Setting the scene for the week we have no less than six categorised climbs on the menu today. The final third of the stage however is relatively flat apart from a tricky 3rd cat climb called the Alto De San Cosme that tops out just 9km from the finish. We should also watch for quick sprint favourites snatching sprint primes on the run with 3 placed in the last 33kms.
It’s a horrible day in the Basque region.
Thankfully for the riders the rain stops pretty soon aft they start racing and as we get onto the first categorised climb we have a break of three clear.
Ghyllebert, Tirreno stage winner Jovanovic and Rodrigues. Jovanovic takes the prime ahead of Gyllebert and Rodrigues.
Behind, Clement and Ortega are chasing across.
The duo get across before the next categorised climb. The pack have allowed the break a fair bit of freedom as their lead is up to six minutes with 100km remaining. A loose confederation of teams are at the front tapping out an easy enough tempo.
UBS, Wiggle, Wikipedia, Aker-MOT, Vesuvio all have a rider up there. It feels as if they wish to leave the full throttle till after possibly the cat 1 climb in the middle of the stage.
On the second category summit (climb two) Jovanovic is poorly positioned an can only get fourth.
Ghyllebert wins the first place and moves to the top of the mountains rankings.
The rain comes down hard again as the break reach the 1st cat climb of the Alto De Ubal.
Vesuvio, Pearl and Wikipedia are now in chase mode with the gap held at six minutes.
The winners of the mountains primes rotate again as this time Rodrigues takes the maximum over Clement, Jovanovic and Ghyllebert.
The pack roll over it six minutes back, wary of whether to chase on this horrible day.
The pack splits for a bit over the top of this climb, Schumacher and Trofimov both caught in the second half. The domestiques are set to work.
Van den Brouck and Rabon look to take advantage of the confusion and attack from the front peloton.
But with Vesuvio and Pearl Adidas in an angry chase mode they don’t get very far.
Back to our break, unaware of the drama behind are now approaching the next climb the category 2 Alto De la Escrita. Following the last climb the standings for the king of the mountains are close.
During the climb Trofimov and Schumacher were able to get back, but a lot of riders are really struggling to keep up still.
Some are toppling off of their bikes including Ortega from the breakaway.
It is doubtful Ortega will get back to the break here who need to press on if they want the stage.
50km to go:
Lead four (Jovanovic, Ghyllebert, Rodrgues, Clement)
Ortega at 1.26
92 rider pack at 3.35
55 riders at 5.38 (no favourites here)
Another 22 riders behind this between 8.30 and 12.30 back. All will probably finish within the hilly time limit, but this looks a long race already for them!
Up front and applause for Ortega who bridges to the escape group.
Onto the penultimate categorised climb, the 3rd category Alro De Beci and Rabon tries to attack the pack again.
Van den Broeck, Keinath, Kangert and Gastaur try to go with it. They struggle though to make any headway.
In the escape whose lead is rapidly reducing they get to the prime with Clement nabbing it.
Rodrigues fails to score points here but still has the lead with Jovanovic only getting two more points, we have a three way tie.
The attacks from the pack haven’t gone anywhere with much if the 55 man group of non favourites having got back to make a huge 144 man pack. Kangert though has ambitions to get up the road possibly for a late Bakelandts move.
The break are now holding a two minute lead, the pack playing a bit of cat and mouse here allowing Kangert to sit on no mans land. Rodrigues takes the first sprint prime over Clement and Jovanovic.
Kangert gets across to our break.
Encouraged by this Rabon attacks again from the pack, joined by Van Den Brouck and Keinath once more.
Rodrigues wins the second sprint prime over Kangert and Clement.
15km to go we have a decent group of riders ahead in the rain here.
lead 5 ( Kangert, Jovanovic, Rodrigues, Clement, Ghyllebert)
Chasing 4 ( Ortega, Keinath, Van den Broeck, Rabon) at 38 seconds
138 man pack at 1.40
Onto the last climb and Jovanovic attacks at the bottom.
It’s a bit of a desperation move as the chasers join the break behind him. Fair play to Rabon and Van den Brouck who had to try three or four times before getting freedom.
We see plenty of teams on the front of the pack trying either to limit the losses or chase, hard to say which.
UBS, Aker and Vesuvio are those teams.
Under 10km to go and a kilometre left of climbing just the late attackers left out front with Van den Brouck leading Keinath, Kangert and Rabon.
Van den Broeck takes the climb over Keinath and Kangert, Rabon is struggling to hold the trio on the descent
The pack are 1.50 down, possibly looking for a safe passage to the line.
Van den Broeck wins the sprint prime at the bottom of the hill over Keinath and Kangert. One of these four look likely to be in the leaders jersey this evening.
5km to go they still have 1.50 on the pack and 1.12 on the former breakaways. Rabon having struggled to hold on over the hill is now in exactly the right place on Van den Broecks wheel for this finish, Keinath in third and Kangert in fourth.
2km left now and the pack have closed it to about 80 seconds, no sign of the favourites who are letting their domestique mop up the morning break.
The leaders wait and wait on Van den Broecks wheel until the final kilometre.
Kangert struggles as Rabon looks to unload past Van den Broeck.
The pack are in the background.
Rabon just nudges ahead but Keinath is attacking him.
Rabon just does enough to take it over Keinath. Milka really are having a dream start to the year.
Van den Broeck did well seeing as how he lead for most of the 5kms.
Bakelandts and Schleck near the head of the pack about 25 seconds back.
Stage results
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Frantisek Rabon
Milka - AVG
4h00'18
2
Nico Keinath
Team B&O
s.t.
3
Jurgen Van den Broeck
Team Puma - SAP
s.t.
4
Tanel Kangert
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
5
Jan Bakelants
Pearl Adidas
+ 28
6
Nathan Haas
Aker - MOT
s.t.
7
Travis Meyer
Wikipedia
s.t.
8
Danny Summerhill
Wikipedia
s.t.
9
Frank Schleck
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
10
Michael Albasini
UBS - BMC
s.t.
11
Jack Bauer
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
12
Tejay Van Garderen
Wikipedia
s.t.
13
Christopher Juul-Jensen
Aker - MOT
s.t.
14
Jakub Danacik
Koenigsegg
s.t.
15
Maciej Paterski
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
16
Filippo Pozzato
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
17
Matthias Frank
UBS - BMC
s.t.
18
Robin van der Hugenhaben
Koenigsegg
s.t.
19
Vegard Stake Laengen
Aker - MOT
s.t.
20
Yuri Trofimov
Koenigsegg
s.t.
21
Nick Kinney
Wikipedia
s.t.
22
Sebastien Einsle
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
23
Santo Anza
Koenigsegg
s.t.
24
John-Lee Augustyn
Aker - MOT
s.t.
25
Simone Ponzi
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
26
Richie Porte
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
27
Jukka Vastaranta
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
28
Vegard Robinson Bugge
Aker - MOT
s.t.
29
Toms Skujins
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
30
Alexander Wetterhall
Koenigsegg
s.t.
31
Matteo Rabottini
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
32
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Aker - MOT
s.t.
33
Riccardo Zoidl
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
34
Branislav Samoilev
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
35
Diego Ulissi
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
36
Stefan Schumacher
UBS - BMC
s.t.
37
Jonathan McEvoy
Pendleton's
s.t.
38
Marcello Pavarin
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
39
Brent Bookwalter
Wikipedia
s.t.
40
Philippe Gilbert
Pendleton's
s.t.
41
Bauke Mollema
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
42
Julien Simon
Project 1t4i
s.t.
43
Sebastien Reichenbach
UBS - BMC
s.t.
44
Alexandre Shushemoin
Aker - MOT
s.t.
45
Kleber Silva
Pendleton's
s.t.
46
Florian Stalder
UBS - BMC
s.t.
47
Damiano Caruso
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
48
Dimitri Claeys
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
49
Marcel Wyss
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
50
Thomas Koep
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
51
David De la Fuente
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
52
Tom Leezer
Pearl Adidas
s.t.
53
Peter Sagan
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
54
Pieter Ghyllebert
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
55
Dan Craven
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
56
Cesare Di Maggio
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
57
Elia Favilli
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
58
Nebojsa Jovanovic
Pendleton's
s.t.
59
Vitor Rodrigues
Hollister Pro Cycling
s.t.
60
Ruben Ibanez
Pendleton's
s.t.
61
Jack Bobridge
Simply Red Bull
s.t.
62
Tom Diggle
Wiggle Professional Cycling Team
s.t.
63
Ethan Weiss
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
s.t.
64
Marcel Aregger
Pro Team Venchi - Sugoi
s.t.
65
Ben Gastauer
Vesuvio - Accumalux
s.t.
66
Geert Steurs
Festina-Canal+
s.t.
67
Mikel Landa
Wikipedia
s.t.
68
Maxime Monfort
Lotto - Cervelo
s.t.
69
Sebastian Langeveld
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
