Hello everyone! This is the last stage of the week, and we celebrate that by going in France. And what a stage that will be!
The race begins in Biescas, in the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees, and we (well, the rider) will directly head up the Alto de Portalet, where the riders will cross the border. A long descent, and the two iconic passes will come: the col d’Aubisque, and then the Tourmalet, where the stage will be judged.
In such a stage, we’re sure to have a big breakaway, though 43 is maybe a bit too much for the favorites, so the peloton is chasing. The road is already going up, even though the pass only officially begins in 6 km.
We are in (and I’m happy to be in my car), and the peloton seems to have settle for 39 guys breakaway. It would not be ideal to tire the domestiques too soon.
Let’s see who we have upfront:
Ferreyra, Koshevoy
Dima, Tolhoek
Ansons, Vosekalns
Kamp, Van Poucke
Nareklishvili, Beltran
Denz
Sirironnachai, Ho, Salazar
Schinnagel, Zwiehoff
Misbah
Carr, Lopez, Dekker, Stroll, Jorgenson
Papanov, Topchanyuk, Tanovitchii
Pronskiy, Verschaeve
Cabrera, Munton, Geniets
Visser, Munyaneza, Gebrezgabihier, Van Heerden
Kelly, Morin
Moricz
Romo
Reichenbach
The gap is 1’03 for this appetizer (cat. 1, 14,6 km, 4,8%).
Lutsyshyn has already been dropped. What a nightmare this race is becoming for him. Meanwhile, Moricz is quickly dropped from the break.
Said break explodes in the hardest slopes of the pass.
Tolhoek feels like he has good legs and attacks 1,6 km from the top.
He manages to take the 16 points, despite a great effort from Ho. Schinnagel is third.
As a gruppetto of sprinters is forming around green jersey Degenkolb, the peloton is 2’ late on a 11 men breakaway. There are 7 men in between the two groups.
Polar, UBS, Moser and cycleYorkshire are the teams working.
The break is back to 17 as they’re about to begin the Col d’Aubisque (HC, 16 km, 7,4%). Beltran could not come back. The gap with a 150 men peloton is up to 3 minutes.
Degenkolb’s group also made it back in the peloton.
Zwiehoff and Vosekalns put on a hard pace in the break.
Their advantage on the peloton is growing bigger, and there are splits. 3 km to go in the climb.
Vosekalns doesn’t want to haul everybody, so he attacks.
Zwiehoff can bring Schinnagel back, and the German takes the 20 points and the provisional lead in the mountain classification. He’s got 9 points on Tohoek and 12 on Vosekalns and Topchanyuk.
The break should regroup in the descent. 65 km to go in the stage. Van Heerden, Gebrezgabihier and Geniets will probably not make it back, though.
Huski is working in the pack with Dima and Vader. Abreu is helping.
Big splits in the pack in the descent. Only 84 riders elft for now. No favorite trapped as far as I can see.
Seems like Lopez has energy! He sprints to take first in the sprint in Pierrefitte-Nestalas.
The others are not really interested.
14 men in the break right now, the Tourmalet begins in 11 km: Lopez, Jorgenson, Koshevoy, Van Poucke, Pronskiy, Topchanyuk, Tolhoek, Cabrera, Misbah, Denz, Ho, Vosekalns, Zwiehoff and Schinnagel.
They have 3’46 on Van Heerden, Gebrezgabihier and Geniets . The peloton is 1’46 behind these 3.
UBS and Huski strongly chasing now. Seems like the Dutchs don’t really believe in the Tolhoek’s victory. Moser is certainly happy to let them work.
And it’s finally time for the Tourmalet! 19 km, 7,5% and a finish line over the 2100 meters! What a legendary pass! The break has a 4’40 lead. That will probably not be enough… The others have been caught.
13 km to go and Vosekalns ups the pace.
Zwiehoff, Schinnagel, Jorgenson, Lopez, Denz and Ho are dropped.
The peloton is still 89 mmen strong, 4’30 behind.
Lopez tries to mend the gap, but Jorgensen and Zwiehoff can’t follow.
Now it’s the peloton who’s at the 13 km line. Eastman attacks! Well, that’s far.
It leads nowhere, and then it’s Godoy and Bongiorno who have a small gap.
The red jersey Kudus is still safely hidden inside the peloton.
Right after the 10 km banner, Vosekalns goes at it again! This time, nobody can follow.
In the peloton, Formolo and Sosa attack the red jersey! Carthy and Schelling are right behind them.
7 km to go for Vosekalns, but it only gets harder now. He has a 1’ lead on a group of 7, which should be joined by Schinnagel, Lopez, Denz and Ho.
Jorgenson and Zwiehoff are one more minute down, and they have 1’30 on Formolo and Sosa, who have Warchol 14 seconds behind. Quite strange to have him here and not beside his leader.
The said red jersey’s group is 10 more seconds behind.
Vosekalns lead on the favorites is up to 4 minutes.
As soon as the favorites are back together, Dombrowski attacks!
Meanwhile, Vosekalns lead on the chasers is growing to 1’30, with 4,3 km to go. This seems to have been the good attack for the Letton, if the favorites don’t catch up.
Dombrowski’s attack broke the red jersey’s group, which is down to 25 men. The Gazelle leader now has a 48’’ gap, and he’s catching on Jorgenson. No reaction from Kudus for now.
3,6 km to go for the favorites. Preidler, Mavrikakis, Vingegaard, Nesset and Munoz are dropped.
Nobody really tries to catch up Dombrowski, and his gap is up to 1’20.
2 last kilometers for Vosekalns. He’s got a 1’03 lead on the remains of the break, and 2’26 on Dombrowski.
Last kilometer, and look who this is behind Vosekalns! Zwiehoff and Schinnagel are back, accompanied by Pronskiy. They are closing fast.
The others are 1 minute behind. Dombrowski is climbing very fast.
500 m. The Puma riders have caught Vosekalns and dropped Pronskiy.
300 m. Zwiehoff has finished his work, and Schinnagel goes for it in slopes above 12%!
100 last meters! Vosekalns finds a second wind to try to resist.
Oh, that’s so sad! The Letton did celebrate, but it’s Schinnagel who wins!
What a disappointment for the Evonik rider, and what a victory for the German! He’ll take the best climber jersey too!
Yes, I hear you, this breakaway victory is good and all, but what’s happening for the GC? Well, Dombrowski gap is down to 45’’, he has 700 m to climb.
And. Wait, what a sensation The red jersey is dropped under the flamme rouge! It’s not a tactic problem for Moser: their leader was not well! Let’s hope he’ll be able to fight the other days… Warchol and Olivier are also dropped.
Zwiehoff managed to take the 3rd place. Good work a good result for him!
400 m for Dombrowski. In the white jersey’s group, the three U25 favorites are still here.
Pronskiy is 4th.
And Tolhoek, with a last effort, completes the top 5 ahead of Dombrowski and remains in the best climber course!
Well, I’m sure the American will not be too sad. He’s 6th and will more than probably take the red jersey. Topchanyuk is 7th, Lopez is 8th. Good ride from the break for the Zwift rider. Koshevoy is 9th, ahead of Schelling, the 2nd favorite to finish, and who rounds of the top 10.
After a long day, Lutsyshyn finishes 56 minutes after the winner and has earned the right to continue tomorrow.
In the GC, Kudus loses 2 minutes to Dombrowski. The American now is the leader, with a 52’’ lead on Formolo and 54’’ on Yates.
Schinnagel has an 18 points lead in the best climber competition.
Higuita takes the white jersey, which makes this quite a good day for Isostar. He has 50’’ on Sosa, 53’’ on Lopez – good operation for him – and 1’35 on Inkelaar.
Despite they taking the GC lead, Gazelle fell hard on the team classification, now lead by Isostar with a 3’ lead on Zwift.
Transition stage tomorrow! Another one for the break, or for the sprinters? We’ll find out then. I’ll wait you here.
