Stage 3 is the first of 2 mountain top finishes in this year's race. The intermediate sprint comes early followed by a 1st category climb mid way through. After the slightly bumpy descent, it's a long steep climb up the finish. Huge gaps can be made here!
4 riders attack from Kilometer 0! It's Pardilla, Gonzalo, Kimeli, and Torres.
Sensing an opportunity, 2 more join in the fun: Cabreira and Dyadichkin. Karcher must want to be aggressive after Karpet's lost his GC ambitions.
They quickly get 2 minutes, and the breakaway is set only 20 km into the race.
Gonzalo nudges Kimeli at the intermediate sprint, followed by Dyadichkin.
Team Nordeus is on the front to protect the leader's jersey, although it will almost surely change hands by the end of the day. They still control the pace to show that they entered this race for a reason.
But as they reach the bottom of the first climb the control switches hands. Not to a favorite's team, but to Project: Africa. Thomson deserves some time in the fame too.
As they hit the lower slopes the first group falls off the back of the group. No notables for the GC are involved, but 4th overall Racault assures that he will plummet in the standings.
Domestiques keep falling off the pace and it looks like Thomson and Sestili are done occupying their GC positions and jersey's as well. They just hang on for dear life.
First attack from the break for the KOM comes from Cabreira, who easily gets a small gap with his acceleration.
Torres runs up on him from behind with 1 km to go!
And Torres pulls right past him. 2nd Kimeli, 3rd Pardilla. Meanwhile, Dyadichkin has fallen behind in the scramble and is now 45 seconds down.
While his former breakaway companions fall off the back, Alafaci is still holding strong in the first few riders. No major team want to attack at this point. It's a long way out and the finish is hard.
Swedbank pulls the pack over the top of the mountain. The gap is still 5 minutes to the front but the pack has been whittled down quite well.
You may think this is a picture featuring Thomson, but unfortunately that's not the case.
For some reason, just as he was dropped, a couple of teammates went back to help them. Among them, Augustyn! A very strange decision by the DS, bringing back his leader to help a domestique that only paces highly from a breakaway!
In the meanwhile we get our first major attack from the peloton! It's Dominik Nerz! He isn't exactly a good downhiller, so let's see how it turns out!
He managed about a 10 second gap for a few hundred meters, but as the rolling bumps start coming along in the run-up to the final climb, Nerz was easily caught, only a couple of km after he left. Questionable move.
Only 5 km until the climb and the gap Is down to 1'10''. On these long straights they can see them on the horizon.
Perhaps carrying some desperation of the slimming gap to the peloton, Gonzalo makes the first move from the breakaway, followed closely by Torres.
The gradients aren't super steep yet but the pace is very high in the peloton. no one has been caught out yet, as all the favorites are clumped together, but it could break up very quickly.
As the percentages kick up, Alafaci finds himself in the first major trouble of this tour, and he will almost surely lose the jersey now.
The rest neutralize the breakaway attack but are being crept up on. As they hit 10 km to go they are almost back in the masses, having just 10 seconds. Dyadichkin is already back in the fold, and Gonzalo kicks again.
In the back of the bunch though, it was more splitting than attacking, and several favorites were caught out! Nerz, Nazaret, Cobo, Samwel, Karpets and Iglinski are all behind as the road pitches up!
Fortunately for the pace slows slightly and they make their way back on, but they can't be caught back there again if they want to place well.
Suddenly Pozzovivo finds himself on the front. Where is Marzano for this job? He refuses to pace and the break, about to be reeled in, instantly have another 30 seconds!
Gonzalo's attack worked at thinning the group and gaining time. He's now up front with Cabreira and Torres. Pardilla and Kimeli have been distanced.
Iglinskyi springs ahead of the main field, almost straight from the back. What a recovery. Trying to follow is Shushemoin.
There is Marzano! He chases with an acceleration, leaving Pozzovivo alone. It's Heider on his wheel from Puma.
Again, no one wants to pace in the pack. The breakaway now has a 2 minute advantage again. After being a thread from being caught, they now have a substantial gap.
In the meantime, Marzano catches Iglinski. Shushemoin and Heider can't follow, which is understandable as neither are team leaders or close to it.
The stalemate ends for the favorites at 7 km to go! Janez Brajkovic decides that he doesn't want to just follow moves and the favorite highest in the overall; he wants to force the issue. Duarte was ready for it. Berhane and Pozzovivo weren't, and they scamper to make up the lost ground. Nobody else wants to attack yet.
They come together and there are 4 together. The situation looks like this:
Another group of 3 attacks. Included are Kiserlovski, Cataldo, and Lloret.
Another rider sprints ahead, this time it's Lofkvist, whose team did a lot of early work but is noticeably absent from the pack now.
One major favorite is missing from the action. Not anymore. Rigoberto Uran may have waited a little late, but he attacks now, followed by Popovych.
Action up front! Duarte wants to test his own legs, and Berhane is quickly dropped. Pozzovivo was behind him, and has to ride around him and across a small gap to make it across!
And he can't do it! Brajkovic takes a relay and Pozzovivo is gapped! Meanwhile, Cataldo attacks from the group behind and reaches Berhane.
Just as Lofkvist reaches that group is explodes. Lloret is the only one left. Kiserlovski chases after the rest.
Meanwhile it looks like the breakaway has the victory in the bag, and Cabreira wants the stage! First attack since the bottom with only 2 km to go! Pardilla has left Kimeli, and joins Gonzalo and Torres.
Brajkovic is not fooling around! Another dig and Duarte can't match it! He sweeps up Heider and Shushemoin and approaches Marzano and Iglinski.
The large peloton has not been seen much, as they haven't done much. The pace slowed again and this time no attacks sped it back up. Most of the domestiques have riders up the road.
Nerz, Serpa, Nazaret, Kashechkin and Samwel are all there, but they seem to have either given up or lost their legs.
1 km to go for Cabreira! He's got the gap!
And Karcher-Adira get revenge on the race for their bad luck! Joao Cabreira takes stage 3!
Brajkovic catches the chasing duo and sprints to the line as well!
Gonzalo earns 2nd for his troubles 31 seconds letter, beating Torres. Pardilla 4th, Kimeli 5th. I'm certain Dyadichkin regrets dropping back when he did. The breakaway was so close to being caught, but the circumstances changed and the top 5 belongs to them!
1'37'' after the winner, Marzano holds off Brajkovic, who is on amazing form! Marzano left his teammate and race favorite behind in his attack, and there could very well be words in the team bus tonight.
That teammate was Domenico Pozzovivo. In front of him, 24 seconds after the last group, Iglinski finishes with Fabio Duarte.
Pozzovivo was out of position in 2 decisive moments. The 2 time reigning champion finishes at 2'18. He'll have a lot to make up in the coming days.
4 riders finish at 2'41: Shushemoin, Berhane, Cataldo, and Heider. Very good rides for them. As outsiders they showed that choosing good attacks can matter.
On the other hand, Kiserlovski will be disappointed to finish 15th, 3'32'' back with Lofkvist. He has shown strength to do better things, but lately his from just hasn't been there. Leaving Kashechkin in the peloton doing nothing wasn't much help.
Uran trails closely behind. he really dug deep in the end, but he went far too late. Widely though of as the best climber in this race, he loses 2'06'' just to Brajkovic. not a good hole to be in.
Popovych is next across the line at 4'17. Behind him is Lloret, who really cracked in the end. He tried though, something his stronger teammates in the main field can't say.
A long way after, Morton and Peterson attack from the group with no response.
After they finish, Tyler Brandt leads the peloton to the summit, 7 minutes and 54 seconds after today's winner. For Kashechkin, Nerz, Cobo, Nazaret, Serpa and Samwel, chances at a high GC finish are gone.
And finally, trailing behind at 9'27, Eugenio Alafaci crests the top of the mountain. It goes without saying that he has lost the pink jersey today, but he fought hard. Not all is lost though for him. He retains the points jersey another day.
It's not Brajkovic that takes the jersey in the end. He slots in 5th. the new pink jersey is Cabreira! A successful race for the team even with their leader crashing. The other breakaway rider are also there. Most gaps that show are form this stage, and not the TTT.
Torres gets enough mountain points at the Cat. 1 to take that jersey.
And Natnael Berhane takes a huge lead in the Young rider rankings, 4'40 over his nearest competitor and his own teammate, Morton.
