Welcome to the queen stage of the Volta a Portugal. 3 tough mountains and in especially the final one is really hard. 27km of climbing on that one and in especially the middle part is brutal.
Who will be the best climber? What time trialists a la Reus, Costa or Konovalovas can reduce their time loss? And who will have the GC lead after today? Will it be the actual leader Plaza? The top favourite Kritskiy? First mountain stage winner Caruso? Or somebody completely different?
6 riders in the early breakaway. Their chances aren`t too bad but in Villella there is a rider in the group, who is less than 3min behind Plaza at the moment. So it might not be the ideal group. He is joined by: Stoltz Priamo Waeytens Bonnin Antunes
Mobil - Castrol again being active in the peloton doing hte main part of the early work. What do they plan today? Vrecer (14th/+1'06) and Silva (16th/+1'12) are both looking forward to enter the top 10, which would already be a great success for them.
Also there is a tough fight for the best placed CT rider in the end. Best chances for those two next to Adira`s Cabreira and Magna`s Rohregger.
Villella already won a stage here out of a breakaway, which also delivered him a decent GC. So it`s not a surprise that he is collecting more bonus seconds here. Waeytens and Bonning cross the line next without any fight.
Going up the first mountain, Prio Porto took over from Mobil - Castrol. Can they defend Plaza`s tiny lead? Lots of other strong climbers are not far behind and put a lot of pressure on him.
Not much happened on that climb and as no one is going for the KoM points, Antunes takes easy 16 points, which moves him into a good position with 18 points in total now.
Waeytenss, Priamo, Bonnin, Villella and Stoltz to come over the top next.
So 2 more points are still to reward. And it`s KoM leader Ciccarese to take those two out of the peloton. He sits in 1st with 32 points now and so the breakaway would need to finish ahead of the peloton if there will be any danger of those riders. But some GC men could also be a danger, so his jersey is far from secured.
2nd climb and definitely the easiest as a Cat.2.
4 Tinkoff riders came to the front now and higher the pace. They are a bit less than 5min only behind the breakaway and so it doesn`t look good for them.
This time a bit more fighting on the top. Antunes though also takes the next 10 points moving him into 2nd position in this ranking.
Waeytens again 2nd ahead of Bonnin, Stoltz and Villella. This time no more points for the peloton.
Bad crash for one of Plaza`s helpers. And it`s actually Ventoso, who is still in a good spot for the point jersey. At least he is back on the road quick and also comes back into the peloton after a while. But it shows the danger of this descent.
2nd intermediate and Priamo ahead of Antunes and Waeytens. But one rider is missing here. Where is Villela?
Here he is. Just like Ventoso he crashed on the descent. So the 6 bonus seconds are gone for him.
But at least he finds his way back to the group and can still dream of a 2nd stage win.
~40km left and 7 Tinkoff riders prepare everything for Kritskiy. The gap is at 2'40 only and the hardest part is still ahead. The pace in the peloton also shows results as only 100 riders are in it and many struggle at the end.
Just ahead of the climb the last sprint and Villella with an easy win ahead of Antunes and Priamo. "Easy" part done, now begins the pain for many riders.
26 incredible kilometers. Ignore those small descents in between. This won`t make it much easier. It starts hard, becomes even harder after the first descent and finishes a bit easier but still on high slopes.
So the mid part might be key here.
Plaza looks strong and is confident enough to send his helpers back to the front, where they work together with Tinkoff. At least for now. Later we expect a huge fight between those teams plus all the other strong climbers.
We are only 5km in the climb and already the first attack. It`s Iglinski, who might have lost his winning chances due to a moment of less concentration on the hilly stage. Still he is only 1'26 behind.
He is followed by Suaza (+2'49), Ivars (+1'58), Costa (+28), Silva (+1'12) and Osella (+8'02) who seems to feel well again after his crash on the first mountain stage.
The other teams obviously directly accelerate and bring them back. But this causes a massive split and only 41 riders are left in the peloton.
Biggest names being dropped is Konovalovas as also Villella, who was the first to lose contact in the breakaway.
So one time trialist is already gone and also Reus sits in the last positions of the peloton.
So today looks to be much more selective and the real climbers get their advantage.
15km to go and we are in the hardest part. The breakaway is caught now and you can see Konovalovas` group in the background trying to come back. Prio Porto won`t make it easy for them.
And the expected attacks here in the highest slopes. It`s no one else but the first mountain stage winner Caruso followed by the incredible Costa, Suaza, Iglinski, Osella and Richardson, who took over the leader role for airBaltic.
But yet again Plaza`s and Kritskiy`s team mates are too strong and catch all of them.
So next attacks 1km later: Karpets Richardson Kritskiy Nazaret
So here we go. Kritskiy in the attack and Plaza stays in the peloton being confident in his support. Also Caruso stayed this time.
Well. Plaza`s support was just good enough to catch all but Nazaret who leads solo now. But it totally destroyed the peloton and now most riders are without team mates. With 11km to go!!!
Konovalovas
<2'24>
Reus
<1'26>
Vinhas
<13s>
Izagirre
<18s>
Kritskiy
<17s>
Nazaret
…
Boily
Osella
Vrecer
Caruso
Huzarski
Possoni
Silva
Plaza
…
Di Gregorio
Iglinski
Galviz
Karpets
Costa
Suaza
Schrangl
Cabreira
Rajala
Rohregger
Ivars
Richardson
10km mark and the next attack. Again it`s Iglinski, who overtakes Nazaret here. Also Suaza attacks while the Mobil riders try to find contact again.
Suaza obviously miscalculated his energy. Just after his attack he is dropped. Did he eat too less or not enough water? Very bad moment for him.
Also Rohregger and Richardson can`t follow but have good chances to take a good GC here.
Cabreira was the last CT rider in the group of the best climbers. But with 6km to go he also can`t follow.
Iglinski and Nazaret still having a small gap to the next group containing Kritskiy, Plaza, Caruso and Karpets.
Huge gaps today, which will clearly mix the GC quite a bit and in especially the puncheurs had no chance today.
1,5km to go and now it`s Kritskiy with a huge attack. What a powerful move by him and immediately he has a small gap in between him and the others.
Flamme Rouge and he joined the duo in front. 12s to the next trio and already 40s to Cabreira behind.
Who will win this stage? And can Plaza come back to close this gap and defend the jersey?
All riders sprint up the climb and it`s Kritskiy clearly being the strongest. Also Caruso goes quick while Plaza seems to struggle. Neither can he close the gap nor is he able to follow Caruso or Karpets.
Kritskiy will win todays stage but what about the gaps? Caruso is past Nazaret and makes another strong move towards the podium.
Great performance by the Russian. He was the strongest today and celebrates his win. But is this also the GC lead?
Iglinski just takes 2nd, which also is well deserved as he was the most active rider on the final climb and also the rider with the first attack. He comes in together with Caruso, Nazaret, Karpets and Plaza in that order and the gap shows 15s.
But what is this? The officials see another gap in between Karpets and Plaza and give the GC leader another time loss. He is just +31 today and loses 16s more. So Kritskiy takes the GC lead and is ahead of Caruso now with Karpets following in 3rd.
Plaza drops to 4th and needs a good time trial, where Caruso shuold have the worst chances of those riders.
Nazaret is the new 5th ahead of Iglinski in 6th, which is still a good result after his time loss.
Cabreira with a strong performance. He finishes 1'03 behind Kritskiy and takes the 7th today.
Rohregger comes in as 8th together with Richardson and Suaza, who was expected to perform better but obviously the hilly stages made him suffer today. 1'51 for them.
Vrecer comes in as 11th of the day with 2'26 already but far ahead of the next group.
+4'10 for a bigger group containing Costa, Silva or Ivars. Lots of time loss for those. Costa as 11th in the GC now at least with fair chances to make a final top 10.
Reus loses 5'44 in the end and finishes together with Huzarski, who also loses lots of time here.
Even worse for Konovalovas, who comes in almost 13min back. So GC top 10 out of range for those.
