This is the decisive stage with it's tough finishing climb and Bellis is looking like the massive favourite. Augustyn and Monfort are the others, while Red Bull will look to pack the top ten with their consistent team
Unsurprisingly Red Bull choose to put pressure on Rapha by throwing 2 guys in the break: Virganov and Gerrans. Basad, Bajadali, Martins and Santos make up the rest. All my mocking of their tactics and they seem to have pulled out a good move when it counts.
The pressure is piled even more onto Rapha Condor as Bianchi put Rooijakkers into the break as well, joining him are Kikutchi and Antunes, Rapha have alot of work to do today with everyone bar Puma having a rider in the break
Vorganov leads Gerrans over the top of the first climb, Antunes is third and with 100km to gap is 5 minutes, no panic yet.
Up the second categorised climb of the day and both the bunch and break have kicked up the pace with the gap at 7'30". Kikuchi is immediately dropped
This time Gerrans leads Vorganov over the top, with Rooijakkers third. Red Bull are really working hard here.
The peleton are dropping a couple of riders as well. But they are 7'24" back with 74km to go so they really need to pick up the pace
56km to go and the gap is down too 5'22". This isn't quick enough for Bol though as he attacks
He only gets 30 seconds but Puma clearly think this is a good strategy as Martin tries to attack as well
The two Puma riders join up 25" in front of the peloton
As the peleton hit the main climb of the day gaps immediately start to form, Locatelli and Impey being the big loosers
Up the road the two Red Bull riders power clear of the rest
The peleton come back together
Vorganov and Gerrans lead over the top with 42km to go
48 seconds later come the rest of the break
Then a group of 9 at 4'08": Dowsett Martin, Rabon, Bellis, Bol, Teklit, Sulzberger Partridge and Kairelis. 100% Me have worked the roads to their advantage
Mori, Monfort and Kirchen are 30 seconds behind them. Red Bull are clearly all in for the breakaway
1 minute later comes Augustyn and Impey. Not a good tour for the South Africans
Red Bull sprint against each other with Gerrans winning, Rooijakkers getting 3rd. Have Red Bull not decided which of them is leader?
The Red Bull riders are riding side by side arguing, I have no idea what is going on here but their DS needs to sort it out as they have a real chance of getting a 1-2 today.
Rabon has dropped back to help his teammate Monfort get to the Rapha group, but they haven't quite made it
Gerrans eventually starts working but the gap is down to 2'20" and Partridge is back in yellow. Red Bull have messed this race up so badly.
While behind Monfort, Rabon, Kirchen and Mori get back to the Rapha group
Bianchi immediately help out Rapha at the front, where Bellis is also working.
Vorganov eventualy decides to help out Gerrans. The DS has clearly has a word
18km to go and Martin attacks
He makes it up to the break, but he pulls the peleton with him
15km to go and the leaders have 1'50"
Martin attacks again
Rabon pulls him back
As the peleton gets over the top the lead is down to 1'37"
5km to go and the final climb starts, the gap is up to 1'43" Sorry about the car
Bellis leads in the peleton
Bellis is bored of helping Partridge and attacks
He gets a gap and immediately Kirchen and Mori move forwards to shut it down
The Red Bull riders are fighting again, as Bellis eats up their time
They start sprinting with 1.5km to go. The winner of the stage needs a gap of 1'03" assuming Bellis finishes 3rd and 2'00" on Partridge
Monfort sprints from behind Bellis
As he starts to close Bellis sprints too
Red Bull get a 1-2 on the stage, with Gerrans ahead. I can't help but feel they have thrown away victory overall though
Monfort passes Bellis denying him 8 bonus seconds, will that be enough?
Behind them come Kirchen, Dowsett, Mori and Rabon. Mori is going to be very close to Gerrans at the end of this stage as well.
Partridge is also touch and go, finishing roughly 2 minutes back
The top 6 riders are within just 24 seconds of each other of the overall, but who is leading?
Amazing, Bellis gets the lead, Mori is second, Gerrans only gets 3rd, Partridge is 4th overall and Monfort is 5th on the same time as Vorganov. Red Bull have 4 in the top 8, yet have completely messed up a chance to win this race.
Also, because being scathing of Red Bull tactics is getting fun, the fact that Red Bull couldn't decide on who their leader was Gerrans and Vorganov both end up on 38 points, 2 behind Shekai, giving Meiji a jersey which one of them could so easily have taken.
