Final GC-related stage of this Tour of America! We don’t see anyone overtaking the yellow jersey though, as Nerz has a comfortable three minute lead. 41 KoM-points on the menu, with no points on the final climb. In theory Chaiyasombat could still overtake Grmay, but we don’t see it happening. Important stage for home team Volcanica – Fox, surely one of them is in the break?
Eight leaders begin the Cerro de la Muerte climb, a name not randomly picked. A whopping 39 km of climbing, with an average of 6.1% and really not a flat sector at all. The eight names up front are Elissonde (17th GC), Jorgenson for the home team, Azman (16th GC and 4th KoM), Grmay (15th GC and very close to winning the polka-dots now), Gillett, Novak (26th GC), Brandt (28th GC and 11th koM) and Rachid. In the peloton we see Carlsberg’s Cannister setting the pace, do the Danes want someone in the break as well?
Doesn’t look like it. The peloton slowly losing time, as Carlsberg and Kraftwerk set the pace at 3’30” of the leading group. Jorgenson losing touch at the front of the race with still 17 km to go until the top of the Cerro de la Muerte. The doors have also been opened at the back of the peloton.
The climbing simply doesn’t stop. This might look flat, but it’s still a 7% gradient, and still 10 km to the top! Gillett, Novak and Rachid all in trouble in the leading group, as the peloton has been reduced to 92 riders with still 130 km to the finish line!
Novak manages to stay in the leading group with 4.5 km to the top. 71 riders left in the peloton at 4’30”, as no top-50 rider is missing.
Gillett comes back to the head of the race as well now. 1.5 km to climb as KoM-leader Grmay attacks, wanting to add some more points to his tally!
He’s simply the best, better than all the rest! Grmay holds off Brandt and Novak and is now officially the winner of the 2021 Tour of America polka-dots! That’s a first for an African rider! A peloton of 61, with still no top-50 rider missing, crosses the top at 4’10”. Kraftwerk setting the pace there, do they want a cherry on the cake today with a Nerz stage win?
Directly after that we have a short but rather steep climb of fourth category. Grmay the strongest once again. Chaiyasombat still second in the KoM, but only five points ahead of Azman who’s also in the break. The same peloton of 61’ at only 3’15” with 110 km to the finish line.
We start the final categorized climb of this Tour with 39 km to the finish line. The Cerro alto (1st cat.) is 6.5 km long at 9.1% average. The final km is deadly and incredible steep. The peloton came as close as 1’30” in the descent, but is now blown back to 3’45”. We’ve seen Warbasse do like 33% of the work there (together with McCormick’s Revard and Kraftwerk’s Bol), he might lose some places today.
This guy is always up for an attack! As the leading group is 2’55” ahead of the peloton, Novak attacks with 5 km to climb and 37.5 km from the finish line! Suicide mission?!
False alarm! The Kraftwerk boys immediately catch him again, the Lierse rider realizes it might not have been the smartest move.
Now he’s just taking the piss. 3 km to climb for the peloton and again 3’ behind the leading group, as Novak attacks again! Revard (48th) the first top-50 rider to get dropped!
Grmay, Brandt and Novak enter the final km of the climb together, the other three leaders have a gap to make up for. In the peloton, Novak gets caught for a second time by Kraftwerk Man Machine and… he attacks for a third time, a living legend!
Novak is the strongest on the final categorized mountain, but polka-dot winner Grmay can definitely live with it. Other Novak is on the verge of getting caught again, but his constant attacks also mean Kuss (20th) and Ablenado (24th) are in trouble! A little bit of good news for McCormick though, Azman crosses the top in fifth, which means Chaiyasombat holds on to his second place in the KoM-classification.
The constant Novak attacks and steep final km of that climb definitely caused some victims! At 17” of the Lierse rider we see Warchol (2nd) and Denifl (12th). The group of favourites at an additional 25”, with yellow jersey Nerz, is led by domestique Moazemi. The leaders not in here are Eg (8th) and Gilanipoor (9th), at an additional 40” but with possible domestiques Warbasse and Zordan. At an additional 50” we find a group with Lunke, will the provisional losers be able to crawl back before the final climb of this Tour starts?!
The answer is yes. Right before the final climb of the day, we’re back to a peloton of 40. Of course, riders such as Lunke did a lot of work themselves, and might start feeling it very soon. The final climb is far from easy, with 6.2 km at an average of 9.4% followed by one final flat km. The two leaders, Grmay and Novak, are currently 3’20” ahead of this peloton, with Brandt right in the middle of the two leaders and the peloton of 40. Kuss and Ablenado the only top-20 riders to not be in the peloton or ahead of it.
Warchol has heard his closest competitor is struggling and attacks at the begin of the climb! Looking to follow the Indosat rider are Novak, Carapaz, Min, Gilanipoor, Eg, Lunke, Nerz and Chamorro!
Novak, Carapaz and Min the only ones able to follow, the rest sitting down! Yellow jersey Nerz in trouble, or does the German know he can’t be beaten anymore?! Sauber domestique Liphongyu tries to close the gap! 4.8 km to the top and 5.8 km to the finish line for our two leaders, who have a 2’30” lead!
Final five km for the two leaders, their lead over the chasing four is two minutes! Brandt now seeing those four fly past him! Another domestique setting the pace in the peloton of 34 behind, as they are 40” behind those chasing four! The domestique setting the pace is Moazemi, with number three Lunke at the back of that group!
3 km to climb and 4 km to the finish line as the two leaders have a 1’05” lead over the four chasers, it’s going to be a close one! The peloton behind at around 35”, now being led by Quevedo. Lunke already at 2’50” of the first four favourites, this is going to be a catastrophe for the Voyagin rider! Other riders getting dropped now include Zordan (25th) and Warbasse (18th)!
Carapaz attacks in that chasing group of favourites, which means it’s game over for Grmay and Novak! 2 km to climb and 3 km to the finish line as the leading four (+ the two breakaway riders) have a gap of a minute over the first twelve followers, now led by the yellow jersey! Gilanipoor (9th) and Eg (8th) dropped together again and fearing for their GC top-10!
2.5 km left! Only Warchol able to follow the Ecuadorian, as Min is dropped and Novak seems to be on the verge of breaking as well! Behind the first six we see a counterattack by the yellow jersey, as Ranaweera is the only rider able to hold his wheel! The first three behind then are Aru, Denifl and Potocki!
2 km left! Nobody now able to follow Carapaz anymore! Yellow jersey Nerz might have the biggest shot of coming back, but he still has 30” to make up for!
But Carapaz reaches the top with 25” over Nerz and the others! Final km, which is flat! Surely he’s got this one?! If anyone is looking for an interesting climber next season, this guy seems to be wanting to prove himself!
Et voila! A rather disappointing Tour of America for him, but he does end the GC-battle with a nice stage win!
All in all, Nerz easily defended his yellow jersey today. He finishes second at 13”, just ahead of strong breakaway rider Novak. Chamorro and Warchol complete the top-5 ahead of third Carrefour rider Garby and Novak.
Teammates Denifl and Grmay finish at 40” of the stage winner in 8th and 9th. At an additional 25” we see Ranaweera (10th), then Min (11th), then Potocki (12th).
Aru, Hoem and Hiratsuka come in at one minute.
In the end, Gilanipoor and Eg both lose 3’50”, and former number three Lunke even loses 5’50”. All of them tumble outside of the top-10. Numbers one and two stay the same, whereas stage winner Carapaz moves onto the podium ahead of best CT rider Potocki (4th) and Aru (5th). Then we see the rest of the top-10 completed by Novak (6th), Min (7th), Denifl (8th), Chamorro (9th) and Ranaweera (10th).
