The final stage! And more hills, as we move into San Francisco - and then the outskirts for the last climb of the race. And with 2 points between Delgado and Dupont, the KoM classification is going right down to the wire. The other particularly close battle is for 2nd in the Points competition - 4 points separating Siutsou, Kritskiy and Petrov. Up front, Franco Pellizotti has a huge GC lead and 12 stage wins - can he make it 13?
Markov takes the first intermediate sprint from Martinez and Haidar
But a break of 4 has gone clear by the 2nd sprint: Parra Bustamente, Brutt, Dupont and Dempster. They would be joined by Gutierrez Palacios, while Curfs also tried to get across but failed
So Dupont is away in the break closing in on the first climb, big opportunity for the Frenchman. But he only manages 4th! Brutt, Gutierrez and Parra all beat him.
Even so, that is 7 points. He is the new provisional leader in the competition, 5 points ahead of Delgado! Quiksilver have led the KoMs almost from the start, are they set to lose it on the final stage?
Theres only 1 climb left in the race, at around 30km to the finish. With 47km to go, Gutierrez Palacios moves away from the rest of the break
YouTube are chasing down the break - all but Gutierrez are caught with apart 5km to the top of the climb
With 2.5km to the top, Gutierrez Palacios leads by 40 seconds. And here we go, Yeison Delgado attacks - he wants that KoM jersey! (And perhaps also to get back ahead of Niemiec for 5th in GC)
The response, in order, is Petrov, Nozal, Mercado, Pellizotti and Siutsou. Gutierrez Palacios is caught, and surprise, surprise, Pellizotti storms clear to cross first, alone
Petrov and Siutsou are together next, and then it is Mercado and Delgado. So Delgado has crossed the climb 5th - and thats enough! He wins the KoM competition by 1 point over Dupont
Are we just going to see a repeat of Stage 20, Pellizotti riding solo to the finish? No. Petrov has bridged the gap!!
Siutsou tries to also close the gap. 15 seconds back with 23km to go. 6 seconds later, thats back up to 42 seconds. Now its a fight for him to hold on to 2nd overall - he does have a 2 minute advantage on Petrov to play with
Petrov is riding a clever race here - he refuses to relay with Pellizotti, just sitting on
Earlier in the race, Pellizotti was clear with Siutsou and able to force Siutsou to lead out. Not today though, the Italian kicks off the sprint
Petrov waits, and waits, and waits...
And with 400m to go he pounces, and wins!!! Finally, Pellizotti is beaten in a sprint.
Thatll be 2nd in the points competiton for Petrov, but not 2nd in GC. Siutsou takes 3rd on the stage, limiting his loss to 1'12
Quiksilver duo Delgado and Mercado are given the same time as Siutsou. Thats enough for Delgado to take 5th overall
Basso wins the sprint for 6th. Best young rider in the race Timofey Kritskiy takes 9th.
But the race well and truly belongs to Pellizotti
1
Evgeni Petrov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
4h34'28
2
Franco Pellizotti
YouTube - Twitter
s.t.
3
Konstantin Siutsou
Red Bull
+ 1'12
4
Yeison Delgado
Quiksilver-Kraft
s.t.
5
Juan Miguel Mercado
Quiksilver-Kraft
s.t.
6
Ivan Basso
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 1'40
7
Damian Martínez
Quiksilver-Kraft
s.t.
8
Timofey Kritskiy
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
9
Przemyslaw Niemiec
YouTube - Twitter
s.t.
10
Igor Antón
YouTube - Twitter
s.t.
11
Nick Kinney
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
12
Zakayo Ndbri
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
13
Aleksej Kunshin
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
14
Roman Kilun
Red Bull
s.t.
15
Isidro Nozal
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
16
Pavel Brutt
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
17
Yasmani Martinez
Quiksilver-Kraft
s.t.
18
Amets Txurruka
YouTube - Twitter
s.t.
19
Scott Zwizanski
Red Bull
s.t.
20
Richard Ochoa Quintero
YouTube - Twitter
s.t.
21
Edwin Parra Bustamante
Red Bull
s.t.
22
Rubens Bertogliati
YouTube - Twitter
s.t.
23
José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios
Quiksilver-Kraft
s.t.
24
Maxim Belkov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
25
Aleksei Markov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 5'32
26
Zakkari Dempster
Quiksilver-Kraft
s.t.
27
Artem Ovechkin
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
s.t.
28
Hubert Dupont
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
29
Crescenzo D'Amore
Quiksilver-Kraft
+ 6'57
30
Ben Curfs
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
31
Mattia Pozzo
YouTube - Twitter
s.t.
32
Ahmad Haidar Anuawar
Red Bull
+ 8'28
33
Adam Semple
Red Bull
+ 8'50
34
Michael Matthews
Red Bull
s.t.
35
Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn
THE CONTROLTEAM
s.t.
36
Kim Michely
THE CONTROLTEAM
+ 12'05
37
Stelly Robert
Pirelli-Internazionale
s.t.
38
Sebastian Batchelor
THE CONTROLTEAM
+ 16'54
GC
1
Franco Pellizotti
YouTube - Twitter
88h00'38
2
Konstantin Siutsou
Red Bull
+ 13'10
3
Evgeni Petrov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 13'42
4
Timofey Kritskiy
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 18'30
5
Yeison Delgado
Quiksilver-Kraft
+ 19'12
6
Przemyslaw Niemiec
YouTube - Twitter
+ 19'36
7
Isidro Nozal
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 20'01
8
Ivan Basso
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 21'05
9
Roman Kilun
Red Bull
+ 21'25
10
Juan Miguel Mercado
Quiksilver-Kraft
+ 22'13
11
Aleksej Kunshin
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 23'42
12
Yasmani Martinez
Quiksilver-Kraft
+ 24'55
13
Igor Antón
YouTube - Twitter
+ 25'12
14
Zakayo Ndbri
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 29'43
15
Richard Ochoa Quintero
YouTube - Twitter
+ 30'15
16
Edwin Parra Bustamante
Red Bull
+ 33'46
17
Amets Txurruka
YouTube - Twitter
+ 39'00
18
Damian Martínez
Quiksilver-Kraft
+ 40'22
19
José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios
Quiksilver-Kraft
+ 54'40
20
Maxim Belkov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 1h07'14
21
Hubert Dupont
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 1h08'29
22
Scott Zwizanski
Red Bull
+ 1h14'07
23
Pavel Brutt
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 1h33'49
24
Nick Kinney
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 1h49'38
25
Artem Ovechkin
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 2h01'07
26
Ben Curfs
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 2h22'25
27
Rubens Bertogliati
YouTube - Twitter
+ 2h24'57
28
Mattia Pozzo
YouTube - Twitter
+ 2h25'58
29
Adam Semple
Red Bull
+ 2h32'50
30
Aleksei Markov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
+ 2h51'24
31
Crescenzo D'Amore
Quiksilver-Kraft
+ 3h00'53
32
Zakkari Dempster
Quiksilver-Kraft
+ 3h02'02
33
Ahmad Haidar Anuawar
Red Bull
+ 3h06'24
34
Michael Matthews
Red Bull
+ 3h28'43
35
Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn
THE CONTROLTEAM
+ 3h31'51
36
Kim Michely
THE CONTROLTEAM
+ 4h04'55
37
Stelly Robert
Pirelli-Internazionale
+ 4h58'04
38
Sebastian Batchelor
THE CONTROLTEAM
+ 5h10'21
Points - Interesting to note, all riders (Except Control) scored some points
1
Franco Pellizotti
YouTube - Twitter
507
2
Evgeni Petrov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
370
3
Konstantin Siutsou
Red Bull
365
4
Timofey Kritskiy
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
355
5
Aleksej Kunshin
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
310
6
Przemyslaw Niemiec
YouTube - Twitter
300
7
Yasmani Martinez
Quiksilver-Kraft
296
8
Ivan Basso
Pirelli-Internazionale
271
9
Damian Martínez
Quiksilver-Kraft
260
10
Yeison Delgado
Quiksilver-Kraft
257
11
Isidro Nozal
Pirelli-Internazionale
254
12
Roman Kilun
Red Bull
254
13
Igor Antón
YouTube - Twitter
242
14
Aleksei Markov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
234
15
Richard Ochoa Quintero
YouTube - Twitter
215
16
Zakayo Ndbri
Pirelli-Internazionale
200
17
José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios
Quiksilver-Kraft
192
18
Juan Miguel Mercado
Quiksilver-Kraft
183
19
Ahmad Haidar Anuawar
Red Bull
164
20
Edwin Parra Bustamante
Red Bull
163
21
Amets Txurruka
YouTube - Twitter
156
22
Nick Kinney
Pirelli-Internazionale
152
23
Scott Zwizanski
Red Bull
124
24
Crescenzo D'Amore
Quiksilver-Kraft
116
25
Pavel Brutt
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
96
26
Artem Ovechkin
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
93
27
Maxim Belkov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
91
28
Rubens Bertogliati
YouTube - Twitter
78
29
Hubert Dupont
Pirelli-Internazionale
69
30
Zakkari Dempster
Quiksilver-Kraft
60
31
Ben Curfs
Pirelli-Internazionale
42
32
Adam Semple
Red Bull
38
33
Michael Matthews
Red Bull
12
34
Mattia Pozzo
YouTube - Twitter
8
35
Stelly Robert
Pirelli-Internazionale
8
KoM - Most riders also achieved some KoM points aswell
1
Yeison Delgado
Quiksilver-Kraft
150
2
Hubert Dupont
Pirelli-Internazionale
149
3
Maxim Belkov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
131
4
Pavel Brutt
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
114
5
Igor Antón
YouTube - Twitter
109
6
Franco Pellizotti
YouTube - Twitter
98
7
José Ivan Gutiérrez Palacios
Quiksilver-Kraft
96
8
Amets Txurruka
YouTube - Twitter
78
9
Yasmani Martinez
Quiksilver-Kraft
75
10
Zakayo Ndbri
Pirelli-Internazionale
69
11
Konstantin Siutsou
Red Bull
68
12
Scott Zwizanski
Red Bull
45
13
Evgeni Petrov
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
42
14
Przemyslaw Niemiec
YouTube - Twitter
30
15
Roman Kilun
Red Bull
30
16
Richard Ochoa Quintero
YouTube - Twitter
30
17
Edwin Parra Bustamante
Red Bull
24
18
Ivan Basso
Pirelli-Internazionale
21
19
Ben Curfs
Pirelli-Internazionale
19
20
Isidro Nozal
Pirelli-Internazionale
17
21
Juan Miguel Mercado
Quiksilver-Kraft
13
22
Mattia Pozzo
YouTube - Twitter
13
23
Rubens Bertogliati
YouTube - Twitter
13
24
Artem Ovechkin
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
10
25
Adam Semple
Red Bull
9
26
Aleksej Kunshin
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
7
27
Timofey Kritskiy
Tinkoff Credit Systems - Rosneft
6
28
Zakkari Dempster
Quiksilver-Kraft
6
Young Rider - Its not often you can be the 10th best young rider, over 3 hours behind the best!