We remain on the island of Lombok for the final stage of this year's Tour of East Java. With the focus of the day being five circuits of Mataram, and the winds being relatively calm, we aren't expecting any excitement in the General Classification. The only ones likely to change that are the breakaway, who might be hoping to gain some time overall in addition to snatching the stage from the sprinters. It seems that everybody knows that this is their last opportunity to taste glory and have thrown themselves onto the attack with abandon: it took nearly an entire lap of our 23 kilometre circuit before the breakaway could be established. The likes of Carlsberg - Danske Bank, Moser - Sygic, Rabobank, Benetton Bimex Cycling, Specialized and JEWA TIROL all committed numbers to the various aborted assaults. Unfortunately for them, Kraftwerk were paying close attention to the composition, and refused to allow anything more than four men up the road. The strongest of those four is Piotr HAVIK. A known baroudeur, he has a decently strong engine and is by far the most capable of his companions should things come down to a sprint. As much as he might benefit from their inability to challenge, he must equally suffer from their weakness; Matija MESTRIC might have something to offer, despite the lack of paves, but I can't see Gianmarco GAROFOLI and Bredio RUIZ offering much of a challenge to the legion of sprint domestiques.
We're joining the racing at the beginning of the final lap — 28 kilometres remain. The breakaway had absolutely no interest in contesting the intermediate sprints, their eyes firmly focused on the end of the stage. The combined efforts of Kraftwerk, Aker - MOT, Polar and Evonik - ELKO have kept them well in check, the gap never creeping much beyond three minutes. That gap has come tumbling down as soon as soon as the sprint teams started to crank up the heat, it is now falling through 1½ minutes. These guys aren't going to let this one slip away. Evonik - ELKO obviously no longer have anything to fear, with the best of the break + 8'23" in the GC, so they've stopped contributing at the front. Kraftwerk and Polar have compensated by adding more bodies to the front. This, I'm not so sure about. Maybe the presence of Josip RUMAC can be justified by the fact that there are others who can fill his role, but you would expect Ivan GARCIA CORTINA to be an integral part of his team's leadout and here he is burning matches. Well, we'll soon see what comes of that.
The breakaway really is putting a valiant effort here. The riders are flying under the 10 kilometre mark and they are still unwilling to give up, even though they can surely feel the peloton breathing down their neck. Polar are contributing heavily to chase here: Artem NYCH, Harry SWEENY, Jan BROCKHOFF. Damn, they really did bring some impressive firepower! It is a shame that they haven't been able to put together a sprint train thus far; they've assembled something this time though: Karl Patrick LAUK ahead of Ivan GARCIA CORTINA and Jasper PHILIPSEN. Their main challengers will be the trio of Mihkel RÄIM, Barnabas PEAK and Dylan GROENEWEGEN. The Kraftwerk train is scattered all over the place, with Rick ZABEL exposed out ahead the group. The situation is not being helped by the number of GC riders who are looking to keep themselves nice and snug near the front. Plenty of jostling and jousting going on throughout.
There is a last desperate attack from HAVIK as he tries to keep the peloton at bay. It was never meant to be though; he is the last of the breakaway to be swept up. Some credit needs to be given to RUIZ though, he held on much longer than was expected. We are rapidly approaching the 5 kilometre banner. The Polar train is working well together: they are still towards the front and have plenty of room to manoeuvre off to their left. The Aker - MOT crew have not been quite as fortunate. Jasper DE BUYST came through and disrupted them, shuffling GROENEWEGEN right the way back; he is now trapped behind a clump of GC riders, with the current points leader — Elias AFEWERKI — alongside him. The only sprinters even more out of position are Phil BAUHAUS and Mamyr STASH; both have a lot of ground to make up if they want to get anything from this one.
The trains are making their way to the fore with 3 kilometres to ride! Well, the train. GROENEWEGEN is struggling to make up ground, with Pedro SILVA only just having dropped back to help his leader. PEAK knows he is capable of taking a shot at personal glory and isn't willing to roll the dice by giving that up. Alexandr KULIKOVSKIY and Thomas BOUDAT are fighting over PHILIPSEN's wheel. Aksel NOMMELA, rocketing up the right, might be exposing himself to the wind too early.
LAUK does an excellent job, maintaining a high pace for more than 1½ kilometres. Now it is time to see just how much energy participating in the chase has sapped GARCIA CORTINA's legs. BOUDAT won his fight with KULIKOVSKIY, with the latter now bumping shoulders with NOMMELA; that said, it looks like Alvaro HODEG might be trying to force his way between them. Sandy NUR HASAN — the hometown hope — is getting tangled up with Torkil VEYHE just off to the side. GROENEWEGEN is still struggling to move forward, although he has some illustrious company now as both AFEWERKI and ZABEL have also begun to slip backwards. I should note that BAUHAUS has got his act together, and is now in a position to contest the sprint; the same can not be said for STASH.
I may have underestimated GARCIA CORTINA, or otherwise overstated the amount of earlier-applied effort; he is flying under the red banner with nary a concern. BOUDAT is a veteran of many a sprint — albeit mostly at the Continental level — and knows that if he just sits on PHILIPSEN's wheel he won't be able to come round the younger man. It is going to come down to timing and BOUDAT thinks this is the moment! PHILIPSEN is awake to the danger though; no sooner does he sense that GARCIA CORTINA can't find that little bit extra that BOUDAT is demanding than does he swing out from behind the leadout, incidentally chopping across his competitor's front wheel, and launch his own sprint. KULIKOVSKIY, NOMMELA and HODEG form a line abreast immediately behind, with the latter moving a tad more rapidly than the others. Then Stanislaw ANIOLKOWSKI, Asbjorn KRAGH ANDERSEN, Jiankun LIU and Sandy NUR HASAN are packed into a tight space together. They are shoulder-to-shoulder, trying to get into the wake of the guys ahead.
The riders are passing by the entrance to the beautiful Islamic Center Mataram. The architecture won't be their main focus though; there is a stage win up for grabs and it is going to a close one. GARCIA CORTINA is still going and still in the lead, although that may not remain the case for long. PHILIPSEN, for all his earlier tricks, hasn't been able to find an extra gear so BOUDAT is gaining ground on both him and GARCIA CORTINA. NOMMELA and HODEG are both also looking ready to pounce; KULIKOVSKIY hasn't cracked but just can't match the speed of his compatriots and is drifting backwards as a result. AKA is the fastest moving of those coming from further back.
BOUDAT and PHILIPSEN are neck-and-neck just 200 metres from the line! GARCIA CORTINA still has overlap with them, but his herculean effort has finally collapsed so he is rapidly falling backwards. That creates a problem for HODEG, he is coming up on the leaders but is now forced to try and wedge himself in the narrow space beside BOUDAT. He'll need to be careful threading that needle, as the wavering GARCIA CORTINA is liable to bump into him and sap all the momentum from his charge. By Jove, I think he has got it, slithering his way through an unimaginably tight space at full pelt, bravo! NOMMELA has a far easier line, with plenty of space to come round the outside.
It is a wonderfully tight finish between the front trio. In the end it is BOUDAT who will be the happiest, he timed his launch perfectly and held his nerve to take his first (?) PTHC victory. Alvaro HODEG also showed immense power, and might have hoped for more with slightly better positioning. The only beneficiary of a leadout PHILIPSEN might have hoped for more, but he does at least ensure there is at least on Pro Tour representative on this podium. As far as the points classification is concerned, the most important result is Asbjorn KRAGH ANDERSEN in 5th. AFEWERKI was never anywhere near the front and GROENEWEGEN never recovered from the heavy hit he received courtesy of Kraftwerk. The Aker - MOT directeur sportif might be understandably frustrated by that development, especially as ZABEL failed to even benefit from the opportunity. The end result is that AKA, having consistently finished in the Top 5, secures the green jersey. No gaps means no changes in the GC either, so congratulations to Pierre-Henri LECUISINIER for the overall victory and Anders HALLAND JOHANNESSEN for taking the youth classification.
