The final stage, plenty of hills, and a finish up the Mur de Huy. Can Boonen hold on?
Here is a reminder of the current Top 10 GC:
Spoiler
1
Tom Boonen
Warner Brothers
25h47'52
2
Marcus Burghardt
Wikipedia
+ 1'09
3
Vladimir Gusev
Philips - Hummel
+ 1'58
4
Stijn Devolder
British Airways - Martini
+ 2'30
5
Lars Boom
Virgin Media - Caisse d'Epargne
+ 3'00
6
Alessandro Ballan
SIC Radical - Timberland
+ 3'06
7
Gert Steegmans
Rabobank
+ 3'13
8
Joost Posthuma
La Gazzetta dello Sport
+ 3'51
9
Thor Hushovd
Festina - Seiko
+ 4'46
10
Nick Nuyens
Domina Vacanze
+ 4'52
2 groups of 5 went away, one made up the main breakaway group: Agudelo, Duenas, Millar, Rodriguez Segarra and Panayotov, and the others were forever chasing: Smukulis, Ingels, Khatuntsev, Klier and Morkov
Duenas is the current King of the Mountains leader. And just to make sure, he won all of the first 6 climbs
With 50km to go, the break holds an 8 minute lead - so regardless of what happens with the GC riders, there is a good chance that the leading 5 riders could battle for the stage though. Not Duenas though, all that attacking has tired him out, and he is dropped before the top of the 7th climb - but his lead is, of course, safe
As the peloton reach the 7th climb - the last categorised climb before the finish - we have attacks
Ballan, Nuyens, Freire and Hushovd give it a go. They dont get away but past the summit Posthuma now attacks
Joly initially looks to counter, as does Boom, but it is Samuel Sanchez who is able to join Posthuma in gaining a slight gap
Ballan, Boom, Hushovd and Sijmens join Sanchez and Posthuma
More attacks! Joly, Boonen, Burghardt, Pluchkin and another Festina rider
Spilak also goes, and while some attackers are re-absorbed by the peloton, Pluchkin, Burghardt, Spilak and Boom form a group of 4, just ahead of Posthuma
More attacks now, including Baugnies, Ballan and Boonen again
Gusev, Posthuma and Sanchez are able to catch the 4 man group of Pluchkin, Burghardt, Spilak, Boom, and the now group of 7 are just about to catch the 2nd breakaway group of 5 - being still 5 and a half minutes behind the leader on the road, with 17km to go
Nuyens, Steegmans, Devolder, De Gendt and Ballan now make another move from the peloton
Devolder is the strongest of this new group and soon links up with Posthuma - the Dutchman having been dropped by the leading attacking group even before some of the day-long breakaway. Klier and Khatuntsev are still with Spilak, Burghardt, Pluchkin, Sanchez, Gusev and Boom
Amid all the action behind, the riders up front have gone ignored. But it seems Agudelo has established a 50 second gap over Panayotov, Millar and Rodriguez Segarra, as the Colombian begins the climb of the Mur du Huy
The Gusev/Burghardt group have now dropped Klier and Khatuntsev - even Samuel Sanchez appears to be struggling - as a strong Devolder rides up to them solo
Devolder joins the group with 4km to go, as they prepare to hit the Mur - Samuel Sanchez clinging on, apparantely struggling - while Thomas de Gendt is in pursuit, at 30 seconds.
Solo behind De Gendt is Nuyens, and then a group of Steegmans, Klier, Posthuma, Ingels, and Khatunstev.
Ballan, Hushovd, Geslin, Baugnies, Morkov and Smukulis are next, barely ahead of the peloton, as Boonen attacks again. This is badly needed for the race leader, he is already over a minute behind on the road to the rest of the top 5 overall: Burghardt, Gusev, Devolder and Boom
Onto the Mur goes the group containing those 4, with Samuel Sanchez now looking more comfortable, and De Gendt having all but made the junction. Spilak immediately applies some pressure
Its trouble for Burghardt, he loses contact with Spilak, Pluchkin, Devolder, Boom and Sanchez - Gusev too, although only just
Once again, the battle for GC is more gripping than the stage battle - but whats this - with 1.6km to go, Panayotov has ridden across the 50 second gap to Agudelo!
A little further down the Mur, Pluchkin is attacking Spilak, Boom, Devolder and Sanchez - with Gusev having now been dropped
Back to the leaders, Agudelo may have been surprised to see Panayotov, but he kicks strongly in the sprint, pulling out a gap
Back to Pluchkin, who has finally caught Moises Duenas. But he is also joined by an attacking Spilak, with the Slovenian looking to have no desire to stay and chat - while Sanchez, Boom and Devolder have been rejoined by Gusev!
The sprint for stage victory seems almost replicant of the rest of the climb, Agudelo pulls away, but Panayotov closes it back. The finish line is too late for the Bulgarian though, as Jairo Agudelo takes the stage!
1'16 later, David Millar takes 3rd, just ahead of Rodriguez Segarra
A strong finish for Spilak gives him 5th, 2'20 behind Agudelo
26 seconds later, Pluchkin comes in for 6th
The next group has caught Duenas, and leading the charge is a revitalised Gusev. Every second counts for the Russian as he looks to take overall race victory.
Sanchez, Duenas, Devolder and Boom take the same time as Gusev, with Boom securing the young riders jersey, but the wait is now on for Burghardt and Boonen
Serpa is next at 4'18 to Agudelo
And just behind him is Burghardt! He and Hesjedal get the same time as Serpa, but while it looks like they too have a gap on Nuyens and the rest - they dont - and so Serpas time looks set to apply to the whole peloton
Does this mean Boonen has the race won? If he is in that group then yes, but hang on - that group is only 51 in size, and I dont see a Yellow jersey - its not there! Boonen has suffered up the Mur and is in the next group, alongside fellow sprinters Hushovd, Steegmans and various others.
