41 riders enter today’s stage within 26 seconds of GC leader Kump. The race is wide-open, who will take advantage?
Including the final climb, there are 64 mountain points available today, almost double the amount that Hugentobler currently has. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, he’s the first to attack, a bunch of riders in tow.
It took a while, but eventually, 10 riders join the polkadots jersey. They are, roughly in order of the puncheur skills:
Ludvigsson
De Tier
Mahdar
Hasnaoui
Knox
Arensman
Leemreize
Nych
Sam
Yzeiraj
Other than Hugentobler (34), only De Tier (12) and Ludvigsson (8) have mountain points already, so Eddie Stobart has a decent chance to keep the jersey.
At the first mountain sprint, the group splinters for the first time. Sam and De Tier are dropped early having done some good work for their teammates, then Hugentobler, Knox and Hasnaoui are caught behind a slow-moving Yzeiraj. Nych takes 10 points ahead of Mahdar and Ludvigsson, who moves up to 12 points total.
All 11 riders quickly reunited and Sam and De Tier returned to lead the group, but as you can see, they aren’t terribly successful. At the first intermediate sprint, the peloton is already visible in the background. Maybe the breakaway can use the climb to regain some advantage?
Sensing that the pace needs to improve, Nych just attacks, forcing first Mahdar and then Sam off the back.
De Tier also has to relent again, then it’s once more Yzeiraj who proves to be a roadblock to the guys behind him. Ludvigsson is the beneficiary, he opens a gap, passing Nych.
Ludvigsson bags 10 points, but Hugentobler adds 4 as well, as they leave Yzeiraj behind.
At the bottom of the following descent, we have a leading group of 4, including Hasnaoui, Ludvigsson, Nych and Hugentobler. They have 40 seconds on Knox, Arensman and Leemreize and around 1’40 on the peloton.
Either the breakaway riders have suffered really badly in the early parts of today, or the peloton is on a mission. In any case, only these four guys remain ahead at the second intermediate sprint, and only by 30 seconds, too.
Yellow jersey Kump himself leads the peloton up the category 1 climb, indicating that HelloFresh is going for De Vos or Gaspar today. 72 riders remain in the main group; riders in the Top 40 who have fallen behind include Vink (likely suffering from his breakaway rides), Jans, Lietaer and Korosec. Good puncheurs, not great climbers …
Juul-Jensen crosses the summit first and he actually moves into third place of the KoM classification, having randomly collected 10 yesterday as well. Still, it’s surprising to see him at the front, given that we thought he’d be Pas Normal Studio’s leader …
His pace up the climb, and now Kump’s forceful downhill ride, have split the peloton in a big way. Only 31 riders remain. Dropped riders who had previously been within 30 seconds in the GC include Brockhoff, Hugentobler, Herrada, Barbero, Zoidl, Serry, Buitrago, Malacarne, Schelling, Mudarra, as well as both Bystrom and Boswell, who apparently could not recover since yesterday. Only a small stretch until the next climb.
Juul-Jensen continues to do the work, another sign that teams are favoring their climbers over their puncheurs today. PNS still has Shapira and Ratiy here, but the latter already has more than 4 minutes of a deficit in the GC. The gap to the next group has grown to almost one and a half minutes, so no one will make it back.
Villalobos falls behind, leaving Chaves isolated in the lead group. Bratashcuk, Skjerping, Nych and Battaglin drop as well, but all those teams still have riders up ahead.
Kump, Budyak and Chaves lead the way over the summit, no attacks so far. Only the former world champion and Juul-Jensen could still topple Hugentobler, and only with a stage win, so that seems unlikely.
Within the final 10 kilometers, but still ahead of the final climb, Chaves sets the first attack! Goh, Budyak and Shapira respond.
At the intermediate sprint, Chaves and Goh have a small lead of just 12 seconds, but they also collect some bonus seconds ( Shapira crosses the line third). Now, only the final climb remains, 6,3 kilometers at 7,5%, but the final kilometer is actually a downhill slope.
Goh drops back to the peloton, and Chaves can’t seem to persist either. Kump is a machine in pursuit, you kinda have to wonder if he shouldn’t be riding for himself. His teammates will have to do very well to reward his efforts here.
Hasnaoui and Le Gac are the next guys who fall behind …
… while Lovik accelerates at the front! Fernandez, Rodriguez Galindo, Gaspar, Aasvold, Chaves, Budyak and Vysna follow.
Most of those are brought back once again by Kump, only Fernandez accelerates again and is now alone in front of the group. At the same time, more and more riders can’t keep up anymore. First, it’s Brandao, then teammate De Luna, Ratiy, Umerbekov, the last Aker rider Wohrer and Juul-Jensen.
Fernandez is doing well and keeping a 20 second lead on his chasers, which prompts Gaspar to attack. Chaves, Lovik and Aasvold follow, then there’s a gap to the rest of the group, where Budyak, Vysna and Calmejane come to the front.
Kump is still chasing, a curious decision since he now has a teammate up front. But by now, he might actually fancy his chances to keep yellow after all! Martin has been dropped, but Eiking and Ziesler still fight for Gjensigide in this group that gets thinner and thinner.
Fernandez is caught under the flamme rouge by Chaves, Gaspar and Aasvold. Now, the short downhill towards the finish line starts, so it’s a sprint from here! Remember that Chaves has already collected bonus seconds both yesterday and at the previous intermediate sprint - he would tie Kump on time with a second place finish, but the Slovenian is awfully close now …
It looks like it’s a four men sprint for the win, but Kump is coming around Lovik with some pace! What a performance by him!
One last quick look behind where we see that De Vos and Calmejane have gained a small advantage on Budyak, Eiking, Goh and Rodriguez Galindo, then there’s a slightly larger gap to the next guys.
But back to the front! Kump moves to fifth place on the road, but he’s struggling to close the gap to the four leaders. Chaves has now taken the lead by the slimmest of margins - still 500m to go!
Aasvold almost draws level with the other three, but they seem completely spent, all back in the saddle now with visible exhaustion. Kump meanwhile is still going strong, but he’s running out of road …
He’s not going to make it in time! Fernandez has the inside track to the line, who will win this thriller?
It is indeed Fernandez who takes the win! A great performance to attack and then beat his chasers in a sprint! It will not be enough for the GC win though. That one is decided by literal centimeters, because in a great bit of teamwork, Gaspar actually beats Chaves for second place, meaning that Kump will end up in yellow - if the organizers give him and Lovik the same time as the four leaders. We’ll have to wait on that for a moment.
It’s similarly close between Calmejane and the third (!) HelloFresh rider De Vos. The latter gets the upper hand to take 7th on the day, but the French stays ahead in the GC thanks to his bonus seconds from yesterday.
Budyak and Rodriguez Galindo take the final two Top 10 spots, both of them as well as Goh and Eiking are timed 25 seconds behind today’s winner.
Ziesler, the third Gjensigide rider, leads the next group over the line, where we also have Shapira, Paez and Vysna. They lose 57 seconds on the leading group. Martin and Juul-Jensen - who recovered nicely after being dropped way earlier -, both on their own, arrive next as more and more riders trickle in.
With regards to time gaps at the front, the organizers were very lenient. Not only was Kump given the same time as the winners - so he wins the GC by 4 seconds -, but even De Vos and Calmejane where still counted with the same time, allowing the latter to finish 5th overall. Fernandez is 3rd, Gaspar 4th.
Kump obviously also wins the points classification (plus, just to top it off, second in the mountain classification behind Hugentobler), and HelloFresh gets the team classification as well as three riders in the Top 6 of the GC - quite the team performance! No HelloFresh domination in the young riders classification though, which Buitrago wins, and where Cedevita has 5 riders in the Top 6!
Euskal Bizikleta 
