Stage 7 is in to Rubio, which comes after a quite gentle climb and a descent to the finish line.The climb is 8.6km long with an average of 5.3% and a max of 8.1%. Without any incredibly steep sections it probably won’t be super selective but as we saw on the first mountain stage anything is possible.
The course starts with 13 laps of an initial 7.4km circuit. There is a hill about 2.5km in length but the gradient is only about 3% the entire way up so it shouldn’t cause any difficulty. It is on the first lap that we get the first attack of the stage. We have a new name on the attack today – Jean-Francois Camier (Bouygues). This is a great move for him, as he is 2’14” down and a strong enough climber to potentially do something today.
He is joined by Jonathon Thire (ING) and Fabio Montenegro (Bintang). Thire is not suited to this sort of stage, but he is clearly just taking a chance while the team doesn’t need him to lead out Kip. Montenegro is probably trying to make up for Bintang’s abysmal luck thus far this race. Niether of these two is a GC threat.
After 4 laps of this circuit the gap is over 4 minutes, meaning that not only are they the break of the day but they are likely to have one of the biggest gaps in the race thus far. They continue to power along, working well together and on the 7th lap they reach a sprint point. Camier is the only one who has any use for the bonus seconds so he sprints well ahead of his companions and takes the time. Thire rolls over in second place.
The gap continues to grow out and reaches a maximum of 6’18” while on the circuit. Finally, with 4 laps left on this initial circuit, HTC Nieuwsblad and WWE both start working. Marquez and Pellizotti sit second and third overall so they have a real stake in reeling this break in. Kenya Airways haven’t quite got a strong enough team to keep this break under control.
The gap starts to come down and the leaders leave the course, turning left out towards the mountain of the day. They have 37.6km remaining and a gap of 3’34”. If you thought that HTC and WWE were working hard before, then think again as now there is an 8 man working group just from these two teams on the front of the bunch.
The break gets to the second sprint point of the day and it is a replay of the first one, with Camier sprinting out to guarantee himself the time bonus. This puts him 2’02” behind on GC now. Thire once again rolls over in second place. With 24km to go, most of it uphill, there is a gap of 3’04”.
Back in the peloton the same two teams continue to work, but now there is another set of attackers to cope with. Acevedo (Repsol) leads the assault, with Monsalve (Hollister), Casimiro (Kenya) and Salas (BNCR) following close behind.
It is interesting to see that Kenya Airways are continuing to attack despite having their rider in the leader’s jersey. Casimino and Salas are both 1’38” down on GC so perhaps this is a big gamble from Kenya, looking to use one of their other riders who poses a threat on GC to force other teams to work? Let’s see how that plays out.
There is a short dip in the road before the main climb starts and it is here that 2010 winner Ochoa Quintero (Hollister) chooses to launch his attack. Ndbri (Kenya) goes with him, choosing to put yet another Kenya Airways rider up the road.
Meanwhile the peloton starts to splinter. A second peloton starts to form but there are some surprising names here:
Colex, Rojas Villegas, Esquivel (BNCR)
Vasquez (Repsol)
Krasnoperov (Bintang)
I think that should be enough to confirm that Krasnoperov is certainly injured, as he could do something on this course. You have to feel sorry not just for Bintang but also the Costa Rican team, who have their three best climbers missing the cut.
Up the front of the peloton Lachlan Morton (HTC) does a terrific job pulling the recent attackers back. The Australian stage racing prospect has really lifted himself this race and his manager should be proud of his effort. The gap to the break has now tumbled to 1’45”.
A new set of attacks go with some familiar names:
Monsalve (Hollister)
Acevedo (Repsol)
Salas (BNCR)
Soler (Repsol)
Casimiro (Kenya)
Once again Morton controls this. However, with this sort of medium gradient there are always going to be a lot of riders looking to attack away. The same riders attack except without Acevedo this time.
In fact Morton once again keeps it mostly under control. Two riders from that group do manage to stay away, however - Soler and Monsalve. Repsol and Hollister will be pleased to have a rider up the road.
Speaking of up the road, the break has 7km to the summit but they can hear the peloton thundering up behind them. Sensing that it is now or never, Camier puts in a last-ditch effort to stay away.
Soler and Monsalve manage to catch Thire and Montenegro and they drag them about 20” clear of the peloton.
In fact these four riders manage to get up to Camier, bringing him in to their group. With 6km to the summit these five riders have a 43” gap. This could be a very strong move, particularly because the terrain flattens out a bit from this point onwards.
Behind, realising that this is an important point in the race, Gorka Izagirre (LukOil) gets on to the front of the peloton and sets the pace. In fact he paces so well that he manages to drag the attackers in, putting paid to the hope of the breakaway riders.
And almost immediately it becomes apparent why Izagirre wanted to pace – he sets off on the attack. Monsalve is the first one to hook in as Izagirre goes past. But there are other aggressors too:
Marquez
Ochoa Quintero
Pineau
Ardila Cano
Pellizotti
Aru
Mendes
Acevedo
This is one of those key moves, with Marquez sensing an opportunity to stamp his authority on the race. Pellizotti too, sitting third overall, realising that Camano isn’t going to follow the attack and he sets off with the group. This is a powerful-looking 10 man group.
Rodrigues launches his own attack and behind him there is another flourish of attacks:
Salas
Suaza
Casimiro
El Fares
Nicacio
Raisin
Ndbri
It seems that Camano isn’t up for defending his jersey today, possibly being too tired after yesterday’s effort. Once again Casimiro and Ndbri don’t stick around to help him, but they set off up the road. Probably a smart tactic to be honest, as Ndbri certainly stands a better chance in the overall.
The summit of the climb comes with 8km left, then it goes downhill almost the entire way to the finish. Pellizotti leads his group over the top, with Izagirre and Acevedo following him over.
Over the top here are the gaps:
29"
20"
53"
11"
1'53"
Pellizotti
--->
Rodrigues
--->
Suaza
--->
Osella
--->
P (29)
Izagirre
El Fares
Nicacio
Acevedo
Ndbri
7 Others
3 Others
Nicacio starts to lead his group well on the downhill, managing to pick El Fares up. Rodrigues has put the pressure on and attacked away himself, trying to get up to the lead group.
On the downhill, Aru decides to put in an attack. This could be a great move for the young Italian and could give him his first professional victory if no one manages to stop him.
Unfortunately for him, Izagirre once again shows his proficiency and gets on to the front to drag him back. Rodrigues manages to hitch on to this lead group, which gives Hollister three riders in that group. With 3km left the gap between the two front groups is down to 37” as Nicacio keeps working really hard to hold this at a reasonable distance. He isn’t getting a lot of help, however.
Nicacio can’t bring them all back before the sprint opens up, however. Izagirre leads the group with the two WWE riders at his shoulders.
Under the kite Pineau hits the front. Marquez is looking to challenge him but Pineau is the best sprinter in this group, having a couple of top 10s in this race on the flat stages.
And Pineau holds on to give WWE a great and somewhat unexpected stage victory!
Mendes puts in a huge late effort to take second, with Marquez getting the valuable bonus seconds for third. Ardila Cano takes fourth ahead of Pellizotti who makes it an even better day for WWE by taking fifth. Ochoa Quintero is in sixth and Acevedo takes seventh place. Monsalve and Rodrigues make it two more Hollister riders in the top ten with Izagirre in tenth and Aru holding on for last place in this group of 11.
39 seconds later, El Fares leads home the second group on the road.
Another 41 seconds later the peloton comes in, meaning that Camano loses his jersey.
So with that, let’s see what the leaderboards look like. Marquez pulls on the yellow of race leader, with Pellizotti and Izagirre being top three in that classification. Camano will keep his mountain jersey for tomorrow at least. No one threatens Serebriakov’s point jersey lead. Finally, Aru pulls on the young rider’s jersey, which he really earned by getting in to the lead group on this stage. Finally, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Hollister take the lead in the team classification.
