By far the toughest day in the Olympia Tour, some of those big testers are going to find the hills used in the Amstal Gold classic tough going. The Cauberg is crossed twice, though the last crossing is 63km from the finish and we have four flat circuits to finish in what many would predict could be a sprint.
Vantomme could well still be there at the end to move up from the 10th place he dropped to on GC, but will some of the other hill hating sprinters be there or have enough energy to sprint? Or could some of the other riders rip it up on the hills? What if the last hill that has a small section of cobbles, how will that effect things?
The King of the Mountains will certainly be up for grabs and following a fairly flat start we will soon find out. We have an extended neutralised start with the riders clearly fearing a long day. But five riders forge clear before our first categorised ascent.
We can see the polka dots Fabbri joined by Kurth, Petrovski, Appleby and Kuekeleire.
Fabbri has 14 KoM points, Appleby 10 and Petrovski 4, so we are in for a but of a tussle on the climbs you'd think.
First one is a 4th category called Adsteeg, Appleby snatches back the KoM lead.
ING are now chasing behind with the gap having reached nearly ten minutes.
100km to go and the lead five have seven minutes, plenty of time to strike off the remaining climbs. First the Eyserbosweg, with it's really steep sections.
Petrovski now enters the game ahead of Kurth and Appleby, Appleby edging into the lead.
Bpost have control of this break though with 70km to go the gap is down to 5 minutes.
Just the Cauberg and the cobbled Maasberg to go.
Kurth proves the master of the Cauberg once again with Fabbri second and Kuekeliere third.
1. Appleby 31
2. Fabbri 27
3. Kurth 25
Still all to play for on the last climb.
The Bpost led pack cross four minutes later with Rothaus queuing up behind.
Kurth nips past Appleby on the cobbles.
The Amex rider easily takes the prime but Appleby just holds on to a minor place to seal the King of the Mountains competition.
This short section of cobbles causes absolute bedlam in the pack.
Cornu, Elijzen, Taillefour, Vaitkus are in the front chase group.
Rothaus lead the second chase group for Vantomme 45 seconds behind the Cornu group.
Stannard, Cooke, W Ford, M Rowe, Van Poppel are also here.
Flens and Tennent are another 45 seconds back, with some teammates.
Van Winden and Gretsch are further back still a minute back from Flens and Tennent,
It remains to be seen how this will settle down, Michael Ford is even further behind about 90 seconds back from the Van Winden group.
The wind is at the highest it has been all day and the weather gods are giving us a hell of a finish here in Holland.
Bpost have no choice but to keep chasing the break with Kurth still there, with 35km to go the lead five have two minutes on the lead chase pack.
The lead chase groups numbers have swelled to 28 riders including Cornu, Vaitkus, Cooke, Elijzen, W Ford, M Rowe, Vantomme, Stannard, Tennent, Flens.
Van Winden and Gretsch are desperately trying to claw their way back too with Irvine and Lindgren.
They are just a minute back and look good to get back. Michael Ford meanwhile is really struggling leading his group two minutes back from the Van Winden group.
We can see best young rider Barton here as well, there is another splinter group with Sebright, Kip, Guillen another minute further back.
20km to go and the wind is beginning to die... those gaps:
Five leaders
Cornu, Vantomme group at 53 seconds
Van Winden, Gretsch, Olman group at 2.24 - they had got it back to 50 seconds so they are really struggling.
Ford, Barton group at 6.00 - a compete disaster for Ford, Barton. They are at least about to be joined by the other splinter group containing Sebright, Kip, Madani.
The break sit up and allow the front chase group to catch, Rothaus and Bpost come charging through. They've done a number in everyone here.
Coming into the last 10km though and the pace just eases off enough from the front group for the Van Winden - Gretsch group to latch on.
But wait we have an attack at the front, it's Taillefour.
Cornu, Elijzen and Cooke respond.
Stoltz bridges this is a bold move by Amex.
Irvine who was behind just a couple of minutes ago is pacing the pack.
Great stuff from the Irish man who pulls it back together, Elijzen decides to keep going though.
Cornu is forced to chase himself.
We enter the last 3km and Drujon comes bursting out of a confused pack.
However Vantomme has Van Heerden leading him out with Rasmussen and Hutorovich hooked to his wheel.
Vantomme goes streaking past.
Hutarovich and Kreder are not so far away as Drujon completely implodes.
Cornu is sprinting well in 4th.
Vantomme wins.
Kreder second, Hutarovich third, Van Hummel is 4th, Traksel 5th, Cornu 6th, Van Poppel 7th, Hopman 8th.
Cornu takes the overall, with Michael Ford the big loser of the day dropping way down the standings.
Stage rankings
Michael Ford after working hard actually got dropped from the chase group towards the end to add insult to injury.
GC
Cornu was the master of the time trials, but Vantomme was one more result away from taking the title with his three stage wins. Van Winden looked for a while like he would tumble down GC but holds a decent GC position in the end. Gretsch gets some much needed points for AMEX. Oz Cycling get two riders in the top ten but lost a podium place.
Points
No doubts about the most consistent rider and it has been an excellent race for Vantomme. Kreder having failed to truly feature on any finish up to the end sits in second on these standings ahead of Guillen. Cornu grabs some good points here as well.
KoM
Kurth was the best rider in the break but Appleby did enough, particularly strong on the last two 4th cat's to take this. Fabbri was exposed out in the group on his own.
Rank
Name
Team
Mountain
General
1
Dale Appleby
ANC-Halfords
25
35
2
Michael Kurth
AMEX Pro Cycling
31
31
3
Marco Fabbri
Pivovarna Lasko Cycling Team
13
27
4
Stefan Petrovski
Die Berg Komt Er
14
18
5
Jens Keukeleire
Oz Cycling Project
16
16
6
Jan Hopman
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
0
6
7
Valentin Iglinski
Rothaus - Aegon
0
4
8
Sergey Firsanov
Banco Nacional de Costa Rica
0
2
9
Kristian Sbaragli
Rothaus - Aegon
0
2
Youth
Disaster for Barton, but some joy for Oz Cycling who's two Fords had contrasting days.
Name
Team
General Time
William Ford
Oz Cycling Project
20h58'18 (1)
Boy Van Poppel
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
+ 20 (2)
Matt Rowe
airBaltic - Endura
+ 41 (3)
Theo Reinhardt
AMEX Pro Cycling
+ 1'05 (4)
Mark Christian
Jaguar - Eritel
+ 1'08 (5)
Sean De Bie
Pivovarna Lasko Cycling Team
+ 1'11 (6)
Issiaka Cisse
Jaguar - Eritel
+ 1'12 (7)
Magnus Cort Nielsen
Swedbank-PEAB
+ 1'12 (8)
Yannick Stoltz
AMEX Pro Cycling
+ 1'13 (9)
Fabien Taillefour
AMEX Pro Cycling
+ 1'14 (10)
Mike Teunissen
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
+ 1'15 (11)
Natnael Berhane
Jaguar - Eritel
+ 1'25 (12)
Teams
The time trials decided these standings, Bpost lost out though rode tirelessly for Cornu in the end today.
