Here it is, ladies and gentlemen - the climax of the 2024 Olympia’s Tour. Today it will be the final stage of the race - an 8.5 km short TT from Woerden to Montfoort. Since this will be decisive for the final classification in the race, let’s recap what the situation is prior to this stage:
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Faycal Hamza
SEE Turtles
13h24'14
2
Freddy Cruz
SEE Turtles
+ 5
3
Atsushi Oka
SEE Turtles
+ 7
4
Kristian Vanderpool
Podium Ambition
+ 12
5
Arturs Belevics
Tafjord Kraft
+ 14
6
Jorge Abreu
SEE Turtles
s.t.
7
Joshua Kelly
SEE Turtles
+ 16
8
Hasani Hennis
Podium Ambition
+ 17
9
Brent Van Moer
Gjensidige Pro Cycling Team
+ 18
10
Akil Campbell
Podium Ambition
+ 20
After winning the TTT 2 days ago, SEE Turtles have the advantage with 5 riders in Top 7 and the Top 3 currently is occupied by their riders, led by Faycal Hamza. Sandwiched between the 5 SEE riders are Podium Ambition’s Vanderpool and Tafjord’s Belevics, though their gap to the race leader is little over 10 seconds. Podium Ambition has two more riders in Top 10 - Hennis (8th, +17) and Campbell (+20), as they will challenge SEE Turtles in the team standings. The previous leader - Van Moer is 9th, but 18 seconds behind following Gjensidige’s disastrous TTT. He has an 8 seconds gap to teammate Knotten in the young rider standings. Syver Waersted from Tafjord currently leads the points standings and barring any surprises, he’d have nothing to worry about. And now, the pre-stage favorites
Van Moer is considered the favorite in this short TT stage, but considering that the gaps are smaller in such stages, he’d have to hope for a miracle to claw back to the win. Which would be a tall order as right next in the panel’s picks is our race leader Hamza. 3rd placed Oka is also making an appearance here with the 5th best odds here. Belevics and Predatsch have the 3rd and 4th best chances respectively. From Podium Ambition the panel’s choice is not the 4th placed Vandepool, but rather the 8th placed Hennis. And now, let’s jump straight to the action
And we are underway for the final stage for the 2024 Olympia’s Tour - who will win this year’s race, we will see after all 112 riders finish the stage.
Most riders starting early won’t have an impact in either the stage or classification win, but we’ve decided to focus on Gilles Heynes as he finishes in provisional 2nd behind provisional leader Taylor Gunman from Air New Zealand.
Joey Rosskopf also finish 7 seconds behind Gunman. Rabitsch is also 7 seconds behind. The next batch isn’t strong in short TT, so the Top 4 will stay this way for a long time
Alex Frame is with 79 PRL and could threaten his countryman’s lead. But unfortunately he finishes 3 seconds behind
Altanzul is the next that could record a decent time for now, but is 11 seconds behind.
Domenic Weinstein is next as we start to see the stronger TT specialists. But even he can’t topple Gunman’s time - 4 seconds behind
Predatsch is next - will he beat Gunman’s time? No! Just one second shy.
Vangstad is one of the panel’s favorites today and while he ties de jure Gunman’s time - the advantage is for the New Zealand rider
Boudat is also strong in short TT - he also ties Gunman’s time, but like Vangstad, it’s advantage Gunman.
Syver Waersted has departed and while he won’t make a difference, he can be 99% assured of the points classification win.
Rojus could upset the Norwegian, however, but he’d need to be in a Top 5 finish. Which won’t happen as he’s provisional 15th, 10 seconds behind.
Baloni started right next to him - 3 seconds behind Gunman.
Knotten is on our focus right now, but it’s doubtful that he will do much to cause a surprise in the young riders classification. 5 seconds behind - Brent Van Moer can be assured of winning this classification unless he has major collapse
And Taylor Gunman’s reign at the provisional lead has finally come to an end. Brent Van Moer made no mistakes as he sets the fastest time of the stage. Prior to that Campbell finished 5 seconds behind Gunman.
Hennis is 8 seconds behind, while Joshua Kelly is 10 behind. Abreu is 14 seconds behind - can Van Moer do the unthinkable?
Belvecis is just 3 seconds behind, but had 4 seconds gap prior to the stage - the Belgian’s advance is stopped. He won’t be the winner in this race
Kristian Vanderpool made a fine impression in the opening stage, but will drop 2 places as he finishes 8 seconds behind Van Moer’s time
Atsushi Oka is next and he assures himself at least bronze as he’s 4 seconds behind
Freddy Cruz on the other hand loses 10 seconds. His teammate Oka has now secured silver. But could it be converted to gold?
And finally, our race leader - Faycal Hamza. What will his time be? And he ties Van Moer’s time, but according to the live timing he has been given the advantage. Hamza has won the overall win, but is he winning the stage
After reviewing the footage, the jury has decided to award the win to Brent Van Moer - small consolation for him after his chances were ruined by the TTT stage
Hamza may’ve lost the stage win, but it doesn’t matter as he had won the overall classification. He’ll be joined by his teammates Oka and Cruz. Van Moer is jumping from 9th to 5th.
As predicted, Waersted wins the points classification. Van Moer was out of contention for this jersey anyway, but has finished 2nd with 50 points from just his 2 stage wins.
Van Moer wins the young rider classification - the only jersey he held from start to finish
And finally, the teams classification was won by SEE Turtles with Tafjord and Gjensidige rounding out the Top 3. Podium Ambition sadly missed out on the podium.
And that concludes our coverage of Olympia’s Tour - hope you’ve had a great time during these 6 stages. Goodbye
