The Race of the Two Seas reaches it conclusion in Sarnano Sassotetto which isn’t all that close to either sea but is great big mountain. Although it finishes with a big climb the stage isn’t necessarily one for the diesel climbers, it has more of a classics profile with 225k and a lot of small climbs of which 3 are categorized, one each at cat 2, 3 and 4.
Lecuisinier is the 2nd favorite although this is probably not the terrain he would have chosen to salvage his race. Kudus is the favorite; he could win all 3 jerseys with a good day today.
About 10k gone, the leader is 1 minute ahead, it is KOM jersey-wearer Munton. 16 seconds behind him is Pavlic. The gap hasn’t grown because for some reason Giannoutsos and Olivier are setting a steady pace on the front. McNulty was also up there for a little while but he has dropped back. Grieg has Johansen up there as well, they probably want to be in the break today.
There are a few more attacks but with 18k all the attackers are brought back but the aggressive chase from Colombini and a lot of work from Giannoutsos split the pack with about 20 riders quickly getting almost two minutes on the peloton. A few more riders in between. In addition to the Greek, GC contenders up front are Kudus, Pogacar, Morton, and Oomen.
The gap grew quickly as the peloton looked for someone to take control, eventually it is Mendoza who makes it to the front to start the chase.
The smaller teams in the break try and make it stick, workers at different times include Colombini (Bruno, Del Toro), King Power (Van Baarle), ELCO (Giannoutsos, Stavrakakis), Grieg (Johansen, Svestad-Bardseng) and Jura (Tiberi). But the big guns just sit on and with 185k to go and the full Evonik team chasing the gap is under 1 minute. They don't seem willing to let Kudus get 8 minutes again.
Evonik get to within 42 seconds but are having trouble closing it and it is back to 53 seconds with 168k to go, they look like they will need help. Cavagna doing a long turn on the front for the break at the moment.
Evonik can’t close it and they stop chasing to see if someone will call their bluff. Meanwhile ELCO’s strategy remains unclear, Giannoutsos would seem like their best card but he has spent himself making the break stick and has been dropped and almost caught by the peloton.
Since the break seems to be sticking for now, lets look at the riders: Currie Pogacar Jele Powless Sprenger Munton Cavagna Stavrakakis Kusuma Svestad-Bardseng Pavlic Tiberi Van Baarle Oomen Suter Blum Kudus Van Niekerk Morton Scott
Johansen, Bruno, and Del Toro were all in the break but have also been dropped after doing a lot of work. The break may be running out of fire power. The gap right now is back to 1’55.
Halfway up the climb the Del Toro and Van Niekerk are dropped but Svestad-Bardseng, Pavlic, Cavagna and Tiberi have made it across to the attack. Van Baarle still trying. The GC riders are now drifting back and will soon be with the peloton.
With about 90k gone we finally have a settled break of the day. Their gap has quickly ballooned to 4’25 with UBS mounting a very casual chase behind. The break is Sprenger, Munton, Cavagna, Svestad-Bardseng, Pavlic, Tiberi, Van Baarle and Van Niekerk. All the teams that really drove the escape have a representative.
The break don’t contest the first sprint point and their lead is up to 5’20 with 107k to go.
Sprenger wins the first KOM contest, a Cat 4. The lead up to 6’02 with 85k to go. Only 1 point for third for Munton but probably not a big issue for him. The final climb offers Cat 1 points, but in the peloton only Van Poucke is close enough to catch him for the KOM jersey by winning the stage.
At the next climb, a Cat 2, Svestad-Bardseng goes over first which moves him into 2nd in the KOM competition. Munton gets second place points which is enough to ensure the KOM jersey will be his unless Svestad-Bardseng wins the stage. Lead had gone to over 7 minutes but now cycleYorkshire (Hansen) has upped the pace and it is back down to 6’03. 71k to go.
The pack begins to split with all the short climbs. About 50 riders off the back. Wellens has missed it again. The rest of the top 20 are safe.
It is close at the final categorized climb, a Cat 3. Munton wins it. He will be the King of Mountains as winning the stage would no longer be enough for Svestad Bardseng to catch him. Peleton at 5’53 with 50k to ride.
Wellens doesn’t seem to value 13th on GC as he is sticking with his sprinter at this point.
With 44k to go another 30 riders are dropped from the peloton including Giannoutsos (16th on GC) and Geoghegan Hart (14th). Giannoutsos maybe paying for his earlier efforts, not clear what Geoghegan Hart is thinking. They aren’t working that hard to get back though.
The break are on the final uncategorized climb with 23k to go. After this short climb they have a sprint point and the finishing climb. Peloton at 3’48 with cycleYorkshire (Zukowsky) and UBS (Barbio) working harder now.
The break ignore the sprint point.
The peloton reach the final climb with a deficit of 2’41 and Balmer on the front. Evonik have appeared back up front in numbers and also contributed a little to the chase. Ahead Van Niekerk has been dropped. Behind Geoghegan Hart is making an effort to bridge.
Latour hates boring mountain stages, he attacks with just under 12k to go. Morton, Pogacar and Kudus behind him.
The combined efforts of Foss and Roson make sure the first attack gets no real traction. Lecuisinier launches a counter of his own. 50 riders left in the peloton, gap to the break is just 1’24.
Others try and follow but Lecuisinier gets away solo, he has 19 seconds.
7.5k to go. Lecuisinier has 24 seconds on the peloton and is 20 seconds behind the break. Tiberi has been dropped by the break and passed by PHL. Gregaard, Ayuso, and Suter have been trying a failing to close the gap. Kudus has over 2 minutes on his rival so this is no threat to him but riders like Morton and Haig have less than 30 seconds on the Frenchman.
With 5.7k to go Leuisinier catches the surviving 5 breakaway riders. Svestad-Bardseng having been dropped. A chasing group of 20 is at 50 seconds. Eenkhoorn (19th) and Rikunov (15th) are the only additional riders dropped who started the day in the GC top 20.
Kudus decides things are getting out of hand and immediately tears across the gap, 26 riders in the front group officially but it is stretched out.
Under the 5k banner Pogacar launches an attack. Lead group down to 20. McNulty has been dropped, he doesn’t seem to have it this race, riders he would consider his peers like Sivakov and Aular are still well placed.
Pogi’s attack draws clear Kudus, Sivakov, Oomen, Aular and Lecuisinier.
3k to ride, the 6 attackers have 25 seconds over Morton and Latour and 35 seconds over Haig and Carthy.
1.5k, not much change, gaps to the chasing duos are 29 and 37 seconds. PHL moving up to 4th on GC right now but would need to drop Oomen and gain a lot of time to make the podium
400 meters, Kudus at the front. Aular in trouble. Latour now solo at 37 seconds, another 8 seconds to Morton who has been joined by Carthy. Another 13 to Haig, he could be losing a number of spots today.
Kudus makes it 3 mountain stage wins out of 3, just edging his rival Lecuisinier. Kudus will get the points and 2nd on KOM as well as the GC title. Pogacar is 3rd and 2nd overall in the GC. Lecuisinier and Pogacar also take 2nd and 3rd in points.
Oomen takes 4th and holds 3rd on GC. Sivakov takes 5th, he had a bad day on Stage 4 and it cost him. The first 5 get the same time. Aular hangs on for 6th, 32 seconds down.
Latour (+0’48), Morton and Carthy (+0’57), and Haig (+1’22) complete the top 10.
PHL ends the race in 4th, not what he came her for. Aular moves up to 6th. Morton loses 1 spot and Haig 3. McNulty loses 5’50, not a stage that suited him but that is a huge loss. It drops him 2 spots as Olivier and Leknessund take 11th and 12th, both gaining more than 2 minutes on the American.
Geoghegan Hart loses 6 spots to finish 20th but the big losers on the day are Giannoutsos’ who’s attempt to break the race open ends up with him dropping to 33rd on GC and Wellens who just seemed not to be interested and ends up 62nd on GC, 14 minutes down on the day.
Galvan Ramirez suffers today and drops to 3rd in the White Jersey competition. The winner is Avenir champion Hayter. Compensation for Los Pollos is that Ayuso takes 2nd.
Evonik hold on to the Team’s jersey, ahead of Tinkoff, despite all the energy spent on the early chase.
Tirreno - Adriatico 
