Welcome to the final day of this year's edition of Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha! As the name of the race says, today's route leads us back from Karlovy Vary to Prague, from West to East.
And while the GC is already more or less settled - barring any surprising moves - the fight for the points jersey is wide open! And even more so for the KoM shirt, as today is the only stage of the race where KoM points are awarded!
In fact, the riders first leave Karlovy Vary to the North for an extra loop - and this loop contains a pretty steep Category 2 climb, culminating after 21 kilometers. Expect a big fight for those points!
After the return back to Karlovy Vary - for the first intermediate sprint (km 51) - the route definitely leads the riders to the East, with the second Category 2 KoM sprint following shortly after (km 57). And this one is short, but very steep!
We then have yet another intermediate sprint after 92km, before tackling the final two KoM climbs in quick succession, after 134km and 146km. Both of them are 3rd category hills.
After a few more bumps, the final 20km are flat, or even slightly descending, meaning that the most likely scenario today is a bunch sprint. Let's see if this one will be less messy than the one on stage 2 - at least some of the stage favorites will clearly want to take their revenge!
This is especially true for Coquard and Groenewegen, who join Ewan as 3-star favorites again. And the bookies weren't very creative, as the rest of the list is pretty identical to the one from stage 2 as well - Van der Lijke, Van Poppel and Samolenkov get two stars, and Kemboi, Manninen, Lo Cicero and Van der Sande get one. The last name is actually the only new one - replacing stage 2 winner Cullaigh on that list! Let's see if the Brit really misses out on the Top10 today...
We'll get live images starting with the two final KoM sprints, but let's first take a look at what has already happened today:
What happened so far
Unlike on stage 2, we had heavy rain right from the start today. The riders were happy when the race was finally started, so they could at least keep their muscles warm.
The first attacker of the day was Muhindo, who stayed ahead solo for a while.
Boutopoulos was part of the second wave, alongside Van Baarle, Brunel, Pszczolarski and Stork, but ultimately was the only "survivor" of this group and joined Muhindo up front.
We then had a final serious attempt, with Bagioli, Nareklishvili, Pszczolarski, Swift and Potts - and again, only one of them was able to keep the chasing pack at bay. As you can see here, it was Bagioli.
The trio Muhindo, Boutopoulos and Bagioli came together when they reached the steepest slopes of the first KoM climb, with the pack already 2'30" behind them. Meaning that they are our breakaway of the day - and one of them is very likely to claim the KoM jersey!
Bagioli is clearly the strongest puncheur and climber among them, so he should be the favorite for this. Boutopoulos is more or less competent on the uphills as well, and can match the Italian's acceleration when it goes down the wire. And Muhindo will wonder why he chose a rather hilly stage for a breakaway.
Further behind, the sprinter teams took control of the race, and made sure that no other riders were able to escape. Kelly, De Kleijn and Baska were the hard workers in the early stages of the race.
As expected, Bagioli dominated his companions on both Category 2 climbs, gapping them on both occasions. Or, to be precise, gapping Boutopoulos twice, as Muhindo was never able to reconnect after losing 3 minutes already on the first climb! He was caught by the pack soon after the second climb - meaning he took 3rd place twice.
Here are the KoM points scored so far:
1.
Bagioli
20
2.
Boutopoulos
16
3.
Muhindo
12
4.
Kelly
4
4.
Baska
4
4.
De Kleijn
4
Meaning that the hard workers distributed the remaining points among themselves and will likely end up in decent positions in the final KoM standings.
The order on the first two positions was reversed in the intermediate sprints, which Boutopoulos both won ahead of Bagioli. The latter already had 10 points before, and is now up to 18, which is virtual 10th place in the points standings.
And while Muhindo took the last points on the first intermediate sprint - between the two climbs - some sprinters fought it out for the final points at the second sprint. Ewan took the final points - bringing him up to 18 as well. Groenewegen, Philipsen and Lo Cicero were the other ones interested in those points but missing out.
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
The front duo is now on the first of two consecutive 3rd Category climbs. Given their 2 minute advantage on the pack, they can be pretty sure that one of them will win the KoM standings - and if Boutopoulos wins both remaining sprints ahead of Bagioli, they'd actually be ex-aequo!
Given that the climb was much shorter, Bagioli didn't have the time to play out his climbing advantage, and so the sprint was much closer than on the two first climbs. But the result is the same - Bagioli wins it ahead of Boutopoulos and exends his lead to 6 points! With only 6 points still on offer, the Greek pretty much has to hope that the Italian gets a puncture pretty soon...
Baska picks up the remaining points 2'20" later - the peloton took it easy on this hill. We can see all of the strong GC riders positioned well, nobody wants to lose their Top10 spot due to bad positioning on the last day!
Here are the updated provisional KoM standings:
1.
Bagioli
26
2.
Boutopoulos
20
3.
Muhindo
12
4.
Baska
6
5.
Kelly
4
5.
De Kleijn
4
The peloton closed the gap a bit on the downhill - but on these images they look to be much closer than they actually are, due to some 11% gradients leading to a pretty slow pace!
The leading duo still has a 1'47" advantage, and with only 1.7km to go, they should take the final KoM as well!
They indeed do - and with the roads being almost flat on top, Boutopoulos plays out his sprinting advantage to take the final KoM sprint of the race. Bagioli won't care, as he has just secured the KoM jersey!
The final points went to Sergent this time, who joins the KoM fun at the last second as well. And he now leads the pack on the downhill, through some kind of a fan camp - but where are all those people actually?
As we said, Bagioli has won the KoM competition, here are the full standings:
1.
Bagioli
30
2.
Boutopoulos
26
3.
Muhindo
12
4.
Baska
6
5.
Kelly
4
5.
De Kleijn
4
7.
Sergent
2
The pack has a 1'52" deficit to make up on the final 35 kilometers now!
Now it's Dlamini who sets a horrendous pace in the peloton - and given that we still are on a rollercoaster-like terrain, the peloton is really stretched out - and we even see some gaps opening!
With 25km to go, Bagioli thinks his chances are better alone, and he leaves Boutopoulos behind!
The remainders of the peloton are just one minute behind - and we get notice that there are only 46 riders left in that mini-pack!
Here we get a view of some of the riders who were on the wrong side of the split!
The first rider on the picture is Fiedler, who just lost contact with the "peloton" as well, which is now down to 45 men!
We then have Appollonio and Dainese in a first group of 6 - both minor contenders for the stage win. The big name however is in the following group of 17 - it's Manninen! It looks like the Mexicans are focusing on defending their GC results today, forgetting to protect their sprinter!
There are far too many riders here to list them all, but it looks like all the Top10 GC riders are up front! Maybe we'll get some more names later on if those splits persist!
In the meantime, the small pack reaches the 20km mark, where it's game over for Boutopoulos. Bagioli is only a couple of meters further ahead, so we'll probably see another bunch sprint today! Let's see what it means for sprint preparations that there are much less potential helpers and leadouts...
The distanced groups are trying to get back, but right now it doesn't look too promising... Instead, the peloton is dropping some more riders - e.g. Korsaeth, who is 17th in GC!
And as we've gotten more information by now, this is by no means surprising - in fact, the Top14 of the GC are all up front, but after those there's not a single Top50 rider left up front! The next ones are Christian (52nd) and Ioannidis (55th) - if those gaps stand, they could make some nice jumps! For example, the former is just 1'15" behind 20th place!
13 definitely isn't Bagioli's lucky number, as he's caught with 13km to go! Dlamini is still setting a really high pace, and the teams of the two other top sprinters are helping to keep the speed up!
We can see the second group not that far behind, but the gap just isn't shrinking, it looks like they can't ride faster than the mini-peloton!
10km left for the front group, while the chasers are still desperately trying to come back. Some to save their GC result, and others to just be able to join the sprint today!
Only 5 kilometers to go, and if anything has changed, then it's the fact that the gap between the first two groups has gone up a couple of seconds again!
ISA - Hexacta are trying to play their numbers - but with Ewan already in 2nd position this probably isn't optimal. Let's see how the sprinter teams handle the leadout with only very few helpers around!
3 kilometers to the line, and now it's Coquard - led out by Kelly - who's up in 2nd position! Ewan has taken his wheel, renouncing to any additional help from the team. Samolenkov is behind the Australian.
Then we have Groenewegen who still has De Kleijn in front of him - maybe the most comfortable situation right now! Behind the Dutch RR Champion is his compatriot Van Poppel, followed by Van der Sande.
Lo Cicero has Kemboi and Cullaigh in his wheel. Van der Lijke and Philipsen are further back - probably too far. Not as far as Manninen, though, who's still hoping for the 2nd group to rejoin... Not much time left to do so, though!
De Kleijn has now passed everyone, bringing Groenewegen to the front! In the Dutchman's wheel are Coquard, Ewan, Samolenkov, Lo Cicero and Van Poppel.
In the middle of the road, we have Kemboi, Cullaigh and Van der Sande.
With still 2 kilometers to go, this will be an extremely long sprint, with no helpers left at all!
But as it looked like Groenewegen was about to pass his leadout already, he suddenly almost made a full stop, deciding it was too early to launch! So with 1,200m to go, De Kleijn now even has a small gap, but isn't pushing hard anymore.
Instead, it looks like Lo Cicero is launching, as well as some non-sprinters like Würtz or even Phinney and Keizer even further back!
Under the red kite, it's Van Poppel who hits the front with a massive acceleration! Kemboi tries to follow, but looks to have a hard time doing so! On the other hand, Lo Cicero looks rather empty to be honest...
Let's try to get an overview of the situation:
Van Poppel
De Kleijn
Coquard
Samolenkov
Kemboi
Groenewegen
Ewan
Lo Cicero
Cullaigh
Würtz
Kelly
Dlamini
Vorobev
Van der Sande
Razumov
Tanfield
Phinney
Philipsen and Van der Lijke look to be out of this, still being towards the end of the group. And if Phinney still wants to have a chance to turn around the GC, he'll have to act quickly!
Van Poppel's acceleration has brought him a clear advantage going into the final 700 meters! Kemboi is 2nd, followed by the duo Samolenkov - Coquard. Ewan and Groenewegen are the final riders in this group of just 6 sprinters that has broken free!
Cullaigh is trying to chase them down, and Würtz has launched his sprint as well - just like Wouters who came from pretty far behind!
Van der Sande has missed the move, probably due to having been stuck behind Kelly, while Lo Cicero indeed has lost all his speed and won't be successful today, either!
500m to the line, and Van Poppel keeps the pace up, so the others don't really get closer! On the contrary, Kemboi rather seems to have lost some momentum and now has to fight for his podium spot against Coquard and Samolenkov!
Ewan and Groenewegen aren't out of this yet, but will have to find something special to fly past everyone - and they indeed have the highest speed right now!
Coquard has now definitely left Samolenkov and Kemboi behind - but with 300m to go might be running out of road to actually overtake Van Poppel!
Groenewegen looks to have some room alongside the fences, while Ewan seems to be stuck behind Coquard!
Just 200 meters to go, and Van Poppel looks pretty safe for the win! Kemboi seems to have found a second wind, drawing level with Coquard again, and Samolenkov is clsoing in, too!
Groenewegen and Ewan just don't seem to have that extra gear today.
The fastest man right now clearly is Cullaigh - but he just missed the right move and will likely have to settle for 7th.
On the other side of this group, Van Poppel seems to be unstoppable, while Coquard, Samolenkov and Kemboi are still fighting for the two remaining podium spots!
And he's done it! Danny Van Poppel wins the closing stage of Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha, bettering his 2nd place from two days ago! Congratulations!
Coquard seems to have the edge in the fight for 2nd, but it will be close!
Bryan Coquard indeed finishes 2nd today, after having been caught completely out of position on stage 2. Artem Samolenkov actually participated in a sprint today - and did really well, edging out Salem Kemboi for 3rd place!
And while the fight for 3rd was really close, this one is even tighter! After some lengthy deliberations and moving the rulers back and forth, they award 5th place to Caleb Ewan, while Dylan Groenewegen has to settle for 6th. Both won't be particularly happy with their result, though.
Gabriel Cullaigh then finishes 7th, as supposed earlier. Subpar positioning or slow reaction led to him hanging between the front 6 and the rest of the mini-peloton, leaving him unable to repeat his win from stage 2.
The sprinters who were caught most off-position finally turned things around and still take their Top10 spots, with Tosh Van der Sande fending off Jasper Philipsen and Nick Van der Lijke for 8th place. Phinney finishes just outside the Top10 and hence wasn't able to avoid his GC defeat with a last-second miracle.
And some time later, Dainese wins the sprint of the second group ahead of Manninen and Ganna for 46th place.
Way more important though is the gap awarded by the jury: No gap! The poor sprint preparation, almost leading to a standstill in the front group with about 1.5km to go, probably was decisive for the second group to reduce their deficit by so much that the timekeepers decided it didn't matter anymore! Phew...
This man didn't care about any gaps or time losses anyway, as he only had the stage win in mind - and that's what he got! Runner-up on stage 2, Danny Van Poppel did the same as Cullaigh back then, being the first to launch his sprint and just not letting anyone get past himself! Well done!
Bryan Coquard at least somewhat redeemed himself today by taking 2nd place, after his no-show two days ago. He surely didn't get from this race what he wanted, but a stage podium is still better than nothing.
Which is definitely true for Artem Samolenkov as well! He had various stages this year where he just didn't find the right position to participate in the sprint, but he took advantage of that reduced peloton today to finally get a good result!
Marlen Zmorka handled all of today's challenges like a champion, never being in danger of missing a split - and so he indeed ends up being our 2022 Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha champion! After having had very limited success this year so far, this was the race where he turned things around, beating the ITT World Champion and finally taking the GC win! Congratulations!
And the Ukranian is the first race winner not called Taylor Phinney since this race was converted from a classic into a stage race. The US American was close to winning stage 3 - and the entire race - once again, but this time was beaten by a very strong Zmorka! Still, 2nd place is nothing to be scoffed at - although his manager will probably have a different point of view.
Behind Phinney, the Los Pollos Hermanos Fiesta continues, as we have Martijn Keizer in 3rd and Jasha Sütterlin in 4th place! It was an insane race for the team - but it somehow feels kind of deserved after the bad luck they had earlier on. Congratulations again!
With a stage win backed up by a 2nd place, it's no surprise that Danny Van Poppel takes home the green jersey! He was definitely the most consistent sprinter on the two flat stages, scoring 45 points.
The runner-up is Salem Kemboi with 35 points; the Kenyan actually is the only rider with 3 Top10 results in 4 stages (4th on both sprint stages, 9th in the prologue). Stage 2 winner Cullaigh ends up 3rd, meaning that none of the TT specialists did well enough in both races against the clock to get a podium spot in the points standings!
As mentioned during the stage, Nicola Bagioli is our King of the Mountains! The Italian collected 30 out of 32 possible points, winning this classification ahead of his breakaway companions Georgios Boutopoulos and Jimmy Muhindo.
The chasing sprinter teams get a small bonus by bringing at least one rider each into the scoring positions as well!
Mathias Norsgaard is the one who somewhat saved this race for his team, and winning the white jersey - by almost a one-minute margin - brings some more very welcome points as well. He had a great day yesterday - and surely his home team Tryg will be looking forward to get him back maxed next year!
Ioannidis Kiriakidis in 2nd place gets some kind of consolation prize for his team, given the dismal GC result of their top TTer. Diego Agustin Ferreyra finishes 3rd, denying wildcard rider Pogacar a U25 podium.
With 3 riders in the Top4 of the GC, it's obvious that the winners of the team standings are Los Pollos Hermanos! Just to illustrate their dominance: The 2'30" gap between the Mexicans and runner-up team Grieg-Maersk is more than the difference between 2nd and 9th, which is 2'02"!
By the way, the race for 2nd was close, given that Polar end up only 9" behind the Norwegians!
What else to say about this race? It will probably be remembered as the one where Phinney suffered his first ever defeat on the long ITT - and hence in the GC. But even more, it will be remembered as a Fiesta Mexicana, with Los Pollos Hermanos dominating the GC in a rarely seen manner!
Thanks for following us during these last 4 days, and goodbye!
Praha - Karlovy Vary - Praha 
