Welcome to the Pyrenees! Rather than have multiple stages, they've all been piled into one. The most feared stage of the race with 6 big categorised climbs. The GC riders will hopefully make this a great stage to watch, while the sprinters will battle to survive the time limit. At the start of the day, not many are hopeful of doing so!
Getting in the breakaway will also be key today, in the King of the Mountains jersey fight. Camier led over the first climb in a group of 4 with Lebas, Bongiorno and Kratochvila.
Ruijgh, Mestre and Krizek were also clear of the peloton to pick up the remaining points.
Lots of riders already dropped! A large group of 53 features many of the sprinters.
The first breakaway was not able to stay ahead of the field, with the peloton riding fast - more bad news for the sprinters that.
Ivanov and Preidler got a small gap over the top of the HC Col de Peyresourde.
Camier managed to get away again for 3rd, and here is a summary of the points from the first two climbs:
Let's take a closer look at the notable riders who have been dropped from the peloton, now down to 110.
At 2'46, Trusov looks to be the best climbing sprinter.
At 3'30, bizarrely, is Lotto team leader Moschella. He has sat up to wait for teammate Jack Bauer. I can't think of any reason why as Moschella is the team's best placed rider, and they still have Libert in the peloton. Moschella will eventually leave Bauer behind and try to catch up again, but too late.
At 4'08 is Zingle, probably set to lose his KoM lead.
Next sprinter is Kreder at 5'08, then Howard at 6'20.
Roelandts, Degenkolb and Santos are in a group of 10 at 10'30.
But Degenkolb is about to sit up and wait for the next group at 11'15, since that features Mohs. Swift, Kennaugh, Tzortzakis, Merino Criado, Ahlstrand and Krieger are also in that group of 11.
Van Heerden is at 12 minutes down, alone and slipping back.
There's a group of 26 back at 12'43. Included in here are Guerao, Bennati, Avelino, Kip, Zabel, Stauff and Guardini.
Predatsch, Atkins and Bakari are the last group on the road at 15 minutes.
But now, back to the front. And there is still no sign of a permanent breakaway forming.
Only one rider even attacks for the Cat 1 points, Camier once again. He has now scored 44 points today already, moving ahead of Zingle into a provisional lead.
Finally, after that, a break of 5 formed. Hoogerland, Morton, Pantano Gómez, Costagli and Camier once again.
Hoogerland beat Camier to the top of the Col d'Aspin, but the Frenchman still extends his lead.
Now it is Tourmalet time!
Santander control the peloton and halfway up, nothing has happened.
Finally, Valverde kicks off the action.
Rujano, Machado, Alarcon, Henao, Kohl and Contador all join the attacking, but Santander have too much strength left, and no gap can be formed.
The break still holds a 1 minute lead over the top, with Pantano Gomez leading over. Camier has been dropped though, so scores nothing this time.
The peloton is reduced to 40 riders, and so despite all the climbs on offer, it is all simply going to come down to a 13km climb up to Luz Ardiden.
Costagli is the last survivor of the breakaway, and starts the climb with a 1 minute lead.
Alarcon immediately attacks. Rujano tried to follow, Henao Montoya too - but they couldn't match the Simply Red Bull rider. Alarcon now catches Costagli, with a 40 second lead on the peloton.
Costagli drops back but Alarcon keeps pushing. His rivals want to control him but are having to resort to relaying themselves. The gap is down a little, to 33 seconds.
No sign of any new attacks, just relaying from the other contenders. A split forms with Denifl and Contador at the forefront.
But this tactic is not working. Alarcon's lead is up to 1'11! Here's the gaps, and composition of the chasing groups:
Denifl and Contador are shouldering the pace setting here, as the gap opens up to 1'20 with 5.5km remaining.
Into the final 5 kilometres and the pair realise attacking would be a better option, rather than pulling their rivals onwards.
So now the pressure is on Machado, who again isn't looking as good as expected on the climbs. Rujano, Nibali and Henao follow him, but hang on, is Tenorio actually struggling here?
A reminder: Alarcon started the day in 6th overall 2'15 behind Tenorio. The way he is riding away, can that all be taken back?
Denifl is too strong for Contador. The Austrian has really found his climbing legs in this race. The gap to Alarcon is 1'17, he is 19 ahead of Contador, a further 30 ahead of the rest.
That puts Alarcon's gap to the Machado led Tenorio group at around 2'10. The race lead could well be changing hands unless the Santander rider springs to life, but he seems to be having a rough day.
We will soon find out, as coming to the finish now is Jose Alarcon. A first Grand Tour stage win for him. Nobody else is even close.
Denifl seemed to be containing the gap, but not in the final kilometre. It slipped all the way out to 1'44 by the time the Wikipedia rider took 2nd place.
3rd for Contador at 2'10, with Rujano and Machado not far behind him at 2'24. But where is Tenorio??
A very under par ride by the defending champion, he concedes 2'54, finishing with Nibali and Henao. Alarcon will take the race lead then, and by some margin.
The next group is at 3'41. It is a Top 10 on the stage for Gomez Marchante and Guldhammer, alongside Valverde and Kohl.
Super-domestiques Valls and Anton finishe together at 4'58, just infront of a group containing Ratiy, Roche, Pinot, Faiers, Lopez Garcia and Dombrowski.
As we wait for the sprinters, we can confirm that Alarcon now holds a 49 second lead over Denifl in GC, with Tenorio 3rd at 59, and Conador very close at 1'04. Machado moves above Nibali, but remains over 2 minutes off the lead.
To the sprinters then. Trusov and Kreder are the only two to finish within an hour, unless you also include minor sprinters like Boeckmans, Vesely - and Santos who was 6 seconds over an hour.
The groups as they were mentioned early on switched up quite dramatically late on as many riders suffered with poor racing. Degenkolb and Tzortzakis survive the cut, and then at 1h05, so does Mohs! His Vuelta superpowers evidently continued, as he finished ahead of much better climbers Howard and Roelandts.
Zabel survives the time limit, so does Ben Swift. Then come the final 3 over the line: Krieger, Guerao and Carvalho. Good news for Festina there! The limit has been drawn 1h09 after Alarcon, and 29 riders have missed it.
Van Heerden Petit Weylandt Smukulis Keukeleire Di Nucci Kip Bakari Cisse Bennati Croket Irvine Atkins Maaskant Martins Avelino Guardini Nizzolo Reckweg Stauff Flens Andersen Kennaugh Feillu Predatsch Bouhanni Haugard
Martins, Maaskant and Guardini were the closest to making it in time. The furthest away was actually Van Heerden - outclimbed even by Bakari!
Not quite the total destruction of the sprinting field that some expected but many big names have gone, most notably Avelino and Bennati.
