Welcome back to the 2022 Tour of America! It's day 13, and we're approaching the end of week #2 - but before the well-deserved break, two more grueling days await the riders! For example, today is the stage with most KoM points available on a single day - 64 of them are on the table.
We're in Kelowna today (this time for real), and everything you may want to know about the location can be found in yesterday's stage description. So let's move on to presenting today's route - including two sprints and 6 KoMs - plus the one at the finish line, of course!
We'll take William R. Bennett Bridge to cross Okanagan Lake, and then immediately tackle the first KoM climb of the day to West Kelowna (3rd), reached after 8km already. Not much later - after 19km - the riders will already be on top of the first 4th category hill, Peachland.
After the first intermediate sprint in Summerland, the riders will reach a region many of them may already know from the Apex Mountain Classic - although several climbs are usually tackled from the other side in that classic.
We'll start slowly with West Bench (4th, 68km), before tackling the much longer climb named Green Mountain Road (3rd, 84km). Mount Parker (3rd, 105km) is climbed on the easier side today, before the 1st category climb to Orofino Mountain is tackled from the steeper, the east side.
Once the top is reached after 144km, the descent to the second intermediate sprint in Keremeos (159km) and the following slightly ascending roads might allow some riders to catch up again. But then, the HC Apex Mountain climb will definitely decide the stage - and some riders might definitely see their GC hopes crushed on that mountain!
The good news for the peloton is, they don't have to go all the way to the top today; the stage stops at Apex Mountain Resort - a ski resort - following a short descent. But it will definitely still be hard enough, not just to separate the wheat from the chaff, but even to make the difference between top wheat and subtop wheat.
And who could stand on top today? The bookies probably took a look at the Apex Mountain Classic results, as they list this year's winner Bennett on top. Followed by his fellow 81 climbers, Choi and Pluchkin. Carapaz, Ranaweera and U25 leader Eenkhoorn are next, with Kritskiy, Faglum Karlsson, Senni and Nerz rounding off the list. No love for Kuss, who finished 3rd in Apex Mountain Classic.
Now, let the games begin - although we'll only get live pictures from the decisive part of the stage, starting with Orofino Mountain. Here's what happened before:
What happened so far
It was partly cloudy this morning when the riders took off for what looks like one of the toughest stages of this tour. Moazemi was wearing the yellow jersey for the 9th time in this race - very likely for the last time this year.
The first attacks came right ahead of William R. Bennett Bridge, and the first two daredevils were local hero Piccoli and Bouchard. Tesfaye Heyi, Hamilton and McCormick were hot on their heels, though.
Five men ahead, five men chasing - Shapira, Betancourt, McKenna, Lane and Hecht are the names of these riders.
More attacks? Sure. With Kelowna still in sight - and another view of Okanagan Lake - we had Bonnamour, Gilanipoor, La Lavandier, Lovik, Chevrier, Pernsteiner, Roman and Pedrero in this move. That was a total of 18 riders ahead of the pack. For now.
The climb to West Kelowna was already on, as we got yet another group of four breaking free. To the fans' great delight, another local rider, Matte, was leading the group, accompanied by Reddish, Henao and Richardson.
Arriving atop the West Kelowna climb, McKenna joined the race for the KoM jersey, picking up his first points:
KoM - West Kelowna (3rd)
1.
McKenna
6 (6)
2.
Hecht
4 (9)
3.
Betancourt
2 (12)
The attackers were still scattered all around the place, so we had to wait and see if all of them could stay clear. The pack crossed the line 2'29" later.
The escapee groups had almost merged entering the Peachland ascent - but then a group of 4 again broke free, with 3 of them picking up the points.
KoM - Peachland (4th)
1.
Tesfaye Heyi
5 (20)
2.
Shapira
3 (3)
3.
McKenna
1 (7)
Interestingly, the pack was led by 7 Podium Ambition riders - it looked like their manager wasn't too happy to see them miss out on such a big breakaway group... Anyway, they arrived on top 2'52" behind the leaders, with all other attackers still somewhere in between.
Finally, the chasers abandoned, the pace relented - and all breakaway groups merged into one:
Henao
Chevrier
La Lavandier
Piccoli
Bouchard
Roman
McCormick
Reddish
Hamilton
Lane
Bonnamour
Pedrero
Pernsteiner
Richardson
Betancourt
Gilanipoor
Hecht
Matte
Lovik
McKenna
Shapira
Tesfaye Heyi
Many strong climbers were in this group - first of all the Cedevita duo of Bouchard and Roman, but also the likes of Hamilton, Pedrero, Gilanipoor or Henao.
After having reduced the gap to about 1'30", the pack again was 3 minutes back by the time the leaders descended once again to the shores of Okanagan Lake.
As the sprint in Summerland was reached, about a quarter of the stage was done - the easiest quarter.
Sprint - Summerland
1.
McKenna
10 (10)
-6"
2.
Richardson
6 (24)
-4"
3.
Reddish
4 (42)
-2"
4.
Hecht
2 (2)
5.
McCormick
1 (1)
The pack made it clear early on that they didn't fancy a breakaway win today, with the gap hovering between 2'30" and 3 minutes. We mainly had the sprinters chasing so far, with Mareczko, Coutinho, Lutsyshyn, Van Asbroeck and Haller.
West Bench lies on the southern end of Okanagan Lake - with the next KoM points being awarded on the hilltop.
KoM - West Bench (4th)
1.
McCormick
5 (27)
2.
McKenna
3 (10)
3.
Tesfaye Heyi
1 (21)
The Cedevita rider claimed back the exclusive 2nd place in the KoM standings with this move, leaving Lovik behind.
6 riders didn't sprint but rejoined right after the summit, whereas the pack now trailed by a new record gap of 3'46".
Hard to see who took maximum points atop Green Mountain Road - apparently Tesfaye Heyi was some inches ahead.
KoM - Green Mountain Road (3rd)
1.
Tesfaye Heyi
6 (27)
2.
Bonnamour
4 (25)
3.
McCormick
2 (29)
The Top 3 of this sprint also were the Top 3 chasers of Magnusson - quite a long way down, however, all of them needing points at the finish line to take over the jersey.
And here it was - the start of the Apex Mountain climb. However, the riders had to do an additional 100km circuit before tackling the final ascent. Why do it the short way when you can make it longer?
The same 3 riders took the point on top of Mount Parker - but they made sure to distribute them as evenly as possible, so none of them gets within reach of the lead too quickly.
KoM - Mount Parker (3rd)
1.
Bonnamour
6 (31)
2.
McCormick
4 (33)
3.
Tesfaye Heyi
2 (29)
The Frenchman went past the Ethiopian again, moving to virtual 3rd. McCormick now trailed Magnusson by 20 points - with 30 still on offer today.
Nobody was dropped from the front group so far, but the pack had reduced the gap to two minutes. And with that, we'll head over to the live signal, as the escapees are approaching Orofino Mountain!
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
Not much happened during the ride down to the valley, with the pack still trailing by 2 minutes. A strong breeze with up to 25km/h makes sure that nobody wants to be in the wind for longer than needed, so we probably can't expect the big guns moving yet.
Bouchard is leading the front group onto the Orofino Mountain ascent - and we wouldn't be surprised to see the group split up on this tough climb!
It's KoM leader Magnusson himself who leads the peloton as they tackle the climb as well, alongside green jersey Van Asbroeck. They're still 2 minutes behind, let's see what happens in the next few minutes!
The first 2.5km of climbing were just some kind of warm-up - but inside the next 5 kilometers, the slopes almost never drop below 10%!
The brekaway has lost another 10", and it's not even the good climbers leading the pack yet!
Now it's getting more serious! 2km left to climb, and the front group indeed starts splintering! Richardson and Piccoli will soon be caught by the peloton - which is breaking up as well - while Tesfaye Heyi and all three Cedevita riders are gone as well! Is that a tactical move by the boys in orange? They definitely shouldn't be among the weakest here!
Betancourt also looks to be in trouble, while his teammate Gilanipoor is pulling up front!
The pack is currently led by Scarponi, and the gap has gone up beyond 2 minutes again!
Gilanipoor just keeps going - and now just McKenna, Pernsteiner and Henao can follow! Hamilton first had to go around Shapira and seems to be closing in, where all others seem to be gone for good! And we still have one uphill kilometer left on this penultimate climb of the day!
In the end, Gilanipoor just didn't have enough left to cross the line first; instead it's Henao picking up maximum points. Hamilton is the only other rider able to keep up with them, while his teammate Lane is in the first chase group alongside McKenna and Pernsteiner.
KoM - Orofino Mountain (1st)
1.
Henao
16 (16)
2.
Gilanipoor
12 (12)
3.
Hamilton
10 (10)
4.
Pernsteiner
8 (13)
5.
McKenna
6 (16)
6.
Lane
4 (4)
7.
Shapira
2 (5)
The peloton clearly took it easy on this climb, trailing by 4'14" as they cross the line! No big names have been dropped yet, with Xandri probably being the most notable domestique missing.
We suppose that at least some of the groups that are scattered all over the place will merge on the downhill, so we'll take a closer look at the current race situation once arrived in the valley.
In the valley means at the second sprint point, in Keremeos. The front group has grown back to 12 riders - with the wind blowing directly in the riders' faces on this section, it's understandable that the frontrunners didn't want to waste too much energy.
Sprint - Keremeos
1.
Chevrier
10 (46)
-6"
2.
Henao
6 (6)
-4"
3.
Pedrero
4 (5)
-2"
4.
Pernsteiner
2 (31)
5.
Lane
1 (5)
In fact, we just have two groups left ahead of the pack, as the last straggler Betancourt has just been caught. So here's the race situation with slightly less than 40km to go:
Chevrier
Henao
La Lavandier
Gilanipoor
Hamilton
Lane
Pedrero
Bonnamour
Pernsteiner
Matte
McKenna
Shapira
+ 56"
Roman
Bouchard
McCormick
Lovik
Tesfaye Heyi
Hecht
+ 2'23" (+ 3'19")
Peloton
73 riders
So the pack has gotten a minute closer on the downhill - let's see how much energy the domestiques have left, as the leaders surely won't waste their forces in the wind yet!
A little less than 30km to go - and about 15km left to the start of the final climb! However, the route is already slightly ascending, and combined with the pretty strong winds, this seems to be too much for Bouchard, who's dropped from the 2nd group (barely visible in the background).
And the chasers haven't made up any ground - on the contrary, they're now 1'49" down! And the peloton has lost half a minute on the front group as well, trailing by 3'45" - they shouldn't let that gap grow much bigger I guess!
By the way, in the peloton we now have a strong presence of Assa Abloy riders at the front, with Freuler, Mosca, Scarponi and Magnusson all pulling. Champoussin is the only other rider taking some turns currently.
The chasing group eventually threw in the towel, and so they're caught by the pack with 22km to go. 10km to the foot of Apex Mountain, and the peloton is now clearly faster than the escapees, having gained almost a minute within the last 5 kilometers!
Velasco is the rider making the catch - while in second position we have Eislers. Yep, he's still there! And so is Magnusson, who can now be almost sure to keep his dotted jersey for another day, given that McCormick has just been caught and is very, very unlikely to win the stage (and 20 KoM points).
20km to go for the frontrunners! About 3km of climbing left until they'll reach another 4km of almost flat roads - before finally facing the day's main obstacle.
They're not taking it easy by any means, but the peloton is still closing in - 2'32" of advantage are currently left.
And here we finally are - Apex Mountain climb is on! 10km of climbing, with an average slope of above 8% - and all this after almost 190km of racing today!
There are two kilometers of downhill and flat roads left after the climb, which you don't see on the profile - but the first rider to arrive on top should have some great chances to win the stage!
Will it be one of the breakaway riders? It's not fully impossible, as the pack has eased off again, and the gap is back up at 3 minutes!
And if Van Aert leads the peloton, it's hard to imagine them closing in quickly. We also see Kipkemboi in 2nd position and Eislers in 3rd, then Barta, Champoussin and Velasco. Topchanyuk and Koch are there as well, while the leaders follow in the next positions.
GC leader Moazemi is only in the 2nd half of the 84 rider peloton - so are Costagli and Mannion, who'd better move up if they still want to get at least a decent GC position!
The gap has further gone up, it's now 3'12" - let's see if that can be enough for the escapees!
But Topchanyuk takes soon over the pacemaking in the pack - and the gap melts away like ice cream in the sun! As the breakaway arrives at the 10km mark - after 2km of climbing - they're just 2'27" ahead.
Also, we see Chevrier, La Lavandier and Lane struggling, while Hamilton is setting the pace up front.
Topchanyuk is still pushing as the pack passes the 10km arc - and the pack's deficit is down to 1'57"! At that pace, this gap can never be enough for those up front!
It's even down to 1'36", as the front group definitely starts breaking up! Only 6 riders are left up front:
Hamilton
Gilanipoor
Henao
Bonnamour
Pedrero
Pernsteiner
Pedrero is actually struggling to keep up as well - and we still have 7km of climbing left!
Wow, that's early - Bennett attacks with 8.9km to go! Senni and Campero are the first ones to react, while the others are rather leaving the chasing duties to some helpers. Topchanyuk and De la Cruz are currently leading the pack.
Bennett has already reached the chase group with 8.2km left - and he's only 41" behind the leading group, from which Pedrero has definitely been dropped!
Bennett kicks again, and this time Senni seems to be unable to respond! It's definitely a gutsy - because early - move by the Kiwi! But if he can indeed succeed, it would be a huge win!
Henao seems to be by far the strongest one of the breakaway riders - which are already caught by Bennett! The gap is 28", with another 27" back to the peloton, where former escapee Matte has found a second wind and is leading the chase!
7.3km to go, 59 riders in the peloton. Roman and Bouchard are the strongest climbers to be dropped - but they have been in the breakaway and surely aren't on their best days.
5km later, Bennett has overtaken all of the chase group's riders - and even dropped Pernsteiner. Henao is still 33" further up the road, while Zimmermann and Campero have also ridden away from the pack now!
Oh, that's interesting - 5 McCormick riders are still in the pack, and three of them are now chasing hard: Rhim, Revard and Hoehn. Matte is definitely done now, and Kuss is currently chilling further back in the group - hopefully not too far back!
Bennett has now dropped Bonnamour as well, which leaves just Gilanipoor and Hamilton with him. They're still 26" behind Henao.
Zimmermann and Campero are 24" further back, with the peloton trailing group Bennett by a minute already! 6.3km to go.
Hamilton has cracked as well, and so it's just Gilanipoor still following Bennett as the Kiwi is about to catch Henao!
The McCormick train is doing great, though, as Zimmermann and Campero are just 16" ahead - and the gap to Bennett has dropped below the minute mark again!
5km to go - and the peloton is really breaking apart now! We can see yellow jersey Moazemi even at the end of a distanced group, so today it's definitely game over for him - he clearly won't just lose a couple of seconds this time, rather a couple of minutes!
One group further ahead, we have Lunke, Spilak - and white jersey Eenkhoorn! Nerz is another group ahead - but the defending champion doesn't even look to be fighting, he's rather just sitting up!
All the favorites then are in the first big group - which only trails what is now a leading trio by 47"! Bennett has now taken the lead, whereas Gilanipoor looks to be in trouble. Zimmermann and Campero have been reeled in.
Henao is doing an amazing job, still keeping up with Bennett 500m later! Further back, the McCormick armada looks spent, and so it's Choi taking over from them! Zimmermann and Pluchkin are closest - let's see the full composition of this group, which only contains 17 riders now!
Revard
Rhim
Hoehn
Kuss
Hibatullah
Campero
Choi
Zimmermann
Pluchkin
Ranaweera
Kritskiy
Faglum Karlsson
Vasyliv
Carapaz
Senni
Hamilton
Aru
Mannion and Ratiy are in the next group, about 40" behind this one. And the leaders are 45" ahead, with Gilanipoor about halfway in between.
Now it's Choi who accelerates! He's been patient, and as Bennett and Henao get within reach, he tries to jump up front as well! Pluchkin is trying to follow, as they're about to fly past Gilanipoor.
4.3km to go!
Bennett obviously doesn't want one of his main rivals to catch him, and so he accelerates again and finally leaves Henao behind!
Choi managed to gap Pluchkin - which is key if he wants to take over yellow today!
Further back, people are still relying on Rhim to close the gap to the attackers - not sure if that's the best idea!
The end of the climb is in sight - and it clearly looks like Choi found the perfect timing for his attack! He has just caught up with Bennett, while Henao has been able to hold the Hong Kong native's wheel until now!
Pluchkin isn't really able to get closer, but maybe his experience will still make the difference in the end?
We get another attack from the chase group, as Faglum Karlsson rides away! Carapaz is trying to chase him down, with Senni and Kuss being the next leaders in the line.
We also have to major surprises - one is the fact that Moreno Hernandez somehow managed to join this group - and the other one is Ranaweera apparently being in big troubles, with the Sri Lankan being in last position in this group!
Choi now has a gap with 3km to go - which means just one last kilometer of climbing left! Bennett follows 12" back, with Henao 8" further behind! Pluchkin has another 13" deficit - and has been joined by Faglum Karlsson!
Kuss is now leading the bigger group, which is still consisting of 15 riders - and which is about to definitely drop Ranaweera!
Only 500m of uphill roads left - but it actually looks like even Choi has overextended himself, as Faglum Karlsson is closing in really fast, having already caught up with Bennett!
Pluchkin was able to use the Swede's slipstream to get himself back into stage win contention as well, with Henao still there, too, but about to lose touch.
Carapaz is now leading the next group, including Kuss, Aru, Senni, Vasyliv, Campero, Moreno Hernandez, Gilanipoor and Zimmermann.
Ranaweera is now definitely gone, as well as Kritskiy, Hibatullah and Kuss' three helpers - who definitely did some damage here!
And we have just three leaders left as we reach the top of the climb - Faglum Karlsson, Choi and Bennett!
Pluchkin and Henao had to let go and have been caught by group Carapaz - from which Campero, Gilanipoor and Zimmermann have already been dropped - and Vasyliv seems to leave a gap right now as well!
Faglum Karlsson accelerates again heading into the short descent - and that was too much for Bennett, who is dropped!
GC-wise, both Faglum Karlsson and Bennett are 55" behind Moazemi - while Choi trails by 1'07"! So if the latter wants to overtake both today, he needs a gap!
But it will also be decisive if the chasing group can close the gap - if so, Pluchkin would surely be our new GC leader!
Red kite! Bennett hasn't been able to come back yet, he'll have to hope for the other two playing mind games if he wants to have a shot at the stage win today!
They're not - and no-one seems to be able to truly sprint anymore! Who can take this stage win?
Behind, Vasyliv has definitely lost touch over the top of the climb, and it's Carapaz leading this group of 7 - ahead of Pluchkin, Kuss, Aru, Senni, breakaway rider Henao and the surprising Moreno Hernandez!
Faglum Karlsson and Choi still have some energy left to go out of the sattle, let's see who wins this sprint!
Bennett looks to definitely be out of it, and so are the chasers who are just coming around the corner! They're clocked 33" down - which means that Pluchkin could actually get back the yellow jersey if Choi wins the stage!
But Ki Ho Choi doesn't win the stage, as it's Marcus Faglum Karlsson claiming one of the biggest wins of his career, here at Apex Mountain Resort! It looked like he attacked too late - but no, it was just perfect! Congratulations!
George Bennett secures his second podium spot in a row - but given that it looked good for him for so long, he won't be overly happy with 3rd place. He's clocked at 7" behind the front two.
Richard Antonio Carapaz leads home the chase group, taking 4th place - just like he did 2 days ago on Mount Revelstoke. Aleksandr Pluchkin gets 5th place - and maybe the GC lead? He'd be tied with the stage winner with a 28" deficit - however, the group crosses the line 35" after the stage winner, so the yellow jersey goes to Sweden!
Manuel Senni, Sepp Kuss, Fabio Aru, Sebastian Henao and Salvador Moreno Hernandez round off today's Top 10.
Vasyliv showed a good stage until he cracked with about 3.5km to go - he comes in with a 55" gap. 11th place for the German.
It's even worse for another German, though, as Zimmermann can only take 14th place, 1'16" down. However, he might still be rewared with the white jersey, as Eenkhoorn was dropped pretty early!
Also finishing in this group are Campero and Gilanipoor.
The biggest losers of the day, however, must be Ranaweera and Kritskiy. They come in with the next group, 1'39" down. A serious blow for their GC ambitions - and for Kraftwerk's three-peat plans.
The latter could also be due to some really, really stupid team tactics. Because instead of supporting his true GC leader, Nerz actually dropped back to yellow jersey Moazemi - a completely senseless and useless move. His own GC ambitions were buried a long time ago anyway, but by helping the wrong teammate the title defense for the team is getting close to impossible. They'll have something to talk about in the team bus at least...
Assa Abloy will also have a lot to talk about - first of all of course Marcus Faglum Karlsson's stage win! He was the last attacker on the final climb - and his timing turned out to be perfect, as he joined the head of the race and then left Ki Ho Choi behind in the sprint à deux!
George Bennett kicked off the action with a gutsy early move - which in the end didn't bring him the gains he was hoping for, as he couldn't pull it through. 3rd place for him is more of a consolation prize today - but he might get the next chance to make it better as soon as tomorrow!
Marcus Faglum Karlsson also moves into the GC lead with today's win - as he leads 7" ahead of Aleksandr Pluchkin! George Bennett moves up from 4th to 3rd, trailing by 19" - and fending off Choi by one tiny second!
The latter however clearly lived up to his top favorite billing - although at least the first two won't give up on their positions too easily. The 3rd placed Kiwi will need to find some pretty significant gaps, given the long TT on stage 20.
We currently have 4 riders within 20" from each other on top of the GC, with two more below one minute of deficit - let's see how that evolves on the next couple of days!
Despite Tom Van Asbroeck finishing far down the rankings once again, he never was in danger of missing the time limite (nobody did), and so he easily keeps his green jersey. Nothing has changed on top, so his 160 points are still 8 more than Ingus Eislers has, with Lionel Coutinho trailing by 26 points.
Of the climbers, Bennett is currently ranked highest, but his 80 points are just half the leader's score.
There have only been two KoM leaders in this race so far - and Kim Magnusson will be wearing the jersey for the 10th day in a row tomorrow! The Swede is still comfortably leading, 20 points ahead of Hayden McCormick, and 22 clear of Franck Bonnamour.
Another 55 points are on offer tomorrow, however - and with his team having to defend the GC lead now, it's hard to imagine him taking any additional points...
Georg Zimmermann probably was hoping for more than 14th place today - but with previous leader Pascal Eenkhoorn being dropped pretty early (despite not really working a lot before), he was easily the strongest U25 finisher today - and also took over the white jersey!
The German now leads 1'24" ahead of Jamal Hibatullah, while Eenkhoorn dropped down to 3rd, 1'57" back. The next competitor is already more than 5 minutes down.
McCormick Pro Cycling might be disappointed that their hard work on the final climb only resulted in a 7th place on the stage. However, with 4 of them finishing inside the Top 20, they were almost 3 minutes faster than any other team - and took over the lead in the team standings!
An intense day with a thrilling final climb has come to an end. We got another change on top of the GC - tune in again tomorrow to see wheter the mountainous hilly stage will further shake up the GC! See you!
Tour of America 
