th). Ndayisenga is also here having gone straight out the back of the pack after getting caught.
Roson (GC 43rd) and Poljanski (GC 48th) have been dropped from the pack.
Dall'Oste, Kiserlovski and Ratiy have been dropped from E2 and are about to be caught.
Attack from Pluchkin, 3 kilometers from the summit!
Kolar is dropped and caught.
Haga has also been dropped. Pluchkin rides with what's left of E2.
Abal drops Seboka a kilometer from the summit.
There's a split in the peloton! The first group has Tenorio, Wellens, Kudus, Denifl, Eastman, Carthy, Uran, Martin and Nerz. The second group has Henao Montoya, Monsalve, Choi, Latour, Padun, Oomen, De La Cruz, Dall'Oste, Scarponi, Kolar, Kiserlovski, Antunes.
Abal wins the fourth KOM sprint. Pluchkin comes through to take second ahead of Seboka, Bartl, Stancu. Wellens and Tenorio also pick up points from the pack.
Haga is caught by the first group of of the peloton while Uran has been dropped from there. Probably an opportunity missed for the Minions as Uran could've done with some help in the closing stages.
Abal is starting the climb to the finish. E2 trails by 17 seconds. 2 kilometers to go.
The lead group of the peloton are 1'53" back, meaning Pluchkin is comfortably the GC leader at this juncture.
Uran is at 2'44" while the next group is at 3'12". Dall'Oste, Kiserlovski and Antunes have been dropped from this group.
It takes Pluchkin just 300 meters to close Abal down. The others are hanging on.
Pluchkin leads the front group of five as they reach the final kilometer. Their lead is almost 2 minutes to the next group.
Martin, Nerz and Haga are now dropped from the second group.
Pluchkin rides away from the breakaway survivors with 500 meters to go.
Pluchkin takes the win and with the gap he's built up, that is the GC wrapped up as well!
Bartl is second. Another good breakaway result for Berg after the win on Stage 3.
Abal edges out Seboka for 3rd. It is still a good result for the much maligned Los Pollos rider though. It's a decent result for the team as well, who've been quite active in this race.
Carthy comes past a tired Stancu to claim 5th.
Wellens takes 7th but will have to give up his leader's jersey. Eastman is 8th, and he should be gaining a little in the GC.
Kudus and Denifl round out the Top 10 with Tenorio in 11th.
Nerz and Martin lose time today, finishin 12th and 13th.
Haga's brave breakaway ride concludes with a 14th place today.
Padun completes a really good race, riding for his leader Pluchkin. He is 15th today.
De la Cruz, Henao Montoya and Oomen come through next, and all three lose time and GC positions today.
Monsalve and Uran complete the Top 20, and neither will be happy with that. They are followed by Latour, Scarponi, Choi and Kolar.
Today's winner - Alexandr Pluchkin.
Pluchkin took matters into his own hands and came out the other end with the GC win! Wellens drops to 2nd but it was a good determined race from him. Kudus rounds out his season with a podium finish. Carthy, Denifl and Tenorio rise a spot each while Martin falls three spots. Eastman finally gets into the Top 10 at the right time to end up 8th. Montoya and Choi fall a position each, completing the Top 10.
Pluchkin wins the Points standings, with the same Top 3 as the GC.
Seboka takes away the KOM jersey from Antunes, by virtue of the points collected today. His team will be really happy with that. Pluchkin is 3rd.
Oomen wins the White Jersey ahead of Padun with Aular a long way back in 3rd.
Berg do get one classification win, that of the Teams. Kraftwerk and MOL make up this podium.
