First and only mountain stage of this Bayern Rundfahrt. Yellow jersey Tenorio the stage favourite, is he able to increase his lead over the others?
A lot of attacks lead to a leading group of 18 riders. The peloton doesn’t allow this and comes back, but once again 10+ riders seem to break free. KoM-jersey Noia was among them, but as it’s already going up and down a bit, and he’s not the best climber, he’s dropped quite quickly.
That leaves us with ten riders up front as there are 113 km to go at the first intermediate sprint. A very interesting name here is Martin, currently 2’20” behind yellow jersey Tenorio in the GC. The other nine riders in the leading group are Jallays, Sotberg, Mannion, Destribois, Ivanov, Dall'Oste, Roson, Cepeda Hernandez and Bardet.
The first mountain of the day is the Hochschwarzeck (1st category). Roson and Martin set the pace, which is too much for Jallays, Sotberg, Mannion and Dall'Oste. 3 km left to climb!
Bardet likes the thought of winning the polka-dots and attacks. Destribois is the first rider behind him and has to leave a gap, making this an easy KoM-sprint win for the Frenchman! Other points are scored by Ivanov, Roson, Martin and Destribois.
A peloton of 94 riders following at 2’30”. MOL and Desigual set the pace, as there are 90 km to the finish line.
71.5 km to go as the five leaders are in the valley where they find the second intermediate sprint of the day, but nobody going for the points. Mannion and Dall'Oste are 40” behind, a peloton of 88 riders at 2’15”. Mottin (3rd GC) among those dropped, but that’s not really a surprise.
The peloton is 1’30” behind the five leaders with 50 km to go. Most of the time trialists have been dropped by now, but Zmorka (2nd GC) is still holding on at the back of the 61-headed peloton.
If we don’t count the climb at the finish of first category, a small bump at 41.5 km from the finish line is the final KoM in this Tour. Bardet attacks early in an attempt to take the jersey, but breaks down and only crosses the line in fifth. Destribois wins the sprint ahead of Martin, with Roson and Ivanov in third and fourth! This means… Bardet leads with eighteen points, together with Noia and Nareklishvili!
Thanks to the work of the Minions, a group of 22 riders trails the four leaders by 1’15” with 35 km to go! Nepomnyachsniy, Borisavljevic and Paillot the most important names in the group 30” behind them, while Zmorka has now been dropped there as well!
The two groups melt back together with 25 km left, giving us a peloton of 53 riders that is 1’30” behind the four leaders. Interesting for the U25 competition is that Bernal is here, but Dunbar is not.
The four leaders now starting to climb again with 20 km to go.
These are the final 20 km.
It’s not going too fast in the peloton on the first climb, and now we see where Dunbar was hiding, as the Irishman brings back leader Zmorka with 16 km to the finish line!
The four leaders reach the top of the penultimate mountain. 14 km to go!
The peloton now at the same point as well, as they are 2’20” behind those leaders! Reminder that Martin is the best placed rider in the leading group, 2’20” behind yellow jersey Tenorio in the GC! Zmorka getting dropped again!
Roson doesn’t want to wait until the final climb, as he attacks with 9 km left! Reaction by Ivanov!
The Bulgarian catches the Spaniard, after which Destribois comes back with Martin in his wheel! 7 km left, the peloton of 55 at 2’30”!
And the four leaders are officially on the final climb! Winklmoos-Alm, 5.7 km at 6.7%, with the steepest parts in the first 2 kilometers. Peloton now 2’45” behind.
The steepest parts have been conquered, as the four leaders are still together with 4 km to climb. The peloton of 55 now 2’05” behind.
3 km left as the four leaders increase their lead a bit, up to 2’15” now. Yellow jersey Tenorio enjoying the calm pace in the peloton.
This is getting interesting! As the four leaders are under the 2 km banner, their lead has shrunk to 1’20”! The reason for this is Sauber’s Ranaweera setting the pace in the peloton, so we’re assuming splits will be formed soon!
There you have it! The leaders have 1.5 km to go but now lead by only 40”, as Haga is trying to launch Uran! Other GC names/climbers in this group of favourites are Izagirre, Ranaweera, Cattaneo, Keinath, Tenorio, Novak, Eastman, Intxausti and Nareklishvili!
Nareklishvili losing ground, which is not surprising. Izagirre tries to close the gap to the four leaders, as he is now 20” behind while they are under the flamme rouge!
But that seems very hard, as there are 700 meters left and the leaders still have to start their sprint! Martin in pole position to win the stage and the KoM-classification!
Martin starts sprinting with 400 meters to go! Destribois in his wheel!
The Aramco rider clearly the strongest among the four leaders! Or is Roson able to come back with 200 meters to go?!
No! Martin wins stage 3 as well as the KoM-jersey in the Bayern Rundfahrt!
Roson takes second ahead of Destribois (3rd) and Ivanov (4th).
Yellow jersey Tenorio wins the sprint for fifth in the group of favourites. Let’s hope for the Spaniard he doesn’t need these 20 seconds for the win tomorrow. All the GC favourites coming in in the same group: Uran (6), Izagirre (7), Ranaweera (8), Cattaneo (9), Novak (10), Eastman (11), Keinath (12) and Intxausti (13).
