Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the U.S.A.! After 5 stages on Canadian soil, the peloton made a pretty big journey to California overnight! At least, we're staying here until the end of the race - so for the next 6 stages!
We're in the Yosemite Valley today - which is the central valley and main attraction of the Yosemite National Park. The valley is located in the western Sierra Nevada mountains. Of course, you can do loads of hiking and climbing here, with many high granite summits surrounding the place. There are lots of water falls to see, with Yosemite Falls being the biggest of its kind in North America.
And fall is a good keyword, as today's stage offers a lot of occasions for riders to fall out of contention. We've got 6 KoM climbs on today's menu - and I'd actually label this one the race's Queen Stage!
Just like yesterday, pretty much the only flat meters of the stage come right after the start. But after following Merced River for just a couple of kilometers, we'll head south to Yosemite West, which is a category 2 climb to start the day. 22km will be done by the time the riders get to the top.
It's then about as much downhill as it was uphill, before Mount Savage starts. Despite what its name might suggest, it's "only" a 3rd category ascent, and will be reached after 47km - or about a quarter of the race.
The riders can then recover a bit, as the descent si longer than the ascent. Which also holds for today's only 4th category climb, Chepo Saddle, after 70km. The descent to Kerckhoff Lake concludes the first 100 kilometers.
But then the day really starts, as we'll now be doing more climbing than downhilling. First comes 3rd category Rock Mountain (106km), almost directly followed by another category 2 climb to Bald Mountain (124km).
Another pretty long descent and an intermediate sprint at Sierra High School (148km) later, the riders will tackle today's main obstacle: Pine Ridge! It's the final of three HC climbs in this race, so the riders should be warned!
However, the finish line isn't just on top of the climb; just like yesterday, there are slightly more than 10km to go from there - including the short final ascent to Ely Mountain - without KoM points, but including sprint points and bonus seconds!
Located near Shaver Lake in the Sierra National Forest, the place also offers some hiking trails - as well as some mountain bike trails. Let's hope we'll stay on tarmac roads today, though!
However, biking in the mountains is something our main GC contenders usually like to do, and they also top the favorites list once again. On top, we have Choi, Bennett - but no Pluchkin! For once, the Moldovan only gets 2 stars, losing his Top 3 spot to Ranaweera. Faglum Karlsson and Carapaz are next, with the list being rounded out by Kritskiy, Eenkhoorn, Nerz and Kuss. The latter has done a great job in Canada so far - let's see if he can do as well in his home country!
We'll (more or less) fast-forward through the first 100 kilometers of the stage, before getting live coverage for the final 3 climbs! Enjoy!
What happened so far
We can clearly see that the geology has changed, as we see massive granite walls in the background - welcome to Sierra Nevada! It's quite a cloudy day, let's hope we won't get too much rain!
Mannion apparently couldn't wait to finally race on home soil again, as he almost jumped the gun with his early attack!
We won't cover all attacks in detail, but we had to somehow include the "Tunnel View" in this summary - the entrance to Yosemite Valley. The riders pushing here are Kmieliauskas, Tusveld, Bellan and Hoehn.
As the riders reached the foot of the first climb of the day - the 2nd category ascent to Yosemite West - we had 16 riders ahead of the pack, including three of the current Top 4 in the KoM classification:
Hoelgaard
Hamilton
Pernsteiner
Lunke
Mannion
Pedrero
Liphongyu
Hoehn
Canty
McKenna
Gillett
Tusveld
Kmieliauskas
Bellan
Martino
Eriksson
On the first meters of the climb, we got some more attackers:
Power
Rhim
Henao
Brandt
Costagli
La Lavandier
Dulanjana
Shapira
Lovik
It was pretty obvious that Podium Ambition weren't happy about missing out on today's breakaway, as they were chasing with 7 riders (plus some help of Coutinho) - but given their lack of high mountain skills, they had to eventually fold.
Don't ask me about Amaysim's team strategy - but if they wanted to get back the KoM jersey, they completely failed their task on the first attempt. Hoelgaard took full points, Hamilton none.
KoM - Yosemite West (2nd)
1.
Hoelgaard
10 (79)
2.
Pernsteiner
8 (58)
3.
Tusveld
6 (6)
4.
Hoehn
4 (4)
5.
Mannion
2 (2)
Hoelgaard now had a comfortable 21-points lead over Pernsteiner, who sneaked past Hamilton by one point.
The first group was completely torn apart on this first climb, while the second one stayed together - riding slower, though. Kmieliauskas, Martino and Eriksson were the ones dropping the furthest back behind the first group, with the former one already caught by the chase group.
The pack only crossed the line 7'20" later - no surprise, given that they were led by Orue!
Things settled a bit on the downhill - but we didn't have a big merge yet. Hamilton, Gillett, McKenna, Eriksson and Bellan were behind the leading group of 9, with Martino still in between this group of five and the 10-rider group behind.
No Hamilton meant not much competition for Hoelgaard - with the only other serious contender in Pernsteiner just coming short of taking full points on top of Mount Savage. Not even a couple of snowflakes can stop him.
KoM - Mount Savage (3rd)
1.
Hoelgaard
6 (85)
2.
Pernsteiner
4 (62)
3.
Tusveld
2 (8)
The Tryg rider definitely was on a mission - and he was doing a perfect job so far!
On the climb, the Power group caught the Hamilton group; the resulting 14 rider group trailed the head of the race by 2'15". And yes, they were only 14 because Kmieliauskas and Martino were dropped.
The Haller-led peloton reached the top 7'58" later - with Kristoff and Orue the first riders being gapped. More than 125 tough kilomters to go for them - and the time limit luring!
On the Chepo Saddle climb - today's sole 4th category hill - the two big groups finally merged - except for Eriksson, who seemd to be on a really bad day and was dropped! Martino and Kmieliauskas were still ahead of the pack, but wouldn't be able to rejoin.
Pedrero tried to take everyone by surprise by attacking early - and at least he got a small gap!
And that was enough to take full points, as Hoelgaard's answer came too late under pouring rain:
KoM - Chepo Saddle (4th)
1.
Pedrero
5 (5)
2.
Hoelgaard
3 (88)
3.
Pernsteiner
1 (63)
29 points ahead, 36 points still on offer - it looked really good for Hoelgaard to take a big step towards definitely winning the dotted jersey!
With the first three climbs done, and things finally settling (for now), let's take a closer look at those 22 riders up front:
Hamilton
Power
Canty
Gillett
Mannion
Brandt
McKenna
Lunke
Pedrero
La Lavandier
Pernsteiner
Tusveld
Rhim
Hoehn
Liphongyu
Dulanjana
Hoelgaard
Bellan
Costagli
Lovik
Henao
Shapira
Lots of strong climbers up front - with the weakest of them being the group's sole unmaxed rider, Bellan. Lunke should be the strongest uphill, followed by Costagli, Power, Mannion and Rhim.
We have four Top 20 riders in this group, with Hamilton (13th), Canty (14th), Hoelgaard (17th) and Liphongyu (18th) - and with Hamilton just 3'50" behind Bennett in the GC, the Australian actually was the virtual GC leader by this point.
And with all this bookkeeping done, let's jump into some live action!
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
The escapees have arrived at San Joaquin River (with Kerkhoff Lake just around the corner), and the crossing of the river marks the start of the Rock Mountain climb! 6km, 6% - a good warm-up 3rd category ascent for what's yet to come!
The peloton has massively upped the pace on the flat and downhill sections after Chepo Saddle - they're trailing by just 3'36" now, meaning that Hamilton isn't even riding in virtual yellow anymore!
Kmieliauskas and Martino have been caught in the meantime, and Eriksson is just 40" ahead of the pack and will share their fate soon.
Several sprinters have already been dropped - but not Haller, who's setting the tone alongside Biermans in the pack as they reach the bridge. Van Asbroeck is still sitting safely in the pack as well, as can be seen.
Their deficit is still 3'34", meaning the breakaway riders have accelerated as well.
Let's just take a look at the stragglers - we see Taillefour, Lutsyshyn, Orue and Kristoff in the last 4 positions. They're currently less than 15 minutes down - with 80km left, this could work out for them, but plenty of time can and will still be lost on the remaining climbs!
Oh, Hamilton has actually woken up! The Aussie wins the sprint on top of Rock Mountain, with Hoelgaard not scoring for once!
Rock Mountain (3rd)
1.
Hamilton
6 (63)
2.
Shapira
4 (9)
3.
Pernsteiner
2 (65)
30 points still on offer today, with Pernsteiner (23 behind) and Hamilton (25 behind) still theoretically within reach of the KoM lead. Theoretically.
And if you're a good observer, you should see the riders' shadows - indeed, after snow and rain, we even get some sunrays! We must be in April or autumn... Oh, we actually are. Nevermind.
Kraftwerk once again have a strong representation at the front of the pack. De Buyst leads the peloton over the line, 4'08" behind the stage leaders. Rumac, Moazemi and Destribois are also there alongside Ranaweera.
Philips are also contributing, with Velasco and - pretty surprisingly at this point of the stage - Stoltz!
And just in case you had some doubts - yes, Eriksson has been swept up.
And we're back to rainy weather as the front of the race is about to tackle Bald Mountain. Well, which one? There are more than 50 summits named Bald Mountain in California, and 4 of them in Fresno County where we currently are...
But I'm sure the riders will crest the right one. The middle section will be pretty tough, so the category 2 points awarded on top should be well-deserved. And they could already seal another overnight KoM lead for Hoelgaard!
Some time ago, we had 7 Podium Ambition riders leading the pack - now we have as many in this distanced group of 39 riders. Betancourt is the most notable name back here, so none of the more competent climbers have been dropped yet.
The peloton starts the Bald Mountain ascent 3'39" later than the front group. Rumac leads them.
Now it's also game over - for today - for green jersey Van Asbroeck. But with less than 70km to go, he shouldn't be at risk of missing out on the time limit. Berger accompanies him, let's hope they find a nice gruppetto soon.
The backmarkers are still less than 20 minutes down, so it looks pretty likely that everyone will stay in the race.
Carapaz won't like what he sees here, as his most important helper Bardet is dropped! Probably just due to bad positioning, as there aren't any other strong climbers in this group - but he'll have some catching up to do!
But let's leave the gapped riders behind, and let's get back to the front! Tusveld is currently leading the group - and they seem to have lost quite some momentum, as the pack has reduced the gap by a full minute already! Koch is putting in a big shift - and as the front group accelerates again, Bellan is dropped.
Now Power is living up to his name, and the group is starting to seriously break up! Henao, Costagli, Lovik and his teammates Gillett and Canty have already been dropped - and Hoelgaard seems to be cracking as well! Just 3km to climb - maybe he can hang on and still get a couple of points?
The tempo forcing also has some major impact on the advantage over the peloton - as it's up to almost 4 minutes now! Even Bellan hasn't been caught yet, as the current chase leaders Koch and Kipkemboi look to be done - yet no-one takes over from them!
No, he definitely didn't play mind games - Hoelgaard clearly is done and is gapped alongside McKenna, Tusveld and Shapira! Now the Norwegian has to hope that neither Hamilton nor Pernsteiner comes first on top of both remaining climbs!
Some bad news now for Choi, who has just lost Velasco and Barta. It looks even worse for Faglum Karlsson though, who has three helpers in this group - but Gallopin, Coutinho and Magnusson aren't really his most important domestiques.
Oh wow, Hamilton is looking really strong now! He attacked together with teammate Power, and just leaves him behind on his way to 10 more points! To be fair, Power worked a lot so far while his teammate had a rather relaxing ride, but that's still an impressive display of strength!
The two Amaysim riders indeed pick up the first two spots - with La Lavandier taking 3rd place, almost a minute behind Hamilton! However, with still more than 50km to ride, the two frontrunners will likely wait for the 10 chasers.
By the way, here are the full KoM points:
KoM - Bald Mountain (2nd)
1.
Hamilton
10 (73)
2.
Power
8 (8)
3.
La Lavandier
6 (12)
4.
Lunke
4 (14)
5.
Brandt
2 (2)
This leaves Hamilton 15 points behind Hoelgaard - which means that he has to be first on top of the Pine Ridge climb, as 2nd place is only worth 14 points! 5 points ahead, or 1 or more points down? We'll find out!
Let's also just take a look at who's still left up front (besides Hamilton and Power:
Mannion
Brandt
Rhim
Hoehn
Dulanjana
Liphongyu
Pedrero
La Lavandier
Lunke
Pernsteiner
The chase group consisting of Hoelgaard, Shapira, Tusveld and McKenna is already over 2 minutes down - the Norwegian most likely won't pick up any more points today!
The next group with Henao, Costagli, Canty, Lovik and Gillett is another minute behind.
Carapaz must be relieved by now, as Bardet is back in the peloton - and even in 2nd position already. Topchanyuk is now setting the pace - which however isn't that high, given that the pack trails the front group by 4'24" as they cross the KoM line!
Manfredi and Xandri are dropped on the final kilometer of the climb - not an optimal scenario for their respective leaders.
And Bellan still is a couple of meters ahead of the peloton.
This is another one of those nasty crossings we've already seen several times before - had the breakaway turned left here, they'd be on the steepest sections of the Pine Ridge climb (which they'll reach via the road to the right). Instead, they're now tackling the downhill to the intermediate sprint at Sierra High School, just to get all the way back up again. 48km to go!
By the way, Hamilton and Power waited for the others, as expected.
Let's try to get some kind of an overview, in the rain and snow of California. The front group is just not visible here, but we can see Hoelgaard launching a desperate move to catch them, leaving Shapira, McKenna and Tusveld behind!
Group Henao is about to reach the intersection, with the peloton only 50" back. Bellan is less than 10" ahead of the pack now and will finally be caught by Bardet.
The head of the race has hit the valley, as they have just 2.5km to go to the intermediate sprint. Hoelgaard is 1'24" behind - and 7" ahead of his chasers.
Brandt "wins" the sprint:
Sprint - Sierra High School
1.
Brandt
10 (10)
-6"
2.
Dulanjana
6 (6)
-4"
3.
Pernsteiner
4 (58)
-2"
4.
Rhim
2 (10)
5.
La Lavandier
1 (5)
Hoelgaard has been caught, the group of 4 trails by 1'32".
We get a good overview of the race situation as the peloton reaches the intermediate sprint - as they can see all the three groups ahead. Let's recall what the situation is currently looking like:
Power
Hamilton
Mannion
Brandt
Rhim
Hoehn
Liphongyu
Dulanjana
Pedrero
La Lavandier
Lunke
Pernsteiner
+ 1'28"
Hoelgaard
Shapira
McKenna
Tusveld
+ 49" (+ 2'17")
Henao
Costagli
Canty
Gillett
Lovik
+ 28" (+ 2'45")
Peloton
39 riders
No more rain in the valley - let's see what it looks like when we get back up! The intersection we saw before is in the middle of that large red bar - it's a really tough climb anyway, but those 2km above 10% will clearly hurt everyone!
Can they keep the pack at bay on those 13.3km of climbing? It could decide on tonight's KoM leader!
Group Hoelgaard tackles the climb 1'33" later. Group Henao is 34" further down, and the pack another 33" behind. Which means a 2'40" advantage for the head of the race over the top climbers - that doesn't look too promising for those up front!
We don't get any early attacks, but Bardet still puts the hammer down on the first two kilometers of the climb! Costagli and Lovik were dropped almost instantly and are already swept up, with Henao, Canty and Gillett just a few meters clear of the pack.
Hoelgaard, Shapira and Tusveld look spent as well and should soon be caught, too - whereas McKenna found a second wind and is trying to catch back up with the leading dozen!
10km of climbing left, and Bardet is still doing a great job. However, the leaders have found some reserves as well, as their gap is still 2'25". McKenna is pretty much exactly in the middle of the two groups. And Lovik has just been dropped - with Zimmermann dangerously close to the back of the pack as well!
Power definitely is doing a lot of work today - and a lot of great work! He managed to extend the gap to more than 2'30" again - as the front group approaches the intersection they already passed once. They can also spot the downhill they took earlier in the stage.
McKenna is over 2 minutes behind now, and just 37" ahead of the peloton. 8km left to the mountain top!
It's the first time in the entire race that we see defending champion Nerz at the front of the peloton! But while he was riding away in recent years, he's just setting the pace for his leader Ranaweera now.
To not much avail so far, as the leaders are still 2'37" ahead. But for once, he's actually the final teammate to stay with the Kraftwerk leader!
Sorry for writing too much once again - but it should be the only stage of the race with the report itself being split into two parts! And if one stage deserves it, I guess it's the Queen Stage
But he's showing why he's a back-to-back winner of this Tour. Nerz ups the pace more and more, dropping most notably Hoelgaard (17th GC) and Revard (30th GC, 5th U25) in the process - and reducing the pack's deficit to 1'55" within just two kilomters.
As the leaders reach that intersection again, they do so without Power. The Aussie has done a huge amount of work to prepare the terrain for his teammate Hamilton - who can take back the KoM jersey by arriving first on top of Pine Ridge!
However, Nerz and Eenkhoorn are bringing the pack closer and closer - 1'41" of advantage is left.
Big news from the back of the peloton, actually - 7th overall Senni is dropped! He has been riding without a teammate by his side for a long time - and now has to let go on the steepest slopes! That could cost him a couple of minutes if he doesn't recover quickly!
Attack by Ranaweera! We definitely could see that one coming, and just as the pack reels in Power, the Sri Lankan goes all-in!
Up front, Dulanjana is dropped - and the advantage over the pack is down to 1'30".
Ranaweera sits down - and now it's Choi who launches! Only Bennett, Carapaz, Faglum Karlsson and Pluchkin were able to respond to the first move - who does have anything left now?
For now, it's just Ranaweera who's able to counter! As he flies past his compatriot Dulanjana, he tries to keep up with the Philips captain! Bennett continues his steady yet high pace, and the other three stay with him.
Behind, we have Hibatullah leading the chase, with Zimmermann nearby.
Before Choi reaches the breakaway group, Hamilton powers away to get those KoM points! Still 1.7km to climb for him - can he hold on?
Choi has gone past the remaining escapees now and is riding in 2nd place on the stage, as Ranaweera has just caught up with this group. Bennett is still leading the chase behind - he only has a 48" advantage over Choi, so he'd better hurry up!
Last kilometer of the climb for Hamilton! He has a 29" gap over Choi, who in turn is riding 28" ahead of Bennett!
In the next group, we have Kritskiy leading, ahead of a surprisingly strong Gilanipoor, Roman, Vasyliv, Zimmermann, Aru and Campero. Kuss however looks to be in serious trouble, as he's currently in last position of that group!
Choi has relented a bit, and so it's now La Lavandier who accelerates to catch up with Hamilton up front! Mannion tries to follow, while Choi, Ranaweera and Lunke are just riding their tempo.
Bennett has now caught up with Liphongyu and Rhim, with Faglum Karlsson trying to get back to the Kiwi's wheel.
Hamilton does it! Completely out of contention on the first three KoM sprints, he wins the other three to get back into the driver's seat of the KoM classification!
KoM - Pine Ridge (HC)
1.
Hamilton
20 (93)
2.
La Lavandier
14 (26)
3.
Choi
12 (27)
4.
Ranaweera
10 (21)
5.
Lunke
8 (22)
6.
Brandt
6 (8)
7.
Faglum Karlsson
5 (25)
8.
Bennett
4 (42)
9.
Carapaz
3 (29)
10.
Pluchkin
2 (28)
11.
Kritskiy
1 (4)
With this, the final HC climb of the race is done - and it definitely did some damage! The first group reaches back to Bennett, hence containing 8 riders (including the front 2).
Carapaz and Pluchkin are 48" down already, and Kritskiy trails by 1'21"! The Russian actually attacked the Zimmermann group and joined the dropped breakaway riders, looking to further move up.
Oh no, that's looking really bad for local hero Kuss! He already trails by 2'38" now, and has no teammate with him - while both Hoehn and Rhim are still further ahead!
No other top climbers are in his group, either, whereas 40" ahead we have a group including Zimmermann, Aru, Vasyliv and Campero - alongside Roman, Hibatullah and Gilanipoor, who aren't quite in Top 10 contention anymore.
10km left for Hamilton (don't be fooled by the banner, it's wrong) - who still has a tiny gap of 8". Behind, it's mainly Choi working, as all the others - including yellow jersey Bennett - are looking tired! Could this be a huge day for Hong Kong?
Kritskiy is slowly closing in, being 1'09" behind the yellow jersey group. That's just 26" behind Carapaz and Pluchkin, though - it looks like the Gjensidige rider does have the legs, but didn't get his positioning right!
7km to go! Hamilton has been caught by Choi, who continues doing all the work on his own - he just doesn't want the others to recover, so he keeps the pace really high! Will any of them eventually collapse?
Kritskiy has now indeed caught up with Carapaz and Pluchkin; they're 1'07" behind. Roman is 36" further back, while group Zimmermann, who has merged with the Mannion group in the meantime, trails the leaders by 2 minutes flat.
And yes, Rhim and Hoehn still are in that chase group, with their leader Kuss being more than a minute further behind already!
The yellow jersey group has reached Shaver Lake - which means that there are just 5km to go! (The organisers apparently let the intern mount the kilometer signs today)
Not much has happened in terms of gaps - group Pluchkin lost 6 seconds, while group Zimmermann gained 6". Meaning that the two chase groups are separated by 41" now, with the leaders 1'13" clear.
We're always talking about the chase groups - here they are! Pluchkin, Carapaz and Kritskiy have 2.9km to go (the race leaders just 2.3km), with the next group 43" behind. Roman has been caught, so there are 13 riders in the white jersey group:
Zimmermann
Aru
Vasyliv
Mannion
Campero
Roman
Rhim
Pedrero
Hibatullah
Liphongyu
Gilanipoor
Hoehn
Pernsteiner
All GC Top 10 riders bar Kuss and Senni are in one of the first three groups on the road - with Ranaweera being the one looking to make some major gains today!
Ah, they probably forgot the red kite in the hotel, so they just used the other kilometer signs available. But we're indeed heading onto the final 1,000 meters of this Queen Stage - and now it's Faglum Karlsson leading the group! Can the Swede get his second stage win of the race?
But as soon as we're on the final uphill, yellow jersey Bennett surges to the front! He's the best puncheur up front, and another stage win would clearly improve his odds for a GC win!
Further back, the Pluchkin group isn't getting any closer, still trailing by a minute. However, the next chasers are closing in, just 33" behind the trio now!
700m to go, and it's looking pretty good for Bennett to make it two in a row! Ranaweera is his closest competitor right now, while Choi is waiting in his slipstream - or just doesn't have anything left to overtake!
Bennett only has 500m to go for another stage win! Ranaweera and Choi currently don't look like they were able to counter!
Nobody has been dropped so far, though, so there are still 8 riders in contention for line honours!
300m left! Bennett is holding onto his advantage, while it looks like Faglum Karlsson is struggling to keep up with the front three!
The four former breakaway riders are at the end of the group - unsurprisingly, after such a tough day of racing!
200m! Now the front three clearly have opened a gap to Faglum Karlsson, and Choi has taken second place from Ranaweera!
But now Bennett seems to be slightly fading, as Choi anre Ranaweera are making up ground! Does the Kiwi have enough left to bring the stage win over the line?
Faglum Karlsson has definitely cracked, and is already about to be passed by the "breakaway riders".
Further back, we can see that Zimmermann has closed the gap to Pluchkin, Carapaz and Kritskiy, while Aru, Vasyliv and Campero seem to be struggling! That could be a great chance for the German to make up some ground in the GC!
Just a couple of meters to the line! While Ranaweera has also cracked now - but should easily secure 3rd place - Choi is getting closer and closer to Bennett! Who will win this one?
Let's rather ask: Who has won that one? We don't get the answer immediately, as the officials have to analyze the finish line photos in detail!
What is sure is that Suranga Ranaweera makes a strong comeback today, taking his first podium spot of the race and certainly moving up a couple of spots in the GC!
And we also see pretty clearly that Lucas Hamilton is "best of the rest", taking a strong 4th place today - alongside the overnight KoM lead, of course! Mathieu La Lavandier also had a great finish to take 5th place! Surprisingly, they get the same time as the race winner.
Marcus Faglum Karlsson has to settle for 7th, as Tyler Brandt edges him out on the final meters. Sindre Skjostad Lunke is last of the front group, taking 8th. These three are clocked 15" behind.
But what happens behind? Carapaz, Pluchkin, Zimmermann and Kritskiy seem to have a small gap over Roman and the others - will it open up further or will those behind close it?
It's clearly the former option! Richard Antonio Carapaz proves to be strongest, while Aleksandr Pluchkin rounds out today's Top 10 ahead of Kritskiy. + 1'36" for them, a sizeable gap!
Zimmermann is another 11" down - but he gapped some of his direct rivals for a Top 10 spot: Campero and Aru are 2'18" behind the winner (or 31" behind the white jersey), with Vasyliv losing another 11 seconds!
Kuss might even have had some secret dreams of a podium - but today, back home, everything went down the drain. He loses 3'50" and even just barely hangs onto a Top 10 spot now!
It's still way worse for Senni, though, who ran out of steam way too early and concedes 7'06" on the day - which sees him double his GC spot (from 7th to 14th). Ouch.
And what about the time limit? With a winning time of 4h50'07", the cutoff deficit was set to 1h12'51" - and everyone, including Lutsyshyn, finishes within an hour of the winner. So it's looking pretty likely that all 184 riders will actually make it to San Francisco!
But we'll talk about San Francisco later, now let's talk about Ely Mountain - and the stage winner here and today is...
Ki Ho Choi! The Hong Kong native edged out George Bennett by some fractions of an inch, getting his first stage win of the race - and number 3 for Philips, bringing them back to the top of the list of the most successful teams so far! Congratulations!
3rd place goes to Suranga Ranaweera, who has gotten over his stage 13 disaster and is making up some ground!
George Bennett faded a tad too early to take his second stage win, but getting 2nd on the day where his (supposed) main rival for the GC win looked really strong can still be considered a success! And so his lead over Ki Ho Choi only shrank by 8" today - but overall he even extended the GC lead from 28" to 40"!
Former 2nd placed Marcus Faglum Karlsson drops by a spot, trailing now by 55" already. And all other riders now are more than 2 minutes behind - which also means that Pluchkin's dream of becoming the first winner of all 4 GTs has gotten pretty unrealistic today.
Let's look at the current Top 10 and today's gains or losses:
GC Top 10 | After Stage 16
1.
George Bennett
61h11'20"
=
2.
Ki Ho Choi
+ 40"
2
3.
Marcus Faglum Karlsson
+ 55"
1
4.
Aleksandr Pluchkin
+ 2'23"
1
5.
Suranga Ranaweera
+ 2'41"
3
6.
Richard Antonio Carapaz
+ 3'13"
=
7.
Lucas Hamilton
+ 4'02"
6
8.
Fabio Aru
+ 4'40"
=
9.
Georg Zimmermann
+ 4'47"
2
10.
Sepp Kuss
+ 5'16"
5
It looks like we're in for a good fight between Pluchkin and Ranaweera - but for one of them to still claim a podium spot, one of the Top 3 would have to crack. However, so far almost every rider had an off-day, so that's clearly not impossible.
The fight for the Top 10 spots should also be fierce, with just a 1'10" gap from 8th to 12th - and with Hamilton there's also a rider who's not exactly a top climber. And who might be sitting higher up than he'd like, considering his KoM quest... But more on that later!
On the other side of the standings, Orue now has taken the lead in the red lantern classification, over 5 minutes behind Taillefour. Joeaar should be the only other serious contender for that award, but he's almost 10 minutes ahead already.
Let's talk about the green jersey first! Tom Van Asbroeck is still the leader in the points standings, after all those tough mountain stages - and it looks like we'll get a fight between the top sprinters for this jersey!
The Belgian still leads 8 points ahead of Ingus Eislers - and despite George Bennett having moved up to 3rd (18 points off), the latter shouldn't have any realistic chances of getting green. Sure, he might take it over tomorrow, but that's likely his 2nd last possibility to score big!
With all sprinters still in the race, the stage is definitely set for two more exciting flat stages on days 18 and 21!
But now, back to Lucas Hamilton! After a really slow and disappointing start to the stage, with zero points from the first 3 KoM sprints, he won all the remaining points to take back the KoM jersey! His 93 points are 5 more than Daniel Hoelgaard has. Which is just the amount of points a rider can get on a 4th category climb...
With 78 points still on offer, many riders could theoretically still win the dotted jersey - but it does look pretty likely by now that one of these two will take it home. Hermann Pernsteiner in 3rd place is already 28 points down, and as it's unlikely to see him score in any of the two TTs, he'd have to do a great job on stage 19 to still have a chance of taking the jersey!
While the KoM jersey is still within Tryg's reach, the white jersey should basically be sealed by now. Georg Zimmermann now leads 6'19" ahead of Pascal Eenkhoorn, with Alex Hoehn 7'36" down. As predicted, the German definitely benefits from the fact that neither of his main competitors is their team's leader - but he's definitely doing a great job regardless of that!
So, just the team standings are left! And while Amaysim did a great job by taking back the KoM lead, they went all-in for Hamilton to achieve this. On the contrary, McCormick Pro Cycling's two breakaway riders, Hoehn and Rhim, had an unspectacular yet very solid ride.
And so, while the Aussies keep their lead, it's down to just 1'05" now! Sauber Petronas Racing also had a very solid day as a team, and now are in 3rd place, 6'47" back.
So, that was it - the 2022 Tour of America's Queen Stage! Two more mountain stages are left though - with the next one being tomorrow's mountain time trial in the Kings Canyon! I'm looking forward to this one - and I hope you'll join us once again! See you!
Tour of America 
