The second stage is here and it’s the more challenging of the two road stages. How challenging exactly will be up to the riders in the finale – it’s the big question heading into tomorrow’s concluding time trial.
Another important question for today will be: Who will win the mountain classification? It’s unlikely that it’s going to be this guy, given his skillset as a rookie, but you have to hand it to Pringle: After already trying to get into the breakaway yesterday, only to end up with the white jersey instead, he’s back at the front again! Uzbek champ Siddikov tries to catch up.
The duo is already a minute up the road when the next two riders attack: It’s Fisher-Black and Bakke Christophersen. The Aker rider would easily be the best puncheur of the group, let’s see if they make it to the front.
They do, and they bring more riders with them. Gamper and Krigbaum make it six, Hindley and Akhmaevi are struggling a bit in their quest to join as well.
They are almost there as the group starts to sprint for the first five mountain points of the day – but not quite yet. Meanwhile, more attacks have come from the peloton: Sulvaran, Puma duo Matsangos and Cemazar as well as Andersen try to catch up.
Fisher-Black wins the points ahead of Krigbaum and Bakke Christophersen, who was the quickest in the end but left it a bit too late. The Lierse duo leaves a small gap, which ultimately is the ticket for Hindley and Akhmaevi, as they catch up to them and all four join back up with the others.
Hindley wins the first intermediate sprint quite convincingly. The group has 3’30 on the peloton, with the aforementioned four riders still in between, fighting to catch up.
Sulvaran, Matsangos and Cemazar eventually do to make it a group of 11, but Matsangos quickly pays the price for the long chase and falls behind again. The peloton has also increased the pace significantly, not feeling comfortable with such a big group, and they brought the gap to under 2 minutes.
“The peloton” is maybe not the correct description – it’s basically all EA Vesuvio. In a rare display, seven of their eight riders are in the Top 10 position at the moment! Dunbar and Bernal are kept near the front by their teammates, as is yellow jersey Groenewegen.
But back to the front where Hindley wins the mountain sprint ahead of Gamper and Cemazar. Currie and Akhmaevi struggle to keep up and they won’t be able to return to the front, and neither is Sulvaran, who falls behind shortly afterwards.
Gamper also falls behind on the way to the first Category 3 climb. Meanwhile, we have an odd attack by Gebrezgabihier and Boileau in the peloton, which is quickly shut down by Van Baarle – King Power is now taking a more prominent role in the chase.
The pace is high both in the peloton and at the front, where Fisher-Black is the next victim of the pace. Krigbaum wins the sprint, but that still leaves him one point short of Weiss in the classification.
The high intensity also leads to a first split in the peloton where 24 riders briefly break off from the rest. Of the elite time trialists, only Dunbar, Wirtgen and Bernal are in that first group alongside the main puncheurs – while some of the others, like Zmorka or even Würtz fairly far towards the back of the main peloton. There’s a long time now to recover, but this doesn’t bode well for them.
The brutal pace of the peloton, now also by Polar, has left the breakaway no chance. Cemazar and Akhmaevi are caught with still 75 kilometers to go, while last survivor Krigbaum would hold on for another 25 kilometers, only to be reeled in just three kilometers ahead of the next mountain sprint ...
However, in an odd twist, and because no one else was apparently interested in the points, Hindley and Krigbaum managed to be in the first two positions in the peloton to collect a few more points. This puts the Dane at 12 points, 2 points ahead of both the Australian and previous leader Weiss. 10 points are still available on the Category 2 climb, with another 5 at the finish line.
After the breakaway was caught, the peloton came to a slow crawl, which in turn meant that the sprinters were able to collect themselves and go at the final intermediate sprint in full force. Yellow jersey Groenewegen wins six points and six seconds, which could give him a massive leg up on today’s winner, at least in the points competition and maybe even in the GC.
As we head into the final 20 kilometers, let’s take a closer look at the profile. If the peloton puts on a similar show as on the Cat 3 climb, this upcoming Cat 2 climb could already be a crucial point. Otherwise, it comes down to the final two short climbs.
It’s not a big show and the peloton reaches the summit mostly in one piece. But in the final few hundred meters, Gebrezgabihier again attacks, with Bagioli following.
The duo briefly gets a gap but doesn’t push it any further. Back to a full peloton with 15 kilometers to go.
Well, not completely full. A few riders fell behind individually, most notably Tanfield and Pelikan. But then, Puma and Carlsberg are also behind the peloton with large parts of their teams. It looks like they’re there to support their sprinters, who have fallen behind? For Carlsberg, this isn’t a super big deal, with their best time trialist Norsgaard still in the peloton. But Puma has Kämna and O'Brien in here, both of whom may have challenged for at least some depth points in the GC – a poor tactical decision.
Back to the front, where we have a man on a mission today: Gebrezgabihier attacks for the third time today! Still in the mostly flat part, he is joined by Formolo and once again Bagioli. Marryatt tries to chase them down - Kelderman seems to be feeling good!
Those attacks lead to another split, and this one is more dangerous now. Zmorka is the most prominent victim, but also all of Jura – GIANTS outside of Schmid, and all of ELCO – ABEA. They hadn’t been positioned particularly well all day and are being punished for it. Meanwhile, Cedevita rally around Ackermann and bring the German to the front – just in time.
Into the penultimate climb and Formolo and Bagioli still have a small lead on the peloton now led by Spark for Kelderman and Tinkoff for Skujins. Wirtgen is positioned more near the middle of this group with Bernal not far away on his right. Dunbar meanwhile is closer to the front, just ahead of Latvian champ Skujins.
Conca ultimately brings the two attackers back and 84 riders head into the final ascent together. Yellow jersey Groenewegen and Wirtgen are riding close to each other but fairly far away from the front – they will have to hope that no gaps open!
Fighting for the stage win are others - Gidich chief among them, thanks to great work by King Power. Buchmann to his right, Skujins and Bernal on the left side are some of the challengers, with Kelderman, Dunbar and Mohoric a bit further behind. But with two kilometers to go, the steepest parts are yet to come.
The King Power leadout crumbles and as Gidich finds himself in the wind, he slows down not to overextend himself. This allows some to catch up a bit, including Schmid, Mohoric and, a bit further down to the left, Evenepoel. Formolo is also still in the mix if he has enough energy after the attack.
As the sprint for the win begins, we take one more look back and see that, next to Kung, last year’s winner Mullen falls behind! And Würtz is fighting desperately to hold on at the back of the peloton, which has 69 riders left.
At the front, Müller beautifully sets up Buchmann with 500 meters to go. Gidich is close by, who has around a bike length on Bernal, Skujins and Kelderman (nicely protected by Duyvesteyn).
Buchmann is almost struggling a bit to overtake his teammate. On the left, Kelderman is easily the fastest on the road!
He takes the lead in the final 100 meters, it looks like it’s between him and Buchmann!
And Kelderman takes it! What a win for Spark! Buchmann comes next, certainly not the 1-2 anyone would’ve bet on, but they both benefited massively from strong protection from their teammates. Gidich at least scores a podium spot, Müller takes his incredible domestique work all the way to fourth place.
Bernal is fifth, then Schmid – not a great day for Jura, missing out on a stronger stage finish and losing any hope of a good GC result. Evenepoel finishes seventh ahead of Skujins, Aleotti and Duyvesteyn.
Not a great day for EA Vesuvio either, with Mohoric in 22nd place one of the bigger disappointments – he just wasn’t very strong today. Wirtgen finishes just a few positions behind him, as does Dunbar.
Not a disaster for them either, though: Würtz manages to stay in the peloton as one of the final three riders of the group over the line next to Leknessund. Groenewegen is also in this front group, so he does indeed keep yellow for another day. And he will win the green jersey, unless Bernal can finish Top 2 tomorrow.
Mullen and Kung lose one minute, taking them out of contention for the top spots in the GC. The second big group around Zmorka ends up over six minutes behind the leaders.
So, where does this leave us? Well, 10 of the 12 riders considered as the top favorites in the preview were in this front group – the two that weren’t are the two worst puncheurs, which checks out. The unfortunate and unexpected casualties were among the riders of the second and third tiers, who did not have that clear leadership status and suffered from poor positioning or poor tactical decisions. But with many strong time trialists on the same time, we’re in for a very interesting and potentially very close race for all positions in the Top 10 to 20. See you then!
Tour of Tasmania 
