The nature of the stage is pretty basic following 100 or so flattish kilometres of racing, we get to the long hard ascent of this mythical climb up to the holiday resort in Genting.
This year the there is a bit of flat atop the climb before a final drag to the finish adding a different dimension to this stage. We do have a very early sprint that could be another contest between the big three sprinters - though whatever the outcome there Bouygues are the team who will likely try to control the race.
Here is a summery of the GC contenders and where they stand today.
1. Martin
3. Larsson at 17 seconds
4. Peraud at 38 seconds
8. Castano at 54 seconds
9. Ratiy at 54 seconds
10. Iglinski at 57 seconds
12. Kilun at 1 minute
15. Ji at 1 minute and six seconds
16. Serpa at 1 minute and seven seconds
17. Dyachenko at 1 minute and eleven seconds
20. Osella at 1 minute and 20 seconds
28. Alizadeh at 1 minute and 29 seconds
30. Niyonshitu at 1 minute and 31 seconds
32. Soler at 1 minute and 31 seconds
46. Bosisio at 1 minute and 42 seconds
64. Ardila Cano at 2 minutes and 28 seconds
The early sprint chance for the sprinters is denied as three riders nip away.
Hayakawa seems hell bent on making a name for himself and wins the first sprint. Richeze follows him along with Laidler.
This type of break comfortably suits the pack, though two riders Scheit and Priamo try to bridge to the lead three.
Hayakawa nabs the five points up for grabs at the early 4th cat climb.
It moves the Japanese to 11 KoM points in total and up to provisional 4th, Richeze takes second and Laidler third.
The two chasers join the lead three with 80km to go and they move through the two sprint points with the following results.
Sprint 1:
1st Hayakawa, 2nd Richeze, 3rd Priamo
Sprint 2:
1st Priamo, 2nd Scheit, 3rd Richeze
Racing towards the Genting climb JK cycling have problems holding themselves in the pack with Itami, Jang, Choi and Baumann dropped.
Here is the brute.
25km to go and our lead five have just a couple of minutes advantage,
The JK cycling four have been joined by several sprinters.
Manarelli, Guarneiri, Lo Cicero, Zabel, Lorenzetto, Andraito and Manan are the riders who simply wish out and to ride their own tempo.
LukOil and ING are the teams setting the packs tempo.
23km to go: We can see our first foreys as Jiriakov, Meintjes and Soler go on the attack.
LukOil shut this down quickly with Vorontsov doing most of the work.
21.5km left: With the break in view another move by Repsol as Ardila Cano attacks
It's a determined attack by the Colombian who lost time yesterday at the end of the stage.
Jiriakov, Soler and Shikai are trying to follow. They are taking advantage as the LukOil pack get stuck mopping up the break, however they cannot match Ardila Cano who goes lone solo ahead of the rest.
20km to go then and more attacks pour out of the pack.
Alizadeh is now trying to move clear, Sauber and Repsol really active. Kilun, Niyonshitu, Shikai and Osella are also gamely trying.
Race leader Tony Martin is sitting a long way back as the pack is splintering all over the place.
His teammate Roelandts is definitely dropped as the lead peloton is down to just 48 riders.
Are we reaching breaking point here? The big favourite climbers think so as Ji, Serpa, Castano, Iglinski, Alizadeh and Osella push on hard.
Martin is getting marooned in a group that is detached from the leaders here, he is surrounded by second tier climbers like Lewis, Aru so he may have to settle for this.
15.5km to go: Ji has caught Ardila Cano with Serpa, Castano and Iglinski on his wheel. Alizadeh is struggling to hold on behind.
About 45 seconds behind we have a group of 12 riders.
Osella, Soler, Ratiy, Khripta, Bosisio, Niyonshuti, Dyachenko, Larsson, Vorontsov, Jiriakov, Delgado, Kilun with Priedler just off the back.
behind this at another 45 seconds back is.
Alarcon (solo), a struggling Peraud, Rusli, Masuda and Shikai
The yellow jersey group is another minute behind this.
It looks like we have our splits here, the lead five of Ji, Serpa, Castano, Iglinski and Ardila Cano emerge from the tunnel near the top of Genting with 30 seconds on the game Alizadeh and nearly two minutes on the rest.
It looks like a bad day here for Ratiy who should really be living with those ahead, he calls teammate Delgado to help with the chase.
He is leading a group of ten ( Ratiy, Delgado, Soler, Khripta, Niyonshuti, Vorontsov,
= Bososio, Osella, Dyachenko and Larsson).
Kilun and Jiriakov have been dropped with Priedler, actually Kilun seems to be dropping back to help Peraud.
10km to go: Ratiy realises hanging around in his group is proving fruitless and strikes out alone.
9km to go: Up front Ardila Cano begins to struggle paying the price for his early attack.
The gaps here are:
Serpa, Ji, Iglinski, Castano lead
Ardila Cano at 16 seconds
Alizedah at 59 seconds
Ratiy at 1.25
Larsson, Bososio, Osella, Dyachenko, Delgado, Khripta, Vorontsov, Soler and Niyonshuti at 2.20
Kilun, Peraud, Jiriakov, Rusli, Masuda, Prielder at 3.45
Alarcon and Shikai at 4.54
Group Martin at 8.46
last group containing Lo Cicero at 17.51
8km to go: They reach the lip of the climb and Ji just cannot hold.
Relief for him we have stopped the climbing for now so he rejoins.
6.5km left: we are still about 3km from that final climbing section and Ardila Cano is working hard to bridge with Ratiy - Alizadeh just 50 seconds back.
Larsson leads his group but they are over two and a half minutes back now.
Ratiy drops Alizedah as he determinedly pushes on.
3km to go: Ratiy just has not quite bridged.
Ji, Castano, Iglinski, Serpa and Ardila Cano lead
Ratiy at 30 seconds
Alizedah at 45 seconds
group Larsson at 2.51
group Peraud at 4.05.
Onto this last steep section then and with 2km to go Ji and Ardila Cano begin to sag their shoulders.
Ratiy is coming how much will that solo effort hurt him?
1.5km left:
That gap is 20 seconds.
In the front three Castano is at 54 seconds on GC, Iglinski is at 57 seconds and Serpa is at 67 seconds. Castano and Iglinski could take the GC lead without actually beating Serpa but they have to beat each other.
Under the kite and it’s between these three.
Serpa has led out but Castano is now coming round with Iglinski lurking menacingly.
500m left.
Serpa struggles having led out as Castano and Iglinski do battle.
There is the line, Iglinski just hasn’t got it to make a move.
Castano celebrates a fantastic win.
Iglinski is right on his wheel for second, Serpa is distanced in third with Ratiy a tired fourth place.
Ji drops Ardila Cano in the finale with Alizadeh a very brave seventh.
Solar leads the Larsson group home.
Peraud is further back with riders scattered all over the Genting climb.
Tony Martin is left to lead his own group in way back.
A fantastic day of hard racing.
Stage results
Castano can add his name to the legends of winners of Genting. He and Iglinski rode the last section smartly behind Serpa. Ratiy missed the move, who knows what he could have done had he gone with it. Asia has some climbers to cheer though with Ji and this new name Alizadeh. TTers Larsson and Peraud really suffered.
GC
This was always looking likely to be the decisive day with the time trial gaps paling into insignificance towards the top of the standings. Larsson remains in the top 10, Peraud who really struggled is down to 17th. Tony Martin meanwhile is well down in 24th, Bouygues have had a sobering day on Genting for sure.
Points
The big news today is all the riders made it, the big sprinters forming a nice gruppeto and slogging their way up it.
Rank
Name
Team
Points
General
1
Jurgen Roelandts
Bouygues Telecom
0
99
2
Assan Bazajev
ING Cycling - Project
0
64
3
Jacopo Guarnieri
Vespa-Aprilia Racing
0
58
4
Tony Martin
Bouygues Telecom
0
45
5
Ivano Lo Cicero
PFG-Armavia
0
45
6
Mirko Lorenzetto
Team UPC - Boehringer-Ingelheim
0
42
7
Carlos Castaño
ING Cycling - Project
25
41
8
Tomohiro Hayakawa
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
12
36
9
Carlos Alexandre Manarelli
Evian-MIAT
0
29
10
Gustav Larsson
Vattenfall Cycling
0
25
11
Rick Zabel
VolksWagen-Mapei
0
24
12
Maxim Iglinski
LukOil-Rostelekom
20
23
13
Rafael Andriato
Repsol-Cativen
0
22
14
Michael Torckler
Team Cadbury - Schweppes
0
21
15
Eric Baumann
Japanese - Korean Cycling Project
0
21
16
Vadim Ratiy
VolksWagen-Mapei
14
20
17
Marcos Crespo
Vattenfall Cycling
0
20
18
Anuar Manan
Meiji - Cannondale
0
20
KoM
Iglinski honoured the king of the mountains and his new team leadership role with a fine performance only just edged out by the experienced Castano
Youth
Ratiy really should have been with the big leaders, but battled hard eventually overhaulling Alizadeh in the battle up Genting. Preidler proves best of the rest riding ahead of Shikai. Further down a number of Armavia youngsters did okay, you'd have to question them dropping back yesterday.
Name
Team
General Time
Vadim Ratiy
VolksWagen-Mapei
21h16'17 (1)
Hossein Alizadeh
Sauber Petronas Racing
+ 1'50 (2)
Georg Preidler
VolksWagen-Mapei
+ 6'29 (3)
Chen Shikai
Meiji - Cannondale
+ 9'38 (4)
Louis Meintjes
MTN - World Bicycle Relief
+ 12'09 (5)
Pablo Andres Alarcon
PFG-Armavia
+ 13'28 (6)
Michael Rodriguez Galindo
Repsol-Cativen
+ 13'28 (7)
Joshua Edmondson
Meiji - Cannondale
+ 13'32 (8)
Mikhel Ronimois
Vattenfall Cycling
+ 13'35 (9)
Fabio Aru
ING Cycling - Project
+ 13'58 (10)
Yousef Mirza Banihammad
PFG-Armavia
+ 14'48 (11)
Chun Kai Feng
PFG-Armavia
+ 15'06 (12)
Vassilis Adamou
PFG-Armavia
+ 15'30 (13)
Stefano Locatelli
Bouygues Telecom
+ 15'44 (14)
Meiyin Wang
PFG-Armavia
+ 16'03 (15)
Aaron Gate
Team Cadbury - Schweppes
+ 16'36 (16)
Daniel Ricardo Diaz
Evian-MIAT
+ 18'14 (17)
Kristoffer Skjerping
Vattenfall Cycling
+ 20'40 (18)
Ben King
ING Cycling - Project
+ 20'45 (19)
Stefan Kung
Sauber Petronas Racing
+ 21'20 (20)
Teams
LukOil have been really determined over the last couple of days to make their mark and indeed they have here with a strong climbing performance. VolksWagen had numbers but will be disappointed there was no controlling the big move, Sauber were really impressive.
