Welcome back in Ukraine, for the second stage of the Tour of Ukraine – the only one to be a road race. We are still in the eastern part of the country, in the regional capital city of Ivano-Frankivsk. Today’s race will bring us 70 kilometres to the south, in Chernyk.
The riders will not go straight, though, and the stage is a bit longer: with 129 kilometres, it’s probably not the length of the road which will be the most tiring.
Yesterday, Taylor Phinney already demonstrated why he’s the world champion. Can somebody dethrone him? We’ll see in a few hours.
Today’s favorites are the pure punchers, but with the main difficulties concentrated in the far end of the race, they’ll have to make the race hard to have any shot at the GC. If you forgot, there is a new ITT tomorrow, and a flatter one.
There are also KoM points to grab today: two cat. 2 climbs at the beginning and at the end of the stage, and an cat. 2 uphill finish, for a maximum total of 22 points. The two intermediate sprints should be more interesting for the bonus seconds than for the green jersey.
We catch the riders in the beginning of the first climb. A very interesting – and quite surprising – break of the day has formed, with 7 riders, 6 of which are solid punchers, and even stage favorites. What was the pack thinking while letting them go?
The escapees are: Van Garderen, Prevar, Eiking, Müller, Hirschi, Velasco and Yechezkel.
The last one is clearly the weaker of the seven, while Van Garderen still has 9’’ gap. The pack is riding fast, 40’’ behind the break, lead by Prado, Leung, Noia and Rachid.
The break regroups one kilometre before the summit, and Eiking immediately launches the sprint.
He holds and takes the six points, followed by Van Garderen and Velasco.
The break has a one minute lead on top of the hill, and the peloton seems to finally let go as we begin the flat section.
The two intermediate sprints are only 15 kilometres to each other, as we’re on a small circuit. Van Garderen, Eiking and Müller take the points and the bonus seconds in that order. The peloton comes 2’30 behind.
Eiking still has the legs to take the six points on the next sprint. This time, he’s followed by Velasco and Prevar.
The peloton is still in control, which makes sense seeing the quality of the riders in the break. The favorites are 2’’ behind the leaders, with Los Pollos Hermanos, King Power, EA Vesuvio, Red Bull Zaligris, cycleYorkshire and Polar. 50 km to go for the leaders.
After a short break, we come back to the race as there are no more than 30 kilometres to go. The break is still working together, but they only have a 1’16 gap over the pack, in which Moser takes the chasing duties. They must have strong hopes for Sagan.
Race leader, Phinney, is attentive near the front.
Van Garderen tries his luck out of the break as we reach the end of the flat section. He’s followed by Müller, but everyone comes back together in the end.
There is only 20 km left to ride, and the pack is less than one minute behind the break. And it’s coming fast. Eiking knows that, so he tries to quicken the pace and gets a small gap. At the same moment, there are holes in the pack. Geoghegan Hart has been caught off guard, as well as Buchmann, Di Maggio and Izagirre. Verona and Kittel already seem to be dropped.
The second cat. 3 climb is breaking everybody’s legs! Van Garderen and Prevar have a small gap, with 1,3 km to the top, on Velasco and Müller, while Eiking is still alone, but behind them now!
12’’ behind Eiking are Sagan, McCarthy and Gidich (the most dangerous for the yellow jersey in this group). These three clearly didn’t want to wait until the end to attack Phinney!
Then there is Hirschi, a few metres ahead of the yellow jersey group. Most of UBS and cycleYorkshire riders are in another group right after the favorites, while the main peloton, with Izagirre as the most prominent rider in it, is 20’’ more behind. Verona and Kittel have 2 minutes down.
(Note that the following picture takes place a few seconds after this, but all is mostly in the right order).
Van Garderen takes the 6 KoM points, a bit ahead of Prevar. The Sauber-Petronas rider now has ten points, the max number that will be attributed at the finish line. Velasco takes the last points.
Bobridge and Wirtgen went out of the yellow jersey’s group with 5 km to go. They have a 20’’ gap on Phinney and the other favorites. Quita’s doing the chase.
With 3,5 km to go, Van Garderen, Prevar and Velasco begin the climb to Chernyk with a 15’ gap on Sagan, McCarthy and Gidich. Bobridge and Wirtgen are closing on these three, and Phinney’s group’s not far behind, though Keizer looks like his done for. Not a good news for his team. As for cycleYorkshire, whose leader Fraile is lost with Eiking 33’’ behind the yellow jersey. UBS group will not be able to come back.
2,3 km to go. Phinney tries to show why he’s the best around here and to defend his yellow jersey, as we have a 15 riders leading group. Quita and Paulinho are dropping back, while Reis, Eriksson, Haig and Mano are holding as they can.
1,5 km to go. 11 riders in the leading group, with Wirtgen in front. Van Garderen is still here, which is quite incredible, seeing he’s been in the break all day long!
Red kite! And Sagan is attacking!
Yellow jersey Phinney seems like the only one who want to go after him.
But he can not! The World Champion is falling behind, and now Gidich is coming fast behind Sagan who might have launched his sprint too soon… 300 m to the finish line.
200 m to go. Sagan still has a good lead as the climb is harder now. Haig is trying to go for the Slovakian.
Another outstanding win for Sagan!
Bernal is coming strong to take 2nd, and maybe even the leader’s jersey. He’s got Haig on his tail, though.
Gidich beats Wirtgen for 4th, and McCarthy will take 6th, and a second top 10 for Amaysim.
Phinney finishes 40 seconds behind Sagan, a few seconds before Van Garderen, who’s had an outstanding day. Yesterday 5th and best young rider Mano will lose his white jersey, but still finishes at a good 9th place, followed by Prevar – another breakaway survivor – to close the top 10.
Bobridge comes in 11th after a great effort, while Velasco puts up a good fight against Eriksson, but it’s the Swede who takes the 12th place. Gebrezgabihier and Van Niekerk close the top 15 for Project : Africa.
And Phinney loses the leader jersey after a race which was less than 3 hours long ! Haig is the new leader, but he will have a hard time defending his jersey in the 26 km time-trial, as the top 6 is within a 30’’ gap.
The last stage will be most exciting !
2nd of the stage and of the GC, Bernal takes the wite jersey. He’ll have to finish his battle with Mano in Nadvirna. With only one minutes between the two youngsters, that could be an interesting battle.
While he lost his white jersey, Phinney is still the points leaders. He’s got 2 more points than Haig, and 9 over Sagan.
The Slovakian will wear the mountain leader jersey. He and van Garderen are tied, but today’s winner his ahead in the GC.
Last but not least, King Power still leads the team standings.
