Schlegel did very well yesterday by winning the stage and gaining valuable time on his GC opponents. Is any of them able to dethrone him on the queen’s stage?
The final climb gives twenty points, before that 42 KoM-points can also be scored. A group of sixteen riders quickly form the breakaway: Barcelo, Miller, Savini, Bergstrom Frisk, Yudha, Gonzales, Evenepoel, Le Court, Visser, Berthet, Fortunato, Rubio, Arifin, Garcia, Adriamihajanarivo and Cabanas. In terms of climbing capacities definitely not the worst breakaway group in this peloton.
Miller takes six points on top of the first climb of second category, behind him are Barcelo and Gonzales. In the peloton we currently see HelloFresh and Binance working.
The breakaway has been reduced to ten riders at the first and only intermediate sprint with 65 km left, due to the constant incline on the parcours. The six that are dropped are Berthet, Fortunato, Gonzales, Yudha, Visser and Savini. In the peloton, Jura, Tryg and McCormick have taken up chasing duties as well, as they are 1’50” behind the ten leaders.
We are on the Jebel Wijma, first out of two first category climbs. Evenepoel, Le Court, Rubio and Garcia are dropped, as Kireva attacks in the peloton, looking to add some KoM-points to his tally. Still 7.5 km to climb.
Arifin sets the pace up front, only Barcelo and Cabanas able to follow with 4 km to climb. Baroncini with a big turn in the peloton of 75 riders, as they are 1’20” behind the race lead.
Barcelo attacks and drops Cabanas, but Arifin counterattacks and takes sixteen KoM-points on top of the Jebel Wijma. From the peloton, Lietaer attacks to also grab ten points. Schlegel, Arifin and Barcelo all with 20 KoM-points at the moment. Only 28 riders remain in the peloton at 1’30” of Arifin, as Schultz (2nd GC) is among the victims! Jura domestique Mäder and Martin are also dropped!
Arifin start his ascent of the second climb of first category, the Jebel Yasab. 10.5 km at 8.1%! Between him and the peloton of 28 is still Barcelo, let’s have a quick overview of the teams and rider present in the peloton with 44 km to go:
Binance: Ikibe, Wirtgen, Antunes, Kaczmarek, Benito (5)
Tryg: Johannessen, Schlegel (2)
Tafjord: Paulus, Hoem, Blikra (3)
Jura: Stüssi (1)
HelloFresh: Heymes, Potocki, Battistella (3)
Staffbase: Lietaer (1)
McCormick: Warbasse (1)
BNZ: Schleck (1)
Indosat: Kolar (1)
Le Creuset: Gogl, Berlin, Teuns, Alaphilippe (4)
Bordeaux: Doubey, Pacher, Rodriguez (3)
Africa: Kireva (1)
Red Bull: Cabanas (1)
Bianchi: Petilli (1)
5 km to climb! Arifin does really well to still hold a 50” lead, whereas Barcelo has been eaten up by the peloton. Heymes went for a cheeky attack, but is also already back in the peloton, whereas Schultz came back to that group of favourites all by himself with a big move. The group Mäder is 2’30” behind the group of thirty favourites.
And the Indosat rider takes a big chance of winning the polka-dots, as he crosses the top in first after a great ride! 33 km to go, one small descent and a long climb. A group of twenty favourites, with Stüssi now just in first position, crosses the top 30” later. Some domestiques have gone overboard, including Heymes, Lietaer, Ikibe and Paulus.
Jebel Shams, final climb of the day! 24.5 km at over 7%! Everybody in the following group looking at Stüssi, who is already doing a fair share of the work! Not what the Jura team car likes to see!
Seconds after writing that, domestiques Johannessen and Battistella took over and immediately reeled in breakaway hero Arifin. 20 km left, twenty-one riders left in contention for the win! Although we can assume the majority of these twenty-one will already be very happy if they can hold on for at least a couple of kilometres. First other group over three minutes behind by now.
15 km to the finish line, seventeen riders left. Time for another quick overview of the names, but let’s also hope none of them is scared of heights/and or drives to close to the left side of this road!
HelloFresh: Battistella, Potocki (2)
Tryg: Johannessen, Schlegel (2)
Jura: Stüssi (1)
McCormick: Warbasse (1)
Tafjord: Hoem, Blikra (2)
Binance: Benito, Wirtgen, Antunes (3)
Bordeaux: Doubey (1)
Indosat: Kolar (1)
BNZ: Schleck, Schultz (2)
Le Creuset: Teuns, Berlin (2)
Final ten km, as we are nearing the climax of this Tour of the Middle East! Still sixteen riders left up front, as only Binance’s Benito has been dropped in the last five km. The hardest and steepest part of this climb still to come!
We had the same two domestiques at the front for quite a while, but with 7 km to go Tafjord is now using Blikra to uppen the pace. Battistella is the first victim, and that can’t be a surprise.
And we immediately see why! Hoem attacks with six km left! So far, in his wheel are Stüssi, Warbasse, Schlegel, Potocki and Antunes! Behind we see Schleck trying to react as well, as others like Doubey, Kolar and Wirtgen are entirely done for!
Warbasse has to sit down, and yellow jersey Schlegel can’t follow the Tafjord rider either, little regrouping in the group of favourites, as only Hoem and Stüssi have a 30” gap with 5.5 km to climb!
Looks like the McCormick rider really overdid himself by trying to follow that Hoem move! 5 km left and 33” behind our two leaders are Schleck and Schultz for BNZ, Teuns for Le Creuset, Schlegel for Tryg and Antunes for Binance! Just behind those five is HelloFresh’ Potocki!
The leading duo with 1’10” already as there are 4 km’s to go! The BNZ duo can’t follow the others anymore in the chase, so the three chasers are yellow jersey Schlegel, Teuns and Antunes!
Unbelievable, Hoem with the ride of his life! Another acceleration with 2.5 km to go, no answer from Stüssi!
We are high in the sky as the Norwegian enters the final km with a 22” lead over the Jura rider! His max lead was 30”, it is not over yet!
But it is now! A monstrous ride from the Norwegian, beating CT’s finest by conquering the Jebel Shams! Half a minute later, Stüssi comes in second in both the stage and the GC. Finishing second in GC was always a possibility, but then the name that would come into everyone’s mind would be Schlegel!
But the Czech only just finishes on the GC podium! A very strong Teuns sprints to third and gaps both Schlegel (4th) and Antunes (5th). Teuns fourth in GC, Antunes fifth.
The BNZ duo of Schleck and Schultz finish sixth and seventh on the stage, and in the GC. A bit later strong domestique Johannessen eases the Tryg pain a bit with eighth on the stage and also the white jersey. Potocki next to him in ninth on the stage and 8th in GC.
Blikra set up the winning attack and makes the Tafjord day even brighter, tenth on the stage and also in GC. An incredibly disappointed Warbasse comes over the line with Berlin just behind him, as the McCormick rider finishes ninth in GC. Arifin wins the polka-dots, Schlegel green and Tafjord the teams classification!
