Welcome to Corsica cyclists, for the nasty opener. Corsica of course has extra reason to celebrate this year with having the opening stages of the Tour de France. This should serve as an excellent study session then for Protour teams, no doubt though for CTour teams this is a vital day in its own right.
We have a total of 7 classified climbs for King of the Mountains points today with two 1st categories towards the middle of the stage. It gives breakaway riders a real prize for their efforts today other than an outside chance of stage victory.
Four riders jump clear early in: Paul Mach Lars Petter Nordhaug Marek Rutkiewicz Brad Armstrong
These four contest the opening hotspot sprint with Nordhaug taking it ahead of Mach and Rutkiewicz. Nordhaug in the break is interesting considering Aker Solutions have their superstar Alarcon in the pack.
These four are given plenty of rope seeing that the pack are eager to allow a break to go five more riders jump across: Jai Crawford Valerio Agnoli Christian Müller Rafael Reis Kenny Elissonde
The first two climbs have fairly low yield points the first being just a 4th cat (5 -3 - 1) with Hollisters Mach surprisingly nipping ahead to take it ahead of Agnoli and Ellissonde.
Emu Export's Rutkiewicz wins the second mountains sprint which is a 3rd cat (6-4-2), with Agnoli again second and Armstrong in third.
So Agnoli grabs the early lead with 7 ahead of Rutkiewicz on 6, Mach on 5, Armstrong 2 and Ellissonde on 1. There are much more points on the middle section however with two 1st cat (16-12-10-8-6-4-2) up for grabs.
In the pack it is the three P's in control, thats Pirelli, Poxy-Trek and Pokerstars! They are allowing the nine man break a fair bit of freedom however as the lead is hovering between eight and nine minutes.
Not much action on the first tough climb with only Muller from the break put into difficulty. At the end of the climb though it is provisional leader Agnoli who strengthens his position by edging it ahead of Rutkiewicz and Crawford.
Agnoli moves onto 23 KoM points ahead of Rutkiewicz (18), Crawford (10), Mach (9), Nordhaug (8), Armstrong (8), Reis(6) and Elissonde (3). It looks a two horse race for polkadots.
On the second 1st category climb some riders decide to go for a long range move in Shaun Lewis Rob Ruijgh
and Tyler Brandt
Also going on the attack is Theo Eltink
Not that any of these attackers are going to spoil the KoM points gathering party in which the two horse polka dots battle intensifies with Rutkiewicz comfortably outkicking Agnoli who has to scramble to get second.
Agnoli does edge out Crawford for second to hold a narrow lead over Emu exports Pole. The Full provisional standings have Agnoli on 35 KoM Points, then Rutkiewicz (34), Crawford (20), Armstrong (16), Mach (15), Nordhaug (12) and Elissonde (5).
Meanwhile with the other four riders plus the dropped Muller are in between Pirelli are really beginning to force it behind.
88km to go the lead eight have 2.22 on Muller and 5.26 on the four chasers with the peloton timed at 8.12. An Autobus containing sprinter Allan Davis is timed at 13.24 with Dempster setting a sensible tempo for the Australian who is likely targetting tomorrows stage.
The fifth King of the Mountains prime sees Agnoli and Rutkiewicz mark each other out of the points.
It is Mach who is making use of these low point climbs to move himself forward who takes it ahead of Armstrong and Ellissonde. Agnoli then still leads with 35 KoM points, over Rutkiewicz (34), Mach (21), Armstrong (20), Crawford (20), Nordhaugh (12) and Ellissonde (7).
In the pack a bit of a surprise entrant to this race Jelle Vanendert
attacks on this small climb when they get there.
We close on the final two climbs then....
The four chasers are really closing in the front eight having caught and passed Muller with 50km to go they are just a minute back with Vanendert two minutes behind them, the pack another minute further back.
On the descent CSC's number two Francisco Colorado
falls.
Pirelli have their lead climbing domestiques really controlling things on this penultimate climb, it is Ivan Santaromita Andres Saldarriaga
The four chasers Eltink, Lewis, Ruijgh and Brandt make it across on this 2nd Cat (10-8-6-4-2) climb.
They promptly move to the front and sieze the maximum points with Eltink grabbing the top prize ahead of Ruijgh, Lewis and Brandt.
The all important final two points for fifth place sees a massive tussle between Agnoli and Rutkiewicz, the Italian just edging it and probably sealing a race polkadot win.
There is 20 points for the winner of the last climb Agnoli now just has to mark Rutkiewicz on the last climb if the break stays clear. This despite Pirelli really pulling on the front remains a possibility, though admittedly they have the gap down to 3.32 with 30 to go.
The numbers have been reduced to 54 riders and Vanendert has been caught by the pack. So it is the front 12 against the pack which contains all the climbing favourites.
The sprint at the bottom of the descent is taken by Brandt, the CalGiant rider possibly here as a future asset for Eastman who is riding near the front of the pack. Ruijgh is second ahead of Focused's battling youngster Elissonde
We get to the bottom of the last climb and with Rutkiewicz having narrowly failed in his King of the Mountains bid VÃctor Hugo Orozco
attacks from the peloton.
It shows intent but he cannot bridge to the leaders who are 2.30 ahead with 10km to go and starting to shed the weaker climbers such as Paul Mach.
Emu export are not done though and Magno Nazaret
is the next who will not die wondering!
Latching onto the back of this is Ryan Eastman
both CalGiant and Emu export have served notice their intentions to attack today really. However they are not going to get too much distance as Jose Alarcon
is pressing.
The break is really exploding on this steeper section as Oz Cycling's Lewis forces things not many can stick with this.
Alarcon having simply lifted the pace and reeled in Nazaret and Eastman along with much of the break can feel Jurgen Van den Broeck
behind him. Quickly tiring of the wheelsucking ploy Alarcon launches a blistering acceleration.
Which forces Van den Broeck to call his lieutenents forward, the Belgian is determined not to go into the red trying to follow Alarcon.
Brandt, Eltink, Lewis are caught by Alarcon but Ruijgh decides to try and forge on ahead alone.
It's a brave move by the Dutchman who leads over the 5km to go banner with a 30 second lead. Alarcon and the remaining breakaways have only 30 to 40 seconds on the Pirelli led pack.
Nazaret goes again trying now to get back up to Alarcon he has four riders with him however.
The four other riders then Fabio Duarte Jurgen Van den Broeck Alejandro Valverde Ryan Eastman
Van den Broeck sensing his teammates have done all they can now and he is on his own. Alarcon lifts the pace ahead to drop the other former breakaways and gets to Ruijgh's wheel.
But behind the other attacking favourites have reached him.
We are getting close to the finish now and with 2.5km left we have a lead group of seven up the road. Alarcon, Van den Broeck, Valverde, Duarte, Eastman, Nazeret and the surprise Ruijgh.
Alarcon up front looks for one last kick and indeed he shows once again he is the best climber on the CTour by getting a gap once again.
The gap slowly but surely increases to 20 seconds... 25 seconds.....
The others try to sprint back but they just cannot close and the amazing Alarcon takes another big mountains win.
Duarte produces an excellent second place for Venchi, the Columbian champion showing great acceleration to hold off Valverde for 3rd. Van den Broeck will have it all to do on the time trial to break the podium with Eastman a decent fifth.
Nazaret just lost a bit of time in sixth and Ruijgh must be delighted with 7th on the day.
Rujano leads a group of other favoured climbers including Ratiy and Anton nearly a minute back on Alarcon. It's disappointing from him really.
