We start heading South. Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE) has already crushed the race: with 2 victories in ~~-4-~~ 3 stages, he leads the 3 classifications...
Rankings after stage #4.
General time classification
- Tadey Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE
- Primoj Roglitch 🇸🇮 Bora @ 3′21″
- Enric Mas 🇪🇸 Movistar @ 3′32″
- Sepp Kuss 🇺🇸 Visma @ 3′44″
- Oscar Onley 🇬🇧 Ineos @ 3′45″
- Richard Carapaz 🇪🇨 EF @ 3′50″
- Felix Gall 🇦🇹 Decathlon @ 3′57″
- Matias Skjelmose 🇩🇰 Lidl-Trek @ 4′06″
- Jarno Widar 🇧🇪 Lotto-Int. @ 4′06″
- Jay Vine 🇦🇺 UAE @ 4′11″
Points
- Tadey Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE: 82 pts
- Ethan Hayter 🇬🇧 Soudal-QS: 37
- Matthew Brennan 🇬🇧 Visma: 30
Mountain
- Tadey Pogatchar 🇸🇮 UAE: 23 pts
- Lorenzo Fortunato 🇮🇹 Astana: 10
- 4 riders with 6 pts
Stages
Stage 5, Wednesday 26
173 km, D+ 1700m*
Whith the hills that start 60 km from the line and end 20-30 from it, this should be a game of sprinters vs punchers. Therefore we should see punchers-sprinters having their day.
NB: the profile exaggerates the steepness of the slopes.
Stage 6, Thursday 27
177 km, D+ 3000m*
Another mountain stage, another Pogatchar day. To make sure of it and remind him of his 3 Stade Bianche victories in a row, there will be 2 km on a gravel road at 12% near the summit of the last climb. Shall the first group to ride down towards the finish line be a one-man group or shall he get a few companions?
Stage 7, Friday 28
150 km, D+ 3600m*
I am not sure how to name this stage. There is quite some elevation, but the vast majority of slopes are smooth. Probably a day for breakaways, coming after an UAE stage.
Stage 8, Saturday 29
172 km, D+ 1300m*
I assume this stage is designed to create a fight between punchers and sprinters. However it didn't work on Wednesday, as everyone wanted a sprint; and this time the slope may be insufficient to get rid of all sprinters.
Stage 9, Sunday 30
188 km, D+ 5000m*
A mountain stage fo finish the week. All sorts of climbs, steep or smooth, short or medium-length, precede a 22 km long final climb. This stage will be very hard, there is no flat section and it is rather long.
Stage 6, Thursday 27
177 km, D+ 3600m*
Summary: a disappointing Pogatchar (🇸🇮 UAE)... scores a 3^rd^ victory!
I didn't quite follow the beginning/mid race. I heard it was one of those days where breakaways take ages to form. Then at some point there was a counter-attack behind the big breakaway, and Pogatchar🇸🇮 was in that chasing group, which returned to the peloton.
Concerning the parts I saw, UAE was pulling the peloton, followed by Movistar. The gap was maintained around 2 minutes and brought back as they were getting near the main climb.
In the climb, Widar (🇧🇪 Lotto-Int.) was dropped on the fast parts before the slope got harder. It was the usual train with Torres (🇪🇸 UAE) as last element before Pogatchar🇸🇮 attacked on the small asphalted road before the dirt track.
Contrarily to the Andorran stage, Gall (🇦🇹 Decathlon) let himself drop when the head accelerated; and it was O. Onley (🇬🇧 Ineos) who tried to follow Pogatchar🇸🇮. The Brit blew up in the process, while Gall🇦🇹 was progressively coming back with the top guys (other than Pogatchar🇸🇮).
Actually, the Slovenian wasn't creating the large gap we expected. Mas (🇪🇸 Movistar) attacked from the little group, and after a (long) while closed the gap with Pogatchar🇸🇮 on the summit. He even jumped him on the KOM line!
Then there was a descent on a winding and very narrow road with a concrete ditch on the right side and a 6 inches step on the left between the asphalt and the shoulder. E. Mas🇪🇸 told the Slovenian to stay behind him and go easy. However, while the road was about to transition to one of those concrete tracks thye love in Spain, Pogatchar🇸🇮 took him over and started dropping the Spaniard. It didn't last long as the Slovenian rider came too fast in a curve, slid a bit, and went off the road. Luckily, he had managed to break significantly and was then very slow, and it was one of the rare places where there was a somewhat spacious shoulder. So he was stopped but didn't crash. Then he just followed Mas🇪🇸 until they were on a less steep and standard-width normal road.
Behind, there were 3 men who had passed the summit about 35 seconds behind, and then 2 other guys a bit later. In the first of these small groups were Gall🇦🇹, Roglitch (🇸🇮 Bora) again, and R. Debruynes (🇧🇪 Alpecin) who was in the breakaway; the second group was made of Carapaz (🇪🇨 EF) and H. Tejada (🇨🇴 Astana).
The Gall🇦🇹 came closer to the front pair in the descent and the beginning of the flat, but then lost a bit of terrain and was caught by the 2 South-Americans.
Contrarily to what I thought, there was no agreement in the front pair for stage victory, despite a very good collaboration on the flat, and Pogatchar🇸🇮 naturally beat Mas🇪🇸 in the sprint.
An attack by Tejada🇨🇴 in the group of 5 didn't seem to disorganise it. However they started acting like morons in, say, the last mile, and in the fear of losing a 4″ time bonus, all lost an extra 10″ to Mas. Worse, it is Debruynes🇧🇪, who as the last breakaway survivor most likely didn't relay much in the group of 3 then 5, who beat the others for the 3^rd^ place and time bonus. Debruynes🇧🇪 was sort of ranked in GC, but farther than others.
1′40″ after the winners, a group of 5 with most of the rest of the GC guys came: Onley🇬🇧, Skjelmose (🇩🇰 Lid-trek), Kuss (🇺🇸 Visma) and the surprise Berthet (🇫🇷 GFDJ). This group (minus Rodriguez (🇪🇸 Astana) who had his teammate Tejada ahead) collaborated until the end and didn't lose time in the final part contrarily to the previous group of 5.
Widar🇧🇪 lost 4 minutes today 😞
E. Mas🇪🇸 is now second in GC with a relatively significant 45″ advance over Roglitch🇸🇮 and about 1′30″ over the following ones.