Today is arguably the most important day of the entire tour. With a mountaintop finish on the Zoncolan, today is the day that anyone with ambition will really have to perform. But before the race even gets to that point the race has to cross three fairly easy categorised climbs, as well as the brutal Monte Crostis. For an idea of who can perform on this climb, it is worth looking at last year’s 15th stage. On that day Damiano Cunego won a three-way sprint ahead of Nibali and Sella. So it is obvious that this is the sort of terrain that really favours Sella. Henao Montoya was 4th that day, Devolder was 5th, Ardila was 9th, Marzano was 11th and rather unfortunately Pozzovivo only managed 14th. He will need a better performance than that to move onto the podium.
The first man to start our attack off today is Marconi Durán.
Durán is quickly followed by Sagan and H. Machado. These riders are soon joined by several others: Gonzalo Libert Offredo Janse Van Rensburg Christensen Vaugrenard
After 40km of racing all of these guys are now together and ready for a tough day in the mountains. All of them are more than one hour down on GC so they aren’t really a threat at all. It is great to see B&O once again making things interesting by sending a lot of riders into breaks.
At the base of the first climb of the day, the Passo di Monte Croce, the gap is at exactly 4 minutes. Duran, Libert and Gonzalo share the pace on the way up and the others just hold on. At the very peak of this climb, Duran leads over, with Libert behind him and Gonzalo in third. None of them seem particularly interested in going for the mountain jersey. The lead has grown out to 4’40”.
After the fairly short descent to the Passo di Sant’ Antonia the gap is still steady. This climb is much harder than the previous one, despite its fairly short length. It averages 7.1% and maxes out at about 9%. The same three riders keep pacing over this climb and the pace proves enough to drop Sagan.
Over the top, this time it is Libert who leads over, ahead of Duran and then Gonzalo. The gap has extended to 5’29”, with Bacardi leading the peleton through.
Onto the Passo del Mauria, which averages around 6% and has gradients over 9% in sections, as well as being almost 9km in length. Up front Christensen is dropped from the break.
More importantly, as Sagan is being caught by the peleton, Faiers decides to launch an attack straight past him. He is followed by none other than yesterday’s runner-up and mountain jersey wearer Marzano.
Up front, Janse Van Rensburg and Vaugrenard lose contact with the three best climbers. Offredo and H. Machado are also unhitched temporarily, but they fight back on during a false flat. Over the top of the mountain, Duran leads, with Libert second and Gonzalo in third. They have a 3’29” gap on the charging Marzano and Faiers, and 6’37” on the peleton
The slope down to the next climb is fairly gentle and it affords a real chance for everyone who has fallen off the pace to recover and come back up, which they eventually do. In addition Marzano and Faiers catch up to this lead group, putting it at 10 men.
Meanwhile, Costagli puts in an attack on the descent.
The newly-reformed break work well together and reach the short uncategorised climb just before the sprint point at the base of the Monte Crostis. This climb is, it turns out, much steeper than anything that has come before it today. It averages about 9% and maxes out at about 12%. Going up this climb Marzano succeeds in splitting the group. The 5 best climbers in the break are all together. Gonzalo doesn’t last much longer, however, and by the peak he has been dropped as well.
Behind, Vesuvio are doing a lot of work, with Samwel leading the peleton up. Seeing that he has an opportunity to help out his struggling team Morabito puts in an attack.
His attack doesn’t last too long, however and he is caught on the descent to the Crostis.
Up ahead, the lead riders reach the Crostis. The situation is:
1’59”
19”
2’31”
4’49”
4 Leaders
--->
Gonzalo
--->
Costagli
--->
Peleton (61)
Samwel leads the peleton onto the Crostis, and immediately the effects of the tough early slopes are felt. Suaza, Cataldo and Ratiy are all put into trouble. They aren’t the only ones in trouble. Up front, Marzano and Faiers have succeeding in dropping their breakaway companions and now it is just the two of them.
Carrara, Pardilla and Samwel are sharing the pace setting on the front of the group, and it is taking its toll. A whole swathe of riders fall off the pace in one go and amongst them are: Ardila Machado Menchov Devolder Keinath
Ardila immediately realises that he has to stay with the group in front of them and he pulls them all back, except Keinath, who can’t hold the pace. A 30 man favourites group has now formed.
Up ahead, Costagli catches Duran and Libert, but keeps on riding a higher pace than they can handle. He is now the third man on the road.
More importantly, however, Marzano has Faiers in trouble just a few kilometres from the peak of the Crostis.
Marzano comes to the top of the Crostis alone.
Devolder, in the favourites group, starts to struggle in a section of over 15% and falls off the pace with just over a kilometre remaining in the climb.
The peleton is just over 6 minutes behind Marzano. Devolder was not the only one struggling near the peak and a second group forms behind the favourites, which has Menchov and Ardila in it, as well as a few domestiques. They are 43” behind the peleton and Devolder is another 45” behind them.
The 15 riders who have made the favourites group are: Ricco, Pardilla, Terciado Schleck, Samwel, Medvedev Pozzovivo, Carrara Sella Henao Denifl Machado Arroyo Kohl Amador
Behind these 15 are Menchov, Morabito, Levarlet, Maillet and Ardila. Behind this second group is Devolder, who is with Ghisalberti.
Up front, Faiers falls on the gravel that makes up the flat before the steep descent down to the front. He now doesn’t realistically have a chance of catching Marzano on the descent, so he sits up a bit.
On the descent, Devolder catches up to Ardila. Ardila, in turn tries to get his group up to the group of favourites.
Ardila and Devolder’s group, rather impressively, is caught by some of those who were dropped earlier on the Crostis. The biggest names recovering here are Cataldo, Keinath, Suaza and Ratiy. The group has now expanded to 20 men.
Up front, Marzano reaches the truly astounding Zoncolan. This is 10.7km that averages a staggering 11.3%. He has almost 6 minutes on the chasing group, which have caught Faiers.
The chase group comes on, with Amador deciding to set the initial pace. After just a kilometre of climbing, however, Machado decides to play his hand and go for a long one. This worked well for Pozzovivo yesterday, it should be remembered.
The pace causes Terciado, Costagli and Medvedev to be dropped. Behind them, in the chasing group which is 1’30” down, Menchov and Ardila try to bridge across with Talabardon. They will really have to put in a big effort to manage this.
Their job becomes much harder as Sella comes to the front of the group through a ramp of 20%. Faiers and Pardilla are dropped from the group, and the rise in speed causes those who are trying to chase on to lose their momentum. Ardila and Menchov lose a lot of their speed and will clearly not finish with the favourites today.
Samwel comes to the front again and he chases down Machado, who never pulled out more than 30”. Carrara is dropped from this group, meaning Schleck is the only rider with a domestique still in the lead group. Samwel is really proving his worth today.
Marzano is still climbing well, but the increased pace behind him has seriously eaten into his gap. With 5km remaining his lead is down to 3’30”. Given the steepness of the terrain following him, that may not be enough.
With 4.2km to go, Machado tries to get away again.
Unfortunately for him, Sella is sitting on the front and setting a huge tempo, so Machado can’t get a proper gap. At the back of the group, Kohl and Denifl are both dropped.
Shortly behind them are Arroyo and Samwel, both of whom just can’t handle Sella’s pace. There are now only 7 riders left in the front group.
Denifl finds a second wind and comes up to Arroyo and Samwel, before accelerating past them in an effort to get back into the front group.
Meanwhile, Marzano’s gap is down to 1’30” and ropping quickly under the pressure exerted by Sella. With 2.5km to go, it is clear that Marzano’s day is over, as Ricco puts in a big attack!
Sella wastes no time getting onto Ricco’s wheel and they immediately gap everyone else. Machado, Schleck and Pozzovivo try to react but they can’t close the gap. As Ricco and Sella pull up to Marzano, Sella goes around!
Ricco seems blown from his efforts and can’t respond. Sella’s gap starts to grow and under the final kilometre banner, he has already pulled out a 51” advantage.
The final kilometre is steep, and that’s how Sella likes it. He can see a legendary stage victory right before his eyes!
Ricco is caught by the favourites, but he has taken a moment to catch his breath so he kicks for the line again, realising that he needs to minimise his time loss.
Sella comes across the line for the stage victory. He doesn’t celebrate – he is still giving it everything he can to make up as much time as possible.
Despite his previous efforts, Ricco’s kick still succeeds in gapping the other favourites. He comes through 55” down on Sella’s time, which is an acceptable time loss on this sort of stage. 9” after Ricco, Machado beats Pozzovivo to the line.
Schleck holds on well for 5th, 6 seconds down on Pozzovivo. This means that the two of them are on the same time for third place. On a count back, Schleck is ahead of Pozzovivo, but the rider from Luxembourg can’t afford to lose any more time to his Italian counterpart if he wants to keep his podium spot. Amador and Marzano are 6th and 7th, with Henao in 8th, losing a bit of time at the finish line.
Denifl leads through Arroyo and Samwel 2’25” down on Sella’s time, or 1’30” down on Ricco. Kohl is 3’31” down on Sella. Finaly, Ardila and Menchov lose a great deal of time, coming through 7’47” behind today’s winner.
Looking at the jerseys, Ricco remains in pink, but Sella has moved into second overall, closing the gap to 2’36”. With a week of tough racing still to come, this is a very closable gap. As said, Schleck and Pozzovivo are on the same time in 4th. Henao holds onto his fifth, as Denifl drops away but remains 6th. Amador and Macahdo are now fighting it out for 7th place overall. Kohl drops to 9th and Arroyo’s efforts today were enough to put him in 10th place overall.
Marzano remains in the mountain jersey and moves up to 34th on GC. Vesuvio have moved into the lead in the team classification, thanks largely to Samwel’s strong ride.
There is a large list of riders withdrawing today. They are the following: Appollonio, Gazvoda, Mironov Ascani, Passalacqua, Gatto Kaisen, Navardauskas, Goddaert Bos, Vandousselaere Sagan, Jørgensen Champion, Chtioui Ford, Barth Van Winden Verbist Allonca Renäng Förster
Vespa and Webeffect in particular are hurt by the number of riders dropping out, but at the same time most of these are riders who will not be of a great deal of use in the coming week. Quinziato, the former stage winner, is amongst these riders.
