It`s the 2nd really hilly stage in Portugal and with lots of tough climbs it might be more selective than yesterdays mountain stage. At least all GC riders need to be careful if they don`t want to lose any GC chances here.
In especially the last two climbs, on of those going up the finish line, might lead to selections as the slopes there aren`t the easiest and the pace in the end is normally quite fast.
It`s also a chance for the puncheurs like Mendes or Barrio in case they are allowed to attack. And also Costa, Reus and Konovalovas are good bets as they need any time before the next mountain stage to keep GC contact.
Only 3 riders in todays breakaway and no CT team. Schelling Ciccarese Usandizaga
It`s actually a very interesting group as Schelling is just 2'16 behind as 37th. Also Cisco and CSC both have favourites behind, so they obviously have a plan today.
Prio Porto for Plaza doing the main work on the early mountain. But they get nice support by Mobil. So far the CT team was pretty active and tried to ride like the PCT teams. Unfortunately for them without that much success yet. Vrecer and Silva both are in a good position of course, but sometimes they have been a bit too nervous and missed the right time to attack.
Still I like what the team is doing here a lot.
Although none of the trio had any KoM points yet, they are showing a great fight here.
In the end Ciccarese wins it ahead of Schelling with Usandizaga following in 3rd.
The peloton also comes to the top and as there are still a few points to reward we see 2 riders attacking out of the group. It`s KoM leader Van Baarle, who tries to defend his lead and also takes teh 4 points here ahead of Portela, who at least gets 2 points.
The duo is not thinking to slow down. Instead they grow a gap to the peloton and try to chase down the breakaway. Van Baarle surely is not that happy to have missed the group here with so many points to collect.
But they have to be fast as most remaining KoM`s just reward the top3, so reaching the group is necessary to take a lot of points.
The fusion did not happen at the Cat.3, where again Ciccarese is the fastest. This time ahead of Usandizaga and Schelling as 3rd.
So Ciccarese is on a good way into the KoM lead so far.
90km and a gap of 7'26. Even though this is normally good news for Cisco with Schelling being in the virtual lead, this also means less chances for the actual leader Caruso, who showed his strength with his win on the mountain top finish.
So his team and also CSC are doing the pace now.
No question that Repsol can`t like this scenario. Ciccarese lost all the support of his companions as both obviously deny to help him.
Surely Schelling can`t be happy with his team`s decision as well as the chance for a huge GC jump and eventually a stage win was not that bad.
Still no fusion at the Cat.2 neither. And as Schelling has spend far less energy recently, he is easily beating Ciccarese this time. This could become a nice fight until the end.
Portella this time as 4th over the line ahead of Van Baarle, who only takes 2 more points. And as he already lost contact to Portella, it`s not very likely that he can add more than these.
First sprint of the day and Schelling is the only interested rider. So an easy win here as well. Ciccarese still being the only working rider is taking the 2nd.
We directly jump to the last KoM and Ciccarese showes some nice strength to take the maximum points here ahead of Schelling.
This also means, that we have a new leader tomorrow and it`s well deserved: Fabio Ciccarese.
The Italian collected 4 more points than Schelling and both overtake previous leader Van Baarle but as all 3 are not divided by more than 6 points and also the next riders are quite close, we should expect the KoM fight to be continued.
Van Baarle is caught as first rider. He probably knows that he lost his jersey today and also spent a lot of energy without much success here. Not the best day for him.
It`s still 50km to go and still 4'10 for the group. Might be close.
2nd intermediate and Schelling with the next easy win. The peloton is coming fast from behind and this is also the fault of his own team. So a GC jump is not that likely any longer.
Portella with a strong effort as he finally reaches the group after a long solo ride.
35km -> 2'10.
Schelling is no longer in hte virtual lead and Cisco stops the chasing. If this was the only goal for them to avoid their rider to make a GC jump, then it was successful.
Also CSC stopped their chase already a bit longer and so it`s back to the biggest GC teams as Prio Porto and Tinkoff are accelerating once again.
The peloton is already down to 84 riders and many more are struggling at the end but so far all GC riders were concentrated and stay safely inside.
Portella actually is not much worse placed than Schelling in the GC and so there was a bigger fight for the last bonus seconds now. And Portella beats Schelling despite all his effort already.
20km mark for the favourites and we see the first attacks: Konovalovas Tamayo Martinez Richardson Boily (U25 leader) Schrangl Wang
Konovalovas and Tamayo Martinez were caugh just a few seconds afterwards but as their team had 2 riders in that attack, they might not care too much.
And it doesn`t take long until the remaining 4 reach the breakaway, where Usandizaga already said goodbye and dropped into the peloton.
It`s the last climb before the final one with 5km to go and all former breakaway riders plus Schrangl are caught now. So only a trio in front when we see more serious attacks. And of course it`s initiated by Costa again and also Caruso did show lots of attacks in this race so far.
They are joined by Nazaret and Mendes, who obviously got the okay from Plaza and the team.
Boily also attacked out of the leading group and goes solo on the descent. 20s behind Richardson and Wang with Mendes following another 20s.
All other attackers did not survive and felt back into the peloton, where obviously a big split occured but we have no names yet but apparently a few favourites were caught in a 2nd group.
Final climb and the finish it less than 1km ahead. Richardson and Wang are not far behind Boily and it might be a close fight for him. But also the peloton is not far behind and could still catch them.
Mendes still has a small gap, while most favourites are well placed.
Costa in the pole position and also Plaza, Nazaret, Karpets on the left or Caruso, Silva, Huzarski, Reus, Kritskiy, Chavanel, Rohregger on the right.
Also Ivars and Vrecer are still there at the end of just 20 riders!!! So where are the other GC riders?
Finally we have some pictures of the 2nd group led by Suaza (9.), Konovalovas (13.) and most shocking Iglinski (7.).
Was it just a bad day for him or did he spend too much energy with all his attacks on the previous days?
Suaza could have been expected to struggle in the hills and Konovalovas obviously had a bad day after his attack wasn`t very powerful already.
Also in that later group: Cabreira.
What a fight we have here. Boily and Richardson look stronger than Wang but the gap is so small. And also behind we can now see the 2nd group.
The line is so close but Plaza and Caruso are so fast. Plaza actually is showing some great sprinter skills here in Portugal so far.
But it`s enough for Richardson to celebrate a great win ahead of Boily, who will obviously keep the U25 lead, while both have good chances to move into the top10 today.
Wang as 3rd with a nice stage result for PFG Armavia.
Plaza comes in as 4th ahead of his team mate Mendes and as everything has to end at one time, Prio Porto`s Top2 series did also end today. Still an impressive 4-5 by them.
But neither was there a gap to the first 3 nor a gap to the next riders, where Caruso finished as 6th ahead of Zakarin, Costa, Kritskiy and Nazaret.
Also in that group GC riders Huzarski, Vrecer, Chavanel, Karpets, Reus, Silva and Rohregger.
Ivars was still so strong with 1km to go and had contact with the other favourites but then he couldn`t follow and lost 54s in the end. Just like Possoni, Schrangl and the fast sprinting Konovalovas, Iglinski and Barrio, who at least were able to reduce their time loss a bit.
Cabreira lost already 1'29 in the next group but even worse for Suaza. Losing almost 2min with 1'54 makes it hard for him to fight for a top10 any longer. The mountain stage must be very selective now for him I guess.
And as yesterdays crash victim Osella lost 2'35 today he might not have felt at 100% but surely he can`t be too injured and should be a good help for Caruso on the next mountain stage.
And also the Point jersey has a new leader as Plaza continues to take lots of points, so he gets it back from Kritskiy, who still will wear it due to Plaza`s leader jersey.
