Before the final weekend, the riders had to contend with a challenging mountain stage that made a slight detour across the border to Slovenia. The day started out flat before two difficult climbs and a mountain finish waited over the last 50 km. Right from the the start, several riders fought to go clear and eventually a 12-man group managed to escape. The advantage of the leading group quickly increased to more than 11 minutes and a little later BORA – hansgrohe came to the front of the peloton, but continued to keep the leaders on a long leash. The stage was eventually decided among the escapees, while BORA – hansgrohe set the pace for quite a long time, back in the peloton. The decisive final climb saw a battle between Jai Hindley, Carapaz, and Landa, with the Australian being unable to shake off the maglia rosa, and the trio crossing the finish line in the same time.
Result
01 K. Bouwman 4:32:55
02 M. Schmid +0:00
03 A. Tonelli +0:03
09 J. Hindley +3:56
From the Finish Line
“The guys rode very well in the leadup to the decisive climb. It wasn’t the ideal stage to really put the hammer down. But we kew that penultimate climb was quite steep and the descent was technical, so we also wanted to be up front to stay out of difficulties. On the climb, I tried to look for opportunities to attack, but eventually it didn’t work out how we wanted it to. I knew the finale was more punchy, which I think suits Carapaz better than it does me. Tomorrow is going to be a big stage, and unquestionably decisive. We’re up for the challenge and it would be a dream scenario to take pink tomorrow.” – Jai Hindley
“Our goal was to bring Jai safely to the decisive part of the stage, and the guys did a great job of that. We tried to make up time on the final climb, and although Jai put in a good performance, it wasn’t possible to shake off Carapaz in the end.” – Enrico Gasparotto, Sports Director
