The final hilly stage in the race, out of 4, and still a sprinter sits in 3rd overall, and within reach of 2nd overall. All we have today is the final climb, but it is at least a tough one - and will need to be raced flat out.
Efimkin has 2 victories to his name and sits in a strong position, but still can't afford to allow Ginanni much space. The likes of Sinkewitz, Ben Nasser, Dowsett, Roy and Llloyd have all shown well at times and will need to do so again, as will the other team leaders such as Mehr-Wenige. The German champion is one of 18 riders on the same time at 1'04 down battling for positions 9-26 - there will be scope for plenty of position changes amongst them for sure.
And it is very interesting to see one of those 18 feature in the break of the day. On paper, Tamayo Martinez is one of the weaker of the 18. It is a risk to be in the move, but could pay off - Konte currently sits in the Top 10 overall after going in a break on Stage 4 and keeping up with the rest at the end.
Joining the Colombian is the race's King of the Mountains winner Cardoso, continuing his active race. The only points on offer today are on the final climb. The break will do well if he is able to score on it - but he doesnt need to anyway.
Also there are Strgar, Seeldrayers and Gougeard, with Choi on his way to briding the gap to them.
Unsurprisingly, Tamayo Martinez is very interested in the intermediate sprints. He picks up the victory, which could mean a Top 10 in GC for him - all dependent on how the finish plays it of course.
At 45km to go, the break's lead is only just above 2 minutes. This is not great news for Tamayo Martinez - an early capture will make it all the more harder to stay in touch up the climb.
Seeing the gap as bridgable, a few riders are attacking from the peloton. Rodrgiues, Hivert, Mandri, Durasek and Schurter. All riders who started the stage 1'04 down.
Cisco are not interested in allowing such a group to ride away however.
Rodrigues, Schurter, Durasek and Hivert try again though - this time joined by Jiao.
Schurter falls back, but the other 4 start to get a gap.
Tamayo Martinez wins the 2nd intermediate sprint to take himself to a net 7th overall. Here are the gaps at 25km to go:
Cisco werent rushing to close down the gap - despite the danger it clearly now faces, even with over 20km and a tough final climb to go. Alstom, Vespa and Jaguar are now involved in pace setting. The presence of the French-Canadian squad is interesting - Roy must be feeling good today.
It's not good new for the late attackers though. Clearly Durasek isnt going to relay now, and infact only Jiao is now relaying. Having been as close as 20 seconds to the break, they now fall back to 45 seconds.
15km to go, and the peloton are still a further 45 seconds behind the break who are riding well together to maintain their advantage as much as possible.
The coordination ends somewhat into the final 10km as Gougeard and Cardoso attack away. The Jiao group has been caught but the leading pair still lead the peloton by over a minute approaching 5km to go, with the rest of the break trailing the duo by 26 seconds.
Gougeard and Cardoso have lost less than a minute to the peloton over the last 40km, and now the race's King of the Mountains leader will lead onto to the last big climb of the race - albeit actually in the wheel of the Evian rider.
There's no time for the favourites to mess around here and sure enough Roy immediately attacks. His team have been working for him, so what has he got in his legs?
Following him are Ghisalberti, Efimkin, Armee, Sinkewitz, Mandri and Ben Nasser.
Ginanni is missing and this is not looking good at all for him. He is a long way back in the peloton, just infront of Irish champion Sam Bennett. German champion Mehr-Wenige is similarly badly placed, and British champion Dowsett is even worse. The race was always going to hinge on this climb, and now they are in trouble.
And unlike any previous stage, the attacks are sticking. The Roy led move opens up over 40 seconds on the peloton, as Efimkin takes over. They still trail Cardoso and Gougeard by 1 minute with 2.5km to climb.
But just who is that coming across to them?
It's Davis! His remarkable race continues.
The lead of the break is falling away. The Tamayo Martinez group is caught by the attackers, with the leading duo not far away.
Davis can't quite catch up as Visconti, Schurter and Hatanaka make their moves.
They've missed the moment to go though, only Visconti can get a slight gap as Davis is now re-caught by the peloton. And finally Ginanni has found his way to the front of the peloton and is attacking.
Up front a second Roy move has caught Gougeard and Cardoso and the Frenchman is looking to press home his advantage.
He leads as the sprint begins. Ben Nasser and Sinkewitz are in close order but Efimkin has given himself some work to do if he wants his 3rd stage win.
Work? What work? As the 4 elite climbers leave the breakaway for dust, Efimkin also makes easy work of Sinkewitz and Ben Nasser.
Damage limitation is all that is left for Ginanni, as he reaches up to Visconti.
Roy has had a great ride today but even he can't match Efimkin as the Russian continues to take this race by storm.
It is going to be win number 3, and surely the GC is now secured as well.
Roy takes a deserved 2nd, but it is Ben Nasser and Sinkewitz who look set to move into the overall podium positions. They started the day on the same time, but 3rd for the Tunisian gives him a time bonus, and 2nd overall.
28 seconds later, Gougeard is best of the break, but happiest is surely Tamayo Martinez who will definately move into the Top 10 GC. Choi has also done well, while they are joined by Ghisalberti.
Ginanni finished fast but left himself far too much to do. Mandri and Armee rode well though and beat him to the line, the gap is 45 seconds and that means Ginanni will slip to 5th overall.
The rest of the break, plus Visconti also receive the 45 second gap.
Next to finish is Taborre at 1'20 and his time will be that of the next 25 riders. In here is a very disappointing Dowsett, while Mehr-Wenige also should have done better.
This is where we find Davis aswell. Enough to keep him in 8th overall, while Dowsett slips to 9th. The Brit is no longer the best young rider though, that is Tamayo Martinez who incredibly finds himself in 6th overall as well.
Ghisalberti rides up to 7th overall, but Bintang fall 3 seconds short of taking the teams classification lead from Oz. The Aussies saw Lloyd slip to 12th, and Visconti climb to 11th overall - on the same time as Mandri who now holds that final top 10 spot.
