Hello, and welcome back to, ehm, Switzerland?!? No, of course not, but with today's stage starting in Geneva, and a village named Dresden nearby, one might think we're in Central Europe today.
We're not, we're in the Finger Lakes region, still in the U.S., and even still in the State of New York. It's one of just three stages above 200km in length - and it's actually the longest one of the entire race! And with the profile almost looking like a saw blade, it will definitely be a tough one! It's the third out of four hilly stages in a row; let's take a closer look at it!
As mentioned before, we're in Geneva - not on the western end of Lake Geneva, but on the northern end of Seneca Lake. Which might be an important geographical detail, with more than 20 cities named "Geneva" in the U.S. This one counts just below 15,000 inhabitants - more than 10 times smaller than the Swiss city where its name (supposedly) comes from.
Initially named Kanadaseaga and inhabited by the Seneca tribe, the natives were later removed by force and European-Americans took over the settlement, which eventually became a city. Nowadays, the Geneva identifies as the "Lake Trout Capital of the World" and is an important junction as well as the headquarter of Finger Lakes Railway.
Many a rider would love to take the train today, but no. The start of the stage is easy, though, as they will first move south alongside Seneca Lake, thereby picking up some sprint points in Glenora after 39km - but racing really starts when they arrive in Watkins Glen on the southern end of the lake.
Instead of going straight to the finish line, they will tackle the County Line Road climb for the first out of three times. They won't ride all the way up to the KoM sprint, though, instead moving on westward until they reach the 4th category KoM sprint named Lockwood Road (106km).
After the descent, they'll have covered about half of the stage. After a sprint next to Waneta Lake (142km), they'll arrive on the shores of Seneca Lake again - and this time they'll do the full County Line Road climb, which is rewarded with category 3 KoM points after 180km.
They will then descend on the other side - just to tackle the climb again, for the third time. They won't go all the way up again - instead reaching Donovan Hill after 205 kilometers (4th category).
From there, we'll have two more minor hills - and then it's downhill all the way to the finish line in Watkins Glen. Instead of just about 60km, it will take the peloton almost 230km of rollercoaster cycling to finally get to the end of this longest stage.
Despite having less than 2,000 inhabitants, every car racing fan knows Watkins Glen, due to the Watkins Glen International race track, hosting annual NASCAR Cup Series - and having formerly hosted the F1 United States GP. It's also one of the largest Personal Watercraft race venues today. Those who like it more naturally will find delight in the Watkins Glen State Park with a narrow gorge featuring lots of waterfalls.
But today, we'll honour the village's racing tradition with the longest 2022 Tour of America stage ending here! And who is in Pole Position to take the win? Well, the bookies aren't too innovative - they again see a puncheur winning the stage. Bennett, Edmondson and Hoelgaard top the list for the 3rd day in a row, while Rumac and Barta again get two stars. Velasco joins them today - and Senni, after two rather low finishes, gets only one star. Pedrero, McCormick and Eenkhoorn do so, too. Race leader Moazemi isn't there, though.
Nor are the sprinters - although Eislers clearly proved yesterday that he can be dangerous if the pace is low enough. Let's see which scenario we get today - but first we look back on the first half of the stage:
What happened so far
We say it pretty much every day, but it's another beautiful and sunny day here in the U.S. From the start line, the riders could see a good part of Seneca Lake.
Cruz and Chevrier were the first attackers today, right after the gun.
The frontrunners had already built up a one-minute-lead, and we started wondering whether they'd be today's only attackers, as Biermans and Archbold implicitly answered this question.
Magnusson had quite a gap to bridge yesterday - he has learnt his lesson and went earlier today. Pursuing him were Medvedev, Reddish, Omarsson, Verhelst, Gallopin and Vine.
If you counted, you should arrive at 11 escapees so far - Sleen and Croes made that 13. Unlucky number, so today's breakaway was doomed right away.
Well, maybe later. First, they regrouped for a jolly ride alongside Seneca Lake. About 20km done, and another 20km to the first intermediate sprint in Glenora.
Here's our full breakaway of the day:
Cruz
Archbold
Medvedev
Biermans
Magnusson
Omarsson
Vine
Chevrier
Verhelst
Reddish
Gallopin
Croes
Sleen
Chevrier is both the best climber and puncheur of the group and should eye the KoM points - of which 16 are available, which is 3 more than Magnusson currently has. But there were some more decent uphill riders in the group, so we could expect some interesting KoM sprints!
Given that the finish line comes after a downhill and on a flat straight, sprinting skills might matter if they should still make it - and here the Air New Zealand duo would be favored.
And just for the sake of completeness, Sleen is the highest ranked rider in the GC, trailing Moazemi by 2'09" - and hence riding in virtual yellow with an advantage of 2'47" at this point.
Sleen even made sure to reduce that gap by some more seconds, winning the intermediate sprint in Glenora.
Sprint - Glenora
1.
Sleen
10 (10)
-6"
2.
Reddish
6 (6)
-4"
3.
Gallopin
4 (4)
-2"
4.
Vine
2 (2)
5.
Chevrier
1 (1)
The pack, led by BNZ, Philips, Colombini and Cedevita, crossed the line 4'28" later - the largest gap clocked so far on this stage.
Just as they reached the first buildings of Watkins Glen - and therefore the southern end of Seneca Lake - the escapees took a U-turn to enter the County Line Road climb for the first time. The pack was still 3'53" behind.
After the uncategorized climbs of County Line Road and Sugar Hill, there finally were some KoM points available at Lockwood Road. Magnusson once again took full points.
KoM - Lockwood Road (4th)
1.
Magnusson
5 (18)
2.
Croes
3 (3)
3.
Medvedev
1 (1)
Van Den Bossche led the pack over the top four minutes later. And now, with 100km left, let's jump into the live action!
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
After the descent, the riders arrived at Hammondsport, at the southern end of Keuka Lake - another one of the Finger Lakes. The escapees are tackling one of the numerous short yet very steep hills - this one is named Coryell Road, 1.3km long and having sections with gradients beyond 20%!
The pack can also be seen not too far behind - it's still a three-minutes gap, but it's been shrinking lately.
It doesn't look like Taillefour will get rid of the red lantern anytime soon, as he's again the first rider to lose contact in the pack.
The peloton often sees some splits over those hills, but until now they were always able to regroup.
Back down on the shores of Keuka Lake, we can see where the water body has its name from - Keuka means "Lake with an elbow" in the Seneca language. The lake is actually Y-shaped, and this is where the two "upper" branches separate.
Zariff is leading the peloton, still trailing the escapees by 3 minutes. The breakaway is about to tackle the hill leading them up to Waneta Lake, where they'll fight for some more sprint points.
And here they already are! Hard to see the order behind Chevrier who wins this one, but the race officials communicate the following result:
Sprint - Waneta Lake
1.
Chevrier
10 (11)
-6"
2.
Croes
6 (10)
-4"
3.
Omarsson
4 (10)
-2"
4.
Cruz
2 (2)
5.
Vine
1 (3)
They're about to tackle another one of those sharp climbs - Disbrow Hill is 600m long with an average slope of 11.3%...
By the way, the pack hasn't gotten a lot closer, they still are 2'45" behind. 80 kilometers left.
"Big Stream" is another one of those hills, but the pack doesn't seem to particularly like those. They don't get much closer in this rollercoaster section of the stage.
Now we have a major split! Quite some good puncheurs and GC riders are on the wrong side of it - let's just name Hoelgaard, Velasco or Bouchard in the first category, as well as Kuss, Mannion, Power, Senni, Ratiy or Zimmermann in the latter one.
Of course, with still over 70km to go that split won't persist, but it should be a signal to some of those guys to be more attentive later on!
Further ahead, there's also a "split" - as Biermans punctures and is left behind. Bad luck...
And Biermans is already caught by the pack, which trails the remaining dozen of escapees by 2'12" as they approach Watkins Glen for the second time.
The breakaway has just started the second ascent of County Line Road, which will be rewarded by 6, 4 and 2 points for the first three riders on top.
After just two kilomters of climbing, Kraftwerk have seriously uppened the pace, and the peloton's deficit is already down to 1'28"!
Has everyone been attentive this time?
Well, it doesn't actually matter that much, as the pace in the pack has again slowed down, many helpers already being low on fuel it seems. So it's looking good for the escapees to at least take those points.
Not so much for Archbold, though, as he's the next rider to be dropped from the head of the race.
Verhelst then tries the early attack to get full points, with 1.5km still to climb. With those being mostly flat, that might actually work out!
Reddish is the first one to react, and Magnusson doesn't want to give up on the points without a fight, either.
And Magnusson didn't just want to fight for maximum points, he actually gets them once again! Which means he'll definitely wear the jersey again tomorrow.
KoM - County Line Road (3rd)
1.
Magnusson
6 (24)
2.
Reddish
4 (4)
3.
Verhelst
2 (2)
While it looked like Chevrier could actually keep up with the front group, he finally ended up with the chasers. So we currently have the following situation with less than 50km to go:
Magnusson
Reddish
Verhelst
Gallopin
+ 32"
Chevrier
Omarsson
Croes
Sleen
Vine
Cruz
Medvedev
+ 1'08 (+ 1'40")
Archbold
+ 27" (+ 2'07")
Peloton
The pace in the pack was pretty slow on that climb - which also means that most of the (notable) gapped riders were able to come back to the 121 rider peloton.
The riders are approaching Watkins Glen for the 3rd time alongside Seneca Lake - and yeah, they'll soon tackle the County Line Road climb for the 3rd time as well.
The two front groups look to be coming back together, as only 18" separate them - and the pack, led by Haller, also has gone full throttle on the descent, reducing their deficit to 1'34".
Here we go! 36km left, 16km to the final KoM sprint atop Donovan Hill! The gaps are still similar, with the pack having cut back their deficit by a couple more seconds.
County Line Road is done - just to the left there's the KoM sprint we saw one lap ago - and not much has happened. The two front groups first reunited, but later Cruz, Gallopin and Medvedev have lost touch.
The remaining 8 escapees have been riding faster than the pack on this ascent, given that their advantage has exceeded the 2-minutes mark again!
The leaders have just arrived at the Webb Road climb - the last really steep one of the day! Omarsson is struggling to hold on, but generally the escapees are still doing a great job - they're still 1'42" ahead of the pack!
Could they actually have a chance of winning this after all, despite that unlucky numbers stuff?
We can see the reason why the pack's deficit isn't really going down - the helpers are all looking spent, and nobody wants to take any risks yet!
Donovan Hill itself is actually a very short climb with just 600 meters in length.
Magnusson is trying to make it 3/3 today, can anyone challenge him for this one?
Indeed! The Swede is looking pretty tired by now - not surprising, given that there are stronger climbers/puncheurs in this group. Sleen is one of them - unlike Reddish, who just uses his sprinting speed to sneak past as well.
KoM - Donovan Hill (4th)
1.
Sleen
5 (5)
2.
Reddish
3 (7)
3.
Magnusson
1 (25)
It's game over for Croes and Vine now, but the gap to the pack has gone up again above 2 minutes! 23km to go, quite some of them downhill - it looks more and more likely that one of those escapees could win the stage!
As the pack arrives on top, they're clocked at 2'19" - with the front of the race almost under the 20km arc already, this doesn't look good for the bunch! And remember - Sleen is just 2'09" behind in the GC, and is currently again riding in the virtual yellow jersey!
But now Eriksson decides that it's time to do something and attacks with 20km to go! Trailing Moazemi by just 11", that's actually an attack for the GC lead!
Betancourt and Edmondson are the first chasers.
Wow, it actually wasn't quite game over yet for Vine, who's showing some great fighting spirit to catch back up with the other five! Can Croes do the same? It doesn't look like he's got much left, though...
Further back, Eriksson is going strong and has left behind Omarsson! The Swede still trails the front group by 1'27" though, with his advantage over the pack being 21" - still making him the virtual race leader!
Eriksson's attack actually looks like a game-changer in this stage, as it made the breakaway's advantage melt away! Croes still trails the others by a couple of meters, Eriksson is about a minute back - but the pack, led by yellow jersey Moazemi himself, has almost closed the gap to the Swede.
Meads Hill is the last minor ascent of the day, from there it's just 15km flat and downhill - this will be a tense race!
It looks like Croes has definitely lost touch now, as Magnusson, Sleen, Verhelst, Chevrier, Vine and Reddish head into the downhill from Meads Hill!
Betancourt and Edmondson have now bridged across to Eriksson, while Rumac leads the rest of the pack - immediately followed by Eislers! The Latvian must be smelling blood now!
By the way, he's the only one of the really fast sprinters left up front - unsurprisingly.
No rider is allowed to break free from the pack - but as the pace slows down a bit, it's Moazemi who goes for it! The gap to the breakaway is just 38" now, can the GC leader close it and even go for a second stage win?
With 10km to go, the Iranian is now closer to the breakaway than to the pack! It's once again Betancourt leading the chase - and he's closely followed by... Eislers! 10km, 35 seconds - it's all of a sudden looking pretty good for the peloton (or its remainders) again!
By the way, if we don't mention gapped stage or GC favorites, it's just because they're all safe in the pack.
It looks like Moazemi overestimated his energy reserve, as he wasn't able to catch the breakaway - and is now caught by Eislers! 20" between the escapees and the pack!
But... the peloton simply doesn't seem to be interested in the stage win! They almost made a full stop, and the breakaway's advantage is back to 45 seconds! Nobody wants to make a move - it could soon be too late!
The escapees already are on the downhill to Watkins Glen, with the pack having reached the 5km mark - and still trailing by 40"!
The end of the descent is reached, and the breakaway riders are still working well together! The peloton has reduced the gap to 32" - this one could still go down to the wire!
And who else but Betancourt could be the one to set the pace in the pack? He's actually trying to ride away - but we've already mentioned his downhill skills (or lack thereof) two days ago...
Eislers however is definitely glad that someone does the work for him, reducing their deficit to 27"!
What's that? As soon as Betancourt sits up, everyone else does the same! They've come as close as 22", but nobody dares to attack now!
And so, with 1.6km to go, the escapees are still up front - it will take an incredibly strong sprint from a rider in the pack to still catch them!
When speaking of strong sprint - Reddish is the fastest man left up front, but what does that mean after more than 220km of racing?
Final kilometer for the breakaway! Nobody in the pack seems to care about the stage win, so we can focus on the sprint of those up front!
Verhelst entered the final 1,000 meters in the most unlucky position - the leading one. He's about to be overtaken by Vine, while Reddish has to hope to find enough space on the left rail! Magnusson, Sleen and Chevrier currently are outside the podium spots, but could benefit from the frontrunners' slipstream!
500m to go, and Verhelst still has the lead - but Reddish has now launched his sprint and is the fastest man on the road! Vine doesn't look to be strong enough for the win, and Magnusson might not find the space he needs to get through!
Reddish now is in the lead 200m from the line, and it's a really close race between Verhelst and Magnusson for 2nd! Can any of them even challenge for the win?
Vine is still there, but is rather losing ground, while Sleen and Chevrier are probably out of it.
100m to go, and it's still Reddish in the lead! Magnusson is moving just as fast, though - does he have one extra gear left?
No, he doesn't! It's Nick Reddish who wins stage 5 here in Watkins Glen - and it's the first win for a CT team in the 2022 edition! Congratulations!
Kim Magnusson did a great job today in terms of KoM points, but wasn't able to crown his day with a stage win. 2nd place is still a nice result, though!
The same holds for Louis Verhelst, who didn't have a good position going into the sprint, but held onto 3rd! Jay Vine takes a respectable 4th place for yet another CT team.
And he's followed by two more CT riders, with Torjus Sleen and Clement Chevrier taking 5th and 6th. A good day for the lowest division!
Not a good day for Ingus Eislers, though. He dominates the sprint of the peloton's leftovers, but given the lack of initiative on the final 10 kilometers, that's only good for 7th place. Carlos Betancourt, the most active rider in the peloton today, takes 8th.
Behind them, George Bennett and Arvin Moazemi pick up the final Top 10 spots - what could have been if...
But the "ifs" are worth nothing, as the fact is that Nick Reddish wins the longest stage of the 2022 Tour of Amercia! Congratulations on a successful breakaway attempt!
Kim Magnusson and Louis Verhelst didn't quite have enough left to take the win, but they still did a good job to pick up the other podium spots.
In terms of GC, we finally didn't get any major changes. The peloton only lost 36", and none of the main contenders gained any time or bonus seconds. And so, Arvin Moazemi still leads 11" and 21" ahead of the Cedevita duo of Lucas Eriksson and Geoffrey Bouchard.
Although he again was unable to keep up with the pack, Tom Van Asbroeck's green jersey wasn't endangered due to the breakaway getting all the big points. Arvin Moazemi is still getting closer and closer though, trailing the Belgian by just 12 points now. With 43 points, Ingus Eislers is now in 3rd place, trailing the Belgian by 23 points.
Kim Magnusson didn't just defend his KoM lead, he did even massively extend it! With 25 points, he's now 16 points ahead of Matic Groselj - yes, the Slovenian still sits in 2nd place. And Michael Antonelli and Hayden McCormick still share 3rd place with 8 points each.
Tomorrow, 27 points are on offer, so in theory anyone could attack the Swede's lead.
No major changes in the young rider standings, either. Pascal Eenkhoorn still leads 6" ahead of Thymen Arensman - who was briefly gapped, just like Alex Hoehn in 3rd place (+ 11"), but both eventually rejoined the peloton.
We almost did have a leader change in the team standings, though. Pavlic, who previously was 15th in the GC, missed out on the peloton, and so only two Cedevita riders finished up front. Which means that Kraftwerk Man Machine reduced their deficit to 11", while Assa Abloy moved up to 3rd and now trail by 19".
And this was the longest stage of this tour! A tough race in the hills ended with our first breakaway win of the race - and the next hilly stage is already lurking around the corner! See you tomorrow in... Naples!
Tour of America 
