Not a mountain top finish but a really lumpy one with numerous climbs including four categorised ones. This will be a day to test race leader Justo Tenorio
and his team as they look to defend the slender lead they gained in the opening time trial.
The top three favourites for today are listed as Aleksandr Pluchkin José Rujano
and Tiago Machado
which is slightly surprising considering the host of excellent Spanish climbers here including Alberto Contador Rubén Plaza David Abal José Angel Gomez Marchante
and Beñat Intxausti
The early uncategorised climb made things difficult for the break to form but five riders manage to get clear for the first sprint.
Lluis Mas
takes the sprint ahead of Óscar Pereiro Sio Leopold König Haimar Zubeldia
and Paolo Scarponi
Following the sprint these five are joined by Thomas Frei Jocelin Maillet Daniel Teklehaimanot
and Stef Clement
It will cheer Wiggle and Nestle to see the two riders in the break here who so mysteriously dropped back yesterday. Indeed the duo are prominent in the first King of the Mountains climb of the day with Jocelin Maillet
taking the 10 points for first ahead of Óscar Pereiro Sio
and Paolo Scarponi
Remember from yesterdays early 16 point climb Staf Scheirlinckx
holds the lead. But with more climbing to come you'd imagine that some of the riders here in the breakaway will challenge.
In the peloton two riders will be facing a different challenge, that of battling to avoid finishing outside the time limit. Michael Ford
and Matt Rowe
are dropped.
Going the other way, that is forwards from the peloton we get another three riders trying to join the break. As ever Warner Brothers are one of those teams, a sight we are sure to see often this year.
Santiago Perez Fernandez
and Edwin Orozco
managed to get across. The rider just behind Stijn Joseph
doesn't quite make it before the second climb.
Before we get there another rider jumps out of the pack in Christophe Kern
We are getting a lot of attacking riding today, it seems as if riders hoping for a relative gentle start to the climbing in this European season are in for a shock today.
On this second climb once again there are 10 points to the winner with 8 points for second and 6 for third. New breakaway man Santiago Perez Fernandez
takes the top prize.
But Jocelin Maillet
nabs the second place ahead of Haimar Zubeldia
to go into the provisional lead in the King of the Mountains comp on 18 KoM points.
Behind them Kern is joined by two useful climbers in Jaime Suaza
and Bernhard Kohl
Interesting tactics from Carmuese and Sony Ericsson here, who both have other GC riders in Taaramae and Pedraza here. This sort of a move will put a lot of pressure on the other teams to try and chase this but for now they allow the climbers chase group to move clear. Never one to miss an oppurtunity like this the Pearl Adidas team launch one of their GC men as Petar Panayotov
also attacks.
Meanwhile the break are at the second sprint with Thomas Frei
taking a hard fought sprint prime win ahead of Leopold König
We are approaching the big dual climb of the day here, with 20 points awarded to the winner of the first section and 10 points awarded to the winner of the second. We are seeing a fascinating game of chicken in the peloton with some decent climbers allowed to get clear. It is all down to the Santander team it seems to chase.
The team keep gesticulating to others to come and do some work, the team seemed to have alienated themselves from the rest of the peloton with some strange comments in the press recently!
The lead 11 original break have about two minutes on the climbers group + Joseph at the foot of this climb with Panayotov another minute back and the Santander sluggish peloton is at 5 minutes to the breakaway.
The breakaway is starting to shed some it's dead wood on the climb with Lluis Mas Stef Clement Daniel Teklehaimanot
and Stijn Joseph
all dropped. In the picture below we can see Teklehaimont and Clement dropped.
The four climbers Kern, Suaza, Kohl and Panayotov all gain contact with the remaining breakaways before the top and push on to get the prize for King of the Mountains.
It is Jaime Suaza
who takes the big 20 points ahead of Petar Panayotov
who gets 14 for second.
Jocelin Maillet
does manage to get a few points on the climb to take him to 21 KoM points which just about keeps him in provisional lead.
Behind finally the mind games on Santander seem to be over as José Serpa
starts to hammer on the front of the pack.
The climbers who have joined the breakaway really have not mucked about and their pace has dropped almost all of the originals including provision King of the Mountains man Jocelin Maillet
The only original break man to survive is Paolo Scarponi
who with Jaime Suaza Petar Panayotov Christophe Kern
and Bernhard Kohl
form a new five man front group.
As we approach the top of the final categorised climb though Christophe Kern
slides off the back.
With Jaime Suaza
successfully attacking off the front to get the 10 point King of the Mountains prize and indeed will be King of the Mountains tomorrow.
Back in the pack three teams are putting the pressure on as the peloton is reduced to under 50 riders. The work is chiefly being done by José Serpa
with Rafael Valls
and Andrei Grivko
doing some work every now and again.
It has been a tough day, the categorised climbs are over but Spanish races often have a number of uncategorised 'bonus' climbs to content with. Today in the last 37.5 km it is no different.
The race situation is that we have our lead four Jaime Suaza Petar Panayotov Bernhard Kohl
and Paolo Scarponi
some 40 seconds clear of a four man chase group.
Jocelin Maillet Christophe Kern Haimar Zubeldia
and Santiago Perez Fernandez
The 39 rider peloton is at 4.43 which is mainly being led by Santander as we approach this uncategorised section of climbing. Festina have dropped Serpa back and soon they make a different play as Alberto Contador
attacks.
Justo Tenorio Daniel Martin
and Francisco Perez Sanchez
initially respond to this as the other favourites start to look at each other.
Sensing some confusion with no organised chase Beñat Intxausti
now goes in a second wave of attacks.
Tiago Machado Rafael Valls
and José Angel Gomez Marchante
respond.
These moves seem to be softening up the riders left and still things have not settled down with Rubén Plaza
now accelerating.
José Rujano Rein Taaramäe David Abal
and José Serpa
respond to this.
But ultimately this attacking is just string things out....it is dangerous for those on the back though as Justo Tenorio
strings things out on the descent.
Inevitably some decent riders begin to slip off the back of the favourites group, the biggest name being Denis Menchov
One big name we haven't mentioned so far is that of Aleksandr Pluchkin
he has been very watchful, but as we get to a false flat he goes solo with a powerful attack.
We must not forget our four leaders and chasers, the lead four have pulled out the gap to their chasers to nearly two minutes. With under 10 kilometres of mainly downhill riding to go they look good for the stage now.
The other chase four are caught by Pluchkin who in turn is reeled back in by Tenorio.
The Santander team leader has halted any possible gaps to Pluchkin for the time being, but looks unlikely to hold his leaders jersey as Suaza, Kohl and Panayotov are all less than 25 seconds behind.
Actually scratch one of those names from potential new leaders as Kohl, possibly slightly injured, loses contact on the descent.
It has been an amazing attempt by Wiggle's youngster Scarponi but as we approach the last flat run-in he just cannot quite keep up anymore.
The last kilometre cruelly as some steep little uphill sections and our leading duo prepare themselves for the last effort.
Jaime Suaza
or Petar Panayotov
are gunning for the stage win and the new GC lead here.
As they come toward the line it is clear that Panayotov just cannot hold Suaza's wheel.
Suaza takes a welcome win for Carmuese here, who with Taaramae's decent prologue performance will be pleased with this race thus far.
Panayotov is second with the plucky Paolo Scarponi
holding on for third.
No time bonuses for the favourites to worry about, they do reel in Kohl before the finish as they finish en masse with Pluchkin leading the way, finishing 79 seconds back from Suaza.
Tenorio finishing in 7th place here and will swap his GC leaders jersey for the points jersey.
Some decent GC riders did lose time today with Thomas Rohregger
leading the next group home at 3.16 to Suaza.
The group containing Menchov comes home another minute later
