The final stage in Portugal might also be the hardest. Phinney as best climber and also having a gap of more than 1 min should normally be enough but then again you never know.
Oomen +23 Galta +5 Barguil will likely go for the podium fight and also Guldhammer +37 and Madrazo +9 aren`t too far off. With that many position fights Phinney must take attention all the time.
Burke, Aular, Pogacar, Bennett right now complete the top10 but still several riders in the mix and the top15 could shuffle a lot today.
KoM wise Lucas Hamilton leads with 26 points having a tiny gap over Bravo, Bayly, Schinnagel, Gavars and some more. With 5 KoMs today of which there are HC and 1 rated ones, more than enough points are rewarded still to give any rider a shot of winning!
Why not? 22 + 1 riders are going for the break! It will need some time to check what teams are missing at all and who is going for a minor GC attack or KoM run. In brackets the number of KoM points so far or the GC position.
In especially Amaysim very strong here with 3 riders and 1st and 3rd in the KoM rankings but also the 4th - 6th and 8th is in there making Bravo the big miss for sure.
GC wise Rohendi, Eg and Borisavljevic surely hope to get closer to the top10 here while some of the others are really strong climbers, e.g. Mavrikakis as group`s best.
Binance, Xero, Lierse, MOL, Isostar, Bralirwa, UBS to name some teams not in the group for obvious GC reasons. Some of the best GC riders from them and apparently they don`t go for the relay station later on but want all riders back there with the leader.
The first smaller KoM go to Rybalkin-Hamilton-Cink and Gavars-Rohendi-Schinnagel. So not a lot has happened there despite Bayly losing some spots.
With the Torre climb starting (27km, 5,1 %) the first riders drop back. Puncheurs such as Koretzky or Skujins just like sprinters such as Kemboi.
Khederi for Bralirwa, Kipkemboi for Xero and Benito for Binance pacing right now dropping more and more riders.
Jaramillo and Eyob also showing up there.
Mohoric, Lutsenko and Ackermann also in the later positions with all but Lutsenko soon being dropped as well, while the Kazakh trying to stay up there defending his 13th GC.
Same in the group. More and more riders can`t follow the pace by ELCO, who seem to prepare something for Mavrikakis.
Schinnagel and Rohendi are both dropped now, which is big news for the KoM fight as Hamilton and Bayly are still there for Amaysim and Novikov for Trans Looney.
Bralirwa really showing up today. Uwizeyimana, Eyob at the front with Madrazo behind them.
Also Kipkemboi and Abdurrahaman are there working for Bennett and Barguil.
4,5 km till the HC KoM. And the breakaway is becoming smaller and smaller. Now also the Amaysim duo around KoM leader Hamilton can`t follow and lose contact with Rybalkin and Carcueva with Lastra being dropped as well.
Rohendi not giving up yet and is supported by team mate Kolar a bit behind.
Mavrikakis also the last ELCO rider now in group 1 alongside Eg, Borisavljevic, Novikov, Rodriguez and Amezawa.
Rodriguez takes the HC points with Mavrikakis in 2nd and Novikov in 3rd.
Only Borisavljevic and Amezawa ahead of Hamilton and Bayly then as Eg cracked heavily.
This sees Hamilton at 36 pts followed by Bayly at 27 as also Gavars and Novikov at 27.
Likely becoming a duel between Amaysim and Trans Looney Tunes now, even though Rodriguez at 20 and Mavrikakis at 14 are not off yet.
Mavrikakius, Rodriguez, Borisavljevic and Novikov are the final 4 riders remaining in group 1.
Then a group of 9 including Hamilton, Bayli, Rohendi, Eg, Kolar, Carcueva, Amezawa Rybalkin and Lastra following with a 30s gap and another 60s for the peloton.
There Aranburu was one of the latest big names being dropped after also Lutsenko was dropped earlier as last big puncheur sitting 2min behind the peloton in a group including Senni or Gesink as well.
Rodriguez also takes the Cat.1 ahead of Novikov, Mavrikakis and Borisavljevic.
Behind them the Amaysim duo attacks for the next spots and for some reason Bayly takes 5th in front of Hamilton, who doesn`t look too happy there.
Virtually still leading though by just 1 point over Novikov!
Then Rodriguez another 3 points later and Bayly with another 3 in 4th.
15,8 km to go and the final climb has started. Again up the Torre Climb, 16,6 km and 5,4 % in average this time. Clearly becoming flattish towards the end, so gaps must be opened before on the first half of the climb.
And the break is down to 3 as Borisavljevic can`t follow them anymore.
Just 41 s left for the trip as Bralirwa is not stopping yet. Still Eyob and Uwizeyimana control the 49 rider peloton and set up a decent pace. Ndayisenga in addition coming to the front now with Madrazo sitting behind him.
Abdurrahman for UBS and now Inkelaar for MOL as well up there. All the GC riders behind those waiting for the first move.
The next move though comes in the breakaway. Mavrikakis as said the strongest on paper and apparently also proving this by attacking the duo and opening a gap. Still 12 km to go.
But also behind a first move appears. First it ooked like a minor move as Habtemichael goes for the U25 jersey and Burke, who to be fair is 7th in GC and so quite a danger.
But then behind them Barguil hiding and attacks not only the podium but also the GC leader Phinney clearly.
The first team to react though is MOL for Galta. Inkelaar clearly a great support to have as he is moving ahead of the Bralirwa train and highering the pace now.
All but Barguil are caught by Inkelaar again while the French is up to Mavrikakis already. Just 17 s though to the "peloton" of just 24 riders now.
Isostar was incredibly calm today not working a lot and it`s now obvious. Jaramillo as last support rider is dropped, pretty early really seeing how big the group still is. This isolates Phinney with just under 9km to go. With him Novikov, which is good news for Hamilton, who might have the KoM jersey safe then by 1 point.
Realizing he is isolated, Phinney just changes tactics and attacks. No need to wait for any other team to accelerate when Barguil is 50s up by now as the pace dropped a bit.
Burke really on a good day here following again with Madrazo and Galta also moving up.
Aular, Rodrigues, Bennett, Habtemichael lead the remaining group. Oomen being rather anonymous so far but just like Guldhammer, Garby, Pogacar, Cort Nielsen, Vingegaard, Gregaard, Sosnitskiy in there.
A strong Danish/Norwegian showing here surely.
Seeing Phinney is closing, Barguil attacks again as it`s the last steeper sections here, where he needs to defend some gap. Mavrikakis dropped now and won`t be able to win todays stage.
5,5 km and it`s not very steep anymore. Phinney has stopped the danger of Barguil in front, while behind a group of 13 including Mavrikakis is at +34s.
Greegard, Cort Nielsen the latest dropped riders while also Pogacar couldn`t follow anymore which is big news for Xero as Habtemichael is the virtual leader of the U25 ranking again.
Flattish but still consistent 2,6 % after a long climbing day. Habtemichael losing contact now but still is ahead of Pogacar, which is most important for him I guess. Vingegaard also losing contact with Guldhammer ahead being the biggest name in danger to lose his 5th GC.
Phinney and Barguil were looking at each other a bit too much. So a group of 8 coming closer again being led by Galta.
Madrazo, Bennett, Aular, Oomen, Garby, Sosnitsky and Burke the others.
Rodrigues just like Guldhammer indeed just dropped.
2,2 km and the duo in front is caught. Well done by mainly Aular and Galta there.
This short acceleration did lead to Bennett struggling now in the background with Garby and Sosnitkiy with them.
But as it`s not steep enough for an attack and no one willed to chase, the pace dropped a bit again. Group Bennett made it back just like Guldhammer or Rodrigues. Second time lucky for Guldhammer here to still be able to fight for the top5!
With Aular the only one kind of chasing, also their 2nd rider in Rodrigues moving up now as Binance clearly planning something here.
With 300m to go Aular goes into attack mode and accelerates or sprints early? Anyway, he is opening a gap with it and simply no one is following.
Unchallenged Binance was given the win today as Aular had this gap until the finish line. Seeing the gap is rather big by now, he might even be able to move up from 8th a bit.
Rodrigues smartly moves into 2nd position just on the line to avoid others getting bonus seconds. Big 1-2 for Binance this way. Some W52 vibes in Portugal. Barguil in 3rd and indeed collecting bonus seconds enough to pass Galta for 3rd in the GC!
32s were given in the end which means Aular goes up to 5th past Guldhammer, Madrazo and Burke. In especially Madrazo was rather disappointing all race, having lost time early, then having todays stage perfectly prepared by all his team mates but never really went for it fully and must settle with 7th here.
Oomen similarly having a rather unseen performance here but still proves to have it all to compete with the very best ending up in 2nd just behind Phinney, who takes the expected GC, but with 1-2 stage wins less than expected.
Xero with the 9-10 in the GC now, which means, Habtemichael also takes the Youth jersey!
Pogacar in at 1'52. He gave it a nice fight and 2nd in the competition is still good alongside 14th GC as best unmaxed rider with Mavrikakis moving up to 16th in GC after todays ride.
