Maybe the hardest stage of the Tour of America 2020 comes on the penultimate day and it has the potential to really shake things up.
Right now Nerz is in the GC lead but only by less than 1min over Penasa. On the mountains, they were equally strong so far and differences came from bonus seconds and time trials.
Then there is Abal and also Kuss, who seem to have a small advantage over the rest even though later is not that far ahead of the next, Raileanu, Duarte, Brandt, Atapuma all not far off neither. And the fight for the remaining top10, where Fraile/Denz have the advantage over Liphongyu/Mannion/Gebremedhin/Garby.
And last but not least the KoM fight is thrilling and just only took over towards the break riders but it`s still close with the GC riders nearby.
It took some time until the final break was formed, which mainly was due to Azteca trying to force Mannion into it, which didn`t happen in all moves but last but not least they have done it and the 2nd in the KoM ranking is there, while the leader Lovik is missing! As 14th in the GC he also is the best placed in there.
The others are his team mate Stetina and the following: Chhetri, Berard, Costa Moschella, Sortveit Shapira, Bostner, Plucinski McConvey Medvedev McNulty Von Hoff
Obviously Eddie Stobart can`t be happy to miss out with the KoM leader on that move.
Lovik tries to close the gap now with some more riders joining in Koren, Krasnoperov, Van Poucke, Wilson.
And they eventually make it forming a group of 19 midway up the opening Cat.1 climb.
As a reminder 93 points for Lovik followed by 86 for Mannion. Nerz and Penasa in between with McConvey as 7th the next in the break at 48, Sortveit/Moschella/McNulty as late top10 as well.
Mannion partly wins the duel against Lovik as he goes over the line in 2nd with Stetina following in 3rd stealing some points but it`s McConvey taking the maximum points.
And also McNulty goes over the line ahead of Lovik, which means 99 to 98 points for Lovik still!
The following Cat.3 then sees the same 3 riders in front. Again McConvey ahead but Mannion is up to 103 now, which means the new virtual KoM lead!
McConvey up to 70 points and 5th.
120km to go, we just start the HC climb and the usual scenario. Ford is dropped and will add more solo kilomters. Keep fighting! One last stage.
Obviously more riders are about to lose contact with Ranneries being a bigger name, who could be a potential winner tomorrow.
The HC climb will give the most points today and the same picture. Lovik just can`t follow the top3 climbers today.
But neither can the Azteca duo beat McConvey, who is on a fantastic form today and seems to have recovered the best.
And Lovik trying to follow might cost him big. He slips through the group and won`t score big or any here.
New update:
Mannion at 116, Lovik 99 and McConvey 90 form the new virtual podium! By that pace the Glanbia climber might actually become a danger for Mannion!
And the 1-2 continues. Cat.3 and another 2 points gained for the Irish man.
62km yet to go and the gap is at around 3-4 min.
Much bigger news though as the reigning KoM leader Lovik is dropped alongside some others, e.g. Costa, Berard for Sauber, Bostner and Plucinski for Fablok or Stetina for Azteca. They still have their strongest rider in the front group though.
Just one kilometer later though Mannion suffers the same fate. Just like McNulty with him. All the days in the break and todays hunt for the KoM points can cost him hugely as a) the KoM is in danger against McConvey and b) his 14th in the GC could struggle once the peloton has passed him.
5 riders in the end prove to be strongest and from Nordica it`s just one rider, actual their weakest climber in Sortveit.
The others are Chhetri, McConvey, Koren and somehow still Wilson!
Dropped are first Van Poucke and Von Hoff and now Moschella/Krasnoperov, Medvedev and Shapira.
Still on the Cat.2 which really led to a huge selection in all groups.
Lovik got passed by the peloton and immediately dropped and now have a long 60km left to fight against the time.
In front McConvey remains impressive winning the KoM points and actually just Chhetri with him anymore. All others are dropped and hard to see them making it back.
The peloton is under full control by 2 teams. Kraftwerk right now in the front with Geniez-Maillet-Bol.
Then Valio with Bergstrom-Lehtinen-Dulanjana.
And also Kiserlovski and Hasta make it 4 by each team in the first rows.
Then the 3 highest GC riders in Nerz/Penasa/Denz. Gebremedhin a bit further behind but in total it`s 6 riders for each team left in a group of just 32 riders!
The first GC rider to be dropped now is Mannion. After the break he tried for a moment but is now gone and will surely lose his 14th in the GC.
On the Cat.3 actually they front group is up to 5 again as Sortveit, Koren and Wilson actually were able to make it back!
The peloton though just 2'20 behind. With 28km to go and in especially the last climb, it doesn`t look too good for them anymore.
McConvey has won every single KoM sprint today. He is up to 112 points, still 8 points missing to Mannion! This means, he would need to survive against the peloton and score on the final climb.
Chhetri up to 7th with 54 points.
This also means that neither Nerz nor Penasa have a chance to win that competition. Nerz could maximum reach the podium by beating Lovik, while Penasa is gone for the steps.
13km left and it`s the start of the final climb. The peloton hasn`t reduced the gap but still is in a good position once accelerating. The climb itself isn`t the hardest with an easier section on the last third and neither are the slopes very high. But after that tough stage, it`s still an unwanted difficulty for many.
Sortveit seems to have recovered well and attacks. Behind him Wilson. What a huge performance by him.
The others are waiting for now.
A quick overview.
With 10km to go the KoM surprise by McConvey is likely over as he is caught by the peloton. The gap quickly melted and it`s just 18s to the last rider in front, which is Sortveit.
With 8,5km to go the real thrill starts. No less than Penasa attacks and Nerz can`t longer wait for his team mates to close the gap. He goes himself and follows.
Meanwhile Desigual the team, which is now taking over in the group. They still have 4 riders in there as well with Abal/Fraile/Burke/Jones. Later is setting the pace.
And actually Desigual is kind of rescueing Nerz at the moment as the GC leader wasn`t able to close the gap immediately.
Further behind some riders start to struggle. Biggest names are Liphongyu and Brandt.
6km to go and Penasa has opened up a 30s gap with Sortveit by now caught.
Nerz has to go now as it`s almost the advantage he is having.
And Abal is following. Then Burke, Raileanu, Garby, Kuss, Duarte, Atapuma and others in the first rows.
Brandt and Liphongyu still fighting and yet to really be dropped. McConvey now as support for Brandt but not sure he can give any more.
Also in that later positions is Denz now, who is in danger to lose some spots, in especially as Garby is still up there and same for Fraile, who is actually the first of the 4 Desigual riders to lose contact.
3km to go and Nerz is a step closer to the win as he is almost up to Penasa. The short flat section helps him as his time trialing is allowing him to go faster.
A group of 6, basically the top climbers of the 2nd tier behind. Abal, Kuss, Raileanu, Duarte not giving each other anything, which makes big GC changes unlikely.
In there also Garby though, who could get into the top10.
Burke another 24s behind, then a group around Liphongyu/Gebremedhin/Jones following ahead of Kiserlovski.
Brandt and Denz the two main riders to struggle most as they are another few groups behind and slowly lose important time.
1,9km and Penasa not giving up yet. Another acceleration. 12s right now, which wouldn`t be enough but he looks stronger today.
Nerz is a big diesel though and he just doesn`t get any nervous and rides his very own pace. And his skills allow him to be very fast which always sees him coming back when Penasa has attacked.
Group 3 is filled up a bit more. The top3-8 riders (but Brandt) have got some more riders.
Liphongyu is probably the biggest name in the hunt for that top10. Gebremedhin, Geniez, Burke/Jones are the others.
28s later Kiserlovski/Sortveit and another 11s later Fraile is following.
Brandt/Denz at +19, which is ~1min in total on those and sees Atapuma passing him for 7th.
Back to the stage win. Penasa celebrates and seems to be fine with another stage win. He tried it all but had to realize, that Nerz was too strong to get dropped. For a moment he might have had hopes but in the end the German was just too strong.
2nd for him and obviously keeping the lead on the last big GC stage.
It took some time as the gap was huge. But the final "sprint" for the 3rd saw another time gap opening again. Basically similar to what the two groups were before.
Raileanu with a really solid race takes 3rd on the stage ahead of Abal. Both obviously remain in their top5 positions with the Spanish veteran actually being best of the rest on the podium late in his career.
Duarte, Kuss, Atapuma and Garby the other riders in there.
~40s later Gebremedhin leads in the next 4 riders. Liphongyu the big name here as also Burke and Jones. Congrats to Burke obviously. A fantastic race, GC wise, stage wise, support wise and by winning the U25 ranking most likely.
Geniez, Kiserlovski and Sortveit a bit later. While Desigual was strong, Kraftwerk was simply strongest. They keep the team ranking lead.
Fraile is one of todays riders under pressure now as he is losing another minute finishing as 16th.
Behind him with a small gap Brandt and Denz.
GC wise this means Atapuma up to 7th but Brandt only drops to 8th.
Garby up to 9th followed by Liphongyu, who made a great come back today while Fraile and Denz drop just out of it with the helpers all following in Gebremedhin, Jones, Burke, Kiserlovski, Geniez.
McConvey as one of the few riders that post todays break was able to keep contact and will even move up to 18th in the GC alongside 2nd in the KoM ranking.
Ford is still on the way up. Actually still 11,7km to the finish and we are already 55min behind the stage winner. Just 7 and 11min ahead of him more riders with plenty of riders The OTL time is 1'13'07, which means he has just 18min to go up. Realistic?
They allow him to finish. Good news as he wasn`t caught by the broom wagon. But looking at the time he needed almost 1h to climb...1'48 for him and the officials are greedy and indeed take him out of the race. And actually not only him but also his team mate Frame.
All others allowed to stay in with BNZ being the new 1-2 in the upside down ranking. Marryatt and Kelemen ahead of Ranneries were todays last riders, first actually just seconds off the time limit.
Mannion just like Lovik were also in the final 10-15 riders today and drop far behind in the GC but for first, it is still a win as he takes the KoM win.
