It`s the first mountain stage of this years edition and we already have a HC and Cat.1 mountain. Due to the long descent after the last climb it might not be the most selective but it surely can be a first sign of who is in form and who is not.
Actually all GC riders might be a favourite for today but due to his sprint Valverde probably is the biggest.
No breakaway has been formed and so we see an interesting fight here. Maybe a bit surprising to see some GC riders sprinting as well. It`s Sicard taking the maximum points ahead of Eastman. Pauwels, Costagli and Tschopp take the last points.
And finally the group of the day has been formed. 5 riders today including Pauwels, who continued after the attack for the Cat.2 mountain points. Peterson Grabovskiy Agnoli Kennaugh
Santander for Tenorio, ING for Gomez Marchante and B&O for Pluchkin are doing the work. 80km left and only 4min for the group. But the hardest part is still ahead.
Peterson, Pauwels and Grabovskiy take the points at the sprint. Probably this won`t matter in the end but so far all riders are quite close to the GC lead when finishing ahead of the peloton today.
17km of climbing for the breakaway now. Still 4min behind the peloton.
All riders in the breakaway are solid climbers, so it might be interesting how much time they lose.
The HC climb also started for the peloton now. Vesuvio and Festina took over with B&O still doing some work as well. Schleck/Contador/Pluchkin. Are these the strongest here or will other riders beat them?
Many sprinters and helpers already lose contact. This will be a tough last 50km for those.
With 7km to the top we also see the first attacks. No big favourites yet but definitely dangerous riders in Scarponi and Augustyn.
Well. This now is far more dangerous. They are joined by 2 more riders: Sicard and Gomez Marchante.
While Sicard needs to attack after the weak TTT Gomez Marchante is within the same time as his team mate and GC leader Roche. This obviously puts a lot of pressure on the other teams as they quickly get a 40s gap.
3km later another rider thinks an early attack would be the best chance. And as it is another Spaniard the crowd goes crazy: Lloret.
This now is very interesting. Panayotov also attacks a bit afterwards. The interesting bit is that his leader Sicard already has a 2min gap and if he can join him this would be an awesome tactic of Pearl and would make it difficult to bring them back.
The breakaway reaches the top with Pauwels taking the maximum points over Peterson and Grabovskiy. And just behind Agnoli and Kennaugh it`s already Gomez Marchante and Sicard, who did very well joining them with 300m to the top.
A bit later Scarponi, Augustyn, Lloret and Panayotov come over the top as next and take the last points.
Just ahead of the peloton it`s Nerz coming over the top. He attacked before the top and also tries to join the breakaway.
Peloton (98)
<34>
Nerz
<1'04>
Panayotov
<22>
Lloret
<50>
Scarponi
<31>
Gomez Marchante
Augustyn
Sicard
Peterson
Pauwels
Agnoli
Kennaugh
Grabovskiy
Augustyn and Scarponi also joined the breakaway now with the first part of the descent done.
35km and the peloton is chasing hard. 2'10 left, so they gained already 60s since the top. Vesuvio and Festina do a great job so far.
Also Lloret and more important maybe Panayotov reached the group. Last one will surely higher the pace now to work for his leader Sicard. Behind it`s Medvedev doing the most work, here Panayotov will be a very similar rider.
Sicard takes important 6s on the 2nd sprint. Surprisingly the next points go to Agnoli and Kennaugh instead of a GC contender.
20 km left and we slowly go uphill again. Milka, Vesuvio and UBS work very well together now. So the gap is down to 1'20. Not sure if the GC riders in the first group already go all-in.
With the gap being less than 1min now Velits attacks. He is 8th in the overall with just +3s to Roche.
Right behind him it`s Sella reaching the breakaway as well. 40s are left for them but with the new attackers surely bringing a higher pace it might still be very dangerous.
Or probably not. With 5km to the top all riders are back together in a 72 rider peloton. Who will attack next and how much energy did the early attack cost guys like Sicard or Gomez Marchante?
Velits immediately attacks again followed by Gomez Marchante, which is a good sign and others.
9 riders got free and created a small gap. Gomez Marchante Schleck Pluchkin Velits Sella Lloret Valverde Panayotov Scarponi
Andy Schleck is a pure powerhorse when it comes to uphill sections. He accelerated again and has a nice gap now. Behind riders like Amador and Rujano joined the group while many riders still haven`t attacked like Tenorio, Contador, Intxausti, Denifl, Kohl, Sicard, Henao or Roche.
Schleck comes over the top solo. 11km of downhill riding is ahead of him. Pluchkin, Amador, Spilak, Valverde, Intxausi and Contador come over the top first. So there surely have been some changes behind. Let`s look at the gaps at the top:
Peloton (32)
<32>
Eastman
<23>
Spilak
<21>
Pluchkin
<13>
Schleck
Tenorio
Henao Montoya
Valverde
Amador
Hacecky
Kohl
Intxausti
Denifl
Contador
Van den Broeck
Sella
Costagli
Rujano
Sicard
Velits
Roche
Gomez Marchante
Schwab
Faiers
Pedraza
Horrible news for Santander obviously as their GC leader Tenorio seems to ignore any attacks and just kept riding in the peloton.
In front Schleck got some company in Amador and Pluchkin while the 8 rider group behind still has a small gap ahead of the next group around GC leader Roche. At least ING knows that Gomez Marchante might be their better rider and he doesn`t have to wait for him.
1,5km to go and the first two groups came together. 11 riders will sprint for the win while the gap to the Roche groupe became bigger and is 44s now. Surprisingly Costagli and in especially Eastman lost contact to this one on the descent and are solo but still ahead of the peloton.
Pluchkin and Amador seem to be the strongest today with Rujano making a nice effort behind them. Nothing to see from Valverde.
It was a close finish but in the end Pluchkin won by a few millimeters ahead of Amador. Rujano as 3rd takes the last bonus seconds with Valverde coming in on 4 only.
45s later Roche leads his group over the line. Van den Broeck, Denifl, Henao, Kohl and Sicard probably all had hoped for more today.
Costagli and Eastman coming in next. They lost more than 2min in the end and this is surely a big loss for last one who surely had hoped for more.
Ouch. 3'38 for the group around Tenorio, Lloret, Scarponi or Castano. Horrible news in especially for Santander and Lotto as their GC hopes are probably gone on the first mountain stage already. On the other hand this might give them a chance to get into an attack on the next stages.
Pluchkin also takes the GC lead now with Gomez Marchante following as 2nd to present the wildcard team here in a very nice way.
Amador takes the point jersey with Pauwels being in the KoM jersey tomorrow. Sicard will have the white jersey due to the even worse placed Eastman and Tenorio.
