We are coming back to the mountains. Will today fall a first decision over the overall? It is surely one of the hardest stages, although the first 90% are mainly flat. Therefore the final ascent is extremely tough.
A few kilometers before the finish it becomes flat for some hundred meters before going steep again into the finish.
Pluchkin is in the lead at the moment and he proved to be the strongest so far. But he always needs to be concentrated as the gaps are still pretty small and many riders are not far behind.
Barton opens the row of attacks this morning.
He soon is joined by 12 more riders. Quite a big group. Still they are allowed to go as the gap is over 2min now with 96km to go. Some interesting names in there with several decent climbers. Cattaneo Barton Rubiano Chavez Zahner Jacobs Zubeldia König Claerebout Edet Leezer Grabovsky Margaliot Öste-MacDonald
B&O for Pluchkin and Wiggle for Popovych do the early pace, but it`s still pretty slow at the moment, so the gap is still widening.
With 82km to go Matteo Carrara attacks. It`s always nice to see active wild card teams and with Pozzovivo they still have a great climber behind, while Cattaneo is in the early group. Interesting tactic here.
Carrara is 22nd in the GC and just 1'49 behind. The peloton should be careful with him as he is a well known climber.
15km later he reaches the back of the group, where Cattaneo stopped the work, while he was chasing. The gap is at 5min now and Carrara obviously is the new virtual leader.
No ambitions in the KoM sprint. The riders pass the point without fighting and also Vespa is doing the pace again.
B&O is increasing the pace in the peloton, which no becomes pretty long.
50km to go and the gap is down to 4'34 and melting.
At the first sprint Carrara shows his ambitions to climb up the rankings and is sprinting for the 6 bonus seconds.
B&O got some nice support in Wiggle and Santander now. Both teams have good climbers in a great position. So obviously they want to gain time on their opponents today.
28km -> 3'10
2nd mountain sprint and again no ambitions by anybody.
In the background you can already see the peloton, so the chances are pretty low to be successful today.
More interesting is this move. Already on the short hill the first attacks and within the yellow jersey of Pluchkin. Henao and Denifl started the attack.
Behind Sinkewitz, Martin and Popovych immediately follow, while the other favourites are still waiting.
Realizing that the gap becomes bigger than expected Pozzovivo and Gomez Marchante also attack.
Nothing to see of the other favourites such as Fothen, Tenorio, Abal or Kohl. Did they miss the opportunity or will they come back with saved energy?
Again Carrara takes the 6s. The breakaway won`t last long, so he at least gained 12s. Probably not what he hoped to achieve.
But also the attacking favourites had no chance. They didn`t work really good together and so they are all together again.
The group reaches the climb with 1min advance. Only Leezer is missing here as he is back in the peloton.
Especially the Vespa duo are doing the work now.
Immediately when it`s going uphill Henao attacks and the always aggressive Vespa team is following with Pozzovivo.
Similar pictures than in La Vuelta. Santander takes the control and they push hard to bring Tenorio in a good position. Also Pluchkin and Gomez Marchante are in great positions directly behind.
With 9,5km the group got caught. Carrara attacks immediately hoping for a surprise.
Also Henao still has a small gap to the peloton.
Hard time for many riders when Fothen comes to the front. Abal directly behind him. Surely you can expect something soon.
Several riders fall back immediately.
Biggest names are Bosisio, Kangert and KoM leader Tschopp. So all big favourites are in front.
With 7km Carrara is not far ahead and Henao with another attack. He really must feel great today.
Velits attacks. He had some weaker moments in the first days but still belongs to the good stage racers. Fothen again pushes hard and causes new splits behind. Strong performance by the former TdF winner.
Victims of this new acceleration are Keizer, Medvedev, Ghisalberti, Sinkewitz and Marquez.
Everything is back together in the first group. Carrara fought hard but had no chance in the end. Also Henao is back again.
But what a surprise...Henao attacks again. Where from is he taking the energy for this effort.
This acceleration splitted the favourites group into several pieces.
9s later Pluchkin, Fothen and Popovych follow.
Another 16s Pozzovivo, Abal, Denifl, Kohl, Tenorio and still Carrara.
Intxausti, Ardila, Velits, Suaza, Mai, Gomez Marchante, Martin, Devolder, MAaillet and Marquez are another 24s back with just 2,2km to go.
Pluchkin accelerates behind Henao and overtakes him. Just Fothen is able to follow while Popocych and Henao build the first chasing group.
And Pluchkin takes another stage win and secures his lead. Fothen showed a strong performance and climbs up to 2nd overall.
Henao and Popovych take the next but won`t gain time on the others. Abal, Tenorio, Kohl, Pozzovivo, Denifl, Intxausti and Ardila is the order in this group.
UBS can`t be happy with both of their leaders. Gomez Marchante in 11th, Marquez 19th. At least they still lead the team ranking by a few seconds to the 2nd Suisse team in Nestle and already 5min ahead of Vespa in 3rd.
Medvedev lost some ground today and will fall out of the top 10 overall.
Unfortunately it wasn`t able to export results or save events on this stage for some reason. So I took screenshots but mistakenly deleted the top 10 stage and overall after making screens of 11-42, so I have no exact gaps.
Exact gaps will come with the next stage then again.
Sorry for that.
