They'll be no hiding places in the Basque Country as the riders head out on another tough day of up and down climbing. After a difficult opening the riders climb to a plateau which levels out until about halfway. We have four 3rd cat climbs between there and the finish with the Alto De Zaldiaran crossed twice, the latter time very close to the finish of today's stage.
There is a very early 3rd cat climb today and Navarro nips out to take it.
Einsle, Favilli and Felline cross behind.
This makes up our early morning break, none of the four gained any mountain points yesterday so someone will have to nab a lot of top positions to unsettle our current triad ( Rodrigues, Clement, Jovanovic) at the top of the standings. In terms of GC all four are currently at 48 seconds to Rabon.
Rabon pictured here is sitting confortably surrounded by Milka jerseys near the front of the pack.
The four up front see their lead balloon to over five minutes as they tackle the big second cat climb of the day.
Interesting move here as Ulissi attacks with 120km of riding left.
The break roll over the second cat climb Navarro sits at the back.
The pack are not reacting to Ulissi’s move, the Italian will at least gain some mountain points!
After nearly 30km of hard riding Ulissi joins the break who remain just over five minutes clear of the pack.
Ulissi could gain some nice time bonuses by being in the break but could lose a fair bit of race strength in this move.
It’s not a particular nice day for the riders, windy and wet with the rain coming down from 90km to go onwards.
Bouet is being helped by Wiggle to cut the gap down.
First look at the Zaldiaran.
Ulissi pushes hard up the climb having seen that five minute gap eroded somewhat in the build up to it. Einsle having gained 14 KoM points (the most of the breakaway) goes with Ulissi.
The duo decide to sit up and wait for the other three, before the days first intermediate sprint. It doesn't stop them from winning the first two places with Ulissi as you’d expect taking the prime and six bonus seconds.
Ulissi takes the next climb over Einsle again.
It means the Italian now has 14 KoM points with Einsle at 22 KoM points.
Back in the pack clumps of riders are being detached.
No favourites yet have been dropped though by the Milka led pack.
45km to go and our lead 5 have 3.30 on the pack.
Ulissi is looking for that next sprint prime, he gets it comfortably.
The gap to the pack is reducing rapidly here though with 30km to go the gap is just 1.30. Here is those last 30km in detail.
Ulissi realises he has to push on alone.
Meanwhile Klemme attacks the pack with a Vesuvio rider following.
Good lord it’s Franck Schleck!
Koeniggsegg send Anza and Van den Hugenhaben forward to control this, but Van Garderen and Ponzi add to the pressure by attacking themselves.
These two though drag everything back together with Caruso and Hagen also looking to attack here on this penultimate draggy sort of climb.
Ulissi manages to take the summit moving to 20 KoM points.
30 seconds later Caruso crosses ahead of Klemme and one of yesterday's attackers Ortega.
Out of this melee of attacking pops Pozzato who gets into no mans land between Ulissi and the pack.
20km to go here and we are pretty much Gruppo compacto, but Ulissi hasn’t given up on that late sprint prime trying to move with the attacking Simon and Claeys as Pozzato looks out of bullets.
Alas it comes to nought allowing the alert Rabon to sprint clear for the six second time bonus.
Ponzi rather fortuitously picks up a couple of seconds rolling over in third behind one of Rabons teammates Novak.
Rabon eases up and in this invites more attacks after the sprint prime as we see Schumacher.
Simon tries to mark this but struggles to hold and drops back to the pack.
Riders are tailing off here as the big guns are really attacking this last slope. Hagen and Schleck put in a determined effort.
Lotto are now trying to chase this down through Monfort and Claeys.
With about 1 kilometre to go to the summit Schleck and Hagen are practically caught with Schmi just 20 or so seconds clear.
Schumacher is caught with about 600m to go to the summit. But just before they get to the prime Hagen goes again with Bakelandts, Gilbert, Di Maggio and Pozzato covering.
Schleck with a couple of serious rivals ahead leads the chase with Ponzi and Claeys right behind him.
It's confusion behind as a couple of riders crash and splits occur. Ulissi, Rujano and race leader Rabon are in a group about two minutes behind the Schleck led group. Not sure how Rabon went back that quick, clearly struggled on that climb.
All three of his GC rivals Keinath, Van den Broeck and Kangert are in the front group. This front group come together in the last 4km, with Keinath coming to the front to ensure the pace remains high.
The B and O rider is in red due to being high up in the points competition and after briefly getting a gap is getting pegged back in the sprint for the stage win.
Gilbert leads the sprint out, with Ponzi, Trofimov and Pozzato well placed.
They catch Keinath, who looks set for the leaders jersey though Van Den Broeck is contesting this sprint.
It's Pozzato and Ponzi up front with Trofimov between. Van Garderen is overtaking Gilbert with Bakelandts and Van Den Broeck in the frame.
Ponzi fades away as the other favourites battle through.
Pozzato is showing again great sprinting form this year and zooms to the front ahead of Trofimov who has kept his powder dry today. Bakelandts and Van Garderen are battling for third.
Pozzato then takes it.
Bakelants just takes Trofimov for second, a valuable 12 second boost for the Belgian. TvG is 4th, VdB is 5th and Ponzi a disappointing 6th. Albasini, Bobridge, Wyss and Sagan make our top ten.
Rabon and Ulissi lead home our second group clocked at 1.22 down.
Retirements: Insausti, Ablenado, Gonzalez Salas Opie Lebris Ariesen Sutterlin Cruz
Stage results
Rank
Name
Team
Time
1
Filippo Pozzato
Heineken presented by California Giant Berry Farms
