Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to San Francisco! It's the very last day of the 2022 Tour of America - and therefore the very last chance for those 6 teams who haven't been able to get a podium yet! It's also the decisive day for the green jersey - so we're expecting some more great racing today!
We've already covered the most important details of the host location yesterday, so we'll just mention the most notable sights on the go - you'll recognize many of them if you followed yesterday's stage.
Still, we do have time for a quick description of the route before the riders start the last stage. We'll have a first loop of about 14km, including Lombard Street again - expect some congestion there! The riders will do that one twice, with category 4 KoM points awarded on top of the Lombard Street ascent (after 4 and 18km).
The riders will then head to the main loop, competing for sprint points at today's sole intermediate sprint in the Jordan Park neighborhood. We'll stay around Golden Gate Park - while also running through it - for the rest of the race, with the 8.8km lap being done 8 times. The expected bunch sprint on Balboa Street - after a slightly descending finale - will then decide on this year's final stage winner!
Obviously, a bunch sprint is likely yet not a given, especially on a rather undulating profile like today's. Furthermore, although GC attacks are uncommon on the final day, the small gaps up front don't make it completely unlikely - and especially if one of the Top 3 should at one point be positioned far behind, the others might try to gap him.
But the most likely scenario is still a final Sprint Royal, which would also decide on the green jersey winner. Eislers and Van Asbroeck are tied for the lead - and both get three stars today, alongside stage 18 winner Haller. Coutinho trails by just 8 points and gets two stars, as do Boudat and Aniolkowski. Bennett, Nizzolo, Mareczko and Lutsyshyn round off the list.
Haller has the chance to tie the all-time record for most stage wins today - will he succeed?
Let's see how things actually go, and we'll once more get live coverage on the whole stage - which by the way is the 2nd shortest road stage of the race. Enjoy!
LIVE +++ LIVE +++ LIVE
We saw it from the distance yesterday, but today we're right next to the Ferry Terminal, where the startline is! You can spot part of Alcatraz Island in the left background, whereas to the right we see Treasure Island.
The return back to the start line from the turning point is the only time the riders actually get close to the sea, with the main loop being "inland".
On the other side of the start line, we get an even closer view of the Oakland Bay Bridge than yesterday, with Yerba Buena Island separating the bridge into two parts.
But that's enough details for the moment, let's go!
The starting signal was just what Kolev was waiting for to attack! There's kind of a U-turn just after the start, which the Bulgarian used to create a gap early on.
However, as the riders enter Washington Street, three chasers are hot on his wheels: Culey, Gaze - and teammate Fenn.
The riders already know the next 4km or so of the stage, given that it's identical to yesterday's TT course. When riding past the bottom of the Transamerica Pyramid, Eriksson and Vine join the breakaway, with Hvideberg also riding a couple of meters ahead of the pack.
Identical course of course also includes Lombard Street - although there's zero relevance for the KoM standings, it's still a spectacular climb to watch!
Indeed, the cars also tackle this climb today - but it looks like the race director car's driver isn't very skilled... Hopefully no harm will be done!
Bardet is currently leading the pack, whereas the escapees have almost reached the top already.
Gaze doubles his KoM points score, adding 5 on top of those he already had:
KoM - Lombard Street #1 (4th)
1.
Gaze
5 (10)
2.
Eriksson
3 (7)
3.
Kolev
1 (1)
And yes, that's the middle part of the Transamerica Pyramid in the background.
And that's what it looks like when a full peloton climbs Lombard Street. The top GC riders and most stage favorites have all been attentive, wanting to avoid a random split on such a short stage at any cost.
The breakaway's advantage is 2 minutes, by the way.
The escapees have already reached the turning point of the start loop, next to the Marina Yacht Harbor and the Palace of Fine Arts. Ahead, they can also spot Golden Gate Bridge, spanning the... Golden Gate strait, obviously, connecting San Francisco to Marin County.
Now that the breakaway of the day is at full strength, let's briefly take a look at who's there:
Most notably, we have a triple BWT presence - Fenn, Vine and Kolev. The former two aren't working at all so far, saving energy for later on. Kolev is probably just here as a helper, as he's not particularly good in anything. Vine is the best climber in the group, and - more relevant - cobbles specialist Fenn is the fastest sprinter, while being a decent rouleur as well.
Gaze is even better on the flat, almost as fast in the sprint, has a better acceleration - and is almost unkillable with his fantastic resistance.
Hvideberg can also deal with flat roads, but is neither a good sprinter (the worst of the group), nor particularly strong physically. Culey is a real beast on the flat, and also has great energy - letting him too much leeway wouldn't be a great idea for the sprinter teams!
And last but not least, Eriksson is by far the strongest puncheur, and also has clearly the best acceleration, with strong energy stats rounding off his profile.
Let's see if they can get the big upset and make it to the line - it'd be an interesting fight between them for sure!
Looking to the other side of the turning point, we can again spot the top of the Transamerica Pyramid, and also Oakland Bay Bridge and the Ferry Terminal. And a lot of other places in the city that I know even less about.
The advantage has gone up to 2'14", but the peloton seems to keep them on a pretty short leash.
And that's the first lap almost done, with the breakaway heading back to The Embarcadero street with the Ferry Terminal - and the start line - in sight. They have extended their lead to 2'48" in the meantime.
The pack is also done with the first lap, as we see both Assa Abloy and Crabbe committed to chasing, alsongside GC leader team Xero. Green jersey Van Asbroeck is on his own, pretty attentive so far.
The escapees are already done with the U-turn and are entering Washington Street for the last time in this race.
And Washington Street is later followed by Lombard Street - for the second time today, for the third time overall. It's the penultimate notable climb - and the last categorized one - in this 2022 Tour of America!
It's Hvideberg getting the honour of winning the final KoM "sprint" of the race:
KoM - Lombard Street #2 (4th)
1.
Hvideberg
5 (6)
2.
Gaze
3 (13)
3.
Eriksson
1 (8)
The pack is 2'33" down, with the gap always hovering around the 2'30" mark now.
Kraftwerk have joined the chase as well, as Moazemi leads the peloton onto that final Lombard Street ascent. You might get an idea of how steep both the preceding downhill and the actual climb are.
As the pack arrives on top - still led by Moazemi - the escapees ride past Division Street - which they might have had some nightmares of after yesterday's ITT. They don't have to worry about that one today.
One thing we missed out on during the first lap can be seen to the left, the Aquatic Park Cove, hosting the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
The Ghirardelli Chocoloate Experience is nearby as well it seems, maybe worth a visit after the race.
The escapees are now done with the start loop and are on their way to the intermediate sprint and later the main loop, facing the last notable ascent of the race: California Street, which leads them up to Grace Cathedral.
Which isn't the one in this picture, though, this is Old Saint Mary's Cathedral, halfway up.
And done they are with climbing! Grace Cathedral is reached, and while the rest of the stage is slightly undulating as well, there are no more steep roads left.
The same can't be said of the peloton just yet, but they'll get over with it soon as well.
We're in the Jordan Park neighborhood already - and this is the final intermediate sprint of the race. Which means that those who still would like to get something done in the GC would need to get a Top 3 on the finish line or open some gaps.
Sprint - Jordan Park
1.
Hvideberg
10 (14)
-6"
2.
Kolev
6 (6)
-4"
3.
Culey
4 (6)
-2"
4.
Gaze
2 (12)
5.
Vine
1 (28)
The peloton trails by 2'22".
Let's get to the more serious things then. The breakaway now enters Turk Boulevard, which eventually becomes Balboa Street - the road on which we have the finish line! It's a roughly 3.5km long final straight, so the sprinter teams should have no excuses to not get their job done right!
By the way, it's a bit unclear what those churches ahead are; most probably we see St. Ignatius Church and the Carmelite Chapel and Monastery of Cristo Rey. Don't blame me if that's wrong, please.
Onto the first out of eight full laps, then! The riders can see the finish line up front, but they've only done slightly more than 35km yet - of course they can't end the race now!
The gap is 2'15", the sprinter teams seem to have everything under control.
After a short ride across Golden Gate Park, using Crossover Drive, the riders get a familiar sight with lake doughnut - ehm, Stow Lake, and Strawberry Hill in the middle. They'll turn left here and arrive at Haight-Ashbury, tackling a short part of yesterday's course again.
Yesterday, checkpoint #2 was right before this crossing - where the riders turned right to start the final climb up to Diamond Heights! Unfortunately (for the climbers), no hilltop finish today, though.
Freuler leads the pack, trailing the leaders by 2'11" with slightly more than 60km to go.
A little later, the peloton arrives on Balboa Street again - we'll see if the sprinter teams will actually train their trains in one of the following laps. For now, it's Van Tricht leading the pack, whereas the escapees have almost reached the red kite marking the end of lap #1.
Another ride across Golden Gate Park - 2 done, 6 yet to come. In the background, the helicopter pilot can see the Pacific Ocean, as well as the sails of the Dutch and Murphy Windmills.
50km left, we're on lap 3/8. Kolev is still doing a ton of work up front, while Van Tricht leads the pack. The gap hasn't changed a lot, still 2 minutes separating the groups.
Lap 3 is done now, 5 to go. The most important riders - GC contenders and stage favorites - are in the first 30 or so positions. The gap to the brekaway is slowly diminishing, but the pack will surely up the pace a bit in the next couple of minutes.
Crabbe currently have the strongest presence at the front of the pack, with Van Tricht, Campenaerts, Bardet and Manfredi all contributing to the chase. Assa Abloy have Mosca, Freuler and Gallopin, while Kraftwerk have only sent Moazemi up front.
GC leader Bennett has Van Zyl, Strong and Schomber working - but none of the escapees are seriously endangering his jersey.
50% of the main loop laps are done, meaning 4 are left. Gaze is leading the breakaway, which still has 1'48" over the pack. 37km left in this Tour!
Destribois leads the peloton across Golden Gate Park once more. Still 1'40" of advantage left for the escapees, and the pack definitely has to wake up soon if the escapees should be caught!
And just as I say it, the pace definitely gets to the next level - the gap is down to 1'28", and there are even splits opening in the peloton! Only the Top 4 of the GC are on the right side of this one - which however doesn't have a big impact.
More importantly, though, many sprinters are on the wrong side - for example Itami, Bennett, Stash, Nizzolo, Boivin, Feiereisen or Moschetti. And most notably, Van Asbroeck has missed the cut as well!
The escapees are halfway done with lap number 6, as they're already on Lincoln Way, south of Golden Gate Park. We can however already spot the chasers - led by Rumac - on Crossover Drive! The time gap between the groups has gone down to 1'15" - 25km to go!
Can big engine Culey pull the others to the line? Or will they still be caught? We'll soon know!
With 20km to go - which pretty much coincides with the end of lap #6 - the gap has dropped below one minute!
And there's still a split persisting - however, now we also have Pluchkin, Choi and Faglum Karlsson in the second group, leaving just yellow jersey Bennett up front among the GC contenders!
Instead, Itami and Feiereisen have made the jump, while those behind are still desperatly trying to get in touch again!
Penultimate ride across Golden Gate Park, and the gap continues to shrink - however, it's still a 49" deficit for the pack, with 16.6km to go!
Meanwhile, the 2nd group has undone the split, so if they make the catch, we should indeed get one last big battle of all those sprinters!
Now they're closing in fast, as it's just 38" separating the two groups only 2 kilometers later! Donovan is currently leading the pack, with Kolev still be doing a lot of work up front! Maybe Fenn or Vine should finally do something as well?
By the way, three riders have lost touch with the pack by now: Medvedev, who's at the very end, plus Kroonen and Costagli who are riding together.
As the escapees start the final lap, however, their advantage has gone back up to 50 seconds! When Donovan was done, nobody took over, and so the pace dropped a lot in the pack - until Destribois surged to the front again.
But 50" for one 8.8km lap looks like a gap that could actually be sufficient - or not, depending on how the peloton reacts now!
The pack, still led by Destribois, is closing in again - just 40" left! Kolev is done now, and Vine is taking over from his teammate - BWT's race plan could actually work out today!
7.5km to go, 35" of advantage left for the frontrunners! Destribois is still leading, he's doing a huge job for his sprinter!
But we now have the same scenario as on the previous lap - Destribois is spent, and nobody agrees on continuing his work! So the breakaway's gap is up to 40" again - and just 6.5km to go!
On the last slight incline of the race, right under the 5km banner, Eriksson shows his strength on the hills and pulls the group even further away from the pack! It's already a 1'09" gap now - I'd say they'll make it!
Moreover, it's still a completely empty Destribois leading the pack, so they seem to have thrown in the towel anyway!
Finally, Nerz has decided to take over - but the damage is done, the escapees are gone! The pack surely won't be able to close a 1'11" gap in 5km, will they?
Final 3 kilometers for the front group, and they're still 1'05" ahead! They still can't afford to start playing games now - but that's not Culey's intention anyway, as he puts in a big shift again!
Nerz is desperately trying to pull Haller clear from the pack - but they'll only be fighting for 7th place it seems! The leaders are still 1'05" ahead with just 2km to go!
We then have a long line of sprinters trying to follow Haller: Feiereisen, Nizzolo, Boivin, Zariff, Coutinho, Berger and Krieger. Van Asbroeck and Eislers are further back.
This also changes the situation a bit for the green jersey fight - if indeed the Top 6 spots are gone, there are just 12 points available for 7th place! Coutinho therefore has to finish at least 9th to catch up with the others - hoping they won't score as well! And this also means that if Van Asbroeck or Eislers finish 11th or higher, the higher ranked of them will get the jersey no matter what!
Up front, it's now Vine preparing the sprint for teammate Fenn - who as mentioned earlier is the fastest sprinter among those six! But can he outlast the likes of Eriksson and Culey? Or can Gaze or Hvideberg pull off a rather surprising win?
Well, we'll have a surprise winner anyway, as surely no-one bet on a breakaway win today!
As the escapees are approaching the red kite, we might have a decisive situation for the green jersey already! We have a group of 9 sprinters breaking clear:
Haller, Feiereisen, Nizzolo, Boivin, Zariff, Coutinho, Berger, Krieger and Novardianto! Boudat is desperately trying to catch up with them - but both Van Asbroeck and Eislers are missing! This makes 9 sprinters (plus two leadouts) up front - which would leave no more points for those behind! This looks like Coutinho's golden chance of taking the points standings!
Fenn is already in the lead under the red kite - that might be a tad early! The descending roads might help him, though. Gaze and Eriksson look to be in contention as well, whereas Vine is done with his leadout job, and Culey and Hvideberg don't seem to have enough speed!
Half a kilometer behind, Rumac is done with leading out, leaving just De Buyst with Haller. Can they do a stage 18 repeat (although it'd just be for 7th place)?
Boudat and Itami have been able to latch onto that group as well, by the way - whereas Van Asbroeck has now noticed that he absolutely has to get there as well, if he still wants to get the necessary points for defending his jersey!
700m to the line! Eriksson now shows that he's got by far the best acceleration, and easily takes the lead! However, we'll have to see if he can keep it once Fenn reaches his top speed - which usually is higher than the Swede's!
Gaze is also looking good, though - and even Vine seems to have some energy left to compete for a good stage result!
In the peloton, we see that Van Asbroeck has sat up - and therefore just has to hope that Coutinho finishes 10th or lower!
Indeed, Fenn is playing out his higher top speed and moves past Eriksson again! Gaze and Vine are still fighting for 3rd, while Culey and Hvideberg just can't seem to get closer! 500m to go!
In the peloton, Manfredi seems to be the only Crabbe rider having captured the situation, trying to bring his sprinter back to the front! Van Asbroeck, Mareczko, Bennett, Moschetti and Aniolkowski have already given up it seems.
300m to the line, and while Fenn is still leading, Gaze has now found a second wind and is drawing level with Eriksson! Vine is a clear 4th now, with Culey and Hvideberg still not getting any closer.
With 200m to go, however, Gaze has clearly cracked and has dropped to 4th already! It's now Fenn and Vine vs. Eriksson for the stage win!
Behind, Haller already has to launch his sprint with 900m to go - this went completely wrong on stage 2, let's see if the descending roads help him pull through this time!
Coutinho currently only is in 13th position in the stage, behind the breakaway plus Haller, Nizzolo, Feiereisen, De Buyst, Boivin and Zariff - he needs to gain at least 4 spots to get the jersey!
Just 100m to the line, and it looks like things have settled now! Fenn is still looking good, having a solid lead over Eriksson and Vine! However, we just noticed that the final meters are slightly uphill - let's hope he doesn't crack at the very end!
Oh, he did crack, and now it's Eriksson approaching fast! He seems to be fading as well - but the Swede is currently looking better! Vine seems to be set for 3rd.
It's indeed Lucas Eriksson who wins the final stage of the 2022 Tour of America! After 21 tough days, he just had the most left in the tank among the 6 breakaway riders - and pulls off a surprise escapee win on a flat stage! Congratulations!
Andrew Fenn looked great until the last couple of meters, but eventually has to settle for 2nd.
And it could go even worse for BWT, as Culey is now approaching very fast, threatening Vine's 3rd place!
But to no avail, as Jay Vine wins that duel against compatriot Marcus Culey - making it two riders on the podium for BWT! This should be a bit of consolation for the CT team for the missed stage win, although the latter definitely must hurt.
Samuel Gaze drops back to 5th place, whereas Jonas Iversby Hvideberg never really was in contention for the top spots.
But now, let's focus on what happens behind - who will win the green jersey?
As had to be expected, Haller couldn't pull it through - and he has even cracked with 500m to go already! Besides the obvious failure of catching the breakaway, they also got their timing pretty wrong once again.
Instead, it's now Feiereisen and Zariff fighting for 7th place - with Coutinho not far behind! Boivin and Berger are looking good as well, while Nizzolo might have been slowed down a little by Haller.
In the peloton, Bennett and Eislers have finally decided to still sprint a little, although the points will be gone once the first group of sprinters gets to the line. They probably have to bet on a mass crash now - something Van Asbroeck doesn't seem to be considering, having just stopped pedalling!
With 400m to go, Coutinho has surged to the front - it's looking great for him in terms of points jersey now, but if he cracks he could very well end up empty-handed still!
Feiereisen, Berger and Zariff are now his closest rivals, but Krieger has a great burst of speed now!
Not much has changed - except for Coutinho getting an even clearer advantage now! It looks great for 7th place and the points jersey now!
However, he might have launched a little too early, and so Krieger is getting closer and closer on the final meters! 8th place would still be enough for the Portuguese, though - can he hang on?
Yes, he can! He loses the fight for 7th place to Alexander Krieger, but Lionel Coutinho takes 8th place and will therefore win the points jersey! Congratulations!
Hats off as well to Jamalidin Novardianto - that'd be an amazing 3rd place finish if not for the breakaway, but 9th place is still a respectable result for him. Hakon Frengstad Berger rounds off today's Top 10 - whereas Haller only finishes 15th...
Which is still way better than Eislers, though, who finishes 21st, missing out on the points and on a huge chance of winning the green jersey - extremely disappointing after all the work his team has done today!
Meanwhile, Bennett wins his first sprint of the race - unfortunately, it was just for 20th place, and only against 3 competitors.
And Van Asbroeck? Well, he never had a single teammate working for him today - really questionable team tactics by Philips. In the end, he didn't even fight for the points at all, and finishes 56th today.
On the other hand, all GC riders are safe in the pack, hence we don't get any more changes, as expected.
And with Medvedev crossing the line 6 minutes after the stage winner, the 2022 Tour of America is officially in the books! So let's head over to the celebration part!
And first, we have today's stage winner on the podium - Lucas Eriksson! (Almost) no-one expected the breakaway to stand a chance today, but lack of coordination or just tiredness of the sprinter teams' helpers left the door open for the escapees - and they took their chance!
The man in orange takes the 2nd stage win in this race for Cedevita - and his 2nd personal podium, after 3rd place on stage 3. Congratulations!
BWT then have numbers 2 and 3 of the stage - Andrew Fenn and Jay Vine! They must be disappointed that their perfect team strategy didn't fully work out in the end - they did everything right, but someone was too strong. Still, they triple their amount of podium spots in this final stage, nothing to scoff at!
And here's our GC winner, here's George Bennett! The Kiwi took control of the race after his win on stage 15, and never gave the lead away - on the contrary, he extended his lead almost on every mountain stage! After stage 19, most managers (except for his own) thought he'd have the GC in the bag - but yesterday's ITT made things come together again.
Ki Ho Choi came closest, trailing by just 24" - which is one measly second ahead of Aleksandr Pluchkin!, The Moldovan therefore misses out on his goal of winning all 4 GTs in his career. However, he's still the very first rider getting a GC podium in all of them, hats off!
While that 24 second gap is only the 3rd smallest margin between 1st and 2nd in ToA history, we have by far the smallest time gap separating all three podium riders! Until now, that margin was 1'09" in the 2018 edition (Valls, Talansky, A. Yates) - which by the way is the only one where Faglum Karlsson wouldn't have been on the podium with his 1'21" deficit!
Congratulations again to the first Oceanian Tour of America winner, George Bennett!
And by the way, the "fight" for the red lantern was way clearer than the one at the top of the standings. Orue leaves the race with this special mention.
We were expecting a thrilling fight for the points jersey - even more when it came clear that only smaller points were left in play for the pack, and so every position gained or lost could matter.
However, that fight became very anticlimatic when only one of the three remaining contenders actually joined the sprint - and without much surprise, Lionel Coutinho then also went on winning the jersey! Congratulations to Portugal! Two stage wins, one 2nd and 3rd place each - the Assa Abloy rider definitely is a worthy points winner! And he achieves the special feat of winning the jersey without having worn it on one single stage!
The same could be said about Tom Van Asbroeck, though - who ends up just 2 points short, losing the jersey after leading the standings all the way from New York to San Francisco (with a one-day break), and having the same podium stats as the winner! Today, he definitely lacked any team support, though, and so it's not too surprising to see him end up 2nd.
Well, that should actually be 3rd, as Ingus Eislers totals the same amount of points - and is far further ahead in the GC! The Latvian also showed an amazing race, being the rider with most podium spots in the race (1 win, 3x 2nd, 2x 3rd) - but he missed his golden chance today as well!
The sprinters will now be even happier that stage 19 went to the breakaway, by the way, as Bennett ends up just 15 points short of winning the jersey!
And Bennett also ends up 4th in the KoM standings - but he never stood a chance against Daniel Hoelgaard, who deserves the polka dots with aggressive riding and surprisingly defying the stronger climbers even in the highest mountains! He also picked up 3 podium spots along his way to win this fancy shirt - congratulations on an outstanding performance!
Lucas Hamilton was a worthy rival for the Norwegian - though - and who knows how that fight would've ended had the Aussie not moved inside the GC Top 10 due to his breakaway efforts! His 10th place overall should be a good consolation for the lost KoM shirt, though!
Hermann Pernsteiner ends up 3rd - whereas things were looking pretty bright for him in the hillier stages, he wasn't able to keep up with the best in the high mountains, where the big points were at stake. Still, his 3rd place here is a good outcome for his team!
Georg Zimmermann definitely makes this an amazing race for Tryg, as the CT outfit wins yet another jersey! At first, it might be surprising to see him take the U25 standings - but we said it in the preview, he was pretty much the only one of the contenders without domestique duties. His 8th place in the GC is far more surprising than his U25 win, given his skillset!
Alex Hoehn joined quite some breakaways, and although he didn't get any standout stage results, he was ever consistent, ending up 15th in the GC - and 2nd in the U25 standings!
Big pre-race favorite for white Pascal Eenkhoorn, on the other hand, had a pretty disappointing race. He did neither ride well on his own, nor was he able to do a particularly good job for his team leader - 3rd in the U25 competition clearly must be disappointing for him, all the more with a 6 minutes deficit.
And to the local fans' big delight, best of the rest are U.S. team McCormick Pro Cycling! They're 11 minutes down, but they surely won't care. Just like the winners, breakaways were key for this good placing - even though their manager would obviously have loved to get some stage podiums instead of this team standings podium.
The fight for 3rd was incredibly close in the end - with Kraftwerk Man Machine getting the better of Philips by just 3 seconds!
And that's all that was left to be said about this race. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did (despite the anticlimatic bunch sprint today) - see you again in Emilia for the last day of the 2022 season!
Tour of America 
