Stage 5 takes us 195km to the Croatian coastal town of Dubrovnik. The course includes 2 repeats of the climb to Mocilje. A tough 4.5km climb averaging 8.1%. The two ascents award cat 2 points and are quickly followed by 2, Cat 4 climbs. Then near the finish there is another tough climb which includes a 5km appetizer a short descent and then very steep ramps to the finish. In addition to the 6 categorized climbs already mentioned there are also another 3 Cat 4 climbs on the stage.
Neither Stage 6 or 7 is all that hard so this stage, along with stage 8, is the GC riders chance to get rid of Stage 1 winner Teklit. With more long climbs on the final stage this is probably also the best chance for the puncheurs to distance the pure climbers.
And the riders you would expect are on the favorites list.
Errazkin knows there are a lot of KOM points on this stage, and he wants to defend his jersey, so he attacks the minute the flag drops. He is joined by Gamper.
Errazkin secures maximum points at the first KOM point.
Behind him at 16 seconds: Gamper
At 35 seconds: Sajnok Ludvigsson Brandao
At 1’04: Dunne Edet Ivanov Afonso Vanendert
The peloton already at 2’43, so they seem happy with these attackers. Best placed on GC is Errazkin at 3’54.
Over the top there are additional attacks, 7 more riders on the move.
The peloton let them go and with 13km gone the 17 rider break has 3’20 on the peloton.
Additional riders are: Selander van den Berg Kolesnikov Polanc Stuyven Koshevoy Dzhus
The KOM leader is still the best placed GC rider in the break. A lot of the top puncheur teams now have riders in the break.
At the first sprint point the leads is up to 5’35. 165km to go.
At the next KOM, a Cat 4, Stuyven goes early and holds off Polanc and Ludvigsson for the points. First points for all 3 of those riders.
Vanendert is dropped and appears to have lost interest in being in the breakaway. Air France still has two in the break so they may have decided that Hagen needed the Belgian more.
With 128 km to go the breakaway reach the first ascent to Mocilje. Their lead is 4’33.
It is the teams of the all rounders most prominent on the front as the peloton tackles the climb.
Early attacks splint the breakaway group and with 0.4k to go Koshevoy, Dzhus, and Kolesnikov are at the front.
At the top Kolesnikov comes around the other two to take 10 points. Dzhus is second then Koshevoy. Edet and Errazkin take 4th and 5th. Edet, now on 22 points, is closest in the break to the KOM leader who has 51.
These 5, plus Polanc, now form the front group. The other breakaway riders will need to catch up.
At the next Cat 4 Koshevoy gets first ahead of Polanc and Edet. Brandao, Dunne, Afonso, and Stuyven have all rejoined the front group.
The two Lierse riders rejoined briefly (now at 48 seconds) as did van den Berg (now at 1’03) but all were dropped as the front of the break attacked the last KOM.
The two Minions riders plus Ludvigsson are at 1’37 with Selander trying to pace them back. The peloton is at 5’26 with only Hodeg dropped.
Polanc attacks early as the breakaway leaders complete the first lap of the trio of climbs around Mocilje but he is swamped on the line and the points go to Edet, Dunne, and Koshevoy
As Carcueva leads the peloton through the same spot the lead is up to 6’17. Still 171 riders in the peloton.
The front group includes 10 riders. The Lierse and Minions groups still trying to rejoin as is van den Berg. All are more than 2 minutes behind.
On the flat section between the climbs, Gazelle, Puma, Moser, Azteca, Swisslion and Evonik are all contributing to the chase.
At the Cat 4 with 90k to Edet again takes the points. He is now on 33 points to Errazkin’s 49. Getting in the break has not really helped the Desigual man so far.
The flat section has allowed the peloton to close to 3’24. The dropped breakawy group combined but 2 of them were then dropped so Gamper, Sajnok, Ludvigsson, and Ivanov are at 1’24 and Selander and van den Berg are at 2’08.
As the leading 10 riders begin the Mocilje Trio for the second time, with 71km to go in the stage, their lead is 3’21. It doesn’t look like any of the chasers are going to make it back to the front.
3km to climb and the leaders might be able to catch a glimpse of the angry peloton in the valley below.
2.3km to climb and Edet’s KOM exploits seem to have taken a toll. The peloton is at 3’04
Dzhus opens the attacks but can’t get a gap.
Errazkin takes the points at the top, maybe he was conserving energy on the earlier climbs. He now has 59 points, Brandao on 22 points is the closest to him of the riders still at the front of the race.
The peloton is at 3’08 and is down to 131 riders, but nobody significant has been dropped.
On the second of the trio of climbs Polanc attacks first but it is Dunne who gets a gap. Stuyven is dropped.
Behind Gazelle is pushing the pace
At the top of the 2nd of the 3 climbs Dunne has 23 seconds on the other 7 surviving breakaway riders and 3’17 on the peleton.
Errazkin takes 2nd to further extend his KOM lead.
At the 3rd of the trio it is still Dunne out in front. 19 seconds behind him are his teammate and Kolesnikov. The Desigual riders seem to be the strongest and the smartest in the breakaway. The peloton is at 2’21 with 57k to ride.
From here it is mostly flat or downhill until the riders start the finishing climbs about 8k from the finish.
Disaster for Aegon and Air France as the peloton splits over the top of that last climb and De Bie and Hagen are caught out. They trail by 1’04. Chernetskiy also in the group but all the other favorites and the Yellow Jersey are ahead, in what is now a 44-rider peloton. Unsurprisingly, Claeys and Vakoc are further back.
Hagen closes the gap himself and with 51k to ride it is back to a 69-rider peloton.
Dunne has a 1’20 and the other 7 remaining breakaway rider are together a minute ahead. The surviving breakaway riders are: Errazkin, Brandao, Dunne, Afonso, Kolesnikov, Polanc, Koshevoy, Dzhus.
But the peloton struggles to close the gap and with 38k to go and 5k to the last KOM point the lead is still 1’12. Dunne has dropped back to join the other 7.
They survive long enough for Errazkin to take some more KOM points, but the peloton is literally, just around the corner.
The two Berg riders are caught but the rest of the breakaway just won’t give up, and after another 20k of chasing the break still has a 56 second lead (the peloton got as close as 31 seconds) and with 10k to go they are approaching the final climbs. The peloton is still 71 riders strong.
As the peloton closes to 36 seconds De Bie and Hagen are again poorly positioned. The rest of the favorites are in the front 20 riders.
The finish has two uphill sections, a 5km section at approximately 6%, 2km of descending and then steep ramps in the 12% range to the finish.
Bakelants and Beltran launch the first attack as the breakaway is almost caught
Sosnitskiy closes it down and continues to drive the pace. Hagen is close to being dropped but De Bie is trying to make up ground.
Powerful riding by Sosnitskiy as, with 6 km to go, he finally closes down the last breakaway survivor Dunne. He also reduces the front group to 32 riders.
Nearly all the favorites make the split as De Bie is one of the last riders across but Hagen doesn’t seem to have it today and is right at the back of the second group with no teammates.
Beltran leads the front group under the 5k banner. Gastauer, Prevar and Chernetskiy are dropped.
The group splits again and 17 riders remain up front. This time De Bie’s positioning costs him and he and Koretzky are dropped. The Yellow Jersey is still there but at the back now. 4km to go, they have about 2km before the final climb starts.
Formolo attacks on the downhill and Kwiatkowski follows. They have 16 seconds. Paulinho has been dropped. The De Bie group is 40 seconds behind the Yellow Jersey group. De Bie appears to be protecting Zardini.
The front two hit the bottom of the final climb. Their lead is 15 seconds. 2km to go.
1.2km to go, the Yellow Jersey is hanging on. The De Bie group is now 50 seconds behind.
700 meters to go and the Yellow Jersey is gapped. Kwiatkowski takes the lead. The others don’t seem to be able to close the gap on the front 2.
300 meters for Kwiatkowski, he is edging ahead of Formolo. Gradients of 12% here. Sagan and Lopez are strongest behind. The Yellow Jersey is already 40 seconds down.
100 meters to go for Kwiatkowski it doesn’t look like Lopez has the road to catch him.
A win for Aker-Mot as the all rounders dominate on Stage 5.
Formolo holds off Lopez for 2nd, they are 10 seconds behind.
Sagan the best of the punchier riders finishes 4th followed by Yates, Kinoshita, Oomen, Bakelants, Chaves, and Arndt.
All these, plus Van Garderen, Beltran and Padun, in 11th to 13th, lose 21 seconds.
Boily and Mohoric take the next two spots and lose 38 seconds
Teklit suffers badly and finishes behind De Bie. De Bie drops 1’33 and Teklit 1’46, which means he loses the GC lead by a single second.
Lopez is 3rd in the GC and leads the points competition. The top 13 riders are within 53 seconds of the lead. Padun is still in white but tied on time with Oomen. Festina still lead the team competition.
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