The tour of California has thrown a tricky little stage in between the Sierra Road ascent and the time trial. One that could favour either a breakaway or a late escape, though some teams in picking decent punchy sprinters may hope for a sprint finish somehow.
GC contenders will be aware that this is the kind of stage that Taylor Phinney
could well snatch time bonifications something that they can ill afford the American sitting second on GC.
Before the steep and lengthy Santa Rosa climb near the end which affords the winner 10 King of the Mountain points. A further generous 10-8-6-4-2 prime has been inserted early on with two more 6-4-2 pointers on the lumpy coastal road with the last primer near the end removed. The break chance then attracts nine riders...
Diggle and Scheurs are very decent punchaers and are the two who battle it out over the course today for the King of the Mountains primes.
Coming into the Santa Rosa climb it is Wiggle's Diggle who has taken 20 King of the Mountains points over Schreurs 16 points to become the new provisional leader in that competition. Duret has managed to pick up 12 points also which is a pretty good effort, he with Vitoria are the only two who can stick with the other two over the hills.
With 50km to go the lead four hold a two minute advantage over their former breakaways and nearly five minutes on the pack. The pack has been split a couple of times but reforms to a decent 100 plus riders. Carmuese seem to be trying hard to set Jurgen Roelandts
and likewise wild card squad Hollister are helping keep the pace high for their sprinter Allan Davis
Velits is looking comfortable today and is afforded an armchair seat near the front of the pack, his work will be trying to do a decent individual time trial tomorrow.
Up front it's been a brave effort from Duret and Vitoria but they cannot hang with Diggle and Schreurs and the duo push on to the top of the climb alone.
Diggle cannot come around the Spyker man but doesn't need to to hold his King of the Mountains lead that he will take into tomorrow's time trial and the Mt Baldy stage. Hollister continue to lead the pack but the gap to the leaders is not closing that much over the top. The lead two are timed as having four minutes.
We have some more lumpy stuff before the finish and the Hollister pace has reduced as to the nitty gritty with the pack just having 63 riders in. Make that 62 as David Zabriskie
falls.
Hollister realise that the chances of a Davis sprint victory seem to have disappeared and stop pacing on the front. So this invites riders to try and nip away Martijn Keizer
tries his luck.
The young Dutchman has really struggled to fulfil his promise so far in this race and is trying to rescue something here. More importantly though Andrei Kashechkin
has gone with him along with yesterday's mid stage attacker Konstantin Siutsou
With about 20km left we have:
Schreurs and Diggle leading.
Duret at 3 minutes
Vitoria at 3.24
Kashechkin, Siutsou and Keizer at 4.22
The pack at 5.05
The front two are really moving well here and are taking their chance well, both are not particularly high on GC but are realising it is their chance of glory today.
Kashechkin's place in the attack behind has ruffled the feathers of Festina and UBS for some reason who now chase hard with Wikipedia.
But as these three are reeled in another move goes clear and UBS team captain Stefan Schumacher
fancies this as he attacks with Justo Tenorio
perhaps looking for the 'miracle' his team boss talked of!
Kashechkin and Keizer are with this again along with Domenik Klemme Aleksandr Efimkin
and Patrik Sinkewitz
With a number of riders now attacking Beñat Intxausti
's GC position, Vesuvio come to the front and chase.
These attacks have drastically reduced the lead to the front two, Duret and Vitoria have been caught and Diggle and Schreurs have lost a fat chunk of their lead which is down to two minutes. The reason for some of this loss is only one of the riders is working, Diggle is starting to fade near the finish.
Back Wikipedia and Vesuvio do a great job of reeling the dangerous move in, coming into the final descent Sinkewitz tries to snatch a second podium spot for Spyker.
Spyker look assured of victory today as Diggle is now pedalling squares.
 
With the scramble going on behind a tired but jubilant Maurice Schreurs crosses the line ahead of King of the Mountains elect Tom Diggle.
Plaza's late dash doesn't really pay off as Sinkewitz sprints past him with Phinney sprinting to keep the pack on the same time.
The pack is reduced but most of the favourites have survived apart from crash victim Zabriskie who lost four minutes on his rivals. Karpets finishes way down again, he may be injured.
We also have a number of riders who miss the time cut: Tim Kennaugh Pieter Mertens Alexander Giraldo Marvin Van der Pluijm Tiago Pinto Leonardo Duque William Germán RodrÃguez Parra Igor Abakoumov Cameron Meyer Max Öste-Macdonald Damion Drapac Troels Vinter
and Patrick Gretsch
