It’s the penultimate GC day! The last for the mountain specialists, and probably for the mountain classification.
The riders will mainly be in New Hampshire, in the skiing areas of Lincoln, up to the Mount Washington, the East Coast Peak. Let’s hope for them that there won’t be too much snow. The road will also come close to the famous Bretton Woods.
As it’s a brutal 208 km mountaintop finish stage, Eastman is the favorite. He’s firmly holding the yellow jersey, but on such a stage, any bad day could prove fatal.
As we said, the day will also be determinant for the mountain classification: with three cat. 4, two cat. 3 and four cat. 2 climbs – and the HC finish – a grand total of 87points are on offer.
The second part of the race is a circuit around the two cat. 2 climbs.
The first difficulty of the day is the Kancamagus Pass (cat. 3, 7,2 km, 4,6%). It officially begins 15 km after the start of the race, which is enough for numerous attacks.
A first group got clear, with usual suspects: Morales Ortega (7th in the mountain classification, 44 points), Gaspar (10th, 37 points), Gall (1st, 105 points), Verschaeve (4th, 50 points) and Helme.
41 seconds behind are Scheit, Niu, Jaramillo, Sipos, Fabbro, Kawasaki, Brandt, Vauquelin, Ho and Nerz.
51 more seconds behind, trying to go out we find Squire (8th, 42 points), Rosskopf, De Laat, Orosco and Hermans (2nd, 83 points).
Oram, O’Loughlin and McKenna are trying to filter the attacks, and indeed they bring back the last group, but the attacks continue.
Nobody manages to join, and the break of 15 is the two first group we named.
Gall wins the sprint, ahead of Gaspar and Verschaeve.
The gap to the peloton is 2’49. The next step is the easier road to Attitash Mountain resort (cat. 4, 5,2 km, 2,9%) The gap is 4’09, with all Glanbia at the head of the peloton.
Gall once again manages to beat Verschaeve. He now has a 59 points advantage.
Though the following climb is also cat. 4, it’s way harder. Glen Ledge Road is 2,1 km long, with a medium gradient of 7,2%. Verschaeve tries to go sooner, but in the end, Gall seems the strongest. Verschaeve is even beaten by Morales Ortega.
Now comes the circuit, with the first difficulty being the climb to Hurricane mountain (cat. 2, 3,1 km, 7,8%). The gap to the peloton is 6’08. It’s another victory for Gall, who now has twice as many points as Verschaeve.
At this point of the stage, we can have a look at the mountain standings.
Gall is now assured to keep the jersey at the end of the day, bar a surprise comeback from Hermans, who isn’t in the break. Ho, Helme and Sipos are in difficulty, 1 minute behind them. In the peloton, Oram, Cheyne, Van Stayen and Loland are dropped. The gap is now 8’30, and it doesn’t look like Glanbia has the domestiques to bring the break back. Still 120 km to go, though.
The next difficulty is the road to the Mountain Pond Trailhead. It’s quite an irregular climb (cat. 2, 6,3 km, 5,7%, with a max gradient at 17%). This time, Verschaeve takes the 10 points. Gall is 2nd.
Gall seems to be tiring, as Vershaeve takes 10 more points at the return in Hurricane Mountain.
Vershaeve is now 2nd in the mountain classification, with 84 points (Gall has 145).
8’52 between the pack and the leaders now. Sipos, Vauquelin and Morales Ortega are definitely dropped from the break with 82 km left. The peloton is down to 120 riders.
Verschaeve wins the last cat. 2 climb, without interferance from Gall, who’s been dropped from the break.
The mountain standings are in the center of the fight today! Let’s see how they moved.
There is no sprint in Glen, but Vershaeve takes 6 bonus seconds in the young rider classification. They are only 8 in the break now: Vershaeve, Brandt, Gaspar Fabbro, Jaramillo, Helme, Niu and Nerz.
The gap is 9’45 to a 103 men peloton.
Back at Glen Ledge Road, Gaspar takes 5 points ahead of Fabbro and Jaramillo.
McCormick now takes the head of the peloton. They are 7 km and 7’24 behind the 8 leaders with 31 km and 2 climbs left. The closest GC wise in the break is Vershaeve (14th, +11’58), bbut Gaspar (+13’07), Niu (+15’17) and Helme (+19’41) also are in the top 20.
Wildcat Mount is the penultimate climb of the day (cat. 3, 5,9 km, 4,3%).
McNulty punctured in the favorites’ group, and he’s now between a 34 men yellow jersey group and a 42 men chasing group, with Mannion, Keizer and Alarcon.
The whole McCormick teal waited for McNulty, who is safely back in a 73 men peloton. The whole top 20 is here or ahead.
Verschaeve wins the mountain sprint. That’s a good day in the break for him, all in all. The peloton is 5 minutes behind, with McCormick and Colombini working. Eastman has been isolated for quite some time now.
Gall has been dropped from the favorites group, down to 36 riders. He has his team with him, but he will rpobably lose too much time on Vershaeve to keep a chance in the young rider classification.
13 km left, the 8 leaders begin the brutal climb to Mount Washington with a gap of 4’04 (HC, 13 km, 10%).
11 km left, an attack from Fabbro put himself, Nerz and Verschaeve clear by 43 seconds. But the favorites are right behind.
9,1 km left. The three leaders have 1’47 on the favorites. We’re waiting for the attacks now. Gall and Xandri are the one of the top 20 not in the front groups.
7,5 km. Nerz is dropped from the break, Vershaeve and Fabbro earn themselves some time. Raileanu is the main name working at the front of the yellow jersey group, with Reis in his wheel.
Nerz manages to rejoin some hundred meters after.
6 km to go, the gap still is 1’32, but Reis launches the hostilities among the favorites!
Nobody follows him, and under the 5 km banner, Reis joined the break. The other favorites aren’t too far though.
The chasing group of 15 is McNulty, Tejada, Burke, Eastman, Inkelaar, Schleck, Madrazo, Lemus Davila, Raileanu, Munoz, Powless, Rachid, Niu, Ludvigsson and Delco.
Ranaweera seems in difficulties!
4,3 km to go, and it’s McNulty’s turn to attack. He’s followed by Eastman and Powless.
Reis was poorly placed, but he works to come back, as McNulty accelerates again. The Kraftwerk rider is Nerz; Ludvigsson and Ranaweera already are 1’30 back.
3 km left, which are less hard (but still hard). Powless counters, and it seems that Eastman can’t follow! The yellow jersey is in difficulty!
2 km to go. McNulty keeps Powless’ wheel. They have 51 seconds on a group of 7: Reis, Tejada, Lemus Davila, Burke, Eastman, Munoz and Madrazo. The latter is struggling.
Flamme rouge for McNulty and Powless. Their gap is 1’07. McNulty was only 1’25 behind Eastman this morning, and he could take yellow!
500 m. Powless seems in great shape and accelerates.
200 m for Powless. McNulty is very close. Reis accelerates in the chasing group, with Eastman really struggling now.
Powless wins the 18th stage! Second victory for him, the third for his team. Now the clock is on, as he only was 15 seconds behind Reis.
McNulty is 2nd, 10 seconds behind.
Reis is 3rd, ahead of Lemus Davila. He loses 50 seconds and the podium spot. Maybe hard to gobble in what is all in all a good show a strength from him.
Munoz is 5th.
Burke beats Eastman and Tejada to 6th. That’s a great day for Zwift. Eastman might lose the jersey…
Madrazo is 9th.
Vershaeve is 10th, ahead of Raileanu. That should settle his 2nd place in the young rider classification, and in the mountain classification.
It’s a bad day for Kraftwerk, as Ranaweera loses 4 minutes!
Everyone comes back home in the time limit.
Eastman keeps the yellow jersey! His advance on McNulty is back at only 4 seconds ahead of the TT. He also has 3’23 on Powless, but that should prove enough.
Reis is 40 seconds behind the podium. Though that’s by no mean impossible to overcome, he’ll nead a great time trial. Powless won the first one…
Ranaweera drops to 8th, but he’s less than 30 seconds behind the top 5, and he could take them back in the TT.
With a 43 points advantage in the mountain classification, Gall should be safe for the next three stages. Same for McNulty and Vershaeve in the young rider classification.
Zwift made a big move toward the team classification today. Same for Colombini! The third place should give a nice distant battle between Kraftwerk and McCormick in the time trial.
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