A shorter stage today of some 130 kilometres but with a lot of categorized climbs including the first category Carobutt.
But no action at all, not even at the KoM primes. Shaekhov leads the pack over the first three including the 1st category one. Ta-da! Your new KoM leader. That's three jerseys for Team Gazelle.
But what is this? A riders is actually attacking! It's Maisto!
He attacked just at the beginning of a string of four Category 3 climbs, meaning he can take a total of 24 points. He already has 8 so maybe there's a new contender eventhough Shaekhov is now a pretty dominant number one. But of course we have a hard stage tomorrow. Just over the top of second Category 3 climb with 28 kilometres to go he has a lead of 1'50!
ANC, Jaguar and Kenya Airways are not going to sit back and just let him go like they did with Kiserlovski in stage three. Up front Maisto still has fresh legs though so this is not going to be easy.
About eight kilometres later Maisto still leads by 1'52!
CRASH! BIG CRASH! Who is in there?
Good and bad news! None of the GC riders have gone down but a lot of the sprinters are down and are not going to make it back.
Papok Schinker Speirs Van Loocke Ciocan, Eefting Cardoso
Are the biggest names in there. Kenya sends back four riders to try and haul the group back and surprisingly Adira is sacrificing Gajek for Van Loocke. More domestiques drop back and the main bunch is quickly down to just 47 riders.
Up front Maisto's advantage is coming down but this could still be touch-and-go as he leads the bunch by 52 seconds with 9.5 kilometres left.
With a lot of sprinter teams absent or weakened Magna launches an attack with their two GC riders Ilias and Eibegger, Vorganov counters! The Russian champion is 2nd in the GC but has more than a minute to make up on Minnard.
The move is controlled by ANC and Jaguar though as they also reel in Maisto with 7.5 kilometres to go.
NEW CRASH! Danielson is down! So is Hamza! Two riders down from the pack. Danielson is going to drop out of the Top 10 today! Heartbreak!
5,300 metres to go as Chaoufi now launches an attack! Surely he will not be pleased with 8th overall, but still you would expect him to wait until tomorrow
It's controlled again and ANC-Halfords has set up Nelson nicely here. Thwaites leading him out! Bennett is also there!
Nelson hits the front with 900 metres to go!
It's bit of an uphill finish this one though and Nelson definitely came out too quickly as hit a gradient of 6% with 500 metres to go. Da Dalto now takes the lead with a venomous kick! Minnard and Vorganov are also gaining a lot of speed now!
Mauro da Dalto wins! Minnard 2nd and Silvestre comes from behind to take 3rd!
Tom Danielson loses almost 4 minutes but he has a chance tomorrow to take a stage win.
The crashed sprinters bunch come in at 6'39 lead by former green jersey wearer Papok. That jersey now belongs to Minnard. That's a total of four jerseys for Team Gazelle. Can they keep all tomorrow in the queens stage?
